L'shana tova

Ok so i'm not sure how good I am at this whole blog thing. This is of course do in large part to the fact that I don't really have the internet. Only sometimes, and then only sort of. But that will change within the next week or two, hurrah! All thanks to the kindness of the former ALT supervisor for this area. My actual supervisor is totally useless and has basically helped me with nothing. But this woman who has absolutely no responsibility towards me actually goes out of her way to make sure I'm doing ok and that everything is properly setup in my new Japanese life. Its as if in this country some people are nicer than others, and that overworked bureaucratic government workers are not entirely helpful. Who would've thought. Truly an odd and unique land.
So Rosh Hashana has passed in Japan. Again, to my incredible surprise, not a huge deal here. In fact I'm the only person I talked to around the time that had even heard of Rosh Hashana. One of my English teachers told me that there isn't religion in Japan, just festivals and customs. That's not totally accurate I think, but probably more or less sums up the difference between the West and Japan's standard take on religion. Of course we're probably more or less on the same path. The Danish seemed to have more or less deconstructed religion to only its most basic and vague customs, generally centered on partying. The rest of Scandinavia and Europe is either the same or not far behind. Australia and New Zealand I would imagine aren't so different, though who knows what the outback and Tolkien landscape does to the human mind. But regardless, L'shana tova, and a good year to all.
I feel a little isolated from most events happening outside the world of Aaron, but I still make sure to scour nytimes.com most days. An article today reported that a National Intelligence study confirmed that America's War on Terror was likely fueling terrorism significantly more than it was stopping it. I feel like the actual crux of the article was: "What was most remarkable about the intelligence estimate, several experts said, was the unremarkable nature of its conclusions." Of course the report is nothing new. Anyone who looks at the news with an even vaguely open mind must notice a spiraling pattern. The actual question would be how to stop it. But the standard response on both sides (not that their are just two sides) seems to be the ol hardline fight fire with more fire. Even little Japan, more or less isolated from this "war" except for a few token non-combat troops, seems to be following the same route. Abe is now the prime minister, and he is predicted to probably take an even more hardline stance against the pacifist constitution, visits to war memorials, and North Korea. I'm not really confident that that is the best move for a Japan that is having an even harder time with its growing neighbors than it usually does.
Not that, as far as I can tell (which is not very well) many people seem to be paying that much attention to it here. I haven't overheard anyone talking about it at work (I'd probably be able to pick out if they were talking about it, but specifics would be far beyond my linguistic grasp), and my fellow english teachers didnt have anything to say when I asked about it. Not that these observations are necessarily indicative of anything, but I have heard that politics is discussed less here than in some countries. But I don't know.
My little back porch connected to my tatami mat room with a view of nice little houses with cute gardens is quite relaxing, as is the large amount of free time I have for the most part. But sometimes it makes me wonder about the not so relaxed state of so much of the world...

Respect for the Aged Day

This is a picture of the park near my house. Its one of the prettiest parks I think I've ever seen.

Monday is "Respect for the Aged Day" in Japan. Hooray a 3 day weekend to honor the massive number of elderly people in this country! I pass many old people on my way to work everyday, and they look they could use a vacation. Though some appear to be in their 80s or so, they labor hard in their gardens and rice paddies everyday. They seem to lead lives entirely different from even middle aged Japanese people, who more or less lead the same kind of lifestyle as any westerner. They also ride their bikes and old fashioned mini pickup-truck/vans and use the buses a lot. I feel like the only people who use the bus and bikes to get around are kids, really old people, and me. It seems that anyone between 20 and 60 just uses a car to go anywhere.
As my predecessor warned me, my job is pretty boring. I actually get a kick out of teaching the kids, but i do that for about 9 hours of my 40 hour week. I also don't know much about Junior High lesson planning, especially in Japan. I do have time to study Japanese though, which is good.
What an odd country, I can't think of any other place where I could get paid so much (ok not that much) to do so little. I don't quite get it either. The application process was extensive, i had to write essays, fill out many pages of questions, conduct interviews, and wait months. The program's been around for 20 years or so I think, and Ive seen so many different publications and information, and seminars, and speeches from the people who run it on some level. But as far the actual job goes, there is no plan at all. The school just gets a new foreigner every few years and is told that they're the new "Assistant Language Teacher" to help teach and "internationalize" the students. But how does one do that? I don't know and I don't think anyone i work with does either. It seems so Japanese to have this massive and very well funded program to modernize the educational system for over 20 years without actually having a concrete plan on what it does. I just think its funny that a country so obsessed with efficiency pays some 21 year old American guy to sit on his ass all day and look pretty.
Though perhaps I shouldn't speak too soon, and I definitly shouldn't bite the hand that feeds me. Sorry Japan... Ganbarimasu! (I'll do my best)

i know, who would've thought, digital images from Japan!

A picture I took on my way back from school one day. You can see rice paddies and mountains.


