and a Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Akemashite Omedetou Gozaimasu!

I decided since I couldn’t justify returning home because I was a little short of up-front cash I would spend the holidays Japanese style. And what better way to do that than with my old host family up in Sendai? So I went on what turned out to be an amazing adventure wherein I got to experience about a full half of Japan in all it’s splendor during the 12 day break I managed to obtain. I’ll try to explain how everything went down since it really turned into a miracle near the end on account of all of this kind of went without a plan.

The view of Mt. Fuji from the car. YAY clear skies!

On December 24^th, E (who lives in Beppu) and I got on a ferry that would take us to Osaka. This is the same ferry I rode with K only a few months ago, the overnight one, so I knew the drill pretty well. The sea was little rough but we passed through without any major hitches. Arrived in Osaka the next morning - Christmas morning - at around 7:30, and made the split decision to spend the day in Kyoto and took a local train, which got us in around 9AM. Went first to kinkakuji (the golden temple) since it turns out E has never been to Kyoto despite having lived in Japan for a year and a half and I decided it was most important for her to see that one. I thought we should continue on foot to the next place since the bus had taken FOREVER to get us to that side of town and since ryoanji (a famous rock garden) was the closest, we went there. Turns out the map wasn’t anywhere near to scale though and so we just walked for what seemed like forever down the cold streets of Kyoto until we finally stumbled upon it almost an hour later. The rock part wasn’t that impressive but the garden leading up to the main event was so beautiful. I took a ton of pictures of that but that was about all of the pictures I took in Kyoto. :-/

The golden temple on  my 3rd visit. LOVE Kyoto!

We tried to make it to nijojou (Nijo castle) but it closed at four and we didn’t get there until about 4:20. So, since the international manga (Japanese word for comic books) museum was nearby, we decided to visit it instead. It actually turned out to be really cool despite both of our peripheral/microscopic interest in manga and I was quite impressed with the whole experience.  You can actually just sit in there and read the whole time if you like since it is like the world’s biggest comic library but we only had an hour until closing so we spent our time looking through the exhibits.

Shrine outside of the rock garden

Earlier in the day we had actually planned to take an overnight bus back to Tokyo that evening since we didn’t have anywhere to stay and didn’t feel like finding lodging so we headed back to the station to catch the train after finishing up with dinner. Christmas dinner, by the way, turned out to be buttery pasta from a faux Italian restaurant located in mall. I guess it could have been worse? I mean Christmas morning breakfast was sandwiches and was eaten standing against a wall in the dirty subway station. No worries though, the meals I ate for the rest of the trip more than accounted for it!

The bus was uneventful but exhausting. After two days of overnight and not remotely comfortable travel, we arrived in Tokyo on the 26^th a little worse for the wear and plum exhausted. Unable to find a public bath of any kind and with all the internet cafes crowded to the max despite the early hour (6AM!), we crashed on the floor of the train station in a remote corner while we waited for a convenience store to open so we would have somewhere to eat breakfast. With food in our bellies, luggage in a locker and directions to a discount ski shop in tow, we headed back into the big city feeling at least a little brighter if not much cleaner - we dressed and washed our faces in a handicap bathroom until a group of officers came and, politely, removed us to allow an actual handicapped person into the bathroom. We spent the day in and out of stores and malls just enjoying the city and met an old friend from UF who lives in the area for lunch.

Rock garden

She hung with us for the rest of the day and we went to this amazing restaurant for dinner. Unable to find Mexican (my suggestion) we decided on an okonomiyaki (huge omelets cooked on an open grill filled with veggies and meat) restaurant instead. Unable to decide what to order because we wanted to eat everything we ordered four entrees and split them all three ways. One was traditional okonomiyaki, one was yakisoba (grilled noodles with sauces and veggies and meat) one was a green onion filled cake-like contraption made of dough and the last was a mix of the cake and okonomiyaki but soft and watery (we were told it was once a dessert course in Tokyo). Everything was superb!

Pretty lake at rock garden

Finishing dinner didn’t leave us with anywhere to stay that night since the friends S had recommended kind of forgot about us and didn’t get around to calling me back until around 10. Luckily my old UF friend offered us her place for the night and after a stressful morning (we didn’t watch the time well) I managed to get on yet another bus, this time headed to Nagoya to meet a very old friend, and E on a train back to Osaka for the ferry.

