New life, new blog

I've got less than a month left in Japan, and I've kind of tapered off posting here (not that I ever did it consistently in the first place...). I'm enjoying nature, spending time with good friends, indulging in ramen and onsen visits, and generally making the most of the time I have left here, but mentally I think I've already left Japan behind.

The next step for me is a return to my beloved San Francisco and an attempt to break into the publishing industry, and I've started a new blog appropriate to that. If you'd like to, you can follow me there:

Barbary Prose

So this is where it ends, I guess. I'll leave the blog up for people who are looking for information about JET and Niigata, but I've run out of things to say. It's funny to think I started this as a record of my move to LA in 2010... it's been a crazy and wonderful two years. 

上越、日本、二年間ありがとう！

卒業式 (Graduation)

My 3rd year junior high school students graduated last week. All ALTs are expected to attend their base school's graduation ceremony, but one of my visit schools had its ceremony on a different day when I happened to have no classes at my base, so I was lucky enough to be able to attend that one as well.

Japanese graduation ceremonies always follow the same basic pattern. The school gym is decorated with red-and-white striped banners, purple flowers, and a bonsai tree, and the flags of Japan, the city, and the school hang behind the stage. Everyone applauds as the graduates enter; the national anthem is sung; students are called up to the podium individually to receive their diplomas from the principal; there are a bunch of speeches (including goodbye speeches from the underclassmen and the student body president), and then the students sing the school song together for the last time, followed by another song sung by all the students and then a song with just the 3rd year students. Throughout all this the teachers either maintain a stoic expression or sniffle quietly into their handkerchiefs (no smiling!), and afterwards everyone says what a beautiful ceremony it was and asks each other if they were moved by it.

Most of the ALTs are pretty baffled by all this. In our school days the Americans and Canadians most likely had a joke of a middle school "graduation" that we didn't take seriously at all, and even our high school graduations were way more laid back than this, and aimed more toward celebration than solemn recognition. (I don't think there was this much pomp and circumstance when I graduated from college, actually.) The Australians and English, meanwhile, don't get what the big deal is about moving from junior high to high school. Generally I'm inclined to agree with them, but the ceremony at my littlest school was really quite special.

First, an introduction to the school: there are 45 students, 15 in each class, who come to this school from one of two elementary schools in the area. (One of these is across the street; the other one is about 11km up into the mountains and currently boasts a grand total of 7 students.) The school is located in an isolated little pocket of Joetsu, close to the ocean, the mountains, and the Kuwadori River. (When we were teaching a passage in the textbook about American family rules, the teacher explained the concept of being grounded to the kids and then said "Well, I guess you don't get it since you live here and it's like you're grounded all the time anyways.") Most of the boys live and breathe baseball, although a few of the dopier ones are in the ping-pong club. The kids are absolute angels, and since there are so few of them, they're all very close to each other and to their teachers.

For my base school kids, graduation just means going on to another year of school. These kids, on the other hand, have grown up together in a beautiful, idyllic little bubble, have never known anything besides the same group of ~50 classmates. There's no high school in the area--the closest ones are at least a train ride away, in Takada or Naoetsu among thousands of other students--so they really are going out into the world for the first time. It's a big step for them.

Since there were only 15 graduates (vs 135 at my base), the principal was able to say a few words to each student as they came up for their diplomas. The speeches from the underclassmen were where things started getting emotional. The cutest little 1st year boy, practically swimming in the smallest-sized uniform the school carries, talked about how he was worried that he wouldn't be able to join such a tough baseball practice, but became a member of the baseball club thanks to the help of the older students. A 1st year girl sobbed through her speech, and the 2nd year boy after her barely managed to hold it together. When it came time for the graduates to sing, literally every one of the girls was bawling and a fair number of boys were staring at the ceiling and blinking (not to mention the younger students). Recognition and thanks for everyone in your group, a (real) milestone in life, and lots of tears--it was everything a Japanese graduation is supposed to be. My base school's ceremony was certainly nice, but I'm really lucky that I got to experience this one.

