My Musings Today

You know what I dislike the most about Japanese schools, in terms of physical structure? Surprisingly, it’s not the lack of central heating. In fact, on many days, I feel like I’m burning up. The staff rooms are usually quite warm, sometimes unbearable. Only the hallways are cold and it’s not like you’re teaching in the hallway. The doors to classrooms are closed and they keep in all the heat. I totally support central heating but right now, it's not killing me yet.

What bothers me is that there are absolutely no water fountains! I see my fellow co-workers drinking endless amounts of tea and coffee and my students drink from their water bottles…but this isn’t quite doing it for me. If I remember to bring water with me (which I usually don't, because I'm great like that) and since it’s so hot inside the staff room, I hardly want to drink something that will increase my own body temperature.

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Here's a fun thing that happened today:

Two of my sixth grade girls touched my hair and FREAKED OUT. I washed it without blow drying and flat ironing it straight, so I’m rocking the cocker spaniel look. They screamed excitedly and said things like, “It feels so nice!” One of them took me by the hand so they could find their homeroom teacher, urge her to touch my hair and then I stood there laughing as they all touched my hair. I love stuff like this.

Wheeeeeeee, I'm Back.

Heeeeey, unintentional hiatus is no longer in session.

Sorry. Again. *looks down at the ground in shame*

First things first: Pictures!

Recently, my friend Midori and her son Ben came to Japan for three weeks. When I was fourteen years old, my mom signed me up for classes at the Japan America Society in Washington D.C. and Midori was my very first Japanese teacher. Then, I started taking private lessons with her and my friend Kamille. Although we didn't keep up Japanese with her for the longest time, we still kept contact with each other, and we became more like friends than just a student-teacher relationship. I also became the babysitter :)

In short, I'm super happy we were able to meet with each other in Japan. She always made learning Japanese fun, with watching TV, eating snacks, and fun activities. I owe a lot to her for where I am today.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2027095&id=1230390045&l=d6749b940e

The following are just more pictures of random times in Japan.
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2024618&id=1230390045&l=bf2794838a

So basically, I've finished the semester....except for a paper, which I'm in the midst of writing. It's due on the 30th, so just a few more days!

The last day of classes was celebrated with karaoke and eating out at a nice Italian restaurant.
I'm eagerly awaiting my Paramore concert on February 13th. Once I see them, I will have seen my top three favorite bands EVER. I can't express how much glee this brings me.

And three days after that, I'm heading home for a break! I need to figure out also whether I'm going anywhere else, namely Hong Kong and/or Korea. I hate planning things.

Oh, and thanks to Midori/my mom, I have been able to enjoy the classy cuisine of Easy Mac right here in my own dorm. I have yet to find macaroni and cheese in this country, so despite it not being anything as good as my mother's, it was delicious. I also now have my special chai tea and Swiss Miss hot chocolate. Things are doing pretty swell right now.

I have to go to the Immigration Bureau and apply for a re-entry permit so I can come back here after I go home during the break. That's my mission on Monday. It's been sort of like this for the last few days - missions. Friday was getting medicine. I learned a while ago that sending 3 months of prescription medicine is illegal (oops) so my medicine was confiscated. After sending in a thousand forms and only getting a little piece of paper saying that I did something wrong, try again later (thanks for playing), I tried again. No response.

Sooooooooo, I had to go to a clinic to get some medicine. Fortunately, again thanks to my mother, I was able to get to a clinic where the staff and doctor speak English. This was the sort of thing I didn't want to be struggling in Japanese, so it went well....expensive, but I got what I needed.

Saturday's mission was getting my hair taken care of long after it needed it. As usual, my hairdresser Ikko was friendly, happy to see me and eager to talk to me in both English and Japanese. He told me that he recently ordered two volumes of One Piece manga in English so he could practice reading. I told him I do the same thing! A while ago, I bought three volumes of "Yostuba&!" manga (much cheaper here than in the US) and was able to understand about 90% of it. It was satisfying. I think I'll pick up a volume of One Piece for him when I go home.

And so far my break has consisted of re-watching the first season of Pokemon episodes with Elizabeth every night. The cheesiness is beyond overwhelming but it brings back good memories and other parts of it somehow more hilarious than before. We talked about how amazing the human brain is and how it can recall things that haven't been brought up, watched, or listened to in years. Like the PokeRap. Yeah. I remember parts of it still.

We're tempted to watch it in Japanese after we finish watching the English dub. We've also noticed how much Japanese culture is in that show that we weren't aware of when we were kids and how some things didn't translate well (for example, onigiri turned into donuts....ehhh? Not even close 4Kids!).

I live a simple life.

There's Always a Dark Side to Good Things

The trains in Japan are almost never late. In fact, they come into the station to the minute that the digital sign indicates. So, it's always really strange when it comes even a minute late. It was late today by at least 10 minutes - which in Washington D.C. is not so surprising but here it is.

Unfortunately, an infamous reason for delayed trains are people who jump in front of them to commit suicide. One of my friends speculated it and although I have heard of it several times, it left me feeling a bit sick and really upset. I eventually asked my friend if we could stop talking about it. I had to keep myself from crying. Some people may think it a little excessive to have such a reaction, especially since I had no idea whether that actually happened or not. But that doesn't matter - the idea of it is incredibly disturbing and it's depressing that suicide is such a "popular" thing in Japan. I don't know the statistics but they are high in this country. I'm just praying I won't ever have to see it happen.

*Sigh*

Besides that, I've been doing fine. I'm registered for all of my classes for this semester. I've tried going to some more classes that are taught in all Japanese but it just doesn't work. I apologize to the teacher and explain as much as I'd like to take the class, it's much too hard to understand. They're sympathetic and say it's alright.

On Saturday, I'm venturing to Roppongi for a hair appointment. It should be interesting I believe. It may not seem like such a big deal, but as a black person with different needs for my hair, it is sort of is one. I fail at explaining it to people, so sorry if my reasoning didn't sound so fantastic. I don't mean to sound vain or uptight, but I can't just go anywhere to have my hair taken care of - bad things happen.

And with that, it's time to eat dinner, watch Heroes....and then do homework. ^^