Earlier today as I was teaching my last class for the day and kind of zoning out in my own head, I began to feel bad for making fun of Japanese people or more perhaps for taking them for granted. I don't think it's bad to laugh at the cultural differences here, they are apparent and abundant and to be clear, I am no way claiming superiority but sometimes, this shit just makes me laugh. It's different from what I am used to is all. And sometimes teaching English here feels like being in a sitcom.
If anything, I am the fumbling outcast, the one who should be made fun of. I'm nowhere near as neat, put together or docile as most Japanese women. I hate dressing up, I ride my bike fast while standing up, I drink too much occasionally and always hog the mic at karaoke (I never mean too, it's just turns out that I can sing every song a little better). Typically I don't mind if other people laugh at my expense, I would laugh at me. I give credit for a good zinger as much as I take credit and if you actually manage to offend me, well somehow I am impressed. Occasionally, Yuji will tell me that I am "totally wrong" and from time to time the female management staff can't help but laugh at my absurdity. I bring tea to work in a mason jar, I eat carrots whole, I make stupid faces, things like this.
Still, almost everyone I have met or encountered here has been extremely patient and kind to me. My students will periodically check in with me to ask, how am I liking Japan or more often, "How is your Japanese life?" To which I always reply, "Great! How is yours?" They frequently ask, do I need anything and if I have any questions to please ask them! They introduce me to their mothers and confide in me when their father has died. My manager has dropped everything more than once to walk me to the bank or to the drug store to find some common item or to help me read labels. They bring me gifts and sweets weekly and several of them have taken me out and treated me to wonderful meals and asked heartfelt questions about my life and my family. They really are truly interested in and concerned for me with a curiosity and sincerity that is perhaps lost on strangers in the West.
Japanese people are funny though, in my "foreigner" opinion. They cannot for the life of them pronounce L's, R's or W's. They wear asinine tee-shirts with nonsense English phrases, the women will wear pantyhose no matter what the temperature is, even if it's with jean shorts and sandals and sometimes the men carry purses. They have a knack for all asking the same cannon of kind of boring questions, as in "What's your hobby?" or "Can you eat Japanese food?" Oh! And the high school girls use this glue they call 'sock attach' to keep their socks up for that famous Japanese school girl look! Sock attach about killed me when I found out about it.
Still, these things are trivial and account for nothing towards the real heart and soul of these people. I don't want to loose admiration for the things I am seeing and experiencing. Maybe I should have a little more reverence?
Just as I am thinking all this to myself and somewhat on auto pilot teaching my class techniques for interrupting and changing subjects in conversation, they clamor all at once, I turn around from the board where I am writing, thinking I have said something they didn't understand or maybe something I didn't mean to and I pause, "What's wrong?" They look somewhat panicked. And then all at once they are still, silent, alert. "An earthquake," they tell me and we all freeze waiting to see or feel rather what comes next. Makoto does the calculation out loud and says, "Sixth floor." Youriko, points at the ceiling and says, "It swayed, the room swayed." All four of my adult students are at attention and I'm a little freaked out, thinking that the first thing I will do is kick off my heels if I need to so I can run better. I don't think you are supposed to run but damn those heels were bugging me today.
But also, I am confused. I didn't feel anything. "Why didn't I feel anything?" I ask.
"We are sensitive," they say and kind of laugh at me. "We are very sensitive people."
So. That about sums it up, I will try to be more sensitive. Not to say that I will cut out the goofing, because I refuse to, but I will try to remember to grant more grace for all the differences and marvel a little more here and there.
