This may go down as one of the most amazing things I have ever done. I managed to make Thanksgiving dinner for 20 people, on my own, in Japan. Now, I'm sure that sounds at least a little interesting but let me further explain why this was such a challenge.
First, making Thanksgiving dinner by yourself would never be an easy thing but I'm sure people do it all the time. In fact, I wasn't entirely alone here. One of my 8th grade students showed up about an hour and a half before the party time to help out and he was definitely a huge help. I had to send him on a short shopping run which worked out nicely. Plus, he could read the Japanese directions on one of the packages and that was a big help too. Still, I did most of it alone.
Secondly, this was the first time I had made Thanksgiving dinner by myself. I had helped on a few of them but never had I been completely in charge. So, that made it a little more challenging.
Third, I live in Japan. Oh yeah, that makes a HUGE difference. In the past when I've said I was going to make mashed potatoes, stuffing, or gravy I was talking about instant mashed potatoes, instant stuffing, and instant gravy. I have never made the real thing, much less do I know how to do so. But, here in Japan it's not like I can pop into the grocery store and pick up a box of Stove Top Stuffing, some Potato Buds, and a bag of gravy mix. No sir, that is impossible. So, I had to fall back on the savior of the unprepared: the Internet. Fortunately it contained recipes to save my butt. Of course...
Fourth, I live in Japan. I know I just mentioned this, but I was saying that all of the instant food I would normally make is unavailable. The thing is, the ingredients I would normally use are also sometimes unavailable. Chicken Broth? Forget it. Vegetable broth? No way. Flour? Not as easy as one might think but available (this is where the 8th grader came in handy since he managed to find it). Egg Substitute? What's that?
So, in addition to having to prepare several dishes for the first time in my life I also had to improvise on the ingredients. Instead of chicken broth from a can I used bullion cubes. Eggs instead of egg substitute. And don't get me started on the metric conversions. So much of what I did was purely flying by the seat of my pants that I'm amaze anything came out okay. To be honest, I'm not sure I had ever actually mashed a potato before Saturday.
But to be honest, I pulled it off. The mashed potatoes were good. The sweet potato casserole was great. And the stuffing? Well, I guess it was good because it got devoured before it even got to me. It was all in all a pretty amazing experience because for my 20 guests (yes, 20) it was the first time they had tasted many of these foods. No one had eaten turkey before (I had to bake it at someone else's house the night before because almost no one has an oven here!). No one had eaten real mashed potatoes. No one had eaten sweet potato casserole. No one had eaten gravy (of course the recipe I used involved soy sauce and miso soup but whatever). No one had ever eaten red beans and rice (What, mix something with rice? We must be crazy!). And almost no one had eaten cream corn before. I was a night of firsts.
Now, I couldn't have actually done this by myself. My supervisor was kind enough to take me shopping a couple of days before as well as bringing two tables for the actual dinner. Then there were the people who made me dinner while the turkey baked in their oven. And of course, Shouta, the 8th grader who showed up right after volleyball practice to help me cook food he had never seen in his life.
But then, I think that's what Thanksgiving is all about. People of different cultures pulling together in order to have a grand feast. And that's exactly what we did. 21 people from two different countries (I was representing the whole rest of the world here) sitting down together to enjoy dinner. Sure, it wasn't the traditional family dinner I'm used to and I would have loved to have been with my family that day. But to be honest, what I really would have liked would have been for my family to be here, as my guests, alongside my Japanese friends (my Japanese family if you will) to sit down and eat the food I had prepared. I suppose that would have been the best of both worlds. But as it was, I think I had the best of this world. And it was a great meal.
And man did I get stuffed.
Monday, November 29, 2004
Wednesday, November 24, 2004
Planet of the Man-Purses
One thing which is more popular in Japan than America is the man-purse. I'm not sure if this is what it's really called, but if I remember correctly that's what they said on Seinfeld and that's good enough for me. Basically, I'm just talking about a small shoulder strap bag that men wear. Well, I've never gone in for these before. I mean, it's one step up from a fanny pack (but it definitely a step UP). All I ever used to carry around was my wallet and my keys and that's what pockets are for right?
But after getting here I soon found I needed more, beginning with my cell phone. Then of course, I had to start using a change purse. Yes, I have a change purse now. I have to. Otherwise the coins become too unwieldy. Back in the States I never carried change and it wasn't a problem since you never really deal with anything bigger than a quarter. But because they use 100 yen and 500 yen coins here not using change would be equivalent to never carrying anything smaller than a $10 bill, and that simply isn't feasible. Still, the wallet, change purse, cell phone, and keys were still doable with just pockets.
But then I also like to have my electronic Japanese dictionary with me since it is often handy. And it's nice to keep my digital camera on hand since you never know when you'll see something you'd like to take a picture of. Add to this the fact that when I go to Sendai I have an hour long train ride each way, so I like to bring a book, and the pockets weren't cutting it anymore. So, every time I headed to the city I was lugging around a backpack just to carry these three little items and it just seemed silly. So I broke down and got a man-purse.
Now, the one downside here is that it isn't that big so many books won't fit in it. The book I am mainly reading now is The Wars Against Saddam by John Simpson, which is all about the two Iraq wars and is written by a BBC journalist who has been there many times and has some pretty decent first-hand knowledge. It's fascinating, but as you can imagine that a heavy enough subject that it needs a big book to hold it. So, it doesn't fit in the man-purse. Last time I went into Sendai I discovered this, so instead I grabbed a much smaller book, Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. I've always loved the original movies (I don't want to talk about that horrible Tim Burton travesty) but I've never read the book. It's really short, only about 120 pages, so between the ride in, reading while I ate lunch, and the ride back I was able to tear through quite a bit of it.
