There's Gotta Be Some Fun Around Here Somewhere

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So, let me just say, the last few weeks have been difficult, that is why I haven't written for awhile. However, let me also say, that though I did a lot over that time, not much has happened, so I'm just going to go over a few things I feel like talking about, and leave it at that.

For starters: I had so much fun today! Due to the fact that I'm now finished with my elective courses, and my Japanese class is back to teaching me things I learned in high school, I had free time on my hands, so last week I signed up to volunteer (except they paid us...) to go to an elementary school and do a culture exchange teach thing.

Anyways, we were visiting fourth grade classes, and there were three of them, and six volunteers, so we split up into pairs, and we thought we'd choose the pairs, so we had it all worked out how we were going to split up, but when we got there the teachers had a different plan, but even though I got paired with this guy David (damn popular name, ain't it?) who many people find obnoxious at best, it still worked out really well.

I was actually able to chat comfortably with people most of the way to the school (we met at the train station) which for me was a good stop. I've been having people issues. But yes, then we show up and do the whole many hellos/bows thing, then get in, and start laughing at the guest slippers we have to use (damn our big American feet!). But anywho, then we walk into the intro hallway, and right then a group of kids walk past. They're all talking and chatting amongst themselves, and then BAM! Gaijin! (aka foreigners). They're eyes go wide and their mouths drop and they start whispering and waving and yelling "Hello!" Because they're smart and know how to do that. I love cute little kids. Japan has like, the cutest little kids. Yes, underneath it all they're surely satan span, but they're adorable. And we all wave back at them, and that made them so happy, and you could just see the look in the eye going "Why don't we get the Americans in our class?" and it was fun.

But then we go upstairs and meet the teachers, doozo yoroshiku and all that. Then the teachers leave to send the kids to come get us, and a gaggle of four or five girls or so come to get me and David. This would be the time to note that I was the only female volunteer, and these girls were so stoked that the American girl was going to be in their class. This would also be a good time to note that Marcus hadn't shown up yet because of directional issues. I'll explain the significance in a bit.

But yes, David and I follow them to the class area, and we introduce ourselves, and then the class splits in half, and we're separated, and each of us has our own group of twenty kids who get to ask us questions in Japanese. For the record: 10 year olds totally kick my but in speaking Japanese. In every possible Japanese language way. But it was still fun, and I tried my hardest to answer as many questions as I could, and apologized when I was just stumped. The teacher helped for a bit, but when he went over to help David, the same girls who had guided us earlier, and were sitting right in front of me, scooted closer, because they wanted to ask me a super secret question. *whisper, whisper* Do you have a boyfriend? I just laughed and said no, but I didn't before I came to Japan. Scandalness! More whispers. Then I kind of beckon them closer. *whisper, whisper* do you have boyfriends? And they just start laughing and giggling and shaking their heads, and I'm like, come now, don't lie, of course you have boyfriends, everyone in Japan has a boyfriend, and they just start laughing harder and yelling "no, no!" and then we went back to normal questions. After awhile I started asking them questions cause their interest was starting to lag. But then you could tell we were about dead, so I'm like, Game time! Ran over and grab Dave, and had them get ready for Pictionary!

Yeah, I don't know how to give directions in Japanese. It was mostly like... "So, we have a card, with a word, and you draw a picture... and then everybody... wait, there's no way to say "guess in Japanese, is there?" Yes, but we managed with examples and what not, and it was a huge success. But the words were really easy so we started giving them harder ones. Such as: "zaa, zaa" which is the sound heavy rain makes. "3rd graders," which was random and had nothing to do with anything. "David," which was funny to see them try to draw, and the last one, "Air." which was great, because one of the girls drawing it totally like mapped out the whole scientific picture you learned back in elementary school about how when you breath you make carbon dioxide, and then the trees take it in, and with sun light does the whole word I can't spell thing, then puts out oxygen, and then you breath it in again, and David and I are like, oh my god, that girl is brilliant! Someone get her a cookie! But it was fun.

