Two Years living in Japan

On July 14th, 2008 Orlando and I have been living in Japan two full years. I felt the uncontrollable urge to actually write this down because I could not believe it myself. As a result I needed to keep some type of record that confirms that “Yes this is not a dream”. This is my way of remembering that we lived trough it and have flourished personally as a result.
In general our lives in Japan are pretty normal (hence why I have not written in this blog for a while). Our jobs and surrounding are different but we are the same wacky kids at the core. We are already used to all the bright lights with kanji symbols and nothing really shocks us anymore. Oh look another wacky “Engrish” sign that has horrible spelling or simply can’t be understood. At first I would laugh until I dropped but now I simply appreciate the fact that they tried to translate the information into English in the first place!!! Oh look another temple or shrine – wooooopy duuu. I definitely think our acceptance of weird things has increased greatly in the last few years to the point that we just ignore the girls dressed in full doll costume walking along the streets.
The one aspect that has changed in our two years here is our understanding of the Japanese people. Simply interacting with them on a daily basis gives you a glimpse into the real Japanese culture. I have come to realize that even though a person speaks English that does not mean that they truly understand your weird western ways (or any of my “unique” humor while we are on that subject). In essence the person is talking to you in English but their behavior and complete thought process is 100% Japanese. The only exception to this rule is if someone had lived in a western country for a few years and had integrated themselves culturally in the process. I have only met a hand full of people who meet this requirement. The majority of the people learn English in special language schools after work and the most fluent ones have gone on some type of exchange (6 months to a year) in an English speaking country at some point in their lives.
As a result of this phenomenon, I have learned to read behind the English words being spoken and look for the true Japanese meaning behind it. A perfect example of this is the use of the word yes (“hai” in Japanese). Once you explain a situation and the next steps that need to be taken to solve an issue the probability of obtaining a “hai” at the end from your Japanese colleague is 100%. The trick is to see that this “hai” does not mean that “yes I will take the actions you suggested” it really means that “yes I heard your concern”. After the situation is “heard” it needs to be discussed in extreme details with everyone and their bosses and their respective superiors until everyone agrees on the correct course of action to take. This is done (after way too many meetings) in order to make sure that there is a group consensus and that the action does not affect any individual or group negatively, therefore my patience level has increased 1000% since living in Japan. According to Wikipedia:

“There is a prescribed and orderly feel to the Japanese cultural and social norms. The goal of the Japanese system is the establishment and maintenance of “wa”, or harmony. On the surface, this aspiration for harmony is respectable, but it is also possible that the pursuit of harmony may cause problems as well. The result of such a uniform viewpoint can lead to the stigmatization of even slightest deviance. ”

At first it was frustrating, now it is just the way things are. I think it took me a while to really understand the “rules of the game” but once you do, everything goes allot smoother.

Another aspect of “the game” that I have been working on understanding lately is how to distinguish between the Japanese’s “honne" and “tatemae”. According to good old trusty Wikipedia:

“Honne (本音) refers to a person's true feelings and desires. These may be contrary to what is expected by society or what is required according to one's position and circumstances, and they are often kept hidden, except with one's closest friends.
Tatemae (建前), literally "façade," is the behavior and opinions one displays in public. Tatemae is what is expected by society and required according to one's position and circumstances and these may or may not match one's honne.
Honne and tatemae are arguably a cultural necessity resulting from a large number of people living in a comparatively small island nation. For this reason, the Japanese tend to go to great lengths to avoid conflict, especially within the context of large groups.”

Being able to tell if a person is telling you what they really think or what they perceive you want to hear in order to avoid conflict is extremely tricky. In essence if you have established a relationship of trust with an individual they will tell you their honne, in private. If there are other people present (especially if the other person is the most senior in the group) the situation completely changes, everyone suddenly begging acting super formal and really quiet. Even the language changes!!! In Japanese there are 3 different verbs for almost EVERYTHING!!! It all depends if the person you’re talking to is you junior, equal or senior. But the kicker is they all mean the same thing!!! That is an easy way of telling that everyone has their tatemae on. In other less formal situations you have to simply rely on your instincts to know which side of the person you’re dealing with at that moment, it’s hard but not impossible.
You might be thinking that is must be hard to figure these things out but if you ask usually you will get an honest answer out of a good friend. Off course if your in Japan make sure you ask in the right environment (basically anywhere outside of the office). Every culture is unique in their own way, and I’m sure there are allot more social aspects of Japan that we have not experienced, but fortunately we still have another year to figure them out.

If you want to see people who have REALLY emerged themselves in the Japanese culture check out this article:
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/fl20080629x1.html

Cultural Exchange in Japanese Middle School

On 6/23/07 (yes I've been slacking) Orlando and I joined a group of English teachers in a cultural exchange activity in a Japanese Middle School. The English teachers are contracted by the Japanese government to teach English at the public schools for at least one year (some of them were going on their third year here) and in exchange they get cheap housing and a decent salary. Hey sounds like a good deal to me?!?! If your looking for some adventure after college why not come to Japan for a few years? As you can see from the pictures we played a little baseball with the kids (13-15 years old). Here we are in our gear.

