Kansai Trip Part 1: Osaka

I am typing on a Japanese keyboard, which makes it really difficult because I can only hit space bar with my left thumb which is all wrong. So, I will make do and trudge along as is my norm in Japan.

I am on day 3 of the longest vacation of my life around the Kansai region of Japan. We left Yakumo, Hokkaido on December 27th, and after a 2 hr train ride, 2 hr plane ride with discount airline Fly Peach, a shuttle from Kansai Airport Terminal 2 to Terminal 1, a 40 min train ride to Osaka Namba station, and a 3 minute subway ride, we finally arrived at Osaka Hana Hostel. The hostel is located in the Minami chuo (South ward) and is a nice, clean, affordable place. International hostels are a reasonable way to travel.

Upon arrival, we ventured out into Amerikamura, the America-themed shopping/youth/fashion district. We ate at an Indian restaurant; the Japanese are quite fond of curry and there are a surprising number of Indian restaurants around, although this was our first time eating Indian food in Japan. I felt like a truly global citizen, as an American in Japan, speaking Japanese with our waiter, a chubby Indian man, who made us feel more comfortable by speaking a bit of English (probably his third language at least).

The next morning, we had a big and affordable American style breakfast at a place called Planet 3rd Cafe. 

Then, we walked to Tennoji Temple and Park, explored gardens and forests and experienced some of the religious New Year traditions: burning incense, lighting candles, and giving money as an offering. 

Although I planned a daily itinerary, we wandered around and discovered most of the areas I wanted to visit. Dotombori Canal, Shin Sekai (New World District), and Shinsaibashi. There are many narrow, covered alleys with bright neon signs and restaurants, Pachinko Parlors, and restaurants, including the food Osaka is famous for: Kushi Katsu (fried pork cutlets) and Okonomiyaki (fried pancake type things). 

Despite our many adventures, we still had time to take a nap and see Les Miserables, our first movie in Japan. Tickets were about about 2000yen, but concessions were noticibly cheap, and they offered several luxurious amenities like a tray for your popcorn and drink, blankets, and extra seat cushions. The movie was amazing. Tom and I recently watched Hugh Jackman in Oklahoma, and he put on the performace of a lifetime in Les Mis. Russell Crowe's performance left a bit to be desired, as his singing wasn't big screen ready. Sasha Baron Cohen (the Borat guy) and Helena Bonham Carter were the pinnacle of a comedic duo, and Amanda Seyfried and Anne Hathaway were less annoying than I thought they would be. The music was excellent, and I would wholeheartedly recommend seeing it! Tom really wants to see it again...but it's too expensive to go to it in the theaters again. Maybe when it comes out on DVD we can get it.

Yesterday, we took a train to Nara, one of the most historic and famous places in Japan. 1,200 tame deer live in the park, feeding on the biscuits tourists buy for 150yen/pack. We saw Todai-ji (temple) and Kasuga Shrine. Compared to the bustling youth metropolis that is Osaka, Nara was quieter, full of more elderly people, and tourists in general. We enjoyed the forest, the deer, the Great Buddha, and the relaxing three-course Japanese style lunch we had with local pork and matcha (green tea) lattes with deer art drawn on top at Nara Cafe Youan.

And today, our last full day in the Minami area, we took two subway trains to the Osaka Aquarium. We are becoming quite savvy public transport travelers, even with maps and machines in Japanese! I wish you could see us. We're pretty pro, but it took us a fair number of mistakes and confusing conversations with transit officials to figure everything out. But I never told you that. The aquarium is one of the largest in the world, and luckily we accidentally arrived 30 minutes before it opened, putting us 3rd in line, followed by about 150 others waiting outside under our umbrellas. We beat a lot of the rush, on the Sunday before the New Year. It must be one of their busiest days of the year! Much of the aquarium is a winding path around a giant central tank, with fish big and small, sharks and manta rays and turtles and schools of silverfish, all interacting in a pseudo marine environment. We enjoyed seeing the sharks eat other fish in the tank, and the same species of fish riding along under and behind the shark, cannibal-eating the spit out remains of their bretheren. The circle of life...

Now, I must share these three anecdoes: One of the most surprising and enjoyable things about this trip has been the random encounters I've had with Japanese children . While most other tourists are going about their business, children are always interested in their environment, and the two friendly-looking white people (us) couldn't be more intriguing. 

At a noodle restaurant yesterday, upon entering, a little girl sitting on a stool looked right up at me with the most sparking eyes and genuinely kind smile and said, "Yoi otoshio" which means, "Happy New Year," in the Kansai dialect. I was just smitten with her, and smiled, but I didn't say anything back because Tom was still walking and I was too startled! The girl and her parents ended up leaving about 30 seconds after us, and the girl yelled "Happy New Year" after us. What a doll.

