Peachy

And now the time has come to discuss my work at elementary schools. In addition to my regular duties at Miyachu and Katayama, I make regular visits to 4 different elementary schools in Kure. Though the schedule varies, I visit no less than one a week. I feel this is an approriate time to write this section, given that I had to visit three this week.
I realized that the elementary age group was not for me way back in last Novemenber, when I had to fly to Taipei every Sunday to teach seven hours of kindergarten on Monday and then fly back to Tainan that night. Something about the necessity of learning such useful Chinese expressions as "Please keep your trousers on" and "I am not a tree" and my personal favorite "Please don't pull out my arm hair" made me realize that I was not a born kindergarten teacher. Apparently, I forgot to tell my Japanese boss, who figured that with my amiable appearance, rosy cheeks, and sizable girth, that I was something of a reborn Santa Claus. This is not the case.
As with my junior highs, I have to make a self introduction to each class I teach, complete with supersized laminated pictures of my family and somewhat photogenic friends. To let you know how many I have to do, it's nearly November and I still have a few to go. This will come as a big (and very welcome) shock to my friends and family, but because of the duration and frequency of these self-introductions I now can't stand hearing about myself and I now officially hate the sound of my own voice.
Perhaps the best (and I mean that in the most ironic way possible) part of teaching at Japanese elementary schools is the various ways that the students pronounce my name. I begin class by writing out my full Christian name (and it is a rather Catholic-sounding name), Peter Joseph Lang. I then, bowing to numerous requests, write it out in katakana, the Japanese alphabet for foreign words. In romaji (the Japanese alphabet with Roman letters) it looks like this: Piitaa Jyosefu Ren. You can imagine the sound of 35 first graders screaming it out. You can't? Well, lucky for you. I then tell the students to call me by just my first name, Peter. They can't for the life of them pronounce this, and just say it Piitaa-sensei. Sensei means teacher, by the way. Several times, I decided I didn't like the sound of my name with grossly exaggerated vowel sounds (not to mention no "r") and told the kids to call me "Pete" instead. Big mistake. I said, "Repeat after me ... Pete" "Piitaa" "Pete" "Piitou" "Pete" "Pii...tsu" "Pete" "Piiiii ... chi?" With that one fateful/fatal moment, a headache was born. One student said piichi (pronounced peachy) and it began to ring around the class in gleeful little spurts. Now, I am officially Peachy Sensei, or, when the students try to be more academic, Peachy Teacher. One little girl even says "Miisuta Piichii Sensei" which is basically Mr. Peachy Teacher.
I shall never commit the sin of abbreviation again and shall forever hold true to the full and proud length of my name .. Piitaa.

Judy on the East Coast of Taiwan 

Judy and Strange Rocks 

Pete at the Tea Museum 

Rainbow over Danshui 

Trip to Taiwan

This week's installment should be called "Big Stupid Laowai." That's because I spent last week in Taiwan, where gaijin are called laowai. I left on Saturday the 8th at 10:00am and arrived at 11:30am. It's strange after my recent spat of 12 and 13 hour flights and jet lag, it was odd to take a two hour flight to a foreign country. The flight was lovely - mostly because it was short and had an excellent meal. China Airlines has, in case you were wondering, the best meals accompanied by the grumpiest and perhaps frumpiest airline staff.
Judy met me at the airport, though there was a bit of a delay because it was the weekend of Double 10 (October 10th), Taiwan's national holiday. We took a bus into the city and met up with Dustin, my old roommate, Eva, my Chinese teacher, and Charles (whom I call Che Che), another friend of mine. We all hung out and had dinner together at a restaurant that served tremendously good Peking Duck. Later in the evening, Charles and Dustin headed back down south. Judy and I stayed in Taipei the next two nights, hanging out and shopping a little bit.
We traveled to the north east coast and saw Yilan and Jiaoxi. Like most of the trip, it was quite relaxing. We got lost a bunch trying to find the hotel and various sites, but it was all fun. The strange highlight was going to Dongshan River Park, which was either cool 5 years ago or will be cool in 5 years. Either way, it was definitely not cool when we were there. We were very nearly the only people in the huge park and a good half of the employees were sleeping. The other half were sitting in chairs looking like they wanted to be sleeping. Still, we had a good time laughing about it.
That night we drove up into the hills and stayed at a cool backwoods resort at the top of a large plateau. We picked some fruit and took in the nice scenery, even though it rained intermittantly. The next day we headed to Jiufen, where we stayed for two nights. Jiufen is a little touristy, but still very cool. The main attraction are the many tea houses where you can pay a reasonable few and then while away the hours sipping tea and looking down on a rather majestic view. There are also some good food stalls and various shops. Mostly, it was cool just to hang out in a relaxed setting. After Jiufen it was back to Taipei for a night and then back to Japan. Overall, it was an absolutely wonderful trip and even though it made me miss Judy more, it was worth it.
Now, I'm trying to get back into the groove at work. Still playing tennis and starting to win a little bit more. Speaking a lot of Japanese and trying to make the best of my experience. More on that next week.