I haven't finished it yet so I can't compare endings but at least of what I've read so far BOTH movies were completely different. In this one, the apes do NOT speak English (since that is actually pretty goofy) so the human has to slowly earn the trust of one of them. Eventually she decides he is special and even takes him on walks to the park. Of course, he has to go in the nude since the bestial humans on this planet do not wear clothes. It makes him very uncomfortable and he keeps pleading to be dressed but she insists that it would draw too much attention. A nude human, regardless of how strange it makes him feel, is the norm there. If he were to act like an APE then heads would certainly begin turning. So, regardless of his true nature he has to force himself to fit the stereotype.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, I was reading this on a train to and from Sendai in the north of Japan and it began to hit a little too close to home. The main reason I came here was to become fluent in Japanese, to the point where I could converse comfortably and understand books, movies, and TV. This means truly becoming comfortable with everyday natural spoken Japanese, and becoming comfortable with it means practicing it. So, when I pick up something from TV or my students or a movie or wherever, I use it. And it never fails to turn heads. People laugh or seem shocked or simply don;t know what to do if I say something that actually sounds natural. For a while I would always ask what was so strange. Had I said it wrong? Was my timing off? No, it was perfectly natural and that's why it was odd.
And it's not just language. Even having the man-purse got some strange reactions because Americans don't use those. People always want to give me coffee (which I truly dislike) instead of green tea (which I love) because Americans don't drink green tea. Occasionally, someone will offer me a fork instead of chopsticks because... well, you get the idea.
So, yeah, I was identifying with the main character in Planet of the Apes and it was making me a tad bit uncomfortable. Like I said, I haven't finished the book and at this point there is the promise that he will eventually be able to prove his true nature and began acting like himself again. It won't be as dramatic for me (no huge scientific symposiums to make my debut at) but I can see that slowly the people in my town are coming to grips with the fact that I do like Japanese food and can handle learning the local dialect and that I don't care about sports (man that was a shocker!). Hope the book has a happy ending.
But after getting here I soon found I needed more, beginning with my cell phone. Then of course, I had to start using a change purse. Yes, I have a change purse now. I have to. Otherwise the coins become too unwieldy. Back in the States I never carried change and it wasn't a problem since you never really deal with anything bigger than a quarter. But because they use 100 yen and 500 yen coins here not using change would be equivalent to never carrying anything smaller than a $10 bill, and that simply isn't feasible. Still, the wallet, change purse, cell phone, and keys were still doable with just pockets.
But then I also like to have my electronic Japanese dictionary with me since it is often handy. And it's nice to keep my digital camera on hand since you never know when you'll see something you'd like to take a picture of. Add to this the fact that when I go to Sendai I have an hour long train ride each way, so I like to bring a book, and the pockets weren't cutting it anymore. So, every time I headed to the city I was lugging around a backpack just to carry these three little items and it just seemed silly. So I broke down and got a man-purse.
Now, the one downside here is that it isn't that big so many books won't fit in it. The book I am mainly reading now is The Wars Against Saddam by John Simpson, which is all about the two Iraq wars and is written by a BBC journalist who has been there many times and has some pretty decent first-hand knowledge. It's fascinating, but as you can imagine that a heavy enough subject that it needs a big book to hold it. So, it doesn't fit in the man-purse. Last time I went into Sendai I discovered this, so instead I grabbed a much smaller book, Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. I've always loved the original movies (I don't want to talk about that horrible Tim Burton travesty) but I've never read the book. It's really short, only about 120 pages, so between the ride in, reading while I ate lunch, and the ride back I was able to tear through quite a bit of it.
I haven't finished it yet so I can't compare endings but at least of what I've read so far BOTH movies were completely different. In this one, the apes do NOT speak English (since that is actually pretty goofy) so the human has to slowly earn the trust of one of them. Eventually she decides he is special and even takes him on walks to the park. Of course, he has to go in the nude since the bestial humans on this planet do not wear clothes. It makes him very uncomfortable and he keeps pleading to be dressed but she insists that it would draw too much attention. A nude human, regardless of how strange it makes him feel, is the norm there. If he were to act like an APE then heads would certainly begin turning. So, regardless of his true nature he has to force himself to fit the stereotype.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Well, I was reading this on a train to and from Sendai in the north of Japan and it began to hit a little too close to home. The main reason I came here was to become fluent in Japanese, to the point where I could converse comfortably and understand books, movies, and TV. This means truly becoming comfortable with everyday natural spoken Japanese, and becoming comfortable with it means practicing it. So, when I pick up something from TV or my students or a movie or wherever, I use it. And it never fails to turn heads. People laugh or seem shocked or simply don;t know what to do if I say something that actually sounds natural. For a while I would always ask what was so strange. Had I said it wrong? Was my timing off? No, it was perfectly natural and that's why it was odd.
And it's not just language. Even having the man-purse got some strange reactions because Americans don't use those. People always want to give me coffee (which I truly dislike) instead of green tea (which I love) because Americans don't drink green tea. Occasionally, someone will offer me a fork instead of chopsticks because... well, you get the idea.
So, yeah, I was identifying with the main character in Planet of the Apes and it was making me a tad bit uncomfortable. Like I said, I haven't finished the book and at this point there is the promise that he will eventually be able to prove his true nature and began acting like himself again. It won't be as dramatic for me (no huge scientific symposiums to make my debut at) but I can see that slowly the people in my town are coming to grips with the fact that I do like Japanese food and can handle learning the local dialect and that I don't care about sports (man that was a shocker!). Hope the book has a happy ending.
Wednesday, November 17, 2004
Communication
This may seem a bit pedantic at first, but I swear I'm trying to make a point here.
See, I have slowly discovered something as I have been living here. That simple fact is: I can communicate more easily with people who are about the same age as me.
That might seem really obvious. I mean, it is usually easier to chat with people who are about your age since you shared relatively similar experiences while growing up. You lived through the same historical events at about the same ages and were exposed to the same general popular culture. But I'm not talking about other Americans. That's pretty obvious.
I have found that chatting with British people is easier when they are close to my age, and the same goes for Australians, New Zealanders, etc. Even though they may not have been exposed to the same exact MTV clips and Transformers cartoons, they were at approximately the same __ age when Nirvana came out. They know who Radiohead is. They might not have seen Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but their lives were seriously affected by Star Wars much like mine. So, I can sit and talk with a Briton who is 26 easier than one who is 21.
