Only in Japan

Last Wednesday afternoon at school, all of the sports teams and clubs put on an assembly for all of the new students as a sort of recruitment tool. The basketball players showed off some skills, the tennis team smacked some tennis balls around, and the badminton team shot their birdies into the audience. The highlight for me, though, was watching the kendo students. It's something that's so uniquely "Japan." I've always been interested in it, but figured it was way out of my range, since first of all, I'm a teacher, and second, I don't speak enough Japanese.

After the assembly, I was talking with one of my English teachers. She asked me which club I liked the best, so I said, "The kendo team was pretty cool. I think Kendo looks really interesting." At that, she ran over to the kendo coach and told him what I'd said. This intimidating guy looked over at me, smiled, then called out, "Hai! Samurai!" making the motion of a samurai sword. I just sort of laughed and nodded. After all, even though I've worked at this school for 8 months, I barely know him.

Two days later, I come back from an ichinensei class to find a brand new kendo sword ("shinai") sitting on my desk.

I was completely speechless. Again, I barely know this guy. Why would he do this?? That shinai costs around 40$!! Anyway, the first chance I got, I thanked him as best as I could, bowing deeply and using the formal thank you. He brushed it off saying basically, "Hey, don't mention it. It's no problem. Please, come join us sometime!"

So there it is. Because I only said "Kendo looks fun and interesting," and I got a free sword out of the deal and a standing invitation to come learn kendo with my students. I'm definitely taking it up.

For reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh2TNO5CGXQ

(PS: I'm 6'3"... my students are much shorter... on the one hand, I'll be able to thwomp their heads easier, but on the other, it might be difficult to find me a long enough uniform...)

Just a lil' bit of nothing

What I wouldn't give for things to get back to normal. After the busy weekend in Tokyo, I got right back to school for the ninensei/sannensei opening ceremony. Then the next day we greeted the new students with THEIR opening ceremony. Two days in a row of suit and tie.

I will say greeting the new students was cool. It was a ceremony almost as big as graduation. Parents lined the back walls, the band played warm-up songs, lots of members of the Board of Education showed up. I was actually given a job to assist... I stood in the hallway and greeted all the old BOE members, motioned to the left, and said, "Toshoshitsu wa kochira desu." (The library is over there.) Of course, I was standing next to a sign with an arrow directing them that way, but YOU CAN NEVER BE TOO CAREFUL! (Especially since a few of the older ones started to aimlessly wander past me, prompting me to proudly repeat my canned phrase.)

When the actual ceremony started, it was almost motion-for-motion the same as graduation. Students stood, teachers read names, students sat, other students stood, students sang... but then we had to sing. All of the teachers filed in a mob to our assigned places in the gym and sang to the new ichinensei. The nearest I could work out the lyrics in the single day that I had to practice is that it was something about giving the students flowers and dandelions or something. Though I suppose with Japanese imagery and metaphor, it probably meant each flower is the gift of knowledge, and each petal of that flower is a page of a textbook, filled with incredible information vital to the growing minds and bodies of the youth of Japan (The bumblebee on the flower represents cotton-candy... still trying to figure that metaphor out... silly Japanese poetry).

Probably the the most interesting moment was when the teachers had to introduce themselves to the crowd. We have a student with a hearing impairment, so to assist, all of the teachers had banners with their names on it. In traditional Japanese, their names, consisting of only two kanji, were all aranged vertically on two sheets of printer paper. When the moment came, we lined up across the front of the gym while the vice principapl read our names and subjects of each teacher. I was very last.

The format was the same, "Matsuzaki Mariko," she'd step forward, "Yorohiku onegaishimasu," bow, and hold up her vertical scroll. "Iida Yuki," she'd step forward, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," bow, and hold up her vertical scroll. "Hiraki Kenichiro," he'd step forward, bow, hold up his scroll and say, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," just to mix it up. Then it got to me. The vice principal read my name in perfect katakana english, I stepped forward, bowed, said, "Yoroshiku onegaishimasu," and held up my horizontal scroll spelled out in English. 42 vertical scrolls, and finally the tall, lanky American guy holds up this horizontal thing so incredibly different from the others. It got a few chuckles from just about everyone, including myself. :) (Then I cried a little inside. :( (Not really...))

