Five forks, five knives, two spoons, and pair of chopsticks

Well, it's about 12:30 AM here, and I wake up early in the morning, but after I go back to Tokyo tomorrow I will be without internet again, and today was just too amusing not to update about it.

We've been having all sorts of meetings with school executives here in Kumamoto, and tonight was kind of the culmination of it all. We arrived in a fancy hotel where we sat at a long table with the dean of Luther Gakuin (basically in charge of the junior high, high school and college), the vice-principal, the principal, the head of the office staff, another admin guy, two teachers, our Japanese program director from Tokyo and the four J3s who teach and Luther Gakuin. The table was set with all the utensils listed in the subject of this entry with the exception of the chopsticks, which several of us requested immediately because it was harder to eat without them. Really. I've been here too long already when I look at a dish and know that a fork and knife is just going to make it harder! ;)

We had to do formal introductions at dinner, but aside from that, it was good food and hard conversation. We had the three of us who are pretty much only English, and at least three admin people who are only Japanese. So, even with the bilinguals remembering to translate from time to time, at least a few of us were lost no matter which language we used. The highlight of the evening was when we found that we could have a common conversation by comparing animal sounds in Japanese verses English, at which point I started laughing pretty hard at the irony of us all decked out and saying things like "cock a doodle doo", which drew attention from the dean and then I had to try to explain why it was so funny. Luckily his English is extremely good.

Matt has been pushing for us to do Karaoke for quite some time (Karaoke is HUGE in Japan), and during his introduction he invited the table to Karaoke with him afterwards. Perhaps with the influence of the wine some of them were drinking during dinner, the group that ended up attending karaoke was Matt, Sarah, me, one of the older J3s, the dean, the vice principal, and our Japanese program director. The vice principal and the dean paid for pretty much everything too, including a round of drinks in karaoke (I had strawberry milk...yummy!, but I also got to taste someone else's plum wine, which was interesting, if a bit much for me). In addition to some Japanese songs, we sang Kokomo, Under the Sea, and I did "Copa de la Vida" for mine...not that I really like Ricky Martin, but I was craving Spanish. It was funny to see Japanese Administrative folks in suits singing along energetically with the "Go, go, go; ale, ale, ale!" (there should be an accent on the 'e's in 'ale', but I don't know how to add it).

Another Week in Japan

It is hard to wait to have internet in one's home when one is not really involved in the process for getting it. Even if the guy working on getting it is capable in so many ways, most importantly in that he can read all the Japanese forms. ;)

The past week has been good, though I did have my first bought with homesickness. Sarah, Matt and I watched this really depressing movie set in Montana during world war one and afterwards. I've never been homesick for Wyoming before...the people there, yes. The state, no. But seeing all those open spaces in Montana and the mountains, and I was just about crying from homesickness and not because everyone in the movie had just died. Luckily for me, we escaped Tokyo the day afterwards, and it turns out that there really is some countryside in the more southern parts of Japan. I even got a glimpse of about ten seconds out of the train when there were no people or houses!

We took the Shinkansen (bullet train) down to Hiroshima on Thursday. It was really fast! Not that you didn't know that already, but it was pretty cool. Except I had a little trouble with my ears going through tunnels.

Hiroshima was moving in a weird sort of way. It's odd to sit and look at pictures of children with the skin melting off their arms and feel just sick with the pain of it all... and then think: my country did this. I don't know what would have happened if they hadn't done this... It was all very morally confusing. It was also odd to be in a World War Two museum that said nothing whatsoever about the Holocaust, and I think that added to the moral confusion. I'd love to discuss it with some of you at some point.

We also met the rest of the J-3s in Hiroshima. There are about eight of them down in Kumamoto and only two in Tokyo. I ended up hanging out more with the Tokyo crowd. Part of me is preparing to be the one who stays in Tokyo, which is really bad since I have no idea if it will really be me who is there. For some reason, I just feel like it will. I've got to stop thinking that way.

I had my first real Japanese meal in our retreat center in Hiroshima. We sat on cushions on the tatami floor and had a tray in front of us with tons of little bowls. I can now say that I have eaten: tiny little fish with eyeballs still on them; raw squid; pickled octopus; fish eggs; and a number of other things I can't even name. Unfortunately, at this time I really dislike raw fish. The texture of it was enough that I could remember it all through the next day...kind of like having a song stuck in your head except it was a texture stuck in my mouth. I've never experienced anything like it. I still made myself eat some the next day and I'm hoping to get used to it eventually.

Right now we're visiting Kumamoto, so we're down on the southern island of Japan. We'll see the schools here tomorrow. I really like Kumamoto. There are trees and rice paddies all around us and it just has a smaller feel to Tokyo. They're both big cities, but Kumamoto only has 650,000 to Tokyo's 12 million or so. That means Kumamoto is about the size of the Twin Cities metro area.

Anyway, I need to go. We're getting picked up early to go see the schools!

Livin' in Japanese

Still no internet, but life is good.

We have had a couple days to settle in and pretty much just be. On Friday we went to get our alien registration cards and to sign up for bank accounts. Since all of us are living on an advance right now, we didn't want to deposit much. Sarah and Matt put in a handful of the little aluminum one yen coins each (equal to about a penny) and I put in a single 10 yen coin. It is a mark of the Japanese politeness that they didn't laugh at us openly when they saw it. :)

Saturday we went to the Meiji Shrine. My favorite part was the gardens. There were tons of laceleaf maples! *bounce bounce bounce* No red laceleafs yet, though. There are also some wonderful sculpted black pine trees near my house. People seem to use polls and the like to support one branch so it can grow pretty far horizontally. It's kind of like bonsai for normal trees. The shrine itself was gorgeous as well, and we saw two weddings, which boosted my kimono count from five to an uncountable number. I also learned that it is never okay to sit down while in a shrine. Sarah started to sit down on the steps for us to take her picture and was immediately swooped on by a guard who talked Japanese at her until she stood up.

