Am I getting older?

Bigger in Japan.

They say that the older you get the more out of touch with the younger generation you become. You know- classic generation gap. I dont really feel it all that much since im a wargaming, PS2-playing, arcading, plastic-model-building, comic-reading kid. Yet some things are different.
The kids aren't alright as offspring ( i think?) once said.

Found out today- that these once supposedly innocent kids are engaging in way too much sex for their tiny minds to handle. Now- im nowhere near the frump or the prude. On the contrary im te most sexually liberal person i know....the thing is...I believe there are guidelines when venturing into that realm. One guideline being that you be of above average maturity !!

This is the wierd thing for me- these kids seem SO immature. And not like western kids immature. Im sure you're saying, yeah but all kids are immature- you were too. Yes i was. But- at that age- i was not at that level i can assure you of that. Another wierd thing is the concept of Honnemae and Tatemae- the two faces of Japan....the communicaton level (or total lack thereof) between girls and boys at school is incredible. They just DO NOT talk to each other. They barely even look at each other. It so wierd. Found out yesterday that most of the guys in the "cool group" have well...been around the block so to speak. Take a look at the pic below. There are four guys in the pic. Three of them (they are either 14 or 15 y/o ) have had sex. One of them had sex with a girl right after his friend did. fucking scary stuff. How do i know this you might cry- they tell me. They have absoluely no reservations about just blurting that shit out. Now...im trying to think back to my time at jnr high equivalent...and it jsut was not the same. This largely due to the fact that i went to an all boys school though. If you manage to read this- please stick up a comment on what it was like at your Junior high. anywho....

Bigger in Japan.

Bigger in Japan.
Soooo yeah. Whatever. Its been a decent while since i wrote the last blog. I guess im still getting into the swing of things. I dont have much to write though- even though things have been going frantically mad with events and occurances. What to say- the teaching thing is interesting. I love it and I hate it. And the only reason i hate is is cause i love it so much and cant do it to the standard id like to be doing it. According to other teachers in Japan my kids are angels. Just - its all relative. I guess im lucky (or spoilt) in that i went to good schools. But discipline has always been in focus in my life. So when I talk as a teacher and kids are chatting to each other- i wanna beat them. Largely cause its what woulda happened if did that. (not actually beat them- but at least tell them off and make sure they didnt do it again.) And the unresponsiveness drives me crazy. I can speak a bit of Japanese- so when i ask a fuckign question IN japanese- i expect a motherf#ckin answer in Japanese or otherwise. Sad thing is the kids literally just switch themselves off. They figure its English- they cant understand it - and they zone out. A teacher today started to explain english in Japanese- she repeated a word in Japanese then the english then again- after that she asked a kid what was the word- and he had no idea- neither did the next kid. GRrrr- very frustrating. I keep thinking about teaching back home- and how much it would be a dream to go teach at my old school. How wierd is that. Money for schools in SA arent good...but its become a passion. Now i just need a subject to teach.

Crazy girls after sports day ! I dont know most of them- except Aki on the far right. (Most of them are 2year students i think) 

Some pics from the sports day event here. These are some of the naughty guys. Naughty in an average Japanese school is a relative term- cause these guys are fairly tame. Ryoji, Yuuji and Shu. Fun guys. crazy. but fun. 

Playboy in Junior High.

A fellow JET commented a month or two back upon her arrival that this country was particularly sexually overcharged- citing one example of the plethora of Playboy paraphenalia adorning skantily clad women of almost all ages. Now whilst i dont entirely disagree with the sexually overcharged country bit- I had to re-adjust my inexperienced friend as to the reasons why playboy (or the brand Playboy) is popular in Japan.

The bunny is cute.

Thats it. That's the rationale behind the brand succes in Japan. The clothes are considered "kawaii" and there's a cute rabbit on it aswell. Japanese dont have a word for sexy. They use "bijin" for "a beauty" , "kirei" for beautiful and "kawaii" for cute and pretty. English has one or two more categories or classifications and different uses and meaings and nuances in all. But i detract.

The bunny is cute.

