Sensei and Sensibility
Thursday, August 28, 2003
oops! What not to say!
So there I was in the tea room when the tennis coach came in. "Ouch!" I said, looking at his sunburn and darkened skin "Your skin is becoming very black!"
At which he started vehemently protesting my observation and telling me that I am a white person, he is a yellow person, and black people are from Africa - he is NOT black. He then looked at me, thinking that I didn`t understand (the look on my face was probably shock), so he ran out to the other teachers and kept repeating, "you are white person! Americans, Canadians, British, they are white people! We are yellow! Chinese, Thai, all yellow! Blacks are from Africa! Africa! I am not black, I am yellow!" Everyone by now was looking at him in shock.
I looked at the other teacher here who speaks some English and I said to her - "His skin is getting very dark from the sun, please tell him to be careful of cancer. Tell him that if he needs sunblock, I have some in my locker" She nodded and repeated what I said in better Japanese. Sadly, the teacher was still ranting and left. Touched a nerve, I guess!!!
After he was gone, another teacher came up to me and said, "It is not nice to call ourselves yellow, is it?"
I just held up a piece of yellow paper and pointed to his skin and said, "same colour?" He said, "very different!"
So, I held up a piece of white paper and compared it to my skin and said, "same colour?"
The office has been pretty quiet since..... Oooops. There I go, disturbing the "wa" again!!!
 Sabine . 11:49 PM . Comments
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
a trip to the hospital...
Holding my purpled hand up in the air, I asked my principal if I could possible go to the nearest hospital to get it checked out.
Grudgingly, he agreed.
So, there I was, 20 minutes later, standing in the entranceway of the closest hospital. There was only a wide area with benches. I walked over to what looked like an information counter and told them that I hurt my hand and would like to get it checked out. Actually, what I said sounded more like, "hand very hurts, doctor see? Ok?" In any case, it must have made sense to them, because out of their mouths came spewing forth some very formal (read: completely vague) japanese, and a few forms were thrust my way. I looked at them, I looked at the forms. Hmmm. I could figure out what most of the fields were myself, so I filled out the forms and handed them back.
They were thrust back at me with more formal japanese. Ummmmm. She pointed to my birthdate: October 2 197* - check, it was correct. After more formal language, I guessed that the problem was that I listed my birth year, and not the emperor`s year. Hmm... I think maybe I was born in the 49th year of Showa??! So I put that down and she seemed pleased. She looked at me, pointed across the room and said only, "nurse".
I looked around me - there was no one else there. She kept flailing and pointing, so I walked in that direction and only stopped once my nose had touched the wall, all the while looking back at her for reassurance and approval.
There I stood, against the wall, surveying the room and thanking God that this wasn`t an emergency situation. Finally a woman came and motioned for me to sit down. We went over a questionnaire as I begged the nurse to use simple Japanese. The last question came and I had no clue what she was saying. Finally, she asked me in Japanese if I was married and made a motion with her hands to indicate pregnancy. OH! I assured her that I wasn`t and we both giggled like school-girls....
To be continued - my hand hurts from trying to type!!!
:)
Sabine . 10:33 PM . Comments
Monday, August 25, 2003
ooops!
aiowerbnfops .
This is what my typing looks like now.
You see, I was riding my bike along the small, windy roads, when a speeding van came around the curve. He took it too wide, and clipped me with his side mirror. This, of course, made my arm swing forward and the wheel spin off to the side - in short, I went flying. I landed on one hand and went into a roll. I was very, very lucky, as they don`t seem to make helmets in adult sizes here!
I brushed myself off, and checked for injuries. Some dark purple spots on my legs and a scrape to me knee. Check. My wrist on the hand that I landed on was stinging mighty badly. Check. In fact, it was more than stinging, it was burning and sharp pains were tingling up my arm and down to my fingers. I looked at my watch - both the doctor and the hospital were closed (country hospitals are only open to near-fatal injuries after hours). So, I hopped on my bike and rode off the the BBQ. I managed to ride one-handed, and I knew that, although there wouldn`t be ice at the BBQ, there would be cold cans of beer to apply to my injured wrist. And the beer itself would act as a good pain-killer!
