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Well, I’m back home after a nice weekend in Tokyo. Being the first weekend of Spring and a 3-day holiday, Tokyo was really crowded with Japanese and international tourists alike. It took an extra hour to get into Tokyo b/c of the bad traffic, but on the other hand, the traffic going out of Tokyo was equally congested with Tokyoites who wanted to see the countryside or wherever.
Friday – After getting into Shinjuku, Tokyo, we got lunch at Yoshinoya, the McDonald’s of Japan (cheap bowls of rice w/ meat served at fast-food joint speed)and booked it over to our hotel to drop off stuff. After that we went out immediately to Akihabara, the electronics and anime mecca of Japan. The only problem was I got the rail map and the subway map confused and we ended up a distance away from Akiba. I was frustrated, but Ryan told me it was cool and began walking in the general direction. This turned out to actually be a nice experience. We started out at a less-than-touristy normal(?) area of Tokyo where there are K-12 schools, people actually live there, etc. and followed the train tracks into Akiba. Under the tracks a bunch of restaurants and shops were built and local people walked slowly about. After a few minutes more of walking, the scenery all the sudden changed from the subdued every day motif to the chaotic signs and neon lights. We were in Akiba.
I first visited Akiba nearly 4 years ago and remember the streets. In one sense not much had changed: the shops and streets were basically all the same, but what took me by surprise was the change in the people. There were so many more foreigners! In the past few years, Akiba has been discovered by foreigners and now there are published anime/video game fan guides to Akiba, tours in English (why the hell would you pay for that?), etc. making Akiba a lot more alluring to the foreigner. There was even two American girls dressed in slutty, poorly-made cosplay outfits being videotaped by another American guy for who knows what. I guess they were giving an introduction to Akiba. Japanese people began surrounding them and taking pictures, and the whole time I was thinking about how unrealistic a sailor outfit that exposes one’s whole tattoo-covered belly is. Man, if only some of my cosplay friends were here…
Ryan and I made our way into various shops, checking out the merchandise, however we only ended up buying a new LAN cable and Japanese keyboard at an electronics store for my computer. For dinner we found a BURGER KING IN JAPAN!!!, which is rare to say the least and feasted. I have no idea what Ryan bought but I got a teriyaki whopper and savored its West-meets-East flavor.
Saturday – We first headed to the Ueno part of Tokyo to stoll in the large Ueno park with tons of other nature-deprived Tokyoites. There weren’t nearly as many foreigners here. The Museum of Natural Science has a life-size statue of a blue whale outside that we had to take a picture of. We then went in the Tokyo National Museum, which has the world’s largest collection of Japanese art. A portion of the museum was under repair at the time, but Ryan and I aren’t big museum goers in the first place so it didn’t bother us much. We learned about different aspects of ancient Japanese art, Japanese swords, and interestingly enough, the Meiji era Japanese artists who traveled abroad to study Western art.
After some ice cream in Ueno Park we made our way back to Akihabara for a second round. I saw some really obsessive American fans in one of the stores and was so happy Ryan and I saw no point in buying souvineers. Another major change that has happened in Akihabara seems to be the number of “maid cafes.” Dozens more seem to have sprouted up since the last time I was there. Maids were on street corners passing out flyers all weekend. During this second visit to Akiba, we decided to go inside the first maid cafe we receive a flyer from. This happened to be “Maid Station Cafe,” a comfy establishment on the fourth floor of some random building. We sat on white leather chairs with cushions that extended the length of the ceiling. We expected pink and frilly and were happy to get something a little less extreme. The maid outfits were extremely cute, but pictures cost $10 so I refrained from taking pictures inside. The cappuchino was delicious.
After Akiba we went to Asasuka to Sensoji temple, the largest Buddhist temple in Tokyo. The streets leading up to the temple are filled with souvineer shops and tons of tourist. Inside the temple hundreds of temple-goers threw money into the over-sized money box and prayed for whatever was on their mind. We wandered around the temple grounds for a while as well as around the area, stopping at a 100 yen shop for snacks before heading back to Shinjuku. We ate dinner at a ramen joint near our hotel and were preplexed by the many establishments with pictures of cute guys on them. Host clubs?
