Between a Rock and a Wet Place

Seems I've forsaken this journal for the anecdotal version of my life. My verbosity wanes in my old age (haha...)

Newer (shorter) blog, which actually gets updates:
http://thewalk.dreamwidth.org/

Yesterday was annoying. As was Monday, now that I think about it.

It rained for two days straight, and when it came time to go to Japanese class across town I decided that for once I didn't want to bike in the rain. I took the bus, which unfortunately meant leaving my bike at school. Knowing I'd be late in the morning and would need it, I decided to pick it up on my run...except I forgot my bike key. Rather than going home and coming back, or not using the bike in the morning, I decided to carry the bike home. Fortunately, my muscles aren't too abused from lugging the beast half a mile and no one called the cops on me thinking I was stealing a bike.

At Japanese class, my teacher asked me not to look up kanji in my dictionary during class, but rather to ask her. For whatever reason, this really really upset me. I get where she's coming from - I think she thinks it slows me down because I'm always the last to finish. That's not the case though! I'm just slow at reading. Always have been in any language. I almost cried in class and spent the next 5-10 minutes seriously considerin whether or not to quit the class on account of the uphill battle I face not knowing the words. I find my reaction incredibly ridiculous, but I couldn't help it. She brought it up again after class, to which I told her it's not the kanji I'm struggling with, it's the words themselves. My vocabulary is poor (not that everything else isn't, but vocabulary regularly gets in the way). I tried just doing it based on context, but I ended up getting a lot of questions wrong that way...and when she randomly goes around the class looking for answers, I can't afford to be wrong. Furthermore, if I ask her each of the 20 words, it'll take just as long but be twice as frustrating and three times as embarassing. Not to metnion, asking her and having her respond isn't goin to teach me as much as if I look up the words myself. I think I'll continue my behavior, just when she isn't looking. I'll also ask questions after class to make her feel a little better about the whole thing.

And then, as a treat to myself, I'd bought an excellent, excellent (expensive) bag of sugar dried peaches after my 10K race in the farming community an hour from town. I ate one or two pieces and left the bag out, ready for later indulgences...And those fucking ants. Those fucking ants got it. Not only was I angry to awaken to a living room full of ants, but I was angry that I'd sacrificed a very delicious and rare $6 bag of snacks. Not only that, but it frustrates me that the ants move so quickly. There is no wiggle room whatsoever. I don't even know how they're getting in, since my windows are still all sealed up from winter. They will certainly grace a permannet place at the top of my list of enemies in Japan. Fucking ants.

Ah, the Japanese young woman: the number one threat to the Japanese young man.

"Stephanie, how about a Japanese boyfriend?"
"That'd be ok."
"What kind of boys do you like?"
"Hm. Smart ones."
"Well, we don't really have those. Sticking to foreigners would be best, eh."

That quote came from my visit to night school yesterday. She went on to explain that Japanese men are bad because these days they don't care about anything, they can't even make choices in restaurants, and women have to call all the shots. My response was, "Honey, women call the shots for lazy men everywhere." lol

I have to admit, though things are still new, I have mixed feelings about night school. The students are less terrified and I'm able to use Japanese with them, but it's totally confusing for me to speak Japanese in class. It stresses me out a little too because I don't have the teacherly conversation skills in Japanese that I've developed in English and I keep worrying about whether or not I'll be able to understand the slang. It's like, there's a lot less pressure overall, almost none from teachers, but the students actually interact with me instead of just listening silently, so I get pressure from that side. Also, they're rough around the edges. I've always been too straight-laced to handle that well. And to make matters more awkward, some of the students are older than me, even if they're freshmen in high school and I'm a college graduate who's been working abroad for almost a year. There are obviously priviledges and socioeconomic implications with that. It'll take me some time to get used to this new classroom style, but I'm optimistic. I made some mistakes last night, but as time goes on I'll be able to prove myself.

Unfortunately since I hadn't been speaking Japanese much and spent the whole weekend speaking English, my nervousness pretty much shattered my Japanese ability, even with the teachers.

