Perplexing Things About Japan 3: Face Masks

This one is going to be quite short. Basically, you know those surgical face covering masks? Japanese people seem to love those things. I’m not entirely sure why, but at least 2 or 3 of my students are always wearing them.

Why, you ask?

Because the students are sick, and wearing a mask prevents the spread of infection. In fact, I should probably be wearing a mask at work as I type this because I’m pretty sure I’ve got a little bit of a cough. 

Except here’s the thing. I’ve seen people wearing masks by themselves inside their own cars, which is doing absolutely nothing to spread germs to the people around them because there are no people around them. Also, they actually will take off the masks to cough or sneeze, which undoes all the germ trapping that the mask is supposed to be doing.

If you are sick enough to wear a mask, you are sick enough to stay home.

Perplexing Things About Japanese Culture Part 2

2. The indirectness

About 6 months ago now, I was told that I was being too loud in my apartment by my supervisor. She lives in Sapporo, which is about an hour and a half long drive away, so I had no idea how she could possibly know this. That is when I realized that my neighbour had put up with my noisiness for 2 months, then finally decided to talk to my supervisor about it, who in turn related the tale to the kyoto-sensei, who replied to my supervisor, who talked it over with my neighbour again, and then eventually came to me and said something along the lines of “Jeri, I understand that the customs are different here than back in Canada, but in Japan the walls are thinner, so if you could make a little less noise that would be great.”

I said “yeah, no problem,” and ever since then I’ve been the model tenant. Of course I can’t know this for sure, because no one has come to me recently, but I think that I’ve been more quiet.

What really confuses me, though, is why my neighbour couldn’t just come knock on my door at the first sign of a problem, and mention to me that I was being a little too loud. Then he wouldn’t have had to endure 2 to 3 months of my unchecked loudness before I finally got the memo that it was unacceptable. As of now, 7 months later, I still haven’t really spoken to him, but I hope that everything will work out as planned.

Oh Japan, why you be so indirect?


I don't have any photos for this, so here is some Engrish I saw recently:

Perplexing Things About Japan 1: Toilets

So, I've decided to write a list about some of the most perplexing cultural aspects of Japan, but I had too much to write about so it's going to be a series of posts. Here goes!


Before I get into why they are perplexing, I suppose I should start by explaining them to people that are not familiar with them.

Basically, there are 2 different types of toilets here, western and squat toilets. The squat toilets are just that, you squat down on top of something that sort of looks like a urinal that has been knocked over and shrunk. It’s cool. You do your business, apparently it’s actually better for your colon (see here and here), all good things.

The western toilets are where the Japanese seem to have gone a bit crazy. They are like regular toilets, but more Japanese. Basically, any possible add on you could think of for a toilet to have, they’ve got it. Have you ever wondered why your toilet has no bidet for your unclean bits? Move to Japan, and you won’t have to do without! What about toilets that will play flushing sounds without actually flushing so people won’t hear you doing your business? We’ve got that too! You can control the volume of the flushing sound, the strength of your bum washing, how much soap you want, basically you name it, you can probably find it somewhere on a toilet in Japan.

Don’t get me wrong, I think that the toilets in Japan are awesome. I mean, there is no limit to what they can do! If someone came up to me and told me that the toilet in the other washroom was actually a rocket ship designed to send the user to the moon if they pushed the right buttons, I wouldn’t even be surprised.

But what I don’t understand is WHY. Why do we need toilets that are so high tech that you can’t even find the flush? Why do we need toilets that sing to us and talk to us? Why do we need toilets that have heated seats and lids that open automatically when you enter the stall? (sidenote: I actually really love the heated seats)

Also, in my school teacher’s bathroom, there is one stall with a traditional squat toilet, one with a regular western toilet, and one with a decked out japanese toilet. Why do we need 3 different options when going to the bathroom? Surely something as short-lived as using the bathroom doesn’t mean we need 3 different ways of doing so? Oh well, to each his own, I guess.


So yep. Toilets are weird.