Um, during the question time, though, my group was facing the hallway, and there wasn't a wall there, so they were able to see Marcus walk by as he showed up late. And really, what's better than a white girl? A freaking tall black guy! If you think the kids' eyes were wide when they saw us white kids, imagine their reaction to a black guy walking through their school! And Marcus is like, the tallest person I know. He towers over everybody. So that was fun, and apparently his class was totally amazed by him, but Marcus is great, so it went well. And the kids were like asking him and Pat if they were friends and what not, and they're like "yeah, of course" and the kids are like "wow!" And it was just really cute. I love working with kids in another country, because it gives us a chance to show them different types of people, and how we can interact with each other, and how not everything they've learned is true.

Oh, and I got to teach a bunch of people (including the teacher) that Washington state is not where the president lives. No, it is in the north west corner of America, and Washington DC is the capitol city of America, not a state, as it is in the east. Yay geography! May they spread the word near and far and end the ignorance of Japanese everywhere!

More likely they've already forgotten. What'cha gonna do, they're only ten

But yeah, so those girls, like adored me. Not sure why. Maybe because my name was "Lynda" and there's actually a song in Japanese that goes "Lynda lynda lynda, lynda lynda lynda..." it was from a commercial or something, and is actually pronounced like: "rinda rinda rinda..." and the girls were dancing around me singing it... but they were cute. I can't remember their names to save my life, though. So instead of letting them know exactly how stupid I was, I remembered like two, and kept calling people the wrong name on purpose, and then they'd correct me, and I'd be like, "nah, you're wrong, you're name's really mini mouse, isn't it?" and they'd be like, "no! No rinda I'm ____" and I'd be like, "No, no, you're Miko, I remember" and they'd all laugh and correct me again. Anywho, I spun my stupidity well.

Over all it was so cool, and I'd have done it for free, but 20 dollars is nice, too. Plus, they gave us free lunch, they'd made spaghetti cause the Americans were there. Ah, what a flash back that was to elementary school food. I think they use the same plastic in Japan.

Oh, one last fun story about this! As a follow up to the do I have a boyfriend question, the girls got really close again after they started setting up for lunch, and whispered, "Is David your boyfriend?" and I started laughing, cause David's pretty much he exact opposite of who I would date, and I was like "No, no, I think he has a girlfriend," which was cool all in itself, because hey, couples are cool. But their next question was, "So what's the name of the person you like? What's the name of your last boyfriend?" I put both questions cause I'm not certain exactly which it was, but it just got me laughing. And then I'm like, "Um, his name is David. but it's not that David!. David is a very popular name in America, I know like five Davids." but they all thought that was really cool, and it was just so much fun. We were there for about two hours which is about as much time as I ever want to spend in an elementary school, but it was totally worth it. I'd definitely do it again.

What other cool stuff has been happening... Well, while ago we did our big skit project in school. While we were kinda led around like trained monkies on that one (what else is new?) it turned out to be so much fun. Every class had to do a skit (or split into smaller groups to do a skit) and there were some really good ones, and some not so good ones, but then we all performed them in front of a bunch of other exchange students and some Japanese people. The other exchange programs in the school either did skits or presentations, but I gotta say, we kicked butt and were totally better than them. And, I'm also happy to note that I think our skit was pretty close to the top as far as greatness goes.

So, originally the teachers wanted us to do this Japanese story, that was really, really boring, but we're level 1 kids and can't be trusted to come up with anything good, so they were trying to spoon feed us stuff. Now, I normally just kinda go along with what the teachers want (or just don't listen while they talk, you know, depending on my mood and how boring they're being) but even I couldn't accept what they wanted us to do. Mitsuhashi sensei was like, how about this? And we were all like, just sitting there, staring at her. Some faces obviously like "You have got to be kidding." Haley was the one who eventually just said, "No." and then we started brainstorming.

They told us we couldn't do genji. They didn't think we could hold back the crudeness of it (because some of the kids in my class are particularly... well... they're interesting) so, even though we just wanted Marcus to play a big pimpin' genji going around flirting with chicks and dance battling bad guys (yes, not only is he tall and black, he can freaking dance. He's like a god amongst Japanese people). Teachers totally struck that down. So back to the drawing board.

