Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Japanese Cedars and the Yen

Japanese Cedar Trees and the Yen have nothing to do with one another... I'm just going to talk about both.

In the past 3 days I have heard the same story about Japanese Cedar Trees numerous times... so I guess I'll share. Apparently many, many Japanese people have really bad allergies in the spring (beginning now) due to cedar tree pollination. I guess after Japan was defeated in WWII, somebody decided that cedar trees were the way to go because they grow quickly and they could use the wood to rebuild. So all of these cedar trees were planted on the mountain sides, but they stopped cutting down cedar trees to use the wood a very long time ago because it was cheaper to import wood from somewhere else. Now there are just a bunch of cedar trees that cause really bad allergies. Even more people are sporting the doctor masks - not because they are sick or don't want to get sick anymore - but because of the pollen in the air. So that's the story I've gotten all week.

The Japanese yen is pretty weak right now. Less than a month ago the exchange rate was around 1USD = 0.89 yen. Today, it's a lousy 1USD = 97.18 yen. The exchange rate still isn't back to where it was when I came back in July, but the dollar is catching up. Well, either that or the yen is doing worse. I haven't been keeping up with it, but I'm pretty sure the yen is losing more value than the dollar is gaining. The Japanese economy has been steadily worsening for the past few months... right along with every other economy.

Japan's finance minister, Nakagawa, resigned recently due to his ... unusual... performance at the G7 conference a few weeks ago. They blamed it on cold medicine... but everybody knows he was wasted drunk.



All JET's have been informed that we should be expecting a stimulus check from the Japanese government sometime soon : )

Sunday, February 22, 2009

50th Ube Unesco English Speech Competition - Judge

I was a judge for the 50th Unesco English Speech Competition at Kosui Hall, Tokiwa Park here in Ube all day Saturday. I wasn't looking forward to it... at all... but it wasn't that bad. It was a beautiful day outside, too. I had 2 students competing in the afternoon (Sr. High), but they didn't place in the top 10. I think they were both disappointed, but actually they both did a really great job and I was really proud of them. It was a little awkward that I had to be the judge since I had students competing. I looked over the overall scores and found that even if I had given them both perfects they still wouldn't have placed in the top 10... close, but not in the top 10... and that made me feel better because I was afraid I might have subconsciously judged them too harshly. If I remember correctly they placed 15th and 16th. That was out of 26. They didn't mess up and tried their best... that's really all that matters.

Here's a picture Meng took. Two of her students placed in the top 10 for Sr. High. This is a picture of the top 10 Sr. High students with the judges and officials standing behind them... can you pick me out?!



Meng and I met Saranne near Ube Shinkawa for dinner afterwards and the restaurant we went to was really good! I finally made it home around 9pm. I was pretty exhausted considering I'd left my place at 7:15am. I was dreading judging this speech contest for a few weeks... but it turned out to be a nice day. It's weird how things turn out like that sometimes.

Monday, February 16, 2009

COLDPLAY! OSAKA 2/14/09


Coldplay came to Japan and I went to see them! I've always wanted to see them live, but I've never had the opportunity... so I was not going to let this one pass me by. My friends and I bought tickets to this concert before Christmas break! We were really excited to see Coldplay perform live and they did not let us down. They are AWESOME live. I haven't been to very many concerts, but this one tops them all. I'd pay to go see them again... definitely. The concert was actually in Kobe and not Osaka... even though all of their promotions say Osaka. Even the t-shirts they were selling said Osaka instead of Kobe... and they were selling them right there at the venue in Kobe.



Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

It was an unusually warm weekend, too. There was a fluke heatwave and the weather was great all weekend! I went all the way up there just to go to the concert, but I also met up with my friend Mina and a friend of hers for lunch. Actually, I went to her house and she cooked lunch! She made this really nice pasta and a nice appetizer of mozzarella, basil, and tomatoes. It was great!

It was a really nice weekend that just-so-happened to fall on Valentine's Day... so I guess I can say this was the best Valentine's Day I've ever had! They actually celebrate Valentine's Day here as well. It's a little backwards though - girls are expected to give chocolates or flowers to boys. Then in a month or so they have "White Day" where boys are expected to give chocolates or flowers to girls. I got Valentine's Day chocolate in the mail from my mom!... even though I am 22... almost 23... I still get excited when my mom gives me Valentine's day candy... I don't think I'll ever grow out of that either : )

So yeah, great weekend! and I'd go see Coldplay live again in a heartbeat!



This building was near our hostel... it has a road running through the middle of it!


I also wanted to mention something that happened on my way back to Yamaguchi. I was sitting on the shinkansen (bullet train) when this guy walks into the car I was in. He was in a nice suit and was really hasty in his movements. He seemed really pissed off at the world and was irritated about something. Anyway, he hastily sat down next to this guy and throws his jacket into the seat in front of him. He kept moving around trying to get comfortable or something - leaned his seat all the way back, kept putting his feat up on the seat in front of him and then would take them down. Just really angsty. Then he stood up to get ready to get off - at the Hiroshima station stop - and he spit on the floor.

