On Saturday night Katie, Pam, Tom, Kristine, Marsha and I decided to go out for dinner and drinks. Katie, Pam and I left from their place via bicycle to meet up with the others at Iseshi station. On the ride Katie turns to me and sarcastically says, "check it out, my bike shakes like there are bumps even when there are no bumps...sweet." We're pretty much at the station, but I switch her bikes to make sure that she doesn't hurt herself and to try to figure out what the problem is. By the time we get to the station I have it figured out. The front tire is flat. Awesome. AND it's totally my fault. I was supposed to fill the tire for Katie and Pam, but I had forgotten about it...and now I had to fix it.
While we were waiting around for the rest of the group to arrive Pam asked a cabby where the closest place with an air pump was. He gave her directions to a bike shop a few blocks away, but warned her that it was going to close very soon. Pam relayed the directions to me and I headed off while the rest of the group went to the restaurant to make a reservation. Let me just pause for a second to tell you something about taking directions in Japan. You can never be sure if you're following the directions properly, if you even remember all of them...correctly. It turns out that I was going the right way, but I was thrown off by the fact that one of the directions was "turn right at the barber shop and go down the small street." Problem number one. There are three barber shops on the street that I'm on. Problem number two. The Japanese are very liberal with using the words "street" and "road." I was staring down what looked like an ALLEY at best. But it was close to a barber shop, so I figured I would give it a try. I head down the alley a little way and reach a crossroad. I stop and survey my surroundings while I try to figure out what to do next. Picture this, you're standing in an alley, there are small entrance ways here and there. They look as though they lead to apartments, but it's slightly hard to believe because you're standing in an alley. As I marvel, a guy who is about my age comes along on his bike. I stop him to try to ask for directions to the bike shop. "Sumimasen (excuse me)...uhhhhh...can you tell me where to find...uhhhh...bike shopo?" (Sometimes you can get lucky asking for things by just tacking a vowel into the english word...it's not a typo). He looks at me blankly and then launches into a Japanese. Now it's my turn to stare blankly. I try to think of all of the Japanese that I know...but the most appropriate phrase that comes to mind is, "Nihon-go wakarimasen" (I don't understand Japanese). He nods. Then we both stand there, looking at each other shiftily trying to figure out how we are going to bridge the communication gap. Silence. It's an interesting silence though. He can see that I need his help and I can see that he wants to help, but both of us are in the same akward situation...we use different noises to signify what we mean when we communicate with other people...his sounds are different from mine and mine are different from his. That is the impediment that we're both standing in an alley trying to confront. Both of us are perfectly able to communicate...just not with each other. After a solid 20 seconds of silence I lean down and squeeze the tire and smile. He sees me do this and he understands. My tire is flat and I need a pump. Here's the funny part. He looks up at a sign and then looks at the garage door we were standing in front of. I look up to see what he was looking at and I see a picture of a bike on the sign. We were standing in front of the shop...I HAD followed the directions. Incredible. However, the shop was closed so I was out of luck...or so I thought. The guy walks up to the garage and tries to open it. I stand there wondering if he is affiliated with the bike shop in any way...but he gives up after he discovers that the door is locked and I conclude that he isn't. He turns to me and says something in Japanese. I sit there wishing that I had learned the Japanese equivalent to, "nevermind...but thanks for your help anyways." As I try to figure out how I'm going to tell him that I'll just walk the bike home, he walks by me and knocks on a door. No answer. Then he calls into an open window, "konbanwa...." (good evening). A million questions flow through my head. Is this his neighborhood? Does he know these people? Is someone really going this far out of their way to help me with a flat bike tire?
After he gets no answer he turns back to me. Again we stand the quietly. What to do? I'm standing there thinking, "this guy has gone above and beyond what I would expect from someone...I'll just fix the tire some other time and let him go on his way...I feel bad that I've taken up this much of his time." At this point, another guy comes walking down the alley. He's about 50 and he's rocking out to his ipod while he takes an evening walk. The young guy approaches him and explains what that I need a bike pump. He looks at me and smiles. He then motions for me to follow him. The three of us walk a short way to another bike shop. It closed, but there's a woman inside so the older guy knocks on the window and asks to borrow a pump. She won't open the door and she turns the light off. I don't really blame her. I mean there are three guys knocking on her window during the night to borrow a bike pump...not a common occurence. The older guy and the younger guy have a brief conversation in Japanese...periodically glancing at me and then the older guy says, "please come" and begins waking again. I'm bewildered. He speaks english? How far are they going to go to pump my tire?? While we walk the older guy says to me, "where...from?" I reply, "Toronto...Ca-na-da." He smiles and says, "ahhhh...sooo sooo...Ka-na-da." It might not seem like much of a conversation...but for him and I that was a great little conversation. After about 5 minutes of walking we stop in front of a small house. The older guy disappears inside and returns with a bike pump...he brought me to his HOME to fill my tire. We fill the tire and he sends me on my way with the younger guy. Despite the language barrier, I try my best to convey my sincere gratitude. The young guy leads me back to the road that I came from and I head back to the train station to see if I can find everyone again.
