Skype!

I have it. You should, too! You pay for a mic and optional camera (or have it already installed on your computer), and pay nothing else to make computer-to-computer calls from anywhere to anywhere. You can find me at username: frizbninja or search me by my email address.

My Baby

I think her name will be Betty.

The Rice Cooker

Wonderful. Savior of my stomach, appeaser of appetites! The rice cooker.

Of course, what's a rice cooker without rice? A few handfuls will do me pretty well. Add a cup of water, push the button, and wait...

...and voila! God's gift to hungry bachelors.

Travels to the Beach

Beautiful Kozomi Beach.

Sea Urchin? But she's too far away!


Apparently you can break 'em open and eat them! How cruel. Also, it's a lot of work crushing that tough guy shell to get to the sensitive urchin interior, and there isn't much to be had for it.

I have a waterproof camera. Whee!

This weekend I went to the beach for a party there--one of the Japanese girls who is apparently pretty good friends with a lot of the JET guys invited a bunch of people to the beach to camp out. There was a pretty good mix of JETs and Japanese, so it was nice to have some new people to talk to and to work a bit of Japanese practice in there. Fireworks were lit. We camped out (despite the rain. Tottori just dealt with the remnants of a typhoon) and the next day it cleared up a bit and we spent most of the morning and afternoon on the beach. I finally got to bust out my disc and throw for the first time in a month or so, too, which was remarkably liberating despite my being terribly rusty/out of shape.

Meeting the Staff

Today I started "work" proper, which meant going to a few schools to do introductions with the staff (more of the jiko-shoukai; I've repeated the phrases giving my name and where I'm from and "Nice to meet you" more often than i can remember). Josh, the other JET in my town, and I went with our supervisor to the various schools, hitting mostly elementary schools (Josh is teaching at 5 elementaries and 1 junior high; I've got 3 elems and 2 JH) along with one of my junior high schools. The kids are adorable. A lot of clubs practicing and whatnot happening these days before class starts--seems every school has a gym and/or a dirt patch which is apparently the Japanese idea of a practice field--so there were a fair number of the little kiddies running around, offering a "konnichi wa" or a "hello/good day" depending on how confident they were feeling. Apparently they're a lot more open when they're young than when they get to high school and become too cool for school, so they should be fun to work with.

Meeting the staff itself was kind of an awkwardly formal affair; we were universally interrupting some meeting or another for introductions, and after stealing somebody's thunder would proceed to stammer through basic introductions (we were applauded after our introductions by the group, which was kind of cool. I think they appreciate the fact that Josh and I can speak the language with some competency, as neither of us have the glaring foreigner accent). The best was when one of the schools' directors turned to her staff (seems the staff always feed off of however the kacho (principal) or whoever is the highest-ranked person available for initiative on what they should do) and told them to introduce themselves, in English! Usually we just introduce and bounce so as not to interfere too much with meetings, but this time it was fun to see the tables turned and watch THEM stammer through an introduction in a foreign language (most of them didn't know more than "my name is" and even that was with prompting from the head).

On the plus side, I'm getting really good at introducing myself!

Well, the pendulum's swung the other way.

My predecessor finally left on Thursday, so the past few days have been pretty slow/lonely after a hectic start to my time here. Especially considering that I still can't drive yet, outside of the occasional trip to the grocery store I've only traveled once--taking the train to a local festival in Chizu (which you might recognize as the town I wound up in when I got lost on the train--this time, at least, I knew how to get there!).

The festival in Chizu was pretty fun--a small group of JETs met there, and we perused the stands, ate some yakisoba (noodles with some meat and seasoning, pretty good stuff) and shaved ice, watched various town groups perform various choreographed dances with varying levels of proficiency and energy...and then we split. It was a fun evening, and Chizu is neither too far (about 40 minutes by train) nor too expensive (1200 yen, about $12.00 round trip) to get to for me.

My Japanese has been coming back fairly quickly. It's only been a couple weeks now, and inasmuch as I've been able to interact with Japanese speakers, I'm returning with some quickness to a conversational mastery. The tough part is filling in the gaps in my vocabulary, but once i get my first paycheck (due this Thursday!) I'll be off to get an electronic dictionary for that purpose (currently i use my cell phone's E-J dictionary--cell phones are awesome here by the way, mine gets TV!--but the cell phone dictionary goes from English to Japanese in kanji, which i haven't learned all the readings for--or else I wouldn't need the dictionary in the first place!).


More anecdoes...