The afternoon consisted of trying to relate to the kids by playing sports and trying to talk to them in English so that they would practice what they have been learning. I found that allot of kids once they got over the curiosity of staring at all the foreigners (only 2% of the population in Japan is foreign) they where eager to try to talk to you and ask questions. I tried to answer them back as best I could in Japanese so that they see that learning any language is hard and that making a mistake is OK. The funny part was that a bunch of them would consult what to say and ask each other if anyone knew the word in English and after 5 minutes of group discussion they would come up with a question. This is a very common trait in this culture, to always consult and obtain consensus as a group. Once the chatting was over it was time for...DODGE BALL!!!

As a reminder to everyone who has not played Dodge ball in for ever like myself, it actually hurts more than what you remember!!! I made some friends while playing as you can see in the picture below.

I asked them who was their best friend (BFF) and they said all of them because they are all in the basketball team together... even though none of them was over 4 feet 6 inches tall but that's OK it's the fighting spirit that counts. All the kids where super cute and nice, I really think I learned more from them than they did from me.

Okonomiyaki

Ok so what is an okonomiyaki anyways (see picture above)? It is a pan-fried Japanese dish cooked with various ingredients. Okonomi means "what you like" or "what you want", and yaki means "grilled" or "cooked"; thus, the name of this dish means "cook what you like, the way you like". In Japan, okonomiyaki is usually associated with the Kansai or Hiroshima areas. In Hiroshima, the ingredients are layered rather than mixed together. The layers are typically batter, cabbage, pork, optional items (squid, octopus, cheese, etc.), noodles topped with a fried egg and a generous dollop of okonomiyaki sauce. In town there are various (by that I mean 1 million or more it's pathetic really) restaurants who specialize in this dish.

I was lucky enough to be invited to a work party in an okonomiyaki restaurant. I say lucky because now that one of my superioir left I'm officially the only foreigner left in the office so I did not expect to be invited. I guess all my effort in trying to say something (always grammatically wrong) payed off. Another cool part about the restaurant was their unique way of serving beer for ten people (see picture below):

Now isn't this effective or what? Please proceed to pour your own beer please!!! Overall I had a really good time with everyone and tried my best to fit in...including doing a karaoke song in Spanish after dinner. Hey what not? I have no idea what they are singing anyways so why not reverse it once in a while?

Beer Garden

Orlando and I got the opportunity to go to one of the beer gardens that have opened up for the summer around Hiroshima. Basically they take the top of the department stores and put some some tables and chairs outside and serve some beer and everyone is happy. This seems pretty normal except nothing is normal around here!!! We decided to go to this particular Beer Garden because it had a big Budweiser sign on the first floor. Hey it's Budweiser, how can you go wrong? Actually many thing can go wrong. First of all the menu was completely in Japanese so I just started blurting out random food (chicken, french fries, beef) and the waitress would tell us if they had it or not. After a while we started noticing that they would bring food to the other tables and for some reason (this will remain a life long mystery) started singing and dancing after they placed the food on the table. So as the nosy foreigners that we are we started to point at the table next to us and order the same thing in order to figure out the big mystery. These are the things that we discovered:

1. If you order french fries they bring them in a brown and proceed to sing and dance while shaking the bag.

2. If you order some sake they will come and do another song while squeezing a lemon (for your drink).

3. If you order an egg (boiled) they would sing and dance again but at the end they would break the egg open on your head. Since you are now "hurt" by this malignant egg they place a band aid on your four head.

Needless to say I have never laughed harder in my life. No wonder I was only able to take 2 pictures. Every time I would try the "head Budweiser girl" would come along and tell us that taking pictures was not permitted. Hey I would not want anyone to have proof of these "interesting entertainment" either.

Secondly they had Budweiser girls wearing the same lack of attire they wear in the US except these chicks where so skinny they could not fill them in!!! They are basically spandex with a Budweiser logo on. Hello those outfits are skin tight and they still had space to wiggle around!!!

Last but not least they had this guy singing karaoke songs with the Budweiser girls "dancing" (at least they thought they where dancing" to the music. I really think the kids in the elementary school in front of our apartment building could have done a better job. The picture is blurry because of the movement but you get the idea.
All I can say is that this was truly a ONLY IN JAPAN experience.

Bicycle Ride in Japan

First of all I apologize for slacking on my blog posts but we have been readjusting to our so-called Japanese life. My Japanese teacher says I forgot my Japanese in the two weeks that we where gone. I told her that I was till switching back from Spanish to English, let alone remember Japanese!!! The way I see it, since I don't know much I should be able to remember it soon!!!

On 5/19/07 Orlando and I joined a group of bicycle riding adventurers. The group headed east of Hiroshima to ride around a few small islands in the Seto inland sea. Since I have no idea what the islands are called I will refer to them as "Mystery Islands". Here is a map of our route:

In order to get to the islands we took a cute little boat ride as you can see:

Check out the view from the boat below. Japan or La Parguera in Puerto Rico? I guess it really is true when people say: "different island, same thing" (once again this is a family friendly blog), even if it is half way around the world.