Thats why girls as young as 11 and 12 sport the gear. Cause the bunny is cute. Today however- in class....first grade junior high- so thats what....12 year olds ? This girl had a folder. It was a playboy folder- complete with retro 60's and 70's playboy covers. It was tame by modern standards- no nudity- but suggestive. But the girls on the cover of her folder would be considered "kawaii" by her standards. All very very very interesting. Since the adult entertainment industry in all its mosaiced glory permeates almost every aspect of everyday life (you literally cant get on a train without some dude paging through a rape manga of some sort) it seems to desensitize the masses to the point where this little 12 year old girl had NO clue or not even the suspicion that her english folder was in fact sponsoring Mr Hefners harem of hoes.

Interesting shit really.

Japanese Sports Day.

We've now been practicing for the last 2 weeks. The Japanese sports day. Sports day is unlike most western sports days. Or more fairly unlike anything i've ever seen or experienced. One of the interesting things I find is the amount of time dedicated to the practicing of the sports day. Afternoon classes are cancelled for training- and then..closer to the day, they get entire days off to practice.

Its almost paramilitary complete with marching and regiments etc. Ive been told (but haveyet to check it up) that this is a throw back from the post WW2 days when Japan was prevented from having an Army. Obviously to offer some sort of training this form of sports day was introduced- or so im told.

More on this later.... (or not)

steamrollers...and their place within the system.

Did you know-
no one fails or gets kept back a year in Japanese schools. Is it because the kids are such a hard-working lot that there is never any need to keep a child back to revise the other 75% of the subject matter they didnt manage to absorb through the apparant favoured method of osmosis ?
No. Sad to say it isn't. They aren't hard working- especially not when it comes to a second langauge that they only start learning from first year of Junior High.

But enough of that...back to the kids not getting kept back in schools. So. Lets look at the situation quick.

Students never get kept back in Japanese schools. To my knowledge there is no end of year exams/ finals that are written- other than Junior High -> to Senior High and Senior High to -> University.

The students only motivation becomes getting into the university or particular school. Because once you are there it is smooth sailing.

Now- thats the problem. Unfortunately- it doesnt stop there and creates symptoms which sadly perpetuate the cycle.

Japanese teachers as a result of the system tend to steamroll. In fact I think the concept of a steamroller was first thought out by a Japanese teacher. "Oh if only i could invent a machine that has such ruthless and relentless capabilities that once started would be hard pressed to stop and would crush anything in its way......"
Basically they roll over the syllabus - stopping for breaks only when they feel they need to entertain themselves. Of course- im being horribly unfair- cause my experience is very limited- but ive heard its much of a muchness everywhere.

Very very very frustrating. But more on this later. Just sad really. The country of Japan is just mass producing (semi) literate morons.

and...yet more karaoke kuh-ray-zi-ness. 

More teacher Karaoke mayhem.. 

Myself and two of the Sumi-chu teachers (well one past one present) The guy on the left is Mr Yokoi- fabulous person- and karaoke champ ! I forgot the middle guys name. And thats me jivin' on the left 

Weekend. September 10,11,12

Weeeeeell...thankfully a fantastically eventfully uneventful weekend. No more earthquakes or typhoons or Jehovah's witnesses. (All signs of the coming apocalypse im sure).

Friday felt long. Very long. Maybe its the anticipation of the coming weekend-which sad to say is now more of a sign of sleeping in than going out and partying. That whole aging thing. *shudder*

After Friday's work i moseyed on over to the city centre where i met two of my old students. Literally old students. The student population of the previous conversation school I worked for was about 80% female university students. These lads seemed to be the obvious exceptions. Shoji is a 50+ fatherly highschool English teacher. His manners and decorum are impeccable yet he seems to have a wonderfully friendly nature for someone exuding such stature. Seiji on the other hand is blast. 60 years old- but healthy and lively as any 25 year old i know. Fairly incredible stuff. Seiji usually gets louder and more controversial (in a friendly way) depending on the amount of alcohol he has had. Then there's the third gentleman who ive met on more than one occasion- yet keep forgetting the poor sods name. He's an ecentric old man- white wirey hair in an Einstein-esque fashion. Thick, near rimless glasses. A psychologist of all proffessions. (Seiji by the way has recently retired fromhis job of 40 years to seek grander adventures- I think he was possibly working too hard and forgot to have his mid-life crisis and its hit him at this age).
Anyways- conversation, food and drink was fantastic - (and free- their "congratulations" treat for my new job.)

