Sunday, May 9

IN A NUTSHELL: Hanging Out in Hiroshima

The Disneyland Department Store? I met Ann in Hiroshima today, just for fun. She had to take an early bus, so we met at about 9:30am. "Sogo" which is the giant department store next to/above the bus station, opened at 10, so we waited in front of the clock. Quite a crowd was waiting with us. Then, at about five minutes until 10, we saw uniformed clerks gather in a line behind the locked glass doors. They stood straight and steady, like soldiers. Then, the clock started playing a tune. It opened to reveal little dancing figures from all different cultures, mechanically moving to a song which was at least as cutesy as It's a Small World. This went on for some time. Finally, the clock struck 10. The clerks had moved into symmetrical positions next to the doors and, as one, unlocked them and opened them. Then they lined up again and bowed. Someone gave a little speech, like, "The store is now open, please enjoy your shopping." Following some more bowing, the customers were finally allowed to enter, greeted with more bows by the clerks, who were now symmetrically standing on either side, saying "Irrashaimase!" ("Welcome!"). What is this? An opening ceremony for unlocking the doors in the morning? Do they do this every day or just special on weekends? It's certainly not a holiday or anything. Man, doing an opening shift there is nothing to take lightly! I kind of wanted to wait a bit because I did not want to be bowed to so much, but by this point it was already 10:05 and we had waited long enough. It was hard to resist the urge to bow back.

Big Taiko Japanese video game arcades are very different from their American counterparts for two main reasons: one, the selection of games is differently proportioned and two, they're pink. The whole front of the arcade was filled with those prize games where you move the metal claw around and try to win something, but never do. In the back, they had more standard games, including the taiko drum game! Me and Ann spent a couple bucks banging the giant drums (much bigger than the Playstation drums) and having a grand old time. (And in fact, if you pay attention, you can see the Taiko drum game in Lost in Translation.) Next to it was the Shamisen game, in which you play a very old traditional stringed instrument... as an arcade game. We did not try that one. Despite that games like Grand Theft Auto are very popular here, there are lot more "cute" games here.

Peter Pan Just after the arcade, we stopped at Peter Pan. (The body shop nearby had closed, so I could not get the scents that make Ann smell so nice.) Peter Pan has lots of great foreign junk food. I bought chips, salsa, and chocolate, but I forgot to bring my coupons because I never think I'm ever going to be there twice in a month.

Station Treasures Since I never hang out near Hiroshima Station (I'm always hanging out by the Bus Center, a few streetcar stops away) I never knew about the existence of this amazing store. It was a 6 floor extravaganza of new and used CDs, new and used DVDs, new and used Playstation games, and new and used books. A geek's paradise! I bought A LOT of stuff in there and discovered two new bands. One, a Japanese band inexplicably called "Tommy February 6" and a Russian band called "t.A.T.u." both of which do fast-beat almost techno-ish music. Woo hoo. I also went to my first McDonalds since I've been back in Japan. I ordered a salad with my burger and it was actually pretty good! So, like the rumors say, McDonalds is trying to offer healthy alternatives. (But, really, once you have the burger and fries, you're pretty much killing the whole "health" idea.)

IN A NUTSHELL: My Very Own Country?

Learning Countries I taught my third and fourth graders about Countries that Speak English today. First I drew a giant map of the world on the blackboard and asked what it was. They pretty quickly said "sekai" which means "the world." And I would say "sekai!" which also means "correct!" At least one girl laughed at my joke, which is pretty good for me. Are you curious what Japanese Third Graders know? Here you go:

I asked (in Japanese): "What countries speak English?"
My third graders answered: "America!"
I said "Yes! What else?"

Before they said any other English-speaking country, they guessed the following:

"Brazil"
"Russia"
"India"
"Philippines"
"Iraq"
"Iran"
"Everywhere Outside Japan"
and my personal favorite, "Melissa-country"

It took hint or two before they guessed Australia and New Zealand. I was impressed how many countries they knew to guess (though Iraq has been in the news a lot here.) One of the last countries they figured out was the U.K. which I consider funny since that's sort of the birthplace of English. (In case you were wondering, my list was: Canada, USA, Australia, New Zealand, UK, Ireland, and South Africa... the last one was mostly to respect that I know a lot of S. African JETs, even though they have four or something official languages. There's a lot of small islands (i.e. Singapore) that also speak English, but I was going for big countries where the main and official langauge was English.) I wrote the correct answers on the board as they said them, and couldn't resist adding me-ri-ssa-koku ("Melissa Country")

The Month Macarena Thanks to Ann, I had a clever way to teach the months of the year to my fifth and sixth graders. Since there are 12 months of the year and 12 steps to the Macarena, it worked perfect! (Well, I head to learn the Macarena first, but it wasn't hard. Instructions are all over the internet.) Although my kids had some trouble with the months (twelve words is a lot to learn in one shot), they picked up the dance very quickly and especially loved the hands-on-your-swinging-hips singing "Hey Macarena!" at the end. It was great!

