Day 16 – How you realised you’d acclimated to Japan.

I actually had one of my Elementary school students ask me this once---considering most of them ask "WHAT'S YOUR FAVORITE FRUIT/ANIMAL/POKEMON/FOOD?!?!?" in Japanese a million and a half times, I was considerably surprised to be asked a thoughtful question by an 11 year old.

Source

 When I answered this particular 11 year old girl, I told her this: It was when I was visiting Tokyo one time with a friend, and needed to call my supervisor. I'm always a little embarrassed to speak Japanese on the phone, especially in front of other people (and especially in front of other foreigners with a higher Japanese level than mine) so I took my phone up the street a little while my friend smoked in front of our hostel. Once I had finished my phone call, I came back and said that we could go (where ever it was that we were headed) and in response, he gave me an amused smile and said, "Did you know that you bowed on the phone?"

Yes, ladies and gentlemen.... I am a phone-bower. :\ I can't seem to break the habit either! Whether the conversation is in English or Japanese (more so on the Japanese calls of course), I find myself bowing at the end, or in confirmation to a suggestion/statement. *sigh* While finding this out was truly my first ever realization that I've acclimated to Japan, I've had other revelations pop-up since then.

Among those, is just the fact that I accept things that would seem ridiculous and/or "going-too-far" in the US, as just a fact of life. Example: About a month ago my supervisor told me and the other teacher working in the BOE that a "desk inspector" was coming the next day, and that we should make sure our desks were neat, clean, and had no food in them (like left-over omiyage or candy/gum). In response, I promptly opened my desk, rearranged a few things, and tossed my gum and candy into my purse. The other teacher gave our supervisor an extremely offended look and started to sputter out an argument about invasion of privacy etc. To this, I just turned to him and said, "This is Japan. Just accept it." and kept cleaning my desk. Sometimes there is no use arguing, and one needs to accept everything as a fact of life while living here.

Have a lovely Friday~ :)

Day 15 – Weirdest food item you’ve seen, and weirdest food item you’ve actually eaten.

Source

Surprisingly, I haven't really eaten anything that weird while being in Japan. I've had smelly things like natto and uncomfortable looking things like whole fish heads on platters.... but I suppose the oddest things I've eaten and enjoyed are these two: Horse Sashimi and Motsunabe (intestines hot pot). Okay, so that's pretty weird but... I think Japan has thrown off my sense of the "abnormal" and my reality has become slightly skewed since living here.... ("weird" in my mind equates with eating things like: house hold pets, pigeons and insects...).

Source

Unfortunately, the tasting of these two foods does not come with the most entertaining of stories. I tried horse sashimi when one of my friends was trying to get her boyfriend to eat it some random weekend early last year. Since the place we were eating at (Hirome Ichiba) doesn't serve it that often, the sashimi came still-frozen and had to thaw for a little while. It wasn't terribly mentionable in flavor but the texture was nice. I'd still go for maguro or salmon over it anyday.

Motsunabe was something that my Japanese friends had wanted me to try for months and months so finally, one Tuesday night, we trekked out to the city and found a good nabe restaurant that specialized in motsunabe. Although the idea of intestines skives me out, I've picked up a certain stubbornness when it comes to food here in Japan. I hate when my Japanese co-workers and acquaintances ask if I can eat something or act like whatever food thing they are telling me about is only Japan and that it's sooo typical foreigner to not like it/not have tried it before. I get really defensive (because I've been using chopsticks since I was small, thank you very much!!!) and insist that yes, I CAN eat it and in fact I LIKE it/don't really care for it because of the flavor, not because I'm foreign (as if it wasn't obvious that Japanese people who don't really like natto/fish/whatever exist as well). Anyway, despite my little rant there, I was really surprised to find the boiled motsu soft and flavorful, not chewy like I expected (since intestines have a lot of fat on them). It's also such a simple nabe and contains little more than the broth, motsu, green onions, bean sprouts, cabbage, and tofu (we added some dumplings for extra~).

What weird things have you guys eaten? Am I missing out on anything out there?!

Day 14 – What is the hardest thing about living in Japan versus your home country?

source

 HEIGHT

.

.

.

.

I considered leaving this as a one-word post but I'll whine a little longer about this instead. :) Fellow Japan blogger, Miss Godzilla hit it right on the head with her nickname. Being a female over 170cm in Japan feels like Godzilla trying to disguise himself as a proper lady at a tea party. I mean... okay, it's not like being 180cm (my height) is really that devastating, but it's enough to notice doors are kinda short in places, dresses/skirts are wayyy too short at times, sleeves don't fit my long arms, and little kids filterlessly shout "デカイ！" (huge!) at you every chance they get (even when they've known you for more than a year..... and yes, those that know me DO get an earful if I hear that word escape their mouths). I hate when my Japanaese girl-friends say they're "jealous" of my height, because I know that if given the chance they'd stay short and unnoticeable compared to turning tall and awkward. Also, the whole kitchen thing is really a pain in my back (literally). Kitchen counters/sinks/stoves are much to short for me in my apartment and I end up achy-er than normal after making lunch/dinner.

