Couch Surfers

This past weekend, Ian and I hosted our second couch surfers.  Peter and Ginny were a married couple who were living and teaching in Nagoya.  He’s from Oregon, she’s from Hong Kong, and they met and married in Hawaii.  They were an incredible couple to meet and get to know.

On Friday night we picked them up in Hitoyoshi and went out to dinner with a few of our friends.  I think everyone and their mother in the Hitoyoshi area went out for dinner that night because we tried two restaurants (both were full) before trying a sushi place.  Even there we had to wait for a table for a few minutes and had to split our eight person group into two tables of four. 

On Saturday we took Peter and Ginny up to Shiromizu Falls in Mizukami.  It’s a gorgeous white waterfall that cascades down the rock face of the mountain.  What makes it more incredible is that there are two suspension bridges crossing in front of the waterfalls, so that you can get relatively close to them and watch the water drop from hundreds of feet above you to hundreds of feet below you.  It’s beautiful!

 

We came to one suspension bridge in which a tree had fallen on it.  We paused for a second, wondering if we should walk across it.  Although the main trunk had fallen to the side of the bridge, there were huge limbs covering the walkway.  On one hand, we didn’t drive thirty minutes and hike twenty minutes just to turn around.  On the other hand, none of us liked the option of death, either.  None of the strong steel cables seemed to be affected by the tree.  Ian said, “Let me walk my fat ass across it.  If it doesn’t fall, then you guys should be okay.”  Ha, ha, ha!  Since Ian is still here today, the bridge proved to be sturdy.

Since we were so high up, we decided to spice up the afternoon by chucking huge pieces of rotten wood off of the bridge onto the rocks and falls below.  It was so awesome!  Since the wood was rotten, and there was so much force behind the fall, the wood exploded upon impact and then was swept away by the water.  COOOOOOL!  We threw limbs, logs, and rocks off the side, and like small children waited with anticipation until they smacked the rock and splattered.  Downstream should definitely have some good compost! 

 

After our hike, we rolled back into Yunomae famished.  We quickly stopped by the grocery store for lunch before making our way down to the swimming hole.  After walking there, we had built up a sweat and were ready to dive in!  Thanks to the recent rain on Friday, the river was up higher and had a slightly stronger current than previous times.  All of us took turns jumping from the rock and swimming.  I decided to blow up both of our tubes.  I tossed one fully inflated tube into the water and jumped on it (something that I’ve done several times before) and was MORTIFIED when a startling POP sounded across the river.  Everyone stopped what they were doing and stared at me as I sank lower and lower into the river.  Melissa asked, “Did you just pop that float?”  While we laughed uncontrollably about it for a long time, nothing makes you feel like a fat heifer quite like popping a pool float.  Ugh!  We stayed at the river until dark and then invited everyone back to our house for pizza and peach cobbler.

The following morning we woke up in time to have breakfast and show Peter and Ginny Yunomae’s famous boob shrine before heading back to Hitoyoshi so that they could catch their bus.  Although we were gone for about four hours, when we got home, our front door was wide open.  Ian asked me, “Did you leave the front door open?”  I said no, that HE was the last one out the door.  Our door will prop itself open if fully extended, and I suppose while carrying out their luggage and loading up the car, the door locked in place.  That’s not a problem.  The problem is that Ian Reed was the last one out the door and forgot about it.  I wasn’t so much afraid that someone had stolen something.  (That’s right.  We left our front door wide open, unmanned, and with valuables in sight for four hours, and no one stole anything.  Could you say the same thing in the States?)  I was more concerned of what creepy-crawlies had come in.  UGH!  I never saw anything, THANK GOD!     

I would like to take this time to interject and say what a wonderful experience couch surfing is.  It’s a great way to meet some interesting people.  I would like to surf one of these times instead of hosting, but it seems like surfers have to be a bit flexible with their travel plans, and generally when we travel we have certain things that we want to do at certain times.  Therefore, we haven’t been able to surf yet.  While I don’t mind opening my door in Japan (where I can actually trust people), I’m a little more hesitant about trying it in the States.  Ian says that he wants to continue couch surfing in the States, but I don’t know.  I think we’ll just have to see about that.  I hate that it’s this was, but you just can’t ever trust people at home! 

That’s all for this week!  Tomorrow I’m off to Kumamoto City for the 2013 ALT Leaver’s Conference for all of the ALTs leaving in August and then Kumamoto’s Got Talent (talent show) on Saturday night.  Since I probably won’t be seeing my city friends anymore, this will be the first round of goodbyes that I have to say.  Eek!  Time is slipping away……

A Day With 1-nensei

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEEW!  To all of the 1st grade teachers out there, I salute you!  You all are on the front lines molding these young balls of energy and mischief into model students, and it’s NOT easy work!  I loved my 1st graders when they were in nursery school, but I’m not sure what happened in between then and now, but they are just waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too much energy for me now.  They’re sweet kids, but let’s just say that after class today my ears were ringing from all of the screaming.  Eek!

I had 1-nen during 3rd period this morning, and I went to take my supplies to the classroom.  As soon as one kid saw me, I was immediately surrounded by a mob of 1st graders trying to get my attention, touch me, clap my hands, etc.  I had forgotten something and had to go back to the teacher’s room, and the kids followed around me like ducklings, not letting go of my skirt, arm, or whatever piece of me they were holding onto…..until we got to a certain point.  I’ve never noticed it before, but just beyond the 1-nen bathrooms is a line of red tape on the ground that apparently the kids aren’t allowed to cross.  Since they are Japanese students, they obey this line.  I didn’t realize it, and as soon as I crossed it, all of the kids let go of me immediately.  Confused, I turned around, and the kids were standing toes-at-the-line reaching out for me.  They waited for me to go to the teacher’s room and grab my forgotten things, and as soon as I had crossed back over the red tape line, they were once again pulling and tugging on me.

During class the kids were just…..everywhere.  Screaming, yelling, standing up, and everything in between.  I lost track of how many times the homeroom teacher had to calm them down.  (Once again…just to re-iterate…I love this class.  It’s just that they’re a little….MUCH for me.)  During one of the games in which each team got points, she threatened to erase points from whichever team was yelling.  That quieted them down for a bit.  After that game, we started singing a song, and they were right back to wilding out. 

There’s one kid in my 1-nen class who is a terrible, terrible troublemaker.  In all honesty he probably has ADHD, but Japan doesn’t recognize that disorder.  He’s the only kid in his class who doesn’t have a partner sitting next to him, and the teacher has taped Post-it notes to his desk to remind him not to act up and be a good boy.  He even has a smiley face chart.  1 = a smiley face.  5 = the saddest frowning face possible, and 2-4 is a progressive scale downward.  I suppose it’s to remind him to always stay at a 1 or so she can tell him, “You’re being a 3 right now.  Don’t move up to 4.”

It didn’t take long for him to start acting up.  I’m sure this is a daily thing that happens because she didn’t even give him a chance to straighten up.  She yanked him out of his seat and took him to his time out corner in the back of the classroom.  In the back right corner is a tall cardboard box wall with 3 sides.  Whenever he starts acting up, he has to sit there and can’t participate in class.  On the inside are notes about proper behavior taped to the walls.  He stayed back there for about 85% of my forty-five minute class today.  At one point in time, he ran out of the time-out corner and smacked a kid for no reason whatsoever.  If looks could kill, that kid would have been soooooooooooooo dead.  The teacher slammed her chalk down on the tray and raced to the back of the classroom to yank him up by one hand and drag him back into his time-out corner. 

