4/4/10 Sayonara Mito, Konnichiwa Tohoku
Today Will and I woke up bright and early for our drive to Osaki. The guy met us out in front of the hotel and let us borrow cell phones so that we could call him and each other. I didn’t catch this guy’s name, but he didn’t speak any English. We set off on the long journey and I found that driving here was quite simple and easy to get used to. We stopped at a KFC and a guy met us to give us drinks and a bag of cleaning supplies for our new home. They had also packed two futons for us. After we got started, I found that I was comfortable enough to take some pictures while driving. We passed the coast at one point and at other times there were large mountains. The closer we got to the Tohoku, the northern part of Japan, the more snowcapped the mountains were. After about an hour we stopped at a rest area and the guy we were following said “break”. I went into the bathroom and saw the toilets that I had been warned about. Someone told me to beware the “squatty potties”. This was good advice because these were just porcelain holes in the ground that require you to squat as well as lift up the bottom of your pant legs to prevent splatter while you do your business. Luckily, I did not need to become familiar with these contraptions at this point in my life.
We drove for a little longer and stopped again for another break. The guy we were following bought Will and I some meat on a stick, which was tasty. I am really beginning to like the Japanese notion of gift giving. So far, I have received a futon, a bag full of cleaning supplies, water, orange juice, and hard candy.
As we continued driving, we passed Sendai, which is a rather large city in Tohoku. Before long we stopped at another rest area. Here we saw the cutest little dogs dressed up like people. It was an odd thing to see, but there was one dressed up like a little school girl and the other dressed like a business man. They both had sunglasses on and the business man had sunglasses on as well. This makes me miss Seymour and I mentioned to Will that if I were to try and dress my dog like this he would eat the clothes. At this rest area the man we were following said “eat”, and so we did. I had an absolutely delicious shrimp sandwich. Osaki City was not far from this rest area but we were running low on gas and had to stop to fill up. Gas here is pumped for you, which is nice.
An onsen is a hot spring or bath resort. The Japanese love their onsens, and in this area there are many resorts where they come to bathe. It is supposed to help your skin and some other things. For the next year, I will be living at the Naruko onsen resort. It is kind of like a hotel, but there are permanent guest rooms, too. For a month, however, Will and I will have temporary guest rooms because there are no permanent guest rooms available now. We learned that before us, there were two Australians who lived here. The owner speaks great English and is extremely helpful. She explained that the springs themselves are about 450 years old. The hotel is about 80 years old. When you walk in you must take off your outdoor shoes and leave them. Then you must slip on your indoor shoes and walk to your room. The onsen is really old and the floors are wood and creaky. It would actually make for a really good horror film if only I had an 8mm camera and Sarah Michelle Gellar. But it is a nice place and there are plenty of good things about it. For example, the toilets are western style and they have heated seats! They have a pull up bar and a dip bar that is out in front, which I have been using despite people staring and the squeaky noises it makes. They also have a pogo stick, a punching bag, and a stationary bicycle, but I have not gathered up enough courage to engage in this behavior. Staring is actually something I am having to get used to. People stare at me like I am walking around with my head cut off most of the time. Luckily, I am short, and I don’t hit my head on the ceiling like Will does. Fujishima-san, the owner, took Will and I to the supermarket, which is frighteningly similar to Wal-Mart, but named Super Value Trust. This was an interesting experience. They tend to name things after the most random combination of English words possible. It is tough not having internet but I am able to write this on my computer and hope to post it later on.
4/5/10 Checking Out Osaki City
Will and I drove to Furukawa, the center of Osaki City, to find the city office, where we have to meet our coordinator tomorrow morning. We walked around the area, which is much less in the sticks than our onsen, to see if we could find an internet hot spot. We had no luck. We did find a quaint little coffee shop to have a cup and a sandwich, though; a tiny ham sandwich in fact. I did laundry today and hung my clothes up in my room. This is the first time I have ever had to do this and they are drying so slowly. I bought an iron and a board and I am patiently awaiting my clothes to dry so I can iron them. I never knew that the Japanese were so conscious of the environment, but it is refreshing and I have had to learn to separate my trash according to the bins they place them in. This is a little difficult due to the fact that I cannot read Hiragana or Katakana. It is surprisingly clean here as well and it is rare that you see any litter. I learned from the owner that Iwadeyama, where I will be teaching, is famous for a one-eyed Samurai who hails from there. Also, it is extremely cheap to live here at the onsen, for only $330 per month. For this month it was only $290 because I am only here for 27 days this month. I have almost gained enough courage to go to the onsen, but I am waiting until everyone is gone. The water looks really warm and refreshing with the steam coming off of it, but the smell of sulfur is added to the intimidating nature of a public bath. Another thing that I noticed while out in town today was the use of popular American celebrities to advertise random merchandise. For example, Leonardo DiCaprio selling tires and Tommy Lee Jones pushing the soda in the vending machines. Tyler, one of the guys from training, told me that he asked a Japanese citizen why they had such bad teeth and asked them if they were afraid of the dentists. They admitted to him that they were afraid of the dentist and it is kind of rare to see a dentist anywhere. I spotted one today in Furukuwa, but there was no one there, it was tiny, and they were only open from 9am until 1pm. So I am trying extra hard to keep up my oral hygiene.
