| Wednesday, June 28, 2006 |
| Ma petite grenouille... je te mangerai. |
Are frogs okay for vegetarians? Okay in the salmon-loving, taking-a-guilty-ride-on-the-sushi-train (lapsed/pescetarian) sense, not the Japanese try-this-bacon-plant sense? |
posted by Raychaa @ 9:19 PM  |
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| Thursday, June 22, 2006 |
| Hangin' around this old town (for way, way, way, way, too long)... |
Home Sweet... Ho? Me? 
As I have a habit of leaving at all given (and plenty of taken) opportunities, spending an entire week in my own town was unusual. Having anyone to talk to or eat with is also unusual, and I found myself relaxed for the first time in months. Two different times when my parents were dealing with jet-lag mid-afternoon, I even (ssshhhhhh!! don't blow my bionic cover!) napped.
 Since I couldn't take any time off anyway, my parents humoured me and tagged along to 2 days of elementary school lessons. The Friday morning after they arrived was blazing hot, and we spent one period out in the sun watching the kids plant sweet potatoes as the principal (or as Mom would say, "kochi senso") babbled away to me in semi-comprehensible old-man Japanese and waited for me to translate. Honestly, I had to make half of it up, but no one was the wiser. Monday we visited my base elementary school and had some really fun lessons. My favorite class is of 5th grade punks that are so sharp and hilarious, but steamroll the homeroom teacher given the chance, so my parents got to see me wrangling kids with more personality and vivacity than the average allotment. We also toured the attached kindergartens/ preschools, which was a thrill for my mom since she teaches parent education. My mom was very impressed at all the free play, art stations, and self-directed projects, and remarked to me, "It's so Reggio!" (That's not new slang. Ignore if you're not a child-development dork.)
 The first school we went to was the one where all the kids from my neighborhood attend-- the teachers are great, but the school is a bit more rundown and there is a higher proportion of kids with blackened rotting teeth. The water here is not fluorinated, which wouldn't be a problem if the toothpaste contained fluoride or another cavity-fighting agent. Of course, it rarely does. The kids and teachers do brush their teeth together after school lunch-- great dental hygiene, right? No. They are using tiny tiny ineffective toothbrushes, don't really brush, and don't actually use toothpaste. It's all for show and the demon cavities triumph. When the Pavlov Does Dentistry music clicked on at the end of school lunch, my mom nearly fell off her (tiny tiny) chair when all the kids started brushing in unison, right at the table. That school uses an upbeat J-pop song with "Back left!"/ "Front!"/ "Back right!" instructions dubbed in between verses.
 Back Molars! Rotting-out baby teeth on the left! Rotting-out baby teeth on the right!
My junior high school nurse last year was on a dental-hygiene campaign and gave me a great explanation of what is wrong with tooth health in this country. At home, many parents (particularly those of the lower socioeconomic and education strata) do not brush their children's baby teeth. The attitude is that they will just fall out anyway, which they do, in various stages of rot and decay. By the time a kid is 6 or 7, he's not in the habit of brushing, and is at risk for gum disease and so forth. One of the wealthiest nations on the planet, but the problem lies not in lack of resources but lack of logic.
 And here's some more lack of logic-- my thrice-weekly transport to work. For reasons unknown to me or anyone, my nowhere town board of education deflects reason and bleeds money. I own a car, am well-insured, and have a (nearly pristine) Japanese driver's license, but am expressly prohibited to drive to 5 of my schools. Three would take about an hour by bicycle, all uphill on the way there, and I'm not extreme enough, nor do I want to show up to my job soaked with sweat and have to get ready in the ladies' room. I could drive my own car for less than $1 of petrol. This taxi costs $50-$70 roundtrip, 2-3 times a week, for about 20 months. Care to do the math? Adam has some old-timey phrase about watching your pennies, and the pence will take care of themselves. No pennies here, but I suspect they use 1man notes ($100) to sop up coffee spills. I think that if the Japanese economy is at risk of collapse, it will come as no surprise to anyone who has lived here. The taxi forgot to pick me up one day last month, so I decided I would just drive, got halfway there, and called my school out of a mixture of guilt and fear. The vice principal nearly went into cardiac arrest when I suggested I could drive myself, and hyperventilated in Japanese before shouting "No car! No car!! WAIT!!" in English. I raced back home, and then proceeded to foolishly wait another half hour like someone's unwanted prom date before my taxi brought me to school in time to miss half of my first lesson.
