After math / L'apres coup

JET LAG!

Oh, I have been back home for 6 days now but I am just good for nothing, I feel so sluggish and tired all the time. I can't wake up in the morning and I lie on the couch most of the day. And also my brain works a little slowly. Yesterday I was doing nothing on the couch lying there with a magazine and the bell rang; I went to answer; it was just someone trying to sell calendars or something but to my big surprise and to his too, I answered "No thank you" in Japanese. I didn't even know I could do that! Then I said I was sorry, (in French!). And then he left because he probably had pity for my lost soul... I don't even know what language to use anymore, I'm gonna have to take classes.

DECALLAGE HORAIRE!
Oh, je suis arrivee ici a la maison il y a 6 jours mais je suis une vraie bonne a rien. Je me sens toute molassone, je suis tout le temps fatiguee. Je n'arrive pas a me reveiller le matin et toute la journee je suis vautree sur le canape. Et mon cerveau marche au ralenti. Hier, je faisais rien vautree sur le canape avec un magazine et soudain quelqu'un sonne a la porte. Je vais repondre et c'est juste un mec qui veut vendre des calendriers ou un truc comme ca. Mais soudain a ma grande surprise et a la sienne aussi, je lui dit "non merci" en Japonais. Je ne savais pas que je pouvais faire ca! Et puis j'ai dit "oh desolee" (en Francais!). Et la il est parti car il avait surement pitie de mon ame perdue... Je ne sais meme plus quelle langue parler, il va falloir que je prenne des cours.

Happy Birthday Robin and Jessica!

Robin! You british devil! Your Rugby team beat the French at the world cup but I won't keep it against you, I guess. So I wanted to say Happy Birthday

!! I hope you are celebrating.

Robin! Espece de diable anglais! Ton equipe de rugby a battu les francais a la coupe du monde mais je ne t'en veux pas. Alors je voulais te souhaiter un Joyeux Anniversaire!! J'espere que tu fais la fete.


Jessica! Happy birthday! You sweet half French half American (at least in the heart)! I hope you are also celebrating your birthday. I wish I was there, maybe we could have gone eat sushi and dance disco again.

Jessica! Joyeux Anniversaire! Douce mi-francaise, mi-americaine (dans le coeur)! J'espere que tu fais aussi la feter pour ton anniversaire. J'aurai bien aime etre la, on aurait pu aller manger des sushi et aller danser disco.

Welcome to the Job fair! / Bienvenue au forun des metiers!

This are all the jobs I got to do here in Japan during those past 5 weeks

Voici tous les metiers que j'ai eu la chance de faire pendant ces 5 semaines.

Brushing the buddha for all of you (read story)

Only 2 more days here in Japan. I have been here for 5 weeks, going from one host family to another and doing tons of different amazing stuffs. So let's see, I got to be:
A geisha; a firefighter; a paramedic; a Karaoke singer; a sushi chef, a farmer at the farm, a farmer in the rice field, a high school baseball coach, a lacquer painter, a professional sake tester, a tea maker, a pottery maker, a soba noodle maker (that was a mess with the flour), a Manju maker (extra sweet Japanese cookie), I got sweat on me from a buddhist Monk who was so close doing his amazing prayer, a Koto player (that was super cool).
But most, I got to wash off all of my friends and family's pain by brushing the little statue of a buddha. I tried to brush every little corner of the buddha thinking of everybody's pain. Like for exemple I brushed the buddha's elbow to fix Bill's and I brushed the buddha's knees for my friends Ann, Abi and all the others that don't talk about it. And I got to brush the buddha's breast to try to prevent all of my girlfriends from breast cancer. I would have taken care of my friend's little prostate problem but I didn't feel like brushing the Buddha's private in front of everyone there watching me (so I hope that the spitting monk took care of that one in his prayer).
I am sure I am forgetting a lot because I feel I did so much, it was amazing. (check out the pictures of some of the jobs I got to do)

