My Middle Schools and Teachers: a Vague Discription

Getting used to my life in Japan was more than just finding where to shop, where to go for fun, and how to organize my apartment. I also had to keep all of my schools sorted. All six of them. I alternate and go to a different school every day. There is a pattern, but sometime the pattern changes due to testing or what the BOE desires. Each school is at least 20 minutes from my home, so if I go to the wrong school on the wrong day, I'd have to make a mad dash to the correct one before first period! And each grade in each school has a unique personality, expectations, requirements, and skill level. The same goes for the teachers and staff.

To save anyone from too much embarrassment (and protect the innocent), I will refer to the schools and personel by nicknames. This should also help for those readers who would be lost with all the Japanese.

Western School

My western school is a little odd. The students aren't too interested in studying it seems. The third graders don't know as much as the second graders seem to and the first grade could care less about lessons or class. As soon as they set foot in school, all life seems to drain from them. There are some lively kids, but usually I only see them in their full spirits after school during club activities or running around during lunch time.

At this school, I'm allowed to use Japanese outside of the school building, but not inside. However, the students know that I speak Japanese, so they can express themselves that way, but receive an English answer. The first years seem to be the only ones who realize I speak Japanese there. The second and third years haven't figured it out so much, and I'm in no rush to tell them. But that is for another blog.

I have a few teacher friends at that school. My main English teacher is a very soft spoken, grandmotherly, kind lady who can not seem to get control of the kids whatsoever. She came from a smaller school where all the students were perfectly behaved and so far she can't seem to realize that her old tactiques won't work here. The Japanese language teacher speaks fairly good English too and is always smiling and showing me new things. The vice-principal may be the hardest working person at the school! He (and all the other vice-principals) seem to be in charge of everything and he definitely has the respect of the students. One look from him and they all snap to attention! He gives us cream puffs, taiyaki, tea, and other treats quite frequently! There will be mochi or cookies from him sitting in the staff break room, and I'm always invited to help myself. Thank you, Mr. VP! My principal there is very sweet and calm. He enjoys walking and is always checking on me to make sure I'm okay and not too overwhelmed. He doesn't do much. Like, ever. But I'm sure that he has work.

Southern School

My southern school is my smallest, with only 49 students in all three grades. They are my smartest school, however, and my best behaved on top of that! I love this school, but only go once a week.

The students there have ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA that I speak Japanese. They don't know I can read it, write it, understand it, nor speak it. To that effect, they must speak and communicate with me only in English and pantomime. Usually the second graders give me personality quizzes and one of the third year girls has taken to writing me notes and speaking with me during lunch time. I make sure to watch their club practices, but since they only have 4 clubs, that isn't too hard.

My English teacher there is on top of his game! He knows all the ins and outs of English and not only teaches them to his students, but makes sure they they know what they are saying, why they are saying it, and how to say it. These kids have a major boon in having him as a teacher. The nurse and one of the school cleaning ladies sit next to me, so we talk quite a bit. They tell me about  their power stones, take me to see the inari shrine nearby, give me candies, and even helped me find my air conditioning unit. If I have any question about daily life or Japanese words, they are sure to help me. My principal is a very Piglet (from Winnie the Pooh) grandpa. My little sister would understand this perfectly, but I may have to expand on this explanation for everyone else. He is quite small in size and stature, quiet, smiles and nods, but rarely speaks, and when he does speak he "ne"s everything. He is very old and speaks like an old man, which means he slurs much of what he says together and speaks softly with a lots of grunts and "eeeehhh"s as well. All in all, super adorable! I don't really associate with the other teachers there (the other 11 of them). However, if you have seen my facebook statuses about the teacher-who-talkes-to-themselves-out-loud, he is a teacher at this school. My own special friend. So very special...

Eastern School

My easter school is my largest middle school. These kids are the typical Japanese student: shy, studious, polite, and focused. There are a few troublemakers/emotional kids, but they are all sweet and are just trying to play with me, not harass me. Except the third grade B class. I still haven't figured out their game entirely.

They know I speak Japanese, but seem to forget sometimes. That is fine by me and allows me to use it somewhat in class time. Mostly I speak to them after school. I try to watch all the club practices, but there are so many to see that I still haven't been to all of them yet.