When I got back to my desk after class, my ears were ringing from all of the shouting and screaming that I had suffered through in that forty-five minutes.  Ugh!  I also ate lunch with my 1-nen kids.  When I went to class at 10:30, there was a girl that had a nose bleed.  She took her tissues out of her nose to show me, and I turned my head and whispered, “Don’t touch me.  Stay away from me.”  When I went back for lunch, the same girl was carting around a fresh tissue and wiping blood from her nose.  I’m no doctor, but I think a two hour nose bleed is a bad thing!  Not only that, but it was icky and grossing me out. 

Above everything I feel really, really bad for the 1st grade teacher.  Just as she was getting ready to sit down and enjoy her lunch, a kid spilled his milk, and she helped him clean it up.  She had to deal with misbehavers, nose bleeds, shouting, slapping, spilled milk, and that was just a typical day.  She’s one of the kindest and most patient teachers at the elementary school, but there has to be a breaking point somewhere.  I don’t know how she does it day in and day out!

Since it was pouring rain all day, we didn’t get to go outside and play during recess.  Sad day!  Instead I went to the 2nd grade classroom.  They were playing with Play-doh, and I joined in.  Each of the kids has a huge tub of it that I assume they use for math or science class to make models or something.  While I was molding flowers and food items, a couple of girls decided to play with my hair.  I let them.  They braided and un-braided, put it up, then took it down, twisted it into a bun, and then flipped it into a ponytail.  Regardless of the fact that their hands were greasy from the Play-doh, I let them do it because it felt too good to tell them to stop.

And that’s it for today!  Hopefully I can write another blog tomorrow because I won’t have the opportunity to on Friday since I’m heading to the city for a conference.

Typhoon Day

Last Friday a big typhoon was supposed to hit Kumamoto.  I first heard about it from the VP at my ES.  He told me several times that a big typhoon was on its way and would arrive on Friday.  I didn’t think much about it because all we usually get from typhoons are a lot of rain and wind.  Then Thursday night at eikaiwa, one of my ladies mentioned it again.  She said that it was a big one and would sweep right over Kumamoto.  When I went to work on Friday morning, the first thing my VP told me was that classes would be canceled after third period so that the kids could make it home before the typhoon hit.  YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!  Considering that I had classes in 4th-6th periods, that meant a free day for me!  Hurray!  Japanese schools NEVER cancel classes, and I could just tell that there was this collective feeling of relief from the teachers.  I saw them laughing, looking up silly things online, and napping on their desks—stuff that generally doesn’t happen. 

Then during second period the rain stopped and the sun started to peak through the clouds.  Everyone was confused considering there was a huge typhoon on the way.  All it took was one Internet search to determine the worst news I had gotten all week.  The typhoon had changed course.  The teachers had a brief meeting after third period in which the principal decided that classes would be UN-canceled and the day would continue as regularly scheduled.  But….but….BUT….you said!!!  The teachers went back to their I-hate-my-life mentality, and the students were so disheartened.  They NEVER, EVER, EVER get days off, and it was even a glorious Friday afternoon!  When I went to class during 4th period, there was this whatever-it-doesn’t-matter-sure-fine-whatever attitude from all of the students.  I wanted to tell them that I wanted to be there about as much as they did!  UGH!  Could you imagine a school in the States calling a snow day and then taking it back?  That.  Just.  Doesn’t.  Happen.

Last Wednesday-Friday were test days at my JHS.  This means that the students had tests 1st-3rd periods and then regular classes 4th-6th periods.  On Thursday afternoon, I had two classes.  After my warm-up games, my JTE basically told the class that the rest of the time was theirs and to study.  They could study whatever they wanted even if it wasn’t English. 

This led to an all out madness.  It was supposed to be a quiet study hall time, but it was sooooooooooooo far from that.  The kids were at best halfway studying, and my JTE didn’t really care what they were doing.  I can’t blame them.  I was a good girl in school, but if a teacher gave my class no further instruction other than “study something” I would have only been giving it a half-hearted attempt as well and instead taking the time to talk with friends or pass notes.  Both class periods were soooooooooooooooooooo boring, and I spent the entire classroom pacing back and forth, back and forth, back and forth in the back of class. 

Ian, Melissa, and I are hiking up Mt. Fuji at the beginning of August.  Hurray!  As the time approaches, we’ve been researching more about what to expect and bring.  Most people who hike Fuji do it in order to watch the sunrise.  Ian pitched the idea last week of doing a night hike on Fuji.  At first I asked him if he was out of his freaking mind.  No, I didn’t want to do a night hike on a scary, dark mountain.  However, I started researching it, and I found out that it’s quite common to do that.  Our options are either:

1) make our way to Fuji after we land in Tokyo and start sometime in the afternoon, catch a few hours of sleep in one of the mountain huts, and wake up around 3 AM to finish hiking in order to catch the sunrise, or

b) take the last bus to Fuji from Tokyo and begin our hike around 10 PM, arriving at the peak around 3:30 AM, and then wait for sunrise at 4:30 AM. 

While I wasn’t crazy of the night hiking idea, it was a good relief to know that tons of people do it.  I read several different hiking blogs from people who actually did it, and there was only one person who said that it was brutal.  (…..but then in the comment section everyone was calling him a baby)  People said that since there’s not a lot of vegetation on Fuji, you can climb with the moonlight and a little flashlight.  Plus, I’ve heard that the trail isn’t terrible.  Another plus is that we wouldn’t have to pay for the mountain huts, which are quite expensive.  (It’s about $60/person to stay in a shack shared with numerous other people in a common room with minimal bedding.  Plus with people coming and going throughout the night, the question begs of how much sleep we’d actually get!)  Even if we stayed in the huts, we’d still have to do part of our hike in the dark, so why not the whole thing?

I’m sure that some of you are worry warts and wondering if this is such a good idea.  Believe me, I’ve done the research.  I was originally very skeptical about night hiking, but I think it’s going to be just fine.  No worries, y’all!

When Americans Come to Town

Funny story of miscommunication and assumptions.  Ian is currently putting together a book for our successor of places to go, things to see, and important places in and around town.  He’s been really excited about working on it.  When I came home from work the other day, he was on the bed browsing something on his tablet.  He seemed sleepy, so I asked him if everything was okay.  “Yeah, just tired,” he said.  “I didn’t get much sleep last night and was busy today.”  He then went on to tell me that he had spent the hours of 11-4 going around town and taking pictures of things to put in the book.

Me: “WHAAAAT?  WHY?”

Ian: “Well, I needed the pictures and figured I could go ahead and do it.  I went to Seria, the town office, the clinic, gas station, grocery store, etc.”

Me: “You WALKED all the way to Seria?”

Ian: “Well, no.  I drove.”

Me: “Ian, I mean…I’m happy that you’re making this book, but why did you take the pictures at night in the dark?  Wouldn’t it have been better in the daylight?”

Ian: “Huh?  I went today.”

Me: “Ooooooooohhhhhhh.  11 AM – 4 PM!  Gotcha.”

Since he was so tired, I just assumed that he couldn’t sleep the night before and had gone out to take some pictures.  It seemed like something he would do!  Silly me!  We both laughed at that for a bit!

