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Published: June 28th 2007
Did you ever wonder why…people shake hands to show friendship?…we nod our heads for yes and shake it for no?...zero scores in tennis are called “love”?...the square place where boxers fight is called a “ring”? I have. The world is full of questions, and why questions are always the hardest ones to answer. Sometimes there is no answer, sometimes it just requires a little bit of digging. I swear that if the entire collection of why questions in the world equaled 100%, then the ones that people (well, namely foreigners) ask in Japan must equal at least 50%. Why has it taken me 2 months to get the internet at home? Why aren’t the ATM’s 24 hour? Why do Japanese teenage boys wear hot pink clips in their hair? Why are fruit and vegetables so goddamn expensive? Why does everyone (yes everyone, I’ve seen 50 year old business men do this) hang cute, cuddly toys off their mobile phones? Why do all the moisturizers have whitening cream added? And trust me the list goes on. However, there is one good reason for all this: it’s Japan. That’s the only logical answer that we have come up with. My life is
plagued with questions here in Japan, and even though I’ve been living in this country all up for about 1 and a half years now, everyday there is something new. It keeps my life interesting that’s for sure.
Last month I had to get a new visa, swap my working holiday visa for a real business visa, and what with all the hassles I went through getting my degree certificate on time, and all the trips to the immigration office and Aeon head office, it totally skipped my mind why I was getting a new visa in the first place. My working holiday visa had expired, and that meant that I had been in Japan again for 6 months. When I finally sat down and thought about it, it blew me away. 6 months already?? When you’re not wishing your life away, time goes so fast. You remember being a child: every birthday was soooooo faaaaaar apart. All you wanted to be was bigger. Well here I am: bigger and I want it all to slow down.
But I suppose you could argue that time only goes fast when you’re having fun and happy with your life. So
there’s not much for me to complain about really. Since my last blog I have been so busy and can’t even believe myself how much I have fit in. Let’s see if I can give you all a short narrative.
After Golden Week a friend from Niseko came to visit for a week, we didn’t really get around to doing too much as I was back at work but we did manage to get to Inuyama Castle one weekend, it’s only about an hour from my place and it was something I really wanted to see. As most of you know I have seen a fair few Japanese castles, but this one is one of only a few that are the original, not a reconstructed one. And it really was beautiful, so old and rustic.
A couple of weeks later Laura came down from Hakodate to visit her boyfriend, who just happens to live very close to me, and so we met up a few times whilst she was here. Went out to dinner and karaoke and shopping in Nagoya. It was my first time since I had been here that I had gone to karaoke and I
Karaoke
Akihiro, Laura, Makoto and me!couldn’t think of a better way to initiate it. Laura and I have so many memories from karaoke in Hakodate that it was good to add to them again!! And that story leads me to tell you all my first big exciting news of this blog: Laura is getting married!!! So as soon as she finishes her exchange up in Hakodate and goes back to Canada to sort a few things out she’ll be back here in Japan again for good! I am so excited for her and she seems so happy. And the best thing: she’ll be living close to me again!! I can’t wait!
About 3 weeks ago I went to Hiroshima with a group of girls. Erin, the other Australian girl I work with, had organized a trip with a few of her girlfriends and she invited me along. It was only for the weekend (well our weekend, so Sunday and Monday) but I had a fantastic time, it was a great little girl’s weekend away. It was my second time to Hiroshima, as I went on my travels around Japan back in 2005, but I had loved it then and I loved it again this
Hiroshima
A-bomb dome time around. The city just has this feel that I can’t explain; it’s so relaxed and care-free. We visited the Peace Park and went to the Peace Museum. It was my second time to the museum, but honestly I saw things that I didn’t the first time. The museum is so big and has so much information that there’s no way that you can take all that information in at once. And it’s a mentally draining experience, to see all those pictures and artifacts and to read all the stories. So all in all I am glad that I went back a second time. We also went to Miyajima, the island just outside of Hiroshima where the shrine gates are in the ocean. I had been there before too, but last time it was high tide and I had seen the gates in the water, and this time it was low tide so we could walk right up to the gates and walk under it, it makes you realise just how big it really is.
