Please, Talk to me Like I’m Five Years Old

Music: Laments of a Mattress- Hop Along, Queen Ansleis

I’ve most likely already commented on this, but I’m going to say some more on the topic. In Canada (or America, or whatever dominately English speaking country you reside in) we are often confronted with those that have difficulty with the English language and may not be able to speak or understand it very well. As a result (especially if you work in the area of customer service) one tends to slow down their speech and talk to the person as though they are five years old.

Previously I would think that the person being spoken down too would be insulted and that we ought to lower our voices and speak to them as an equal.

I’ve changed my mind. As a person who doesn’t understand the main language spoken in Japan, I obviously often find myself in social situations with that squinty eyed, furrowed brow, cocked head look that always ends with an unfortunate shake of the head and raised shoulders.

PLEASE, speak to me like I’m five years old. I understand that much better. Clearly I’m the whitest person you’ve ever seen and not a native resident. I was at Starbucks and I made the mistake of asking the new employee if she was in fact new to this starbucks. By my bad accent and misuse of particles she should have caught on that I’m a newbie at the language. No, she asked me a question that I couldn’t understand, even when I asked her ‘one more time, but slowly please.’ Turns out she was asking me in a very polite and uncommon way where I was from. Ok, I know about three ways to ask this question, and she had to use the unknown fourth (which translates to, what country were you born in…).

The post office is a place I always take a deep breath before entering. I’ve been going into this post office for the last ten months and have never understood a word this man says to me. (You can thank him for all of your safely arrived packages). Nevertheless, he continues to have this longwinded, onesided conversation with me about lord knows what. The other day I was in there and he asked me a million different ways, which I assume was the same question, all of which I didn’t understand… then he took out a tape measurer.

Or the dry cleaners… again, I’ve been going in there for the last ten months and it’s the same shit. She asks me a question, I say one more time slowly please. She asks it again. I repeat a few of the words I don’t understand to see if I say them out loud to myself in different tonnes, it’ll suddenly ring that Japanese-word bell. She says the question differently, I do the cocked head thing, she says one word that says it all “hayai”. No, I don’t need it in a rush.

I know, you would think I’d have learnt by now what she’s saying, but just when you think you understand them and you answer them what you believe to be the right answer, they pull that (previously blogged about) I-don’t-believe-that-you-understand-me-so- i’ll-just-keep-asking-different-questions-to-further  -confuse-you business.

 

Running Through Train Stations and Airports. In Tokyo.

Music: Pick your favourite Disney tune. Mine is obviously, Under the Sea-The Little Mermaid.

I’m writting this while sitting in a huge hall in the Hilton Hotel with about 300 other people; 2/3 are Japanese and the remainder of the pie are just like me: foreigners from a distant land, brought to Japan by Amity to emerse their young in the English language.

While writting this I was simultaneously being bored to tears. An English company I may work for, but unthoughtful Japanese teachers I work with. This may sound a little harsh, but sitting in a stuffy room in a suit and heels on my day off, I did not appreciate the three hours of Japanese speeches by Japanese Senseis who are more than able to speak in English (they are English teachers).

Let me back up and explain how I got myself into this situation. As a company bent on making lots of money ( as all companies are), we have monthly goals at Amity. This area of my job is a little grey since they don’t really involve us foreign teachers in any of the meetings on money matters, but I do get a little bit of it from the list in the office of how many more students we need for the current month.

I don’t mind not being involved in these weekly meetings. I’d much rather be teaching my buddy Manami. But, I’d just like to point out, that many parents have signed their children up in Amity classes after I began playing with their babies in the lobby and high fiveing current students younger siblings and suggesting private lessons for certain highly intelligent children. I like to think I do my part. Furthermore, I always get my trial lessons to sign a year contract.

Anyways, for the last 6 months, Toyama Amity made all of their goals, and consequently were invited by the head honchos at Honbu (President and his sidekicks) to Tokyo Disney Land!! Manager called us into the office to tell us the news, Leah Sensei and I were the only ones to jump up and down and squeal! Disney Land!!!

