Mackey in Japan

Taj Ultimate and Tottori Farewells:

2009-07-22T08:51:00.001-04:00

I went to play in Tajima weekend before last; this is the same tournament i took an 8-hour road trip to play in back in the summer of 2005, when I first studied abroad in Japan, though this time it was only a 2-hour trip from nearby Tottori. Another pickup team, another great time.

We had to book it back a day early, however, for our sayonara party with the other JETs. Some superlative awards were given (I won for best dance moves, for reasons I'm sure you all are aware of), speeches were made, but generally we just had a great time with our last hurrah as this group of JETs.

Many of us are leaving and scattering across the globe, and though the goodbyes were sad...in a strange way, I feel like leaving will make us closer. While here we were acquaintances, forced to be something more than that by circumstance (namely, the circumstance of being part of the .5% foreign population in Tottori); should our paths ever cross again, that same shared circumstance will lend us a camaraderie in many ways greater than the sum of our time together here. It's not just the time with each other, but the shared experience of having lived and taught here, in our Tottori, that strengthens this bond. No tears for these farewells, but strong emotion, in large part nostalgia.

final farewells

2009-07-22T08:49:00.000-04:00

My final day entailed three visits. One was to an elementary school (similar to the prior post; at this one a student read a message to me in English with tears in her eyes and it was all I could do to avoid breaking down right then and there).

The other two went to my junior high schools. Both were difficult farewells, but one was especially tough.

Of the anecdotes above and throughout the past year, most all of them have been from one school in particular. If you recall graduation in March, I was pretty bummed to miss the ceremony at one of the schools--it's the same one. I've come to love all of my students, but I especially relish every chance with the ones at Hatto.

...I try really really hard not to cry. Call me bull-headed, old-fashioned, stubborn, whatever; it's an emotion I take very seriously. I try especially hard not to cry with an audience.

I cried when I said my goodbye at Hatto. I wasn't the only one.

I thanked my students for fun classes, and for their smiles--their smiles, welcoming me from the beginning, when I was nervous about my life as a teacher in Japan. I told them that I enjoyed seeing their energy, in class and out, and that they had gone from shy students to friends who would stop anywhere to say hello.

I told them that I was going to medical school, and that, since I was becoming a student again, we should both do our best at our studies, together.

I told them that I'd never forget them. And I sobbed out a final "thank you".

They gave me flowers. They gave me a book full of farewell messages. They gave me a round of applause as I left.

Elementary Goodbyes

2009-07-22T08:47:00.000-04:00

Farewells at the elementaries were really bittersweet. At one they had a rather elaborate ceremony* worked out, including one of the students reading to me in English (granted, he was reading it with Japanese phonetics as it was written, but still, !!) while at another they all sang to me. Really touching stuff--mementos aplenty, with drawn-up thank you notes from all my 5th and 6th graders, complete with picutres of us together.

I was doing really really good at not crying until I was leaving one school--they accompanied me to the exit and saw me off from the parking lot; I was still good pulling out, but as I went down the hill by the school to drive away, the students started running along the top of it alongside of me, waving and shouting "goodbye!"

I could still see them in my rear view mirror as the tears welled up.

"Ganbatte kudasai [please do your best]!"

2009-07-22T08:45:00.000-04:00

Had my very last class at middle school; at the end I told them a bit about my plans ("I want to be a doctor"), and students wrote farewell messages (being 9th graders with at least 3 years of English under their belt, they only got 10 minutes--lots of hurried textbook flipping looking up words!).

After class, Shie, perhaps my very favorite student (she's the one who pointed me out in the Backstreet Boys Video--I've got a bunch of anecdotes just about her. Super-energetic and completely unabashed in her English use), came up to me.

"Doctor," she says, "Great!" and curls a clenched fist in show of solidarity.
"I'll do my best!"
"You are doctor, I am nurse!" she giggles, rushing off excitedly.

I'm really gonna miss my students.

"Since Matt-sensei is single, how about...?"

2009-07-22T08:44:00.000-04:00

During lunch with the 1st graders at one of the elementaries we were chatting about the usual fare for a while ("What animal do you like?" "How old are you?"), until finally one asks the inevitable:

"[Do you have a girlfriend?]"

I inform them that no, I in fact, do not, and am immediately paired off with one of the assistant teachers. Awkward eye contact and apologies from/to the paired parties ensue while the children giggle; despite the homeroom teacher's reassurances that, fact that I was leaving Japan aside, I didn't need the help of the first graders to find a girlfriend, the students kept bringing it up.

"Well if Matt likes curry rice, ~sensei can make it..."

Their innocence really is touching.

"Three!? Three WHAT, huh?"

2009-07-22T08:41:00.000-04:00

Went swimming with my elementary school students Friday a week ago. I showed off my butterfly technique (when I told them it was my specialty, they were all "oh! awesome!"); being 5 years out of practice means I left the pool really sore, but I still got it!

The elementary students were of course keen to study my body moreso than my technique--lots of requests for muscle flexes and such, along with plenty of poking and some hugs, the hug being a new tactic in an attempt to sap my body heat (it was a cool overcast day at the outdoor pool).

At one point on the deck, a 6th grade boy leans over and examines my crotch*.
"Yappari, mit-tsu aru. [I knew it, there's three!]"

Something about curiousity and cats. He got a good poke attack for that one.

(*I was in a speedo--I've kept it from high school. It's so small, why not pack it everywhere?)

"This is 'Tuba.'"

2009-07-22T08:39:00.000-04:00

I went through band practice one day last week. The students are spread in different rooms practicing their various instruments (mostly woodwinds, but there was the drum/xylophone room for the percussionists too).

As I walked into the percussion room, one of my favorite girls, Yui, comes up to me (she's sort of in charge of practice), offering an emphatic "Hi!" (which is why she's one of my favorites).

She then proceeds to lead me through the rooms, stopping to introduce me to all of the instruments in English, without any prompting from me whatsoever.

At one point I tell her I played sax back in high school.
"!! Me too!" she excitedly replies. She even let me HOLD hers. Got me nostalgic for my high school jazz band days. More than anything, though, it made me really happy--it was very much a "she can SO use English!" moment, and I'm not sure which of us was prouder for it.

Japanese Snot Eaters

2009-07-22T08:38:00.000-04:00

Checking out baseball practice on my way home one day, one of my normally quiet 7th graders starts talking to me a bit--being a 7th grade boy, of course, he has some typical boy questions. For instance:

Him: "What's this?" while pointing at his nose.
Me: "Nose?"
Him, in Japanese now, "no, [Japanese word I haven't learned]."
gestures at something reminiscent of picking your nose.
Me: "..Snot?"

