Familiarity

   It's strange going back and reading my blog posts from the past.

   Fujimi has treated me much better than Azuma ever did. In a way, it feels like everything is almost more "real" than it was at Azuma. I feel like I drifted in and out of school at Azuma without really ever affecting anything; the principal didn't really like me, so that was probably a large part of it.

   At Fujimi, though, I'm really involved in the school life. I go to judo tournaments to cheer for the kids, I occasionally go to judo practice, I occasionally go to art club, I help with after-school English study, I enjoy going to the drinking parties the school has, and I have a lot of fun talking to the kids. I feel like I actually have an impact on people at Fujimi, for better or for worse, and it makes me feel like I fit in a lot more.

   That doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt when I see my old students from Azuma and they don't seem to care or try to avoid me, though.

   One difference still bothers me, though; the students at Azuma all had plastic nametags with their first and last names printed on them in readable kanji. The students at Fujimi don't have those; their last names are embroidered on their clothes, but some of them pick off the thread. It doesn't matter much anyway, since nobody seems to use last names at Fujimi!

   But it makes it a lot harder to learn their names when there's nothing to learn from. It really bothers me that I can't learn their names as easily as I did at Azuma.

   There are a bunch of students whose names I know because they're unique or I run into them a lot -- especially the kids in the judo club -- but in a school of around 700, that's not a lot. For every student I know well, there are at least 10 others I don't.

   So my new goal? To look up their official pictures and start learning their names. I should have done this a long time ago.

Respect

   Thanks to Azrael and his posts at Outpost Nine, one of the most well-known aspects of teaching in Japan is the kancho -- a "game" where kids shove their pointed index fingers up your ass.

   I have a bunch of problems with this on so many levels. It's always bothered me that the one thing everyone seems to know (and popularize) is this stupid game. It just exaggerates the lack of respect everyone has for ALTs, including the ALTs themselves!

   I'm not denying that it happens.

   I feel like the practice of being kanchoed is something that's more the ALT's fault than anything. Yes, it would be nice if students would stop doing it, and of course, it would be nice if teachers would discipline them. But they won't and they don't -- there's nothing that ALTs can do about that.

   On the other hand, ALTs are pretty much the only ones (playmates aside) that get kanchoed. This tells me that it's likely an issue with ALTs rather than the kids. The way I worded the first sentence of this paragraph should give you a hint about what I think the problem really is: ALTs are more like playmates than teachers.

   A lot of people who come over here want to be friends with the kids; I'm not denying that I don't feel that way, because I certainly do. My kids are all incredibly important to me and I enjoy talking and playing with them. At the same time, though, I'm a teacher, so there are certain lines that I have to establish.

   Those lines, ironically enough, weren't as firm at my old school, despite it having much stiffer discipline than Fujimi. I wasn't included with all of the teachers in the various parts of... being a teacher. Nobody discussed student problems with me or invited me out to school events like teachers at Fujimi do, so I always felt like an outsider. Naturally, I went to the group that would accept me: the students.

   I tried treating them like younger friends, though I had some basic boundaries set up -- especially in the last year, when I was getting stricter with students who wouldn't study.

   On the other hand, the teachers at Fujimi have been great. They've accepted me from square one, so I feel much more like a teacher. In a lot of ways, I was still a kid when I came to Japan; coming to Fujimi has made me more of an adult. I've had to mature a lot as a person to deal with the kids up here. I could have just been their friend, like I was at Azuma, but I'm not.

   I'm a teacher.

   I feel like other ALTs, who are less invested in the job or less mindful of what their job actually is (as opposed to what people say it is [that is, a human typewriter or class clown]), tend to joke around a lot more and stay in the "friend" or "funny guy" zone more than anything else. Once you drop down to the students' level, though, you're just one of the guys and they think it's "okay" to kancho you, or "okay" to use a certain level of politeness in speech to you.

   These things are all symptoms of a lack of respect. If they don't do it to the "real" teachers, then why are they doing it to you? What makes you different as a person?