As I mentioned in last week’s blog, a few American judo players came to Yunomae this week.  Hurray!  It was really funny when their bus rolled up during 4th period.  All of the students were craning their necks to get a view of the foreigners in town.  I would be lying if I said that I wasn’t doing the same thing.  They stayed in Yunomae Tuesday-Thursday, but they had a very hectic schedule, so we didn’t get to see them very much.  There was a competition on Tuesday afternoon after school between the five American kids and a couple of Yunomae’s kids. 

Everything finally all added up.  A few weeks ago I heard the band kids practicing “The Star Spangled Banner.”  I thought this was strange, but didn’t think too much about it since they’ve also practiced other random American songs like “Stars and Stripes Forever.”  However, it all made sense on Tuesday because they played the American and Japanese national anthems before the competition.  It was strange to hear the American national anthem….in Japan……

 

Judo is a very interesting sport to watch!  I’ve never had any experiences with it, but it looks extremely physically demanding…and kind of fun!  As the kids were paired up and match by match was going by, I leaned over to Ian and said, “Who should we be cheering for…..Team America or our townsfolk?”  I was actually surprised by Team America’s skill, and they ended up winning 4/5 matches. 

 

Once the matches were over, the kids had free time to play around.  It was at this time that we got to talk to them.  While the kids practiced, Ian and I introduced ourselves to the parents.  It was refreshing to talk to other Americans in Yunomae and to get their opinions about Japan.  They asked why the kids weren’t on summer break (side note: my co-workers asked me why the American kids weren’t in school), and we explained the Japanese trimester system.  They asked about the weather, what food we eat, our Japanese language ability, and we asked them about their experiences so far and where they were heading after Yunomae.  They were really nice, and I’m so glad that we got to meet them!

On Wednesday we were on our way to swim in the river when we spotted their bus in the parking lot beside the temple.  We debated on whether to stop and talk again since they seemed to be in a hurry, but we popped by just to say hello again.  They told us how lucky we were to live in such a beautiful place with such honest, hospitable, and gracious people.  Indeed!

Speaking of the river….I know that I spoke about it in the last blog, but I cannot express how lovely it is to swim there.  It’s such a peaceful and calm place.  Last night Ian and I went for an early evening swim and explored upstream where we’ve never been.  It gets really shallow, but the current is swift.  I slipped one time and thought for sure I was going to get drug downstream!  We went back to the main area, and Ian said (with a completely straight face) “Dang, we should have brought shampoo and soap!”  WHAT???  He said that it would make a lovely place to bathe.  I told him NO because:

1) While the water there is clean and clear, I prefer bathing with water that doesn’t have leaves floating or fish swimming in it.

2) The soap and shampoo would probably have a negative effect on the environment. 

Silly boy!

On Wednesday at my elementary school, I joined the manga club.  (For those of you who aren’t sure what manga is, it’s like a comic book.)  Last time I almost chose to go there and even stopped by the room, but the kids seemed like they didn’t want me looking at their drawings, so I didn’t stay and moved onto badminton club.  Woot!  On Wednesday I came prepared to school with a notebook full of paper and colored pencils.  When I walked in the door, they asked if I was there for manga club, and I said yes.  A round of YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY! was said, and then the girls offered me a desk right in the middle of the action. 

At first the club was boring.  They had to organize some things and form a committee about what they should draw that day (oh, Japan!), so about fifteen minutes of the forty-five minutes of club time was spent on organizing.  When the time finally came to put pencil to paper, I had no idea what to draw….so I doodled.  The kids all turned around to see what I was doing.  I assume they thought that I would actually be good in art.  Oh, kids!  My doodle exploded over the page, and the girls next to me even picked up my colored pencils and helped me color.  The teacher came over to my desk and asked what I was drawing.  I stammered, and she said, “A design?”  Yes.  Definitely.  It’s a design.  While I was coloring my blob-like artwork, the girl beside me began drawing on the other side of my notebook.  Her “doodles” were nothing less that beauty on paper.  I watched her, and she wasn’t even struggling to think of a concept or idea for her artwork.  In the picture below, one side of the notebook was mine and one was hers.  I’ll let you guess which was which. 

Anyway, that’s all for now!

The Beginning of the End

In my last blog post, I talked about the old lady who lives behind us.  Update on that: on Monday, Ian saw her just crouched down in the corner outside her house.  Ian said that the lady who checks on her came by and had to usher her back into the house.  Once I got home, the care taker and a police officer were there.  They came over to our house and told us that if we noticed anything strange to call one of them.  On Tuesday the care taker was back and asked us if we’d seen anything….crazy….today.  We said no, that neither of us had seen the old lady that day.  I’m honestly not sure how the old lady lives alone by herself……

Anyway, onto happier subjects.  It’s still hot and muggy here, but I’ve found a new way to combat it!  SWIMMING!  Yesterday was the fourth time in a week that I went swimming in the river.  The first time was last Wednesday with Melissa and Devin, and I’ll admit that it was a little chilly then.  The second time, a group of us went on Sunday to enjoy a lazy afternoon, the third time was Monday afternoon after school, and the final time was yesterday when Ian and I went together.  I told Ian that it was just too hot to sit around the house!  Not only is the river a beautiful, magical, and peaceful place to go swimming, but it’s also got a slight current, so swimming upstream is actually a really good workout!  It sure as heck beats sweating up a storm by biking or walking!  And bonus: no pool pass required.  It’s free, clean, and MUCH more entertaining than a rectangle concrete hole in the ground.

My dad works as a machinist at a plant, meaning that he’s outside a good part of the day fixing things.  I remember when we were growing up, he’d come home during the summer and not want dinner.  he would always say that it was just too hot, and he wasn’t hungry.  I never understood that.  I’m hungry all the time!  I could eat a meal and be ready to eat again.  You could set a plate of sweets down in front of me, and even if I was the fullest I’d ever been, I’d find a way to cram more down the gullet.  However, I understand Daddy now.  I TOTALLY understand.  After being in the heat and sweating ALL.  DAY.  LONG. your body does something….it doesn’t crave food.  ESPECIALLY hot food.  I also find myself not wanting anything but water to drink……which is weird.  I love Coke and other sweet drinks, but the only thing I REALLY want to drink is water.  I EASILY go through two liters of water a day (fun fact: that’s the equivalent of how much you should be drinking everyday!), usually closer to three. 

I think it’s finally beginning to sink in that my time is coming to an end here.  With just slightly over a month left, things are starting to get real.  We packed up the last box of stuff that we’re going to ship home.  It’s currently sitting on my living room floor ready to be taken to the post office.  Most of the knick-knacks that we’ve collected are off the shelves, and pictures are beginning to come off the walls.  My house is starting to look like NOT my house!  My supervisor came by on Monday to check on things and make sure that they were still functional…..at least that’s what I thought it was going to be.  Instead she brought a big binder and basically asked us if we still had _____.  She didn’t even check to make sure that we weren’t lying or anything!  The Japanese are just sooooooo trusting!  A few things did surprise us.  For example, she asked about the iron.  Iron?!  We never saw any iron!  We told her that we’d never had an iron!  I’m not sure what happened to it in between the time my predecessor left and I arrived, but we certainly never had an iron!

