It seems that the New Year celebration in the first days of January is just the beginning of festivities in the winter in Japan.
In mid-January, Coming of Age Day gives everyone a reason to not go to work, eat street food, and watch all the 20 year olds stroll the streets wearing their gorgeous kimonos. They actually wear what is called a furisode, which is a type of kimono with very long sleeves (reminiscent of sleeves on the graduation gowns of master’s degree recipients). An English teaching book I have says that the long sleeves can be used as pockets and were often used to hide love letters. Therefore, once a woman is married she wears kimono with just normal length sleeves. Ha. Anyway, what I most enjoyed of the day was seeing all the 20 year olds in their finery. Apparently they often rent the furisode and hairpieces. (Often when a woman dresses up in a fancy kimono, she’ll wear a wig that has hair pulled back and piled on the top.) The girls also have their makeup done and then go out with friends to drink that night. Actually, Coming of Age day really reminded me of a Japanese version of American proms minus the dancing and limos.
In the weekend closest to Coming of Age day we headed to the Sanjusangen-do temple (the one with the 1001 statues of Kanon) to see the annual archery competition. The archery competition is for 20 year old men and woman from all over the country. I believe that this is their one shot (literally) at this tournament, but there were some older competitors in a different category, so I’m not quite sure about that. Anyway, despite the big crowd we managed to squeeze a peek at the competition a few rounds before it ended (for this I can thank our far-above-average height as a tremendous advantage in crowds). The archers were impressive, though most missed the mark (again literally) by quite a lot. To be fair, the targets were very far away and, if I had tried, I would have certainly been a danger to all the spectators.
In the first three days of February is Setsubun or the “Bean-Throwing Festival”. This festival is supposed to follow the lunar calendar’s beginning of spring, but the lunar calendar moves around compared to the Western calendar and apparently this is a little too flexible for Japan, so this “beginning of spring” ceremony is always celebrated on Feb 2,3,4 here. (Did I mention that February is the coldest month in Kyoto. Brrrr. We even had snow flurries yesterday…so spring is not exactly around the corner!)
Nonetheless, Setsubun is perhaps my favorite Japanese celebration so far since it involves evil spirits, bean throwing, bonfires and sushi rolls! Wheee. As it happens when you don’t really speak the language, I had been noticing lots displays in the supermarkets with pictures funny monster-looking characters, special food and masks, but I really had no idea what this stuff was about. Ah, marketing and holidays are keen partners in Japan! I finally figured out that the monster-men were supposed to be demons or oni and on Feb 2, people dressed as oni get thousands of roasted soybeans thrown at them at certain shrines. The soybeans are considered good luck beans and they are thrown at the oni to “cleanse the evil from the past year” and to rid people of bad health (according to Wikipedia anyway). Apparently people may do this in their own homes as well, though I’m sure not everyone does. In the Kansai region of Japan where we currently reside, it is thought to be lucky to eat your age plus one in roasted soybeans, too, on this day.
Also for Setsubun, sushi rolls (makizushi) are eaten while facing the “lucky direction” which is based on the Chinese zodiac and changes yearly. While eating them you must be silent. This is said to bring good luck in the upcoming year. One of my English students who works in the sushi export business said that you must not cut the makizushi because it is supposed to represent good health and cutting it would be really bad luck. Ouch. This year the direction was Southwest and on Feb 3rd, Jim made makizushi with his labmates and ate it for lunch and then we made it for dinner and he and I dutifully faced Southwest and ate our rolls in silence.
Also, on Feb 3rd at one shrine in Kyoto at 11pm, a huge bonfire is lit. The bonfire, composed of people’s good luck ornaments from last year, was the biggest bonfire I’ve ever seen. As luck (ha) would have it, the shrine in question was just down our street, so we walked there, took in the street food scene, and stared at the fire with some friends.
So now that we’ve rung in the New Year at the temple, prayed for luck in the shrines, eaten lucky sushi rolls in the lucky direction and eaten our age in soybeans we should be having really good luck this year! Only time will tell… ;)
Sunday, February 7, 2010
Monday, January 25, 2010
Kyoto: Quite Possibly the World’s Safest City
I have been extremely blessed with living in safe places my whole life. This statement might astound many non-Americans who imagine that the US is a most dangerous and crime-infested place. And, of course, it is compared to most other parts of the developed (non-warring) world. But, I grew up mostly in a small Alabama town, then in a nice suburb of Lexington, KY. The college years I was nestled in the tiniest and most protected little women’s college campus and in a sleepy Scottish university town. Then I was off to a tiny African village where everyone certainly knew my name, then to a sketchy neighborhood in Berkeley where I nevertheless always felt safe, then to quiet Cambridge, MA and finally Redwood City where we seldom locked our condo. Anyway, all this is to say that I have indeed lived in pretty safe places. But, I do believe that Kyoto—a city of 1.5 million people and the largest city I’ve ever lived in--is perhaps THE SAFEST PLACE I’ve ever lived.
