HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA!
So I'm a couple days late in writing this, but I had a busy weekend, and you can be sure I was reflecting on the good ol' US of A and her fruited plains and mountains of the purple majestic variety. This was the second time, I've been out of the country on her birthday, the first having been back in 2004, when I took that trip to Spain with some of my classmates. Of the two times, I have to say this was much more fun. Not only were there fireworks (for a totally unrelated festival, but still!), I was surrounded by friends and also by Japanese people who seemed very interested to know about the whole idea. Like if I would say to someone, "You know, it's America's birthday today!" a bunch of people would ask me follow up questions and I even had a couple people tell me "omedetou!" which was hilarious. Although with many Japanese I get the feeling that's they're like..."aww, good job! 233 years ALREADY?!?! You're getting to be a grown-up!" you know, like an adult talking to a little kid since Japan is like....OLD. I don't even know how old....okay according to wikipedia, the first emperor declared Japan a nation in 660BC...whew! So like 2,670 years or so. Yeah we're like babies comparatively. Buuuut I don't care. You know how your mom always told you "Be nice to your little brother, he'll be bigger and stronger than you someday!" and you're like Psh, WHATEVER....and still pick on him? But then he DOES grow up and can beat the snot out of you? Yeah....the little brother is totally America. I dunno how much I like that metaphor, but there ya go. They can't all be gems. XD
So, like I said, 4th of July was fun. Yuuki invited the gaijin crew to a small matsuri in Omiya and it was fun mostly because....we went in YUKATA! Okay only us two girls did, but it was awesome the reactions I got. I was hoping it'd make me blend in, but actually it made me stand out more because people were like OMFG GAIJIN IN YUKATA LOOK EVERYONE!!! I was also wearing the obi that Yuuki's mom BOUGHT FOR ME! I really have to come up with some way to repay her, this is like the 4th time she's given me stuff and I haven't even met her yet! It was out of my region so only like 3 of my students were there, but we got to talk to a lot of Matt's students and Yuuki and I talked to two of his 7th graders in particular....and okay. His Chu-1 students look SOO much older than mine!!! Most of my students are so kodomo-ppoi but these guys had cool hair and were talking to us boldly in English about how many girlfriends they'd had, super hilarious! We said we were sure they were "mote-mote" (had it goin' ON!) and they both were like..."well, we don't wanna brag, but yeah." Oh childrenz. You are so adorable. And dumb. We shouldn't be encouraging them, lol.
Anyway after that, we got in a HUGE long line to buy candy apples because we were about to go to the darts bar and wanted to bring some to the owner Akira and his girlfriend (one of the waitresses that works there, shh, it's a secret!). So we bought some and took them to the bar with us. Akira was hot as always....but the bandages were back on his arm again! We know he wasn't hiding tattoos now because we've seen him without anything on, but what is he doing? Like....stunt biking or something? I can't think of anything that would make wounds big enough to necessitate the gigantic bandages he has....hmmm. So after a few drinks and some darts and amusing everyone in the joint with our victory dances and general ineptitude at darts, we went to karaoke...at like midnight. And sang until 2am when they closed. We're crazy, I know. But it was a fun night. Plus like I said before, Yuuki and I felt cool in our Yukata.
Other than that I have one more odd happening to relate. On Friday we had a school assembly as like...I dunno a kind of "break" after exams. The special guest was a famous singer from Kyuushuu and it turns out she is also the sensei of our music teacher here at the middle school. Anyway they sang a couple duets and things....classical music, mostly Schubert and that was really nice and beautiful. Then....the weirdness began. The famous lady's solo program consisted of....12 Spirituals....like, as in Negro Spirituals (I feel a bit weird using that term though it's actually correct and still in use 0_x). IN ENGLISH. Anyway I personally LOVE spirituals, they're some of the most beautiful and soulful songs I've ever sung as part of a choir, but this setting....was WEIRD. Think about it. Japanese lady, singing about songs associated with slavery and the Underground Railroad in the US, in HORRIBLE English....to an audience of kids who not only knows nothing about american history, doesn't understand the English being used. It was....like....dude. I was speechless. People asked me afterward "Do you know all those songs? Could you understand?" And I thought to myself, okay I WOULDN'T have understood unless I already knew them....man. Also....like the way she performed the songs, was very....classical I guess? Like absolutely no swing, no soul, no....groove, which are all things I associate with spirituals. Even the slow ones you have to dig down deep within yourself to sing it with the right level of emotion....and she was singing it like Bach. Gah. X_X Just personal opinion I guess and tell me if I'm full of crap, but it was not good. Her VOICE was good, but nothing else. OH! And inbetween songs? they had little skit-type things where Kowada-sensei and Tasaki-sensei would come out and act the part of two runaway slaves, a grandfather and his grandson, escaping. And like, I know they were trying to set the stage and get the kids to understand what was going on....but it came off as more theatrical in the amusing way and I couldn't help but think....okay....this wasn't some grand adventure....this was fleeing for your life. A LITTLE different, but you know. Okay sorry, end rant. It was just obvious that no one in Japan studies black history. I mean, I guess why would they? But it was definitely a culture shock moment for me.
