Swine flu in Japan

So we've been dealing with swine flu here in Japan for a while now and many people have become infected. Japanese people basically flip out when it comes to stuff like this, apparently. It's a country where even cab drivers wear white gloves to keep everything clean. It is also customary to wear a mask if you are sick, feeling like you might get sick, or even if you aren't sick. In short, everyone here has freaked out about the swine flu.

Events have been canceled, airlines have quarantined people from other countries, masks have sold out on several occasions and so on and so on. Here in Ubuyama, there have not been any cases yet, but it has gotten to small communities in this area now. So far, relating to my life personally, they have canceled the exchange program between Ubuyama and Thailand (both ways), canceled my summer English camp at the beach and flooded my desk (and my head) with announcements about the virus.

When swine flu first came to Japan they called it "buta influenza" or "pig flu" just as in the rest of the world. But about a month after this name became popular the Japanese government thought that associating the flu with pork products might lead to fewer sales of the delicious meat, so they changed the name to "shingata influenza" or "new flu." It was really annoying because I had to learn a whole new word and I liked having the pig mascot leading the flu epidemic. The jokes I made were more fun too. Oh well...



Here is a display in your typical drug store. The sign right in the middle is for masks.


Airline security set up heat detecting cameras to catch and quarantine people with fevers. Foreigners, especially, were targeted in this, sometimes even while traveling domestically. It was ridiculous. Eventually people became annoyed by this unfair treatment and the person in charge of the operation came out saying that she knew all along it wasn't going to be effective. She said it was all a show, basically, to make it look like they were fighting the flu hard.

As the flu got closer and closer to Ubuyama, public buildings (everywhere) starting placing hand sanitizer at entryways. These are the ones at my school:

I also noticed that soap showed up at the spigots outside the building.
Despite all of the efforts, nothing will stop the flu, I'm afraid. That, beyond anything, is what Japanese people (and everyone else) need to realize. People will get it, people will die, and, yes people should wash their hands more, but please just chill out people. Quit canceling fun, educational and important events already! Especially ones where I get to go to the beach!!!

Japanese BBQ

During a Japanese style BBQ you will notice a few things that are different than in America. Beyond the fact that the fires are started with a blow torch and a fan - no lighter fluid, the first obvious thing that separates western BBQ's with Japanese BBQ's is that, in Japan, it looks like a bunch of alien looking life forms landed on the grill. You might also notice the lack of American hot dogs and hamburgers. Also, there are no steaks, rather bite-sized cuts of veggies and meat to be grilled and dipped in sauce.

This particular BBQ was held at my supervisor's house when my predecessor came to visit. It was fun!

Summer festivals

Summer festivals are fun. Summer festivals are many. Summer festivals are best enjoyed with beer and sashimi.

Unfortunately for me, the summer is now over but I did make it to some festivals, of course. It's hard not to go to them, since there is a festival just about every day during the summer here. I have yet to go to some of the really BIG festivals, as where I live the festivals are rather small because of the small towns and villages. There are no big cities. However, the feel of these small festivals is really nice and you can go to some of them and be the only foreigner there. These are usually the biggest events in the villages all year, so everyone is out and having a good time. There's lots of cheap food vendors, games and fireworks. Fun times!



some street performances


Goto sensei!




Japanese kids love bugs...



Now that summer is drawing to a close it's time for me to get back to work. Personally this is fine in my book. Japanese people have to work over summer break anyway and students usually come to school every day for studying and exercise/sport clubs. It's really not much of a summer vacation here in a Japan. It mostly just means that they don't serve school lunch, which is awful. I just wind up eating cup noodles or some other instant, just add water foodstuff. The first day of class was a welcome event as I was finally treated to a cheap, healthy and delicious school lunch again... my favorite, curry and rice! YAY

1 year Japanniversary!!

Yeah, so I've been living the past few months on Facebook, so no new posts here. Though, I just realized that maybe I should write something here. I consider this more the story and diary-like than Facebooks, so I shouldn't neglect it.

So, what have I been up to lately??
I continue to study Japanese almost every day. After one year, I must say that I've made a lot of progress with my Japanese. I can follow most conversations and can often understand jokes and what not. I'm far from great, but just living here has become very easy. I can ask for anything I need and am never worried about not being able to communicate anything that I need to communicate. This next year I hope to get a lot better still.

My favorite thing to do at the moment is go skateboarding and run. I went to this skatepark in the spring and realized how out of shape I am, so I started a plan... well, not really a plan so much as I just started running every day. I started out running for about 1 hour really slow, then after a few weeks I started a 5 kilometer route that takes me up some big hills. Two days ago (August 5) I ran my 150th km of the summer. Now I feel a lot better about myself. Plus, since the Japanese skaters at the skatepark are so skinny and ripped, I don't feel as bad about taking my shirt off on those impossibly hot and miserable days at the skatepark! Though, I'm still much fatter than everyone else there.


Oh Japan... Oh snack bar girls...




In sadder news, one of my closest friends in the area, Austin (above), moved to Sendai. I am sad that he's not around to hang out with anymore, as we always had good times, but his contract went up after his 5th year. He was lucky to get another contract through a school up there so I'm happy for him. Me and some friends are going to be making a road trip up there to Sendai in September. I'm excited, but I hate driving in Japan... At least it will be shared between all of us in the car.

My friend Paul had a birthday and we celebrated with a surprise party! It was fun!
I am also currently taking a "Suibokuga" (Indian ink drawing) class here in Ubuyama. I am learning how to paint flowers, grass and bamboo. It's fun, but hard.
I'm pretty bad...

sensei (below)
BBQ with students and parents: The best part about being in a small town is getting invited to BBQ's. I recently got invited to one by one of the teachers at the hoikuen (pre school). Her daughter (my student) and her friends were there (also my students)! It was great.

We ate a lot of meat and stayed up late as I listened to them all have a very good conversation. Despite the very rapid, difficult Japanese, I had a great time just listening and chiming in every now and then.


So, yeah. Things are going good. I am glad to have a year behind me now with my study and experience here in Japan. Life has gotten a lot easier and hopefully next year will be even better!

Now I leave you with an image... it is a very beautiful woman in a very short skirt handing out cigarettes at a bar one night in the city. It's amazing that anyone can resist smoking when there are such dark and powerful advertising forces at work here in Japan. I'm doing my best...