I'd like to take this little wedge of time I have left after eating lunch to bitch about something quickly that has been irritating me since I got to Japan. . .
WHY do these women think only men should have extra food? Whenever there is another lunch or unequal portions of food for our lunches, the people serving up (usually the office ladies) don't even think twice about making sure the men get it. Only the men. Even if they don't want it!
Today, I watched the guy sitting across from me make a face of agony as the lunch lady of the day brought over a whole tray of food that no one claimed. He was clearly full and didn't want any of it, but he took a bit anyway. Then, she skipped right over me and went to the other young guy across the room who shoved his face full also struggling to fit it all in his tiny stomach.
This has been the case several times since I have come to Japan and it still baffles me. I understand these women are mostly paper thin and don't want to pack themselves full of food, but I am not quite the same. I'm a pretty big girl and I LOVE TO EAT. I wish there was even the thought of offering that extra food to me. . . it's just the way they think and anyone who thinks otherwise is an outcast and that is not what people do here. I HATE it.
Sincerely,
~Hungry Me
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Time for "Graduation"
Well, it's that time of year again where the eldest students in the schools "graduate" to the next school. I have eight kindergarten, twenty elementary school, and twenty nine junior high school students moving up.
I will miss these JHS kids the most since I won't get them as high schoolers (Yasuda Town is too small) . . . last year, the 3年生 (sannensei) students were terrible to me. I was glad to see them go, but these kids are great. They usually try pretty hard, show interest, and have fun. I made them all CDs as a thanks for being awesome. I hope they like them. They were a bit concerned when I told them there would be no Japanese music, only foreign music. I just want to expose them a little, haha. . .
I will miss these JHS kids the most since I won't get them as high schoolers (Yasuda Town is too small) . . . last year, the 3年生 (sannensei) students were terrible to me. I was glad to see them go, but these kids are great. They usually try pretty hard, show interest, and have fun. I made them all CDs as a thanks for being awesome. I hope they like them. They were a bit concerned when I told them there would be no Japanese music, only foreign music. I just want to expose them a little, haha. . .
Tuesday, February 28, 2012
Why Do They Always Find Me!?
It seems like every time I live abroad, the religious nuts find me. . . and approach me. . . and try to talk to me about "the way to be". . . and it always leaves me frustrated and angry and baffled as to how they always manage to pick me out of the crowd! Why me? Do I ooze helplessness? Do I look gullible? Do they think I'm just some heathen brown person because I'm not wearing a cross necklace? WHY!?
When I was in Australia, my friend and I were sitting in a park, studying. A big, red-haired man came over to us and sat down. We thought maybe he was just some dude looking to lay in the sun for the day. But, no. He began talking to us about God. About some religious cult he belonged to where they all lived in a "commune" and those who worked provided for everyone else, everything was shared, everything was peaceful and beautiful, etc. I'm not shy to these, really. Yes, they tend to irritate me, but I do enjoy having a bit of debate here and there regarding personal matters. This guy ended the conversation basically by letting me know what a selfish bitch I was for using my money to study abroad and do things for myself and that God would not be happy about that. We all will go to hell unless we join his incredible commune. . . what a grand time that was!
My town is tiny - less than 3,000 people live here and I would say about 75% of them are over 75 years of age. When I walk down the shrine steps to go to work sometimes, across the road is a small dip off the road where people sometimes sell food or whatever. There's a young guy who makes and sells takoyaki from a van, but he's harmless, very quiet. Then, there's a man who also has a van and he makes and sells all kinds of popped grain treats: sugar-coated popcorn, wheat, rice, etc. The first time I met him had to have been about a year and a half ago. He barely speaks English and was nice enough, but then suddenly, out of the blue, asked if I liked God. Hmmm. . . a bit forward and strange to hear from a Japanese guy. It turned out he is Jehovah's Witness. I really thought most people here were either Buddhist or Shinto. I tried to be gentile and explain "No, sorry, I'm not interested" but DAMN was he persistent! Long story short, he gave me a few things to read (only one of which had any English in it), I returned them to him still saying no, thanks, and we left each other in peace, munching on sweet popped grains.
This guy knows my name, where I live, how old I am, etc. and whenever I see him, he lights up and tries again and again to get me to believe in God. He also tries to give me the popcorn and things, but I always insist on paying. I don't want him to be able to use this against me later, haha!
For the past few months, there have been these two lovely ladies inviting themselves into my house for a chat every so often (about once a month). They first showed up to my door one day when I was finally relaxing and having time to myself one Saturday afternoon, bra-less, in comfy PJs, and definitely not too open to having company. I had no idea who they were. One is younger and has relatively good English-speaking ability and the other is older and has quite limited conversation skills. They were wondering if they could possibly come in and chat. I figured they wanted a little extra English practice or something. I was hesitating a lot and hinting at my lack of preparation for guests and they asked if they could come back the following weekend. Not knowing what was going on, I said that would be ok. That's when the younger explained that they heard about me from the popcorn man. Woop. Woop. It all came together now. They were Jehovah's Witnesses and they found me. AGH!
When they came, they were sweet and brought food - the younger made a sweet potato cake and the elder made some kind of funky pesto stuff and bread. I didn't invite them upstairs, but instead set up a small area downstairs in the tatami room. I served it all up for the three of us and we started talking the usual small talk, where we're from, what we do, interests, hobbies, etc. To my surprise religion didn't really come up until they were going to leave. The entire two hours felt so strange, a little fake, superficial. . . This was in December. I told them I was busy until at least the middle of January. They then invited themselves over again in the middle of January.