On Sunday we slept in and wandered around Shinjuku before taking the bus back home. The weather wasn’t so nice so we didn’t go to any other parts of Tokyo. I was disappointed, but Ryan was fine with not doing much. Now we’re back in Iida, appreciating the fact that we can live in a mid-size town and not in the urban chaos that is Tokyo. We also appreciate the fact that we live in Japan and unlike tourist who can only visit for a week or two, we can be tourists for a weekend, sample a different part of Japan and then go home to experience normal life once more.
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Well, it’s a beautiful day in Japan land. From my window in the computer lab, I can clearly see the snow of Southern Alps as it slowly melts away. Late February/March can tend to be a rainy time of the year it seems. It’s not “April Showers bring May flowers” but more like “March rain brings April cherry blossoms.” We’re starting to see plum blossoms now, a precursor to the cherry blossom season.
It was rainy on Saturday when Ryan and I made our way to the big electronics store Eiden, where Ryan gawked over the ridiculous prices people will pay here for top-of-the-line stuff. We’re talking $500+ rice cookers, $100+ hot water boilers, $150+ ear buds (I ended up buying a $10 pair). It was cool. Walking back from Eiden we watched the top half of Fuetsu get snowed on while nothing feel on our heads.
The next two weekends will be busy ones for us as we plan to take some trips around Japan! This 3-day weekend Ryan and I are off to Tokyo to see the sights and eat some good food. We plan to hit up Akihabara, the electronics/gaming/anime capital of Japan, as well as visit other areas too.
The week after we’re taking the train down south to visit some sights before meeting our friend in Toyohashi. After spending the night and some shenanigans we’ll be heading to Osaka to take in the sights, eat some good food, and probably see a performance by the National Bunraku Theatre. Again, we’ll probably go to DenDen Town, Osaka’s version of Akihabara, and while we probably won’t spend much money, we will be taking a lot of pictures. 
The beginning of April marks the beginning of the school year. Other than random trips to see cherry blossoms around the area, we aren’t planning anything major. I have my garden to deal with, for which I bought some tools yesterday, as well as my new reading-intensive TESOL class which started today. Ryan will be starting his classes too in late March so we’ll be happily spending a lot of time home.
Filed under: Happenings
Well, I think it’s safe to say that we have officially completely moved in now. All the boxes are gone and the place is fairly organized. We’ll get internet next Monday (took longer than I thought b/c I messed some stuff up), and a box full of wonderful video games and a game system is on it’s way to Japan thanks to my lovely mom.
In the meantime, Ryan has been experimenting with cooking to both of our delight. He says that I don’t make food spicy enough, and I agree – heck, when did I ever say I could cook? So lately he’s been doing more of the cooking duties, making a delicous shrimp pasta last night and cooking up some egg salad the day before. I had never even boiled eggs on my own, but Ryan had a big craving for egg salad sandwiches and nothing was going to stop him. Meat is expensive here, but eggs aren’t so bad so I don’t mind feeding his egg addiction. We still buy a lot of beef and chicken anyways, and even tried lamb a few days ago.
Right now I’m shifting my focus from inside the house to the outside. Our yard is a wreck. Whoever decided planting bamboo grass around a teacher house (that’s only sporatically used at most) was very stupid. The stuff has crept out of its nice row and all over the small yard, allowing other grasses, weeds and stick-tight bushes to grow up in between them, and trash to get stuck in between. I even found a man’s gold wedding band in the mix (!) and have emailed the former person who lived there. Still on the lookout for more treasure… Anyway, I first pulled all the vines off the shed and major stick-tight things out of the ground first and am now slowly but surely removing bamboo grass from the yard. I want the people who live by us to see that we’re good people, as well as want to make a vegetable garden and maybe a Japanese garden there myself. I found the remains of the previous ALTs’ garden – lot of those annoying plastic plant tags left in the ground, dead herbs mixed in with the bamboo grass, and peppermint which has surprisingly thrived by crawling through the whole area. Unlike the tough bamboo grass, the peppermint is really easy to pull out. I’ll get some pictures up later to show my progress.
