River of Tea

Japanese Word of the Day:

English: (Loosely translated) "Hurrah!"
Japanese: Banzai! (ばんざい or 万歳)

Note: Banzai is a celebratory chant usually shouted three times with both arms raised. Imagine me doing that to complete the experience 

So this is a special entry because…. I have now surpassed the word count from my previous set of entries during study abroad! Wooo! That’s really kind of crazy that in about 2 weeks I’ve said more than I did in 4 months. Regardless, this entry is going to focus on some cultural differences I’ve run across, especially in teaching. Some of these things I’ve brought up briefly and want to emphasize and others will be new details. Before I start though let me first say that this is not an “America versus Japan” tally sheet. In general, I try not to say something is “better” in one place or another because that’s ignorant of all the years of history that reached this point. It can be hard to completely remove opinion from comparison writing though and I probably will state that I think something is good or successful but that absolutely does not mean the other country is ‘wrong’. Got that? Ok then, let’s go!

Nudity in General

As I’ve said, I’ve been exposed to a fair amount of child nudity lately in nursery school. On my first day at the nursery the kids went swimming which meant they changed into swimsuits right in front of each other. Since then I’ve learned that after any recess the kids strip down to be hosed off, regardless of it being in the pool (I assume this does not happen in the winter, by the way). So on a daily basis, the children get naked, are hosed off by their teachers, and then dry off and recloth, at least in theory. In between the clothes being removed and returned the kids do a lot of horseplay because they are kids. Watching a mixed sex group of children run by butt naked and end up wrestling was pretty jarring. The entire time the kids were naked the first day I kept thinking how very illegal this would be in America. Allen told me that he felt the same way when he first came but that he appreciated the trust we were given to do things like help dress kids. After thinking about it, I have to agree with him, though it all still makes me a little uncomfortable.

I think from an early age in America we teach children to cover up their bodies at all times and feel shame towards nudity. But at the same time, when I’m working at the BoE office I need to make sure I have my shoulders completely covered, my dress or shorts cover my knees, and have no more than 3 fingers below my collarbone exposed. Japan also has an indecency law that requires large bars to cover any depiction of parts of genitalia like nipples (of women, not men). Speaking of breasts, I was thumbing through a children’s book in the nursery classroom (5-6 yr olds) and found a book about a mother being pregnant with her son, giving birth, and his first few years of life. I was first surprised to see a depiction the developing baby in the womb and then later the mother breastfeeding the child. I haven’t been to many kindergartens in America (like none at all) so I may just be uninformed but I thought embryo development wasn’t really something taught to children so young, and I’m pretty sure breastfeeding isn’t. I was pretty impressed that it was so comfortably not an issue to tell kids where they came from. That same book stack also had a picture book of the original Little Mermaid story where she tries to kill the prince and commits suicide though so maybe it was just a very progressive classroom.

Gardening for Everyone!

As you may have noticed in the panorama pictures out my porch there are a few personal gardens behind my apartment complex. Biking around town I was surprised the amount of and scale of gardens in town; everyone seems to have at least a few plants. In addition to this, the nursery class I worked with had 3 large planters of variations of cherry tomatoes. The kids would be sure to water them (or rather drown them) a few times a week. The school grounds themselves also had some other various vegetable plants but I don’t know who maintains those. I did notice during recess that several teachers went to the corners of the play area and began pulling weeds to fight the advance of grass. Even stranger, some of the kids joined the teachers and spent their entire play time helping pull weeds. It was really cool to see kids getting to be a part of growing things and wanting to help keep the area tidy. Which leads me to my next point…

Cleaning is the Student’s Job

In the Japanese school system, students are assigned to a class (like 2-3 for the 3^rd class in the 2^nd year) and that is where they spend their day. The class has a homeroom teacher but throughout the day as classes change the teachers go to the classroom rather than the students going to the teacher’s rooms. This means that everyone takes all the same classes, as well. At the nursery level this isn’t in effect yet since the only real class the kids have is a 30 minute English “lesson” near the end of the day. Regardless, they still have their assigned room and in Japan it is the student’s job to keep the classroom clean. This mentality is started at the Nursery level to prepare them for the higher grades when they will be the people keeping the room clean.

