Gleeful Gaijin

A friend of mine from training in Vancouver, James, is flying in tomorrow to stay with me for our New Year's vacation and I have a lot of preparing to do for his arrival... aka cleaning. So of course I am writing in my blog instead! I can bet that anyone who has ever lived with me in the past was not surprised by the previous statement, because I will do just about anything to avoid cleaning. Once I start I really don't even mind that much, as long as there's some good music playing, but just building enough motivation to begin, well, it takes me a while. Don't worry, I'll get it clean before he arrives, it's not even that dirty, because with so little space I can't tolerate too big a mess or I'll go insane.

I'm so excited to have some company for a few days. I still don't really mind living on my own, but having a friend around will be nice. The whole group of us from training, minus one, is planning on meeting up over the next few days and partying together on New Year's so it should be really awesome. I only had room for one person to stay in my apartment because there's so little space, but the other two guys are staying with my friend Jenn who was in training with me and was also placed in Tokyo (I've mentioned her in previous posts). I'm not sure exactly where we are going to go for New Year's but I suspect that we may end up in Roppongi which is well known for its club and bar scene.

On Christmas Eve I went with Jen and some of her co-workers to a pub for dinner in Roppongi. Roppongi is just dripping with foreigners and walking into the pub was sort of like going home for a little while. It looked just like bars you'd see in America, everyone spoke English (the owner was Australian), and the food was a fusion between British and American cooking, so it was quite familiar. Except for one JET (Japanese English Teacher) everyone in my party was either British or American, so it was nice not being the minority for a few hours. The area I live in, Shin-Takashimadaira, is on the outskirts of Tokyo so it's somewhat quiet and secluded and besides my one co-worker I feel like I'm the only foreigner for miles. I've heard that there's another girl who teaches at an Eikawa (English school) down the street from mine, but I have never seen her and I would think she'd be awfully easy to notice! Every time I travel into popular areas, like Roppongi or Shibuya, I get really excited to see anyone who is NOT Japanese and I always want to run up to them and say "HI! I'm American where are you from? Be my friend!" but since they never seem to show any interest in seeing me, I resist the urge. I do believe, however; that some of them really are excited to see me and they're just doing the same thing I am, resisting the urge.

Being a gaijin (foreigner) has its perks though, I'm not going to lie. For one thing, everyone notices you, there's no way around it... and sometimes it's nice to be noticed. My sushi chefs at the revolving sushi place I wrote about a few weeks ago have definitely noticed me. I know it's odd that I refer to them as "my" sushi chefs, but I'm pretty sure they refer to me as "their" white girl, so it's ok. I go there ALL the time, because it's one of the few places that's open after I finish work and because I really love sushi. Last night when I was there they prepared one of my favorite dishes for me before I even ordered it and when the chef sent it over to me he gave me the peace sign, which made me laugh. Plus they gave me a discount so that was nice too. I suspect had I just been a regular Japanese girl the dish and the discount never would have happened.

Alright, I'm going to clean now, or at least that's what I'm going to say. I'll try and write one more December post, but if not, best wishes for everyone in the New Year!

Rudolph's staying home, but I'm not!

I was reading about how this evening, Christmas Eve, Mars is going to be shining bright red and I came upon a very cute rendition of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in which they have changed the lyrics to included Mars in Santa's journey:

Mars is a red-tinged planet
With a very shiny glow
And if you look to see it
You will find the moon in tow.
All of the other Yuletides
Santa would have at his side
The shiny nose of Rudolph
Acting as his big sleigh's guide
But this very Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph, now with Mars so bright,
You can stay at home tonight."
Then all the reindeer teased him.
And they shouted out with glee:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer
Outsourced to astronomy."

Unfortunately, with all the city lights of Tokyo, I most definitely will not be able to see Mars tonight. I am a little disappointed because while I'm no astronomer, I am always up for a cool natural phenomenon. Actually, I can't see the stars anymore at all and it does bother me a little, because this is the first time in my life that I've gone for more than just a few days without seeing them. Stars... I guess they're one of those things you realize are important to you only after you realize they're gone.

In terms of natural phenomenons though, well, I'm still waiting for my first real earthquake. It's okay though, I'm perfectly fine with waiting longer. I've actually been in one earthquake before, when I was going to school in VA, but it was so tiny that it barely counts. Hopefully when I experience one here it will be equally wimpy, because just the concept of an earthquake scares me. People here are immune to earthquakes though, they're just a part of their lives, like stars are a part of mine.

My life, goodness gracious, it's become slightly more complicated since I've arrived in this crazy country, but I think "more complicated" can be equated with "more interesting", so that makes me happy. I went on another date yesterday with a different guy and it was a lot of fun. We ate and walked around and went to the movies. He took me to the Imperial Palace which was really really cool and I'm really really annoyed that I didn't have my camera with me! I'll be going back though, because since today is the Emperor's birthday we were not allowed to actually go as close to the palace as normal since they were making all sorts of preparations. The movies was also an interesting experience for a couple of reasons. First, the theater was absolutely massive, almost like an IMAX theater except the screen wasn't quite so large. The second reason movie going was made more interesting, was the fact that the audience was practically silent throughout the whole film. We went to see National Treasure 2, which includes a character whose sole role in the movie is to act as comic relief. Now because the movie was in English with Japanese subtitles, it's obvious that some of the lines would not translate as being funny in Japanese because of idioms or culturally significant plays on words, but this audience NEVER laughed, not even at the physical humor which does not require any translation whatsoever. It was bizarre, but at the same time sort of cool, because it kind of felt like it was my own personal movie that only I could understand... my date laughed too though, so I didn't feel like a complete dork.

Well, I am meeting up with friends tonight for a Christmas Eve dinner, so I must get ready and I must take out more money from the bank. I get paid on Wednesday though, so it's all good!!!! To all my Christian friends and all my agnostic/athiest friends who celebrate anyways, have a ridiculously Merry Christmas! To all my Jewish friends and family, enjoy your Chinese food!

