The exciting new development of the week is that I now have a laptop sitting on my desk at work for my personal use! The city hall apparently has decided it`s upgrade time so all of the teachers here (aside from one or two part-time teachers) now have new laptop at their desk. Even the ones who had laptops before. They have some awesome usb lock technology, too, so if you don`t have the right purple fob for your computer it`s no go. It makes me happy. But mine lives in my desk because the computer is not mine and I`m afraid to lose it. We have also been granted new computer lab computers and new megaprinters for the office. Everything is shiny.
But, I can now update from work! And do work at work even if I need a computer or the internet for it! And print things without monopolizing the main computer! And make my flashcards using google image search on paid time! I`m so happy about this~
Thursday, December 13, 2007
Sunday, December 9, 2007
Opera!
I can't remember if I mentioned the nice older gentleman I met totally by accident on the street a month or so ago. Probably not. Anyway he asked me to his house for dinner with him and his wife because he's a Japanese teacher and it turned out that he knew my predecessor's predecessor and her friends quite well! He and his wife are lovely and I started taking Japanese lessons with him two weeks ago. He's even giving me the lessons for free! (Well, we're exchanging English and Japanese, but he's taken a university degree in teaching Japanese.) He says he volunteers with a couple of Chinese ladies who are learning English, too.
He also invited me to their opera group which meets every other (I think) Saturday or so. I've always been a little interested in opera so I said sure ^_^ Turns out it was an awesome decision! One of his friends who is also helping teach me Japanese has been all over the world and to Vienna quite a few times. He loves Opera and has a separate workshop/relaxation building where their friends meet for their Opera club. Not only does he have a good sized TV but he has two humongous speakers which have amazing sound. I think it must be similar to actually being in an opera house and having an awesome seat. They told me that one speaker cost over two-hundred thousand yen. That's like twenty thousand dollars. For one speaker.
Anyway, I got to meet lots of awesome new people and afterwards I got to enjoy their end of year party with them! It was fun! And a few of the ladies are learning English so I can help them practice while they help me practice Japanese. I'm thinking I might even be able to pick up some of the speaking style that older people use here. I'm already learning bits of Gifu-ben (the Gifu dialect) so I might as well!
He also invited me to their opera group which meets every other (I think) Saturday or so. I've always been a little interested in opera so I said sure ^_^ Turns out it was an awesome decision! One of his friends who is also helping teach me Japanese has been all over the world and to Vienna quite a few times. He loves Opera and has a separate workshop/relaxation building where their friends meet for their Opera club. Not only does he have a good sized TV but he has two humongous speakers which have amazing sound. I think it must be similar to actually being in an opera house and having an awesome seat. They told me that one speaker cost over two-hundred thousand yen. That's like twenty thousand dollars. For one speaker.
Anyway, I got to meet lots of awesome new people and afterwards I got to enjoy their end of year party with them! It was fun! And a few of the ladies are learning English so I can help them practice while they help me practice Japanese. I'm thinking I might even be able to pick up some of the speaking style that older people use here. I'm already learning bits of Gifu-ben (the Gifu dialect) so I might as well!
Sunday, December 2, 2007
Yay hospitals?
Well my good news is that I do not have pneumonia! Yay! A cold I had (now whether this was the nasty hacking thing I had two weeks ago or the sore throat from last week or both is up for debate) irritated my asthma to the point where I had to go visit the hospital today because it felt like pneumonia. Not being able to breathe properly sucks.
Luckily Keith was able to come with me and translate so things went very easily. We waited for 1 1/2 hours and watched Keroro Gunso on Keith's PDA. Then a doctor listened to my lungs, I had a chest x-ray taken, and they put me on some air pump thing where I breathed in medicine to clear up my lungs for about 5-10 minutes. After another shorter wait they took my monies and gave me two days worth of powdered medicine.
I did notice that the doctor's computer console had English for words like heart and lungs and although he spoke no English he typed things like wheeze and no (heart) murmur. I thought that was pretty strange. Also I got a card that contains all of my information at that hospital so next time I need to go I can just present my card! How awesome :D
When all was said and done we went to Yumiko's mom's house and I got to meet her mom and see her sister and niece again! Her mom is such a sweetie and fed me food that's good for sick people like tea and umeboshi (sour, sour dried plums). I also got to meet her mom's three cats and dog. And Yumiko cut my hair for me! (She was a full-time hairdresser before she started teaching school) I'm so happy! She layered it and shaped it around my face. And all because I helped her learn to knit. She's such a sweetie!
And I just realized that tomorrow is going to be the last time I see half of my Nishi Elementary students until the New Year. That's really disturbing!
Luckily Keith was able to come with me and translate so things went very easily. We waited for 1 1/2 hours and watched Keroro Gunso on Keith's PDA. Then a doctor listened to my lungs, I had a chest x-ray taken, and they put me on some air pump thing where I breathed in medicine to clear up my lungs for about 5-10 minutes. After another shorter wait they took my monies and gave me two days worth of powdered medicine.
