The Olympic Dream

This might seem behind the times, but it’s not, in fact it’s years ahead. Or really it’s a week too late to be years ahead, and now people are past caring, but I’ll write it anyway.

In an underground passageway in Shinjuku station (the busiest in the world in terms of passengers) there’s a poster I saw almost everyday on the way to the JET orientation. Some days it was early morning and I was running late, so I hardly gave it a glance, and on other days I slowed right down to have a good look at it. It’s a really inspiring ad, children running through a green field on a clear day, towards a garden stylised to look like the Tokyo 2016 Olypmic bid emblem. Two young children are at the front, smiling at the camera with big teethy grins. It’s just uplifting. The message underneath reads 日本で、オリンピックを。 “In Japan, the Olympics” It’s that simple, but like many others, I’m　a sucker for smiling children, and I’m a sucker for the olympics. Despite the human rights record in China, all the unaddressed concerns and the feeling that it was a show of national solidarity not unlike Hitler’s 1936 Olympics (and before any cries Reductio ad Hitlerum, I’m the first to acknowledge it), despite all the faults with the Japanese TV coverage, the olympics really do something to me. They make me happy. They make me consider the transcendant nature of sport, how in theory (but not in practice) it can transcend national differences.

But then I thought back to all the times the Olympics have been politicized- Berlin, 1936, the Hungarian-Soviet water polo match in Melbourne in 1956, the multi-national boycott of Montreal in 1976, over a tour of apartheid South Africa by the All Blacks (vaguely sports related, but a political move), the US boycott of Moscow, 1980 (as a protest against the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan) and the retaliatory boycott by Soviet nations of the Los Angeles games in 1980. Taiwan boycotted the 1980 Winter Olympics over the fact that it was forced to compete under the name of Chinese Taipei, not it’s official name (recognized by almost no-one now), Republic of China. There was the massacre of Israeli athletes by the terrorist group Black September in Munich in 1972, and the detonating of a bomb in a public square during the 1996 games in Atlanta. The days of the Olympics being non-political are as far-gone as the days of them being amatuer. This is not always bad, Cathy Freeman carrying both the Aboriginal and Australian flags following her 400m win in Sydney, or the two American runners holding up their fists in the black power salute in Mexico City, 1968.

The Olympics have become a show of national strength for the host country, but have also tended to highlight their weaknesses. Beijing’s air quality and China’s human rights problems were (justifiably) bought into focus by these Olympics, which were among the most expensive ever. London’s failures, it’s decline as a world centre, are being highlighted in the leadup to the 2012 games. With a crumbling underground system, and stations closed for years while they’re upgraded to allow disabled access, with the controversial and unpopular site being built on industrial wasteland, and looking to become a repeat of the millenium dome. I do remember, however that Athens had looked like it was not going to be ready, and that was a pretty successful Olympics.

The original reason for this post was musings about what I would be doing in 2016, what Tokyo would look like, where I’d be, and if Tokyo got the Olympics (it’s the front runner) how that would make me feel. It already feels a lot like Japan is my home, and hopefully in eight years time I will have more than a decent grasp on the language (like enough to get a job translating/embassying) Tokyo really has an oppurtunity to surpass everyone, to put the most compact, green Olympics ever on. Tokyo has none of the pollution problems of Beijing and other Asian cities (“out there,” the hostel owner in Taipei said, pointing out our window “you can see tallest building in world. On clear day.” And sure enough, the next day, poking out of the smog and foggy rain was the top of Taipei 101) it has the best public transport in the world and could easily improve on it, as it did in creating the Tokkaido Shinkansen, the world’s first high speed train, linking Osaka to Tokyo and open in time for the 1964 games, and the Nagano Shinkansen in time for 1998 winter games. It’d be cool to see the current public transport system greened up, with more solar power and more trains, but with the current debt levels and the government spewing money on an aging population that is starting to look unlikely. But the day Tokyo creates a truly green games, on that day I would be able to say honestly and simply the reasons I’ve come to love Japan. I’d love to work at a green Tokyo Olympics, to take part in it. I feel that it could be something great, something inspirational, what the games are meant to be, a green version of Sydney, basically, only this time I’ll be in the country to see it.

