The Non-Ending Ending

(Picture Left: Their first Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches!... Man, the cultural lessons I am able to teach!)


It's wonderful when your Japanese employers offer to pay for a luggage pick-up service the day before your Tokyo exit. It's also wonderful (...not) that they will be coming sometime between 9am and 1pm, and that's 4 hours of your last day. So, here I am, 9am sharp ready with my luggage at the door, taking in some good last breaths of Fuchu air on my balcony (where else?) and enjoying my last onigiri (convenience store rice ball, surprise food in the middle.) I've been up since 5am packing and now have stopped to sit sheltered from the drizzling rain on my 7th floor perch, watching the trains go by me at eye level and reflecting on the past four very lovely months in Japan...


I was truly sad about leaving up until about 2 days ago. Once I got a sense that my classes were finishing, I realized my purpose here really is completed, and I gained more from it than I ever imagined. My main focus was the teaching, and growing through that experience, and now I'm left with a real sense of accomplishment. My last hour on campus yesterday was a perfect exit, as two of my upper level students whose class ended the week before (photo right) stopped by the teachers room as we were frantically cleaning, to give me one last farewell. I sat in the hall with them and we just talked for 45 minutes (yes, I left my co-workers to do all the work, and I don't even feel bad.) It was great. Earlier that day another boy from an upper level class was sitting in the campus cool spot, an area with a few benches in the middle of the student's parked motor bikes, where there is always a little congregation of boys smoking, and he jumped up and started yelling to me in the distance. We yelled "I miss you" and were waving profusely, and I tried hard not to cry, just for the shere appreciation that after all the challenges I was able to connect with a few precious students.I struggled to find things in common with these boys and their motivation was oft non-existent, but in the end none of that mattered. I talked to Carrie last night and said to her how I'm sad to leave them, wish I could keep some of them in my life and her natural response was, "Marina, they will still be with you, just like anyone you don't see a lot." It's so true.


I was bummed earlier this month when I realized I would be having my second 4th of July out of the US, aka no fireworks. Fireworks is truly one of my favorite things in the world, plus all but one of my co-workers are not American so I had no one to pretend to celebrate with. But, little did I know, Japan has a whole progression of firework festivals at the end of the rainy season! Although the biggest fireworks occur the day after I leave, my last weekend here I did get to see the most amazing firework show I could ever imagine. No joke, they lasted a full hour. No stopping for one hour. Incredible. They had cartoon characters and animals and smiley face fireworks (sometimes upside down) and everyone sits along the river in the grass or with blankets and picnics and traditionally people are wearing their Yukatas (summer kimono, much lighter) and there are food stalls everywhere. It was a glorious experience. Afterward my friends and I went to karaoke, and I had a moment where I stopped dancing around our private little karaoke room, looked around and realized that during my first contract all lonely in the suburbs of Tokyo I never would have imagined that I would be having this experience in Japan: having fun with a big group of guy/girl, Japanese/ foreigner friends. And to top it all off, Laura was visiting from the States. I know the social life I was able to have this time around, including meeting lots of Japanese people, positively changed my view on Japan. I felt, and still feel, so grateful.

Watashi wa sensei des

When teaching is good, it's so SO good! Of course the reality of teaching 19 year old slackers is that its usually not good. Entertaining, yes. Energy filled, YES YES YES. At times hilarious, maybe, yes. But good, not necessarily. The first lesson I ever learned as a teacher is you can't be friends with your students. Regardless, no matter how tough I try to be, I always end up reaching out to them on a personal level that breaks up this essential "I'm the teacher and you're the student" relationship. I've done it yet again, being too friendly, a hard line not to cross in a class geared on speaking English. It's led to many stressful ranting sessions in the teachers room about why the students revere their Japanese professors so much and yet feel comfortable proposing to me in the middle of a lesson. With an immense amount of discipline necessary just to get attention and have them follow directions, I suppose I am learning what it is to be a real teacher. These (mostly male) students are aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed, and they go from these extremes of having way too much energy to falling asleep standing up (no joke, it happened during a student presentation!)

