Rules of the AC (or my Hot Manifesto)

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!

New Tires

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!"

I'm Cool in Japan

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.

Summer Movies

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!

Sylvia Plath and Fat Kid in 1st Grade

Remember my Sylvia Plath kindergarten student? She's the one that would sit in the back of the room and cry during my English lessons. Well, she's a 1st grader this semester, and I had hoped for an instant maturation during the transition to elementary school. Sadly, not yet. I had my first full class with 1st and 2nd graders today. Some of the 1st graders I did not have in kindergarten, so they have had absolutely no English experience. We were playing a variation of Duck, Duck, Goose changed to Hello, Hello, Goodbye, when she got picked. When she realized she had to get up and chase the other kid, she just put her head down, slumped her shoulders, and cried. I think someone needs to give 110%.

Thankfully, she'll out grow this...one day. I have this other fat kid whom I had in kindergarten and is now in the same class. His problem is simple: he's the fat kid. The kind of fat kid who would unearth a swing set. The kind of fat kid who you can't play see-saw with. After seeing his mother, I would bet money that he will ALWAYS be the fat kid.

Well, last week, I had a 15 minute class with my 1st and 2nd graders, and we just made name cards. Somehow, during this short 15 minute window, he craps his pants. Either he wasn't aware he did it or he was trying to hide that he did it to make a clean getaway later. The teacher immediately knew what happened and took him away to change. How did she know? Let's just say, it was completely OBVIOUS that he was crapping his pants as it happened.

It's always the fat kid, right?

Another Kid Down

If my goal in Japan was to cause pain to as many children as possible, then I would be succeeding. After my latest incident, I wouldn't doubt if I was flagged for deportation. 

During my 3rd/4th grade class, we were doing a kind of running game. My classroom is a slick hardwood floor and they were wearing socks. One of the 4th graders attempts a turn and falls down. I've seen more kids fall down than I can count, so I wasn't alarmed...until the teacher went over to his side and stayed there while I continued my game. I believe I have written enough about how if a kid gets hurt, the teachers and students practically ignore him or her to let them such it up on their own. With the teacher by his side, I could sense that this was serious. He could sit up, but he couldn't move his leg. He wasn't crying, but he would wince at the slightest poke of his knee.

This happened at the beginning of class, so I had to continue teaching a distracted bunch of already rambunctious kids. Through the course of my class, the school nurse came in, then another teacher, and then the vice principal. When class had finally finished, an ambulance showed up. Paramedics came in with the whole stretcher set up and took him away.

I'm sure I would have felt worse had I been the one to fall on him and caused this to happen. But I still feel down-right horrible.  Later that afternoon, we got a call from the hospital saying he had sprained his knee. I think my class should come with a warning label.

Shots and Tibet

Me and two other JETs have been planning a China/Tibet trip for August for a couple of months now. And just our luck, it's looking like it may not be the smartest of ideas anymore. It seems protests are extending out of Tibet into western China (which was our back-up plan), and I definitely don't want to be around eastern part during the Olympics. I assume it will be way too expensive.

But in order to prepare for this awesome trip that I'm no longer going on, I went and got my tetanus shot last week. According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, America recommends you get shots for tetanus, Hepatitis A and B, Typhoid, Rabies, and Japanese encephalitis. And don't forget the malaria pills.

When I handed my shot record to the doctor, he stares at it and says, "Why do you need a tetanus shot? You've had six of them." I point out that the first four were when I was under a year old, and the other two were at 5 years old and 13 years old. Therefore, I need another one because I'm suppose to get one every 10 years. I guess Japan doesn't do that, cause he gave me a look and said, "Well, I can give it to you if you want it." Well, of course I didn't want it, I only felt like I needed it. So I told him I'm going to China for hiking and camping, and he says, "Ok, then it's probably a good idea."

I then ask him about the other shots that America recommends, and he, of course, told me I don't need them, but I can get them if I want to. He just said don't eat raw food and avoid the water. In short, play it smart and I'll be fine. I don't know how much the vaccines would cost me here, but if I was in America, and I planned to go to China and get all my vaccines, the bill would run me $480 (if I was a student at UPenn. It was the only list I could find.)

So I think I would choose to just play it smart, but since I'm not going anymore, it doesn't matter. The trip is on hold for next August.