In Heaven there is no beer
That’s why we drink it here
And when we’re all gone from here
Our friends will be drinking all the beer.
- “In Heaven There Is No Beer”, Ernst Neubach and Ralph Maria Siegel (translated from the original German)

FRANKIE YANKOVIC and his Polka Kings once had a hit with the song, In Heaven There is No Beer, but he might have changed his tune had he known about the new microbrew on the market in Oita.

Showa-en, a Beppu, Oita-based company that operates ryokan (Japanese inns), is also involved in microbrewing. They’ve announced the sale of two new beers made with brown rice using a manufacturing method that attempts to utilize the yeast bouquet to the fullest extent possible. The method involves putting the yeast into a state of suspended animation through a three-step, low-temperature pasteurization process for which the brewer has received a patent. Company President Mochinaga (given name not confirmable) says, “Nowadays, everybody’s talking about costs, costs, and that’s why I wanted to make something authentic. I want to take this product nationwide.”

This is actually only one new beer brand with two varieties. The brand name is Namban Okoku Mugishu, which translates to “Barbarian Kingdom Beer”. In this case, however, namban means Christian—namban bungaku, or barbarian literature, was the term used for Christian literature centuries ago. The Christian appellation fits, as we’ll see in a second, but it’s not because Belgian monks are involved. Mugishu is what the Japanese used to call beer. The same Chinese characters for that word were used to create the Korean term mekju when the Japanese introduced Koreans to the delights of the beverage early last century. The word mugishu means “barley alcoholic beverage”, and yes, that is an odd name for a beer made with brown rice.

The first variety of the Namban Okoku Mugishi is named Don Otomo Sorin after a 16th Christian warlord who was the daimyo of the Bungo domain in what is now Oita. His original name was Otomo Yoshishige. Sorin was the name he took in 1562 when he became a Buddhist monk, which was after he met the Jesuit missionary Francis Xavier in 1551 and before he converted to Christianity in 1578.

During his days as daimyo, Sorin controlled most of Kyushu and was referred to as the King of Bungo in Jesuit records. His wife rather disliked Christianity, and they divorced. She is known in the same Jesuit records as Jezebel, which will come as no surprise. To grab this post by the collar and get it back on track, platinum powder is added to the beer during the finishing process. It sells for JPY 670 (about $US 7.55) for a 330-milliliter bottle (0.7 pint) and JPY 870 for a 500-milliliter bottle.

The second variety is a dark beer named Don Xavier—after Francis, of course—to which gold powder is added during the finishing process. The two sizes cost JPY 650 and JPY 860 respectively.

President Mochinaga said he devised the suspended animation yeast method five years ago after taking over the operation of the Yamaga Kirara microbrewery, which, by the way, is a public-private sector partnership. In Japan, these are called third sector companies, and they were quite the rage among local governments for a time. Nationwide, roughly 70% of the third sector companies are in the red, which will also come as no surprise, but there I go digressing again.

Most beers are pasteurized at a temperature of 60º C (140º F) for 20 minutes, but that kills the yeast. If the yeast is kept alive, however, its aroma constantly changes, and it’s difficult to maintain that for long periods of time. Mr. Mochinaga’s idea was to divide the pasteurization into three periods: two minutes at 55º C, one minute at 40º C, and two minutes at 40º C again. When the beer is shipped, the yeast is in a state of suspended animation, but after it is opened and drunk, it is resurrected, as Francis Xavier might say, inside the consumer’s body. The brewer claims this provides the drinker with amino acids. How many other beverages do you know of that build you up and tear you down at the same time?

Brewmaster Fukuda Rikiya thinks this is the first time anyone anywhere has tried to brew a beer using this method, and I’m inclined to believe him. He added there were many failures before they got the production line operating the way they wanted. Said President Mochinaga, “There are countless microbrews around the world, but few are commercially successful. I didn’t want to imitate the big brewers. I thought it was essential to create a new method of brewing from scratch,” and you can say that again. He is willing to talk about technology-sharing deals if other companies in Oita want to make a similar beer.

