February Post

We had the annual JET "Skills Development Conference," formerly known as the "Mid-Year Conference." This is the only time in the year where Miyagi JETs are able to officially cavort with Sendai JETs, as we usually have separate group meetings and orientations. This year I showed off a new way to tie a necktie, the Eldredge Knot:

Pretty snazzy, eh?

A couple weeks later, a stray dog followed me to work. It didn't look like a "real" stray dog, just one that seems to have escaped from her owner's home. She's quite a beautiful dog; I'd like to have a Shiba at some point. Maybe when I have kids.

Cute Shiba-ken!

The big event in February was the annual Sapporo Snow Festival! Every year, MAJET goes to Sapporo, Hokkaido to celebrate, and we have a grand fest at the Sapporo Beer Garden where we stuff ourselves full of lamb and Sapporo Beer. Just look at my bib!

The Snow Festival was like usual, filled with cold temperature, snow sculptures, ice sculptures, snow slides, snow mobile-pulled rafting, crabs, soup curry, Sapporo ramen, and blizzards.

Blue Dragon

Sapporo Ramen!

Lucky Cat

Snowtubing!

View from the Top

Cheeeeeeeeeese!

Ice Castle!

Hotel-like Room on the Return Ferry

 Word of the Day: 結び目　「むすびめ」 "musubime," or "knot."

Coming of Age Day

Happy Coming of Age Day! Not really sure how to say that in Japanese, or if there even is a way to say it. (Much like we don't say Happy Labor Day! in the US.) But Coming of Age Day is called 成人の日　「せいじんのひ」 "Seijin no Hi" in Japanese. Anyway, on this day, everyone who became a legal adult (age 20, in Japan) since last year's Coming of Age Day is allowed to get all dressed up and celebrate! This usually entails dressing up in a kimono (or suit and tie for the guys) and going to a shrine to bow, pray, and do the usual. I didn't go out today, seeing as how my Coming of Age was over half a decade ago (damn, I feel old saying that!).

Two days ago was the "cutting of the New Year's rice cake," or the 鏡開き　「かがみびらき」　"Kagami Biraki." This literally means "Opening the Mirror." It's because the mochi (rice cake) resembles the shape of a mirror. Or so I've been told. This ceremony was held in the 桜花館　「おうかかん」 "Oukakan", also known as the 武道館　「ぶどうかん」　"Budoukan": the Martial Arts Hall. (FYI, the Budoukan in town is named the Oukakan.) At the event were some traditional blessings and prayers, the first martial arts practices for the three major clubs, and eating of mochi! Yay!

I met the Karate Master. He came up right to me as soon as the ceremonial stuff was over (and before training) and we talked martial arts. It was strange though; one of the first things he did was to ask me which martial arts group I wanted to join. He seemed very eager to take me in as one of his students. And it seemed as though he had already heard of me and already knew of my desire to enroll in a local martial arts academy. After some discussion, I found out that the first practice of the year (after the Kagami Biraki) is tonight. At 7 PM. So, in less than an hour, I'll be out there! Oh boy. Wish me luck!

Oh, yeah, after the practice, we ate mochi soup! It was delicious! But they made me get seconds, and they filled the second bowl completely (and with a ton of mochi). I sat next to the Karate Master and he looked over at me, laughing when I looked like I was struggling finishing it all. After I was done, he said, "You must be tired!" (お疲れ様でした。　It's said at the end of a work day. Haha.)

Word of the day: 頑張ります！　「がんばります！」　"Ganbarimasu!" It means, "I'll do my best!"

Happy New Year!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Phrase of the day: 明けましておめでとうございます！「あけましておめでとうございます！」 "Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu!" You can guess what it means. :-) Literally, it means "Congratulations for opening!" or something along those lines.

The December Issue

Unfortunately, I didn't start any blogs in the middle of December and save it for later like I did the November ones. Except for this one, on December 31st, minutes before the end of 2010 and the beginning of 2011. So I'll use this space here to summarize my December activities.

December is a wonderful month; my favorite month of the year. In December are my favorite holiday, long breaks from school or work, a festive atmosphere, shopping sales at nearly every store, opportunities to spend time with friends and family, and my birthday. There are many reasons to love December. But also many reasons to dislike it: it's probably the most expensive month, it has the shortest day of the year (Winter Solstice), and it's when the cold really starts kicking in. But I like to think the good outweighs the bad, so I still like it. Maybe that's the optimist in me speaking.

Anyway, the month was really fun! For my birthday, some of my coworkers and I went out to Sendai to a really nice restaurant. We ate amazingly delicious food, and they surprised me with a cake! Everyone in the restaurant clapped for me; it was so nice. ^_^ I was surprised to see American-style sushi rolls there, as well. You know, the kind that has the rice outside the seaweed wrapper rather than inside. Because the rice is outside, the roll is usually larger, so you can fit more ingredients in it. Traditional Japanese sushi rolls usually only have one ingredient. The following week, another friend took me out to Sendai (near the nice restaurant) to a cozy American-style diner/deli. The specialty? Burgers. I happily feasted on a large burger and onion rings. And a milk shake. Rock on.

