Kireina Kirishima

Assume that it's December 11, 2012 as I'm typing this.  That'll help put things into perspective a little.

Even after living here for three months, I’m still captivated by Kirishima’s beauty.  There is so much green, and it’s everywhere.  The mountains I’m used to are snow-capped and barren, which, I admit, are still very beautiful.  Not here in Kirishima.  Every bit of space on a mountain is covered in thick green forest.  I honestly can’t believe how many trees can fit on every one.  The only mountains that aren’t tree-covered are the volcanoes.  Sakurajima is definitely the most popular of the three main volcanoes in this city.  It’s frequently active, and often greets those living around it with a burp or two.  In the summer, ash from Sakurajima drifts over to the west towards Kagoshima City.  In the winter, the ash floats over to the east towards Kanoya.  And then there is the occasional burp that sends ash flying toward Kirishima, but that only happened once that I’ve witnessed (indirectly, as I’m up in the mountains, but my fellow ALTs live by the sea in Hayato and Kokubu).

There is another volcano to the northeast of Kirishima, called Mt. Kirishima.  I get a clear glimpse of it every time I drive to Kirishima Junior High School.  There is a huge park with a long hiking route all around the volcano.  Most of it is closed off due to an eruption that happened a couple years ago.  I’m waiting for it to be reopened so I can go hiking up there for a day.

A few weeks ago, the rice fields were harvested, and now the fields are a beautiful golden yellow.  That and the newly begun kouyou (changing of leaves from green to yellow to red), and Makizono is starting to look like a colourful mosaic.  I’ve heard that kouyou is most spectacular in Kyoto, and it will be at its height when I go there in two weeks.

The weather has gotten a lot colder in the past week and a half, and I found that I was not prepared for it in the least with my plethora of tank tops and lighter clothing.  I just recently went shopping to battle the cold with new turtlenecks, a cardigan and a vest.  There is no heating in any of my schools, and since it can be a bit pricy, I try to spare the use of my heater in my apartment.  Now is the time of year when people dress in layers.  I go to school wearing a tank top, a long sleeved undershirt, a turtleneck, a cardigan, thin under-pants (I mean pants that I wear under my work pants), ankle socks, knee-high socks, and my work pants.  And even then, I’m still cold.  Maybe I should pig out on junk food and store up some fat for the winter.

On the way to Kirishima JHS, with Mt. Kirishima in the background.

Makizono looking northwest

Makizono looking southwest.

Hayato Festival: WHOOOAH!!!

Long time no update!  Things got pretty busy, so I haven't been able to keep up the blog so well.  But I did send updates home to my family last month and managed to save them all.

Assume that it is December 11, 2012.  That's help put things into perspective a little.

A few weeks ago, the other Kirishima ALTs and I went to a festival in Hayato (the southwestern part of Kirishima).  It came to us as a surprise as this is the first year that ALTs were allowed to participate.  I’m not too sure why they like us so much…

            I woke up at 5am just to get dressed, eat breakfast, and have a cup of coffee, before heading down to the Board of Education (the BOE, for short).  Once we were all accounted for (one guy was late. He’s almost never on time for anything), we drove up to the Kagoshima shrine, which is located in Kirishima.  I’m not sure why they called it the Kagoshima shrine because it’s not in Kagoshima city, but there’re a lot of things I don’t understand.  So there we were, at an elementary school nearby, and laid out before us was samurai gear!  That’s right, we dressed up as samurais.  The mens’ armour was quite heavy, and helmet was a pain to wear over a long period of time.  The female armour wasn’t nearly as bad.  We wore layers upon layers, so you can imagine how hot it got with the sun shining at its fullest like a typical summer’s day in Canada.  I didn’t have any sunscreen (as usual), so my face turned beat red in the hot sun.

            At the shrine, there was a ceremonial thing, and then we all paraded down on a long 8km walk down to the sea.  Now, normally a walk like that wouldn’t be so bad, but you should’ve seen the footwear we had.  They were sandals made from string that was woven together.  I couldn’t go jogging the following day because my feet were still sore.  So there we were parading, and occasionally (which means all the time), us women would shout out a chant... “Chesto ike! Oh!  Chesto!  Oh!  Chesto!  Oooohhh!”  That made the walk much more exciting, and the other two female ALTs and I got to lead the chant quite a few times.

