Joey in Japan

Here or There?

2011-01-15T22:34:00.000-08:00

I am now back in Japan after having been back in Winnipeg for two weeks during the winter break. The day after getting back to my little town of Shimizu, I had to go back to work. Not a lot of time to adjust back to things, yet not a big problem either. As students are still on holidays for another two weeks, I really don’t have a lot to do. Teachers are asked to stay at school during the holidays unless they want to take a paid leave. As I have already used up all but three days of paid holidays on my month long trip to South Asia this past summer, and two weeks in Winnipeg for the winter holidays, I have no choice but to stay put for a while. The first day back consisted of sitting at my desk, reading, listening to music, and staring at the wall. The next day was a little more eventful. One of the teachers that I teach with came back from his holiday also, and had told the students in the karate club, which he is in charge of, to come to school that morning. I have been part of the karate club for about a year-and-a-half now, and always have a good time talking with as well as bothering the students. All the students that are in any club activity, that being hockey, basketball, soccer, tennis, ping-pong etc, are asked to come to school during their holidays and practice. Not much of a holiday I say. This particular club had to be at school by 9 o’clock and was asked to practice for three hours. This was a really good chance to get out of the office for a bit and socialize with the students again. I definitely feel more productive than just sitting in the office watching dried paint peel.
• That afternoon, the same teacher approached me with the question that I had prolonged to answer until after the holidays. He asked me if I was going to re-contract and stay another year in Japan. As I have been thinking about this question a lot, and wanted to go home and visit my family before answering this question, which I had just done, I felt it was time to give him an answer.
• In the two weeks that I was back in Winnipeg, I already began to miss life in Hokkaido. Although it felt really great being back at home with friends and family who I had missed a lot (a feeling that really grows after being away from home for a long time), I felt that I would really regret leaving my current position if I left at the end of my contract this coming summer. At the moment, I feel pretty established here with friends, a good job, sustainable lifestyle, and an environment which I can thrive in. From the snow-powdery mountains in the winter, perfect for snowboarding, skiing, and other winter related recreational sports, to the relatively deserted and well paved country roads, ideal for cycling in the summer and exploring surrounding areas, Hokkaido is a place that really caters to my outdoor needs.
• That being said, one challenge that continues are the many misunderstandings and difficulties that come with a language barrier. One thing that really felt refreshing when being back in Canada, is how easy it was talking with people, and being able to overhear and understand what groups of people in a coffee shop or on the bus for example, were saying. At times, I would rather not have understood, but I didn’t realize how much I missed being able to hear and understand what was going on around me, as well as being able to respond without having to really search my brain for the right words. I have always enjoyed the challenge of trying to speak in another language, and attempt to have full conversations with people. Its always interesting to discover more about a culture through a language. Since coming back to Japan, I feel a bit frustrated with my level of Japanese. I had always felt that a lack of vocabulary doesn’t have to be a barrier in communicating with someone. There are so many different ways to get a point across other than just speaking. I never felt a lack of confidence in trying to communicate in my limited Japanese with people before, until now. Lately I feel really discouraged to talk with people in Japanese, and half expect them to use any English they know. I can still understand just as much as I could before, and could have the same sorts of conversations that I have always had, but perhaps in going back to Canada, and being able to articulate exactly what I want to say, I feel discouraged to say anything at all. My attitude now is unless I can express myself exactly how I might express myself in English, I don’t want to speak in Japanese. I know this is absolutely the wrong attitude, as this is exactly what I am trying to teach my students not to do. My goal now is to continue to study Japanese with my friend Eiko, who has been helping me for the last year or so now, and to be fine with the fact that I can’t always express myself how I might like. This is one challenge that makes life here in Japan interesting, and I think that if I would leave this summer, I would be giving up after working so hard in studying this language.
• There are many other reasons that play into my answer, which if you haven’t figured it out by now is “YES! I’m staying!”, but what really helped is my friends advice.
• While back in Winnipeg, I had the chance to meet with my friend Takashi, who is actually from Shimizu! but is now living in Winnipeg, and has been for the last 10 years or so. It was really good to talk with him and get his advice on what I might do. His advice as well as several of my friends back here in Japan, is the same, in that one more year really can’t hurt. I am only 24 years old, and really don’t feel like it would be setting me back from what I would like to do later on. More opportunities may even present themselves in the next year. Especially after talking with Takashi who has been living in Winnipeg for such a long time and braving some of the coldest winters in Southern Canada, and probably struggled a bit at the beginning with a language barrier, I feel silly for even mentioning that I have been meandering back and forth about whether to stay or not.
• I have heard from several people here that in Japan, if you have worked at the same place for at least three years, you have really tried. After that you can move on to the next thing knowing that you had really made the effort at your last place.
• Sitting in the office when there are no classes and getting frustrated with often being misunderstood is a small price to pay when there are so many good things here that I know I would miss if I left this summer.

Christmas Time!

2010-12-27T15:15:00.000-08:00

So, after being away from home living in Japan for almost a year and a half now, I have finally gotten the chance to go back to Winnipeg for a few weeks to catch up with family and friends. I really didn’t want to miss another Christmas with my family, as I’ve already missed three from being overseas. This was my chance to reunite with everyone. This entry is meant as a way for me to remember this Christmas, and the little changes that I’ve noticed in either myself, or being able to recognize some of the peculiarities of the place that I’ve lived all my life that can only be observed when you are fully removed from your own culture, and fully immersed in another. These peculiarities or differences is perhaps a good place to start this journal.

I have been living as an expat in Japan now for almost one and a half years, and have really gotten to experience a lot, see a lot, and learn a lot. I feel that change can be so gradual sometimes that you sometimes forget or don’t recognize that it’s happening this very moment. That is until you remove yourself from all you know and return to it, oh lets say, a year and a half later… December 16th, 2010, I caught my flight out of Hokkaido and flew to Tokyo, where I was able to spend a good afternoon walking and shopping around Tokyos Akihabara district. This was a nice time of walking around and observing the very nerdy and gadgety part of the city. Tokyo; a nice contrast to the small town that I’m currently living in. What I found to be even more of a contrast though was arriving in Vancouver nine hours after leaving Tokyo. I am always surprised at the differences that I notice first coming back home after having spent time overseas. Depending on where you’ve been, how long you’ve been there, and what experiences you may have had, coming back to a familiar place will always feel a little different for each person I would say. What always shocks me when coming back to North America is how large people are in comparison to a lot of other places. One thing that really shocked me this time is people’s mannerisms. Coming from a country where people are extremely polite to those they don’t know and to their superiors, using extra formalities, and polite gestures, I was really surprised with my ticket taker at the airport. I was ready to catch my flight to Winnipeg, when I found out that someone had mixed up my seat number on the plane with someone else’s. The ticket taker began joking with me casually and the person handed me my ticket with a new seat number over their shoulder as we were talking. The first thing that I noticed was that there were no formalities to the interaction, no real polite phrases said, and no apologies for the mix up for the time taken to fix the mistake. In Japan, it would have gone sooo differently. Both ways are fine, but it was a bit of a surprise. I’ve now been back in Winnipeg for a little over a week, and can’t stop listening to the way people talk here, how they talk, what they talk about, and how people react to how the other person had said something. Perhaps the reason I’m so observant right now is because I haven’t heard people speaking this much English to one another outside of my circle of friends in Hokkaido. My first thought was, “Wow, people really sound rude and blunt when talking”. It looked like no one cared about their work, and it sounded like a lot of people had no problem talking about how their date went last night when their customers were clearly in earshot. My current impression of people here is that everyone seems really laid back, or casual, not only in how they speak to one another, but how some people here dress. It seems as though almost every person in Japan really goes all out to present themselves very well everyday. Not to say that people here are slobs, but there are a few people… This Christmas is to be extra special in that my younger sister Alexis is back from a year of living in Mozambique. It sounded like last years Christmas was a little bit lonely without my sister and me around to eat all the food and throw wrapping paper at everyone.