While in Sendai, I saw "光のページェント", or "Pageant of Light." A street in Sendai gets all of its trees completely lit up with white Christmas lights. Looks beautiful! I'll post a picture in an update.

The first snowfall occurred! Not too different from the US. But the scenery is different. Again, pictures later.

A friend and I stuffed ourselves at a kaitenzushi place. 13 plates each! That's 27 pieces (one tray had 3 rather than 2), and a bowl of soup! Insanity.

A co-worker invited me to his house to have lunch. I happily accepted of course! He is the youngest employee at the Junior High. The funny thing is that he had actually invited me over in November, but he never set a date, so I just let it slide until he brought it up again. Sometime earlier in December, he mentioned that his sister kept asking when I was going to come over; I had forgotten that one of my students was his sister. O.o Anyway, when I finally came over, his mother had prepared a wonderful lunch, with which I stuffed myself silly. We played some Mario on their Wii, then went outside to play catch. It had been years since I had last thrown a ball, but despite my lack of practice, it was still really fun. His sister had a wicked throw. (She's on the baseball team!) His other sister couldn't catch (or throw) very well, but it was still fun. Their family gave me quite a bit of food to take home; yummy, delicious, homemade Japanese food. I am drooling just thinking about it.

So in December, because it is the end of the year, there are many "End of the Year Parties," known as 忘年会　「ぼうねんかい」 "bounenkai." Literally, it means "forget year meeting." So I guess you're supposed to party all night and drink until you forget all the bad things that happened that year? Or maybe it's a party so you don't forget? Anyway, every school and every organization and every company seems to hold one. Being involved with so many groups here, I was of course invited to a bunch, but unfortunately due to lack of funds, I could only attend...four, or so.

The first was a very small, private party, with the same people who threw me a birthday party, plus one more person. It was mad fun, and we held it at a restaurant in Sendai that Shoe and I have grown to love (and frequent recently). The next one was held by an international organization in a neighboring town, where I met new friends and ate yummy home-made food. There was so much there that I took food home to last me a couple days!

The biggest 忘年会 that I went to was held by the junior high school. We went to Naruko Onsen, which is a city in the north famous for its hot springs! Naturally, we stayed overnight to eat, drink, and bath in the hot springs. And let me tell you, that water is damn hot. For some reason, even though I was born in the tropics, my body has a tendency to be able to handle colder temperatures much better than hotter temperatures. In any case, I still took a dip, in both the inside bath and the outside bath. The outside bath was amaaaaaaaaazing. Unfortunately, it was so windy, that the steam that rose from the hot bath was quickly blown away. But for the moments that it lingered, it had a wonderful atmosphere. Minus the sulfuric smell of the natural hot spring. And the naked old men.

After the 忘年会 were all over, my vacation started! Winter break was a BLAST. My girlfriend came up from Kyoto to visit me, and seeing her always makes me happy. We did some shopping in Sendai, where she got a vest, and where I had purchased a vest just a couple weeks earlier. We also checked out Sendai's 光のページェント, this time, walking down the entire street rather than driving through it.

Christmas was a good time. My girlfriend got me a much-needed soft, beautiful scarf, and I got her many socks and stockings. And an iPod case. And Utada Hikaru's new album. And a cute leather papillon keychain. And something else, I think, but I can't recall it at the moment. Oh, right, a Christmas Cake for us to share. This brings me to a side note.

For some reason, Christmas is really improperly/incorrectly represented in Japan; it's extremely misunderstood. I thought it was bad enough in the US, but I've grown to accept its commercialization, mainly because I enjoy the atmosphere, the "Santa side," and because I'm not religious. But Japan. Oh, Japan. According to my friend Ken, Christmas in Japan is about love. But not the way it is in the US, where it's about the love shared between families and friends; no, here in Japan, it's about the love between couples, not unlike Valentine's Day. And on Christmas in Japan, the dinner usually includes a big chicken dinner from KFC (lol) and a Christmas Cake. Now conveniently, this way of celebration worked out for my girlfriend and me, where none of our family members are in Japan, so it was best to spend it with one another. But rather than grab KFC, my girlfriend wanted to cook dinner for me.

And boy did she prepare a feast! It included home-made karaage chicken, her specialty home-made macaroni and cheese, and fresh broccoli and asparagus. My contribution was a tray of appetizers, the cake, and a bottle of chardonnay. I have to emphasize "home-made" with my girlfriend's dishes, because it was a much larger endeavor than the easy Kraft Mac 'n Cheese or preparing fried chicken.

Later that evening, we watched Elf. Good times. Later than week, we watched that wretched Tekken movie. And I thought Dragonball: Evolution was bad. Well, okay, both movies are just as bad as the other. Any of the Street Fighter movies can be thrown in with that pile of worthless crap. So, to get enjoyment from the movie? My girlfriend and I turned it into a drinking game: take a drink whenever something non-canonical or nonsensical comes up. I was actually starting to run out of drink, so we had to slow it down (haha).