Oral Surgery in Japan

I need to get my wisdom teeth taken out. Unfortunately, this is no longer an option for me, but more of a necessity. My straight teeth are slowly becoming less straight as my back molars grow in, and this is starting to bother me.

I know, I know, it’s not what you look like on the outside that matters, but who you are on the inside. Seriously, though, screw that. I want straight teeth.

So with that in mind, when I heard that one of my ALT friends had gotten all four of her teeth taken out in Japan for ONLY $100 DOLLARS, I knew that I would get it done here. It was now or never.

ANYWAY.

I had my first appointment a few weeks ago. I got my supervisor to call and get me an appointment. She spouted out a bunch of words that I didn’t understand, and let me know that I had an appointment with Dr. Saito on at Omni Dentix on Friday, February 3rd.

I don’t particularly like going to the dentist, or any medical professional for that matter, so when that Friday rolled around and Jessica drove me in for my appointment, I begged and pleaded with her to stick around until I was done.

“Stop being a little baby about it,” she said. “I’m going shopping, act like a grown up.”

She didn’t really say that, but I’m sure she would have if she wasn’t so ridiculously nice. Instead, I put on my big girl face all by myself, and told her to have fun shopping. I’d call her when I was done.

I sat down in the waiting room, filled out the forms, and waited for them to call my name. When I was finally called, I was brought into an impeccably clean, stylish room, with about 8 dental workspaces separated by chic barriers. Seriously, the most posh dentist I’ve ever been to. I was greeted by a dental hygienist who spoke no English, and when I gestured to the chair to ask whether I should sit down, she shook her head, and pointed at a tiny little stool thing.

“That’s a little weird,” I thought. “Oh well.” And I sat down on the tiny little stool. Immediately, she ran towards me, and shook her head, pointing at one of the tiny stools that was in a different dental area. It was occupied not by a human, but by a purse, scarf and jacket.

Oh. Oops.

I sheepishly climbed off the place I was supposed to put my stuff, and did things the right way. Go me.

The doctor then came in, told me I needed an x-ray, and made me take out all 7 of my earrings. One of them just wouldn’t come out, so after about 10 minutes of effort, Dr. Saito just told me that it was fine, and that it shouldn’t make that much of a difference. Great. So I go in, get my teeth x-rayed, and come out relatively unscathed. I go to put my earrings back in, and drop one on the ground. Dr. Saito comes back in and looks really confused when he sees me crawling around, muttering to myself in English with my little dental bib still on.

And we wonder why the Japanese people think foreigners are strange.

I straightened up, gave another sheepish smile (I think I’m getting quite good at it) and sat back down in the dental chair, accepting the fact that my earring was forever lost. He then went into an explanation about wisdom tooth removal, and how the roots of my bottom teeth were dangerously close to the nerve that runs across my jaw, which meant that I could end up numb for days, weeks, or possibly permanently.

“I see,” I said, trying not to openly panic. “And approximately how common is that?”

“Well, it’s happened twice and we’ve been open for over seven years,” he replied. “No need to worry. Also, your roots curve in, so we might have to saw your teeth in two to be able to take them out. And you’re only getting local anaesthetics. But don’t worry, it will be fine.”

He then left while I got my top teeth cleaned. Apparently, according to Japanese insurance policy, they are not allowed to clean all your teeth at once, so they must clean your top teeth during one appointment and your bottom teeth during another. Don’t ask, I don’t know.

Then, I grabbed my card, paid for my appointment (only $17!!) and went to meet Jessica, a new appointment made for extraction 2 weeks later.

I fretted and worried for the next two weeks, but my next appointment came way too soon.I was practically crying as Jessica drove me into Sapporo for my appointment, scared to death that something would go wrong. “BUT YOU ARE GOING TO BE THERE THE WHOLE TIME, RIGHT?” I asked Jessica. “Yes, dear. I’ll be right outside waiting for you.”

Seriously, Jessica, you rock. I can’t sing your praises enough.

