It's done. I'm leaving Japan 3/25 and will be home indefinitely. I just quit Interac, telling them I've once again decided that I will not be renewing my contract. I wasn't thinking straight when I originally decided to stay for another year and it took a terrible week of Japan crapping on me for me to realize that I need out.
I spent 4 of the past 7 days driving 2 hours one-way to Mito (capital of Ibaraki) to get my Japanese driver's license and my visa extended. I still have to go back once more to pay for and receive my new visa. If I was staying, I would have to go at least one more time to the DMV to get my license - but that wouldn't even be a sure thing since the driving test is ridiculous and most people have to take it 2 or 3 times before they are passed.
It's going to be hard to say goodbye - in a Stockholm Syndrome kind of way.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Sunday, March 9, 2008
Officiating Japanese Junior High School Basketball
This whole year I've been half-assedly participating in the basketball team's activities. I say half-assedly because they practice every day - literally - with no weekends or holidays off. They do the same drills that they've been doing for the past two years - every day and get yelled at for the same reasons every day. So, since I don't want to submit myself to that kind of punishment, I go the slacker route and show up about twice a week, depending on the week. At the beginning of the year I made the all too common mistake of taking the advice of my peers and trainers to heart and felt the pressure to go every day along with the pain of their resentment if I didn't show up one day. I had to learn not to get too worked up over it and not to feel like I have to apologize or explain myself if I don't go. Now, I go if I have time (which I always do), or more importantly, if I don't have to rush home for my after-school b.m.
The club activities are a good time though. Participating in these activities is one of the most important/beneficial things an ALT(gaijin english teacher) can do. One of the best moves I made at the beginning of the year was going to one of the basketball team's practices on a Sunday. I told the coach that I liked/played bball and he said, if you're free this sunday, please join us. I did. I barely knew any of the kids or teachers, and was still in that shy fearful state that being around shy and fearful people puts you in. It wasn't fun. Nice to play basketball though and it was my first structured practice in a few years (10). The practice didn't mean much to me. It was raining that day, and I was without a car at that time, so I didn't have anything else to do. I road home in the rain, pissed off at myself for moving to Japan and missing home.
A week or so later, I hear from my company that they heard about my appearance at the practice - all the teachers at the school were talking about it - and all of a sudden I'm a great teacher. I hadn't taught a class yet. This is one of many examples of how complete bullshit this job is - and shows you the kinds of things that make impressions in this culture. Cleaning with the students for 15 minutes a day makes you a hard worker. Going around and introducing yourself to each teacher on your first day means you have good character. Teaching English (improving my students' abilities to converse and comprehend the English language) is not anywhere close to my list of "Important Things To Do To Do A Good Job."
Aside from a good "career move" - going to the club activities is fun. It gives the kids a chance to goof off a bit without getting yelled at. The basketball club is a good choice because in the gym there are three different teams practicing - boys/girls bball, volleyball, and boys/girls table-tennis - so you can go to each team and screw around a bit and then move on. Keeps it fresh. It's also indoors which is a prerequisite for me here - no way I'm weathering the elements like the poor kids/coaches in the baseball, soccer, track and field clubs. If it's raining really hard, the baseball team sometimes does laps through the halls for two hours - all in perfect formation and every time I've seen em they've smiled at me when they ran by.
The boys basketball coaches are nice, but pretty cold and quiet. They like it when I go, but they put off that air of indifference (maybe because I go when I want to). The girls coach is a lot cooler/friendlier, and he also knows a lot more about basketball from what I've seen. The girls team is one of the top three teams in the state and regularly score 80 - 100 points. I couldn't believe it either, but he showed me the scores from the paper and video of some games and I believed it. They fast break and launch 3's all day.
So we're talking at the Christmas party and he asks me if I ever ref? Of course (lie), I say. He asks me if I want to ref some of the girls games when they play other schools on the weekends? Hell yeah. The next 30 minutes of the conversation was spent going through and mimicking every possible call you could make - very funny - I had the basics down, but I got a lot wrong and some of the details and motions are a bit different over here. I could tell that he knew what he was doing too.
The first time I reffed was the girls tournament. It was at our school. I think the way it works is that about every weekend there's a tournament (a bunch of games - no champions) at whatever school's turn it is to host that week. About 5 - 7 teams go and they play each other all day.
