Normally I wouldn’t do such a small post, but I saw something amazing. Luckily Keith had his camera because I didn't have mine. After work I went to go meet him near the studio and we usually walk to the major city (it’s like 10 minutes on foot from the studio) to eat dinner there and play some arcade games. Normally this is never a big deal but today, wow……
We saw the Raccoon City Police Department S.T.A.R.S Truck!! Now for those of you who don’t know, it’s from a game called Resident Evil. Like an actual real live truck that’s literally straight out of a video game…I COULD NOT believe my eyes! When I first saw it, I was like “Heheh….that van kinda has the same name of the police department of a fictional place in America from the Resident Evil video game series…wouldn’t it be funny if that actually was it? Silly Ameri---WAIT! I’m in Japan! That’s real!” Now, usually I would act the same way everyone else does in public and hold myself in a calm and reserved manner, but when I saw that van, I just lost it! I was staring and pointing at the van and started blabbering in a mix of English and Japanese lol. Other Japanese people probably thought that I was looking at them, but I was looking right through them lol. A lot of them turned to see what I was looking at but they couldn’t find anything spectacular, again this all goes back to their not knowing common things about other subcultures.
I met Keith in the middle of a street and it was like nothing mattered for a couple seconds except for our shared amazement at this van! ….Just know that it’s a big deal lol.
I mean I know that Japan is scared of swine flu and all...but I don't know if it was a good idea to call on the S.T.A.R.S. team.
... Let's just hope they don't call on any pharmaceutical companies that like to mask their genetic engineering and biological weaponry with a cool logo and cosmetic products...
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I love my students. Everyone sees them as terrible 15-18 year old monsters with no respect for adults and parents alike. I don’t see that. I see cute little faces that smile wide and run to me whenever they see me. Most of these kids are good kids, some of them are just misguided simply because some of these teachers don't know how to teach. That’s not alright. If I can’t be there for them in terms of education, I can be there for them in terms of chatting to them about video games (like FFVII, Tekken, Lost Odyssey and etc), or about arcade games that they should play but never have because of no time or club activity, or even something like what I’m going to order from McDonalds. The worst class in terms of behavior, had an interview test (that I always make) and when it was just me in the classroom by myself (!)…they were the cutest little angels. Even the worst of the bad kids! I mention how they’re so quiet as I’m standing there, and I get cute, awkward smiles and nods. Okay…lol
But then, when the Japanese teacher walks in, all of a sudden everyone starts acting foolish again. What the hell? I narrow my eyes and tell the teacher to leave again since they were being so good when she wasn’t there. She laughs but is clearly grateful because they treat her the worst, and didn’t need to be told twice. Clearly it’s some kind of psychological reaction to seeing a Japanese teacher; that their mouths just start running. When it’s just me however, that mechanism turns off and they become attentive, curious students. They always ask about my tongue ring and always want to see it. I show them with a serious disclaimer of “YOU CANNOT DO THIS, NOR DO YOU WANT TO DO THIS…RIGHT?” I get the nervous nods and show them, then it’s awkward catcalls from guys, and “whoa! Amazing!!” from girls. I always explain which direction the long needle went and do a hand motion of the long needle going through my tongue and even these “tough” guys, the kids with the worst behavior at the school, they all cringe so hard and go, “Uwwaaaaaa!!! Iyyaaaa! Noooo” lol. Weaklings.
Just walking by a classroom has my students going crazy and they wave and I even manage to wake the sleeping ones up. I’m so glad that I got good students; even the bad ones are quite good when they’re not in the school. When I mean bad, I mean bad as in Japanese standard. Those kids are not bad at all lol, just extra yapping in class, but that gets Japanese teachers angry. Compared to the states though, even the bad kids would be the good ones. Japanese marine high schools though…no no no, they’re definitely on par with American students in terms of behavior lol.
In any case, it’s true that I don’t see what the Japanese teachers see and how those students are downright terrible and verbally abusive, especially to the female teachers. It’s because it’s never happened to me, and if one student tries to test the water and pick on me, even if he’s joking, all of his friends hit him or call him names; they put him in line. Not me. 