I had difficulty understanding why the other teachers weren’t very excited. Free trip to Disney Land people!!! Then Manager approached me close to the day of departure to inform us that one of us had to make a speech at this Special Training. Speech?

“You guys can junkin for it; but I think that since Lindzy, it’s your first time to Disney Land, you should do the speech.”

Thanks Manager. Last time I did a speech in Grade six i spewed everywhere from nervousness.

I did fine in presentations in University so I didn’t think too much about it. The night before leaving for Disney Land, Managers directions were clear and explicit:

“I will pick you up outside of your apartment at 6:15 am. Don’t be late, we can’t miss the flight.”

Gotcha.

Seven hours later, a little (coughcough) tipsy at a concert with the rest of the Toyama crew, sipping my extra strong gin and water:

“Hey Kumiko, will Aladin be there? And Mickey? What about Pooh San?” The Japanese have all been to T.D.L like eight times each.

2:00 am …”Leah, maybe we should go home, I havn’t packed yet.” At home we decide it’s a good idea to call Ashleigh and talk to her untill 3:00 am, or some other ludicrous time about how excited we are to spend the weekend together.. or something around those lines.

I pack my back (slash throw my stuff in a pile by the door) in a drunken manner and pass out exhausted.

My annoying telephone rings waking me up.

“Shitshitshitshitshitshitshit.” I mutter when i see Managers name pop up on my phone and the ring increases, getting louder and louder, taunting me about how I’m late and probably still drunk.

I have never gotten ready so fast in my life. Manager was not pleased, but I did make it down before Leah. Good or bad, I’m not sure, since I had to sit in the front seat. I made sure to shove lots of gum in my mouth to hopefully hide the sent of stale gin. Ugh. So classy. Not.

I have also never been so terrified in a car in my whole life. Many yellow lights were driven through and many illegal u-turns were made.

Forty-five minutes later our flight to Tokyo was done and were put on a bus to take us to the beautiful Hilton. First thing I see when i walk in: Starbucks. This is the happiest place on earth. :D.

We waste no time, and we are at Disney Land within the hour! It was tonnes of fun and my hangover was quickly forgotten with the Disney tunes being chanted. Leah and I made our first purchase, Minnie Ears. We were officially ready for the first ride “It’s a Small World”. Holy five years old again.

It began to rain around lunch, but this did not damper our spirits, Leah and I continued to sing and dance and kick up the rain from the puddles that had formed. Our co-teachers couldn’t help but smile at our child like behaviour.

After dinner with the staff, we went back to the hotel for a hotel party with our long lost friends from training and follow up training. Reunion hugs, reunion cheers and new friendships were made. Especially with the hottie Japanese teacher from Niigata. Ping Pong.

The next morning I was not feeling it. It was 7 am, and we were supposed to meet our teachers for breakfast. Uuuugh. Yes I did vomit in the Hilton. I blame the Ebi fry from Disney Land.

It’s now 12:20 and I have been sitting in the same chair since 9:00 am. One empty glass of water in front of me and Leahs head bobbing to the right of me.

I complained to a friend a while ago that it made me angry to sit through 3 hours of Japanese speeches that I wouldn’t be able to understand when I work for an English school. But then I realized I would be in a Hilton hotel, all paid for, after a huge breakfast buffet, the day after a free trip to Tokyo Disney Land. I guess I shouldn’t complain too much.

My speech was a mess. I was nervous and the lights on the stage were bright and the faces before me were bored. There was a lot of erratic bowing and Arigato Gozaimasuing.

“So, Leah and I were supposed to junkin for this, but then Manager pointed out that it was my first time to Disney land, thanks Manager. I’m very grateful….blahblahblah.”

Luckily, Ashleigh, Leah and I made a clean getaway from the Japanese staff and the rest of the amity crew for a day in downtown Shibuya, one of our favourite places to shop and get some delicious subway sandwhiches. Ps. Its bargain season…

Of course, the day had to end with Leah and I sprinting through train stations to get our bags we had stored in the wrong station and trying to catch connecting monorails to make it to our flight home on time. We couldn’t help but remember our Manager’s explicit directions before leaving us to go to Shibuya.

