Last Tuesday we had a goodbye party for Rachel at Frisa's place. We had Mexican food and it was very good. It worked out perfectly as we had planned to do this for a while but didn't know how to get Rachel invited without hinting that it was a surprise party. Frisa invited her to go eat at a Thai restaurant while drunk so she believed him. It was a good night.
During the night we showed her a video that I had made (it took a month!) that had all the ALTs saying goodbye. The video starts out with a few seconds of karaoke, followed by ALTs' goodbyes, then some pictures that I tried to arrange to tell a story (probably failed on this), then goodbyes from some of the shops that she really likes in Kesennuma. Bloopers followed, and finally credits. I also downloaded and burned to DVD all of her Facebook pictures as she had mentioned a while back that she had wanted to do that but couldn't reasonably (by the time I finished downloading all the pictures, there were over 10,000 of them).
And just last night we had another surprise (sorta) goodbye party where BOE members and ALTs met up at PinPon. More good times. The after party was at Stray Sheep, the BEST bar in Kesennuma!
Goodbye Rachel, after 5 years of Kesennuma!
I'm going back to Oregon for a while and will be back on the 10th of August, just in time for Minato Matsuri. Looking forward to it!
送別会【そうべつかい】 (sou/betsu/kai) farewell party
Friday, July 20, 2012
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Japan America Differences Part 3
41. When people here are sick, they wear masks (those SARS masks if you remember those).
42. At least in middle school, every kid has to join some school club, whether it be the soccer club or the art club.
43. While America uses 3 holes on the side of its paper for binding, Japan uses 2 holes. I believe this is the main reason Japan and America sometimes have a hard time being friends.
44. In English, people congratulate each other on the new year itself "Happy new years!" but in Japanese, people congratulate each other on the rising of the sun the day of the new year (more specifically, darkness giving way to light, and indicating that a new year is upon us, but yeah).
45. Japan speaks Japanese and America speaks mostly English (you don't say!)
46. At least in my city, there are bells at certain times of the day (6 am, noon and 6 pm are the only ones I can remember at this time) to remind you what general time it is.
47. Despite Japanese people being "quiet" and "polite," the way you get the server's attention in a restaurant is to yell "Excuse me (sumimasen)!" If they aren't around, you yell louder so they can hear you in the back. In the states we usually just raise our hand or make eye contact. There is also a button in many restaurants that you can hit to make a server come over. Very convenient.
48. Not that there isn't a glass ceiling still in the states, but it's VERY apparent here and women don't have near the respect that men have.
49. Japanese houses/apartments have a small place just to take off your shoes at the very entrance of the house called a genkan. Every Japanese take their shoes off before entering someone's house. Not everyone does this in the states.
50. The Japanese say something like "excuse me" as they enter someone's house.
51. Books are read from right to left and open from left to right in general.
52. People brush 3 times a day in Japan instead of 2 (or in my case, 1 often times).
53. Japanese can't tell the difference between a green light and the first 2-3 seconds of a red light.
53. Speaking of lights, Japan calls green lights "blue" even though they are green in color.
54. Instead of DMV and emission checks, Japan has bi-yearly car inspections to determine if a car is still road worthy. It can cost around $1,000.
55. ATMs can close. WTF? Very convenient in this CASH based society let me tell you.
56. When you receive change after paying for things, they hand you the dollar bills first and then the coins.
57. A lot of Japanese sit down when they take showers on little stools.
58. Nobody says "goodbye" on the phones here. They just say something like "ok then!" or something to that effect.
59. People point to their nose when they point to themselves here.
60. Instead of just a wave when someone lets you in a car lane here, people honk or hit their safety lights for a few seconds.
It's taking a while to knock these ones out so probably going to go down to 10 at a time from now on.
42. At least in middle school, every kid has to join some school club, whether it be the soccer club or the art club.
43. While America uses 3 holes on the side of its paper for binding, Japan uses 2 holes. I believe this is the main reason Japan and America sometimes have a hard time being friends.
