A brief note on Cool Biz…
Cool Biz is the term coined for the more casual attire allowed in the workplace during the Japanese summer, due to increasing temperatures and decreasing use of air con in an attempt to conserve resources. This means teachers ditch the suit jackets and don the shirt sleeves. Generally speaking, women get away with wearing more casual attire than men, so I’ll admit that I have worn basic tee shirts to work before. Because no one cared.
Cue autumn break.
Upon my return to the office yesterday, suddenly everyone, including the women, have suit jackets on. And ties. And pencils skirts. And all of those formal clothes we have been avoiding all summer. In their defense, the office and classrooms do get quite cold, because on the flip side of not turning on the air con is also not turning on the heat, so more layers is actually beneficial during those many hours where I sit at my desk at the end of the row of ninensei teachers, contemplating life and occasionally team teaching when I’m lucky. So it’s not actually the switch from tee shirts to business suits that I’m barraging here.
It’s the fact that no one mentions the switch out loud and that everyone just seems to know intuitively when it’s going to happen.
I was not warned. I was not given the inside scope into the apparently inbred cultural knowledge of when it becomes time to take that jacket off the hanger in the back of my closet and wear it to work. Because God knows I brought enough of them, and I am actually excited to wear all those clothes it’s been too warm and too casual in the office to wear. I desire nothing more than also to put my pencil skirt and pinstripe jacket to good use. But I cannot do that in a timely manner when no one tells when it’s going to happen.
It’s also a fact that this knowledge is apparently school-specific.
I was not going to be duped twice. The next day, today, I was going to be prepared and not show up to work two notches below the formality of the rest of the teaching staff. I wore that pinstripe jacket with pride.
But then I got the office at one of my other schools only to discover that Cool Biz had apparently not ended there. The air was less formal in this office, as though casual dress eased its way out more gently and with less abruptness. Some wore jackets. Some wore the same cardigans they wore before autumn break.
I just don’t know what to think anymore.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
Monday, October 3, 2011
Two Months and Counting
It’s been a long time. I’ve been busy.
I have been in Japan for a little over two months now, and I love it. I am settling in and working to make my apartment the kind of place I want to live for the next two years (yes, I am staying at least two years). The temperature in Akita has plummeted over the past week, so now instead of fans and open windows, I have down comforters and socks. I’m going to order kerosene for my heater (Japan doesn’t believe in central heating) and buy an electric blanket when I force myself to go to Nitori tomorrow. I am also going to spend far too much money on a fancy French press at Starbucks. Pretty much because I can.
I spent the previous week in Bangkok, Thailand, visiting my dear, dear friend and loveliest of travel companions, Kaitlyn. I visited some tourist-y things on my own time – Grand Palace, unbelievably large Reclining Buddha – but mostly we just hung out and got Thai massages and ate street food and drank three chaa nom yens every day. It was a dream, to see my friend from home outside of that setting and to share that foreign setting with her. It was similar to meeting up with Olivia in Paris a year ago. Happily surreal.
The students have just returned from mid-term exams last week and their one day of fall break. Cool biz summer wear is over, so almost all the teachers and students have donned their suit jackets for the more formal winter season. I visited one class today, where I didn’t do much because my JTE was returning exams. In Japan, the students are given a copy of the answer sheet and their exams back, so in addition to the teacher marking the tests, the students also check to make sure the teacher didn’t make any mistakes. One thing I love about the Japanese school system is how much responsibility students are given over their own education. They clean the schools, they double check their exams, they come on weekends and during breaks so they can study and practice club activities. It gives them a lot of pride in their work and in their school, something which is painfully lacking in American schools, I think. It’s colonizing, yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad.
