Somehow another week has already passed. How did that happen?! Dear god, I've already been here for three weeks and I only have fifteen weeks overall. That means my trip is 1/5 of the way done, which is sort of depressing. Let's not think about that, shall we?
So the weekend:
Friday, I had my first pop culture class and it was pretty decent. I signed up to do a presentation next week on the schoolgirl fetish in Japan, which I fully intend to dress up for. Since the trains cut off so early here, we gathered to go out right after classes ended at 5. We went to do some karaoke in Makuhari with about 12 people and two rooms. Some highlights were a poorly-constructed but soulfully-sung Disney medley, the Spice Girls, and me falling off a bench while doing interpretive ballet. It was a tremendously good time.
Saturday was the Taiko drum festival in Narita.. Griffin an I rode the slightly more expensive but way cooler train to get there. It felt like we were in an airplane, but with more leg room. IES had a big lunch planned at a famous Unagi restaurant (for those of you less cultured, Unagi is eel.) Our first course was a clear-brothed soup with little spongy white kidneys floating around it. Mmmmm, urine filters. Really though, it was all quite good, and after lunch we had some free time to wander around. A group of us walked around the temple area for a while and stumbled upon a stream with a gorgeous waterfall. Naturally, I took off my shoes immediately and began to wade down the river, forgetting that every time I wade through a river I end up falling in. We wouldn't want to break tradition, now would we? So I slipped on a rock and fell in walking upstream.. the right side of my body was soaked, and my foot somehow got cut open in the process. Immediately after, we watched a temple ritual, and I felt bad setting my bloody foot in a holy place. The ritual was great though; the monks did a lot of beautiful but incomprehensible (to me) singing, and they blessed participants' bags and other coveted items by the fire pit at the end. I then bought ice cream and promptly dropped it on the ground; luck was not on my side that Saturday. At 5pm, the taiko performances began. The square was completely packed and I could hardly see at all, but even just the sound of the performances was so worth standing for two hours in the chilly weather. The taiko drummers must be insanely strong; the force with which they attack each drumbeat is out of control. It blew my mind to think about playing any instrument that well, much less in complete sync with fifteen other drummers and with simultaneous choreography. The drummers moved as one, and sometimes they did high kicks over their drums (and other duch dance moves) while still playing. A few performances added a wooden flute and/or a xylophone type instrument, and the combination of each intricate part was stunning.
Sunday we went to another park for more hanami, but most of the sakura were done blooming. The park was still nice, though, and we played frisbee and talked at length with some highly intoxicated Japanese youths until we trained home for the night.
Monday and Tuesday I had Japanese class but didn't do much else.
This morning, I had to go to my first day of field placement at the shougakkou (elementary school) in Myoden. Last night I was apprehensive, envying all of my friends who have Wednesdays off and wishing that I could sleep in or travel instead of working. I woke up ridiculously early (5:30, what!?) because I did NOT, under ANY circumstance, want to be late. As it turns out, I was so right to be overly cautious, since I took the wrong train away from my destination at first, and ended up being only ten minutes early. In Japan, ten minutes early is on time, so I couldn't have afforded to be any later. One of my supervisors met me immediately and took me up to her class, which was fifth grade I believe. I had to give my jikoshoukai (introduction speech) to them, and then we played "fruit basket" using English fruit vocabulary, and the Japanese version of duck duck goose, which involves a handkerchief. It was really fun and I was starting to get quite comfortable with the kids when the period ended and I was whisked away to another class. This class was one year older but they were still quite receptive and interested in hearing me out/talking to me/swarming me. I went to recess with them, and we played dodgeball. We went back upstairs and I rejoined my fifth grade class. I there discovered that all 10-year-olds in Japan are far more capable of ink calligraphy than I am. It was mildly embarassing because the sensei pretty much just laughed at me, but told me it was good for my first time. Liar.
I ate lunch with a group of the senseis, which I think will be the only time I do.. usually I will be eating with the kids. It was a group lunch, so everyone had the same thing and everyone helped to set it up. No one brought their own lunch from home, and it was much more communal than any lunch I've ever seen in the states. Over lunch the other senseis and nurses asked me various questions, and they pretty much told me I was jouzu (skilled) at everything I said. They were just being polite, but it was still nice. At this point, one of the senseis pulled me aside to inform me that I was going to be recorded on the television and broadcasted to the school.. right now. I stammered out my jikoshoukai once again on a life broadcast, and then resumed my lunch. Naturally all the other senseis at lunch had watched the tv in the teacher's lounge, so they all clapped when I came back in. I was so hazukashii (embarassed).
