Pic of The Week: “The Crew”.

That is what we have been titled by the Training Department at Head Office. And we are a force to be reckoned with! We are our own support network and the management know we all talk so they are careful to look after us, so as to look after themselves. It’s very empowering to know our little union is so influential!

“The Crew” is made up of 5 very different people who live in 2 cities, work at 3 schools and come from 4 different countries and all different walks of life. Through our common goal of teaching English in Japan for a year at the same company we have become great friends.

These people have become my family in this country and I am extremely blessed to have been welcomed into their little posse of four, back in July. Over the last 5 months I have gotten to know each of them through travelling, drinking, eating, singing, shopping, having tea, working out, bitching about work, laughing, crying (usually me – nothing’s changed there!), discussing all manner of crude, rude, ridiculous, hilarious, sexual, sexist, spiritual, religious, political, professional, practical and educational things. Sometimes these discussions turn into debates, arguments even, but we respect and appreciate each others’ views and we’re always honest.

Making a group of expat friends that you didn’t know before and may never know again after you leave is a real eye-opening experience. It provides a wonderful insight to who and what exists in other countries and to who and what you are as an individual. There’s no need for bullshit because they have no preconceptions about you and they are not tainted by anyone else’s opinions of you. It’s just you, as you are, however you want to represent yourself. Like a fresh start. And for me I’ve chosen to show all of myself, warts and all (literally with some of them who I’ve gone butt naked into a public bath with!) I have never felt more myself.

I feel more at ease and confident than ever before. And that’s not to say I don’t feel stupid, fat, ugly, inexperienced or worse sometimes – of course I still have all those self-conscious moments but I’m more ok with them. So what? So what, if I don’t seem cool, look beautiful, sound smart, or I say something embarrassing? It doesn’t really matter. Just live life to the fullest and do it truthfully and genuinely, that’s what’s most important.

The girls especially have shown me that vanity, fashion and flawlessness are not the priorities I thought they were. Fun and relevant sometimes yes, but health, happiness, comfort in your own skin, knowledge, freedom and expression are so far above them in the list of priorities that they should never be obsessed or stressed about. Of course I value looking after myself and looking good but it has been very liberating to go out on weekends without makeup and be encouraged to do so. Not to mention great for my skin and self esteem.

Though we are a diverse bunch, we all like minded in that our minds are open. We want to learn more, work hard, play harder, love truly, be better and continually discover. We love to travel and want to see as much of the world as possible, both geographically and culturally. We are all very liberal, passionate and opinionated. And I love that.

To give you a quick rundown of these fabulous four friends of mine here is a caption with mini profiles of each of them.

At Izumo “Love” Shrine, the oldest shrine in Japan, said to be the best place to pray for romantic relationships, home to 8 million deities. Left to right (after me):

Fiona, British (Scottish), fluent in Japanese, brilliant cook, talented singer, wicked sense of humour, has a 5 year long distance relationship with her Italian boyfriend, loves Dragon Ball, lived in Tokyo for a year at uni before, always cracks me up, this time been here 10 months, wants to work in international relations.

David, British (English), finished top of his class in linguistics, lost like 30 kilos, loves taking photos and scrapbooking, has a boyfriend doing the same job but up the other end of the country, is extremely knowledgeable about history, did a summer in Spain, always sings and dances with me, been here 9 months, wants to be an academic.

Karina, American (but Ukrainian born), fluent in Russian, intermediate in Japanese, black belt in Karate, loves rocks and books, has lived in Lithgow (Blue Mountains), Costa Rica and Alaska, is self-admittedly socially awkward and emotionally void except adorably cute and loveable, always surprises me with her violent stories, been here 13 months, wants to be a geologist.

Cheryl, British (English) but Australian/ German parents, grew up in outback Australia (Dad moved around in Army), lived in Northern Cypress, loves wine, very competitive, unashamedly extroverted, always entertains me with her crazy animated outbursts, been here 10 months, wants to be an activist for human trafficking (or a military leader),

We have all made a pact to reunite The Crew at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Before the first person leaves Japan, we have to exchange letters for our Time Capsule: 1 for what hope to have achieved for ourselves, 1 for what we hope each other has achieved and 1 silly joke one for each other too. Going to be interesting and hilarious! As everything is with these special guys. Don’t know what I’d do without them here,

Shocking Pic of the Week – The Story

So that, ladies and gentlemen, is a taxidermied Chinese raccoon that the wearer’s father accidentally killed and then decided to turn into a scarf which she happily parades. How sweet. NOT!

