There's no such thing as the "worst placement" for the JET program. Even if there were, I'd be nowhere near the worst placement, I love where I live. There is, however, a "worst placement" if you're afraid of earthquakes...
Just last week over the course of about 24 hours there were between 120 and 130 earthquakes in Shizuoka prefecture (an area right next to Tokyo). There was even more seismic activity but you could only feel those 120-130 earthquakes...
This alone is scary, though none of them caused any major damage and no injuries were reported... the part that makes it even scarier is that that's the exact area that is expecting the Tokai earthquake. That's the giant earthquake that Japan has been preparing for that is expected to occur sometime within the next 20 to 30 years. It was confirmed that these little shakes had no relationship to the Tokai earthquake... but in my mind that doesn't matter I'd get the heck out of there. Not for long, just like...30 or 40 years.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Sometimes I Wonder
Sometimes I wonder, is it a little bit racist or at least a bit rude that Japanese people are BLOWN away by my Japanese after I say one word?
A police man asked me where I'm from once and I said, "Chicago, in America." His response was, "WHOA! YOUR JAPANESE IS SO GOOD!!!!" Most of my sentence was phonetic english words... here's the sentence in Japanese "A-ME-RI-KA NO SHI-KA-GO DESU" ... Sometimes Japanese people will say "Wow, your Japanese is so good!" Even just go a "Thank you." or "Good Morning."
If I reacted this way when a foreigner in America spoke to me, I feel like people would say "that's horrible." If anyone with a foreign accent ordered a sandwich at a deli and the guy behind the counter was like "WOW! You're SOOOOO good at English!" Even I'd be a little weirded out.
It bugs me when I go into a restaurant and am awkwardly delivered an English version of the menu. It's not that I don't appreciate them trying to offer some help... but, I don't like that they assume I know no Japanese. (The real kicker is the chopsticks. People have gasped or said "WOW!!!" when they've seen me use chopsticks before. Sometimes people have to ask before serving me food, "Can you use chopsticks??" Americans may not grow up using chopsticks but I'm fairly certain that if one takes the trouble to go to Japan that they can get food from the table to their mouth. They may struggle, let them struggle. If the person wants a fork, give them a fork. Just don't right out hand them a fork. It's embarrassing... I'm getting side tracked, back to the English/Japanese thing)
At the same time, most foreigners who do come here don't know Japanese. Even of the ones that do, they probably can't read Japanese well enough to read all of a menu, I know I always come across some strange kanji in menus. It's not like the restaurant people are being completely ignorant here...
A lot of Japanese people have told me they are discouraged by the lack of help that American people at restaurants or people who work at stores give when they, the Japanese person, gets confused. A common situation is that when you go to a fast food place they say "for here or to go?" A few of my Japanese friends have mentioned that this is really confusing. The terms "for here" and "to go" aren't really used outside of this situation so it's not likely they've heard them before. So instead of explaining it in a simpler way "Will you eat this now? Will you take it and leave?" with some gestures, the employees just repeat it louder and slower. "FOR HERE OR TO GO??" If you don't get it the second time they go "ugh..." and get mad, like you're wasting their time. While this isn't the case every time you go to a fast food place, I'm sure we can all agree that there are definitely people with this attitude. Most people at the DMV. (In fact, if someone isn't unpleasant at a DMV we can sometimes find it necessary to share this experience"I went to the DMV today the guy was so nice to me!")
So many people, no only Japanese, say that Americans often have bad attitudes and think that everyone should learn English if they are in America. In some respects they're correct, there is a lot of attitude and sass, especially compared to Japan. In Japan, it's rare to find someone with a bad attitude at any place that offers services to the public. You'll usually find a lot of politeness, even if it's completely artificial.
However, I don't think it's always a bad thing to expect people to know English if they are in America. Just like it shouldn't be a bad thing to expect people to know French if they're in France. That doesn't mean that everyone MUST know English or MUST know French in those situations. I think the expectation should be there. People will probably learn something that way. I can guarantee that those Japanese friends of mine left McDonalds or Burger King or whatever, asked a friend what "For here or to go?" means, and were definitely prepared for the next time they wanted a triple quarter pounder with cheese. It's kind of the "tough love" of learning a language in a foreign country. In any country the hardest stuff is when you are conversing somewhere in public with a stranger. A bank, a restaurant, a post office, doctors office, ordering food over the phone... you get the idea.
I just think it'd be nice to walk into a restaurant and not have people gasp when I say "hello, two please." In Japanese.