In any case, I had classes today. I taught a group of 42 girls by myself. Sometimes I can’t believe that I did either, but I’ve taught by myself before. Now, normally you’re not supposed to, but I don’t mind because I like my kids. I’m able to teach by myself because of my knowledge of Japanese. If I didn’t know Japanese, then it would be impossible for me to communicate with them and help with translating the English, so the class would be a bit pointless. In any case, I went there, talked about the prom since it’s May, explained to them that a 16 year old girl and a 23 year old guy is illegal in New York (!) and made them sing that prom song by Hellogoodbye. I know what you’re focused on…it’s a big thing here. I’ll touch on that in another post.
I’ve heard plenty of stories of ALTs teaching classes by themselves and it ends up being a disaster. I was by myself and yet they weren’t rude, they were attentive and focused, something that I’m sure some of the other teachers don’t see. Of course there’s the extra chatty girl who will talk while I’m talking, and the only thing I have to do is just stop talking and look away. They get the picture quickly and tell the people talking “urusai,” which literally means annoying, but in this context they’re saying, “shut up,” so I don’t have to say it. Thanks guys!
When they see me on the street, they’re usually so excited to see me and I ask them how their day is going and what are they up to. They answer, get shocked when they see Keith, call him “hella cool” then walk (or run) away giggling. Then the next day at school, regardless of how tough they are, it’s always the same,”UUUWOO! Tatum! I saw you! You were..with boyfriend! Right? He’s cool!” I get that without fail lol. I’m happy that they feel so comfortable like that, but I don’t know how they are in other prefectures, but mine are great.
I'm doing a lesson plan on the prom for all of my students, so I showed everyone pictures of myself and Keith and my senior portrait (everyone freaked out, even teachers lol), and so I had my laptop open and a student gasps and points out my desktop background she yells out, "Final Fantasy!!!" lol I thought that was cute since most students don't know anything about video games...being into agriculture and all..so I understood. I was like "..clloooooooose...it's Kaim from Lost Odyssey..do you know Lost Odyssey?" It was close since the company that made Lost Odyssey, which is Mistwalker, has all the awesome folk from Squaresoft before the Enix merger and joined up with Microsoft to make that sick game. She shook her head, but even then I was pleasantly surprised that she knew about Final Fantasy. We start talking about Final Fantasy and she starts bragging about how she loves Kadaj from FFVII Advent Children lol. I'm impressed that she knows him. I, of course, call Kadaj a chump and declare that Sephiroth is way better. Then she scoffs at me and we get into a silly fangirl argument lol. She was like, "Eewww! Why Sephiroth?! He's creepy!" I feign irritation and tell her, "Whaaaaaaaat! Kadaj is lamer than lame! Sephiroth is way cooler and his hair is way nicer than all three of those wannabes!" Then we start giggling while everyone stares because they don't know what we're talking about. In Japan there's not much in terms of common knowledge things in terms of subcultures; if you don't follow it, then you don't know about it. She explains that she never saw FFVII Advent Children and I'm like "Whaaaat! You need to see that! Shall I make a DVD for you?" She starts jumping around like a normal fangirl, but then she starts bowing -.-, and I'm like "Alright, alright, settle down..." but I mean you get used to it lol. So I tell her to remember to get it from me on Tuesday.
So, I saw her on Tuesday and she came earlier than she was supposed to. I was pleasantly surprised but I had the movie for her. I explained to her about how to play it, and to just drag and drop since it's a data DVD. Then she asks me some more questions and I answer them, show her how to drag and drop again, since apparently she has a computer at home (which is rare in these parts....), so I told her there should be no problem with the movie. Then I told her that it's a bit illegal to be distributing the DVD (ya know..gotta set an example) and that she can take her time in watching it as many times as she likes, but she eventually has to return it. She bows a bunch of times, humbly accepts the DVD then like..hops out of the room or something. She seems happy lol.
For me it's just a regular day bonding with students, but the English teacher looks at me oddly and after asking about the illegal thing, pointed out how happy she is to see me talking to that girl. She explained that she's actually quite shy and never speaks without being spoken to and it's a very good thing that she so readily came up to me and had a nice chat with me. Well, that's cool. I didn't know that, but I mean, we had a common interest so I helped her out with something I knew about.
