(I wrote this a few days back, sorry for the delay in posting...cheers!)
As some of you who read this may have noticed, I am not the most terribly focused writer. Though it is something that I enjoy doing immensely, I have trouble finding one thing to write about and sticking to it. I have a hard time finding a style of writing that I stick to. The world is too big, I observe too much, too many things change and my mind is too busy and always wondering for me to settle on just one mood or topic or vein to write in. I know that I have gone from introspective to humorous to informative and back again on these pages. For this I apologize to you readers right now. Please accept this apology because this won’t happen again. I won’t think of it again now that I am writing it off my mind and onto the page. Its better to just accept that this blog will be full of mistakes and ramblings and misfit writings once in awhile…I do. But please know that I wont be offended if any of you choose to drop out in reading at any point; I don’t expect anyone to read all of this craziness…
Okay, that said I am going to take off in another direction today.
I have spent my morning in the loveliest of fashions. I woke up and took a cold shower, (what I do here. Its still hot in the morning even though I know its fall back home in the US for all you Americans and that leaves are changing and the weather is beauteous…not here. Still hot. I think fall is coming though, I think.) and then got a call on Skype from my best friend/soul sister back home in Portland. It’s been wayyy too long since we have connected and it just felt so good to be in her company again. We talked life and dreams, successes and failures. It was easy and smooth and reassuring, it was refreshing and has helped remind me of my goals and reasons for being on this island. She has such gusto for life and the greatest desire to not just fill the rhetorical glass of life to its fullest, but to have it spilling gleefully over the rim. This friend truly always leaves me feeling inspired and passes great energy for exploring life and dreams onto me.
Dreams are, after all, only ideas that have morphed into such in our minds over time because they hold strength of some kind for us or give us inspiration to change or live differently. Sometimes it feels like dreams in our lives serve only to act as a compass of sorts for us. They point us in the right direction and keep our hearts and minds seeking a common goal, but where they will lead us none of us really know. This dream of mine to live and work abroad has turned out bigger, brighter, more confusing, funny and wonderful than I ever could have imagined. I love the adventure that it gives me everyday and most of all I love that I get the opportunity to achieve my goal in new ways each day by learning about life through hands on experiences. Sure, I don’t know what the hell is going on A LOT of the time, but it only challenges me to really seek the answers out and to use the resources that I have in my hands, my head and my heart in finding them and this is where I really learn. Living my dream is becoming harder and harder though without considering others and letting them in on it…
And so today I am taking a moment to reflect on and return the positive energy and blessings that have been bestowed on me from friends, family and strangers in the last few months and years. Life is good and not what I imagined it would be right now, it is better. My main goal in coming here was to learn about life and to learn about the ways in which it can be lived that I have never had the imagination to consider before. If the quality of life here is better or worse is only matter of personal opinion, there is so much more to life than meets the eye in Japan, so many hidden dreams and desires that an outsider to this culture may never realize exist in the people here. The Japanese are moving and shaking and dreaming up a storm, it is simply a much quieter storm than I am used to hearing brew. The difference here may be in the interconnectedness of these dreams and the reading of minds that happens flawlessly, without fail each and every day. .
There are small things that happen here everyday that change my mind about life as I know it so far. For instance this morning after I arrived at school I was informed at our morning meeting that our principal’s mother died yesterday. While I felt empathy for her I soon learned that that was not to be enough, not in Japan. My supervisor told me, “maybe (I told you about ‘maybe’ right?, it never means maybe) you could follow Japanese tradition and give some money to Kocho sensei for the funeral”. “No problem” I said, (you don’t say no to a maybe) “how much?” And so everyone here will give the principal money so that she and her family can help to take care of funeral arrangements. I’m sure that we aren’t the only ones either. I am stopping in this moment to consider how many other people, family and friends, of hers and the rest of her family are contributing to help lessen the blow of this for the grieving? When is the last time that people back home took up this sort of community to aid and assist when a coworker or distant relative has passed? I know personally that I am surrounded by many generous people (in the US) and have heard of many of them coming to the financial aid of one another when times are hard and what not, but they I think are the exception. This is what happens EVERY time someone passes on in Japan, EVERY time.
There is just such a sense of community here and the overwhelming feeling that the simple fact that these people share space and air is enough to tie them together in many ways and to be aware and to care for one another. They do it subconsciously and I don’t hear them bitch or moan about it one bit. That is just the way that life is to be lived; you consider everyone else in every decision, every dream, every time. As an American myself it is pretty extreme to think of this sort of mentality working back home, but isn’t it kind of nice to imagine it as well? Maybe they really have something here, and I dare say that they did not just stumble upon it. It is well thought out and has been established as such over years and years of practice. It’s a lovely way to live and encourages people to do more than just exist. It encourages people to give what they can and to find their own best path of doing that which they do best. They are setting their compasses toward common goals and doing it with the same vigor that we as Americans commonly do with only personal achievement as our focus. I think the ways of living here really do encourage compass setting aligning with dreams. Even if Japanese people seem reserved and polite on the surface, when I have the time and space to get to know them on the inside they are warm and generous and overwhelmingly joyful people. It’s my great pleasure and surprise to be in their happy company. I am learning so much about community and what it really means to live with other people and to share life with them. Though I anticipated on this being a growing experience I never could have imagined that I would be thinking and growing in these ways now. People. That is kind of what it is boiling down to for me right now. They are essential in our lives and I am beginning to understand that no matter how badly I want to be independent in this life that I need people just as much as everyone else does. I am learning that it is okay to be a part of a community who depend on each other and that by being a part of that community it does not mean that one has to give up their identity or their freedom. Whoa. This is big stuff. I don’t know if I should be blogging on this anymore. I think I will retreat to my comfy little journal and give this all a spin around the old brain some more before I elaborate or confuse any of you any further…
I kind of ended up on a little tangent there didn’t I?
