Melissa makes a big mistake and feels like an idiot….

Last Friday night, we had a Secret Santa gift exchange at Devin’s apartment.  It was a TON of fun.  Ian and I had planned to make okonomiyaki for everyone, and we went to the grocery store after I got off of work to get everything.  We were prepared and were on the way when I realized that I didn’t get one of the crucial ingredients for okonomiyaki….okonomiyaki sauce!  Therefore, we had to stop by the grocery store again.  Ian and I both had our Santa hats on, (since we were going to the party) and Ian pulled off his hat before getting out of the car.  I told him to put it back on.  It would be cute to go in the grocery store with it, and people would probably chuckle at us.  It’s not like it’s that big of a deal to wear a Santa hat….and it would bring Christmas cheer!  I had FINALLY convinced him to wear the hat, and we were getting ready to walk into the store when I saw one of my JHS students through the glass.  I immediately yanked the hat off of my head, wadded it up, and put it in my pocket.  Had it been and ES kid, I would have worn it, but you have to play it cool with JHS kids!    Ian made fun of me for being so excited about the idea and backing out at the last second.  Oops!

I’m pretty sure that everyone had a good time at the Secret Santa party.  We actually had a quick debate about how Secret Santa works.  Some people were saying to open up gifts and then guess who was the Secret Santa, others were saying that you should never get to know who your Secret Santa was, and others were wanting to do more of a Dirty Santa game in which you can steal gifts.  We looked to Sara, who organized the event, for advice.  She suggested that one person opens a gift at a time and then gets three guesses as to who their Secret Santa was.  We asked her what happens if the Secret Santa isn’t guessed after three tries.  She said: “Nothing.  We just make fun of you.”    Ian and I brought our tiny little Christmas tree, and we put all of our gifts under (but really it was more like BESIDE) the Christmas tree (pictured below).  When it came time to play, one by one we unwrapped our gifts.  I think that everyone put a lot of thought into their gifts.  It seemed like each of us got something that we wanted or enjoyed.  Ian got clam chowder from Devin—something that is not only difficult to find in Japan, but he never gets to eat it.  Since I have my shellfish allergy, clam chowder isn’t exactly a norm on the Reeds’ dinner menu, but Ian LOVES clam chowder.  I got a scarf, two pairs of earrings, a bow, and a picture collage of Ian and I.  Melissa was my Secret Santa.  It was just like her to give something so appreciated and thoughtful!!

Saturday was filled with Skype dates, and we spent the night at Melissa’s house so that we could get up early and go to church in Hitoyoshi.  Since she lives right outside of Hitoyoshi, it’s much more convenient to have the short ten minute commute from her house as opposed to the fifty minute commute from ours.  After Mass, we did our traditional after-church-breakfast at McDonald’s.  There’s nothing more traditional than McDonald’s pancakes after Sunday morning Mass.    Melissa met us there, and after a bit of shopping, we went back to her house for the rest of the day.  Melissa’s yard is absolutely scary.  She’s afraid to cut it because there are grasshoppers in it, and she has an irrational fear of grasshoppers.  Therefore, her grass is about waist high.  As we pulled into her driveway, I told Ian to pull around and flatten out some of that grass.  We made a couple of passes around her yard, but due to the wet ground, we were afraid of getting stuck.  You should have seen the underside of our car once we finished!  Loooooong pieces of dead brown weeds and grass clung to the underside.  Even today, four days later, (Ian even drove it to Kagoshima and back!) we STILL have grass clinging to the underside.    For the rest of the day at Melissa’s, we did absolutely nothing, and it was great!  We laid the futons out, left the heater on, and watched Walking Dead episodes until we were all caught up with this season.

On Monday during my break time after lunch I had to go to the bank to sort out my ATM card.  Ugh!  I never really explained what happened with it, so please allow me to now….  Ian does most of the withdraws.  He’s the one who is out and about more often, so he gets the money.  Japan is a cash based society, so we HAVE to get money from the ATM.  My supervisor emailed me last week saying that I needed to bring her 19,000 yen for car insurance.  I asked Ian for the ATM card and planned to go to the ATM after work on the next day.  I’ve gotten out money before, but I couldn’t quite remember which button to push, so I played the let’s-keep-pushing-buttons-until-something-looks-familiar game.  I finally found the withdraw button, put in my card, and then typed in my PIN.  The machine sounded like it was processing my order, but then it spit my card back out.  I tried two more times.  I KNEW that there was enough money in the account, so I wasn’t sure why it wasn’t letting me do that.  I switched machines and went to the other ATM.  Same thing.  I knew that I needed to pay my supervisor, so I decided that I would just go to the post office ATM (which accepts international cards) and withdraw the money from my American account.  Everything was going fine and well until it asked for my PIN.  It didn’t dawn on me until that moment, but I had forgotten my American PIN.    I haven’t used that PIN in a year and a half, and I’m not one to easily remember PINs anyway.  By that time, Ian was finished with class, so I called him to tell him about the situation.  I bounced back to the bank, and he walked me through EXACTLY how to withdraw money.  I was doing everything right……except for the darn PIN.  The four digits that I was using was CLOSE to the actual PIN but NOT the right PIN.  UUUGGGHHHH!!  Since I had tried so many times with the wrong PIN, it fraud alerted our account…..meaning that we couldn’t get out money.    Ian asked me why I kept trying.  I should have known that after the 3rd try, it would shut my card down.  However, I honestly didn’t think anything about it.  I thought that I was just pushing the wrong button or something.  Also, Japan is such a safe country that tagging my card for fraud honestly didn’t even occur to me!

