Still alive

Yes, I am still alive!

I have survived my first week of teaching in Nagaoka--somehow--and I am writing this post from the International Center in the city using a keyboard that is mostly in Japanese. For all of you in warmer climates, it has been snowing here for most of last week and right now the temperature is a balmy 50 F. I would love to share some picures with all of you, but that will have to wait until I have my own internet connection in a couple of weeks.

Nagaoka itself it not a beautiful city, but it is in a beautiful location, with tall snowy mountains all around. Yesterday, there was a festival downtown to mark the official 100th anniversary of the city, which involved power rangers fighting in the streets (?), vendors selling fun japanese foods like　squid on a stick, and hip-hop troupes dancing to American music.

Todays`s　lesson on Japanese culture will be my interpretation of a myth Americans have about the Japanese, which is that they are supposedly big savers (as opposed to us free-spending Americans). I`ve heard all about how the Japanese save a sizable portion of their incomes, and this is probably true...but not because they are any more responsible that we are. The truth is that the ATMs and banks here simply aren`t in operation in the evening and on weekends (!!!), exactly the time when most of us want to withdraw money. So it sits there in your account, being `saved`, until you finally get a chance to take it out--and woe to fools who are low on cash and forget to withdraw money for the weekend, because Japan has a mostly cash-based economy and most shops do not accept credit cards (!). Strange, I know, but it does encourage saving...which may be the point of the whole setup.

More to come when I can manage it, along with pictures of Nagaoka...including some great Japanglish.