Jeez. The wheels are turning fast and furious in Naru this morning. More later, I’ll try and aim for lighthearted/non introspective, okay?
Monday, September 21, 2009
Friday, September 11, 2009
the times they are a'changin...
I am listening to the Iron and Wine set at the Newport Folk Festival from this year. A festival that I have never made it to, but would love to be able to check out one day, make that must check out some day. It is where all of the greats have been, have started or have changed the music industry as we know it. I will never forget hearing about Mr. Robert Zimmerman’s set back in ‘65 from pops when I was still young and learning the first things that there are to know about music from him. He was telling me how Bob changed music that day when he plugged in his guitar and how hostile the crowd was to this change. They did not want change, it was unacceptable, they were booing rock ‘n roll because it wasn’t “folk music”. Just one fine example of how stupid and shallow people can be when they resist change. We all do it, there is no easy way to change and sometimes it is even painful. Change is often strange and hard, but when we try to embrace it and see it as a learning experience it somehow becomes easier to do and can many times end up even being a bit of fun.
For instance being here and living in a strange country, where nothing is familiar and one cannot depend on what will or will not happen from day to day. Take for example the preparations that are happening in Naru’s schools for the sports day festival that will be in a few weeks. They are asking the students, both elementary/jr high and high school to do both individual and group tasks that are military in fashion and require great physical endurance and rigidity. The sorts of things that they are asking from these students I told sensei Iriguchi, would never go over on American students. I told him that you would have a zero percent chance of getting them to do these things, he laughed, but knows it’s true.
Today all of the Naru students gathered on the common playground between the schools for practice, three different times. First we gathered and split off into our teams for the first time; red and blue. There were short introductions from the captains from each team and then the teachers introduced themselves as well. Being that the teams are red and blue, of course this means matching outfits and for the younger students matching hats as well. Though the adults don’t “match” per se, they do all dress alike, with the women donning hats and “gloves” for protection from the sun (and 50 SPF sunblock!), along with long track style pants, naturally. The men are in long track pants and polo shirts or soccer jerseys. I (of course!) am the only adult on the field who has sandals on (they’re Chacos! outdoor shoes people!) and shorts (hello, it is ninety degrees out!), and I roll up my old soccer jersey sleeves just for good measure and good tan, I mean, hey, I already stick out like a sore thumb, why not get a tan while I’m at it? After introductions the practice begins.
Iriguchi sensei tells me that the opening ceremonies (again, EVERYTHING here has an opening ceremony. The practice had on opening ceremony for crying out loud!) will consist of some talking and good wishes and then the marching, yes, marching. We are not talking band style marching or even military salute style marching, we are talking arms pumping at sides, faces clenched in concentration, high knees marching. These kids know that this is the real deal and no body is messing around, I mean no body. They begin slowly by marching in place and then proceed to making lines of all kinds and taking their marching around the field and into different formations. It is fascinating to watch them all move as one but then it gets even more interesting as they add shouting to their marching. This is the part that makes it fun for me and keeps me smiling while they are stern faced and calling out “one, two, one, two” in Japanese, while they are marching. Now to all of them “ichi, ni, ichi, ni” sounds like “one, two, one, two” and they don’t know what else it could possibly be confused with, but to the lone American it is sounding very, very different from “ichi, ni…” and it is now my private joke as I watch them marching round and round and yelling in rounds, “eat shi%, eat shi%”, it is seriously almost too much to handle and I have to laugh out loud. This goes on for what seems like an eternity and gets to the point where I am wondering if the ones who are better at English are actually saying what I think I’m hearing so I even ask Iriguchi sensei what they’re saying. He looks at me like I’m crazy and tells me “ichi, ni, you know one, two!?”. Affirmative, I am the only one who hears it and now I can’t not hear it. I’m doing my best to make my laughing solely internal at this point, so as to draw a bit of attention away from myself, but it is only working on every other go around the field. Every time they get closer I laugh harder and cover my mouth and look away. I’m nearly crying now because this is just so obscene. So there they all are, every school aged child in Naru marching round and round the field swinging their arms and lifting their knees high in perfect marching order yelling at the top of their lungs at each other and the world, “eat shi%, eat shi%....”. It is a top notch day in Naru.
