March 22-27

Good morning, evening, night to everyone. 

This week's issue comes with some new drama, suspense, analysis, and food for thought. 

No luck on the naval base access pass yet, but the guy should be back from his trip relatively soon. The good thing is that I can gain access anytime as long as I am with someone who has a pass.

The adult classes were great as usual, and the kids were well behaved. Teaching kids is a good gauge of your own character. They are so honest, it's painful sometimes. If they don't like you, they tell you. If they don't understand you, they start drawing, climbing, or rolling around on the floor. If they see you breaking a nervous sweat, they ask why you're sweating so much. However, if they love you, they are into the lesson 400% more than any adult. 

My Thursday terrorizers have made a complete turn around. One relationship I have with a student is like the relationship with the girl who is so mean but you refuse to give up because you see something within to make her a good person. The pain, the suffering experienced in order to change this student is mind wrenching, but when they come to class one day look at you with a genuine excitement, it's priceless. Some other students drew pictures of me and wrote little thank you notes in Japanese. As a grown man, I almost cried. 

The people at the gym are pretty funny. I made really good friends with one guy and girl who work there; the guy is actually pretty big and is really into powerlifting, and the girl is not big and not into powerlifting. They have been the ones telling others my name and bio because some mid 40s guy with an outrageous half-bleached mullet started talking to me and goaded me to curl the heaviest dumbbells on the rack. Body building is so out of the ordinary here, but people respect anyone as long as they're working hard. As mentioned, cardio is the main attraction and people will finish their hour long aerobics class to run for another hour on the treadmill. The post-workout meal is usually soup and rice, yum. 

Thursday night, my American buddy from San Diego invited me to his friends house because they just bought the new Margarita 5000. When I got to the house, it was a typical 2 story American house, with an American stove, kitchen, living room, and American music playing in the background. My buddy, his two friends (they are all high school teachers for Americans on the naval base) and one coworker's son were all drinking margaritas and eating fish burritos. It was a dream land. They were so welcoming, and shared their own experiences as well as offered me all the drinks and food I could handle. Talk about lucky for me to meet these people. A great experience to make me appreciate where I come from. Not many other countries would not only provide its own country's groceries and furnishings, but buy local land and build an American style house just so their citizen will feel comfortable while living in another country. 

This weekend I played a lot of soccer. I trained at Nimits park (turf field) and practiced some free kicks under the judgement of a bunch of little kids. The pressure was intense. I'm supposed to be a super human adult from America so there were high expectations on each kick. I felt as if I had to keep a bunch of lions from attacking. After a couple of misses, I tried to keep them entertained with juggling tricks and passing the ball to them. The children responded well to the passing and tricks and I was able to safely escape the children's den. 

That night I played futsal (a version of soccer usually played on a gym floor with smaller sized ball and nets). We had 5 v 5 courts and 6 teams total. Each game ran 10 minutes and it was a lot of fun. My night finished pretty successfully with 5 goals netted for my team. 

This Sunday I had an open Sunday, which meant I had to work from 12 - 4 and be prepared to teach free lessons to any prospective students. In order to attract some prospectives, I had to hand out fliers in the arcade (mall) twice this week. The closest thing I can describe handing out fliers to is the experience of perhaps speed dating. In this case, I was the suitor, and my potential dates were the lovely people passing in the arcade.

Some dates were love at first sight. Once eye contact was made, all I had to do was show that flier, and they wanted more. With other dates, the chemistry was just not there. I made a nice friendly gesture, showed what my flier was willing to offer, but they didn't feel comfortable committing to such a relationship. Some played hard to get. We would make eye contact, but they would try to use it to their advantage. They knew what I had to offer, but they were telling me to "come get me". So they would show some distance which would force me to take a few steps towards them to hand that flier. I quickly understood that this relationship was going to take more commitment from me and less from them so I had to show I was not going to be pushed around. The flier came at those with force, and if they couldn't handle the power of the flier, they declined. Finally, there were the socially inept daters. Perhaps a friend or family member sent them out hoping they could start living outside the house. Many appeared to lack basic hygiene skills, such as poorly groomed hair, an outfit that was clearly on its fifth use without washing, and of course the musk of no shower for at least 3 days. Some of these unique types, would either quickly distract themselves with a blank phone screen, or pretend to change a song on their ipod. Others, were in fact so dedicated to being inept they would start to run once they saw me offering fliers. They would stop running when they felt they were a safe distance in which I wouldn't notice, but I did notice, I did. 

Overall, if you plan to do Flier Dating, be prepared for a large amount of rejection. Some rejections hurt more than others, and some rejections are actually by your own choice. The feeling of acceptance from the beautiful date you just won over can be quickly countered by several simultaneous rejections minutes later. My only advice can be to leave your emotions and attachments at home, and just assure yourself it's not you, it's them. 

Next week is another week, and the cherry blossoms are well overdue for blooming. Talk to you soon! Thanks again for reading!

March 14 - 21

Hey everyone. It's been a crazy week in Japan since the earthquake. As most of you know, there has been a lot of talk about the power plants, especially Fukushima, melting down. Many foreigners have left Japan and returned to their home countries, while many Japanese people have fled the area to Osaka and even Sasebo. Many wives and children are seeking temporary refuge with family members who live far away from the quake spots. Meanwhile, the husbands must continue to work and they are fighting through the lack of public transportation to do so everyday. Some people are walking to work in Tokyo from Chiba prefecture. That's like if someone walked from Nassau county to Manhattan everyday to work. I give the people of Japan an incredible amount of credit because they are still waiting on line at the grocery stores, helping others when they can, and focusing on cleaning up the damage as quickly as possible. In the meantime in Southern and Southwestern Japan, in order to avoid a major depression, everyone in the companies is trying even harder to make up for the damage done to the businesses in Tokyo. It's also great to see the Americans stationed here helping out as well. The local naval base has dispatched some ships and have sent servicemen to help with the recovery. This is just another reason why I respect Japanese society.

This week in Sasebo English school has been busy as well. March is the month of prospective students. The school semester in Japan begin in April and ends in Mid Winter. Most people make their "New Years resolutions" in April, so its a good time to recruit new students. My duty as the foreign teacher is to do a quick interview with the prospective by making small chat to sort of gauge their level as well as make them comfortable with me. After the talk, I report to my manager the level I think the student is capable of and she recommends the classes to the prospective. This week we had 5 prospectives and 3 signed up and 2 are doing trial lessons. It's very important to get the prospectives to sign up because a large amount of our school's monthly revenue is based off how many new students we bring in.

It's nice to see new faces in the school to kind of keep things fresh. It's also nice to see faces I'm not so fond of leave. I had to kick two students out of the class on Thursday because they breached the threshold. They were warned, in Japanese, by the head teacher before class. They still did not want to cooperate and during class they started to take all the paper money, magnets, dice, and markers and play with them around the room. When asked to return them into my hand, the students thought it would be a good idea to throw them. As mentioned, reprimanding a Japanese child in English is as if a Filipino curses at a Canadian in Tagalog. It means nothing to them, so I had to kick them out of the class in front of their mothers. After class, my head teacher spoke with the mothers and the students apologized. I really want to teach them, and I really want them to enjoy my class, but when I'm not being respected, it's not going to work. 

On Wednesday, I finally signed up for a cell phone. With the assistance of my coworker, I went to Softbank (the Verizon of Japan) with about $350 cash. I had no intentions of buying anything more expensive than that. The next thing I know, I am asking my coworker to borrow some money because I wanted to buy the iPhone for $460. I guess some things never go as planned, but the great thing is that I can Skype anyone from almost anywhere at all times of day. It really does make life in Japan incredibly easier having a smartphone. I do recommend buying one if anyone plans to live here. I also gave out my email to some of my higher level students because I know they have so much desire to become fluent in English. I only see them once a week and I want to help in any way I can, so I'm willing to answer any questions they may have during the week.

