Vicarious Japanese: Calm Before the Storm

Calm Before the Storm

I'm making my first attempt to do laundry. I have a washing machine in the apartment and then I'll hang the clothes out to dry. Well, the washing machine is making some strange noises - which means I'm just not used to it or I've trapped a ninja inside and he is direly trying to escape. Since my apartment will likely be flooded in a few minutes, I figured I should write this - like the band playing on the Titanic as it sunk. That's how dedicated I am!

So I don't have too much with me in Japan but I've managed to get my apartment to look like a clothes tsunami just hit (hence the laundry). Cleaning will take the remainder of my Sunday afternoon and hopefully that's all. Last night after work, the whole staff of my school went to a local Isakaya (don't know how that's supposed to spelled) called Doma Doma. Isakaya is basically a tapas style restaurant. The party was dual-purposed - to say thank you and goodbye to Sarah, the teacher I am replacing, and welcome me. This particular Isakaya had the normal Japanese staples but also included "Mexican Nachos". Even though it took forever to actually get them, they weren't that terrible. I'll include a picture if I remember. As every non-work night seems to end up, we headed to karaoke after dinner. Three hours and some drinks later, we stumbled home. At home, I did not drink much at all. I've been in Japan 15 days and have gone to bed drunk 6 times. Part of the reason for this is that once I arrived into town and proved I wasn't a total douche, I was welcomed into the group of foreigners that all hang out - specifically hang out at the gaijin bar, Tiger Pub. So, socially...flying right along. Professionally...having a blast!

This week, I was shadowing the outgoing teacher and taking more of the class load as the week went on. By the end of the week, I'd taught more than half of the classes of the day in preparation for my release into the wild on Tuesday. Mainly we have a method of teaching we use most of the time and if we stick to that, our classes are pretty successful. Trouble comes during transitions between different exercises or activities. You'd be amazed how simplified your language has to be - and not that just that, I've never gestured so much in my entire life. Explaining new activities to kids without a firm grasp of language needs to be done by showing because your directions mean nothing. It means about as much as someone telling me what to do in Japanese...blank stares and embarrassed smiles. Oh, only two kids cried - one was a two year old girl who takes the class with her mom so that was manageable. The other was a four year old girl whose tears subsided at the sight of bubbles. Japanese kid currency is as follows - bubbles, monkey puppet and stickers. Everyone here loves stickers...infants to high school kids....boys and girls and everything in between.

Things are settling into form pretty nicely; I have a phone and the number starts with my birthday. Apparently 080 is Osaka's area code...so my number in case you want to call is 08038247148. My manager (still don't her name) called the internet company and it should take about a week to get hooked up so I can stay connected with the world. In the meantime, I have been going to the international center. The building is bustling during the day so I can get away with pilfering wireless. But one night this week, the security guard yelled at me for eating at the table I was at (didn't know the rule) and then he came back later and said something about 'no intero' and then kicked me out - I think. Funny thing about Japan is they take every job seriously but have some really worthless jobs. Playing security guard in an empty building isn't totally meaningless but it is unnecessary. Now, having crossing guards at every 'major road' in the city each weekend - useless.

Lastly, I'm planning to see Kobe tomorrow - if I can find Kobe beef, I'll have some. In upcoming weeks, I want to get to Kyoto, Hamamatsu and maybe Hiroshima, depending on my friends' availabilities because I need people to stay with. By the way, I am a little pissed that I can't change the name of this blog to "Wide-Eyed Foreigner" - I find the name hilarious but too much involved to change everything...just know that it's what I would want if I had to do it all over again.