Last weekend, I went to a monthly party held at the local okonomiyaki shop. It was my first chance to meet young Japanese people in my area (where most everyone is highschool age and younger, or 30+). Everyone was really nice, and I managed to keep contact with a couple of the people I met there throughout the week. One girl, who works at the shops near my station, plays in a band called Brownsugar, and she invited me to see their performance last night.
I headed to Suma Beach, near Kobe, around 3 o'clock. The venue was a beachside grill and bar, with a stage for DJ'ing and nightly live performances. When I first arrived, I was introduced to the band and several other friends of the girl who invited me. Throughout the evening I met probably 30 different people. The performances started around 5 and were pretty eclectic and...well....weird at first. However, they got better as the evening went on, and I have to say that Brownsugar was by far the best act of the night.
There were small fireworks getting set off on the beach throughout the evening, and the whole beach was pretty alive with young people. After things wound down there (which happens really early in Japan, although things start early too), I was invited to join the band and friends at an izakaya that took us well past last train. From there, we went and bought fireworks and set them off at a nearby park. It was a really fun time hanging out with them, and they were all great people. I'm not going to lie though, managing the language barrier was really really hard. Admittedly, the biggest challenge was starting/joining a conversation and showing that I could somewhat understand and communicate. I have to imagine I'm a huge pain, as conversations can sometimes slow to a crawl with me as we attempt to simplify somewhat complicated concepts enough to mutually understand each other.
In any event, I had a really good time, and it was a really wild experience. It's also totally not like anything I've ever done before.
One of the most interesting people I met throughout the evening was a Brazilian Japanese guy named Fabio. (For those who don't know, Brazil has the largest population of Japanese emmigrants of any country in the world. Over the last couple generations, there was a flow of people migrating back into Japan, the country of their parents and grandparents. As a result, Brazilians make up the 3rd largest foreign resident population in Japan, after Korea and China.) Anyway, he has been living in Japan for a while, and I would say he's probably the kind of fluent I hope to be in a year or so. However, because Japanese is his second language, and not his home country, we ended up having a LOT in common, and he was very capable of speaking my level of Japanese, so that we pretty much 100% understood each other. It was also really interesting because unlike any other foreigners I've met here, English isn't our common language, Japanese is. In that way, I almost see him as one of the most valuable friends I've met so far, as we are very close in linguistic ability, and yet forced to communicate in Japanese and not fall back on our native tongue.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Friday, August 21, 2009
Linguistic Burnout
I have been being really harsh on myself over the past few weeks for not being more fluent at Japanese than I am. Truth be told, I have a lot more Japanese experience than a lot of others in my situation, putting me at a huge advantage, but I'm not standing next to those people on a daily basis when I'm failing to communicate in my everyday life.
Truth be told, even in just the last 3 weeks, I can already see improvements in my confidence, vocab, and listening recognition. I guess I'm expecting myself to go from "advanced japanese" to truly fluent overnight, when in reality it took me 4 years of studying in college to get where I am now. What's more, my studying in college was for about an hour a day, 4 days a week, plus a little homework here-and-there. The rest of my time was devoted to other academics that were more time consuming, or to my personal/social life. There also weren't really many opportunities for practice, as there are very few fluent Japanese speakers walking around in America. Here, very nearly every minute of every day is Japanese practice of some kind. I wake up and use Japanese to work my cell phone and air conditioner. I attempt to read the label of my yogurt in the morning to see if I'm getting any nutrients out of it besides calcium. I have to read and listen to location names on the bus on my way to school. I hear Japanese spoken around me by coworkers throughout the day, and occasionally, I get the chance to attempt participation in those conversations. When I'm not busy doing some kind of work at school, I'm studying Japanese. After school, I use Japanese to navigate public transportation, the supermarket, household goods store, clothing store, etc. I use Japanese to get a form I need from the government office. Even when I'm out with English-speaking friends, I'm often the one translating the menu or asking for directions, as I'm often the de-facto Japanese speaker of the group. When I'm at home, the TV is always on, even when I'm not watching, so that I can hear it spoken as much as possible. While watching TV, I try to vary the subject matter I watch: educational, foreign language education, travel, cooking, local and international news, high-school drama, adult drama, comedy, game shows, trivia shows, variety shows, etc. I try to take notes in Japanese when making diary entries, etc. If I open a bank account, I write up a list of every vocab word I can think of ever needing to use related to banking and attempt to memorize it.
