The Poetist

Drums.  This morning I awoke to the sound of beating drums and the loud and high-pitched voices of children.  The leader shouted something and the group shouted back, in unison.  What were they saying?  I don’t know.  Maybe… “What time is it?” “It’s party time!” “What’s the best school around?” “Mitaka Municipal Dai-San Elementary School is the best school around”  “What do we like?” “We like math!”
This is not the first time I’ve awoken to such noise; in fact, almost every morning I hear music playing and children shouting.  My house is surrounded by a pre-school, an  elementary school, and a junior high school; let’s just say that sound travels very well around here, and between the three schools it sounds like somebody is always having recess.  And it seems like they give recess a soundtrack too.  Yesterday the music sounded like it came from the West Wing; I’ve also heard Queen, the Beach Boys and contemporary pop music.

After the call-and-answer session it sounded like races began.  The sound of an airgun marked the air then I heard the competitive and hurried sounds of children cheering on their schoolmates, because of course the more urgently you cheer the faster your teammate can run.  I had to see this.  Although I wake up to it fairly often I had yet to witness it.  I jumped out of bed, threw on whatever clothes were nearest to me and hopped on my bicycle.  When I came upon the open gravel field and saw the huge crowd of adults, presumably parents and the like, I realized this might be one of those school festivals I’ve heard about from my students.  Children practice songs, dances, sports and possibly other things, in preparation for a school-wide festival allowing students to showcase what they’ve learned and practiced.  I was able to get close enough to get a couple of good pictures and some video, but I didn’t want to stay too long lest some parents think it was wierd for a random Gaijin to be watching their children. I leave you with my parting shot:

These past couple of weeks it seems as though there have been few things on my mind, mainly anything and everything pertaining to when I’m leaving this country, the countries I might visit before I do and the visa status I’ll have when I do so; which is funny, because the past 2 weeks have been pretty eventful in their own right…

… I recently had the opportunity to wear a yukata (summer kimono) to a fireworks festival and outdoor party with friends. Wearing the yukata was really fun, I felt so beautiful and Japanese! Putting it on was a little complicated though; I looked at the directions that came with it (in Japanese but with pictures) and I looked at more directions online (in English), but I still needed a (Japanese) friend to help me put it on – especially the obi, the sash that goes around the waist and ties at the back. That in itself is like origami!

… I also got to go to a Japanese baseball game! While the game is of course the same, the experience of the fan greatly differs. For starters, you’re allowed to bring food and drinks into the ballpark. Not only that – if you buy beer they’ll pour it into a cup for you! It should be noted that I brought in a couple of Coronas and they had to hunt around for a bottle opener; glass bottled beer is not common over here (much to my dismay). I think the best part of Japanese baseball is the cheering. Each player has his own cheer and is cheered for the whole duration that he is at bat, even if the ball is being fielded. I don’t know who makes them up, but the crowd seemed to have memorized each one, with accompanying hand motions and what seemed like full body dances. Not only that, there was small pep band in the back of the stands, and a real cheerleader in front. I mean, this guy was really a cheerleader! He had one drummer next to him and a megaphone in hand, and was leading the crowd in the cheers and gestures. It was deliciously interactive, except on a few occasions I got so into following the dances that I completely missed the play!

… and Thursday I CLIMB MT. FUJI!!!! As exciting as this sounds it has honestly been at the back of my mind for the past few weeks. In fact, just today I emailed one of the friends that I’m climbing with like, uh, shouldn’t we buy bus tickets to Fuji soon? I guess she was spacing out on it too. We’re doing what most Gaijin climbing Fuji do, which is arriving in the evening, climbing overnight, catching the sunrise and then hiking back down. As of now I’m about halfway prepared: I have a head flashlight (to keep the hands free for climbing), cannister of oxygen (in case of altitude sickness or something), and I’m pretty sure I’m good for cold weather gear, as it’s pretty darn cold at sunrise on the top of Fuji. I still need: to buy the bus tickets, write out some postcards so I can be ready to send them from the summit, buy water and granola bars (or some other trail snack). If I’m inspired and have time I might concoct my own trail mix!

Yesterday I was eating my lunch/dinner outside of McDonalds and I noticed a small group of old people sitting nearby, eyeing me: 2 old women with small dogs and 1 stooped and stubbly old man. The old man got up with some trash in his hand, took a few steps, looked around, and then stopped short. I was sitting between him and the trash can. He could walk past me to the trash can or he could go inside McDonalds, which was slightly more inconvenient. I could tell he was thinking: walk past the Gaijin? or go inside? walk past the Gaijin? or go inside? He decided to walk past the Gaijin. And when he was next to me he spoke. I couldn’t understand what he was saying – even if I knew the words I think his Japanese was moderately unintelligible – but he seemed to be muttering some question about Nova and pointing in the direction of where I work, so I answered yes.

Now, it’s not uncommon for people to speak to me, especially old people. Usually they’re smiling and they repeat their words a few times. Not this man! He didn’t smile and what he said to me he said only once. I’m pretty sure it was offensive. As an English teacher and a functionally illiterate resident of Tokyo I’ve gotten pretty good at non-verbal communication, and yeah, I’m pretty confident that this man really wasn’t a fan.

