The language barrier

Imagine waking up one day hearing nothing but the sound of the outside world. You walk outside to talk to someone but they just look at you funny and try speaking in another language. You try reading something but realize you're going cross-eyed trying to  decipher the characters on the page. You just want to understand something...anything.This is my day to day experience in Japan. Now I paint this as a pretty bleak picture but its not that bad. I challenge someone to spend a week talking to no one outside of your house. Go shopping, take public transportation, and eat out. If you actually feel like talking just talk in Gibberish. Its actually a pretty interesting phenomenon.

You'll actually find that you can do a lot without ever being able to converse. Though it will feel like you have this bottle of words inside that you that you can't express, you'll actually be able to do just about anything you need. The nice thing about here in Sendai is they are pretty accommodating. Menu's generally have pictures. The cashiers will talk to you but you can ignore them. You'll eventually figure out that all they are asking you is do you want a bag if you're at the store. If you're at a Starbucks or any restaurant its usually for here or to go? They will stare at you until you give a response. I made the mistake several times with just saying Hai/iete (yes/no) to the latter question. After a while, you get used to just pointing and playing charades.

**While typing this, I just had a friend who called. She was on her way to meet a friend by bus. Turns out she got on the wrong bus. Like me, she speaks zero Japanese, has no cell phone currently and had no clue how to get home. There's nothing around here in English to help her and the people here speak little to no English. Luckily, by the grace of god some kind person was able to understand her charades enough to get her to the bus station.

The more I'm here, the more I want to explore and see everything. This means more interactions with people outside of MeySen. It can be really intimidating trying to talk to people when you know you don't speak their language. Last Thursday, I went to play tennis with a friend and found out we had to pay to use the court. We had to somehow relate that we wanted to play on the courts for an hour and fill out some paper completely in Japanese. Its really these little things we take for granted. What should have been a one minute exchange turned into 20 minute ordeal with 3 different employees coming over trying to speak broken English.

The sunny spot here in these stories is that we learn so much about ourselves and what natural humanistic things come out of us when we are unable to verbally communicate. We place our faith in God that he will get us through anything and he always provides. Its truly amazing to see what could be a scary situation turn into a manageable one because of people's good will and ability to communicate across any language barrier. I feel like we in the US seem to take for granted our ability to communicate with each other. We almost expect everyone who visits us to be completely fluent in English...cuz were Americans. I definitely have a better appreciation for ESL learners, and anyone that has difficulty in effectively communicating.

Also on the bright side, I try lots of new things here because I have no clue what it says on the package but it looks good. Rule of thumb: when in doubt it probably has squid in it. They even have squid flavored candy. Also I kind of feel like a celebrity with everyone constantly watching me. Not an A lister you'll go up and ask an autograph for but one of those D listers that you saw in a TV show many years ago and are staring at them to try to figure out which character on "Charles in Charge" they were.

Conquering the Mountain

On Saturday,  all the immersion teachers went on a sledding trip to a nearby mountain with the students. Sledding down a mountain seems safe enough right? Actually, the hill we were on though up on a mountain was not super steep. At first, the teacher spent time going down the mountain in the morning to pack down the snow. It literally felt like sledding on a glue bottle. You start going and boom you're stuck. As more people got going, we started to speed it up. Once we got the 200 students from 1st to 3rd grade down the hill it'd be super fast.

Random side note warning:
On the way there, I was the lucky one to drive teachers to the mountain. I could probably make a blog on driving in Japan but I'll just give the quick version right now. In Japan the roads are very narrow and they drive on the opposite side of the road. It definitely takes some getting used to. Anyway, getting to the hill I had never seen so such tight corners. You could barely fit one vehicle let alone two. Luckily, we made it safe.

After the teachers packed down all the snow, we went back to get the kids. I was really excited for the fact that I'd get to ride the bus with my kids on the 2nd grade bus (next years 3rd grade for you math geniuses). Its amazing what you can tell about a kids personality and demeanor just through a 45 minute bus ride. A few things I learned through the bus ride:

They never heard of Justin Bieber (great news!)
They dont understand the word cartoon and its really hard to explain what a cartoon is.
They dont know Bugs Bunny.
The girls love this pop group called AKB48. One of the boys told me that boys don't like them but some boys like to look at them!
The kids love to play this game with your fingers, its hard to explain but easy to learn.
Rock Paper Scissors solves all the worlds problems.