So, whereas in America I was probably getting maximum of 8 hours of Japanese practice per week, 9 months out of the year, here I'm getting about 15+ hours of Japanese per DAY, every day. That means that I could potentially get 4 times more functional Japanese language experience in this one year than I got in the last 4 years of college combined.
Basically, my head is about to explode from new Japanese vocab that I've been being force-fed. Sorry, in hindsight this was a really pointless rant. I had free time....correction, I was bored out of my mind.
Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Story Continues - Traditional Book Binding
So, picking up where the last story left off, about the home-ec teacher and her son, today I was working away on my kanji studies when the pair walks up again. This time, in Japanese, they ask if I would like to work with her son in the creation of a "book". Having nothing more exciting to do, I happily joined them up in one of the classrooms. What we were creating was a real hardcover book from scratch. It was myself, the home-ec teacher, her son, and the school nurse.
Building these books included a number of steps. We cut a ream of paper to size, then punched pin holes through it and wove fine thread through the holes as binding. We then took construction paper and mounted it onto the front and back, then sealed the binding with special paper and adhesive.
Next, to work on the exterior, we took thick fiberboard and cut it slightly larger than the book interior: two exterior slices and a spine piece. We then took colored cloth and used spray adhesive to adhere it to Japanese paper. We used an iron to evaporate the adhesive through the cloth, making it stiff and perfectly flat. From there, we put a textured paper along the exterior spine, and proceeded to adhere the interior book to the exterior hardcover. We even put those little cloth ribbons that appear along the spine of a professionally bound book (check one and you'll probably see what I'm talking about). They ended up turning out really good. Mine looks a little messy cause I put a little too much adhesive on my exterior cloth binding, so it has a dark spot, but other than that, it's pretty cool.
It took the whole day, and was a lot of fun. We also went out to lunch at a great soba shop. The whole day was Japanese too! I learned to do the book binding using Japanese and gestures. I even taught a few English words to them. When I get internet, I'll post a pic of the book, along with all the other pictures I've been saving up to post on here.
Building these books included a number of steps. We cut a ream of paper to size, then punched pin holes through it and wove fine thread through the holes as binding. We then took construction paper and mounted it onto the front and back, then sealed the binding with special paper and adhesive.
Next, to work on the exterior, we took thick fiberboard and cut it slightly larger than the book interior: two exterior slices and a spine piece. We then took colored cloth and used spray adhesive to adhere it to Japanese paper. We used an iron to evaporate the adhesive through the cloth, making it stiff and perfectly flat. From there, we put a textured paper along the exterior spine, and proceeded to adhere the interior book to the exterior hardcover. We even put those little cloth ribbons that appear along the spine of a professionally bound book (check one and you'll probably see what I'm talking about). They ended up turning out really good. Mine looks a little messy cause I put a little too much adhesive on my exterior cloth binding, so it has a dark spot, but other than that, it's pretty cool.
It took the whole day, and was a lot of fun. We also went out to lunch at a great soba shop. The whole day was Japanese too! I learned to do the book binding using Japanese and gestures. I even taught a few English words to them. When I get internet, I'll post a pic of the book, along with all the other pictures I've been saving up to post on here.
Wednesday, August 19, 2009
Two Small Stories
In the last couple days, two small encounters took place.
