little bit o' language barrier

So I had just finished eating the pudding we got for winning in volleyball. It came in a nice glass that I was going to wash out and use at home.
Yamashiro sensei comes up to me at my desk:
Yamashiro: 'Sooooo.... cup... if you don't want... I can take it'
Me: 'Actually, I was going to save it.'
Yamashiro: 'Yes... but if you don't want....'
Me: 'No, I do want it.. I won't throw it away. I was going to wash it and I will use it at home.'
Yamashiro: 'Okay... but if you don't want, I can use when I make pudding.'
Me: ::finally realizing 'if you don't want' is the nice, subtle Japanese way of saying 'I want'::
'Ah, yes. No I don't want it... you can have it.' :)

...exam week...

• Exam week ::sigh::. I got my JET Japanese books on Monday. I've been working on them all week because there is nothing else to do. I had ordered the intermediate books, because I didn't think I needed another book full of 'hello, my name is Sarah, I am American and 23 years old and I enjoy art.' The grammar's been kind of giving me a headache, though, because a lot of it I haven't learned yet, so everything needs to be looked up or I have to ask either Andrew or one of the JTEs. I have learned a lot, though, so maybe it will work in my favor. Anyway, Andrew said I'm doing better than Carla, the predecessor from hell, so as long as I'm better than her, I'm good. That wasn't a catty thing to say at all.
• Yesterday after exams, there was a meeting for the teachers about the AED... Asomething Esomething Defribullator. The thing they keep at schools to jump start hearts. First they taught basic CPR, which was interesting in Japanese, then the teachers had to practice on dummies. That was interesting, too. One of the teachers got really into it and, as one of the other teachers said, 'he is in a movie' (i.e. he was acting), and he was pretty hilarious. After the training thing, all the teachers played volleyball. We were divided into teams according to year. I'm pretty sure they couldn't have picked a worse sport for me to play. Okay, maybe tennis. I think tennis is the only sport I play worse than volleyball. The point is, I'm terrible. And it turns out Yamada sensei, who happened to be on my team (!!!!!), is the fricken volleyball champion of the world. Seriously, he was quite hard core. I actually missed the ball a few times because I was distracted by him throwing himself in front of me to get the ball. I think he spent the entire time diving and sliding and rolling and doing all manner of dramatic movements. I've never seen the man more animated. Now he's just chillin over there by his desk, grading math papers, just hangin out. But put him on a volleyball court... and look out. ANYway... I played horribly, as I thought I would. I seem to remember playing in high school, or middle school or something in gym class and I was actually fairly decent at serving... but not during this game. I didn't make a single one of my serves over the net. Fricken lame. One of the other teachers kept saying, 'switch, switch,' which I assume is because I was accidentally standing in a position that was relatively important and he realized that it probably wouldn't work out. Our team did win, though, thanks to Yamada sensei and other assorted athletic ichinenseisenseis. Afterwards, the principal gave the winning team pudding. Everybody else got sports drinks and canned coffee.
• This week was also my welcome party. 'Hey, you've been here for almost 3 months, but now we're gonna welcome you.' It was actually really nice. It was at this restaurant that was in a sort of conference building. They apparently had a bunch of meeting rooms and a tennis court. It was actually a pretty fancy lunch. They served bread that was really good...they had this really awesome tool for taking bread crumbs off the table as the meal progressed, and I couldn't help wanting to call up CCF and tell them that thing was probably a great idea. We first had this fantastic salad on a really awesome plate with bubbles that was made with some kind of spinachy arugula kinda lettuce (omg thank god it was something other than plain, spikey CABBAGE) with persimmon, lotus, apple, shrimp, scallops, and some kind of vinagrette. Then we had potato soup (I miss CCF loaded baked potato soup!), then some kind of fantastic mystery meat with ginger and vegetables, then soba that we had to eat with a fork, which confused everybody, myself included, and then some kind of dark chocolate mousse pastry and fig sorbet. Awesome. It took forever, though. Clearly they don't worry about shoppers in Japan.
• I have officially pwned my kitchen! I bought pots and pans a couple weeks ago, and plates (my pred had no plates..... really?), and this week I've made dinner for myself TWICE. Not just spagetti out of a jar, but like really made dinner. For the first time:) I was inspired on Tuesday night, when I was in the grocery store and saw a whole bunch of stuff on sale because it was the end of the day. I bought some kind of red meat.... not really sure what it was, but it was fantastic, and cooked it with vegetables and some kind of sesame soy sauce and it was incredible. The following night, I made pasta. I had told my friend Katie before how horrible Japanese spaghetti sauce is and she said she makes her own with tomatoes, red wine, and whatever else. So I gave it a go. I put tomatoes and wine, then onions, peppers, oregano, basil, olive oil, and garlic... then decided to just be ridiculous and I had bought some shrimp so those went in too. Holy cow I am awesome. It was such a good dinner I was so proud of myself.
• Went shopping for winter things. I found pants that fit over my butt (I had a moment in the dressing room where I seriously jumped up and down a little because I was so excited... usually I can't fit the pants over my knees), and discovered my new favorite store is this place called Honey's that's really cheap, but has awesome things, like the puffy vest I bought that has a fur lined hood, the sparkly tights, and a super cute dress. Also, I found the 'fat people' section (i.e. section for people who are greater than a US size 0) in Daiei, which means I will be able to find pants there, too. Now I need to find a big foot store and I'll be set.