It’s actually kind of ingenious how it’s been turned into a game of sorts for the nursery kids. After the afternoon snack (last food of the day) the kids are told to go find any trash they can and boy do they search. By making it into a competitive type event it encourages them to work without realizing they’re doing it. I had several kiddos come up and proudly show me the tiny speck of dust bunny they found.

In addition to this ‘game’, the class also assigns 5 helpers each day. These helpers help with cleaning the tables before and after lunch/snack time as well as helping actually distribute the food. There are no cafeterias in Japanese schools*; the meals are eaten in the classroom. At the nursery level, the food is wheeled in on a cart. The teachers set about dividing the food onto plates that the helpers take to each student, waiting patiently at their desk (or more likely doing a headstand somewhere). After the food has been given to everyone the helpers stand in front of the class and there’s a little chant the helpers and class do back and force. My basic understanding is “here is food” “I understand, thank you” “let’s enjoy the food”. Then everyone is able to begin eating. If there is extra food, students can go up and get some more. If a student doesn’t eat all their food (again, at Nursery level) the teachers may come by and encourage them to eat more or even spoon chopstick feed it to them. Waste is considered very bad in Japan so you are supposed to eat every bite of food on your plate.

*I do not doubt that cafeterias do exist somewhere in Japan but for the most part this is not the case

After everyone is done they return their plates/bowls to bins at the front and the helpers go back to the front of the room for another chant, basically appreciating the food. Also, when the helpers are announced at the beginning of the day they have another chant where they basically say they understand the responsibility and will do their best. The reason I can’t give a better translation is because some of the more 元気 (energetic) kids tend to shout the lines at the top of their lungs which makes comprehension hard. Also, every other phrase they say is “はい、わかりました” (yes, I understood)

I don't have many pictures for this one so have an unrelated sunset

Special Needs

I feel like I’m stepping into a minefield right now. I have basically no knowledge of special needs classrooms in America or treatment in general so I’m going to be really vague here and just reflect on what I’ve seen. Disclaimer aside, I was a little surprised when I noticed there was a special needs man working in my BoE main office. He has an unusual way of speaking (which was my first tip off) that reminded me a lot of the way mentally handicapped individuals speak in English. I confess I can’t understand a word he says because the inflections are strange and my Japanese comprehension is pretty limited anyways. He seems to be the tech type person for the office. Inaho-sensei called him to fix computer problems and he was the photographer at my Welcome Ceremony responsible for the pictures you saw in the last post. Because of this I figured he was a higher functioning individual but sometimes I’m not sure. Regardless, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a mentally handicapped person working in a school or government office before in America so it was a bit surprising.

While working at the nursery I quickly picked up that one little boy in my class was also handicapped. The classes seem to share teachers which is very convenient since my classrooms main teacher seems to spend most of her time with this young boy; I actually thought she might’ve been his mom for a while. He participates in all the same things as the other students, though I haven’t seen him be a classroom helper. Most of the kids don’t seem to seek him out and he stays glued to the side of the main teacher. Yet, my last day at the nursery Allen pointed out that a quieter girl had gone and played with him and spent the morning time with him. I remarked to Allen that I found it interesting that he wasn’t in a separate class like he would be in America. Allen told me that in Korea there was a problem with parents being too proud to admit their child needed help and thus keeping them in the main classes and that could be what was going on here. Also the fact that my town is so small could mean there weren’t enough special needs students to actually make a class. Regardless, right now he seems to get the help he needs since there is a teacher about to devote so much time to him, I hope that continues in higher grades.