Japan's education has such an emphasis on test taking, as studying for middle schools entrance exams begins at a 1st grade level, replacing any fun extra-curricular activity and that continues until entering university. Seriously, I see 7 year olds on the train in their school uniform at 10pm, first going home. Once they finally reach university, it's the first time in their whole academic lives they can slack off... so slack they certainly do! Having a well-renowned Japanese high school attached to the university has been a huge insight into Japanese education. I walk through the high school hall, peaking my head in the classrooms and I realize what my students are used to. Being quiet is a virtue, revering the teacher by sitting silently in the back never daring to ask a question while the teacher faces the blackboard as he talks is the norm. Half the students are asleep, and the teacher does nothing. Now I understand why no matter how many times I say it, they just can't seem to understand the concept of "a wrong answer is better than no answer." There are a total of 8 foreign teachers I work with, which is honestly my saving grace. We are constantly in the teachers room complaining about students, impersonating all the ridiculous things that occur on a daily basis.

Some funny encounters with my students:

1. Lax Super Rich! The Japanese language doesn't use the sounds "l" and "r" in the same way that English does, and it's really quite remarkable when I say words like curry and curly and the words truly sound exactly the same to my students (Me the other day: "No Daiko you do not have curry hair. Please repeat: Curlllllllly. No, try again. Again. Ok never mind.") So, I had my students brainstorm words beginning with l and r on the board, and afterward we went through them, me saying and them repeating. I get to one student's L words and I see the phrase "Lax Super Rich." Asking what it is, they tell me LAX is a Japanese shampoo. Not asking any more questions I keep reading aloud and as soon as I say "lax super rich" everyone starts cracking up. Why? "Oh my got, oh my got, you like commercial teacher, you are commerical, say again please please say again?" My saying this in a totally normal voice was to them the equivalent of some foreigner on the commerical advertising the shampoo with energy and pizazz, like a ridiculous Herbal Essence Commercial. They all start flipping their pretend hair saying it again and again and finally I did a little mini performance by exaggerating my words as I use their Super LAX expression and my goodness did they laugh. Now every time that boy walks in the room he says "hello lax super rich." Afterward they asked me, "teacher, hair paint," pointing to my hair. When I said no I don't dye my hair one boy got a really solemn look, saying, "teacher, respect, respect," as if I just told him I've won the Nobel Peace Prize.

2. Instead of the typical bye bye I taught the students different ways to say goodbye and the majority of them love "See ya lata alligata," with the exception of the one boy who manages a respectful "peace out," said right as he gives me the deepest bow at the end of every class. It's the most contradictory thing I have ever seen, and I just wish I could see some New Jersey wanna-be thug say his peace out as he bows.

3. My greatest accomplishment this term is bonding with a student from another class, Kota. I share my classroom with another teacher, and as we have only a ten minute window between my ending and his start time, theres always a few minutes where everyone is in the room all together, and it's pure madness. One of my favorite students, Snoopy (more to come but all good students are now referred to as "the Snoopies") always stays behind to ask questions and I randomly caught this student from the next class pushing my little Snoopy up against the wall. Although I was told not to react when I encountered bullying because it will only make it worse for the student, I naturally pushed through them as if I didn't even notice and I needed to get by, introducing myself to this student as a distraction. After it happened a second time I pointed him out to a co-worker who has taught at the school for a few years. "Oh, yay, that's Kota. Last year he smashed a kid's head into the locker." So, being naturally protective over my student, the way I decided to deal with it is that every time I saw this Kota, I would talk to him, just to distract him from my students trying to leave the room. One time saying hello, he started telling me how he's not happy because he has no friends. I was completely shocked to hear him open up to me, and I told him, "we can be friends." Without realizing the commitment ahead, I just earned myself a full-on student/friend relationship, and from that moment on he stops by the teachers room anytime I don't catch him between classes to talk, get some love and attention which he clearly doesn't get at home, shake my hand, and then runs off. And the best part is that him and Snoopy have slowly started to say hello/goodbye to each other, since I'm always with one of them and the other says hello/bye to me. Whenever we see each other we say "hi friend," and it makes me feel like I'm making a difference.

