Staying warm

One thing about Japanese houses, most do not have central heating (nor much wall insulation) so people rely heavily on space heaters instead. Basically not only does it save money to heat just the rooms a person is using but also in the event of a large earthquake it is better to have smaller heat sources in buildings so there is less chance of a fire afterward (and less insulation means less fuel for potential fires as well). Back in Massachusetts I had been living with relatives who kept the thermostat way down in the winter because the main source of heat was a wood-stove in the living room (and the heat never seemed to make its way up to my room somehow, even though I thought heat was supposed to rise...). Essentially I'm used to sleeping in the cold but not to doing daily activities (like eating) in the cold and I was getting a bit discouraged each time I entered my freezing cold apartment in the evening. We had the kotatsu (the heated table I mentioned in an earlier post) and the small A/C unit in the living room which can also give a little heat but with temperatures getting below 7 degrees Celsius (45 degrees F) at night Anne and I wanted something more.

So, a couple of Fridays ago we went out with a lady from the Board of Education (also named Suzuki-san if you can believe it) and we drove to the next town to get two kerosene heaters (one for the living room, one for Anne's room), a small electric heater for the bathroom area, and an electric blanket for my room. I could have chosen to get a kerosene heater as well but as I mentioned I'm used to sleeping in cold rooms and I haven't even opened the blanket yet even though it's dipped to 2 degrees Celsius (36 degrees F) at night since then.

The two kerosene heaters are pretty high-tech, they have a built-in clock so we can set them to come on or turn off at a certain time. They're set to run for three hours but if they sense that there's too much CO2 or CO in the air they turn off automatically. If we want them to run for more than three hours we have to push a button (I guess this is a safety measure in case a person forgets about having the heaters on and leaves the house or goes to sleep). We bought some kerosene while we were in town (at about 70 yen/L) the kerosene heaters themselves hold about 5 Liters but we've been burning through around a Liter a day... It's a bit annoying to keep refilling the tanks but so far it hasn't been as annoying as stacking wood for the wood-stove back home.

Here's one of the smart kerosene heaters.

To diminish the heating bill further we got some plastic "ribbed film" to stick to the windows that's supposed to help keep the heat in and also absorb the ridiculous amount of condensation that accumulates.  We also stopped by the clothing store UNIQLO (which I liked a lot) and purchased some "Heat Tech" clothing which is popular in Japan because it apparently helps the wearer stay insulated even though the material is quite thin.  The clothing store was having a sale so I got several articles of clothing for 999 yen (about $13) apiece; I wore one of the shirts today and I think it really did help (I only had to wear two layers!).  If we have a chance I'd like to go back and get some leggings and socks too.  In other news we got snow tires for our car yesterday so hopefully we'll be alright when the fabled ice comes along... haha.

 And finally for your enjoyment (and to celebrate the 1000th blog view even though most of those are probably from my sister obsessively refreshing the page) here is an ebi (shrimp), tamago (egg), and bacon pizza on sale at an "Italian" restaurant in the next town.

Elementary schools rule

I finally got to go to Shiroharu Elementary, and it was tons of fun!  I took the school bus with the kids from my neighborhood (Shiroharu isn't too far away from my apartment, just a 2-3 minute drive).  When I first took the bus the students gave me weird looks but now they expect me to be there once a week and ask me random questions in very fast Japanese which I usually can't understand without my dictionary.  Teaching at an elementary school is usually awesome since the kids are so genki (energetic/full of life)... most of the time.  A few sixth grade classes haven't gone as smoothly because the sixth graders are feeling a bit too cool for games in English class and elementary school in general (sixth graders are still in the elementary school system, unlike the US).  Just this week when I was trying to invigorate a sleepy-looking sixth grade class, their homeroom teacher (who is always there to help or plan out the English lessons) told them to wake up and asked some random students what they had for breakfast in order to keep them on their toes.  The teacher claimed to have had steak and non-alcoholic beer for breakfast which made the kids laugh and wake up a bit.  I mostly have classes with fifth and sixth graders.  Due to some recent changes to the Japanese elementary curriculum dictating that the 5th and 6th grade students must have one hour of English class per week (I believe), more and more JETs are being assigned to elementary schools.  Personally, I think it's great for the students to start language learning early because then there's a better chance for the students to learn correct pronunciation.  If only the requirement were for 5 hours per week... but then some other subjects would be minimized so that's not good either... it's definitely tricky to balance.

Usually at the elementary schools I get assigned to eat lunch with some of the younger students (for example last Tuesday I ate with the 4th graders at Hayai Elementary).  Eating lunch with the kids is fun especially if the homeroom teacher knows a little English to translate the kids' questions and comments.  I've been asked some pretty funny questions recently including:

Q: Why can you use chop sticks?
A: Because I ate at Chinese restaurants in the US.
I get this question a lot, even adults seem very surprised that I can use chop sticks.  I think that this is because most Japanese in the countryside only see foreigners on TV eating with forks and knives.  There is also the idea that eating with chop sticks is difficult and that only people in Japan can do it since they were brought up doing it and it's part of their culture.

Q: Are you wearing colored contacts?
A: No, my eyes really are blue.  My brother's eyes are green.
The sixth grade girls asking got SUPER excited when they heard about my brother.  I think that for many of the students I'm the first person they're ever seen (outside of TV) who has blue eyes so they tend to think it's cool.

Q: Why are your eyes blue?
A: Because... my family comes from Northern Europe... (?)
I didn't want to confuse them with talk about genetics...

Q: Why are foreigners so tall?
A: Because... they drink a lot of milk.
Again genetics, and nutrition...