Ian and I were talking about how much we’ve learned in the past two years.  Not necessarily just the language but also how to deal with things.  We’ve learned how to communicate in a language neither one of us studied (even if it involves making gestures or speaking in three work sentences!).  We’ve learned about Japanese culture and why they do the things they do.  We’ve learned how a group of friends can easily become your family, people to rely upon, celebrate with, and be someone who completely understands our frustrations.  We’ve learned what it’s like to be a minority, to be touched, stared at, petted, or even asked racist questions just because we’re different.  We’ve learned to appreciate home, our family, and our “normal” lives more.  Honestly, the list could go on and on.  I wish that everyone could have an experience like this to get out of comfort zones and see how the rest of the world does things.  It has taught me a great number of things, and I’m very grateful for that! 

I also found out who my successor is.  Her name is Karen, and she’s from Seattle.  (She will be the 3rd person in Kuma-gun from Washington!  The West Coast is certainly well represented!)  I found out last week when my supervisor gave me a welcome letter for her to proofread.  I immediately added her on Facebook, and we planned a Skype date for Saturday.  Both of us had A LOT to say to one another.  She asked me questions about Yunomae, teaching, and the weather, and I told her about living in Japan, my favorite teachers, and what to expect.  I gave her a tour of the house and showed her what I typically wear to work.  She seemed really cool and like she’ll be a perfect fit in our little Kuma-gun family!  I couldn’t believe it, but we talked for 2.5 hours!  That’s one of the longest conversations I’ve ever had on Skype!!

On Tuesday when I was at the BOE, my supervisor gave me her JET application to look over.  I literally saw EVERYTHING.  I know when her birthday is, what classes she took in college, her passport number, and even her blood type and blood pressure.  It made me giggle because that would sooooooooooo not be okay in the States.  Medical and academic records are DEFINITELY confidential, and if I was a bad person, I feel like I could do some identity theft damage with the more important information.  It just once again goes to show how trusting the Japanese are and how things like theft just don’t even occur to them!     

Anyway….that’s all for now!

Quick! Put some pants on! It’s the cops!

…..now that I’ve got your attention, I’ve got quite story to tell!  Yesterday evening we had a couple of friends over for dinner.  As I was making the peach cobbler, I noticed the little old lady who lives behind us wandering around in the parking lot.  She’s really, really, REALLY old and usually has a couple of people check on her, bring her groceries, etc at least every other day.  She doesn’t come outside too often. 

She seemed kind of lost and confused.  I noticed her peeking into our car (which isn’t THAT weird….people are always really curious about anything that has to do with the foreigners) and then she sat down on a concrete slab next to our neighbor’s house.  She just awkwardly sat there for a few minutes before wandering off.  Then she came back about an hour later.  Ian and I were in the kitchen dishing up curry for everyone, and she came right to our kitchen window and started mumbling……something.  At first we ignored her, hoping she’d go away, but she was so insistent!  She kept repeating……something.  She didn’t even seemed phased that we were foreigners.  Normally if people say something to us and we have confused looks on our faces, they either try to speak more simple or move onto someone who is a native speaker. 

Neither Ian nor I could understand the thick Kuma-bend (think HEAVY redneck accent) coming out of her mouth, so we called David over to decipher.  He went outside to talk to her and came back saying that she was looking for someone.  Nothing like this had ever happened before, and we thought that she was just a little confused. 

After everyone left, the old lady was back to wandering around in the parking lot.  She came to our front door and knocked.  She kept asking us if Sugi-chan was there.  We told her no, and she asked where she was.  We kept saying that we didn’t know.  She seemed confused by our confusion about what she was saying….once again not even really noticing that we were foreigners. 

She left again, and I finished dishes and hopped in the shower.  Before I even got out of the shower, I heard her “konnichiwa!” at the front door.  Ian and I didn’t answer it that time.  We knew something was up, but we weren’t sure what to do about it.  ……call the police?  …..and tell them…..what?  ….call my supervisor?  …..ignore it?  Since Japanese houses are paper thin, we heard her talking to other people outside.  By this time it was dark, and I peeked out the window.  Through the darkness I could see a couple of neighbors gathered outside.  I’m not sure what they told her, but she went away.

Fast forward to about an hour later.  Ian and I were cuddled up in bed watching some TV.  Since it’s so hot outside, we did indeed have the minimum amount of clothing on.  I had a tank top and the tiniest of shorts, and Ian only had on shorts.  Our door faces the street, so we can always see car headlights coming.  However, last night I saw stranger, slower moving lights.  Just as I was about to ask Ian what those were, the lights were on our doorstep with three knocks to the door and a guy saying, “Keisatsu desu!”  KEISATSU=POLICE!!!  They had walked to our door with flashlights in hand. 

Ian immediately jumped up and put on a shirt, but I crawled into the corner and whispered, “I’m not here if they ask!”  (Not because I was afraid of the cops but rather because I was so scantily clad!)  Ian answered the door, and the cops started off asking a lot of questions.  After an awkward pause from Ian and a few fumbled words of Japanese, I think they realized that they needed to sloooooooooow doooooooown.  Ian only had to say one word, “obachan?” (old lady?) in order for them to be on the same page.  The cops were asking if Ian had seen her, what she said, what she did, etc.  Then they asked if he was the only one there.  He said no, that his wife was there as well.  The cops asked to speak to me….me….ME, WHO WAS SITTING HALF-NAKED IN THE HIDDEN CORNER.  Luckily, Ian asked them to wait a moment and closed the door.  I jumped up and put on some more appropriate clothes. 

I basically re-iterated what Ian had said about the old lady.  Since the cops were on my doorstep, I thought it might be necessary to call my supervisor.  I haven’t had to call my supervisor outside of work since the very beginning, so I’m sure that when she saw my number on her phone at 9PM on a Sunday night, her heart sank.  When I handed the phone to the cops so that they could explain what was going on, I’m sure her heart sank even further when she heard, “Konnichiwa.  Taragi keisatsu desu.” (Hello.  This is the Taragi police.)  They got our names and numbers, and I suppose…..call us if they need us…..?

Nothing like a little police action to get the blood pumping!  We still don’t really know what exactly happened with the little old lady, but it certainly made for an interesting night and story to tell!!  

The English/Spanish/German/Japanese/Drama/Speech/Religion Teacher

Sometimes the Japanese work ethic is just too much.  They are like continuous robots….just work, work, work all the time.  For example, this morning I woke up to some farmer weed-eating RIGHT NEXT TO MY WINDOW.  Anyone want to guess the time?  6:30!  6:30 IN THE MORNING!  Uggghhh!  I tried to pull the blanket over my head and go back to sleep, but there was no way that was possible with the constant whirring noise outside my window. 

Now that the whole process of applying is over and I found out the result, I feel safe in telling that I applied for a job at my high school, St. Mary, in Paducah.  A good friend told me that St. Mary was looking for an English teacher, and HELLO!  I is right good at teachin’ the English.  So I applied.  I don’t want to boast, but I think that my teaching resume is pretty darn good.  I’ve taught pre-school up through post-secondary.  I’ve taught non-trads, students with learning disabilities, and non-English speakers.  I’ve pretty much done it all from faculty meetings to lesson planning to learning how to manage a classroom.  So I thought I had a pretty good chance at this job.  The two factors standing in my way were:

1) my lack of teaching certification

2) my return date to the States.

The first one isn’t so bad at St. Mary.  Since they are a private school, teachers are recommended to get their certification, but they don’t HAVE to have it.  The second one is a little more difficult.  I can’t change the fact that my contract doesn’t end until July 31st.  I’ve already bought international tickets without refunds.  The day I get home is the day I get home.  End of sentence. 

