Being an ALT in the Classroom

July is an exciting time of year in the JET world. We're saying goodbye to old friends, and getting ready to welcome new ones in the coming weeks.

Nestled in among all the excitement and vigor are the usual fears of starting a new life and job, chief among them just how the actual job will go. As most JETs will hear ad nauseum, every situation is different, but here I'd like to describe how a typical class goes for most ALTs working with the Sunshine curriculum as of spring 2015.

Physical Space:

Let's start with the space you'll be working in. Here's a typical Japanese-style classroom:

   

You'll spend most of your time in the lower third of the space, but feel free to walk around the room during free activity, tests, projects, etc. Teachers will usually stand on the right of the chalkboard (facing the students) with you on the left. 

DON'T feel like you have to stay in your little corner of the room though. It is team-teaching after all! Try to stay just left of center as much as possible unless the JTE needs the room to write or your students are trying to copy things down.

Always be aware of your JTE's movements. Some will write only a few key points, but some (especially third-year) will fill the entire chalkboard with text. Often, you'll find yourself moving farther and farther to the left as the period progresses. Sometimes they will need to reach for a piece of chalk right behind you or demonstrate a key point with actions. Depending on the classroom, it can feel a bit cramped so it's important to be constantly aware of where you both are and where you're moving.

If you get there before the period starts, chances are you students will be bustling around handing back assignment and tests and preparing the blackboard for class. Considering they will be wandering around and going back and forth to and from the front desks and the blackboard, it's best to stay out of their way until they've finished (or offer to help!).

A Typical English Class:

-Greetings- Japanese classes always begin with a declaration of the beginning of the class. In other classes, the students call everyone to attention (the students will stand) and declare the beginning of class after which the teacher will start the day's lesson. Your English greeting may follow this mold exactly or be entirely different depending on your JTE. My JTEs simply initiate it with a "Good afternoon, everyone!" to which the students reply, "Good morning Ms. [   ] and Ms. Tierra!". My schools also like to ask them, "How are you?" after which they reply "I'm [fine]! And you?". After you and your JTE reply, they will be asked to sit and then the lesson will begin.

-Day, Date, and Weather- these will always be on the board in some form and the lower years will usually have you ask the students before writing them on the board.

-Today's target- the JTE will go over the day's topic and possibly the agenda for the day's lesson.

-Warm-up- Many JTEs will start with a small game to get their brains on track. These can take many forms such as Hangman (using a different object since the hangman is bad juju here in Japan), telephone, bingo, etc.

-Any short tests/quizzes

-Main lesson- again, your JTEs may very loosely follow the textbook, but at the very basic level will consist of two main parts: learning the grammar point and vocab, and reading a brief passage. Some JTEs can stretch everything to cover two days while some may rush through both parts in one class. Needless to say, if you have any control over lesson planning, the longer they can study each grammar point and practice the vocab in a variety of contexts, the better.

Let's take a look at an actual page out of the first-year textbook:

• Basic Dialogue

As you can see, first we start with a basic dialogue passage. This serves as a model of the grammar point in the lesson. Some JTEs will simply read it with you to the class while some will come up with their own version or get really creative with it. After the model reading, JTE will translate the meaning onto the blackboard and explain the grammar. Then the students will repeat after you and the JTE for practice.

• Vocabulary practice

Students have a special notebook that corresponds to the Sunshine curriculum with pre-drawn tables to write down each vocab word and its meaning in Japanese. The words appear in the textbook activities and the reading passage on the next page. Games can be used to reinforce memory.

• Practice Activities

After basic dialogue practice, you'll usually do some sort of activity to reinforce the grammar and practice communication. There are three sections underneath the basic dialogue: listening, speaking, and "let's try!". Many JTEs like doing the listening section because it is good ear training. The other two activities can be a bit on the boring side, so it's a good opportunity to come up with something fun and interesting.

***This should conclude day one of the section**

• Reading the Passage

Hopefully in the next lesson, you'll get to reading the main passage on the right-hand page. If there is no dialogue, the JTE should have you read the entire passage (unfortunately, some may use the CD even while you are there). If there is dialogue, they'll split the roles between you. Again, the JTE will go over the meaning of the passage and point out where the key grammar point appears. After that is more reading practice.

Good JTEs will have a more engaging way to practice the reading For example, the students can do a reading relay race with their rows where the front pair will stand and read the passage and then the next will start when the front is finished and sits down. Or you can go around the room having each of them read a sentence and time how fast it takes them to get to the last student.

Supplemental Activities

In the back of each Program are extra activities to enforce and expand on what they learned. These take the form of Speaking where the book presents a common situation and corresponding dialogue such as shopping or asking for directions, Writing such as writing a diary entry or self-introduction, or Listening where students listen to a passage such as a commercial, public announcement or some other common dialogue and answer comprehension questions, or a My Project where students may take two or three lessons to complete and perform a more presentation-oriented project. Chapters may have a special activity or reading unique to that chapter as well.

In all of the supplemental materials, students should be encouraged to produce their own original work and make it relevant to themselves.

Corresponding Materials

The Sunshine and Hi Friends! (elementary school) curriculum come a plethora of visual aides and other materials such as flashcards, the aforementioned notebooks, and huge picture cards to go along with all the chapters. These can usually be found in your school's 準備室 ("junbi-shitsu") or prep room where all school materials are stored.

Making it Work for You

There are many viewpoints on the English curricula in Japan, mostly negative. While many aspects of the textbooks can seem outdated (even though the Sunshine series was last published in 2012!), have questionable phrases and grammar, and straight-up spelling and pronunciation errors (it's tur-"bine", not tur"bin"!), you can still work with the material and use whatever you deem useful and make things up in places where the book just isn't up to snuff.

Also keep in mind that these books were designed to correspond with Japanese standardized tests and entrance exams. If it seems like the book or your JTE is teaching some strange phrase that no one uses, check the tests your students take; chances are it's on there. For example, I saw on one test that one of the correct answers was "make a trip". Thankfully, my JTEs are nice and will give them a point if the student actually wrote something that makes sense ("take" a trip).

It Is What it Is

Japan's unrelenting exam system has been the subject of controversy for a long time now. As Japan continues to revise it's English curriculum, it's going to have to come to terms with the fact that language-learning less about testing and more about the organic flow of communication. This isn't just an English problem either; pretty much every foreign language is taught with this same paradigm and students can ace every test and still have no communication skill.

Until Japan comes up with a system that can teach students to actually communicate in a foreign language and work around the test system or throw out the exams altogether, we're stuck with a typical culturally Japanese phrase: しょうがない("shou ga nai") or "there's nothing to be done" or in a broader sense, "That's just the way things are." This a concept that can be very frustrating for foreigners, but it's a way of coping with things beyond your control.

A mere ALT in a sea of Japanese beauracracy isn't going to change the way things work. In my mind, ALTs are here not to "teach English", but to facilitate an atmosphere of interest in foreign cultures and a broader world-view in not only your students and teachers, but your community as a whole. Your mere presence is enough of a spark to ignite that interest. Use that to your advantage, and you'll be able to create an enjoyable learning atmosphere for your students.

The JET programme: Change Your Life

Summer vacation is just around the corner here in Japan, but things seem to be speeding up rather than slowing down around here. August harolds an exciting time in Japan full of festivals, sunny beach barbeques, Koshien, and many partings and meetings for us JETs. I wish every JET near and far the best as they embark on their newest adventure and personally look forward to welcoming our two incoming ALTs in the next few weeks.

Over the ocean in the US (and perhaps other parts of the world), students fresh-faced from summer break are gearing up for their very last year or semester of college. This a busy time for all of you as well and I remember the frantic excitement of finally being done with school and mounting panic as I realized I need an actual plan for the future.

Every college student right before graduation. 

There was really only one thing I was completely sure of when I came home from my study abroad in Tokyo: I wanted to go back. As I slogged through my last semester at UW-Milwaukee in the Fall of 2012, I looked for ways back to Japan. Teaching wasn't really on my radar, but JET was always in the back of my mind as an option. I looked on a few websites such as Ohayo Sensei and GaijinPot, but I was intimidated by actual job-hunting in a foreign country and nothing came close to the benefits offered in a JET contract. I finally decided being a CIR in the JET programme would be a great working experience and threw my proverbial hat into the ring.