I have a rice cooker (as does, I'm pretty sure, every single household in the country). It is spectacular. I put in some rice, add a corresponding amount of water, close the top and push a button. Later, I open the lid and enjoy perfectly steamed sticky rice, perfect for eating with chopsticks. (aside: Japanese people always seem to get a kick out of foreigners that use chopsticks well. Unlike my first time in the country, when I got a lot of amazed questions from my homestay families, so far I've only noticed them noticing. I imagine they assume that, since I've been in the country before, of course I would know how to use chopsticks properly!). At the same time that I was figuring out how to use the rice cooker--yes, it's simple, but I still couldn't read the kanji to know WHICH button to push (one is "start," one is for "taimu (time)" in katakana, which I can read; the other is for "warm"), I was also preparing some curry mix. Curry rice just so happens to be my favorite meal here, so the revelation that I could make it for myself, with ease and with regularity, was quite possibly the best news I've gotten yet!


Last week Jimmy and I hung out with a Finnish exchange student who was living with a homestay here--he left Japan to return home, however, because his homestay apparently sucks, restricting his freedoms to the point where they don't allow him to have his own phone or use the internet (read: complete isolation outside of his family and his schoolmates). We took him around town on some errands and got lunch, and when we finally got back, around dinnertime, they chatted us up and invited us all in for dinner. according to Jimmy, he's never been invited in for a dinner like that, ever. He thinks they wanted us there to keep Johannes busy while they made preparations for him to leave. Oi.

The family had some little kids who were SUPER cute and we played with them for a little bit in between bits of mixed-language conversation between my broken Japanese (Johannes had some too) and one of the home stay mom's broken English. at one point the obaachan (grandma) started going on about the war and how the perception of English has gone from unliked to ok with passing generations (though Jimmy suspected she was just being nice--she's the main reason Johannes doesn't like his homestay, she's too controlling). Kind of intense. And then they came up to us and were all "well, you must be busy! sorry for taking your time" (in japanese) and we were all, "oh, we don't have anything to do, it's cool!" What we didn't realize was that they were subtly trying to tell us it was time to go. Eventually they came to us: "We have to move our car, and you're blocking the driveway, but we don't want you to trouble yourself to re-park afterward since dinner is over, so...good bye!" Hilarious. They couldn't just say it was time for us to go. I'd forgotten how wonderfully indirect Japanese culture can be sometimes.


More transportation fun: Before I left for Chizu I made sure to copy down the train schedule so I'd know what time my trains would arrive (I had to do a transfer). As I was waiting at the Koge station, making sure to ask each train I thought might have a chance of being mine if it was heading to Chizu, one conducor told me that the train headed for Chizu would show up on the other platform soon. So I waited...and a big, commercial-class cruiser comes up, the express train. Figuring, "Hey, it's the right time. And the right place. This must be my train!" I boarded. Glancing out the window where the other train was still parked, I see the conductor from before looking at me through his window--shaking his head and making an X with his hands! I quickly disembark and he runs over to tell me that the much cheaper local train would be by in 10 more minutes, and that I should wait for that. All in all I saved paying an extra $10.00 to shave some 15 minutes off the trip, definitely a good choice.


I live in a small town. As such, Josh and I are the only foreigners within the town limits (I'm fairly certain). We live in different districts, and don't see each other with any regularity at the moment, so I'm the only foreigner for at least a couple miles. Case in point: yesterday I was walking to the grocery store. As I'm walking I notice a man on a motorcycle pull into and out of the post office as I walk past. About a minute after I see him pull out, he pulls up next to me from behind:
"Excuse me, are you Brown-san?"
"Who? no, I'm Mackey."
"Oh! yes. Mackey, Matthew Brian (in Japanese katakana: Ma-ki Mashu- Buraian. He misread my middle name as 'Brown, and also figured it was my first name'). Sign here, please."
He hands me the letter and rides off. I guess he had gone to my house to get my signature and, when he realized I wasn't there, figured I had to be the foreigner walking down the street--because is there any other foreigner in town? Nope. I stand out.

The Tottori Sand Dunes

Before we went to the sand dune, we went to the sand museum. My favorite sculpture by far was the great wall of china. Note the small sand people on the steps!


After observing several sculptures we got to try our own. Lisa and I made a model of Tottori's mascot, a bird that is also a pear. How about 'dem wings?


There's the dune! Now to head to the top...


Phew! That was a long way to go!


The top of the dune offers a spectacular view of the Sea of Japan, though, so it's totally worth the trip.


Afterwards, we all sprung back to the souvenir shops and got some Nashi (pear) Ice Cream, easily one of the most delicious things I've ever had (and it's not just dehydration and fatigue from the sand dune climb talking!). (I got two)

Graham Baecher Could Not Live in This Country.