Short and sweet

I know I mentioned it once before, but I would now like to pledge my undying love for the 100 yen shop. The place seriously rocks my world and is possibly one of my favorite things about Japan. Any time I need anything, it's there. The name of the store near me is quite appropriately named Can-do, and yes they can! What can they do? They can provide me with a spatula, salt, chopsticks, a cute scarf, and a soap dish for the equivalent of $5. They can also provide me with endless amusement, primarily through the genius pictures and sayings displayed on their postcards. I did not discover them until today, but oh my goodness, the postcards alone make the entire store worthwhile. To get an idea of how incredible they are you will need to use your imagination. First, imagine a picture of a hamster or a piglet or maybe a smiling cake, next think of a cute phrase like "You're a great friend. I love you a lot," and finally take out two or three words from the previous phrase, e.g. " You're a friend. I love you lot." That is basically what every single one of the 20 to 30 postcards is like... I can't wait to send them to people!

I would also just like to mention that tonight is truly a monumental occasion, because for the first time since I've been in this country I cooked! EGGS! I know how exciting this must be for all of you, but really, it's kind of a big deal to me. Cooking in my own apartment makes it feel... real and more like home and even though I don't think I could ever really consider this place "home" it does make it feel a few steps closer to the real thing.

Hunkering, turnips, and kisses

Last night was our school's Christmas party/my welcome party/the old teacher's farewell party. It was a lot of fun and nice being with my students and co-workers in a more social atmosphere. I also had the chance to meet a few new people, including a teacher who taught at my school a year or two ago and a friend of the teacher who I'm replacing (he had just flown in from Australia that day!). Overall it was a rather pleasant evening, but there was one particular moment that caught me off guard. Towards the end of the party I was randomly kissed by my co-worker. Now, I want to make it clear that normally I would not share details about this sort of thing, but this was so bizarre that I felt it was an acceptable topic to write about. We were in the restaurant with a bunch of our students, I walked over to join the group of people talking in the back, and basically it went something like this...

Co-worker: Oh, I'll kiss Leila!
Me: Ummmm...
Leila grins nervously, co-worker kisses Leila, people take pictures... ok then.

It was definitely not something I had envisioned happening at all, let alone at a school function, but I didn't really mind too much. I discovered afterwards that he basically kisses everyone once he's had enough to drink, in fact he'd kissed at least 5 or 6 of the people that were standing there when it happened (including some of the business men). He's also pretty damn cute, so who am I to complain? The other thing is that I know had this same thing happened to me a few years ago I would have been mortified. Knowing that I've gained enough confidence to handle a reasonably awkward situation with grace makes me feel good about myself. Later my co-worker actually did apologize for putting me on the spot like that and I said it wasn't a big deal, because it wasn't. Still, I do want a copy of that picture!

A bunch of us went out to sing karaoke after the party and that was also a good time. I forgot to mention in my earlier posts that there is a karaoke place under the school I work for. By under I mean, we're on the 5th floor, karaoke is on the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, so when I take the elevator up to work everyday, I always hear people singing very badly as I'm rising to the top. We ended up renting a room at that place. For those of you who are unaware, karaoke is done a little differently in Japan from the way it's usually done in the U.S. Instead of having just one karaoke machine at the front of the bar, you rent a little private room with your friends and order food and drinks over a phone in the room. To make things even more interesting at this specific location, every time a song finished our karaoke machine forced us to play a game before we could move on to the next song. And what was the game? Find the turnip. Yeah, I'm serious. There was a little hand that you could move over three stems in a garden and once you chose one, the stem would spring up and it would either be the prized turnip or a variety of other bizarre images ranging from egg plants to golden muscle men. Whoever created the game (and decided to install it on the karaoke machine) had some serious issues and had taken some serious drugs. After a few hours of karaoke I got really tired. It was 2:30 am and thanks to some hellish nightmares over the past few days, I hadn't gotten much sleep, so I was the first to leave. Everyone else stayed until 5 in the morning, so I'm glad I didn't try to stick it out, since I had to be at the kids Christmas party by 10 am this morning... ughhh.

Today after the kids party I met up with my friend Jen in an area called Roppongi. We walked around a very modern and beautiful building complex called Roppongi Hills, that has a bunch of very posh stores and restaurants. We couldn't really afford to go in any of them, but it was nice to dream. Speaking of dreams, I'm ridiculously tired, so I think I'm going to hunker down and watch a movie and then go to sleep (I really just wanted to use the word "hunker" because I've never actually written it in a sentence before.) Hunkering will commence now.

Hanko crazy love... I crack myself up

So I realize it's been a few days since my last post and that may have been distressing to those of you who have made checking this blog part of your daily internet routine, so I apologize. I don't want to write just for the sake of writing though, that's boring... I need material! I got some today though, so no worries! Wow... that last sentence sounded very Australian... Anyway! While walking to work today I made a new discovery. I hadn't noticed it before because of the route I usually take to work. Normally, I go through the park for the first half of the walk and then veer off onto the sidewalk, but today because it had rained the night before and I didn't want to walk through the wet leaves, I decided to go around the park instead. That's when I noticed them... the nappers. All along the side of the road were parked cars and in just about every one of them was a sleeping man. Most of the cars were still running, probably because it was a little nippy out and they didn't want to freeze their asses off. I can't explain how bizarre it was to walk past car after car and see business men sleeping out there on the side of a park in the middle of the day. It was 12:30 in the afternoon! While it was kind of funny to see all these guys napping it up on the side of the road, it was also a little sad. How hard must they be working for all of them to find it necessary to take naps during their lunch break? I get exhausted just thinking about it. The Japanese people as a whole are very hard workers. My manager only gets one day off a week and she never complains, well, at least not in English.