I don't know who came up with Daraimon, but we decided to go in that direction, and it was totally worth it. Daraimon is a robot cat or a magic cat, or some sort of cat, that makes tools that help this kid, nobita, out with like school and friends and something. So we had the story be that nobita liked this girl, shizuka (all of the characters are taken from the TV show), who likes this guy takeshi, who's really mean but can dance really well, and that's what she cares about. So Nobita climes to the top of a tall mountain where the dance kami lives (played by Tanoshita Sensei, who was amazing!) and asks him to teach him to dance, but the dance kami doesn't dance anymore because he lost a dance battle, and sends Nobita away. So Nobita runs home to his parents (Nuchi and Niki... Yeah, nuchi isn't his real name, it's just what we call him in Japanese, and that's all I know) and complains, and his mom's like, "that's all right dear," and that dad's like, "you should quit dancing, and become a garbage man like me!" and there's some funny lines, and then Nobita walks all sad like to his room, where a mysterious cardboard box/closet is in the corner, and you hear a big "meow!" and the conversation goes like, "Who is that?" then a muffled voice from the closet, "Daraimon!" then marcus, "C.C. Lemon?" (really popular drink). Then daraimon, "C.C. Lemon can't talk! It's Daraimon!" Out comes faus san in a complete daraimon outfit, looking ridiculously hilarious, and being seen for the first time by the audience, who just cracks up. And then Daraimon gives Nobita a necklace things to make him dance well, but he dances really bad for a second, cause it was the wrong one, but Daraimon fixes it, and then runs off to dance battle takeshi.

This is where I come in, after all the comments from Shizuka and the parents, I'm the announcer person who introduces them, and I give Takeshi this long introduction like, "The amazing, wonderful, super cool, dance master Takeshi!" and the audience gets into it and cheers and everything. And then I turn to Nobita and am like, "Nobita..." And the audience gets into it and boos, and while I had some other lines, I really just liked that the audience totally got what we were going for and played along with us. But then there was the dance battle, and (mark) Takeshi starts doing disco, and then everyone laughs, and the Nobita just kinda pushes him away and Marcus breaks out in his super cool dance moves, and the audience starts chearing, and of course Marcus wins, and kamisama comes up on stage and tells Marcus how he's inspired him to dance again, and then Shizuka runs over and hugs Nobita because he's so cool, but in his excitement Nobita throws up the dance necklace, and it lands on Daraimon, so now Shizuka runs to Daraimon and loves him, and Nobita goes to cry in the corner with takeshi. Then the dad goes over to Nobita and says, "Hahaha! You should have been a garbage man!" And the mom comes up to scold the dad, but to get out of it the dad yells "Dance Pary!" And music comes on, and we all start dancing, then get in a line, and start going off the stage in pairs (from either side). First me and the narrator (Ryan, who was amazing), and then the parents, then Shizuka and Takeshi, and then Daraimon moon walks off the stage while Marcus dances cool like off it, and then it's just Kinoshita sensei, and EVERYONE loves Kinoshita sensei, so he's up there, and has to dance by himself, and everyone roars with applause, and it was really cool.

So yeah, we rocked.

Um... what other good stuff has occurred... We went to Nikko on a field trip thing, and that's where I was for Thanksgiving. There was a party earlier that way put on by our IES student council (who I must say has done a good job with things), but I didn't go, because really, I don't like turkey or cranberry sauce, and the chances that the mash potatoes or stuffing would be worth the $10 just wasn't likely. That and it was my depressed week. But I did go to Nikko, which was over all kind of boring, but I saw some really cool stuff while I was there and picked up a few more of the souvenir things. (I'm now just about done with gifts. By that I mean all I need is something for my mom and step dad. The hardest for last, right?). Also, Thanksgiving night (our thanks giving night, your thanksgiving 2am) we were at a really nice hotel that had an all you can eat buffer, which had amazing Japanese food, so while I didn't get stuffing, I did get tempura and other goodness, and it as swell.

It was so cold there, when we went on the tours of places it was a chore to get off the bus. Like, it was great to go to the first... oh dear, I forget the name of this important showagun family that is like, huge history stuff that I totally know... toshokan is library... to something... anywho, famous huge shrine in nikko that's elaborately done, and has the see no evil, say no evil, hear no evil monkies. Wondered around there, looked at pretty stuff, took pictures, was freezing cold... and that's really the jist of our entire trip. Both days they served us tiny gross lunches, and it snowed, and we didn't go anywhere particularly exciting, though the really big waterfall was cool. I didn't even get off the bus at one place, because all it was a pretty building, and I heard it wasn't even that pretty, so I'm not sad I spent the time huddled for warmth.

