Kumamoto First Impressions

I have been in Kumamoto for roughly three weeks now and things are going well (aside from the fact that I have been battling a virus for the past week or so and haven't gotten out much as a result). I've been thinking a lot about how to write this post, about what my initial reaction to Kumamoto is, and how I should explain this crazy little phenomenon called culture shock that has decided to settle in along with the virus. It complicates my feelings towards Kumamoto as a whole because I can't really determine if it's the culture shock talking or not.  

We left Tokyo on Thursday, February 10th. We left early. Paul arrived with a taxi to take us and our luggage to the waiting bus at Shinjuku (note: not all our luggage, most of it we shipped) that would take us to the airport. He arrived at 5:30 AM. Yeah.

We took a bus to Haneda Airport and boarded a very nice ANA flight to Kumamoto. The flight was two hours and we arrived shortly after ten to sunny skies and brown mountains. We had a warm welcoming committee to greet us when we arrived and we headed out to the parking lot. I noticed two things instantly. There were trees and greenery NOT in a park (a rarity in Tokyo) and the air was so fresh! I had heard it would be and all, but I really had nothing to compare my first taste of Tokyo air too, except for fourteen hours of recycled plane air so it seemed fabulous at the time. But this, this was paradise! I felt like I was purging the Tokyo air from my lungs one breath at a time. Funny, I really didn't think it was that bad while I was living there.

We drove into town and took care of some bureaucratic-new-foreigners-in-Kumamoto business (or rather Morgan, Laura, and I occasionally stamped our signatures or told someone a birth-date, while Paul and the others filled out our applications in Japanese), and then went to our new apartments. Laura and I are staying at a place called the LeoPalace and Morgan has moved into the JELA apartments because there was an opening (two J-3s had to leave unexpectedly in the summer due to medical reasons). I don't have pictures of my new place, but think my old place, just bigger and more black and white decor. However, below is our reaction to Morgan's new apartment. The J-3 housing here is NICE!

View from Morgan's window

There was a bit of trouble with our LeoPalace apartments because they didn't come with anything in the way of dishes. Also, interestingly enough, there was a bed, but we were given futon style bedding. With that was a futon style pillow, which I was going to be super-American about. I insisted on buying a pillow immediately. No way was I going to sleep on a bean bag for three months, culture immersion or no.

We got some dishes donated through the kindness of the YWCA here in Kumamoto and bought the rest. In one funny instance, Morgan lent me her new toaster and ironing board because she had an oven and a dryer so she said she didn't need them. So Laura, Morgan and I trotted through the mean streets of Kumamoto carrying an ironing board, an iron, and a toaster. Yeah, that got us some looks.

Which leads promptly to something else I have noticed in Kumamoto. We get noticed. A lot. In Tokyo there are lots and lots and lots of foreigners so really, while you don't "blend in" per se, neither do you stand out. But here in Kumamoto you do. It's a great deal smaller than Tokyo, obviously, with a population of about 700,000. So not small, but not Tokyo. We have occasionally been greeted by our future students while we were out and about downtown already. Some that we have no memory of meeting, but have clearly seen us in the halls. Especially in a group, we stick out.

I have to chuckle a bit because our Tokyo friends made it seem like we were moving out into the sticks. Some even called Kumamoto rural. Okay, so it's like 2% of the population of Tokyo, but it is not "rural". Downtown you will find Gap, Zara, Chanel, Starbucks, Louis Vutton, and even an import store! Being born and raised in Nebraska, I know rural. This aint it. 

Downtown Kumamoto; images courtesy of Google

One thing that I was excited about was the densha. The densha is a streetcar system. I've ridden on it by now and it wasn't nearly as exciting as I thought it would be, but still, it's a streetcar! I ride in a streetcar to get around now! My first time on the densha, I was alone, so I had my English guide practically glued to my face. The lady who was making announcements about stops and watching the fare box was right in front of me, and since it was very clearly my first time she kept an eye out for me. I was touched that she kept checking to make sure I was okay. There is also a bus system, but it terrifies me, so unless I get very specific instructions I steer clear. There is no map for the busses in English, and, from what we've heard, it's confusing even if you do speak Japanese. Once I move into the JELA apartments I will have a bike, but until then I will walk most everywhere, which suits me fine.

Densha! And look you can see the castle in the background. Did I mention that Kumamoto has a castle? True fact.

We are kinda in this weird flux period of orientation. We won't actually start teaching until the start of the new school year, which for Japan is in April. Until then we are continuing our language studies, observing classes at the schools, and participating in church activities. Laura and Morgan with both be teaching at Luther Gakuin and I will be at Kyushu Gakuin. While I won't be the only native English speaker there, I will be the only J-3, which is unusual. Usually, both schools have three, from what I can tell.

Let me tell you a little about Kyushu Gakuin. First off, you should know, that my initial feeling is that I am going to love working there. I think that once I start I will settle in very quickly. At least I hope so. That being said, I was surprised by some things. Foremost in my mind is the fact that Kyu-Gaku, as it is known colloquially, was an all boys school until eight years ago. So that means that in the high school 80% of the students are male. The junior high is a little better. The staff is roughly the same. It is a very sports oriented school and several teams go to nationals every year. They are very well known for their baseball, track, and kendo teams. Kendo is the modern Japanese martial art of sword-fighting.

