Musical Chairs

I'm teaching summer school this week at an elementary school and I have to fill up 2 hours of time with about 10 kids. It would be easy if they were junior high kids, cause I'd give them a worksheet and be done with it. But since they can't read, I have to play more games than usual.

So I have put together a musical chairs CD, and I thought I would share the playlist:

Boyfriend - Alphabeat
God Only Knows - The Beach Boys
When I'm Sixty-Four - The Beatles
Viva la Vida - Coldplay
Take Me Out - Franz Ferdinand
Sweet Child O' Mine - Guns N' Roses
Worried About Ray - The Hoosiers
Better Together - Jack Johnson
Is This Love - Bob Marley
Love Today - Mika
Life With You - The Proclaimers
Shine - Take That

Driving

Today, I passed my driving test.

I've been panicking a bit, because every time one fails, one has to wait at least 10 days to take it again. My first attempt was in the beginning of July, and I failed because when I backed up, I did not go through the proper motions: rear mirror check, right mirror check, full body turn, left mirror check, full body turn.

If I had failed today, I would have had only one more chance to pass before my international driver's license expired. To give you an idea of the chances of doing that, there was a guy today who failed today on his 4th attempt. He said he knew a guy who had taken it 9 times. However, he wasn't a JET, and JETs seem to have a quicker passing percentage rate. Not because we are better drivers, but because we are smart enough to actually go to driving school for a few hours.

The instructor seemed to be in a good mood today, because 6 out of the 10 people passed. 3 on their first try. I even bumped a plastic pole when doing a turn (which caused another JET to fail) and passed.

I will get my license on Monday, when I drive down to Naha (again) for a lecture. Why couldn't I have just gone to the lecture right after I passed the test? Why do I even have to go to the lecture when it's all in Japanese? No one knows. After Monday, I think I will have spent around $400 in the entire process. But this is nothing compared to the Japanese driving school almost all young people do. That runs around $2000-$3000. I enjoy telling my teachers I spent $10 on my Florida license.

Last Tuesday, I received my orange belt and have a level of 8-kyu. The levels go backward, from 10-kyu to 1-kyu. Once you attain black belt, the numbers go from 1-dan and up. My sensei is at 7-dan and is awesome.

I also found out last week I passed my kanji test for 4th graders. I plan to take the 6th grade test in February.

Racial Profiling

Last Friday, on my way to karate, I stopped by to pick up another teacher. We met in a little side parking lot next to a department store. He jumps in, and as I'm about to pull away, two guys wearing kariyushi (think aloha) shirts come up next to my window. Thinking they are Mormons or something, I tell them I'm in a hurry and start to pull away. Then they flash me their badges.

"We want to see your driver's license and registration."

In my mind, I'm already guilty and about to be deported. As I'm looking for my stuff, they tell me that my license number is suspicious, and they want to make sure the car is mine. I begin to wonder if I transferred the vehicle information under my name correctly, or if that the previous owner's boyfriend (who was Okinawan) might have been some kind of criminal. 

As they are going through my documents, they start up a casual conversation of "Where do you live?", "Oh, you're a teacher.", etc. I didn't have the dread of talking to these cops as I would talking to a cop in America. Probably only because in this situation I knew I wouldn't be paying a $120 ticket. 

To give a quick summary of Japanese license plates, plates here have a Japanese character on them, such as a ま or a た, followed by a few numbers. Since there is a military presence here, military plates have a roman Y on them instead. (The running gag being "Y are you here?")

After writing down everything they wanted, they say they were suspicious of the car because if has a Japanese license plate and I'm not Japanese. They were just making sure the car belonged to me.

Where's Jesse Jackson when I need him?

Spiders

Okinawa has big brown spiders. I think we have them in Florida too, but in all my time in Florida, I think I have only come across 1 or 2. Since I've been in Okinawa, I've had 3 or 4 in my apartment, and have come across a lot more in various other places. The first time I had one in my apartment, I freaked, and chased it with the vacuum cleaner (they're fast!). Now, they don't bother me as much. I heard they eat cockroaches, so the last one I had in my apartment, I trapped and let it outside. 

Here's a blog entry from Zamami Dave, however, that describes a situation that would not be cool with me. Ever.

Have you ever heard the urban myth that you swallow three spiders during your sleep each year? Well, just in case it’s true, rest assured that I took care of your quota last night. I noticed this spider in my big tatami room and was curious about that big ‘plate’ she was clutching beneath her.

It didn’t take much time to determine that plate had been holding her thousands of babies, which were now crawling all over my apartment. They were everywhere, but also small enough that I wasn’t too concerned with swallowing them.

Adult English Class

I had my second adult English class tonight. It's an hour a week, and I don't get paid. I was asked by my vice-principal at one of the schools, and felt it would have been rude to say no.