My friend Nana-chan came to visit before the end of the year. So the three of us had lots of fun, spending time with my friend Shoe or Ken, going to various places to shop, watching tons of movies, going out to karaoke, and even taking a dip in the local onsen for the first time! On New Year's Eve, we went to Shiogama Shrine, which sits at the top of a 220-step staircase, and with hundreds (thousands?) of Japanese people, we participated in the annual bowing and prayers during this time. I was happy to do so. I also bought a couple charms; one for health, and one that was in the shape of a giant arrow. I didn't know charms could be so bad-ass.

December 31: I am at Shiogama Shrine to check out how the New Year celebration is done in Japan!

Phrase of the day: 良いお年を！ 「よいおとしを！」 "Yoi otoshi wo!" It's a phrase said at the end of the year, which literally means, "(Have) a good year!"

Thanksgiving

Oh, Thanksgiving. So, poor planning resulted in a small two-person fun-fest what was supposed to be a 4-5 person pot luck. To be honest, it was probably better off as a two-person fun-fest; mainly because the two of us couldn't cook very well. Nor did we have anything prepared 'til late at night, so if there were any other guests present, they'd probably be pretty pissed off.

So, my buddy John invited me and a few other ALTs to his place the weekend after Thanksgiving for some festivities. He ordered a hefty amount of turkey meat that we would cook (bake?) and we had planned to hit up the supermarket for ingredients for other Thanksgiving dishes: mashed potatoes, stuffing, gravy, corn-on-the-cob. The image in our minds was a grand feast.

Instead, we got a grand laugh.

First off, the turkey meat we had, while very little compared to a normal turkey, was still pretty damn huge for the two of us. He ordered enough meat for 5 people; heavy helpings each (so more like 8-10 people). So with just the two of us, we decided to use a little less than half of the meat. Well, with a big hunk of meat and no oven, how were we supposed to cook it? Oh, right, with the microwave.

So, the fascinating thing about Japanese microwaves is that they are part microwave and part oven. I don't really know how the oven part works; maybe just like any other oven? I imagine the microwave parts would get destroyed with that sort of heat. But apparently not, 'cause that's what it was designed to do. So yeah, we used the microwave as an oven. Neither of us really knew what we were doing, so we used our best judgment and thought things out. The turkey turned out well cooked; not burned, but a bit dry. But at least it wasn't raw. Objective completed!

At the supermarket, it was surprisingly difficult to find certain ingredients. Like corn. Eventually we found it...frozen... and not on the cob. John was disappointed. He was looking forward to it quite a bit. We bought the frozen corn anyway, but didn't end up eating it 'cause we were stuffed from the other dishes.

John made the mashed potatoes and I made the stuffing. And DAMN was it good! We didn't have any stock for the stuffing, so John suggested using the soup from a can of Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup. What a wonderful suggestion, 'cause it tasted damn awesome. I just wish I cut the bread cubes and celery bits a little smaller. The mashed potatoes turned out pretty well, too! But what didn't was the gravy.

We had never made gravy ourselves before, so we scoured the internet for some recipes. The main idea was to use the turkey runoff as the base for the gravy, add some salt and spices to flavor it, and add flour to thicken it up. Weeelllll, we added too much flour, so it basically tasted like uncooked pancake batter. So, after using some of the gravy for the turkey, we cooked the batter and made a "gravy pancake."

We also decided to make Yaki-Campbells. It's like Yakisoba, but instead of frying soba noodles, we fried the remaining contents of the can of chicken noodle soup. Nice. What a feast.

Word of the day: 感謝祭 「かんしゃさい」 "kanshasai," which means "Thanksgiving (Day)."

COLD

WHY IS IT SO COLD HERE!??!

So, two days ago, a massive cold overtook Japan from north to south. It snowed in Hokkaido! It even snowed on a mountain nearby! And it's even cold in Kyoto! :-(

Speaking of Kyoto...so, I was there last weekend! It was fun to visit my girlfriend. On Friday, we saw the Jidai Matsuri, which was surprisingly short. It was just a parade of people in various attire from the olden days to pre-modern days. Later that evening, my girlfriend and I went to Gion, where the Geisha roam the streets. We saw one, actually! She was a Maiko, an apprentice geisha.

Finally, that night, my girlfriend had a small pot luck dinner, where she invited three of her Japanese friends over, and the four of them each had some sort of dish to share. My girl made her awesomely cheesey mac-and-cheese. There was also chirashi-zushi, hot cakes, and Ritz crackers. *nice* We also watched The Hunchback of Notre Dame; fun times.

On Saturday, I got to eat ramen at what as become my favorite ramen shop. SOOOOO GOOOOOOD. Then later that evening, we hit up Fushimi Inari, which is the famous shrine with hundreds of torii gates along the trails that lead up the mountain. My girlfriend and I walked the ENTIRE LENGTH of the trail! It took THREE HOURS. And it was COLD. And DARK. It was really, really creepy and surprisingly scary at some points. Plus, there are families that live up there, who tend to the various shrines. So sometimes we could hear them make sounds, which, in the dead of night, is damn frightening. Anyway, the whole trip with breathtaking. It was amazing. And near the top, there was a beautiful view of western Kyoto.

