just for fun. . .

around may or june the old gymnasium was torn down in order to build a new, earthquake safe elementary school . . . which naturally makes me feel safe to be teaching in the old one ;)

anyway, the construction guys have pretty much taken over the parking area in front of my place . . .the dormitory i live in is literally right next to the elementary school. . . as in i have to make all my curtains are closed when i’m getting ready in the mornings. . .

today was one of the rare days that i was able to go home to eat lunch and relax a few minutes away from students (and away from soji). . . as i left to return to work, this is what i found. . .

i found it amusing to see all the construction workers sprawled out on the parking lot and in their trucks. . . there were at least six or seven more of them, but this was the only picture i could risk without fear of being caught. おもしろいね.

quirks

japan is an odd place sometimes. . . they believe strongly in this appearance over reality concept. . . this leads to me sitting at work for hours or days at a time having to appear busy even though i really have nothing to do . . .

although i personally am not having problems with the appearance vs. reality thing at the moment (teaching at seven schools and dancing every night keep me busy enough), but i just left the junior high school where a staff meeting was in progress (i am so grateful that i am one of the alts that gets out of those things). . . most of the teachers are sleeping, making midterm tests, or grading papers. . . no one actually listens to a word being said. . . why bother talking if no one is going to listen? the training starts early on (as i mentioned in the blog about my over-worked students). . .

more quirks in the system. . .i recently had the choice of staying at work for an extra hour and a half to eat school lunch. . . or returning to my office early and grabbing my own lunch along the way. . . apparently my decision to cancel one day of school lunch caused my supervisor an extra hour of work. . . he had to call to cancel the lunch, make a second call to cancel the charges to my account, and was apparently rather distressed with the fact that my one little bottle of milk could not be cancelled. . . i.e. i will be charged possibly thirty cents for a bottle that someone else will probably drink anyway. . .

that’s all i have time for at the moment. . . still so much more to say. . .and so many pictures i need to post! for now, here is one of a fisherman at the beach last saturday (no, i don't actually know who he is). . .

小さいブログ. . .ゴメンね！

i know, i know. . . it's time for me to write a real blog reporting on all my amazing experiences in japan. . . and although it is my now my second year here (and i therefore have a much better understanding of my surroundings and the events taking place), i do still have exciting new experiences to report. . . the problem is in the fact that i have no time to report them . . .

i suppose the place to start is dance. . . as i believe you know, i will be dancing as part of the guest team at yosakoi in osaka this november (my birthday weekend to be exact). . . if you can read japanese, here's the info (dance cream is the name of the studio i dance at) . . .
http://sasso-japan.org/expo-vol2.html
http://park.expo70.or.jp/facil/facil_04.html#yosakoi
i'm not really clear on all the details. . . all i know is that we have numerous street performances and a couple of stage performances. . . i think we only dance on saturday (the 18th). . . we are leaving kochi around midnight on friday night. . . taking a bus to osaka (3+hours?) . . . and then dancing all day staturday. . . i believe relaxing a bit/ sightseeing on sunday. . . and returning. . . while i am obviously extremely excited, i am also getting pretty stressed out. . . as the only person on the team who has never participated in yosakoi, i have no idea how to use narko or maneuver my happi or scream random words in japanese (it's like trying to learning things like woohoo in english. . . よちょれ　and わしょい are not particularly useful for daily communication). . . aside from those challenges, my teacher put me in all four of the dances both in the street version (which everyone does) as well as on stage. . . since we started learning the first dance in june or july, two of the dances have been pretty well drilled into my body (including the chants and narko and happi). . . a third dance is coming along (although we spend very little time on it in rehearsals. . . as in running it once maybe every week? if that). . . the fourth, however, is my biggest source of stress. . . apparently my teacher has decided not to actually teach it to me. . .i finally asked him for a video of it (but have no time to watch the video). . . we NEVER practice it in rehearsal. . . i have no idea how he expects me to be in this dance. . . learning combinations is my biggest weakness in dance. . . so, yeah, that should be interesting. . .

okay, i know that's just a start, but i really need to go home and go to bed now. . .

out of curiosity, who still checks my blog? is it down to just my mother? i know i've been neglecting my readers lately. . . sorry about that! i have so much to say. . . it's getting harder and harder to know where to start. . . anyway. . . hopefully more to come in the NEAR future. . . for now. . .おやすみなさい！