Although I’m annoyed at the previous owner, I like doing yardwork (proudly inherited from my Grandma Beck) and look forward to when the place looks decent. Since we’re right next to a river, the soil is really nice for growing vegetables. Our neighbor has a huge garden right next to our house with all kinds of vegetables growing there. There’s also a port-a-potty on his land next to our house too… People actually use it too, and we are so confused as to why. (I hope it’s not for… fertilizer (I always think of the worst possible senerio)) X_X
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On Thursday I attended High School #1’s graduation ceremony and on Saturday I attended #2’s. Despite the difference between the two schools, academically based vs. vocationally based, the ceremonies were very similar to each other and taught me a bit more about Japanese society.
First of all, these ceremonies were very official, solem events. No cheering, no bull hornes, no noticably nutty parents (although school #2’s parents were livelier), students did not even receive their diplomas individually as the best student in each class received diplomas on behalf of the whole class. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself, let me exaplain the whole set up.
First off, the auditorium is adorned in red and white striped cloth, which I believe are colors of congratualtory nature. The graduating class sits up front in their classes and in Japanese alphabetical order. Behind them sit their juniors; all 2nd years and 1st years attend the event wearing their full uniform and are made to act just as serious (although most of them fall asleep.) The parents and guests sit behind the 1st years, dressed to impress (with a few in kimono). Interestingly, about 95% of the guests that attended were moms. Even during Saturday at the vocational school the fathers were nowhere to be found, probably off somewhere working. On the right side of all of this sits the teachers, in rows of two and in no particular order other than the higher ups and those who taught the graduating class were closer to the front. On the left side were distinguished guests in school #2’s case, and in school #1’s case, the school band.
Japanese band kids during rehearsal
The music starts up and students file in; in #1’s case this took forever as each of the 8 classes came in one at a time with the best class first. At school #2 there are fewer students so only 4 classrooms; they filed in all at the same time in four separate rows. (Since we had to clap the entire time the students walked in, I liked school #2 much better. )It’s hard to say what the entire order of the event was because despite my unwillingness to fall asleep (some teachers nodded off), I didn’t necessarily pay attention to every detail. The school song was sung, national anthym was listened to – not many people sung along, which isn’t surprising considering Japan’s history. The principal, president of the PTA, and other higher ups gave speeches, although the most memorable were the student speeches, where in both cases, a girl at school #1 and a boy at school #2, both started crying while giving the speech, making all the moms bring out their hankies and brining the senior class to tears as well. Graduating isn’t all fun for Japanese students as its in a sense the end of their youthful days, they’ll be going off to work or schoo, and they’ll be leaving students they’ve shared the same class for 3 years.
Also, there was a lot of bowing – people bowing before getting on the stage, bowing to the audience, the whole audience being instructed to bow (which everyone complied), graduating students bowing to the speakers, just teachers bowing to the parents, etc. “Just follow the crowd and you’ll be fine,” is my advice.
Anyway, the best student from each class received diplomas on behalf of the whole class, which I found out later were distributed in the students’ homerooms along with other things. As their one last visit to their homeroom it was a joyous and sorrowful occassion for them.
After all was said and done, high school #1 had a closing ceremony for the Home Economics program, which ended this year after being in existance for what I believe was over 100 years. Teaching students (girls) home ec. skills is a thing of the past, and the International Studies program is the future. High School #2 had a senior presentation at the end which included a skit, presentation of the senior class banner they created, powerpoint presentation with some amusing pics, and some humorous advice from the teachers. School #1chose to have this presentation the day before, after the students had practiced for graduation ceremony, but I liked how School #2 chose to have theirs on the same day. This way parents could see the senior presentation, and the whole audience could relax after enduring the serious graduation cermony.
