Greetings from the land of "No Excuses"

Tim here, I realize that Ruth just posted yesterday, and that after such a long posting drought it may be odd to see posts on two consecutive days. They say that when it rains it pours, and it looks like Ruth and I got the writing itch at about the same time. Since it looks like Ruth pretty much covered everything that is happening in our lives (really, there is not much to tell), I thought I'd talk a little bit about a major difference I've noticed between American and Japanese culture (a difference that has caused me no small amount of grief and anxiety).
The difference I am referring to centers around cultural attitudes toward excuses. Or, to be more precise, the difference between a reason and an excuse. I think that the idea of making excuses has a bad wrap in just about any culture, as well it should as the idea of an excuse connotes a certain air of shadiness and illegitimacy. That said, in American culture I think there is a subtle but important line drawn between an excuse and a reason. That is to say that, in America, if you do something that requires explanation, it is acceptable to give a legitimate reason for what you have done. If that reason seems unacceptable, then it becomes something less savory, an excuse. In Japan, however, the line between excuse and reason does not exist in the same way. This might seem unbelievable, so to illustrate my point I believe a brief Japanese lesson is in order. In Japanese the word for reason is wake (pronounced wah-kay). This is commonly used in such phrases as sou iu wake de, which means "for that reason". The word for excuse, on the other hand, is iiwake (ee-wah-kay), which, if translated literally, means "a reason that you say out loud". Therefore, there is really no such thing as the reason/excuse distinction one finds in American culture; in Japan, no matter what the situation, a reason becomes an "excuse" the moment it is given.
As a world-class excuse maker (or I prefer to think "reason giver") myself, navigating this prickly cultural thorn bush has been no easy task. I always find myself biting my tongue whenever I want to give what I see as a reason for something, knowing that it will be interpreted as an excuse. With that in mind, I've been trying hard to keep my wake to myself, afraid that they'll come rolling off my tongue in the hideous form of iiwake. Who knows, not being able to make an excuse for two years just might make me a better person (although I wouldn't count on it).

It's been a very long time, I realize that. The funny thing is that I check other blogs regularly and silently curse their writers for not updating often enough. It would be easier to update more often if we lived more interesting lives, but then of course we might not have time to update. That paradox very well may be the lamest excuse you've ever heard (or read), but it's the best I can do. Anyway... nothing much new here... Tim and I spent Christmas day on the phone with our families and opening gift boxes that our families were kind enough to send. The snacks and DVDs and books made Tim's New Years break from work very fun. New Years Eve we spent with friends and then at midnight we headed out to the Shinto shrine for some sake and a prayer. I really dislike sake, but I can drink it without making a face if I really try. Tim likes sake, so he was glad to hear there would be free sake at the shrine for New Years. The sake at the shrine is non-alcoholic, served warm, sweetened with sugar and has mushy rice floating in it. It tasted alot like the malt-o-meal "porridge" that my Dad and brothers used to eat for breakfast. I didn't like that either, but I can see why some people might enjoy it. Anyway after the Shinto shrine we tried to go to another midnight ceremony at a Buddhist temple, but they had already closed up shop by the time we made it there. I wish I could tell you that I had pictures from New Years, but sadly I don't. The one photo I took was so blurry and distorted that I deleted it right away. After that one photo I noticed that no one else had a camera out and decided that flash photography during a religious ceremony might not be appropriate.

We went to the movies for the first time since we got here and saw Body of Lies with Leo from Titanic. Since the movie had just come out in the US, it was shown in English with Japanese subtitles which was good for me of course, and good for Tim too, since some of the dialogue moves quickly. He said he enjoyed reading the subtitles and seeing how some slang and technical military jargon would be translated. What a nerd :p Who tries to learn even at the movies? Right next door to the movie theater is a video rental shop and a supermarket. We've been back to this new supermarket a few times, but we have yet to rent movies. A friend lent me season 1 of Heroes and 5 or 6 seasons of 24, plus we got The Office and 30 Rock for Christmas so we're still catching up on our favorite TV shows. It's nice to know the video store is nearby as we've missed alot of movies these past 7 months. Maybe once it warms up outside it will be easier to take the 30 minute walk there and 30 minutes back just to rent a movie, but that hasn't happened yet!

