CAUTION: This entry is really disorganized and is full of a lot of rambling!!
This past weekend I went skiing with 11 other JET's in Gifu-ken (9 hours north). One of the JET's who speaks Japanese, Eric, organized an overnight bus trip that would get us to the slopes at 5:00am. Sounded like a good idea at the time, when I was well rested and excited to ski. However 9 hours later after sitting on a hot bus (the Japanese like to be very warm), with ridiculous 30 minute stops at truck stops in the middle of the night I was ready to crawl into my single bed with a crappy mattress.
We rented ski's at literally 5:30 in the morning, what was I doing up at this hour! I couldn't believe it though, the slopes were already packed. We saw the sunrise from the top of the mountain which was really pretty, but were exhausted from skiing by 10:00am! How was I going to manage skiing until 4 in the afternoon? We took a long break for lunch, then Mac and I snuck a little nap in the gift shop on the floor - haha we were SO tired!, and then we hit the onsen at a nearby hotel. We were back on the bus promptly at 4 (our bus driver/and the Japanese are VERY time conscious) to begin the trek home. Great trip, but don't think I'd do another 24 hour ski trip that far away. Next time I'm definitely staying overnight.
The next issue of business is something that plagues every JET in Japan...Whenever we travel it's something that looms in the back of our minds, because it's something we know we should do if we want to "make good" with the Japanese by taking part in this custom.
Omiyage are Japanese souvenirs, and are a big business at tourist sites throughout the country. It can't really be compared to a similar custom in America, because we usually buy small things (postcard, t-shirt, or a pen) maybe for a few close friends and family. Even then it's not required! A simple "yeah, I had a great trip!" will do just fine. But when the Japanese travel (yes, sometimes they actually leave their towns) it is customary to buy "omiyage" or food/candy souvenirs that are specially made in the city/town/country in which you visited.
The reason we complain about buying omiyage is that everyone knows every move we make, where we travel, what we buy at the grocery store - so if we traveled to say, Hokkaido and came back empty handed, it would be seen as a tad bit rude to not bring back omiyage. We all teach at many schools, PLUS put in long hours surfing the Internet at our local Board of Educations, so if we buy omiyage for everyone it ends up costing around $75!! It's not uncommon to see Japanese people leaving a souvenir shop with 2 shopping bags full of omiyage boxes.
Don't even get me started on the mixed reactions we encounter when we present our omiyage. Although most schools seem very grateful for the treats, other people could care less, as this just seems to be something that people have to do, rather than want to do. Lily even had one school laugh at her when she gave them their omiyage. How rude! I guess they're thinking, they are foreigners, why are they bringing omiyage -that is a Japanese custom! Well people, we are trying to make an effort to fit in and be a part of the group - something that is literally life or death here in Japan. However much money we do spend on omiyage throughout our tenure as JET's we will never be accepted as part of the community, simply because we are foreigners. I'll save that topic for a later blog.
Anyways, back to omiyage...they come in pretty boxes and inside are individually wrapped sweets that sometimes look like mini pastries, sweet breads, or cookies. At major train stations you will often find omiyage from other cities far away. This is convenient for people who simply forgot to buy their omiyage while on vacation, or for cheating husbands to make their "business trip" seem more believable!
Since coming to Japan I have learned that the 'tea lady' is the multi-purpose woman at school - she does it all: gardens, cleans (there are no school janitors/cleaning people that come in after hours), serves lunch to the teachers, makes coffee and tea, and hands out omiyage. There is a hierarchy in the Japanese working world, and it must be strictly adhered to! In the morning around 8:00am she delivers tea to the Principal, then vice principal, then older teachers, then lastly the younger teachers, and then me.The same procedure is followed for passing out omiyage. Before everyone opens the omiyage to eat they look at me and say "Katherine-sensei, Itadakimasu!" which literally translates to: "I'm about to partake." This is said before every meal/snack as a thanks for what you are about to eat. After you finish eating you say "Gochiso-sama deshita!" (which means, "That was a feast!") to the host or restaurant staff.
Here are some interesting Japanese current events:
-a 30 year old woman hated her husband so much she killed him, and then since his body was heavier than she thought it would be...she chopped him up into small pieces and dropped parts of his body in different places throughout Tokyo. Sick! (looks like America isn't the only place where crazy things like this happen)
-The Japanese Health Minister described women as "birth-giving machines." There were protests in Tokyo outside the office building and a cake that said "We'll love you for resigning." Does that say anything to you about this countries attitude towards women or what!
