It’s so hard to believe that in a few short days, I’ll be heading back to America. I have gotten so unbelievably busy, to the point in which I didn’t even know if I would be able to write one last before I left, but I’m going to set aside the 30 things that aren’t completed and write one more post to mark the end my first real International Journey.
People always look at me strangely when I tell them that I didn’t or won’t visit any other Asian countries, even though it’s “like 45 minutes away!” I mean, like I have told other people before; Japan is my main focus of study. If I wanted to go to Korea, I will make the proper arrangements and get myself to Korea for a week or two and see how I like it. I just might. 
I’ve spent the past couple of weeks packing, preparing to say goodbye and getting gifts ready for the people who deserve them.
This past week, I’ve started giving the gifts out to the specific people that have contributed to the good times that Japan has given me. Not the assholes that just see me as someone who they can take their frustrations out on because they’re bitter about their lives. But people who decided to look past the foreign face and actually get to know who my boyfriend and I are. For that, we will forever be grateful. I am truly humbled by their selflessness.
I won’t give their names, pictures and the information of how they helped me, although there are some already on the blog. What they've done for me will forever stay imprinted in my heart and if I hear someone talking bad about Japan, I’ll….probably agree. Lol No, I’m totally kidding. But it depends on what they are complaining about. I can’t disagree and argue with someone’s EXPERIENCE because that’s what they know and it would be arrogant, myopic and ignorant of me to discount their experiences because I need Japan to stay a certain way for my benefit. Luckily I’m not like that, although I have had a couple of run-ins with people like that (Haters Abound, anyone? Haha!). However, mindless, stereotypical ranting will be stopped because all I have to do is remember the people that were kind to ME and I will politely share my own experiences. 
Tomorrow I have to make my goodbye speech to the school that I have been at for two years. It’s been a mixture of good times and bad times, with the good times mainly coming from students and I’m going to be so happy to tell them that in my fairly positive speech. I say some honest things, and whether or not it does anything, I’ll feel better when I say them. I don’t point out specific teachers for the positives or negatives, since that isn’t appropriate. However, I will say what I need to say.
I know my students are going to make me cry -.-. I just know it. I have been able to hold it in during recent happenings of running into people and realizing that I really won’t be seeing them anymore. But I always leave them on a happy note. I don’t know if I can do that with the students because I really will miss them and their crazy antics.
-Time passes-
I did my speech and some of the students came up to me crying and it’s like how am I supposed to not cry? -.- I have so many good memories with them and I’m happy that I got to know them. I’m forever grateful the program that brought me here to meet these students and the people around me. I can barely put it into words!
Later that night I had my going away dinner with teachers whom I wanted to come. It was so nice! I got a “Banzai!” rally cry thing lol. I never thought I would get one but I got one! What happens is everyone raises their arms and yells, “Banzai!” and the person that it’s for has to bow when everyone else raises their arms. You’re supposed to do three at a time so I had to bow three times in a row. I’m glad that I was able to speak with these teachers one by one and reminisce about the fun times that I had with them. 
Now I have to do loads of preparation; I’m pretty much finished with packing because I know that if I don’t do it early then I’ll forget something, and you don’t want to forget anything before an international flight -.-. Everyone back home is waiting to see me and I can’t wait to see them. The speech and the dinner was a great ending to crazy rollercoaster ride of my adventures in Japan. I only have two days left during this post, so I’m going to do some last minute things for the person who comes after me. I’ll try to make her landing as smooth as I can.
I mean, what can I say about an experience that changed me a bit? I can safely say that because of the students and the GOOD people that I met, I had a very fulfilling experience that some people might not be as fortunate to have due to unforeseen circumstances. I can safely say that my boyfriend being here helped A WHOLE LOT lol. I had a close ear that can understand what I say because he’s experiencing it too. 
Now that I am ending my blog, it’s time for me to go on to my next adventure, which is going back home and re-assimilating back into American culture and way of life. I’m just as excited to start that, as I was to come to Japan!
Soo….what’s next? “Roaming in Barcelona?” “Sleepless in London?” lol
Only time will tell! Thank you for reading! =)
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So this past Sunday I went to have fun with the PTA and some teachers. We went on a ship owned by the Miyazaki Marine School. I did fishing (caught like 7 little ones) for the first time, had lunch, then did some water recreational activities. The PTA, despite being very intimidating because they essentially control Japanese schools, were made up of nice people who were genuinely interested in me and where I come from. Some of them even taught me some more Miyazaki dialect and I think when I leave, I’m going to stick with it. Before I came here, I thought that would have been soooo cool if I could learn a Japanese dialect and use it to speak to people not from my area in Japan. Awesomeness! XD
So….I went on a banana boat. I really, really didn’t want to because I couldn’t swim. But, I was essentially forced to go on because of the pressure from 15 people pushing me towards the edge of the ship -.-. Like, wow….woopie….I’m being forced to go on a banana boat…how fun. Lol 
Luckily since it was me, a German study abroad student and my supervisor on the banana boat, along with 3 men, they didn’t try to make us fall over. I only mention that since that was their main goal for all groups that go on it. I was on the hover…mini-boat…thingy that was dragging the banana boat along and I heard the two guys who took turns driving the thing trying to figure out the best way to make the banana boat tip over. I mean, if I could swim then I wouldn’t care, but I don’t know how, and I’ll definitely learn when I get back to the States since I’d like to be able to swim. 
They only had a banana boat and a guy who goes around on a jet ski. The jet ski guy can only take one person per session so I had to wait a bit. Honestly, once I finished the banana boat I knew I was never going to go on it again, despite everyone trying to force me to do it. One even went so far as to say “….wow..even though you made all that effort to come Japan….” like trying to make me feel guilty lol. It didn’t affect me because I told him that banana boats and jet skis have NOTHING to do with Japan because I can do these things in any other country. I only did the banana boat because the study abroad student wanted me to so I was like “sssiighh…..fine.” 
I just didn’t want to fall into the water because I can’t swim. I saw how fun the jet ski was so I decided I’d like to try it….I fell -.-. All I saw was the water coming at a rapid pace and I was in the water. It wasn’t that bad, but I was still freaking out lol. I just remembered what they told me to do and tilt myself backwards according to the life jacket I had on, and I was floating with no trouble. I was still freaking out though lol. I was more upset about how I couldn’t swim and if I could then I wouldn't have freaked out so hard. So, I get back on the ship, soaking wet and a little bummed out by the whole thing, when I get 15 people trying to force me to do the banana boat thing again. No.
In retrospect, I’m glad I did it for the study abroad student and even though I did have fun, I’m sure I could have had more if everyone wasn’t trying to force me to have fun.
