And She’s Got A Lot To Say

First of all…Mosquitoes!!!!  Ewwwwww!!  My legs and arms are dotted with little red bites from mosquitoes.  They love my foreign blood.  They come for me while I’m sleeping.  In order to keep from roasting to death at night, I’ve had to keep the porch door open.  Which lets mosquitoes in.  It’s either die from mosquito bites or from over heating.

I’m actually in a different living situation now.  But first I want to tell you about other stuff.

All last week I’ve been studying during the day and giving 2 hour private lessons during the evening.  The private lessons are a pretty sweet deal.  I get paid $15 an hour just to chat in English.  And I get all kinds of snacks and pop!!

As for the studying…..I’ve actually kind of figured out how to do it now.  I was really not quite so good at the whole studying thing last year, and that turned out to be quite a problem.  But I’ve got a whole system now and like…I’m doing really well.  It’s quite surprising actually.  I know all kinds of stuff about the brain and neurons and axons and agonists and synapses and its all quite interesting.  When I started writing my flash card for ‘terminal buttons’ I was so expecting something exciting like a button in your brain that instantly kills you if pressed, but they’re actually just little buttons that secrete neurotransmitters.

On Saturday I met up with the exchange students and Paul and went to a Kabuki play.  That was interesting and amusing on quite a few levels.  I can’t even describe to you how they talked in the play…it was horrifying and hilarious.  Kabuki is played by men only and the poor men playing female roles had the worst voices.  They tried to be feminine  but just sounded screechy.  It was a little too long to keep my interest though.  it was interesting at first but I was more than ready to go by the time it was over.

The next day I met up with Tamaki’s mother and little sister.  We went to Takarzuka to see the Takarazuka Revue.  The Takarazuka Revue is an all-female theater troupe.  They did waaaaay better than the kabuki boys.  I was actually quite shocked.  Some of them were able to make their voices sooooooo low!  It sounded a little awkward to me but it was still quite impressive.  The show was 3 HOURS long!!!  Are most plays that long??  Wow.  I was kind of surprised.  At the end of it they had an extra little show to show everyone off.  At one point they had a can-can line dance, which I thought was hilarious.  Whats the point of a line dance???

Well, let me tell you.  In order to be in the Takarazuka Revue, one must enter the Takarazuka School (I’m not sure exactly what its called).  At the end of the first year in the school the teachers decide who will play the male roles and who will play the female roles.   The male roles are actually quite competitive as only the ‘otoko-yaku’ are able to become top star and generally get more fans.  During the second year, the male roles cut their hair and start use the male form of speech, while female roles are taught to be hyper feminine, in order to emphasize the masculinity of the ‘otoko-yaku’.  Graduation takes place at the end of the second year where they all go on to learn a complicated line dance that takes 6 hours a day for one month to learn.  When they have mastered this dance, they perform at the end of a show and are formally initiated into the Revue.

….and at the very end of the show they all descended from this huge flashing stair case and the male lead role came down last with a huge vegas-girl feather attachment on the back of her tuxedo.  And no I’m not kidding.

The next day I moved into my new host families house!  It’s awkward.  With my real host mom, we are able to communicate with each other very well.  I’m comfortable with her and she’s comfortable with me…so nobody treats anybody else very specially.  But at my new host family I’m the new pet foreigner.  And I can’t do anything for my self and they keep wanting to buy me food and they constantly are worried and its not that comfortable for me.  I just want to be left alone more.  My host mom knows that I can take care of myself and she doesn’t bother about me..but these new people are worried about every little thing.  I’m treated very much like a guest.

Today they spent an absurd amount of money on a kimono photo session for me.

I actually really like the people…especially the grandma.  They’re just hard to live with.  Before when I visited them all the time to give them English lessons, I really enjoyed talking with them…and it was fun to go out with them with my host mom.  But I just kind of wish they didn’t treat me so special.  But oh well, it’s only for one week.

And…….it’s nap time.

This isn’t surprising.

I should have known better than to trust OGSHS or Paul.

They’ve screwed me over again.  Not did Paul lie to me about actually having a job for me to do here.  The school people never wanted me to come in the first place.

And now…I’m being used as a scapegoat for an exchange students mistake to justify making me leave.

When I first got here Paul expressed some concern about one of the exchange students not fitting in very well or making friends very easily.  And he asked me to spend some time with her.  So I did…and God forbid…we actually became pretty good friends.

