The things I've learned today...

I've been an English conversation teacher here in Japan for over a year now. The purpose of my job is obviously to help my clients improve their speaking skills and introduce new vocabulary and phrases which will allow them to express themselves more easily, but more than that, I have to be somewhat of an ambassador for my country and cultural beliefs. While teaching a language that seems to make up rules as it goes along isn't easy, let me tell you, explaining and/or defending WHY your fellow countrymen do the things they do is far more challenging.

There is one particular person I'm thinking about when I write this. I've named him "old man", not to be derogatory about his age, but based on the fact that he's incredibly proud to be a member of the "old generation" of Japanese citizens, a group of people dedicated to hard work and the protection of the pre-war, traditional Japanese values.

This client has been a challenging one for me because he firmly believes that a woman's place is in the kitchen or birthing children (or in an ideal situation, possibly both at the same time) and that women who aren't beautiful have no value. He also made it clear that he was an advocate for a pure Japanese society free from the mixture of foreign blood, languages, and customs (despite his taking English lessons with native speakers). When I breached the idea that maybe persons of Korean heritage that had been born in Japan and only spoke Japanese were perhaps Japanese despite his referral to them as "koreans living in Japan", he angrily exclaimed "One language, one people, one Japan", slamming his fist on the desk for dramatic effect.

I don't want to give the wrong idea about ALL Japanese, or even all OLDER Japanese people; these could be just this one person's beliefs. His constant and open struggle, however, deals with the ever-growing age gap in Japanese society and how to deal with a Japan that becomes more and more Westernized with each passing day. He, and I'm sure many people his age, don't understand the behavior of his nation's young people. Older people around the world face this struggle, but for some reason it's much more palpable in Japan.

In the past, this man has taken lessons with me over and over again in a distinct effort to push my buttons and perhaps make me angry. Admittedly, it's worked a few times. One of those times was when he told me that because of my gender, age, and my race, that I was worthless. While I remained professional, I was disgusted inside. I had no desire to ever speak with him again. He may have sensed this, because for a long time after, I didn't hear from him again.

Recently, he started taking my lesson again, and for some reason, it seems like he's quite a bit lighter. He still wants to discuss controversial topics, but today during our conversation about American fashion, I explained to him that the life portrayed in popular American dramas and movies in which arrogant men and women wear beautiful, stylish clothing and have fabulous lives aren't really a good example of everyday, walking American life. I explained to him that while those sorts of people DO exist, the majority of America's wealth is only owned by 1% of its people, leaving the rest of its people to be "comfortable", scrambling to make ends meet, or flat out poor. He finally muttered words I thought I'd never hear:

"Maybe...my image of America is wrong."

To most people, this wouldn't seem like such a huge deal. But, for me, it showed me that no matter how "old" we are, we're always going to be learning. We always have to keep an open mind, because we never know whether or not the things we've been told all our lives have actually been misconceptions, lies spread by our governments, or what have you.

Coming to Japan, I've learned things about many different cultures and realized that I had absolutely no understanding of the world nor its people. I also realized that the way other countries were presented to me by American news were often incorrect. I often have conversations with my parents, who live in fear of my proximity to Korea thanks to the constant scapegoating of the bored US media, in which I try to explain to them that what they are seeing isn't the full truth. I can't tell them what that full truth IS however, because I haven't seen it with my own eyes. Honestly, though, I don't really think anyone can fully understand another culture unless they were born into it.

But, we can try.

If we try, we can progress.

We don't always have to understand. We just have to agree to disagree.

And we should always question everything.

And that's what I learned from my student today.

Macbook Repair: Fan Noise

Recently I had a sudden problem with the fan in my 13" Macbook. It had been running fine all morning, but when I left the room and came back, it was suddenly roaring loudly. Fearing that my fan had died, I shut down the computer and let it sit before rebooting it once more. The problem persisted, and I called apple care.