I have two English teachers here. The older one was so hard for me to understand at first (not in terms of language, but in how to adjust what I was doing to her style of teaching), but now we work very well together and I actually enjoy being paired with her. She is very thorough in her explanations and has all of her chalkboard notes color coded for the kids to better understand. She does each class almost the exact same way, which I thought was really dull at first, but is reassuring to the kids because they know what to expect and can focus on the material and content rather than the presentation. The younger English teacher is very kind, but seems nervous, stressed, and busy all the time. Even the other Japanese teachers said that she was far too busy. She gives me free reign of her classes, but then steps in to help translate and control the class, which I appreciate. The vice-principal at that school is quite lively and is always scuttling about helping and informing the other teachers and me. I can never seem to go a week without having a problem with the school computer and printer, and he is right there to save me. The principal at that school is also adorable! He is running around so much they they have a spinner "Where is the principal?" that shows where you can find him. He loves making wooden crafts, caring for plants, and fixing things in the school. He makes many obvious fake advances on me (a style of joke that many old men here do) but because he has a daughter about my age, he goes out of his way to help me with any projects I'm doing. He tries to complete my worksheets to practice his English and his catch-phrases are "I am carpenter" and "You are beautiful, yes." Always laughing and active, I really enjoy chatting with him. The other teachers at that school take turns talking to me, it seems. I have made friends with most of them but it would be hard to describe them all here. Maybe another time.


I'll tell you more about my elementary schools another day. Til then!

Ise Shrimp Festival in Hamajima

What I look forward to about Japan is the chance to experience its culture and traditions. The more unique, the more locally based, the more obscure, the better! Recently I was able to take part in one such event: The Ise Shrimp Festival!

Now, they may be called "shrimp" but they are actually lobster. It is a Lobster Fest! It entails lobster decorations, lobster themed dances, lobster hats (more like antenna hats), floats, Shinto lobster blessings, and fireworks (of course). People talked about it for weeks before it happened, I saw decorations, flags, and flyers go up everywhere in town. The shrimp anticipation was killing me! From all of the pictures and the posters, it was obvious that this was the biggest festival in this area, and I was definitely going to get in on the action! 

Luckily for me, my Western middle school and its elementary school are in the town that hosts the Shrimp Festival. I made sure to join one of their dancing groups for the day's parade. At first I was worried that I would have to pick between going to the Sports Day of my Eastern middle school and the festival, but the timing worked out perfectly and I was easily able to attend both events even though they fell on the same day. After the Sport's Day ended, I dashed home, changed into my dancing team's 1980's-themed happi and a shrimp hat before going to meet up with the other teachers. They were impressed with my eagerness to perform, but we had met at 4 and weren't going to start dancing until around 7. I got quite a few looks of surprise as we walked through town, but luckily, I was with celebrities. The teachers are known and loved (well, at least respected) by everyone in town, so even my weird foreign self was immediately accepted since I was surrounded by the teacher-posse. On top of that, the young math teacher's wife had given birth just the day before, so all his current and former students swarmed him for pictures of the baby! In a small town, everyone knows everything, but even he was surprised that so many people knew in under 24 hours.


To kill time we went to one of the other teacher's houses for a major feast. I mean a huge feast! I mean the kind of feast the Tolkien would have written for his hobbits. Fish and rice and vegetables, more sake, beer, noodles, potato salad, sushi, more fish, more rice, desserts and rice crackers, everything by the boatload! I had no idea where it was all coming from, but it seemed endless. This particular teacher was not to join our dance group, but was with another set of performers with extravagant face paint and lots of decorations their costumes. I later found a photo of him on someone's blog (see left). Not only our group and his group, but many of his friends happened to come by for some food and drink. I munched away happily at my end of the table just listening to everyone else talk about who knew who, where they came from, "oh, you're so and so's daughter! I thought that you looked familiar." All the typical chatter that I've been missing since coming here. After the bounty that was our dinner, the other teachers changed into their outfits and we wondered down to the meeting place.

Not going to lie, when we got to the bridge, I was a little concerned that it was just going to be me and the teachers dancing along the road. Not that it would be a bad thing, but for five of us to be jumping about seemed odd to me. I was just about to voice this when along came some of my students, dressed in the same 80's happi and super surprised to see me! As we waited and took out place in line, more of them came, each with their weekend festival hairstyles and decorations. Some boys were sporting sunglasses and masks, others had colored and gelled hair for the day (something they are definitely not allowed to do during the school week) and were trying to wear their happi in interesting ways (rolled sleeves, off one shoulder) to look as cool as possible. The girls had done their hair in curls and fancy styles and some had stickers on their checks. You could tell who got ready with whom based on their accessories, but somehow we all ended up with glow sticks. Cool with me! I added mine to my Shrimp hat so that it glowed in my hair.