Really happy to be with family right now, and just see what I’m missing in Winnipeg (so far, it doesn’t look as though I’ve missed much). That being said, family, friends, cousins, have all gotten a little bit older, having kids, gotten married or plans of getting married. These changes remind me that the rest of the world sill refuses to stay still when I want to go on a long adventure. Is asking time to stop for a little bit such a big request? I am already looking forward to going back to Hokkaido, start snowboarding again, continue to study Japanese, and have more awkward/broken conversations with people. Speaking English alone is just not challenging. For the time being, I am completely content hanging around in Winnipeg, catching up with old friends, and making travel plans with my younger sister for this upcoming summer.

Traveling India and Nepal

2010-09-16T07:03:00.000-07:00

(From July 21^st to August 19^th, I was given the time off to travel in and around India and Nepal. For this journal entry, I decided not to do a day-to-day description of what I did, but rather wrote something of a reflection piece, meant to capture my first impressions)

India is a chaotic, loud, overpopulated, polluted, stinky, beautiful, colorful, non-hygienic, graceful, forceful, cleaver, kind, manipulative, funny, problematic, diverse, and ancient country. A country of many peoples living and working alongside each other in a chaotic yet somehow manageable way. The cities are like any other large city, but without rules, where traffic gets from A to B by any means necessary. The horn is key in communication when trying to get anywhere on the roads in India. Police are, as you might expect, corrupt, and the roads are like a fine Swiss cheese. Cows meander the streets, kids push carts, families pile into rickshaws and Tuk-tuks and the day ends, only to start again the next morning. The summer sun beats down on the people, who push on, work hard, and do what they know in order to survive another day. By the late afternoons, people slow down, but push on to make that final sale, or to finish that project before the sun hides once more. The men are always present, always working, always talking, always standing, always waiting. The women with their subtle presence, yet shocking beauty, appear and disappear without a word. Silent yet beautiful. Who are they? Their scarves and saris flow with the subtle breeze. They disappear behind the brick walls that create the narrow alleyways where children play, men pee, dogs fight, rickshaws and carts with fruit and flowers squeeze through. The smell of burning trash fills the air, to be replaced with perfumes, fried samosas, and cooked vegetables. Kids cluster together, friends sit together, shopkeepers laugh together. Disagreements, frustrations, laughter, excitement, disappointment, enjoyment, exhaustion, irritation; a mind-boggling exhibition of emotions and activities.

We are all human. There are so many ways to live and to act. I feel that India shows it all, has seen it all, has lived it all, and continues to do what they know despite the conditions. Nothing is a surprise to the people of India and yet there is mystery to this country, through their history and daily routines. They understand the human experience and live it to its full potential in every sense of the word. They see and observe everything, and learn from it. Some of the children learn languages by listening to the tourists. There are places in India where a large amount of people are fluent in Japanese just from the Japanese tourists that visit that area. India forces the shyest people out of their shells and inspires the uninspired through the people, architecture, history and culture. If you get the chance to go to India, do. Go there, get sick, get exhausted, get annoyed, and get inspired. India is waiting.

Cross the boarder from India into Nepal and find a relaxed atmosphere of easygoing, smiling, and curious people. A country of unfortunate circumstances, but a host to some of the most dramatic scenery on earth. A landscape of astonishing and remarkable beauty, from the stair cut rice terraces to the snowcapped Himalayas. A country where some of the poorest people in the world reside. Nepal, like India, is teeming with history and culture. There are many different tribal groups and castes within Nepal. Nepalese is the national language that connects the people of the country, like Hindi in India. English is also studied, used as the International language.

Taking a local bus through the mountains is an experience in and of itself. The winding roads throw you off balance at every turn. You half anticipate the bus to fall off the edge, get a flat tire, or to collide with oncoming traffic. Locals crowd onto the bus with their packages, bags of rice, and traditional doko baskets. The school children finish classes and make their way home. Seeing foreigners on their bus must be quite a site. They laugh and ask questions with the most curious and excited expressions on their faces. The children of Nepal are around every corner, playing simple hand games, soccer, NEPAL (a form of freeze tag) climbing trees, and being kids. They are the life of Nepal.

Everyday, several times a day, unpredictable power outages occur for long hours, and people are forced to cope; cooking by candlelight, playing shadow puppet games on the walls, and families talking with one another. People have no choice but to live simple for several hours a day, without the common distraction of television. Although there are ways around having no electricity, the majority of people in Nepal can’t afford alternatives. Sometimes I wish we would have our power cut out once in a while, just to make things a little simpler. The Nepalese people work hard, and earn very little, even with the numerous tourists making their way through the country in order to experience the Himalayas. Despite the conditions of Nepal, the people are still able to smile through their suffering. They are some of the strongest and kindest people I’ve met.

The Nepalese people always jump at the chance for a good conversation and a cup of chai. Short interactions and first time meetings turn into hour-long conversations and an exchange of life stories. There is not a constant pushiness to the people as in many parts of India. Walk into any shop in Pokhara or Kathmandu with ease, knowing that you can get out alive without having to buy something. Nepal deserves more time than a couple of weeks, which is all I had time for. It is a part of the world which never ceases to stimulate the senses. Once you’ve tasted that Himalayan air…

Check out the photo’s from this trip here:

http://joeygoertz.smugmug.com/Travel/India/13553773_p4WFk#988017965_UfZ5k

Teach Me Something New!

2010-07-03T20:19:00.000-07:00

I always find it fascinating how our environments shape us; how we adapt to new situations, new people, and new ideas.

Living here in Japan, I feel that I have taken on certain traits and ways of doing things, unconsciously. The way I respond to a question, or the way I communicate with people here feels quite different than how I might communicate with most people back home. Humor, interests, and awkward moments, do not always share the same interpretations to those in the West. North American humor rarely translates well here. Poop jokes for example are just not funny. Rather, little rubber poop mascots with smiley faces are put on the end of pencils and are seen as cute. Awkward moments definitely exist in Japan. Trying to talk with someone for an hour who has nothing to say in return might feel incredibly awkward, but people here, I feel, remember the meeting with that person, rather than acknowledging how awkward the meeting was. Ideas of beauty also contrast from the North American standard. A big birthmark on the face, and crooked teeth are not necessarily considered ugly, but rather gives the persons face character. What I’ve heard from others is that because the physical features of Japanese people are quite similar to one another, small things like crooked teeth or a larger nose sets them apart, and looks cute or unique. I have never gotten so many complements on my ‘golden’ arm hair, long eyelashes, and pointy nose. Small features like this are the envy in this country, and are often replicated (especially the long eyelashes). I’m yet to see arm hair implants.

As mentioned in previous journals, the ways of getting things done here can be one really big adjustment for people who have not lived in Japan. The Japanese people take very roundabout, passive approaches to get things done, and what you think should be a simple two-second answer to a simple question, can take ten minutes and a third, fourth or even fifth party for a premium, assuring, yet time consuming answer.

As I come to the end of my first year here in Japan without having left the country since I came, I wonder what strange traits I’ve developed in this time without my knowing. Will these new traits and ways of doing things come in handy in other places, or will they be criticized or even ostracized? To put some of these traits to the test, I will be heading out to South Asia this summer, spending two weeks in India, and an additional two weeks in Nepal. South Asia is a melting pot of cultures; religions, languages, dress, and customs, which, by the sounds of it, do not have too much overlap with Japanese culture. Again, I find myself being thrown into a new place in order to experience a new way of life. Traveling: What I like to think of as my mental exercise, used for stretching the mind and used as a reminder that there are many people on this earth, each with a different interpretation of it. I think once you begin to realize that, you begin to develop a lot more patience for different types of people.

I am really looking forward to this trip, but worried that Japan has softened me a bit. Japan, or at least the part that I’m living in, feels like one of the safest places that I’ve lived. It rarely feels like people are trying to rip you off or trying to get something from you. People here are generally quite honest and seem pretty understanding of one another. I feel that once I get off the plane in India, I will be a money target. I have met people in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, and Cuba that have been incredibly sly in getting what they want, and before I know it, I’m broke. I really need to teach myself how to say No to all its different forms. This will be my next exercise. I hope it won’t be too painful.