 I had a few of my friends from town over to meet my parents on Sunday. (Rie next to me, her husband Noriatsu in back, and Emiko next to my mother.) They've been so nice to me since the first week I arrived, and we do scrambled English-Japanese get togethers every few weeks. Rie and her husband just moved to Hiroshima last month-- I'm going to miss them!
 On Tuesday, my mom came with me to one lesson at junior high, which was about as stimulating as watching paint dry. (I like basketball. Do you like basketball? No, I don't. I don't like basketball. Replace noun, repeat X20.) I love my kids, but it's so hard to see them looking a little more beaten down by the system with each passing term. Maybe that is universal as kids grow up, but here it all happens at the same time, in the same way, and for the same reasons. In the evening, my parents joined my fledging attempt at a town eikaiwa (English conversation) group, and it was actually loads of fun despite Adametal's skepticism. My dad talked to my sister on the phone while I was at school, and he informed me that Annabelle had said they could get really out of control. I started to panic a bit, before realizing my dad had been referring to it as an enkai, which means drinking party. Yes, those get out of hand and almost always involve someone passing out and/or making a complete fool of themselves, but the eikaiwa class was fortunately tame. Included: one of my former students, 2 housewives, my friend Emiko, her senile mother who kept trying to tell my dad secrets about America (in Japanese that even the Japanese people in the room didn't understand), the Kibichuo ALT power squad, and a PE teacher I have a crush on who had never once spoken a word of English to me at school. Adam brought some great imported tea that made me finally understand why the British are addicted to the stuff, I baked, the housewives found trays and teacups and served everything up, and I'm now ready to start a regular class in the fall. Emiko promised to network for me to get more people.
My parents left early on Wednesday for Tokyo, and flew from there to Beijing to start their big China adventure. I must say I am a little worried about them, but I think that if they can navigate the world's oddest developed nation so well, they can handle the most populous. I was very sad to see them go, and now I don't know what to do with myself. The aparto suddenly seems too big and empty. (Empty-nest syndrome?) |
| posted by Raychaa @ 5:27 PM |
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| Okayama Cruisin' with the 'rents |
 After nearly a year of my complete isolation from the fam, my parents arrived to spend a week with me in Okayama. This being their 4th visit to see their 3rd consecutive Japan-residing daughter, they had already done the major tourist spots and are near-experts in all things Japanese. This was a very chill visit, with minimal distances travelled, and my mom spent much of the time stressing about ("planning for") the subsequent leg of the trip, to China. In past years, they would pass through the Okayama station while traveling back and forth to my sisters' town on Shikoku, but hadn't ever really seen Okayama prefecture. So, we went to the city on the weekend and finished the highlights in about 4 hours. Did I say highlights? I meant highlight. We went to Korakuen, which I am required by the Ministry of Tourism to cite as a "Top 3" garden in all of Japan. It's right next to Faux-kayama-jo. The real Okayama castle burned to the ground, and the current one was half-heartedly rebuilt in the 60s and isn't worth the admission price. So, we half-heartedly walked around it from the outside. We considered going to the historical area of Kurashiki, but it was raining, we were all tired and lazy, and my mom suggested saving something for visit #5.
