Writing in "Communication Breakbown" about my embarrassing dentist experience in Japan got me a-thinking about teeth in Japan, as you do, so I thought I'd write a couple of my funny observations here...not that Japanese teeth are different to British teeth, but, you know, Japanese people and their teething escapades.
One thing I would say about when I went to the dentist in Japan is that I walked in, showed my little health insurance card (faded so much it was essentially just a piece of card) and I was immediately taken in for a check up...no forms (well a tiny form with my name and stuff, but let's just say I found it easier to fill out the form in the JAPANESE dentist in JAPANESE than I did to fill out the re-registry one in my ENGLISH dentist in ENGLISH.) No waiting...certainly not true of British dentists where you often enter in broad daylight, just before lunch, and, in spite having an appointment that you were on time for, emerge from the light-deprived sterility to find that 6 hours have passed, it's dinnertime yet you can't eat, drink or speak. It was all relatviely fuss free for a hypochondriac country prone to fuss dealing with a foreigner. The biggest fuss was when I put my slippers on the dentist chair carpet (see Communication Breakbown).
Of course, I couldn't understand the dentistry terms in Japanese, but the lady had a book with English translations, as if she had been expecting a foreigner to waltz into her surgery, in the middle of a rice filed in Ita-where (drenched and bewildered as it was typhoon season and typhoon+bicycle is not a happy combo). She pointed wildly at her book which had many medical terms that I didn't understand in English anyway. One thing she did do was cover my mouth with purple dye, then ask me to brush my teeth. Then we looked in my mouth with the mirror thing and saw the bits that still had purple dye as they were the places I didn't brush. I thought that this was SUCH a clever idea and went on ranting and raving about how it had changed my life and how amazing and forward thinking everything in hypermodern Japan was, until finally telling a British friend of mine who said that she had had it done at school in the UK 20 years ago and couldn't believe I hadn't. May have taught quite a few teachers and children a slight mistruth about the UK there...naughty ALT, doing more harm than good.
Whilst in a primary school once in Japan, I went along to the assembly which was all about how to clean your teeth. It had all the bog-standard things you'd expect from such an assembly in the UK too...information about how often to clean your toothbrush, a power point presentation, 6 kids with the flag of a country each hung around their necks who ran around the hall a few times in a fake race to demonstrate which country's children had the least fillings and a prize giving at the end where every child with no fillings was made to stand up, recieve applause and then was rewarded with a piece of tinsel to drape around themselves. All the usual.
In this assembly, Japan came last of the 6 presumably random countries, with the most fillings. I think the UK came second after Mr. perfect Sweden, beating the USA. I've heard that Americans think the Brits have really bad teeth...well the flag-necklace-running-race in Ita-where PROVES otherwise. Actually, I've found this incredible confusing graph from Gapminder online, which, if I'm interpreting it correctly which I'm fairly sure I am not, also places the UK as having better teeth than Japan and the US, so HAHA!. Link to graph.
Actually, a few American friends seemed fairly shocked that I'd gone to the dentist in Japan, as they'd heard horror stories. Their horror stories were that you get SILVER FILLINGS instead of the perfect little white ones. I opened my mouth each time, including to relative stranger, because I was that offended, to show my two silver British fillings...not just Japan there. Maybe that's why Americans think we have bad teeth...because we are loud and proud with our fillings instead of being shallow and coy about them.
Another part of the assembly featured empty bottles of softdrink with sugarcubes inside them to demonstrate how much sugar there was in each bottle. That was a really great visual and I can honestly say that I drink a lot less Coca Cola since seeing it. There were 15 cubes I think in one 500ml bottle!! Pocari Sweat, my fave J-drink was much better with something like 8 (still disgusting though, not stopped me going to the Japan Centre in Picadilly and buying a couple of bottles since being back in London though!) These bottles are STILL on display in the school TROPHY CABINET (or they were in July, assembly was last year) and the assembly won some sort of prize and was in the local paper. I didnt' see any assembly judgers present, but I feel very priveleged to have experienced a prize-winner.
I did notice that very few children had braces in Japan. Quite how Japanese children have more fillings though, I am not sure. Firstly I thought, it's their awful sugary school lunch, but, then I thought, I used to drink Coca Cola for lunch every day after the age of 11 I reckon, which is not possible for kids in Japan - they only get milk until the age of 15. There were also vending machines at my secondary school with chocolate and crisps...not so in Japan, where, surprisingly seeing as you often feel that vending machines outnumber PEOPLE 2:1 in Japan, schools are a no-vend area. Also, all the teachers and students brush their teeth after lunch in Japan, which we don't do in England (they used to do it in my office in Paris when I worked there though, so it's not only Japan). My only conclusion on the reason why Japanese children have a lot of fillings is their good old trait for hypochondria and fuss which means they put them in just to be on the safe side, even if there is no cavity to be seen. Problem solved!
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Japan. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 September 2011
Thursday, 26 May 2011
Good Little ALT Post Script
Just another little project I've done recently (although receiving far less support from wanky useless teachers.) It revolved around the Eurovision Song Contest 2011. For those who don't know what it is, please Wikipedia it or something, because I have spent the last 3 weeks of my life trying to explain it in both Japanese and in English and I can't bring myself to type it. It's a very famous music competition that happens once every year and is broadcast around the whole of Europe is the bare bones of it. Anyway, I went around the classes and they pulled 3 countries flags out of a hat. Then, I gave them the flag and some information about the country to put up in their form rooms, like how to say hello in their language, where it was on a map etc. and they became the supporter of that country. It was great...quite a few classes really got behind it. I played clips of one of the songs each class was supporting after the lunch menu on the speaker system every day the week before the contest and announced the winner on the Monday after the event, with the winning class getting little presents that my Mum has kindly sent from the UK for me/them. Of course it was sod's law that this year's winner would be just about the least famous country in the whole competition, Azerbaijan! Quite the anti-climax...and it's barely in Europe, which was another explanation I was rather out of my euro-depth in. The Eurovision Song Contest is only well-known in Europe, of course (although I've heard that some Australians give a sneaky peek). Any road, as Peter Kay would say, Eurovision is naturally not known in Japan at all (I found online that a couple of Irish pubs or sports bars in Tokyo do screen it every year, not that I'm enough of a loser to be that desperate to watch it!). It was great to hear that some of the kids really liked some of the music, and could understand parts of the lyrics. Its that perfect cheesey pop with really simple cliche lyrics aimed at non-native speakers. Their favourites were Denmark and Norway, the same as me! Especially Norway's African-vibey "Haba Haba" went down really well! They were all running round saying "haba haba" (or things that sounded vaguely like it). Strange that it literally came right near the bottom even in the semi final when it was catchy enough to get my kids onto it after a 15-second clip. It was also nice to teach the kids about an event from abroad and for them to see just how many countries (many they'd never heard of before, quite understandably as there are a couple I know nothing more about than their Eurovision entry every year...Andorra anyone?), people and languages make up Europe. Foreign does not just equal English and it certainly does not just equal the United States of America. However, I don't think any of them will be booking a ticket to Azerbaijan, in fact, I doubt if any of them can remember how to say it in Japanese, let alone English!
Good Little ALT
Just allow me a couple of minutes of your time to boast about how brilliant I am at my job. One of the problems many ALTs in Japan find is that some schools just want you there to tick the box that they have a foreigner and can show you off to the parents on open day, but don't actually want your input for anything at all. I feel like that with regards to lessons at my junior high school I must say, so I contribute in other ways like the amazing person that I am by organising various things outside of lessons.
Don't worry, I won't go through everything I've ever done in 2 years in Japan as if I'm filling out an application form for a job, but, I want to tell you about one such project. In February, after months of asking for permission and fussing, Ita-where's Junior High school had its first (and possibly only as I'm lea
ving in August, but I will tell my replacement about it, so here's to hoping) English Week. It was fantastic for me, because, once it had the title of "English Week," it seemed that I had the permission to do a whole host of English related things, that I would never normally be able to do or would have to wait for months of permission discussions for, just because it was "English Week." Thanks for your love of categories Japan. The art club made me posters that were hanging up all around school to get the buzz going, and I put up a table in the entrance hall full of little bits and bobs from England, such as magazines, comics, newspapers, stamps, money, postcards, photos, food.... There's a very rubbish zoomed-in picture above there, because all of the decent pictures have my kids in them (not my babies, my students, but they feel like my kids, because I'm just so brilliant and loving and perfect...ooo this is beginning to sound like one our lovely lovely ALT "training seminars" (aka listen to how great I am at my job and how much I know about Japan speeches). Anyway, there was a nice crowd of kids around it all week long, and it lead to many questions, which was cool. Very few of these kids have travelled, so they enjoy looking at foreign articles (came up in class today actually....only one out of forty students had a passport "Where have you been?" "Nowhere, I just had a passport.").
ving in August, but I will tell my replacement about it, so here's to hoping) English Week. It was fantastic for me, because, once it had the title of "English Week," it seemed that I had the permission to do a whole host of English related things, that I would never normally be able to do or would have to wait for months of permission discussions for, just because it was "English Week." Thanks for your love of categories Japan. The art club made me posters that were hanging up all around school to get the buzz going, and I put up a table in the entrance hall full of little bits and bobs from England, such as magazines, comics, newspapers, stamps, money, postcards, photos, food.... There's a very rubbish zoomed-in picture above there, because all of the decent pictures have my kids in them (not my babies, my students, but they feel like my kids, because I'm just so brilliant and loving and perfect...ooo this is beginning to sound like one our lovely lovely ALT "training seminars" (aka listen to how great I am at my job and how much I know about Japan speeches). Anyway, there was a nice crowd of kids around it all week long, and it lead to many questions, which was cool. Very few of these kids have travelled, so they enjoy looking at foreign articles (came up in class today actually....only one out of forty students had a passport "Where have you been?" "Nowhere, I just had a passport.").Also, we translated the lunch menu into English every day and broadcast it on the speaker system (in Japan the kyuushoku (school lunch) menu is broadcast every day so we just did it again in English after that. Then, I did a speech in English, with some Japanese for help about school lunch around the world and put posters about it up on my English Wh
ite Board (see Norway there with one of the amazing art club posters too (there are no hot lunches in Norway by the way, everyone brings packed lunches...school lunch is quite the institution (and fuss causer) in Japan, so Norway's lack of lead to mass hysteria fuss indeed in my school.)) Then we played some of the latest pop music from the UK (quietly so that the Head Teacher couldn't hear through the door, because he said it was ok as long as there were no guitars, electronic noises, rap or too many drums, before suggesting the national anthem of the UK for one day.....secret naughtiness there by me, but surely it was allowed, because, it was English Week after all!) To comple
ment this, the amazingly lovely nutritionist (Japanese schools often have nutritionist who are there just to plan the school lunch menus combinations and calorie balance...mentalness really, especially when you see how odd/unhealthy some of ours are, but, that's not for here) arranged for us to have FISH AND CHIPS and a jam sandwich for lunch that (plus the not so British cabbage soup) with English Week making an appearance on the monthly mantra that is the school lunch menu handout!! It tasted of nothing but salt and I think I've given them all a bad impression of British food now, but, who has a good impression of British food anyway?