44. In English, people congratulate each other on the new year itself "Happy new years!" but in Japanese, people congratulate each other on the rising of the sun the day of the new year (more specifically, darkness giving way to light, and indicating that a new year is upon us, but yeah).
45. Japan speaks Japanese and America speaks mostly English (you don't say!)
46. At least in my city, there are bells at certain times of the day (6 am, noon and 6 pm are the only ones I can remember at this time) to remind you what general time it is.
47. Despite Japanese people being "quiet" and "polite," the way you get the server's attention in a restaurant is to yell "Excuse me (sumimasen)!" If they aren't around, you yell louder so they can hear you in the back. In the states we usually just raise our hand or make eye contact. There is also a button in many restaurants that you can hit to make a server come over. Very convenient.
48. Not that there isn't a glass ceiling still in the states, but it's VERY apparent here and women don't have near the respect that men have.
49. Japanese houses/apartments have a small place just to take off your shoes at the very entrance of the house called a genkan. Every Japanese take their shoes off before entering someone's house. Not everyone does this in the states.
50. The Japanese say something like "excuse me" as they enter someone's house.
51. Books are read from right to left and open from left to right in general.
52. People brush 3 times a day in Japan instead of 2 (or in my case, 1 often times).
53. Japanese can't tell the difference between a green light and the first 2-3 seconds of a red light.
53. Speaking of lights, Japan calls green lights "blue" even though they are green in color.
54. Instead of DMV and emission checks, Japan has bi-yearly car inspections to determine if a car is still road worthy. It can cost around $1,000.
55. ATMs can close. WTF? Very convenient in this CASH based society let me tell you.
56. When you receive change after paying for things, they hand you the dollar bills first and then the coins.
57. A lot of Japanese sit down when they take showers on little stools.
58. Nobody says "goodbye" on the phones here. They just say something like "ok then!" or something to that effect.
59. People point to their nose when they point to themselves here.
60. Instead of just a wave when someone lets you in a car lane here, people honk or hit their safety lights for a few seconds.
It's taking a while to knock these ones out so probably going to go down to 10 at a time from now on.
Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Busy Month
So I haven't written for a while but it's not exactly because I'm lazy. Well, I am, but whatever. This month has been super busy for me as I prepare to go back to the states for a few weeks on vacation. I'm trying to figure out what I need to do when I'm back, what pictures to take to show people, etc. I also need to figure out my taxes as I've passed the deadline and have just kind of been "hiding" out and not worrying about them. Probably not a good idea but I'll deal with that back home.
Also been trying to hang out with people who are leaving this year. One of them is leaving Kesennuma after 5 years, the longest she's ever lived in one place, so that's pretty special. I'm also working on some projects that are taking up a lot of my time. They'll be well worth it when I'm done though.
I went to a place with Kevin over the weekend called Chuusonji 中尊寺 which is a temple located in Hiraizumi. I went there mainly to buy souvenirs for people back home, but also got to eat a cool dish called Wanko Soba. Picture below:
There were 24 bowls of soba and that sounds like a lot but each bowl only had a little bit in it so it worked out to be a little more than a normal meal. It was good.
This was the 2nd time I'd been to Chuusonji and it sucked because both times it was raining. Maybe if I go again it won't be raining.
Not sure if I'll get a chance to update again before I leave to the US, probably will, but if I don't, eat dirt!
Also been trying to hang out with people who are leaving this year. One of them is leaving Kesennuma after 5 years, the longest she's ever lived in one place, so that's pretty special. I'm also working on some projects that are taking up a lot of my time. They'll be well worth it when I'm done though.
I went to a place with Kevin over the weekend called Chuusonji 中尊寺 which is a temple located in Hiraizumi. I went there mainly to buy souvenirs for people back home, but also got to eat a cool dish called Wanko Soba. Picture below:
This was the 2nd time I'd been to Chuusonji and it sucked because both times it was raining. Maybe if I go again it won't be raining.
Not sure if I'll get a chance to update again before I leave to the US, probably will, but if I don't, eat dirt!
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