Turkey Day - Nihon style

What am I transitioning into when I actually am feeling a bit content about staying in to write a blog instead of out doing things to write about in my blog? I try to think that I am balancing my life out a bit - and I hope I am right. I do look forward to writing though. I look forward to writing in a way that I wish I had in college. Maybe - I would not have hated papers so much.

Thanksgiving Day. Japan style. It was wonderful. I guess I didnt particularly really miss home so much as some people might think. This is my third year in a row missing this holiday at home. While I certainly miss the kids table at Aunt Lynns with my moms delicious homemade applesauce and lemon meringue pie and Aunt Lynns famous pumpkin pie and all the other delicious random foods I eat, and of course being stuffed full of food and watching Airplane with all my cousins - it hasnt been the same since most of us havent been coming home for Thanksgiving anyways. Two years ago I was celebrating Thanksgiving in a hostel in Queenstown, New Zealand with Ferris. I remember driving our little rental car to the grocery store and even though it was a Western country - not finding any of the traditional Turkey Day food we wanted. I remember getting random potatoes and having apple pie and I believe she found chicken. Irregardless, we celebrated together. Last year, I decided to go to Boston to visit an old friend from Australia. I didn't want to drive the 7 hours to go home since I had to stay in Plattsburgh to work right up until the day before Thanksgiving. Instead I drove 3 - 4 hours to Boston to see an old buddy.

This year. Japan. Of course, we celebrated in style. The night before - went to a nice townie bar in Meghann's most eccentric mountain town. In America, everyone gets wasted the night before Thanksgiving, right? While I don't know if this was everyone's intentions - we did it anyways. We walked in the cold along a nice river that is across the street from her apartment. On the way, we could hear and see tons of Salmon in the river - and those Salmon were large - verrry large. It did feel a bit like college; walking through a small town to a bar with no jacket, being cold and wanting to get drinking to be warm already. Meghann's friend, Rie owns the bar. We walk into this quaint bar - where there was a group of older men already there drinking. Immediately they scream to Meghann to go talk. In the meantime, Brian, Akira, Katie and I sit at the bar and order ourselves some drinks. For myself - of course, beer. I am a beer woman. The evening goes smoothly - getting ourselves properly drunk and eating edamame'. I pretty much spent the night chatting with Brian San and getting to know Rie. She is a beautiful woman - that helps her parents run the bar after working all day at her day job.

Two quick stories:
1) When the men found out I live in Monou - they instantly referred to me as the foreigner who did the dance in September. Yet, another example of how that dance will haunt me until the day I die.

2) They told Meghann that since she was a woman she was to pour their sake for them. She quickly informed them that is not how we do it in America and they can pour their own sake. Just a small example of a cultural difference you may encounter in very, rural Japan. Certainly, not all Japanese men believe this. However, I like to point out the few encounters that we do still get - because it is interesting to see cultural differences like that.

When it came time to leave this nice little bar - that group of men footed our entire bill. They wouldn't let us pay for any of our drinks or the food we ordered. Yet again, the hospitality and kindess we receive from Japanese folks as a foreigner. Amazing, absolutely amazing. On the extremely brisk walk home, we stopped at the FamilyMart (Japanese 711) - where we bought some snacks to get a bit of heat before continuing our walk back. We stayed up for a little while before hitting the hay.

Now - our Thanksgiving day fell on a Japanese holiday - which is how we were able to go celebrate Wednesday evening and have a proper Thanksgiving. We all slept until 11 - it was soooooooooo nice to sleep in. When we woke up, we had a nice breakfast that Meg prepared for us and it turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day.

I went out with Akira because I needed to pick up some sugar. He took me to this really cool fish shop because he wanted some Oysters and stuff as well. They basically have all these shellfish in big blue crates that float around in water that is constantly being circulated. Something completely new and different from anything I've seen before. I love new and unique things.

