Going to Guam With the Girls! Part 1

The translator for the water sign in our hotel
may have been a pirate. Argh!

This is the cautionary tale of poor planning and travel mistakes.

My friends Ao and Lucy may be leaving for Canada soon, so we all decided that before they left we should have a girls trip somewhere sunny and beautiful. It would definitely be a change from the gray, Japanese winter. At first we thought Okinawa would be a good pick, but because I waited too long to confirm on the trip, the ticket prices skyrocketed. In retrospect, though, Okinawa isn't THAT much warmer than Shima in February, so we set our sights on a new location: Guam! Lucy and I could travel there easily since she is Canadian and I'm America. Ao had been there ten years before, but she was interested in a second visit. With our hotels and tickets booked, I was super excited to go traveling again. Sure, I visited the US last summer and lots of places in Japan in the fall with my boyfriend, but this a "never have I ever been there before in my life" place! The best kind!

Say goodbye to snow, girls!

Unfortunately, I had been apartment hunting for about two weeks and had hardly any extra time to help with the planning. I didn't know ANY of the schedule or locations and had entrusted all of the preparation to the girls. All I knew was that we were going to try scuba diving and to pack summer clothes. 80 degrees weather was so hard to fathom! Was anywhere really that temperature outside? Could I really walk outside without a jacket? It is odd what distance from an experience will do. I was hard to image any of this having been in the cold weather for so long.

We all had work on Friday, but decided to try and catch the train to Nagoya together. We were able to get train seats next to each other and used the ride to catch up about recent events, schemes, and dreams. This is also the time when I found out that we wouldn't be in Guam for as long as I was expecting. Oh, well. I could always layer on the summer stuff I brought to make more outfits.

You look a little chilly, sir.

Our first night in Nagoya was spent dancing in the biggest club. I was really impressed with the different vibes each floor had (about five floors in all), but Lucy was shocked that they even had separate floors! I guess stairs in a night club back home are too much of a liability, so all of them are one story or have elevators instead. Also, the Japanese clubs have coin lockers to store your things. No coat checking here. I had seen this sort of set-up in Tokyo, but after she mentioned that difference, I thought of Paris, Greece, and Cleveland - those were usually one story and didn't have lockers either. Definitely a different mindset due to space limitations and lower crime rate here.

My friends trudge on towards the train station.

Personally, I was more impressed with how EVERYONE KNEW ALL OF THE SONGS IN ENGLISH!! Seriously! How was it that everyone in the club knew the words to all of these songs so perfectly and I had a hassle teaching my students Auld Lang Syne? Ugh. As we moved through the club, people we passed were singing along with the music and smiling as they completed long rap segments. Really now? Wow. Sadly, some very happy guys ended up buying us some drinks that I had not anticipated on receiving and I got sick. At this point Ao got stuck dancing with a Brazilian boy that was following me around the whole night. Sorry, girl! But she was able to get a great line out of him that became one of our catchphrases for the rest of the trip: 最高の夜を見せ上げるぜ (Saikou no yoru wo mise ageru ze)。Translated, it is the same kind of super cheesy pickup line that any guy at a bar or club would give: "I'll show you the best night ever." But grammatically it is super showy, totally over-macho, and only ever found in TV dramas or cartoons. No one talks like that in real life! When she told me that line, I cringed and we had to fill Lucy in on how oily and gross it sounded in Japanese. He was very kind and seemed like he would be really funny in any other situation. But a "ze" as a final particle? Bleh!

Look at all the pretty pictures!

The next day was super snowy - a good send off to our island paradise. After much searching, we found coin lockers at the station that would fit our suitcases so that we had our arms free to do some shopping in the city! We had all purposefully left extra room in our luggage for the gifts, presents, and personal things we were going to buy on the trip, and Nagoya was part of the trip, right? Of course! While walking around one of the malls, we stumbled upon a Disney "Fine Art" collection. Different themes, characters, mediums, and styles covered the walls. Tucked in the back corner was an artist drawing Daffy Duck over and over for people to buy at a cheaper rate than the more expensive and larger works. He was an America, so I spoke to him about how he started, when he got here, and what he had been doing since Disney moved away from 2D art before we moved onto the Pokemon center. When I came back, he was giving a speech to the visitors of the collection. The Japanese love Disney so much, and the guests seemed blown away to have him there. It made me really happy they they could all enjoy it together.

Salad on a waffel. So Japanese!

After a lunch of salad waffles (that is right, no breakfast food is safe from the Japanese), we made our way to the airport for a bath before the flight. Bath? Yeah, the airport has a bath house on the second floor, so we stopped in for a soak! It was a great way to kill time before our late flight and my hair still smelled of smoke from the club. We had arrived there earlier than we expected, which was good because it gave us enough time to get lost amid the second floor shopping town, have the bath, make a guy pack up some mochi treats only to realize that we couldn't take them, find out that there was an extra "a" in my name on the ticket, and that I might not be able to go on the trip after all. Spoiler: I was able to go after an hour wait to get clearance.