"well, art is art, isn't it? still, on the other hand, water is water. and east is east and west is west and if you take cranberries and stew them like applesauce they taste much more like prunes than rhubarb does. now you tell me what you know." ~ groucho marx




"every child is an artist. the problem is how to remain an artist once we grow up." ~ pablo picasso

overworked

**tired staff costing japan $30bn**
a survey suggests tired workers are now costing the japanese economy $30bn a year in lost productivity.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/fr/-/2/hi/business/5063670.stm

having worked in japan for a year, this article is not at all surprising. . . although i have to disagree with the guy who said it’s a “global problem”. . . i know that work hours have become ridiculous in many parts of the world, but i swear it’s not the same as japan. . . especially at a young age. . .

most recently, my junior high students have been falling asleep in class. . . not just drowsy, daydream sleeps but really deep sleeps. . . it’s really frustrating. . . when i first came to japan, i would get kind of angry. . . after working so hard to make these materials or plan this lesson, the students are just going to ignore us? and why don’t the teachers do something about it? . . . but after a year, you begin to see just what is expected of the students . . .and begin to feel sorry for them instead. . .

many of my students start their day around 5:30 or 6:00a.m. . . . some ride their bikes over 10km from their houses in the mountains to school. . . others take public transportation transferring from bus to train to bicycle. . . others are lucky enough to live in town . . . and a few (very few) are lucky enough to have parents who drive them to school. . . (this one rather chubby boy in the junior high school always conveniently ‘forgets’ his bicycle. . . don’t know how anyone can forget a bicycle, but that’s how it was described to me. . . so he calls his dad to pick him up every day. . .pretty funny kid). . .

anyway, at certain times of the year (late spring through fall), the sports clubs meet for practice at 7:00a.m. . . .classes start at 8:25 and run until 3:00 or 4:00. . . classes are sometimes followed by committee meetings (e.g. library, student council). . . or they may be followed by practice for extra-curricular activities outside of club (e.g. swim team, track and field, undokai/ sports day, kanji or english proficiency tests). . . finally, following all of this, the students attend their real clubs (english, art, soccer, volleyball, kendo, etc.). . . at the latest, i believe the students are supposed to leave school around 7:00or 7:30. . .

while that concludes the daily life of a junior high school student at school, their days are far from over . . . what do they do after school? some of my students take piano lessons. . . everyone has their school homework. . . and finally, most of them attend juku (cram schools). . . some begin attending in elementary school, and almost all students attend by their third year of junior high because they have to prepare for their high school entrance exams . . . at juku they study all of their main subjects (again) in smaller groups or private lessons (with teachers outside of the school system). . . correct me if i’m wrong since i’ve never actually attended a juku class. . .when i was asking about my students' plans for christmas day last year, one girl replied, ‘i have to go to juku. . . all day’. . . granted christmas is not a widely celebrated holiday in japan. . . but it was even on a weekend last year. . .

which reminds me, the students also have to attend club activities on saturday and sunday (every weekend, all year). . . as well as all through the summer. . .

so. . .what would you do in a classroom with a schedule like that (not to mention the whole no air conditioner issue with temperatures around 30degrees celsius). . . i would most definitely sleep. . . or drink tons of caffeine (which is not permitted at school anyway). . .

on top of all that, there are perfectionists or overachievers. . . one day at sports day practice i noticed a huge red, cross shaped scab down one girl’s forearm. . . when i asked her what happened, she seemed surprised and said, ‘you’ve never seen it before? we do it when we have stress’. . . she had scratched it into her own arm. . . i am no longer surprised to see junior high students developing grey hair. . . or hear stories about high school students whose hair is falling out. . . it’s so sad. . .

finally, here is a poem one of my english club girls wrote the other day. . .

study
let's start
sleep, sleep, sleep
it's already morning
cry

by kanako


to end on a happy note, here is a poem by another girl . . .

cows
clear eyes
catching, roasting, eating
how poor they are
delicious

by natsumi

thunder stealing

note from my boss concerning the day's thunderstorms. . .

there is a japanese old tale to be careful not to have a navel stolen when thunder sounds. please be careful.

brief update. . . more later. . .