Once in Nagoya I met up with my friend, finally met her husband (she was married a year and a half ago and I had yet to meet him) and had a peaceful evening catching up and exploring a bit of Nagoya. The next morning we left early for the 10-hour drive to Sendai. On the way, I made sure to taste the famous food from every place we stopped and took pictures of the snow as we approached the Northern end of country. I actually got the see just about all of the Eastern coast of Japan - including Mt. Fuji finally! I actually really lucked out with him because it was an amazingly clear day without a cloud in the sky and I got some remarkable photos. This driving trip was really what made the vacation so special, among other things, because I felt like I got to see a side of the country few foreigners experience; like doing a cross-country road trip in America!

Pretty light through the trees

Sendai didn’t disappoint and I enjoyed a supremely relaxing vacation. In college, I often went home at least once a month just to take a break and see my family (who I missed dearly and do now as well ;-() but it made me realize I had lived the single, independent life nonstop for five months since coming to Japan. Endless days of dishes, laundry, cleaning and cooking in my lonely, cold apartment. In Sendai though, my old host mom made sure I was exempt from all of that. I tried to help her often but she would bluntly refuse saying I needed to relax. She even had a drier so I got to put my jeans and socks in it... they are so fluffy and soft now I don’t want to wear them LOL. She also way over-fed me. I put on some weight, over which I have mixed feelings but that’s neither here nor there. Guess it was bound to happen since the marathon is over - oh well. On to the next challenge!

Me and my host mom outside the Sendai light display

Some of the days were spent running errands with my host dad since mom had to work most mornings. When she got home she joined us or we sat around and watched TV together - something I also haven’t done in months as I rarely watch it at home. I arrived in Sendai on the 28^th and it doesn’t get good until the 31^st so I will skip ahead to then. The day of the 31^st was pretty uneventful except that I got to go play pachinko (Japanese slot type gambling) with my oldest host sister since we went out to dinner together and I mentioned I had never played. We didn’t actually go to the pachinko parlor because it’s really expensive and you are likely to lose but she took me to a gaming center where she sponsored me to play for an hour or so. I lost. It was interesting though, and I have noticed a lot of my colleagues often go so I am glad I tried it so at least I know what it’s about when they mention it. We also went into a pet shop, which hones in my theory that Japanese people treat animals terribly.  I know that is a vast generalization and I am sure there are a large number of people who are Japanese and love and care for their pets as much as any other person and I am sure there are other countries where they are treated the same if not worse, but I am constantly stunned by how sad these animals look. The dogs and cats in the cages were all under the age of 6 months (anything older and my host sister said they wouldn’t be adopted so they get ‘discarded’ - I wasn’t quite sure what that meant) and were in a stimulus free environment lacking everything except water and a small carpet in their little glass cages. Some of them were eating their own poop because they were so bored. I won’t address this anymore except to say I really don’t like going to Japanese zoos or pet stores because they make me really sad.

Squid!

When we got home, we watched some TV programs counting down to the New Year. Japanese TV is worth a whole nother entry so I will suffice to say that it is entertaining like a train wreck - you just can’t look away.

Once midnight struck, we ate toshikoshisoba (New Year’s buckwheat noodle soup) together - just me and my older host sister because mom and dad were sleeping. The next morning I woke up to zouni (soup with soft rice cakes, herbs, fish eggs and Japanese vegetables) which I shared with my host dad. Lunch was tempura that my host mom made when she got home from work then we went to the shrine to do hatsumode (you visit a shrine on New Years and draw a fortune [omikuji] which is suppose to predict how lucky you will be for the rest of the year). I drew the lowest of the lucky and so did mom but dad drew the most lucky. Mine is actually really bad in all the areas applicable to me like studying and love so I may go back sometime this week and draw another. I also bought a studying charm to try and help me overcome the troubles it predicted. Not that I know if I believe in this stuff but I figure I can use all the study help I can get LOL.

Setting up the table for New Years

zouni

The fish eggs on top of zouni

toshikoshisoba

hiramenonizakana

Dinner was a feast reminiscent of Christmas dinner at home in the completely Japanese way. We had chawanmushi (a type of creamy soup tasting vaguely of doughy rice and soy filled with onions and mushrooms),

hiramenonizakana (a flat fish eaten raw after being soaked in soy sauce - it is especially valued if it is female and the ovaries are filled with eggs like ours were and suffice to say I am not a fan),

lots of sashimi including sudaco (raw, sour octopus leg) which is now my favorite fish ever,

osechiryouri (a New Years style bento filled with things like grilled eggs, meat, black beans, Japanese vegetables and pickles), 

and of course mochi (a universally eaten New Year’s ‘sweet’ which is rice ground into a patty and allowed to harden over a few days then grilled, dipped in soy sauce and wrapped in seaweed - it’s awesome).

osechiryouri

chawanmushi

sudako

mochi

There was also a lot of drinking - strictly with the Japanese fashion. In fact I think every night of my visit at least one family member was drinking and toasting. I even go to try nihonshu (the Japanese version of vodka); its good but has a really strong kick.