Plus que 2 jours au Japon. Ca fait 5 semaines que je suis ici, allant de famille d'accueil en famille d'accueil, faisant des tonnes de trucs differents. Alors voyons... J'ai ete: Une Geisha; un chef Sushi; une fermiere; une coupeuse de riz; un entraineur de Baseball; Pompier; Paramedic; chanteuse de Karaoke; peintre sur objets laques; maitre de ceremonie de the; pottier; faiseur de nouilles au sarasin; faiseur de Manju (gateau Japonais trop sucre); je me suis fait postillione dessus par un buddhiste qui faisait une priere pour moi a deux centimetres de moi, j'ai ete joueuse de Koto (instrument japonais a corde) etc...
J'ai eu aussi la chance de brosser la statue d'un buddha pour enlever les bobos de tout le monde, alors j'ai brosse le coude du buddha pour que le coude de mon pote Bill aille mieux, et puis j'ai brosse les genoux pour mes copines Abi, Ann et pour tous les autres qui ont mal aux genoux et ne disent rien. Puis j'ai brosse la poitrine pour que toutes mes copines n'ai jamais le cancer du sein. J'aurai bien soigne le petit probleme de prostate qu'un de mes potes a mais je ne me voyais pas en train de brosser les couilles du buddha alors j'espere que le postilloneur buddhiste, dans sa priere a rajouter une note a ce sujet. Je suis sure que j'en oublie mais j'ai fait tellement de choses. C'etait vraiment trop cool.

Not a Geisha yet but almost

Check this out.

Pas Geisha, mais presque. La classe non?

Kyoto

No more host families, no more meetings, no more visits, we are now on our own and can be real tourists. I am now in Kyoto. Took the bullet train this morning, and 4 hours later arrived in Kyoto. I am staying in those traditional little place where you sleep on the floor and have a nice lady bring you tea after opening the paper sliding door and taking shoes off.

The city seems great. I have to say that I am a little tired but walked all over the corner of Gion where I saw Geishas walking with little steps going somewhere secret probably.
I am now very used to Japanese food and don't even crave French or American food so much.
The city of Kyoto is very much of a faster pace from the last village we stayed in, where there was no internet connection (no blog for a week).

________________

Plus de familles d'accueil, plus de reunions, plus de visites guidees, nous sommes maintenant libres de faire les vrais touristes.
Je suis maintenant a Kyoto, j'ai pris le TGV ce matin est suis arrivee 4 heures plus tard a Kyoto. Je suis avec Sarah dans un Ryokan (ces chambres d'hotes traditionelles ou tu dors par terre sur un futon et une dame gentille ouvre ta porte coulissante en papier pour t'apporter du the, apres avoir enleve ses chaussures). La ville a l'air super. Je dois avouer que je suis un peu fatiguee car j'ai marche partout dans le quartier de Gion ou j'ai vu des Geishas marcher a petits pas allant surement a des endroit bien secrets.
Je suis maintenant bien accomodee a la nourriture Japonaise et la bouffe Francaise ou Anericaine ne me manque pas de trop.

Village life

No internet connection last week, since we stayed in a real old country village. Our host family's home were different and it was really cool to see all that. We got to be in big cities and small villages, and I think that is such an enriching experience to see it all.
They put us to work again and made us cut some rice in the field, we liked it a lot.
____________________
Pas de connection internet la semaine derniere, car nous sommes restes dans un village de la campagne. Les maisons de nos familles d'accueil etaient differentes et c'etait plutot cool d'etre la. On a eu la chance d'etre dans des grandes villes et dans des petits villages, et je crois que tout cela est bien enrichissant comme experience.
Ils nous encore mis au travail et cette fois, on a coupe le riz, ca nous a bien plu quand meme.

More photos, more infos

Don't forget to go check our "team in Japan" blog, if you want to see more pictures and know more about what we do here

http://gse5500tofukushima.blogspot.com/

N'oubliez pas d'aller voir le blog de notre equipe au Japon, si vous voulez voir plus de photos et en savoir un peu plus sur nos activites ici au Japon.
http://gse5500tofukushima.blogspot.com/

They put me to work; they finally did it!

Yep, they tried already at the farm with the chickens last week, but here in Koriyama they finally put me to work for good. I thought I was kind of on vacation here in Japan, but nope, I was put to work.

