Live from Japan!

Over the past year and a half I feel like I have been watching my own life as though I was watching a television show. I have photographed most of the memorable moments, I have written out many of my thoughts and reflections, I have constantly analyzed what I have seen. I have had more moments where I have commented, both publicly and in my own private head space, about what I like and don’t like about Japan/America in the last year or so than at any other time in my life.

I feel like this experience, living in Japan for an extended amount of time, has really given me a chance to be critical of and think about all of those things that I often took for granted.

Now that our time is starting to wrap up, I feel like I am even more sensitive to these thoughts. Each time I notice something that I really like, I have this nostalgic feeling of how I am going to miss that when we move back. On the flip side, each time I have an experience with something that I don’t like, I am so eager to remind myself that soon, in just six months or so, I will be rid of it. I won’t have to deal anymore.

Well, lately, one of the things that has been driving me nuts is public smoking. (I am probably way more sensitive to this because of the fact that I am pregnant.) I realize how much I took for granted, and LOVED, the smoking ban in Chicago. I loved that I could go out for an evening on the town and not come home smelling like an ashtray and having to launder every piece of clothing that I wore out. Not to mention, sometimes having to take a shower myself before hopping into bed.

Even before the smoking ban, I loved that there were true non-smoking sections. Places that were actually physically separated so that the air barely mixed. I was able to enjoy my meal without the smell of cigarettes wafting into my nose and affecting the flavor.

Here it is the opposite. Few restaurants have non-smoking sections, and when they do it is rare that there is a true separation. Sometimes it is as though half of the restaurant is dedicated to smoking, the other half non, and the tables butt right up against one another. Bars have no restrictions whatsoever.

Yesterday, we went out for a simple lunch on our weekly Saturday walk (a long walk through the neighborhood with stops for lunch and groceries) and it drove me absolutely crazy that I was sitting there, trying to enjoy my lunch while a gentleman just two seats away was puffing away like a chimney. It doesn’t bother me that he chooses to smoke, it is his choice. But it bothers me that he was able to negatively impact my experience.

It is true, Japan is starting to come around. But I find it very interesting that the first steps, at least in our area, tend to be focusing on open-air spaces. For example, starting in March smoking will be banned on all train platforms. Unlike in Nagoya, where some of the platforms are underground, here in the Gifu area they are all above ground. So, essentially, the smokers are smoking outside. That doesn’t so much bother me. I can move to another area and avoid the smell. Inside a contained space, restaurant or bar, that isn’t the case.

Also, smoking is no longer allowed in certain areas of Yanagase, an open-air mall in downtown Gifu. Again, it is open-air, the air circulates, so I don’t really understand the reason behind the ban. It doesn’t seem like it could be public health related, it might be more about cleanliness and the fact that people and businesses don’t like the butts that are often scattered on the ground in these spaces.

I am glad that progress seems to be being made here, but I wish they would focus first on spaces where the smoke is unavoidable for non-smoking people, and move from there. I think it will take a long time to change the situation here, but I do get the sense that it will, eventually. For now, I will just be glad that in about six months, I will be able to go out to any bar or restaurant back home and enjoy a beer or two, or an extraordinarily large hamburger, without someone smoking right next to me.

I only have 8 more days at Gifu Kita High School. Of those 8 days, I will only be teaching for 6 of them. During those 6 teaching days, I only have 14 more lessons. That’s it.

In some ways, seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is a blessing. I have been having a rougher time keeping up the pace that I used to and I have been finding myself dragging through more classes than is usual for me. I am looking forward to having my leave, so that I can start prepping and preparing for the next step, the next adventure.

On the other hand, I am quite sad. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at Gifu Kita. I have learned and grown so much since the moment I stepped through those front gates a year and a half ago. I am so thankful for the time that I have had here, where I have been able to focus on teaching, developing a new curriculum, and trying my hardest to reach students who have limited English abilities. This job has challenged me in more ways than I ever imagined it would and, as a result, I have gained so much. The skills that I have learned will help me in my future, I’m sure of it.

Each class I teach, from now until February 24th, is the last one. I will only see each group of students one more time over the next 8 days, and at the end of each lesson, I have to say goodbye to them.

So far, I have said goodbye to 4 classes. The first one was heartbreaking, and the next three haven’t gotten any easier. I have had a great year with these kids and have built a remarkable relationship with many of them. It is hard to walk away from that, from them.

I have 14 more classes to say goodbye to, countless teachers to thank, a desk to clean out, and a farewell speech to give. I am not sure how I will get through it all, but I think it is virtually guaranteed that there will be many tears shed. That’s just the way I am.

You can all breathe a collective sigh of relief, the 99% chance that I referred to in my last post, has moved to 100.

The papers have been signed and we are going to be coming back to America this summer. For a moment there I had typed that we will be coming home in the summer, but in all honesty we have thankfully made a home here, so in many ways we will be leaving home to come back and have to establish it all again.

It was a decision that I think we know is the right one, but we both can’t help but wonder a little bit. There are a lot of what-ifs on the table and we will both be very sad to leave our home, our friends and all that we have come to love about our time in Japan.

I guess it will just be on to new (and different) adventures.

As I turned to the next page in the calendar this month, I had a bit of a realization. February is an important milestone. It marks the beginning of our last six months in Japan.

While we haven’t officially signed the paperwork saying that we aren’t recontracting (we have to do that within the next few days), it is 99% certain that we won’t be. It seems as though the changes we will be going through personally (uh…baby) and the changes that the JET program is going through (all high school ALTs in Gifu will be assigned to two schools instead of just one), means that it is a pretty good time for us to leave.

