Safety First

This afternoon, I was informed that the teachers were having a seminar about using an AED. By the time I got to the fourth floor (where the seminar would be) I found out that we would also be learning techniques to deal with violence (or something like that...I never get the full story).

Several paramedics came with CPR dummies and training AEDs to demonstrate for us. During the demonstration I noticed that the paramedic neglected to do a sweep to clear the dummy's airway and did not check for a pulse. This disturbed me to say the least.

In case you don't know CPR, let me explain briefly. If a person isn't breathing, it's possible that something is in his throat preventing him from doing so. So you put your finger in the person's mouth to check for that. Otherwise, what's the point of breathing for him if your breath isn't going to go anywhere either? Also it's possible for your heart to be beating but for you to not to be breathing. If this is the case, you probably don't want someone to needlessly break your ribs. Hence checking to make sure a person's heart is actually not beating before doing the work for it.

When we split into groups to practice, I asked our instructor "um...excuse me, but shouldn't we check for a pulse before starting chest compressions?" (by asking him I mean that I asked an English teacher to translate). Apparently "these days" you no longer have to do these things. This made no logical sense to me at all so I pestered for an explanation. It seems I received two answers. It's difficult for the average (Japanese) person to check for a pulse, so the organization that oversees these kinds of things decided it would be better to teach people to just go ahead and start chest compressions. The second is that if a person isn't breathing but his heart is still beating then his heart will stop beating soon. So it's okay to just go ahead with the chest compressions. Um...I really hope nothing bad happens to me here that would prompt a random incompetent person to start doing CPR willy-nilly.

Then we watched a video, the topic of which I can best describe as "stranger danger." It was filmed using a bunch of elementary school kids and the acting is ridiculous. In the first scene, a dirty, unkempt guy comes into a classroom and pulls out a knife. The teacher screams, the students run. The man randomly cuts one of the students and continues waving the knife around. The second scene had a sweaty guy sneak up to a school playground and attack the children with a baseball bat.

After a few more scenes and some explanations of safety procedures, the video goes back to those scenes to show how teachers should handle the situation. In the first scene, the teacher fights of the knife-wielding character with a chair until she's joined by a couple other teachers who together subdue him with furniture. In the second scene, one student informs the teachers of the crazy guy with the bat. They run out to the playground and fight him off with a mop and a stick.

All this led up to some crazy instrument we apparently have at school. It looked to be a metal pole (like the kind at swimming pools for aiding distressed swimmers) modified to be pitch-forked on the end. You're supposed to use it to trap the menacing individual against a wall.

Of course, I might be missing something since I couldn't understand a word of the seminar.

More Crafts

You probably don't want to read another post about making wreaths with little kids. I wasn't all that excited to do it for 3 days straight. But then I got to make traditional Japanese crafts! Yesterday with the fourth-graders, I made miniature kadomatsu, which apparently you put outside your house on either side of your door for New Years. Mine are outside my door! (Even though real ones are much bigger and these will probably get destroyed by the elements).

Today the fifth-graders used a traditional rope-making technique to make their wreaths. They used the chaff from the rice harvest. It was surprisingly like straw that comes from wheat or whatever it is we have in the US. It was somewhat difficult and a bit tiring, but something about it being a rope-making technique excited the nerd in me.

As a bonus, in the afternoon I played "traditional Japanese games" with the third-graders. I put it in quotes because one of the games was London Bridge is Falling Down--same tune and everything. The first game was one that some of my chuugakko students showed me one afternoon. It's like a non-violent version of Red Rover. The second involved everyone walking in a circle while one person sits in the center with their eyes closed. Everyone sings a little rhyme as they walk that ends with "who is behind you". (As an aside, I'm really excited I managed to understand that).Then they stop and the person in the middle has to guess who is behind him based on what he hears that person say.

Afterwards they asked me to teach them American games. Being put on the spot, unprepared, and in a small space (we were in the classroom) I very quickly remembered the circle handslapping games of my youth--Down By the Banks of the Hanky Panky (or however it goes). Then I taught them Ring Around the Rosie. Duck Duck Goose might have been a better option, but for some reason it didn't come to me until right after we were done. If we had been outside, I would have opted for Red Rover. Oh well, perhaps next time...

Christmas Crafts and Ultimate Frisbee

I’m at one of my elementary schools for three days this week. The students are making Christmas arts and crafts with me. (Just because it's not a holiday I don't personally celebrate is no reason for them to not expect a lesson on the typical Western culture). Today the first and second graders made wreaths. They had already made the actual wreaths out of sweet potato roots and morning glory vines, but today they decorated them with ribbons, pipe cleaners, bows, leaves and a whole array of other items. It was pretty fun.