The plight of the tall girl is an uphill battle. :P

Day 13 – Something about Japan that reminds you of home?

When I was in grade school, they did an "experimental spelling" program with my class. To this day I can't spell worth shit. Also, I apparently thought clouds = leaves when I was in first grade.

The definition of "home," for me, is a place where I have a bed to sleep in and a closet to put clothes in. I've never liked living out of a suitcase, so as soon as I move to a new place, the first thing I do is get my clothes put away and a bed made up for myself (no matter how temporary both may look). One of the most frustrating things about my study abroad experience was staying in a room that didn't have a place I could put my clothes away in. Although I stayed in that house (with the most wonderful host family) for six months, I lived out of my huge suitcase the entire time.

Since this post is about nostalgia, I only thought it appropriate to show pictures from "way back when" I was about as good at English writing as my junior high school students, hahahaa

I've also never been one to get terribly attached to places I live in. During my childhood, I moved 5 times. Add that to changing living spaces every year in college and finally my major move to Japan and you can see that I've never had a very stable place to call "home." Of course, this has been fine with me! I love traveling around, moving to new places and discovering new things about where I live. My moves have also never been quite as dramatic (always the same school district or close when I was younger and my campus was small, so it really wasn't much of a move each time) as the one I did from Chicago to Japan. I know that this prompt is about what's something that reminds you of your home country in Japan, but the word "home" always strikes a chord with me. I feel like life is a constant battle about where one should call "home." Japan has become home just as much as Chicago is my home.

So. Something about Japan that reminds me of home. My answer is going to be really abstract and can be described through an anecdote:

A few days ago I was over at my friend Nat-chan's house having dinner (as I usually do Tuesday nights) with her, her boyfriend, and my friend Yukiko. Whenever we make dinner together, we all prepare dinner together, then sit down and watch some sort of movie/chat/watch youtube videos/listen to music. This last Tuesday, we watched some of the Lady Gaga Monster Ball tour DVD Nat-chan got cheap (because it was in English) and they had be translate some of her dialogue (difficult, to say the least). Once we got tired of watching her strut around stage, Yukiko pulled out the Famicon and we all started playing the original Mario. For all of us, the game is so nostalgic of childhood (even though I'm the youngest of them all) and it had been awhile since any of us had played the game. Even so, there's that deep-rooted memory of the jumps, moves, and secret boxes you're supposed to get that had still resided in all of us. This feeling is what reminded me of home.

source

All through childhood and high school, me and my friends would sit around and play video games together. I'm not much for video games, but I appreciate the classics like Mario and Donkey Kong, and I've always been a fan of hack-and-slash or racing games. However, sitting around with my friends here while playing nostalgic games brought me the warmest feeling of "home" I've ever had. It was so comfortable and familiar that I didn't feel like I was in Japan, in America, or really anywhere at all. I was in a good place with good people, enjoying something that made us all laugh and remember what was fun about being a kid.

Day 12 - Describe a fail!gaijin moment/gaijin!smash moment.

Describe a fail!gaijin moment (where you did something wrong or completely misunderstood because you couldn’t ~read the air~ or just plain had no idea what you were supposed to do because you weren’t born and raised here). Describe a gaijin!smash moment (where your foreignness was to your benefit).

source

While I have friends who like nothing more than to yell out, "Gaijin smash!" and proceed in committing some sort of social faux-pas, I try my hardest to blend in, follow the "rules," and not increase the amount of stares I already get on a day-to-day basis here in the countryside. With that said, like anyone else who isn't a native to Japan, I do have my moments where I let my foreign-ness aid me in slipping away from awkward/complex situations. We all know that feigning ignorance can be much better than having to deal with life sometimes, right? ;P

source

However, above all of the subway-ticket-mishaps and awkward-lunch-time-incidents in bigger cities, there is one thing about being a foreigner in my particular region that has finally shown me more of an advantage than not. I am a novelty. This is nothing new, of course. Many foreigners are seen as novelty items and get special treatment/tolerance because of their "exoticism." The reason random people go out of their way to talk to us and/or buy us drinks/dinner is because some people seem to think talking to a non-Japanese is novel enough to allow such behavior. Okay, great! Free dinner and drinks!

