Japan

The start of my post this time around is more of an observation and possibly a critique of Japan society and culture. I'm not far enough removed from school as I found myself quoting a source or two in this portion below. Feel free to skip it, but if you have an inquisitive mind for my own mind, then please mind to read the portion below as I don't mind.

I'm starting to accept life here, but I'm not so sure I can say I've adjusted quite yet. I think it's quite obvious that when moving to a new country and city that's 4,393 miles away [I looked it up and Google says that's the exact distance from Honolulu to Fukuoka], speaks a different language, and has different societal and culture norms, you won't adjust over night...and even 3 weeks.

When I first looked through the JET handbook I laughed at a page that talked about culture shock. I thought that being from Hawaii, there's no way I would experience culture shock to the same degree as someone from say, the U.K. who had never been to Japan before. So while I can assume that I'm adjusting much better than most, there are still many things about Japan that continue to amaze me and that are so bizarre to the point where I'll never fully adapt.

We joke about Asians being robots of sorts and even though each person is unique and individual, Japanese people really do conform to many rules. I noticed that many students are reluctant to do anything without the permission and approval of an authority figure and in a sense, that does prevent Japanese people from being free thinkers. Even if they have thoughts, it seems as though they'll keep it to themselves as they never question authority nor break rules. Yes, I am generalizing here, but from my observations so far I'd say the vast majority of those who I've come in contact with are as described above. With that said, studies would suggest that Japanese indeed are free thinkers, however their society does not allow them to so freely express their ideas as opposed to the western world. The PISA [Programme for International Student Assessment] administers a test every so often that is used as the benchmark for determining the level of student success and knowledge by country. Numerous television ads have surfaced in the U.S. lately that claim students aren't testing so well compared to other countries and sadly, those claims are true [It is over exaggerated however, I believe]. However, what is so surprising is that when it came to the "Creative Problem Solving" portion of the test, Japan ranked #3 in the world while the U.S. was ranked a distant #18. [ http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-overview.pdf ].

Using the term robots seems a bit degrading so I'll refrain from that. I suppose then, the best words to describe the Japanese are extremely disciplined and regimented. It's literally second nature for them to arrive in the morning and say ohayoo gozaimasu to everyone they come in contact with. I'd even be confident in betting that for some, they are unconsciously saying ohayoo gozaimasu to everyone as they are just trained to act as such from a young age. I'm also sure they don't realize that they say it as well, just like how you don't realize that you always wipe your ass with either your right or left hand [Yes, I'm almost certain you never thought about that before until now]. The funny thing about that is they say it so fast in such a monotone voice that it sounds like they're just saying, "osuu" in an almost inaudible way. I even had to ask my neighbor and fellow Hawaii ALT if they were saying something shorter, but no, just really fast.

This is me conforming. This is what literally every Japanese male wears to work.

Though this sort of polite and repetitive behavior is strange to us gaijin [foreigner], it's actually quite nice. It's nice to be properly greeted in the morning and be able to greet others in return. The more appropriate way to describe them is as very respectful. I wouldn't consider myself to be a disrespectful person, but I have a long way to go till I can reach the respect level of a Japanese person. Luckily, till then, I get the benefit of the doubt of being a foreigner and not understanding their culture. It's not a good excuse, but it'll take a bit more time to adapt to their way of life.

I consider that to be a very minor adjustment however in the grand scheme of things. It doesn't require effort or a radical change that I'm opposed to. In fact, there isn't much at all about Japanese society and culture that I am opposed too. I suppose what's preventing me from adjusting is ultimately my love of home. Hawaii residents are nowhere near as respectful as the Japanese, but there is something special about being Local and the Aloha spirit that I can't quite describe. Maybe it's just because I'm away from my own norms that I feel out of place. It probably just takes time.

This part is where the typical "blog" portion of this post begins...

With that said, I tend to love most things here. In Hawaii we eat Japanese food very often and Japan has a seemingly endless amount of options for various Japanese cuisine, not to mention that it is 100000x better than back home. I'd hope so though, Japanese food should be at it's best in it's home country. But there are other minor things that I like as well, but just need adjusting too. Markets sell groceries in very small quantities. I wondered why this was the case but it's simply because the groceries are fresh. They expire in less than a week so it's nice to know that the groceries are fresh with possibly very little, if any, preservatives. This is also a reason why groceries are a bit more pricey here than back home. I think it's worth the additional costs though.

Even Costco is more expensive here. Yes, there are Costco's in Japan, that took me by surprise as well. So while I was excited to go to Costco in hopes of buying products familiar to me, Costco was a bizarre experience. While the layout of Costco was the exact same as back home, none of the products were. Many things were Japanese and even the American things were "japanized". Bulk in Japan means about normal market size back home. I was able to find some oatmeal, peanut butter, vitamins, and spam, and somehow that was enough to make me happy.