This weekend was nice because for Saturday students it was the last lesson of the semester. This means that many students who are not returning to the school give sweets to the teachers. It's standard tradition in Japan to give a small gift like sweets to a neighbor, teacher, or anyone else when meeting them for the first time and when leaving them. We received some amazing pastries and chocolates! It was great. The old foreign teacher was also in town before he returned to Australia, so I grabbed a drink with him and another teacher after work. 

Life outside of work is really starting to take a turn for the better. Since I got my iPhone, I am able to not only talk with friends from home, but I can actually make friends here and save their numbers. For example, I can chat with the new friends I made at the soccer field last week. The gym has been progressively getting better too. I started going at night to see if I could meet some younger people. At first everyone sort of avoided me because I am in fact the blue guy (remember blue guy from two posts ago?). Once they saw one of their own talking to me and saw that I can speak some Japanese and I won't eat them, many people started talking with me. It's funny because at first I befriended one guy and one girl employee at the gym. Perhaps people saw me and inquired to the employees about me because everyone in the gym now knows my name. It's as if I'm a celebrity; I'll be talking to the employee and this random guy approaches me and says in Japanese, "Hi Michael, you have a nice chest." Extremely flattering and unexpected at the same time. I also can't help but notice in my peripherals eyes watching me when I work out. Ironically, the next time I return to the gym the body of those eyes is doing the same exercise I did the other day! But now that I'm gradually being accepted in the gym, the girls especially become a lot more approachable.

On that note, if you want to meet girls in Japan there are two options. GENERALLY speaking, there is always the bar life where you can try to meet girls who want guys to look at them and meet guys who try to pretend they're tough. Sure those girls may be quite friendly after you buy them 3 drinks, but they're usually not people you stay in contact with in the future. The other approach can be through a group. For example, you can meet a guy (whether it be at a bar or work or the gym) and befriend him. This guy will introduce to his guy and girl friends and you can go out with them and socialize together. These types of girls tend to be a little bit more traditional in the sense that you need to show that you are a good person before they start hanging out with you alone. Either way is fine depending on your lifestyle, but I personally prefer the latter. At the least, you can be friends with the girl, and that's fine too. The other approach to me is more of an all-or-nothing instant gratification approach. I'm not to judge what others' do, bar life is just not my forte.

Monday was another great day for meeting people. I went to the soccer field to train alone for a little bit and I started chatting with some random Japanese guy. Apparently he is a professional sprinter and used to play soccer at a high level too. We trained together for a while and as I was taking a break I started to talk with an American guy who was watching us play. Turns out he's from Woodside in Queens and has been in the service for 27 years. He's lived in Japan for about 10 months and loves it here. Once he heard that I was affiliated with a Japanese company and not the naval base (which means I am not allowed to access the naval base premises) he gave me his email and told me he will try to help me get an access card. This is great because the naval base not only has a lot of Americans, but has a few American food stores, liquor stores, and a really nice basketball court and workout facility. Although I came to Japan to experience Japanese culture, having a little taste of America at such a convenience may be a beautiful option. 

Overall, each week living in Japan is better than the last. My Japanese is gradually improving, but still needs a lot of work. As the weather gets nicer, it will be even easier to be more active and meet new people. As most can agree, having an enjoyable life outside work can be a nice outlet to the energy consuming job. Thank you again for reading my thoughts. Unfortunately when they came to my house to install the internet, they could not gain access to the roof because it was a holiday. So I had to reschedule for another two weeks from now! But the iPhone will keep me sane for the time being. Take care everyone!

March 7 - 13

Hello Everyone! Every week is an adventure! Thankfully my city is on the opposite coast of the earthquake and Tsunami. Thank you everyone for the good wishes thank you I love you all.

This week is going to be in 2 day blocks with the last a 3 day block.

March 7 & 8: My day started with an interesting twist on Monday afternoon. As I was walking back from the internet cafe, an older gentleman on his bicycle was furiously crossing the intersection before the light changed. Apparently he did not take notice of the curb and as he approached the walk way he sideswiped the curb and flipped off his bike onto the pavement. I ran over and when I asked if he was okay, the only response was a drunken groan. The smell of alcohol and the intoxicated slur that came out was enough for me to not bother trying to help. 

