Only in Japan...............Hello Kitty Tubby

HOW CREEPY IS THIS?????

One of the past times here in Japan is to take purikura. Purikura are the little photo stickers you can make. Teenagers have little books that they stick them in and this is almost a national past time. And while Kaccey and i were at one of the games arcades and we found a machine that you can make the above in. So you choose which design you want and then have your photo taken. Then the attendent sticks your face on it and uses a blow dryer to make sure your face doesnt peel off. Then he hands you the creepiest thing ever....your face on a mobile strap.

Japanese Subway - the food not the trains

Subway in Japan is of course different but also the same.

Only three choices of bread,

• Honey oats
• Sesame seed
• Wholegrain

They have a herb dog......i am wishing i had taken a photo of it

You can get avocado on your sandwich. And not just a small layer but a huge scoop. It was awesome

There are no cookies or crisps

The meal sets (with your sandwich) are

• potato wedges and a drink
• soup and a drink
• soup and potato wedges

The potato wedges come in four flavours

• herb
• cheese
• regular
• BBQ

BUT even with all the differences it was so good............and just what i wanted....turkey and salad sandwich.

Japanese Fashion - yes they wear these clothes in public

Cow print clothes anyone....Kaccey, you look so hot!!!

Prom dress anyone????

These aren't lingerie, people wear these in public

I call this the hairy underarm shirt

Carpet shirt

Fluffy gloves - I nicknamed them the hairy knuckles gloves.

Warabi Park with Kaccey

So Kaccey and i were looking for the secondhand store near my house and we stumbled on Warabi park. I have been living here for 7 months and never knew it existed. It was quite small but pretty. And it was here that i saw my first peach blossom. They really are beautiful and i cant wait till the whole tree is covered in them.





Warabi Park

Airport of security in Japan - or lack there of

Airport security in Japan is so lax. When i flew to Sapporo, we were amazed at how lax the security was.

Firstly, we handed over our booking sheet and then they just handed us our tickets. No asking for ID to make sure we were who we said we were.

Then we went through security screening for our check in luggage. Then through the hand luggage security. You have to take all electronic things out of your bag and they randomly check liquids for explosives. BUT this is as extensive as the security gets. Oh and the weird thing is that every bag and coat and EVERYTHING is put on a tray by the security guy. And you have to wait behind a line to be called to have him put everything on the trays. Only in Japan i tell you. I am sure it was not about security but just cause of the formal nature of Japanese society.

When we boarded the plane, they didnt check your ticket to make sure you were going on the right flight. Or that you were even meant to be a passenger on that plane. It would be so easy to get on a plane with just any ticket. VERY LAX SECURITY!!!! And then they dont check your ticket when you enter the plane. It did not instill alot of confidence. You could use a ticket, any ticket to get onto a plane. I could keep my ticket and go through the security and then get on a plane. I bet no-one would even notice. Not that i would of course but compared to Australia and the USA. The two American girls, Becca and Meg were amazed at the lack of security.

BUT the most astounding thing was that you had to keep your luggage tags and show them to the attendant before you leave. AND they check to make sure that you only have your luggage. And if you lose the tags you have to wait until the last person has left so that they know you only have your luggage.

SO lets review.

• You can get your ticket without showing ID
• You can get on the plane without anyone looking at your ticket
• BUT you have to show your luggage tag so they dont hold your bags hostage.

DOES THIS MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE????

Hina Matsuri (Dolls Festival)

I have looked up every festival that i could possibly attend while here in Japan. I have two reasons for this. I enjoy going to them and learning about Japanese culture. And the other reason is so that i can show my Aussie students' the photos etc in their Japanese class. This weekend i am going to a giant park near my house for plum and peach blossom viewing festival.
I was asking about the Dolls Festvial (3rd of March) at school yesterday. I wanted to know if there were any public places of celebration. But it is celebrated at home and i was disappointed about this. So one of the English teachers, Mori sensei went home and made two origami dolls and put them up at my desk for me to celebrate. Such kindness. I was really stoked. This is the same teacher who wrote me a cheat sheet on Japanese adjectives last week. Often to westerners the polite and formal nature of the Japanese can seem insincere or fake (this comes from some of the books i have been reading on Japanese culture). But i think that the Japanese people i have met are lovely and very kind. Mori Sensei is a good example of this.

So what is the Dolls Festival???

People display dolls during this time. The day is also called Girl's Day. Based on the idea that girls like to play with dolls. Hina means girl or princess.


First platform has the dolls representing the emporer and empress and are put in front of a gold screen.