The next few weeks will be interesting as students will still be coming to school for Spring break homework assignments although there are no classes, there will be a bunch of farewell parties, followed by new year parties a few weeks afterwards, and other stuff. Good times!
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The whole student body filed into the gym today to rehearse tomorrow’s graduation. The students practiced singing the Japanese version of “Auld Lang Syne” along with the band several times before being aloud to sit down and enjoy a final powerpoint from the Senior class. Full of pictures from the sports matches, school festivals, and school trips, students laughed at silly pictures of their friends and teachers. Some students are going on to universities, both in and outside Japan, while others are going to technical schools, and the rest are just going off to work. Regardless of where they’re heading, the students get these last few days together to share, reflect, and make final preparations for the next academic year, which starts in April.
It’s interesting that all students must participate in the graduation ceremony, but I suppose this is just yet another part of Japanese culture. It was nice to see the students cheer and laugh at the funny picture of their former ALTs, and though us new ALTs didn’t have a picture, it’s understandable because the senior class, especially the non-international studies ones, hardly got to know us. I look forward to seeing my picture up there in the future, and hope to get some cheers too.
It was a pleasure to work with the graduating class, helping the International Studies students prepare to get into international programs throughout Japan and even abroad too. While some students are still awaiting exam results, I was happy to learn that one of the Taiwanese girls was accepted into a well-known university in Taiwan and looks foward to putting her trilingual talents to use. Another Japanese girl got accepted into a prestigious internationally-focused university in Kyoto and looks forward to studying abroad in America for a year. Although MU is not one of her universities sister schools, I had fun giving her some advice on which universities to study abroad at. Bon voyagem, senior class! I wish you all the best.
For the time being, I need to dig my suit out of my still packed suitcases and prepare for the actual ceremony tomorrow.
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Friday’s Nagano Meeting left Ryan and me only one day to pack for the big move. Moving went well though, and now we have our own little Japanese house in Iida City. Saying goodbye to Takamori town and the convenience of living next door to a department store was a little tough, but our apartment was entirely too small for two people to live comfortably, and it seemed to have a mold problem too. Plus, our apartment was a bit far away and disconnected from everything; living close to downtown will provide a lot more benefits to us.
For now, the house is quite cold, but we got our kotatsu (heated table) and Spring is just around the corner. Once it hits summer though, we wil be praising our house. We’ve got three rooms, two Japanese style ones with brand-spanking new tatami, and one hardwood floor one that’s going to serve as my closet/storage room. Because the former teacher’s cat completely scratched the hell out of the old fusuma (sliding doors) the school installed all new ones, as well as new wallpaper (to hide the gray concrete).
Anyway, I look forward to having some of my family over in July, and hope to see some friends around too.
Filed under: Happenings, Info, JET, Japan commentary, Visas and Job Hunting in Japan, Working in a Japanese High School | Tags: economy, education, japan, world
Rumors have been going around for a while but now it has been decided. The Nagano Board of Education will begin phasing out JET Program High School ALTs (Assistant Language Learners) beginning this year.
Friday I woke up at an unholy hour to traverse the dead-quiet streets of Iida City, remarking that I could hear the train coming from a farther-than-normal distance away because of how freakin’ early it was. And for what? Why all the high school ALTs had a meeting in Nagano City, meaning for us Southern folks, the trip going to and from Nagano was longer than the actual meeting itself. We got to listen to an interesting guest speaker – the first disabled (blind) ALT in the JET Program, who now works as an IT consultant in Japan, received ideas from a local Junior High School English Education expert, as well as share teaching ideas with each other. Before we were dismissed, however, we were told officially about the fate of the JET Program in Nagano.