Snapshots of Japan

• Had a dream last night. Right before I woke up, 'Across the Universe' started playing in the soundtrack of my dream. I didn't know my dreams had soundtracks.
• Last night on the train home, a Japanese girl puked. My friend gave her a shopping bag, she was too drunk to stand, and we're not sure what stop she should have gotten off on.
• I had my work party. Apparently my kyoto-sensei (Vice Principal) is VERY fun when drunk. He kept pouring beer into people's drinks, regardless of what they had, and trying to set me up with all the single teachers. Also, I almost ate a moth that was in my salad. Very traumatic.
• It's hilarious how red Sekimitsu sensei gets when he drinks.
• My high school has Dell computers in their computer labs. Dell.
• Found an art supplies store. Great sense of accomplishment involved, as I had to ask one of the non-English speaking teachers for directions on how to get there, and then had to spend 20 minutes speaking awkward katakana English to employees trying to figure out what kind of ink to buy.
• The other day in class, students were asking me questions about America. Questions include:

• Why do all Americans wear shoes inside their houses? (When I responded 'a lot of us don't' I was met by outbursts of shock and disbelief)

• Do you feel unsafe in a place where everyone has guns? (My response:*blank stare* Really?)

• What is some traditional American food? (was unable to answer this one and realized the US has no cultural identity)

• What are some traditional American clothes? (pilgrim attire? feathers and deerskin? blue jeans? crocs?...again with the realization that my country has no history or identity of our own)

• Realized Japanese people are really friggen stuck up about their country and culture. Probably moreso than Americans, which is saying something. When people ask me, 'oh Japanese is such a difficult language, isn't it?' I've started responding "nope. it's no more difficult than any other language" because it's true, and because they need to be told the truth. I actually had some teachers freak out because I was eating rice crackers. They actually called over more teachers to witness the gaijin eating rice crackers. "IT'S SO JAPANESE!" they said. "Well I'm sure it is," I thought in my head, "But I'm also pretty sure I don't run into McDonald's and shout, 'Awwwwwww, LOOK AT YOU GUYS! YOU'RE SO AMERICAN!"
• By the way, any stereotype you've ever heard about Japan? Not true.
• Highlights from Silver Week:

• Went to Kyushu to visit MM.

• Started out in Kagoshima city. Random Japanese guys tried to take over our vacation on the first night. They were really nice, but kind of pushy, and didn't get the hint that we wanted to go away. So we eventually had to say, "Go away." Remember the whole thing about Japan being high context? yeah they're not. Next day, went shopping and spent entirely too much money as usual:) Realized on Kyushu, Japanese people stare at gaijin a lot more than they do on the mainland. Almost punched a couple girls in the face. Not really. But when people are staring so blatantly that they are actually turning around to look at you, it gets to you. When it comes to staring, Japanese are like children. They just keep staring and never know when to look away.

• Next day in Shibushi at MM's apartment. We were in the bedroom, when I happened to look up at the wall in the living room. Upon seeing gigantic spider the size of my hand perched in the corner, I remember MM's penchant for placing fake lizards in her car for decoration. "Um... is that supposed to be there?" I ask hopefully. MM turns around and my only answer is her scream of terror. So no. It was not supposed to be there. Spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do with the thing, which more or less involved me cowering in a corner and MM standing in the other corner holding a broom. At one point she turned the lights in the living room on and from 15 feet away I saw the thing's EYES. This was an epic spider. MM closed the closet door to keep it from running in, but when she did, it ran down the wall and disappeared and the two of us were standing in the room screaming. I hadn't actually seen it run, but when MM screamed, I screamed, and I'm sure the neighbors had no clue what was going on. Eventually, she found it under the curtain and hit it like 10 times with a broom to kill it. All in all, scariest moment of my life. If I EVER find one of those things in my apartment and I'm alone, I WILL have a heart attack.