I was raving to Tom about this sweet girl on the walk back to the hostel, when this barefoot old lady near a bike parking rack was frantically running about and yelling, "Onegaishimasu!" (Please!). This was on a busy sidestreet in Amemura, with cars and bikes whizzing by. It was then that we noticed a playful little puppy (who had likely snuck out of the apartment and took off down the street) weaving in and out of the bikes, play bowing, and trying to escape in a game of chase. Tom and I simultaneously, no questions asked, started helping this woman (while many other Japanese people stood around laughing at the crazy lady's fate and the 2 gaijin and pizza guy helping her). I ended up shooing it away from the street, and Tom grabbed the little puppy's rump and picked it up. The lady was soooo relieved and thankful, and Tom was beaming, having rescued (and touched) this adorable, fluffy puppy.

Finally, while waiting for the subway train from the aquarium today, I was playing DS, and a little boy walked in front of me in line. I looked at him like, "What do you think you're doing?" and he just smiled up at me and peeked over my shoulder at the DS. Later, on the subway, he and his mom sat across from Tom and I, and he kept looking over at me, getting out his DS. I play this game called "Street Pass" which allows me to wirelessly connect to other people's DSes and "meet them" to exchange puzzle pieces and  have them be characters in this little RPG. I saw then that I had a "New Arrival" at my Street Pass Plaza Gate, and sure enough it was Kaito, a Japanese boy from Shimane in a purple shirt. I held the character up to the boy and there was a resemblance, and before I knew it, Tom was asking, "Kaito?" across the train. The mom said, "Hai, Kaito!" and I showed the boy his profile on my DS. He had already met me, I think, on his, and was amazed, smiling, and shy. In the game, it shows every country you meet someone from, and I may have been his first American! At the airport on the way to Osaka, waiting for our flight, I saw a child showing his parents the "Amerikajin" (American) on his DS. I have a cool Bowser hat in the game, so I'm representin,' no worries.

This afternoon we will take naps and try to find the Cat Cafe that we walked by yesterday (a coffee shop with a bunch of cats in it). Tomorrow we will take the train to Kita (north) for New Years. More updates to come!

Driving in Japan

Would you like to know about what it's like to drive in Japan? Here is some general advice about obtaining a car in Japan, rules and regulations, and general tips. When I received my placement on the JET Program in Hokkaido, I discovered that I would be driving to 5 junior high schools in the Board of Education car, new last year. I also purchased my predecessor's car.

 

 

Before leaving the U.S. I obtained an International Drivers Permit from AAA for $15. Every country has different restrictions for international driving, but for drivers from the US, you need your US license along with your international permit and you can drive legally for one year. After one year, you must obtain a Japanese license, with which your supervisor can help you. When purchasing a car in Japan, you are responsible for the change of ownership form and the mandatory car fees (road tax, parking space registered with city, 2-year car inspection).

 

I was incredibly nervous to begin driving in Japan. Thankfully, BOE members took turns taking me on driving lessons, gesturing left and right, using their limited English and notes they took, and telling me “migi” and “hidari”. Driving on the left hand side of the road and reversing the driver's side of the car took some getting used to, and I still have to think about which side of the car to enter on! As far as I know, you can’t turn left at red lights.

The speed limits in town are from 30-40 km/hr, on highway roads its between 50-60km/hr, and on expressways the limit increases to between 80-100 km/hr. You must pay a pricey toll to use the expressway, but as it is heated in winter and the speed limit is significantly increased, it may be worth it. Despite the in-town and highway speed limits, Japanese drivers continue to speed, and it is polite to move over to the side to let cars pass you on no passing roads. 

 

The cost of gasoline in Japan is roughly ¥150/L (¥600/gal) or over $6.00/gal. However, the cars are smaller and more fuel efficient, so it probably evens out.

Here is a general overview of rules of the road in Japan. Road signs are easy to get used to. Stop signs are like red yield signs. The crosswalk signs are blue with people walking. The no parking signs are big red circles with lines through them. It is the law to stop at every train track. Talking on cell phones while driving is a big no-no. As is drinking while driving, so much so that there is a big “alcohol-free” beer industry so you can drink beer with your coworkers after work and still drive home.  

 

 

If you are caught violating the rules, you are given demerit points, and once you accumulate a certain number of points, your license can be revoked. Police cars are white with red oscillating lights. They patrol frequently but rarely pull you over while driving. Their lights are always on, and if they wish to pull you over, they will talk through a loud speaker at you, at which point you must pull over, and they will come take you into the back of their car for you to fill out some forms. You are not being arrested; this is just how it works in Japan. A ticket can also be mailed to you if you are caught excessively speeding by a speed camera, which are housed in giant metallic boxes and you are warned by about five yellow signs in advance. 

