On Monday, my day started in Koriyama, Fukushima prefecture. On Monday, my day ended in rural Miyako, Iwate prefecture. And even I’m not sure how I got to that point. …Keep Reading

Video tribute by JapanofileRob374

Iwate Swan, I hope you are in a better place.

R.I.P. Rodger Jeffrey Swan

December 19th, 1986-January 26th, 2010

I just wish that I could have gotten to known you better before you left us.

“Please don’t be cynical. I hate cynicism - it’s my least favorite quality and it doesn’t lead anywhere. Nobody in life gets exactly what they thought they were going to get. But if you work really hard and you’re kind, amazing things will happen.” - Conan O’Brien (how timely!)

Surprise, surprise, I’ve been a moody emotional vampire lately. So much so that I really dreaded visiting a preschool the other day, because I was pretty sure I wouldn’t have the energy for it. Somehow, though, those kids brought it out of me, holding my hand and dragging me wherever they went. By the end of that day, my problems weren’t gone, but I felt a lot better about them. Little kids are good that way.

Sometimes I feel like trying to be kind hasn’t gotten me anywhere. I want so badly to be a mean, selfish person, and just take what I want. But everytime I’ve done that, I never get what I want and I feel even worse. It’s so hard to figure out how to deal with people, sometimes - not because they’re Japanese, or American, or whatever - because people, being people, will always have different motivations and feelings than yourself. And that’s okay. I’ve figured that part out. It’s just that I don’t know how to stop it from hurting anyway.

But then I think to myself - look, you have to stop feeling sorry for yourself. You’ve got your dream job, you’re living in your dream country, and you’re making a decent paycheck. You have food, clothing, shelter. Raging out against a world you think is against you doesn’t make you any more attractive of a person. All I can do is just keep trying, I guess. It’s not like I make my desires known either - I keep them hidden, for fear of being denied. I’m trying to be a more honest, decent person, but at the end of the day, I’m still a scaredy-cat. I wonder when it will be when I become the person I thought I could be?

But I’m so lucky. I really am. It may be “boring” to have zero boy drama whatsoever, but I think it will really do me good to focus on my work and my life for a little while (longer lol). It’s why I’m here, after all. Those little kids reminded me of that. Sometimes, on my low days, I just have to walk around town, seeing people live their lives - old people hobbling along, young couples hands intertwined, girls my age browsing for shoes - and remind myself that whatever my troubles are, they really aren’t such a big deal.

「慣れない日本文化は何でしょうか」と、日本人の同僚と話すときはよくこの質問が出てきます。実は、私はだいぶ日本に慣れてきましたよ。１年間以上日本に住んでいるし、日本に来る前もたくさん日本文化を勉強しました。最初来たときでも驚くことはあまりなかったし、今では全然文化違いによるトラブルはないですね。それにしてもやっぱり生活はパーフェクトではないな。まぁ、日本に慣れてるからといっていつもうまく行くわけにはいかないでしょう。

…Keep Reading

Headline reads: Play in English with Amanda-san

(yes this only ran in a newspaper with a circulation less than the courier post. let me have my moment!)

A large part of my job involves going out to various schools in the prefecture and teaching about America. Oh, scratch that - it mainly has to do with them introducing a foreigner to the students and teaching them a bit of English. Still, it’s a chance for me to go to schools and interact with children, which I don’t get to do very often. It can get a bit boring always being in an office with other adults, so even though I get nervous about “performing” (and annoyed with the prep work) it always turns out to be a lot of fun. I’m not particularly good at playing with children! I’ll admit it! But even I can get them running and jumping and laughing and not wanting to leave. By the end, I don’t much want to leave either.

To be honest, doing cultural workshops with children is the best way to get Japan ready for their coming influx of foreigners (unless they just want millions of jobs to go untaken once their already massive elderly population gets even larger) and I wish there were more of them. This event was in Kanegasaki, a small little field of white in the middle of nowhere. You know how many foreigners these children get to see? It’s easy to see western foreigners on the tv and think all of us are perfect, plastic (and usually white) people with pearly teeth, so it’s really fulfilling for me to go into a classroom and show them I’m just as much of a living, breathing person as they are. Foreigners just look different than what they’re used to. When you’re a child, those physical differences can seem much more important than they are (heck, who am I kidding? They’re much more important to adults than they should be either).

