Nonaka Shogakko

Last friday was the closing ceremony for one of my favorite elementary schools, Nonaka Shogakko. Nonaka is a very small mountain community halfway between Tokamachi and Shiozawa. The entire school has 8 students. I have a great relationship with the school and hold it very close to my heart, as I've always enjoyed the students and the honest inaka atmosphere, plus I took my mom their for a visit and they welcomed her with open arms.

Nonaka is the latest casualty of Japan's rural population decline. The school is closing for good after something like 130 years. At one point in the late 1800's, the school had over 120 students from Nonaka and other surrounding mountain rice farming communities. I didn't know it but at one point after the Meiji Restoration, Niigata was more populous than any place in all of Japan, including Tokyo and Osaka. Now, Niigata has become that broken-down but good-hearted area that won't ever reach it's bustling days of long ago, like an old gold mining California ghost town. Rice and kimino production are more mechanized, young people are fleeing for the cities, and the population is just simply fading.

Hence the closing ceremony of Nonaka, done for good. It was a special event and the national television stations were there, but I attended the ceremony just as I'd attend any other...thinking I'd sit with the teachers or the parents. But for whatever reason, probably just because of the mutual respect that I've developed with that school, they included me as a special guest of honor. There is a special table for such people at all school ceremonies...it's on the left side of the stage as you walk in, in front of the red and white banners hanging throughout the gym. It always has a large white tablecloth, and it's always full of old, suited, occasionally distinguished men. So, they put me 3rd in line with the Board of Education cronies, the head of the PTA, and other community leaders. Seating order at such events is a crucial indicator of prestige and community status level, and somehow I ended up 3rd in line. Like I said, I guess the school really respected me, or just thought it was super cool to have an American dude at their special ceremony, but either way I thought it was pretty kind of them. I didn't get the sense that they were trying to show me off as their foreigner arm candy, I really felt like they were proud that I had been part of their community and educated their kids.

Here's a picture with the 8 last Nonaka students and their parents and community. It's a great school with a great history and it's sad to see its doors locked up forever.

Outsider

There are certain things that are addictive about Japan...

And one of them is being an outsider. I think many foreigners complain that life in Japan is difficult because they are always seen as an outsider, based on their nationality and background. They get frustrated that they are never accepted as insiders no matter how long they have lived in Japan or how well they speak the language. Japan is an exclusive place and an exclusive culture. What was it, only 150 years ago that they came out of a period of complete state-controlled isolation? You will always be welcomed warmly here, but unless you are of the Japanese bloodline, assumptions will be made about you. You are a book that will always be judged by its cover.

In a way, for me, I thrive on being an outsider simply because it gives me a feeling of comfort.

Growing up in Chimayo, New Mexico, as a white, blonde-haired kid was nearly the same experience that I'm having now. I was a minority. Northern New Mexico also has a somewhat exclusive, deep rooted Hispanic and Native American culture. Anyone who is white or black is immediately considered an outsider. It frustrated me more than anything when a local asked me "where did you come from?" I wanted to scream out "I'm one of you". I explained that I was actually born and raised not far from them.

It drove me crazy, but over time it became a pattern that I associated with my own identity. When I went to college in 90% white Portland, I felt a bit of an identity crisis as I, all of a sudden, wasn't so unique anymore. And now that I'm back in that pattern of being stared at, of being different, of people judging me by my cover, it's frightfully comforting. Only this time, I really am the outsider, and I have no problem with the cultural ostracization. I have a better tolerance for it than many people who didn't grow up as a minority. So each time a kid or an old woman stops, stares and points, I just wave and say hello with a tinge of nostalgia.

Working culture

March is the season of graduation, coma-inducing allergies and lots of free time at work. So, I sit around and think of things I should be doing other than sitting around, and yesterday, I promised someone I would do a traithlon. Someone remind me I said that so I can actually start to train. But, I can't really swim, and I don't have a bike. So maybe I shouldn't have made that promise after all.


Tuesday night was the graduation enkai with many of the teachers. I realized that one of the teachers wasn't there, and that I actually hadn't seen her in long time. I asked someone about it, and he said that she had been hospitalized due to exhaustion from work. She is younger than I am...

This is the 3rd or 4th time I've heard of a fellow teacher actually having to be hospitalized due to overworking. It's always junior high teachers, and the ones that work at larger schools.

I tried to explain to him that this kind of epidemic is one of the most maddening parts of Japan for me. The working culture and the commitment to the group are admirable at times, but it also leads to people not having the ability to look out for their own needs, wants, and health. Teachers here don't take their paid vacation unless they have to. Instead of using their allotted sick days, they use a paid vacation day if they are sick, and they are usually near death before they actually make the decision to stay home.

Many teachers often complain that they are not happy, and they are too tired, and they work too much. They are in this situation because they are appeasing the working culture and making sure they aren't being seen as lazy or a strain on their coworkers, which is partially because of the nature of where they live, but I also believe it's a choice.

I was told that the government is actually finally considering changing labor laws to make sure teachers have the appropriate time off, which I suppose helps. But the government shouldn't have to be making laws to force people to be good to themselves. That is a very personal decision, and ultimately your own happiness is in your own hands. But, I guess that's just my Western mind working...

Nice to meat you too!

Graduation is coming up soon, and many of the students that I am closest too are leaving, which bums me out because they are such good kids.

However, the thing I do like about this time of year is the ego boost and laughs I get from their goodbye message cards. Each class usually makes a plaque and some cards for me with notes from each student. Among the notes to me from Minami's 3-1 class:

I like Erik because Erik likes me -Michinori
I am Erik. Ok. No reason! -Yuma
I love Erik. I was born to love you. - Yuka
You're my sunshine! -Yosuke
I enjoyed English with Erik. Shank you. -Momoko
I love you. I love me. -Masa
Someday please tell me how to play dunk. - Takuya
You are toilet paper juggling very well. -Eri
Please take me to America to see Weezer live! -Yui
I love you. I need you. I want you. Thanks. -Satsuki
I am gentleman. Erik is English. -Takanari

and my favorite...

I was glad to meat you. -Miki