Here's Shirasagi Residence, the apartment building where I live in Himeji.
Only a week or two after I arrived, I hooked up with an Internet provider. I had bought a Fujitsu notebook computer with a 56k Flex modem to take with me to Japan. The wires in this building are surprisingly better than my parents' house back home in Arizona. Back there I was only able to connect at 28.8 tops. And some modems, like the one in my notebook, were very flaky and would constantly get bumped offline. My Sega Dreamcast modem couldn't connect at all. But here I can connect at a rate of 46.6 and I'm happy about it. Many of you with cable modems might scoff, but I'd like to point out the common misconception of Japan being a technologically advanced country because all the cool products are made here. Wrong. ISDN and the likes are rather uncommon here in Japan. My ISP here in Japan, Asahi Net, is a nationwide Net provider with a local access point here in Himeji. But even with local phone calls, I still have to pay something like three yen per every few minutes. (Oh yes, and nationwide ISPs here in Japan aren't evil like AOL and MSN. They're actually pretty cool.)
I think I am pretty much adjusted to life here in Japan. Most of my free-time I spend playing video games, reading books, reading and writing e-mail (more of the former and unfortunately not so much of the latter), and listening to music. Lately I've been listening to a lot of ambient and trance music. I didn't have much time for reading novels while I was a college student, because I was busy with other studies. I just finished the 1,150 page book Shogun, and now I'm reading William Gibson's Idoru. I haven't read fiction in a long time it seems. I've just been reading non-fiction for the past several years. And it feels good to read science fiction again. I have plenty of SF and fantasy novels to read. Next I will read Tolkein's The Hobbit and the Rings trilogy, and then after that I'll read C.S. Lewis's Out of the Silent Planet trilogy.
My apartment is real small, but I really love it. I guess I don't need a lot of space since I'm single, but I wouldn't mind a little more space. Still, I don't mind it. It's kinda fun living cramped. I'm a firm believer in having plenty of neat stuff. My neighbors and friends are jealous of the cool setup I have. I have a really swanky Panasonic stereo that can play up to 5 CDs and 5 MDs. I bought a spiffy Toshiba flatscreen TV. When I went back to America for New Years I bought a Toshiba DVD player for only $200 at Amazon.com and took it back with me to Japan. Right now I have my two Dreamcasts lined up on top of my coffee table (my American one and my Sakura Taisen Japanese one), along with my Playstation Saturn, and Super Nintendo. Although my friends like to make fun of me for being such a video game otaku, they like to come over and play my video games even more. We have Marvel vs. Capcom 2 championships on my Dreamcast, and they're starting to kick my ass.
It's winter now. Coming from a desert like Phoenix, my blood is a bit thin and I've been sick three times already here. I'm not used to a colder, damper climate. The thing that really kills me about winter in Japan is that the buildings here are about 50-100 years behind America's. There's no central heating or cooling. Cooling is provided by a wall-mounted unit that is good for only one room. Heating is provided by either a portable electric heater which doesn't work very well, or a portable kerosine gas heater. I try not to use mine too much at home---only in the morning when I wake up. We have these huge units in the teachers' room at school that run all day. Occasionally throughout the day they crack the windows for fresh air. I think that these heaters are slowly displacing the oxygen in my brain with gas fumes. Sometimes it makes my head hurt. That can't be good.
Since I hate coffee and I'm getting tired of the green tea at school, I bring my own tea to keep warm. Right now I'm drinking jasmine tea I bought in Yokohama's Chinatown, but that will soon run out. I think next I'll drink this tea I bought called "Strawberry & Vanilla Fool." Weird name. I can just imagine the commercials.
-"What are you drinking?"
-"Strawberry & Vanilla Fool."
-"I beg your pardon?
-"Strawberry & Vanilla Fool."
-"I don't like the tone of your voice."
-"I just said it's Strawberry & Vanilla Fool."
-"You know, you really need an attitude adjustment."
And then the announcer would say, "Strawberry & Vanilla Fool. You may lose some friends, but it tastes num-num good." My friend Mike says that they should make a snack product called "Chocolate Covered Raisins Asshole." Ha! I can just imagine it... "Hey, watcha eatin'?" That kills me.
Mayu-chan is the most precious, most charming girl I have ever known. And the cutest, too! A few years ago I had resigned myself to being so jaded towards women and I had nearly given up on finding a girl who could ever truly love me and not play typical games. I figured that it was a futile search. And after I had made my New Year's resolution in 1998 to give up looking for a girl to love, I met my dearest pen-pal and best friend, Mayu that summer and we fell in love. Six years ago I received my very first pen-pal letter from her, and she has made me happy ever since. I want to live the rest of my life making her happy.
Living in separate countries after we realized our love for each other was difficult, and even though I live in Japan now, I still live far enough away from her that it is still a bit of a long-distance relationship. I live in Hyogo-ken and she lives in Nagano-ken, and we can only meet each other about once or twice a month. We e-mail each other every night, but I also like to call her occasionally just to hear her voice. I just want to remind myself that Mayu is a real person and not text messages sent to me through the Internet from some disembodied digital personality. It can be hard at times. I remember that so many people tried to dissuade me, saying that it would never work out because long-distance relationships always fail. Well, I guess they don't always fail. It's been difficult and lonely, but we're making it work.
The schools here are very different than what I'm used to. When I was in junior high we had heating and air conditioning, and a computer in every room. Here, the students all stay in the same room all day long. Instead of the students going from class to class, the teachers are the ones who go from classroom to classroom. The students stay together the whole day. In other words, there is no opportunity for accelerated learning. The brainiacs are stuck with the bozos. They don't sort the students out to customize their education to suit their abilities. Also, the students all have to wear school uniforms, which I think is a good idea. However, the student's can't wear jackets during the winter and the girls still have to wear skirts. Girls aren't allowed to wear leg warmers or tall socks to cover their bare legs below their knees during winter.
