Say Whaaaaaaaaaaaat?

Some People just don't ever really feel comfortable around me...

I'm still convinced I have a "monster" quality here. There are about 5 teachers at my base school that still refuse to ackownledge my existence. Some just ignore me, for instance when I come in and deliver my vibrant "OHAYOU GOZAIMASU!" good morning-call. Heads throughout the entire room turn and respond with "OHAIYOU GOZAIMASU MAIKERU!" (Good Morning Michael.) There are always 3 or 4 heads that don't move and it's not like they're too busy to. They perk up when a Japanese person comes in. Also, the other teachers are always busy working on something and stop for a good morning. These are the same teachers that when I say "Konnichiwa" to in the halls they continue on as if no one said anything.

It doesn't really bother me anymore, at first I always thought "what's that dudes problem?" No one is really outright rude though, just a bit cold.


Then came the Enkai, the teachers party, this past friday. First let me explain one short happening about the start of the enkai...

The first Enkai I went to I was on time/early and most of the teachers didn't show up until 20 minutes after the start time. So one of the next ones I went to I was like "Ok, not so strict..." It started at 6 and I started walking to get there around 5:50 and it takes about 10 minutes to walk there. At 5:55 I get a phone call saying "Where ARE you?" from one of the teachers I was like "I'm close... I'll be there soon." "Ok. we are WAITING for you, Michael." I ran. I got to the restaurant and inside the door at 5:58, no big deal and everyone gave me these painfully cold stares saying "I WANTED TO DRINK MY BEER BUT I HAD TO WAIT FOR YOU!!!!!!!!" The vice principle was really not happy. I was less than 5 minutes late to morning announcements once and he chewed me out pretty good.

Now, the vice principle makes fun of me for "always being late." If I have to take a work related trip he always says "Make sure you are on time because hahaha you ahahaha are always hahaha late hahahaha.... *serious staaaaaaaaaaaaaare*" All because I was less than 5 seconds late once and because I was one minute early to an enaki... ugh...

Anyway, back to this enkai. I got to the place at 5:48 this time. It started at 6. At 6... no one was there. I thought, maybe it starts at 7... or 6:30 so I texted my supervisor but got no response. At 6:20 the first people showed up. "Mike! Mike! Mike! How long have you been here for?" "Since about 5:50." "oooh you should NEVER show up on time to an enkai! We're Japanese, we're ALWAYS late to parties." This was the biggest fib I've ever heard in my life. If there's one word to describe Japanese culture it's punctual. Every train is ontime every party starts and ends at the right times. Speeches never go on longer than planned. People get chewed out for being 5 seconds late. There's no possible way for me to believe that Japanese are "ALWAYS late to parties." I don't think the punctual thing is bad, don't get me wrong, it's fantastic most of the time, the trains are amazing. The only time it's not good is when you're racing a clock to be ontime since you don't get much sympathy.

So I sit down with the two guys. The table we're at is really long with little cusions on the ground next to it. As people filed in no one sat next to me, in fact, only one person was sitting on the same side of the table as me, there were about 15 seats on that side of the table too...

Finally the nurse and a 3rd year English teacher showed up and the English teacher, who I often work with said "How come no one is sitting on this side?" Then they went to sit down and the nurse said to the English teacher, "Why don't you sit next to him, I don't speak any English." Now, this often happens with strangers and it's no problem but the nurse knows for sure that I speak Japanese. I've spoken it to her a number of times at school and she completely ignores it. Once she wanted me to fill out a health slip and I had already filled the whole thing out in Japanese and she got an English teacher to come and explain it to me "Address" "Name" "Birthdate" and so on I kept explaining in Japanese that I'd already filled it out and understood the whole thing...the English teacher was really confused too since I'd already finished filling it out. I'm by no means fluent but I can definitely get by very comfortably in everyday conversation. So, back to the enaki, a handful of teachers turned and said "But Mike's really good at Japanese, we only speak Japanese to him at the enkais." And she turned to the teacher and said "Yes, I just don't feel comfortable sitting next to him... He won't understand my Japanese and I probably won't understand his Japanese." People looked pretty surprised since she said this right in front of me. If it had been the early nineties, this moment would have been fresh for a "Say Whaaaaaaaaaaat?" rising to a falsetto during the "Whaaaaaaaaaat" part. The English teacher sat down two seats away from me so that the nurse had no choice but to sit next to me. She turned her back and didn't face me the entire time. Eventually she got up and left and sat at the other end of the table. It felt similar to a situation where if someone tried to prevent me from understanding something by spelling it out, except that I'm 23. If my mom was telling my dad, "Tomorrow we're going to the D-E-N-T-I-S-T." I'd be like "First, I'm not AFRAID of the dentist, even though I threw up there once. AND I know how to spell dentist, are you crazy?"

I was offended but at the same time, now I know that I don't really have to be particularly kind to her anymore. Not outright mean, her behavior doesn't call for attention from me, but I don't feel any desire to be warm and friendly to her. Like, right now she's awkwardly pacing around behind me waiting for me to finish writing this. She likes to go on Yahoo Auctions and look at random things during work and right now. I used to get off the computer when she did this and say "Please, please, I'm finished."... but... I think I'll just keep writing...and surfing the internet. Maybe I'll sign onto Yahoo Auctions and look at random things to buy.