Whatever sensor has been planted in my apartment to cause people to drop by at inconvenient times apparently kicked into action tonight as I was in the shower. The doorbell rings one time, and I imagine it must be a package or some such thing. I thought they would leave it by the door and leave me be. Immediately after my shower, still dripping wet, I crack the door to see what the mailman left me. Nothing. 5 minutes later, however, the collection guy from NHK comes by.
NHK, for those of you who don't keep up on Japanese TV, is basically the media company with a massive monopoly on Japanese television. It has an agreement set up wherein the owner of any TV hooked up to NHK must pay a set fee for the service they receive, in which case they may watch as much TV as they want.
However, I do not watch TV. It's sole purpose in my life is to elevate a small bromiliad above the rest of the room. I also recently borrowed a DVD player, so that gets some use as well. One thing that I never do, ever, is watch TV here.
I told the man something to this effect, and he looked puzzled (part of his puzzlement might be that I was declining to pay a mandatory fee- for a service I have never requested...but he didn't know that). He asked me, (still wet-ish and wearing a yukata) whether or not my TV was broken. I told him it was not. I made helpful gestures to indicate that the power cable was pulled out. He looked terribly bemused- I was strongly reminded of Ray Bradbury's The Pedestrian (click here to read)- I also tried to explain that I mostly just read, which didn't seem to help his bemusement any. Eventually, he got the idea that I wasn't going to pay, and bade me good evening.
I'd feel bad about not paying the mandatory fee, except that:
A) I don't watch any TV, ever, and
B) I already have nice, expensive internet, which is ridden with frequent service outages and unexplainable slow-ups. If I were paying the same amount for internet in the U.S., it the service package would probably come with a toga-clad girl to feed me grapes while I surfed, such are the fees. As it is, I'm already over-charged for my crappy internet, and I'm not going to give NHK my money- if they want to cut off my service, then I will cheerfully not notice while my TV (still!) sits dead and silent in the corner.
Tuesday, February 24, 2009
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
Surf 'N Turf
Here's a nice photo-heavy post for everyone!
About two weeks ago on Sunday, I and two other ALTs went on a small quest to find a snow festival in the mountains. We started off up the coast, stopping frequently along the way, and then looped back around into the mountains, and on back to Murakami.
We started out on highway 113, or something like that (I forget exactly)- which winds along what is widely considered to be some of the most beautiful coastline around. If you'll recall a long-ago post about a place called Sanpoku, this is the coast in that same area.
Here are some shots of the coastline in a general kind of way. The mountains come more or less right down to the surf, resulting in spectacular rocky crags. This particular day also had high winds- resulting in a pleasing oceanic roar, and intermittent clouds, which are always nice for effect.
A few crepuscular rays also seldom go wrong. Also note the concrete dolosse, which are everywhere around here. Tragically, as a result of Japan's enormous socialized construction budget, the need for construction jobs has led to 60% of Japan's entire coast being encased in concrete in some way or another (according to Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan). Dolosse are also widely employed.
Here's one of my ALT friends taking a pic of it all:
Around the same place is a shrine perched atop rocky outcropping- like so:
This shrine is unusual in that you can actually the see the kami (神-patron spirit/god/God) housed within. Most shrines have a series of progressively more pure and sacred layers on the way into the kami's abode (for you Old Testament junkies out there- the design for the Jerusalem temple is a good analogue), but in this one He/She/It is just looking out at you from He/She/It's stone house (can you spot the deity in this photograph?):
The shrine was also unusual in that it stood atop a precarious rocky footpath, subject to occasional blasts from the waves. We were only able to stay for a short time, because the tide was coming in.
I couldn't dredge up any information on salamander mythology in Japan (information is difficult to pin down for Shinto as a whole- to say nothing of its regional permutations), but I thought it was interesting that one term for salamander in Japanese is 火蜥蜴, or "fire lizard." I had previously thought that the association of salamanders with fire was primarily a Western one, but apparently they picked up on it to some extent in Japan. I want to do some more snooping about salamanders and their mythological associations in Japan- I'll get back to you all when I find something to report.
The next point of interest we encountered was a small fishing town with its fleet in-harbor, all overshadowed by a pillar of rock:
I also thought it was neat that the fishing fleet were all equipped with out-sized incandescent bulbs, presumably to attract fish at night. The whole scene, between rock pillar and boats, was fun to explore- but I get the impression that not much goes on there. I did get some human interaction in the way of two shougakkou girls looking at me in alarm as I passed them with my camera, but that was about it.