It’s a start…

2010-04-26T07:23:00.000-07:00

Kids say the darndest things. As an English instructor / educator person, I’ve always been discouraged to laugh at students or wrong answers presented in class, but sometimes students come up with the most ridiculous responses, you just can’t help but laugh.

Two weeks ago was the new Japanese school year. With this new school year came a trainload of new faces and names, and teaching at four different high schools, that’s a lot of new names. Last week, I was giving my routine self-introduction of who I am and where I come from. Just for kicks, I decided to quiz the students on their geography, (hey, got to put that degree to some use) asking them if they knew where Canada ranked on the top five largest countries according to landmass. They all knew Russia was first, Canada was second, and China third. When it came to the fourth, one student answered Africa, and before I could stop myself, a very audible but short lived laugh squired out of my mouth, and into the ears of the eager to please students, including the one brave enough to answer my question. Perhaps not a huge deal, but I do want to be careful, especially teaching in what must be one of the world’s shyest countries.

Last week a similar, shall we say incident, occurred. Tominaga Sensei, one of the English teachers, and I just began our new oral communication class with a grand total of eight students. Last year was about 27. Eight is actually a great number for doing a conversation class, so I have no complaints so far. One of the students is a bit slower in his English capabilities than the rest of the students, so some of the answers that he has come up with have been quite, shall we say unique, but have helped add a nice easy going element to the class. Tominaga Sensei and I were going over some basic English expressions and phrases, and Tominaga had asked this student how you might respond to “goodbye”. Rather than saying, “See you again” he replied, “See you forever.” This had all the students in an uproar of laughter.

Another student this morning was trying to describe himself to me for whatever reason. Rather than calling himself hansom, he chose the words, “hyper nice face.” I had to leave the class.

These kinds of mistakes don’t only occur with students, but also with teachers. Several months ago, one of the English teachers at my main high school wanted to ask me a personal question in front of the class. Rather than asking, “Can I touch on (or ask) a question about your private life?” He asked, “Can I touch your private area?” I had to find the nearest wall to support myself from falling over with laughter. All the students were looking at me like I was crazy! Sometimes I wonder.

I really feel the misuse of English words in Japan has become a subculture in itself. This is characteristic of the many signs, labels and warnings written in broken English placed throughout Japan. Part of me feels a tinge of frustration, “Why can’t they just get some native speakers and have them correct all this misused English?” But then I remember that basically all language is, is a way to communicate with one another. Even in Japans most broken English, it’s not too difficult to figure out what those signs and labels are telling you. I really try to convey this idea to my students. When it comes to conversation, the main thing is to communicate, even if tenses are used incorrectly, or a couple of words are misused. When students realize this, I think they begin to see how enjoyable it is to communicate in other languages. One student in the 11^th grade and I had a pretty good broken conversation last week about hobbies and the like. The next day, Tominaga sensei came up to my desk and told me that this student was really excited to have been able to speak to me in English. So that’s encouraging.

Dear Joey

2010-03-17T03:27:00.000-07:00

Some days are better than others, but when one of your students writes you a song, you know it’s been a good day.

For the last several months, me along with Tominaga Sensei, one of the English teachers at my main high school, have been teaching an after school English class for the 10^th, 11^th, and 12^th graders. We’ve managed to harness a couple of students from our karate circle, some from the oral communication class, and a couple of others just genuinely interested in studying English. We began near to the end of this school year. The school year in Japan is actually quite different from North American schools. The school year ends at the end of March, and the 12^th grade students graduate at the beginning of the month. What’s really cool is that the 12^th graders in my class who’ve just graduated are still coming to school only for this after school English class we created. One student has to drive about 30 minutes to the train station, ride the train for 45 minutes, and walk from the station to the school in order to come to our one-hour English class. She’s managed to come every time, regardless of the weather. If that’s not dedication, I don’t know what is!

Today was the last day that the 12^th graders will be able to come. Next month they will all be heading off to their new universities. At the end of the class, Ryouta, one of my12^th grade students, approached me with a CD in hand labeled, “Dear Joey”. He wrote me a song! Everything in the song was played, sung and synthesized by him. Very talented young fella. I’ve just listened to it, and it has to be my favorite song of all time…. mainly because its about me J… Check it out! http://joeygoertz.smugmug.com/Videos/Life-in-Japan/11304144_P43ao#813911867_jWt3t-A-LB

Here are the lyrics:

Dear Joey…

What should I talk

about with you?

While smiling a little as always.

Hey Joey…

Lower the black glasses to a nose.

You always said jokes and made me laugh.

Do you remember the hometown where

Wind of Canada blows to today?

And you are filled with tears

to see the sky of the good old town.

Hey!! You’ll write a letter….

To dear Joey

Hi Joey…

A favorite red tie

becomes you.

And the yellow shirt is the best, too.

Ya Joey…

There are a lot of questions to you.

I seem to already say goodbye.

Thank you for a lot of Christmas presents.

I was very glad.

I don’t forget it forever…

As for time that I spend with you, was short,

But was very happy.

Hey!! Let’s go to meet right now…

To Mr. Joey

You want it? You got it!

2010-02-23T05:12:00.000-08:00

My car guy Ross, originally from Australia, calls Hokkaido “Fantasy Island”. Over the seven or so months that I’ve been here, I’ve really gotten to understand exactly what he means.

I feel that the Japanese people really like to be comfortable and in actual fact like to make others feel comfortable as well. This is evident through the greetings one receives when entering any store or restaurant in Japan, peoples over politenesses in traffic, or through the amazing hospitality that Japanese families show their guests. What always blows me away are the ways in which Japanese people will answer a question or request above and beyond, and that more often than not, people will go out of their way to help you the best way they know how. And if they don’t know how, they will literally run off and find someone who can do a better job. A couple of recent examples, this last week the music teacher asked me if I was watching the Olympic games. To be honest, I haven’t been too consistent with watching events and didn’t even know if I could watch the games on my TV, which only has basic Japanese farmer vision. I tried explaining that my TV only has 6 channels and didn’t know if I got the Olympics. The science teacher beside me of course overheard this and started explaining TV’s to me and offered to come to my house to check my cables and install an antenna. In the meantime, the music teacher ran off and brought back an assortment of printouts of final results from the games. This was totally appreciated and it looked as if most of the teachers didn’t have anything to do at the time, including myself, so I didn’t mind. These kinds of events happen quite frequently.

This Sunday, I was working on my computer, when my friend’s mom came to the door and told me about her friend who knows someone that’s been living in Winnipeg for the past eight years, who just returned, and lives several blocks from my house in Japan. She ended up phoning her friend and handed me the phone so that we could connect. My friend’s mom tried to phone her son in order for him to tell me this information, yet she couldn’t get a hold of him and she didn’t have my number. So, she ended up coming to my house, picked me up, and drove me to her friends house to have dinner with his family, who ended up feeding me about 6 different dishes, 2 of which I couldn’t finish, and sent me off with a bottle of orange juice and a couple of small wrapped cakes. Basically, I will never go hungry in this country.

Hokkaido is a really fun place to be. You mention to anyone that you are interested in trying something or doing anything, and someone will make things happen. I mentioned to the music teacher that I was interested in learning to play the guitar a couple of months ago. Last week, he approached me and invited me to his beginner class starting next month. I’ve mentioned that I love cycling to some of the teachers when they asked me what my hobbies are, and I think that I am now part of a cycling group? Going to go cycling on a frozen lake on Wednesday with a couple of the members by the way.