Evidence to this fact (for those of you that don't him, Graham
"Bonesaw" "GBot" "Gmail" "Bonesaucy" Baecher is 6'6" tall):

-I clear the doorways in my house by about one inch
-The cars here are scaled down by about 70%. I fit ok, but my
predecessor (who's been showing me around) is maybe 6'1" and his knees
hit the steering wheel every time he gets in to drive
-Food portions are smaller. Eating for one Graham would definitely
constitute eating for two Japanese
-They don't make shoes or clothes for people above 6'0" or so

I'm sure I'll discover more reasons with time.

I'm finally starting to begin to get settled in my home--which is
spectacularly big (by Japanese and my standards): 4 rooms with a
kitchen, including two rather large tatami rooms (tatami mats are
traditional Japanese flooring: In Japan it's not at all uncommon to
remove your shoes and change into slippers or go barefoot at the
threshold to a house, and this is in an effort to preserve the
fine-woven rice stalk threads of the tatami--granted, not everywhere you
de-shoe has tatami, but tradition is tradition). I very honestly am
unlikely to use more than 1/3 of the space in this house. And to top
it off, my rent is dirt-cheap thanks to the property being owned by
the town who's contracted me. In short, I have a sweet living
situation. Feel free to come visit!

The past week has been pretty hectic. First, we had orientation in
Tokyo, which yielded full days with all sorts of Japanese talking
heads with formal information interspersed with former or returning
JETs talking much more candidly about living and working in Japan--not
bad, but we were left with a mountain of materials to bring with us
for "reference" (or, as many of us call it, "trash").

Immediately following that, we flew out to Tottori prefecture ("we"
being myself and the other 8 or so new JETs working in the prefecture
that arrived in the 2nd travel group). The flight was fairly
brief--only about an hour--and it was totally worth it. We got to see
a small bit of Tokyo during takeoff, and an aerial view of Tottori
when we were coming in, both of which were beautiful. Tottori is
particularly picturesque--I'm not sure if I've mentioned this yet or
not, but Tottori is the least populated prefecture in Japan--the City
of Tottori boasts about 200,000 residents, and outside of that and
Yonago, the other big city on the Western side of the prefecture, the
prefecture is mostly Inaka (countryside) with towns dotted here and
there. What this means is that there's a good expanse of wilderness
with rolling hills and mountains, interrupted by patches of
residences. Very reminiscent of New England in Vermont and New
Hampsire, albeit with different foliage. There's apparently some
decent hiking in the central part of the prefecture (I reside in the
Eastern part), and there are plans in the works to climb one mountain
to visit a Buddhist temple there at the end of the month which I'll
definitely be taking part in.

The weather also emulates New England, though it's decidedly
hotter/more humid here in the summer and a bit warmer in the winter as
well (though they still get snow--apparently the skiing season is
fairly long here, which has me excited). I spend most of my time at
home situated in the direct line of a fan, only daring to venture
farther when I want to make myself some food (or purchase some from
the local grocery store or combini--Japanese short for "convenience,"
these little guys are ubiquitous and super-useful. Think CVS smooshed
down to 1/3 the size, plus more foodstuffs you can grab and eat
immediately, and you've got a general idea).

Once we arrived in Tottori proper, I had about a day to move in--my
supervisor, an English teacher to translate, and my co-JET out here in
Yazu, Josh, met me at the airport, and from there we ran several
errands. We stopped at the town office so I could file for my alien
registration card (which is my ticket to not being deported during my
time here--in the meantime, my passport suffices), and then they took
me by the Yazu town Board of Education, where Josh and I received our
contracts. Immediately following that, they took us out into the main
office, where, standing awkwardly in front of them, my supervisor told
us:
"Ah...please introduce yourselves."
Thank goodness I've had some Japanese before. Introductions (in
Japanese, Jikko-shokkai) are basically a rote repetition of who you
are, where you're from, and maybe a canned phrase about how you're
excited to work together with the person you're meeting, so they're
very simple, but I still feel terribly awkward starting in that
awkward, semi-expectant gap that comes when you meet somebody who
you're going to work with. Hopefully this will improve with time.

After an evening at home on Wednesday, I woke up early Thursday and my
supervisor drove me into the city (I have a car which I bought off my
predecessor, but I can't drive it until I have insurance arranged) so
I could register for a bank account.

Aside--you know how, in America, we sign our names on official
documents? In Japan, they use inkan--a small seal with your name in
it (mine is in Katakana, and reads "Ma-ki") which you can use on a
stamp pad. This strikes me as rife with counterfeit opportunity, but
then again, so is our signature system.