If I cannot stand the obnoxious teachers or get extremely homesick, all I have to do is just look into a classroom or look down a hallway to see the reason why I’m here in this school…and it makes me smile every time.
I’ve heard quite a lot about the horrors of a Japanese hospital visit so I was a bit wary. I had to go there because of the mandatory check up that teachers have to do. Last month, I had to sign my name for a specific day since it’s one person per day. So fast-forward to last night when, in preparation for the hospital visit, I couldn’t eat anything after 9 pm. Not a problem. Next morning before I went, I couldn’t eat breakfast, smoke (not that I do anyway), drink tea (!), alcohol or milk. Not a problem. So I wake up a little earlier than normal since check-in is from 8am-9am, and head out to look for it. Let’s see if it’s easy to find since everyone told me it’s quite cut and dry so I should be able to find it….
No, it’s not. While I’m biking over there, I took a little turn because I saw people standing near their office, spraying the sidewalk and windows with some water. So I walk up to them and ask them where the hospital is. They point down the road they were facing and told me that’s the way to go. I thank them, find what I think is it then go in. They look at the paper I have and they let me know that this isn’t the place and since I got over here by taking a turn, I just need to go straight down that street without turning and I’ll find it. So I sigh, seeing as how I was led in the wrong direction, then I head off on the bike. I pass by the same guy that told me to go the way I came from and I told him that it was a no-go. He asks me what I was looking for and even though I already told him, I repeated that I’m looking for the hospital. He goes ”Oh you wanted the hospital! The hospital is down that way! You can’t miss it! The hospital!” -.- In any case, I don’t give him a hard time about seemingly not being able to read the paper that I showed him the first time then head there.
I biked for like 7 minutes or so…but… I’m not seeing the hospital that I’m looking for…I see a giant hospital now, but the kanji for the hospital I’m looking for is completely different, so the name is different. I go a little further and notice that the road splits so I’m like alright…it can’t be this far. So I turn back around and look at the giant hospital, I realize that I need more help. Luckily, a Japanese woman just happened to be walking by so I tell her what I’m looking for and she told me to park my bike because she’ll show me where to go. Yes! So I hurry back to her, (forget my bike key in the bike!!), since I don’t know if she has somewhere to go. In any case, she leads me to the big hospital that has a different name, but I don’t say anything since she’s Japanese and she lives here. She told me that she works at a different hospital nearby as a nurse. I ask her if it’s hard and she says it is. So it’s been like 30 minutes since I left the apartment and headed towards the hospital, she finally leads me inside….only for the receptionist to awkwardly say that this isn’t the hospital we’re looking for. Awkward. She was bragging and everything too lol, only for her to lead me to the wrong hospital. I figured it couldn’t have been the right one because it’s a different damn name.
So, afterwards I thank the other lady that helped me, then the receptionist from the hospital leads me to the back somewhere. I ask her if it’s just because the hospitals are connected she was like “it’s a completely different hospital.” Awkward. Then we go down a long flight of stairs, then to a long corridor that leads to the back of the hospital. We’re facing to hospital like places. She smiles and tells me that the building I want is on the left side, and I have to go to the second floor. What the hell, man. There is absolutely no way I could have known that the actual building I’m looking for is behind the biggest hospital ever -.-. Well in any case, I get in there to begin the hospital business.
Before I enter I have to take off my shoes and put slippers on. Not a problem. I walk up to the receptionist desk, they’re all shook because a foreigner just walked in and they don’t know if I know Japanese or not lol. You get used to that. So, I confirm that I’m in the right place, and she gives me a health questionnaire. It’s similar to the one you get when you’re about to give blood, seeing as how there were like 45 questions.
So after I answer those with some help, I hand in the paper, get a key and I was told to pick an outfit based on my height. I asked her what height do I look and she told me, so I got one and went in the changing room for women. Now, the outfits look like elaborate scrubs/pj’s for patients. No flimsy material with the ass out. None of that. An actual sleeved shirt that covers everything, and long pants. Not to mention I have slippers on so I feel quite comfortable. After I change I was immediately given a pee cup. Nothing different about that…except how they looked like regular cups that you’d drink water from lol, no top or anything, but it’s okay.
