An interesting but far from fun day off
Yesterday, I decided I would take a long walk on a Japanese beach. From the peak of the jetty, while admiring the somewhat post-apocalyptic view of wind turbines and trash down the beach on this dark and stormy day, I realized my keys were no longer in my pocket. I retraced my steps thrice with no luck. Knowing my neighbor had a spare key for my apartment, I had to wait 6 hours for him to return.
Bugs
My fear of spiders and bugs has much improved over the years since at a young age, the movie Arachnophobia initially traumatized me (and Scotty Bertrand, who had his room fumigated). However, the stairs up to my apartment room is called home by about 25 spiders, all the same species but of varying sizes. Occasionally their webs seem to impinge into head/eye level heights. Although I believe I should try to get over my slightly irrational fear by learning to live with the spiders, as soon as I get some yen, I plan on heading to the home depot-like store to mount an offensive.
I checked an online forum the other day which mentioned some of the nastier creatures in Japan. The mahamushi, a large viper found all over Japan, I often reflect upon as I walk through the narrow brush-filled path to the nearest beach. The scariest creature mentioned was also quite common, the Japanese Red Centipede: it grows up to 10 inches, has a nasty bite, is very difficult to kill, will crawl up your drain, and perhaps worst of all, they travel in pairs, so if you kill one, the next few weeks will be spent in a constant state of paranoia.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Monday, July 30, 2007
My first few days in Japan
So this is a blog. I made it so I can tell of my experiences in Japan in an efficient manner to all those who are interested. My first entry is a biggie but it'll likely get more managable. Feel free to email me at evan.schumann@pomona.edu, though this email may change in the next few months or facebook me orrr use Skype, or AIm. I'd love to here from you on a personal basis.
My first day in Japan was one of the most emotionally difficult days in my life. It was partly due to having my circadian rhythms off by a full 12 hours, a slightly hung-over 14 hours spent in a cramped airplane seat, and the exhaustion that comes with having 40 to 50 hours merging into the facade of a single day. Throughout the afternoon and evening on that very first day it kept hitting me that this was going to be my life for at least a year. and it was pretty scary/
Ride from airport
Mike, a 32-year old Texan and also my new neighbor, picked me up with a man from the Board of Education and my boss, Mr. Tamugai.
No one speaks English!
The other scary realization I made was that no one speaks English here. Concerning the few words I knew in Japanese, I was unsure of the pronunciation and the appropriate time to use it leaving me pretty quiet. The two ALT’s I met (assistant language teacher, my job) learned Japanese before they came so can now have a conversation in Japanese as well as you and I could in English. As we ran across their former and current students at various businesses within the town, they were able to joke around with them with ease. I didn’t see how I was going to create relationships with any of my future students, something I was looking forward to. I also considered that a necessary part of learning how I liked teaching.
The next day, much better
After a pretty good sleep and some time regrouping in my new apartment, which is pretty sweet by the way, I had a great next day. I made large strides in my Japanese and am optimistic that I will learn quickly. Mike the Texan, and Charles, the other ALT and Pomona alum whose job I am taking over, and I went to lunch at a Japanese family restaurant, bought supplies for my apartment, checked out an electronics/entertainment/manga stores (which was sensory overload) and saw the beach. The beach is a little sad, there’s plenty of trash on it, BUT the jetties are gigantic and I think the waves should be pretty good. Tuesday through Thursday has serious potential with a good east swell and offshore winds, so we’ll see what the beaches of Hasaki can dish out. My walk to the beach is a little under a mile and is pretty beautiful and contemporary-rural.
A town festival and large shrine-moving mayhem.
That evening, Steven, a cynical, laid-back, and heavy drinking Australian ALT invited me to the Hasaki festival to celebrate the convergence of two ocean currents which lead to an abundance of fish off the coast here. While there, many school-age kids wanted to test out their English and were very excited to meet me, which was nice. I tried to eat a Japanese pancake but didn’t make it too far due to the overwhelming fishiness supplied by dried shrimp and dried albacore flake. The festival's gold shrine was supported by about 50 chanting people under four parallel beams about 40 feet long, 8” by 8” and was surrounded by many more drumming, blowing whistles and yelling. The shrine is brought down a walking path to a traditional building but takes an erratic course forward and backward, left and right, much like the path of the indicator on an Ouija board on a grand scale. The unrestrained, Dionysian air to the festival wouldn’t really fly in the States as well as the danger of the gargantuanly heavy shrine being rocked to and fro and sometimes heading at you with unstoppable inertia.
Language school
We hung out with some of Steven’s local friends there, so I met quite a few people, including a Japanese lady, Akiko, who runs a part-time language school. I’m going to teach English there one night a week in exchange for attending her Japanese class. She’s kind, comical and very hospitable. She’ll pick me up for classes and last night, she brought Steven and I to dinner. I had a full meal of amazing Ramen and green tea for a grand total of $4.50.
Are you curious about the Japanese writing system?