Once again, they called my name, and this time led me into the room where it would all go down. The oral surgeon came in, and with surprisingly good English, told me exactly what was going to happen. I admitted that I was a little nervous, and he assured me that it was all going to be okay. I liked this guy already.

He wasted no time, putting some numbing cream on the spot, and leaving for a few minutes while it worked its magic. When it was done, he came back in with a giant scary needle, and quickly assured me that it would be over before I knew it. I opened my mouth, and he shoved the needle into my skin about 2395846 times, making sure the entire area was numb. I was holding my breath the entire time, and halfway through he had to tell me to breathe, because I was too tense for him to put the needle in again. Oops.

After the anaesthesia, he left for a little bit longer so it could become effective, then came back. He mentioned that there was going to be a bit of pressure, but if I felt any pain I should raise my left hand.

And then he put a giant set of pliers in my mouth and yanked out my tooth. I mean, not quite, but almost! He put a lot of pressure on my tooth, and I raised my left arm in pain, then he injected more anaesthesia in, and all of a sudden he was waving my tooth in front of me!

That was it! No having to cut it, no anything!

I was all excited that it didn’t even hurt and ready to have the next three teeth pulled out, when he said “Well, that’s it for today!”

“What? I thought I was going to get them all taken out?”

“No, we only do one at a time! Otherwise, you’d never be able to eat anything!”

“Oh, so I have to come back three more times?”

“Yep!”

Great.

He gave me a piece of gauze to stick in the area and keep there for 30 minutes, and with that, I was done. I paid, picked up my prescription of antibiotics and painkillers and hopped back into the car with Jessica.  On the way home, the anaesthesia started to wear off, and man did my mouth hurt. I popped 2 of the heavy-duty painkillers, and my mouth went back to it’s previously painless state.

Pretty sure the painkillers I was given were just like extra strength tylenol, but they did the trick, and I managed to get to sleep immediately when I went home.

The next day, I was feeling fine, so  I took the drugs as prescribed and went out to sing karaoke with Jessica and some other friends. We also drove all the way back into the city for a check-up, which Jessica was more than happy to do. Have I mentioned how much she rocks recently? Well, she does.

Anyway, one week later I had my stitches taken out and I made an appointment for my next one. I’m left with just a hole where the tooth used to be and no pain whatsoever!

Here’s hoping that it will be equally easy when I go to get the next 3 taken out!

Sapporo Yuki Matsuri

Once upon a time, there was a young girl named Jeri who dreamed of one day traveling to Japan and witnessing the glory of the giant ice and snow sculptures at Sapporo’s Yuki Matsuri. She waited and waited, until she could wait no longer. Then, one day, all her dreams came true.

Okay, so that story isn’t completely true. It’s more like “Once upon a time Jeri got placed in Hokkaido and subsequently learned that the one awesome thing about the winter was the aforementioned festival”. But hey, both are equally valid reasons to attend, right?

Whether you’d been dreaming about it for ages like imaginary Jeri, or had only heard about it this year like real Jeri, chances are you were looking forward to the Yuki Matsuri this year. Let me tell you something, it did not disappoint.

 

I don’t live in the city, so I didn’t have a chance to visit until the weekend. When Friday finally rolled around, I was ecstatic and giddy as I hopped into Jessica’s car at 2 pm to go pick up Tracy and head into the city. We drove for an hour, sampling classics from my winter playlist, and finally arrived, parked the car, and walked out towards Odori park, where the festival was being held. 

 

According to the website, there are thousands of spectacles to behold at the festival. They had 2,416,000 visitors last year, virtually doubling Sapporo’s population (although I’m slightly confused as to how they count visitors at a free festival). The festival also boasts 228 ice and snow sculptures at its three sites. Most of them are small, but many are massive and unbelievably impressive. In fact,  there is so much snow needed for these sculptures that it takes them 6.500 five-ton trucks to move it all around. With all this in mind, I was ready to check out the sites for myself.