From there the highway turns inland, and we swung back around into the mountains heading south. We were becoming progressively more pessimistic about ever finding the snow festival, when suddenly we saw
Hurray!
Then there was also
Some industrious someone even made a Doraemon:
For those of you who don't want to read the whole Wiki article- America has Mickey Mouse with his big buttons as its most widely known cartoon character (although that may be more outdated now...); while Japan has a 40 kilogram blue robot cat that can pull gadgets from the future out of his front pocket- Doraemon. I think this goes a long way to demonstrate some of the cultural differences between Japan and America...
While I'm on cultural differences and snow festivals- here's another little fact- Japanese snowmen are made with one large and one small snowball, instead of a graduated sequence of three like in America (for example: see the snowman at the end of the previous post).
The streets of the town (北中町- Kitanaka-machi- north middle town), were generally lined with snowmen up until a field at the southern end, which was a complete yukidaruma colony:
The whole thing was made complete with a now chapel at the head of the village:
The ALT in the foreground on the right told me that the chapel could also serve as an actual chapel- apparently a couple got married there last year.
After leaving the snow festival, it was all just driving down through the mountains to get back to Murakami, and then getting dinner at a kaiten sushi joint (surf 'n turf 'n surf?). That's all for now- this weekend I'm going to the Tokamachi snow festival, which is supposed to be one of the better snow festivals around, so I'll see how that compares. Until then!
About two weeks ago on Sunday, I and two other ALTs went on a small quest to find a snow festival in the mountains. We started off up the coast, stopping frequently along the way, and then looped back around into the mountains, and on back to Murakami.
We started out on highway 113, or something like that (I forget exactly)- which winds along what is widely considered to be some of the most beautiful coastline around. If you'll recall a long-ago post about a place called Sanpoku, this is the coast in that same area.
Here are some shots of the coastline in a general kind of way. The mountains come more or less right down to the surf, resulting in spectacular rocky crags. This particular day also had high winds- resulting in a pleasing oceanic roar, and intermittent clouds, which are always nice for effect.
A few crepuscular rays also seldom go wrong. Also note the concrete dolosse, which are everywhere around here. Tragically, as a result of Japan's enormous socialized construction budget, the need for construction jobs has led to 60% of Japan's entire coast being encased in concrete in some way or another (according to Dogs and Demons: The Fall of Modern Japan). Dolosse are also widely employed.
Here's one of my ALT friends taking a pic of it all:
Around the same place is a shrine perched atop rocky outcropping- like so:
This shrine is unusual in that you can actually the see the kami (神-patron spirit/god/God) housed within. Most shrines have a series of progressively more pure and sacred layers on the way into the kami's abode (for you Old Testament junkies out there- the design for the Jerusalem temple is a good analogue), but in this one He/She/It is just looking out at you from He/She/It's stone house (can you spot the deity in this photograph?):
The shrine was also unusual in that it stood atop a precarious rocky footpath, subject to occasional blasts from the waves. We were only able to stay for a short time, because the tide was coming in.
I couldn't dredge up any information on salamander mythology in Japan (information is difficult to pin down for Shinto as a whole- to say nothing of its regional permutations), but I thought it was interesting that one term for salamander in Japanese is 火蜥蜴, or "fire lizard." I had previously thought that the association of salamanders with fire was primarily a Western one, but apparently they picked up on it to some extent in Japan. I want to do some more snooping about salamanders and their mythological associations in Japan- I'll get back to you all when I find something to report.
The next point of interest we encountered was a small fishing town with its fleet in-harbor, all overshadowed by a pillar of rock:
I also thought it was neat that the fishing fleet were all equipped with out-sized incandescent bulbs, presumably to attract fish at night. The whole scene, between rock pillar and boats, was fun to explore- but I get the impression that not much goes on there. I did get some human interaction in the way of two shougakkou girls looking at me in alarm as I passed them with my camera, but that was about it.
From there the highway turns inland, and we swung back around into the mountains heading south. We were becoming progressively more pessimistic about ever finding the snow festival, when suddenly we saw
Hurray!
Then there was also
Some industrious someone even made a Doraemon:
For those of you who don't want to read the whole Wiki article- America has Mickey Mouse with his big buttons as its most widely known cartoon character (although that may be more outdated now...); while Japan has a 40 kilogram blue robot cat that can pull gadgets from the future out of his front pocket- Doraemon. I think this goes a long way to demonstrate some of the cultural differences between Japan and America...