Here are a few examples to support my point:
I’ve already mentioned that at first I didn’t realize people locked their bikes since the bike locks are just small keyed loops that click through the back tire. Indeed, you can still pick up a bike and carry it away even when it is locked (which is probably by design so the police can routinely impound bikes that are parked illegally). But, nonetheless, I have left my locked bike all over the city for any number of hours and have never had to worry about it (expect for the police impounding it which, though I think is a crime, doesn’t exactly count in the crime category.) In fact, I have even forgotten to lock my bike several nights when I left it parked in the bike parking of our building. (The first time I did this, I was nearly late trying to locate my bike key when I finally gave up and went outside only to find it in my bike lock!) Last night, as I met an English student at a McDonald’s I forgot to lock my bike and left the key conveniently in the lock so that if someone took it, they’d even be able to lock it later. Over an hour later, I emerged to discover what I’d done, but fortunately, old Oranji (the name I’ve given my orange bike, not so creative since it’s the Japanese word for orange) was there waiting for me.
Another morning as I was heading out of the house I couldn’t find the key to our apartment. I finally gave up and opened the door to find the keys, there in the door lock all night…Good grief. It’s a really good thing I don’t live somewhere dangerous!
The other day I stopped in at a little fast food donburi (stuff on rice) place to get a quick bowl of beef teriyaki on rice and left my violin, purse, and shopping bag at my table while I went to the restroom. (I was on my way to an orchestra rehearsal and was alone and I didn’t think I could have fit everything in the restroom anyway.) Now I tend to be trusting, but I wouldn’t even do this in most of the places where I’ve lived.
What brought this post to mind today was what just happened to me on my way home from babysitting. I stopped at a grocery store and bought some things, but realized that I forgot to buy milk, so I stopped at another one that I passed on my bike ride home. Now, the tricky part about riding a bicycle everywhere is where to store things if you have multiple stops and bags. I couldn’t take a bag of groceries in to another grocery store, so I decided to leave them in my bike basket. A quick stop for milk turned into a stroll through the veggies and fruits, then the fish…so 30 min later I emerged to discover that my bag of groceries was not in the basket where I left it. I gasped--more from the shock of crime in Kyoto than from sadness about the groceries—but then I saw it. Someone had removed my bag from the basket and put it on the curb by my bike, perhaps to prevent the bike from falling over when another biked was parked near it. So, my hypothesis was not disproved; Kyoto remains the largest city and the safest place I’ve ever lived.
Here are a few examples to support my point:
I’ve already mentioned that at first I didn’t realize people locked their bikes since the bike locks are just small keyed loops that click through the back tire. Indeed, you can still pick up a bike and carry it away even when it is locked (which is probably by design so the police can routinely impound bikes that are parked illegally). But, nonetheless, I have left my locked bike all over the city for any number of hours and have never had to worry about it (expect for the police impounding it which, though I think is a crime, doesn’t exactly count in the crime category.) In fact, I have even forgotten to lock my bike several nights when I left it parked in the bike parking of our building. (The first time I did this, I was nearly late trying to locate my bike key when I finally gave up and went outside only to find it in my bike lock!) Last night, as I met an English student at a McDonald’s I forgot to lock my bike and left the key conveniently in the lock so that if someone took it, they’d even be able to lock it later. Over an hour later, I emerged to discover what I’d done, but fortunately, old Oranji (the name I’ve given my orange bike, not so creative since it’s the Japanese word for orange) was there waiting for me.
Another morning as I was heading out of the house I couldn’t find the key to our apartment. I finally gave up and opened the door to find the keys, there in the door lock all night…Good grief. It’s a really good thing I don’t live somewhere dangerous!
The other day I stopped in at a little fast food donburi (stuff on rice) place to get a quick bowl of beef teriyaki on rice and left my violin, purse, and shopping bag at my table while I went to the restroom. (I was on my way to an orchestra rehearsal and was alone and I didn’t think I could have fit everything in the restroom anyway.) Now I tend to be trusting, but I wouldn’t even do this in most of the places where I’ve lived.
What brought this post to mind today was what just happened to me on my way home from babysitting. I stopped at a grocery store and bought some things, but realized that I forgot to buy milk, so I stopped at another one that I passed on my bike ride home. Now, the tricky part about riding a bicycle everywhere is where to store things if you have multiple stops and bags. I couldn’t take a bag of groceries in to another grocery store, so I decided to leave them in my bike basket. A quick stop for milk turned into a stroll through the veggies and fruits, then the fish…so 30 min later I emerged to discover that my bag of groceries was not in the basket where I left it. I gasped--more from the shock of crime in Kyoto than from sadness about the groceries—but then I saw it. Someone had removed my bag from the basket and put it on the curb by my bike, perhaps to prevent the bike from falling over when another biked was parked near it. So, my hypothesis was not disproved; Kyoto remains the largest city and the safest place I’ve ever lived.
Sunday, January 10, 2010
New Decade, new jobs, new blog features!
Now that we’ve entered a new decade, my Kyoto life has taken on a new dimension and I have gotten busy! You may have noticed I took awhile to post my New Year blog and for that I apologize! I guess was taking a little break, but also life has gotten a lot more hectic for me.
Jan 5th marked the completion of my grad school applications. I have applied for a doctoral program in environmental education related stuff, so a sizeable bit of my time since November has been spent searching for potential advisors and applying to programs. In the end, I applied to three schools, so we’ll see how that goes…Many thanks to my California mom, Renee, for mailing and e-copying transcripts, and to my recommenders who kindly agreed to add one more school at the very last minute. As part of some Karmic circle, immediately after all my grad school stuff was finished, I received an email from a former student asking if I’d write a letter of recommendation for her. How fitting.