When I arrive at Iseshi, I spot everyone standing in front of a restaurant across the street. Shortly after I arrive we get a table and step inside. Everyone is starving. Pam graciously translates the menu for us and we all order. When our food arrives, I begin to wonder if we have ordered off of the appetizer menu...and that's not the first time that thought has crossed my mind. The portions in Japan are very small, so you usually order two or three dishes. Have a look at Katie's bacon wrapped asparagus and the daikon (Japanese radish) served with full fish head.
Katie and the plentiful bacon asparagus.
Fish head and daikon
Due to the tragic extinction of spoons in Japan, you can now slurp soup from your bowl...but no one told me that you weren't supposed to slurp out of common serving bowls.
The street the restuarant was on.
After dinner Pam decided to go home and Tom invited the rest of us to go to a techno club with some girl that he had randomly met. We all piled into her car and headed about 20 minutes out of town towards sprawling fields of rice. After staring out the window at utter darkness, we came upon an underpass. It seemed very out of place since we were in the middle of nowhere. However, the pumping techno music that was eminating from a small house-like building just past the underpass seemed disproportionately more out of place. Welcome to Club Rhythm. Check out the slogan on the sign.
I have no idea WHY that is the slogan...but nonsensical english phrases are one of the most endearing parts of Japan. Some of the english that you come across is innocently terrible and simultaneously hilarious. I bought a tee-shirt for 500 yen ($5) that says: Ramp Ladder Butter R98938453 Grass without root
And on the back it reads: We are not permitted Forget the promise
It's absolutely the most rediculous shirt I own, but I couldn't resist. Anyhow, we pay our 2,000 yen ($20) for cover and head inside the club for our first taste of Japanese club life. We step inside and the music is pumping. There are a few Japanese guys swaying back and forth to the music, but they woul fit in really well as extras in "The Night of the Living Dead." We each grab a drink...because we had to...check out the policy. I was kind of afraid that the dancing guys WERE zombies and that they would eat our brains if we didn't obey the golden rule of Rhythm.
After we get our drinks, Tom's friend Chahiro leaves the club and doesn't come back until 5 am. Kristine, Marsha, Katie and I had taken a cab home...but Tom had to wait for her because he left a bag of belongings in her car. With drinks in hand we head to the dance floor to confront and possibly dance fight with the zombies. EVERYBODY is staring as we walk to the front. We're the only foreigners in the place. We get to the front of the room and all of us begin to bust it out. I don't dance much...but in this country I always look like an idiot, so I figured dancing couldn't hurt. The zombies stop dancing and everyone watches as we fail ourselves around the room in to the steady beat of the techno. Welcome to the gaijin circus. We danced for quite some time and then Katie, Kristine, Marsha and I decided that it was time for us to leave. On the way out one of the guys who was collecting money at the door points to his shirt and say, "what mean?" His shirt read, "Got Weed?" Hahahaha...how do I explain this to a person who doesn't speak English? I tried my best to explain it to him...but somehow I think don't think he really understood. No harm done though...most likely nobody else understands his shirt either.
Check out the videos from the club on youtube. Here are some pics from inside the club:
Where were we? Ah, yes...one day down...one year to go. Day two in Toba simultaneously incited hope and dispair. I was told to take the morning off because my supervisor figured that I would still be jet-lagged and that I'd want to sleep in a little bit. Ha! Not me...the morning off means taking a mountain biking tour of my area! Equipped with a set of directions from my predecessor, I set out to find Katie's place in Ise. I should probably mention that:
a) I had directions to Katie's apartment BUILDING...but not the actual apartment number...and I had no way of contacting her b) Japanese directions are quite...omnious. Since there are no street names, Japanese directions take the following format: "You’ll pass thru a little town and after that u’ll see a sign pointing right. I think it says kazuki or something like that but I could be well off. There is no light at this sign. U’ll know it’s the right turn off cus there’ll be a big wide open space of rice paddies in front of u on ur right, a hedge or something along the road on ur left and u’ll see the highway to your right and maybe jusco in front of u in the distance."
I got lost. It might be because I can't read signs in Japanese, or it might be because I was completely absorbed in the lucious scenery. Either way, I'm biking through the mountains, taking it on faith that I might stumble across one of the landmarks from the directions. I tried to ask for directions, but I don't speak Japanese...and people here don't speak English. It's a good thing have an affinity for wandering around aimlessly. After two hours of riding, I finally stumbled across one of the landmarks mentioned in the directions and FOUND Katie's apartment complex. A small miracle. Now to find her actual apartment...come on logic don't fail me now. I stood at the back of the apartment and looked at all of the balconies. If it had plants on it, laundry hanging on a rack, or any other sign of prolonged inhabitance, it wasn't Katie's. This lowered it down to four apartments. Time for my first game of nicky-nicky-nine-doors in Japan. Sweet. After knocking on all of the candidate doors without receiving an answer I checked my watch to discover that I only had an hour and a half to get home, shower and take the 20 minute walk to school to meet my supervisor. Another miracle was in order, but this time I knew the way and thus wasn't aimlessly wandering. I booked it home as fast as I could...but I did get lost again. Upon finding my place I hopped into the world's coldest shower and made a valiant attempt to make myself presentable for my meeting with my supervisor. I had been out of the shower for about 10 minutes when I realized that I was still sweating, HEAVILY. Not good. I grabbed an extra shirt and threw a golf shirt into my bag and quickly walked to school.
