Enkai Weekend (work party!)

You haven't experienced Japan until you've experienced enkai! I've now been in Japan for 2 months and have been to 2 work parties plus a weekend which I'm sure counts for at least 5!

Saturday morning meet at the school at 10am, jump on the bus, get handed a beer. Drive for 2 hours (sat next to Urabe - an English teacher) and arrive at a beer factory. Go on tour and get free beer. Eat traditional Japanese food for lunch. This was pretty much the pattern of the weekend - drive, drink beer and eat traditional Japanese food, with a few baths thrown in.

After lunch we went to a winery for wine tasting! Actually, didn't really enjoy the wines much, but the spirits on the other hand... Next to the winery was a place where we could sample Japanese spirits. They were very interesting - especially the sesame spirit - you could distinctly taste the sesame flavour.

We continued onto the traditional Japanese hotel/onsen. Once the bus driver eventually found the place! I've never been on a bus where the driver got so lost, had to ask so many people for directions or take so many 3 point turns!

Notice how the word "traditional" keeps cropping up? That was another very important aspect of the weekend.

Onsen! Hot springs! Take your clothes off in your room, put on your yakuta (dressing grown) go to one of the hot springs (I think the hotel had 6 or so public baths, in different locations in the hotel, some were inside, others outside). Take off everything (but you can cover yourself with a little hand towel) and go wash beside the pool and then jump in! They were very hot and relaxing, although a little hotter than ideal for me. In the time that we were there, I went in three different pools. I much preferred the outside ones as there was a slight, refreshing breeze, but I wasn't sure about only being half in the water....

Traditional Japanese dinner:
I was a bit surprised when dinner was about to start and we were getting ready to go to the dining room, but we were still wearing out yakuta (often it seems that no-one tells me things that everyone knows - at least all Japanese people). Yep that's right - dinner in our dressing gowns! Good thing I put some underwear on while the others were doing their hair - I was just getting as ready as I could before sneaking a look at what they were going to wear. Although it felt a bit strange, and I had to keep checking that I was still decent throughout dinner, it was really comfy!

The food was mostly delicious, although those orange things that look like jelly babies nearly killed me. I seem to think that they might be made of fish eggs. Certainly not orange jelly babies on sticks! Now the sashimi (raw fish) was very yummy, as was the mushroom and lemon soup. As dinner (and drinks) continued the karaoke machine came out and the singing began. I'm already beginning to recognise the favourite songs that come out at every enkai. I'm also surprised that we sing the school song (one of the songs from sport day) and we all put our arms around each other and sing a song that is sung at weddings. I'm getting much better at reading Japanese and was sort of able to sing along, although I could've sung anything and they wouldn't have been able to hear me over themselves!

9pm or so and the party finishes - time to go to the next party! That was held in on of the rooms. Drinks and nibblies came out and we just relaxed and chatted. I did more relaxing than chatting, but you get that! I did talk a bit to the two English teachers that were there and the home economics teacher speaks English very well.

11pm or so and that party finishes - time for another dip in the onsen. This one was outdoors - the breeze was nice and refreshing.

12 or so and it's bedtime! While I'm becoming quite accustomed to the futon on the floor, I look forward to my next trip to a traditional Australian hotel where I can sleep in a bed! And I do miss my pillow! I was rather amused that the traditional Japanese hotel does not have a traditional Japanese toilet, but a western toilet!

Awoken at 7:30 for a early morning onsen dip before breakfast.

Breakfast: yep, you guessed it - a traditional Japanese breakfast! Now I have a personal philosophy: one should never eat strange things for breakfast! And no amount of cultural courtesy will change this. I quite enjoyed the miso soup with small muscles and even the salmon (ok, maybe my definitions of "strange" are changing!). I guess the sweet scrambled egg cubes were ok, but I don't know it will ever be a favourite. The fruit was yummy and I had plenty to drink: green tea (Japanese), coffee, orange juice and beer. I guess it's the Japanese version of a champagne breakfast! But I didn't eat the pickled veges and didn't even try the orange thing (I've sort of gone off orange foods!).

Fruit picking (once the bus driver found the place..)
When I found out that we were going fruit picking I put in my sneakers and some clothes I could move in and not mind getting dirty. I really didn't need to bother. We walked into the grove and and I picked three nashi (cross between an apple and a pear) by gently twisting them off the branch. Every piece of fruit was in a paper bag - no wonder the fruit here is so expensive! The three nashi cost me 900yen = $9, so while not cheap, it should be pretty fresh and do me for a few lunches.

Lunch at a traditional Japanese restaurant (I'm sure you can guess) and then home.

I guess the place we went to was about 2 hours away, but difficult to tell with that bus driver and all the toilet stops and souvenir stops!

If anyone wants to visit an onsen when they come and visit, just let me know. At least I now know onsen etiquette!