The students at my junior high are great, for the most part. Some of them deserve to get smacked, but most of them are decent. I know that teachers aren't supposed to have favorites, but since I'm not a real teacher I have no internal conflict over picking favorites. A few of them come to my desk between classes and say hi and touch all the stuff on my desk (I like them, even if they are a bit annoying at times). Soon we're going on a ski trip with the first year students (7th graders in America). The first graders are my favorites because they're much more energetic and friendlier. And since puberty hasn't quite hit them fully yet, they don't get so melancholic and stubborn as the second and third graders are.
One myth about the Japanese education system that I want to debunk right now is that it is somehow superior to America's. I don't know where people get the idea that Japanese kids are better disciplined and studious just because they are better at math and can point to Vietnam on a map. The students here are taught to just regurgitate information, and not taught to actually think and defend their beliefs. The fact is that there are so many glaring problems with the system here that it has the potential for degenerating far worse and far rapidly than America's current school system. I despise the N.E.A. and what they're doing to American schools, but the stuff I've seen here makes me nostalgic for schools back home. The students here don't have as many freedoms as in America, but they walk all over the teachers here. Recently a boy brought a police nightstick to school and threatened my friend and fellow teacher Tohru. All the faculty had an emergency meeting and they all decided to just not confront him. That's it. No attempt to take the weapon away from the boy, nor to even call the police to protect the safety of the faculty and students. No attempt at punishing him. The crazy thing is that the boy was originally mad that Tohru had taken away his juice, because students aren't allowed to have juice. I can imagine not drinking during class, but they can't even drink it during lunch. No candy, either. Kids with sore throats aren't even allowed to have cough drops. Sometimes they ought to lighten up in some regards and tighten the discipline in other aspects.
There are several students of mine who do absolutely nothing. They don't study, they don't pay attention in class, and they refuse to take tests. They either stare blankly at the walls, sleep, or talk with their friends or to themselves. Nothing is done to motivate them, punish them, or to separate them from the other students to focus on their needs that are obviously not being met. I've heard from other English teacher friends of mine about how students can beat up teachers and other students and get away unpunished. At my friend Mike's school, a math teacher was beaten by a student so badly that he had to stay in the hospital for a few days, because he took a cigarette away from the boy. Bullies can put other students into hospitals. In either case, there was no repercussions for their behavior. They weren't expelled. I swear, schools in Japan are on the verge of anarchy here if nothing is done to prevent it. I think that the teachers are scared of the students. I don't remember hearing about any students attacking teachers in my school or the other schools in my hometown, but it is a common occurrence here in Japan.
But besides this, most of the students are good kids, and on the average they are a bit more courteous. I'm assigned to one school at a time, but often I am asked to guest teach at nearby elementary schools and kindergartens.
Which brings me to the main part of this section of my essay: Japan is so full of contradictions. You see English everywhere, but nobody seems to be able to speak it (and obviously not understand it). People have GPS car navigation systems, yet they don't have central heating and cooling in their homes. People have real snazzy cell phones (called keitai denwa here), yet they don't have computers in their homes. There are temples and shrines everywhere, yet nobody is religious. Pornography is so prevalent that it's inescapable (porn advertisements show up in my mailbox even), yet it's censored heavily with genitalia obscured by blurring or mosaics. Japanese people prefer a long personal distance between others, yet they live so closely together. Some of the buildings in port areas like Kobe, Yokohama, and Odaiba are some of the most futuristic examples of architecture I've seen. Yet people's homes are so un-modern. Even brand new houses I've visited don't have heating and air conditioning units. The cost of living is high, yet the standard of living is low. Japanese people are supposedly more courteous and polite to each other, yet I rarely see anybody forfeiting their seats on the train to let an elderly person or a mother with small children sit down in the seats that are specifically reserved just for them. I was in Osaka for Respect for the Elderly Day, riding on a subway. Those sitting in the seat reserved for the elderly did not surrender their seats for them. It's just strange.
Also strange is that these crazy salesmen come onto campus and try to pitch to the teachers in the teachers' room. I just find this odd. As far as I know, solicitors can't just walk onto campus of American schools to prostitute themselves without invitation. They're always leaving their business cards on my desk. This one travel agent in particular comes to school. I have the top of my desk blanketed with his cards under a clear mat.
Oh yeah, and I am often asked if I eat bread or rice. Kids often ask me this. It's as if there is some carbohydrate war brewing, and they want to make sure which side I'm on. What's wrong with eating both?
Japanese television always goes on and on about the violence in America but yet they seem to ignore the faults with their own country. Yeah, students kill their peers and teachers in America, but it happens here in Japan as well. Which just further proves my point that Japan is really neither better or worse off than America. But because I'm naturally biased, I prefer the American way better. Although I do feel much safer here in Japan and I really don't worry about somebody stealing my stuff if I leave it unattended for a minute or two like in America, I think I would rather live in America.
Although I love living in Japan and I value my experiences here, I could never live the rest of my life here, because nobody really takes foreigners seriously. Even if I became naturalized as a Japanese citizen, I would always be considered a gaijin. I would have to float from one temporary contract job to another, unless I got really lucky. As a caucasian male, I guess this has really opened my eyes to see what it is like to be a minority. I've always hated the attitude that some people have when they say things like, "These damn foreigners, if they can't speak English correctly they should just go back to the country they came from." But now I can directly relate to foreign people living in my own country. I've always been more interested in people from foreign countries, and now I know the significance in making others feel welcome back home.
This really is the experience of a lifetime.
Go on to the next chapter of "Greg's Life" or else I'm not your friend anymore.
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"Where am I going? And why am I in this handbasket?"