Hello, My Name is John Mirito

Today marks two weeks in my current setting, and they have been pretty nice. We don't even start our actual teaching positions until the beginning of next month. One of our main responsibilities at this point is to introduce ourselves over and over to people of varying relevance to our lives. As we are quasi city employees, government officials who are directly above us in a social ladder that pretty much extends to the sky get presents, while we get business cards. The Japanese love this because in the exchange of names and information, the newly acquainted learn who is more important than who, which is essential.

Me greasing the mayor of Ashikaga's palm with a box of Jelly Belly's. No parking tickets for me.

I did teach one small class to a group of third graders for an hour and a half, which was pandemonium. I am just sort of led to a room of 30 children and told "good luck". These kids seem to have been left alone for some time, and they are going nuts. Its all very Kindergarten Cop, with little old me instead of a bodybuilder. There are two high school volunteers present, but they are largely ineffectual and it was unclear to me what their purpose even was. Maybe ten minutes into my class two of them are fighting hard enough that one of them starts crying, and I have to take him outside. The main point of the few little games that we played was matching capital letters with lowercase, which is something that they definitely could use practice with. I really am glad that I am a junior high teacher.

I imagine that the more kids I interact with, the more flashbacks I will have to my own grade school days. I was pretty bad to my teachers I think, so hopefully I can avoid justice.

The Crazy Thing About Garbage

Imagine the scene at the aforementioned fireworks festival. People everywhere. Drinking, eating foods on sticks, wandering to and fro with bags of picnic provisions. Trash cans? Nowhere. Not a single trashcan is to be seen anywhere. There are never (ever) public trash cans anywhere, in fact. If you buy something, you better eat it where you bought it, because if you don't, there is a real possibility that you will be carrying the resulting trash for the rest of the day.

And the insanity doesn't end there. I am required to sort all of the trash that I produce at home. Tuesday and Friday every week, the masters of trash will accept foodstuffs, yard waste, and everything that is burnable but not recyclable. The 2nd and 4th Monday of every month I am blessed with the ability to throw away metal things like pots and pans, electronics, pottery, aluminum cans. The 1st and 3rd Monday of every month I can... shoot myself. An amazing amount of time and effort is required with everything. Its to the point that when I go shopping for food, I occasionally make purchasing decisions based on how easily I will be able to dispose of the packaging.

Here is my very detailed poster explaining in excruciating detail how to handle the honorable trash. For example, when handling plastic bottles I should peel off the plastic label, then take off the cap. Wash it out carefully, then let it dry. One picture shows how I should then separate the bottles by color.

Phew, I just had to get that off my chest. This place is a madhouse! Hehe

Just a nice little temple up in the mountains overlooking Ashikaga. A nice escape from the daily pressures of waste sorting.

Fireworks!!

The fireworks display ended up being a much bigger deal than I had realized. As we walked towards the river that bisects Ashikaga, the occasional bunches of people waiting at stoplights turned into a mass of humanity streaming through blocked off streets. Both banks of the river were covered in place-saving blankets and tarps that people had staked down days in advance. Today was a favored occasion for people to wear their yukata, which is basically a lighter, warm weather kimono. I've been shopping for a male version for myself, but I haven't found many in fatboy size as of yet.





The firework display itself was most likely the best I have ever seen. Not only were the explosions of better quality, but the damn things went on for two hours. At several points messages from sponsors were displayed on the far bank of the river with masses of sparklers. Children filled with excitement at the onset were long asleep by the time the last colors had faded from the sky.

Not a single "OOH" or "AAH" was uttered within earshot

A particularly cool display

There were numerous vendors doing their best to capitalize on the crowd. I like them because they often have special occasion foods that can't be found under normal circumstances.

Quite a memorable experience.

Gathering Some Necessities

I've been able to mark off quite a few things from my to-do list the last couple of days. The biggest thing was some official paperwork that needed to be done. The Japanese require me to register where I live and everything and then give me a foreigner ID card. It allows me to make large purchases and other things that require identification. I opened a bank account so that I can start stacking all of my bountiful riches as well.

I was itching to get a cell phone as soon as possible. It is a very necessary possession to carry on with some semblance of a social life. Its also nice to be able to talk to my friends in other cities. The Japanese don't put too much emphasis on actually talking on their cell phones, they rely mostly on texting (my current plan gives me about an hour of talk time a month). My cell phone has its own email address as well, so I can receive those too. I don't want to get a bunch of spam so I won't include it here, but let me know and I will give it out... then you can harass me with questions about Japan anytime of day... hurray!

My phone company is AU which is owned by Toyota. The guy showing us around thought that going to a Toyota car dealership would be the way to get the best service. I thought it was cool to see how a car dealer acts in Japan, and since I don't plan on buying a car here anytime soon this was a unique experience. They were super polite, even for the Japanese(this is one of the few places in the country that I can remember ever being offered a free beverage). The best was saved for last though. As we walk to the car, the man who had been helping us along with a couple other random workers stood in the middle of the parking lot and bowed and everything. On our way out, I looked back, and there they still stood. They just stood there waving and bowing until we were out of sight. Pretty intense.

My new phone! One of the most advanced phones I've seen in action... they love their gadgets.

All of this wheeling and dealing means I have to affix my mark on contracts and whatnot. Around these parts, people never just write their name down and add a few curlies to make it distinct. I received something called a hanko, which consists of my name in Japanese script carved into a piece of wood(the more important ones tend to be made of more expensive materials). I put my little stamper in red ink, then sign away. I think its really cool because it is so classical, but I think that the stamp is more vulnerable to replication than a signature would be.

My hanko in its little self contained carrying case.



A couple of my name stamps. It was hard to focus on them because they are so small, but you get the idea. It just reads "Milito" in katakana.

There is some sort of large fireworks festival today. Should be entertaining.

Getting Settled in Japanland

I've had a couple days to scope out the town, and things are looking good. My apartment is situated in a pretty convenient area. The main mall and shopping district is fairly close, and one of the main train stations is also close by. One down side to the apartment is that it faces a pretty narrow and busy street, which makes my bike ride commute a bit tense. At this point I have resigned myself to the fact that I am eventually going to get hit by a car. I've already had a close call or two and I have a year to go. Kyoto was very bike friendly, and a lot of times there were more bicycles to be seen than cars. In Ashikaga, though, people are a bit less attentive.


The thing with Japan is that I am comfortable enough with it here that I can't document that initial shock of weirdness. Some things that were insane to me 5 years ago during my first Japan outing now actually make some sense. Here are a couple of just random shots I took over the last couple days. Enjoy.

One thing I've always enjoyed about Japan is the use of space. In this country there is really no such thing as a "vacant lot". Here is what I assume to be a rice field adjacent to a heavily populated area.



I just really liked this sign. I can read it, but it doesn't make any sense to me.



This is the toilet seat section of the main electronics store in town. They are pretty intense about multifunctional toilets around these parts. Note the key pads to the left of the lids.



Here is a case of delicately detailed plastic sushi. It is common for Japanese restaurants to have fake models of the food they offer for sale.

Nothing too exciting yet, just trying to survive. Hehe.