We tried again on Friday.  Ian and I went back to the bank, but the ATM wouldn’t let us withdraw.  I sent an e-mail to my supervisor who told me that I’d have to take care of it on Monday.  Fast forward over the weekend.  Since the banks close at 2PM here, I had to go during my break at 1PM.  Ian went with me.  Two brains trying to figure out complicated Japanese bank procedures are better than one!  After filling out several forms, I found out that I had to get a new card, which would take 7-10 days to get.    Ian and I were already scraping the bottom of the barrel for cash, so I emailed my supervisor to tell her about the current situation.  She told me that I could withdraw money with my pass book (It’s kind of like a check ledger.  You stick them into the ATM for an update, and every time a transaction is completed, it prints on the pages of the book.) and took me to the bank on Tuesday morning.  Thanks to her I now have cash in hand!  I’m not going to lie, though.  Throughout this whole process, I felt like an idiot!  WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER PINS?????

Annnnnnnnnnddd….just for fun I give you the picture below.  I’m not even joking when I say that this is a poster about identity theft hanging on the wall at the bank…….not that identity theft is something that one must worry about in Japan!  Let’s play a game called “Who’s the identity thief?”  In case you couldn’t tell, it’s the guy with the jacket that says “bad guy” on it.  ………you know….because ALL thieves wear jackets that identify them as “bad guys.”  I love the Japanese innocence! 

That’s all for now, but here’s a preview of what I’ll write about in my upcoming blogs:

1) our plans for Australia

2) a fluent English speaking kid in my nursery school class

3) the Reeds figure out how to make gingerbread in Japan (BEST.  DAY.  EVER.)

Cultural differences

I wasn’t sure what to title this blog, but after I finished and read over it, I noticed a common theme with all of my points: each was about cultural differences.  BAM!  Blog title!

I had an idea for my adult eikaiwa students that I’m really excited about.  Since it’s Christmas season and sending family and friends Christmas cards is a pretty traditional American thing to do, I decided to have my students do that and trade with my family members.  I have three students and enlisted the help of Mommy, Christina, Amanda, and Kim at home to send my students Christmas cards.  Last week was my first Christmas lesson with them, and I showed them all of the Christmas cards that people had sent me last year.  They seemed genuinely interested in them, flipping through them to see the generic “Season's Greetings” message or running their fingers over the glittery snowfall picture on the front of one card.  It’s not common in Japan to send Christmas cards, so they were really excited to see them.  My students started making their own Christmas cards last week in class and will finish up next week.  Once they are done, I’ll go to the post office and mail my students’ cards back to Mommy, Christina, Amanda, and Kim.  By next week, I should receive the cards from home and will distribute them in class.   Yay for internationalization!

Ian told me a funny story about his way home from his class on Thursday night.  He had just bought a Santa hat for me (so that I could wear it in class for my Christmas lessons!) and was wearing it in the car.  He was stopped at the only light in Yunomae and noticed a car pull up beside him.  He didn’t think anything about it until he heard shouting.  Ian even told me that if he could hear shouting over the volume of his music, they were DEFINITELY trying to get his attention!  It was a group of drunk 20ish girls.  This alone is quite a fluke.  The fact that there was a group of twenty-year-olds in our sleepy little town was quite strange!  (Our town has two age groups: either students or REALLY old people.  There’s not a lot of middle ground because most people my age move away from the countryside and into the city for work.)  Ian rolled down the window to see what they wanted.  He said that they were shouting things like “Santa-san!  Santa Claus!  Santa, all I want for Christmas is you!”  AHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!  When the light turned green, Ian went straight as they turned.

Last Friday at the JHS, there was a fire drill.  Mr. Fujiwara told me that it would happen at 3:55 and to just go out to the track/baseball/soccer/multi-purpose field behind school when the alarm rang.  I waited around for it along with the other teachers in the teacher’s room, and as soon as fire alarm rang, it was like all hell broke loose.  (Just to remind you…..EVERYONE knew that this was going to happen.  The teachers knew.  The kids knew.  Everyone.)  You know how they tell you not to panic during any disaster?  I don’t think my co-workers got that memo.  I feel like fire, earthquake, and intruder drills in Japan are HIGH TENSION, whereas in the States they are LOW TENSION.  Yes, it is a very dangerous situation, but we as students were always told to NOT panic or run.  Whenever that fire alarm sounded at school in the States, we would always quickly (but without running!) go to our designated exit.  Here even though it was just a drill, it was a mad scramble.  Each of the teachers had a designated area to check and make sure that no one was left behind.  They were frantically scrambling from one room to another, opening the door, darting their gaze back and forth before realizing that no one was in that room before moving to the next one.  Literally, they were running up and down the halls.  I went outside to the field where the principal was waiting with a stop watch.  Everyone ran out of the building as quickly as possible (Two kids injured their ankles last week and have been on crutches.  I was amazed at how quickly they hobbled across the field!), and they formed perfect rows on the field.  Once everyone was out, the principal gave a speech about safety and being prepared.  Before everyone went back inside, we had to wash off our shoes.  (Since it was a fire drill and there was not time to change into our outdoor shoes, everyone ran outside with their indoor shoes on.)  Heaven forbid if you wear the same shoes inside AND outside in Japan!!

