Black or White

Today at Ogimi Elementary, I ate lunch with the 2nd graders and we played a little game which I'm calling "Black or White".

First, a quick Japanese lesson. Kokujin means 'black person'. Hakujin means 'white person'.

So while we were eating, the kid in front of me asks, "Cliff-sensei, are you black?". I replied with a polite, "No, I'm white.", which caused the kid to ask the teacher what the koku in kokujin was.

Once that little bit of information was sorted out, we somehow got into a guessing game. I would name a famous foreigner, and the kid had to say hakujin or kokujin.

"Kobe Bryant?"
"Kokujin."
"Yes!"

"Michael Jordan?"
"Hakujin."
"No!"

"Yao Ming?"
"Kokujin."
"No!"
"Hakujin."
"No!"
"Huh?"

The teacher also had a pamphlet of the current starters on the Okinawa pro basketball team, and so I went through the foreigners on the team and I'd say he got half of them right.

Calling someone black or white in Japan is not considered rude. But why couldn't the kid guess who was black or who was white? Probably just because he knew the name of the person, but didn't know what they looked like, so he just guessed.

It was a fun game, but I don't think I'll be adding it into my lesson plans any time soon, though.

JLPT

If the JLPT was a test for life, my result would mean I am a failure at life.

Thankfully, it only means I'm a failure at passing a Japanese test.

Going for 1-kyu next year anyway!

Cheap Mac Parts to Japan

Throughout December and January, I was experiencing a dying fan in my Macbook (a metaphor for a broken heart?). Actually, I don't know if it was dying, but when the rpms reached around 5200, my computer started sounding like an airplane taking off. It was really loud and really annoying.

I called Apple in Japan, and they said that for people outside of warranty, they offer a one price fix anything plan at an easy $400.

I ended up ordering the fan myself from PBParts.com for $29 + $7.50 international shipping. I want to plug the site because other sites had shipping alone at the $40 mark.

I followed an install guide on iFixit.com, and my Macbook is back to normal again.

Re-contracting and Running

After returning from Tokyo at the beginning of January, I was unsure about whether I wanted to stay another year in Okinawa or move to Tokyo. Once school got going again and things started to calm down, I found the decision easy. Of course I'll do another year in Okinawa.

This has me teaching up through July 2010. I first came to Okinawa reluctantly and planned to only stay a year. Now it seems I can't leave. I'm going to work on making Ogimi a home this year, instead of a temporary stopping ground. That means the Wonder Wagon will be replaced in a few months *sniff* along with getting "stuff" for my apartment.

Also, I've spent the past month trying to figure out what I want to achieve in Japan. I'm not too motivated so the list is short:

-pass Level 1 JLPT
-run a half-marathon (maybe a full)

***

On Sunday, I ran in the Nago Half-Marathon race. I only did 10K and I'm planning to go for a half in April. It was my first race since running a little one when I was about 6. I wanted to run it under an hour, but I ended up running it in 62.07 minutes. If I don't cramp up next time, I know I can do it a lot faster.

Okinawa Sakura

It's that brief time of the year again when Okinawa cherry blossoms are in bloom!

Click the picture to go to my Flickr page.

Obama in Japan

Japan is familiar with Obama for various reasons. While still running in the primaries, he received a lot of hype because there is a city in Japan called Obama, and everyone cheered him on pretty much for that reason alone. I guess the reverse logic would be true: if there was a city in the world named Cliff, I would think that would be the greatest place ever.

Adults are familiar with him now for the obvious, but the kids also know about him because there is a comedian who dresses up in a suit and pretends to be him. He goes around saying, in English, "Yes we can!". So a lot of my students are now repeating it and coming up to me asking what it means. I also sat in on a few young classes for lunch last week (1st and 2nd grade), and the kids are saying, "I know who the new American president is...Barack Obama!". I reply with, "and who is Japan's Prime Minister", which is answered with silence.

Now for a quick Japanese lesson. The word for president in Japanese is 'DAITORYO'. The word for feces (yes, as in 'poo') is 'DAIBEN'. A clever 1st grader of mine put the two together and said "Obama Daibentoryo".

*insert laugh track*

Zombie TV

I was watching a TV program yesterday that placed normal people in extreme situations. For example, there was a 42 year old who always wanted to be a pro wrestler, so they matched him up against Japan's current champion. It was funny cause he comes out to Rocky music only to find, to his surprise, that his family had been called in to watch. The champ seemed to not hold back and just whipped this guy up for a good 5 minutes. By the end, he was bruised all over and bleeding heavily from his mouth. His wife was just shaking her head and his kids had gone pale, but he was happy because he got to do something he always wanted to do.

The best skit was with a mom and her three kids, a girl who was 6 and two boys who were 5 and 3. The TV guy was interviewing them with just random kid questions, when he asks the older boy what he is scared of the most. He replies, 'Zombies!' A few seconds later, you hear screaming coming from outside. Everybody rushes out of the house to see a crowd of around 50 people running towards the family shouting 'Run away! Zombies are coming!'.

The kids run back inside, and the TV guy works to calm them down and help them set up traps in the house. The kids went along with it, looking kind of confused. They gathered a bunch of toy blocks to use as ammo, and then they set up a bucket with a cord above the front door that the girl was suppose to pull when the zombie came in.

The front door had a foggy glass pane set in, so when the zombie arrived, you could only see a pale shadow. Then the door knob started to turn. It was really scary and the camera turns to show the girl by the door holding the cord. She looked like she was about to pee herself. The zombie walks in in professional makeup, and the girl freaks out and pulls the cord early. But the zombie still stumbles on a few other 'traps' that were setup in front of the door and falls down. The kids then bolt for the bedroom to plan for the final battle.

This is where it became epic. The girl had a roll of saran wrap that her and the older brother were to wrap around the zombie's face. They were standing on the bed crying and the TV guy is telling the older brother, who is the most scared, that he has to protect his family. The zombie comes in and walks to the bed. The sister presses the saran wrap to the zombie's face, but can't get herself to stand close to him long enough to wrap it around, so she gives it to her brother and begins crying even more. The brother tries himself but is unable to wrap it around the zombie's head. The zombie, in the meantime, is just kind of standing in the room and stretching his arms out every now and then at the kids. When all help appeared to be lost, the boy sees two plastic poles, grabs them, jumps off the bed, and starts whacking the zombie as hard as he can, crying while he's doing it. He then throws them away and just starts punching and kicking the zombie screaming 'Get out!' The zombie turns around and runs away.

The TV guy begins interviewing the 5 year old with 'You did it, you saved your family.' The kid is bawling and gasping for breath in between each word. He said, 'We did it as a family. No one came to save us so we had to do it ourselves.' It was one of the cutest things I have ever seen and got me a bit choked up. When the skit ended and cut to all the TV personalities, they were all crying.

So if you are ever in a situation where there seems to be no hope, just remember about the kid who saved his family from zombies.