End of the Year party with work

So, in Japanese tradition, my office went out for an end of the year party.

It's a great way to go out and get to know your colleagues on a personal level. At work, everything is always kept at a very impersonal level. We don't talk about personal lives or anything other than work... so we drink...and we eat...and we talk.

Now, Japanese food is great. I love sushi, miso soup, omu raisu, katsu don, etc.

I have seen people eat fish with their heads still on, and live octopus.

Not much shocks me here anymore.....but they found a way at this party.

Tori sashimi......

to break it down for you all, torii means chicken. Sashimi is the word for raw fish.

So yes, they fed me raw chicken. Chicken hearts, chicken livers, chicken breast. All raw.

They wouldn't let me not eat it no matter how many times I told them that it wasn't safe and that we don't eat that in America. It was awful. They also made me eat fried cartilage.

They were also incredibly amused at how disgusting I found it. It was the topic of conversation for the night.

"The Japanese don't waste food. We use everything." (guilt trip much? Seriously, my Mom could learn a few things from them)

But aside from the gross food, it was a great night. I really felt like I developed a rapport with people I work with. And tomorrow, I'm off to Europe. :)

Margaret...You got so much prettier....why?

Today I spent the morning studying for the JLPT that I'll be taking tomorrow. At around 4 ish I headed to Osaka for the end of the year party being held by my old company, Yubunsha. Miyake-san had invited me the last time we met up for her English lesson in Osaka a few weeks ago.

When I got to the station I went to find the shuttle bus that Ishida-san had told me to look for, but I had no clue where to go. So instead I just grabbed a taxi. It's much easier and I knew from last year that the place was really close to Shin-Osaka station. It only cost about 800 yen for me to get there, which was better than me wandering around for a while and making everyone worry.

They held the party in the same room as the party they had when I left last summer, so it was almost like I had never left, or that I had stepped into a time machine and been transported back to a year and a half ago. Some of the people were new, but most of them knew who I was.

When I got there I was told to draw a slip of paper from a box and on it was written my table and a number. So I was B9. They opened with a toast from the company president, Kihara-san (Miyake-san's husband). It was amazing because last year I couldn't understand half of what he or his son said, but this year they either speak clearer or I just understand them better....When it came time for the kanpai I had to explain to everyone that I was taking a big test the next day so I couldn't drink beer. I think they might think I'm an alcoholic or something because they seemed very shocked that I wasn't drinking a beer. (It's not my fault that Japanese people are all lightweights and I can drink 3 beers without being drunk....) Anyway.....

After we ate, they explained the reason for the numbers. They were having a prize give away and they had about 25 presents and about 35-40 people. They drew numbers from a box and if they drew your number you got a present. They started at 25, and it was all really crappy gag gifts. One guy got fake eyelashes. Another got a weird exercise device (a long pole that if you push down on the sides it bends in the middle), etc. Now, the top 10 people got really nice gifts. Ishida-san got 5,000 yen ($50). Another guy at my table got a really awesome I-Pod Stereo. It was from Yodobashi Camera (a huge electronics store in Osaka). I didn't get anything, but was glad about it. It would have felt awkward to have received a gift when I no longer work at the company.

Miyajima-san (the I-Pod stereo guy) apparently wanted a different prize and tried to switch for it, but the guy who won it wouldn't. I told him he should be happy with what he got cuz it's really cool. He said...."Do you want it?"

Me: "What?"

Miyajima-san: "Do you want it? I don't have an I-Pod. Say you want it and I'll give it to you."

Me: "You've got to be kidding...Seriously? Really? You don't want it?"

Miyajima-san: "Do you want it?"

Me: "I would certainly be happy to get something like that"

Miyajima-san: "Ok. Take it home with you..."

That right there is the difference between Japanese people and Americans. An American would have taken that thing home and either bought an I-Pod or sold it on Ebay.

I couldn't believe that I got that gift. I was so excited but also very concerned about it being improper. Everyone seemed to be happy I got it though. So I was too.