ite Board (see Norway there with one of the amazing art club posters too (there are no hot lunches in Norway by the way, everyone brings packed lunches...school lunch is quite the institution (and fuss causer) in Japan, so Norway's lack of lead to mass hysteria fuss indeed in my school.)) Then we played some of the latest pop music from the UK (quietly so that the Head Teacher couldn't hear through the door, because he said it was ok as long as there were no guitars, electronic noises, rap or too many drums, before suggesting the national anthem of the UK for one day.....secret naughtiness there by me, but surely it was allowed, because, it was English Week after all!) To comple
ment this, the amazingly lovely nutritionist (Japanese schools often have nutritionist who are there just to plan the school lunch menus combinations and calorie balance...mentalness really, especially when you see how odd/unhealthy some of ours are, but, that's not for here) arranged for us to have FISH AND CHIPS and a jam sandwich for lunch that (plus the not so British cabbage soup) with English Week making an appearance on the monthly mantra that is the school lunch menu handout!! It tasted of nothing but salt and I think I've given them all a bad impression of British food now, but, who has a good impression of British food anyway? The most popular part of English week (apart from the for the school dinner ladies whose favourite part must have been shaking their salt shakers and getting carried away) was an orienteering type task where the kids had to find pieces of orange card hidden all around the school. There were 53 cards in total and each one had a reason for why it is worth studying English written on them in Japanese (it just had to be in Japanese or otherwise nobody would have bothered...it was not an exercise for learning new English, but for motivation as to why they study it). It proved quite the talking point of the week, and even prompted some of the most button-lipped-I'm-petrified-of-that-foreigner-type teachers to talk to me. I sort of assumed when I arrived that everybody knew there were many reasons to study English in today's globalising world, yet, on being questioned, my students can only ever muster up "to talk to foreigners" as a response, which isn't particularly meaningful to them when they live in the countryside of Japan, not exactly abundant with foreigners. So, I wanted to introduce them to a few more.
My favourite part of the week was my English newsletter. I made various articles, either in English, or about English in Japanese. Through the various activities I took part in in order to create the newspaper, I learnt a lot about my kids and about Japan's attitude to English. I asked some of my friends and acquaintances (plus somehow a friend of a friend who is some amazingly important person at Nintendo apparently) from Ita-where, to write about why they are happy they can speak (some) English, even though they live in the countryside and might not have any foreigners to speak with. It was really nice to read the responses and to see how happy they are to be able to understand English and how interested they are in travel, international news, culture and media, in spite of the overriding impression I often feel in Japan of a general ambivalence to these things. I hope some of my kids took note. I also did a quiz about Christmas and asked my kids to fill it out, which taught (or confirmed for) me that they know absolutely nothing about it at all. I came home for Christmas in the UK and before that I gave all of my third graders (15) a piece of paper and asked them to write a question in English. I took the slips home and got my friends and family to write answers for them and I took them back in January. I printed some of the more interesting answers in the paper. They were so happy to get their little slips back, and, many kids who don't normally show much enthusiasm for English, were really trying hard to work out the meaning of the answers by asking their friends, the teacher and me for the meanings of words and hunting through dictionaries. It was really funny for me to see the reactions to people of other races too (I put photos with the answers). They couldn't believe that black people were English and they pointed at my friend who has Chinese parents and said "nihonjin (Japanese)" straight away. In spite of mild racism, thanks to all my friends for filling those out if you are reading this, they really appreciated it. Equally as interesting was a survey I did with the first grade. I asked them if I said to my friend in the UK "Japan," what would be the first things that would spring to mind? I will show you the top few answers of each class (I did it with four classes of first graders, 13-year-olds):
1-1 : sushi, samarai, Mount Fuji, big Buddha statues, harakiri (I believe it to be a traditional type of ritual suicide or something ??), kabuki (traditional Japanese theatre)
1-2 : AKB48 (J-pop band), Ichiro (Japanese baseball player), One Piece (Japanese manga), Sky Tree (a new skyscraper in Asakusa, Tokyo), Dragonball (manga), Anpanman (kids' character), Keisuke Honda (footballer)
1-3 : Sky Tree, AKB48, sushi, Mount Fuji, manga
1-4 : Sushi, Tokyo, Sky Tree, samurai, Kyoto, Pokemon
I asked my friends and family to name five things they think of when they think of Japan each and the actual top 10 went as follows:
1. Sushi
2= Geisha
2= Kimono
4. Noodles
5= Tokyo
5= Anime
7= Mount Fuji
7= Crazy Fashion (that word crazy popping up many times)
7= High techonology
7= Fans
I was surprised as to how many traditional things came up, and also how many people thought of Mount Fuji and of cherry blossoms (a bit further down the list), two things which I don't think I'd ever heard of before coming to Japan!!
I can't think of a nice ending to tie this up, but, if any ALTs are reading...try out an English Week!
Saturday, 16 April 2011
Enough Ganbatte ?
Things in this part of Japan are returning to normality, but reminders of the wide range of problems the country is facing and will have to face for months to come, rear their head often. The upgrade of the nuclear disaster at Fukushima to level 7 and a 5.something earthquake yesterday very near to me have served to unsettle the people in my area again. This one was had its epicentre in Tochigi, only about 30km or so from my town and was the first since the 9.0 on 11th March in Miyagi to send things flying about in my apartment (another broken plate). I very much freaked out. The news has since said that this was officially NOT an aftershock of the Miyagi quake and has reminded us that other big earthquakes in various parts of Japan are an ever-present possibility (as they were before 11th March anyway). With these events still occuring, as resilient as the Japanese people seem on the surface, two drinking parties I have been to this weekend have shown how quickly the conversation turns to various concerns, once inhibitions are slightly lowered.
Understandably, people are very interested in what the UK government are saying and how many of my foreign friends in Japan have returned home. A couple of beers down and these sort of questions come thick and fast. Many people seem to have the impression that almost all foreign residents have fled to their home countries, which is grossly inaccurate if my friends are anything to go by. Even the people I know who did leave at first, have all returned to Japan as far as I know.
Last night, whilst at an open-air restaurant and drinking party in the name of charity for the people in Tohoku, I had a very interesting conversation with some of my Japanese friends about the word 'Ganbatte.' Without a doubt, this is one of the first pieces of vocabulary I learnt after my arrival in Japan. It is used all the time, with reference to work, sports, lifestyle, study... It is used when things are going well, or when things are going badly and need to be turned around. I like the translation 'to do one's best,' but Japanese people often translate it as 'to fight.' This is perhaps a little strong (but nice and pithy and easy to say for the Japanese), but I think it does often have slightly more persistent and tenacious connotations than simply to 'do one's best.' In a more negative situation, 'hang in there' may also be appropriate. It is used in so many situations, that it is probably a bit difficult to pin it down to one set English equivalent.
The Japanese media is currently flooded with adverts, speeches by politicians and celebrities and posters telling Japan, as a nation to 'ganbatte.' I have always thought it a fairly positive phrase and quite fitting for this sort of circumstance, but, many of my friends last night said that they found it a bit patronising to be told by the media to 'ganbatte.' The dictionary form of the verb is 'ganbaru' and 'ganbatte' is a sort of command form, so it is effectively saying to people 'do your best!' Friends' comments revealed that they felt they were doing their best anyway, what more could they do, they didn't need a politician or a pop star to tell them to do their best, as they would naturally do that anyway. Given how often the phrase is used in normal conversation, and having never picked up on a patronising tone to it before, I was surprised, as were some of the other Japanese people at the table, but, it was by no means just one person who shared the sentiment. They seemed to prefer 'ganbarou' which indicates that the person speaking is doing their best too, so that we should all do our best together. Maybe it's just been slight overkill, or that in such a serious state of affairs, it doesn't apply, but, for whatever reason, it is getting some people's backs up. I have also noticed that the term has been used in the foreign press a lot, such as the Independent front page on March 12th. I wonder if it has become a famous phrase in other countries in the past month? I don't think anyone would find it patronising from a foreigner though, as the sentiment alone is so appreciated.
With my level of Japanese, I can't understand all the connotations of the word, but, as most people seemed to agree that ganbarou was far more fitting, I will stick to that.
Japan, let's all do our best together! 日本！みんなでがんばろう！
Understandably, people are very interested in what the UK government are saying and how many of my foreign friends in Japan have returned home. A couple of beers down and these sort of questions come thick and fast. Many people seem to have the impression that almost all foreign residents have fled to their home countries, which is grossly inaccurate if my friends are anything to go by. Even the people I know who did leave at first, have all returned to Japan as far as I know.
Last night, whilst at an open-air restaurant and drinking party in the name of charity for the people in Tohoku, I had a very interesting conversation with some of my Japanese friends about the word 'Ganbatte.' Without a doubt, this is one of the first pieces of vocabulary I learnt after my arrival in Japan. It is used all the time, with reference to work, sports, lifestyle, study... It is used when things are going well, or when things are going badly and need to be turned around. I like the translation 'to do one's best,' but Japanese people often translate it as 'to fight.' This is perhaps a little strong (but nice and pithy and easy to say for the Japanese), but I think it does often have slightly more persistent and tenacious connotations than simply to 'do one's best.' In a more negative situation, 'hang in there' may also be appropriate. It is used in so many situations, that it is probably a bit difficult to pin it down to one set English equivalent.
