New Digs, Beach Parties, And The Good Old 9 to 5 (or 8:30 to 4:00)

Good morning, USA!

That's a ridiculously lame joke but quite frankly I can't resist, so I'm sorry that you have to put up with it.

I'm writing to you from my new apartment at 10:30 PM and after a week in which much has changed. On Tuesday I moved out of the Toyoko Inn and moved into my gigantic new apartment. I'll post sometime soon with pictures of the apartment, but it's more than I know what to do with right now. (I've also turned it into kind of a dump with my unpacking, so Mama, just know that it will get better...)

Out of a window at Takaodai.

Wednesday was my first full day at Takaodai Junior High School, my base school. I will be shifting between that and Nuka Junior High School in blocks on a 3:2 ratio, so that after the first day of classes September 1st at Takaodai, my first day at Nuka will be October 4th, and I'll spend 3 weeks there. Make sense?

(Funny note: any time anyone at school or at the Kanazawa Board of Education talks about a school, they say the full name. Seriously, none of the Japanese people have ever said just "Takaodai". It's always "Takaodai Junior High School", "Izumi Senior High School", etc.)

I'm in a strange foreign land, but this looks suspiciously like a normal middle school...

I'm very lucky in relation to many other JETs because I only have two schools and they're both in walking distance of my apartment. Some JETs have up to 20 rural schools to drive between, spending a day at each on an inconsistent rotation. I have my own desk and computer and life is pretty cushy.

The view from the top of the school.

My summer hours are 8:30 to 4:00, which will change to basically 8:00 to maybe 6:00 depending on what clubs are going on each day. In Japan, school is much more like a home, and the teachers much more like stand-ins for parents. The relationships can be extremely close, and locals will call a child's school if the kid's in trouble before they call the parents. This is fascinating and admirable to me, indicative of a strong community bond that you rarely get in the US.

Takaodai's interior courtyard.

This week I also visited Nuka, where I repeated my introduction speech (in Japanese) and met the teachers. The initial meeting/speech is very important in Japan, so I made sure I had it all down.

*bow*
Ohayo gozaimasu! (Good morning)
Hajimemashite. (Nice to meet you)
Creighton to moshimasu. (My name is (politely) Creighton)
Watashi wa Amerika no Colorado kara kimashita (I come from Colorado, in America)
Colorado wa Amerika no manaka ni hou ni arimasu (Colorado is in the middle of America)
Nihon-go ga amari dekimasen ga benkyo shitai to omoimasu (I don't speak much Japanese but I want to study)
Yoroshiku onegaishimasu. (difficult to translate apparently, but basically nice to meet you/thank you)
*bow*

(Incidentally, I had help from a guy I met in Tokyo translating this. His name is Mohammed, and he's French, so I spoke to him in French to help translate something from English to Japanese. Moments like that put a big satisfied grin on my face.)

Everyone was very impressed with my Japanese, but I hope they know that it was just memorization at this point....

No classes, but the kids are still always there for sports, clubs, and competitions. Insane. It's summer break!

The rest of my time this week was spent buying some necessities (rice cooker, bike) and some comforts (Region 2 DVD player) and then going out with other JETs. There's a pretty fantastic network of JETs around Kanazawa, and most of the people I've met I like tremendously. A guy from Montreal is going to teach me to surf in the Sea of Japan, my predecessor Simon is going to show me where to get good single-malt scotch, and I already have an offer for a snowboarding partner or three.

Last night a bunch of us met up at a beach party in Uchinada, the beach town next to Kanazawa, where there were hammocks, good DJs, and fireworks. The music and company were great, and the breeze off the ocean helped make me sweat-free for the first time in two muggy weeks.






As the crowds started to disperse, I got a cab with two friends to the train station to pick up my bike. It's a 35 minute ride back to my apartment from the station, but the night was clear and I had some music with me, so I relaxed and took my time getting home. There are moments here, often as I ride over the crest of a bridge to get a better view of the river below or coast by a small field lit up by shop lights, that all the language difficulties and discomfort fall away and I become so aware of how incredible it is that I'm here at all and in this position.