It's also fascinating to finally be out of the realm of rich kids going on to the top colleges. I'm actually starting to hear the same stories and experience the same encounters as my other ALT friends are (for better or worse). It adds another dimension to life. I only wish it had started 9 months ago, not only would it have prevented me from stagnating in my egghead high school teaching style, but I probably would've felt a little more normal all along.

Still, the emotional weight of night school is pretty heavy. It's hard to look around and see so much struggle in one place. I know people judge these students, especially in Japan. It's just like back home, some of the judgments are warranted, some aren't. Breaking out is an uphill battle. I had a conversation with a very sweet 19-year-old girl about how she lives with her boyfriend, whom she's not particularly interested in, and they fight all the time and when they fight they throw things at each other. I think the throwing is coming from both sides, but she said she has to leave the house a lot. Mind you, she's telling all this to a person she's known only 20 minutes, in a very matter-of-fact voice.

It's sad.

It's also striking to see the similarities between people who've lead rough lives in Japan and people who've lead rough lives in America. I'm not kidding, with the exception of language, they're identical down to the fashions, speech styles, scents, and interests. It really drives home the point that the more white collar people get the more complicated and rule-oriented life becomes, which allows for cultural differences in a way that blue collar life never does. In a way, developing these rules is comforting to my world view, and in a way it's terrifying. We're like a different species once we start prioritizing conformity and white collar success. And of course we are, we're living in different worlds.

I know it's not only going to take me some time to get used to teaching, but it's going to take some time getting used to interacting with the students as well. Mostly I'm going to have to work on ridding myself of my teacherly superiority. It's one thing to have it with kids who acknowledge you as an elder and to have it with adults who acknowledge you as their teacher, but it's another thing entirely to have it with your peers who aren't at all particularly interested in what you've got to teach them.

And now it's immensely confusing being dropped back into my regular life in Japan, with the overtone of my upcoming vacation and the shadow of my life back home. My goals, my accomplishments, everything I've become; It's not cohesive with what I saw last night and that's hard to swallow.

In a complete switch back to the ordinary...
The fire alarm went off this morning at school. If you thought Japanese teachers were crazy about springing into action, you should see them during a fire. It turned off again quickly because it was only set off when a student's bunson burner had gone too high, so after some milling around everybody settled. Still, in the moment of truth, I'm not sure if this spring-loaded action will lead to perfect organization or to complete panic.

Also, I start Japanese class tonight. We'll see how it goes. A few errands to run as usual; a lot of cleaning. Jackles and t3h Toine will come in about 2 days, which I can hardly believe.

I feel like I'm laying down my inner tube on the top of a slide, trying to hold it still long enough to sit as I stare down the exciting but terrifying waterslide that is my impending summer.

Lately I've been busy and happy. I'm quickly learning that I don't do well with down time. Taking care of one's self and having time for rest is important, but I'm such a hesitator that if I have too much time to think, I can't seem to get up again. Last week I couldn't muster the energy to do anything no matter how much free time I had and I was completely drained, and yet this week I think I've spent maybe 5 minutes at home all week and I've never been happier and more refreshed. I guess I need to stick to the college approach - being gone from AM to PM makes Steph a regimented and happy woman.

Out of nowhere the other day I got the idea of visiting 2-3 classes during every lunch period to teach them a new idiom of phrase. I have 12 classes, so I wouldn't be visiting them more than once a week so it wouldn't be too disruptive for them. It also has the added benefit of limiting me to 10 minutes per class, which is just short enough of a duration that I'm able to fend off the awkwardness goblins native to the Japanese countryside.