 

Because the streets are often narrow in town and in the countryside sidewalks are rare, oftentimes cars will swerve wildly around pedestrians. In addition, cars will park anywhere they want and throw on their flashers if there isn't a convenient parking lot, in which case more wild swerving ensues. 

There are two main practices that I have come to love in Japan, which seem to be very thoughtful. First, everyone backs into parking spaces. Its kind of an enigma as to why exactly this is a common practice, but I think it seems really orderly. Secondly, it is very common for people to lift their windshield wipers in winter in anticipation of a heavy snow or freezing temperatures to make scraping their windshield easier in the future. Its really smart. 

 

 

Winter driving is another topic entirely. One of my schools is about an hour away through a mountain pass, and in Hokkaido, the winter road conditions are often quite treacherous. They don’t salt/sand their roads and therefore snow gets packed down atop ice in a treacherous layer cake of winter driving danger. Furthermore, before steep climbs, vehicles will pull over in order to equip tires with chains to aid traction. 

 

Overall, driving in Japan is easy to adapt to, and once you jump through the initial hoops of car ownership, you can drive around Japan with relative ease!

At the end of last week, I traveled to Sapporo for the Winter ALT Skill Development Conference. I always enjoy the 2-hour train ride, which is relaxing time to play video games and Words with Friends, except for the train shaking and when we go at high speeds through tunnels my ears always pop.

We had many hours of lecture during the day, and many inches of snow fell outside while we awaited our night-time adventures. On the first night, I walked to Odori Park, a long and narrow park running through the middle of Sapporo. Much of Odori Park (and other parks) are part of Sapporo's "White Illumination": a Christmas light festival and display.  

 

I walked around the German Christmas Market too, pictured here:

The second night, I skipped the expensive and awkward HAJET-sponsored activities and walked through a blizzard to Sapporo Factory, a large, sprawling mall, which is more more like a multi-story strip mall than tall and impressive like the Mall of America.  The mall is famous for its giant Christmas tree located in the atrium, and I was able to thaw my feet and eat KFC under the tree, while being serenaded by a Japanese musician up on the stage. I was surprised that the mall had many stores like North Face and Nike. I was directed to a foreign food store by some other JETs, and found sriracha sauce, a Yankee candle (my favorite), and some excellent foreign food prizes for the English circle.

I also found excellent Christmas presents for each of my five schools, team-teachers, my supervisor, and the organizer of the English circle. I also bought omiyage for the BOE and the one school that always gives me amazing gifts: the Wednesday before I left for Sapporo, the principal delivered an apple pie to my desk!

Overall, Sapporo left me feeling rather melancholy and misanthropic about humanity, modern life, beauty, and consumerism (clearly a hypocrite since I just detailed my Christmas purchases to you). The city is a Mecca for Hokkaido's youth, and many young women could be seen walking the streets in perfect little outfits with styled hair and mask-like made up faces. I took this photo in the heart of Sapporo's shopping district, and found myself walking behind this man, a street sweeper amongst the high-fashion and wealthy.

I just can't understand how people can care so much about material things and how this is one of the fundamental principles of the world in which we live. Being rich, acquiring, being better than others. Not to mention the cliques and popularity contests that result from a congregation of JETs, always willing to talk over you about their endless expertise. I know so few listeners. The world is built by the people who talk the most and the loudest, I guess.

Sorry about that. Anyway, on the last day, I bravely hailed my first taxi in Sapporo rather than walking 25 minutes to the train station with my bags! I was so nervous! In Japan, the drivers have control over the doors, so if you don't look out, you will get smacked. It cost about ¥1200 for a 10 minute ride...not bad!

Getting Fat in Japan

One of my favorite things and one of the most intriguing aspects about Japan is the food. Here is a photo of some tonkatsu (pork cutlet) ramen ordered at a roadside restaurant when returning from my husband's basketball tournament. The restaurant was vacant, except for the owners, an elderly couple, watching a bloody kung-fu movie on TV. Delicious:

However, portion sizes being more reasonable in Japan is a rumor, because noodle soups come in one size: gigantic. Finishing every last bit of food on your plate is quite expected, as when you have a bowl of rice, you are being wasteful and unappreciative if you leave even a single grain. But how does anyone finish all of that salty broth? Usually your ramen broth choices are shouyu (soy sauce), shio (salt), or miso (also salty), and there is usually about a cup of some or another kind of oil.

Here are two dinners that my husband and I made together. The first is our first attempt at sushi in Japan. Looks delicious, right? Unfortunately, someone (not pointing fingers) put in the wrong ratio of rice to water and the rice turned out a bit hard. 

Here is another meal, with salmon sashimi, homemade umeboshi (pickled plum) onegiri and tofu wakame miso soup. The affordability and freshness of fish in Japan is unbeatable.