After that, we’re all back in the lunchroom and that’s when I really get to know the PTA. I enjoyed answering all their questions because the questions consisted of things that I never heard anyone ask me before. One Japanese woman, who was born in Brazil and moved to Japan later, was talking all sorts of stuff about Japanese drinking culture to this older Japanese man. She said that unlike Japan, Americans don't drink to drunk everyday. I didn't want to start bashing Japan with a Japanese lady, in front of a Japanese man who, like most people, aren't ready to hear criticisms. 
I just spoke about it from the American side and said that if someone does drink to get drunk everyday, then in our culture, that person has a problem and needs to get help. The guy, respectfully nods, actually thinks seriously and goes, "Wow....I drink everyday too..." I mean I didn't tell him that to make him change his behavior since it doesn't affect me, but I think the Japanese lady was kinda going overboard (har har - pun intended) with bashing Japan. Unlike Japanese teachers, he didn't even flip out and get all nationalistic. He just accepted it as a difference in culture. Despite his open-mindedness, he's just a parent of one of my students. The teachers here can learn a thing or two. Hopefully, before I go back, I can hang out with them again.
One of my cute students got in trouble a couple of weeks ago. She was sent in to my office since I’m in the guidance counselor office, I see and hear a lot of things. Other teachers don't know because they aren’t in the office, so that automatically means that it’s none of their business. Yeah, I don’t know either. So, the first grader (freshman) sits down at the table with her head down. I’m not really sure what’s going on yet so I just go about my business as usual. She’s kept there all day, having meetings with different teachers and having all of those teachers scold her, sometimes yell. So, I’m like “Oh no, she did something terrible. I hope she wasn't caught hanging around with older guys or caught smoking or something,” but I still didn’t know what happened.
I catch a telephone conversation about a boy freshman from our school who was called to a different office and scolded there. So a little bit is made clear, she was caught doing something with a boy. Oh no. I still don’t have the full picture though, but despite that, after a bunch of hours of that, her mother gets called in and now the same teachers have to speak with her mother and scold the kid again. By this time, she’s crying, I mean she’s a 14 year-old girl; it must be embarrassing to have your mother come in when you’ve been bad.
By this time I’m still not sure what happened but someone finally tells me the whole story. She was caught…hugging a boy, at 11pm, on a bridge that leads to the city. The 50 year-old head of the Agricultural department was out jogging, and he said that he saw them hugging. So……the next day he snitches on the kids. Like, really? So, I say that’s ridiculous. Yes, they should be at home at the time of night but they weren’t even focusing on the fact that it was late! The person who was talking to me told me, “That kind of behavior is inappropriate in Japan.” ……hugging people is inappropriate? Then he goes, “Well, if it was during the day time it wouldn’t be a big deal, but to be seen at night, with your school uniform on is very embarrassing for the school.” Not to mention, it wasn’t even a real hug! They were standing shoulder to shoulder, slightly turned into one another, holding forearms. So…she’s getting all this flack….for that?
But I mean, which is it? Is it the hugging or the fact that it was late? I can understand the time problem, but his main argument of why it was wrong was because of the hug. Whatever. Great job making her resent you guys. I think the main thing is that it’s not even about the students; it’s about how bad the school would look to other people outside. I mean, if it’s at 11pm, I really don’t think people care, not to mention, it’s quite dark out here at night so it would be kind of hard to guess where the student comes from based on the uniform. So this old dude sees them and snitches. Like…does he feel better about himself? Well I mean I shouldn’t even get on him because if it was anybody else, they would do the exact same thing and snitch. It’s a Japanese culture thing. I'll get back to you on how to say "Snitches get stitches" in Japanese lol.
After the parents came in, the teachers that were scolding her seemed even more agitated. Why, you ask? Well, the damn parents KNEW that the kids were out at night! They were well aware of that fact and gave them permission to go out and see each other! So…what the hell is the problem? That should be proof that it totally isn’t about these kids, but about how the school looks from the outside. The teachers even said, “The fact that the parents knew that the kids were out makes this even more problematic….” Why? I don’t know. It’s unjustifiable because of how it was carried out. So, that girl was brought here twice, both days she had long meetings, had her mom come in and started sobbing. I only saw the boy getting scolded ONCE, for 10 minutes, WITHOUT a parent. I brought that up to the same teacher who told me what happened, and he claimed that the boy is in a different room and he’s getting scolded there so they are both receiving the same treatment. Yeah, okay. Either way, they’re both just going to learn how to not get caught. All in all, it was a stupid situation and it seemed like they just created more problems with how they went about “teaching the kids a lesson.” Whatever.
Today, I was able to go to work with a regular t-shirt and sweatpants because of the Sports Festival preparation. This is my second Sports Festival but for some reason, this one seems more exciting. It could be because around this time I had just arrived so I wasn’t used to anybody yet. Even so, it’s like a holiday without being at home because I’m able to lounge around in comfortable clothes or just stand around and chat and watch the students do a practice run of the festival. It’s one of the most relaxing days at Japanese high schools and the students get to relax and spend time with each other outside of the classroom. I’ll get to the actual Festival another day, but something ridiculous happened.
So, after the morning schedule of practice, I decided to go to Hotto Motto and come back. I come back, sit down with my drink, prepared to eat it when the boss (who was currently not in our office) told all of the Guidance Counselor teachers to come meet him in a certain office. I’m in the Guidance Counselor’s office, but I’m assuming that I don’t have to go so I just tell them to tell me whatever happens. They leave to see what’s going on. I’m half-way into my lunch when one of the teachers comes back and tells me that two students were caught smoking, while a third, an accomplice was seen trying to alert them to a teacher coming so they can escape. Yes, it’s as serious as it sounds, unfortunately. 
So, at first I was told that three students were caught smoking and two of them were caught while the other one escaped. Then I find out that they were all spotted, tried to run, but were caught by the Guidance Counselor Boss. They brought in the accomplice and demanded answers. He sat right in front of the fridge, while the G.C. Boss was directly in front. On the desk was his written statement. He was accused of being the lookout and telling them to escape when they saw the boss coming. He completely denied it and said that even if he made the hand waving motion to tell them to get away, then he did it unconsciously. See…that would make sense if the G.C.Boss who found those three didn’t see him do it. Therein lies the problem, doesn’t it? In any case, he got yelled at for a while, was told to write down his story on paper and get out. He was only a small fry…an appetizer, if you will.
The next kid that comes in, he’s the third grader (senior) who is graduating this school year. He’s not a bad kid at all, a little headstrong, I guess. Not really judgmental, more like, you have only like two chances to prove to him that you’re cool, otherwise he won’t give you the time of day, kind of guy lol. He’s into baseball as well and is the star pitcher because he’s very good. He was one of the kids caught smoking, but I’m guessing they didn’t interrogate him in this room, so I didn’t see that. 
