Age is like wine or cheese, it only gets better

Age is something that is brought up almost daily in Japan. It makes me feel like I have some sort of expiration date; as if my quality will steadily decline with age. Upon questioning why it's so important, I was told it is important for people to know how old you are in order to know how to act towards you. I am 26 years old. What does that mean exactly? How should people act towards me? Maybe the better question is how should I act? I'm past the winding forest of a teenager and over the party hill of my early twenties. I wonder if there is a chart somewhere that says how people should act when they're a certain age. I asked the one source that has all the immediate answers: Yahoo. I discovered that there are other people out there that asked the exact same question as me. HA! I knew I wasn't the only one. Perhaps that's what 26-yr-olds do, ask questions. So here is what one entry said:

QUESTION: How Do You Act Like A 26 Year Old? I know this sounds like a dumb question, but I'm not sure where I should be at this point in life or how I'm expected to act. Anyone older than 30 that could tell me what the difference between 26 and your 30s is?
ANSWER: 25/26 is about that age all your friends have moved away or are getting engaged. Thats also the age you should start making some big risk taking moves with your life. By time your 30 you really should be in a career and the older you get after 30 the less risk you can take and the less options you have.
You should be in a job and looking for a marriage-track relationship. You are expected to have some control of your emotions and consideration for others. You should remain positive. Your dress and hairstyle should match "normal" people of your age. [Maybe I should take notes and read lots of magazines?] You probably should start phasing out cartoons, comics and teen-oriented music. [Btw Japanese young and old are in love with cartoons (anime), comics (manga) and teen music (J-Pop). ]

Basically what I learned from my online research is that 1) Efficiency of my organ systems begins to diminish at the rate of about 1% a year after age 20 [I am dying after age 20] and 2) People should try to be like everyone else their age and that is how one knows how old they are. But do I really want to act like everyone else does just to satisfy my age litmus test? I think Yahoo Answers captured what most people in America think about 26-year-olds. But somehow that answer doesn't satisfy me.

Pride and soba isn't tasty

I am really upset with myself. I have never accepted a spoon or fork in lieu of chopsticks, but always made myself ganbatte and take forever to eat if I had to, in order to not use a spoon or fork. In Okinawa, they have this special soba that we tried on our last day. It is a thinner soba that is pretty much impossible to pick up with chopsticks unless you're an expert. So I ganbatte'd and ate everything else except the soba and just decided I would get to try it when I had the hand coordination. But the teachers saw my bowl and asked me why I wasn't eating it. I told them it was a little difficult...big mistake. So before I knew it, they called the waiter over and in two seconds, had a fork for me to use. After all that fuss and mistaken kindness, I couldn't just refuse to use the fork. So I used the damn fork, but the soba was tasteless and hard to swallow, I think because it was drenched in pride.

I must be a pre-schooler....

Random Interesting Facts that I learned in Japanese preschool:
1) Stoplights are actually Red, Yellow and Blue (I swear they look green).
2) Snowmen are made of only two big snow mounds NEVER three...(I was teaching Christmas words and we had a long discussion about the Japanese requirements in order to be considered a snowman).
3) Every child knows the word Christmas wreath (I just call it a wreath), but not candy cane.
4) Children must raise their hands as if answering a question when walking across the street. When I was driving the other day, I saw one girl doing that, and I just thought she was playing or something. The point is, I saw her and paid attention.
5) Children who can barely walk can be trained to take their lunch trays/bowls/cups, etc to the kitchen on their own without someone helping them along. They looked like little toddling zombies that would stumble in one direction, remember what they were supposed to be doing, stumble in another direction and finally make it to the kitchen WITHOUT prompting. This blew my mind.

I have 2 birthdays!

I just had the greatest birthday ever..and guess what tomorrow's my birthday again!! Why, you ask? Well, let me tell you....because although TODAY is December 15th in Japan, TOMORROW is December 15th in America, so I have TWO birthdays. And if you think about it, when I was born on December 15th in America, it was actually December 16th in Japan!!! So it's perfect, Woot Woot! Bet you never thought about that did ya? I get to celebrate for two days, how awesome is that!

What's with all the towels?