Whenever I got home that night, Ian told me a funny story.  He had to do phone interviews for work.  Whenever he does this, it’s for Japanese businessmen who are required to learn English for their job.  Ian asks them a series of questions, things like “How are you today?”  “Do you have any children?”  “Was it warm in your house this morning?” and then grades them on their responses.  They are simple questions that if the guys have been studying English the way they should be, they will have no problem with the questions.  It just so happened that a few of the guys Ian interviewed were actually in Ohio at the time on a business trip.  He asked one guy the question “Was it warm in your house this morning?” and the guy replied with “Oh, yes!  American heaters are very nice.  I want to bring it back with me to Japan.”  AHAHAHA!!!  The Japanese don’t have isolation or central heating, so I’m sure that the guy was indeed enjoying his warmth!  Ian said something like “I know, right??  I’m very cold in my house in Kumamoto!  I miss my American heater!”    

We had to run to the grocery store that night, and we decided to pay with our credit card in order to save our money. (I screwed up at the ATM, and it fraud alerted our card.  I’ll go into more detail later.)  Japan is a cash based society.  95% of all transactions in Japan deal with cash.  Not a lot of people use credit cards, and I’ve heard that it’s very hard to get one in Japan.  They just aren’t widely used.  For example, at our grocery store there is only ONE register that is equipped to take credit cards.  Ian learned this the hard way one time when he tried to use credit in a different lane.  Instead of refusing him, they were the nice Japanese people that they are and unplugged the machine from the normal register, carried it across two other lanes, and re-plugged it up to the register Ian was checking out at.  Oops.  Anyway, when we were checking out last Friday, our clerk pretty much had no idea how to swipe the card.  I know that she’s not new.  We’ve seen her there dozens of times, but since not a lot of people use cards, she had NO idea how to do it!  It blew my mind!  We had to show her which way to swipe the card.  I’m pretty sure that there are CHILDREN in the States who know how to swipe credit cards.  I’m not downing the clerk…..I understand that since the overwhelming majority of people use cash it wouldn’t be common knowledge for her.  I was just amazed at the differences of cultures and that a grown adult in Japan would have no idea how to swipe a card when in the States, any Tom, Dick, or Harry can without any problem.    

BAM!  Done!  …..at least with this blog.  I’m still behind since I haven’t even finished with Friday’s stuff and here it is Thursday, but I’m working on it! 

I rabu Engrish!

Last week I started out my week by finishing school.  Make sense?    If you will remember from past blogs, I have been working on getting my TEFL certification this semester.  I started in August, took a loooooooooooooong break from the end of September-November, and finished up my lesson units in mid-November.  After that, I had to take an online test.  As soon as I download the test, I had twenty-four hours to complete and submit it.  The website said that the average person takes about six hours to complete the test.  Therefore, I knew that I couldn’t do it on a typical work day because I’m at work and have too much to do!  I also didn’t want to do it on a weekend because I didn’t want to waste one of my relax days!    For two weekends straight I said that I WOULD take it on that Sunday, but the Sundays came and went without me taking it.    I finally decided that I WOULD take it (for reals) last Monday.  Ian is never at home on Monday night because he has his class and normally doesn’t get home until about 10PM.  That meant that I would have a quiet house without interruptions for six hours….perfect!  As soon as I got home, I made myself a cup of tea, crawled under the kotatsu, downloaded the test, and started.  The test was a combination of grammar concepts and why/how they are used, lesson plans, phonology, short answer q's about teaching methods, and a lot of other stuff.  I started the test at about 4:30, and by 6:30 my stomach was growling, so I made a quick dinner and went back to work.  The longer I worked on the test, the more I wanted to give up.  I was getting VERY lethargic.  My body had forgotten what it’s like to study for and take tests!!!  Very difficult!!  When Ian arrived home around 10PM, I was about 3/4 of the way finished, and by midnight, I was sooooooooooooo ridiculously over it that I gave up and said I would finish it on Tuesday.  I was WIPED OUT.  I did finish the test on Tuesday afternoon at school and emailed it off.  I’m still waiting for a reply stating if I passed it or not.  So….fingers crossed, y’all!! 

Saturday while we were on our way back from the city, Melissa said, “Hey, check out that rainbow spot in the sky!”  It was a sunspot, and I told the gang what Daddy told me about sunspots: “It means the weather’s going to change.”  Indeed, the weather has changed.  It’s gone from cold to colder.    Mornings are even harder to peel back the covers and get ready, the school day seems longer since I spend 3/4 of it shivering, and my short bike ride to and from school is….brisk (to say the least).  On Wednesday the weather report was calling for snow.  It was all anyone was talking about at school.  If I had a nickel for every time I heard yuki, (the Japanese word for “snow”) I would have….. at least a dollar.    Since we’re so far south, it rarely snows here, but everyone gets excited for it!  I knew it wasn’t going to stick since the ground wasn’t even frozen, but that didn’t stop people from getting excited!!  However, once the clouds cleared, there was another snowfall on the top of Ichifusa.  It was beautiful!!  Even though I’ve never seen the Rockies, this is what I imagine them to look like:

    

Whenever I worked at the Parlor, I remember there being one woman who would always come in and order hot water to drink.  She didn’t want a tea bag with it—just hot water.  All of us thought it was gross—who wanted to drink just a cup of hot water….??  *sigh*  Unfortunately I have become that woman.  Since the schools are poorly insulated and rarely heated, I’ve taken to drinking hot water.  Normally I have my water bottle and fill it with tap water.  However, drinking cool tap water whenever you’re already cold isn’t the best thing to do.  All of the other teachers drink coffee or tea all day, but I prefer to get in my eight glasses of water a day.  I had the idea the other day to just put hot water in my water bottle.  It was actually wonderful!  I’m still not keen on drinking plain hot water, but it did the trick and warmed me up.  Plus I could leave the water bottle in my lap so that something hot was warming me up.