The second kid caught smoking comes in looking simply bewildered and/or blindsided. It was as if he was confused about what was going on. I’m assuming it’s a bit worrisome if you get caught smoking and you have to have your parents come and take you home. That’s what happens to all of the kids, when something this serious happens. He didn’t stay long in here, but his school bag was packed to the brim with all of his books but his school slippers stayed here. I’m not sure what was going on with him, but he’s a second grader, so he has the chance to make stupid mistakes, but I’m not sure what’s going to happen since he’s the main cause of this, or is he?
The mother of the last student came in. She and her son sat next to each other, the side closest directly in front of the wall, while the Boss and a different teacher sat across from them. Her son was of course, one of the kids who were caught smoking so he’s in trouble as well. He and his mother had to sit there while the G.C. Boss yelled at the student for being stupid. He asked him if this is the kind of behavior a senior should have and why did he come to this school since it seems it certainly wasn’t to graduate because he’s being an idiot and all that. I think the saddest sight wasn’t that this “manly” student was near tears, but how his mom was trying hard not to break down and sob. Like, she was crying, but it wasn't sobbing. I’m sure you’re wondering what I’m wondering; why the hell is the mother crying? Well, this is what happens when you decide to have teachers act like a surrogate parent. The teacher/parent can yell at student, thereby the parent indirectly. The parent should take more responsibility but she knows she’s at fault because at the end she thanked the teachers. It’s a painful embarrassment for the biological mother.
I’m sure that’s not the only reason why when the G.C. Boss was done yelling at them, they were both crying though…but this is the third time this student got his mother called in to the school because of bad behavior. According to the school rules, that’s grounds for immediate expulsion. I’m sure they were well aware of that too. Another sad thing about this is that he’s a senior and since he wasn’t a bad student, he already had a job lined up after graduation, but he got the job through the school, so does that mean he no longer has a job ready for him? I don’t know. So, at the end of the day four students’ lives were interrupted because the G.C. Boss (who is a smoker) would never mistake a cigarette scent. 
This is the full story. The 2nd grader was the one who bought the cigarettes. He bought them that morning at the damn convenient store. Why the hell are they selling cigarettes to high school kids?! The mandatory H.S. uniform is essentially an I.D. card in and of itself, is it not? Not to mention, yes there are cigarette vending machines everywhere, however, you have to scan your ID card in the machine before you can buy them. Despite that, the idiots working at a convenient store will gladly sell them to high school kids? Whatever. So, he manages to get the cigarettes from there in that morning. Shows them off to the older kids and of course he would. That dynamic of wanting to seem cooler to slightly older people doesn’t change. If only it was something more positive because the next thing they know, they’re busted and a kid might get expelled. Who is at fault anyway?
Honestly, I can’t blame the kids. These nicotine-addicted teachers smoke all the time on school grounds! Whenever the teachers have no classes or if it’s during lunchtime or something, you can always see them hanging out together and smoking. Not to mention, Japan still has that belief that you look cool when you smoke. I’m pretty sure the States discarded that notion by the mid-late 90s. Even so, one stupid mistake by a convenience store clerk potentially resulted in a student being kicked out school, thus losing his job offer. Who is responsible for this? Could it be the kid for purchasing them in the first place? Could it be the idiot who sold them? Could it be a social problem? So many people need nicotine that almost everywhere we go has some kind of smoke room, or if there isn’t one, you can smoke where you sit. Could the youth who are clearly influenced by all of these factors be responsible for his response to his own culture? I don’t know.
Okay, so… I never needed a bike in New York. Cars, trains, buses, taxis, and walking have worked perfectly fine for me. Once I arrived in Japan, however, the “useless one” convinced me that I need a bike for school transportation. Surprisingly, she was right about something and I’ve been using it for school ever since. The bike has been in fairly good shape, the occasional tire that needs more air, whatever, no problem. It’s been in good shape up until three weeks ago when I got a puncture in my tire. Before the puncture, I was slowly able to tell when my bike needed more air when it was harder to peddle and it felt like I was biking over rocks lol. 
So! I was heading back towards my school after I bought some water at the convenience store, when all of sudden it became UNBELIEVABLY difficult to peddle and it felt like I was biking over giant rocks that were all conveniently put in my way. I go back to the school and I realized, damnit! I got a flat tire! Luckily for me, there’s a bike shop right across the street from the convenience store so I walk the bike there. He tells me that, yep….there’s definitely a puncture (-.-), and that it’ll take an hour for him to fix it. I’m like great! After I drop the bike off I wait for right before lunchtime to get it. I get it back and it felt great! Like I was biking on water! XD There’d be no way that my bike would ever have any problems again!
…..Last week I was biking, and it went right back to that feeling of biking on rocks! I’m like, wtf! I thought these bike shops had people that can FIX BIKES, not just take the rock out then go half-assed on everything else. I’ve also grown to quickly hate that sensation. So I get a little irritated, but there’s nothing I can do about it. I thought that it was just another instance of the tire losing air, and I had to just get the bike pump that’s in the school. So! I ask an office lady about the bike pump, she asks why, then I explain, that there’s no air in my tire. One office lady gets up and walks with me to ask where the bike pump is, and we ended up finding out that the bike pump is in my office somewhere lol. I was like, “Oh.” So we get the bike pump and walk back to my bike. Before that however, I tell her to feel the tire and confirm if it needs air. She feels it and goes, “Arara!” lol, so yeah…I need air.
She goes inside to get her shoes and the office ladies ask what’s wrong. She tells them, “Tatum-sensei has a flat tire!” and two more office ladies jump up to see my bike lol. What the hell are they doing? So with three office ladies outside at my bike, they all feel the tire and murmur and agree that yes, it is flat lol. Another office lady, after feeling my tire went, “Arara!” lol They ask me if it’s a puncture and I said that I don’t think so and how two weeks ago I went to the bike shop because I had a puncture and it was fixed, but now it’s messed up again so I don’t think he did a good job. They start murmuring again after that and agree that yes, he didn’t do a good job lol. So while one stood and watched, two office ladies helped pump air in my tire. This isn’t uncommon. If I ask for help, the office ladies stop whatever they’re doing and take care of what I need. I honestly think that most offices and businesses in Japan would collapse if there weren’t office ladies. SOMEONE has to have information, right? Lol
So, after they pump the back tire, they look at the front tire, go “why the hell not,” then pump that one lol. After this happens, we’re standing around, talking about my bike, when the new vice principal sees what’s going on and walks towards us. Now, I don’t think I told you anything about the new vice principal, just know that he’s a hell of a lot better than the last one and knows English. He may be Europhile, but he’s a nice guy. So, he proves that by walking to us and asking what’s wrong. He feels the back tire and he goes, “Hm…this needs more air.” The office ladies are like, “Noooo vice principal-sensei! We think there’s enough air in there!” He ignores them and tends to the back tire. Then after squeezing the tire, he takes off some metal thing, which takes all of the air out the tire, wasting the efforts of the first two office ladies. Then, resolute, he freakin’ flips my bike upside down and starts manhandling it. I’m like, “????” and the office ladies are like, “!!!!!” Despite all that, he starts asking for tools, while he tries to pull the rubber part of the wheel off. So, if you’re keeping score, there are 4 Japanese people around my bike.