1) The home-ec teacher, a very nice woman, brought her 10 y/o son into work the other day. She brings him over to me and proceeds to rock/paper/scissors with him for who has to talk to me first. He lost, and had to introduce himself to me in English. So cute! I complimented him on a job well done and returned my own introduction. Then his mom took a golden moment to make her son sweat and told him to wait there and talk to me while she hurried off to do something. So, I let him sweat a little longer til he exhausted his English ability, and then broke out into my Japanese. I LOVE talking to kids! I can so totally understand everything they say!!! Not to mention they probably have a lot more in common with me, what with the types of music I listen to and shows on tv I watch, compared to some of the older teachers.
As soon as he realized I could speak Japanese, he majorly relaxed, and we were able to chat for a while about pop culture, sports, etc. A great exchange in general. His mom is delightfully cruel for making him panic like that, but I think it was good for him to get some real-world use out of what he's learning in school.
2) The next story starts with me walking down my mountain toward the station.
From my initial perspective: I see a young (upper high school or younger college age) guy walking up the hill, and I've never seen him before. We have these big area maps posted at various intersections throughout my town, and he walks up to one and starts looking at it with a look of great seriousness. I subconsciously notice him, but I'm really not paying him much heed. Just as I pass by, he quickly whips around and says "Hello?!" in what sounds very much like a question. Stunned like I'd just been by a truck hearing someone use English, not to mention with the lightning-fast approach, I stutter for a second and say hi, then reflexively ask, "do you need some help? are you lost?" because of the look on his face, his quizzical greeting, that he'd been looking at the map, and that I'd never seen him before. Judging from the panic in his eyes at my reply, I quickly realize that his "hello" was quite possibly his own English words, and he was really just trying to be friendly. I quickly follow up with a more amicable hello and slight bow, which eases his face and he quickly turns around to bolt. Suddenly he turns and yells perhaps his only other English phrase, "See you!" I smile and and return his farewell.
Now, here's what really happened, with 20/20 hindsight: He sees me coming down the street, Mr. very-obviously-foreigner. He wants to be friendly, but he's nervous and doesn't know how to make an approach. So, he stalls by turning to the map while he gathers up his courage and sorts out his words. He waits like that til I'm close enough, then turns, thinking he's just made the perfect greeting. Minus the poor approach and interrogative intonation, he was indeed a perfect success. I'm very happy he took the time to initiate even such a simple engagement, and I wish I'd been more on-the-ball so as not to freak him out with my English inquiry.
I'm fascinated by the little things, the insignificant engagements we have with our surrounding society on a daily basis. I probably don't go far enough out of my way to make similar engagements to those around me, and I probably should. 頑張りましょう！
1) The home-ec teacher, a very nice woman, brought her 10 y/o son into work the other day. She brings him over to me and proceeds to rock/paper/scissors with him for who has to talk to me first. He lost, and had to introduce himself to me in English. So cute! I complimented him on a job well done and returned my own introduction. Then his mom took a golden moment to make her son sweat and told him to wait there and talk to me while she hurried off to do something. So, I let him sweat a little longer til he exhausted his English ability, and then broke out into my Japanese. I LOVE talking to kids! I can so totally understand everything they say!!! Not to mention they probably have a lot more in common with me, what with the types of music I listen to and shows on tv I watch, compared to some of the older teachers.
As soon as he realized I could speak Japanese, he majorly relaxed, and we were able to chat for a while about pop culture, sports, etc. A great exchange in general. His mom is delightfully cruel for making him panic like that, but I think it was good for him to get some real-world use out of what he's learning in school.
2) The next story starts with me walking down my mountain toward the station.
From my initial perspective: I see a young (upper high school or younger college age) guy walking up the hill, and I've never seen him before. We have these big area maps posted at various intersections throughout my town, and he walks up to one and starts looking at it with a look of great seriousness. I subconsciously notice him, but I'm really not paying him much heed. Just as I pass by, he quickly whips around and says "Hello?!" in what sounds very much like a question. Stunned like I'd just been by a truck hearing someone use English, not to mention with the lightning-fast approach, I stutter for a second and say hi, then reflexively ask, "do you need some help? are you lost?" because of the look on his face, his quizzical greeting, that he'd been looking at the map, and that I'd never seen him before. Judging from the panic in his eyes at my reply, I quickly realize that his "hello" was quite possibly his own English words, and he was really just trying to be friendly. I quickly follow up with a more amicable hello and slight bow, which eases his face and he quickly turns around to bolt. Suddenly he turns and yells perhaps his only other English phrase, "See you!" I smile and and return his farewell.