This type of treatment, however, is not what I'm referring to. Surprising to even myself, as a member of a half Japanese band (two members of LeeWay are American and two are Japanese) who can speak Japanese, we have rendered ourselves enough of a novelty in order to get some pretty special treatment, considering even the punk scene here in Japan is heavily reliant on the sempai-kohai caste system that perpetuates through everything in this country.

A photo a friend took of our show~<3

Anywhere me and my friend Matto go, we are invited everywhere by nearly anyone we meet. As soon as people find out we're in a band, they invite us to play a show with them, go along to a show with them, go drinking with them, crash at their house... the list goes on. To top it all off, this subculture of amazing people doesn't look at us like we're alien monsters (for the most part). When people notice we speak Japanese, we are 9 out of 10 times immediately accepted into the discussion (of course, it helps that by now, we know a good portion of the people involved in this subculture in a variety of cities around Japan...).

Looking vicious

While most of these people are genuinely amazing individuals with interesting things to say, and more often than not experience with traveling abroad (for band tours and such), I think that they also realize we are not permanent fixtures in this country. They realize that our home is called America, not Kochi or even Japan, and before we escape back to that country, they want to hang out and have a good time. Whether or not Japan is the place I'm going to stay forever, I appreciate the fact that people will drop the rigid social structures (like the sempai-kohai system) and make some sacrifices in order to get to know us in the short amount of time we're here.

Day 11 – What do you find most overrated and underrated about Japan?

Robot

I've always been one for hearing bad news before some good news, so let's talk about what's overrated about our beloved Japan before we move onto greener pastures, shall we~?

Technology. When I saw the word "overrated" I thought it was going to be difficult to think of what I wanted to pin point. In all honesty, it took about 5 seconds for that single word to pop in my head. For instance, if you are an American with zero knowledge of Japan, I feel like one of the first things that comes to mind when asked about the country will come from the following list:

• Anime
• (kinki) Porn
• Ninjas
• Robots
• Sushi
• Samurai

Robots of course meaning, Japan's "super advanced and completely unique" amount of technology (which occasionally includes robots). Cars, MP3 players, cell-phones, washing machines, point-and-shoot cameras, (robots) you name it! Japan has tons of electronic/appliance brands that are shipped around the world and are used by every persuasion of human being. Popular youtube and internet videos feature humanoid robots walking around and talking, or that cute little one that fell over when trying to get up some stairs last year. If you've seen any Japanese car commercials recently, ECO cars where you can "mantan" (fill-up) your tank at home are getting popular, as well as the recent car convention that featured cars you could control with a smartphone or change the color/image on the outside.

Source.

But the fact that it took me 6 weeks to get internet in my apartment, makes me shake my head at all of that flourish and fancyness (and robots). Yes. 6 WEEKS. And it's not even that great of internet either! It stops working when it rains. I think I've made my case.

An onsen in Kami-shi, only about 40 min from my place. It overlooks a gorgeous river.

Onsen. I think one of the most underrated things about Japan are onsen, or public baths. It seems very roman and a little unhygienic (the word "public" just doesn't ever bring clean images to my head), but is honestly one of the most amazing experiences that I don't think a lot of people go out of their way to take part in, or even know about.

If you've never visited an onsen, you might be thinking "Public bath?! I have to be naked in front of other people?! How awful!" Which is what most of my foreign friends living here have said to me if they have too many body issues. What girl doesn't have a few body issues? For me, all that is pushed to the side when it comes to onsen. How could you be worrying about the shape of your thighs when you are surrounded by old, saggy women (or men, if you aren't female) with bent backs and wet towels wrapped around their heads?

Source.

I love going to the onsen, spending 30 of more minutes massaging shampoo and conditioner into my hair/brushing my teeth, and then sitting in the outdoor hot baths with the cold winter wind blowing against my face. If you're a person afraid of the potential non-cleanliness of a public bath, I really wouldn't worry about it. Those places are being constantly cleaned by small old ladies (or robots), and the natural spring hot water replaces itself every hour or so. The water is also usually so hot (between 40-50+ degrees celsius) I can't imagine that many micro-beasties have a chance to live long in them. The other cool thing about onsen is the "specialty baths" offered at most. Some have special minerals flowing through them, some are super hot, some are super cold, some have crazy water jets ready to pummel your calves and lower back, some have stones lining the bottom you can walk on, and some have (kinda scary) electrical currents running through them (for health, is what I hear...).

If you got anything from this splattering of thoughts, I hope you got the idea that my cell phone is not a teleportation device (or robot), but a trip to the onsen is well worth your time (and 500 yen)!

Robot

Day 10 – Something about Japan that sets it apart from anywhere else.

