I've been feeling like a lion lately. After school I come home and lay around, yawning big yawns and wondering what's for dinner.
Today for school lunch I had a shrimp burrito. I got the ingredients at a specialty food store about an hour and a half from here. The kids were really interested in the avocado I'd brought. Funny, because I bought that in Mammy's supermarket. None of them had ever tried avocado before, so I sliced it all up and gave them each a piece. Now there were six kids in my lunch group today, and when I went around handing out the slices of avocado, I could here kids from the surrounding lunch groups saying, 'Ee na!' in whiny tones. That means, 'You lucky bastard!' in Japanese, except without the 'bastard' part. Japanese is such a clean language overall. 'Shoot!' is about as bad as I've heard, and someone's really got to have goofed up to say that. Anyway, everyone liked avocado except one kid. He ate the slice and immediately gulped down his entire carton of milk. His face went all sour as he ate it, demonstrating fully his dislike. I feigned regret; avocado is quite sour, after all.
I also had a new taste experience today at lunch. After I ate my burrito(the kids hadn't seen black beans before either), I tried the raisin bread from the school's lunch. The funny thing about this raisin bread is that it didn't actually have raisins in it, it was just raisin 'flavored'(never could find italics on this darned blog) bread. No actual raisins, just a slightly bluish tinge to the bread, which made it all the more appetizing. It was pretty tasty in the end.
I almost went paragliding this weekend. It got rained out, so about six of us English teachers ended up at Joyfull Family Restaurant, trying to make up for the lack of thrill with seafood pizzas and tofu salads. I had the 'ebi-fry set-to', a set which comes with three fried jumbo shrimp, a salad, some pickled veggies, a bowl of miso soup and a bowl of rice. I always get the ebi-fry set-to. And I'm never disappointed--the salad always comes with two pieces of broccoli, one tomato slice, and one (out of place) lemon slice. The pickled veggies are always a bit strong for my taste, and the miso is always too hot to drink. The rice undoubtedly hits the spot. Joyfull is like the Denny's of Japan--open 24 hours too!
I know it's nuts, but Wednesday I go in to check out a job at a girl's high school in a neighboring town. If I like it and they like me, I'll stay for another year.
Reader's choice: If you were me, and you got the job, would you stay?
I tell of my day-to-day experiences in a funky Japanese town from my American viewpoint. This blog could also be called 'Bizarro World', 'Notes From Kyushu, a Smaller Island', or 'Teaching English in Japan: Smash Your Ego in 10 Easy Lessons."
Monday, June 27, 2005
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7 comments:
Let's see - you feel isolated and lonely, you find Japanese people standoffish and hard to make friends with, you have sarcastic things to say about every aspect of Japanese culture - definitely STAY! Where else could you feel so superior to others?
I don't feel superior to Japanese people at all.
I'm sarcastic because I'm Jewish. That has nothing to do with Japanese culture. Did you read more than one entry of my blog? It doesn't sound like it.
Julie: I'm going to keep this anonymous because you know me, and I don't want you to be pissed at me when I see you.
First of all - you're not sarcastic because you're Jewish, it's just the way you are - the way you've always been. Just because your Dad was born Jewish doesn't mean you've inherited a "Jewish" personality. You wouldn't know a biahly from a bagel.
Secondly - the writer is correct; you ARE sarcastic. Sometimes I almost cringe when I read your blog; your writing is very arch, almost bordering on snide, and you do seem to consider yourself superior (or smarter/more sophisticated/nicer) than the people you write about.
Sarcasm is fine, just don't blame it on your "Jewishness", and by the way, your sarcasm has everything to do with the Japanese culture - that's what your comments have been about.
Anyway, whether you stay another year or come home this summer, I can't wait to see you.
XOXOXO
I guess I'm used to the sarcasm, or at least share a similar scarcastic view of the country, because I saw insight and a bit of annoyance, but none of the really "I am superior" sacasm. For me, it (sarcasm) was a way to cope and also to observe so many things that to me made so little sense during my time in Japan. Japan is hard to figure out, and for me, at least, and maybe for you too, sacasm worked. If you want to stay, maybe you should. There seem to me to be things that draw you to Japan inspite of the sarcasm or loneliness. It is very, very hard to live in Japan, and either way, I think it is soooooo amazing that you did JET and lived in Japan and am thankful that you shared your experiences on this blog! --Katie
Go or stay...hmmmmm...
Have you made a list of pros and cons about staying to see which way it balances? Do you have any life goals, and if so, which of staying or going get you closer to those goals? For the past year's experiences, have you made a happy list and a sad list to see which list of experiences is bigger?
As to the sarcastic and superiority thing, I don't see that at all! I see a lot of tongue-in-cheek observations with inward smiles mainly about cultural differences between Japan and the USA.
I just hope you'll not be staying in Japan another year for the same reason as the guy who keeps eating large spoonfuls of hot mustard because it will feel so good when the pain finally goes away!
--BigBadBob
I second my friend Bob above and add, furthermore, that I sense in you more a delicious sense of irony rather than sarcasm.
Just catching up on the Blog. I should sleep on this one. However, I may be biased, but from what I know of Ms. J, she is not a snob or one who looks down her nose. She may have less regret in the future for having followed what she heard inside).
Also, I remember the show M*A*S*H (hey, it was fun writing that word). The doctors and staff were in the most life-and-death doing heroic work, and felt comfortable making uninhibited remarks to each other. Not the same, of course, but you can derive the point.
BallyHai!, or TalleyHo!, or something...
Uncle Larry
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