So I went to the post office yesterday and the guy forgot to give me my change so he came to my house at 9:30 pm, gave me my change, bowed deeply, kept apologizing and gave me a post office towel. I couldn't BELIEVE he drove to my house to give me my change! So besides the question why does the post office have special towels, the bigger question is why are towels always given away. I have 4 towels given to me from 1) A bar named Anaconda 2) The dragonboat races 3) I don't remember, but it's blue 4) The Post Office. If this keeps up, I will have 9 towels by this summer. Who wants a towel as a souvenir?!

Trip from Hell - Last

So in the Hell Cave we were immersed in the pitch dark, where hundreds died and went step by step into the details of their deaths by pointing our flashlights. This wasn't tourist-attraction paved or what I would consider safe. We had to duck under stalactites, slipping and sliding on the wet rocky floor. The guide dragged out the last moments of the kids' death so that we had the full effect of what it was like. The cave air was hard to breath the constant dripping water reminded me that I had to use the bathroom since I didn't know that we were going to the cave for an hour, so I concentrated on trying to understand and not slipping. We exited the cave and I felt so FREE and HAPPY that I survived it, and we went to the entrance of another cave, where the students fled when they were kicked out of the caves by the Japanese military. We stopped at a memorial stone and all of us bowed deeply and held it for a good 10 seconds. This isn't a dramatic Nutcracker Ballet bow, but a hands at your side, point your head towards the object being respected bow. There is something about bowing your head, the act of lowering yourself, which gives a deep feeling of respect. Try bowing and holding it for a few seconds towards something you want to revere and feel the humbleness sweep over you. So when I say peace, I mean a bow-your-head, atomic-bomb, 33%-wipeout-of-a-population peace that America has never experienced on our own soil. By the way, NONE of the things I read or heard EVER pointed fingers at Americans, but mainly at themselves for not realizing the value of heiwa. It's too bad beauty queens and other airheads overused the word "world peace" because now there isn't a way to describe heiwa without seeming insincere. Anyhow, so we went back to bus, went to the airport where we zipped through without showing so much as an ID. Then, we had our 140-ish member closing ceremony, in the airport, of all places, where airport traffic was walking around us without so much as a look. Of course, it involved goodbye speeches from the principal, travel agent and students. We came back to school and surprise, surprise had yet ONE MORE teacher meeting to talk about the greatness of the trip, before we were allowed to leave at 7ish pm. Apparently, 20% of Okinawa is still controlled by America, on the Okinawan air base, which makes Japan think about peace all the more, and wonder about their country's future. Japan's military was disbanded after WWII and now they only have a defensive military. America is supposed to protect Japan, and now you can understand all the more why the American leader is SO important for Japan, as what we do DIRECTLY affects them. Imagine 20% of valuable land in Hawaii being occupied by another country and you'll understand how they may feel... I got a sense of it when, on a rooftop together with the Japanese students and teachers, we watched an American air base where planes were constantly taking off and landing. They asked me why.... I realized that I don't know. I think it scared me more that it never occurred to me to want to know.