Waiting was the worst part, so I went around to the neighboring groups and took pictures or talked with them. Some people would sneak pictures of me when I wan't noticing and some people were considerate enough to ask me to pose first, but just in case I tried to stand straight and smile at all times. The students helped me learn the dance steps as we were waiting, but no one really wanted to stand by me at first, so I just jumped to the front of the group. The elementary schoolers and teachers were behind out group, so we were asked to jump as high as possible and be super energetic to set a good example for the younger ones. My kids were taking lots of pictures of themselves too, and some where trying to do the power shock picture that is so popular now, but the person who was helping them was too slow at snapping the shutter and couldn't get the timing for the jump right. I stepped in and took the photo with someone's iphone, getting much praise from the students (props for me!).

As we starte getting formed and lined up, I kept hearing them call out for the "Lottery Club". Hmm, that is strange. Why would there be such a thing like that? I wondered. But there were a lot of members! That club must be really rich if they all won the lottery! I thought. Wrong. It was the Rotary Club. Ooohhhh, I get it now. Another thing I was unsure about was why certain members of the students had slightly different outfits. Later I found out that it was because they were in the band and were going to perform at the end for the grand finale (which they did wonderfully in, might I add).

Once the music started, we still couldn't move forward until the was enough space in front of our group. The festival officials were there to give us the okay, but by that point I was so anxious to get started that I had already begun dancing in place and practicing my shrimp jumps. As we reached a certain point, the groups would pause for a rally. Most would cheer about how they'd be the loudest and most energetic, and some hand gestures or group movements that they performed. Of course, our students wanted to have a rally too, so we gathered all together, but no one wanted to lead. I guess this wasn't discussed about before hand, so no one had anything prepared to say or yell. Being myself, I jumped in the middle after letting them argue and decline for a while. Not thinking of anything cool to say at the moment, I decided to use my ultimate trump card: English. I screamed out silly sentences like "This is a pen!!!" and "Are you ready??!" and "Let's go!" for a while.  After every call I made, the students would scream out "Oooii!" or "Eeeehh!" and wait for me to give the final cry (which I did while doing a fist pump so that they would realize I was done). They really enjoyed getting to be the only group that could have a rally chant in English and got pumped up after our session. However, everyone had jumped the gun. We had all started cheering too early because the parade had been held up just a bit. So after everyone had gotten the proper spacing, and we all started to move again, the kids wanted another rally. Oh, boy. They all asked if I'd hop in again, which I was glad to do. I was so excited to get this party started that I let all my energy out in the yells. This time I had the students do a kamehameha at the end of it! They loved their new cheer and being the center of attention because of me. We started off our dancing with a lot of energy and started off just as the sun was setting.

As we marched, danced, and jumped along, we would periodically see other students standing on the sidelines. What?! Bystanders?! Not this time, kiddos. We allowed a few of the students to break formation to pull in their classmates into the dance. The kids we found were the one who were too cool to wear happi, too cool for shrimp hats, too cool for dances, but since we had made such a fuss about bringing them into the parade, and since we were all looking goofy together, they joined without any complaint.

We also had a shy camera boy follow us for the first third of our parade route. He had graduated from our middle school, but I wasn't sure if he was in high school or college yet. He kept taking picture after pictures of us, but he only pointed the camera at the front of the line, where myself and the sign leader were. It was a touch creepy, but it made me really focus on dancing properly. As the night grew darker and the crowd got thicker, he faded away, but others were sure to take his place.

As I danced, I'd hear to my right "Look, its a foreigner!" and hear the click-click of cameras going off. The older folks were quite confused and talked about me a bit, so I made sure to jump extra high and smile extra big for anyone who noticed me. Likewise, as I was scanning the crowd, I noticed some foreigners of my own: three boys in ghetto hats standing on the side of the road. One was bent over his camera, but I recognized him and another one right away as the ALTs from Toba (Facebook stalking has its perks). I broke formation this time to run over to them. "Hi, I'm Alexandra, the ALT in this area. Welcome to Hamajima! This is my group. Bye!" and dashed back again. They tried to get me to meet up with them later, but I didn't my Japanese phone with me and I wasn't sure what my teachers had planned for that evening. I didn't see them for the rest of the day, but we had already agreed on meeting up the next day for an international education event, so I wasn't too concerned about it.

