School Daze Part 2: Oration, Emergency Drills and International Understanding

The local school district held its annual junior high English speech contest this week, and the bunch of us at the BOE were involved in a bit of speech coaching for the schools. The folks here seem to like life lessons with a huge helping of melodrama, as evidenced by the majority of speeches about death, war, disability, the meaning of life and the like. There was this one guy who got up on stage and asked his dad to stop smoking so that he'd live longer and not end up with a stroke like his granddad. His family was there to listen, and when I saw his mum crying in her seat, I swear I spent the next 5 speeches sniffling myself. It's at times like this I wish I grew up in such a loving home environment, and that I didn't have to count the parents (yes, my own) amongst the people who are less than deserving of the affection I wanted to offer. What, me bitter? What ever in the world made you think that?

Anyway, the kids from my current junior high took out the second prizes in the recitation and original speech sections. Yay! I'm real proud of them. "Strong smash!", "Return ace!", "Dress the chicken?"... heh, charming.

We also had an emergency drill today: Evacuation of the school in the event of an armed and dangerous intruder (played to perfection by the Physical Ed teacher, a big guy with a black belt in judo o.o). All the kids made it to the assembly point in under five minutes, which is pretty good in my books. I expect the fire and earthquake drills will happen sometime throughout the year. Never thought about intruders triggering an evacuation back in my day; we only ever had fire drills once a year. Good idea, now that I come to think of it.

Finally, there's a transfer student in my school from China, and the school has enlisted my help to coach her in English as well as an interpreter, since I'm the only one in the school (and possibly the neighbourhood) who's halfway fluent enough to help her get around. This isn't saying much, considering I failed my Chinese as a second language the first time I took it at O levels. *sigh* It was a veritable United Nations general assembly today when I was asked to explain to her that the school was lending her a winter school uniform and if she could launder it before returning it when she graduated that would be very nice. At least I hope that was the general message. ^^;;;

There'll be more on this and all the other schools I'll be going to as I get to them. Man, I'm going to be so buggered when I start at the elementary schools and meet the little monsters... *ahem* darlings there. *twitch*

School Daze Part 1: Learn me a Book... and eat me some lunch ^^

So summer vacation is over for the kids, and it's time to go back to school. Well, Japanese kids can't technically go back to school, seeing as they spend almost every day of their summer vacation there anyway. Discipline and obligation are cool, if it keeps the kids off the streets. Anyway, the first junior high school I've been assigned to is just next door to my apartment, so it's either really easy to get there on time or equally as easy to oversleep and be massively late.

Mondays are half days here, and after the weekly assembly with various announcements and performances by student groups (great choir.. like wow), the kids get the enviable task of helping to clean the school. In fact, they do this with alarming frequency. Back in my time, students were rostered to do a little bit of cleaning during recess every day. Here, everyone gets involved all over the school for about 15 minutes at the end of every day, and the rostering bit only applies to the lucky few who get to help clean the teachers' room. So like it or not, if you're a Japanese student you have to get into the habit of cleaning house every day you're in school. Great way to save on the cleaning bill, since it's pretty obvious that a little cleaning a day means that you don't have a major headache at the end of the year... so sez the person whose carpet in Sydney was invisible under a thick layer of junk, used clothes, CDs and possibly the odd hamster.

I was asked to do a self introduction slide show as part of my first few classes for the second year students. So I told them about kangaroos, crocodiles, wichetty grubs, vegemite and how tasty they can be (eeeeeh~?!), rugby, cricket and Ian Thorpe (ooooh...), the Sydney Harbour Bridge and the Opera House (kirei...), oh and a few little things about sg. Most of the kids are pretty good, and even the most inattentive ones stay in their own seat at least and don't bother others. Man, if I ever take up teaching for real back in Australia, it's going to take some major adjustment.

The other thing about Japanese schools is lunchtime. School lunches are provided, and students take turns to distribute freshly cooked food to everyone in their classroom, and to collect used crockery and cutlery afterwards. Hygiene is important, so there are strict rules on food handling and serving attire, which includes an apron, face mask and hair cap. The menu changes every day even though everyone eats the same food, and from a quick look at this month's menu it looks like they never get the same lunch twice in a single month. How's that for variety?

