Home and Culture shock

Every year I go home and have a tad bit of reverse culture shock. Things that I just don’t understand about my home culture. Here are a few of them:

Wait. I have to take my shoes off for airport security? Where are the slippers?

Why does the light switch outside the door not turn on the light inside the room?

Shoes? On carpet?

Aren't you driving on the wrong side of the road?

It costs less than $10. Look in coin purse. Oh yeah, we have $1 and $5 bills.

Why is all the tea in the supermarket sweetened?

I thought we had central heating in all houses, this house is cold!

 

Now for the pictures . . . 

A ukulele performance from the youngest sister

Jeff’s next job – Southwest Airlines’ Airplane. I think he'll make a wonderful airplane when he grows up! 

And the award for cutest couple goes to – Mandie and Jeff!

An afternoon of tubing with the siblings. I was surprised at how not cold Mt. Hood was for a mountain that has snow for skiing year-round. It was only 0C/32F the whole time we were out. 

Hokkaido doesn’t have snow year round but we hit –20C/??F!

Waiting for the littlest one to come back up.

Made the trip to visit Uncle Chris for my yearly hair cut. I love having short hair! It’s SOOOOOO much easier than having to deal with long hair all the time.

I think dad photo-bombed us!

Em and Grandma were all over the making of cake balls. They were delicious.

Joined grandma for New Year’s Mass and a chili feed. It was fun getting to meet all of Grandma’s friends from church. We forgot to take a picture, so we took one in the dark car.

Ringing in the New Year, moustache style!

Though not in middle school yet, this kid is a math whiz! She had so much math homework to do over winter vacation that this was a common sight.

'

When Michiko came for a visit, we went to Powells, I had a lot of fun catching up on some of my picture book reading that I can’t do in Japan!

We took Michoko for tacos, which of course had to include my favorite – Tacos al Pastor!

As a Portlander, it was beginning to get a bit ridiculous that I hadn’t been to Voodoo Donuts yet. So we made a late-night trip and had a donut – they’re open 24/7!

Of course I had to try the maple bacon bar. How could that flavor combination be bad?

A random selection of what was in their display case. So many crazy food and flavor combinations!

A week later than planned we had Snow Week Reunion with some of my best friends in the whole world.

This is the first time I’ve seen this crazy girl in maybe two years. And in that time she started dating, got engaged and then married to a really great guy.

As proof of what a great guy he is, here are a few pictures he took as we hung out.

C read us a story while we hung out in the book/coffee shop.

We of course made several attempts before we finally got everyone looking good and doing what they were supposed to for a picture.

Jess’ really great husband? Here he is, pushing Kenzle around in a Safeway cart.

Jess’ husband is not just great because he pushes Kenzle around in a cart though, it was a lot of fun to see how much he cares about her in person.

After the supermarket, we headed to C’s house to call Ben and Mel (the long lost crazies) and play hand and foot, but we got a little side tracked by turning C’s living room into a fort. . .

But forts are the perfect place to play hand and foot, so really it was good that we got distracted.

I took Em for our annual frozen yogurt trip. We had a lot of fun piling all kinds of random toppings on top of our frozen yogurt.

Not sure if it’s a good thing, but Em is a pro at self-portraits. We had a mini session with my phone. This is one of my favorites.

On my last night we went to Nicholas. It’s Lebanese food and SOOOO incredibly delicious. I wanted the waitress to get a photo of us so you could actually tell how giant that bread in the middle of the table is. Unfortunately we’re a bit blurry.

On my last morning, Lucky didn’t want me to go. He tried to get in the car and block me from leaving. Unfortunately, I had to get on a plane.

Arrival

Here's the plane that I arrived home just in time for Christmas in!

Merry Christmas!

Gender Identity In Japanese and Western Culture: The Definitive Something or Other*

Today I spent another day with my Junior High School students. It was a good day. But as I stand there often not involved in classes except to read for the students to repeat (human tape recorder, we call it), I get to observe my students. This is always an interesting way to keep my mind occupied.

As I stand there, I frequently notice that the boys in the class have some very “girly” school supplies. Minnie Mouse Folders, pink pencils and plenty of other things. Why is it that guys in the US think that these types of things would make them less “manly”? Why is it that American society deems these things “girly?” Why do we have to separate things and jobs as feminine or masculine?

The differences continue outside the classroom. Construction equipment here is often cute. Elephants, frogs and monkeys hold up bars to keep people seeing the edge of the road. The lifter things that help people reach power lines, painted like giraffes.Why is it that construction equipment at home is never painted in pastel colors? Or pinks? Or any of the colors we deem “feminine?” Or is it because animals are “childish?” If that’s the case, who quit liking animals after they were an adult?

In the states, we also seem to classify jobs this way. How many male elementary teachers have you met? There are usually one or two at any school, clearly outnumbered. How many women do you know going into computer science? I know a handful, but I know way more men. Why is this? Didn’t God give us each unique talents and abilities? Why would women not be able to do some jobs and men not be able to do others?

I may be crazy to share all of these thoughts, but at home I get annoyed when the boys in the classroom think they can’t be good at reading or writing because they’re “girl subjects” (or sometimes even school at all), or when a girl thinks she can’t be good at math or science because they’re “boy subjects.” Students seem to choose this way of thinking all the time (or did when I was subbing).

I’m not trying to say that women should be better than men at everything or vice versa. I just get annoyed with the way we box things into gender. Why are school supplies, colors, school subjects and professions categorized into genders? They have no gender. They’re inanimate objects.

Will we ever be able to disconnect these things from gender? Would lifting these boxes that we have put ourselves and those around us in change anything? I’m not sure. I would hope that it would make everyone help to be themselves. Help them to dress in the colors they want to. Help them to do a job they love rather than shying away from it because it’s not something they should be doing.

*Title thanks to: Elizabeth, author of Futons, Fish, and Ferries and one of my regular blog editors