Emails from Kirsten and Naoto
June 2003

Date: Tue, 3 Jun 2003 22:38:39 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: not in my phrasebook and cult of mizuta groundskeeping

Dear Friends and Family

Well, the mosquitoes are back. It is now officially dangerous to spend more than one second in the back or at the side of our house. This is unfortunate because that's where my herb garden is.

I am in the long slide into the end of the semester at school. Some deadweight has been kicked out of some of my classes after failing the midterms and the make-up midterms. Freshman students have realized by now that yes, they will actually have to do work in order to pass the finals.

It's all clear sailing now until the middle of July. Then classes will be over and I can start counting down days until Hawaii and Cleveland in August.

In Mia news, her vocabulary is still growing by leaps and by bounds. She tends to repeat any word she hears. This is potentially dangerous for us.

The hardest thing I have found is that Naoto will teach her a word, for example, "kame" (turtle.) Then she will see a picture of a turtle on a sign or whatever when she's with me and say "ka ka ka." Of course I have no idea what she's saying. Then she's all disappointed that I didn't understand her.

Sometimes I see the picture and make the connection, other times I don't know. I am sure Naoto has the same problem with English words she learns with me. Until her pronunciation gets better, it's all guessing half the time.

I have noticed she is pretty verbal compared to others her age. Naoto says she likes to talk to the other mothers at play group. He also says she prefers running around in the big, empty play room more than playing with all the toys in the little kids' room.

She is starting to learn abstract concepts. For example, whenever there is more than one of something, she will hold up her fingers and say "ni" (two in Japanese.) I was all excited the first couple times she did that, because there were actually only two. Now I realize that she does it for any multiple.

Not in my phrasebook

Spring brings the yearly employee medical checkup to Josai. All the full time professors go through the health check gamut of weight, blood pressure and testing, chest x-ray, electro cardiogram, eyes, ears, and general interview.

I was talking about the undignified position of walking across campus with a bottle of your own pee in one hand with a female colleague (name witheld to protect the innocent.) She said some students stopped her to ask about homework. She told me there was nothing in the world she wanted to do less than talk about homework with students while holding her own pee.

I agreed.

Then she told me more. She said for some reason the lady at the college Personnel office (who gives us our paychecks among other things) was at the reception desk. Apparently she made my colleague hand over her pee to her first, and then she handed it over to the nurse. Why did she have to hold the pee first? We have no idea. What a strange juxtaposition of duties. I wonder what her job description said....

My colleague isn't fluent in Japanese. This is usually not a problem. However, at these medical checks all kinds of interesting linguistic problems can come up. The check up is done at little stations set up in the school gym. Other teachers and staff are in line behind and in front of you. Nothing is very private. As a Westerner, it's a little unnerving. I thought I had it bad, but my colleague had a more interesting experience then I did this time.

She was okay until she got to the blood testing area. There they wanted to know if she was on any medication. She told them, "Birth control." They didn't get it. She tried, "no baby." They got it. Then in their joy at understanding, they said in a loud voice, "oh, pill!" (pi-ru, in Japanese.)

So, now half the female staff knew my colleague was on the pill. Then they asked her another question she didn't get it. The nurse tried again, "menses?". "Yes," said my colleague. The nurse again repeated the Japanese word for period very loudly.

(warning, off-color joke here.)

Now half the female staff knew that my colleague could be sexually active, but not this week.

Yay.

Then they strapped my colleague to the table and jelled her up. They pinched her skin and stuck little metal clips on her. This process of turning you into Frankenstein is called an "electro cardiogram." Apparently it wasn't working right on my colleague because she said they kept coming back and putting more slimy jell on her.

Forewarned, I opted out of the electro cardiogram this year.

On one hand, these medical checkups probably keep insurance low, catch diseases in their infancy, and help the university keep their staff healthy. On the other hand, the way they are done is depersonalizing, uncomfortable, and downright embarrassing at times.

Somehow this reminds me of other experiences I've had in Japan...

Cult of Mizuta Groundskeeping

There are big fields of sickly-looking grass (grass doesn't do well in japan for some reason)and weeds on campus.

There is also a cadre of bonnetted old ladies, two straw-hatted men, and a middle-aged woman in a visor who are grounds keepers at Josai. They are there every morning trimming, weeding, planting, or sweeping something.

Today I saw them kneeling in those fields with little sickles about the length of your middle finger. What were they doing?

Cutting the grass. No, really.

I'm sure there's a good reason a lawn mower is out of the question.