After the dancers crossed the finish line, we were handed some tea, and gathered behind the main stage. We were told to go in order up on stage, split in two groups, then go down the stage to the pit area in front. I wasn't sure what was going on, but for some reason I was still the leader. Luckily, the girl behind me would tug on my sleeve to let me know where to go or if I was going too fast. Everyone was gearing up for the last batch of dancing as the group of us down in the pit grew larger and larger. We spiraled around the ground until everyone backstage was in our crowd and were then told to move to sides of the area. That is when the shrimps came out! The girl shrimp and boy shrimp danced around the area, bobbing and rocking as if they were alive, until they were finally placed on stands and we were allowed to join in the dance again. The problem was that in the very final dance segment, no one wanted to move because we were too interested in the hip-hop performers on stage. So we all bopped about and cheered until Pow Boom!!! Fireworks started exploding over the waters behind the stage. Everyone moved down to the beach to get a better view and visit the food stalls one last time. I became separated from my teachers, but I had the school's sign, so they found me again soon enough. We were required to make rounds around the festival and tell all the middle school students we found to go home before curfew. As we walked, most former students stopped to talk to my teachers and catch up on what had happened, so patrol took quite a while. One of my teachers was nice enough to buy me a snowcone. I must have really impressed them because for the next month, people mentioned that they had seen me performing on the local news and that of anyone from the Western school, I was the most excited to dance. I'd have to agree there. After the performance, I felt like I could have danced for another 2 hours, but everyone else was dead tired. I hope that I'll be around for other exciting festivals!

Look for my video footage on the blog. Things take awhile to work with youtube, but I'll get it online eventually.

Here are some of the pictures my friend Eric (one of the ALTs I spotted in the crowd) took at the time.

"The Japanese are an ocean culture and this traditional Ise-ebi (Lobster Festival) art reflects that. Photo: Kin Kimoto/surfdayz.jp" 

Interested in all things Ise Shrimp? Take your time by looking up the following links.

http://www.iseebi-onsen.com/iseebi/53newspape.htm

http://www.iseebi-onsen.com/iseebi/2011/51sam.htm

http://www.iseebi-onsen.com/iseebi/
Great photos on this blog.

This is a news report about the festival.
This is the city's summary of the event.

The Mysterious Drumming Noise

Anyone who has Skyped with me knows that right behind where I live is a densely wooded area through which the trains run. This makes for lovely and safe scenery for the train, and lots of bird calls, songs, and noises for me. Now that the warmer weather is coming, I've been leaving on of the smaller windows open so that my room gets fresh air, but not so many train sounds (especially when I'm sleeping). 

However, there has been a new auditory treat recently. For a few days straight, during the late afternoon while I was making dinner or checking emails, I heard a drumming song. They were simple rhythyms played over and over again. Not annoying, all very happy, to be sure, but they were very consistant. Sometimes there were low "booms" and other times it was only high "tap tap tappitty taps". The first two days, I was far too tired from bad sleep at night to go venture out, but my mind wandered. It could be a group of taiko and kodaiko (traditional Japanese drums and little drums) practicing for the Ise Shrimp festival in two weeks. Maybe they are a local group who does performances and would let me join. They (whoever they were) sounded very close and could be practicing on a regular schedule. I decided that the next day, if I still heard them, I would find out who was playing the music.

Sure enough, on the third day I heard the "tappitty tap boom tap tap". I facebooked: This marks the third day of the mysterious taiko music. I shall now go on a quest for the source. This was more to keep a definite time marker than a status update. I had guessed that they were practicing in the park, but that could have been completely wrong. Anyone exposed to any drum knows that they are loud and can be heard several blocks away. For all I knew, they were practicing inside a building and the sound was just escaping through the windows. In case my first guess was wrong, I was curious how long my quest would last. 

Luckily, not that long.

The source was a Japanese construction worker in the park playing his djembe! The instrument can make three distinct sounds, which is why I thought it was a group of kodaiko before. When I walked under the shrubbery tunnel, I could see him practicing at the picnic table. He and I had a lovely chat about his interest in music, how long he's been playing, and how similar his djembe is to my father's derbake. He doesn't have a group, he doesn't have concerts; he just plays for the love of music. I'd like to bring my friends around sometime to meet him, too. Bridgette especially would like his playing, I think. But for now, I can just enjoy listening to drum music from my apartment while the weather is nice.