He struggles with it for a while, trying to pull the wheel thing off, while directing the office ladies to do stuff. While he’s doing that, a Japanese language teacher comes up and just stares in amazement of what’s going on. I don’t know why she decided to stop and stare either. Then she walks away and goes to do whatever she initially planned to do. 
So, the vice principal is still trying to get the tire off when the Biology teacher walks up. He’s all like, “So….what’cha guys doing?” Then one of the office ladies tells him that Tatum-sensei has a flat tire and even though she went to the bike shop two weeks ago, she’s seemingly having more trouble. He goes, “Heeeeeeh.” Now, this sound means a lot of things, just like “arara” and “uuwa.” “Heeeeeh” means shock or surprise. The weird thing about that sound is that they wrap their lips around as if they’re saying “oo” but they make the “heh” sound. Try it! They do this a lot when they’re told new information or something interesting and “arara” is more similar to “Oh No!” and I’ll describe some more whenever they come up.
Come to find out from the vice principal, the rubber thing for the air was twisted and that’s why I wasn’t getting air in my tires properly. Then he asked who did such a terrible job with my bike and I tell him the bike shop next to the convenience store. “Simply terrible…” he says. So, while he was trying to put the tire back onto the bike, the Biology teacher actually needed the vice principal to look over and approve a form or something, and that was why he was hanging around. So, the vice principal gets up, takes the form, and the Biology teacher automatically takes his place in putting the tire back on. A couple of minutes later the vice principal comes back down and helps the Biology teacher finish the job. So yes, there are 5 Japanese people hanging around my bike because of a flat tire lol. Yeah..ALL of them obviously had nothing to do and decided to pay extra, special attention to my bike lol. 
After they get the tire on, the Biology teacher leaves, one of the office ladies go, “Oh! There’s no one in the office!” and one of the office ladies goes back in to man the office lol, and the vice principal starts bragging to the office ladies how he’s a regular bike fixer, while the other office ladies are like, “Whooa..Vice principal-sensei can do ANYTHING!”-.- Don’t feed the ego, ladies! In any case, after the wheel is back to normal, he properly pumps air in the tire, and he says that it’s good as new. I’m a bit skeptical, despite all that lol, but he told me to give it a test run. It feels great! It’s like biking on air! So, afterwards he pretends to charge me 10 dollars but then points out since I’m helping “his” kids for the English speech contest (the rock star cicada, and Chisaka-san), that he’ll help me out with this….they’re MY kids, you butthead -.-. In any case, I’m very grateful for his and the office ladies’ help and I thank them, while they go back to doing nothing… Why do I have the feeling that I helped them more than they helped me? lol
Lol Well okay…I’m exaggerating a bit. He was selected to be a model by his teacher. If you met Keith, you’d know that he doesn’t really like being the center of attention. Most of these people here have never seen a cute black guy from New York so he gets an outrageous amount of attention and people coming up to him daily asking for pictures and wanting to talk to him or kids emulating him. Not only does he deal with that on a daily basis while heading towards the studio, but all of this month, he has to sit for two hours and get stared at and drawn by everyone in the studio lol. However, it’d make a good addition to his resume, yes?
He was telling me about it and it’s pretty much how most of those art modeling sessions go: he walks in, sit and hold still for 25 minutes, take a break for 15 minutes, and continue on until the 2 hours are up. Yes… he keeps his clothes on -.-. I haven’t been there to see it in action, but he has told me quite a bit about it.
Most of the people that attend are the regulars at the studio, but we’ve never met them because they come on different days. Also, they are Japanese people who have traveled! So, that means he’s been meeting a completely different type of Japanese person. There was this guy with purple hair and he asked Keith in good English how old does he look. Keith said 40, but he actually turned out to be 70. Like, what the hell? Lol I have a feeling he asks people that all the time so he can surprise them with the answer.
There’s another lady who loves Keith’s hair and would ask him a ton of questions on how he got his hair to “do that.” Lol Eerr…nature and genetics?
He, of course, gets a lot of compliments, ranging from “beautiful boy (!!) to handsome face...err…not the ones I was expecting, but they embarrass Keith all the same lol. They also told him that they wish they could meet more black people like him in Japan. They also told him that they want him to bring me one of those days and gave us some candy out of kindness. Wow. I was ALWAYS under the impression that you cannot change the minds of Japanese people. Simply on the principle of how you’re not the first foreigner they have seen, so most Japanese people have already decided what they’ll think and feel about you before they have even met you. Terrible? Yes, however unavoidable.
Also, based on some ignorant people that I’ve met, who will continue to say negative things about non-Japanese people despite one in their face; that’s what I thought. Especially after this warm treatment, Keith could go outside and some other Japanese old lady would be scared of him because he has a foreign face. For the people willing to see the good in foreign folks (also known as, the non-ignorant, well adjusted Japanese person), it will all depend on whom they meet because these particular ladies have never met any black people before Keith. From now on, however, they’re going to be kind and sweet to the next black people they see. Trailblazing FTW!. lol
This is mainly a pictures post, so please look at the pictures!
I’m helping out another one of my students for the same competition. This one, however, she’s practicing for a different category. I’m not too sure if her category includes awards, though. She was selected by the teachers because she’s so good at English, but she secretly told me that she didn’t want to do the speech she has. I was shocked because…ya know… it’s her speech, so how could she possibly not want to do the one she picked? Oh..right…she didn’t pick it; one of the teachers gave it to her. Sigh. This is exactly why I try and make the students pick their own speeches because I mean based on her attitude, it’s clear that she would rather do a different one. Sigh.