While I'm on cultural differences and snow festivals- here's another little fact- Japanese snowmen are made with one large and one small snowball, instead of a graduated sequence of three like in America (for example: see the snowman at the end of the previous post).
The streets of the town (北中町- Kitanaka-machi- north middle town), were generally lined with snowmen up until a field at the southern end, which was a complete yukidaruma colony:
The whole thing was made complete with a now chapel at the head of the village:
The ALT in the foreground on the right told me that the chapel could also serve as an actual chapel- apparently a couple got married there last year.
After leaving the snow festival, it was all just driving down through the mountains to get back to Murakami, and then getting dinner at a kaiten sushi joint (surf 'n turf 'n surf?). That's all for now- this weekend I'm going to the Tokamachi snow festival, which is supposed to be one of the better snow festivals around, so I'll see how that compares. Until then!
Monday, February 16, 2009
The Final Word
Not that I follow a set agenda or anything here, but some of you may have noticed that my posts have been a bit spotty(er) recently. This has been because I've been grappling with the decision of whether to remain in this job of mine another year, or to move onto the next thing...whatever that is.
So, now that my board of education knows, I can tell anyone else who wants to know that I've decided to only remain to the end of one year, at the end of July. This is probably the hardest decision I've had to make in a long time, and I won't go into the particulars here- suffice to say that it has been a very emotionally draining two weeks, and I haven't had the gumption to blog about anything else.
However, now I have made my decision and am more or less at peace with it (which is just as well, since it's irreversible anyhow...), and I'll be able to return to all my normal life activities with much vim and vigor- blogging included.
I would also like to add that living in Japan, even if only for a year, is probably the best decision I ever made for myself, and I'm still looking forward to my remaining 5.5 months(ish) of JET. Living in Japan has affected a change upon me that I feel on a visceral level, and it's not a kind of experience I have really had before- even in the transition into college. It's a different sensation from what one might feel, upon setting down a hard-bound ponderosity from a used-book shop, and turning to one's neighbor and declaring "That was jolly well illuminating."
Whatever comes of this in the future- I'd recommend the whole teaching abroad shtick, it's pretty amazing (I'm assuming results would be similar outside of Japan as well).
In the midst of everything, I have been keeping notes and taking pictures yet- this guy can keep you company until I have the time to put up some proper posts:
So, now that my board of education knows, I can tell anyone else who wants to know that I've decided to only remain to the end of one year, at the end of July. This is probably the hardest decision I've had to make in a long time, and I won't go into the particulars here- suffice to say that it has been a very emotionally draining two weeks, and I haven't had the gumption to blog about anything else.
However, now I have made my decision and am more or less at peace with it (which is just as well, since it's irreversible anyhow...), and I'll be able to return to all my normal life activities with much vim and vigor- blogging included.
I would also like to add that living in Japan, even if only for a year, is probably the best decision I ever made for myself, and I'm still looking forward to my remaining 5.5 months(ish) of JET. Living in Japan has affected a change upon me that I feel on a visceral level, and it's not a kind of experience I have really had before- even in the transition into college. It's a different sensation from what one might feel, upon setting down a hard-bound ponderosity from a used-book shop, and turning to one's neighbor and declaring "That was jolly well illuminating."
Whatever comes of this in the future- I'd recommend the whole teaching abroad shtick, it's pretty amazing (I'm assuming results would be similar outside of Japan as well).
In the midst of everything, I have been keeping notes and taking pictures yet- this guy can keep you company until I have the time to put up some proper posts:
Tuesday, January 27, 2009
Rolling Along
Winter, work, and life in general seem to be rolling along at a decent clip here. I wanted to post some pictures, and maybe rant a bit about English education in Japan. First- the pics (you may recognize the coast here- most pics that I take of the coast are from a favorite lookout location I stumbled upon exploring earlier in the year)-
This is just looking out at the waves. It was pretty cold when this picture was taken- some sort of storm system was on its way in.
The wind was whipping the waves up impressively- it also courteously closed my car door behind me after I was done photographing. While I was photographing, I was periodically blasted with sea spray a good hundred feet away from the breakers.
That's that for ocean pictures. As for the education bit- I went to a mandatory conference about educational techniques at the prefectural education center. It proved to be an informative if not interesting experience, and I took a lot away from it.
