Before coming to Japan I envisioned getting here and being able to walk into a little Japanese pub – an izakaya where I could sit down at a bar in front of a sushi case and one or two friendly, talkative chefs. In a place like this I could order all kinds of cool little Japanese dishes, eat, drink, and practice my Japanese with the staff, who would tell me all about food and the best stuff to do while in Japan. Since getting here, though, I haven’t found anywhere like that. Most restaurants and izakayas are either so busy that conversation is impossible, or the Japanese people there are too reserved to talk with. It’s been disappointing but not totally unexpected. I mean, when I worked as a sushi helper I wasn’t exactly leaping over the bar to talk with customers.
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Before I came to Japan, when people asked me about the job I would tell them that I was going to be teaching English and that I’d have to wear a business suit every day. That seemed to surprise nearly everyone. Compared to the States, Japan is still a pretty formal society – when it comes to work anyway. But what surprised people more was that I wasn’t dreading the suit-wearing. In fact, I was a little excited about it. In recent years I’ve become a bit of a lunatic for nice clothes, and wearing a suit is an ambitious extension of that for me. Plus, for the past two or three years my issues of GQ and Esquire have been telling me over and over again how to buy, wear, and maintain a good suit. So I was excited to put that information into practice.
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I was standing in front of a class of four students. Two were adults and two were in college. I held an illustration of a little red-headed girl with pigtails and a teddy bear in her arms. I was trying to get the students to think of ways to describe the picture. It was a mid-level class and they had pretty decent vocabularies. The point was to learn how to describe people with phrases like, “She’s tall and has glasses,” or “He’s wearing a blue sweater and has short, spiky hair.” But nobody would venture a guess about this particular picture. I called on one of the adults, pointed to the freckles on the pictured girl’s face, and asked, “What does she have on her cheeks?” The student squinted, deep in thought. Then it came to her: “Spinach,” she said.
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Shizuoka is a very comfortable city. I’ve heard it’s the number one migration spot for retired couples. It’s sunny, warm, and the bright merchant shingles radiate a kind of close-knit, friendly aura. I’ve spent the past two weekends pedaling my bicycle around exploring, breathing the fresh air, and trying not to run over old ladies. I also get the sense that there’s a subtle, perhaps seedier layer that’s hidden in basements and side streets, which I’m interested in discovering. By “seedy” I don’t mean “bad.” Maybe “untreated” is a better word. Anyway, I’ll get to that later.
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Wednesday was a holiday so I did a little more exploring downtown. This time I went into the business district and walked around Shizuoka station. Near the bottom of the post are a couple pictures I took. I’ll try to write a proper post sometime tomorrow. Additionally, I’m officially part of the AEON Shizuoka Web site. You can check it out at http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/snews.php?sno=2211. There are some good pictures of the school and my coworkers. As you can probably tell by the photos, it’s a pretty fun environment. I’m still really enjoying it so far.
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