“Be on time, be punctual.”

Gotcha.

note: junkin is Japanese for “rock scissor paper”, which I think we can all agree, could solve many of the worlds problems.

 

AAAAAAAAAA

Music: Time to Pretend-MGMT

AAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I have less than three months left in Toyama, in Japan, at Amity, with this life!!!!! How did this happen?!?! It’s those damn time warps! Unaware, they suck you in and spit you out somewhere in the future, leaving you wondering how the hell you got here. Twenty-four years old and almost at the end of my year long contract with just the short summer months left, I can’t even believe my existance.

I am quite the unbelievable person. Read into that however you like.  The point of that statement was to share with you a story of mine from the road.  (I can’t help but think of driving around in Andrea Bannons and Jess Kuepfers cars in high school…you two will love this one).

So this all started on my way home from Sado island with Leah, Natalie, Andy and Tannis.  We were getting off of the ferry with just twenty minutes to catch our 8:11 train (the last one) back to Toyama.  We had to walk to the train station though, and the last time we did the walk it took.. 20 min.  So as you can see, we were in quite the rush.  Luckily (ah caught you! you thought we were gonna screw up so soon?) we made it to the station at 8:10 with a minute to buy a ticket and run onto the train.  Trains leave on time here.  When i say on time, I mean to the T without fail.  It was a running- twist-your-body-sideways-to-make-it-through-the-doors type boarding.  Exhausted from our sprint to the station with backs full of camping equipment we settled into our two hour train ride back to Toyama with books and heavy eyelids.

Approximately two hours later, pulling into a station :

“I don’t remember being here. “  Tannis says to me after being stopped for four minutes at this particular station.  I look up from my book to take a look at the station we are at, which looks exactly like every station in Japan.  Concrete with blue signs telling you which station you are at, and which station is next as well as a vending machine or two.

“This doesn’t look familiar Tannis?”

“Well, I just mean that I don’t remember being in this city.”

“It has been two hours and I don’t recognize the names either.  At this point we should be at least in Uozu.”  I let out a small laugh after a thought. “You know, it would be funny if we got on the wrong train, cause I just looked for the train that was leaving at 8:11.  I figured we didn’t have enough time to wait for the signs to change to English, and Leah said the train left at 8:11, so I just took note of the train on track four leaving at 8:11 and hopped on.”

“Well you weren’t the first one on the train were you?”

And there it is folks.  “Uh… yah…”

Tannis stands up abruptly and I quickly follow suit after realizing my mistake.  We ask a Japanese girl if this train goes to Toyama, and she just gives us that look.  You know… that one.

We get the help of a train conductor, and he informs us that this station luckily has a train going to Toyama.  Phew!  So we go upstairs to talk to the train masters.  We must have been quite the site.  Five gaikokogins (foreigners), dirty, tired and sunburnt from the beach coming into a station up north (four hours north of Toyama to be exact) looking worried.  It takes four of them to help us out.

“Jijetsu, here.”  Says the hot train conductor putting his hand on a spot on the wall. “Toyama, here.” Puts his other hand a foot below the other one. “You are here.”  He puts his hand north of our first location.”  Thanks for stating the obvious buddy.  There was a train, but its an express train to Osaka.  Which I imagine can only be super expensive, considering its 8000 yen from Toyama to Osaka.

After a half hour or so of waiting in the waiting room, four train masters approach us (yes the good looking ones… under better circumstances and nicer smells… I suspect this isn’t the time though) and escort us to the office.  I felt a little like a convict.  Especially the way we were getting stared at.  They cut us a deal though and we only had to pay an extra 1000 yen ($10) and the train would get us there in 2 hours since it was an express.

See!  Everything works out!  Let this just be a lesson to those that may have to get directions from me one day.  I never know where im going , even if it sounds like i do.  Mind you, i did get better after having to drive around with Ashleigh for a year.

 

haikus

Fireworks by the Sea

ocean nighttime swims

we won’t let the summer end.

burnt backs and ice cream

Summer in Japan

biking ’round the block

festivals, combini beers

breakfasts on the roof.

