Here so Far

Paul:

School so Far
I have always been a fan of shaking hands. However, when all someone does is shake my hand, for periods longer than 10 seconds; I tend to discourage the action. But it could be worse, they could be giving me an old fashioned “Kancho.” If you don’t know what that is, consider yourself lucky. Those are my first thoughts when concerning school. School is…well…I can’t describe it in words even though I’ll have to. I suppose a description of my daily ritual will suffice.
6:30 Wake up, eat breakfast, possibly shower, wake Devan up and get dressed in “Sunday” clothes.
7:30 Leave on Mildred (Mildred is my bike I inherited from another teacher…the bikes literal name is “The Mild” I jokingly said that I “dread the mild” so riding the bike is a mild dread…Mildred).
8:00 Arrive at Futabadai Gakko Sho and greet students wearing yellow hats.
8:10 at the latest I am at my desk with a cup of green tea. –Office etiquette consists of bowing to everyone when I arrive and shouting Ohiogozaimasu which is Japanese for good morning. There will be more etiquette to come at the end of the day.
8:40 I have four 45 min classes per day some start at this time, others start at 9:30. I am in the English room and teach conversational English. “How are you, good morning, nice to meet you, I am 23 years old, etc…” I teach 1-6 graders one grade each day alternating 2nd and 1st every other Friday.
10:15 Morning recess; finally! Recess is back! And I get to play! Only for 20 minutes, I am pretty sure it felt longer when I was in school. I walk around playing soccer, Japanese dodge ball (also known as unorganized mayhem in which children launch high density balls at each other’s heads), baseball, I play on playground “equipment” (Ralph Nader would choke and die if he saw what these children play on), and I haven’t tried them yet but they have unicycles to ride…I am afraid when I’m on two wheels; let alone one!
10:40 Class
11:30 Class
12:15 Lunch! Oh, lunch has been amazing. Whole fish without the head or tail…their take on American Hamburgers…that are not hamburgers at all; mostly I just sit with the secretaries and speak with them while they use broken English, it’s great. We talked about movies the other day and they all went crazy including the vice principal when I whistled the X-Files theme. Apparently they love that show (my kind of people!)
13:00 Brings about another recess…I mostly walk around since I am full of interesting food.
13:20 Cleaning time. Three or so kids come in my room and “clean.” Mostly, they play with my blow up globe and push dust around; it’s all very cute though.
13:50 Class
14:35 – 17:00 I call this section of time, “Watching the Clock till 5pm.” So I can’t leave until five, but I have to sit around and look busy…it stinks. But when it comes to leaving I get to speak more Japanese. They have this thing where when you leave work you have to say, “Osakini Shitsureishimasu,” which basically asks forgiveness for leaving before you do. I don’t know who started it but I supposed it’s weird when we say, “Bless you,” when someone sneezes…which the Japanese don’t say. Then I head home on good ole Mildred. On the way, I will usually stop by the local grocery store and pick up dinner. Devan likes vegetables a lot so I mainly look that and we have some salad. And bread! Oh if the French only knew that the Japanese baked better bread than they did. The bakeries are amazing here and I don’t think we’d be as happy as we are without them. We’ll stick in a DVD during dinner then shower in our wonderful shower room and head to bed. The weekends really are a vacation, right now we’re on a four day weekend and heading to Tokyo on Monday with James. Should be a good time, more to come on that note. Thanks for reading.

Devan:

4-21-2008
This update is all at once but only because of our sporadic internet access. We are starting the paperwork for our own internet this weekend so…soon.
My first day of work.
I was told to arrive at 8:10am but I thought it might be good arrive early. Plus, I had no idea how long it would take to walk to work. I live about 1.9km (whatever that is in miles) from school. I live on the same street as the school, so it really isn’t that bad of a walk with no hills and a sidewalk/bike lane all the way down. I planned on an hour walk but it only took me 30 min. Everyone seemed so shocked that I had walked to school, which I thought was weird because half the people in this country either walk or ride a bike.
It was nice to arrive at school early because once it hit 8:10 am the teacher’s room was a mad house. One thing about the Japanese I have noticed almost immediately is that they look very busy and rushed because they run and scramble everywhere they go, but they really aren’t doing very much at all. For example, on my way to work that morning, a man as “running” to work in his suit and looking very panicked but he wasn’t moving any faster than I was walking. He just looked like he was going fast and making a great effort at it.
So back to school, all of the teachers know at least, “How are you?” and,”Good morning”. Which, as wonderful as that is, is a bit misleading because I don’t know who really speaks English or who is just a faker. So I got to work early but my first class wasn’t until 9:50 so I had to look busy until then. This was hard because I had no idea what I was supposed to be doing. During this time I attempted to make tea but I was chased out of the kitchen by a secretary. Ten minutes later she showed up with a cup of coffee for me…wasn’t that nice, I hate coffee.
For class I “taught” for about ten minutes. Each grade has a lead English teacher that writes and directs the English lessons for all of the other classes in that grade. I quickly found out that my role at school is not to be a teacher but a tape recorder of English phrases. After seeing the curriculum for these kids I think they must think all Americans do is walk around the street and have the following conversation…
“Hello.”, “Hello.”, “My name is Yuki.”, “My name is Ben.”, “Nice to meet you.”, “Nice to meet you, too.”, “What food do you like?”, “I like curry and rice.”, “What food do you like?”, “I like ice cream.”, “See you.”, “See you.”
So after class I was glad to have my day finished, unfortunately, it was only 11:00am and I had to stay until 5. I thought about spending the next 3 hours washing my hands after shaking hands with 500 little kids. Yes, the little kid “sweaty” smell and snotty nose are universal.
I was terribly nervous, and still am, about school lunch. The one saving grace is that I don’t have to eat with the kids. I eat in the staff room with the nurses and secretaries. This way I don’t have to finish my food as an example for the kids. There was a mystery tin that looked like it might have rice in it and a bowl of murky soup that smelled like a pier in Long Beach. The dietitian told me that Paul and I have the same lunch menu everyday so I’m sure I’ll be hearing about how great the food is when I couldn’t even look at it, let alone eat it.
At about 2:30 I found some organizational things to do in the English room. It was nice to be away from my desk in the teacher’s room where everyone was watching to see if I was busy. As I was working the head English teacher for the school came running in. In a panicked voice she tells me we have to film an introduction video for the school and we have “NO TIME”. She turned suddenly and starts sprinting down the hall. I follow because I honestly though this was an emergency from the way she is acting. We got to the teacher’s room and she gave me an interview outline and told me to come up with answers by Wednesday. Are you kidding me, that’s two days from now, why did we just run down the hall? Like I said they run everywhere.

4-21-2008
Today Paul, Smitty, and I went with Port to get our cell phones. This was a big deal because it was the first item of normalcy. So far we still don’t have internet, a land line, furniture, or any form of transportation. Well, Paul did get a bike from another AET but I’ll have to explain that later. I was excited to get a cell phone although these cell phones were different from America. You don’t get very many minutes for what you pay. Paul and I are on a family plan so we can text each other for free but we only have about 60 minutes of talk time to share. Texting, or “c-mail”, is the main purpose of a cell phone and costs next to nothing. The biggest difference, the cell phones are more like gadgets than phones. Paul and I signed up for a very basic plan (like I said, 60 minutes) and we got the fanciest phones I have ever seen for FREE. Mine looks like a TV remote and I can do anything from watch TV to translate English to Japanese with my dictionary. Smitty got a phone with a 5 mega pixel camera and Paul’s phone plays music better than our i-pod radio. Granted these phones might be too complicated for any of us to figure out but they were all free.
The most amazing part of the entire cell phone episode were the three Japanese people that helped us at the store. We were all nervous because we weren’t sure if we would be able to communicate or even if we had the correct paperwork to start the process. In Japan a foreigner must have a registered card from city hall, a passport, and a special stamp in order to get a cell phone, buy a car, or open a bank account. We had started the process for receiving our foreigner’s card on Tuesday and have a temporary card for now. Once we get our permanent card we will be able to get things like a scooter/car and the internet. I felt bad when we walked in; the woman at the front desk had a look of, “NO, anyone other than foreigners!” Two women sat us down at a table to start on paperwork. The front desk lady even called a translator on the phone so they could explain the paperwork to me…over the phone…isn’t that convenient? About an hour into filling out forms, converting roman birthdays to Japanese birthdays, calling a translator about 40 times a Japanese man showed up who spoke almost perfect English. At first I thought the man worked at the store, turns out he was just passing by and saw foreigners and figured they needed help.
We ended up staying at the store for almost three hours, two hours past closing time. I couldn’t believe how helpful the two ladies and the random stranger were. I felt really bad for keeping them away from their families two hours after closing but Port explained that in Japan their work is their family. I had noticed that at school too, people show up an hour early and stay two hours late. It’s a weird concept for me, I run out the door at exactly 4:55, but I guess that’s how they do it here.

