7:53am, Tuesday, March 6, 2007
I am about to begin an entire day of classes. I’m obviously at a visit school…I have class every period from 2nd period until the end, so I doubt I will finish this in time, but who knows. So, from the blogs I have saved I see that my last one was Thailand, but I know I’ve put up a few short ones since then. My weekends have consisted solely of snowboarding for the last 2 months. This winter has been apparently very mild, even Tokyo had its first winter with no snow in 40 years or something like that. I think its snowed about 5 times in Fukushima. Which I did enjoy because a 10 minute drive from here puts you in the mountains and there is snow everywhere. It has recently started melting though. The last weekend in February we took a break from snowboarding for a day and went into Aizu-Wakamatsu, the city closest to the ski resort that we frequent, for a night out on the town. It was a beach party and hence the topless gaijin men in the last album I put up. It was a pretty drunken time overall and Shaun and I were able to do a lot of networking with regards to FuJET. Right now thinking about FuJET is running my life. I haven’t had classes forever but I’m busy at work everyday working on stuff for it. We haven’t taken over as of yet and after that Shaun and I will be doing more administrative things, but until then I’m trying to set up the website etc for the incoming JETs. It just hasn’t been touched in years and the amount of hounding I’ve had to do in order to get people to write little blurbs about where they are etc is astounding. But it’s fun none the less. The way it’s looking I’m going to run the website with one other guy, both of us not technically inclined as well as help Moody run FuJET events. I’m excited but at the same time I’m worried. Moody thinks things will just fall into place where as I’m looking to learn about everything before we attempt to do it. As well, I have to study like crazy so that I’m not a complete tool when it comes to the Japanese language, as I am now.
Anyway, back to what I’ve been doing. I’ve actually been helping to do my part at Higashi lately despite having classes because of a new teacher that joined the “Higashi Team” in January. She’s a very nice English teacher who has no fear about asking me things and getting me to help her. Her English is decent but unlike other teachers she’s actually attempt to learn more and isn’t ashamed to ask me anything. She’s also had me marking 3rd year student compositions and I helped a girl prepare for the listening comprehension section of a university entrance exam. Other teachers have taken notice of this and have started throwing their marking at me and then taking a nap on the couch, which is kinda pissing me off. They don’t talk to me all year and then near the end when it’s really important they want me to edit these crap compositions so that they can hopefully better their students in the span of a week. WTF? So, I’ve been doing that lately, or at least I was until Graduation.
High school graduation in Japan was by far one of the weirdest things I have ever witnessed in my life and is definitely going into my top 10 weirdest feelings of all time. I had to go to the rehearsal and the actual ceremony and the rehearsal was a bit different but I’m only going to explain this once and throw in differences as I go. The rehearsal saw the 1st grade students at the back, the 2nd grade students in the middle and a whole ton of empty chairs at the front for the 3rd grade students. How weird is it that the 2nd grade students have to go, apparently in schools with bigger gyms the first graders have to go as well. I realized that overall the actual grad ceremony would be the 5th time that these kids had been present for this ceremony, at least they knew they wouldn’t mess it up. How boring can it get though. In the actual ceremony the back section was filled with parents, the orchestra on one side and the teachers on the other of the GYM…yes the school gym. Anyway, the music plays the 3rd grade kids enter, class by class led by their homeroom teacher. They all sat with their class, in alphabetical order in chairs that were 3 across and about 12 or 13 rows deep. They file in behind their teacher, all standing, then they bow and sit down and the next class follows. The strangest thing about this is that everyone was made to clap the whole time….there were like 8 classes of 40….my hands were definitely itchy and red by the end…but whatever. So finally they’re all in the gym. Kyoto-sensei opens the ceremony, stand up, bow, sit down, other people stand up bow, then more standing, more bowing, more standing more bowing. I did have most of this explained to me at the rehearsal ceremony by the new English teacher, Ms. Shimizu, who sat with me. It was really nice of her to explain things because at least I gained a better understanding of what was going on, it was really nice and I think my supervisor was relieved I didn’t sit with her.