Having an atypical work schedule can be a damper on social life in Japan, or in any place for that matter. Whereas most young adults to middle aged have work or school from about 8AM to 5PM, I work from 12PM to 9PM. Furthermore, most people have the normal Saturday and Sunday weekend, mine is Sunday and Monday. For example, I have yet to meet any of my neighbors in my apartment because most of them leave for work while I'm still asleep.

Tuesday morning was the first weekday experience of the gym. Generally speaking, gyms in Japan are quite different from gyms in America. American gyms consist of about 70% weights and machines, with 30% being treadmills and classes. There are some Golds Gym's established in Tokyo and Kansai area, but for the most part, gyms in Japan are almost like sports clubs. My gym has 3 floors: the bottom floor has a pool, racquetball court, and a mini indoor driving range. The second floor consists of one large room with classes running all day, and the work out floor with about 75% spin bikes and treadmills. There are only a handful of machines, almost all of them being for legs, one smith machine, one flat bench, two free benches, and dumbbells that go up to about 80lbs. The third floor has a tennis court. Within the locker room there is also a really big tub, sort of like a mini hot spring. This would all be great for me to use but unfortunately if I want to keep my membership at this gym I cannot swim or use the tub because members are not allowed to have tattoos. Tattoos are considered gang related in Japan. Although people respect foreigners with tattoos because they know its a different culture, the rules are rules, and no tattoos means no tattoos; typical Japanese. So, if you enjoy running, yoga, biking, and other aerobics with clean skin, then you've come to the right place! If you came for body building and gang battles, then maybe a job on the American naval base might be better. Oh yea, and indoor shoes are a necessity, no outside dirt allowed. And wipe down the machine or dumbbell after every use.

As for class on Tuesday, that one crazy kids class is becoming more of a lost cause each week. Some students in that class are not destined to excel in English, and I'm slowly coming to terms with that.

March 9 & 10:There are pros and cons to this morning workout thing. The good side is that the morning members are the average age of perhaps 68 years old, which means the free weights and smith machine are left for me. Also, it's pretty easy to stand out in the crowd so it draws some attention from the employees and it's a good opportunity to talk with some of the girl workers. The bad side is the locker room. Apparently there is less shame or self consciousness or whatever you'd like to call it for the other man in the locker room here in Japan. I was sitting in front of my locker and the guy next to me decided to drop his drawers clearly within my sight. To be honest, it's pretty offensive because of the lack of consideration of the damage that is done to my eyes. 

Wednesday classes were great and I think I won over the 3 year old girl who was notorious for giving the last teacher problems. 

Thursday's food for thought: Doing activities while walking. For example, smoking, eating, or drinking while walking is frowned upon in Japan. For us back in New York, we are possibly the best multi-tasking humans in the world. Walking, drinking and talking with the cellphone on speaker because we need to look up directions on our IPhone is but a normal task for New Yorkers. Both sides of the argument hold their strength. One side comes with fast paced living and performing many activities in the shortest amount of planned time. The other, taking a minute to have a seat and enjoy a smoke and think about life is a beautiful thing. Savoring life by doing isolated activities is great. But who is to say those multi-taskers aren't trained to savor their activities just as much? What do you think about this?

The two devils in the Thursday kids class were threatened by all the Japanese teachers before class. They were still pretty horrible; one of them was saying some really irritating things to me in Japanese. The good thing is that the kids class in the next class are amazing and they help me forget about devil boy quickly.

I went for a quick walk around town today to scope out a sports complex I saw on my hike last week. There is an American park within the Japanese park. The American park has a turf soccer field, turf baseball field, skatepark, beach volleyball court, and bbq area! The Japanese park surrounds the American park with cherry blossom trees that are going to bloom in about 3 weeks.