I'm sure there is.

love and light,
kirsten

p.s. Caught my lovely daughter in training to be my father, John, the camera man. Now if I can only teach her to raise one hand while she's taking a picture...

Click on Mia's camera to see a bigger picture.

Date: Tue, 10 Jun 2003 22:56:08 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: the rise and fall of the ha-ro monster

Dear Friends and Family:

Well, it runs in the family. I got some kind of poison ivy down the side of my face and back. Now my eye is swollen and itchy. Mia and I are just a disaster waiting to happen, poor Naoto.

No one at school really mentioned this new, red-puffy, bumpy-faced Kirsten though. Which makes me wonder. Maybe they never really look at me in class. Maybe I could go in naked and get away with it. Better not try it, though, I suppose.

The first sign of language differentiation by Mia was pointed out to me by Naoto today. She learned the word "shell" from me as we read a book involving the ocean. For a while, she would call all shells "shell" no matter which of us she was talking to. Now it seems she will call "shell" the japanese word "kai" when she talks to Naoto. Pretty cool, eh, and she's not even 2 yet.

We had a little taco party lunch at school today. It's amazing how Old El Paso taco seasoning and shells turns into ambrosia when you live in Japan. My colleague, Jason (clone of my Michigan cousin Steve) said he spent the last class period figuring out where all the Taco Bells are in Kalamazoo so he can hit them this August when he goes home.

You would be surprised what things you yearn for when you leave your homeland. It really teaches you the meaning of "taking for granted." I remember how shocked I was when I returned from a month in Nicaragua and went to the grocery store. I went from looking at a store with empty shelves in Managua to being overwhelmed by ten different choices of peanut butter.

Privelige, thy name is U.S.A.

The rise and fall of the ha-ro monster

Let me explain the "ha-ro" monster here by including an excerpt from an unpublished story I wrote when I lived for two years (1995-7) in Utsunomiya, Japan.

"Most of my life I have spent trying to be special, a middle class white child living in a suburb of a major city made me a small fish in a big pond. I had nothing distinct to lay claim to that wasn't stained with the mark of the un-politically correct, or that I had enough courage embrace in against the current of public opinion. I looked on with envy at others who stood out of the crowd because of their looks, their grades, their way of dress, or their purple and orange mohawks.

So after the first three weeks here when I began to wish I could blend in, it came as a surprise to me. I never wanted to be invisible before, never studied to be a chameleon. But then again, I never could have imagined in the States that the mere act of taking my garbage out could turn into the supreme test of my self possession as neighbor's eyes, ears, and mouths invaded the privacy of my empty cartons, banana peels, and old letters. Not to mention the daily, constant presence of the "ha-ro" monster, who would suddenly possess even the shyest of children between the ages of five and twenty-five, causing them to spontaneously speak out, in their unthinking and broken English, whenever I passed on bike, foot, or bus. Even if they had seen me pass that way, at that exact time, a thousand times before.

The ha-ro monster had many incarnations, the main one being the mispronounced "hello", mutated into ha-ro, that suddenly shameless boys and girls threw my way with all the bravado they could muster. But safe in their protected most-favored-nationality status as Japanese, emboldened by my outward lack of membership in known humanity, the ha-ro monster could take on less innocent forms. Like "you are sexy" spoken by leering, spike haired high school boys or their immaculately uniformed counterparts, skirts pulled up around their thighs, spearing you from behind as you pass with "you are gaijin", in case you had forgotten your foreignness.

The funny thing about the ha-ro monster is that at first it doesn't bother you. The first few times you are greeted by strangers who lapse into giggle fits whether you answer them or not, it can be passed off as cute. Along about the one thousand and first time it begins to cross the boundary of cute into annoying. After that it becomes just another reminder of how readily we withhold personhood from others outwordly strange to us. "

You get the idea? The ha-ro monster is one of the perks of being a Caucasian foriegner in Japan. Or, at least it used to be.

When I was here in 1992 in Morioka, the ha-ro monster was a constant part of my life. I had a sort of semi-celebrity status wherever I went because I was one of only a few Caucasians living there. Even in 1995 in Utsunomiya (nowhere near as isolated or countrified as Morioka) I couldn't escape stares and strange shouts.

But now, here in podunk Chiba, I have barely glimpsed the ha-ro monster. Of course, I still get random "hi"'s from Josai students (who probably guess I am a teacher), but not from school kids or bonnetted old ladies.