A psuedo healthy meal prepared and then eaten by me. I love melon soda.

These are some "maids" in Akihabara in Tokyo. You'll also notice a no picture taking sign. Rules can't stop Aaron.

Above is a doggy statue outside the Shibuya station in Tokyo. I guess the story is that he always followed his master to the station, and continued to loyally go even after the man died. Its name is Haccho? I can't quite remember...

If I'm not mistaken thats the building many of you have seen in "Lost in Translation." It's in Shibuya in Tokyo.

aaron's home plumbing

Below my rusty plastered stairwell in my funky concrete apartment block rest 4 bikes in various states of disrepair, and befitting their surroundings, all are well acquainted with the rusting process. 3 of them in some way or another belong to me. One mountain bike appears to be totally unusable, is quite rusty, and totally covered in dirt and rust. A present passed from a few predecessors of this apartment i believe. The other is a granny bike, or "mama-chari" complete with a basket in front and no gears. A nice yellow color scheme though. The third is a red mountain bike i just acquired from another ALT (assistant language teacher) and after some maintenance performed by yours truly, and then an actual bike mechanic, seems to work quite well. It even reminds me of my first real mountain bike, a red Specialized... ahhh...
So I had a Lancaster apartment moment yesterday when I finally got too frustrated with how slow my bathroom sink drained. Some drain-o type stuff helped but didn't really do the trick. So after disinfecting my little plunger i went crazy on that stupid sink, which again helped but didn't alleviate the problem. So next Aaron became Mario-aaron and used his Japanese plumbing skills to take apart the pipes underneath his sink. Though smelly and gross I did manage to remove the clog of many disgusting things from the pipes, and reassemble my bathroom sink (mostly plastic, only some metal, so not that much of an accomplishment). So the world is a new place now that I have an actual functioning bathroom sink.
To perhaps spice up the story of my life after that boring stuff, I did spend about 17-18 straight hours in Tokyo this past weekend, almost all of which was on my feet. I trekked in in the early afternoon on Saturday, after being very late to meet my Aussie friend, and stayed there until the first trains back to takasaki started running Sunday morning around 6am. I had tacos not once, but twice, as well as a crepe, so pretty standard Japanese food. I had a "this place is so weird" moment when me and my friend went to a "maid cafe" in Akihabara (the electric district in Tokyo) on the 5th floor of some sort of mini-department/junk store. We proceeded to wait in line for a long time as we watched women in anime style french maid costumes walk around, sew in a little old fashioned room, and advertise their upcoming new CD. One would probably picture a skimpily outfitted Japanese woman with lots of makeup, but they were actually quite modestly dressed, and certainly going for the innocent and cute thing and not the sexual thing. I guess? So we paid relatively high prices for some drinks that a "maid" poured for us, and she even mixed in the milk and sugar in my coffee (by sugar i mean sweet-syrup, which they use instead of sugar here in japan for coffee. sorta gross). We then played UNO with her for about 5 minutes, and my friend won both games, which earned her the prize of a small cardboard coaster with a handrawn picture of a cute little whale on it. All the little maids clapped for us and said "O medeto!!" (congratulations). Being the westerners we are me and Amber (the friend) talked about the contrast between the cute whale picture and the fact that Japan is one of the only countries to continue whaling. She told me that its a relatively common belief among at least Japanese children that whales eat a lot of fish, and that's why the supplies are dwindling around Japan. That's so unbelievably far from the truth, and I hope that its not that commonly believed.
Anyway, after that we met up with a big group of more gaijin and the rest of the night was sort of standard big city fare, with dinner, some wandering, and a run of the mill club in Roppongi (foreigner/party district). Still had fun, but if i have to listen to Shakira saying her hips don't lie one more time...
School is still confusing, as it probably will be for quite some time. Just as much because I don't really know much about teaching as it is because I don't know Japanese (or enough anyway) or understand the Japanese school system. I do know that its ok that the Judo teacher picked up some kid with an attitude by the collar and threw him against the wall in the teachers office and screamed in his face before throwing on the ground. That would certainly not fly in an American school, as that teacher would be lucky to only lose his job, and more likely he'd be legally dealing with his actions for quite some time. I think that kind of stuff may not be common here, but is far from unheard of. In the end, kids are kids and teachers are teachers as anywhere else. Some teachers are more effective and involved than others, and most kids look bored and want to talk to their friends, not learn English. They do want to talk to me as well, but would obviously prefer to do so in Japanese (how many times can they ask "do you have girlfriend?" "is ____ bigger in america?" "how old are you?" etc). Most of the English classes remind me of 7th and 8th grade french classes, which is to say its just another class. I don't think i ever thought I was actually going to learn French, and well, i didn't. No worries though, I'll undoubtedly revolutionize the entire Japanese public education system within the upcoming year. Keep your eyes out for the Godzilla sections of the paper.