Speaking of my manager, she took my out today to pick up my hanko and gaijin card! I know most of you are probably wondering what on earth those are. Well, my lovely friends, they are what make me an official resident of Japan for the next year! Yay! A hanko (mine is shown in the picture below) is what Japanese people use in place of a signature. It's a little stamp with Kanji (Chinese symbols also used in Japanese) representing a persons name and it is usually, if not always, stamped in red ink. I love my hanko and I got a little red case for it that comes with a tiny little stamp pad inside of it. It's soooo cool, definitely going down as one of the coolest souvenirs ever! It's extremely cultural and very personal at the same time, since it's my name spelled out with the Kanji. I asked my manager if the Kanji meant anything, she said not really, but the -la part of my name means "Good". I like that... good is good! The gaijin card is required to do a number of things here in Japan. Gaijin are foreigners, so it translates to foreigner card, and basically it's our official form of identification while we're living here. I need it to do all sorts of things, for example, open a bank/post office account (post offices also function as banks here) or join a gym. I'm going tomorrow to open my account, so that when I get my first paycheck, I actually have somewhere to put the money. I guess that will be my hanko's first official use... I'm very excited!

An amazing weekend

This weekend basically ruled. I had so much fun... enough fun to make up for the fact that I lost a lot of sleep while having all that fun! It started off calm, I slept in on Sunday and went and got some food from Jolly Pasta which is a restaurant directly across from my apartment and is a Japanese attempt at Italian food. I, however, have dubbed it "Japitalianese" because it is really nothing like what most people would consider Italian food to be. Most of their dishes revolved around sea food, but I did find spaghetti and meat sauce, so that made me happy. Then I got ready and headed off to an area called Ueno (sounds like wayne-oh) to meet up for the Higashi Kanto area Teacher's End of the Year Party... yeah, I know that's a ridiculously long title for a party but it also sums up the purpose of it pretty well. I saw my friends Jenn and James from training and some of the sub teachers who helped me out during the first couple of weeks. I also met some new people which was cool. The place we went was very very nice and we were seated in a big private room around 2 giant tables. For the price of 4300 yen (about $43) We got a five or six course meal and unlimited drinks, but the best part was that there was a big karaoke screen at the front of the room so we got to sing karaoke while we were eating and drinking! I sang a couple of songs on my own and joined in on a bunch of them. The room was only rented for about two hours so after that the whole group had to leave and find something else to do. Most of the other teachers decided to sing at a karaoke place across the street, but six of us decided to head off to the area where Jenn lives and find something to do there instead. It was Me, Jenn, James, my sub teacher (aka my boss), another sub teacher (I think he would also be considered my boss), and this really sweet girl named Eimilly who I met through Jenn because they interviewed together in San Francisco.

We ended up at a very cute bar with a rustic Caribbean atmosphere. It was fun and at one point we joined a table with some Japanese customers who lived in the area. They were very nice and it was cool talking to them, but we needed to leave a little earlier than planned because there was some sort of an issue between one of my friends and another guy at the bar and it got a little tense. We stopped at a convenience store where Eimilly bought more snacks than any of us could ever have possibly eaten, even on empty stomachs, and then we went to this little place that Jenn really likes. It was kind of like a cross between a Japanese bar and an American diner and since it was rather late by that time (maybe 3 am or so) we were the only customers there and the guy was super nice and gave us free food. Finally, we all headed back to Jenn's place to crash for a while. In Tokyo the trains stop at midnight and don't start back up again until 5 am, so we all had decided long ago that we were going to be spending the night at Jenn's. We hung out for a while, played a couple of stupid drinking games, and then I tried to sleep because I was obviously quite tired by that point. James was a jerk and tried to freak Eimilly and I out with scary stories, but he didn't really get to me (he got to Eimilly though).

In the morning when we all woke up (it took some of them a while) the six of us headed to Shibuya, a very trendy area of Tokyo with lots of really good shopping. The first thing we did when we got there was eat because we were all hungry! We went to this really wonderful burger place where they practically put an entire avacado on my avacado burger... soooo good! The actual reason we came to Shibuya was so that I could buy a cell phone, so after lunch we headed to Softbank, a big cell phone company in Japan. I was a little nervous that they wouldn't be able to sell me a phone because I had a different document from the one that they wanted, but it worked out and I am now the proud owner of a freakin' awesome Japanese phone (pictures below)!!! You guys might think that cell phones are popular in America, but you can't even begin to understand just how obsessed with phones the Japanese are! And they have a right to be because their phones are soooo cool! You can do everything on them. You get an actual email address for your phone, you can check train schedules and routes, get money conversion rates, there is an English/Japanese dictionary, a camera and video funtion, EVERYTHING! All of us, except for my sub teacher, then went to Harajuku and spent forever wandering through the beautiful Yoyogi Park before we realized we'd gone in the complete wrong direction. Jenn and I are going to return to Yoyogi Park on a Sunday because that's when the people dress up in their crazy street fashion, e.g. Lolita's, Gothic Lolita's, anime characters, etc. and all gather in the park to show off their outfits. I'm really excited to see that, I think it's going to be pretty wild! We finished the day off on a main street of Harajuku with Udon (a kind of think noodle), Crepes, and an enormous 100 yen shop where I bought decorations for my apartment.

I'm tired now, but I can't tell you how glad I am to have had the chance to hang out with all my new friends this past weekend. I have been slightly caught off guard by the friendship I am forming with my sub teacher. On one hand he's just a really chill guy who's funny and is just like everyone else; he drinks, he swears, he talks about crazy stuff that you would never discuss in a classroom, and on the other hand he determines whether or not I keep my job. It freaks me out a little, but he straight out told me that he hopes to be my friend, and as I mentioned in a previous post, friends are always a good thing to have.

Hoping this will work...