When I arrived at school I had completely sweated through my first shirt. Attractive. Additionally, I was POURING sweat. My hair looked like I had just walked out of the shower without drying it. I walked into the teacher's lounge and everyone stares. Nice...way to make a great second impression Chris. My supervisor takes one look at me and says, "Janca-san, why are you always sweating?" I hear snickers from the other teachers. I try to explain that I went for a bike ride and then came to school very quickly, but she looks at me as though I'm some sort of mutant...my superpower is profuse sweating leading to severe dehydration.
My supervisor (Kae) and I leave the school to run a few errands around town. As she grabbed her car, I switched into my fresh shirt. Five minutes later it was soaked. Mmmmmm. Our first stop was Toba city hall to get me registered as an alien. Ha! I feel like one, why not register as one?! When we arrived at city hall, Kae walked me through the registry form. I tried my best to follow her directions, but at this point the stifling heat and dehydration were beginning to take a toll on me. I was spacing out when Kae informed me that we had to go to a photo shop down the street to have my picture taken for the application. We cruised down to the photo shop and I'm still pouring sweat. At the photo shop a nice young woman took the worst picture of me that I've ever seen. Half smile, hair soaked, sweat covered face. Hot. While she was printing the photos the heat finally got the best of me. My stomach turned sharply, stars flashed in front of my eyes and I needed to have a seat. Kae quickly got me a water and I sat for a while in the photo shop doing my best not to vomit. Japan: 1 Chris: 0. When I felt well enough, we proceeded back to city hall and finished the application. I still wasn't doing well when we hit the bank, so Kae took me home immediately after we left. Did I mention that my welcome party was scheduled for that night? Well it was. Greeeeat. I stumbled into my apartment on the pretense that I would call Kae if I couldn't make it to the welcome party. As I was guzzling water to rehydrate, my phone started ringing. Weird...who knows my phone number?? It was Katie, she got my number from a JET who knew my predecessor and therefore had his number. She informed me that there was a party for Ise-shima JETs on Friday and a beach party on Saturday. So it was settled. If I wanted to go out on the weekend I would HAVE to make it to my welcome party. Otherwise it would be rescheduled for either Friday or Saturday and I would have to miss one of the parties. I got off the phone with Katie, hopped into bed for a bit of a sleep and vowed that if I made it through the night, I would take it easy in the coming days and be more attentive to the fact that I can't live like I did in North America.
Upon waking I felt MUCH better. Maybe not "eating large quantities of raw fish" better...but better nonetheless. Kae picked me up and we headed out with the other English teachers for a night on the town. Our first stop was a sushi restaurant. By the time we had been seated (on the floor...for those of you who were wondering) my stomach felt much better and I was ready to sushi. They ordered LOADS of food and kept on making me eat strange things. "Janca-san, try this. Do you like it".....(chewing)....(chewing)..."Yep, that's pretty good." After a while, I think they got the point. I'll eat anything. I have a universal stomach. I'll come to your home country and eat the domestic foods that YOU won't even eat. Brains, raw stuff, strange stuff, organs...bring it on. They seemed to like my consumption ethic.
After the sushi place, we went to another restaurant for Japanese pizza. This stuff is great. You order one, two or three meats (in our case, Okuyama sensei ordered squid and pork) and then a few minutes later they bring you a bowl that's filled with cabbage, water, egg and flour and topped with your meat choice. You're sitting on the floor in front of a table with a grill on it. You take the meat off the top and toss it on the grill. Next, you thoroughly stir the cabbage, egg, flour and water and pour about half of the mix onto the grill in a pancake shape. After the mix is cooked enough that it will hold together when flipped, you top the patty with your meats, pour the rest of the batter on top of the meats and then flip the whole thing to cook the other side. After both sides are thoroughly cooked you have a patty that is about two inches thick. You top it with pizza sauce (barbecue sauce), fish flakes and mayonaise. It might not sound great...but it is!! After we finished our pizzas, I felt as though I had connected a little bit more with the teachers. They're all really great and really patient people. It made me feel more at ease with my new living situation. We left the pizza place and headed to our respective homes. I was facing six consecutive days off...time to live it up!