To those of you thinking about JET, I want to say that it is an invaluable, life-changing experience and I have no regrets accepting my position. But before you start getting everything together for that application, there are many things to consider. As much research as I did, there were many things I wish I had been told beforehand and I want to share those things with you. My goal is not to discourage anyone but to make you as fully prepared as possible for the challenges that lie ahead (multiplied by getting your last credits together and your thesis/final projects done) and set reasonable standards for life in Japan as a JET.

Should you find yourself wishing to partake in the insanity that is the JET programme after reading this, then I say go for it and the best of luck!

1. The JET application process

a) The application
The entire application process starts in October/November and runs all the way through April when people receive their acceptance/rejection letters. Many candidates are University students trying to get through their senior year and making time to get the necessary documents including transcripts (including any overseas transcripts), proof of graduation, 2 letters of recommendation, a 1,000-word statement of purpose, and the very lengthy application itself together mulitplies the already-existing stress of senior classes, projects, and dissertations. If you want to shoot for an April departure time, you have even more paperwork to do at the time of application.

b) The waiting
After you have everything sent in and you receive your little slip of paper with your application number on it comes the hardest part: the waiting.  Considering the app is due sometime in November and candidates don't receive results until sometime in February (depending on the consulate), it all adds up to approximately three months of nothing especially after doing all that work. Students can try as they might to focus on school (and for those that graduate in December, job-hunting), but JET is going to start burrowing a little niche in the back of your mind where it will sit and nag at you until you FINALLY receive that email.

c) The interview
JET interviews aren't intrinsically terrible, but it does take time to properly prepare for one and the experience varies greatly between consulates and the candidates themselves. Those who want to read in length about the JET interview can do so here, but long story short, you will be questioned about your application repsonses and statement of purpose, and there will be a few questions designed to test your adaptability and how you deal with difficult situations. You need to be able to keep a cool head and think on your feet.

c) MORE waiting
Yep, the next 1-2 months are another whole lot of nothing. Having passed the first stage of the process, the anxiety is going to be amplified by your success and the hard work you've done thus far. As February rolls into April, you're going to start checking your email every day and freak out whenever you receive one.

d) The notifcation
The moment has arrived, and one of two things will happen: you'll read the word congradulations and go crazy with excitement, or you'll read through the whole thing in despair as you realize you were rejected. This can be hard. REALLY hard. Receiving that rejection from a normal job sucks as it is so I can't imagine the disappointment of being rejected from a programme you not only dreamed about but worked on for the better part of a year. If you're going to apply to the programme, you need to be prepared for and be able to deal with this situation and have a back-up plan handy.

2. Being a JET

While the JET programme is a great opportunity that has given me priceless experiences and professional development, there are many challenging aspects that I feel many prospective JETs aren't aware of and need to know.

a) Placement
The Downside:
You probably will not be placed in Tokyo or Osaka. However...

**EXCITING NEWS**
There have been short-listed applicants announcing their placements in Tokyo popping up all over the internet. It is true- JET has opened up almost a hundred new placements in Tokyo proper for the 2014-2015 year and I couldn't be more excited (and jealous). They will be adding even more positions in the coming years as the Japanese government prepares to push the English program back even further to start in the 3rd grade.

The Bright Side:
On your application you can request three different placements. I tried to get as large a placement as possible close to the big cities and they gave me Japanese Wisconsin (aka Akita prefecture). The other two ALTs from Milwaukee got Gunma and Saitama (both urban and close to Tokyo). While there may be plenty of openings in urban centers, there are many other factors such as municipality, prefectural, or board of education requests (gender, Japanese ability, teaching experience, sister city hometown, etc.).
Many people who do request countryside locations tend to get them. And let's face it, I gotta be one of the luckiest JETs out there to be able to come to work and see this every day:

 

Even if you want to live in the countryside, you need to be prepared to go anywhere. If you decide to drop out after placement, you will not be able to apply to JET again for a whole year.

b) The Money Pit
The Downside:
The application process takes a lot of time, energy and perhaps a bit of money, but the real drain on your wallet as well as your free time doesn't start until you've been accepted. Right away there will be paperwork to hand in by the end of the month, and even more paperwork to start which takes both money and time waiting for the government to process for you. The most expensive will be the criminal background check ($18 application fee and $84 for the check) and the tax form proving your US residency ($64 each). Then factor in time traveling to and from your municipal police station, doctor's office for the health check, and any FAQs or other meetings (which are in your best interest to attend).
Next up are any purchases you may need to make such as clothing, luggage, medications, a laptop and/or e-reader, and toiletries that are hard to find in Japan. There is also the high possibility that you will need a car (which you can buy outright from your predecessor or lease when you get here).
Finally, we have the cost of starting your new life in Japan. I wrote up a comprehensive list of things you will need to pay for upon arrival here, but every situation is different (or as we like to say, ESID), Estimated starting costs can range from 100,000yen-300,000yen.

The Bright Side:
Boards of Education understand how large of an undertaking moving to a foreign country is and many are willing to help. Most JETs get a subsidy on their rent. Depending on their budget situation, they may be able to loan you out money or help you make other arrangements.

And then there's your more-than adequate salary. I'm not exactly sure why, but JETs get paid a whole lot more than the average teacher in any country. Even after I send home around 60,000yen every month, I still have plenty left over to take care of both myself and my husband and still have spending money left over.

JET is widely considered to be the best of its kind for this reason plus the free plane ticket they provide to and from Japan.

c) Transportation
The Downside:
One of the things I miss about Tokyo so much is the train system. It's efficient, goes everywhere, easy to board with a rail pass, and runs past midnight. Here on the west coast in Northeast Japan, the main line runs along the coast, runs about once an hour and has a tendency to be severely delayed by high winds and snow especially in the winter. Trains that run all the way to my town run even less frequently and the last one departs Akita City around 8:30pm.

The reality is that most JETs end up getting a car at some point. Many JETs live within walking distance of convenience stores, 100yen shops, and grocery stores, but chances are you're going to have to travel a bit if you want access to things besides survival needs. Almost every JET in my area that tried to make do without a car ended up at least leasing.

Of course, cars come with additonal responsiblities like car insurance, an annual automobile tax, and the mandatory bi-annual car inspection.

The Bright Side:
So much more will be open to you. In a place where public transport is so unreliable, the mobility and self-reliance a car provides gives one peace of mind. You don't have to worry about the weather or what time of day it is- you can just go.



d) The 'A' in ALT really does mean "assistant"
The Downside:
Some ALTs come to Japan raring to revolutionize the education world and create the best damn English department Japan has ever seen. These ALTs end up extremely disappointed. There are some aspects of the Japanese language education system that are, shall we say, 'lacking', but there's really not much one can do about it. There is an association of JETs called AJET that work with the Council of Language and International Relations (CLAIR) to improve the overall work life of JETs, but there really isn't a way to permanently impact the core curriculum.
Many ALTs can find ways to personalize and create their own lessons, but rarely do they have opportunities to teach a whole class by themselves. The Japanese teacher of English (JTE) will always be the primary instructor and may allocate an entire lesson to their ALT or merely use them to pronounce vocab words or read passages. Every JTE is different and some may be very open to new ideas while others would rather stick to their own plans. This can be very frustrating for JET teachers with lots of experience who are used to being in charge.
This can also apply to a CIR who thinks they'll be translating masters by the time they leave JET. Some translate a lot, some don't do any at all. Job duties will differ depending on your placement and the expectations of your superiors.

The Bright Side:
Your "duties" extend outside the classroom. Lets throw some positivity into this mess of pessimism.
JETs fall under the title 'civil servant' which means you work not for the school, but for the city or prefecture itself. Therefore, there are other things you may be expected to do such as help with sister city exchanges or run English conversation classes at the community center. The are even English camps and volunteer activities in many places run by JETs.
Even if you can't make a huge impact in the classroom, these activities are a great way to get involved in your community, make friends, and be in charge for a change.