Yone-chan (actually Yoneda-san, who is in his early 30s and married but who has a great sense of humor) came by and told me to go around and talk to people so he brought me around from table to table so I could talk to people (there were a lot of people who I hadn't interacted with much, so it was awkward at first, but I was able to actually talk to them. But, I found, that Japanese men are very...interesting...when they have been drinking.

I sat down at a table with a few of the printers. Both were about the age of an average grandparent or parent with 20 something year old children....

After asking about where I live and what I do for work, the older one looks at me and he says "Margaret, you've lost weight haven't you? You've gotten really skinny, are you ok?"

Me: "Oh yeah, it's just that Japanese food is healthier and I walk everywhere now."

Old guy: "Yeah, but you're really skinny. And you're a lot prettier than you were last year. Really. A lot prettier. What happened?"

Yone-chan "She and her boyfriend broke up, so she's trying to get a Japanese man" (I only just told them about Dan and I breaking up when I got here, they had seen pictures when I was there as an intern)

Old guy: "Oh. of course"

Me: "Yone-chan, don't tell them that. That's ridiculous. I am not."

Another old guy: "But you really are prettier. Take a picture with me...I want to send it to my son, he's single. How old are you?"

Me: "Um...I'm 23."

The first old guy: "No really, why did you get so much prettier."

Shimonaka-san (who just showed up and decided to save me): "She just grew up. She's not in college anymore......"

Me: "Well I think it's time for me to go to another table. Good to see you all again..."

Seriously...I don't think anyone can give a backwards compliment like the Japanese.
None of them could believe that I live alone and like it that way...

After the end of the party I went out to drink with the design crew I used to eat lunch with last year (Ishida-san, Shimonaka-san, Yone-chan, Seki-san). Wada-san, from the business dept. reluctantly joined us (he had spent half the night telling me I have a small face and how cute that is......awkward). Wada-san didn't want to come because he is a business man and would have felt out of place amongst all the designers. I had to remind him that I had worked in the business division during my internship so he wouldn't be all alone (things at Yubunsha are separated by floor and by department and they don't usually mix much).

At first I sat at a table with Wada-san, Ishida-san, and Shimonaka-san. Ishida-san is a 30 something year old single woman...and the men just don't understand that. I got a bit lost in the conversation but the 2 men said something that really upset Ishida-san. Shimonaka-san asked me if I understood. When I said no, he said..."Elton John." ...?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!!?

Ishida-san then had to explain that she had had a boyfriend until September but liked to keep things like that private...She was really upset and it was really awkward so I was glad when Yone-chan again saved me and had me join his table.

Over there it was the usual banter. But at one point Yone-chan said something that really struck me. He asked me if I understood everything that was going on. I told him that for the most part I could keep up, but that I didn't get every single detail. He told me that if I didn't understand something I should ask them. When I told him I was embarrassed, he said..."Margaret, if you spoke English I wouldn't understand a word of what you were saying. But you can keep up with us, so ask. " And he's right. I can keep up. I can understand them, not the other way around. It just made me feel a bit better.

It was also nice to be around old friends who knew my Japanese level a year ago so I could judge my progress. I really feel like I have definitely improved quite a bit since getting here a few months ago.

Yone-chan refused to let me carry my new I-Pod stereo all the way back to Kameoka (an hour or so from Osaka) and promised to send it to me by post (and I made him promise to send it pay on arrival). He wouldn't take no for an answer. So I gave in. I went home with some vague plans to go to a ninja town in January with Yone-chan, his wife, and his friends, and then to see the panda at the zoo in Kobe with everyone in the new year.

Ridiculousness that required it's own post

So, Japan has an insane trash system...
You separate burnables from non-burnables. You have to separate cans, plastic bottles, and glass bottles (by color). You have to remove the labels of all plastic bottles and the caps.

Now, this wouldn't be so bad, if they didn't publicly humiliate you if you screw up.

So I was running late a few days ago, and I had to throw away the box for my new space heater (which is necessary because it is FREEZING here). And I just folded it up and threw it away in the bin outside my apt.

