My Favorite Place: Kyoto

We spent one day and night in Kyoto. We saw Kiyomizudera 

and Gion and Pontocho

and Maruyamakoen. 

We also lucked out and were able to see a couple of traditional Japanese weddings.

I had hoped to have time to go to Ryoanji, but there wasn't as I had thoroughly worn my family out in Tokyo. It was pretty cool to finally see Mt. Fuji, which I saw from the Shinkansen as we traveled from Tokyo to Kyoto.

At least I think it was Mt. Fuji. I came to Japan with a student trip last June and we went to Hakone to see Mt. Fuji, but there was so much fog that I could barely see my students standing a few feet away from me. One of my students did get a good picture of Mt. Fuji, though. It looked totally believable even though he had just taken a picture of his ticket. It was highly amusing.

Tokyo

We spent three days and two nights in Tokyo. If it had been up to me I would have spent more time in Kyoto and less time in Tokyo. I have nothing against Tokyo. I just prefer laid back green traditional scenes to cityscape. (The garden, by the way is in Shinjukugyoen, which is in Tokyo.) 

versus

We did have a delicious meal where we got to try shabu shabu and sukiyaki. I liked them both, but my family had a hard time with the sukiyaki as they did not like the idea of dipping the cooked meat into raw egg and then eating it. 

I said "idea" because the flavor was really good, so I can't believe they did not like the taste of it. They just couldn't get past the idea that it was a raw egg.

Entrance Exam Results

Yesterday the entrance exam results were posted. There were screams of delight and tears of disappointment and parents striking children for not getting into their first choice schools and news cameras recording it all. Eh...okay, the crying and striking parts are made up, but everything else is true. So there I was sitting at my desk minding my own business living my life when I hear this high pitched scream coming from outside. I jump up and spin around to see hordes of people (read a group of about 20 people) and I see middle school students in their uniforms gathered around a huge white board. The girls are screaming and jumping and running to hug their friends and family pleased with the posted results. The boys are less enthusiastic, but that could be because they're boys or because they didn't get in (remember, there were no tears to indicate utter disappointment).

Later I was at the convenience store next to my school getting a very late breakfast with a teacher. When we walked in we noticed there were some of the junior high school boys standing with an older boy not in uniform who was smoking. When we were leaving, my teacher friend went around the corner of the building to find several boys there smoking. Since drugs are not a big problem here (yet) smoking is. It is really sad to find these students who aren't even in high school, yet, smoking. Here in Japan when a students gets in trouble it's the school and not the parents who are called first. For example, a student was caught drinking one weekend and the police called the school. I don't know why that is, but it seems everyone is used to the idea of teachers being the punishers and protectors instead of the parents as was illustrated in the smoking event above. When my teacher friend made the boys disperse, one went to talk to a woman sitting in a car who was waiting for her friend. It turned out that the woman was the parent of one of the boys. This particular boy was not smoking, but when my teacher friend asked if she knew the boys her son was friends with, she said, "no." I thought that was really naive on her part. Just because her son isn't smoking in front of her, does she really believe he doesn't when she's not around when all of his friends do? Wouldn't she want to know his friends when she can see for herself that they might not be the best influence on her son?

Oh, and on the subject of drugs: Like I said, drugs are not as prevalent here as they are back home. I mean, at my school, at least once a month I could walk down the hall, pass a student rest room, and smell marijuana smoke emanating from it. Here, it's cigarette smoke, and while drugs are the rampant, one can still see drug paraphernalia everywhere, mainly marijuana. One can see marijuana shaped car air fresheners in cars driven by little old ladies, marijuana pencil cases carried by students, clothes, etc. It's really strange. More so because it's not well-known that that's what it is--at least that's what I've seen so far. It is quite possible that the students know very well what it is they are carrying and wearing, but the reverse may also be true. I say this because I teach an adult conversation class. Last week we read an article about the drug policy here in Japan as it has been in the news here the past few months with college students and sumo wrestlers being caught with pot. When I brought up the fact that the Japanese have zero tolerance for drugs but that one can see paraphernalia everywhere, the Japanese teachers had no clue what I was talking about. One teacher had even spent the past two years in America and didn't know what image I was talking about. They do some education here about not doing drugs, but I think it pretty much amounts to saying "don't do drugs" and putting up cute, yet bizarre, posters about not doing drugs because they make you feel yucky.

Old Okinawans

Saturday night I was invited to a friend's pot luck. Before heading over there I stopped at a grocery store to pick up something. While I was waiting in line for the one person in front of me to finish paying, I saw my friend. As I watched her walk over, this little old woman walked past my friend and came up behind me. I thought she was waiting for the other line next to mine, but as I was about to set down my one item, I felt her basket hit my elbow as she scooted past me and set her things down in front of me, blatantly cutting in line. My chin dropped and I turned to my friend and exclaimed my disbelief at what had just happened. I later related the story to one of my Japanese friends and she said many old people are like that. She said if they scrape against your car as they are driving by, they don't stop. She said if they accidentally hit your car with their car door as they are entering or exiting their vehicles, they don't even stop to apologize. I guess they figured they were polite all their lives and now that they're old, they shouldn't have to bother with such common courtesies. Shigataganai.

