Lissette Lorenz

I can’t believe it’s already December. The weather has turned bitterly cold (at least to my sub-tropically-raised body) and I find myself once again reflecting on my Shansi experience. So far I have transitioned into life in Machida and as an English teacher quite smoothly. I have so little to complain or rant about nowadays that I am incredulous.

            Teaching at Obirin makes me feel so grown up. I dress somewhat sharply, chat with my friendly, grown-up co-workers, and sit in my office lesson planning. Students look to me for guidance, and I control their fates (grades). Lunchtime Conversations and English Extras are often spent pleasantly, as the students who participate in these extra-curricular activities are exceptionally motivated and eager to improve their English. The students in my classes are more of a mixed bag, as is always the case with compulsory classes. My Level 1 and 2 students gave me some trouble during the first month, when I kept making them stand in a circle and sing and clap and dance and act like lions and tigers and bears (“ya bai*”), which led me to change my teaching methods to match my students personalities/needs/desires/expectations. Now I let them sit down for most of the class period, and I have incorporated more traditional teaching methods, which has put them more at ease and made them less rambunctious, which is fine with me as long as they are turning in their assignments. As a result of these structural changes, class time has become considerably less stressful and frustrating and more enjoyable overall. (Though I was having a blast making my students dance. Oh well…)

            As for life outside of work, it is very satisfactory (fun!). I have reached a level of Japanese language acquisition that is functional and effective enough to handle daily life interactions and to have some silly/light/interesting/weird conversations. (It’s not quite high enough to fully understand Japanese television programming, but I don’t mind not watching TV anyway.) As a result I’ve only been studying very casually. Now I am getting my Japanese lessons primarily from strangers on trains, advertisements on buses, and the housewives I dance with during my hip-hop, ballet, and jazz classes at the dance school by Machida Station. (Dance class has really helped me learn the parts of the body, which for some reason I mostly skipped learning during my language training at Oberlin.) I suppose I could be practicing my grammar and kanji out of various textbooks, but frankly the thought makes me scrunch up my nose. Instead, I have a pen pal here in Tokyo with whom I write half in English and half in Japanese, as part of a language/awesome stationery exchange partnership we’ve got going. I’m actually really glad I studied so much Japanese before coming to Japan, because now I can spend my free time pursuing other things besides language study (like preparing a dance repertoire for the spring debut of my traveling dance troupe—I’m currently recruiting dancers who don’t mind street performance at train stations across Tokyo).

            Japan is so expensive! And its consumer culture is so strong and pervasive that I find myself being sucked in. There are so many interesting trinkets, and even the 100 Yen shops are spending traps. And the food—so good, but so costly! I’m trying to cook more, but I’m mainly failing. It’s not that I’m not a good cook; it’s just that there are so many yummy seafood places that cook better than I do. Meals are also a good way to bond and socialize here, so I find myself often dining out as part as my social outings. Transportation, too, is slowly eating into my change purse. As my lovely senior Shansi fellow, Peter, put it, living in Japan can be so costly that it encourages Shansi fellows to spend a couple of months living abroad in countries like Vietnam and Thailand in order to save some major cash. I never thought traveling would actually save me more money than staying put. Good thing I’ve got a long spring break ahead of me. I had better start planning some trips. I’d love to visit the other Shansi fellows.

            Finally, I’m excited for my sister to be moving in with me in January. I have to admit that an unexpected challenge for me has been living alone. Japan is so safe, and yet I am still somewhat reluctant/afraid to go to sleep sometimes. This is the first time in my life that I’ve had to live alone, and I never quite got over my childhood fear of the dark. Sometimes my dreams are strange and I wake up anxious and longing for company to keep the imaginary monsters away.

I have been sleeping with a stuffed animal to calm my fears—a green alpaca creatively named The Green Alpaca—that my host sister gave me when I visited my host family in Osaka over the summer. At times I have come close to getting a nightlight, but I feel like if I actually go to Yodobashi Camera to purchase one, I will have let the dark win. And as my fancy teacher clothes and my employee copy card suggest, I am an adult now, and adults shouldn’t sleep with nightlights. Right?

* “Ya bai” (ヤバイ) means “no way.” This was many a student’s retort when I would tell them to move all the desks and make room for the Circle Method. I’m a little sad I dropped it, but I’m also somewhat relieved. I’m not one to pull teeth, and that’s what it sometimes felt like, especially as time went on and my students got fed up with standing up for most of a class period.  I think things have changed for the better.