Something else to watch out for are the changes being considered to prepare the English curriculum for the huge pushback in 2020. As a part of these sweeping changes, CLAIR and MEXT are considering allowing ALTs to teach solo in the classroom. This wouldn't include all classes, but the Japanese government is considering the benefits of at least one class being taught exclusively by the ALT. If you don't find the prospect of being an "assistant" teacher appealing, keep an eye out for these and other changes coming to the JET programme...

e) The free time
The Downside:
There are times when you will have very few or no classes at all. During long breaks you will have absoutely zero to do at work. Many JETs simply don't know what to do with themselves with all this time and most of the teachers won't have answers for you since they aren't very well-versed in the specifics of your job. This can also make you feel isolated and forgotten as everyone else in the office shuffles around with mountains of work to do while you sit at your desk with nothing.

The Bright Side:
This is where creative people shine. While an entire day sitting on your ass can be a drag, take this opportunity to do something productive. Many JETs find the extra time a plus in which they can write, read, study, translate, or make culture boards, games or lessons plans. Hell, I've even budgeted my finances at work.

Just because you have nothing to do doesn't mean you're glued to your desk. Feel free to take a walk around your school. If you get the immobile blues, simply moving at all can help tremendously.

f) School climate
The Downside:
As I've mentioned before, Japan has always been a fore-runner in energy conservation, but after the Great East Japan Earthquake, these policies were kicked into over-drive. My school doesn't tend to turn on the air conditioning during the hot, sweaty summer months and will wait til the last possible day to start turning on the heater in early winter. The interim months between cold and hot are hard to bear since they turn the heaters off pretty early. As a person with bad circulation to begin with, I find that I get so chilled that my fingernails turn a lovely shade of purple.

Another interesting aspect is that the hallways and bathrooms aren't heated at all. It's very strange to walk out of the heated office to freezing hallway to heated classroom. And while you may have those fancy heated toilets, there probably isn't any hot water to wash your hands with.

By the way, Japanese buildings have little insulation and usually lack central heating completely. My schools have smaller heaters installed in each classroom that be individually turned on and off and hallways aren't heated at all.

The Bright Side:
The conversation of energy came with a huge slackening in dress code. On extremely cold days, teachers can shed the suit jackets for an extra cardigan or even a track jacket and can even skip jackets all together in sweltering summer. I've seen teachers sitting with fleece blankets at their desks as well.

There are many alternative heating options available for the home as well.

g) The annual teacher shuffle
The Downside:
Before the start of every new academic year, teachers are moved around their local region. Your school will lose teachers and gain new ones. This means that the JTE you loved working with and spent a whole year building a great relationship with might leave you. Some teachers are even promoted. I was sad to see my principal, vice principal, and gyomu-sensei leave, but was relieved when it turned out the latter two were replaced by promoted teachers.

The shuffle varies from year-to-year and depends on many factors (most of which are a mystery to most of us). Most teachers don't stick around for more than 3-4 years.

The Bright Side:
You might be finally rid of that teacher you just can't seem to get along with. Maybe you'll get to keep the great ones around longer than usual.

Even if your favorites get traded out, they may not be far away. Many are club leaders who you may see at regional competitions or events. It's amazing how every teacher in the southern region in Akita seems to know one another (or at least "about" one another). If you're not sure about your new incoming JTE, chances are someone around you can tell you what to expect.

h) Unpredictable schedules
The Downside:
When you first get here, school schedules will be a complete mystery to you. There will seem to be a billion charts and "jikan-wari" (timetables) that look unreadable and incomprehensible. Your only saving grace will be the office ladies handing out printed daily schedules, but sometimes they forget or don't seem to know whether to give you one.

If your head JTE is nice, they'll make you a schedule of your classes for the week. Sometimes, however, there is a class switch without warning or your JTEs may need/not need your help regardless of what the schedule says. Your JTE may run up to you a couple minutes before the next period and hurriedly ask you to join their class.

Always have your class materials handy and be ready for anything.

The Bright Side:
There is a method to the scheduling madness and it will make sense once you figure it out. My junior high can have one of four schedules on any given day:  A6 (6 50-minute classes), B6 (6 45-minute classes), A5 (5 50-minute classes), and B5 (5 45-minute classes). There can be other variations of this format such as a B4 (4 45-minute classes) or something completely different (which will have the 特 kanji next to the schedule format which means "special").

Once you have the system figured out, it's pretty simple to plan your day out, but again, be ready for anything.

3. Life in Japan

a) Welcome to the cash society
The Downside:
Say goodbye to your plastic friends, because most of them won't do you any good here. Japan is a 'cash' society- it's considered normal to carry around exhorbitant amounts of cash, most places don't accept debit or credit cards, and checks don't really exist in the conventional sense. When somebody needs to send someone else money, they typically receive the relevent account information and transfer it over at an atm. This may seem extremely inconvenient, but if there's someone or a company that you regularly send money to, you can have the atm make you a card so that all you need to do next time is tell it you want a transfer, stick in the card, and then put in the amount. You can also set up automatic withdrawal for most regular payments like bills (you still receive a notice in the mail).

The Bright Side:
Having to pay in cash is a double-edged sword. Yes, it's super inconvenient to have to drive to the bank so often, but having the inconvenience makes your money less easy to spend and make you spread your funds out to avoid unnecessary trips. I find it's a lot easier to budget when you're limited to the physical amount in your immediate possession instead of having a card you can swipe an infinite number of times whether you have the money or not. Another boon to budgeting is having account books that can be automatically updated by sticking it in an atm. You can also have online banking set up.

b) The Japanese Language
The Downside:
As I've mentioned in previous posts, while the JET programme does not require any previous experience or credentials of any kind outside a bachelor's degree (in anything), the truth is that more and more accepted candidates are either at least basic learners of Japanese or previous teachers or both. I know a few JETs who had little to no Japanese ability, but at least one of them has a supervisor who doesn't speak English and I know a good majority of their troubles could be made easier or non-existent if they knew at least basic Japanese.

At the bare minimum, you need to express your intention to study Japanese if you were accepted to the JET program.

The Bright Side:
I recently discovered a great website created by a world traveler called Mark Manson. One of his many great articles is called "22 Tips for Learning a Foreign Language" in which he remarks, "Studies have shown that the most common 100 words in any language account for 50% of all spoken communication. The most common 1,000 words account for 80% of all spoken communication. The most common 3,000 words account for 99% of communication." He emphasizes that just learning those first 100 words will carry you a long way. To someone who hasn't seriously studied a foreign language, it may seem like a lot, but you'd be surprised how many words you can get down in one sitting. When I work on vocabulary, I usually limit myself to 10-20 words at a time. At a pace of once a day, I can get a hundred words down in 5-10 days. Then, of course, you need to continue to review and expand your usage of them.

c) Weather
One of the most unexpected things newcomers to Japan will discover is that the climate here is actually extremely humid. This makes the colder seasons seem colder and the warmer seasons seem hotter.

The higher humidity brings a few extra challenges. One of these is mold. I've never had to clean my shower and bathtub so much as I have here. People who have tatami rooms have to be especially careful since tatami mats are pretty expensive to replace.

Another particularly dangerous risk in the summer is food poisoning. Bacteria love moist, warm climates (aka: Japan). Be especially weary of food stands.

With the humidity and still air, there's also a heightened risk of heat exhaustion. Cute posters have popped up all over my school reminding kids to hydrate and I see announcements all over the news warning the populace of particularily hot days.

Those who are new to Japan eventually notice that the country has a special relationship with umbrellas. Due the strong sun and rainy seasons in summer, umbrellas have become a big industry in Japan with many different kinds, syles, and brands available. The large amount of rain and long stretches of cloudy days can be hard to deal with at times.

And of course, the large amount of precipitation herolds a massive amount of snow in the northern regions. Dealing with the massive amount of snow can be a daunting challenge to most new JETs.