Now, here's what really happened, with 20/20 hindsight: He sees me coming down the street, Mr. very-obviously-foreigner. He wants to be friendly, but he's nervous and doesn't know how to make an approach. So, he stalls by turning to the map while he gathers up his courage and sorts out his words. He waits like that til I'm close enough, then turns, thinking he's just made the perfect greeting. Minus the poor approach and interrogative intonation, he was indeed a perfect success. I'm very happy he took the time to initiate even such a simple engagement, and I wish I'd been more on-the-ball so as not to freak him out with my English inquiry.
I'm fascinated by the little things, the insignificant engagements we have with our surrounding society on a daily basis. I probably don't go far enough out of my way to make similar engagements to those around me, and I probably should. 頑張りましょう！
Monday, August 17, 2009
A Universe Expanding
This past week was phenomenally busy. It featured efforts to get a lot of paperwork done, get my application for internet through, 3 days of prefectural orientation training, and a weekend of travel to Kobe. Paperwork is finished, I'm scheduled to have internet installed on August 30th, orientation was good in that it was a chance to establish a contact network amongst other new English teachers nearby, and with all the traveling I did to places outside my town on the side of a mountain, my world has really expanded.
I now have a pretty strong mastery of the surrounding transportation systems, and how to get from point A to point B (and back again). I know the places to shop for household goods, clothing, food, etc. I know good places to eat, hang out, or drink. I even became a member of a gym. More and more every day, I feel like I can handle the world around me, and like I'm digging my own little niche into this new environment.
One thing that I have to make sure to keep myself from doing is creating a foreigner bubble around myself. Now that I know the foreigners in range of me, it would be all too easy to spend all my free time with only them. I want to maintain close relationships with these people because having people I can relate to, and speak my native tongue with is important. They're going through the same things as me, their interested in traveling and seeing and experiencing new things like me. However, it is equally important that I develop relationships with native Japanese people as well. This is important functionally, so that I continue to develop my language skills, but also extremely critical if I am going to ever truly fit in here. My greatest experiences in Tokyo came once I had made friends with native Japanese, for innumerable reasons, and I fully believe that will prove true here as well. That being said, it is MUCH more easy to say than to put into practice. In Tokyo, I went to a school, I was surrounded by people my age, many of whom were in the same classes, who had so many connections to me that forming friendships was almost natural.
Here, I don't really have any connections at this point. I can communicate, somewhat, with fellow coworkers, but they are ALL older than me, and most of them have their own lives/families/etc to occupy themselves outside of work. Most of my community/neighbors are either significantly older or younger. There are very very few young-twenty-somethings around. And, even if I went into the city, which is easy enough, I still don't have any connections to work to meet people. In Japan, for the most part, you really can't just walk up to someone on the street and strike up a conversation -- and for the situations where that DOES work, it's often not the type of person you want to be building relationships with in the first place. To meet someone in Japan, they often need a connection such as friend of a friend, coworker, member of your school cohort, common home town, membership at the same gym, etc. Without that kind of established tie, it's extremely difficult to transcend social formalities.