The director at St. Mary contacted me quickly after I emailed in my resume, and I took that as a good sign.  She allowed me to do a Skype interview a few days later, and I was feeling really good about it.  The interview started off really well…we chit-chatted about Japan and what it was like to live here.  I thought it was going well until she asked me a question that I hadn’t seen coming.  “How do you feel about teaching Spanish?” 

While it’s true that I was a Spanish major, I mostly did that out of convenience sake.  After studying abroad in Mexico and Spain, I only had to take a few more classes to bump my Spanish minor into a major.  As much as I enjoy learning new languages, there’s NO WAY in heck I’ll ever be fluent enough to teach them!  I told her the truth….that I hadn’t spoken Spanish in a while and that I could probably teach Spanish I or II, but I definitely don’t feel confident teaching the upper levels.  She then asked me about German and Japanese.  Would I feel comfortable teaching either of them?  Out of the three I’m most passionate about German, but once again I haven’t spoken it in so long, and my German needs a refresher.  While I have lived in Japan for two years, it’s one of the most difficult languages to learn.  Considering I can only read a MINIMAL amount of Japanese, no…I don’t feel comfortable teaching that language, either. 

She moved on and asked me about teaching drama, speech, or even religion.  Although I have no experience teaching any of them, I said yes.  At least it’s closer to English than a foreign language!  After the interview was done, I felt like I had thrown away an opportunity.  Here was a job that had benefits, wouldn’t require me to commute to Murray, paid almost $10,000 more than teaching at WKCTC and MSU combined, and I pissed it away because I didn’t feel confident enough in my language abilities.  While I had applied for the English teacher position and she threw a complete curveball at me with the languages, I feel like I should have responded better.

Anyway, I finally found out this week that I didn’t get the job.  Was I disappointed?  Yes.  Things DEFINITELY would have been a lot easier with that extra $10,000 AND benefits.  After I found out that I hadn’t gotten the job, I immediately checked my WKCTC and MSU classes to make sure that they were still OK.  As it turns out, one of my WKCTC classes had been dropped.  It wasn’t a good day to find out about my future employment!  Oh well.  Where one door closes, another one opens.  (And hopefully one will swing WIDE open for me!)

So….that’s all for today.  It’s Friday.  Hurray!  Here’s to a wonderful weekend of doing whatever you please!

Nostalgia

Confession: I don’t miss my dryer.  Yes, I know how towels are fluffier if they are put in the dryer or how amazing it feels to have warm laundry fresh from the dryer dump on you.  However, the dryer as an appliance was only a recent thing that I started using before leaving the States.  All my life, I’ve hung up laundry outside.  The Wurth household had a dryer, but it was prehistoric and used only in dyer needs.  Regardless of the season, we hung up the clothes.  In the warm months they went on the clothesline outside, and in winter we hung them up with hangers on a pole close to the furnace.  Mommy always washed the clothes, and by the time they were finished, we were expected to help her hang them up outside. 

We learned simple things like putting the whites in the sunny part of the clothesline will allow the sun to bleach them.  (The colored clothes usually went on the shady part.)  We also learned to keep a watchful eye on the sky.  I can’t tell you the number of times when summer showers popped up, and we dropped whatever we were doing and raced to the clothesline before the clothes got soaking wet.  Or if our neighbors were burning their garbage and the wind shifted directions, once again it was time to get the clothes in.  Or if the dog decided it was time to yank something off the line, it was time to discipline the dog and rewash whatever he had gotten dirty.  It was a lot more work than simply moving the clothes from the washer to the dryer, but I never minded it.

Despite those little hiccups, there’s something that I really, really love about hanging clothes outside.  It makes my nostalgic for my childhood and makes me feel domestic to watch the shirts and linens flapping in the breeze.  I enjoy the fresh outdoor smell that they take on after spending the afternoon in the wind.  I feel like the sunshine adds extra bits of love to my clothes.  Plus, it’s a TON cheaper to do that instead of running a dryer all the time.  (SERIOUSLY.  A dryer uses a RIDICULOUS amount of energy.)  I love the fact that we currently have a clothesline, and I can hang my clothes outside.  I told Ian that once we get our own house, I want to have a clothesline outside.

“No way,” he said.

“Why not?” I asked.

“It’s so much more work.”

“Ian,” I said, looking him square in the eyes, “I’M the one who does the work.”  Silly boy!

Anyway, on to other things: apparently there are a few American judo players coming to Yunomae next week.  Whaaaaaat???  The first I heard about it was yesterday at the ES.  My 5th grade teacher was trying to explain…..something to me about it in Japanese.  I could only get bits of what he was saying, but it was enough to piece together that a couple of Americans are coming to town!  Hurray!  We spent the last twenty minutes of class yesterday preparing questions to ask them.  The kids would ask me what something was in English, and then they’d write the sentences in katakana so that they could read it with English pronunciations.  A couple of the kids asked me to help them finish during recess, so I did.

Then later that afternoon, the 4th grade teacher approached me and asked for my help.  Since he is the best English speaker at the elementary school, he was going to have to be the translator.  In truth, his English is really good, but when he gets nervous or flustered, he (reasonably so) tends to make more mistakes or has difficulty speaking.  He was asking me how to word some self-intro sentences and asked me what to do if they couldn’t understand his English.  People not being able to understand you…..story of my life, sir!  I told him to try to reword it or use gestures if necessary.  I asked him more details about the people coming….how old they were, where they were from, why they were coming to Yunomae of all places.  I told him that that day was the first I’d heard about it.  Apparently these players coming to Yunomae is A BIG DEAL in town because he was completely baffled about how I knew nothing of it.  Guess I missed the memo on that one…..

Anyway, my work day is wrapping up, so I’ll stop here!  More tomorrow!  

Welcome to Japanese Summer

Welcome to Japanese summer….where you wake up sweating.  Then you go to work and sweat some more.  Then you come home and work out (just in case you hadn’t already sweated enough).  Then you take a cold shower and finally go to bed with a fresh layer of sweat.  Repeat day after day.

I can handle the heat waaaaaaaaaaaaay better than I can the cold, and you’ll hear me complaining significantly less in the summer.  HOWEVER, today has just been miserable!  It’s been one of those days when even the windows open and the breeze rolling in doesn’t get rid of that sticky heat.  I’m not a person who sweats a lot, but today I had a huge circle of sweat around my waist and upper back that never really disappeared.  Totally awesome.  Just call me Sweaty-sensei.

The air conditioner has yet to be turned on in the teacher’s room, and it only gets turned on in the classrooms if the current teacher teaching deems it to be on.  Luckily for me, Mr. Fujiwara has a low heat tolerance, so for the past two afternoons, I’ve had afternoon classes on the third floor, and the air conditioner was turned on both times.  It was nice, and after going so long without air conditioning, it was like, “OOOOOOOOOOOOOHHHH, so THAT’S what it feels like to not be hot!”  *sigh* I will NEVER complain about being hot/cold in a temperature controlled building EVER again once I get home.  Promise!