"Su-not!" he giggles.

He points at his friend. "You are 'snot!'" His friend gives him a quizzical look, while Yuu* (the first boy) repeats the accusation, cracking up.

He turns back to me. "What's [a bloody nose**?]"
My translation is too long for his liking, so he immediately moves on.
At this point a 9th grader, Daijiro, has come over to supervise.
"What's [poop?]"
Me (faux innocent): "I don't know."
Yuu squats, and gestures from his butt.
At this point Daijiro interjects telling him to stop it. ("You are a bad man," Daijiro scolds, but being a lowly 7th grader Yuu needs a translation to get the insult.)

I of course refuse to tell him anything more at this point, seeing what he's already done with the little I've given. Yuu tries to get a couple more perverse but typically boyish words translated, along with hilarious gesticulation--I've never had as much fun playing dumb as when he was gesturing at [from] his crotch looking for confirmation of what it's called while some two dozen of his classmates looked on cracking up. Eventually he gives up and goes back to his old ways.

Yuu: "This boy likes snot. He eats snot!" "You are su-NOT!"

I'm glad I'm still making friends even with the end so close.

(*He spelled his name as "You," using the well-learned English pronoun in his farewell note. Adorable.

**For the record, a bloody nose is a sign of perversion in popular media here--blood's all rushing around so much that the nose gives out).

"Did you enjoy?"

2009-07-22T08:35:00.000-04:00

Last week I stopped in on some students working on their art after school. These students are some of my chattiest (nothing all that substantial usually mind you--just "hi! how are you!" but still better than most students will give unprompted).

At one point they're going back and forth about who likes who--two of the girls tell me that "She," pointing at a third girl, "likes her neighbor!" but she retorts with a "SHE likes my big brother!" and proceeds to allude to some rendezvous had (something about spending a night together, very scandalous--I'm assuming it was on a field trip or such), the other denying it the whole time. I asked her if she enjoyed it, and they all cracked up.

High School Reunion

2009-07-22T08:33:00.000-04:00

About a month ago walking back from school I bumped into some students coming from the high school--no longer my students, they'd graduated in March, but I didn't see them at first and they remembered me, calling me over by name.

We exchanged some brief pleasantries--I asked them about how high school was ("...enjoying...enjoy...fun! It's fun!!" one of them exclaimed. She always was one of the best students--most never realize there's a translation beyond "enjoy"), and we went on our way, but the...joy at the chance encounter buoyed my spirits for a whole week.

Karoke Champions

2009-06-30T02:10:00.000-04:00

In late April we held "Tottori Idol," a karaoke competition for the JETs in the prefecture. Most people missed the "karaoke" memo though and either sang their own music with live accompaniment or otherwise didn't need the machine. My favorite performance was a single group that did Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'"...on Rock Band. (For those that don't know, Rock Band is Guitar Hero plus--a video game where you have two guitar controllers, a drum set controller, and a mic, and everyone hits buttons in time with the song to "perform").

I got recruited to join a boy band--sorry to disappoint, but there was no Backstreet Boys "I Want it That Way" this time. Instead we did "Poison" by Bell Biv DeVoe, the '90s hip-hop one-hit wonder.

We had choreo.

We won.

Preparing for Succession

2009-06-30T01:59:00.001-04:00

I finally got my successor's information week before last. Been e-mailing him information and selling him my car, etc...it's really starting to hit home just how soon I'll be leaving. With less than a month to go, I've started packing up my extra (winter) clothes to send home, and just generally have shifted to more of a "the end is nigh" mindset. I met people this weekend, for instance, who could've been good friends in other circumstances, but in this case we simply part with a "farewell."

I'm particularly dreading saying goodbye to my students--with only a few weeks of class left I've only a couple classes at most with each grade left. This Friday will be my last time teaching at the elementaries, and the following week they'll have a "farewell" ceremony for me, which is probably going to make me cry. For whatever challenges I've had with adjusting to living and working here, one thing remains undeniable; I love these children. Seeing my middle school students now, I remark to myself on how they've grown and matured over the past year, about how the non-working troublemaker has at least tried to pay attention on occasion, or how my 9th graders from last year have moved on to high school--I ran into a few not long ago and had a great old-friends moment with them. This is why I love this job, and why leaving will be bittersweet.

Happy Rafting in Shikoku

2009-06-28T01:58:00.013-04:00

Roaring waves and rafters alike!

Met up with the aforementioned Tokushima-prefecture JETs for a day of whitewater rafting last weekend; this time instead of making the trip to Akashi, which is a decenly long but still doable drive, I took the express trains to cover the 200+ km.

The weather and scenery were absolutely GORGEous; it was cloudy but not rainy, hot but not uncomfortably so. A perfect day to be out on the water (and in the water--the rapids themselves were fine but our guide had us doing all sorts of balancing acts or otherwise that left us capsized or man overboard-ed). Highlights included stopping for lunch at a bluff overlooking much of the gorge the water ran through and a point nearby where we could "surf" a raft in a rapid where the current came back towards the waterfall. We took turns going in small groups with a guide to keep us afloat, but that didn't do much to avoid the inevitable tossed person/people or capsized raft.

We followed the day of rafting with a night of camping right on the water, building a campfire and enjoying the summer night, and saw some nearby sights the following day. A beautiful weekend and a wonderful getaway.

You can find pictures on facebook here and here.

Beach Ultimate in Akashi

2009-06-27T01:57:00.008-04:00

A few weekends ago (June 13-14) I road tripped with a fellow Tottori JET to Akashi--about a 4 hour drive--to play some beach ultimate. The group was pretty similar to the people I played with in Awaji in April; lots of JETs from other prefectures, including Tokushima on the smaller island of Shikoku and Fukuoka, which is pretty far west on the island of Kyushu (in contrast, Tottori is on the northern coast of the southern part of Honshu, Japan's main island).

Saturday's play saw us all mixed up on different teams in a Hat Tournament (where you decide teams by drawing names out of a hat--in this case, we drew our team assignments out of a hat when we registered); most of the teams in Japan are colleges, so I got to chat and play with a handful of guys and gals around my age. I helped carry my team to a 5th-place finish out of some dozen teams. We spent Saturday night in a ryokan, a Japanese-style inn where you sleep on tatami floors with futon mattresses; all 10 of us shared a room together, which made it pretty fun, very nostalgic of sharing cabins at summer camp--thankfully there weren't any big snorers.

Rising Tide!