Next, I have just discovered the way to bake in Japan! I realized that our toaster oven can be set up to 250 degrees, which is not Fahrenheit, because in Japan the default is metric! I had been cooking everything on full heat, in other words: 482 degrees F! Using the handy unit converter app that I have for my iPhone, I am able to convert Fahrenheit recipes to Celsius and voila: kabocha pumpkin bread! Recipe here.

Here is my advice for cooking the excess kabocha pumpkin received by neighbors:

1. Make kabocha bread

2. Make pumpkin soup

3. Make ginger kabocha mashed potatoes (I use the Ishikawa cookbookrecipe): 

Lastly, here is a photograph of a popover and raspberry chai ordered from the one and only (actually it's a chain) Freshness Burger in Hakodate. Can't beat fancy warm coffee type drinks when winter hits. 

I want to relish the opportunity to eat authentic Japanese food and comfort foods from home, but  I'm clearly getting fatter. There is a foot of snow on the ground and the town gym is always packed with school-age children playing sports in the main gym, high schoolers lounging around the weight room, and jogging ladies on the indoor track, in other words, I have a lot of excuses as to why I don't want to go to the gym, not to mention the inevitability of seeing one of my students there. Sometimes we do some P90X plyometrics or yoga, or my personal favorite, Jillian Michaels workouts, inside the apartment.  But if any jumping is involved, the fat gaijin shake the entire building (no, people, it's not an earthquake, we're just trying to work off that entire cheesecake we just ate between the both of us).

I'm 25. By the time I'm 30, I will have a front butt.  So let it be written, so let it be done. On that note...sayonara.

Basketball and New Friends

My husband hates when I blog about him, but the fact is that we have met some great new friends since he became involved with the Yakumo Town official basketball team and I must share! 

There are photos his first game with them at Shiriuchi Sports Center in Hokkaido. 

 Their team name is NERV and the team they played against were the Rich Leapers. The back of their opponents' jerseys read, "Rainbow Arrows." The English language is used as decoration in Japan, the same way westerners get tattoos in Japanese. It looks exotic and is an artistic way to express your ideas. Apparently English can be "punny" too, since another team that played that day was called Hallowin. It was surprising that my 6 foot (180 cm) husband played center, and his teammates were not confident in his ball-handling skills, despite the fact that he played point guard in the U.S.

On November 25th, NERV played in a single-elimination tournament in Mori Town. To make a long story short, they won their first two games earning them a spot in the championship game. Despite a well-matched game, NERV was quite tired, and played against a team that had played one less game, and wasn't able to pull off the win. Teams were awarded prizes of rice-filled squid and cakes. 

After the game, the team met at a yakiniku (fried meat) restaurant serving all Yakumo meat. We got the nomihoudai and tabehoudai: two hours of all you can eat and all you can drink. We had an excellent time, teaching each other English and Japanese and laughing at each other's jokes.

And on Friday, we invited everyone over to our apartment to watch NBA on TV. We purchased enough drinks and snacks for everyone, but were surprised when some very generous friends brought delicious homemade tamagoyaki, a huge sashimi tray, and some artisan cheesecake. We watched the Spurs vs. Heat game in which Greg Popavich sat his three stars, Duncan, Parker, and Ginobli, and in the end the team was fined $250,000, despite nearly emerging victorious!

I have been so busy with teaching at schools during the day and adult classes at night that I haven't found the time to join a weekly club in Japan, so I am really glad that my husband has found such an amazing group of people to enjoy basketball with. 

Next, he will take a trip with them to Sapporo to see the Panasonic Trians ofthe JBL (Japan Basketball League), and our friends said that this winter we will enjoy nabe (hot pot) together!

Winter is Coming

Winter is coming. (Cliche now, huh? Dang.) As my friends and family in the US break out their winter coats, there too is a chill in the Hokkaido air. I am curious to discover if what I've heard about Hokkaido winters is all hype, or if this is the real deal:

"Shovel your roof or the corners of your house will break off." "At night, keep your heater on or your pipes will freeze." "It is so cold in our school in winter!" The temperature hasn't dropped below freezing and people here are breaking out their winter tires and wrapping themselves in blankets in the office. The fact that it's now November and hasn't snowed makes me think that either this will be an unusually mild winter, or that people in Hokkaido "can't take the heat" (to use a totally ineffective idiom.)

Do I really need a flare in my car!? It's the law here that your vehicle be equipped with a working flare. I'm setting it off of the 4th of July if I don't use it this winter! Do I really need to put chains on my tires to go uphill? Bubble wrap all of my windows because there is no insulation? (Just did that - they sell huge sheets at Homac - the closest equivalent to Walmart there is).