I had completely forgotten about when they said they were coming. I had been laying around in comfy PJs again, but this time I was pretty sick and really didn't want to be around people. They stayed anyway! Not very "Japanese", I don't think. . . They both brought a little gift, 2 boxes of tissues and a bag of salty rice snacks. This time, the elder one brought origami paper and we showed each other some cute things. Again, religion was not much in the conversation, but I could tell they kind of wanted it to come about. I let them know that no matter what was said, my views on religion were not going to change, thinking that maybe this would deter them from coming again. It didn't. They told me a date in February and I felt like a dick wanting to refuse, so I said it would be all right. DAMN them for being so nice! When that date came around, I was seriously sick again, so they said they would come at another time. I'm pretty sure they came this past weekend, but I was in Okayama at a festival (something I had told them previously). I'm also busy for the next few weeks.
I hope they forget about it, but I doubt they will. I don't want the awkwardness. I don't want to invite people into my house that invited themselves in the first place! These women are such blind followers to their faith that I wouldn't even be able to say something and hear a proper retort. They don't even speak English well enough to get their points across to me and don't know enough Japanese to respond deeply enough.
Yesterday, I passed the popcorn man and bought no sweet treats. . .
When I was in Australia, my friend and I were sitting in a park, studying. A big, red-haired man came over to us and sat down. We thought maybe he was just some dude looking to lay in the sun for the day. But, no. He began talking to us about God. About some religious cult he belonged to where they all lived in a "commune" and those who worked provided for everyone else, everything was shared, everything was peaceful and beautiful, etc. I'm not shy to these, really. Yes, they tend to irritate me, but I do enjoy having a bit of debate here and there regarding personal matters. This guy ended the conversation basically by letting me know what a selfish bitch I was for using my money to study abroad and do things for myself and that God would not be happy about that. We all will go to hell unless we join his incredible commune. . . what a grand time that was!
My town is tiny - less than 3,000 people live here and I would say about 75% of them are over 75 years of age. When I walk down the shrine steps to go to work sometimes, across the road is a small dip off the road where people sometimes sell food or whatever. There's a young guy who makes and sells takoyaki from a van, but he's harmless, very quiet. Then, there's a man who also has a van and he makes and sells all kinds of popped grain treats: sugar-coated popcorn, wheat, rice, etc. The first time I met him had to have been about a year and a half ago. He barely speaks English and was nice enough, but then suddenly, out of the blue, asked if I liked God. Hmmm. . . a bit forward and strange to hear from a Japanese guy. It turned out he is Jehovah's Witness. I really thought most people here were either Buddhist or Shinto. I tried to be gentile and explain "No, sorry, I'm not interested" but DAMN was he persistent! Long story short, he gave me a few things to read (only one of which had any English in it), I returned them to him still saying no, thanks, and we left each other in peace, munching on sweet popped grains.
This guy knows my name, where I live, how old I am, etc. and whenever I see him, he lights up and tries again and again to get me to believe in God. He also tries to give me the popcorn and things, but I always insist on paying. I don't want him to be able to use this against me later, haha!
For the past few months, there have been these two lovely ladies inviting themselves into my house for a chat every so often (about once a month). They first showed up to my door one day when I was finally relaxing and having time to myself one Saturday afternoon, bra-less, in comfy PJs, and definitely not too open to having company. I had no idea who they were. One is younger and has relatively good English-speaking ability and the other is older and has quite limited conversation skills. They were wondering if they could possibly come in and chat. I figured they wanted a little extra English practice or something. I was hesitating a lot and hinting at my lack of preparation for guests and they asked if they could come back the following weekend. Not knowing what was going on, I said that would be ok. That's when the younger explained that they heard about me from the popcorn man. Woop. Woop. It all came together now. They were Jehovah's Witnesses and they found me. AGH!
When they came, they were sweet and brought food - the younger made a sweet potato cake and the elder made some kind of funky pesto stuff and bread. I didn't invite them upstairs, but instead set up a small area downstairs in the tatami room. I served it all up for the three of us and we started talking the usual small talk, where we're from, what we do, interests, hobbies, etc. To my surprise religion didn't really come up until they were going to leave. The entire two hours felt so strange, a little fake, superficial. . . This was in December. I told them I was busy until at least the middle of January. They then invited themselves over again in the middle of January.
I had completely forgotten about when they said they were coming. I had been laying around in comfy PJs again, but this time I was pretty sick and really didn't want to be around people. They stayed anyway! Not very "Japanese", I don't think. . . They both brought a little gift, 2 boxes of tissues and a bag of salty rice snacks. This time, the elder one brought origami paper and we showed each other some cute things. Again, religion was not much in the conversation, but I could tell they kind of wanted it to come about. I let them know that no matter what was said, my views on religion were not going to change, thinking that maybe this would deter them from coming again. It didn't. They told me a date in February and I felt like a dick wanting to refuse, so I said it would be all right. DAMN them for being so nice! When that date came around, I was seriously sick again, so they said they would come at another time. I'm pretty sure they came this past weekend, but I was in Okayama at a festival (something I had told them previously). I'm also busy for the next few weeks.
I hope they forget about it, but I doubt they will. I don't want the awkwardness. I don't want to invite people into my house that invited themselves in the first place! These women are such blind followers to their faith that I wouldn't even be able to say something and hear a proper retort. They don't even speak English well enough to get their points across to me and don't know enough Japanese to respond deeply enough.
Yesterday, I passed the popcorn man and bought no sweet treats. . .
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