It was hilarious. I was terrible. Blowing calls, mixing up teams, forgetting time-counts, out of position, trailing the plays. When I called a foul and ran to the scorers table to report it to the kids manning the books/clock - I'd say one thing/number/team and motion something completely different - like I'd call a shooting foul on blue #7 - but I 'd hold up the number 8 with my hands and the only colors on the floor were yellow and red. Nobody said a word. During breaks in the action or in between games the coaches would come up to me and say Ohhh, you're so good - thank you so much for helping us today - you're really a great ref - please come again. It got to a point where I'd see a play developing and already decide in my head what the call would be - or see a team just getting trounced on and start calling a ton of reaching calls to help out the team down 37 - 14 getting eaten up by the full court press with 2 minutes left - they never call off the dogs. I got pretty emphatic/entertaining towards the end - I'd put some juice into my charging and traveling calls - the kids on the sidelines loved it and for the next few weeks at school they'd run up to me in the halls and call me for the offensive foul and throw their arm going the other way.
At the beginning of the games the starting five line up across from each other and bow. If a sub checks into the game they go to the scorers table and bow before coming on to the court - the player leaving the court bows upon arriving at the bench. There is no whining about any of the officiating - by the players, coaches, or the few parents that are watching. Absolutely none. I'd make the worst calls and the kids would apologize to me. I'd call a foul on #7 and #7's hand goes straight up in acknowledgment. They hand me the ball when it goes out of bounds saying onegaishimasu "please take this." Not one perplexed look or notion of opposition. A little different than the scene at some of the basketball tournaments I've been to - and I've been to a few.
Every game whether the team is up by 20, down by 20 or tied - a player is getting chewed out. The coach's voice gets really loud all of a sudden and the gym gets silent - some poor kid whose time has come gets reamed in front of everyone. I don't know what the various surface level reasons are that they get yelled at - maybe they didn't switch on a screen or box out or missed a lay up - but that's a tenth of the meaning behind it - the rest is establishing the coach as the pack leader and instilling/maintaining that level of fear that is needed for control and order. It's so sad sometimes. I'll be screwing around with one of the scorer's table kids or talking with one of the coaches one minute, the next there's screaming, veins popping out, kids crying quietly on the bench into their towels, hiding their faces as the game goes on. Every coach/teacher yells at kids the same way with the same intonation and rhythm. The kids don't respond really, and just stand there taking it - like nothing I say or do can stop this furry-eyebrowed man from screaming at me for the next 10 minutes - which is true - they could have DNA evidence and blood stains and 10 eye witnesses proving them innocent for the crime in question - but the sensei is never wrong and if they try to prove otherwise then they're guilty of that too.
I've reffed at three tournaments so far. Two of them girls games and one boys. The boys coach saw me reffing at the girls first tournament and used that as a lead in to inviting me to one of theirs. The girls games were a lot more fun - I think mainly because the coaches were generally nicer - which made the kids nicer/funnier too. Also, the level of play with the girls is significantly better than that of the boys. Maybe because of the coaching too. Most teams (boys and girsl) have 8 - 12 players on the roster - but some are stacked 15 - 30 deep - since everyone is accepted (no tryouts/cuts). In these cases about half of the kids don't play all day and spend their time on the bench cheering and singing. The teams are made up of 1st and 2nd graders (since the 3rd graders finished their club activities in the winter and now spend their hours after school studying for the high school entrance exams). The 2nd graders play and 1st graders support - they (the 1st graders) bring the players (the 2nd graders) their water bottles, fan them during time outs and, never look like they've ever had a complaint in their heads.
My third time reffing, I'd gotten my motions and positioning down and the coach said I'd moved up a level - I'm now at 3 of 5. All of the refs are coaches for the teams that aren't playing that game - so it's not like these are paid officials - which takes some pressure off. I'm probably still more of a 2 - but the boldness of him not telling me that I was a 5 was appreciated. You don't see that kind of honesty much.
The club activities are a good time though. Participating in these activities is one of the most important/beneficial things an ALT(gaijin english teacher) can do. One of the best moves I made at the beginning of the year was going to one of the basketball team's practices on a Sunday. I told the coach that I liked/played bball and he said, if you're free this sunday, please join us. I did. I barely knew any of the kids or teachers, and was still in that shy fearful state that being around shy and fearful people puts you in. It wasn't fun. Nice to play basketball though and it was my first structured practice in a few years (10). The practice didn't mean much to me. It was raining that day, and I was without a car at that time, so I didn't have anything else to do. I road home in the rain, pissed off at myself for moving to Japan and missing home.
