Back from the beach. I am sunburned. About 10 12-year-old boys decided to gang up on me with water balloons, but I am dry now. The picture below was taken a month ago at the hot springs in hakone, and is courtesy of the mysterious Jonathan who makes everything around here possible until I learn some things about html. I am on the left, aoi's in the middle, and my friend astrid is on the right. Astrid, whose birthday party in Roppongi I am off to right now...
~me~ at 1:05 AM
Lea, Astrid, and Aoi at the hot springs
~me~ at 4:05 PM
All work and no play makes lea a dull girl…
I’m annoyed that I have to work on my day off tomorrow. Or maybe it’s that I won’t be paid overtime. When I signed my soul over to this English school, working at a day camp on some weekends without extra pay was in the fine print. So I get to spend my Saturday at the beach with a bunch of adolescents many of whom are too cool even for me (and I am quite cool, for the record). The last day camp I attended was a month ago, when I lead groups of 5-year-olds around the zoo, teaching them useful phrases such as “It’s an Ainu,” or “It’s an African Bongo”. But most of the time I was trying not to lose them, near impossible when you remember we don’t speak the same language.
I am being bitter. I am sorry.
Linking these complaints to my other favorite topic: the crappy weather, I recently read an essay stating that: “The climate of Japan has high temperatures and humidity. In addition, geographical conditions are really difficult, for there are a lot of disasters such as floods, typhoons and earthquakes…these challenging geographical conditions never give the Japanese a sense of calm and leisure; on the contrary, they make people restless and diligent.” That said, it is supposed to rain here for the entire month of June (the rainy season. I’m not sure if I’ll emerge from it a more diligent person, or just wet.
I consider myself a pretty hard worker but I don’t think I’ll ever adjust to this type of ask-no-questions-as your-soul-is-sucked-away-by-major-corporation-because-that’s-just-the-way-it-is work ethic. When I finish my contract here I think I could get by on a part time job instead. Then I will have more time to study Japanese, drink tea, take calligraphy, learn karate, create stuff, and other little things such as living.
~me~ at 7:00 AM
I teach a class on Tuesdays in a room adjacent to a popular fast food chain called MOS Burger (or mosubaagaa, as it’s called). Yesterday was exceptionally hot and I had a food and drink related lesson planned, so I started class by bringing in a large milkshake from MOS Burger and 7 straws for the 7 kids I teach. I’m almost positive that this was not proper etiquette for a teacher in Japan. I mean, considering that one of the parents recently complained about my “style of sitting” because I sometimes sit on the floor to be at eye level with my kindergarteners, abnormal is pretty much synonymous with bad. Still, I am a strange teacher. There is a shortage of mops in my office because I am using them as limbo sticks in my classes. I just feel bad for my students because the compulsory education here is so rigorous and stressful. The kids have to come to my English conversation class after school, so the least I can do is make the lesson partially fun.
I’m convinced that the Japanese educational system is a Darwinian utopia designed specifically to weed out the weak members of society. Take your average kid: to get into kindergarten, there is an entrance exam. To go to elementary school, there is another entrance exam. From elementary school, many kids start going to an exam prep class after school where they memorize many facts so as to pass the exam to enter middle school. In middle school, there is a slightly more rigorous routine in order to enter high school. In high school nobody sleeps. There are entrance exams to get into some prestigious entrance exam prep schools. College entrance exams are notoriously difficult, but once you enter university you are virtually guaranteed a white collar job at a Japanese corporation. In college you catch up on sleep and drink. I have a friend who recently graduated university to begin such a career. I asked him if the corporation he’s joining has anything to do with his major in university. He said not at all, and laughed as if I had been telling a joke.
As for today, I have a hangover. Last night was a co-worker’s birthday and we went to a karaoke bar. Work today went slowly. The god of lesson plans seems to think it’s funny to have me teach and sing “the hokie pokie” to my little students on mornings after I drank too much. Not amused.
~me~ at 12:45 PM
Yesterday afternoon my host mother and father took a trip to the temple to pray for their new car. I wouldn’t consider them a spiritual bunch, as this is only the second time they’ve visited a temple/shrine since I moved in with them 6 months ago (the first was on new years’ day). However, it was really important for them to go ask the gods that this new car of theirs never has any problems. And considering that the car they replaced ran without a glitch for 10 years, it is not my place to have doubts. Right, so now we know why Japanese cars run so much better than American ones. Really though, I traveled to Japan for the first time when I was 16 and I came home with a “charm against traffic accidents” that I bought at a temple in Kyoto as a souvenir. I quickly tied it around the mirror of my new (used) car, and never got into any accidents as a crazy teenaged driver. A few years later though, I passed the car down to my younger brother who disposed of the charm due to its lack of coolness (sigh). He has since crashed this car four times, the last time for good (if you know my brother, or knew me in high school, you are laughing). Anyway, the moral of this story is that you’re never too cool to pray for your car.
~me~ at 5:00 AM