Lots of fun things happened at ES on Wednesday.  First, there was the shirt.  Lots of kids wear Engrish T-shirts, but this kid had on the Engrish T-shirt of the week!  On the front was a nice mountain scene with pine trees, a lake, and a car with a smiling driver.  The print said:

Washington: smooth roads

…….uuummmmmm…OK…  On the back it said:

Country of big bear

Ah, yes.  Whenever I think of Washington, the first two things that come to mind are smooth roads and big bears. 

Before I tell this next story, you need some back story.  Ian and I have a ice cream shaped charm on our keychain that we won at Baskin Robbins.  Last week before we left for the city, I tossed the keys to Ian, but he didn’t catch them.  The keys and charm separated, and the charm rolled underneath the car.  Since it was dark and we were running late, I didn’t stop to pick it up, thinking that I would get it later.  However, whenever I went to pick it up later, it wasn’t there.  I didn’t think anything about it—maybe the wind blew it away, the rain washed it to the irrigation ditch, it became a cat’s play toy, or some kid found it.  I wasn’t heart broken about it or anything.  However, after my 5th grade class on Wednesday, one of the girls who lives in my neighborhood brought it up to me.  I’m not exactly sure how she knew that it was mine—maybe I showed it to her before……?  Maybe she saw it in the spot where we usually park our car and she just assumed….?  Regardless, it was very sweet of her!!

My last ES story made me super happy.  Usually every week my schedule at the ES is the same:

2nd period: 6th grade, 3rd period: rotates between 1st, 2nd, 3rd, or 4th grades, and 4th period: 5th grade. 

Last week, my schedule was a little different.  Originally when I got my schedule back in August I was only supposed to have my 2nd and 5th grade classes that day.  However, since I missed two 6th grade classes in October, (one on my health check-up day and one on my Kuma-gun conference day) my supervising JTE wanted me to make up one of those class periods last Wednesday.  Therefore, I was scheduled to have my 6th graders right after lunch during 5th period….which is definitely out of the norm……but whatever.  I enjoyed my free 2nd period, but as the time got closer to go to 6th grade, a sense of dread gathered.  I don’t particularly like my 6th graders because a lot of them are at that certain age when they start to become little twerps.  When it was time for class, I went up to the 6th grade classroom……only to see that class had already started.  I momentarily hesitated in the hallway, which made the 6th grade teacher notice me.  He looked as confused to see me holding my English book as I looked that he had already started class.  I slid open the door and asked if we had English class then.  I also noticed that all of the kids had their social studies books on their desks.  His head shot back, and I could almost see the panic creeping in because he wasn’t prepared for an English class.  The kids were happy, saying things like “YAY, English!”  “English time!”  “Hurray!!”  He told me to wait a minute, so I did in the classroom talking to the kids, and when he came back, he had his schedule in his hand, showing me that there was no 6th grade English that day.  I didn’t put up a fight because that was one less class for me to teach, but I was slightly embarrassed for barging into his classroom when there was no class to teach.  Oops….

I’m a little behind in this blog, but hopefully I’ll get caught up in the next few days.  In case anyone is counting, there are only eight more work days until Christmas break!  YAAAAAAAAAAAAY!!!! 

American weekend

As I mentioned in the last blog, last Thursday and Friday were part of the SDC conference in Kumamoto.  I didn’t get to go to that conference last year because I was sick, so I didn’t exactly know what to expect.  However, I was pleasantly surprised by it.  I quite enjoyed seeing friends who I don’t get to see on a regular basis and attending workshops about classroom management, teaching ideas for the JHS, ALT/JTE relationships, and others.  I know that it was technically considered to be two work days, but it didn’t necessarily feel like it.  It was more like a paid vacation.

I met several really great JTEs and was completely jealous of the ALTs who have them.  One of the nice JTEs that I met was Devin’s from Taragi (one town over from Yunomae).  She and I were talking, and she was an absolute delight!  I told Devin how lucky she was to have such a wonderful JTE who was nice and actually wanted to talk to her!  The JTE was asking me where I taught, and after I told her Yunomae, she asked if Mr. Fujiwara was my JTE.  I said yes.  She said, “Oh, yes.  He is very……..unique.”    Japanese society is too polite to directly say something negative about a person, but when describing him/her as “unique,” you kind of understand what that really means.  Unique indeed, lady.  Unique indeed.

Thursday night a bunch of us from Kuma-gun went out to eat together at a Mexican restaurant.    It was DELICIOUS.  Mexican food is something that is pretty rare in Japan and can only be found in larger cities.  Therefore, since we were in Kumamoto City, we decided to take full advantage and eat as much Mexican as we could!  I had the enchiladas—it looked like a plate of diarrhea, but it was perfect!   After dinner, we strolled around the open air mall area, enjoying the Christmas lights and making fun of the rather questionable decorations.  Christmas decorations in Japan go one of two ways—they are either really nice or…..special.  A nice example would be the Christmas tree at the entrance to the mall—a tall tree decorated with colored ball ornaments and ribbon—something you could find in any shopping mall in the States (below, left).  On the other hand, we have special, which often looks like Father Christmas opened his jolly mouth and vomited all over the place.  My favorite example of this is the blinged out tram that we saw.  Although I think it’s as tacky as a tram could be, I couldn’t help but want to ride in one that’s blinking with blue and yellow lights! (below, right)  I was like a small child whenever I saw that tram shouting “LOOK!  LOOK AT THAT ONE!!  HAHAHA!!” while desperately reaching for my camera.  Once we got back to the hotel that night, I waited up for Ian to arrive.  After his class that night, he drove up from Kagoshima to stay the night with me. 