Hey guys sorry for the delay on the apartment videos, but I've been having some major internet issues. Hopefully they will be fixed sometime soon. I ran out of time with the first video (starts with a brown background) so there are two. I'm going to write an actual post right after this, so make sure to read that too!!

The cat came back, the very next day

Last night as I was walking past the first house on the street I live on, I saw a cat. I know that's not really so exciting, but this was actually the first cat I'd seen in Japan so I was slightly surprised. I kissed to it but it ran off, so I just kept walking, not really thinking much of it. Then this morning as I walked past the same house I saw a little old woman holding a box. The box was filled with bright yellow blankets with ropes tied around them and sticking out of the blankets was the cat's head. Don't worry, the cat was alive, but it was very tightly bundled and I was very confused as to why the woman would be carrying a bundled cat down the road. We were both walking in the same direction and I kept glancing over at her to see what on earth she was doing. I was afraid she was going to leave the poor cat tied down on a street corner or something. We both headed into the park and she walked into a big field, still holding the cat. As I paralleled her on the path I was walking on, she stopped in the middle of the field, so I stopped too. She put the box on the ground and I held my breath, sure that she was going to turn around and walk away... but she didn't. Instead, she lay down newspaper, took off her shoes, and sat down next to the cat. The woman had brought her cat out for a sun bath in the park; it was possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen. Even though Tokyo is very different from my home, there always seems to be something here that makes me smile.

picture of the lovely park shown below:

A sushi story

Tonight, after work, I stopped by the little revolving sushi place near my school to get a quick bite to eat and in turn had the coolest "sushi experience" of my life. It all happened as a result of the fact that I am the most clueless of all the clueless Americans in Japan. It seemed perfectly normal to me to reach out and take a plate of tempura off the revolving tray, what did not seem normal was how the man I was sitting next to kept glancing back and forth at me and my plate. Never the less, I finished the sushi I had ordered and was about to move on to the tempura when the man said something to me in Japanese. I obviously had no idea what he was saying, but he was gesturing toward my food and that didn't seem like a good thing. Thirty seconds later four people where all speaking to me in Japanese and vigorously shaking their heads at my tempura. What I soon came to realize was that the tempura had been going around in circles for a very long time and all these lovely people had just stopped me from eating some extremely cold food. The chef cooked me up a new batch and while I waited the man sitting next to me and his wife/girlfriend started talking to me. It was quickly established that I had no idea what they were saying, so they started talking to me in a mix of Japanese and very broken English. I could make out maybe 25% of what they said, but I made out enough to realize that they wanted to share their sake with me. For those of you who don't know, sake is a kind of warm Japanese wine. I'd never had it before, but oh my goodness, it's freakin' strong! Even on a full stomach and just 3 or 4 cups (the cups are tiny, smaller than shot glasses) I could definitely feel it. I was shocked to see that the man had already finished about 4 bottles before sharing with me... actually, I imagine the 4 bottles had something to do with his extremely social and friendly disposition. The couple weren't the only ones talking to me though, periodically a man on the other side of the sushi bar would shout something over. Apparently he was 44 years old and lived in Portland, Oregon for a year.

What I thought was going to be a quick snack turned into a very cool and culturally educational experience. I not only learned to beware of late night revolving food, but I was also taught the correct time and way to get more green tea, and not to drink municha, Japanese cold tea, because it's gross. I also discovered that Japanese people like John Wayne and Marilyn Monroe, but figuring out that they actually said Marilyn Monroe can be a bit of a challenge. At some point the man next to me said "the chef says you're ... insert Japanese word here..." as his wife said "beautiful, beautiful"... I'm not sure why the sushi chef would be saying I'm beautiful, or if that's even what he actually said, but hey, I'll take a little self-esteem booster along with my healthy dose of culture! As I finally got up to go, my new sushi friends bid me farewell and called out "See you next week"... you can bet that I will totally be there.

I love my home and I love my meat!

I have my own apartment!!! I'm seriously ecstatic over this little place, it's so awesome. Don't get me wrong, it's still freakishly small, but it's very new and modern and bright and mine! I thought I might be afraid to live out here on my own, but so far I'm really loving it(I'm counting the Weekly Mansion as part of that statement). Yes, living alone can be lonely, but I spend so much time around people at work that it's nice to just have some time to relax and be somewhere private. I went out today and bought some apartment essentials from the 100 yen shop... I'm really starting to worship that store. It's like a dollar store, but on crack, and I am totally addicted. It's truly got just about anything you could possibly want, all for 100 yen, which converts to roughly a dollar. I bought toilet paper, a trash can, tea lights (it's the closest I could come to Hannukah candles), an alarm clock... the list goes on. The only bad part was schlepping all the stuff I bought back to my apartment, but I figure I could use the exercise. Luckily, I'll be getting a little exercise every day since my apartment is about a 10-15 minute walk from my school. The walk, by the way, is wonderful. I live about 1/4 of a mile from a really lovely park with lots of trees and a big fountain in the center and I get to walk through it on my way to work everyday! It's an especially nice walk now because autumn is actually just hitting Tokyo at the moment, so all the trees' leaves are turning yellow and blowing around in the air. I love the fall, but I never thought I'd get to experience it twice in one year!

Now I'm sure some of you are wondering about the date I mentioned, so I will follow up on that a little bit. The guy I went out with, Hiro, was very nice and interesting. We went to a traditional Japanese style bar, but by American standards it was a restaurant. The bar was very nice and big, it had three different floors! We were seated at a sort of secluded booth on the third floor and every table had a little touch screen that you could place your orders on... it was very futuristic. We had some food and drinks and just talked for a while and it was fun. I don't know if I'm going to pursue anything beyond friendship with him, but either way, a friend is a good thing to have. Especially a Japanese friend! We're going to meet up again at some point and I'm going to do my best to show him around my neighborhood, Shintakashimadaira, (try saying that 5 times fast) since he's not familiar with the area.

