Steamy Nights / The New York Times Cleans Up

Two thoughts in this one blog. I know! It's crazy!!

It's cold here in Japan. You never see people freezing their butts off in old WWII movies. All of those movies are set in the South Pacific - not at the same lattitude as Washinton DC or New York. Most of my life I thought that Japan was this temperate and snow-free environment. Of course, as I got older, I heard about "snow monkeys" in Japan, but I didn't think there was actually a lot of snow. Well, I've been proven wrong. The past several days have been especially chilly, and there is evidence of this. If you are easily grossed out, then I recommend skipping to the next paragraph... now. How do I know that this place is cold? Remember, we don't have central heating or even general heating in houses and buildings here. The proof is when, day or night, I can see lovely plumes of steam rising from the toilet as I take a leak. Come on. Can't we at least keep it above 40 degrees F inside the school?

Today we had an extra long cleaning time. For those not in the know, all of the students and teachers participate in this activity. It's not only fun, but productive. Since graduation is tomorrow, we gave the school an extra bit of Japanese elbow grease. Now, I ask you, what do you think we use to clean the windows? You say squeegees? Rags? Paper Towels? HA! I Wish. Turns out the best thing they have for cleaning VERY dirty windows are dry newspapers. Yes. Dry. Newspapers. Now, I wouldn't have thought that this would work if you had told me to clean a window with newspaper. After I tried it, I realized that you really CAN'T clean windows with newspaper!!! The whole idea is just preposterous! I stood there, with no water, no nothing, except a scrap of paper. The kids said "do like this...". I watched as they pushed dirt around. Now, the windows did get a little cleaner. There was so much dirt that just knocking the big chunks loose did have some effect. But, would I say that they became clean? No. All that I observed was that I scratched the surface of the window with a chunk of bird doo-doo. I will say, however, that if you send 80 well disciplined students to tackle a problem, you'll at least see some results. The windows were markedly cleaner after 1 hour of rubbing. Not clean. But cleaner than they were.

In the meantime, enjoy your fancy American Windex™, your cloth rags, your hot running water, your hand soap in every bathroom, your appropriately tall sinks, your 6'8" door frames, your credit cards, your flavorful food, and your central heating. We'll be here enjoying our high tech cell phones, our healthy food, our courteousness, and... well... um... that's about it.

Sayonara,

Maikeru

^_^

P.S. I'm not nearly as cynical as I sound. It's just funnier this way!