I did notice that the doctor's computer console had English for words like heart and lungs and although he spoke no English he typed things like wheeze and no (heart) murmur. I thought that was pretty strange. Also I got a card that contains all of my information at that hospital so next time I need to go I can just present my card! How awesome :D
When all was said and done we went to Yumiko's mom's house and I got to meet her mom and see her sister and niece again! Her mom is such a sweetie and fed me food that's good for sick people like tea and umeboshi (sour, sour dried plums). I also got to meet her mom's three cats and dog. And Yumiko cut my hair for me! (She was a full-time hairdresser before she started teaching school) I'm so happy! She layered it and shaped it around my face. And all because I helped her learn to knit. She's such a sweetie!
And I just realized that tomorrow is going to be the last time I see half of my Nishi Elementary students until the New Year. That's really disturbing!
Monday, November 12, 2007
Rainbows and tea.
As I was driving out of the parking lot (elementary today so it was too far to walk) from work today I had to park and dig out my camera because I saw this spread across the sky in front of me:
I haven't seen a rainbow this lovely in ages! And the combination of rainy day and sun on the harvested rice fields. It took my breath away! A lovely conclusion to a really, really good day with my cute kids. All of my lessons went smoothly and everyone had fun. I feel satisfied with myself :)
I took the whole weekend off to myself and rested and recuperated. I actually didn't leave the house at all for two days. I'd feel bad but I feel so much better after some dedicated jammie time with the cat that I have no guilt. I made raspberry pancakes and managed to get my oven to produce a lovely 'cheesecake' from a packaged mix I bought a while ago. It was really more of what you'd get if you added cream cheese to a normal cake mix but it was still good and didn't burn!
Actually since it's been getting colder I've gotten out my kerosene heater and figured out how to work it. It seems to be quite nice, and though I have to keep my balcony door open a crack when I use it it's warm enough that if I'm in front of it I can't feel the draft from the door. I'm working on finding the right blanket for my kotatsu, too. That's a table that has a heater attached underneath. You put a blanket between the struts where the heater is attached and the removable tabletop and sit with your legs underneath where the heat is contained by the blanket.
My one other concession to the coming cold was to purchase an 'electric pot' which is basically a kettle that heats the water up but instead of letting it cool after heating it holds the water at a near boil for as long as it's plugged in. So now I don't have to use expensive gas heating water repeatedly when I'm enjoying a few pots of tea over the evening or a weekend day.
Unfortunately my schools also lack central heating so I am going to have to look at knitting some fingerless gloves for classes. I already have a pair of leg warmers under construction for skirt days.
I haven't seen a rainbow this lovely in ages! And the combination of rainy day and sun on the harvested rice fields. It took my breath away! A lovely conclusion to a really, really good day with my cute kids. All of my lessons went smoothly and everyone had fun. I feel satisfied with myself :)
I took the whole weekend off to myself and rested and recuperated. I actually didn't leave the house at all for two days. I'd feel bad but I feel so much better after some dedicated jammie time with the cat that I have no guilt. I made raspberry pancakes and managed to get my oven to produce a lovely 'cheesecake' from a packaged mix I bought a while ago. It was really more of what you'd get if you added cream cheese to a normal cake mix but it was still good and didn't burn!
Actually since it's been getting colder I've gotten out my kerosene heater and figured out how to work it. It seems to be quite nice, and though I have to keep my balcony door open a crack when I use it it's warm enough that if I'm in front of it I can't feel the draft from the door. I'm working on finding the right blanket for my kotatsu, too. That's a table that has a heater attached underneath. You put a blanket between the struts where the heater is attached and the removable tabletop and sit with your legs underneath where the heat is contained by the blanket.
My one other concession to the coming cold was to purchase an 'electric pot' which is basically a kettle that heats the water up but instead of letting it cool after heating it holds the water at a near boil for as long as it's plugged in. So now I don't have to use expensive gas heating water repeatedly when I'm enjoying a few pots of tea over the evening or a weekend day.
Unfortunately my schools also lack central heating so I am going to have to look at knitting some fingerless gloves for classes. I already have a pair of leg warmers under construction for skirt days.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Because I am a total geek I need to show off the awesome 'potion' drinks I found when I went to my Circle K to pay for my Amazon order yesterday. (Clicking on the pictures makes them bigger) As the cans say it's the 10th anniversary of Final Fantasy this year which means some neat kitsch like these! ^_^
Today I also saw a fantastically large (almost two inches long) hummingbird moth! He was flying around in my school and when I followed him he came within a foot of my face twice!
I got to watch a Chorus Festival practice run for one of my 1st year classes. They're really good! I'm looking forward to the finals even though I have to miss the competition.
