Puting your name on your trash, and other peculiraities

Two weeks after arriving in Japan, and one week after I started teaching, my boss finally managed to organize an orientation session for the new teachers. It was not as pointless as I thought it would be. After all I found out where they kept the folder with those essential forms I had been looking for all week, such as attendence sheets, progress reports, and so on. Now that some light was shed into this dimmly illuminated organization, I can actually prepare my classes the way I'm expected to. No need to improvise everything any longer, only what I really want to. In fact, I should probably go back and update the paperwork for my classes this past week. What better opportunity could there be for this than tomorrow (Monday) my day off? I'll show my face, shining with eagernes to do my job well, and give my company more than what's expected. That's the Japanese way! Plus, since I won't be seeing students, it'll be nice to hang out at the office in my T-shirt and combat-pants.

At the belated orientation we also recieved useful information about things pertaining to everyday life. We learned, for example, how to organize our trash. As it is with most ecological things, recycling is quite big in Japan. As it is with most recycling systems, however, it is utterly mindless in this country too. Similarly to the "green dot" system in Germany, you have to buy special trashbags. But unlike in Germany, there is a special bag for each kind of waste: There is the RED bag for "burnable", which constitutes paper, plastic, all sorts of organic kitchen waste, wooden chopsticks, etc... So essentially it's just regular trash. Next, there is the BLUE bag for "non-burnable", that is cups and glasses, light bulbs and dishes. Then, there is the GREEN bag for "recyclable", meaning plastic bottles, tin and aluminum cans, and glass containers. All of these have to be separated by color, cleaned inside and out, and any paper or plastic wrappers as well as bottle caps must be removed. Newspapers and cardboard boxes also belong into this category, but it is enough to stack and bundle them tightly. Should there be anything else that does not fit into the regular size trashbags (about the size of a plastic bag you get at your average grocery store), it counts as "oversized". That menas that we have to call Nagahara-san, so she can tell our landlord to contact the local trash authorities, who will dispose of our wastes for fee, depeding on the size of the item.

It is reccomendable to follow these trash-rules, not because they make sense or because it might help the environment, but simply because they are rules. And being in Japan, rules have an inflated importance. Of course nobody is going to say anything if someone disregards these rules, but neither will they answer his greeting the next time he says "ohayo gozaimasu". In fact, if someone's car gets scratched, someone's window smashed, or someone's daughter raped, then there won't be a doubt in anyone's mind that the only potential suspect is the foreigner who does not separate his trash. To avoid this, and to provide additional control, it is also advisable to put your name on your trash bags.

From all these special bags, however, it is the "burnable" red bag that keeps filling up the fastest. No doubt, most of its contents are empty bags from the supermarket, which I clearly can't use as trashbags. However, as ecologically concerned as they are in Japan, there is way too much unneccessary packaging material. Everything is sold under so many layers of plastic that it's not even funny. It is impossible to buy fruit or vegetables that are not shrink-wrapped or vacuum sealed, even at the vegetable store. You buy a stack of plastic cards for school, and while the box itself is sealed in plastic, inside, the whole stack of cards is packed into its own plastic wrapper, and each card is again individually packaged into a thin plastic baggie. Simply ridiculous! Altogether I am producing about as much trash in a day as in a whole week elsewhere.

Other than the trash rules, the orientation provided us with other useful information about cars, cell-phones, bank accounts, and other things I won't be able to use until I get a "gaijin-card" which makes me fully legal. Until then I'll be a shaddow of a person, working under the table, unnoticed and unrecognized, who can't even rent a DVD. So hopefully my paperwork goes through soon, and I'll get to go to Korea to pick up my visa.

We were also told about what not to do, specifically drugs. To give us a shocking example, we were told about a former teacher at Active, who was friendly and polite, an excelent teacher and a pleasant coworker. Kids loved him because his classes were fun, and adults respected him because he challenged them well. So all in all he was a perfect employee, except for one thing: One day he was arrested, because there was a letter in the mail addressed to him, containing parts of a certain illegal plant. So we could read his own description of being detaind by the cops for days and weeks until his lawyer in Canada settled the case. He describes very vividly how he had to share a cell with a member of the yakuza (Japanese mafia), and a man who'd been arested for sleeping in a dumpster (aparently another illegal activity in Japan). The latter one had a skin disease, constantly scratching himslef. They had to share the same toilet, without a tap to wash their hands or get a drink, and the only time he was allowed to leave the cell was for questioning, which was more like mind-terror. During that time he had to wear shackles, and was led around the room like a dog. I don't know how much truth is in that story, but it is scarry enough to keep me from using any kind of drugs. Okay, the sheer unavailability thereof has something to do with it as well. The cost of alcohol has already made me give up drinking, so I will have to look for other sorts of leisure activities. I'm not exactly sure what it's going to be, but I've heared whores and gambling are pretty big in Japan.

After the orientation we had our pictures taken, and we went downstairs to the Nagaharas for a teachers' party. It was a potluck, so everyone was expected to bring some food. I made my famous "lecsó", this time with Japanese instead of Mexican peppers, and my own seasoning, as I could not find anything similar to the sausage I usually put in it. Drinks were on the house. After all, what is a liquor store good for? It was a lovely evening. We sat on soft cushions on the carpet around the short table in the livingroom, giving little speeches of welcome and gratitude, then eating and drinking, and playing bowling and golf on the Nagaharas' Nintendo Wii. I enjoyed it greatly, especially the familiar atmosphere, which would be unthinkable at IH-Mexico, or any bigger school for that matter. As for right now, I am extremely comfortable here. The working at living atmosphere is really appealing to me.