The fun does not stop there though. There are still two more practices and much to accomplish for the day! We take a short bento break (lunch) and then resume the practicing and in my case, the observing. We are all asked to be involved this time as “dance” practice begins. I have been told that this is a “dance” that all Nagasaki-ken students/teachers are learning with the goal of it one day being known by every Nagasaki-ken resident. I have no idea if they will all ever have a chance of doing it together, but hey I like their motivation for uniting themselves with dance anyhow. The “dance” consists of many movements that are fairly easy, actually anyone could do them and honestly they remind me of some of the early morning PBS geriatric exercise shows that I have seen. Lifting arms and bending at the waist and touching toes. (There is a move where we are supposed to be imitating Chinese dragons, but I can still see an old lady getting it done.) As some of you may know (Abbie, Amanda and the poor girls I took 1 year of dance with in 7th grade) I cannot do anything that is choreographed to save my life. I am ALWAYS two or three or four steps behind and on the wrong side and really making a mess of things, as I am with said “dance” on the field with all of my colleagues and students. It is too much again and I can’t help the smile that is taking over my face and exploding into a laugh as everyone around tries very hard to get it just right and with the proper ‘genki-ness’ (excitement). Just when I think it can’t get any better, it does. The music changes in the middle of the song and samples about five bars from the classic Christmas song, “Gloria, Enexcelius Deu” (I know I have spelled that wrong, sorry to all of you who care about that sort of thing.) Now on top of wondering about the movements and which dragon pose or bouncing is next I am literally standing still with confusion as to why they have chosen this music to be in the middle of their prefectural-wide dance, in the middle of the summer. Is this Christmas in September sort of thing? Do they even know that this is a Christmas song? Am I really the only one who thinks that this is beyond hilarious? I am failing at the dance, badly. I don’t believe that all the practice in the world is going to get me past this hilarity.
Sports Day preparations are fantastic fun, to say the least and are changing my ideas of school and what and how we all learn and enjoy things and how different these ways can be. These are things that I never imagined I would see or that even existed. I am astounded, inspired and entertained beyond belief at the changes that happen in my world daily. Being flexible and learning to “listen to the wind” as I was instructed to do before I arrived, have proved invaluable. I’m glad that these changes have come. I am choosing not to bristle at change, though at this point I think it would be rather absurd to feel that way, and to be open to it each day, knowing it is coming, knowing it will be both strange and wonderful at once. Who knows what could spring from these changes? Bring on the rock ‘n roll!
ps-i apologize for all of the pictures that have been showing up blurry and strange and for not adding one here. i will try to get it straightened out and working as it should real soon...
love returned to those who are loving me
namaste
beth
For instance being here and living in a strange country, where nothing is familiar and one cannot depend on what will or will not happen from day to day. Take for example the preparations that are happening in Naru’s schools for the sports day festival that will be in a few weeks. They are asking the students, both elementary/jr high and high school to do both individual and group tasks that are military in fashion and require great physical endurance and rigidity. The sorts of things that they are asking from these students I told sensei Iriguchi, would never go over on American students. I told him that you would have a zero percent chance of getting them to do these things, he laughed, but knows it’s true.
Today all of the Naru students gathered on the common playground between the schools for practice, three different times. First we gathered and split off into our teams for the first time; red and blue. There were short introductions from the captains from each team and then the teachers introduced themselves as well. Being that the teams are red and blue, of course this means matching outfits and for the younger students matching hats as well. Though the adults don’t “match” per se, they do all dress alike, with the women donning hats and “gloves” for protection from the sun (and 50 SPF sunblock!), along with long track style pants, naturally. The men are in long track pants and polo shirts or soccer jerseys. I (of course!) am the only adult on the field who has sandals on (they’re Chacos! outdoor shoes people!) and shorts (hello, it is ninety degrees out!), and I roll up my old soccer jersey sleeves just for good measure and good tan, I mean, hey, I already stick out like a sore thumb, why not get a tan while I’m at it? After introductions the practice begins.
Iriguchi sensei tells me that the opening ceremonies (again, EVERYTHING here has an opening ceremony. The practice had on opening ceremony for crying out loud!) will consist of some talking and good wishes and then the marching, yes, marching. We are not talking band style marching or even military salute style marching, we are talking arms pumping at sides, faces clenched in concentration, high knees marching. These kids know that this is the real deal and no body is messing around, I mean no body. They begin slowly by marching in place and then proceed to making lines of all kinds and taking their marching around the field and into different formations. It is fascinating to watch them all move as one but then it gets even more interesting as they add shouting to their marching. This is the part that makes it fun for me and keeps me smiling while they are stern faced and calling out “one, two, one, two” in Japanese, while they are marching. Now to all of them “ichi, ni, ichi, ni” sounds like “one, two, one, two” and they don’t know what else it could possibly be confused with, but to the lone American it is sounding very, very different from “ichi, ni…” and it is now my private joke as I watch them marching round and round and yelling in rounds, “eat shi%, eat shi%”, it is seriously almost too much to handle and I have to laugh out loud. This goes on for what seems like an eternity and gets to the point where I am wondering if the ones who are better at English are actually saying what I think I’m hearing so I even ask Iriguchi sensei what they’re saying. He looks at me like I’m crazy and tells me “ichi, ni, you know one, two!?”. Affirmative, I am the only one who hears it and now I can’t not hear it. I’m doing my best to make my laughing solely internal at this point, so as to draw a bit of attention away from myself, but it is only working on every other go around the field. Every time they get closer I laugh harder and cover my mouth and look away. I’m nearly crying now because this is just so obscene. So there they all are, every school aged child in Naru marching round and round the field swinging their arms and lifting their knees high in perfect marching order yelling at the top of their lungs at each other and the world, “eat shi%, eat shi%....”. It is a top notch day in Naru.