Now I am being blamed for her getting home too late, missing school, not fitting in very well with the other exchange students, and not making friends with Japanese students.  And I’ve done nothing but cause disorder since I got here.  Does that sound a little ridiculous to anyone else?

She miscommunicated with her host family…which is something that is bound to happen more than once when you are living with a family who doesn’t speak the same language as you.  And apparently…its all my fault.  Not only is it my fault…its sooo bad of thing that they have actually threatened to have the school security guard from allowing me to enter the school.  What????  I didn’t do anything!!!!!

I don’t understand these people.  Either time I’ve been here, they’ve done nothing but disrespect me.  If they really didn’t want me to come…why didn’t they just tell me??  Why do they have to make me go through all of this?  And its worse…they aren’t treating me like an adult..or even like a student…they’re treating me like I’m so low of a person that they can’t even bother to tell me any of this themselves.  They emailed Paul and said all of this about me.

I went to confront the person who wrote the mail…and he wouldn’t even look me in the face.  He ignored me and left.  Can you believe that?  I do not get it at all.  What is wrong with these people?????

And seriously…none of the international students while I was there made any Japanese friends.  Did they care then??  No.  Did they care if we missed school?? No.  I missed about 24 days of school in the 6 months I was student there…and they didn’t care at all.  They never even asked me about it.  What is the deal?

I can only say that these people are seriously messed up…and apparently care nothing for anyone but them-japanesey-selves.  And I’m very upset about this.

I’m really upset that I wasted my time at the school.  I’m very happy that I came to Japan this summer, because I have had fun and made some friends.  But going to the school was absolutely pointless.  I have barely been paid anything, and they refuse to treat me like an actual human being.

On a happier note I made supper for my host family the other night.  And I completely made something up…and it was absolutely delicious.  I made mac and cheese and then fried up some hamburger and egg…mixed it with the mac and cheese and some ketchup.  It was sooo yummmy.  And it was a good thing I made a lot because she had to take some for all of her friends to try too.  Lol.

And I made jello today.  Jello is yummy.

I’m also going to a Takarazuka play in a week.  I am sooooo excited.  Takarazuka is a really famous all-women theater troupe in Osaka.  Those who saw the last season of the Amazing Race will remember the check-point greeter at the Japan leg of the race was a woman dressed up in a pretty elaborate man-costume.  That lady was a Takarazuka performer.

The other day I was in the Takarazuka area to teach a little kids English lesson (sooooo much better than high school lessons) and on the train ride home I saw two girls who were students at the Takarazuka Academy.  I got really excited and wanted to go one of the plays sooo badly.  So Tamaki’s mother is taking me to one.  And also….the day before the play I get to go to Kabuki!  Fun!

What Norah Jones and I have in Common.

We both got inked at Chopstick Tattoo!

Yup yup…I got a tattoo.  Actually I got two tattoos.  One on each arm.  I really like how they turned out.

Tattooing is quite uncomfortable.  Yes, it hurt.  But it really wasn’t that bad.  What I found the most uncomfortable was laying on the table with my arm stretched out.  My leg fell asleep and my hands felt all tingly and unhappy.  The actual tattooing was less painful than piercing…but went on for much longer.  The area near my arm pits was the only place that made me squirm, though.  Otherwise a straight face was totally manageable.  It took 2 1/2 hours.

Don’t I look excited??  No tattooing has occurred yet.  Before I got on the table the outline of the tattoo was stenciled onto my arm.  My hands were very uncomfortable hanging off of the table like that.  Next….The tattooing begins!

The red stuff is ink, not blood.  Though there was blood.  Tamaki couldn’t see it though, because it oozed out in small amounts and he wiped it up with the excess ink.

At this point Tamaki got bored and took off.

So this was all I could take pictures of.

And they’re done!  I know they look huge…but they are easily hidden by a shirt sleeve.  I think that blond in my hair needs to go.

Here’s critter number one.

And here’s critter number two.

They’re starting to scab over now…and it takes a few weeks for the skin to get back to normal.  Right now they are very tender.  It feels like a really hard core sunburn.

I’m very unhappy with my current living situation.  It is toooo far away from everything.  It takes me at least two hours to get anywhere.  Thats expensive.  I haven’t gone to school very much because I want to save money.  But that means I can’t make money.  So tomorrow I’m going to make another at least two hour journey to entertain some old ladies, and then talk to some kindergartners about the differences between America and Japan.  They’re gonna pay my transportation and give me 10,000 yen    Money!!!