Just Another Side Note

I just saw this article that made me happy. Scottish schools are starting to give girls the HPV vaccination. 

From the BBC

Meanwhile, America in its infinite stupidity is locked in a political debate about the efficacy and appropriateness of the vaccine. Fact: the vaccine is preventative. It protects against cervical cancer. There are no known side effects. It is approved for girls as young as 12. It does NOTHING but SAVE LIVES. So why are some Americans up in arms? In a classic case of American idiocy, some people are against giving the vaccine to young girls because, get this, HPV can be transmitted sexually, and these people believe that vaccinating girls will make them more likely to have sex. You know how you can prevent kids from having sex? Yeah, definitely by withholding life-saving drugs, that's a fool-proof plan. 

A Brief Political Commentary

I was looking into Sarah Palin a little bit today, and I found something that really pisses me off. She is anti-abortion, even in cases of rape and incest, and has said that she has faith that every baby is created for a reason. Basically, God controls life, and there is a greater reason that we can not understand because we are not God. 

Well, that position hardly surprises me. What makes me mad is the fact that she (and many others who share her views on abortion) is also in favor of capital punishment. Her rationale is that we have a right to know that someone who rapes or murders a child will never do it again.  How is that not insanely hypocritical? A baby's innocence by default makes it worthy of life, but a murderer or rapist it's ok to kill? (I happen to think that a murderer or child rapist deserves to die; but that does not mean I think we have a right to kill him). Isn't the question not one of circumstance, but of the value of human life and our qualifications to decide it? 

I can't stand listening to the hypocrisy of conservatives who will fight tooth and nail to preserve the "sanctity of life" when it comes to abortion, but fail to see how they're contradicting themselves if they argue that it is ok to take a human life if that human has committed a crime. The question is not whether life should be taken in a certain situation, but whether we as humans ever have the right to decide questions of life and death (hint: we don't; we are not qualified). You can't have it both ways. 

I also find it incredibly cold (and incredibly unlikely) and a clear case of political calculation for Sarah Palin to say that if her daughter were raped, that she would not want her to have an abortion. Even if she were to follow through with this plan in the event of it occurring, there are many other mothers who care more about their daughters than their high and mighty morals, and would want the ability to choose. Pro-choice supporters are not pro-abortion, they are pro-CHOICE. 

New Shiso ALT Welcome Dinner and Kobe Beer Garden

Wednesday night we had our official welcome party for the new Shiso ALTs. It was at a really nice traditional Japanese style hotel, with the people from the Board of Education, and some of the English teachers and principals from the different schools. It was up in Ichinomiya, one of the smaller of the four towns that make up Shiso. It was really pretty up in the hills. But as it was a traditional Japanese dining experience, that meant sitting on the floor, which can be very uncomfortable to Westerners who aren't used to it (like me). 

This Saturday night there was a JET party in Kobe, at the beer garden on the roof of the Sogo department store in Sannomiya. I had never heard of beer gardens before I came to Japan, basically you pay a flat rate and it's all you can eat and drink all night (although they closed at about 10). A lot of JETs from all over Hyogo came, and its nice because we've been to enough of these functions already that we recognize people from elsewhere in the prefecture and are friendly with them. At the beer garden I was accosted by the editor of the Hyogo Times, which is like the Hyogo JET monthly publication, and she asked me to write for them, so I agreed, I'm not really sure what it entails but I'm looking forward to it. 

After the beer garden ended we went out with a bunch of JETs from elsewhere in Hyogo for Karaoke, my first experience, which I had kind of been dreading but which actually turned out to be really fun. You get your own room with a whole set up, like a big enclosed booth, and you just hang out and have drinks and sing songs. It was a lot of fun. We left there around 1:30 and stopped at a restaurant for some food (fatty beef and onions over rice, really yummy) and then we had to try to decide whether to find a place to sleep, or just stay out all night. The first bus back to Shiso was at 9:30 am. We had several options: go to a club that was open until 5 and then go get some breakfast and wait for the bus; try to get a room in a love hotel (the cheapest alternative) or go to a manga cafe to sleep for a few hours. We ended up going to a manga cafe, which is not really a cafe, it's a place where people go I guess to read manga (Japanese comics). But people use it as a cheap place to spend the night too. For a set period of time (one hour, five hours, eight hours) you rent what is basically a little cubicle, with a computer, a TV and DVD player, and a comfortable leather chair. Each cubicle has a door so you kind of have your own little room. While it wasn't the most comfortable night's sleep I've ever had, it only cost about 10 dollars. We stayed there until 7:30, then went to grab some breakfast and catch the bus back to Shiso. It was quite an experience, not the least because being in a big city after living in the countryside was a bit overwhelming. 