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Japanese drivers are some of the craziest!  I’ve seen just about everything, but two recent experiences really made me bend over in laughter.  We were in Yatsushiro a few weekends ago, and as we hit a stop light, we rolled up beside a giant Hummer with nice chrome rims and a shiny paint job….a total testosterone filled guy car.  (Since half of Japan’s streets are so narrow, having a Hummer in this county is ridiculous, but I guess that’s beside the point….)  The guy was totally jamming out to American music on his incredibly loud sound system.  Anyone want to guess what he was jamming out to? 

Heavy metal?  No. 

Rock and Roll?  No. 

Beethoven’s 5th symphony?  ….Almost as crazy. 

It was Selena Gomez!  Mr. Testosterone was bopping his head and mouthing the words to “A Day Without Rain.”  You have my full permission to laugh hysterically now.  The second story is that we were driving around Hitoyoshi last weekend, and we passed by a car in which there was a white cat resting on the dashboard right above the steering wheel.  I’m not joking!  We know it was real because we saw it move.  The woman driving really didn’t seem surprised by it at all…..just a typical day driving a car with a cat on the dashboard.  Talk about a driver distraction!!  I wish that I had a video/picture of either one of these things, but both happened too quickly for me to capture it!

Today is our 3rd anniversary.  Hurray!  However, Ian’s in the city for work, so we won’t get to see each other.  Booooo!  I wrote in the last blog about how we had peach chicken for our anniversary celebration dinner on Monday, but I didn’t get to write about how the kids reacted to me taking the leftovers for lunch the following day.  I ate lunch with my 2nd graders at the JHS, and everyone is usually curious about what the foreigner packed for lunch.  I told them that it was peach chicken.  They said “EEEEEEEHHHHHHHHHHHH?” so I repeated it in both English and Japanese.  They were completely curious and baffled why you would mix chicken with peaches.  As I ate bite after bite, they looked at me with disgust as if I was picking my own boogers and eating them.  Peach chicken=delicious, y’all!

I guess it would only make sense for me to have the following dream on our anniversary.  I dreamed that we got pregnant, hurray!  Not only were we blessed with one bundle of joy but TWO!  We were having twins!  How exciting is that?  Awwww, it was a sweet anniversary dream.  This dream couldn’t get any better, right?  WRONG!  The best part of the dream was that IAN was the one who was pregnant with twins, not me!  HAHAHAHAHA!  I laughed so hard when I woke up!

Anyway, that’s all for now!  I’ll catch you again later!   

Anniversary Celebrations

I’m tired this morning.  Ian and I didn’t go to bed until shortly after 1 AM, and then we were up at 6:30.  Allow me to explain.  Ian had to be in the city for work at 7:45.  Knowing that he tends to drag in the morning, (ESPECIALLY that early) he set his alarm for 5 AM in order to give himself plenty of time to get ready for his 5:45 leave time.  I remember hearing the alarm go off and whining at Ian to turn it off.  (He’s one of those people who will hit snooze half a dozen times before finally getting out of bed….which drives me CRAZY!)  He fiddled with his phone, and the noise went away.  I assumed that he hit snooze and drifted back asleep. 

I woke up again sometime later and nudged Ian to get out of bed.  He looked at his watch and shouted, “SHIT!” before jumping out of bed in a massive dash to get dressed.  Apparently in his sleepy state, he had turned the alarm OFF, not hit snooze.  He didn’t even remember the alarm going off!  In the span of nine minutes, he went from being dead asleep to out the door.  “At least I won’t be groggy,” he said before he left.  So true!  Nothing like the instant panic of being late to dissolve any sleepiness from your mind.  After he left, I crawled back into bed, but I couldn’t go back to sleep.  My mind was racing, and there was NO WAY I was falling back to sleep!  I’m not sure how he did it, but he managed to make it there on time.  I received a text message from him at EXACTLY 7:45 that said, “Like a boss.”

Since Ian’s going to be up in the city all week for work, and our anniversary falls smack dab in the middle of that, we celebrated last night.  Three years!  Three years ago today we were at the reception hall steaming tablecloths and and arranging tables.  It seems like forever ago and yet just yesterday.  So much has changed, and yet nothing has changed.  We’ve certainly had QUITE a few adventures in the past three years!

Enough with the mushy stuff.  If you want to read a mushy blog, refer to my “I Think I Married the Wrong Person” post.  We knew that we wanted last night to be special, so we made a special dinner before cuddling up for a double feature.  I made a cheesecake (a rare treat over here since the ingredients are so darn expensive!) on Sunday night and let it cool in the refrigerator all day Monday.  I asked Ian what he was making for dinner, but he wouldn’t tell me and said that it was a surprise.  When I got home yesterday afternoon, I went for a bike ride, and by the time I got home, dinner was smelling GREAT!  I was a bit confused about what he was cooking still since I saw a random medley of ingredients around….chicken breasts, a can of peaches, cubed bread, etc.  I popped in the shower and washed a few dishes before it was complete. 

Finally the masterpiece was done.  Peach grilled chicken with peach flavored stuffing….a PERFECT summer treat!  He said that he randomly found the recipe online and thought it would make a tasty summer evening treat.  It was!  The subtle sweetness of the chicken mixed in with the peachy taste of the stuffing was usually delicious!  I lit our unity candle (a tradition that we do every anniversary…side note: I LOVE the message on our unity candle.  It says: This day I will marry my friend, the one I laugh with, live for, dream with, love.  PERFECT!) and used our fancy Mr. Reed/Mrs. Reed wine glasses.  After we ate dinner, we dug into the cheesecake, another cool and refreshing summertime treat! 

We shouldn’t have watched two movies.  That’s where we went wrong.  Once we finished both of them, it was 11:30, and I still had to get ready for my work day, and Ian had to pack since he’ll be gone for a few days.  Once we finished up that process, it was pushing 1 AM, and you already know the rest of the story.

Bam!  Full circle!  How do you like that?  I totally Quentin Taratino’d that and gave you the ending before the beginning of that story.  So….yeah.  It’s done now.  Ta-da!

How I Know I’m Going to Get Robbed When I Go Home…

I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again.  Japan is a safe country.  I don’t have to worry about locking the house or car doors, live in constant paranoia about someone stealing my identity, or anything because the Japanese JUST.  DON’T.  STEAL.  THINGS.  As a collective and communal society, they put others’ needs before their own, so stealing someone’s stuff just wouldn’t even cross their minds. 

It’s a rare, RARE occasion that someone actually does steal something.  I think I told a story a few months ago about how a friend was telling us that someone in her town stole three rice balls (totaling maybe $3) from the local grocery, and it was a BIG DANG DEAL.  EVERYONE and their mother was talking about the rice ball theft.  They were completely shocked that THAT could happen. 

Since I live in the safety bubble of Japan, I often forget about common sense things that would come natural in the States.  For example, when I was home last summer, I’ve leave my purse hanging on the back of a chair at a restaurant and walk off.  Pushing the “lock” button on my car felt awkward, and I’d forget to do that, too.

Apparently a pretty big thing that I’ve forgotten in the past two years is over-sharing information with complete strangers.  Yesterday, I was cooking breakfast when I heard a knock at my door.  Hearing the familiar “konnichiwa!” after a knock at the door is always like opening a can of worms.  Unless you’re expecting a package, you never know what it’s going to be.  Yesterday it was the Mormons.  (Yes, we have those in Japan.)  When I opened the door, the guy looked genuinely surprised to see a foreigner.  However, that did not deter him from reaching out to me with The Word.  I didn’t understand half of what he was saying, so he tried to speak in broken English, and I tried broken Japanese.