Sunday we played together on our own team, complete with spray-painted jerseys one of the guys had made. We played hard and well, and wound up finishing 8th out of some 26 teams or so; with a better format or seeding, we could've easily been in the finals though, since we only lost to the eventual champions. Altogether it was a great weekend that left me really excited to play more ultimate! I've only got one more tourney here (and can only make part of it), but I'm looking forward to playing some more once I'm back in the US.

新型インフルエンザ

2009-05-20T00:42:00.003-04:00

That's "Shingata Influenza," or "New Type Influenza" in English--the latest buzzword sweeping the nation! And not in a good way. Just this past weekend Japan's number of cases balooned to over 120; schools in Kobe and Osaka were shut down in Hyogo-ken, which, for those of you who know your Japanese geography, is right next to Tottori.

Not to be a douchebag or make light of what's already happened, but I'm kind of hoping we get one or two cases here and some school closures, especially given how relatively non-lethal the virus is proving. It's kind of like hoping for a snow day, only minus the fun of getting to go hang out with your friends in the snow.

Japan has been seemingly very paranoid about the virus though; I've heard reports of some other JETs having to wear masks at work (along with everyone else) and of travel plans being grounded, and I fear the craze will persist. Hopefully there won't be any issues when the time comes for me to head back home in July!

Hot Disc Action

2009-05-20T00:41:00.000-04:00

I finally found some consistent ultimate. The last weekend of April, I played at a tournament in Awaji (fully 4 hours' drive from me) with a bunch of internationals, mostly JETs, from the area; weather was terrible, especially on the first day, but we stayed at a nearby teammate's house and bbq'd on Saturday night, complete with bona fide hamburger meat imported from the states, which by itself was enough to make my weekend.

Coming up: Beach ultimate in June, and in July there's a big tournament in Tajima--I actually played in it back in '05 with some Tokyo folk, and I'm really looking forward to going back and seeing how the tourney (and by extension, ultimate in Japan) has grown.

Slow Times at Junior High

2009-05-20T00:39:00.000-04:00

The new year started in April, and with the new year came a re-organization of curriculum. Unfortunately, this has left me without classes much more frequently than I'd like.

In part this stems from new-year activities, orientation and the like leading to canceled classes, but part of it is also just an outright reduction in my classes taught at one of my schools--I went from teaching all three grades every week to only being guaranteed to teach the 9th graders. It's especially distressing for me because this school is my favorite one, where I get along with the students really well; fortunately, I still get to eat with the students and hang out (watch and occasionally chat) during club activities after school, so all is not lost, but I'm hoping that as the year progresses I'll again have fuller days. Right now many classes are still early enough in their textbooks that the "speaking" lessons haven't cropped up yet, which is another reason my teaching volume is down--some classes I have scheduled wind up not needing me.

.'がんばっています。

Things are Heating Up...

2009-05-20T00:36:00.002-04:00

After a fairly rainy/cold welcome upon my return to Japan from China, Things have warmed considerably. Students are back to wearing their lighter summer uniforms after a long chilly (but not cold) winter.

I like to think of right now as the calm before the storm--the weather is bearable now; soon, when the summer hits full-bore, humidity and all, it won't be.

Swine Influenza Fever

2009-05-20T00:32:00.001-04:00

I returned from China the first Tuesday in May, had Wednesday off, and went to work as usual on Thursday. During the day, my supervisor (at the board of education) called a few times: once, to confirm whenI had gotten back; again, later, to tell me that for the sake of my elementary schools, I should take tomorrow off and not teach (my thought: you DO realize you're telling me not to go to school...while I'm at school, right? I assured him I was fine); and finally, he called to tell me that, well, since I said I was healthy, I could go to work after all.

Ridiculous. The next day at the elementaries I got a round of questioning to the effect of:
"So you went to China, huh?" (yes, it was fun)
"Did you hear about the swine flu?" (some warnings on the flight over, and a lot on the way back, yep)
"...did they test or check you at all when you got back to Japan?" (yes yes, I had to fill out a form and... [at this point I exaggerated the trouble of the process so it sounded a little more rigorous])
[to the staff, visibly relieved:] "He was checked!"

Sigh. The trouble with today's widespread information network is that it's very easy to get people into a panic. At least my middle schools have some sense; no panic there. Though I did mess with one of my students at lunch (this is the same one who thought I was Howie of BSB fame; when she asked about the flu ("pork influenza;" good vocabulary!) I feigned a few coughs and got a rise out of her before I assured her I was joking.

This is to say nothing of how much things have escalated in the 3-week interim; more on that in another post.

A Golden Week in China

2009-05-20T00:30:00.002-04:00

Another JET and I went to China over Golden Week (a series of days off in close proximity to each other in Japan--it doesn't QUITE reach a week, but we covered the gap with a couple vacation days). We entered and departed through Hong Kong (where you can get a visa for mainland China with about a day's turnaround), with stops in Guangzhou, Xi'an, and Beijing on the itinerary as well. Notable stops included the Terra Cotta Warriors in Xi'an (and the ensuing haggling for small miniatures and souvenirs--at one point, without us even trying, a hawker bid himself down from 180 quai to 30 quai [~$30 to ~$10] as we walked by, merely browsing), and the obligatory trip to the Great Wall of China.

My friend Crank (check out his blog recapping our visit!) lives in Beijing currently, so getting to visit him was also a big highlight--I haven't seen him in a couple years, and given that I haven't seen any Dartmouth folk for a while it was really refreshing to spend a couple days with one of my favorites.

If you want more details, a vaguely slide-show-esque recounting can be found in picture form online.

My favorite, from the great wall (click for full size):

A Grand Entrance

2009-04-08T02:47:00.001-04:00

Entrance ceremony is not so different from closing--dress is less the serious, black with white tie, more color (it being spring and all), but still the parents in the back (fewer tears), still lots of speeches, still lots of "stand up" "bow" "sit down" action (averaged a good eight instances of this at entrance; graduation was ridiculous, definitely over a dozen).

Knowing all the new 7th graders from teaching them in elementary school made it really fun to watch all the proceedings. Somehow most of the students were still surprised to see me there, even after I'd told them all at our last classes that I'd see them in junior high school. I won't be teaching them right off the bat (they want to get all their fundamentals down with reading, etc first) but I'm really looking forward to seeing them all in the halls at school (and getting to know the newbies at my other school next week).

Spring Break (Woo!)

2009-04-08T02:47:00.000-04:00

...I didn't actually do much.