I thought it was going to be a leisurely bike ride around the small islands, but it turned out to be a 25 mile bicycling route!!! The worst part was that in order to go from one island to the other you had to cross super high suspension bridges!!! HAAAAA the Horror!!!! Here are some of the bridges we took:
The picture above shows the Hakata Oshima bridge.

Here we are with our bikes (you could rent them there, my actual bike is only for carrying groceries) in the Tatara Ohashi Bridge.
Here is the Kurushima Kaikyo bridge which is the longest suspension bridge in the world. This was the last bridge in our route. At this point I could not feel any part of my lower body and my legs felt like jello!!! We stopped at a fresh fish BBQ restaurant right next to the bridge for some lunch. The interesting thing about this place is that they would literally kill the fish, sell it and place it on top of a small BBQ grill until it was cooked. The fish was sooooooooooo fresh that it was still moving!!! Yes the octopus tentacles where still moving in the plate!!! I took video of it to prove it:

For the record I did not eat this!!! It was in my friend's plate!!! The worst pat is that the tentacle was still moving on top of the BBQ!!! AHHHHHHHHHH This is one of the reasons I will always remember this day. The other reason is that I could not sit correctly for the next 3 days!!! So the moral of the story is: "Find out what your getting yourself into before signing up!!!".

Cherry Blossom Slide Show

Cherry Blossoms

The past two weeks everyone in Hiroshima (and the rest of Japan) have been going crazy looking at the cherry blossom trees, which in Japanese is call "Sakura". So Orlando and I decided to be part of the group and go look at some sakura in the nearby town of Iwakuni (see pictures below).

For more pictures Check out:
http://s174.photobucket.com/albums/w110/iddya/?action=view¤t=.my_first_widget.pbw

I recently found that it is a Japanese tradition to go to parks, shrines and temples with family and friends and hold a "flower viewing party" known as Hanami. I was invited to the Ford Hamani party and started asking around what do people actually do in these activities? Basically you talk, drink and eat while staring at a tree. I answered back that in Puerto Rico you do the same but on the beach!!! I was very surprised to see the park completely full of people on their own company's Hanami party. Everyone seemed very happy, the party next to us was even singing and dancing (if you can call it that) or maybe it was just too much sake (rice wine)? I will have to investigate further next year because the sakura is already dying!! Here is a picture of the many Hamani Party in the Peace Memorial Park.

We also visited Shukkeien gardens just 3 blocks from our apartment. It only took us 9 months to go check it out!?!?!?!? That's normal? right..?


Ok that's enough tree watching, at least next year I know what to expect.

A Very Japanese Weekend

After having to work on Saturday to make up for the National Holiday On Monday (God forbid that everyone just takes a day off) we went to Fujimoto-san's house (one of my co-worker's). He invited us to stay over at his house on Saturday in order to play in a volleyball tournament on Sunday. Our German friend Elmar came to play with us. He is over 6 feet tall and can spike the ball like no one's business, basically he was our secret weapon. Our friend Yoshi (who lived in the US for 8 years) drove us to the small town of Onomichi which is about an hour away from Hiroshima. Finally a real house!!!!!!!! well at least for one weekend. It was the first time we had ever stayed in someones house. The funny thing is that no one in the house speaks English. Fujimoto-san is learning how to speak English, between what he had learned and my 59.5% knowledge of basic Japanese we some how understand each other. Here we are eating with his family on the floor:

Fujimoto-san is the guy in the couch and judging from the picture I'm sure you can understand why we get along besides the huge language barrier. His wife and daughters, who are 15, 11 and 8, where really nice and attentive to us. The only one who did not like us was the dog Minto.

It was the first time we slept "the Japanese way", on top of a futon on the floor. We also had 2 mini pillows that felt like you where sleeping on a giant Bennie baby.

I think the dolls did not come alive in the middle of the night. Or did they?!?!?!?
The next day we where off to the Volleyball tournament. Once we got there we met the rest of our team. Aren't we intimidating or what!?!?!?!

We played with 4 complete strangers who could not speak any English and somehow ended up in third place. In my opinion we did well. The girls came to see us play and hang out for a while.

After the tournament we went to eat Onomichi's famous ramen noddles in a little shop near by. I'm almost certain that the people there had never seen a foreigner in their lives because they stared at us like we had 3 arms the whole time. I did not care because the noddles where damm good.
In general I think this weekend was a good experience for everyone. We got to practice some Japanese and Fujimoto-san's family got interested in learning English so that they could talk to use next time. On Monday when we where all back to work Fujimoto-san came over and said how grateful he was that we encouraged his girls to speak English. I told him that we where the one that where grateful for his family's sincere kindness. He said that his dream was for them to be fluent in 2 languages. I told him that my father (we are 3 girls also) had the same desire and it came true. I realized that things are not so different after all.