The night of our feast, my middle host sister came to the house with her husband and their newborn. He is just about the cutest baby I have ever seen. I wanted to snuggle him until my nose fell off. Luckily his mom wanted him to become a ‘global baby’ (something about hoping he will be really skilled in English if I held him and spoke to him in English)so I got to hold him for a long time. I found out Japanese women breastfeed their babies anywhere. They carry shawls and just whip them out and plop down on a bench and unbutton their shirts when the baby is hungry. No looking for bathrooms or dark corners here! It’s possible this happens in America but I never noticed it.

hiramenonizakana in the shop

On the 2^nd with dad, middle sister and her husband we battled the crowds and went out to do some shopping. The after New Year’s sales are the equivalent of black Friday in America and everyone has huge sales. She bought some baby stuff and I just bought a pair of ‘heated’ tights since at this point I was out of space completely in my bags between the omiyage (souvenirs) I had to bring back for my coworkers (another Japanese custom) and the presents I received from my friends (a big puffy jacket for use in the house since there is no central heating). The crowds weren’t anything like the ones I have battled at 5AM in the outlet malls in America though so I wasn’t at all bothered by all the people; especially since I had just spent a few days in Tokyo being packed into every available space on the sidewalk.

My fortune

I left of the morning of the 3^rd to head back to Nagoya with my friend and her husband and the traffic was so bad we were on the road over two hours longer than our trip up. Luckily there is TV in the car though so I got to finish watching ekiden (a huge relay-type race - there are various versions but the one I was watching was 20 teams of 5 college students each running 20k of a 100k race up a mountain. They raced down the mountain on the 3^rd so I wanted to see the conclusion since I had spent all morning of the second watching the beginning). The 4^th I took a few trains back to my final destination - home.

The shrine where I drew my fortune

Overall, I saw some amazing things, ate some amazing things, and got to relax and enjoy myself at the care of loving friends and a pseudo-family. It snowed, which was awesome so I made a snowball and I even ran in the snow. Well, I was running and it started snowing but same difference. I caught up on my reading and even finished my Christmas packages to mail home (maybe today?). Doesn’t make me miss my family less or wish any less I had gone home for Christmas - but I definitely did the best I could since I chose to stay in Japan. Thanks friends and ‘family’ and LOVE.

'Tis the season to be... drunk?

Middle school drinking party in Nov.

As it’s enkai (drinking party) season now I felt like this update should be focused on one of the most intriguing aspects of Japanese business culture I have stumbled upon yet - drinking parties.

 Shall we start with a quick life update? It snowed today! I have been telling people I have never seen snow before but that’s not entirely true since I saw it in DC once on a high school field trip and I have since seen it melting on pavement in various cities and the one time I went skiing. But for all intensive purposes, I have never experienced the snow earned through short, cold days and leaves changing and seasons. I saw that snow today. It started as sleet then upgraded to light flurries. In the afternoon it snowed again for about 20 minutes and this time it stayed on the ground but when it stopped snowing it melted. The teachers keep telling me it will really snow soon but I think there were entertained by my child-like delight at the flurries falling on my clothes and in my hair and with me making video after video of the falling stuff.

Blowfish sashimi!

End of the year party with middle school

Mr. and Ms. Claus?

With that I will move into the relationship I have with the people I work with. I do have nine schools so keeping relationships straight sometimes strains my brain and I don’t often remember the names of the teachers I work with outside of school but I do put in an honest effort. On that note, I go to the same middle school every Tuesday and Thursday so I have developed substantial relationships with my colleagues there. This was aided strongly by the three enkais I have now attended with these teachers. The first was back in September (the 17^th actually) and I believe I already discussed it in detail earlier. There was one I couldn’t attend after sports day, also in September (entry coming soon) and I actually didn’t go because it was my birthday and I had other plans. The second for me occurred in November after culture festival (also an entry coming for this) and it was a much different experience than the mini one in September (only 5 of us were there) and from the BOE one (my welcome party which I believe I also discussed earlier). For one thing, I knew everyone who was there and had been seeing them on a regular basis but was curious to learn more about them outside of work. Also, by this time my Japanese had been improving steadily over the past few months and the amount of topics I could discuss confidently had dramatically increased.