The Japanese media is currently flooded with adverts, speeches by politicians and celebrities and posters telling Japan, as a nation to 'ganbatte.' I have always thought it a fairly positive phrase and quite fitting for this sort of circumstance, but, many of my friends last night said that they found it a bit patronising to be told by the media to 'ganbatte.' The dictionary form of the verb is 'ganbaru' and 'ganbatte' is a sort of command form, so it is effectively saying to people 'do your best!' Friends' comments revealed that they felt they were doing their best anyway, what more could they do, they didn't need a politician or a pop star to tell them to do their best, as they would naturally do that anyway. Given how often the phrase is used in normal conversation, and having never picked up on a patronising tone to it before, I was surprised, as were some of the other Japanese people at the table, but, it was by no means just one person who shared the sentiment. They seemed to prefer 'ganbarou' which indicates that the person speaking is doing their best too, so that we should all do our best together. Maybe it's just been slight overkill, or that in such a serious state of affairs, it doesn't apply, but, for whatever reason, it is getting some people's backs up. I have also noticed that the term has been used in the foreign press a lot, such as the Independent front page on March 12th. I wonder if it has become a famous phrase in other countries in the past month? I don't think anyone would find it patronising from a foreigner though, as the sentiment alone is so appreciated.
With my level of Japanese, I can't understand all the connotations of the word, but, as most people seemed to agree that ganbarou was far more fitting, I will stick to that.
Japan, let's all do our best together! 日本！みんなでがんばろう！
Saturday, 9 April 2011
BLANK Of The Day 6
An un-blank this time. I walked into one of my junior high 2nd year classes (14-year-olds) to find two girls singing to each other and jumping around in excitement. I said to them 'AKB48?' (anything longer than one word and they get lost). AKB48 are a ridiculously popular J-Pop girl group with about 75 members who all prance around in cheerleaders outfits and bikinis looking about 12, singing or chanting songs with 3 word English titles that still manage have mistakes in them. Sorry, went a bit Victor Meldrew then. Anyway...they said 'no...aburu labein.' I thought, I haven't heard of them before, they said the title was 'What The Hell' and thinking that that was incredibly accurate English for a J-Pop group, it dawned on me that they were saying Avril Lavigne!! All the most famous music artists in the world that these kids BLANK on, but they KNOW and LOVE Avril Lavigne!! Even to the point of them knowing a newer song by her than I do (not that I am exactly a big fan of the little weasel but still). Anyway, finally I have some kudos with my kids for being able to sing and understand some music that they like! This is what I was expecting right from the start of arriving in Japan, can't believe it's taken a year and half (except for I'm a Scatman)! So, I have fully jumped on the bandwagon and am a total Avril sellout, putting her on my English notice board and downloading the truly awful 'What The Hell' to play on the school radio soon. I am thrilled that Avril Lavigne is motivating my kids to like and learn English, but, I am slightly unsure as to how much of the lyrics of 'What The Hell,' a song that appears to be about not caring, sleeping around and being an annoying little weasel no matter what anyone thinks, I should explain to them...what a role model!
Thursday, 7 April 2011
New Aftershock
7.4 aftershock off the coast of Miyagi again at about 11.30 tonight. The information on the news says that it was about a minute long - it felt about that long here (I ran outside and met the new neighbour who was doing the same, but he was also mid brushing his teeth and the ground was shaking so not easy to make polite conversation). It says that there are some power cuts in the Sendai area and that some trains and shinkansens have been stopped. TEPCO are still checking the Fukushima nuclear power plant. There are strong tsunami warnings in Miyagi and smaller ones up the Eastern coast as far as the tip of the island in Aomori and as far down as Ibaraki (not as far as Tokyo). Just for your info, peeps, I am totally fine.
Happy Tanjobi To Me!
Enough of radioactive earthquake talk. Let's go pre-quake, when all in Jappy was still happy. At the start of March, I was particularly happy, as (aside from having to confront the depressing fact that I am now TWENTY FOUR meaning that next year I will be half way through my twenties, meaning that old age is a stone's throw away) I had the chance to celebrate my birthday! I think it's fair to say that birthdays aren't as big a deal in Japan as they are in the UK, but, I thought, poo you Japan, I am gonna celebrate it and I am gonna bloody well celebrate it in style. The celebrations were not one, not two, not three, but FOUR FOLD. Go me.
Celebration 1 - Pre-birthday cinema. Two of my lovely Japanese lady friends took me to the cinema and for lunch on the weekend before my birthday, b
uying me a set of postcards by 18th-19th century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, paired with a sushi pen with the names of all of the sushi written on it (useful in so many ways...that's actuallly not supposed to be sarcastic) and a truly horrible egg sushi keyring, which I now have to use as I see them all the time. They already plagued my phone with the most effeminate, impractically shaped, loud ringy belly mobile phone strap I've ever seen in Japan, with a design surely aimed at Ann Widecombe or someone equally awful old-lady fashion-y, which refused to break for about 6 months and they have now done something just as tacky to my keys...will it ever end? We saw "Hereafter" with Matt Damon (incidentally now off screens in Japan due to the graphic tsunami seen - that scene was horribly realistic anyway, I didn't enjoy the film much to be honest). Then we went for lunch at an Italian restaurant, where I had the traditionally Italian sweet French crepe filled with dry salad...Nigella eat your heart out.
uying me a set of postcards by 18th-19th century Japanese artist Katsushika Hokusai, paired with a sushi pen with the names of all of the sushi written on it (useful in so many ways...that's actuallly not supposed to be sarcastic) and a truly horrible egg sushi keyring, which I now have to use as I see them all the time. They already plagued my phone with the most effeminate, impractically shaped, loud ringy belly mobile phone strap I've ever seen in Japan, with a design surely aimed at Ann Widecombe or someone equally awful old-lady fashion-y, which refused to break for about 6 months and they have now done something just as tacky to my keys...will it ever end? We saw "Hereafter" with Matt Damon (incidentally now off screens in Japan due to the graphic tsunami seen - that scene was horribly realistic anyway, I didn't enjoy the film much to be honest). Then we went for lunch at an Italian restaurant, where I had the traditionally Italian sweet French crepe filled with dry salad...Nigella eat your heart out. Celebration Number 2 - On the day celebrations. My boss text me as it turned midnight on my birthday and asked me what I was doing in the evening, so that she could bring me a present. I told me I would be in, and then she said that she would take me out instead. So, we went to an izakaya with her husband and another colleague of mine. I hadn't been there since my first month in Japan, so it was so nice to see how much I understood now compared to the last time! We ate an awful lot, drank some "local" beer, which turned out to be from miles and miles away and generally had a lovely old chinwag. They got me a mug with the Japanese flag on it and I also somehow wound up with the rest of a bottle of sweet potato shochu (a Japanese spirit) that we couldn't finish on the evening (still in the fridge a month later, I might add).
Celebration Number 3 - Party Time! My lovely ALT friends and I, who spend our whole lives sticking out like sore thumbs in our respective rural dwellings, came together in Tokyo, to stick out like two big fat sore hands. Present-wise, I got the biggest set of bright purple blankets off of my crazy friend, who somehow managed to smuggle them around without me noticing until she whipped out the biggest package I've ever seen...not quite sure how that happened, plus some manga, some funny sticker things that you can stick on your phone or material too that will make me look super-cool (as if I don't already) and a ticket to a football match. I got more than I got when I was at home in the UK!
In the way of celebrations, I managed (not without a large helping of fuss) to book a ridiculous bargain in the centre of Shibuya, one of the young fashionable night-out districts in Tokyo on a Saturday night. It was in the izakaya where everything on the menu is 270 yen, not sure if I've mentioned it before, but I love the place. It's a chain that always seems to be full. It has a computer menu which you use with a touch screen pen and also has an ENGLISH BUTTON! Woo! This particular branch is full of young people on Saturday night. It's the one near Tokyu Hands, if that helps anyone that knows Shibuya, but it probably doesn't because you are falling over those chains once every 3 steps there. Oh, it's the one by Outback Steak House. A pretty cool branch if you ask me. For 2,480 yen each (about 20 quid) we got 8 different types of food, including big nabes (huge Japanese broth type meals) and 2 hours all-you-can-drink. BARGAIN. We played silly animal and pointy drinking games, the rules I can't really recall and then some of us went out to Club Asia around the corner.
It was my first time there....main impression is that two people were sick on my leg in the space of about 10 seconds. I was literally mid-schock at the first sick episode and, before I'd had a chance to even tell my friend next to me what had happened, it was happening all over again. Apart from that, it was a club with a n
ice atmosphere, a lot of dancing, and, more than one room, allowing you to change when you got bored, or when you got sicked on. The night was called "Flash" and involved lots of Japanese people pretending to be cool and love electro and house music all night (including a lovely song in English that clearly only we understood, about needing the toilet) but then giving the biggest reaction of the night to the new cheesey K-Pop band Kara (see left). I ended the night with a kebab, a Japanese style breakfast, a sleep in a manga cafe and then a McDonald's and a Starbucks ham and cheese panini and painfully sweet sakura cherry blossom latte (I think I let out a groan at the sugary taste, when will I learn?). However, in my defence, it was my birthday and I did have two people's vomit on my favourite pair of jeans. Thank you friends for a wonderful evening in spite of various fusses and impracticalities!
ice atmosphere, a lot of dancing, and, more than one room, allowing you to change when you got bored, or when you got sicked on. The night was called "Flash" and involved lots of Japanese people pretending to be cool and love electro and house music all night (including a lovely song in English that clearly only we understood, about needing the toilet) but then giving the biggest reaction of the night to the new cheesey K-Pop band Kara (see left). I ended the night with a kebab, a Japanese style breakfast, a sleep in a manga cafe and then a McDonald's and a Starbucks ham and cheese panini and painfully sweet sakura cherry blossom latte (I think I let out a groan at the sugary taste, when will I learn?). However, in my defence, it was my birthday and I did have two people's vomit on my favourite pair of jeans. Thank you friends for a wonderful evening in spite of various fusses and impracticalities! Celebration Number 4 - More Food and Drink. Rather inconveniently scheduled on the evening after my big night out in Club Asia, i.e. on the same day that I'd been trapsing around Shibuya in sick jeans with a hangover, eating junk food, was a dinner and drinks with three Japanese friends in Tatebayashi. We went to my Taiwanese friend's Taiwanese restaurant. What I thought would be a simple and small affair, especially given that not a huge fuss is usually made in Japan for birthdays (just for things like choco chip pan and broken magnets), turned out to be truly one of my best evenings since being in Japan. My lovely lovely friends had invited more people (some that I knew, some that I didn't), making a total of 10 or so, I receieved gifts of handkerchief things (very common in Japan), a bath bomb from Lush which was shaped as a frog and turns into a prince when it goes in the water (yet to try it...sounds interesting to say the least) and, a VERY cool and for the first time since I've arrived in Japan, NOT tacky strap made of leather, and, indeed, made BY the friend that organised the party as he is a leather thing maker. I love it. Love love love. I am so cool now and I wear my phone so that it comes out of my pocket and everyone can see how cool I am. So lucky to be in Japan and not in the UK where doing that would lead my phone to get nicked as quick as the second sick episode followed the first. My Taiwanese friend gave us champagne and my friends had also had a cake made with my name on it. It was all just too nice for words, I actually didn't quite know how to react. I thought I was going to cry! But I didn't...that wouldn't have been too cool. I also got a two parcels sent to me, one from my friend at home with WINE GUMS and one from my parents with various chocolatey things and some money in my account from my family, which was spent on various clothes in Harajuku at Uniqlo and We Go a week before it was my birthday...so much for saving for travelling in South Korea in May :(. Everything I bought was on sale, and, what can I say, I'm weak. Embarrassingly, we had been studying birthdays in sixth grade at primary school, and in practice conversations I had been telling people my birthday at school. One of the teachers remembered and, on the day, had the kids sing happy birthday to me, and one of my kids from another school remembered from about three weeks before and that class sang to me the following day (the closest day that I was at that school). Lovely kids. Lovely friends. Lovely Japan. I may have had my ups and downs with living in Japan, but this was a week that truly made me sorry to know that I'm leaving in the summer.