Spain Village from Afar

I have mentioned this to a few people, so I may as well bring everyone up to speed.

My area isn't known for very much. Sure Mie prefecture may have some special spots, importnat people, and interesting culture, but little Shima is a bit more humble. We have aosa (see Shima Mascots post), ama (ocean women - a topic for another time), lots of beaches, lovely scenery, and we are also at the end of the train line. So what is our major claim to fame? What put us on the map???

~Spain Village~

That is right, Spain Village! Where you can find all the magic of Spain without leaving Japan. Where Don Quixote (now transformed into an animal mascot along with other characters from Miguel de Cervantes' novel) takes you on a tour of flamenco dancers and roller coasters. People from nearby prefectures only know and come to Shima in order to visit Spain Village. There are special buses from our main station just for Spain Village visitors. People can enjoy the theme park, restaurants  the spa, and the main hotel.

Why Spain? Well, I'm not entirely sure myself. Maybe because Spain is so foreign and interesting to the Japanese. Maybe because Japan did so much trading with the Spanish, Dutch, and Portugese in its history. Maybe because Spain is so colorful and cultural. Or Maybe because one of Shima's sister cities is Valencia, Spain. Maybe they caught a deal. Who knows? It is here now, though, and open (what seems to be) all year round.

I plan on going there myself, and giving a fuller report, but I was advised to wait until a little later in the summer when ticket prices go down. Until then, I am content in just seeing all of the advertisements around town and periodically running into and or being mistaken for the Spanish performers who live and work there. Lovely people, and they are all in great shape, but I haven't quite plucked up the courage to go talk with them yet. I don't want to just walk up to them in the freezer section like a creeper, "Excuse me, are you Spanish? You look Spanish. Want to be friends? Heheheheh." So, for now, I'll wait.

Don Quixote (dog character head on left) and Dores (cat character head on right)
greet arrivals Shima's Ugata train station with the words
"Welcome to Shima Spain Village!"

They actually have a very good English website, which you can easily find here. The Japanese version, for those bold enough to try it, can be found here.

給食 School Lunch - Chopsticks and Mystery Meat

Something that I was actually really looking forward to in Japan was the school lunch. For just $45 a month, you can have school lunch everyday. All the students in elementary school and middle school are required to eat school lunch. Once you enter high school or if you have a very particular allergy, you bring a lunch from home, but before that, teachers and students all eat the same thing. It is actually a very important system. Here are some pictures of my school lunches. The ones with green backgrounds and pink trays were at my fastest school and the ones with gray backgrounds and green trays were at my smallest school.

Starting in elementary school, Japanese students are expected to take a larger part of the school day responsibilities. This works well on several levels. On the first, it reminds the students that they aren't babies anymore. They aren't at day care anymore and need to start taking care of themselves, each others, and their own belongings. Students begin to take part in cleaning the school, announcing the transitions between classes, leading the summary speeches before and after school, and in paring out the school lunches for their classmates.

The food is all prepared on an off campus location and then distributed to the local schools in large containers with one set of containers for each grade and class. For example  the third years may be split into A and B class, so 3A and 3B each have their own containers. Why is that? Because there is no cafeteria; each class eats in their classroom. Everyday, a group of students is chosen to serve the lunch to everyone else. They gather the materials, set up a lunch line, and dish out the foods from the containers into plates as the other students file through and take the food onto their trays.

This teaches that to give out fair portions, how to be safe and clean around food (face masks, aprons, washing your hands, and keeping utensils sanitary), to wait your turn, and to be part of a team. The students then wait until everyone is seated before giving a chorus call of「いっただきます」or a sort of "We humbly receive this (food)." Only after all of that are any extra milks, pieces of bread, or seconds of anything else distributed. 

Who gets these extras? Whoever wants them raises their hands and the remainder is evenly divided amongst them. But in the case of milk or bread or something that is only available in one unit, they settle the matter in the most fair manner possible. Leave it up to fate: rock, paper, scissors. Winner takes the bounty. Easily solved.

The school lunches are well balanced, but contrary to stereotype, there is not always rice. if there is bread or another carbohydrate, the rice is not used. The school milk is sometimes also replaced by coffee milk, for which the students have a field day! They love coffee milk, or at least the idea of something new and different. To make their little days, I always give mine away and let another rock, paper, scissors winner have the prize. Sometimes there is even a dessert item; a cold jelly or mochi wrapped in leaves celebrates a special day or season.