To set the mood I downloaded some Christmas music. That’s right, while most of you have been complaining about being sick of Christmas music, I went out of my way to get some. I also drew a few pictures of a snowman, a Christmas tree, etc. on the board, but this school’s stock of chalk is woefully lacking in colors compared to my junior high school.

I got my own wreath to decorate. When I started working on it, I thought it would look somewhat classy—well, as classy as a random arts and crafts project can be. However, the kids just kept giving me their random scraps and I used whatever they gave me. After receiving more ribbons than I knew what to do with, I tied one in my hair. This was a big hit and I ended up tying ribbons in 2 or 3 girls’ hair before the end of class. I also got a random pipe cleaner creation which I turned into a clip-on earring. Of course this meant that I had to turn pipe cleaners into earrings for the kids too.

I snapped this picture of myself in the teachers’ room in front of all the decorations I’ve hung up in there. My wreath is now hanging by the shrinky-dinks I made earlier this year. If I keep going at this rate, by the time I leave Japan this teachers’ room will be covered in my artwork. Also, check out my bling.

After yesterday’s dodgebee, I got the urge to bring Ultimate Frisbee to Japan. Today at lunch the third graders asked what kinds of games children in Chicago play. So I offered to teach them Ultimate at recess.

After lunch I looked up have, throw, move, and fall in the dictionary. When recess came, I borrowed a dodgebee disk and headed outside armed with the scrap of paper where I wrote the words I would need. I explained the rules. I explained them a couple times in fact. There are really only 3 or 4 rules that need to be understood. The kids seemed to understand. They made the connection to American football on their own. Then we started to play.

At this point I think the only rule they retained was that there were two teams. Because as soon as we started, it just became “throw the Frisbee and chase after it”. It was really windy, so very few throws were actually caught. However, one team apparently scored four points. Although, since we played the entire game in their endzone, I’m not sure what they were using as a criterion for scoring. Although they missed some of the finer points of the game (namely all of them), they seemed to have fun, which I guess is the important part.

Tomorrow the third and fourth graders get to make wreaths.

Teacher's Rec Time: Dodgebee

Today the students had exams so they went home after lunch. Shortly before 4:00, I noticed that a lot of the teachers were leaving. This is really odd since most teachers (as well as most employed Japanese) stay at work till well past dinnertime. Then all of a sudden I hear one of my English teachers say that she ought to invite me to something. Turns out, the teachers were having recreation time with the teachers of the elementary schools. So I got invited to go to the elementary school next door, where we would play dodgebee.

Dodgeball? you ask (I asked the same thing). Nope. Dodgebee. Dodgeball played with a somewhat large, foam frisbee. But I ought to back up for a second. I've been playing dodgeball with my elementary schoolers. Japanese dodgeball is different from American Dodgeball. Here dodgeball is played with only one ball. If you catch the ball, nothing happens. And if you get hit by the ball, you merely go behind the other team's side and get to play from there. Overall, I find it to be less exciting and competitive than American dodgeball, but it is nice that nobody gets bored by sitting out after getting tagged.

Anyway, back to our afternoon of dodgebee. The frisbee, being foam, didn't fly particularly fast and being foam, was really easy to catch. Also, this being Japan, everything has to have a bit of formality to it. So of course there was an opening speech, as well as a closing speech. After the opening speech, we all did a series of stretches in a very organized fashion.

Forty minutes were allotted for the teachers to "enjoy the recreation time." And then it was back to work. Except for me. I went home.

Thanksgiving

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. I sure did.

As the Miyagi JET living in a house (with an oven) I took it upon myself to host Thanksgiving. Luckily we had a 3-day weekend, so Thanksgiving in Miyagi was on Friday. I had about a dozen guests and a crazy amount of food. I really wanted to take a picture of all the food we had, but there was so much that it couldn't all fit on my table. The kitchen table was covered in dishes, as was my counter, and the stove!

One guy managed to find a turkey! I hadn't eaten any turkey since long before coming to Japan. I think this was the same for everyone here. He did an amazing job with it (especially considering it was his first time cooking a turkey). He brined it and everything. We also ate stuffing, sweet potatoes, two salads, vegetable ratatouille, deviled eggs, bruschetta, mashed potatoes, some sort of Hungarian egg and potato dish (with real Hungarian sausage!), cornbread....and I'm probably forgetting quite a few things. Dessert was an apple pie made completely from scratch, two different apple crisps, real whipped cream... And then of course, we suffered from food comas.