I also went out last night with my co-workers to... god, I can't remember what it's called in Japanese... but it's a sort of Japanese BBQ where you get to cook your own meat. OH MY GOSH, it was sooooo delicious. We ate and ate and ate, and I totally could have eaten more! Man, I really do love meat.

Yakuza, ya crazy!

Well, I haven't done too much this weekend, primarily due to laziness, but yesterday I did force myself to go out for a little while and check out Ikebukuro, the electronics district (shown in picture). I'm not sure if it was because I got off at the wrong end of the train station or if I just wasn't looking hard enough, but it actually took me a little bit of time before I found a big electronics store. What I did find where lots and lots of arcades and pachinko parlors. For those of you unfamiliar with pachinko machines, they are like a cross between a pinball machine and a slot machine and they are ridiculously loud! You can you hear the pachinko parlors for practically a half a mile before you actually walk by them, which means you can almost always hear them because they are all over Tokyo. The really weird thing about pachinko is that because gambling in Japan is technically illegal you can't win money from the actual pachinko parlors. What you do win is a prize like a pen or a stuffed animal, but then you step outside the parlor, turn a corner, go to this little shop, and abracadabra your pen is suddenly worth $1,000 and they are happy to buy it off of you. Yeah, I told you it was weird. What's also pretty weird is that most of these pachinko parlors are run by the Yakuza, which is essentially the Japanese mafia, but no one seems to care.

Speaking of the Yakuza, you all may be interested to know that I am personally affected by them. And you want to know why? Because I have a one inch tattoo on my back. Oh my goodness, call the authorities. Traditionally in Japan only members of the Yakuza have tattoos, so having a tattoo is a sign of criminality and extremely frowned upon here. People with tattoos are often not allowed in public pools or Onsen, the Japanese hot springs, and it's particularly tricky to get around this in the Onsen because everyone is completely naked (it's separated by gender). Now, I understand being a little suspicious of a Japanese man with a full body tattoo or a sleeve, but come on, do I really look like I could be a member of the Japanese mafia? I think not, but you never know, maybe I'm a hardened criminal at heart.

A better day!

It's my weekend! YAY!!!! Well, today was also long, but it went a lot better than yesterday. Despite the fact that I have not been overjoyed by my trainer's criticism, I have tried to use at least some of the advice he's given me to improve my classes and apparently it's worked to an extent because I received far less negative feedback today. There was just one lesson that I completely bombed because I misjudged the student's English level. The lesson I planned was just way too difficult for him and I ended up having to improvise a lot of it which was not easy. My last lesson of the day is amazing though, well really it's not a lesson, it's an hour of conversation with 3 really sweet women. In my classroom I have a map of the world that his push pins marking all the places that I have been and one of the women asked about the Israel pin (she thought I'd been to Saudi Arabia). Obviously my Israel trip led to the fact that I'm a Jew so they spent a good portion of the time asking me questions about my being Jewish. There are very very few Jews in Japan so very little is known about Judaism here and it's nice being able to educate people who want to know more about my culture. One of the women, Kiko, is having her birthday soon, so after the Jew talk we had cake that my trainer bought and it was just a nice end of the day.

Kiko got a cake, but I actually also received a present today! The other NET (Native English Teacher) at the school bought me alcohol! No, I'm not joking. We had been talking about this drink called Chuhai yesterday, so he bought me 3 cans of it, each one a different flavor (I intend to try them once this blog is finished). It's a kind of fruity drink and there are a gazillion flavors, the ones he got me include Watermelon Pineapple Cranberry; Orange Passion Fruit, and.... purple... yeah, that one seems a little iffy. Well, I'll give it a try. I took a picture of the cans, so now if you come to Japan you'll have no trouble spotting the booze section of the convenience store. I have also posted a picture of the beer vending machine conveniently located in the lobby of my hotel (don't worry, I have not actually used the beer machine). I'm not kidding when I say the Japanese seriously love drinking. I've had multiple students list it when I've asked them about their hobbies/things they like to do. I have not yet gone out with any of the staff or students, but I think it will definitely be interesting. In training they told us that if we go out with our students we better be the last to puke!

This weekend I'm not sure what I'm doing, well besides sleeping that is! I think I may try and brave the trains to go to a more central area of Tokyo like Rippongi Hills (high end shopping district) or Ikebukuro (electronics district). It should be an adventure either way so I'll write soon to let you know how it goes!

P.S. Thank you again for all the comments they really helped to improve my mood and to Jen yours was especially uplifting, but I'm not actually sure which Jen you are because I know about 5 or 6, so if you could let me know I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

Today was... long. It was my first day of doing lessons all on my own and I'm tired! I'm also frustrated and feeling very tense (literally, I can feel it in my muscles and my neck). I just want to do a good job as a teacher. I want my students to like me and for them to actually learn and all I hear from the teacher who is training me is everything I'm doing wrong. I know he's trying to give me advice and constructive criticism, but a little positive feedback would be nice too. I don't know... I know I'm probably just being too sensitive, but I'll finish a lesson thinking that it went pretty well and then as soon as it's finished he'll tell me all of the mistakes I made and the things I should have done differently. I just can never seem to do anything right in his eyes, but the crazy part is there were a number of things he did during lessons that seemed wrong or unnecessary to me! To be honest, even though he has helped me tremendously in familiarizing me with the school and the neighborhood, I'll be sort of glad when he's gone and I can just figure all of this out on my own without worrying about being judged by him.

There's also the issue of my age. When I applied for this job I thought that most of the other teachers would be about the same age as me but I was wrong, they're all older than me and I just feel very young and stupid... and I think people have been seeing me that way, even though I'm trying my hardest to be mature and professional. I have classes teaching middle aged Japanese business men who have gone from having a very self assured 35 year old teacher who has already had a successful career as a commercial pilot and is about to open his own film making company, to me, the 22 year old female college graduate. I feel like I'm a joke to them.

