Rewind: Japanese Travel Journal: Hanami

[to note: date these pictures back to early April]

Sakura trees get a lot of praise and adulation in Japan, and it's easy to see why. Pictures can't capture the true majesty of a row of sakura trees heavy with blossoms, and it's near impossible to try to describe their intoxicating scent. For about two weeks in spring, Japanese social outings revolve around the life span of the cherry blossom, for good reason: walking down a sakura lane can't be much different from walking in paradise.

A very crowded paradise in some places, but a sweet-smelling and magical paradise nonetheless.

The act of viewing cherry blossoms is called hanami, which actually translates to "flower viewing" but seems to be reserved for sakura only. The basic purpose of hanami is to sit and look at blossoms. However, you don't just sit and look at blossoms - you also eat crazy festival foods, drink until your heart's content (or stomach's discontent, whichever hits you first), and hang out with your compadres. And should there be a karaoke machine just standing around and waiting for you to take the mike, then so much the better.

I saw a good amount of sakura this spring, and while I'm sorry that its season is so short-lived, I realize it's probably for the best. Society can only take so much sitting around and drinking before it starts to collapse. But the progression of the blossoms' lives is astounding. Sakura are only fully open for a very short time - they die quickly, sloughing down from the trees in pink and white waves. But they leave the sakura tree draped in a rich green canopy, the color of which is so vivid that it's a miracle in itself. I loved the blossoms, but the green leaves enamored me. Walking down sakura lanes became akin to walking through a hallway lined in velvet, so deep and lush that I lost track of the time as I stood and stared at the leaves. These leaves are what pushes the blossoms loose from the tree, breaking their tenuous hold on life, and I'm glad for it. They're not so pretty and cute, but they're stronger and more vibrant, lasting longer than the delicate flowers that let go of life just when it's beginning.

It's become a standard cliche - sakura blossoms trembling in the wind before separating from their branches, floating like airy boats before coming to a gentle rest on the ground - but it works because the experience is so moving. It's no wonder that sakura is a metaphor for life: so beautiful and brief, beginning with such great promise and ending with such swiftness, culminating in a bittersweet momento mori.

the magical 90-day mark

Well, I've been working in Moriya for 3 months now, and I've made a decision: I'm moving to Moriya.

I'm already tired of living in Matsudo. I spent most of June 28th in Moriya at a school picnic (which deserves its own post, which I will hopefully post soon), and I realized how much I disliked living in the city. Moriya is much more comfortable, and it's just a nicer place to be. The commute isn't so terrible, I just don't like the atmosphere. Also, I have no place to ride my bike, so I'm getting much less exercise now (even taking into account the 10 minute walk to the station and all those stairs I have to go up and down twice a day). I tried working out in my room, but the only time I have to do this is when I get home, when all I want to do is relax after a long day of work. Also, it bored me. I could never participate in a gym class because aerobics really do bore the hell out of me.

I will still be close to Tokyo. In fact, I will be exactly 32 minutes from Akihabara, which is faster than the 45 minute ride from Shin-Matsudo to Ueno. This pleases me, because though I wouldn't want to live in Tokyo, it's fun to go there for day trips. There is always something to see in Tokyo, but even if you can't find it, there's always Kinokuniya, which (for a bibliophile like me) is paradise.

The whole moving thing is going to be a pretty major undertaking because GEOS does not have any apartments in the area, and I will have to do everything on my own. I have fortunately been blessed with very nice Japanese co-workers, students, and friends to help me out with this. The packing I will have to do on my own, but having Japanese support is way more important.

This will all have to wait until after the 20th, which is when I will return from my trip to the States. July is turning out to be an exciting month for me, what with the Florida trip and the busy weekends and now the whole moving thing. Now I just need to start filling up my August calendar. My birthday is August 10th, and I have that day off, so I want to do something fun.

(and that's only about a month away. jeez, time is just slipping away from me now. whee! have I mentioned that I love living in Japan? I love living in Japan. I'm having way too much fun.)

Japanese Travel Journal: Utsunomiya (宇都宮)

I am struggling to get updated here. For this installment, I present you with my trip to Utsunomiya.