Day Three: As previously mentioned, I had a JET party on Friday night. I spent most of the day sleeping, as per my promise to take it easy. After sleeping I spent most of the day bumming around my apartment indulging utter randomness. At about 5:30 I headed towards the local train station which I had scouted out earlier in the day. It was well hidden. I found it by following train tracks. I'm a genius in disguise...in case you were unaware. My first attempt at buying a train ticket was...interesting. In Japan you buy train tickets from...well basically a vending machine. I hadn't a clue where to begin, so I asked the train attendant. Of course, he had only a slight clue what I was talking about because I speak English and he spoke Japanese. Nevertheless, by stressing the name of the station that I wanted to end up at, he pointed to the buttons that I needed to press and after a few beeps and clanks I had bought my first train ticket. Awesome. After an absolutely beautiful 25 minute ride I arrived at Ujiyamada station where I was to meet Katie and her new friend Pamela. However, before I met up with the girls I bumped into a group of three white guys...gaijin (foreigners). In Japan, you can spot a gaijin from a mile away. You see, Japan is 99% Japanese, so it's rare to see someone who doesn't look Asian. I walk up to the guys and ask if they're there for the JET party. Of course they are...what else would three white guys be doing hanging out at Ujiyamada station?? We introduce ourselves, chit-chat for a bit and then hop into a car in order to find the other JETs who we are supposed to be meeting up with. After a short time we find them and get sketchy directions to a restaurant in the area. After turning around about 15 times we run into the people who gave us the directions...they're lost too. Ha! They call someone who knows where the restaurant is and we're back in business. We get to the restaurant and everyone slowly trickles in. After introductions and a few drinks everyone begins to gel. It's only been one day since I had a full fledged English conversation...but let me tell you, it was GREAT! You don't realise how vital communication is until you lose conversational ability...perhaps that's why telecom is such big business. After we finish our drinks and random seafood apatizers we decide to head to a kareoke bar. I went via cab with a few fellow JETs, so we arrived quite a bit earlier than the folks who were biking. In our spare time we hit up a beer vending machine and purchased the biggest cans of beer that I've ever seen! Check out these pics:
We promptly headed back to the kareoke club with beers in hand. The club looked like a car rental shop. The people were even wearing uniforms that said car rental...maybe they did in fact rent cars and provide kareoke services. I have no idea...but it seemed right at the time. As we approached the door I'm thinking, “what do I do with my beer?” We're going into a bar, right? You can't possibly bring your own booze into a bar!?!? Wrong. It's pretty much self serve. You and your friends walk in with your own booze, food, etc, get a room and each toss in about 400 yen ($4.00) to sit around and sing kareoke. Craziness.
That night I crashed at Katie's place in Ise because we were heading to the beach in the morning and the girl who lives above her was our ride. Plus, I wanted to see what her apartment was like and to witness for myself the cockroach infestation that was making her apartment uninhabitable. It didn't seem so bad that night...but I would soon find out just how bad the infestation was.
Day Four: The next morning we head for the beach at about 10:00 am. It was about a 45 minute drive through a national park. It was, once again, gorgeous. After getting lost....AGAIN, we arrived in a place called Chuo (“Ko”) and began searching for the other JETs. We have to walk to the other end of the beach to find them, but after we do it's a lazy day at the beach consisting of lounging and mingling. Here's a few pics:
This is a dead sea turtle...I was supposed to be riding it...but it was rotten, so I couldn't get too close.
After the beach, Katie's friend Pamela decides that we should all go out for an onsen (public bath/hot tub) and then dinner. I think everyone was a bit iffy about the onsen because a) we were all tired, hungry and sunburned and b) we had all met mere hours ago...and now we were going to be naked in a tub together (note: there are separate rooms for males and females). After a while of convincing Pam got us to the onsen...and I think we were all glad that she did. The group consisted of Katie, Pam, Christine, Marsha, Nobiko, Taylor and I. As you can tell, there are only two guys...akward...but then again, I've never been shy about being naked. We head to our respective rooms, rinse off and jump into the onsen. Taylor and I decide to use the outdoor onsen. It was great, you're basically sitting naked in a hot tub just off the beach, on a third floor balcony watching the tide come in. Completely and utterly relaxing.
After about 45 minutes in the onsen we all met in the lobby and headed to dinner quite refreshed. I convinced the group to head back to the okonomiage (Japanese pizza) place that my co-workers had taken me for my work party. Good times. After dinner we headed back to Ise to hang out for a while longer. Here's where I found out how bad the cockroach infestation was.
After everyone had called it a night, Katie and I were standing in her living room...she looks at me horrified and points to the wall and says, “What's that?!?!” I turn around...COCKROACH...it's big...probably a couple on inches in length. Katie runs into the washroom and says to me, “tell me when it's over.” Now, I've always been a sort of pacifist...I don't really like to kill anything, but obviously this roach had to go. I rolled up a newspaper...thought to myself, “I hope that aliens don't look at me like I'm a pest and swat me to death.” I know, kind of random. I look at the thing really close...it stays deathly still as I eye it. It knows what's coming. I think, “just hit it quick and hard...make it painless” and then I swing. I hit it...but it's only stunned. It scurries away into Katie's closet, I think “she is gonna FREAK out if I don't find this thing.” So I begin hunting it. All feelings of sympathy have vanished. IT'S ON NOW!! I hear scuffling and it runs out of the closet...I lean in an smack it again. STILL the thing is moving. I've broken some of it's legs on one side of it's body...but it's still moving at a pretty good pace. I quickly overtake it, wind up, and wail it. This time it splatters all over the wall. Mission accomplished. I clean it up and let Katie out of the washroom. I realize that I definately need to take action if she's going to live comfortably in this apartment.
The next day Katie and Pam head to work and I begin preparing for war. Rule number one of war: know your enemy. Cockroaches have existed, unchanged for about 150 million years. Why? Because they can lay up to a million eggs in a year and THEY NEVER DIE. Cockroaches are capable of living for a month without food and remaining alive headless for up to a week. A cockroach can also hold its breath for 45 minutes and has the ability to slow down its heart rate. It's speculated that these things will survive nuclear war, should it ever happen. I guess that removes nuclear warfare from my list of termination strategies.
Cockroach Weaknesses: 1)Cockroaches can't go more than a day without water 2)Cockroaches can be squished by hard, blunt objects 3)The natural enemy of the cockroach just happens to be...Christopher Janca: Cockroach Commando.
