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Japanese Cars - The Horrible Truth
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1)Tuesday I had to make a speech my Rotary club about myself and Australia. Knowing that while the Japanese may feign interest in the serious subjects of Australia, they really only want to see pictures of koalas and the reef. Dad and I preempted this by stocking my slide collection with suitably cheezy, picturesque pictures of cane fires, the reef and (shock! pretty!) Townsville. I had spent a week organising this speech (ok admitedly I knew about it for over a month in advance, but thats beside the point, I was organised a WEEK in advance) and at the end of it, gave it to my teacher liason at the school to check the spelling and grammar as such. It came back a completely different speech. Thats ok I thought, I'll just be reading it anway. That was until I came across words like yushutsu suru (export) and yunyu suru (import) and nairikubu (inland) which apart from being outside my current Japanese vocabulary are very very very difficult to say, even when you spell them out slowly. This of course meant that maintaining a straight face and a conversational tone would be utterly impossible. When the time came for me to actually make the speech it was very hard for me to be professional about it. Here were a bunch of old business men, who after lunch were all having trouble staying awake and were slouching slowly into their chairs, bellies sticking out under their expensive suits. However I managed to blunder throught it alright. I would have been less embarrassing had a well-meaning but no less annoying old dude hand't kept correcting my every mistake (and there were many) causing me to lose my place/drop the slide changer/giggle loudly or breathe into the microphone. Its ok though, all in all I gave the impression of a smart and knowledgeable girl with just a little bit of fun hidden in her, just what a Japanese man (of that age) wants to see. Even better too because my well meaning (but no less irritating and clucky) counciler had to leave early before I did my speech. *pulls a punch and hisses 'yessssss!'*
2) The current girl's fashion at Kita Koko (and indeed every Japanese school) is ridiculously short pleated skirts. (This is of course a understatement as many of your ahem, male, exchange students will attest, the skirts tend become so short that you can see how -cheeky- the girls really are.) The fact that they manage to get them so short is a mystery to me. The shirts that you buy from the store are very very long and are designed to be a perfect fit around your waist when properly fastened (which is yet another show of the amazing efficiency of Japanese design). However for the budding Japanese school aged go-go girl this makes it hard to roll it up several times to expose your (grrrr) thin...beautiful...toned...legs *grits teeth* However after one teacher actually told me that my skirt was TOO long, I was also forced to partake in this strange tribal ritual. At first I could only fold it once over, which produces a strange bump on one side from the exposed clasp, but after months of practise I can now fold it twice so there is no give-away pleat bunching and suitable leg showiness (with taste, I don't want to burn holes in the boys' retinas). However this constant abuse on the clasp stitching of me folding and unfolding an uncooperative skirt every day severly weakened it until on wednesday the unthinkable happened.
It snapped all together.
I was walking back from the gym after being fitted for a summer uniform with the rest of the ickle first graders but having being faced with the skirt length nazi sports teacher I thought it would be a good idea to roll down the skirt a knotch. Sometimes even the exhange student can't get away with everything. However this meant that when I got back to my bike I would have to roll it up again (more for heat reasons than fashion, really). Whilst engaged in this difficult exercise I became exasperated with the pleats of my skirt and exhale sharply only to hear a sickenly *snap*. Knowing exactly when had happened I legged it over to the nearest toilet to inspect the damage. However while unrolling my skirt the clasp, which has been rolled up in the rolls of the skirt until then, tumbled out and...straight...into...the...waiting...toilet...bowl at my feet. All the girls currently on exchange please raise you hand. Thank you. You are now the possible carriers of Hepititis A, B, C, H, Q and all other known and unknown forms, AIDS, polio, rabies, lyme disease and the bubonic plague. Thank you for using Japanese girl's school toilets.
But somehow I had to extract that clasp...
So wrapped my hand up in several layers of toilet paper and dipped it is, grabbed the clasp and threw onto the plastic bin (thereby avoiding the floor and the athletes foot, raging fungus, bird flu and SARS contained in the grim and *shudder* stale piss). Then I wiped my hand and set about trying to secure my skirt with the school badge. This didn't work so I had to walk back to my bike (after I has washed my hands at least 5 times) holding my skirt like a loser. Why did this have the happen on that particular day? I ask you. The one day when I had errands that I simply couldn't evade. *sigh* So after that I managed to ride to the sports store, pick up my summer sports uniform and ride home whilst either holding my zip or sucking my stomach so that I couldn't breath so as not force the zip that was my last stand against total embarrassment beside a Japanese road.