Movie Ranting of the Week: Matrix Revolutions Wow, that movie was bad. Bad bad. I didn't think it could fall below my already rock-bottom expectations, but it did. The movie recycled some of the better fight scenes from the first two, but forgot to add a reason for me to care who won. I counted a total of one (maybe two) conversations in the ENTIRE movie that did not contain a: a complete non-sequitor or b: a cryptic statement that's never explained. Even the clever twist in the middle was never explained. At one point, I gave up and started rooting for the machines to win. It was more fun that way since the humans were being really stupid in the last fight scene: the tried to beat the machines by getting inside mecha with no shielding and using Big Guns. Why? They clearly said in the first movie that they had only one weapon against the machines, at that was the EMP. Not guns. So why did they wait so long to use the EMP? Why didn't they use it 24-7? At the end, I guess I won? The entire fate of the world rests on whether a machine will keep its word? Huh? Did I miss something? (The only good thing about the movie was how they dealt with the real-life death of the actress who played the Oracle. They had a similar-looking new actress, but didn't try to pretend it was the same woman or anything.)

IN A NUTSHELL: I Hate Tuesday Nights Now

Oh, It's a Buddhist Thing It was cleaning time (about 3:15 in the afternoon), but I was right in the middle of doing something (like I usually am). I did belatedly get a broom out, but the vice principal (Watanabe-sensei) said not to worry about it since it was already done. Then she asked me my opinion on school cleaning. I told her that American schoolchildren generally do not clean their school, that the professionals come in at night and do it. I tried to explain that I think it is really positive for kids to clean their own school because it inspires a sense of respect toward the school (and they will be a lot less likely to vandalize it.) However, I think for things like toilets and once in a while in general, they should hire professionals. I don't know if I got all that across or not. She told me it was a Buddhist thing to clean. That sounds sort of familiar or maybe I'm thinking of the wipe on / wipe off scene in Karate Kid. Personally, I'm really sick of cleaning time. I don't have a specific task so having to drop everything I'm deep in the middle of and look for something to clean (when they have almost no cleaning chemicals) is really annoying, especially since the time is only 15 minutes. If I finally do find something, I can't even do a good job on it. Once, I went outside to pick weeds with two 7th graders and the principal (who was wearing a cheesy straw hat) and that was kind of fun, but in general, it's very distracting. I think that teachers (who are all constantly busy) should be exempt.

But I'm DONE Work I left work on time (about 4:05) to go to Miyoshi. I returned the movie and stopped by the Board of Education but Nishida-san wasn't at her desk. The man who sits next to her (who is the NICEST person in the whole world, and speaks very slowly so I can understand) was. We chatted for a bit. He told me that Miyoshi Jr. High had called, looking for me. He called them back for me and handed the phone over. It was nearly 5:00pm by that time, but the teachers there asked me to do three activities for tomorrow! What's up with that? I mean, I suppose I could have just said No, but then I realized if I didn't, they would have to stay late to do them and, besides, I have trouble saying no. I think it is rude of them to even ask at that point. I made three recycled activities since I didn't have the time or energy to think of anything new. If they start pulling this every Tuesday night, I will be really irked. They shouldn't call me after my contracted hours, dammit. I need an hour per activity if they expect anything decent.

Whining New Japanese CDs have this weird copy protection on them. I can only listen to them on my computer if I go through this whole process of downloading some Japanese program and proving I bought the CD. It's irritating because I want to listen to all of my songs on Windows Media. I spent a long time doing (really clever, I thought) things to get around it and outsmart it. But I couldn't. Ack. Maybe I couldn't focus because I was worried about those stupid activities I had to do.

Eikaiwa Akiyama-san randomly asked me, when I walked into the culture center, if I would do eikaiwa. I haven't done it since Sakugi became Miyoshi. I don't mind THAT much doing it (even if it means one less night off) but I don't think it would be fair to my successor for me to do it for free. Before, I got hours of vacation added but now they keep talking about budget. I thought Nishida-san gave the go-ahead and I thought I told everyone about it, but I guess not. I'm really confused. It did not seem to me that there was overwhelming interest. Odagawa-san and Maruyama-san both mentioned some eikaiwa in Miyoshi they were going to start going to. Those are my two regulars. I keep saying "If there's interest, I'll continue it" but maybe my Japanese isn't coming across right?