The Nagano Board of Education has decided that it will phase out the use of JET Program ALTs in ALL of its high schools. These jobs will be given to people from a different (and cheaper) private ALT company, such as Japan Interac. For now, while current JET ALTs won’t loose their job, as soon as a JET leaves his/her position, a non-JET will replace him/her. Junior high school ALTs salaries are paid by the municipal governments as opposed to the prefectural goverment, making the continuance of JETs in Junior high schools up to the disgression of those local areas. While Iida City, where I work, always gets its junior high ALTs from Britain through some small private program, all junior highs in the surrounding area use JETs and this will probably stay the same. This change shows that the economy has been tough on Japan this year, as it has been for everyone, as well as the nature of the JET Program. The bottom line is that JETs are more expensive, and regardless of how great ALTs are or aren’t from one company, if the schools can save their bottom line by switching companies then they will change companies. Not to fret, the JET Program will probably never disappear, but just like anything else of this nature, it will grow and shrink as demand increases and decreases. The program peaked just a few years back and with the introduction of more English lessons at the elementary and junior high level, I wouldn’t be surprised to see more JET positions open up in lower level schools in the future. For now though, if what has happened in Nagano is any reflection of JET at the national level, we may see the JET Program become even more competetive as it is THE BEST PROGRAM FOR ALTS IN JAPAN. Quite simply the JET Program offers the best ALT training, the best support for JETS, and pays the best. All of these ‘bests,’ however, come with a price tag via CLAIR (Council of Local Authorities for International Relations) and the mandatory meetings the Board decides we have add to this total ALT cost too.
What I hope to hear from the local high schools is that they will not be as impressed with the private contract ALTs and begin demanding JETs back in the schools. In a few years time, if the economy picks up again and it is found that JETs are much better suited for the job of ALT, I hope to hear that the Nagano Board of Education reverses its decision and begins phasing out these private company ALTs.
Until August 2010 I have a job, and if it is decided that all High School ALTs must transfer to a new school or quit, by that time I’ll have my masters in TESOL (Teaching English to Students of Other Langauges) Education and can find a job at the university level in Japan if I so choose. As one of our program leaders stated on Friday, being an ALT is not a career. This is temporary job and regardless if we stay 1, 3 or 5 years, we will reach the end and need to move on. For now, it’s best for ALTs to know what they want to do AFTER their program and start making progress towards their goals.
This week has been a busy one, but now I have a moment to say that yes, we had a blast at the Monkey Majik concert. The concert was a lot of fun and it was so awesome to here the guys play live! Here’s a brief recount.
After school, I made my way home to eat a quick dinner and pick up Ryan. We took the next train back into Iida and made our way to the Cultural Hall or Bunka Kaikan (the same place I have orchestra concerts, etc.) We got there just a minute before the doors opened – just enough time to see long lines of fan girl and boys. Unlike orchetra concerts, we were definitely among a hip crowd. Teens and people in their twenties/thirties filled the outside area talking excitedly. Unfortuantely due to a misunderstanding or whatever, I wasn’t able to recieve the good tickets one of my students was suppose to reserve for me, but we had balcony seat tickets that weren’t so bad… Third from the front of the balcony, we would have had an ok view except for the fact that the four ladies in front of us chose to stand up for nearly the whole concert clapping along with the beat. We stood for some songs to see, but other times just sat back and tried to see through them.
Upon filing into the bunka kaikan auditorium, we were greeted by Broadway showtunes. I have no idea who chose to play that music before the concert, but I assure that Ryan was fully annoyed. Unfortuantely for him, I was able to figure out where most of the songs came from and sang along to a few.
At 7 o’clock Monkey Majik came out. The brothers, Maynard and Blaise were accompanied by their Japanese counterparts “DICK” and “tax”. The opened with Ryan and my favorite song, “Change.” Even though the shamisen part was recorded (Yoshida Kyodai, the shamisen group, is famous in their own regard) it was so awesome to hear that song live. They sung “Sora wa Maru de” as part of a pre-planned encore, and played a ton of other songs. Ryan was tapping his foot and nodding along with the music the whole time, thoroughly enjoying himself. I hope we can go to another one of their concerts next year.
