Years End Email

I recently began playing badminton with the local
club who play once a week at the nearby sportscenter
(actually "suporutsu sen-tah" in the Japanese). I was
invited by one of my co-sensei, who insisted it would
be a very casual game. Perhaps it was, and because
they are so sportsmanlike it was hard to discern, but
I think they thoroughly enjoyed watching me struggle.
Badminton is one game where my height and strength
dont translate into a gaurunteed advantage. Speed,
agility, and technique are the key skills in this
game, of which I have none. In the words of a 60ish
man who ran me all over the court just in warm-up (his
English is sound):

" Michael...(short pause and
sigh)...you do not move well. But dont mind, it
CANNOT be helped." (the Japanese love to use "dont
mind", they mean "dont worry about it")

Truer words were never spoken. No Woodard has ever
been described as "catlike". We move more with a
bull-headed stubborness that makes Newton's law of
inertia proud. But in the true Japanese spirit I
continued to "do my best" (more on this in a bit) and
hit that shuttlecock as hard as I could for 8 straight
defeats in a row while my rotating doubles partners
politely said "dont mind dont mind" after each of my
errors.

I may have commented on this before but it seems
more important now that winter has arrived. The
toilet seats are heated. Simply better.

The past several weeks have delivered my first
feelings of culture shock, though I am not quite sure
why. The differences have surely been there since I
arrived. Its difficult to point to one thing;
possibly its the fact that I have a better
understanding (though only slightly) of the Japanese
way than I did in September.

Much of it has to do with my own lack of
communication abilities I suppose; for all my efforts
and progress with the Japanese language, my "real"
communication skills are still quite poor. Japanese
is not so much more difficult than I expected, but
much more difficult than I had HOPED! When I learned
Spanish, it seemed it got easier as I continued;
Japanese is the opposite in that the more I learn, the
more difficult it becomes.

There are a great many things I admire about the
Japanese, among them their work ethic. And yet, the
extremity of it is one of the things that bugs me the
most. With a a very few exceptions, everyone seems
overworked, tired, and stressed (especially teachers
and students). Each afternoon at 4pm brings a bit of
guilt as I leave school and head home, knowing that
many of my colleagues will be there until 7 or 8pm.
No doubt they have things to do but I get the feeling
that much of it is "face time". Most of them too,
give at least one day of the weekend to coaching
school club/sports teams. My guilt never lasts very
long, usually before I arrive at my apartment it been
overtaken by "Man, those Japanese need to learn to
relax!" thoughts. Once a week (or once a month
even!) I wish I could be the principal and at 3:10
when classes were over, I'd tell everyone to go home.
I'd say: "Students, we're not gonna clean the school
today. Teachers, your student progress reports can
wait until Thursday. Everyone, go home, take a nap,
watch TV, go walk in the woods, help your mother with
dinner, read a book, just do something without
thinking about school for an afternoon!" Course thats
just the lazy in me talking.

The day before winter break (2.5 weeks for students),
I asked maybe a half-dozen kids what they planned on
doing, even giving some suggestions like skiing, video
games, hanging out with friends, etc. You know what
every single one of them said? "Study". What, what,
WHAT? "Everyday?", I asked. "Yes, everyday" came the
replies. Ludicrous. Now maybe they were just trying
to impress their teacher, but I dont really doubt
them.

The Japanese have this saying "Gambatte". It has
several meanings, "Good luck" and "Hang in there", but
most often represents "doing your best". I hear it no
less than 400 times a day. It really does seem at the
core of the Japanese code. Admirable to say the
least, but it sure would be great if, oh, say once in
a blue moon maybe, they would just half-ass it. Maybe
even do their best, but in a mediocre sorta way.

I, on the other hand, am taking full advantage of my
winter break (while the teachers dont get 2.5 weeks,
we do get 3 long weekends in a row, one of them being
a 6-day respite over New Years). I have been skiing
several times (more today and tomorrow), have visited
6 different bathhouses in the past 7 days, done a bit
of baking, hosted a Christmas party at my apartment
with co-teachers and friends, and am currently
engrossed in Bill Bryson's "Short History of Nearly
Everything" (fantastic if you havent read it).