Dustin, Pete, and Che Che 

Pete, Brandon, and Rome 

Work and Such (Part III)

I work at two junior high schools and four elementary schools. This time, I'll talk about the junior highs.

Katayama Junior High School
At Katayama, I work with the school's two English teachers, Ms. Himemiya and Ms. Yamada. They are both quite nice, but distinct. Ms. Himemiya is more of the classic school marm type. She is very motherly with the students, fairly conservative, but seems to have a certain strength about her. She's warm and good-natured, but doesn't quite get my sense of humor. Ms. Yamada is a next generation sort of teacher. She is more fluid and less strict with the students. She often jokes around with the troublemakers and has an easy laugh. However, she does seem fragile or occasionally overwhelm. She also always wears gloves when she writes on the board, whereas Ms. Himemiya (like me) even erases with her bare hands.
The principle at Katayama is older and looks like he has the early stages of Parkinsons. He occasionally talks to me, but he is incredibly difficult to understand. He has a deep and low voice and talks as though he has cotton or marbles in his mouth (or maybe cottony marbles). Plus, he speaks in Hiroshima dialect, which is more abrupt and tough-sounding than the soft tones of standard Tokyo dialect. The teacher who talks to me the most is Mr. Hirai, the PE teacher. He also speaks Hiroshima dialect, but without the cottony marble problem. He always asks me what I'm making for dinner and tells me about his various travels.
The students at Katayama are an interesting bunch. The seventh graders (ichinensei) are quite genki and akarui - which roughly translates in this case to spunky and lively, though it literally means healthy and colorful. Their English level is poor, at best, but they are more than willing to try and use whatever they know. This usually results in a particularly genki student running up to me and asking in a near-shout "Do you like baseBALL???" When I reply affirmatively, they look at me with a look that says, "That's all I know." and then run off. The ninth graders (sannensei) are well-behaved and hard-working, but very very quiet. It's a miracle if I can get a sannensei to speak to me. The eighth graders (ninensei) are in the middle of both the outgoingness and English level scale. They are however the most unruly lot of disenchanted miscreants that I have ever taught. They are often loud and obnoxious, but somehow fun.

Miyahara Junior High School
Or Miyachu for short. This school is a stone's throw from my old host family's house. The English teachers there are Ms. Nakano and Ms. Hiramoto. They are both rather soft spoken but very kind and accomodating. Ms. Nakano is probably the friendliest to me out of the four and has spent the most time talking to me. Ms. Hiramoto, who I sit next to, helps me with my Japanese, but her English is the most limited of among the four. They handle the lesson planning and give me less to do than at Katayama. Still, they seem open to new ideas and new ways of thinking.
The principal has barely talked to me at all. The vice-principal is nice and is quite taken with my Japanese ability, as are many of the non-English teachers. I have been able to chat with many of them, but none as much as Mr. Kamayama. He is the social studies teacher and also the coach of the soft tennis club. He speaks decent English, though it is spotty at times. Very similar to my Japanese. The other teachers giggle when we communicate in our mutually broken second langauges. I often play tennis with the soft tennis club (soft tennis is played with rubber balls on hard-packed gravel, in case you were wondering). It is quite a joy to be soundly defeated by a 14 year old girl.
The students at Miyahara are similar to the students at Katayama, but on a smaller scale. The seventh graders are slightly less genki, the ninth graders slightly more quiet, and the eighth graders ... well, they are still pretty unruly, though not quite so much. The students at both schools will always say "hello" and sometimes "how are you?" when they see me, but rarely does the conversation, in either English or Japanese, go much deeper than that. I'm trying to build more of a relationship with them, but it is pretty slow going. I guess nothing is going to compare to last year.