The first week of spring break I wound up putting up a couple guests at my place--I've registered for a site through which you can find and connect with people who are willing to put up travelers for a night, show them local sights, etc. Being one of the few foreigners in my part of Japan (and perhaps the only one registered on this particular site), I've gotten a few requests but this was the first one I could answer affirmatively. They were a couple French travelers, who'd spent two months doing organic farming in New Zealand (for those of you familiar with the Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) program, that was it) and were spending another in Japan traveling before returning back home. I was pretty hesitant at first--after all, I'm taking a couple strangers into my home--but they were very nice and I actually really enjoyed the chance to play the role of guide, showing off my local knowledge and putting my Japanese skills to good use (they couldn't speak any).

The ensuing week (+change) had me going to the aforementioned farewell banquet, but mostly doing a LOT of housekeeping. I did a quick bang-up job before my guests arrived and at one point one jokingly commented that my home was "very much a young man's house." Other exciting ventures: taxes, financial aid paperwork.

Unfortunately, my grand visions of plentiful travels with the other JETs were dashed by the realization that, unlike me, who gets to chill at home, most JETs are forced to show up to work by their BOE--with no students there, there's very little to do. Some will take vacation days then, but we only have so many so a lot choose to grin and bear it. Overall, though, I had a very restful spring break, and I've returned to school for the new year with a renewed energy, in part due to the gorgeous weather, in part due to the excitement of having new people around again.

year ends, teachers transfer.

2009-04-08T02:45:00.001-04:00

In contrast to graduation, a big, formal proceeding, the actual end of the school year was much more of a whimper than a bang--no formal dress, just students and teachers in the gym for a short speech from the principal.

The biggest deal about the year end is the teacher transfers. As I was in Taiwan the week before, I hadn't found out about any of my schools, but the one I went to the following week had 5 teachers leaving, most of whom I was acquainted with to some extent but nobody I had a terrible affection for (the one I liked most of them was actually transferring to my other school, which was convenient).

However, as I found out at the farewell banquet for my other school as spring break started, I was losing my favorite teacher! She was one of my co-teachers, and probably the most fun to work with--we taught the same graduates who I got to know and who wrote me messages, which were compiled in book form by her. Really enhanced my experience so far, but now she's transferring to the Other School in my town (where I don't work) and I'm definitely worse for it.

Himeji Safari

2009-04-08T02:41:00.000-04:00

Right after I got back from Taiwan (literally right after--I took an overnight bus back from Osaka, took the morning train home, and didn't have time to do much more than change clothes before I set off again), I joined a couple other JETs for a day trip to Himeji. Some of you may know Himeji for its castle--very majestic, the only castle in Japan that has remained standing through the years (though others have been re-built), but it also has a nearby amusement park (shades of Spirited Away--"an old amusement park. They built them by the dozens back in the early '90s."), complete with ice skating rink (!) and safari zoo (!!).

It's always kind of surreal seeing elephants and the like when you're not in their native country, but especially so when spring has yet to fully hit and there are still copious bare trees and cold weather.

Overall, a little tacky, but a little nostalgic too--we did pass on the roller coasters and the like though, having had much better in the American equivalents.

Tai-wha?

2009-04-08T02:29:00.000-04:00

After graduation we had a couple awkward weeks before the term ended properly--the 9th graders had already graduated, meaning 1/3 of the school was missing, and the remaining 7th and 8th graders had copious tests (the 9th graders of course had their equivalents shortly before graduation, including the all-important entrance examination, which determines what high school(s) they can attend). I found myself with a LOT of down time at work, even compared to usual.

Enter Ludi, my sister from another mister (sorry). My spring break came a little later than most in America, and she happened to be on break and visiting family in Hong Kong--taking a brief trip through Taiwan in the middle. Given that I'm already in East Asia I took off a few days to join her and had a swell time, seeing the sights in Taipei, along with her brother an uncle, and making an awesome bike trek though the Taiwanese (Democratic Chinese?) countryside for a couple days.

If you're interested in photos, you can either check the highlights on facebook or the full dump on Picasa.

Graduation

2009-03-16T00:24:00.002-04:00

Students bow to the principal as they receive their diplomas.

Graduation here is a very momentous occasion, very formal. Teachers are all dressed up in formal suits, and it seems like every mother of a graduating student came (only a couple dads though, interestingly), handkerchief at the ready, and all descended into tears when (before, during, after) their child's turn came.

I go to two middle schools; unfortunately, they operate on the same schedule, so I could only attend one graduation--also unfortunately, I wound up at the school where I felt less connected to my students. I found myself a little emotional too, in part because I empathized with all the emotion in the students (many of whom were crying themselves) and the parents, but also in part because I realized that I couldn't see the students I had really connected with and then felt guilty because I realized I hadn't been doing well enough by the students at this school.

At any rate, the day was theirs, not mine, but I appreciated being able to be a part of it all, however small.

Later, I got yearbooks from both schools--and my other school had gone so far as to produce a DVD of the proceedings, which I got a copy of. (I've yet to watch it). The best, though, was the copy of one of the graduating classes' memory book--filled with pages from the students themselves (CTY folk might see the similarity). It was from one of my favorite classes, and on one of the pages there were notes for me that really made my day:

"Dear Matt-sensei,
at first I was nervous but then I enjoyed talking to you. Since I met you, I like English more. Thank you.
-Shihori"

"Dear Matt-sensei,
I LOVE YOU
-Kota"

Daisen Snow and Stay, or: Mackey turns 22 (plus an onsen aside)

2009-02-26T23:58:00.013-05:00

Over my birthday weekend (that's Feb. 7th-8th for those of you keeping track at home) there was a large gathering of JETs at Mt. Daisen (the "Big Mountain" I hiked back in the fall) for a ski weekend. Daisen is the biggest mountain in Japan West of Mt. Fuji, and despite Japan being so mountainous there is not a ton of skiing to be had; Daisen is one of the better slopes out there. A group of maybe 20 of us (including some native Japanese friends) stayed at a ryokan on the mountainside on Saturday night (a ryokan is a Japanese-style inn: think a large, communal bath area*, tatami mat floors, and yukata--light cotton kimono. Wonderful after a day of skiing). Naturally, we had easy access to the hills first thing Sunday after skiing for most of Saturday.

I wish I could put Daisen in better context, but all I know is Dartmouth's ski mountain in New Hampshire--it's definitely a big ski area, with a few mountainsides contained in the "Daisen" ski resort. However, outside of some deep moguls at the very top of one of the mountains the area is generally a bunch of wide open ski fields, so the degree of difficulty was not terribly challenging. That said, most of us there were not terribly great skiiers (and snowboarders--the split was maybe 20-80 skis-snowboards, with myself in the 20), so the mountain suited us perfectly.