Trip from Hell Day 3

My alarm chimed at 5 am and after a miso soup-and-rice standard breakfast, we left at 8 am and arrived at a peace museum and peace park. So, I'm thinking YOKATTA thank God this is the last day on this crazy trip. But I was very wrong; peace park and museum sound so generic and don't fully capture the feeling of what I saw. Throughout the trip, I was so concentrated on the meetings and creature comforts that I totally missed what the Okinawa Trip was about. It wasn't about seeing Okinawa as a tourist, it was about Heiwa. I am saying heiwa, the Japanese word for peace because English doesn't have a deeper word for peace. Apparently, there was a major battle in Okinawa in 1945 which killed about 200,000 people (over 2.5 Invesco Fields full, 10 Pepsi Centers, 1/3 of Okinawans) . Yeah yeah, ok I know what you're thinking, on paper, "200,000 deaths" means nothing to me either and I'm sure it means nothing to the students when they read about it in textbooks. This is why EVERY Japanese student in 7th grade, age 13, must go visit Okinawa, Hiroshima or Nagasaki. Nothing I can say will be able to have you experience the feeling of it. The museum featured a junior high during WWII that was taken over by the military, where students worked night and day in a cave, buried the dead, nursed the sick and were educated that their country needed them. The US surrounded the Japanese army in Okinawa but instead of giving up, the army fled south and forced every able person on the island to fight to the death, man, woman and child to stop the US from entering mainland Japan. Japan tried to delay the invasion using every means possible; i.e. once US soldiers found them and started shooting, students were abandoned or forced to leave the caves and face the soldiers in the middle of a battle. What made my experience so deep was watching the students as they read about what happened to students their age, schools with sailor uniforms, the same uniforms they are still wearing almost 60 years later. I watched these 13-year old giggling/energetic kids recognize themselves in the photos of the dead students. When coming out of the museum, the students were really scared, one girl was holding her stomache and wasn't talking and I felt like the biggest jerk ever on the other side of the coin hearing America-gun and US soldier. On the next bus ride, students start pulling out work-gloves and flashlights. So I'm looking around completely confused and wondering what's going on when the teacher asks me, "Do you have a flashlight and gloves?" Well, umm although I like to carry alot of things in my purse, as a general rule, I draw the line at flashlights and gloves. So the teacher rented one for me and I have absolutely no idea what was going on and everyone is grabbing helmets and I DON'T KNOW WHAT'S GOING ON and he can't explain so I'm just going with it, right? So some of my favorites grab my hand and lead me into the forest where I'm sure we are going into a construction site or something. Nope, we go into an entrance of a hidden cave and descend into the "Hell on Earth" that the same sailor-clad students experienced 60 years ago, maybe on a sunny day just like this one. But today, instead of hiding from Americans in caves, Japanese students are leading an American into the cave holding hands; life is funny...

Trip from Hell Day 2

My alarm chimed at 5 am and I got up, rebelliously took a shower in the morning (shocking I know) which is strange since EVERYONE takes a bath at night. We loaded onto the bus and were greeted by the tour guide who gave us loads of information about Okinawan culture and songs. I talked to one of the teachers and asked about the waste-of-time meeting at 11pm (btw, I phrased it differently when we talked). He informed me that this meeting is usually a drinking party, but this year the principal axed it, so the teachers weren't extremely happy about it. So now, the meeting really is a waste of time lol. We went to the beach for 10 minutes, an aquarium for 1 hour, a botanical garden for 1 hour and then lunch for 30 minutes. Everything was like clockwork, when I say one hour, I mean everyone had to be on that bus 5 minutes before take-off to the next site. After our 20 minute lunch, we saw our next clockwork sights: an American base, guided shopping, etc. Then, of course at 6 pm, there was a meeting. At this meeting, we talked about the students and how they were awful for not staying in their designated shopping groups. Then we had 20 minute dinner, some random speech about peace, then another meeting when the speech was over (which I didn't understand and probably was about the peace speech) and then had a couple of hours of hall patrol before the next meeting at 11 pm. At 11 pm, the meeting started and this time the table was filled with tons of fruit, sandwiches and sushi…but I couldn't eat at 11pm. I was excited to at least taste a little dragonfruit, starfruit and passionfruit since I couldn't buy anything beyond designated shopping times. The meeting confirmed that everything was the same, and wow imagine that, it was, surprise surprise. Then at midnight, the teachers had a secret party with snacks, alcoholic drinks, and omg-we're-so-rebellious fun. The highlight of the party was when a teacher pulled out a bottle of alcohol with a dead snake in it and poured the stuff into my cup in all sincerity. I just couldn't be rude, since I realized what I will call Dead Snake Drink was very expensive, so I drank it and it tasted like vodka. I went to bed at around 1:30ish, slept fitfully to the sound of people entering and exiting the room and woke up at 5 am. I forgot to mention that the teacher I roomed with is the nurse, so the sick students were in and out of my room constantly. One more day and I'm out of this place!!!