What really amazes me is how it seems everyone knows each other in Hokkaido. Japanese people love coming together. They love their groups, clubs, communities, and places of social interaction, karaoke being one example of many. Over all, Japanese people genuinely love getting to know one another, despite having to go through a few invisible walls to get there. With an island as small as Hokkaido, and a people as sociable as the Japanese, it seems as if everyone knows each other, or at the very least wants to know everyone, foreigners included. Although that’s not completely true, if true at all, for purposes of making this paragraph help me sound like an anthropologist, we will say that there is some truth to that assertion. In any case, Hokkaido does feel much smaller and more connected in comparison with other places that I’ve lived. I feel that this has affected my outgoingness as well, and having a car definitely helps. I really believe that the places one lives has an enormous affect on the ways in which people interact with one another and the way’s which people behave, despite language barriers. In Japans case, it seems as though you can find even the most looseriest foreigners become confident and more outgoing by the time that they leave Japan, a lot of the times with the most beautiful Japanese girls attached to their waist (cross my fingers!). So, perhaps there is some truth to my previous claim after all?

As most of my previous journals, I end up talking more about culture and my observations and opinions of them then I do about all the different things that I’ve experienced so far. I feel that if I only wrote about all the different things that “fantasy island” has conjured up for me to do, my hands would become burnt out from typing so much. My hope for people reading these journals is that they get a glimpse of one persons perspective and observations on the very large and complex topic of culture. As one person did not create all the elements of a single culture such as the Japanese’s own, one person can’t possibly be expected to give full incite to it. Take these observations as a grain of salt. That being said, one thing that I think most people will agree on, is how overwhelmingly hospitable Japan’s people are.

Teaching Abroad

2010-01-12T04:28:00.000-08:00

One of my friends from university emailed me to find out what company I’m working for and some advice around finding teaching positions overseas, so I had sent him this overly long response. I thought I would post it for interest sake and for those interested or know someone who is interested in teaching overseas.

I ended up getting on with JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching Programme). I believe the deadline has already passed for this year. As far as I know, applications had to be in by November. There are a lot of other teaching programs out there though, but I decided on JET because of the positive reputation it has. I had done a year of teaching in Indonesia with a private organization based out of Jakarta called Intract, and the experience was kind of similar but also really different, perhaps because there are such differences between the Japanese culture and the Indonesian culture, and the way things are done. The similarities between the two are that both contracts provided a house at subsidized costs, both provided a monthly salary, Japans of course larger because of the economic differences (JET provides around 3000 dollars a month, whereas Intract was something like 700 dollars a month, which was like 3 times as much as what a regular teacher in Indonesia makes). JET provides a plane ticket to and from Japan from the beginning of the contract to the end, whereas Intract only provided the flight home, based on completion of the contract. Intract did provide a personal driver to and from school everyday, Japan I had to buy my own car to get around (because there are not enough trains around where I’m living) but they pay for the gas used to go to the schools.

JET also provided pre-departure orientation, giving free language classes and what to prepare for before living in Japan. They also put you up in a nice hotel for 3 nights in Tokyo to give a thorough orientation on everything you can imagine about living and working in Japan. Intract didn’t provide anything like this, which made it a bit difficult to adjust to everything at first. Here, I am at 3 different high schools, but have my base school that I’m at everyday. Indonesia I also had three schools that I was at once a week (all elementary) but was on call if a teacher couldn’t make it to school. Every JETS situation has been different, really depending on if your teaching elementary, junior high, or high school, but everyone that I’ve talked to, has more than 1 school that they work at. Some have 19 schools that they rotate through (this would be elementary though, and is pretty rare).

Every situation is different, and every contract will be a bit different. Take a look at Dave’s ESL Café: http://www.eslcafe.com/joblist/

There are tons of job postings here. I think a large majority of them are for teaching English, but there might be some for other subjects too. I think this website is pretty good, but there are some job postings that you really have to be wary of. I have some friends that ended up going to Mexico, and their contract was not what they thought it would be. I think they had to end up finding their own housing and paying full cost on it or something like that. It just didn’t sound very organized. You should make sure that they provide some sort of accommodation, let you know how much it will be, let you know your salary, where you will be teaching, and at least a flight to or from the country. The more information that’s posted about the job, the better. Get as much information as you can and be really sure of the company that you want to work with before going. Some of the higher paying places/more popular places to teach are Japan and Korea. I think Korea would have been my second choice had I not come to Japan.

Anyways, working and traveling is the best thing ever. Great way to see the world and still make some money.

Hope this helps!

Joey

Aisu Kurimu onegaishimasu

2010-01-09T03:55:00.000-08:00

If there’s one thing I enjoy it’s seeing the ways in which different cultures will take elements of other cultures and adopt it as their own. Japan, like so many other countries has adopted elements of the English language and fit it into their own linguistic framework. This has made for some very interesting and unusual, how shall I say, Engrish. Japan has three alphabets, one of which is used for loan words; words or ideas that are not originally from Japan. There has been an explosion of new words, taken especially from the English language after Japan opened her doors to the world in the Meiji period. In the last couple of decades there has been an explosion of loan words, taken especially from the English language. You would think that this would make teaching English in Japan easier, but guess again. The Japanese language has about one third the amount of sounds than that of the English language. Two of the most difficult sounds for Japanese speakers studying English are words that have the letters R and L. Just for fun, I sometimes have my students attempt the word “parallelogram”. In order to get around the problem of not being able to pronounce these English sounds comfortably, the Japanese have taken these new words and ideas and turned them into Japanese sounding words. Words like ice-cream and hamburger have phonetically become aisu kurimu, and hambaaga. Going to any western style restaurant you will find the menu items said in this katakana style. Place names have also been katakanaized. New York, London, Winnipeg become Nu Yooku, Rondon, Uinipegu. When I first heard this, I thought that it was some form of Pidgin, but later realized that there are many other languages that the Japanese have adopted, specifically from Korea and China. I suppose the English language does the same thing with other languages; adopting words for such natural phenomenon’s as El Nino and Tsunami, and we often pronounce place names without consideration of how it would be said in the local dialect. I just like to think of Japan as a special case, just because there are some words which are adopted that are worth a chuckle. Words such as ‘camara-man’ meaning photographer, or movie titles such as the movie “Up” has become “Karl”. Some words are just adopted because they sound cool to the Japanese. For instance, a hair salon that for whatever reason decided to name itself poo-p. “Wow, where do you get your hair done?” “Oh I go to Poo-p.” (First word learned perhaps?) Grammar is generally very difficult for Japanese learners of English. There are a lot of things poorly translated into English that are just plain bizarre. Often the grammar on signboards and official documents are too wordy, many of which are out of context, the grammar is off, and the idea becomes lost. One example, my Aunt and I went to an aquarium last week, and one sign read, “Please do not disturb sunfish by taking photographs with a flame of flashlight. Thank you for your cooperation.” Another one read, “Please to not get over the handrail.”

Also articles such as A and The do not exist in the Japanese language and is very difficult for Japanese speakers to know when to place these properly in a sentence. One sign I saw the other day read, “Please push a door” I’m a little worried this Engrish is going to effect the way I talk. By the time I come back, I will be saying everything with adopted English loan words. Canu yu undasusando mi?

Appearance Counts

2009-11-30T05:10:00.000-08:00

For some reason, between 1920 to 1930, Japan decided to model their school uniforms after European uniforms. The boys all wore military style uniforms, where the girls wore a sailor outfit (anyone familiar with Sailor Moon?). It may surprise you that these uniforms have changed very little. Everything from the shoes to the gym cloths are standardized in all Japanese schools. One thing I really have to laugh at is how Japanese students find sneaky ways around these authoritarian outfits. Teachers are very strict about students wearing their neckties properly, not wearing any makeup, and making sure their shirts are properly tucked in. Hair color is also not to be changed. Despite these desperate attempts to make students more responsible and prepare them for the outside world through constant reminders of dress and the immediate removal of any possible makeup on female students, students are still able to let a bit of their personality seep through with the clever ways of working around the school uniforms. I’ve never seen so many different colors and styles of socks in my life! Everything from rainbow ankle toe socks, to socks that go above and beyond the knees. Many students try to hide their colorful fancy belts with their German blazers, and it’s not hard to see the hard rock café t-shirts through the translucent white dress shirts. I’ve even seen some student’s hair grow a whole two feet from the day before! Teachers of course are to be models for proper dress conduct. With all the very somber colors that exist in the schools, I must be hurting peoples eyes with my yellow, green and blue dress shirts matched with orange, purple and red neck ties, the vibrant red Canadian neck tie from dollarama being the students favorite. The earring that I have in the top left ear is of course removed, yet there are times, depending on where I’m standing, where the light from the window shines through the hole, which students just have to examine! What I really love is when both teachers and students call me on something that’s out of line on my wardrobe. I’ve had several students and teachers adjust my collar for me, and even had one of the home economics teacher get me to stand up out of my chair so she could cut the strings that were connecting the back flaps of my suit jacket. How did she know?! Appearance seems to be everything in Japan. What kind of impression do the other teachers have of me I wonder?

