Just a t-shirt away

When I lived in Japan I collected a whole bunch of t-shirts with Japanese-English printed on them. 

I especially love the ones that are grammatically correct but have little – or no – meaning at all. And the spelling mistakes are quite endearing.

Wearing these shirts and hoodies reminds me that Japan is sometimes just a t-shirt away...

A Japanese iris

I painted this, and a few more irises, while out with friends at a small winery in Niigata, Japan – yes, the Japanese make wine too. (And enjoy drinking it, as my friend Ikue would agree.)

We’d spent more time over lunch and lingering at the gift shop than sketching or painting, but it was a good day out. And the resident cat just loved all the attention, coming over to see what we were all painting and sitting in my lap as I sat on the grass with my sketchbook.

Thought I’d read up a bit on irises and discovered that, despite the name originating in Greek mythology (Iris is associated with the rainbow and messenger of the gods) and all the hybridizing and selection, horticulturalists have not been able to breed a pure red (bearded) iris. Most irises are therefore shades of purple and blue or yellow or white.

That little bit of yellow seems to suggest that it’s one of the bearded irises so perhaps not a Japanese iris after all, but an iris in Japan nevertheless.

Ikue painting the garden

Nuria and friend

Art club

I joined the art club at one of the junior highs in Japan where I worked as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher). I had met two girls in the club on my first day there who, when they found out I also loved art, drew me some manga and invited me to join them after school. It was a small group and we sat around laughing and talking as much as we did drawing and painting. But, as one of their English teachers, that was just what I’d wanted – a chance simply to chat (in English) outside the classroom.

When she introduced herself, Yuriya had told me she was half Japanese – her mom was from Singapore and I met her by chance as I left school one day. She had kindly invited me to visit their home and spend a day with them. Things hadn’t been easy for her – after returning to Japan with her husband she’d been widowed and had been bringing up Yuriya and her older brother on her own. Although they didn’t show it, I think things must have been difficult for the kids too – their mom worked very long hours at a factory and, although she spoke Japanese and had been living in Japan for years, she told me she still felt very much a gaijin, an outsider or “alien”. I wondered if Yuriya and her brother had sometimes felt a little like outsiders themselves. But amongst their friends at school they seemed happy and sociable.

This is the drawing that Yuriya gave me on my first day at school – the girl is in a yukata or summer kimono.

These two were drawn by Marina. She was keen to practise her English and I was trying to improve my very limited Japanese so we began mailing each other, switching easily enough between Japanese characters and the Roman alphabet by keitai or cell phone – a really good way to practise reading and writing Japanese, and a fun first for me at the time.

If you'd like to find out more about the JET Programme: http://www.jetprogramme.org/

Very, very thank you!

Anyone who has taught English in Japan (especially at junior or senior high) would have ended up with a pile of these: thank you messages from students. I worked as an ALT (Assistant Language Teacher) on the JET (Japan Exchange and Teaching) Programme for two years and loved it – it was the best start for a teacher with little experience (participants actually need none and no teaching qualifications) because it involved so much creative and energetic teaching, a lot of interaction and very little marking!

These were written by some of my first grade students at Ojima Junior High in Nagaoka where I was based for two years. I had met them when they were still at elementary school so knew them well and they were a genki bunch – they got on very well with their young Japanese teacher and were always keen to take part. I really enjoyed my lessons with them.

And these are some of the comments students made on a thank you card I received at another junior high where I filled in for a few months. Although I was only there a short time (so short I seem to have forgotten its name!), I remember this school as one of my favourites. It was much smaller than Ojima and on the outskirts of the city, and I can’t say I was looking forward to simply filling in there as I trudged to school through thick snow from the bus stop down the road on my first day. But I was met with such excitement (I soon found out I was the first woman ALT these students had had), curiosity and enthusiasm that it was impossible not to enjoy my often noisy and sometimes quite boisterous classes.

They were written by some of the third graders I taught. A few students wrote only in Japanese and a few only drew me pictures, but most tried to write their thank yous in English. You can pretty much guess which are from the boys! 

You look very beutiful.

You are teaching a little time. But very interesting.

You are beutiful woman! Thank you!

I want to be like YOU!! So you are very beautiful.

I love you.

You are nice girl!!

Very thank you!!

I wanted to study with you more and more.

I was glad to meet you!!

Good. Very good.

You are good smile!!

You are nice body.

You are GODDESS.

Good for you!!

I am ENGLISH! Thank you.

You are very cute!! 

My favourite is this last one – despite the unfortunate mistake, the boy who wrote this was actually quite good at English, and bright and sharp. I really enjoyed his honesty after so many over-excited compliments...

I was grad to see you. I’m good at English. And I want to study English more and more. I will go to South Africa some day. <- It’s a lie.

Summer in Hokkaido

At the end of my two years’ teaching in Japan I decided to travel up to Hokkaido before I flew home. None of my friends could make it so I went on my own. The cheapest ticket up there was a Seishun 18 Kippu but that meant that all my travel had to be on local or rapid trains (no express or bullet trains!). But I had a few books, my iPod, phone, camera, snacks... I caught the earliest train from Niigata at about five in the morning and finally got to Hakodate more than 24 hours later..! It’s still the longest journey I’ve ever made – made longer however by having to catch a bus for a stretch because the tracks had been damaged by heavy rain.

By the time I got to Aomori that evening I was dead tired, bored with my own company and music – and out of snacks! But I got talking to a sweet, intelligent and thoughtful boy – he was in senior high, had just come back from an exchange at a school in the UK and had been backpacking around Japan in his summer break, even sleeping rough in a park with some of the homeless in Tokyo along the way. He said he’d been a problem kid but he was good company and I guess, with my own backpack and cheap ticket, I seemed more like a student than a teacher myself. His mom was coming to pick him up to drive him the last stretch back home to Hakodate and he insisted that I go with them, and I gratefully accepted the offer.

I met some really nice people in Hokkaido – some a little overly protective when they found out I was travelling on my own – but all so friendly, generous and helpful. And Hokkaido was just beautiful – the most unspoiled bit of Japan I visited...

I’d love to go back – and next time I’ll take my sketchbook...

One of Hakodate's western-style buildings

Hakodate: famous for ika (squid)

At the Botanic Garden, Sapporo

Cycling near Furano

On my bike

At the Nibutani Ainu Culture Museum (the ainu are an indigenous group in Hokkaido)

If you'd like to find out more about the Seishun 18 Kippu: http://www.japan-guide.com/e/e2362.html

Memories of Japan

My friend Nuria made this for me when we were both living and working in Japan.

Kawaii desu ne?