Once at the hill, it was a bit awkward. The new teachers kinda figured that kids would just naturally want to go sledding with us. The problem is they all had their own teachers and we were these strangers they didn't know. Also, the kids love throwing snowballs at teachers. Its not like in the states where that kind of stuff is frowned up with school. The teachers are allowed to throw them back. Its fun going up the hill and randomly getting pelted in the face.

The area we sledded is on the left. Its deceptively steep and fast. The right side is a skiing area.

The view from the top of the sledding hill

After a few times of being that boy at dance who sits by the punch bowl, I decided to go back to the bus for my snack. Luckily, quite a few of my students were all eating their snacks on the bus. After a few minutes of sharing our snacks and learning each others names, we became really good friends. We all decided to make a train with our sleds and go down together.

Japanese people think of everything. I had never thought of linking sleds together to make a long train. I wish I could show pictures of it because it looks pretty cool to have 4 or 5 sleds together with about 12 kids. You start flying and the sleds on the back get whipped around. One time this little girl was hooked on behind my sled as we were flying down the hill. All of a sudden, we hit a bump and she did a flip off sled. Luckily, Japanese people always land on their feet ;). Every time I hit the bottom of the hill, the kids kept yelling "one more time." One more time kept turning into 10 more times until I was completely exhausted. It was a great time though and I'm really excited to get to know my students better in the next couple of weeks!

One of these things just doesn't belong here

Sometimes, I forget I'm in Japan. Luckily, I have times like Monday morning to remind myself. I have been bugging a friend to try to find a gym with me. I figured it'd be no big deal without really thinking that no one speaks English here. Wellll, apparently the place opens at 10 and we were about 10 minutes early. Luckily, there was a waiting area with a few older Japanese people there. Apparently, Japanese people like to be to places as soon as it opens because within a minute we were packed like sardines in this room full of 5ft tall 60ish year old Japanese people and two average American looking guys ("one of these things just doesn't belong here"). I would have loved to see a picture of us two in this waiting room, it had to be priceless. Luckily as we stood there, this woman comes over to us and says good morning and asked us if we are joining and I tried to explain that we just wanted to see the place.

 Little did we know this lady would be our angel for the morning. People started checking in and we pushed ourselves to the back contemplating how to play the right charades to say we wanted to check the place out.  All of a sudden, the lady comes over to us in the sardine room and pulls at me saying "come here please." She pulls us through the line and has us sit down explaining to the attendant that we wanted an observation and left us. A few minutes later the attendant is talking to us and trying to get us to sign paperwork to join. Our angel comes back out of nowhere and asks if everything is alright. She reminds the lady we are just observing and helps us on our tour. Its the little moments like these that just lets you know God is there watching. We had no clue what we were doing but out of nowhere some lady came to our help.

My week

This week we got to check out the Takamori campus and observe classes all week. Our days usually start around 1PM and end at 7. Its a pretty nice schedule. I'm really enjoying the interactions with the kids. I sometimes wish I would write down the funny things they say because it happens so often. We also get to enjoy recess with different grades everyday. Anybody that watches "MXC" would have a better understanding why its so popular in Japan. These kids are like shifty little cats running around jumping on literally everything outside.

Outside of observing, we have been memorizing materials to teach and preparing projects for next year. Friday is my first chance to teach a lesson. Wish me luck!

Random Photos of the Takamori Campus

Literally lost in translation

Today, I finally faced the inevitable...I got lost. Of course many people get lost in the United States. It wasn't a family trip when I was younger if my dad didn't get us lost somewhere and start cursing under his breath. Our day started pretty normal. Aaron (from WMU but dont hold that against him) and I rode the bus for the first time to Takamori where our other campus and some friends are. Luckily, he knew the symbols for Takamori because it was all in Japanese. I would have jumped on the wrong bus hoping for the best. We got there and checked out the mall with our friend Danielle. Afterward, we decided to take "a shortcut" to our friend Tiffany's apartment.