March 11, 12, 13: The Friday/Saturday shift is such a blur. Friday is teaching from 1PM to 9PM straight with a 1 hour break. Then it's lesson prep for Saturday, return home at about 10PM, then come back the next morning at 9:30. Saturday is classes straight from 10AM to 6PM. The good thing is that it is over before you know it, the bad thing is that two days just went by before you even knew it! 

For English teachers, the party night is usually Saturday night. So how did I spend my fine Saturday night you ask? At the gym. No drinking, just good hard sweating and exercising. 

Sunday was probably the best day I have had in Japan. I went to the American park , "Nimitz Park", to see who was playing soccer. The park was made to help establish a relationship between the 6000 Americans who live on the naval base and the local Japanese citizens. It's a great idea because the park is flooded with Japanese families, American families, Japanese/American mix families, and tons of people around my age. 

There were some Japanese kids playing on one side and an American guy training on the other. I couldn't resist. I ran to the local soccer shop, bought new boots, socks, a ball and a pump. I hurried home, got changed and returned to the pitch. The pitch is beautiful; there is an amazing view of both mini mountains of Sasebo and the turf is incredible. After training for about an hour, an American guy came over and I started talking with him. Apparently they had a game against a local Japanese team starting soon. He was a really cool guy from San Diego who works as a High School teacher for the American kids on base. He invited me to play with them and I joined their team for the match. We destroyed them 7-2, but that was only a small part of the fun.

Afterwards, we had a huge barbecue with REAL AMERICAN FOOD! The naval base imports its chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, pretty much anything you could think of from back home. So at one grill we had chicken and burgers cooking up, while at the other the Japanese guys were cooking yakisoba, or grilled noodles. It was a dream come true: eating my favorite Bubba Burgers while speaking Japanese with the my new friends. The American guys from the base, and the Japanese guys and girls were really great people. The first guy I met from San Diego said he'll help show me the ropes with the bars and good places to meet cool people. And of course it was great to make Japanese friends, especially cute girls who like soccer. We exchanged numbers and emails at the end of the day. 

I made it this far away to the other side of the world following the things that interest me most, and once again I followed my strongest passion in sports and working out, and I found the right people. So far so good, if I have a dream, I'll follow it and it will guide me to the right place. Don't be afraid to step out of the comfort box every once in a while, you never know what you might find! 

 Thank you for reading. Spring is soon! No more cold weather : ) 

Feb 28 - March 5

This week's post is a summary of events, emotions, thoughts, and plans. Since we last spoke, I was a few days away from receiving the alien registration card, classes were going well, and my Lakers were at the top of the table mid-season in NBA 2K11. 

I shall start with the kids classes. Tuesday's terrorizers were better this week, but that's not saying much. Thursday came with a bit of a surprise because one of the students decided to be absolutely out of control the entire lesson. For example, he felt the need to try to climb on everything, take all my markers out and start drawing on the board, take all the magnets and throw them at me, and kick the other students. It can become extremely frustrating reprimanding kids because what I say carries no meaning compared to being reprimanded in Japanese. The pre-school kids in particular are changing at such a pace that the cute quiet girl last month could be the new terror this month. However, the child is not always out of control because of privileged treatment at home, it can be because the child doesn't understand what is going on in the lesson. That's something I need to work on because if the child understands my instructions and points I'm trying to introduce, they might not feel out of place and will want to participate. That doesn't mean it will work on all students and those who still refuse to participate can roll around on the floor like maniacs all they want. 

What really helped was the feedback I received from my Head Teacher who observed one of my kids lessons on Thursday. She suggested some techniques on certain areas of the lesson as well as for student control. They proved extremely affective because my Friday and Saturday students demonstrated a much higher retention of the material. I really noticed signs of fulfillment in their eyes. I am quite lucky to have really great coworkers.

