The most succint phrasing doesn't always turn out to be the best

I believe I put my foot in my mouth to some small extent today. I was in conversation with one of the students at Nova and she asked me what I liked about teaching. To which my reply was that "I find the opportunity to speak personally to Japanese people fascinating, it's like being able to conduct a miniature anthropological study." To which her resonse was, predictably along the lines of, "So, we're like lab rats?" I managed to clear myself of the role of disinterested researcher, but not without some (continuing to this moment) embarassment.
I realize something along the lines of "It's fascinating to be able to learn so much about the cultural differences between Japan and America" would have been more appropriate. However, in truth, I do consider every conversation I have to be a kind of anthropological research. This, of course, is not on any conscious level, but in the sense that all human interaction leads to a greater understanding of societal function, cultural norms and behavior. I consider this to be on a much lower level than the enjoyment to be derived from the purely social aspect of conversation; an ancillary consideration. I do believe though that rational, analytical thought and, yes, even conversational exegesis are important tools for daily life. But, I think I shall cut this entry short before it gets so pretentious that it devolves into a critical essay on Leonard Cohen.

Ascending?

Stone and steel

Mining museum and some general observations

I visited the mining museum on Thursday. (Thank you fishy business for pointing it out to me [see comments, "Public sculpture beautifies cities]) I noticed their mannequins were pale, almost to the point of diseased looking, perhaps it's from staying underground and acting like miners constantly. On the whole though, the museum was quite interesting with lots of old tools - if there's one thing I'm a sucker for it's esoteric mechanica. Moreover, as I suppose would be expected, there are many displays of mining history. I found all of this very nice, and entertaining even, particularly the part where it attempts to simulate being underground in one of the mines. However, the informational aspect was slightly lacking, at least from my point of view; if one has a limited grasp of the written Japanese language and does not enjoy looking at old gadgets, tools and contraptions, this museum would most likely be of little interest. The tower, unfortunately, was closed. I shall keep trying to ascend as, there is more than one thing I am a sucker for.
Here are some things that have struck me recently, comments overheard and reactions noted, that sort of thing:
-When I ask my students "What could be some status symbols for high school students?" Invariably, the first answer is "A good school uniform."
-Overheard in class (a young woman talking to a settled man): "I don't want to be a housewife." "You hate dishes?"
-Japanese women are nearly always floored when I tell them that I can cook.
I realize it's a short list, but hopefully that doesn't mean I've exhausted all of these minor cultural differences or that I won't be able to notice more.

Birdwatching in the City

I saw a hawk, or someother such raptor, yesterday. I was standing on top of the Fuji Grand and looking out towards the city, when I spotted what looked like hawk, nigh 10 meters away. He was flying in large slow circles, each one overlapping the last slightly, so he covered some new ground with each circle. A beautiful bird, dark brown on top, a dusty red brown underneath and long finger-like feathers on his wingtips; big too, a wingspan of probably 60cm or more. I watched him for probably five or six minutes before he got too small to see. I can't imagine what he was hunting, there are really no green or even spaces near the Fuji (that I'm aware of), perhaps though, there are enough pigeons, sparrows, and rats to keep him feed. I couldn't help but think about all of the tiny dogs I see around though.

Hazards of absentmindedness. Guess whose passport went through the wash?

Some local history

Today, I had a fascinating conversation with a student in the Voice room (that being the place that students can go fi they don't want a lesson, but just want to practice their English skillis in an informal, conversational environment). It started with being asked what I had done in Ube during my stay here. As part of my answer I mentioned my trip to Tokiwa, and I commentend on the mining museum I had heard about (see comment on "Public sculpture beautifies cities"). I told the two students in the room at the time that I was clueless about the existence and location of this museum. They replied that, they two were unaware of it, but one of them proceeded to tell me about the mining history of Ube. Apparently Ube was once a great coal mining town, however this was sixty or so years ago and the mining was accomplished through the imported forced labor of Koreans living in cramped conditions near the beach. Living near the beach was a requirement, as most of the mining was done in tunnels dug underneath the ocean; it was very dangerous work, especially because of the breathing tubes. Because of the lack of oxygen in these underwater tunnels, gigantic tubes were constructed, running from the mine to above the surface of the water. However the construction of these tubes was poor, and from time to time they would leak, neither did they extend far above the water's surface so the winds could kick up the waves over the tops of the tubes. Water would rush down into the tunnels and drown many Koreans, but more would be brought over soon. She then told me that in recent years "a Japanese man felt pity for the Koreans" and made a trip over to Korea to speak with the surviving laborers and their families and now once a year a delegation comes from Korea to hold a memorial Buddhist prayer service. She continued on to tell me from the train, between the stops of Kusae and Tokiwa, one can still see the tops of two of these breathing shafts rising out of the water.
Both students then commented on how no compensation has been paid by Japan to any of the countries from which it culled laborers. This woman who was born in Seoul to a Japanese soldier during the occupation then insisted on telling me about the rainbows she had seen yesterday, and about how difficult it can be to teach singing to children from the countryside.