A red-faced Miyajima Monkey 

Work and Stuff

Okay, a few words about my job here. Firstly, there is a lot of down time. A lot. In a given day, I have anywhere from 2-5 classes, which is normal for any teacher. However, unlike other teachers, I am only an assistant. This means that I have limited input as to the lesson planning, grading, and all that other teacher stuff that I did last year. This means that when I'm not in the classroom teaching, I have very little to do. There have been two days thus far where, because of testing, I didn't have any classes and sat around doing nearly nothing all day. This is not because of laziness, it's just the job. In class is a similar story. The JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) controls the class and will involve me for a few minutes at a time, mostly for repeat-after-me and canned dialogues. Essentially, I'm an extremely well-paid CD player. Hopefully, as time goes on, the teachers will feel comfortable giving me extra work and more responsibility. I have created a few tests and graded some papers, but it is slow in coming.
The students are a slightly brighter note. Generally, they are fun and interesting. There are, however, some unexpected discipline problems. In my high school, if you talked out of turn too much or disturbed the class, you were sent out. Here in Japan, that is illegal because no student may be denied an education. The teachers don't have a lot of tools for maintaining discipline in the class and so students, especially the 13-15 year old boys, can be a bit unruly. Another problem is that, just like in Taiwan, all students are required to learn English. This means that there are very few students who seem to actually enjoying learning English. In fact, the best lessons are usually met with quiet disdain. It's when the quiet disdain turns into noisy disdain that it would be considered a bad lesson.
The students are not bad people. I can sympathize. I was forced to take pre-calculus and calculus even though the extent of my daily-life math usage amounts to simple addition and subtraction (I use calculators for long division). So, I completely understand their apathy toward learning an incredibly difficult and complex language. However, sympathetic as I may be, it doesn't make class any easier. I try to spice it up by joking around with the students, smiling and laughing a lot, and trying to spend individual time with the students. Overall, it is beginning to work in terms of developing relationships with the students, but so far that hasn't translated into any increased interest in class.
That said, the students generally seem to enjoy my presence. I get greeted about every couple minutes. Sometimes it's a very bold "Hello Pete!" other times it is a quiet "konnichiwa sensei" but I always respond enthusiastically. The students seem to get a big kick out of the fact that I clean the school with the (Japanese students clean the school everyday for about 15 minutes). I also play tennis with the soft-tennis club. Suddenly it has become a spectator sport - dozens of students will hang around to watch me serve, return, volley, and generally get destroyed by 14 year old boys and, even worse, 14 year old girls. Hey, she has a good serve and I'm still out of shape. Anyway, I'm trying to have fun in whatever way I can.
My co-workers are all very nice. All four of my junior high JTEs are quite nice and helpful. The other teachers are very friendly and I have several Japanese conversations a day. I guess compared to my predecessor, my Japanese is quite good. They have said they are happy to be able to actually communicate.
So there is a light at the end of the tunnel, it's not all gloom and doom. Things will get better if I work at it. That's my mission and I think the effort will be worth it. Next time I'll talk about the 4 elementary schools I teach at.

Melody, Rome, Me, and Brandon 

Travel in Japan (Part I)

I have had the chance to explore a little bit. Several weeks ago, some friends and I went to the island of Shikoku, the smallest of Japan's four main islands. It was absolutely lovely. While there, we saw an old castle and the adjoining garden, both several hundred years old. We also went to a hot springs resort called Dogo, which was first established in the 1300s. The hot springs building we bathed in was about 400 years old itself. My friend Brandon and I went by ourselves because we couldn't convince our other two friends to bathe naked in the presence of others. It was a bit strange at first but eventually felt quite normal. First we changed into yukatas (Japanese robes) and then took showers and then slid into the hottest damn bath I've ever taken. It was very refreshing but I had to get out every 10 minutes to douse myself with cool water.
That evening, we stayed a cheap hotel with a tatami room and futon mats. We spent the evening goofing around, watching TV, and chatting in our yukatas. In the morning, after regaling Melody and Rome of tales of how wonderful it was, Brandon and I convinced them to come with us to a different hot springs. This one was new and is apparently only attended bypeople over the age of 80. Imagine three fairly hairy Western men in a room with 50+ naked Japanese octagenarians. There was quite a bit of staring in my direction. For my part, I kept trying to find a place on the wall on which I could fix my eyes that wouldn't be occupied by either old-man ass or old-man penis. I was only moderately successful and have had my fill of seeing old-man penis for this lifetime.