Sunday, 3 April 2011
Japan Three Weeks On
The 9.0 Miyagi earthquake struck just over three weeks ago now. It's been a fairly uppy and downy three weeks, for want of a better expression. The death toll continues to rise and the situation is still dire for many people in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima prefectures.
The atmosphere where I live has been tense but calm. Generally, people have done their best to carry on with life as normally as possible. I admit to being a little bit freaked out by radiation reports every now and again, mainly because I know nothing about radiation and quite literally wouldn't know a gamma ray if it hit me. I'm not glowing in the dark yet though, so I won't be using the iodine tablets the UK embassy has distributed to us "just in case of the worst case scenario" for the time being.
A friend of mine was supposed to be visiting me here over the last two weeks, but, unfortunately had to canc
el, as much due to practicality of travelling at the moment as due to health concerns. I used some of the holiday and transport that we'd already booked to take long weekend trips/evacuations to Osaka and Kanazawa. A certain amount of panic stirred up by various media sources has led to quite a few foreigners leaving Japan, at least temporarily, but I am happy with my decision to stay. In Gunma, it's been a few weeks of empty petrol pumps, pretty bare supermarket shelves, scheduled power cuts, fairly hefty aftershocks and elevated (but perfectly safe) radiation levels (except for in our spinach and かき菜 kakina, a Japanese leafy vegetable thing to the left there whose existance I was not aware of, until its radiation became dangerous, so that has affected my life precisely 0%). How it gets into spinach and kakina but nothing else, I have no idea, but, I have asked and been told and failed to understand...I have learnt not to ask again. I do not care. End of.
el, as much due to practicality of travelling at the moment as due to health concerns. I used some of the holiday and transport that we'd already booked to take long weekend trips/evacuations to Osaka and Kanazawa. A certain amount of panic stirred up by various media sources has led to quite a few foreigners leaving Japan, at least temporarily, but I am happy with my decision to stay. In Gunma, it's been a few weeks of empty petrol pumps, pretty bare supermarket shelves, scheduled power cuts, fairly hefty aftershocks and elevated (but perfectly safe) radiation levels (except for in our spinach and かき菜 kakina, a Japanese leafy vegetable thing to the left there whose existance I was not aware of, until its radiation became dangerous, so that has affected my life precisely 0%). How it gets into spinach and kakina but nothing else, I have no idea, but, I have asked and been told and failed to understand...I have learnt not to ask again. I do not care. End of.Over the last week, however, radiation levels have dropped (maybe I will be able to try some kakina soon), aftershocks have significantally decreased, petrol is available if you are willing to queue and pay a month's wages for a tank, supermarket shelves are back to normal unless you want yoghurt, milk, or pot noodles (don't ask me why) and power cuts have been cancelled almost every day for the entire week and are also off tomorrow. People have been told to save power...some people and companies seem to be taking this advice much more seriously than others, (ie some of the train stations have their escalators off, others don't, some of the massive screens in Shibuya and Shinjuku in Tokyo are off, but some aren't, some department stores seem to have one lift operating, whereas some seem to just have one token one shut), but, whatever we are doing, must be working, because there has been no need to carry out the scheduled cuts! The area of central Tokyo (the central 23 "wards," it's not a hospital, but for some reason the translation is "ward") is not having power cuts. To be honest, I think all the escalators and lifts except for one should be off in all department stores, because unless you have bad legs or something, if you really want something on the 8th floor enough, you can bloody well walk up and get it!! Especially if it will save some poor person in the countryside of Gunma having to go without lighting for 3 hours, but still, at least some effort is being made everywhere.
We are starting to get refugees arrive in my town. I will be teaching some of them next year I imagine (the school year starts in April in Japan, so, by next year, I mean next week). Some have moved into houses here and some are in one of the community centres. I will also be working the desk where people can drop off donations of clothing, blankets and dry/tinned food as the Board of Education representative one day next week. I've sent some other bits and bobs and have given some money to charity (there are people collecting EVERYWHERE and most shops, restaurants and schools seem to have collection boxes, which is lovely). I suppose I should think about doing more but I'm not allowed any time off in April and I'm a bit wary of going up there and just being a nuisance. I think they will need help for a long time, so maybe I can go later. It's nice that my town has taken some refugees though and from a selfish point of view, it certainly reassures me that where I am is safe from radiation!
In the mean time, I am getting through by treating myself to an obscene amount of chocolate and watching the NHK evening news reports with my new favourite person 青山祐子 あおやま ゆうこ Aoyama Yuko. She is so calm and trustworthy, and FAR braver than the wusses in the helmets, who just make me feel more scared.
The best newscaster ever.
The most chicken hard-hat newscaster ever.
Bottom line is, things here are safe, and touch wood, returning to normal. Things up north are still bad, so please give to charity or send things if you can! Yoroshiku onegaishimasu!
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Wish I'd paid more attention in physics...
I literally do not understand ANYTHING about earthquakes or nuclear things...forget about Japanese, it might as well be written in Double Dutch for all I can understand. I have decided to stay in Japan for the time being, but I might head south to a safer part, just in case. My friend was supposed to visiting me this week, so I have holiday booked from work anyway. The official advise from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office states that people in my area should "consider leaving" the area, but more due to concerns over food and power shortages, than due to actual health risks. I have rung them to confirm that I am understanding correctly, so please try to ignore the selective attitude that "news" reporters, such as the BBC, CNN, The Telegraph, and The Guardian seem to have to the facts. The most reliable news I have been reading seems to be from The Independant so far, who give a far more balanced view and qualify the things they are reporting with facts and comparisons. I have just had my first power cut. Three hours in the dark, but the water DID work and it's not so difficult when you have prepared for it. Had a glass of imo shochuu (芋焼酎), a Japanese alcohol made of sweet potatoes, which sent me nicely off to sleep. I may have pranced around in the dark with my torch to Live And Let Die by The Wings first, it's a great song to prance with a torch to. I was woken up by everything switching back on, and a perfectly timed afterschock. What a jolt back into action. I can't understand how the official things tell me that some quakes of magnitude 6.0+ I can't feel, but can feel some of around 5 even though they are in the same area, and the readings say that they are all registrering 3 on the Japanese shakey scale near me. Still, I know I felt that one really strongly, but, on the upside, it's only the second one I've felt all day. Still very worried about the people up in the north...there are all sorts of clips of people without heating, just under blankets in school gyms etc. It's snowing quite heavily up there by the looks of it. I'm lucky that it's not snowing here. Also, everyone at work is being very kind, although I don't want to think of the panic and fuss that might break out if I decided to go home...a couple of English teachers in the next city have decided to leave and the fuss has spread to my town on that one. The FCO still says that we are safe, so I am following that. My Board of Education have lent me a battery-powered radio and lamp for the blackouts. Sorry that this post has been a bit of a ramble, probably a sign of the state my head is in at the moment. I feel a bit calmer that the TV is back on, and I have my lovely reliable news lady back. She wouldn't let me come to any harm. Current biggest health concern : potential overdose on chocolate.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
My Latest on the Earthquake
I've been a bit up and down over the last few days...yesterday was a particular low, with many aftershocks waking me on Monday night, leaving me very tired, and constant, conflicting reports about the ongoing nuclear 'catasrophe' in Fukushima, as the foreign press are so reassuringly calling it. Yesterday, there were many reports of well above average radiation deteced in the prefectures surrounding me, but, not in my prefecture. However, my location right on the corner of Gunma, between Saitama and Tochigi, made me somewhat doubt that Tochigi and Saitama prefectures were recording unusual levels and we weren't...I don't think radiation cares too much for local political borders. The foreign press continued to whip up a dramatic storm, I was struggling to understand any of it, no matter what language it was in, and was starting to think that I was going to headbutt the TV if I had to see a diagram of the inside of the bloody reactors again, either that or just scream 'I don't know what a f***ing nuclear reactor looks like when it's working anyway, so that stupid diagram is really not going to inform me of anything, it could be a diagram of a car engine or a piece of modern art, or a random doodle drawn by the newscaster for all I know.' The information all seemed very scientific and not very user-friendly. I admit to having a small panic. When I went home, I put on a mask and cycled with quite literally only my eyes showing.
However, looking at all of the information from the Japanese goverment, the scientists and the British government and embassy (who I trust the most, the Foriegn and Commonwealth Office has reassuring advice for British nationals), I realised that I was allowing myself to be whipped up into hysteria, which is not going to help anyone. I feel much calmer today. The current levels aren't enough to harm anyone, even in the area right next to the plant, which has already been evacuated, and the sort of levels recorded around me (200km away, similar distance to Tokyo) aren't harmful at all. All scientific reports seem to say that even in a realistic worst case scenario, only the current 30km evactuation/quarantine (can't think of a better English word) would be at any serious health risk. I feel reassured by that. Also, when first looking at international news, I was worried that the Japanese media were trying to sweep it under the carpet, but, now there is almost 24 hour news on the TV about the developments at the nuclear power station dai ichi ni san yon (福島第1234原子力発電) and a man, who is looking older and sweatier by the day, is making announcements every few hours or so. Also, I love the evening NHK (Japanese BBC) news reporter, she looks so professional and talks with such sincerity...I would trust her with my life. I love her. I'm going to take her photo tonight. The wind is also blowing strongly eastwards today, so that is a relief too.
