Stories from Sendai, Issue #3, Nov. 11, 2001

Is it November already? Time sure does pass quickly for us here in Sendai -- though we know that may not be the case for others we know here. Barbara has been soaking up the language and mannerisms of the Japanese so much so that she decided to get a pair of slippers to wear around the apartment. Todd --seeing the advantages of slippers in the winter months -- decided to get himself a pair as well. Her pair: colorful quality for 500 yen. His pair: cheap-but-functional for 100 yen. The decision couldn't have come at a better time for both of us, as mid-October proved the turning point in the weather. We had been seeing wonderful fall temperatures up to then -- ones where opening the windows would bring a delightful autumn breeze of freshness. But by the time October 20 rolled around, both of us felt more like staying in our warm bed than getting up in the morning! So we've finally turned on the heater in the living room, which affords a more comfortable indoor climate. Hot coffee and tea have been the morning drinks of choice for us lately, and that more because it warms us up than for any caffeine fix we might also need. Hot showers and baths (unlike some we had in Cairo) are welcome escapes from the cold. 

One of the small traditions that we have created here is going out to coffee at a local Starbucks (there are five in Sendai), and practicing our Japanese. Usually accomplished on Saturday afternoon, Barbara (who already knows enough Japanese to get by, but doesn't want to admit it) leads Todd through some exercises in a Japanese language textbook for beginners. He's getting the hang of it, but still struggles, stumbles, gets linguistically tongue tied, and drinks his tall Cafe Mocha while Barbara patiently corrects him. The tradition is fun, and will likely continue for some time. We also had three classes in learning to read Japanese, one night for each of the three writing systems.  The first night focused on hiragana (characters for each syllable, Japanese words), the second night on katakana (characters for each syllable, foreign words) and the last night on kanji (each character stands for an idea, originally from China).  The last night was really eye opening, since we both were pretty confident in the first two.  Already we are recognizing kanji characters all over town.  Todd is improving and feeling more comfortable with the language at this writing, but the feeling of culture shock has hit him full force as he realizes his limitations more fully. Along those lines, the idiosyncrasies of Japanese life don't seem so odd after living in Cairo -- for which in many ways we are both grateful.  We don't get frustrated as easily with the seeming inefficiency of some tasks and services, and take things more or less as they come with relatively few frustrations.

Two months into our time here in Sendai, we have found a local restaurant at which to hang out. Not too far distant from our mutual apartments, the four new teachers discovered (separately at first, then together) a restaurant that served yakitori -- meat on small skewers -- run by a young entrepreneurial couple. They had only been in business 3 months by the time we discovered them -- and we're hoping to keep them in business! To inaugurate our local, we spent an evening mealtime there together. We sat on plush seat cushions on an elevated floor made of tatami mats. No shoes are worn on the tatami. So we placed them in a small alcove underneath the edge of the tatami flooring.  Before the delicious skewers of chicken and pork were served, our waitress (the proprietor's wife) poured us some sake (pronounced sah-keh) -- a traditional rice wine. She placed a small glass inside a small ceramic tea cup without handles. She then poured the sake into the glass to overflowing until the base of the sake glass was submerged beneath a shallow layer of sake in the cup. One is to drink the glass first, and then finish with the cup -- if one can finish the entire drink at all! Because sake takes some time to drink (at least for us), it's just the thing for a leisurely evening at the local with good friends and good food.

A few weekends ago, the local shrine at Toshogu had a Fall Festival, called Aki Matsuri.  Local shops and restaurants set up booths, and one section of the grounds was set up for a big yard sale.  Daryl and Barbara walked around and pored over some of the merchandise, including a beautiful antique chest Daryl wanted to take home, but didn't.  We sampled many of the treats and bought a few things.  A demonstration of rice grinding was set up in the middle of the booth area.  Two men took turns wielding a large wooden mallet/grinder.  Not sure of the name.  A neat thing we're finding about Japan is the celebration of the seasons.  Every season seems to have its own festival, decoration, clothing and special foods.  Barbara has never really lived anywhere where the seasons have been so pronounced.  The walk along the road to our subway stop at Dainohara is lined with trees full of fall color.

Tohoku International School celebrated its first Halloween Carnival this year, and it was a great success!  For the occasion, Barbara dressed up as a lady bug, and Todd went as an American tourist. Barbara had gone out earlier in the week and made a ladybug shell out of red contact paper, cardboard and one of her belts. She painted large black dots with tempura paint on the red laminate. Her costume also afforded her the luxury of putting on several layers of clothing under her all black costume -- keeping her relatively warm. Todd, on the other hand, was only able to wear a t-shirt and a short-sleeved Hawaiian-style shirt along with jeans, a Japanese phrasebook and bus map. Though dark and chilly when we arrived, the air grew colder as the evening progressed. Todd was shivering, but enjoying himself. The headmaster offered him a TIS sweatshirt, which he proudly wore -- even though it didn't go with the costume. 

The Izumi campus (grades 4-12) prepared for weeks and staged an event with all the traditional American features.  There was a cake walk, bobbing for apples, a trick-or-treating village, skill games and a haunted house!  Todd and Barbara worked the ticket gate for about an hour.  We saw students from our school, but many, many people from the community.  The most difficult part was trying to explain to the Japanese speakers that buying one ticket was not enough.  Each game, even the food, cost between 1-4 tickets.  At first only the foreigners knew to buy the tickets in sets of ten.  We saw some junior-high age girls come buy tickets from us several times after they realized how the event worked.  Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun, even though it was really cold.

Before we left the carnival, one of the parents of students at the Komatsushima campus offered to get us some tea or coffee from the machine. Thinking we would be getting something cold, we initially declined. Imagine our surprise when he said that the product was warm! Further thinking we would be getting coffee or tea in paper cups, imagine our further surprise when the product came in its own can!  On our way home by bus and subway, we realized that the machines that sell canned tea and coffee did indeed sell some items heated. Since then, we both have enjoyed hot cocoa, coffee and tea on our evening journeys around town. 

The first quarter is now over, and so are our parent-teacher conferences.  We both had really great meetings with our parents, and feel really lucky to be teaching these great kids! 

Ja, ne! (Bye, okay!)

Todd and Barbara Thomas

PICTURES:

Yuko pours the sake at our local.

Todd, Sue, Barbara and Daryl after a lovely yakitori meal.

The entrance to the festival - the sign says "Miyamachi Aki Matsuri."  Miyamachi is the neighborhood district next to Komatsushima.

The rice pounding demonstration at the festival.

Guess what this is?  A row of 22 ATM machines.  No one seems to worry about theft here.

The ladybug and the tourist.

The only event inside was the Haunted House.  It was very popular!

Some of the beautiful fall colors at Kotodai Koen park.