Thursday, February 24, 2011

Oh that Japanese, Japanese: Study!

According to my textbook, I should be able to do these things in Japanese:

  • Conjugate verbs in the present, past, present continuous, potential and conditional tenses in both plain and polite forms
  • Tell time using “from~to~”
  • Count to infinity
  • Express actions using “while” (“I made dinner while listening to music.”) and “after” (“After knocking, please come in.”)
  • Express first-person desire (“I want/don’t want to go to England.”)
  • Express occasional actions (“There are times when it doesn’t rain for a month.”)
  • Give polite imperatives (“Please write.” “Please don’t write.”)
  • Say what I have and haven’t done (“I have been to Mexico. I haven’t eaten natto.”)
  • Talk about giving and receiving
  • Express actions in sequence
  • Express “must”/”have to” (“I have to study!”) in 6 levels of politeness
  • Express actions one should not do “(You mustn’t be late”) in 5 levels of politeness
  • Say “It’s okay to ~” and “It’s okay not to ~”
  • Ask permission (“Is it okay to ~?”)
  • Ask questions in plain and polite forms
  • Use pragmatic softeners to explain situations (“I’d like to go, but the thing is, I have to work . . . “)
  • Link nouns
  • Give a series of verbs in sequence
  • Give advice (“It’s better to ~”)
  • Express things that are hard and easy to do
  • Express “how to ~” (“Can you show me how to use this copier?”)
  • Link adjectives and “become” (“It’s becoming warmer now.”)
  • Link two verbs (“I’m going to the store to buy shoes.”)
  • Make comparisons in three different ways
  • Conjugate adjectives in the present and past positive and negative in polite and plain form
  • Express what one has done and hasn’t done (“Have you cleaned your room?” “No, I haven’t cleaned it yet.”)

However, when I’m in the real world hanging out with people, it just doesn’t flow! I’ll want to say something, and I’ll know that I’ve studied that grammar before, but I just can’t say it! I don’t remember! Especially—especially!—verb conjugations. They are driving me crazy with their tenses and forms.

Take these two sentences, for example:

Kono hon wa yonda koto ga aru. この本は読んだことがある。

Kono hon wa yomu koto ga aru. この本は読むことがある。

The first sentence means, “I have read this book.”

The second sentence means, “There are times when I read this book.”

I’m getting it now, but it’s confusing. But it’s not just this one example. It’s everything. I don’t know how many times I’ve studied the negative past tense, so I can say sentences like, “I didn’t want to go” or “She didn’t talk to me,” but it’s just not sticking. And I can never conjugate “-te” and “-ta” (continuous and plain past) forms correctly, either, because I can’t remember when you double the consonant and when you don’t (atta = met, mita = I saw). I know it has to do with the verbs being in different categories but I just can’t remember exactly how it goes, and when I’m actually speaking to someone all my tenses go flying out the window.

There is good news, though: I am communicating. I can talk to people, even though my grammar isn’t correct and I have to use a dictionary or a pen and paper to explain myself. I talk with the librarian at school when I have nothing to do. Last night two new students, one from China and one from Cambodia, came to my Japanese class and we talked for two hours about hospitals and illnesses. (I really can’t say how much more I love this class than last year’s . . . . !) My friend Shogo and I hang out often, and we’ve managed to talk about religion, politics, technology, farming, future dreams, family, cooking, food, and art, even though his English is about on the same level as my Japanese! Plus I’m learning how to text in Japanese like a pro! ^_^

And here, I think, is where I’m finding my solace. Communication. I’m not always going to speak correctly—hell, I probably never speak correctly—and I’m going to make mistakes. But communication is my aim now, not necessarily verb conjugations. I still don’t pay attention during morning meetings at school, and I’ve all but given up trying to listen to Japanese radio announcers, but little by little I’m getting there.


Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Happy Weekend

This is just a quick note to say how much fun I had this past weekend! Friday night was my friend Liz’s 28th birthday party, and we had a delicious meal and then sang karaoke for two hours (I am getting to be a pro at this karaoke thing). I saw old friends I hadn’t seen in a while and met new folk at well.

I spent almost all of Saturday shopping in Saitama at Costco and the outlet shops there with Emiko and Hitoshi. I didn’t find anything for me but I bought some presents for other people. Saturday night was much needed chill time.