But I didn't write this to explain that British people aren't aliens. The interesting thing is that I can much more easily talk to Japanese people who are about my age as well, regardless of the nearly complete lack of shared popular culture (although they still experienced Nirvana at the same time). Now, you may be willing to say that this is due to us being in generally the same place in our lives. The odd limbo that exists between college and your 'real' career may form some kind of bond that allows easier communication even across the language barrier.
But still, it's more than that. Recently, while chatting with Sumiko (the girl who invited me to drum for her band, who is 24) I realized that I could understand her Japanese more easily than older and younger people, and she seemed to understand my Japanese easier as well. Whenever I talk to my Junior High students I can do all right, but talking to someone like Sumiko or a few of the other Japanese people I've met of approximately my age is much easier. Even though his English is not as good, I can talk to Shida sensei (who is 30) easier than Mitsuzuka sensei (who is about 50 and has much better English). It's like they have a better idea of what words to use and a better grasp of how to explain things to me when I'm confused. And they seem to more easily understand my word choices. When I speak to parents, it's a bit of a strain. And one day I met three old women on my way home from Elementary and barely understood a thing they said. It was nearly a complete communication breakdown, even though they were asking me the simplest questions. And t's not just spoken Japanese. Just today I got an e-mail from a family friend in Tokyo which I could read with virtually no trouble, all in Japanese. I also received an e-mail from a teacher which had simpler content ("I can't come to your Thanksgiving party. Sorry.") yet was considerably harder to comprehend.
So why is this? Is it because they studied some English when they were in school and therefore better know how to speak Japanese to an English speaker? But then, why wouldn't Mitsuzuka sensei be easier to understand since she speaks great English? Is it because of some kind of instant psychic link forged between people of similar ages? What's going on? I have no idea. But it's fascinating eh?
See, I have slowly discovered something as I have been living here. That simple fact is: I can communicate more easily with people who are about the same age as me.
That might seem really obvious. I mean, it is usually easier to chat with people who are about your age since you shared relatively similar experiences while growing up. You lived through the same historical events at about the same ages and were exposed to the same general popular culture. But I'm not talking about other Americans. That's pretty obvious.
I have found that chatting with British people is easier when they are close to my age, and the same goes for Australians, New Zealanders, etc. Even though they may not have been exposed to the same exact MTV clips and Transformers cartoons, they were at approximately the same __ age when Nirvana came out. They know who Radiohead is. They might not have seen Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, but their lives were seriously affected by Star Wars much like mine. So, I can sit and talk with a Briton who is 26 easier than one who is 21.
But I didn't write this to explain that British people aren't aliens. The interesting thing is that I can much more easily talk to Japanese people who are about my age as well, regardless of the nearly complete lack of shared popular culture (although they still experienced Nirvana at the same time). Now, you may be willing to say that this is due to us being in generally the same place in our lives. The odd limbo that exists between college and your 'real' career may form some kind of bond that allows easier communication even across the language barrier.
But still, it's more than that. Recently, while chatting with Sumiko (the girl who invited me to drum for her band, who is 24) I realized that I could understand her Japanese more easily than older and younger people, and she seemed to understand my Japanese easier as well. Whenever I talk to my Junior High students I can do all right, but talking to someone like Sumiko or a few of the other Japanese people I've met of approximately my age is much easier. Even though his English is not as good, I can talk to Shida sensei (who is 30) easier than Mitsuzuka sensei (who is about 50 and has much better English). It's like they have a better idea of what words to use and a better grasp of how to explain things to me when I'm confused. And they seem to more easily understand my word choices. When I speak to parents, it's a bit of a strain. And one day I met three old women on my way home from Elementary and barely understood a thing they said. It was nearly a complete communication breakdown, even though they were asking me the simplest questions. And t's not just spoken Japanese. Just today I got an e-mail from a family friend in Tokyo which I could read with virtually no trouble, all in Japanese. I also received an e-mail from a teacher which had simpler content ("I can't come to your Thanksgiving party. Sorry.") yet was considerably harder to comprehend.
So why is this? Is it because they studied some English when they were in school and therefore better know how to speak Japanese to an English speaker? But then, why wouldn't Mitsuzuka sensei be easier to understand since she speaks great English? Is it because of some kind of instant psychic link forged between people of similar ages? What's going on? I have no idea. But it's fascinating eh?
Sunday, November 14, 2004
R.O.C.K. in J.A.P.A.N.
At my little Welcome Party last Tuesday, one of my students said that someone was coming who wanted to meet me. She was late because of work, but apparently had some kind of favor to ask me.
Turns out, Sumiko had read my little written self-introduction in the town newsletter and had learned from that the fact that I play drums. Well, she is a drummer in a local rock band and they have a show coming up next month. She asked me if I would MC the show and I figured it would be cool to check out a couple of local bands in Japan so I agreed. Apparently I hadn't quite understood everything she said (of course, it wa in Japanese) and in addition to MCing she had asked that I play a song with her band. Once I figured this out I made it clear that, although I would love to do it, I was really out of practice and I would definitely need to get some rehearsal under my belt.
So, today she picked me up and we headed to the studio where her band practices every weekend (Practicing at someone's house is nearly unheard of here. It would annoy the neighbors, and besides few houses have room for that sort of nonsense). Well, it has been at least six months since I even sat behind a drum set and well over three years since I played with a band so I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to pull this off. One good thing was that the song they wanted me to play was a cover, Basketcase by Green Day. As much as I like the song, Green Day is not exactly known for it's complex music. The drummer is pretty good but for someone who has been trying to play Rush, Tool, and Dream Theater for years a Green Day song is not too tough. Still, I was terribly out of practice.
The good news is that I still have my abilities. It was amazing to me how easily I got used to being at the set once again and how quickly I was able to rip out some decent rhythms. The lead guitar and bass player jammed with me for a bit before the lead singer got there which gave me chance to remind my arms and feet of what they were supposed to do. Having downloaded Basketcase and given it a few close listens that morning, I was ready to do it and things went well. In fact, they have asked me to play drums on another song, one of their own, in addition to the Green Day cover.
