Date:  October 8, 2003

 

"Herro"

"Hello.  How are you this morning?"

"I'm fine sanks and you?"

 

Translation:  Greetings from the land of lice and Engrish!!!

 

I hope this email finds you all healthy and happy.

 

Life here in Japan continues to be a delight.  The month of September has been one busy whirlwind of fun and adventure.  I've harvested rice, crafted my own traditional Japanese pottery, and huffed it up the second most important mountain in Japan (Haku-san).  I've lounged in an open-air bath to watch the sunset behind the mountains, kicked a ball around in an attempt to play soccer, and danced in two festivals and one competition.  I've witnessed four school festivals.  I've ventured out to a salsa party and a few church services.  I've run in a 'marathon' (a 5k) in a Halloween costume.  I've survived my first office party.  Heck - I've even been on TV three times.  And, somehow, in the middle of all that, I've managed to teach at three schools, eat (that's more of an accomplishment than it would seem), breathe, and sleep a bit too.

 

The weather is absolutely perfect now with cool sunny days and brisk clear nights.  It's truly torture to go inside.  I would give anything for a frisbee, a field, some barbeque, and the freedom to shirk all indoor responsibilities.  While the divine weather certainly deepens my love affair with Japan, it also reminds me of equal gorgeousness at home.  I long for academia, church, swing dancing and oatmeal.  But these moments of homesickness are short-lived and brushed quickly aside by the next moment's adventure.

 

To give you an idea of my everyday life...I teach at three schools here in Fukui.  My main school is a big junior high school only minutes from my house.  I teach there on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays.  On Thursdays and Fridays I venture out to a small coastal village, Koshino, to teach at the junior high and elementary schools there.  While my main school is slowly growing on me, I've been in love with Koshino since I first laid eyes on it.  The 2 schools there are tiny.  There are only 12-18 students per grade and the teachers I work with are incredibly enthusiastic and friendly.  They're really open to my ideas and are giving me a lot of room to create my space and style.  Likewise, the students are animated and curious.  And, even if the cheerful "herros" and radiant smiles aren't enough for me, all I have to do is look out the window to see the sun glistening on the sea...or look out the other window to check the progress of autumn on the steep mountain sides.

 

I'm still struggling a bit to get into the groove of teaching.  The kid's English is awful as are all of the teaching resources.  My teachers don't have much time to include me in planning.  Slowly, though, I'm finding ways to take ownership of time in class and am (even more slowly) beginning to design fun lessons for the kids.  I'm hopeful.  And, I remind myself that even if I don't feel productive, I am.  This place is so insular that even the mere fact that I don't peel my grapes and apples is a huge shock and learning experience for folks here.

 

Plus, at the very least, school is an endless source of laughs.  Today I had a student call me an elephant when he meant to say I was elegant.  Last week my supervisor asked me to come see the kids' "erections" (she meant to say school elections).  And, a few weeks ago I did an activity wherein the students got to write their own laws.  One wrote, "We mustn't kill people everyday."  (I guess he only wants murder permissible on certain days of the week...like a hunting season).  Another child wrote, "We mustn't eat people."  And, a third child wrote, "we must fight others with hamburgers." Oh- kids these days!

 

Speaking of hamburgers, eating is always an experience.  The other day I sat down to lunch and prepared myself for the worst.  First, I gave away my 100% milk fat milk to the kid next to me - whew!  One item down.  Then there was this stew mushy mountain potato that tasted of foul milk - and - oh – it was awful. So I handed it off to the boy across the table.  Then I asked a girl how to eat the fish - I mean - how do you cut it and get the meat out with chop sticks - and she's like "no no, you just eat the whole thing." The whole thing!  The thing was fried bones, scales, fins and all!!!  I took a bite...terrible.  Meanwhile, the kid beside me had finished everything and he had taken to eating the few fish bones that were left on his plate all by themselves...crunch crunch crunch!  Now that's just disgusting!!!  Ok – so then I was down to just rice...luckily they give me enough rice to feed a small army...but after a few bites, I looked down and realized that "my rice is looking at me!!!"  The rice was filled with little dried snake/eel-like things with eyes that stared at me with every bite.  Oh lord - I had a few more bites - but I just couldn't do it.  So, that was lunch...all the while the kids were laughing their heads off at my expressions of horror.

 

When I'm not at school, I'm usually dancing Yosakoi.  Yosakoi is a wild

combination of hip hop/karate/"I wanna be a porn-star" dance.  I dance every week with a group of Japanese folks who are quickly becoming dear friends. So it seems, Yosakoi is to Japan as line dancing is to Alabama.  There are always more dancers than observers and in the end EVERYONE dances "the Yosakoi dance" about 18 times over...I've never felt as if I was on a Richard Simmons video before.  But, after dancing "the Yosakoi dance" 18 times I was sure I'd been teleported to the final taping of "Sweating to the Oldies."  I've learned so much about my Japanese friends via dancing with them...things that I would never understand or address in an ordinary setting even without the language barrier.  It's in seeing the agility with which they move; in seeing their endless hyperactivity; in seeing their obsession with cute moves and sexy poses...it's in seeing them debate the tiniest detail forever and in experiencing their need to practice, practice, practice, plan, plan, plan...it's in seeing dance be a vehicle through which these very shy and decidedly closed women go nuts; and, in seeing the men participate without the homophobic limitations that plague men in the west. All of these things  - no one could have told me - not with spoken language - but the dancing did.

 

In other news, at my office party my co-workers took to calling me "Miss Big" and then laughing for ages at their cleverness...this was after only 2 beers each.

I was walking behind my apartment recently and spotted a woman walking with her baby - only to realize she wasn't calming her child - it was a monkey!

 

And, today I got an email from a friend that should brighten your day.  It read: "Hi.  I'm Kazu.  Yesterday, the YOSAKOI DANCE was very enjoy for me. How about you?  I think you seem to be happy that you playing YOSAKOI DANCE. Let's keep doing that enjoy dance with me.  Now, it's getting cold. The snow will be fall in FUKUI. But no quality because it get the wet. However, I like play ski every year. Do you play ski? If you can, let go enjoy play ski with us. See you!"

 

Ok - I must be off to bed.  My apologies for the verbosity.  I've updated the website with many new pictures.

Check it out:  www.duke.edu/~bhl/japan

 

Missing you all and wishing I could have you a big hug.  Please send news from your lives and/or happenings in the West.

 

Sayounara,

Miss Big

 

Ps.  you know you're short when you have to have 4 inches hemmed of your pants that you bought IN JAPAN!!!