This is the first time I saw anyone from Isesaki after I had moved to Matsudo. This is not so impressive as it sounds, because we all met in Utsunomiya 12 days after I moved. The way Benni-先生 greeted us, you'd think it was closer to 12 years.

We went to Utsunomiya for gyoza. I'm pretty sure I've already posted about my love for gyoza, and the Isesaki ladies wanted to foster this as much as possible. In addition, they also love gyoza, so that helped. I cannot understand why anyone would not love gyoza, but that's beside the point. We wanted to eat as much gyoza as possible. This turned out to be quite a lot. Also, the girls helped me pick out a watch while we waited for Benni先生 to show up. Akikoさん and Yukariさん helped me program it, because the instructions were all in Japanese. This made all of us very happy (not that the instructions were Japanese but that the three of us were able to get it sorted out).

We ate at three different places, though the third place was a combination of 5 restaurants and we could order from any of the menus. At the first two restaurants, we ordered a plate or two of gyoza and shared it amongst ourselves before moving on. The first restaurant was a tiny place where you ordered the food at a ticket machine, after which you presented the ticket to the waitress. Because there were seven of us, we had to split up, so Akikoさん, Yukariさん, and myself shared an order each of boiled and fried gyoza (the fried was better). After that, we slipped out to the place next door and ordered GIANT gyoza. The rest of the girls showed up just as we were finishing, which is why we had time to wait to program my watch.

Together, we all headed out to the third location, which was an awesome conglomeration of gyoza restaurants (Utsunomiya is famous for gyoza - there are upwards of two dozen restaurants specializing in this most awesome of foods, probably more). I think we ordered about seven plates of gyoza at this place, from three different menus. There was chiso (a basil-type herb) gyoza, crunchy gyoza, not-so-crunchy gyoza, shrimpy gyoza, spicy gyoza, salty gyoza - holy cats, there was a LOT of gyoza. Boy, were we stuffed. And to everyone's astonishment, Benni先生 polished off a bowl and a half of rice along with it, the half being what I couldn't eat.

[This is nothing - I once witnessed her eat a huge bowl of ramen, an order of gyoza, and THREE bowls of rice in one sitting. Her stomach is bottomless.]

After gorging ourselves on gyoza, we went off in search of other exciting things to do. We began by buying gyoza omiyage. Half of the ladies bought frozen gyoza to take home - complete with styrofoam cooler to transport them in. Then they bought me a cellphone strap of a little plastic plate of gyoza, which I've become a collector of (the cellphone straps, not the little plastic plates of gyoza). These ladies are so totally the awesome.

While wandering around Utsunomiya, we discovered a shrine in the middle of the city and because I love shrines, we immediately explored it. I like going to shrines with the ladies because they will explain things to me the best they can. Benni先生 either has no answer to my questions or ignores me entirely (in her defense, she's just naturally oblivious sometimes). Even if the ladies don't know the answers to my questions, they will do their best to figure it out or explain it somehow, even if it means translating something.

The cherry blossoms were nearing the end of their blooming stage, but they were still very beautiful and stunning. The wind blew gently that day, but it still scattered blossoms all through the air. They kept falling and falling, a shower of pink and white petals. There seemed to be no end to them.

With the sun going down, we decided it was time to end our gyoza adventure. We set a date for our next gathering (Nagano - Matsumoto Castle in May), and then they dropped me off at the train station. And thus ended our trip to Utsunomiya. Quite satisfying, I must say.

Japanese Trainspotting

Timing is everything. With careful planning and precise timing, you can see amazing things, so long as you know when and where to be. Everything runs on its own clock, and if you can synchronize with it, you can witness marvelous things.

Or, if you're lucky, you can stumble upon them at just the right moment. There's something magical about arriving just as the natural order of things is unfolding.

Twice since moving to Matsudo, I've left my apartment to discover a group of people gathered at a nearby railroad crossing. I live close to the tracks - they lie just across the street, parallel to a skinny creek lined with sakura trees. I'm used to the trains, but the people are unusual.