So, it kind of showed when I would give her the same pointers as Kenta-kun (The Rockstar Cicada) and while he absorbed it, internalized it, and show me that he’s listening by using my corrections, Chisaka-san would make the same mistakes over and over again, at the same parts of her speech. Er….okay, but I’m just going to make the same corrections, while just explaining them in different ways. When teachers talk about whether or not a student is good English that usually just means that they do their English homework very well in comparison to other students. You would have never known if you heard her complain about how difficult the speech is, even though Kenta-kun has a much harder one, in terms of pronunciation and vocabulary level. At the same time, I can understand why she is not as excited about it, simply because the speech wasn’t her choice. 
She would constantly ask me how Kenta-kun is progressing and would ask how often he comes and practices she immediately gets all competitive and always goes, “Okay! I’ll do my best!” and work that much harder. I just don’t know why she doesn’t do the speech just for her own benefit lol..but I’m not going to knock her motivation. I can safely say that she’s doing a lot better than when we first started and she’s trying to break out of the “katakana” way of speaking English. Katakana English is just Japanesing English. It essentially used to make English words easier to pronounce for Japanese people, but I mean, they should pronounce it in the way it’s supposed to be pronounced. Every other language requires that you try to sound as natural as possible, not settling for pseudo-English. For example, “I love the view from here,” in Katakana English is, “Ah-ee rabu za byuu furamu hee-ya.” That’s not English!!!
........ I think I’m going to do a class on proper consonant and vowel pronunciation. Yeah, I’ll do that when school starts again. Now, I’m well aware that there are plenty of different ways to speak English, simply because there are so many different languages in the world. HOWEVER, most of those other countries more than likely insist on sounding as natural as possible. I know that most students write words out in katakana so it’d be easier for them to pronounce, but that isn’t how it should be. Why? Well, the Japanese language doesn’t distinguish l’s from r’s and b’s from v’s. Even their way of making the v sound is “bui.” What’s that!!! You know….I’m gonna stop here since this isn’t the main focus of this entry lol.
In any case! After she got tired from using so much English, we usually end up chatting. She’s quite bright and simply adorable (like most students at MY school ☺)! I asked her about her other schoolwork and how she has been doing. She’s always complaining about things being “too difficult” or “troublesome” but she has no choice but to do it. The students here have a lot of homework to do during the break…which would make sense if they didn’t have to come to school during summertime! She and the other students have an outrageous amount of school homework. She has to do about 10 pages of Japanese, 20 pages of English, 10 pages of Biology, and about 15 pages of math problems.…kinda makes your high school summer reading list seem like fun, doesn’t it? lol
I look at all the work she has to do and she tells me, quite honestly, that she hasn’t finished it, nor does she want to….like most high school kids. I sympathized with her, but she’s well aware of the fact that she will be tested on all of those subjects in the first week when she gets back, so she NEEDS to finish that work. Then she says, “Hey sensei! Since we’re speaking Japanese and you know so much kanji (-.-), me and everyone else thought that you must be some sort of a genius. You can LITERALLY do anything right?” I immediately get suspicious, but then I realize that she ACTUALLY thinks that because then she whips out her math homework and asks me to help her!
Wait, wait, wait. My being here is SO completely unrelated to your math homework lol. Not to mention, foreigners speaking Japanese DEFINITELY doesn’t make that foreigner a genius. Also, what does my speaking Japanese have to do with any mathematical knowledge?
So, after laughing, I explain that it’s likely that I have no idea how to do her difficult math proble--- wait! I looked at the problems and realized that, after drudging up what I can remember from high school, I can actually help her! It was only multiplying binomials, quadratic equations, linear equations and multiplying fractions. Phew! I was expecting some outrageous SAT like math, but it wasn’t bad.
Unfortunately, I don’t know much math related Japanese so I had to ask her some questions before I can actually help her. Her main issue though was that she makes little mistakes so while her work is correct, the final answer would be off. Also, she didn’t really seem to understand the fundamentals of multiplication and division. As in, she would know HOW to get to an answer, but couldn’t explain it to me. Like no, 25 over 25 is NOT zero and no you can’t divide anything by zero, a negative minus a negative is still negative, and the best way to do most of those problems is to remember that you’re searching to isolate the x. I also taught her FOIL for the binomials since they don’t use that method here. Why don’t they use that! After I helped her out with math, she tried to push Biology on me and I chuckled before pointing to the door, telling her to leave because it’s 1pm during the summer and she’s at school with her uniform on!!
I tried to break things down easily for her because she refuses to see her math teacher about it. I completely understand lol. He’s a jerk. I told her that she should get a group of her friends together and do math and science in a group. It’s the easiest way to properly do your work if one of your friends knows how to do it, right? She says that she’ll try and get them together, but she doesn’t know if they’d want to meet up just to study. Okay…lol. 
I remind her that it’s summer and how she’s still in her uniform, so she needs to go home, change, and go have fun somewhere. She agreed but she didn’t have any idea of where to go. I mention the giant amusement and games place that Keith and I always go to. It’s 10 minutes by bike from our school. It’s an awesome place to play the newest arcade games or do coin pusher, crane games and pachinko. One floor is completely dedicated to bowling, since apparently it’s gotten quite popular here. It also has a pay section in which you pay 10 dollars for 3 hours of arcade games and sports like rollerblading, golf, badminton, pool, basketball, darts, fishing (!), soccer, tennis, archery and they even have a batting cage with pitching practice at the top floor. They also have a relaxation and spa section where you can change into some slippers and sit down in an expensive massage chair with the other people in that room and just watch tv. There’s also a giant kids section where there are more of those awesome massage chairs for the parents. However… her eyes widen and she quickly shakes her head and freaks out, telling me, “No! No! No! That place is way too dangerous and scary! Tatum-sensei, do you really go there?! Aren’t you bothered by the people there and do scary people come up to you?” You know?.…I’m going to just leave that alone lol.
Well…of course not in a literal sense, but I’m preparing him for a speech contest in September. There are different sections of the speech contest, his is just a recitation, but he still competes with other students in his category. When he first came to me, though, it was quite awkward. Another teacher and I decided his speech. I mean at first the silly teacher was trying to force him to pick something from “An Inconvenient Truth,” and I frowned at her so hard! -.- Like what are you doing? That’s obviously her interest; forcing him to talk fiction about the environment won’t go over well with anybody, especially the JET judges. I tried to explain that his book is only meant to scare people like her by using sensational imagery, but then she misinterprets what I was trying to get at and said, “Yeah! It’s very sensational right? I mean he was able to gather so much information!” ….sigh. Anyway…no. No, I will not let you use one of our students to spread sensational environmental fiction. Just… no.