All in all it was a very good weekend and I got an opportunity to see some of Japan and get to know the teachers a little better. I some interesting conversations with Urabe about the differences between Japan and Australia (she has spent some time in Australia and is interested in Australia). In Australia we are definitely taught to think about things, have our own opinions and question things. We are encouraged to ask questions and there are no stupid questions. In Japan you are not to ask a stupid question or make a mistake. In Urabe's opinion, most Japanese people tend to be pesimistic, while Australians are more optomistic: "she'll be right."

Well, time to get ready for a new week.. hope you all have a good one and enjoy your traitional Aussie homes!

Listening to the rain...

Listening to the rain..... did I mention that it rains lots over here? Usually for only a short while (an afternoon or an evening - not multiple days and rarely whole days). As a result everything is so green. There are lots of trees and mountains and even the weeds on the side of the road are big, green and leafy! There are no water restrictions and it is ok to spend ages in the shower. When people wash their dishes in the sink, they don't use a plug, but wash under running water. I've tried looking for a plug but haven't been able to find one. So, I'm currently washing my dishes Japanese style (but I sure go through lots of detergent this way).

There is also a lot of lightning tonight and eventhough my curtains are closed, it's still flashing through.

I guess I didn't expect Japan to be this green - what with so many people living so closely - but there are lots of trees around which just add to the general clutter. Even Sydney feels open and clutter-free after being in Japan. I'm beginning to understand why people say that Australia is so open and peaceful.

Peaceful... yes, I miss this. Japan is so noisy! I know I've said this lots, but really, tonight I was talking with someone at the train station and I had to stop talking while the announcement was going because I couldn't talk over the top of it. On the bus, the driver talks the whole time into a microphone - about which stop is coming up and lots of "thank you very much"s. This is very interesting, as Japanese people seem to be very softly spoken generally and it's us "westerners" who talk and laugh loudly. I guess we're all accustomed to different types of noises. I'm still getting used to the noises in Japan, but I'm quite happy to go to sleep to the sound of the rain...

Things I'm getting used to...

I borrowed a book from the library today about gaijin (foriegners) and had quite a laugh, so I thought I'd add a few of the pictures to this. And, yes, I have been in all these situations!

It also got me to thinking about how I'm becoming more accostomed to these things.... here are some other examples.....

While shopping:

• Putting my own groceries into plastic bags
• Not handing the cashier the money but putting it in the little tray provided
• Getting a plastic bag - even when I buy one thing and don't need one (Japan is good at recycling but not the "reduce" aspect)

Regarding shoes:

• Taking my shoes off as soon as I get home (in Aus it was usually the third thing: go to the toilet, get a drink, take off shoes - now it's the first - even before putting on the air conditioner!)
• Changing into indoor shoes at work - eventhough they don't go with what I'm wearing (often you will see people wearing a nice shirt and pants with socks and thongs...it just seems wrong)
• Not wearing shoes in a changeroom at shops (the look of horror is the giveaway - they reserve a look just for shoe violations)

At home:

• Not doing my cleaning at midnight (the walls are rather thin)
• Airing my futon once a week or so or whenever I remember
• Mail arriving on weekends
• Sorting and putting out garbage (can only put out certain garbage on certain days)

Out and about:

• Taking an umbrella every time I go out
• Seeing kids in their school uniform on weekends
• Being stared at
• Random coming up to me and saying "hello" and/or practising their English on me
• Squat toilets
• Not automatically using the wrong escalator - I'm sure they're the wrong way around, I keep expecting the up one to go down and the down one to go up
• Not walking across pedestrian crossing unless there is a green signal (pedestrian crossings are at traffic lights and you can't cross if there's a red signal) although I'm still working out when to walk at other times - people give way to me when I'm not expecting it and often don't when I thought they would..... yes, very confusing.
• Ignoring noises - ok, still working on this one, there's noise everywhere - traffic lights play music when you can walk, there's music at stations, in shops, at school (different tunes for different times of the day), trucks driving around selling stuff (I presume)
• Seeing dogs with pretty clips on thier ears being walked by their owner - literally! Owners often carry their dog!!
• People laughing at my accent!

The shoe is on the other foot

I check for mail. I take all of it up the five flights of stairs to my apartment (yes, the only thing worse than junk mail is junk mail in Japanese which you have to take home because there are no rubbish bins outside), sort out the mail with my name on it (in Japanese), decide whether it's a bill or put it in the too hard basket.

