My 2 minutes on Japanese TV

One day you are a  lady of leisure, the next day you are a TV star. That's just the way it rolls in Tokyo. Ha ha, I wish!

I was on TV very briefly when a report was done on Second Harvest Japan and I happened to be volunteering that day. The TV crew from TBS Channel 6 filmed us for their program 'Ippuku!' and were we on from 8:20am in the morning for about 20 minutes on Monday 19th May.

Some of the other volunteers getting interviewed.

Here are some dodgy screenshots I took while watching the report from home. I assume this was part of the explanation of how Second Harvest Japan works.

This part of the report cracked me up. They mentioned something about having lots of gaijin (foreign) volunteers and showed a shot of me packing some boxes.

And they say gaijin again and zoom in on me!

And this is me trying hard to listen to the questions in Japanese, understanding very little and then waiting for the 2nd presenter to translate the question into English. I then reply in English which was later dubbed over in Japanese and subtitled as a bonus measure.

I managed to get two whole sentences out in Japanese before I had to switch to English. My Japanese teachers at home would have been so proud. Ha ha. 

The little guys in boxes on the bottom right are the presenters back in the studio. They like to show the expressions of the main presenters while they are watching the pee-recorded reports.

I told them about volunteering in Australia and how I used to pick up donated food for a similar organisation back in Melbourne. They seemed interested in hearing that food is also wasted in Australia but we try and collect it and re-distribute it too.

They seemed to get some good publicity from the report and a small increase in donations. They also had a few more people arrive to collect food because they saw the story as well!

The volunteer co-coordinator was keen to point out to me that the program was shown nationally from Hokkaido to Okinawa.  Watch out Japan, I'm taking over!

Volunteering road trip with my new mate Iwao-san

Last Friday I got asked to fill in as a driver's assistant for the pick up of food donations from Costco for Second Harvest Japan. I was a bit concerned about being able to communicate with the driver as it is usually older guys who are the volunteer drivers and I figured they wouldn't have much English and my Japanese is very basic. I spent my train ride to Akihabara practising my best Japanese for 'I'm sorry, I don't understand', 'slower please' 'can you please repeat one more time'.....

I should have known better! The driver introduced himself and immediately apologised that he didn't know much English. He then talked to me for the next 3 hours in  nearly perfect English and even taught me a few Japanese words along the way. (osampo = to walk or stroll, eiga = movies, seiza = sitting on the floor Japanese style).

I keep discovering that many Japanese people speak English really well but they are too shy to speak it in front of a group. However, when you are talking one on one they are much more confident and are happy to talk with you.

Iwao-san told me all about his life growing up as the youngest of 3 brothers and 2 sisters and how he is now a carer for his elderly father. He was a chef until his wife died a few years ago and he decided to retire. He also helps with the cooking of the meals that Second Harvest supply to the homeless in Ueno Park on the weekend. He says they usually serve up around 400 hot meals every Saturday.

I really enjoyed hanging out with a local and while I was embarrassed about my lack of ability to speak much Japanese, Iwao-san was very enthusiastic about telling me all about his favourite places to ski and drink sake in Japan. He is also very keen  on cars and motorbikes and we spotted some great cars while we were stuck in traffic on the motorway. We saw a car yard full of American muscle cars, including a sweet Pontiac GTO and a '67 Mustang Fastback. A couple of Porsches flew by us too.

Iwao-san also found a radio station that had an American DJ and two Japanese guys translating in between his commentary. It was pretty cool that we could both listen and understand all the jokes. Iwao-san thought it was pretty hilarious that the DJ announced it was 'Hug an Australian Day' on April 26th. I don't think he was up for a hug seeing as we had just met but we posed for photos for each other. He went for a thumbs up for my photo and I went for the peace sign for his. Take that cultural stereotyping!

Nom nom nom...trays of croissants, doughnuts, muffins. And boxes and boxes of vegetables. And many, many loaves of bread. Again, I had to remind myself not to sample the sweet, sweet donations. I may have been drooling Homer Simpson style. Just a bit.

PS: I found out during my volunteering session today, that Iwao-san had told everyone that I play rugby! I had a few people asking my questions about women's rugby before I realised there had been a mix up. I'm guessing when he asked me about sports and I said I like watching rugby he thought I was saying I like playing rugby. Whoops!

Direct distribution day

Sorry if you were hoping to read an account of the day in the life of a crack dealer in Tokyo. This is what happened on Day 2 of my volunteering experience at Second Harvest Food Bank.

The morning shift was spent packing up boxes as per my first day, except this time I was working with a group doing a company volunteer day. I didn't find out what type of company the volunteers were from, will have to check how they signed the wall when I go back in next week.