The Girls of Summer

Le-chan, the cool one

Tannis the neurotic one

Nat the nonchalant

 

The Golden Month

Music: Hello Goodbye- The Beatles

So long May!  You were quite the month.  You always are you beautiful Golden month you.  You were especially Golden this year though.  It may be because there is a ten day holiday in Japan appropriately named ‘Golden week’, but it may also be because it was the month where I entered the world, blessing my mother and father, some may say, making their lives complete. 

 Other possibilities of why May was so fantastic may include mothers day, a great day I’d say, where mothers everywhere are shown the appreciation they deserve.  I mean without my mom who would I be?  Nobody… literally.  Thankfully, even though the distance between mother and daughter is far, we were still able to celebrate her greatness together with some good ol’ sumo wrestling family fun, ice cream cones and combini beers. 

My ten day holiday was nothing to complain about as well and started the Golden month off just right.  Moreover, I checked off another location on Japans map.  Tannis, Leah, Natalie, Andy (Leahs BF) and I took and early morning train and a two hour ferry to a western island just North of Toyama, Sado Island.  Sado Island is (obviously) incredibly beautiful with a landscape of gorgeous green mountains, gorgeous beaches and a few old temples for good measure.  The five of us camped out in an unpopulated campsite, owned by an interesting fellow.  He was incredibly kind and gave us lifts into town, brought us a monster size bottle of sake and called up a fisherman friend to bring us (and cook for us) his catch of the day.  I have never in my life tasted such delicious squid.

Before our Sake Fairy and Squid Fairy arrived, Tannis and I realized that we made the mistake of not buying enough beer for the night by the campfire.  Standing down by the road hitchiking into town was our solution to a terrible problem.  The first truck that saw us pulled over.  He was a hickish old man, and unfortunately could not help us out in the beer department.  I was quite shocked.  A Japanese person not helping?!

Lindzy: “If he’s really Japanese, he’ll come back.”

Sure enough, twenty minutes later the little red truck was back.  The man rolled down the window and presented us with a six pack of beer.  Now thats better… for a second there I almost lost my faith in the Japanese.    Sado Island: succesful! 

The following weekend was my birthday weekend.  The big 2-4.  Yikes.  I can safely say that 23 was the best year of my life (which I did call on my 23rd birthday), so 24 has a lot to live up too.  So far, it’s doing a good job.  I’d almost forgotten it was my birthday (i guess thats what happens when you live alone…tear…), untill I walked into work only to find a treasure hunt awaiting me, by the ever wonderful Leah.  She sent me around the school in search of my presents.  I can just imagine Managers thoughts “Those foreigners are always being happy and smiling, EVEN when they’re at work on their birthdays.”  It wasn’t so bad though, Leahs little hunt made me smile from ear to ear, and my jaw almost broke when Kaisei and Sarai (my babies) sang ‘Happy Birthday’ to me after class.  Furthermore, Natalie’s surprise Ice Cream cake was definitely the… well… I wanna say cherry on top.. but somebody already called that.  Either way it was deeeelicious.

Sunday morning, Leah, Andy and I headed to Osaka to meet up with Ashleigh, Katt (who was down from Canada!!!), Alyssa and Ash’s friend Gordon.  Not a bad place to be on your birthday, let me tell you.  We shopped, we partied, we ate, we partied some more and shopped some more.  Katt even took us on a wonderful little hunt to see an amazing church… amazing for its architecture.  The architect is Katts favourite Japanese architect, and his buildings are all really cool.  The church of light was no exception. 

We finished the weekend off with a free fall drop in Namba on the side of a skyscraper overlooking Osaka city.  Quite frightening, but highly enjoyable. 

This weekend was the Sanno San Festival in Toyama which means lots of partying, lots of food, lots of good people and good friends and of course some naked men carrying shrines and more dressed up as lions throwing sticks of fire… mmmhhmmm.  Now that May is done, I’m in my last three months of living and working in Japan.  Holy toledo.  Feels like i just left Canada.  Right now I’m constantly thinking about how fast time goes, but how exciting it all is.

