Click
on the picture to enlarge.Emails from Kirsten and Naoto
July 2002
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 03:25:13 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Angst and Vibrancy
Dear Friends and Family:
Mia is just devouring her children's books these days, (ha ha) as you can see from the picture. She still doesn't have teeth, nor does she crawl, but we are not that worried. She is incredibly verbal.
It is now the warm, humid, melt in your mouth rainy season I know and love in Japan. You just sit still in your room and sweat. It's great.
Angst
Naoto mentioned the other day that I seem to be much more calm nowadays about living in Japan then I was when I lived in Utsunomiya. I think so, too. I used to complain alot. I used to write angst-ridden poems and sing Tracy Chapman songs all the time. I am not sure why, but this time I don't feel angsty at all. I sing children's songs and write scholarly articles about teaching ESL students to use the internet search engines. Maybe its because I came to Japan already knowing it was probably going to piss me off and be frustrating at times. Or maybe I am just a calmer person, who knows?
Vibrancy
The rice fields around us have turned a deep shade of emerald, the kudzu is rioting all over the bushes, and strange grasses are springing up everywhere. Yes, it is rainy season. The white heron that lives in the rice field over to our north flies by every day, the white wings stark against the rice plants' green. I wish I could write haiku about it. It just isn't the same in English. Also, the bullfrogs are amazing. They were imported from somewhere to eat some kind of bug and went crazy with no natural predators. (no small animals in Japan really, lots of bugs, lots of birds, a mole or two, and monkeys in the mountains. No squirrels, foxes, raccoons, etc. etc. You should see a Japanese person when they first see a squirrel in the U.S. They freak out) The bullfrongs are LOUD.
Anyway, that's all for now. Oh yeah, did I mention I finally have another story published? It's called "Usher's Well" (based on an Irish folksong) and is in the july version of ideomancer at ideomancer.com. The payment for it just covers two or three books from amazon .com.
bye bye for now.
Kirsten
Click
on the picture to enlarge.
Subject: Thanks
Date: Mon, 1 Jul 2002 16:58:05 +0900
I received your birthday card with the present today. Thank you very much.
I'm kind of assamed myself because the last mail I sent to you guys looked
like a "begging" mail.
Today is very humid here in Chiba. Japan is hot but this humidity makes the
situation worse. I think the rainy season will be over after one or two
more weeks. Then crazy hot summer is comming. I don't know if I can
survive that.
naoto
Date: Fri, 12 Jul 2002 03:04:53 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Vulnerability of teachers and More Bugville
Dear Friends and Family
It is HOT and HUMID in Japan, did you know that? Naoto is trying to keep our
electricity bills down so when I come home from work, he and Mia are dripping,
usually. Then I make him turn on our air conditioning.
We had a typhoon. I forgot how fun they are. I was only in one other,
when I lived here five years ago in utsunomiya. It starts with some innocuous
wind, then the wind gets stronger and stronger, rattling our windows and blowing
down the corn planted by our landlord. The rain is whipped in strange directions
by the wind, so no matter how you hold your umbrella you get wet. I think Mia
was a little scared, but she managed to mostly sleep through the night.
Mia is still status quo. She isn’t teething or crawling yet. Naoto says
she is a very “my pace” girl.
Vulnerability of Teachers
I just read an article at Salon.com about parents suing a teacher over their
daughter’s failure to pass English (and then not graduate). The daughter
plagiarized an exam, missed many classes, and then didn’t come to a make
up session. In the end, the teacher was forced by the administration to pass
her. It made me sick to read that. I know the United States is a litigious society,
but this is ridiculous. What kind of lesson is this teaching their daughter
(you can do anything you want and if you threaten a lawsuit there are no consequences)
The biggest reason I was sick over this was that I am afraid I may face a similar
situation with a few of my baseball boys. They missed 10 classes out of 25.