What the heck is going on here? Why are Japanese homes so unprepared for what seems like a winter of epic proportions? I am really confused about all of this. I have had multiple people explain to me how to shovel, scrape snow off of my car windows, and use antifreeze. You guys, Minnesota is about the same latitude as Hokkaido. 

Well, despite the hype, one of the things that will be fun about winter is how winter activities feel like a cultural common ground from Minnesota to Hokkaido. Paper snowflakes? Derivative of Japanese paper cutting art kirigami. Snowmen? Snow forts? They have them in Japan! Giant ice sculptures? You'll see photos this February from Sapporo's Yuki Matsuri Snow Festival! I wonder if children make snow angels? At one of my schools, I was asked to create my own lesson about anything, previous ALTs did team-building games and taught students how to play cricket. Maybe we can have a winter culture share. Do they snowshoe here? Maybe we can play some winter tackle football.

When I return to Minnesota, I hope to transfer some extremely useful things that I have found in Japan. One is the kotatsu, a small table with a built-in heater, which, when covered by a think blanket, traps heat inside and keeps you toasty! My supervisor admitted that when she was a little girl, she used to try to hide and sleep under the kotatsu, but her mother always caught her and said, "dame!" - bad. However, most people I know can't sit comfortably on the floor. Maybe heated lazy boy recliners are more in the style of Americans. Or heated Snuggies! I bet someone has invented that already, like every good idea I have. The last one I can remember is a bicycle seat for men that has a space for the testicles to hang out. Already exists. One of these days I will be a great inventor.

Another thing that makes winter bearable in Japan that does not exist in the US is the onsen/public bath/hot spring/spa. In all honesty, onsens are one of my absolute favorite parts of Japan. It's like really cheap, accessible, beautiful, hot tub, with health benefits from the minerals in the water. Recently, I bathed outdoors, finding refuge from the cool air, while enjoying the brilliant fall colors. After I visit the onsen, I feel imbued with a magical transcendent calmness aura for the next few days.

Onsens would just not work in the U.S. Why not? Firstly, Americans are far too uncomfortable with their own bodies to be naked together. Which is a shame, because modesty aside, there is something really humanizing about just being together with other people, resting, naked. Japanese often talk about the virtues of "naked communion" (hadaka no tsukiai) for breaking down barriers and getting to know people in a relaxed atmosphere. Many Japanese television programs feature local onsens, having special access with a video camera, male reporters wearing only a small modesty towel. There is a lot of nudity on Japanese TV, and not in a sexual way - often in a normal or comedic way. I find these differences really interesting. Secondly, onsen would probably turn into gay hangouts. Don't you think? Is that controversial? Sorry. 

Here's an interesting anecdote about Yunohana Onsen in Otaru, Hokkaido (only a few hours from me). In 2001, owners refused service to foreigners, referring to incidents by rowdy Russian fisherman causing loss of business. They put up a "Japanese Only" sign. They were sued. They lost. 

On that note, I don't have anything else to say about winter, except SNOW ALREADY! I made a bunch of paper snowflakes for Christmas party decorations, but I thought that it's a ritual kind of like a rain dance or something. I didn't take up like 1/7 of my luggage to Japan with snow boots for nothin'! 

But seriously folks, global warming.

A Trip to the Grocery Store

Either my husband or I visits the grocery store in Japan almost every day. There are only two grocery stores in town: A-COOP and Ralse Mart. In a town of 20,000 people, inevitably, we run into someone we know at the grocery store every time we are there.

When I first arrived in Japan I remember feeling absolutely overwhelmed by the grocery shopping experience. My supervisor took me to the grocery store my first day in town; I was still jet-lagged, exhausted from Tokyo Orientation, and just wanted to unwind and unpack at home. Instead, we arrived at the supermarket, everything in Japanese and everyone speaking Japanese, the aisles organized unlike American grocery store, and, like everywhere I went in Japan, abundant rules and etiquette that were totally lost on me. 

Having just met my supervisor, of course I wanted to impress her with my healthy food choices, and at the same time just wanted to grab some noodle bowls and get the heck out of there. I remember buying some vegetables, milk, cereal, and Hello Kitty pasta with spaghetti sauce. Here is a photo of my local grocery store upon entering:

In Japan, the refrigerators are quite small and people usually buy food for one or two days at most: fresh vegetables and meat. Most households do not have a gigantic stove top with four burners and an oven the size of a car trunk; rather, there are two gas burners maximum and the microwave or toaster oven doubles as a low-heat oven. Being in Japan has helped me see the enormity of American stuff. My husband always says that everything in Japan is at least 1.5x smaller than in the U.S.: the people, cars, roads, buildings, portions, and refrigerators. And at yesterday's town English Circle, a woman who visited Utah and Idaho commented on how "the loaves of bread and peanut butter were huge!" In Japan, there are at most 6 slices of bread in a package. 