4-22-2008
Second day of work. I have no classes, I think, so many things have been lost in translation. Yesterday I swear I missed an entire class but no one has said anything, not that they would if I did. From what I’ve guessed, today is a sports day for the 2nd graders (my students for the day) so no English class. It’s a gorgeous day and I would love to be outside doing sports day with the kids but I was told to stay inside and work on a lesson plan…jokes on me, all of the lesson plans for the year have already been made up. This school has had an English program for the last 12 years so pretty much anything and everything I could think of has already been done. My English room is fully decorated and cute. On top of all of this preparation, in this school, each head English teacher for the grade prepare the lesson plans anyways! I have no responsibility.

4-23-2008
Day three. I taught my first full length class today. It was pretty much the worst class ever. First off, I wasn’t told I was teaching today. In fact I was told the exact opposite. Lucky for me and unlucky for the kids, none of the teachers had prepared either. About 20 min of the class were spent looking at each other and making random “ummmm” noises, while the kids stared. We finally found a CD and spent another 20 min singing song after song. There you go kids, have fun with English class, this American has no idea what she’s doing. By the 3rd class I had a routine. I had stolen a game idea from Paul and successfully taught a new song to the class all before 11:00am. The bad news was that lunch smelled like fish. I had two more afternoon classes, 5th graders but I don’t think they were any more forgiving than the 2nd graders. They seem to get more judgmental as they get older. I hate the 5th graders.

4-24-2008
Day four. Today was a rough day. I had 4th grade. The head English teacher that made the lesson plan refused to speak a word of English to me or the class so needless to say, I had no idea what was going on. In the lesson plan there seemed to be a question and answer section for the students to ask me questions. Even though it was English class none of them spoke a work of English, even when I told them to. That class passed but I don’t think they learned much other than,” I can’t understand unless you unless you use English.” My second class showed up 30 min early with no teacher. This time also corresponded with recess; it was raining outside so I figured they had sent these kids up to play in the English room until class time. Things were starting to get a little crazy so I figured I could start a game of “keep the small beach ball off the floor” to keep them organized and out of trouble. Things were going well until one of the little boys decided to be a jerk and threw the ball as hard as he could at another girl’s head. It was a beach ball so it really didn’t travel very far or fast, but the little girl still felt the need to scream like she was just hit the head with a rock. She reacts and throws the ball back at the first boy who then launches himself the 10 feet into the wall. Right then, of course, the teacher shows up to find two kids screaming and crying. The teacher starts screaming at the kids for playing ball in the classroom, which they of course rat me out for starting. So all four of us, teacher, two crying kids, and me march off to the principle’s room where I have to apologize for allowing a ball in my class. Eventually, through a bunch of broken English, I was told that I was done teaching for the day. 4:55 couldn’t come soon enough