Can you believe that? Oh my god. I’ve never seen more disturbing fashion in my life!

The only reason I got close enough to photograph this awful subject was because I heard all this loud commotion in my school lobby this particular day – instead of ooh’s and aah’s Japanese say eeehh’s (accurately likened, by my hilarious Scottish friend complete with contorted facials and matching full body jerks, to the accelerating sound of a race car’s engine when said in quick succession) – and I eventually had to pop my head out of the office to see what all the fuss was about. As suddenly as I appeared around the corner I disappeared back into the office in utter shock and disgust. My own curiosity was quite satisfied with the disturbing glance I regretfully copped yet my head teacher came in to coax me back out to ‘Lobby Talk’ with this student, as she doesn’t get the chance to chat with foreigners often. This is a big part of my job description so I begrudgingly obliged and turned my honestly repulsed reaction into one of enthusiastic inquiry.

The eyes are made of glass, the metal clip in place of its jaw is biting its own leg to form a clasp, people do stare at her in public and freak out when she tells them it is (was?) real, and yes I touched it and its fur was really soft. So soft it should be cute and may well have been when it was alive and breathing and not draped around someone’s fucking neck!

Having just been to Harajuku – one of my newest favourite places in Japan – and seen adorable puppies in Louis Vuitton bags on the arms of even more adorable young women in uber cool, awesomely over-accessorised outfits, I had to see this wretched thing propped in her handbag like a Hollywood pet. As I had already braved touching it and was doing well pretending I didn’t have vomit threatening to come out of my throat, I reached to pick it up but my true feelings got the better of me and I literally shivered and audibly gagged with rejection of the whole idea. Blurgh. She did it for me and then, as expected, I felt ashamed and guilty about my sick imagination.

Wait, I didn’t make road kill into a neck warmer! No, I’m good.

This just wouldn’t be ok in Australia. People just wouldn’t pretend they found it funny, it would bring such harsh criticism and judgement and moral out casting by family, friends, peers and onlookers that you wouldn’t even do it to get a short lived laugh. But here it flies. I’m not shocked that often here but this I just could not believe. Hence the need for the photo evidence.

And on the subject, a shy, timid business man casually mentioning that on the weekend he is going on a road trip with friends to see a dog fight apparently also flies and doesn’t get so much of a raised eyebrow or batted eyelid. Really? I mean, really? I’m sorry but what is wrong with you?! That time, months ago now, it was my last lesson of the day and being totally depleted of energy and patience, I just couldn’t muster the professionalism to conceal my true feelings, I just flat out told him and my staff that it was disgusting and should be illegal – yes that’s right… IT’S ACTUALLY NOT HERE!

I was appalled and outraged that night and my female colleagues (I mention their gender because I thought women were the more caring and sensitive sex) found my comments highly amusing. One even had the audacity, or ignorance, to laugh and say “That’s right, you really love animals in Australia, don’t you? You even have a service that helps them when they’re injured.” Even? Even? I thought every country did that? Nope, I was wrong. Wrong and horrified that they considered our wonderful WIRES a comical, needless overreaction.

The apathy towards domestic pets fighting to kill for paid entertainment and helpless animals injured by human interference was truly sickening. As much as I knew I should have got off my little soap-box and stopped repeating my dramatically high-pitched single word adjectives every 30 seconds, even if only to end the embarrassing mockery, I felt very proud to be a wildlife loving Australian that night. As I do writing about it now.

Some things are so similar and normal and great here and some so, so, so not.

What I’ve learnt so far.

I’m feeling reflective so this is going to be a list of new things I’ve learnt that I didn’t know before, things that I now just understand better, and things I knew but wasn’t consciously aware of. Not just living here, as an Australian in Japan, but living as a human on Earth too.