I'm sure most of you have heard but we've decided to stay for a second year. It was a really hard decision to make, but really it was the only one we could make. There are alot of reasons we want to go home, but even more reasons that we really need to stay. Fortunately Tim really enjoys teaching and he is able to recontract for a second year. Unfortunately Japan's economy sucks right now too, none of the private English schools around town are hiring, and most are actually cutting jobs so the chances of me finding real work look bad. Fortunately Tim's job provides us with enough money to pay our bills and still save a good chunk for the future. Right now we are just hoping that the economy back home turns around because we are coming home after two years no matter what! *knock on wood* The good news for all of you back home is that you now have until July of 2010 to come visit Japan and have a built in free translator (Tim) and a free "Japanese food for those who aren't sure they should be eating Japanese food" guide (me)!

We lent the 1993 film Groundhog Day to Keiko and Chie in honor of a recent American holiday by the same name. They said that Bill Murray looks like Tom Hanks. I can see it, a little. Tim and I both love that movie, it was when I saw that he owned a legitimate copy on DVD that I knew we'd be together forever. As a child we had a copy that movie, recorded onto VHS off of network TV including commercials that I must have watched a thousand times and it never got old. For the past three Groundhog Days Tim and I have made it an annual tradition to watch the movie together and then quote it for days after the fact... "Well what if there is no tomorrow? There wasn't one today!"

Happy Birthday Johnny! The big 11, It's all downhill from here, your legs start to go, candy doesn't taste as good any more... sorry this old timer does ramble on sometimes.

Random Christmas Edition

On Thursday Tim and I went to a Christmas party with Keiko and Chie at their friends' house. In Japan every Christmas party includes a Christmas cake similar to the one shown here (although most don't have me and Tim drawn in icing on the top). Its vanilla cake with whipped cream topping and strawberries in the middle as well as strawberries on top. Our hosts were nice enough to have our picture drawn on the top, but the only picture Keiko had was from Halloween, thus Tim is wearing Harry Potter glasses, and I am not wearing my glasses. It's a pretty flattering image of us none-the-less and I felt bad they went to so much trouble to give us a nice Christmas party.






This picture is a Coke poster in our neighborhood convenience store that illustrates the Christmas cake tradition here in Japan.

















It's starting to get pretty chilly here, especially at night, but it still hasn't really dipped below freezing yet, leaving some pretty flowers around town.












Anyway thanks for reading, I have been meaning to take pictures of the many Christmas lights around town, but I haven't gotten around to it yet. That will be a topic for a future post.

Whats new...

This is Tim, reporting form Repos Internet Cafe, but with any luck we won`t have to come here to use the internet nearly so often starting in the near future. On Wednesday of this week we are slated to start our subscription to NTT Communications Company`s Hikari Internet Service Plan. Our in home internet was usable under my predecessor`s account through the end of August, at which time I believed I would be able to transfer the service into my name without interruption. As it happened that was not possible, and after getting jerked around trying to set up new internet service with the same company, I contacted a different company at the end of September and set an installation date for October 15th. Still not as early as we would have liked, but we are really looking forward to having internet in our apartment at last. We are hoping to keep in better contact with everyone now that we will have in home internet.

Ruth has been especially busy with her school work recently, but she should be finishing up with her mid-terms next week and things should calm down a little as far as her workload is concerned, for at least a little while. As for me I`ve been keeping pretty busy with my job, I had to work Saturday last weekend, but this weekend I am enjoying a three day vacation thanks to one of Japan`s many national holidays. I think having the internet installed will finally be that last step in terms of getting everything in order and settled with our life here, and with everything we need to worry about in place I am hoping it will be easier for Ruth to do her classes, and of course I`ve been meaning to spend more time studying Japanese. I`ve always found studying Japanese exciting, but it is particularily exciting now that I live here, because every new word or grammar point I learn will have the potential to be immediately applicable in my everyday life. I always mean to set aside more time for studying than I actually do, and to move into the next level of language proficiency I will have to study more seriously.

