JETs: a psychological perspective
Now Playing: Japanese Pop still. There's just no other music like it.
I promised myself I’d stop making fun of the people here, but there’s so many head cases here. Then again, I’ve met some really cool people that are going to make great teachers. The odd thing is, we’re all here in this sweet hotel for two days, then we split for separate parts all over Japan, probably never to see most of each other again. I’m using pseudonyms for everyone, just because.

Definitely the most cool and coolest person I’ve met so far is a guy that calls himself Prince, but spelled, “Prins” for whatever reason. He’s a suave black guy from L.A., and the first time I met him was at the large orientation gathering we had in a ballroom. He got this girl angry because he tried to help her when she was putting her dress coat back on. He is sooooo smooooth.

Then there’s one of my roommates, who’s a skinny Asian guy. Let’s call him Mr. T. There’s a lot of people of Asian descent on the program in general, probably out of their own cultural interest. Mr. T is really talkative, but he gets excited about everything a little too easily, and turns the topic of any conversation onto himself somehow. I haven’t quite figured out how he does this. Let’s say we’re talking about, I don’t know…Pizza. I might say, “the pizza is really good here” or something. He would reply, “Oh, man, I can’t believe I’m functioning on 7 hours of sleep. I never knew I was this mentally tough.” And he never finishes a statement without this nasal laugh, “Nyehehehe,” which is particularly charming.

The other roommate I have, Mr. N, is a really nice guy. He has a goatee and hair down to his shoulders. He does have one habit I think he should change. This has to do with the cute Japanese school girls that have some tables set up by the orientation rooms in the Hotel. Someone commented on how cute they were and he said, “yeah, don’t you just want to take one home with you?” He said this more than once. Sometimes unprovoked. Some things you just don’t say out loud. Like that last phrase, or, for example, I would put this one on equal par with it, “I’m a convicted sex offender.” Maybe I’m being overcritical. I guess I’m old fashioned that way.

During the senior high school seminar, there was a current JET teacher that demonstrated some team teaching with a Japanese English teacher. He spoke in a comatose inducing calm voice and had a series of catch phrases he would repeat to avoid saying anything of substance like, “All right,” “good stuff,” “How are we feeling?” “It’s awesome,” “So cool.” I could have said anything to him and he’d be floored. Example: I could have said that the sky was blue; his response would be something like, “Whoa, yeah, I never noticed that before! All right, that’s good stuff. Definitely cool, definitely cool, it’s like I have a whole new perspective on life. Thanks, man.”

I went out with some of the other Osaka people last night and met some nice people. Ok, I met one nice girl, some ok people and a few head cases. One man I will mention is Potatohead, who’s younger than me, but looks 40. When he coughs his whole face flushes red. It’s kind of creepy. He was a history major, but he knows a little about everything. And by “ a little,” I mean everything. He puts his mouth on autopilot and periodically checks to see if you’re still sitting with him. If you want to actually respond to something, you have to hit the table and yell. He still won’t take notice or stop talking, but when I used this tactic to get him to pay his part of the bar tab, it worked.

There’s such a diverse collection of people here, I sincerely wish I had more time to get to know people. Even though there’s a lot of immature people and idiots, there’s also some of the most amazing people I’ve ever met, which makes me sad that we all split for other ends of the country tomorrow. There’s Andrew 1, who is my age, and I just found out he starting his own web-hosting company and may host pizzaninjas.com in the near future. He and his friend Andrew 2, who’s one of the most genuinely funny people I’ve ever met. Andrew 1 and 2 both met at a summer camp in Japan last year. They’re going to be awesome teachers.

I thought I would be one of the more immature people here, but I have been sadly mistaken. I’m not easily offended or one to demand respect, but we’re being put up in a hotel that’s nice as hell with people going way, way out of their way to help us with anything, so I feel there’s some order of respectful behavior due. I’ve overheard people talking about anything from “doing Japanese girls,” to “smoking a shit-load of pot.” If that must be done at all, at least do it at the bar or in a hotel room, but there’s Japanese staff and even young Japanese school girls in the halls. At the banquets, where Japanese hotel staff wait on us left and right, there’s people that criticize the free food and become complete asses. For the most part, people are pretty cool about it, but this dude next to me at lunch today was yelling across the dining room to his “homie” and doing these ridiculous gestures. What an ass. People are treated like princes, so they think they’re kings. I almost took my belt off and had at him.