What I've learned about Japan

Since coming to Japan I have learned many things.  I wish to share a few with you...

1. Elevator doors WILL close on you. 

Decide quickly and make sure you in fully!

2.  Maybe is not a suggestion.

"Maybe you should use the other door." --apparently there is a teacher's entrance

"He offered you orange juice??" --I should have said yes the first time and you can bet I corrected myself real quick! "Umm, yes-I'd love some!"

3.  EVERYTHING can be settled with a janken match

4.

Every room has a slight step up/down, just large enough to thoroughly embarrass you as you proceed to the next room.

 5.

Japanese is tough so see-through bags are what I naturally gravitate to.  This day was sad realization that even clear bags can let you down.  What I thought was water chestnuts were some sour pearl onions.

6.

Students are allowed to do some crazy, crazy things between class.

 7.

Cool experiments.  Couldn't read the Japanese, but from the pictures I think they dissected the eye and used it to magnify the newspaper.

 8.

Students are given TONS of responsibility and they rise to the challenge.  (Cultural festival: each class of students conducted, piano-ed, and sang for their parents)

9.

When in doubt, throw up a peace sign

10.

Foreigners can get away with a lot.  and its deemed "cool"
<3 the photo bomber

  

Animal Shelter

After the earthquake in March 2011, many animals were abandoned.  Susan saw stray dogs and decided to take action.  She created and animal shelter for animal shelter for dogs in the surrounding region.  They now board 110 dogs and some cats.  Although the shelter is not listed, more dogs/cats are dropped off over night.  This is not good because Susan and her team do not know the background of these strays (sick, dangerous).  Susan's team is committed to walking all the dogs at least once a day.  Volunteers come (heard by word of mouth) to help.  When volunteers are scarce, Susan's team have had to walk until 8PM.  It's remarkable how much is sacrificed to help these stray animals.

Washing bowls and hands at the animal shelter

One of these adorable puppies was adopted and taken to Hiroshima the day we arrived.  The owner of the shelter visits every adopting family to insure that the dog's new life will be better than their current condition at the shelter.

There were 110 dogs at the animal shelter.  Each dog gets walked daily.  Some dogs can be walked with others, while some are "no touch" dogs.  This means that they can be walked, but you cannot touch/pet them.  One person we met at the Volunteer's Apartment was recovering from an attack from a "no touch" dog.  Most were dogs friendly, but I didn't chance petting them while unsupervised.

Walking these dogs through the Japanese countryside was a delight.  

 Volunteers at the animal shelter can stay at this apartment for free.  There were two volunteers already at the apartment when we arrived.  Volunteers can stay for any duration they choose.

We made curry and salad for dinner.  There was limited space we took advantage of the floor space.

Since we were sharing the apartment we all squished into one room and had a giant slumber party.  We played card cranium and told scary stories.  It was a great way to bond and make friends.

We had to head home a little early due to a typhoon warning.  We took two trains and a bus to get to the animal shelter and we didn't want to get stuck in Tokushima (sometimes the bridge closes). We took the longest suspension bridge (Awaji bridge) to get to Tokushima.  We also crossed over waters that had whirlpools! It was a beautiful commute and a wonderful weekend.

Introduction Lesson

Gave my first lesson on Monday!  I had been preparing my power point presentation the entire week before so I was excited to share it with the students.  As I rehearsed in front of my friend, the battery to my laptop died so I quickly ran upstairs to retrieve the charger.  After restarting the computer my power point could not be found.  I took my computer upstairs to connect to the network.  Class would start soon and the English teacher that I am assisting requested a few minutes at the beginning of class for a quiz.  Relieved, I granted her request and rushed to find my presentation.  Sure enough, it didn't open and I was beginning to panic.  Plan B...Restart the computer while connected to the network and PRAY! Thank the Lord it came up and I ran back to the library to set up for the kids.  They class walked in as the power point projected on the screen. Phew... Praise God!