I'm sorry to complain to all of you, and I promise not to make a habit of this, I just got off the train today and this was all just running through my head. I just keep trying to remind myself not to take this job too seriously, because what I really came here to do was experience a new place and a new culture. Tomorrow is Saturday (I work Saturdays) but then it's my weekend and I know all of you will be excited to know that I have what I think would be considered a date on Monday evening. Yeah, see reading to the end was worth it right?! I don't really tend to do this often, but I met this man through a website called gaijinpot.com (gaijin means foreigner in Japanese). We've emailed a bit and even though he is Japanese, he's been all over the world... even to Connecticut! For those of you who are freaking out at this point about the whole online thing, don't worry I will be very careful and use common sense. So that's about it, I'll keep you guys up to date on what happens... well to a point. Thanks to those of you who've been leaving comments, I really do enjoy reading them and I suspect that I may receive a few after this post!

What's really going on...

Two days down! Over the last couple of days I have just observed the teacher I will be replacing, but today I get to teach my first real lesson. I'm pretty excited, but a little nervous of course. Since I've started working and observing the teachers at my school I've come to realize a couple of things. First of all, everything at our school is a lot more laid back and less structured than what they taught us in training. For instance, when I was at training we had daily dress code inspections to make sure we weren't wearing anything that would be considered inappropriate in Japan. Then I got to my school and the men never wear their jackets in the lobby (which was pounded into our heads during training), one of my male co-workers has an earing (another big no-no), and the first time I met the co-worker with the earing he took one look at me and said "Wow! You look so professional!". Well, yeah... I thought we were all supposed to look like that! But hey, I'm all for a more relaxed atmosphere and since he's been teaching for three years I figure he knows what he's doing.

Another major difference is the lesson plans. During training we were taught a very specific format for creating and teaching our lessons, I've come to find that this structure is also a lot more relaxed. The teacher who is training me never writes anything down on the board or on paper for the students to see. I find this frustrating at times because some people are visual learners and need to see the differences in what is being taught rather than just hearing the differences explained to them. I personally learn better by seeing information laid out in front of me, if you tell it to me I'll zone out and get confused. So basically, I need to figure out a way to mold what I've been taught in training to what the previous teacher does and what I want to do so that the students aren't completely weirded out (or bored) by the way I teach, but still learn in the best way possible. I think it's going to take a little time to figure out, but that's okay, I've got time.

I'm going to go out with my co-workers sometime in the next few days so I'm excited about that. When I went with my manager to get a thing called a gaijin card (foreinger card) she turned to me in the elevator and asked "Do you like meat???" for those of you who know me well, you all know the answer to that question, for those of you who don't, the answer is YES. I guess they're going to bring me to some sort of Japanese BBQ place to eat and, more importantly, drink (at least it's more important by Japanese standards).

Well, it's time for me to get ready for work. Today I'm going to bring my camera with me to the school because there are a few ridiculous things I need to take pictures of to post here. Until then, I hope you all have a fabulous night or day depending on your time zone!

Video of my Hotel Room

The Story of Pleasant Animals

For anyone who has ever lived with me or just witnessed my sleeping habits, you know that I am the kind of girl who will happily sleep until 2 in the afternoon if given the chance. Things now, however, are very different thanks once again to this stupid time change. For the past 3 days I have not been able to stay up past 9 pm and sleep past 6 am and it is driving me freakin' crazy! This would not be too big a deal if it weren't for the fact that my work hours are 1 - 10 pm, so basically by the end of today (my first work day) I'm going to be dead... good thing I'm writing this now!

With so much daytime on my hands I did get some good exploring in yesterday. On Sunday I took a right out of my hotel, so yesterday I decided to explore what was to the left. I walked down the main road, Kananna-dori, for a while (I live along side a highway); went down a few side streets and turned around so I wouldn't get lost; and then, being very careful to remember land marks, made a few turns and ended up accidentally doing a big loop back onto Kananna-dori. I went into a couple of convenience stores to try and buy a hairbrush (the airline baggage handlers broke mine in half) and discovered that finding normally sized hairbrushes in Japan is tricky. I also discovered that the Japanese eat corn dogs, in addition to a number of foods that I did not recognize. I'm not sure if you guys knew this, but 7-11 originated in Japan, so there are lots of them and then a bunch of strangely named stores that are just like 7-11 and they all smell really strange! Like a mix between fishy foods and chemicals... actually, a lot of the streets in Tokyo smell like this too. Sometimes you luck out and the street just smells like good food, but more often than not it's that strange fishy-chemical smell... or sewage. Putting smells aside though, walking the streets in Japan can be quite amusing. At one point I saw a sign that said: "Hair - Rose or Lose". Ummm, what does this mean? I don't think we'll ever know. I also bought from one of the 5 million convenience stores what may be the most amazing notebook ever, I have put a picture of it at the bottom. The cover of it makes about as much sense as the Hair sign, but that's why I love it (plus it was cheap and notebooks always come in handy).

Finally, I turned around and headed back toward my hotel. Despite lots of walking, most of the restaurants I saw looked sketchy or didn't have pictures in their menu's, so I decided to eat at the same place I ate the first day because it was very good and well priced. I forgot to mention this before, but eating out in Japan isn't really more expensive than buying food from a grocery store because the food is priced about the same and you never tip in Japan. When I say never I mean never, not for servers, taxi drivers, delivery people... no one. And if you try to tip anyway, basically they'll get confused and try to give your money back. It's nice, but at the same time, even though I know it's not expected, I feel kind of guilty not leaving anything.

That's about all I can think to write at the moment. Just so you all know, once work starts (that means today) I probably won't be writing in this every day, but I'll do my best. I'm pretty nervous about starting at the school so please keep your fingers crossed for me that everything goes smoothly... oh and feel free to leave comments, I love comments. I'll write soon, take care.

Small print says:

Please have a wonderful time with this notebook.
The story of pleasant animals.