Well lets just say we started walking for about 15 minutes realizing it wasn't a short cut and were heading in the wrong direction. Its these points at life where you reflect on whether you are just gonna head back and take the easy way out or just keep pushing forward and see where it takes you. We chose the latter. what started as  a 5 minute walk turned into an hour and a half walk back to our campus, with a stop at a pretty sweet thrift store. Its amazing what you'll experience if you just let yourself go with the flow. I think thats what got me here in Japan. Some of these pictures would have never been taken had we not taken our walk.

A view of the Mountains from the mall

Got lost and found a huge thrift store called Book-off

A cool monument on the walk home

A beautiful view on the walk home. Those mountains always amaze me.

A photo booth on crack

The weird world of Japan never ceases to amaze me. Yesterday we went downtown to check things again. We first stopped at this huge electronics store. I've never been so overwhelmed by a store. This place was HUGE and full of signs and people everywhere, and of course random salesmen screaming at you in high pitched Japanese .  It had about everything you'd ever need. I even got to check out a 3D camera and TV which was pretty sweet. Of course when I'm looking for a new computer, I also want to pick up some appliances, make-up and toilet seats, which is readily available for you at this electronic store. One thing, Ive realized about Japanese department stores as they have a little bit of everything. Also, the top and bottom floors generally have some sort of food court.

Speaking of food, we stopped by this import store called Jupiter. I almost teared up as I saw good ole American BBQ sauce. Everything in that store is super expensive. In general, everything in Japan is very expensive. If you've got a hankering for some Mac and cheese, its 2 bucks a box. Name brand spaghetti, $4 a box. You bud light fans, its $60 a case. Its definitely a great option when I'm Jonesing for something American.

After the food store, we went and checked out this "arcade." It was literally a really bright room full of that claw game that tries to grab prizes for you. Apparently, they love that stuff in Japan. For only 100 yen a shot, you too can be dissapointed that you dont catch anything. Also within this arcade, was the most intense photo booth I have ever seen. On the second floor, there are about 20 photo booths and dress up clothes you can put on. These are great first dates in Japan from what I hear. You have about 60 seconds to go into the photobooth to take a bunch of pictures. Then, then you get about 60 seconds to go on the outside and check and photoshop your pictures. It literally is a photo booth on crack.

Irony? The English Journal completely in Japanese

The electronic store. Literally signs everywhere.

I love a good Happy Price!

Craziest puzzle I have ever seen. All pieces are the same shape and can be transformed into different pictures.

My first Pizza in Japan. Yes, thats shrimp on there.

fixing our photo booth pictures

Here are the photobooths. Its still so weird in my mind having a floor full of these.

Claw game

And I thought Japanese was hard...try learning English

Notice the EA in the following: My heart thumps! Do you hear the bear growling so early in the year? Each "ea" makes a different sound. That's just one example, I'm sure many people know others. We just complete our 4 day training on the curriculum that we teach here at MeySen. If you are like me, as soon as you hear the word curriculum, you will probably want to skip to the next blog. I'll try to keep it brief and basic. Any teachers out there that want to know more just let me know. Its actually kind of interesting.

Each day this past week, we started training at 9AM and finished around 3. In my previous post about MeySen, I  talked about how the academy basically starts Immersion (only English) in 1st grade and the kids can only join MeySen in that year. What I didn't realize is that this program is relatively new and is already in over 200 different schools around the world. Some employees are actually heading to Michigan in a few weeks to train teachers over there. If you want more details on the curriculum check  GrapeSEED. Basically, we teach English a similar way to how children absorb their mother language from birth. We teach and talk in only English at the Academy. Through action games, stories, songs, and writing (older grades) the students start to absorb it through repetition and practice.

Wednesday night, there was a party for all of the immersion teachers and we got to know each other better. One thing I I realized very quickly is how intense all the immersion teachers are here. We played the craziest game of Charades I have ever played. It turned into this shouting match with people wrestling for a marker. I was pretty fearful for my own safety.

We also got to enjoy tacos for the first time. There are a lot of random foods that I am slowly starting to miss such as: Lucky Charms,  Pizza, marinara sauce, actual spaghetti, Taco Bell, salsa. I am actually getting used to the foods here though. It feels so much more healthy than all the crap I was eating in the US. Probably the worst I felt since Ive been here came after eating KFC (darn you Colonel Sanders).