            Periodically, we would stop and watch as the priests did a special ritual with a flute song and slow dancing.  There was a lot of standing up, sitting down, standing up, sitting down, and bowing.  (I didn’t bow because of my Christian values, but it was challenging not to with everyone around me doing it, especially considering it was a great honour to participate in the festival in the first place.)

            At long last, we reached the sea, and there was yet another ceremony where the priests, and even one of the ALTs, put a fish in the water.  I’m not sure exactly what it signifies, but it probably has something to do with giving back to the gods.

            Overall, despite how tired I was afterwards, it was a great time, and a worthwhile experience.

Using Japanese?!

The past couple weeks in Kirishima 霧島 have been crazy awesome gong show of elementary fun!  That's right.  I've had nothing but elementary schools.  Japanese kids are some of the cutest I've ever seen.  I had plenty of practice using my Japanese at these schools because none of the teachers really knew any English.  I also got the hang of doing my self-introduction 自己紹介 (jikoushokai) half in English and half in Japanese.  I'm also playing futsol once a week in Kokubu, with almost all men, and now that my Japanese is getting better, and I'm starting to understand a lot more, I've been able to talk a bit with the guys.  I found out that all of the ones on my team that night were foresters, one lives in Kokubu, and I told them that I was an English teacher teaching at 18 schools in northern Kirishima, and that I lived in Makizono.

Now that I apparently am learning more Japanese, sometimes my instant reaction to a circumstance comes out in Japanese instead of English.  For example, a couple weeks ago, I was driving using my GPS and I ended up on some road I didn't know.  I blurted out 何だ！(nan da!) which means "What?!" in English.  Sometimes a small phrase such as "doko da" (where is this place <--rough translation) or Soo desu ka? ("Oh really?") will come out instead of its English equivalent.

So I can safely say that "I think I'm turning Japanese, I think I'm turning Japanese, I really think soooooo!"

Gifu, me loves you...

I spent the long weekend in Gifu and I have to say, just getting there was an adventurous task.  Earlier in the week, I booked my ticket, which took a few tries because I couldn't find the special confirmation number to pay for it at the コンビニ (convenience store).

After a freakishly busy week, and with a wallet full of cash, I was off to the airport on Friday to fly to Osaka.  I felt pretty technologically advanced because I could pull up the bar code for my boarding pass on my phone.  You scan the bar code and out pops your boarding pass like a receipt.  Next was a grueling flight.  At long last (which means one hour), the plane landed in Osaka.  Never before have I had to take a bus to an airport terminal.  It was quite something.  I then scuttled on over to get my train ticket, and proceeded to the platform for a ridiculous 2-hour train ride.  By the time I met up with my friend (who's from Victoria), it was about 11:30pm and I was dead tired.  However, I had to stay awake enough to communicate (or simply listen) to my talkative friend for the half an hour drive to her apartment.

We planned to go to Kyoto on Saturday, but I woke up late and we didn't get there till mid-afternoon, time enough to walk, see a temple, take the subway, and walk some more.  The temples and museums close at around 6pm, unfortunately, so we were left to walking, buying overpriced pizza, and visiting a craft store that sold various trinkets and other accessories.  My friend spent a long while admiring the expensive fans, while I browsed everything and then waited "patiently" for her to finish.  That was all we got to do in Kyoto, and we had an hour-long ordeal getting her car out of a closed parking lot back in Gifu.  Fun, fun.

Sunday was a temple-carrying festival, which mostly consisted of standing around, socializing, and drinking.  Despite how utterly pointless the festival seemed with all the standing around we did, it was a really good time.  About half the men there were drunk or close to being drunk by the end of it (our group leader was hammered half an hour into the two-hour festival).  I could tell this by how the shrines were carried in a zigzagged, wobbly fashion instead of a straight line.  The Japanese sure like their liquor.