The bad news is, my chops are gone. Any drummers reading this will completely understand that, but since I'm guessing that number is somewhere around zero I'll explain. For drummers, 'chops' are basically the muscles in your forearms which do nearly all of the work since drumming is done from the wrist and not the elbow (unless you're a really terrible drummer, which I have seen). Whereas, at my height, I was practicing for two or three hours straight without too much trouble I found my right forearm (it does far more work because of the hi-hat and ride cymbal) burning after 25-30 minutes today. It felt like it had swelled to twice it size. Kind of made me sad.
Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to getting back up on a stage and banging on the drums again, even if it is just as a guest drummer. Who knows? Maybe a different band will see me and fire their drummer on the spot. And then pay me copious amounts of money to join.
It could happen.
Turns out, Sumiko had read my little written self-introduction in the town newsletter and had learned from that the fact that I play drums. Well, she is a drummer in a local rock band and they have a show coming up next month. She asked me if I would MC the show and I figured it would be cool to check out a couple of local bands in Japan so I agreed. Apparently I hadn't quite understood everything she said (of course, it wa in Japanese) and in addition to MCing she had asked that I play a song with her band. Once I figured this out I made it clear that, although I would love to do it, I was really out of practice and I would definitely need to get some rehearsal under my belt.
So, today she picked me up and we headed to the studio where her band practices every weekend (Practicing at someone's house is nearly unheard of here. It would annoy the neighbors, and besides few houses have room for that sort of nonsense). Well, it has been at least six months since I even sat behind a drum set and well over three years since I played with a band so I was a bit worried that I wouldn't be able to pull this off. One good thing was that the song they wanted me to play was a cover, Basketcase by Green Day. As much as I like the song, Green Day is not exactly known for it's complex music. The drummer is pretty good but for someone who has been trying to play Rush, Tool, and Dream Theater for years a Green Day song is not too tough. Still, I was terribly out of practice.
The good news is that I still have my abilities. It was amazing to me how easily I got used to being at the set once again and how quickly I was able to rip out some decent rhythms. The lead guitar and bass player jammed with me for a bit before the lead singer got there which gave me chance to remind my arms and feet of what they were supposed to do. Having downloaded Basketcase and given it a few close listens that morning, I was ready to do it and things went well. In fact, they have asked me to play drums on another song, one of their own, in addition to the Green Day cover.
The bad news is, my chops are gone. Any drummers reading this will completely understand that, but since I'm guessing that number is somewhere around zero I'll explain. For drummers, 'chops' are basically the muscles in your forearms which do nearly all of the work since drumming is done from the wrist and not the elbow (unless you're a really terrible drummer, which I have seen). Whereas, at my height, I was practicing for two or three hours straight without too much trouble I found my right forearm (it does far more work because of the hi-hat and ride cymbal) burning after 25-30 minutes today. It felt like it had swelled to twice it size. Kind of made me sad.
Anyhow, I'm really looking forward to getting back up on a stage and banging on the drums again, even if it is just as a guest drummer. Who knows? Maybe a different band will see me and fire their drummer on the spot. And then pay me copious amounts of money to join.
It could happen.
Saturday, November 13, 2004
Thinking on Your Ashi
Ashi means feet in Japanese. Figured I'd go ahead and solve that little mystery for you.
So, Friday I headed to the Elementary school as I always do on Fridays to teach some fun and simple English to little kids. This week I only had two lessons, one with the 5th graders and one with the 6th graders. I had decided to do body parts this time in the hopes that they might not know them all (colors and numbers ended up being just games since they already knew all of them in English). Well, the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is popular here so they know those bits, but I didn't teach all of them. Call me silly but I happen to think that the words arm, hand, leg, and foot and more important than shoulders, knees, and toes. But even without the song they pretty much knew the word 'head' because of soccer. You know, when you use your head. That's called 'head'.
Anyhow, with the 5th graders, after an introduction and a bit of goofiness to keep them interested they seemed to have the hang of the material so we went into a game. Pretty simple. They split into four teams and each team had a pile of papers with images of each of the body parts we had just gone over (with two of the legs, arms, ears, eyes, and hands). I called out a body part and they had to run up, find it, and bring it to me. The first one to deliver it got to put it on the board with a piece of tape in an effort to build a whole body. Everything was going well and when all the kids had had a chance and time was almost up we did our last round, only to end with a four way tie! Well, of course we had to have a tie-breaker but I could see that the next kid for one of the teams was an especially smart kid who has probably had some English tutoring. Didn't seem quite fair to me so I had the teams pick there champion and we had a playoff that way. That one kid won anyhow, but at least I felt better about it. And the other kids didn't seem to mind.
Then, with the sixth graders, I ran into a different problem. Namely, I forgot to bring the tape dispenser with me so we couldn't tape the body parts onto the board. Crisis? Nahhh. I just had them DRAW the parts up there which ended up being even better because we ended up with some wacky, wacky looking partial people. This time however, we didn't have a fair fight with a tie. Instead we had one team which horribly dominated the whole game. It was bad. One team didn't get a single point. Well, the prizes this time were play American money (Thanks Dad!) and everyone on the winning team got one. Then I gave the other teams as many bills as they had points and let them share (or fight, whatever). Still, one team had no points like I said and I felt bad about sending them away empty handed after being so close in a few rounds. So I gave them the 'booby prize'. Since everyone else was getting fake $100 bills, I gave them a fake penny. Again, this was great because the plastic fake coin is apparently far more interesting than the paper fake bill and they felt quite pleased with what they got.
And that's how you teach English! Well, not really. Some people like to do it differently.
So, Friday I headed to the Elementary school as I always do on Fridays to teach some fun and simple English to little kids. This week I only had two lessons, one with the 5th graders and one with the 6th graders. I had decided to do body parts this time in the hopes that they might not know them all (colors and numbers ended up being just games since they already knew all of them in English). Well, the song "Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes" is popular here so they know those bits, but I didn't teach all of them. Call me silly but I happen to think that the words arm, hand, leg, and foot and more important than shoulders, knees, and toes. But even without the song they pretty much knew the word 'head' because of soccer. You know, when you use your head. That's called 'head'.