Source

With my recent trip to Korea and around Mie-ken behind me, I think this is the perfect time to write about the 10th prompt in the "30-Day Japan Meme." As always, leaving Japan even for a short while (a four day jaunt in Korea even) gives me some perspective on the country I live in, and when I come back, I rediscover what I like and don't like about my daily life here. More often than not, I'm ecstatic to be back on the clean and orderly streets of Japan.

I'm a city girl through and through (which is why living in the country-side of Kochi can be draining and exhausting... not at all lively around here), and have to say that Tokyo and New York are my favorite cities in the world (thus far). When deciding to visit Seoul for a couple of days, I was wondering if I'd fall in love with that city too, with it's expansive subway system, variety of cultural gems, and cheap shopping at every turn. Not so much the case, however.... The subways were too big and wide (if you wanted to transfer to another line, oftentimes you spent most of the time walking to the next station underground), people were pushy and rude, and the shopping wasn't all that exciting (though I did get to indulge in a little Forever 21 shopping spree...). I missed being in the country where I understood the language, the foot-traffic patterns, and knew what to expect of customer service and politeness between strangers.

Source. Look how happy they are to help! With neck ties and all.

What sets Japan apart from other places? A lot of things... but I think that the predictability is what I like best at times (and hate at other times). Perhaps more specifically, the predictability of customer service. I know what to expect when I go to the grocery store, and I'm not going to get glared at by the teenaged cashier just because he/she's having a bad day. I know that the post man will always come back at 5:30 when they miss delivering a package of mine. I know that the trains will leave at their scheduled times, I will be notified of a coming train, and I will clearly be told where that train is going/what type of train it is. Even if the train is late, I will be well-informed as to why (unlike in Chicago, where the reason will never be known or conveyed to you).

For me, while I like unpredictable things and being spontaneous, I like my day-to-day life and essential things like going to the store/bank/ATM/post office, to be systematic, predictable, and informative. It's calming and reassuring to know that the combini down the street is open 24 hours a day and I can pay my internet bill any time I please. At the same time, the systematic-ness of Japan can get irritating when you make a mistake. Take for example, my recent trip to Korea. I had to buy a bus ticket to and from Osaka. In the process of my trip, I managed to misplace and/or lose my ticket home from Osaka. When inquiring at the help desk the morning of my departure, they told me I needed to re-buy my ticket, a thing that I had clearly paid for since they had my name and phone number registered in their computer system. I feel like in the US, when you make a mistake, people will more often than not be forgiving and let you slide by. This however is not the case with the type of customer service you get here in Japan. You can whine and cry all you want, but the system is the system, and sometimes you must pay in order to get organized, reliable service.

Source

Day 09 – Favorite stores/shopping centers.

It's been awhile since I've written a "Japan 30 Day Meme" blog post, but I think this one is my favorite prompt thus far!

I think I can safely admit that I am a bit of a shop-a-holic. While I am definitely no where near clinically-diagnosed bad (shopping can be just as addictive as gambling or alcohol), I still do have the tendency to buy things I don't need and spend money that I really should be using on rent or food on buying a cute new dress. The thing about Japan, as anyone who has been to the country is well aware of, is that there are cute dresses, shoes, bags, and blouses exploding out of every shop front and crevice available for use. Styles and seasons change quickly, and once one thing goes in fashion it's everywhere and then no where in a flash. I love Japanese fashion, but I don't make that much money, and can only splurge on a few nice things every once in awhile.

The other thing about Japan that I like is their access to nice quality used shops. Everyone and their brother has probably heard of the chain "Book-Off" if they have any experience traveling or studying abroad in Japan. They've even started opening stores in the US! If you don't know, Book-Off is a used book store where you can find used (and in very nice condition) books, comics, magazines, CDs, DVDs, and video games (sometimes the consoles too). They have walls of 100 yen comics and books, and you can usually find what you're looking for in a Book-Off somewhere near you and at 2/3rds the cost (at the very least).

Now, something I'm not sure everyone knows about Japan. There is not only Book-Off. In fact, the "Off" chain of stores (if you can call it a chain...) has a bunch of different resale shops! Among the stranger include: Off-Garage (car stuff) and Golf-Off (...obvious?). My two favorites are the magnificent Off-House (used clothing, furniture and house wares) and Hard-Off (PORN SHOP!... no it's electronics, DVDs, games, CDs, and musical instruments). I have spent countless hours going through the racks in Off-House and coming across 300 yen adorable dresses and skirts. Not to mention the fact that half of the furniture in my house is from Off-House (4000 yen yellow couch, 800 yen lamp, 500 yen lamp, 3000 yen bamboo bookshelf.... the list goes on). On the Hard-Off side, I can thank them for my lovely blue acoustic guitar (6000 yen) and a number of fun film cameras I've been collecting (nikon FE for 6000 yen and toy camera for 300 yen that takes really fun pictures), as well as most of my electric guitar accessories (picks, strings, and input cables).