Namban Okoku Mugishu is sold at department stores, ryokan, and the prefecture’s airport. In combination with its other four brands—I don’t want to know—the company expects to produce 300,000 bottles a year.

Now tell the truth: Did you ever expect to read some of these words, expressions, and concepts in the same place at the same time?

So, who’s up for a beer run to Oita?

Afterwords: I dare you to click on that link to the song title!

It just hit me that many of my photos are incredibly stale, some being over a year old now. I saw some Halloween decorations while walking around in Sūzhōu, and I thought it would be interesting to share. I remembered that I had some similar photos from Japan, as I had been there in October 2008. I guess I’d better get cracking before the photos become totally irrelevant as things continue to change!

Ganso is one of the many bakery/pastry chains in China. I don’t think the other chains had Halloween decorations, though.

A Halloween event poster outside a bar/club on Shiquan Jie, which is where a number of bars and restaurants are located, in addition to clothing boutiques and other hip shops.

On actual Halloween day (October 31, 2009), I was still in Sūzhōu. I had passed the entire day without seeing any other signs of Halloween. That is, until I saw three kids (maybe high schoolers or university) in fairly decent costumes (at least one from a Japanese manga) climbing into a taxi. I was actually a little stunned by the sight, so I was slow on my camera and missed a shot.

Later, when I got back to where I was staying (Suzhou Watertown Hostel), I noticed that there was a party with some Halloween-like trappings (a mask here and there), but it just seemed to be an excuse to drink beer and hang out in the common courtyard.

So Halloween has some distance to go before it catches on like other Western staples. My guess is that it’s still more of a promotional thing started by ex-pats for now.

Hello Batty will suck the cash from your wallet.

On October 31, 2008, I was in Osaka, but I don’t recall seeing any trick or treating. Perhaps I saw some people in costumes, but it’s sometimes hard to tell the difference in Japan…

So I’ve hit the dreaded ’stage two’ phase. (culture shock, look it up)

Being constantly surrounded by people speaking in a language I barely understand. Kids getting less cute, more obnoxious. Barely being able to string a sentence in English together that doesn’t involve ‘i like tennis’ or ‘how are you?’. Being CONSTANTLY stared at everywhere I go. Everything is starting to transform from what used to be funny or novel into downright frustrating.

Not to mention that the weather has changed from pleasant to subzero literally overnight. Coupled with Tomek insisting it will only get worse and my big red coat being mysteriously lost in the post, I am currently not a happy bunny…

First year girl: oh Katie! Cute cute!
First year boy: yes yes cute cute!
Me: Thank you!
First year girl: *points at boy* イメージどう？
Me: Hmm?
First year girl: Boy… Imeeji… Cute?
Me: …
First year girl: (in Japanese) What do you think of his image? Is it cool?
Me: Oh! Oh yes, the sideways fringe is a good look.
First year girl: He’s an ikemen, right?
Me: Oh yes yes.
First year boy: *dies of embarrassment*

Today I got my three classes to draw me a Halloween monster and then describe it in English. As ever, here are the more interesting results…

The other weekend we went to visit Tamasakiyama (monkey mountain). There are lots of Japanese macaques that live and get fed on the mountain there. In the 1970’s Oita city had problems with the monkeys running riot and ruining crops, so the mayor conditioned the monkeys to stay on the mountain by feeding them.

It’s actually amazing; they get so close to you, one even grabbed my leg at one point!

On Friday I was surprised to see that, on my elementary school visit, I had been scheduled to teach ‘nakayoshi’ (special education). I have absolutely no experience teaching special ed and have very limited experience of people with obvious learning difficulties so I was a little but nervous as to how it would go, but oh my god they were the sweetest kids ever.

Japan’s policy on special education was a little bizzare to me at first. They stick them in the same classes as the other kids their age, and sometimes this is hard, particularly when it’s obvious that the student can’t keep up with everyone else, or can’t participate in games, etc. On the other hand, the way the other kids treat the special ed kids is absolutely incredible. They’re so kind and considerate towards them and considering the age if these kids, I was floored. I’m fairly certain I wouldn’t have been that way when I was their age, in fact I know we all used to pick on the kids with learning difficulties. Not in Japan! It’s actually really nice to see.