From there I plodded along to the under 31y.o. teachers drinking party of my school. I'll stick some pics up soon soon. All reasonably fascinating stuff.
Im quite relieved that my particular group of teachers are as nice as they are. Woulda been a lot more difficult otherwise.

Myself and my girl caught the last train home- having made up for the days debate about the ex (see previous entry) . We spent most of the weend together. All of Saturday aswell- joining some other teachers (Rob, Ryan- and his lovely wife Sachiko) for an evening of korean style Bbq- yakiniku - man that stuff rocks- a bit pricey though...but come on...its good. The night then spiralled inevitably downwards towards the commonly frequented drinking hole of Polo Dogs. Wonderful atmosphere- as most bars the size of shoeboxes have. Flip side being they're...well...the size of shoeboxes.
Evening continued to spiral downwards towards the ever so inevitable Karaoke - which...now lets not kid- for 780 yen an hour (about $8us) all you can drink all you can sing; thats not a bargain for the nights entertainment -its a requirement. Our numbers dwindled slightly. Kat feeling the weeks pressures (and her personal life) getting to her party mood a bit- not to mention the constant bombardment of CrazyMike's oblivious(to himself) abrasiveness. Ryan also left early - apparantly having to catch the love train home with his wife :P or catch the love train at home....or love catching the train home...or something. Anywho...karaoke..and a brief stop at a very full Sallys - stopping only to direct large bunches of lost Americans who were in Kobe on semester at sea (A reasonably bloody cool programme that you get to study and tour the world at the same time)- followed by a swift ride home in a taxi. Annoying that trains stop here at 12. No point really.

Anywho...sunday...uneventful. Bored of writing. Will quit. bye.

Bigger in Japan.

Bigger in Japan.

yet another test really.....

Jealous Girlfriends

Problems clearly need little to no prompting on our parts before they piledrive their way into your daily life. From the mundane and innocuous to the blatant and overwhelming. My current problem is entirely my own manifestation on account of a: my personality being what it is, and added with b: my girlfriends personality being what it is.

Im of the firm belief that if you have a decent relationship with somone, be it romantic or otherwise (a friendship is also a relationship of a sort) you should strive to maintain that relationship. Obviously sometimes the same bond and same strength cannot be maintained- in the case of previous romantic relationships. Buuuuut (i believe) that while the same bond or same level may not be sustainable one should not cast aside people that have influenced your life for good (and even sometimes for bad- although latter case is tougher).

Situation is this. Im now friends with my ex girlfriend. Who's been in that situation ? You date, it doesnt work- the slit is amicable and you remain friends. Or the split is less than amicable- you war for a while, then you resolve this and become friends. Or the split is cataclysmic, she burns your house, boils your bunny and stalks you every waking hour. In most cases a friendship is salvageable. So...situation....
Ive met with my ex girlfriend twice in the last 46 days. This has clearly been enough times to warrant a "You're always meeting her!" response by my current followed by the unmistakable "SHIIK-SHIIK"of a shotgun being loaded when I informed the current I intended to meet the ex this weekend.

Anywho. I realise a lot of people would say im being insensitive to the requests and neeeeeds of my girl. But at the same time...you know...Kinda poo place to be in. My bad though. I can see the possibility of things getting hairier than a yeti's sack.....but I think these things are workable. Thoughts welcome.

Myself and Watari and baby Mickey. 

Tester

Smashing into the forray of internet blogging, Mr B. sits at his Junior Highschool desk surrounded by sullen and hardworking Japanese co-workers. Questions flood Mr B.'s mind. What will he write about- how often will he write (this is his first time after all), What will people think about the writing, will he continue to use the third person and inevitably piss people off. ...I just dont know. (Or do I).

Okay peeps. So the title of this blog coulda been Mr B's awfully dull grand adventures in Japan- but i settled for the rather simple "Bigger in Japan".

So without further adue.........

the end.
Mr B.