Thayne caught me coming home from work one day!
I bicycle everyday and I love it!
Hello everyone! This is Erika adding to the blog experience. It’s time for me to say a few words about my perspective on life here in Japan. I’ve now been here a full month and in some ways it seems longer (in a good way!), but in other ways shorter. Thayne and I have done/seen/experienced/tasted so many things already, as you’ve been reading about. I guess aside from the obvious differences from living in Japan, I’m struck with amazement and admiration for the people. The genuineness and honesty I’ve experienced in people is so refreshing. As a whole, Japanese people are wonderful! They are so kind and eager to help and go far out of their way to lend a hand. They are extremely upbeat and positive- a word used often is genki, translating as healthy/happy/enthusiastic/vivacious/positive. Japanese people are also very concerned with following rules! Only once in the month I’ve been here have I seen a Japanese person crossing the street while the crossing signal was red. They wait patiently despite the fact that no cars are in sight. Also, garbage recycling in Japan is one of the most complicated things you’ll ever encounter! There are typically between 7-12 different bins for you to sort garbage into and at any establishment, public or private, people are very particular with where each item should be placed. At my school, there are 12 bins, and I have actually seen teachers walk by and when glancing into a bin seeing some misplaced items, have stopped and sorted the items into the correct bins. What is even more unbelievable is that I have seen this very thing done on the street, twice! Another interesting phenomenon we’ve experienced is the attitude of the youth. In general they are very respectful and polite. At the high school I work at, I’ve seen groups of girls and boys laughing and being loud and crazy as teenagers do, but when a teacher, or I, pass them, they bow and greet us. Thayne and I were in town one day, relaxing and people watching, and we observed a group of rough looking kids. They were dressed in sagging pants and baggy clothes, one had dreads (that was a first!), and they were hip hop and break dancing. They weren’t causing any trouble at all, but you would expect these kids to be the rebellious, rogue types. However, as we were watching them practice, we noticed them bow and politely greet elderly people passing by. We actually met one of the girls and spoke with her. She was so approachable and sweet! It was amazing to see that the ghetto, gang mentality does not have to go hand in hand with the hip hop and break dancing culture. On a side note, crime is extremely low in Japan. I came across an interesting statistic…29,569 gun related deaths in the US annually, while only 22 in Japan…
Anyway, we are settled into life here. It was surprisingly easy to feel comfortable and feel at ease. Our apartment is small, but we’ve rearranged it to suit us and we’ve put some finishing touches on it to make it ‘ours’. I think we’ve finally gotten it to a clean state…after weeks of dusting and re-dusting and cleaning away mold and who knows what else, as well as purifying the air, we now can live without constant allergy attacks. Cooking on a 2 burner gas stove and no oven or counter space has become normal at this point. Thayne and I are LOVING the food. Fish and rice and noodles, as well as various vegetables, are keeping us happy and healthy! A teacher that I work with, keeps me stocked with a weekly supply of cucumbers and occasionally eggplants.
I feel very lucky to be at the school I’m at. The Principle, VP and teachers are welcoming and friendly. There was an opening ceremony to start off the second semester after summer vacation. I was supposed to make an introductory speech for the school. I decided to make the whole speech all in Japanese, which I found out was a first ever for any JET they'd had. I wrote up my speech and one of the English teachers helped me translate it. It went well! From the stage I could see several of the student's mouths drop! My school has over 800 students and it was so interesting looking out over the sea of black hair. No variations, same skin and hair color. After the ceremony, the students all had to pass the dress code. No jewelry, no makeup, no piercings, no nailpolish, and a proper school uniform. That was pretty funny to watch. There were of course girls and boys that had pushed the limits and were reprimanded.
I get along great with the 3 English teachers I co-teach with. Few of the others teachers speak English, but many try communicating with me regularly and between my Japanese improving and them learning a few English words, we get pretty far. I teach 14 classes each week. 10 with Ohara-Sensei, 2 with Yamanaka- Sensei , 1 with Ohata-Sensei, and 1 hour of English Club on my own. Students returned from summer break this week and classes have begun. They are very excited about me being here. So far in all the classes, I’ve been doing a introductory powerpoint slideshow on my life in Norway and the US, and the students have all been very interested and inquisitive. In my 10 Oral Communication classes, I am pretty much in charge of what is taught. I was told that about 70% of the curriculum will be on my sharing my life and culture and engaging the students in learning spoken English through these means. And by the way, their mid-term will be on me! The rest of the time will be dedicated to working from the small textbook. The challenge at this school is to make learning English interesting and desirable for the students, so the more creative I am the better. So far so good!
I constantly hear the word kawaii (cute) as I walk through the halls and have been told by girls that they want to be me, wish they looked like me; and by boys that they like me, my eyes are remarkable (pretty big word!) etc. There are very few foreigners around, so my light skin, hair and eyes are a rare sight. Their English abilities vary, but mostly it is poor. The English teachers also admit that their English is poor, which surprisingly is often true.
At the end of each day, there is a 15 min cleaning period. Students and teachers are responsible for cleaning the school. There is no janitorial service. I have my own desk and laptop in the teacher’s room. Of course it is Japanese, so I’m still figuring it out. There have been a couple students that have come down with Swine Flu, so it is mandatory for all teachers and students to wear masks all day….It is just the little white ones that cover your mouth and nose, but they are so uncomfortable! It gets really hot in there! And while I’m on the topic, my school likes to conserve energy and therefore does not use air conditioning much at all. The windows are kept open and it is miserably hot! Everyone sits fanning themselves and drinking lots of water. The air conditioner is sometimes turned on around midday for a couple of hours if I’m lucky. However, I just heard that next week we will not e using it at all in order to save electricity…..
Cleaning time! notice the masks...
I am looking forward to the after school clubs starting up. These are the extracurricular activities that the school offers the students to participate in. I will be joining in a few like Tea Ceremony, Flower Arrangement, Calligraphy. There are also sports clubs such as baseball, tennis, water polo, table tennis, soccer, rugby, volleyball, track, and basketball. They also offer bookkeeping, typewriting, computer, commercial marketing, brass band, broadcasting, school newspaper, and art. These are held on different days so students can be part of many clubs. My English Club is also one of the options. I have 6 girls.
We had our first earthquake last night around 10.30 PM. It was a 6.2 on the Richter scale, but was not too bad for us. The worst of it was in the ocean, below our island, Kyushu. It was 15 seconds of things rattling and the apartment swaying slightly. Pretty exciting!
Well this ended up being pretty long....but I haven't written anything on here for 1 month so no small dose of Erika! Lol...well hope you all stay healthy and happy and safe!
Love coming your way from Oita! :)
-Erika
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