So then whenever I asked him what he wants to speak about, he’d just cock his head to the side with his head down so I won’t be able to see his face…..okay. Wtf do you want to speak about? lol It was so frustrating for me because HE’S the one that's going to be standing there in front of all those people when that day comes, so I don’t want to force a speech on him if he doesn’t want to do it. I’m not okay with picking something that I would think he likes. I want to know what he likes. He mentions Harry Potter and how he has most of those books in English so I said great! Then I tell him to pick his favorite section of any book, take a 3 minute passage from it then bring it in. Seems easy enough right?
Next day, he comes in with a sad face and lets me know that he couldn’t find something because he gets tired when he has to read all that English. lol…what? Well I can understand what he means because I get tired of reading Japanese newspapers. So he indirectly left it up to me and the other teacher. It just felt inherently wrong that another teacher and myself made this kind of decision for him, but he didn’t say anything! Sigh. It was clear that we had no choice in the matter, so we looked for something for him to do.
Some English books here have little passages in which you’re supposed to guess what or who the speaker is based on the speech. As I was flipping through the books, I found a story of cicada that’s a flirtatious rock star. It’s simply one of the cutest things I have ever read. It’s done so perfectly well! The cicada rock star brags about how he did the underground scene for a bunch of years, how he is in an intense competition with the other chump cicadas because they have the nerve to think they are rock stars, how he’s hot and that no one sings like he can. Of course you’ve noticed this by now, my student is nothing like that rock star cicada, but that’s what is so funny about it! 
He said it was too difficult, but then I pointed out that since he’s smart, there’ll be no trouble and that I’ll help him. When he first read it out loud to me, I realized that I had to turn him into a rock star cicada for a month and a half. I didn’t know if he even wanted to go that far, but then he told me that he really wants to win. So, I taught him “rock star” hand gestures and natural movements that coincide with his speech because I warned him that just standing there and reciting what he practiced isn’t going to win the judges over. I also helped him with his confidence and helping him give off the idea that he’s the best cicada on the planet. I explained that this rock star cicada is arrogant as hell, like most human ones, and he’d need to aggressively get that point across when the day comes.
Somehow we got into a conversation about music, then I started talking about Pete Wentz from Fall Out Boy and how he has the typical attitude of an arrogant rock star (without having any real talent), while the ACTUAL lead singer, Patrick Stumph, doesn’t embody a rock star at all. I mentioned it in passing, but then the next day he tells me that he really likes Fall Out Boy (!!) and he would like to hear more bands of the same genre that they are in. What the hell lol. Okay! Sweet! I think stuff like this is necessary though, to help him get into the mindset of a rock star cicada since the whole passage is written the first person view so clearly the speaker is the cicada. 
Then he asked me about accents and how singers with accents sound. I had him listen to The Klaxons and some of Corrine Bailey Rae because of how you can hear their accents when they sing. He wasn't able to pick up on it so I helped him out by pronouncing the differences in some of the words. He caught on quickly after that!
So, before I realized it, my cute student walked off with burned albums of Fall Out Boy, Panic at the Disco and My Chemical Romance while I’m sitting there wondering if I came on a bit too strong with the whole music thing. lol But it’s okay! He told me that it’s his favorite genre of music and it’d be “amazing” to hear it in English and it’d be good English practice for him. Oh…okay then. lol
He’s been progressing so well! It’s so obvious that he really enjoys what we’re doing and likes pretending to be a rock star cicada because he reads his lines with such confident arrogance! Lol I told him as long as he keeps his new found arrogance for the cicada, then he’ll be fine. The main problem that I’ve been helping him with is how to put emotion in his words since English isn’t spoken in a monotone, especially with a rock star cicada as well as how to pronounce certain words. I’m so glad that he’s taking this seriously; well then again of course he is because he signed up for it. 
It just makes me nervous because I know he really wants to win but we are an agricultural high school. There are a lot of academic high schools in where English is treated as serious business because most of the students in those schools are heading for college, and English knowledge is necessary for college entrance exams. So, there are students who already sound like native speakers and will have no trouble with consonants and vowels, but we can’t be pessimistic.
If he wins in his category, he gets to be in the news and that is the main reason for his hard work… just to be recognized. Well then damnit, if that’s what you want, I’ll try and make you as natural as I can! Stick with me kid, and I’ll make you into the most arrogant cicada rock star that the contest has ever seen! lol
I was lazy one Sunday and decided to wait until the afternoon to get lunch…like at around 3pm or so because I was playing some games. I usually get something small for lunch on the weekends though. I was holding it off since I should have went for lunch earlier, but whatever. As I’m walking out of my apartment, I come face to face with this random girl that I never saw before who was about to knock on my door. So I jump, startled but quickly gain my bearings and ask who she is. She told me that her name is Tomoko, she’s the daughter of my downstairs neighbor and that she was told to come upstairs by her parents because they told her that we are “ nice foreigners.” Lol Thanks, I guess.
After that however, we ended up talking for a long time in English. She started off by asking what we do in our apartments because when she was at this apartment a couple of years ago, they lived under an American guy and across from a British guy. They hated them because they were so loud and obnoxious and threw parties a lot. Ugh. She went on to say that everyone is aware that we are here, but we are so quiet. To me, it sounded like they liked the fact that they were able to hear foreigners making noise, but at the same time appreciate that we’re quiet, but can’t help but be ultra curious. I personally thought that we made too much noise because Keith and I blast our music, but I guess the paper walls seem to hold sound in alright lol. It could also be because she lives below and one door to the left so they don't hear noise. The family below us moved because the father was transferred to a different school, so we can literally be as loud as we like and no one would be able to hear. Sweet! 
We ended up sitting outside near her door and talked about a lot of things, one thing in particular about how she would really, really like to swim (?) and if there are any public pools here. Um…what? I couldn’t help but chuckle and wonder why she’s in desperate need of a pool but I don’t think I would be able to help her. So I mentioned that there are some surfers that live next to her and that if she asks them then I’m sure they would know. Like… why the hell wouldn’t they know, right? So I told her to ring the bell and she was like,”No, no, no! I can’t just go up and ring some random guy’s doorbell!” I pointed out that she did that to me no more than half an hour ago and she commented that because he’s Japanese, she would not do that. So I’m like whatever, let’s just wait and see if he’s in there, but apparently he wasn’t in because his car wasn’t there.
