Weekdays: Working and Surfing

Teaching II

Teaching at junior high is pretty great. Partly because it’s easy; I don’t really need to prepare much for class. I generally do the greeting (how are you, the weather, day, date), have them repeat vocabulary or dialogues, perform skits with the teacher, and wander around the class and provide help / make corrections on worksheets. There's also plenty of just standing in the back. Last week, I pretended I was a McDonalds cashier and the 2nd year (8th grade) students would have to come up and order from me, for a grade. The first years have a song of the month they start class with, this time it’s ‘Hello Goodbye’ by the Beatles which I still haven’t gotten sick of. However, I am quite worried about having to sing the Backstreet Boys 25 times. Actually I’m looking for songs that won’t drive me crazy to show to the teacher right now. Little luck so far, maybe a few Motown songs that would work.

The Office
Ahh, office life. It’s just like the show, kind of. Public schools familiar to me in the US, teachers are found in their rooms. Here, the kids stay in the same room and the teachers move, thus the teacher’s office is the center of teacher operations and most of the teacher’s time is spent there.

I have my own desk that also happens to have good neighbors. On my left is the student teacher who lived in Canada and speaks great English which is always nice. To my right is the P.E. teacher who’s my age, very cool guy, isn’t afraid to try speaking English even with making mistakes. Across from me is Shinohara-sensei, though I heard she’s retiring soon. She doesn’t speak any English but we get along really well. The two English teachers I work with (remember I’m an assistant teacher) couldn’t be better as well. There are about 25 employees in the office, and I know about half of them somewhat well. It’s a pretty friendly atmosphere, occasionally facilitated by nomi-kai’s, or drinking parties. Even with the language barrier, we have our office jokes, sometimes play pranks; my stuffed lion toy is always in some new position fighting the imitation snake (which has scared quite a few when placed in desks). Going over the lunch for the day which usually is new and surprising to me, is always good for a laugh, too.

When anyone arrives for the day, first the arriver, and then the rest of the office say “O-ha-yoo go-zai-maaaaaaahsss” (good morning (polite)) and when I leave I must say “O-sa-ki ni shi-tsu-rey-shi-masu” which means “I’m sorry for leaving first”, they reply with “thanks for giving it your best”. It’s my first taste of office life and it definitely makes work a happier place.

I’ve also started to say “eto”, (ayy-to) and “ano” a little, which is the Japanese version of “ummmm”. I definitely say “aaayyyyyy” which means “what????” Or “wowww” and is surprisingly very common. I also throw in lots of aahhhh’s and oooohhh’s. I’m sure I’ve gotten much better at communicating without words.

A way to avoid complex verbal thanking is the bow. I like bowing, it’s a bit like a head nod, which, come on, we’ve all done before. It’s done all the time here, fortunately it is rare that it turns into the bow-athon, where one person bows, the other returns it, and on and on and on, trying to be the last to show gratitude, and so on. Even in vehicular interactions, the hand wave is replaced by the bow.

Surfing Part IV

It feels like half of the last two weeks have had overhead swell and offshore wind. It’s been pretty unreal. Usually I get out of school and head right to the beach, with only an hour before the sun starts setting. The sunsets have been gorgeous, its colors bleeding the whitewater pink or orange. Lately, I’ve been staying in past sunset, until the moon shines brightly in the deep blue sky. The other day we saw a blood red full moon rise just after the sun set. As I get out, scores of bats scour the beach. Then I ride my bike back against the prevailing offshore winds, sometimes consciously trying to avoid breathing through my mouth as I am often hit by moths or mosquitoes.

The full moon's kinda a big deal here. I went to the local McDonalds for the first time and had a limited edition Moon Watching Burger. We also had an honorary school lunch for the full moon, with this egg/meat thing resembling a moon and special candies.

It's been a while. This is why

So I haven't written anything in two weeks. Partly because happenings have been a bit disjointed and I like writing about a certain topic. But mostly becaue I've been very busy. The waves have been pretty unreal, and when I'm not surfing it seems like I'm either running an errand or in Tokyo. I'm working for real now, no more sitting around the office all day, and it can take a lot out of you, so after work, surfing and dinner, I usually need some relax-time. But now I have lots to write about, starting now.

