Wakai Sensei

A few days ago, I was wandering the hall at school during school cleaning time. I stopped to talk to a group of my new 1-nen-sei. In the group was an adorable girl named Yuki. She sits front row, center in her class and always smiles at me when she sees me. She's also tiny...still looks very much like a little kid, whereas some of the 1-nen-sei already look like teenagers.

Yuki asked me how old I was. And as I usually do, I made the students guess. This always takes some effort because I don't know how to say 'guess' in Japanese and they don't understand it in English. Eventually however, they start guessing. While most guesses begin in the upper 20's, one boy guesses 38! Eventually they work their way down from 26 to 22, at which point I say that they're correct. Yuki starts jumping up and down and clapping her hands with glee saying "Wakai! Wakai! Sugoi wakai! (wakai=young). She runs around a bit and tells a few other people my age, some of whom are also excited by having such a young teacher. Others are a bit more apathetic.

I look back at the boy who had guessed 38 and made acted like I was very upset. Little Yuki, standing not even as high as her classmate's shoulder, sees this and starts wailing on him and demanding he apologize. Eventually he turns to me and says sorry (in English!). But that wasn't quite enough for her. She continued demanding apologies for a bit longer till he says it again.

Nice to know little Yuki has my back.

Sakura

The biggest, most fundamentally-Japanese phenomenon here is the blooming of the sakura, or cherry blossoms. It is the essence of spring. On the television weather reports, they show the 'sakura fronts'. Lines that look like weather fronts but show when the sakura are expected to bloom around the country--starting in the south and moving northwards. When Amy and Lindsay were here, we saw a few blooming sakura in Kyoto, and they said that Tokyo was in full bloom when they were there. The sakura blooming season finally reached us here in Miyagi recently.

Cherry blossoms are everywhere in Japan. The school yard of most schools are lined with them. Parks are filled with them. Shrines, temples, monuments all have sakura growing around them. Driving in the countryside is very pretty during this time.

However, the cherry blossoms only bloom for about a week--maybe two if the weather is very cooperative. Thus during this time, everyone celebrates with hanami--literally flower watching. Everyone finds nice spots under the sakura to spread out a tarp and eat and drink and bask in the beauty. In some places, lights are strung between the trees so that it is pretty at night. That way, people can continue their hanami in the evening. The pictures are from a hanami I had on Sunday with some friends near the castle in Wakuya, a town north of here.

I recently learned the reason why sakura and hanami are so important to Japanese culture. The sakura symbolize life. They are ephemeral and fleeting. The trees bloom, but after a brief period or a heavy wind and rain, they are gone. (Today is raining). Thus, you have to go out and celebrate the blossoms (life) while they're out there...because they'll be gone soon.

Incidently, I realized that I only have 3 more months of living in Japan. So I'm working on celebrating it while I still have it.

Sharing My Lunch

As I wrote before, I sometimes make food that I get cravings for but that don’t exist in Japan. Among these foods is hummus. Yesterday I brought some hummus and pieces of carrots to school with me in my bento (boxed lunch). And since everyone stares and questions my food whenever I bring in anything I make myself, I shared with quite a few people. Not only did I introduce several of my coworkers to hummus, but I also introduced them to the concept of eating raw carrots. That’s right. Apparently in Japan they do not eat raw carrots. And they were quite shocked that I did. Until they tried some. Because everyone agrees that carrots and hummus is delicious.

New Beginnings

The new school year began this week. On the first day of school only the older students came. After a ceremony introducing the new teachers, we prepared for the arrival of the new students. All of the 1-nen-sei classrooms were decorated and the gym was set up for a ceremony.

My coworkers and I decided that the proper English translation for the ceremony would be “school entrance ceremony,” although I don’t remember anything like this occurring while I was at school. It did however, bring back memories of Freshman convocation at IWU, that being the only thing I could liken it to. I started worrying about the resemblance when a student passed out, however, it wasn't hot and if there was a Japanese equivalent of "oouuuuut", it went over my head.

The ceremony was fairly long, and pretty similar to graduation, with the new students marching in, every student’s name called, and a bunch of speeches by various officials and a couple students. And bowing. Lots of bowing.

Role Reversal

One of the new teachers at Taiwa Chuu went to grad school in the US. In fact, she just returned to Japan last month. She is still readjusting to driving on the left side of the road. Her English is impeccable (it would have to be after 10 years of immersion). She said that if I need any help with anything to ask her (practically everyone I've ever met in Japan has said this to me). But I joked that if she needs any help to ask me. After all, on some level I've been here longer than she has. After her welcome party, she gave me a ride back to where I parked my car--a parking garage near a subway station where you don't have to pay for parking. So I'm teaching her secrets and tricks already. She joked that I'm her 'sempai'. Sempai is a Japanese concept of anyone who is senior to you, either ahead of you in school or at the same company longer than you, and you look to this person for guidance.

And more bang for your buck. Another role reversal tale from this evening:

At the fancy restaurant they put out both chopsticks as well as knives and forks. During the second course I'm happily eating with my chopsticks when I notice that my neighbors to the right and left are both using the Western utensils. At some point, from my left I get the inevitable "Hashi wa jozu" [You're skilled with chopsticks]. And I was able to shoot right back, "naifu to foku wa jozu" [You're skilled with a knife and fork].

Goodbyes and Hellos

April marks the beginning of the new school year in Japan and it means an interesting Japanese phenomenon occurs. Teachers are rotated among schools. For some reason (a reason not known to the Japanese teachers I asked today) elementary school and junior high teachers don't stay at the same school for more than a few years. They don't get a choice in the matter and are told sometime in March that they'll be transferring.

Thus, last Friday we had a goodbye party for the 7 teachers leaving Taiwa Junior High. At school that morning we had a ceremony with the students (despite the fact that it was technically vacation and that the 3-nen-sei had graduated, they were all there in their uniforms). After the ceremony the teachers moved all the desks in the staff room around to reflect everyone's new positions. Most of the 1-nen-sei teachers became 2-nen-sei teachers, those 2-nen-sei teachers that didn't leave became 3-nen-sei teachers...

And then the teachers gathered in the evening at a fancy Chinese restaurant. In the true Japanese sense there were quite a few speeches and even more drinking. The presentation of the food was spectacular. (Unfortunately my camera is officially out of order). The first dish that got brought out for each table had slices of duck eggs on one side laid out to look like a frog. On the other side of the dish were thin slices of various foods arranged to look like a peacock. Later we had shark fin soup and some kind of large fish...and probably some other things that I'm forgetting. Two of the English teachers I worked with left and saying farewell to them was sad.

But if teachers leave others have to replace them. Therefore, earlier this evening we had a welcome party for the new teachers. This took place at another fancy restaurant in Sendai. The food was good, but less remarkable. And once again there were tons of speeches. Among the speeches...each new teacher introduced themselves and then all the 'veteran' staff were introduced. And at both events, at the end of the night and the height of drunkenness everyone stood up and sang the school song.

So it seems that in Japan fancy parties come in twos. You have a party to ring out the old year and bring in the new year. And you have a party to send off your leaving coworkers and welcome your new ones. Although the reason for the reshuffling remains a mystery.