I have met up with Lauren, my American friend, who is also an Aeon teacher (we went through training together) a lot. Well almost
Hiroshima
Summer festivals- I love them! Lots of people, lots of food, lots of fun! every weekend actually. She lives in Nagoya, the city, and so I usually go meet her there. She has introduced me to one of her students, Kazue, and Kazue has invited us to dinner a few times with her family. Last weekend we went to her parent in laws place and they had this huge dinner cooked for us. It’s nice to be involved in normal everyday Japanese family life. Everyone from the grandparents, aunties and uncles, grandchildren and even the next door neighbor’s children were there. And after dinner we played Wii, the new Nintendo video game. It was a lot of fun. They invited us to go strawberry picking with them when it gets a bit warmer.
Lauren and I have also been to a local summer festival near her house; that’s once thing I love about summer in Japan. On any given weekend, for no apparent reason there will be a festival on, with yummy Japanese food stalls, people walking around in beautiful, colourful yukata (light summer kimono) and kids running around with a huge smile on their face and sticky fingers. Last weekend we also went to a koto concert. Koto is a traditional Japanese
Miyajima
Only a small island but bustling with people and it still holds that old traditional feel. instrument, like a harp. I learnt how to play it a little when I was in Hakodate, only for 3 weeks and it is really hard! But the music is absolutely beautiful and going to a concert was a new experience and it was something different to do, you could only do that in Japan after all.
I have finally started Japanese lessons. I go every Wednesday morning before work for an hour. It is a proper language school in Nagoya, so it’s a little bit of a trek to get to but I wanted to find a real school where the teachers are trained in teaching Japanese and not just a free community class. I suppose after studying it at school and university I have high expectations for my teachers. But I’m happy with my choice. I am taking private lessons at the moment, but I may join an additional group class in September. I want to take the Japanese Language Proficiency Test in December, the test judges your Japanese ability and if I ever want to get a formal job using Japanese I will need this qualification. I am aiming for Level 2, which is the second
highest, but to be able to pass I need to brush up on my kanji and grammar.
The only other thing to report on is work. I am really starting to feel settled in now. I’ve been teaching for about 2 months and there are still days that don’t go as well as I had hoped but every day is a learning experience and I am getting better. My school held a welcome party for me back in May; it was a lot of fun. All of the staff and quite a few students were there; we went to an Italian restaurant nearby. It was great to actually talk to the students, and not just be a teacher. I actually do enjoy going to work everyday; honestly everyone I work with is lovely and so much fun. I’ve heard stories about other Aeon schools and how the Manager is always pulling rank, or other teachers are hard to get on with etc. But my school is just so laid-back and fun. I talk to everyone from my Manager, to Assistant manager to Head teacher to other teachers like they’re my friends, and that’s what it feels like. My students
are really good too, I’m getting much better with my discipline for the naughty kids and they are starting to learn that I am not one to mess with (I hope…).
Erin will be leaving at the end of July, which will be sad. We get on really well and she has helped me out so much, and it also means that when the new teacher comes to replace her that I won’t be the newbie anymore, I will be the more experienced foreign teacher but I still feel new. The new teacher is a guy called Doug from Colorado in America, so I’m crossing my fingers that he’s nice and we get on well, as if we didn’t it could be a nightmare, considering we will spend all day at work together. Oh well, I’ll find out in about a month.
Hmmm…yep I think that’s all. Oh, except the second exciting news that I had to tell you. Bianca (my older sister) is pregnant!! Yey! I am so excited, I am going to be an Auntie!!! She is due at the end of the year, so I will get to see my new niece or nephew when
Miyajima
So Japanese I go back to visit for Christmas. She and Richard are coming to Japan next month, so I’ll get to see her pregnant, which will be totally weird, considering she’s always been a size 6 (?? Well tiny); and Kelsey is coming to visit in August when I’m on my summer holidays. It will be so good to have two of my sisters here, I can’t wait to see them and finally show my family some of the country that I have come to love so much.
Oh, one last thing: tennis first became popular in France, where a zero score (or a big O) looked like an egg, and so the French called it an egg, which in French is l’oeuf. So when tennis was exported to America they copied the tradition and called it l’oeuf, but it was pronounced “love”. I guess there are answers to some why questions after all…
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