Since then, though, the daily routine has been orientations and introductions for the students. It's been a week, and I still haven't really taught a class yet. I've been bringing my laptop to school to hopefully fill the free time and get some actual work done, but after several hours of that, it's good to break up the monotony with an ebook or something (World War Z! Yay!).

The new English teachers are great, though. The new ninensei teacher has already had me come to a class (not that I did much, but the effort was there!). But I won't really start anything until next week. In the meantime, it's pretty dull. All my extra-curricular stuff is going well (band practice, japanese lessons, even ballroom dance, though it's still freaking hard). Also, I'm getting tons of ideas for lame videos to make, so maybe someday, if I get the drive and if I allow myself to look like more of an idiot, I might make them. :D

The Tokyo Thing

Hey, surprise! I went to Tokyo! I guess I was too busy to mention it on here, but... yeah. I went. This came out of it.



WHERE'D WE GO?? (Places (briefly) featured in the video)
Day 1:
-Imperial Palace Tour
-Shinjuku
-Tokyo Municipal Building (45th Floor)
-Kabuki-cho
-Shibuya

Day 2:
-Camp Zama Army Base

Day 3:
-Punkspring '09 (Maseharu Messe, Chiba-ken)

Day 4:
-Tsukiji Fish Market, random sushi restaurant
-Sensoji (in Asakusa)
-Akihabara

Day 5:
-Subway
-Kumamoto

That's all for now! I have a bunch of pictures covering the many things I couldn't fit into the video. Look for them on Facebook soon! (Or photobucket... if I ever get around to it. The link is in the upper left of this page)

Sakura Season

This past weekend, I had the chance to participate in "O-Hanami." (hana = flower, mi = look. "Flower Viewing." The O often gets added onto certain words as a formality. Even the glorious bentos I keep writing about get the O treatment and become O-bentos, or, Honorable Boxed Lunches.) During a hanami party, people gather together to have picnics underneath sakura trees.

O-Hanami takes place during the time of year when the Sakura are in bloom. Almost everywhere you look in this all-too-short season, you will see at least one bright pink, blossoming tree. In certain areas, entire parks have changed colors, lighting up the landscape and adding new flavor to a previously worn-out view.

On Saturday, the Kikuchi-gun ALTs decided to have a hanami party. Our directions were to go to Kikuchi city at around 7:00 PM and meet at a park that is famous for sakura. It seemed a bit strange going at night to see some flowers, but I was reassured it would be worthwhile.

So, around 7, a carload of us arrived near the Takemitsuko statue. We'd all been by it before, and we always notice the great bronze samurai in mid-gallop on his horse, war fan at the ready. It was always a passing, "Oh, neat... anyway..." This day, as we drove in front of it, I finally noticed it's backdrop; a large hill not too far behind it. Only now, the hill was absolutely covered in Sakura. Swirls of the pink flowers mixed in with the ordinary trees, helping the sakura to stand out even brighter against the darkening sky. In faint zig-zags criss-crossing through the trees, there were specks of what must have been street lights and paper lanterns leading the way. Instantly, this seemed like a fantastic idea.

We grabbed our supplies and began our walk up into the hill. The main entrance was a long walkway lined with sakura. A faint, red glow came from each of the chouchin (lanterns) hanging perfectly spaced down the center. At the end, a large, stone torii (gate) stood against the dark forest huddling around the jinja behind it. We veered right, off the path, and wound our way up the smaller footpaths leading higher up the side of the hill. We would occasionally stop to try and catch a picture, but even after we figured out the best way to take a night photo, we all realized there was no way it could ever do this justice.

The rest of the evening was spent sitting on tarps and roll-up tatami mats while eating underneath the cherry blossoms. Someone made the comment, "It's too bad that it's going to rain tomorrow. All this will be gone." Just like that, as quickly as it starts, the sakura season ends. Very soon, the pink blossoms that we've grown accustomed to will be gone. For me, it's most likely my last time to see them. But I can't ever forget them.

Several teachers are transferring schools this week. As I've mentioned before, March is the end of the school year. Some teachers will change schools within the prefecture, others will stay. Next week, the next school year will start.