Pictured: winning in Akita

(all the credit to Jeff Lowther)

Japan is also infamous for it's seasonal typhoons. These can be scary, but are usually nothing to worry about as long as you stay home and pay attention to the news.

c) The infamous ginormous bugs
The Downside:
With the I'm not gonna lie- this was probably my biggest hang-up about living in the countryside. It might seem silly, but the thought of finding a multi-legged creepy crawler or humongous spider in my apartment freaks the hell out of me.

Fortunately, the worst we get up here in Akita are giant spiders and giant wasps. Other harzardous fauna include bears and poisonous snakes. I've seen neither since I got here, but I have seen the destruction they're capable of:

 

They only come out to eat your face at night...

I'd imagine you'd have to traipse pretty far into the forests to see them. We've had a Serow (a kind of large goat with stunted horns) visit close to my junior high and caused quite an excitement during school lunch.

Even when I lived in Tokyo, I heard stories from fellow students who had a roach problem (and apparently, they FLY!). This is so common, I see commercials for roach removal sprays all the time on TV and they are prominently displayed in just about every store. Roaches don't only live in dirty places in Japan- they can invade the cleanest of buildings.

The moral of the story is that you need to be prepaired to deal with the worst possible situation. The variety of critters that can potentially invade your home increase the farther south you live. Maybe you'll be fortunate like me and be given a relatively new building to live in or maybe you'll get something super old with a mukade nest.

Oh, what's a mukade you ask? None other than the first-born satan-spawn from the ninth circle of hell (aka Japanese centipedes). Many of them can grow to be 20cm long, are venomous, territorial and are never solitary. If you find one in your home, chances are it isn't the last one you'll find. I almost cried with happiness when my predecessor told me it's too cold up here for them to live!

The Bright Side:
You get to see things like beautiful dragonflies and praying mantises:

so-named because other insects beg for their lives in its precense

 

I want to reiterate that I'm not trying to scare you (well, maybe enough so that you'll be careful), but you need to know about local flora and fauna before deciding to live anywhere. There is a great, comprehensive blog about Japanese bugs written by a nice German lad who's been all over the countryside.

d) Bodily Difficulties
The Downside:
Of course everybody gets sick, but many foreignors are hit with something they'd never in a million years think they'd have to deal with: allergies. I have 2 brothers and a step-mother with nasty respiratory allergies, but I've never had anything serious besides a slight allergy to ceclor (a component in some medicines) before a couple years ago.

I started to suspect I had allergies when I started getting sniffles around spring time of 2011 particularily in the damp, underground lecture halls of the chemistry building at college. Due to the fact that it went away with the season and it was extremely inconvenient to get tested (I would have had to find time away from work and school to travel home), I didn't give it another thought.

That fall I went to Tokyo. I had no problems.

Then I came to Akita. About a month later, I came down with what I thought was a cold, but it left me with a post-nasal drip that always grew nastier at night and cause me terrible throat-pain. Every once in a while (again, usually at night), my eyes would randomly burn and itch. Sometimes simply tearing up would cause the burning. I came to the conclusion that there was something here my body simply didn't like.

Apparently, I'm not alone. There is an unusually high number of people (foreignors and Japanese alike) that are allergic to cedar pollen. Why? Well, it turns out it's kind of their fault. A long time ago, the Japanese government reforested a large chunk of Japan with these cedar trees because they were thought to be more economically productive than other trees. Unfortunately, the project turned out to be a complete failure. That article from 1996 sites a statistic of 1 in 10 people being allergic to cedar, but more recent ones state percentages of up to 16%. Now the government is desperately trying to reduce the number of cedar trees. It's not uncommon too see Japanese people in facemasks here due to illness, but they also wear them just to keep out allergens.

Up next, we have the inevitable bowel issues that come with a drastic change in diet. Of course this will vary greatly depending on what you ate in your home country. Japanese food tends to be high in sodium that can irritate sensitive bellies. There is also a lot of seafood both raw and cooked and JETs will find themselves eating fish on a regular basis for school lunch. Those who are allergic to or don't like seafood will find this a bit of a challenge.

Those with a chronic problem like IBS will need to bring their own loperimides (the active ingredient in "Immodium") or see a doctor here for a prescription since it isn't sold over the counter in Japan.

If you have a prescription, you're going to either do more paperwork, have someone send it to you a month at a time, or see a doctor here for it. Ladies: birth control is not covered here. Get it taken care of in your own country if it's cheaper.

Lastly, I'd have to say the most out of left field problem I encountered was sleep deprivation. I'm not even talking about jet-lag (which is an issue for any world traveler). You'll find out quickly that even if you have a western-style bed, it tends to be the arcane spring-style firmer mattress. On top of that, a coastal town such as Nikaho can have high winds fast enough to rattle your windows and I'm a light sleeper.

On the bright side...
Social health insurance. Going to the doctor is extremely cheap here. While not entirely free, it'll cost you a pittance of 500yen to just talk to a doctor and any medications will be extremely cheap and effective. A doctor visit plus an x-ray for my husband cost me about $25.

Another great thing is the adaptibility of the human body. Any problems you may have when you come here may simply be a product of not being acclimated yet. Both taste buds and stomaches can adapt to accept a wide variety of foods and many JETs come here hating seafood and leave loving it. It's also quite nice that Japanese people are just less squicked out by talking about bowel issues. You'll notice that not once have I mentioned the word diarrhea (until now), but I've heard my school nurse tell homeroom teachers in not-hushed tones that their student is out of commission due to "geri" (Japanese for diarrhea).

e) Culture shock
The Downside:
I'll probably write a whole separate post about this topic, but it's still important to mention here. This will happen to you in the most unexpected ways no matter how much time you spend here or in other countries. There is no getting around it, but you can minimize it by doing your research and having reasonable expectations.

Culture Shock is typically thought to occur in "stages": after you get over the excitement of being here (stage 1), you're going to sink into a low (stage 2). Culture shock affects each individual differently, but you can almost guarantee that you'll feel negative emotions such as depression, frustration, anxiety, or just a vague feeling that something (or everything) is "wrong" or "just not right". This can be triggered by some minute difference between your home culture and Japan's, or it may seem like you're feeling that way for no reason at all.

The point is that it happens to everyone and you won't know how it affects you until you've experienced it first-hand. It's extremely important that you have an idea about healthy ways to deal with stage 2 when it happens.

The Brightside:
Most importantly, it gets better. Stage 2 typically ends within a few days then you're on to stage 3: assimilation. Now the differences that got you down feel more acceptable or maybe you found a good substitute. The more you're exposed to the culture, the more it will start to feel normal. You'll eventually cycle around to stage 2 again, but you'll start to notice that it takes longer and longer to occur.

Also, you're not alone. Every foreignor goes through it and it helps to share your experiences. JET has a particularily good support line run by fellow JETs that fills the time that the official JET helpline is not available.

The last great thing about living in a small town is that you will get to know a lot of great people who will help you at a moment's notice. I've had my fair share of difficulties, but members of my community were always there for me.

4. Just Do It

Screw it. You know what? Just do it. I've been through all of these challenges and I wouldn't take back my decision to come to here for anything. There's just too much awesome that offsets the amount of suck you have to go through and come out the other side a stronger, better person. If you read through all of this and still feel that pull, a yearning for the adventure living here can provide and are willing to allow yourself to change and be shaped by the experience, just do it.

There were times when I wondered why I'm even here. The road to understanding the answer has been long and arduous and can't be adequately expressed with words. It's the popping sound of an arrow piercing a target. It's getting lost on your way to Bon Odori. It's watching the sun set over the Japan Sea. It's feeling lonely and unloved. It's the mysterious and haunting sound of a Japanese flute during fall matsuri. It's every time I see a spark of understanding in my student's eyes and the fascination I both see in them and feel in myself. It's your car breaking down an hour away from home in a blizzard. It's seeing the country anew through the eyes of my husband. It's every time I walk outside and feel the awe and wonder at how a country can be so green and beautiful.

It's all of these things and more. And it wouldn't have been possible without the JET program.