Definitely one of the weirdest experiences of my life happened next, well in the actual ceremony, the rehearsal was weird too but still…when the national anthem played I felt WEIRD. There are definitely weirder things than this but to be the only foreigner in a room of something like 2000 parents and at least 600 kids all singing the song of their country in a language I don’t know while I stand their silently. Very strange, it made me feel very patriotic about Canada. I also wondered if it was weird that I didn’t know the words. Is a resident of a country, who is still the citizen of another country supposed to sing the anthem? I wonder if I actually knew it and sang it if I would have got weird looks. I did get weird looks from parents for the ENTIRE ceremony. Every time I looked towards the parents section I would find at least 5 of them staring right at me, not looking away or anything.
So, after this the actual graduation of the students begins. How is this done you ask? Well, they definitely don’t go up on stage and get handed their diploma individually or anything, cuz hey, then they’d be individuals and would be allowed to think that it was an individual achievement and that would be wrong. Sorry, I know I sound bitter but I just didn’t like this part particularly and maybe it’s me not being open minded but whatever. Anyway, each homeroom teacher goes up to the microphone and calls out each kid’s name in alphabetical order. Each kid stands up and says “HAI” (yes), bows and remains standing until the entire class is standing. They then all bow together and sit down. This is repeated. Oh, I forgot to mention no gowns or caps, just the generic school uniform, which is fine by me, whatever. So every class is called, bows, etc so many kids named Watanabe. LOL. After all of this is done, Kocho-sensei who has been on stage the whole time watching this from the podium (even he sat to the side with the teachers) then has one student representative comes forward. He hands him some document which the ONE kid signs and now, the entire class has graduated. WTF?? Then the 2nd and 3rd year students stand up and sing the school song, oh along with the teachers….which was weird, but not as weird as the national anthem. In the rehearsal they made them sing it about 10 times and the music teacher lectured them for awhile. Oh, and no heaters in the gym for the rehearsal, so it was FREEZING! After this, in the rehearsal they gave awards to the sports teams and clubs. This wasn’t done in the actual ceremony. Instead members of the BOE gave speeches along with Kocho, the 2nd year student representative and the 3rd year student representative. The 2nd year apparently talked about how good the year was with the 3rd year students and how they had been good senpais (superiors) and the 3rd year student talked about how good the 2nd years had been as kohais (inferiors) and gave advice on being 3rd years. This part took awhile. Then the students are lead out, class by class again, but this time in between the section of parents and 2nd years, towards the teachers. This was also weird. The first class of kids looked like they were bored out of their minds, as if they were just walking down the street or something. As I turn to make this observation to Ms. Shimizu who is beside me, I see kids helping some girl across the gym…ya, she could barely stand she was wailing so much…but I still turn to Ms. Shimizu to make my observation to find her just BALLING HER EYES OUT. She was sobbing so loud and tears were just streaming from her eyes. She’s been at Higashi since JANUARY!!! This was weird but whatever, maybe she had an attachment. As kids walked by, more and more were crying even the homeroom teachers were crying their eyes out…I don’t know about anyone reading this, but at my Grad I was god damn happy to be getting out of the hell hole of a high school I went to and moving on with my life. And I certainly don’t remember any of the teachers crying. WEEEIIIIRRRDDD!!! Again, maybe I’m not open minded or whatever, but this just seemed a bit strange. There was such a contrast between emotions of people there, either nothing, like stone cold faces or crying uncontrollably, nothing in between. So, after that we went back to the staff room and I left for my 2 hour lunch with Alex. Oh ya, I’ve taken to taking 2 hour lunches because they haven’t said anything and I’m not doing much right now. Apparently school doesn’t start again until April 9th so I won’t have a class for awhile, as of now I haven’t had class for 4 weeks at Higashi. Altogether it will probably work out to 8 weeks without classes and I don’t go to any more visit schools in the month of March, other than today.