Anyhow, with the 5th graders, after an introduction and a bit of goofiness to keep them interested they seemed to have the hang of the material so we went into a game. Pretty simple. They split into four teams and each team had a pile of papers with images of each of the body parts we had just gone over (with two of the legs, arms, ears, eyes, and hands). I called out a body part and they had to run up, find it, and bring it to me. The first one to deliver it got to put it on the board with a piece of tape in an effort to build a whole body. Everything was going well and when all the kids had had a chance and time was almost up we did our last round, only to end with a four way tie! Well, of course we had to have a tie-breaker but I could see that the next kid for one of the teams was an especially smart kid who has probably had some English tutoring. Didn't seem quite fair to me so I had the teams pick there champion and we had a playoff that way. That one kid won anyhow, but at least I felt better about it. And the other kids didn't seem to mind.
Then, with the sixth graders, I ran into a different problem. Namely, I forgot to bring the tape dispenser with me so we couldn't tape the body parts onto the board. Crisis? Nahhh. I just had them DRAW the parts up there which ended up being even better because we ended up with some wacky, wacky looking partial people. This time however, we didn't have a fair fight with a tie. Instead we had one team which horribly dominated the whole game. It was bad. One team didn't get a single point. Well, the prizes this time were play American money (Thanks Dad!) and everyone on the winning team got one. Then I gave the other teams as many bills as they had points and let them share (or fight, whatever). Still, one team had no points like I said and I felt bad about sending them away empty handed after being so close in a few rounds. So I gave them the 'booby prize'. Since everyone else was getting fake $100 bills, I gave them a fake penny. Again, this was great because the plastic fake coin is apparently far more interesting than the paper fake bill and they felt quite pleased with what they got.
And that's how you teach English! Well, not really. Some people like to do it differently.
Tuesday, November 09, 2004
3 Months Later...Welcome!
Got to Japan back on July 25th and actually got here in Semine on July 28th, yet tonight, November 9th, I had a welcome party.
Now, you can't totally blame them. It was my adult English conversation class (Eikaiwa) and I was here for quite some time before I ever had my first class. They wanted me to get settled into teaching with assistance before I had to fly solo and I was living here for a couple weeks before the school semester even started. So, by the time I actually started teaching Eikaiwa all of my welcoming events were long gone. And on top of that I only go every other Tuesday so I've only had a handful of classes.
Last time was, of course, two weeks ago so it was right before Halloween. I thought it would be fun to have a little "Halloween Party." I put that in quotes because I figured we would just have some candy, put up a couple of simple decorations, and talk about Halloween and other holidays. I was prepared to center the whole lesson around how to explain a holiday in English. Well, someone managed to get confused (It happens when there's a massive language barrier. I mean, I'm supposed to be the teacher here! Aaaagh!) and they all thought it was my birthday. So there were all kinds of candy and cake and even a gift. I guess this put everyone in the party mood (we didn't have much of a lesson) so they made a group decision that my welcome party would be held during the next class time, which was tonight. So, they took me out for drinks and dinner, and then a little karaoke. Had a good time. Nothing crazy (it IS a school night after all) but a good time.
However, this makes me think of something kind of interesting. Since this is such a small town, it constantly happens that people are connected. A few of my adult students' kids are also my students at Elementary or Junior High. A lot of my Junior High kids have brothers and sisters in the Elementary and Kindergarten. If I go to buy paper towels at the home center, the girl ringing me up may be too old to be a student and too young to be a parent, but (guess what?) her sister is one of my kids. It happens all the time and every day. On the one hand, it is really great and it makes me feel like I'm part of a real community.
On the other hand, it's creepy and it makes me feel like I am always being scrutinized and anything I do will immediately be known by everyone in town. Which is why I like going to Sendai on the weekends. Nobody knows you there and you will see at least a few other foreigners.
Right, so, ummm, welcome parties are fun.
Now, you can't totally blame them. It was my adult English conversation class (Eikaiwa) and I was here for quite some time before I ever had my first class. They wanted me to get settled into teaching with assistance before I had to fly solo and I was living here for a couple weeks before the school semester even started. So, by the time I actually started teaching Eikaiwa all of my welcoming events were long gone. And on top of that I only go every other Tuesday so I've only had a handful of classes.
Last time was, of course, two weeks ago so it was right before Halloween. I thought it would be fun to have a little "Halloween Party." I put that in quotes because I figured we would just have some candy, put up a couple of simple decorations, and talk about Halloween and other holidays. I was prepared to center the whole lesson around how to explain a holiday in English. Well, someone managed to get confused (It happens when there's a massive language barrier. I mean, I'm supposed to be the teacher here! Aaaagh!) and they all thought it was my birthday. So there were all kinds of candy and cake and even a gift. I guess this put everyone in the party mood (we didn't have much of a lesson) so they made a group decision that my welcome party would be held during the next class time, which was tonight. So, they took me out for drinks and dinner, and then a little karaoke. Had a good time. Nothing crazy (it IS a school night after all) but a good time.
However, this makes me think of something kind of interesting. Since this is such a small town, it constantly happens that people are connected. A few of my adult students' kids are also my students at Elementary or Junior High. A lot of my Junior High kids have brothers and sisters in the Elementary and Kindergarten. If I go to buy paper towels at the home center, the girl ringing me up may be too old to be a student and too young to be a parent, but (guess what?) her sister is one of my kids. It happens all the time and every day. On the one hand, it is really great and it makes me feel like I'm part of a real community.
On the other hand, it's creepy and it makes me feel like I am always being scrutinized and anything I do will immediately be known by everyone in town. Which is why I like going to Sendai on the weekends. Nobody knows you there and you will see at least a few other foreigners.
Right, so, ummm, welcome parties are fun.
Monday, November 08, 2004
Scavenger Hunt
When is the last time you went on a Scavenger Hunt? Honestly, I think I was probably about 10 years old. I can't say I remember it all that well but I do seem to think it was pretty fun. As far as I can remember all of the very few Scavenger Hunts I have been on were pretty fun.
And the Miyagi Prefecture JET Scavenger Hunt was no different. We split into groups of about 6 people, got a list of 21 items, and a disposable camera. Then, we had two hours to dart around Sendai and get the best and most creative of the items we could. My team was pretty energetic so we managed to finish all of the pictures, but as it turns out all of the teams finished everything.