So yeah, Kyoto was awesome. And the cold is not.

Yesterday, Shoe came over and taught me how to use the kerosene heater. We cleaned them up (I have two) and turned them on. It is surprisingly efficient. It heats up instantly, heats the room up quickly, and is relatively inexpensive compared to the electric heaters. But the problems are that the kerosene smell is awful and the room must be ventilated every hour to insure that the toxic fumes (carbon monoxide) don't kill me. But in ventilating the room, the heat escapes. To deal with this problem, I was told that if you just keep the window a little open, the room is both ventilated and keeps the heat from escaping too quickly. Nice. But man...the smell sucks. And so does the cold.

Word of the day: 灯油　「とうゆ」　"touyu," or "kerosene."

So busy!

Wow, I've been so busy these past couple weeks! My time at the Junior High has been spent helping my students prepare for the Culture Festival that happened this past weekend. It was basically a collection of performances by the students; mostly musical. Some danced, some played an instrument, all of them sang; it was a good time. I was the camera man. At one point, I was recording video using both the school's digital camcorder and my own iPhone. Hah! Hilarious. And kinda difficult.

And this week, both of my elementary schools are throwing a show with singing, dancing, and acting performances, too! I saw the dress rehearsal today; I was impressed by their ability to remember all of those lines! Especially the ones who were doing rapid-fire paragraph-long speeches as comic relief. They were also wearing various types of clothes, from school uniforms to kimono, to farmers' clothing. It was very interesting. Oh, and the fifth graders did a taiko drum performance followed by yosakoi dancing. Rock on!

Ah, Yosakoi. So, there was a yosakoi festival last week in Sendai. It was splendid. I will post a video here so you know what yosakoi is; or better yet, just do a search on google and youtube so you can read info and watch some dances. It's awesome.

This week, I just got my JET Programme Japanese Language Course Textbook and Workbook. Being placed into the advanced level, I have been given text books whose lessons are in Japanese. This will provide good reading practice and introductions to a wealth of new vocabulary. What sucks is that the first few lessons will be super tough, 'cause I'll have to stop every 30 seconds to look up a word I don't know that's in the lesson. >.< The workbook I was given has 504 kanji; most of which I've never learned before, or even seen. This is gonna be a challenge! I need to figure out how to pace myself for this. Let's break it down.

The course is split up into six textbooks, each distributed one month apart, from October 18 to March 17. We are given about a month and a half to complete each book, take a 50-question multiple choice test, and mail the test to the language center. The lessons in the book are designed to be completed on a daily basis over a span of four weeks; each lesson is four pages long, and there are five lessons per week, for a total of 20 lessons per book. So, it's already established that I'll be doing 4 pages of lessons per day. But what's unclear is the kanji workbook.

The kanji workbook was designed for self-study, and it is not included in the test. There are 504 kanji that the book gives. So if I split it up as evenly as possible, that means 84 kanji per month, or 21 kanji per week. Which means 4-5 kanji per lesson. That's not bad. I think.

The thing is, this is the breakdown for the kanji if I want to study them in the traditional fashion. But I've observed that it's much easier to forget kanji when it's learned in this way, and Heisig's method seems to actually work; it works in both remembering the meaning and how to write the kanji. So, I think I'll supplement my JET kanji studies with lessons from Heisig. This ends up doubling the amount of kanji I learn per day, and I'll go through 1000 by next April. But actually...I had this crazy idea in my head that I could get through all 1945 joyo kanji by this time, next year. Which, I guess is possible, if I maintain that pace of 42 kanji/week. Damn, that's 8-9 kanji a day. Back in college, we had 13 kanji a week, or so. Then again, I usually didn't study until the night before for an hour, and I managed to remember them. Alright, it's doable. I just have to bust my ass. :-)

Let me end this post by circling back to the topic I opened with: festivals. There is a massive Jidai Matsuri in Kyoto this weekend. Actually, it's this Friday. And I REALLY WANT TO SEE IT. So that means I'll be calling off work for the first time this week. Neat. I'm also excited to see my girlfriend. She's planning a little get-together/movie night with some friends, so I'll get to meet them and watch a good ol' Disney movie. We'll also check out another temple this weekend. It'll be great!

Side note: please read the comments of my previous post to find out what I learned about the milk here in Japan!

Word of the Day: 忙しい　「いそがしい」 "isogashii," which means "busy."

Activities

Japan is interesting. I don't know if it's just small towns like this one, if larger cities are included, or if it's just this town in particular; but damn, do people love events! I've been living in Japan for about a month now, and already, I've attended two town-wide events with hundreds of attendees! The first was the Kappa Festival, which I mentioned in a blog entry last month. Today's even was the Field Day.