On Sunday I Skyped with my parents for the first time since Christmas, then cleaned my house and did the laundry I’d been neglecting for weeks. In the afternoon I went with my friend Saori to the Takasaki City International Relations 20th Anniversary Party at the Takasaki View Hotel. There were about 300 people there—my community center Japanese teachers included! Even though it was a foreign relations party, I’d say easily 97% of the clientele were Japanese. Of Takasaki’s 4,000-ish foreigners, about 20 came. I saw two or three other Americans, an Iranian family, a Pakistani (?) family, and one person each from Peru, the Philippines, India, and China, but the whole event was conduced in Japanese. It was a relatively fancy affair; almost everyone was wearing a suit, and I felt kind of underdressed in a jean skirt and Civil War boots. Luckily, though, after the fancy hors d’ouvres, belly dancing show, and more speeches, my new friends and I joined in a Western-themed folk dance! I could have sworn the music they were playing was “Little Brown Bug” (“Ha, ha, ha, hee, hee, hee, Little Brown Bug is full of glee . . . ") as we twirled around and clapped hands just like it was 1850. The one downer from that day was when I went up to the man from Peru to tell him in my immaculate, flawless Spanish that his Japanese was very good, but once I was facing him I could only gape at him awkwardly as all of my espanol ran out of my brain like water. I couldn’t think of one thing to say. His refusal to answer me in Spanish also didn’t help, so I talked to him in my stumbling, terrible Japanese, inwardly cursing myself for not being able to summon at least an “Hola.” What is happening to me?

Even though I had that moment where I wanted to cry, I got over it quickly enough. The median age of participants at this party was maybe 45 (not factoring in children), so the few 20somethings of us that were there all banded together quickly. I met all kinds of cool people at the party: a guy from Idaho with a weird name that started with “Z”, a cool girl from Ghana studying design at one of Gunma’s universities, an ALT in Tomioka (maybe?), a Japanese boy who speaks English (!), two 28-year old Chinese guys, and two 16-year old high school girls who randomly starting hanging out with us. We had a lot of fun chatting and playing silly games at the party. When 5:00 struck and it was time to go, we carried our party on to Glime Bar, the tiny place I frequent.

It really is tiny, with just one room and two tables, and the fourteen of us (we were joined by other folk, and the high school girls didn’t come) barely fit. But it was so nice! I helped the owner carry drinks to everyone; I was driving and so just drank ginger ale. I love being surrounded by new friends and old friends and it was just a wonderful, wonderful night all around. We’ll have to do it again sometime!

This week is shaping up to be super busy, too. Even though I thrive on it, I probably need to find some time to chill, too . . . naaaah.

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Hokkaido Trip!

FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 11

After a bit of frantic last-minute checking and re-packing, I stood in the hallway and calmly surveyed my apartment to make sure everything was ready for me to go: kotatsu turned off, microwave unplugged, heaters unplugged, futons stored in their closet, dishes washed and now drying on the rack, refrigerator bare of any items that could go bad in my five-day absence. Only the overflowing laundry basket made me feel guilty, but shoganai, there wasn’t enough time to get it done. My three small bags sat by the doorway, full of winter clothes, Japanese study books, Gunma omiyage, and the requisite Valentine’s Day chocolate for all the boys I’d be seeing on this trip (all two of them).

Shogo picked me up at 1:20 to drop me off at the train station, and my traveling began: first to drop off a movie at Time Clip, then the 30-minute drive to the station that culminated in a series of train rides that carried me to Haneda Airport in Tokyo by 5:00. I have to say, for a girl who grew up at the end of a country road in rural North Carolina, I do pretty well navigating public transportation in foreign countries (I guess all the posted bilingual signs don’t hurt, either). I used to be so afraid of transferring trains, too . . .

Flying domestically was similar to how it would be in the U.S., except for a few small differences: 1) Japan lets you fly with three checked bags, not one; 2) you don’t have to put your liquids in a small plastic bag, and if you take a beverage with you they have a cool machine that scans it for illegal contents instead of making you dump it out; 3) you don’t have to take your shoes off when you go through security; 4) you can’t put huge quantities of liquid in a checked-in bag (on the way back, they made me take my bottle of Hokkaido wine on the plane in my carry-on). I flew Sky Mark, and I will recommend them to anyone: it’s a budget airline, but still comfortable and nice.

