Fall/Winter update!

Obviously my intent to update here weekly has fallen by the roadside. Badly. Things have been pretty busy here with some activity or another each evening and usually more than one per weekend.

Winter has kind of jumped right on us. A week ago I was comfortably wearing short-sleeved sweaters and light shirts to work but now it is most definitely sweater season. There was snow on the mountains yesterday morning! It didn't reach quite this low but it was close! I suspect that within a week the kerosene heaters will be making their reappearence in the classrooms. The leaves hadn't even finished changing but they'll easily be gone within a few weeks now!

Um, yeah, I have to go do some photocopying now but last night I put together some of the pictures I've taken over fall with a few comments. My kotatsu (heater table with blankets) is set up now so I should be spending more time attached to my computer over the winter. Maybe I'll update more often :D Anyway, enjoy!

Fall 2008

Swimming!!

I went swimming tonight! Two hours with Heather, Ashley, Shana, and Yumiko! Who knew that the swimming/gym centre on Ono's southern tip was really nice? $4 for access to both. But you have to wear a swim cap (like all Japanese pools) and there's no free swim area outside the kids zone, at least in the evening. Also every hour the bell chimes and everyone gets out for 10 minutes to rest and then we all stretch together along with Rajio Taiso. We did the first one in that video, I've never actually seen the second one done. I object to jumping in a bathing suit so we didn't do that bit. But it was really good exercise and Ash and I helped Yumiko out because she's not a very strong swimmer.

New posting regimen.

Alright. Since my last post was in March I have decided to try and update once a week. These updates will probably be small and trivial but that's life anywhere.

A lot has happened since March, including a visit from Mom and Luke and Brenda, a new school year (Starts one week into April after spring break), a visit home, my town festival, and my first rock concert. I also have a new neighbor named Heather and I've officially started a new year of work. (Note: Heather and I went to Nagoya for a day, there are some pictures of what we did and us here)

Since Sports day is coming up for all my schools I haven't done a lot yet, but when that's finished I'll have more than enough classes to make up for things. I do get to watch them all practice the weird games they're going to compete in. These include 6-legged races, class vs. class tug o'war, relays, and mukade, which means centipede and is like a #-legged race but the kids stand one behind another with a rope to connect all their left feet and another to connect all their right feet. It's super-funny when they all fall over on each other for no apparent reason and you can always tell because the ichi-ni-ichi-ni (one-two-one-two) chanting turns into 'ooph!' and 'kyaa!' noises. I can't post my student's pictures on the net but I'll be taking pictures on Saturday so if I know you and you want to see a few leave a comment here or ask my parents to pass along the e-mail I'll send them.

Anyway! I am tired and it's late so I'm going to leave you with a couple pictures and sign out for the night.

My town festival! This is held in the street and parking lot between Town Hall and the Community Centre. This is about half of the strip of booths. From left to right the booths are: Takoyaki (fried octopus balls), Toumorokoshi (ears of corn with butter), Yakisoba (fried noodles with sauce and cabbage and meat), [from here it gets hard to see so I'm half-guessing] Shaved Ice, Goldfish catching (for pets), fruit on a stick (possibly covered in chocolate or candied), potato fries.


It's an Obon (festival of the dead) festival in my town so to help their ancestors have a peaceful year of rest they pray to their family 'haka' (gravestones), spend time at home with their family, and dance. This is Obon dancing. The central tower has professional dancers (or volunteers) who perform the steps to the different traditional dances and the rest of us dance in a circle around the tower as they play traditional music. There are also hired dancers/volunteers in the crowd to help out those unfamiliar with the dancing. Like kids. Or me. People also stand around the outside of the circle to watch.


I was woken up two weeks ago by what sounded like a helicopter outside. Well, go figure, it was. Albeit a small one that was remote controlled buy some guys you can't see to the left. It's spraying a rice field. Those trucks belong to the construction company below me. This is apparently what I got for sleeping in during the summer!

Cambodia Photos~!

So here we go. I downloaded a new image-manager and lo and behold it was a google one and it came with an online photo album. And an easy to mange one no less. So now you can see photos from my trip here:

Cambodia

Also, if you notice any spelling or grammar errors in my captions please let me know so I can fix them!