That night was the Graduation enkai (teacher’s dinner and drinking party). The way I was invited to this was sketchy enough. On the Friday before, the enkai was on a Thursday, my supervisor approaches me and says, “annoooo, there is a party for graduation, next Thursday. If you would like to go please tell me…but, you don’t have to go if you have plans or if you don’t want to.” The second part quickly followed the first obviously. So I said, “Well, I don’t know if I’ll have plans or not, can I tell you on Monday.” Then she say, “uhh…” at this moment my phone rang and it was Drew so I was like, “ya, chotto matte onegashimas” and I went out for a 30 minute conversation with Drew. LOL. This was directly after my 2 hour lunch. I know that this sounds rude and everything but I’m hitting a level with some of the people at Higashi that I just don’t care. They don’t care about me and I’ve tried, so whatever. Anyway, upon returning from my delightful conversation with Drew I say to her, “so do I have to tell you today.” She looks around hesitantly and says, “yes” like she’s answering a question on a quiz show and isn’t sure what the right answer is. I then say, “ok give me a minute,” and I consult my friends online about it. They urge me to go even though this school hates me, so I turn to my super and say, “yes, I think I’ll go.” My super then turns to Kyomu-sensei (the dude under Kyoto sensei, so he’s like the vice vice principal) and says something, then he says something back, and then she turns back to me and say, “uhh, you don’t have to tell me until Monday.” Do you see the links that this woman is going to in an attempt to not let me go to the enkai? Anyway, on Monday I told her yes again to her dismay.
So the enkai was at 6pm, I got off a 4:30 and went for coffee with Katie and Will. I had about 4…not a good idea. I show up to the enkai and speeches have started, I was 5 minutes early. Anyway, I sit down. Little did I know I was going to be there for awhile. Kyoto and Kocho give and speech and then EVERY SINGLE 3RD YEAR TEACHER GIVES A SPEECH. One guy cried so much he had to stop and sit down. This really made me wish I could understand Japanese. I did pick up a word or 2 out of every sentence, but I couldn’t tell if the speech was really that moving or not. Other teachers started crying, it was different, but understandable. I know that obviously I don’t have the relationship that these teachers have with the students here, but I just don’t remember anything like that ever happening. Anyway, after about 50 minute of speeches which I died all the way through because of the numerous coffees I had had before hand, food and drinks were served. I sat beside the gym teacher who was a young cool guy and we attempted to communicate as best as possible, it was good cuz I had a nice JTE at my table and a geography teacher who I guess kinda likes me and can speak decent enough English as well as Captain Asshole the English teacher who was acting very friendly. After the Kampai (everyone stands up with full beers and says kampai, cheers) both the gym teacher and I down our entire beers and it was on from there. We ate and talked, and whatever. Now I have to explain something really quick, enkais are important to Japanese society because the Japanese rarely show any type of emotion at all…EVER. That’s why the grad ceremony was weird, but they do have certain times when anything goes….I’m guessing the grad was one, and the enkai is definitely the other. I subordinated could tell his boss to go fuck himself at an enkai and the next day everything would go back to normal, which is an interesting dynamic. As well, the whole senpai/kohai dynamic doesn’t exist so everyone can talk to everyone and not worry about their status being brought down a peg, ie hey I can talk to the gaijin tonight cuz it’s an enkai and no one will judge me for it. Going to an enkai is like going to Cancun, what happens at an enkai, stays at an enkai. Alright, class, I’ll finish this up later…..or in between my classes…..anyway, Kyomu came over eventually and asked me if I like sake, to which I replied yes. Then he scurried off and came back with 2 little carafes. We filled our little wine glasses (imagine a wine glass, but the size of a sake shot at the top) and we kampai’d and then I bombed the shot. Well, I didn’t realize that the gym teacher would be so impressed by this and I forgot that no one’s glass ever goes empty at an enkai and you never pour your own drink. Next thing I know the gym teacher and I have done about 9 shots of sake, to be fair he stopped at about 5 though. So, needless to say I got a bit drunk. So, I socialized which was fun because other people came up to me and were actually talking to me etc. Anyway, at the end, we all had to link arms in a huge circle and sing the school song, then this one dude stood in the middle of the circle and raised his arms slowly one at a