I am also working on learning Japanese myself. A community center in the city offers free classes on Thursday nights, so I have been going to that for the last several weeks, with many of the other city ALT’s. The textbooks are all in kana, which means I re-learned that during one long, unoccupied afternoon in the deserted teacher’s room. Today I printed out a four-page vocabulary list of the verbs I didn’t know, so I can learn those as well. The summer I spent cramming my brain full of Japanese definitely had its strengths, which I see far more now that I am here than I did when it was happening and causing me to dream in nonsensical Japanese vocabulary, but the class structure and textbook definitely lacked in learning the Japanese words for things. We worked with no more than ten verbs for one year’s worth of language. I’m trying to remedy some of that now.
When I am not in class, I hang out in the teacher’s room. If I’m lucky, I have things to mark or worksheets to prepare. But the thing about English is that it’s my native language – which means that it takes me far less time to do the same thing than it takes any of my JTE’s. So I finish stuff quickly and then resume staring into space. Now that I have Japanese textbooks, I study those, because I have free time, and it looks a lot better to be studying language than fiddling with my kaitai (oh, see what I did just there? That’s Japanese for cell phone).
I have thirteen classes this week, I think, at two of my schools. Tally ho!
I have been in Japan for a little over two months now, and I love it. I am settling in and working to make my apartment the kind of place I want to live for the next two years (yes, I am staying at least two years). The temperature in Akita has plummeted over the past week, so now instead of fans and open windows, I have down comforters and socks. I’m going to order kerosene for my heater (Japan doesn’t believe in central heating) and buy an electric blanket when I force myself to go to Nitori tomorrow. I am also going to spend far too much money on a fancy French press at Starbucks. Pretty much because I can.
I spent the previous week in Bangkok, Thailand, visiting my dear, dear friend and loveliest of travel companions, Kaitlyn. I visited some tourist-y things on my own time – Grand Palace, unbelievably large Reclining Buddha – but mostly we just hung out and got Thai massages and ate street food and drank three chaa nom yens every day. It was a dream, to see my friend from home outside of that setting and to share that foreign setting with her. It was similar to meeting up with Olivia in Paris a year ago. Happily surreal.
The students have just returned from mid-term exams last week and their one day of fall break. Cool biz summer wear is over, so almost all the teachers and students have donned their suit jackets for the more formal winter season. I visited one class today, where I didn’t do much because my JTE was returning exams. In Japan, the students are given a copy of the answer sheet and their exams back, so in addition to the teacher marking the tests, the students also check to make sure the teacher didn’t make any mistakes. One thing I love about the Japanese school system is how much responsibility students are given over their own education. They clean the schools, they double check their exams, they come on weekends and during breaks so they can study and practice club activities. It gives them a lot of pride in their work and in their school, something which is painfully lacking in American schools, I think. It’s colonizing, yes. But that doesn’t mean it’s all bad.
I am also working on learning Japanese myself. A community center in the city offers free classes on Thursday nights, so I have been going to that for the last several weeks, with many of the other city ALT’s. The textbooks are all in kana, which means I re-learned that during one long, unoccupied afternoon in the deserted teacher’s room. Today I printed out a four-page vocabulary list of the verbs I didn’t know, so I can learn those as well. The summer I spent cramming my brain full of Japanese definitely had its strengths, which I see far more now that I am here than I did when it was happening and causing me to dream in nonsensical Japanese vocabulary, but the class structure and textbook definitely lacked in learning the Japanese words for things. We worked with no more than ten verbs for one year’s worth of language. I’m trying to remedy some of that now.
When I am not in class, I hang out in the teacher’s room. If I’m lucky, I have things to mark or worksheets to prepare. But the thing about English is that it’s my native language – which means that it takes me far less time to do the same thing than it takes any of my JTE’s. So I finish stuff quickly and then resume staring into space. Now that I have Japanese textbooks, I study those, because I have free time, and it looks a lot better to be studying language than fiddling with my kaitai (oh, see what I did just there? That’s Japanese for cell phone).
I have thirteen classes this week, I think, at two of my schools. Tally ho!