After half a day of icy slopes on Sunday I drove back to the Eastern side of the prefecture with some friends (about a 2 hour drive). Being my 22nd birthday, (and 22 being a pretty uneventful age after you've run the 16-18-21 significance gauntlet) I didn't have plans to do anything special but a friend insisted and we went out for some delicious dinner at an okonomyiaki place, and followed it up with some delectable cake from the inauspiciously-named Pandora's Box for a full weekend and a happy birthday.

*Easily one of my favorite facets of Japanese culture. In one's home you have a single bath which the whole family will use in a given night--you clean off before you get in, and then soak in the hot water to relax. It's blissful. Onsen--your bath houses or large hotel baths--are the same thing, but instead of a one-man bath it's a large open area.

Got to go to a really big one a couple weeks back--this one has the feature of being co-ed (bathing suits), and had a good dozen baths, including one outdoors, a small-sized pool complete with water slide (which was AWESOME!), sauna with a freezing bath to chill yourself right outside, and a massage bath with strategically placed jets you could use. America could do with some more bath time, I think.

"My School Life"

2009-02-26T00:08:00.002-05:00

Year end is swiftly approaching. I've all but finished seeing my 9th graders, who take their entrance exams next week (if they haven't already) and have their graduation ceremony the week after; things are similarly winding down with a lot of my other classes, but I'm at least bolstered by the knowledge that I'll get to keep working with them, if in a slightly different context.

At one of my schools the 9th graders wrapped up their year of English by writing about their experiences the past 3 years in junior high school, and ending with a message for their classmates as they all move on. There were some great ones, ranging from long narratives about experiences and feelings to the following:

"DESTINY
I joined the baseball club.
DESTINY!!
I became class leader.
DESTINY!!

Message is sausage."

Various other non sequiturs were had by some of the other jokesters with only so-so English, to hilarious end (another interspersed his memories with "oh, no, I dropped my cola"...bolded and at least 2x the size of the rest). Really been enjoying the time with my students, and I'm really gonna miss them when they move on!

In Sickness And In Health

2009-02-26T00:05:00.007-05:00

Last week was reaaaally slow at one of my schools.

Flu season comes here as naturally as it does in America, with one big difference--you can tell it's flu season because people start showing up to school/work with face masks (think surgeon's mask, not hockey) to prevent the spread of airborne pathogens. It's always kind of a fun guessing game to figure out whether they're (a little) sick or trying to avoid becoming sick, but I think it's pretty great that the culture embraces such a thing.

Anyhow, last week, at one of my schools the 7th and 8th grade classes were apparently so decimated by the flu--maybe 1/5 of each grade, with potentially more to catch it--that, instead of having class and later having to play catchup with so many, classes were canceled. At least the 9th graders held on--another school in the area had school canceled entirely because for the same reason.

"What do you call this kind of music?" "Uhhh...classic rock."

2009-02-26T00:02:00.005-05:00

One of my co-teachers is on a really big kick of using music in class lately--this week we spent some time introducing such contemporary artists as the Beatles and the Carpenters to the 7th and 9th graders, complete with videos ripped from youtube to provide some watching material. (Hm, old groups the kids had never heard of singing music in a language they didn't understand all that well? You'd be proud, Dorsey-sensei).

We're at that point in the year where we're running out of material that has to be covered, but there's still some time before the end of the year (remember, school year ends at the end of March here), so we can totally get away with this sort of thing--we'll do maybe one song that's listen-able with lyrics, followed by a few more for them to simply enjoy.

The last two songs we studied: "What a Wonderful World" by Louis Armstrong (kids got a BIG kick out of his facial expressions when he sings) and "I Just Called to Say I Love You" by Stevie Wonder (which, at the end, I was made to sing solo--this is what I get for trying to encourage the kids to come out of their shells by example).

Winter weather update

2009-02-25T23:57:00.009-05:00

A week or two ago one of my co-teachers informed me that winds from China were blowing over the Sea of Japan and warming Tottori. Apparently the locals call it "Kiroi Kaze," or "yellow wind," because the warm winds come from the Gobi Desert and carry small bits of sand with it ("don't dry your clothes outside today," he informed me). It's taken to be one of the first signs of spring.

Of course, since then we've had a wee bit of snow (not enough to stick) and the temperature has plummeted back down to the single digits on and off, but we are slowly shifting towards spring here. Finally got pictures of the street sprinklers in action; see attached.

Driving in Japan

2009-02-25T22:34:00.001-05:00

One of the more jarring/disturbing/counter-intuitive aspects of living here in the winter is the way that some roads are cleared and maintained during and after a snowfall. On many main town roads, such as the one that runs right outside of my house, there is a line of sprinklers that runs down the middle of the road. They're pretty small and unobtrusive (you can drive over them, obviously), but when there's a snowfall or freezing conditions these sprinklers spring into action, spritzing water onto the street.

"But wait," you say, "Water? On the ROAD!? When it's FREEZING?"
Yes, water. The roads are on a slight slant from the sprinklers in the middle down to drains on either side. Water is sprayed, it rolls down the sides of the road, and then it falls off. It's not terribly warm water, but perhaps my friend the Physics Ph.D./Duke Alexander B. Crew can tell you that if water is moving swiftly enough it won't freeze—and what's more, thanks to water's high heat capacity, even relatively cool water can still facilitate the melting of any snow on the road. It moves, it melts, and it's disturbing as hell to drive on—but in practice, it's a big step up from the rest of the roads.

Plowing is infrequent at best (I don't believe I've seen a plow yet, merely snow piles—evidence of their wake), and salting/sanding is unheard of, so if it's not one of the magical watery routes, it's more than a little harrowing to get around. Particularly on back country roads, normally so narrow that 2-way traffic is cautious as best; the roads might be cleared, but their new form is narrow enough with snowbanks as to make 2-way traffic all but impossible. I quickly learned this my first day back, with many a roadside pull-over to let traffic pass on the way to work.

Oh, and parking lots are similarly neglected much of the time—my usual spot, a short walk from my house, was one of the neglected, and my second day back was kicked off by 20 fruitless minutes spent trying to simply get my car out of its spot. The snow that was already underneath the wheels combined with another foot of accumulation overnight to make my itty-bitty Vivian strain and groan with no release. Eventually an unknown good Samaritan came and helped push from behind as I finally got off the snowfield and onto the street for another round of wet, slow going. At least all of the white stuff everywhere made for some pretty scenery.

How Japan Deals with Cold Weather

2009-02-25T22:29:00.002-05:00

Let me start by saying that Japan (at least, my part of Japan) has a very poor concept of insulation, and no concept of central heating (at least, not out in the countryside, and especially not in my 40-year-old house). With that, my living arrangements have shifted from a 4-room house with a kitchen to a 2-room arrangement with a very cold kitchen, as I close off the compartments to save on heating expense.