This was my first school lunch ever:

Mmm curry rice, with a bottle of milk and yogurt fruit salad. All calorically dense, nutritious food for growing bodies and minds. Mighty tasty too, I might add. Gotta watch that waistline or I won't be able to fit in my own apartment. Everyone (including staff) gets a bottle of locally sourced fresh milk with lunch, which is a great concept, compared to the opt-in system in my day where subsidized artificially flavoured UHT milk (yuck) was only available to those who could afford it. I wonder if the system has changed back there, now that sg is a first world country with enlightened principles and all that crap. Meh.

Today's lunch was pork, bean and vegetable stew with white bread, cucumber and corn salad, a slice of pineapple and yes, milk. Tasted like a non-vegetarian minestrone soup. Damn but I miss having freshly cooked lunches. Shocked a few students by squeezing jam and margarine straight into my mouth, but hey, I had to break the ice somewhat, no?

D-Day

The combini next door is my source of breakfast, in the form of riceballs and bread rolls and delicious Japanese milk. On one of my nighttime onigiri expeditions, I looked across the street and saw a fancy looking shop that turned out to be a branch of a famous cake store in Ginza called 不二屋. Yep, I was also surprised that a big store like that would have a branch out in the sticks, and right next door to me! On closer inspection, they have some really kickass cakes and ice cream on sale, and just walking past the storefront was a serious temptation. I should probably also mention that it was a little unsettling for the staff to see a maniacally grinning weirdo stalking their store. ^^

Now, I've seen pictures and heard about the Japanese penchant for ridiculously rich cakes that are mostly fresh cream, so when D-Day (as in "Dammit I'm older"-Day) came about, it was only natural that I get one of these to celebrate my imminent slide into middle age. Gawd, am I that old already?

Aw heck, if I'm going down, I'm doing it in style!


This is my super cute strawberry shortcake, made of layers of light sponge, sandwiched with fresh strawberries and hand-piped rosettes of sweetened whipped cream. Mm mm good! It took me a while to understand that the staff was trying to ask how long the ETA to my place was, so they could give me insulated packaging if I needed it, but it was all good in the end. That's service, innit?

Anyway, happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me, yadda yadda... humbug.

I like burny things, Part 1 (image intensive)

They must know me very... maybe too well at the JET selection committee. Why else would they pop me in a city where they hold one of the biggest fireworks festivals in the country? They must have understood that I function best when I have the opportunity to indulge my inherent pyromania.

There were capacity crowds in the streets, especially on the bridge near the field where all the fireworks had been set up. Lots of stores selling food like takoyaki, yakisoba, beer, fried chicken and okonomiyaki, game stores where you could test your skills or your luck, and lots of girls in yukata. So of course I had to put mine on as well in order to blend in with the crowd. Took more than half an hour, but it didn't come apart at all the whole night, which was a good thing, despite my best efforts to sit comfortably (or inelegantly, if you like) all through the fireworks show.


This is my sempai's friend and I, partaking of festival food and drink before the fireworks. I swear, the one holding the beer is not me. Honest!

Between mouthfuls of takoyaki, grilled squid and Tim Tams (thanks Kate!) I managed to get a few nice shots of the fireworks. I'll let the pics speak for themselves, eh?






















I only butt in here to point out that Anpan-man made an appearance in the night sky, together with Kamen Rider, which I totally failed to get a decent shot of.


Here's a 1 minute movie (with soundtrack!) I made of one of the displays. Keep in mind that this was by no means the most impressive series of fireworks; the finale was way better.

Oooh.... aaaah....

I have to say this beats the stuff we get in Sydney on New Years, and dare I say it, even the 2000 Olympics. The sad thing is that future fireworks displays will probably have less of an impact after this, which is a bit of a shame considering fire is so very pretty...

Just so you know, Sukagawa is also the site of one of the 3 big fire festivals in Japan, the Taimatsu Akashi in November. I hear it commemorates how the people of the town kept Masamune Date (yes, the lil' shrimp from the Samurai Warriors games) from invading the local castle by waving fiery torches at him. If he sounds like a wimp to you, I'd have to say I'd also think twice about taking on a bunch of townspeople brandishing stacks of burning straw and bamboo over 20 metres tall that they put together *themselves*.

Burn, baby, BURN!

Dancing in the Streets

Barely a week after our arrival in Sukagawa, we were roped in to the Obon festivities. I can't be sure, but I think it parallels either the Qingming or Hungry Ghost festival back in sg, since everyone seems to go back to their hometown to tidy up their ancestral graves, and to "welcome the spirits of their ancestors". I reckon it's got a less occult bent here though.

The lot of us at the Board of Education were asked to join the contingent from the city hall in a massive public line dance called the Bon-odori , since it was part of our job to represent the local civil servants. I just took it as an excuse to dress up in ceremonial yukata and reveal my total lack of coordination to the townspeople.