When we got back to Meg's - I started cooking what I wanted to make. I made my mom's homemade applesauce - which actually turned out wonderful. I then made this sweet potatoe thing that one of my co-workers showed me how to make. You basically boil sweet potatoes and then soften chestnuts by boiling. Then you take out the chestnuts, mash up the potatoes and make mashed sweet potato balls and put the chestnut inside. We started cooking around 1 and finished a little after 5. Katie made stuffing from scratch. Meghann made mashed white potatoes and pumpkin with raisins. I opened a pomegranate. At some point, Dom & Brock joined us as well - and Brock brought a can of cranberry sauce that he ordered from the internet. They had chicken for their meat - and of course bread. We all sat down - Katie, me, Rie from the bar the night before, Meg, Brock, Dom, Brian and Akira. We feasted - we had a pretty American style Turkey Day. For dessert, Katie made an absolutely delicious pumpkin pie and some interesting chocolate thing. Not that I can remember what it was called. It was superb. Thanksgiving was great - it was perfect for an American holiday in Japan.


Moving onto today - Remaining Positive.

I find that Japan has sort of killed my spirit. At college - people used to always ask me why I smile so much. People used to finally meet me and say "you're always smiling." I took it as a compliment. I was definitely a very happy person. For the most part, I'm happy here. Sometimes, I hate it. But I am trying to keep alive the things positive characteristics that made up the Sara that my friends liked about me. I am trying to keep alive the things that I like about me.

Some traits I had before coming to Japan were being positive, being motivated, involved, and one thing I loved about myself was the ability to relate to people. I was a very social person. I knew many people from the various clubs, jobs, and activities I partook in. I think my last year of college - I worked at the computer lab, I was a tour guide, an RA, had an internship, took on a peer educator position with the RA job, was the Marketing club VP, the Student Advisory Committee to the School of Business and Economics VP, and studied all day long in the library and study center. Additionally, it was guaranteed you would see me at the gym nearly daily or every other day. And of course, at the bars nearly 3 nights a week. All these activities, keeping my life hectic and rewarding. At the same time, allowing me to be very motivated and social. I had the best circle of friends and met many more amazing people my last year - some that I don't know how I didn't meet prior to my Senior year of college. My last 1.5 years at Plattsburgh were the best - the happiest time of my life by far. I find that those things that made me feel so alive in Plattsburgh are being smothered in Japan. I think that is why I have been struggling to find that kind of happiness I had before arriving here.

This morning I walked into work. I said my "Ohayooo Gozaimmmassuuuu" which means Good Morning - as I walked into the teacher's room. A few people looked up at me, a few muttered it - but for the most part no one acknowledged me. I sat down next to my co-teacher and she didn't even say anything to me. I hate that. I hate that environment. Then, Mitsue came over and said my first class today would be with her. She told me the classes I had with her today and cringed. My devil kids. I go to the first class, feeling a bit negative that the day is starting off so crappily. I went in and tried doing my typical three questions that I implemented into these devil classes that any 8th grade class kids can answer:
1) What day is today?
2) What is today's date?
3) How is the weather?

Now, my seventh grade kids might struggle with the second question, but the other two are taught in seventh grade, meaning this should just be review for the 8th graders. No one is answering, no one is listening, no one cares. I get a few answers forced out. Moving onto my warming up game that I have also implemented into these classes to try to create motivation and fun into English class. They played it pretty well - the game is called Shiritori - you end up with a lot of English words on the chalkboard in the end. Generally, I make all the students in the class repeat after me to read the new words. No one would repeat or really listened. Moving onto the lesson - a story out of the textbook. I read first, slowly. I am reading, no one is listening, they are talking over me. Next, repeat the new words in the story after me twice. No repeating. Check meaning of the words - they tell us the word in Japanese. No one participates, continue talking over me. Next, read the story again while repeating after me. I am reading and the only one repeating after me is Mitsue. We kind of just looked at eachother and laughed. I think that look we had - that feeling of understanding eachother - that we both are thinking the same thing - only I'm thinking it in English and she's thinking it in Japanese. Here we are a 23 year old American and 24 year old Japanese women - completely different, different cultures - and finally we can understand the same thing, we can look at eachother and know what one another is thinking.