I spent the better part of the day containing all sources of water, sealing any open cracks, and pulverizing any of the unfortunate roaches that crossed my path. By the end of the day I had become so hardened by war that I was crushing roaches between my fingers when I saw them. The day was mine...but the war is still raging on...the roaches refuse to vacate...but the Cockroach-apocalypse is near...Katie's school has ordered a company to come in and fumegate...but it's summer vacation...so it's going to take a while. Have a look at a spider that I found it Katie's apartment...it took me a few blows to kill it...because it was big enough to have bones...BONES!
Day Five: I decided to climb a moutain on day five. I had no real strategy. My place is surrounded by mountains, so I just started walking towards one and hoped for the best. I basically ended up wandering around in the woods for about 20 minutes...and then I stumbled upon a trail! Success! After another 20 minutes the trail disappeared. Back to picking my way through thick bushes. Not so much fun...especially when you walk through a spider web find the spider on your FACE. You can't freak out either...if you do, you'll lose your footing and fall down a steep slope for a while. After about 2 hours of slowly winding my way up the side of the mountain, I reached the top...just gorgeous. There was a shrine of some sort at the top. I'm not sure if it was Shinto or Buddhist, but it was very interesting to find at the top of a mountain! I wish that all of you could have seen it with me. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
The following few days were spent hanging out here and there. I spent a couple of days in the capital of Mie prefecture for an orientation and I've spent a few days at the school preparing for my self introduction and lessons for the first week. Katie and I went hiking on a mountain near her place two days ago. It was a blast! We didn't reach the top because we weren't really on a trail...but I think we're gonna give it another try soon.
Yesterday I went to school during the day and then went for a bike ride after school. On the ride I hit up the 100 yen store and the grocery store. Before continuing, I have to say that I LOVE 100 yen stores. I got a belt, bike light, reflector, batteries, laundry detergent, an airfreshener, incense, some food and some other random stuff for 1,300 yen...that's about $13 Canadian. INSANE!
I haven't really grocery shopped since I got here. The Japanese way is to buy a few things here and there when you need them, but I needed SOME food in my fridge so that I could cook dinner and make my lunch for school. In Japan you walk into the store and grab a basket, which you place on a small cart-like thing, that makes your basket into a shopping cart...but it's pretty much a basket on wheels. Let me preface this story by mentioning that I am clearly a foreigner in my town. Everyone stares at me when I walk down the street. Yesterday a midget stared at me...I guess I know how he feels now...no more midget jokes. So yeah, I cruise into the store and everyone is naturally looking at me...but I biked there..so I'm wearing a helmet...and I'm dripping sweat...and I'm a crazy foreigner. It was actually quite funny, because I forgot that I was wearing the helmet, until I bent over to pick up some vegetables and I smoked my head off of a metal pole. The helmet saved me from injury...but it made a loud noise...everyone around me turned to see what had happened... “OH, that's why the crazy foreigner is wearing a helmet...he's an idiot.” I had to hold back laughter...they looked at me as though I was the most absurd thing they had ever seen. THEN, I packed my basket FULL...food was practically falling out of the basket it was so full. At the checkout there's quite a few people waiting to check out. As I roll up, they slowly fall silent and stare...I imagine that they were thinking something along the lines of, “What the hell is this guy doing?!? Is the apocalypse coming? Who wears a helmet to the grocery store and stockpiles food??” I turn slowly to all of them and grin widely. So I'm a freak...sweet.
Today I got the grand tour at school. Up until this point I had simply walked in and gone directly to the staff room. My supervisor, Kae, showed me where I would be teaching, the school gym, the school club rooms, etc. On the tour we end up walking by a building where a few students are fencing. I look hesitantly inside as the two fencers attack one another. As Kae and I watch, a student spots us and invites us inside to watch the match. Upon entering the building, I can see who the fencers are. One is a student that I have never seen before, the other is the fencing instructor that I met on day one...he smiles when I walk in...greeeeaaaat. After the match finishes, he hands me one of the swords (whatever they're called in fencing) and shows me how to hold it. I smile, try my best to follow along and then hand it back to him. They say a few things in Japanese, I smile and then Kae and I excuse ourselves and leave the building. As we walk I say to her, “that looked very interesting, would they allow me to come by and try it out sometime?” She responds, “Oh yes, they very much like it when people come to fence with them. It costs alot of money for the equipment, so not many students want to fence...A few years ago the fencing team was very strong. Our best student was ranked number six in Japan Highschool Tournament. Do you say that?” “Yes, highschool tournament makes sense.” “Ok, yes. But then, the professional teacher was transferred to a different school and I was put in charge of the fencing club. They were not so happy because I don't know about fencing. But he..” she points to the fencing instructor “...is a professional fencer, so the students are happy.” Then she adds as a sidebar...completely devoid of emotion or expression, “But be careful if you do go, it can be dangerous. I brought a team to the highschool tournament and my student's vest was pierced and he died.” WHAT?!? HE DIED?!? She says THAT and then just keeps walking. So yeah, I'm not going ANYWHERE near the fencing club. Maybe I'll stick to English.
