Ms.Stump Star

This year, Christmas at the JHS was pretty low-key (though I suppose it probably always is), and my Christmas lesson turned out to be a bit of flop. However, at the elementary school, we had lots of fun.

My new supporter, Akemi's replacement, is a very nice young woman named Rie. Her English is almost perfect, as she went to college in Hawaii. She is a very motivated individual. The ALT who handles the 1st, 2nd, and 5th grade classes dumped the planning of his Christmas lesson completely on her... and she did such a great job I stole most of her lesson for my own 3rd, 4th, and 6th grade classes. To her credit, she actually did work in an English school previously, so she already has the experience. Honestly, she makes me feel quite unnecessary...

Rie really went all out for the lesson. She arranged for the use of hula hoops and made big pieces of fake candy for the "Keyword Game", illustrated a Christmas story, obtained permission to hang balloons from the ceiling to create a "party" atmosphere, somehow convinced all the teachers to chip in for ~32 Santa hats, as well as convincing the homeroom teachers to dress up as Santa (to hand out the hats). I feel like that is more communication than I have accomplished in over a year.

Although months ago we were finally, at Akemi's

urging, given leave to convert a free classroom into an "English Room", this month we were told we could move to the recently refurbished section of the school. Everything is shiny and new, the wood is bright, clean, and un-warped, the walls are freshly painted, the shelves unlittered... it is very refreshing! I don't even mind having to move all of the decorations!

After we had bi-lingual Christmas story time, we took some questions from the students, most of which I could not answer, but did my best: Is Santa real today? (Of course!) Why does he wear red? (So you can see him coming) Why does he/do we wear [Santa] hats? (Because it's cold) Where is Santa from? (OH! I know that one! Turkey)

They also wanted to know what we usually get in our stockings. I told them "toys, money, and an orange". They all went "eeeehhhhh??" and asked why an orange (notice no one protest to free toys and money!), and though I have no idea why "Santa" always gives my brother and I oranges, I told them sternly, "Santa wants you to be healthy!". Everyone, I might add, found this hilarious.

After we finally finished with the last Christmas lesson, I moved all the decorations to create a "Christmas Corner". One of students had made tiny little cut-outs of crayon-colored trees, so I decided to incorporate these into my Corner. As I was moving them, I noticed that some of the trees were yellow.

Me: "Rie, why are these trees yellow?"

Rie: "Trees? I think those are stars."

Me: "Stars? ... but they have stumps."

Tie: "... it's a stump star."

Maybe it was because she was totally serious when she said it, but I thought this was so hilarious, I nearly fell off the cabinet I standing on. It still makes me laugh near to tears. Rie was equally affected and all one of us had to do was mutter "stump star" before we both erupted again in laughter as we were cleaning.

Today when Rie dropped off her Christmas present to me, she managed to incorporate all our little jokes; inside I found two oranges, a card with a drawing of an orange that said "Santa wants you to be healthy"...and the card was signed, "Ms. Stump Star".

Merry Christmas,

stump star Baer

Questionable Medicine

Ah, another Christmas in Japan.

I'm posting about this later rather than at the time it happened, because I didn't want anyone else to worry about me.
My track record for Japanese Christmas is pretty terrible. Last Xmas I was sick on Xmas day and several days after. Although it is not technically Xmas yet, it is close enough to say that this year was worse; I was sick for the last two week with some unidentifiable, unfamiliar, unyielding abdominal pain, ended up going to 3 doctors and wondering if I was going to have to fly home to the States.

None of the doctors did me a whit of good, and I ended up healing (whatever it was that needed healing...) on my own, so I think I'm OK now... However, it was certainly an interesting look into the medical profession in Japan. The first doctor I went to, they wanted to take an x-ray of my abdomen. I walked into the x-ray room, and they had these picture posters on the wall demonstrating how to pose for various x-rays; the woman used in the photos was a stunner... from 1940. I eyed the equipment a little more critically after that, my confidence not exactly full to bursting.

When we went to speak to the doctor, he pointed at some white lines on the film and asked me if I'd ever had surgery. It took me a moment (as I was surprised you could see such a thing on an x-ray) but I told him I had an appendectomy in kindergarden (talk about abdominal pain!). He was really fascinated by this for some reason and asked if he could see my scars. I showed him the three small scars I have from the endoscopic surgery scattered over my stomach, hardly visible anymore, and he got REALLY animated. From what I understood, he said that they (STILL!!) don't use endoscopy in Japan; just cut a big ol' hole in the person and take it out the old fashion way. Eck! And mine was done almost 20 years ago!! Really scary. Note to self: do not stay in Japan for major medical procedures.

While I was still looking for doctors to visit in Tokyo, with the hope of finding someone who spoke English, my father sent me some links on medical information. I was really shocked to find out that in Japan, once you have your medical license, you are set to practice medicine FOR LIFE, without any monitoring, continuing education, or re-licensing necessary. The example was that a doctor could decide to stop practicing medicine and then, 20 or 30 years later, pick it up again and open a clinic without ever having to do a thing to brush up on his (or her, though you wont find many female doctors in practice) skills. In addition to that horrifying thought, doctors can advertise themselves as "specialists" of any field of medicine without any particular qualification; quite literally, all they need to do a print of business card! I couldn't believe it... Of course, in Tokyo there are plenty of very qualified doctors in hospitals who ARE certified specialists, so it is important to do your homework and go to the right hospital. As usual, the answer is: go to Tokyo.

Honestly, it explained a lot for me. In my little town you can find a clinic almost on every street corner, sometimes more than one. Part of that is because Japanese people go to the doctor for absolutely everything, including the common cold. Now I can't help wondering if the other part of it is that opening a practice is an incredibly easy way to lead a profitable semi-retirement for old fogey doctors who don't have to be inconvenience with pesky things like actually being qualified to practice medicine in the 21st century.

Scary.

Cheers,

Baer