Saharan Bee Migration

This past weekend was a three-day weekend. Apparently yesterday (Monday) was “respect for the old” day. So I have a few things to recap from the weekend.
And by the way, next weekend is another three-day weekend thanks to the autumnal equinox being a government holiday.

Friday night I went to the local tea club at the Sasayama civic centre. I had been invited by a friend of one of the OLs (office ladies) at the board of education. Word has spread through Sasayama that I like Japanese culture so I get quite a good number of frequent random invites like this. This is a part of Japanese culture that you is vital: if you say something, no one will forget it. If you say you don’t like orange juice, there is a good chance that the cashier at the grocery store will comment on you buying an orange. Oddly enough this doesn’t work for vegetarians, they have to explain it every time that yes, meat includes pork and fish. Anyway, back to the tea party. It was a bunch of housewives and me. They did the whole tea ceremony thing, but mostly wanted to talk to me. I was invited back this Friday and also invited to the head lady’s husband Noh play practice. And to add to the cultural immersion, some lady in Furuichi (one of the many towns that is technically in Sasyama but is pretty far away) wants to meet me sometime to teach calligraphy and art things in exchange for English lessons.

I went to Osaka on the weekend with a friend to visit his old host family. We went to a yakiniku (think BBQ) place one night. The waitresses were really slow and even the old people yelled at them. We were served some interesting things but best off all was what I would call the “there’s no way you could serve that in America” platter. It was horse meat….that was raw…that was mixed with an egg…that was raw. Pretty much goes against all we hold dear in America. It was surprisingly good. I wouldn’t ever order it by myself, but I can think of dozens of things cooked that are much worse. The next day I went around Osaka. There’s this street/part of Osaka called Shinsaibashi that is just a huge covered walkway with shops. We also went to Amerikamura (America Village) that is about the dirtiest place I have ever seen in Japan. Not dirty as in 13 year old girls dressing like prostitutes to buy designer handbags, you can’t narrow that down to one place in Japan. Dirty as in trash everywhere and everything has a certain slime to it. There’s a lot of stores that sell used crap from America in the area and I guess they wanted to add another touch by never picking up the garbage. Bad idea Osaka. Then last night I met another Hyogo Jet friend and we all went to eat Sukiyaki. Sukiyaki is basically just pile a bunch of meat and vegetables in a boiling stew, take it out and dip it in a raw egg and eat. It’s more of a winter time food since having a pot of boiling meat kind of raises the ol’ body temp. But good none the less.

Today is another glorious day at Sasayama JH. This morning I had two classes: one of third years and one of second years. I ended up asking my second years if they were alive. I know American middle school kids aren’t that attentive but at least it’s because we were other tired or talking during class. You say something to these kids and the entire class goes silent and gets a deer in the headlights look in their eyes. The first time it’s cute, second time it’s novel, but after that it’s annoying. You know these kids can talk, you see them chatting away after class. At least have the decency to actually fall asleep in class, instead of playing dead every time I call on you. I was an incredibly shy kid in school, but if the teacher called on me I didn’t just stare at them. And I guarantee you that Antioch middle school was much harsher on the uncool kids than Sasayama junior high. Anyways, eventually we started doing an individual activity and the kids were much better with that. A few of them even voluntarily asked me questions related to the activity. The kids are much more receptive to me when they seem “needing” my help rather than “wanting” it. If that makes sense. After my second class these two uber-genki girls came up to me exclaiming that they only want to talk English with me. So it was nice to know that most of my kids may regard studying English as important as studying Saharan bee migration patterns of the 1920s, but two of my students are excited about it. And that’s what counts.

My classes in the afternoon were much better. The majority of the kids were awake and only stared at me about half the time. It probably helps that I am more awake at that time as well.