Nice yukata! Pity about everything else...

And then someone had the bright idea of making us dance at the head of the parade together with the three winners of this year's Miss Botan pageant. ><;;;



And unco I was! Everybody else seemed to be getting it but me. D'oh!



After about 2 hours of toe-tapping mayhem on the streets of central Sukagawa, they gave all the ALTs special book voucher prizes for dancing "well". Sure, rub it in guys... TT... I think I might use that voucher to buy myself a copy of "Bon-odori (and other ridiculously basic dances) for Dummies".

You might have noticed the bang up job I did of covering the faces in the photos. Seeing as this is a public blog, and that I look absolutely shithouse in photos, I have taken the liberty of a little self censorship. For your own protection, folks! It's also because I haven't really asked for permission from the other people in the photos to make their faces public. So, smile, darn ya, smile... because this world is a great world after all... o/~

Welcome to Pia Carrot (image intensive)

So I'm living in what is considered the sticks by Japanese standards. It's not too bad really, compared to the agricultural areas in Australia; I even have a really swish apartment with all the mod cons I could ask for. So how's about a tour, eh?

Pardon the crappy layout. I worked on this the whole night and it stuffed up when I actually published. Yeesh.

This is Carrot, the 6-unit apartment block that I live in. Looks compact, but my unit is actually surprisingly roomy. They gave me a second floor unit for safety reasons, which means I get a slightly bigger apartment in terms of overall floor area and layout. Come on in!

I say, it's the height of opulence to be living at the top of a long flight of stairs (oo I made a pun!), but it's not so funny when you have to lug your baggage and groceries all the way up to your room. I reckon I'll run into a bit of trouble on those nights when I've had a few, or if the power's gone. Oooer.
I also have a really small genkan compared to the ground floor units, which make maneuvering around with an armful of groceries a little more difficult than usual. The plus point is that my shoe storage is ingeniously built into the first few steps, so no space is wasted. Gotta love the design people here ^^

Beyond the door lies the lounge, bedroom, dining, TV and whatever room. In short, this is the place where I do everything, from chatting online to playing frisbee. That's one of my work shirts hanging from the ceiling there, right next to my pile o'laundry which is sitting in front of one of my storage cupboards, where I stash my luggage, spare boxes and the occasional dead body.

That's my all purpose dining table/desk/workbench/coffee table in the middle of the room. Though you can't see it, there's a heater built into the bottom, so all I have to do in winter is drape a blanket over the thing and plug it into the power point, and presto! Kotatsu comfort for the coldest of nights!

TV and storage and stuff on the other wall. Yep, that's Gloomy Bear on the shorter shelf and my mattress on the floor in front of the taller one. I leave it spread out most of the time because I couldn't be bothered folding it up every day. For the purposes of a neat and tidy looking picture however, I obliged this time. Don't say I don't never do nuthin' for ya.

Busy little corner of the room, this is. On the side of the wall is my other storage cupboard which I use as my walk-in wardrobe (it really is big enough for me to get dressed in). I keep all my clothes there together with a large green rug (that came with the apartment) which I'll never use because I happen to prefer the more easily cleaned parquet floor.

The ladder you see in this pic can be hung on a rail above the door so that I can climb upstairs to the loft bed. Not that I'm using it right now, because it's way too hot to sleep up there in summer. Meanwhile the ladder itself is excellent as a space saving clothes airer.

What did I tell you about design? This is the bit of the apartment I like best, although it's probably built for people who don't wake up groggy and disoriented. That being said, a sharp 3 metre drop is a mighty fine way to put a 'spring' in your step for the rest of the day. I reckon it'll be just nice in winter, but I'll have to mind the lack of adequate headspace up there. Ow.

Now on to the bathroom and kitchen, which are located just beside the stairs of DOOM. Though you can't see it in these pics, there's actually a lot of trash in the place, but i'll get into the whole recycling thing here in another post. The bathroom area is located just across from the kitchenette, which is really useful in case of full body spills and whatnot. Smack in the middle of the pic are my toaster oven, microwave/convection oven and fridge in the back. Nice to have them right next to the kitchen sink.

My bathroom sink, with a built in vanity, heaps of storage space and extra power point. Being of average height for a change means that I don't have to stand on tiptoe to get to the sink. It's located below waist level, which is a pretty comfortable height for face washing and laundry. Splashage can be a problem at first, but it's something that I'm getting over pretty quick.

