feeling dumb

In Japanese culture complimenting someone about something is very important, so as a foreigner you are often complemented on your Japanese, regardless of how good you are. Which as a sign of modesty you are supposed to reply �iee mada mada desu� which means �No I still have a way to go�, lately I have realized just how �mada mada� I really am. I have been studying Japanese for 5 years and have spent a year living in Japan before, so I can speak Japanese. While the word �speak� has very broad implications, I am at a level where I can be a contributing member of Japanese society, unfortunately I am a very stupid one. Normal conversations for the most part aren't any problems but stuff like setting up an internet account, buying car insurance, and figuring out the cell phone bill have really shown me just how little I actually know. I try and try but I just get so lost and there is so much vocabulary that is really never used outside of certain situations that I just don't know. Church today was especially difficult to follow because there was a talk about the Japanese festival of Obon, its history, it's connection to Buddhism and Shinto, and how Japanese Mormons approach a holiday that is so ingrained into Japanese society to transcend any religious belief. And then it some how got even harder in sunday school when they were talking about the old testament. The old testament is hard enough to understand in English!

But a bit of back tracking, let me talk a little bit more about church. Last week I wanted to go so I looked up on the computer when I was at work and got the address for the church. I found out that it is �near� Yatsumi station so I spent about $10 in train fare to get there and realized, I couldn't find it. I walked in circles all over the station but couldn't find anything. I was all hot and sweaty and since I didn't have a cell phone, I had no way to look it up. This week however I got a cell phone and was able to look up that it was actually about a kilometer in the opposite direction I was heading! So I after I finally got there, I was warmly greeted by everyone. I had forgotten how wonderful it feels to be so welcomed like that. Yatsumi is a pretty small nothing area so, of course, there are really only older people there and a few young families. But I did able to make some contacts and I'm now in the know for all of the single activities happening in the Chiba area so that's a good start on my quest to build up a good social life. But after church brother Sugimoto invited me over for lunch with his family. It was wonderful. It was a big (for Japan) house full of energy. I really felt the love that everyone had for each other and I was able to have lots of really good food. It was a fantastic day. It made me realize how much I really don't care for living on my own as compared to living with a family.

Besides that work has been good. I have done actual work lately, not just sitting around the office not doing anything. Since school is currently out for summer I am helping a handful of students with their speech contest practice. This is more work then it sounds like. You have to repeat the same short speech over and over again, really exaggerating everything. My tongue and throat actually hurt at the end of the day. You also don't realize how hard it is to explain how you make a sound. Native English speakers just naturally know that to make an L sound you push your tongue against your upper teeth, first year English students have to constantly think and adjust their tongue to make the right sounds. Sometimes you hear a word and it doesn't sound right but you just for the life of you can't figure out how to explain it to make it better. And then you have a balance you have to keep where you need to make practice but don't want to push the kids too hard. It is actual work. I think some times we think of the JET program as just such an easy gig that we assume that there isn't any real work involved, there is. But it feels really good to finally be salary. There is a new level of trust you are given by your employer. You don't need to be timed for exactly how long of a break you take, under the right circumstances you can leave a little early. There are times when I'll have to stay late but I enjoy this much more.

Driving in Japan requires a lot more concentration then it does in America. The whole left side right side thing becomes natural very quickly, but what gets you is how small the roads are, how much people will block traffic, and how much old people just don't care about any sort of traffic safety.

On a side note, there are a bunch of little frogs outside my patio right now. I don't know how they got there, I'm on the second floor. I almost want to catch one and keep it as a pet.