More information on the Tokyo 2016 Bid

 

It looks like I was wrong + Tokyo highlights

Regarding my earlier posts on Japanese words for ‘please’, and another planned post on Japanese words for ‘I/me’ I guess I was wrong. It turns out English is just as weird with its paradigms. If you ask for a translation of どういたしましてany Japanese-English dictionary will say ‘You’re Welcome.’ But I’m meant to teach English as it’s spoken, so I was asked to provide a few more examples. Japanese only has one or two because gratitude is pretty much ingrained in formality (this means a conversation at a cash register with a Japanese person is always the same, on the plus side this means no fake ‘how are you?’, that’s saved for English class) Yet we could think of eight synonyms in English, ranging from ‘any time’ (it always gets a laugh when I say that in Japanese…) to ‘no, thank you‘

 Which brings me to another topic: me digging holes for myself. I should learn not to do things like try to explain the difference in pronunciation between ‘no thank you’ (いいえ、けっこうです） and ‘no, thank you’ 　（いいえ、こちらこそう)

And I should never, ever, ever again try to explain the difference between American and Australian pronunciations of the English for 出来ない. This is because ‘a’, ‘ar,’ and ‘u’ are all pretty much translated as あ. It is amusing, however, in that I had a teenage Japanese girl repeating the dirtiest word in the English language, over and over again, in a crowded Tokyo metro train.

I think from now on I’ll just let my students stick to the American pronunciation. I can live with ‘can’t' rhyming with ‘ant’ 

 Others include ’sit’ and ’shit’, and ’clap’ and ‘crap.’ And I swear I’m not being immature, Japanese people honestly have a hard time distinguishing between these. I’m here to fight that with the Queen’s English.

Yesterday I had an experience a lot of JETs complain about; it’s in the interview, in the journals and the general information handbook, it’s one of those things we’re taught to deal with, That is, being told to mark correct English incorrect because it’s not what’s in the book. My example is unbelievably unbelievable because of a multiple choice question, three answers were correct. It was a ‘finish this sentence’ question, that went like this:

“Complete this sentence: a mountain covered ________ snow”

And the choices were ‘in,’ ‘by,’ ‘with’ and ‘to’

All the English speakers reading this blog try to answer that question. And while you’re there, try to help me with other synonyms for ‘you’re welcome’

That wasn’t the only one, merely the worst because there was not one but two acceptable answers I was asked to mark wrong. On the same page there was another similar one, but most kids got it ‘right’ because there was a hint that gave it away. On the next page there was a passive activity, asking students to convert passive statements into questions. The sentence was ‘he had some balls in his hands’

OK, that time it was just me being immature…

Also on Monday I’m refereeing a Sumo tournament for fifth and sixth graders, in the name of English education. Why? I don’t really know…

 

Oh oh oh, and next weeks face-to-face interview test with Junior High School second year students, one of the questions is ’shall we dance’

If any kid says yes I am so spending the whole rest of their allocated minute dancing with them. Or maybe that’s a bad idea…

 

Anyway, onto Tokyo highlights:

-vegetarian food (and another vegetarian to eat it with)

-Risa’s bout of swearing on the Metro

-people-watching and generally relaxing

-chocolate croissants

-bookstores

-picnics

- wandering/wondering around Omote-sando

-public transport adventures (during the best day I accidentally ended up at 東京タワー, then　東京ミドタゥン, 渋谷、表三度 and finally 下北沢)  

 

Showa Day

Yesterday was Showa Day. Now, celebrating a dead emperor’s birthday makes as much sense to me as the fact that boys’ day is a holiday and girls’ day isn’t (well, this is Japan, so that kind of makes sense) But it did mean kicking back on a Tuesday, and making up for the fact that I was working on ANZAC day. It also gave me the chance to appreciate the newly fine weather, plant some more herbs, and read. And in the evening, for reasons I am powerless to explain, Sam and I drove an hour to a wedding celebration for people we’d never met.