This might be a good time to point out that I don't, in fact, own a real coat. Not even in America. I may well break down and buy a real coat soon, but my chest is too big for Japanese coats, so for the next two weeks I'll just suffer. Besides, it's not that cold in Tokyo. Today I was actually too hot, and all was wearing was a turtle neck, with a dress over it, and a tank top under it, and a scarf. This morning I was ice, but by the time I headed home from the school it was pretty nice out. Also, it hasn't snowed in Tokyo yet, and it doesn't rain as much as it does at home, so you might say the weather is actually better here.

But yes... anything else of great importance? Class has been better this week. Last week I walked out on Mitsuhashi sensei forty minutes before class was over, but that's okay, because I'd been crying for twenty minutes (kinda discreetly?) because I was so frustrated with the class. Mitsuhashi's teaching style leaves much to be desired. We spend an hour on easy ass kanji, then we spent like forty minutes reviewing the grammar from the day before, and then the next forty minutes I was there was just using one set sentence's grammar pattern to say other things similar to it. Essentially, it was "even though ____, why is _________" And all of the example sentences I could think of went something like, "Even though I learned this grammar in high school, why is it that I have to come to class everyday?" I came up with about ten examples in my head along the lines of "why do I have to be here right now?" and mix that with the fact that I'd actually been using these grammar patterns since I got here, and there was only three weeks left of class in which I wouldn't be learning anything new, and I haven't learned any new grammar, but I was too stupid to be moved up a level, and now my academic hopes and dreams are in the process of systematically being crushed, I was having a bad day.

Mitsuhashi's teaching style does not leave room for creativity, it does not practice Japanese speaking, it teaches you very specific, very set sentences that may not be useable in normal conversation. This is why even though Japanese people have studied English for years and years in school, they are incapable of having a conversation. Anyway, because I have been ignoring her in class for the past month, and there for whenever I'm called on I have no clue what's going on, she's been thinking I don't know my stuff, and really I'm being a know it all, but I'm getting away with it because I do pretty much know it all, and she really didn't know why I was upset. But after my crying episode she had someone talk to me (one of the staffers who speaks English) And I pretty much went off for half an hour about how useless it is for me to go to class how much I hate it, how pissed I am I even had to be in it, and how because of their ridged rules I've pretty much wasted a semester, and by the way, I'm so seriously fucked it's not funny. Pardon the French.

I think she talked to Mitsuhashi sensei recently, though, and class had improved mildly. But the important thing is that the last two days were really good in showing I'm not stupid. To start with, yesterday only five of us showed up, so when we partnered to do a speaking drill I got mitsuhashi sensei, and because she actually knows enough Japanese for me to veer off course, I didn't really follow the conversation that had been laid out so nicely for us. (aka pretty much say these things, changing these five words here, and recite the same conversation we've been going over for two days again and again and again). I showed Mitsuhashi that I'm capable of having a conversation. I used grammar we didn't have to use, grammar we'd recently gone over in class, grammar we'd be going over next week. It was simple conversation, but I veered off course just enough to make it a real conversation, even while using the words we were studying. Actual conversation is a better teacher then reading off a piece of paper fifty times. Anyway, Mitsuhashi sensei was happy with me.

Then also, we came up with another skit were gonna do, and on Monday I told everyone just to tell me exactly what they wanted to say, in English, and I would translate it. Which I did, and we went over it Tuesday, and while no one in class gave much input (which I really wish they had, because I love writing, and having a chance to actually do story writing in Japanese is fun, but I want it to be the best it can so please help me). But Mitsuhashi's "corrections" were mostly two things repeated (I used the wrong tense several times for the same thing, so it's really just one correction, and I said "In fact" wrong several times, same deal) but the other stuff was pretty much mostly correct, and her changes just made it conversational, and I managed to incorporate a lot of the grammar we'd learned into not that much talking, and I wrote it in better Japanese then most of the class would have used. Pretty much it was just another, "See, I can do this" moment, which for me is a good thing because I'm tired of the whole trained monkey feeling.

Oh, and I hung out with some people Monday that I actually had fun with. Like, they're the type of people I can feel comfortable and like myself with, but only in small doses. There's no one here who is really my type of friend, but there are people who can be good enough. People who at least have my kind of humor and my kind of interests. So, they could be my friends, just not my best friends, and I don't need best friends right now, I just need someone I can have a good time with. Monday night really helped the last two days.