Tabemasho!!!

2009-11-10T05:28:00.000-08:00

Food is so interesting. I love how different cultures are able utilize the plants and animals which are able to grow and live within respective regions. I love how necessary it is to eat, and how everyone needs to eat in order to stay alive. Some very interesting types of dishes have come out of this necessity of daily living, and experiencing the delicacies and unusualities (new word?) that come out of different countries is one aspect of culture that is so much fun to experience. With all the traveling that I’ve done so far, and all the different types of foods that I’ve been fortunate enough to experience, I feel that I can stomach just about anything. From eating raw seal liver to over seasoned dog meat (no, I don’t know what kind of dog it was, but for the sake of this story, we’ll say he wasn’t a very nice dog who probably had it coming), I feel that a part of me has become immune to eating new and strange foods. I really have to remind myself once in a while what I’m actually eating.

This weekend, my friend Hitoshi and I had gone to Otaru, a quaint little port city on the west coast of Hokkaido. Lunch was the first stop, and sushi was on our minds. Hitoshi and his family seem to know everyone who has lived or been to Shimizu. The sushi chef at the restaurant used to live in Shimizu, so Hitoshi and the chef had a long talk. As they were talking, pieces of sushi kept magically appearing in front of me, delicately placed on a long green leaf. I’ve eaten sushi a good number of times, and anytime I go for sushi, I love to have the real thing; slabs of raw fish placed on rice held together by thin sheets of seaweed. Most of what I had eaten, I knew what it was, and could easily enjoy, yet there were a couple that I had know idea what it was I was eating. One piece of sushi, which I was particularly curious about, really made me question if I actually liked this delicacy or not. Seeing that Hitoshi and the chef were still very engaged in conversation, I decided to eat it anyways. After finishing the last piece of sushi, which must have taken at least 10 minutes to chew, (hey, you try swallowing a huge piece of raw octopus under a minute) I had asked Hitoshi about the strange sushi with the white goopy stuff. He was a little reluctant to tell me, but after I relentlessly persisted for an answer, he informed me it was fish sperm that I had eaten. Hmmm…. Another one to cross off the list, I suppose? I would be really interested in meeting the person to invent this sushi and know what he was thinking.

I really enjoy coming to my desk after classes are finished, and finding little Japanese snacks garnishing my books and papers. After someone has been on a business trip, its customary to bring back some treats from different parts of Japan, and present them to the people you work with. Some days I have 4 well-wrapped treats on my desk from who knows where, and from who knows who. The other day after class, one of my students came up to me and presented a dried flattened squid in a small clear plastic bag. I’ve gotten cookies from students before, but this squid was definitely a first. I will have it later.

Cultural Confusions

2009-11-04T07:00:00.000-08:00

Many of the mannerisms and approaches that exist amongst the Japanese people are the exact ways of thinking that I had been reprimanded for using as a child. One of my Japanese/English teachers gave me three books translated into both Japanese and English on different cultural taboos and cultural norms that exist not only in Japan but throughout the world. These books clarify some of many misunderstandings that people have when traveling abroad. My favorite out of the three books is the one titled, “The Inscrutable Japanese”. This book juxtaposes American culture and Japanese culture, focusing largely on social behaviors. The beginning of the book opens with the subheading “Why won’t Japanese look me in the eye?” This segment talks about how direct eye contact is rude and can be seen as trying to challenge or intimidate another person. Children are scolded by the parent if looking directly at them, and are taught to keep their heads down when being reprimanded. Conversely, in America and Canada, a child will be reprimanded by their parent if not making eye contact.

“If an American child looks down when scolded, the parent will say, “Look at me when I’m talking to you!”

This part made me laugh out loud, and I actually had to leave the staff room when I read it to avoid making a scene. When I read that quote, I could see my dad’s eyes looking down at me, flashing with rage. Of course now, there is no more rage in those eyes, and he’s not the one looking down anymore.

One thing that really makes me feel at home in Japan is Japanese peoples approach to saying yes or no. I’ve always been told to be very straightforward when asking for something and not to be passive when asking for help. But this approach is the exact opposite that most Japanese take. Of course take these observations as a grain of salt, but many Japanese will use indirect expressions such as, “maybe” or “perhaps” in order to avoid sounding too harsh, and creating confrontation with others. There are so many cultural differences like this that exist, which many foreigners, including myself, often misinterpret. What I love is that as I read these things and as I live in a place where even the books are “backwards”, I begin to question and understand the culture that I’m from. I often forget that Canada does have more defining herself then just maple syrup, hockey, and or beloved Tim Horton’s.

Another Good Day

2009-10-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was one of those days where everything was amazing (those are my favorite kinds of days, by the way). The day before yesterday, my friend Hitoshi mentioned that he was going to go to Costco in Sapporo with his family. Yes I know! I was also surprised to hear that Costco exists in Japan. I dropped a hint around wanting to join him and his family the next day, and he willingly agreed. We ended up talking an express toll way to get part way there, which was about 10 dollars each way; Japan can be really expensive if you want it to be, though despite what many people say, it does'nt have to be. This week must be autumn’s prime time because every mountain is in a frenzy of reds, yellows, oranges, greens, and purples. We had left in the early morning which allowed ourselves to be hypnotized by the plethora of autumn colors, enhanced by the morning sun. We finally arrived at Costco 3 hours later. As we walked in, I was blown away at how similar it was to the ones back home. Actually, it was exactly the same. Everything from the toilets, shopping carts, and ceiling lights were exactly the same. Even the water fountains just outside of the bathrooms have been imported from North America. I had to keep reminding myself that I was still in Japan. I ended up buying a dozen large assorted muffins, a dozen bagels, a 24 pack of Dr. Pepper and a large bag of Kirkland corn chips. Hitoshi recommended that we buy a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. You don’t often see the large orange types in Japan, but instead, smaller green ones. After shopping, Hitoshis parents treated us to the food court, which also was exactly the same to the North American Costco food courts. We had gotten pizza, hotdogs, clam chowder, and of course Costco's famous churros. We went back to Shimizu for dinner, where we met up with Hitoshis brother and several of his brothers’ friends at Torisei, a popular chain restaurant which was initially started in Shimizu, my town. None of them spoke any English, so I was forced to use all the Japanese I could remember on the spot. They all went beyond asking the typical questions of ``Where are you from?`` and ``Do you have a girlfriend?`` We actually got into some pretty intense conversations. I think I had gotten my responses across, but not without the help of Hitoshi.
After dinner, Hitoshi and I met up with our friend Yuriko, at my house, who decided to join us in the pumpkin carving. I haven’t carved a pumpkin in who knows how long, but I never remember it being as fun as last night. This was Yurikos first time, so it was fun to see her reaction when she took the first plunge into the pumpkin with her hand. I carved the top off, Hitoshi carved the face, and Yuiriko fried the pumpkin seeds to eat for later. The best part was both their reactions when I turned off the light with the candle set in the base of the newly carved Jack o lantern. The only things illuminating the room was the small candle surrounded by 3 camera phones. We ended up talking around the jack o lantern well past midnight.
Why are the simplest types of entertainment usually the best? All you need is a large orange vegetable, a large knife, and friends, and you can be entertained for hours.