The fun does not stop there though. There are still two more practices and much to accomplish for the day! We take a short bento break (lunch) and then resume the practicing and in my case, the observing. We are all asked to be involved this time as “dance” practice begins. I have been told that this is a “dance” that all Nagasaki-ken students/teachers are learning with the goal of it one day being known by every Nagasaki-ken resident. I have no idea if they will all ever have a chance of doing it together, but hey I like their motivation for uniting themselves with dance anyhow. The “dance” consists of many movements that are fairly easy, actually anyone could do them and honestly they remind me of some of the early morning PBS geriatric exercise shows that I have seen. Lifting arms and bending at the waist and touching toes. (There is a move where we are supposed to be imitating Chinese dragons, but I can still see an old lady getting it done.) As some of you may know (Abbie, Amanda and the poor girls I took 1 year of dance with in 7th grade) I cannot do anything that is choreographed to save my life. I am ALWAYS two or three or four steps behind and on the wrong side and really making a mess of things, as I am with said “dance” on the field with all of my colleagues and students. It is too much again and I can’t help the smile that is taking over my face and exploding into a laugh as everyone around tries very hard to get it just right and with the proper ‘genki-ness’ (excitement). Just when I think it can’t get any better, it does. The music changes in the middle of the song and samples about five bars from the classic Christmas song, “Gloria, Enexcelius Deu” (I know I have spelled that wrong, sorry to all of you who care about that sort of thing.) Now on top of wondering about the movements and which dragon pose or bouncing is next I am literally standing still with confusion as to why they have chosen this music to be in the middle of their prefectural-wide dance, in the middle of the summer. Is this Christmas in September sort of thing? Do they even know that this is a Christmas song? Am I really the only one who thinks that this is beyond hilarious? I am failing at the dance, badly. I don’t believe that all the practice in the world is going to get me past this hilarity.
Sports Day preparations are fantastic fun, to say the least and are changing my ideas of school and what and how we all learn and enjoy things and how different these ways can be. These are things that I never imagined I would see or that even existed. I am astounded, inspired and entertained beyond belief at the changes that happen in my world daily. Being flexible and learning to “listen to the wind” as I was instructed to do before I arrived, have proved invaluable. I’m glad that these changes have come. I am choosing not to bristle at change, though at this point I think it would be rather absurd to feel that way, and to be open to it each day, knowing it is coming, knowing it will be both strange and wonderful at once. Who knows what could spring from these changes? Bring on the rock ‘n roll!
ps-i apologize for all of the pictures that have been showing up blurry and strange and for not adding one here. i will try to get it straightened out and working as it should real soon...
love returned to those who are loving me
namaste
beth
Thursday, September 3, 2009
Everyday embarassments
(Before I start, just wanted to share this pic with you. It's the view from the third floor (where I teach classes) of Naru High. Looks across the multi-purpose field to the elementary school and oh yeah, that's the ocean right there. Subarashi! This is NOT embarrassing, but I wanted to share it with you!)
There are so many things that I have learned to accept quickly as part of life here, but then on the other hand there are quite a few that are really taking some time to sink in for me. These are mostly everyday sorts of things that one must live and experience everyday to really appreciate living and being fully immersed in another culture and country. I will try to highlight some of the everyday examples I have of not adapting to these very well and working through the embarrassment. (again with the embarrassment I know, but I don’t see it stopping anytime soon…)
I start every school morning by walking to school. It’s a nice walk as I have said 
before. I walk on the side of the street (not the sidewalk, they don’t have those in Naru. The sides of the stripes on the streets are the sidewalks, seen here.) and it is sometimes very close to the cars that are passing. I hate to admit but I have more than once looked up at the oncoming traffic and begun to raise my hands in desperation at the driver to let them know that they are on the wrong side of the road only to remember that I am in Japan just in time to save myself with an energetic wave to them instead, which still kind of freaks them out because people here don’t wave, they bow. Yes, driving on the wrong side of the road is just hard to get used to, especially when you don’t drive. In my defense though, this usual
ly only happens when I'm plugged into an old Dead tape on my walkman and lost in a jam...(thanks Sam!)
After my short walk up my big hill to the school the first thing that I must do when I enter the building is take off my shoes and replace them with my “inside” shoes (which are kept in these handy little cubbies seen to the left). This is not too hard to do, since it is the first thing that you see when you
walk into the building, but this IS hard to do for me when I am on my way out, because I don’t see the little cubbies and am often just focused on leaving. I have walked out in my “indoor” shoes more times than I can count, I have even made it all the way home in them only to realize it when I get to my front door! Drat! I’ve done it again! I’m starting to get better at it and have managed to not leave with the wrong shoes on for about a week now! One small success!