Today I took the "too hard basket" to one of the English teachers who very kindly helped me out. Some of the things we found were:

• a notice that my gas (or electricity???) bill was coming soon
• a form that I could fill in if I want my gas to be directly debited (I labeled it and put it aside)
• a form to fill in for my compulsory pension payments
• information about my internet (haven't had any bills for this and was becoming concerned)

The teacher said that she recently filled in the pension payments form, but there was an easier one which they could send out upon request. So she rang them up for me (assured them that I haven't been in Japan for 6 years) and got a form to be sent to me. The she rang someone else who was employed by the same people who employ me who said that it was already taken care of. Sigh of relief and that paper went in the bin. She also made a call to organise direct debiting for my internet connection, something I was wanting to do, but never had the energy to explain it in my non-existent Japanese.

She also said that she would be happy to help me with this anytime.

When another teacher asked me how I felt about this, I realised that I was quite amused (usually it's me helping other people) and grateful. I also hadn't realised how much trust is being placed on the person who is helping. When I get back to Australia, I have a feeling that I'll probably be more patient, helpful and sensitive towards people in that situation, now that I know what it's like for the shoe to be on the other foot!

Observations about Sports Day

• A family outing - the whole family turns up with an elaborate picnic lunch, table and chairs or rug and the video camera!
• There's not much room on the oval for spectators sitting down so people were all standing watching. Their picnic rugs are tables were all around the school - in any available area, walkways, everywhere!
• There is one individual race (100m sprint) all other races are relays and team events.
• All students participate in all events (even students with special needs).
• Maintaining the team is more important than winning!
• Doing your best is more important than finishing the race unscathed. The most useful phrase I learnt this week was "daijyobu desuka?" Are you okay?
  
• Races and competitors do not have to be equal. Often there would be relays were girls and guys would be racing against each other or one of the students with special needs would be running (quite a bit slower than the others) but I never heard "It's not fair" or got the impression that the students even thought that. It was a very strong team mentality and you didn't question/complain but always support your team - no matter what.
  
• Music accompanies everything! I'm discovering a new appreciation for silence!
  
• How you enter and leave the oval is more important that what you do on the oval. (Ok, I'm not really sure about this one, but we did spend hours practising and I know that it was very important).
  
• The day is not complete without a folk dance and of course is more interesting with the principal, Aussie ALT and any other teachers close by joining in - even if they don't know the dance!
• All that time practising marching and most families (80% or so) didn't arrive until it was over! They also all left once the last race was finished - they didn't wait for any of the formalities afterwards.
• Students brought out their chairs from their classroom to sit on during the day. When they took them back inside they had to dunk the chair legs into buckets of water and then dry them before taking them back inside!
  
• We used the toilets which were inside, so a tarp had been laid down from the door to the toilets so that people didn't have to take off their shoes and inside didn't get dirt inside.

Some interesting races:

• Every race was a relay!
• There was no high jump, long jump, shot put, etc....
• There were some running relays and some obstacle relays.
  
• 3-legged races (relays) - they were the fastest 3 legged races I have ever seen - they were sprinting! It was pretty impressive.
• 3 legged relay that every time they got back the next group had an extra person until there became 10 people!
• Mukade: this means "dangerous worm" or centipede (in Japan, centipedes are venomous and quite dangerous). The students of each class would form a line, tie their legs up together and then race! Very cool, very dangerous, very impressive!
• Cowboy: 3 students have another students on their shoulders. Student on shoulders has a ball (like a volleyball) tied to some rope. They run then student on shoulders has to knock over a big tin can with the ball while on their shoulders. When they get it they run back (students still on shoulders) and the next group goes. The teams have 5 or 6 groups that have to do this.
• Teachers relay: Yes I was in this. While I was told that I was in it, I was given no idea of the format or time or anything, but apart from that it went fine. (My supervisor suggested that I would know what was going on if I knew Japanese!). Although I'm still a bit confused, because it seems that we weren't actually competing against anyone.

It was a very interesting day and lots of fun! A lot of time went into it (especially for marching and mukade) but I believe it was a success and it was certainly an experience for me.

Stopped by the gaijin police!

Lesson learnt: When in a foreign country ALWAYS carry your passport or equivalent. Ok, everyone already knew that, but the lesson was reinforced for me. I guess I think of my passport/gaijin (alien) card the same way I think of my drivers licence - it's always a good idea to carry it, but..

While on my way home from work with Cheng (JET who lives next door) 2 guys asked us to wait a minute in Japanese (yes - my Japanese is good enough to understand this!). My first thought was that they wanted me to take a photo of them (we were standing underneath a castle!) as one of them started getting something out which could've been a camera. But no, it was a police badge! He then asked if we could talk for a few minutes. He said it was their job to investigate foreigners.

They were both quite nice and even had a sense of humour (I imagine that this would have changed very quickly if I had not produced my gaijin card!), and once they realised that my Japanese was limited to understanding "please wait" spoke very good English!

We sat down, gave them our gaijin cards and they proceeded to copy down all the info. They also asked lots of questions:

The usual questions: Why are you in Japan? How long have you been here? Where are you working? Where are you coming from now? Where are you going now?