THRIFTING!!!!

On the same line as Off-House, I also love to frequent the two other used-clothing chains called "Jumble Store" and "B.J," which I'm pretty sure they have all over Japan (I've seen them in every prefecture on Shikoku at least). The clothing that they accept for those places is of amazing quality and basically brand new. While these type of "furugi-ya" can run a bit expensive, if you look hard enough, you can find cheap gems everywhere. The existence of these stores, and the high quality of clothing they provide, while maybe not the latest fashions, has made it rather difficult for me to resist the urge to spend my yen when I step foot in them. :P

Day 08 – Share a funny anecdote about living/working in Japan.

Today's 30 Day Japan meme prompt is a walk down memory lane! I have a number of funny/weird/uncomfortable anecdotes about Japan... but then again, if you're a foreigner living in Japan, how could you not have a dozen waiting to be pulled out for a cocktail party (because being a fancy foreigner in Japan, you also always go to fancy cocktail parties, am I right? haha). I feel like my life turned into one giant circus the moment I set foot on Japanese soil as a worker rather than a student. Of course I have some funny stories from my time abroad at Kansai Gaidai... but none of them are as odd or as uncomfortable as the ones I've collected trying to live a normal adult life in this country. Especially if you're teaching English in an elementary school or junior high school! That's where the best weird things happen. :)

I will never get over the fact that nearly every human being born in this country has ridden a unicycle.

 One of my favorite stories to tell is about one particular day of class I had at one of my larger Elementary schools, Ioki. As an English teacher in Japan, if you teach at a public school and have 5th and 6th grade students, you are probably familiar with the standardized textbook called "Eigo Note" and truly know just how awful it is (it's being updated for the next school year, apparently, but I have little hopes for the new one). The school district I work in enforces Eigo Note in their schools, and to top it off, I have to follow pre-made lesson plans that a non-native English speaker created for me to use in class (I won't even start with how irritating that is to me). Each of these lessons touches upon something covered in Eigo Note and includes extra activities as well as a "daily conversation" to start off the class with. To say these conversations are useless is an understatement. They are redundant and completely taken out of context. But I digress...

Not the 5th graders I'm talking about but my weirdest, most trouble-making classes.

The "daily conversation" that me and my JTE were supposed to be demonstrating that day was something along the lines of:

ALT: I'm Hungry!

JTE: Are you?

Poetry, I must admit. So, seeing that a drunk dog could probably spit out these four words, we decided that the 5th graders we were teaching could do better than that, and we came up with a different conversation: 

JTE: Are you okay?

ALT: My head hurts!

While it's not Shakespeare, we figured it was more useful than the previous tomfoolery, and a number of kids had already been complaining of aches and pains during the "how are you?" portion of English class without being able to properly express their complaints in English. Thus! We started class, with the specific goal of letting them know you could replace head with stomach, arm, back, etc. How useful!

After our demonstration, we always let the kids practice with three or four different partners so that they can play both roles and get the hang of the awkward sentences. At one point, one of my students comes up to me, holding his ass and asking, "先生、けつの穴って、英語で何?" ("Teacher, what is the word for asshole in English?") Stiffing a giggling (because I'm 4 years old), I told him we probably wouldn't reveal information like that in English anyway, so he didn't need to know. Of course, instead of giving up like a good kid, him and his friends decide they needed to figure this out and came up with the two wonderful options of "My hip-house hurts" and "My little black hole hurts." While nearly rolling on the floor with laughter from this exchange, a girl came up and asked how she'd say that her arm was itchy. Of course, this introduced "itchy" to the conversation and quickly, "My hip-house is itchy" was being thrown around the classroom. I don't think I've ever laughed so much during a class as I did during that one. Despite the ridiculousness, it's moments like that, that make my job feel fun and not nearly so bleak.

No sports fest is complete without looking like a complete idiot at least once during it.

Day 07 – Which Japanese words do you use in English? (hanami, shinkansen, etc.)

I already briefly went over this prompt in the "mannerisms and expressions" post, but I think I'll go into more detail this time around~

As I said in the aforementioned post, I use a lot of Japanese words in my daily conversations with other foreigners. The degree to which I try and sensor myself varies, of course, from person to person. People who have a good grasp of the Japanese language (which most of my friends around me do), I usually don't sensor myself at all with. After studying Japanese for five years, living in this country for two, and texting/interacting with my Japanese friends on a daily basis, it gets difficult sometimes to come up with the English word first (yes, this does prove to be a problem teaching English sometimes) and instead, the Japanese word comes flying out. Even when I'm having "I-just-can't-speak-Japanese" days, common words and phrases will still come flying out of my mouth. With people who know a little Japanese (most other English teachers in my area that I see frequently), I try to hold those words back (though sometimes to no avail). At the same time, these friends seem to understand when I slip up and have to backtrack with the English word. They also usually know enough Japanese to not always need an explanation.

