Japan tales
I don't post a whole lot about my day-to-day life in Japan. Stuff becomes routine no matter where you live, so it just becomes normal after a while. I'm in the mood to write something, though, so I feel like sharing a few random things.
- I go to the post office once a week to mail things. There's a woman at the post office who's the same age as me. She's new there, so she's sometimes a bit absent-minded (Japanese postal rules are very nitpicky, so I don't blame her), but she's really gotten the hang of it in the last few months. She always seems happy to see me when I stop in to drop off my mail, and she's made a real effort to learn some English so she can talk to me. Once she was having a bad day because she'd made a mistake with someone's money order and felt very bad about it, but she seemed to cheer up when I got out my dictionary and found how to say "Everyone makes mistakes" in Japanese. Whenever I go to send some money back home, she chats with me about whether she currently has a boyfriend or not.
- One of the elementary school teachers I work with used to be a student in my adult English class. Her English is so good that she can play the Phoenix Wright games in English to brush up on her skills, and she always tries to make time to chat with me about silly things that we have in common. One time we sat down at a computer after class and taught each other internet slang (it's had to explain LOLcats to a Japanese person). Last time I went to the school, I mentioned that I've never really learned origami. So she ran off to the art room, found a book about origami, and showed me how to make paper cranes and frogs.
- When I was showing my Comic Con pictures to my adult class, one of them gasped when I got to the Robert Knepper picture from the Heroes panel and started going "T-BAG! T-BAG!" Turns out she's a huge fan of western dramas, and Prison Break was one of her favourites. (She had a similar reaction when I got to my SPN panel pictures of Misha Collins, LOL. But then, I think Misha Collins has that effect on EVERYONE.)
- Once I almost drove off a cliff at night in the middle of an isolated mountain town, because Japan doesn't believe in streetlights.
- I'm usually pretty limited in how I can interact with my students, since my Japanese is crap and most of them aren't keen to use their English. One of the few things I CAN do is play piano in the music room when I have time, and sometimes students will show up to hang out with me and take turns playing for each other. Last time I did it, I ended up hanging out with four of the third-year girls, taking turns playing j-pop and TV show themes for each other. Two of them tracked me down in the staff room later, and handed me some origami-folded letters about how much they enjoyed playing piano with me. Written completely in English. It's the little things like that that make me happy to be here.
- Students will tell you the weirdest things sometimes. I've had students tell me all about their love of Evangelion, Twilight (LOL), Supernatural (Japanese junior high students are all Dean fans for some reason), Resident Evil, j-pop bands, Queen, hentai, and God-only-knows how many other things.
- I'm now at the point where I can see a kid write "Iny is nroos sotrag?" on a worksheet, and take about five seconds to figure out that it means "Why is a moose strong?" I HAVE BEEN HERE TOO LONG.
- Conveyor belt sushi is the best restaurant invention ever.
- Approximate prices I have to pay for real cheese at the import store:
* Goat cheese: $10 for a very, very, VERY small package.
* Bottle of feta: $8 to $12
* Package of cheddar, gouda, or mozzarella: $5 for a very small one, $10 for the biggest one. Which is still smaller than anything you can get for $5 back home.
- A few weeks ago, a girl at one of the junior highs spent the whole day trying to give me a hug (hey, kids are extremely touchy-feely here in general). I eventually let her, just to see what her ulterior motive was. She not-so-discreetly grabbed my boobs when she hugged me, and then ran off to her friends yelling "BIG! BIG!" in English. I laughed. (To put it into perspective, I'm more surprised that it took THIS long for some kid to try grabbing my boobs, LOL.)
- I go to the post office once a week to mail things. There's a woman at the post office who's the same age as me. She's new there, so she's sometimes a bit absent-minded (Japanese postal rules are very nitpicky, so I don't blame her), but she's really gotten the hang of it in the last few months. She always seems happy to see me when I stop in to drop off my mail, and she's made a real effort to learn some English so she can talk to me. Once she was having a bad day because she'd made a mistake with someone's money order and felt very bad about it, but she seemed to cheer up when I got out my dictionary and found how to say "Everyone makes mistakes" in Japanese. Whenever I go to send some money back home, she chats with me about whether she currently has a boyfriend or not.
- One of the elementary school teachers I work with used to be a student in my adult English class. Her English is so good that she can play the Phoenix Wright games in English to brush up on her skills, and she always tries to make time to chat with me about silly things that we have in common. One time we sat down at a computer after class and taught each other internet slang (it's had to explain LOLcats to a Japanese person). Last time I went to the school, I mentioned that I've never really learned origami. So she ran off to the art room, found a book about origami, and showed me how to make paper cranes and frogs.
- When I was showing my Comic Con pictures to my adult class, one of them gasped when I got to the Robert Knepper picture from the Heroes panel and started going "T-BAG! T-BAG!" Turns out she's a huge fan of western dramas, and Prison Break was one of her favourites. (She had a similar reaction when I got to my SPN panel pictures of Misha Collins, LOL. But then, I think Misha Collins has that effect on EVERYONE.)
- Once I almost drove off a cliff at night in the middle of an isolated mountain town, because Japan doesn't believe in streetlights.
- I'm usually pretty limited in how I can interact with my students, since my Japanese is crap and most of them aren't keen to use their English. One of the few things I CAN do is play piano in the music room when I have time, and sometimes students will show up to hang out with me and take turns playing for each other. Last time I did it, I ended up hanging out with four of the third-year girls, taking turns playing j-pop and TV show themes for each other. Two of them tracked me down in the staff room later, and handed me some origami-folded letters about how much they enjoyed playing piano with me. Written completely in English. It's the little things like that that make me happy to be here.
- Students will tell you the weirdest things sometimes. I've had students tell me all about their love of Evangelion, Twilight (LOL), Supernatural (Japanese junior high students are all Dean fans for some reason), Resident Evil, j-pop bands, Queen, hentai, and God-only-knows how many other things.
- I'm now at the point where I can see a kid write "Iny is nroos sotrag?" on a worksheet, and take about five seconds to figure out that it means "Why is a moose strong?" I HAVE BEEN HERE TOO LONG.
- Conveyor belt sushi is the best restaurant invention ever.
- Approximate prices I have to pay for real cheese at the import store:
* Goat cheese: $10 for a very, very, VERY small package.
* Bottle of feta: $8 to $12
* Package of cheddar, gouda, or mozzarella: $5 for a very small one, $10 for the biggest one. Which is still smaller than anything you can get for $5 back home.
- A few weeks ago, a girl at one of the junior highs spent the whole day trying to give me a hug (hey, kids are extremely touchy-feely here in general). I eventually let her, just to see what her ulterior motive was. She not-so-discreetly grabbed my boobs when she hugged me, and then ran off to her friends yelling "BIG! BIG!" in English. I laughed. (To put it into perspective, I'm more surprised that it took THIS long for some kid to try grabbing my boobs, LOL.)