What does a househusband in
Japan do to keep busy and out of
trouble?
What does a househusband in
Japan do to keep busy and out of
trouble?
Well, I've just finished cleaning the kitchen, tiding up the living room, started the laundry, let the repair man in to work on our defunct dryer. After a wonderfully mild and cool spring, it's slowly beginning to heat up. The high temperature is still only in the mid 80's, but the humidity is beginning to climb. I really haven't broken out in a sweat yet. This has been a blissful relief after the decades of sweltering deep South heat and humidity that have made up most of my life. Apparently, June marks the beginning of the rainy season in Japan, although so far we haven't had much rain.
My weekly schedule goes something like this. Taking a train into Kochi, Mon 8:00am I teach a one hr/wk English class at a medical sales company. I come immediately home and at 10:00 meet with a Japanese couple at their Kendo shop (Kendo: Japanese sword fencing) for an English lesson. Then, clean the kitchen, lunch with Catherine, maybe play a little computer games, study a little Japanese, and wait for Shannon, who usually comes home about 3:30. She usually starts right away on her homework and finishes in about ½ hr. Heather sometimes gets home at 4:30. It usually takes her about ½ - 1 hr to finish her homework. Catherine gets home by 6:00. Tuesday, I work four class periods as an assistant English teacher at Fusoku Jr High (7th grade), which is considered a very good school. This year the teacher I assist is Mrs. Nishimura, a sparkplug of a teacher who stands about 4'10". Even when she's on the 4" platform at the front of the 40 member class and I'm on the floor she still doesn't reach my shoulders. The kids are usually very interested and motivated. My job is to create fun, excitement and act as a walking, talking audio-visual aid. I usually get home just in time for Shannon's arrival. At 4:30 two Japanese English teachers come over to speak English with Catherine and do the usually sort of talk when teachers get together. (Teachers are the only profession I know that talk about their work after hours.) At about 8:00pm I'm off to basketball practice. Generally, its a lot of fun, but I get frustrated not being able to tell them simple things that can improve their team play. In league play we've been creamed twice. I hate losing, so I keep telling myself the reason I'm doing this is exercise and fun.
Wednesday morning I teach two English classes at Seiwa's post-secondary vocation school. I don't really enjoy these classes. It's supposed to be a conversation class, and there is lots of conversation, but its all in Japanese. It is very discouraging to know that these girls have taken over 6 years of English, but can't even begin to have a simple conversation. In the afternoon Seiwa has their teacher's meeting so sometimes she doesn't get home until 6:00 or later. The last teachers's meeting the entire staff discussed disciplinary measures for students caught smoking off school grounds, after school. Second offense, 9 days suspension during midterms. Catherine nearly went through the roof. Wednesday night is NBA on TV! They're showing the playoffs now. Thursday and Fridays are catch up days. Usually clothes washing, writing letters, grocery shopping, vacuuming. Every morning on one channel there is a broad range of daily international TV news shows in their native languages. So I get to watch ABC, CNN, BBC, ITN, German and Philippines news shows. I could also watch Russian, Chinese and French if I could understand them. So I'm pretty well abreast of American, as well as international events. More so than if I were in the US! Sometimes I'll go to the Kochi University science library and read chemistry journals to keep myself abreast of the latest happenings. Sometimes I'll go explore by car or foot explored areas of Shikoku. Friday night it's basketball practice again and Catherine has another Japanese English teacher over for conversation.
Saturday morning I have an English class for people no longer in school. This informal situation is usually a lot of fun. The class is mostly older ladies. They will bring me vegetables or flowers from their gardens. Our class is about 2 hrs with an ample space in the middle for coffee and cakes. The girls get home about 1:00 and have our traditional Saturday lunch of PB&J or pizza toast. Sometimes we go to a very nice playground by the sea or go into Kochi to do some shopping. Sunday its church in the morning. We've found a church whose pastor and wife studied in the US, so their English is very good. The pastor's wife comes back to where we sit and translates the sermon for us. Afterwards, the church eats lunch together (only about 15-20 people.) The rest of the day we take it easy, watch a video, maybe take a walk together or the kids go off and find some friends to play with.
If you can try to get a hold of a book entitled "Learning To Bow" by Bruce S. Feiler, published by Ticknor & Fields (1991). Subtitled "An American Teacher in a Japanese School," it relates experiences very similar to those which me and Catherine have had in a humourous and engaging manner. This past week I received a package from my former workplace. It contained chemistry magazines and a letter from my former supervisor. I miss working in chemistry. As I try to tell everyone around here, I'm not really an English teacher. But they keep throwing money at me to teach. If fact, financially we are in real good shape. Catherine's salary is plenty to live on and save enough for our return trip and expected relocation expenses. So my earnings are just gravy. If we are able to get into the workforce upon our return without too much of a delay, we should have something left over.