Just do it.

**Easter Egg: to those who got the reference in the title, kudos! For those who didn't, allow me to educate you.

A Different Kind of Test

*Before we start here, I propose a challenge to readers. Read this entire blog entry sitting on your knees. Don't move, get up or change positions.*

I look out over a 28-meter expanse of green. The target looks so small and far away compared to the bound bail of straw I use for warm-up. It seems maybe even a bit farther than at my sensei's dojo. But it doesn't matter. Like every time before, the environment around me is so silent and empty that the one inside me seems to turn up the volume. Nothing else matters, I tell myself, now is now and everything that came before is meaningless. I focus on what is before me, on the bow in my hands and the important way in which I form my hands around it. I concentrate on each movement and make it as perfect as I am able. In between, I use slow breathing to control them.

I inhale for 6 seconds as I raise the bow high above my head and then exhale to relax my shoulders. I inhale for another 6 seconds as I draw the bow halfway and exhale again. Now for the hard part. As I go for the full draw, I push the bow and pull the string as evenly as possible to keep the arrow parallel to the ground. I pull my shoulders apart and stretch everything as horizontally and vertically as possible. I set my aim and hold it there as the clock ticks out the seconds: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, ZIP! My arm flies back at the release so that now both arms are now outstretched parallel to the ground. I anticipate the satisfying POP! of the arrow piercing the target, but it doesn't come. Instead it burys itself into the packed dirt just off to the side. But that doesn't matter, I tell myself. I hold that pose for 3 seconds and then finally lower the bow, return my gaze from the target, and bring my separated feet back together. I take 5 steps back starting with the right leg, and then turn to the right and curve left to the dojo entrance. About a bow's-length away from the doorway, I turn to the left and bow slightly to the small Shinto shrine mounted to the wall above the judges, and then finally make my exit.

And so ends the judging for those seeking their kyu levels at the Spring kyudo test in Honjo city. Next would be those seeking dan levels (more advanced than kyu). There were only 4 kyu candidates including myself- most kyudo-ka start in the spring and test for kyu in the fall since school starts in the spring in Japan. That also means most students are ready to test for dan in the spring since they've been practicing since around that time the previous year. Two kyudo-ka were testing for their third dan. Tests higher than third dan are held in Akita city.
*kyu and dan in kyudo are proficiency levels (kind of like belts in karate). kyu start at the lowest level of 5 and count down to 1. After reaching first kyu, you can shoot for first dan which then counts up to 10. My sensei is sixth-dan. This system is used in many Japanese martial arts.*

My day started almost as any other weekend when I'd head to the usual dojo in Kisakata. Today, however, I was up a bit earlier since I had to wear the formal and complicated-to-put-on kyudo uniform to the test. As the Sunday before the arrival of Spring, it was finally above freezing, but still quite cold out. From Spring onward, I will start wearing the uniform to every practice. Rain fell lightly outside as Brad and I loaded my equipment into the car and set out for Honjo just north of where we live in Nikaho City. I regret not waiting to change after I get there as the tightly-sinched obi around my waist fights with my ribcage for room.

We're greeted politely by other candidates and teachers when we arrive , and I panic a little on the inside not knowing where to put my things and what to do next. I find an empty spot in the bow-stands to put my equipment. I set up my bow and take out my arrows and huddle around the large gas burners with everyone else to wait for the opening ceremonies. Most of the others are high school students who belong to actual kyudo clubs at their schools and I admire their encouraging attitudes and matching club jackets. Most kyudo-ka start in high school and some schools even have their own dojos. I notice some of them are hastily reviewing handwritten notes since those testing for dan have to take a written examination. I'm glad that's far away for me.

Finally, we're called into the dojo for opening remarks and greetings. Some of the students push open the sliding walls separating the dojo from the range. The rain has excalated to a storm and the wind whips through the surrounding trees. We line up according to our test levels and what order we would be shooting. An MC officially announces the start the of the Spring kyudo test and calls upon the highest-level kyudo-ka to make remarks. One of the other instructors reminds us of the procedure and the flow of the testing and directs us to sit off to the side to watch the opening shooting ceremony.

And thus begins the truly hardest part of a martial arts test. In almost all formal ceremonies and places like dojos that require a high level of decorum, people are required to sit in a style called seiza (正座). It seems simple enough- just sit on your knees with your legs under you. Everyone's done it before, but when most people sit in seiza, they change positions at some point without really thinking about it. Most people think it's quite easy. Brave challenge-takers, how are you doing? Try that for almost an hour. Kyudo isn't like western archery where you go up to the line, shoot your arrows, and leave. There's even more to ceremonial shooting. To give you an idea of how slow and calculating kyudo is, here's a video I took of one line of candidates testing for dan (or cheat and just look at how long the video is).

*You'll notice that when shooting, we sit in a different style called kiza (跪座). Instead of sitting flat on your legs, you flex your ankles up and turn the toes up so that the floor is in contact with the pads of your toes instead of the tops of your feet. MUCH easier on the legs and feet, but killer on your toes!*

As you can see, each line is about ten minutes. For the ceremony, the highest-ranking kyudo master comes out on his own to shoot first. There are a couple other things in the procedure that he must do, like pausing at the sitting line to remove the left sleeve of his kimono and other ceremonial bows and things. The pain in my legs started around the first ten minutes. After he's finally done, we have to wait for him put his sleeve back on, have his arrows returned to him and watch him leave. Then they prepare for the 4 other intructors to come out and do it all in line (instead of un-sleeving, the one lady instructor ties a special white strip of cloth around her shoulders).

After the first kyudo master went, a couple of the dan candidates got up from the line to exit the dojo for some reason and we were instructed to scoot over to fill the gaps. When I put my hands on the floor to hoist myself over, I realize with amusement that my palms are sweaty and that my legs are completely numb. I lean forward on my hands to take some of the pressure off them, and awkwardly push myself over. You know that pins and needles feeling when your arm or leg falls asleep? Multiply that times a hundred and you'll get what I felt when I allowed myself that small relief as I moved over. As the rest of the instructors shoot their arrows, I realize it's actually better to sit through the pain instead of trying to relieve the pressure every once in a while because every time I do, I get another wave of needles.

After they leave and we're finally excused, I lean forward on my hands to start allowing the feeling to return to my legs. Every nerve starts to yell with pain and I try moving my legs. Still hard to feel, but I can sense the movement so I assume it's okay to stand up. Almost at once the pain multiplies and I realize my feet are useless. They literally feel like dead lumps of meat stuck to my legs. The other candidates ask over and over whether I'm okay and as I start to wobble they race forward to take my hands. They insist I sit down in kiza, but I don't think I can without toppling forward into a face-plant. The pain continues to worsen and I start to panic as I wonder whether something is seriously wrong.

At this point, the students must have thought I couldn't understand them and start simply telling me gently in English, "Sit down." Nobody seems angry, but instead look concerned and a bit amused (let's face it, I looked rather silly). Finally, the pain starts to ebb and I muster the control to sit clumsily down on my toes. I sit there a while feeling completely embarassed. When I finally feel okay enough to stand, I carefully get up and hobble out of the dojo. The needles attack my feet with each step, but they go away rather quickly.
Pro tip: if one of your limbs falls asleep, move it as much as you can or walk on it. It'll hurt, but it'll also go away faster.

For all my Google-fu and poking around the internet, I can't find anything documenting any solid evidence as to whether sitting in seiza for long periods can cause any permanent damage. The only examples of seiza-related injuries are stories of judo and aikido accidents where practitioners broke ankles from starting matches or practice too soon after seiza before they have full control of their legs and feet. Kyudo doesn't involve any fast or sudden movements, but I urge other martial artists out there to practice caution.

So finally, after the practice runs and kyu testing, I huddle around the heaters with the other students and try not to think about the results. By now, the weather has cleared and the sunlight makes me feel more at ease. We chat a little and much to my surprise they start talking about ET and touching their fingers together and I impress them with my ET voice. There's a little girl there testing for kyu and she has no idea what they're talking about. They can't believe she hasn't seen it before and they say in English, "generation gap".