They are almost all men, and they all have cameras. Not your everyday handheld digital cameras but serious photography cameras, replete with lens attachments and tripods and whatever else may be needed for serious train photography. These men - there are seven or eight of them at the crossing, with more of them posted haphazardly along the sakura path - are ardently preparing for the moment of the perfect shot: adjusting their tripods for maximum stability, curling around the fence railing to get the best vantage point, clustering around around the edge of the path to get the clearest view. They are quiet and serious, focused on their work.

The crossing signal comes to life, and the actions of the photographers becomes more frantic as they make last-second preparations. Rumblings announces the train's approach, and then the group goes still, poised and ready to capture the moment.

The first time I witnessed this activity, the train had a vinyl banner spread across its front, declaring in Japanese and English that this was its Last Run. The second occurence provided no such insight to the importance of the event. Two sets of cars - one yellow, one blue - had been coupled, and nobody rode them; they carried only a small squadron of jumpsuited railway workers. Its signifigance remains a mystery to me.

To me, but not to the photographers. A symphony of snapping shutters erupts as the train comes closer, and then follows a scramble as the group reassembles to catch hasty photos of the train's backside.

And then the moment has passed. The photographers smile at each other and consult their cameras and compare pictures. This lasts only briefly, and then they pack up their things and head off in different directions. Within five minutes, the crossing is abandoned, once again an unimportant fixture in the Matsudo cityscape. You would never know that anything special had just happened here.

another universal teaching truth

You can't make people want to learn. I don't care if they're children, teenagers, adults - whatever. Age doesn't matter, nationality doesn't matter, NOTHING matters. If there is no motivation, you can't make 'em learn.

Lately, head office has been coming down on our shisha (region) because of high cancellation rates and low renewal rates. Last week, I spent an hour in a v-chat where the primary message seemed to be "students are quitting/not renewing, and it's ALL YOUR FAULT. Quit blaming the economy, quit blaming job transfers, quit making excuses. Let's face it - you need to be better!"

(Talk about encouraging a lack of motivation . . .)

Sure, it's possible for teachers to increase motivation. I'll accept that. If a person is a really great teacher - I mean, really stupendous, totally has the whole thing down - then maybe they can get their students so pumped up about it that they'll keep coming back even when they don't really want to.

I am not a great teacher. I believe that 90% of motivation comes from within. I can't generate it for them. I can enjoy myself and take my job seriously, but I can't force people to want to study English. Now, that doesn't mean that I don't do the best I can. I love my job, and I want to do it well. That helps some - my students see how enthusiastic I am about English, and they think it's kind of cute. It makes them feel like I'm here because I want to be here and not because I need the money (which is true, wholly and completely - the money doesn't mean jack to me, not really). I can encourage my students and guide them and help them and amuse and educate them in class. But if they don't WANT to learn, there's not a whole lot I can do about that. Granted, this is my philosophy because it's the way I operate, but on the whole, I've found it to be mostly true. If they don't HAVE to do it, people won't do it unless they want to.

(Unless they're like me and they'll only do things they want to do, PERIOD.)

I will note that though Moriya's renewal rate is not great (it's over 50%, which is good enough for me), our successful interview rate is around 90%, and we pulled in 7 new students last month. As far as numbers are concerned, I still have about 75 students and 30 classes. Maybe we're not doing phenomenal work, but we're making ends meet, and that's enough to make me happy.

I want my internet!

I have another internet appointment next Monday, and I'm really REALLY hoping this can be resolved. I've got so much that I want to post about - it's amazing how much I've done in the past two months - but I don't even really have the time to post something I prepared at home. (That, and I keep forgetting my jump drive.) There's not much time for me to use the computer at work anyway. My manager get crazy busy sometimes; she's had hour long V-chats three days this week, and then there's a crapload of paperwork to do. Besides, my schedule's so full that I barely have time to check the incoming emails from head office.

All of this I could accept if only I had internet at my apartment.