You play a game with them, you mention you like Pokemon just as much as they do, and suddenly foreigners become a lot less intimidating and little tiny bit more relatable. I want Japanese children to grow up and think of foreigners as just as normal as they are, not some scary creatures who will scream English epithets at them “HELLO HOW ARE YOU IM FINE AND YOU?” It would be nice to create a fascination in a young child about America just like the fascination I had with Japan that grew out of a silly little show about collecting monsters. Because in the end, it’s the memories you make in your childhood, it’s the impressions made in the middle of a snow-filled day, that really stay with you for the rest of your life.

“Hey, Amanda, guess what?” a little girl of maybe 5 said to me once. “My friend says that foreigners are scary. But I met you, and you’re not scary at all!” If my job means teaching little children that we’re all humans at the end of the day, then consider my job satisfaction at 100%.

(Plus, I-san saw that photo and said we have to play this game at the next drinking party. You wish, I-san!! :3) 

周りの人は、「あの人をあきらめたほうがいい」と言ってる。私も、最近そう思ってるよ。あなたは、私についてなんとも思わないだろう。あなたは、私が行けないところにいるようで、太陽みたいに光ってる。まぶしいよ。素晴らしいよ。

でも気づいてほしい、私のこと。私のところに近づいてほしい。こういうクレージーな気持ち、感じてほしい。私、一人で感じてるのがもう嫌なのよ。

でも、それは困らせてしまうよね。あなたは一人でがんばってるから。私も、一人でがんばってるから。ただ・・・一人きりがんばり続けるわけにはいかないでしょう？

私はあなたと一緒にがんばりたい。が、気持ちに応えられないなら、しょうがないよね。

I was up to my elbows in translating (er, transliterating?) addresses in this 10 page long list of prefectural child rearing centers (at least i was done the “how to take care of baby when s/he is constipated dawwwww” part) when I-san came up to me pointing excitedly. “Hey, hey, Amanda, is it true that milk is like super expensive in America?”

“Uh…I don’t know. I think it’s a bit more expensive in Japan.” I looked at Bryan who nodded in agreement.

“Huh? Well, wait a second. Maybe this chart is wrong?” He pointed out a number on a chart full of global consumer prices. It said a litre of milk cost 11 dollars. A LITRE.

“That-that is totally wrong,” I blurted out. “What the…I mean, huh? Let me see that chart.”

“Maybe they meant a gallon,” he said helpfully. But that is still wrong! Can you imagine paying ELEVEN DOLLARS for a freaking gallon of milk? Or even, if milk was 11 dollars to the litre, a gallon would be what? 40 dollars, that’s what! That’s peak oil post-apocalypse prices right there!

We narrowed down the problem to be a mistake with a decimal point (obviously, 11.3 meant 1.13 originally, right?), but aren’t you glad you have some foreign workers to correct such ridiculous mistakes! Well, I had a laugh, at least.

Later, T-san told us that he didn’t even know sunflower seeds were something that was sold, in stores for human consumption. When you grow up in the countryside of coastal Iwate, I suppose certain things are lacking from your common human knowledge! “I can’t believe this guy. I bet you just picked the seeds out of your neighbor’s sunflowers!” I-san teased, and T-san blushed under the cotton of his sick mask. “Amanda, you just have to teach him about Japanese culture. You know more about it than he does!”

Haha! If only!

I’m making a video of English dubbed anime clips for Japanese children (so that they know American children watch Pokemon too!) and I ran into this:

…Keep Reading

This is my kotatsu! ie the only thing keeping me alive in the winter time here! For those of you not aware, it’s only the best invention the Japanese have come up with (forget those crazy videogames, robots, v*******s). There’s a bunch of makes and models but basically a kotatsu is a low table with a blanket attached to the top, and underneath the top is a small space heater. Turn on the heat, keep your body toasty underneath the blanket, sit and watch tv/play on your computer/eat mikan oranges, and you have the best way to get yourself through a nasty winter. 