The first thing I saw when we got to Odori was a giant castle made of ice. The intricacy and detail of the sculpture was stunning, and I couldn’t take my eyes away. Everywhere I looked I saw smaller pieces of art made of snow, the subjects being anything from Totoro to the Taj Mahal. 

 

The second thing I noticed was the insane amount of foreigners that had come into the city. In general, I just assume that if I run into another foreigner in the city, I probably know them. I know this isn’t always accurate, but it holds up a lot of the time. Not this weekend. As soon as we got there, the three of us were accosted by a group of very drunk American Navy soldiers who promptly made it their duty to make Jessica very uncomfortable. Tracy and I acted like bad friends and laughed and snapped photos. Oops.

 

We walked along the park, admiring the artistry and ducking into a conbini every so often to try to bring some feeling back to our numb toes. Once we had travelled the length of the park, we decided to walk to the Susukino festival site, with help from Jesse, our incredibly wonderful Sapporo guide. 

 

The sculptures at that site were more beautiful in a sense. Since they were made of ice and not snow, they seemed more delicate, more dainty than the ones at Odori. We walked and looked and walked and sat in ice cars and had our pictures taken, and did all the wonderful fun Sapporo Snow Festival stuff. At that point, we were starting to get hungry, so we decided to indulge in what is probably the best (and most underrated) part of the festival: festival food.

 

 

We returned to Odori and frequented the Indian food stand, since as a vegetarian, it was probably the only stall I could eat at. I got hot mango juice and vegetable curry, which turned cold as soon as I sat down to eat it. In the never-ending war of temperature, the heat of my food definitely lost this battle. That being said, the food was delicious and hit the spot. Also, if you haven’t tried it, hot mango juice is absolutely delicious. It’s my new winter drink. For real. The others satiated their taste-buds at the international area of the festival, where they could purchase the kebabs that they had been craving all afternoon. Was it worth it? I don’t know, ask them.

 

 

Then, finally, came the moment we had all been waiting for. Ever since we had showed up, Tracy had wanted to go to an ice bar. She’s from Australia, you see, and is completely unused to all the interesting and exciting things that the winter can bring. That said, with our stomachs full, we headed to one of the many ice bars. We ordered warm drinks and stood next to a table made of ice, smiling and chatting with each other while reminiscing about the wonderful day that we had had. It was truly a great, albeit cold, end to a great, albeit cold, day.

In conclusion, if you missed the festival this year, shame on you, but I  just gave you the highlights so fret not. If you were there, I hope you had as much fun as I did!

The Interview

I figured I'd write about my interview so that anybody looking to prepare for interviews next year could have a little bit of help, so here goes!

To prepare, I asked everybody I knew to help me come up with possible interview questions, and I made answers to all of them. I did as much research as possible on Japanese culture, language, history, politics and geography. I memorized some phrases in Japanese (my language ability at the time was zero). I did practise interviews with my friends. I bought a business suit, which I recommend to anyone regardless of whether you get the job. I scoured the forums for tips.

The day of the interview, I had class beforehand, conveniently located in the building right next to the interview building on McGill campus. I went to class in my suit, then I walked to the building. I arrived about 30 minutes early. There were 2 former JETs working the tables outside, and I highly recommend using this time to ask any questions you have about the job and their experience, no matter what the questions are. It was really helpful.

Then, they called my name. I walked into a bright room and sat down on a tiny wooden chair 6 feet away from the 3 interviewers. One was Japanese, and two were foreign. They did the whole sort of good cop bad cop thing, with two being very strict, and one of the foreigners being super down to earth and accessible.

Some of the questions I was asked:
- where did you say you wanted to be placed? Why did you pick this placement?
- why did you choose to do JET?
- what do you want to do in your life and how do you think JET will help you get there?
- what cultural aspects of Japan are you most excited to experience?
- what cultural aspects of Canada would you teach Japanese people about?
- tell us about a time when you overcame an obstacle to achieve something.
- do you know what the JETAA is? What would your role be in the JETAA?
- what are the three main goals of the JET programme and how would you contribute to them?