So after I change my shoes I enter the staff room, give my most energetic “ohayoo gozaimasu!” and settle at my desk. There is heaps of tea to be had and always cookies or some sort of sweet to have at the tea table so very soon after arriving I usually have to hit the head. This little saying has taken on a whole new meaning (
As the day rolls on there is lots of bowing and lots of thanking and apologizing for, well, everything. The students who need something from the teachers must first knock on the staffroom door and then stand at the door before entering. They then must ask permission to enter and for the teacher with whom they have business with by saying, please be kind to me “oniguyshimasu”. I have to each day before le
aving say the following to all of the other teachers with whom I work with because I need their forgiveness for leaving early, “osaki ni shi tsu, rei i shi ma su”. It is all about politeness here and it is taking a little bit of practice for sure. They all reply with the same thing everyday in unison as well, though I am still working on exactly what that is and what it means!
I have messed up the following a few times, but am proud to report that today I finally got it right! The Japanese appar
ently do not believe in paying janitors to clean their schools, especially when they have many able bodies ready to work! Each day at 15.00 the whole school takes broom, mop, dusting cloth or whatever they can and cleans the school. No one is exempt from this task as I (tardily) helped the vice principal clean the staffroom floor yesterday and the principal clean the entryway today. It’s really something to see the whole school at work and nobody complaining (they wouldn’t dare complain really). Like I said, I only sat at my desk listening to internet radio for a few days before I realized that everyone was gone and off working, and I, the lazy American was still sitting here in a daze. (Picture is of the nice clean entryway, thanks to yours truely today!)
After school lets out I usually take a stroll down to one of the markets to find something for dinner, since I can only fit about a day's worth of food in mine at home, one must really shop everyda
y. I have managed to 'jaywalk' a few times being completely unaware of it. See, there is exactly ONE stop light in Naru and I have only seen it red once, for a little old lady who was walking across the street. Roads really aren't that busy here so I never remember that if I'm going to cross right there I need to hit the button...well, I haven't caused any accidents but I have gotten some stares from some of the kids on the island and some smiling 'crazy gaijin' faces from adults in that intersection. I am going to try really hard to remember that light there now. Really, I am.
I've only managed to mess up my trash twice, whew! It's kind of a tricky thing here (Portlanders will understand, everyone else, not so much...). There are different days for differnt pick-ups, not too hard, right? But there are about 6 categories of kinds of trash and three differnt bags that they must go in which are all color coded and must be bagged and deposited accordingly. Oh and once you figure all of that out, you have to sign your trash. Yes, that's right, you have to put your name on the bag so they know who's trash it is, in katakana (one of the Japanese alphabets). First I couldn't figure out where to put the trash and took a stab at it and left it on my front porch. No good. My elderly neighbor rang my doorbell one Saturday and let me know that it was so. So I dragged said trash back into my house and waited for someone to help me. After getting in the know from much questioning of my supervisor at school I thought I had it down. I took the trash to the proper place only to have my other neighbors who were outside give me the big "X". You know you've done something wrong when a Japanese person does this to you, holding their arms up in a big X sign meaning, "NO!". I understood with my little knowledge of Japanese that I was a day early and that depositing trash in the dumpster before the pick-up day was "X"! After an embarassing dumpster dive to retrieve it, I think I have this one down.
So friends, you see it's really so easy to live in Japan. You simply must remember the small things and everything else falls into place. It's all different, but like they say in the USA, "it's all good".
Namaste,
Beth
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Catching up...
oh dear, it has been too long since i last wrote of my experiences here, but in my defense i have only just recently gotten full access to the Internet here and so i have had limited communication with almost everyone back home in the states. i will stick to my promise of keeping you all in the loop and blogging on a weekly basis, starting now. it may take a few posts to get you all up to speed on what's going on and what I'm doing, but i will be diligent!
i have now been here on the island of narujima for approximately three weeks. it is better and more spectacular than i ever could have dreamed island life could be and i am learning so much everyday from so many sources. i am one of i would say three or four english speakers on this island of 3,000 people. i say that there are three or four of us, but that is being generous in that no one else speaks fluent english and there are always lots of charades happening between us when we try to speak. the liquor store owner, yoshi and his wife chiaki, are the two best civilian speakers and both of the 'english' senseis at school speak fairly well too. it is forcing me to learn japanese very quickly and i am very grateful for that for sure. it is one of my big goals to speak with everyone here and there are so many old folks on this island with whom i will never have the chance if i don't learn some more japanese! it's a struggle everyday but loads of fun and well worth the waves of embarassment that i am beginning to ride with less and less self-consciousness.