-The Japanese still kill and eat whale - yes WHALE. There is a lot of whale caught and sold in my town, and you see it at every grocery store you go to. There are locally owned shops that only sell whale. Recently there was a special meeting of the International Whaling Commission, in which Japan and other whaling countries met in hopes of resuming commercial hunting of whales. During a protest against the meeting, a Greenpeace member was arrested while dressed as a whale!
-Twin baby panda's were born at Adventure Land which is an hour and a half away from my apartment in my very own Wakayama-ken! (Makes me remember recently going on a field trip with my class to see the new baby panda at the Zoo in D.C.!) The names of the twin Giant Panda cubs are female Aihin, and male Meihin.
-Humane animal treatment is not a priority here. Pets are not nearly as popular as they are in America either. It's not uncommon to see a dog chained up outside a house in what looks like a junkyard, with a pot of (you guessed it) RICE nearby. Zookeepers and visitors at a zoo in Tokyo threw beans at a gorilla as part of a traditional ceremony to dispel demons for the season changing 'Setsubon' time. The bean-scattering ceremony is held to celebrate the coming of spring and to drive out bad luck, according to the Japanese lunar calendar. But why does this mean the gorilla deserves to have beans thrown at him??
-Japan is the largest importer of tropical timber in the world. 130,000,000 pairs of disposable chopsticks are used in Japan everyday.They Japanese have tried to scale back on the amount of timber from rain forests in South America, Malaysia and the Philippines by beginning to cut down more old forests in Japan. Consumers consider these wood products "environmentally friendly" because they are not from tropical rain forests. Obviously that's just plain stupid, and is equally as destructive!
ETC....
Valentine's Day in Japan is different than in America. There are no cheesy Valentine's Day cards passed out around classrooms, no valentine's day parties in home room. Rather this is a day where many women make homemade chocolates and give them to the men in their lives: friends, coworkers, and husband. You should see the displays of accessories for the chocolates: cute pink bows, bags, boxes, foil to go around the chocolate, etc...Lily was asked at the Board of Ed on Valentine's Day if she had made chocolate for all the men in the office. She laughed and replied, "No! We don't do that in America!"
The men return the favor one month later on a holiday called "White Day." Yet another ingenious marketing scheme! On this day men who received chocolate on Valentine's Day return the favor and give gifts to women. How did White Day start? One theory says the holiday began in 1965 when a marshmallow maker started marketing to men that they should pay back the women who gave them chocolate and other gifts with marshmallows. Originally it was called Marshmallow Day, and later it was changed to White Day. Soon, the chocolate companies started realizing that they could capitalize as well on this day, and began marketing white chocolate. Today, Japanese men give both white and non-white chocolate, as well as other edible and non-edible gifts, such as jewelery or objects of sentimental value, to the women who gave them chocolate on Valentine's Day a month prior.
I was on the bus to school last week when I heard (in perfect English) someone ask me, "What bus stop are getting off at?" I was so shocked because no one ever speaks English to me, let alone talks to me, but that's a different story. Anyways, the girl and I got to talking and I learned she was traveling the area on her spring break from University in Tokyo. She's studying to be a lawyer and spoke AMAZING English! It was such a nice surprise and a great way to start my day by talking to someone who actually understood me (besides Lily). She asked me if I liked Japan and was surprised when I said yes! She could not believe that I lived in this small town. You should've seen the look on her face when I told her I would be staying for 2 years. She gasped and goes, "You're staying HERE?" haha that made me laugh, I guess Nachikatsuura is about as different from Tokyo as you can get.
School stuff:
-Made Quesadilla's with two 6th grade classes in their Home EC classrooms. They loved them! I got a kick out of the teacher setting up each plate WITH CHOPSTICKS next to it!! I think she missed the point of the international cuisine.
-Quotes: 'Your nose is cute!', 'Your teeth are so white.' ,'What's inside your stomach?' ,"How many children do you have?", "Are you Japanese?", 'Your eyes are like a ghost!' 'Are you a model? How many centimeters are you?' 'Did you mom make your lunch?'
And now that I'm finished I'm going to watch Grey's Anatomy, eat macaroni and go to bed. Goodnight everyone!
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