 

 

Otsukarasama desu!

Music: TGIF-Le Tigre

Otsukarasama desu iiiiindeeed.  This is the magic phrase at work… you hear it passing through the halls, in between classes, running to and fro for props, coming to work, leaving work.  It’s kind of a thing we do.  Its meaning in English is to sympathise with those who have, or are going to work hard and may or may not be tired.  When someone starts the day, rather than say hi, you say “Otsukarasama desu!”, when you are leaving for the night, those that see you leave before them will throw a little “otsukarasama desu” at ya.  Exactly translated it means, “You must be tired.” 

I’m assuming that my strut in in the morning, consisting of throwing open the door, raising my hand and pretty much shouting (more of a morning call.. like a pretty bird…) “GoooOOoood Mooorning!!!”, may be slightly innappropriate… slightly.  I always get that…”oh god, she’s happy again…. but I can’t help but smile myself” smile from Manager.

Anyways.  Point is, these ladies (only girls at my branch…) are Otsukarasama desuing  you everywhere you turn.  It is starting to lose its meaning.  Obviously, it is the polite way to greet your coworkers.  Now that Leah and I are superheroes in the language of Japanese (neck collar pull..), it’s pretty much all we hear at work.  Before our new found fluency I found it odd how often my co-workers would tell me I looked tired.  I mean common… do I look that bad??  I am wearing makeup…  Now I realize the joy of languages… words do not easily translate.  Telling someone they look tired in plain old English is kind of like asking someone if they are sick when they’re not… you know you can’t look that good.  But, Otsukarasamadesuing someone is kind of like sympathizing or letting them know that you know they have been, or are working hard. 

Its nice to hear, but it starts to sound a little too obligated for me.  When you leave work before others, you are meant to say “Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu.”  Which means “I’m sorry i’m leaving before you.”  and in response whoever is there to hear you says “You must be tired (otsukarasama desu).”  When you have to say it does it really mean anything anymore???

But since you asked (or rather stated), yes, I am tired!  I just got back from a crazy trip with my mom and my aunt, and my manager is already throwing another class at me.  And a few more kids… juuuust to make it that much more fun…Furthermore, more parent observation days are coming and supplementary summer seminars or something are coming up (hmmmm… teaching alliterations… )

Anyways, having my mom and my aunt here was aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome.  Just faaaantastic!  I was expecting it to be weird when I first saw them, but it felt like it was normal to have them here.  We did everything together for eleven days, and it was great!  They came to Toyama, bought combini beers with me, met Nami, came into Amity, saw my apartment, went to my starbucks, had dinner with Leah, Tannis, Natalie and I, had martinis with me at the place that we get martinis!  Just great:D. 

Our first stop was Tokyyyyyo!  Tokyo is still sooo cool :).  We went to Harajuku, Asakusa, took boat rides, went to museums and gardens and hung out in Shibuya. 

We then went on to Kyoto, definitely, (and maybe obviously) my favourite city in Japan.  We saw so many ancient things, full of history and beauty.  My favourite was the Sanjosangen-do Temple, rebuilit in 1260 A.D after it was burnt down in 1249 (it was founded in 1164) and is 390 ft. long.  It is lined with 1001 standing images of thousand-armed gold Kannon, in the center is the dominating, giant gold Kannon.  Along the front of the 1001 Kannons are the main gods of Buddhisms.  There is so much history that I can’t really go into great detail here… but the Kannon is said to have eleven faces and one thousand arms.  The most beautiful images were carved by some dude named Tankei, a most famous sculpter at the age of 82 during the Kamakura period.  Also it is belived that Kannon can transform himself in to 33 different figures …. therefore 1001x 33 = 33033…. it is furthermore, believe that one can find the face of a loved one among the multiple images of the Sanjusangen-do.  Segoi ne!  This place blew my mind.  Canada’s like a newborn baby…

Another favourite was an amazing exhibition on Kyosai… if you’ve never heard of him, check him out.  The old art pieces were amazing.  We spent four days in Kyoto, but I think I could have spent four more.  There is tonnes to see, and its true what they say, Kyoto is the heart of Japan. 