Autumn in Hokkaido

2009-10-13T12:32:00.000-07:00

Hokkaido is now experiencing its seasonal change into Autumn. I have to say that Japanese maples have to be some of the most beautiful trees in the world, especially in Autumn.Feel free to check out the rest of the shots:http://joeygoertz.smugmug.com/Nature/Autumn-in-Hokkaido/9948546_MSNqj

The Influenza

2009-10-13T12:22:00.000-07:00

October 12, 2009

Ok. So this influenza thing is getting out of hand. Already both the elementary school and junior high have been closed for the past week. Also, one student in the 10th grade had caught the virus, so now the entire 10th grade has to stay home. On top of that, all the grade 10 teachers are asked to wear facemasks to prevent the possible spread of this virus. This last week, at least half the school had facemasks. It looks somewhat humorous to walk into the secretary office and see every single person wearing these masks, along with the principle and vice principle. The 11th grade hockey team was also asked to wear them because they have a big game coming up. It seems as though everyone in this town is sick. My friend Chris who works in the Junior high is sick in bed with a fever of 103 degrees (we’ll go fehrenhight because he’s American). He also managed to give this flu to his girlfriend, who is now in the hospital. I admittedly have a bit of a cold, but refuse to wear a facemask. I really hope this influenza/sick streak leaves very soon. Every year, the 11th grade goes on a school fieldtrip to Tokyo, Kyoto, Nara, and Hiroshima. It would be a shame for that to be canceled because of one student getting mild symptoms of this influenza.
On a completely different topic, I’ve experienced two natural phenomenons this week, which are quite new to me. Late this week, Japan was hit by a typhoon. It didn’t hit too hard in the Tokachi district, but we did get a lot of wind and rain. I am glad that it hadn’t canceled my weekend plans. The second phenomenon took place in Obihiro, the nearest city to Shimizu, my town. A couple of us were hanging out on the 6th floor of our friend’s hotel room, when our friend Matthew noticed his bed vibrating. At first I thought there was a button he had pressed to make it vibrate, but we quickly realized that his room was not one of the love sweets, and was actually an earthquake we were experiencing. I was sitting on the floor at the time, and felt my butt being massaged by the vibrations coming through the floor. It only lasted about 10 or 15 seconds. I actually experienced one earthquake before this, but I didn’t notice it. I was standing at the front of my 11th grade class, when my Japanese/English teacher pointed out that we were experiencing an earthquake. I thought he was joking, because I couldn’t feel anything. I think that this week has taught me how vulnerable people are.

Thriving Thursday

2009-10-05T19:54:00.000-07:00

This Thursday, both students and teachers were absent from school. It appears to be rare that there isn’t anyone at school, even on the weekends. Both teachers and students stay late after classes for club activities or preparing for the next day. Some teachers have stayed until 2 oclock AM doing who knows what. What’s even more insane is that they don’t get reimbursed for staying extra hours; a wonderful contrast to life in the west. For this wonderful gift of a day, one of the English/Japanese teachers I work with, Tominaga Sensei, and the official school yearbook photographer, Seiya San, met up in Shikaoi town, around 16km from my town, to take a nice 70km bike ride around the Tokachi Plain. Its great to finally meet some people in Japan who are into cycling. Although bicycles are one of the main means of transportation in Japan during the seasons that aren’t winter, long distance cycling doesn’t appear to be as popular as you might think. Oh well… more room for me! The roads in Hokkaido are some of the best that I’ve seen. I suppose it doesn’t take much to impress me, considering the state of the roads back in Winnipeg. The Hokkaido government receives a large amount of cash for keeping the roads here in good order. Most of the roads appear to be only a couple of years old if not much newer. Out in the country here, you would expect the back roads to be gravel, yet everything is paved, which really makes exploring this island a lot easier. I suppose the one drawback is the copious amounts of construction that takes place on the main roads. Before I continue with this Thursday cycling extravaganza, let me tell you a little bit about construction in Japan. It has to be a cutest thing ever (for the record, I only reserve the word cute for anything Japan). Rather than having regular roadblocks used to redirect traffic, they have smiling green frogs holding up the word “Sorry” (in English) with every 50th frog winking as you pass by. Some of the tractors are pink and purple, and to match, the construction workers are fitted with lavender hardhats. How could you possibly get frustrated or annoyed with that?! What I really love is that there is always someone at the end of the road who will bow to let you know that you’ve passed through the end of the construction zone of cutesy confusion.
So back to our Thursday morning of cycling bliss. The three of us ended up taking around 3 hours to cycle the 70km ride, taking fairly regular brakes. Although cycling the country roads of Hokkaido is a great way to get away from many of the luxuries that most big cities in Japan are known for, frequent rest stops with heated toilet seats and bade are some of the comforts that seem to be difficult for Japanese people to give up. We made a quick stop at a soft ice-cream place in Shihoro town, where I was able to purchase green tea ice-cream and cookies-and-cream in the same cone. Not a bad combination, I suppose. For the rest of the way, all 3 of us were going at a pretty decent rate, until a pack of wild dogs started chasing us, where our speed readily increased, and I nearly wiped out in a ditch, trying to defend my legs from getting chewed off. Ahhh Hokkaido, what a beautiful place.

Silver Week

2009-09-24T09:04:00.001-07:00

This weekend, I met up with my friends, Greg and Kyle, whom I had met on the plane to Hokkaido. We had hung out a couple of times since then, and decided to hang out again for Japans 5 day long weekend which they have called Silver Week. Friday evening, I took a train to Kushiro, the 4th largest city in Hokkaido, and about 2 hours away by express train to meet the both of them; this being a good meeting place for all three of us, since we all live in different directions from one another. We all ended up meeting each other at the train station at the same time, and headed out into the city. I have come to the conclusion that I don’t want to live in a city if I can help it. I enjoy visiting cities and exploring them, but even more I really love being out doors and away from the noise and confusion; I find that I’m the happiest when I’m in the country. Greg is the opposite. He loves city life. While walking around Kushiro, he couldn’t decide which street to go down first. We ended up eating in some hole-in-the-wall restaurant. The counter, being the only place to sit at, must have only had enough chairs for a total of 6 people. These are my favourite kinds of places to eat.
After a light meal of fish and skewered pork, we headed off to the Karaoke club. You really do have to go with other people who don’t know how to sing when your not confident about your own singing capabilities. The evening was good except the part where my friend Kyle and I had to go running into the streets to find Greg, who ended up having way too much saki at the Karaoke club. Kyle and I eventually peeled Greg off the streets and taxied our way back to the hotel. The hotel room was only meant for one person, yet Kyle and I stayed there anyways. This had to be one of the smallest rooms, and awkwardest sleeps I’ve had in a while.
The next day Kyle left us to go back to his home town of Nemuro. By then, Greg had sobered up enough to drive us back to his hometown of Tsubetsu. On the way there, we were rerouted off the road and stopped by the police to be given the largest and whitest radish I have ever seen. It was a Japanese daikon. I’m not even going to try to understand this one. Before reaching Tsubetsu, we passed through some mountains, one of which was almost completely barren of trees on the top. Usually its me who looks for trouble and adventure, but this time Greg was the first to act. We ended up turning around and finding a hidden trail that led up to the bald part of the mountain. The trail we took was like walking through Narnia or something. Lush green flora surrounding us on all sides with cool little streams that cut through the soil with ease. A beautiful waterfall at the end of the stream ended the walk, and began the ascent. We’ve been told that Hokkadio has bears, so every twitch of the bushes made us jump. More often then not, it would be a deer, which would scramble up the mountain after seeing us. We eventually made it close to the top, but were restricted by the high plants, which substituted the absence of trees. Walking up there with no people around, no buildings, no bugs, and no noise made it feel as if we were on another planet which was only populated by a thick knee deep leafy weed.
We eventually made it to Gregs house, but not before missing a pack of wild dear, which hogged half the road. The next day we drove to Kitami, the nearest city to Tsubetsu, where we attended a Catholic Church Service. I’ve been to a couple of Catholic Church Services before, but this one was exceptionally long. After the service, I was asked to give a speech (The Japanese love their speeches!!!) about where I’m from, and what I thought of my students in Shimizu (???).