Mr. party foul needed an apron

The November enkai was held in the same fish restaurant my welcome party with the BOE had been held in and thus I at least felt confident about the menu and knew how to cook the food. The night turned out to be very interesting as it continued and I learned a lot about my co-workers. Mostly life drama but that’s enough to keep me invested in their personal lives for the next while. A few major things happened that I don’t think would have been possible if I hadn’t invested the time and money in this long standing drinking tradition the Japanese hold in such high regard. One, my colleagues adopted me as a member of the Yamaga middle school family. I now have a big sister, two big brothers and a mother in my ‘work family’ and they have made it their responsibility to look after me and make sure I don’t do anything stupid (like electing to run a marathon in my first real winter?!). There were also a lot of fun events though too, like when I put the live shrimp on the grill and it jumped back into my lap... then my ‘brother’ did it and it jumped onto his head. :-)

Also, I found out Japanese people get much more open after a few drinks - to the point where they spill other people’s secrets and are very touchy (which is awesome!). I had heard rumors of this phenomenon before and saw it with the exchange students in college but it wasn’t such a big change from their normal selves. Here, these people put on such a severe front at work - even between each other not only superiors. When they drink though, the walls come crashing down. It’s a nice change but kind of makes these drinking parties necessary.

The fish grill

December came more drinking parties but these being the most extreme form since, as they are aptly titled “忘年会” forget the year, they are for the purpose of wiping your slate of all the hard work of the past year and getting completely trashed. I had two of these - one for my middle school on the 10^th and one for a select elementary school on the 22^nd. Both, surprisingly, had fugu (blowfish) which is not only a delicacy but has the chance of killing you since it’s poisonous. But oh lordy is it delicious! I told some Japanese friends I had it - twice - and they freaked out because apparently it is such a delicacy that they haven’t even eaten it. I feel so special!! Granted it did cost me a lot... enkais themselves are a lot of money but each of my bounenkais (forget the year parties) cost me a hundred bucks. :-(

Giant clams!

The middle school one was ... enlightening. Some of the younger male teachers dressed up in costumes and there were many party fouls since it is Japanese tradition to make sure no glass around you is ever empty so people were pouring drinks for each other but getting a lot on themselves. Someone even managed to spill tea all over my lap. Of course, the Japanese solution to a party foul is to take a huge shot of sake if you’re the offender so since the art teacher fouled 4 times he was very quickly the most drunk person in the room. We also played a question/trivia game with questions about events that had happened over the past year around the school - luckily none of them involved me. I did win twice though which really made me feel amazing in the Japanese department! Once the trivia was finished, we did secret Santa and I got some lottery tickets. Unfortunately, I checked the lottery yesterday and I didn’t win. Then for some reason they do a toast the person who’s birthday is nearest (the happened at both of my enkais) and it was the vice principal. Someone had to serve him his cake though and I got elected to be the victim - I mean hostess. Everyone just kept saying “feed him like he’s your dad!”

Elementary school was much the same with eating blowfish sashimi (very raw with no rice but absolutely delicious!) and a lot of drinking. We played bingo at this one and everyone won a small prize. I also managed to make some friends since they also invited the preschool teachers from next door to the school and a lot of them are young and live near me. Yay! We ate more at this one though since the restaurant also made nabe (a kind of big vegetable soup eaten communally) and tempura with the blowfish once we finished with the raw bits.

Karaoke after party

After both of the bounenkais I decided to continue onto the nijikai (it’s like the after party - usually karaoke) and had a blast. At the elementary school one some of the teachers demanded I teach them American ‘sexy dance’ (namely how to move your hips in a fashion that doesn’t resemble a seizure) so I did. Kind of embarrassing until I remembered that everyone was going to forget a majority of the night in the morning. They were good students despite the stumbling!

So I guess this all really boils down to a few key points. 1. Drink with your coworkers if you ever get a job in Japan (I actually didn’t drink alcohol at either of these parties because my stomach was still healing so don’t use that as an excuse!). 2. Get all the juicy gossip and true opinions of your job performance from these parties. 3. Enjoy yourself - you only live once right!

Marathon

The big day

I woke up early Saturday morning and went to the computer to call my family. Of course, no one was online but shortly thereafter I got a message from K asking if we could leave soon for Miyazaki. I threw my bag in the car and as soon as she arrived we left to pick up E in Beppu. K went for a massage while we grabbed lunch then it was a hurried rush to the train. Got on just in time!

