I`m Famous!

This week the Furano Board of Education had a very offical ceremony welcoming us in as the new English teachers in our city. You can see Hayden and I in the local newspaper, here:


http://www.furano.ne.jp/kyowa/nikkan/200708/070830.html

Here is a completely hilarious translation of the text, by my web-translator:

“Furano everyone, asks may - the arrival system of new foreign language guidance assistant on the 27th, at the municipal Furano library to be opened, Hayden Wong of the United States of America (27) with Teresa Kerres (29), was warmly received from the education authorized personnel of the city.　Tenure of foreign language guidance assistant 2 years. 2 people this month come on 8th and wealth do, are interchanged with the child pupils with the English conversation class of 2 terms of each Konaka school which starts from 20 days.　The board of education staff and each president and others approximately 30 people attended in arrival system of the same day. Noto 芳 Mayor Showa “2 years asks to beginning, may. That please teach the American culture to the children, through class” you welcomed.　After this, Usami Masamitu superintendent of education delivers commission to 2, we request the history of practice education and the foreign country of conversational ability and the study which adopts culture to the children “as an assistant of the English conversation. In addition expectation was included that please participate in also the international interchange with the citizen positively”.　Vis-a-vis this, Hayden “has gone to the school from one week ago. The varieties please teach from now on. It came to Tokyo 3 years ago, but Hokkaido is unprecedented, but as for the Japanese culture you think that it is enormous. We would like to study the difference with the American culture”, as for Teresa “as for hobby Italian cooking. There is an interest even in hiking. Many people and that it becomes the acquaintance are enjoyed from now on”, that while also 2 people showing the beginning and ending smiling face, aspiration of arrival was expressed in Japanese.


Here`s a brief interpretation of that funny `Engrish` translation:
The mayor and superintendent of the Board of Education spoke. They welcomed us and ask us to educate the children and become involved in the Furano community. As for our bios, Hayden attended university in Tokyo on exchange, three years ago. He is very interested in Japanese culture. My hobbies are VEGETARIAN cooking (I guess my accent was difficult to understand) and hiking. I am looking forward to meeting everyone. Our speeches were in Japanese. We smiled and were given flowers. The end.

Beauty

Queen Nefertiti: More than a pretty face
German scientists have discovered that the world's most beautiful woman allowed herself to be sculpted with wrinkles to appear more beautiful.
Maybe wrinkles are not so bad, after all, some German scientists have discovered.
In ancient times, such laugh lines and wrinkles around the mouth improved the face of Nefertiti, the Egyptian queen acclaimed as the world's most beautiful woman. X-ray pictures of the bust by a computer tomography machine at the nearby Charite Hospital in Berlin revealed that the sculpture is a piece of limestone with details added using four outer layers of plaster of Paris. "We have discovered that the sculptor later added gentle wrinkles to her face, especially around the eyes," said Dietrich Wildung, director of the Museum of Egyptology housed in the upper storey of the Altes Museum. "The wrinkles make the image more individual and expressive." The scientists speculate that Nefertiti, who would have sat for the sculptor, herself approved the older look.
Scientific motivationThe 3,000-year-old bust of Nefertiti is the greatest treasure at Berlin's Altes Museum. Wildung said he received the revelation a year ago that the serene face, which today lacks one eye, was not quite as smooth as it looked. Museum officials, who say Nefertiti is too fragile to visit Egypt, even worried about sending her to the hospital.
The scan of the artwork, which is 50 centimeters tall including the hat, was arranged in cooperation with film teams from the US National Geographic Society and German public broadcaster ZDF. Their documentary was aired last month in Germany. "The prime motivation was scientific," stressed Wildung, an Egyptologist who said he had always presumed that some plaster "make-up" had been applied as a finish to the solid limestone before it was painted. The results prove once and for all that the artist re-adjusted the image four times. "The purpose was not to idealize her at all, but to make the image more realistic," Wildung explained, suggesting that hints of age were probably not taboo in Nefertiti-era art, but a source of prestige.
Sign of esteemIt may surprise modern women who go to the cosmetic surgeon to recover that smooth teenage complexion, but wrinkles have always been esteemed as a subtle badge of wisdom. The museum is to alter the lighting in the Nefertiti room after the discovery. "The lighting will now emphasize the eye area and show these hints that she has a past and is not ageless," said Wildung. Nefertiti was the chief wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten who ruled about 1350 BC. "There are still quite a few mysteries about her," said Wildung. "We don't know if she was a native Egyptian or came from the Middle East. Nor do we know how old she was when she married or if she survived her husband."
Call for return It will always be a matter of speculation exactly how old she was when the royal sculptor Thutmosis preserved her appearance for immortality. The sculpture was re-discovered in 1912 by a German archaeologist, Ludwig Borchhardt, during an excavation in Egypt. It was awarded to the German excavation team under the legal arrangements for the dig and duly exported. James Simon, the German merchant and patron of the arts who funded the expedition, kept the bust in his Berlin home for a time, then donated it in 1920 to the government of Prussia, which was a part of Germany. Nefertiti went on public display in 1924 and has graced various museums since, accompanied by longing calls from Egypt for her return. The Germans say their legal ownership of the bust is beyond question. She is set to obtain a new home in 2009 when the collection moves to the nearby Neues Museum after its renovation. Museum chief Wildung says he often observes museum visitors from his nearby office as they stand in awe before the Egyptian beauty, who now lacks one eye. "She is more than just a pretty face," he said. "The people go silent in wonderment at her."
Copyright DPA with Expatica
8 August 2007