 

Friday it was back to the conference.  However, Friday night it was celebration/happy fun time!  We headed back to the open air mall for a night out on the town.  Our first stop was Starbucks so that Margo could enjoy her beloved Washingtonian coffee.  All of us decided that our bellies needed food, so we strolled down the main drag in the mall looking for good eats.  We walked by a Korean restaurant that sounded great, but sadly there was no room for our seven person crowd, so we continued our food journey until we found a hole-in-the-wall Sri Lankan restaurant.  While I’m not too big on spicy food, I really enjoyed the restaurant.  My mouth was on fire afterwards, but spicy food isn’t a common thing in Japan.  Even the “spiciest” food would probably only be considered mild in the States.  My mouth was sooooooooooooo not familiar with eating such hot foods, and I’m guessing that I drank darn near my daily intake of water with just that one meal.  After dinner, we found a karaoke club and sang our hearts out for two hours. 

On Saturday, Ian, Melissa, Devin, Krista, and I piled into one car and made our way up to Fukuoka to go to Costco.  (I’ve never been to a Costco and actually never heard of it until I came over here.  For those Paducahans like myself who have no idea what this is, it’s basically a Sam’s Club.)  Oh, the glorious, joyous, amazingness of hard core consumerism that Costco provides to people!!  As soon as we walked into that building, it was basically like being at home.  There were big carts, (Japanese grocery stores generally don’t have carts.  They are more likely to have baskets for you to carry around.) water fountains by the bathroom, (Japan is not so big on water fountains.) giant packs of stuff for sale that I don’t really need but want, a food court with real American food, (more on that in a bit) and so, so, SO much more!  It was just like being at Sam’s, too.  They had free samples of food to try.  YEEESSSSSSSS!!  However, I’m not quite sure that Japanese Costco quite grasped the concept of samples.  We saw samples of wine, paper towels, Tide, and diapers among the food products.  The wine wasn’t that big of a deal, the paper towels and Tide we laughed and said were for when someone spilled the wine on their clothes, but the diapers were definitely….different.  How does one sample a diaper…..?  Think on that for a moment.    Regardless, we loaded down our cart with things that we never get to eat: cheddar, colby jack, and string cheeses, shortbread cookies and other delicious bakery goods, frozen burritos, chocolate peppermint brittle, bacon, another other random things that satisfied our cravings.

For an easier shopping experience, we broke down into two groups: Krista and Devin in one and Ian, Melissa, and I in the other.  I was hungry, so we ate lunch first while Krista and Devin shopped.  It was just like an American superstore food court!  There were only a few options: pizza, hot dog, etc, but I knew exactly what I wanted whenever I saw it: a huge, fat, greasy slice of cheese pizza.  Ian and I both got a slice of pizza and a Coke (with free refills—something unheard of in Japan!!) for the low, low price of only 600 yen.  It’s darn near impossible for us to get a meal that fills us up completely for only 600 yen.  (I understand that this meal had no nutritional value, but we weren’t exactly thinking about veggies at that time….)  I’m not lying when I say that the slice of pizza was about the size of my face.  IT.  WAS.  GREAT.  It also tasted like American pizza—greasy, unhealthy, and most importantly CHEESY!  There was no bland flavored cheese, weird topping like shrimp, corn, or mayo, or tiny little slices.  We ate and enjoyed our fill!!  What made it even better: once I finished my Coke, I walked up to the machine to fill it up again.      I may or may have not drank 40 ounces of Coke that day…..  I may or may not have been bouncing off the walls by the time we left……..

 

To continue our American food day, we met up with David and Margo later that night to get dinner at Subway.  I haven’t had Subway in over two years.  I ate turkey…..actual deli sliced turkey, and it was just as delicious as I remember.  (It’s weird how something as common and normal as a deli slice turkey sandwich in the States can become a treat over here!)  After our Subway dinner, we met up with other ALTs and went to the movie theater to see the new James Bond movie, which was an excellent movie on all accounts!!  This was our first movie theater experience in Japan.  While we enjoyed the movie, I think the general consensus was that Japanese theaters are a little….. less than American theaters.  While I did notice that there wasn’t a dropped buttery popcorn greasy or spilled soda sticky floor, the chairs barely reclined and were a bit less comfortable and smaller than American theaters. 

We felt like the entire weekend was one big American adventure, and by the time we got home around 2AM on Sunday morning, we crashed.  I didn’t wake up until 11 AM the next morning.  Me sleeping in that late is darn near unheard of!!  Anyway, that’s all for this blog.  More later!

Realizations

Last Thursday and Friday were our conference days in the city.  I’ll write more about it later, but I have topics now that I want to write about.  ……and spoiler alert:  This is one of those blogs when I ramble on about the meaning of life, how I fit into it, feelings, etc, so if that’s not your cup of tea, please feel free to stop reading here. 