When my parents and uncle visited my sister and me last spring, we seemed to meet about 100 of Annabelle's enthusiastic students, friends, acquaintances, and worshippers. In contrast, they met a few of my co-workers and all... both... of my friends. This year they just met Mister Adam, and only because he had been strongarmed into attending a town eikaiwa night, so I felt somewhat validated as a social-mover/friendly-person-in-the-know when we ran into 9 different people I knew on Saturday while going to the city. I saw one of my primary school English teachers in the station, and when we said we were going to see Korakuen, she responded, "It's raining." We all nodded to fill the awkward pause of agreement-of-obvious-statement. An hour later, we ran into some JETs who pointed out the same (glaringly apparant) fact, and added that we picked a bad day to go to the garden. (Stating the obvious is not just a Japanese trait, after all.)
 Travel Glamour Shots at Korakuen! Say, is that umbrella approved by Rick Steves??
 An evening of modern Japanese cuisine: cruising to Takahashi to visit my favorite/only restaurant for tofu salada and drinks bar, and an extra dose of the letter L. I'm looking Joyfull, my jet-lagged father slightly less so...
 3 months til your birthday, Dad-- would you like your GRECA Snarling Old Man slippers wrapped?
 Supermarket cuisine at its finest! Asahi Suupaa "Dry"-- thumbs "up." Asian Salsa Potato Chips-- thumbs down. I rather prefer the consomme, sweet potato, or baby flavored variety. (No need to read Japanese! When there aren't any telling pictures of vegetables, meats, soups, or egg rolls on the bag, but there is a chubby cartoon toddler sitting on a crisp, it should be clear what will be inside.) For the record, baby flavor was, unsurprisingly, a bit like chicken. |
| posted by Raychaa @ 1:07 AM |
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| Wednesday, June 14, 2006 |
| Touch Rugby in Hiroshima |
Touch rugby returns! We rallied the Grapes of Wrath for another tourney, this time on Miyajima, an island south of Hiroshima. Okayama and Hiroshima had enough players to split teams, but with the 5th team flaking out, it turned into more of an interprefectural showdown match. The Momotchi team took 1st and the Grapes took 4th, for what it's worth (not much). Momotchi is our prefectural mascot-- he is a hip, starry-haired manga version of legendary Peach Boy of yore. (Frisbee Neilu went at Momotchi for Halloween this year, so I guess that made the other 5 of us the Sunshine Band.) The Hiroshima group is a mix of foreigners and Japanese and they were tons of fun. Two of them were from Seattle, and actually know Teresa and Jon from Northwest College!  L to R-- Momotchi and the Sunshine Band (Frisbee Neilu, Lizzie from Nara, Rob M, Rene, Jo, Otherrach); Hookers 'n' Dummies Black (tourney organizer Nathan 3rd from left); Grapes of Wrath (AndyJack, NY Sarah, DJ Herbal, Rach2, M@tt, Kiwiana); Hookers 'n' Dummies White; Maraea (our superstar ringer from Nara-ken). (Gimpy Ilana and Clairette missing from photo....)
Miyajima has the famous red torii gate out in the bay, which you may recognize from every single postcard collection of Japan in existence, and is full of mangy deer (one of which scampered away chewing on a tournament program) and scary ebola-jaws monkeys. There were deer lounging in a harmless herd just beyond the try line, but deer pellets everywhere made the field a bit slippery. The tournament was held to raise money for a Chinese orphanage in the Half the Sky network, and generated about $400. Nathan, the superstar organizer and all-around lovely person, is planning a 9-month bike ride all the way across China, and will be trying to raise enough money to support the operating costs of one orphanage for 2 years!
www.chinabybicycle.co.uk
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| posted by Raychaa @ 10:56 PM |
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| So wrong it's right. And then wrong. And then wrong again... welcome to the inaka. |
| About Me |
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Name: Raychaa
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About Me: “No man, not even a doctor, ever gives any other definition of what a nurse should be than this - 'devoted and obedient'. This definition would do just as well for a porter. It might even do for a horse. It would not do for a policeman.” (Florence Nightingale)
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