My first lesson in Japanese mind reading

I think I got in trouble today. I was at the school where the students are mute and the principal called me into his office.

P-pal: "Please come to my office. We have to talk."

Me: "Oh, okay."

P-pal: "You know last weekend there was a sake festival."

Me: "Oh, yeah! It was f..." (interrupts me)

P-pal: "You know there is one every year. You can go and pay 1000 yen (10 bucks) and you get a glass, and you get to taste sake and drink it in the street."

Me: "Yes, I was th..." (interrupts me)

P-pal: "You know sake has 15%, like wine?'

Me: "Yes."

P-pal: "Do you like sake?"

Me: "Yes."

P-pal: (he changes the subject) "So how do you like life in Joetsu?"

Then we just chatted for a while and I left. I'm certain I was in trouble because he had a cold tone and he obviously (somehow*) knew I was there. But I have no idea what I did wrong. I understand that as a sensei, I'm more than just a teacher. I'm a role model in and out of the classroom and I am a representative of the groups I belong to (i.e. my company and all the schools). 

But I was not drunk, loud, embarrassing, or shameful in any way. I was tasting sake with 100's of Japanese people at a cultural event. I spent most of my time watching the music and dance! I definitely don't understand.

*I was warned that this is a small city and word gets around. I guess the principal or a student's parent was there (they released newsletter with my picture to all the parents, and I'm pretty easy to pick out of a crowd of Japanese people).  

Anyway, HAPPY HALLOWEEN! I hope everybody back home has fun for me. I think I'll be stuck at home watching movies tonight :-/

Routine

This job is starting to feel like work. Certain things are difficult, i.e. students in some classes would not say shit if they had a mouthful of it. My favorite part of the day is rapidly becoming lunch recess.

The school lunches are really good. Always tasty, filling, and cheap. But the problem is that we only get 15 minutes to eat and not a second more (seriously). In addition, I'm usually served a slightly bigger portion, kids/teachers try to talk to me, and I'm a slow eater. So it's always a mad dash to cram the rest of my rice, tiny salted fish bodies, tofu, and milk box into my mouth in the last 2 minutes as I watch the second hand on the clock.

Next is play time. So far I've only played basketball, but it seems that there are a few variations to the rules. It turns out that every student in the entire school (there are ~60 of them) plays in the gym at the same time. So you have a full court game in which you have to weave between the girls playing volleyball (at least they don't use a net). The end result is something like a mix between basketball and dodgeball where you may be called upon to perform a bump or a set at any given time. Last week I accidently tackled a girl, but she spiked the volleyball into the back of my head today so I guess she got her revenge.

The only other entertainment I had was last Saturday at a rice festival. I learned that when they celebrate rice, they also celebrate sake! I got to see this really cool demon dance (see UPDATE below and the video) where the guy came out and started chewing on the heads of various audience members (mine included). And I think he made one little kid wet himself.

Afterwards I did a bit of the bar scene with Ian and Matt (another new teacher from N. Carolina). We spent most of our time at a hip-hop club where all the guys were dressed like members of the Surenos. For some reason most of my drinks were paid for by chubby Japanese guys. And I'm pretty certain it wasn't gay; I think they just thought I was cool. The drinks were nice because my Japanese conversational skills go through the roof after a few beers. And not only do I become fluent, I become charming and witty as well. I wonder what it is.

UPDATE - Today I learned from my local guide that this dance is called Shishimai (lion dance). It is supposed to bring luck and a good harvest. The head-biting is a regular feature that brings luck and wisdom in old-age. Sweet... thanks lion guy.

Tom Cruise

Last night was my impromptu welcoming party. I met up with another Interac teacher (Franchesca), her fiance (Kelsey, he's a JET), and the infamous Ian. Ian is the teacher that I replaced (see Into the fire). It turns out that he is an extremely thoughtful and generous person and his beef was actually with Interac and not the schools... but I won't go into it here.

Anyway, we met up for dinner, went around to a few places for drinks, had lots of laughs, I learned a LOT of Japanese that I don't remember, and I started to fade around 4:30AM. I'm really thankful that they covered taxi rides in my Japanese learning tapes because I had no problem (I think) telling the driver my destination. The only problem was that I've not learned my address yet (It's written in kanji), so I had to take the cab to the train station and stumble home from there. I'm extremely surprised I made it all night without being sick, but I am a victim of the dreaded day-long hangover.

In other news, work has improved a lot. I had dinner with two other teachers here in Joetsu last Wednesday and they gave me some great advice. The reminded me that that I'm not a teacher, but basically a clown. My job is to entertain the kids so they have a good time and enjoy using English. I guess I was putting too much pressure on myself to TEACH. 

So lately I've been having a great time at work... just acting stupid and making the kids/teachers laugh as I drill the target vocab and grammar. I've even made a few fans in the Jr. high, because I'm single (they made sure to ask that during the question-answer session) and because I supposedly look like Tom Cruise (WTF?). Apparently most Westerners get told they look like a celebrity, because we all look the same to them (which is fair, because sometimes they all look the same to us), but why did I get Tom Cruise? I was kinda hoping to get Brad Pitt.

Into the fire

Training in Tokyo was fun. The best part was that I met a bunch of other teachers and had a great week with them. This is us (not all pictured) for drinks after training.

The next morning I went off to my new home, Joetsu city in the Niigata prefecture. It's really pretty, the beach and the mountains are both in sight and not many people speak English, so my Japanese should improve quickly.
 

Here is the apartment. It's not as small as I expected it to be.

 

And my first attempt at miso soup. Miso hungry!

Today was my first day of school. The trainers in Tokyo were very skilled and helpful, BUT they made it look way too easy. They said that you can explain games/exercises to children by acting them out... WRONG! They said that you can pull activities from thin air if you have 10 minutes to kill... WRONG! They said that you would be teaching the same lesson 30 times a week... WRONG! 

I arrived at school not knowing was I was going to do. I quickly found out that each class had a specific lesson to do and that I should've known the lesson and been prepared. NOBODY TOLD ME THAT! If they did it must've been in Japanese, because I didn't get the memo. Luckily, they had the Japanese version of the lesson books and I was able to plan 4 different lessons with activities in the hour before my 1st class. To make things worse, the teacher before me made the schools a bit unhappy (I don't know what he did), so now it's in my job description to be extra charming.

The first class was a nightmare. Teacher didn't say a single word to me and I was trying to "explain" activities (with using simple gestures, as I was taught in training) to 20 third graders that were bouncing off the walls. Impossible. 

The rest of the classes were much better because the teachers seemed to have much more control. But I was still underprepared. This is definitely a challenging job.

I have arrived in Lilliput

I finally made it! After all of the delays and paperwork I had this summer I felt like I got away with something when I made it past customs and immigration.

I felt a little guilty as I made my way through the Tokyo subway system with 100 lbs. of luggage because I didn't use any Japanese when I asked for help. At one point a tiny old lady saw me struggling with my heavy bags and said "Heavy, isn't it?".  I later saw her on the street and she said "Good luck!", and my first use of Japanese was when I thanked her. But then I got to the hotel and went through my tiny doorway, used the tiny toilet and shower, went to a restaurant and sat in a tiny chair, had a big beer and ordered/paid entirely in Japanese. The server even gave me too much credit and started saying a bunch of stuff I didn't understand... I think my blank response tipped him off that I don't know very much Japanese.