Pre-race pump

The train ride proved to be more interesting than planned because while we were examining our marathon paperwork and memorizing when the water breaks would occur in the race the person across the aisle popped over and asked in perfect English if we would be participating in the race. We had seen him examining his own set of paperwork earlier so we knew he was participating but we didn’t realize he could speak English. Turns out he is a surgeon in Oita and spent some time in America doing his PhD research so he spoke fluent English. K and E were pretty pooped so they spent most of the ride sleeping/zoning out so I spoke to him for most of the train ride. It was so nice to talk so science for once! He does micro-metastasis research on primarily lung and breast cancer but since he owns a family clinic in Oita doesn’t have much time to do his research. I learned so much because I got the chance to ask about medical practice and the way the system works in Japan and ask about medical school and the like from someone who knows about the system. I wish we could skip university and combine bachelor’s with doctoral exams into a single six year program! We got to talking about health and I mentioned my ulcer and he even offered to let me come see him for a second consult. I might take him up on it!

Got off the train, checked into the hostel and then went about finding dinner. The doctor (who is a marathon veteran!) recommended a carb fest so just like when I was in high school before a big meet, we went to an Italian restaurant and ate all the pasta and bread we could handle. All the while watching “Meet Joe Black” and chatting about how all the waiters were acting like they hadn’t ever seen a white person before (que Eminem). It was an overall great dinner and we left feeling full and happy - good way to go to sleep before your first marathon!

Those frowns aren't faked. We felt like crap waddling to the bus.

On the way back to the hostel we were taking pictures and the first foreigner we had seen stopped us and showed us his bar. He seemed nice enough and the bar was cool but it was EMPTY. The restaurant had been too - we are talking more wait staff than customers. We asked him how he kept the business going considering it was a Saturday night and there were hardly any people in the restaurant. He responded saying he doesn’t and plans on closing before the end of the year... kind of sad. Miyazaki is clearly not the thriving metropolis. That was until we walked down a shady street and found the youth culture consisting of a bunch of sketchy bars, rap music and wannabe gangsters. Interesting little subculture we stumbled upon.

Woke up race day morning feeling grouchy but not miserable. We hadn’t slept much because the men next door were up late and their light shined into our beds. They also woke up at 3 in the morning whereas we weren’t planning on waking up until 5:50. Took a taxi to the race because fighting off the other 12,000+ participants to get on a bus or train would have just been too stressful. Dr.’s orders were to book a taxi the night before so we did and it worked out great!

Got to the stadium and registered and by this time we were feeling a little self-conscious about all the staring we were receiving and we still hadn’t seen another foreigner so we began to draw some interesting conclusions. When I checked in though it was a huge group of middle school boys who gave me the information and they immediately asked in perfect English where I was from. I told them America and they flipped out literally jumping up and down screaming “WE LOVE AMERICA!” This forced me to reconsider my opinions about the lack of foreigners in the city though I still hadn’t actually seen one. I got my T-shirt from the other end of the booths and the girls there said “Here you are, have a nice race” also in perfect English. K and E had had much the same experiences and when we met up with all our materials we decided that everyone in Miyazaki must actually secretly speak English and that the few foreigners who must live there either don’t ever leave their homes or we just weren’t lucky enough to catch sight of them. Either way, they must be excellent teachers or they just lucked out with awesome kids.

I didn't know the power rangers were coming!

Lined up for the race about two hours after arriving and while shoved into a thick crowd of people heard the whistle blow and... couldn’t move anywhere for another three minutes. It took up almost four minutes to actually pass the starting line and it was one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. Around 2K we started up a bridge because the route took up down the by-pass (Japanese version of a highway) where they had re-routed traffic to give us the entire road. From the bottom of the hill you could look up and see this giant mass of people moving in a throng up the ramp. I remembered going to Next Big Thing back in Tampa while I was high school student and seeing 10,000 people all gathered in a big park to listen to rock music and seeing the Gator stadium filled to the brim with 90,000+ people dressed in orange and blue but this was something entirely different. It took my breath away for a moment - at least until my legs reminded my lungs that they needed air to keep moving. First of all, there were 8,001 participants in the full marathon - including four Olympic runners. All ages, sizes and shapes but all except about 10 were Japanese. I couldn’t believe it! A mass of black heads and multi colored shirts swarming up a hill together, running. There were numerous occasions in that first 10K where you could see the swarm in its entirety both ahead and (I assume) behind and I will never forget how inspiring it was.

Some of the characters who ran - they didn't do the marathon

Around 15K the course changed, we were running down the downtown boulevard, which was closed on both sides to traffic and we turned right into this labyrinth of runners. The path wound in a way I can only show with a picture. It was really cool because while I was running in the first line, there were runners in all three of the other lines around me. When I entered the turnabout (?) the farthest right lane was thinly distributed with the fastest of the runners. I actually saw the fastest few only once when they passed us in the beginning of the route. I was on about 10K when they were at around 21K. They didn’t even look winded! I found out later four of those runners had been invited and two had Olympic medals! Wow.