For me, living abroad has been like going from living in a house that had the windows and doors locked shut, pleasant and comfortable as it was, to finally busting open a window and jimmying open a door. Suddenly the most refreshing breeze gushes through the window, tickling your face, stirring up excitement and wonder in the depths of your belly, causing you to deeply inhale the cool air, filling your lungs and giving you a spectacular burst of energy. Then you whip your head around to catch your first sight of the bare threshold, that once formed the boundary between your familiar cosy home and the awesome mysterious ‘out there’, but is now a mere step to the endless opportunities you’ve dreamed of for… well forever. Walking across it, anxiety and fear invade you but once on the other side, it is the most liberating, adventurous and satisfying thing you’ve ever done.

Inside my old ‘house’, it was like I was a child always watching and listening to the kids play on the swings but not being able to get out and join them. I could see and hear enough of what was happening out there to be curios, envious and restless but never so much that I could feel part of it. Now I am getting to run and jump all over the playground, and it’s even bigger than it looked from inside!

My mind, and consequently my world, is growing exponentially bigger and I love it. Apart from studying and immersing myself in a fascinating foreign culture, being away from your home, your family, your friends and your native country is like taking a highlighter to your social and physical identity, opinions, habits, interests and experiences. I just feel more…myself. And better yet, more and more ok with whom and what that is.

So, the list of my lessons (and confirmations) at 4.5 months in:

• Time really does fly when you’re having fun!
• Hiragana (50 character Japanese syllabary for native words)
• Some Katakana – it’s a work in progress! (48 character Japanese syllabary for foreign words)
• A syllabary is like an alphabet but is “A set of written characters for a language, each character representing a syllable.”
• Kanji – Ok I only know like 5! (The complex pictures that stand for whole words or concepts in Japanese writing)
• Japanese vocabulary that I remember easily (in the order I’m recalling them): hello/ good afternoon, goodbye, good morning, good evening, thank you/ thanks/ thank you very much, excuse me, sorry, beautiful, cute, scary, wonderful, amazing, me, mine, I, you, yours, too, to, and, so, um, yes, no, mountain, hill, river, road, egg, bread, rice, grilled, water, tea, coffee, different/ wrong, foreigner, train, station, please, book, this, that, here there, maybe, funny/ interesting, but, yet, nothing, cold, hot, weather, nice, really, right, ok, one of, two of, festival, juice, skilled, speak, a little, one moment, thanks for your hard work, teacher, company employee, bank, chair, meat, fish, cherry blossom, month, week, today, tomorrow, next week, 1-100 (kind of!), understand, have, don’t have, am/ is, am not/ is not, come from, person, English, American, Japanese, japan, bullet train, ticket, English language school, student, same, plum wine, chicken, tuna, take care, go ahead, month, let’s go, where, who, why, eat, drink, cat, dog, because, well, sweet, soy sauce, meal, hand…um is that all I know? Ahhh first time I’ve recorded these! Now I need to write them all in Japanese for homework, methinks.
• The people in your life really are the sun, the moon and the stars
• I have an exceptional support network of family, friends and associates
• I am patriotic (never thought of myself as this)
• I am a feminist (nor this)
• Australia really is the lucky country
• I don’t know enough about it
• I am actually interested in politics
• British people don’t say specifically the country they are from e.g. “I’m from the UK”, not England/ Scotland etc.
• Japan is roughly the same size as Victoria but its population is over 6 times Australia’s
• Australia is 350 times the size of Shikoku Island
• I have a serious addiction to sugar
• My boyfriend is remarkably accepting and encouraging
• I am stronger than I thought and braver than I believed
• Optimism is a decision
• I do not want to raise my children in a mostly homogenous community
• I am embarrassed by the racism I’ve grown up with
• My technical knowledge of English grammar leaves a lot to be desired
• Japanese people are amazingly kind, helpful and generous
• I enjoy my own company
• I love Japanese food, especially soba (buckwheat noodles), tempura and anko mochi (sugary red bean paste sticky rice dumpling thing)
• Japanese food is not just weird gross stuff like raw fish – prawn and tuna really are gross. But salmon is good
• Spaghetti Bolognese is my go to dinner
• Mediterranean cuisine is my favourite
• I love cleaning, especially my floors
• Acne is my biggest hate
• I’m not a fearful person
• My family is very difficult to draw as a linear tree
• I like hiking
• Hiking is just bushwalking
• I’m more outdoorsy than I thought; when I go back to Australia I want to take advantage of all the nature-based activities around me
• I have a small face, according to Japanese people
• I love being naked
• I love onsens (public bath houses using natural spring water)
• Japanese customer service shits all over Australia’s. All customer service trainers should study their models.
• I love being on, near or in the water
• I want to travel, I want to travel, I want to live overseas in other countries, I want to travel
• I want to continue studying Japanese even when I leave Japan
• I want to revise and further my Spanish studies
• And I definitely still want to live and teach English in Spain
• I can’t function without lists and schedules
• I am a natural mediator
• Waxing is one of my necessary evils and Japan is sadly not on board
• The best thing about driving a car is being able to transport large or heavy things. And temperature control
• Asian men can be hot
• Exercise is extremely important to me and I want to train as long as my body can handle it
• I get excited over vegetables
• Grocery shopping makes me happy
• I can’t push a trolley without wanting to put my whole body weight on the handlebars and glide along the floor
• Soybeans are one of my favourite snacks and sides
• Evening Primrose Oil is a permanent fixture in my life, I’m sure it prevents me from moody dives and dips
• Japan is very good at problem-solving; spare glasses next to the spare pens at the post office, head nets for preventing makeup marks when trying on clothes, automatic parking machines – as in human less, baby seats in women’s’ toilet cubicles,
• Japan is shockingly far behind in ‘saving the environment one plastic bag at a time’ – you get plastic on and for everything here! I mean every bag of cookies has each one individually wrapped. And there is no question at the checkout, you have 5 bags on your person but if you buy a drink you will get it in a plastic bag, plus a plastic wrapped straw and a plastic wrapped towelette.
• I love, love, love watching TV series, movies and listening to music – can’t imagine life without them
• I am an excellent networker
• I will not settle for mediocrity
• I want big professional, material, monetary success and I believe I will get it
• I really do want my big, beautiful Northern Beaches house by the ocean, this dream has become a goal
• I also want to be seriously and actively philanthropic
• I kind of want to change the world, a little bit (mostly in terms of educating people, and children most importantly, about good mental health and happiness as a choice)
• My mind is chaotic sometimes
• Excitability is a good characteristic
• Absence makes the heart grow fonder
• I really, really love animals
• I still baulk at and hate conflict
• All clouds have a silver lining.

