Ramblings of a tired ALT

Well a lot has happened in the last week and a half! Let me start with my biggest observations of late, and they are the hygiene conundrum! The week before last I went to another school for a demonstration lesson. An English teacher from my school accompanied me. We were told that there were several students with the flu at that school and to take care. So when we came back to our school after the meeting the teacher told me to wash my hands and 'gargle' before coming into the school. Which we proceeded to do...with only water. Hmm. I was very confused on this - how is this to help preventing the spread of germs?! Also there was an incident where two kids got into a fight, one pushed another one through a window, the injured one walked all the way down the hallway to the teacher's room dripping blood everywhere. This was later cleaned up by the teachers with...toilet paper and rags used to clean the floor. A little water, but no cleaning agent, no gloves, no biohazard bag, nothing. Hm. Interesting. This felt like a contradiction when you think about how everyone brushes their teeth after lunch every day and how you have to wash your hands before lunch. I am thinking it has more to do with the social need to 'not be offensive' rather than actually worrying about hygiene. Any thoughts? These perplexing incidents have been on my mind often since they happened!

Typhoon Melor came and went, with a lot of hullabaloo and then little actual damage. School was cancelled for one day in several schools in nearby cities, but teachers still had to go to school. Jon and I spent the day being the most productive we have been since we started work! I made a Halloween game for the kids to play and got creative planning Jon's birthday. Jon made several activities and worksheets for the kids. The days leading up to the typhoon were rainy, windy and downright dreary. The day the typhoon actually hit, however, we experienced almost no rain and only medium windgusts. The sky ranged from sunny, to kind of menacing looking, but no big weather really hit us on that day.

We have definitely been enjoying our surroundings: last week on the 9th, the teachers from the grade block I sit in (2nd grade teachers) decided to go out for dinner and invited me to come along with. Jon also was invited and we experienced a wonderful night of 'Japlish', tasted a five course 'Italian' meal and got to know some of the teachers from my school a lot better. We learned some things about Japan and some of the teachers even suggested that we get married here, in traditional Japanese outfits! :) There is one teacher in particular that is also new to the school starting in September like me, who has been especially kind and forthcoming. I am lucky enough to sit across from her in the teacher's room and she tries to speak English as I try my broken Japanese. She and her fiance picked Jon and I up and drove us to the restaurant and dropped us off. She also offered to pick us up for the paragliding adventure I had planned for Jon for his birthday! Michiyo and Yukioshi (the math teacher and her fiance) have been so kind, and I have a feeling they will become great friends.

Last weekend we visited some local tourist spots: we went to Bannaji temple, Orihime shrine and the Ashikaga gakko. The gakko is the oldest educational facility in Japan, and all three places were very nice to see. Orihime shrine is located on a hill that overlooks the city: the view was almost better than the actual site! It is so nice living in a city that you can bike almost everywhere to in a relatively short amount of time!

Last week on Monday was the 'Sports Festival' holiday. So there was no school and everyone was expected to go out and be sporty! We did our best to accomodate the holiday and enjoyed running and working out in the city. It has been beautiful ever since the typhoon - low 70s and sunny most days.

Jon's birthday was on Thursday and his mom and sister were wonderful and put together a care package for the event - his favorite cookies as well as some things to help us along in Japanese knowledge as well as some movies in English :) Friday we went to a sushi restaurant to celebrate - you can't beat sushi plates for $1!

Next week will be filled with Halloween lessons and games and on Thursday we will be judges in the English speech competition. Stay tuned!

International Communications

We've been told that by now Veronica and I should have had a noticeable feeling of home sickness. They say it hits about four weeks after you arrive in a new country. We've been here for almost seven weeks now. No sign of such feelings at this time. Of coarse we miss family and friends but I'm not sure if we miss the states as a location. Knowing that we'll return next spring/summer is comforting however. We're just having so much fun I don't think we've had time to be home sick. Take for example our experience yesterday. I'll try to paint the picture as vividly as possible.

Our Ashikaga City contact person for all Heart Corporation ALTs invited all five Heart ALTs to her house for dinner last night (basically, we would call her first if we have any emergencies or pressing issues---I don't think anyone has called her yet with any problems). So, Veronica and I were finally going to be able to see the inside of a real Japanese home. But, we soon got the impression that her home was anything but typical as we were expecting. The moment that forced an uncontrollable smile out of me came after maki sushi while we were readying our stomachs for the desert to come.

I was talking to the Englishman (ALT Wayne, from Southern England) about his Japanese wife in Tokyo and what she does for work. ALT Bridget was reading a Japanese children's book (in Japanese) to our host's three year old son who understands French and Japanese. Kae's (our host) husband Philippe (a Frenchman) was carrying on a conversation with Veronica in French about something related to architecture I think. Philippe was feeding his youngest son Marc who he and Kae had adopted from Brazil (Japanese families almost never adopt children so this was a very rare household indeed). ALT P.J., from Michigan, was carrying on a Japanese/English conversation with Kae about Chinese politics. This is when I thought to myself, "Veronica and I probably won't see anything like this again for a long time if ever." The best part about it was that the room was filled with open minded people who genuinely wanted to learn from each other. Also, none of the trilingual speakers (Veronica, Philippe, and Kae) in the room were trying to show off their skills. It wasn't about that. The overall appreciation that everyone had for each others differences was slightly unexpected and refreshing. Being a mono phone myself (basically just English), I had been expecting that I would feel slightly uncomfortable at some point in the evening. But that never happened. Veronica and I really enjoyed the evening to say the least.