The rest of the race passed in a mix of pain and euphoria as I passed by mile marker after mile marker knowing how much closer I was to finishing. You never know what you are capable of until you pass by the finish line at 31K and know you still have 6 miles left! I want to say I hit a runner’s high and just soared through the race but it wouldn’t be entirely true. The first 25K were great, the next 10 were hell then biting back a lot of pain I just ran my heart out until it was over.

I was a lot more tired than I look

I don’t know if I will ever run another one but I finished. 4 hours, 48 minutes and 12 seconds later. I still can’t believe I did it but it is certainly true that our bodies are capable of amazing things. I think if you are masochistic enough, everyone should try to run one of these things once in their life. Now, back to my soreness and classes!

Life as We Know It.

Ok, so I am sorry for those people out there who have been stuck reading this blog. Lately it has turned more into a diary about my own personal journeys toward fulfillment than about my life here in Japan. Although I consider them one in the same, let me give you a bit of a bigger picture view of my life here.

I work in nine schools so it took a while but I finally have a pretty consistent schedule. Monday, Wednesday and Friday I go to elementary schools around the city. I spend a day at each one so it takes about 3 weeks to see them all. They try to keep them in the same area so for instance I have two schools in the village of Ota which is about 20 mins over a mountains range to the west from my house. I went to one school Monday then the second yesterday. I have a few schools only  minutes apart from one another in "downtown" Yamaga that I will see next week consecutively. Tuesday and Thursday I spend at my middle school. Tuesday I see the 3rd years and half the 2nd years. Thursday I hit the first years and the other half of the second years. Every elementary school is different in which students I see but most of them have me visit around 3-4 classes where they combine various grades and thus I see every student. Since all of my school except one have less than 50 students in total this works out. Yamaga elementary school, however, has about 200 students so I see half of them every time I visit.

My lessons also range because not only do the student's abilities vary but so do their teacher's styles and English abilities. Some teachers prefer I do the lesson completely independently while others like to take the lead and I work as mainly a sound-box. Neither situation is bad or good really and I just kind of jump into the flow of things however they are. I guess you can say my job is to be as flexible as possible and keep something up my sleeves for anything.

As far as actual teaching skill is concerned I believe this is something that I am going to continue to acquire as I gain experience. Hopefully I am not too terrible at it now though :-).

I love my teachers I work with and while there are some schools where I occasionally have trouble and some schools where there is ample miscommunication - frequently, I think I really lucked out here with everything. My students are a lot of fun and the elementary schoolers especially always surprise me. I have one girl, she is a first grader at a school of 24 students, who is also the daughter of a woman I work with at the middle school. She is awesome at English and is always using it whenever she can and jumping at any opportunity to touch me or learn about me. It's truly amazing and the other students are really inspired by her. So much so that school now has me going to their class regularly instead of just whenever their schedule fits me.

The students can sometimes be a hassle though too. I actually don't think I  mentioned this before but my job description clearly states that I am not allowed to play any role in the disciplining of students. Thus on the days when they misbehave I have to defer to the teacher. Sometimes this is fine - in middle school especially the teachers are quick to immediately and succinctly take care of students who misbehave. Typically publicly. Elementary school poses an entirely new problem though since I guess the there is no defined system. Some classes are well managed and the teacher holds a firm grip on the students whereas the others are out of control. One time there were no teachers at all and I was left at lunch with the students trying to make them finish their food (which was particularly gross that day) while bumbling through Japanese instructions about if they don't finish they can't go to recess. It was awful. I ended up calling in the tea lady from the office and she lectured them until she was red in the face.

Mostly though, I feel like I am only there for play - and the students know it. When I come they get a break form the everyday and we get to sing and dance while they put in 50-100% effort at using English. We read books, do sing alongs and watch movies. All for the sake of steering them away from the eventual destruction of their English confidence once they enter high school. Oh well.

In other news, training is going slow. Have to sacrifice a bit of extra training time because I need more healing than I thought I would post the 20K. I have officially three weeks until the marathon as a of Sunday and I will now only have one 35K run prior to the race. It is looking like I will be running 4K, walking 1K come race day to prevent myself from dying years before I'm due. A friend mentioned today that all I talk about when it comes to running is how much I hurt lately and she's right. But I feel like without pain there is no improvement and unfortunately I set the bar pretty high for my running abilities concerning this marathon. I just don't know if I can do it anymore but it loops back to the finish a few times before it's over - kind of like a four leaf clover actually - so if it gets too impossible I will walk until I can't walk anymore. Lol.

