December 12 on 12

Unbelievable that another month has passed by. This year is flying by!!

A couple of anecdotes from the last week or two before we get to the photos.

Yesterday at elementary school, a third grade boy asked me “Do you like god?” I was confused because the Japanese people are mostly Buddhist and so don’t believe in a god, and also, they never mention religion. So I gave him my blank stare and we called the teacher over to translate. She told him the word he was looking for was “sheep”! I think he probably meant “goat”, but I was happy we sorted that out and I could tell him confidently that yes, I do like goats!

In the 8th grade class, we’ve been doing a Christmas lesson. The teacher starts the lesson by playing the song “All I want for Christmas is you” and we talk a bit about the lyrics with the students. After doing this lesson for the fifth and last time, the teacher looked at me and said “this song isn’t appropriate for kids”. What?? (and I might mention that he chose it!) He thought the lyrics “Santa Claus won’t make me happy” were too suggestive for the students. I didn’t know what to say to that…

Last little story – the staff room is pretty bare here – ugly gray government issue desks for everyone. And teachers have to bring in their own laptops if they want to use the computer (well, there are four computers in the teacher’s lounge to be shared by everyone). But on Wednesday morning, I came in to work and was surprised to see everyone’s desk cleaned off. Apparently all teachers were getting laptops! (Not me, in fact next week is my last week at this school). So a team of men in blue jackets went around and set up the laptops – including securing them to the desk with a cable. Guess they’re not meant to be portable laptops. And I was just told, for unknown reasons, they can’t use the laptops until February!

Here are a few miscellaneous photos I’ve taken, trying to show some everyday scenes.

A little sign on the table at our favorite Indian restaurant. "How much you like spicy?"

This is a common sight - a bunch of water bottles all lined up in a row, sometimes with a pile of salt at each end. I've asked several different people what they're for, and I always get the same cryptic answer - they keep the cats away.
It’s getting cold, but we’ve had only one frost so far. I’m told February is the coldest month. Up to now, I’ve managed with just a fleece, but I think this weekend I’ll be buying a proper winter coat. However, it appears that I might survive just using the hand warmers for sale everywhere here. And not just hand warmers, but foot warmers (for inside your socks), and back or belly warmers (to be taped onto your T-shirt). And of course, you can get them with cute cartoon characters. There's an entire aisle of the drug store devoted to them, plus numerous endcaps!
Remember the photos of Asia a few years ago during the SARS scare - everyone was wearing face masks. Apparently they're a part of the culture here. When you're sick, it's considered polite to wear a face mask (I guess the thought is that it makes you less contagious. I haven't heard any scientific proof of that. I think they look rather dorky. I'd just call in sick, personally. But I don't have the Japanese work ethic). You can buy a variety of face masks - check out this display at a local drug store. I'm still trying to get a photo of people in public wearing them. Stay tuned for that!

And as long as I'm taking photos in stores across town, I might as well take a few photos of the snacks available at the convenience stores. Dried octopus, squid, eel, seaweed, and whole fish. Plus "beer sticks". I don't know what they are!

After the January 1995 earthquake devastated Kobe, Italy sent the city a light display. The lights are lit just for a few weeks each year in December. We were told it was spectacular, so we went to check it out, along with a couple hundred thousand other people! It was incredible how many people came out to see it (and come out every year). There were nine policemen at the intersection of the nearest train station to direct all the pedestrians. Several blocks of roads in downtown Kobe were closed to cars and had metal gates lining the road, so that the people heading to the luminaria could walk down the streets, while those people shopping had the sidewalks. The crowd of people going to the luminaria zigzagged for several blocks. We were part of this mass of people for about 45 minutes before we even caught our first glimpse of the luminaria. The crowd was murmuring “Sugoy” (Wow). When we saw it, Heather said “Daijobu” (it’s alright). While it was impressive, it wasn’t quite as impressive to those of us who grew up on Christmas lights. I was more interested in all the nice stores we were passing – Armani, Louis Vitton, The Gap, Banana Republic, etc., and in all the people holding up their cell phones to take a photo of the luminaria. Here are my photos from the night. You be the judge whether it was “Sugoy” or “Daijobu”.

While we were in Kobe, we headed to Harborland (a shopping center at the port) where I took this photo of the Kobe Port Tower all lit up.

That concludes this month's twelve on twelve. Stay tuned. January 12th will be here before we know it!