The best and worst onsens/sentos in Joetsu: An incomplete list

There are really only two things in Japan that I think are better than anything comparable back home: public baths and ramen. I've given myself the go-ahead to spend as much time and money (and in the case of ramen, calories) as I want to on these two things, and I try to eat ramen and go to an onsen at least once a week, because I know I'll miss both when I go home.

Anyway, this is a list of the onsens I've been to in Joetsu. I'm hoping to branch out and try a lot more--I think Yukidaruma Onsen in Yasuzuka is next on my list, and I really want to go to the Oedo Onsen Monogatari onsen theme park in Tokyo! So expect a Part 2 soon :)

1. Shichifuku no Yu (Super Sento)
Also known as "the onsen by AEON/JUSCO," this is by far my favorite sento in Joetsu. My friend Vincent said that it reminded him of Spirited Away, which is probably the best way to describe it. It has literally everything: indoor and outdoor baths, a sauna (with TV), a steam room (it's lavender-scented!), jets, a cold bath for after the sauna, crazy electric current massage baths, an outdoor TV, individual baths (one for each lucky god), and a bath with mysterious* healing powers that all the old ladies crowd into when there's plenty of room in the other baths. There's also decent food and nice rooms where you can chill and relax after your bath.

*mysterious for those cursed with poor Japanese reading comprehension, anyway

2. Kuwadori Yuttarimura
This onsen is in Kuwadori, a rural area near one of my schools, but I'd never bothered to check it out until recently. It. Is. Amazing. The building is beautiful and new-looking and smells great (I know that's a weird observation but it's true), and the baths themselves are small, but really nice. There's an indoor and outdoor bath (the indoor one has jets and seats where you can lie back) and a small steam room. I haven't tried the restaurant yet, but something tells me it's a cut above the regular onsen fare.

3. Yuttari no Sato
Our local favorite, AKA the Yosh Onsen. Three indoor baths (a regular one and two scented ones), nice outdoor bath, not-so-nice steam room. The restaurant is nice and homey; it took me a year and a half to figure out what their specialty is, but now I can recommend the tonkatsu teishoku with confidence. (The tenzaru soba in the summer is pretty good, too.)

4. Unohama Ningyokan
The baths themselves are small but nice--one indoor and one outdoor with a view of the ocean--but I didn't really enjoy the one time I came here because some woman brought her son who was WAY too old to be in the women's side of the onsen (he was at least 8 or 9) so I spent the whole time in silent outrage trying to hide behind my towel. Some people, man. I'll give it another try some other time. There's also a pool downstairs (admission is separate), and quite a bit more to do around the building, it looks like.

5. Robatakan
I really only included this one to prevent people from seeing the sign on Route 8 and getting the mistaken impression that it's worth going to. Don't bother.

今日の単語: できちゃった婚

I haven't done this in a while, but the new word I learned yesterday is way too good to not do a post about. I just had my first private lesson with one of the teachers from our Tuesday group lessons. It was pretty much just girl talk in Japanese for an hour with her occasionally pointing out my grammatical errors or teaching me new words. It was like therapy and a Japanese lesson rolled in one. All for just 800 yen! Best deal in town.

Word: できちゃった婚 dekichatta-kon
Meaning: shotgun wedding

できる is a verb that usually expresses possibility (I can do something), but also sometimes means that something was made or created (for example a building, or in this case a baby). ちゃう is a verb ending that means you accidentally did something which you regret; it kind of imbues the verb with a general sense of "oops." 婚 is from 結婚, "wedding." I am sure you can work the rest out for yourself.

50-book challenge COMPLETE

I finished book number 50 on December 31. Here is the final list.