   Why am I ranting about this now?

   I've gotten a lot closer to ALTs this year than ever before, and they all talk about being kanchoed. It really bothers me, because it's never been a real issue for me and I don't see why it should be for anyone who shows that they respect their own job.

   On the other hand, it could also be a problem stemming from a lack of communication; if, as an ALT, you cannot speak Japanese, the number of people you can talk to is very small. In addition to that, disfluency is seen as a sign of a lack of intelligence by most people; ALTs may be intelligent, but if Japanese people can't communicate with them fluently for whatever reason, there's a tendency to see them as not being intelligent -- or vice versa.

   So students, who can never really get a look at the "professional" side of the ALT, may begin to view him/her as more of a "funny pet" than anything.

   While you can screw with your pets, you can't screw with your teachers.

School Comparisons

   I know I shouldn't do it because nobody wins, but I still do it anyway.

   I compare the junior high school I work at now with the one I worked at for the last three years.

   This school has come to feel like home, so it's not like I look down on it or think badly of it; it's just different. Jarringly different sometimes. For example, the other day, I was checking mini-speeches written by the second-year students about their dreams. It was strange in a lot of ways; the girls wanted to be doctors, nurses, and pastry chefs -- normal stuff. The boys had different aspirations, though. They wanted to be mailmen, delivery men, mechanics, farmers, maintenance men, office workers, and government employees. Sure, a few of them wanted to be astronauts or chefs, but the vast majority of them wanted to be... well, practical workers with a steady salary.

   Read on!

Local News

   I saw a tiny news headline on Google News about a truck accident in the city I live in that killed three teenaged girls. My heart was racing as I googled for a Japanese article with names...

   I'm relieved that the three girls who died were from other cities. I didn't know them. I was scared to death that they could have been girls I knew.

Sunny Day

   Looks like the storm is holding off, so there's some great, sunny weather. I biked home and enjoyed the coolness of the summer wind at my back. As soon as I got home, I grabbed my camera and headed down the street to take some pictures while the weather is great. I gripe a lot about this being the country, but the scenery and colors really are great.

   Read on!

The Gathering Storm

   It's been generally hot and unpleasant for a while, but that's something that comes with summer. The humidity's been really high and I thought we'd get some relief since it rained last night, but apparently it didn't rain hard enough.

   The sky today is gorgeous, though.

Birthday

   Yesterday was my birthday.

   Quarter of a century, yep.

   I had a simple plan; wake up around 5 to shower/clean the apartment a little, catch a ride at 6:40ish to go to the judo tournament and cheer for my judo girls in the prefecturals, then come home and do laundry or something. Nothing spectacular; I don't really celebrate birthdays. Not that there's anything to do out here. Or anyone to do it with.

   So I woke up around five, showered, cleaned, worked on the HTPC a bit more...

   Read on!

Making a Home (Theater!)

    I've never really had a home in Japan, for whatever reason. I've had apartments, but they were generally just places to dump my stuff and sleep. My last apartment was really big, but I only ever really used the corner of it -- that's where I put my futon. I always sat/laid there while I used my computer and that was all I needed.

    Sure, I got a sofa bed and put it in the other room of my old apartment, but that was more of a concession to impending visitors from America and Britain than anything else -- just like the table I bought. When I wasn't expecting visitors, my apartment turned into a giant dump.

    Literally.

    I'm not kidding. I would just dump my stuff on an empty space on the floor, lacking the furniture or some other more organized place to store it. As far as I was concerned, the apartment was just a giant storage shed because I never did anything else that warranted... well, anything else.

    That changed this year.

   Read on!

Judo Tournament Pictures

   I have three random pictures of the preparation/hanging out phase of the judo tournament that I took from my cell phone. No faces or anything, just crowds of people in judogi. Is anyone interested in seeing them?

Name Differences

   It's a little thing, but sometimes the little things are the ones that make me realize I'm really in a different place. People's names are really different up here!