To prepare for this, I spent the entire morning on Monday weeding through camp songs and chants. I found some pretty good ones amidst the cheesiness, but had to narrow them down further because often the language is just too difficult and punny to make sense. I have some longer ones I'll teach them over the course of a week or so, but for this week I started with, "What's up?" with answers like, "Not much," or "I'm eating lunch." Some kids are even smart enough to think of their own answers! It's a great arrangement because 1) it makes me feel like I'm doing my job, 2) the students like it, and 3) it gives me something to do! Not having a lot of face time with the students really hurts our relationship. Turns out lunch is when I get a captive audience, since they all eat in their classrooms!

Overall, I just feel good. I'm not getting much more sleep, much to my chagrin, but I'm running, sleeping well when I do sleep, and eating well. There's also the added bonus of life running smoothly. I'm making a point of utilizing the Japanese people around me who speak English, and I've had some very fluent conversations with people in Japanese too, from the new lunch lady to my hairdresser. I know I've said it before but I can't begin to describe the satisfaction that comes from a successful encounter in Japanese.

On Monday I took a (useless) placement test for my Japanese class at the tech school that starts next week. I biked there and arrived in time for passing period. The passing period experience almost knocked the wind out of me though. YOUNG PEOPLE. YOUNG PEOPLE EVERYWHERE. Since college I haven't seen more than one young strangers at a time and at that only every 2-3 weeks. Part of me was thrilled and excited for my future possibilities, but most of me was absolutely terrified. All I ever see are high schoolers and old people.

On Tuesday I got a haircut (hence the successful conversation with a hairdresser) and then rushed straight off to dinner with Naomi. She and I haven't spent much time together before now, but she needed a native English speaker to check over some speeches she'd written and we've been kind of meaning to get to know each other anyway. She took me to this great restaurant downtown, Japanese style at my request, and I learned ever more about eating in Japan. She spent a year in Australia and a year in Canada so she's pretty much fluent, but she also incorporates a lot of Japanese which is good for me, of course. It was a really easy conversation because whenever things would get too difficult for us we'd switch to our native languages and together we could parce out the meaning. I had such a good time that I invited her to eat with us when the Jackles comes to visit and we all go to the famous yakitori place.

Yesterday I had our second international club meeting for the school year and I was blessed with the chance to actually lead the club because the president was taking a test. I'd had all these great activities planned and then at the last minute again the club president pulled his, "...I don't know...maybe we should just do *boring thing* instead..." I really like him a lot, but he always poo-poos my ideas and then makes things really dry, then when we're at club he's like, "Uh...do you have any ideas?" and I'm left floundering. I can never quite tell what's on his mind and everything I say gets a leery look, even when I try to pander to him. At this chance, however, we got to play some fun name games I'd learned as an RA and I found myself actually able to joke and talk and play with the students instead of being the awkward boring lump I was reduced to during our first meeting.

The meeting was further enhanced by my resolve. Since the new year had started, the third years (last year's second years) decided to grace us with their presence again, which includes the mean girl who wears bleeding bear teeth on the weekends (see the entry in which I write about the mean girl who made me cry). I just don't like her. She's pushy. I felt like she ruined club last week even more than the boring president did, and all the younger kids are afraid of her. Finally I realized I was letting her bully me too, and if it's going to be a battle of wills I think the baller always wins. The only thing scarier than a batshit crazy girl is, well, an insulted, perfectionist Steph.

I walked into the room yesterday and I made some small talk with her to be nice (since she was dominating the rest of the group anyway and I wasn't gonna get anywhere with anyone else). I told her her sweater was "bright," at which point she responded in Japanese (she always does) and kept repeating the Japanese word for bright. I'd gone in not looking for a fight, but when I realized what she was doing, the fire inside me screamed "Bitch, I KNOW you are NOT trying to teach me a word. So I looked her in the eye and for every time she said "hade" I said "bright," until she finally said, "a! bright desu ka? bright!"

That's what I thought.

I think the new second years are following in my shoes too. They know I prefer them over the third years and each day they're becoming a little more and more obstinant. I know they won't surpass the senior/junior hierarchy, but at least they can be people again. Speaking of the hierarchy, I noticed something fascinating while we were learning each other's names. There were about 10 new freshmen, 8 second years, and 5 third years. Obviously most of the second and third years knew each other and had an advantage, but when it came to new names they responded like you'd expect - remembering some, forgetting others, but by and large being graceful about it even if they forgot names of the people in their same grade.