My Japanese work visa expires on 9/13. After the 13^th I’m not allowed to work in Japan, and without a visa I’m not actually allowed to stay here either. If I overstayed my visa they wouldn’t necessarily deport me, but I might not be allowed to set foot in Japan again once I left. To solve that problem I planned my trip to Korea to happen while my visa expired so I could return and simply be issued a regular 90 day tourist visa (Seoul, 9/10-9/14).

Problem solved? No! I was originally thinking that I would leave in late September or early October (9/24 or 10/1). But then I decided that I might stay through part of October to either a) visit China with a friend after her visa expires on October 10^th or b) stay in Tokyo until Columbus Day weekend when my sister will be able to be in NC the same week I get home. Either way it could be at least three weeks from the time that my work visa expires to when I want to leave; but if I’m going to be here for 3 week then I’ll want to be working. So resign with Nova and go with a tourist visa or renew my contract and stay for another month? Because of the time it takes to process a visa renewal I had to notify Nova if I wanted to resign or renew my contract. To gain the most flexibility I decided to renew; as my block trainer reminded me, I can always change my mind once I say yes to a new contract, but it would be difficult to do the opposite. So renewing my contract and visa is all well and good, except… Enter problems #3-5:

I’m not allowed to leave the country while my visa is being processed. It might be Sept. 12 or 13 before I get a new visa; I have a flight to Seoul booked on the 10^th.

I would want to continue working up until the last week of September, or as late as the 2^nd or 3^rd weeks of October, BUT I have to give Nova, the sponsor of my work visa, 4 weeks notice before I leave. If I gave 4 weeks notice in late August or early Sept. would they even continue the visa/contract renewal process? Would I be able to work that extra 2 or 3 weeks?

Whatever the answers to these questions are, the default is to go home sooner rather than later. But luckily, I think there are some answers.

Yesterday I confirmed with Nova Foreign Personnel that I’m not allowed to leave the country while my visa is being processed. I immediately called the person in charge of my visa/contract renewal, my regional assistant area manager (RAAM), and spoke to him about it. He told me that there’s a good chance I can get a new visa before I leave, but that technically Immigration allows up to 6 weeks to process visas. He guessed that I might need it to happen in 3-4 weeks. Luckily for me, my RAAM called the Nova Head Office in Osaka to try to fast track the Nova side of my visa renewal. Here is what we came up with: he thinks that he’ll have all the materials by Friday, on which day (my day off) I can pick up the papers, do my part to complete them, and ideally bring them to Immigration the same day. That gives them/me 5 weeks in order to be able to pick up my new visa the Friday before I leave. My RAAM also suggested that I bring a copy of my flight reservations and make some sort of explanation/apology for the situation in hopes that they might make an effort to issue my visa sooner rather than later.

If this doesn’t work I’ll go to Korea and forfeit my contract and work visa; and probably return to the States ASAP… which I hope doesn’t happen because a) I’m not wild about the idea of booking last minute (I consider 2 weeks as last minute) international air travel, and b) I would feel really bad if I couldn’t give Nova 4 weeks notice. I don’t so much feel like I owe Nova anything, but I’d hate to put my RAAM in a scheduling bind.

If it does work, then I’ll have found myself in quite the sweet spot! There are still a couple of details I have to confirm, but it’s possible that once Immigration has my visa papers that Nova can’t touch it, regardless of when I quit. With that I can continue to work and quit any time I want! Now, if only I could decide what I wanted to do.

*the title of this post is a reference to which song? bonus points for artist and album.

To non-Japanese speakers I ’speak’ Japanese. To non-native Japanese speakers I don’t speak Japanese. To a great deal of Japanese people my “nihongo wa jouzu desu!” Japanese is good. Here is an example: one time I was ordering food at a bar and I said “suimasen… hai, beeru Weistephaner desu, to… tabemasu, onagaishimasu” and the bartender said “tsugouii, nihongo wa jouzu desu!” Well, what did I say in Japanese? “Excuse me, Weistephaner beer please, and… eating”

I tell this story because today I helped a lost tourist while I was waiting for some friends to meet me in Akihabara. I was pointing stuff out to him on his little map and a Japanese man walked up and said “dai jo bu desuka?” I immediately said “dai jo bu desu, arigato” and the tourist man looked at me and said wow, do you speak Japanese? Oh, if only… but that’s another story for another time.
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And speaking other stories, in Of Tremors… I alluded to buying a new umbrella. Umbrellas are a thing here. It’s hard to describe, but you might get a slight idea from this picture album. Also, I’m following this list and while I’m good for about half of them I wanted to cross off number 17. When I was in the store I realized that are things I might not have known about buying an umbrella. When it comes to other accessories like shoes, bags or jewelry I have certain criteria and some sense about what is or is not a good idea. Realizing how little I knew about umbrellas, and imagining that there was probably a lot more to know, I texted a Japanese friend. The conversation went like this:

me: do you know of a good place to shop for umbrellas? I’m at OIOI and I can’t decide if I should get one now
my friend: umm, now I have one from Afternoon Tea, one of girl’s Zakka stores. If you’d like feminine style, try it I don’t really buy umbrellas cause I forget them everywhere. I’d say 2000 yen is average — (picture of her umbrella included)
me: ooh ok thanks! do you think a long pointy umbrella is something I could take on a plane?
mf: what does a long pointy umbrella look like? no problem, i think
me: um, just an average umbrella I guess. that part is not as important. do you know if there is one material that is better than another? like some umbrellas feel silky. are those just for sunny days or rain too?
mf: um sorry don’t know. but I’ve seen many people who have silky ones on rainy days.
me: ok – thanks for answering my questions! (cartoon picture of an umbrella) I think I’ve found one to buy!
mf: looking forward to seeing you soon (cartoon picture of an umbrella)

