I'm currently listening to a Finnish version of Jingle Bells. Why? My co-teacher/friend for 'Kid's Club' suggested that teaching the kids a Christmas/winter song would be a good idea, and trying to find something suitable I downloaded whatever winter song I could. Never mind that most of the kids can't even pronounce 'left' or 'yellow'. This Kid's Club has been the bane of my existence for the last 5 weeks. Thankfully, I only have two more weeks (until spring!) of it. Even more thankfully, I get an extra hour of paid holiday for each hour that I have to teach.

Christmas here is decidedly strange. The weather is still in the positive teens, with several hot days over the past few weeks, yet even in this sleepy town where I'm positive I am the closest thing to Christian, there are small little lit up Christmas trees everywhere. Okay, maybe not everywhere, and maybe only really one or two, but still. A few weeks ago I was in the city for a few days for Mid Year Seminar, and the first night the city was its usual self, with ordinary streetlights. But by the time we left, a couple of days later, every single street corner had Christmas lights and decorations. It's strange, because while I don't really like the in-your-face attitude of Christmas back home, at least there I can appreciate that people participate in the non-commercial aspects of it; here though, all the decorations just signify mass consumer consumption.

The last few weeks have been both boring and hectic. I'm totally drained on the weekdays due to these hellish night classes. In addition to the Kids Club, I have two adult conversation classes. I've finally had a breakthrough with the beginner one, when last class I didn't bother to prepare any grammar sheets or roleplay dialogue, and just dragged out questioning the class for the whole hour. The students (and how weird does it feel to say students when I'm by far the youngest there?) told me that they actually like that format better, so yay less work for me! The 'intermediate' class is another story. The levels of the students vary significantly, with a couple of infuriatingly shy high school students, a middle aged woman who looks and acts like she's going through some sort of Class A drug withdrawal every time she has to speak in the limited English she has, and a couple with high level ability. I've been meaning to study Japanese all month, since I'm going to Fukuoka next weekend to write a proficiency test, but I haven't had any time. Although I barely teach at Junior High, all my time there is spent in preparation for elementary school visits, night classes or the random periods of what to do if a stranger shows up? assemblies/watching the kids run outside.

So anyways, in the last few weekends, I went to Fukuoka to see a sumo tournament. There are 6 of these tournaments each year, three in Tokyo and one each in Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka. These are the only tournaments that affect the rank of the top (or all professional?) sumo wrestlers. The matches started at 9 in the morning, but since my friend drove down and there was a Costco in the area, we had to stop there first (which was awesome). We didn't end of showing to the sumo until about 3:30, but our timing was perfect as we got there just before the highest ranked wrestlers were to start. Our seats were in the second farthest row, but we could still see everything perfectly. Although the actual fighting lasted on average 10 seconds, each match had quite a bit of ceremony. I can't properly describe the utter coolness of seeing these giant (although not as giant as one would think) men in traditional Japanese fighting diapers do that whole stampy thing with their legs then wipe their sweaty faces and throw salt over their shoulders. They would do this ritual about 4 or 5 times before any fighting would begin. There was also this one dude wearing long robes and kind of looking like the Pope but not who would bless the winner. I didn't really understand, but I do plan on going again sometime, maybe in Tokyo. It was amazing.

That may actually be the only thing of real interest to note over the last weeks. It’s strange, because I’m almost past the four month mark (the longest I’ve ever lived in one place outside of Canada) and while I’m definitely getting antsy and questioning the length of time I plan on staying here, it’s also nice to finally feel like I live here. I mean, I already have, but I realize that I have courage to do things I couldn’t a few months ago, and I have some really good Japanese and non-Japanese friends that I didn’t before, and the nauseous feeling that was my constant companion in August and September has almost completely disappeared. It’s mostly the little things, like being familiar with the backroads in my town and noticing the different harvests that go on, that I mean, because my Japanese is stagnantly terrible and I still have no idea what the hell is ever going on at the junior high, but I guess it’s the small things that count.

Urine In The Cup

A few things:

Today I had a medical test/inspection. It is mandatory. I went to the Board of Education at 7:30 this morning. The tea lady, the only woman in the department, escorted me. We went to the second floor of the attached building in City Hall, where I handed in my health sheet to some dude volunteer. Then, in an orderly fashion, I had my height and weight checked, then had a blood pressure test, or as it was explained to me, a “sphygmomanometry”. (Note: no one actually said the word sphygmomanometry to me, it was written down.) Then, a urine test. Although I’d notice the line up for the bathroom and was given a paper cup when I handed in my health sheet, the tea lady made sure to explain to me what was next by gesturing to the paper cup and pointing to a scrap of paper where she’d already written directions: ‘Urine in the cup’. Good to know. Then, it was time for the “electrocardiogram inspection”. This was kind of fun. I got on a table and they strapped all sorts of contraptions to me and maybe made me breathe. I don’t really remember, it was early this morning. Finally, a blood test. Also, there was a “large intesting cancer examination”, but I don’t know when that occurred. Maybe the blood test?

All of a sudden, it got freaking cold here. Last week the weather was wonderful, still hot and sunny during the day with the perfect not too hot not too cool evenings. Then, I went to the city for the weekend and when I returned my house was an icetrap. The heat is currently on in here. The mornings are freezing and almost miserable. I kind of wish I was placed in Hokkaido because at least they have insulation and central heating (I think). I’m in one of the hottest places in this humid country, yet I still shiver to the bones. So imagine my surprise, in these cool nights, to step out of my shower last night and onto a mukade. Mukades are terrible terrible creatures, giant poisonous centipedes. I was lucky in not having had any thus far, and thought I was grand from here on till spring, but no! Big wormy bug with many legs lying on my bathroom floor. Of course, I shrieked. I almost cried, but I didn’t. Somehow I managed to cover it (with the Tupperware container I keep in the shower for when cockroaches climb out of the drain – not so much a problem since my shower’s clogged, but that’s besides the point), then slide some cardboard underneath, while it wiggled and I scared my neighbour with my yelps. Supposedly mukades are angry little buggers, and almost invincible. Otherwise I would have killed it then and there. I wanted to place it underneath my car wheel and run it over a couple of times, but it was cold and past my bedtime. So I just threw it over the cliff beside my house.

Ack! I wanted 8 hours of sleep tonight, but that’s not going to happen. Hope everyone is doing well. Some explanations for my aunt and uncle, sorry this is so late:

Janken. Janken is the Japanese version of rock paper scissors. It’s the exact same actions, with rock beating scissors beating paper etc. School children use it all the time to settle disputes or decide who goes first. Also my badminton club. Also, everyone, as seen by the old dude at the secondhand shop who made us janken him.

Shochu. Shochu is the Kyushu version of sake, I believe. Actually, I’m probably totally wrong on this but I don’t feel like looking up the facts. Anyways, it’s a totemo (very) popular drink in a country that drinks quite a bit. I think the Kagoshima version of shochu is made from sweet potatoes. Kagoshima is the prefecture (like a province/state) that Chiran is in.

Omiyagi. Omiyagi is like souvenir gifts one brings back for coworkers/friends after going away somewhere. I’m unsure of the proper etiquette, like if you ‘owe’ omiyagi every time you leave the prefecture or not. (Although one of my JTEs – Japanese Teacher of English- didn’t tell anyone but me when she went to Fukuoka to shop precisely because she didn’t want to have to buy omiyagi.) It’s usually just individually packaged sweets or candy. When I went to Beppu in Oita, I brought back kabosu/a (delicious lime) flavoured cookies. Fukuoka has these amazing sweet potato cakes, and Nagasaki deliciously dense poundcake.