Sea Creatures Part II

I get out of school at 415, head to the ocean, and there are never any other surfers. I’m finally meeting a few of the locals but they don’t show up ‘til the sun starts to set because of their jobs. When surfing alone, a mild fear of large sea life (sharks) comes out. What doesn’t help is my local surf spot breaks really far out and there are always tons of fish. The muskrat fish, jumpers, all sorts. A foot-long albacore whizzed by my head the other day. Getting hit in the face by a fish; that’d be something.

I’ve also been seeing this dolphin. At first I couldn’t figure it out because it would do one of those parabolic dolphin-surfaces, I’d see a blowhole, but there was no dorsal fin. After some research I’ve established that such finless dolphins exist; in fact, I’ve identified it as the finless porpoise.

One day last week, when the waves were good, there were about twelve trawlers, releasing their km long nets in circles just outside the lineup. I’d curse them as their wakes would ruin another set. The fishing industry is pretty huge in Japan. Not surprising considering the amount of fish that ends up in my school lunch. Fish seems nearly as common as land-meat, which they also eat lots of. Being vegetarian here would be very difficult.

While on the topic of food, a quick aside into strange seafood I’ve eaten: the bitter brains of a foot long prawn. “There’s always a bitter aftertaste with brains” – other teachers. I also ate my first whole anchovy yesterday. A noodle salad with minnows and whole shrimp, scores of eyeballs pleading with me. I also managed to almost enjoy a whole fish, with the skin on, too. Ok, so back to our mammalian sea friends, queue the suffering.

Tens of thousands are caught every year as by-product. Japanese fisheries report on average, 23,000 dolphin mortalities a year. The Japanese government also allows this coastal town to have a mass dolphin culling, a few thousand every year. The parts that bother me more is that this action becomes lucrative less for the meat than for the dolphins caught and sold to aquariums. Its thought most of the meat is sold to poorer countries which need the protein for little profit. The other problem I have is that dolphins are blamed for declining coastal fish populations while overfishing seems a distinct possibiity. Apparently this factors into the culling quite a bit, too and the cruel (maybe vengeful) ways in which it's done (knives, chainsaws). There's obv. the other side of the issue, too, but I think animal cruelty really should be avoided. Endangering the existence of animal species take precedence but no ocean dolphins are endangered to my knowledge. I think dolphins are pretty abundant, except for those Chinese river dolphins who are on the way out.

Another controversy, whales are still hunted in Japan. Whales are so amazing, it would be so terrible for any species to disappear. A few species are on the brink of extinction and others are endangered. Japanese whalers take about 1,000 a year for 'scientific purposes'. They do their tests and then sell the meat. International whaling seems pretty regulated, avoiding the highly at-risk populations, but I say better safe than sorry.

I’ve heard that people in sparsely populated areas (rural farmers/fisherman) have more voting power than the average city citizen. Politicians avoid upsetting the rural/traditional groups, allowing them to practice in the name of tradition. This leads to what seems too many and often unnecessary public works projects in rural areas. Really I don't know too much about politics and whatnot over here but I'm working on that. I'm also gonna start Moby Dick soon.

Starting to teach and some real surf

Teaching Part 1: Elementary School Question Time

I mostly work at a junior high school but I also spend about 12 hours a week at elementary schools. Monday, I had 8 back to back morning classes. Granted they were only twenty minutes but still. The first 10 minutes I’d give a spiel about myself that went something like this, (except in slow, strong pronunciation teacher speak)…
"Good morning everyone. My name is Evan-Sensei. I’m twenty two years old. How old are you? (confused silence). My favorite Japanese food is katsu curry (show printed picture of katsu curry). Favorite sports and hobbies… then on to the maps…"

The next ten minutes were question time, which reminded me of Bill Cosby’s Kids Say the Darnedest Things. The kids were soo excited and their questions were either really interesting or funny.

Is that your natural hair color? What color hair do people have in America?
Pretty much everyone in Japan is from the same genetic stock and they all have black hair. I don’t think they like it too much as there’s a huge hair dying trend here.

Short, fat kid: How did you get so tall? From drinking lots of milk? “My dad’s really tall”. Sorry bud, hate to break the fact of genetic fate to you.