So I’ve made some observations about Japan in the last week. All of the cars are a variation of white/off white. Although there are a few exceptions such as hot pink, or electric blue. Also, they all back into their parking spots. I was told it is because they can then leave faster, but it takes them about 10 min to back into a spot so in the long run I don’t see the point. The entire country, well the part I’ve been to, smells like a backed up septic system. I can’t tell if the smell is caused by being below sea level or just different plumbing. The women are very shy about others hearing them pee. There are buttons on the toilets that only make the flushing sound. This can be frustrating when you can’t find the button that actually flushes the thing. Most Japanese assume that Americans love coffee. At school the secretaries make everyone tea several times a day, other than me, I get coffee several times a day. I hate coffee. Even though I don’t drink a drop, a fresh cup shows up almost every hour. And the biggest observation, school teachers in Japan work for 10 hours days regardless if they have a class to teach or not. Even in the summer. As I’ve sat for hours in the teacher’s room with nothing to do I’ve noticed that most of the other teachers don’t have very much to do either. However, they have an incredible ability to make themselves look VERY busy. I watched a guy the other day staple 500 teacher packets, unstapled them, and stapled them again in the exact same way. The entire chore would have taken anyone about 30 min but he stretched it out to 2 hours and then complained about how much he had to do. After the kids that faked getting hurt by a slow moving beach ball, the teacher’s that only know “good morning” and the teachers that look busy but really aren’t, I’m starting to think this is an entire country of fakers.

4-25-2008
This morning we had an assembly for the first graders and their parents in the gym. The first graders sat up front with everyone else facing them. Each grade performed a song or two in honor of the first graders. The best were the fourth graders who played puff the magic dragon on their recorders. It was nice to hear something familiar. I found an English radio station the other day, I wasn’t even interested in what they were talking about but it was nice to hear a familiar language. For the first few days at work, I was trying really hard to listen to conversations at lunch to see if I could pick up on cues. Now, I just tune the chatter out and focus on avoiding the weird stuff on my lunch tray.
After the assembly the kids went out to play, as usual, unsupervised. Ralph Nadder would have a field day in this country. On my way to school I regularly see infants hanging out the window of the driver’s seat and never buckled in. I had a 4th grader try to crawl out the window of a 4th story class room. The two other adults in the room didn’t even react.
We had to stay in the gym after the assembly to be introduced to the parents (rather the mothers, there wasn’t a single dad there). After the vice principle called our names we had to step forward and say something roughly translated, “take care of me”. Everyone giggled when I attempted Japanese, either that or they were laughing at the fact that I was a clear foot taller than everyone else in the room.
I taught two classes today. They went a little better today than yesterday but I still feel like an idiot and the kids know it. Up until now, most of the kids run the other direction in fear. So to make myself a little less scary I stole an idea from Port. I’ve been asked about 500 times if I play the piano. The AET before me played the piano. So when I say I don’t play, they always seem so disappointed. So today when I was asked I answered, “Yes, would you like to hear me play?” I walked over to the piano and made a big show of sitting down and getting ready to play and then I just started pounding on the keys for about two minutes. I turned around and asked, “Aren’t I good? I will play more tomorrow.” Some of the kids got the joke; others just kept that “she’s an idiot” look.
Last night Smitty came over and watched a movie with Paul and me. It was nice to have some English entertainment and to feel normal. We still don’t have a TV so we all had to sit on the floor rug and watch it on the lap top.

4-29-2008
We did finally get curtains in the living room, so Japan, the peep show is over. Now in our apartment we have a “bed”, which is more like a pad you would go camping with, a wardrobe for our coats, a floor lamp, a microwave, a fridge, a coffee table, and four floor pillows. Also, Paul bought me a bike so my commute down the street to school is only about 10 minutes. My bike is silver with a black basket in front, it doesn’t have gears but I don’t have any hills to deal with on the way to work. Things like cars and bikes have the most ridiculous names here. There is a mini van looking thing called the “Noah” and Paul’s friend James drives a “Humming Today”. My bike is called “Nice Friend” which I guess it is and Paul’s bike is called “Mild”. We lovingly call her “Mildred” because she looks a little rough around the edges. We bought my bike new but Paul’s bike was a hand me down. Mildred is purple/pink, rusty, and loud hence “Mild-Dread”.