Right next to it is the laundry, kitted out with a fancy-schmancy top loading machine and bonus dryer, which is a step up from my old place in Sydney. Good thing I can sort of read the buttons on the machine, otherwise I might have ended up with fashionably ripped office clothes on my first go. Not going to use the dryer unless I really have to, even though it's probably an energy saving model, because I have to offset my massive airconditioner use right now (damn this heat!).

Here's my very sexy shower, with a one man bathtub in the back, hot and cold mixing tap and detachable showerhead. I'm finding that I save lots more water than when I'm using the fixed showerheads we have in Australia, because I have to set it down and turn off the water when I soap up and stuff. Omnidirectional water spray also cleans better, imho.

Back to the kitchen proper. Well, more of a kitchenette than anything else, but I love the compact wall mounted storage and dish racks which really save space but still keep everything within easy reach. The stove is a state of the art direct heat and induction coil combo, which means that I have to invest in steel or iron cookware, but just imagine the energy savings from induction heating! It's also way easier to clean than a traditional gas stove; just wipe and go.

Finally here's my totally sexy washlet, with a built in handwash which refills the cistern with grey water for the next flush. With major water restrictions in Australia, one wonders why they don't bring in these sensible models. Go figure. On the right is the control panel which runs the various sprays of water that uh... clean your.... ah, you know what I mean. Not a Rolls Royce by urban shopping centre standards, but it's pretty close.

With that, I'm gonna have to kick you out of my house, because it's time for those fabulous variety and cooking shows on TV. SMAP x SMAP is on Monday nights, yay! Watch your step on the way out, 'k? And don't forget to visit again sometime!

I want a kei-car

When you're living in a more provincial part of Japan, you suddenly notice a lot of things about the geography. Firstly, things are more spread out, and the buildings have far fewer storeys than in a big city like Tokyo. Suddenly you start to realize why games like Katamari Damacy look the way they do. Here in Sukagawa, the folks pride themselves on living in a garden city, so there's a lot more greenery and fewer dull, grey concrete skyscrapers. Good for the eyes and the soul, really.

The thing about relatively lower density living is that everything is a little further away, and that even a simple shopping trip to the local strip mall entails a 15 minute drive. Sure there are stores within walking distance, but you really need motorized transport to get to those places that offer cheaper groceries or work clothes. Walking 2-3km to the mall in 33 degree heat and maximum humidity is more than a little harsh on the feet, not to mention my nerves.

Which is why the townspeople have kei-cars (I forget the full name). These are tiny cars that run on a 1000cc engine or less, and look like loaves of bread on wheels. They don't travel terribly fast, but are perfect for a quick trip around the neighbourhood and getting the kids off to school on time. Sure they lack the firepower to go on highways, being little more than glorified motorcycles, but what more do you need if you're living in a relatively self contained town? Apparently they're also fuel efficient and less likely to wreck the air quality, so it's mostly a win-win situation. I kinda wish they'd twigged on to this concept in the Sydney metro area, being full of little one way side streets that are completely rubbish for manoeuvering around in, and where gas guzzling 4WD tanks run rampant.

I must say though that nothing can replace a regular car for intercity trips. Kei-cars aren't allowed on highways probably because they have a top speed of under 60km/h, and they'd seriously stuff up traffic if they broke down. Besides, they wouldn't stand a chance against larger cars, though having a speed limit of 60km/h even on arterial roads means that any accident isn't likely to have deadly consequences.

Yep, everyone drives more slowly here compared to the maniacs on Sydney streets. It's mostly because of this that my confidence in getting a licence here has increased considerably. I'm still more than a little bitter about not being able to accumulate enough hours to take the DART before I came here, but at the very least I won't be a complete beginner when I start learning again. Hurray for automatic transmission as standard! Now I won't have to deal with changing gears or working the clutch when I'm driving. Multitasking is so overrated.

So here's hoping I'll be able to drive legally at some point during my stay here. It sure would help in getting me to my schools without blisters on my feet or pedalling my my pants off. Meanwhile, there's the combini next door for most of my food and drink, and a couple of modest supermarkets 15 minutes from my apartment on foot. Life is grand here.

I hear Kitty has settled in quite well in Canberra. Well, that's a load off my mind, but I still miss him a lot. Every time I see packs of Kal Kan on store shelves (that's what Friskies are called here) I cant help but think of the fat bastard. *sigh* Maybe I'll go visit if I make a trip back to Sydney. Would be really nice to see him again.