I'd go to an internet cafe, but there is ONE in Moriya, and it's a LONG way from the station and it would take forever for me to get there. There are three around Shin-Matsudo station, but I don't know when I'd have time to actually go to them. My working days are long and busy - I leave home around 10am and get home around 11pm, and most of that time is actually spent at the school. My days off have also been active lately, what with going places with Benni-sensei and going off to meet with other friends. I don't mind that so much, because it's much more preferable than sitting around me apartment all day. Not having the internet has certainly made me a more active person.

But it'd be nice to have, all the same. If my problems persist next Monday, I guess I'll have to figure out something else. Most people tell me it will get solved - but I know at least two other people who have been trying to get internet for 3-5 months and they STILL don't have it. They don't live in the same apartment building (in fact, they live in completely different cities), but their problems sound a lot like mine. And so far as I can tell, I'm using the same procedure as the other people in my building.

[Speaking of this building, you'd think I'd get some help from GEOS because everyone who lives there is a GEOS employee. Not so. My trainer says, "Keep working at it, you'll get it fixed." And then she ignores me until she decides to chastise me about our school's money numbers. My manager has been left with the brunt of being the middle man between the internet company and me, and she's been incredibly helpful despite being so far separated from Shin-Matsudo. She had to contact another school's manager to find out how their NET got internet. I'd ask them myself, but my neighbors are kind of hermity. They don't seem to even interact with each other all that much. They sit in their apartments and play video games or watch movies with their girlfriends, all of whom laugh in annoying high-pitched squeals. I prefer my Japanese neighbors in Isesaki. Granted, I prefer everything in Isesaki over Shin-Matsudo, but that's just life, isn't it?]

Anyway, that's that. Other than the internet and the poor location of my apartment (if I want/need anything, I have to walk ten minutes to the station to get it, not to mention that 40-60 minutes commute), things are going well. I'm busy at work, but the classes are fine and the students are great. I've got a routine going, and that's helped a lot. Plus, I'm not sitting at home and doing nothing, and that's the most important thing to me. I hadn't realized how tired I was of just being a lump.

more internet disappointment

I do not understand the whys or hows of Japanese internet service; all I know is that it's causing me a major headache and inconvience, and I do not see the reason for this. Communication in general doesn't seem to be a problem, so I'm having a hard time figuring out why getting connected has been such a hassle for me.

I will say this - despite my obvious inability to speak Japanese, my proposed ISP has been really diligent about staying in contact with me and trying to keep me updated. Even the internet guy who came to evaluate my lines did his best to communicate to me the problem. (though, at one point, he just looked at me and basically said, "You don't understand any of this, do you?" Ironically, I did understand that. Otherwise, he was absolutely correct.) After Thursday's failed attempt, I thought I would have to contact NTT again myself, but they called me on Friday to set up another appointment. Fortunately, I was in Narita with Benni-sensei, so she talked to them for me. The next appointment they can make for a Monday is June 1st.

Seriously, June 1st. And I'm not even sure if that's an appointment to get internet connected or just to do more assessing/wiring. Benni-sensei (who is not internet savvy at all) didn't quite get the explanation.

I'm now mildly irritated, but the major problem is that I don't know who/what to be mildly irritated at. I've settled on GEOS, because this is their crummy apartment building and if I was still in a Leo Palace, I wouldn't be having this problem. I am extremely unhappy with these living arrangements, and I don't feel guilty about pinning it on GEOS. It's a stupid setup and the most assitance I've received from my boss was, "You could take some pictures of the apartment, and I'll try to help you as best I can. But honestly, I'm not sure there's anything I can do for you."

Fine, except that my main complaints about the apartment have little to do with the fact that it looks terrible and rundown. I really don't care what the place looks like - all I ask for is peace and quiet, internet convienence, and a sense of safety. I have yet to acheivement 100% satisfication on any of those items, though I don't feel that safety is much of an issue (still, the fact that I have a security system and a door with four locks on it keeps me on alert).

Mostly, though, I just wish I had internet capabilities. I'm not patient enough to wait another full month to be able to mindlessly surf the web again, so I'm wondering if looking into other internet option will be worthwhile.

Blargh, why can't things just be simple?