Obviously, these things will take time to evolve and develop, and I'm not letting the obstacles get me down. Things are going very well, my mood is very positive, and each day gets easier. I'm looking at a trip to Himeji Castle next weekend. Still 2 more weeks without internet though :-(
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Edit: By popular demand, I opened up the comment permissions so that anyone can post comments, without need of a blog account or signing up for internet ID. I strongly encourage everyone to post comments, let me know your thoughts, etc. You can technically now post anonymously. However, I do ask that you identify yourself in some way (not necessarily with your real name - any username/handle in the field provided would be fine), so that I know who is saying what. If I don't know you, send me a message and introduce yourself! I'd love to know who's reading my posts. I do remind everyone to use discretion in what you post, as this is a public blog, and all comments and posts are viewable to anyone. I will delete any inappropriate comments, but please don't make me play moderator. Hope to hear from you!
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I now have a pretty strong mastery of the surrounding transportation systems, and how to get from point A to point B (and back again). I know the places to shop for household goods, clothing, food, etc. I know good places to eat, hang out, or drink. I even became a member of a gym. More and more every day, I feel like I can handle the world around me, and like I'm digging my own little niche into this new environment.
One thing that I have to make sure to keep myself from doing is creating a foreigner bubble around myself. Now that I know the foreigners in range of me, it would be all too easy to spend all my free time with only them. I want to maintain close relationships with these people because having people I can relate to, and speak my native tongue with is important. They're going through the same things as me, their interested in traveling and seeing and experiencing new things like me. However, it is equally important that I develop relationships with native Japanese people as well. This is important functionally, so that I continue to develop my language skills, but also extremely critical if I am going to ever truly fit in here. My greatest experiences in Tokyo came once I had made friends with native Japanese, for innumerable reasons, and I fully believe that will prove true here as well. That being said, it is MUCH more easy to say than to put into practice. In Tokyo, I went to a school, I was surrounded by people my age, many of whom were in the same classes, who had so many connections to me that forming friendships was almost natural.
Here, I don't really have any connections at this point. I can communicate, somewhat, with fellow coworkers, but they are ALL older than me, and most of them have their own lives/families/etc to occupy themselves outside of work. Most of my community/neighbors are either significantly older or younger. There are very very few young-twenty-somethings around. And, even if I went into the city, which is easy enough, I still don't have any connections to work to meet people. In Japan, for the most part, you really can't just walk up to someone on the street and strike up a conversation -- and for the situations where that DOES work, it's often not the type of person you want to be building relationships with in the first place. To meet someone in Japan, they often need a connection such as friend of a friend, coworker, member of your school cohort, common home town, membership at the same gym, etc. Without that kind of established tie, it's extremely difficult to transcend social formalities.
Obviously, these things will take time to evolve and develop, and I'm not letting the obstacles get me down. Things are going very well, my mood is very positive, and each day gets easier. I'm looking at a trip to Himeji Castle next weekend. Still 2 more weeks without internet though :-(
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Edit: By popular demand, I opened up the comment permissions so that anyone can post comments, without need of a blog account or signing up for internet ID. I strongly encourage everyone to post comments, let me know your thoughts, etc. You can technically now post anonymously. However, I do ask that you identify yourself in some way (not necessarily with your real name - any username/handle in the field provided would be fine), so that I know who is saying what. If I don't know you, send me a message and introduce yourself! I'd love to know who's reading my posts. I do remind everyone to use discretion in what you post, as this is a public blog, and all comments and posts are viewable to anyone. I will delete any inappropriate comments, but please don't make me play moderator. Hope to hear from you!
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Sunday, August 9, 2009
Takarazuka Fireworks Festival
This post was handwritten two days ago, and I'm transcribing it here now that I have access to a computer/internet.
Today is the second day of the Takarazuka Summer Fireworks Festival, and the night for the climactic main event show. I wasn't able to attend last night because I had night school until after 9pm. Because I don't have internet, I wasn't even able to get info on where or when this event was happening. I had only heard people talking about it at work throughout the week. So, at around 5pm, I headed to my local station and essentially followed the yukata/kimono. Those took me to Takarazuka Station (no big surprise there) and then to a large parking area in front of the Muko River. Here, families, couples, and groups of friends gather in groups with their festival foods to sit and enjoy the fireworks show. There are a LOT of people here. It's about 7pm and they are playing music over loudspeakers. It is just starting to get dark out. It is a little bit sad to be here alone; virtually everyone else is here as part of a group. This would make for such a great date!
