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With a cup in one hand
Dec. 21st, 2007 04:16 pmAs I was walking from my On Paper school to my primary school my own shadow caught my eye: Medium handbag, the silhouette of a vintage jacket work with jeans, and the hand holding a steaming cup of coffee.
I come with cup-gripping action.
My first year or so in Japan I traveled down to Kamakura to see a documentary on Noam Chomsky. It was of interviews and speeches he gave shortly after 9/11. I remember sitting in the theater and seeing footage of people streaming into one of his lectures, people all bundled up and each clutching a cup of coffee. I thought, "Those are MY people." It was the first time I really thought of clutching a cup of coffee as something that marked me as American to some eyes.
I still can't believe that my first school here, the high school, allowed me my habit of drinking coffee during class. I mean, yes, I had taken a chance by explaining it as part of my culture....describing in detail the high school and college professors who would pause, sip, look deep into their own mugs as if there were answers to be held in them, tea leaves to be read, and then look back at us and continue...but that the actually let me do it was
amazing.
I shared an office in the high school with 3 Japanese teachers of English and one foreigner. Yoshida Sensei was in that office for two years and we would spend a large portion of our time together drinking coffee and out-doing each other's Coffee Sighs of Delight (some of the other time was spent watching Friends or the latest Pixar film in the name of language study and singing aloud to bad 80's rock).
The elementary school is not a coffee drinking haven. They drink instant coffee here and have rules about brewing the fresh stuff when kids are in the building.
Nonetheless, ever since Tully's opened here two years ago I can be seen in the morning with my tumbler of coffee walking to school. Students ask where it is if I greet them in the morning without it. They ask "where? where?" and grip air cups. This Monday I walked part-way home with the twins in the afternoon. My Twin asked me where my tumbler was. They don't see the coffee as a morning thing (which it mostly is now) but as a "What Kathryn Sensei looks like outside of school" thing.
Today is the last day of classes. We had closing ceremonies this morning. After school comes the "forget the year party" with co-workers. At the high school these were lavish affairs. Everyone dressed up in fine clothing and drank to excess and then went to an after party of more drinks and perhaps cigars. They even rented the Disney bus with mouse-shaped wind ws to take us to the banquet room in the Disney resort the last year I was there. At the elementary school the staff is smaller and the parties more casual. This year I've learned not to overdress.
This year they've added something new. We won't be going straight to the restaurant at 6:30. We have a before-party party this year. We're going bowling first at Young Bowl.
Miyazaki Sensei asked me if Americans bowl. I told him yes. I told him that I had been in the bowling club in middle school, but was and am a horrible bowler. And then I told him that American style bowling is a little different than Japanese style.
Are the rules different?
No. But we drink beer when we bowl, what else to do with our cup-gripping action after dark? Bowling lanes serve beer.
A few years back my friend Jimmy and I spent an evening drinking and watching Hong Kong action films at his place, at some point we decided to take our intoxicated but attractive asses to the Tokiwadaira bowling lanes. We were shocked to find that there was no bar or beer vending in the lanes. Were we expected to bowl sober? Did the lanes stay open 24 hours....for SOBER bowling? Japan has no laws that prohibit the vending of beer and alcohol after a certain hour...so we'd assumed that 24 hour bowling would come with a 24 hr bar.
Miyazaki sensei has been flitting around the room sharing his knowledge. He suggests to the teachers that perhaps we should try American Style Bowling...and then explains the drink in one hand bit. "Americans, they don't bowl SOBER!"
If any of my co-workers ever come to Wisconsin, they are prepared.
I come with cup-gripping action.
My first year or so in Japan I traveled down to Kamakura to see a documentary on Noam Chomsky. It was of interviews and speeches he gave shortly after 9/11. I remember sitting in the theater and seeing footage of people streaming into one of his lectures, people all bundled up and each clutching a cup of coffee. I thought, "Those are MY people." It was the first time I really thought of clutching a cup of coffee as something that marked me as American to some eyes.
I still can't believe that my first school here, the high school, allowed me my habit of drinking coffee during class. I mean, yes, I had taken a chance by explaining it as part of my culture....describing in detail the high school and college professors who would pause, sip, look deep into their own mugs as if there were answers to be held in them, tea leaves to be read, and then look back at us and continue...but that the actually let me do it was
amazing.
I shared an office in the high school with 3 Japanese teachers of English and one foreigner. Yoshida Sensei was in that office for two years and we would spend a large portion of our time together drinking coffee and out-doing each other's Coffee Sighs of Delight (some of the other time was spent watching Friends or the latest Pixar film in the name of language study and singing aloud to bad 80's rock).
The elementary school is not a coffee drinking haven. They drink instant coffee here and have rules about brewing the fresh stuff when kids are in the building.
Nonetheless, ever since Tully's opened here two years ago I can be seen in the morning with my tumbler of coffee walking to school. Students ask where it is if I greet them in the morning without it. They ask "where? where?" and grip air cups. This Monday I walked part-way home with the twins in the afternoon. My Twin asked me where my tumbler was. They don't see the coffee as a morning thing (which it mostly is now) but as a "What Kathryn Sensei looks like outside of school" thing.
Today is the last day of classes. We had closing ceremonies this morning. After school comes the "forget the year party" with co-workers. At the high school these were lavish affairs. Everyone dressed up in fine clothing and drank to excess and then went to an after party of more drinks and perhaps cigars. They even rented the Disney bus with mouse-shaped wind ws to take us to the banquet room in the Disney resort the last year I was there. At the elementary school the staff is smaller and the parties more casual. This year I've learned not to overdress.
This year they've added something new. We won't be going straight to the restaurant at 6:30. We have a before-party party this year. We're going bowling first at Young Bowl.
Miyazaki Sensei asked me if Americans bowl. I told him yes. I told him that I had been in the bowling club in middle school, but was and am a horrible bowler. And then I told him that American style bowling is a little different than Japanese style.
Are the rules different?
No. But we drink beer when we bowl, what else to do with our cup-gripping action after dark? Bowling lanes serve beer.
A few years back my friend Jimmy and I spent an evening drinking and watching Hong Kong action films at his place, at some point we decided to take our intoxicated but attractive asses to the Tokiwadaira bowling lanes. We were shocked to find that there was no bar or beer vending in the lanes. Were we expected to bowl sober? Did the lanes stay open 24 hours....for SOBER bowling? Japan has no laws that prohibit the vending of beer and alcohol after a certain hour...so we'd assumed that 24 hour bowling would come with a 24 hr bar.
Miyazaki sensei has been flitting around the room sharing his knowledge. He suggests to the teachers that perhaps we should try American Style Bowling...and then explains the drink in one hand bit. "Americans, they don't bowl SOBER!"
If any of my co-workers ever come to Wisconsin, they are prepared.
