A Day in Review: Valentine's

I really enjoy Valentine's Day. In Japan. It's different here, in case you didn't know.

In Japan, Valentine's Day is celebrated (that's right, celebrated!) when females give gifts of chocolate to males. These chocolate gifts range from friendly chocolate (tomo choco), chocolate given to co-workers and the like (giri choco), and then finally the real deal, chocolate that's given as a sign of liking someone (honmei choco).

Last year, timing was perfect. I was at my biggest school in Higashi on Valentine's Day and I received chocolate from 15 girls. It was really nice, the attention - I'd be lying if I said otherwise. I was also really surprised, because if you were to watch some of my classes (especially when the kids are having a bad day), you'd wonder why so many girls would even want to give me chocolate (I figured it out - they like me more outside of class, when we don't have to do the business of studying).

This year, at first glance, Valentine's seemed like it was going to be a flop. For one, it fell on a Sunday. No school basically means no kids. Second, I was at my smallest school that week, with a total of 13 students (3 of whom are girls and apparently don't celebrate this awesome commercial holiday).

But I was happily surprised to find a package in my mailbox on that Saturday. Delivered from the US and containing homemade chocolate (which was really really good, by the way), it was my first Valentine of 2010 (Shan, thank you!).

My first student chocolate came as I was getting into my car, when I crossed paths with one of my students who lives near me. She gave me a carefully wrapped Valentine with a cookie, brownie, and a small sliver of cheesecake. It was delicious!

The lighting isn't great, but you can get the idea.

Later that week (I always go to my big school on Wednesday afternoon), there were a few girls who were waiting to give me some chocolate. I happily accepted it.

And then at the start of this week, I was hit with the effective Motherload of a Valentine's Day gift. A few of the girls must have gathered what was left from their stash and put together this package of sweets. It caught me off guard (coming 9 days late), but I gladly accepted it as well.

Life was beautiful then!

This isn't all of it - I had about a dozen pieces before taking this shot.

But that wasn't the last of it. Two of my students, who also happen to be immediate neighbors of mine, one day on the way home from school asked if I was going anywhere that night. I said no, I'd be home making bread. They were happy with the answer, because they told me they were going to make some treats and bring them by later. Sure enough, about 9 o'clock that night, I had two more gifts.

Think cornflakes rolled in chocolate.

And that was the last of it. I savored my way through it, trying not to get too crazy with all that chocolate laid out on my kitchen floor.

Lest you think that Valentine's Day is just a day for me to be spoiled, don't worry. White Day (March 14th) is the followup, where males who received chocolate on Valentine's Day reciprocate with their own batches of sweets. Last year, I made dozens of cookies. This year, I'm thinking either fudge brownies or sticky ginger squares. Either way, it will be fun to give back to the girls who made my day (several days, actually) this past week.

Bleh...

This weeks weather forecast.

Cloudy, rainy, and relatively cold. It's not that bad, I'm just looking forward to a day where my laundry will dry out a little faster than over the course of two days (most people don't have or use dryers here). My karate counterparts will probably be most happy when that day arrives. I think it's been a week since I washed my karate dogi.

二枚ずつ (ni mai zutsu)

It's Friday afternoon and the teachers are in their weekly meeting.

Just a moment ago, one of the older male members of the community entered the teachers' room - he's the basketball coach for the elementary school boys team. He handed the office lady two sheets of paper. He then asked her to make two copies of each. He was standing maybe eight feet from the copier.

I can't decide if (1) he doesn't know how to use a copy machine (he is an older fellow), or (2) he's just being old school and having a woman do his work for him. At first, I assumed it was (2) and got a little pissed off. Then I realized the whole interaction didn't really affect me in anyway. Nor did either of the parties involved - the old man or the office lady - come away from it in any worse of a mood. In this case, it was very interesting for me to observe my reaction to the situation and the way I thought it should have gone (him making his own copies) versus the way it did.

Ultimately, I realized that the only person who was affected by the whole exchange was me, based on my conditioned expectation about who should do what (man with paper makes his own damn copies). It's a small but significant realization, because when I'm faced with a much more serious situation, it will be nice to have the peace of mind and awareness to prevent myself from being ignited by any certain reaction, to face whatever whatever is happening and just accept the situation as is.

Rain

I washed my car yesterday. It was raining. Every neighbor that walked by (except the guy who stole a Zamami-salvaged vegetable planter from me) told me that it was raining. I nodded and told them that it helped me save on water use, as the rain would rinse the car for me.

There's something about being out in the rain. It's refreshing. So many times people hide from the things they find unpleasant - rainy weather, cold breezes, humid days. But these are natural phenomenon and experiencing them can be a great feeling. The sound of raindrops on my hood, the small stream of water that found its way into my pants, the smell of wet earth - all of these sensations that I would have missed had I simply sat in my apartment.

Just last week, on a walk back to my apartment from one of the local stores, I realized how much I enjoyed being outside, being in touch with the earth, having a connection to nature that many people seem to have lost. Sometimes, when I think ahead, about what is going to happen after JET, I realize that I don't want to work some soulless job in a sterile building with a/c and elevators. I'd rather spend all day digging in the earth, working closely with the place that I will ultimately return to one day.

Test Results

A boring post with a suggestive title...

In December, I took a test called the Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験). It is, from what I understand, one of the older (oldest?) proficiency tests for foreigners who wish to measure their grasp of Japanese, so its clout tends to come mostly from its longer existence (I hear there are other tests, more capable of measuring a students ability at things such as writing and speaking). Anyway, ...

I took Level 2, which is summed up as "mastering grammar of a somewhat high level, knowing 1,000 kanji, 6,000 words, able to discuss and read about things of a general nature, and being pretty awesome." (parts of this description might not actually be accurate).

I passed. Out of 400 points, I didn't get 400 points. There is definitely room for improvement, especially as the test really doesn't measure speaking or writing ability (writing is the worst for me, because I don't do much for it). Out of the three parts of the test, listening was best. I guess all those hours of Japanese music, podcasts, movies, TV and conversations with my students are paying off!