We continue talking for a while then his car pulls up! I tell her there he is, so….she can ask him then. She still wasn’t going to make the first move so I ask him about a pool first, THEN she decides to take it away. -.- Well, that’s how it works here I guess. He tells her that there weren’t any public pools here but just in case, he will ask someone and if we’d be kind enough to wait, he’ll go in his apartment, put down all of his stuff and come back out. So after he came back out, we all talked about pools and how there aren’t any, when another neighbor comes! I told Tomoko about her before we spoke about the pool and how she is a very wonderful woman and her daughter, Natsuho is adorable. Yuko was the first Japanese person to actually not care that we were foreign and welcomed us with open arms. She’s also been quite busy so I haven’t seen her in a while, so I’m glad I was actually able to see her. So after she had the answer of where there was an actual public pool in Miyazaki (!), it was like an impromptu neighbor “party” because there is 4 out of 6 of us in the apartment, so a decently sized group of us were chatting outside. It was nice! So, afterwards, when they had to go inside and make dinner and whatnot, Tomoko and I make plans to have lunch or just hang out in my apartment since she lives downstairs.
When we can finally get a day to hang out, we usually just chat about random things. She was telling me that her culture puts way too much pressure on her and she hates it; she’d rather leave Japan and deal with another country. Imagine my surprise when a girl who was born in Miyazaki, lived in Osaka for a while, comes back, then tells ME that Japanese people from Miyazaki are rude! If you know enough Japanese people, you realize that they are quite proud of Japan, some of them, to the point of ridiculing other cultures. So, meeting a Japanese person who would rather bash their own culture than praise it is probably something that most foreign people won’t get to experience. However, she has pretty good English because she went to college in Australia, so I don’t really have to speak Japanese, but even she gets tired of trying to figure out what she wants to say in English and she’ll switch to Japanese.
She told me that when she got back to Miyazaki, most people stare at her and are rude to her because they can tell that she’s not from here… but I’m like…you’re Japanese. It doesn’t seem to matter though. She told me about when she first arrived in Osaka, she was wandering around lost, and this Japanese girl walked up to her and asked her if she was alright. She explained that she was lost and the girl that spoke went up to her told her where to go, and gave her the number to her cell phone and told her if she needed more to call. Unbelievable! You would never know that because the people here say so much bad things about other places IN Japan. They always say to stay away from the city because there are too many people and so, way too many bike gangs and yakuza. I always sigh every time I hear that and it’s clearly a country bumpkin type thing, but I still can’t help but roll my eyes. If they say such things about other Japanese people, I can only imagine what they think about foreigners.
She also told me that her boss has a kid but he’s always inviting her to drink like three times a week. That’s unfortunately, quite common. I know so many of these teachers drink every night. I asked one of the English teachers (the one that doesn’t like to team teach with my lesson plans) what does he like to drink, and his response was, “…night time or day time?” What!? Wow. 
A different English teacher told me that he drinks every night to “train” himself and build up a tolerance to alcohol. Right. A couple of other Japanese people told me that they drink and smoke because they are very stressed and it’s the only way to calm them down. I can understand that, but you guys….ya know…have children to take care of. When I say that they drink, I mean that they go out with coworkers to drink after spending WAY too much time at work. It’s kind of like… go home guys! Not to mention: they drink and smoke NEAR their children (way too common here), and one jerk even had the nerve to bring her newborn baby to a smoke room! –holds back expletive-
In any case, hearing this Japanese girl talk negatively about her culture isn’t new. In the span of about 8 days, Keith and I have met random ladies who bash their own culture. This one lady, in broken English, said, “My foreign friends and foreign people…open. Japanese people…closed.” I didn’t even ask her what she thought about Japanese culture, but foreign-friendly Japanese people seem as if they can’t wait to complain about the culture that they are living in. I’ll get into more reasons that I was told in a different post, but from a foreigner’s angle, all one might see is the surface pride of their culture. Knowing enough Japanese people however, you’re bound to hear complaints…even without knowing a lick of Japanese.
I have a nice month and a half vacation, not that I’ll be spending it at home where I can do more with my time, but I’ll be at the office. Now, there are plenty of perks of being here in a wonderfully air-conditioned room with (luckily) pretty cool people. What’s good about the school’s teachers in general is that they’re expecting me to study Japanese when I’m not doing any work. I know of some places where they get angry if you do anything except something relating to team teaching, those unlucky folks would just have to pretend for hours everyday. That sucks.
The good thing for me is that simply because they’re expecting me to study Japanese, I have about 20 Japanese language experts at my disposal…for free! I most definitely take advantage of this because some people don’t have that kind of opportunity, ya know?
I’m studying for the Japanese Language Proficiency Test, level 2. If I buckle down and study as if I’ll never get the opportunity to study Japanese again, I can skip 2 and possibly clear level 1. It’s quite a reach (I get lazy every now and again)… but I think it’d be best if I did as much Japanese studying as possible while in Japan before I go home.
If you are trying to learn Japanese I can tell you what I’ve done and you can see if it might help you. However we all learn differently, so what I say might not even work for you, and I think if you already have a method of studying Japanese then don’t follow mine because finding something that works for you is the best way to go about it. I will make a separate post for it.
I focused on Japanese language study simply because it’s my interest. It took my first two years of college and a lot of frustration to realize that my major in Japanese was inevitable. I tried the sciences for two years because I remember asking myself what could I possibly do with a Japanese major when I was in my senior year of high school. I had an interest in science so I figured that I would try that route. Even going so far as to researching Med schools in my freshman year of college lol. Yes, I know….I was quite green. 
As I took both science and Japanese courses…I stubbornly refused to admit, but was being forced to notice that I was getting very high grades in Japanese, and so-so grades in science, and I’m a firm believer in making a career out of doing something you like. It was hard for me to see that when I had pressure from my father in how I had to “ make as much money as possible” as well as family on my father’s side going “you can be the first doctor in the family!” but I’m sure that’s common.
So, halfway in my four-year college stay, I was tired of this terrible feeling of being a failure, feeling like no matter how hard I studied, I can’t do as well. I also feared the risk of messing up my GPA because my pride, and pressure from my family, but I stubbornly didn't want to give up something that CLEARLY wasn’t working... however, it had to be done. I threw away the whole science thing, focused my attention on an Asian Studies major with a Japanese specialization, completed an Africana Studies minor and never looked back... well maybe a couple of glances lol.
After I dropped my science class, I couldn’t help but notice the weight that was lifted off of my shoulders. I remember the exact point where I was sitting in my Chemistry lab and I had this sudden feeling of “Wow…..I don’t want to be here anymore,” and once I got back to my dorm, I dropped the class and took up a Japanese history class that just happened to be at the same time and days of the week as my Chemistry lecture. I would never forget the horrible feeling of dread and fatigue (all those weekends at the library wasted!) when it came to Chemistry at Binghamton and the sheer excitement and enthusiasm when it came to Japanese. I finally had that feeling I had in high school of excelling at things that I love, and doing science for two years really set the point home that it would be impossible for me to have a career in something that I don’t like.