Sunday was our first Japanese church service. I am so glad I learned hiragana already because it meant that I could mostly sing along with the hymns. I also learned to recognize the kanji pronounced "shu" which means "lord". We were served a wonderful lunch by the congregation that included onigiri (rice balls), various forms of tofu and fish, a vaguely sweet roll of rice wrapped in tofu, and cookies. The girls sitting next to me were extremely encouraging. They would say "ju ji"--kind of like, "good job" when I somewhat successfully managed my chopsticks. I'm getting much better with chopsticks.

Monday was "Respect for the Elderly Day", so it was a national holiday. Sarah and Matt went into Tokyo to see a museum and I stuck around the house and sorted our garbage--the Japanese garbage system is ridiculously complicated. We must sort everything into: burnables, plastics, non-burnable non-plastics, metals, plastic bottles, cans, paper and cloth, and harmful garbage. The garbage is picked up every weekday by a truck that comes by playing music...think ice cream truck, except collecting garbage instead of handing out sweets. Sarah and I are afraid of being 'black listed', as some of the previous residents of our house were, for not doing garbage correctly. Anyway, so I sorted our garbage and put up nice little signs so we will be able to sort it more easily as we're throwing it away.

After dealing with trash, I took the train into Musashi-Sakai (about five minutes from my house) to buy a jacket. A lot of the jackets I could find were too tight in the shoulders, but I finally found a longer rather nice jacket that I liked. I wandered through the grocery store after that. I enjoyed asking a woman in Japanese about the fruit prices and whether or not they were for individual items or for weight--the conversation completely failed, but I love trying to talk to them all the same. My best discovery of the grocery trip was that they have instant curries here. For about $1.50 I can have Indian food whenever I want! It was so, so yummy.

Friday we are leaving for about a week. We'll be in Hiroshima (bounce bounce bounce) for the J-3 Retreat, so I'll get to meet the other J-3s. Then we will head down to Kumamoto to see the school that two of us will be going to this coming spring. I am starting to hope that I stay in Tokyo, but I don't really know how I feel about either place. I think I will be happy either way and am trying not to hope in either direction.

In Japan

I`m miraculously at a computer for the second time in two days! I can`t wait to get internet at home. Here are some first observations from Japan:

-Riding the trains in Tokyo during rush hour is as close to spooning as I`ve ever come.
-When one rides on an escalator, those standing shall always form a single file line on the left so that those walking can walk past on the right. Even if you must make a line to get on the escalator and the right side is empty.
-The spacebar on keyboards is only about an inch and a half long. The button next to it translates what I`m writing into Kana. But to change it back to Roman letters I must hit the button in the top left corner.
-There are true mini-vans here. They`re shorter than most of our sub-compact cars.
-People doze on the trains all over the place here and don`t seem to miss their stops.
-While English is in a lot of places, if one wants to read nutrition labels they must know Japanese.
-I will now be using a blowdrier. It`s actually humid enough to be worth it. I also can no longer shower at night without my hair becoming a frizzy mop. Hence, I am becoming even more of a morning person.

Apparently I did too well with my Japanese tapes. I can say, "Sumimasen, nihongo ga wakarimasen," (I'm sorry, I don't understand Japanese) with a pure enough accent that one of my leaders thinks I may be confusing people into thinking that I must speak more Japanese than I'm letting on. Well, I don't. :) A random guy came to the door the other morning and took a long while to go away with me telling him the whole time that I didn't understand.

Hi guys!

I`ve been in Tokyo for about a day now. It`s really nice! We have been
learning the train system, which is very efficient but still feeling
pretty complicated. Sarah and my house is two stories and has a
kitchen, dining room and living space, another room, a study, one and
a half bathrooms, three bedrooms and drawers and closets tucked away
all over the place. We are within walking distance of a nice
convenient store where we were able to buy some rice and vegetables
for dinner last night. This would have been well and good, except we
had already cooked it when we realized we had no soy sauce! It has
bland, but a good meal.

We will not have internet in our house for another three weeks to a
month, so it will be awhile before I am regularly online again. Right
now I am at the JELC (Japanese Lutheran Church) office borrowing a
computer. That also means that it will be awhile before I can do
regular phone calls since it will be expensive before we get our
internet connection.

For those who don`t know, I missed my first flight over here because
of fog, so I arrived a day late. But as a result, I have almost no jet
lag because I was awake for almost 48 hours before arriving! (I
napped, but nothing longer than an hour and a half) Matt woke up at 2
AM this morning, I was able to sleep until almost 7. :-)

I love you all, and eagerly await the time when I can use the internet
regularly again!

Pamela

The Last Day

Psalm 139:1-16, 23-24

O Lord, you have searched me
and you know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
you perceive my thoughts from afar.
You discern my going out and my lying down;
you are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
you know it completely, O Lord.

You hem me in--behind and before;
you have laid your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from your Spirit?
Where can I flee from your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, you are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, you are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there your hand will guide me,
your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, "Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,"
even the darkness will not be dark to you;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to you.

For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts.
See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.