The last speaker, however, managed to inadvertently answer some questions that I'd had for a while- mainly- why do they bother teaching English in Japan? He had a nifty set of Powerpoint slides to illustrate his ideas, which he explained in a voice that could have put a lightning bolt to sleep. The gist was that the reason English is taught should not be for university exams, but for ultimate cross-cultural understanding. This seemed like a nice, enlightened answer to me, except for the glaring problems that (a) all the textbooks here are geared towards the exams (he had helped to revise the curriculum before), and (b) there are no foreigners here with whom to interact. Part of this problem has been solved by "Importing Diversity" (also a book by the same title about the JET program) with ALTs like myself, but the fact of the matter is that there just aren't enough English speakers to go around here. I'm also finally coming around to the conclusion that it's not (as much as I dislike it sometimes) the Ministry of Education's fault (entirely anyhow...)- Japan simply a country that historically and presently has implemented policies ranging from conservative to xenophobic. It is a very difficult place to get a foothold as a foreigner, and a more difficult one stay and live meaningfully. I have personally had good experiences (mostly) with the Japanese, especially my wonderfully culture-clueless students, but I've also experienced the other side, and many ALTs have seen much worse of it than I. I'll go ahead and submit- until Japan lightens up on its official attitude of turning resident aliens into red-tape-mummies, Japan will not become an international country. No amount of imported JETs, teaching one lesson a week to each class (sometimes not even that), are going to cause the massive paradigmatic shift that more progressive Japanese who implemented programs like JET are looking for. Alas.
Anyhow, ranting and so on aside, I'm doing very nicely right now, and will probably be hitting the slopes this weekend. I think I'm going to try my hand at snowboarding, not because I don't love skiing- but I want to try something new out. Pics of the slopes and any good bruises I get will be forthcoming.
This is just looking out at the waves. It was pretty cold when this picture was taken- some sort of storm system was on its way in.
The wind was whipping the waves up impressively- it also courteously closed my car door behind me after I was done photographing. While I was photographing, I was periodically blasted with sea spray a good hundred feet away from the breakers.
That's that for ocean pictures. As for the education bit- I went to a mandatory conference about educational techniques at the prefectural education center. It proved to be an informative if not interesting experience, and I took a lot away from it.
The last speaker, however, managed to inadvertently answer some questions that I'd had for a while- mainly- why do they bother teaching English in Japan? He had a nifty set of Powerpoint slides to illustrate his ideas, which he explained in a voice that could have put a lightning bolt to sleep. The gist was that the reason English is taught should not be for university exams, but for ultimate cross-cultural understanding. This seemed like a nice, enlightened answer to me, except for the glaring problems that (a) all the textbooks here are geared towards the exams (he had helped to revise the curriculum before), and (b) there are no foreigners here with whom to interact. Part of this problem has been solved by "Importing Diversity" (also a book by the same title about the JET program) with ALTs like myself, but the fact of the matter is that there just aren't enough English speakers to go around here. I'm also finally coming around to the conclusion that it's not (as much as I dislike it sometimes) the Ministry of Education's fault (entirely anyhow...)- Japan simply a country that historically and presently has implemented policies ranging from conservative to xenophobic. It is a very difficult place to get a foothold as a foreigner, and a more difficult one stay and live meaningfully. I have personally had good experiences (mostly) with the Japanese, especially my wonderfully culture-clueless students, but I've also experienced the other side, and many ALTs have seen much worse of it than I. I'll go ahead and submit- until Japan lightens up on its official attitude of turning resident aliens into red-tape-mummies, Japan will not become an international country. No amount of imported JETs, teaching one lesson a week to each class (sometimes not even that), are going to cause the massive paradigmatic shift that more progressive Japanese who implemented programs like JET are looking for. Alas.
Anyhow, ranting and so on aside, I'm doing very nicely right now, and will probably be hitting the slopes this weekend. I think I'm going to try my hand at snowboarding, not because I don't love skiing- but I want to try something new out. Pics of the slopes and any good bruises I get will be forthcoming.
Wednesday, January 14, 2009
Everyone loves Japan in January: addendum.
