The tragedy now is, of course, that I could not possibly update you properly on a full month of goings-on without thoroughly exhausting your eyes or draining your mind’s ability to focus. So with that in mind, I bring you a short(-ish) introductory entry. Welcome to my house:
1) This is the view outside out side my front door. 2) This is a view of my kitchen from my living room—notice the sliding glass door on the right, which separates my kitchen from my living room, and the door on the left is my toilet; I have a tub and shower room too but you can’t see it in this pic. 3) More of my kitchen—my washer, refrigerator, etc…and my “bathroom mirror”—there’s no sink in my toilet room, so all getting ready in the mornings is done in the kitchen. I also have a living room/bedroom. I love it; it’s the perfect size for one person I think. I’m sure yous have questions for me, so here are a few things I thought you might want to know—
How’s school: it’s good. I have 2; Tokiwa Elementary and Kindergarten, and Midorioka Kindergarten. I’m at Tokiwa 4 days of the week and Midorioka 1 day of the week. I walk to both, and for some reason my other teachers seem to think it’s weird or some great physical feat. I’ll probably start riding my bike soon (that is if I finally get over being afraid of it). More details about school to come in another post.
How’s church: it’s good too. For some reason, when people preach in two languages it kind of feels like “home,” whatever that means. I’ve been going to the church where the majority of the other AETs go, which I was wary of at first because I didn’t want to be stereotyped as “one of those Americans” if you know what I mean, and I don’t want to be one of those people who rely too heavily on English and things familiar…but now I don’t think I really have to worry about either one. More on church to come.
How’s the food: mostly good. There’s lots of healthy food, which is a great thing. I have school lunch everyday, which is usually good and sometimes…interesting. The strangest thing I’ve eaten so far was this weird little sea creature, which I ate whole at my first enkai (teacher party); I have no idea what it was.
Biggest victory so far: this past Sunday I was actually able to sing a couple of the songs in church!
Biggest defeat so far: communication in general .
I’ll end with a story: My first week at school we had what seemed like 10,000 ceremonies, but I’ll just briefly tell you about one of them now. So I get to work that morning and waiting for me on my desk is a long note, translated into English through free software from the internet. I have a collection of such notes now. Here’s a selection from that morning’s note:
“….The eyes participate in a PTA general meeting at four time. Both a child and the teacher participate together and listen to the song of the mother chorus and sing a school song with all the members. Thereafter, there is an introduction of the staff. You should bow at the time if called because the principal introduces it…”
I didn’t have much time to decipher the page-long note that morning, not that it would have really helped much. As I was preparing for class, I was whisked off to the gym suddenly and told on my way there that I would be expected to stand in front of the crowd (which consisted of all the parents and PTA members, along with the staff) with the other new teachers and introduce myself in Japanese. No time to prepare! By the grace of God I was able to both recall and say “Watashi no namae wa Kristin Creekmore desu. Yoroshiku onegaishimasu” without any mistakes. That seemed to be enough to please the crowd any way. After that I was lead over to a table full of PTA members where I was supposed to sit and pleasantly converse with them…but of course, I don’t speak hardly any Japanese and they didn’t speak English; so it was a little awkward after we said our hellos and konnichiwas. We sat around awkwardly for a little while, with them quietly speaking Japanese to each other and smiling at me. Then they decided that instead of speaking, giving me more food than I could possibly eat would be the best move. It was good food but I had just eaten lunch, so I was already full. But I ate what they gave me and even drank plain coffee (I’m not a big fan of coffee, but everyone here seems to think all Americans adore it). I’ve found that never knowing what is going on, not being able to speak or read, and confusion in general are all a part of my every day life in Japan. And I’ve found that smiles and broken Japanese go a long way.