Also that night, we got to find out which grades we were placed in. I found out I am going to be a 3rd grade teacher which I am pretty pumped about. I student taught 2nd grade and long-term subbed 3rd grade so it will be really cool to see the similarities and differences between Japanese 3rd graders and the ones in Muskegon, Michigan.

Thursday night, we celebrated the end of training by watching "Top Gun." I forgot how incredibly cheesy the whole movie was. The crazy thing was at the very end of the movie, the floor began to shake. It kind of felt like a guy next to you was nervously bouncing his legs up and down. It was my first experience with an earthquake. I was actually really excited for some reason. I assume this won't be my continued response ;).

Next week starts the fun stuff. I will be going into classrooms observing and teaching a little. Today we had a nice day off for some holiday I can't really figure out but I'll take it. I'm hoping to go and enjoy more of this Japanese world around me.

Worlds Greatest Mom

One of the disadvantages of being away from family and friends is that you are not able to be around for birthdays, weddings, holidays. Well there is a very special person who has a birthday today, that I literally would not be here without today. She is the most caring and kind woman I have ever met. Though she had only 5 kids, she has been mother/grandmother to nearly 100s of kids from all over, reaching to Germany, Finland, Russia, Ukraine, and now Japan. I've never met a single person with an unkind word to say about her. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!

I'll love you forever, Ill like you for always as long as I'm living my mother you'll be!

"I think Im turning Japanese... I really think so"

Ive been here a week and haven't really had a chance to give my thought on the Japanese culture, so hereyago.
Now Ive been a Resident Assistant so I have been trained not to stereotype so I will do my best not to say "those people."

Those people (whoops!) have very clean side walks. You walk around everywhere and will rarely ever see even a droplet of rice on the sidewalks...annddd good luck finding a trash can you stupid Americans that walk around outside eating your food and beverages. It is considered rude to walk around eating or drinking anything so it makes sense that you probably wouldn't have anything to throw away when you are walking down the street.

One interesting thing you will notice is that about 85% (I scientifically made up that stat off the top of my head ;)) of the Japanese people will be working or walking around with a surgical mask. I have heard this for a number of reasons:they were sick, are sick, don't want to get sick, or have bad allergies. You'll find that the majority of the workers at a place of business will be wearing one. It almost makes me feel like I'm gross for not wearing it. I would take a picture just to show you what I'm talking about but you'll have to take my word for it. I don't want to make any enemies yet.

If I could describe Japan in one word thus far it would be efficient. Everything here seems to have its place and it all kind of lives in harmony. Anybody that saw pictures of my apartment would agree that I have exactly enough room for everything I need. The cars here are super quiet and smaller. Ive never seen a big truck or a huge gas guzzler car. My microwave is also a toaster and an oven. They don't seem to have full size ovens like we do, luckily for my mom she wouldn't be able to break the oven door trying to sit on it to keep warm :). I actually tried cooking a small pizza in mine and took me about 30 minutes to figure out how to get the oven to work because I can't read Japanese. Basically, you have to set it at oven and then turn on a timer. You can't just preheat and let the oven stay on.

Last Saturday, after meeting up at Starbucks (of course they have it), we took the train to get to downtown Sendai. It was relatively easy to walk to. I feel confident I can do it by myself without getting to lost when I go. Downtown Sendai was pretty sweet. Its much like a cleaner version of Chicago. There are tons of shops stretching for about a mile, kinda like a huge outlet mall. My favorite store is the 100 Yen store. Its sort of like the Dollar Tree but 5 different floors and the quality of stuff is much better. We also got to stop by a pet store that had monkeys. Anybody want one for about 450,000 Yen? ($5000). For lunch a group of us went to a Sushi restaurant. This place was super nice. We had to take off our shoes and were shown to a private room and sat down on these pillows on the floor. The food looked beautiful (see pic). The only issue we had was trying to interpret whether dessert was included or not. The waitress spoke very little English.

Random Interactions in Japan:

Saturday, a group of us were walking through Sendai when we came up on a man with a guitar and a guy handing out flyers. We just stopped to listen. Obviously, we stick out. He asked us all where we were from in good English. It turns out he's from Washington and is a pastor at a local church. Long story short, he talks us all into singing some christian songs with him at the side of the road as tons of Japanese people walked by. Must have been quite a sight!