Afterwards I had a blood test….they didn’t use any gloves….I know what you’re thinking! “OMFG NO!” Right? Yeah…me too when I saw the lady just wash her hands thoroughly with soap, but not put on any gloves. They don’t use gloves for the dentist here either. Ewwwww lol. Yeah…I didn’t go to find that out; I was told that by someone who goes to the dentist here. Not my cup of tea. I take care of my teeth anyway so I’m making sure that I don’t have to go….it’s a hygiene thing, you know what I’m talking about?
After that it was pretty much just the standard business: height and weight check, eye sight, hearing, blood pressure, breast check (!), heart and that was about it. The strange thing about the eyesight test is that it’s not one with numbers and letters. It’s just the letter C in different directions. So you’d have an upside C, downside C, regular C and inverted C. I’m not sure if that’s a good indicator for eyesight, but they’re the professionals. Also with the hearing, there were only 4 beeps for you to hear; not the 7 or 8 or so in the states. I’m sure (hoping) they know what they’re doing. For the breast exam, I had to meet with this old man (!),get into a dark room, and hug this giant machine that was doing some check thing. I didn’t know that he wasn't in the room until he was talking to me from the PA system in a room next to the one I was in. I’m pretty sure they were using radiation to check them, but whatever…I’d rather Dr. Old Japanese Man not touch them anyway…real talk.
The order of the checks was kind of like those random games you play in school with stations. Everything was done in a different room, in a different part of the hospital. Like, I literally went around the floor in a circle once I completed everything. I started at the receptionist desk; I ended up adjacent to it when I was finished. It seemed like we were rounded up and called on like cattle. The waiting was about 5 or 6 minutes per “station,” and there were like 7 or so “stations.” It just seemed shorter to me because I would get nervous before each call lol, but I guess even that was all in my head since they were mainly women that knew what they were doing (yes!). Well in any case, that’s my experience; it’s quite different from what I’m used to, like can you imagine if they did it that way in the states? A doctor will go to see you, he’ll take your blood pressure, tell you to leave, and call on the next person and do that rotation until everyone is finished? No thanks.
I don’t like some of the people in charge here. Some of these people know just as little as people who just came. I’m not taking about Japanese people; I’m talking about foreigners who have been living here for like 3 years on the JET Program and don’t know a damned thing. It’s so frustrating because they’ll spout some nonsense with such a sure tone that frustrates me to no end. They are exactly the same here as they are in the states, the only difference is a lot of them just happened to have positions of power and they abuse it to the fullest. I’ve been here for about 9 or so months, so most of these happened about 7 or 8 months ago.
When I first got here, I assumed that some people would have all of the information possible, or would at least be able to help me through culture shock. However, that wasn’t the case as I quickly found out. A lot of them put on a smile and tell you (and your parents if you happen to be talking to them on Skype) that they have “everything under control.” Right.
Keith wanted to get a cultural visa so he can stay with me. EVERYONE told us it was impossible. When I tell you EVERYONE I mean even the cute Japanese puppies and kittens would point and laugh. When I asked the person in charge, the so-called “help” said, “Well…most cultural visas tend to be for celebrities, since they would come here to do a particular skill and leave so it might be hard for you to get one.” Thank you, unhelpful moron. Even the statement didn’t make sense when I first heard it. Why the hell would a celebrity actually do any kind of work for something like that? Wouldn’t it be…I don’t know…their agents? But whatever, you were the person in charge so I’m going to nod, thank you for your advice, and just go along with what I have to do for getting my bf a cultural visa. Mind you, while this is going on, I would have random questions that someone who just got here would ask. Why the hell doesn’t the person in charge answer their phone? Especially when you were bragging about your lovely iphone … why can’t it receive calls? Could it be… despite the fact you live quite close to me, you’re purposefully ignoring the calls of the people that you’re in charge of? What if there is an emergency and you decide to not answer your phone? You can’t shirk your responsibilities and expect people to continually ask you questions. Soon they’re going to stop because they’re not expecting you to pick up, and you wouldn’t. It’d be hard to fathom my surprise when I call and you actually allow me to speak with you. Even funnier, when I call after not getting a phone call back, and actually (eventually, whether it’s the next day or 3 days from then) reach them I always get, “Sorry I missed your call.” Right.