We hit up Osaka afterwards and the highlight would definitely have to be Kobe.  We spent the morning touring around the dozen or so (old) sake breweries.  I learnt how sake was made, the old and new way, and how to decipher good sake from not so good sake.  One place still brewed their sake the same way they did back in 1751 (when the place was founded!) and they definitely had some good stuff.  The guy that worked at this place gave us a taste of 5 different kinds of sake, ranging from sweet to dry, and ok to top dollar stuff.  Nothing like a sake brewery tour to start off the day!

The ladies continued on their three work tour of Japan, while, a slave to Amity, had to head back.  After eleven wonderful days of freedom, I had to return to the grind.  My first day back, one of my favourite little buddies Isa greeted me at the door holding up his pudgy little hand to show me his new toy cars.  How can you not enjoy going back to work when there’s a priceless little peach waiting for?

Thanks for reading!  It was a long one!  Otsukarasama desu!

 

 

A Story to Warm your Heart

I received an email this morning that left me no choice but to blog about.  As some of you may know, my mother and my aunt have been here in Japan, visiting their darling girl (more blogs re: moms visit to Japan coming soon).  It was our last night together, and we’d just finished a day at the sumo wrestling games in Tokyo (ooobviously).  We went out for dinner to a cute little hole in the wall italian restaurant somewhere in the middle of Tokyo, near Ueno.  We were having a little difficulty with the menu,and the waiter was having a little difficulty explaining the italian menu to us. 

Seeing that we were clearly at risk of ordering beef tongue or escargot, a woman sitting next to us with her daughter offered to help us out.  She translated some menu items to ensure that we ordered a delicious dinner.  Afterwards the five of us (my mom, aunt and I with her and her daughter) got to chit chatting about the usual questions that natives ask foreigners and foreigners ask natives and so on.  I’ve had this conversation a million times, but they’re always refreshing.  The duo were super cute, confident beautiful women who had travelled much and worked at places like health food stores.  The daughter was engaged to be married so we talked about that as well. 

When I pulled out my phone, Tomomi was delighted to see my ‘Tofu’ kai tei (cell phone) charm.  “Oh!  I love tofu!”  Me too!!!  I found my picture of all my tofus on my phone just to show her how much I did in fact love tofu.  She then pulled out her cell phone to show me her picture of all her Tofus.  …Only in Japan.

Anyways, needless to say it was a delightful dinner.  We exchanged emails and seperated at the completion of our meals.  My mom and my Aunt were also super pleased.  They both agreed that this was a most excellent final memory of their trip, leaving them with a great impression of Japan and the Japanese people.

Today I got my first email from Tomomi.  It talked about how happy she was that we all met and what a great time her and her mother had had at dinner.  She also thanked me because her mother loves English conversation and it cheered her up.  The reason her mother was down was that, her husband, Tomomi’s father, had died three months ago of cancer on that day, and they had just returned from visiting his grave.  Tomomi informed me that her mother cries everyday, but that our meeting really cheered her up.

um.  Holy Chicken Soup for the soul.  That day was also Mothers day.  Go universe.

 

Top Ten Lists are Overated.

Here is Top 11:

Music: (not part of Top 11, but can be included if you wish, in number 1 of 11) With Love-Hilary Duff.

1. Singing a lot of Karaoke. That, in addition to trying to talk loud enough to be heard over the voices of six year old boys has rendered me a rough voice and most likely scarred vocal chords. For someone who thought she wasn’t going to get into the ‘karaoke scene’, she sure knows her way around a Karaoke bar (also how to get money knocked off her bill so that she’ll just leave already!).

2. Totally getting into wii scene. I am determined to own Wii. For lack of fluency in Japanese, I will not be purchasing said item in Japan.

Scene 1: It’s a rainy sunday afternoon, nothing to do, and kind of bored. Telephone my buddy Ichan (his name is actually Masatoshi, but Ichan suits him). ‘Hey Ichan, it’s Lindzy, what are you doing?’