Afterschock-wise: we are officially down to a 40% chance of there being an afterschock of magnitude 7.0+ in the Miyagi area where the first big earthquake hit. Other aftershocks are still going on, in various parts of Japan, some are big, at around richter scale 6, and they are unnerving, but more because of the worry that it could be a big 7.0 up by Miyagi again which might cause another tsunami and do more damage to the region that has already been hit, or upset something at the nuclear power plant, rather than the thought of any immediate damage in this area...I am safe there touch wood. For me, the afterschocks are just a reminder that things are not back to normal yet and of the tragedy that is happening in the North of Japan, rather than a worry for my personal safety. There was a big one last night, which was pretty strong apparently, but I barely even felt it because I was on the toilet! Apparently you feel them a lot less on toilets and in baths, so it wasn't just that I was concentrating on a big poo or anything.
In other related news - things up north still look horrible from a recovery point of view and the death toll continues to rise. The Emperor of Japan, Akihito, has made a TV broadcast saying that he is 'deeply worried' which sort of makes you want to say...what an understatement, and what a delayed reaction, but, he NEVER appears on TV normally, so I imagine it might have really touched the Japanese people, although I haven't spoken to anyone Japanese since I've found out that it's happened. I didn't even know what the man looked like and I've been living here for a year and a half. In my area, fresh food is almost all gone, as is toilet paper (?) and petrol. It's slightly worrying, but I've got a few tins of food and quite a bit of dried stuff and my boss has given me enough rice to feed the 5,000, so I might turn into a riceball and not be able to wipe my bum (not a common problem amongst rice balls I imgaine), but I should survive. No need to panic!!
However, looking at all of the information from the Japanese goverment, the scientists and the British government and embassy (who I trust the most, the Foriegn and Commonwealth Office has reassuring advice for British nationals), I realised that I was allowing myself to be whipped up into hysteria, which is not going to help anyone. I feel much calmer today. The current levels aren't enough to harm anyone, even in the area right next to the plant, which has already been evacuated, and the sort of levels recorded around me (200km away, similar distance to Tokyo) aren't harmful at all. All scientific reports seem to say that even in a realistic worst case scenario, only the current 30km evactuation/quarantine (can't think of a better English word) would be at any serious health risk. I feel reassured by that. Also, when first looking at international news, I was worried that the Japanese media were trying to sweep it under the carpet, but, now there is almost 24 hour news on the TV about the developments at the nuclear power station dai ichi ni san yon (福島第1234原子力発電) and a man, who is looking older and sweatier by the day, is making announcements every few hours or so. Also, I love the evening NHK (Japanese BBC) news reporter, she looks so professional and talks with such sincerity...I would trust her with my life. I love her. I'm going to take her photo tonight. The wind is also blowing strongly eastwards today, so that is a relief too.
Afterschock-wise: we are officially down to a 40% chance of there being an afterschock of magnitude 7.0+ in the Miyagi area where the first big earthquake hit. Other aftershocks are still going on, in various parts of Japan, some are big, at around richter scale 6, and they are unnerving, but more because of the worry that it could be a big 7.0 up by Miyagi again which might cause another tsunami and do more damage to the region that has already been hit, or upset something at the nuclear power plant, rather than the thought of any immediate damage in this area...I am safe there touch wood. For me, the afterschocks are just a reminder that things are not back to normal yet and of the tragedy that is happening in the North of Japan, rather than a worry for my personal safety. There was a big one last night, which was pretty strong apparently, but I barely even felt it because I was on the toilet! Apparently you feel them a lot less on toilets and in baths, so it wasn't just that I was concentrating on a big poo or anything.
In other related news - things up north still look horrible from a recovery point of view and the death toll continues to rise. The Emperor of Japan, Akihito, has made a TV broadcast saying that he is 'deeply worried' which sort of makes you want to say...what an understatement, and what a delayed reaction, but, he NEVER appears on TV normally, so I imagine it might have really touched the Japanese people, although I haven't spoken to anyone Japanese since I've found out that it's happened. I didn't even know what the man looked like and I've been living here for a year and a half. In my area, fresh food is almost all gone, as is toilet paper (?) and petrol. It's slightly worrying, but I've got a few tins of food and quite a bit of dried stuff and my boss has given me enough rice to feed the 5,000, so I might turn into a riceball and not be able to wipe my bum (not a common problem amongst rice balls I imgaine), but I should survive. No need to panic!!
Sunday, 13 March 2011
Latest - Power Cuts
I think I may have been a bit naive on the front of life seeming like it was returning to normal. The difficulties caused by the Miyagi Earthquake on Friday in the way of power supply has led TEPCO (Tokyo Electric Power Company) to carry out planned power cuts over several prefectures tomorrow, so that people will know when the power will be cut, rather than there simply being a power shortage at some point in the day and everything stopping. From what I understand, except for important public services like hospitals and fire/police stations, everything will be cut in the given areas. Trains should also still run in spite of the organised power shortages. They had been calling for people to try to keep their power usage to a minimum anyway, but a spokesman announced this plan a few hours ago. Amazingly, just a couple of hours a later, a list had already been drawn up, giving the concerned cities, towns and villages individually by name and the times they would be out. Ita-where? will be cut for 3 and a half hours in the mid afternoon. Fun school day afternoon for me! Some places have two periods of three hours each it seems! Generally, it all sounds like a very sensible and well-organised plan so far. I'll post about how it goes afterwards. Rumours say that, at worst, this could go on for a few weeks, but the situation will be in constant review. Tepco's website is down and is not working at the moment, so the list of towns and when the power cut will be carried out is not available, but it has been on the TV a couple of times, so hopefully most people have noted their designated time.
The affected prefectures are Gunma, Saitama, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Yamanashi and Shizuoka with various towns at various times. Out of the Kanto region, it seems that only central Tokyo isn't affected. There are some mistakes on the lists though. Ita-where has, for instance, been placed in Tochigi-ken, when the poor little baby is in Gunma. There are concerns about water supplies being cut too.
Furthermore, experts say that there is a 70% chance of an afterschock of 7.0 magnitude or more in the next 3 days, which could cause more tsunami worries...3 more days of anxiety in Japan it seems.
I'm taking my mind off things by laughing at the new presenters on Japanese TV, wearing helmets in the studio. Small pleasures.
The affected prefectures are Gunma, Saitama, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa, Yamanashi and Shizuoka with various towns at various times. Out of the Kanto region, it seems that only central Tokyo isn't affected. There are some mistakes on the lists though. Ita-where has, for instance, been placed in Tochigi-ken, when the poor little baby is in Gunma. There are concerns about water supplies being cut too.
Furthermore, experts say that there is a 70% chance of an afterschock of 7.0 magnitude or more in the next 3 days, which could cause more tsunami worries...3 more days of anxiety in Japan it seems.
I'm taking my mind off things by laughing at the new presenters on Japanese TV, wearing helmets in the studio. Small pleasures.
Saturday, 12 March 2011
The Miyagi Earthquake
I thought I had better post something about this. Obviously I don't need to tell you that a massive earthquake occurred off the coast of north east Japan on Friday afternoon. It has just been upgraded to a magnitude of 9.0, making it one of the five biggest earthquakes in recorded world history. Bottom line from my point of view is that I'm ok, and am currently just sitting at home, thinking of the poor people in the devastated area in the North of Japan and watching (but not really understanding) the news about the nuclear plant in Fukushima which is currently having various issues.
Anyway, I'll tell you how it's all played out in my area, although it is not one of the worstly hit at all. For info, if you look at a map of Japan, I'm in Gunma prefecture, right on the tip bit nearest to Tokyo. At about quarter to 3 on Friday, tremors began. Earthquakes are very common in Japan and it only took a few weeks of living here to get used to quick jolts beneath my feet. The longer ones are always slightly scarier for me, but, by and large, you just learn to just wait for it to finish and to carry on with what you were doing. Friday's one was a lot different. After 20 seconds or so, the ground was still shaking and it just felt like it was growing and growing. I was in the staff room at my juniour high school, with about 15 other members of staff. Everybody started looking at eachother in a sort of a "is this a really big one then? Should we be doing something?" way. I am so relieved that I was with other people...basically, I just copied everyone, so I put out my hands and held my computer screen in place. Some of the teachers went and opened the windows (I'm not actually sure what that's for, something to do with less chance of them breaking?) and then the vibrations got much bigger, anything that was hanging began swinging back and forth and then, all of the computers and lights went off. Previously to that, a few teachers had been nervously saying "should we get under our desks?" but the lights going out made it clear that that was what we should do, so we all got down and sat under our desks, while the shaking continued. A few things crashed and banged around me, but it was fairly clear that is wasn't the building and was just fittings or other objects. The only person not under his desk was the headteacher, who walked down the staffroom to hold up the massive new free-standing air-conditioner thing they've just brought. I watched his funny trainers going past and just thought he was like Superman or something. I was so scared! I can't believe he was so so concerned about the air-conditioner!! I think the earthquake might have lasted about 3 minutes from the first time we could feel a tremor to it stopping. It was really unnerving and it felt like it was shaking so much...I can't imagine how terrifying it must have been nearer the epicentre. It must have been horrendous.
On emerging, everyone looked worried but calm. We all set about clearing up broken glasses and picking up fallen chairs and books etc. Some of the brave staff went around and checked all the rooms for damage and the other staff - there was next to no damage and everyone was fine. Luckily for me, the children had already all gone home, because it had been the graduation ceremony that day and so they all went home early. I was in the best place...the thought of being on my own, or on a train full of strangers, or, as I would have been on any other weekday this month or last month, in a room full of primary school children that I am responsible for, and, even worse, a room without desks. Having said that, I have since spoken to two friends, one who was teacing in primary school and one who was in nursery school, and they also noted the lack of panic. I have been INCREDIBLY impressed with the reaction of the people here. No hysteria, no panic. Even talking to friends in worse affected areas or watching the pictures on TV of the devastated towns, the reaction still seems relatively calm. A true testament to the lack of selfishness amongst Japanese people and putting what is best for the wider community first. Anyway, I was truly in the best place. Well, a better place would have been further south in Japan, or indeed, not in Japan, but, you know what I mean.
