Some Pretty Awkward Stuff

4/13/10 Conquering Fears

If you have a fear of public speaking and you want to overcome it, it’s probably a good idea to start by speaking in front of a large group of adolescents who don’t understand what you are saying. On my first day of doing my introduction lesson, I had four classes. If I had to use one word to describe the events that unfolded it would be ’awkward’. Mostly because I ended up doing more pointing, acting, drawing, and writing than anything else. Nevertheless, I had fun and the students seemed interested in my presentation and asked many questions. By the end of the day I was really tired of hearing about myself and answering questions about myself, but I was happy to see that the students had an interest in me, American culture, and the English language. After school I stayed and played table tennis with some of the students. They really seem to enjoy this game and there are a surprising amount of them who have joined the table tennis club, boys and girls. The girls team is supposedly strong and have an important tournament coming up. I played the majority of the time with a child that is a serious table tennis player by the name of Kento. By the end of our one and a half hour match, I had blisters on my fingers!
Will and I walked to the nearest restaurant after work and as we went in the woman at the counter held up her fingers in the position that means ’no’, which is two fingers crossed in an ’x’. And then, I could have sworn she said ’white’ and I thought she was being racist, but I just kept trying to understand her and was unwilling to believe that this is what she meant. Her husband then came out and said “yakiniku, cow steak?” and I said “yes, please”. So we sat down and they brought out some steak and we cooked it on the table and it was delicious. But it turns out that the lady must have been trying to tell us that they were closing because they closed up soon after we started eating. Anyways, it was a good meal and my first real yakiniku since I have been in Japan.


4/14/10 The Soup Disaster

Around lunch time, after I had successfully introduced myself to three different classes I went to eat lunch with the special needs classroom and I ended up having some special needs of my own. I spilled soup all over myself and milk on the table. It was such a disaster and this country has a serious shortage of napkins, so I spent the majority of time sopping up the soup with thin facial tissues and had to change into my sweatpants for the rest of the day. Sweatpants and a jacket and tie actually go nicely together, I found out, because some Japanese student told me that I had a nice suit and I don‘t think they do sarcasm here. I am such a clumsy eater with chopsticks and trying to drink soup out of a bowl with no spoon is difficult for me as well. I’m glad I was able to laugh at myself because no one else did.


4/15/10 Discovering the Judo Club

There were no disasters at school today and I was extremely cautious around the soup. I let my English teacher borrow Lost in Translation because she asked me what my favorite movie was the other day and she had never heard of this film. I hope it is not offensive to her. I was invited to the get together that the teachers and parents have at the beginning of the school year after work on Saturday. Everyone tells me that a request to go to something in Japan is actually a mandatory demand. I was warned that the Japanese teachers will get extremely intoxicated, as they do everything as ‘all or nothing’ here. I’m not sure how I feel about going to this little party, but I guess it will be fun to watch.
I was asked by some kids in the baseball club and the soccer club to come by their meet after school and I wanted to go and see them, considering I was also getting quite tired of playing an excessive amount of ping pong. So I went to the baseball field first and watched them warm up, but it got kind of boring so I sneaked off to watch the soccer players for a while. Then I got bored of that and went inside. I had been hesitant to go into the back room behind the gym because there were many people with large sticks, most of whom were hitting each other on the head violently. Of course, they were wearing helmets and armor, but it was still intimidating. But one of the kids motioned for me to come in and the first thing I noticed were a set of weights on the floor. I was overjoyed because I have not been able to exercise properly since I left home. I have been sustaining myself by exercising in my room and running when it is warm, but they had actual weights, a yoga ball, a jump rope, and all sorts of equipment. So I immediately starting working out, doing pushups, lunges, and curls. The children would gather around and count and some would try and compete with me. They challenged me to a race and one kid even taught me how to throw him on the ground using the art of Judo.


This is another picture of the odd architectural design of my school.


People here take their shoes off before they enter the school and have to wear indoor shoes. It is the same for most places in Japan.

4/16/10 Show and Tell

Today the Japanese English teacher asked me to do a lesson based on show and tell. It would have been nice to know the day before so I could have brought something with me, but I read from the textbook and it gave an example of a girl who showed her keychain and said that her brother gave it to her and that she carried it around everywhere she went. So, I unzipped my jacket pocket and pulled out my trusty green camera that MY brother gave me and that I take everywhere with me and showed the class the camera. It worked out great because I got to take pictures inside the classroom while I was speaking to the students. I don’t even think they noticed.

It’s really odd having people shout your name every time you walk by. I don’t think I will ever get used to it and it is becoming quite distracting. Sometimes I get hounded by a horde of students just trying to walk to and from class. They will run up to me shouting my name and I turn quickly to see what is the matter but they just want to either say hello or say how are you, to which I reply I’m fine, and you? Sometimes they are clever and ask me what I had for breakfast.


4/17/10 “I Wish I Could Say More”

Besides some cheerful banter with the students and the snowstorm during the early hours, today was quite uneventful until the end of the PTA meeting at the school. At about 5:30pm we left the school and I followed the English teacher to a place nearby where they were holding the PTA welcome party for the new school year. There were plenty of food trays, drinks, fruit, and dessert on the table and I was excited to start eating as soon as possible. They had a few speakers, and then I got to experience a new Japanese tradition first hand. When pouring a drink, you are never supposed to pour your own. Instead, you pour each other a drink before you toast. Throughout the night, people would come over and pour me some more drink and speak to me. It was really a nice way to get to know people in the room and I never had an empty cup of apple juice, so I approve of this custom. I had tempura, spaghetti, some meats that I am not quite sure about, and some delicious desserts. Halfway through eating the English teacher informed me that I would have to make a speech. I was dumbfounded and completely unprepared. If you can imagine a room full of people older than me who all speak a different language, facing a stage with a microphone, and me standing on the stage in front of the microphone, then you have envisioned my worst nightmare. I had forgotten bits and pieces of my introduction speech in Japanese, but I managed to get something out. I honestly don’t know what I said. I don’t think many people were very coherent at this point in the night due to the massive alcohol consumption, but I, on the other hand, was completely sober and embarrassed and I eventually just said, in English, “I wish I could say more”, to which they booed because they could not understand me, so I just said “yoroshku onegaishimasu”, bowed, and left the stage. The English teacher told me that it was a nice try. I would like to say that this was the last of my embarrassment during this party, but it was not. After a while, a drunken PTA member came walking around to our table and was speaking very loudly into the microphone. He then proceeded to stand beside me and jam the microphone into my forehead, which made a loud thud throughout the room. The scene that unfolded after this is hard to explain, mostly because I have no clue what was going on and I am not too sure that the man did either. All I know is that he was extremely drunk, the English teacher was laughing too hard to translate, and he was saying something about himself being bald, a trip to Key West, and the character Woody from Toy Story. There were good things about this party, however. I did get to take a doggy bag full of food home and a big jug of juice and anything else I wanted that was left over. And I met two middle aged women who told me they would come visit me at the onsen, and a nice man offered me work as a farmer.