One other thing is that every now and then some excited youngsters, usually in a group, will approach me in public and say "HI!" and then giggle to themselves and scurry away. If I say "Hi!" back they laugh even more. They take the fact that I'm a foreigner to mean that I speak English. I always wondered if this really bothered other foreigners. For instance, if someone is from some other non-English speaking country, does it bother them when some Japanese people offer them English menus or try to speak English to them without asking where they are from? I guess when I was in Senegal and people would speak French to me it didn't really bother me, but ya never know...
A police man asked me where I'm from once and I said, "Chicago, in America." His response was, "WHOA! YOUR JAPANESE IS SO GOOD!!!!" Most of my sentence was phonetic english words... here's the sentence in Japanese "A-ME-RI-KA NO SHI-KA-GO DESU" ... Sometimes Japanese people will say "Wow, your Japanese is so good!" Even just go a "Thank you." or "Good Morning."
If I reacted this way when a foreigner in America spoke to me, I feel like people would say "that's horrible." If anyone with a foreign accent ordered a sandwich at a deli and the guy behind the counter was like "WOW! You're SOOOOO good at English!" Even I'd be a little weirded out.
It bugs me when I go into a restaurant and am awkwardly delivered an English version of the menu. It's not that I don't appreciate them trying to offer some help... but, I don't like that they assume I know no Japanese. (The real kicker is the chopsticks. People have gasped or said "WOW!!!" when they've seen me use chopsticks before. Sometimes people have to ask before serving me food, "Can you use chopsticks??" Americans may not grow up using chopsticks but I'm fairly certain that if one takes the trouble to go to Japan that they can get food from the table to their mouth. They may struggle, let them struggle. If the person wants a fork, give them a fork. Just don't right out hand them a fork. It's embarrassing... I'm getting side tracked, back to the English/Japanese thing)
At the same time, most foreigners who do come here don't know Japanese. Even of the ones that do, they probably can't read Japanese well enough to read all of a menu, I know I always come across some strange kanji in menus. It's not like the restaurant people are being completely ignorant here...
A lot of Japanese people have told me they are discouraged by the lack of help that American people at restaurants or people who work at stores give when they, the Japanese person, gets confused. A common situation is that when you go to a fast food place they say "for here or to go?" A few of my Japanese friends have mentioned that this is really confusing. The terms "for here" and "to go" aren't really used outside of this situation so it's not likely they've heard them before. So instead of explaining it in a simpler way "Will you eat this now? Will you take it and leave?" with some gestures, the employees just repeat it louder and slower. "FOR HERE OR TO GO??" If you don't get it the second time they go "ugh..." and get mad, like you're wasting their time. While this isn't the case every time you go to a fast food place, I'm sure we can all agree that there are definitely people with this attitude. Most people at the DMV. (In fact, if someone isn't unpleasant at a DMV we can sometimes find it necessary to share this experience"I went to the DMV today the guy was so nice to me!")
So many people, no only Japanese, say that Americans often have bad attitudes and think that everyone should learn English if they are in America. In some respects they're correct, there is a lot of attitude and sass, especially compared to Japan. In Japan, it's rare to find someone with a bad attitude at any place that offers services to the public. You'll usually find a lot of politeness, even if it's completely artificial.
However, I don't think it's always a bad thing to expect people to know English if they are in America. Just like it shouldn't be a bad thing to expect people to know French if they're in France. That doesn't mean that everyone MUST know English or MUST know French in those situations. I think the expectation should be there. People will probably learn something that way. I can guarantee that those Japanese friends of mine left McDonalds or Burger King or whatever, asked a friend what "For here or to go?" means, and were definitely prepared for the next time they wanted a triple quarter pounder with cheese. It's kind of the "tough love" of learning a language in a foreign country. In any country the hardest stuff is when you are conversing somewhere in public with a stranger. A bank, a restaurant, a post office, doctors office, ordering food over the phone... you get the idea.
I just think it'd be nice to walk into a restaurant and not have people gasp when I say "hello, two please." In Japanese.
One other thing is that every now and then some excited youngsters, usually in a group, will approach me in public and say "HI!" and then giggle to themselves and scurry away. If I say "Hi!" back they laugh even more. They take the fact that I'm a foreigner to mean that I speak English. I always wondered if this really bothered other foreigners. For instance, if someone is from some other non-English speaking country, does it bother them when some Japanese people offer them English menus or try to speak English to them without asking where they are from? I guess when I was in Senegal and people would speak French to me it didn't really bother me, but ya never know...
There's a strange teacher next to me.
I heard the teacher next to me giggling. I figured he was looking at some website that had a funny comic on it or something. I did a probably-not-so-subtle fake stretch so I could see what he was looking at and it was some excel spread sheet file. He'd say a few words to himself and then giggle like a child. Then type in some numbers. I'm all for enjoying your work... just... I dunno... I feel really uncomfortable right now.
More On Driving...
It seems that I'm constantly behind a bus or a slow moving truck when I drive somewhere around my neighborhood. All the roads here are one lane and you can't really pass anyone... it's kind of annoying.
Also...
Dear driver of some little spunky Subaru Car,
I don't care how great your car handles driving in snow. The next time you tail me that close and flash your headlights at me while I'm driving in a heavy snow storm I WILL slam on my brakes. You, sir or madam, are forgetting that I drive a 1991 Nissan Cube that has given me more trouble than I can deal with. It's gone through 2 car batteries in 2 months, a new alternator, a tire, and various other small annoying issues. I don't have much to lose when it comes to this car. I don't mind adding a dent onto the back of this thing.
From,
The 1991 Nissan Cube Driver
Also...
Dear driver of some little spunky Subaru Car,
I don't care how great your car handles driving in snow. The next time you tail me that close and flash your headlights at me while I'm driving in a heavy snow storm I WILL slam on my brakes. You, sir or madam, are forgetting that I drive a 1991 Nissan Cube that has given me more trouble than I can deal with. It's gone through 2 car batteries in 2 months, a new alternator, a tire, and various other small annoying issues. I don't have much to lose when it comes to this car. I don't mind adding a dent onto the back of this thing.
From,
The 1991 Nissan Cube Driver
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Living Up To It's Title...
Yasunari Kawabata was the first to use this term, I believe, and he totally nailed it. "雪国" or "Yukiguni" which means "Snow Country." It's the name of his most famous book and it's about... well... right where I'm living. In fact, the name of my apartment complex is "Rent Snow Country."
It started snowing late thursday night and continued through friday, saturday, and a bit on sunday. Sunday the sun came out and the sky opened it. I think it was the sky's way of going, "hey guys! Look what I did!" People climbed onto theif roofs to remove snow and they cleaned out their driveways. Adults were digging out their cars and the little kids were making igloos and snowmen.
As a result, I think they upset natures careful placement of about 3 feet of snow and it started snowing, heavily, again.
I'll post some photos soon.
Does anyone other than my mom read this?
It started snowing late thursday night and continued through friday, saturday, and a bit on sunday. Sunday the sun came out and the sky opened it. I think it was the sky's way of going, "hey guys! Look what I did!" People climbed onto theif roofs to remove snow and they cleaned out their driveways. Adults were digging out their cars and the little kids were making igloos and snowmen.
As a result, I think they upset natures careful placement of about 3 feet of snow and it started snowing, heavily, again.
I'll post some photos soon.
Does anyone other than my mom read this?
Saturday, December 19, 2009
The Snow
I'd say that the snow has arrived but it's still in the process of arriving. It's been snowing for almost 3 days now without letting up for more than about 5 minutes. It hasn't been a light dusty snow fall either, it's been heavy and white. It's wonderful.
While I was at school for most of the first day that it snowed, this weekend gave me sometime to go for a nice little walk in the snow. The roads here don't really get "plowed" as they do in America. There are sprinklers that are constantly running... everywhere. They are on sidewalks, roofs, in the middle of the street, some buildings have them on outdoor staircases, and so on, and so on, and so on. I'm still unsure what my feelings are of the sprinkler systems...
On one hand, they really do keep the snow off of sidewalks and stuff. There isn't ever that thin later of snow that the shovel doesn't quite get. The weather here baaaaarely dips below freezing so it doesn't turn into ice really, it just kind of flows. Also there aren't really huge drifts of snow from the plows or shovels. The snow melts and flows away and there isn't a massive black nasty mound left over.
On the other hand. The parking lot of my building has turned into a small lake. Some sidewalks have about 4 or 5 inches of water on them. Waterproof boots aren't suggested, they're required (pretty much.) Basically everywhere you can walk is flooded with water. It's not usually that deep, but it's deep enough that if you wore shoes, your feet would be drenched. So far, I'm not sick of the water but I could see how it'd just get annoying.
I woke up this morning and suited up (now that I think about it, jeans probably weren't the best idea.) and went for a long walk with my camera in the snow. I walked for about two hours to find as much of Urasa as I could. The snow was reaaaaaaally heavy but it wasn't that cold. I think it was just below freezing. The result is really heavy wet snow... and therefore really heavy
wet clothes. As I left I noted that getting home would be easier because the wind would be blowing with me. When I headed home, though, it seemed as if the wind was originating from some epicenter near my apartment because no matter what direction I faced I was getting wind in my face.
Anyway... I really loved my walk. All my clothes are completely drenched but I got to see some really nice things.
