Ping Pong!

Saturday, Jan. 17th was a Ping Pong Tournament for all of the junior high school teachers in Kanazawa. I had been invited by my main school to play with them in early December. I love ping pong so was pretty excited about it. When I was growing up we had a sort of ping pong table in our basement. It was a piece of slightly warped plywood on top of an old kitchen table with a net. It wasn’t ‘official’ by any means, but it was good enough for us! We’d play for hours at a time. I never got very good at it though and it had been quite awhile since I’d even played, so I thought I better practice up before the big tournament.

The teachers held a few practices but I wasn’t able to go to them. To try and improve my game so I wouldn’t shame the school, I decided to drop in on our table tennis team during their practice. Yes, we have a table tennis team at school – it’s an official club activity here. For some reason there’s a boy’s team but not a girl’s team. When I went to practice for the first time, I caused quite a commotion. A lot of the time, practices are run by the students themselves, a coach isn't even there. The boys didn’t really know what to do with me when I showed up and were a bit freaked out. There was a lot of group consultation and gesturing until I was finally directed to the boy in charge. He immediately put one of my 7th graders who’s really good at English in a headlock and directed him to translate for the entire practice. They helped me with my forehand and backhand and serve and showed me a couple other ways to hit the ball. I could tell they were a bit frustrated at times because they didn’t have the vocab to explain to me what I needed to be doing. It was still fun though. The other boys would come over to see how I was doing and other sports teams would wander into the gym and be completely amazed to see me there. They’d shout my name and an encouraging “Ganbatte!” which seems to translate into something like “Go, Fight, Win” and/or “Good Luck”.

The second practice I went to was even more fun since the students were more comfortable with me there. We did a little refresher on my hits? swings? (I don’t know what to call it in table tennis), then spent over an hour playing doubles. The students, mostly my 7th graders, would take turns playing with me but my little translator played at my table the whole time. Most of my 7th graders that are in the table tennis club are really small but they can really slam that ping pong ball! It was a bit scary at times – thank goodness I was wearing my glasses for eye protection! They were so funny – always making “intimidating” faces at each other and apologizing for missing the ball. They even let me win one game! I’m pretty sure they felt sorry for me and lost on purpose.

On tournament day, the Ishikawa Sports Center was packed with teachers and tables. I was really nervous, especially as almost all the teachers had matching sportswear (except for that one in the monkey costume - can you spot the monkey?) and I was in jeans. I felt a bit underdressed, and a bit foreign, as there were only three other ALTs there. I was slated to play women’s doubles on my school’s C Team (C for crappy). We also had a B Team (B for better) and A Team (A for awesome). (Also, I like calling it A Team instead of Team A because I really used to love that TV show!!!) Anyway, all my practicing paid off! My partner (one of my JTEs who's 23 and really fun) and I won our first match! Since the majority of C Team won our matches, we got to play another school. B Team fought hard but lost against their first school. Unfortunately, although my partner and I completely obliterated our next opponents (maybe a slight exaggeration), the rest of C Team didn’t fare so well, so we were out.

Round after round, A Team kept slamming the ping pong into their opponents’ faces. The gym slowly cleared out as schools lost and went home, but A Team just kept going. The rest of us were trying not to have heart attacks as we nervously cheered them on. And then, three hours after it started, the tournament was over. A Team won the whole thing! It was so exciting!!! There was a small ceremony and we got a cool trophy!! I had “We are the Champions” in my head for the rest of the day.

The fun didn’t end with the tournament though! That night I had my first enkai with my main school to celebrate the ping pong tournament and our victory. There was so much great food and drink and almost all the teachers came (about 40 of them). Some of the food was a bit strange looking, but I managed to choke it down, the whole time exclaiming how “oishii” (delicious) it was. The majority of it was pretty tasty, there were just a few things that I had a hard time with (some sashimi and something unidentifiable that was really chewy). It was also nice to get a chance to talk to the teachers in a more social setting than school. Quite a few teachers that had never talked to me before had small conversations with me and they’ve been friendlier at school ever since. Many teachers had quite a bit to drink, too, which I suppose made them braver with their English.