Kyu-Gaku front gates

The students are very energetic, to put it lightly. I was walking through the hall on our first day of orientation at Kyu-Gaku with Laura and Morgan and another English teacher when a big group of boys started jumping and chanting in their classroom. I swear to you the floor was shaking. It was this deep booming chant, the kind you might imagine you would hear at a military base or something. I couldn't help but laugh at my new-found situation. Well, at least I laughed once my nerves settled!

That afternoon the three of us went with an English teacher named Kotegawa-sensei, who is a graduate of Kyu-Gaku and has been teaching there for forty years, to his senior level, sports course, English class. In Japanese high schools students can choose courses, which are essentially like our majors in college. So it was a class of thirty to forty, eighteen-year-old, male, athletes. Kotegawa-sensei broke the class up into three groups and put one of us at each table for the boys to ask us questions. It was highly entertaining. Each group had unofficially elected one of the group to be their spokesperson. Some of the questions I got were:

"What is your favorite color?"

"Do you like sports?"

"Do you speak Japanese?"

"Do you have a boyfriend?"

"Do you like Japanese food?"

"Who is your favorite celebrity?"

Coming up with the questions involved a lot of whispering amongst themselves and then asking as well as they could, with others throwing out random English vocabulary to aid the speaker. They were actually far better at it than I think they realized. After every answer I gave (even saying "green" for favorite color), I was answered with a collective "Oooohhh...." before they would go back to whispering for their next question. Why the whispering, I have no idea; I couldn't understand a word.

Upon leaving I had received three offers to be my boyfriend, several "I love you's", and an autograph. I promptly had Christine (the J-3 who I will be taking over for) verify that it was indeed a name. She smiled and translated it for me as his name and the name of the college he will be attending. My name was written down the side. Laura, Morgan, and I were laughing the whole way home, both of them having received the same treatment. It was a lot of fun, but I could tell that, were I to actual teach a class like that, it would be a handful, to say the least. I have since been told I will never teach those classes. Those are left up to Kotegawa-sensei and the other male teachers.

I teach my first lesson on Thursday to a group of third-year junior high schoolers. The school is divided into three years in junior high (the equivalent of 7th, 8th, and 9th grades) and three years in high school. They are at the end of their year, since they will graduate in March, and have finished their textbook, so I am planning a fun lesson. Possibilities include One Direction (very popular here), slang, and movie clips.

I am really going to enjoy my time here. Culture shock is difficult (more on that specifically in my next post), but my overall first impression of Kumamoto is a good one. It doesn't totally feel like home yet. Oddly enough, I feel like I settled into Tokyo faster than I am settling into Kumamoto. I think part of that is the fact that I am not attached to a church yet, aside from the international service at Kumamoto Lutheran. Another part of it is the culture shock and so I shrug that aside. It hasn't helped that I have been sick for the past two weeks either. Once I actually start teaching, choose my church, and become a part of the community more things will start to fall into place. I hope!

One last note on Kumamoto. Remember the elderly lady I met outside the Daiso in my first week in Tokyo? The incident that helped remind me that God put me there and would take care of any language barriers? I've had two of those here and I will relate one of them to you now. 

On Thursday I was feeling well enough to get out of my apartment. I had quarantined myself for about a week at that point and was going a little stir crazy. On our bus rides to Luther Gakuin I had noticed a small shop called Tomi's Shortbread House and a sign noted that it sold British shortbread. Some of you may not know this about me, but I LOVE shortbread. I receive it yearly in my stocking and it is a great treat. I set course for the shop.

It is an adorable little place (I'll try to post a picture sometime), with a cheerful red door. I went in and it smelled wonderful! The shop was very small and the kitchen was in the back and to the side. All their shortbread is made there. A young woman, probably a little older than me came out and greeted me, all in Japanese, and handed me a basket. I made the slight mistake of returning her greeting in my limited Japanese and then telling her, also in Japanese, that I loved shortbread. She beamed at me, excited that I had addressed her in Japanese, and asked me a question. I had no idea what she said, but, luckily, telling her I had no idea what she said was in my limited Japanese vocabulary. She smiled and said, "I speak little English." I smiled back and said, "にほんごすこしはなします", essentially, "I speak a little Japanese", only with terrible grammar. I probably spelled it wrong just now too! So then we proceeded to have this whole discussion in a mangled mix of Japanese, English, and laughter about where I was from, how excited she was that I came to her shop, how excited I was that her shop existed, what I am doing in Kumamoto, and what our favorite types of shortbread were. We had an audience too, there were two other women there, and I think they were family of the lady I was talking too. I bought two bags of shortbread and left the shop with promises to return and I certainly will. I was beaming the whole way home. God knew that what I needed that day was good conversation and a little sweet shortbread, and that's exactly what He gave me. Just as He did with Tokyo, I am sure He will make this place home.

*Note: Aside from the pictures of the three of us at Morgan's, I mostly made off like a bandit with pictures from Google images which may or may not remain on my blog. I'll get my own I promise!