i have been insanely bored at work since my return from korea almost two weeks ago (yes, i plan to post a blog about that in the near future. . . just haven't been in much of a blog-writing mood). . . anyway. . . random stuff. . .

i've been here (in japan. . .kahoku) for over a year now, and these messages from my supervisor still crack me up. . .

it is cut off a dormitory from 1:00p.m. of august 30 to 5:00p.m. please be careful about the contents of a refrigerator. ice cream melts.

translation, i will not have electricity for four hours next wednesday. . . the part i love is that my supervisor still types his messages into the online yahoo translator (which comes up with translations like the one above) and prints them out on little half pieces of paper. . . and then stands next to my desk as i attempt to translate it into real english. . . i also love that he always includes the oh so caring details like. . . "ice cream melts" . . .

in other news, i recently paid for my shakken (car inspection) and next year’s insurance. . . the guy came to pick up the money (really nice guy and he did give me a slight discount on everything but still). . . i just glared at him the entire time i was handing over the money. . . it makes it worse that they do everything in cash here. . . i had to stand there and count out all 148,000 yen. . . and i was doing so well saving my money. . . :(

hmmm. . .it's 3:10 and my iced coffee and two little pieces of chocolate have not yet arrived at my desk. . . not sure where the office lady responsible for that went (yes, it is always a lady. . .). . . anyway, i feel a bit lost without my 3:00 snack time. . . kind of like a kindergartner entering the realities of first grade. . . is that when you lose nap time??

oh, found this in the news the other day. . . always nice to see my home state in the news. . . a little piece of kansas culture to share with my community in japan. . .

** u.s. police chase naked man **
a burglary suspect in kansas tried to evade capture by jumping in a river and taking his clothes off.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/nolavconsole/ifs_news/hi?redirect=st.stm&news=1&bbram=1&bbwm=1&nbram=1&nbwm=1&nol_storyid=4797803

driving, dance, and my second pet cockroach. . .

i got my japanese driver’s license on monday!!! you have no idea how exciting that is. . . my international license was only valid for one year (as is everyone else’s from every country in the world). . . however, while australians, brits, canadians, etc. are only required to take the eye test (maybe written test?) and sit through a thirty minute lecture (all thirty minutes were translated to me as “drive safely”), americans are required to take a driving test as well. . . from all prior reports, the driving test is hell. . . only one person had passed it on her first try. . . i know of one who passed on her second try (mainly because she knew some retired cop who put in a good word for her). . . and everyone else i know passed somewhere between their sixth and tenth attempt. . .

monday, i went to the driving center (without sayaka, my trusty translator, as i had a theory that the foreigners who wowed the guys with their japanese would pass more quickly). . . they have you do a written test (so easy. . . six minutes, ten questions, true or false, yes they had an english translation) and an eye test before you have the honor of trying the road test. . .the eye test is where i managed to charm the guys ;) . . . i was trying to do everything in japanese, but with the color blindness test, i was afraid that if i didn’t respond quickly, they would fail me, so. . . my responses came out as follows: yellow, blue, 赤 (aka=red). . . the two guys in the testing room apparently found this english/japanese mix hilarious. . . brownie points always help. . .

hell began after the two initial exams. . . at eleven o’clock, i entered a classroom with eight other people (six japanese guys, one vietnamese guy, one indonesian girl – who has been trying, and failing, to get her license for six months but comes back and tries again almost every day –, and me). . . we had to draw for the courses (A,B, or C), all three of which i had memorized the night before (along with three hours of studying and a practice run on the miniature streets of japan in tsuyoshi’s monster car – which is actually just an suv type vehicle. . . but compared to my minica, well. . .) . . .anyway, the vietnamese guy drew courses for the foreigners. . . he somehow managed to draw course A, the most difficult of the three. . .

when the officers came out at one o’clock, guess who i got. . . one of the officers from my eye test earlier in the day. . . a definite miracle. . .