The conference was ALL Kumamoto ALTs and a lot of JTEs.  On both days, we had different workshops to attend.  Sara, Devin, Melissa, and I were flipping through the schedule that we got and selecting which workshops we wanted to attend.  I was asked which workshop I was going to attend during one period, and I said that I wasn’t sure……either “Life after JET” or “Care for the Introverted JET.”  Sara immediately said, “Why would you go to the second one?  You’re not introverted!”    I have ALWAYS considered myself to be an introvert, so to have someone say this to me was QUITE surprising.  I’ve always been content on letting someone else take the reigns and be the leader.  I have no qualms about being your typical run-of-the-mill Indian instead of a Chief.  However, this got me thinking.  Am I an extrovert???  I mean….would an introvert move away from the safety and comfort of family and friends halfway around the world to a country where she doesn’t know the language or culture?  Would an introvert take great pleasure in planning social functions for friends?  (It’s true that my social circles have always been relatively small, but I have always loved hanging out and planning events with the friends that I have.  I love going on adventures, exploring, or even something as simple as a dinner together.)  Would an introvert choose a career path like teaching that involves BEING the leader?  ………..am I an extrovert?  I definitely envy those people who can talk to anyone or become the life of the party.  I’ll never be that person because I’m too socially awkward.  (I’m much better with words.  Hence this blog.  )  I always tell Ian that I’m jealous of his personality.  He always knows what to say and when to say it.  He has the gift of gab.  EVERYONE loves Ian!  While I still don’t consider myself to be an outgoing extrovert like Ian, I guess I actually fall somewhere in the middle of the scale instead of hugging the introvert side.  It’s very interesting when you think you know yourself and then someone says something and you stop to think OMG!  That’s sooooo true!  You’re right!  Thank you for teaching me about myself!   

That happened a second time on Friday.  Melissa and I were talking, and I said something about potentially regretting my decision to stay for a third year.  She said something like “Really?  I thought you were really homesick.”  This also shocked me.  I never have considered myself to be “homesick.”  Do I miss things about the States?  YES.  Do I want to see my friends and family?  YES.  Are there cultural things that annoy me about Japan?  YES.  Do I miss being at home during the holidays?  YES.  Does this make me homesick….?  I consider homesick to be whining and pining away to go home.  I don’t think I’m that way…….  I mean, I feel like it’s normal to miss home now and then, but I don’t think I whine and pine…..do I?  Hmmmm…..

On Thursday afternoon after the conference finished for the day I went for a walk.  As I was strolling though the streets of Kumamoto City, I was thinking:  Why am I going home??  I’m going to miss Japan so much!  I was just imagining leaving Japan and feeling the exact way that I felt before I left home.  It’s an exact mixture of worry, doubt, fear, and excitement.  I constantly question my decision to go home because there are so many unanswered questions and uncertainties about going home, just as there were about leaving it in the first place.    It’s so weird that I feel that way!  It absolutely amazes me that even though I’ve only been here for a year and a half, I’ve made such deep connections to the people and places of Kumamoto.  I worry that after the initial YAY-WE’RE-HOME!! elation wears away, I’ll find my life boring and significantly less exciting.  There will be far fewer challenges, and life might just become mundane.    As I continued to walk down the busy street looking at signs printed in kanji and watching stereotypical bad Asian drivers cutting off one another, I thought Will I EVER be ready to settle down?  Can I commit enough to one place to put roots there?  I honestly don’t know.  Now that I’ve had a taste of the world I don’t know that I could go back to just one place and live there for the rest of my life.  GAAAAHHHHHHH!  Growing up is so hard!! 

It has finally happened…..

So…..it’s official!  I turned in the paperwork to my supervisor this week, and the Reeds are slated to be home in August 2013.  Woo-hoo!  I emailed my supervisor to tell her about my decision at the end of last week, and she said that she would be sad for me to leave but understands and respects my decision.  Whenever I gave her the paperwork, she wiped her eyes in a pretend cry.  I wonder how much of her sadness is for real and how much is just put on.  I wonder if she’ll actually be sad to see me go.  I feel like I cause a lot of problems for her and am not exactly sure of her sincere feelings.  On one hand, I’m sure she’ll be happy to see me go so that she won’t have to care for the bumbling foreigner anymore.  No more lost-in-translation mix ups, no more me going to her when I have a problem, no more “Can you make me a dentist appointment because I don’t have the abilities to….”  I’m sure that she’ll be happy about that.  On the flip side, the BOE has to shell out more money to pay for my flight home and to bring in a new foreigner.  Once they pay for travel expenses for both me and the new kid, hotel accommodations for the new ALT during orientation, visas for the newbie, and everything else that is required, it’s not cheap.  I’m sure that the BOE would like me to stay if for no other reason than expenses.  Plus, they’ll have a new kid who may or may not speak Japanese and have to set up and train that person.  To constantly bring in new people isn’t cheap or easy, and I wonder if my BOE and supervisor would want me to stay for that reason or because I’m actually a good ALT.  Hmmmmm……

The national broadcasting system here is called NHK.  However, instead of it being like ABC, NBC, CBS, or PBS and being free like in the States, it costs here.  If you own a TV, then you are required to pay a bi-monthly bill.  Even if you don’t watch Japanese TV (like us), you are still required to pay the bill because you can receive the transmission signal.  It’s crap!  Plus, it’s not cheap!  It’s about $35 every two months….for something that we don’t use!!  Every other month, we’ve received an NHK bill and paid it even though we don’t watch Japanese TV.  However, back in August we were talking to a few friends here who said that they don’t pay for theirs, and nothing has ever happened.  Joe has lived in Taragi for the past 4.5 years and never paid his bill.  He said that legally they can’t do anything to MAKE you pay.  Joe said that the worst that could happen would be that some NHK guys would knock on our door and ask us to pay the bill.  IF that happened, we could do one of two things: 1) play dumb 2) deny the fact that we have a TV in the house.  We heard from other friends as well that they don’t pay their NHK bill because it’s a waste of money, and nothing has happened to them.  Awesome.  We thought that we were set.  We received a bill at the end of August and another in October.  We both darn well knew what they were, but chose to ignore them, thinking that we were pulling a fast one on NHK.  Well, NHK bested us.  Instead of knocking on our door, they went above us.  My supervisor emailed me yesterday and said that a NHK guy came to the BOE looking for me about the bill.    Oh no!  I played it dumb about overlooking the bill, but she asked if I would like her to set it up so that it would automatically withdraw from my account like most of my other bills.  I said yes……and just like that NHK won! 