4. Ohhh, Snoopy class. Where do I even begin? This class is 4 upper level students, and we just sit and talk. I love these guys. One of my co-teachers calls Snoopy my chia-pet when I talk about how I have the best student in the world, but it's true. He's that perfect student who works hard, tries to truly express himself in English and makes an effort to talk to all the teachers... all the females can back me up that he is just the most innocent, sweet 20 year old I think I've ever met. I call him Snoopy because he wears a Snoopy T-shirt or tie every day. Literally. I've already decided he has to marry Kelly. Shes agreed (kindof) and I haven't proposed it to him yet, but I certainly will. Those boys are so great because they take the class from simply learning English to being a real cultural exchange, where we are all learning from each other, as foreigners. Video below! Snoopy's class wrote letters to Kelly and Carrie and they've all decided to permanently keep them in their wallets so they can read them every day.

And PS. the post it notes in the student pictures was a competition review of body parts!

Mikoshi Festival, Sumo Nabe and Karuizawa Trip

If theres one situation I never in my life thought I would find myself in, it definitely includes the following: Walking down a street in Japan following a sumo wrestler who is carrying the groceries he's about to cook, be consumed as my dinner, and hes dressed in full sumo garb. And, people are stopping to stare. Everywhere. Well, this reality was one of life's great surprises last Friday night!

One of my fellow English teachers walked into school one day last week, declaring to the 4 women teachers, "ladies, we're going on a go-kon." "A what??" (that's me talking there.) "A group Japanese date." Hannah and her male Japanese friend Kei decided to organize a gokon (also known as a konpa), a typical way that many Japanese people meet their significant others. (Not that I'm hinting at anything with mr. I don't speak English sumo!) For Japan, where people don't usually speak with strangers, this seems a very appropriate structure for the dating scene. So, we had 4 foreigners, and 3 English speaking Japaneses guys, with Kei on a search to find a 4th friend who spoke some English. Later that day we're again in the teachers room when Hannah's phone peeps, only to find a message of, "Found #4 guy. Professional sumo wrestler. No English. He will cook." You can only imagine the laughter.

A week later the 4 of us get out of a train in the heart of Tokyo and in the distance see a sumo wrestler, and honestly my initial reaction was that I was looking at someone advertising a restaurant. (They do that! Have people dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes, trying to lure you inside.) Well, not quite, he was there to pick us up (not literally... tho, he probably could have!) It really was more of a dinner party than anything else, with mr. sumo cooking for the rest of us. He made Nabe, which is a Japanese stew, only this was an especially special sumo nabe called Chanko. It should be called Chunky... as the purpose is to make you big and strong and sumo! Each person was given a bowl and a raw egg. We cracked the egg into the bowl, and the meat/tofu/ veggies in the stew were poured on top. The extra broth was put on an electric stove in the middle of the table, as more meat was constantly being put inside. So, I was basically eating meat and tofu dipped in raw egg. Surprisingly, not bad (all of you weird trendy people who think raw fish is normal have no right to judge!) The sumo was really pretty shy, had a very innocent and peaceful aura, which we were all very surprised about. Although it was really a dinner party, I'd argue that I have full rights to say I've been on a date with a sumo wrestler!

I've really appreciated Golden Week, which is the longest holiday the average Japanese person gets off of work- a whole 5 days! A Japanese woman whom I met last semester invited me to her summer cabin in Karuizawa, a ritzy place in the woods about an hour and a half outside of Tokyo... an hour and a half, that is, when riding on the Shinkansen. And with a name like that, you know this is no ordinary train. The Shinkansen is Japan's fastest train, which literally looks like an airplane on tracks. It's expensive but you can basically get anywhere in the country in no time at all. I brought a fellow teaching friend and was pleasantly surprised to arrive and find out we weren't the only guests, there were 6 other people there I got to meet! We went to an onsen (Japaneses hot spring) on the top of a mountain. This means sitting naked with other people in natural hot water looking out at a panoramic view of the mountains. We slept on Japaneses-style futons in a tatami-covered floor, but the best part was the cultural exchanges with the other guests. No one spoke perfect English (though one person was pretty good) but they were all sincerely interested in my friend and I, and we had some good laughs as we tested different ways to communicate, all proven successful.