Yeah, Field Day. Remember Field Day? Way back in elementary school, when the school district would all come together to old a massive athletics event with relay races and whatnot? Well, this one is TOWN WIDE, with participants not limited to just students! In fact, some events are designed specifically for adults, and many events (all, maybe?) are separated by age group. At one point, I saw 6 groups of a dozen senior citizens all throwing colored rubber balls into a reed basket 15 feet in the air. Not an easy task. And seeing this made me realize something: how physical activity is such an important aspect of Japanese culture. It's not just "important;" rather, it's "normal." It's just a regular, everyday thing. There are many farmers in town; they're always outside working, laboring, on their land. In offices, there are morning exercises; people warm up in sync to elevator music. It's amazing, really.


Anyway, it was neat to see the whole town participating in competitive activities. Everyone was split up into neighborhoods. When I first arrived, the Field Day event was already half-way through (I overslept; oops). And of course, I ran into my students on the way there (I walked) and was greeted by more upon my arrival. I didn't know where to go at first, so I hung out at the judges tent, where I saw two guys from the Board of Education (my superiors). [Side note: one of the guys is known simply as "Kachou," which basically means "section chief."] I grabbed a grape Fanta (remember, it's called "juice" here) and a "caramel milk crepe" and ate it at the judges tent. After a while, I met a friend of my JET predecessor who is learning English. She talked to me about some sort of "English club" that was established in a neighboring city by my pred; I'll attend this week's meeting. :-) After that brief conversation, she had to leave, and I went off to join my neighborhood. Again, I ran into some students; but they actually live in my neighborhood! It was fun cheering with them (or for them, in some cases) and cheering with their families. The Field Day ended with a big relay race.

Everyone was leaving, so I decided to grab some food before the stands were closed; I managed to get a box of tako yaki (octopus balls) and some okonomiyaki wrapped around some chop sticks. Okonomiyaki is like...well, like a crepe, but with a bunch of things thrown into it while it's cooked; kind of like an omelette would be made. Anyway, I just hung out at home afterward, watching some Breaking Bad (good series, by the way; I recommend it). As I went outside to the vending machine to grab some oolong tea, some elementary (or nursery?) school students said hello to me. Then the kuchou (president of the neighborhood...or something)　showed up and told me that our neighborhood won! Yay!


So yeah, this weekend was both eventful (literally) and uneventful (figuratively) at the same time. Saturday was especially boring. Such that I learned the phrase to exclaim my boredom and text it to two friends. Unfortunately, both people I texted were busy. :-( Oh well, I spent the time watching Breaking Bad (actually started it yesterday) and cooking some awesome udon. I made the soup myself this time, too! Just some soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and seasoned salt that I brought from the U.S. Seasoned salt makes everything taste better. Even victory.


Oh! I almost forgot to mention! I finally got my iPhone! Yay! I was thinking about making a "Cell phones in Japan Part 3," but I'm not really sure it's necessary. There isn't much more I can say about Japanese cell phones. Except that the majority of them use infrared to transmit the owner's account info (name, number, e-mail, picture) to someone else. It's so much more convenient than having to type it in! Unfortunately, iPhones don't have infrared; I'd have to buy a special dongle for that. But they do have bluetooth! And WiFi! Which means that I can download an app called "Bump" that'll let me "bump" my phone with another iPhone user (who also has the app) and exchange info that way. Yay apps.

Oh, another cool thing about Japanese phones is that they have a QR Code reader that can read these black and white square codes. These codes usually have websites, but I found an app that allows one to create a QR Code that contains phone info. Here is an example of a QR Code that happens to contain a link for this blog:



Cool, huh? So yeah, cell phones read those. I got an app to read them, as well. Lastly, I'll say that I finally worked out a little (weight lifting, calisthenics) in a loooooooooong time. It must have been all that exercise I saw today. And this epic video.



Phrase of the day: 退屈だな。 「たいくつだな。」　"Taikutsu da na." "I'm bored."

A gift for those of you who got to the end of this post:

Harold's Japan Picture Gallery

Obon's End

Well, today is the last day of Obon! Also known as Gozan no Okuribi (五山送り火), or literally, five mountain sending off (funeral) fire. In Kyoto, they light a giant 大 in the side of a mountain. That's pretty amazing, and I would love to see it for myself! Actually, there are a few more kanji on there as well. Just go to www.google.com and you'll see what I mean. Or check out the wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gozan_no_Okuribi

Yesterday, I spent the entire day doing laundry and cleaning up my apartment. Actually not quite done yet, as I'm trying to figure out what to do about all of the paper that I've gotten from the two orientations. So much stuff to read through! I've gotten through a lot of it, but I believe the majority of it is really just for reference. But yeah, doing laundry in Japan is quite different in the US. I'll proceed to describe various other differences here that I've found amuzing or interesting (or even troublesome).

My apartment does NOT have a dryer. This means that once I'm done washing my clothes, I immediately put my clothes on hangers and put them somewhere to dry. My predecessor put a bar in one of the bedrooms for just that purpose. She usually used this bar during the winter and used a bar outside on the back patio to hang stuff when it wasn't cold out. But I found that hanging them inside was more convenient, because my shirt closet is in that same room. Also, the washer took quite a bit of time to figure out how to use. I had to look up the kanji that I didn't know and then make a vague interpretation of what the washer actually did with that particular setting. For example, one of the words was about flooding, so I figured that it had to do with re-filling the tank. There was also "drying," but the washer doesn't *actually* dry anything.