A week or so later, I hear from my company that they heard about my appearance at the practice - all the teachers at the school were talking about it - and all of a sudden I'm a great teacher. I hadn't taught a class yet. This is one of many examples of how complete bullshit this job is - and shows you the kinds of things that make impressions in this culture. Cleaning with the students for 15 minutes a day makes you a hard worker. Going around and introducing yourself to each teacher on your first day means you have good character. Teaching English (improving my students' abilities to converse and comprehend the English language) is not anywhere close to my list of "Important Things To Do To Do A Good Job."
Aside from a good "career move" - going to the club activities is fun. It gives the kids a chance to goof off a bit without getting yelled at. The basketball club is a good choice because in the gym there are three different teams practicing - boys/girls bball, volleyball, and boys/girls table-tennis - so you can go to each team and screw around a bit and then move on. Keeps it fresh. It's also indoors which is a prerequisite for me here - no way I'm weathering the elements like the poor kids/coaches in the baseball, soccer, track and field clubs. If it's raining really hard, the baseball team sometimes does laps through the halls for two hours - all in perfect formation and every time I've seen em they've smiled at me when they ran by.
The boys basketball coaches are nice, but pretty cold and quiet. They like it when I go, but they put off that air of indifference (maybe because I go when I want to). The girls coach is a lot cooler/friendlier, and he also knows a lot more about basketball from what I've seen. The girls team is one of the top three teams in the state and regularly score 80 - 100 points. I couldn't believe it either, but he showed me the scores from the paper and video of some games and I believed it. They fast break and launch 3's all day.
So we're talking at the Christmas party and he asks me if I ever ref? Of course (lie), I say. He asks me if I want to ref some of the girls games when they play other schools on the weekends? Hell yeah. The next 30 minutes of the conversation was spent going through and mimicking every possible call you could make - very funny - I had the basics down, but I got a lot wrong and some of the details and motions are a bit different over here. I could tell that he knew what he was doing too.
The first time I reffed was the girls tournament. It was at our school. I think the way it works is that about every weekend there's a tournament (a bunch of games - no champions) at whatever school's turn it is to host that week. About 5 - 7 teams go and they play each other all day.
It was hilarious. I was terrible. Blowing calls, mixing up teams, forgetting time-counts, out of position, trailing the plays. When I called a foul and ran to the scorers table to report it to the kids manning the books/clock - I'd say one thing/number/team and motion something completely different - like I'd call a shooting foul on blue #7 - but I 'd hold up the number 8 with my hands and the only colors on the floor were yellow and red. Nobody said a word. During breaks in the action or in between games the coaches would come up to me and say Ohhh, you're so good - thank you so much for helping us today - you're really a great ref - please come again. It got to a point where I'd see a play developing and already decide in my head what the call would be - or see a team just getting trounced on and start calling a ton of reaching calls to help out the team down 37 - 14 getting eaten up by the full court press with 2 minutes left - they never call off the dogs. I got pretty emphatic/entertaining towards the end - I'd put some juice into my charging and traveling calls - the kids on the sidelines loved it and for the next few weeks at school they'd run up to me in the halls and call me for the offensive foul and throw their arm going the other way.
At the beginning of the games the starting five line up across from each other and bow. If a sub checks into the game they go to the scorers table and bow before coming on to the court - the player leaving the court bows upon arriving at the bench. There is no whining about any of the officiating - by the players, coaches, or the few parents that are watching. Absolutely none. I'd make the worst calls and the kids would apologize to me. I'd call a foul on #7 and #7's hand goes straight up in acknowledgment. They hand me the ball when it goes out of bounds saying onegaishimasu "please take this." Not one perplexed look or notion of opposition. A little different than the scene at some of the basketball tournaments I've been to - and I've been to a few.
