Japan America Differences Part 1

Going to be writing a few of these, 20 at a time, and will keep adding as I figure out more things.  If I refer to "here," I'm talking about Japan.

1. Japanese drive on the left side of the road.  The steering wheel of the car is on the right side, but the gas pedal is still on the right side.

2. Even at a small and insignificant crosswalk with absolutely no cars, the majority of Japanese people will stand there and wait until the crosswalk light turns green.

3. There's no daylight savings time or anything here, so in the summer, the sun rises at 4:30.

4. There are no school buses.  Students walk or ride their bikes.

5. In a lot of Japan, houses don't know what insulation means.

6. There are toilets here where you have to squat down to use them because they are basically holes in the ground.

7. Japanese people go to the hospital for the SMALLEST things.  Case in point: They go when they have colds, and they get medicine.

8. Recycling is a nightmare here.  You have to tie up papers and cardboard with a certain string, make sure to rinse and clean the cans and unscrew the tops.  Fail to do this all just right and it won't get picked up by the garbage trucks.  On top of that?  Recycle day is once a month.

9. Business that requires you going to some center (bank, DMV, etc) takes a LOOONG time.  You thought the DMV in America was bad... hoo boy.  Maybe it's just that way for foreigners.

10. The banks have the worst hours in the world.  9-3, only from Monday to Friday.

11. The "close door" button in elevators actually works here, and everyone uses it.

12. The speed limits force you to crawl.  Except for a road here and there in my city, the speed limit is 25 mph.  That's twenty-five boys and girls.

13. They have public baths called "onsen" where you bathe naked with everyone else.

14. If you're looking for a vending machine, well, more accurately, it's almost impossible to NOT see one no matter where you look.

15. On the other hand, you could search all day and never find a trash can unless you go to a store.

16. Convenience stores are actually convenient.

17. When people don't understand something they tilt their head to one side.

18. Japanese people will be saints to your face, and demons when your back is turned.  As long as you can't see what they're doing, anything is fair game (gossip gossip gossip)

19. Japanese can finish their work in a few hours, but will spend often over 10 hours at the workplace doing who knows what (this is to give off the feeling of "everyone's working together," even if only 1 or 2 people actually have something to do)

20. Deviation from the book is UNHEARD OF.  Suggesting to do something different is met with bewilderment and often rejection.

違い【ちがい】 (chigai) difference

Driver's Test 3, Exactness of the Japanese

If you fail the driver's test you get this same little slip of paper that looks exactly like the one to the right, but it's pink.  On April 12th, 2012, Tuesday, I PASSED!  This time I didn't change much about my driving because there wasn't really much left to change.  The guy told me I did a good job and that was it.  It really depends on the tester I think.  I heard they could be racist towards Asian foreigners and I think it's totally true.  Japan's Xenophobia was out in full force but I smashed it to pieces.  I am licensed in Japan baby!

I am amazed at how far even the Japanese students will go to get something "perfect."  When I tell students that there is one tiny letter missing in a word, they often will erase the ENTIRE SENTENCE and rewrite it just to get that letter in perfectly.  If something isn't drawn perfectly, instead of erasing the small part that is wrong, they will often erase the entire drawing (or portion of whatever they are drawing) and start over.  Can't they just fit the little letter in?  Can't they just erase the one small part of the drawing that is wrong and start over?  Even if it is something trivial like drawing a bird in a square for a game of animal bingo, the drawings have to be perfect.  You will often see multiple erase marks on things like these, even though it's not the drawing itself that matters, and they might not even hand the drawing in.  Despite how far Japanese students are willing to go on things like these, I don't think I've ever seen a student get 100 on a test before.  So much for that part of their OCD not transferring into studying.

合格【ごうかく】 (gou/kaku) success; passing (e.g. exam)

Entrance and Graduation Ceremonies, Teacher Transfers

Entering and exiting middle school is, I guess, a big deal.  I remember when I entered middle school there was nothing to welcome us and we got some lame recognition thing at the end where a lot of students didn't even bother to dress up.  In Japan, the graduation ceremony is like that of a high school graduation ceremony in the states (a rather big deal), and there is a formal entrance ceremony that is almost as big.

It seems a little silly because the whole thing is SO structured it's ridiculous.  After going to the stage and doing whatever, students have to walk to a certain spot before making a 90 degree turn to walk back to where they came from.  Also what's really funny is that there is a person who announces that something will be announced, for example:

School coordinator（教務主任）: And now the announcement of the beginning of the ceremony.
Vice principal（教頭）: The ceremony will now begin.