I'm not sure how exactly this works, but I seemed to have another recess right after lunch with the same kids. This time we played a Japanese version of tag that seemed to have no rules at all except for to choose a random person, yell out the colour of their shirt, and charge them in a group until you've tagged them. Then find a new target.
We went back upstairs, and I was surprised to find that the next part of the day involved instensive cleaning of the classrooms.. by the students. I had heard before that there were no janitors in Japan, but that workers and students are expected to keep their areas clean. What I didn't realize is that the students move all the desks back and sweep and mop the floor daily. While we were cleaning there was an instrumental song looping in the background, and I wondered if, in the future, the kids would have strong impulses to clean if they heard the song again.
The rest of the day I hopped from classroom to classroom answering questions. Depending on the teacher, some of the students were made to ask in English, and it was very clear that they had only learned one question-asking format in their English studies. This was it: "What you like, [insert subject]?" It was fairly adorable, and I got asked "what I like" in terms of sports, fruits, Japanese words, sweets, colours, movie stars, anime, music, you name it. I also got asked if I had a boyfriend several times, followed by an offer by one young man. One girl asked what my "type" of man was, and then asked if her sensei was, in fact, my type. The students continued to try and set us up for the duration of the period.
As I was leaving the school for the day, I ran into some of the younger kids who I didn't work wiht at all today but who obviously saw me botching my Japanese like an idiot on the television. They got really excited and grabbed my hands and chattered away to me, and I smiled and nodded and didn't understand much of anything. But at the end of the day, I realized that I had an absurdly good time with the kids and that language barriers are easily breached by smiling apologetically and miming a lot. I am really glad I signed up for the field placement, and I'm excited to go back again next week.
Also, I was given even more of a reason to regret my lack of foresight on the bringing-shoes-to-Japan front today. The school requires an indoor and and outdoor pair of shoes, and I don't really have shoes to spare for that. And another point of interest, a LOT of the young kids here wear clothes with English on them, and a lot of that English doesn't make sense. I'm not at all complaining, though; it's a cool trend for them, and it's funny for me. But one girl had a shirt that said "Rochester, NY" on it. Shoutout to Rochester!
The homework that I should be doing is starting to weigh on me. Ja mata atode!
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
When in Tokyo..
We'll start with the day I went cherry blossom viewing, shall we? Great!
Our school, Meikai, had its opening ceremony on Friday and we all had to dress up. Some of us wore brightly coloured dresses and shirts, but we quickly realized that "dress nicely" in Japan means wear a black suit for both men and women. Griffin, with his 6'5" stature and his vibrant blue/green tie combination, was quite a standout. The ceremony itself was pretty boring, but I stayed awake because they kept making us stand up, bow to the speakers, and sit back down. After the ceremony, I went with two girls to Ueno park to see the sakura (cherry blossoms), which are a really big deal here. I kind of though to myself, 'yeah, they're flowers, they'll be pretty. I'll enjoy this,' but the sakura surprised me. They are truly one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen because they are so overwhelming in numbers.. it was like trees full of cotton candy or snow.. I don't know. But it was beauuuutiful. And just as the sakura viewing was a great experience, so was the people-viewing. When the cherry trees bloom, all the salarymen get together and sit under the trees on big blue tarps drinking sake and eating obentos (boxed lunches). We wandered around Ueno for a while longer and saw various themed strip clubs and karaoke bars. At a certain point, some of us met up at Nishi Funabashi to look for a traditional Japanese-style bar, and we stumbled upon a small snack bar on the second floor of a building. The seats were all red crushed velvet and only women worked there.. they were all dressed nicely and extremely hosbitable. When we sat down, one girl (Rin-san) informed us that it was a set fee for the whole night of eating and drinking, and that the price was $30 per person. Since we only had an hour and a half before the last trains home, we told them no thanks, we'd come again some other time. But THEN (and here's where the night started getting awesome!) the owner of the place (an older woman) noticed me and started talking about how beautiful and charming I was in Japanese. She ended up giving all of us a $20 discount solely because she thought I was pretty, and staying there was one of our better decisions thus far. All of the waitresses and other customers were eager to talk to us in Japanese and English, and Rin-san sat with us the whole time and gave us her email address at the end because she wanted to become friends with us. Adorable. And good Japanese practice! Unfortunately, I missed the last train home AGAIN, so Reggie and I stayed in the train station playing solitaire and going into various 24-hour shops until 5 in the morning when they started back up.