When my family heard not only that I was American, but also that I was a fitness personal trainer, they thought it would be a good idea to have me teach a strengthening training session for the entire Baseball high school team of their 16-year-old son. Mmmmm, let me think again… Oh yeah, that’s right!... I know nothing about baseball!!... Ha!
Last September when I took the American citizenship test, they asked me questions about the government and also about the history but nothing about baseball. So why would the Japanese think that I would just be able to teach a baseball strengthening class just because I am American?


And let me think again one more time…. 1- I know nothing about baseball. 2- I know nothing about teaching to a high school. 3- and most important. I DON’T SPEAK JAPANESE!
So now all day I am totally freaking out because I am going to make a fool out of myself in front of not only the baseball coach of the high school but in front of 50 Japanese teenagers who are going to repeat it to their parents and their children later, who are going to tell their neighbors and their brother and sister in laws and also their friends, and soon enough my own children and grand children will know that I was the fool who came to Japan to teach a baseball strengthening session. Oh crap!
My host dad probably promised them that I should be good because I am from the USA and in the USA we know baseball. Humm, Sir? Are you sure you want to do this? Because you see, I am still very French and in France we like rugby and soccer, and in my case it’s gymnastics, but Baseball, mmm… not so much. So? A little change of mind here? Let’s just go home all right?
But to all of that, there was something lost in translation and he understood that I would be super happy to teach to the team and that I was super good and I know exactly what I am doing. Oh great!!!
So here I am at the high school, on the field and those kids are already there practicing and they are totally kicking butts. I mean I see balls flying on the other side of the field and they are super super organized and everything is flowing very well.
But suddenly the coach comes and stops everything and all the boys come to line up in front of him and that is when I hear the coach say “blablablabla…. America… blablablabla… Seshiru Buraun san (that is my name in Japanese)… blablablabla….blablablablabla…..”. And I am standing there next to him and all the boys suddenly bow and say in unison “Konnichiwa!”.
So with a sure and confident voice I respond “Konnichiwa”, caus’ I want to sound and look professional here.
I turn and the coach is now gone aside and it is my time to do my job. Oh shit, I feel like being somewhere else right now (like at my daily starbucks time in the morning, what time is it in Arizona right now? Oh, 3am, perfect, I should be in bed right now).
Big silence and all the boys are waiting for me. So I say: “If I speak English, are you guys able to understand me?”… Big silence… And 2 or 3 boys say “Yes”. Out of that whole group, that is good enough for me, I am ready to start now.
So I start and make them work a little bit on warming up the hip joint (in Base ball, I saw them lifting their leg high up front when they throw), that should be good. Then I decide that those boys are not strong enough in the lower body and make them do some super cool exercises for the quads and for the core and for the shoulders and I tell them that this exercise is good for the pitcher to prevent injuries on the rotator cuff and that exercise is good for the batter because it is always good to have a strong core when you are a batter. And all I am thinking is that to them I sound like this: “Blablabla….. Pitcher… blablablablablablabla… batter… blablablablabla…let’s go!”.


The best part is that those kids are so disciplined and polite, they are doing everything I ask. Not one stops, even when they are struggling after 100 abdominal exercises. And they all are counting in unison with me, in English, very seriously. This is so cool.
Well, after a whole hour of workout, I see all those boys are very sweaty and dirty; that probably means I am done with my work here.
They suddenly all line up in front of me again and one of them steps forward and says in English “Thank you very much for the great workout”, and they all clap.
Aww… that is so nice! I wonder what they think now. (Do they know I know nothing about baseball, not even a rule, not even the terms, Nothing!?)
I decided it didn’t matter that I knew nothing about baseball for tonight. I feel good about my session. I am so happy I got to do this, this was a great experience; and 2 parents that were on the side came to me and said in English: “It was very beautiful”.
Well I just feel I had the privilege to teach to a Japanese High School Baseball team tonight and that was great.


(traduction francaise viendra peut etre plus tard, un autre jour si il y a de la demande. Desolee, mais l'histoire est un peu longue)