Wake Me Up When September Ends

For once, I was ready to head home for a quiet night.

Then, my friend called and asked me to lend him 140 Yen. I was slightly bothered, of course, especially when my subway ride to meet him will cost at least 240 Yen. I was about to cuss him out jokingly, but then I remembered the time he helped me out when the ATM failed me at 7pm.

This friend of mine lost his wallet on his way to volunteering for the International Festival last week. It's been about 5 days and there's still no word regarding the wallet's whereabouts. I am slightly afraid for him.

Earlier this month, he lost his phone and a stranger returned it. So, he's keeping his faith alive. This is Japan after all. I think he also told me that he accidentally dropped his keys into the river but recovered it somehow.

I keep teasing him about his carelessness. Then, during dinner, he dropped the bomb. It was the mother of all unfortunate events. He had been planning to go to Vietnam during winter break to see his grandma for a long time. Two weeks ago, just one hour after he had purchased his ticket for Vietnam, he received a call from his brother telling him that his grandma passed away.

When I heard this news tonight, I wanted to cry for him. Poor guy. The world hasn't been very kind to him this month. Let's wake him up when September ends.

japan vs. china

On Saturday, our school had the Culture Festival. It was an eye-opening experience.

A Culture Fest in Japan is almost like a combination of a talent show and an open house at school. I think its intention is to show the friends and family what the students have achieved in the past couple of months.

The only difference, however, is the level of involvement by all parties. Generally, I wouldn't expect the students to be running the show and emceeing the whole day, but it happened. Also, I wouldn't really expect the teachers to be so involved with the performances either. There were generally-serious teachers (male and female, mind you) dressed up in school girl uniforms pretending to be Sailor Moon. Now that's pretty cool.

Ah, so let me get the story that is behind the title of this posting.
At the crafts fair section of the Culture Festival, a teacher came up to me and asked me if I knew what japan (with a lower case J) meant. He specifically told me it's not the country. He even wrote it out for further clarification.

I told him that no such word exists in English...but, apparently it means lacquer ware. He explained it to me and used china (with a lower case C) for comparison. I looked it up in my electronic dictionary and lo and behold, it was true.

You live and you learn.

Gone with the Wind

I think my lack of Japanese skills is shielding me from exposing my ignorance in American culture and certain aspects of an "intellectual's" knowledge.

Today, the second grade teachers bought me katsudon for lunch to officially welcome me into their section of the office.

It turns out that the second grade chief was an International Relations major in school and knows a lot about post WWII relations. Through the Japanese-speaking English teacher, he asked me who my favorite authors were. I couldn't come up with an answer that would easily satisfy him. The first "typical" answer that came to mind was Jane Austen, but she wasn't American and it was hard to admit that I liked classical chick lit at this early of a stage.

The next thing that came to mind was Chinese Lessons by John Pomfret. But my mind wandered off and just said that I'm in to non-fiction and that I was currently reading Peter Hessler's River Town. The explanation didn't go too well.

He then went on to say that he liked Hemingway's stories, Catcher in the Rye, as well as Gone with the Wind. I have little idea of the plots for the latter two stories, but I have read "A Farewell to Arms" and I cannot say that I remember much from it.

He also asked me about the Three Kingdoms of China. I knew what he was talking about, but the conversation ended there. He even wrote it in kanji hoping that I would be as excited as he was, but I disappointed him (and myself) greatly when I couldn't read two of the three characters he wrote.

To top it off, after lunch, he asked me if I knew Durkheim and Irike? Because of the difference in pronunciation, it already took me a while to figure out he was referring to Durkheim, but then I still can't figure out who this Irike person is. He must be famous.

Sigh. I feel like a loser who needs to go back to school. Although, I must say, after this afternoon's experience, I'm already on Wiki looking up Gone With the Wind. It's pretty interesting!

Indoor Shoes

I don't really understand the concept of "indoor shoes." Everyday, when I get to school, I have to change into my indoor shoes. These, simply stated, are shoes that have not been worn outside and are meant for indoor use. A few kinds of buildings, mostly schools, require them.