One 1st grade class: Are there fossils in America? Are there snakes in America? Are there cobras in America? Are there anacondas in America?

A couple tough questions
What do you think of our class?
Whose cooler, you or the homeroom teacher?
Do you like the Japanese teacher (the one I work with)?
also
Do you have a lover? I think 6 of the 8 classes asked this.
Are you married? “People get married later in America than Japan.”
One boy asked all 3…
When was your first kiss? then later
When was your first love? then later
When was your last girlfriend?

What really wowed them
My dog weighs 50 kg (125 lbs)
I’m 185 cm, even though they can see how tall I am, the number just really did it.
My younger brother and dad are even taller than I am.
Anything about animals or dinosaurs
I live in their town
Have you seen a gun store? I have AND I have friends that hunt animals


Surfing Part III: Tropical Swells

The typhoon was heading our way and there were a few days last week I’d have surfed but it was a little too big, imperfect, and scary to surf alone. Where were the other surfers? It was frustrating. Some people don’t go in the ocean after Obon, (think Japanese Dia de los Muertos), because it’s then that the souls of the dead try to lure you underwater to drown. Although I doubt this is the case with surfers, it is quite common with the regular beach-goers. Also summer surf season is officially over and the water temperature actually did drop considerably.

The morning after the typhoon passed, the surf was already less than head high and a little weak; disappointment. On Sunday, I almost brought my longboard; what a mistake that’d of been. It was a sunny, cloudless day, with perfect offshore winds and 7-10 foot lines freight-training from outside of the jetty. However, the current was strong, there was a bit of a crowd, and it was just tough to surf. Experienced more frustration due to watching so many overhead rights peel for 10-15 seconds but not getting them.

The next afternoon was the same but empty and dark and drizzly out. I jumped in the riptide and made the loooong paddle out by myself. It took a bit of time for me to psych myself up to sit right in the take off zone, as it always seemed there was a big clean-up set looming on the horizon. After a long surf, my neighbor Mike came down with his camera, so although I was exhausted I went back out for a few more. Here’s a sequence. actually im just gonna include a link to the album on facebook which also has Mt Fuji pictures too

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2051906&l=b07f8&id=13302886

and if you dont have facebook and want to see more pictures
Older Japan 2 album
http://claremont.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2049354&l=a1cde&id=13302886

Older Japan 1 album
http://claremont.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2048282&l=dab8f&id=13302886








I also have plenty of surf shots on my cell phone I'll post at some point

School Part II

Today I’m off school because there’s a typhoon outside. It’s the most serious weather I’ve been in for a long time, as Long Island rarely gets hurricanes. 50-60 mph winds, horizontal rain, my apartment was shaking, whistling, and making all sorts of noises. The worst of it is past now. There should be some good waves before dark or at least over the next few days

Leaf Month (August) has ended and so begins September, or the long month. Next month doesn’t look too much better considering its kaminazuki, or the “month without gods”. Unless of course, you’re in Izuma province, where October is the “month with gods”. There's a mandatory meeting lasting the whole month.


Sports Festival and my first real responsibilities

On Monday, I had to give a speech to the whole school . . . in Japanese. But really that just meant the expectations were low and I could read off a card. It was pretty standard, telling about myself, how I’m excited to be there, etc. I even threw in a joke. Pictured above is my main job location, a Jr. High school with about 250 kids (7th-9th grade US).

I thought I was going to start teaching this week, but no, this Saturday is the Jr. High Sports Festival so they have been practicing all day every day. I could make a cynical comment about how it’s a little Hitler Youth-like especially the opening with all the kids marching around the track in battalion formation. Two kids even do Hail Hitler arm movements at one point. The Sports Festival is a century old tradition meant to prepare children for war. But they march to this heart-warming J.P. Sousa march I’ve been trying to find on iTunes and then the events are just great: laughs, teamwork, competition.

Yesterday, a practice sports festival was held. The blue team, my team, came in last, but we’re just acting as if we’re no good; the element of surprise. My favorite event by far translates as Spin.Spin.Girl-Fight. They should really bring this one to America. Long pieces of bamboo and car tires are placed in the middle of the track and two opposing teams of girls have to bring back as many of these center objects as they can to their side, after dizzying themselves with a baseball bat-spin. These girls are prety tough. i.e. a girl being dragged across the dirt (no grass fields here) still clutching a tire.

