Far out Fridays!!!

Hey there everybody,

I've decided to brand Fridays as well. From now on, Fridays will be "Far out Fridays". Since I live in Japan, I will mostly highlight the very interesting things that happen to me here. But from time to time, I'll have other travels in this space, and maybe other far out things.

Today's story takes place at work. I am in Japan on the JET program. It's a program run by the Japanese government to bring foreigners to Japan to teach foreign languages, promote internationalisation and/or conduct sports training. I am an ALT- assistant language teacher and I work in 1 kindergarten, 2 primary schools, and a junior high.

I was at my "big" elementary today (195 students- lol, Japan and it's declining birth rate). On account of swine flu, neither the 2nd grade or 6th grade was at school. So their form teachers were eating in the staff room. (Teachers normally eat with their classes.) Now the 6th grade teacher, Hayashida-Sensei is absolutely crazy. All day every day!

He sat across from me and started asking me about the difference between Barbadian and Japanese food. He wanted to know if we eat kangaroo in Barbados. I told him that since we were far from Australia, we didn't. Actually, we're not very adventurous eaters in Barbados. On an island where you can probably reach the sea in 10 minutes by car, no matter where you are., most people eat less than 10 species of fish- probably even less than 5. I told him that in some of the neighbouring islands there were people who eat iguana and lap (a large rodent).

Then he asked me if there was anything that Japan ate that we didn't. There's tons of them, but the first that came to mind was horse. He asked me about the fruits and vegetables. And I told him that in my yard alone there was watermelon, lime, coconut, banana, cherry, etc. Then he asked if I have a pool. I said no. But my neighbour has one, because I live next to a motel. He then asked the obvious question, "Do you live in a castle?"

I couldn't even answer. I was laughing so hard! Then he told the other teachers in Japanese: "The pools in America have very pretty blue water. Some of them have yellow water. That's when a lot of people pee in them!" This is why I learn Japanese!

Then he asked if I have a drivers licence. I told him I don't have a Japanese one, but I have mine from Barbados. And I showed them. They freaked out about the fact that it was iridescent. The principal and 2nd grade teacher ran over and exclaimed "Kakkoi!" - Cool! They kept turning it and marvelling and oohing and aahing.

Just another lunch in Japanese school!