Also, one of my students has a crush on me and brought back a boat-load of English pamphlets from their school trip to Kyoto for me to peruse. K says I should encourage him and if he asks tell him he can be my weekday boyfriend. She even suggested some cute nicknames I could use for him in class. Poor kid. I'm only gonna break his heart. Love!

Another heavy one

Monday I was driving home from a dinner in Beppu with K and it just felt like serious talk night. We discussed our past and how coming to Japan has changed us - well in my case begun to change me. I guess I felt I needed to express to her my gratitude for getting me active in running. Perhaps I merely needed to put my own thoughts into words.

It sounds cliche but I am a firm believer in the saying “everything happens for a reason.” I am not religious by any means. I stoutly stand by my scientific values that not only does evolution happen but, it continues to shape the world. However, some things can’t be explained and despite all the terrible things that happen to people, if you change your mindset you will surely see a connection beneath it all you can learn from. I am not preaching and everyone is free to believe how they see fit, but this is some background from my side. Because of this philosophy, I have been examining the way some of my experiences have been shaped since the events leading up to my life in and prior to Japan. I was apparently stressing so much about coming here that it gave me an ulcer. I remember being so nervous for the interview that I couldn’t eat or sleep for 2 days. You can probably read about it in my earlier entries. I was also convinced I needed to be busy to function properly - which I talked about earlier as well. But despite it all, I made it to Japan and have been here for four months.

In fact, when I called the anonymous JET hotline to ask some questions I realized how good of shape I am actually in. As is routine, he asked me basic questions about my health and wellbeing before hanging up although I had called about something entirely trivial. I told him about my running habits, eating habits, study habits and work environment. He grilled me a little then finally finished our conversation by telling me ‘most other JETs around this time are feeling about 20%. The holidays are approaching, most have never been away from their families, let alone by themselves - especially during this time - and many just want to return home. They begin drinking a lot or partying a lot or hanging out only with foreigners. You’re in the best shape I have heard for a while. You seem comfortable, are living perhaps better than you did in America, and are reflecting on your life in deep and meaningful ways. Keep doing what you’re doing.” Now I am not saying any of this to brag, and clearly his pool consists mainly of people who call because they are depressed, but sometimes you need to hear things like this to help re-adjust your focus.

As crazy as it may seem, I have come to realize these are some of the best days of my life. I packed up everything into two bags and hoped on a plane to the other side of the world where I fumble through the language, am illiterate, and am working in a field for which I have no previous experience. I also got here, unpacked my bags and started training for a marathon of which I could hardly run one kilometer of when I started. Talk about stepping out of a comfort zone. Luckily, I have never been too adverse to change but as I look back, I see things couldn’t have worked out any better. If I had waited on this marathon thing, or said ‘no’ entirely, I likely would have gotten sick or depressed with my lot; but having this impossible goal has kept me out of the rut and got me squeezing exercise into my daily routine. If K had asked me on another day, I don’t think I would have said yes, because she caught me in between two periods of homesickness and loneliness. I don’t know what drove me through the grueling application and interview for this job but it has made me realize that, like shoving my stuff into two bags, I have to sift through my own mental baggage and blocks to focus on adapting to this new life. Perhaps everyone should pack up and go every 5-10 years or so. Maybe just take a sabbatical for a few months and teach in a third world country. It is effective not only for cleaning up the clutter in your home, but for cleaning the clutter in your life.

I feel cleansed. I finished a half marathon on Sunday. I had many demons and it was really hard. Some of it I walked and at 10K when I was running past the finish line knowing I still had 11K to go, I can’t lie and say I didn’t think about quitting. I mean, who would have known? I could have disappeared until my friends finished then showed up around the time I should have finished and crossed that finish line. But I couldn’t do it. When it came down to it, I just kept fighting. Even yesterday, when I was nursing sore knees and staring sadly past my students while they played soccer, I realized I had made the right decision. It was the first of many challenges I will face in mastering my own mind. It is one thing to say I feel more capable of motivating myself, but it is another thing entirely to test it. This time, I passed. Perhaps I am capable of being my own boss someday after all.

I still have a lot of challenges ahead here in Japan. And in life. But as of Sunday, I feel a little more confident in my ability to overcome them and looking back, I realize I have already overcome so much. There is nothing like talking to an old woman on a bus, or a group of teachers over dinner in another language and hearing them remark on how remarkable you are, and how much courage you have. Of course I wave them off and tell them it isn’t like that, but it stays with me and sometimes, I feel like I do have that courage. Sometimes, I feel like with the decisions I have made over the past year, like so many other JETs, I truly am remarkable. This job is so much more than a job. 