time to put his body into an X while standing in front of each of the 3rd year teachers in the center of this circle. It was weird and I still have no idea what they were doing. So, after this, I was kinda talking to some of the teachers and I apparently got invited to the 2nd party, which has not happened before. Now I’m not sure if I actually got invited or I just followed them, but regardless, I ended up in an izakaya with about 20 other male teachers (the cool guys). I paid my money for the nomi-houdai (all you can drink) and then I remember looking around and realizing we were only drinking beer. So, obviously, I order 21 whisky shots. The next thing I know an entire bottle of whisky is placed in front of me and then it’s opened and half a glass (a normal glass, not a rock glass) is poured and placed in front of me…well, I’m a man, I’m a Canadian man, with a bunch of Japanese guys, so hey, whatever, I can drink…I’m bombed but I can handle this….drinking that glass is the last thing I remember. I woke up in the morning still in my suit in my bed and it was 9am…oh ya, remember that the enkai was on a Thursday night, so it’s Friday and I’m supposed to be at school by 8:30. WICKED!!! (btw it’s 1:16pm now, I’ve been getting slammed with classes all day and I just want to die, but yup, I have class in 4 min AGAIN…ha jeez, this will be number 4 of the day). So, lucky for me it was my cool technical high school and I showed up there the most hung over I’ve ever showed up to work and taught a class immediately…not cool. I then proceeded to take an hour nap on the couch, then teach another class and take another nap. I didn’t get in any trouble at all and Kyoto even stopped me on my way out and told me that it’s good to do that every once in awhile (through a JTE obviously) which was really cool. Oh ya, and all I managed to find out yesterday when I went back to Higashi was that teachers put me in a cab home and that they had been worried about me because I was so drunk, I think they carried me to the cab…LOL…mom, I know you just read that and you’re shaking your head right now…but I’m an adult in 4 days and you can’t judge me…LOL. I think it was a good thing though, cuz I’ve had teachers that I have never talked to coming over and shaking my hand and telling me in English they had a good time, etc. So, I’m hoping that it sticks and they’re not just happy to see me alive.
Continuing on, went out Friday night and obviously drank…not excessively, but I did drink. We then went to Inawashiro for the 500 yen ski day. Shaun Moody and I dressed up like beers with white wigs on and our friend wore a squirrel costume…AMAZING. It was a pretty good day because there were a ton of gaijin at the ski place and that made it even more fun to be wearing the stupid costumes. We then shot off to Koriyama for the night and had a huge bangin boyz night with about 9 of us going out on the town. It was a drunk-fest to say the least. The next day, we headed to the Global Citizens Festival. This was cool and I’m looking forward to setting it up next year after seeing what it’s about this year. There were about 14 different food booths as well as booths set up from different international organizations from all over the prefecture. We pretty much just face painted all day, which was cool. I didn’t face paint that much cuz my artistic skill is definitely lacking, but I messed up some kids faces…lol. I just got stuck doing Canadian flags a lot. The first time I attempted an American flag obviously the mother decided to film me….it was a bad scene…LOL. The brew shakes didn’t help anyone’s ability either, but what the hell it was fun and by the end pretty much every kid there and some adults had different flags on their faces. It got ridiculous after awhile, kids asking for things like Uzbekistan and Argentina, etc. The coolest thing was when people asked if we were all Americans and then we’d get to go through who was actually there…Britain, Scotland, Australia, New Zealand, America and Canada. No doubles, just the 6 of us painting faces all day, eventually a few others joined in but it was pretty trippy seeing just how international we really were. I’m already looking forward to setting it up next year and making Mo paint faces for 8 hours…whatever, she’s the one with the artistic skill. Anyway, that’s what’s been going on, this weekend for my birthday I’m celebrating with a British girl, Emily, cuz her birthday is the 11th. We’re going snowboarding and then out in Aizu-Wakamatsu for nomi-houdai and then maybe renting a club, we have a list of something like 35 people coming which will be plenty. It should be pretty good but part of me just wishes that I was going to Snooty. Whatever, I’m sure it will be pretty cool. I’m planning on lying low Friday night and just hanging around at home in case anyone’s looking to get a hold of me. Hope everyone’s doing well back home. Peace
Brent
