Friday, August 11, 2006

I cannot express the hospitality I receive from the Japanese people. Honestly, Japanese put Americans to shame in all we do to help others. The past day has just been amazing. Saijo-san(my supervisor) picked me up at 1:00 like promised and we went back to Monou JHS. I met Mitsue, the 24 year old eigo sensei (english teacher). Even though she is an English teacher, her English is not so strong. She told me she reads and understands better than she speaks. Mitsue is very kind, unfortunately she lives 40 minutes away from me. She is the youngest teacher in the building (apart from me). Saijo-San and Mitsue sensei and I all went to get my picture taken so I can get my alien registration completed. Afterwards, I was taken to the BOE where I was introduced to about 60 people. I did my two lines in Japanese. Watashi wa Sara desu. My name is Sara and yuroshiko onegai shimasu – I hope our relationship is a happy one. At the BOE I took care of the alien registration stuff. Afterwards, Saijo-san and Mitsue sensei took me to 4 of the schools I will be visiting and introduced me to the kocho-sensei's (principal). They are quite intimidating. They are very stern faced and don't smile back at me. The one was very kind. Mitsue attempted to translate for me, but for the most part I just stared at them and tried smiling as they stared meanly at me. For one I drew a map of New York and explained where I come from. His daughter is teaching in Canada somewhere. Another man was very kind to me and tried having a conversation with me. I think Saijo-san may have been embarrassed of me since I didn't know proper etiquette and sucked at Japanese.

Afterwards, we went back into my predecessors house and grabbed some more stuff for me to have in my apartment. Hiromi asked me to come to dinner with her family. So, after sweating like a hog moving items from one house to mine, I went with her to pick up her children at nursery school again. We then went to her home, which is a very nice two story house. I met her husband and then we went to dinner. Hiromi is very sensitive to the fact that I am a vegetarian and informed me of all the different things I could eat. Hiromi also gave me a ton of food from her house that she says she does not eat. So, I inherited a bunch of jam, cereal and cookies. She said the only jam their family enjoys is strawberry jam, so my fridge now has 4 jars of jam, a bottle of water, lettuce and tomatoe. My cupboard consists of pasta, ramen and rice. Some things don't change from college. =)

After dinner, they were driving me back to my home which is about 30 mins away from Hiromi's home. We encountered a huge thunderstorm, the after effects of the typhoon that hit Tokyo. So, we get back to my 8,500 person village and alas, I have no electricity. Of course, with the Japanese hospitality, I am invited to sleep at Hiromi's. You learn quickly that when you are offered something, they do not offer out of politeness but because they truly want you to do that. If a Japanese person says, “you don't need that, Sara, right?” They are basically telling you, Sara, you don't need that and don't ask otherwise. When a Japanese person says, “Sara, please pack your stuff so you can stay at my place.” It's not to be polite, but basically they are telling you “pack your stuff, you are staying with me” and no questions should be asked and you should not say, “oh, no, no, I am fine” and expect them to keep telling you to come. I pack my bags and back to her place I go. She sets me up a very great futon pronounced 'fton' in Japanese. I am then told “Please, go take a shower”. Even though, I really didn't want to, I did. I am guest and I do as told.

In the morning, I get to experience a half Japanese/English breakfast. I get an egg, a bowl of lettuce, bread, and a peach. What makes this Japanese is you put some weird sauce onto the egg, which didn't taste too bad. You use your lettuce to dip into the egg yolk and then you butter or jam your bread and place a slice of cheese on it and eat it. I've learned, when unsure of the culture, just follow others. Except as the guest of honor, I am asked to eat first. So, I often make a fool of myself. We did sit on the floor to eat breakfast. They told me to sit on the couch since I am Western, but I told them no, I'd like to eat with them and experience their culture.

My top motivation to learn Japanese:

Hiromi's 5 year old daughter named Cocoro loves me. When I first met her yesterday, she asked me to come back tomorrow. I didn't plan on it, but Hiromi invited me to dinner so I did. She was thrilled to see me. Cocoro kept talking to me in Japanese and unfortunately I couldn't understand a word she was saying to me. Hiromi translated for me so we were able to have a conversation. While they were driving me back to my house following dinner, the storm scared her so much she was crying so she crawled into my lap and fell asleep. Once it was determined that I would be staying at their house, she was all excited and screeching something or other in Japanese. I go back to their place again and she shows me Pikachu and all her toys and books and is rattling off her tiny mouth about probably her toys or something, who knows. I just say back sadly to her, “Nihongo ga wakarimasen” or “I don't understand Japanese.” Her kids probably know more English than I do Japanese and they are 5. Pathetic! But, I taught them “paper, rock, scissors” and we played that for about 5 minutes. I showed them “peek-a-boo” and wow, did they LOVE that. I've never seen kids giggle over that as much as they did. Literally, they were rolling on the floor, laughing. Then, I sang “Old MacDonald” to them. I know the translation for some of the animals, so I was able to give them an idea of what they were supposed to be doing. This morning, Cocoro climbed out of her bed and came to where I was sleeping and crawled into my fton with me. She looked at me with her sleepy eyes and mumbled Japanese to me. I realized then, right there, that I really wish I knew what she was saying to me. When Hiromi realized where her daughter went, she said “sumimasen” aka i'm sorry my daughter is bothering you. The cute little girl most surely was not bothering me. When I left this morning, she cried.

