Family

So...in four days the rest of my immediate family (mom and Maya) will come to Japan!!! I am very excited. Due to constraints of money and time, I never thought this would actually work out but I am glad that it will (thanks to God). I can't remember even once going on a vacation by ourselves. Maybe I just don't have a good memory.

They are here for such a short time so we are going to try to hit up the "must-see" things and "must-do" things in Japan. We are also going to meet our grandmother. I feel like maybe I should be feeling more emotions than I am right now. I guess I just don't know how to feel. This is one of the main reasons I came to Japan - to reconnect with family here - but it is kind of surreal that it is actually going to happen - I guess this was another thing that I didn't think would work out.

So for now I just remain thankful for these opportunities....the opportunity for me and Yuki to spend some time in Japan, for my mom and Maya to come and for the opportunity to meet our grandmother.

A lot in a little time

There are a lot of things that I have done and places I have gone that I have not blogged about.

In January, I went to visit my friend May (MN) in Agematsu, a small town in Nagano prefecture. It was nice to see where she lives and realize that even though we are having the same experience (1 year in Japan, working at a school) they are completely different. The highlights were going to Matsumoto castle and relaxing our feet in a foot onsen (hot spring).

In February, my friend Natasha's sister was here from Trinidad, so it made the winter much more enjoyable and it passed by so quickly! In addition to enjoying the spots around Fukui City we also went to Kyoto and Obama (Fukui). In Kyoto I recommended the temples and shrines that we went to in December - Kinkakuji, Kiyomizudera and Fushimi Inari, in particular. Many Japanese tourists have no time to travel and so when they visit a place it is in and out - taking pictures and buying omiyage (souverniors-kind of obligatory). I don't consider myself a Japanese tourist. I like to linger places so I didn't mind going to the same places again (even though there is so much more to see but I have come to the realization I will never see it all!)

Last weekend my friends came from Aichi Prefecture. I met them when they came to Toledo (my hometown) in 2003. We have kept in touch ever since. When I met them I never imagined I would be showing them around in their own country. We went to two famous spots in Fukui but transportation was kind of a nightmare. I miss the independence of having a car and I felt bad to inconvenience them. The whole weekend, we were jumping from buses to trains to taxis. But all in all, it was fun and great to have them here...made it feely more home-y.

On Sunday we went to the "penis festival". It is actually a harvest festival or fertility festival. It was at a shrine that is all about, well, the penis. There were a lot of foreigners and I felt a kind of culture shock. Japan is such a homogenous country so you just get used to seeing all Japanese people. And when you see a foreigner, just like the Japanese, you are intrigued and stare. Well, there were too many so I couldn't keep staring. And I heard English all over. (I have gotten used to blocking out conversations and actually kind of like not overhearing people talk). Check out the link if you are more interested.

http://kikuko.web.infoseek.co.jp/english/tagata-shrine-hounen-sai.html

It is interesting because on some things I view the Japanese as very conservative and others as very liberal (like parading a giant phallus down the streets).

Our advisor recently sent us some logistical things about leaving Japan. There was a long list and it made me realize that I have a lot to do in a little time. Part of me feels like I just got here. The other part of me feels like these long days of no classes at schools will never end (I am at school writing this now)! and I am craving a Chipotle burrito.

Nothing is constant

Recently I was talking to a fellow JET. She is a very deep thinker. She was talking about how nothing is constant. She also talked about about how once she realized that nothing is constant, changes that happened in her life were easier to deal with.

I have been thinking about that ever since. It is so true. Change happens all the time. It is how we deal with those changes that will determine what kind of life we have...how we view change (as positive or negative) will determine how we maneuver through or around change.

Today were the high school entrance examinations for junior high school students. I watched those kids leave after they took their tests and thought about how they don't know what high school they will attend even though the new school year begins in a month. So many unknowns, so many changes.

I think about how I received news that a family friend recently died. She was young. One moment she was riding in a car and the next moment a woman in another car had a heart attack, lost control of her car and hit their car. Change happens so quickly.

I think about the unknowns about next year for me. Where am I going to live? Where am I going to work? How will the transition be living in the US again?, etc.

I think about meeting my grandmother...how in one day I can have no answers and the next I can find out that my dad lost contact with his mom and how even knowing that one fact changes my perspective on a lot of things.

Change happens. Nothing is constant.

Spring is Coming

Last week we received a response (letter) from our grandmother. My friend helped me translate the letter. My grandmother recalled her memories of us from the past (14+ years ago), told us that my dad has not contacted us in years and that she would like to meet us. I was very surprised to receive the letter as I didn't expect one.

I asked my mom to call my grandmother since my Japanese is not at the conversational level. They will arrange a time for us to meet. We will go to Takamatsu in Shikoku (southern island in Japan) to meet her when Maya comes in April. They are working out the logistics and my mom is even trying to come. It sure is going to be an emotional journey these next few weeks and after.