But the BEST part....that is tangentally related to black history (ok or maybe not really at all, lol) was that before this assembly (and during the break in the middle of it) I was talking to my 9th grade boys....about Michael Jackson, lol. I need to preface this by saying that earlier in the day during English class, we finished early and Kowada-sensei did one of his, HEY MEGAN'S CORNER TIME! So I was like uhhh....what to talk about? And since it was on my mind I asked if they had heard that Michael Jackson had died and whether they even knew who he was. To my surprise all of them knew who he was, but when I asked about songs, they only knew Thriller and one kid knew Billie Jean. Still! When you consider these kids were BORN in 1994 and 1995 and that they're JAPANESE, that's pretty amazing. That's world famous, right there. Anyway, after some weird talk about him, I was coerced into singing part of Thriller in front of all of them (WHAT THE HELL, I KNOW, I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I DID IT.) And so then they wanted to talk more about it at the assembly. Kazuki and Kohei asked me what the word for "Thriller" was in Japanese...and I was like...wtf, good question! I told them I didn't know but that it was used to describe something that makes your heart go "doki-doki" in a scared kind of way, lol. They were like "Oh, like a haunted house kind of doki-doki?" and I was like YEAH! Good job understanding your gaijin teacher, lol. Then there were MANY MANY requests for me to sing it again....and I was like...no! We're in the middle of the gym and the vice-principal is RIGHT OVER THERE, lol. But then they wanted to know the lyrics and wanted me to do the moonwalk and all this crazy stuff. Then later during the break, they started talking to me about it AGAIN, and a bunch of MJ-esque crotch grabbing ensued and again I had to be like, OKAY GUYS, NOT HERE! They're going to think I'm teaching you questionable things! And sure enough later Umeda-sensei came up to me, horrifed and I had to explain they were just imitating MJ and then she was like OH! and laughed. But then as I was looking out the window toward the main part of the school (the gym is seperated by a covered walkway and there's a courtyard inbetween) I saw Nakamura-kun and Gamada-kun on the second floor and suddenly in front of one of the huge plate windows, Nakamura jumps up (he must've been standing on one of the long sinks near the windows in the hallway) and does another crotch grab for my benefit. But that a ton of other people saw. I swear, they're trying to get me fired....or at least put me in awkward situations. It didn't help that of course I couldn't help laughing. I mean c'mon you guys KNOW ME. I was about to die laughing. Man....*sigh*
So yeah, this got really long but I haven't updated about real life in a while. So there ya go. Woo!
So, like I said, 4th of July was fun. Yuuki invited the gaijin crew to a small matsuri in Omiya and it was fun mostly because....we went in YUKATA! Okay only us two girls did, but it was awesome the reactions I got. I was hoping it'd make me blend in, but actually it made me stand out more because people were like OMFG GAIJIN IN YUKATA LOOK EVERYONE!!! I was also wearing the obi that Yuuki's mom BOUGHT FOR ME! I really have to come up with some way to repay her, this is like the 4th time she's given me stuff and I haven't even met her yet! It was out of my region so only like 3 of my students were there, but we got to talk to a lot of Matt's students and Yuuki and I talked to two of his 7th graders in particular....and okay. His Chu-1 students look SOO much older than mine!!! Most of my students are so kodomo-ppoi but these guys had cool hair and were talking to us boldly in English about how many girlfriends they'd had, super hilarious! We said we were sure they were "mote-mote" (had it goin' ON!) and they both were like..."well, we don't wanna brag, but yeah." Oh childrenz. You are so adorable. And dumb. We shouldn't be encouraging them, lol.
Anyway after that, we got in a HUGE long line to buy candy apples because we were about to go to the darts bar and wanted to bring some to the owner Akira and his girlfriend (one of the waitresses that works there, shh, it's a secret!). So we bought some and took them to the bar with us. Akira was hot as always....but the bandages were back on his arm again! We know he wasn't hiding tattoos now because we've seen him without anything on, but what is he doing? Like....stunt biking or something? I can't think of anything that would make wounds big enough to necessitate the gigantic bandages he has....hmmm. So after a few drinks and some darts and amusing everyone in the joint with our victory dances and general ineptitude at darts, we went to karaoke...at like midnight. And sang until 2am when they closed. We're crazy, I know. But it was a fun night. Plus like I said before, Yuuki and I felt cool in our Yukata.