It is really a shock to live in Takarazuka where you can see a member of the Review just walking around doing everyday things. Between the 5 troupes at the theater and the school associated with it, there are enough of them to be seen often enough. They really are shocking because they are women who walk a fine line between looking like beautiful women and dashingly handsome men. It seems as though they must get their hair professionally done every morning, and their attire is always a very well groomed masculine blend.
The show is scheduled to begin at 7:45 and end at 8:45pm. Supposedly there are going to be a lot of fireworks because a fireworks show scheduled for earlier in the year was canceled due to swine flu concerns. They basically just added those stocks to the ones they already had for this show. Quoting the Takarazuka Website: "August beginning of month Takarazuka Gala Fireworks Festival on Mukogawa River around Kanko Dam - one of the oldest fireworks festivals in Japan." The event takes place in coordination with a very very long list of sponsors.
The show is over, and I actually managed to get the entire show recorded on my video camera. It really lasted the full 45 minutes, and it was BY FAR the grandest, most elaborate, best orchestrated fireworks show I've ever seen. I was sitting a mere 100 yards or so from the launch site, and every firework shot off shook you on the inside. There were fireworks doing things I had never even heard of, and the entire thing was perfectly timed to some very beautiful music. It could easily bring you to tears. The show was done in several movements, much like a visual play, and together with the narration, told a very pretty story. I am very very glad I came to this event. It started to drizzle at about 8:00 and a few people left, but the rain held off just long enough for the show to complete, which I'm sure everyone greatly appreciated.
Today is the second day of the Takarazuka Summer Fireworks Festival, and the night for the climactic main event show. I wasn't able to attend last night because I had night school until after 9pm. Because I don't have internet, I wasn't even able to get info on where or when this event was happening. I had only heard people talking about it at work throughout the week. So, at around 5pm, I headed to my local station and essentially followed the yukata/kimono. Those took me to Takarazuka Station (no big surprise there) and then to a large parking area in front of the Muko River. Here, families, couples, and groups of friends gather in groups with their festival foods to sit and enjoy the fireworks show. There are a LOT of people here. It's about 7pm and they are playing music over loudspeakers. It is just starting to get dark out. It is a little bit sad to be here alone; virtually everyone else is here as part of a group. This would make for such a great date!
It is really a shock to live in Takarazuka where you can see a member of the Review just walking around doing everyday things. Between the 5 troupes at the theater and the school associated with it, there are enough of them to be seen often enough. They really are shocking because they are women who walk a fine line between looking like beautiful women and dashingly handsome men. It seems as though they must get their hair professionally done every morning, and their attire is always a very well groomed masculine blend.
The show is scheduled to begin at 7:45 and end at 8:45pm. Supposedly there are going to be a lot of fireworks because a fireworks show scheduled for earlier in the year was canceled due to swine flu concerns. They basically just added those stocks to the ones they already had for this show. Quoting the Takarazuka Website: "August beginning of month Takarazuka Gala Fireworks Festival on Mukogawa River around Kanko Dam - one of the oldest fireworks festivals in Japan." The event takes place in coordination with a very very long list of sponsors.
The show is over, and I actually managed to get the entire show recorded on my video camera. It really lasted the full 45 minutes, and it was BY FAR the grandest, most elaborate, best orchestrated fireworks show I've ever seen. I was sitting a mere 100 yards or so from the launch site, and every firework shot off shook you on the inside. There were fireworks doing things I had never even heard of, and the entire thing was perfectly timed to some very beautiful music. It could easily bring you to tears. The show was done in several movements, much like a visual play, and together with the narration, told a very pretty story. I am very very glad I came to this event. It started to drizzle at about 8:00 and a few people left, but the rain held off just long enough for the show to complete, which I'm sure everyone greatly appreciated.
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