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Broadcasting to an audience of three (and a goldfish)...
Comment, ramblings and musings... life through the eyes of a Japanologist...
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Tuesday, October 1, 2002 |
 Got home to find that I was tsuki-ban for the neighbourhood for this month. This basically involves delivering the list of notices to the first house in the list so that it can be passed round each family, and distributing the town magazine and any individual notices to each house. Luckily, there are only 11 houses in my neighbourhood, so it's not too much of a problem.
Of course, I don't mind doing this- it's my duty, and I'm glad that they don't skip me and go to the next Japanese family- but... (of course there's a 'but'!) in the sets of papers waiting in my letter-box, there were two significant 'other' duties. One of them was distributing green and red feathers to each house; something to do with Devil worship. No, actually, they're feathers to fix to your lapel to show that you support the Red Cross (the red feather, pretty obviously) or some sort of forestry society (the green feather)- and pretty pathetic little specimens they were, too. However, irrespective of the aims of the society, I believe that contributing to a charity should be voluntary: I really disapprove of the way that these groups come to the office and almost coerce everyone to contribute. I distributed these feathers, but I did so begrudgingly. Luckily there was a note saying that there was no need to collect money for the feathers; I say 'luckily', but in any case, there was absolutely no way I was doing this!
In addition, there was the collection register for the neighbourhood, with a note asking me to make sure I got the neighbourhood contribution for a lady- we'll call her S-san. The problem is that S-san is the mad woman across the street- the woman who wanders round and steals satsumas, the woman who thinks nothing of using her front yard as a toilet. In full view of anyone passing by. Something tells me I'm not going to be getting any contribution from her- in fact, something tells me I'm not even going to be trying...!
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Of course, when I finally got to get my hair cut, I had the same four questions that the same barber asks every time I go:
- Is this your third year in Etajima now?
- Do you get paid a bonus?
- Is Etajima hotter (summer) or colder (winter) than Britain?
- Are you going home at Christmas/Golden Week/O-Bon?
A quick calculation: I go to the barbers about once every six weeks, and I've been here for over four years now (but let's say four years), so I've had my hair cut at the same barbers now about 35 times. Isn't it about time he remembered my answers?
Perhaps I should just make things easier by walking in and saying, 'Cut it short, please, and no, it's my fifth year,no I don't, yes it is, and no I'm not.' Or perhaps I could just snore all the way through, instead of just while I'm waiting...
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Went to get a haircut after work this evening. Well, there was one person in front of me, so I had to wait a while... I don't whether it was that the barber's was warm, or whether there was something else, but I fell asleep. And moreover, it wasn't just a doze, but a proper, sound, sleep! How embarassing!
In fact, I have a sneaking suspicion that I might even have been snoring. I asked the barber jokingly whether this had been the case, and he laughed- a sort of nervous laugh- and said no, of course I hadn't. So it's fairly likely that I was indeed snoring. The embarassment just gets greater and greater...
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First visit of the term to Miyanohara Elementary School. At Miyanohara I see the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th years every time, but the 1st and 2nd years only every second time. Today was the whole school, so I taught one lesson in the morning, had lunch with the 5ths, and then taught the two lessons in the afternoon. Three lessons, it has to be said, is a bit tiring- especially as the school slippers are made for Japanese feet and therefore end halfway across my heel, so standing on what is effectively a little step for four hours or so gets painful.
Anyway, I had been stating from the beginning of the school year that a play in English for the 3rd and 4th years would be too difficult, but of course the teachers (who know nothing about English and so on) knew better, and insisted we did one. Therefore I spent ages translating a story from the 3rd years' Japanese textbook into an English play, and putting furigana (Japanese pronunciation) on every word of four pages of English, and we started the play last term. It was with no small amount of annoyance, therefore, that I look at the schedule the school had submitted to me, only to find that they'd made the unilateral decision to scrap the play. Not only had I spent all that time preparing the play for nothing, but I'd been proved exactly right about it being too difficult- but of course, the teachers were far too haughtly to bother apologising. Far too haughty, in fact, even to bother calling me and explaining. So I phoned the school and asked them in my iciest 'you-mess-me-around-like-this-and-you're-on-very-dangerous-ground' sort of voice, why exactly they'd scrapped the play. Well, one of the teachers came on the line and said that they'd decided it was too difficult for the children, and I asked him if that hadn't been exactly what I'd been saying from the very beginning... a long silence or so later, I told him that I'd go along with cancelling the play, but (in no uncertain terms) that I was not happy about the whole situation. Anyway, he must have told the Deputy Headmaster, because when I got to the school she apologised profusely, and said that they'd been wrong not to bother telling me. Normally in these cases it's correct to say something along the lines of 'no, don't bother', but I was in no mood to go in for these little social pleasantries, so I replied, 'yes, it was a little, wasn't it.'...
The lessons themselves, though, we're enjoyable- I like the children in Miyanohara a lot. With the 1st and 2nd years, and then the (play-less) 3rd and 4th years, we did 'London Bridge', and played the game where the people who are caught become members of a human tug-of-war. The 5th and 6th years, meanwhile, had not had their play cancelled, so we continued with 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. Unfortuately, half the children had forgotten- or lost- their scripts over the summer holidays, so didn't know which lines they were supposed to be speaking; rather than continuing the play, it was more a case of restarting it. If the children can get their act together (literally), then it'll be great, but to be honest I have my doubts whether they'll be able to behave and concentrate for long enough to make this really good. Fingers crossed...
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Got a call at the office this morning... from New Zealand! Yoshioka-kun, a friend from Ujina who is spending a year in New Zealand, called for a chat. It was good to hear from him, especially as I take the view that you can always find out a lot about friendships when you move away from the friend in question. That Yoshioka-kun took the trouble to phone all the way from New Zealand, just for a chat, says a lot, I think.
It was a shame, though, that when I asked him how things were going, he answered, 'zenzen omoshironai'- completely boring...
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The first day of October is koromo-gae, when you are supposed to change into winter clothes (irrespective of the weather). Well, most people don't seem to take much notice of this date really, although on my way to work this morning, I did indeed see my first school blazer of the season... Won't be long 'til winter now...
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© Copyright 2003 Nathan Duckworth.
Updated: 8/1/03; 8:44:09 pm.
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