After this, I was asked to do the role play portion. They told me they the JTE had just left the room and I was in a class full of seventh graders. I was supposed to teach them about winter in Canada. During this period, one of them (the happy one) played the role of the super genki student. The Japanese lady played the role of the troublemaker, throwing erasers at the other two and the foreign lady played the role of the tired student, sleeping at her desk. During this part I ended up attempting more class managing than teaching, and I was pretty sure I bombed. But that's just my experience.

Then, they told me they'd let me know, and off I went.

Words of Advice:
- I did a lot of research on Japan that I didn't need, but Id recommend doing it anyway. Just in case.
- show up very early.
- prepare questions to ask, but don't be surprised if you aren't given the chance to ask them. In my case, they said if I had any questions to ask the two ladies outside.
- Be succinct, but answer their questions.
- invest in a suit and wear it.
- no matter what happens, stay calm and go with it. One of the main characteristics they emphasize is adaptability. You will probably have to show this.
- smile when you walk in the room and as much as you can during the interview.
- don't worry too much! They just want to see what you can do!

Sorry that was so long, but I hope it helps!

Christmas in Japan

Alright, as promised for the maybe 3 readers who consistently read my blog, here's my post about Christmas traditions in Japan.

I decided to write on this topic because of the tens of classes Id been asked to give on the opposite topic, Christmas in Canada. The more I taught about it, the more perplexed my students seemed and I realized that this was because their customs were completely different to ours. I mean, sure, they celebrate Christmas, but they celebrate it in the most curious way. Like anytime they adopt Western culture, they celebrate Christmas in an attempt at Westernism that is so amazingly Japanese. Because of this, I’ve made a list of my top five Japanese Christmas traditions.

5. Christmas Cake

For some reason unknown to me, Japanese people buy cake to eat on Christmas Eve, whether it be with their families or friends. And not just any kind of cake. In general, the cake is a very special white sponge cake, covered with whipped cream and strawberries. It’s like strawberry shortcake, but in actual cake form. In fact, I actually got to make this with some of the san-nensei Home Economics students before I went home for the holidays. It is delicious!

4. Dating

For many young Japanese people, Christmas is seen as a dating holiday. Many young couples go out on super romantic dates, and profess their love to each other, or whatever people do on dates. I haven’t been on one in a while, so I kind of forget.  I’m also unsure of how this tradition started, but I know that many Japanese women get quite upset when they are single on Christmas. The poor things.

3. One-way Gift Giving

Apparently, since the Western idea of Christmas is relatively new in the country, they have adopted some practises but not others? Japanese parents tend to give their children gifts, but the children are not expected to give any back. Also, I don’t think they give anyone else gifts, just their kids. And only until they are the age when they stop believing in Santa Claus. Because like in Canada, the parents ARE Santa. Sorry, kids.

2. The complete absence of Religion

One of the most perplexing parts of these Christmas rituals is that according to the very scientific completely scholarly source of Wikipedia, less than one percent of Japanese people are Christian. The main religions are Buddhism and Shintoism. Because of this, many Japanese children think that December 25th is the birth of Santa, not Jesus, and even more people don’t even realize that Christmas in other parts of the world has a religious origin. 

1. KFC on Christmas.

This has got to be one of the best things about Christmas in Japan. I know I’m a vegetarian, so I shouldn’t be repping this, but many Japanese people eat Kentucky Fried Chicken on Christmas. This tradition has become so popular that many KFC chains offer special Christmas packages. Once again, I’m not entirely positive how this tradition started, but from what I understand, it is all part of an advertising campaign done by KFC back in the 1970s, when they started promoting the idea that Christmas = Kentucky. This was done because apparently one group of expats realized that in the absence of turkey, fried chicken was the next best thing. Obviously, KFC capitalized on this possibility and the trend grew and grew, being adopted by the Japanese people as an essential part of Christmas in Japan.

So yeah, that’s Christmas in Japan! Next time, I may or may not write about something more relevant to my life. We’ll see how I feel.