CLIMB EVERY MOUNTAIN, FORD EVERY ONSEN

This weekend, a friend took me to climb a nearby mountain called Katsuragi.  Because December 1st marks the end of the "season" for the mountain, the hourly buses running to the base only left every other hour, forcing us to kill time for 60 minutes until the next one came.  Thankfully, the ascent went smoothly, and we climbed nearly 2-3 km at an 80 degree gradient in about an hour and a half.  The view at the top was entirely worth it.  Katsuragi acts as a natural border between Nara prefecture (where I live) and Osaka prefecture, and you can see both sides from the summit.  In the winter, the mountain gets snow, and you can toboggan down part of the way.  In the spring, large tracts of azalea bushes are in bloom, making the mountain look as though it's on fire.  The autumn leaves have been late this year, so we managed to catch the last of the fall color, which was nice.  

Nara and the Yamato Plain

Osaka

We went to catch the bus back down to the train station, only to find that we had just missed it, and the next one wasn't for another 2 hours.  So we wearily shouldered our packs and started the trek back down into town, another 2.4 km.  We felt we deserved a reward for all our efforts, so we treated ourselves to some rather posh cake and a trip to an onsen.  Onsen are public baths, some of which are fed by hot springs, while others contain chlorinated (but piping hot) water.  Onsen run the gamut in Japan, from the natural springs with tubs hewn into rock and the water brown from various minerals, to the super trendy, like Spa World in Osaka, where you can spend the day walking around in a bathrobe, visiting different themed areas.  This onsen, my first, more closely resembled a public bath where families would go to wash before they had plumbing in their own homes.  

Going to the onsen reminded me of the first time I went streaking- the worst part is getting your clothes off.  You have to strip (no swimsuits!) in order to partake of the baths, a daunting prospect for a lot of foreign people, even though men and women are segregated.  The Japanese, on the other hand, exhibit no self-consciousness.  When my friend and I walked into the changing room, we found an incredibly large Japanese woman sitting stark naked, drying off at a leisurely pace.  We, in contrast, undressed hurriedly before making a beeline for the showers as quickly as we could.  The "showers" are a series of handheld detachable wands that are attached to the wall- no shower stalls.  You grab a plastic bucket and your soap, plop yourself onto a stool, and wash wash yourself thoroughly with soap (and preferably shampoo).  The first time my friend went to an onsen, an obaachan (grandmother) came up to her with a towel and started vigorously scrubbing her back and sides.  Gotta make sure those gaijin are clean before they enter the baths.

Like the porridge tasting menu that Goldilocks enjoyed, the baths vary in temperature: hot, medium, cold.  Some have jets, some don't.  One tub had a low electric pulse to aid circulation.  I moved about, nearly passing out in the high heat tub and reviving in the cold water, before finding the "just right" space in the medium tub.  Generally, you're not supposed to soak in the onsen for too long, especially in the hot water.  If you've just eaten, you're discouraged from using the onsen, and if you're pregnant, you should tread carefully.  Overall, it was a great experience, and I'd definitely go again, particularly as a remedy against winter.  Next I want to try the natural springs, some of which are outdoors.  I've heard there's no better experience than being in a hot onsen outside as snow falls around you. 

When we were done, we dressed as quickly as we had disrobed.  As we were drying off, a young girl of 8 walked in, made eye contact with me, and immediately diverted her gaze to a really interesting spot on the ceiling.  Her mother followed, and the girl was overheard saying, "Mom!  Look, honorable gaijin are here.  They are so white!"  Mom replied, "I know.  I'm jealous."

PICK A NUMBER, ANY NUMBER

The term is over, and students are about to leave for winter break.  I am finishing up my grades, dutifully recording the marks from homework, projects, quizzes and tests.  This week a couple of my co-teachers came up to me to talk about final grades.  Here's how the conversation went:

JTE: "So, Eri-sensei, the average for these students needs to be 33.  You don't have to give them each 33 points, but around 33."

Me: "OK, but isn't the total number of points for the class this term 50 points?"

JTE: "Yes."

Me: "Well, what if there's a student who has earned top marks? Or a student who hasn't turned anything in?"

JTE: "The average for these students needs to be 33.  You don't have to give them each 33 points, but around 33 would be good."

I talked to a couple of other ALTs about it, and apparently this is all a normal part of the grading system here.  I'm still trying to figure out why, though.  I was told that when high school students apply to colleges, all the schools see on their transcripts is a grade point average.  It's hard to differentiate between students on this basis, so the universities have entrance exams that set students' abilities apart. Though why that means their individual class grades need to be within the same ballpark, I have no clue.  Can someone please 'splain me this?

Really, I think I've learned a lot in these whirlwind 4-5 months.  Here, in no particular order, are the Top 10 things I've been taught by students and teachers this term:

1. If you are on a sinking ship, forcing you to evacuate to a desert island, the one thing crucial to your survival on the island is a futon. I'm confident that the cast of LOST could have been found sooner had they known this piece of information.

2. If there were (God forbid) a fire at school, people on the second and third floors could climb down one-by-one through escape chutes that can be dropped out of the windows.  I know this because I watched several students perform a very slow demonstration of the process during a recent fire drill. Then, I checked to see if "liability" is a word in Japanese (it is). 

3. Some of the most famous people in the world include Michael Jackson and Mickey and Minnie Mouse.
4. The body temperature of Japanese people is one degree lower than everyone else's.

5. Dogs are wiser than cats, and therefore better.

6. It's OK if a student copies another person's homework, or hands in assignments late.  But you can expect a swift and forceful reprimand if the top button of your uniform shirt is undone.  (If you're the female ALT and you have two buttons of your very conservative collared shirt undone, exposing your clavicle, you can expect a) shy female students to make hushed motions warning you to button up, b) gregarious female students to shout "SEXAY, SEXAY," and c) your loveable and kind male Japanese co-teacher to whisper to you in embarrassment, "Oh, um, Eri sensei, your button..."

7. Men shave their eyebrows here, and sometimes use an eyebrow pencil to trace a couple of thin, light lines to give the impression that their eyebrows are fuller than they actually are. 

8. Facial hair is almost taboo for men.  I've only encountered one man with facial hair so far.  My supervisor sports a luxurious moustache that Tom Selick would envy. 

9. Rules matter.  The heaters at school are supposed to be activated on a certain day in December.  So if it's 40 degrees Farenheit in November, you have to tough it out.  Conversely, if it's close to 60 degrees in December, you have to deal with that, too. (A teacher who has never spoken to me walked past me in the hall on one such balmy day, and said very off-handedly, "It's an Indian summer, huh?"  I had no idea this guy spoke English.) 

10.  Gargling water loudly in the staff room before expectorating in the sink where we all wash our hands helps prevent colds.  Face masks also help. However, you should under no circumstances blow your nose in public.  Instead, you should try to snort the snot up your nose, and discreetly swallow it.  

Chestnut flavor!