I was exhausted by the time I arrived at New Chitose Airport near Sapporo at 8:30, but there were still a few more train rides left before arriving in Ebetsu. Tony had picked me up the airport, and we met Peter and Brian at Nopporo Station an hour later. Once all together, we made our way carefully over the slippery ice and snow to Puu-san (a play on Winnie-the-Pooh, maybe, because the whole bar was full of Pooh paraphernalia), a local izekaya that the Hokkaido ALTs frequent. While the boys sat around the table flirting with the cute, smiling waitresses, I gawked at the one cute waiter in the back, a young-ish looking Japanese boy in a sleeveless shirt and a nametag that said: わたる (Wataru) in black-markered letters (later, I found out just how young this one was—ouch). We stayed for a few hours, my eyes progressively becoming heavier and heavier, until I couldn’t be awake any more. We left around midnight and took the last train back to Tony’s apartment, where I crashed on the first bed I’ve slept in in months.


SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 12

It was cold in Hokkaido, with a heavy quilt of snow over the whole area, snow piled up five feet deep in some places. The roads in Ebetsu were still covered with a layer of ice and snow, and the curbs were slushy and wet. The snow was beautiful, as snow always is, but its beauty had the fading grace that February winters have: too many months of snow and ice, melting and refreezing. Everything looked tired and ready for spring.

Saturday was the much-anticipated Snow Festival! The boys and I got up around 11:00, took the train to Sapporo, and ate a (somewhat strange but delicious) breakfast of ramen on the top floor of a building near the station. One whole wing was dedicated to ramen restaurants—Sapporo’s specialty—and choosing which one to go to a little difficult. Plus, it being the last day of the Yuki Matsuri, every place was absolutely packed with lines 30 people long. We picked one at random because the line seemed shorter than others, and even if it wasn’t the Most Famous Ramen Shop in Sapporo, it was still good! I had Otosk seafood ramen, with crab.

After we ate, we made our way to the Festival, stopping by the Governor’s Building to take our picture in front of the giant snowman that said, “We Heart Hokkaido” in big English letters.

The festival itself was fun, but different than what I had expected. In my head, I was imagining a tree-lined park filled with giant snow statues like the snow version of Edward Scissorhands’ (or the Overlook Hotel’s) shrubbery. But, there were more commercial shops and food vendors than there were actual snow sculptures, with so many people packed into the park that men were placed in strategic spots to yell, “Keep walking! Keep walking!” in order to prevent bottlenecks. And unfortunately, since it was a warmish day, many of the sculptures were looking kind of sad and droopy in the sunlight. Don’t think I was unimpressed, though, because the sculptures I saw were absolutely amazing! There was a giant baseball player (I was told his name but have forgotten), a fantastic 30-foot tall Kyoto palace replica, intricately carved owls and foxes, and a life-sized 2-story house, all made of snow! There were also various animals and sentient beings, all carved into existence by some talented artist. Ice sculptures abounded, too: dinosaurs, flowers, and alligators. There were other ice sculptures on the other side of the park that I wasn’t able to see: instead, I skipped it to go to the temporary post office to buy cards and mail them off to my friends. (It was worth having a Snow Festival-stamped card!)

As we were wandering around, we were approached by two friendly people from a Japanese tour group. “We’re a new company doing tours around Sapporo,” they explained. “Would you like to go on a free, English-speaking guided tour this afternoon, in exchange for filling out a short survey?”

Free?
English-speaking?

Sure!

Right at 4:20, we met the group by Sapporo Tower, and were riding on the big tour bus with 25 more people by 4:30. Weirdly enough, three Gunma JET girls were on the same tour as us! The world is very small—or at least, an ALT’s in Japan is. We had been promised a tour of a chocolate factory and a ride on a Ferris wheel between 4:30 and 7:00, but unfortunately, the chocolate factory was closed by the time we got there. The building itself was amazing: large and impressive, with intricate patterns, like a French government building from the 18th century, but we couldn’t go in the factory part. Instead, Tony and I spent most of our 40 minutes playing outside, for nestled in the snow around the building were dozens of little dollhouses, the perfect size for a 5- or 6-year old girl. I was immediately transported back to my days pretending to be Laura Ingalls Wilder, and happily jumped in to sit on the doll-sized wooden furniture. Before we left, we bought some caramel cake to share and a slice of cheesecake that I ate all by myself. Yum!

On the bus ride over to our next stop, we filled out our two-page questionnaire, that I mostly understood but whose English was so convoluted I couldn’t make heads or tails out of some questions. I wish I had copied some of them down to give you a good example! It was something like, “When you make a plan to visit another place, do you always not plan by yourself before you go?” I hope I answered correctly!

