Friday, March 04, 2005
"Have you ever used chopsticks?"
I spent the morning at the elementary school and I think I may be the first gaijin to be told I'm not so good at chopsticks. That’s not actually what they said. They asked “Have you ever used chopsticks?” and I’m not sure which is more embarrassing.
The Story:
I asked to eat lunch with the kids after the lessons and so we all gathered around the floor tables and sat in seza (painful legs under body position) for lunch. I usually eat with wooden chopsticks, but because I'm packing my own bento nowadays I also bring my own plastic chopsticks. Well, plastic is not quite as gripping as wood, and I had a few slippery foods in my box. I dropped probably two pieces of food—a gyoza (pot sticker) and something else. They weren’t huge drops, just back into my own box, but they didn’t go unnoticed. The 6th grade teacher asked me after lunch (on behalf of the students, probably), “Do you use chopsticks everyday?” I didn’t realize where he was going with this, but I soon found out he meant, “It looks like this is your first time.” Geez…
Next Story (with a good quote):
“How long has your electricity been out?” Miyamoto-san asked me this morning. “Since Tuesday,” I replied.
So, I guess four days is sort of a long time to be without electricity, but it was just in my kitchen so I didn’t mind too much. I used an extension cord from the living room to plug in the fridge and cooked by the light of the laundry room. I have a gas stove and if I ever needed the toaster, I just moved it to the living room.
I got it fixed today anyway. Miyamoto-san came out to my apartment to show me where the breakers are. If I had known all I needed to do was lift the plate off the main breaker to get to the three individual breakers I could have fixed it a lot sooner. But I didn’t, and I made do without.
Following my streak of bad luck, I just plugged in my external HD which I brought from home from Christmas. It had a bunch of archived photos, (anything before 1999 (Yes, I had a digital camera before ’99.)) all my college video/editing files and examples of my work, (I don’t know where another copy is, but I think I have one. I hope I have one.) and most devastating, my college website (Good Grief—Learning to Cope with Grief and Alzheimer’s Disease). Not sure how many of you out there have seen it, but I was so proud of that website! I wanted to get it back on the web (since they took it off the Linfield server after I graduated) while I was here in Japan. It was one of my major goals, actually.
Well, as you can probably guess at this point, it’s all gone. Erased off the HD. Probably. I’m not freaking out about it too much, which means I probably haven’t really accepted the fact that it’s all gone. This happened to my previous external HD (also a Lacie piece of crap) but some genius at the Mac Store was able to get it back for me. Maybe I’m still hanging onto a thread of hope that “gone” on a computer doesn’t always mean “gone” like in a fire or flood. If you’re lucky, you can get it back unharmed. But when I plug it in, it asks to initialize, ignore or eject. That’s a bad sign. I know that much.
I’m getting a visitor this weekend! Peter’s coming out to Kamigoto!! He’ll be here tonight between 5-7 p.m. He’ll call me when he knows what ferry he’s taking and when it arrives. I’m really excited about showing someone around my little home. Daniel’s the only one who’s really seen it beside the other Kamigoto kids, of course. It’s supposed to snow this weekend, but I don't really mind. I’ve got lots of kerosene for the heater and a kotatsu for two! We’re going to karate tonight. Peter is a brown belt in his style of karate and he wants to see mine. I hope we can spar! Not really. I only sort of like sparring. I like wearing the getup and trying to attack people, but you only get to do one or the other.
Yesterday I got seriously back into triathlon training. I went swimming and after talking and playing around in the pool for about an hour I decided I should actually do something. Then I worked really hard. I talked to Tanabe and Shigehisa (pool buddies) for a long time too. I haven’t seen them in weeks now since I’ve been slacking. Shigehisa was so happy to see me. He thought something was seriously wrong with me when he didn’t see me for five days! Then Tanabe and I talked for almost an hour while I shriveled up like a prune in the pool. I learned so much about him though! He’s just as sweet as everyone says he is—and he’s starting to open up in English as well. I’m just happy when he tries and he’s not embarrassed to try with me anymore because I’m obviously making a fool out of myself in Japanese regularly.