New Years Eve looks to be quiet, though I did hear
something about midnight skiing under fireworks at the
local resort. Sounds better than watching that dumb
ball drop I must admit.

I hope all of you have a wonderful New Year
celebration (or quiet evening at home) and that 2006
brings nothing but joy, happiness, and plenty of
opportunities to unite with family and friends.

Gambatte

Christmas Indeed

I'll admit it, Christmas is not my favorite holiday. Sure Christmas Eve and Christmas morn with the fam is always special, but I never really feel like getting into the Christmas spirit. Lights, decorations, cards, Christmas shopping--it always seems like so much work. I was rather looking forward to a December without the chaos.

And yet, for some reason, I couldn't help but get wrapped up in the celebrations here. Why the Japanese celebrate Christmas I have no idea, but they do. This week and next, I have 7 Xmas parties to go to (mostly at my schools). Today I played Santa Claus (red suit, hat, white beard and all) for a pre-school/kindergarten. Had to field some questions from the kids in Japanese, though thankfully the teachers helped me out.

"Santa-san, how old are you?" When I replied 150 years old, one kid replied "Then why do you look so young?" Sheesh, I cant even get a white lie by a 5-year old.

"Santa-san, why do you wear a red suit?" This one stumped me, I finally stammered something about red being the Xmas color.

"Santa-san, why do you fly in the sky in a sleigh?" I havent learned the Japanese for "Just because" yet but I am going to soon.

"Santa-san, why do you live at the North Pole?" .............



Back at the junior high school, we had a small Xmas party for my 9th graders. I brought in gingerbread cookies I baked the day before and they had quite a good time decorating them. Expected them to just follow my model, but they were quite creative and were writing Japanese kanji and hiragana as well. Junior high boys being junior high boys, they couldnt resist adorning a few with some male anatomy. They thought it was funny til I made one of them eat it (the others of course then laughed all the harder)!




Tomorrow, I am off to another kindergarten to play Santa Claus...surprisingly, I am enjoying the season afterall...

December 10-12

A flurry of activity these past few days after nearly two weeks of only routine. Saturday was one of the more memorable days I've had in Japan, though there have been many I must say. I rose early (before 4 a.m.), had a quick breakfast and then met my Japanese tutor Noriko. Together we drove to Izunuma Lake, about an hour from Naruko. In winter, a high percentage (I want to say 80%, but it isnt with much conviciton) of all the migratory birds who choose to winter over in Japan, spend the months resting at Izunuma. Every morning, precisely at dawn, about 40,000 (again, just repeating a figure but I am none too sure) wild geese ("gahn" in Japanese) take off all at once from the water with great commotion and cover the sky like a scene from Hitchcock's movie. I really can't describe the sight anymore than that, and photos absolutely wouldn't have captured it. One of those things you just have to see.

Between the dawn sky
And the white plumes of my breath
Countless geese take wing

After the wild geese had cleared, we shed a few layers, jumped back in the car and drove into Iwate-ken, the prefecture to the north of Miyagi (where I live). Near the town of Ichinoseki is one of the most famous Buddhist temples in Northern Japan, "Chusonji", which dates back to the mid 800s A.D. I was expecting just one building, but in fact it is a temple complex of about 40 structures (though many of the originals burned down some 600-700 years ago. One of the originals, Konjikido (Golden Hall), is now housed in a large glass case inside of another, newer building. The wooden temple is completely covered in gold lacquer, decorated with gold leaf and adorned with Buddha images. We more or less had the grounds to ourselves, and a light snow falling on the big cedars and pines made it all the more peaceful.


Back in Naruko, another nearby JET came over and we went to my favorite onsen / rotenburo (outdoor onsen). By now there was a good 6-8 inches of snow on the ground and it was coming down hard. The hot / cold treatment of the snow while in the bath is unbeatable.