Japanese

I don't know if I have mentioned this before but knowing Japanese - even a little - has been the most amazing thing ever. Even if you don't know a lick of it, study it before you come please! Even just being able to say 'Hello!' or 'How are you?' makes people infinitely friendlier. They don't even care if you make a ton of mistakes and throw words together in an attempt to make sentences without any discernable grammar structure - as long as you're trying.

Preaching aside, I have made a lot of observations about Japan recently and I thought I would share them along with an update of my life to date. A lot of things have happened recently. I discovered Japan doesn't seem to have any discern-able HIPPA laws and thus all of the questions typically asked by nurses in the privacy of an individual waiting room are asked in front of literally a hundred of your closest neighbors. Including such gems as the poor high school girl next to me who was waiting to get an abortion and was asked by the nurse how she would like the placenta discarded. Really? Mine wasn't so bad, just people asking me when my last menstrual cycle was and the like, but still! Not to mention I had to wait in the waiting room in a wheelchair with an IV in my arm while a bunch of old people watched my mind start succumbing to the drugs and I begin to lose control of my throat.

School life has a lot of differences too. Besides taking off my shoes as soon as I get to school and when I move in and out of the gym, the bathroom, and pretty much any other room, the teachers all sit together in one big room where students can come in an out at their leisure and hover over your shoulder. I kind of like it when they some to see me since it's rare but you can see all the other teachers getting annoyed with it. The other teachers also, probably because of close proximity, always know exactly what you're doing even if you are very discreet. They are constantly reading my notes and looking at the study materials I have piled on my desk and even correcting me while I take practice exams. I tried to look up the Japanese word for nosey and have been unable to find an equivalent probably because the word just doesn't exist. Fine with me since I am nosey too and now I don't have to excuse myself for being up in people's business. :-)

They also handle some situations differently than I would expect. One of my teachers quit her job to get married and there was no fanfare or party or anything, one day she was just gone. K mentioned it is a Japanese thing to just let friendships have their time then fall by the wayside. I think I can learn from this. There are some relationships in my life that have had their time and now is the perfect time to let them go. Oh well. I still have plenty of time to learn.

Went to a party last Friday at one of my teacher-friend's houses. Her parents invited some of their friends and all got drunk while we ate a ton of food. It was delicious and I am so happy I am not allowed to drink right now because I want to remember every bit of their drunkenness. They actually asked me if there are still slaves in America! I wasn't offended or anything, more appalled by their ignorance. I vowed to do the best I could from here on out to make sure my students never suffer this kind of ignorance at my hand. Oh well. Still fun though!

I wrote another entry about the half marathon I will post in a bit so this is about all I have. I might add more later but I am running late for dinner so LOVE!

Relaxation

Usuki has a lot of foxes I guess

 So in accordance with the doctor's orders I have been trying to relax lately. I spent most of Sunday sleeping and have been even taking it a little easy on the running (mostly because the half marathon is this Sunday... but still). I did spend Saturday in Usuki though at a festival. It is the famous Takeyoi festival and they light thousands of lanterns made from carved bamboo all throughout the town. It was gorgeous!

The crazy thing was, it was also more foreigners in one concentrated place than I have seen since the Oita JET seminar in August. There had to have been more than 30 of us. The locals were freaking out and everywhere we went someone would shout "There's sooo many foreigners!" I guess I couldn't really blame them because between the alcohol and pretty colors we were damn loud. Thank goodness me and a few other people weren't drinking because we damn sure needed some crowd control. I"m afraid I don't have much in the way of other news. 

 Spent Friday night at tea ceremony learning the ancient arts of pouring tea gracefully. They want me to come back which kind of rocks so I will. It's about 5 grandma-aged women and a teacher from one of my elementary schools (who also invited me). The old ladies doted on me the whole time and sent me home with bags full of food. I was awesome! I can't wait to go back! They invited me to dress in a kimono and serve tea for the New Year's festival here because they said me bringing people tea would make them happy. Woot!

Today I also met the resident foreigner in Yamaga when she came to school to pick up her children. So nice. (No I am not just saying that because you read my blog!) Hopefully she can teach me how to battle the cold weather here so I don't freeze to death this winter. 

Tomorrow is a big seminar in Oita city and every ALT in the prefecture has to go - that's 88 of us. This will be the first time I have seen them all so I am kind of nervous. Hopefully it won't be as boring as people say :-). Well, that's all for now. Love.

The princess of the parade

All of these were made by local elementary schoolers

Takeyoi

Some of the group :-)