2009-09-24T09:01:00.001-07:00

The next day, our friend Eri joined our group. Greg and I had been planning to hike one of the mountains in Daisetzuan National park, and Eri voiced that she would like to come along. Her English is really good, she has a great sense of humour, and she’s really pretty, so we couldn’t say no. It was nice to have a girl presence in the car. All three of us really got along and seemed to really enjoy one another’s company. We ended up climbing the mountain that afternoon, and were the last ones to the top, but the view was amazing!!! It has already snowed a bit on some of the other mountaintops, which really added to the scene. It actually reminded me of the arctic, being up there. Later that evening, we drove to the nicest camping site that I’ve ever seen. People were paying 4000 yen (around 40ish dollars) a night, yet we ended up sneaking into the cheaper site (did I mention that we are all really cheap?). The next morning, we drove to Asahikawa, the second largest city in Hokkaido, where we met up with Eri’s identical twin sister for dinner, before going home the next day. All in all, this Silver Week has been the best Silver Week I’ve ever had.

Week Six Many Faces

2009-09-04T06:29:00.002-07:00

Many faces, yet all true

What I really find interesting is the levels of politeness that exist within Japan. There are entirely different ways to say virtually the same thing, but a lot more politer, depending on the situation you’re in. The Japanese will use the more polite Japanese at work or in formal situations. Using apologies to express gratitude for example, as I had mentioned in an earlier journal. When you are with your friends though, you would refrain from talking like this. My friend from Minnesota and I were talking about this and he mentioned a book he read which mentioned that the Japanese people have five ‘masks’: One for formal occasions, one for work, one for family, one for friends, and one for oneself. These different ‘masks’ call for different codes of behaviour including different levels of polite language. I might be completely wrong in saying this, but in North America, it seems that many of us look for the sincerity in people and try to see what’s behind the mask. In Japan, there is no looking behind the mask because all there is, is the mask. The idea of looking for the genuine person I think is very much a Western idea, yet again, I could be completely wrong about this. What’s really confirmed this idea of certain attitudes in certain places within Japan is not only in the language, but also the lifestyle. In Japan, you never wear your outdoor shoes inside your house. At the front of every house in Japan is a lower level than the rest of the house for leaving your shoes. You can then put on your indoor shoes after taking your outdoor shoes off. Most of us take off our shoes when we go inside a house anyways, and is just plain sensible if you think about it, yet I had heard that the reasoning for this in Japan is that you live a life outside of your house, and you live a life inside of your house. A lot of dirt and attitudes come home with you, but should not be let inside your house, and therefore left at the door.
Another element of Japanese lifestyle, one which I think everyone should try, are the onsens, or natural hot springs. Japan is of course along the Pacific ring of fire and is no exception to the large amount of thermal energy which exists in this part of the world, and therefore creating some of the best hot springs. These hot springs aren’t used in the same way that we use hot tubs back home, where you just plop into a hot pool of water with your bathing suit on. Instead, onsens are used as a bath. And just like bathing at home, you would not wear a bathing suit. Yes, that’s right! Nude! Family, friends, co-workers and total strangers bath together in the same hot spring, and no one thinks anything of it. What I really love about this is that any sort of hierarchy system that exists in Japan is broken down when you are sitting and relaxing in an onsen. It’s difficult to tell who’s the president of a major company when they’re not wearing any cloths.

Week Six

2009-09-04T06:29:00.000-07:00

What should I say…?

Last week was a week of self-introductions. I think I’ve now introduced myself to at least 700 students. “Hello, my name is Joey. I am from Canada. My city’s name is Winnipeg…” Part of my self-introduction involves talking about animals, and I had mentioned that I have a cat back home. To go along with this, I made a cat sound, “Meow” I got a lot of blank stares after making the sound. Wondering if they had understood or not, I looked to the Japanese-English teacher for translation. She quickly sputtered off a bunch of Japanese ending with the sound “Niao”. I looked at her again with a confused look on my face. “In Japanese, the sound for cat is Niao” she told me. I was fairly surprised at this fact as I had always thought that this animal sound was universal. After class, I began to ask her and my other Japanese-English teacher other Onomatopoeias. For those of you unfamiliar with this unnecessarily long word, Onomatopoeias are words which sounds are imitative of the sound of the noise or action designated (This definition was totally plagiarized by the way). Some of these sounds are very similar to the English sounds, yet some are just bizarre. For example the sound for cat, as mentioned, is Niao. Ok, pretty similar. The sound for dog: won won. Sound for horse: hinhin-hinhin. The sound for pig: boo-boo. Duck: gaga. Crying baby: en-en. Gurging water: gara-gara. Mouse: chu-chu. Train sound: shushu-poopoo. Dropping large rock in water: Bo-cha! (You can almost hear this one).Dropping a small rock in water: po-cha. Ripping paper: biri-biri (I don’t get this one…) Unlocking a door: cacha-cacha. Touching something hot: achi (In North America, I believe the sound is a sharp Tsss). Stomach rumbling: gogo. And finally a buzzing bee: buuuuuuuuu.
I hope to teach a class on these in the near future. Part of my role here is not only to assist the Japanese English teachers with teaching English, but also to be a cultural ambassador for the students. Onomatopoeias are just one example of the many interesting cultural differences that exist. I hadn’t realized that saying ‘bless you’ after you sneeze is pretty North American. I was walking with a New Zealander, where at one point he let out a large sneeze. I dropped the ‘bless you’ remark and he began to laugh explaining that in New Zealand, they don’t say anything, and that he usually tries to stand beside someone from North America when he needs to sneeze so he can hear our absurd remark to a natural phenomenon. The Japanese don’t have a remark for it either which I find interesting since Japan usually has a polite phrase or action that goes along with almost everything. I got scolded the other day by one of my Japanese English teachers for not putting the word san after one of the secretary’s names when talking about them. The word san will always follow a person’s family name (last name) to show respect, but for me, because I’m considered a teacher in Japan, I get the honorary title of sensei. I don’t think I deserve this title given the role of what a teacher in Japan has to do (I’ll have to talk more about this in a later journal). I was also scolded for asking, “How are you?” to the principle. There is very much a hierarchy system in Japan, and a principle, as you might expect, is above the teachers. Asking “How are you” is just too casual, and is perhaps rude for a teacher to ask this question. He just looks so friendly though!!!

Garbage

2009-08-12T06:45:00.000-07:00

So I’ve been in the town of Shimizu for about 2 weeks and feel pretty settled in for the most part. One factor of my day-to-day living in Japan, which I am still trying to understand, is the complexities around garbage. Japan has what must be the most complex garbage system known to mankind. To start off, Japan requires that you divide your garbage according to the make of it. I guess we should be used to that: paper, plastic etc. But Japan takes it one step further, paper and plastic is taken every Thursday, then you have your plastic bottles, which are put into one bag with the label and cap in two separate bags. Milk and juice cartons must be washed, cut so all 6 sides are laying flat and dried, before being tied up in a bundle and thrown away every other Wednesday. Then you have your food scraps, which are thrown away on Tuesday and Friday, yet must be thrown away in the designated red bags, not the blue bags; blue is for broken appliances, which can be bought at your nearest 7-elevin in two different sizes. Don’t mix the two colours up! That’s the easy part. Now if you have oversized garbage such as a broken air-conditioner, TV, refrigerator, or washing machine, you’re screwed!!! For the oversized garbage, there are set days when you can do this. In some towns, you have to pay a set price to buy a designated ticket to put on the oversized garbage. Some of these larger items have to be taken back to the retail store you bought it from and they will take it, but you have to pay them a recycling and handling fee. Wow, if that doesn’t sound overwhelming for someone who doesn’t speak very much Japanese, a language of 3 alphabets totalling over 30,000 different characters, I don’t know what is. So the next time you throw something out, think about how fortunate you are for not having to think about it… (did that make sense?)