There is so much more I have learnt and realised, I really should be documenting more of it. I am going to make more of an effort with this blog. Maybe If I wrote more often it wouldn’t be such a long, random, rambling! I guess I usually go to Facebook or Instagram to share my thoughts, feelings, moments and findings. I do want to have something more in depth to look back on, and practise my writing though so I am going to attempt to write once a week for the remaining 38 weeks or so. (Wow that’s like a full term pregnancy!).

I am already in my 19th or 20th week and I only have 5 Funny Pics of the Week up! I guess it’s not always funny, or fun, or worth writing about; sometimes it’s very serious, or mundane, or normal or difficult. So I will at least just upload a Pic of The Week, no set tone.

At the end of the day, I am working full time and looking after myself by myself so it’s business as usual a lot of the time. And then I remember I am in Japan making one of my dreams come true, and I am truly enjoying my life!

Anyway, this experience is proving to be extremely rewarding and it is building a strong foundation for me to continue learning and discovering. I never want to be stationary or complacent. Here’s to our collective human revolutions.

If it doesn’t challenge you, it doesn’t change you.

Just quietly…

I’m pretty proud of myself for having made it to the two month mark. 🙂

Music as company and common ground.

I don’t know what I would do without music. Living by myself can be lonely and deafeningly quiet at times but listening to my CDs, iTunes, or my newfound love Jango (free internet radio) always fills the silence and makes me feel like I’m not so alone. It’s my friend, my dancing partner and my solace.

I think music and song fills a unique space inside us. I remember watching an interview on TV with Australian media personality Andrew Denton and he made this profound comment, I can’t recall his exact quote but here it is paraphrased:

Music is the only thing in the world that can mimic human emotion.

I always remember that whenever I think about how a certain lyric or tune resonates deep within me. Whether it brings on nostalgia or excitement, reminds you of a broken heart or makes your body instinctively gyrate, it never ceases to amaze me how quickly one’s mood and the atmosphere of a place can be instantly transformed through the power of music.

This occurs the planet over. All people are affected by music and unified in their love for it. Look at the number of world famous musicians who go on global tours, even performing in countries where the residents speak a completely different  language. This has been especially interesting to me since getting to know my students. I’ve noticed even when we struggle to converse, there is usually a spark in their eyes when you ask them questions about the music they like, which singers are their favourite or what instrument they play. The forced dialogue totally changes tone from self-conscious and awkward to impassioned and communicative when you discover you are both fans of the same genre or artist. I love clicking when we find something in common like that. So many of my girls go giddy when we talk about Lady Gaga and One Direction. It’s awesome.

One of my favourite students even burnt the last four years’ Grammy Nominee CDs for me, complete with printed cover art, after we talked about our shared love for Adele, Maroon 5 and Coldplay one lesson. She’s such a sweetheart. I’ve since introduced her to Jack Johnson and after our last class I lent her my albums to copy. She’s also now converted to Muse. In that lesson I taught her the word ‘headlining’ because they were the main act of Summer Sonic here in Osaka. I really wanted to go so she even brought me in the set list in English, but tickets sold out. I am badly craving a festival or at least a good dance session!!!

Was hoping for a bit of dancefloor action on my first night out on the town last week but it wasn’t exactly pumping out here in conservative little Okayama City. It is my mission to find a local square of decent dance floor I can shake it on.  I am officially on the search for a worthy club or live music bar. Will keep you posted.

Bike Blunders

Leaving work the other night, my bike was parked in (yes it happens to bicycles too), and somehow in the process of trying to get out, I managed to drop not just my own bike but in picking it up, knocked over the red one and then trying to quickly stand that one back up knocked over the blue one too!!! A trio of bike blunders!  Hopeless!  Of course I did the quick look-over-the-shoulder each time to make sure no one else was watching this foreigner’s embarrassing fails, and lucky for me they weren’t.

This is an example of an experienced Japanese rider successfully maneuvering around on her bike in a long skirt.

The following story is an example of a ‘gaijin’ who should probably have training wheels and a helmet, or better yet should just be in the child’s seat on the back of a real adult’s bike!:

Getting ready to spend the day with her new Japanese friend, this white girl thought she would dress up nice and wear the only long skirt/dress she brought with her from Australia – a black, pleated, flowy ankle length skirt that she loved. Quickly dismissing thoughts that riding in it might be hazardous because she could just position it carefully around her legs, she put her outfit together and smiled at herself in the mirror. Setting off across town in the morning sun she was happily riding along leisurely until suddenly she feels her skirt rapidly growing tighter around her hips and feels her bike jolting to a complete stop to the sound of ripping material! Just managing not to stack it, the girl squealed out of fear and looked pleadingly at the shocked Japanese lady who had just seen the whole disaster on wheels.  Her lovely long flowy skirt was now a wound up mess around the spokes in the bike, with the back seam torn down. Luckily the skirt had layers so her bright pink undies weren’t on display as she expected when turning around to assess the damage on her derriere. The onlooker was kind enough to come over to help the girl but to no avail, the skirt was surely stuck. After 6 more amused men and women came to the girl’s rescue and 10 humiliating minutes, she was back on her bike with her long skirt tied in a knot – thanks to the man who gestured this genius advice. She quickly fled the scene with her bruised ego & bleeding ankle. Dickhead.

I can’t read Japanese but I believe this could be a parking fine that says something like “Don’t leave your bike out the front of the convenience store for 3 days while you’re off travelling, we know it’s free but now you have to pay this penalty”.
Pleading ignorance on this one!

Home Town To-Be

Home Town To-Be

So much to discover right at my doorstep.

Can’t wait to experience ‘onsen’ (hot spring)!