Universal Truths

April 6th, 2007
Living here has been a series of new experiences so far, but I have discovered a few things that are the same no matter where you go:
1. Banks always take longer than you expect. I went in to the Shinwa bank today to get a Japanese account so the junior college can direct deposit my checks when I start work. Other than the wait, it was quite a new experience for me. There were two people at the door kind of directing traffic as people came in. One of them spoke English, and she helped me fill out the form to open the account and directed me to a teller. The teller took my information and gave me a number. Then I sat. While she was working on my stuff (which apparently involved passing off bits to other people and waiting for them to return), she helped like five other people in a similar manner. It made it look very effecient. Whether it really was or not, I don't know. But I have to say, it was nice to sit and flip through a magazine while they sorted out the details rather than standing there watching her stamp this and type that.
2. Salespeople are a determined crew. I was sitting at home today working on some school work when my doorbell rang. This is a very rare experience, so I was delighted to go to the door. There was a man there who clearly didn't speak much English, and he quickly determined that all I can say in Japanese that was of any use to him was Konnichi wa (hello). This did not stop him from doing his best to explain that he was selling what appeared to be groceries and paper products door to door through a catalog. I felt a little bad saying no because he put so much effort into expressing this to me, but I successfully turned him down, at which point he bowed politely and went on his merry way. Highly entertaining.
3. Politicians will do anything to get their name out. It's election season here. We don't have Japanese TV, and Japanese radio is almost all talk, so we don't listen to that much either, but a week or so ago, big vans started driving through the streets of town with four huge megaphones on the top of each. They inevitably are full of people who are dressed similarly and are waving out of every window, and someone is always chatting merrily out of the megaphone. It's so loud that it sounds like they're in our bedroom at night. These vans are advertising the local politicians who want to be elected. It's annoying, but they only are allowed to do this for a certain number of days before the actual election, so it's temporary. And I still like it better than the commercials on TV back home bashing political opponents. At least these people are friendly. They wave, and Zack waves back. :-)
4. Field trips are adorable. Today there was an elementary school class having a field trip in the park by our house. SO CUTE! The kids were probably kindergarten or first grade. They all wore little red baseball caps. The girls had red checkered shirts and the boys had blue checkered shirts. They all had blue pants with red stripes down the sides. They were setting up a picnic when I went by. There were blankets, and each child had a lunch in a little white basket. About the time I walked passed, the teacher apparently set the kids free to run in the park because they all took off running in the grass. I think I'll like living across from that park.

In other news, I have a meeting with the other teachers at NJC on Tuesday. I'm told that since my class is an elective, the powers that be are not sure how many people will want to sign up. Rather than capping the class and function on a first come first serve basis, they simply told me that if more than about 20 show up, I should use the first class to conduct short interviews, then weed out the lower level speakers until I get to 20. How odd is that? I'm not sure how I feel about it, but if that many show up, it'll be quite an experience. I used to have nightmares about not having a class roster when I arrived at my first day of class. I guess it's safe to say I won't have one this time...
We've met some of our neighbors in the last week or so as well. The family across the concrete patio area from us is military as well. The man is American, his wife is Japanese, and they have a daughter. Now that we've actually spoken we nod politely at each other as we pass, so that's nice. I've taken to nodding politely at any Japanese people who walk by when I'm out as well, but I don't know which ones live where yet. I guess I've still got some exploring to do.