It has finally happened.  It’s starting to get very cold.  Today was the first day that I could actually see my breath in my house.  Outside of our one warm room that we’ve converted into our bedroom/living room/office/dining room/multi-purpose room for the winter months, it’s pretty much the same temperature as outside…..hence being able to see your breath.  Last night we were sitting in our one warm room just feeling the cold roll in from our single pane windows.    Our floor length black curtains kept billowing at the bottom, and at first I thought that the window was cracked. I double checked to make sure that this wasn’t the case.  They were locked tight.  Ian was the smart kid and realized what was going on.  He theorized that it was a convention current.  The heat in the room had risen to the top of the curtains, hit the cold window, and was forced down.  He’s such a smart little fart to figure that one out!! 

Today in my 6th grade class we were going over professions….doctor, nurse, teacher, astronaut, etc.  My 6th grade teacher was explaining about the cards that ended in –ist (scientist and pianist) by telling the kids that –ist is a common ending for professions in English.  He asked me to give examples.  I said journalist.  They understood that one, and then I blanked.  There are probably hundreds of jobs that end in –ist, but for the LIFE of me, I couldn’t think of ONE.  MORE.  EXAMPLE.  UGGGHHHHHHH!!!!  I HATE whenever things like that happen because it makes me look like I have no idea about English, and yet I’m supposed to be the authority on it.  As soon as the textbooks were open, of course there were plenty of –ist examples: florist, artist, dentist, etc.  WHY COULDN’T I THINK OF THOSE?!?!  Why did I have a brain fart and look like an idiot?!!?  Blarg!

Tomorrow morning I’m going up to Kumamoto City for the Skills Development Conference that happens every year.  I’m excited because even though it’s technically still a work day, it’s not teaching and out of the ordinary, so it feels like a little vacation.  Yay!  Ian and I are staying along with other friends in the city on Friday night and are going to see the new James Bond movie on Saturday.  That will be our first Japanese movie experience, so hopefully it’ll be something to blog about on Monday! 

Thanksgiving in Japan

Before I begin my Thanksgiving stories, I wanted to tell about something that I didn’t get to write about last week.  On Wednesday I was at the elementary school, and we went outside to play during recess.  One of the girls had a leaf collection for whatever reason and was pulling me over to the gingko trees that were shedding their leaves.  The golden yellow leaves were absolutely gorgeous!  I forget who threw the first fistful of leaves at whom, but before too long there were leaves flying in every direction.  It was as if we were playing in the snow and tossing snowballs at one another.  It was a lot of fun!  However, more and more kids saw what was happening, and eventually there were about twenty-five kids who ganged up against me.  It was the kids versus the foreigner, and I was losing!  I called a cease-fire and tried to reorganize the kids into two teams so that the leaf throwing could be a little more fair, but they didn’t really go for that idea.  Instead they preferred to just throw leaves at me.  (I had so many leaves thrown at me that whenever I went back inside, I had two leafs clinging to the back of my hair, and that night when I undressed for my shower I found a leaf caught between my undershirt and sweater!)  We were having a good time until a few of the boys decided that it would also be fun to throw sand from a nearby sand pile.  Nope!  I got sand to the head once and promptly decided that THAT was the end of that game! 

I actually didn’t have any classes last Thursday at school, and it was rather nice.  I spent the whole day catching up on things, planning Christmas lessons, and blogging.  As soon as I got home that night, I immediately started baking.  Ian wasn’t home since he had to go to his class in Kagoshima, so it was just me and my kitchen.  I had a long list of things to bake and immediately started them.  I mixed together my chocolate cake and threw that in the rice cooker.  Then I moved onto steaming the pumpkin for pies, made myself a quick dinner (picture below), (yep, noodles was my Thanksgiving dinner!) and went to eikaiwa.  Once I got home, I finished the pies.  Ian didn’t get home from Kagoshima until nearly 11PM, and we went to bed shortly after that since he had to wake up at 5AM to start the turkey.

Ian knows how serious I get about my sleep in time on the weekends, and he joked about setting alarms to go off at 5, then 5:15, and every quarter hour until I was up with him, but I told him that if he dared to do that, I would END him.    I’m a light sleeper, so I heard him wake up and put the turkey on.  Once he crawled back into bed with me, it was like curling up with warm smoked meat because that was exactly what he smelled like!!  Ugh! 

 

Friday morning we skyped all of our family at home.  It was good to see and hear from everyone, and missing this Thanksgiving was a LOT less emotional than last year.  I didn’t even cry this year!    Yay!  (This also proves my point that the longer you stay away from home, the easier it is.)  We took all of our skypers on a field trip outside to show them our smoker and turkey (above, left).  After we had skyped everyone, I finished up my cooking—homemade whipped cream and cranberries—before heading to a concert thing at the elementary school.  I was invited to it a while back by my vice principal at the ES.  The elementary kids did a few song and dance numbers, then the JHS brass band played, and finally some lady from a news station talked.  (I only stayed for the student performances since I had more prep work for Thanksgiving dinner.)  When I first arrived, I sat in the chairs with the rest of the audience.  However, my supervisor (all of the BOE members were there) got me and told me to sit at the tables on the side with the rest of the special guests, including the mayor and town officials.  They were dressed in nice business suits, and there I was looking like a fool with my jeans and sweater.  Ugh! 