Second platform has the court ladies holding sake fillers.

Third platform has musician dolls holding an instrument. The singer holds a fan.

Fourth platform may have two ministers - a right (shown as a young person) and a left (shown as an older person) Right doll is on the left as you look at them.

Other platforms have tools and miniature funiture on them.

These are the Hina Matsuri things that Mori Sensei gave me. The little rice things are flavoured according to their colour. So green is green tea. And the Koalas have chocolate inside them. Normally they just look like a Koala. I was overwhelmed by her kindness.

Interesting lessons - Abortion in Japan vs North America

Yes, that is right. Today, i taught a lesson to the grade 11 students on Abortion in Japan and the USA. They are studying the differences in sexual issues between the two countries.

The most fascinating part of this was the research i had to do to prepare for the lesson. It has been very thought evoking and my views have been challenged. The most challenging thing was presenting an lesson that includes both sides of the arguments in the USA.

In Japan, abortion is legal and the law is the same throughout the country. Whereas in the United States of America, abortion is legal but the states vary on when a pregnant woman can have an abortion. Australia is the same as the USA. It varies in each state and territory in Australia.

The students were surprised to find out that 40% of 14 yr old girls in the USA will have an abortion before they turn 20 yrs old. I was surprised as well. But the most interesting part of the lesson was learning that Japan also has a high rate of abortion. However, this is not for the same reasons as in the USA. Japanese women generally dont use birth control (pill). Using the pill for family planning is not common in Japan at all. Students were surprised that many teenage girls have access and use the contraceptive pill in the USA.

Other differences include that the Japanese opposition to legal abortion is not based on religion like it is in the USA. From what i have read, there is not a direct quote that you can find in the Shinto and Buddhist religions, to oppose abortion, like there is in the bible (Thou shall no kill).

I hope that the students came away from the lesson with enough pro and con information to make up their own minds about legal abortion in the USA. The final task the students had to undertake was to write if they thought abortion should be legal or illegal. And there were more students who thought it should be illegal than legal. They included two reasons and the majority said illegal because it was killing a baby. Interestingly, only boys said that it should be legal. They said that women should have the right to choose about their body. I did not read a single girl's answer that said abortion should be legal. One can only wonder how this would differ in a western country????

The differences continues.........

Dog walking in Japan

Every morning as i walk to the train and bus i see Japanese people walking their dogs. They are very conscious about cleaning up after their dogs, which i think is great. But today i nearly fell out of my seat when i say a lady getting toliet paper out of her little doggie clean up bag. She was going towards the dog and i seriously thought that she was going to wipe its bottom. Which is not totally unbelievable in Japan. She didnt but just the idea that this was happening was quite funny. It is hard to describe to someone who hasnt lived here why it is believable that a Japanese would wipe their dog's bum. But i guess the easiest way to explain this, is to say there are many things in Japan that are so different and amazing to me.

Also, why do many Japanese people carry their dogs across the road when they cross at a pedestrian crossing. Can the dogs not walk on the road?

Many people here dont stop for these crosswalks. BUT the dogs that i have seen being carried are at the traffic light crossings. I know they cant press the button themselves but the traffic is stopped. Why are they carried?????

If anyone has an answer please leave me a comment.

Black sesame jam in Japan

Did you know that there is jam made out of black sesame seeds?

I didnt even know there were black sesame seeds. Plus apparently there are golden and white. The golden ones are the typical ones we have in Australia.

Bad week for transportation in Japan

So i was reading my newspaper....as usual. Nothing struck me as strange until i read that a flight from Haneda (tokyo) to Sapporo almost crashed into another plane. One was arriving and the other one was leaving. The pilots misheard the instructions to wait and failed to check these instructions. This happened to be the same flight that i took to the Snow Festival in Sapporo only a week earlier. Quite scary. The plane nearly rear ended the other one.

AND, the main story on the front of the newspaper today is that a navy ship hit a fishing boat. NOW, how does that happen? I thought they had radar etc. There are two men missing from the fishing boat. I have never heard of this happening ever before. Quite scary i think!!!!!

Japan is like Disneyland

As usual i got off the train at Kawaguchi station and began walking to my bus stop. However, as soon as i walked out of the station, I noticed that the flowers in all of the massive stone pots had changed. Yesterday, they were cabbage flowers. And told they were smaller flowers much like a pansie. I looked around and all of the flowers had changed. I had only walked through there about 10 hours earlier on my way home.