Trip from Hell Day 1

Nothing in life comes without a price. So when I found out I would get to go to Okinawa with my junior high students for free, I should have known it would cost something besides money. After three days of 9 meetings, 8 total hours of sleep and 7 ounces of dead snake alcohol, I think I know what price I paid. For the price of not actually experiencing Okinawa, I have gained a considerable amount of knowledge into Japanese culture. It all started on a Sunday morning when we had an opening ceremony commemorating the 7th graders trip to Okinawa; the travel agency, students and teachers all presented goodbye speeches. Then, all 130-ish of us took our non-rolling luggage and loaded into the buses. I specify non-rolling here because it is was stressed to me that they are considered dangerous to the students and since students can't have them, neither can teachers. We got to Okinawa, saw some sights and had our first meeting at 6 pm where the hotel staff welcomed the teachers with tea and we discussed how the trip went, etc., and confirmed our next meeting at 11 pm. At 8 pm, we had a second meeting with the designated student room leaders. These room leaders were responsible for filling out a daily health form for everyone and collecting students' wallets to be put into the hotel safe every night. I'm sure they were in charge of more frivolous (in my opinion) things that I couldn't understand. After eating dinner, teachers patrolled the halls and collected all students' hotel room keys, which were placed on a chair in the center of each hallway. Then, teachers had another meeting at 11. At this meeting, the table was groaning under the weight of fried chicken, seafood, pizza, juice, and pretty much everything I didn't want to eat at 11pm. This one-hour long meeting basically confirmed the details of our 30-page trip detailed handout (I counted the pages). I was dying of thirst, since I was not allowed to drink water or anything beyond the 3 set meals throughout the day in front of the students, so I went to the vending machine after the meeting. It had a sign taped over it and I thought it was out of order. So, I went to the second and first floors, and saw signs taped on all of the machines over place where coins are inserted. How could every machine be out of order?! I came back to the third floor where I was greeted by the 12:15 am travel agent who was patrolling the halls, and I understood that when they said no drinks between meals, they really meant it. I went back to my room and was greeted by my teacher roommate, who laughed when I told her what I had been looking for. She is entertained and thinks I'm such a rebel for drinking water between meals! I always try to be a bad influence on people by drinking lots of water. I went to bed at 1 am and waited for the 5 am alarm to chime for morning hall patrol.

Hair Violation

I never realized that I considered my hair to be a sacred space until someone violated it. When I was at my junior high enkai (party on the floor with teachers), I was sitting on the floor and the server kept coming back to me with offers of more liquor. Hot sake, cold sake, old sake, new sake and offered to mix things for me and being SUPER NICE! I LOVE the service here in Japan, it's incredible. Anyhow, so I was sitting there chatting with a fellow teacher when the server comes up behind me, lifts my hair off of my shoulders and runs both hands through it and starts petting me. It wasn't just a piece of hair, but she violated the full length and breadth of it . I just froze and tried not to make a face, but the teacher I was chatting with, saw my face and started laughing. I think the server felt me freeze and saw the teacher laughing and got really embarrassed and said sorry, sorry and left. I kept telling here "it's ok, daijobu" but she didnt come back the rest of the night until the end. The teacher I was with said that she had never seen anything like that and thought maybe the lady liked Americans. As a side note, my hair was curly that day, and people are more obsessively curious with my hair when it's curly. Anyhow, at the end of the night I talked to her again, since I felt bad that I embarrassed her, and she called me a pretty doll and blah blah. This is not the first time someone has called me a doll. Although I get called a doll, that doesn't mean I am one; perhaps that's what bothers me the most. If I was a doll, I would be a china doll because unfortunately I don't like to be touched. (That also explains why unfortunately I can't get manicures or pedicures.)

Sick Sick Go Away!

I just can't shake my cold; it's been sticking to me like a bad habit. I am nice and toasty now with absolutely no reason to be sick, but my body refuses to accept this fact. This is quite unfortunate, considering it's the most wonderful time of the year and I have SO MANY things to look forward to:
1) I will only be working at my junior high school for a grand total of 7 days this month.
2) I will be going to a huge Kumamoto-ken (the entire Kumamoto state) Christmas party on Friday.
3) I will be going to the island of Okinawa this Sunday.
4) I will be going to a pinata-making party in preparation for my birthday in 2 weeks.
5) My birthday is in 2 weeks and I will have Honey Toast again. I have held out for so long for the next moment I will be with Honey Toast.
6) My mom will come to Japan at the end of December.
7) I will have a White Elephant Christmas party at the end of December.
8) I will make tamales with my mom in January.
9) I will be milking a cow for the first time, the day before my birthday. If you didn't know already, milk is MY ALL-TIME FAVORITE!
10) It will be my 5-month anniversary with Japan on December 28th.
I CAN'T BE SICK!!!! And with that, I think I'll go to bed now.