The next day I finally got to see Rebecca, my best friend from Rochester, who just got here a few days prior. We met up in Harajuku and stayed there for most of the day and night.. we ate some of the decadent crepes for which Harajuku is known, and we spent a while walking through the park looking at the sakura and playing frisbee. The park at Harajuku was insane because there were so many overly-styled people playing sports, juggling, and dancing around half-naked (and drunk). A good time was most certainly being had by all. When Rebecca and I were playing frisbee, most of the people who passed by either greeted us or actively joined in, which was great and kind of unusual. One Japanese fellow walked by us three times before he asked me for my number.. and then my name. (Don't worry mom, I didn't give him the right one.) At the end of the night we both took the train home to our prospective areas so we could go to bed early and wake up the next morning.
Sunday was the infamous penis festival. Nine of us from IES went together, and it took us a long time to get to Kawasaki by train, and an even longer time (and a forty minute walk) to figure out where the festival was. Sooo worth it, though. I got separated from the group soon after we got there and instead met up with Becca and one of her friends from Meiji Gakuin. We ended up right in the midst of the parade, walking alongside the chanting trannies carrying the large penis pedastals. As I do, I was dancing exuberantly, and one of the parade guides told me I could go carry the pedastal with all the she-men. It was really exciting! I learned the chant and everything.. and then Becca and her friend got to help carry it for a while too. The penises were carried to a large shrine and set down.. meanwhile, in the shrine's courtyard, vendors were selling penis figurines, bandanas with pictures of sex positions, and penis shaped lollipops. There were cross-dressers everywhere, and for the first time since I've been here it wasn't uncommon to see white people. Gaijin were taking pictures all over the place.. to the locals this parade is a yearly event, but to us a penis parade was quite a novelty. I met up with the IES kids after Becca left, and we walked around the temple area and saw the turtles there. We went home relatively early because we all had homework to do before our first day of class.
Classes started on Monday, and I have only had Japanese so far. The class goes from 9am until 12:10pm, and there are only seven people in my section so it's a lot of speaking and one on one time. One of our senseis is really great and the other one we have on Thursdays and Fridays so I can't really formulate an opinion yet, though she seems a little too happy and slightly cat-obsessed. We have no class on Wednesday, but I will be working at an elementary school in Myoden on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 3. I met with an IES coordinator and my supervisors at the school on Monday to work on some logistics and figure out what I'd be doing there more or less. I'm going to be helping the kids (from first to fourth grade) with English, and teaching 10 or 15 minute lessons to some of the classes. I will be spending recess and lunch with the kids as well.. the teachers there told me to bring my frisbee when I said I liked to play.. so it can't be all that bad! If anyone has creative ideas on how to engage Japanese children, let me know. But the teachers said that the kids would like me regardless becuase I was lively and pretty (that has been getting me pretty far here, I guess..)
I am about to go to a traditional tea ceremony, which should be really interesting.. there is a chanoyu club at Kanda (the other school I will be taking classes at) and we are joining them for one of their meetings. So I should probably go. But I'm so happy that I finally got this entry done. Woo! Peace out.