Here at Last

Well, after months of waiting I have finally arrived in Japan. It has been an exhausting, and at times overwhelming, process and I think it will continue to stay that way. I'm really relieved to know at least 1 person in Tokyo and to have made some friends who are scattered about Japan thanks to training. The night before we left 4 of us went out and it was just a really good time with some really awesome people (picture 1 and 2), so I hope we stay connected over the next year.

So now for what I'm sure you're all actually interested in... Japan! Well, to start things off, Japanese Airlines is totally amazing, each seat is equipped with a detachable remote control that lets you scroll through a menu with music, movies, and a bunch of video games to choose from on the screen in front of you. They also have storage departments by the window and hand out warm cloths at the beginning and end of the flight. I've never had a more enjoyable flying experience. We also flew over Alaska, so the view was absolutely spectacular (picture 3).
When we arrived at Narita (the airport) the 6 of us met Rita, the Sub Teacher who was picking us up. We split up from there and half of us went with Rita while the other half stayed at Narita to catch another flight. We took a train into Tokyo where I went with Rita and the other 2 were sent to meet other trainers/teachers. Rita and I took another train to the school that I will be teaching at. At the school I met my manager and the teacher whom I will be replacing. The school was kind of different from how I imagined it, which shouldn't have really surprised me because nothing ever turns out the way I imagine. It was very long and narrow which, according to the previous teacher, is pretty much how most places are in Tokyo... the long and narrow statement is supported by the dimensions of my hotel room/temporary apartment which is not only long and narrow, but also extremely small. It seemed like ages before we finally arrived at my hotel, partially because we stopped to eat, but mostly because it's ridiculously far way from my school. Luckily, the reason I'm staying at this crappy little place is because I will be moving into a brand new apartment on Dec. 4 and it's just not ready yet. When we arrived at my hotel (Weekly Mansion) it was discovered that the room hadn't actually been paid for yet by my company. Thank goodness I had a lot of cash on me so I was able to pay for it. I will be reimbursed on Tuesday when I return to the school for classes so it's not too big a deal and I actually end up not having to pay for 10 days worth of rent which is excellent.

In just the one day that I have been here I have already seen some pretty interesting things and had some unique, and at times frustrating, experiences. First of all, I have come to learn that it is not unusual to see people walking around wearing doctor's masks, even some children and teenagers wear them. They're meant to just keep the wearers healthy, and those around them too I suppose, but I'm not going to lie, I find something about these masked people rather disturbing. I was informed that some of my students will probably wear them during class, so that's definitely something I'm going to have to adjust to. I also completely freaked out this morning when I could not for the life of me shut the window to my room. I had just opened it so that I could take pictures of my view (picture 4) but when I went to close it the thing would not budge. Since the receptionist last night had not spoken English I assumed that I would not be able to explain what had happened to the front desk. As it turned out, the receptionist this morning did speak English and when she came up to "fix it" I discovered that you just had to push down on the metal bar that attached the window to the ledge. I have never in my life seen a window like this and even though I ended up looking like an idiot, I am relieved that I did not actually break the window and end up having to pay for it. The most frustrating part of the whole experience though was being unable to communicate what was wrong. Being unable to speak the language makes you feel completely and utterly helpless... it's scary. But you know what, scary is okay sometimes.
Today I went and walked around the neighborhood a bit and got a bite to eat at a local restaurant. A lot of restaurants here have fake food displays in their front windows and lots of pictures in their menus so I can just point at what I want. I also walked around a grocery store and bought some band aids and a mini christmas cake (a strawberry and cream cake). I know it's a little strange, but I really love going to grocery stores in different countries. I like seeing what we do and don't have in common in terms of eating and shopping. The bakery was actually very similar to one I went to in Mexico. All the breads and pastries are out in the open and you go around with a tray and tongs and choose the ones you want. Well it's pretty early, but I'm getting tired thanks to that lovely littl thing called jet lag, so I'll leave you with this delightful package of gum that I sat on when I got on a bus last night (picture 5). Goodnight, I love you all.

First Day of Training

Well, 1 day down, 3 to go... so far so good. I'm rooming with 2 girls, Jen and Caitlin, who to my surprise are actually somewhat older than me. Plus, you're not going to believe this, but Caitlin went to Mary Washington... my college! But she graduated like 4 or 5 years before I even started... still I think that's pretty freakin' weird. I met my other roommate, Jen, within the first 5 minutes that I arrived at the hotel last night, she was sitting in the lobby using her laptop and she actually recognized my name when I checked in so she introduced herself. She's from Queens and she's very nice. Besides us girls, there are 3 guys who are doing the training with us. They are all very nice and one of them, Dele, was part of my group interview from when I went to Toronto in August. He's a good guy and I'm a little disappointed that he's been placed in Southern Japan, which is kind of far from Tokyo. Today wasn't too bad in terms of training, kind of basic stuff, all taught by a really nice girl named Wendy who just started working for the Vancouver office (she was a teacher/trainer in Japan for 4 years). Tomorrow the head honchos, my actual employers, will be taking over and I suspect it will be a little more challenging.
Well, time to go eat and do a bunch of reading and paperwork that half of us forgot to do. I'll write more in a few days... a bunch of us have planned to go out for Thanksgiving, even the Canadians, so I'll probably fill you in after that. (I ALTERED THIS BLOG for reasons of confidentiality).

No, this is not a joke.

So basically, I work for the most indecisive company in the history of the world. That's right ladies and gentlemen, 2 days before my departure for training and I have been moved back to Tokyo once again. I'm at a different school than my original Tokyo placement and on a different side of the city (west instead of east). I'm not going to lie, I am not particularly thrilled about this change because Urayasu City seemed pretty wonderful, but so be it, that's life. I haven't looked up my new school yet, but it is called Takashima Baira and it is in downtown Tokyo in a section called Itabashi. So that's my big news for the week, hopefully it'll be the only news, but do not be surprised if I leave a post on Monday explaining how I have been re-assigned to Timbuktu, because at this point I wouldn't really be that shocked.