By this time I had looked at the readings given by iStat Pro and noted that when the fan was making the noise I was hearing, the program reported that the fan was running at 0rpm. The tech support operator had me do a PRAM reset, and once this failed to resolve the problem, he booked an appointment for me the next day at the local Apple store.

I went in and was greeted by a genius who wasn't the world's most personable...person. He assumed I was ignorant and tried to tell me that since he could hear nothing happening at that time, that there was no problem with the computer. I showed him this video I had taken in advance in the event that he might say exactly that.



I also told him that the above application had enabled me to see that the fan was indeed not working properly, to which he responded that since the program was not an official apple product, that it was not accurate. I told him that I at least wanted the computer to be opened and looked at as it was apparent that something was obstructing the the fan. He agreed and I signed all the necessary paperwork and left.

Later that day I received a phone call that the repair had been finished. The fan was replaced and some dust had been blown out. I didn't have time to pick up my computer until a few days later, but when I went back, I witnessed a genius dealing with an infuriated man who just could not comprehend the concept of logging into an itunes account. I don't blame them for assuming everyone is ignorant now.

By the way, the repair was fully covered under my apple care plan. I'm so happy I decided to bite the bullet and pay for the full three years.

ATTN: J.F. Wileman collectors

I have this plate that may or may not interest someone. I would like to know the value (if any) of this piece and how to go about selling it. Any information would be appreciated.

Amusing

I saw Mariah Carey performing "Touch My Body" with the unsuspecting Japanese boy band SMAP when I was over in Japan. I thought it was amazingly funny and was happy when I found it on youtube recently.

Come on, stick-thin Japanese guys singing "I know you like my curves" and "let me wrap my thighs" is pretty funny.

Photography

As of late, I've been experimenting with some photoshop tutorials to make my photos look a little more professional. The one I've loved the most so far is this tutorial which explains how to make your digital shots appear more like lomo photographs. While I don't think the result turned out like lomography on my photographs, I really like the effect and I did manage to make some nice photos.

Lately I'm working on a series revolving around country life since, well...I have no other option at the moment as I am stuck here. But, without further adieu, here are some of my shots. Click them to see them larger, it'll take you to my flickr account where you can select "all sizes" and see them at in larger sizes.









Anyway, you should definitely try this tutorial out for yourself and see what your own results are!

I need to revive this thing!

Not that anyone reads this craptastic blog of mine, but since I do get the occasional visitor for one reason or another, I should do a basic upkeep.

So, I guess I'll just make a few posts rapidfire and call it good for now.

What I've been up to....

Not that anyone actively reads this little blog 'o mine, but I figured I might as well update to say why I didn't continue with my trend of w-inds.m posts. (Even though I wish I could have!)

I arrived in Japan on the 28th of January. I had left from Rochester, New York and transfered in Detroit to a big plane for my 14 hour flight. We went up across Canada, through Alaska, and down over Japan. Every time the flight progress map came up on the screen and showed the little image of the plane moving forward maybe 3 centimeters, I wanted to hang myself with the headphones they gave us to watch the crappy movies they showed during the flight. Did I mention it was my first time flying? The act of flying was pretty cool, I love the rocket-like feeling of take-off and being above the clouds, but I do not enjoy sitting next to oh-so-important business men who have to keep their lights on, keep opening the windows, or STEAL YOUR COMPLIMENTARY PILLOW. He will rue the day. Did I also mention that I got maybe 30 minutes of sleep during this 14 hour flight? It was an adventure, especially when I was going to the bathroom and the plane decided to take a turn. Thank god there is no water in airplane toilets!

But, yeah, once I got to Japan it wasn't so bad. It took me awhile to adjust to the way they do things here, but basically it's okay. My favorite thing, honestly, was sitting on the toilet after that flight when I got to my Seminar House. You have no idea how miraculous heated toilet seats are. No idea.

There are a few things here that I'll probably never be able to get used to, though.

