Lots of Stuff

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06/7/20

Sick. And speaking loudly enough to keep a four-year-old’s attention for fifty minutes.. I am not happy.  And I don’t why I’m sick. Grrr. It is a fabulous excuse to eat ice cream, though. Silver lining, eh?

I am also the world’s laziest teacher—or today I was. My EK class today was told that their Japanese teacher was leaving, so in the Japanese portion of the class they did nothing. I was then supposed to teach them for half an hour with a sore throat. We talked in Japanese, drew on the board with our non-dominant hands and I made them review past tense quickly. One of them was kind of cocky, so I asked him to write the past tense of extrapolate on the board. He gave it a decent shot. While not a very professional or teacherly thing to do, I think they now think I’m cool. They’re all pretty good at English, anyway. Fun kids.

Then, they saw the Kyoto candy that I got as an omiyage for the office, and of course they wanted some. This candy really is the best thing ever to hit Japan. Anyway, they were really serious about it—clasping their hands together in the traditional kind of humble way and saying onegai shimasu (like do me a favor). I still didn’t act like I was going to and they got down on the ground in this EXTREMELY humble/respectful way. It’s actually kind of abject (can I use that word that way?) and begged for a piece, so I caved. They each got a piece of candy, in addition to not having to really study English. They’re my favorite group children’s class, Miyu is my favorite private student, and my housewives class is my favorite adult’s group class. I’ll miss teaching them, but I won’t miss the company. Besides, I’m sick and dying and I think it’s the hours. If Anna, Lauren, and Molly were here, I would joke that I have AIDs again. But, at least being sicker than a dog this week but still going in will lend credence to me taking a “sick” day on Monday and going to Nagano. I have a placement interview and I have to buy new shoes. I’m thinking about going to Nagoya tomorrow (health permitting) to see Nagoya Castle, maybe visit the Tokugawa museum (which has original pieces of the Genji Monogatari!!!!!), and go shopping at Nagoya station. Nagoya station is the best—it has a ton of department stores, a grocery store, restaurants, and of course the shinkansen. Maybe I’ll invite Dinah or Chiho to go with me. Dinah is American, but she’ll speak Japanese with me, because she’s currently studying at the Japanese language school in Okazaki. I’d take lessons if they weren’t so fricking expensive, and so far away. I’d have to transfer trains 3 times and spend about ten dollars to get there, plus the tuition for a private class. Maybe not worth it…I’ll find a tutor once I get to Nagano, and I’ll have to speak in Japanese with the Japanese staff, so I know I’ll get better.

I’m not too bad as it is, I guess. Maki told me that I make a lot of grammatical mistakes, but not so bad that I can’t be understood, and that I need to try to make more complex sentences, but that my pronunciation and rhythm of speaking are almost like a native’s, so I’m a good speaker. Score.

I went to the conbini (convenience store) last night for foodles, and I finally realized exactly what they say when they offer to heat up your food. I always knew what they were offering, but not how they said it. Atatamete yoroshii desu ka (is it good if I warm it?). And they say shitsurei shimasu (I’m committing a rudeness) when they pick your items to scan them, and all that. They don’t speak slowly, so I’m impressed with myself. I just needed to learn the verb atatameru.

One of the conbini ladies once spoke to me in English with this look of utter excitement on her face. Cute old lady. She was so proud to be able to tell me the cost in English that I had to smile and tell her how jouzu (good) she was at English. It was one of the rare times that I didn’t feel annoyed when someone when they spoke to me in English.

Ok, that’s all for tonight. I need to sleep my poor sore throat away. It’s rainy and cool, which is helpful (I think).