My grandmother called me...but I didn't understand most of what she was saying so I just kept saying "Gomennasai" (I'm sorry) and "Wakarimasen" (I don't understand). I did mention to her that I am very happy. It is interesting that I can't even communicate with my own family by myself.

One of my goals in coming to Japan was to find my father but now that I know that he has not had contact with his own mother and he did not go to his brother's wedding (my grandmother told my mom that) I know that he does not want to be found. Do I really want to meet someone who doesn't want to meet me? On the other hand, my grandmother has welcomed us with open arms and it will be interesting to learn things from her (about her life, family history, etc.)... through a translator, of course. Even though I most likely won't meet my dad I will be happy that I tried and at least have some answers.

time passes quickly

I have been meaning to write for awhile, but you know how that goes.

This semester has flown by. I am in the last week of classes for third semester. Next week is graduation for san-nenseis (third-year students). During the month of March I don't have any classes...not even one. It will give me time to clear my head and catch up on things but I will miss being with students. That is when I am happiest and most productive. On the other hand I have been doing a lot of grading so even though it is productive I get easily tired and my head feels cloudy.

I have a lot of little trips to look forward to: Kyoto this weekend, friends from Aichi Prefecture coming to Fukui, Sumo in Osaka with my MN girls and my sister coming in April. It is really going to happen this time...God willing. I am trying to strike a balance of spending money to do cool things here and paying off loans/saving for next year when I return to the reality of life in the States.

I have five months left in Japan so I have been thinking about my original goals in coming to Japan and whether or not I have met them. Mostly not. In January, I started a private group lesson for Japanese language study which has been good because instead of 18 students there are 3 so I am forced to pay attention and do my homework, thus improve a bit. So I won't be fluent by the time I leave (my original goal was to be able to have a conversation) but I can still try to improve and study. Regarding the goal of finding my dad...well I wrote him another letter and I wrote my grandma one as well. And we applied for a tv show where they reunite people so I'm just playing the waiting game now.

あけましておめでとうございます

あけましておめでとうございます (Happy New Year!)

Today was the opening ceremony for third term at school. Third term only goes through the beginning of March (when graduation for third-year students happens) so I am sure this semester will fly by. (1st term - the beginning of the school year in Japan - starts in April).

Long story short...Maya ended up not coming ;-( Her flight was delayed twice and cancelled and by the time she would have gotten here she would have only had a week here (as compared to two) and would have had to pay more money and make more transfers. It just didn't seem worth it after all that hassle so we are hoping that she can come sometime later this year.

So for winter break the highlight was going to Kyoto for three days. We met up with May and some of her friends and toured around and saw numerous shrines, temples and famous places. I would go into detail but then this would be a long blog post. In short the weather was beautiful, everyone got along and we saw some amazing things.

Other than that I mostly just slept, ate and watched tv. For New Year's eve, however, I did go to the local shrine. There were performances, many booths selling good luck charms, people making their New Year's prayers/wishes, sake and soup, etc. In the morning I went over to the house of one of my supervising teacher's (from student teaching in MN) friends family. We had a delicious New Years breakfast (and soup with mochi!), went to the shrine, came back and the family looked at nengajoo (New Year's postcards - very popular in Japan...everyone sends and receives many), went shopping (they sell these surprise bags at all the stores where you don't know what is inside...too much of a risk for me), relaxed and ate dinner. I was so fortunate to be able to have a traditional Japanese New Years.

I am looking forward to getting back in the routine. I realize that I get semi-depressed when I am unproductive and don't have anything to do for long periods of time. I think because of that and also that it is cold and just that time of year I am getting homesick again. I realize that it is part of the process of living in a different country so I hope to get out of this feeling soon. I have this love hate relationship with Japan right now.

So if I understood correctly...

So if I understood correctly...yesterday (Monday), one of my students told me her dad died on Friday morning, something about a gun. What I don't understand...on Friday we had ball games (a time for the students to relax after exams and for teachers to grade) and I was chatting with that exact student. If her dad died, wouldn't she have been pulled out of school? I asked her yesterday why she was in school and she said she didn't come to school on Sunday (because students sometimes come on Sunday). I understand having to move on and everything but being in school on the dad your dad died and coming back 3 days later seems a little extreme to me.

On a lighter note...(I haven't had regular classes for awhile, just lessons on Christmas but I forgot to write about this). At the beginning of the term I had students make notecards with information about themselves. Then, I can use these cards to call on students throughout the semester (so I don't call on the same kid all the time). Anyways, so I was just going about my usual routine and called on "Ayumi Hamasaki". Everyone just bursts out laughing and wouldn't stop. Then I realized that Ayumi Hamasaki is a Japanese famous singer... not one of my students. The student had put Ayumi's name in the place where her name was supposed to go and put her name where her favorite singer was supposed to go. It was pretty funny. http://avexnet.or.jp/ayu/index.html

Other than that...just waiting til Winter Break. We have our closing ceremony on the 22nd, the same day that Maya comes!