Costco in Fukuoka

My American food

Work has gotten much more exciting. I still do nothing for the most part, but at least I am able to watch the students practice for their annual Taikusai (Sports Day). It's probably not what you think and it's really hard to explain exactly what it is, but it's very important to schools here. Just think, for two full weeks of school, class is cancelled so that the students can practice for this day. Furthermore, most of these students have been practicing everyday all summer.

So what is it? It's basically a competition amongst different blocks of students in various running events. All the running events are fun though. Imagine a large scale picnic games competition. But that's only half of it, that's the fun part that they don't get to practice for. The real Taikusai is all the hard work these students put into ouendan (lit. cheerleading, but it's not what you think), tumbling (again, not what you think), and dancing. The tumbling is basically large scale acrobatics in which a good 99% of the boys are required to do. How all of them are able to do what they do will forever amaze me. Human pyramids are built and people are flung into the air, it's quite a spectacular show. The dancing on the other hand is very strange. My co-alt finds it especially strange as it's essentially what we know as cheerleading. Again about 99% of the girls in school are required to participate and they must choose foreign language songs. This means that you hear a lot of popular songs in the U.S. It took me by surprise when I heard Katy Perry and Nicki Minaj being played over the loud stadium-like speaker system on our field. Furthermore, songs chosen had obvious profanity but no one bats an eye here because no one knows that a few of those songs have bad words. It's something that makes me laugh and no other teacher understands why. The real amazement of this Taikusai is the ouendan. I won't explain it, but just show a video that I found on youtube of my own school performing last year.

You don't have to read any part of my blog, but please chose to watch this video as it will amaze you how much work and effort these students put into this performance.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v85vydHmcfI

I think being able to watch them practice makes me further amazed at what they are able to accomplish. I absolutely cannot wait to watch their Taikusai in a few days.

What's even better than that is I'm starting to interact with students and other teachers on campus. It's strange to get hello's everywhere I go, but I guess that's what I get for being the foreigner on campus. At least the majority are very receptive towards my presence and it's something that I appreciate. It's fun to say hi to everyone but it's damn hard to remember faces and names. Being that Japan is so mono-ethnic, it's very hard to tell one apart from another. To add to the troubles, since I am unfamiliar with Japanese names and the language, all the names seem to blend as well. It's my goal to learn all of their names (by all I mean all of my students that I will be teaching) as soon as I can. For one class I even set a goal of 5 classes or less! It doesn't help that classes are maxed out at 40 students! But I'm all about having a strong rapport with students because I believe students can learn best when they are in an environment where they want to learn.

Outside of school, I am starting to enjoy my time here. The JET's in my area are very welcoming and I enjoy spending time with them. I don't know how they do it, but they get me to be a little more willingly open to try new things. Maybe it's because I'm in a new place, or maybe it's because I'm starting to grow up. Who knows? So what did I do? I went to karaoke and willingly sang. I suppose I'd do that with close friends back home, but to do it with practically strangers was new to me. But it was fun. They were fun. I had a good time.

Christmas is celebrated 24/7 at this Karaoke place...

Karaoke room.

I finally got to ride my bike a bit more and I can't wait to explore the area! There are so many beautiful places to ride and wonderful hills to climb. I hate climbing but I'm excited to try these climbs around here. It's just a bit hard to ride since I have no clue where I'm going and I do not want to take the wrong path and end up far away from Iizuka. I have to keep reminding myself that we drive on the LEFT side of the road here. A few times it hit me that I was riding on the right side of the road for a bit and I'll definitely have to adjust to that.

My house is less lonely now that I have a TV. I was told that my apartment was so old that cable does not work here, so I decided to test my luck and order an indoor antenna. Luckily, it works! So for only $17, I get about 7 stations in HD! Yes, I have no clue what they're saying, but I Japanese TV is so entertaining even without understanding the language. I also hope to pick up on some language while watching TV as well. It's nice to here noise in my house rather than dead silence.

Oh yeah, I got a PS3 too.

This post is long. I'll stop here. I'll end with pictures. Enjoy.

Harry the Hawk

Onga River in Iizuka

Kumamon Melon Pan. Melon Pan's are my favorite.

A lone Uniqlo in Iizuka

Not Hakata, but Hokkaido-style ramen. By far my favorite.

I bought a glove. It's dark green. It's Mizuno. I played baseball with our school's team.
I didn't realize how bad I'd be after so many years. But I had fun.
I'll go out a few more times with the team since I think they enjoyed having me.