06/7/21

Something about the Japanese education system is bothering me—well, lots of things are. First, kids are afraid to volunteer answers, even when they think they know them. I know they don’t want to stick out, but it makes my job hard. When I ask them to name any adjective so I can write it on the board, I should not be greeted by silence. But part of this may be that most of the time they don’t think they know it. This is because Japanese students memory the right answer, but don’t actually learn English. Two of my kids today were Junior High kids (so they’ve been studying for a while), but they couldn’t tell me the opposite of heavy when I asked it without context. Or the opposite of dark. And they had a hard time with who/what/where questions. We were reviewing just two units before moving on to the next one, a review I expected should take no longer than 30 minutes, and it took 50! Which left me with nothing really to do—I didn’t feel comfortable doing just 10 minutes of new grammar (and didn’t think they could handle it either), so we just did vocabulary. I wish Japan weren’t so focused on test results, because if they weren’t, people might actually enjoy and learn at a reasonable pace.

Which brings me to my next point—that I think Japan is unhappy with itself. It strives so hard to be the best, the most fashionable, the most everything. It adopts anything cool from other places, Japanizes it a little, and everyone jumps on the “cool” wagon. Why not just look at your own traditional culture and see how rich it is? It’s still there, it’s just hiding. I wonder what their children’s stories are like these days—do they even mention old legends and customs? Does it even exist these days, or is it manga? I learned a lot from kids books. I think they’re important for children’s development. Like Through the Looking Glass, and Alice in Wonderland, right Molly? Or even more basic. I want to study children’s literature here more and more!! But women’s lit would be fascinating too. I don’t know. But I’ve digressed. I could be wrong and Japan doesn’t hate itself, but why would it continue to import so many things if it didn’t?

And on a more amusing note, Japan is such a country of packaging. It’s a good thing they’ve got a killer recycling program, because plastic is the product of the century and the answer to every problem here. Honestly. During the Gion parade (which I actually think I forgot to mention because I watched so little of it—it was raining) they covered everything in plastic and went out into the elements, fearless as it were. And the way they package some ice-cream is hilarious. They put the ice-cream in the cone, freeze it, put the cone and ice-cream in a plastic container, and then put it in to box. They box CONES OF ICE-CREAM. Nutsy, funny. See the pictures.

In one of my last posts, I mentioned kind of jokingly that I feared Higashi Okazaki station and my commute home at night. That has just been upgraded to actual fear. Yes, I ran into creepy guy again. And ran away from him as fast as I could. I was running for my bus (as I usually do, because usually it departs almost immediately after I get to the station) and I heard someone say ‘konbanwa’ to me. Aside from recognizing his voice, I knew it had to be him, because who out of the blue would say hi to someone they didn’t know who was running for their bus? Anyway, I looked over and he was jogging beside me. I nodded and ran as fast as I could to the bus—which hurt!! I have a killer sore throat, and running requires a lot of air. When I got there, I was afraid he was still following me, so I hid in the very back of the bus. Surprisingly, it was not about to depart, which made me sad. Creepy guy didn’t follow me on, but he did spot me in the back because he pointed to me. Luckily the bus was crowded, which is why (I think) he didn’t follow me on. I watched him leave, thinking that maybe he’d at least have been waiting for another bus or taxi and that he hadn’t been waiting for me. No. He didn’t get on another bus or taxi, he just slowly sauntered away—at which point I quit watching. I hope he wasn’t waiting for me, but I really am frightened now. There’s no other station I can use to get home, and I’ll be damned if I’ll walk home along unlit streets when he might be watching…this is another reason for me to flee the area. Maybe I need to ask my mom to send me pepper spray. *whimper*

When I first ran into him it was on the opposite side of the station, and I know that’s the side he usually uses, because he didn’t know the other side even had bus stops when I met him. Sigh. I don’t actually think he’d do anything, but I don’t really want to test it either. I want my sister….she makes things ok. Chrissy, come to Japan.

I never had this problem on JR lines. It is therefore my opinion that Meitetsu is not only older, not only smells like urine, not only attracts more homeless, but that it is also dangerous.

Oh well. Life is exciting, anyway.

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Photos

Ice Cream 1
Self explanatory, I think.

Comments

[anonymous]

DEAR GOD. Creepy guys = bad. I hope you feel better soon sweetie!