Anyway, he wants to be a teacher. A high school P.E. teacher. He’s been taking the prefecture teacher test every year for three years, but he has not passed yet. (The way teachers become teachers here seems really backwards, but basically it’s like this. You go to college, get your degree in teaching, then after you graduate you take a test to get a job in your prefecture (or state). The number of job openings in the prefecture each year equal the same number of people who “pass” the test. If there’s only one P.E. teacher opening in Nagasaki prefecture this year, only one person passes—no matter how many apply. Same for all subjects in all prefectures. You only get to take the test once a year, and I’m pretty sure in only one prefecture. You just gotta hope this is your lucky year. If you don’t pass and become a full-time teacher, I think you can start applying for part-time positions or a job doing something else. Once you become a teacher, however, your job is secured basically until retirement or you move out of the prefecture. This is the way I understand it at least. It’s probably oversimplified, but if there’s any major errors, someone out there please set me straight.) Almost this whole paragraph was in parenthesis. Wow.
So Tanabe has been life-guarding and teaching swim lessons for the last three years while he studies and takes this annual test. I don’t know how many people are trying to become P.E. teachers in Nagasaki every year, but my guess is significantly more than there are positions. Hatakeyama-sensei told me the year he tried to become an English teacher, there were only two positions open in all of Nagasaki prefecture. He and one of his friends from college got them. He said he was very lucky.
Tanabe has not given up yet. This weekend he’s going to Nagasaki, actually, to take a class and practice for the test. I think they administer every June. Maybe I’m totally wrong on that though, it doesn't seem right. This is the same test that Koichiro is constantly studying for as well. This is why he has no life. Hopefully Tanabe doesn’t take studying that seriously. I’d like to think he has a life. Tanabe and I also talked about Fukuoka, where he went to college, and argued the best place to eat ramen. He loves baseball; has been playing since elementary school and still has a team he practices with!! We talked about smoking and it's horrible effects on your health. I asked him if he smokes and he said "a little" and before I could even tell him how horrible it is, he said he's trying to stop, or he's quiting, or something. A physical education teacher who smokes...can you believe it? But, it was fun to get to know him and we've agreed to hang out sometime, however "itsuka to obake wa deta kotonai" is the phrase that comes to mind.
I got a present from my friend Gavin in Portland yesterday. He sent me an oversized photo of my mom, George and I hanging out in his apartment this Christmas. It’s a really great shot, with all of us hanging over each other and intertwined. It’s cool. Thanks Gavin!!! I’m not sure I can frame it professionally, but I’ll try to fashion something myself here. It’ll look great in my apartment.
Okay, going to post so I can go pick up Peter!!
Love, Sierra
Still no pictures from me, but maybe this weekend if Peter brings his camera along.
Here’s my seester!
The Story:
I asked to eat lunch with the kids after the lessons and so we all gathered around the floor tables and sat in seza (painful legs under body position) for lunch. I usually eat with wooden chopsticks, but because I'm packing my own bento nowadays I also bring my own plastic chopsticks. Well, plastic is not quite as gripping as wood, and I had a few slippery foods in my box. I dropped probably two pieces of food—a gyoza (pot sticker) and something else. They weren’t huge drops, just back into my own box, but they didn’t go unnoticed. The 6th grade teacher asked me after lunch (on behalf of the students, probably), “Do you use chopsticks everyday?” I didn’t realize where he was going with this, but I soon found out he meant, “It looks like this is your first time.” Geez…
Next Story (with a good quote):
“How long has your electricity been out?” Miyamoto-san asked me this morning. “Since Tuesday,” I replied.
So, I guess four days is sort of a long time to be without electricity, but it was just in my kitchen so I didn’t mind too much. I used an extension cord from the living room to plug in the fridge and cooked by the light of the laundry room. I have a gas stove and if I ever needed the toaster, I just moved it to the living room.
I got it fixed today anyway. Miyamoto-san came out to my apartment to show me where the breakers are. If I had known all I needed to do was lift the plate off the main breaker to get to the three individual breakers I could have fixed it a lot sooner. But I didn’t, and I made do without.
Following my streak of bad luck, I just plugged in my external HD which I brought from home from Christmas. It had a bunch of archived photos, (anything before 1999 (Yes, I had a digital camera before ’99.)) all my college video/editing files and examples of my work, (I don’t know where another copy is, but I think I have one. I hope I have one.) and most devastating, my college website (Good Grief—Learning to Cope with Grief and Alzheimer’s Disease). Not sure how many of you out there have seen it, but I was so proud of that website! I wanted to get it back on the web (since they took it off the Linfield server after I graduated) while I was here in Japan. It was one of my major goals, actually.
Well, as you can probably guess at this point, it’s all gone. Erased off the HD. Probably. I’m not freaking out about it too much, which means I probably haven’t really accepted the fact that it’s all gone. This happened to my previous external HD (also a Lacie piece of crap) but some genius at the Mac Store was able to get it back for me. Maybe I’m still hanging onto a thread of hope that “gone” on a computer doesn’t always mean “gone” like in a fire or flood. If you’re lucky, you can get it back unharmed. But when I plug it in, it asks to initialize, ignore or eject. That’s a bad sign. I know that much.