i have met many of my students here on the island even though our first day of school is not officially until this tuesday. that said we have all been at school everyday since i have arrived anyhow as they are supposed to show up during summer vacation for extra study classes and for club practice (badmition, track and field, brass band and baseball). i have been there learning the ropes and trying to make sense of what is going to happen when classes resume. the teachers in my school are very nice, though as i mentioned before, not many of them speak english and so i have spent many days in confusion at my desk wondering what has happened as everyone has disappeared from the room and i am the only one who remains. (iriguchi sensei came running back in about ten minutes after they had all disappeared to let me know that they were in a meeting...ahhh!) it is fully entertaining thus far to just watch the innerworkings of the teacher's office and to see them all moving about like there are ten different fires somewhere and they all need to get to putting them out on their own. i swear that none of them really walk, they all more or less run/walk all day long, even across the room to the copy machine. i watch them all move around and take cover at my desk trying to look as busy as possible with little to do since my english senseis have no work for me yet and class has yet to commence. so work is really not work yet, but soon!
i live about a seven minute walk from my school (up one HUGE hill), a two minute walk from the grocery in either direction and a five minute walk to water in about five directions (which is very sweet thing for a girl who grew up so landlocked). i have a small apartment with a living/bedroom, kitchen and separate toilet (western style, not a japanese squat toilet! (seen here)) rooms and shower r
ooms. this all comes complete with an airconditioner and a washing machine so i am one happy girl! my neighbors are all teachers that i work with in the apartment building and the folks with houses around us are older people with gigantic, glorious gardens on either side as well. everyone in this place has been really warm and friendly and i've managed to meet them all with the little japanese i know and some great hand gestures.
i eat fish everyday now, at least a couple of times a day. i'm not complaining becauese here in nagasaki (the prefecture i live in) we boast having the best fish in the country due to our lovely location. i've eaten the most delicious fish raw and cooked in the most unusual and interesting ways and only wish that i could figure out what the names of them are in english...? though the food is excellent, most things as you could imagine are rather expensive because they are all shipped in and there are plenty of things that we don't have here at all. i, like many of my other american counterparts here i discovered, are missing mexican food most and would love tortilla anything already. oh the things that you did not anticipate on missing...
there are so many things about the people here in japan that make me laugh and smile daily. things that are just so different and quirky for me, but very normal for them and i find
myself laughing out loud often because i just can't stand it and then there are even more eyes in the "gaijin" (non-japanese person) than there were before. i think my favorite of these things thus far has to be the t-shirts that every third or fourth japanese person is wearing. old and young, men and women, boys and girls, none are exempt from wanting a t-shirt with english sprawled all over it, no matter what it says. this is where the funny happens for an english speaker, because none (well maybe every 100th shirt) of them make any sense and they are just a combination of a bunch of words that maybe don't even have anything to do with each other and make absolutely no sense at all. folks proudly display these shirts and you can find them in every shopping mall from here to hokkaido. here is one of my favorites that i have been able to capture in the last few weeks (see how proud she looks of her shirt!?).
okay, that will have to be it for now because i'm getting too frusterated with the posting of pictures here...more to come dear readers very soon. i have loads to say so don't give up and thanks for keeping up with me if you are!
big love,
namaste,
beth
i have now been here on the island of narujima for approximately three weeks. it is better and more spectacular than i ever could have dreamed island life could be and i am learning so much everyday from so many sources. i am one of i would say three or four english speakers on this island of 3,000 people. i say that there are three or four of us, but that is being generous in that no one else speaks fluent english and there are always lots of charades happening between us when we try to speak. the liquor store owner, yoshi and his wife chiaki, are the two best civilian speakers and both of the 'english' senseis at school speak fairly well too. it is forcing me to learn japanese very quickly and i am very grateful for that for sure. it is one of my big goals to speak with everyone here and there are so many old folks on this island with whom i will never have the chance if i don't learn some more japanese! it's a struggle everyday but loads of fun and well worth the waves of embarassment that i am beginning to ride with less and less self-consciousness.
i have met many of my students here on the island even though our first day of school is not officially until this tuesday. that said we have all been at school everyday since i have arrived anyhow as they are supposed to show up during summer vacation for extra study classes and for club practice (badmition, track and field, brass band and baseball). i have been there learning the ropes and trying to make sense of what is going to happen when classes resume. the teachers in my school are very nice, though as i mentioned before, not many of them speak english and so i have spent many days in confusion at my desk wondering what has happened as everyone has disappeared from the room and i am the only one who remains. (iriguchi sensei came running back in about ten minutes after they had all disappeared to let me know that they were in a meeting...ahhh!) it is fully entertaining thus far to just watch the innerworkings of the teacher's office and to see them all moving about like there are ten different fires somewhere and they all need to get to putting them out on their own. i swear that none of them really walk, they all more or less run/walk all day long, even across the room to the copy machine. i watch them all move around and take cover at my desk trying to look as busy as possible with little to do since my english senseis have no work for me yet and class has yet to commence. so work is really not work yet, but soon!