And now I can assuredly report that there is actually little-to-no important knowledge for buying an umbrella.

On Monday following the typhoon, a Japanese national holiday, an earthquake struck at about 10:15 am off the coast of Niigata prefecture, northwest of Tokyo. Pictures in the media showed families sitting outside observing the wreckage of their collapsed wooden houses, and news reports told of a nuclear power plant that shut down as planned, but still somehow leaked radioactive water into the sea of Japan. I don’t know of any damage in Tokyo. When I got to work and one of my co-workers asked – did you feel that earthquake?? But I hadn’t! I was on the train, or in the station, or something. But apparently everyone who wasn’t felt it. I read in the news about an aftershock sometime between 3 and 4 pm, but I didn’t feel that one either. Later that night I was chatting with one of my housemates in our kitchen and he looked at me and said – did you feel that? And guess what? I didn’t.

There was one memorable earthquake that happened between 1 and 2 months ago. It didn’t do any damage nor did it make the news but I was sitting outside when it happened, and I think that made all the difference. It was an absolutely gorgeous day outside (before the rainy season) so I brought a chair out the the back garden to enjoy it. All of a sudden the ground started shaking! I clung to the chair or else I could fallen off. I hardly noticed though, because I was so in awe of what I heard: I heard the earthquake! It was so incredible to hear the ground move. I can remember the sound in my head but I don’t know what words could describe it.
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For more information on the Niigata earthquake:
Earthquakes in Japan Kill 8 and Injure Hundreds – NYT, the basic information.
Earthquake Shakes Japan’s Northwest Coast – NYT, includes info on the nuclear waste.

These past few days in Tokyo have been very prominent for Mother Earth. Over the weekend typhoon #4 came through. It’s been cool and rainy for a couple of weeks now, but at some point the rainy season morphed into typhoon season (apparently typhoons signal the end of the rainy season, although typhoons just bring more rain). On Friday or Saturday one of my housemates mentioned to me that a typhoon was headed for Nagoya but he didn’t seem to think it would affect Tokyo. Well, on Sunday it came through. Early, early sunday morning I awoke to the sound of heavy, quickly falling rain. As it was too early to be awake I went back to sleep hoping it would be over by the time I needed to leave for work. It wasn’t. It was much too heavy to ride my bicycle, but I had rainboots and an umbrella so I felt equipped enough to walk to the station. Needless to say, I got wet. Really wet. It was extremely windy so the rain was coming at me from all sides. I passed up the chance to take the bus, not understand how truly wet I could get. The walk was about 15 minutes and at the end I was absolutely soaked. I mean soaked! Through and through. I could have wrung out half of my shirt, and the water in my pants could have filled a 2 liter bottle of water. Slight exaggeration, but it actually took me over an hour to completely dry.

And that was only the first half; a typhoon, like it’s identical twin the hurricane, has two halves with the eye in between. In one of my last lessons on that day I got to talking with my student about the typhoon and he said (not verbatim) that we could expect the second half around 6pm. Then he showed me the weather report in the newspaper which tracked the path of the typhoon – down to the hour! And sure enough, it was due to hit Tokyo at 6pm on Sunday. I had planned on running some errands after work but he strongly cautioned against it. I was convinced – I certainly didn’t want a repeat of the morning! After the lesson I relayed this information to the other teacher working that day and he said that he too had heard the same news. 6:00 came and went, however, with no rain. After work I reconsidered running errands – it still wasn’t raining that hard and I could hypothetically cut my trip down to less than 10 minutes, so I went for it. I dashed out of the station, down the street and into the store. I zeroed in on my intended item and swiftly made the purchase. That might be the fastest shopping trip I’ve ever made. Except then I saw the umbrellas. Umbrellas are a highly developed accessory in Tokyo and I really enjoy observing parades of umbrellas on rainy days, and parasols on the sunny ones. Thinking it was still the rainy season I thought to myself, I’ve seen so many pretty umbrellas… I want one too! I quickly glanced outside in a feeble attempt to gauge the weather (rain can quicken or slacken on a dime; looking outside was pretty ineffective) and judging it to be sufficiently non-threatening I decided to buy one. Which is another mild story in itself. It might be ironic if I had left the store with two umbrellas in a downpour – still getting wet because one umbrella can only do so much, but of course you can’t use two – but it actually never poured. As it turns out the second half of the typhoon veered away from Tokyo.

and then I found 10 yen. (today)