Sunday, I spent most of the afternoon making and baking gingerbread cookies. My Japanese friend Hideko, an English tutor, came over to learn how as she is having a Christmas party for her students (I will be Santa Claus at this party).

Once a month on Monday evenings, I have an English Conversation class at the local community center. Usually about 6 or 7 "30-40 something" mothers and their 5-6 year-olds and one sweet old lady usually come to chat, though we often speak as much Japanese as we do English. Anyway, Monday night we spent the class decorating the gingerbread men. As I hadn't decorate cookies in about 10 years, I was a little nervous beforehand. Wasn't completely sure I knew what I was doing. My anxiety was absolutely unnecessary. New lesson learned: a single male need never worry about his incompetence in a kitchen filled with a half dozen women. The mothers, though amazed at my baking ability, really took over and ran the whole show, for which I was grateful. The kids, who went nuts, did almost all the decorating. Fun had by all, needless to say.



The snow has been almost daily this past week, and we've already had a several large snowfalls. I was told yesterday we won't see the ground again until spring...I am off to the slopes this weekend...

December 3

Beautiful day today, after it snowed about 8-10 inches yesterday. Took advantage of the weather and went for a walk around Katanuma (which according to my Naruko brochure "is the lake whose acidity is the strongest in Japan")





After my walk, had a ball driving some of the backroads, still covered in snow, in my Mini Pajero (which I have dubbed "Paj"). Even found an empty parking lot, that had been untouched by any tracks. I couldnt resist a few (a dozen?) donuts.





A view of Naruko and the surrounding mountains

December 1

Looks like I got my car winterized (snow tires and heavy duty wipers) just in time on Tuesday. I woke up on Wednesday to a couple inches of heavy, wet snow on the ground and swirling winds blowing the snow in every direction. The road to Onikoube is precarious on fine days, so I was relieved to have the extra traction and 4WD as I plowed through the icy slush. The snow fell throughout the day, but never amounted to any accumulation.

Wednesday was my first visit to an elementary school. Was very nervous, even though I only had to give a self-introduction. Luckily, the vice principal and a couple other teachers were there to help me along. The first and second graders were by far the best, though I dont think I could keep up with them everyday. At break time, we went outside for a snowball fight on the playground. I was naively keen on it for about 30 seconds until I realized that 30 kids had eyes only for me as a target. Easy to spot and easy to hit, I cant really blame them. Fought and ran as long as I could (maybe 10 minutes), but after about 2 dozens wet hard ones to the head and face, as well as numb fingers (no gloves), I finally had to give. Not before, however, one cute, 2nd-grade girl in an orange parka took pity and started making snowballs for me.

As for my introduction, I talked about myself, my family and western North Carolina, showed some pictures, even introduced them to Doc Watson (Blue Ridge Mountain Blues" of course), but they were mostly uninterested. One Special Ed. kid did help me pick the air banjo for a couple of measures...



Had another elementary school visit today, which was great. Nice to get out of the junior high school environment for a change, especially as its testing week and the students have been a little less than remotely interested in English lessons. The elementary school I went to today had just 28 students and 11 faculty! The third and fourth grade students were well prepared and showed me around the school, even speaking a little English ("Dis is da lai-buru-eri....)

The Japanese have this habit (not sure if its good or bad) of telling foreigners they are good at something when they really don't mean it (speaking Japanese, using chopsticks, singing karaoke, etc.). They have no other option than to be polite. At first its was great, and very motivating to keep trying. Then I got tired of it, and just wanted them to tell the truth (I know how bad a singer I am). But every once in awhile, I try something new and they don't say anything and suddenly I feel offended. Lie to me! Lie to me! We both know I am very poor, but lets pretend its not true. Today, I tried my hand (literally) at "shuji" (Japanese calligraphy) for the first time with the 6th graders. Some parents had also come to observe the class, and one father (whom I know) actually laughed at my efforts, right in my face. Even pointed out how bad it was to some other parents. The nerve! He later tried to make up for it by telling me I was really great, but the sting was still there. Indeed, my attempts were awful, but I sure like more when they tell me how fantastic I am!