One More Bug To Worry About I saw my first Centipede tonight! Oh my God!! Before, I wasn't sure if I had seen one or not, but now there is no question. It is LONG and BLACK and UGLY; it's like a mini snake. It was right under my feet as I walked from the hallway to the living room. I looked down and there it was. I jumped. I've heard very, very nasty things about centipedes, including that their bites could poison you (or at least cause nasty swelling.) I ran to get the bug spray and managed to kill it right there and then, though I think I must have stepped on it because it was not moving very fast to escape. All I can say is ICK ICK ICK! Worse? I've heard they travel in pairs. So at some point I should expect another centipede soon. Wonderful.

IN A NUTSHELL: DDR AAA!

Activities My recycled activities went far better than I expected and I wonder if now they think I can come up with something brilliant at the last second every time. I did ask them to please call a little earlier next time, though. Still, I get the feeling that they are constantly busy. It seems like it would be easier for them to do their own thing instead of going out of their way to include me. Really, I don't mind being a tape recorder.

Big Meeting Today was our first ALT meeting in awhile because of Golden Week and the new school term starting. I ran into Nishida-san on the way there and she told me that they didn't have the budget to send me to the Japanese Course that I really didn't want to go to anyway. Um, fine with me. She didn't say anything about my driver's license question though and there was no time to talk about it. Nishida-san sat in on the meeting for about half an hour and mentioned to us that she had called the elementary schools and asked the teachers to get more involved with English lessons. For goodness' sake, why did she do that? I like my elementary arrangement the way it is, thank you. Don't put anything else on the teachers' plate! Sheesh! Anyway, during the meeting, I got to spread the word about the Month Macarena, which was very fun. Everyone liked my demonstration. Afterward, Katie (2nd year JET) was awesome and gave us a lot of information about the driving test and driving school (which she recommends so highly, I think I'll do it.)

It's a New Record! I did not think it was possible, but I got a AAA score in DDR! For those of you who know what I'm talking about (both of you) I achieved my perfection on a song called "Witch Doctor" which may not be on the American version, but it has a great beat. (It's in English and is apparently a kids song? I'd never heard of it.)

IN A NUTSHELL: Ish Ish Ish

More Alphabet? I'm beginning to think we will never get past page 8 in the 7th grade textbook. We're STILL singing the alphabet song! I mean, the kids in this particular class are very smart and on the ball. I taught them things at 10 times the pace. They know the alphabet! They know the vocab. Luckily, the kids are game and don't seem as frustrated as me with the repetition. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for repetition, but let's do it for something the kids didn't learn in elementary school.

Ish I taught the uses of "ish" (both grammatical and conversational) in my elective class today. I was surprised to find that Tomomi had never heard of using "ish" to say "40ish" or "8:30ish" before. I suppose that's because its a conversational thing only, unlike, say, "selfish" or "childish." It's always fun when I can teach the English teacher something, too. Though he did throw a "can you help me out with an activity" at 3:40pm. I can't be irritated, though, because he's otherwise been giving me a total break as far as activities are concerned.

Driving School! Nishida-san finally called me back and told me that I could do the written test and practical test on the same day (which, according to the internet, is not true in all prefectures.) I was told it was very difficult to get an appointment for the practical, so I don't know how they can squeeze me in on whatever day I decide to do the written. Anyway, I went ahead and made a reservation at the driving school she recommended, too. My reservation for "Miyoshi Inter Driving School" is for Saturday. I already told the other driving school I'd come in late Saturday to make an appointment so I guess it doesn't hurt to do lessons at both.

Who Gets These? I finally saw, in print, the "message" that I wrote for Nishida-san way back when. I don't even remember what I wrote. It was only printed in Japanese and I just had a chance to glance at it so I couldn't see what Carina and Deon wrote. I hoped it sounded all right. I wish we could have gotten a copy, too, of whatever magazine this was.

IN A NUTSHELL: Suspicious People, Suspicious Taxes

Scary At 2pm, all the teachers were handed a memo that said to be careful about suspicious people. Apparently, a strange person walked into a Jr. High school in the Miyoshi area this morning. The girl targeted escaped, but they told us to be careful. This has happened a fair amount on the news - strangers walking into schools and targeting students. It explains why they lock the doors more often here, but doesn't explain why they still haven't given me a key. If they want me to lock the door behind me, they're going to have to get me one eventually.

Random Tax I got a big ol' bill in the mail today for "Car Tax." Sheesh! At least it confirms that my predecessor was telling the truth about it, but there goes all the cash I just got transferred back into yen from yuan. And to think, I get to pay a bunch more bills again come August, when my insurance and yearly inspection will be due.