The next reason I want to learn Japanese is because of Hiromi's husband. He knows a few words in English, can put together some sentences, but I couldn't understand what he meant many times and I couldn't say what I wanted to say to him. He drove me home this morning and Hiromi was not in the car with me. He apologized to me and said, “I wish we knew the same language because I can't say what my heart means.” I couldn't put it better in Japanese. He did tell me that I am going to make a good sensei because he can see I am kind the way I laugh with his children. It was a huge compliment in my opinion.

Which leads me to my Sunday plans! On Sunday, I am going to Hiromi's mother in law's house. This weekend is a national Buddhist holiday called Bon. It is the day that all the living folks pray to their dead ancestors. Hiromi asked me to come join her family and learn the tradition. I also am told that her mother in law has a very strong Tohoku (northern Japan) dialect and that she loves gaijin. Basically, I was told I was going to be stared at (what else is new?) and she will just say “ooooooohhhhhh” repeatedly. I am so psyched to actually learn some of the culture!

Yosco (the music teacher) is taking me to her house on Monday and then Tuesday we are going to a museum in Sendai and she will be taking me to some festival. The P/E teacher invited me to go fishing with her, even though she knows no English and I don't know Japanese. And the Social Studies teacher (who is like 6'3” and the volleyball coach) has bought me a rice cooker. I struggle with names. When I'm being introduced, it is usually in broken English and i can't determine the words they are trying to use from their names. I often ask Hiromi to write names down for me so i can memorize them. It's pathetic, half of them have already memorized my last name. So, culture me up!

Japan and their backwardsness:

It's hard as a gaijin when I see things being done here that are just so backwards. It's a matter of a lack of awareness. All the teachers have atleast a Bachelor's degree, yet they make really stupid decisions. For example, Hiromi does not make her 5 year old kids buckle up. Half the time, they were running all over the van, jumping up and down, and never actually seated. I tried manipulating the situation, by asking them to sit next to me and then buckling them up myself without even mentioning anything to Hiromi. It made me so nervous – you would be nervous to if you saw how narrow these roads are and how crazy some people drive. Additionally, we were driving through the after effects of a typhoon – low visibility and a ton of rain in the dark. My stomache churned. Next, I definitely noticed the gender role difference at Hiromi's. This morning, Hiromi got the kids dressed, made breakfast, served breakfast and then cleaned up. I helped her clean up. But, here is the major difference. Hiromi made only her daughter help, she had to stop watching her equivalent to Sesame Street to help do the dishes, while her son just sat on the couch coloring in a book. He was not asked to help at all and her husband surely did not help at all. Next, Hiromi told me that she had to take the kids to the dentist today because her daughter got a cavity because she wasn't able to brush her teeth at night for a week that she was at her mothers. How come her husband couldn't have brushed his daughter's teeth since Hiromi wasn't around? Oh, I'm going to start a revolution, watch out.

Mitsue came over around 10:30 am today. We spent the entire day together. She took me to the post office and helped take some more stuff over from my predecessors again. Then, she had to go back to the school because she is the tennis coach. Afterwards, she came over and we had lunch together. I showed her all the pictures I brought and we talked about music we like and things like that. After that, Saijo-san came over and gave me some important crap. My A/C was installed today and so he stayed at my house while the dude installed it. Mitsue and I went and i signed a crapload of papers for the alien registration again. Then, we went to the bank where I opened an account. After that, we came back to my house where she explained things like how to separate my garbage, which i am still very confused on. I also showed Saijo-san a map of NY state and explained where I live and went to college and things. I got out my Japanese dictionary and tried telling him about my pictures. I don't know if he understood me, but hey, i am trying to make friendly relations with my supervisor besides just smiling at him all the time and demanding things that I need done. He helped me carry over a couch from my predecessors house. I really like Saijo-san, he truly is wonderful.

Mitsue then took me to the big grocery store in the village over. She explained a lot of the food to me and how you prepare it. I bought a bit of it, but most importantly, I bought PEANUT BUTTER. Let me say that again PEANUT BUTTER. I pretty much am sure i will not starve here if i have peanut butter only a 30 min drive away. I REALLY got stared at, at that grocery store. Weird because it is a bigger village with a western teacher over there too.

My house is almost being completed in decoration. Which means I might take pictures of the final product soon. I found these brand new sheets in my predecessors house and I took them. They are probably brand new because they are pink and there have only been men living in that house since 18 years ago. They are really cute and i took them and use them as my couch cover. It really makes my living room look so much nicer. Things are starting to look a bit more like home. It's pretty damn empty in here, but I think less can be better.

Tomorrow is my only day that no one has asked me to do anything. I am going to try to wake up early and check out this one “trail” that I think I found near my JHS. I am going to take my bike over there and then park it and start a haiku (hike). I wonder what I will find. I'll bring my nalgene and some water in case it turns out to be a long hike. Otherwise, I have no idea what I will do tomorrow. I have no internet and no phone and my TV is in Japanese. It's really hot to stay in my house the whole day, but it might actually be nice to be solo. I've been surrounded by people for nearly a week straight now, with not too much time to myself. I do welcome the company, but sometimes I feel bad how much people are doing for me. Typically, I hate relying on others – like when I had a broken leg earlier in the year – but here, I am like please help me, I am lonely.