With all of this delicious-ness, though, comes a cost. A cost that Shima-city doesn't think that we can afford any longer. Currently there are multiple school lunch centers that make and distribute the food to the schools. Depending on where I am teaching, I will be on a different meal schedule because the meal centers can make whatever they want whenever they want. The city has decided that instead of operating all of these small centers, a larger "central center" in Ugata would be better. That way every single student in the whole of Shima city will be eating the same thing.

What does this mean for me? I'm not entirely sure. It may mean that there will be less flavor, it may mean that the food is cold by the time lunch comes, it may mean that there is less variety, it may mean less fresh fruits and veggies, but we won't find out until September when all of the other centers will shut down. I do know that the current centers' part time workers will be let go and only the full time employees will be kept to work at the Ugata center. Besides that, it is only a shot in the dark.

Until then, I have all summer to enjoy the delicious school lunches and try to get the students to talk to me during that time. Usually I can get by with "Is this fish? What sport do you like?" and so on, but I'm torn between keeping up the conversation and eating up my lunch. Oh tasty food, why do you taunt me so?



p.s. If you can't tell what kind of meat it is, don't fret or worry - it is probably just tofu ;)

Shima City Mascots

My mother sometimes shakes her head when she sees the animal, anime, and superhero characters Japan has come up with. She does like some of them, but there rest are too bizarre, too unreal, or too "freaky" for her taste. Many of my friends have expressed a similar feeling. But the Japanese love their mascots and characters so much, that they have grown into necessity for almost every group and organization. Not only are they made for the sake of storytelling, but for marketing, team building, holidays, locations, and events.

I may go on a rant about mascots and characters in general pop-culture another day, but for now, let us focus on my dear, little town of Shima.

On the first day here, I kept my eyes peeled for signs of the Shima mascot. I didn't know what it would look like at all, but I knew that they would have one. It would be on fliers and displayed around the train station, I thought. Sure enough there was a poster covered with mascots of Mie. And next to Shima's name was...

An alien?

A green glove?

A germ?

I wasn't quite sure what he was. The poster said that his name was "Aosa~", but what was that? Maybe I had made an mistake. Sure that whats-its wasn't our mascot. So I asked the ladies in charge of us. But they weren't sure who the mascot even was. We had to stop off at the city office building anyway, so we went upstairs to ask for Shima information and ask the workers there. Luckily enough, the mayor walked by and filled us in. The ladies became all flustered when they saw him, but I wasn't sure who he was until he left and they told me. Thanks for the help, Mr. Mayor!

As it turns out the alien-green-glove-germ is actually our city's mascot! His name is Aosa because he is aosa: a type of seaweed that is grown specifically in this region. The people here love aosa and are so proud of it that they use it in a lot of things: soups and ramen to cookies and other snacks. The funny marks on his head are Shima (しま) the city's name artfully written. He is wide-eyed and smiling warmly at all his friends and anyone who visits us. What do you think of him? I have a feeling my mother would not approve entirely, but I've warmed up to him this past month and a half.

Besides our city mascot, we also have a symbol. An S for Shima! It marks our city flag: Just replace the red circle in the Japanese national flag with this green S and you've got it. Different items dedicated to Shima may also be decorated with this S or made in its shape. It almost looks like a super S, right?

Actually, I'm so glad that you mentioned that comparison! That brings us to the next group of characters in this fine city: The Shima Rangers!!

This group of super heroes (the colorful costume people) are actually residents of Shima who help save the day, represent the good in the city, and fight the bad guys (the black characters). The Yellow Ranger is actually my IC! She is taking a break from crime fighting for a while to take care of her baby, but he husband still serves as the Blue Ranger, protecting Shima from mayhem with the Red, Green, Pink, and new Yellow Rangers. In these photos, they are at the Aeon Mall for an event and are working alongside the "bad guys" (who seem to be doing good for once) passing out balloons to the children.

The Rangers also give live performances! Maybe I can join in their fight against evil one day. Or, I could just sit in the audience like everyone, too, I guess. Of course, I'll let you know if I ever can attend a Ranger show. If you are interested in photos of the first appearance of the Shima Rangers or the fight photos just click on the hyperlinks.