I joked about meeting members of the yakuza (Japanese mafia) on the overnight ferry to Osaka back in September, but I honestly believe that he was a member of the yakuza. There was just something about him - he gave off an "I don't care about the world, I'd do anything including murder to get what I want, I'm going to be as rude as possible to everyone around me and try to act like a badass" type of vibe. It turns out he wasn't the only one on there either. As one of his buddies got off, we made eye contact and this guy seriously growled profanities at me. It was so weird! and a little creepy. I don't know much about Japanese profanities... but I do know that they don't have profanities like we do. They don't have the "f-word" or the "b-word" or the "a-word", etc etc etc. Those words just don't exist in the Japanese language. Japanese profanities would be talking down to someone or using inappropriate verb forms for people who aren't your friends... stuff like that.

There is a controversial word "gaijin" which means foreigner. Some people find it offensive because it's a shortened form of "gaikokujin"... gaijin is just one of those words that people debate whether or not somebody is trying to be offensive when they use it. It really just all depends on context. I think it's kind of like the "n-word"... black people use it with each other, but if a white person were to use it then it becomes offensive. ANYWAY, when the guy growled these profanities at me he used that word - that's how I know they were directed at me and only me. People around me just kind of looked at the guy in disgust while at the same time ignored him because he was itching for attention. The woman in my row actually bowed and apologized. I have no idea what he said since I've never studied "profanities in Japanese," but his tone was really nasty and I don't need a translator to tell me that it was offensive. It was weird.

I actually took a picture of the guy (discretely with my cell phone) that I was watching at first - the guy who spit on the floor - because I was shocked at his overall demeanour. You can only see the back of his head, but I'm going to post it for my own enjoyment. Here's a picture of the bullet train too! I was on the Nozomi which is the fastest bullet train in Japan!

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Japanese Jehovah's Witnesses

A Japanese Jehovah's witness just rang my doorbell and woke me up on my day off (it's a national holiday today). She wouldn't leave me alone even after I told her I didn't understand most of what she was saying. She did say "oh, you have a day off from work, that's nice." I didn't realize she was a Jehovah's witness at first because she was really sneaky and sly about pulling her Bible out... but I kept thinking, oh no, I think this is a Jehovah's witness because she's beating around the bush. At one point she opened it and read a passage to me... which I didn't understand at all. After I told her again "分かりません" (I don't understand), she then started asking me about marriage and if I was married.

Two male Jehovah's witnesses came to my door back when I first arrived. With them, though, I recognized that they were Jehovah's witnesses so I started out speaking English and only English and then quickly shut the door. They didn't pull their Bibles out immediately or anything, they just had that look. The 2 men and this woman creepily reminded me of how Jehovah's witnesses back home are... they act the same, look the same, etc etc etc... they're just using a different language and they're Asian instead of white... it's weird.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

HOKKAIDO!!!!! 雪祭り 2009! Snow Festival!



This past weekend I flew up to Hokkaido! It's the northern most island of Japan. I went there for the Snow Festival (yuki matsuri) in Sapporo - the capital of Hokkaido. It was really cool! The Sapporo Snow Festival was on my "list of things to do in Japan"... it was a very expensive weekend, but totally worth it and I would go again if I could! Here are tons and tons of pictures from the weekend:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Saturday I went to Otaru with my friend Nia. Otaru is a cute little town in Hokkaido famous for its canal... and other things like glass blowing. The town almost had a European feel to it. Hokkaido isn't too far from Russia... so perhaps there are some Russian influences coming out in the town. Here are pictures from Otaru:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

It was a great weekend : )

I'm glad it's finally February. January was pretty dull, boring, and cold... but most January's are. I think things are starting to pick up again though, which is good. At work yesterday this teacher came up to me and started talking about the Grammy's and music. I didn't even know the Grammy's were yesterday... but I thought it was nice of him to start a conversation with me.

Yesterday I walked into one of my classes and the students were REALLY excited that I was there. It's nice to walk into a classroom and hear students say things like "ah, it's Barbara! Yay! I'm glad." I think it's a good sign... it seems like they enjoy it when I teach them. It's also nice to hear things about how pretty I am on a regular basis. Seriously, they think I'm pretty (because I'm western) and they aren't afraid to let me know. What other job in my life will I have where I'm told nice things about myself on a regular basis and where people get super excited when I walk into the room?... I don't think I'll ever have another job like that.

Today, all afternoon classes were canceled so that the entire school could run a relay race around the school yard because it was a nice day. Random.

Tonight I'm having dinner with the women teachers from the all-boys technical school. Should be fun!