Sunday, we went to the bus station and Starbucks (sounds like the new hangout location) and were sitting outside talking. Out of Nowhere this lady and her dog comes up behind us on the bench and puts her dog up on the bench and makes him wave at us. She says he doesn't speak English (she didn't seem to either) and lets one of my new friends pet him. How random it was still cracks me up.

Also, on the way home from the store, a little chubby Japanese boy turned around and waved to us with excitement saying "hello." It just made my day thinking that I would soon be teaching kids just like him. Honestly, it is a big shock to hear anybody outside of the 30 or so MeySen employees say anything in English.

The Subway

Downtown Sendai

100 Yen Store. Literally has just about anything you need

Of Course McDonalds.

Add caption

New Friends at the Sushi Restuarant

The appetizer. I actually thought it was the best tasting part. The beer was actually pretty good to. It better be for $8 a glass.

DINNER! The fish eggs were pretty tasty

Random Samurai break dance time. Sorry its hard to see.

Monkey for sale

This is what the mall looks like for about a mile.

Random Organ playing that sounded like Mario Bros.

Sunday, we all got together and had a Japanese food tasting party. Some of the drinks were real weird. Seems they love to put chocolate in everything, tea, soda, etc.

The good news is I kinda know my way around this place. Im getting used to having no clue what people are saying to me. I'm also getting used to having people stare at me wherever I go. Still miss all of you back in the US.

Hi my name is Greg and I'm a Stooopeed American

I had my first real yes I'm an American day (the fact that I call myself American just proves it. Technically I'm United Statesan). Friday night we went out got some groceries and a few of us ate our first burger in Japan. So I'm going to just turn this into you might be an American if segment of my recent adventures:

1. You almost die trying to walk across the street because the lane is a one way and you look the wrong way. (Luckily there weren't many cars coming).
2. You go to the store to buy cereal but realize all the have is Corn Flakes and Cocoa Krispies.
3. You try to give the cashier money and she's talking to you a mile a minute which you don't understand.(Your never supposed to give a cashier money. You are supposed to put it on a tray and they take it.)
4. When in public places you don't wear a surgical mask (about 80% of the Japanese seem to wear one of those masks everywhere they go.)
5. You actually crave burgers and get all excited that the only beer they have on tap is Miller Lite. (The Burgers weren't too bad actually)
6.  You buy lotion at the store and try it on your hands only to realize that you in fact bought facial cream.

not lotion

MeySen

I thought Id give you all a little bit more about the place I'm working at for at least the next year. I know when people asked me the for the past several months about what I was doing over here, I was pretty vague because I honestly had no idea about what exactly I was doing. MeySen just had a way in making me feel comfortable in going forward with this job.

First, there are about 20 or so of us that came from the United States to MeySen academy and are pretty much going through the same thing I am. It makes transitioning much easier. We are all spread between two campuses Maruyama and Takamori. I'm at Maruyama. Both campuses are relatively the same just in different areas of Sendai. We all live within walking distance from our campus so that we don't try to drive on the wrong side of the road and take out half  the Japanese population. I live about 5 minutes (walking) away from where I work. Its all uphill so I will have calves of steel when I come back.

When we need to go into town for a doctors appointment or pretty much all of the paperwork we have had to fill out the past few days, we have people that pick us up and take us there. We essentially live in this English bubble. The more Japanese we learn the sooner we will try to pop it.

The academy is basically one huge jungle playground with a few buildings. There are tons of slides much like this along with ladders and other equipment. You'd be surprised how close the ends of slides are to wall and the lack of nets to catch kids if they fall. The kids are taught how to properly use the equipment though.

This is the Immersion building where I will be teaching.

Here is the waterfall that extends from one of the buildings. The funny thing is this whole campus sits in the middle of a neighborhood and city. You wouldn't think that in these pictures.

The path from the main campus to the immersion building.