I can't think of the English word!!!!!!

The hardest is when talking to friends and family back in the US on skype. I want to use Japanese so badly, and I have to repeat over and over in my mind, "NO, YOU CAN NOT USE KOUSOKU WHEN TALKING ABOUT THE HIGHWAY" so that I don't use a completely incomprehensible word while talking to my mother or best friend. I find that the pauses I take to search my brain for a word have gotten longer, and I use simpler words more often than the concise, intelligent-sounding words that I went to University in order to learn and use.

Now, without further ado, here is a good sampling of the words I use on a daily basis:

Undoukais never fail to make a non-Japanese person feel like they are at a child-run circus

:General:

uchiawase: business meeting (used when meeting with teachers about lesson plans)
enkai: drinking party (this includes shinenkai-new year drinking party and bounenkai-end of the year drinking party too)
nijikai: 2nd party. The party you go to with your co-workers/friends after the initial party was held, and all the sober-debby-downers have shuffled home. this means it's time for karaoke or a bar!
undoukai: sports day
bunkasai: culture festival
hanami: flower viewing
shinkansen: whoever uses "high-speed train" or whatever else is going out of their way to not use Japanese
nihonshu: sake or any other type of Japanese alcohol
gokon/konpa: is there even a word for this in English? It's a set-up group date
purikura: because "print-club" sounds stupid
chu-hai: because "canned cocktail" is also really stupid sounding

Purikura! We look so glowy in this picture <3

:Me-specific:

kousoku: highway (here in Kochi, I need to take the highway if I want to get out of the prefecture quickly).
horenso: spinach. for whatever reason I can never get the word "spinach" out. ever.
negi/mame/piman/satsumaimo/hakusai: leak/bean/green pepper/sweet potato/Chinese cabbage. a lot of my problem words end up being food words :P
nonbiri: leisurely. one of my friends used this a lot and I ended up picking it up.
gorogoro suru: to lay around the house. I just feel like this describes that action so well.
bimyou: strange/off/questionable. one of my ex's used to say it when I would make faces at him. it stuck.
betsu betsu: usually said when splitting a check. Even with my English-speaking friends, we usually say, "Do you wanna best-betsu this?"
uchiage: afterparty! I get invited to a lot of these after shows. Way more fun than any enkai will ever be.
dorama: Japanese dramas are such a unique thing, in my opinion.... drama isn't just a genre for dramatic acting. it has become something completely different and absurd in the Japanese hands.

::Ways in which Japanese has messed with my English::

live: a concert/live show. It's not terribly off from English, but saying "I'm going to a live tomorrow" is considerably off for standard English....
4th month/5th month/etc: This is seriously just my own weird problem. I've always had issues with coming up with the names of months. Japanese has it laid out so logically with the number... so I just English-ify the Japanese and come up with, "Hey, aren't we going to that meeting in 7th month?"
guitar: ever since a Japanese friend told me he was taught that the pronunciation of guitar was "gu-wii-tar" I can't help but think about it constantly and sometimes accidentally say it. Just like thinking of island like "is-land" when you spell it out...

The aftermath of an uchiage.... same as most enkais but co-workers are at least kind enough to pass out at home/the nijikai

I'm not counting formal names, places, dishes (okonomiyaki, takoyaki), or objects that are specifically Japanese. English is the most plastic and adaptable language in the world, so it'd be unfair to say that "kendama" or "udon" isn't as much English as other words we've adopted (or to say that ramen and bi-ru isn't somehow Japanese at this point).

Day 06 – Food that you swore you would never eat but now love (or tolerate).

The thing about me and food and Japan, is that every time I've come here, I've started liking/loving a certain food that I hated before. I'm the type of person who will give food I find disgusting a second chance if I'm told it's been made well. I blame most of my preferences on the fact that I was never given/never ate/never bought the right thing in order to make me like that particular food. I hate octopus and will continue to hate octopus until someone puts some good takoyaki in front of me and it's not like eating a rubber band. :\

Thus far, Japan has turned me on to eating (which I disliked before):

• onions (all because of katsudon)
• mushrooms
• salmon (first cooked and now also raw)
• tuna
• leeks
• squid (never thought I'd eat this...)
• eggplant (Aki eggplants are sweet~)
• tofu (I used to be able to eat it when it was heavily seasoned, but now I crave plain firm tofu and agetofu when I'm hungry)

 On the other hand, I think I hate corn even more because of how many ridiculous places you'll find it (on top of pizza or in pasta with meat-sauce, for example), I don't like jako (those little dried fish with the ever-staring eyes), and I don't like fish that aren't cut into pretty slices for sushi/sashimi (like whole fish heads and bodies...).