After dinner, about ten of us stumbled to karaoke for more snacks and drinks. One of the teachers made me sing Billy Joel with him, another rocked out to the Backstreet Boys, and everybody danced to the YMCA song. Most of the other songs were in Japanese but I still had a great time! After two hours of singing, there were about five remaining teachers that went for late-night ramen. I honestly don’t know how they were able to fit it in after all of the other food! I stayed at karaoke for another hour or so. Don’t worry though, I wasn’t singing alone. A bunch of my friends were there in another room for a going-away party for a Japanese friend.

I love ping pong, but I think I love karaoke just a little bit more!

Kyoto-sensei, My Kyoto-sensei

Kyoto-sensei means Vice Principal and Kocho-sensei is Principal. I’m lucky to have very kind administrators at all three schools that I’m at. I can’t say how effective they are at their jobs, what with my lack of Japanese language and culture, but I like to think that they do a pretty great job. I also don’t really know their names… they’re just referred to by their titles.

The Kocho-senseis sit at desks next to the Kyoto-senseis in the teacher’s room for the morning meetings, then retreat to their separate offices for most of the day. Mountain school Kocho-sensei is a woman, which is pretty rare from what I hear. She’s so nice and always handing out omiyage (souvenirs – usually small desserts) from business trips she’s been on and gave me some really nice chopsticks at the first enkai I went to. Monday school Kocho-sensei only ever spoke to me at the enkai we had but he’s a nice, older man who’s looking forward to retirement next year. He was also very pleased that I complimented his English as someone had told him once that he spoke English like a Russian, which he took to mean poorly. Main school Kocho-sensei used to be a really great volleyball coach. He always wishes me a good morning when we meet each other as I’m walking onto school grounds and he’s going to lock the school gate I just went through.

Kyoto-senseis all sit at desks in the middle of the teacher’s room so they have a good view of everything that’s going on. It’s a bit disconcerting as my desk is pretty close to them at every school. My mountain school has two Kyoto-senseis as the elementary and junior high are combined. They are both jolly and can speak English well. At the last enkai we had, one of them told me he loved me and wanted me to stay in Japan forever. The other one left for awhile to go play Pachinko, then came back with his winnings to help pay for the enkai, so it was free for me! I’m not sure my Monday school Kyoto-sensei speaks much, if any, English as he hasn’t really spoken to me. He seems like a nice guy from what I can tell with his interactions with other teachers and students though.

Someone told me that Kyoto-senseis are the busiest people at the school, but I’m not sure what all that entails. I’ve had the most chance to observe Kyoto-sensei at my main school. He will usually run the morning meetings. The rest of the day he spends on his computer at his desk. Occasionally, he’ll yell out someone’s name and they’ll yell back “Hai” from wherever they are, sometimes from out in the hallway or the adjoining room where the school secretaries are. If they don’t hear him the first time, he’ll just keep yelling their name until they respond, then they’ll have a conversation. Sometimes, he’ll get up and wander around the room, peering over people’s shoulders to see what they’re up to and commenting, even if they’re just eating lunch. It doesn’t ever seem to be in an annoying or an ‘I’m trying to catch you doing something bad’ sort of way although I found it a bit off-putting at first. He also sweeps the teachers’ room every day during school cleaning time.

Kyoto-sensei likes to practice his English so he’s always coming over and explaining things to me, like the schedule changes and so on, which is helpful as my teachers are sometimes too busy to do so. He’s pretty funny, too and likes to joke around with me and the other teachers. He’s the one who told me this summer that “You sweat much,” but I’ve totally forgiven him for that. I’m sure he didn’t realize it wasn’t the nicest thing to say.

The day I left for my winter vacation, he completely saved the day for me. At lunchtime, I realized that I didn’t have my cell phone. I had checked the time on it while I was walking/running to the train station in the morning, so I knew it wasn’t at home, but I couldn’t find it anywhere. He had overheard me asking my JTE if they had a lost and found at the train station and came over to investigate. He asked me a few questions about where I thought it might be and started making phone calls. He called my phone to see if someone would pick It up (it rang, but no one did) and then he called both train stations (where I get on and where I get off) to see if someone had turned it in. He decided we needed to retrace my steps so he walked all the way to the train station with me, in the rain, to see if we could find it along the path. No luck. He then spoke to the station attendant to see if it was there and got him to let us search the platform and tracks. Once again, no luck. On our way back to school, he told me to leave school early and take the next train back into Kanazawa so I could continue to look for it. I packed up my stuff and headed out into the even heavier rain back to the train station. I was pretty dejected at that point, seeing that there was a very slim chance of ever finding my phone, and if I did, it was probably in a puddle somewhere, completely ruined. Then, it started to hail.