Friday, August 19, 2011
Umbrellas and Trash Bags
Starting tomorrow, I will have been in Japan for one month. It rained all day yesterday, a detail which involved a comic series of errors on my part as I tried to navigate my own bike to the train station while holding an umbrella. This is harder than it sounds, mostly because the umbrella catches the wind (and it’s windy, since it’s raining) and pulls the bike back and forth, a bike which is controlled by only one hand, since the other hand is holding the umbrella. In addition, I had a heavy backpack with laptop in the basket on the front of my bike, which threw off my weight equilibrium even more. So all and all, I almost took out a woman who walked out of a store and did not look where she was going (Hello, Lady, raining outside. Increased stopping distance for bicycles. Pay attention) and almost crashed into several telephones poles. But I got there! Albeit rather soaked from my ten minutes of pride at the beginning of my bicycle journey which didn’t allow me to use my umbrella. Because I’m from Portland and we make fun of tourists who use umbrellas. But the warm rain coating my clothes and an impending meeting with the principle of one of my schools turned this badass Portlander into a rain-pansy in about fifteen minutes flat. My shame is great.
In other news, I have Internet at my house now. Kind of. I need to call Softbank (my cell phone provider) and ask a series of question, including but not limited to, if I use the wifi router you gave me for free, will you start charging me. Because that’s the rumor floating around the ALT set. That Softbank screws you. And it’s a rumor that I would be inclined to believe, because at this point my cell phone plans sounds too good to be true, and I need to check the details. Also, I was supposed to pay the bill on the 16th through direct deduction from my bank account, but I checked today and nothing has been deduced, so…check on that too. So much checking must happen here.
I have now visited all four of my schools, and I am very excited about all of them. The English teachers are all very nice, although I can’t for the life of me remember any of their names. I am at my base school all next week, which includes a welcome ceremony for yours truly, and I got invited to my first enkai today by the Akita High teachers. So next Monday, first work party, for the win. I have been working on my self-introduction lessons, but I can only write about myself for so long before I lose all perspective on what is actually important. I made a Powerpoint, which will help me stay on track. But I don’t do my first lesson until September 5, so I still have much time to work that out. I need to figure out where I can print pictures here. I’ve been told the conbini do basically everything for you, so I’ll check into that.
And I need to find red garbage bags. The trash system here is ridiculous, so “burnable trash,” which was explained to us as “trash you can burn,” goes in the red bags, whereas everything else, which you apparently can’t burn, goes in the green ones. And I have some green bags left from Anna, but no red, and really red is more important, because in this last month I have learned that life goes through way more burnable trash than non. The things I am discovering.
In other news, I have Internet at my house now. Kind of. I need to call Softbank (my cell phone provider) and ask a series of question, including but not limited to, if I use the wifi router you gave me for free, will you start charging me. Because that’s the rumor floating around the ALT set. That Softbank screws you. And it’s a rumor that I would be inclined to believe, because at this point my cell phone plans sounds too good to be true, and I need to check the details. Also, I was supposed to pay the bill on the 16th through direct deduction from my bank account, but I checked today and nothing has been deduced, so…check on that too. So much checking must happen here.
I have now visited all four of my schools, and I am very excited about all of them. The English teachers are all very nice, although I can’t for the life of me remember any of their names. I am at my base school all next week, which includes a welcome ceremony for yours truly, and I got invited to my first enkai today by the Akita High teachers. So next Monday, first work party, for the win. I have been working on my self-introduction lessons, but I can only write about myself for so long before I lose all perspective on what is actually important. I made a Powerpoint, which will help me stay on track. But I don’t do my first lesson until September 5, so I still have much time to work that out. I need to figure out where I can print pictures here. I’ve been told the conbini do basically everything for you, so I’ll check into that.
And I need to find red garbage bags. The trash system here is ridiculous, so “burnable trash,” which was explained to us as “trash you can burn,” goes in the red bags, whereas everything else, which you apparently can’t burn, goes in the green ones. And I have some green bags left from Anna, but no red, and really red is more important, because in this last month I have learned that life goes through way more burnable trash than non. The things I am discovering.