• Spontaneously took a ferry to Nagasaki. Caught the last one of the night by accident. We went to the Peace Park, and then realized we don't care about all the other touristy things, so after that we went to Starbucks and went shopping.

• Went to Fukuoka. Holy crap, best ramen EVER. We went to this huge mall called Canal City and stumbled upon Asian Week where they had a bunch of acrobat guys in the center of the mall doing a show. We met our friends there and at night went to this street along the river with a whole bunch of ramen vendors. Seriously, amazing. That night, wandered around drinking beer, shochu, and whiskey. Not all at the same time. Tried to go to a bar and meet some other friends, but repeatedly got lost, and everytime we stopped to ask for directions we ended up talking to the people we got directions from, and then forgot where they told us to go. Took epic jumping picture, perikura, found mall robo-cop, and fit 6 people in hotel room meant for 2.

• Next day, hangover. MM and I went to Wendy's and I had amazing chili-cheese fries. Whoever invented chili-cheese fries=genious. Dave had taken MM's bag by mistake, so instead of returning to Kagoshima, onward to Beppu. Spent the day at a breakdancing competition. Best accidental Silver Week day EVER. The competition was amazing, and I now want to learn to breakdance.

• Went to Oita. Went to onsen where they cover you in sand. Had awkward moment at the door with the woman who works at the onsen. She was trying to communicate that women aren't allowed to go in during that certain time of month. The sign was quite clear, so all she needed to do was point to the sign. But she didn't speak English very well, and I guess thought we didn't understand, and proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs, "Tampon! NO!" MM and I just looked at eachother, not sure what to do, and Dave replies, "Oh well I guess I'll go then!" and the lady realized we knew what she was saying and let us in. After being buried in sand and soaking in a hot tub, I had chocolate ice cream out of a vending machine and decided that Japan is awesome.

• Last night, Sifton and I met up in Sannomiya. As we were walking to dinner, a random guy came out of nowhere and tried to hug us and speak to us in English. I tried to push him away, but apparently he really wanted a hug. He may have been drunk.
• I was very upset to learn that Yamada sensei, the math teacher at school that is very cute and I have had a middle school crush on since I got to Japan, got married over Silver Week. Why, God. Why?
• Learned choreography to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Also working on body waves and the moon walk. My friends and I have big plans for the Himeji Halloween Party.
• Slowly but surely redecorating my apartment. Gradually becoming my own :) I printed out pictures to hang up, bought new pillows and some wall hanging things.
• No longer afraid of my kitchen. Well, a little afraid of the stove still, but overall, doing well. I've made spaghetti three times, ramen once, and some rice krispy treats. Also, made a big step when I bought chicken and vegetables to cook for dinner. Very proud of myself.
• Typhoon hit last week. I was awake all night because the wind sounded like it was going to knock down my apartment building. We ended up not having school the next day, but the teachers were supposed to go anyway. It was beautiful out and I didn't feel like going, so I took a vacation day.
• Found out my little sister got her driver's ed books 2 weeks after her 16th birthday. Was very angry about that for a long time. Still bitter, but getting over it.
• Kobe is awesome.
• Things that I miss about home:

• friends

• buffalo sauce

• ranch

• tacos

• bath and body works

• shoes that come in my size

• not being illiterate

• not having to dress up just to run to the store

• not being stuck in a stereotype everytime I do something remotely American

• knowing what everything is at the grocery store

• 24 hour grocery stores

• 24 hour ATMs

• non-cash based society

• blending in

• Things that are cool about Jay-pan:

• Random English

• Japanese onomatopoeia

• Kaitenzushi

• Onsens

• Fashion

• I live near 4 major cities that I can get to at any time, easily, by train

• Public transportation

• Standing out

• MM is here, too :)

• JET community

• Ubiquitous conbini (convenience stores)

• History

• Culture

• Izekaya

• Learning a new language that has no plurals, no articles, no future tense, and virtually no verb or noun conjugation

• 100 yen stores

• Karaoke