I actually went back to the same school today and saw one if the special ed kids again in one of my classes. He gave me a bug hug and drew a dinosaur for me. Think he’s my favourite kid yet, even though I keep forgetting his name…! (he’s the one in the red below doing ‘za Bolto’)

by Nao

wa-keru, wa-kareru, wa-karu, wa-katsu, bun, bu

The general meaning of this character is to divide.

The suffixes, keru, kareru, karu, and katsu, are okurigana. They have delicate nuances. If you divide something, your action is expressed as wa-keru. If something splits, it is in the state of wa-kareru. (Take note that there is another character with the same reading for a divorce.) Wa-karu means to understand. To separate something from another is described as wa-katsu.

Fractions are bunsū, of which the sū means numbers. A half is ni bun no ichi (2 bun no 1), a third, san bun no ichi (3 bun no 1), and a quarter, yon bun no ichi (4 bun no 1). No is in hiragana.

Equinoxes also divides seasons. The spring equinox is shunbun, and the autumnal equinox is shūbun.

There are some words probably telling us about something separate. Self or oneself is jibun. Nature or temperament is shōbun.

Incidentally, Ōita is a prefecture in Kyusyu.

Here is the stroke order.

1. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top to the lower left. Make it narrower gradually.
2. Draw the sweeping stroke from the top to the lower right. Make it broader in the end.
3. Draw the hook. After changing the direction of the brush, draw a curve with an upward turn.
4. Draw the sweeping stroke, which should not stick out from the hook.

In all 2nd and 3rd grade classes I ask the kids to write down a question for me and then their own answer to the question they wrote. Most of the time I get boring questions like “What food do you like?” or “What sports do you like?”, “Do you have any pets?” etc but occassionally I get some good ones… like these!

Kanjani8 are a very popular group here

I do like monster actually!

Lots of times

Hahaha

This says "Please teach me magic" after I told him I am from Harry Potter land

All the kids are obsessed with my glasses

I`m almost impressed. 7?

A bunch of us went and helped out at an English conversation afternoon where Japanese people wanting to practise English came and chatted to us about anything. It was pretty fun, plus there was free cake so I was happy.

There were more people than this, most of these other people organised it

One of the guys who helped out was from Uzbekistan and showed us some traditional headwear.

Mine was handmade!

Afterwards, to thank us the organiser took us to the Oitan Botanical Gardens, which was pretty cool cause it was such a nice day!

This is a mini-foot onsen. The lady said this was natural onsen water

Afterwards we walked across this to relax our feet (i.e. cause our feet great pain)

Apparently the Okinawans eat these

I`m not usually a flower fan but these colours were fantastic

Wow

I LOVE this picture

All in all a really nice day out, except the guard kept shooing us away from all the flowers, probably because he hates foreigners Oh well!

I apologise to my dedicated followers of this blog (Harriet) for neglecting it for so long. My laptop finally gave up on life after less than two years of service, half of which it was broken for anyway. Moral of the day? Never buy a laptop from Staples.

Moving on… thankfully (??) outside of work, I have very little to report on. As this is my first proper job with proper hours (as opposed to a 8 hour “read-a-book-and-serve-customers-if-they-show-up-ever” job) I tend to be very tired in the evenings and, as a result, do very little aside from grab a meal with some other JETs and maybe hang out in one of the parks drinking. Get this – drinking in public is legal in Japan! It`s great walking down the street with a can of Cola Shock in your hand. The other day I tried my hand at a poker evening which was extremely fun, but I turned out to be extremely bad. Next Monday in theory I am trying out Kendo, which should be fun.

But let`s turn our attention to my life at school. It`s been about three weeks since I started and I am really getting into the swing of things. Of course, I have literally taught the exact (more or less) lesson to maybe 50 different classes… I`m looking forward to being able to go to a class and not have to introduce myself!

