This week has been a good one. I feel like I finally have a bit of a routine to settle into. As a result my blog post may get a little less interesting, but I will do my best to keep you all entertained. Everything still has the appeal of “newness” to it. I am still seeing new things everyday, and meeting new people. I am learning to get around much easier. I am much more comfortable with everything. Still not overly confident by any means, but things are sinking in, and simple everyday tasks are becoming less of a chore.
I have noticed a slight improvement in my language skills. I do mean slight. I doubt anyone else would notice, but I feel like I am picking up words here and there when I listen to people talk. Now, instead of using Spanish instinctually in response to hearing a foreign language, I am getting more accustomed to using the Japanese words I know, in the very few situations where they have been usable (I still only know a few words here and there). Instead of saying “Si” or “No” automatically, I am getting in the habit of using “Hai” or “Ie”. It isn’t a big deal, I am still completely incapable of having a conversation, but it is a start. The little improvements are encouraging. Reading is a totally different story though. I cant even read the labels for the buttons on my appliances. I haven’t gotten upset with any Japanese people at all for not understanding me, but I have cussed out my washing machine and rice cooker on multiple occasions. I have spent over an hour on google trying to find an English manual or some “how to” video for this rice cooker, but apparently I am the only English speaking person in the world who has one. I have yet to have any guests to my apartment, but as soon as I do I am going to ask for a rice cooking tutorial. Even though the rice cooker has been a bit of an inconvenience, I am happy to report that my light switches seem to like me. I think the toilet, sink, shower, and cook top like me too, they have all been working well for/with me. I have yet to use the heating and A/C unit, but there are arrows on the remote control, so I am optimistic about using it. There is so much to learn with Japanese. Their sentence structure is totally rearranged. They only use present and past tenses with verbs. Not to mention they have 3 different alphabets, the smallest of which has 43 characters. I really don’t know where to begin. I have a text book that I have been studying from, but I don’t always have time/drive to study before and/or after work. I think I just have to stop being lazy about it, but it will come, I have a good bit of time here to practice.
Luckily the teaching English side of my life has been going much better than the learning Japanese side. Work has been very good. I am really getting along with everyone in the office very well. There is only one other male working there, he likes to joke around a lot as well, so we have been able to keep all the ladies laughing most of the time. Everyone is always joking with each other, especially with me because of my frequent inability to understand and my outward “American-ness” that seems to often catch students and others off guard. We were playing a tag type game in the lobby the other day. The teachers were “it” first, and they just tagged other teachers (cop out). Eventually, I was the last teacher to be “it”. When it was time for me to “tag” someone, I half heartedly chased the kids around to make a little game of it. Then I caught up to this little girl who was slowed down by the students in front of her, so of course, I tagged her. I turned around laughing and what not trying to keep it “fun” and everything. When I turn back to the little girl, everyone is huddled around her and she is bawling her eyes out. She looked like she had just been cornered by “Leather-face” from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. I didn’t know what to do. I wanted to go comfort her but she just seemed to cry louder with every step toward her I took. Everyone just told me she would be ok and I “shouldn’t worry”, it “wasn’t my fault”. It was really awkward. I feel like this girl will forever have nightmares of this tall well dressed white man chasing her down. I’m sure her mom hates me. All the other teachers were laughing about it later on. Literally, my first experience playing games in the lobby and I make a child cry (way to go me).
At least I haven’t brought any adults to tears….so far. I have been trying to introduce the concept of sarcasm to everyone, but it has been a little difficult. I know my friends and I use sarcasm more than most back home and I always have to tone it back when I meet new people, but here I say things without even realizing they are sarcastic, and everyone just looks at me and it is awkward until I just start laughing. They are starting to understand it though, and some have even tried to experiment with a little sarcasm of their own. I am proud. One of the first lessons I taught in one of my classes was actually about using sarcasm. I think I explained it well to my students, but I could tell it was a very new concept to them. One of the examples in the book explained that there were two people meeting up when it was raining, and one person said “Great day for a hike!”, they didn’t even get that example at first. By the end of class during a role play exercise I had a guy telling his partner that he was “really good looking” and that he should try to be a model, he was laughing so hard he could barely even get the words out.
I have been hanging out with my new Japanese friend Koichi, whom I met at a St. Patty’s day party during my week in Osaka. He lives in Nara, not too far from me. He speaks very good English and has been really cool about showing me around and introducing me to people. I think he originally just wanted to hang out to practice his English, but now we have become good friends. Last weekend I met up with him and a bunch of his friends in Osaka, we went to a few different places and ended up staying out until about 5am. It really ruined the following day for me, but I was very happy to have gotten out and made new friends. I may end up meeting up with some of them again this weekend. Last night Koichi and I went to get some food at this Japanese restaurant in my town where you grill your own meet at the table. There was a little hole in the table with a gas grill in it. It was all you can eat so we ordered all kinds of things. We ate several types of steak, chicken, pork, liver, and even some cow tongue. It was all delicious. A very different experience, than anything I have done back home. If anyone comes to visit we will definitely have to make a trip there. It seems like the weirder the food is, the more I like it. I even ate raw horse meat a while ago, it was actually one of the best things I have eaten since getting here. Another weird thing I ate today was KFC that tasted good. In America KFC tastes pretty horrible to me, but everyone has told me that fast food is much better here. I was craving fried chicken and my co worker had just came back to the office with KFC for her lunch so I had to give it a try. It was surprisingly awesome, very different than the old soggy chicken I got last time I went to KFC in the states. Apparently Japan has much stricter laws regarding food quality, which may explain why the Japanese are, for the most part, very skinny despite all the rice and fried food they eat. Seriously, I would say %75-%80 of what people eat in this country (other than rice, which is in everything) is either fried or raw; The rest consists of baked goods, soups, and….well I don’t really know what much of the other stuff even is. Maybe I will let you know in a later post. The food is good though, I can say that with certainty. The more mysterious food I try here, the more I envy Anthony Bourdain and Andrew Zimmern. I would love to have a job like theirs one day.
So, work is good, my belly is happy, and I am starting to build a bit of a social life. Things are going well enough. I am starting to get comfortable and settle in. I do miss everyone back home, but I am definitely glad I am here. I am very excited for this coming weekend, another opportunity to explore something new. I will let you know how it goes. I hope everyone is doing well. Thanks for reading. Peace out.