On a somewhat morbid whim (and before I post more- I assure you all that while I`m not always thrilled with everything here, psychologically I`m chugging along nicely- and when I get blue, I play Mariokart)- I discovered that there are now fewer than 54 words for suicide in Japanese. 54. That`s not including phrases, like "off oneself." You could write a seriously morbid haiku anthology with nothing but synonyms for suicide. Lest it slip my mind in some later post- I`ll say it now Japanese society puts a lot of pressure on people, and has for a very long time. It`s one of the things about Japan that takes getting used to- how stressed out people seem to be on any given day. It`s also comforting in a twisted kind of way- when I`m feeling stressed, I know that, if the language is any indicator, my experience is not unique.
Tuesday, January 13, 2009
OK, call me puerile...
This is just a quick tidbit- but I thought I`d share.
One of the vocab points that my chugakko ichinensei (6th graders in America) are learning is the interogative "how many?". At the bottom of a worksheet practicing prepositions, this grammar point was reviewed- asking (in referrence to a picture of a messy room, with a soccer and tennis ball on the floor) "How many balls does Mike have?" The answer, of course, was "He has 2 balls." OK ball humor, ha ha ha, we can move past this, yes? However, the teacher decided we should practice this point several times, in a fairly excited and sing-songy voice, and had all the students repeat it after me several times as well. The complete deadpan incomprehension of both the students and the teacher compounded the hilarity of the double entendre, until I was furiously nawing on whatever nerve-endings I could find in my mouth so as to keep a straight face. Class ended, all went fine. I`m debating whether or not to advise the teacher about it (I`ll certainly not be telling the students).
One of the vocab points that my chugakko ichinensei (6th graders in America) are learning is the interogative "how many?". At the bottom of a worksheet practicing prepositions, this grammar point was reviewed- asking (in referrence to a picture of a messy room, with a soccer and tennis ball on the floor) "How many balls does Mike have?" The answer, of course, was "He has 2 balls." OK ball humor, ha ha ha, we can move past this, yes? However, the teacher decided we should practice this point several times, in a fairly excited and sing-songy voice, and had all the students repeat it after me several times as well. The complete deadpan incomprehension of both the students and the teacher compounded the hilarity of the double entendre, until I was furiously nawing on whatever nerve-endings I could find in my mouth so as to keep a straight face. Class ended, all went fine. I`m debating whether or not to advise the teacher about it (I`ll certainly not be telling the students).
Monday, January 12, 2009
Snow in earnest, misc. interactions.
For those of you that managed to finish that last post- "otsukarasamadeshita" as we say in Japan (thankyou for your hard work). If you couldn't even make it 0.25 of the way through- that's just fine- but make sure and check out the pictures (if you want to see some famous places in Tokyo- if not, well, don't look)
First of all- here's a pic of what I deem to be the first "serious" snow storm here. The other one was enough of a hodge-podge of ice and hail and snow that it didn't really count, and it all melted quickly anyhow. This latest system has more of a permanent feeling- we're due for snow all week, and the temperature is staying pretty low. This pic was taken out the window of my larger shogakko- you can see some of the children's yukidaruma (snowmen) scattered about the field.
Also, midwinter is that lovely time of year when we ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) get to contemplate culture shock, and all the fun that goes with it. Some of my fellow JET's Google chat statuses read as follows: "in hell," "(name) is not having a good day," "a little bit homesick," "also a little bit homesick." January, in a prefecture that gets more precipitation than the Pacific Northwest, is not a cheery time. I also noted that my frustration with certain Japanese cultural tendencies, which before had seemed merely curious or even endearing, has been coming more easily and dissipating more slowly. I don't think that my social interactions are getting worse, though- if anything my teachers, and certainly my students, are much more comfortable with me than before. Out of curiosity- I thought I would take some snapshots of two of my social interactions with random Nihonjin- and see what the slant was (if there was one).
Interaction the first: A random older fellow who, far from exhibiting the usual Japanese shyness, talked my ear off for the better part of a train ride back from Niigata. Among our subjects were him trying to get ahold of my contact info with impressive tenacity (I stonewalled him by saying I was "sugoi awasenpoi" - incredibly forgetful, and couldn't even recall my own address or phone number- which was half-true anyhow). He also intoned that while he wanted to travel, he thought that the world was crawling with terrorists. "What about Australia?" said I. "Surely Australia is safe." He wasn't convinced. (after this, out of curiosity- I did a Google news search on terrorism in Australia. There weren't any articles about it beyond Australian troops helping in the so-labeled "War on Terror," and the only info I've ever seen about a terrorist group operating in Australia was about
Aum Shinrikyo, Japanese terrorist doomsday cult which happened to own some land in the Australian outback.) For all his terror fears he was very nice to me, however- to the point where I had to feign a little ignorance of Japanese (not that difficult usually anyhow) in order to not give him my phone number, email, hat size, and list of favorite spelunking places, mink farms, etc.