   Back at Azuma, there were a lot of names that took a while to get used to, but then I realized that I saw them around a lot in anime, manga, the news, and film. So they weren't that alien or odd. On the other hand, up here in the mountains, there are a lot of names I've never ever imagined, much less seen somewhere.

   Not just family names, but personal names!

   Read on!

One More Thing: New Placement

   I made a promise to myself to speak less Japanese with the English teachers since I'm one of the few chances they have to speak with a native English speaker and it will (hopefully) help their English improve. I also sometimes feel like speaking Japanese makes some people feel like I don't trust their English... and that's not really the kind of feeling I want to be nurturing in English teachers.

   Well, I've been able to keep that promise pretty well.

New Placement Differences

   Something that's constantly lingering at the back of my mind, even after a month here, is the nagging feeling that I'm not really getting any work done up here. At Azuma, I felt more like I was teaching, despite frustrations. I was proofing tests before they went out, checking tests when they came back, helping teach the textbook and deal with grammar questions...

   Now, though, it seems like I've taken a step back. Although I'm more accepted at Fujimi as a person, I'm not really being used much as a teacher, albeit an assistant. This comes with the job, though; ALTs generally can only do what the school wants them to do, however satisfying or unsatisfying it is.

   Read on!

The Finger Game

   Japanese kids have a bunch of variants on rock-scissors-paper that they play, but they also have the finger game. The finger game is usually fast-paced and generally only ends when someone makes a dumb mistake because they were trying to hurry. You see, it involves very basic math: addition and subtraction.

   The setup is pretty simple; two people play and decide who goes first. Then both players stick out their index fingers. The game itself is also pretty simple -- you reach out and touch the opponent's hand with your hand and they add the number of fingers you have stuck out.

   So if you have one finger stuck out and tap a hand that has two, that person sticks out one more finger for a total of three. If you have three fingers stuck out and tap a hand that has three, that person goes down to one finger, because six minus five (the maximum number of fingers normal people have) is one. If you have two fingers stuck out and tap a hand that has three, that makes a total of five, and that hand is "out." You win the game by getting both of a player's hands "out."

   Additionally, since you have two hands, you can swap fingers between them. So if you have four fingers out on one hand and your other hand is out, then you can tap them and give them both two fingers, or give one three and the other one. The thing to consider is how many fingers your opponent has out on each hand -- if they have three fingers out on one, then going two and two isn't the best idea since they'll immediately knock one of your hands out, even though you can knock that three hand out.

   It sounds confusing when described like this, but it's really pretty simple.

   Does this game exist in America?

Busy Weekend -- Individuals Judo Tournament

   I woke up around 6:00 with a solid eight hours of sleep behind me. I woke up earlier because I wanted to have a bit more time in the shower to wake up before walking to school. Even though I hadn't made a lunch the night before, I didn't really worry about it since there would be bentos again; I hadn't known that on Saturday.

   As I was preparing to cross the main road to walk up to the school, a car pulled over and signaled that it was going to turn, so I backed up a bit. I don't really want to get hit by a car again, no matter how slowly it's going! It weirded me out a bit when the car stopped right in front of me, though.

   It was Oono!

   Read on!

Busy Weekend -- Team Judo Tournament

   I woke up, bleary-eyed, at almost exactly 6:30 in the morning. My body is remarkable in that it'll let me sleep pretty much exactly the amount of time I want to sleep... and for once, I actually slept deeply. The down side was that since I'd had around four hours of sleep, all my body wanted to go was sink back into that deep sleep.

   Oh, well.

   I hopped out of bed and stumbled to the shower. My apartment's still a mess; I have three piles of old clothes sitting on the floor, bits and pieces from some shelving that I wasn't able to put back together (because other bits and pieces were missing), random do-dads that I haven't found a place for, and some messenger bags sitting by the wall. Somehow, though, I made it to the shower without killing myself.

   Read on!