Another interesting thing is the trash system. In the US, we only have trash or recycling; and only recycling requires separation of stuff. But hoooooo, in Japan, even trash needs to be separated. When I was at a government institution last week for Miyagi orientation, there were four distinct trash bins for different stuff. Trash can be...er...MUST be separated into burnable trash and non-burnable trash. In other words, paper & organic waste versus plastic waste. But then you have lots of plastic bottles for drinks, known as PET bottles in Japan. To discard a PET bottle, you must first remove the cap and the plastic label and put those into the plastic/non-burnable trash. Then you may put the PET bottle into its designated container. Things like glass and aluminum have their own things as well, but in a public place, I think there are places for any sort of bottle-shaped trash. If you think about it, it's not really all that different from the recycling system that we have in the US. But the difference is that typically, the recycling and sorting happens at home, whereas here in Japan, it's public. I definitely think that it's for the better. I've also heard that if you don't separate the trash out properly, it gets returned to your doorstep!


Driving. Everything about driving here just seems *backwards*! The steering wheel is on the right, which Americans normally refer to as "passenger side." You must drive on the left side of the road and stay in the left lane. I believe passing on highways occurs on the right lane. The lane switch also means that left turns are now easy, whereas right turns are now more difficult. But see, I already knew about all that, so I wasn't surprised or shocked or anything. What seems the most "backwards" here is parking: everyone backs into their spot in a parking lot!!! This blows my mind, because in the US, nearly everyone goes head first into their parking spot, so all the cars face each other. But in Japan, all of the cars face away from each other! I haven't seen anyone load a ton of groceries in their cars like this yet. I'm sure to be amused when it happens.

Hmm, that's another thing. I've seen people buy lots of stuff; but the mentality of having abundant amounts of things is just different here in Japan. In the US, we like having a lot of a lot of stuff (yes, I meant to use "a lot of" twice). We go to places like Sam's Club or Costco or Walmart and stock up on things we use often, like toilet paper, paper towels, drinks, food, what have you. But in Japan...it's just not like that. I mean, people DO do that, but oftentimes, people are more inclined to buy smaller amounts of things because that's all that they need. I will share a story that I heard at Tokyo Orientation about this:

A JET participant (whom I'll refer to as "the JET") went shopping with a Japanese friend at the grocery store. For a long time now, the JET had been shopping at that store. There was a 1L (liter) beverage being sold for 80 yen. And every day, it was that price. There was also a .5L size being sold for 60 yen. But when the JET and her friend had gone shopping, the 1L drink was on sale for 50 yen, less than the price of the smaller one! The friend wanted to buy this drink, so she picked up the smaller .5L bottle and was about to go pay for it. This blew the JET's mind. "Why are you getting the smaller one??? You can get the larger one for a cheaper price!!!" "Because I only want this size." (I might have told the story a bit incorrectly; the two sizes might have both been 50 yen when it was on sale. But the point I'm trying to make is the same.)

Miyagi Orientation was last Wednesday to Friday; it might be a while before I see fellow JETs again. Orientation was fun; but the facility felt like a dormitory. Males and Females were separated by floor. And there were public restrooms rather than each room having its own bathroom. And there was also a public shower room (with private showers) but also a public bath. With public stools. And public sitting area. After two full days of getting to know people, a few of the guys fought their insecurities and went into the bath. And let me tell you, that was quite hot. But I hear that real onsen's have much, much hotter water. It felt good though. But I couldn't sit there for too long, because I was starting to get light-headed. Still a neat experience. I look forward to going to a real onsen one day; my supervisor said that he'll take me to one. Apparently our area is known for its many onsens. There's even one in town!

Word of the day: ごみ箱 「ごみばこ」　"gomibako" or "garbage can." Gomi, or trash, is also often written in the katakana form: ゴミ

Obon

Friday the Thirteenth, 8/13/2010 9:43 PM

I don’t know if it’s the beer talking, but the Obon festival was actually pretty fun! Obon is a festival that celebrates one’s deceased ancestors in Japan. It is from August 13 until August 16. The dates might differ every year, but I’m not sure. Maybe it’s always over a weekend from Friday to Monday? Anyway, today, my supervisor invited me to come to the Buddhist Temple in town an hour after work to meet him and join him in the event. I am very grateful that he had offered me that opportunity.

When I got to the temple, my supervisor (whom I will now refer to as Supes) and his wife were already on the grounds. When I got there, I greeted them with a bow and a “konnichi wa.” The first thing I noticed were the hanging paper lamps along the path that lead to the temple from the street. The second thing I noticed was the smell of burning incense. Supes was holding a bundle, still yet to be lit. He and his wife led be to the torii gate, where there stood an area to light the incense. Families were talking and walking by one another, even under the gate. One of Supes’wife’s friends greeted her and then asked if I was their son (haha). Their son and daughter are actually around my age, so it was an honest mistake. Supes and his wife led me behind the temple where their family’s grave was, and they proceeded to show me the proper procedure for praying and leaving the incense on the grave. They even let me leave some incense and pay my respects! I was grateful. And as odd as it sounds, I really wanted to take a picture of the temple; the graves were masterly handcrafted, and the temple itself is a beautiful building. But of course, to maintain respectfulness, I refrained from even asking.