Interaction the Second: I went to Starbucks at the Shibata mall to get away from the solitude of my apartment, and was sipping my chai late when a smallish (not older than 7) child pointed at me (considered rude) and said "gaikokujin" (a respectful term for a foreigner). On the spur of the moment, I decided to be good humored and not offended- and was rewarded by waves and smiles from both of the family's kids (very cute) and bows from both of the parents. I'm guessing he just pointed because he was a kid and didn't know any better- and seeing me seemed to be the most exciting thing that had happened all day. I chalked it up to a good if brief moment for international relations.
On the whole- these are pretty telling. People respond to me with curiosity, awkwardness, and sometimes mild fear, but are generally happy to get to know me once some of the ice has been broken. I still feel very much the outsider- but generally speaking, a welcome one. At the same time, well, I miss English, coffee shops, family, friends, the Rocky Mountains- so we shall see.
All this and much more will need to be weighed as I consider another year of employment in Japan, or not (China's pretty cool too you know...).
First of all- here's a pic of what I deem to be the first "serious" snow storm here. The other one was enough of a hodge-podge of ice and hail and snow that it didn't really count, and it all melted quickly anyhow. This latest system has more of a permanent feeling- we're due for snow all week, and the temperature is staying pretty low. This pic was taken out the window of my larger shogakko- you can see some of the children's yukidaruma (snowmen) scattered about the field.
Also, midwinter is that lovely time of year when we ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) get to contemplate culture shock, and all the fun that goes with it. Some of my fellow JET's Google chat statuses read as follows: "in hell," "(name) is not having a good day," "a little bit homesick," "also a little bit homesick." January, in a prefecture that gets more precipitation than the Pacific Northwest, is not a cheery time. I also noted that my frustration with certain Japanese cultural tendencies, which before had seemed merely curious or even endearing, has been coming more easily and dissipating more slowly. I don't think that my social interactions are getting worse, though- if anything my teachers, and certainly my students, are much more comfortable with me than before. Out of curiosity- I thought I would take some snapshots of two of my social interactions with random Nihonjin- and see what the slant was (if there was one).
Interaction the first: A random older fellow who, far from exhibiting the usual Japanese shyness, talked my ear off for the better part of a train ride back from Niigata. Among our subjects were him trying to get ahold of my contact info with impressive tenacity (I stonewalled him by saying I was "sugoi awasenpoi" - incredibly forgetful, and couldn't even recall my own address or phone number- which was half-true anyhow). He also intoned that while he wanted to travel, he thought that the world was crawling with terrorists. "What about Australia?" said I. "Surely Australia is safe." He wasn't convinced. (after this, out of curiosity- I did a Google news search on terrorism in Australia. There weren't any articles about it beyond Australian troops helping in the so-labeled "War on Terror," and the only info I've ever seen about a terrorist group operating in Australia was about
Aum Shinrikyo, Japanese terrorist doomsday cult which happened to own some land in the Australian outback.) For all his terror fears he was very nice to me, however- to the point where I had to feign a little ignorance of Japanese (not that difficult usually anyhow) in order to not give him my phone number, email, hat size, and list of favorite spelunking places, mink farms, etc.
Interaction the Second: I went to Starbucks at the Shibata mall to get away from the solitude of my apartment, and was sipping my chai late when a smallish (not older than 7) child pointed at me (considered rude) and said "gaikokujin" (a respectful term for a foreigner). On the spur of the moment, I decided to be good humored and not offended- and was rewarded by waves and smiles from both of the family's kids (very cute) and bows from both of the parents. I'm guessing he just pointed because he was a kid and didn't know any better- and seeing me seemed to be the most exciting thing that had happened all day. I chalked it up to a good if brief moment for international relations.
On the whole- these are pretty telling. People respond to me with curiosity, awkwardness, and sometimes mild fear, but are generally happy to get to know me once some of the ice has been broken. I still feel very much the outsider- but generally speaking, a welcome one. At the same time, well, I miss English, coffee shops, family, friends, the Rocky Mountains- so we shall see.
All this and much more will need to be weighed as I consider another year of employment in Japan, or not (China's pretty cool too you know...).
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