They did not pass the midterm, nor did they do any homework. They mostly slept
or ignored me in class. Unfortuantely, they have an advisor who is friends with
my boss. I heard from another teacher that he was forced to pass students who
had this same advisor. Yuck. I specifically asked at my job interview if we
were allowed to fail students because I couldn’t back at Sakushin Gakuin
without a huge reason such as :
a) they came to less than 30% of the classes
b) they were dead
Failing tests, no homework, threatening the teacher were not considered reasons
for failure. I hope this college won’t be like that.
More Bugville
How can such a small country have such big bugs? I know I have talked about
bugs before, but that was before the rainy season. Now the bugs are coming out
of the woodwork (literally). Walking home, I saw chickadee-sized dragonflies
perched in a row on the electric lines, just like so many little airplanes ready
to take off, or a row of ornaments with gossamer wings. There is a HUGE spider
(I swear it is as big as my hand, no, I am not exaggerating) that slung a web
from one electric line on the side of the road to the electric line on the opposite
side of the road. How do they jump that far?
Then there’s the giant, tan beetles, the flying cockroaches, the potato
bugs, the ants, the unidentifiable little brown flying mites, etc etc. Gumyo
is a bug-scientist heaven. The people here don’t seem as surprised as me,
however. What is it about Japan that makes them blasé about creepy crawlies
with a thousand legs but makes them stare at brown-haired women?
kirsten
Click on the picture to enlarge.
Date: Sat, 27 Jul 2002 03:41:19 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Animosity and Eggplants
Dear Friends and Family
It's been a while since my last missive. I guess the term's end, summer school,
and various other things kept me from writing as much as I'd like.
For the past week I've been busy from 8-5 each day with summer school. On top
of that, Mia's been sick with some kind of baby measles (or at least we think
that's what it is.) She had a fever and no appetite for three days. Now her
appetite is back, but she has broken out in red spots/blotches all over her
poor body. She doesn't want us to put her down at all. I don't know how naoto's
back has survived the week!
Anyway, today is the official start of my summer vacation. It lasts until September
15th. I knew there was a reason I was a teacher!
Animosity
I taught a seminar for elementary school teachers on using games and songs in
the classroom. At the same time, another American from UC Riverside taught a
seminar for high school students. She is currently overseeing a program in Korea.
I happened to ask her what the atmosphere was like towards Americans in Korea.
Why would I ask such a thing? Well, for those of you who didn't watch the World
Cup, you missed a demonstration of animosity towards the U.S. that surprised
me. In the Korea-U.S. game, after a goal, a Korean player pretended to be a
speed skater. You may ask why that is animosity? Well, it is referring to the
Olympics. You might, or might not being mostly Americans, remember there was
some kind of debacle involving U.S. judges that left Korea feeling slighted.
It may come as a surprise to most Americans that most Koreans really don't like
us now.
My seminar colleague told me that two of her Native Korean teachers quit the
UC Riverside program in Seoul over the Olympic thing.
What a shock it comes to me that there is yet another country out there with
animosity (rightful, in their eyes) towards the U.S. And how ironic that I bet
maybe 1 in 10000 Americans is even aware of it?
Eggplants
Can I say I love our garden? Granted it is not really on our land, but we've
got two baby, asian eggplants from it. After the two typhoons, I guess the vegetation
decided it was time to grow. Now the weeds and kudzu surrounding our little
tomato and eggplants overtower them by a few inches. We refer to it as our "field
of dreams." Unfortunately, we think the pigeons ate our edamame, but we
have a few daikon sprouts out now.
I feel so rural and earthy. I just wish I wouldn't get six ( and no, I am NOT
exaggerating) mosquito bites every five minutes I spend out there weeding! It
does give us an "in" with the local farmers, though. Now we can talk
"shop" with them.
I can't wait until Mia is old enough to help out in a garden. Actually, I can't
wait until Mia can talk! She still isn't crawling, teething, or doing anything
new yet.
love and light,
kirsten
p.s. here is a picture of Mia in her tradional Japanese "belly wrap."
There's this belief in Japan that keeping the belly warm is very important.
Naoto yells at me that I will catch a cold if I sleep with my tummy uncovered.
Isn't she cute?
Click
on the picture to enlarge.