Japan has some unique produce. This year, I tasted my first persimmon, which tastes something like an apple-mango hybrid. Also, here is a picture of daikon from my grocery store. As noted in a previous post, if left in a hot cabinet for a few days in summer, they will leak a stinky fluid and be really gross. 

Grocery stores, especially in Hokkaido, have reasonably priced chicken, the freshest fish, and abundant fresh vegetables. 

I was so excited to cook with new food in Japan, tofu and miso and noodles and curry and all the things that make Japanese food unique and delicious. However, I am usually so busy during the week that my rotating menu is stagnating. Here is what I usually have:

Breakfast: yogurt, banana, granola, toast, eggs on rice, hard boiled egg, bacon

Lunch: mysterious school food (see below), egg salad sandwich, noodle bowl, fish and rice and miso, salad, leftovers from dinner, chicken and broccoli

Dinner: curry rice, sushi rolls, sloppy joes, tonkatsu (cutlets), tacos or pizza on lucky days, lamb+kimchi in the rice cooker, more fish and rice and miso or chicken and broccoli.

Dessert: anko, pudding, kit kat, mochi ice cream

My co-workers always ask me, "Can you eat Japanese food?" or "Can you cook Japanese food?" The typical Japanese meal consists of a bowl of rice (gohan), a bowl of miso soup (miso shiru), pickled vegetables (tsukemono), and fish or meat. Although rice is the norm, noodles (udon, soba, and ramen) are cheap and popular. This seems to be the traditional breakfast, and has become my staple meal.

However, I long for my American days of flavor! One of my last meals in the US was a cornucopia of chicken wings in all varieties of sauces and rubs. I dream about flavor. When grocery shopping, my basket is usually a mix of these Japanese ingredients (fish, tofu, vegetables, chicken) and as many Western-type foods as I can fit in without becoming a total stereotype. My last trip to the grocery store I was overjoyed to find corn dogs (which in Japan are called "American dogs") and onion rings. I found some hash brown-like things too. But a tiny bottle of maple syrup is like ¥600 and the peanut butter is not creamy...it's basically artificially-colored sugar water.

So, I will continue to try new Japanese foods and familiarize myself with my local supermarket. Even with some of my Japanese cooking books, I am still struggling to develop a repertoire of tasty and healthy Japanese dishes. So I ask you, my readers, what is your one staple meal, in Japan or otherwise? How do you continue to be creative in the kitchen and avoid culinary stagnancy?

How to Run a Community English Circle (Eikaiwa)

Before coming to Japan to teach English, I was TEFL Certified at Hamline University in Minnesota, one of the leading programs out there. TEFL stands for Teaching English as a Foreign Language, and the certification is generally used to instruct abroad, much like the Spanish, French, and German classes are conducted in American middle and high schools.

My TEFL Certification has immensely benefited me. Having a foundation in second-language acquisition theory, experience with adult learners, lesson planning, and team-teaching have been indispensable. My experience with adult learners has transferred well to my community English conversation circle, or eikaiwa, and my community English class for beginners. It makes me think that since I was most experienced with adults and junior high level students, and that I ended up teaching primarily these, that placements on the JET Program are much less random than they may seem (and Hokkaido was my second choice!). 

I have encountered many first year JETs who are at a loss as to what to teach in their eikaiwas.  With little guidance or experience, it might be difficult to decide what exactly to teach. But let me begin by saying that  the Internet is a virtual hot spring (onsen!) of teaching ideas. You can find curriculum, lesson ideas, or activity ideas, handouts or conversation questions. This post does not focus on specific lesson ideas, rather, creating a strong foundational backbone for your eikaiwa. The rest will fall into place.

I have a bit of a background in biology, and I find that the process of teaching a new class loosely follows the scientific method. The scientific method is a body of techniques for investigating phenomena, acquiring new knowledge, or correcting or integrating previous knowledge. By researching, observing, making hypothesis, testing, retesting, and modifying your hypotheses, you can run a good eikaiwa! Okay, maybe that overly complicates it...but anyway...

The first step in running an eikaiwa is researching your group and observing during the first lesson. How many members are there? What did your predecessor do? What levels are they - beginners, intermediate, or advanced? Discover demographics perhaps using a survey: ages, occupations, and experience with English. What is their motivation for learning English: travel, business, making friends, or watching English TV shows? What are their expectations: do they want activities, games, open conversation, grammar, new phrases, and on about which topics?

