Lost Conversations

So I mentioned that I was getting driven to school by Miya-sensei, but I didn’t mention that I’ve been getting a ride back with Katou-san, an employee at Hayai Elementary.  Katou-san is very kind to drive me back, but he speaks almost no English and when he speaks Japanese he goes very fast and tends to mutter (a deadly combination).  Oftentimes when I say, ‘I’m sorry, could you say that again?’ he apologizes and then says something else very quietly (maybe an explanation of what he just said...?) but I usually can’t hear/understand that either so the conversation ends before it begins.  Katou-san has me ride in the back seat (which is a compliment since the seats furthest from the driver are for "honored guests" in Japan) though it makes me feel like I’m being chauffeured around and the distance between us doesn’t exactly help with communication (especially if the radio happens to be on).  At the same time it’s a little less awkward to be in the back seat when our short conversations end due to language issues.

The few things I understood in the past had to do with the tsunami.  It seems like the first time I’ve driven with anyone new that person has felt compelled to point out the damage.  Some ask if I heard about the tsunami before coming to Japan and when I tell them it was big news they seem surprised.  Some point out the dead trees and say, ‘The water went up to there,’ (which I can see) and I don’t know what else to say except, ‘Yeah.’  Some point out where things used to be, ‘There used to be an grocery store here,’ or, ‘There used to be a bridge there.’  Katou-san pointed out the foundation that used to support his house (thankfully his wife was able to get to high ground before the tsunami hit and now they’re living with relatives).  We were also able to talk about an English song that was playing once, Katou-san asked me what ‘green fields’ (from the lyrics) meant and I could remember the word for ‘green’ but not for ‘fields’!  Luckily I had my old iPhone with me (aka my Japanese dictionary) so I was able to translate it eventually.  Other than that we only would say a few words about the weather and the rest of the 15 minute ride would be silent.  Usually I'd end up looking out the window which is kind of like being slapped in the face several times.  The road to school is windy and as it goes around hills and over rivers it also approaches the ocean several times during the trip.  Of course every time we approach the ocean we see the tsunami damage... which is like a slap in the face compared to the scenic countryside only a little farther from the water.

The current state of Minamisanriku near the coast.

But back to Katou-san... somehow we had an actual conversation!  He asked me whether I was religious (I figured out with the help of my dictionary and by asking him if he was talking about God) I told him that I wasn’t but that my grandmother was.  Next he asked what being non-religious was called and I said, “Atheist.”  I told him that my step-mom is Jewish... which took some work since I didn’t know the word for ‘step-mom’ or ‘divorce’... and had forgotten the word for ‘wife’.  But I finally got the information across and I said that my step-mom didn’t do Christmas, she did Hanukkah instead.  Katou-san asked me how to say ‘wedding’ in English and asked me if I knew what a kimono or yukata were.  I said that I knew of them but I’ve never... (I couldn’t think of the word ‘worn’) so I pointed to my jacket and I think he understood.  He tried to ask me something else, ‘It’s not Christmas and you have a kabocha.’  It basically sounded like a riddle...  When I looked up kabocha it meant squash/pumpkin so I realized he was asking about Halloween.  Katou-san said that it wasn’t celebrated in Japan and I told him that my students and I had been doing Halloween activities in class just as we were pulling up to my apartment building.  So, yeah, it wasn’t a very long conversation but I was proud of it.  When I was getting out of the car I thanked him as usual and apologized for my poor Japanese skills.  He chuckled and said that his English was terrible and so we’d both have to study.