Culture Shock and a Pottery Wheel

A few days ago I was talking to my suitemate, Tomoko, about studying and living abroad. You see, she’s a lot braver than I am. She’s gone to an American college for four years now. When she came to America (she started at a two-year school in Hawaii along with my other, very brave, suitemate Aiko) she did not know a lot of English and began school with an intensive ESL (English as a Second Language) program. That means HOURS (I think about 6 or 7!!) of ESL all day. She also lived with a host family who wanted her to tell them about her day when she came home, in English of course. She described the stress she experienced and talked about how she carefully planned sentences to say to them “Today I went to ____ and did ____”. She understood what I meant when I said hearing another language all day is exhausting. Then I told her my story about culture shock, from personal experience. Those of you reading this in Japan may remember it, unfortunately, and what a brat I was sometimes because of it (one side affect of culture shock: EXTREME GRUMPINESS .

I went

In Takayama
Me, Akira, and Akira’s Mom (my other lifesaver while I was there). They all put up with more grumpiness and culture shock than any reasonable person would have, but I appreciate it so much.

to Japan in 2003, for those who don’t know, in the VERY hot summer before beginning college. One day, I went out alone with Akira’s cousin, Keiko. Keiko speaks amazing English and is an English teacher in Japan. However, she did not want to speak English to me because she wanted to help me learn Japanese – intense JSL! This day was difficult for me, but challenging. I had been in Japan a while by then, and eventually, hearing Japanese made me feel VERY tired. I mean WORN OUT. Everything involved thinking and contemplation – even just ordering some food or watching television. I couldn’t even veg out in front of the TV without having to think about everything that was said. After my intense JSL day, pressure was mounting. The subway was in Japanese, every menu, every sign, every vending machine and gum wrapper – Japanese.

A few days later, Akira, Tomoko (a different one, not my suitemate), and Kenta, very kindly took me to a really old village that was famous for pottery. It was beautiful! Entire shops were made of pottery scrap tiles and all the walkways were broken pottery pieces. For lunch, we had soba

Niwa-San
Akira’s Dad (and me… gone blonde)! Gave me a place to stay, and brought my pottery back to the States after it dried

( wheat noodles served over ice and dipped in a cold broth – a common summer lunch because it’s so refreshing in the humidity), umeboshi (sour, pickled plums) and cold barley tea (also common to have in the summer) served in handmade pottery bowls and cups. Traditional Japanese pottery is very beautiful! There are a lot of earth tones and greens and blues and they’re coated in a heavy glaze that usually changes between two tones depending on how thick it is applied (black to green, black to brown, tan to brown are some common combinations). Often, the inside is a darker glaze, and the bottom of the piece is not glazed at all (this is where someone gripped the piece as they dipped it in the glaze!). In the middle of this town was a giant old kiln, and we took our picture in front of it.

All of them knew I loved making art or creating anything really. I did a lot of pottery on my own, so they decided to take me to a traditional Japanese pottery class. I was really happy about it because I thought to myself, “This is the one thing I can do. Even if I don’t understand Japanese well, I can do this!” I expected to be good at it. We went in and put on smocks and changed our shoes (you change your shoes a lot in Japan! More on that later). We sat at our wheels and started making a rice bowl together as a class, in the traditional fashion. I listened very closely and watched other students, but the teacher had a heavy regional accent and I couldn’t understand ANYTHING. Seriously, not ONE WORD. I tried to mimick everyone else, but my ball of clay just spun around, lopsided, on the wheel. I kept to myself about how I was feeling, but eventually, I felt so frustrated and out of place that I started crying. This was the one time I thought I would have some relief from the constant stress of being in an environment where almost no one could speak my language, but it wasn’t true! I didn’t know how to do this traditional kind of pottery, and even though it was completely silly, it really upset me! Tomoko, who spoke very little English herself, came over to me and walked me through the steps carefully, pointing and motioning with her hands about what I should do. Eventually, I got myself together and created 3 pieces – a rice bowl and two traditional tea cups. I chose the deepest brown – to – black glaze to cover them in once they had been fired, and arranged with Akira’s dad to have them brought to me in America the next time he was in town on business, which was also very kind!

In the end, I was fine, but it was a difficult experience, maybe like what my suitemates felt when they started at an American college. It’s so stressful being in that environment, feeling STUPID about everything (or at least, that’s how I felt that day), but it’s a great learning experience at the same time. You really have to give in and allow people to help you, and you learn to trust people, and ask for help too. I had such supportive friends when I was in Japan; I don’t think I could have done much without their help!

The truth is, living abroad is hard. Tomoko and Aiko are extremely brave for going to school abroad.. Can you imagine? Day in and day out they sit in English classes, taking notes, trying to study all of the English information for their exams and writing 10 pages essays or 40 page theses in a language that is tiring for them to hear at the end of the day.

It’s going to be hard for me in Japan when I move, but I anticipate that. Really, anything worth doing, I think, has to be hard. If it isn’t, what are you going to learn from it?

Well, It’s Official!

I got the the letter of acceptance on April 3rd, 2007. I was actually afraid to read it or open it because I was all by myself and none of my suitemates were around! I was so afraid it would say I was an alternate – the WORST possibility! I’d rather know I had the position for sure or did not have it at all – in which case I planned to accept a job with NOVA, which I had already been offered (this is a similar, but less reputable program). But when I opened the letter and saw おめでとう！(Congratulations in Japanese!), I was so excited!

I will leave in late July, but I thought I’d keep everyone informed on the PROCESS if leaving – and it IS a process. Getting a work visa, FBI background check, and all the needed medical forms by April 20th is going to be very stressful, especially since it’s Easter weekend as I type and my hands are tied! I guess what you all ought to know first is, what is Jet?

Jet is a competitive program for native English speakers who would like to live and work in Japan for an extended period of time. Jets work in Japanese schools teaching English as part of a program that began twenty years ago by the Japanese government in order to help students by giving them an opportunity to learn English from native speakers. To learn more, please follow this link:

http://www.jetprogramme.org/

Also, beccause I do read and write two of the three Japanese alphabets well, I would like to be able to introduce you all to some of the vocabulary for new things I learn about. I’m going to be learning so many new words and expressions, and even new Kanji (Chinese characters which are not phonetic, like the other two alphabets Hiragana and Katakana). If you would like to be able to view these characters, please go here (it’s how I first downloaded the software to view characters on a web browser):

http://docs.yahoo.com/docs/info/bridge.html

If you’d like to know about what is going on in Japan or U.S./Japanese relations while I’m there, please check out these links!

Japanese Embassy in the US: http://www.us.emb-japan.go.jp/english/html/

The Asahi Shimbun (A reputable Japanese newspaper available in English): http://www.asahi.com/english/

I’m really unpredictable as far as writing goes, so I can’t tell you how often I’ll update. When I’m stressed about the work visa process, who knows, maybe hourly, haha! . No really, I’ll try to keep the complaints about the process to a minimum. I think you can subscribe to my blog, but I’m pretty new to travel blog, so it may be a while ’til I can explain this.

What else to expect: before I depart, I’d like to provide people with new information I learn about the area I’ll be living in Japan, experiences with Japanese friends and new things I learn before leaving, and, when I have it, my contact information in Japan before departing! Once I get there, I can’t be guarenteed to have internet right away, so it may be a few weeks ’til I update you about my arrival.

Thanks for your interest and support of this new step for me in my career and life!

Heather