Trash pick up was on Thursday, so when I got to work on Friday, my supervisor turned to me and said...
Kagawa: "I got a call from your landlord..."

Me:(Oh shit)

Kagawa: "Did you throw away a box for a heater?..."

Me: "umm..." (can I possibly blame this on the 2 other foreigners living in my building or anyone else.......stall stall...)

Kagawa: "Well the trash company found your something in the trash with your name on it. They called your landlord. Your landlord called me...From now on just break the boxes down and put them in a bag so people can pick them up easier."

Me: "ok I'm sorry. I didn't know. It will never happen again..." (Are you kidding me? The trash guys had the time to find the SOMETHING in there with my name on it, figure out who I was, call my landlord, and then the landlord called my office......WTF!!!!!)

So yeah...If I hadn't been so embarrassed that my supervisor was correcting me on how I throw away my trash (and the fact that people went through my trash) I would have laughed. REALLY HARD.

Ugh, TGIF

Japanese Disco

So, apparently to the Japanese, disco is oldies.

My calligraphy class and I met up to go to a disco club in downtown Kyoto on Friday evening. We were expecting an entertaining evening of "Stayin Alive" and "Saturday Night Fever" but what we got was The Beach Boys, Elvis, and songs like "Let's Twist Again" etc.

We got to teach our Japanese friends how to do the twist. At one point the live band performed a Japanese song and they did a little dance to it. It took me a moment to realize that they were doing the bunny hop....So...you guessed it...we formed a line and did the bunny hop....in a bar...in Kyoto This completely thrilled the performers. They gave a little speech about it after the song and I had to explain that it is a dance we do at wedding receptions.

Nanami requested "Amazing Grace" for some reason. The keyboardist sang it, and after the first line I was super impressed. His pronunciation was impeccable (most of the other songs were in English but we couldn't tell....). Then he moved into the rest of the song, and it turned into "Amazing Grace, how sweet the sound tha sad a weh wai we. waa waa waa waa waa waa waa wa...." etc. He didn't know the words so he just made sounds to fit the tune. It was HILARIOUS. Though you have to give the guy props for trying. We probably intimidated the hell out of them....playing English songs in front of Americans.

When I put in my requests they threw a fit for about ten minutes about how good my handwriting is and how excited they were to have foreigners in the club. It was a big boost to my self esteem.

Overall...Japanese clubs=great place to act like an idiot and be told you are cool.

Weekend in Yamagata

After the Mid-year conference, I trekked up to Yamagata prefecture to visit my friend Chris. Chris and I met in Chicago when we arrived for pre-departure orientation.

Yamagata is almost the northernmost prefecture on the main island...so it was COLD.

I left from Tokyo station and since I got there early I lined up on the platform so I could get a seat (I cheaped out and got an unreserved ticket). Well, apparently the trains up to Yamagata actually start with 2 trains connected and then they separate halfway through the trip because the big trains can't get through the mountain tunnels. Not knowing this I almost boarded the wrong one. But thankfully I was paying attention and when the train arrived I didn't think it looked right. All I had to do was ask the guy next to me and then go running down the platform (all 14 train cars) to get to the very last car. Thankfully no one goes to Yamagata, so I got a seat. Coincidentally, the guy I sat next to on the first day of the CIR conference lives in Yamagata and we sat together.

It was great to see Chris again. Nick also came up to stay with us. The three of us were basically inseparable at orientation in Tokyo but have not really been able to stay as close with the distance and with how busy our lives get here. Plus everyone in JET lives in a different kind of area, so getting to see how your friends live is really eye opening. It can also make you feel a lot better about your own situation.

Chris lives in a very very very small town called Nagai. The great thing about it though is that it is surrounded by mountains. Now, Kameoka is also surrounded by mountains, but ours are small and tree covered. Chris' mountains are rocky and huge and snow covered. I have never seen mountains like that before. It was pretty amazing. The sheer beauty of it makes up for the fact that it is the middle of nowhere.

