A Yakuza?

Today was the mid first semester testing day at school and I was finally able to catch up on some of my work!  I decided to bring my person computer into school as well, and it allowed me to catch up on organizing my thoughts. I am constantly writing new things down on scrap paper, in journals, and in random notebooks.  Eventually, these thoughts either get lost or thrown away, or they simply get re-written into a different notebook somewhere else.  I have started using a program called "evernote," which I read about in The 4-Hour Workweek.  The difference between writing all of my thoughts in this electronic notebook is that it is much easier to find things due to the easy search option.  Also, it eliminates clutter around the house or office.  Electronic information is a little risky in that you can either accumulate too much of it, or you can delete it accidentally.  Keeping a backup system on either a hard-drive or somewhere in “the cloud” are good ways to ensure that if your computer crashes you’ll have it saved somewhere.  Paper copies of things are just as vulnerable if you think about it.  There could be a fire, or an angry spouse could go through and throw everything away, or you could go through and throw everything away.

You can also take photos or screen shots and when you put it into evernote and sync it to your account, it will try to go through and identify words in the photo.  I’m guessing that scanned photos are more reliable, and I don’t think it is able to identify different languages in the free version.  If accumulating papers isn’t a problem for you like it is for me, feel free to ignore all of the above.  ^_^

A month or so ago I applied to be a Tokyo Orientation Assistant.  I was accepted as an assistant, but was not asked to do any speeches or presentations.  This would have given me some practice with public speaking in a business setting, but it’s ok that I didn’t get asked to do it because now I don’t have to spend the time preparing for it.  I will go to Tokyo for around five days at the end of July.  I was a little upset because the Board of Education requires volunteers to take paid leave in order to volunteer at the event.  I disagree with this because as I am a JET participant, and the Board of Education decided to hire JET participants specifically, I feel as though this event is filling my duties to the JET Program as well as to the Board of Education.  The organizers of the orientation however make it so that the BOE can choose individually of the program if they want to allow us to go to the event on work hours or on vacation hours.  As I am getting paid for leave anyway, it’s not so much about the money but about the principal behind the fact that it should be considered part of my work duties.  I tried to dispute it with my supervisor but he pointed out specifically that it was not required for them to let me go on work hours and declined my request.  Since I already said I would go I’m not going back on my promise, but it would be nice if I didn’t have to take vacation days to go and work.  Oh well, it was my fault for not being more clear from the beginning.  Lesson learned.

I am currently working on a book called 36 Views of Mount Fuji by Cathy N. Davidson.  I decided to take a break on Lafcadio Hearn’s works because my friend B lent me this book when she came to Japan, and she would like it back before never I’m sure.  If I let it sit around, I probably will forget about it.  I also just finished reading The Accidental Office Lady by Laura Kriska for a second time, and I’m really enjoying comparing these two books.   The first time I read Kriska’s book, I was unable to relate to it.  I thought that she was simply unable to adapt to the Japanese way.  After having almost a year of working in the Japanese system, I relate to her stories, feelings, and writing infinitely more.  I understand why she had little spouts of rebellion, and why she was unable to conform to specific parts of Japanese society.  When I met with her this summer I wish I had already had this experience because my impression of the book probably would have been significantly different.  In Davidson’s book, although she first came to Japan 10 years before Kriska and was at a different stage in her life, I’m kind of seeing her as what she says she’s not.  So far, although I’m only 4 chapters into the book, it doesn’t seem like she’s really experiencing Japan the way Kriska did.  I think that there is difference between foreigners who come to Japan knowing Japanese to a certain extent, and those who come to Japan knowing none.  There are so many subtleties in what people say and how people say it, that the more you understand, the harder Japanese society becomes.  I feel like Davidson thinks she is assimilating into society when in actuality she isn’t.  Looking back at the University Student me, I think I fit the same bill.  Although I thought I was doing well to fit in, I was really just blind to all of the undertones of Japan.  As I progress through Davidson’s book however, I am finding that she is trying to be as true to the “then” self as she could, so my opinion of the book will probably grow with the characters within.  She also has a lot of insight into the culture and subtle nuances or Japan and Japanese people.

I’m really interested in writing a book someday, and would possibly like to take an online or University (or Graduate School) course when the opportunity presents itself.  Does anyone have any friends that have taken an online course and would they recommend it to me?

I think I’ll leave it here for now.

Lana

P.S. In the middle of today, one of the first year teachers had to speak on the phone with a student’s parents.  It turns out she had yelled at the student for doing something in the hallway, and the fact that she yelled at him got back to the parents.  She called them and apologized profusely for 20 minutes or so about the situation.  When she was finished with the phone conversation she looked exhausted and was joking around with the other teachers saying things like “why didn’t you tell me?” “you all knew about this?” “tell me about this next time!” “I wouldn’t have said anything to him if I had known!”, and other things I didn’t understand.  She left the room for a few moments and I asked a fellow teacher what she was talking about.  She hesitated for a moment and said, “Well, the boy’s father is…” and she paused for a while.  I butt in and said “a Yakuza?”  “Oh!"  She replied looking relieved.  "You know what Yakuza are… well, yeah.”

So, she had yelled at this boy and it got back to the father, and then she had to call up the parents and apologize for yelling at him I suspect.  If you have forgotten from other posts, Yakuza are the Japanese equivalent of 'the mob' in America or Italy.  I don’t think that this boy’s father was way up there in importance, but he definitely has influence or else she wouldn’t have been so nervous about the whole situation.  Maybe I should be more careful about which students I yell at, or look at, or stand near!  As long as you’re not trying to mess with their system though, I think they pretty much leave people alone.