Two weird things happened: I remember wondering when the shaken (compulsory insurance, without which I can’t drive) runs out on my car- it turns out it was yesterday. So we had to get home by midnight. I also forgot my International Driver’s Permit. Which is a bit of a problem, as I have no idea where it is.

Secondly, the father of the groom was incredibly drunk, he would hit me to get my attention, and once he touched me inappropriately. He also tried to set me up with every women who walked past. Most of whom were married, one was his wife, one was one of my students.

One of my elementary school students.

One of my male elementary school students.

So I can now say I’ve been to a hippy wedding party in Japan and heard Beach Boys covers in Japanese. So many things I never thought I would be able to say.

Leaving for Tokyo on Friday, I’m going to try to blog from my iPod, using free wireless at McDonalds. Wish me luck.

 

Tokyo

The last time I arrived in this bustling megalith of a town it was January, and we hopped and skipped, clapping our mittened hands together, hoisted and juggled our suitcases, chased each other in the sun (a welcome reprise from the cold, where our bus was parked in the last bus bay, just out of the shelter of the terminal building. Today our bus in the same spot was set deep in the fiery recesses of hell) This time though it was the bus’ air conditioning that was welcome reprise from the elements outside, on the sidewalk in Narita International airport, and I’m wondering why I seem to like every city better when it’s cold. This city is a hell of nameless streets and burning heat, worse when navigated alone. My sum knowledge of Tokyo was this:

Meiji-Douri in Omote Sendo is perpendicular to Takeshita St in Harajuku, which ends at JR Harajuku Station

The JR Yamanote line is not the quickest way from Shinjuku to Akihabara, but it is the quickest from Shinjuku to Harajuku

and the McDonald’s in Takeshita St in Harajuku is the best people watching place in the world.

An old woman on the Yamanote line told me, using a single hand movement and the word ’sorry’ that my fly was undone, but I thought she was asking me to pull my pants up. I think she got a face full of gaijin groin, a regrettable first impression on a woman I will never see again.

So I came to Tokyo armed only with the preceding  knowledge, I lucked out finding Shinjuku station first time (not so lucky on the way back in slight darkness though, but I did manage to find the Shinjuku Central Post Office) I fought with a ticket machine before realising it wanted funds before listening to my demands for service, and I got very strange looks from a Japanese girl who dropped two ¥1000 notes, which I returned to her. The coins are annoying, and will take ages to get used to. The ¥1 coins are already building up in my wallet, cluttering it up but not weighing it down, so I stood for a long time at the counter of the French patisserie (yum) and the Akihabara department store (also yum) the coins fell from my hands and the日本語　fell out of my mind like sweat from my black-clad body. I keep losing what little 日本語が上手 I possessed before, like when I forgot all possible replies to the waiter’s unenthusiastic いらしませ　at the restaurant in Harajuku where I scribbled the draft of this down while waiting to meet Corey.I stupidly arranged to meet at McDonalds, the one location I could remember with any certainty from my time in Tokyo. So I sat there eating my spicy margarita pizza (I’m going to miss pizza) and drinking grapefruit juice, and thinking of all the great drinks readily available in Japan which you just can’t get in Australia (but wait until I see my town, you say, just wait)

I lament that the ‘weirdoes’ tone down their weirdness to allow for the heat, but not all of them. There are two matching black-and-white loligoths with parasols and their younglings trailing behind. They tone it down a bit because of the heat, just like they toned it down for the winter cold, and I long for the happy media, the tourist traps of April and October. The girls still try though, which is what makes Tokyo such a great place to watch people.

And what the hell kind of a name for an Italian restaurant is Wolfgang Pack’s Express? And why is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory playing in the backgrounf (the Johnny Depp version) drowned out by generic American emo-rock-pop-indy? No matter how much time I spend in Tokyo or even Japan, I hope I never understand this town, because I feel like my life would be so much more boring if I didn’t have this crazy, absurd, nonsensical place to be reminded of every time things start to make sense.

Plus, I’m seated in the non-smoking section and the woman behind me is smoking. The two sections are not divided at all, they’re just two sets of booths. I may die of lung cancer. Off to McDonalds.

(sorry for the continuity errors. My internal editor is insatiable and unsilencable. Photos tomorrow)