Change of plans... again!!!

Oh my goodness, it's hard to believe, but just two weeks before my departure my plans have been changed again! I'm still leaving for my training and for Japan at the same time, but my placement has been changed... I'm no longer teaching in Tokyo! I've been reassigned to a school in Urayasu City called Shin-Urayasu (New Urayasu). Urayasu City is only 10-20 minutes outside of downtown Tokyo by train and it's where Tokyo Disneyland is located... even though it's not actually Tokyo. I'm really excited about this switch because I was pretty freaked out about living in such an extremely Metropolitan area, this city is far smaller (more similar in size to Hartford if you're familiar with CT). It was originally a fishing village so it's on the coast and has a sort of Japanese version of Mystic Seaport (sorry to those of you who don't understand the CT references). The old fishing section is split off from the newer section called Shin-Urayasu, which is what my school's named after, and it was only developed/established in 1981 so it's very new and popular with families. This website has some more information about it if you're interested: http://elidun.googlepages.com/urayasu-index

Now I'm just crossing my fingers that there will be no more changes because this placement seems pretty perfect for me and a lot closer to what I had wanted in the first place. I just hope they remember to send my Leila Poster over to the new school because I really really love that poster!

The confirmation has been unconfirmed

So apparently my company was using the term "confirmed" loosely, since my confirmed schedule has been changed. I was supposed to leave for Vancouver Nov. 4 and Japan Nov. 9, but now I'm leaving for Vancouver Nov. 18 and Japan Nov. 23. The man who hired me explained that the Japanese Government has been taking its sweet old time to get all of my official documents (visa, immigration, etc.), despite their efforts to get them up to speed. It's not really that big a deal, it just caused a little bit of a hassle since I'd already booked my tickets to Vancouver, but my company is going to cover all the re-booking costs so I'm not too concerned. In the long term 2 weeks doesn't really make a big difference and my employer explained that everyone in Japan is waiting for me to arrive. It's kind of crazy, I feel sort of like a much awaited celebrity! I even have a "Leila" poster that they have put on the wall of the school I'll be teaching at so that the students, management, and other teachers (if there are any) can get to know me. The poster is made up of mainly photo's since obviously not everyone can understand English and it's got pictures of my friends, family, pets, and travels... it's pretty freakin' awesome.

I've started some of my preparations for traveling to Japan. I have a pile of stuff on my bureau that I plan to bring with me; I add a little to it each day. Some of the items include half a years worth of contacts, a flashlight, and a fold up hamper... essentials if you ask me. I also took some time today to pack all of my dvd's into a travel case in alphabetical order. No, I am not obsessive, alphabetizing just makes it easier to find individual dvd's since I won't have the cases to help me recognize them in Japan. I have yet to start my 2nd correspondence package, but since there was the scheduling conflict I have 2 extra weeks to procrastinate! Don't worry, I won't wait until the very last night, I'm not that bad.

Oh boy, this is all just so exciting! For now I'm just trying to live up my last few weeks in CT! This is my favorite time of year and I'm so glad I get to be here for it. On Tuesday I'm going pumpkin picking with Laura, which now that I think of it, is a truly North American experience (I think they pick pumpkins in Canada too). I have also joined a gym for my last month here so that maybe I won't look quite as cow like among all the tiny Japanese women. Shopping for clothing in Tokyo is going to be a real treat... but it's ok, because it's all part of the crazy, new, overwhelming experience.

Preparation and Strangeness

Well, my schedule has been confirmed (it's the one I posted last time) and today I booked my flight to Vancouver and to Japan. I went shopping for professional clothing with my mom the other day. My company's dress code is ridiculously strict so most of the clothes I owned until 2 days ago really won't be much help in Japan. I got a few suits (if we wear pants they must match the jacket) and some skirts and blouses. Shoes are also an issue because they must be both closed toed and closed heeled and I do not own any nice shoes that actually fit that criteria. I've also read that it can be difficult to find shoes above a women's size 6, so the fact that I take between an 8 1/2 to a 9 could make things tricky once I arrive. Life's been pretty hectic lately dealing with all the preparations for my trip in addition to the ridiculously awful sales job that I took (BIG MISTAKE). I cannot wait to just get through with all the planning and actually go! I've included a couple of pictures demonstrating some of the oddities that await me... I'm excited!

Tentative Placement

I recently received my tentative date and placement for Japan. I asked for a somewhat rural location or someplace that would at least not be considered "urban"... so of course they have placed me in Tokyo. Oh my god!! I have never lived in a city before, let alone a city where I don't speak the language, so this is very very scary for me... but I am still really excited. Since this is just a tentative placement there is still a 20% chance that I may be moved. If not I will be teaching in a school called Shinonome SC (Shopping Center), which is located in downtown Tokyo. My tentative schedule is as follows:

Nov 5-8, Training in Vancouver
Nov 9, Fly out from Vancouver
Nov 10, Arrive in Japan

So basically, if all goes as planned, I've got about a month left here in the US and TONS left to do! I still have a bunch of work to do on the correspondence packs that must be completed before my training, plus shopping, packing, bank stuff, and saying goodbye to all the people I love. This Saturday is my family's Sukkah Party / My going away party, so I guess that's when the farewells will begin. There are some people I'm going to miss so much, I still don't know how I'm going to handle living without all of them for a year.

Head Start

I don't actually go to Japan for another couple of months, but I was just kind of eager to write something in my blog. It looked so empty with all that purple space so I thought I'd get a head start on filling it in. I find out within the next couple of days what city I will be living and teaching in, so I'll be sure to post that once the letter arrives. When I was at the interview I asked that I be placed somewhere considerably rural, or at least not too urban, so hopefully they'll acquiesce to my request.