Where do I even begin? I left off on my train ride to Toba. As I mentioned, it was a BEAUTIFUL day even though we were supposed to be getting hit by a typhoon. After getting off the train in Tsu (which is the capital of the province that I'm living in) we walked to the Mie Prefectural Board of Education. It was 38 degrees farenheit, so needless to say, the whole group rolled up just DRIPPING sweat. Attractive. At the BOE we were greeted by our supervisors and carted off by car to our respective cities. My supervisor is a very nice woman by the name of Kae. Me, Kae and another co-worker Okuyama passed the hour and half car ride by asking each other introductory questions, but mainly we all sat silently. I didn't know what to say...I don't think they did either. When we arrived in Toba I was informed that we would be going directly to a hotel where the teachers from Toba High were having a meeting. Great, I'm dripping sweat and completely exhausted and I'm going to meet all of my co-workers. We find the room where the meeting is being held and Okuyama knocks on the door, sticks his head in and then ushers me in. I walk in to find a room of middle aged Japanese people silently staring at me. Ehhhhhh...akward. After a few seconds of silence I turn to Okuyama and say out of the corner of my mouth, "what do you want me to do?" He looks kind of concerned and says, "introduce yourself." At that moment I couldn't think of a SINGLE word in Japanese, so I turned to him again and whispered, "in English or Japanese??" He replied, "Japanese is better." I turn back to the group of people who have been silently watching this odd exchange between Okuyama and I and begin, "Konnichiwa gozaimasu, watashi wa Kurisu Janca desu. I am very happy to meet all of you and I am very glad to be teaching at Toba High this year."....Silence falls over the room again. They all continue to stare at me blankly. I turn to Kae and Okuyama for support and Okuyama says, "that's it?" I reply coyly, "yep, that's it." He then turns and translates the world's worst introduction to all of the teachers. As soon as he does, the look of recognition flashes over their faces and they all smile and nod. Okuyama pulls me out of the room and says, "okay, next room!" Dammit. This is going to be a long year. After butchering my second attempt, the teachers all leave the meeting and begin to smoke outside of the hotel. There are only about five who speak English, so they're all speaking Japanese, laughing and then looking at me. Great, I'm making friends already. As we're standing there waiting for Okuyama to finish his cigarette, one of the teachers starts talking to me in Japanese. Since I have no clue what he's saying I turn to Kae for an interpretation. She looks at me, half laughs and says, "he says that you are beautiful." Hmmm...I'm guessing from the cold and unwelcoming look on his face that his comment was somewhere along the lines of calling me a pretty-boy. Nice...I'm REALLY making friends now. AND THEN, Kae says to me, "he is the fencing instructor...he says that he would like to fence with you." This is DEFINATELY going to be a long year. After escaping death at the hands of my fencing friend, we proceeded to Toba High, which is the school I will be teaching at. Upon arriving, I met the rest of the staff and spoke to the teachers that I will be teaching English with. There's one guy, who has to be the friendliest person on earth. He's very considerate of other people and speaks fairly good English. There's a young guy who's only a year older than me. He sits beside me. Should be pretty good, he speaks English, Japanese, Swedish, German and something else. I'll probably rely on him to teach me Japanese. Then there's another guy who comes from Malaysia. He's an interesting character as far as I can tell. He spoke very little to me, but he invited me to his place to speak English with him and meet his family. Additionally, there is Kae and Okuyama and another teacher who I didn't meet. After picking up the rest of my luggage at the office we finally headed to my apartment for the first time. When we get there, the key won't open the lock. At this point I just grab my bike out of the car and start assembling it in the parking lot with the younger teacher, Sugimoto sensei. After a while they figure out the lock and we begin to load my things into the apartment. The other teachers work on unloading the car, while I head inside to find a place to store everything temporarily until I can unpack. As I head out to grab a second bag, I notice that Kae and Sugimoto are staring at me as though they are horrified. I look at them and say, "ummmm...what's up?" Kae responds distraughtly, "Janca-san, in Japan we do not wear our shoes in the house." I look down and realize that I had just cruised through the whole apartment with my shoes on and they had been watching me the whole time in disbelief. Great, now I'm infringing on their customs...what's next? I accidentally light a Japanese flag on fire? After everything was loaded into the apartment Kae and Sugimoto were waiting around for Okuyama to return with some lock grease before we went to grab a few groceries. They kind of stood in the doorway and watched as I jostled around inside of the apartment. Kae called in to me, "Janca-san may we come in?" I half-laughed invited them in. They politely took off their shoes and took about two steps into the apartment and looked around. I was continuing to move everything around and Kae calls to me again, "Janca-san can we sit down somewhere?" These people are serious about being polite. I turned around again and said to her, "of course! Come in, make yourself at home! You've lived here as long as I have." I don't think they saw the humour in it. I had better get used to that. Okuyama returned shortly with the lock grease, fixed the lock and then took us grocery shopping. After the teachers dropped me off, they said goodnight and I spent the rest of the evening unpacking and setting up my apartment to my liking. As I unpacked a million thoughts raced through my head. "What the hell am I doing here?" "This is not at all what I had expected." "I thought these people spoke English?!?!" "How am I going to survive for a year here?" "Why didn't I learn Japanese?!?!" Eventually I became completely exhausted and went to bed, hoping that the next day would be better...it got worse before it got better...but it got ALOT better!!
I'll leave you with a few images of Toba at night, more pics and stories to come...for now it's off to bed so that I'll have energy for another adventure tomorrow!
