August 31, 2010

God has a sense of humor...

...and sometimes, it's downright mean.

We went to Sashiu Beach on Saturday, which was awesome. (Picture to come -- although one thing I'll maybe never get over is the way Japan likes to ruin its pristine beach views with ugly risers and breakers. Of course, I say this as an American who's never had to deal with a tsunami.) I swam, grilled some grillin', got some sun, all good.

Afterwards, we went and saw the Stone Buddhas in Usuki, and when we were trying to decide whether or not to pray at the statues, I realized that for the first time in ages -- if not forever -- I couldn't think of anything I really needed or wanted at that moment. "You know," I said, "life is being pretty good to me right now. I'm doing okay."

I did, actually, wind up praying for the patience to actually work on studying Japanese. But usually I'm all about a chance to talk to God/gods/what have you and try to bargain the miseries of my life away. Saturday? No miseries. Doing good.

So then, of course, I got sick.

Which is really nothing new for me, to be fair. I get sick at the drop of a hat. A baby in NICU has a better immune system than I do. The Bubble Boy probably beats me out. But except for my regular wrangle with feminine woes, I'd been doing surprisingly well here. Until now.

Of course, going to the doctor here is one of the few things I'm still seriously afraid of. This isn't a dig on Japanese medicine: I despise going to the doctor back home, too, even though I typically need to at least once a month. Combine my normal hatred of doctors with a language barrier and neurotic Jewish hypochondria and you get some real anxiety brewing. Which, let me tell you, is a great state of mind for A) fighting illness and B) teaching classes.

Anyway, I'm trying to avoid the possibility of having to go to the doctor for as long as possible. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that this just goes away. Wish me luck! This has already been enough of a learning experience for me -- just yesterday, I got to learn how to take time off for wanting to roll over and die. That's enough for one week, I think.

August 22, 2010

Apologies

Whoops! Since it's 11:15 and I'm about to crash, I think it's safe to say that I lied about the photo essay going up today. Expect it Tuesday or Wednesday-ish, instead.

Tomorrow, we have another orientation in Oita City. When you've been in the country for a month, the word "orientation" seems oddly inapplicable, but hey -- I like going to Oita, so why not?

August 13, 2010

Trauma Tourism

This is a diversion from the usual blog topic I typically plan to write about, but I feel the need to vent about something that just happened, and something that`s happened to me before. This isn`t only a Japan thing, but it seems to happen more regularly in Japan than in other places, and I`m not sure if it`s a culture shock thing or a `You Know What, This Ain`t Cool` thing.

I`m talking about 9/11. Which, of course, was not cool.

Actually, I`m talking about the weird obsession people in Japan seem to have with asking me about 9/11 as soon as they find out I`m from New York. It`s only happened twice so far this time, but the last time I was in Japan it happened frequently, and I expect the subject to come up plenty of times while I`m here.

This is usually how the conversation goes:

Japanese person: You`re from New York. Were you there on 9/11?
Me: Yes, I lived close by.
Japanese person: Wow!! Tell me EVERYTHING.
Me: Um... It was pretty rough...
Japanese person: Did you see it were you scared how much did you see what happened did anyone die it must have been really scary wow that`s amazing we saw it on TV it was so shocking was it shocking???

This is what I think of as trauma tourism, and I feel like it`s self-evident that it bothers the hell out of me. I don`t walk up to other people and say, `Hello, almost-stranger, let`s talk about one of the most horrible moments in my life, in depth! And sometimes you`ll laugh while I`m talking about it!` (Really, they do this. `Oh my God, you thought you and everyone you love were going to die, that`s hilarious.`)

I`m not sure why 9/11 gets a free pass on this, really. If you found out someone was raped or their parents were murdered, you wouldn`t go over to them and demand explicit details on their experience and exclaim over them like a circus act. I mean, maybe you would, but I hope not. I think the impression is that because it was a `global event,` a shared experience, it`s something people feel more involved in, even thousands of miles away. Or maybe it`s just that it`s something important about New York, something they want to use to make a connection with me. Really, I`d rather they use Times Square or pigeons or something.

You`d think they`d realize, nine years later, that it`s not really something anyone who was actually there wants to keep talking about. But hell--if the yokels in Montana and Ohio and Tennessee and the jerks in our own government still keep trying to exploit 9/11 for their own purposes, why not the Japanese, too?

I guess I`m not any angrier about trauma tourism than I am about the mosque protesters or anything Rudy Giuliani has ever said. I`m just not looking forward to dealing with it again. And again. And again.

But maybe I`ll just start lying about it. `Did I say New York? No, no, I meant Newark. Actually, I meant Nome, Alaska. Must have misspoken.`

Blerg. A weary Gaijinesse, signing out.

By the way

By the way, here is what I think of as an interesting thing: the picture below, the one of all us ALTs, was framed and given as a prize to 50 of the students who solved the mystery correctly. When they told me this, my jaded American self snorted internally. `What teenager would want a picture of their camp counselors? One they`re not even in?`

To be fair to me, I`m from New York. You give a sixteen year old something like that there and they`ll ask you to your face if you`re fucking kidding.