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
Akita: Week Two, Or, How I Learned to Love American Keyboards
So two days ago I moved into the apartment, WOOT, which will be mine for as long as I am here. Considering that I am basically paying nothing for this place, and it’s really large, especially for one person (I have an extra bedroom that has stuff [read, like four extra futons] in the closet and that is it), it’s great. It’s close to school, the Daiso, a couple grocery stores, not too far from the station…etc.
It’s been interesting living in a city where tourists rarely come. In the grocery store the other night for instance. Just me. And a bunch of food I couldn’t identify. It took me forever to find tofu, and I never did find the bread. I went back last night to find the bread. To go with my $10 little jar of peanut butter, which I bought at the foreign food store. I also bought pasta, just so I wouldn’t starve while figuring out what every-package-that-looks-identical-to-me-but-has-different-kanji-on-it-that-I-can’t-read-so-it-must-be-different is. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Or eat out a lot. Mostly likely the latter.
Also, no Internet at home till August 15. The English-speaking guy said that was basically the earliest I could get an appointment, since they conveniently don’t do evening visits, which means it had to be on a weekend, a holiday, or a day I take off work. Which ended up being okay, because I get absolutely a bunch of days of with this job, including five that must be taken before September. So 25 in total for the year. So I was taking the 15th off anyway, and now I get Internet then. Double score.
A couple days ago, I filled in a form (a formality, really) to request my special summer leave. This required the writing of many, many, tiny, tiny kanji. Anna had made me a sample. Tomoko-sensei told me she would do it if I didn’t want to try. But I put on my big girl pants and concentrated a lot on the many tiny lines that made no sense to me. “Oh, you tried!” Tomoko-sensei said when she looked at it. And then she took the form to the vice principle. And they laughed about it. And I’m thinking it was one of those, oh, look at the cute foreign girl trying so hard, kind of things. Hopefully.
Also also, my computer that I use at school wasn’t hooked up to the printer, so a guy came to fix it, and he printed out a page that said “OK!” and put it on my desk. Hilarious.
It’s been interesting living in a city where tourists rarely come. In the grocery store the other night for instance. Just me. And a bunch of food I couldn’t identify. It took me forever to find tofu, and I never did find the bread. I went back last night to find the bread. To go with my $10 little jar of peanut butter, which I bought at the foreign food store. I also bought pasta, just so I wouldn’t starve while figuring out what every-package-that-looks-identical-to-me-but-has-different-kanji-on-it-that-I-can’t-read-so-it-must-be-different is. I’m sure I’ll figure it out. Or eat out a lot. Mostly likely the latter.
Also, no Internet at home till August 15. The English-speaking guy said that was basically the earliest I could get an appointment, since they conveniently don’t do evening visits, which means it had to be on a weekend, a holiday, or a day I take off work. Which ended up being okay, because I get absolutely a bunch of days of with this job, including five that must be taken before September. So 25 in total for the year. So I was taking the 15th off anyway, and now I get Internet then. Double score.
A couple days ago, I filled in a form (a formality, really) to request my special summer leave. This required the writing of many, many, tiny, tiny kanji. Anna had made me a sample. Tomoko-sensei told me she would do it if I didn’t want to try. But I put on my big girl pants and concentrated a lot on the many tiny lines that made no sense to me. “Oh, you tried!” Tomoko-sensei said when she looked at it. And then she took the form to the vice principle. And they laughed about it. And I’m thinking it was one of those, oh, look at the cute foreign girl trying so hard, kind of things. Hopefully.
Also also, my computer that I use at school wasn’t hooked up to the printer, so a guy came to fix it, and he printed out a page that said “OK!” and put it on my desk. Hilarious.
Saturday, July 30, 2011
Akita City: Week One
I have arrived safely and in one piece. And so did all of my luggage, which basically is my body weight packed in color-coordinating and oh-so-stylish suitcases (which both weighed 48 pounds at the airport FOR THE WIN) and duffels. And said bags are all still packed up, my clothes and books sufficating after a far too long confinement, since I don't move into my apartment until Tuesday evening after work. I dropped off the big suitcase, the backpack, and a few other small things there today when my predessor showed me how to work all the appliances in the apartment. Making the shower hot is gonna be something of a chore.