Some time after everyone finishes, they gather everyone together in the dojo again for closing remarks. To my dismay, the kyudo master says how poor our technique is and how we need to consult the kyudo teaching manual and practice more. Worried now more than ever, we exit the dojo and wait for the instructors to roll out the board where our results are posted. Everyone gathers round looking for their names and the results marked next to them. Many of the dan testers have the 'pass' mark stamped next to their names.

Beside the names of the four kyu testers are numbers written in red. Unlike the dan testers who pass/fail whichever level they applied for, kyu testers receive the highest rank the judges deem appropriate for your performance. Next to the little girl's name is a '5'- fifth level. Next to mine is a '1'- first level.

Elated, I show Brad the good news and then start to pack up my things. I'm surprised that the girl got only fifth rank since she actually managed to hit the target with her first arrow. However, I remind myself that hitting the target is very low on the list of things that are important in kyudo. Once we're ready, I thank the instructors and leave feeling very happy and very hungry.

Here is a link I recommend for those wishing to read extensively about kyudo as both a sport and artform. This is the website for the International Kyudo Federation (English):
http://www.ikyf.org/index.html

卒業、そして未来へ

The end of the academic year is drawing to a close here at Nicchu**. Teachers are tying up loose ends in their lessons, students are studying hard for the proficiency tests this week, and final preparations for the graduation ceremony on Friday is underway.

For those wondering why middle school graduation is such a big deal, Japan's mandatory education only extends through middle school. After that, they can either enter the work force or advance to high school. Moreover, anyone wishing to entire a high school must pass the entrance exam for that particular school so those applying to multiple schools must take multiple tests. For more prestigious schools, there may even be an interview involved. The stress and exam fees can really pile up. And once they graduate high school, the cycle starts over as they either enter the workforce or start taking exams for universities they want to get into. At either academic level, hopefuls that fail the exams become a "ronin" (literally a samurai without a master) for the year and try again the following year.

But all the stress and brain-hurt is done with and now my third-years can sit back and look forward to Friday morning. Well, besides practicing for the ceremony up to two hours a day. Starting last Thursday, all students and teachers with homerooms donned their jackets and congregated in the freezing gym to practice for the graduation ceremony during the last two hours of the day. One hour is spent on entering/leaving, sitting/standing, and bowing. They even make the first and second-year students applaude as the third-years and their teachers leave (which can take a loooong time and they do it more than once). The second hour is spent practicing the school song with the music teacher. They practice and sing it for the opening and closing ceremonies each semester.

Today, the head of the English department and I had our last lesson with our graduating third-year students. Last week, he asked me to write down two of my favorite songs so he could type up the lyrics for the students and he provided his favorite song. After we played those during class we ended playing a couple others and what we ended up with was a kind of graduation soundtrack for them.
I thought it would be fun to share it here:

The Nikaho Graduation Class of 2014 Playlist

-We Are the World, various artists

 

-Time Stand Still, Rush

-Perfect, Pink **yeah, I hate censored versions, but it's middle school...

-Good Riddance (Time of Your Life), Green Day

-卒業、そして未来へ, MONKEYMAJIK **"Graduation, then on to the future"

And that concludes our graduation playlist. We tried to find songs that had a good message for them and I feel we did a great job. They may not of understood all of it (especially Rush considering how old and abstract the song is), but I hope they got something out of it and will look into some of the lyrics later. I wasn't able to get to know them well, but a part of me is still a bit sad to see them go. At least, from what I can tell from the happy and looks on their faces that they're off to a good future no matter where it takes them.

**Japanese Mini-Lesson!
The words for elementary, middle, and high school are 小学校 (shogakko), 中学校 (chugakko), and 高校 (koko). As you can see, the kanji that differentiates between the three is the first one. 小 means "small", 中 means "middle", and 高 means "high" or "tall". The remaining kanji 学校 or just 校 simply mean "school". However, since 仁賀保中学校 (Nikaho Chugakko) is a bit of a mouthful, people generally like to abbreviate it down to 仁中 (Nicchu). Similarily, my elementary school, 平沢小学校 (Hirasawa Shogakko) is usually shortened down to 平沢小 (Hirasawasho).

Decrypting Japanese Names

It's test time again here at Nikaho JHS and we all know what that means: hours of empty time at the office. Finally got my culture board about the polar plunge done yesterday and today I want to write about something that's been bugging me (and probably many other ALTs) since I started teaching here. Remembering names has never been my strong suit in the first place and now I'm trying to memorize the names of 300+ junior high students who all wear the same uniform and 100+ elementary school students whom I see only once a week.

The main culprit here is kanji- the fancy Japanese symbols derived from Chinese. They aren't a general problem for me and it's actually one of my favorite aspects of the Japanese language. In fact, last names are pretty simple since there are so many common ones out there that I don't come across too many that stump me. For example, if you take the kanji "kawa" (川） and "moto" (本), and squish them together, you get "Kawamoto" (川本). As any student of Japanese knows, however, kanji can have many different ways to read them. When written by itself, the kanji 本 reads "hon" which means "book". Thankfully, when it comes to last names, readings of individual kanji don't change much since these have been passed down from generation to generation for hundreds of years.

The problems started when I realized that these rules are thrown out the window when it comes to first names. I should've remembered this from a story a friend from Seijo University told me. She said she knew someone who registered her child's names with the kanji "hikari" (光)- the kanji for light and "nezumi" (鼠)- the kanji for mouse. Her phonetic name? "Pikachu"...

Weep for her childhood.

 

The last kanji at least makes sense even if it is a bit strange- "chu" is actually a way to read 鼠 (Zelda fans, ever notice how the cute little "Bombchu"s in Majora's Mask look like mice?). The problem is with the first one. There are a few ways to read 光, but "pika" isn't one of them. In fact, "pika" doesn't have a kanji at all since it's technically an onomatopeia. It's usually spelled phonetically with katakana as ピカピカ ("pikapika" since onomatopeia are usually said at least twice in a row). As many otaku around the world know, it means to sparkle or flash.

 

And at last we get to the crux of the problem: first names in Japan can be whatever the imagination conjures up. Technically the same is true for non-Japanese names, but they don't have the visual aspect muddling things up and there is no official phonetic spelling. When a Japanese name is registered, you write down both the kanji and how to read them. Interestingly, kanji isn't required- you can have a name spelled with phonetic hiragana (for native Japanese words) or katakana (for foreign words and names). If you're wearing a nametag with the phonetic name はるか ("Haruka") written in hiragana, and go up to someone and say your name is "Mary", not only would they be extremely confused, but you'd also be lying outside the context of a nickname- your name is offically pronounced Haruka and forever will be until you change it.

 

English-speaking countries have the opposite problem since you can basically tell people to call you anything you want, but it's not offically recorded anywhere (unless you bother with "aliases", but again, you can have people pronounce these however you want). This can cause a problem when foreign people have to register their names in Japan since they have to pin down a pronounciation which will then be official and written in stone. What's more, you have to choose katakana that most closely reflect your name even if it contains sounds that aren't originally part of the Japanese language (such as the "ti" in my name). When I registered my name, this gave me pause since my family tends to call me "ti-AH-rah", but prefer to be called "ti-EH-rah" to reflect my Latino heritage. In katakana, the former would be spelled ティアラ("ti-a-ra") and latter would be spelled ティエラ ("ti-e-ra"). Finally, I decided to go with my preference since I told it so closely to my read identity. From then I wrote "Tierra" in English in the space for names and wrote ティエラ in the space for the phonetic spelling above it.

 

 

The result of having a language that separates the visual and phonetic component is that you have over 400 kids who can have names with identical kanji but different readings, or identical names with different kanji. For example, I'd say that the most popular name at my junior high school is Miyu, but each one has different kanji. There are about as many ways to spell the name "Miyu" as there are stars in the sky. Even more confusing, there's a girl named "Miu" and is hard to pronounce separately from "Mi-yu" or "Mi-yuu" (with an elongated "u" sound at the end).