Karaoke

I have a friend visiting and she said she wanted to go do karaoke when she found out how it was set up here in Japan, that is your party gets a room all to yourselves to choose and skip whichever songs you like and you only have to listen to your friends. Each room comes with two microphones so you can sing duets, and there are tambourines and maracas for your friends to play as you sing. It's a lot of fun. My friend and I arrived first, and, instead of waiting, we decided to start our singing session. The place we went had a large selection of songs in English, which was nice. I was surprised to see so much Patsy Cline, in fact, and as I was not sure which song I wanted to sing, I chose all of them, which was about six songs. Two of the friends who were joining us walked in when one of them came on. They sat and listened for a minute and then asked whose song I was singing. I replied Patsy Cline, to which they replied, "who?" Whoa.

Is it an age thing? They're only seven years younger than I am.

Is it a geographical thing? They're from up North, NYC and DC.

Is it a culture thing? The North vs. The South?

I mean there was a movie--a decent movie, made about Patsy Cline's life. Wasn't it required viewing where they went to school? It was for us. (Yes, I'm kidding.) I mean, surely Patsy Cline would be as popular today as Dolly Parton is had she lived.

My friend said it was probably a north vs. south thing, but I'm not sure I agree with that. Just last month I said something to another young JET here about The Smiths and she had never heard of them. Am I really that old? Perhaps they just weren't as popular as I thought they were. Nah! That couldn't be it. Right? Please, someone tell me I'm right and that these kids--excuse me, people, just somehow missed out on some really good music.

Entrance Exams

High school entrance exams started yesterday. These exams take three days to complete. Third year junior high school students all take the same test on the same day. They take these tests at their first choice high school. The exam includes texts on Japanese, English, science, social studies, and math. There is also an interview portion. I asked if there is a make up test day in case a student is sick and was told that any student who is sick will take the test in the nurse's office and that there is no make up day. Wow. I helped grade the tests yesterday and today I helped again, but I also got to grade the "composition" part of the English exam. The composition part required students to write two sentences in answer to a prompt. Grading a composition of any length is always difficult, whether as a foreign language or as a native language. The attempt is made to make grading objective for English compositions, yet sometimes falls into subjectivity any time the answer does not exactly conform to what is required. It seems they had the same problem today while grading the social studies portion so I don't feel so bad. Some of the answers were kind of funny taken out of context and I fully intend on using them later in random situations, but I don't think I can reprint them here as it might be a violation of some kind. Sorry.

During all this testing, though, I started thinking about all the testing we do back home. There are no tests to get into high school as school is mandatory for all people under the age of eighteen. I like the Japanese system, which I believe is similar to Great Britain, where the students are required to go to school only until they graduate from middle school. However, most students do go on to high school. I think I read somewhere that the percentage is 99%. I think if we adopted the same system back home, we would find many people who opt out of continuing to high school, which I think is sad. I also think the reason it would not work in America is our culture is so different. I think here people feel more responsible for their actions than they do back home. I think that makes a huge difference in what people do and what they expect from others. Granted, I am making sweeping generalizations, but this is one thought that I have.

I have a lot of free time here, and I often find myself planning for next year when I return to teaching in Texas. I think about changes I would make in the way I teach and the way I treat my students, I think about classroom management and ways to improve the way my classroom runs. I often wonder if these changes I have planned would help the 120 students or so that I will get next year to become the type of young people who enjoy learning so that they'll get more out of the years they spend in high school. But I digress. I was talking about testing. I hate my state mandated test and I do not know a single teacher who likes it. I've even contemplated teaching a different subject so that I wouldn't have to worry about it, which brings me back to what I was talking about earlier, about helping my students become the type of people who enjoy learning. I think if I could accomplish that task, everything else would be a bit easier. Eh, but I've always been a victim of Utopian dreaming.

A funny thing, kind of: Here in my area, at least, the major problem they have with students is smoking cigarettes. The middle school students were here yesterday and after the test, the school found out that some of these same middle school students who are trying to get into this school were smoking cigarettes at the convenience store right next door! How brilliant are they?

Cleaning Day

Everyday after school the students have to clean the entire building and take out the trash. Each kumi, or class, is assigned a part of the building to clean. Once a year, however, they do a spring cleaning where they take everything down, like the doors, curtains, ceiling fans, book shelves, etc. Everything gets taken out of the classroom and cleaned thoroughly. 

They remove all the desks.

They clean the ceiling fans.

They take down the doors and windows and wash them thoroughly.

They also wax the floors. That's all the students do for an entire day. I think if my American students were told they had to clean the school they would revolt. I think it would be good for them, though. Too many times I've seen a student throw something on the floor and say they did it to give the janitors something to do. Really? I really do think it would go a long way in making the students feel more responsibility for their actions if they were made to clean up after themselves.