Walking back from that class and going back to the teacher's room with her; I had a small revelation - that I sometimes get - that help me keep going. I remembered that no one is going to make my life better - I have to do it. I have to change my negative attitude, I can do this, if I couldn't they would not have chosen me to come to Japan. They choose me for all the above reasons I wrote out to you. Somewhere in this experience, I have to constantly remind myself I can do this. I have to remotivate myself, I have to give myself all the courage I need, I have to make this worth it. And I will.

I walked into the teacher's room. I sat back down next to Hiromi, the teacher who I teach with that didn't acknowledge me when I came in this morning. I said to her "Good Morning Hiromi!" With the biggest smile I could manage - she said Good Morning. I asked her how her daughter was since she was sick earlier in the week, she said she's not doing any better. I moved on to her weekend plans - where I got a bit more conversation out of her. There - I made things better between us.

Now, back to devil class #2 with Mitsue. We are walking up and I decide I got to be positive again. We walked in, do our greetings with the class. Now all the students stand up, both Mitsue and I will say:

Good morning, class
Good morning, Miss Mitsue
How are you?
I'm fine thank you, and you?
I'm fine, thank you.

Then I do the same thing.

Then we say, ok, please sit down. Usually we lose control of the class as they are sitting, they all turn around as sitting and talk. Well, as they sat, I jumped right into my three questions - to grab their attention. It worked. I got answers pretty quickly. Moved onto my Shiritori game, it went well. Every team did really well - and then when I asked them to read off the board with me - they did, they were in full concentration - all eyes on me, all repeating. I was so happy, that I rewarded every team with a point and the teams that actually did win got two points. *When a team reaches 12 points, I will reward them with something (undecided at this point - but there will be some sort of prize).

So - moving onto the same lesson plan as before - kind of the same results as the first class. However, they did repeat the new words after me, and did answer to the meaning of the words - but when it came to repeat the story - it wasn't that successful. Then when Mitsue went up to explain subject and verb agreement in Japanese - I was walking around the classroom; there is this one kid - who never stops talking in class and never is facing the board. I want to create a relationship with him - where he will respect Mitsue and I. He got a hair cut. I told him in Japanese that I like his hair cut. Well, he was just dumbfounded that I can speak Japanese. Mitsue explained to the students that I am studying and can speak, read, and understand some Japanese now. My coolness and respect points went up from like 0 to 1. Then, they asked me if I knew Japanese anime' in which I said no - then they asked if I knew a certain show. I did because I used a character for an elementary school lesson plan to get the kids interested. I drew the character on the board and wrote his name in Japanese. Of course, the kids laughed at my drawing and laughed at my poor Japanese writing - but it will definitely help with my respect level from them. Class over.

Next class, with Hiromi - my nineth graders - my favorite classes at this school. I only went to one today - and there wasn't much work for me to do. I basically just walked around and chatted with the kids because otherwise I would have been bored. But - I love the kids in this class so I didn't mind. This one boy that sits in the front center - never does his work - but always is trying to speak English. Today, he was practicing a phrase he picked up somewhere that is
"I don't know what you mean". The first twenty minutes of class he is just screaming it out as Hiromi is teaching the difference between "who and which" in Japanese. I walked past his desk and my favorite punk kid sits behind him. As I walk by, Mr. Punk boy says "sexy". Where I respond with, "I don't know what you mean" It was perfect - absolutely perfect - the kids around them were laughing hysterically.