I understood that he was from Miyazaki (the prefecture bordering Kumamoto) and that he wanted to talk about something religious.  I told him that I was Catholic, and when I said that, his face kind of fell.  Never fear, though!  He handed me and pamphlet and continued to talk.  Once I got the pamphlet I then realized what the deal was.  He was a Mormon on a mission.  Crap.  He talked for a few more minutes, gave me his business card, and moved on to the next house.  Chalking that up to another random and crazy Japanese experience, I moved onto my breakfast, which was burning.

Fast forward to this morning.  At around the same time, there was another knock on the door.  Ian and I were Skyping with friends at home and looked at each other.  The guy knocked again before peeking his head in the door and yelling “konnichiwa!” (This is an OK thing to do in Japan since the foyer of a house is considered to be public space.)  The same guy from the day before had returned…..only this time with an English speaker.  Double crap! 

While Ian continued to talk with our friends, I had to deal with the two.  The guy told me that he was an English teacher thirty years ago and asked me where I taught.  I pointed to my two schools across the rice paddies and told him the junior high and elementary school.  He small chatted, asking me my name.  When he couldn’t pronounce it, he asked me to write it down for him.  While I went to get a pen and paper from my desk drawer, he stepped into my house (in the foyer, the public space).  I was a bit uncomfortable with him being there but was unsure how to shoo him out.  I wrote my name down, and he practiced saying it.  He small chatted me some more, asking how long I’d lived in Japan and when I’d return to the States.  He asked me if I was married and had kids.  I told him that I was married, and my husband was currently talking to our friends at home.  The guy leaned around the corner and shouted to Ian, “HELLO!” while waving. 

“So your husband came to Japan so that you could teach?”  he asked me.

“Yes,” I said.  “I got the job, and he came with me.”

“Oh,” he said.  “You must be so grateful to him!  You must tell him thank you every day!” 

UGGGHHHHHH.  I knew where the conversation was going.  He was being a typical Japanese chauvinistic male and thinking that I should worship the ground that Ian walks on because Ian sacrificed to follow me to Japan.  (Which couldn’t be further from the truth!  We BOTH made the decision to come to Japan because it was something that we BOTH wanted to do!!)

He asked me if Ian worked.  I said yes, at Parakaro in Kumamoto City.  They asked me where that was in the city, but I wasn’t sure.  He wasn’t familiar with the company, so he asked me to write it down so that he could read it.  He asked me what the company did, and I said that it was a translating and English teaching company.  Then he asked me if Ian had to drive to the city every day. 

“Oh no,” I said.  “He goes a couple of times a month.  For example, this week he’ll be gone Tuesday through Friday.” 

I never know how to get out of those awkward conversations, so I looked back to Ian with the PLEASE SAVE ME eyes.  He said that our friends had to go and asked me to come say goodbye.

“Oh, I have to go.” I told the guys.  “It was very nice to meet you.”

They both peeked their heads around the corner and waved goodbye to Ian before handing me their business cards and leaving.  When I got back to Ian, I sighed and collapsed on the couch.  “I hate awkward conversations like that.”

“Exactly how much personal information were you going to give him?!?” Ian asked.

“Huh?  What do you mean?”

“Melissa, you gave him our full names, told him where we work, and said that we’d both be out of the house this week.  You might as well have given him a key and our bank account info, too.”

Up until that point it hadn’t even registered how much personal information I had indeed given him.  It was basically word vomit coming out of my mouth.  He asked me a question, and I answered.  I hadn’t given it a second thought.  Truth be told, the guys now know that neither one of us will be home during the day this week.  Technically, they could break in and steal our stuff.  Am I worried that they will?  Not….really.  But it definitely opened my eyes to a bigger situation.  I hadn’t even HESITATED when he was asking personal questions about us.  I’m so used to random strangers asking personal info, (mostly because our area doesn’t get a lot of foreigners, so they’re genuinely just curious about us) and IT DID NOT EVEN CROSS MY MIND TO SHUT UP. 

This is how I know I’m going to get robbed when I go home.  I opened the door to two strange men and gave them personal info without even hesitating.  Call me naive, but I’ve always wanted to trust people and give them the benefit of the doubt.  However, I feel like I might as well go ahead and post my social security number to Facebook or write my credit card number on my forehead because I’m an idiot.  Here’s to two more months of preparing myself to not trust random strangers again!  

I Think I Married the Wrong Person

Before you continue reading, click on the link and read this:

http://crossshapedstuff.com/2013/06/04/how-i-know-my-wife-married-the-wrong-person/

This is one of those articles that as soon as I read it, I felt the urge to write about it.  (It’s not an actual article.  It’s someone’s blog entry.)  I saw it posted on a friend’s Facebook wall today, and after reading it immediately reposted.  The author is a freaking genius.  Call me a sap for enjoying this read, re-posting it, or even dedicating an entire blog post to it, but I felt like it was well worth it.

Ian and I will celebrate our 3rd anniversary next week.  While our marriage is still in its infancy, we’ve already been through a lot together, and I could not imagine my life without him.  He is probably the only person in my life that I’ve been the happiest with and been the angriest at.  Our relationship is a myriad of things: joy, happiness, anxiety, fear, devotion, anger, dedication, funny, fun, laughable…. and I think that’s what it’s all about.  That boy drives me ABSOLUTELY CRAZY sometimes, and I have never gotten as mad at someone as I have at him, but in the end, I love him.  I love him unconditionally and will forever. 

                                          

Our marriage isn’t perfect.  Ian’s not perfect.  I’m not perfect.  We fight.  It’s not all rainbows, butterflies, and unicorn farts!  I honestly don’t trust couples who say that they don’t/haven’t ever fought.  I’m calling BS on that right now!  I’m not saying that you have to fight about EVERYTHING, but it’s normal to have arguments about things, and if you’re not, you’re probably internalizing your feelings, and eventually that bottle is going to burst. 

Marriage is work.  You have to be willing to work at it.  If you’re not willing to compromise and support someone else as much as they support you, then marriage isn’t for you.  We know each others flaws and accept them for the most part.  Are there things that still (and probably forever will) get on our nerves about one another?  YES.  But that’s normal!  No one is going to be the cookie cutter romantic comedy star!  (Please notice that rom coms usually end at the guy-gets-girl stage, and we all assume that they live happily ever after…..but we don’t know that.)  EVERY RELATIONSHIP HAS UPS AND DOWNS.  It’s normal!

 

Ian doesn’t do the dishes.  I am a klutz and break things that he has to fix.  But in the end, I wouldn’t want someone who doesn’t present me with a challenge.  If Ian agreed with everything I said and did everything that I asked (and vice versa), I feel like my life would be incredibly boring.  I think it would be nice at first, but it would get REAL old REAL quick.  You can marry someone who is similar to you and enjoys the same things you do, but you can’t marry the opposite sex version of you.  

 

We all have always heard that marriage is 50/50.  One person gives 50 and the other gives the other 50.  Before our wedding, we went to a retreat, and this saying was explained SO WELL.  The presenter asked who believed that marriage was 50/50.  Pretty much everyone in the room raised his/her hand.  Then the presenter told us we were all wrong.  Marriage isn’t 50/50.  Sometimes it’s 20/80.  Sometimes it’s 40/60.  Sometimes it’s 90/10.  Sometimes you have to give more than you receive and be okay with that option.  Like I said…it’s work, and you have to be willing to compromise.

