wtf japan

[fencer_x]

Maybe I'm just a crazy foreigner. Hell, maybe I'm just a crazy American. But where I come from, when it gets hot we generally go like this:

A: Damn it's hot.
B: I'll turn on the air-conditioner.
A: Okay, thanks.
*is cooler*

Don't have AC? The convo then goes like this:

A: Damn it's hot.
B: I have an extra hand fan, want one?
A: Okay, thanks.
*is cooler*

Now, people not from the USA, land of the free and home of the air-conditioning-units-in-every-building, perhaps you can shed some light on this. Is this not the general way things go when you're hot? You...try and cool off? Kind of like when you're cold you try and get warm? Are we just being CRAZY AMERICANS again?

Cause my school has now banned fans in the classrooms. I don't mean electric fans. I don't mean the little battery-powered hand-held fans.

I MEAN FUCKING UCHIWAS. THAT YOU HOLD IN YOUR HAND AND WAVE IN YOUR FACE.

We are not allowed to bring them to class. Why? Because they're a distraction? Because not all the students have them and that'd be unfair (<--btw the crackass excuse for why, even though we HAVE AC in the teachers' office it's never turned on: because it'd be UNFAIR. Fuck unfair, I'm a teacher, they're kids. They can deal)?

Nope.

Because they think we should bear the heat, that it makes you stronger.

What in all the flying FUCK? HOW IN GOD'S NAME DOES THAT MAKE ONE IOTA OF SENSE?

Oh my goooood I can't wait to get out of this hickass backwards town and into Tokyo where I get to sit on my ass online all day, fixing English, in an AC/heated 10th story building with a panoramic view of Tokyo right outside my window, *pnish* and Nagayan minutes away, Tenchou around the corner, my husband within rock-throwing-and-concussing distance.

Wow, Japan. Just when I thought I couldn't, "HOW ON EARTH DID YOU GET TO BECOME ONE OF THE MOST POWERFUL NATIONS IN THE WORLD?!" at you any more...

Comments

[butterfly-eli.livejournal.com]

Teach them origami, take a sheet of paper, fold it back and forth until you run out of paper. Fold in one end. Ta-da! Fan! ^_^

[hibimaosuki.livejournal.com]

WTF. This heat is going to KILL you. O_o

(I think one storm just left us and is on its way over to you, so yay for less heat? Not sure where it's headed, though. Could be towards Australia for all I know.)

my husband within rock-throwing-and-concussing distance.
:: Yes, the BEST reason to move to Tokyo. XD

[innusiq.livejournal.com]

...my husband within rock-throwing-and concussing-distance. LOL!

I am USA born and raised, but my mom has always had this thing, I won't say it's a philosophy... a state of mind maybe... Where even when it's 80-90 degrees (because really... in Ohio... 80's is pretty freaking hot because we are delicate little flowers) drinking a hot cup of tea will give one the sense of it being cooler... wtf (sorry Mom)? Me drinking a hot glass of tea on a day that it's 85 degrees and the A/C wasn't turned on for some reason is insanity!

In short - we are very much spoiled *nods*

[x-reggg.livejournal.com]

definitely not an USA only thing. ACs are over-used here to the point of people bringing in sweaters to classes.

i think we might get a storm? if juudenkanryou got a storm, and we just got huge rain yesterday, it might be heading to japan :D

[miken-chan.livejournal.com]

Even so, not turning on air conditioners save facilities a lot of money, a normal house in America can cut its energy bill by 4% just by not using the AC.

*cough* Anyways, with the trivia knowledge put aside, with us all used to using the AC, it does get really uncomfortable without it...as per my last trip to China. I mean, the countryside is okay, but once in somewhere really populated, like Lanzhou, Xi-an or Beijing, everyone is using their AC, and that makes the outside feel even more unbearable...making a giant circle of pollution and such. (Even though most of it's only just aggrivating pre-existing pollution)

And in relation to innusiq's comment, my family is also strange in that we drink 90% more tea in the summer than in the winter...It does somewhat cool me down after a bit, but it's still really weird when I'd rather drink something much cooler.

[coffeeandice.livejournal.com]

...How the HELL are you surviving?

[pamuya.livejournal.com]

That is a real health hazard.

I am very sensitive to heat, and I would think LOTS of Asians would be the same way given their body type/etc.

[reppu.livejournal.com]

Yup, that's Japan. That's what equality looks like babe. XD

Btw, when do you move to Tokyo? You probably won't be there when I get there at the end of the month, but you might be there when I come back up for Comiket.

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

Equality my ass :P Why not just tell everyone they can use little fans then? That's equality. Everyone gets to be cool on their own power.

I move in the 26th of July and start work the 28th, with weekends off. I imagine I'll be done working by ~5PM every day? When will you be in Tokyo? You can come check out my new digs 8D

[reppu.livejournal.com]

I get there on the 27th, but you know how JET stuff is. I have a feeling I'll be plastered every night and will have to pretend like I don't have a hang-over during orientation. What's that like anyway?

Oh, and thanks for the tips about ATMs in the jetjapan comm. I think $400 will be enough, but I don't know my cap for postal ATMs. What's the most you've ever pulled? I'm pretty sure my Dad got 70,000Y out once...

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

Well I only really went to orientation in the mornings, the things in the big hall. All the individual stuff I skipped out on and went to do things like meet my destined husband and stuff in Shibuya. So probably not the best one to ask :D

I'd say find out what you HAVE to be there for, and skip the rest XD It's more fun that way--but then, I'd never been to Japan before, so I wanted to skip out and see stuff. You might find the actual seminars better to go to because they'll help more.

I've probably never pulled more than $300 at a time from the post office, I think >_< You'll be there over a couple of days, though--and you won't pay for that apartment immediately. I'd say it'll at LEAST be a week after you arrive.

[nooddlez.livejournal.com]

Wow! Much Sympathy!

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

Oh, my elementary school was like that. Since I grew up with it, I could live with it. (The teachers were also super-strict, so no one dared to complain.) It teaches students that they can't always get what they want, and they have to live with it. (The Authority is always right, etc.)

Although, from a environmental standpoint, it's probably a good idea to make sure kids don't get used to AC though, so that they grow up and are able to resist turning the AC on and reduce their carbon footprint >_>

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

Maybe I wasn't clear--I'm not saying they should have AC; I love AC, but I grew up with it. I can live without it, I'm just not a happy camper.

But to tell them they can't even fan themselves? They just have to sit there and sweat an be miserable? A hand fan they wave back and forth in front of their faces hurts NO ONE, and IMHO it's damn hot enough in those classrooms that one of them's going to keel over from heatstroke before the year's up (happened last year, a few times actually).

That's just cruel. It's one thing that they learn they can't have it easy, it's another that they torture the poor kids because they're stuck in the middle ages. Geez.

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

Yeah, banning the hand fans is strange - they're distracting, but no more so than the heat. Do the classrooms at least have electric fans?

[fencer-x.livejournal.com]

Nope, there's absolutely no way for the students to cool themseslves.

[adevyish.livejournal.com]

Ok, no electric fans is cruel.