I'm so sorry that it's been ages since I've posted. Things have been happening and I have lots to post, but I haven't had either the time or the resources. I have been working on a longer post to talk about my first week of classes, it has pictures from Kyoto and the Mt. Mitoku weekend, and I'll post it when it's finished. For now, I'm making do with this.
First, the bad. At orientation in Tokyo the keynote speech was amazing and all about culture shock, so lemme briefly recap it here. There's Phase 1: Initial euphoria. This is the honeymoon. Everything is so wonderful, and the customs here are so different/cute/interesting/fantastic. People tend to notice similarities between the cultures ("Look! Grape Fanta, only in Japanese!") Then there's Phase 2: Frustration. Things that were fun or cute before are now irritating. ("I have to take off my shoes AGAIN?! It's just a fitting room!") I think I might have broached Phase 2 a little, and here's why. When I got my first paycheck, the office kindly provided me with a breakdown, in English, of the money withheld and the total deposited into my account, etc. I looked at it and noticed a random extra 70,000 yen (thats $700 in American) that they had given me. Confused, I asked what was with the extra cash. The office lady explained to my supervisor in Japanese, and then my supervisor told me in English "It is a trip fee. It's yours." I am not entirely dumb. I asked if I would need to pay that $700 back to the school or if I would be getting a bill. My supervisor says "No. It's yours." Yeah right.
Fast forward to two weeks later (aka this past Wednesday), the office lady fetched my supervisor and had her explain to me about "some papers". These papers were a combination of bills I had to pay amounting to about 70,000 yen for the cost of the hotel in Tokyo, and shipping my bags to Tottori. I, having forgotten about the aforementioned first-paycheck conversation, nearly flipped my desk over. They sort of went blithely on ahead explaining everything about the bill, totally oblivious (or ignoring) my shocked expression. I finally had to interrupt them and say that I was under the impression that the school would be paying these expenses. They then reminded me that they had given me an extra 70,000 yen in my first paycheck and could I please bring it back by September 30th. So, I smiled and nodded and said my arigatous, and the office lady went away. Then I snagged my supervisor before she walked off, because I had a little question to ask her.
I had this wacky notion that the school could just pay the bill directly rather than sending the money on a field trip to my bank account, and then having me bring it back a month later. And I asked why didn't they do that? My supervisor gives me this blank stare (no, not The Wall![Edit: "The Wall" is explained in that other post I was talking about.]), and says "That's just how we do things in Japan." I had probably mildly offended her, so I backpedaled and said "Oh, no, no, no! I'm not criticizing!" (I was totally criticizing) "But I'm just curious about why it works that way?" Flash polite smile, wait for explaination.
She laughs and says "Oh, hahaha! It must seem a little strange to you!" and I was like, "Hahaha! Yes it does!" She explained that when she takes business trips she has to front the money and then the school reimburses her, which is great but it was by no means an explanation of what I asked for.
The final stage of culture shock is adjustment. Not a whole lot of explaining here. I hope it comes soon. Although there is a bit of fun in swapping stories with the other new JETs about our various culture shock experiences.
On to the good! Last night, two of the JETs that have been here for a year took me and another new girl to a Korean restaurant, because the food is good and the owners dote on foreigners. Not a bad deal. So we were all sitting around the tiny table (Japanese style on tatami mats!), and we're chatting and eating, and there's a guy sitting at the table behind us getting trashed. He was sitting at a table with the owner's granddaughter (I learned later) and chatting her up, but then he turns around and sees the two JETs that have been here a year. He asks them if they're teachers, and they say that we are all teachers, and the drunk guy got all excited. Apparently he, too, is a teacher and he just thought that we were swell. So as he was stumbling out, in a show of teacher camaraderie, he pays 2,000 yen ($20) towards our food bill. SWEET!
Then, the other new JET sees a picture of some food and asks what it is. The granddaughter is eating some so she lifts her plate and shows it to us. Then a guy sitting at the counter turns around and gives us his plate of the stuff, even though he's only had two pieces, and tells us to eat up and enjoy. That restaurant was a free food fiesta for us. And I am a huge fan of food, so that was definitely awesome.
Alrighty, up next I will try to finish that post with actual pictures in it. So be on the lookout. Miss you guys!!