Complicated questions that required long explanations: Why are you here if your workplace is at X and your home is at Y? (A completely different direction!) (Yes, but we are employed by the board of education and had a work meeting in this suburb...)

And some not so expected questions - Do you love Japan? Do you speak English at these meetings? (They also seemed a bit surprised that Cheng was Australian even though he looks Asian. Asked him a few questions about that!).

Then they took down out phone numbers. Incidentally I feel really silly telling people that I forget my phone number and because I don't have a mobile phone (yet) it's not even in there! Fortunately Cheng remembers my phone number! (Might have to put a copy in my purse).

While this probably took about 15 minutes and was quite painless, it did reinforce the importance of always have appropriate ID. I always carry it.. but I might not think to take it if I was just going for a walk. I will now.

Concerning trains

Have I mentioned that people are really friendly in Japan? So often they will go out of their way to help.

This morning a man from the station caught me just before I bought my train ticket. He pointed me towards the computerised ticket machine. I just figured that the other machine was out of order, but he was trying to tell me something.... I had no idea what and so I showed him my usual train fare. Somehow he was able to show me how I could purchase multiple train tickets.

He didn't have to do that, in fact, it would've been much easier for him not to, but he noticed me catching the train at the same time everyday and tried to save me some money. He also caught me on a day that I didn't have to run up the stairs to make my train.
I catch two trains to get to the school I'm currently going to - one is a normal electric train, the other is a much smaller train. Both take between 5 and 10 minutes so it's hardly worth getting out my book. It takes me about 10 minutes to walk to the station from my house and 10 minutes to walk to the school.

First week of school

Snapshots of my week...

The teachers:
The teachers are all lovely and happy to talk with me – even if they don't know much English. I've had a few chats with the special education teacher, the Japanese teacher and the home economics teacher, among others.

So, what has been going on?
Preparation for the sports carnival! A very important event which is on next Sunday. The preparation includes spending hours practising marching and jogging in formation. This week I have spent 8 hours watching and I'll probably be spending most of every day next week doing the same. I'm going to come home very tanned! Wearing a hat is not compulsory, so only about 20% of students wore a hat! (Don't forget it's summer here – equivalent to February in Australia, but a bit more humid). I wore a hat and sunscreen and still got burnt!

English classes:
In between practising for the sports carnival I've had a few English classes. This have gone quite well. I've talked about myself and Australia mostly.

In class the students are taught a very formal greeting, “Hello, how are you?” “I'm fine thank you, and you?” “Fine thank you.” While this works well in a classroom situation when they all say it together, they also respond this way down the street! Some time we might have to teach the students an informal greeting!

Lunchtime:
I've been having lunch with the students. The students have lunch at their desk in their classroom and there is usually a free desk that I can sit at. I've mostly been eating sushi for lunch (rice wrapped in seaweed with some sort of fish in it – but it's very cheap about $1 for a roll or a triangle) sometimes with some fruit. The students all have rice and vegetables with some meat in a lunch-box. It's been a good chance to spend some time with the students. Eventhough the conversation is limited we have been getting to know each other.

Yesterday I had lunch with the special education class. This was quite fun. I think they enjoyed having me and the teacher said I could come everyday! I haven't had lunch with all the classes yet, but I'll reserve Fridays to have lunch with them.

Out for dinner with the English teachers:
Last night the English teachers took me out for dinner. It was a great to spend time with them away from work. It was nice and relaxed and we had a good time getting to know each other better.

The food was rather interesting. It started off with a few pieces of raw fish (actually, I quite enjoy raw fish!) and some salad. Next came the main course. We were given the raw meat and vegetables and cooked it on the table in a very tasty broth. In the pot we had various bits meat, including stomach(?) it was rather interesting with a very strange texture. I guess I'll have to adapt to the beef in Japan - not quite what I'm used to in Australia. All in all, it was very tasty and the veges and tofu were particularly yummy!

So, when is Daniel coming over?
Daniel has been very busy at work recently, either he's thought of lots of things that he wants to do before leaving or has realised that when there is no misses to come home to he can work all night! We talk over on the computer everyday which makes it much easier. Daniel's visa is almost ready, so he'll probably come in the next 2 weeks or so (give or take).

Second day of school

Today was my second day at school. I spent most of my day at my desk, but had the chance to have lunch with some students and talk to teachers after class. The students all had exams today so there were no classes. Imagine - exams second day back at school! How well do you think Aussie kids would do?

The teachers I'm working with all seem like they want to work with me in preparing classes which is exciting. I think they might still be getting used to my accent, as in the past they've had Americans and Canadians. The students are really nice and most say "hello" and "goodbye", but most of the conversations seem to be me asking, "Do you like sport?"