NICK: Chilly willy and his 10 toesies
Trip Start
Jan 25, 2006
1
21
106
Trip End
Ongoing
Okazaki,
Japan
Monday, March 13, 2006
And it's march. Jeez, why did I ever leave Cali?
I've always considered myself somewhat macho. OK, not really macho, but capable of handling the cold (I don't handle the cold because I think I'm macho, I just can usually handle cold) HOWEVER, I will always be the first to admit that i had never handled cold until I got here!
Japanese homes are an odd design, if not totally traditional
01 my room
. Even the modern ones. They all have little or no insulation, those louvered windows (that don't really close, they just make the spaces between the glas smaller) and have wooden floors. The old style houses were paper and wood. These modern houses aren't much different. They have walls, but they don't seem to have any insulation in them. They also have windows, but they're not insulated (double-pane, gas-filled) either. They also have metal shutters that keep out the cold from the glass, but they don't do anything for places that you would want to be comfortable, i.e THE TOILET.
They have windows that don't close, but they have heated toilet seats. Why not just have windows that close?
The logic in the house is that you use a space heater to heat up ONE room, the living room. This makes sense - why heat the whole house if you're not in those rooms? but they do nothing to keep the out the cold in the first place. Doors are typically metal, and there's louvered windows near those too. I can only assume that it's tradition.
anyways. So yeah, the heated toilet seats are nice. They also have a bidet function that I won't go into, but I'll tell you, I think I want one when I get home. Refreshingly clean comes to mind.
Most of the time, I spend in bed. I stay under the covers to keep warm, and sit up writing papers. I'm so happy that I finished 3 chapters today
02 Me, in my everyday attire
. The last two took days a piece, the next few, only a few hours.I have ONE student that is my own. I've kind of stopped helping Michiyo's classes, except for the thurs and Friday classes. I have a feeling that i make things difficult for her to control when I'm in there - the kids get super excited.
My one student is a girl who's going abroad for work study. i charge her about 12 bucks an hour, esp since I'm not a seasoned teacher - That's peanuts over here for private lessons. Anyways, she seems to be making quite a bit of headway since we started. I know she knows some of the basics, she's just very japanese and super shy to even try talking.. In the past three weeks, she's gotten used to listening and repeating when I correct her.
The other students I help out with are the teens and her other long time students who are her age. You've seen pics of the teenagers. The older ladies are quite good with their english, and I think they've been speaking english for quite a while. They have fun stories of living in England and coming to the US, etc. Since this was my last lesson with them, we all went out to lunch for class. We talked about idioms like calling someone an "obsessive/compulsive" or "neat-freak", and words like procrastination
03 Japanese toilet seat
. One thing that made me laugh was how they all complained about Japanese men. No manners, rude, selfish, inconsiderate.. It reminds me of eastern europe, where the women were super hot, polite, educated, and did everything for the men, and in return, the men just treated them like dirt, since they know that ALL guys act that way and so there's no real need to improve themselves - she's not leaving.
I'm guessing that this is why the "mail-order eastern european brides" are so popular. American men are (mostly) polite, caring, respectful, affectionate, and well-mannered, compared with other countries. Money doesn't hurt either.
Since that's the case, apparently, I'm quite a catch (-:
Got that, Ash? (-;
nah, part of it probably stems from the men being waited on hand and foot by their mothers. Maybe they want something similar from their wives, basically to continue being their mothers. I hear that the younger generation males(both japan and eastern europe) are changing.
I went with Michiyo's family to a chinese restaurant for Michiyo's mother's birthday. It was neat to see a close-knit Japanese family as an observer. they practiced a little english with me, and I practiced a little japanese, but I understood most of what was being said, either thru context or small words.
Ok, back to freezing my tootsies off.
Comments
Michiyo's family look good!
Thanks for posting Michiyo's family photos. I only can recognize few people, but it was nice to see them. Kids have grown up! Yoko met you when you were very small.