Busy Weekend -- PTA Party

   This past weekend was a pretty busy one for me, with the festivities starting, quite literally, on Friday. Friday night featured a party run by the PTA to greet the new teachers and PTA members and also to send off the leaving teachers and PTA members. It started from six, so I stayed at school, went to the literature/culture club (which is really the story-writing and manga-drawing club), then got a ride to the party.

   My original plan, you see, was to ride my bike down the mountain to the party since it was a 20-minute trip at worst, and all of that downhill. I mean, how bad could it have been?

   Read on!

In The Gutter

   One of the most commonplace features of Japan that I take for granted is the road gutter. Sure, there are chopsticks, weird square cars, and power lines everywhere, but the ubiquitous gutter is something I've gotten so used to that I sometimes forget that it doesn't exist in America.

   Whereas roads in America have grass, dirt, or gravel along the shoulders, Japanese roads tend to have a gutter along one side, if not both sides. I don't know if this difference is due to different road building techniques or simply an adaptation to the monstrous rainy season in Japan, but whatever the case, gutters are everywhere.

   Read on!

Rainy Day Blues

   I went to bed last night (and woke up this morning) feeling the vibration of rain beating against the window that covers over half the wall my head rests next to. While I was falling asleep, I spent a bit of time thinking about all of the plans I had in place before I found out that I Had to move to my new school.

   So many of them have come off the tracks. Dieting, losing weight, studying Japanese... sleeping.

   Sigh.

Neglect

   I've been neglecting a lot of things lately, mostly due to work. I haven't been taking pictures (though I tried -- more on that later), updated my resume, exercised/worked out, cooked, worked on the proofing company idea with rav, or punched up my blog's layout. What I have been doing is a lot of work and kendo followed by vegging out and not sleeping well.

   Read on!

Stormy Mountain Clouds

   One of the reasons I really love living in this area is the scenery. Not only are there tons of nicely-sculpted mountains all over the place, but there are also tons of great cloudscapes. Every once in a while, the two come together to make a really, really neat mountain cloudscape.

   Like this one from yesterday afternoon.

   Unfortunately, I didn't have my good camera on hand to take a picture and I had to make do with my cell phone camera. Too bad.

   All of the dark and brooding clouds seemed to predict rain, and sure enough, it's drizzling a bit today.

   I'm really annoyed at that, since I have to go down into the city for a farewell party from my old school for all of the teachers who left this year (including me) -- that means a bit of biking in the city, in a suit. I also was going to bike back after the party thanks to my replacement screwing me over... but I really don't want to go through that again.

   Maybe this time I'll "sleep" in the 24-hour McDonald's near the bus stop.

Morning Mountain Mist

   I thought about titling this post "Misty Mountain Hop," but there was no hopping involved.

   On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, I walk to school. The school is so close that I'd barely save any time at all by riding a bike and the brisk walk is probably better exercise, too. Another thing that makes me prefer walking is the road; it's steep and covered in loose gravel, with very small shoulders, which would make me incredibly nervous on a bike with cars flying by.

   If I go by foot, though, I'm only very nervous.

   Read on!

Junior High Scenery

   Today's my first day of classes at the junior high and, appropriately enough, the scenery is changing. Since it's spring and finally starting to warm up a bit, flowers are blooming, the cherry blossoms are finally all coming out, and of course, my allergies are acting up.

   The scenery inside the school is changing too; students are a lot more active now that they're out of the seemingly endless tedium of orientation. Hand-drawn posters are going up around the school, advertising various club activities -- all of the clubs want to attract new first-year members to replace the third-year members that will retire, come August.

   Some of these posters are really good!

   Read on!

First Elementary School Day

   I was a bit nervous today because it was my first day at the new school. I woke up around 8, which was fine, since my elementary days start at 10 for some strange reason. It means I miss the first two class periods of the day, which is inconvenient since it makes my schedule less flexible -- there are only six periods in a day and I'm only there for four of them.

   Since I have five classes to teach, that means that one class gets left out and the schedule gets lopsided as I skip between the two.

   Not much I can do about it, though.