Thursday afternoon, Tottori orientation started, which touched upon
more work information, only more specifically geared towards Tottori.
We in Group B, the second travel group, got to meet all the JETs who
came in Group A a week before us, as well as several returners, and
most of the group seems to be very good-natured, and should be a good
network to lean on for support here.

Friday yielded more orientation in the morning, but then in the
afternoon we traveled and did some sightseeing, including the Tottori
Sand Dune(s) and sand museum. Yes, they have a sand dune, and it's
ginormous--it's the only "desert" in Japan (see attached). It also
had a wonderful view of the Sea of Japan (I do believe the Chinese
call it the Sea of China from their side) from the top (see other
attached). They also had some SPECTACULAR pear-flavored ice cream
(don't knock it 'til you've tried it) which I would attach a picture
of (along with many others), but I only have access to pictures on my
cell phone at the moment as I left my camera cord back in the States.

Yesterday also proved busy--Tottori City has an annual festival, the
Shan Shan festival, which apparently involves massive groups of
Tottorians dancing with ritual umbrellas through much of the afternoon
and evening. On top of that, I was invited to my first enkan (I'm not
sure if the best translation is "party" or "drinking
party")--basically, social gatherings of staff where, in contrast to
the uptight, formal nature of their work, people speak freely (using
alcohol as a lubricant or, in some cases, an excuse), telling people
what they really think, before going back to work the next day and
acting as though nothing ever happened. Weird, but apparently a
really good way to get to know my coworkers--and this one was a
welcome party for me (and a farewell party for my predecessor, who
I'll talk about in a second), so I kind of had to go. This one was a
fairly small gathering, with only 5 or so of the 20 workers from just
one of my middle schools (I work at two), so it wasn't particularly
raucous or exciting, just mellow chit-chat over dinner. Not a typical
enkan, according to Jimmy, my predecessor, and I actually crashed
pretty hard in the middle of dinner energy-wise, still feeling the
effect of the jetlag (which will apparently last another week--it's a
13 hour time difference here), so I didn't enjoy it perhaps as much as
I was able to.

There's a general update. Apologies for the gargantuan nature of this
update, but I'm not done yet. Some anecdotes...

1) Jimmy. My predecessor, he just arrived back here after traveling
through SE Asia. He's been really helpful, showing me around (and
continuing to show me around) and giving me the skinny on the JET
gossip. Really nice, good-natured guy, but I do worry that he's going
to talk me to death sometimes. We'll see how the next few days play
out while he crashes with me before returning to home in Kentucky on
Thursday...

2) Travel. So, a couple evenings ago the Tottori Association of JETs
(AJET) held a social function after orientation ended. I wasn't
planning on staying the night in the city, so I resolved to take the
train home...unfortunately, I missed my transfer and wound up heading
in the wrong direction on the last train for the night...but then,
fortunately, I wound up in Chizu, where one of the other JETs lived
and had returned to earlier that day. By a stroke of luck, she also
lived just a short walk away from the train station. My ass = saved.
The next day, I took the proper train back home--but, when I got to
the station where I needed to transfer, and asked about the train to
Funaoka (the district of Yazu in which I live), the conductor pointed
down the street and said I should walk, because the train wasn't due
for an hour. Resolving to make the walk (which, in retrospect, would
have been about 2 miles), an old Japanese woman interjected to tell me
that she could give me a ride (this is all happening in Japanese--the
natives being fluent, myself being very broken and hard to
understand). So she took me to my district, dropped me off in the
middle (it's a small district), and from there I walked home--stopping
at the combini for a bite, and saying hi to the neighbors on the way
as though nothing had happened and I was just out for a short jaunt
despite getting home, oh, 10 hours later than I intended. I have the
schedule straight now, though! And soon I'll be driving, so that'll
be my preferred means.

3) Driving. Cars here are ridiculously gas efficient, for a few
reasons. One, they're small--they have two calibers of cars here, one
that's somewhat comparable to American cars (and more expensive to own
and maintain), and the other, more common, which is the smaller
variety I described above. They have smaller engines and just chug
along. Two, the speed limit is lower here, about 40 or
50...kilometers per hour. That's a little over 30 miles per hour.
Life has a slower pace here, and nowhere is this more clear than on
the road.