‘Oh just hanging around my house playing Wii with some friends.’

‘Really?! Can I come over?!?!’

Reminds me of when I was seven and I’d put on my bathing suit and run over to the neighbor kids (who had a pool) and subtly ask them what they were doing for the day…

3. I find myself becoming more and more interested in languages and wondering how many I might be able to learn.

4. Becoming more interested in Leah and stories she is not telling me. So I told her the other day: ‘Re-chan, you should talk about yourself more.’

and she said:’I don’t wanna sound self-centered.’

Which got me to thinking, it seems that those with truly interesting stories are those that often hold back and don’t tell them, so that when they do, you are completly absorbed and left wanting more; (this may be a trick) whereas those with mundane, run of the mill stories never seem to shut up. It’s often those that have nothing to say that talk too much. Makes me think that they are just talking to be heard…

5. Finally forcing Leah to tell me more stories has gotten me really interested in Berlin. She spent a year there… yah she’s pretty much the coolest person I’ve met in Japan. When you meet her, ask her about Moritz Fuuk and Joker game.

6. There is this Joker game that my friends and I should start when I get home… if you’re in, let me know. Only those that are in are allowed to know about it.

7. Leah and I had to reschedule our Japanese class for a Thursday morning and I am extremely excited to not be hungover for once in class and show her that I can read faster than the pace of a four year old monkey.

8. Starting to become tired of being an outsider. (It’s blatanly obvious that I am one, so that doesn’t help). Don’t mistake this statement for ‘being tired of being noticed and gawked at’. That’s still cool.

9. Looking forward to mountain party. Also, I have started dropping particles. They are irrelavant (FYI, email is uncountable noun and therefore, you are sending email, not ‘an email’. I sent email today. Yep… I’m learning more English grammar as an English teacher than I ever did in school.)

10. Super excited (I mention it at least once a day) to see Mom and Matante Aline! Also, I have never been more excited to go on vacation. 11 more days! It sounds cliché, but damn I need a holiday.

11. Purikura. If you are interested in making a shit load of money off of the biggest spenders in North America, look into bringing Purikura into Canada. Purikura is Katana for Print Club…basically the coolest photo booth in the world, most popular among young female, Junior high students and often used by, but not limited too, couples, high school students and foreigners. This leads me to my obession with everything cute, especially notebooks and any other form of stationary with adorableness on it.

 

Won’t you Enjoy Hanami Party with me?

Music: Beat Box- Art of Noise

Early March we were spotted.  We were in our natural surroundings, a bar, behaving normally, drinking.  March 17th we were officially adopted.  New parents: Yukie and Ken-ichi, new ride: a big white SUV, new events: magical mystery tours.

Leah met Yukie one night at a club in Toyama.  They made plans to be best friends and hang out all the time, as most people do when they are drinking and they meet each other at a bar for the first time.  Clearly you should be the best of friends.  I have nicknamed these encounters: best friend One-night stands.  Similar to the well known “one-night stand”, but less awkward and less chance of catching an unwanted virus. 

They didn’t speak for a week or two afterwards (similar to the classic “one-night stand”), but after Leah and I ran into them at a bar one weekend we’ve suddenly (without any notice) been tagged and selected as their new foreign friends. 

It’s a pretty sweet deal actually; we always do amazing things with them, pretty much rendering us Japanese.  They have us over for dinner parties, where they cook us amazing meals and give us amazing things to drink.  They also have this crazy huge white SUV.  This vehicle is good for transporting us to our secret exciting locations.  Example, on one of our dates, we weren’t told where we were going untill we were pretty much there.  It was a fantastic day though.  They took us to this desolate, but beautiful art museum tucked away in the rolling green mountains on the west side of Toyama.   On this road trip we stopped at a “famous” onegiri shop (rice with fish in the middle wrapped with seaweed, pretty much the most delicious snack in the world) as well as this funny little shop on the side of the road where we stopped for some sake. 