Now, once you have acquired all that information, what do you teach? By assessing the needs and abilities of your learners, you can begin to develop a curriculum and goals. While it is okay to use some of the work done by your predecessor as there is no reason to reinvent the wheel, you also want to introduce some new ideas and make the class your own. Usual topics include: shopping, culture, asking for directions, travel, ordering at a restaurant, talking on the phone, etc. Hypothesize what your class wants to learn, and revise as you go. For my adult beginner class who is quite well traveled, I extrapolated that they would want experience with travel conversations (airport, asking for directions, restaurants, etc.) in English. And at the next class, a member requested all three. Luckily, I had already planned that night's topic as "at the airport" and I had began planning next week's lesson: ordering at a restaurant!

Chances are you will be teaching to a multi-level classroom, with a variety of interests and ages. One lesson I learned in my TEFL classes was the saying, "Every classroom is multi-level." You will (most probably) never have a class of clones, so your students will always have varied backgrounds and abilities. As a teacher, this is a wonderful opportunity for you to utilize your creativity and intuition. To accommodate varying levels, it is important to use individual, pair, and group work, a variety of difficulty level tasks, teach functional language including how to ask clarifying questions when they do not understand. "Could you please repeat that?" "Please speak slowly." "What does ___________ mean?" Sometimes splitting the class into two groups to work on two separate activities will be appreciated, to challenge all adults at their level.

And perhaps the most important part of your lesson comes after all the hard work is done: reflect. How did the lesson go? What did the learners get out of it? What would you do differently next time? If you reflect and adapt, you will undoubtedly improve as a teacher, make class more enjoyable, manageable, and useful for your students.

Most of all, members of your eikaiwa probably just want to use English, learn a few things, and have fun. So if you can manage to pull those off on any given night, you will be successful! 

a trip to the hospital: health care in Japan and America

Have you wondered how the Japanese health system compares to that of America? I can't say that I know much about either, save that of some quick Wikipedia research and firsthand experience, both which I will share here. 

The US spends more on health care per capita and as a percentage of GDP than any other nation, and life expectancy at birth in the USA is 78.49 years, ranking 50th in the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) ranked America as the highest in cost, 37th in overall performance, and 72nd by overall level of health. In 2010, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) was signed into law, requiring individuals to become insured in hopes of reducing overall government spending on health care, and fining those who are uninsured. 

Since 1961, Japan has offered universal health coverage which allows all access to preventative, curative, and rehabilitative services at an affordable cost. Insurance is also mandated, but local governments offer national health insurance plans. Patients enrolled in national health insurance pay 30% of the cost while the government pays 70%. Hospitals, by law, must be run as non-profits and corporations are not allowed to own or operate hospitals. Medical fees are regulated by the government to keep them affordable. Households are also eligible for monthly thresholds. With these structures in place, Japan ranks about 20th in the world. People in Japan have the longest life expectancy at birth in the world.

As a JET, you are enrolled under the national health insurance. If you are married, your spouse is covered as well. The JET Program itself provides additional insurance in the case of a freak accident. Not long after arriving in Japan, both my husband and I received our national health insurance cards.

I don't know anyone who thinks that the situation in America is ideal. It sometimes takes weeks to make an appointment, and many people I know won't go unless they are seriously ill. As a child, when wining about my health, my dad used to tell me, "Are you bleeding? No? Then you're fine." As a soccer coach, his motto was, "Walk it off." He taught me to be tough. Unfortunately, another personal lesson that came with that is a resistance to visit the doctor. If there's a chance of my body healing itself, I like to take that chance. I'll probably be fine. And with the expense and inconvenience of American health care, for many Americans, including myself, visiting the doctor is a last resort. I have had to wait in the doctor's room for over a half an hour for them to return. Usually it seems that they want to run test after test, "just to be sure." To me, it seems that hospitals in America are money-making-machines.

In Japan, I have heard two sides to the story:  First, that the medical field is generally distrusted, and that Japanese people do not want to be medicated, but I think this is kind of an outdated story. Secondly, I have heard that people visit the hospital at the slightest inkling of a cold!

After some pressure from  my husband and family members, I took the risk of visiting my local hospital, because it seemed that antibiotics would be necessary. Here is an account of my first time visiting the hospital in Japan with the help of my supervisor.

Your first visit to the hospital will be without an appointment. You will show your insurance card to the receptionist and they will create a hospital card for you. For future visits, appointments are first come first served and automated, on computer consoles that operate like the machines used when buying a ticket at the movie theater or maybe self-checkout at the grocery store. People line up an hour or more before doctors arrive to get a good spot in line. Old people don't have anything better to do I guess, and they have probably been awake for a few hours already. They also line up outside the grocery store on Sunday morning to get the best deals. But I diverge..

After a bit of paperwork and within 10 minutes of arrival, I was issued my card and in with a doctor. In my small town of 20,000, I was surprised because the doctor not only spoke English, he had a terrific bedside manner and a kind disposition. His English medical vocabulary was quite surprising. After prescribing antibiotics and explaining my condition to me, I received my bill and prescription.

