On Generosity

The other day I had no classes in the afternoon, and was trying very hard not to fall asleep at my desk, struggling to think of ways to keep myself alert, when the science teacher came over and offered me a dish of homemade yogurt. This is the fourth time in about a week that he’s brought his homemade yogurt to share with the entire staffroom. Times like these I think about how lucky I am to be here and in such a warm, friendly school.

Japanese people are overwhelmingly generous and hospitable, in a way that’s so engrained that thoughtfulness doesn’t even get a second thought. Take the science teacher, for instance. I had barely spoken to him at school before I ran into him at a local arts festival. He came with his wife, who had been invited by a friend of mine, the leader of her English conversation group. We chatted for a bit, both surprised to see each other outside of the staff room. The following Monday, he came by my desk to say – rather, read; he had prepared what he wanted to say on a piece of paper – that he enjoyed the arts festival and my set with Anthony; he said we had very good singing voices. He then asked if I liked Japanese culture (of course!), and lent me a book about traditional Japanese things like rock gardens, paper fans and soba noodles, written in both English and Japanese. Awesome, right?? Later he gave me some photographs he had taken at the event, and he gave gifts to my mom and aunt when they visited. Now he regularly comes and asks “can I talk with you?” whenever he’s looking for a chance to practice his English.

Last time he came over to chat was the time he brought the yogurt. He then asked me if I liked movies. He told me he had recently watched a Johnny Depp film with his family, and then mentioned another Japanese film, wondering if I had heard of it. I wasn’t sure until he began explaining the premise of the comedy – a man from ancient Rome is somehow transported to Japan. “Oh! I saw a preview…” hm. Would he be familiar with the word “preview”? “Chotto matte” (wait a minute) – and he ran back to his desk. To fetch his dictionary, I assumed. Nope. He came back with his iPad, and before I knew it he was pulling up the trailer and hitting play and we were watching it in the middle of the staffroom. Students coming in and out to ask teachers questions, teachers bustling by, busy with photocopying and lesson prep no doubt. And here we are, watching a trailer that is primarily made up of comedic scenes of men in bathhouses. But every other teacher who stopped to look at what we were watching immediately said, “ah, Thermae Romae! Funny movie. You should see it.”

Instances of generosity don’t stop there. There was the time my school nurse kindly helped me fix up my busted lip (*snowboarding incident*), and didn’t even laugh TOO much at my ridiculous-looking face. There was the time my school invited not only me but my mom and aunt as well to join the second-graders on their school trip to Hiraizumi. Or the time an elementary school secretary gave me her fan because I commented that it was nice. I tried to refuse, but she wouldn’t hear of it. Lesson learned: be careful with your compliments? Now whenever I compliment someone on something they have I get worried that they’re going to turn around and give it to me. There was also the time someone from my English conversation group sent me home with a loaf of fresh bakery bread and homemade jam because I had remarked that I missed the bread from home. Or when that same lady asked for my aunt and my mom to stay overnight at her house, and then treated them to a private onsen visit the next day while I had to work. Or the woman in a Kamakura cafe who gave us paper cranes made my her mother and told us to enjoy Japan.

I could go on. But basically Japan is pretty freakin generous and I never feel like I can quite repay it.

From the classroom, lunchroom and halls

My students crack me up daily. They are honestly the best part of my days, weeks, and life here.

For one thing, they are endlessly creative in their translations to English.  "Japanese speedy-speak" for "Japanese tongue twisters", "my foot was shocking" to describe how their feet fell asleep in Buddhist temple meditation, and "playing human watching" to describe the act of people-watching.

Sometimes it's just passing comments.

(at an elementary school)
me: How are you??
little boy: I'm CANDY!!!

(junior high - supposed to find a way to ask a teacher what they did on spring vacation)
"Do you spring vacation?"
(teacher relates the proper question to him) "What did you do on your spring vacation?"
"Yes I am!!"

(conversation in the hall with one of my junior high boys, who has clearly met me many times before)
"Hello!".
"Hello."
"Uhhhh...nice to meet you."
"Nice to meet you too."
"I am...nice body!!!"
"oh."

I had a boy hand in a written assignment that said he got drunk on the bus on the class trip...but my teacher told me the Japanese sometimes translate the same word for "drunk" as "sick". That was an interesting one to figure out.

Sometimes they get creative with names.

Sometimes they mishear my English - today, instead of "at the end of April", they got "endless April", which they thought was hilarious. Everything in that class became "endless" - "endless April", "endless worksheet" (or something) and finally the classic "I am endless boy!"

One day at lunch one of my third-years decided it would be a good idea to make his regular milk into strawberry milk by mashing up his strawberry inside the carton. He enlisted his friends' help by asking for scissors so he could cut a hole in the top, which turned out to be a bit too small. Instead of fixing it he just set to work poking at the berry with his straw, attempting to squish it into his drink. During this process he squirted milk onto his school uniform. Panic ensued. His friend calmed the chaos by whipping something out of his pocket and saying reassuringly (in Japanese), "don't worry, I have tissues!!" I turned to the girls next to me and asked what they thought of the whole project.
"Crazy, crazy, crazy!"
"No. It's good idea."
"He's crazy. Crazy boy."
"No I'm not. I'm great!"