Environmentalism

I worried/wondered about the extent of environmentalism in Japan. I knew very little prior to coming:
1. The Kyoto Protocol meetings were here. (stupid, embarassing, terrible GW)
2. Japanese people harvest and eat whale. A lot. There is significant international pressure for Japan to stop harvesting whales for food, so the Japanese government insists the whales are only being killed for scientific experimentation. However, there are rumors that whale meat is often found in our school lunches. I don`t know whether or not this is true.
3. The Japanese like lots of unnecessary packaging.
4. 99% of Japan`s rivers and streams are damned, so fish can`t get up.
5. However, the Japanese islands are collectively about the size of California, but consist of 80% forests. The Japanese population is one-half that of the USA. I understood that Japanese people and urban planners believe in dense urban housing in order to preserve the forests. This respect for nature is inspired by the native Japanese religion, Shintoism.
6. Public transporation rocks. People use the trains. Things run efficiently and on time.

Now I am able to observe a little more:
1. The air is clean. The water is delicious.
2. Even in the town, a lot of people have small vegetable gardens. (Perhaps because produce is so #!&$ expensive.)
3. Recycling happens on a level I never imagined, especially in Hokkaido. We have 8 garbage bins, no joke. Compost, plastic, another kind of plastic, two kinds of paper, tin, glass, and other stuff I can`t remember right now. It`s confusing but I`m glad about it. The asphalt is pretty-sparkly because it`s made of blue/green/yellow/clear glass bottles.
4. Every 2 years all cars in Japan go through an environmental quality inspection, to be sure they are in good working order. It costs a lot of money (mine, which I payed today, cost $1000) but ensures there are less pollutants. If your car needs to be fixed in order to pass the shakken inspection, they do it for you and you just pay the bill (suprise!).
5. There are two kinds of passenger vehicles for sale in Japan. The yellow plate cars are smaller, have better gas mileage, are cheaper, and are (they say) more dangerous. The white plate cars can be larger and generally have worse mileage. My car is a white plate but has great mileage and is smaller than a clown car. . . I don`t know how they decide which is which.
6. It is cheaper and easier to take the train, rather than driving to some far-away city.
7. They do drive vans, but SUVs are rare. I did see one Hummer (I resisted the urge to spit). Most people are modest in their gas usage.
8. No one is fat. Everyone has a bike. Many people walk.

So, can I give this country kudos for environmentalism? Sure. Better than where I come from. . .

He`s a Funny Man!

Hey! Nick has a blog, too!
http://www.extendedadventure.blogspot.com/

Work in Japan

There is much I do not understand about the system here, but one thing I am learning is that every April a great "switch" occurs when workers from one governemtn office are moved into another office. My present supervisor at the Board of Education was previously employed doing something with the administration of recycling. Our big boss at the BOE is trained as an architect. Another boss here is trained as an archeologist specializing in Northern Pacific peoples. (He and I talked a little today and he will bring me some books about the Ainu peole, indigenous to the Japanese islands.)