And so my evening proceeded.
The next day, I could isolate the pain to my thumb, so I headed off to the hospital. After lining up in the wrong line, then again and again and again (you have to line up and wait for each stage of the visit - the longest line was actually for payment!), I got my x-rays and got to wait for the doctor. An old lady fell asleep while drinking her tea and accidentally let the half full, open bottle fall into my lap. As I was mopping up my tea soaked lap, my name was called.
I apparently turned the muscles in my thumb into mince. Then I apparently cracked my thumb bone. Now I must wear a cast for 3 weeks. Lovely in this heat. So, typing is very laborious - gomen, ne!
I will write more soon - perhaps just a little bit every day!!!
:)
Sabine
Sabine . 8:45 PM . Comments
Thursday, August 21, 2003
Bentos with Beenie, Part 2
Let me describe my bento box to you.....it is a deep wine shade of red, with a traditional japanese cloth pattern laquerec on top. It is long and rounded and is two levels high. There are little plastic partitions inside it, so that the flavours from one side don`t spread to the next. There is a tiny set of white chopstics that come within. The whole thing is held together by a special elastic band. This whole, compact container fits into a matching cloth sack....
I am lifting the lid on today`s lunch....first, we have hijiki, a kind of black seaweed and soybean "salad". Hijiki is my favourite of the seaweeds - it doesn`t taste fishy at all! I always hate how eating seaweed reminds me of the time I was swimming in the ocean and acidentally swallowed some...stuff....
Hijiki isn`t like that - it is slightly sweet and meaty.
On the other side, I have a korokke (croquette?!) - a mixture of ground beef and potatoes coated in crushed corn flakes a deep fried. I love to give these the traditional Western treatment and smother them in ketchup!
In the bottom layer, I have put some kimchee.
They laughed at me when they saw this combination of foods. Japanese food is all about the subtlety of the flavours and my flavour combining is apparently laughable...
Oh well, at least I know that no one will ask me for any - finally I will get to eat my lunch!!!!!
In other news, I had an interesting conversation with one of my teachers this morning. I rode my bike to school, just like I have all week. It is only about a 2-3 km ride, after all. A teacher approached me, after whispering to other teachers, and asked my why I chose to ride my bike when I have a car. I told him that is was good for my health, and better for the environment. He snapped his fingers and then decided that that is why I also chose to walk to the post office, which is 500 metres away. I confirmed his suspicions. He still thought that it was strange - apparently, in the Japanese inaka, one takes one`s car to places like work and the post office, even if it is really really close. I snapped my fingers and said, aha - that is why the pudgy teacher from last year who lived only 5 houses away from school always drove to school instead of walking!
:)
Sabine . 6:01 PM . Comments
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Bentos with Beenie
Ahh the joys of summer vacation! The best part is that we get to bring our own lunches - at last we can stop eating the nasty school lunch!
In response to "Lunch with Cubey" - life and the luhcbox of a Cubicle Dweller, I have started "Bentos with Beanie" - so let`s look into the bento box and see what`s being eaten this week:
Today: pineapple, homemade tandoori chicken and a homemade chapati (had to do a test run for next week`s Indian cooking class. I`m not Indian, but I am foreign and therefore apparently proficient in all things foreign)
Yesterday: grilled miso saba, edamame, rice with furikake
The day before yesterday: Vegetable tomato curry, rice, and a little egg omlette.
:)
Yes, the people in my staff room come running over to my desk to see what kind of strange goodies I`ll be eating each day. Then they proceed to take bites of my lunch. So, I am inadvertently on a diet until school lunch starts again.
Sigh.
Sabine . 6:52 PM . Comments
Monday, August 18, 2003
The Other Side
Ever wonder what the Japanese Teachers of English might think?
Well, I don`t have a crystal ball that lets me peer into all their brains, but here is one blog, written by a JTE.
