Ge-re-pi

So I was teaching The Beatles to my 7th Graders this week, and we were using "Let it Be" for a listening comprehension exercise (nice, slow song, not too offensive, right), and boy did they comprehened.

There is this one class in particular, who has three of the most mischevious boys in the 7th grade, and when we got to the chorus, they started singing along with the recording! Now picture me, standing up at the front of the classroom, pleased as hell that I'm finally getting these naughty boys to really participate, and I start singing really loudly with them too - "LET IT BE, LET IT BE, OH, LET IT BE" and they start laughing, and singing even louder! Now the class is having such a great time, that EVERYBODY in the class is belting out the lyrics, and I turn, with a big huge grin on my face, and catch the eye of my Japanese English Teacher, who has turned bright red and looks like she wants hide behind a desk.

I walk over to her and she says, "Maikeru, they are singing "Ge-Re-Pi," which means "I have diahrrea, in Japanese!"

Fuckin' kids. So damn clever.

"Picture words of Wisdom, Ge-re-pi!"

Bab Mah-ri

A funny thing I saw when I first came to Japan was a whole lot of Bob Marley T-shirts, ie: "Listen to Bob Marley" BUT what I saw even more of, was pot-leaf and cannibus apparel and accessories. A really popular one with my students is the pot-leaf pencil case, with the Jamaican flag's colors for the background.

What's even funnier, it turns out that a lot of these kids don't know the "imi" (meaning) of the symbol!! It's a pop-culture symbol and a lot like when you see Americans running around with Chinese/Japanese writing on their clothing/possessions/tattoos without reaaaally knowing the meaning.

Anyway, of course, me being me, I had to school them and set them straight. So I decided on an introduction to Reggae, Jamaica, Rastafarianism, and what better to do than a listening exercise to some Bob Marley songs. Cool, right?!

What's even cooler is that in each of my classes, I offered to swap music with my students - if the liked the Reggae (and it turns out that Reggae/Dancehall/Reggaeton is really popular with the students), I would burn them a CD in trade for some fresh Japanese tunes. So now, I've got a huge stack of CDs to listen to and have been having some pretty cool discussions on the real meaning of some of the Bob Marley tunes (love that Mellow Mood, daaaarling).

Teaching is COOL!

(Now I just gotta figure out how to see a man about a horse in these parts. Sheesh!)

The Basics

Ye Olde Mansion


So I was writing an update email to my friend the other night and realized that I've never given the basic lowdown about life in the Inaka (country). I know, it's a cheap one-off for a blog post but hey, you're still reading aren't you?

>So here's the scoop (copied from email):

Yeah I have 18 classes a weed (~Ha! Freudian slip~) at my main chu-gakko (TatsunoHigashi-chu), and 5 classes (+1 lunch) at shogakko (elementary school) every friday (rotating b/w 3 schools). It's a buttload, but luckily I'm making lesson plans at chugakko (JHS) that I use for all the grades (this week is do and don't pictionary). I get a lot of autonomy for lesson plans, so that's cool, and the JTEs (Japanese Teacher of English) I work with are all very good.

The kids in chugakko are good - ichi nen sei (1st year) are genki, while san nen sei (3rd year) is like a graveyard. Ni nen sei are about 80% genki (lively), 20% tombstones. It's funny because it's the san nensei that love to talk outside of class (mostly about sex and sports and music - both guys and chicks). I'm still figuring the whole teaching thing out, but I do enjoy it when it goes well and am not taking it so badly when it crashes and burns. live and learn.

Housing situation is great! FREE rent, and it's probably the nicest JET apartment in the area (so I hear from the senpai JETs and my pred) - 2 tatami rooms (6 tatami each), a big kitchen (with a computer desk, small table), big bathtub/shower room, western toilet (heated seat....yesssssss), and two decks (i live on the 4th/top floor of an apartment building - "mansion"). I bought everything from my pred so when I got here I had satellite TV/dvd/vcr, every kitchen appliance imaginable, a double bed, 3 futons, pullout couch, etc. I'd hardly say i'm roughing it. The nearest train is 10 minute bikeride, and then it's a 25 min local train to Himeji.

