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!