It is interesting to see that he/she has many of the same frustrations with English teaching here as we do!
The Flipside - the JTE`s site
Sabine . 6:53 PM . Comments
Kaerimashita! I`m home!
It has been an interesting week since I arrived. To be honest, my brain is all screwed up.
I spent three glorious weeks in Vancouver, reconnecting with my friends and my life back there in preparation for my return next summer. I was perhaps too successful in my endeavor. You see, I went to visit and get some advising from the grad school that I am applying to, I spent many hours with long-lost friends - in essence, I pretty much did what I expect to be doing one year from now when I return.
And then, after a 30- hour ordeal, I mean journey (yes, I am getting very sick and tired of sitting on a plane for 12 or 13 hours every time I leave this place), I was plopped back in Ikuno. As we entered town (please keep in mind that I had been travelling non stop since 4:30am the previous day) I turned to my friend Yuko and asked, "Where are we?!". To which she looked at me shocked and replied, "Ikuno!" oh.
I was in a bit of a daze, but it only lasted about 8 hours or so, until I had to go to the Yashiro Educational Training Centre to meet and greet all the new ALT`s. Then I proceeded to train them (and party with them) from about 7 am until 3am daily until Friday. Everything was in English - it felt a bit like camp, actually.
Finally, on Friday, it was all over. I drove an hour away from my place to pick up my friend`s cat (whom I am catsitting for two weeks) and went out to dinner with the new ALT in my town. Saturday was all about giving Andrew the grand tour of Ikuno. It was lovely, but I couldn`t help feeling that I was seeing all these places for the first time. Everything was new to me, and it was as if I posessed a magical ability to find my way around without ever having been there.
Saturday night I was dropped smack dab into a Manhattan microcosm. We went to a party at the Tanaka`s house in the tiny town of Hidaka. Their house was magnificent - a true work of art and architecture. It was like a fusion between a manhattan loft, an adobo house, and a japanese house. There was live music and salsa dancing and the finest sake and an Italian feast. I couldn`t help but wonder where the heck I was.
On Sunday, I returned from this month-long reverie. It took me all day just to get used to my apartment again.
It`s a funny thing, living in such a different country. It seems to only exist while I am living there. When I am in Canada, I am in some other place, and Japan only exists to me in the superficial sense - there is a vague sense of familiarity in a matcha latte or a plate of sushi. It feels like deja-vu - like some place I have been to and seen only in a dream. If I think about it too much, I can`t speak Japanese back there either - it is my English-speaking place, after all. When I returned here, suddenly, my Japanese ability came back.
And now, as I sit here at my desk, I am left to reconcile the dream to the reality - hence the vaguely disoriented feeling I am having.
I already have begun to become sad. If Japan becomes but a dream as soon as I enter Canada, then what will become of these three years once I return home for good? Will I forever be destined to remember my time here in flashes - when I smell tempura cooking, for instance, or when I hear a drum that is reminiscent of the Taiko? What will leave me, and what will remain? And if it is but a dream when I return, will I really have changed that much?
I don`t know. This trip was a wake-up call for me though. I will be sure to savour every last minute of these last 365 days here, even if it is just time spent sitting on the couch, watching the wind in the trees outside my window.
:)
Sabine
Sabine . 6:32 PM . Comments
Friday, August 01, 2003
Waaaaahhh!!!!
I am gonna cry......
I spent a million or so hours uploading photos onto this site and now some d*ckhead hacker went into the server and poked his/her wee fingers around in there and f*cked it up!!!!!!
Sigh. So sorry - all pictures from the last month appear to be gone.... sniff, sniff.
However, on the bright side, I am in Vancouver at the moment - just gorged myself on Thai food and am now about to have a scotch with Cubicledweller....
Ah! This is the life!
May the hacker who wrecked my site be punished by the Gods of food and drink and may he/she never have another divine meal or frosty bevvie!!!!!!! GrrrrrrrRRRRRR!
:)
Sabine . 11:15 PM . Comments
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