My Job

The title of this blog is "Let's Japan Blogging," as you may or may not have noticed. This conjugation is known affectionately by JET assistant language teachers (ALTs) as the present japanified continuous. I believe that is the technical name. For whatever reason, Japanese people very often say "Let's ____ing!" "Let's eating!" "Let's going!" "Let's singing" are all common phrases out here. Unfortunately, they are not English. We ALT's recognize this and get a kick out of it when we hear it, just like Japanese people laugh at us when we murder one of their words with poor pronunciation. We enjoy the present japanified continuous so much in fact that we use it amongst ourselves. "Let's drinking!" "Let's passing" (on the road) "Let's burnable trash combusting" are all staples of the ALT's language. But please realize that I am only using this poor English to understand the nature of the beast. I must first get inside the mind of Japanese learners of English in order to know how best to teach them the correct way. ("Let's combust our burnable trash." etc...) And that is the essence of my job. I must pull up my sleeves and get my hands dirty with pronunciation and verb tenses and gerunds and similes and metaphors and all that good stuff. Hopefully, when I am done, no one in Kitakami will say, "Where going?" or "I eating lice every day." I will tour the country side exterminating poor English everywhere. I also teach high school English on the side...

I work at

北上翔南高校

which means Kitakami Shounan High School. Shounan is represented by the two kanji (Chinese characters) in the middle. They literally mean "soar south." I work there Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. It is my base school. Even though I work at another school on Mondays and Tuesdays, Shounan pays me and handles all the administrative stuff. I do things with them on weekends and my supervisor (the fantastic Megumi Sensei who translates important things for me like setting up my utilities and making sure I don't get lost) works at Shounan. Shounan is a fantastic school. It is not a specialized high school or trade school. While it is considered academic, meaning that most kids have higher education aspirations, it is not a top academic high school. The education is much more liberal and there are all sorts of extracurricular activities available that are not generally available at other schools. At true academic schools, like my other school, the kids are very serious about their studying. They are students first and foremost, and do other things on the side. Shounan students are much more well rounded in my opinion. There are many more students with 'personalities.' They are very interesting to talk to. That is why their school festival, an exhibition for parents put on by the different home rooms and clubs, is a fantastic showcase of their non-academic talents.

Every homeroom decorates its classroom with a theme. One homeroom turned its classroom into a haunted house. Another one had an apple bobbing pool. Another one had a crystal ball and the students would predict your future through palm readings and horoscope charts and the like. Also, all the clubs put on demonstrations. The tea club held a fantastic tea ceremony, there were traditional Japanese dances, music, and food. There were also three student rock and roll bands that played a couple songs a piece. One band played "American Idiot," by Green Day. When parents picked up on the words American Idiot, they looked at me nervously, trying to gauge if I was offended or not. I imagine they don't know Green Day or the context of the song. They probably just thought their children were calling Americans idiots.

There was also a fashion show. A girl asked me, the day before, if I would judge the show. I said sure why not. I generally just agree to things and let it all sort itself out later. I assumed it was a serious fashion show. It was not. In fact, it was a comedy fashion pageant, with much cross dressing. I'll leave out the details, but it was hilarious. The winning 'outfit' was a kid dressed like a cigarette, and all he would say was 'Tobacco bad!'He made an encore appearance later with one of the bands . The whole festival was amazing. I certainly never had any experience like that in my high school, and it was inspiring to see how hard everyone worked and pitched in. EVERYONE helped. Even the kids who do nothing in class and seem like they don't care. Even those kids were hanging balloons and running around with a spring in their step. Pictures.

The English Club preparing. We sold foreign candy and had quiz in English for people to take

This was on the English Club room's chalkboard

Bands

I get by with a lot of help from Japan

The eight of us were crammed onto a tiny blanket surrounded by a sea of people. We had arrived at one o clock in Akita for Japan's largest fireworks show. It was still four hours away, which we thought would give us enough time to find a good seat and liesurely get some food and drinks. Apparently, though, people had been there since dawn staking out the best spots. We found a tiny patch of unclaimed ground and set down our sad little blanket. The sun was relentless and we hadn't brought any water or food, or shade for that matter. We were very much unprepared. We came on a whim, thinking it would be awesome to see a four hour fireworks competition between the prefectures. We resolved to hunker down and just fight through the sun and the sweat and the humidy and the dehydration and the cramped conditions because there wasn't really anything we could do. We looked on in envy at the other patches of ground that were covered in tents and umbrellas and coolers and grills.
At about hour 2 of the ordeal, I turned and asked an elderly Japanese couple behind me how many prefectures would be competing. They were shocked that I could speak some Japanese. The woman looked at her book and said about 25. Then she asked me why my Japanese was so good. (If you can merely say 'hello' in Japanese, people will breath in sharpely and comment on how fantastic your Japanese is. For a laugh, you can say thank you, and reply that their Japanese is decent as well.) We continued to talk, and her husband insisted that I drink the whiskey that he brought with him and eat some of the foods they had packed.
He was missing teeth and had such an accent I couldn't understand a word that he said. His wife had to translate his extremely difficult Japanese into difficult Japanese for me. Thus, we 'communicated.' A little later, a younger man came over to our little blanket and dropped off two dishes of yakitori (grilled chicken on a stick). He said his group had bought too much and that he'd like us to help out. Then another blanket came over with water for us and and umbrella, and a chair we could borrow. Our luck was changing.
A couple of us went over to the first blanket a little later to thank them. We brought over a pack of gum and some candy, which was really all we had. Then, for the rest of the night we hung out on their spacious blanket, (at their insistence of course) watching fireworks and drinking their beers and eating their food. At one point, some sort of game began where they tried to see what I could and could not eat. Thank you Babcia and mom for making me eat all sorts of 'weird' things back home when I was younger. Long after my friends politely excused themselves from the competition, I was eating chicken gizzards and hearts and ears and nasty smelling beans (natto) and all sorts of things. The Japanese people almost seemed disappointed when I could eat something. They finally got me with the fish semen though. I didn't eat it, and that made everyone very happy, most especially me.
So far, this sort of experience has been the norm for me. It seems like everywhere I go people are so friendly and anxious to help. All it takes is a little Japanese. JETs who have been here already for a year tell me that in general Japanese people are thrilled when foreigners make and effort to speak and learn Japanese. From co workers to people on the street to people at a festival, they appreciate you trying to learn their language.
Just last weekend, at another festival, a woman pulled my friend and me off the street into her dry cleaning store and gave us coffee and corn and rice balls and chicken and all sorts of stuff. We took a bunch of pictures with a bunch of women about the same age and left with everyone smiling and laughing.



When trying to ride buses and trains, people will lead me to where I need to be if I don't know. Now that I understand how these things work a little better, I thankfully don't need to inconvenience them any more. But, besides one time when someone completely ignored me, every time people go out of their way to help me if I am asking for help. Sometimes if I don't even need help, they offer to help. I was standing on a corner waiting for a friend when a mom and her child came over and asked me if I was lost and if I needed directions or to call someone. I really can't impress upon you guys enough how much everyone here rules. I understand its different in other parts of Japan, because I've been there. In the big cities, its just like NYC. But out here, 483 km from Tokyo (there is a sign near my house that says that. I didn't measure it myself) its been fantastic. So, please understand that so far all the great experiences I have had, and am sure will have, are fueled by a lot of help from Japan. Pictures!

My school

A shrine near my house

The unmatchable Ryan 先生(sensei)

More will be coming soon.