In any case, it was a very busy 3 months, dealing with culture shock, running around Miyazaki for someone who would be willing to give my bf a cultural visa for calligraphy, while teaching English to students that I was slowly beginning to know, and deal with annoying office politics. I never had to deal with this before, so I would be…. a little forceful. Now, I don’t mean yell and scream, but I would tell people how I felt, before I realized that it was a pointless venture. I would tell the “help” about things that I thought I could tell “the help” in confidence and that “the help” would be sympathetic and give me some good points of wisdom, after living here for 3 years. I explain my problem, in how these teachers seem to hate teaching English because of how they act and don’t translate and help the poor kids out, and I was told by them to “be honest” with my feelings. So I told them about how ALTs freak the hell out when kids look at us with blank faces, especially the ALTs who don’t know Japanese, and especially a school in which their main focus is not really academics, sometimes speaking some Japanese helps everyone out. I told “the help” that I went on a “three minute spiel,” but I obviously didn’t really, I was exaggerating because I exaggerate. I spoke casually to “the help” simply because they are native speakers of English and should be able to spot hyperboles in speech. In return, I got, “I can’t believe you did that. You can’t go on three minute spiels. That’s not the way to go about it,” so I’m sitting there in shock as to how I got zero help from the person in charge, seeing as how I essentially just got there and I had my first run-in with Japanese passive aggression. Now the person in charge is going to be just as unhelpful? Okay…maybe “the help” was just having a bad day? In any case, the person in charge knows what they’re talking about, and it’s just me being wrong about it….right?
There are other people at fault. Another one can be described as know-it-all without knowing anything, unnecessarily confrontational, speaks his opinions like they are facts, the know-it-all is just as annoying and full of hot air. When I first got here, I explained that Keith wasn’t able to find U.S. games that can play on the XBOX 360. When I first got here, the “know it all” along with “the help” obnoxiously assume that I don’t know how to search for games on Amazon. Why the hell would I not know how to search? Granted it’s in Japanese, but they knew by then that I know Japanese and I should be able to navigate the damn Japanese Amazon. I told them that I couldn’t find any, the tag along challenges me for some stupid reason, I tell him to look it up, and lo and behold, they can’t find any games. That’s what I’ve been saying, pricks. However, the fault doesn’t rest with the know-it-all; it’s the website that’s messing up, isn’t it? Shut up. Once again, just as useless as I thought they were. I kept on trying though, because they HAVE to be knowledgeable about something, right???
So, I was still getting wrong information about the cultural visa from everybody, since no one knew anything, so Keith and I decided to just stop asking people, and just continue what we were doing from the start. I had to go their apartment to get something during all this. Then they decide to ask me how the cultural visa thing is going. I didn’t really have the patience to explain everything so I said some small things and touching upon how my supposed supervisor called the immigration place and they said that Keith can stay in the country while they’re figuring out his visa status. Now, Keith did all of the online research and did a lot of reading at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, and it said that he cannot do that because he is an American citizen and he’s going for a cultural visa, not a work visa. I don’t doubt that’s what the lady at immigration said because even those people don’t know anything about their own policies. It’s true. So I tell them this, and explain that we will not do that because of how strict Japanese immigration is, there have been articles and testimony of people overstaying one day with their visas and being thrown in jail. It’s happened; I’m not going to take my chances. Especially reading around, you find out quickly that Japanese immigration and customs is no joke and are notoriously racist. Keith might get a nice guy, he might not. Why take that chance because someone from the immigration office said it? They don’t know anything, like I said, and the simple fact that if he does listen, what if he overstays his visa but they say no? How will he explain to the racist immigration guy that he was told from a Japanese person at an immigration office about how he can overstay his visa because he was applying for a cultural one? The guy will laugh, throw him in jail, and I’ll never hear from him again. You would think that people living here would know that, or at least admit that they don’t know anything so they’re not at liberty to give any advice. But, from the know-it-all, who isn’t even in a position of power, thinks that since he dates the one in power that he can say what he wants, decides to drop some knowledge. He tells me, “I think that’s a rumor or myth or something. I don’t think that’s ever actually happened to anybody and whatever you read online was trying to scare you. I’m sure he can overstay his visa if the people at immigration said it.” These are from the same morons that said only celebrities can get cultural visas. Wow. Shut up. Why the hell would I take that chance? Let’s say I listen to them and tell Keith that he can overstay his visa. It’s been like two weeks past his visa, he was rejected so he has to go back. There’s a chance that like 36 hours later, I probably wouldn’t have gotten a call from him even though he was supposed to have reached New York. So, what would be the point of me, going to the know-it-all and cursing him the hell out? Either way, we were responsible for having the most information because it’s our responsibility, but if I listened to the idiots, Keith might have been screwed. Thanks for trying to get us in trouble with immigration, morons. Who am I going to believe? Hmm..on one side we have articles, news stories, the Japanese government site and etc. On the other side… we have…some know-it-all’s nonsense opinion that he and “the help” continue to see as fact. Whatever. Shut up. That was my fault for even answering their question in the first place. I wish I was done.