Afterwards, we had an enkai (social party) with nomihodai (all you can drink) and appetizers.  It was a good opportunity for me to try using my (broken) Japanese.  Honestly, I enjoyed the festival much more than I enjoyed going to Kyoto.

The Boyfriend Question, Love Confessions, and Awkward Staring

I don't know how I'm gonna sum up three weeks in one update, but I'll give it a go.

These last three weeks have been eventful but not really.  Eventful because I've now been to all four of my main junior high schools and a kindergarten; not really because I've been teaching the same self-intro lesson  for every class.  I mentioned in my last update that Japanese students are very energetic.  Contrary to popular belief, Japan has its fair share of naughty, rowdy students that talk during class, sleep during class, and show a strong disinterest in learning certain subjects.  However, most of my students seem thrilled to have a foreigner in the classroom, and for mixed reasons.  The girls think I'm pretty, the boys find me beautiful, and this leads to some pretty interesting conversations (besides just favourite food and sports).

A common, and often personal question for foreigners, is "Do you have a boyfriend?"  Of course, I always answer, "No", and most students seem rather disappointed, like there's nothing more to talk about (which certainly makes me happy I'm single).  But one girl in particular had a rather hard time believing that I didn't have one.  She asked me twice in class, and even during lunch time, to which I replied with a definite "No".  Once she was convinced of this, she pointed to a boy that was sitting in our group and said, "He is a nice boy."  I simply replied with an, "oh, okay," and left it at that.

But wait, there's more.  One way to divert the boyfriend question if it makes you feel uncomfortable is to ask if the student has a boyfriend.  I wholly expected this one girl to feel embarrassed, but she enthusiastically stood up, ran over to the other side of the classroom, and pointed out a particular boy that she happened to be "dating".  This boy kept shaking his head and waving his hand for "No, no, no," but this one outgoing (and rather obnoxious) girl was persistent that she was indeed going out with this boy.  The next day, I had lunch with her best friend's class and this friend claimed she liked a tall boy in third year (about 10th grade in North America).  She, too, posed the boyfriend question.

So I've gotten a fair amount of boyfriend questions, but the fun doesn't stop there.  I mentioned before that many of the boys think I'm beautiful.  Most won't admit it, but there is the occasional loud-mouthed outgoing fellow in the classroom who feels a strong urge to voice his opinion.  Here's a couple of scenarios:

1. At Yokogawa - On my first day of teaching, one of the second graders (about grade 9), stood up and said, "Kellie-sensei, you are very pretty!"  Very flattering, but not for my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English, who conducts the majority of the English lessons).  She responded in Japanese with something along the lines of "Eeeeee?!  What about me?!"
2. At Mizobe - On my third day of classes, I took off my cowboy hat and one of the loud students in second grade said, "Cutie!!!"  He wanted to walk me back to the teacher's room, but my JTE wouldn't let him.
3. At Kirishima - Let's just say that I think the male students in second year were more interested in the fact that I was wearing a skirt than what I was talking about.  That was a pretty awkward class.
4. At Makizono - The love confession during lunch.  One of the boys in third year, who calls himself Mr. Crazy, asked if I liked him.  I replied with, "I like all of my students."  After a bit of chuckling and giggling from the entire class, he then said, "I love you."  The rest of the class who heard him, including me, laughed quite a bit at that statement, too.  Wittingly, I replied, "Thank you."  More laughing.  Mr. Crazy then asked me if I liked another boy who was sitting in a different group.  I replied again with, "I like all of my students."  I think he got the memo after that.