The company group looked really young and when they first arrived I made the mistake of asking if they were a high school group. Whoops, that question was met with a few death stares! Turns out they were mostly first year uni graduates. One girl was wearing pearls, gloves and suede boots. Everyone dresses really well in Tokyo but I thought that was a bit much for a shift in a warehouse. The group worked lightning
fast and again I struggled to keep up. I think there was a bit of competition to see who could pack and tape the boxes the fastest. Maybe they thought it would get reported back to their supervisors? Akiko-san can fill and tape a box within 45 seconds. Much faster than the slow moving gaijin. She should be promoted immediately.

Next we sorted groceries into baskets for the afternoon collection time. People are able to come in on Thursday and Saturday afternoons between 2 & 5 and collect some donated food. Orange baskets for families of up to 3 people, red baskets for families of 4 or more. I was getting pretty hungry looking at all this food being passed around, so lucky for me it was time for a lunch break.

When I came back after lunch, we finished setting up tables to hold the vegetables, bakery and packing areas. People arriving at the food bank have to first register their details and inform the volunteers of any food allergies or religious aversions to pork etc. They also have to provide proof of how many people are in their families. People are only able to access food from the food bank once a month so the date of their visit is recorded on their card and then handed to a volunteer. If there is a red dot on their card it means they have registered with a government agency and have been deemed needy enough to also get a small bag of rice. They are always short of rice donations so they need to be careful how it gets divided up.

Fresh fruit and vegetables are expensive in Tokyo, so these are very carefully divided up into small portions as well. Only things that came in large portions were the donations from Costco. Hello trays of croissants and doughnuts :) Had to remind myself several times that the baked goods were for the needy people not for the greedy people.

Most people came to collect their food at the beginning of the sessions so there was plenty of time to chat to the other volunteers. The afternoon group were either in their early 20's (I could be wrong though!) or older retired ladies, all Japanese. One lady was particularly impressive, she speaks both English and French fluently, which was handy because some of the refugees were from Cameroon. She also stood up to any of the sneaky types who were trying to take more than their fair share of the donated goods.

I found that the other volunteers are happy to chat away to me in English when we are talking one on one but they don't like using English in front of the group. Works for me! When they are giving instructions in Japanese I try and catch the few words that I know, then I copy what everyone else is doing. If that doesn't work I ask someone directly one on one. Cross cultural communication at its best! Now I know why I took that random subject at uni while I did a semester of International studies....

The new kid on the block - pantry food packing

Today was my first day volunteering at Second Harvest Japan. Yes, they let me come and help despite having hardly any understanding of Japanese. Possibly because they were too polite to turn away a volunteer...

It felt like being the new kid at school, as I mumbled out a few 'Konichiawa Hajimemshite's' (hello, nice to meet you...) to the group of around 8 ladies hanging out in the tiny warehouse space in Akihabara, which I managed to locate thanks to some excellent directions from the website. Luckily, I had also been stalking the staff photo board online and I recognised the volunteer co-ordinator straight away. She took me for a tour of the Second Harvest warehouse and volunteer space which took about 90 seconds, it is tiny! Then she gave me a quick rundown of the food bank activities and the different types of people they assist before she threw me back into the volunteer area.

I was set to work with the team of tiny ninja ladies who were working on 'pantry food packing'. The two boss ladies gave me brief directions in English and then I tried to navigate my way between some fast footwork from the seasoned volunteers. These ladies had a perfectly timed routine which I tried my best to grasp. It went something like this:

Step 1 -Boss lady 1 - announces what type of boxes we will be filling next (today we filled boxes for local Japanese people, boxes for non-Japanese refugees and boxes for local student tutoring groups). This annoucement is quite long when she does it in Japanese and I can catch about 4 words I know, then she announces it again in English but it is only about 1/8 as long a speech.

Step 2 - Boss lady 2 - labels any boxes that require different items. eg. We filled some boxes without pork products for Muslim refugees and some boxes with only tinned food and pre-made meals for those without kitchens to cook in etc.

Step 3 - Pick an item to put in each box. Eg I stuck to the soy sauce, rice and other large items that I couldn't screw up. I attempted to have a go at putting tinned food in some of the boxes but apparently Japanese people won't eat the tins of soup and I put too many cakes in the box for the students.

Step 4 - Stay out of the way of ladies taping boxes. These ladies are super fast with the packing tape. I hovered in a corner out of the way while this was going on. Which took them a whole 45 seconds.

Step 5 - Place address label on top of box. I managed to do this correctly. Phew.

Step 6 - Slide boxes across to the guys at the door filling the vans. I attempted to lift a box and carry it to the door. This was met with many clucking noises and discouraging tones.  I'm guessing ninja ladies don't do heavy lifting?

Step 7 - Fold and tape boxes for next round of pantry packing. I could manage the folding, taping I avoided.