I was a few steps away from the station when I heard someone shouting, “Jackie-san! Jackie-san!” from behind me. It was Kyoto-sensei. He had run all the way from the school to catch me. The police station near my apartment had called to let him know that someone had found my phone and turned it in. They got the school’s number from when he had called my phone. He offered to drive me to the police station to help me fill out the paperwork, but then asked one of the English teachers, who normally takes the train anyway, to leave school early to go with me as he was too busy. Kyoto-sensei told me he was a little sorry he couldn’t go with me though, which I thought was pretty sweet.

With my teacher’s help I filled out a few forms at the police station and got my phone back. It was so nice of him and of Kyoto-sensei to go to so much trouble for me. I was also amazed by the fact that someone actually turned in my cell phone in the first place! In any other country, 9 times out of 10, I’m sure it would have been stolen. That’s a nice thing about Japan, about the only thing that ever gets stolen is the occasional bicycle. I’ve heard stories of people leaving keys, wallets, and bags at restaurants , in stores, on trains, etc. and they’ve all been found with all money, cards and passports still inside! Makes me feel pretty lucky to be in such a safe country and work with such great people!

Home Again, But Not Really

I’ve decided that the most difficult time for me to be living in Japan is when I return from any sort of trip, even if it’s just a short weekend trip. I just returned from my two week vacation in Vietnam and Hong Kong. I had a fantastic time, but I was looking forward to being back. Back to a country where I didn’t have to worry about my belongings being stolen, back to a place where I could safely drink the water, back to a place where I could do laundry and where I had a varied wardrobe, back to the familiar. Although Kanazawa has all that, I’ve found that it’s not quite enough yet.

Most of the time I love it here, but the past few days have been a bit rough. It may be the slight cold I got from Japan as a welcome back gift. It may have something to do with the weather – it’s about 20 degrees F colder here than it was in Hong Kong, over 40 degrees colder than Vietnam. Now, I know it’s nothing compared to the cold the Midwest is experiencing right now (it’s still above freezing here), but everything’s relative, and my apartment is colder than your houses.

It may also have something to do with being a bit lonely. When traveling, I’m constantly surrounded by people. Although some alone time is welcome after 2 full weeks of that, I can only take about a day, day and a half before I get a bit desperate for company. I suppose that’s not a great thing to admit, but I can’t help it, I’m a people person! I’ve had four days between the time I got back and when school started and I’ve only been able to meet up with friends one afternoon/evening. A lot of people were still out of town or busy or too tired to leave their apartments the rest of the time. I was also expecting to have the chance to call family and friends in the states to catch up on their holiday activities that I missed. Since I didn’t have to go in to work, I thought I’d actually be able to catch them at a decent time. Alas, my internet stopped working, so my skyping activities were brutally cut short…

The biggest reason I find coming back so difficult though, even (or especially) from trips within Japan, is that I have the expectation that I’m coming home. Then I get here and it dawns on me that I’m still in a foreign country. When I’m traveling I expect to be surrounded by languages I don’t understand, people that are new and different, different ways of doing things. It’s exciting, I learn a lot, and it’s why I love to travel so much. My difficulty comes when I get “home” and I’m still surrounded by a language I don’t understand (except a few phrases, of course), people that are different than the ones I’m used to, different ways of doing things. When I get back from traveling, I really don’t want that extra layer of stress that living in another country causes. It’s then when the differences between Japan and the Midwest really stand out and I tend to focus on the negatives. Those are the times that I get homesick the most and wonder what in the world I’m doing here.

But, enough with the pity party! I’ll shake it off in a day or two. I know that it takes time for a place to feel like home – I just have to be patient.