During that first year in Utsunomiya, I had a chance to live with a Japanese family and lived exactly the way they did. That was one of three or four times over the years in Japan that I felt great exhaustion with speaking the language continually all the time. It was so mentally difficult that I had trouble sleeping and walked around in a daze on occasions. Quite frankly, with the language problems back then, with the cold weather, with the living conditions, the income, and the working environment, if all my years in Japan were like that first year in Utsunomiya, I would have left the country eventually.
Early days in Utsunomiya
One thing wonderful about my stay in Utsunomiya was that I found a family that I became very close to, the Iwamoto’s. I taught the wife English, as her daughter was studying music in Denmark and was to marry a Danish man. The wife was a medical doctor, and the husband ran a preschool kindergarten. When I met them, the wife was in her late 60’s, and her husband was in his late 70’s.
The Iwamoto family
The wife enjoyed our English lessons so much that when I moved to Tokyo, I deliberately got a place to stay in the northern part of the city, so I could continue to go to Utsunomiya every week for her lessons. Also, to make it worth my while, she set up several lessons for me in Utsunomiya, so it would be more worth the travel. In those days, it took over an hour and a half to get there.
I would go up late on Friday nights and give several lessons that evening. I would spend the night, and give a few more lessons on Saturday morning. In those days, trains leaving Tokyo in the evening on Friday nights were quite often filled with drunks that want to speak to a foreigner. I made it a habit to simply act like I can’t understand a word they are saying, and they would eventually leave me alone.
An interesting thing I learned after I left Utsunomiya and that English school that I work at was the school’s outcome. The owner of the school was a kamikaze pilot during World War II. He went through all the training required including how to fly and had a first rate pilot’s license. He was lined up to fly on his fateful mission when the war ended. He would always sing his war fight songs at parties we had together. We would all clap and applaud him, but we all thought he was a bit crazy. That included many of the Japanese teachers and general people we met in the city. But, I would guess in a conservative, industrial city like Utsunomiya, there were people who respected him and trusted him.
The Kamikaze employer singing war songs
We all knew the company was not financially healthy, and we were paid in very strange ways. For example, sometimes we were paid two weeks earlier to show costs to creditors, or a week late because of lack of funds. Anyway, after I left the school, it was discovered the owner was borrowing money from banks, which were secured by deeds of property that were forged. I don’t know the finally outcome, only the rumors.
Early days in Utsunomiya
One thing wonderful about my stay in Utsunomiya was that I found a family that I became very close to, the Iwamoto’s. I taught the wife English, as her daughter was studying music in Denmark and was to marry a Danish man. The wife was a medical doctor, and the husband ran a preschool kindergarten. When I met them, the wife was in her late 60’s, and her husband was in his late 70’s.
The Iwamoto family
The wife enjoyed our English lessons so much that when I moved to Tokyo, I deliberately got a place to stay in the northern part of the city, so I could continue to go to Utsunomiya every week for her lessons. Also, to make it worth my while, she set up several lessons for me in Utsunomiya, so it would be more worth the travel. In those days, it took over an hour and a half to get there.
I would go up late on Friday nights and give several lessons that evening. I would spend the night, and give a few more lessons on Saturday morning. In those days, trains leaving Tokyo in the evening on Friday nights were quite often filled with drunks that want to speak to a foreigner. I made it a habit to simply act like I can’t understand a word they are saying, and they would eventually leave me alone.
An interesting thing I learned after I left Utsunomiya and that English school that I work at was the school’s outcome. The owner of the school was a kamikaze pilot during World War II. He went through all the training required including how to fly and had a first rate pilot’s license. He was lined up to fly on his fateful mission when the war ended. He would always sing his war fight songs at parties we had together. We would all clap and applaud him, but we all thought he was a bit crazy. That included many of the Japanese teachers and general people we met in the city. But, I would guess in a conservative, industrial city like Utsunomiya, there were people who respected him and trusted him.
The Kamikaze employer singing war songs
We all knew the company was not financially healthy, and we were paid in very strange ways. For example, sometimes we were paid two weeks earlier to show costs to creditors, or a week late because of lack of funds. Anyway, after I left the school, it was discovered the owner was borrowing money from banks, which were secured by deeds of property that were forged. I don’t know the finally outcome, only the rumors.
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