On Friday night Chris drove us into the mountains and we got to stand out and look out over the whole city of Yamagata (about an hour from where Chris lives). It was really amazing. There wasn't much light so we could see so many stars. We stayed up there shivering and enjoying the quiet view of Japan at night until some weird animal started making sounds like it was dying and we ran away......

The next day Chris took us to see a 1300 year old tree. The poor thing looked like it was dying. It was wrapped in some kind of sheet made from bamboo and propped up by a bunch of poles. But it was amazing to see a tree that has been around for so long. I mean, that area has had that tree for over a thousand years. It's mind boggling. It was also really incredible to see the lengths the Japanese go through in order to protect things like that.

We also went to a recycle shop where they had all kinds of vintage clothes. It was so weird to see Kansas City Chiefs sweatshirts from like 1999 selling for $40. We even found a shirt that I think came from Kalaidescope in Kansas City. I couldn't believe it. Apparently our old stuff really is cool in Japan. But how did it get here? Kalaidescope is kind of obscure so I'd been interested to find out how a t-shirt from there got to Yamagata, Japan of all places.

Then we went to the train station to watch Chris's friends perform. It was really cool to just hang out with people playing music.

On Sunday I headed back to Kameoka. I had been out of town for a week so I was ready to get back home.

The first 2 hours of the train was through the snow. It was so beautiful. There was heavy snow falling onto the HUGE pine trees. It's like what you see in movies. Then we went through a tunnel and it was suddenly clear. That's what mountains do I guess.

I had a 2 hour layover in Tokyo station so I grabbed a coffee, bought some omiyage, and then found a place to sit and people watch. I left Yamagata at 1 and got back to Kameoka at about 9:30.

CIR Training 11/25-11/27

This week I had to go to Tokyo for the Mid-Year CIR Conference at the Pastoral Hotel in Toranomon. When we first arrived in Japan in July we had a couple of days in Tokyo for our orientation, but since all JETs in group A were there, and the majority of JETs are ALTs, there wasn't much that could really help prepare me for my new job.

I have been working as a Coordinator of International Relations in Kameoka for 4 months now. But what does that really mean? I still can't really tell you. My job, is different from every other CIR in Japan. No one does the same work as I do. So I didn't really think this conference would be helpful. Also, since only about 20 CIRs were in Tokyo with me, I barely knew anyone there. So it looked like it was going to be 3 very awkward days.

I was surprised by how effective and helpful I found the conference. When I finally got to my hotel, I got really lucky because some other JETs were checking in. I went up and introduced myself and we grabbed a quick bite to eat and then headed to check in for the conference. On the first night I was so exhausted from playing with the kids and trekking across Tokyo and a bunch of the JETs I had met had plans so I just went to Starbucks then to bed.

The next day I ended up sitting next to one of the girls I met at the hotel in the morning and we went to all the seminars together. This ended up being a good thing because she invited me out with all the Hokkaido JETs so I got to hang out with some new people.

It was really a strange experience though, attending seminars with non Japanese people where the only language we had in common was Japanese. It is more intimidating to speak Japanese in front of other foreigners who speak Japanese. It was validating to be able to compare myself to other people and find that while I'm not the best, I'm not the worst.

The best part of the conference was when we got to split into groups and discuss our experiences. It was nice to find out that I'm not the only one who feels completely insecure half the time but still loves their job. It also made me very grateful for what I have. Some of the other CIRs have to pay for their own events or aren't even appreciated. One guy told us that his boss essentially told him that he was there as an office decoration. In the end I feel like I learned a lot about what I should do to improve and about what is good about my job.

Tokyo Birthday

On Sunday, November 23rd I woke up at about 5 am to get on my way to Tokyo. I had CIR training this week. It was a really easy trip, especially since I had a reserved ticket (normal I buy the non-reserved seats because they are cheaper…but since the City Hall was footing the bill this time, I figured I would make things easier on myself).

