This week in Japan was Obon. It’s one of the busiest weeks of the year because almost everyone gets off that week. During Obon, Japanese families make vessels out of eggplant (or aubergine if you’re one of them funny-talkin’ people) to help the spirits of their ancestors return to visit them. This was a little worrying for me at first, because I don’t know who’s lived in this apartment before me, so who knows what kind of ghosts would come back here. Also, the ghosts would almost definitely speak Japanese, and depending on how long ago they died, would probably hate all non-Japanese people. Thankfully, I was assured that the ghosts go back to their families, not just their houses (American ghosts could learn a thing or two from them). This was good because I didn’t have any ghost hunting equipment or even a pottery wheel. For those who have had family members die recently, Obon is a particularly important holiday. For most others, it’s a good vacation week. Tsu JETs were required to take Thursday and Friday off as two of our holidays, not that we really argued. Vacation’s always good, even when you’ve only worked half a day (technically all the orientations count as work, too). However, first I had a whole day of work.
Back to School, Back to School…
Wednesday morning I got up at the fun fun time of 6am (after setting multiple alarms on two different phones), got dressed, showered, then walked to the bus stop (basically undoing the showering by sweating so much). It was my first day at Geino Middle School (or any school for that matter). My instructions were to go to the surf shop and take the #52 bus to the last stop, which made it easy, but at the same time I was slightly nervous that I had gotten on the wrong one or something. It takes almost an hour by bus to get to 3 of my schools, but I don’t mind it as much as driving since I can just use my phone/3DS the whole time. In fact, I started playing Monster Hunter specifically because it’s a good bus game. However, since it was the first time and I had no idea where I was going, I just listened to music while watching what the stops were. On the way I saw a McDonald’s with a play place (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen here), however it was outside and therefore probably heated up by the sun to 100-something/40-something degrees. I’m assuming that’s the kids version of hot yoga. I got to the school where I was greeted by absolutely nobody. Eventually I passed a teacher who walked by, said good morning and went to the teacher’s lounge, where I followed him. One of the teachers realized I was that white guy who was going to teach here, so he introduced himself and showed me to my desk. We talked a little in Japanese about where I was from and if I had been to Japan before. He spoke a tiny bit in English, talking about my travels, then commented on how similar “travel” and “trouble” are (in Japanese, they actually are). In teacher mode, I replied “yeah, though they’re a little different,” and repeated the two words. My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) was there and took me on a tour of the school. She’s this cute little old Japanese lady with one of the softest voices I’ve ever heard. While on the tour, we passed by the gym where the volleyball team was practicing (girls volleyball, I learned as they approached (they have to cut their hair short, and are only in middle school, so… oops)). Their coach (one of the teachers I had met) said something in Japanese, out of which I heard the word for “introduction”, so they ran over to me and I introduced myself to them all. Later I passed another room with a girl practicing clarinet and introduced myself to her, too. Then the same with some other random students. I’m not sure if the students could guess who I was beforehand (they knew my predecessor had left), but either way they were all bowing to me, so I bowed back. The rest of the day was spent reading my English textbooks because I had nothing else to do. Now, this doesn’t mean I was reading a book about how to teach English. This means I was basically reading Dr. Seuss for most of the time. A little after noon, as I was eating lunch, my JTE told me that there wouldn’t be anyone in the office soon, so I could go home. I didn’t even think that was an option, even during the summer, but oh well, still gettin’ paid. She helped me look up the bus times, then left. I took the 1:00 bus home, then spent the rest of the day finally relaxing. Because this week is a holiday week, the Tsu JETs are forced to take two days of holiday on Thursday and Friday (not that I objected). So basically I went from a 4 day holiday to a 4.5 day holiday. Not too shabby for my first week.
The Great Circle of JETs
That night, my predecessor was in town for one last night before she left to return to America. She came over and we talked about what the teachers and students were like at her old/my new schools, what to expect when teaching, and what kinds of trouble the students will cause (other than the afformentioned kancho). She also showed me how a few things in the apartment worked (I hadn’t translated the kanji yet) like the washing machine and a mysterious remote control. She explained how the sun has set on her time here, and would rise with me as the new king JET (I think that was her, maybe someone else said that). We completed the exchange in a painful process that resulted in this. Cute, huh? After that we went out to dinner with my new neighbor (who I also met that night for the first time) and some of his friends for her last Japanese meal. It was kind of late, so we only had a few options. We went to a special version of a restaurant called Coco’s (which is usually just a curry house) that was a combination of the curry house and the restaurant next to my dorm from JCMU. I was tempted to get “The America” as I called it, which was just fried chicken, sausage, and french fries. Instead I got my other old favorite, the hamburg steak with demiglace. It was so hard to find decent demiglace in America. After dinner, we went back to my neighbor’s apartment where we hung out and played drinking games (which involved all of us wearing a fundoshi (outside our clothes) while I played sexy music on my phone). My predecessor’s taxi was coming at 5am, so we were keeping her up until then. One by one, everyone passed out/fell asleep/died (I wasn’t sure until later). Finally at 5, the two of us left escorted her and her Japanese friend to the taxi and never saw her again (though Facebook exists so it’s not quite as dramatic). As I walked back to my room, I wondered if I would ever have a normal sleep schedule.
Thursday night was the death/leaving of another JET, though this time one that I didn’t know. We all went out to dinner and drinks together, then afterwards hung out in a park eating ice cream (that’s what the cool kids do after dark now). It had just rained, so most of the equipment was wet, but we still got to use the swings and the see-saw. There was also a bathroom that looked like an upturned shinkansen. And by bathroom I mean one tiny room with just a toilet and a urinal covered by a child-sized saloon door. Once we realized how late it was getting, we went our separate ways to try and sleep at a normal time before our trip to Toba the next day.
Will I ever have a normal sleep schedule? Will you ever stop having nightmares from our face swap? How different will our lives be as a metalhead and a Mexican tranny? Find out next time on the Gaijin Chronicles! Dah dahh dadahhh da dahh duuhhh.
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