1. The first thing is traffic. Japan has a bunch of narrow-streets with no sidewalks. Walking on these streets routinely leads to a near-death experience or a string of them within a matter of seconds. The Japanese have things to do, so they enjoy flying down any street at 90 miles per hour, not caring about pedestrians or if they are on the right side of the street, or what have you. Your job is to get the heck out of the way, even if you have to hug a telephone pole (yes, I have) to give them enough room. And you think, "well, when they have sidewalks, it'd be no big deal!" WRONG. Sidewalks are a different animal all together. Why? Because the Japanese depend heavily on that oh-so-wonderful invention called the "bicycle". So, even if you're walking on the correct side of the sidewalk, a bunch of agitated bicyclists will come out of nowhere, ring their bells at you in agitation and make you get out of the way. These are the courteous ones, there are others that will just follow you silently and scare the crap out of you when they almost ride up your ass for no apparent reason. And GOD FORBID that there is another bicyclist coming from the opposite direction, now THAT is what you call a situation.
   
2. No drinking in public. You think "Well, yeah, that's the same in the US, if you drink in public, you get in trouble." WRONG. No drinking in public. No drinking ANYTHING in public. If you buy a drink at the vending machine and walk down the street, you are being a rude, uncultured beast. You either have to take your beverage home with you, or if it's in a cup, you have to stand at the vending machine, drink it, and dispose of the cup there. Really, I'm serious.
   
3. No wiping your nose in public. It doesn't matter if you have a river of snot hanging out of your nose, if you wipe your nose in public, it's rude. I guess you're just expected to snort it back up there or something. I really don't understand this one.
   
4. Garbage Sorting. There are various categories of garbage sorting here in Hirakata.
   Cans, Plastic PET bottles, Plastic Garbage, and Burnable garbage (food, paper, clothing, etc). You have to wash your garbage, read the label to follow sorting directions, and dissect your garbage accordingly. The lid might be paper, but the body might be plastic. Certain things require you to take them back to the store where they came from, etc. I understand the purpose of it, but it's so strange to me.
   

But, yeah, those are my only qualms with Japan, really. Everything else is pretty great. A few days after I came to the University here, I went on a tour to Kiyomizu Dera in Kyoto, Japan. It's probably the prettiest place in the world since you can see Japan for miles and miles once you're finally up there. I went with some other international students and two Japanese girls who were really nice.

That was a really fun trip. A week or so later, a group of us went to Osaka-jo Castle with a friend of mine. It was great, the castle is really beautiful. We were able to go inside of it and look at the museum of sorts they have up there. We were also able to see the view of Osaka City through the top of it.

One of my favorite things about Japan is the food, since I'm a fatty. I don't know why, but Japanese food is just ridiculously good. My favorite is donburi, which is basically a pound of rice topped with whatever you could imagine.

This is okonomiyaki, which I believe is a regional specialty. It's prettymuch a strange egg pancake with whatever ingredient you could want in it, topped with mayonnaise and some kind of weird sauce. I don't know, I can't it too much of it, it's not really my favorite, but it's a good standby.

This is takoyaki, fried octopus. It's actually really good despite what one might think. Kind of soft and...saucy. I don't know, try it sometime.

I wish I had more pictures of food, but unfortunately I don't! Eat everything!

Something else that's funny is that you get treated special here because you're a foreigner here. This can either be a good thing or a bad thing. One thing is that you get stared at a pretty good amount. Trains especially are interesting experiences. Buses as well, especially when bitter old Japanese men complain to their friends about there being too many foreigners on the bus, despite your being able to understand him. However, being gaijin (foreigner) does get you free stuff and some crazy experiences. Especially when you, uh, accidentally go into the senior citizens karaoke place. Heyyy, at least we got free drinks and free Karaoke out of it.

But, that's where I've been, more or less. I have managed to catch w-inds.m on TV, which is great because apparently they cut some stuff out online that they have on TV, like commenting on random music videos and stuff that play between their talks, and Keita calling some guy "sexy....I mean, the melody is sexy...."

Very interesting. I did manage to score almost all of w-inds.'s discography for $15, so w00t!

And now it's time to end this.