Honestly, though, I love the place. It's huge. It's convenient. It's mine. At least as long as I stay here. My pred is leaving me a lot of stuff, really useful stuff, so there won't be much I need to buy in order to make the place livable for me. Other than a coffee pot. That's gonna have to happen STAT.
She also gave me her bike today, so that I could ride around the city and start to figure out how to get places. Now, I know that I have problems with directions. Right and Left are really hard. Maps work better if you flip them upside down. However, in Japan none of the roads have names or signs with those names on them, and, I mean, if we're being real, even if they did, it's not like I can read kanji. But at least then I could match pictures. But no such luck. So - combine no road names or signs, with a route I've never taken before, with my inability to get anywhere effectively, with my further inability to ask for help (my Japanese is not nearly that good, and the directions unit was the hardest for me in class anyway), with cars driving on the opposite side of the road, and you have me, biking in circles for a hour and half when it should have taken about 30 minutes to get from the apartment to my hotel. But I did find it. After I wanted to bike into the river just to make the pain stop. Then I walked to the station. Walking felt safer.
And then I bought dinner, and the walking thing went really well. There are paper lantern displays hanging all over the city for the upcoming Kanto (paper latern) Festival. It's one of the major festivals in the Tohoku region, so I'm pretty excited about it.
Tomorrow I have to figure out how to bike from the hotel to my school so I can get there Monday. Everyone in the office has been very kind to me, and I like the atmosphere, even though there isn't much to do right now. Students are on summer vacation till the end of August. I'm planning my self-introduction lesson and taking care of paperwork. I have my own file and shoe cubby and plastic tag thingee that says when I'm there and everything.
Let's hope I don't get too terribly lost tomorrow.
Honestly, though, I love the place. It's huge. It's convenient. It's mine. At least as long as I stay here. My pred is leaving me a lot of stuff, really useful stuff, so there won't be much I need to buy in order to make the place livable for me. Other than a coffee pot. That's gonna have to happen STAT.
She also gave me her bike today, so that I could ride around the city and start to figure out how to get places. Now, I know that I have problems with directions. Right and Left are really hard. Maps work better if you flip them upside down. However, in Japan none of the roads have names or signs with those names on them, and, I mean, if we're being real, even if they did, it's not like I can read kanji. But at least then I could match pictures. But no such luck. So - combine no road names or signs, with a route I've never taken before, with my inability to get anywhere effectively, with my further inability to ask for help (my Japanese is not nearly that good, and the directions unit was the hardest for me in class anyway), with cars driving on the opposite side of the road, and you have me, biking in circles for a hour and half when it should have taken about 30 minutes to get from the apartment to my hotel. But I did find it. After I wanted to bike into the river just to make the pain stop. Then I walked to the station. Walking felt safer.
And then I bought dinner, and the walking thing went really well. There are paper lantern displays hanging all over the city for the upcoming Kanto (paper latern) Festival. It's one of the major festivals in the Tohoku region, so I'm pretty excited about it.
Tomorrow I have to figure out how to bike from the hotel to my school so I can get there Monday. Everyone in the office has been very kind to me, and I like the atmosphere, even though there isn't much to do right now. Students are on summer vacation till the end of August. I'm planning my self-introduction lesson and taking care of paperwork. I have my own file and shoe cubby and plastic tag thingee that says when I'm there and everything.
Let's hope I don't get too terribly lost tomorrow.
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Four Days and Counting . . .
I leave soon. Very soon. There are the beginnings of piles all over my room - yes, I want it; no, I don't - and I have about forty pages left in Crime and Punishment. I obsessively made lists all day yesterday.