The first years, however, were amazing. After the first introduction, no matter how fast or mumbly, they all managed to remember every one of the upperclassmen's names and attach -sempai to the end for respect. When it came to each other, however, they literally did not remember a single soul's name even after screwing up the same name 4 times in the course of 10 minutes. I don't know if it's because they sunk all their energy into learning their seniors names or if it's a power struggle thing among their peers - like, I don't remember you, so I am superior. That seems pretty extreme and brutal, but I just can't believe the completely perfect polarity with which they divided their memories. Anyway, it was fun and I'm optimistic for the future. I'm finally being who I want and having the relationships I want, in spite of all the obstacles laid against me.

After international club I ran across town for adult English conversation. It was another successful lesson, complete with bonding and a dinner afterwards. My dinner was huge and not overly delicious, but it was free and it was fun. Turns out they're talking about moving the location so that it's within walking distance of my house. That would be awesome, but I don't want to inconvenience anyone. I did get a little annoyed though when they kept turning to me and being like, "Seriously, Steph, give us your real opinion on this. It's ok." Not only was I already giving my real opinion, but it bothers me that a foreigner should be expected to give her opinion while the room full of Japanese people can continue their charades. Though I don't like pussyfooting around, I too would've obscured my feelings a little if they were any more negative, in Japan or in America, but it's kind of ridicluous that I should be expected to behave differently when we're all trying to work together.

I've got less than an hour or two of free time every day from tomorrow until May 13th, but I'm quite pleased about it. Makes me wonder why I hate inactivity so much - do I get bored without realizing I'm bored? Do I feel guilt for unproductivity? Is it my worrying? Is my busyness a welcome distraction from the weight of the universe? Is it the promise of excitement? What?

In spite of my limited hobby time, I've been dying for a Japanese art form since I got here and I've been feeling a lot of guilt about not picking one up. There's no excuse for living in a foreign country for two years without adding something cool to your skill set. Yet, with what free time am I supposed to pick something up? Well, I've solved the problem. I've decided that while some of my friends are spending their time with tea ceremony, kendo, or Japanese archery, I'm going to be imbibing.

I'm going to learn the art of Nihonshu (sake). It'd be best if I had a human guide for my journey, and maybe I'll find one, but for now I'm just trying as much as I can, remembering the names of what I've had to drink, and spending huge chunks of time reading about sake and its various categories on the internet. The best way to combat a time crunch is to choose something you like so much that you do it naturally whether you have the time or not. Gourmet drinking and eating are two of those things for me.

Also I've got the cooking thing going for me. I'm learning an awful lot about food, how to prepare it, how to eat it, and how to enjoy it. I really, really want to learn how to make Japanese sweets someday too. I also still intend to ask around about Ikebana, the art of floral arrangment, but until I find a teacher I will be at rest knowing I've got The Drink.

To make matters better, the new lunch lady, shy of me though she is, told me today that she's begun ordering an extra katsujuu lunch on Thursdays so ensure I always get one, because she knows I like them and that I always come on Thursdays. Even if it means I'll be subjecting my body to fried pork chops every Thursday for the rest of my stay in Japan, it's a really nice feeling to know that someone is looking out for me.

At some point I posted about a teacher who always hauked tremendous loogies in the staffroom sink, and I wondered if it was because cultural differences or personal "charm." Well, I was sitting here last week talking to one of my students and when he did it, she paused, looked at him out of the corner of her eye, and became so distracted she dropped the conversation for a good 10 seconds. Problem solved: it's personal charm.

