Live from Japan!

This weekend we were looking for somewhere to take Bill, Aaron’s friend from the U.S., on a day trip. After a long time trolling wikitravel, Aaron and Bill decided that it would be cool to go to ninja village for the day.

The best thing about the day, for me, was listening to what the small kids had to say. While Bill and Aaron were doing the ninja training course, one of the little kids looked at the leader, dressed in a ninja costume and said,

“Honto ni ninja desu ka?” (Are you really a ninja?)

“Honto ni.” (Yep. Really)

It was just so funny and so innocent and the employee didn’t even bat an eye. I guess it is likely that this wasn’t the first time that he fielded this question.

This is a picture of a tourist map sign posted at the main streetcar stop right outside Nagasaki station. We got a real kick out of the fact that one side of the tracks had correct English on its sign, the other side, well, not so much.

A few months ago I took the leap, I started another blog but I have kept it mostly a secret. At first it was a secret because, well, the contents of the blog (Little R) were a secret as well. But, after that, I just never really thought to mention it.

Now people have started asking for a few more updates about our other adventure, growing a child, and I figured it might just be easier to let you all take a look for yourself.

This blog will remain focused on our adventures in Japan, at least until that adventure ends (about 7 months from now). The other will focus on my adventures in pregnancy and our adventures in parenthood. If you are interested, or if you just really want to find out how HUGE I am getting, go take a look!

Born in Japan

Just a little Christmas carol from some of Aaron’s students. Hope you all have a very, merry Christmas!

A really interesting phenomenon in Japan is that people take trips, go on outings, specifically to experience a particular seasonal phenomenon, like cherry blossom and fall foliage viewing. Well, when in Japan, I suppose I must do as the Japanese do.

A little while ago, I took a few extra days of vacation to rest and relax. I have quite a few days to burn before I leave my job at the end of February, and so I am trying to take them here and there to make sure that I take time to myself now, rest, relax and recharge.

On one of the vacation days, I went with my friend, Chisako, to Kyoto to see the fall leaves. Peak colors were just a few days before we arrived, but we were still able to see some beautiful trees and enjoy the fall weather.

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I am finding myself enjoying and appreciating my students more and more these past few weeks. Perhaps it is that all of my hard work is finally coming to fruition and the relationships I have worked so hard to build, the comfort I have tried to establish in my classroom is finally settling in. Perhaps it is that I know my time is limited. I only have about 3 more months to work. With vacations and holidays and exam periods, I will only be teaching my 1st year students 8 more times this school year. Seriously, that’s not much.

As a result of my increased enjoyment of my classroom, I think you are going to get to hear a lot more of the funny, random stuff that happens in my room. I hope you like it as much as I do.

Anyways, with my second year students we are just finishing a persuasive essay writing series. The third lesson in the series has them finishing their essays, they only need an extra 15 minutes or so. That means I had about 25 minutes at the end of class to fill with a bunch of students that are totally fried because they have worked so hard on their essays.

Well, I decided to fill the time with an activity that I learned at the latest Gifu Conference. It is a game that helps students to relax, practice their English, and, most importantly, realize that we all make mistakes.

I have the students names all in a hat. When I pull one of their names out I ask them if they can do something in English. For example, can you count to 20 in English in 15 seconds, can you sing a song in English? The students can say, “yes” or “no”, but if they say yes they must try it. If they complete the challenge successfully, they get a point for the students team. Once they are finished they get to ask me a challenge in Japanese, can you write dog in Kanji, can you write your address in Japanese? And I do the same as them, I try the challenge, I get a point for my team-of-one if I succeed.

Well, yesterday I had one particularly funny challenge. I called on a student and excitedly he stood up. Then I read him his challenge.

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I have largely chosen to avoid talking about my pregnancy on this blog. I have another space where I write about that, and it seems more appropriate to keep the two separate and to keep the other one somewhat private. However, as my pregnancy progresses and I have more interaction with the medical and cultural aspects of pregnancy in Japan, I am starting to think that it might be fun to share some of what I am learning. I don’t intend to start showing ultrasound photos or anything like that here, but I do think that most of our readers that are interested about our life in Japan might also be interested to hear about the huge cultural divides that we are encountering now as future parents.

The reason I named this post as I did, is because I have been noticing a lot of the ways that culture leaks into medicine and vice versa. Sometimes this leaking and blending can make it difficult for people to separate the two, almost impossible. One very concrete example of this happens in the 5th month of pregnancy, the month I am just completing now.

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or as so many people say here, It’s Erection day (they have a hard time with the L sound).

I am sitting at my desk right now finding myself more than a bit distracted. I have about a million internet browser windows all pointed to different sources – google news, cnn, npr, politico. I am watching as the results roll in, hoping that by the end of the day I will know the outcome.

This election day will always remain in my memory as one of the strangest. I really, truly believe that it is the most important election that I have voted in, the most historic, and yet it feels so distant and abstract. I am so very far away from where it is all happening.

I missed the excitement this year of going to my polling place (although I did vote by mail several weeks ago). I miss walking around, seeing people with their “I Voted” stickers. I miss having the casual conversations with others about what is going on and I miss watching the coverage live on tv. Hearing all the talking heads with their predictions and speculations.

I know that I am getting some of that as the news feed wizzes by, projecting Pennsylvania for Obama, but it isn’t the same.

I hope all of you, back in the States, are enjoying Election Day. While we may not all have the same opinions about who is the right person for the job, I think it is easy to say that we are surely witnessing history in the making.

I hope we are not being too optimistic about where this train is headed.

Speaking of noticing stuff, as I mentioned in my last post, here is another small example.

While we were touring around Kyoto, visiting Ginkaku-ji for our second time, we looked down and were delighted to see a praying mantis walking around the carefully sculpted perimeter of a zen garden. I don’t believe that I’ve ever seen a mantis before, at least in a natural setting, and it was pretty cool. They are really interesting little things.