What else am I doing with myself? I am babysitting for two American families who coincidentally each have 18 month old little girls. Starting this month, I will be babysitting four mornings a week, so no more sleeping in for me! From one of these girls, Claudia, I am learning “Claudia-speak” which involves a mix of Japanese and English words. (Her parents are both American, but her mom is doing doctoral research in Buddhist studies and speaks Japanese.) Not surprisingly, I learned that “unchi” means number two (as in feces) in Japanese from Claudia early on! ;) The other little girl, Sophie, is quite adept at sign language, and from her I am learning all sorts of animal signs, “more”, “milk”, etc. Going from teaching 18 year olds to 18 month olds is quite an adjustment, but I am enjoying it. They learn so much at this age and, unlike my 18 year old students who were not always thrilled about learning, Claudia and Sophie seem to learn something new every day. They are both really cute!
I currently have four Japanese English language students whom I meet with once per week for private lessons. These students are testing my breadth of skill as a tutor since they are all so different: one is a darling 8 year old girl who is a beginner in English, another is a housewife (whom I think is a beginner, too—I meet her tomorrow), another is a male researcher whom I help by editing grammar in his science writing, and the last is a guy about my age who is an intermediate learner, working on his conversational skills. It took awhile for me to acquire students, but now that my schedule is filling up I seem to receive more and more emails from prospective students. How do I find these students? They actually find me through a flyer I posted on a board in an International Center where native language teachers advertise. Most of my students are fairly close by, though I travel over an hour by train to a nearby prefecture to meet with the little girl. (Fortunately, her family pays more than I ask local students, so it makes the long travel time less painful.) I also still have Japanese class on Wednesdays, but that will soon be over, thankfully, since my schedule is really filling up. Oh, and I have joined not one but two Japanese community orchestras…but I’ll save details about that for another post!
I was requested a long time ago to post pictures to my blog and, due to some technical difficulties, I wasn’t able to make that happen. However, we now have a better internet connection, a new camera on its way (thank you, Renee, and Amazon customer service), and a microSD card for transferring our pictures off our Japanese ketai (cell phones). So…expect to see more!!
I love to hear your comments, so please do speak up! If you have any specific questions, go ahead and post them and I’ll do my best to answer. Here’s to a new decade!
Jan 5th marked the completion of my grad school applications. I have applied for a doctoral program in environmental education related stuff, so a sizeable bit of my time since November has been spent searching for potential advisors and applying to programs. In the end, I applied to three schools, so we’ll see how that goes…Many thanks to my California mom, Renee, for mailing and e-copying transcripts, and to my recommenders who kindly agreed to add one more school at the very last minute. As part of some Karmic circle, immediately after all my grad school stuff was finished, I received an email from a former student asking if I’d write a letter of recommendation for her. How fitting.
What else am I doing with myself? I am babysitting for two American families who coincidentally each have 18 month old little girls. Starting this month, I will be babysitting four mornings a week, so no more sleeping in for me! From one of these girls, Claudia, I am learning “Claudia-speak” which involves a mix of Japanese and English words. (Her parents are both American, but her mom is doing doctoral research in Buddhist studies and speaks Japanese.) Not surprisingly, I learned that “unchi” means number two (as in feces) in Japanese from Claudia early on! ;) The other little girl, Sophie, is quite adept at sign language, and from her I am learning all sorts of animal signs, “more”, “milk”, etc. Going from teaching 18 year olds to 18 month olds is quite an adjustment, but I am enjoying it. They learn so much at this age and, unlike my 18 year old students who were not always thrilled about learning, Claudia and Sophie seem to learn something new every day. They are both really cute!
I currently have four Japanese English language students whom I meet with once per week for private lessons. These students are testing my breadth of skill as a tutor since they are all so different: one is a darling 8 year old girl who is a beginner in English, another is a housewife (whom I think is a beginner, too—I meet her tomorrow), another is a male researcher whom I help by editing grammar in his science writing, and the last is a guy about my age who is an intermediate learner, working on his conversational skills. It took awhile for me to acquire students, but now that my schedule is filling up I seem to receive more and more emails from prospective students. How do I find these students? They actually find me through a flyer I posted on a board in an International Center where native language teachers advertise. Most of my students are fairly close by, though I travel over an hour by train to a nearby prefecture to meet with the little girl. (Fortunately, her family pays more than I ask local students, so it makes the long travel time less painful.) I also still have Japanese class on Wednesdays, but that will soon be over, thankfully, since my schedule is really filling up. Oh, and I have joined not one but two Japanese community orchestras…but I’ll save details about that for another post!
I was requested a long time ago to post pictures to my blog and, due to some technical difficulties, I wasn’t able to make that happen. However, we now have a better internet connection, a new camera on its way (thank you, Renee, and Amazon customer service), and a microSD card for transferring our pictures off our Japanese ketai (cell phones). So…expect to see more!!
I love to hear your comments, so please do speak up! If you have any specific questions, go ahead and post them and I’ll do my best to answer. Here’s to a new decade!
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Saturday, January 9, 2010
The Japanese New Year
As I mentioned in the previous post, the New Year celebration in Japan is much more significant and family-oriented than is Christmas. The basic celebration of New Year involves going to a Buddhist temple around midnight and joining in the ringing of a giant copper bell. The bell is rung 108 times to represent the 108 human sins in Buddhism.