Okay, it’s not actually unlivable up in the GREAT WHITE NORTH (of japan). I will admit it is cold here in Iwate, but the way everyone was going on about it, I thought I’d be waking up with my eyebrows frozen over and having to keep my toothpaste in the refridgerator because it would warmer. The big problem is that there is no central heating, terrible insulation, and it’s inconvenient/deadly to use heaters while you’re sleeping. Temperature-wise, it’s not that much colder than New Jersey. I’d say it’s easier for me to deal with going out into the cold because my apartment is not some golden wonderful cocoon and does not envelop me with the toasty comfort of wasted money. It’s nice to know that you can just heat the one room that you spend time in and still live a reasonable, first-world experience, people!

But I think I’ll always hate waking up and being so cold I can see my breath. The other morning it was 40 F! I was using just space heaters to keep me warm in the mornings but even that wasn’t cutting it anymore, so Bryan helped me lug out my big kerosene heater and showed me how to use it without blowing myself up. I was scared! For the longest time, I was just like, flammable kerosene? Right by my paper walls? Is that okay? Turns out it’s not such a big deal (like every other thing I freak out about!). I just can’t keep it on at night, or I will die. Fun!

And now, I love the little guy! I now can’t live without it. I don’t need it for very long, just long enough to warm up my room to a luxurious 68 F. It’s funny, because heating was always just something I complained about at home (”MAWMM, TURN UP THE HEAT”), yet having to actively think about keeping such a small space warm, and making sure to buy kerosene, and how not to waste said kerosene, has made it a lot easier for me to be comfortable at lower temperatures. I was always the “perpetually cold whiner” so this can only be a good thing!

昨日、秘書課の人から翻訳依頼をもらった。「内容は緊急性がなさそうであれば金曜日までに完成できます？」と聞かれたがチラッと見ると、内容はヤム芋やゲノミクスっていう科学的な話だったので、「あっ、あんまり緊急ではないね」とホッとした（笑）。普段は翻訳をするなら、日本語から英語にしますが、今回は英語から日本語ということだった。それはすっごく難しいよ！私は日常会話で自分の気持ちや思いぐらい日本語で表現できるが、アカデミックな、複雑な英語を日本語に訳すなんてなかなかフレーズができないね。「ブライアン～、英和翻訳やらない？」と責任をパスしようとしたが、ブライアンは「俺が前の英和翻訳をしただろう？今はアマンダの番だ」とニコニコと笑った。

まぁ、一応翻訳をやるのが好きだから挑戦してみた。でもやっぱり、日本語に訳すと、英語の文章の順番が混乱してしまって、意味があってるかどうか私には分からない。だからIさんにネイティブチェックをやってもらったんだ。Iさんは英語をそんなに話せないが、意外と英語が分かって、前にこういうようなチェックをやって私の下手な日本語を素敵な分かりやすい日本語文にしてくれた。プラス、直してくれた部分をそれぞれ全部説明してくれて大変勉強になる。この動詞でこういうフレーズをよく書くとか、この使い方のほうが自然なんだなーとか、うまく日本語のニュアンスを説明できる人だ。だから、私の翻訳は真っ赤になってもこれからこの間違いを通して日本語のスキルがレベルアップするだろうと思ってる。でももっと日本語のブログを書けば、自分の書く能力もあがるだろー！怠け者だけどさ＾＾日本に居るのになかなか勉強する気がないな。

追伸：今日は久しぶりに電話に出て、完璧に「はい、NPO・文化国際課、アマンダです」と対応できたが、相手は「はい、OOのAです」と言って、私が「よろしくお願いします」と言い間違えた。（笑）普段は「お疲れ様です」と言うんでしょう？なんか今日私は変だなー＾＾毎日は勉強になっていきますように～