Miscellaneous Things

So in Japan it is considered rude to walk around while eating or drinking. Yeah, I dunno why that’s a rule either. What it means is that often people will loiter next to a drink machine or inside a convenient store while they drink their drink. Allen and I spent about 45 minutes loitering on a break once because we’d both gotten drinks and the convenient store had AC. This is apparently an entirely acceptable thing but it feels incredibly weird to me. I feel like once I have my drink I need to leave ASAP lest I be accused of shoplifting or something. Also the drink I got on this excursion was an “Orangina” which I feel would not be successfully marketed in an English speaking country. I may have giggled a lot. Also they’re really good! And I certainly did not buy it the first time because it came with a free figurine, that would be silly. I am a mature adult, thank you very much.

Mmm delicious. The pink thing behind it was a freebie with it, too!

Japan likes loudspeakers. Last week, we had a typhoon come through the area as you all know. The night before it was due to hit I began hearing strange loud Japanese voices. Fortunately, I have been in Japan before so I instantly knew what it was. My city had a van (or possibly more) decked out in loud speakers and a wee-woo red light that drove around and made sure everyone knew the typhoon was coming. That may sound like a really cool idea for notifying people, because it is. You know what isn’t cool? When politicians do the same thing (minus the wee-woo red lights). It’s especially annoying when they wake you up with their loudspeakers that are basically just saying their name and maybe “vote for them”. I haven’t seen any of those in Ujitawara yet (my experiences of them come from Hirakata/student abroad) and I’m hoping my city is too small for them to be a practice.

Opps, back to nursery stories. On my last day working there it was a rainy day so instead of recess outside the kids were given a ton of old newspapers and other paper and told to go nuts. Creativity ensued. I decided to show off and make a paper flower, a think I am well known for at home. One of the teachers noticed and got another of the teachers and watched me, quite interested. I told them what I was making and they were quite surprised. Once I finished I was told how very skillful I was amid their shock that I even knew origami. One of the teachers asked me where I had learned to make origami. I told her I learned it in America in one of my classes and she was really surprised. It struck me as strange that a city would pay to literally have me move across the world to teach their kids about language and culture and yet they wouldn’t think that American students would learn things about Japanese culture. In retrospect I do realize that probably not everyone learned to make cranes in class but with Japan such a powerful soft power cultural influence right now (see video games, comics, anime, etc) it still surprised me. Or possibly I’ve just been very receptive to other cultures; my brother liked to joke that I wanted to be anything but an American as a kid. I also made a crane and found out that the style of crane I make is different slightly from the traditional Japanese style. I need to learn that.

That's all I've got for now. Well not really, but that's all I'm saying now. I think I might try to do occasional entries on cultural differences between the countries people might not know about. It seems like a fun way to talk about differences in Japan while being able to stave off culture fatigue. Also if anyone is curious about something in particular I might do a question answer blog, if that's something people would be interested in. You can pop me a message by email or facebook or you can just leave a comment if you'd like!

Post Note: Some of you may have noticed I think myself clever and have been making the article titles plays on famous books and songs lately. This particular one requires a smidge of explanation. As a kid my parents play Eric Clapton’s “Pilgrim” CD a fair bit and I always misheard the song “River of Tears” as “River of Tea” (which I thought sounded way more awesome anyways). Given my town’s unending love of tea (and large river carving through the center of town) I deemed it a fitting use.

Unrelated Post Note 2: I forgot to upload this before going to my prefectural orientation (opps) so I have a bit of a backlog of entries. That said, the Japanese Word of the Day is "banzai" because I just got internet in my apartment! Banzai!! That means I can upload my entries from a comfortable seat in the room I air condition instead of standing next to my front door trying to steal Allen's wifi. Getting my internet also means my apartment is now perfect basically so I can start getting on requests from people (like figuring out my address in English). Anyways, next entry will be about Kyoto Orientation! Look forward to stuff about Kyoto, spending a night at my supervisor's house, and bookstores (among other things)!