Once we had done about 4 rounds of this type of box packing we finished the day off with some measuring and packing of small bundles of rice. I was on scoop duty,  trying to carefully measure out two lots of rice per bag without spilling any. Then the ninja ladies would tie the bags off and bundle them together, ready for the next box packing session.

We also had a few breaks in between box packing where we drank green tea and nibbled on rice crackers. Probably goes without saying this was not enough to sustain me for very long, off to the convenience store on the way home for me!

On the way back to the station I also spoke to two of the ladies who had volunteered today with me. Turns out it was the first day for one of them and the second day for the other. So I was not the only new kid at school today! Looking forward to seeing what day 2 will bring: direct distribution day.

Pacing the box (warning - contains some self pity & whinging)

Yesterday marked 3 weeks since my arrival in Tokyo. I had no particular plans for the day, other than meeting up with Chris and his co-workers for beers later in the evening (which turned into a disaster after I went to the wrong bar, who knew their were multiple bars called Craft Beer Market?!) So I decided to stay home  all day and get stuck into some Japanese lessons. Big mistake.

Not leaving 'the box' for a whole day, as I have affectionately named our apartment, (short for shoe box, of course, what were you thinking??) was a bad idea. So far, my usual routine is to get up and have breakfast with Chris before he goes to work then do a couple hours of Japanese or writing or online stalking. I usually have lunch at home and then go out for the afternoon. I like to walk around and try and find a different garden or shrine area to explore or some weird shops to check out. Come home at about 5 or 6pm and then watch some TV or cook dinner or head out to meet up with Chris & his mates.

The box floor plan, its actually a decent sized apartment by Tokyo standards.

But, yesterday, as my mind wandered away from the undecipherable Japanese lesson in front of me, I started to ponder what the hell I was going to do with all my spare hours. It suddenly hit me that I wasn't  on holidays, this wasn't going to be a short term adventure, I am here till at least December, possibly longer, this is going to be my life for at least another 8 months.What was I going to do with myself? Eventually, I was going to run out of touristy stuff to do and there is only so much of my blogging that the world can take. I started to have a minor freak out. Ok, maybe a semi major one.

I can't get a working visa unless we get married, de-facto relationships are not recognised by the Japanese government. (Neither are same sex marriages in case you were wondering). If we did decide to get married for the sake of a visa, it would mean going home to Australia and hitting up the registry office. After avoiding marriage for the past 10 years, I am not really inspired to go through all the rigmarole just so I can work part time. Nor am I willing to cop all the flak from people who have been listening to my anti-wedding rants for so long. Even on a dependant spouse visa I can only work limited hours and only if I apply for permission and organise a work permit through an employer. Grrr.

After a few hours of pacing around the box, eating a bag of Haribo gummy bears and singing mournful ballads to myself, I realised I was sinking into a ball of self pity. Everything was suddenly all too hard;  the language barrier seemed insurmountable, the imported Tim Tams were rubbish, I was tired of having no-one to talk to all day, I had no friends, no money of my own. (Yes, all first world problems...whinge, whinge) Not having a job had really hit me harder than I expected. It was not the work itself I was missing, who would actually miss work?! But I was missing the social contact and the cash flow. And having a sense of purpose to my day/week/life.

Rubbish tim tams imported from Indonesia:

While I am definitely getting plenty of social contact on the ski trips and through Chris and his work mates' activities in the evenings, I really need to get out there and try and navigate my way towards some social connections during the long daytime hours. After belting out one last round of 'All by myself' I looked up volunteering options in Tokyo. Surely, if I wasn't allowed to do paid work, I could find some volunteer work to occupy my time?

Two options caught my eye - 'Hands on Tokyo' and 'Second Harvest Japan'. They seemed to be the best bet for a non-Japanese speaker. The appeal of Hands on Tokyo is that their head office is based 5 minutes from our apartment and you can sign up for one off events, no locked in commitment required. Downside is that all the activities on weekdays seem to have already filled their volunteer quota for the next 2 months. Guess there are plenty of ladies of leisure in this area!

Had to laugh at some of their sign up requirements too.In order to volunteer at a group birthday party at an orphanage you have to be over the age of 15 and have participated in a Balloon Art Seminar. Hmmm... not even sure what balloon art is...Volunteering at one of the high schools requires you to be able to play basketball, that counts me out too!

This is what pops up when you google balloon art, yep definitely beyond my skill level!

So that left me with Second Harvest Japan, who are a food bank providing hot meals to the homeless on weekends and food supplies to welfare agencies, shelters and orphanages. I volunteered on a food van back when I was a uni student, so at least I have some experience with this type of work. I have just sent them off an  enquiry email, fingers crossed they can find something for a non-Japanese speaking lady of leisure to do! Otherwise, its back to the power ballads and the gummy bears.....

Second Harvest Japan - https://2hj.org/english/about/