As I was writing this on 9/17,...it was my little petite Japanese neighbor Ruiko at the door with a bouquet of flowers in hand who was here to welcome me. We have been seeing each other here and there as we leave the house and she kept telling me she is going to stop by one day to meet me, but never had, as we both are constantly coming and going.
Well today, she finally caught up with me and who knows it was probably a bit scary for her as I was in a venting and questioning mood and so I laid it all out on the table and asked her if in fact what I have been reading is true and she said "Yes, alot of it is". Some are trying to change that now in the younger generation though and many women are now working as well as, so the men are helping with kids and house stuff. Yeah! She too said, she thinks alot of people just through their old clothes away out in the garbage instead of having sales. The garbage collection though is like a Goodwill sort of thing, so I am sure they get into resale shops more than likely. I wondered right away though, if there would be a way for me to collect stuff for Honduras, but then as I thought more about it and the trouble I had getting into that little ,narrow ,red chinese dress ...well perhaps the Japanese ladies figures are much smaller and petite. Those latin girls have way more curves with their bigger hips and chests and so no way.
So let me tell you a bit about Ruiko. She is a Japanese women who is married to an American. She travels alot to the south of Japan where her dad lives alone and she cares for him every so often. John and she have 3 kids. Two older boys in college and an adopted Chinese girl Rui-Li 12 years old. She and the girl live here and John lives during the week in Tokyo. She likes to play tennis and belongs to the health club. She also plays the Japanese 13 string instrument(forgot the name) and is taking voice lessons for fun. She said some night she will have me over for dinner to hear her play. That would be fun.
After a tour of our house, which she loved and had never been in before. She lives in the other half of the duplex and her house is not Japanese at all...no Tatami rooms. They have lived there for 3 years. I told her if we move out and she wants to move in we will let her know. She laughed. We had a glass of water and the little egg cakes we bought from the Ramen museumn, while we visited or maybe more like...while I questioned her? :-) She was very open and friendly. It was very easy to talk with her and she got all my jokes too so that was good. Ahhh yes it does feel good to talk again to people. :-)
The cakes were egg shaped and have white chocolate coating and inside it looks like a egg with a gold cake in the middle and white on the outside. Kind of like the Cadbury chocolate eggs look. She had never seen those nor heard of jumbo-cho either. CJ will have to bring some home for them one night. I told her if she hangs around me enough I will teach her things about Japan that she has never heard of or seen. Just as it always is with the locals knowing less about the place then a visitor. Like me living in MN for 10 years and I really know nothing about MN.Sad to say :-(
She also looked over my Japanese class info and made a call to a place that has class on Fridays. It looks like it might be in Japanese after all, so I will go check it out on later this week.It was nice to have met her and I hope I did not scare her off?
Now back to yesterday. I left the house in a heavy rain in search of the YWCA and the daily Japanese classes for 3000yen for a 3 hour class. That is $30 or $10 an hour, alot different than the $1 or $2 classes everywhere else and at the YWCA too. I thought they gave classes for lower rates? Anyhoo, I wanted to check it out and see if it might be worth a week or so to attend? When I got there I had blisters on both my heels and they were burning like crazy. First time I have worn shoes since I've been here. Ouch. The cute little old lady told me no those are english classes not Japanese. Ok to be honest I was glad that the expensive ones were not what I needed.
She then noticed my heels and had me sit down and ran to get me bandaids. She was so cute and I told her I didn't know I was going to get nursing care while I was there as well. I dropped my sweater on the floor and she quickly picked it up. She was so attentive I thought I might just like to stay there for the day and have her pamper me a bit more. Just kidding. So I thanked her for her kindness and extra bandaid supply and then left with them both in place for about the first 10 steps out in the rain. I was quickly back to the burning and off towards home and to get these darn shoes off my feet and some relief.
So I got back home and was feeling a bit more frustrated and now thinking what is my next option for interaction with people and so I called the school. I had sent an Email before China, but never heard back and so I thought I would call and see what was up. I talked with Miyamoto and he said yes that they could possibly still use my help and so I asked if I could come and see the school. So I went there yesterday at 2pm and he said they would like me to help with English classes. The English teacher Sharon is on vacation and will be back Sept 30th so I will go back to have a meeting with her then. He too asked me to come again tomorrow and so I went back today and had a nice meeting with Toyan the volunteer interpretor and the President or Pinicipal Hattori-san. He said they would really like me to help with English classes and so I will check in with Sharon on the 30th.
He also invited me and CJ as guests to the Sports Day on Saturday Sept 27th, so we will go there in the morning before our Japanese classes that afternoon. That should be fun. I also asked if there was any cutting or preparation work I could do for kinder classes or paper shuffling for mailings and such until the 30th, but he said not really, and that they would rather have me work on making up packets for the English classes. Perhaps I can help more with other stuff in years to come. I guess he plans for me to be around awhile? He too said the Japanese teachers are not real keen on having help in the classrooms with people who don't speak Japanese, so I will slowly have to work my way around these folks I think :-)
So now I am getting more excited and am thinking possibilites are beginning to open up, and I just hope it it doesn't end up being another full-time, non-paying position. For some reason I seem to get myself into alot of those situations? Hum ?
Called and talked with my friend DOona and was good to chat with an old friend again.
The door bell rang again this afternoon and it was to my surprise Ruiko with her friend Reiko. So I teased her and told her I was very happy to know I did not scare her off and she was already coming back for more. :-) Ok, so I already know those two ladies names are going to get interchanged and mixed up. Yikes!
Reiko works at a preschool down on the Japanese side of the bluff and they might need help with their after school program and to also teach some fun english classes. She wanted to know if I was interested in possibly helping her out and if so she would ask more about it with the supervisors there..so who knows that might be another option? She said she knows the kids pretty well and they are kind of wild with her and she needs someone more strict. I told her well I may be the wrong one for that, as discipline is what I had trouble with when in college and student teaching. So who knows I have a feeling it might very well end up a bit like the english classes the other volunteers do when at HTS in Honduras. I have avoided those till now as I am usually so busy with the letters, photos and such. Who knows perhaps I can teach them Japanese classes when I go in March 2009? Ok so I have rattled on way to long.
So I went from nothing to now hoping they don't think I am a certified english teacher. I told them all I really wanted was some day to day interaction with japanese people and would help in whatever way I can. I sure hope all my days and nights are not spent making up lesson plans. I did make sure that whatever I help make or buy is on their budget and not mine.
Ok so now I am exhausted myself and so I will leave you to think about, decipher or just hit Pass and avoid all of the above. CJ is home with some fresh fish and I need to get a salad and some veggies ready.
I don't even have a clue what to tell you to expect tomorrow.
Sayonara
Karla the jabber wocky
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