EPTI made a quick stop at the temple in Narita before heading off to Tokyo Station, where I purchased a ticket for the shinkansen, the famed Japanese bullet train. Everyone talks about how fast it is, reaching speeds of 300 km/h, but I never saw any mention of how quiet it is. The train whispers along the track even as the landscape blurs outside the window. I arrived in Osaka in a mere two and a half hours and took a connecting train to the “suburbs,” where Trevor was indeed waiting for me.
As you probably know, Trevor teaches English at a local high school, and he gave me a very thorough tour of it. The buildings were old but well-kept, and the grounds themselves were nothing but dirt. Every sports field was pure dirt, as well. “Grass is too hard to maintain,” he explained, “so they have to play soft tennis. Four courts for 50 kids, but they manage."
“Soft tennis?” I asked.
“They use a spongy ball that bounces better on the dirt. Apparently our team is pretty good.”
I met a few of Trevor’s students, all of whom were eager to shake my hand and practice a few English phrases. Just about the first question from every student was, “How old are you?”
“Is it a pecking order thing?” I asked Trevor. “Are they sizing me up?”
“I am not sure,” he said. “but it is always the first question they ask. I mean, in North America, our first question is always ‘what do you do?’ At least that gives you some background information on a person. Here, they don’t talk about work much. My wife does not know what her uncle does for a living, and all she knows about her father’s job is that he works for the government.”
Rob is the other English teacher at Trevor’s high school. He has been working in Japan for 18 years. He married a Japanese woman and has two children. He asked to accompany Trevor and me to dinner in order to avoid “fish night” at home.
“What’s wrong with fish night?” I asked. “I like fish!”
“You come home from work,” Trevor explained, “and the whole house smells like fish. And we’re not talking about a nice fillet or some fancy preparation. We are talking about a whole fish, guts and all. Its eye stares up at you as you try and dissect it with a pair of chopsticks."