So after a tough first day, things are looking up. I'm spending a few hours learning Japanese vocabulary and hiragana, one of the three parts of their writing system which has 46 main symbols, but really about 80 representing all the possible syllable in Japanese. Today its rainy and I plan on going over my vocab and making Katakana flashcards today which are used for foreign words and has the same number of symbols as Hiragana. The toughest writing to understand is Kanji, the complex Chinese characters represetning whole ideas which are an ubiquitous part of the Japanese written language. All three of these are often used within the same sentence which leads to clear suckiness.
What's ahead
Tuesday I meet the Board of Ed, I'll likely get customs wrong and act awkwardly in my new/used LVIS suit.
Thursday I have to go get my working visa in the prefecture capital, Mito, two hours away.
Tues-Thurs, surfing likely, if theres not waves on this swell, then this place prob sucks for surf,ahh
Weekend- Either Tokyo for the weekend, incl. a fireworks festival and meeting Mike's JET friends as well as spending a lot of time confused, alone and lost OR a big Japanese BBQ that sunday with tons of booze that Akiko invited me to.
My first day in Japan was one of the most emotionally difficult days in my life. It was partly due to having my circadian rhythms off by a full 12 hours, a slightly hung-over 14 hours spent in a cramped airplane seat, and the exhaustion that comes with having 40 to 50 hours merging into the facade of a single day. Throughout the afternoon and evening on that very first day it kept hitting me that this was going to be my life for at least a year. and it was pretty scary/
Ride from airport
Mike, a 32-year old Texan and also my new neighbor, picked me up with a man from the Board of Education and my boss, Mr. Tamugai.
No one speaks English!
The other scary realization I made was that no one speaks English here. Concerning the few words I knew in Japanese, I was unsure of the pronunciation and the appropriate time to use it leaving me pretty quiet. The two ALT’s I met (assistant language teacher, my job) learned Japanese before they came so can now have a conversation in Japanese as well as you and I could in English. As we ran across their former and current students at various businesses within the town, they were able to joke around with them with ease. I didn’t see how I was going to create relationships with any of my future students, something I was looking forward to. I also considered that a necessary part of learning how I liked teaching.
The next day, much better
After a pretty good sleep and some time regrouping in my new apartment, which is pretty sweet by the way, I had a great next day. I made large strides in my Japanese and am optimistic that I will learn quickly. Mike the Texan, and Charles, the other ALT and Pomona alum whose job I am taking over, and I went to lunch at a Japanese family restaurant, bought supplies for my apartment, checked out an electronics/entertainment/manga stores (which was sensory overload) and saw the beach. The beach is a little sad, there’s plenty of trash on it, BUT the jetties are gigantic and I think the waves should be pretty good. Tuesday through Thursday has serious potential with a good east swell and offshore winds, so we’ll see what the beaches of Hasaki can dish out. My walk to the beach is a little under a mile and is pretty beautiful and contemporary-rural.
A town festival and large shrine-moving mayhem.
That evening, Steven, a cynical, laid-back, and heavy drinking Australian ALT invited me to the Hasaki festival to celebrate the convergence of two ocean currents which lead to an abundance of fish off the coast here. While there, many school-age kids wanted to test out their English and were very excited to meet me, which was nice. I tried to eat a Japanese pancake but didn’t make it too far due to the overwhelming fishiness supplied by dried shrimp and dried albacore flake. The festival's gold shrine was supported by about 50 chanting people under four parallel beams about 40 feet long, 8” by 8” and was surrounded by many more drumming, blowing whistles and yelling. The shrine is brought down a walking path to a traditional building but takes an erratic course forward and backward, left and right, much like the path of the indicator on an Ouija board on a grand scale. The unrestrained, Dionysian air to the festival wouldn’t really fly in the States as well as the danger of the gargantuanly heavy shrine being rocked to and fro and sometimes heading at you with unstoppable inertia.
Language school
We hung out with some of Steven’s local friends there, so I met quite a few people, including a Japanese lady, Akiko, who runs a part-time language school. I’m going to teach English there one night a week in exchange for attending her Japanese class. She’s kind, comical and very hospitable. She’ll pick me up for classes and last night, she brought Steven and I to dinner. I had a full meal of amazing Ramen and green tea for a grand total of $4.50.
Are you curious about the Japanese writing system?
So after a tough first day, things are looking up. I'm spending a few hours learning Japanese vocabulary and hiragana, one of the three parts of their writing system which has 46 main symbols, but really about 80 representing all the possible syllable in Japanese. Today its rainy and I plan on going over my vocab and making Katakana flashcards today which are used for foreign words and has the same number of symbols as Hiragana. The toughest writing to understand is Kanji, the complex Chinese characters represetning whole ideas which are an ubiquitous part of the Japanese written language. All three of these are often used within the same sentence which leads to clear suckiness.
What's ahead
Tuesday I meet the Board of Ed, I'll likely get customs wrong and act awkwardly in my new/used LVIS suit.
Thursday I have to go get my working visa in the prefecture capital, Mito, two hours away.
Tues-Thurs, surfing likely, if theres not waves on this swell, then this place prob sucks for surf,ahh
Weekend- Either Tokyo for the weekend, incl. a fireworks festival and meeting Mike's JET friends as well as spending a lot of time confused, alone and lost OR a big Japanese BBQ that sunday with tons of booze that Akiko invited me to.
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