It came on so suddenly. In the rush to finish the textbooks before the last class, or to cram that last bit of information for the entrance examinations, the last days of school crept up on me. Not an hour after the closing ceremony, the principal was already calling teachers one-by-one into his office to tell them if they'd stay or go. Some came out trying to remain polite and formal, others came out smiling with sighs of relief, and others came out fighting back tears. The teachers who are staying will have the coming year to celebrate and relax. These few weeks, though, are for the transferring teachers.

In the week to come, some really amazing people are leaving. There's the ichinensei math teacher who was one of the first to try out her English on me at an Enkai when I was randomly assigned to sit next to her, and has since struck up the odd conversation with me in passing. There's the librarian who would always greet me with a "Good morning!" as she'd walk by my desk to get coffee, often times stopping to practice more English, or teach me more Japanese. There's my principal who is blindingly convinced that I will become a famous singer and will then be too famous to talk to him when he visits the USA, even though we've already had many great conversations about everything from Steve McQueen to Jazz.

I've known these people for an all-too-short period of time. And these faces that I've grown accustomed to will soon be gone. This week may well be the last time I see them. But I can't ever forget them.

A Special Springtime

Spring is here. The cold wind has receded to the mountains until next fall. The bitter snow, long gone. As the students shed their coats and open the classroom curtains, the sun beats down harder and harder. This, too, dear friends, is the season of the Sakura, Japan's famous cherry blossoms. Seemingly every tree is bursting with the light pink flower on every branch. It is a sight to behold, one which draws visitors from all over the world annually. And what would the sakura and spring time, even Japan, be without one very important thing?

That thing, of course, is racism.

Ok, calm down. Let me break out the story. :D

This past weekend, I went to Fukuoka on a whim. Hey, I hadn't been there yet, and it's supposed to be a nice place (It was). Additionally, it has a Wendy's which is supposed to be delicious (It was... twice). Come on, give me a break, I haven't been there in 7 months. Anyway, I went with 3 friends. Two other american guys, Anthony and Matt, and one of my Japanese friends, Kana.

Since we were going on a whim, we didn't make hotel reservations anywhere. We figured we'd try our luck once we got there. We left a little late, so that was going to make things a bit more difficult. We arrived in Fukuoka in the mid afternoon and immediately started walking around looking for capsule hotels, or hostels, or cheap hotels, or whatever we could find. After many failed attempts, we started to realize we may just have to break into two groups for the night (since it's near impossible to find a 4 person hotel room without sinking to a Love Hotel).

Kana and Matt found a double in one hotel while Anthony and I waited outside (so the hotel clerk wouldn't see us in case they found something we could all sneak into later). Unfortunately, there was only one room, but there was a hotel across the street. Before booking, Matt and Kana went over to the other hotel to check there. They came out a moment later to tell Anthony and I, "Ok, they have two singles." We decided to split here and go check in to our respective hotels. Matt and Kana went back across the street while Anthony and I walked into the new hotel. Anthony approached the counter, "Futatsu shingaru, kudasai." (Two singles, please.)

The two men behind the counter fumbled with the papers for a moment but almost instantly, one of them looked up and said, "Oh... umm... no... no vacancy..."

Anthony and I looked at each other puzzled and said, "Oh... okay, thank you..." and left. Outside, Anthony said to me, "I bet it's because we're gaijin..." I didn't quite believe this, but didn't think it was too far fetched... we called Matt and Kana to hopefully catch them before making reservations to let them know that our hotel was now magically full. They returned a minute later just as confused as we were. We told them Anthony's hypothesis and Kana kind of rolled her eyes. Matt said, "Okay, Kana, let's go back in there." And off they went. :)

The next bit went something like this. Kana walked back in and asked the men, "Wait a second. I came in 5 minutes ago and you had rooms available. My friends, who speak Japanese, came in not two minutes later, and suddenly you're full. What happened?" The men looked at each other and said, "Oh... we filled the rooms... but wait, we just got a cancellation." Kana asked, "You just now got a cancellation?" The men replied, "Uh... yes..." "Yeah, that's a good story..." Kana said, rather pointedly. To this, the men only shuffled with more papers while staring at their feet, remaining completely silent.