We joined our multicultural (from Singapore, France, Ukraine and the US) group of friends for a dinner followed by a trip to our neighborhood temple to ring the bell. We stood in line waiting as groups of families took their turn directing a large beam into the giant bell. Each temple has a copper bell (known as a “bonshu”) and on the bell are 108 little balls representing those human sins. Below the balls is a lotus flower where the bell is struck. On the bell’s lower section is an inscription apparently that describes where and when the bell was made. Kyoto has some of the most famous bonshu in all of Japan (or so I read).
We stepped up to ring the bonshu and each of us grabbed a cord that was tied to the beam. The beam was suspended so that one only needed to give the cords a bit of tugging to achieve a nice loud crash. I really felt sorry for the Buddhist priests who were assisting with this process because it was really, really cold (there were actually snow flurries) and their bare heads and hands couldn’t have been comfortable. (Even in gloves my hands were numb!) Also, their robes didn’t look that warm, though apparently they will wear up to three layers of robes to combat the cold. Of course, only in Japan would there be a Buddhist priest stationed below the bell--not exactly a quiet place--to capture every group’s bell-ringing with their own camera. Ha. Kindly, the priests had built two small wood fires in the temples grounds and they were serving hot tea as well. No doubt they wanted to provide these creature comforts to their guests even though they weren’t able to enjoy them since they had to man the bell line!
New Year’s day (Jan 1st), everyone goes to the Shinto shrines to pray and give a small offering. Fortunately, there is a major shrine just around the corner from us, so Jim and I headed there in the afternoon. We were astounded at the size of the crowd and we dutifully waited in a very long line to reach the shrine to thrown in our coins and say a prayer. Fortunately, massive crowds here are very civilized and I have never felt uncomfortable in them. (It probably helps that we are so much taller; it allows us to see above the crowd a bit…;) ) When we reached the prayer spot (I’ll call it an altar), we noticed that there were many people in what looked like an inner sanctuary, engaged in some serious prayer or contemplation. My guess is that they must have gotten bad fortunes ;) ...for the other main activity at the shrines on Jan 1st is to purchase a fortune. Fortunes are available all the time at shrines, but it seems like the New Year is an especially popular fortune-receiving opportunity. At the Heian Shrine where we were, people shake a wooden container of wood sticks and pull one out randomly. They then take this to the window where the fortune paper corresponding to the number on the stick is distributed. Good fortunes are kept, but bad fortunes are immediately tied to lines or trees within the shrine. Following the receipt of a bad fortune, people will pray to the gods for a turn in this fortune. We have only gotten our fortunes once since arriving to Japan, and mine was the highest you can get, so I figured I’d stick with it! (Besides, the fortunes at this shrine were all in Japanese and we didn’t have anyone with us to help read them!)
Outside of the shrine there were tons of temporary vendors selling street food. The main fare: takoyaki (fried dough balls with octopus inside), okonomiyaki (cabbage and egg pancake-type things), yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles), cotton candy (strange food only consumable by children), French crepes, shrimp crackers with fried eggs, fish shaped Belgium waffles filled with sweet beans (they’re really good), and frankfurters on sticks. Normally it is considered bad manners to eat while on the street, so I now relish these opportunities to gobble down street food on the street!
We then biked to another shrine that is quite popular on New Year’s and saw much the same scene. That shrine had displayed many pictures of tigers, which was a nice touch since 2010 is the year of the tiger. Roar! (The Chinese zodiac animals are used here as well to represent various years.)
I had read that New Year’s day is one of the times to see people out in their traditional finest: kimonos and fur stoles for the women, robes on the men, and wooden flip flops with slipper socks on both genders. Though we did see a few people dressed in this way, I was disappointed that the vast majority of people were not wearing traditional clothes. I’m hoping that many people chose not to wear traditional clothes because it was so cold, but it may just be that not so many people wear traditional clothes at all anymore.
It’s really too bad, because there is almost nothing as beautiful as a Japanese woman in a kimono.
The final aspect of New Year’s is one that I cannot describe in great depth since we are not part of a Japanese family. Basically, it is a family time and grown children will return to their parents’ home to spend the few days visiting the shrines of their ancestors. Not surprisingly there are also special foods consumed only at New Years. Most of the foods are prepared in the days leading up to Jan 31st, because it is traditional for women not to cook for the first three days of the year—it’s sort of a rest period. For this reason, the foods are often smoked, dried or pickled so that they remain fresh for the three days. (It’s funny—three days of not going to the grocery store in the US is perfectly normal, but to Japanese women who visit the grocery store daily, it is an event for which to prepare!)
Apparently not that long ago, all stores were closed during this time, but now there is enough economic pressure that many larger grocery stores will remain open throughout the holidays. (Sadly it seems like much the same trend in the US, too.)