While I am almost certain that we are making the right decision, I am still a bit hesitant. After all, the economy in the U.S. is sucking it up and it doesn’t seem like it is going to be getting all that much better soon. In this regard, I think we are prepared. We are ready to think a bit creatively and work outside the box a bit to find a solution that works for us and our family.

Secondly, I have loved living in Japan. We have had so many adventures and travels over the past 18 months and I will be sad to see it go. Also, I love a lot of the life that we have created here. We have been able to live a bit more minimalistically, we haven’t owned a car, we have both been eating a lot healthier and feeling better because of it. We worry that it will be easy, too easy, for us to slip back into our ways and habits from before we came. I think that would be a shame for us to quickly forget all the lessons we’ve learned. So, it is going to be a struggle for us to again find a way of life that makes us happy, keeps us fulfilled, and is always challenging us in new ways.

Third, while we have been able to see a lot of Japan, there is of course more that we want to do here. With only six months left, four of those months will have a baby in tow, we are running out of time. I had a bit of a breakdown last week when Aaron and I discussed our trip next week, I was crying about how it will be our LAST chance to travel alone, just the two of us. Aaron, calmly, reminded me that there are no last chances. While the coming six months will be the last six months that we live in Japan while on the JET program, it doesn’t have to be the last time we visit or live in Japan (not to mention any number of other interesting locations). Even though we are becoming parents, we are moving back to America for awhile, we don’t have to let our life become stale and boring. Our life will continue to be what we make of it.

So yes, here we are with six months left. We have been discussing our transition back home more seriously and we are starting to make plans (plan A, B, and C) about where we will live and what we will do there. I still have no idea what our life will look like in August, but I am sure it will reveal itself shortly. I am trying not to stress too much about what our life will be in six months, as I am sure it will work out. Instead, I am going to try to relax and embrace what our life is like now, right here. I want to make sure that we both get the most out of our last six months in Japan (this time) and that we get on a plane sometime in August without any regrets!

Disclaimer: This post has absolutely nothing to do with Japan, living in Japan, or what happens in Japan. It is simply an odd coincidence in life that I couldn’t help recording.

Just a few days ago I started reading Augusten Burroughs book, Possible Side Effects. The book is just a collection of essays from his life (similar style to David Sedaris) and most of them point out the funny and strange aspects of ordinary life.

Yesterday, while waiting for the bus, I read the essay titled, “Killing John Updike.” In this essay he talks about a friend who urged him to buy first editions of John Updike’s books as a sort of investment, because they would be worth quite a bit when he died. Burroughs was initially skeptical of the idea, but then proceeded to get on board. He bought a handful of first editions, convinced that they would be worth at least double once Updike died. But then, as he bought even more of them, he was convinced that somehow the spirit with which he was buying the books would surely kill John Updike and that the next morning he would wake up and it would be the first bit of news scrolling along the ticker.

Obviously, the authors actions had no real impact. Burroughs’ book was published in 2006 and Updike remained alive and well. But, imagine my surprise, when the day after I read his essay, I opened up my Google news page, and the very first bit of news listed was that John Updike, at age 76, had passed away.

So, I am left to wonder if my reading the essay about Burroughs buying the first editions with the hopes that they would be worth more money when John Updike died had any effect. Or if this is just a crazy, crazy coincidence.

Also, I wonder if the price will really go up on those first editions and whether Augusten Burroughs has listed them on ebay yet.

Happy Tuesday everyone!

I learned a very important lesson this week. Losing my temper with a Japanese student is a complete and total waste of time. The more I lost my temper and my cool, the less I was able to speak slowly and clearly. And the less I was able to speak slowly and clearly, the less able the student was to understand why I was upset with him in the first place. As the process continued we just had a complete and total meltdown where we both walked away from the interaction totally frustrated with one another and not having learned anything.

It all started during a lesson where I am beginning to teach the students how to play one of my favorite games, Apples to Apples. Aaron and I chose to teach this game because there is a lot of communication and arguing that has to be done to play, which makes it a great way for students to practice and expand upon their communication skills. Anyways….

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When I went to bed last night I was reading the final pages of my latest book, “Deciding the Next Decider” by Calvin Trillin. It is a humorous look at the 2008 presidential campaign (and subsequent election) through poetry. It seemed so fitting to be finishing my reading of it mere hours before our newest president, Barack Obama, was inaugurated.

What seemed even more fitting, was that the very last poem, had a subtle nod to Japan. The country I am currently calling home.

Obama spoke to thousands in Grant Park
About the road on which we’d now embark.
And many thought, as he described that walk,
Yes, here’s how presidents are meant to talk.
The TV showed the dancing and the cheers
And African Americans in tears.
And foreigners, from Rome to Yokohama,
Were cheering an American: Obama.
From this vote they were willing to infer
We aren’t the people they had thought we were.
And Lady Liberty, as people call her,
Was standing in the harbor somewhat taller.

When I woke up this morning, the inauguration had come and gone and Obama was making his way through his first day as President of the United States. I was proud to be an American today and so happy to see that so many of my Japanese acquaintances, colleagues, and friends here were just as filled with hope and optimism as I.

It should be an interesting four years. I think it is unlikely that Obama will ever be able to change as much as we all hope he can, but I do hope that he can continue to inspire all of us to make the America in reality look a little bit more like the America that we want it to be.

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.

A long time ago, I mentioned one of Japan’s awesome crime-fighting techniques. But I realized that I had never posted pictures of it.

Well, over the holidays when we were sending packages to friends and family, I decided to snap a few pictures of all the dye balls lined up at the post office. I guess the most surprising thing to me was that they were lined up on the counter, at each register, in plain view. Seems like it would be just as easy for the perpetrator of a crime to throw them at the employee, as it would be for the employee to throw them at the perpetrator. Or, since there were two at each station, perhaps they each get one and can enjoy a good game of paintball.