Not quite as impressive, our little unit of interac language teachers has also created a superhero team: The Shima Super Sentai (Squad)! I am the Green member, Jennifer is the Pink one, Travis is Black, Bridgette is Blue, and our ICs and friends round out the group and color spectrum. Instead of fighters, we are just a team. For now ;)

(Photo of the rangers at Aeon Mall came from: http://blog.canpan.info/shima0nsc/archive/371)

Shima Apartment

The view outside my balcony. I live in the last room, and behind us is forest and train tracks. Lots of space!

So many people are curious about my living conditions. The typical thought is that Japanese houses are so small and that we live on top of each other. That might be true in the bigger cities, but I'm out in the country! Lots of space and elbow room! Let me show you around my new apartment.

How my room started. 
Too-short curtains, my futon and the
box my futon came in as a little table.

I guess it is good that I choose the Big Bang Roommate Agreement as my template, but I didn't think I'd need it this soon! The 3 girl roommate situation that we were so scared about earlier has been lessened to just Jennifer and I rooming together. We have to share an apartment, but we have separate rooms, so no worries there. Jennifer has the western room and I have the traditional Japanese style. When we first moved in, I gravitated to the tatami (woven straw) mats in the Japanese room which, to Jennifer's dismay, made the whole apartment smell of straw. I loved it! It reminded me of the smell of dojo in the summer time, but the smell has all but gone away now that the mats aren't as fresh. The rooms are both the same size (six tatami mats in area), but as the Japanese styled one, mine has sliding doors for the closet and entrance, Japanese style closets (no hanger bar, just large shelves) and the actual tatami mats, while hers has western style doors, a small western closet, and wood floors. 


Jennifer was planning on getting a bed from the beginning, so the wood floors are better for her, but since I like the futon, I stuck with the tatami, which wouldn't be such a pain to sleep on. She has since been kind enough to give me her futon mattress  so I am extra comfy and can store them in my closet during the day for added space or turn them into a sofa. Like so:

Keep in mind that the Japanese futon is not the same as an American one. For one, they don't say "FUH-ton" like we do, but "fuTON". Second, most Americans think of a metal frame with a fluffy mattress that college students use as a futon. But In Japan, it is just the mattress and puffy blanket. The mattress and blanket are used at night, beat outside on the railing in the morning and left a bit to air, then put into the closet or folded in a corner during the day. Pretty economic space-wise. 

I recently bought covers for my mattress and blanket, too, so now I'm all set! I still use a cotton pillow, in case you are wondering. Some people here (especially at traditional style hotels) prefer the corn/seed/millet, but my futon set came with a cotton one, so that is what I'm sticking with for now.

Kitchen fun! The other appliances are just out of shot, but
look! A home phone! Remember those?

What we do share is a shower/bath room, but that is disjoined from the toilet and both are disjoined from the sink. So I could be taking a bath, she could be brushing her teeth, and her boyfriend (for example) could be using the toilet all at the same time. A rather nifty set up. "So after you use the toilet  you have to go somewhere else to use the sink?" you may be thinking. Not true! On the back of the toilet is a small sink. This is actually the freshwater coming into fill the bowl and the tank, but it is used to wash your hands. Weird? Maybe a little bit, but we are trying to save space and water. 

Storm doors. I love these. They fit across the
entire door/window and slide into this holding
area when you don't need them. Very good for
typhoon season!

We have a small common room where the cable box is set up, but which is completely empty otherwise. In the closets there we keep the recycling organized, mutual school supplies, and our empty suitcases and boxes. Our kitchen is also shared, and is composed of a small desk, one office chair, a sink, one electric burner (that is right, folks, just one!), a microwave, a toaster oven (no real oven, though), and a mini fridge that barely comes up to my waste. I do more cooking than she does, so I have two shelves and part of the door, and Jennifer has one shelf and dominance of the door. We have NO room in that little fridge so we have to shop almost three times a week. I try to buy something that I can use that day if possible. But the ice box is big enough for my ice cream treats, so I am please about that :)

My room has gone through a few stages, but i finally feel happy with it all now. I have room for storage, things are still neat and orderly, and I'm trying to limit how much I have. Traveling abroad has taught me to live light and only carry what I need. I'm trying not to accumulate junk, trinkets, and unnecessary papers now so that I don't have to throw them out later. We'll see how that goal works out. So far, this is my set-up!

Thanks for stopping by my room! I hope that you enjoyed your tour. Come back soon, y'all!