Into the Land of the Rising Sun: LET'S ALL JUST TAKE A MOMENT TO COOL DOWN

Cue the parade! Japan is now nuclear-power free, after having shut down every nuclear-based power plant in the country, as part of measures taken after the big meltdown at Fukushima. The move may be a good one in the long run, but it couldn't have been more poorly timed. Power shortages were egregious enough prior to the national shutdown, forcing everyone to ration electricity. However, there is now real concern about what it will mean this summer, when the temperatures can easily reach 90-95 degrees Farenheit. It's already hot enough in the mornings to make getting dressed for work unpleasant after having taken a cool shower. If it gets bad enough, I'm determined to cobble together an outfit of these, professional dress code be damned.

A couple of fun links related to Fukushima (thanks to the friends who forwarded these): hipsters in Hazmat suits equipped with Geiger counters, and why nuclear meltdowns are like a woman.

DON'T LOOK, DON'T TOUCH

Shortly after I turned in my notice at my previous job, I received an email from one of the founding partners of the law firm, summoning me to his office. As a lowly paralegal, I was surprised; the longest conversations we had had until that point involved him stopping me in the hallway to ask if I had ever been windsurfing, and another time, to tell me about his latest vacation to a private island, where Kenny Chesney apparently lives. However, based on these interactions, we clearly had a lot in common, and I was sure we'd have a lot to talk about during our impromptu meeting.

It turned out that RS wanted to discuss my move to Japan, and to recount to me his days as an associate, during which he lived in Tokyo for a few months while working on a project. Then the talk turned serious as he said, "Listen, you really need to be careful of Japanese businessmen. I've heard a lot of stories about women, particularly white women, who have been harassed by some of these guys." I thanked him for his concern, but pointed out that as a school teacher living in the countryside, I probably wouldn't interact with too many Japanese businessmen. He reiterated the warning a couple of more times, and ended our tete-a-tete by admonishing me for a final time to be careful.

And guess what? He was right, except that instead of being harassed by Japanese businessmen, I am groped and inspected daily by pretty much everyone at school, but particularly my hormonal high school students. They play with my hair, measure my waist with their hands. I've had a couple of students wrap their arms around me, bury their face in my shirt, and take a deep whiff. "Smell good," they say. One girl motioned that she thought I was thin. "You're skinnier than I am!" I told her. "No!" she shook her head, and then pointed at me and held her hands out in front of her chest, as though something had exploded. Then there's the commentary: "You have tall nose!" "You have small face!" "Nice body!" "Sexaaaayyyy!" And those are just the girls. Earlier this week, I ran into one of my male students on my way to school. Waiting at a stop light, we started talking, and he kept fingering the sleeve of my shirt, and at one point grazed the side of my torso with the back of his hand. When the light changed, he looked straight at my chest, said, "Sexy!" and quickly pedaled off on his bike. DL is not immune either. Yesterday we were walking out of school together, and he said, "The most inappropriate thing happened to me today. I walked into one of my classes, and this first year asked me, 'D, do you have big penis?'" "That's terrible!" I told him. "I know, right?" he said, "The worst part was that he said it so timidly. I mean, if you're going to ask me a question like that, at least have the balls ask it confidently!"

The teachers cross the line, too. The jokes about the male teachers who are "bad men," the comments if I wear a skirt instead of pants one day. And there's no defense against it, no matter how conservatively I dress. Maybe it's something about being a piece of meat foreigner. LAL speculates that foreigners are kind of an outlet for the pent-up longings, because the Japanese think we're so liberal sexually. However, I don't know of many (if any) foreigner here who is comfortable with these attentions, particularly the really brazen ones. MB was walking through his class one day, when a female student reached out and pinched his butt. He was really upset and shaken about the whole thing, and I don't blame him. Not only is it a gross violation of one's personal space, but it's such a dangerous game. Luckily, I don't think any adult here would suspect us of being improper with the students, but you can never be too sure. It also makes our jobs so much more difficult, because when these awkward episodes occur, it makes us check our friendliness, and puts more distance between us and the students.

Forget the ice suit. I'm going to start wearing boxes to work.

THE TRUTH WILL OUT

During my parents' recent visit, they had an opportunity to meet the grannies. This was fun for my parents, and therapeutic for the grannies, who now had an opportunity to vent some of their closely-held opinions of me, the nearly-thirty, unmarried foreign woman. These were the comments that stuck out:

As I was setting the table for dinner: "Aha! She will make a good wife for someone."

Mr. M to my father: "Bill-san, I have three daughters, and I know how you must feel that she is not married. You must be very worried." [To my father's everlasting credit, he did not respond to this.]

A DAY IN THE LIFE

It's been gently suggested that I should include more photos of "daily life" in Japan. So here you go: