More shenanigans

Re photos. They are all ready to upload, but whenever I try and upload to my webspace, it drops out quickly. I think the wireless is periodically reconnecting or something, so I will try and lan connection when i can.

I am now in Shizuoka.

I have had a touching few days. Sachiko (my employer and former Japanese teacher) and her family are the sweetest people. I feel like a big baby around them, as they constantly tend to my needs and keep me well fed. They also paid for my food when I went out with them. I protested, but when I persisted I was told that it is a Japanese custom to look after the guests.

It is in some ways hard being around them. They are interesting people and I want to know more about them, but my Japanese is not really up to the task. I also worry about boring them with banal conversation as can't often ask or say something poignant. It is also difficult with Sachiko there in a way, as her English is damn good. I basically speak to her as I would a native and she understands fine. It is hard to constantly switch between speaking to her and her family.

Yet these are small complaints amid some wonderful people. The oldest person in her house is he grandmother who is 84. She is fucking trooper. She gardens and clearly pushes her old body to the limit. She was fetching me food and such at dinner. I felt embarrassed to be basically be served by someone that I should be serving, if you know what I mean. She is the most difficult to talk to, as her hearing isn't so good and is the worst due to her age at grading her language. Plus she can't see very well so doesn't know when i don't understand. Nonetheless I enjoy it, we have moments of understanding and humour that are awesome.

Today Sachiko taught some Japanese to some Brazilians. Arai-cho and it neighbouring large city Hamamatsu have a lot of Brazilians. This is because there are close ties between Brazil and Japan, as Japan occupied it until 80 years ago. There are still a lot of Japanese living in Brazil. This means that it is easy for Brazilians to get a working visa in Japan and come and work. Given Brazil is a really poor country and Japan is very rich, Brazilians that struggle to support their families, or Brazilians that struggle in Brazil at all, come to Japan to work. Those with families, which I believe is the vast majority, send as much of their wage home to support them as they can.

What this means is, there are a whole lot of Brazilians who do a crap load of work and who have bugger all money. Sachiko asked one of the students if he played soccer, and he said that he would but he didn't have the time due to work. They all looked quite tired. Pretty sad really. They live in cheap accommodation (Sachiko guessed it at 200 per month) which is sponsored by the town to try and help them.

It was interesting to see them. They have an amazing sense of community. There was noone trying to dominate anyone else in the class, or any sort of vying for position. They just helped everyone else where they could and there was a touching sense of acceptance of each other. You can see the effort they are putting in.

These lessons exist because a man wants to teach them Japanese to help them. The problem was he doesn't know how to teach, so asked Sachiko to teach one lesson and he would continue on from that. I don't think it will work out so well. When he was speaking to the students, he was using damn complex Japanese and speaking fast. The ability to grade language (to simplify) is a core requirement of a teacher. You can't say to someone who is learning Japanese for the first time much of anything, let alone something like "When you are studying and you need some help please write down your questions and bring them to the next lesson" :)

After that we went to see the cherry blossoms. The cherry blossom tree, or sakura (street fighter fans might recognise the name), is the national tree of Japan. Around late March early May is blooms and the Japanese have 'hanami'. This translates to cherry blossom viewing. People gather beneath and around the sakura and have picnics and generally get very drunk. It is pretty awesome, the trees are very beautiful and we saw them at about 80% prettiness. There are some areas that are have masses of these trees and create an amazing site. The way the bright light pink contrasts with the tree and surroundings is really beautiful.

Sachiko's younger brother and his wife and daughter also came. She is, I have deemed, the cutest baby in existence. Sachiko's younger brother is funny and a little bit fat, which Sachiko is not shy of pointing out. I love the strong family aspect in Japanese culture. Everyone knows each other really well, it almost feels like an endless party with different groups of people (members of the family) coming together and having a great time.

I have also moved into my place. This is Sachiko's families old and unused house. It is pretty fucking sweet. It feels so good to have my own place after living in a capsule hotel for so long. This is my first night alone, which is something I have been hungering for. I have been in social situations for so long I just want some to do my own thing. I have been offered to stay for free, but I said I wasn't happy about it and we said we would talk about it latter. So we will probably settle with something less than what it is worth.

I have now applied for homestay with an agency and will also look elsewhere. It will probably be about 2 months until I get something. My task at the moment is to prepare for my first class on Thursday.

This is enough for now I think.