Cambodia - Siem Reap the first two days

The next two days we spent with the same driver who took us to a number of beautiful temples in the Angkor Archaeological Park including Angkor Wat, Angkor Tohm (we saw Bayon temple and some of the beautiful gates in that complex), The Elephant Terrace, The Terrace of the Leper King, Phnom Bakheng, Ta Prohm, Banteay Srei and a number of other temples. I have to sort through my pictures to figure out where all we went. Our driver was hard to understand at times.

The temples were beautiful though. The carving is amazing and everywhere you look there are holes in the stone from the human or elephant and pulley system they used to erect the buildings. Even with dozens of tourists and tours everywhere I could have day for days and just looked at things. But I think we were able to see everything suitably for the amount of time we had.

We also took a boat trip out to a floating market. The large tourist carrying boats all come equipped with a constant bailing process that the engine powers and the smaller boats can commonly be seen with a passenger or fisherman using a bailing bucket. We travelled down a long river to the huge Tonle Sap lake. There were a few floating markets and my guess is that all the boat operators have a particular association with one of them as we only visited the one. But they`ve got a small market, a restaurant where you can eat fresh lake food, and a small section of tanks showcasing live specimens of many of the lake`s denizens. The one we visited also has a crocodile farm, a small fish farm and a shrimp enclosure. We didn`t eat anything but we did spend some time looking around at things. And on the way in and out you pass part of the floating village of people from Cambodia and the surrounding countries who come to fish and live on the lake. On the way back we also saw many small, rather flat boats full of students in uniform (all getting wet) returning from the floating schools located near the docks. Some were getting a tow from the tourist boats to save the paddling.

And of course we visted a few markets. The night market was interesting but seemed to have the same things all the other markets had. One thing to beware of is that everywhere you go you will be implored to buy things and give tips. Ladies and men running market booths, people in the stands outside the major temples and along the streets, adults and children carring baskets of books or postcards or handmade whatevers in and out of the temples, beggers in the street with and without injury. And if you won`t buy something the kids will ask you for candy. So I handed out healthier granola snacks :D I thought it would give the poor things more nutrition than candy. One day we witnessed children returning from their morning school to go back to work selling tourist things outside a foreigner restaurant. But according to our Phrom Penh taxi driver around 60% of kids in the cities can go to school. That`s a lot higher than I imagined! Although the number is of course lower outside of the cities. But the schools focus on useful learning like English lessons and the like.

The level of poverty is really obvious everywhere you go. Most people who don`t have indoor jobs have scruffy or dirty clothing (it`s hard not to when it`s so dusty though) and there is not an overweight person to be seen. Many people live in ridiculously small houses or shacks, often with only woven palm leaves covering the walls and palm or thatch roofs. And the food markets, Wow. So many flies and food just out where anything can get on it. The smell is terrible if there is meat involved. They seem to cook everything but they must have guts of steel.

Cambodia - The journey there

(Pictures will be added later)

The morning we left I was a bit slow. The kerosine heaters they use here and my lungs don`t always get along so I had a rough start to the day. But I got everything I needed packed, left the stuff Ryan would need for Thomas Notacat out, and hoisted my bag down to the car. I got to Keith and Yumiko`s just in time to move myself and stuff into their car, rush to the station, and at a quick trot we caught the train we`d originally wanted.

The ride to the station and the flights themselves were uneventful, which is a good thing, and we were able to spend our Bangkok layover in our airline`s lounge where they`ve got comfy chairs, free internet, and free snacks. Finally we arrived at the Siem Reap airport, a very small airport that looks more like a large, stylized hotel. There we had to wait to get through customs and pay the $20 for our visas. After waiting in the two long lines (I`m getting the online one next time I go to a country that offers them) we finally got through to grab our suitcases, submitted our customs slips, and walked out into the humid hot air where a large number of tuk-tuk drivers were waiting. Luckily our guesthouse provides a free pick-up from the airport and our driver had my name on his sign.