I'm presently sitting on a bullet train headed for my new home in Toba-Shi, Mie-Ken (that means Toba city, Mie province). It's nice to be relaxing and listening to some tunes as Japan rushes by outside my window. This morning I said goodbye to Tokyo and my fellow JET participants and embarked on my journey. Everyone met in the lobby of the hotel and split into our prefectural (provincial) groups. Luckily Katie and I are heading to the same prefecture, so we will be making the trip together. It will be about 5 hours of travelling to get to the Mie board of education (BOE) and then we head in separate directions to travel to our respective cities. Upon departing from the hotel, employees from the Mie board of education led the Mie-ken group onto the subway at Shinjuku station. It was INSANE! I took a couple of pictures, but they really don't do it justice. It was absolutely packed and I had a bunch of luggage with me...again. Not much fun, but I didn't let the inconvenience ruin the experience. As we got onto the subway platform the group crowded onto the first commuter train that came by. However, by the time that Katie and I reached the train it was so packed that not a single person could get on. Two of the BOE employees quickly hopped off the train to accompany us and one other JET on the next available train. The next train came and we hopped on. As we entered the car, the other JET that we were travelling with nudged me and pointed to a sign that was right above our heads. It had half-naked women all over it and I can only imagine what the writing said. He laughed and said:
“Man, we ended up in the red light district last night. It was CRAZY. You're walking down the street and these guys keep coming up to you and tug on your sleeve and say, 'Japanese brow-job, japanese brow-job.”
Now, keep in mind that we're standing on the train with two employees from the board of education, which EMPLOYS US!?!?! I couldn't believe it. Not to mention that you're on a PACKED subway car and there are people who understand english and even if they don't understand english, they probably understand that much. I just turned my back and pretended that I didn't know him. Yet another instance of my fellow JETs being absolute idiots. Sometimes I wonder how they got the job and whether or not I want to call myself a JET if it means associating myself with them.
Yesterday there was another instance of ignorance while I was riding an elevator from one of the conference sessions to my room. We're standing in a packed elevator. There are four JET members and the rest of the riders are Japanese people who were staying at the hotel. Two of the JETs were conversing and one of them said, “Yeah, I've been practicing my Japanese responses...ooooooooohhhhhh, yeeeeeessss, yeeeeeessss,” as he nodded his head profusely and smiled cluelessly. I guess he thought that he was mimicking the typical Japanese response to English speakers. As soon as he said it everyone went deathly silent. He then looked around and realized that he was surrounded by Japanese people and proceeded to akwardly pronounce, “hey...it reaaaly hot out today...isn't it?” People like this are really beginning to get on my nerves. We're in Japan and they're making fun of the Japanese people, who have been absolutely hospitable to us in every way. If you ask someone on the street a question in English, they do their best to answer and if they don't know English they look genuinely upset that they were not able to help and apologize profusely in Japanese. The people here have been incredibly friendly so far, but it really makes you wonder if it's warranted when you witness displays of disrespect like the two preceeding accounts. I genuinely hope that I can avoid falling into one of these negative attitudes while I'm here.
As I've been typing, I've also been looking out the window as we travel south. It is incredibly beautiful! The region that we have been travelling through is alot more mountainous than the Tokyo area which is relatively flat. I wish that I could describe it adequately, but I don't feel as though I can do it justice. I've been taking pictures and videos, so I'll post a few on my blog and then figure out how to post them all online somewhere.
When we departed from Tokyo, there was some concern that a typhoon was headed for the area that we are travelling to. It was really dark and rainy in Tokyo and for the beginning of the train ride, but the sun has broken through the clouds and it's a perfect day now. I keep staring out the window and I'm just amazed how different and beautiful the scenery is. Right now nothing can stop me from thinking about how incredible this experience is going to be and from smiling ear to ear.
These pics show Tokyo in the afternoon...the highrises go on as far as the eye can see
These pics are night shots of the Tokyo skyline. Believe it or not, you can photograph most of Tokyo at night using the daytime settings on your camera because there is so much light emitted from the city.
Here's a pic of some school girls who wanted their picture taken with Katie and I.
Here's the rundown since the last post. Last night Katie and I took a short walk with her roomate. We saw a bit of the Shinjuku area, but we were so tired that we had to head home fairly early to crash. Today my roomates and I woke up at 6:30 am Tokyo time and hit the gym and then breakfast. I've met quite a few people from all over the world and discovered something very startling...my sense of humour is not universal. I know that you're probably all very shocked...I know, so am I. Nonetheless, I find it funny when people fail to appreciate the humour in what I'm saying. This happened two or three times during breakfast!
While heading to the morning session Katie and I were standing around grabbing a drink of water with my roomate before heading into the opening ceremony. Katie gave me an odd look and said, "there's some school girls over there who keep talking to each other and then pointing at me....they just did it again." My roomate and I turn around and the girls start waving, so we look at each other and laugh...they were pointing at us. It was really flattering at first...but it soon got embarassing. I walked by a few minutes later and the same girls made this odd, "oooooohhhhhh" noise as I walked by and then giggled and waved. Most of the people around me turned around to see what was going on and I didn't really know how to react, so I smiled and waved and then quickly headed for the washroom. Just one of those situations where you're not sure what to do. The conference was nothing special, it was basically a mass distribution of information to a group of people who are far too jet-lagged and naive to realize the importance of what is being said. After we came out of the morning session the school girls struck again. This time my roomate, Yuri, and I were standing around talking and we noticed that the girls were just staring at us. Not very subtle...and somewhat akward. I don't think either of us really knew how to react. Then the girls (who don't speak English) came up and started waving their cameras at us. We shrug and hop in for a picture. It's nice to already feel like a celebrity in Japan...hahaha.