It was pretty much a big joke so the list including stuff like "A picture of whole group inside a taxi" which isn't so easy when you're talking about 6 or more people. We also needed a group shot of everyone singing karaoke and fortunately we found a karaoke bar willing to let us dress up in costumes and invade one of their rooms without paying. An employee even took our picture and then straightened up after us. How nice! For our picture of somewhere high we went to the top floor of the tallest building in Sendai and then got on each others shoulders which got us runner up. For somewhere low we just went to the subway which got us nothing. The winners took a picture of themselves counting their change outside a hostess bar. Pretty low. For the picture of the longest piece of string we managed to stretch it across the walkway in front of Sendai Station, which I think you would have to have seen to really believe. Again only runner up because the winners took one picture at Sendai Station and another at the other side of town and made it look as if they had stretched it that far. Inventive, but two pictures. Cheap! We did win the picture for the T-Shirt with the worst English. I can't quite read it from the negatives (they kept the originals to put in the Miyagi JET magazine) but it was something like "Behold the edible flow of all which going into tomorrow leaves us now. How nice!" We managed to garner a runner-up for the photo of random foreigners since we had two and also a runner-up for the photo of Japanese school boys kissing group members. We had three guys kissing two of our girls on the cheeks which was cute. However, we lost because James managed to kiss a Japanese school boy on the mouth, or at least make it look like he did. Which is weird. Our group re-enactment of the Abbey Road cover was apparently the most unoriginal thing we could have done so that won nothing, espcially after seeing the winners re-enactment of the Iwo Jima photo using the flag from the Sendai soccer team. But we did win for the group shot in a men's restroom since there were just enough urinals for everyone to stand at. Of course, we got some odd looks coming out of there. Still, it was nice of that guy to put out his cigarette and take the photo.
Anyhow, once everyone turned in their cameras we had a little time to kill and then we all met up for dinner and the awards ceremony. It was dinner and drinks while the announced the winner in each of the 21 categories and then passed around all of the photos. Our group did all right, probably coming in 3rd of 5. Great fun.
Who says JET isn't a serious job?
And the Miyagi Prefecture JET Scavenger Hunt was no different. We split into groups of about 6 people, got a list of 21 items, and a disposable camera. Then, we had two hours to dart around Sendai and get the best and most creative of the items we could. My team was pretty energetic so we managed to finish all of the pictures, but as it turns out all of the teams finished everything.
It was pretty much a big joke so the list including stuff like "A picture of whole group inside a taxi" which isn't so easy when you're talking about 6 or more people. We also needed a group shot of everyone singing karaoke and fortunately we found a karaoke bar willing to let us dress up in costumes and invade one of their rooms without paying. An employee even took our picture and then straightened up after us. How nice! For our picture of somewhere high we went to the top floor of the tallest building in Sendai and then got on each others shoulders which got us runner up. For somewhere low we just went to the subway which got us nothing. The winners took a picture of themselves counting their change outside a hostess bar. Pretty low. For the picture of the longest piece of string we managed to stretch it across the walkway in front of Sendai Station, which I think you would have to have seen to really believe. Again only runner up because the winners took one picture at Sendai Station and another at the other side of town and made it look as if they had stretched it that far. Inventive, but two pictures. Cheap! We did win the picture for the T-Shirt with the worst English. I can't quite read it from the negatives (they kept the originals to put in the Miyagi JET magazine) but it was something like "Behold the edible flow of all which going into tomorrow leaves us now. How nice!" We managed to garner a runner-up for the photo of random foreigners since we had two and also a runner-up for the photo of Japanese school boys kissing group members. We had three guys kissing two of our girls on the cheeks which was cute. However, we lost because James managed to kiss a Japanese school boy on the mouth, or at least make it look like he did. Which is weird. Our group re-enactment of the Abbey Road cover was apparently the most unoriginal thing we could have done so that won nothing, espcially after seeing the winners re-enactment of the Iwo Jima photo using the flag from the Sendai soccer team. But we did win for the group shot in a men's restroom since there were just enough urinals for everyone to stand at. Of course, we got some odd looks coming out of there. Still, it was nice of that guy to put out his cigarette and take the photo.
Anyhow, once everyone turned in their cameras we had a little time to kill and then we all met up for dinner and the awards ceremony. It was dinner and drinks while the announced the winner in each of the 21 categories and then passed around all of the photos. Our group did all right, probably coming in 3rd of 5. Great fun.
Who says JET isn't a serious job?
Thursday, November 04, 2004
Alien vs. Predator
I may write something about the election this weekend, but frankly right now I don't want to deal with it. If the majority of Americans are actually stupid enough to want someone who has concretely proven that they are bad for everyone and everything to be president then whatever. Good for them. I'm gainfully employed on the other side of the world suckers.
The rest of this post is basically a movie review so if you're not interested stop now or at least don't hold it against me if you feel like it was a waste of your time.
Anyhow, on a lighter note, I watched Alien vs. Predator tonight and I actually really liked it. Now I have to validate that statement since the movie is obviously a piece of crap. See, I not only wanted to watch this movie, but I had really been looking forward to it for a while. I've always been a fan of both series of movies. Alien is probably the best combination of horror and sci-fi ever. Aliens is definitely one of the best action flicks of all time. Never cared much for Alien 3 but I've been told repeatedly to see it again. And although many might disagree, I thought Alien: Resurrection was pretty cool. I mean, come on! It was made by the guy who did Amelie! The Predator movies were considerably lighter on plot but still cool. The first one featured Arnold back when he was still cool and the second had Danny Glover when he wasn't too old for this s**t. So yeah, I really liked the movies. Throw on top of all that the excellent comic book Alien vs. Predator which Dark Horse Comics put out back when both franchises were still relatively popular and of course I wanted to see this movie.
Now, like I said, the comic book was excellent. It not only took care to maintain the mythology created in the films, but actually built upon it in order to make the creatures more interesting. But as we all know, a great comic being made into a movie usually means a terrible movie. And sometimes a terrible comic book can make some pretty cool movies. So, I figured they would screw this up and do something just awful.
