A response to my Cold Manifesto. The temperature is currently around the 90 F range and humid. It's no different from Florida, but in Florida, we like are ACs and overhead fans. Japanese buildings lack overhead fans and use single air conditioner units to cool rooms. The fans people do use are the little ones that swing back and forth blowing one side of your body every few seconds.
So this past week, I have sat in the teacher's room sweating. The AC has not been turned on and there are no fans. But it's not that Japanese people have special bodies that resist heat. Every teacher at every school keeps commenting on how hot it is. So, why don't they turn on the AC?
Because they haven't gotten the official memo from the Board of Education.
Probably for budget reasons, all the schools are suppose to turn on the AC at the same time at the start of summer and turn it off at the same time at the end. My inside source informs me that the schools will get the notice at the beginning of next week, although one school on Wednesday 'secretly' went ahead and switched it on in the afternoon anyway.
Another reason ACs are seldom used is to save energy. For example, this summer, the Japanese Prime Minister will give up wearing ties to work. This is an energy saving plan known as 'Cool Biz', where government workers will wear light clothing so that ACs can be kept at a high temperature. Can you imagine that going well in DC?
I've also been told that the AC is bad for your health and how it's good for your body to sweat and to adapt to different temperatures on it's own. This is why in elementary schools, only the teacher's room has AC, in order to make the kids strong. The problem is that the schools have yet to do this, and I don't care about being strong. I just don't want to sweat.
So how did people survive in times without AC? They didn't build buildings that didn't allow air circulation. Outside right now, it feels great. Yes it's humid, but it's also breezy. The teachers office is one big room that everybody sits in, and even with the windows open, not much air gets in. I sweat inside, but not outside. My opinion is, if Japan is going to build buildings of Western design, they have to give it 100% and include the AC (and turn it on), or at very least, an overhead fan.
For an interesting article on Japanese architecture and the lack of insulation, read Ask an Architect: Insulation.
Update: As I type this, it's 8:40 am, I have a mini-towel around my neck and I am waving a fan I found in my desk. I just had this conversation with my vice-principal:
VP: Does it get humid in Florida?
Me: Yes, but we turn on the AC...
30 seconds later, they closed the windows and turned it on! Happy Friday to me!
Lately, my steering wheel has been vibrating as I drive. I've been waiting till payday to take it in and get it checked out along with an oil change. So after my classes today, I took my van next door to the local gas station where I can get anything done. I told them I wanted my tank filled up, an oil change, and to fix whatever was causing my wheel to shake.
The lone woman there is also the mother of two of my students, so we have become somewhat friends, as I see her almost every time I have my tank filled up. She looks at my front tires and says I need new ones. I knew my tires were a little smooth, but I didn't really pay much attention to them. They were not only smooth, but also had little rips in the rubber. She said that's what is causing the van to shake. (You were right Elina!)
I then said I wanted two tires, a full tank, and an oil change. She insists that I should do the oil change next month, otherwise it will be really expensive.
Let me repeat that: a MECHANIC told me I should NOT get something done to my car, cause it will cost too much money.
I don't think this is abnormal behavior either. A month ago, Yuka got a new cell phone. She wanted this really small slim phone, but she went with a slighter thicker one with a TV (the one I would have gotten). Why? Because the store clerk told her that the phone she wanted had been having some problems with, plus it just wasn't that good. The phone she ended up getting was cheaper than the one she wanted, too.
I got the new tires sans oil change, and all I can say is, the Wonder Van drives like a new vehicle. And if you've seen what my van looks like, you know that's saying a lot.
***
During lunch, a 2nd grader asked me whose side I would choose if America and Japan went to war. Then the whole class started chanting "Ja-pan! Ja-pan!". Instead of saying "America, and you will be the first one I kill", I said, "Japan" to get them to shut up. This was followed by a loud, "Yay!"
Japan treats foreigners as exotic gifts. When you first meet someone, they marvel at your white-ness and are in awe over your speaking and chopstick abilities. Then as you get to know them, they like to bring you to parties to show you off like an expensive tequila. Because I am not fluent, it's hard to determine if I'll ever have my whiteness over-looked. Only time will tell, but I do know one thing: I'm a freakin' rock star to my elementary school students.
Today after lunch, I went into the gym to play kick ball with a group of kids. I was up to kick, and the ball goes soarin into the air and gets stuck in the gym ceiling supports. I don't know what the height of the ceiling is, but it's no different from gyms back in America, so you can imagine it was tall enough that I would need about 5 ladders stacked on top of each other to even begin to reach it. When the ball got stuck, the whole group of kids let out a big sigh of, "Awww!" (Some phrases are just universal.) So I grab a mini basketball and begin launching the ball trying to un-lodge it.
The kids are totally into it. Every throw gets a gasp out of the crowd, and I start to get nervous at the thought of failure. A couple of times, the basketball hits a dangling light, which caused it to shake, freaking everyone out including myself. I began to sweat, my arm started to hurt, and my throws were getting weaker. I let out a few choice words that would have gotten me fired in an American elementary school, but these kids don't understand it anyway.
Just as the group's interest, including my own, begins to wander, I give a final hurl, and the ball hits the other ball perfectly, causing both balls to fall back to the ground. I surprised myself and give a whoop of success. And when everyone realizes that I had done it, they all rush me, cheering for me like a man who had made a come back win in a sports game. I could almost hear the Rudy soundtrack in the background. I was on top of the world. It's the little things, right?
***
Went to Iriomote two weeks ago with Yuka and about 10 other JETs. Will post pictures soon.
It's Friday, and Iron Man is being released in the States. For the past three movie seasons (fall, winter, spring), I have lived easily with having the closest movie theater being a 2 hour drive away. (Not including the one on the American base which I don't have a pass to get on to.) Not only is the closest movie theater far away, but by the time an American movie is released here, it's already out on DVD back home. This hasn't bothered me because all the movies I have wanted to see weren't movie-theater-movies. I haven't minded waiting 6 months for a DVD rip to become available on the internet, and then spending about 4 days downloading it. Yes, my internet speed crawls at a dial-up rate of 6 kbps.
But now it's summer, and I didn't expect to find myself wanting to see the big action movies in theaters. I loved Iron Man as a kid and the reviews for this film are going great. I don't want to wait six months for a DVD rip and then watch it on my 13 inch TV. I want to see it today! This is the kind of film you drive 2 hours and spend $15 to see. (Japanese movie tickets are expensive.)
And now that I'm looking ahead, I also want to make the drive to go see Indiana Jones, Batman, and Hellboy.
But...I can't. At least not for Iron Man. Japan usually releases the big movies at the same time as America, but Iron Man isn't coming out till September. I want to get stuffed on mexican food and margaritas, and then head up the road to AMC tonight!