Kagami

Ok, this is the first of my "archived" blogs that I wrote when I was offline. Enjoy!

Kagami

Coke cans are smaller here. Nissan Skylines carry families rather than Rude Boys. They do have shops emblazoned with “Super Happy Time Inside!” type English. Pachinko really is as pointless as I’d thought and it’s much, much hotter than I expected.

Just a few of the things I’ve noticed since I arrived in Kagami-machi (machi=town). I’m writing this Blog entry offline 3 days after I arrived, but as the internet isn’t working I have no idea when I’ll get chance to post it up. The likelihood is that I’ll post it up in a few weeks time when everything is sorted out.

Anyway, Kagami. It’s actually quite nice. When I first arrived I was terrified that they really had stuck me in the arse end of nowhere. I was greeted at the airport by two schoolgirls waving a huge sign with “Richard – Welcome to Hikawa High School” written in large, haiku-esque lines. I greeted them with what I thought was a cheery ”Konnichiwa” and they smiled and repeated the greeting rather coyly. Hmm, thought I. They led me over to Fukuda-sensei, my supervisor for the duration of my stay who turned out to be fairly competent at English and a nice bloke to boot.

The girls and I took the bus back to Yatsushiro train station (where they’re close to completing a Shinkansen (Bullet Train) line) with Fukuda-sensei following in his Subaru. 20 minutes from Yatsushiro is Kagami and it looked bloody awful. Tiny, tiny (and I mean tiny) roads that a fat man couldn’t walk down without getting wedged complemented ramshackle farmhouses and dodgy looking dogs that seemed to live in them alone. True, the scenery is like something you’d find in the Big Book of Beautiful Mountains or World’s Greenest Landscapes (think Thin Red Line and you’re there) but the shanty town look Kagami seemed to be going for got me worried.

As it happens, Kagami isn’t like that at all. For some reason, probably for his own sense of morbid fascination, Fukuda-sensei had taken me through the back streets. The main street of Kagami is reasonable large, certainly very long. Probably about the size of Cleveleys high street but as I say, longer. Hikawa High school, where I’m based looked Ok, like any other High School in the world.

What I really want to write about are the people. Wow. This is one thing I thought the JET handbook might have been exaggerating; the so called “David Beckham” factor. As I’m in quite a small town, the all knowing handbook had warned that I may be treated…differently in Japan. Perhaps the best way to sum up the reception I got is the example of when Fukuda-sensei was giving an extracurricular English lesson yesterday (Thursday the 4th). I went along to see how the lesson worked, if not to actually help out. On my way there I casually “Konnichiwa-ed” a couple of students who turned to me in shock before suddenly bursting into laughter. Not nasty laughter though; they looked like the old archive footage of fans at the front of Beatle concerts in the 70s. It was unreal. And it got worse (or better, it still remains to be seen). We were halfway through the lesson when I noticed through the frosted windows (not actually ice you understand, I was almost melting in the heat let alone any water than my have chosen to solidify) a small crowd. As the lesson ended, what seemed like half the school poured into the room all seemingly shouting to get my attention. They’d call out “Richardo-Sensei!” (how cool is that, I’m a sensei!), I’d smile in their general direction and they’d all burst into raucous giggles. And I’m not just talking girls here, all the boys seemed to find me fascinating as well. It’s surreal to say the least but quite flattering at times.

So far the most common questions I’ve been asked (when they find time to breath between the screams) are “Do you have a girlfriend” (“Yes” “AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!”) and “What is her name?”. If Hannah is reading this you’ll no doubt be happy to know that the ones I showed a picture of you to proceeded to shout “Sexy!” for a good five minutes. Obviously these questions tend to come from the girls, the guys seem to sit they and guffaw to themselves.

The girls seem to be more communicative than the boys generally, probably because they know more English. The competence level is very low however and with most of the questions being barely recognisable I certainly have a challenge ahead of me. Fukuda-sensei, who I’ll be teaching with exclusively until April, has some very odd ideas of how to teach. He’s dragged up some ages old theory by Ogden called “Basic English.” Ogden thought that all concepts in English could be expressed using 850 words and for some insane reason Fukuda-sensei thinks this is the way to teach his class. As far as I know, Ogden’s theory wasn’t very well received when he made it God knows how many decades ago so why we should be teaching it to Japanese children is unknown. He actually wants to drill the 850 words into the student’s heads…In my opinion that’s madness, the little enthusiasm they have for English lessons would go out of the window. Oh well, I’ll have to try and work him around.

As I said, not much is working here in my apartment at the moment. My laptop is up and running, and the power converters I bought work. The new TV (which is huge) isn’t tuned in, and the satellite channels and internet need to be reconnected. Apparently I can’t use the car until my Inkan (a Japanese ink seal used instead of a signature) is registered and until the insurance is reregistered with the teachers union they have down here. Hopefully I’m off to set up a bank account today, having already applied for an Alien Registration card. I’m also hoping to get a Multiple Re-entry pass, a card that allows me to leave Japan as many times as I like during my possible 3 year stay. I got this mainly for vacations to Korea and Hong Kong, but it also works if I want to come home. It costs 6000yen (£30) but lasts for as long as my Visa does.

The apartment itself is larger than I thought, with three large-ish rooms and a smaller kitchen and bathroom (and a separate toilet). Two of the rooms are tatami matted (straw mats used for sitting), one is the bedroom and the other seems to be a spare which is odd as it’s the largest. The living room has the all important air-conditioning unit within, as well as the TV and a small couch.

Natasha, my predecessor has left me absolutely loads of stuff, some useful and some not. For example, I have every spice known to man, but also a scratching post for a cat. A hand-drawn map of Kagami and a big box labelled “Xmas stuff”. Some laptop speakers (very handy), but also the complete Ultimate Fighting Championship: World Series on VHS. Anyway, there’s more than enough space to put everything. Infact, I seem to have an excess of storage space; I found a door today I had previously missed that contained a whole other cupboard (and for some reason, a skateboard).

It does still feel like I’m living in someone else’s house at the moment. Natasha has left her JET calendar up and almost everyday has something pencilled in that she should have been doing, as I said the myriad of cupboards are still filled with a lot of her stuff, a small collection of the worst taste in CD’s I’ve ever seen lies in the living room, and various Canada related artefacts are placed in full view. I will try and unpack today (it’s now Saturday the 6th as I write this) but I have to go to the school to phone the local JET reps (well, I don’t have to but they’re organising a party at for this weekend and I couldn’t get through yesterday).

Pictures (click to see a bigger version)!


My apartment block, containing 4 apartos. Mine is actually offscreen, it's the upper right one. And yes, that's my car.


The main high street of Kagami. Quiet.


A festival in Yatsushiro City, the nearest urban centre. These are very popular and this one involved these poor people dancing for about an hour to 3 repeated songs...


My "Inkan" or personal seal, used in place of a signature. It actually says Godwin in the Japanese Katakana alphabet.


Had to put this one in last. That's me, obviously, looking quizzically at a can of "British Style" iced milk tea. Surprisingly nice.