Kaemoka Diaries

A friend alerted me to these series of web cartoons about teaching English in Japan.
I enjoyed reading them, and identified with much of them.
As someone who taught English in Japan for 8 years, I always feel like I have to put my two cents in on everything.  So below is a link to all the cartoons.  Below each link is my annotations on how much of this cartoon reflected my own personal experience.

Kameoka Diaries #1 — Self-Introduction

*Ah, the old self-Introduction lesson.  I've given that one numerous times myself.  It is, as the author says, incredibly teacher centered, and would be considered the height of narcissism in any other circumstances, but you are expected to do a whole lesson introducing yourself to every new class in Japan.  (In fact I still do a bit of self-introduction song and dance in Cambodia for new classes, but I try and limit that to only a half hour or so.)

*The questions about your love life from elementary school kids--true.

*The difference in enthusiasm between elementary school kids and junior high school kids--true.  The exception being my first few days in the junior high school (both in Ajimu and then again Gifu) I got an enthusiastic reception.  The kids were excited to see a new face, especially a new white face.  But that enthusiasm didn't last forever, and within a month or so they were back to acting bored in English class.

*On having students constantly asking if you remember them, and being embarrassed because you don't--true.
When you work as an assistant language teacher in Japan, you're often at several schools in one week, and remembering all the names from all the different schools is just too much.  And yet the students are always asking you, "Do you remember me?"  (I suppose I should be flattered that they wanted me to remember them, but it was always the most embarrassing part of my day when I had to confess, no I don't remember you, tell me your name again.)
In fact every now and again, I'll get a former student from Japan contacting me on facebook, and asking if I remembered them from 10 years ago.  I'm flattered they took the trouble of tracking me down and e-mailing me, but I almost always have to reply: No, I don't remember you.  Sorry.
(This has also caused me to be more tolerant of my own former school teachers when I run into them in the shopping mall, and I can see that they don't recognize me at all.)

Kameoka Diaries #2 — Friends
*Most of this strip is based on the idiosyncrasies of his friends, who I don't know.  But in any given city in Japan, the expat community is always small and tightly knit, and you spend a lot of time with each other.  Most of my stories from my 8 years in Japan are from within the expat circle, and the various personalities you meet.

* In his community the Americans are the majority.  I often found that Brits tended to make up the majority of expat communities.  (I believe the population of America is much larger than the population of Britain, and yet when you travel or live abroad, you tend to run into much more Brits than Americans.  I think Brits tend to travel a lot more outside of their own country than we Americans do).

*The last few panels in his comic really struck a chord with me.  It's something I personally observed around the expat community in my area as well.  Ironically, the assistant English teachers in Japan who are the most motivated and hard working seem to crash and burn a lot.  Partly this is because being laid back is a key to surviving culture shock.  And partly because the Japanese school teachers don't always want an assistant teacher who will take over their curriculum.  Instead they prefer someone who is easy going, compliant, and who will do as much (or as little) as they are told to.  (Being inherently lazy and easy-going, this was one of the reasons I thrived as being an assistant language teacher in Japan for so many years.  Unfortunately, these same skill sets do not transfer well to other jobs, and this is one of the main reasons I regret having stayed too long in Japan.)

Kameoka Diaries #3 — Midwestern Conflict

I have not had the same debate the author had.  (Although I did get into other geography debates among my expat circle--usually over whether England, Scotland, and Wales can really be considered separate countries. )
The definition of the Midwest never got debated. Although in Japan, when I had to explain to non-Americans where I was from, I quickly realized that the Mid-West is actually more East than West, so it is a bit of a misnomer nowadays.  But I suspect I would have figured that out one day whether I went to Japan or not.

For the author's comments on Japanese woman and incredibly short skirts--true as well.  (Something I didn't altogether complain about at the time, mind you.)  They like to wear a lot of short skirts in summer, but surprisingly they also like to wear short skirts in the winter as well.  (This goes into the following cartoon.)

I remember once during winter I was walking around Fukuoka city with a British friend, and we were freezing cold, but looking around at all the Japanese girls with really short skirts and bare legs.  (It was kind of sexy, but at the same time I also felt really cold just watching them.)  I proposed a drinking game that whenever you saw a Japanese girl woefully under dressed for the weather, you had to drink a shot.  My friend said we would never make it back home if we played that game, and I think he was right.


Kameoka Diaries #4 — The Cold
* Short skirts in cold weather already covered in previous paragraph.

*No central heating in Japan, so in winter time I would actually go to bed in my winter coat and gloves (much as he's pictured in the second panel--that's not an exaggeration.)
Ditto for seeing your breath in the morning when you wake up--he's not exaggerating.

* On the Kerosene heater and the deadly fumes--these things do definitely emit a strong odor.  Just how healthy or unhealthy they are was a continually subject of debate.  I was really paranoid I was losing brain cells every time I was in the same room as one.  Japanese friends would swear up and down that they were perfectly safe and there was no need to provide ventilation.

* On the bizarre junior high school girls' uniform, and how inappropriate it is for the cold, and how strict the schools are about the girls wearing this uniform anyway and just letting them shiver--all absolutely true.

Kameoka Diaries #5 — Food & Drink

* Like the author, I spent most of my time in Japan eating food that resembled Western food instead of fully embracing Japanese cooking. (I think most of us are like that.)

* Hostess Bars--I never really went to them for precisely the reason the author gives in the strip--I didn't want to get confused about whether a girl was flirting with me because she liked me, or because it was her job.

Kameoka Diaries #6 — Karaoke
*The author does a good job of describing the differences between American Karaoke and Japanese Karaoke.  (I've since discovered the Japanese style also seems to be the style in the rest of Asia as well.)
Even inside of Japan, there is a big difference going to Karaoke with expats, and going to Karaoke with Japanese people, and the author shows that as well.

The Japanese style of Karaoke is nice, but it can also get incredibly boring, especially once the novelty wears off.  Everyone listens respectfully to your song (and no one criticizes your singing voice) but you also have to listen respectfully to the songs of everyone else in the room before you get another go.
And modern Japanese pop has all the problems of American modern pop only more so--it's hyper saccharine, homogenized, mass produced garbage. 


Older Japanese music is alright though.  I like the older stuff.
The author, surprisingly enough, appears to share my love of Japanese folk music from the 1970s.    

Kameoka Diaries #7 — Video Games

No personal experience on this one....

Kameoka Diaries #8 not available online

Kameoka Diaries #9--Sickness

Like the author, I also remember being exposed to a lot of sick kids at Japanese schools.
In the Kindergarten I remember I was supposed to go around and shake hands with each kid, and then do the song head-shoulders-knees-and-toes (during which we also had to touch our eyes, mouth, ears, and nose).
During cold season in winter, the kids would literally cough or sneeze into their hands right before they were supposed to shake hands with me.  I wouldn't have minded shaking hands so much by itself, but I did mind having to put my hands all over my own face directly afterwards.  One or two times I stopped the lesson to scrub my hands with soap before continuing onto the song.   (I was probably being a bit paranoid I admit.)

Kameoka Diaries #10 — Closure.
I don't have anything to add to this one.  It's as the author says.