Every game whether the team is up by 20, down by 20 or tied - a player is getting chewed out. The coach's voice gets really loud all of a sudden and the gym gets silent - some poor kid whose time has come gets reamed in front of everyone. I don't know what the various surface level reasons are that they get yelled at - maybe they didn't switch on a screen or box out or missed a lay up - but that's a tenth of the meaning behind it - the rest is establishing the coach as the pack leader and instilling/maintaining that level of fear that is needed for control and order. It's so sad sometimes. I'll be screwing around with one of the scorer's table kids or talking with one of the coaches one minute, the next there's screaming, veins popping out, kids crying quietly on the bench into their towels, hiding their faces as the game goes on. Every coach/teacher yells at kids the same way with the same intonation and rhythm. The kids don't respond really, and just stand there taking it - like nothing I say or do can stop this furry-eyebrowed man from screaming at me for the next 10 minutes - which is true - they could have DNA evidence and blood stains and 10 eye witnesses proving them innocent for the crime in question - but the sensei is never wrong and if they try to prove otherwise then they're guilty of that too.
I've reffed at three tournaments so far. Two of them girls games and one boys. The boys coach saw me reffing at the girls first tournament and used that as a lead in to inviting me to one of theirs. The girls games were a lot more fun - I think mainly because the coaches were generally nicer - which made the kids nicer/funnier too. Also, the level of play with the girls is significantly better than that of the boys. Maybe because of the coaching too. Most teams (boys and girsl) have 8 - 12 players on the roster - but some are stacked 15 - 30 deep - since everyone is accepted (no tryouts/cuts). In these cases about half of the kids don't play all day and spend their time on the bench cheering and singing. The teams are made up of 1st and 2nd graders (since the 3rd graders finished their club activities in the winter and now spend their hours after school studying for the high school entrance exams). The 2nd graders play and 1st graders support - they (the 1st graders) bring the players (the 2nd graders) their water bottles, fan them during time outs and, never look like they've ever had a complaint in their heads.
My third time reffing, I'd gotten my motions and positioning down and the coach said I'd moved up a level - I'm now at 3 of 5. All of the refs are coaches for the teams that aren't playing that game - so it's not like these are paid officials - which takes some pressure off. I'm probably still more of a 2 - but the boldness of him not telling me that I was a 5 was appreciated. You don't see that kind of honesty much.
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
State of the Gaijin - Another Partial Retraction
There's been a change of plans.
I'm now renewing my contract with Interac and continuing my Egnlish teaching tenure in Japan. Due to my last minute decision and the rigidness of Japanese companies, I won't be teaching in the Koga area and will instead be posted at two elementary schools in Sakai machi, which is a small town about a 20 minute drive away. I'll still live in the same place since it's so close and there's not much in Sakai. Ideally I would have liked to continue at one of the Koga area junior highs and/or elementary schools because I've gotten to know a lot of the teachers - but there was no budging due to all of the spots being filled up. Ironically, when my placement was defaulted to Koga when I first signed with Interac a year ago, they used the excuse that the position I was originally slated for in Maebashi (a much bigger/cooler city) was no longer available as the ALT there decided to stay at the last minute. Go figure. Not the end of the world - and teaching at elementary schools will be a lot more entertaining than the waves of boredom that bludgeon you at junior highs.
I'll still be going home on 3/26, but am only going to be in town for about a week. Staying on with Interac makes the most sense right now - financially, logistically and personally. Mental, emotional and social states are another depraved story.
I'm now renewing my contract with Interac and continuing my Egnlish teaching tenure in Japan. Due to my last minute decision and the rigidness of Japanese companies, I won't be teaching in the Koga area and will instead be posted at two elementary schools in Sakai machi, which is a small town about a 20 minute drive away. I'll still live in the same place since it's so close and there's not much in Sakai. Ideally I would have liked to continue at one of the Koga area junior highs and/or elementary schools because I've gotten to know a lot of the teachers - but there was no budging due to all of the spots being filled up. Ironically, when my placement was defaulted to Koga when I first signed with Interac a year ago, they used the excuse that the position I was originally slated for in Maebashi (a much bigger/cooler city) was no longer available as the ALT there decided to stay at the last minute. Go figure. Not the end of the world - and teaching at elementary schools will be a lot more entertaining than the waves of boredom that bludgeon you at junior highs.
I'll still be going home on 3/26, but am only going to be in town for about a week. Staying on with Interac makes the most sense right now - financially, logistically and personally. Mental, emotional and social states are another depraved story.
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