They had to write today. Hiromi wrote on the board "We should study English" and then they had to agree or disagree and state why on paper. One of my other favorite kids - this boy - who always says English greetings to me and is always smiling, just so friendly and kind - really touches my soul. His English phrases that he knows are pretty good pronunciation and he always talks to me in English that you would think he knows a lot of English. In reality - he is just very polite. His response to that statement was he felt he should study English but only a little. I asked what he meant - he said he thinks it is necesarry to learn the basics like greetings to greet others in English to be polite. That is why he always approaches me in English. It's nice to have such wonderful kids in a school full of bad kids. This kid is just so wonderful. Always smiling, always happy. If all my classes were like my nineth graders - I would love this job - I would never want to leave. I guess - that's the real world and that's exactly how a teacher has classes in America, too. Devil kids and model kids. It makes me sad that these students will be moving onto high school in April. I don't know where I will derive my happiness from at this school when my favorite kids are gone. Punk boy showed me a picture of his 18 year old girlfriend in high school. He carved her name into his index finger. I told him he's crazy and he laughed. He always shows me all his "bad boy" things - like his self pierced ears and illegal cell phone. He's great.

Moving onto lunch. I normally sit with the teachers at lunch at Junior High School but no one ever talks to me. Today, as I was sitting down; with all my other aggressive approaches, I figured why stop now? I was warming up my leftovers in the microwave and started up this conversation in Japanese with the cleaner man. It turned into a 5 minute conversation. Of course about 3 minutes for me to get enough of my Japanese right for him to understand what I was trying to say to him. I learned that 15 years ago - he used to take English conversation classes. Very interesting. Next, I sit down at the table of teachers - and immediately make eye contact with one and start right into conversation in Japanese. I told him that yesterday was Thanksgiving, that I cooked all day with my friends because it is an American holiday, informed what we eat, and showed him my leftovers. This turned into the whole table very interested that wow, Sara knows some Japanese now. Soon, people that never even look my way, were trying to speak English to me since I was attempting Japanese. It went very well - it was wonderful. I just talked their ears off in my terrible Japanese and they watched and laughed as I struggled to formulate sentences, remember word names and understand what they were saying to me.

After lunch, I was in the sink room, cleaning my dishes; where I contined to talk to the teachers in there having a cigarette. The Social Studies teacher told me he wanted to teach me Miyagi slang. I got the slang for Let's go! Abain. Wow. Look at what I did - all by reaching out. What an amazing feeling.

After lunch, I was to go to an elementary school that I had not been to before. I get there and the one man explained I was to meet all the teachers today and then I can leave. This school got a treat - because they got to meet me when I was feeling really positive and confident in my Japanese. I had a blast, I was laughing the whole time, they were laughing at me laughing so much. And this man teacher was playing matchmaker for me. He told me that the 5th grade teacher is young and single. I expressed watashi mo! Me too! And certainly, this 5th grade teacher is a very attractive man. He's 28 and I wanted to tell matchmaker to make me a date. We actually almost got there I think. Matchmaker asked me if I like to drink; where I said yes I do! And then we talked about what I like to drink. Then Mr. Miyagi (that's what I'm calling my newfound crush) said we should go to the bar together. I asked where it was and he said near here. I said to him okay! In all seriousnes,s I wanted to. Then, matchmaker became unmatchmaker - he turned to conversation to money. He told me Mr. Miyagi would pay for my drinks because he was a rich man. I said no way, stop, and that I would pay for my own drinks. Then the topic got turned away from our going to the bar and him being rich - and then it just kind of got awkward. So - maybe when I'm there in one week - I can try to work on him and I going somewhere together.

I would invite him over for dinner - but when you invite a person of the opposite sex into your home - it means your relationship is serious. There is nowhere in my town to invite him to go to, and I don' t know about a bar because it is loud. He speaks less English than I do Japanese. That could be a problem. However, he could be my Japanese conversation partner. I actually could barely look him in the eyes because I think he knew they were trying to set us up - which made it kind of awkward. I just need to stun him with my teaching skills next week. If only I could wear a short skirt and blouse hahahahaha.

So, I'm going to court the 5th grade teacher of an Elementary school. It has been decided. Something has to keep me warm this winter. =)

Thanks for reading my entirely long blog of nothingness. It feels good to know people are still interested in what I am doing even after almost 4 months of being here.

Here on out - hopefully the new, positive Sara that people liked from Plattsburgh.
=)