Folllow up

Sorry that this blog entry is late... once again! It's coming a Sunday night tradition, I guess. :)

Last week was rather busy. I had elementary school all 5 days and 4 classes on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, AND Thursday (3 classes on Monday). It was pretty exhausting. On top of that, I taught a little 1 hour Japanese lesson after work with the other Hioki city ALTs on Wednesday. Needless to say, I was exhausted.

So I just realized that all of my blogs have been about separate isolated events/ideas and I've provided little follow up on anything. So, I'll go through old entries and tie up loose ends. Starting with most recent entries--

The broadcasting vehicles are finally silent! I overheard the result of the elections announced over the loudspeakers at work and I was immediately relieved to know that this nonsense was finally over.

SWINE FLU! Ok, so that finally reached Japan recently. I guess the spread of swine flu all began with some sort of volleyball tournament in Osaka. It's kind of interesting that this is common knowledge. Anyway, there have been cases of it in the Osaka area and in Tokyo- not down here yet.

Here's a map of known swine flu cases in the world.

People around here are considering it to be only a matter of time. I heard another ALT in this prefecture was told to go to the hospital for what he was certain was just a cold.

The weather has become hot and humid at times, I've been leaving my window open just about all day. At the same time, we've been getting more and more rain because the "rainy season" of Japan, or "tsuyu" is just beginning.

Hmm... I was thinking about going farther than the real recent entries, but now I really feel no need.

Noise pollution

So, there are city elections going on now. I can't say I know for what office(s) in city government, but I can say that Japanese elections cause a lot of noise.

I probably mentioned the broadcasting vehicles here in Japan before, right? They drive around saying pretty much whatever they want- advertising, etc. I kind of enjoyed the novelty of it even though it kind of worried me at first. I thought it was worrisome because I can't immediately tell the difference between a broadcasting vehicle advertising a pachinko parlor and one notifying everyone of an actual danger.

I kind of let it slide and decided to enjoy the novelty because it doesn't do me any good to make a fuss over something that isn't going away.

But now, with the election going on, it's definitely annoying.

Imagine not just one, but many broadcasting vehicles ALL. DAY. LONG. Sometimes they're in the same area, so the two loud voices are practically competing. Sometimes one practically parks in front of my apartment building and sits there for a good 10-20 minutes broadcasting "vote for so and so" very very loudly. Sometimes I can't think with all of the noise.

It turns out Japanese people are very irritated by it, too. Then why do they do it?

My Japanese teacher told me I can yell "URUSAI!" (Be quiet!) to the cars. I decided I would only do it from my apartment so that they can't see me. I ALMOST did it today, but a woman in the car looked up, saw me, and waved before I could open my mouth.

Man, what a nuisance these politicians are.

I told myself that I wouldn't criticize Japanese government because it's not really my place, but certain I can at least complain about -this-.

All of that aside, all has been well lately. :)

Sand, rummage, and shoes

Sorry this blog entry is late again.

Last week was Golden Week here in Japan, so I had a five day weekend due to many national holidays that were bunched up together. Many (and by "many", I mean "most") ALTs traveled, but (as I mentioned in the last entry) I pretty much stayed home.

I was kind of glad I made no particular plans because I was sick for about half of it. I got better in time to drive down South a bit to see the ocean and go to the Sand and Flower festival. The flower aspect of the festival wasn't that impressive in my opinion, but the sand sculptures were pretty amazing.

I'll update my album with pictures from that. Sorry, I've been kind of slacking when it comes to uploading pictures lately. I'll force myself to catch up... uhh... soon!

Today I went to a rummage sale in Kagoshima city. It was a lot bigger of an event than I expected. There were maybe 100 booths or so. I was hoping to buy a full length mirror, but sadly all of the ones there weren't for sale (not that I asked every single booth that had one). Anyway, I was pretty excited about this rummage sale because I hadn't been to (or seen) one since I moved to Japan.

So one thing about lately is what aspects of my Japan life I plan to keep up after returning back to the US. An example of this being taking off my shoes when I enter my apartment.

A couple times semi-recently when people have decided that one or two steps into the apartment wearing shoes shouldn't make a difference, I found later that I could see EXACTLY where the shoes touched the floor. I realized then that it really DOES make a huge difference in how much dirt is brought into the house.

The thing is, though, people who ask folks to take off their shoes in the US are sort of considered to be (for a lack of a better word) anal. I don't want to be viewed quite like that, but I also feel like a "no shoes" rule makes lots of sense.

I think I'm going feel torn on quite a few things when I move back to the US.

Oink

It's kind of strange to obviously be a foreigner in a country that is worried about a foreign illness. Of course, I am talking about swine flu.

It kind of makes me wonder what it's like for Mexicans in the US now. Are they looked at by people as being likely carriers? That would suck- some people back home don't need MORE reason to be racist. *sigh*

I think it's kind of similar here now, although no one's been super obvious about it. It seems like people seeing me and other foreigners around might wonder if we just arrived in Japan the other day or if we've had any recent visitors.

I got a flash of a GLARE a little while ago at the grocery store checkout line when I sneezed. Whether it was in relation to that, I don't know.

I guess it doesn't help that I have a cold or something right now.

IS it swine flu? I really doubt it. Although my last interaction with someone newly arrived to this country WAS about a week ago at a party I went to, I think the chances that I got swine flu from that short interaction are very small. Have there been any cases of swine flu in Italy? There have been absolutely no known cases of it in Japan. But I guess it's not -great- to be a foreigner with a cold right now.

In other swine flu chaos related news-

It's Golden Week now (5 day weekend) and a lot of JETs are taking trips right now. Many of them are traveling overseas, even. Last week, I got an email TWICE instructing us to be careful traveling and warning that it might be difficult to get back into the country. It also recommended that ALTs have travel itineraries to our offices. One day, I found the exact same notice printed out on my desk as well. I realized immediately that my office was trying to tell me that they want an itinerary. BUT- since I have no plans, I just threw it away. I assumed that they would figure I have no plans because they didn't get any info from me.

However, yesterday, on Friday, one of the bosses of the office came up to me and began asking me if I was going anywhere. He seemed very surprised to hear that I really DID not have any plans.

I told him that I kind of plan to go to the US in the end of July and he warned me about the swine flu (...he thought I never heard of it *sigh*). We have no way of knowing what the situation will be like in July, so I see no reason not to plan for it now.