The one upshot of the lack of central heating is the prevalence in homes of the (somewhat legendary) kotatsu. For the uninitiated, you can check Wikipedia for a full explanation. Short version: think table, with a blanket covering every side, and a heater underneath. Think warm pocket of air trapped underneath the table. Think warm legs…think of how inviting it is to slide further under and warm your body…think of how easy it is from there to drift off to blissful, toasty slumber…that's the power and beauty of kotatsu.

So, while my days in school (don't even get me started on the hallways) tend to be cold, my evenings at home are generally nothing short of wonderful. Throw in the occasional hot bath (another cultural artifact in Japan that is under appreciated in the states), and you have a recipe for warmth and happiness in the cool Tottori winter.

The winter is not all that bad, by the way—coming from the still North and hill winds of Dartmouth, Tottori is downright pleasant much of the time. With the recent uptick in temperature (up around 10 degrees Celsius), the snow has swiftly melted off and the area has again taken on more of a late-fall flavor (though I'm hoping the ski mountains maintain a chillier climate for obvious reasons). I imagine we're due for more snow and colder weather now that February has come, but I could see why people who live around here are not too driven to insulate and heat more effectively.

Yakisoba in Wakasa

2009-02-25T22:27:00.002-05:00

From my town of Funaoka, Wakasa is maybe a 20-25 minute drive away. Another JET lives there, and as I'm the closest to her and Japanese-competent (she's just started learning), she invited me to go with her to one of her town's restaurants for yakisoba.

She lives in a small town, the sort where your neighbors will ask you about the veggies you got at the grocery store last Friday, and had heard from one of her coworkers that this yakisoba place was THE place to go for yakisoba. So we went, ate, chatted up the couple that mans the grill, nothing too extraordinary.

...Her students have yet to stop asking her about her "boyfriend," and this was a few months ago now! What's more, when I was on a trip with my co-workers one weekend after the fact, we ran into a similar tour group from Wakasa and I was introduced to their principal at one point. "Oh!" He goes. "You're the one that got yakisoba with Marianne-sensei!"

School Culture Festivals

2009-02-25T22:25:00.001-05:00

This was a while back (before the election), but I went to culture day activities for both of my middle schools on consecutive weekends in early November.

The schools were very different in what they put on—while one of my schools had myriad performances (including taiko drumming, koto playing, and, during lunchtime, tea ceremony), the other one centered largely on plays that were put on by both of the 9th grade classes. They were pretty hilarious to follow; both were based off of the well-known American stories, Snow White and Alice in Wonderland (apparently not well-known in Japan), and both had great twists from the students. My personal favorites from each: a scene at the end of Snow White in which the prince and Snow White duke it out with the witch and her henchmen to the battle theme from Final Fantasy 7 (and with similar arrangments of the characters on either side of the stage), and a scene at the start of Alice in Wonderland in which Alice's sister reads her a story—in this case, Spirited Away, as a dozen students run out on stage and act out various scenes simultaneously.

Both schools ended the day with a chorus competition, as each class performs the school anthem and another song of their choosing. I got to help with the judging at one school, and at the other I got to jump in on the singing (which was a unique challenge—sight read music I'd only practiced twice before, in hiragana. I would pick my spots to jump in with full voice, and spent most of the rest of the time following a half-second behind the guy singing next to me in a weaker voice). Events culminated with the best class receiving a prize (mostly bragging rights)…pretty entertaining on the whole.

Obamawesome.

2009-02-25T22:23:00.001-05:00

ALL of my students of course know "Obama" at this point (though I enjoy asking them to tell me his first name: "…ba…la-ku?"), and everybody knows the "Yes we can" chant. It's kind of hilarious and adorable, especially when my elementary school students whip it out on me. Way back when Obama won the election, the following week at an enkai (banquet) my kocho-sensei (principal) ended his toast for the previous day's culture festival with "I know this is supposed to be about culture day, but…'Yes we can!'" and we all toasted to "Yes we can!"

If you're stuck stateside and have any doubts about the man, know that his election = instant credibility in the international community.

Impending graduation...:-(

2009-01-29T05:33:00.000-05:00

Being back in Japan and seeing my students again is a great joy. I left at a point where I was just starting to get really comfortable and settled with my working situation and my students, and I've returned not missing a beat. Students are more comfortable interacting with me, I'm continuing to get to know them (though I must confess, there are still far too many for me to remember all their names) and I feel like we're both getting more out of class--them, more English, and me, more job satisfaction (directly related to the former).

Sadly, the Japanese school year changes at the end of March, which means that all of my san-nensei (3rd year students, or 9th grade in America) will be graduating and moving on to high school (hopefully). As my oldest and most English-competent students, I've perhaps connected with them the most, and will really miss them after they leave (even though Japan's year changes, I am under contract through the summer). On the upside, though, I get to have a fresh start with all of my other students, and I'm especially excited for my elementary school 6th graders, who become middle school 7th graders at one of my schools in the spring (and move from "fun" English games to actual English class).

Winter in Tottori

2009-01-29T05:30:00.001-05:00

I have the great pleasure of living in one of the handful of regions of Japan that actually get snow.

This means that, while I get some GORGEOUS scenery on a daily basis (I'll take and send some pictures next time we get a good snow), ...I also have to deal with the winter.

This means getting ready to go 10-15 minutes early so I have time to scrape my car off, turn on the defroster, heat it up, etc.

This means, on days when there are lots of snow (and at least a few days following), getting ready to go another 10-15 minutes earlier because Japanese roadway management pales in comparison to the quick responses of a New York or New England (but more on efficiency later).

This means, when my first full day back in the country has followed a major snowstorm and happens to be in the midst of another, I show up to work 30 minutes late. Fortunately, I wasn't the only one.

Apparently the amount of snow we've gotten here in Tottori is an unseasonably large amount--I'd heard the first snowstorms were the largest in some five years. One day my students even got the day off, because the trains here weren't running with all the snow (and if you know how good Japan Railways is, you'll know that means there was a LOT of snow)...teachers still had to show up though. Talk about a slow day.

It hasn't all been unfortunate and inconveniencing, though. Like I said, the snow is beautiful, espcially on the mountainsides of the valley I live and work in--more evidence that I need to live somewhere with scenery and four seasons--and of course, snow means skiing! I'll be taking my first trip to Mt. Hyounosen (you'll recall that I hiked up Daisen, "Big Mountain," in the fall (which also has skiing). Hyounosen translates as "Ice Mountain") on Saturday, and couldn't be more excited.