Of coarse I can't finish today's posting without saying something about school. I have met so many extremely dedicated students at my school that it almost makes me cry (I think all teachers dream about having students who almost beg you to teach them). One such student is this girl (Akari) who shows up at my desk at the end of the school day because she wants me to help her with her English Speech Contest speech. She wants to memorize her speech because her English teacher (JTE--Japanese English Teacher) suggested that she should. Remember what I said before about suggestions? They're not suggestions at all. Anyway, Akari wants to memorize her seven hundred word speech before the contest. A speech translated into English by the JTE consisting of many big English words. We finished cramming the entire speech into her memory a couple of days ago. It took her less than a week. If Akari was autistic, this accomplishment wouldn't surprise me, but from what I can tell she definitely isn't. Think back to your high school days when you were an 11th grader who's been studying a foreign language for a couple of years (for about five hours a week). Could you memorize a large word composition with complex ideas in that new language of yours, in five days? I couldn't, that's all I'm saying. Kids like Akari make work for Veronica and I so fun here.

Well, that's all for now everyone. I'm off to give myself a haircut. I haven't had a trim for seven weeks so that means that I'm four weeks overdue. I hope it turns out o.k.. If it turns out looking ridiculous I'll make sure to take pictures and post them so we can all laugh together.

Add a little international flavor to your life this week. You'll be glad you did.

Running in Ashikaga

Something I’ve noticed lately is how much adults run around here. Or maybe I should call it ‘hustle’ or even ‘shuffle’. At school I’m always watching teachers shuffle back and forth. The phone rings, the teacher shuffles to the phone. Then they hustle to find the person who is being called. A student escapes school grounds, there’s a full out group run off after the student. Someone visits the school, a shuffle to the visitor, a shuffle to find the person being visited. With all this running, hustling and shuffling, no wonder everyone is so small. I can only imagine what American adults would look like if they ran around that much. It’s been so strange to see so many adults running around in a work environment, wearing business clothes. I’ve never seen the like. But then a lot of things about daily life are different. Let me take you through a typical morning.

Jon and I wake up on the floor of our apartment where our futons are at 6:15 and 7 am, respectively. Jon shaves in the shower room, and washes his face in the tub while I straighten my hair in the main room. Then I use the shower room to wash my face, and put on makeup while Jon uses the mirror in the main room to gel his hair, etc. We leave the apartment, unlock our bikes and ride to work. On the way we pass a couple official crossing guards who hold yellow flags reminding me of a bull fighter as they bow us across the road: “Ohiyo gozaimasu, onegaishimasu!” There are also several volunteer parents, some with their own children in strollers by the side of the road, holding the same yellow flag “onegaishimasu!” We ride by the adorable elementary school kids walking in groups to school all wearing their yellow hats and dragging their book bags, as well as our own students looking more sophisticated in either black pants and white button down shirts (boys) or knee length navy pleated skirts white shirts and navy vests (girls). “Good morning!” (Me) “Oh, Veronica! Ohiyo gozaimasu!”When we get to work, we walk up to the building, remove our indoor shoes from the shoe locker and put our outside shoes in the locker. Opening the door to the teacher’s room: “Ohiyo gozaimasu!” bow. Take a few steps; someone catches your eye “Ohiyo gozaimasu!” bow, etc. until reaching our desks and sitting down. The teachers all have desks grouped according to grade. Sitting down at our desks, we have a cup of tea waiting in the mug we bought and brought to school. We have a few minutes to organize our things for the day’s lessons and then the vice principal, principal and head teacher stand up. “Hup!” All the rest of the teachers stand up. “Ohiyo gozaimasu!” Everyone bows in the direction of the principal and then sits down. The teacher’s meeting usually lasts 20 minutes, with the head honchos standing and making announcements, any other teachers standing and announcing to the room and then the head teacher of each grade speaks individually to their own grades. Shortly after, most of the teachers leave to lead their home room class (which occurs each morning and afternoon). We get to relax in the teacher’s room and continue preparing for future lessons, or decorating our English boards. Around 9 am, the first lesson of the day begins.

We keep our own mugs at school, as well as a set of chopsticks in their own case. We wash both things ourselves in the sink in the teacher’s room. There are two sponges in the sink; each one has some Japanese writing in marker on it. I’d been using a sponge to clean my mug and chopsticks, and two weeks ago I figured out I’d been using the wrong sponge to clean my stuff. Apparently one sponge is designated as the ‘dirty’ sponge and is used to clean the sink and I can’t imagine what else, of course that’s the one I’d been using! Eeewwwwwwww. I’ve tried not to think about it too much. After lunch, teachers and students will be seen around the school brushing their teeth. After a couple weeks Jon and I figured we must seem dirty so we brought toothbrushes and toothpaste to school, and now I am proud to say that I brush my teeth three times a day. My dentist would be so proud :)

Last weekend we visited the Coco Farm and Winery on the outskirts of Ashikaga. It was beautiful. We had a delicious lunch and did some wine tasting (my first time!) We’ll definitely be going back. This week has seemed long for me after last week being only two school days: but Jon has an even longer week. Each junior high school holds a school festival every three years and we’re lucky enough to be here for the year when they happen. Jon’s school festival was today and tomorrow, so he’ll have a six day week. Here is a picture from the festival. The trade off is that he has Monday off, while I’ll be back in school! Mine isn't till the end of the month.

We’ve been thinking of y’all a lot, especially Christi with her baby’s impending birth right around the corner! In fact, he or she will arrive in T minus five hours! We hope that you are all doing well. Sending love from Japan xoxo