Moving onto adult lessons, this week was really useful for building a niche with my students. They had two weeks to analyze my personality and presentation as a new teacher. Now it was time to start connecting with them. Many Japanese adults who are learning English are really successful individuals. One woman is a retired Architect who wants to travel the world and communicate with those who speak English. She also plans to live in Canada this Summer for 3 months. I have two college professors who are extremely intelligent men; one of them must be a physicist or mathematician because he's questions always require precise answers which is quite a bit of pressure to be honest. There is also a man who owns a movie theater who studies because he wants to know all the native speakers' nuances he hears in his movies. Possibly one of the most unique reasons I heard was from a young lady who is learning because she wants to go to Disney World and speak fluently with Mickey. They all have different self fulfilling reasons, but seem to make the same flabbergasted face when I tell them my age. The previous teacher was a 35 year old math, science, and English teacher who knew the absolute technicalities of English. Now they are faced with a 23 year old American "young buck" who only teaches based off experience with the language. I hope they don't figure out my secret that I don't know any linguistic terminology besides morphology, phonology and syntax : ).

Oh, and when I gave the response to my student about the "food" and "foods" question, stating that since it is a category that covers many things (just like furniture, tableware, silverware, etc.) it is used as singular. So of course his response came back as, "Oh ok, but what about sports? 'I have alot of sports to play.'" All I could say was, "GENERALLY speaking they are singular, English is full of irregularities, let's move on."

Another lesson this week proved to be very successful. We were discussing invitations and the final task was creating a party invitation. We brainstormed as a class and many ideas were really creative; some were cherry blossom viewing, hiking, barbecue, tacoyaki, and gardening. One student, Masashi, decided he wanted to have a Girls Only Plus Masashi Party on the beach in the summer at his house. So the girl sitting next to him decided to make her party the All Girls Definitely Not Masashi Allowed Party at the local karaoke bar. Japanese people are not all as shy as it may be perceived.  It's all a matter of creating a comfortable environment for anyone, nonetheless this one being one in English, and they start drawing out great ideas. 

On Friday I went with one of my coworkers to pick up the Alien Registration card. We also went to the bank and the gym. Signing up at the gym and bank was really fun, because I had my coworker as a translator for any cloudy spots in the conversation. The applications are of course in Japanese, so it's best to know how to at least write your name and address in Japanese and read somewhat simple instructions. These tasks may prove impossible without any knowledge of Japanese and may be overwhelming. So for me, who has been labeled as chuugakkou ichi nen sei (middle school first year) level, it was good to have a security blanket when signing up. 

After feeling confident about sign-up procedures, I decided to go by myself to the cable company to sign up for internet on Sunday. The first words I used were an apology for being a beginner at Japanese. The woman laughed and was extremely helpful from there. From what I THINK I understood, I bought a cable modem with a really good speed that will be installed on March 20th. 

Saturday I was asked out on a date! By a guy. After class one of my students asked me if I wanted to get dinner together with him. In America this would have absolutely been considered a date, but in America guys don't carry "man-bags" and keep themselves as manicured and pedicured as women like they do in Japan. I knew his intentions were only friendly, but I still had to keep my guard up to be safe, I am not a cheap date. We dropped in at the same restaurant I went to last week, and Youichi-san (chef and owner) served some awesome food again. I was able to draw a hetero-conclusion once we got to talking about past relationships. He's a real cool guy and it was nice to make friends with a local.

Final highlights on an overall nice week. Lost some sleep because of over analyzing things, won the NBA Championship on XBox, noticed that all toilets have a "big flush" and "small flush" feature, and broke 2 dozen eggs in two days; one dozen I dropped my bag the moment I exited the store. The second dozen on the next day I fell down the stairs on the crosswalk in the rain, perfect timing in front of a cute girl too. 

Living in a foreign land is still great, but at times can feel isolating. May feel frustrating at times because there is still a language barrier to an extent. And not for anything, I'm a half-Italian half-Scottish white guy trying to fit in with a mostly hegemonic culture. I don't blame those who aren't interested in socializing with the different guy, because its like if a kid with blue skin moved next door to me back in New York. Yea he's different which could make people interested in knowing how he became blue, or arrived in New York, but there is still that select group who wishes not to participate with blue guy. 

Have a great week! Internet will be in the apartment in two weeks! Cheers.