In the staff room, somebody managed to access the internet on their mobile and found out that the epicentre was in Miyagi and that is was a "7" and that we had felt it as a "weak 5." I thought they were talking about the richter scale, but, it turns out that there is a different scale in Japan based on shakiness (?) instead of energy, 7 being the top. Weak 5 is basically still a lot but unlikely to knock down buildings. Most of Tokyo felt a strong 5 apparently. The fact that it was in Miyagi (two prefectures over from me and about 200km away as a teacher told me) made me very worried about what the damage might be there, but, I was slightly relieved at the same time that it hadn't had its epicentre in Tokyo. Everyone in the staff room speculated for a while about whether there would be big aftershocks and, sure enough, a couple of minutes later they started. Two of them sent us under the desks again...actually, one of them sent us all under our desks and the other one sent a few of the wusses under their desks - I am a wuss. The atmosphere in the staffroom remained calm, humour was still present. One teacher teased me for getting under my desk the third time and the school secretary got word from her husband that he was ok and announced "he's ok...unfortunately." I'm not sure how different nations react to things, but the continuted nervous humour and the reluctancy to panic and assume straight away that the earthquake was going to be big when we first felt shaking, or that it was likely to have been a tragedy in the area that it hit before we knew anything, reminded me somewhat of a British reaction to big events...maybe all countries react like that, but I'm not sure. However, I'm sure the UK would have seen much more hysteria once it became clear just how dramatic the effects were in reality, but Japan really doesn't seem to have. For the next hour and half, the mainline phone was off and on, but we had no power, water, or mobile coverage. The headteacher, Clark Kent, told us to go home and check our homes etc. I didn't really want to go and be alone, because the aftershocks were still rumbling away and I knew that I would literally have no information at home. However, as the last few people were leaving, I went too. I walked my bike back, just to be on the safe side, as the ground was a bit shakey and the traffic lights weren't working. There were no signs of damage in the town, except for a broken plaque to a park and some fallen roof tiles.
I was a little bit scared to open my flat's door, but, I had to let out a laugh as I did, to find two eggs had broken on the floor. If that's the worst that's happened I thought! I'd bought about 10 eggs the other day for pancake day as it was all I could find and was worried about using them that night as they'd officially gone off on Thursday, so that was that decision made for me! The only other damage was a broken mug which had jumped into the bath, as I'd left it on the side after my naughty breakfast bathtime coffee...silly Mark. Also, my globe had committed suicide from off of the top of my TV and into my kotatsu. Apart from that, it was mostly just food that had been flung about a bit and the fridge that had leapt forward a tad and sent the blender down the back of it. It's really amazing how strong things are!
Anyway, I still had NO IDEA how large the earthquake had actually been up in Miyagi. My flat was without phone, electricity, water or gas. I just sort of sat for a couple of hours to ride out the aftershocks and tried not to panic (not easy...I had no idea how to tell what was going to be a big one, and couldn't decide if it was safer to get under my kotatsu if a big one came or to get out of the building.) Just on the off-chance that somebody saw something about it on international news, I updated my Facebook status from my phone and emailed my parents...thank God I did! I still hadn't imagined that it would make worldwide headlines. Gas came back on, but unfortunately, I spent the night without water, power or phone, and my mobile phone's battery went dead. I stupidly waited until it went dark to find a torch, so I was clambering around using my iPod for light as I tried to find it and then find batteries for it. Not my most nimble of moments. In the night, I didn't sleep more than 15 minutes at a time without being woken up by an afterschock, or sirens outside, or the town hall's van going round making announcements that anyone in trouble should go to the community centre.
Everything came back on at 6am the following day and I managed to speak to friends and family at home and in Japan. I was in complete ignorant bliss of the tsunami and the damage that had been caused, so I was very shocked to find the number of emails and Facebook messages piling up. I was very grateful for Facebook yesterday - it was great that I managed to update my status to let people know that I was ok and put people's minds at rest. Seeing the pictures on the news really paints a scary picture and, thankfully, where I am is nothing like that at all...neither is Tokyo. Most of the country has been very lucky. The Japanese and the British media coverage has been VERY different. It seems even the BBC has sensationalised something that really doesn't need to be sensationalised at all, it is dreadful as it is and everyone knows that. I might write another piece about that another time. Of course, this massive earthquake and tsunami have caused a great deal of devastation in the area, and the media shouldn't play that down, but it doesn't need building up either.
Yesterday, last night and today, the afterschocks have been much smaller and further between for the most part. I don't think I've felt any in the last 3 hours or so (touch wood!). My supervisor from work drove me to the supermarket yesterday to get supplies and explained some more things about the earthquake to me, she also rang me at about 7.30pm on the night of the earthquake, when the phones were working briefly, to check that I was ok and that I had a torch etc. She has been amazing, because, it has been a very lonely time and not having any electricity on the first night was truly horrible, so even speaking to her for one minute was very reassuring, even if it was what put my phone out of battery - ironically just as she was telling me that if another massive one was going to come, my phone should bleep and warn me! The phone warning system was a bit broken she said the next day. None of us got anything for the actual quake (it's only about 10 seconds or so in advance anyway, but still...) and then I DID get one at about 7 on Friday evening and almost had a heart attack, running outside, thinking, it's going to be even bigger, seeing as I've got a warning this time, but, I didn't feel anything at all. Yesterday's ones were all correct. They come on the TV as well, anything that ranks about 3 on the Japanese scale I think. Amazing to get any warning at all really! Very intelligent!
Today, I've cleared up the last of the mess here, caught up on lack of sleep with little interruption and emailed a couple of friends. I've also made the mistake of thinking my bath was totally dry, so that it would be safe to try and hoover up the tiny bits of broken china in it, please picture that image to give yourself a laugh...the electric plug is a mile away as well so it was bit of a stretch around a corner, and then picture my alarmed face as I realise that some water has got inside the hoover and my bathroom floor is getting covered in brown water!! Still not quite sure what I'm gonna do about that...I hope it's not broken for good because it belongs to the board of education and I can't cope with fuss! What a plonker!
The supermarket trip yesterday showed that it was pretty much business as usual around here...hairdresser's was open, some kids were about in school uniform, obviously coming back from sport practice. I've heard that Tokyo is fairly similar. It's just the really hard hit areas around the coast in Miyagi, Iwate and Fukushima that are in big trouble still it seems. There are some other electricity problems still in other parts of the country I think. I've been very lucky. Really, it's just time to think about the people who haven't been so fortunate. It's a massive shocking earthquake, and the tsunami has caused a lot of damage in certain areas. Many people are totally out of contact and are not sure if their relatives are safe or not. Naturally, the death toll is rising. Aftershocks and cold weather are making it even harder to sort things out. I hope people are able to make contact as soon as possible. Clearly the whole of Japan is shocked and worried about the people in the affected areas.
I've been very humbled by the amazing calmness and consideration of the Japanese people and the unity and support I've felt from all of my friends in Japan (not just the Japanese ones), let alone the concern from my friends, family, friends of family, and, indeed, people I've never heard of back in the UK...My Mum's been telling all about cousin George and the lady that comes into her work once a week, the next-door-neighbour-but-one's ex-girlfriend's dog etc. all asking about me...Thank you everyone for your concern! I am fine, just a bit, pardon the pun, shaken.
Thursday, 10 March 2011
Teachers' Trip Take 2 - Travelling to Aizu
A trip to Aizu, Fukushima Prefecture ( 会津 福島県 ) towards the north of the main island.
The first teachers' trip article about the journey to Matsushima is based on a time when I couldn't speak Japanese and basically had no idea what was going on at the best of times, let alone being in a bus at 7am with a can of beer in my hand heading to a tongue restaurant. The second time around and I had a lot more experience of Japan and knew what I was letting myself in for...I'm not sure if that makes the fact that last October I once again found myself in a bus at 7am with a can of beer in my hand, heading to a German-style restaurant more stupid of me or less stupid of me, but, for better or worse, I was there.
We set off at ridiculous Oclock yet again, with a huge bag of snacks and many an alcoholic beverage. All was the same as last year...no shocks...good so far. Then, at about 10 past ridiculous, an on-bus karaoke machine was whipped out and the mic started making it's way around everyone. Not the best at such an early time, when everyone is your colleague, and you don't know them that well, you are stuck on a bus and they are all drunk in typical Japanese - smell alcohol - drunk style and you are just half asleep still. Matters were only made worse by the fact that the karaoke machine delightfully gave each person a score on a big screen so that everyone could see just how bad you were. I managed to screech out something by Queen and scrape 50% (probably most of those points scored for pronunciation rather than tune - I'm sure Freddie turned in his grave) and quickly began downing my way through as many cans as possible.
Arriving EARLY at the German restaurant (about 11!) which is ridiculous as we were supposedly late before we'd set off again and if there is a record for how many times one bus can stop for toilet breaks in 4 hours we must have weeed all over it(is that how you spell weeed?? That can't be right, but I can't be weeed to check). Anyway, we were in a rather strange set of faux-German-Alpine type buildings, about two feet from a massive motorway. The restaurant itself was FULL of random decorations with bad German on them and strange "German-style" omiyage...God knows what Japanese people must think Germany is like with shops like that...nearly everything had a picture of a beer on it! Inexplicably, but fairly predictably, the food was all Japanese, but it was very nice. All the beer was German and we had about 6 jugs of a really dark bitter beer on our table...not my fave, but, still trying to blank out my rendition of All You Need I Love (I was made to do a second karaoke following loo break 18 or so - it's a LONG song). CLEARLY nobody liked the beer much, but one particularly drunken teacher ordered three extra jugs for the table without telling everyone, meaning we had to sit there for ages and force it down. Lucky we were running early. Then, we were given AN HOUR to kill in the horrible beer/sausage/Berlin Wall/Hitler omiyage shop, a car park, and a "famous" shop that sold glass sculptures. I spent about 3 minutes in there...all very pretty, but they were 3 minutes of fear of breaking something, so I went and sat outside in the car park with most of the teachers. I thought it was fairly obvious that we didn't need any more time there, but, after an hour of sitting, we entered a discussion as to whether to do the thing that was next on the schedule, a museum about a famous scientist, or go to a "famous" cake shop for omiyage. I wasn't particularly bothered so let the long decision process unfold before me, fairly unsurprisingly, omiyage triumphed.
It was, however, upon pulling out of the vaguely Alpine layby that I realised that the museum was LITERALLY in the same carpark and that the only reason we had all been wasting time outside the glass sculpture shop was because we were officially ahead of the schedule AND, the only reason that we had chosen that J-Alpine village was because it was next to the museum. Still, a fairly average cake shop, FULL to the brim with pushy Japanese shoppers...never get in the way of a little old J-biddy and her omiyage purchase, meant that we skipped the museum altogether.
Drunk as anything, the next part of the plan was to go to a sake brewery...Once in Aizu, that's what you do, because Aizu is famous for sake. I can't remember much of it, but I did have the BIGGEST bottle of sake to show for it the next day which I had bought for my Dad as a Christmas present in the omiyage shop (turning Japanese) without any consideration for how I would get it home to England!