Upon getting to Tokyo Station I made my way to the Chuo line, the line I always used to get downtown when I lived in Tokyo two years ago. I feel like that trip to Japan was ages ago. I was so young (all of 20), and everything was so different. I was still in college, barely knew any Japanese, and never went anywhere alone. I was somewhat shocked by how busy Tokyo was. Even though I lived there, having lived in the suburbs of Japan for so long now, it took me by surprise. When I got to Mitaka, I called my host mom and she came to pick me up with her husband and kids. I couldn't believe how big they were.

When I first stayed at their apartment Ryota was 3 and Anzu was barely 1. Now, he is 6 and she is 3. Anzu was still breast feeding when I was there the first time, and the second time she could barely speak. Now she kept talking. "Ano ne, ano sa, ano ne...." It was hilarious. She was so cute. This year was like a repeat of all my favorite things about my stay with them 2 years ago, only I could communicate better and didn't feel the desire to go sightseeing. After stopping by the apartment we went on a short drive through ICU and then to Jindaiji, which was one of my favorite spots. It is a small shrine with a little pottery shop and restaurants all over. It was so different from summer when it is ridiculously hot. Instead the leaves had turned colors and it was really crowded. We went to the famous soba restaurant that we went to 2 years ago too. We stopped into the pottery shop where I bought all my Christmas presents my first year in Japan and we actually got to paint our own. It was like Jen's birthday party when we were really young in Michigan. Though I had no idea what to do so I had Ryota draw for me and I painted it. It was so cute. He drew me a sunflower.

It took the kids only about 20 minutes to warm up to me, and even though they called me Cordelia (the girl who stayed with them last summer) on and off for most of my stay, I could tell that on some level they remembered something about me. They remembered the games we used to play together, like when I would hang the boy behind my back upside down by his ankles and walk around asking where he had gone (a game I actually stole from my Dad). Or when I would swing them around like airplanes or let them do flips by holding my hands and jumping up then pushing off my legs.

By the end of that day though I was exhausted. I slept in the spare living room which has sliding doors. The next morning I woke up to two little kids "stealthily" sliding open the door to my room and shutting it. Then whispering "let's look at her again. He he he." I actually was up before their parents, so I got dressed and went out and played quietly with them.

Hiroko was busy preparing for her family visiting that evening so I went to the zoo with Yuji and the kids. When I first stayed with them I thought that he and I never really talked because my Japanese wasn't good enough. Well, now I know it is just because he is really shy. He still didn't really talk to me, and I noticed later that when his wife's family was over, he barely spoke to any of them either. At the zoo (if you can call it that), the kids did the stamp activity (you go to each station and get a stamp that spells something out), so we actually spent most of our time running around looking for stamps. The zoo was basically birds, guinea pigs, cows, an elephant, some monkeys, really big hedgehogs, and mountain cats. But the kids had fun, and I had fun chasing them.

We biked back home and just after we got there Hiroko's family arrived. It was her sisters and her parents, who I had met 2 years ago. It was a bit overwhelming having that many people around me speaking a foreign language. I was actually pretty grateful when Ryota left the kids table to sit on my lap and eat his dinner. It gave me and out when I lost track of the conversation. The reason for this gathering was actually a joint birthday party for me, Ryota and Hiroko's mother. It was really nice to spend my birthday with people who were somewhat like my family. Hiroko baked a cake and they gave me a really nice scarf, seeing as Kyoto gets so darned cold. The kids made me presents too. Ryota gave me a handful of those shapes you make from melting beads together and a drawing of a Christmas tree, which may become my Christmas tree in my apartment. It was about the cutest thing I had ever seen. He got really shy after he gave it to me too.

Anzu also gave me gifts. She gave me a sheet of paper with saran wrap glued to it and the numbers 1-6 written on the back. She also drew the cutest picture of me, her, and her brother. We are just a head with legs coming out of us. She tried to write my name but got some of the characters backward. It's the cutest thing I have ever seen.

The next day I had to leave to go to my hotel in Tora-no-mon for orientation. I decided not to impose on Hiroko and family and also knew that now that I have become accustomed to living alone, staying with a family when I have to get ready for work in the morning would not be ideal.