Supermarket Auction

One of my favorite things so far about Japan is going to the supermarket. When you check out at the supermarket the cashiers are sooooooo friendly. They say like fifty things to me which I just nod at. The only thing that they say to me that I actually understand is whether or not I want a plastic bag. If I want a bag I have to pay about a nickel for the bag. They do this to encourage recycling. Regardless of whether you want the bag or not though, you have to put the groceries into your bag by yourself. They have a packing table about five feet from the register where everyone bags their own groceries.

But none of those things are what I love about the supermarket. What I love is that when the cashier is ringing up your groceries she calls out how much everything costs. Basically she scans things and says, "One dollar fifty. Two dollars twenty. Three dollars thirty. Six dollars. etc. etc." Because I don't understand Japanese, I thought the women were actually calling out what I had bought: "Two apples. A bottle of water. Dumplings. Sushi. etc. etc." Paula informed me that they were calling out prices and not products. Regardless it is always entertaining.

Japanese Beaches

(PICTURE: A typical concrete wall surrounding a beach.)

Last year Huyen and I watched the Japanese animated move, "The Grave Of The Fireflies." If you haven't seen the movie it is worth a watch as a good anti-war film. However, this isn't about Japanese animation or reviewing the film. This blog is about Japanese beaches.

In the movie there was a scene that took place at the beach. I noticed in the scene that there was a large concrete wall on the sand of the beach. I thought this was a little odd. Well, having been in Japan for a couple of weeks, I realize it isn't that odd. The Japanese coastlines are almost all lined with concrete. I've been to two beaches so far and both had a concrete wall behind the sand. At one of the beaches there were gigantic concrete tetrapods in rows about 100 feet into the ocean.

(PICTURE: Tetrapods in water.)

I've been doing some reading about these things and apparently it is Japan's way to fight nature from deteriorating the Japanese islands. It makes sense I guess but it sure makes the beaches ugly. I have always thought of Japan as a place that values the beauty of nature. In some ways I'm finding that to be true, in other ways -- like the beaches -- I'm find that is not true at all.

Japanese TV

If you know anything about television around the world, you know that Japan is famous for the craziest game shows. Basically any edgy game show that is on American television probably comes from Japan. Since I joined the gym last week I've been constantly entertained by ridiculous things on TV. I obviously can't understand a word, but don't really have to.

Tonight I saw one of the more bizarre shows yet. Basically about 100 Japanese people started to run around a course in a city (could have been Tokyo or Osaka or somewhere else) and after a few minutes were chased by a black marathon runner. The program was basically twenty minutes of a black guy running after and passing Japanese people. The marathoner ended up passing everyone except two people who crossed the finish line before him. The two people were greeted like they just won the Super Bowl. The whole show felt like a weird version of The Running Man.

I don't know if the intention of the show was to be completely racist but it sure felt racist. That said, and this will sound weird, it was done in an oddly good spirited way. As the black runner ran he was greeted with high fives by the crowds that lined the streets. The marathoner also was waving and smiling the whole time he chased after the Japanese people as if he was having the time of his life. As I watched the show I thought to myself, "This is something that could never fly in America." Can you imagine NBC airing a program where a (fill in this space with a minority group) chases 100 white people? Yeah, only in Japan.

Seat Belts

If there is one example I can use thus far to differentiate my Vietnam experience versus my Japanese experience it is this: Seat Belts.

Nobody in Vietnam wears seat belts. It just doesn't happen. Every time I've been on a flight in Vietnam I've had to help Vietnamese people put on their seat belts because they simply couldn't figure it out. Huyen knows how to put on a lap belt but once she got a little tangled up putting on a shoulder belt. I looked at her as she struggled with the shoulder belt and just said, "Really?" I'm sure this sounds odd but people in Vietnam just don't use seat belts.

In Japan EVERYONE wears a seat belt. I realized this on my first day when my cab driver turned around and told me to put my seat belt on. People in the states often don't even wear seat belts in cabs. Well, at least they usually don't in big cities like NYC despite voice overs from celebrities saying to wear seat belts.

They are so serious about their seat belt use here in Japan that the other day I took a bus from one city to another and everyone on the bus was wearing seat belts. Seat belts on buses? I bet not even 50% of school buses in the states have seat belts on them.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that Japan is just a really really safe country versus Vietnam which, well, isn't always so safe.