It took me a day or so to call home and let them know that I changed my plans. It felt as though everyone was counting on me to succeed at something I told everyone so much about. So I waited not because I thought they would be angry with me…but because I felt like I let everyone down. My mother, siblings, father, everybody. However, everyone had to know. I told my mother first but I thought she would be disappointed…but the crazy amount of encouragement and understanding about such a sensitive subject got me so emotional. We’re a very tight knit family so it was great to feel that bond for something like this. I realized that it didn’t matter what I did; Japanese, science, whatever, they would always support me. That’s a good feeling. I told my father and he declared that I “make up my mind.” Whatever. I know where he’s coming from since he, my mother and grandmother brought us to America from Jamaica for a better life so I know he means well in how he just wants me to be successful before it’s too late, but I was 19 when I made that decision so I think I have plenty of time left lol. 
So, I filled out some forms, met with some people and officially changed my major. About a week later, I went to the Career Development Center on campus because I didn’t know what the hell I was going to do next. I mean most science majors have a good idea of where they are going to go after they graduate because science seems more tangible so it wouldn’t have been hard to figure out a game plan. However, like I asked myself before, what the hell could I do with a Japanese major?!
In rare instances, I’m not too proud to ask for help. So I scheduled a meeting and awkwardly enough, the “career advisor” was just as stumped as I was about what to do with a Japanese major. -.-…like, seriously? He suggested I become a teacher and I’m like..yeah but that doesn’t really solve my current problem now, does it? Then he suggested the United Nations and then we look up information together about the United Nations and he’s like, “well….they don’t seem to have anything for Japanese speakers…” Wow. Thanks for nothing! It’s like…why the hell did I sign up to talk to you? So, I leave even more confused than when I started, so a few days later I go to one of the awesome Japanese teachers and I’m like, “Hey I changed my major..but I don’t know what the hell to do with it!” So, she suggests Translation/Interpretation, but then I scoffed because I didn’t think I can do that, I mean sure it sounds fun, but I have Chem Lab, some Chemistry work with a serious deadline coming up soon and --- wait wait wait! I’m no longer a science major! I have time to do things I like! Wow…so after that hit me, I decide to look into it. I do tons and tons research on it, and I find out that I think I would love to be a Translator/Interpreter for Japanese/English. Sweet.
So, here I am, after all of that and after being a year in Japan, I am still just as excited then as I am now to know as much as I possibly can about the language. I might not be able to become the first doctor of the family, but I’m headed towards the first Japanese/English translator of the family and I think that’s just as spectacular damnit! lol
Nothing too crazy has been going on recently. Pretty much everyone is waiting for summer vacation. Our summer break is this coming Friday, so my lesson plan has been a game and the winners get candy. They don’t really have to learn something with EVERY lesson plan I think. In any case, the teacher and I can relax in class while making it fun for students. Everyone wins.
I’m pretty excited for summer vacation. That means that I get to….go to work everyday and not have to do anything. “What the hell kind of summer vacation is that?” you ask? It’s a Japanese summer vacation! Even though there won’t be any classes, seeing as how it’s summer vacation, I still have to go into work. I, as well as every other teacher still have to go. You wouldn’t believe all the complaints I’ve heard from other teachers about that, and how it’s unfair and such. The idiot English teacher (the one that spoke about Korea’s snow) told me, “Well..we used to be able to go home when the students left, but now…the economy is getting worse…so now we’re forced to go into work.” What? That’s such stupid “logic.” Most people would say that going into work would be WORSE for the economy because working includes wasting more paper, ink, electricity, water, etc. Whoever “they” are, government or whatever, it’s clear that they’re making people go into work during summer vacation, simply because no one is going to riot, or cause trouble; they’re going to complain to other people in the same boat, while not really doing anything.
While it should be obvious that we have the those weeks off, however, it would be no different from any other day in which people run around, look busy and give everyone else the illusion of doing work. I see it everyday; I’ve seen it since last October. Yes, even during normal days, most teachers aren’t doing work, but they’ll pretend for the sake of surface compliments. 
How did I find that out, you ask? Well, about 5 different teachers have told me in the past 7 months. It would come unexpectedly simply because when I first got here, everyone seemed busy. Then I asked my former supervisor what’s he doing, then I got a, “Walking around and pretending to be busy.” What? Was he joking? Well….he doesn’t really have the best sense of humor so it’s a definite no. At first I thought, well, he’s only one person, it’s not like everyone else does no work. However, I noticed that if someone runs past me, after I wave and greet them; they would stop, and chat me up for like an hour! After a while, I’m like wait…wait…wait….if they’re so busy, how they can just stop whatever they're doing and talk me to for a full on hour about nothing? That’s odd. Doing that after a couple more times, and living here for more than 6 months, you quickly begin to realize that most people do that. Of course there are people who really do work and are tired after work and all, but the majority don’t feel actual exhaustion due to work.
You have to wonder: why is everyone pretending when everyone else MUST know that nobody is doing work? Clearly this happens all of the time, so there has to be a point where nobody is fooled by anyone’s antics. You would never hear it out loud though, mainly because no one wants to be the person who blows that whistle, out of fear of being ostracized. I won’t get into that; just know that it’s a big deal. 
They could just take a lot of vacation days during the summer vacation, right? No. Japanese teachers (I’m not sure about other professions) get 40 days of paid holiday and are supposed to use at least 20 days or lose them. Year after year, according to Japanese teachers here, most Japanese teachers don’t take more than like 8 days a year. So, they continue to let all of those vacation days go to waste. Why, you ask? Well, if they take too much vacation time, the other teachers will jealously gossip about that person and call them lazy and whatnot. That’s also the point of omiyage; the practice of giving a gift to the people that you left high and dry when you were on a business trip (hanging out) in Okinawa/Tokyo/Osaka, so you have to give a gift that apologizes to everyone else who had to take up the (non-existent) slack that you so heartlessly left to everyone else in your absence. It’s kind of like an apology and to let people know that you were thinking about them. Even that though, it’s a cultural norm and if you don’t give something, then you’re a despicable Japanese person. However, everyone else must already know that you HAVE to give a gift, even if you hate everyone in your office. So, where’s the genuine apology in that? I don’t know.
That teacher who takes all of that paid vacation will eventually be confronted by one of the teachers who “heard from other teachers” that he/she is taking too much vacation time.” It’s a bit ridiculous because it isn’t as though the people that are still at the school are even doing any work. Even going on actual Vice Principal sanctioned business trips still require you to give gifts, even though it probably wasn’t your choice to go where you went.
So it’s everyone being forced to go to work for some reason, not really doing work, but pretending very well and being envious of people who decide to use their vacation days so they can do something better with their time. Yeah…I don’t know either.