Hot pants

Much to the amusement of my students, I nearly set myself on fire in the classroom this morning. Standing to close to the heater (brand name "Sun Pot") while reviewing the new vocabulary words, I didn't realize that my trousers were beginning to smoke until my co-teacher caught my attention: "Michael! You pants smoking! " So the kids laughed for a couple minutes, but I escaped unscathed, and the pants, being of a charcoal color, did too.

Balloons at dawn

Friday, I stayed over at my friend Mike and his girlfriend Ikuko's apartment in Iwadeyama, about 25 minutes from Naruko. Had a tasty dinner of oden, and drank a few beers while trading stories and staying warm underneath the kotatsu (a low to the ground table with a built-in heater underneath, and covered by a blanket(s), a genius invention). On Saturday, we were up at first light and made our way over the site of the hot-air balloon festival, a flat stretch of land next to the river. We (the three of us plus Christine, another JET) quickly got in line for tickets for free rides, as their were only 200 spots. Just barely in time, we ended up with tickets, #195-198 (we would've had the last four, but we had hurried past a mother and child as we entered the line).



The lead balloon began filling up at about 6:45 and took off just after 7:00 into a pale blue sky, with the orange sun still low over the horizon in the distance. Upon lift off, the other 25 balloons or so began inflating with great commotion. Equally as impressive as the bright colors and sheer size of the balloons, was the noise of the bursts of flame shooting up into each one. One by one, they lifted off, some some quickly, some slowly. I joked to Mike that the scene looked like our New Horizons ichi-nensei (7th grade) textbook cover, graced by a picture of a half-dozen balloons hanging over the countryside.



A really stunning sight, and not nearly captured by the photos you see here, but you get the idea. We watched until they floated over the ridge in the near distance and then when for breakfast. Returned about 9:00 for our much anticipated balloon ride. Though seemingly calm, we were informed that the weather was too windy, and for liability reasons, they couldn't take any passengers. We were a little bummed, but it turned out the balloon would have been tethered to the ground and we could've only gone up about 10 meters anyway. A glorious morning nonetheless...






For lunch we ate at a rather famous ramen shop, Iroha Shokudo. So well known in fact, we were in the queue outside for over 30 minutes. A interesting old Japanese style building, it is seemingly run by one woman (think the Soup Nazi from the Seinfeld episode), though she must've had kitchen help. The restaurant seats about 40, and when spots free up she comes outside and barks commands to those in line, telling who and how many can come inside. Once through the door though, she turns much nicer and does everything from taking orders to serving the food to collecting the money. The menu is pretty simple, they have three items: ramen, ramen with a pork bear claw on top, and katsudon (of which there are only 5 each day, I didnt try it so I cant explain what is is). Anyway, hands down the best ramen I've had in Japan--delicious and well worth the wait.

November 22

I've been giving interview tests at my schools the past two weeks. One on one, I ask each student five questions from a list of twenty, which they received about a week before the test. Has been a great opportunity for me to understand each student's level, as it is often hard to gauge in class. Some students have quite a high level, but are too shy to speak or actively participate in class. On the other hand, there are really poor students who can coast in class by repeating their classmates or getting help from their friends. Most students however, are middle of the road. Overall, their comprehension level was higher than I originally thought, but lack of confidence in their speaking ability holds them back.

One student, who had already tested (quite poorly), came again, asking for "revenge". He actually did worse this time, not answering any of the questions and speaking a total of about 6 words in English (including the "Good Morning" and "Revenge" when he came in.

I guess my point is that working with students who try and put forth effort is quite easy and especially rewarding, while working with the apathetic ones is frustrating and makes me apathetic about teaching. Luckily, I have more of the former than the latter...