I’m getting a visitor this weekend! Peter’s coming out to Kamigoto!! He’ll be here tonight between 5-7 p.m. He’ll call me when he knows what ferry he’s taking and when it arrives. I’m really excited about showing someone around my little home. Daniel’s the only one who’s really seen it beside the other Kamigoto kids, of course. It’s supposed to snow this weekend, but I don't really mind. I’ve got lots of kerosene for the heater and a kotatsu for two! We’re going to karate tonight. Peter is a brown belt in his style of karate and he wants to see mine. I hope we can spar! Not really. I only sort of like sparring. I like wearing the getup and trying to attack people, but you only get to do one or the other.
Yesterday I got seriously back into triathlon training. I went swimming and after talking and playing around in the pool for about an hour I decided I should actually do something. Then I worked really hard. I talked to Tanabe and Shigehisa (pool buddies) for a long time too. I haven’t seen them in weeks now since I’ve been slacking. Shigehisa was so happy to see me. He thought something was seriously wrong with me when he didn’t see me for five days! Then Tanabe and I talked for almost an hour while I shriveled up like a prune in the pool. I learned so much about him though! He’s just as sweet as everyone says he is—and he’s starting to open up in English as well. I’m just happy when he tries and he’s not embarrassed to try with me anymore because I’m obviously making a fool out of myself in Japanese regularly.
Anyway, he wants to be a teacher. A high school P.E. teacher. He’s been taking the prefecture teacher test every year for three years, but he has not passed yet. (The way teachers become teachers here seems really backwards, but basically it’s like this. You go to college, get your degree in teaching, then after you graduate you take a test to get a job in your prefecture (or state). The number of job openings in the prefecture each year equal the same number of people who “pass” the test. If there’s only one P.E. teacher opening in Nagasaki prefecture this year, only one person passes—no matter how many apply. Same for all subjects in all prefectures. You only get to take the test once a year, and I’m pretty sure in only one prefecture. You just gotta hope this is your lucky year. If you don’t pass and become a full-time teacher, I think you can start applying for part-time positions or a job doing something else. Once you become a teacher, however, your job is secured basically until retirement or you move out of the prefecture. This is the way I understand it at least. It’s probably oversimplified, but if there’s any major errors, someone out there please set me straight.) Almost this whole paragraph was in parenthesis. Wow.
So Tanabe has been life-guarding and teaching swim lessons for the last three years while he studies and takes this annual test. I don’t know how many people are trying to become P.E. teachers in Nagasaki every year, but my guess is significantly more than there are positions. Hatakeyama-sensei told me the year he tried to become an English teacher, there were only two positions open in all of Nagasaki prefecture. He and one of his friends from college got them. He said he was very lucky.
Tanabe has not given up yet. This weekend he’s going to Nagasaki, actually, to take a class and practice for the test. I think they administer every June. Maybe I’m totally wrong on that though, it doesn't seem right. This is the same test that Koichiro is constantly studying for as well. This is why he has no life. Hopefully Tanabe doesn’t take studying that seriously. I’d like to think he has a life. Tanabe and I also talked about Fukuoka, where he went to college, and argued the best place to eat ramen. He loves baseball; has been playing since elementary school and still has a team he practices with!! We talked about smoking and it's horrible effects on your health. I asked him if he smokes and he said "a little" and before I could even tell him how horrible it is, he said he's trying to stop, or he's quiting, or something. A physical education teacher who smokes...can you believe it? But, it was fun to get to know him and we've agreed to hang out sometime, however "itsuka to obake wa deta kotonai" is the phrase that comes to mind.
I got a present from my friend Gavin in Portland yesterday. He sent me an oversized photo of my mom, George and I hanging out in his apartment this Christmas. It’s a really great shot, with all of us hanging over each other and intertwined. It’s cool. Thanks Gavin!!! I’m not sure I can frame it professionally, but I’ll try to fashion something myself here. It’ll look great in my apartment.
Okay, going to post so I can go pick up Peter!!
Love, Sierra
Still no pictures from me, but maybe this weekend if Peter brings his camera along.
Here’s my seester!
My Aunt Lynne with my favorite red-head and the smartest cat in the world.
Elsie has a NUMMY! She’s no longer a neglected puppy, thanks to our good friends at Nummy Anonymous.
Some bags my mom made.