1. The Sailor Who Fell from Grace with the Sea by Yukio Mishima
2. Room by Emma Donoghue
3. Snow Country by Yasunari Kawabata
4. Guns, Germs and Steel by Jared Diamond
5. The Boy Next Door by Irene Sabatini
6. Lady Chatterley's Lover by D.H. Lawrence
7. Revolutionary Road by Richard Yates
8. The Book of Tea by Kakuro Okazawa
9. Let the Great World Spin by Colum McCann
10. What I Talk About When I Talk About Running by Haruki Murakami
11. Life of Pi by Yann Martel
12. A Wild Sheep Chase by Haruki Murakami
13. The Red Tent by Anita Diamant
14. Rabbit, Run by John Updike
15. Montana 1948 by Larry Watson
16. The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. Le Guin
17. The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
18. This Side of Paradise by F. Scott Fitzgerald
19. The Sound of Waves by Yukio Mishima
20. Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
21. Sex and the City by Candace Bushnell
22. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
23. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
24. Gift from the Sea by Anne Morrow Lindbergh
25. Small Gods by Terry Pratchett
26. LIAR by Justine Larbalestier
27. The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger
28. Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins
29. Slouching Towards Bethlehem by Joan Didion
30. The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway
31. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
32. The Blue Castle by L.M. Montgomery
33. A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare
35. Island beneath the Sea by Isabel Allende
36. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
37. The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
38. The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E.B. White
39. Holes by Louis Sachar
40. Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins
41. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
42. The Lake by Banana Yoshimoto
43. A Moveable Feast by Ernest Hemingway
44. The Time of Their Lives by Al Silverman
45. Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
46. Notes from Underground by Fyodor Dostoevsky
47. The Niigata Sake Book by the Niigata Sake Brewers Association
48. Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe
49. Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
50. We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson

Some statistics:

• I read a total of 13566 pages
• 32 were by male authors; 18 were by female authors
• 27 were by American authors, eight were by Japanese authors, five were by British authors, three were by Canadian authors, two were by African authors (one Nigerian and one Zimbabwean), and one each were by Russian, Swedish, Australian, Brazilian and Irish authors. (Hey, I read at least one book from every continent!)
• The number of nonwhite authors I read is embarrassingly low. How low depends on what you consider nonwhite, but if we're talking people who actually face oppression (ie not Isabel Allende or Japanese from Japan), then I would count two. Yes, two. Something to focus on this year. 
• 12 books were translated from other languages (mostly Japanese; also Spanish, Russian, Portuguese, and Swedish); the rest were written in English. 
• 41 were fiction; 9 were nonfiction
• 41 were post-1950, five were written between 1900 and 1950, three were written in the 19th century, and one was written in the 17th century
• 32 were print books; 18 were ebooks
• I reread 3 books (This Side of Paradise, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Fahrenheit 451); the rest were new
• I read more than one book by the same author in six cases: Mark Twain (2 books), Ernest Hemingway (2 books), Suzanne Collins (3 books), Haruki Murakami (2 books), Yukio Mishima (2 books), and Terry Pratchett (2 books).
• My favorite books I read this year: Revolutionary Road, A Wild Sheep Chase, The Hunger Games, The Left Hand of Darkness, East of Eden, LIAR, Holes, and We Have Always Lived in the Castle. 

So that concludes the challenge, I guess. I'm hoping to get back to writing about Japan here; I thought about continuing to blog about the books I'm reading by doing short summaries 5 to a post or so, but instead I think I want to start using Goodreads. One of my favorite parts of doing the book challenge (both this year and when I last did it in 2007) was tracking the books I read and being able to see what the breakdown was at the end of the year on genre, fiction vs. nonfiction, etc. I certainly don't need to read 50 books to do that, but it's the only time I've bothered to, so this year I'll try to keep doing it no matter how few or many books I read. Now that the challenge is over I'm letting myself read all the long books I've been putting off--I'm almost done with The Girl Who Played With Fire (which is fantastic) and next am going to read Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea. Excitement!