Socks and Technology

I'm wearing snowboarding socks. Not because I'm going snowboarding or because I'm about to play in the snow. I'm wearing them because I'm in my Japanese apartment. It's freeeeezing! And it's only November 16th!

I don't understand how a country that has electric toilets with 8 buttons and 21 different options...and cell phones that can read a bar code and instantly open the web page that corresponds to the coded product...and washers, tea pots, and rice cookers that can be pre-set to go on at a designated time...I don't understand how a country with all this superfluous technology can not have residential central heating. As is true about almost everything here, this runs contrary to my logic.

It's not actually freezing yet...but soon, very soon, will come the day when I will start to wear my hat and snowboarding neck warmer to bed every night. I'm not joking! (But, Mom, don't worry! I don't really mind wearing a hat to bed.)

TT (=To Tokyo, according to Kotomi)

Tomorrow the 8th graders are taking a field trip. To Tokyo. Groups of 4 or 5 kids will scatter, unsupervised, for 4 hours, in one of the largest cities in the world. Sure, they each have an itinerary and a guide book and a rented cell phone to contact a teacher in case of emergency...but they're going to Tokyo!! This is incredible to my American teacher mind. Tokyo's only about 2 hours away, so you'd think they'd have all been there lots of times...that this is old news to them. But today Fukuyama Sensei tells me that they have to be taught how to buy subway tickets. Apparently they aren't all that adept at navigating their way in Tokyo. Do field trips like this happen in America? I don't think so.....but I'm always comparing to teaching in elementary school-- where kids aren't even allowed to go to the bathroom unsupervised during a field trip where they're all contained on the same floor of a small museum where there are 5 supervising adults for every 20 kids-- and what I can remember from my own jr. high days. Despite my disbelief surrounding this whole experience, I'm confident that all 158 of the students will complete their assignments and show up at the designated place and time. No one will be hurt or separated from their group or using the cell phone to call the teachers and tell on anyone. How does this work? Why can't this work in America? Lots of factors, I suppose...

$90 field trip to Tokyo-- every teacher should sign their class up!

shingata influenza

I've got it. Shingata Influenza. H1N1. Type A. The pig flu. I can't believe it!

It's probably because I couldn't read the Japanese on the approximately 113 pages-- to date-- of cautionary notices, hand washing procedures, gargling instructions, and temperature-taking schedules that have been put on my desk at school. These have come from my principal, my school nurse, my supervisor, the board of education in my city, the prefectural board of education, the national board of education, local and national health agencies. Repeat again and again and again. I really wish I had realized at the beginning that this was gonna turn into national mayhem, then I would have saved and bound these documents as evidence. Even though American, Australian, and Canadian summer home stay programs for jr. high school students were canceled city (nation??) wide...even though 9th graders' trips to Kyoto (where there were three (THREE!) confirmed cases of the flu) were postponed-- some just 12 hours before departure, after the luggage had already been sent...despite everyone gargling more than usual (well maybe that's just me...everyone else already seems to gargle on a regular basis)...even though there's antibacterial gel in every classroom and at the entrance of every grocery store now...despite the 5-day-long quarantines of Assistant Language Teachers who've gone home to Canada and Singapore (which at the time didn't even have a single case of Swine Flu!), LOTS of people are still getting sick. Honestly, I think the hundreds of thousands of yen that have been spent creating, printing, copying, and distributing all those Shingata Influenza notices could have been spent much more effectively. There's still no decent soap in the school bathrooms. I mean, it's great that antibacterial gel is now being supplied, but why can't we just get some soap? It's so backwards. That stuff is supposed to be used as the "next best thing" when soap and water are not available. The manufacturers who make that 60% alcohol hand sanitizer have just hit the jackpot in Japan. Move over hanging-nets-of-slimy-soap-bars! You've got competition! Although, it would be most advantageous to create a partnership, because the antibacterial gel is probably needed most immediately after touching the soap nets.

I felt very loved today when my assistant principal took the initiative to find a doctor near my apartment for me and then had the school nurse make me an appointment and then sent a teacher to my house to pick me up and take me to the appointment. :) It was so nice to feel cared-for. Apparently she also told the teacher who came to get me, "Mya is dying." Whaaaat?! Unbelievable!