Long story short, everyone did an AMAZING job cooking (and eating). There was food, wine, and merriment. One person even brought Thanksgiving decorations while another one made origami out of Thanksgiving colors. My house has never felt so warm and inviting as it did with all the guests here.

A few of my guests were not American. Celebrating Thanksgiving was a novelty for them. At the beginning of the evening, Liz from New Zealand asked if there are any special Thanksgiving activities such as songs. We told her that there's a traditional dance that we do. Oh making up things about our home cultures--so much fun!

Three people stayed the night. Today we tackled the leftovers. We did a great job picking at the turkey carcass. I won the wishbone. And now I'm making some stock out of the turkey bones. I'll be eating leftovers for a couple more days!

Winter has Arrived

There is snow on the ground! I'm about to find out how that affects my walk to school.

Surviving the Winter

A (nonexhaustive) list of things I miss from the US:
*Central Heating
*Double-paned windows
*Insulation

It’s still autumn here in Miyagi-ken. But it is getting colder and people keep warning me about the severity of the winters. I’m getting mixed messages about how bad the winters generally are. I’ve heard that there will be a lot of snow, that there won’t be a lot of snow, that it will not be nearly as cold as Illinois, and that it will be much colder than back home. I don’t think the outdoor temperatures (or wind chill) will be as bad as back home, but only time will tell.

The problem comes in with the indoor temperatures. You see, Japanese homes are not built with the sort of energy-conserving techniques we have in the US. The walls are very thin and there is no insulation in them. The windows let drafts through. And the Japanese heat using kerosene space heaters.

That’s right. Kerosene. The heaters do work via electricity, so it’s not quite the pioneer days lifestyle. But it still involves filling up a container of kerosene from a tank outside my house. And it smells bad. Of course, the fumes can’t be good for you, so it’s important to air the heated room out (thereby letting all the heat escape—genius!).

I bought bubble wrap to attempt to insulate my house. That might help a little.

On the other hand, I don’t have to worry about putting things in the refrigerator because it’s just as cold in my kitchen.

Outside of Miyagi--Caves in Iwate

This was a weekend of cars and caves. On Saturday, a group of 15 drove to Iwate, which is the prefecture directly north of Miyagi. It was quite a long drive, especially since we avoided the expressway, opting for the scenic route (because Japanese tolls are quite pricey). It was already dark by the time we got to the place we were staying. That's not to say it was late—it gets dark around 4:30.

We stayed in a surprisingly nice cabin. It was big and warm. The second bit was the really exciting part. We also had kitchen facilities so we made nabe, a type of Japanese stew. One person made a cake in honor of two others' birthdays. And we generally had a good evening of chatting, singing along to music, hanging out, and being easily amused by balloons. In the morning we had pancakes for breakfast.

After our delicious pancake breakfast, we headed toward Ryusendo caves. These caves are famous for having underwater lakes with incredibly clear water. The transparency of the lakes water is a world-record depth of over 40 meters (if you don't understand metric, that converts to 'very deep'). Because its Japan, and this is a famous spot, the caves had catwalks, stairs, and light fixtures. But they were pretty nonetheless. Outside, there was a spout of drinking water from the springs in the cave. Drinking this water is supposed to add three years to your life. It reminded me of when I went camping in Spain and drank real mountain spring water.

After the walk through Ryusendo, (and after stopping for lunch at a gem of an Italian restaurant), we went off the beaten track to another cave. This was the real deal. We were outfitted with helmets that had headlamps, galoshes, and matching jumpsuits. (The helmets were the same ones we used at high ropes at camp). A spry middle-aged woman was our guide. We jogged (in the rain) to the cave—probably the funniest part of the trip.

As I said, this cave was the real deal. Small spaces, scrambling up rocks, sloshing through water, somewhat challenging descents, bats and complete utter darkness except for out headlamps. We turned off the headlamps at one point to experience pitch darkness. This was not the kind of darkness your eyes adjust to—ever. Also a bat flew in my face. But there were amazing stalactites, stalagmites, and other cave-rock structures. Also, we learned that galoshes are not the most stable footwear for rock climbing or for running. But despite this, we all managed to make it back out of that cave (and back to Miyagi) alive.

EARTHQUAKE!!!!