So then, we decide to drop the calligraphy thing since Keith didn’t really want to do it, so he tells me to see about watercolor or some kind of art since he’s been doing digital (vector) art for years, and has plenty of finished works to back it up. We strike gold. Sparing the details, and dealing with more incompetence from Japanese immigration, we find out that we have to go two hours away by train from here to hand in the papers at the immigration office in another prefecture. Well, that’s where we have to go. I didn’t want to tell “the help” and subsequently the know-it-all, but I’m bound by obligation to tell them where I am going because they’re in charge. So I call them, surprisingly they pick up. I explain that I’m going to Kagoshima to apply for the cultural visa. I had a giant portfolio of papers, Keith’s art to give them because we were not joking about it. It was like 100 dollars to go there, and two hours on a train seems a bit long. Not to mention, I wanted my boyfriend to stay with me, so I’m taking this seriously. So I decided to be vague and tell them I’m going to Kagoshima soon, took paid vacation so I’m heading over there now. They ask me if I have everything in order, and I’m like yeah, “I have some papers together so I’m ready to go,” if you heard my tone, it would be clear that I’m being modest and that there’s no point in giving a run down of all the papers I have together. As usual though, they didn’t seem to comprehend and decided to scold me with, “You can’t just have ‘papers together’ you have to make sure you have all of your materials because it’s important.” Are you stupid? Why the hell would we run all around Miyazaki, and the surrounding areas, only to go half-assed at the end? Not to mention you have been completely USELESS in this whole thing, you have the nerve to scold me about something Keith has been doing most of the research on? Shut up. Outside, however, I say, “Oh, of course I have all the papers together. I’m just in a rush because the bus is here, I have to go.” Which was true since you can’t use cell phones on the bus here. Then, continuing with the nerve, they say, ”Oh okay. Just remember to smile, be friendly. Use the most polite Japanese you possibly can because they’re the ones doing you a favor.” Once again, who the hell are you? You’ve known me for 2 months at this point. You know nothing and you continue to prove that the more I talk to you. Shut up. Outside though, I go, “Thanks! See you later!” There’s no point in getting annoyed with them since they think they’re doing such a BIG FAVOR for me. Wrong. If only I was finished.
Around these times, there were sparse workshops, and other things that JETs have to go to or participate in. Now, I can safely assume that if I’m getting ignored, and I live quite close, then JETs in farther places are getting even less help. It’s quite obvious; I just hope that people didn’t have emergencies. I ended up noticing it randomly. They had to do a powerpoint presentation and they asked all of the JETs to fill out a 2 page survey and give it to them. There are plenty of JETs here… a good amount. I did what pretty much everyone else did and that was read her e-mail, smile slightly at the cute 28-year-old’s words in the e-mail, then completely forget about it 3 minutes later. I know this because out of all of JETs here, like about 50 or something, she managed to get a whopping 10 surveys. Then after the deadline had passed, everyone got an e-mail of their writing sad things and trying to make people feel slightly guilty for it, but it’s not going to work if you haven’t been helping anyone out since October. During the powerpoint presentation, they made it a point to repeatedly point out that they only received 10 surveys…in pretty much every other slide. It’s not going to work. Oh well.