I`ve learned so much about teaching in these three weeks though. Remember my first post about teaching? I talked about a class which I had previously considered a `bad class`. That class is now one of my good classes as I have truly experienced what a `bad class` is. Kids getting up and walking out mid-way through, kids fighting in class… but I still love every second. I really enjoy working with these kids who, on the whole, are fantastic. And they (on the whole) seem to like me a lot as well! Just being a foreigner is a huge element to my apparent coolness but I don`t know. They genuinely seem amazed at the extent of my knowledge on Japanese culture (i.e. I like Koda Kumi, AAA and video games) and this definitely gets me a LOAD of cool points. Particularly when the teacher I`m taking the class with doesn`t even know what I`m talking about! At lunchtimes and cleaning times I always get a small crowd of students around my desk in the staff room and some of the third year girls at one of my schools have taken to calling me KatieCutie, which the other teachers are trying to stop because it`s “disrespectful”. Pssh.　Whatever. I like it!

I`ve also gained a lot of confidence as a teacher. Sometimes the planned class schedule finishes a little early and the teachers will look to me to think of something to fill the last ten minutes or so. Three weeks ago I would have shrugged and come up blank but now I can so easily just throw something at the class to keep them entertained until the bell rings. Honestly I thought I would really, really suck at this job considering we get little to no training, but I really think this is something that I`m good at! I have a good time, the kids (mostly) have a good time and the teachers seem to quite like me as well. A teacher at one school even went as far as to tell the other three teachers I would be working with that day to not even bother going to class because I had it completely under control. And this is with elementary school kids!!

I really wish I could have updated this more frequently because I`ve truly had some hilarious and incredible experiences during these last few weeks. Every day a student or teacher does something to amaze and surprise me, whether it`s giving me some home grown Japanese Chesnuts…

… drawing a picture of me…

…or running in to show me the biggest spider in the WORLD (and still alive), I can never come home from a day of work not being able to think of a single amazing or funny thing that happened during the day. Working here is such an amazingly fun experience.

I do keep a list of all the funny Engrish moments and maybe one day soon I`ll make a post with all of them. But for now that`s all from me! Hope everyone is doing well!

I was in Kyushu last autumn break. So we drove all the way from Saga to this beautiful place called Yabakei in Oita prefecture.The best autumn in my life, I enjoyed the place so much!

Our Shoes on top of dried momiji leaves

The green leaves are turning
To yellow, red and brown
And when the wind comes
Whistling by, they’ll all come sailing down

Spot him

A,B,C,D,E,F,G,H,I,Î,J,K,L,M,N… şi-acum se rostogoleşte O

Seamănă cu-n ou, aşa tare,
Încât crezi ca-i de mâncare.
Când colo cu el doar scrii
La copii poveşti hazlii:

Doi ortaci s-au ospătat
La o cârcimă din sat.
Omidoiul, (obraznicul)
Le-a stricat tot praznicul,
Fiindc-n oale a intrat
Si-n orez s-a strecurat.
Ospatarul oropsit
Alt ospaţ le-a oferit,
Cu gogoşi şi cu ardei
Numai să scape de ei.

********

Oana, fata cu codiţe
Are-acasă opt oiţe.
Cu blăniţa ondulată
Ocupând ograda toată.
Când se urcă pe coteţ
Ţi se face părul creţ.
Iar când behaie, măi frate,
Ai ofta o zi şi-o noapte,
Că oriunde te-ai afla
Zbiară în urechea ta.

Oh my God Friday was exhausting but totally amazing! It did not start well at all; a mix-up with the schedule and the fact that I left my phone at home meant I ended up getting to school about 10 mins late (practically job suicide in Japan). Luckily the principal at the school was very understanding and even said I could start coming in 10 mins late whenever I wanted, but for most schools I think you’d have a lot of apologising to do for that. Blimey.

My first lesson wasn’t until second period so I sat and chatted with the principal about English history before being dragged off to teach third years (8-9 year olds). Firstly can I just say the teacher was completely and utterly useless. She literally shoved me to the front of the class and and sat at the side. She did not sayor do anything all lesson, except for when I’d finished whatever activity we were doing and needed guidance on what to do next, because she didn’t follow the lesson plan she’d sent me at all. To make things even worse, the childrens’ parents were sat at the back of the class watching which was very distracting and unnerving.