On Jan 3rd, Jim and I were invited to have “osechi” (New Year’s food) with Kazumi, a woman who runs a woman’s “tea salon” for Japanese housewives that meets once a month. Later this month I will be a guest speaker at the tea salon to talk about American culture. (Still trying to figure out how to structure that slightly broad topic—more details to follow!) In repayment for speaking, Kazumi wanted to teach me a little about Japanese New Year. Once we arrived to her house, we found that she had invited a younger cousin who was just learning English and his friend and they had dutifully prepared talking points under Kazumi’s direction. Kazumi and her mother brought out lovely trays of osechi and we all discussed the various components. There were pickled vegetables, dried cod, and all sorts of other hors’doeuvres all with a unique Japanese taste. I found them quite tasty, though I am a pretty adventurous eater (fortunately!) Many of the types of osechi were not parceled for four, so we dutifully used the serving chopsticks to divide portions. My awkward moment occurred with a slice of fish roe (fish eggs). There were only two slices of the fish roe and four eaters, so I thought Jim and I would both split our slices in half. Unfortunately, Jim beat me to the punch and shared his slice with both of the men, leaving me with a whole slice of fish roe encased in the egg sac. Oh boy. I tried to cut it but ended up making a huge mess of little fish eggs all over my plate and chopsticks to the extent that Kazumi’s mom had to fetch a cloth for me to clean things up! Oh dear. Once I couldn’t break the slice I was forced just to stick the whole giant bite in my mouth. Yum,yum. Let me just say that I won’t be buying any fish roe at the store any time soon. ;)
Perhaps the most special part of the New Year’s food is the miso shiru (we call this miso soup, though Japanese don’t consider it soup necessarily). Miso soup is a required component of the Japanese meal--even at breakfast--but there is a special type of miso that is consumed at New Year’s. This is a sweeter and lighter colored miso and apparently how it is prepared varies across different regions of Japan. I actually bought miso paste and made some at home which was quite similar to what we had at Kazumi’s. The only difference was that the miso at Kazumi’s had homemade mochi (soft, gooey rice paddies) in it. The making of homemade mochi is quite an important part of New Year’s (or at least I think it is!)
I could say more about the New Year, but this is probably more than enough for one post! In any case, we very much enjoyed the celebration and I have to say that to meet the New Year by ringing a Buddhist bell, eating street food, and shrine-hopping was certainly a more poetic way of welcoming a new year than the bar-hopping and drunken scenes of the Western New Year’s celebrations. I did miss my New Year’s Day Southern black eyed peas and collards, though…I guess old habits die hard. ;)
Sunday, December 27, 2009
Christmas in Japan
Christmas in Japan is not exactly what I’d expect given that the country is 84-96% Shinto/Buddhist and only about 1% Christian. (These figures were obtained from Wikipedia, of course.) Having already spent one Christmas in a non-Christian country (the Gambia), I figured that Christmas would pass unnoticed by mainstream Japanese culture. What a surprise when we started seeing Christmas decorations in early November such as the giant lit signs that said, “Merry Christmas” (in English nonetheless) at Kyoto Station (the huge central rail station).
After that we began to see Christmas decorations and hear carols (identical to those in the West) in major shopping malls and stores. Some packaged products even had snowmen and Santa and even the grocery stores had sections with Western sweets and goodies labeled “Merry Christmas” (in English). Now, was this for the benefit of the foreign residents of Kyoto? Absolutely not! It turns out that the Japanese do (sort of) celebrate Christmas…
Apparently Santa does stop in Japan on Christmas Eve to bring presents for children and, oddly enough, he is often depicted in pictures as coming down a chimney even though no one has a chimney here. Also on Christmas Eve, families eat Christmas cake, which has been purchased in a department store or bakery. The Christmas cakes are lovely affairs, with little signs that say (in English) “Merry Christmas”. The one we had even came with a tiny device that played Christmas carols. Just before Christmas, Jim and I were in a department store with a colleague from Jim’s lab, Sunnichi, and his girlfriend, Eumi. In noticing the bustle in the Christmas cake area, I remarked to Eumi that we didn’t have Christmas cakes in the US. The look of utter shock on her face was amusing since I’m sure the tradition assumes its roots in Western culture. I tried to explain about fruit cake, but describing a cake that few seem to like but everyone still buys seems enigmatic even to me.
As for decorations, we have seen a profusion of decorations from tree figurines to larger artificial Christmas trees. Of course, with the Japanese flair for style and cuteness, in addition to traditional green trees one can find hot pink trees with bows and sparkles. We were amused by the large variety of Santa costumes available in one home store. Most of them were “sexy Santa” female costumes…like Halloween met Christmas in Japan. Hmmm. Thanks to the abundance of Christmas decorations available, I have a gel gem set on our window that is a Santa sleigh with five reindeer (wearing red scarves) and surrounded by snowflakes. Cuteness!! Although house holiday decorations are nothing comparable to the US, I have seen a few houses with outdoor Christmas lights, stars and Santas. And, I couldn’t neglect to mention the life-size Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa outfit in front of KFC stores. :)
[Sidenote: Apparently KFC has done well with marketing and has managed to convince many folks here that fried chicken is “the food” of Christmas in the West—never mind about turkey, ham or duck. We actually did eat KFC at one of our Christmas parties and I have to admit that it was delicious! I believe it (along with McDonald’s) is reputed to be much better here. What that says about the standards of American consumers I’ll leave you to ponder.]