Each segment has to be completely separate as well.  For example, the principal will walk up to the stage, give his opening remarks, walk off the stage, sit down, stand back up and walk right back on the stage (after the announcements of course) to hand out awards.  He couldn't just stay up on the stage between segments even though he's going to be doing the next one too.

Also, the teachers have a random chance of being shipped to different schools at the end of each school year, which begins in April (as opposed to North America's September.  Not sure about other countries).  Each year some teachers leave and new ones from who knows where come in.  Most seem to get transferred after 4 or 5ish years, and some can stay as long as 10.  They think it's funny that teachers in North America stay at the same school their whole life usually.  There are good and bad things about both systems, but for whatever reason, the teachers who are leaving and staying has to be kept a secret until the official meeting, even though it doesn't really affect anything if people know beforehand.  When I say teachers have a random chance of being shipped off, I guess I should say that anyone who works at the school.  Accountants and even janitors could be shipped off to some other school.  One teacher I have came from a city 2 hours away, and other teachers could be moved even further.  The only exception is the ALT (except for special circumstances), most likely because the max period of employment for JETs is 5 years anyway.  So glad I'm not a teacher in this country.

Taking the driving test for a THIRD time tomorrow.  I am going to shoot a damn monkey if they fail me again I swear.

三度目の正直【さんどめのしょうじき】(san/do/me/no/shou/jiki) Third time's a charm

Driver's Test 2, Convenience Stores, ATMs

Driver's test round 2 back on Tuesday, and again I failed.  This time the guy said that while I looked left and right before the intersection, I looked a half second too late, so he couldn't pass me because I just barely looked.  What makes me really irritated about this is that all my intersection crossings were at red lights, so I'm going to stop anyway, what does it even matter if I look left and right before I stop?  The testers I believe are pretty racist, as I've heard before.  Of course a white guy who was there passed on his first try.  This will easily be the most aggravating thing I do in Japan.

The convenience stores in Japan are amazingly convenient!  The main ones are 7-11, Lawson, and Family Mart, and there are others also.  You can pay bills, make copies or send faxes, stand there and read comic books, buy concert and amusement park tickets, and buy really good lunches that the staff will heat up for you.  I've been to convenience stores more in my 7 months in Japan here than I have been in all my life in the states.  True story.

What's not so convenient are the ATMs.  Japan is a cash based society.  It is not uncommon for people to be walking around with hundreds of dollars (tens of thousands of yen) in their wallets/purses, and maybe with no credit card.  Knowing this, you'd think that Japanese ATMs would transcend Batman!  But they don't.  In fact, Japanese ATMs CLOSE.  That's right, in a cash based society the only thing you might be able to get money from closes.  I think they close around 9 on weekdays and maybe 6 on weekends (in huge areas like Tokyo I'm not sure, but I think they have 24 hour ATMs).  This is ridiculous.  It's like saying credit cards are unusable after 9 PM.  Does anyone understand this?  It's even better that Japanese bank hours are from 9 AM to 3 PM, so basically unless you take paid leave off of work, you can never get to the bank before it closes.

コンビニ (conbini) convenience store

Graduation and the Japanese Driver's License Test

Been slacking a bit but whatever!

The 3rd years (9th graders) graduated a little over 2 weeks ago and it was pretty awesome.  There was a graduation ceremony that felt just as formal as a high school ceremony back in the states.  I told some of the teachers that graduating from middle school wasn't such a big deal in the states because you couldn't do much with just graduating from middle school.  In fact, high school is mandatory in the states so it makes it even less of a big deal.

Students walked up and received diplomas and this went on for about maybe 20 minutes or so?  Can't remember.  Afterwards the 1st and 2nd years (8th and 7th graders) sang a song for their upperclassmen.  It was sad to see them go even though I hadn't been with them that long but for the most part I was glad to see them go (don't tell them that though!)

After the ceremony in the gym, students (I'm assuming since I didn't actually go up there with them) went back into their homerooms and said their final goodbyes and signed their year books before coming downstairs to a hallway filled with the younger students who congratulated them and said goodbyes and thank yous.  The teachers got in on the act too and people were handing out flowers and other gifts.  One of the 3rd years is going to sign up for a program in the states and he has a chance to go to Oregon if he gets in!  When he came down I gave him my email and told him to contact me if he got into the program.  Hope he does!


