Some of the teachers at Kamiichiki Junior High School have been tossing around the idea of the whole staff visiting Minnesota during summer vacation. I have no idea how serious they are about this. They began talking about it during the After-Culture-Festival party last November. I thought they'd have forgotten about it by now (what with the usual enkai activities (yes, drinking) and all), but they still bring it up every now and then. So, there is a high probability that I'll be visiting home again this summer...and a slim possibilty that I'll have about a dozen Nihonjin in tow. (And, alas, none of them being the one I'd really like to have with....)

...Ahem. Anyway, yesterday, a couple of teachers were asking me about how much various activities would cost. They asked about tickets to baseball games, and were satisfied with the answer. Next, they asked about basketball and football, and were completely shocked by those answers. (Gee, I wonder why?) Finally, the two staff golf nuts asked about greens fees for a round of 18. Since I didn't have a clue (does mini-golf count?), I made a guess of $25 to $30. (Upon checking w. Derrick later, I realize that my guess was a bit on the low side, but okay.) That really floored them. They showed me a coupon from a golf club near here, listing these prices:

Weekdays: 8,000 Yen (about $67)
Saturdays: 11,000 Yen (about $92)
Sundays: 13,000 Yen (about $108)

From there, the conversation moved to how Japanese schools and American schools are different.

The math teacher asked, "Do you study Japanese history in American schools?" Of course, I said, "No," and that surprised them almost as much as the cost of a ticket to a Wolves game did. They showed me a history textbook, which had concurrent timelines of Japanese, American, and European history. Another teacher quoted a few facts from American history that he remembered from school, then asked me, as if to make sure, "You didn't learn about Nobunaga, Hideyoshi, Tokugawa, before you came to Japan?" I again answered negatively, not wanting to mention that I knew the names from some old Nintendo games.

I then allowed that actually, we did learn a little bit of ancient Japanese/Asian history in high school, and a little bit of modern history as well.

"Ah, World War II, Pearl Harbor, right?"

"Um. Yeah."

So, we discussed that for a little bit. Then, the conversation turned to current events, and Kita Chosen/North Korea...

It's interesting (at least to me) to note that in Japanese, South Korea is written with a kanji that historically refers to Korea (Kan, Kan-koku), while North Korea is written with the name that Japan forced on all Korea when Japanese forces occupied the peninsula during World War II (Cho-sen).

Anyway, although the rest of the world is concerned with the return of North Korea's nuclear program, Japan has also got the issue of the abductees to worry about. (quick recap -- about 20 years ago, North Korean spies kidnapped several Japanese people) I had to explain to the teachers at Kami-chu that practically noone in America knows about this. Yet another reason to think less of America, I'm afraid....

It seems that DoCoMo has initiated a policy that foreigners who start a new cellphone account with them must pay a refundable deposit of 30,000 yen ($250). The reason they give is that losses from foreigners (for example, military personnel who are posted here for a year or less) who skip out on their last few months' bills are reaching an unacceptable level. This would be all well and good, but for the fact that independent observers have shown that Japanese deadbeats far outnumber foreigner deadbeats, the debt from Japanese deadbeats is much higher, etc. When asked to show the figures that justify making only foreigners pay this deposit, DoCoMo refused to comment.

Now, apparently, this policy has been in place since April of last year. I bought my cellphone from DoCoMo last June, and I did not have to pay any kind of deposit, so I don't really know what's going on.

Supposedly, a JET CIR (that's Coordinator for International Relations, one of the other JET positions) in Kyushu was asked to prepare signs in English for a local business that said, "Foreigners Not Welcome." Of course, that's not what the signs ended up saying.