The 2011 Miki Hardware Festival

Miki is really only famous for one thing: tool production. So the Miki Hardware Festival is the biggest event of the year and supposedly draws thousands from around the prefecture. Since moving here, I have been on the lookout for a Japanese hatchet. Several years ago, outdoor brand Snowpeak started carrying some, and I was intrigued by how different such a common outdoor tool could be. Recently, a very cool company, Best Made Co., got on board the Japanese Hatchet train and also started carrying a handsome Japanese hunting knife. I was hoping the tool festival would be my chance to find a blade that I could carry forever.

I was disappointed. While there were countless tents selling tools, none of them seemed premium. There was in fact only one tent selling premium hunting knives, but they didn’t really have any hatchets. The wares at every other tent were not so different from what I can get at the local hardware store.

In general, the festival had a fun, blue collar feel. We had a good time, ate some good food and bought some local vegetables. I still have my spending money, so maybe I’ll have to save a little longer for the Snow Peak or Best Made Co. hatchet. I love the idea of buying a quality tool that my kids might use some day.

Traditional blacksmithing demonstration

Creative Marketing

It a country ruled by fads, companies have to get creative to market their products. One thing they do is constantly come out with new flavors or varieties. It’s not uncommon to see the same snacks we have in America suddenly appear in novel shapes or bizarre flavors that don't exist elsewhere. We were particularly enamored with the cheese and sausage flavored Dorito, Cheeto, and pop corn mix. It was one of the best snack mixes we’ve ever had. Sadly, we ate it once and have never seen it again.

Our white whale snack in Japan

And that’s the Catch-22 about all the fad flavors. Sometimes you find a flavor that is amazing, but suddenly it disappears never to be seen again. The successful flavors often become seasonal, so at least you can get them once a year. Every time I go to the grocery store, I’m afraid that the sparkling apple soda that I have come to love will be gone. It’s only a matter of time. Apple is a fall flavor after all.

Another common tactic is giving some free junk with the product. There is a point card for everything in Japan, so if you want to fill out application forms, you can soon be collecting points to earn all manner of junk. Or there is the junk that literally comes attached to drink bottles. The small toys always have straps, so you can connect them to bags or cell phones. It is not uncommon to see compact cellphones with three pounds of toys hanging off of them.

Becky and I got drinks the other day. My Calpis Soda came with a Brahms cell phone figure. Yes, that is Brahms, the composer. There were a number of composers to choose from, but Brahms had the best beard.

Becky’s tea came with a chocolate pretzel bling charm.  She had to slowly narrow it down from amongst the bling cupcake, bling cheesecakes, and bling ice cream cones. She decided to add it to her USB flash drive, which so far has acquired a small Himeji Castle mascot, and a huge, puffy Hyogo Prefecture phoenix mascot. Her goal was to focus on regional mascot charms, but the bling pretzel adds a certain je ne sais quoi.

Out with the Old

Our cool vintage fridge died. The freezer went a few weeks back, and Becky told her school about it. They provided us with the fridge (probably taken from some unused break area in the school), but they weren’t obligated to, so we weren’t sure what they would do about the problem. They told Becky someone from the school would take a look at it on Monday. Two school staff came out and immediately determined it was the compressor, which wasn’t worth fixing. They found the manufacture date and learned the fridge was made in 1978! They immediately started sizing up the kitchen, asking if a fridge a little taller would work and if white was okay. Within an hour, we had a brand new fridge complete with an automatic ice maker. Thank God!

I had really liked that vintage fridge. That was until we got a brand-new, modern one! It makes us more excited about stocking it with yummy food to cook. And it somehow makes the whole apartment feel newer.

Pop Goes the Weasel

I know we have been sharing plenty of kitty stories, but the other night Ben and I discovered that we have new neighbors.  While feeding the kitties their dinner, Ben and I suddenly saw something emerge from a drain in the parking lot outside our apartment and run into the garden of one of the other apartments.  It was too large to be a cat and immediately Ben said "weasel"!  We stood their bewildered for a moment and then decided to go after it.  So, we quickly walked to the drain we saw it come out of and tried to catch a glimpse of it again.  As we stood there looking into the darkness for the weasel, we heard a rustling noise under the grate.  We both got really quiet and waited to hear the noise again.  The rustling came again but it was further away on the other end of the drain.  About that time, a second smaller weasel popped out of the drain and ran into the darkness.
 

Not Actual Weasel Sighted

We are putting out a neighborhood alert that kitties should be aware of the danger and not travel alone at night.

Fish Heads, Fish Heads, Rolly Polly Fish Heads

My first Japanese "enkai" was on October 17.  An enkai is basically a company party.  This one was the Miki HS English Department's way of welcoming the new ALTs.  Ben and I were invited to have dinner at an Italian restaurant called Osteria dell' Arancio with the English staff.  Matt, the other ALT, and Kellee, a third part time ALT, also joined us for the evening.