Anpanman and I have a smile contest

We found an interesting shopping center along
the way. Shonen Jump, anyone?

A very Nagoya style noodle dish for dinner.

Last time I came to the airport, they had ninjas instead of
winter sport mannequins.

Phew! That was just to get into the heart of the airport. More later. I'm tired just remembering all of that.

Super Center Plant - And All That Lies Within

"Put on your Sunday best, kids. We're going to
Sears!" Okay, maybe I didn't really dress up,
but I did put on nice clothes in case my
students saw me.

There are things that make a small town a "small town". But it is more about what an area lacks rather than what it has that gives it the "countryside" title (inaka in Japanese). Country charm and small town splendor are all well and good, especially if you live close enough to a large city in order to balance out the quiet quaintness with convenience.

My city of Shima was a definite inaka contender until recently. On the roads leading to Toba and Ise, there has been construction on what looked on the outside to be a large square. The writing on the walls of this plain building read "Super Center Plant - Medicine, Food, Home Goods." Since this is about 8 minutes by car from my house (and I prefer walking to driving, especially for errands), even after the center opened, I didn't bother going. Around my home, there are various small shops where I can buy groceries and the mall is up the hill from me. Convenient much? But during a recent get together with the other ALTs in my area, this place received so much praise that I decided to check it out. On Facebook, I made the following announcement.

This looks oddly familiar...

Today, I go on a journey of discovery to "The Plant"! No, it is not a secret alien factory, but the newest shopping spot in Shima. Supposedly bigger, better, cheaper, and with more variety than our current options. I am expecting a Japanese version of Walmart or Target, but I won't get my hopes too high. 
I go now.

The Center has been open for a while and has lost much of its initial appeal. It is still new and exciting for our town, but they no longer have the opening month, cheaper than dirt pricing that drove people to the store in droves! While it is still cheaper than many other locations around, it has changed to somewhat normal pricing. So while the parking lot was huge, it was hardly full. Going around lunch time also helped cut down on the number of customers I had to contend with.

Walmart with yen signs!!

From the outside, I started to get a familiar feeling, but it wasn't until I got inside (past the policeman/guard guy, hello?) that things really started to register: it felt just like Walmart to me! It was the same size and pretty much the same setup as a Walmart, but less white and blue themed. There was so much to look at and so many options compared to what I have become use to that it was almost tiring. Like, "There is more store to go through? How did they find that many kinds of honey in Japan? These shopping carts are the size of Home Depot carts!"

The lighting and coloring on the inside of the store had a rather Sam's Club or Costco air about it all and I had filled up my little shopping basket well into my first ten minutes at the store. I was hesitant about using one of the American-sized shopping carts in case I filled it up, so I trudged along with my full basket up and down ALL the aisles. Is this what shopping in America was like? I had almost forgotten how there could be so many choices. There was the food, and the clothing, and the home goods, and the toy section, and the garden department, and the pharmacy, and the electronics, and the cleaning supplies, and the pet stuff, and the sports equipment, and it just kept going!

Truly comparing this store to a real American Walmart would have probably been less impressive if I had just gotten back from America, but it has been months, okay? I haven't seen this much of an expanse for shopping in just one store in a while! Even the malls here, even the Meiwa shopping mall and Lala Park, were all tiny stores merged together like transformers. This was ONE LARGE ROOM OF STUFF! I ended up getting a good amount of produce, a basket for carrying my flashcards and things for school, a beanbag for reclining on the floor, and some curry mix.

Japan, you and your tiny tables. Although I do
like the "kotatsutable" - it is a table with a heater
and a blanket around the edges to keep you nice
and warm!

What was helped to remind me that I was definitely in Japan, though, was the checkout area. There were rows and columns of cashiers who, when not assisting other customers, stood at the front of their particular column and directed people down to them. You could have easily seen which registers were operating based on their lamps, but this way they could help anyone who didn't realize that they were free. But cashiers would never have done that in America! First of all because cashiers are hardly ever free in the States and leaving your drawer unattended like that is surely against company policy. However, that is the system they had here, and I found it endearing.

Was this a life changing experience? No.
Will I change my shopping habits now that I've been to the plant? No.
Do I understand why that is the new hangout spot for students? Not in the least.

But it was kind of nice to see Shima getting all worked up over a convenient place to shop and get a little taste of American-sized consumerism in inaka Japan. I'll definitely be back, and I'll definitely have my eyes out for other small town adventures.

Til then!

Curious about the tissues? Try a sample. 

Toilet paper samples too!

Definitely a Japanese toy store. Look at all
the Anpanman characters!

My little girl love Pretty Cure and here is their
shrine.

Truer words were never embroidered on hats.

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.