04/14/2009: "'You have a big nose..'"

I started teaching at the high school again. Though it adds 9 more working hours into my week plus makes my day start about 5-6 hours earlier everyday, it's still fun and I enjoy teaching there. The teachers are nice and the students are (generally) fun to work with. They also say the darndest things.

On Monday, I was approached by two third year students (in class B.. I never teach that class, so I don't know them). They start talking to me in bits of English, so I ask the same typical questions that I know everyone knows the answer to. Name, how they're doing, where they live. After that, one girl looks at me and then at her classmate.

"Jason, your nose..."
"My... nose? What about it?"
"It's.. big."
Now what, exactly, are you supposed to reply to that? I opted for:
"It's because I'm always lying. Like Pinocchio."

My life confuses even me. But anyway, it's fun. I enjoy working there. I'm just really, really tired this week. Staying up until 2-3am every day probably isn't helping. Can't be sure, though.

To briefly touch on a previous topic, I had my a brief encounter with racism a week or so ago. Basically, in short, the neighborhood I live in has certain rules that no one bothered to tell me. But, they have rules.. I understand and respect that. One is that you must not put your trash out early (which means: you can't put it out the night before, and should be from sun-up to the pick up time). I put mine out at 3am, so I thought it was okay. My coworker, however, put it out at 10pm or so. The old man in the association got mad and waited by the trash to see who was doing it and when he saw her, he asked her not to do it. What'd she do? Oh, she yelled at him and said that it was unreasonable to ask her to abide by the same rules that everyone else follows because she can't wake up early. Wow.. gee, thanks.

Of course, he went to my company to complain. I received a page-long memo from my company telling me his issues, which were:

1: He observed two foreigners putting the trash out early, which is against the rules. (Uh.. my coworker. Maybe me if you count 3am.. but that old guy's gotta be pretty dedicated to have seen me do it)
2: Some disposable items were thrown away without bags, and though he didn't see who did it, he believes it must be foreigners, because Japanese people know better. note that the items here a child's potty-training toilet (none of us foreigners have kids) and a microwave (our company buys the microwave). So.. that's an insane assumption.
3: Someone left trash out that wasn't picked up for over 1 month, nearly two (the same woman who yelled at the guy). She had been given money to dispose of it properly, but didn't do it.

So.. yeah. Now, point 2 rubs me the wrong way because it's a horrible (and wrong) assertion. Point 3 gets better because the memo says "Please take the trash in and dispose of it properly quickly. Leaving it out is like having a sign that says 'Here lies a lazy and careless foreigner'." That is, frankly, a flat-out racist remark. If I said "Here lives some arrogant, empty-minded Japanese", how well would people respond to that?

I'm not really that upset about it. It's just kinda weird.. never been in a position like that in my life. Arrogance and stupidity flows freely through this world (on the part of the neighborhood association head AND my coworker who is making us all look bad). On the positive side: it's the minority, no matter what the media or cynics of the world would have us believe.

Other than all that? Life's pretty good. Tired, but everything's all right. Had two students ask me today why I'm single (kinda wish people would stop asking), but.. it's a legitimate question, nothing harsh about it.

Gonna reply to some e-mails, read a bit, then go to bed. Got more high school tomorrow.

See ya!


Jason