quite honestly, my driving on the test was wretched. . . you have to do a million head checks and say “よし” every time you look anywhere. . . seeing as how my high school drivers ed instructor yelled at me for not doing enough head checks, i was certain i would fail on at least that one point (therefore i was looking everywhere. . . but not actually seeing a thing due to nerves). . . if you look at the following website http://www.geocities.com/fbgrable/driving.html you will have a better idea of what i was going through. . . the head checks, s curves, crank turns, lane changes, etc. etc. . . . all basics of driving, but japanese people have these systems and like things to be precise. . . that and, if you read the site, the driving test is more about taking the japanese system seriously. . . respect for people, details, perfection, the system itself. . .if you are ten centimeters too far left in your lane, you can fail. . . same goes for the right. . . if you turn your blinker on 25 meters before the turn and not 30, you can fail. . . it’s crazy and terrifying. . .to me anyway. . .

but. . . the point is, i drive better daily on real roads. . . my head checks were late, my turns were too wide, i even took both hands off the wheel at one point (when i stopped to wait for another car – not while moving), which is an automatic fail in most cases. . . on real roads, i would have killed four or five old people on motorbikes because my head checks were late, as in i was mid-turn when i remembered to check my blind spots. . . on most days for most people, i would have failed for all the mistakes listed above. . .but somehow, miraculously, i passed, on my first try. . . the officer actually thought i was a good driver (despite the flaws listed above which he did point out). . . i was in shock. . . i maybe still am in shock. . . i literally checked my wallet on tuesday morning to make sure that it wasn’t a dream and the license was really there. . . it was. . . it is. . .with the 2 points against me for my speeding ticket back in april. . . another reason i thought they would never give me my license. . . as long as i don’t continue speeding, hit a pedestrian, or run into the japanese mafia, i can drive in japan until december 2008. . .yay. . .

so. . .that was a bit lengthy. . . in other news. . . i will be leaving for the korean dance festival this friday, july 28th and will return to japan on saturday, august 12th. . . while i have a lot to report about dance, i will wait until after my trip. . . i can’t believe i am finally, actually going to korea. . . i’m guessing sangmee can’t believe it either :) i’ve been talking about it for such a long time. . . anyway, here’s the link to the festival website if you are interested. . . http://moderndance.co.kr/

finally, my second pet cockroach. . . i found him in my bathroom after dance one evening and screamed (probably waking everyone in the dormitory). . . he was fairly small and still kind of a brownish color (the big, old, scary ones are black. . .you may ask how i survive in rural japan. . . most days, i do not know). . . anyway, he was too fast for me to kill. . . after a night of bug nightmares and a few too many jokes from the teachers about how cockroaches like to creep around the house at night, i bought some little sticky traps (like the ones for mice only smaller –cockroach sized). . . almost every home in japan (or at least kochi) has cockroaches in the summer. . . the tv commercials show these adorable little cartoon cockroaches eating poison and taking it back to share with their families and then all dying together in their little home (which of course is somewhere within your home). . . my traps were really just about as sad. . . the glue traps are not simply sticky glue with food in the center but carefully designed cockroach houses. . . white house, red roof, shutter entrances, mats on each end for the poor thing to wipe its feet on (so it has nice clean feet when it touches the glue). . . no joke. . . it looks like a little play house for bugs. . . it kind of makes me want to cry – like the time i wouldn’t eat my mickey mouse pancake (only then i was like three years old). . . but really, why do they have to make things so cute? it feels ten times more cruel than just putting out an ugly patch of glue. . . at least from my end. . . suppose the cockroach doesn’t really know the difference as he dies either way. . .

anyway. . . that’s all i have to report for now. . . i still have pictures from kyoto and kobe and random events around kochi that i need to post. . . if i haven’t already forgotten the details (although it may be lucky for you if i have). . . how do these blogs get so long?

one last thing. . . my supervisor is currently reviewing the japanese procedure for cpr on an imaginary person in the boe office. . . he’s worried that his wording will be off. . . suppose he will fail his test for the emergency response team or whatever they are if he changes a word . . .personally, i could care less if he says ‘please call an ambulance’ vs. ‘call 119 now’. . . i imagine most unconscious people feel the same. . . my point is, the japanese start training people on how to memorize precise procedures at the age of zero and it just gets worse from there. . .面白いですよ。 じゃあね。

BBC made a mistake and interviewed the wrong guy
**click this link for the story. . .
http://edition.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/europe/05/16/bbc.interview/index.html
**then click this link for the actual interview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bOnm9jZK1dU&search=bbc%20interview%20gomahttp://portal/portal/mypage/mypage.asp?UserID=10496
**don't cheat.....if you don't read the story, the video won't have any meaning