 

 

Let's take the kanji 翔 as an example of the opposite issue. I have three boys in one class who's names consist only of this kanji. One boy's name: "Kakeru" and another one's "Takeru". The third one? "Sho".

 

 

That's it, you're all Bob. Nice to meet you.

Thankfully, I seem to have picked up a pattern of what's more likely than other's. For example, when paired with another kanji, the reading tends to be "Sho" as in 翔太(Shota) or 翔也(Shoya), but there seems to be an exception when it comes to the name 大翔(Taiga). I know a few students with that name, so I'm going to assume from now on that every time I see 大翔 it's probably going to be "Taiga" (until I run into the one that isn't...). When it comes to 翔 being used alone, however, all bets are off. I have several students who's readings are "Takeru", "Kakeru", or "Sho" by itself (I also have a male student called "Takeru" who's kanji are 岳瑠）. Sometimes there's nothing to be done but shamefully consult the seating chart like the non-native-speaking gaijin I am...

 

Finally, we have gender-neutral names. Of course this happens in many cultures, but it's a bit daunting when you have to deal with a bunch of students with names you've never encountered before. This is especially true when you're trying to figure out which stickers to put on which child's feedback card. I made a huge newbie mistake in thinking that just because I'd heard a name in an anime/game that it must be strictly that gender. Since the character "Shion" in the video game Xenosaga was a girl, I assumed that "Shion" is a girl's name. And so a poor boy in one of my elementary school classes ended up with a big, sparkly flower on his feedback card and when I saw him again the next week and read his nametag, I felt like a terrible person. The kicker is that I do actually have a female Shion in a different class. I also got a couple "Kaede"s mixed up thanks to a little anime called Inuyasha. In fact, I have two "Kaede's" in the same Junior High class of opposite genders.

 

And so my adventure with Japanese names continues. I'm getting better at names and picking more and more patterns to go by and assigning actual faces to them. To all other ALTs out there, I would say it may be intimidating at first, but 我慢 ("gaman"- perservere) your way through and don't be embarassed of a few slip-ups. You're not the first ALT to be stumped by names and you certainly won't be the last. You could probably call it even since they probably still call you by your predecessor's name (I still get the occasional "Stephanie" even now). Incorporate names into your Japanese studies and have fun getting to know your students!

Party Time! Excellent!

On a night usually spent enjoying the company of family in the warmth and hospitality of my grandparent's house, I was in Japan celebrating the end of the year with my co-workers at the annual "bounenkai" (忘年会). The Chinese characters in the word literally mean, in this order, "forget", "year", and "meeting". In other words, it's a party to forget the past year in order to ring in the new one. Since each school will have their own, assistant language teachers who teach at more than one school have a pretty busy (and expensive) couple of weeks ahead of them if they choose to go to all of them. Thankfully, I only had one for my middle school and one for my elementary school.

Popular venues for bounenkai's usually amount to large "ryokan" (旅館), or traditional Japanese

hotels. Since all schools in the immediate area hold their parties around the same time, the competition to reserve one of these places is pretty fierce. The fees per person can get pricey ranging from 5,000 - 6,000 yen and up (about 50-60 dollars). As traditional establishments, ladies dressed in kimonos greet you at the door to check your shoes (which you are required to take off) and guide you to your reserved meeting room. The room itself is a huge tatami (straw mats) room with low food trays and seat cushions lined up around the room.

There will usually be some traditional Japanese art behind the main row at the far end of the room where the higher-ups sit.

Your tray will already be loaded with food when you get there, but don't eat yet! After the bounenkai formally starts, there will be a few words from the principal. Everyone will then pour drinks for each other (never pour your own drink) for a "kampai"(乾杯), or toast. Then the eating begins.

During the 3+ hour duration of the party, kimono-clad ladies will continuously clear your dishes to make room for more and more food. It seems like a lot, but the portions tend to be small. If your drink gets low, don't worry- your neighbor will fill it up for you (and it's expected you will do the same for them).

The brown, ceramic-looking thing in the upper-right is actually a little pot set on top of a candle burner. At the start of things, the waitresses will come around and light your candle to start boiling
whatever's in the bowl on top.

Throughout the night, people will come sit in front of your tray to talk to you and fill up your glass and have their's filled in return. You'll probably hear the phrase, "What are you drinking?" about a hundred times before the night is over.

Next order of business is some sort of presentation of the year's top ten "big news" items. These can range from huge victories at competitions to recent marriages to snakes being found in the school entrance (unfortunately, I didn't get to see said snake...). A person related to each news item will make a short speech and recieve a small gift.

After another brief pause for socializing, a series of games begin. People are divided into teams depending on where you sit and either entire teams participate or select a member for each round.
Games can be just about anything, but here are the ones I got to play:

Hirasawa Elementary School Bounenkai:

Bingo- self-explanitory. Each bingo you got earned points for your team.

心の一つ (kokoro no hitotsu/ "one heart")　Each team recieves a laminated piece of paper and a marker. The MC will name something and end it with ～と言えば (...toh iebah/"Speaking of..."). For example, they might say, "speaking of mom's home cooking" or "speaking of sushi filling". Then each team member must write down an example of or something related to the theme without looking at each other's answers. When they've finished, the team will line up in a row facing the audience and reveal their answers at the same time. The team will then recieve points based on how many answers are the same. In other words, the team must become "one heart".


Nikaho Junior High School Bounenkai:


一流 (ichiryuu/"high-end" or "top rank") Each team selects a member to participate each round (we had four rounds). In each round, the participants are given two of the same food or beverage samples. However, one will be a generic brand and the other will be a fancy, high-end brand and each participant must guess which is which.


Gesture Roulette- pretty self-explanitory except when a gesture is guessed correctly, the gesturing person goes to the back of the line and the person at the front does the next gesture. Try to guess as many gestures as a team in one minute. This can get pretty silly with alcohol consumption (which there was plenty).

J-Song (Japanese song) Each group selects a singer who will recieve a list of songs to sing the melodies to (lyrics not required). The group must guess as many songs as they can within a time limit.

For some reason I didn't pick up, one team got penalized and each member had to recite a Japanese tongue twister. My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) got "Boku Bobu"- literally "I'm Bob."

After all games have been played, points are tallied up and groups come up to receive their prizes. Everyone gets a prize; the games just denote who gets first pick.

If the reserved time is up, then closing words are spoken and the party comes to an end. Usually there will be a 二次会 (nijikai/ literally a "second meeting"). These after-parties are optional and usually have karaoke involved. People take taxis there and back.

While expensive, I think it's well worth the food, hospitality, and activities. You'll also get to interact with your co-workers in ways you can't in the everyday workplace. Japan being Japan, teachers work insane hours and are busy people. It's no wonder why they take the time to drink and unwind from a busy year and celebrate their accomplishments. ALT's, don't miss this opportunity to participate in a part of Japanese culture rarely seen by anyone else.

Cultural Perspective 2: Electric Boogaloo

I learned a very obvious thing after spending some time here. It's one of those things you've known your whole life, but can only truly understand after having experienced it. It's pretty simple: people are still people. Specifically, people that are foreign to you are still people.

Duh, right? Most of us are taught from an early age that people are people no matter where they come from. You've seen many on TV or even in real life. When you bump into someone on the street and exchange pleasantries, there's nothing strange or odd about it whether they're from here or there. It doesn't even matter if they speak English or not.

Or does it? Perhaps if you're in the states, speak native English and are surrounded by people speaking English. If you're in a familiar, comfortable environment and have no problems communicating in the dominant language, then the other person is obviously just some guy who bumped into you on the street. However, even if you parted on pleasant terms and you thought they were nice people, subconsciously in your brain, they were the nice Japanese or Indian or [insert ethnicity here] person you met on the street. We place these labels and their corresponding meaning on people without even thinking about it and put them in a group somewhere outside the social norm.

And what about the other guy? If he doesn't speak English well or quite know how to handle the current situation, how is he perceiving you? Even if they could sense your good intentions, you're also a source of anxiety. When you're in the extreme minority surrounded by people that don't understand and can't communicate with you, every interaction is terrifying.