   I left the apartment at 9:30 since I didn't know how long it would take me to get to the school. Since it wasn't cloudy, aside from some general light cover, I took my camera with me to get some pictures on the way down the mountainside. Yes, pictures for you, faithful reader.

   Read on!

Disappointing Replacement

   I've tried really hard not to be influenced by my first impression of my replacement, Judy.

   When she was going to move out to my apartment, I told her that I would meet her, show her around, take her to city hall to change her registered address, and help her buy all the important things she'd need. She said she'd be at the apartment around two, and I ended up waiting until seven. Not only was she not on time, but the guy who was driving her didn't have his cell phone on, so nobody could contact either of them.

   What were they doing? Buying a refrigerator and getting a USB dongle for mobile internet.

   Read on!

The Picture Extravaganza

   First, I'd like to point out that I made two backdated posts that I wrote at home, before I had internet access here at school. You can read about my first night in Fujimi and the disaster that was my school introduction.

   Someone asked me to take more pictures, so I did, last Friday. It was dark and I was using my cell phone, so the pictures are less than stellar, but here they are.

   Read on!

Rainy Odyssey

   I went down to the city yesterday morning to meet the new ALT, who's replacing me; she's new to Japan and doesn't know Japanese, so I wanted to do a few things to help her out -- things that our company had never bothered to do for me. I guess you could say that I felt obligated to help her since I'd never been helped and it sucked, despite me knowing some Japanese.

   Read on!

Worlds, New and Old

   When I first started working in Japan, I lived in a neighboring city called Takasaki. My apartment there was an old, somewhat run-down place that wasn't improved in the slightest by the fact that the previous tenant had left it incredibly filthy. Incredibly. Filthy.

   The least of his filth was a pile of old wine and beer bottles on a sticky floor in the corner of the kitchen.

   Incredibly. Filthy.

   I hated that place, even though it was in a relatively good location life-wise -- a grocery store, 100 yen store, electronics store, used book store, everything was within a 10-minute bike ride. The schools were around 20-30 minutes away, but it was good exercise and helped me slim down a lot when I first got here.

   Read on!

Day of Clubs

   Yesterday afternoon was the most eventful part of the day; I can't even remember what happened in the morning, other than a staff picture.

   I also took a picture from the teachers' room. You can see the whole city spread out beneath the mountain from up here... well, at least on clear days.

   Read on!

First Day of School

   Yesterday was my first day of school here; it was basically all introductions. The new teachers were introduced to the second- and third-year students before the opening ceremony; the opening ceremony itself was basically an introduction of the new first-year students. After it ended, the teachers all filed back to the teachers' room and the students went to their respective homerooms for an hour or two of orientation.

   Read on!

School Introductions

   I haven't slept well for a single night since I moved here and it's been frustrating me, especially since I can't figure out why. It's not doing my mood any good that I'm always tired, either. It could be the light streaming in through the giant glass doors right next to my pillows -- if it is that, I need to get ANOTHER expensive curtain because the one I bought just isn't up to the job. I guess I can't just get by with only one layer of fabric.

   Another thing it could be is the neighbors; they tend to bang around a lot from five to six -- if that's what it is, I can just try going to bed earlier. I tried a few nights ago and woke up around three in the morning, though, so I don't know if that's it. I kind of wish it were that simple so I could just fix it, because I'm really tired in general; I just feel like I need one good night's sleep to get my mood back on track.

   Yesterday was probably the most eventful day I've had here since I moved, and I was actually kind of excited about it. Was.

   Read on!

First Night in Fujimi

I'm in the new apartment and a bit sore after my first night of sleep here; I don't know if it's because of the harder floor, the moving, or the kendo last night. It was a very long day.

I ended up waking up around 8 yesterday morning, after about 5 hours of sleep. I spent all morning packing and cleaning, and cleaning, and cleaning. My Japanese teacher, an older woman, very kindly said she'd help me move, since everyone else ditched me. I was skeptical about our ability to put everything in her car, but somehow it worked out with two trips.

   Read on!