It is difficult to imagine how these government employees are able to manage the learning curve that must accompany these switches, but everyone in the office seems very capable, and things in Japan somehow run efficiently. This system reminds me of the way the Benedictine monks at St. John`s Abbey switch jobs according to the needs of the community. It makes for extremely flexible, knowledgeble people with a strong sense of interconnectedness.

Cullinary Adventures

Today, in my udon soup with mountain vegetables, I encountered a strange yet tasty `mushroom` and asked about it. It was flowery in appearance, brown in color, salty and a bit chewy, but I couldn`t find the stem. Apparently it wasn`t a mushroom -- it is "kuraage" or jellyfish! Quite tasty.

Yesterday with my tempura I ate Japanese whiting (fish) with the tail still attached. And a large thing that first appeared to be an onion ring was, in fact, squid. Edible but not my favorite. I prefered the eggplant tempura. :)

Right now I`m eating azuki (japanese red bean) jelly -- made not of gelatin but of seaweed. My boss` wife made some amazing sweets for him to bring into the office. Yum!

Softcream

We had our first taste of Japanese ice cream, Softcream, this weekend. It was both suprising and delicious. The generous soft-serve cone cost ￥240, or about $2.30 each. It looked exactly like an American cone, including the werid-yet pleasing cardboard-like cone. But the ice cream? I can only describe it as tasting like FROZEN CREAM. It wasn't really sweetened, and tasted more like butter than our icy fake-vanilla treats. Nick and I have determined we need to do more taste-testing before we give our final analysis.

furano is amazing

quick post with no editing

we:re here in furano and it is truly beautiful. great weather today. hokkaido looks very similar to oregon. we set up our apartment (it is really big, even for american standards) and i:ve had one day of work. we met the mayor. they threw a dinner party for us our first night and it was genuinely fun. amazing food, lots of laughter, even with our bosses.
my supervisor is so generous and helpful. we:re just babies here with no idea what we:re doing and no language. . . my japanese is very rusty.
tomorrow i have driving lessons -- the car i:ll use is a manual and i don:t know how, so i:m sure this will be an experience.
we do have a car and a bike but dont have the keys for those yet
our spare bedroom is beautiful -- tatami, shoji screens, futon bed. ready for your visit!!!
the sorachi river is just behind our apartment, and we:ve taken walks along it --- cranes, hawks, sunsets.
food very good. a few other foreigners in town very friendly. stuff not too expensive. our house set up well for us. tourist town. truly beautiful. tons i want to share but i:m at an internet cafe.

all for now!

Tokyo Orientation

Here! We've arrived in Tokyo where we'll get over jet-lag for a few days. I'm in orientation for the JET Program, who is sponsoring my trip. Some quick notes:

1. Most of my fellow JET's are recent college grads. They are gregarious, smart, and extremely qualified. Most speak Japanese, and many have lived/studied here before. Judging myself against the group, I realize what an extraordinary honor it is to be here in Japan, all-expenses-paid by the Japanese government. I hope the grad schools and my future employers recognize the significance of this.

2. Although I'm getting along well socially, our age makes us a bit different than the other JETs. Probably 10 times today I've received a comment such as 'Oh! You don't look that old!' Uhhh, thanks?!

3. The government is paying for us to stay in a very nice hotel in Tokyo. Nick found an affordable business hotel just a couple blocks from mine. Meals and enkais (parties) are beautiful and the visiting dignitaries are formal. Most hotel staff speak English, although my rudimentary Japanese is helpful.

4. I haven't had the chance to see Tokyo yet at all, as I've been in orientation meetings all day. Monday night, exhausted after a long flight, we found a nearby noodle shop (650 yen, or about $5). While I'm in orientation this week, Nick is checking out Tokyo. I'll ask him to write about what he sees and post it here, perhaps.

Apologies for the rather disjointed post. Off to Tokyo shortly, to party with other JETs who will be living on Hokkaido island.

On Our Way

Nick and I are in Oakland at my grrl Elizabeth's house. Many thanks to her and her fellow UU seminarians for being wonderful hosts! Flying to Tokyo on Saturday, and then to our new home in Hokkaido on Wednesday the 8th. Wheeeeeeeeee!

This pic is of Nick and I with all of our belongings.