Other favorites include a twenty five legged race with a turn, obstacle courses, tug-a-war, and an event where a top “horseman” on a base of three other boys tries to grab the others horsemen’s hats. Also the boys do a real impressive acrobatic display.

Responsibility #2

I’ve also begun to eat lunch with the kids. School lunch is really different here. Two students act as lunch-lady, donning the hairnet and white coat, and bring all the food, drinks, and plates from the basement up to their classroom and then serve their fellow classmates. I once saw in a National Geographic article that 99% of Japanese schoolchildren eat a school-provided lunch compared with some number less than 50% in the U.S.

The food’s pretty hit or a miss. Tuesday was cold mackerel, with skin (no filets here), cold eggs and spinach, white rice, and a kinda stew with potatoes and carrots, and octopus and some other meat which no one can tell me what it is. It’s not a land meat, fish, or shellfish, so I don’t see what other meat is left.

Oh and last week, they had a teacher’s encounter day which doubled as my welcoming party. The teachers played volleyball against each other and we did a Tai Bo work-out. The Tai-Bo craze is just getting to Japan like 10 years after America, and it’s the same dude pushing it, Billy Blanks. It’s not known as Tae-Bo, but just “Be-Lee” (billy), as in “gym teacher Kiya-sensei, can we do bee-lee today”.

“You are wise to climb Mount Fuji once, but a fool to climb it twice.”

Last weekend was the antithesis of relaxing but in hindsight, it was worth it, i guess. The foggy drive to the fifth station of Mount Fuji (2200 meters) took most of Saturday’s daylight hours. There were 8 other JETs (English teachers), almost all newbies, so it was nice to have some people in my situation to talk to. We started our climb at 730 PM and immediately got above the clouds. The moon was rising and the sky was teeming with stars, which is supposed to be symbolic of something since the principal forced me to mention it in my speech that Monday.

The ascent comes across 10 stations where one can sleep, buy supplies (like nicotine vitamin water and cans of oxygen), and get one’s Mt. Fuji walking stick branded with the station name, design, and altitude, all at exorbitant prices. About halfway up, the climb became a sort of queue due to the huge tour groups whom left in the afternoon emerging from their mountain huts after a few hours rest. At 2am we passed the last station and had only 300 meters left. However, the line was insane; it was like waiting to get on a rollercoaster at Six Flags, except you were on a giant pile of lava rock.

Two-hundred-thousand people climb Mt. Fuji every year. The climbing season lasts approximately 2 months. Everyone wants to get to the top at the exact same time, just before sunrise, because that’s when you’re supposed to get there. So considering it was a weekend and we were on the most popular of the four routes to the top, I figure we climbed with about 2,000 - 3,000 others. This number seems absurd but it was literally a 5-kilometer queue up a monotonous, igneous and ash incline. It was a totally ridiculous and uniquely Japanese experience.

The climb itself wasn't that tough on the muscles, especially since you're forced to go slow, but it was still a lot more difficult than I expected. A feeling of nausea and a headache got worse throughout the ascent. I’m not sure how much of it was due to the altitude, lack of sleep, or the fact I ate only rest-stop junk food that day and no real dinner. But at 4am we made it to the top, 12,338 feet, and immediately set about the summit for a place out of the wind where we could huddle together for warmth. The blackness of the eastern sky was already starting to give way to lighter hues. Yet it was only a tease, the sun didn’t rise until 530, an agonizing wait of body shivering and teeth chattering.

But then the tiniest red sliver of sunlight pokes through the clouds. Your cheer merges with the hundreds of others who suffered along with you. The sun doesn’t come from the horizon but gives the illusion of coming right out of the clouds, a scalding red disk in the middle of a sea of white. And thus the Land of the Rising Sun. I’ll never look at the Japanese flag the same way again.



The way down was miserable, but at least it was warm. Forty five minutes after sunrise I was down to a t-shirt. The view down is of scores of identical switchbacks descending into oblivion. I began to run just to get it over with. And that was that.

thanks joel for the first photo and emma for the next two. The last is of the less crowded way down