Will and I became hungry and decided to go out to find a nearby restaurant because we were both sick of eating packaged noodles. I joked that I really just wanted a giant chicken breast because I felt like I was getting no protein. We stumbled upon a tiny place on an old road a little farther out than our onsen. There was no one in the restaurant and we sat down and were given a menu with only Japanese lettering and prices. Will chose the first thing on the menu for 800 yen and I chose the second. When the owner brought the food out that he had cooked, I was amazed that it was a large chicken breast with teriyaki sauce and rice. It was absolutely delicious and just what I wanted. Will’s choice was a yummy hamburger steak and we will both be going back to this restaurant again soon.
There are two onsen baths in our building. One is large and has three showers. The smell of sulfur from this one seeps into the hallways and there is no soap or shampoo. There is a smaller onsen bath around a dark little corner that is complete with three small showers and a bath. I decided that I had to take a shower one way or another, so I braved the onsen for the first time. I actually ended up enjoying the experience. The onsen room is filled with steam coming off of the water and it is so hot that there is condensation on the ceiling that drips like rain. The nearby inactive volcano creates the hot springs that are prevalent in this area. While driving around you can see steam coming up from manholes in the road and steam surrounds the mountains. There are many onsen resorts in the area. The best part about the onsen is that no matter how cold it is in your room, after taking a bath in the onsen, you are warm for hours. When I came back to my room I knew it was cold in my room but I could feel nothing but the warmth that the bath left me with. I slept very well on this night.
4/6/10 All Those Gaijins
Will and I were up early today to make it to the Osaki City Center in Furukuwa to meet up with Shuji, our coordinator. All the other ALTs we had met were there, too. We rode with Shuji to each school that we would be teaching at. My school was second and I was nervous about making my introduction to the faculty in Japanese. Shuji told us to look to the left for a large, beautiful building on the horizon. I saw some sort of structure that turned out to be my school. It is a huge building and extremely intimidating. It is way up on a hill and has an amazing view. We entered and they just so happened to be in a conference, so I got to introduce myself to a room filled with the principal, vice principal, and every teacher and faculty member of the school. I did my best and at the end they all clapped and seemed friendly. Shuji did most of the talking from then on, but I was happy to meet the English teacher, who speaks the language well. After finishing up with the introductions, we had lunch at Mos Burger, which is a popular burger joint out here. It was delicious and they had sweet tea! I gave my first gift today in true Japanese fashion; since Shuji stopped at the onsen to let Will and I grab our passport photos that we had forgotten to bring, I gave him a pack of Balance Power bars that I had bought at the supermarket. Once back at the center, we finally registered for our Gaijin cards, which will be really useful when we receive them. It takes two weeks but then I will be able to get internet, health insurance, and a gym membership. Gaijin is a term used for foreigners; we use the term alien and Japanese people use gaijin.
Tyler and Nicole showed Will and I around Furukuwa and we went to a place called Wondergoo that is similar to Best Buy. Lots of people here wear surgical masks. It means that they are either sick or trying not to get sick for some reason (either someone close to them is sick or they have something important coming up that they do not want to get sick for). I just think it’s odd. We went to the station to find out where the bus leaves for Sendai because I had an idea that since tomorrow was our last day before work starts we could take a bus to Sendai to explore. Bus tickets were cheap and the bus leaves every thirty minutes. Will and I dropped Tyler and Nicole off and then found a JustCo, which we heard was a nice place to shop. We went inside and it was like a grocery store mixed with a department store mixed with an all-purpose store. Kind of like a Target and a Belk’s combined. It had a lot of good deals and we spent about 3 hours here.
Finally, after a long day, we headed back home to the onsen. I ended the day with a trip to the onsen and was excited to make the trip to Sendai in the morning.
4/7/10 Day Trip to Sendai City
Sendai is the capital city of the Tohoku region, and the largest in the area. Most people I have spoken to state that they prefer it to Tokyo. I didn’t really know quite what to expect but I was surprised at how large the city was. The bus ride was only about an hour and once we arrived I was pleasantly surprised at how much this city had. I was able to use the Apple store to send some emails on an iPhone and get some Starbucks, postcards, and some ink for my hanko. We also ate at a small mom and pop restaurant that had great tempura and ramen. A group of teenagers said hello to us in English and were obviously overjoyed evidenced by some squeals when I waved back at them. We saw some pretty interesting fashion statements in this city and some very expensive clothes’ boutiques. We explored the city from downtown to some of the parks for about 3 hours. They had many American stores like a Disney Store, Gap, and Apple.
I slept on the bus ride back and I was actually really glad to get back home to prepare my lesson plan for tomorrow’s first day at school. I have to make my speech in the auditorium to the entire school and then I have to do 45 minute self-introduction lessons in every class. It will be a long day but I am looking forward to getting started.