Well! When I finally got home, 10 agonising minutes later, I sewed that sucker on with double strength thread until you couldn't see the metal of the clasp loops anymore. See if it tries to that to me again, the little bugger. Then I went off to sanitise my hand.
3) I'll give you 5 seconds to let you mind run wild with the idea of the earth moving then you have to come back to land of the mature people, ok?................right.
So yeah, on Wednesday I experienced my first Japanese earthquake. How can I describe it? Bloody scary! My house is around 4 stories high as it is built on the shed used for storing my Jdad's cut lumber (he's a lumber-jack and he's ok) so in a strong wind it tends to sway gayly in the breeze. In fact in a good storm it was not uncommon for me to get a little motionsick sitting in bed at night.
So at first right, when the house starting swaying I thought it was a storm or gale wind blowing up. Then I realised that there it was clear skies all day that day and not a cloud in sight, then I realised IT WAS A BLOODY EARTHQUAKE. I then did the most intelligent thing that I have done so far in Japan, I ran to the nearest doorway and braced myself against the beams, waited a full 10 minutes for after shocks and when none came, finally relaxed. My Jsister thought it was quite funny, me in the doorway, her sitting in her roller-chair in the middle of the room. No need to point out the right one. I was so shaken up that I went down stairs to Jmum who was waiting with chocolate mudcake and tea for the survivors. Just the thing to calm the nerves. The explained then that all Japanese houses have deep foundations, like as deep as a swimming pool so the shock to the house from the ground is mostly absorbed by the meters of concrete. This led me to explain all about North Australian houses and how the roofs are all bolted to the walls which are then bolted to the ground so as to stop you flying away in a cyclone, Dorothy in the wizard of Oz style (mind you its possible in Japan since I am surrounded by Oompa Loompas). The news about the quake was on the TV within seconds of me getting downstairs and it turned out that the epicenter (the center of the quake) was just west off the coast of Ehime prefecture (my prefecture) along the thin peninsula that juts out into the inland sea (get your atlas). It was only a small one, 3 on the Richter Scale getting less and less the more you went inland but it was enough to make the coffee cups move on the tray downstairs.
Apparently about three years ago they had a rather large one where one person died, crushed by their own roof and my own Jgrandma's roof began to fall in. However she was fine. Cross my fingers and hope that I don't have to experience any more (but I hear that in Tokyo they get a good jiggle every month or so, good luck Ben who is in Tokyo now :P ).
4) So yeah, yesterday I moved host families for the first time. It was kinda bitter sweet in a way, because while I loved the Ochi's so much, it was time to move and meet someone new.
Moving itself was difficult as being the collector that I am, have accumulated a huge pile of stuff that I know I will need sometime in the future but still have to lug from one house to the next. The end result was two medium sized boxes, one of shoes (hehehehe) one of books, my two postpack boxes from Oz, full of the stuff from my desk, a HUGE disney bag with all my little bags of stuff in, a knapsack with my stuff toys, hangers with my Rotary and school uniforms plus my two suitcases (clothes vacuum packed inside) and my bike. We had to get a small truck in to move everything. It was so embarassing, especially watching my Jdad struggling with my exceedingly heavy suitcase. But now am moved and settled into my new room which has a closet, a luxury of storage space I didn't have at my old house.
The new family, the Hirao family are so cool. They have three kids (Ayuko (15), Mizuki (14) and a brother, Teito (10) ) and a HUGE traditional style house with a big yard and two black labradors. The father manages a towel factory and plays the drums in a Jazz band, and has played in New York. The mum is a very cool lady, clued in and likes to send me emails on my keitai (mobile phone). Ayuko is at West state high school and has a boyfriend and is very very cool. Mizuki is a funny girl and laughs alot but always steals food from the plate before its served so she's a little jollier than your average Japanese girl. Teito has really funny too and looks just like his dad with a big round head and Ringo Star haircut (I remember his name because Teito sounds like 'tato as in potato, cos his head is big and round). He likes to play playstation 2 racing games and Japanese chess on the computer. All in all its a great house and a great family. I have a room upstairs with my own toilet that I share with Ayuko and a balcony leading just from my room. I can't go out there much though because it sets off the dogs and they start barking loudly. However, looks to be a lot of fun
Sorry its late guys. Hope you all had a great week, til next time smilies ^-^