School lunch. (not pictured: miso soup)

A Solemn Day

The day began wonderfully!  Woke up to an e-mail from Jamie, skyped with my parents and Nate, then rushed off to meet my fellow JETS at the train station.  There were a few people running late so I had time to go to the local bakery to pick up a pastry and ice coffee.  It was delicious!  Then we got off the train to trade lines.  There was a ten minute delay which apparently is a fairly common occurrence.  The veteran JETs immediately knew what happened--there had been a jumper.  Someone jumped in front of the train, causing the delay.  It was explained to me that because jumpers are prevalent in Japan, train stations lose a lot of money due to the delays and therefore sue the family of the jumper.  This deters jumpers, but the JR line is known for not suing the families for as much money so jumpers are more prevalent on that track.  We took a detour and continued on with our day as if nothing had happened.   

Next we arrived at the earthquake museum.  There had been a big (6.3M?) earthquake in 1995, killing thousands (5k?) and injuring much more (20k?) in Kobe.  Although the earthquake only lasted 11 seconds, it did considerable damage.  The structure of the buildings at the time were not prepared for earthquakes.   We watched a movie which simulated the earthquake.  Kobe is a densely populated city with several layers of  stores, transportation, apartments, etc.  The earthquake caused these structures to collapse.  It was somber walk through the museum. It was strange to see what the city looked like 17 years ago.  It is now very prosperous, like the earthquake never happened.

As we went to and from the museum there were cops loitering around our bus.  I didn’t notice them until a friend mentioned it later.  There apparently was a anti-foreigners rally and the police were with us as a precautionary measure.  I never saw these protestors, but other JETS witnessed them on our walk around town.  

Crazy day.

Please pray for the Japanese.  I’m still processing the jumper and the lack of reactions from the other JETS.  Are jumpers really that common that I will be desensitized too?

Hosted my first dinner party last night!

Waiting for okonomiaki to finish cooking for lunch today.

Getting Settled in Kobe

Costco in Kobe!

Made a quick run to Costco to eat pizza!  While I was there I picked up frozen berries to make smoothies.  Best decision in this heat.  As I lugged my giant bag of strawberries (not a smoothie w.o. strawbs;) and mixed berries we talked about Costco’s bulk items.  We talked about portion sizes in America and one friend teased that the only thing America doesn’t dish out in large quantities is humility.  I’m still laughing at that comment.  It’s so entertaining to be in the company of foreigners and hear their perspective on America.   

Ice sculpture in the mall @Sannomia

Got an iPhone! 

We all arrived (14 of us) at Soft Bank to purchase our iPhones at 12:30.  Four hours later we left with our iPhones.  Most of us hadn’t eaten lunch so we were all eager to eat dinner.  A lot of us opted for the buffet knowing we’d get our money’s worth. 

YAKINIKU!!!

Grilling the veggies and meat

Church in Kobe

Woke up this fine Sunday morning and set out to find a church.  My friend Nikesha joined me in this adventure. Fortunately I signed up with JET Christian fellowship and they gave me a few ideas.  I had the deets and we left to arrive at the church at 9:30.  Upon arrival I learned that the other recommended church for Kobe JETs began at 9:30 and this one began at 10:30.  Oops! I treated Nikesha to coffee to burn an hour and we went back to learn the message was all in Japanese. Strike two!  A lady was kind enough to translate the entire message for us and did a phenomenal job. We sang worship half in English, half in Japanese (projected on a screen in Romaji).  It was beautiful hearing God worshiped in two languages and on the other side of the globe.  He’s at work all over the world!

Once I got home I went to work cleaning for a quick tour of my apartment...

I still need to add some decoration, but Pinterest is difficult to access from an iPhone.  I get quite a headache trying to operate that thing. 

A lesson in diligence

I arrived safely in Kobe on Wednesday afternoon.  We were taken to our apartment after signing our contracts at the KEC (forgot what the abbrevs mean, but essentially "headquarters").  My OTE (Official Teacher of English) took me in a taxi to my apartment and helped me get set up.  A gas man came and explained a few things and my OTE (name already forgotten) showed me what each switch could do.  My predecessor left me a lot of wonderful things in my apartment, including a bed.  It had a fitted sheet, but I still needed to get some sheets/towels for before I went to bed.  There were some boxes in the closet and a huge soft package in my room, but I didn't have time to check what was inside because I needed to go the grocery while I still had my OTE to help.  Also, I had to be back for a new JET dinner, time TBA-they'd stop by and get me.  My OTE and I rushed off to the Square and I got a pillow case, GIANT thin towel (serves as a sheet because in Japan they have none), bath mat with a "cute" head attached to look like some sort of animal (I keep tripping over it so it may soon be decapitated) and few other miscellaneous items.  Said goodbye to my OTE and ran home to be greeted by a JET who took me to dinner.
In the morning I decided to put things away.  I unloaded all my clothes on my bed and started to organize my clothes in my closet.  While I was shopping with my OTE and she was explaining how Japanese beds have no sheets, she told me that in winter they put this big futon-like mat/blanket over themselves to stay warm.  the giant soft package that was sitting unopened on my floor, I assumed to be  the foretold winter blanket.  Knowing I wouldn't need any blankets for months, I decided to store it on the top shelf of my closet.  Naturally, gravity won the battle and it came toppling down with me easing its fall.  Frustrated, I opened up the dumb package to see if it could be separated in some way.  There, in the package, lay my futon, pillow case, pillow, two sheets and comforter.  WOWOWOWOW!