Our next stop was Susukino, the Tokyo-esque section of Sapporo, the one with the huge neon billboards and people all over the place. Our tour group stopped in front of one building (not exactly sure which one) and went up to the 7th floor, where another guide was waiting for us. We were put in a line that led to the rooftop, where a gigantic Ferris wheel was perched. Tony and I shared a car with a woman who claimed she was from New Zealand but who had a completely different accent that I couldn’t place, and I think maybe she was a spy. From the Ferris wheel, we could see all of Sapporo glowing underneath us, the city lights blazing and the moon high in the sky. I felt a little vertigo (a rooftop Ferris wheel?!) but mostly enjoyed myself.

Then our tour was over.

For dinner, eight of Tony’s friends (American, Canadian, and Japanese) joined the four of us at a soup curry restaurant nearby. Soup curry involves a bowl of curry with meat and vegetables in a soupy sauce that you eat with a plate of rice. It’s really delicious; I just wish I had asked for one a little bit spicier. (Can you believe it?)

Later, we joined even more people at a bar called TK6 that apparently is the hangout place for foreigners in Sapporo. It was narrow and two-storied, decorated like any Western bar and so full of non-Japanese people that I felt I had been instantaneously transported back home. We didn’t stay long, though, because the tables we were sitting at were reserved for 10:00 and because everyone wanted to go karaoke-ing. So karaoke-ing we went! It’s always fun to lock yourself in a room with ten ex-pats and sing 80s songs for 90 minutes . . .

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 13

Brian had to leave on Sunday, so Peter and Tony and I hung out by ourselves. We had another ramen breakfast—this time ba-taa kaan (butter corn) in a miso base—for me. Then we visited the Sapporo Clock Tower—glowingly famous for being the first Western-style building in Japan, and for being number three on the list of Japan’s Most Disappointing Tourist Attractions—and went browsing at a couple of stores before hopping the train bound for Otaru. Otaru is famous for its narrow canals, now in February filled with icy water and surrounded by mounds of snow.

The sky had been full of icy snow clouds all day, and by the time our train arrived in Otaru—its route took us directly beside the roaring, breaking, freezing ocean, but I couldn’t get a good picture of it—the snow was coming down heavily. Our whole purpose for going to Otaru, besides the canals themselves, was to see the candles that had been placed in the snow. The lantern light was beautiful, but the snow was coming down thick and quick, making me just want to go someplace warm.

Peter had been there once before, so he led us on to a German brewery a few blocks away. The restaurant was spacious, its rows of long wooden tables circling the giant vats of beer in the middle of the floor. We tried a couple types of home brewed beer—even a “smoked” kind, which was both delicious and strange. It was so nice to sit wrapped up in the flannel blankets the waitress gave me, sipping a dark beer and eating a hot doughy pretzel, after having been in the cold whiteness for so long. I almost didn’t want to leave, but we needed dinner.

We wandered the streets of Otaru looking for the perfect sushi restaurant, not too expensive, but still good, before settling on one. Peter and Tony both ordered huge plates of sushi, but I was still full from my pretzel so I just ate crab soup and scallops. I had a bite of Tony’s sushi, though, and it was delicious! Maybe I should have gotten that instead. Next time.

We took the train back to Ebetsu and watched Back to the Future: Part II before going to bed.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 14

Valentine’s Day! The day Japanese girls give their friends and boyfriends chocolate!

Tony and I spent a lovely morning studying Japanese before heading to Maruyama Park to visit Hokkaido Shrine, looking beautiful in the falling snow. It was the most magical-looking place ever!

For dinner we found the Genghis Khan restaurant (lamb, onions, and other vegetables roasting over a hot plate over a bed of coals) in Sapporo. We squeezed in the tiny restaurant, which was one U-shaped bar, and left half an hour later full of lamb and smelling like smoked meat. It was pretty delicious.

Back at the train station, I shopped for omiyage for my co-workers and friends, and Tony looked around the foreign foods store for some good American meals. At 8:00, we left Sapporo and went back to Puu-san in Ebetsu to meet Tony’s Japanese friend from the BOE (I forget his name). The three of us sat around Puu-san drinking and talking in an English/Japanese mix until almost midnight, when we caught the train home. Before we left, though, I asked that cute わたる nan sai datta—yeah, he’s 19. (Shudder!)

TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15

9:00: Woke up

9:45: Left Tony’s

9:57: Caught the train to Sapporo

10:30ish: Caught the train to New Chitose Airport

11:20ish: Checked in to the airport

1:10: Flew out of Hokkaido

3:15ish: Landed in Tokyo

3:30ish: Train to Hamamatsucho

3:45ish: Train to Ueno

4:05ish: Train to Takasaki

6:30ish: Arrived in Takasaki

7:00ish: Dinner

9:00: Bedtime

Thank you for a fun time up north! I can't wait to see it again in the summer!

Tuesday, February 15, 2011

In From Hokkaido

Tomorrow it's back to Gunma for me! It's been a fun experience to visit Hokkaido--I saw a couple of cities (Sapporo, Ebetsu, and Otaru) and experienced a lot of Canada-like snow (including a magical stroll through a magical forest) but now it's time to go back home. I'll write a nice long post about my trip soon. Now off to bed--it's another 9-hour traveling day tomorrow!

Wednesday, February 9, 2011

Off to Hokkaido

I'll complain about this once, and then I'll shut up.

The Sapporo Snow Festival takes place February 6-12. My original plan was to leave Takasaki on Wednesday night, enjoy the festival Thursday-Saturday, and come back on Monday. Yes, there is a 3-hour ALT meeting/conference/get-together to talk about lesson plan ideas on Thursday afternoon, but I figured, I've gone to everything else and I can skip this one thing. I bought my plane ticket.

Big mistake.

As it turned out, neither my JTEs, nor the Vice Principal, nor the BOE supervisor wanted me to miss this training, so after a few passive-aggressive email exchanges, I cancelled my Wednesday afternoon flight. Unfortunately, the next flight I could get was on Friday. Night. At 6:50. This means I'll get to Sapporo around 8:30 on Friday night, just in time to enjoy the last few hours of the Snow Festival before they close up shop (?). I know it's not that big of a deal, but I still feel frustrated that I'm missing three days of it for one three-hour workshop.

Oh well. I'll be up north Friday-Tuesday, staying with a friend from Oregon and another Gunma JET who will also randomly be up there. I think it'll be fun to fly domestically, see a ton of snow, and eat lots of yummy food. It should be a good trip!

Also, I've learned (from this my own and from other experiences that happened to my friends) that work always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always, always comes first. Always. And don't you forget it.

Now. Off to pack!

Thursday, February 3, 2011

Six Months

February 1 marked six months that I’ve lived in Japan. Funny, I didn’t feel homesick until that thought suddenly clicked. Then it hit me suddenly and powerfully in the face. I’ve never been in a foreign country this long. And now I haven’t been home in half a year! I haven’t seen my parents! Or my friends! I haven’t snuggled with my cat, or bought groceries at Best Way or Harris Teeter, or had a beer at Natty Greene’s, or walked around the dry autumn fields in Littleton, for six months. Six months isn’t all that long, but suddenly it seems like it.

But on the other hand, my first year in Japan is already halfway over. I’ll be going home in August, like a lot of the friends I’ve met here. But, they won’t be coming back, and I will. Yes, I’ve decided to extend my stay in Japan for one more year; if, that is, they’ll have me again!

There are a lot of reasons why I want to stay. Two of the biggest ones are because I really like my job (the students and the teachers are great, and I actually feel useful) and I really want to learn Japanese. Also, there’s so much left to see and do and explore! I’ve really only seen the Kanto and Kansai regions of Japan (although I’m about to fly to Hokkaido in two weeks) and there are more places I want to go: the rest of Japan (I’ve got to get to Kagoshima sometime!), Taiwan, Korea. . .maybe run down to New Zealand while I’m on this half of the world. The possibilities are endless, even if the money it takes to travel everywhere isn’t!

I’ve accomplished a good deal in my six months here. My Japanese is getting better, even if it does take me 30 minutes to write a 10-sentence email. I’ve settled into a good routine at home and at school. I feel like I’m connecting well with the students and I’ve made a lot of friends. I’ve also met a lot of cool people—nihonjin and otherwise--and been on a few dates (both with cool and not-so-cool people). And I’m living alone for the first time in five years, which gives me a wonderful feeling of adventure and freedom.

What will the next six months bring, I wonder? Better Japanese? Better lesson plans? A Japanese driver’s license? Warmer weather, for sure. Where will I go? What will I see? Who will be with me? What wisdom will I attain? What will I write at the end of 12 months? 18? 24?