some things about japan
1. japanese boys like touching each other.
i was warned about this sooo many times: "your male students will touch each other a lot. they will sit on each others' laps and play with each others' hair..." but there really isn't anything to prepare you for the actual experience of actually seeing it in person. my introduction for the second years included an activity that required people to get up to look at maps and pictures that were posted on the blackboard, but in class 2-2 most of the boys skipped out on the game and just went to sit on each other or put their arms around each other... or just touching or clinging to whichever part of their friend's body was closest at the time. i seriously could not look at half of the classroom because i thought i would start laughing hysterically and not be able to stop. not that there's anything wrong with it, of course. it's just really, really different from the way middle school aged boys act in the u.s. as my friend melissa pointed out, "it's really weird, but it's also weird that it's weird." so there you have it.
2. jungle park is the best place on earth.
jungle park, aka "the park where all the prostitutes hang out" is in the middle of miyako-machi, the bar district in oita city. aside from the prostitutes, there is a while array of interesting characters that frequent the park, from punks to people in business suits to people in costumes, and e v e r y o n e is shit-faced drunk after 9 pm. the highlights of jungle park:
a) the takoyaki van (literally a van where a guy makes fried octopus balls inside and sells them out of the back of the van). takoyaki is probably the most amazing food ever created, and it tastes even better out of the back of a sketchy van in a back alley surrounded by prostitutes at 3:00 in the morning.
b) the fountain (aka "the fountain that drunk people pee in"). we invariably end up hanging out by the fountain at some point during the night, either with takoyaki or conbini drinks. since there are tons of random drunk japanese people milling around the park constantly, we've met some interesting people there. one guy we met stripped naked and jumped into the fountain. i don't know why. another reason the fountain is awesome is that i like to do cartwheels on the raised platform in the middle. that is why i have scrapes on my elbow and bruises on my shoulder.
c) the guitar man. there is a guy who was playing guitar in the park, and when he saw me and my friend he invited us to play and sing with him. he didn't speak or understand english, so when he asked for song requests we had to sing part of the song instead of telling him the title... but it turned out that he knew more of the words to songs in english than we did so it was pretty funny.
d) japanese people in general. true to the stereotype, japanese people are pretty reserved and shy during the day, but at night in jungle park it is a different story. japanese people won't attempt to talk to foreigners, but at night people will walk up to me and ask where i'm from and try to make conversation in whatever combination of imperfect english and horrible japanese is necessary. (other people just walk by and go "american? YEAHHHH!" which, as obnoxious as it is, is pretty entertaining!) and then there are the people passed out everywhere... some of them are still in business clothes from work, and one guy was passed out on a bench with an unlit cigarette in his hand. it's a bit like college, except that it's everyone rather than just students.
3. japanese people might not speak english, but they will still know the words to avril lavigne songs.
does this need an explanation? a group of random people we met last night invited us to karaoke. as much as i already loved karaoke, going with japanese people made it 5 times as much fun, because the people we went with were actually good at karaoke. plus i love japanese music and it was fun to see people sing in japanese : ) anyway, we alternated between songs in japanese and songs in english. a surprising number of people knew "don't wanna miss a thing" by aerosmith, but everyone was singing along to "complicated"!
incidentally... one of the guys from karaoke last night has been texting me. his first message included lots of sparkles and smiley faces and kanji... it took me about half an hour and two dictionaries to translate, but he said he wants to study english so he can talk to me more : )
i was warned about this sooo many times: "your male students will touch each other a lot. they will sit on each others' laps and play with each others' hair..." but there really isn't anything to prepare you for the actual experience of actually seeing it in person. my introduction for the second years included an activity that required people to get up to look at maps and pictures that were posted on the blackboard, but in class 2-2 most of the boys skipped out on the game and just went to sit on each other or put their arms around each other... or just touching or clinging to whichever part of their friend's body was closest at the time. i seriously could not look at half of the classroom because i thought i would start laughing hysterically and not be able to stop. not that there's anything wrong with it, of course. it's just really, really different from the way middle school aged boys act in the u.s. as my friend melissa pointed out, "it's really weird, but it's also weird that it's weird." so there you have it.
2. jungle park is the best place on earth.
jungle park, aka "the park where all the prostitutes hang out" is in the middle of miyako-machi, the bar district in oita city. aside from the prostitutes, there is a while array of interesting characters that frequent the park, from punks to people in business suits to people in costumes, and e v e r y o n e is shit-faced drunk after 9 pm. the highlights of jungle park:
a) the takoyaki van (literally a van where a guy makes fried octopus balls inside and sells them out of the back of the van). takoyaki is probably the most amazing food ever created, and it tastes even better out of the back of a sketchy van in a back alley surrounded by prostitutes at 3:00 in the morning.
b) the fountain (aka "the fountain that drunk people pee in"). we invariably end up hanging out by the fountain at some point during the night, either with takoyaki or conbini drinks. since there are tons of random drunk japanese people milling around the park constantly, we've met some interesting people there. one guy we met stripped naked and jumped into the fountain. i don't know why. another reason the fountain is awesome is that i like to do cartwheels on the raised platform in the middle. that is why i have scrapes on my elbow and bruises on my shoulder.
c) the guitar man. there is a guy who was playing guitar in the park, and when he saw me and my friend he invited us to play and sing with him. he didn't speak or understand english, so when he asked for song requests we had to sing part of the song instead of telling him the title... but it turned out that he knew more of the words to songs in english than we did so it was pretty funny.
d) japanese people in general. true to the stereotype, japanese people are pretty reserved and shy during the day, but at night in jungle park it is a different story. japanese people won't attempt to talk to foreigners, but at night people will walk up to me and ask where i'm from and try to make conversation in whatever combination of imperfect english and horrible japanese is necessary. (other people just walk by and go "american? YEAHHHH!" which, as obnoxious as it is, is pretty entertaining!) and then there are the people passed out everywhere... some of them are still in business clothes from work, and one guy was passed out on a bench with an unlit cigarette in his hand. it's a bit like college, except that it's everyone rather than just students.
3. japanese people might not speak english, but they will still know the words to avril lavigne songs.
does this need an explanation? a group of random people we met last night invited us to karaoke. as much as i already loved karaoke, going with japanese people made it 5 times as much fun, because the people we went with were actually good at karaoke. plus i love japanese music and it was fun to see people sing in japanese : ) anyway, we alternated between songs in japanese and songs in english. a surprising number of people knew "don't wanna miss a thing" by aerosmith, but everyone was singing along to "complicated"!
incidentally... one of the guys from karaoke last night has been texting me. his first message included lots of sparkles and smiley faces and kanji... it took me about half an hour and two dictionaries to translate, but he said he wants to study english so he can talk to me more : )