Kobe Beer Garden and Shiso ALT Welcome Dinner

Also, here are some videos from the night in Kobe. I hope my friends won't kill me for posting them :) 

Spencer sings "Bernadette"

Arashi "Wish" (Arashi is  very popular boy band in Japan right now, for those who were curious. For reference, see here and here).

Arashi "Wish" Part 2

Engrish

I'm starting an album of pictures or Engrish (butchered English) I find around Japan. 

Miriam's Engrish Collection

Also if you're interested check out engrish.com for some really funny ones. 

More Videos

Nothing too exciting, but I put up some more short clips.

Miriamjet Youtube

A Scary Encounter

Last night (Sunday) we went to another festival, this one smaller and I think more local. There was food and dancing and people playing drums and at the end there were fireworks, which they set off right from the ground in front of everyone (not something I'm used to seeing coming from Massachusetts.) It was a lot of fun, we danced and ate some good food. At the last festival, the BOE people kind of herded us around, plus the whole town was there. But this time it was small, and we were there by ourselves, so I think people were more aware of our presence. Some of the taiko drummers dragged us up on the platform and had us playing the drums in front of everyone, and then this old man got a microphone and started introducing us to the crowd, asking us what we thought of the festival, etc. A group of elementary schoolers crowded around us and were very talkative, and spoke surprisingly good English.

All in all it was a lot of fun, but there was one thing that troubled me. While we were on the platform drumming with the taiko guys, there was this one guy (he may have been drunk, I don't know) who kept laughing and making suggestive gestures. He was pretty young, and one of the drummers I think. They were all kind of laughing at us, which is fine, I expect that, we're obviously no good at taiko, and I know that a certain amount of laughter, from amusement or discomfort, is common when people are dealing with something foreign. I've also heard all the stuff about Japan being much less or an even playing field in terms of gender equality, but I hadn't encountered it yet. I feel like most guys in the states wouldn't do that. Or maybe I'm over-reacting, because now that I think about it, in a more traditional, rural area of the US you also probably find people who are less politically correct. Maybe this guy really was drunk, or just not particularly enlightened. 

I was in a good mood when I got home, but it didn't last long. I found a GIANT cockroach on the wall of my bedroom. It's the first real bug I've seen in my house so far. I freaked out, I HATE big creepy bugs, and I didn't know what to do about it. I was considering going to sleep downstairs, but instead I shooed it into the next room (which I don't use) and slammed the door. Whether that will keep it from coming back (hint: it won't) we'll see. I'm going to go to the store today and buy all kinds of bug prevention stuff. I'm really worried about it, because there are a lot of bugs here, and they're all way bigger than ants or little spiders (there are some HUGE spiders), and some of them are poisonous, and living in a house makes it more likely I'll encounter them. I can't wait for winter when they'll all die! (or seek shelter in my house... hmm... maybe that's not so good after all...)

Better in Japan...

I've decided to keep a running tally of things that are better in Japan than in America, like things that are simple innovations or ways of doing things that make you think, "duh, why didn't we think of that?" I'll try to add them as I come up with them.

#1: At the grocery, instead of unloading your entire cart at the register, which is a bit of a pain, you have a basket that fits into your cart, so you just lift the basket and put it on the counter,

 and the checkout lady takes your food, scans it, and puts it into another basket on the other side, which you then place back in your cart. They give you bags to bag your own groceries, which you do at a handy little counter just beyond the checkout, which keeps the lines moving

 quicker. Also then no stupid kid throws your eggs at the bottom of a bag under a gallon of milk. 

#2: Money. Like the Euro, and countless other currencies, the Yen is way better than the dollar. The bills come in denominations of 1000 ($10), 5000 ($50), and 10,000 ($100), but its the coins that rock. The coins are in denominations of 500 ($5), 100 ($1), 50, 10, 5, and 1 (1 cent). It frustrates me to no end that the American dollar doesn't have a one dollar coin in widespread

 use (almost no one uses the Susan B. Anthony coins).  Coin currency is so useful. Plus, Yen coins and bills (especially the bills) are so much prettier than dollars!