Big Scary Oni Mask 

Work and Such

On August 6th, I went to the HiroshimaPeace Park for the 60th anniversary commemoration. Very somber. Also very hot. And humid. My apartment is small, but after the cavernous nature of the apartment in Tainan, it is actually quite welcome. It takes me only 45 minutes to clean the whole place from top to bottom. My predecessor cared for it exceptionally well and also left me a lot of essential apartment stuff. I sleep on a futon, which is surprisingly comfortable. There is a washer and a dryer, a fridge, stove, shower and ofuro (deep bathtub), a kitchen table, desk, tv w/ vcr, small couch, etc.
A couple funny stories. I purchased a bicycle. Kure is pretty flat and a bicycle seemed like an easy way to get around. It was a little expensive, but so far very worth it. The bike is bright green, almost neon, with a steel basket. I picked the color because there are so many bikes in Kure and I wanted to be able to spot mine. The bike is also girl-style (no bar across the middle), which is apparently standard in Japan. So, try to picture me, in a suit, sweating profusely in the heat of 8am, pedaling around town on a bright green girl-bike with my laptop case slung in the metal basket in front. All that is missing are the little sparkly tassels on the handlebars. Sometimes I pick up my dry cleaning and have to bicycle home holding six pairs of pants in one hand while steering with the other hand, the whole while with the dry cleaning acting as a malicious sail trying to throw my bike this way and that.
Second story. This summer we had a mandatory medical check-up for all Board of Education employees (I work directly for the BOE and not any of my specific schools, which is nice). Eyes, ears, height, weight, bp, ekg, blood, urine, stool, and mental health, in that order. I think it was one of the more comprehensive exams I've ever had. Plus, I was shoulder to shoulder with all my colleagues (foreigner and domestic) the whole time. Picture a mixture of Japanese and Westerners standing in a line with a cup of pee and a sealed bag with a poop-sampling applicator-thingy inside. Fun fun fun

Pete with Miyajima deer 

Japan In General

Hey Everyone,

Back again. Sorry for the delay in posting. Thanks to those of you who have read so far. Thought I'd write a few things about my impressions of Japan thus far.
The first thing I noticed about Japan was the weather. It was just as I remembered it from 7 years ago - bloody hot and humid. It is also quite similar to Taiwan, so I am used to it. However, it is still quite uncomfortable in the middle of the day when I'm teaching in a poorly ventilated and un-air-conditioned classroom. You don't want to imagine the smell. It has begun to cool down a bit now that it's October, but it is still quite humid.
The second thing I noticed was the absence of food stalls. Tainan's streets are littered with street vendors selling all kinds of delicious food - Japan, sadly, does not have any such thing. However, at night they do have yattai stalls where you can sit down and have fairly decent noodles.
The third thing I noticed is that there are many things in Japan which are considered rude. Among the offenses I have already committed: eating on the street, eating while standing up, drinking on a train, talking on a cell phone on a bus, fanning myself in a classroom, not bowing properly, asking random people questions without prefacing it with "excuse me, but may I ask you a question", improperly sorting my recycling, refusing a receipt, unwrapping a present, sneezing, blowing my nose, not wearing a face mask, dodging to the right instead of the left, and saying things far too directly. Having said all that, in no instance did anyone yell at me, or call me on the carpet, or anything of the sort. In the worst case, an old woman frowned at me and "hmph"ed. Japanese people are far too polite to point out rudeness to someone's face. They kindly wait till the offending foreigner is out of earshot before complaining.
People treat me well. I have met some very nice Japanese people. My Japanese teacher, Noriko, is perhaps one of the nicest people I've ever met and has taken it upon herself to care for every foreigner in Kure. There's also my boss, Mr. Sakata, who despite having 17 demanding foreigners for employees, continues to smile and laugh at my bad jokes. And then, there's Miyaoka, the first person I met in Japan, who works at the international center. He's quite nice and tries to invite me around with his friends. And then Mr. Kamayama at Miyahara Junior High School, who is so accomodating of my Japanese and tries his best to communicate with me. Most Japanese treat me with a sort of harmless neglect. I am stared at, but overall ignored. It seems that people would rather not deal with me. No problem for me, just an interesting observation.