Other than that I have one more odd happening to relate. On Friday we had a school assembly as like...I dunno a kind of "break" after exams. The special guest was a famous singer from Kyuushuu and it turns out she is also the sensei of our music teacher here at the middle school. Anyway they sang a couple duets and things....classical music, mostly Schubert and that was really nice and beautiful. Then....the weirdness began. The famous lady's solo program consisted of....12 Spirituals....like, as in Negro Spirituals (I feel a bit weird using that term though it's actually correct and still in use 0_x). IN ENGLISH. Anyway I personally LOVE spirituals, they're some of the most beautiful and soulful songs I've ever sung as part of a choir, but this setting....was WEIRD. Think about it. Japanese lady, singing about songs associated with slavery and the Underground Railroad in the US, in HORRIBLE English....to an audience of kids who not only knows nothing about american history, doesn't understand the English being used. It was....like....dude. I was speechless. People asked me afterward "Do you know all those songs? Could you understand?" And I thought to myself, okay I WOULDN'T have understood unless I already knew them....man. Also....like the way she performed the songs, was very....classical I guess? Like absolutely no swing, no soul, no....groove, which are all things I associate with spirituals. Even the slow ones you have to dig down deep within yourself to sing it with the right level of emotion....and she was singing it like Bach. Gah. X_X Just personal opinion I guess and tell me if I'm full of crap, but it was not good. Her VOICE was good, but nothing else. OH! And inbetween songs? they had little skit-type things where Kowada-sensei and Tasaki-sensei would come out and act the part of two runaway slaves, a grandfather and his grandson, escaping. And like, I know they were trying to set the stage and get the kids to understand what was going on....but it came off as more theatrical in the amusing way and I couldn't help but think....okay....this wasn't some grand adventure....this was fleeing for your life. A LITTLE different, but you know. Okay sorry, end rant. It was just obvious that no one in Japan studies black history. I mean, I guess why would they? But it was definitely a culture shock moment for me.
But the BEST part....that is tangentally related to black history (ok or maybe not really at all, lol) was that before this assembly (and during the break in the middle of it) I was talking to my 9th grade boys....about Michael Jackson, lol. I need to preface this by saying that earlier in the day during English class, we finished early and Kowada-sensei did one of his, HEY MEGAN'S CORNER TIME! So I was like uhhh....what to talk about? And since it was on my mind I asked if they had heard that Michael Jackson had died and whether they even knew who he was. To my surprise all of them knew who he was, but when I asked about songs, they only knew Thriller and one kid knew Billie Jean. Still! When you consider these kids were BORN in 1994 and 1995 and that they're JAPANESE, that's pretty amazing. That's world famous, right there. Anyway, after some weird talk about him, I was coerced into singing part of Thriller in front of all of them (WHAT THE HELL, I KNOW, I STILL CAN'T BELIEVE I DID IT.) And so then they wanted to talk more about it at the assembly. Kazuki and Kohei asked me what the word for "Thriller" was in Japanese...and I was like...wtf, good question! I told them I didn't know but that it was used to describe something that makes your heart go "doki-doki" in a scared kind of way, lol. They were like "Oh, like a haunted house kind of doki-doki?" and I was like YEAH! Good job understanding your gaijin teacher, lol. Then there were MANY MANY requests for me to sing it again....and I was like...no! We're in the middle of the gym and the vice-principal is RIGHT OVER THERE, lol. But then they wanted to know the lyrics and wanted me to do the moonwalk and all this crazy stuff. Then later during the break, they started talking to me about it AGAIN, and a bunch of MJ-esque crotch grabbing ensued and again I had to be like, OKAY GUYS, NOT HERE! They're going to think I'm teaching you questionable things! And sure enough later Umeda-sensei came up to me, horrifed and I had to explain they were just imitating MJ and then she was like OH! and laughed. But then as I was looking out the window toward the main part of the school (the gym is seperated by a covered walkway and there's a courtyard inbetween) I saw Nakamura-kun and Gamada-kun on the second floor and suddenly in front of one of the huge plate windows, Nakamura jumps up (he must've been standing on one of the long sinks near the windows in the hallway) and does another crotch grab for my benefit. But that a ton of other people saw. I swear, they're trying to get me fired....or at least put me in awkward situations. It didn't help that of course I couldn't help laughing. I mean c'mon you guys KNOW ME. I was about to die laughing. Man....*sigh*
So yeah, this got really long but I haven't updated about real life in a while. So there ya go. Woo!