Whenever it was time to go to dinner at Margo’s house, one crucial part of the meal wasn’t ready….the turkey!  Despite Ian having it on the smoker for ten hours, it still wasn’t done!  We weren’t exactly sure what to do until Ian had the idea to just take our oven and finish it at Margo’s house.  This idea would definitely not be plausible in the States, but here in Japan ovens are the size of American microwaves.  All we had to do was unplug it and load it in the car.    With all of our dinner items, oven, and two friends who we gave a ride to, our car was quite loaded down!  In fact, the turkey had to ride on David’s lap!

As we were on our way to dinner, I couldn’t help but to think how grown up and mature I felt.  Here we were going to our own Thanksgiving dinner.  All of us were spending the day away from our own families, yet we had made our own little family.  Not only that but we were bringing the meal.  None of us were there to just snag a free meal.  Each of us had cooked or baked something to bring and share.  I felt so grown up!!

Twelve of us Kuma-gun ALTs gathered at Margo’s house for a delicious meal.  While Ian and Melissa carved the bird, a few of the others and myself unwrapped and uncovered plates of food.  It was a feast indeed (below, right)!  We had things that we never get to eat over here like turkey, dressing, cranberries, mac and cheese, tamales, some Portuguese dish that Melissa’s family makes every year, baked beans, and then there were the staples like sweet potatoes, mashed potatoes, rolls, salad, fruit, cream cheese fruit salad, and everything was DELICIOUS!  When I was getting my plate, I got halfway around the table before dishing out smaller portions of everything so that it would all fit on my plate!  The above mentioned things that we never get to eat were the first to go.  The two boxes of dressing that Ian made were destroyed in a matter of seconds.    The best thing about the food was that it was traditional American food.  There was no white rice or noodles—just plain traditional deliciousness.

 

After we had stuffed ourselves silly, we celebrated David and Devin’s birthdays.  David, Mollee, and Lucas went to a singing festival practice in Hitoyoshi, and we made Devin leave the room for a minute so that we could bring out the surprise decorations.  Once David, Mollee, and Lucas got back, we sang happy birthday to David and Devin and ate cake.  We also decided to play a few games and occasionally made our way back to the food table for one more roll or one more scoop of potatoes.    It was a great night, and if anyone left that house hungry, it was his or her own fault!!

Ian saved the turkey bones, so we made turkey soup with them on Saturday and invited people over.  The only people to accept our invitation were Margo and Melissa.  Ian had to go to work on Saturday, so I stayed at home and watched the boiling bones, cleaned the house, and used the leftover pumpkin to make pumpkin bread. 

Ian and I both have become obsessed with the show Supernatural.  Devin got us hooked on it, and ever since we started watching it, we haven’t been able to stop.  Devin has the first six seasons, and one by one, Ian and I have been borrowing them and watching episode after episode.  For those of you who don’t know the plot, it’s about two brothers who investigate the evil supernatural things—ghosts, demons, vampires, reapers, etc and destroy them.  The episodes aren’t scary, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that it now freaks me out a bit to be alone in the house and hear a bump.  Ian and I were watching an episode on Saturday night while waiting for Melissa and Margo to arrive.  All of the sudden we heard our hallway door rattle open, and both Ian and I jumped and shot our heads in the direction of the sound.  I always make fun of the characters on the show for saying “…..Hello?” to the things that go bump in the night.  This apparently is the only acceptable thing to say to strange noises….  However, what did I say when I heard the strange noise?  “…..Hello?”  Gah!!!  Luckily for us it wasn’t a ghost or demon…..just Melissa.  She said that she knocked and no one answered, but we scolded her for sneaking up on us while we watched Supernatural.  You just can’t do that!!  

As we were eating dinner that night the PA box that everyone in Yunomae has in their house went off.  We turned off for everyday announcements, so the only time it goes off is when there is something serious going on.  When this happens, it is a high pitch tornado-like siren followed by an announcement from some town official.  It has gone off a few times when typhoons roll through to announce heavy rainfall or once to state that there were monkeys spotted in town and to not engage them because they were wild animals, but on Saturday night, it was very unusual for it to go off.  Melissa said that the announcement said something about searching for something.  Fast forward to early, early, early Sunday morning.  At 3AM we heard the PA go off again.  I woke up Ian to see if he could translate the message.  Neither of us could understand what was going on, and Ian went to the window to see if there was any mass panic outside.  There wasn’t, so we rolled over and went back to sleep.  Around 10 AM there was a knock on the door.  One of the town firefighters was on our doorstep telling me…..something… and then asking for money.  I told him sorry, but I didn’t understand.  Once he realized that I had no idea what he was saying, he thanked me and moved on to the next house.  Ian, who is much better at piecing things together than me, figured out why the firefighter was there just from a few keywords that he overheard.  His theory was that someone’s house burned down (hence the 3 AM siren and announcement) and the firefighter was going door-to-door collecting donations for the family.  I don’t have any proof of this theory, but it sounded right to me.  I wished that I would have been able to piece that together because I most certainly would have donated money!

Anyway……that’s the story of our Thanksgiving weekend.  It most certainly was nice to be able to spend it with other Americans!  Also, I’m definitely looking forward to celebrating it at home next year!