I may dominate 1st graders at Dodgeball...

2008-12-17T21:35:00.002-05:00

...but 3rd graders proved significantly more challenging (I blame the uncatchibility of the ball).

HOWEVER, in soccer my two years of experience hosing slightly older, smarter students at CTY left me very well equipped to handle even 5th and 6th graders.

Last week I played with a big group of boys. Scored one goal, but he highlight came when a ball rolled out of bounds for a goalie kick (they let the goalie punt on a goalie kick, and by "goalie" I mean "anybody").

"Matt-sensei, douzo!"
WHAAAAAM! (ball flies past ALL the kids, easily 2-3x as far as any of their previous kicks)
all: "ooooohhhh! Matt-sensei, Soccer wa tsuyoi (strong)!"

"Cute Eyelashes" Count:

2008-12-17T21:32:00.001-05:00

I'm Huge in Japan.

2008-12-04T05:40:00.004-05:00

Had this exchange today with one of the 7th grade girls at lunch (I eat with the students, and rotate classes):

her: (gestures at eyes)
me: "uh...eyelashes?"
her: "eyelashes, long."
me: "oh, yes..."
her: (turns to friend next to her) "very cute!"
me: (insert quote from Super Troopers about making a dark man blush) "oh...thanks!"
I think she was surprised I heard her. Her friend was all "say you're welcome!" while she was all "no, no!"

It's good to see my students trying to communicate with me. Ah, to be a middle school student...

Thanksgiving in Japan

2008-11-29T20:31:00.002-05:00

We had our mid-year seminar (yes, it's only been 3 months) on Thursday and Friday.

Thursday a bunch of us went out for dinner. Thanksgiving, if you didn't know, is a purely North American (America/Canada) tradition, so we substituted KFC for roast turkey.

I was thankful for "the falling dollar, and the fact that I'm paid in yen."

Summitting the Big Mountain

2008-11-21T07:38:00.002-05:00

On September 27th (yeah, this post is a bit late) I hiked up Daisen. 大"Dai" in Japanese, meaning "Big," and 山"Sen," meaning "Mountain." Last month I hiked up Big Mountain.

Daisen is over 1,700m tall. This sign came about halfway up.

I spent most of the hike in the company of this group--there were many adults, but they can't hang with the youth.

Two JETs, three exchange students. (The one on the right was the ostensible reason for the climb--homestay families and people associated with her high school hiked up the mountain to "welcome" her. Some welcome, eh?)

The weather was absolutely gorgeous. Clear skies, warm (but not hot) day...my co-teacher (who invited me and Josh, the other JET) said that there are maybe a dozen days this good in a given year.

The mountain trail faces the Sea of Japan, so for much of the way up there's a clear view of the water through the breaks in the trees (not to mention the several lookouts).

Trees thinning--approaching the summit...

...and here it is. There's even a summit shack, complete with a vendor (does he stock by helicopter, or does somebody haul cases up a 1,200m hike?).

The requisite picture with the elevation sign.

The way down had some beautiful sunlight-through-the-clouds effects, which I attempted to capture and embellish with photoshop.

The way down also had some steep declines. It never seems as bad going up...

Back at the bottom. Later, Daisen.

My Students

2008-11-21T07:11:00.001-05:00

(Tell Me Why) Ain't Nothin' but a Mistake...

2008-11-17T07:12:00.000-05:00

We did a class week before last with my elective English course where we learned the lyrics to "I Want it that Way," that singular hit by that stellar quintet, the Backstreet Boys. The whole class stemmed from a previous class where, during introductions, one of my students told me she likes "Listening to music."
"What groups do you like?"
"Oh...Backstreet Boys--"
"Oh! Me too!"

My co-teacher, overhearing the conversation, suggested that since we were both such big fans (my student, by the way, is 13. She was 4 or 5 when the song first hit the charts, and even younger when BSB first stepped on the scene) that we should learn a song for class.

Right. So, as an introduction I played the music video for the class on my laptop. Which was all well and good until partway through. One of my students gasps and points at the screen--"Ah, Matt-sensei!"

Who was she pointing at?

Howie.

"Were you a backstreet boy?"
"No."
"Did you quit so you could teach?"
"No."
"And cut your hair after, too?"
"No. Well, I did cut my hair, but. No."
Of course, my stunning rendition of the song, rehearsed through many years of ultimate time-out songs with Dartmouth's Pain Train, did little to convince them otherwise.

Last week in (regular) class, we were doing a phone conversation (students come up with their own skits to act out, with two people making plans to meet somewhere). One of the transcripts looked something like this:

"Hello?"
"Hello. This is ____. Can I speak to ____?"
"Sure, just one moment."
...
"Hi! I'd love to"
"Tell me why"
"I want it that way"
"OK, see you there"
"OK, bye"

If it weren't so patently ridiculous, it would've been great. Or maybe it's great BECAUSE it's patently ridiculous?

The Elementary Schools, or: I Dominate 1st Graders in Dodge Ball

2008-11-16T22:03:00.000-05:00

I visit 3 elementaries on Friday each week (this is why I need a car for work--there's no bus or train schedule flexible enough to accommodate me there). I <3 the elementary schools. My goodness, kids are just wonderfully full of energy (I'm well aware that they can wear on you, but hey, I only see each class once per week--energy stays high there). It's almost enough to make me reconsider pediatrics as a medical specialty. It's a lot more fun than the rest of my week--I'm super busy with all the school visits, but every class is basically a short lead-in (introducing new vocabulary, etc) to playing games in some form or another. Best part is, I get to play too!

When I was first starting, I had a free period at one of the schools and I was invited to join the first graders (yes, first graders) for gym. We played amoeba tag first (I was "it" to start--I'm not sure what was worse, not being able to catch any of them to start or being slowed down by them so much when I finally did get one and had to drag 'em around to get more), and then we played dodge ball.

I know what you're thinking--it must've been a slaughterfest--but I played left-handed so it was merely a massacre instead. Kids got a big kick out of it, though.
"Matt-sensei, sugoi!" (Matt, you're awesome!)

I've also been playing with the kids a fair bit at lunchtimes--I eat with one of the classes each Friday--which has left me rather sweaty for a few of my afternoon classes. Whoops.

Hair

2008-10-07T22:34:00.000-04:00

So, some of you may not know this, but I was asked to cut my hair before I came to work here in Japan.