Thursday's new student entrance ceremony turned out to be just as big of a deal as graduation, if not bigger. There were many more parents in attendance at the entrance ceremony (huh!) and some of them were even formally dressed in kimono. All of the homeroom teachers wore white ties with their suits, though they'd done nothing for graduation, and the pagentry was as ornate as ever. Each student's name was even read off in the exact same format as the graduation ceremony. After the ceremony the parents and kids split up for orientations and motivational speeches. I was with the parents and didn't understand as much as I'd have liked, but overall it was a nice feeling to have such a ceremony.

I can't for the life of me think of anything similar in the states though. We have orientations, in summer and some special programs for the students in the first few days of school, but other than that's it's more of a "high school classes" system instead of "high school life." I'd be curious to experience it both ways firsthand.

On Friday the students had a half day of classes and then everyone was brought to the gym to watch skits from the 25 school clubs as part of the Welcome Party. It was a kind of extra-curricular recruitment thing. For the most part it was a handful of students giving demonstrations or putting on plays with cheeky twists trying to explain their clubs and draw in new members. Some of them were pretty entertaining, and I always like things like this because it gives me the chance to witness Japanese comedy in its purest and rawest form.

For the most part it was slapstick physical comedy and pop culture references, but one presentation really stood out as a cultural difference. When it was the soccer team's turn, a few members in their team warm-up suits trickled out, and then a boy wearing nothing but biking shorts sprung onto the stage. I was a little shocked to see him wearing so little in front of the entire school, but I know how amused Japanese folks are by men in tight pants. The kid began throwing himself onto the floor of the stage, saying something about intimidating his rivals. That was pretty funny, he had some amazing spring in his step (fall?) and THEN he did what really shocked me. He thrust his fisted hand and forearm into his pants in front of his junk to make a monstrous erection, and proceeded to thrust it every which way.

If a 2 foot penis doesn't intimidate your enemies, I'm not sure what will.

The teachers just chuckled. No one even shook their heads as they laughed. Once I got over my shock, I laughed too - it was pretty funny after all! It surprised me that no one was the slightest bit embarassed or scandalized, not even the shyest girls. There was no adult-inferred shame and no one said, "Oh, kids these days! That boy is so crazy!" It didn't matter that with his arm stretching his pants he risked showing off his business or at least his underwear to everyone. Such a big cultural difference! It's not outside the realm of the zeitgeist of high school boy humor, but I've never seen a boy do something so crude even with his friends, let alone on stage in front of a whole school of peers and adults.

It's not like this is new information for me - what with the Hokkaido mascot being a ball of algae with a permanent erection and the comfort of people stripping down to nudity in the hot springs, and changing clothes in the middle of public places like hallways and tennis courts - but it certainly pushed my cultural learning to new extremes. It's really interesting to see myself so surprised, considering I'm not overly shy about body parts and nature and I'm pretty difficult to surprise to begin with. Even aside from the mandated 2+ angry mothers in a crowd, I never really considered that typical "polite" secular American culture was so conservative!

I don't think it's a negative cultural difference though. In fact, it's good that people in Japanese culture are so comfortable with their bodies and things. As far as comedy goes though, when you consider the extremeness of this culture point, it's no wonder we have this idea that Japan is "so crazy!"

I got a little reprieve from nothingness and personal tasks today when I got to correct the advanced placement entrance essays for our incoming freshmen. Of course, it also provided some entertainment, not just busywork.

Lulz Samples:
"I have a rabbit, his color is blown."
"My father testes many tracks."
"My little sister is sauciness so I often fight her."

Furthermore, I got some intellectual stimulation as well. No joke, out of this pile of essays about the students' families, I encountered one teacher and one pharmacist, but all the other mothers are housewives. I encountered one bank man and one teacher, but all the other fathers are doctors of sorts. Well, there was also the man who "testes many tracks," though I'm not sure exactly what that implies, even potty humor aside. Still, the statistics are staggering and seeing as my school is by far the best school in the area, it appears that my school is unquestionable proof of socioeconomic continuity. Even if the Japanese education system is set up differently from ours, doctors and lawyers make doctors and lawyers. Everyone else goes to secondrate schools. I'm not exactly sure where to even begin on the housewife thing, but I'm sure it makes some kind of statement about rich families, or Japanese families, or the preferences of well-to-do men, or the state of women's equality.

