Hey guys, what is up?

Sometimes we become so busy looking up that we forget to look down, back, or to our sides (ok, so maybe the standard line is too busy “looking forward” instead of looking up, but I had to make the transition work somehow!) That has been me in the last couple weeks. However, I went on a solid run this evening in preparation for a couple races coming up, and my endorphins flew to the sky, and I came enthused to shower, eat, and equally important, GET TO WORK ON THIS BLOG I PROMISED EVERYONE!

What has been down?

We were all quite professional... but perhaps a little less when we went out tuesday night...

The last blog was sent while I was still in Tokyo at the massive JET orientation. The Wednesday of that week, July 29th, we all flew out of tokyo (or took a train, boat) to our respective areas in Japan and were met by our supervisors, bosses, teachers, etc. at the airport.

Didn't get to use this much during orientation... But when I did, "ahhhhhhh...*sleep*"

The experience was exciting but very draining at the same time; Most of us were still very jet lagged and sleep deprived upon arrival to our respective cities. Despite this, I still held up a smile on my face to my new supervisor and co-workers upon arrival to at the airport. I even had energy to use my Japanese self-introduction I had been practicing. My boss drove us to lunch (to clarify, I was the only foreigner in the car and the only foreigner/ALT that works in this city office.) We at at a family style restaurant, similar to a Denny’s, but with Japanese food instead of burgers, etc. I had the displeasure of unknowingly picking up a huge chunk of wasabi and swallowing it. This caused me to tear profusely and my supervisor to ask “Danieru?? Are you ok?”. “Yes, just had a bit too much wasabi…sumimasen” After lunch (which my boss paid for) we had to do business and go to register for my Alien Card, and meet the head education dude downtown. This meeting was probably one of the social-anxiety-creating experiences I’ve had because the meeting was extremely formalized. Here’s a quick play-by-play:

1. Walk in a single file line into the large office room, bowing to all the subordinates of the god I was about meet.
2. Enter the god’s shrine office, remaining standing silently with hands placed at sides, looking straight forward.
3. Wait several minutes, in silence, for the boss to come
4. Search pocket for red “Abort Mission” button, realizing that only happens in cartoons.

The boss came in, we did our formal bows (me, remembering to bow slightly lower than him, and holding it slightly longer than him.) He seemed friendly enough, and if memory serves me right, even spoke a little bit of English. This meeting only lasted for a couple minutes, and involved me signing my contract in front of everyone’s probing eyes. Scary!!!

I was then brought to my new home for the next year or more, shown a few things, was invited to dinner by my supervisor (se-chan), then left alone at my place. Of course, the first thing I checked out when I was by myself was the bed! I was in relatively large shock from the exhausting last 5 days I had had, but was too tired to really fire any extra neurons in my brain…After catching up on 2 of my 200 needed hours of sleep, I was picked up and went to dinner with se-chan, her cousin, and her cousin’s son and daughter. They’re both elementary school students and both some of the cutest and heart-warming kids I’ve ever met. We had a private Japanese dining room at this place, sitting on pads around this table on tatami. It was pretty informal, though, and was a nice change of pace from all the formalities from the previous days. We laughed, and drank some sake, and I practiced my japanese, while my supervisor practiced her more-than-passable english ability. In fact, her English is much better than half of the Japanese English teachers at the schools – more on that later. I loved talking to the kids and even taught the boy, toma-chan, tic-tac-toe. He loved it, and several minutes later drew a tic-tac-toe board of 9×9 squares! Ami-chan (the girl) presented me a beautiful drawing of her name in colorful Japanese writing, then wrote my name in a similar style: My heart-melted from the cuteness of those two, and my taste-buds melted in paradise from the incredible food (half of which I didn’t know what it was.) I arrived back at my apartment and crashed on the bed for the night.

Since then, up until last week, I had been riding my bike to work at my work base – the Asakura Local Village Office- until I start teaching at the schools on Tuesday.  It’s about a 30 minute ride, which renders me quite sweaty upon arrival, but it indeed is a gorgeous ride along a seemingly infinite mountains, streams, rice farms, and quaint Japanese houses. And now for something not so completely different: It’s picture time.

For now, I almost enjoy my commute to work!

So that’s been it up till then. At work, I had started a blog that I never uploaded here due to lack of internet at my place for the first couple weeks. I typed it on my internet-less computer at work. What proceeds is that blog. I apologize for the length, but I promise if you get through this one, the rest from now on will be much shorter, generally. If not, you have my 100% Money Back Guarantee. So, get out your favorite beer, wine, or kool-aid, sit back, and enjoy.

August 5, 2009:

This Morning: Went with Fujinaga-san to put string up signs around town to advertise the local festival coming up this Sunday. Fujinaga-san is great to work with because, despite being Japanese, he is not shy to try speaking English to me. Some of my best Japanese-learning experiences have been with Fujinaga-san in our short trips out of the office. He is also extremely helpful, which is a standard Japanese trait. For example, right before I was about to leave the office yesterday, I asked (in Japanese) Fujinaga-san if there are any good climbing paths in the area. I don’t think I got the most accurate message across, but it worked okay.  For most scenarios like this in America, one would expect a response that lasts 20 seconds to a couple minutes: not so in Japan! Not only did Fujinaga-san stop what he was doing, but everyone in the office (there were 5 of us) stopped what they were doing, and finding an answer to my trivial question became the highest task at hand.  It was as if I was standing in front of a massive machine and flipped a tiny on/off switch that caused hundreds of gears to turn in sync, steam to rise, and noises to be created. Fujinaga san started aggressively digging through his desk for information, Fujiwara-san, normally composed, even promptly began surfing the internet for information, and se-chan even left this building to find various maps in building next door! And of course I could not switch this machine off – there would be no polite way to do that. So, half-an-hour later, after showing me various maps and other forms of information both hard-copy and online, fujinaga-san announced that he would drive me during work today (at the time, tomorrow) to a path through the mountains (which we just returned from.)  Of course I thought this was unnecessary, but I appreciated it none-the-less.  A similar scenario happened last week with my inquiry into the location of an internet café. We stopped off at a home-depot-like store to get rope first, then he took me to the ‘netto cahee’; lost-in-translation as always.  Like I said, though, these rides have a two-fold benefit for me (and, I think fujinaga-san might agree, too.) First, the understanding of each other’s language incrases. The typical exchange will usually consist of one of us trying to make an intellectual observation of a sort, saying it in our native language. Then the other person will ask how to say that in English, or pick a word from the sentence and ask what it means. By the end of that exchange, both of us will have a better understanding of grammar and/or vocabulary. Secondly, our ‘friendship’ improves (due to Japanese indirectness, it’s hard to tell if you actually know a person’s true feelings or not… frustrating, but true.) Despite the language barrier, we’re still able to joke around using various body gestures, etc.

Oh, and I was asked my supervisor if I wanted to teach eikaiwa (adult English class) in 15 seconds… Suddenly, I look out the window of the office into the lobby, and I see a group of 3 older men setting down waiting… “I guess I will!”

-end entry-

So I still have a lot of catching up to do on this blog, but that will come over the next several days.  I look forward to recording and sharing my experiences here, and I’d love for any comments or experiences of your own. Shoot me an e-mail, comment, concern, problem… Mata ne!!