Another instance, long after I got the cultural visa and they were still ignoring everybody, they sent another e-mail to everyone asking for pictures of random things about Japan, for the new JETs that are coming. Imagine my surprise when a couple weeks later, they tell everyone in an e-mail that she only received three pictures. Well…the above applies. You can’t continue to ignore adults, and expect them to do favors for you just because you ask it in a cutesy, Japanesy way. It works with the Japanophiles of course, but not every other JET.
Continuing back to the main idea, by this point, he’s already gone back to America to wait for the visa status change. So, all we could have done was just wait. After passive aggressively asking immigration what’s taking them so long on a Wednesday, the Saturday of that week, I receive the forms that accepted Keith to get a cultural visa for watercolor painting. Yes!!!! So I’m really happy of course, and let him know. So all that’s left was for him to come back here and stick around until I leave. We managed to do the “impossible” and the amount of praise for it was mind-boggling. We knew that we were going to get it... because that’s what we were aiming for. Also, being from New York…it was cakewalk. If we left it in anyone else’s hands, he would have been back in the states by now. The strange comments that we received once people found out about it made me realize that the resident big mouth that lives near me decided to tell everyone she knew (mainly foreigners of course), that Keith got a cultural visa. Keith was asked in passing by the resident big mouth, “Oh…that’s cool that you got a cultural visa! Did they think you were a celebrity or something?” I know we’re cool as hell to be mistaken for celebrities lol…but…that’s just absurd. Alright, normally that wouldn’t be a big problem. However, the resident big mouth knows NOTHING… absolutely NOTHING. The gossiper walks around as if she's not getting her hand held everywhere, tries too hard to helpful, despite her glaring uselessness, can’t even really go many places except coffee shops despite being here for 9 months and etc. So I KNOW that it’s not like she just happened to know that about cultural visas; obviously she told people who originally thought that and they decided to “educate” her on how we got a cultural visa. Wow. I’m not going to point the finger…but I think by now you know who said it. In any case, that’s what she said to him. Keith disagreed with her statement, called her a moron in his head and left her alone.
So by this point it’s been like a month or two since he received his cultural visa, and around this time there was optional individual meetings with “the help.” I chose to go, simply because I could get out of work for a day. I call them and set up a meeting. By this point I’m tired of them and how they act so I figured that I’d just treat them like I treat most people here: tell them only the good things that they want to hear. No honesty, just surface happiness. It goes a long way here. So I get there, and we start talking and I tell them that I began to love it here so I’m going to stay for another year. They smile and congratulate me (?) and tell me that most people have decided to stay another year. Great. Then suddenly our conversation completely changes. Do you know what they asked me? They goes, “I have a question to ask you. Congratulations on getting a cultural visa (I had to tell them since they’re in charge), I’m so happy for you and that you were able to get it. Well… I’m leaving the JET Program this year, but I want to stay in Japan with my boyfriend and do something in a different prefecture. So…I need you to tell me everything you did to get a cultural visa.” Oh ho ho! Come again? Pardon? Now when I have a cultural visa, and you’ve been completely useless, and how you’ve been spreading crap about how the cultural visa is only for celebrities, and clearly we got it because they thought Keith was a celebrity, not someone who wanted something and put work into it, and yet feeling as though you had incredible knowledge in your insipid, obvious advice….you want ME to help YOU? Funny. Sure, I’ll help you as much as you’ve helped me.
Just the sheer audacity. I could not believe it. Why the hell were you giving us “advice” if you didn’t know a damn thing to begin with? Why? You’ve been here for 3 years…why the hell didn’t you do this research earlier? Why are you and you the know-it-all so unhelpful, and yet talk so big? How was it that we were able to do research, run around Miyazaki to get all the papers together, deal with Japanese racism, deal with petty office politics, while being at work for eight hours, and only being here for 3 months (at the time), while you’ve BEEN HERE for 3 years and had no intelligent input? Damnit. And then all of a sudden, now that you see it can be done, YOU want one, and you need MY help. Wow.