Despite all this, I think I did a pretty spiffing job. The kids (allll adorable) were really into it and had a lot of fun. Two of the kids sat at the front were very excitable but I gained cool points from them because I knew who AnPanMan, Doreaemon and Pikachu were haha. I did the same lesson the next period with the other class of third graders who were equally into it, but this time my teacher Nonihide-sensei was excellent! It’s strange because, when we did the school visits, he was really really intimidating; he didn’t listen to the seminar, he looked constantly pissed off and he just had this bad attitude about him. But put him in front of kids and he changes. Wow.

I had sixth graders after that who were slightly less genki and less into the lesson so I don’t really remember much from that. I do remember that I kind of sucked because the third graders had worn me out, so I’ll have to work on that for next time.

And THEN! Lunchtime! After each of the two third grade classes had finished, three of the kids from each class would carry my belongings and guide me to the next class and both times, one of the kids would shyly ask me what I was doing for lunch. Me being the stupid foreigner assumed that the year groups would be eating together, and so promised I would eat with ‘the third graders’, both times gaining an inordinate amount of excitement in response. Lunchtime came and Nonihide-sensei took me up to the third grade floor. At which point all the students from both class 3-1 and 3-2 came out and an immense battle started for ‘who gets to eat with Katie-sensei’. I’m not even kidding. I was grabbed and tugged, kids were screaming at each other and saying ‘You said you’re eating with us – RIGHT?’ to me – eventually I settled it by deciding to eat with 3-1 this time, but next time it would definitely be 3-2. 3-1 then dragged me into their classroom victoriously and asked me a barrage of questions about where I would sit, what I was eating, etc. I literally mean a barrage, all I could hear was ‘KATIE-SENSEI!!! KATIE-SENSEI!!!! KATIE-SENSEI!!!’ Of course, about 60% of the time I couldn’t understand what was being asked of me anyway because my Japanese is not good enough, but I got around this problem by pulling a ‘I don’t know!’ face which made all the students laugh. The second I had finished my meal yet another battle erupted as to ‘who Katie would play with’. One group was demanding I play Cops and Robbers with them, another wanted me to do something else (I’m not quite sure) so I ran off before things got too heated.

To make up my treacherous behaviour to 3-2, I decided to pop in to see what they were doing. There was a smallish group of girls around the piano and one of the students was kicking out this AMAZING song, it sounded really good and I was so impressed so I sat down and listened to the rest of the performance, clapping at the end. This of course then started the ‘Let’s Show off Our Piano Playing to Katie-sensei’ game which was amazing; most of the girls could play the piano really really well.

After that, one of the sassier girls asked if I knew the ‘Mejiron Dance’. The Mejiron is the bird of Oita and it’s bloody everywhere, I think it was a mascot for a big sporting event a couple of years back and they kept it. Upon hearing that I had not heard of the dance, the girl immediately put on a CD with this song on it and the whole group began to do this pretty hilarious ‘Mejiron Dance’, haha. I desperately wish I had my camera to record it! The girls promised me that next time I came they would teach it to me so maybe that’ll be funny to record

This is the actual bird...

...and this is the mascot version. I bloody love Japan

I don’t have any new schools until next Thursday, so hopefully in the next few days I’ll be spared from every kid walking past me saying ‘hello!!! Hello!!!’

Today was my first day visiting my other junior high school – I’ll call this one B.J.H.S and the other one A.J.H.S for future reference. OK? OK!

Oh yeah, it rained for the first time since I’ve been in Japan today. And it really rained. I ended up getting to B soaking wet and with make-up ALL down my face, which one of my teachers neglected to tell me until well after the lesson we’d just had together. Oh Japan and your ridiculous politeness. How I dislike you.