Public sculpture beautifies cities

The mall where I work is a healthy environment

In Japan the police are your friends

Last night one of my coworkers friends was in town, visiting from England, so we all went out for drinks at an izakaya after work. Nice place, a couple blocks from the apartment called Haikali Dori. A little expensive, but they have a bottle keep system that makes it quite economical for drinking. Fo about ¥1000 you can buy a bottle of liquor and put your name on it, and they keep it on the shelf for you to use wheneve you come. Quite a few people came out, including one of our neighbors, a cameraman for the local TV station, KRY TV. The food was good and the company was entertaining, but I had to excuse myself early (about 2:00) because I had work the next morning. I found out later that the core of the group stayed out until six, going to karaoke, etc., so I'm glad I left when I did.
I found myself biking home alone, in the dark, and, of course, I soon got lost. I asked a taxi driver which way the 190 (one of the two local highways) was, and he pointed. But, after a few mintes of cycling I found myself still lost, and I pulled into a 7-11 and asked the clerk, he helped some, and one of the customers stepped in and drew a small, and frankly quite useless map.When it became clear that he was being of little help to me he decided to follow me outside and walk with me. He was in his mid-twenties, wearing a shiny red track suit, and, I think a visor. In the short conversation we had, he told me he was an iindependent fashion designer and travelled to Korea, Hong Kong, etc. However, instead of taking me to the highway, as I had hoped, he walked me and my bike to the local koban, or police box/mini-station. Inside he helped explain the situation to the four officers there, who all clustered around up to the counter to see what was up. I added that I was lost (in Japanese) to which one officer replied, "I'm lost", he may have been correcting my pronunciation, or makiing a joke, but either way I was confused. I wrote down my address for the officers and three of them came outside with me, the man in the track suit left, saying (in Japanese) not to worry, and that Japanese police were kind. Nice of him to say so, but not really necessary. The polic then held my bike and parked it by the police station, because I had been drinking, saying I could get it tomorrow. Oddly, they didn't check the registration. Then three of them hopped in a police car with me and gave me a ride home, taking my phone number on the way and made some general small talk. I told them that I had left my passport in my apartment, and could go get it, but they shrugged it off. They dropped me off at my door and told me to have a good night. Not an unpleasant experience, but, still an inconvenience; I had to spend a bunch of money on a taxi to work today, and tomorrow I need to go find my bike.
I got home around 2:30, went to bed, woke up at eight and hopped in the shower, only to realize once I was wet and soapy, that I had work at 11:40, not ten. Thus, I went back to sleep and went to work later with crazy bed hair and a wicked hangover. I've gotta learn my way around town.

Before I forget

Two days ago I was in the bathrrom and I saw a guy in a wheelchair use a handicapped urinal. It has bars on the sides to hoist oneself up. I just thought I'd mention it because I found it pretty impressive. Also, for you Google Earth types, my phone's GPS told me my exact coordinates, so I thought I'd shoot 'em at you in case you wanted to sattelite stalk me. Lat. +33.94991, Long. +131.25232.

Tokiwa-ike

Went to lake Tokiwa and the adjoining park today with Lindsay, one of my coworkers. We biked out there and then around the lake. It's very beautiful out there. It's a fairly large lake and park, the land was donated by the local chemical company, I think it's man made, but I'm not positive. The grounds around the lake are littered with scultptures and picnic areas, and there are also paddleboats for rent, but only during the summer, so we could not paddle around the lake. Also included in the lake are a shinto shrine, suspension bridge and a small amusement park. Or, as the city website puts it, "various riding excitement", this includes a flume ride, roller coaster, ferris wheel and I think one or two other things. Seems interesting enough to do once, when it gets nicer out; they didn't appear to be running right now anyway. The city website also mentions "small zoo", I didn't see it while I was there, but I asked my coworkers, and apparently it's some monkeys. And goats. On an island living in a concrete pirate ship. Very small, depressing zoo. Also included in the park are huge pelicans (that choose to live there). They are in fact disturbingly large. I was afraid of them.However, shortly after this picture was taken I observed a man bring his baby over to the pelicans, to "say hello" or some such apparently. Speaking of saying hello, the school kids well always yell "Harro!" at me or my coworkers (collectively, "them white folks" or gaijin) and "Shi yuu!" as we leave. Unless they are younger, then it is a coin toss between "Harro!" and running away.