Kana and Matt came back outside to tell us that we had rooms and to go back in. So we did. Once inside, the men were much more polite and cordial while we filled out the information sheet and paid. I got them back, though... I filled out my information in romaji. Those punks don't DESERVE kanji. >:(

Anyway, it was just something to laugh about. We didn't get too offended or upset because what good would it do? We just rolled with it and enjoyed the rest of our trip wandering around downtown Fukuoka (and eating Wendy's... did I mention that important bit yet?). I guess since Fukuoka's a bigger tourist place, certain hotels are less apt to let the "party-boy american" types in their hotels. That's all well and good, but we literally said two words to them and they made that judgement. Racism is an interesting thing in Japan... so many borderline, if not full-out prejudiced things happen that it's hard to list specifics. You just take it in stride and remember that's the whole point of the exchange programs: to knock down the stereotypes and internationalize both parties.

Don't get me wrong. I completely love Japan. I don't at all see this experience as a black mark that will bring shame upon this country for millenia to come. It was just funny and worth telling about. :)

And Wendy's was awesome, too.

Sayonara, Sannensei :(

Pardon the long post (I think it's redundant to say that at this point... :D) but I have to write this all down. It's been quite the week over at school. Since school is only required through Junior High, graduation is a bigger deal here than back in the states. One of my teachers told me, "It's probably the most formal event of the whole school year." Man, she wasn't kidding. I felt like such a foreigner standing slack-jawed in awe of some of the stuff going on while the rest of the faculty looked bored as ever... silly Americans. :D

Practice, Practice, Practice
All week, the sannensei have been out of school. They've been taking their high school entrance exams (tests to get into certain high schools) and showing up for graduation rehearsals. Oh yes, rehearsals. At least 1 period a day all week was taken up by graduation practice (On Thursday, we took the entire morning to run a mock graduation... complete with reading all the names but sans parents). Everything from proper bowing etiquette to music rehearsals to what sounded like death threats from the teachers promising much pain and suffering to those who dared to even blink.

I must say, the first corrrect "kiritsu" made me jump a little. The procedure is like this. As the students are sitting like perfect little soldiers in a row, the MC says, "Ichido..." (All who are present) then stone silence... then, "Kiritsu!!" At that, EVERY STUDENT jumps to their feet in a perfect single move. "Rei!" Each student bows at the waist and counts to themselves, "Ichi... ni... san..." and stands back up again in perfect unison. Finally, a last word (I forget :( ) and all sit again as a large, robotic mass. Seriously impressive. The standing up and sitting down happened in a fraction of a second with a fantastic, "FWOOSH" noise... imagine 400 students with that sort of discipline. I now fear them turning that amount of discipline on me. :( (not really. :D)

The Big Day
Anyway, Friday morning, everyone arrived looking their best (Yay for walking to school in a suit in the rain... woo) and the ceremony was underway. Once it started, not a single student spoke unless required. Any teacher would say that's an impressive feat, but these kids did it. Of course, the teachers had to sit at the front, so there I was in a suit sandwiched in between a couple other teachers terrified to even scratch my face with the thousand or so people all sitting out in front of us.

The Order of Events
So, the national anthem started off and I quickly felt like an idiot for not knowing the words. (Silly Americans!) Then it was on to the most ingenious bit of thinking ever. At my school (Probably throughout Japan) They put the conferring of diplomas AT THE BEGINNING! And even better, they have it down to a science and got through 200 students in about 25 minutes. Each student (seated in prefect rows by class) stands up and proceeds through a series of seven stations to finally recieve their diploma (think of it like being "on deck" in baseball). Like a well-oiled machine. But during this, only light music was played. The only other sound was each student saying, "Hai!" as their name was called. No cheering, no airhorns, no "YOU GO GIRL!" to my sister at her high school graduation. (ugh... flashbacks... :D) Completely solemn, formal, and whatnot...