So, Monday's apparently have Sakubun circle (a writing group) and I didn't know it was every Monday, so I've only gone once, but I went again this Monday, and I'll go again next Monday, so I should have at least three essays, but I actually like it. You can' use your Jisho, so it's just you writing what you know, then afterwards Kinoshita sensei goes over it with you. It's a lot of fun, I think. Some people don't, but then, I'm a literary nerd, writing's what I do for fun. And being able to write in two languages is exciting. I love writing cause it's like a puzzle in a way, how do you make things sound good, how do you convey meaning, how do you convey things that don't even have words? I can't do that in Japanese, but just trying to talk about my family can be fun in Japanese. I love talking about my family, or my cats, because they're happy topics for me. I wish I knew more so I could talk about my friends better.

Even though I haven't learned as much as I would have liked to, it's true that four months of review hasn't made me worse. My conversation skills are loads better, my comprehension quadrupled like ten times, my particle knowledge on the stuff I've learned three times is pretty freaking awesome, and my willingness to at least try to talk to people (be it college students, business men, fourth graders, or scariest of all, my teachers) is second nature. If I want to say something I try to say it, and I have faith in other people's abilities to help me out when I'm in trouble. Or at least to enjoy a nice game of charades.

I keep going back between regretting and being happy I'm here. I'm happy I'm here right now. But I'm also happy to be going home. Don't ever doubt that I love Japan. Even when I hate Japan I love Japan. There are so many great things here, and the bad stuff would still be bad in America. I want to come back, but I want to come back with people I'm comfortable with, really good friends who I like and love and enjoy spending time with. I hope some set of years from now I can come with Ian and Dave and maybe the other Dave if he can come to (by that I mean Corey and Smith) and you know, any significant others we might have, or other good friends, or whatever, but preferably a small group of 3-6 gaijin and I could show them around a bit, and I could see Tokyo the way I want to see it. I've never come to Japan as a tourist before, and I really want to give it a try. I also love the teaching English thing, so I wouldn't mind doing that, either. Well, I'd probably hate it, but the idea at least sounds nice, and I think I'd get over hating it eventually.

But I'm gonna through on some pictures and talk to you guys later. Have a good night everyone. I'll see some of you in 18 days.

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Photos

Kids at the school
Just a lot of the kids, the ones I mostly talked to

Marcus and Kids
Just caust I like the kids with the stilits

Other Voleenteers and Kids
I know David and Sam are in there, I forget the other guy's name.

Me and Kids
I only got two pictures with them, and they're both blury X(

Pictionary It Up
So, the kids test out their artistic tallent, while David stands judge

Sam, Marcus, Kids
There were swarms of the little buggers! But that's cool, because they probably would have done anything we told them to. Yay Gaijin powers!

Me at Famous Shrine Place
Me at Famous Shrine place with exagerated designs in the background

Monkey Thing
Yeah, we all know how it goes

Friend People
In Nikko right after our first not very good lunch

Me and Waterfall
Said waterfall is one of the four biggest in Japan, and was pretty cool to look at

Me Carving Wood Thing
While at Nikko we got to carve flowers on the back of hand mirrors. I love you all so much I wont give it to you, because no, it did not look good at all

Skit Time!
Kinoshita, Haley and Marcus chilling while we do some in class skits

Oh, Faus-san
No one would doubt he's the yoparai of the group

Me with Wig
Me goofing off in class while making up a daily skit thing

Daraimon no Subarashii Dansu Dougu!
he cast of the skit in all our glorey

Me Doing My Thing
And now everybody Cheer on que!

Niki and Nuchi
Because come on, we should all dance like that!

Kinoshita Sensei!
Here we are making a last minute change to his outfit, because that hat just completed his kaminess

Nobita and Daraimon!
Here's right after Faus came out, the closet, which had been gradually getting less stable, completely died with his entrance.

Dance Party!
Really, what else is there to say?

Forgot to Mention
I went to Disney Sea. Now you know.

X-mas with Disney
So, there was a line to get a picture with the Mickey Christmas Statue. Christmas starts the day after holloween in Japan

Comments

[Sensei Clark-Hahn]

omoshirokatta
Loved reading this and loved the "all in Japanese" letter you sent. We MUST have koohii when you return.