April 7th-Aisatsu shimasu (挨拶します)[Making
introductions]
This morning I went with
mom to city hall to register myself as a foreigner in Miyazaki. I really didn’t have to do this for 90 days
(that’s the length of time you can stay as a tourist) but there’s no reason to
wait to do this. As it is, it’s going
to take about a month to get my little card.
No matter. Oh, before that we
went to a photo place to get my pictures taken. There was actually a little booth outside in which one can take
pictures for passports and Ids. It’s
just as good and it doesn’t cost much at all.
Anyhoo, after we went to city hall, we came home and had lunch. Mom made ramen and onigiri (rice balls) for
Ryoichi and I and that was tasty.
Around 3:30 I changed into my school uniform (for the second time). Then I went to school (for the first time)
with Mom and Dad to meet my teachers, the principal, the vice principal and a
host of other friendly Japanese people who work at the school.
I was pretty nervous when
we got there. It didn’t get any easier
as time went on either. We went into
the office and there were a mess of teachers and administrative types in there. Ahhhh…let me just say something here. When Japanese people, who are on
business-like social terms with each other, meet…it’s SOOOO awkward. Maybe it just seems this way to me because
I’m not part of the culture, but I know what I’m seeing. Ok, let me explain. It’s like, you go into the office, the
person who’s office it is offers you a seat, but you stand there half sitting
down, almost squatting, waiting for the other person to begin sitting down
because you don’t want to be sitting down if your host isn’t sitting down. Oh, and the entire time, if you’re the
guest, you can’t forget to say things like “Sumimasen” “Shitsurei shimasu”
“Gomen nasai” (Excuse me, I’m being rude, I’m very sorry) and things like. And whenever anyone else comes into the
room, you have to get back up and bow a bunch of times and apologize for your
existence in this world and say, “Yoroshiku onegai shimasu” (Nice to meet you)
a few times for good measure. Then,
when you all finally get seated, a secretary comes in and gives everyone
tea. But everyone is too polite to
begin drinking the tea first. So,
gradually, people will begin taking the lid off their cups and looking around
to make sure that they’re not too far ahead of anyone else. And then!!!!! You get scared that by not
drinking the tea you’re being rude! So
you get a hold of the cup and make gestures like you intend to drink it, and
then the meeting ends and your hosts stand up and start to go somewhere else
and you have to follow them, but you didn’t drink any of the tea so you try to
gulp some down before you leave and it burns your throat and mouth and you try
to hide the pain by gritting your teeth and squeezing your eyes tightly shut to
seal in the tears that are forming at the corners of your eyes. Then we walked around the building and I met
with my homeroom teacher, my assistant homeroom teacher, my contact at the
school (a new English teacher named Hidaka whose English isn’t too stellar but
he’s very friendly, has a sense of humor, and is shy and sweet). Every time we went into an office or said
hello to someone the whole process of greeting/excusing yourself began again
(at least we didn’t have to have tea every time we passed someone in the
hallway!). We signed some papers that
officially made me a part of the school or something like that and then we
left. And wow…if you thought getting
yourself in the door was bad, you should try getting yourself out! It’s a delicate balance of, again,
apologizing for your intense rudeness and unbelievable audacity at showing your
face and taking up any of their time (But….your hosts are doing the same exact
thing!), and trying to back out the door WHILE stepping out of your slippers
and into your shoes that you left at the door WITHOUT stopping to untie or tie
them and continuing to bow. I can’t
multitask to that extent. I had to stop
and tie my shoes, which I think made the situation worse because everyone else
had to stand in the door way or inside and look at each other awkwardly while I
furiously tried to get my shoes on without falling down and killing
myself. I decided that would really be
the worse case scenario so I took my time to some extent and made sure no one
(myself) got injured in this mad Japanese frenzy.
Oh, something else you
should know about! Yeah, when I was at
the school, they kind of told me that tomorrow I have to present an “aisatsu”
(an introduction telling people who I am and what the heck I’m doing here) in
Japanese…Oh really!….very nice….hmmmm……ok….I see…IN FRONT OF THE ENTIRE
SCHOOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT?!?!?!?!?!? Oh man oh man…. As you probably guessed from the ridiculous font size, coloration,
and the copious number of question marks and exclamation points, I was not
thrilled to hear this. I’d say I was “shocked”
“terrified” “felt my digestive system turning tying itself in knots”…yeah, that’s
more like it. They were trying to tell
me not to worry about it and that I really should have no problem…that my
Japanese is good…that it’s not a big deal…that everyone’s nice….yada yada yada…but
COME ON!?!?!? Well, I’ll stop ranting
and raving now and try to calm down. I
spent the night preparing my little speech.
When I was done with it, I read it to Mom and Dad so they could help me
make corrections and give me suggestions etc etc. I rehearsed it several times switched out the light and prayed
for an earthquake the next morning on my first day at school.
***Tune in
Next Time to See What Happened to Maikeru on His First Day at School***
-Maikeru