Here's a link to a video and some music I made this afternoon of my walk.
URASA SNOW DAY (<----Click That)
-Mike
While I was at school for most of the first day that it snowed, this weekend gave me sometime to go for a nice little walk in the snow. The roads here don't really get "plowed" as they do in America. There are sprinklers that are constantly running... everywhere. They are on sidewalks, roofs, in the middle of the street, some buildings have them on outdoor staircases, and so on, and so on, and so on. I'm still unsure what my feelings are of the sprinkler systems...
On one hand, they really do keep the snow off of sidewalks and stuff. There isn't ever that thin later of snow that the shovel doesn't quite get. The weather here baaaaarely dips below freezing so it doesn't turn into ice really, it just kind of flows. Also there aren't really huge drifts of snow from the plows or shovels. The snow melts and flows away and there isn't a massive black nasty mound left over.
On the other hand. The parking lot of my building has turned into a small lake. Some sidewalks have about 4 or 5 inches of water on them. Waterproof boots aren't suggested, they're required (pretty much.) Basically everywhere you can walk is flooded with water. It's not usually that deep, but it's deep enough that if you wore shoes, your feet would be drenched. So far, I'm not sick of the water but I could see how it'd just get annoying.
I woke up this morning and suited up (now that I think about it, jeans probably weren't the best idea.) and went for a long walk with my camera in the snow. I walked for about two hours to find as much of Urasa as I could. The snow was reaaaaaaally heavy but it wasn't that cold. I think it was just below freezing. The result is really heavy wet snow... and therefore really heavy
wet clothes. As I left I noted that getting home would be easier because the wind would be blowing with me. When I headed home, though, it seemed as if the wind was originating from some epicenter near my apartment because no matter what direction I faced I was getting wind in my face.
Anyway... I really loved my walk. All my clothes are completely drenched but I got to see some really nice things.
Here's a link to a video and some music I made this afternoon of my walk.
URASA SNOW DAY (<----Click That)
-Mike
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Here's a summary of the holiday season SO FAR...
The ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) gathered together one night and had a thanksgiving. We had corn, stuffing, candied yams, rolls, mashed potatoes, and instead of turkey we had some good chicken of various flavors (including a BBQ Jerk sauce that was off the hook.)
The end we had some good desserts, including mine, but we were too stuffed to eat any.
Then I had a smaller thanksgiving with just myself and Hilary. My father sent me the following things...
Corn bread mix, stuffing ingredients, pumpkin pie mix (not in the picture...) gravy, cranberries, and some other goodies... oh yeah... that's right a TURKEY. A ROAST TURKEY. He couldn't mail an actual turkey from America so he sent me one from a company within Japan that mails frozen roast turkeys. Turkey is really difficult to come by here, in fact, when I talk about turkey to my students none of them even know what a turkey looks like.
I'm convinced this is where everyone decided to "one-up" each other. To see who could send the most raw food to me...
Following this delicious dinner I was sent a big box of goodies from my mother and little sister.
As a joke, when asked what I want for Hanukkah, I told my sister that I wanted a Challah (the bread... mmm...) of course you can't just MAIL Challah, I thought. Then I received one in mail, I was totally wrong. It was delicious.
My mother surprised me with two other packages one including dry and canned spices for Mexican food including pickled jalapenos, canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, and an assortment of dried chiles.
The second box she sent me had (though this may have been illegal) raw peppers and vegetables. There were about 8 jalapenos, 8 serranos, 4 poblanos, and 8 tomatillos. It was wonderous. TRULY wonderous. I'd had tomatillos in food before but had never tasted one on it's own before... it's gooooooood.
The final gift my mother gave me was a transfer of all of our family and childhood VHS tapes onto DVD. It's an incredible thing to see these videos. I found that the earliest memories I have come from late 1989. I have short memories of thanksgiving at my Grandma Mary's home in Connecticut. I thought these memories were from the early 90s but the videos confirmed it to be 1989. They are great memories. Especially the ones of my awkward preteen-early teen chubby self running around trying to hard to be funny... aaaaawkward.
The gifts kept coming, though! I recieved a surprise gift from my aunt and uncle! A t-shirt guitar. Yep! A T-shit that has a guitar drawn on it and when you wave a magnetic pic in front of
it, it actually plays guitar chords. A fun gift that I will surely have to wear to school one day to make my students think I'm stranger than they already do.
I also got TWO, yep, TWO donations made in my name! One is to the Frontera Farmer Foundation and one to http://www.whatididnotbuy.org/ both are really interesting places so please check them out!
That's my update on the holidays so far! I will be taking a trip to (on an over-night train) to Osaka in a few weeks. Stay tuned for an update!
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