Then they have the nerve to completely down play the amount of work that we had to do and all you can do is point out the fact that you have “a friend here…her boyfriend knows zero Japanese….so I think I have a shot,” even after living here for all this time you still think knowing Japanese matters? Not really. Keith doesn’t know much of it, but he has a story everyday about people coming up to him and asking questions about things that he can understand because he’s been here for 8 months, and he didn’t need to speak Japanese to do it. Now you want to go somewhere else and you think you can just do some sketches and they’ll accept you for a visa because you can turn on the cute, Japanese-American “charm?” You’re no different from literally every other foreigner who wants to live in Tokyo and do something “cultural.” News Flash: everyone and their families want to live in here and those people actually have skills to live and stay there. Some places (like Tokyo) are way more racist than Miyazaki, and they will tell you to your face that they’re not impressed with you and your foreign boyfriend, because every other girl, and anime otaku who want to do art in Tokyo, before you was in the same boat. It’s not unique.
On a different occasion, “the help” then decides to get on my case about how I shouldn’t disturb the peace, and tell people what I’m feeling (even though they asked about it), or not scold a kid because he has two of his fingers in a public chocolate fountain (I didn’t do it, but I tested to them to see what they’d say), but then she can choose to take a break from driving, wait for the bus, get upset that it hasn’t come because she’s been waiting for like 10-15 minutes, then angrily call up the bus station and rant to whomever picked up the phone that the bus hasn’t come and it made her late for work. Dabble in hypocrisy much? At least my complaint was given to people involved in the situation. I suppose I’m used to it by now though.
Also, you tell me that there are no Post Office ATMs in our area and I’d have to go to the city for them. How the hell was I able to find 3 in that same area that you claimed didn’t have them? Literally EVERYTHING you have said to me was wrong. Then I realized that a good amount of the people that have been here the longest, are the ones that seem to know less. Wow.
It’s okay to be useless. It’s okay to tell everyone else that you have no interest in doing your job. But, don't pretentiously pretend that you’ve been helping everyone out from day one and continue to use that stupid self-assured, arrogant tone while talking big, but giving people NO information. You’re entitled to your opinions, not your own facts. Stop it.
People have to understand that I don't like mincing words and I never realized how brutally honest we are until we left New York. I don't like surface smiles and emotions. The strange thing about this is that Japanese people here love us. I'm not sure if it's the same in other prefectures, but here, other foreigners would like to see me as a bad guy because I didn't come here to become Japanese or babysit adults. I came here to teach English, learn more Japanese and speak with Japanese people, while retaining my roots so people can meet someone different. It's as simple as that.
My mother and sister visited me in Miyazaki. It took a bit of getting used to for them simply because they’ve never been to Japan. One of the main things people do when they get here, or any other country for that matter, is to assume that you’ll have the same benefits and that life in a different country would be exactly the same as if you were home. So being forced to do small things, like slightly changing up the way you eat in public, expecting more than 2 napkins at McDonalds, being stared at while you eat, are some things that people have to get used to. Being here for 8 months only makes you realize small things, like when an old lady decides to stand 8 feet away from you until the bus comes, or when they’d cross the street when you’re coming. Once my family got here, I never realized how much I’ve actually become accustomed to Japanese culture and how unbelievably foreign my family was. Something like that is never really glaringly obvious until you’re told to ask someone who is selling plants to give a discount, or when you’re usually given one packet of McDonalds, to ask for 3, or to walk into a mom and pop shop and being told that your family found nothing to buy. 
Even common rights and privileges like having someone to complain to when your freezer turns into a giant ice/snow cube, don’t necessarily come with the package of being in a foreign country. I think my mom and sister butted heads with the culture and didn’t really like what they saw. They liked plenty of other things here, but certain things they weren’t willing to bend to, and that’s okay! Even if they don’t like this foreign country, they can explore other foreign countries and see what they like. However, I think that’s one of the biggest problems with people going to foreign countries: leaving one’s home country and expecting everything to be the same. Once people get that out of their heads, living anywhere can be much easier. 
Despite the slight cultural showdowns, I was so happy that I was able to see them, and completely distraught when they left. I think I was sadder then than when I actually first left for Japan when everyone in my immediate family came with me to the airport. It was good because their being here reminds who I’m doing this for; not just for me, but for my family as well. They left right when they were beginning to really like Japan, too… so….who’s up for round two?