On the way into town we had a stranger from Portugal who thought he was going to the same place accompany us by tuk-tuk. But since he just sandwiched himself in beside our luggage on the other side it wasn`t too bad. The drive was really cool because everything was dark and Siem Reap isn`t a big city by most standards. There are lots of fields and large trees and small houses in amongst the huge ritzy hotels for tourists who want to spend more than $100 instead of $10/night (including the hot water and air conditioner upgrade) on a hotel. I have to say I was very, very happy with The Rosy Guesthouse where we stayed. Nice clean rooms, good service, and a well-run bar/restaurant downstairs. Plus the free pickup. The stranger turned out to be staying somewhere else so he ran away with the tuk-tuk driver while we were checking in.

Massive Update 3/3

So since Christmas life has mostly returned to normal. School started up again and teaching was mostly same-old, same-old. The third-years all have their High School entrance exams (if they choose to continue with school, it's optional past Junior High although your job options may be limited) this semester and they will be finishing school soon. Only a few more weeks. So they are all slowly going crazy with studying or uncertainty about their futures or both. The rest of the kids are just getting stir-crazy because this is the shortest of their three semesters and they're going to be moving on to the next grade soon. Lots of energy in the schools.

I continued going to Japanese lessons, became more of a regular at Gifu Knit Club on Tuesdays, and sung karaoke, hung out, and watched a couple of new movies with friends. Despite this I think I was in a bit of a rut. Which probably wasn't helped by the kids draining more energy than usual. I didn't realize it until recently but I'd been here for almost 6 1/2 months. That's the longest I've lived somewhere without going on a trip home in about 4 years. Since I moved out of home to Prince George anyways. It was time to do something.

Since before Christmas I've been planning a trip to Cambodia with Yumiko. So by midway through January that was really starting to eat at my available brain-cells. Last week we finally pulled it off so soon I'll be updating about that with some pictures (as soon as I can convince my camera to recognize my 4Gb camera card) and a more detailed description of what we did and saw.

Dad's visit (aka Massive Update 2/3)

So firstly I'm going to link you to Dad's Deviantart account where he has a few of pictures from his visit posted.

I picked him up from the airport on Friday night after work on the 21st. It was a close thing since originally I'd miscalculated the time I had to leave for the train station but I made it in enough time to meet him when he came out of the customs gate. Both of us were a bit tired after we'd spent the hour or so riding the trains home so we just called it a night.

The next day we walked around my town and I acquainted dad with the wonders of hot, canned coffee from vending machines. We went to a Christmas party that night where he was able to meet some of my new friends and Yumiko's family. Over the rest of the long weekend we also went up the mountain to the large statues and the viewpoint over Ono-cho, got take-out from the onigiri shop (riceballs and assorted fried food) down the street, and discovered the farm-fresh egg vending machine. On Monday we celebrated an early Christmas and took a picnic drive out to a very large golden statue of a Buddha a ways up into the mountains. And of course since almost all shops are still open over the weekend and Christmas isn't a holiday we were able to do a bit of shopping here and there. I think we went to Tanigumi temple (20 minutes farther into the mountains) over the weekend, too.

Tuesday was my last day at school for the semester (I took the next day off) and dad came to one of my elementary schools as Santa for our Christmas Day. The kids loved him and had a blast! I don't have any close what I can do as follow-up next year. It was great though. And they really enjoyed the candycanes that dad brought since they don't sell those here to my knowledge.

Wednesday was mainly relaxing again although we did visit my Junior High in the morning and I took dad to meet my supervisor. During the evening we enjoyed a wonderful traditional dinner with the two gentlemen who teach me Japanese. It consisted of multiple courses one of which was a dish that cooked in small pots in front of us as we finished the previous dishes.

On the Friday we visited Inuyama castle. This is a beautiful old castle an hour and a bit away from my apartment by car and managed to escape the damage of fires and war. Actually it is often claimed to be the oldest castle in Japan, the current towers dating from 1537 and the original construction in 1440. The stairs are steep and tight but the view from the top floor is amazing. There's also a small museum to Japanese-style marionette dolls with the entrance included in that to the castle. A really nice place to visit. In the evening I had my standard Japanese lesson that Dad tagged along to and they'd brought some books in English while I practised reading and translated a bit of my current project book. Then we watched part of an opera.