One thing that irks me about Japan is there are few public garbage cans, so you have to hold on to your trash for a while. It's really annoying. I want to help keep Japan clean, but can't it be a little more convenient? Despite the lack of garbage cans, however, there is very little litter around. I mean you do see it, of course, but I think there's more to be seen in my home town.

Sushi Time!

I finally made it to Sushi Time with the gang tonight. It was a lot of fun. I am just realizing now that I should have taken a picture of my stack of plates. I must remember to do that next time. We went to kaiten zushi, by the way. Kaiten Zushi is that conveyor belt sushi type of place where the sushi goes round and round on a track and you pick up the ones you want to eat, but you're not supposed to put them back. (I'm speaking to someone in particular, here. You know who you are.) Thanks to my friend I think I ate more than I had intended. She pointed at something she wanted to eat so I handed it to her. She took one look at it and said, "eww. Put it back." Of course, you can't do that, I think, so i ate it just to be safe. It was just shrimp. I'm not quite sure why she didn't want to eat it. It was yummy. Then I told her she should try the ham sushi. She said, "okay," so I hand it to her and she takes one look at it and says, "eww. Mayonnaise." I think I shall not sit next to her next time. I'm kidding. She's fun and maybe one day she'll give me one of her bracelets that I covet so much. At kaiten zushi you get charged by the plate and the plates are color coded. I think I had the tallest stack of plates tonight. That's why I said I should have taken pictures.

After sushi we adjourned to another friend's house where we watched Milk. I really do like that movie. I got a chance to see it when I was home for Christmas. Sean Penn did such a good job, I think. Oh, yeah! And my cat friend surprised me with a wonderful gift tonight. A jar of hamburger dill pickles. I'm going to have to ration them out so they'll last for the next five months. 

Graduation

I just got home from watching the graduation ceremony at my base high school. It was very nice and kind of long. The ceremony itself started at 9:30 and would have gone until 12:30 except the disc showing memories of the graduating class quit working half-way through. 

I know I don't speak the language but it always seems as if everyone knows what to do in a choreographed style without much prompting. It's possible I miss some things, but today when the graduating class was about to walk in, a song started playing. All at once everyone started clapping to the beat of the song. There were no instructions. I know that because I was there from the beginning and I think I would have noticed an announcement and then asked someone what was said. All the students, all the teachers, and all the parents knew they were supposed to clap to the beat. This was the first time I had seen this done. Perhaps this happens at all functions. I don't know. It just always amazes me that everyone always know what to do. Even the students. I know back home we can give instructions for days on how something is going to run, and when we get to the actual event you can bet your money there are going to be several students completely lost complaining that no one told them what to do. It's really bizarre how students here know what to do and when without someone going behind them all the time to prompt them. I know that cultures are different, but come on. Sorry I'm a little ranty today. It just annoys me that my American kids who are every bit as smart as my Japanese kids can't seem to listen and follow instructions. Okay. Done. Sorry.

The ceremony went as quietly and traditionally as I assume all ceremonies around Japan were taking place today. I kept waiting for the loud cheers and air horns to go off or for students to pull some crazy stunt. It wasn't until 3-kumi or 4-kumi got up that there was a break from decorum. I think it was the baseball boys. When his name was called, two different students shouted, "hai!" I thought wow, that's brazen. (The ceremony was very demure, very quiet and organized.) Then, in one of the lower classes, two boys stopped the line after they received their diplomas to say, "Father, Mother, thank you," which I thought was very sweet. There were no beach balls. No air horns. There was one family who got a little rowdy and yelled a bit when their daughter's name was called. Otherwise, everyone just clapped politely for everyone. It was nice. Then there was more singing. Then another speech. It was almost like going to mass with all the standing and bowing and sitting and singing and listening and bowing in unison.

Afterward, we went outside the gym to wait for the graduating class to exit. That's when I saw that someone had set up a little stand outside the school gates to sell flowers, plushies, candy, and balloons for anyone who forgot to bring a gift to their student. My friend commented on how they think of everything. One would probably profit very well by setting up shop outside the gym at UH on graduation days.

Oh, and I almost forgot how some of the female teachers were wearing hakama. Think kimono and you get the idea. I asked if it is formal wear and was told yes, but usually just for graduation ceremonies.

After all the students left at about 2:30, we teachers finally got to eat lunch. Teachers gave speeches. Jokes were made. I can't tell you any of them since they were all in Japanese and nobody translated. I'm not complaining. It's my fault for not speaking the language but it doesn't make me feel better when another teacher turns to me and says, "that was very funny. It's too bad you didn't understand any of it." Really? Thanks.

All in all, it was nice to see the students graduate. I had worked one-on-one with a couple of them, and I recognized a few others from class, so it did mean something to see these young adults taking their next step. I wish them all the best of luck.