Laundry Day, 4 Months On

This morning I was thinking (I say "this morning" because it was shortly after I rolled out of bed, around noon-forty-five) that I've been here nearly four months now. That's an eighth of my intended stay in Japan, not to mention about the same amount of time I had spent in Nagoya as a student.

The really amazing thing is, my washing machine hasn't quite ruined any pieces of clothing yet. I'm tempting fate a little here, since my washing machine is currently running and its malevolent circuits might somehow be able to tap into my computer, detect this shameful indictment, and thence do everything in its power to shred or bleed or stretch to uselessness my nice green sweater. But anyway, laundry has never been my favorite chore, although it certainly involves the least amount of labor for me. Like most chores, I put it off for as long as possible. My university buddies probably have some incriminating testimonies on that account.

Laundry takes on a different character, though, as the seasons change. Since it's now winter - bollucks to your Gregorian calendar, Western Japan's autumn season lasts approximately 18 hours - I'm reminded of warm, fluffy clothes piles fresh from the dryers in the basement of my dorm or my parents' house. I don't get those in Japan. Much like oven fairies and building insulation, Japan doesn't believe in dryers. At least not for small-town gaijin like me. I've heard on the news that the dryers them rich city-folk can afford have been causing house fires, so perhaps I'm better off relying on the sun and the wind.

Thing is, a typical laundry day four months ago looked like this: no sun, sh*t-tons of rain from the most recent summer typhoon, temperatures just barely low enough for me to want to stand up.
Coincidentally, today's laundry day looks like this: no sun, sh*t-tons of rain from the most recent low-pressure-zone moving in from China (dammit, China, you ruin everything!), temperatures just barely high enough for me to want to get out from under my covers. Actually, the outside air temperature is probably a few degrees higher (Celsius, mind you; a few degrees makes a big difference) than my apartment's room-temperature. Figure THAT one out.

However, laundry day in winter does have one redeeming feature - it's a great excuse to use my air-con (10-second Japanese with Nikki: air-con = air conditioner, which the Japanese think is the English term for "small electric wall-box which makes warm or cold air"). I want clean, dry socks for work tomorrow, so I guess I've just gotta crank that baby up to 25 and blast my apartment all day.

Whoops, there's the "O HAY GUYS ITS 3 PM LOL" air-raid siren (those scared the crap out of me for about the first week I was here). That means only about an hour and a half of grayed-out-ambient-cloudlight left. I've gotta get some milk and bananas, and possibly apples for baking adventures later this week.

The correct answer is, "No."

Just so you know, if any Japanese people ever catch you eating something native to the country / easily obtainable locally and ask you "Do you like that?"

Sometime last week I brought a kiwi to work with my lunch. The teacher who sits on my right asked me if I liked kiwis, and I said "Yeah they're tasty!" and happily munched away on it. I thought the exchange had ended there, but this morning he comes in to work and pulls out a big plastic bag full of kiwis he'd bought . . . I dunno, somewheres. Wholesale, apparently. I keep forgetting how close to New Zealand we are.

Anyway, it's not uncommon for the teachers in my office to bring in a sack full of fruit and pass it around, but usually it's native stuff like mikan (teeny-weeny sweet little seedless oranges that grow all the hell over Western Japan. In Isobe, any home-owner lucky enough to have a yard has either a mikan or a persimmon tree in it, possibly both). So I took out a kiwi and gave the bag back so he could pass it to the next desk over. But he shook his head and gave it back, and said "No no, that's all for you!" There are like 20 kiwis in this bag! I don't know how I will find time to eat them all before they start going squidgy.

Then around lunchtime I went downstairs to the school's lunchfood stand, which is a little office near the student entrance that sells sandwiches and [any pastry you can think of here]-with-[any food you can think of here]-filling concoctions and onigiri, which are what the Japanese invented by way of sandwiches using rice balls instead of bread slices. They come wrapped in little seaweed ribbons so they won't stick to your other onigiri / foodstuffs and hey, bonus nutrition from the seaweed!

I bought a curry-filled-bun and was going to be on my way, when the lunch-lady, whom I have literally seen only twice thus far, today being the second time, called me back and handed me a big paper bag full of mikan. I don't know how she heard that I like mikan, because all she asked me before handing me the bag was if I HAD any mikan. Of course I said no, because all I had at that time were apples and bananas in the apartment and a huge-frickin'-sack full of kiwi in the office. And now I have mikan for days! I just ate one in my dinner tonight, with some spinach and lemon-baked chicken. Kind of a rudimentary "Asian" chicken salad, I guess :p

In conclusion, Japanese people love feeding me.

Sweet, merciful Vishnu . . .

My taste buds are all a-tingle. I seriously just made the most delicious effing dinner I have ever attempted to whip up in my short cooking career.

Anyone who is allergic to peanuts or cashews or can't handle even mild spices should probably not try this at home. The rest of you who have no excuse (I'm looking at you, pigeon . . .), GET ON THIS SHIT RIGHT NOW

I deviated from the recipe somewhat in that I (1) left out the potatoes completely, (2) substituted peanuts for cashews, and (3) put in equal parts garam masala and curry powder with just a few sprinkles of chili pepper. But I'll bet the original is just as good in its own way, and any variations you may feel inspired to try out will probably only make it more freakin' tastetacular ( ☆ ∇ ☆)b

秋まつい

This morning I woke up rather late, as is my wont on the weekends, and popped in a load of laundry. I hang most of it inside nowadays as it gets pretty chilly at night / in the early morning, and there hasn't been a lot of sun lately.