I suddenly thought that it was like Disneyland because the same thing happened when my family went to Disneyland in LA. One day there was a huge christmas tree and as assortment of flowers and shrubs. And then the next no xmas tree and the shrubs and flowers were all different. This is exactly what happened at my station. It was quite strange because last time this happened i didnt even pay attention. I just noticed the pretty cabbage flowers.

When i told Sasaki Sensei about this he said this a good way to describe Japan. Not really sure what he meant but i guess i will ask him next time he has a free lesson.

I just asked him and he meant that in Japan there are so many festivals and everything is made to look pretty and is so precise. Like Disneyland.

WW2 American bomb found during construction in the city next to mine

So i was busily working on a worksheet on stereotypes and homosexuality (dont ask) when Yokota sensei came in and told me about a ww2 American bomb that was found by a construction crew in the city next to mine. It was found a couple of weeks ago and weighs over 100kg. How fascinating is that? And terrifying at the same time.

It also happens to be next to the highway that Yokota sensei drives to work on.


My city is on the left side in the middle and is written わらび　and the bomb is marked with the red arrow.

They will be extracting the bomb on the 2nd of March at 9:30am. There is a 24 hour military watch until then because they are worried it might explode.

I also asked if it would be put into a History Museum but apparently it will be taken apart and turned into cans. Which as a westerner i find quite strange because it is something rare (to me) and quite interesting to see. I would pay to go and have a look at it. But they dont put things like that in museums here in Japan.

And Yokota sensei said that this happens every so often here in Japan. The American's did drop alot of bombs on Japan during ww2 so i guess it is inevitable that some would still be around.

Article on an ww2 bomb found in 2005
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10221456/

A lesson in Japanese.......

So i have been taking this course on the internet through the Japan Foundation in Sydney. And sometimes i need to ask some questions. So Sasaki sensei or Yokota Sensei usually help me. Today, it was Sasaki sensei who helped and he learned something new too. I was learning about adjectives. In Japanese there are two types of adjectives, the i and the na. After the English department meeting in lesson 4, Sasaki sensei asked the other teachers about this. My questions had stopped any normal conversation and the entire English department were discussing Japanese adjectives. While i didnt understand everything, it was amazing how this just took over. I guess i thought that they wouldnt be interested. Anyway, Sasaki sensei learned today that there are two different adjectives in Japanese. They dont teach them as two separate types in Japan.

The main reason for this post is that i found it amazing how the conversation was dominated by this. They were still talking about it when i left the room 20 mins later. And Molly sensei actually went and wrote out an information sheet on the adjectives so that i could revise. It was really nice of her considering test week is coming up.

Anyway, most of you probably dont care about this but i thought it was interesting. I knew there were two types of adjectives in Japanese because i teach it in Australia but a Japanese person didnt know about this distinction. Very interesting.

A new way to spell certain English words

I was marking some vocab tests for Yokota Sensei and here are some of the little pearls that came up. Got to give them credit for trying.

Opposite became Opress

Danger became Danglre or denjalas

Convienent became Convenight

I can only wonder about my own spelling - in Japanese.

Yokota Sensei and I have a Japan vs Oz cultural exchange

Laura:
Bikes go to the jail if u park them in the wrong place :(

Yokota: That's why i always park my old bike in the wrong place when i want to throw it away. Life Sentence.


Japanese students are usually quiet. Except when exams are finished.

Laura: The students went abit crazy during cleaning today. Must be exam fever

Yokota: As a teacher i had exam fever yesterday



Laura: Toliets talk in Japan

Yokota: Hi, Long time no see. Why dont you sit down (with a drawing of a toliet)

Random Aussieness at Ichiritsu Municipal High School

RANDOM CLASSROOM FUN


Fly nets and hats with corks to keep the flys away.

RANDOM OFFICE FUN

The English Department Mascots. The big Koala is called Akiyo.

The students named the Kangaroo after me.....but i like to call her Skippy

My Valentine's Day

It is nothing like the ones in Australia. You wouldnt even know it was Vday here. I even forgot that it was by the afternoon. Until one of my favourite students came to visit me. Naomi is a third year and was working on the yearbook. Third years (yr12) dont have school anymore. I was in the teacher's prep room and she came in to give me a Valetine's gift. In Japan, if u dont have a boyfriend, you give chocolates to your girlfriends. She was up till 6am melting the chocolate and putting it into tiny pattie pans. There was even one with both chocolate and strawberry flavours. It was really awesome. One was decorated with an L and another with a smily face. It was a very nice afternoon. And much nicer than the full on and in your face Vday we have in Australia.