So Tatsuno is 30km west of Himeji, in Hyogo prefecture. So that means I'm 40 minutes from Kobe, 1 hour from Osaka, and 1.5 from Kyoto (all by shinkaisoku (rapid express) train). It's about 40,000 people, and has some minor towns around it (as of Oct 1st, we just merged with 4 other towns to form a larger Tatsuno-shi, so it's even bigger now). The claim to fame here is the soy sauce factory (tatsuno famous light colored soy sauce for somen noodles), the akatombo song was written here, there is a leather factory, and a big samurai castle/merchant village/samurai village. Soccer is really popular, my boys team won the all-japan championship this year for JHS. It's like living in a suburb, but with rice fields sprinkled here and there (and here, and here, and there). It's a beautiful town, the Ibogawa river runs through the middle and the town is circled by small mountains all around. Makes for some awesome sunsets (and sunrise - when all the fishermen are in the river it's pretty cool to see).

The JETs I've met here are really cool - there's a handful of locals and then the Hyogo JETs all hang out. I've joined the JET Ultimate Frisbee team and the social-soccer team. The prefecture has sister-city/states with Perth in Australia (lots of crazy Aussies here), and Seattle in the US. As for Japanese people, they have been super kind and really cool! I hand out with a variety of local people - an old women, young people, ex-teachers, recent college grads, my hair-stylist, people from the gym, etc. Lanuage ability varies but we usually find a way to communicate.

I'm keeping busy. I've got calligraphy club on Monday and Wed, Karate on Tuesday, English Club Thursday, and Japanese tutor on Wed night. Weekends are left open for travelling and frisbee team practice, and I'm debating about adding Kendo to the mix or waiting until next term. I'm teaching yoga on occasion, and when snowboard season starts up I'll be on the slopes as much as possible (my board is shipping out at the end of this month).

I've got a momma-cherry (as the 3rd year JET in my town calls them) bike - 3 gears, big basket, a bell and a luggage rack. Pretty sweet if you ask me. I'm getting around alright without a car for now, but ask me again during the winter and my answer will probably be different then!

> So that's the basics. More funny stuff to come. Gotta hit the hay now, big day of raaaaku, paapa, shissas tomorrow. Oyasumi nasai (goodnight!).

Japanese Comedians

So the area of Japan that I'm in is called the "Kansai" area. Amongst other things, it has three awesome major cities (Kobe, Osaka, and Kyoto), and is home to the Hanshin Tigers (Japanese League Champs of 2005), wicked tasty and interesting food, and a special dialect of Japanese, called "Kansai-ben." So far, I've figured this out about Kansai-ben:

1. It has different ways of saying the same thing in standard Japanese, and it has a lot of funny sounds in the lexicon, giving the speaker the ability to really express the tone and rhythm in their language.
2. It gives the listener a more interesting listening experience because of all the slang and percussive words.

A lot of times, just sitting in the teacher's room, I'll listen to one of them telling a funny story and although I can't understand a word I'll still laugh as hard as the Japanese people because the delivery alone is so damn funny.

So anyway. The Kansai area, and especially Osaka, produces a lot of Japanese comedy and entertainers that are quite popular in Japan. I found out about some of the most popular ones because my students (all grades, all schools), and a lot of my friends will imitate and parody the comic behavior (kinda like how we quoted Chappelle all the time last year).

One of the most popular is this dude, Haado Gei (aka "H.G." or "Hard Gay"). It's a double entendre - as a loanword (borrowed from another language) it may be interpreted as "hardcore gay," but "gei" actually means "art" in Japanese (therefore, hard/extreme 'art'). His main schtick is:

1. Dressing up like a 2005 member of the Village People - all black leather - vest, studded cap, supertight hotpants, and big motorcycle boots, elvis sunglasses.
2. Acts of random "social improvement" where he helps (wanted or unwanted) people on the street.
3. Outbursts of "whooooo" and mid-air pevlic thrusting.
4. Ironically, he is totally straight and his gay-parody is benign and not meant as slanderous toward leather and S&M dudes.

I think it's hilarious (my students certainly think so) and really random. The video (link below) is a must see. WHOOOOOOO!

Here's some good links for further exploration:
To see him in action - http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2676613?showw=no&refsite=6721&htv=12

You can find a bittorrent link for a better quality version and an explanation of the video here: http://blog.kung-foo.tv/archives/001535.php

WHOOOOOOO! (next time: "JUNGA-JUNGA!")