GROSS

Don't let the cute flower carrot fool you. GROSS

 And speaking of food in general, I was never a terribly good cook/baker before coming to Japan. My mom and friends used to make fun of me because I'd find ways to mess up refrigerated cut and slice cookies. I'm not sure how that was possible... but now-a-days I bake when I'm bored and cook meals for friends and at parties (people actually say I'm good at cooking, which I never thought I'd hear in my life). Not that I could never cook, per say, but I just never made any effort to make interesting dishes when I lived on my own in collage. It was always easy stuff; stir-fries and sandwiches that just required whatever was lying around the house (except when I decided to splurge and go get bulgulgi beef to make bibimbop).

Curry Omurice

Best karage and miso soup ever

Soup with vegetables and thin-sliced pork

So yeah, I appreciate Japan for how much wider it made my taste-preferences and for taking soo much care in making food at restaurants. I don't think I've ever been dissatisfied upon going to a restaurant or cafe. If the place doesn't make the best whatever, it will still make a really good version of it and be reasonably priced. :)

Speaking of food, I made tempura with my Monday evening dinner buddies yesterday! My house smelled like an oily mess after, but the tempura came out really well (did tofu, mushrooms, green beans, eggplant, onions, and broccoli) and I made this interesting green onion dip with tofu, onions, and garlic~

Day 05 – Which, if any, Japanese mannerisms or expressions have you adopted?

I feel rather embarrassed admitting how many Japanese words and mannerisms I have ended up inserting into my everyday vocab/behavior.... Though, in my defense, I end up interacting with other people more in Japanese than in English so, how can things not slip in? Most of my friends are Japanese, and if they aren't Japanese, they can speak it extremely well. When my foreign friends and Japanese friends mix, all speaking is done in Japanese because that way, everyone can understand each other. Anyway, excuses aside, the things I use the most on a day to day basis.

1. Bowing on the phone
One of those funny things I started doing and didn't notice until a friend commented on it. I was calling my office to ask for a favor, and the friend I was with started laughing at me because as I said "thank you" etc, I started bowing as if I was talking to my supervisor directly.

2. Unko-suwari
Unko-suwari basically means "poop sitting" and is termed this way because it's the way you squat over a Japanese style toilet. Like many of my friends sit when waiting outside a venue for the next band to start, it's an easy pose to take when you're smoking a cigarette and drinking a beer. I just find it comfortable so I often take this position to talk to them or drink my own beer when waiting.

3. Kousoku, uchiawase, enkai, undoukai
Even when talking to non-Japanese-speaking friends, these words often come slipping out with absolutely no barrier. They are words I use all the time and sometimes saying their English equivalent would take longer or not hold the same meaning. Luckily, once you've worked in Japan for awhile, a number of these words become familiar to you, whether you speak Japanese or not.

kousoku: highway (here in Kochi, I need to take the highway if I want to get out of the prefecture quickly)
uchiawase: business meeting (used when meeting with teachers about lesson plans)
enkai: drinking party
undoukai: sports day

4. kankei nai
For whatever reason I felt like "kankei nai" needed it's own explanation.  The phrase means "no relation" and in my opinion, it is the best descriptive phrase when talking about Japan (so very many things are kankei nai here). Because of this, I end up using it a lot while speaking Japanese and a lot while speaking English because, "it has absolutely no relation" is longer and doesn't hold the same weight to me as "kankei nai" does.

5. Gestures
Just like a true Japanese, I have found that I picked up the "shark hand" move for cutting through a crowd of people, the "come here" gesture that looks like I'm shooing someone away, covering my mouth when I laugh, and pointing at my nose when referring to myself. There is truly no reason that I picked these up other than studying Japanese and the culture for far too long now.... However, I think I picked up the "shark hand" gesture and held onto it because of the sign language club I was taking part in last year. Holding up your hand so that it makes a T with your face means "excuse me/sorry" in sign language, and I've always been one to remember physical movements better then verbal phrases.

Day 04 – What’s your favorite place that’s not in any of the guidebooks/lists of places to visit?

My favorite place that would never be in any guide book is a little place called "Chaotic Noise." Chaotic Noise is the name of a record shop/live house situated in the main shopping arcade of Kochi city called Obiyamachi. The shop changed locations back in August to a more central location in this main shopping strip, and since that time I've only been twice. Being the music-enthusiast that I am, I go to a lot of live houses around Shikoku. I've been to about 8 different ones within the four prefectures that span this island, which I feel is a lot considering the time it takes to drive between the major cities on this island. There are some that I like better than Chaotic Noise because of the music-scene in that particular city (Kochi hosts more hard-core shows at the venues I frequent, and I like indi/melodic punk better). However, none hold the same type of emotions and memories that Chaotic Noise does for me.

