Revenge of the School Festival

I didn't write about this last year. Potentially because I was actively struggling to repress it somewhere deep into my psyche where it would hopefully just go away and not fester into a mental illness. Schools in Japan have a School Festival every year. My school's is in October. There's no classes for two days and the students put on a sort of talent show. Only it's a mandatory talent show that everyone has to take part in. Whatever. So not the issue.

Last year, I didn't know what to expect. Which is how I was suddenly exposed to an entire class of senior boys stripping down to tighty-whities and doing this dance. All I could think the entire time was "I'm pretty sure we have laws against this in my country." There was also a dance number that included a monk, a flight attendant, a lumberjack, and a horse in a business suit. Also, a group of girls were doing some watered down hip-hop routine to (inexplicably) the Spice Girls. Oh, and then there was the skit where the Power Rangers had toy semi-automatic guns.

Look, it's just a lot to take in all at once culture-wise. And recently I've been hearing the Japanese word for "school festival" creeping into conversations more and more.

Well listen up, Japan. We're not doing this again. I am not joking. The first sign of any jailbait shenanigans and I'm out. If the Power Rangers show up and shoot two people on a date again, I'm out. And most importantly, if you mix hip-hop and the Spice Girls one more time, I'm OUT. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, and I flip you the deuces and roll out early on the next train.

More on this story as it unfolds.

P.S. What is with reality TV right now? It's like America has suddenly discovered that New Jersey is a state. Only we're treating it like some fascinating foreign country. Hello, network execs. That's not a foreign language, they just speak English with an ACCENT.

Reading between the lines...and sometimes, just reading the lines themselves

My teachers asked me to help out with an English lesson yesterday that was going to be given to junior high students who were visiting the high school and giving it a test run, so to speak. Because it's the only morsel of work I've been offeren in a couple of weeks, I readily agreed. (Actually, I have to make a presentation for my other school. I'll totally do it later, I promise.) So, I helped out. Did my thing. Spoke some English.

Later, my supervisor told me that he was going to ask the vice principal if I could go home early, since I so kindly helped out with his lesson and because I worked so hard. As if I had generously donated my time for free or something. Or like I was doing something else and he interrupted me. He didn't mean it in a condescending way, but since I've had plenty of time to sit around thinking, I wonder what exactly is going on when they say things like "since you worked so hard today" and in reality I've only done an hour and a half of work.

I mean, is he
(a) Following his own culture, and coming up with some flimsy (but passable) excuse that would let it be "okay" for me to leave early and not sit and suffer with everyone else. Or, is he
(b) Doing what he considers to be sensitive to MY culture by stroking my ego and then letting me leave.

Probably some combination of both, if we're being pragmatic here.

Anyway, the poor teachers today have been dragged to meeting after meeting since the new semester is about to start. One of my English teachers was telling me what all of the meetings were about. My teacher says to me just before leaving for the most current meeting that the next seminar is about mental health and he is currently suffering from a mental health condition called boredom.

I must say that I find it entirely refreshing when Japanese people say how they feel. Being tactful and subtle certainly has it's place (especially here), but hearing a direct expression of inner feelings is as wonderful as a cold glass of lemonade on a hot summer's day.

God, I miss lemonade.   

Doing my part to combat the economic crisis

Met the mayor of the city at a train station a few days ago. Told him we needed a Starbucks. Only felt a little dirty.

Also the yen to dollar conversion rate is rocking my socks. Yay for JETs! Sad for Americans...

Osmosis would be better

Despite the fact that I love learning other languages, and can probably get away with studying less than your average Joe, it still has special little ways of reducing me to tears. Especially Japanese. Never before have I pulled out more of my own hair over a language (figuratively, not literally - that's called trichotillomania, and to my knowledge I don't have that).

I mean, looking back at all of the other times my head has exploded, they seem rather quaint in comparison. Like when I found out they conjugate adjectives. Like we conjugate verbs. Only they're adjectives SO WHY DO THEY NEED A PAST TENSE?? JUST BECAUSE THEY WANT TO BE VERBS DOESN'T MEAN WE HAVE TO LET THEM -

Breathing, breathing, breathing. I am centered, I am in my Happy Place. I have accepted the adjectives for who they are in all of their various conjugations. And I can't waste any more grief on them, because I'm much too occupied being miserable over the things I'm currently learning. The new verb conjugations aren't too bad. Confusing, yes, but they are verbs and they are SUPPOSED to be conjugated so I can deal.

But a long time ago, I learned how to give a reason, or state a cause. Meaning, I learned how to say "because". So I have been marching bravely on with my power to make a sentence and then link another sentence using "because". I even learned a couple different ways to say "because" - hoo-RAY for me! Only I have just learned that there is yet another way to say "because" and that the previous ways I had learned are only correct in certain situations. Meaning that I have been saying it WRONG for god knows how long. Sure, I mean, one in every ten conversations were probably correct, but still. Why was this not brought to my attention sooner?? Ho ho! Stupid me, thinking I had learned how to say something, but Japanese sure showed me!

I'm actually starting to avoid reading the footnotes in my textbook, because it's always some horrible little nuance that I thought I understood but really didn't.

I also have to - errr, get to - take a kanji test when my lessons resume. That's a different battle.

And here's some nitty-gritty details for funsies:

Current reading: Stranger in a Strange Land by Heinlein. Interesting overall and I like how he plays with religion, but he has his moments where he's a crotchety, prejudiced old geezer and it can become mildly infuriating.
Next book: Five Odd Honors by the lovely Jane Lindskold, or The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

Current watching: Project Runway! The judges need to step up their judging though, and stop sending home the wrong people. No more of this "styling" fooleywang as a reason. Send people home for making ugly-ass clothes, not because they chose the wrong shade of lipstick for an otherwise passable garment. Yeah, I'm looking at you Nina and Kors. If things don't get better I may go so far as to suggest that you're getting too long in the tooth to judge fashion adequately.

Also, Futurama. Yay. Love it.

Future Travel: Hong Kong? Anyone? And Okinawa.   

Back to the books for now. Gotta learn how to use "because" again.

Trying to keep it simple

New year, new people, new feeling about the whole experience.

The shan shan festival is underway, and the main parade is mysteriously on a Monday this year. Must remember to bring camera.

One of my favorite cafes is giving free drinks when you order a meal, and I LOVE the coffee there. I like coffee. When did that happen? Oh yeah. Junior year of undergrad, spring finals week.

Really cute university student from Gifu randomly approached me last night to practice his English. Very friendly, very proficient, and out of all the foreigners standing around he picked ME. ME ME ME. Narcissism quota for the weekend: Check!

Looking forward to hanging out with the new JETs some more. Had some lovely karaoke and revelry last night with them. Now I just need a couple people to return from their respective vacations to feel some semblance of normalcy again.