I paid at one desk, they faxed my prescription to a nearby pharmacy, and I picked it up immediately. The entire visit: getting my health card, being tested and seen by the doctor, paying, and picking up my prescription took less than 1 hour, and less than ¥3000. I visited for my follow-up today, the antibiotics worked their magic, I was given a clean bill of health, and a cheap one too, no more than ¥500.

I had such a positive experience that I won't hesitate to visit the doctor again. Say what you will about universal health care, ("In Canada the wait times are outrageous!  The quality is terrible!") but in Japan, it's efficient, comfortable, and affordable. Not only have a been cured of my illness, I think I have also been cured of my fear, distrust, and hesitancy to visit hospitals. 

Halloween in Japan

I probably haven't been so disappointed about Halloween being over since I was six. I have discovered that Japanese people think Americans are a lot more gung-ho about Halloween than we actually are. Don't get me wrong, I love candy and seeing little kids dressed up in costumes, but my trick-or-treating, partying, and even pumpkin carving days are long gone. Well, that was true, until I came to Japan. As a cultural ambassador, I am able to relive and spread the joy of holidays to children and adults around the world. It sounds cheesy, but it's pretty magical.

The last two days have been a Halloween whirlwind. I feel fortunate that my schools and English Circle have taken such a great interest in my culture. However, I have had to do a lot of research about the history and origins of my own country's holiday. Did you know that kumo means spider in Japanese and kyuuketsuki means vampire? When's the last time you bobbed for apples on Halloween? Did you know the origins of Halloween encompasses multiple religions and traditions from many countries? Where do Jack-O-Lanterns come from? The more you know, man. 

First, I team-taught three classes at one school. One class carved jack-o-lanterns, one watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown" and had a mummy contest, wrapping each other in toilet paper. I gave a general explanation of Halloween to the last class, and they had a jack-o-lantern design contest and did a Halloween word search. I especially enjoyed showing the pumpkin carving group how to dig their hands into the slimy, seedy goop inside the pumpkin and remove it with disgusting ease. Unfortunately, I can't post photos of my students here, but if you visit my town blog you can see them after 11/7/12.

I visited another school on  Halloween, and they were absolute fanatics, mostly because the principal (my only female principal) is also the first grade English teacher, extremely well-traveled and skilled at English, and knowledgeable and interested in foreign cultures.  In addition, I am the first American ALT they have had at their school, so they are very excited to learn about a holiday that some other English-speaking countries do not share. When I arrived, I noticed about 10 gigantic pumpkins ready to be carved.

My other team teacher had ordered some expired Halloween-themed pretzels to give to students during class in a trick-or-treat role play. For the first grade class, the principal ordered 3 pumpkin pies, not only using pumpkin as an ingredient but also as a decorative theme. I don't know where she got the tableware!

Even after watching Halloween movies, pumpkin carving, eating pumpkin pie, trick-or-treating, and dressing students up as mummies, there was more excitement to be had! The town English Circle held a combination Welcome Party / Halloween Party in a small building, by day a restaurant where special needs people work, and by night a Halloween jamboree. The English Circle planner is a retired English teacher whose husband is a Buddhist monk. She has studied English on her own for more than 20 years, and she is eager to praise the language: "English is the key to understanding people in the world," she says. 

Walking into the room was like walking into another world. The room was fully decorated with Halloween posters and jack-o-lanterns. The 16 or so people who attended were dressed in various thrown-together costumes, the women in witch hats, two of the older men with witch hats and some yarn hair sewed on, even our handicapped member in a wheel chair sported a bloody knife going through his head. One member was in a Dalmatian jump suit, one wore a panda hat, and one middle aged man borrowed his daughter's costume from last year and admitted that he didn't know what it was: it looked like a carrot hat with a bib worn backwards. The tables were covered in food: gourmet platters, Yakumo cheese (they recommended we dip it in soy sauce and it was divine), and snacks galore. 

In addition to some lovely English conversation, I explained some Halloween traditions and fielded questions about what candy corn has to do with actual corn since it doesn't really look like corn and isn't made of corn, and what's up with graveyards since Japanese people are mostly cremated. I also took the liberty of connecting the dots between burials, graveyards, and the zombie phenomenon, since, in Japan, there aren't a lot of dead bodies around to come back to life. I guess when the zombie apocalypse hits, I know where I'm going! Except there are basically no guns here so fending off any of the (rare but existing) Christian burials would be quite difficult.

There was a Halloween quiz, tea and a flute performance, and a grand thank you at the end in which my husband and I were given flowers, a present, and two bottles of alcohol. We received so many gifts - a cake from a member and some sweets from another, even kabocha squash and sweet potatoes.

Holidays are a reason to celebrate and to share joy with others, I realized. Even thousands of miles from home, the "Halloween spirit" is alive and well! Happy Halloween!