Week One

2009-08-10T09:13:00.000-07:00

This week has been awesome so far. After staying in one of the nicest hotels that I’ve ever been to right in the heart of Shinjuku, Tokyo, I, along with a group of around 40 people, flew up to Hokkaido to start our new lives.

This week has been awesome so far. Me along with 2 other Winnipegers flew to Calgary to join a group of other JETS from Montreal, Saskatchewan, Edmonton, and Calgary. All of us were invited to the Japanese Consulate Generals house for a really nice sushi dinner. The next day, all of us flew together to Tokyo to join a larger group of around 900 JETS from Australia, New Zealand, Jamaica, Ireland, the UK, the US, and South Africa. We all ended up staying at the beautiful Keio Hotel in downtown Tokyo in the Shinjuku district. After 2 days of orientation and workshops provided, everyone split into different groups, which corresponded to the district that they would be going to. The group of people from this orientation that will be living in Hokkaido is around 40, with a total of around 210 JETS from around the world living in Hokkaido alone. I believe that there’s around 4600 JETS living and working throughout Japan; just to give you an idea as to how large this program is. On the 29th, me along with the 40 other JETS flew off to Hokkaido to meet our supervisors who will be taking us to our own designated communities and assisting us in getting set up to live in Japan.

When arriving at the Chitose airport near Sapporo, I was greeted by my supervisor, Abe Sensei, one of the English teachers that I will be working with. He was nice enough to buy me an ice-cream before we headed off to Shimizu-Cho, the town that I will be living in. The 2 ½ hour train ride was one of the nicest train rides I’ve had before. Hokkaido is so beautifully lush and not like the rest of what I’ve seen of Japan. It’s so open with lots of little farming communities and small mountains, yet still maintains the Japanese essence. What I really like about it, especially after being in Tokyo, is it’s cool weather. The rest of Japan gets extremely humid during the summer months, where as Hokkaido is much cooler and more comfortable. The disadvantage is that it will get quite cold during the winter months, and will limit my cycling. Which reminds my. I brought my bike to Japan. I’m so excited! I thought it was going to be a lot more difficult than it actually was. I just put it together, but haven’t had any time to ride it yet.

When Abe Sensei brought me to my house, I was really surprised to find out that I have three bedrooms, all lined with tatami mats! I also have a really disgusting yet comfortable couch in my living room, so if anyone wants to visit… J. I also have a shed to store my bike in and any other junk that I will collect over the year. I’m going to have to get used to ducking under my doorways all the time though. These Japanese houses are net made for “giants” like me.

2009-08-10T09:11:00.000-07:00

I’ve now been in the town of Shimizu for one whole week, and so far I love it. This town is, for lack of a better word, cute. Everything seems miniature size, even my house. I always have to duck underneath all the doorways. Japan was not designed for people over 6 feet.
I have about 2 weeks before I start teaching. The students are on there summer break, yet all us sensei’s are stuck at school with a variety of tasks. Lately I’ve been doing a lot of reading, and trying to brush up on my Japanese. Wow, I’ve forgotten how complex this language can be. I’ve memorized 2 out of 3 alphabets, and have almost no trouble understanding one of them, yet the third alphebet will take anyone a lifetime to learn. I think I’ve memorized around 50 or so characters out of 30,000+. You thought I was joking, didn’t you. Lately I’ve been working on my survival Japanese, which mostly entails being really really polite, and apologizing a lot. Japanese people often express gratitude through apology. Half of what I hear in the staff room is, excuse me, thank you, sorry, I apologise that I’m leaving earlier than you, excuse me as I enter the room, excuse me as I exit the room, etc. I feel like everyone must think I’m the rudest person ever for not knowing all the different time of when to say which one! There is also a lot of bowing. There’s three bows that I know; there’s the 30 degree bow, the 45 degree bow, and the 90 degree bow. The lower you bow is in accordance with how important the person your greeting is. For men, there hands have to be at there sides while they bow, and for women, its infront. Japanese people are amazing at it too. I said good afternoon to an oldman working in his garden, and he was still able to do an amazing bow while crouching in the dirt. I don’t think I’ve shaken one Japanese persons hand since I’ve gotten here.

Since I’ve gotten to Japan, I’ve constantly, yet inadvertently, been comparing this experience with my teaching experience in Indonesia. About 4 years ago, I went to Indonesia for one year to teach English to Elementary school students. I have been reflecting a lot on my Indonesian experience and am so impressed with the way that I had survived at 19 years old, with no teaching experience, and not having lived abroad by myself before. At the time, I was living with two girls, both from Winnipeg. I now realize what a blessing this truly was. I don’t know how I would have survived that year without having someone else to speak English to, and the fact that they were both from my city was a plus. Looking back, I also can begin to appreciate the things that I have here in Japan. My main school is only 2 minutes walking distance from me, which is awesome. In Indonesia, I would sometimes take an hour in a half to get to school in the morning. I would also have to wait for my housemates to finish their classes, at different schools, so I would wait in the hot car with my driver until they were finished, which was sometimes 2 hours, and then it would be another hour in a half to get home.
I will be teaching at 2 other schools in the next towns once a week, yet I think that I will be taking a train there. I am hoping that this won’t be too much of a problem in the winter. Hokkaido apparently receives a lot of snow in the winter months, and can get pretty cold, yet compared to Winnipeg, it’ll feel like spring!
I have also taken by bike with me to Japan. This has been awesome for getting around, buying the things I need for my house, and just seeing and experiencing the amazing landscape here. In Indonesia, I bought a brand new bike for around 50 Canadian dollars, which was also great for getting around on, yet it just wasn’t the same. I think that’s what really compelled me to bring my own bike this time. No regrets!
As far as housing goes, I’m really content. Its quite a bit bigger than I expected, and actually pretty big for a Japanese house (for one person anyways). I have a living room, shower room, toilet room, kitchen connecting to the living room, and three bedrooms, all lined with tatami mats. They are traditional Japanese (washitsu) rooms, with the exception that there are no traditional paper windows (Shōji). To make the room complete, I bought a Japanese style futon. This isn’t like the futons that we’re used to at home where the couch folds down into a bed. Instead it’s just a foldable mattress that lays on the tatami mat floor. Tatami is amazing by the way. If you ever want to cover a floor in anything, tatami is the way to go.
The staff at my school have been very friendly and helpful. So far I’ve met the music teacher, two of the English teachers that I will be teaching with, the agriculture teacher (I didn’t know you could take agriculture in high school…) the Japanese teacher, the calligraphy teacher, the home economics teacher, she’s hot! (did I just say that?), and the science teacher, who sits beside me and loves trying to have conversations with me, despite our lack of comprehension in each others respective languages. Tomorrow I will be going to the town hall to introduce myself and tell everyone how great I am… We’ll, maybe not the latter, cus I’m not that good at Japanese yet…

Getting Ready for Japan

2009-07-09T22:20:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone!
For those of you who don't know me, my name is Joey Goertz. For the next year (or more) I will be living in Japan, specifically Shimizu, Hokkaido. What am I doing there you might ask? Well, like many other crazy Canadians, I will be teaching English. The program that I'm going through is called JET which stands for Japanese Exchange and Teaching Programme: http://www.jetprogramme.org/

While I'm in Japan, I will attempt to keep a journal of the crazy things that I am expecting Japanese life to be. Crazy for a foreigner that is...

I will also attempt to post pictures when I can. If you don't already know my website, here's the link: http://joeygoertz.smugmug.com/

Please feel free to bookmark these pages, or sign up for Blogger to get my journal updates.
Please also leave comments or feedback on anything that I've written or any of my photos.

Thanks for checkin in!