This week I may have turned a corner at my "bad" school (Kawa-chu / River Middle), at least with some of the teachers. For some reason, the atmosphere was much lighter, markedly so in the teacher room (the principal even let me go home early yesterday). Not sure if it was me or them, but in the past two days I have conversed more with my fellow teachers than in the first months combined. Almost all the teachers were talking about my runner-up finish at the golf tournament last Saturday (all jealous of the rice I won) and everyone was praising my efforts for keeping a Japanese diary (they actually were praising my ability, but I think just to make me feel good?). The librarian was quite chatty yesterday, and the social studies teacher, who speaks some English was especially candid today. We talked about travel, women, sex, drugs, homosexuality, money, traffic laws, horse racing, culture (not necessarily in that order) all before lunchtime. Even the oft sour-faced and melancholy co-English teacher has been smiley and talkative.

Kawa-chu strangely oft schedules me only one or two classes per day (sometimes none), and because my co-teacher doesnt like to do lesson planning, I am essentially paid to sit at my desk and "look busy" (at roughly $100 a day, I aint complainin'). Yet six straight hours of Japanese study is monotonous to say the least, and nearly impossible, so the recent conversation has been most welcome.

November 21

It is wicked cold at my schools. Even in the teacher rooms and the classrooms, where they use kerosene heaters, I often cant get warm, though wearing long underwear, two pairs of socks, and a wool sweater. This morning we had an assembly in the gymnasium, and the air temp was the same as outside, a little below freezing. I stood with my hands in my pockets, shivering, not listening to whatever they were going on about, and cursing.

Later in the day I discovered the library, up on the second floor with its own heater and bathed in sunlight. There I stayed for the afternoon hours (happily sweating beneath my layers), studying, giving interview tests to students, and chatting with the librarian.

After school, I finally found the famed site of Shitomae (the kanji for this place means literally " In front of urine"??!!). The Master haiku poet Matsuo Basho once passed through on his journey to northern Japan and spent the night, carving the following poem on a rock, which still exists at the site (The translation is not mine, and doesnt follow haiku form, but I think is fairly literal):

Bitten by fleas and lice,
I slept in a bed
A horse urinating all the time
Close to my pillow

I walked in the woods, took a few photos of Basho's statue, and composed the following while staring at the rock:

Amongst the cedars
Over Basho's words I pass
Grinning ignorance.

A few pix

On a recent hike


Mt. Kamuro from Hole #7 at Onikoube CC


International Zip Line races by the lake with my Irish friend Mark and Japanese friend Nori

Saturday November 19

Today, as a reward for my 2nd place finish in a golf tournament, I received a) 20lbs of rice b) mushrooms) c) salad dressing) and d) 7 bottles of vegetable oil. The oil and dressing were part of a "gift set", nicely boxed and wrapped like a present. What a country.

Had my first ever eagle today, on a short par 4. The hole has a big left dogleg, but you can cut the corner if you can get over the trees in front of the green. I said to my playing partner on the tee "1 on, 1 putt", though not really believing I could do it. I hit a perfect high 7-iron, which dropped about 12 ft short of the cup and then calmly sank the putt. Tiger Woods fist pump. Like, 5 of them.

Japan seems rather obsessed with putting rather flowery English (sometimes grammatically correct but often not) on random things, especially food labels. Heres one from a cookie wrapper yesterday that caught my attention. "I am everyone's popular person. The child and all adults love me. It eats me of a sweet cookie." Check out www.engrish.com for hundreds of these.

Haiku

In a foreign tongue
The master’s work I peruse
Is it quite the same?

Privacy towel
Used carefully at onsen
I still feel naked.

Ever observing
Sits an old man with one eye
Just two inches tall

Flesh water and wood
Voices aloft in the steam
At Takinoyu.

Sometimes a statue
Serves no other purpose than
A meeting place.

Far from leaves of home
Crisp air still tastes like cider
And smoke still rises.

Glare on the water
And sunlight on autumn leafs
Prevent fish spotting.

Crowds along river
Disrupt my viewing pleasure
Just as I do theirs.

Below the footbridge
Water and rocks do silence
All the steps above.

Kamuro stands tall
Dusted white above gold hills
Five long months ahead / Bidding Fall farewell

Sudden as a leaf
Dropping to its death below
Fall yields to winter.

Along the rigdeline
Steam slips from the fissure to
Join an autumn cloud.