Little "hallway" outside the basement venue where everyone goes to smoke between bands.

Friends from a band called "Parkmates"

Firstly, Chaotic Noise was the first live house I ever went to in Japan. I've been to this country four times and I had never been to a live-venue before last year. Secondly, it's the place that really marked the beginning of something new and special to me. I've always loved music, been to plenty of shows and concerts in the US and have always played instruments my entire life. I've played the piano since I was three years old and during middle school and high school I played clarinet in band class. I search out new music constantly, and love singing along to my favorites anywhere I am, but especially the car. My car in either country (America and Japan) is my singing-safe-haven.

The sign they put out in the street. When it's out, you know what's goin down.

The old venue smooshed a live house with a record shop so, needless to say, it was crowded.

However, going to Chaotic Noise for the first time back in September of 2010 with my good friend Matto was the beginning of something for me. It sounds really lame to say, but going to that first live show changed my life a little. I can say without hesitation that my life would be quite different right now if I had never started going to shows at Chaotic Noise. The type of friends that I've been able to make, the trips I've taken, the slump I had at the beginning of the year, the late nights out, the band I was a part of and the new one that has just started... All of these things and more were only possible/happened because I started going to live shows at this venue.

Crowd surfing on a bass case. People like to stand on things and play music here in Kochi.

Actually, when looking through the photos I wanted to use for this post, I noticed that more than half of the people I took pictures of that were at the first show I went to are now friends of mine/we've had a few good chats by now. Bands that I was unsure about back then, I'm a huge fan of now (it always takes me two listens to give my initial like/dislike status). People that I was nervous to talk to back then, I can easily joke around with/have been on a road trip with/gotten drunk with/slept on someone's floor with after a show. While the place and people may change, what I appreciate about the original "Chaotic Noise" and what it means to me will always stay important and be a place I think fondly of when I'm no longer in Kochi.

A UK band came to the new Chaotic Noise about two weeks ago.

The new venue is a split basement place with a hall in between the live house and record shop.

Day 03 – Most interesting person you met.

Enjoying her first American-style party at my house.

It took me awhile to decide on who I wanted to feature as my "most interesting person" because I think that the lines between "most interesting" and "weirdest" have started to blur a little after being here this long. If this was a "who's the weirdest person I met" post, I could have easily come up with more than five answers. However! Since this is interesting I'm going to go with my dear friend Yukiko!

I met Yukiko in April of this year at the city office's huge "kangeikai" or welcome party. Nearly 100 of us stuffed into one of the dozens of banquet halls of the Tamai Hotel (the tallest, most penis-shaped building in Aki) to say "Howdy" to the new city office workers, and "Adios" to the ones who had served their time. The whole ritual of switching out public service workers come April 1st is an interesting and confusing ceremony that I'd like to elaborate on, but will do so in a future post.

Yukiko just happened to sit next to me at party. Just a few days earlier she had done her self introduction to our office and came to occupy the desk diagonal to mine in the island-formation I occupy in the BOE office (we have three "islands" of desks). She looked young, seemed relatively nice, and was surprisingly chatty for a new-comer to our office. I wasn't skeptical of her sincerity, but ever since a few unfortunate incidents have happened with information privacy in my office, I tend to keep to myself and wait for after-office times to get to know someone better. We finally got a chance to talk during this party and ever since she has held a place as one of my best friends.

Yukiko, master takoyaki maker

While Yukiko is 30 and coming to the time where most Japanese girls think they all need to "settle down," she was surprisingly relaxed about the whole thing and not ashamed to be single. I've met so many girls out here in the countryside that think they are doomed to be alone their whole lives at the mere age of 23! Along with that, she had majored in English in college, is one of the few adults I've met in Kochi that has gone to college out of the prefecture (in Kyoto), is widely traveled and has an extremely open mind when it comes to people, the world, and how we all fit in it together. When we hang out, together or with other people, we never run out of things to talk about. She loves hearing other people's opinions, has strong opinions of her own, and loves learning new concepts and English words (although she doesn't speak English very well, her writing capabilities are awesome so I love teaching her words like "hipster" "fratboy" and "silver fox"). She's also the most amazing "translator" for some of my heavily-tosaben-accented friends (she'll take something Nat-chan says and turn it into standardized Japanese hehe) and is just a blast to be around! I'm so glad I met her and although she is also only a one-year-contracted worker, I hope we can continue to hang out past this coming April~

We were Yosakoi "partners" this year, which meant that when we all paraded around, we stood next to each other in rows.