But here? The kids went nuts for them! The ones who lost actually got upset that they didn`t get a sweet gaijin pic. Then they took out their cell phones and took as many as they possibly could themselves. I alone must have posed for two dozen, and I`m not a dreamy foreign boy. I can`t even count how many our more kakkoii* ALTs must have stood through.

Kids! Go figure.

*(`Cool,` but typically used to mean a hot guy.)

August 12, 2010

Yufuin!

I've just recovered from being Internetless for the last three days. Normally, that kind of thing would be pretty much fatal for someone like me, but I managed to survive because I was at Yufuin.

What is Yufuin? Well, it's a very pretty tourist town in the Oita mountains.

Yes, that's my finger in the picture. I'm a brilliant camerawoman.
But I mean something a little different. As it turns out, being a prefectural ALT (hired by the prefecture rather than a city or school) has its perks. One of these is getting to skip the sitting at your desk / doing nothing for three days while you go to work at the Yufuin English Summer Seminar for High School Students. This is pretty much what it sounds like: a three-day intensive English summer camp for high schoolers, mainly first- and second-year students.

Faces may have been changed to protect the innocent.

Working there is hard work, but a hell of a lot more fun than anything I'd be doing at school at the same time.

There are two kinds of ALTs working at the seminar: group leaders and instructors. Because it's my first year, I was a group leader, which was basically being a counselor/den mother to ten girls and one boy.

They gave me this at the end. "Love Samurai" was the team name I gave them. Heartfelt sob!
Older ALTs are more typically instructors—they run “classes” (which included a Jeopardy-style quiz show and a lesson on how to dance to Poker Face), but also are in charge of the camp theme. This year, it was Casino Murder Mystery, so all the instructors got to put on a show, and then interact with the students as their characters to help them SOLVE THE CASE DUN DUN DUN.



Now if you know me, you know this already, and if you don't, you will soon: I love cheesy stuff like this. My big goal for Beppu right now is going to Hit Parade, the 50's style bar where everyone dresses like greasers. If I could afford to live my life in costume, I probably would. Needless to say, I now have an extra incentive to stay on JET next year. Getting paid to dress up and talk to people as a hilarious character? If I liked kids more, I'd probably be working at Disney right now. So yes, please.

The schedule is pretty much packed right from 6:30 AM to midnight, but I still had a blast. And I say that as someone who values her sleep. Yes, there were some frustrating moments—having eleven teenagers stare blankly at me while I spent five minutes trying to explain the word “purse” stands out in my mind—but I genuinely feel like it was worth it in the end.

Seriously. Look at that board they gave me. How freaking cute is that?

Plus, it's a great way to get to know your fellow ALTs!


Anyway, now that that's over, I'm back at school, and I have another mystery to solve: there are like sixty desks in the teacher's room and I only bought a 24-pack of omiyage*! DUN DUN DUN. What will our intrepid heroine do? Tune in next time to find out!

*(For the non-initiate or non-Japanophile: omiyage means, essentially, souvenir, and is a treat you bring back for your colleagues after going on a trip somewhere, usually some regional specialty cookie or something like that. For the future JET: technically, this is the correct definition of omiyage, not “bring stuff from home to get in good with your teachers.” But you can do that too, if you want. I still haven't given mine out and now I feel like an idiot, so if you do bring stuff, pick your time better than I did.)

August 05, 2010

It begins!

I know what you're going to say:

"Oh, look. Another JET blog."

Unfortunately, I have no excuses. This is just another JET blog. I am just another JET.

On the other hand, I'm just another JET here:





Welcome to Beppu City, Oita Prefecture! Apparently referred to as the armpit of Japan, although I have no idea why. I mean, sure, it's hot, sweaty, a little smelly, and occasionally even hairy, but it's also one of the most freaking beautiful places ever.


Witness.




That's the view from my apartment. Compare your life to mine and weep profusely.

Of course, the trade-off is that this is my apartment... all two feet of it:



It's slightly bigger than a two bedroom in Manhattan!

Anyway, I'm doing this blog for three reasons:

1) I'm a narcissist
2) People asked me to (really!)
But mostly 3) When I was accepted to JET, and found out where I'd be living, I scoured the internet for information on Beppu and Oita, and had a hard time finding much. In fact, the best resource I found was a JET's blog from Nakatsu. So I'm hoping that while this will (theoretically) be entertaining and (hopefully) enjoyable for the rest of the internet, I'm really doing this for you. Yes, you, you future Beppu JET, desperately seeking something relevant about your new home. I sincerely hope it helps.

That being the case, I don't really want to talk about Orientation, since that's sort of Jet Prep 101, but for the sake of friends and family I'll do a super-fast rundown: swanky hotel --


Seriously! ... What an awful picture!
 
--and lots of boring talks. Future JET, people on the forums will tell you to skip panels and take naps. This is a good idea. They will tell you to ignore the fact that "Prefecture Night" officially no longer exists and go out with your prefecture people, if not also many other of your awesome new ALT friends. This is also a good idea. I went out twice, and although I was super-tired... well, I've been super-tired since I got here. It's called jet lag and being ridiculously busy. It happens! I'm glad I made friends while being tired. That's a good change for me.

See, Tokyo loves us!

So after Tokyo Orientation, we got dumped into the middle of absolute chaos and somehow made it to Kyushu, and now...



 Well, that's what the next year (at least) is all about. I hope we both enjoy it, reader.