The food was amazing!  We had a course meal, so small dishes kept coming until finally our main course.  For dessert, each of us were able to choose from a plate of various cakes and puddings and we all had a cup of specialty coffee in handcrafted coffee mugs.  I chose a pumpkin dessert of course.  This country loves pumpkin in the fall and I take full advantage of that.

I have always taken myself for an adventurous eater, but on that night that idea was challenged.  One of the courses was a fully cooked fish, head and all.  The chef, God bless him, covered the little guy in a shroud of lettuce and vegetables, but there he was, staring up at us all.  Everyone began to enjoy the fish dish as I worked up the courage to try my first whole fish.  Ben, Kellee, and I discussed what could be inside the fish that had such a grainy texture, when it was frankly explained by my husband that it was fish eggs not cornmeal that Kellee had in her mouth.  She was a little put off, but not deterred from enjoying the fish eggs.  At that moment, I decided to go for it.  I would eat the head and get the worst part out of the way.  The rest couldn't be that bad if I just ate the head.  So, I did it.  

I ate the fish head and felt both victory and disgust.  I cannot forget the memory of feeling fish teeth on the end of my tongue and tasting the bitter flavor of the cooked fish skin.  The fish head had a crunch that seemed very carnal as a chewed it.  Once I had swallowed, I could not bear to eat the fish babies stuffed inside the poor fish mother who's head I had just devoured.  So, I passed.

I probably lost some points with the English teachers that day for refusing to eat the rest of the fish, but that doesn't matter to me.  The most important thing I gleamed from my fish eating failure was that sometimes you just have to be honest about what you can handle,  no politely lying to the English staff to save face, no torturing myself with eating fish I did not like.  The second most important thing I learned that day is that my husband is a fish head eating barbarian and likes it.

High School Life

The second semester of high school and subsequently my job began on September 1.  I have now been teaching for a little over 2 months.  Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday I teach at Miki High School.  It is a really beautiful school with nice gardens.

The day begins with a 15 minute bike ride from my apartment down the mountain to the school.  I am usually following a pack of high school students on their bicycles.  I found in the first few weeks that if you stick with them they will lead you to all of the short cuts.

I park my bike and put on my "indoor shoes" which happen to be a pair of black glittery Tom's.  Outdoor shoes are not allowed to be worn in the building, so my sneakers go into a shoe locker.

The students have a place where they can put their shoes, but this is separate from the teacher's shoe locker area.

Student Shoe Locker Area

I try to be at school at least 10 minutes early, especially to have time to cool off before the morning staff meeting.  The staff room reminds me of a police bull pen.  It is always buzzing.  There are always teachers making copies and grading papers and talking with each other.  But, before the day begins, there is always a message from the principal (the morning staff meeting) and everyone greeting one another with "ohayou gozaimas".

At Miki High School I teach with another ALT named Matt.  He is from Australia.  We almost never teach together, but we have the same lesson plans we follow because we split the English classes of 40 into 20 and 20. 

I teach all of my classes alongside a JTE (Japanese Teacher of English), and most of them in the LL classroom.  The students practice using conversational phrases like "What did you watch on TV last night?"  You know?  The important things in life!  I model how vocabulary should be pronounced and try to encourage the students to practice and enjoy English through games and activities.  Japanese students are notoriously quiet.  It is always good when you can successfully get them to speak up in class.

LL Classroom

I spend lunch time in the cafeteria with the students.  The food is amazing and cheap.  The students usually don't talk to me much because they are shy, but sometimes a few brave students will sit and practice English at lunch.

Outside the Cafeteria

Using the bathroom at school is interesting.  The teacher's bathrooms are right outside the staff room.  There is one western toilet in the ladies' room, but the rest are the squat style toilets.  You must take off your indoor shoes and put on a pair of rubber toilet shoes to use the toilet.  Most women push a button that makes a sound like flushing so that you cannot hear what is going on in their stall.  They really need to install these in the States.  I can't think of how many times women at DEQ would just avoid using the bathroom with someone else in the room.  It's genius.  Another important fact about the bathroom is that there are no paper towels to wipe your hands on at the sink.  This is common in Japan, so it is smart to always have a towel in your bag at all times.

After school the students go to their club activities.  Club activities range from flower arranging to baseball to martial arts to mountaineering.  There are all kinds of club activities students can participate in and different levels of commitment come with each.  Many of the sports clubs meet every day of the week and on the weekends.  Some of the more academic clubs meet once a week.  At Miki I am not involved in any of the clubs, but at Miki Kita I am in charge of ESS (English Speaking Society).

So, when the day is done, I pedal home up the mountainside to my apartment, to my husband, to my shower.  And that is my work day in Miki, Japan.