A Festive December

We've had some interesting happenings here in Ashikaga since our last blog. We had our first visitor in Paul, a friend of the family on Veronica's side. Paul, having been an ALT here in Japan himself some 15 years ago or so, was able to tell us some insightful things about Japanese life that we have yet to encounter.


One encounter that we didn't plan on was one with the Koban police. Since we don't have a car here in Japan (we bike everywhere) and Paul was here to visit for only part of a day, we figured we'd be creative with the three persons, two bikes situation. So literally 30 seconds into our bike ride (Paul on Veronica's bike and Veronica and I on mine) we hear someone yelling from across the street. We look over and see a Koban policeman running parallel to us and gesturing that we stop. At this point I'm still thinking that he's gesturing to the automobile driver who was situated between us and him. We stop anyway, and sure enough he wants to talk to us. Good thing Paul was with us or we'd have no idea what the problem was. Turns out, even though I see students giving each other rides (two to a bike) everyday, it's against the law to do so. Seriously, I'm not exaggerating, I see this thing every day. I thought he was picking on us because he thought it looked like an easy way to issue a citation and get some foreign money flowing the police department's way here in Japan. IF we do end up getting a citation in the mail, that hunch we be pretty much confirmed for me. I know they are really anal about doing things by the book in this country but, you've got to be kidding. This kind of thing happens more frequently around here than cars trying to make it through a traffic intersection on yellow. I'm just sayin'.
It was Veronica's birthday on the 20th so I figured it would be a good time to finally visit the local fine dining restaurant near us. And when I say near, I'm talking about 30 meters away. Budo Ya is the name (meaning "grapes and more") and it's no bigger than the neighboring houses around here. But they sure know how to impress their patrons with their culinary skills. We had a fancy nine course diner that we won't soon forget. However, it was a little pricey so it might be a while until we return for a second visit.


Veronica and I both had our respective 'end of the year' school staff dinners this week. The size and scope of the two dinners was a bit different but the cultural aspect was very much the same. We learned the hard way about the drinking situation. Basically, since we both bike everywhere, we didn't have a legitimate excuse not to drink. There was plenty of food and liquor, but NO WATER to be found. So, when you'd have a sip of your wine/sake/beer simply because you were seeking some liquid to go with your food, some Japanese person would come swooping in from nowhere to top off your glass again. After a while it got a little bit annoying, especially because I had my eye on this juice on the table and I didn't have an empty glass to put it in. I never did get a taste of that juice that night. All I'm saying is, next time I'm going to have a really good excuse ready and waiting before my next staff dinner.
So, I hear that there's an x-mas blizzard brewing for everyone back home in the Midwest. More snow huh? I can't say I'm envious. Today, for example, it actually reached 50 degrees for the high. It was a beautiful day, no blizzard in sight. Veronica and I both hope that the Ashikaga snow holds off until next year. They usually see snow here about once every three or four years. We hope this year isn't the snowy one.

X-mas here isn't all that much different than it is back in the states. There's x-mas trees and wreaths up everywhere. And, well known English x-mas songs playing in many public places like shopping malls and restaurants. People celebrate x-mas here but it's a working holiday. We did have today off (Wednesday, December 23rd) in honor of the Emperor's B-day but we do have to work Thursday and Friday. But then we're off for about two weeks. AND Kristin (Veronica's old roommate/good friend) will be here to visit us starting on January 2nd. We're planning to pack in as many fun tourism activities as we can while she's here. We hope we don't wear her out. It's gonna be fun.

Well, Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to everyone from Veronica and I. We hope this holiday season finds you in good health and in a festive mood. Bye bye for now. Ja mata (catch ya later).

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way to the Gakko

Jon and I love the fact that there is so much to learn here. Now that we have gotten over the first 'newness' of life in Japan, we are learning much more about the details of the culture we're immersed in.