Anyway, on a personal level, we're starting our new school year, which brings a number of obstacles. First and foremost on my mind is the thing about teachers in Japan changing schools every few years by government mandate. It means we just got about 25% of our staff members switched over. Seeing as it's spring break until Thursday, you never know who's going to be in the office and new faces keep poppin' up. Again with the unexpected entertainmnet, I was just sitting here at my desk, minding my own business, when I caught something out of the corner of my eye that caused me to do a double-take. The man who sits behind me is sporting a Joey Lawrence haircut and a cravat. HOLY SHIT.

As I've expressed in the past, it's been hard dealing with the transfers. I'm led to believe that Japanese people don't dread them as much as we would as U.S. folks, but there was a fair amount of Japanese people who got emotional on me as well. I found it really hard to deal with losing a few of my favorite co-workers, especially since meanwhile the 3rd years are graduating, all the other kids are growing up, there's a million parties/meeting/events/commitments, and the stress is building with new people coming in. All in all, emotions are running high and sleep is running low. Especially since at my school people tend to stick around for much longer because it's such an elite school. Seeing the end of it is difficult.

Furthermore, nobody taught me the common sentiments and goodbyes in Japanese. I hardly know what I want to say in English, let alone what is appropriate to say in Japanese, let alone how to say it. I crafted a few Japanese-style dramatic がんばる speeches for the teachers I was particularly close to. Some I didn't even get to say goodbye to, because I had no idea when their last days were.

But they're all gone now. It's just new folks left to contend with. Speaking of which, saying goodbye was difficult but pleasant, saying hello is difficult and unplesant. I'm kind of annoyed about the whole thing, because as a new person last summer I spent so much time introducing myself and building relationships and all the rest. It was a great accomplishment, I knew everyone's names and I had confidence. They knew me. They liked me. Now here I am, staring down 14 new people who don't know how to respond to me. Same thing, different semester. I can't help but feel like I've been knocked back to square one.

Some are just hesitant and busy, some probably don't realize I'm a permanent fixture around here so they don't want to take the time, and some are probably afraid of me. Regardless, in the end it means every day I'm noticing people treating me differently again. I understand, I'd probably do the same thing in avoiding a foreigner I don't know anything about, but in spite of the rationale and my understanding this rationale, it still kind of hurts my feelings that people think they can forgo the pleasantries just because of how I look. Again, it has to be making the connections, me taking the first step, me justifying myself to everyone else. This is probably a good opportunity to practice my Japanese, but on days like today when I'm tired I can't help but feel a little demoralized and set back.

Right now I'm taking it slow. Some I'll probably cross paths with, some will probably defeat their fear and approach me, and with the rest I'll suck it up and go talk to them myself. Unfortunately, I will probably have to miss the welcome party, which is the time when most of the newbs will take the opportunity to talk to us. I guess the most unfortunate thing is that I once again feel like a stranger in my own workplace, even after I worked so hard to finally get over that. What's more, I only finally got completely comfortable about 3 weeks ago. I've been stripped of my "Stephanie" title and made into "Foreigner" once again.

Ok, I gotta know - is chewing with your mouth open more common in Japan or am I just noticing it more because it's a foreign country? I feel like on a regular basis I run into it far more often than I should. Not that I can see into people's mouths, but there are some definite smacking sounds going on.

That smacking sound is one of my pet peeves - so moist and disgusting. Naturally, it's only men who do it. They also like to do it in dead silence (C'mon, seriously??). *sigh*

Oh man, I've missed so many updates in the last few weeks. I may just skip them entirely, and the last few weeks of my life will be a complete mystery for you.

Or not.

Anyway, it's a shame, because I did some interesting stuff. Jonno was visiting for the last 2 weeks-ish and we did a lot of traveling around.