To me, the oddest part about Christmas in Japan is that, as Eiya, the postdoc in Jim’s lab said, “Christmas is for lovers.” Since Eiya spent several years in the US, she has a grasp of what our holidays are like, and she explained to us that it seems Japan and the West have switched the practices of Christmas and New Years. While in the West, Christmas is family time and New Years is for dates, parties and friends, in Japan, Christmas is a special date night while New Years is strictly family time. Indeed, in reading a little about Japanese Christmas online, I found that Christmas is somewhat similar to Valentine’s Day. Sweethearts give each other presents and there are decorations everywhere. However, people still go to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and businesses are open as usual. Ironically, Dec 23 is a holiday in Japan because it is the present emperor’s birthday. So, Jim didn’t go to work on the 23rd, but did work on the 24th and 25th! What an alter universe we are in!
After that we began to see Christmas decorations and hear carols (identical to those in the West) in major shopping malls and stores. Some packaged products even had snowmen and Santa and even the grocery stores had sections with Western sweets and goodies labeled “Merry Christmas” (in English). Now, was this for the benefit of the foreign residents of Kyoto? Absolutely not! It turns out that the Japanese do (sort of) celebrate Christmas…
Apparently Santa does stop in Japan on Christmas Eve to bring presents for children and, oddly enough, he is often depicted in pictures as coming down a chimney even though no one has a chimney here. Also on Christmas Eve, families eat Christmas cake, which has been purchased in a department store or bakery. The Christmas cakes are lovely affairs, with little signs that say (in English) “Merry Christmas”. The one we had even came with a tiny device that played Christmas carols. Just before Christmas, Jim and I were in a department store with a colleague from Jim’s lab, Sunnichi, and his girlfriend, Eumi. In noticing the bustle in the Christmas cake area, I remarked to Eumi that we didn’t have Christmas cakes in the US. The look of utter shock on her face was amusing since I’m sure the tradition assumes its roots in Western culture. I tried to explain about fruit cake, but describing a cake that few seem to like but everyone still buys seems enigmatic even to me.
As for decorations, we have seen a profusion of decorations from tree figurines to larger artificial Christmas trees. Of course, with the Japanese flair for style and cuteness, in addition to traditional green trees one can find hot pink trees with bows and sparkles. We were amused by the large variety of Santa costumes available in one home store. Most of them were “sexy Santa” female costumes…like Halloween met Christmas in Japan. Hmmm. Thanks to the abundance of Christmas decorations available, I have a gel gem set on our window that is a Santa sleigh with five reindeer (wearing red scarves) and surrounded by snowflakes. Cuteness!! Although house holiday decorations are nothing comparable to the US, I have seen a few houses with outdoor Christmas lights, stars and Santas. And, I couldn’t neglect to mention the life-size Colonel Sanders dressed in a Santa outfit in front of KFC stores. :)
[Sidenote: Apparently KFC has done well with marketing and has managed to convince many folks here that fried chicken is “the food” of Christmas in the West—never mind about turkey, ham or duck. We actually did eat KFC at one of our Christmas parties and I have to admit that it was delicious! I believe it (along with McDonald’s) is reputed to be much better here. What that says about the standards of American consumers I’ll leave you to ponder.]
To me, the oddest part about Christmas in Japan is that, as Eiya, the postdoc in Jim’s lab said, “Christmas is for lovers.” Since Eiya spent several years in the US, she has a grasp of what our holidays are like, and she explained to us that it seems Japan and the West have switched the practices of Christmas and New Years. While in the West, Christmas is family time and New Years is for dates, parties and friends, in Japan, Christmas is a special date night while New Years is strictly family time. Indeed, in reading a little about Japanese Christmas online, I found that Christmas is somewhat similar to Valentine’s Day. Sweethearts give each other presents and there are decorations everywhere. However, people still go to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and businesses are open as usual. Ironically, Dec 23 is a holiday in Japan because it is the present emperor’s birthday. So, Jim didn’t go to work on the 23rd, but did work on the 24th and 25th! What an alter universe we are in!
Labels:
holidays
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Sarah substitute teaches for Japanese elementary kids
The head of an English language school, Mr. Nakanishi, called me the other day asking if I’d be willing to substitute for one of his English teachers. We met to discuss the subbing assignment and he gave me the materials (books, CD’s) for the lessons. I was a bit apprehensive: the job was to teach 1st, 2nd and 3rd grade classes and all the regular English teachers at his school speak Japanese. I figured that it was only two hours of teaching (this is an afterschool program) so it couldn’t be that bad. He and I agreed that in any case it would be an experience
The afternoon of the subbing, Friday, I gave myself plenty of travel time. The school was in Shiga prefecture which is the prefecture (region) next to Kyoto. Mr. Nakanishi had warned me that the train trip involved a very confusing changing of train lines from the subway to the commuter rail. I think he was really most worried that I would become hopelessly lost and not show up. He said he’d had many English teachers get lost in the train journey, so he cautioned me multiple times about it, insisting that I ask someone on the platform if the train stopped at my stop. Fortunately thanks to his incredible directions I managed to navigate the confusing switch with no problems. I even managed to arrive at my destination station with five minutes to spare.
As I waited at the station and watched people drive in, I hoped that I would recognize Mr. Nakanishi. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I am still having trouble distinguishing faces of Japanese (men especially) I have met. I really find it bizarre, but it seems that across cultures, all people look the same until you get more used to distinguishing features. Definitely in the Gambia, I felt this way at first and I have heard some of my Latino students joke that “all white people look alike”, so I guess it’s universal. Funny. Anyway, I thought that I recognized a man who drove up in a white car, but I figured that since I was the only gaijin (foreigner) in the whole station, that he would make some motion towards me. Eventually my phone rang and it was him, in the white car. Ha. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t recognize me or whether he was wondering why I hadn’t come right up to his car…in any case, we made the connection.