Nobody can ever completely understand this unless they spend a substantial amount of time in another country. And I mean among the natives. None of this hanging around English speakers and westerners stuff. I'm a shy person to begin with, but then I went to Tokyo. There was a whole week I remember vividly in October of that year in which I didn't want to go anywhere (yep, a huge part of culture shock). For that whole week dragging myself to school was a chore because I knew that every minute I spent outside my apartment there was a chance I'd have to interact with someone. This wasn't because I didn't want to improve my Japanese. The fear was the possibility (perceived as high in my mind) that I wouldn't be able to achieve communication and in the end I'd be that weird foreigner that can't speak Japanese well. In that situation, I was that foreign person you bumped into on the street. I was a completely surrounded by a sea of well-intentioned people that couldn't possibly know or understand me. Communication is one of those invisible things we take for granted all the time, but would be screwed without (for a great read on this topic, I highly recommend Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson).

I don't know where I'd be now without that experience. I still have my share of difficulties and in some ways they're a bit grander in scale because there are few non-Japanese here and as a long-term resident with a job, I'm no longer the super-special student that's going to leave in a few months and never come back. Now, integration is key because the long-term effects of isolation can be disastrous (new ALT's, look forward to the speech from a former JET who new a fellow JET that went so crazy he ate paper in front of him...). This is now my life, not a vacation. It's my first-ever career and I hadn't worked with children in a long time.

When I first started, there was the usual wide-eyed fascination from students and teachers alike, but eventually it led to me developing the whole "stranger in a strange land" feeling all over again. They were strange, Japanese children who didn't (and in some cases didn't want to) understand me. Every day I felt a bit of apprehension when interacting with them.

Then one day, in one of my first-year classes, watching my students joke around and laugh, something clicked in my brain: they're all just kids. They love to laugh and have fun. They're snarky and clever. They each have something unique about them (which also helps me memorize names). The more time I spend with the them, the more the "they all look the same" cliche melts away. I was amazed just how much I was putting them in the outside "other" category without meaning too and they were probably doing the same to me. Every day I can feel the distance closing between us. This growing understanding not only makes life easier, it's also liberating.

It's the whole "this is my life" mentality that helped me with the integration. This is my apartment, this is my city, this is my office, this is my school, and now, these are MY students. There are still some that aren't so forthcoming, but now there is more understanding and I know how to interact with them.

I'd be very interested to learn why we put up these subconscious barriers between us. The phenomenon definitely isn't limited to culture and ethnicity. It's simply a reaction to those who are "different"- people that don't fit our mental structure of what is "normal". Perhaps it aided in survival to label people and make sure they were part of your social group.

No matter what the cause, I've learned that the most effective cure is spending a lot of time in foreign situations and with foreign people. I think this is one of if not the most important change in worldview. I'd like to think most people are decent human beings that don't want to build walls between them and other people, but there are way too many that deliberately ostracize people of other genders, ethnicities, and sexual orientations and fervently insist they're not bigoted or racist. They are the ones who need this change more than anyone. Spending time with others forces you to build a sense of empathy for them which in turn results in understanding.

I think this experience will continue to have a positive effect on how I interact with other people who are "foreign" to me. In fact, I think this is part of the purpose of the JET program and ALT's in general. Maybe this is the "internationalization" that they're so adamant about. I firmly believe this is a major life change that everybody should experience at least once in their lifetime. Many people think all college students should be required to go abroad at least once and I agree. With globalization moving faster and faster, we're going to need to start realizing that at the end of the day, "people are people".

Cultural Perspective

One of the things I think many people often ponder about is the subjectivity of time. For example, it's been almost 4 months since I've been here and yet there are both times when it feels like 1 day and others when it feels like a whole year. This creates a paradox when I reflect on my future because even though it may feel like I have all the time in the world, I know that it will all rush by in the span of a day if I let it.

This is amazing to me when I consider where I'm living which is, let's face it, the middle of nowhere. With so little to do in this small town, I wonder what on earth I've been doing to pass the time so quickly. I realize the answer is simple yet complex- living well. In a secluded, small town in the middle of a vast country and even prefecture, things are boiled down to the necessities of life where one can settle into a repetative yet comfortable routine. One of the great improvments to my life is that I have a stable job that starts and ends at the same time every day and fits the expected societal work-week (usually...).

www.readthesmiths.com

This was me the week of our school culture festival

It's well-known that Japanese people work long hours (one of the great challenges to the rising number of dual-working parent households which I've written a whole research paper about). In fact, people dying from overwork is such a problem that it has it's own word in Japanese, 過労死 (karoushi). However, here lies an example of how fixed worldviews can cause cultural misunderstanding and it's something every person on earth is guilty of at some point even if they don't realize it.

And then there are the ones that do...

 

In this particular instance, it's the subconcious thought that all of Japan is Tokyo (on the flip-side, most Japanese think all of America is New York and LA). When most non-Japanese think of Japan they conjure up images of bright lights, awesome trains, and buildings that reach the sky. In the same way, people that are conscious of Japanese work ethic think of trains stuffed to the gills with tired, black-suited men on their way to some office job hours away. And this image can be accurate when you're talking about Tokyo. Going from the city to the countryside, I was surprised once again at how the same culture can be so different within the same country. No, the train won't get me to work, but it's less than 5 minutes by car and I have the freedom to drive anywhere I want. Yes, we wear suits at school, but only in the winter when it's not boiling hot. Yes, they work ridiculously long hours, but the office environment is so relaxed and relationships so friendly yet professional that I myself don't mind staying a an extra hour or two even though it's not required of me (my contract stipulates an 8:30-4:15 work day with a 45 minute lunch break. Hah! My classes start at 8:35 and I eat with my students at lunch). You're treated as a person with things to contribute instead of a number in a machine.

Being that this is my first experience in the Japanese countryside, I was surprised by my own cultural ignorance when I started talking to my predecessor about what to expect. "What do you mean the train only runs once an hour!" (I laughed just the other day when I had to stop at a railroad crossing and saw that the train was only a measely two cars long...). "I'm going to need a car???!" "You use a kerosene-powered heater???"

"What do you mean there're no ninja trains?!!!"

 

Unfortunately, my expectations were also jaded by what I was told by Japanese people in Tokyo. It's amazing how many countries discriminate against their own people. Every Japanese person I talked to in Tokyo had a very negative view of the countryside. I even knew a teacher at Seijo University from Akita who spoke against her own prefecture vehemently. She spoke of a secluded place full of "hikikomori" (recluses and shut-ins afraid of society). When I heard that I had been placed in Akita for the JET program I panicked a little inside thanks to these prejudices.

After doing some research and talking to other ALTs in Akita, I began to wonder what she was talking about. The ALTs I talked to seemed very happy with where they were and I was surprised to find some newbies had actually requested it. After arriving I was stunned and I'm quite convinced that this is the most beautiful place I've ever seen in my entire life. I learned a valuable lesson in that sometimes you have to take what people say about their own country or culture with a grain of salt and I suspect that's true about any country.

Even if Japan has it's share of inter-cultural prejudices, I can definitely say that they do not take their country for granted. My Tokyo friends will even admit that even if they don't want to live in the countryside, they hold a very high opinion of it's natural beauty. The people that do live here in Akita place great value and pride on their prefecture for it's scenery and traditional culture (a lot of which those in the urban cities have to go quite a ways to see). They enthusiastically will point you in the right direction to famous places and events. As I mentioned before in a recent post, you can see Mount Choukai from our office window and whenever it's visible (a rare instance in the winter time), people actually stop and take the time to take in it's majesty while it's there.

Almost like a gigantic strip-tease...

 



That isn't to say that I don't miss the big city. I'm enjoying my time here, but all the while I'll be resisting the strong urge to run to Tokyo or Milwaukee where life seems to be happening without me while I sit here in the temporal bubble that is Akita. I miss my friends and being able to see them almost any time I want. I miss burritos and real pizza. I miss not having to own a car. By the time I finish my term here, I'll be so ready to jump back on that train of life.