Daily Life in Japan

Today in town we had a rain day, which reminded me of how I wanted to highlight some differences between Japan and American daily life. First of all, it doesn't snow a lot in Okayama but we do get a decent number of typhoons, so yes the schools were closed because of too much rain. That meant I had to spend the whole day at the town hall. I do not know if other Japanese companies are like this, we did not do it while I worked at AMDA, but at 8:15 am employees do this routine of morning calisthenics. If you were at all sleepy still, that will probably wake you up. Also, cleaning is big here. So at 5:15 pm everyone goes around sweeping and emptying trash cans on the office floor, even though there are janitors.

Schools
All the schools in town follow relatively the same kind of schedule. After third period, there's a 15 minute recess to go play outside. And then they get a second recess after lunch! Once again, cleaning is important in Japan, so after the second recess, I guess as a kind of cool down before going back to class, kids grab brooms and mop buckets to sweep and scrub floors. Also, in classic Japanese politeness, kids need to say excuse me whenever entering or leaving the teacher's room. I know it's been a while since I was in elementary school, but that seems pretty different. Another interesting aspect of going to school in Japan, or at least Yakage, is lunch time. First, lunch is provided for by the schools after parents pay for a month's worth. Everyone eats the same meal and it's usually pretty healthy looking. You got a bed of rice, some vegetables, meat or fish, a bottle of milk, and a dessert or fruit. All for $2.50 a day. All the kids get dressed up and walk together to bring their tanks of food up to the classroom to dole out to everyone. Afterwards, they brush their teeth and wash up to go out to recess.

Backstreet's back...ALRIGHT!

Yesterday, the Backstreet Boys came to Hiroshima as part of their new album tour "In a World Like This" and of course I bought a ticket to go despite having school the next day. Had to leave work early and hop on the bullet train to make it to the 7:00 pm start time. Then had to drive alllll the way back in a friend's car. Quite a long trip but totally worth the sleep deprivation. They played all the classics to get you pumped up, and even some of their new songs were pretty catchy. As much as I loved rocking out to BSB songs from the 90s, it was a weird feeling watching them live. During an intermission, there was a promo for the upcoming BSB Movie commemorating 20 years of making music. 20 YEARS! On one hand, props for going strong, but on the other hand, this is a "boy" band with some members now married and fathers. Should they move on? I think partially due to the band personally feeling this way, plus the toll their synchronized dancing must take, they've begun to move in a new direction. For a part of the concert, they just sat around and played acoustic guitars. WHAT?! BACKSTREET BOYS playing INSTRUMENTS?! That was a bit disorienting and I'm glad they didn't do that for too long. While they were sitting around with their guitars they started to joke around with one another and how they looked holding these instruments. One of them (Howie) said he looked "kavaii" and I just thought, "Oh God, is he pronouncing 'kawaii' with a German accent?" All of the Japanese people in the stadium must have been very confused until Nick Carter chimed in and corrected him on his pronunciation. Howie kept digging himself deeper as he tried to play off his mistake. Luckily, the majority of the crowd could not understand what he was saying, but I just had to hang my head in shame. Thankfully, this did not go on for too long, and they went back to what they do best.

 Yes this is the Backstreet Boys in their mid-thirties making music

Rice Harvesting

As some of you may know, Yakage is in Okayama Prefecture. I came to Okayama two years to work with a non-profit after the Japan earthquake and tsunami. That organization is called AMDA, Association of Medical Doctors of Asia. They send people all around world to help those affected by natural disasters.

While working at the town hall one day, I was introduced to an older man who works as the head of some department. I thought to myself, "I feel like I've seen him from somewhere before." But I dismissed it as it was unlikely I would remember a face from 2 years ago. However, when he read my bio in the town newspaper he came back to me and told me that he was an AMDA volunteer and we discovered that we did in fact meet briefly two years ago at an event. He invited the other PiA fellow in Yakage and me to join him for an AMDA event in northern Okayama. We would spend the day harvesting rice to send away to Indonesia. The ensuing BBQ was delicious with some dancing afterwards. Great way to spend a Saturday.