Q: Do you know what kuro kuro PA is?
When saying "kuro kuro" the boy made a circular motion with each hand and when he said "PA!" he made an explosion-type gesture.
A: I'm sorry, I don't understand the question...
When I asked Miyu-sensei later she said it is a way to say that someone has nothing in their brain (aka stupid).

Anyway, I also wanted to mention that I added a few pictures to the following previous posts:
From October:
Entering Minamisanriku... 
From November:
Lost Conversations
Alice was a boy!

Driving: Left turns are now easy

We got a car (I told you), we got car insurance, and we even got optional car insurance (which wasn't so optional since everyone was insisting that we get it).  After all that we still weren't allowed to drive to school yet (Suzuki-san said something about how we wouldn't know how to drive on icy/hilly roads).  Well, I know the roads in Japan aren't salted in the wintertime (since it would ruin the surrounding rice fields) but the roads are often more textured than in the US (especially for sharp curves) and I figure that as long as you go slow you'll get used to it (right?).  The roads haven't been icy yet, meanwhile in Massachusetts there was a freak October snowstorm and Halloween trick-or-treating was postponed in some towns due to power outages.  I hope that I can drive to school soon since I really feel bad about the other teachers driving me (and poor Katou-san doesn't even live in my neighborhood)!

Here's our car, it's about five feet tall.

  Anyway, what you're probably really wondering is how difficult/different it is to drive on the left side for someone who's driven on the right.  The answer is... it's really not that bad at all.  It helps that the steering wheel is on the right side (thus reminding me to be vigilant).  I was probably driving a bit too far to the left side during my first trip but I've improved since then.  It's only confusing when I pull onto an empty road (since I automatically try to stay on the right if I'm not simply following the car in front of me).  In the US I drove a standard transmission (manual) car but our k-car is an automatic and as I predicted I did attempt to shift the car into neutral a few times when going down a hill.  My right hand automatically went out to my right side (where the shifter would be in my US car) and I hit my hand against the driver's side door... haha.  So I learned pretty quickly that there was no need to shift.

Using kilometers per hour (km/hr) instead of miles per hour (mph) also isn't hard since all the speed limit signs (which are circular with a red border) are in km/hr and the k-car's speedometer only measures in km/hr.  As a side note, going 70 km/hr (on the highway) may sound fast, but it's only about 45 mph.  Most speed limits in my area are 30 to 50 km/hr (20 - 35 mph), which is a good thing since most of the roads are much narrower than in my hometown.  Luckily in my neighborhood there are plenty of strategically placed mirrors at the intersections so that I can see if there's a car coming around a corner.

As a final note about driving in Japan I must warn you that stop signs are NOT octagons, they are triangles with the word tomare (stop) on them, so please be careful if you ever go to Japan!

Alice was a boy!

How is it already halfway through November?   And why haven't I posted in so long?  Well, basically I've been busy (and lazy) over the past couple weeks and for that I am sorry!  So, first I'll explain about the Hashi Junior High School Bunkasai (culture festival) which occurred on October 30th (gah! So far behind!).   It was fun but a bit exhausting (even though I was just watching) since it was an all day event.  I got to school as if it were a regular school day (even though it was a Sunday) around 8 AM (but I got to drive myself which was nice).  The cultural events started around 8:30 and continued until 5:30 with just an hour lunch break around noon. All the different classes sang a song and performed a play together.  Each of the three grades also sang a song as a whole and there were many small-group and individual performances as well.  For example, the brass band played a few numbers and some individual students did English speeches in front of the school.  Students had previously hung various art projects on the walls too (all the students came to school on Saturday to prepare).

 Some of the art projects involved colorful paper cranes.

The whole event took place in the gymnasium (which doubles as the auditorium since there is a stage).  There isn't any heating in the gym though (or maybe it just hasn't been turned on yet for the season) so I used a small blanket that I keep in my desk (a gift from Miyu-sensei) to keep warm.
During the lunch break everyone had a delicious meat and veggie stew over rice which had been hand made by some volunteers at the school.  Meanwhile in the gym a silent movie was playing (with an instrumental sound track) which seemed to have been recorded from a car's dashboard.   It showed the car's viewpoint as it went through some narrow streets of a seaside town on a drizzly day.  I thought it was pretty cool and so I watched it for a while.  Some of the landscape looked vaguely familiar to me and I heard some of the students saying "Natsukashii ne" which means 'I miss that!'.   I realized that I was probably looking at the area around the school before the tsunami. When I asked a teacher when the footage was taken she said early spring of 2010, just a year before the tsunami.  I think it had been recorded as part of a film project by someone in Sendai and had been recently sent to the school after the principal requested a copy.

After the lunch break there were many student-run performances like a talent show and a cross-dressing competition (yes, you read right)!   The mister-misses competition was extremely popular and had many competitors (mostly guys actually).  It was pretty hilarious, especially since some of the young male teachers participated as well.  I can't imagine that the mister-misses competition would have been popular in my junior high school... I wonder what makes Japan different?  Maybe the focus on cuteness?

Anyway,  I think I mentioned that some of the first years at Hashi wanted me to be in their class play during the culture festival.  Luckily that fell through but they still decided to do 'Alice in Wonderland'.  At the beginning of the play one of the female students was playing Alice but as soon as she went through the rabbit hole a male student (in a dress) replaced her, it was pretty clever.  The other first year class did Cinderella (also played by a male student) and a second year class did Snow White (again a boy).  The other classes created original plays that had to do with school life and (from what I could tell with my limited Japanese) all the students were playing their own genders.  So... it was an interesting day.

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.