I am a words person, so one of my favorite things is learning new 'fun' words in Japanese. There are always unexpected 'double entendres' when words in your native language sound the same as words in another language. I wondered when I was introducing myself to the students at the beginning of the year why they laughed when I told them my nickname was "Vero". Yeah, that means "tongue" in Japanese. I imagined my introduction from their perspective: "Hi, my name is Veronica, I'm from America, but YOU can call me tongue!" Ha ha. This week I learned that if I were to say "vaccuum" to someone here, they would think I was talking about something you do in the toilet. We went to a meeting for all the ALTs at an elementary school a few weeks ago and the Japanese teacher told the kids in English "now we will show you a skit!" "Show you?" A student exclaimed. I started laughing - "shoyu" means soy sauce in Japanese. "Now we will soy sauce a skit!" Huh?!

Jon and I have been asked a few times by students what our favorite Japanese words were. Jon likes "zehi" (certainly) and I like "toki doki" (sometimes). However, when we gave them these answers they seemed disappointed. This week a teacher asked me the same question and when I answered her she frowned. "No, in Japan, we have a phrase or a word that defines our life" she answered. "So?" She and a group of students were waiting for my answer - and under pressure the only thing I could think of was "ocean". Yep - not impressive. I couldn't come up with a sentence surrounding it either. What would your 'defining' word or sentence be?

No matter where you are, people are people. I almost fell out of my chair laughing this week when a middle aged male teacher (who is slightly larger than the typical Japanese body size) came up to me, flexed his calf muscle and told me to feel it. "Hard as a rock! That's cuz I'm a runner!" Yeah, dad, how many times have you done the EXACT same thing to me? In response I flexed my calf and held out my leg to feel. "Me too!" I said.

I was reminded that I AM teaching at a junior high school - even though they are Japanese students - when I walked out of a classroom to find the hallway and a nearby classroom flooded. It was raining, so I immediately thought that the building was leaking, but found out quickly that some student in the boys bathroom had opened the tap, clogged the drain and then left. There was so much water that it leaked through to the floor underneath! All the teachers not currently in class spent more than 30 minutes trying to use squeegees, buckets and dustpans to clean up the water. (No mops were in the school at all!) It was kind of funny to find myself using a dustpan to scoop up water, but not funny to think that since no one knew who had done the prank, no one would be punished for it. (Even if they did find out, I don't know what the considered punishment is for a student! I haven't seen a punishment yet.)

Although people's behavior can be often very similar, their roles in society are of course very different. We've mentioned before that students have long days at school and teachers have even longer (a lot of the time teachers don't leave school until 9 pm!) and this week I found out one reason why their days are so long. In Japan teachers' roles encompass many more things than simply being a teacher. One day this week a student was hit in the ear by another student. So the procedure that followed was: many teachers talk to injured student. Then many teachers talk to the student who injured him. Then the offending student's parents are called to the school, many teachers talk to the student and his parents. Then the parents go to the injured student's house and apologize, all while the teachers wait at school. Then the parents return to school and talk about what happened with the offending student and the teachers. Wow. No wonder their day is so long! Teacher's responsibilities include: teacher, counselor, mentor, coach, friend, therapist...and the list goes on. Everything seems to be a very long process involving many people (collectivist culture it is!), however when it comes to discipline in the classroom - there is none. The 'bad kids' are just ignored and they do whatever they want, all while they prevent the other kids in their class from learning anything.

I am definitely being kept on my toes when it comes to the schedule at school. There are many changes it seems, from day to day and even hour to hour - some that were planned in advance and that I didn't know about until the last minute, and some that are last second decisions. This week I stood up more than once to go to class (with a prepared activity in my hands) only to be told that I didn't have to go to class because they were going to do something else. It can be frustrating at times, and this week was especially bad since it included finals (or midterms, I'm not sure), so teachers were scrambling to get the kids caught up. However, everyone is always so kind, and this week with all the chaos going on I was again reminded of that.

Aside from language and society learning this week, we also went to the only 'big tourist attraction' in Ashikaga that we hadn't been to. Gyodo Temple is at the top of a mountain just outside Ashikaga, and the hour long, uphill bike ride was definitely worth it for the view we received of the fall landscape.

We are very happy that it is December already and that we are experiencing high 50s weather at least several times a week! We hope that wherever you are, you are enjoying this festive time of year and are not too stressed. Ja mata atode! (See you later!)