I called the airport today and reserved a bunch of yen to be picked up tomorrow (goodbye, life savings). The idea of currency blows my mind. It's like, the paper is real, but what it represents - value - isn't really real. We move numbers on electronic databases and call that capitalism. How does that make sense? I propose we go back to the days of trading purple seashells and bartering for food. It's simple, and it doesn't involve interest.
I also re-did my blog theme...because I hadn't in three years, and my options are way, way cooler now. Bringing order to chaos since 1990!
Also-also, I bought black TOMS that I can never wear outside. Score.
I called the airport today and reserved a bunch of yen to be picked up tomorrow (goodbye, life savings). The idea of currency blows my mind. It's like, the paper is real, but what it represents - value - isn't really real. We move numbers on electronic databases and call that capitalism. How does that make sense? I propose we go back to the days of trading purple seashells and bartering for food. It's simple, and it doesn't involve interest.
I also re-did my blog theme...because I hadn't in three years, and my options are way, way cooler now. Bringing order to chaos since 1990!
Also-also, I bought black TOMS that I can never wear outside. Score.
Thursday, June 30, 2011
Destination: Known
I have finally heard from my Contracting Organization (hereafter known as, CO) in Japan. There was about a week where they thought I was ignoring them because I hadn't replied to their email, but in fact that email had been sent to an older email address and shuffled off into the junk mail folder without my permission. But that's all in the past now...my predecessor, Anna, my supervisor, and I are all on the same page (and email address) now.
DRUM ROLL PLEASE.
I'm living in Akita City, Akita. It's the biggest city in the prefecture, but is considered rural by most of Japan. It's about 300,000 people. I have a relatively large apartment on the fourth floor of a government subsidised apartment building. Which means, it's outrageously cheap, especially considering what other JET's in urban areas pay. I am very excited about it! Anna, who lives there now, really likes it, and it sounds just wonderful. (However, I admit I may have some romantic expectations tied to this place...but that doesn't make it seem any less magical).
It has a balcony. 'Nough said.
I'm working with four high schools in the area. They all sound fairly different, so I should get to work with students from different backgrounds and with different expectations for using their English. I think I'm either running, or volunteering to run, a couple English clubs at some of these high schools, which will also allow me to get to know some of my students better. I'm really excited about all of this as well.
I'm still getting details about my position and situation, but thus far it all seems just about as close to perfect for me as I could have hoped. Google Akita City...it's gorgeous. When I get there, Anna will still be in the apartment, so I will get to meet her, and she can show me around a little. But that does mean I have to stay in a hotel for almost a week...which is also okay. In the end, it's way more convenient and cheaper than any of my other options. And I got no problem with hotels.
Anyway, that's where the Japan situation is. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be finding out more and more as my countdown to leaving shortens. Cheers!
DRUM ROLL PLEASE.
I'm living in Akita City, Akita. It's the biggest city in the prefecture, but is considered rural by most of Japan. It's about 300,000 people. I have a relatively large apartment on the fourth floor of a government subsidised apartment building. Which means, it's outrageously cheap, especially considering what other JET's in urban areas pay. I am very excited about it! Anna, who lives there now, really likes it, and it sounds just wonderful. (However, I admit I may have some romantic expectations tied to this place...but that doesn't make it seem any less magical).
It has a balcony. 'Nough said.
I'm working with four high schools in the area. They all sound fairly different, so I should get to work with students from different backgrounds and with different expectations for using their English. I think I'm either running, or volunteering to run, a couple English clubs at some of these high schools, which will also allow me to get to know some of my students better. I'm really excited about all of this as well.
I'm still getting details about my position and situation, but thus far it all seems just about as close to perfect for me as I could have hoped. Google Akita City...it's gorgeous. When I get there, Anna will still be in the apartment, so I will get to meet her, and she can show me around a little. But that does mean I have to stay in a hotel for almost a week...which is also okay. In the end, it's way more convenient and cheaper than any of my other options. And I got no problem with hotels.
Anyway, that's where the Japan situation is. If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll be finding out more and more as my countdown to leaving shortens. Cheers!
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