Amber's Update

Hello All!
Ohayo gozaimasu, konnichiwa, or kombanwa!
(depending on where you are in the world)

It is definitely time for an update from me...

Everything here has been going well for us. I'm enjoying my job (for the most part), although it takes a good deal of energy to get through the days. Most of my students are an absolute joy... a couple are little terrors. Teaching is definitely a test to my patience. It's all part of the learning experience, I guess. I don't know what it is about kids, but good or bad, they seem to drain the very life from you. I've also been sick for about 2 weeks with a cold (cough, sore throat, congestion) and having to go to school most days to sing, yell, play, run around and try to discipline children hasn't exactly been assisting my recovery.

I'm getting accustomed to the strange, ritualistic meetings each morning at work, which always begin promptly at 9:30am, no sooner and no later, according to the time clock. They are conducted entirely in Japanese, and start by everyone reciting the company's motto together from memory in a rather lackadaisical, robotic tone which continues as they move on to reading the long list of monthly goals from a packet. Next, each teacher gives a briefing of what is going on for the day in their part of the company. (Note: It is almost always the exact same thing as the day before and will, in addition, very likely resemble the next 30 days following.) Finally, whatever teacher is up in the rotation will make a three to five minute speech about the monthly & weekly topics which we get from a calendar that the owner received a while back at some business convention. I have to make two speeches per month starting in a couple of weeks. One of the few English speakers will translate what I say for the rest of the group. Other than that, I just stand respectfully at the meetings - smiling, clapping and bowing at the right times, and trying to pretend that I understand even a small percentage of what they are talking about.

The 2-hour (round-trip) commute to and from work is still a bummer, but I'm a lot more used to it. I just try to read, listen to music, stare out the window, or check out the people around me. There's always something interesting to see or ponder here. I still haven't mastered the art of sleeping on the trains, but I definitely get close at times. In the mornings I usually ride in the "women only" cars, and it's pretty hilarious to see an entire row of Japanese ladies slumped over forward or sideways onto each other, dead asleep, hair covering their faces, heads rocking back and forth in unison with the movement of the train.

It is now "Golden Week" in Japan, so we have four days off in a row. Yay! Tomorrow we are riding the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Hiroshima. I'm going to visit the Peace Museum there, which I'm told is a pretty painful experience. Andrew has been once before and said he can't go through seeing it again, but that it's something I should do once. I guess we can stand in the very place where the bomb went off, and a few of the original buildings, although nearly destroyed, are still standing. The area around Hiroshima will be beautiful this time of year, and right now the weather is perfect. We will also visit Miyajima (a nearby island with a famous floating gate) and hopefully find some reasonably priced accommodation there. All the hostels we found online were booked, so we'll just have to wing it. I'm excited to try "Hiroshimayaki" (their version of the delicious Japanese dish, Okonomiyaki). It took me a while to get used to the food here, but I've developed quite a taste for it. Now, instead of taking a sandwich to work, I generally prefer to take my bento box (Japanese-style lunch box) with fish/tofu, veggies, rice, seaweed and miso soup.

I think this would be an ideal time of year for people to visit Japan. It's warming up, but not too hot yet. Everything is in bloom - bright purple, white and pink flowered trees and bushes everywhere. Yamadaike Park (next to our house) is SO green and lovely. I try to take photos of it, but they never seem to capture the beauty of seeing it in person. I'm so glad we moved to Hirakata from Osaka. The area where we live is very peaceful and not packed with the people of the big cities. Our neighbors sure keep to themselves. Andrew's been planting flowers, veggies and spices in big pots on the porch. It's so nice to have a day off to just relax in the sun through the sliding glass doors at the back of our apartment, listening to the rain or a breeze and the birds from the park. Sometimes I am so comfortable in our "space" here that I forget we are in Japan.

I still get frustrated with the claustrophobic crowds when we go into Osaka on a Sunday, the people who stare at you like you're an alien, the occasional rude, purple-haired old lady on the train who literally pushes her way around you to get in front, or those who completely ignore the meaning of a crosswalk, even speeding up and trying to run you over, but I must say these instances are few and far between compared to the amount of excessive politeness within the Japanese culture. Although annoying at times and making it difficult to get a proper read on anyone, there's something to be said for showing respect at all times, in a business or social situation, regardless of whether you like or dislike someone. And if I ever look lost or confused, people either come up and offer their help or are willing to help me if I ask for it. I'm also picking up on a lot more Japanese now. I find that it's much easier when I stop trying to relate the meaning of certain words to some concept in English because so much simply does not translate over. There are many words and phrases, some that Japanese repeat over and over daily, with different meanings depending on the context, and often multiple meanings at once.

Well it's time to say sayonara for now.
I miss everybody and hope you are happy and healthy.
I'm sorry if I get too busy sometimes to keep up with emailing and blogging, but you are always in my thoughts.

Love,
Amber

Andrew with his boss (also our neighbor and friend) Harry