But yes! I had two classes today, a third year class and a first year class. The third year class was OK, definitely better than the third year class in A.J.H.S; not only was the general English ability better but the students were far more interested in the class, even voluntarily asking me questions about some of the photos I’d shown them of the friends and family. Of course there were the bad kids as well, but the bad kids sat at the back and tended to be quiet… that is until a huge hornet flew into the classroom and straight for one of the kid’s face, to which he leapt out of his chair and fell on the floor screaming…

The first year students? Adorable. There wasn’t much conversation between myself and the students as their English ability just about extended to ‘what is this?’ ‘this is a pencil’ etc etc but at the beginning of class there was an ‘ask Katie a question in Japanese and she’ll answer it in English’ session which was pretty funny, one kid Mori-kun pretty much asked me every single question ever, stuff like ‘how is England different to Japan?’ and ‘What is popular in England right now?’ To my absolute dismay, I realised that I struggled to answer most of the questions and ended up making up answers, but what an absolutely horrid cultural ambassador I am!

I do have a question to the reader(s) of this blog – in the sentence The boys will stay in one tent and the girls will stay in the other – do all of your ‘the’s sound the same? Mine do but as I was reading it out, the teacher pulled me aside and said the ‘the’ in ‘the other’ should sound more like ‘thee’. ?? Well, whatever.

My novelty factor as the token foreigner has not worn off in the slightest. After my third grade lesson today a hoard of students were milling around outside the classroom to get a good look at me and two first grade students got enough courage to come and ask me if I spoke Japanese (in Japanese). It still hasn’t worn off in A.J.H.S either; yesterday as I was waiting at the crossing, two girls literally came pelting across from the other side of the crossroads screaming ‘SENSEIIIII!!! SENSEI!!!!’ just to say ‘hello’ and then wait for me to cross the road before waving goodbye. It’s insane! I swear I was never this excited about any aspect of school, let alone a new teacher coming. I guess that’s because England is vastly more multicultural than Japan is but still.

I have my first elementary school tomorrow. God knows how excited those kids are going to be, oh my God.

(I can’t wait)

By the way, as I wrote this blog today, I experienced my first earthquake in Japan. It wasn’t that severe, some bottles shook and there was definitely noise. I just figured it was my neighbour on top being extra loud

So today was my first proper day of work.

…phew!

I got up extra early to iron my shirt, practice my self-introduction, etc and got on the train to school. Worst train journey ever. For a start I was standing and had a fairly heavy bag, but more importantly the train was filled with teenage kids, all of which wearing various school uniforms. It hit me that it was very likely that some if not most of the kids surrounding me (all of whom shooting me completely unsubtle curious glances) could be my new students. Suddenly everything I was doing seemed extra magnified. The way in which I chewed my gum seemed important. The way I leant against the door, the way I held my bag – all of these things could be things that could picked up and gossiped about… I don’t know, I very became hyperaware of everything I was doing and this continued all throughout the subsequent 10 minute walk from the station to the school, during which I was surrounded by my students the entire time.

My school is the building on the left

BUT! I managed to get into the staff room where I was shown my desk and left for about half an hour. During this time the students started filing in slowly for morning cleaning duties. This is something I’ve heard about but never quite believed but yes, the students do clean the entire school (including staff toilets) before and after school. So glad I didn’t grow up in Japan haha. During this time, I tried to smile and greet as many students as I could; most of them would mutter good morning back and most were too embarrassed to start any kind of conversation with me except one; a really sweet third grader called Natsuki who upon replying to my greeting, shyly added ‘先生可愛い’ (“you’re cute, teacher”). And so I immediately broke the Golden Rule of teaching English in Japan – ‘do not talk to your students in Japanese. Ever.’ Granted it wasn’t exceptional Japanese but I was so happy that a student was interested enough to want to try and talk to me that I put aside English class and had a short chat with Natsuki.

After the students had finished it was the time for the opening ceremony, which was very formally carried out and very impressive. My speech was hurried and a little short (and I almost knocked over the podium – I swear I’ve become infinitely more clumsy since coming here) and then the students all filed out. I commented to my supervisor Kinoshita-sensei that it was amazing how well behaved all the children were during the ceremony, to which she replied ‘Oh, it’s all for show.’ Upon questioning her, I found out that, although the children are well behaved in class, the school has a reputation for its students getting frequently arrested.