The next morning we got to Gifu-city by car and train and boarded our bus to Kyoto. Kyoto is truly spectacular offering over 2000 shrines and temples within the city boundaries, all left untouched by the war although not always by fire and other acts of man and God. Just riding the city buses and listening to announcements in English and Japanese you can learn more than a dozen facts in a very short time. We visted the Pure Water Temple, the Golden Temple, the Silver temple, Ryoan-ji (the temple with the most famous Zen garden in Japan) where it was uncrowded enough for us to sit and watch the garden, and Kyoto tower. And a bunch of other, lesser but still beautiful sights and shopping areas. We ate delicious food and enjoyed the rain and the crowds and the sights in general. Dad finally found a Shogi board in the toy store at Kyoto Station.

On New Year's Eve we went back to Yumiko's mom's house for their New Years Party. Now, this was a more Japanese-style New Years so we mainly ate lots of food and watched TV until it was time to go visit temples. Then we had to wash our hands in cold water in the cold night air, lifted a rock to make a wish at the first temple, threw coins and small garlands for good luck, and lit candles. We also got to see the spectacular food and merchandise booths set up. After visiting two temples we went back to the temple near Yumiko's mom's house and rang the bell there. It was really fun but we slept in a lot the new day. Also conveniently Yumiko's mom lives close to the huge used/new anime and manga store so we were able to visit there twice during dad's visit.

New Years we decided to climb up the mountain the big statues are on. It was a beautiful climb but the was down took us a little further down than we wanted and we had to walk a ways back up the road to the car. The view was amazing though and we got to the top just in time to sit down and hear the town chimes go off. And when you're at the top of a mountain it means you hear five or more town chimes going off at the same time. It was a suprizingly beautiful sound. The entire thing must have taken two hours or so (?). We were tired after that!

I'm getting a little fuzzy on details here but I do believe that the day before dad left we visited Hikone castle with Keith and Yumiko. It's another beautiful old castle and dad and I got some pictures with the castle and town mascots (at different times). They like foreigners :) This castle also has some spectacular gardens that had a couple of cherry trees blooming even over Christmas.

On the morning of the 3rd dad finished packing up and we rode the trains back to the Nagoya airport. It was probably just about the right length but it was a really good visit. I can't wait until Mom, Luke, and Brenda come at the end of March!

(Dad if I messed things up please correct me. You're the one with the timeline XD)

Massive Update 1/3

Wow, it`s been over a month since I`ve updated! So much to talk about! So this post is going to be divided into multiple entries just for the sake of my sanity.

Near the end of December I had a week of too-much-to-do when my Christmas week rolled around for Ono-chu (JHS). I had promised that everyone who participated in my English point card system would get a present (stupid idea) and I wasn`t going back on my promise. So I spent that week and the week before separating small 100-sticker Disney packs by size and pinning groups of 5-10 of them together with small colored wooden clips. While I have sworn never to do this again it did win me a lot of points with the students (and teachers for some reason) for being too stubborn to quit. And luckily because I was willing to work for my cheapness I did not break my bank account. I don`t want to know how many of those sticker packs I bought though! I watched a lot of movies, too.

The funner part of that week was that I got to make Christmas crafts with all of my students. For my JHS first-years we made paper snowflakes. This actually flew really well despite my worries it might be too easy and we taped up a lovely blizzard on their class windows. The second years got to make star ornaments. That was really fun, too! They all picked out two star outlines in their favorite color and decorated them before gluing them together into a 3-D star. (click here to see the instructions) I changed the template on my computer to print as many as possible on the colored paper we have so it was really easy to make enough outlines. The third years were by far the best though, we made Christmas cards. I gave them the base paper, printed clipart, colored pencils, ribbon, and time they needed to come up with some amazing cards. We had everything from hand-drawn art to pop-up cards to amazing pictures made from cutting out colored paper and gluing it down. And since every grade did a different craft, next year if I can`t think of anything new and exciting we can do the same thing again.

I had my elementary students doing crafts like paper snowflakes and card templates where they could draw their own picture on the front and the like. That flew really well, too!