4/8/10 First Day as Sensei
I drove my little cardboard-box-like car to school today and saw a large group of students gathered outside the door. I approached and a handful of them said hello to me in English. They proceeded to giggle when I said hello back to them and I continued up the stairs and entered the school. There was an opening ceremony in the gymnasium, which was freezing because the Japanese apparently don’t like to use heat or anything that wastes energy for that matter. I felt bad for the students in their uniforms and especially the girls with the skirts on. I got to make my speech in front of everyone in the school, including the students, and it was short and sweet. There was a lot of bowing going on during the ceremony and I was glad to get back to the teacher’s room where there was at least a small space heater. I pretended to be busy for most of the day even though I had nothing to do because I found out that there were no classes today and I didn’t have do the lesson that I had prepared until Monday. There are four English teachers at the school; two of them are women and two of them are men. They all seem nice and one of them invited me to come to her home nearby to meet her children who are in high school and junior high. Lunch was fun because I had to try to figure out what in the world I was eating. Most of it was good enough, but one of the things I just didn’t even try because it looked like little brown fish turds. After lunch, there was another ceremony for the first year students. This one had many speakers and went on forever. I am sure that the speakers would have been interesting if I could have understood them. I spent most of the day trying to decide what after school club I want to join because there are so many of them that I want to do. I really wanted to do cross country, tennis, or table tennis, but some of the martial arts clubs like Judo would probably be something that I wouldn’t get to try anywhere else. At the end of the day we all took a group photo and then I left for the day, although all the other teachers were still there. Overall, it was a pretty straightforward day of meeting everyone and kids waving at me and giving me funny looks.
Me on my first day!
4/9/10 Clubs!
It was necessary for me to get a Starbucks espresso truffle from the nearby convenience store before heading to work this morning. Arriving at school is interesting because I do not clock in or have a log in system. Instead, I say ‘ohayou gozaimasu’ to the principal, vice principal, and people sitting at your desk area to let them know you have arrived. This is a formal way of saying good morning and at the end of the day I must say ‘osaki ni shitsureishimasu’ to at least one person who is still left in the office. This is an apology for leaving work before the person I say it to and it lets them know I am leaving for the day.
I spent the majority of the day working on some posters about America and North Carolina for my self introduction lesson on Monday. I tried to introduce myself to some of the students but they were very silly for the most part. They yell my name when I walk by and giggle. Some of them used some inappropriate English words to me and quickly apologized. But for the most part, the students seem very interested in English, which is good. The end of the day was mostly a ceremony where the students introduced their clubs to the first year students to try and get them to join. They have basketball, baseball, volleyball, tennis, table tennis, judo, kendo, soccer, track, and some traditional Japanese stick fighting that girls do. It was all really interesting and by the end of the ceremony I wanted to join all of the clubs. I asked one of the English teachers if it would be okay for me to join the clubs and she said that an ALT had never participated in these activities, but I could stay after school if I wanted. I definitely wanted to and thought this would be a good way to get to know the students. I challenged some kids to ping pong, and I have to say that they were pretty good at it. I watched the tennis team play and had no racket to join in, but they play with a soft ball so I don’t know how familiar I would be with this. Then I went down to the track field and ran six laps with some of the kids. I tried to get them to race with me but I don’t think they understood.
Everyone at the school is really helpful and when I ask a question, they all rally around to try to answer it. For example, I was walking around after school with some clothes to change into for sports and one of the teachers asked me if I needed the changing room. I said yes and he showed me the changing room but there were no free lockers so he went to get someone, which turned out to be the entire staff of male teachers that came into the locker room to help me find and clear out a locker. Very solution focused, the Japanese.
4/10/10 Exploring the Area
Today I explored some of the territory surrounding Naruko, the area where I am staying. There is a gorge on up a little farther that I went to and tried to walk down into, but it was blocked off for some work zone. It was a really beautiful area, though, and I hope to check it out again when it is clear. I found a set of stairs that lead down into an area where there was an old dilapidated temple with a statue of Buddha inside. There was a box of change inside the small temple where people had donated money. It is hard to believe that no one takes the money, because it was a large box. Climbing back up the stairs was exhausting, so I went to the local Sunkus convenience store to try a protein water, which tastes similar to a strawberry starburst for some reason. Then I went down a little further to follow a sign that I had seen earlier labeled Zagaragi Ruins. But at the end of the road there was really nothing left except a structure and a bench, so I had to turn around and head back. Since I had come so far I decided to go on into town and stop by JustCo and eat lunch at Mos Burger, which is addictive and a negative influence with it’s provision of liquid sugar. I bought my first Japanese CD today, but it turned out to only be a single and had two songs on it. But it was worth it because I figured out that although my radio doesn’t work, my CD player does! I just can’t adjust the volume or any of the settings and so I am constantly jamming out with the volume and bass on high. The weather was so beautiful today that I couldn’t stay inside my room so I went out for a run, took a path that said it would come to something in 1km, but it turned out to be up a steep hill and I ended up running about 4 or 5km there and back. After cooling off and doing some laundry, I decided to go back to Sunkus to get some chicken nuggets that I had noticed earlier. They heated them up for me and they were the best chicken nuggets I have ever tasted (or maybe I was just glad to be eating something other than noodles).