Getting back to city life refreshed from a night away, I entered my street welcomed by the most incredible festival I have ever seen in Japan! It was amazing. There were big "mountain waggons" being pulled with ropes, each carriage representing a
different area of my mini-city, Fuchu (a city within the city of Tokyo, like a borough) and each telling a different story through costume, dance, and crazy drum beats (I'm talking drums the size of small houses with people standing on top, reaching down with a big stick to bang the drum).The energy and lights and excitement of it all was unlike anything I've ever see here! Then next morning I was awoken at 5am by MORE taiko drums, and I step out onto my balcony to see they have just begun and are marching again. I went to the local temple/shrine, Temple Okuni-tama, and found it covered with food stalls and games, just like a fair, and behind the temple I watched the men get ready for their turn in the parade--- climbing up the drums, strapping themselves in, flailing bamboo sticks in the air as they chant. As if this isn't enough, the third day I'm woken up at 4:27am and again step onto the balcony to see more chanting of "wa shoi" with mikoshi (portable shrines) being paraded down my block. I think these people never stop. This definitely makes my liking of Japan increase, seeing ordinary people (and children!) celebrating Japanese cultural, being unified in costume and song... but I'm not sure what I think about it lasting 5 days of all hours of the night, and right outside my window!

Cherry Blossoms

Suddenly I understand Cherry Blossom Season. All the hype is not only justified, but its actually downplaying the real importance of this lovely season in Japan. A change occurs in Japanese culture coinciding with the emergence of a beautiful snow, powered by fluttering pink floral. This time actually has little to do with the blooming flowers, coming to life in random city streets and train views that create a floor of pink petals during each March and April across Japan. It's about so much more. I've found Cherry Blossoms to be a catalyst for mental freedom spread across Tokyo. Its as if the beauty surrounding someone when they're walking underneath a cherry blossomed walk-way is too powerful to allow unhappiness, and in this way the Japanese seriousness that can translate as coldness to an outsider dissipates some, and Tokyo is a whole new place.

Everyone was telling me to go see the Cherry Blossoms, though I will admit I didn't understand all this hype and couldn't imagine that it would actually live up to the expectation people had created for me. Oh, how wrong I was! My first weekend back in Japan I went to Shinjuku Gardens, a huge garden in the heart of Tokyo that I had discovered last winter right as I was leaving. Cherry Blossoms are beautiful, lush trees lining the streets, which when in bloom can create an archway of pinkish tones, ranging from an almost pure white to an almost deep purple. The most amazing thing is that the petals fly everywhere with the wind and once landed they cover the ground in a sea of pink. People stop and gaze up at them everywhere.

I just learned the Japanese word "hanami," which is the noun used for a picnic with friends that includes cherry blossom viewing. Well, Shinjuku Gardens was smothered in hanami, and for the first time I've been able to walk through Tokyo seeing hundreds of Japanese people outwardly expressing happiness. This is a closed culture where people are expected not to interact with strangers, be unique or expressive, where everything is done with a consciousness of not disrespecting your neighbor. Sadly, this cultural attitude tanslates as a deep seriousness and unhappiness to someone used to Western ways. So, finally, I return in the spring and am able to find a Japan where people are smiling, laughing, playing games and wandering through this maze of beauty. To be in Tokyo and have people smile at me, ask me to take their picture and the like was such a great way to re-enter this country. I even passed one guy who had his ear phones in and for a second I even think I heard him singing under his breath, the very thing my dear friend Ayano said shocked her so about being in America.