After the short ceremony, their son showed up, and I was able to go through introductions in both English in Japanese. We walked under the torii gate again, but this time, a huge crowd of people were lined up in six lines. Everyone was lining up to walk up to the head monk and pay more respects to the temple. Again, I was given the privilege to participate in this endeavor. When it was my turn, I bowed with my hands together, grabbed some of the…burnable stuff (I don’t really know what it’s called; maybe it’s powdered incense?)…and I held it up to my head, put it in the fire, and bowed the same way again. Then, we went straight to the line for free food.

Actually, the food wasn’t quite free, as they were asked to give 3000 Yen (about $35) for food and drinks earlier. Supes and his wife had it strategically planned: he had me follow him to grab three beers (their son had just left, so he wasn’t going to dine with us), and his wife went off to the food line. When we sat down, there was already a bowl of noodles and some amazingly sweet corn on the cob waiting for me. I believe the beer was Asahi brand, as that is what the cup was. And I don’t know if it’s because of all the Asahi I had at orientation, but this beer was actually pretty good! And of course, with Japanese custom, they gave me a full glass before I even finished my first (usually they fill up your glass before it gets dry, but at this event, we could only grab cups of beer rather than pour it ourselves; afterall, it was draught). There was another bowl of food; this time, it was a bowl of seafood soup, which contained a mixed fish patty, various vegetables, seaweed, and a hardboiled egg. And I also had the pleasure of meeting a few of my fifth grade students, who were sitting next to us! Their English was surprisingly good; I was pleased.


Dinner was surprisingly enjoyable. It consisted mostly of Supes, his wife, and I chitchatting over beers, but it was still a good time. There was also a bonfire of hay that was lit in a central area between tents, near where everyone was lined up. Upon Supes’ urging, I took a few pictures of it, and even recorded some video during dinner. When we were done eating, they told me to grab the last cup of beer and take it home, along with the last bowl of noodles. I was concerned, because it is illegal to walk around in the US holding an open alcoholic beverage. Not a problem here, though! So, I did as they asked; we parted ways, and I walked back to my neighborhood in the dark, holding a cup of beer and a bowl (more like an uncovered plastic Tupperware container) of noodles.



So there you have it! Obon!

Word of the day: お寺　「おてら」 “otera,” which means “temple.” The word is actually just 寺　「てら」　“tera,” but the 「お」 “o” is added for respect. The same is done with works like “sake” and “shoyu,” which are sure to be words of the day later. :-)

Celebration

Sunday, 8/8/2010 10:46 PM

I just took a bath. And by that, I mean that I took a shower as I normally would, but instead of drying up and stepping out of the shower, I hopped into the tub adjacent to the shower area. And I just sat there, pruning, and enjoying the water. Not really sure what a bath is about, besides relaxing, but the bath tubs in Japan are tiny. Say, about 3x3x3 feet cubed. That said, it’s kind of hard to relax in there the way you could the ones in the U.S. But it’s not impossible. And it still felt good; especially after such a hot day! Everyday it’s been ridiculously hot here. But I found it interesting, because usually, when I spend a lot of time under the sun, a sensitive part on my elbows gets burned (I know, right?). But today, I just got *really tanned* and thankfully not burned. But since I was wearing the necklace my girlfriend gave me, I now have a healthy necklace tan to match my watch tan and bracelet tan. Rock on.

So this weekend was filled with a lot of celebrations, hence the title of this post. On Friday night, I went out with two co-workers and another friend of theirs. We’re all about the same age, so it was pretty fun! There was no need to stay reserved and overtly polite like I would for my mentors here. We went to a family restaurant; no alcohol there, but instead, they have all-you-can-drink soda, tea, and soup. Yes, all-you-can-drink soup. From a dispenser that is not unlike a cappuccino machine. It was kind of strange…but quite tasty! And even more peculiar were the burgers there: in Japan, there are two (at least?) types of burgers: there’s the ハムバーガー “hamubaagaa,” which is just like a normal American hamburger you could order at McDonald’s or wherever. Then, there’s the ハムバーグ “hamubaagu,” which is Romanized as “hamburg,” like the city. And the hamburg is JUST the burger patty on a plate, without a bun. In fact, it was served with rice (there is actually a choice to order bread instead of rice, but it is not a hamburger bun). And the hamburg I ordered had cheese inside! And it had the option of being served with two different types of sauces: a tomato sauce, or a French-style dark sauce whose name escapes me. Anyway, great meal, and a wonderful time getting to know new friends.

Hamburg, on left, served with shrimp:

On Saturday was the Tanabata Matsuri, which took place in Sendai. That festival is a celebration that involves long, colorful lamp-like decorations made of paper. We JET ALTs in Miyagi used that festival as a reason to meet up; unfortunately, the two others I met up with had missed the first group of people (composed of two), and others who seemingly went by themselves or with their supervisor. Though, considering that none of us has a cell phone and only one or two have internet access at their apartments, that’s a pretty decent turnout for lack of communication.