DUI

One thing I've always found interesting/perplexing about the United States is that every state has a different DUI level. To me it's interesting what each state considers too high of a BAC to drive with.

In Japan there is no debate. If you have a drink in Japan you are not allowed to drive. Anything over basically a 0.0% BAC is illegal. On top of that, if a restaurant or bar serves someone a drink they are responsible to make sure that person does not drive. If the person drives and gets caught, the bar/restaurant will get a huge fine. Even harsher, anyone who knowingly lets someone drive after drinking is also held responsible if the person causes an accident.

These laws may seem harsh, but I think the Japanese are on to something. Every year in America thousand of people die from DUI related accidents. How much lower would that number be if there was a zero tolerance policy?

My Classroom

Here's a picture of my classroom. I know what you're thinking, it's not quite as nice as the classroom you had at your university. Perhaps you're saying that because of the retractable walls (nearly the same one my high school gymnasium had), or because of the 1970s rug, or because of the random pieces of paper I've taped to the wall. Yeah, I'll concede that it isn't exactly an American standard lecture hall. That said, it totally serves its purpose.

At my university there are 11 periods every day. Each one of my classes is 40 minutes long. On one hand this is great because after being used to teaching 1.5 hour long classes, 40 minutes flies by. On the other hand, I teach up to 8 classes every day which is almost double the most I ever had to teach in Vietnam. It can be pretty exhausting. The other tough thing is that the students don't come to the same period every day. The students can basically come to whichever time slot they have free on that particular day. This means I've had classes with 12 students as well as classes with just one student. Needless to say, this presents some interesting challenges.

There's actually a lot of challenges that I've noticed in my first week or so. For one, my classes are 99.9% male only. I'm teaching at the engineering school which is probably 90% male and literally none of my classes have guys in them. On occasion I teach a high level class and those have a couple of girls. Having a room of all dudes is very different than my mixed classes I had in Vietnam. Also engineering students generally don't tend to be Type A personalities. It would be fair to call the majority of them introverted (actually, not having girls in the class I think helps in this regards because they aren't as embarrassed to talk). Getting students to talk and have fun is a little more of an effort than it was in Vietnam.

Another challenge has been the extremely different pronunciation problems that the Japanese have versus the ones that the Vietnamese have. For example, the Japanese have a very tough time saying the phonetic /v/ and /l/ sounds. My ear had become very well trained in Vietnam to understand Vietnamese broken English. Here in Japan, I constantly finding myself asking students to repeat things because I had no idea what they said. It's gonna be a challenge, but after week I can already hear a big difference in a few of my students. I think after three months there will be some very big strides...despite the gymnasium classroom.

Eel

Eel has always been one of my favorite things to eat at sushi restaurants. In Japan, they have specialty restaurants that only serve eel. Of course had to try one out.

After work the other day, I rode my bike around my neighborhood until I found a sign that had a drawing of an eel on it. Since I can’t read Japanese, this was clearly a big help. I parked my bicycle in front of the restaurant and walked in. The first thing I noticed was that I was the only person in the restaurant. By “only person” I mean there wasn’t even a waiter or a cook. I let out a little cough and sure enough, the cook/owner/waiter popped into the room. He looked very surprised to see a foreigner. He started to speak to me in Japanese and quickly realized I couldn’t speak a word. He then pointed at the menu on the wall which of course was in Japanese. Prices too.

From what I could gather there were three options on the menu. He kept pointing at the first Japanese kanji, so I said one of the three words I know, “Hai.” That means yes.

The man then proceeded to make me an absolutely amazing meal. Besides the huge portion of eel and rice, he also gave me the greatest tofu I have ever tasted. I’m not a tofu person but this tofu just melted in my mouth. He also prepared a fresh plate of vegetables and a delicious soup for me. At the end of the meal he sliced me a Japanese apple and even gave me one to take home with me. While I ate the man kept trying to make small talk with me and through gestures I told him how much I was loving the meal. He seemed very pleased.

The chef/owner could not have been any friendlier. As I ate the scrumptious meal I kept thinking, “I’m gonna come here ever single week.” That thought ended though when the man gave me my bill: 2,200 yen or roughly $27. Okay, okay, I’m cheap! I’ll go ever two weeks!