We got to the school and immediately had to remove our shoes and put on the ubiquitous plastic slippers often in waiting rooms of places where shoes are to be removed. Unfortunately my slippers were way too wide for my feet and I could hardly walk up the stairs without having them fall off every step. The result was me slowly inching up the stairs trying desperately to keep the shoes on. Mr. Nakanishi scurried up to the top and looked back at me with a slight puzzled expression—I’m sure he wondered why I was so slow coming up the stairs. Once I finally reached the top we removed our slippers to walk on the carpets in our socks. I was really glad I had carried some little Isotoner house slippers with me so that I could put them on. (Thanks for buying these for me, Mom!) I don’t think I could manage to teach or at least feel professional in my socking feet!
We entered the classroom, and Mr. Nakanishi scurried around trying to set up the room, while I tried to put the books and CDs in order so that I would have some semblance of organization when the kids arrived. Moments later, small boys bounded into the room and began addressing me in rapid Japanese. Fortunately, Mr. Nakanishi was there to explain who I was and that I was from America. “Amerika!!” the boys exclaimed excitedly. They seemed truly shocked about that.
There were only about 10 students in each class, but I was really glad that Mr. Nakanishi was there since my Japanese is way too limited to conduct proper classroom management. I had asked Mr. Nakanishi when we met about the students’ behavior and he replied that some were a little “mischievous”. Sure enough, the first grade boys ended up being quite mischievous indeed. It was actually pretty funny. The first graders who spoke, in theory, the least amount of English were definitely the most excited by the lesson. They blew me away with their knowledge of food names in English. As we practiced flashcards they shouted out, “hambagaa!” “orange/oranji” “cherry” “peach”, etc. Of course, it did help that many of these words were borrowed words in Japanese and therefore similar. As I went student by student asking them to say the name of the item on each flashcard, the little boys turned it into a game of their own, shouting out their answer with funny expressions, jumping up, holding their arms out, etc. I would have been more worried about their behavior, but Mr. Nakanishi seemed to find it amusing, so I chose to be amused, too. The first graders really starting losing it when it came time in the lesson to run to opposite sides of the classroom, depending on whether you liked or did not like a certain food. Oh boy, let’s just say that once they understood what we were doing there was ostracizing of the only boy who didn’t like hamburgers, kids running from side to side repeatedly, kids rolling on the carpet in the middle, kids squealing…yikes. I ended that game as soon as I could!
Next came the second graders and they seemed to be more able to understand me. We worked on the words “on, in, under” using pictures, flashcards and props. I think this lesson was the most successful since most kids were able to say these words in context by the end of the 40 minute class. They especially got excited the lesson when they realized I was asking them to stand “on” their chairs and then get “under” them. Fun!
Definitely the girls were better behaved than the boys in the 1st and 2nd grade classes. True to many stereotypes of our gender, the girls were generally shyer, sometimes to the point that I couldn’t hear them when individually asking them their name or a word, etc. On the other hand, in each class there was at least one girl who was really on top of it and quicker than all the others. The third grade class was all female so I thought it would be a lot easier to manage. The only problem was that Mr. Nakanishi left me alone for this class and unfortunately, the book for this class was really too advanced. While the 1st and 2nd grade books seemed fairly appropriate for the level of the kids, the 3rd grade book was a bit too difficult. It was frustrating and if I had been their permanent teacher I would have done some serious restructuring of lessons. However, I was just a sub and therefore was supposed to stick to the book. The result was that most of the girls just drew pictures on their books and colored instead of participating. Hmm. I wondered how much of this behavior was typical. In any case, there was one adorable girl in the third grade class who was really being earnest in trying to learn and did I appreciate her!
After that class, I couldn’t help myself and told Mr. Nakanishi that I thought the book was too advanced. He replied that it wasn’t really a problem since the kids would get more English later in school and that the 4th grade book was on a similar level. I am unaccustomed to educators neglecting feedback that something needs to change, but, alas, this was beyond my control.
So, all in all, I guess the classes went pretty well considering…considering that I speak almost no Japanese and the students speak almost no English…considering that I am not used to teaching elementary kids…considering that I’m not an English teacher by training…so, yeah, I guess it all went surprisingly well. Mr. Nakanishi told me on the way back to the station that he wished he could give me a regular job (sadly I am not here long enough—1 year minimum--to be on contract for any English school). He did offer to me a chance to tutor for a family in the area privately, so maybe that will work out. For today I was just happy to get paid to have an interesting cross-cultural experience!
The afternoon of the subbing, Friday, I gave myself plenty of travel time. The school was in Shiga prefecture which is the prefecture (region) next to Kyoto. Mr. Nakanishi had warned me that the train trip involved a very confusing changing of train lines from the subway to the commuter rail. I think he was really most worried that I would become hopelessly lost and not show up. He said he’d had many English teachers get lost in the train journey, so he cautioned me multiple times about it, insisting that I ask someone on the platform if the train stopped at my stop. Fortunately thanks to his incredible directions I managed to navigate the confusing switch with no problems. I even managed to arrive at my destination station with five minutes to spare.