"Hey, Cliff! Would you like to teach some of the teachers English?"
"No, not really."

I am going to try to get vacation hours out of it. 8 weeks would equal 1 day off work, or something like that. It turns out, though, that this class is really easy and fun. Right now, I'm also doing an extra kid's class that I AM getting paid for, and I'm coming to dislike it. I'm trying to teach them to read in between me saying, "Kaname, don't hit your brother.", "Kaname, stop climbing on my back.", and "Kaname, stop drawing pictures of poo on your English folder."

In my now-almost-one-year since I've come to Japan, I've discovered that I don't like teaching kids under 3rd grade. It seems that 3rd grade is the magic year that they begin to calm down. So it makes perfect since that my adult class is just awesome. Last week, the first class flew by, doing only half of the things I had planned.

The class consists of 3 teachers and 1 assistant teacher. In 2-3 years, Japan is making English a mandatory lesson for 5th and 6th grade, so these teachers are looking to brush up on their skills. I don't expect my class to turn them into great speakers as I highly doubt they will study on their own. To them, it's just a fun hour. But as long as it's fun for me too, I don't mind.

Random Things #2

Just a few more random bits:

Took the 4th grader kanji test (Kanji Kentei 7 kyu) on Friday. That comes to 640 kanji. Not really that great of a feat when you consider that I'm not even a third of the way finished, and that I probably didn't pass the test. Passing is 70%, and I think it is going to be border line. I'll find out in a few weeks.

Have another karate test at the end of the month. I'm going for my orange belt. Have to perform a few basic kicks and punches, plus three kata. I was freaked out about the last one in January, but I already feel ready for this one. 

Last week, a third grader wanted me to sit next to him at lunch. The kids did rock, paper, scissors to decide where I would sit, and he lost. He made a big fuss about it and sulked all during lunch. Apparently when his mom came to pick him up, they came to the teacher's room to apologize to me about it, but I had already left. So they drove to my apartment to apologize, but I wasn't there either cause I had karate.

Also last week, I had a second grader run up to me wanting to be picked up. He's in mid-run, when he's intercepted by his teacher and given a severe scolding. I give a 'what did he do?'-look, and the teacher angrily begins to repeat, 'His eyebrows! His eyebrows!', while lifting his head up and shoving his bangs out of the way. The kid had shaven off his eyebrows. I'm assuming that as punishment, he wasn't allowed to play.

And finally, the new Coldplay album is awesome.

Random Things #1

This update is the first of two that will go through a couple of things happening to me right now.

I finally made it to the dentist about two weeks ago. I should have gone in December, and before I knew it, it was June. The results came back and...I'm a failure at life. I was told I had a cavity. She said it was small and I had the option of leaving it alone and taking care of it, or getting it drilled. I went for the drill. Why? Because I was the type of kid in elementary school that secretly wanted to break their arm. Whenever a kid showed up to class with a cast, it was cool. It:s not that I think having a filling will be cool, but I kind of wanted to have the life experience of having a cavity drilled out. So I went back last week, they gave me a shot, and then they drilled. I didn't feel a thing. Instead of a silver filling, they gave me a white one. My tooth looks perfect, so technically I can still say I have no cavities.

I began the process of getting my driver's license this week. Getting a Japanese license is one long bureaucratic process. I drove down to Naha on Tuesday to fill out the application to take a written test. Then I drove down to Naha yesterday to take the written test. I will next drive down to Naha in a month to take the practical test, and if I pass, I will drive down to Naha again to pick up my license. It seems to take the average JET three attempts to pass the practical. When all this is done, I'm looking at about 6 Naha trips. This wouldn't be so bad if driving down to Naha didn't take me 2.5 hours. And no, you cannot do all this in one day. That would be too practical. 

While I was in Naha, I decided to apply for yet another passport. Passports and I don't get along. I got my first one when I was 17 and lost it after I came back from France (only to be discovered after graduating from college). I applied for another one about 2 years ago to go to London. However, I filled out the form with the name Cliff instead of Clifton. I guess the people don't check the passport name with that birth certificate you are required to send in. I didn't think this was a problem, though, until I needed a visa to come to Japan. The name on your visa has to match the name on your birth certificate, which has to match the name on your passport. So I applied for a third one last March with my correct name. It took 4 months to get. I had to overnight it in mid-July to the consulate in Miami in order to process my visa in time. What was wrong with this third passport? Because it was my third one, it made them suspicious, so they declared it a limited passport. Only good for one year. Back to the present, this confused the people at the consulate in Okinawa, so they are requesting my original birth certificate instead of going through the normal process of accepting a previous passport. Four passports in less than 10 years. Three in the past three years. I'm getting a passport a year and I'm being charged $100 each time.

*growl* Angry Criff hates all governments.