Between getting enrolled in my Japanese language class at the local Institute of Technology and the mountain of paperwork that entitles, my new secretarial duties, and various other on-going tasks I'm dying to put off like paying bills and planning trips and the rest, I've been pretty frustrated with how slowly things go at work. Unfortunately right now I don't feel like doing anything, I have a lot to do, and four more hours to be here. Dang. Might as well tell some stories then, eh?

After my last entry I met Jonno on the way to Furano. We stayed in a ski hotel which was cute, and spending time with my peeps was really nice. We accidentally took the local train to Takikawa, however, instead of the express, which meant hours and hours on the train. Noooooo >,< There was wandering, meetings, and drinking, while culminated in a game of Kings that reminded me how I need to start playing that game more often with other ALTs when we hang out. Wandering Furano itself was a little boring, considering it's more of a summer town and a skiing town, so pretty much everything was cold and quiet. I did, however, get chocolate beer and cheese and pumpkin flavored ice creams!

I took Jonno around to my various Eikaiwa classes, which resulted in a lot of free treats and a midnight trip to the top of one of the biggest mountains around. The top boasts a handful of tv towers light with beautiful colored lights. It was pretty scary though, since our driver was trying to go up an ice-coated mountain with narrow roads and very small (or absent) guard rails and spun out pretty many times. We made it okay, and it turned out being a pretty cool experience. Also, she took us on the tour of The City by the Sea, which included an excellent view of the oil refinery in the wharf that looks just like a scene from FF7. Sweeeeet. This week also featured many foreigner parties, almost every night lol It's fortunately got me in a good habit of seeing my friends fairly regularly and I'm really looking forward to keeping up that trend. I think we all hit our loneliness breaking points over the winter and are now more assertive in spending time together. Now that Jonno is gone, though, I'm looking forward to unwinding a bit (I didn't stop moving or use the internet for two weeks pretty much!).

On Saturday we climbed a local caldera and park trail around boiling lakes and hot springs. I usually go in summer, but it was pretty sweet in winter too because everything was steaming and packed with snow and ice. In fact, we had to pull ourselves up the moutain using ropes because of all the ice. It was a great workout! lol On Sunday, however, our plans to Sapporo got a little complicated. The earthquakes in Chile caused some tsunamis and even though it turned out to only be about a foot tall wave by the time it hit our beach, they cancelled all the return trains from Sapporo to my area. We ended up having to take a late night local train connecting to a train that was 2 hours late going across the island. We got home around midnight! Still, I would do it again because I met a new Japanese friend with whom I can network with in the future, hopefully. Though next time we have a tsunami warning, I try any pleasure trips.

As for my spring plans, Erika and I are planning to start training for a half marathon ^.^

In sadder news, my beloved lunch lady is being transferred to a different school after 18 years here! It's so sad :( I vowed to come talk to her every day until she leaves, and so it's kind of evolved into an hour or more of me sitting with her in the snack window sipping tea and eating snacks lol It's really nice to finally be able to talk casually with a Japanese person. You can't really connect until you get beyond small talk. I'm optimistic for what this is doing for my future, too. I'm going to try to send her notes through the ALT that works at her new school. Her replacement is nice enough, but I wish she was staying :( Damn the Japanese job transfer system!

Wow. There's about 3 teachers in the office right now because of this afternoon's assembly. A student just walked in to drop off a paper on a teacher's desk, and when the head of the 1st year department noticed she was wearing a sweater over her uniform he made her stop and take it off. She apologized, was slightly ashamed, and made a move to run out of the office to take it off.

Usually students are asked to button up their shirts to the top bottom or to straighten their collar or whatever else, but this girl was just wearing a very neat, plain grey wool sweater. He didn't make her go all the way back out into the hall to take it off, but he did expect her to remove it even though it was tactful and looked like part of the uniform, and she was only going to be in the office for 15 seconds. Also, the school is cold outside of the classrooms, that's just how it is.

If you ever questioned the boundaries of Japanese discipline, you probably won't again.