Anyway, having met up with two others, we walked around and checked out the stores nearby the Sendai Station. I found a variety of interesting stores, including a place that rents out DVDs, CDs, and manga. I also went to a thin, but tall (10-11 floors) shopping mall, filled with women’s clothes. I had to go to the basement floor to really find any clothing for men. And damn, they were right: since I’m a Medium in the U.S., I’m a Large in Japan. And even the Large looks like it’ll barely fit; people here are so skinny! (But not everyone, obviously.) But yeah, so many guys are skinny as a twig. And some women are surprisingly tall. But I digress.

We also found a Starbucks! Caramel Frappuccino still tastes good here! If anything, I think it might actually be better here…hmm. And finally, I went shopping at a Japanese Hyaku-en store (Dollar Store)! I bought some gift bags/boxes for my omiyage, and I also got new house sandals. Afterwards, we went to an electronics store that had a huge phone section; one of the JETs I was with managed to get her phone that day. She ended up picking AU, probably because she heard they were the ones willing to allow a foreigner to start services with them without having the Alien Registration Card on their person (but required the passport, and a verbal confirmation that the card was ordered or being processed). I’ll make another post later, after I investigate more about Japanese phones this week.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t stay in Sendai much longer because the return bus was leaving at 5 PM. This means that I had to miss the celebrations, which were mostly at night. But at least I got to explore the area and get a feel for how the bus system works. Now I gotta figure out how the Shinkansen works. :-)

Here's that toilet I mentioned in last week's post:



Continued at 1:56 PM, Monday 8/9/2010

Later that evening, I called up a co-worker (the guy who took me to the hamburg place), and he took me to an internet café. This store is just chockfull of fun. Besides renting a computer in a private booth, you can rent out a game room, where you can sit and play games. You can also rent manga, or go to the arcade which has all the games on free credits. There are also a bunch of billiards/pool tables, darts, free ice cream/drinks. All for just about $5/hr or $10/4hr.

On Sunday was the Kappa Matsuri. Kappa is a sea sprite, or sea monster. Literally, its name is spelled “river child”, or 河童. Kappa is the mascot of this town (and you see him everywhere, even in neighboring towns!), so naturally there is a festival to celebrate him. The festival was really interesting; there were a bunch of tents setup in front of the Town Hall, where various foods were served like foot long hot dog franks, tako yaki (octopus meatballs), delicious slices of beef, and snow cones, perfect for this hot weather. There was also a stage, with various performances like dancing, singing, taiko drums, and even dancing by toddlers. There was even a couple from the Caribbean who came and did a drumming performance. The opening act was a singer from Tokyo who sang a few songs he wrote. I liked his music enough to buy a CD; I introduced myself as having come from America, so he autographed the CD with “I’m glad to see you!”


After the performances, there was a big Kappa Dance that involved nearly the entire town parading through the street doing simple choreography in sync. And of course I danced with them! As if I even had a choice! Afterwards, I was introduced to my neighborhood; as the Kappa Dance was performed with each neighborhood split up. After the festival was over, a kid who had just graduated high school came up to me and started talking. One of the first things he asked was if I had a girlfriend. I was warned at the Tokyo Orientation that people tend to be very nosy here, and they will ask all sorts of questions, which could be as intimate as asking about physical measurements. Having forgotten the advice to say “himitsu” or “secret,” I simply said, “yes, I have a girlfriend.” To which he replied with more questions; I quickly changed the subject by turning the question around on him and proceeding to talk about Japan life. The conversation quickly subsided, and everyone went home.

After a hard day's work, what better to drink than this?


After getting home, I was tinkering around with the washing machine, trying to translate the various labels and buttons on it so that I don’t end up destroying my clothes or my apartment. A few minutes into that, my doorbell rings. Lo and behold, it’s the president of my community! He was inviting me to come out to one of the centrally located buildings, where people were gathering. When I got there, I was quickly shown a place on the tatami mat to sit, with food and drink offered upon my sitting. I had sat down next to the older lady who had shown me how to do the Kappa dance. Now, I know how pushy people can get when they’re offering things to eat and drink; but this lady took it to the next level! Having kindly accepted the food, I ate some and drank some, and before I even drank 1/4 of my glass, she quickly filled it up. And again. And again. Even after I said I was okay! And she also grabbed a second plate for me to put more food on, without checking if I wanted to eat it. Hahaha, good times. I felt bad because I had gotten quite full very quickly, so I couldn’t quite finish everything. She then packed up a bunch of the food for me to take home. And gave me orange Fanta, which they’ve referred to as “Juice” ever since I’ve arrived here.

I took some pictures of the festivities this weekend, but unfortunately, I won’t be able to upload them in a while because I still don’t have internet access at home. It was suggested to me to create a Flickr account for such a purpose.

Word of the day: 祭り 「まつり」 “matsuri,” or “festival.”