i live about a seven minute walk from my school (up one HUGE hill), a two minute walk from the grocery in either direction and a five minute walk to water in about five directions (which is very sweet thing for a girl who grew up so landlocked). i have a small apartment with a living/bedroom, kitchen and separate toilet (western style, not a japanese squat toilet! (seen here)) rooms and shower r
ooms. this all comes complete with an airconditioner and a washing machine so i am one happy girl! my neighbors are all teachers that i work with in the apartment building and the folks with houses around us are older people with gigantic, glorious gardens on either side as well. everyone in this place has been really warm and friendly and i've managed to meet them all with the little japanese i know and some great hand gestures.i eat fish everyday now, at least a couple of times a day. i'm not complaining becauese here in nagasaki (the prefecture i live in) we boast having the best fish in the country due to our lovely location. i've eaten the most delicious fish raw and cooked in the most unusual and interesting ways and only wish that i could figure out what the names of them are in english...? though the food is excellent, most things as you could imagine are rather expensive because they are all shipped in and there are plenty of things that we don't have here at all. i, like many of my other american counterparts here i discovered, are missing mexican food most and would love tortilla anything already. oh the things that you did not anticipate on missing...
there are so many things about the people here in japan that make me laugh and smile daily. things that are just so different and quirky for me, but very normal for them and i find
myself laughing out loud often because i just can't stand it and then there are even more eyes in the "gaijin" (non-japanese person) than there were before. i think my favorite of these things thus far has to be the t-shirts that every third or fourth japanese person is wearing. old and young, men and women, boys and girls, none are exempt from wanting a t-shirt with english sprawled all over it, no matter what it says. this is where the funny happens for an english speaker, because none (well maybe every 100th shirt) of them make any sense and they are just a combination of a bunch of words that maybe don't even have anything to do with each other and make absolutely no sense at all. folks proudly display these shirts and you can find them in every shopping mall from here to hokkaido. here is one of my favorites that i have been able to capture in the last few weeks (see how proud she looks of her shirt!?).okay, that will have to be it for now because i'm getting too frusterated with the posting of pictures here...more to come dear readers very soon. i have loads to say so don't give up and thanks for keeping up with me if you are!
big love,
namaste,
beth
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
tokyo...surprisingly different
there is no such thing as the same. everyone and everything is different, no matter how hard we may try at times to put things and people into boxes so that we can sort them neatly in our minds. this certainly holds true for what i have seen so far of tokyo and japan. i can admit that i came here expecting to see every businessman in the same black suit, every old woman with the same blank stare and every child with the same smile. the differences i have observed so far are inspiring and crushing stereotypes for me left and right. there are surprises at every turn here. the grey haired woman who runs across the street, the mohawks of men that are less than neat, the wonder in the eyes of the child who dares to wave at a gaijin (foreign people), the stares from women who slow their pace for a chance to look at eyes deeply set, the knee socks pulled up to there, the store clerk who speaks in english when you expect them not to care and the ease i've found in bowing to everyone at every interaction. these are things i did not expect to see or do or find in this place, but then again i guess i
really didn't know what i'd find.it is day three here and i am slowly becoming acquainted with customs anid closeness here. there is so much to take in and see and everyone and everything is blowing my mind. simplicity rules and smiling can get you everywhere. i saw shinjuku station last night (the busiest subway station in the world; more than 2 million people pass through it each day) and was blown away at the small pockets of peace that i found lingering around every corner that people were racing past, even at nearly midnight last night. peace is in us all and follows each of us in this world, and all we must do is slow our own pace, take a deep breathe, close our eyes and we will find it all around us. i am beginning to understand how people can live and work in places as huge as tokyo; it is simply by living inside their heads for moments of their days and daydreaming as i'm certain i have seen many people doing as they take part in this race pace of life.
i'm no doubt looking forward to island time very soon, as it has always appealed to me and now it will finally be my pace of life, but i am understanding much more about the ability that japanese people have to exsist as they do in huge numbers in small spaces. it's these daydreaming people i've witnessed that have surprised me the most so far about this country, though i know that the surprises have only just begun.
i will travel to nagasaki tomorrow and spend the day there with the other JET's that will teach in the prefecture around me. i will travel on the morning of the anniversay of the bombing to my island, naru, and begin to discover my new home there. it is very exciting to anticipate the extreme calm that will be there with the other 3,000 people on the island. but as sure as i am that it will be peaceful, i am sure that there will be plenty of times that i feel it is anything but calm. the adventure is really just beginning and i'm going to find things about life that i never knew exsisted. to be on the verge of this is fulfilling a life goal, it is watching the sun rise and set on the same island with hope for humanity and love for the world in my heart.
i have fun stories to tell about japanese toilets...more to come!