New favourite discovery: sake in a can that once you pop the top, it heats up, giving you delicious hot sake for a rainy chilly afternoon car ride.  Ping Pong.  I love you Japan. 

Anyways, our new family is great.  I see a bright future for us, full of road trips in El’ Grando (the vans name), yummy dinners and lots of wine.  Next on the list is a tempura party.  It’s so funny that Yukie and Ken-ichi are just like “you guys are foreigners, and you’re our new friends.   We are taking you here and here and here and we are going to hang out all the time.”  Done.   They also have a sweet friend, who in turn is our new friend, Megumi and a sweet as pie daughter, Aoe, who pops out now and then. 

This weekend marks the true beginning of Spring with the peak of the cherry blossom season.  I can’t explain to you, nor can I capture it in a picture, how wonderful this season is.  It is absolutely mind blowing (this shouldn’t be a surprise, Japan is all around mind blowing).  I spent Sunday on the river with good friends, “hanamiing” it up (hanami = cherry blossom party).  The day was incredible; everyone in Toyama is out and about, walking up and down the river, children were running and chasing one another, babies were sleeping in strollers, shaded  from the sun by the Sakura, couples were holding hands and having picnics, and moms were capturing these moments by photographing their beautiful, well dressed children with the priceless background.

The day was perfect, I almost died of happiness.  You could actually swim in the happiness, it was so amazing; joy was just bouncing around pingponging between people, spreading the joy as far as the eye could see.  Amazing what a blossoming flower can do.  The wonderful day was spent having picnics under the trees talking with anyone and everyone, making new friends with adorable people.  Next to us was a group bar-b-qing wonderful food which they gladly shared with us.  The sun shone all day and we enjoyed beverages late into the night.  The evening ended with some karaoke. 

 

 

That’s What you Get for Being a Smartass

I have a senior student, he’s pretty high level, but he hardly tries in class. He loves to answer my questions with ’so-so’, ‘I don’t remember’ and ‘I don’t know’. He never pisses me off too much, cause he knows when to stop. When it is open question time, he also likes to annoy me by asking simple questions. Every week I have to add a “you can’t ask this question” to the list. They mostly include “When is your birthday” “How old are you.” “How are you.” and “When did you come to Japan?” He is a great kid though and I enjoy our relaxed classes.

This week was review of the last three lessons, which embarrasingly enough included the dreaded topic of relationships. It was also our last class of the year. In April, another girl would be joining his class. For his last class/review I decided to just do what he likes to do, card game. We were playing a card game where, depending on which card you had, you had to take a vocabulary card from a certain unit. Kazuya was of course being himself and asking silly easy questions.

“Are you a police officer?” Kazuya asks.

“UUugghh, Kazuya, really?? No, I am not a police officer.”

“Are you–

“Kazuya, you know I’m not an interior designer!”

“Is it your dream to be an Interior designer?”

“No. Why? Is it yours?”

“No.”

Kazuya then got a round of cards that dealt with personal characteristics.

“Why are you intelligent?”

“That’s an easy question Kaz.” He just shrugs his shoulders. “Man, I don’t know, cause I went to school and I read a lot of books.”

“Why are you honest?”

“What?! Because I don’t like liars.”

I can tell he’s enjoying being a little brat and seeing me get annoyed with his simple questions. He then pulls up a card that I read and says handsome/beautiful.

“Why are you beautiful?” He looks impressed with himself until half a moment later when his eyes show that he has realized what he has just asked. I feel my face turn a bright shade of red. This can go down in the books as the first time a student has made me blush. He looks straight at me to show that this question hasn’t fazed him. He caves to the embarrassement of the situation when he looks down a few seconds later.

“Uhhhh…uuuuhh…uh.” The tic-tocking of the clock becomes noticeably loud. “Uhh… because I wear make-up.”

He nods in all seriousness and says “Ok.” as if to say “Glad we dealt with that question…cause, you know it was a real question, and I don’t even care.”

He gets a little cocky when I ask him after the card game is done:”Alright Kaz, what do you want to do for the last 15 minutes of our last class alone together? More cards, or a board game?”

“I don’t know. How about you?”