Japan is changing. (did a pig just fly by?) Kristie (my office mate and ex J.E.T. program participant) told me that Mombusho (the japanese education ministry) has decided to phase out JET. I am not surprised. For over 10 years JET has brought U.S., Canadian, and Australian recently graduated kids to be "team teachers" in junior highs and high schools all over Japan. They flooded the market. Many JETS (and non JETS like me) come back or stay on to teach English.

I think, against their wills, Japanese people are being dragged into a global community where they can no longer think of themselves as a monolithic, homogenous, racially and culturally pure country. The generation growing up now has had Caucasian English teachers in school. Their cousin or uncle or best friend's brother probably is married to a non Japanese. (or even an ethnic Korean or South Eastern Asian born and raised here but denied citizenship anyway because of race.)

I think the demise of the ha-ro monster means the JET program, U.S. movies, hip-hop music, and sports just might have made the West familiar enough on an every day basis that Caucasians are acquiring personhood. It's no longer acceptable to treat us like pets or mascots. We are part of the weave and weft of Japanese society now.

Kristie is sad that the JET program is ending. She thinks it was a great idea that was never properly developed. On some levels, I agree. But I also think it's era is over. Japan doesn't need to artificially introduce children to Caucasian foriegners anymore. We don't need that "special guest" status anymore, it can only harm us.

There are so many ties now between the States and Japan on the grass roots level. Each time I hear of another bicultural marriage, I get a little more relieved. Why is it so important to me? Two words for you, Pearl Harbor. I fear the day that America would find some reason to vilify all Japanese and put them in prison camps again.

People may laugh, but, to interject a little political commentary here, seen anything recently that reminds you of Pearl Harbor and us finally attacking Japan and entering World War II? People losing civil rights? People being detained for little or no reason based on ethnicity or country of origin?

The ha-ro monster might be dying out in Japan, I only wish I was confident it was dead in the U.S.

love and light,
Kirsten

p.s. Baba and Jiji came over to play with Mia last weekend. She is now happy to play with Baba for a long time without pining for mommy or daddy. it was a nice break.

Click on Mia to enlarge

Date: Sun, 22 Jun 2003 01:24:23 -0700 (PDT)
Subject: Nakedness Observations

Dear Friends and Family

We're getting a heat blast this week, just for variety from teh rainy humid weather. Mia loves to play outside with water. She currently calls it "wa-wa num num."

Mia is the Original Mrs. must-have-it-just-so. She can't stand things being out of place or different from before. When she takes stamps and envelopes out of our drawer, she puts them back. She can't stand having even a hair dirty her fingers. She will stand there and whine, holding out her hand, until you clean it off for her. When she takes her toy camera out, if you tell her to put it back, she will. (I think she gets this from naoto.)

We made the pilgrimage to Carrefour (French department store with loads of cheese, olives, pestos, etc- all the things I yearn for.) They now have roller-blading store personnel to show you around. Mia loves riding in the little plastic cart-cars. She also likes tasting the camembert!

I felt very isolated the first 5 or 6 months here. Now I can't keep all the mothers and children Naoto talks about straight. We are becoming part of the community whether we want to or not. Especially Naoto. He's helping people set up computers, attending English-teaching for children meetings, etc. etc.

Why is it you only appreciate and see your community when you think about leaving it? Naoto and I are now thinking about looking for jobs for him at the end of August. We will be looking in Japan and the U.S. (but don't worry, my 4 years at the max rule still applies for living in Japan.)

Nakedness Observations

Naoto just mentioned to me this afternoon how strange he found the difference between Japanese and U.S. male's reactions to nakedness.

Their own nakedness, I mean.

He was talking about how, in Japan, there are all these public hot water springs and public baths (segregated by gender) where all ages of men let it all hang out (so to speak)with absolutely no embarrassment or shame. Yet, Naoto said, at the gym the other guys are always trying to hide in their lockers or behind towels.

Yet in the U.S., Naoto observed, many people would have trouble with going naked (even in single gender situations) into the hot springs tubs, but seem to have no trouble in the showers at the gyms.

I tend to think that the gym is a place men are probably more keenly aware of their bodies and whether they are "up to snuff" or whatever. Since men who go to gyms are there to change their bodies physically, they may feel their shortcomings are more exposed.

I haven't really been to gyms in Japan, so I can't make any observations about women. I wonder if its the same. I would imagine it would be even more so because of the pressures women must face in every society about body image.

I certainly get stared at unabashedly whenever I go to a hot springs place. (It could just be my tattoo, though, I don't know. )

love and light,
Kirsten

Click on me to watch me grow.

Click again.

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