MeySen has their own petting zoo with a horse, a donkey, a goat, and a sheep

Notice where this slide ends

Each MeySen campus has an Immersion (completely taught in English) program and one that is taught in English and Japanese. Japanese kids can start coming here when they are toddlers for a daycare. By kindergarten, Japanese kids come here for schooling. The kindergarten program is taught more like a traditional school. Between 1st and 6th grade (I'll be teaching here), students go to local public and private schools in the morning and are bussed to MeySen in the afternoon. Students are only admitted to MeySen in 1st grade. So 6th graders would have been in MeySen the previous 5 years. Part of the bonus for students getting to the 6th grade level is that they get to go on a trip to the USA. All the other grade levels get to go on other random trips. When I know more about what and how I'll be teaching, I'll be sure to post about it.

Im Illiterate...just smile and nod

After going to the store today and being driven all over town, I have realized what its like to be in my mid twenties and illiterate. The layout of every store is pretty interesting. You see a sign outside with one English word but you go inside and everything is in Japanese. Today I had my first experience buying something at the grocery store because I left my razor at home. First its impossible to understand which aisle is which because you cant read what is said above each aisle. Another thing you can't do is ask for help because most dont seem to understand English outside of the people that work at the Academy. In Japan, most students learn English in middle school. However, it doesn't really get practiced. Although most have some understanding through school. It would be like me taking high school French and trying to help a native French speaker with a question.

Luckily, MeySen has Japanese interpreters that have pretty much taken us everywhere and gotten all of our paper work done. I can't imagine trying to figure all that out on my own. It definitely feels a little embarrassing when a Japanese cashier or waiter is talking to you really fast and asking you a question. I feel like I want to talk to them but have no clue what to say or what they said. The only thing that seems to work is the skill that many married men have aquired...just smile and nod.

Yummy Squid. One thing Ive noticed here is that their fish section is HUGE and their beef and other meats section is very small.

Pictures I forgot to post

My first Japanese Meal. It tasted pretty good. It was like Ramen noodles with bacon and random roots of plants. The other thing is a meat filled shell.

My daily view here in Sendai

Day 1: Man These Toilets are Awesome

First of all Id like to apologize to anyone that actually thought this blog would turn into some sort of scholarly journal...


Well I made it here safely to Japan. Lets talk about that flight though. First through random blind luck I changed my seat to get an window seat and ended up moving next to a girl who is also from Central and is heading to the academy. How crazy is that? Now the horrors of international travel. For one we flew from Detroit through Canada to get to Japan!? This has me convinced that Canada is indeed the Ohio of the north. Every time I looked out my window in Canada it looked like one big brown mud puddle. It was extremely boring and took forever. You might say, how can you get bored aren't there in flight movies? In fact, they were going to play "The Social Network" a movie I've been looking forward to seeing but haven't seen. Well I plug my ear plugs in all excited  like its Christmas morning, when what do I hear? NOTHING. I get the stewardesses attention and she tells me that the there is a malfunction in the cabin's electricity and even the bathrooms don't have lights. Then the captain comes on telling us in a condescending tone that we will not be able to watch the movie if we would like to try make it to our destination safely. Well this could have worded a little better I thought. Long story short I flew about 10 of the 13 hours with no electricity in the cabin so I couldnt use the lights to read a book, or listen to a movie.

 This was my last meal in the United States. Mashed potatoes, rolls, steak filet with mushrooms.

 This is the first rock garden I have ever seen. This was at the place we stopped for dinner on the way to Sendai.

 This is the entrance to my apartment. The shoes come off right here and you are supposed to wear slippers on the raised floor.

This is Narita Airport in Tokyo. Honestly wasnt too impressed besides the toilets. There was a push button for the door to open and close on individual toilets. There were also so many buttons, I think it probably had a way to teleport.

 Here is my kitchen/dining room/laundry room/living room.

 This is the washing room. You close the door and the left side is the shower and the right is a bathtub.

This is my toilet. It has heated seats. A beday which I am afraid to try and other random buttons. Also when you flush the toilet. Water runs out the top for you to wash your hands.

Here is my bedroom. The blankets and mattress pads remind me of sleeping in between a sheep and a poodle. They are actually pretty comfy.

Luckily, we safely got off the plane at 4:30 PM here. I breezed through customs without any problems and we waited for about 15 others MeySen employees to arrive. From here, we took a 6 hour bus/van ride up to our apartments in Sendai. I finally got home about 12:30AM.

Miss you all!