Before going home, a girl saw me, turned, and with a big smile yelled "Dustin!  I... forget... you!"  I was about to go over and German suplex her, but her friend helped her out and she corrected it into "Dustin, I remember you!"  It was sweet.  We made out after.  Ok no we didn't.  But she wanted to.  Ok maybe not.

So!  I had heard that the proctors for the Japanese Driver's test were racist.  I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and give it my all.  The practical test for the license isn't very practical.  It doesn't test your driving ability as much as it should and they pick on the smallest things.  There is a part in the test called the crank and it's basically 3 90 degree turns.
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My drawing sucks but that's the general idea of it.  You can back up 3 times if you think you'll hit the curb or a wall.  I had to back up zero times because I am awesome.  There is also a part that's basically the shape of an S and you have to navigate through that also.  These 2 parts show that you can navigate Japan's narrow roads, although the crank might not really exist in real life as it is on the test.

I nailed the test.  I know I did.  I did everything right.  But that moron decides to ask me, right after we finish "Do you drive like that in America?"  He gave me a LIST of stuff I didn't do (half of it I know I did) and at the end told me I didn't know how to hold a steering wheel even though I had been 10 2ing it the whole time.  Racist bastard!  I'm taking the test next Tuesday again and if I pass I'm not thanking him!

卒業【そつぎょう】 (sotsu/gyou) (n,vs,adj-no) (1) graduation

March 11th, 2011, 2:46 PM

A year has passed since the most devastating earthquake in Japan's recorded history.  Even if you don't know anything about Japan or care, you likely found out about this not long after it happened.  I remember I was sitting at my computer in the early hours of the evening when my mom came up and told me a huge earthquake had just hit Japan.  I turned on the news and they repeatedly showed clips of the tsunami invading the land, taking with it cars, homes, boats and trees.

A lot has happened and there have been big clean up efforts and lots of money donated.  But there is still a lot, A LOT of clean up left to do.  They just paved one of the roads destroyed by the tsunami in my city yesterday.  There are still a lot of buildings that haven't been touched as far as clean up.  There are still places that have rubble piles a story high.  It will take many years for Japan to recover.  Remember the Haiti earthquake?  Their people are still without homes in some places.  Japan isn't a 3rd world country, but disasters like the one that happened to Japan don't get fixed over night.

One of the events I went to gave people the opportunity to write a wish on a piece of paper, strap it to a glass bottle and light a candle inside of it.  The event I found out was actually orchestrated by my teacher's niece.  There were quite a few candles and people were still making out wishes by the time I had written mine, which was a little later in the evening.

This one says something like "I pray your heart is at peace."  Yes the object to the left of it reminds me of a tooth.  There were quite a few other ones wishing for a stronger Japan and ones wishing for their relatives to rest in peace and all that jazz.  It was pretty touching.  Obviously I couldn't grasp the whole meaning of the events because I wasn't here for the whole ordeal, but still it was very moving.



On a separate note, my teacher's daughter's name is Rei.  Just so I don't forget, which I probably will.

大震災【だいしんさい】 (dai/shin/sai) (n) great earthquake (disaster);

Graduating Classes and Japan Puberty Stage

School lunch with "Congratulations" dessert

The school year ends in March, and early March for the graduating class.  As it is, my 3rd year junior high school students (9th grade) are finishing up this week, with a graduation ceremony on Saturday.  I only knew them a little more than half a year, but will be sad to see them go (except for one class who doesn't talk at one of my schools, good riddance to the lot o' ya! Haha)  The final lesson is them writing stuff about their teachers, embarrassing moments, fun times, predictions for themselves in 1 week, 1 year and 10 years, and writing down who is most likely to be an actor/actress, be a doctor, get rich and who will go to jail.

I'm nearing what I think is my puberty stage in Japan now.  When I first got to Japan and for the first few months I was still trying to figure out how things work, what teachers expected of me, and trying to see how I could get the students to connect with me.  Now I more or less know what's going on and what I should be doing.  Case in point: This blog is being written during work.  OH BAM!

Trying to think of what to do with my 2nd years (8th graders) for their last class.  Maybe Jeopardy or something.

卒業式【そつぎょうしき】 (sotsu/gyou/shiki) (n) graduation ceremony; graduation exercises