Ian's first few days!

Hello everyone!

This is Ian writing this entry. Where to begin... well, I'll keep it short-ish since I need to go to bed soon. I arrived in Tottori a few days ago and was met by my Board of Education supervisor and my neighboring ALT (assistant language teacher). We, and an English teacher at my school, got lunch and then very rapidly jumped from official building to official building, signing documents and meeting people. I have forgotten who exactly I've met so far, but I know I have met the Mayor of Kotoura, and the Superintendent of Kotoura, and I have dinner plans tomorrow night with someone (I can't remember his title or name) that is the 'second most powerful man in Kotoura'. So basically, if you want to be an important person in rural Japan, you would do best to be a foreigner.

But I should back up a bit: I am the Assistant Language teacher for Akasaki Junior Highschool (and a routine special guest at 4 Akasaki elementary schools and a few preschools). Kotoura is the official name of the town that Kari and I will be living in, however, Kotoura is actually a conglomerate of three towns (I think): Akasaki, Yabase, and Urayasu (the last two towns are collectively known as Touhaku). Since Touhaku is two towns large, Kari and I live on the more rural side of town, Akasaki. We will actually have to go to Touhaku to get groceries and whatnot. But that's okay, because the Japanese Railway West (JRwest) has a line that goes through all three towns. Catching the train can be a little difficult, since there is usually only 1 train per hour on the weekdays. I actually just went over to Urayasu to get adequate footwear for my first tennis practice with the students tomorrow (I'm excited!), and I made it back just fine. But soon we will have a car and then we can roam about where ever we please (provide it's on coastal road 9... they have been doing construction on it for the last 3 years and they will be continuing for another 3 or 4, and as such they have removed all tollbooths on it. Jackpot!)

Anyway, so far I have not done a lot at my shigoto (career/job). I have been brainstorming ideas for lessons and have been reading some of the Ministry of Education books that my predecessor left behind. Aside from that, I made a poster that introduces myself and I have placed that on the English board, which is across the hallway from the school library (I'm actually pretty pumped that I get my own board to dec out however I please). And I have been making my rounds, observing the club activities and talking with students. Well, I talk to the students who don't giggle and run away from me. It's very hard to maintain a conversation with the students who do, since they are so shy and embarrassed.

In America, we take for granted that we often see people who are significantly different from us, whether in appearance or actions. For rural Japan, most people never see a foreigner in person, or for that matter anyone who doesn't look and act like them. In my case, the townsfolk and the students have only met my predecessor, so I am the first new face in 3 years. From my experiences, Japanese people tend to think of Americans as people who have the ability to do anything they want (they have other opinions of Americans too, good and bad... just don't think this is they only thing they think of Americans), so with that added in it can be a little overwhelming, especially for children. How accurately placed this notion is... can be questioned (for example, last time I was here another American counselor told me that Japanese people think that all Americans are good at dancing... this was confirmed later by my Japanese student teaching assistant at UW-L). At very least, the youth of Japanese ubiquitously views American culture/fashion/music/entertainment and more as extremely cool, and that is enough to be extremely influential for Junior High School students.

Anyway, I'll wrap things up here short-like by telling you the best pieces of information I got today: the vice-principal and a social studies teacher (as well was the gym teacher's son) all played TE (tightend) in American Football at Okayama University; the table tennis coach was trained by Hirano Sayaka (whom is about to play for the Gold Medal in the women's double table tennis match); I met the Kendo-sensei (Kendo literally means 'way of the sword', but you probably know it best as samurai sword training) and I think I will be able to practice with the team; tomorrow is a half day and I will be spending the morning practicing with the soft-tennis team (soft tennis is a little different than 'hard-tennis'... soft tennis uses somewhat squishy tennis balls -- they don't use the neon green Dunlop/Wilson balls, and they don't play on nice green courts... we play on dirt); and I finally got my hands on dress shoes (for real cheap too!) that I don't have to untie and re-tie everytime I enter/exit the building (maybe you know this, but in Japan you must take off the shoes you wore outside before coming into the building... it's a cleanliness thing / somewhat purity-ness thing... in any case, slip-on and sandals are king in Japan). So yea! Oyasuminasai!