Our school, Meikai, had its opening ceremony on Friday and we all had to dress up. Some of us wore brightly coloured dresses and shirts, but we quickly realized that "dress nicely" in Japan means wear a black suit for both men and women. Griffin, with his 6'5" stature and his vibrant blue/green tie combination, was quite a standout. The ceremony itself was pretty boring, but I stayed awake because they kept making us stand up, bow to the speakers, and sit back down. After the ceremony, I went with two girls to Ueno park to see the sakura (cherry blossoms), which are a really big deal here. I kind of though to myself, 'yeah, they're flowers, they'll be pretty. I'll enjoy this,' but the sakura surprised me. They are truly one of the most breathtaking things I've ever seen because they are so overwhelming in numbers.. it was like trees full of cotton candy or snow.. I don't know. But it was beauuuutiful. And just as the sakura viewing was a great experience, so was the people-viewing. When the cherry trees bloom, all the salarymen get together and sit under the trees on big blue tarps drinking sake and eating obentos (boxed lunches). We wandered around Ueno for a while longer and saw various themed strip clubs and karaoke bars. At a certain point, some of us met up at Nishi Funabashi to look for a traditional Japanese-style bar, and we stumbled upon a small snack bar on the second floor of a building. The seats were all red crushed velvet and only women worked there.. they were all dressed nicely and extremely hosbitable. When we sat down, one girl (Rin-san) informed us that it was a set fee for the whole night of eating and drinking, and that the price was $30 per person. Since we only had an hour and a half before the last trains home, we told them no thanks, we'd come again some other time. But THEN (and here's where the night started getting awesome!) the owner of the place (an older woman) noticed me and started talking about how beautiful and charming I was in Japanese. She ended up giving all of us a $20 discount solely because she thought I was pretty, and staying there was one of our better decisions thus far. All of the waitresses and other customers were eager to talk to us in Japanese and English, and Rin-san sat with us the whole time and gave us her email address at the end because she wanted to become friends with us. Adorable. And good Japanese practice! Unfortunately, I missed the last train home AGAIN, so Reggie and I stayed in the train station playing solitaire and going into various 24-hour shops until 5 in the morning when they started back up.
The next day I finally got to see Rebecca, my best friend from Rochester, who just got here a few days prior. We met up in Harajuku and stayed there for most of the day and night.. we ate some of the decadent crepes for which Harajuku is known, and we spent a while walking through the park looking at the sakura and playing frisbee. The park at Harajuku was insane because there were so many overly-styled people playing sports, juggling, and dancing around half-naked (and drunk). A good time was most certainly being had by all. When Rebecca and I were playing frisbee, most of the people who passed by either greeted us or actively joined in, which was great and kind of unusual. One Japanese fellow walked by us three times before he asked me for my number.. and then my name. (Don't worry mom, I didn't give him the right one.) At the end of the night we both took the train home to our prospective areas so we could go to bed early and wake up the next morning.
Sunday was the infamous penis festival. Nine of us from IES went together, and it took us a long time to get to Kawasaki by train, and an even longer time (and a forty minute walk) to figure out where the festival was. Sooo worth it, though. I got separated from the group soon after we got there and instead met up with Becca and one of her friends from Meiji Gakuin. We ended up right in the midst of the parade, walking alongside the chanting trannies carrying the large penis pedastals. As I do, I was dancing exuberantly, and one of the parade guides told me I could go carry the pedastal with all the she-men. It was really exciting! I learned the chant and everything.. and then Becca and her friend got to help carry it for a while too. The penises were carried to a large shrine and set down.. meanwhile, in the shrine's courtyard, vendors were selling penis figurines, bandanas with pictures of sex positions, and penis shaped lollipops. There were cross-dressers everywhere, and for the first time since I've been here it wasn't uncommon to see white people. Gaijin were taking pictures all over the place.. to the locals this parade is a yearly event, but to us a penis parade was quite a novelty. I met up with the IES kids after Becca left, and we walked around the temple area and saw the turtles there. We went home relatively early because we all had homework to do before our first day of class.
Classes started on Monday, and I have only had Japanese so far. The class goes from 9am until 12:10pm, and there are only seven people in my section so it's a lot of speaking and one on one time. One of our senseis is really great and the other one we have on Thursdays and Fridays so I can't really formulate an opinion yet, though she seems a little too happy and slightly cat-obsessed. We have no class on Wednesday, but I will be working at an elementary school in Myoden on Wednesdays from 8:30 to 3. I met with an IES coordinator and my supervisors at the school on Monday to work on some logistics and figure out what I'd be doing there more or less. I'm going to be helping the kids (from first to fourth grade) with English, and teaching 10 or 15 minute lessons to some of the classes. I will be spending recess and lunch with the kids as well.. the teachers there told me to bring my frisbee when I said I liked to play.. so it can't be all that bad! If anyone has creative ideas on how to engage Japanese children, let me know. But the teachers said that the kids would like me regardless becuase I was lively and pretty (that has been getting me pretty far here, I guess..)
I am about to go to a traditional tea ceremony, which should be really interesting.. there is a chanoyu club at Kanda (the other school I will be taking classes at) and we are joining them for one of their meetings. So I should probably go. But I'm so happy that I finally got this entry done. Woo! Peace out.
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