Well, they screwed it up of course, but the movie was still great fun. Obviously whoever wrote the screenplay had read the comic books, and then decided to chuck that script right out. They kept some basic elements but that's all in. In the comics, the whole thing takes place on an alien world around a farming community of humans far, far from Earth. This gives a thorough sense of isolation and a bit of wonder. In the movie, they must not have wanted to mess with making the audience figure anything out or making some kind of alien set. Probably for the best, since they would have almost certainly used tons of CGI which would have looked horrible. So instead, this time it all happens in Antarctica. Cheap sets! Just lots of snow!
Okay, so here's what I thought. You want plot? Forget it. Whatever plot there is is pretty darn weak and occasionally nonsense (How did a dozen people birth a hundred aliens?). For the most part it can all be summed up by the title. Not entirely since the title is Alien vs. Predator, with both words being singular. In fact, there are several Predators and bunches of Aliens. Hope I didn't ruin the surprise. You want acting? Ha ha ha ha ah aha ha! Whew. That's a good one. However, if you'd like to see some decent action wherein a whole bunch of Aliens fight a few Predators then this is the film for you! Somehow the Predators are bigger now than when we've seen them. And somehow the Aliens prove to be a much tougher adversary for the Predators than one might expect (especially compared to the comics, but who read those things?). But you still get some butt kicking and if that's not the only reason you're watching this then you have some sort of problem.
And besides, Lance Henriksen is in it. And he was one of the best things about Aliens so it was pretty neat that they got him in there.
So, there. I liked the stupid thing. Even though the guy sitting in front of whoever filmed it in the theater with a camcorder was a bit too tall and I could see the silhouette of the top of his head the whole time. The nerve of that guy. Didn't he know that this thing was going to be spread all over the internet? Sheesh.
2.5 stars out of 4
Fans of the series (which probably includes every guy of my generation) should watch it. Acid blood! ACID BLOOD!!!
Next time I may review the book I just finished, The Once and Future King by T. H. White. See, I can be intellectual too.
The rest of this post is basically a movie review so if you're not interested stop now or at least don't hold it against me if you feel like it was a waste of your time.
Anyhow, on a lighter note, I watched Alien vs. Predator tonight and I actually really liked it. Now I have to validate that statement since the movie is obviously a piece of crap. See, I not only wanted to watch this movie, but I had really been looking forward to it for a while. I've always been a fan of both series of movies. Alien is probably the best combination of horror and sci-fi ever. Aliens is definitely one of the best action flicks of all time. Never cared much for Alien 3 but I've been told repeatedly to see it again. And although many might disagree, I thought Alien: Resurrection was pretty cool. I mean, come on! It was made by the guy who did Amelie! The Predator movies were considerably lighter on plot but still cool. The first one featured Arnold back when he was still cool and the second had Danny Glover when he wasn't too old for this s**t. So yeah, I really liked the movies. Throw on top of all that the excellent comic book Alien vs. Predator which Dark Horse Comics put out back when both franchises were still relatively popular and of course I wanted to see this movie.
Now, like I said, the comic book was excellent. It not only took care to maintain the mythology created in the films, but actually built upon it in order to make the creatures more interesting. But as we all know, a great comic being made into a movie usually means a terrible movie. And sometimes a terrible comic book can make some pretty cool movies. So, I figured they would screw this up and do something just awful.
Well, they screwed it up of course, but the movie was still great fun. Obviously whoever wrote the screenplay had read the comic books, and then decided to chuck that script right out. They kept some basic elements but that's all in. In the comics, the whole thing takes place on an alien world around a farming community of humans far, far from Earth. This gives a thorough sense of isolation and a bit of wonder. In the movie, they must not have wanted to mess with making the audience figure anything out or making some kind of alien set. Probably for the best, since they would have almost certainly used tons of CGI which would have looked horrible. So instead, this time it all happens in Antarctica. Cheap sets! Just lots of snow!
Okay, so here's what I thought. You want plot? Forget it. Whatever plot there is is pretty darn weak and occasionally nonsense (How did a dozen people birth a hundred aliens?). For the most part it can all be summed up by the title. Not entirely since the title is Alien vs. Predator, with both words being singular. In fact, there are several Predators and bunches of Aliens. Hope I didn't ruin the surprise. You want acting? Ha ha ha ha ah aha ha! Whew. That's a good one. However, if you'd like to see some decent action wherein a whole bunch of Aliens fight a few Predators then this is the film for you! Somehow the Predators are bigger now than when we've seen them. And somehow the Aliens prove to be a much tougher adversary for the Predators than one might expect (especially compared to the comics, but who read those things?). But you still get some butt kicking and if that's not the only reason you're watching this then you have some sort of problem.
And besides, Lance Henriksen is in it. And he was one of the best things about Aliens so it was pretty neat that they got him in there.
So, there. I liked the stupid thing. Even though the guy sitting in front of whoever filmed it in the theater with a camcorder was a bit too tall and I could see the silhouette of the top of his head the whole time. The nerve of that guy. Didn't he know that this thing was going to be spread all over the internet? Sheesh.
2.5 stars out of 4
Fans of the series (which probably includes every guy of my generation) should watch it. Acid blood! ACID BLOOD!!!
Next time I may review the book I just finished, The Once and Future King by T. H. White. See, I can be intellectual too.
Tuesday, November 02, 2004
Halloween and an Internet Election
How odd. Here I am writing a post that deals with two things:
1. a day when people dress up, wander all over their town chanting strange things and gather with other people for parties to celebrate the day
2. Halloween
Heh. You like how I did that? Well, if not then just don't mention it.
So, I realize this is not in chronological order but I'm going to go ahead and hit up the election first. This is, obviously, the first time I have ever lived in a foreign country during a presidential election. It is also the first time I have actually spent the last few years paying attention to the news instead of just chatting with people whose roommates overheard something on TV the day before. So, here I am actually caring about this a great deal, and I'm on the other side of the world getting all my info from the internet.
Fortunately, today (Wednesday) is Cultural Day (Bunka no Hi) in Japan so it's a national holiday and the schools are closed. While you in America may be staying up late to watch the returns, I'm sitting here 13 hours in the future in the afternoon of the next day listening to them via Internet radio. I also have a couple of websites showing the results as they come in up so in all likelihood I'm getting my info as fast as you. Still seems odd and disconnected.