So….now that I’ve scared the bejesus out of all the single people reading this blog, I ask myself the question “Is it worth it?”  You bet your bottom dollar marriage is worth it!  I’m lucky enough to have married my best friend.  I know this, and Ian knows this.  I think that’s really important in a marriage because if you can’t share every bit of juicy gossip, every emotion, explain the details of some boring work story to your husband/wife, etc then I don’t know what to say to you.  I’m happier when Ian’s around, and if he’s gone to the city for a day or two for work, I miss him like crazy.  He gets me.  He understands me.  He knows that I still think fart jokes are funny but encourages me to better myself by getting my teaching certification.  I know that he enjoys a deep conversation about economic woes but can also make him laugh with my infamous tongue-in-the-nose trick. 

Moral of the story: Marry your best friend.  Find someone who gets you, who completes you, who you look forward to coming home to.  Find someone who you see yourself traveling with and sharing memories.  Find someone who you know will make a good parent (if you’re into the whole reproduction thing) and who you won’t mind growing old with.  Find someone who you can laugh with, share midnight ice cream with, and discuss anything with. 

RABU!  RABU!  RABU!

And Sometimes You Have One of Those I-LOVE-MY-JOB Moments…

While lately I’ve been feeling rather irritated at work and ready for that last day of work to arrive, today was one of those days when I REALLY felt like I was making a difference and renewed my love of the JHS!  It doesn’t take much…a simple compliment on the skirt I wore to work, a good lunch conversation, a student ACTUALLY saying something more than a mumbled “I’mfinethankyou,andyou?” when I ask how he/she is, etc.

Ever since last Monday’s conversation with a few of my 1st grade girls about our infatuation with Taylor Swift, they’ve been congregating to me during their break time.  The 1st graders were gone on a field trip on Tuesday and Wednesday.  On Thursday during break time, I took my May English board down so that I could hang up my June English board the following day.  A couple of the 1st grade girls helped me take it down, and then I explained who was in the pictures while they giggled, said how much I look like my sister, etc.  On Friday, they helped me hang up my June English board.  Since June 12th is our anniversary, I had a few pictures from our wedding on there, and the girls absolutely ate that up!  They wanted to know how long Ian and I had been married, if the big cake was real, what it tasted like, if my ring was real diamonds, how much it cost, what bridesmaids were, who my bridesmaids were, etc, etc, etc.  We talked almost the entire break time!

 

Today I went to the library to finish up a game I was working on for my kiddie eikaiwa class this week.  I sat down at one of the library’s table, and some of the 1st grade girls actually CAME OVER AND SAT WITH ME.  This is unheard of!  It NEVER happens!  Usually the students are waaaaaaaaaay too afraid to sit at the same table as me.  I don’t know if they think I’m going to bite them or force them to speak in perfect English or what, but usually they avoid sitting at my table like the plague.  (I might have a few kids come over to see what I’m working on or ask a question or two, but usually it’s nothing other than “hello!”)  I showed the girls what I was working on and then offered them the glue stick to see if they wanted to help me.  THEY DID!  The three of them created an assembly line: one cut squares of construction paper, one glued the little clothing flashcards to the construction paper, and the final person smoothed the cards and arranged them into piles.  I was so happy!  A job that would have taken me another twenty minutes was finished within ten. 

After that, we still had plenty of time before break time ended, so I flipped over two sets of the cards, mixed them up, and we played “Memory.”  I’ve never been really good at that game because I can NEVER remember where the dang card I need is!  But still….I was just tickled pink to have students interested in playing with me.  I might try to take some cards to them tomorrow and really blow their minds by teaching them “Spoons”!!  

And switching gears, I wanted to talk about some of the crazier things that I learned about Japan.  For example, did you know that there is a word in the Japanese language to describe the time that parents send their kid out to run an errand for the first time?  They might send him/her down the street to the neighbor’s house to fetch something or to the grocery store to buy some chicken for dinner.  The errand doesn’t make a difference.  The whole point is to send the kid out so that he/she will learn responsibility.  Would anyone like to take a guess how old these kids are when this action is performed?  What do you think….10….12….15?  WRONG.  Usually the kids are pre-school or kindergarten age.  They send six-year-olds out into the huge world to run errands to learn responsibility….AND IT WORKS!  I know that this would never work in the States because:

1) Parents are terrified of pedophiles.  (You don’t hear about too many pedophilia cases in Japan…)

2) Responsibility isn’t learned by kids until an older age.  (Responsibility is pretty much taught from birth in Japan.)

3) THE STATES IS A TERRIFYING COUNTRY FOR A SIX-YEAR-OLD TO WANDER AROUND ALONE IN.  (I’m sure in more rural areas things like what I’m talking about actually do happen because it’s safer, but good gosh, between stranger-danger and the disregard for pedestrian traffic, I don’t even have kids but I wouldn’t let mine to go out ANYWHERE in the States alone.)

In general, I’m really surprised at the freedoms kids have here as far as safety goes.  Since safety isn’t a concern, it’s like living in 1950s America.  When kids actually have free time, I’ll see them riding their bikes through town unsupervised, hanging out at the supermarket, playing in a neighbor’s yard, etc.  Over 90% of students (including even the younger elementary kids!) come to school either by bike or their feet.  Every morning I hear them walking to school, and every night I see them walking home.  I know that some of my kids walk for up to forty-five minutes ONE WAY to get to school.  Only the most rural of rural kids get to bum a ride to school from their parents.  It’s just another way that kids are taught to be responsible.

In other fun Japanese things news….Ian partied we a few local policemen recently and learned some fun facts about traffic laws in Japan.  For example, a cyclist can legally only ride on the sidewalk when there is a sign like the following posted: 

This sign tells pedestrian traffic that both cyclists AND walkers can use the same sidewalk.  If there is no sign, cyclists MUST use the street, and technically COULD get ticketed if they don’t.  Whoops…..  Lord knows that I generally stick to the sidewalks just because I feel safer on them than the actual road.

Another fun fact is that scooters are only allowed to go either 30 or 40 kilometers per hour (I can’t remember which) as a max speed on any roadway, which is generally slower than vehicular traffic.  Therefore, scooters are generally hugging the left side of the road (remember, we drive on the left), and you have to pull around them if you want to pass.  It is also legal for scooters to lane split….something that absolutely and positively drives me insane.  We don’t see it as much in the Hitoyoshi area because few roads are multi-lane, but anywhere in the city it’s a HUGE problem.  For those who are confused as to what lane splitting is, when there is a red light, instead of scooters stopping behind the car in front of them so that it’s a car-scooter-car sandwich, scooters can pull up to the front of the line and get in between cars in different lanes.  Once the light turns green, they then zoom on by.  It’s annoying as crap because you CONSTANTLY have to watch for idiots on scooters.

Another fun driving rule is that while scooters can only go 30 or 40 kilometers per hour, the speed limit for BICYCLES is 50 or 60 (once again, I don’t remember which exactly).  Therefore, a bicycle could TECHNICALLY pass a scooter, and it’s a legal move.  That cyclist would have to be booking it, but it’s legal.  I find it strange that a CYCLIST can legally go faster than a SCOOTER.  Crazy, huh? 

Anyway, that’s all for today!  Even though it’s rainy season, today has been a beautiful sunny day, and I’m looking forward to a bike ride after school!!  :)