Arriving at the hotel, we all rushed for the onsen, which was truly the most beautiful I've been to since being in Japan. It was a perfect temperature, a few different baths, and totally surrounded by nature, overlooking a range of mountains. The only downside was that I was sitting next to my naked 50-something deputy head teacher whilst I was trying to relax in it. Then we enkaied...more karoke (this time plus stage, but plus much more alcohol, so I was slightly more willing). The following day I hung-overdly wore the wrong slipper or wrong shoe in the wrong maze of corridors and caused a bit of a teacher fuss, but apart from that, I managed to time onsen away from most of my teachers and actually enjoy without the threat of seeing a teacher's penis...sorry to be crude, I love the onsen and I don't mind the nakedness, but colleagues is just a step too far. After leaving the very posh hotel we went and made pottery cups, as you do...seems that I haven't developed a skill for that since the last time I tried it and cocked it up at the age of about 9 (I really am rubbish at everything) and wound up with a sort of half cup half bowl. I would blame not being able to understand the Japanese, but I know it would have been the same wherever I was. Anyway, it's a nice souvenir and was a good idea of the organisers, I think. We all had fun. The only problem was the wankered teacher from the day before (who kept buying the jugs of horrible beer) somehow still being drunk and constantly trying to make jokes at the instructor's expense...I think everyone liked him a little bit less after that trip, I know that I did.
Last stop was like a massive craft village thing, which had lots of pretty stuff. This one was famous for "eating soba with a long Japanese negi onion instead of with a chopstick"...I kid you not. Anywhere can be "famous" in Japan, I mean, surely a couple of restaurants just decided to start doing that for no reason other than to put it on a tourist information leaflet somewhere and to claim it was famous. Anyway...I still did it, I managed to restrain myself from buying an onion keyring as a souvenir of the experience though. There is a photo though. That is my proudest moment of the trip because it's so famous - I'd been waiting to do it for ages, it was like a pilgramage (note the sarcasm). Worst moment of the trip was coming LAST out of about 25 teachers in bingo on the way back home for the SECOND YEAR RUNNING...last year I won a tupperware and this year I won some of those paper masks you wear when you're ill. I'm sure everyone thinks I'm so stupid, because, not only do they read the numbers about 3 times each but they also flash up on a big screen...but, I'm not stupid, I'm just stupidly unlucky at things like bingo. I'll have the last laugh when I win the lottery. It's just that I don't want to win a game where the top prize is a beer out of the bus fridge that I could have just reached in and taken myself anyway.
Anyway, more successful that last year's that's for sure...more friendships built, more fun had, but most importantly, less tongue.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
Teachers' Trip Take 1 - Travelling to Matsushima
The way Japanese people travel is truly astounding...sometimes a colleauge goes away for a couple of days or so and I get an omiyage from somewhere ridiculously far away like Italy on my desk. On enquiring what they could possibly have been doing in Italy for only FOUR DAYS or so, considering almost a whole day of it would be the plane journey alone, I get an account of the 18 or so cities that were visited, the pizza and spaghetti that was eaten and the one hundred and twenty five thousand photos that were taken, all featuring said teacher doing a peace sign in front of various sights and not smiling...probably didn't have time to smile.
So, with these ridiculously tightly organised and regimented travel stories in mind that I rather nervously accep
ted an invite to go on a trip with my teachers to Matsuthshima (松島）(left) in Miyagi prefecture （宮城県, a city towards the North of Japan's main island (the one that Gunma is also on, in the middle somewhere), Honshu. It's just next to the city Sendai. The main aim of the trip is to bond (mainly achieved through drinking yourself silly) whilst seeing ever single thing that Miyagi has to offer, including many things on the way, soak in an onsen, eat a lovely dinner and take a million photos, all in the space of just over 24 hours. That was a CHARRENJI if ever there was one, especially as this story actually comes from over a year ago, when I still couldn't speak much Japanese. Departure was at ridiculous O'clock, on a coach from the school carpark. I was handed an enormous bag of snacks for the ride, which more than slightly scared me as to how long this coach trip could be...just how many dried squid things can one need for one journey???
ted an invite to go on a trip with my teachers to Matsuthshima (松島）(left) in Miyagi prefecture （宮城県, a city towards the North of Japan's main island (the one that Gunma is also on, in the middle somewhere), Honshu. It's just next to the city Sendai. The main aim of the trip is to bond (mainly achieved through drinking yourself silly) whilst seeing ever single thing that Miyagi has to offer, including many things on the way, soak in an onsen, eat a lovely dinner and take a million photos, all in the space of just over 24 hours. That was a CHARRENJI if ever there was one, especially as this story actually comes from over a year ago, when I still couldn't speak much Japanese. Departure was at ridiculous O'clock, on a coach from the school carpark. I was handed an enormous bag of snacks for the ride, which more than slightly scared me as to how long this coach trip could be...just how many dried squid things can one need for one journey??? Somehow, in spite of it being about 5am and in spite of us all arriving in time, within about 5 minutes of setting off, we were 'running late.' By this time, we were also already a bag of squid snacks down each (not me) and halfway through a can of alcoholic beverage (I was further due to nerves). I sat with the young teachers at the back of the bus, like the naughty kids, and we played drinking games and I chatted to many of them for the first time and it was really fun...the only annoying bit was the 15 minute interruptions to pile off of the coach, go to toilet, take a photo in front of a random tourist site and buy some omiyage that that region is 'famous' for...everywhere is supposedly famous for something in Japan, even Ita-where is famous for cucumbers, in spite of them just being normal cucumber and Ita-where not being famous full stop. Lunch was in a place that couldn't have been famous for anything more unfortunate...TONGUE. I was tucking into my tongue curry (the restaurant only did tongue dishes and it was the least tongue-y looking picture on the menu) downing more alcohol, cameras flashing all around me...I definitely felt like I was in Japan!
We contin
ued rushing, because we were 'late' for the next couple of hours, with rushed pit stops and many sights, so remote that people literally couldn't tell me what they were. It was like a race for the omiyage shop and then back on to the coach. In the end, we arrived at the onsen hotel late-afternoon and it turned out that what were late was to get into the onsen! An onsen that is attached to our hotel and is open all night anyway!!
ued rushing, because we were 'late' for the next couple of hours, with rushed pit stops and many sights, so remote that people literally couldn't tell me what they were. It was like a race for the omiyage shop and then back on to the coach. In the end, we arrived at the onsen hotel late-afternoon and it turned out that what were late was to get into the onsen! An onsen that is attached to our hotel and is open all night anyway!!It's funny how sitting naked in a hot bath in the freezing cold knocking naked knees with your naked 40-year-old English teacher can sober you up. Let's say no more about onsenning with teachers.
left: one of the unknown sights
We then enkaied in a very drunken fashion (pretty enkai food to the right) and g
ot up at the crack of dawn the next day to begin the same journey back down the motorway, but finding an incredible amount of unstopped at omiyage shops along the way. We went to a massive fish market that was really interesting, if a little scary, especially on a hangover, (amazing sushi though, BIG step up from tongue curry) a shri
ne (or two, or three), a history museum and went on a lovely boat trip around one of the most famous sights in Japan. It's loads of sort of mini cliffs and islands off the coast. It was very beautiful, but most of the teachers had already been, so spent the trip throwing leftover crisps from the giant snack bag to seagulls and queueing to buy omiyage at the boat's shop...I kid you not.
All in all, a fun, if a little stressful experience. Usually, a single guy going on holiday, coming back to say there was nudity and tongue would be a big success...slightly different here though! Here are some more photos....I have about 80 photos from 24 hours and I imagine that most of my teachers had at least three times that amount.
My Japanese teacher is off to Spain in a couple of weeks and is officially visiting more that one town per day, changing hotels every single night for 9 days...I feel the photo session could well be a long one!!
Monday, 31 January 2011
Me and My Kotatsu
"What is a Kotatsu?" I hear you cry! A kotatsu, not to be confused with the famous hot spring Kusatsu or the the delish pork cutlet and rice dish katsudon (not that I'm speaking from experience of course), is a short heated Japanese table that is used in Japan to keep warm during the winter. The Japanese winter is so so cold. Actually, I take that back...where I live, it's fairly similar to London I imagine, but it just feels ten times colder because the heating is so poor that you might as well be standing outside the whole time. To combat this, rather than installing good heating, the Japanese have come up with this cunning way to convince us all that we are warm. My normal table actually turns into a kotatsu in the winter. That makes it sounds like it's an automatic change, which, believe me, it very very much isn't. The table is heated electrically underneath and the top comes off so that you can put a thick blanket over it and let it fall over your legs, keeping the heat in. It can then be placed back on top of the blanket so that your table can still be used as a table. Does that make any sense at all? Maybe a photo would help, so here is a picture of my kotatsu:
It is very comforting to sit under it, but I know I'd rather be in an actual WARM ROOM and therefore not need the tiny bit of boiling hot space UNDER A TABLE that I am crammed into.
Advantages of kotatsus:
1. They keep your feet nice and toasty.
2. They allow you to use your funky floor chair if you are as cool enough to own one (as I clearly am). I love my floor chair.
Disadvantages of kotatsus:
1. It gives you only 2 square feet of warmth, which is just a few cm off of the ground.
2. It means that the only warm parts of your house are under a table and the toilet seat, with the fridge coming in third place...not the most practical of locations.
3. It makes you try to wedge yourself into the aforementioned 2 square feet of impractically located space, which even a contortionist couldn't do and then when you get the maximum amount of your body under it, you realise that it's so hot under there that you have to withdraw a bit every minute or so and sit in a sort of hovering semi-wedge.
4. You fall asleep in said wedge or semi-wedge position and wake up with boiling legs, a freezing head and an aching back.
5. It's name leads you to tell people that you ate a table for dinner or feel asleep under your pork cutlet and rice (may or may not have happened to me).
However, in spite of myself, I do spend most of my time at home wedged or semi-wedged under the thing and that is indeed, where I am now, writing to you. It's so very impractical, but when everywhere is so cold, it really is a God-send...me and my kotatsu have a true love-hate relationship. Floor chair is all love, as is katsudon and Kusatsu.