Okay, now that you've all had a good laugh, let's change gears a little.  And when I say a little, I mean a little.  As a foreigner, I obviously stand out.  This leads to almost everyone staring at me,doing double or even triple takes to make sure they did indeed see a foreigner in their midst.  Children and adults alike will stare at me as long as they have to to believe that I'm real.  Children and elderly people have no fear: they will continue to stare even when you look back at them.  For example, the first time I went to A-Z (a massive Walmart store), a kid no more than two years old was whining, sitting in a shopping cart (which, by the way, are small).  I walked passed him and he immediately stopped crying and stared at me.  I have to say, I felt quite exalted for shutting up someone's kid.  Other adults are a little more discreet.  Last weekend, Cory (the other Canadian ALT) and I took the train back from Kagoshima City to Kirishima.  On the train was a man in his twenty's and he constantly stared at me all the way back.  The only times he looked away was when I looked up at him, and he would quickly avert his gaze.  Cory joked that it's amazing he didn't burn a hole in my head with how intently he was staring.  Rather comical experience, but at the time, it was pretty awkward.

So there's my little update.  Hope you enjoyed the read because those were definitely some of the highlights of these past three weeks.  I may update later in the week again with news on Sport's Day and playing futsol with a bunch of men.  Stay tuned!

P.S. Sorry for the lack of photos, but there's a bit of a confidentiality thing with the schools and it wouldn't feel right putting them up on a public blog site.

Good Gosh Culture Shock! Garbage and Over-Packaging

Japan is all about efficiency right down to its garbage.  They sort and recycle everything!  So far, I have three bags: one for a vast assortment of plastic recycling, one for burnable garbage (whatever THAT means…), and one for non-burnable garbage (again, I really don’t know what constitutes as non-burnable).  On top of that, I have a box full of plastic bottles and a growing pile of cardboard.  And that pretty much sums up about half of the categories of separating garbage.

It doesn’t end at home, though.  At McDonald’s (yes, the worldwide food chain has actually made it around the world), there are different garbage cans and a place to dump the ice from your drink.  It may seem daunting to have to separate your trash at a fast food restaurant, but there are places, like the popular burger chain, Mos Burger, where you bring your tray to the employees and they deal with it for you.

Just about as ridiculous as the garbage system here is the immense use of plastic.  The Japanese are unknowingly, notorious for over-packaging.  When getting groceries, I not only have bags for my food, but bags within bags.  And those extra bags aren’t for the overpriced fruit!  A pack of four batteries looks pretty normal, but when you open it, there is another tight plastic wrapping around all of the batteries.  My fellow Canadian ALT bought a KitKat in which all of the chocolate sticks were individually wrapped.

In terms of longing for my home country, garbage and over-packaging are the two areas where I’m experiencing a rather comical side of negative culture shock.  I’m in euphoria for everything else, at least until I have to eat natto or fish heads for lunch.

Genki Kids!

Japanese kids are very genki (energetic)!  I met a lot of them when I went to my first school yesterday:  Yokogawa-chuo 横川中.  The opening ceremony was the strangest thing I’d ever witnessed.  I introduced myself first in Japanese.  After my initial Hajimemashite and a bow, the students were dead silent and bowed back.  I proceeded awkwardly with the rest of my self-intro.  Not a peep or facial expression from the students.  The rest of the ceremony was spent singing the Yokogawa song, giving a few speeches, and giving out awards.

Afterwards, I was technically supposed to go back to the Board of Education in Hayato, but my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) asked if I would eat lunch with the students.  I agreed.

Students in elementary and junior high school eat lunch, which is provided from them, together and they all start at the same time with hands together in “prayer fashion” and a loud “Itadakimasu!”  Today’s lunch was a rice-soup-thing.  I really don’t know how else to describe it except for a massive bowl of rice and chicken soup.  We had various bowls: one big one of rice; another with soup broth, chicken and assorted veggies; and another with some shredded vegetable I had never seen before.  I watched the students as they put everything into the rice bowl and followed suite, and then…ate it with chopsticks?!  I have to tell you, I never thought it was possible to eat soupy rice with chopsticks, but somehow I managed to “ungracefully” shove it all into my mouth.  As if that wasn’t enough calories to fill me up, there was also a small carton of milk, a strong-tasting apple-flavoured Jello, and a small packet of cheese.  The packet of cheese looked like something you would see at a Chinese restaurant, like a soya sauce packet, but with cheese inside.

Overall, it was a fun experience and I look forward to more exciting lunches...as long as it’s not sashimi or some other raw creature.