Friday, July 24, 2009
reaching the summit
there is so much to do right now that i have taken my eye off the ball, i had to. literally every time i start to think, "i'm moving to japan next week" i start to want to check my head out and see if i'm maybe just a little crazy. i know i'm not but it feels that way to think about it right now. instead i'm just chipping away at the huge amount of things that i have to do, a little each day and knowing that all will be okay in the end. it has to be, this is my dream.
i've finally touched back down to solid ground here after a weekend of bliss in the oregon forest. it was truely one of the most beautiful weekends that i've had here in a very long time. one feels so blessed to have good friends around, friends whom have taken the time, money and energy to fly across the country to come be with them and experience life for a moment. feeling blessed and very, very grateful. so much gratitude for those who dared to come and experience with me and dance with me and use their mad hula-hoops skills along side me! the string summit is always a beautiful experience, full of laughter, sunshine and inspiration at every turn, but this year was different for me in so many ways. it was a great release and reminder that life is good and that nothing is really impossible in this life if it is approached with love. kindness can overflow and strangers can become famiily through some hardcore gettin down and a few fat tires. the trees sparkled us into the mystic and the music tickled our toes into dancing long after our energy was gone or we believed that we could even move anymore. we meditated with alders and hiked up and down hills for hours. we payed our boogie tolls and barted for what we needed or wanted with cupcakes and bacon. we stayed together, we fell apart, we explored the world outloud and tied our lives and love together for a few fleeting days in oregon. it was a long time coming, it was a lot of work and preparation, it was hot and tired, but it was wonderful in ways i never anticipated it could be. thanks to all of those who helped make last weekend what it was for me. thanks to all those strangers who shared their smiles and their love with us. thanks to this beautiful oregon for sharing beauty that is unmatched in my lifetime with me. i will be back, i will, i have to; this land calls to me more than any place i've ever known. these are my people, this is my oregon.
namaste friends. i hope everyone who reads this is living an inspired life and knowing that the most important time in our lives is right now.
i've finally touched back down to solid ground here after a weekend of bliss in the oregon forest. it was truely one of the most beautiful weekends that i've had here in a very long time. one feels so blessed to have good friends around, friends whom have taken the time, money and energy to fly across the country to come be with them and experience life for a moment. feeling blessed and very, very grateful. so much gratitude for those who dared to come and experience with me and dance with me and use their mad hula-hoops skills along side me! the string summit is always a beautiful experience, full of laughter, sunshine and inspiration at every turn, but this year was different for me in so many ways. it was a great release and reminder that life is good and that nothing is really impossible in this life if it is approached with love. kindness can overflow and strangers can become famiily through some hardcore gettin down and a few fat tires. the trees sparkled us into the mystic and the music tickled our toes into dancing long after our energy was gone or we believed that we could even move anymore. we meditated with alders and hiked up and down hills for hours. we payed our boogie tolls and barted for what we needed or wanted with cupcakes and bacon. we stayed together, we fell apart, we explored the world outloud and tied our lives and love together for a few fleeting days in oregon. it was a long time coming, it was a lot of work and preparation, it was hot and tired, but it was wonderful in ways i never anticipated it could be. thanks to all of those who helped make last weekend what it was for me. thanks to all those strangers who shared their smiles and their love with us. thanks to this beautiful oregon for sharing beauty that is unmatched in my lifetime with me. i will be back, i will, i have to; this land calls to me more than any place i've ever known. these are my people, this is my oregon.
namaste friends. i hope everyone who reads this is living an inspired life and knowing that the most important time in our lives is right now.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
one big holiday
...a feeling in my soul that i'd never felt before. i knew you always told me, no matter how long it holds me, if it falls apart or makes us millionaires...and on heaven's golden shore we'll lay our heads. -jim james
i finally feel like summer has officially arrived here in portland for me. i quit my job helping with summer camp because i was getting screwed and it was just not what i needed in life right now. i'm going to enjoy my last month being here and really soak up the beauty in this place before i journey on. biking, hiking, discing, dancing and just generally worshiping these trees and this land that has captured my heart so quickly. there is nothing else like being connected in so many ways to life as i perfectly am here. these really are my people and this really is the place that i want to return to after journeying and watch the sun slip under the moutains in the distance and the firefly flickers of bike lights on the road at night.
so i've gotten lots of new about details for japan today and i must say that i'm pretty stoaked about all of them. i found out that my placement more specifically will be an island called naru off of nagasaki city population about 4,000. i'll be teaching high school, jr high and elementary students in very small schools. yea! i was so hoping that i would have the opportunity to have a small class size and really connect and interact with my students in a number of different ways. looks like i'm going to for sure as my high school's enrollment is something like 95 students! after all of these years of living in NE i will finally get to really live in the country. i'll be a ten minute walk from my school and my apartment will cost 12,000 yen a month! i can't even believe it, that's only about $125 US, and i will be surrounded by the ocean...all the time. i hope i get to open my windows year round and let the waves always be in my ears.
i start japanese lessons tomorrow afternoon. it will be so fantastic to be able to speak japanese with some native speakers before i get there. i've been at learning, or at least attempting to learn it now for months and feel like i've made little or no progress as i know my ennunciation is off and so if my phrasing. i can't wait to feel like i'm starting to figure it out, though i know that it will be many more months before i'm having conversations. fantastic things to look forward to.
but...until then i've got heaps of stuff to get done. lists to make and do, people to love and see, and things to get rid of, holy crap! seriously if anyone out there wants to buy my car or my bike i'll cut you a sweet deal :)
thanks for carin to keep up with me friends. lots of love to each of you out there in your corners of the world. remember to make them each as bright as they can be and enjoy every moment of this thing we call life.
namaste
beth
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