…

Before I had time to process this I was dragged off to my only lesson of the day, but my first lesson as an ALT. The class was relatively small, about 18-20 second grade (year 8 in the UK) students, mostly boys. Now… I don’t know what Kinoshita-sensei’s idea of ”well behaved in class” is but it is entirely different to mine. While most of the students were quiet (far too quiet for my liking, especially when speaking in English. Like seriously, they were mumbling), one guy not only refused to do the activity he had been set, fell asleep in class and refused to answer me when I asked him the simple question of ‘what is your name’. Some of the other boys were pretty rowdy but at least they were keen to speak up when questions were asked which I was grateful for.

The level of English ability of these children is pretty shocking though. If they’ve been studying it for a year already I expected them to be able to make some sort of sentences but… it was a real struggle. Even my friend from before Natsuki, despite being a third grader, could barely scrape together half a sentence of greeting. I think I have my work cut out teaching at this school… maybe by the end of the year I can make them fluent. One thing I asked was ‘Do you guys enjoy learning English?’ to which they very enthusiastically chorused ‘No!’, the most effort they had put into any part of the lesson. I think I would prefer it if I teach them to have fun while learning English as opposed to being good at English – probably not what I’m paid to do but oh well.

View from the playground

One particularly funny part of the class was a Q&A session with the kids where someone asked me what country I was from and I told them to guess.

Student A: Are you from America?
Me: No!
Student B: Canada!
Me: No.
Student A: Australia!!
Me: No!
Student C: Saudi Arabia!
Me: No- wait, what?? Saudi Arabia?!
Student D: Italy!
Me: No…
Student E: Doitsu!
Me: No…
** several incorrect attempts later **
Bored student in the front: イギリス。。。
Me: Ah! What is イギリス in English?
Class: ………..
Student A: …….INGORAAANDO!
Me: （ー○ー）＝３ ﾊｧ

I’m hoping my other classes will have slightly more controlled or enthusiastic students. I know that elementary school children will be SO keen and I’m looking forward to teaching them. I have another junior high that I visit semi-regularly as well which I think has a pretty good rep but PHEW this is going to be a tough year!

For my second evening here I was fortunate enough to catch the annual Oita matsuri festival. Festivals like these are traditionally attended whilst wearing a yukata, so keen to get into the spirit of things I bought a cheap one. Except… I couldn’t figure out how to put it on at all. So feeling a little hopeless, I went down to the reception (of the hotel which I was staying in until the weekend) to get some help. Upon seeing the female receptionist, I held up my yukata and gestured helplessly, saying ‘how do you?…’ in broken Japanese, in the hope that maybe she’d quickly show me how to tie the obi sash before shooing me away.

Upon realising what I was saying, the lady immediately broke into a smile and dragged me to what appeared to be the staff room. At least I assume it was. There were two youngish girls and a guy sitting on the floor eating conbini food, anyway. Awkward, I was interrupting their lunch break! Keen not to be the rude foreigner I bowed over and over, repeatedly apologising for intruding but instead of getting cross, the two girls leapt up and began fitting my yukata for me, which I was not expecting! None of them spoke English and my Japanese was pretty shaky, but about 20 minutes, lots of hairpins and a few 大丈夫かな。。。？s later, I was more or less in my yukata.

Thinking back, I still can’t get over how keenly three total strangers threw themselves into helping me. A skeptic might argue that to deny me help could cost them their jobs (especially with the insane work ethics the Japanese have) but they very genuinely seemed to want to help me out.

The finished result

…of course, being considerably bigger than the average Japanese woman, the ladies had a little difficulty fitting my boobs into the yukata. Thank God I thought ahead and wore stuff underneath…!

Showing off our yukatas

The festival itself was pretty incredible. There were loads of paper floats being paraded down the streets, dancing and taiko drumming. It was a very lively festival and I’m glad I got to see it! Next year I want to go one step further and take part somehow ;D

Some taiko drummers

The kids taking part in the festival were adorable

One of the many floats paraded down the streets

This will be me next year ;D

In order to promote internationalisation (??), a guy at work organised a seminar in which three ALTs talked about their home country’s culture and in turn, we got shown some aspects of traditional Japanese culture. It was ridiculously fun and I still can’t believe I got paid to do that

Me looking fat and gross for my Britain presentation with JT as my personal translator