Burnables, Plastics, Containers, Non-burnables-OH MY!

The Japanese are serious about their garbage!  Forgetting the many forms of disposal, I threw all of my trash into the white trash bin (left).  It wasn't until later that I received the instructions for the four different ways the Japanese throw away their trash.  The majority of my items conveniently went to burnables.  The sink is a mess too.  Since there aren't garbage disposals in the sink, they put a net down the drain to catch all the debris.  It was always my least favorite job to check if a spoon/giant seed had somehow gone down the garbage disposal, now I have to take pull out an entire bag of rotting produce.  Compost anyone??

Sayonara Tokyo, Ohayou Kobe!

 We finished Tokyo orientation and I am headed off to Kobe to meet the junior high school English teacher, my supervisor and my apartment! I’m so excited to see what my apartment looks like in person.  My expectations based on what I’ve been told is that it is on the eight floor (hopefully that means no bugs!), I have no neighbors (kinda sad about this fact) and is quite large.  My predecessor was kind enough to sell me most of her things so I expect I only need to buy an AC, linens and food.  Fortunately, someone will assist me in purchasing items once I arrive in Kobe.

Interesting observations in Tokyo:

These toy/sticker dispensers I never notice in America seem to be popular in Japan.  There is large variety or items that can collect quite a crowd!

Vending machine meals.  Pick out what you’d like to eat and pay at the vending machine.  A ticket will drop down like a soda and you pick up your order inside. It is very similar to MTO Sheetz ( <3 Main St.), but you can not alter the meal combinations.

Lily and I fell victim to the convenient store dinner choices.  Never would I select my meals from this location in America, however the selections in the Japanese convenient stores are much better! (I won't make a habit of this mom ;)  We purchased sushi and my favorite drink-milk tea and set off to find a place to eat.  I guess if you are picking up “to-go” you generally have a place to go eat it so our search for a bench was in vain and we ended up eating at the hotel. womp

Japanese maximize their space.  Note the white line, which signifies the curb.  The baskets are to the left and stretching on either side are tons of items for sale.

I still haven’t gotten to meet up with HSD friend in Tokyo, but I plan on returning to Tokyo  once I am settled into my Kobe apartment.  I should be without internet for about 3-6 weeks.  

WE MADE IT!!  

There are roughly 50  other JET participants who took flight from Reagan with me.

Touched down in Narita, Japan after a four hour layover in Chicago.  I was fortunate to get an aisle seat during the 12 hour journey, yet still managed to get sore knees and little sleep. Once we landed I rushed to the bathroom only to be welcomed by an Eastern style toilet.  I decided to wait for a Western toilet; I didn’t have the energy to be reintroduced to the Eastern style just yet.  

We rode a train to baggage claim and there was more people than there was space.  This didn’t seem to matter as the Japanese continued to push their way into the train car.  I made the mistake of not facing the entrance door so I was literally pushed to my toes and I was “standing” at roughly a 50 degree angle.  There were two shorter suitcases in front of me, which prevented me from going forward yet allowed for the unfortunate lean. The stance reminded me of the fishing scene from Little Rascals and I couldn’t stop laughing at my ridiculous state.

From the airport we rode a bus to Tokyo.  Everything went smoothly and we were in our rooms after five minutes of arriving at the hotel.  I roomed with two other girls, one of which was my bff from the trip.  My roommates and I went out to dinner at a cute underground gyoza restaurant.  We each ordered plum wine to celebrate our arrival in Japan.  It is still so unreal to be here.