So, second load goes in, I go to the store to stock up on veggies and such. I usually pass Isobe's main shrine on my way into town. Lately it's had some construction work done - new stone steps, and some kind of big sign that wasn't unveiled until today. I wasn't aware somehow, but today and tomorrow are Isobe's Fall Festival (aki matsuri) days. Instead of a quiet, empty shrine on a hill, this is what I saw this afternoon.

The people on stage are taking turns pounding mochi, a sort of paste that's made from rice and used to make sweet cakes in the autumn. The first mochi-pounding of the season is a very special deal :3 At that point I went on my way to get foods, because I need foods to live, but I very quickly ran them back to the apartment, put on a nicer jacket and my panda-hat, and got back to the matsuri. A few of my high school students did a hip-hop dance routine towards the end of it. For some reason, hip-hop dances are VERY popular amongst younger people in Japan. Girls as young as 7 or 8 will go up on stage in baggy pants, bandanas, hoochie shirts & arm-warmers and do synchronized dance moves that their grandmothers probably wouldn't approve of. It's one of those things about Japan that I will just never understand, in the way that Japanese people will probably never fully understand why "otaku" is a label young people in America enthusiastically claim for themselves.

Anyway, clash of cultures aside, I (mostly) enjoyed the dancing. There were several very adorable groups of older women in traditional dress, doing slow and dignified autumn dances. Sorry I can't show any pictures of that; my cell phone camera is retarded for some reason and any pictures I take sideways won't un-sideways-ify themselves when I transfer them to my computer. I also saw Masako at the festival. I think she'd gone to cheer on a few of her friends who were dancing. And also for the wholesale fruit that I unfortunately failed to notice until I got back from the store. Bag-fulls of apples for 500 yen! Apples, bananas, persimmons the size of your face, you name it. Masako offered me some fruit from her bag-fulls, so now I have the most delicious first-harvest apple I have ever eaten in my tummy, and the biggest persimmon I have ever seen sitting on my kitchen counter.

The next few weeks are going to be a little hectic. AJ and I have been so spoiled with three-day weekends and half-days of classes for the past several weeks that a full week's schedule suddenly seems kinda overwhelming. But we've just gotta make it until December 4th - that's when final exams start, and thus when fall session classes end. The trimester system is awesome on the other side of the teacher's desk.

Personal Day

Although work hasn't been particularly hectic this week, we're getting into that home-stretch before final exams begin Dec. 4th, and it's just starting to drag. I've been feeling real tired this week, yet somehow pressed for relaxation time at night despite the fact that I've been staying in.

So I invoked a well-loved American cultural practice and called in sick today. My one afternoon class had been canceled, so I didn't inconvenience anybody by making them switch the schedule around last-minute. I needed a mental health day. One day where I didn't have to be awake and functioning before 10 am and fry my brain over language barriers, cultural exchange, grammar lessons, or financial matters (although I do plan on getting in touch with an America-based company tonight about setting up a remittance account, so I can send money home WITHOUT paying the $20 fee charged for every transfer by the company I currently have an account with)

Speaking of money, apparently the yen now grows on trees. In such abundance, in fact, that the government is planning on giving me a big sack full of it. That's right, me. According to the news tonight, the ruling party is actually considering drafting measures to include foreign residents in the hand-out bonanza. I'm certainly not hurting for monies, especially considering I'm a teacher, but hoo-damn would I like to get a 12,000 yen cash present from the gub'ment!

Anyway, I had a good stress-purging day; sunny & breezy & warmer than it has been, curry in the fridge ready to get warmed up for dinner, and a couple books to work on, one in the figurative and one in the literal sense - Mom convinced me to do National Novel Writing Month this year, and I've also started crafting a book using supplies I got from this super-nifty book/paper artist's dream-store. I don't think the writing will continue to be stress-reductive, though, once the 15th rolls around and I'll have to somehow pull my word count up to 25,000 if I want to keep on track. But that's not a concern tonight. Tonight I want some of my dark chocolate bar, my electric rug plugged in so my floor-pillows are nice and toasty, and a semi-decent Friday night movie on one of my four TV channels.

Zombies for Obama

As proud "Obambies" Nicole and I were savaging any and all American JETs we met at the Halloween party in Matsusaka who hadn't sent in their absentee ballots. This is what the slackers had to face up to:Incidentally, that is also exactly what I looked like while teaching classes on Friday. And riding the bus to Minami-ise in the morning on my way to teach classes. And walking to the bus station from my apartment. I made a couple middle-school kids run screaming down the sidewalk, and one of my senior boys shriek like a little girl. It was a good day.

Today was also a good day. I spent most of it writing while sitting at my desk, and obsessive-compulsively checking cnn.com (remember, I am 14 hours ahead of the East Coast. The polls had only just opened in the States by the time I was done with dinner last night) The verdict finally came in just before I taught my only class today, the last class of the day. I felt a hell of a lot better about my nationality as I walked into that room than I had when I walked into work this morning. Today is the first day in I-don't-know-how-many years that I've actually felt proud of my country.