4) Mitsuharu Ota. Apparently a big higher-up in the Japanese English
education board, he gave us a speech in our Tokyo orientation. Of the
30 minute speech, he opened with a phrase about how there was a delay
that caused him to start late, and how "time is very precious, here
and in the classroom..." and then proceeded to spend about half of his
time talking just dropping one-liners and puns in English. He didn't
have a great command of the language, either, which made it even more
hilarious. My favorite--he was talking about how he had butterflies
in his stomach, and then asked us...would we rather have butterflies
in our stomachs, like him, or "butter" flies? "yuck. not very
tasty."

5) Radio. All Japanese, all Japanese music, until..."Bringing you the
heartbeat of Tottori, with the best sounds of today--82.5,
s-s-s-st-starrrrbird!" Exactly like you'd expect for pop radio in the
states. What a wonderful country.

6) Address. See below!

Matt Mackey
Assistant Language Teacher
JET Program
519-3 Funaoka
Yazu-cho, Yazu-gun, Tottori-ken, Japan 680-0471

If you have an interest in receiving a postcard, let me know what your
address is and I'll do my best to get one to you at some point during
the coming year. Or write me first and I'll write you back!

Hope things are well with the rest of you. Even if you don't read the
full update, feel free to drop me an email and let me know how you're
doing!

Zya ne,
Matto-sensei

My Home

Welcome to my humble abode! Allow me to show you around a little...


This is Fred, my humble door servant. Always works with a smile.


The doorways are short. This house was built some 40 odd years ago, very obviously by Japanese for Japanese...

This is the living room (viewed from the back, so you just came in and turned around). I've got a TV, though I haven't connected it currently.


Take a left and you'll peek in my kitchen (we won't look at my room, as it's currently a mess).


Left of the entrance to the kitchen, you'll find the dishes...


...this is my "stove." Two burners and a broiler, all gas-powered, get the job done.


My fridge sits across from the stove. It's shorter than me, so I have to be space efficient. On top is the combo microwave/toaster/oven. Part two of my "stove," I have discovered it to be very useful so far for toast.


Leave the kitchen and follow the hall outside the livingroom, and you'll stumble upon the washer. Also very small. No wonder the country is so energy efficient!

Other rooms, perhaps to be chronicled later:

• My bedroom (currently a mess)
• The upstairs "drying room"
• The downstairs room, which will become my workout/practice room
• Toilet and Bath/shower

Tokyo Orientation Pictures

aa, Tokyo. Hisashiburi da nee.


The hotel we stayed in was veeery big, very posh. This is the view from the 42nd floor, with the Shinjuku tower staring back at us.


They crammed about 800 of us into a rather small (relatively speaking) room for most of the general proceedings--their regular banquet hall was closed for construction.


One evening we ventured from Shinjuku to Shibuya. You might recognize the name/sights from Lost in Translation.


A blurry shot of Shibuya taken on the walk--the Tottori folks went to get Mexican near here. Apparently it's impossible to find in Tottori...


The Tokyo Tower, taken from a bus heading towards the airport...


zya, Tokyo. Mata desu ne.

Day One: Arrival in Tokyo

We had a long flight. Arriving at the hotel in Tokyo around 5:00 PM
Tokyo time, I've been traveling for close to a full 24 hours--we had
to turn up at the airport at 5:00 AM Boston time for an 8:00 departure
(there's a 13 hour time difference between Tokyo and Boston, so that's
6:00 PM Tokyo time). Being a travel day with several groups showing
up throughout the day, we get the evening free--I was fortunate enough
to connect with another Dartmouth alum doing JET (Margaret Fitchet
'08--Dartmouth folk might recognize her as one of the class
valedictorians) before leaving, so we've been keeping each other
company in travel so far which has been a big help.

There are about a thousand of us here for Tokyo orientation, which
takes place primarily over the next two days here in the hotel.
There're a lot of talks and seminars, some of which will be useful
(going through our job duties in depth and offering advice and ideas
for lesson plans) and some of which is more of the formal,
must-be-said-but-isn't-that-useful variety. The days are likely to be
hectic, but hopefully not too overwhelming.

As an aside, this is the first time I've ever had to wear business
attire. Already a reminder that this is a job, and we're expected to
treat it as such. When we first arrived at the hotel they gave us a
couple pounds of materials for reference, both from JET (Japan
Exchange Teaching, the program that set me up with the prefecture I'll
be working for) about our job and from the US embassy with information
about America (as de facto ambassadors for the country, I guess they
want us to have some reference material).

On the bright side, I found out on the ride from the airport that the
students don't start back to class until September 1 (they're on
vacation right now), so I'll hopefully get to ease in to my job
slowly--I'm working at a few junior high schools and a couple
elementary schools, so I'm sure to have a lot of staff and coworkers
to meet and greet once I get to my home in Yazu on Wednesday.