Thursday, 20 January 2011
Me and My Bike
Before arriving in Japan, I was informed that I would be working at many schools, all over the sushiless village and that my mode of transport, come rain, come shine, come snow and indeed come typhoon blowing in the opposite direction, would be a BICYCLE. The last time I had used one of these evil contraptions, I was not long out of nappies and it had a pair of stabilisers on it. I wasn't good even then, but, fifteen years out of practice and first time on an adult bike was truly catastrophic. I couldn't go straight, I couldn't turn, I couldn't stop...the bike basically went wherever it wanted and I just obeyed and pulled faces. In a village where there is barely ever anybody around, it was amazing how crowds of people seemed to emerge from the rice fields just in time to see me fall off in to a muddy puddle, crash into a tree, or (all of these things really happened) drop a mini can of sweetcorn that I'd bought in the supermarket out of my old biddy basket on the front of my bike and somehow simultaneously run over it and pop it! I thought I was hiding my crapness quite well, but in fact they prompted most of the very first awkward communication sessions with the people in my village (I won't call them conversations, as I don't think being able to say nothing more than "konnichiwa" really qualifies) being them laughing and doing gestures of handlebars whilst wobbling and pulling scared faces...ha bloody ha.
Anyway, I did get used to it and managed to stay away from trees and even safely transport sweetcorn. In April (8 months after I'd arrived) I was given a new biked. Well, it was newer than mine, but still second-hand, I was very grateful of it though, because my original bike had had "Tatebayashi High School For Girls" written on the back of it as it was a stolen/borrowed/lost/mystery bike prescribed to students of that girls school (not that anybody told me that until it was changed!!!) I was checking the bike with my boss and I was like...the pedals turn too easily, it's way too light... she said "it's on first gear, put it up" so I did and I was like "Oh! It's changed!"...she said "Yeeeess...it's a gear, that's what it's for!" Then I said "yeah, but normally they don't change that much" dawning on my mid-sentence that when I said "normally" I was referring to the one other bike with gears that I had ever sat on in my whole life....we got out the old bike....the gears had been broken the WHOLE TIME I had been using it and I hadn't even noticed because I didn't know what a gear felt like!!! I was so embarrassed!! I had been innocently turning away the little gear knob when it wasn't even changing a thing! To make it worse, it had been stuck on top gear, explaining why there was a hill in town on which I always had to get off and push my bike up and another hill that the first time I went up it I was following a 50-odd year old woman who was showing me the way, who got up it no problem, whilst I broke out in the sweat of the century and caved in and pushed. I had thought that I was the weakest person in the world but it had been a broken bike made for 15-year-old girls all along!
Even if I do say so myself, it may have taken me over a year, but I am a bit of a pro now...I can use gears for starters, I can go really fast and I can EVEN stand up when I cycle. My next aim is to do that thing where you sort of start pushing it and have a foot on pedal before you get on it and then sort of fling the other leg over the seat once the thing is moving...I have been a bit too scared to try that one as of yet though, due to the incredibly high chance of a large amount of humiliation. Half the number of legs on the bike, double the chance of embarrassment, I reckon.
It is still ever so slightly depressing to live in a place that makes you quite literally reliant on your bloody bike to be able to get ANYWHERE, but it is a darn sight less depressing, now that I can get there really fast, whilst standing up and knowing what a gear feels like. Success (albeit slow) on the bike front!
In other news, latest fuss at school is about music. I am doing an event next week (originally) entitled "English Week" (I'm not being too sarcy though, because I chose the title) and I am arranging a few different little things for it. I hope to post about when it's over and when I can be bothered (that's a combination that could be quite a long time coming) but, with it just a few days away, fuss is through the roof. I wanted to play a recent UK chart hit every day next week over the announcer (they have a radio type system here like you used to see on Saved By The Bell or something) during cleaning time. The aim is to teach them about other cultures and to motivate them to study English. They usually have music anyway, so I thought it would be no problem. My teacher told me that lunch time would be better (apparently there is a worry that all the kids are just going to stop still in their tracks in order to listen for five minutes and not do anything whilst the music is on, which I feel is incredibly unlikely to happen, but still...).
Anyway, the upshoot of it being changed to lunchtime (and this an upshoot that has shooted its little head up after I have gone and downloaded 3 rubbish new pop songs from iTunes) is that the head teacher feels the music must be "good for eating lunch to." What precisely this meant was a bit of a blur to me for a few minutes, until what I realised was that they mean slow and boring. Firstly my teacher said "no rock...no guitars" (?) but on playing him clips of the 5 songs I'd selected and watching his eyes pop out of his head and hit the computer screen, I realised that guitars and rock were not the only problem...fast, loud (I'll just turn the volume down??), electronic, rap and DRUMS are also issues...I think I can sum up the severity of the reaction by telling you that he recommended I use the UK NATIONAL ANTHEM as one of my song choices!! I am not kidding!! Is that going to inspire 14 year-olds?? I have spoken to a few other teachers about it, who all seem to think that drums are fine but all said "It's not rock is it?", whispering the word "rock" as if it was a swear word and looking uncomfortable...especially surprising as I'm sure the rock they are imagining is about as risquee as Coldplay after they have had a foot bath and a cup of herbal tea. Ironically the songs are indeed NOT rock, and are in fact poppy things like JLS and The Saturdays who are aimed and kids much younger than the ones I am aiming at in reality. I asked my teacher if drums and fast would be ok if it wasn't too electro and was truly "poppy pop"...which he now thinks is an actual phrase and is throwing it about willy nilly so I am now frantically searching the charts for poppy pop that is good for eating lunch to - not an easy task! I know I shouldn't have said poppy pop but, funnily enough for an English teacher, I rarely have time to think about the accuracy of the English I am using here as I am just thinking about how to make it as simple as possible...I certainly didn't want to introduce the word cheesey into the conversation because who knows what confusion that could have led to?? I've found an older JLS song which seems less electro and that awful Cheryl Cole one "Fight For This Love" which is sort of electro, but has no rap, guitars, drums or indeed tune at all. Let's see if we can come to a compromise which will put the kids off of English slightly less than some choir dirging out "God Save The Queen!" I will let you know!
Anyway, I did get used to it and managed to stay away from trees and even safely transport sweetcorn. In April (8 months after I'd arrived) I was given a new biked. Well, it was newer than mine, but still second-hand, I was very grateful of it though, because my original bike had had "Tatebayashi High School For Girls" written on the back of it as it was a stolen/borrowed/lost/mystery bike prescribed to students of that girls school (not that anybody told me that until it was changed!!!) I was checking the bike with my boss and I was like...the pedals turn too easily, it's way too light... she said "it's on first gear, put it up" so I did and I was like "Oh! It's changed!"...she said "Yeeeess...it's a gear, that's what it's for!" Then I said "yeah, but normally they don't change that much" dawning on my mid-sentence that when I said "normally" I was referring to the one other bike with gears that I had ever sat on in my whole life....we got out the old bike....the gears had been broken the WHOLE TIME I had been using it and I hadn't even noticed because I didn't know what a gear felt like!!! I was so embarrassed!! I had been innocently turning away the little gear knob when it wasn't even changing a thing! To make it worse, it had been stuck on top gear, explaining why there was a hill in town on which I always had to get off and push my bike up and another hill that the first time I went up it I was following a 50-odd year old woman who was showing me the way, who got up it no problem, whilst I broke out in the sweat of the century and caved in and pushed. I had thought that I was the weakest person in the world but it had been a broken bike made for 15-year-old girls all along!
Even if I do say so myself, it may have taken me over a year, but I am a bit of a pro now...I can use gears for starters, I can go really fast and I can EVEN stand up when I cycle. My next aim is to do that thing where you sort of start pushing it and have a foot on pedal before you get on it and then sort of fling the other leg over the seat once the thing is moving...I have been a bit too scared to try that one as of yet though, due to the incredibly high chance of a large amount of humiliation. Half the number of legs on the bike, double the chance of embarrassment, I reckon.
It is still ever so slightly depressing to live in a place that makes you quite literally reliant on your bloody bike to be able to get ANYWHERE, but it is a darn sight less depressing, now that I can get there really fast, whilst standing up and knowing what a gear feels like. Success (albeit slow) on the bike front!
In other news, latest fuss at school is about music. I am doing an event next week (originally) entitled "English Week" (I'm not being too sarcy though, because I chose the title) and I am arranging a few different little things for it. I hope to post about when it's over and when I can be bothered (that's a combination that could be quite a long time coming) but, with it just a few days away, fuss is through the roof. I wanted to play a recent UK chart hit every day next week over the announcer (they have a radio type system here like you used to see on Saved By The Bell or something) during cleaning time. The aim is to teach them about other cultures and to motivate them to study English. They usually have music anyway, so I thought it would be no problem. My teacher told me that lunch time would be better (apparently there is a worry that all the kids are just going to stop still in their tracks in order to listen for five minutes and not do anything whilst the music is on, which I feel is incredibly unlikely to happen, but still...).
Anyway, the upshoot of it being changed to lunchtime (and this an upshoot that has shooted its little head up after I have gone and downloaded 3 rubbish new pop songs from iTunes) is that the head teacher feels the music must be "good for eating lunch to." What precisely this meant was a bit of a blur to me for a few minutes, until what I realised was that they mean slow and boring. Firstly my teacher said "no rock...no guitars" (?) but on playing him clips of the 5 songs I'd selected and watching his eyes pop out of his head and hit the computer screen, I realised that guitars and rock were not the only problem...fast, loud (I'll just turn the volume down??), electronic, rap and DRUMS are also issues...I think I can sum up the severity of the reaction by telling you that he recommended I use the UK NATIONAL ANTHEM as one of my song choices!! I am not kidding!! Is that going to inspire 14 year-olds?? I have spoken to a few other teachers about it, who all seem to think that drums are fine but all said "It's not rock is it?", whispering the word "rock" as if it was a swear word and looking uncomfortable...especially surprising as I'm sure the rock they are imagining is about as risquee as Coldplay after they have had a foot bath and a cup of herbal tea. Ironically the songs are indeed NOT rock, and are in fact poppy things like JLS and The Saturdays who are aimed and kids much younger than the ones I am aiming at in reality. I asked my teacher if drums and fast would be ok if it wasn't too electro and was truly "poppy pop"...which he now thinks is an actual phrase and is throwing it about willy nilly so I am now frantically searching the charts for poppy pop that is good for eating lunch to - not an easy task! I know I shouldn't have said poppy pop but, funnily enough for an English teacher, I rarely have time to think about the accuracy of the English I am using here as I am just thinking about how to make it as simple as possible...I certainly didn't want to introduce the word cheesey into the conversation because who knows what confusion that could have led to?? I've found an older JLS song which seems less electro and that awful Cheryl Cole one "Fight For This Love" which is sort of electro, but has no rap, guitars, drums or indeed tune at all. Let's see if we can come to a compromise which will put the kids off of English slightly less than some choir dirging out "God Save The Queen!" I will let you know!
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