Asking for my comments during a tasting session

Making a bag for a watermelon using a piece of square cloth

Helping us put on a yukata

Playing with a kendama (traditional Japanese toy)

Today I am going to talk about a very important aspect of Japanese culture, which is

飲み放題 (nomihoudai)

This translates to ‘bottomless cup’ – in other words, ‘all you can drink’. This is quite possibly the greatest idea the Japanese have ever had, or possibly indeed anyone has ever had, and it’s something that’s practised very widely here. For example, at my work party (or 宴会 enkai), all of my seniors were very much taking advantage of the free flowing alcohol and a few days ago at karaoke, the staff didn’t seem to mind us ordering four drinks at a time.

….of course, this results in me being drunk quite a lot as it is easier (and CHEAPER) to do so here than in the UK. While this isn’t exactly a problem, I seem to enjoy ‘making friends’ when people when I’m drunk. And I’ve made a few friends already, as well as earning myself the title of ‘Nomihoudai Queen’. Oh dear.

As far as I am aware there are no nightclubs here (oh how I long for Arena’s sticky floors and disgusting aroma) but there is a bar run by an American called PEI, which is where most foreigners end up for drinks. They have this pretty lethal drink called ‘Fight Club’ which… actually, I’ve never been sober enough to remember what a Fight Club is – I vaguely remember someone saying that it’s a mixture of just about everything but all I know is things go from clear to extremely hazy in my memory post Fight Club.

Bad times.

At PEI

More PEI funtimes

]]> http://katieinjapan.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/the-rough-guide-to-the-people-of-oita-city/ Tue, 25 Aug 2009 13:36:14 +0000 katieinjapan http://katieinjapan.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/the-rough-guide-to-the-people-of-oita-city/

Let`s love Oita

So I`ve been in Oita for about three weeks now and I am really enjoying life here. I`m not really sure where to start with all the things I`ve been up to but talking about Oitans might be a good idea.

Oita city is reasonably small for a city in Japan with a population of just 460,000. To be honest I don`t know how big or not big that may be, but I can cycle from my apartment to most important places in the city within about 25 minutes, so it can`t be too big, right?

An example of something I cycle past every day

One thing that it is important to note about Japan is that their level of internationalisation, especially considering it is one of the most powerful contries in the world, is shockingly low.Oita is located on the island of Kyuushuu which is Japan`s equivalent to the UK`s south west – typically quiet and rural. Because of this, foreigners (or gaijin) stand out even more and although it was slightly unnerving to start, I have since become used to walking or cycling down the main streets of Oita and have every single Oitan stare at me as I go past. Perhaps it could be expected of children who may not have ever seen a foreigner before but I get the same reactions from older Japanese people as well. And it`s not just a quick glance; it`s a full on STARE.

Saying this, however, the general reception of the Japanese to foreigners is one of the most friendly I have ever experienced. The Japanese are genuinely fascinated by us. Take me, for example – my hair and the size of my chest is something of a novelty to most Japanese.

This couple was either drunk or crazy

The typically shy, reserved nature of the Japanese can often be misinterpreted as rudeness or an unwillingness to accept other cultures, but I`ve discovered that the trick is to get them good and drunk. In the end they let go of their inhibitions and come over to have a chat with us (mostly spurred on by the fact that those people want to have their picture taken with `the foreigner`).

The guy in the middle couldn`t believe his luck - a whole TABLE of foreigners

This is not to say that the only good Oitan is a drunk Oitan; I`ve heard stories of a man pulling over in his car just to help one of my co-workers prop up her bike before promptly driving away again. A primary school teacher who barely spoke English drove to my apartment just to give me some free curtains, and back again once more as she had forgotten the pegs.

…of course, I am saying all of this when I have not yet properly started working at my schools as a teacher. Maybe this happy attitude will all change in a few weeks, haha!

O Internacional tem uma boa chance de não passar em branco no seu ano de centenário, e ampliar o seu título de “vencedor de tudo”. Vai disputar um torneio entre o campeão da sulamericana e o campeão da Copa do Japão. Os tricolores gaúchos, no entanto, não estão muito preocupados com isso…

Chupinhado do 1909News, do Tavinho!!

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