As I waited at the station and watched people drive in, I hoped that I would recognize Mr. Nakanishi. Please don’t take this the wrong way, but I am still having trouble distinguishing faces of Japanese (men especially) I have met. I really find it bizarre, but it seems that across cultures, all people look the same until you get more used to distinguishing features. Definitely in the Gambia, I felt this way at first and I have heard some of my Latino students joke that “all white people look alike”, so I guess it’s universal. Funny. Anyway, I thought that I recognized a man who drove up in a white car, but I figured that since I was the only gaijin (foreigner) in the whole station, that he would make some motion towards me. Eventually my phone rang and it was him, in the white car. Ha. I wasn’t sure if he didn’t recognize me or whether he was wondering why I hadn’t come right up to his car…in any case, we made the connection.
We got to the school and immediately had to remove our shoes and put on the ubiquitous plastic slippers often in waiting rooms of places where shoes are to be removed. Unfortunately my slippers were way too wide for my feet and I could hardly walk up the stairs without having them fall off every step. The result was me slowly inching up the stairs trying desperately to keep the shoes on. Mr. Nakanishi scurried up to the top and looked back at me with a slight puzzled expression—I’m sure he wondered why I was so slow coming up the stairs. Once I finally reached the top we removed our slippers to walk on the carpets in our socks. I was really glad I had carried some little Isotoner house slippers with me so that I could put them on. (Thanks for buying these for me, Mom!) I don’t think I could manage to teach or at least feel professional in my socking feet!
We entered the classroom, and Mr. Nakanishi scurried around trying to set up the room, while I tried to put the books and CDs in order so that I would have some semblance of organization when the kids arrived. Moments later, small boys bounded into the room and began addressing me in rapid Japanese. Fortunately, Mr. Nakanishi was there to explain who I was and that I was from America. “Amerika!!” the boys exclaimed excitedly. They seemed truly shocked about that.
There were only about 10 students in each class, but I was really glad that Mr. Nakanishi was there since my Japanese is way too limited to conduct proper classroom management. I had asked Mr. Nakanishi when we met about the students’ behavior and he replied that some were a little “mischievous”. Sure enough, the first grade boys ended up being quite mischievous indeed. It was actually pretty funny. The first graders who spoke, in theory, the least amount of English were definitely the most excited by the lesson. They blew me away with their knowledge of food names in English. As we practiced flashcards they shouted out, “hambagaa!” “orange/oranji” “cherry” “peach”, etc. Of course, it did help that many of these words were borrowed words in Japanese and therefore similar. As I went student by student asking them to say the name of the item on each flashcard, the little boys turned it into a game of their own, shouting out their answer with funny expressions, jumping up, holding their arms out, etc. I would have been more worried about their behavior, but Mr. Nakanishi seemed to find it amusing, so I chose to be amused, too. The first graders really starting losing it when it came time in the lesson to run to opposite sides of the classroom, depending on whether you liked or did not like a certain food. Oh boy, let’s just say that once they understood what we were doing there was ostracizing of the only boy who didn’t like hamburgers, kids running from side to side repeatedly, kids rolling on the carpet in the middle, kids squealing…yikes. I ended that game as soon as I could!
Next came the second graders and they seemed to be more able to understand me. We worked on the words “on, in, under” using pictures, flashcards and props. I think this lesson was the most successful since most kids were able to say these words in context by the end of the 40 minute class. They especially got excited the lesson when they realized I was asking them to stand “on” their chairs and then get “under” them. Fun!
Definitely the girls were better behaved than the boys in the 1st and 2nd grade classes. True to many stereotypes of our gender, the girls were generally shyer, sometimes to the point that I couldn’t hear them when individually asking them their name or a word, etc. On the other hand, in each class there was at least one girl who was really on top of it and quicker than all the others. The third grade class was all female so I thought it would be a lot easier to manage. The only problem was that Mr. Nakanishi left me alone for this class and unfortunately, the book for this class was really too advanced. While the 1st and 2nd grade books seemed fairly appropriate for the level of the kids, the 3rd grade book was a bit too difficult. It was frustrating and if I had been their permanent teacher I would have done some serious restructuring of lessons. However, I was just a sub and therefore was supposed to stick to the book. The result was that most of the girls just drew pictures on their books and colored instead of participating. Hmm. I wondered how much of this behavior was typical. In any case, there was one adorable girl in the third grade class who was really being earnest in trying to learn and did I appreciate her!
After that class, I couldn’t help myself and told Mr. Nakanishi that I thought the book was too advanced. He replied that it wasn’t really a problem since the kids would get more English later in school and that the 4th grade book was on a similar level. I am unaccustomed to educators neglecting feedback that something needs to change, but, alas, this was beyond my control.
So, all in all, I guess the classes went pretty well considering…considering that I speak almost no Japanese and the students speak almost no English…considering that I am not used to teaching elementary kids…considering that I’m not an English teacher by training…so, yeah, I guess it all went surprisingly well. Mr. Nakanishi told me on the way back to the station that he wished he could give me a regular job (sadly I am not here long enough—1 year minimum--to be on contract for any English school). He did offer to me a chance to tutor for a family in the area privately, so maybe that will work out. For today I was just happy to get paid to have an interesting cross-cultural experience!
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