Later, to himself:
"I'm great!"


Later still:
"I'm strawberry."

Winter in Akita

Some thoughts on a season passed, written about a month ago.

Although we still had the occasional snowfall, and a windy snow typhoon (in April!!), winter is over. It vanished. I woke up one morning and It Was Spring. I’m not sure where winter ran off to – maybe the mountains? But even they are quickly fading from white to brown and almost green. I knew it was officially over the day I found bird poo on my windshield. That was it; spring couldn’t turn back now. 

My memories of the season that passed are still pretty fresh.

That's the spirit.

Rather long and full of snow it was. Six to eight weeks ago, maybe, I was walking down sidewalks lined with snow walls that reached my shoulders in some spots, and towered above my head in others. Nearly every day it snowed, though apparently not as much as last year. I drove to work in all kinds of inclement weather, but of course school was never canceled. Although we were told to stay home one day at the beginning of the month because it was quite windy. 

Some days I truly felt like I was roughing it, burning my kerosene to keep warm - no central heating in these parts. But I didn't mind too much. I grew to associate the smell of kerosene with warmth and comfort and now I kind of like it.

My parking lot

Note how the pile is taller than my car, and this is after some of the snow has melted.

 

Instructions for shoveling your roof.

The seasons here are extreme, which adds to their charm. Once I adjusted to feeling like I had landed in an SUV commercial each time I drove (except the bumps and jolts came from ruts of slush-turned-ice, not exhilarating mountain trails) and didn’t fear for my life each time I set out for the post office, winter was a blast.

Some streets have water spouts running down the middle to keep the snow at bay

View from the English room

Poor abandoned car

Favourite Things:

Sitting under my kotatsu with mugs of tea and good books. A Kotatsu is like a coffee table with a space heater underneath. A blanket is fitted under the tabletop, creating a delightful little chamber of warmth that just dares you to leave. Once tucked in, it's hard to justify extricating yourself to pad around your cold, non-centrally-heated apartment. Provided that good books and a whole pot of tea are within reach, of course.

Snowboarding. Though it wasn’t my first time, having given snowboarding a go a few times in high school, it was my first time actually spending a season figuring out how to properly get down the hill on a board and not find myself unexpectedly upside down with the tip of my board jammed into the wonderfully-deep powder. Or catapulting face-first into the stuff and wearing a sick mask the next day at school to cover the swollen bruises (but I mean really - who does that? dunno...). That being said, this still happens, just less often. Thanks to Akita’s generous deluge of powder and mountainous terrain, this was the perfect place to master the skill of not-being-suddenly-upside-down. I don’t think I’ve ever been so happy to wake up at 7am every Saturday.

 

Nearly-buried portapotty

Onsen. Snowy outdoor hotspring baths surrounded by forest and mountains – pretty sweet. Not gonna get to do this in Canada any time soon. I don't think we're as fond of being nude in nature.

Ramen. I never thought I would come to love noodles this much. Favourite: big bowls of steaming hot gyoza miso ramen with chilli oil at Hokkaiya in Yokote, or the ramen heaped with garlic at Kamikura.

Winter festivals!! Even better than the summer festivals!!! Drinking hot sweet rice amazake in igloos and watching people smash other people with bamboo poles around huge piles of burning garbage and giant tug-of-wars and sculptures of snow dogs and fireworks and swinging fireballs around my head!!! These were exciting times indeed.

Inukko, Yuzawa

Tug of war, Kariwano

Building mini-igloos for Kamakura festival

And now that the festival's been over for 12 hours, let's bulldoze the kamakuras

Fire swinging festival, Kakunodate

Takeuchi, Rokugo

Finally, going to bed each night having spent an hour shovelling snow, thinking that surely the sky must have emptied its powdery stores...only to wake up to another near-foot on my windshield. Really, this was actually the only thing I loathed, but the awe it inspired remains a highlight.

Or coming back from vacation to discover... 

I think I may be missing something.

Half an hour later

This showed up outside my school one day.

Why are the students tunneling in the snow on the field outside the school? I asked one of my teachers, who told me that the students had to shovel snow (pretty much in circles) because they didn't finish their homework. Menial manual labour as punishment - brilliant.

 Sure, everyone raves about the “cherry blossom front” that's rapidly approaching – but winter here must be a close second.

Japan Photos

Finally doing that thing called setting up a Flickr account - check out some of my Japan photos here.

Beautiful Tohoku

Gets real cheesy near the end, as soon as the voiceover begins. But other than that, a nice tribute to the beautiful part of Japan I live in.



On second thought the whole thing's pretty cheesy. And you may have to go on youtube to watch it.

Thailand: Chiang Mai and Ko Samed

More of this beautiful country.



CM Blue House lobby






Literally, an ice cream sandwich.

And then we got into the cheesy Thai puns...




Trust me, Daniel Radcliffe gets his hair cut here.

Baked Bacon Cheese with Seaweed.

Making fresh coconut milk


curry in a hurry


I made this! No big deal.


Pondering the many uses of the banana leaf




Happy New Year


The king. Photos of him everywhere.