Tokiwa's suspension bridge

Magical pond-type garden at Tokiwa

Sculpture at Tokiwa Park

My apartment building

Work and the grocery store

Work, well work is easeir than I thought, and goes by faster than I thought. These are both good things, however I fear I may become bored. But, we shall see.
After work today, I stopped by the grocery store to pick up a couple of things for dinner, and lingered a while over the seafood seletion. They had a tank (or two) of live fish to be plucked out and given to the customers, crab and halibut even. I didn't know until today, eeing them laying on the bottom of the tank and drifting up now and then, how flat flatfish were. On the way out of the store, the lady behind me in line, attached a bunch of 5% off stickers to my groceries. She had a whole sheet of them. I said thank you (in Japanese) and she said "No problem" (in English). It was wierd but nice.
On the ride home I got a little lost, as I had never rode home by myself before, much less in the dark. I tried to ask two passersby for help, but all I could get out was an "Um, excuse me, but . . ." (in Japanese), before they mumbled something inoffensive sounding, raised their hand, ducked their head a little andk ept on walking. Didn't even break stride.
But, anyway, on a lighter note. I'm never taking eggs home in my bicycle basket again. Well, unless it's a short ride.

View from my front door

Training done, first day of work done

Training in Hiroshima went well, boring parts and other parts too. Met some cool people, inluding, of course, a bunch of Australians. I think I've been hanging out with Australians so much lately that my accent might be begining to change. Although, I hear that people develop what's known as the NOVA accent; sort of a combination of all of the English speaking countries, plus a slow rate of speach and precise diction from speaking with Japanese people.
While in Hiroshima I went to the Peace Park and adjoining museum. Very well done, very beautiful, very depressing. One of the fellows I was traveling with, Daniel, took some pcitures, which I will post as soon as I recieve them. There were lots of people there, many school groups and many foriegners.
But soon! I shall be posting my own pictures as I got my keitai (w/ camera) and a digital camera. I'm quite impressed by my phone, but I shan't go rambling off all the features here, suffice to say, if the one were available in the states, it could easily cost three to four times as much as the roughly ¥5500 I paid for it. But to start with, I suppose I'll post a picture of my room here:And there we are. First of many I suppose. But, I digress. The requisite steps to get the phone were certainly interesting, if not simultaneously boring. First was getting there certificate that says that I'm registered to get an alien registration card; while sitting in the poorly ventilated city office waiting for some of the paperwork to go through, an elderly man with a limp and one foot wrapped in a plastic bag came up to me and said some unintelligible things, then wandered over and sat down next to my roomate and spoke at him for a while. After he left, I asked what was up and my roomate told me that apparently he had fought the Americans in the Philipines in World War II. It's amazing to think of meeting war vetrans in another country that fought against our parents generation. The rest of the story is the boring part. I waited in the bank for forty five minutes for my account to be processed. Although the clerk did point to the appropriate prhases in his phrase book, so that I would know what he was talking about.
That was yesterday. Today was my first day of work. It went by a lot faster than I thought it would. Four lessons and three lesson preiods in the voice room. The voice room is where the students, for cheaper than a lesson, can come in and sepdn as much time as they want, chatting in English with an instructor moderating or directing the conversation. The most interesting part of the day happened in the voice room, during my last forty minute period. A fellow from my previous lesson came in and sat down. It turned out he was a cardiologist from the local hospital and was going to Dallas in a week and a half to present a paper on the difference in the angles LV torsion in the endo and epi something, and he wanted me to listen to hm read his presentation and help with his pronunciation, diction and cadence. I thought it was a real treat, to which the other instructors said that there were glad that I got to field that one. Well, second day of work tomorrow at 11:40, so I'd better hit the hay.

A short addendum

I almost forgot, yesterday I ran into an English fellow on my way from Hakata to Ube. He's an engineer for the Ube chemical company and was coming into town to do some stuff with spectrometers. I couldn't tell if he worked for them directly or was consulting; he'd been living in otkyo for about eight years, traveled all around Japan, and to Taiwan and Korea. He gave me some beer reccommendations based on his personal, extensive research and expressed sympathy from his Tokyo viewpoint that I was living in Ube. Nice fellow. Also, I was pretty dissapointed by the train ride from here to Hakata, because I had thought that the Shinkansen went over the bridge and I would get to see Shimonoseki straight from the window, but unfortunately, it was a tunnel. Which is cool too I guess, but not so much from inside the train. But now it's time to try and figure out my recycling and get ready to go to Hiroshima today.