Oh boy, and they just called Florida for Bush. Wow. I may not be able to eat lunch now. That's great. Hmmm.... How many years can I stay in the JET program? And is 2 PM too early to start drinking?
Okay, enough of that horribly depressing nonsense, let's talk about candy.
So on Halloween I headed down to a small town called Murata where I
REALLY HOPE BUSH DOESN'T WIN!
ahem, went to a party with a bunch of the other JETs from Miyagi. As you can see from the pictures below (Go ahead and scroll down there and look. No, really. I mean now. Take a peek.) I went as Bill S. Preston Esq. from the band Wyld Stallyns! And if you don't know what movie that's from then you're obviously not an Alex Winter fan. And if you can't figure out who he is then you obviously don't know about http://www.imdb.com And if you don't know how to use that, then you obviously don't know what the internet is. And if you don't know what the internet is then, ummm, how exactly are you reading this again?
Oh, all right. I went as Bill from the excellent movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
As for the hat you see below, I did that myself. I mean, I bought the hat and I was a bit miffed that I was never able to find a plain red hat and had to settle for that one. Then I found the design online, printed it out at school, bought some paint markers in Sendai, cut the letters out of the design I printed, used it as a stencil to make the orange outlines (after freehanding the blue spiral in the background) and then went from there. I basically sat in front of my computer for about four hours working on that since each color needed four or five coats and I had to wait for them to dry in between. But I think it turned out rather nicely.
Unfortunately, that movie was apparently only popular in America. So all of the Canadians, Britons, Irish, Australian, and Other JETs at the party thought I was supposed to be a trucker. Especially when I was drinking beer. Disappointing, but I really can't complain. I picked the costume because it would be easy and all I really did was make the hat. I didn't even get the yellow t-shirt to make it accurate. Maybe if I'd had that...
That was on Saturday, Halloween Eve or Halloweeneen. On Sunday, Halloween proper, I went to the ECC Halloween party in my town. ECC is an organization that teaches, trains, and certifies people to be private English teachers from their home and there's one in Semine. She's super nice, and her youngest daughter is actually one of my 2nd grade Junior High students. So, I go over there on Saturday for English conversation with her and two other ECC teachers, as well as a bit of private Japanese instruction and help. Well, most of her students are also students of mine at Junior High and Elementary so she invited me to the party. It was fun. But you know how these things are. It was designed around things like 'learning' and 'English' instead of candy and fear. So, to me it seemed like an odd party. But since the Japanese kids have never been to a regular Halloween party they didn't know and they all had a great time.
I'll post pictures of both parties on my photo site soon.
1. a day when people dress up, wander all over their town chanting strange things and gather with other people for parties to celebrate the day
2. Halloween
Heh. You like how I did that? Well, if not then just don't mention it.
So, I realize this is not in chronological order but I'm going to go ahead and hit up the election first. This is, obviously, the first time I have ever lived in a foreign country during a presidential election. It is also the first time I have actually spent the last few years paying attention to the news instead of just chatting with people whose roommates overheard something on TV the day before. So, here I am actually caring about this a great deal, and I'm on the other side of the world getting all my info from the internet.
Fortunately, today (Wednesday) is Cultural Day (Bunka no Hi) in Japan so it's a national holiday and the schools are closed. While you in America may be staying up late to watch the returns, I'm sitting here 13 hours in the future in the afternoon of the next day listening to them via Internet radio. I also have a couple of websites showing the results as they come in up so in all likelihood I'm getting my info as fast as you. Still seems odd and disconnected.
Oh boy, and they just called Florida for Bush. Wow. I may not be able to eat lunch now. That's great. Hmmm.... How many years can I stay in the JET program? And is 2 PM too early to start drinking?
Okay, enough of that horribly depressing nonsense, let's talk about candy.
So on Halloween I headed down to a small town called Murata where I
REALLY HOPE BUSH DOESN'T WIN!
ahem, went to a party with a bunch of the other JETs from Miyagi. As you can see from the pictures below (Go ahead and scroll down there and look. No, really. I mean now. Take a peek.) I went as Bill S. Preston Esq. from the band Wyld Stallyns! And if you don't know what movie that's from then you're obviously not an Alex Winter fan. And if you can't figure out who he is then you obviously don't know about http://www.imdb.com And if you don't know how to use that, then you obviously don't know what the internet is. And if you don't know what the internet is then, ummm, how exactly are you reading this again?
Oh, all right. I went as Bill from the excellent movie Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure.
As for the hat you see below, I did that myself. I mean, I bought the hat and I was a bit miffed that I was never able to find a plain red hat and had to settle for that one. Then I found the design online, printed it out at school, bought some paint markers in Sendai, cut the letters out of the design I printed, used it as a stencil to make the orange outlines (after freehanding the blue spiral in the background) and then went from there. I basically sat in front of my computer for about four hours working on that since each color needed four or five coats and I had to wait for them to dry in between. But I think it turned out rather nicely.
Unfortunately, that movie was apparently only popular in America. So all of the Canadians, Britons, Irish, Australian, and Other JETs at the party thought I was supposed to be a trucker. Especially when I was drinking beer. Disappointing, but I really can't complain. I picked the costume because it would be easy and all I really did was make the hat. I didn't even get the yellow t-shirt to make it accurate. Maybe if I'd had that...
That was on Saturday, Halloween Eve or Halloweeneen. On Sunday, Halloween proper, I went to the ECC Halloween party in my town. ECC is an organization that teaches, trains, and certifies people to be private English teachers from their home and there's one in Semine. She's super nice, and her youngest daughter is actually one of my 2nd grade Junior High students. So, I go over there on Saturday for English conversation with her and two other ECC teachers, as well as a bit of private Japanese instruction and help. Well, most of her students are also students of mine at Junior High and Elementary so she invited me to the party. It was fun. But you know how these things are. It was designed around things like 'learning' and 'English' instead of candy and fear. So, to me it seemed like an odd party. But since the Japanese kids have never been to a regular Halloween party they didn't know and they all had a great time.
I'll post pictures of both parties on my photo site soon.
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