...with the exception of two boys. First, one of the "yankees" ("bad students") rose his hand all super-genki-like when his name was called and cheerfully shouted, "HAI!!" much louder than necessary (Oh, you're not supposed to raise your hand or do anything showy...) which got a few laughs from the crowd. But he's a decent kid. he shows up to school and is a nice guy, even if he doesn't do any work or pay any attention. The other kid was later in the ceremony... this was a student that I had honestly never seen before. Naturally, he had no idea what he was doing so he caused quite a disturbance while getting his diploma. But yes. He still got his diploma. This boy hadn't been to school for almost 2 years and he showed up on Graduation to pick up his certificate. See, in Japan, it's a student's right to come to school. Students can't fail out of school. No matter what a student does, or how a student does in class, he or she WILL graduate. They won't get into a good high school without the grades, but usually the kids don't even care to go to high school and just immediately enter the work force. Anyway, later on, the teachers were complaining about how disrespectful those boys were. Yeah, relatively speaking, they were loud and obnoxious... but they'd fit right in at an American graduation. :D

Yet more speeches
After the diplomas were given, there were a series of speeches by the Principal ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"), the Superintendant ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"), the Mayor ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"), and the head of the PTA ("Saikosei!! Kiritsu... Rei!!"). Something I should've mentioned a while ago is the process for approaching the podium in an assembly (I had to do this my first day... good thing I paid attention). The speaker stands up and walks to the side of the stage. He turns to the highest ranking people, bows, turns to the other side (the teachers in this case), bows, walks up on the stage, faces the Japanese flag, bows, and finally gets behind the podium, where everyone bows together (synchronized to the "Rei!!"). After the speech is done, you reverse the process. This all adds about 45 seconds to the beginning and end of each speech. Imagine that for EVERY SPEECH.

Take it away, kids
Now the student portion starts. The sannensei all stand, turn their chairs around to face the ichinensei and ninensei, and sort themselves into boys on one side and girls on the other. Again, super fast and coordinated... maybe 30 seconds or less. In complete silence. :D Next years student council president (An awesome girl!) stood up and gave a short congratulatory speech. The student council came up from the back and handed out greeting cards to each row of grads (while saying in, again, perfect robotic unison, "Omedetto gosaimasu!" (congratulations)). Following this, the ichinensei and ninensei sing their musical tribute to the Sannensei. Just a single song, but a good one, anyway. After that, it's the sannensei's turn.

Sempai, show them how it's done
They had a presentation prepared where 4 students came to the microphone and talked about memories from their school days. After each speech, there was a song performed to the underclassmen. The most striking song was Tegami by Angela Aki. The lyrics are about a woman giving advice to the confused 15 year old version of herself. The melody is gorgeous. (and I know the lyrics sound cheesy, but it was the only song that I actually knew before hand... SHUT UP!!) It was interesting to think of it in terms of the sannensei "passing the torch," so to speak, to the ninensei and ichinensei.

After the students finished (To the first applause in about an hour and a half), there were a few more short speeches including the parents thanking the teachers for their hard work (and due to my position, she was standing almost right in front of me... it was a bit unnerving. :D). Finally the grads recessed. The teachers rushed to the back of the gym to form a tunnel for the students as the rest of the audience applauded loudly and the band played Kiseki, another pretty cool song that just sounded neat in the context. As the sannensei walked out, there were obviously lots of tears, but countless smiles. A few of my favorite students shot me quick toothy smiles and the occasional inside joke ("Wakachiko!") on the way out.

Teary goodbyes
And that was the end of it. The parents headed home, the rest of the students stayed behind to clean up the gym, and the sannensei went up to their classes for one final, teary homeroom with their teachers. I accidentally wandered upstairs as they were finishing and got snagged by a few students for pictures, yearbook signings and all that. One of my favorite students actually gave me a bag of cookies with a card (written in English!!) and thanked me. I hate to sound like I've got a big head, but dangit, the whole experience really made me feel like I'm doing a half-way decent job. Kind of a, "Ok... so they DO like me... I guess I'm doing this right." Confidence boosts are good and occassionally necessary, ne? :)

Anyway, I'm gonna miss those guys. The pirate crew is gone, the japanese comedians are gone, the guys who pretended to be MIBs when I was around are gone (if I'll even remember.. one of them mime-flashed me with a memory-eraser-thing before leaving). I was just starting to get the hang of this gig, the students were starting to open up, and wham. They're out.

That's life, I suppose. Looks like we get to start all over again in a month. :)

Random

I'm still alive and will soon sit down to write a post, but for now, you get this fun fact.

In Japan, my last name has 3 syllables. It takes a bit of getting used to it to realize that a student is actually referring to me when he says, "SAN-DAH-ROOOO!!"

Ja, mata ne.