Appearance Counts

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!!!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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 (???).

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

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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