August 29, 2010

- Isamu would fall over backwards if he saw a Nerf gun. I’m thinking the Tommy 20, if you know what’s up.
- My quality of life increased by 43% when I discovered the bell on my bike.
- Japanese sodas are energy drinks incognito. The 4oz bottle should have been a warning.
- American 1 dollar store < Japanese 100 yen store
I don’t know why the US wasn’t first to discover that rubber ax murder masks and fake eyelashes are perfectly complemented by a concrete nude woman statue spewing water from her mouth. And we wonder why people wear pajamas to the Dollar General.
- You should know that until the Japanese reach a certain age, they look at least 10 years younger than they actually are. Once they reach that certain age, they look ancient. As far as I can tell, this is an overnight metamorphosis.

Takashi is my host father. I don’t know how old he is, but he has 2 children who are almost 40. He looks 55. We’ve never actually spoken, because he doesn’t speak a stitch of English, and all I really have to say to him is Thank you (arigato gozaimasu), which generally doesn’t require much of a reply. Somehow, I give more respect to Takashi Ito than I have given to any one person in my entire life. I have no idea why this is. But everything I do well, I do in hope he notices. And the not-so-good things, I avoid, in acknowledgement he might notice. It’s like one of those “I JUST WANT YOU TO LOVE ME” father-daughter relationships. Except only one sided, because he seems to rather enjoy my company, even when I’ve just woken up and don’t have the energy to be anyone but myself. Also, he doesn’t work late hours or carry a briefcase.

My brother just ran across the living room naked, right arm stretched above his head, pointing a plastic pistol to the ceiling.
Have I mentioned that I love my host family?
I love my host family.

August 31, 2010

I will now describe my day in terms of sweat.

The bedrooms and the living room are the only air-conditioned spaces in my house. This is normal. During this hot season, artificial air is a sensitive ecstasy in Japan. Doors and windows are left open throughout the house, meaning the summer heat from outside is also celebrated inside. After waking up, I go to the sink to wash my face; an uncomfortable clammy perspiration veils my skin. I return to the chill of my room and it disappears. I pull on jeans and a sleeved shirt, as my private school requires until my uniform arrives. Breakfast in the living room, all is well. I watch the news in the Kendo shop with Takashi San until 8am; the glisten grows. Just as the news is over I leave the house on my 1-geared bike for a 3-mile ride.
Sometimes I feel as if I’ve made the sun angry, and I’m metaphorically beaten for such misbehavior. This thought came to me when I remembered the commonly personified phrase—“beating sun”, and combined it with my recent interest in the Buddhist sun god.

As many bikers know, the day’s heat isn’t yet insufferable until you’ve stopped biking. The wheels cease to turn and that personal wind of yours ceases to blow. In my jeans and often cardigan, I park my bike and walk into a stuffy classroom filled with students in the exact same situation. I hate when people try to lighten a bad circumstance by pointing out that they get the same treatment. “If it makes you feel any better, I bike to school too, and I agree, this weather sucks!” NO! THAT DOES NOT MAKE ME FEEL BETTER. I STILL COULD NOT PEEL OFF MY JEANS IF I TRIED. I will never again start a sentence with “If it makes you feel any better.” In fact, I’m putting it in the same boat as “No offence.” It will not make me feel any better, and it will definitely offend me.

Anyway, since the students turn on the AC when we get there, and it takes about an hour to actually make the room a reasonable temperature, the whole class is sweating and frantically fanning themselves through 1st period. Then, just before I’ve remembered not to take 2nd period for granted, comes P.E. (Not that I dislike P.E. I actually love P.E. I have found that sports kind of come naturally to me, which is odd. And P.E. means the chance to beat all the coaches at volleyball.) However, I’m convinced my high school gym is the hottest room in Izumo (following a Japanese shower, which is kind of a two-in-one sauna, of course). Unlike most rooms, which are around the same temperature as the outside air, the gym miraculously traps the hot air in. (We actually step outside, in the 90 degree weather, to cool off.) Basically, the gym is the greenhouse effect at its finest. Since the roots of my hair are saturated by the end of the hour, this sweat has a lasting effect. The bike ride home only adds to such an accomplishment. Once home, I skip steps up the stairs, all the while dripping, to turn on the AC in my room. I strip off the majority of my clothes with difficulty, and lie down in front of the floor fan. There is where I remain for a good 20 minutes.

This was a simple point drug out entirely too long.

I laughed at how theatrical this sounded when I finished. I can’t change it though, because if you should not know this way, you should not know at all. (<<< Also obnoxiously dramatic.)

My embarrassment:

1) Consider it appalling for one to try on a garment (gym shorts, for example) in the store on top of one’s original garment while in Japan. If such said activities occur, prepare one’s self to be bluntly declared the worst existing title in a foreign country. (American)
2) The quilt-like cover on my bed is not meant to be a quilt-like cover after all. I don’t really feel like talking about this one.
3) If one decides to go ahead and fall asleep during school, try not to do it sprawled upon the tile floor with The Fellowship serving as a face-shield.
4) When roaming an unfamiliar city, always carry a map. Do not, however, draw the map on a large section of a cardboard box. When this map is eventually necessary, locals will stare with bewilderment at such humiliating creativity.

September 1, 2010

My camera just missed the best day ever. Super bummed about that, but not enough to bring me down on the best day ever.
BEST DAY EVER.
Today was day one of the 3-day festival. I finally was able to fit in, as much as that is possible, and wear the same ‘festival’ gym clothes as everybody else. Food was sold everywhere. No crap food either—quality Japanese food. Though, there were French fries. According to the grapevine, students were supposed to buy tickets assigned to particular food items prior to festival day. Apparently this event occurred on Monday as I walked aimlessly around the gym, dodging people and disregarding the ticket purchasing process. Lucky for me, I’m kind of a big deal at my school, and people were constantly crowding my personal space and giving me their own tickets. All in all, I ended up eating a ton.


(This is what I look like after the best day ever. >>>)

The day then got better when I was slurping this strange tapioca-tea drink, minding my own business, and out of nowhere someone screams “SARAH SAN” (The closest translation to ‘San’ is Mr., Mrs., or Miss. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned that, but I’m often called either ‘Sarah San’ or ‘Sarah-chan.’), so I turn around and this guy I’ve hardly even talked to is looking at me and starts singing into a microphone. And he was staring at me the whole time and it was a little creepy, but the whole scene was in a light, humorous manner, so I was okay with it. Basically, he dedicated a song to me. It was tremendously embarrassing and my cheeks most certainly turned the color of my shirt (see photo), and I almost put my head down and ran away, but then I realized that it might be the greatest thing that will ever happen to me, so I stayed. I hope the Japanese song lyrics were really corny. That’s just how I imagined it. (Just to let you know, the singing wasn’t completely out of nowhere. There was a mic open for the festival all day and lots of students had been singing. Karaoke is big in Japan. It doesn’t really matter if you can sing or not, because everyone will laugh anyway. It’s rather fun.)

There were several horror-houses set up in some of the classrooms. Seriously, the students made horror-houses. And they were pretty freaking functional. I got lost in one of the mazes, and one of the ‘zombies’ who I had almost attacked seconds earlier recognized me in the dark and had to lead me out before I started to panic. It is amazing how quickly I can change how I feel about someone.

I got home at 6, and only had 10 minutes in front of the floor fan until dinner.


Pictures:

1) Aiko and me in front of a Shinto shrine.
2) Fortunes you tie to trees.
3) Family in front of mystery building.
4) Result of mystery building. Can’t figure it out.
5) My school.
6) Surrounding my school. Nbd.