During the concert, Ryan and I kept looking around for other foreigners, hoping to find some other Monkey Majik fans, however, I seriously think that we were the only Westerners there. It wasn’t until that moment and when watching them entertain the crowd speaking Japanese, that I fully understood the term “gaitare.” Gaitare is a combination of the words Gaikokujin (foreigner) and Tarento (talent). These foreigners are people or bands who are famous in a certain country, but unknown anywhere else in the world, including their country of origin. The most famous example of a gaitare is Dashan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dashan. This man is the most famous foreigner in China whom every Chinese person knows, but whenever he returns to Canada he’s just another guy. Watching Monkey Majik made me really think about gaitare.
1. Because Monkey Majik is gaitare, their main audience is Japanese people and whenever they sing in English, not many people in their audience can understand them. This gives them a lot of freedom, I think, for they can make songs about whatever they like. Whether in Japanese, English, or a combination of the two, most of their songs deal with love, relationships, internationalism, cultural understanding, and other positive things. They are also quite talented musicians on top of this, making their songs very enjoyable and inspiring to listen to. Sometimes I wonder if a lot of American artists aren’t pressured by music companies or fans to make dirty songs with too many swear words – to keep pushing the limit with every new song they made. Regardless if this is true or not, I gave up listening to American music on the radio because it’s negativity. When I listen to Monkey Majik, it makes me feel better, and sometimes even inspires me to study Japanese. If these two can come to Japan as foreigners and learn the language, maybe I can too.
2. Freedom. It must be nice to be able to take a break from being a star once in a while and relax. If you’re a gaitare, you can simple go home for the holidays and probably not need any security.
3. Lonliness. I think it’s sad that no one from the gaitare’s country of origin knows about them. During the concert, they asked where people were from and asked if anyone was from Canada. I shouted that we’re from America (at the wrong time) so I don’t know if they heard that or what. Just as we came, I sure Canadians come once in a while to their bigger concerts, but seeing their own countrymen in Japan at their concerts probably doesn’t happen too often.
Another note about Monkey Majik; I realize now what a niche audience they have as regards to being a Japanese band. Some Japanese bands are really popular among Americans and people from other countries who are into video games from Japan, Japanese anime, Japanese comic books, etc. They like Japanese music for it’s “foreign-ness” and “Japanese-ness” and will buy Japanese CDs even though they don’t understand what the musician is singing about (though they can look up the translation if they want.) Now, some companies such as Tofu Records imports Japanese music and sells it within America. Monkey Majik would never be popular among this crowd because they are not foreign enough, not Japanese enough. If the band was all Japanese but sung all in English they might still be popular amoung this population, however, a band with some foriengers in it probably would not be. I’m going to guess that the only non-Japanese people who like Monkey Majik are foreigners who are living in Japan, or who are studying Japanese. I would like to be proven wrong though.
For a while I felt as though I should’ve said something at the right moment, or tried to say “thank you for coming to Iida, we love your music,” etc. but we didn’t get a chance and ended up leaving with the crowd. Regardless if they like hearing from other foreigners or not, they’re main purpose is to play to a Japanese audience, which they did well.
Another note, after the concert we hung around the enterance way for a while and I met up with a few Fuetsu international studies students who went. Ryan said that some people stared at us as we were leaving and thought it was cool. He’s still new to Japan and likes the attention. I think it’s completely ridicious that people who have been staring at foreigners paying in a band for two hours, who have been laughing and clapping along with the music will stare at the foreigners who came as part of the audience. You listened to Monkey Majik speak in Japanese and English, if you’re going to stare why not come over here and say “hi” to us? You know some English phrases, I heard you shout them to Monkey Majik… Sigh, I hope Maynard and Blaise aren’t just performing monkeys on stage to them. They are too talented for that.
Anyway, to end on a good note let me say that we both really had a good time at the Monkey Majik concert. If you’re interested in their music, I hope you’ll check them out on Youtube or read their brief Wikipedia English article. As for me, it looks like I still have some work to do as far as internationalizing Iida goes. Yosh! Let’s get started.