My first one (that I noticed anyway). Very exciting! I only noticed because my doors rattled and made a bunch of noise for about 20 seconds. I was actually talking to my mom at the time. I think she got a little concerned when I excitedly announced "Whoa! Earthquake!".

Halloween Part II

Yes, I understand that its November and therefore Halloween has come and gone. However, I had some more Halloween-y fun. I already celebrated in the big kid way a couple weekends ago and today I got to celebrate with the little kids. I did a little Halloween lesson for the first and second graders at my favorite elementary school.

I threw together an impromtu costume with a skirt and a couple scarves (my usual last-minute costume). Before the first graders came into the play room where I hold my lessons, I hid behind some doors so I could jump out at them. I talked in a spooooky voice and chased the kids around a bit.

I taught a few random Halloween words (monster, werewolf, Grim Reaper, candy, etc). And the kids played a game that was a substitute for bobbing for apples. They had to pick up flashcards of the words I taught using a headband that had a string and a magnet. It was pretty difficult for them, but entertaining. The best part was that they formed two teams which I named Vampires and Zombies and taught all the Vampires to say "Blood!" and the Zombies to say "Braaiiins!"

Afterwards, they made little masks out of paper and came up to me to "trick or treat." For some reason, when their teacher and I asked them to pose for a picture, they all put their candies on their heads.

I love Halloween. Both the big kid and the little kid versions.

Kouyou-mi in Naruko

This weekend I hung out with my friends who live in Ishinomaki, a city about an hour north of me. Nathan and I drove up to Ishinomaki on Friday and we went out to celebrate a birthday. On Saturday, we took a day trip to Naruko.

The Japanese have an appreciation for nature and certain seasonal events are a call for spending time outdoors, observing and enjoying them. In the spring everyone likes to look at the cherry blossoms. In the fall, the turning leaves turning red (called kouyou) is the big thing. So we went to Naruko to walk around and look at the autumn colors. We planned to hike through a gorge, but found out that it was closed, apparently due to dangers of falling boulders. So we walked along the road instead. There were tons of people because it was apparently the best day of the year to watch the kouyou in Naruko. Except for a bit of drizzle during part of our walk, the weather was wonderful. I took quite a lot of scenic pictures (and had trouble picking which to put here).

Naruko is a city famous for kokeshi dolls. All along the road, there were craft stores selling dolls. And you could watch the artists working on them. We stopped at some stores to look at them and some people bought presents. (I just bought postcards!)

At the main lookout point, there were food-stalls set up. The Japanese always enjoy nature with food. It was very hard toe decide on what to eat. I eventually settled on some traditional autumn soup. Although the very friendly and entertaining man making takoyaki made me want to get some just to patronize his stand. WARNING: DON'T READ THIS NEXT BIT IF YOU DON'T LIKE EATING ANIMALS OR THINKING ABOUT WHERE YOUR FOOD COMES FROM There were fish on sticks being cooked over coals. There was also a tank where there were fish swimming around. The man working at that food stall would grab a fish, spear it, and stick it over the coals. You could see some of the fish still moving as they were being cooked. I tried a piece of Jane's fish and it was delicious.

On our way back down the hill, we stopped in a restaurant for hot cocoa. As we were sitting, in came some more people. I turned to look at them, and it turned out to be other JETs that we know! It was quite a random run-in. So we chatted with them for a few minutes but they left pretty quickly to be outside before it got dark.

It was a very good little trip. We wanted to go to onsen (hot springs/baths) but didn't have time before we had to catch our train back to Ishinomaki. But aside from that, we had a great walk and plenty of fresh air.

Fresh Dinner: This post may not be suitable for vegetarians or the faint of heart

After we returned to Ishinomaki from our outing to Naruko, we went out for an amazing dinner. We all had eel tempura over rice (unagi-don). We sat at the bar of the small restaurant and chatted with the chefs as we watched them preparing food.

This was my dinner.

And this was my dinner's home until about 10 minutes before we ate.
The chef that prepared our meals reached into the tank with a net, grabbed an eel in his hand and brought it , squirming , over to his cutting board.
He stuck a metal thing through its head , pinning it in place, though its reflexes still made it twitch and it didn't lie flat right away. But he very quickly and skillfully cleaned and deboned it in seconds. He sliced it and brought it back to the kitchen and was ready to grab another eel. Nathan made a video of our food being prepared.
Food doesn't get any fresher than this. It was absolutely delicious.

Meanwhile , the other chef prepared this beautiful plate of sashimi while chatting away with us. Sadly, this tray was for someone else. The eel was quite filling for us.