Mine are canvas slip-ons that I bought at "The Mall." They turned out to be shoes that elementary school students are required to wear, but nobody seemed to care. At least, they haven't said anything.

Every morning, upon arrival to school, I go through this routine of taking off my business-appropriate shoes that I purposely brought from the US and then I ungracefully wedge my feet into those growingly odor full shoes. How do people do it with such ease?

I manage to wear these shoes all day and as you may know, wearing any shoes without socks can take its toll on you. I have more and more blisters by the day.

My problem of the indoor shoes also stem from the fact that they usually don't match 99.9% of my outfits (also something I planned very carefully before leaving). The first day at school, another new teacher had a full on suit, but she was wearing tennis shoes. What's the point in that?

My last concern stems from this. Technically, these are "indoor shoes," but for some reason, they are permissible on the soccer/baseball field at school! I guess as long as it's on school ground, then everything is okay. What makes the school grounds so sacred? I have yet to find out the answer to that question.

Priceless Lessons

School lunch is 268 Yen perday. The stuff is not very exciting. I've had hotdog, mini fried fish, pork cutlet with cheese, caramel potatoes(!) and other unidentifiable objects. All lunches come with a soup of random boiled vegetables.

I always finish the entire thing so I don't have to waste, but honestly, I wouldn't miss it if they never offer school lunches again.

Oddly enough, I find lunch time one of the most enjoyable times of the day. I sit with 2-5 school teachers/ staff at a given time at the lunch table and they talk to me. It's mostly in Japanese, but they attempt to teach me names of that day's food, ask me about America, and other things.

They call this time "Japanese showers" beause it's non-stop Japanese and apologize to me because I can't understand. What they don't know is that these so-called showers are actually the best motivation for me to learn Japanese. And because of that, I long for the next day when lunch rolls around.

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I know this is lame, but I just had to add this! =)

A bus ride: 150 Yen
Sandwich at the conbini: 230 Yen
School lunch: 268 Yen
Japanese Showers: Priceless

There are some things that money can't buy. For everything else, there's Mastercard.

A ride home

"The typhoon is rolling in," warned the teachers in the staff room. It was almost 5pm and I stayed late today trying to finish preparing for the elementary school activities tomorrow. A few of them were worried that I'd have to walk back in the pouring rain.

The school nurse came up to me and offered me a ride home. Her sons stay with their grandmother after school and the house is close to my apartment.

As she led me to her car, I instinctively ran to the right side of the car. "In Japan, you sit on this side," she joked as she pointed to the seat on the left.

She picked up her twins who seemed very excited to see me and then drove me home. On the way home was a string of Japanese sentences I didn't understand.

It was a very simple act of kindness on her part, but for me, it meant a lot. I think it's moments like today's (or when kocho-sensei taught me how to make onigiri, and kyoto-sensei offered to help me at a moment's notice) that I'll remember for a long time.

Homac

Today, I went into Homac (Home Amenity Center) and bought furniture. As I left, after ordering a loveseat, a microwave and a desk (all to be delivered on Saturday), I felt a sense of satisfaction. One- because I feel like my apartment will start to look and feel like home. Two- because it was all at a fairly reasonable price with a mere 525 Yen of a delivery charge (for everything!). And three-I am now an independent woman because I just bought furniture in a foreign country all on my own.

I very quickly realized that the latter feeling is somewhat...misguided. I went to the service counter not really knowing enough Japanese to communicate what I had wanted to accomplish and boom, there they were ready to help. The Homac employee listened as best she could, looked at my crumpled ad, let me lead her to the back of the store for the desks, and even apologized for not knowing enough English to help me. I know it's a vast generalization, but it feels as though that it's only in Japan will they be that kind and forgiving to foreigners.

In America, they'll probably eat you alive or ignore you completely.

If that same situation happened in America, meaning if I were an immigrant trying to buy furniture without knowing any English, I think I would've walked out of the door empty handed and discouraged.

Perhaps I'm not as "cool" and independent as I thought. Bummer.