End of School Year, Yearbooks, New Restaurant Mondays

So the school year in Japan ends in March, right when spring break in the US would be starting.  I've been asked to come up with an idea for the last class of 3rd years and I think I've got something good.  Basically we'll tape a piece of paper to the back of the student and then we'll let other students walk around and write stuff on the paper.  Positive comments of course.. at least for the main part!  I've watched these kids grow up since they were in 2nd year, not even halfway through their middle school years yet, and now they're graduating.  It's hard to believe, and makes me feel even older.

This year I'm finally buying all 3 year books.  The year books here are ALL in color, but only include the graduating year.  It sucks because that means there will be kids whose year books I won't get to have when I go back home.  Also, these things are EXPENSIVE.  I'll be paying 34,000 yen, or about $370, for all of them.

I'm on a quest to get to as many restaurants in Kesennuma as possible.  I've been going every Monday and so far I've been liking what I've been going to.  Last Monday I went to Sushi Taihei and it had DELICIOUS sushi.  The sushi second on the lower left (right above a pure white sushi) is called uni, or sea urchin.  The difference between fresh and not so fresh uni is the difference between day and night.  Kappa sushi has uni, but it's not fresh so it tastes like garbage.  Taihei's uni is AMAZING.  I will likely go back, even though it was a bit expensive (4,000 yen to get full.  Ouch!)

卒業アルバム【そつぎょうアルバム】 (sotsugyou/arubamu) classbook; yearbook; graduation album

Chiko Sensei

In February of probably 2005 or 2006, my Japanese teacher from both high school and college passed away due to cancer.

I remember the 1st year of taking Japanese in high school.  We had a non-Japanese teacher, Mrs. Nielsen (on? en?  I don't remember).  You couldn't even really call her our teacher because there might have been all of 1 or 2 days where she actually taught us.  The rest of the time we were taught by her assistants.  They knew all they needed to know in order to teach us, but they were still just high school students.  We learned a very simple self introduction and how to write hiragana and katakana that year.  That was it.

The 2nd year we had a Japanese teacher come down from MHCC (the community college I'd end up going to) to teach the Japanese classes because Mrs. Nielsen had a full schedule.  She found out we didn't know anything and started over teaching us how to do self introductions.  I barely remember the 2nd year because she was so nice that she would let me sleep during class (it was right after P.E. and I was always on the phone at night time during sophomore year).  The 3rd year I actually started studying and learning stuff.  Our 3rd year class was 8 students.  There was no 4th year.  During my senior year in high school, I found out she had cancer.  It was an especially humbling day.

I retook the beginner classes in college so I could get an easy A.  During the summer after the 1st year we went to Kyoto, Japan with our Japanese class and her.  Lots of stuff happened, and I'll never forget it.  The 2nd year of Japanese was good, but she quit her job midway through to deal with the cancer.

She was strong.  She never once even hinted at complaining about her cancer or the chemo treatments she received that made her lose all her hair.  She was always understanding, kind and personable.  She was my favorite teacher and has been since then.  I like to think she is a big part of why I'm in Japan today and I appreciate all she did and the influence she still has on me today.

いつも有難うございます、渡辺千鶴子先生。

影響【えいきょう】 (eikyou) influence

Japan American Differences Part 4

As I live longer and longer in Japan, I get used to things more, and these become harder to write.  Maybe I'll think of more when I go back home.

61. Japanese police drive around with their lights on even if they aren't chasing anyone.  I've heard it's just to provide more "police awareness" but who knows.

62. Teachers here go to school on Saturday... and often Sunday.  Ouch.

63. The way people say no to hanging out with you is to act all interested, then say that something came up later on through a "don't have to see your face but can still turn you down" method, such as texting.

64. The milk here is like 3.5-5%.

65. The space bar on a computer is about half the size of English keyboards.

66. Wi-Fi is still pretty rare here.

67. The word "difficult" in Japanese is often used to mean "no."

68. Japanese people do not laugh during movies.

69. Japanese school year books only include the graduating class.

70. Japanese snowmen have 2 bodies while American ones have 3.