My job has continued to be fun and interesting, I have visited around 20 different schools so far. I think I will start taking a camera to some of my schools so that I can post some pictures of my schools, and of course my students! My only real frustration with the job has been that since I am teaching very young children with very little (or no) background in studying English, I am unsure of what the expectation is with how much English vs. how much Japanese I should speak while teaching the class. On the one hand, if my lesson is too heavily in English, the students will understand very little of what is going on and will have the tendency to become bored or frustrated. On the other hand, if I speak too much Japanese in the classroom, it might be a good way to get students involved in the lesson, but from the standpoint of many of the staff at the schools my primary value as a teacher is rooted in my status as a native speaker of English, therefore I think there is a certain level of dissatisfaction with my lesson if I end up instructing in Japanese for a good portion of the time. Anyway, striking the right balance in that regard has been challenging, as some schools have felt that I used too much English, and some that I used too much Japanese. That said, most of my feedback from schools has been positive, so I think I am somewhere on the right track and should basically continue with what I`m doing.

Ok, well that about does it for now. I`ve had a cold this week, and just as I turned the corner Ruth came down with it. I think its probably due to the slight chill in the air here that has developed since the beginning of October. I`m sure things are chilling down even more in Minnesota, so take care of yourselves!

Hey everyone! Just wanted to post an update and let you all know that we are still doing well!

It's been a busy couple a weeks for both of us. Tim has been traveling to a lot of different schools some almost 2 hours away! It's really been exhausting for him, but he still really enjoys teaching.

I've been busy with my classes, it has been hard to get used to doing classes online, but it seems to be going well. I really can't wait to be done with school.

We spent Sunday afternoon at the ocean in Gamagori. It was overcast and even sprinkled a little rain a few times, but at least it kept us cool. I've added a few pictures, hope you like them!


Love you guys!

Ruth and Tim

Today was my second day teaching at Wakasono Municipal Elementary School, and tomorrow I will already be moving to another school. Such is the life of a "One-shot Assistant Language Teacher", which in JET lingo refers to a teacher who covers a wide variety of (usually elementary) schools, but has a low number of visits to any one school. I feel that my teaching went well, and that I started to develop positive relationships with the staff and students, which makes moving on to another school so quickly kind of a downer. On the other hand, since I'll be starting lessons with a brand new audience tomorrow I can feel free to reuse a lot of the material I've developed for my introductory lesson. After just two days of actual teaching I can already tell that my time spent in the classroom will be both mentally and physically demanding, however, the work is legitimately rewarding, and often fun as well. I was told by one of the teachers in the staffroom today that many of the students had written in their daily school journals that they wished "Tim-sensei" could stay longer. I was also informed that this sentiment was particularly strong among the girls, as I am apparently widely considered to be kakko ii (cool) among that particular demographic. I will get a chance to make a few more visits to Wakasono in the future, it looks like I might be assigned there a couple of days every month or two, but for now there is nothing to do but repeat the process of forming a series of positive experiences into understanding and mutual respect at the wide array of schools I will be visiting in the coming months. To that end I hope to use my experiences at Wakasono as a template for success at my other schools.

Much needed update!

Well it appears that Typhoon season is upon us, it's been down-pouring all day with lots of thunder, fortunately the rain has cooled the air outside considerably so with any luck the hottest days of summer are behind us. I tried to get some pictures of the rain, but they didn't turn out, so it looks like you'll have to wait for next time to see any more pictures.

Tim officially starts teaching on Monday. I can't wait to hear about how it goes and I know he is looking forward to getting out of the office.

School for me starts on Tuesday, which is great. It will give me lots to do while Tim is at work and I can't wait to finish up this last semester of school and get that very expensive piece of paper I've been working so hard for!

If the rain clears up for this weekend at all we'd really like to do some sight-seeing. This will be our first weekend together since I got here that we don't have lots of errands to run, so be sure to check back on early next week for some pictures of our weekend!

Tim and I out for dinner in Japan

Just thought I'd post a few photos that Tim took around the city. I got here late Thursday night and have mostly been getting adjusted to the time difference and the HEAT! It's very hot here and I've been just exhausted from all the traveling!

The eagle has landed.

Tim arrived safely in Toyohashi on Wednesday after a long week of traveling and orientation in Tokyo! We are both relieved that he is there and in the apartment getting settled and starting work! I am getting excited to leave as well, but there is still so much left to do before then! I really hope these next two weeks go by quickly because I miss my new husband so much!

Feel free to post questions or suggestions for what you'd like to hear about or see pictures of. I am really looking forward to keeping in touch with everyone and sharing this experience with you all!

Map of Toyohashi

Here's a cool picture I found on the city's website that gives a simple idea of what Toyohashi has in store for us! It looks like there will be plenty around to keep us busy and a beautiful view in each direction!