During the afternoon Katie and I took a walk to the electronics store and I bought an electronic dictionary. It took us about half an hour to find the floor where they sold electronic dictionaries and about an hour to pick one out. I imagine it will take ALOT longer to figure out how to USE IT! It was a pretty challenging experience, but it makes you appreciate how vital communication skills are. Even if you don't have linguistic grace you can still communicate quite a bit with sufficient patience.
All in all I'm loving Tokyo. It's a great city and the people are absolutely fascinating. I'm heading out again with Katie to see what kind of trouble we can get into tonight! I'll report back later.
Here's another picture installment. It's the view from my hotel room!
I am writing from above the clouds. We're still over North America somewhere, but soon there will be nothing but ocean in every direction. It's been a marathon of a trip already... Last night I decided that I wouldn't sleep before I left for the airport. I figured that it would be a good idea because Japan is 13 hours ahead of Canada, so I would be staying up through the Japanese afternoon. At about 2:30 in the morning I went for a 10 kilometer jog. At the beginning I thought that I wouldn't make it because I was exhausted, but I warmed up after a while and felt great. We left for the airport at 7 am because I wanted to be the first person to check in for the flight. They had warned us that they might begin to refuse passengers' additional luggage if the flight was really full, and I wanted to bring my bike with me...I figured that they couldn't tell the first passenger that the flight was getting overloaded. Shortly after arriving I checked in and said my goodbyes to my Dad, brother and sister. They helped me with my luggage as far as customs would allow, but I still had a marathon of procedures to get through with a 70 lb bike box, two 50 lb suitcases, a 40 lb carry-on and my computer bag. So my family helped me pack a trolly with all of my luggage and sent me on my way. I enter the cutoms office and see three lines which were set up as follows. There were two striaght lines, one for US passport holders and one for non-US passport holders. The third line was for Canadian passport holders. It was very narrow and winding...no way I was going to fit through with the bike box. It was one of those moments where you laugh and think, “You've got to be freakin kidding me.” I attempted to negotiate the labrinthe leading to the customs agent, laughing the whole time because the line barriers only had about an inch of leeway on either side of my bike box. Needless to say, most of the barriers were on the ground by the time that I got to the customs agent. Lucky for me, I roll up to discover that I'm about to meet the least personable customs agent in Pearson Airport. Before he even says hello he look at me and then looks at my luggage cart and says, “move that right against the booth so that people can get by.” I pause, look at the luggage cart (which is already as close to the customs booth as it can be) and figure that I'll humour him by moving it forward and backward a little bit to make it look like I've pulled it in closer. After I finish, he looks at me and says, “move it in closer...people need to get through.” At this point his voice is pretty edgy and I'm wondering what the attitude is for. So I do the same thing again. Now he's looking pissed. “RIGHT against the booth!” I'm pretty confused at this point, I didn't see the need to get upset or give me attitude, but I figured that I'd try something different. So I turn the cart sideways, which ends up taking up even more of the walkway than before. Now he's really ticked off, he looks at me like I'm an idiot and gets up to do it for me, but before he can come around the desk he sees the bike box and realizes that I had been doing exactly what he was asking me to do the whole time, the problem was that the bike box prevented the cart from being pushed any closer to the booth. At this point he sits back down and says, “ahhh...I see, there's a box...sorry about that.” He then proceeds to ask me the typical customs questions.
“How long will you be in the United States?” “I'm just passing through, I'm on my way to Japan.” “What are you doing there?” “I'm going to teach English.” “How long are you staying there for?” “One year.” “You're going to Japan for ONE DAY?!?” (Once again the inner jerk surfaces) “No. Oooonnnneee Yeeeeeaaar.” “Oh.”
Needless to say, this guy was only in a trasitional phase of his career and will one day be somebody's boss. Ha! The one good thing about idiots is that they make you realize that you're not one of them.After making my way through the rest of the airport formalities, I was joined by some of the other JET participants and we hopped on our flight to Detriot. From Detroit we got onto a 747 400 series for the remainder of our trip. Currently we're about 3 hours in...9 left to go. I still don't think that it's fully sunken in that when this plane lands I'll be in Japan... I'll be on the opposite side of the world from where I grew up, in a place where I don't speak the language and in a culture that is very different from my own. There's nothing to do now but try to sleep...we'll find out very shortly whether the Janca charm transcends language and culture...
Later on...
I arrived at my hotel in Tokyo at about 9:00 pm Tokyo time. That's about 10:00 am Canadian time, which means that I was in transit for nearly 24 hours. Exhausting. I don't have the energy to write anything right now but I've got a few pics from downtown Tokyo to tide you over for now. Notice the bikes in the second picture...I love this city already!
I'm 23 years old. I'm originally from Whitby, Ontario. I just graduated from York University. And now I'm preparing to move to the other side of the world to begin the next chapter of the adventure that is my life.