I went from this:

To this:

Today my supervisors' supervisors (IE, the Tottori Prefectural Board of Education folk--they're obviously above my local BOE, and definitely above my school's teachers) came to observe a class and chat with me a bit--afterwards, talking to one of my supervisors--a prefectural advisor for all of the JETs in Tottori, who, incidentally, was my primary liason before I came and forwarded the original request to cut--relayed to me comments from my Principal: glad he's getting involved, still seems a bit shy, ...man, am I glad he cut his hair!

Apparently my principal had been enraged at the prospect of me coming over with my dreads, and it was in part due to his vocal complaints to the placement service that I wound up hearing that I should cut my hair.

I'm glad my principal is happy with me, instead of really super pissed off.

Visiting in Iwami, Adventuring in Hyogo...

2008-09-23T20:50:00.000-04:00

Sailing the sea of Japan, departing from the Port of Iwami-cho.

The waterfront is often very rocky, but it makes for some great formations.

They're big on squid here. This guy spins and air dries the scallywags.

They sell squid ink (or maybe octopus ink) ice cream. Tastes just like Vanilla, but...

...it blackens the tongue.

Later, we went to the beach, and got to catch a beautiful sunset (as well as throw the frisbee around, which was much needed).

On our way to Takeda castle...but somehow we wound up lost. Adventure, huzzah!

Aha! Found it!

There's many a great view to be had from this mountaintop castle.

Here's the layout of Takeda castle. Totally worth the trip.

Buddhist meditation, mountain climbing, and Soulja Boyin'

2008-09-04T07:24:00.000-04:00

I climbed a mountain and learned about Buddhism this weekend.

Mitokusan (Mt. Mitoku if you got your map in the US) is a fairly easy climb--there's some steep parts where you should probably know a thing or two about climbing to get through easily, but it's farily short--and there are a lot of temples on the way. We (about 40 JETs) slept in one of the temples at the base of the mountain the day before (and had a half-hour session of zazen meditation the morning after), and we were inundated with Buddhist culture and perspectives by the monk who was in charge of us. He gave a few explanations in Japanese, which were likely woefully translated given our translator's continual need to have somebody else in the group translate the specialized Buddhist-related terminology (the "main" translator is French originally, so translating from one second language into another had to have been hard on its own)...at one point we traced what I'm pretty sure is a Buddhist Sutra...which was all chinese characters...it took a while. And we had to do it sitting Japanese-style on our legs, so...well. It took me a good five minutes before I started feeling my feet again after a good 25-30 minutes of focused tracing.

Highlight was definitely the evening--as part of the weekend, we do an "international exchange" with the Japanese there...they do some traditional dances and perform for us, and each of the countries represented by the internationals present (we had the US, England, France, South Africa, and the Phillipines, among others) gave their own performances.

For the US, we did Soulja Boy. Not even kidding. We practiced and introduced it as "a traditional American dance," did the dance, and then proceeded to teach the Japanese...there is video of me doing Soulja Boy with probably an 80-year-old Japanese man behind me. When I can send a link, I shall, but for the meantime you'll have to settle for the picture attached. They actually learned super-quickly, very impressive.'

A package came for me today.

2008-09-03T10:02:00.001-04:00

There was a note inside my door, asking me to let them know when to drop it off again (all in japanese, so I just called the number assuming).

Guy picks up...I explain I can't speak Japanese very well...

He goes, "Oh! gaijin-san!" ("Oh! Mr. foreigner!")

"Hai. gaijin-san desu."

The package was at my door about 5 minutes later.

Rosham Tray

2008-09-02T07:26:00.000-04:00

All you Dartmouth Ultimate people should know that the students do rosham tray here--it's not even a question. Stack the trays, group rosham (Jan-Ken-Pon! Aiko deshou! No primes between throws), loser takes them all up for cleaning.

I'd like to note that I am 1-0 in rosham tray thus far in Japan. ("Rosham" is Rock-Paper-Scissors for the non-ultimate folks on this list.)

Work Impressions, So Far.

2008-09-02T07:25:00.000-04:00

This week has been pretty easy so far--outside of a bit of help for a couple students who are participating in speech contests, and giving a couple classes where I did a more in-depth self-introduction, with Sports Day being this weekend the kids have a reduced class load to begin with and many of these first classes back are actually tests, leaving me with little to do. Far different from the Trips/orientation experience at Dartmouth, no?

Sports Day, incidentally, is a day (Saturday for my middle schools; Sunday for my elementaries) where the various grades compete by homeroom in a variety of activities. Today I got to watch some of the practice--in addition to learning and performing a dance that seems suspiciously like contradancing, I saw them do a giant version of jump rope where the homeroom has to all jump in time to clear the rope (there are about 25 students to a homeroom) and a task that involved handing a ball down a line from one end of the field to the other, with students dashing to the end of the line as soon as they handed off to continue the flow. Pretty entertaining stuff, and actually rather fascinating as far as understanding Japanese culture goes. I'm not sure I can put it all into words just yet, but if I feel sufficiently capable I'll indulge my rambling urges with a long bit on that at a later point.

Some more general work impressions/factoids: the kids all have the same uniform, down to the shoes they wear in class and in the gym. Girls wear the sailor suit, which you might be familiar with; guys wear white collared shirts with long pants. The kids are wonderful by the by--really cute. They're all a little timid and a little intimidated, I think, but in a fascinated kind of way that will lead to some fun connections, I think. In contrast to America, where teachers have their own rooms and the students go to them, in Japan students stay in their homerooms the entire day (outside of going to the gym, or needing to use art supplies, ec) and the teachers come to them. We teachers all share a teacher's room, all the desks organized into a few groups. With few classes and little lesson prep to do at the moment, I've spent most of my time there idly sitting at my desk on my laptop (thank god for the internet!). I can speak a bit of Japanese, which is helping my entering a new community somewhat as the language barrier is not so high as to be insurmountable without the aid of one of the Japanese Teachers of English (JTE's, the teachers who I work with in the classroom)...but I'm still often left to my own devices and wind up bored with some frequency as the rest of the teachers seemingly have a far more vast workload than I. And somehow I get paid more than they do...go figure.

Oh, and so far none of my classes have recognized me with long hair when I show them a picture of me and my family at graduation. And Mom, you and Dad might be pleased to know that, in addition to being very impressed with how young you both are, one kid in my class today mistook Dad for an older brother. Yep.

Skype!

2008-08-31T23:01:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-28T09:41:00.000-04:00

I think her name will be Betty.

The Rice Cooker

2008-08-26T09:34:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-26T08:46:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-25T09:03:00.000-04:00

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.

2008-08-19T03:03:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-14T06:21:00.000-04:00

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.

2008-08-14T05:07:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-11T05:37:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-10T06:45:00.000-04:00

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

2008-08-03T09:03:00.000-04:00

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.