Today I also saw a fantastically large (almost two inches long) hummingbird moth! He was flying around in my school and when I followed him he came within a foot of my face twice!
I got to watch a Chorus Festival practice run for one of my 1st year classes. They're really good! I'm looking forward to the finals even though I have to miss the competition.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Little visitor
So when I got home from school today I saw something squiggle into my genkan (in Japanese houses the entryway is always at least five inches lower than the rest of the floor to catch dirt and small invaders) as I opened the door. Turns out it was a little gecko whom I managed to catch and take some photos of. I considered keeping him as a bet but decided to let him go because I'm not sure if the local pet stores have heated rocks and worms. I'll have to look into that. These guys live all over my building in assorted sizes and colors.
I've been taking more time out for myself recently so not as many adventures. But I did visit a friend in Gifu city and had a Go lesson yesterday. More info on Go here if you don't know the game. And I successfully took the bus to Gifu city and back yesterday for a Go lesson. It was exciting. I like the Gifu station bus stop a lot more than the Ogaki one. Much easier schedules to read.
I've also turned 24 since my last post! On my birthday I went and got some tasty ice cream parfaits with Alice and Ashley after their Japanese lessons. And on the weekend Yumiko and a bunch of our friends had a potluck dinner and then went out to karaoke, the birthday standard here.
Yakiniku is awesome. Says the vegetarian. But it really is good, I like watching the meat cook and eating all the grilled veggies my tummy can hold. Especially the mushrooms. I got treated after helping with another teacher's Halloween party on Saturday.
Classes are going well but everyone has been on a shortened schedule again for the past three weeks because Ono-chu is gearing up for their annual Chorus Festival. I'll miss the main day thanks to a JET conference in Gifu (not happy but it's non-negotiable) but I'll get to see the top class from each grade and when the whole school sings together. And I've been treated to the lovely sounds of my students singing before and after classes everyday.
Some of my students brought a cold into the school a few weeks ago, too, so I caught a nasty cough and a dripping nose cold. Half of my teacher's room is already sick and the other half is getting there too so I'm not alone. Luckily as a foreigner I'm not expected to wear one of the cloth masks (like surgeon's masks) that everyone else wears when they're sick.
Things are cooling down so I might get to use my kotatsu soon. I bought some kerosene for m space heater a few days ago with Ryan. But luckily it's still holding at around 20 degrees at the peak of the day and around 10 at night so my winter quilt is still a bit too warm still.
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now.
I've been taking more time out for myself recently so not as many adventures. But I did visit a friend in Gifu city and had a Go lesson yesterday. More info on Go here if you don't know the game. And I successfully took the bus to Gifu city and back yesterday for a Go lesson. It was exciting. I like the Gifu station bus stop a lot more than the Ogaki one. Much easier schedules to read.
I've also turned 24 since my last post! On my birthday I went and got some tasty ice cream parfaits with Alice and Ashley after their Japanese lessons. And on the weekend Yumiko and a bunch of our friends had a potluck dinner and then went out to karaoke, the birthday standard here.
Yakiniku is awesome. Says the vegetarian. But it really is good, I like watching the meat cook and eating all the grilled veggies my tummy can hold. Especially the mushrooms. I got treated after helping with another teacher's Halloween party on Saturday.
Classes are going well but everyone has been on a shortened schedule again for the past three weeks because Ono-chu is gearing up for their annual Chorus Festival. I'll miss the main day thanks to a JET conference in Gifu (not happy but it's non-negotiable) but I'll get to see the top class from each grade and when the whole school sings together. And I've been treated to the lovely sounds of my students singing before and after classes everyday.
Some of my students brought a cold into the school a few weeks ago, too, so I caught a nasty cough and a dripping nose cold. Half of my teacher's room is already sick and the other half is getting there too so I'm not alone. Luckily as a foreigner I'm not expected to wear one of the cloth masks (like surgeon's masks) that everyone else wears when they're sick.
Things are cooling down so I might get to use my kotatsu soon. I bought some kerosene for m space heater a few days ago with Ryan. But luckily it's still holding at around 20 degrees at the peak of the day and around 10 at night so my winter quilt is still a bit too warm still.
Anyway, that's all I can think of right now.
Monday, October 8, 2007
Yay!
So I spent a good chunk of yesterday afternoon wearing a happi (happy) coat, walking around in a very large circle, and helping a huge band of drunk foreign and Japanese people carry a gold mikoshi (portable shinto shrine)while screaming... some word? and being followed around the street by a cart of booze. I had OJ. Because I had to drive home and I am cool that way.
It was heavy!!
We were only one small group in the giant circle of groups of drunk Japanese screaming, carrying and spinning mikoshis and drinking their hearts (or stomachs) out from the many booze carts.
Afterwards I stood in a crowd and was pelted with mochi (a rice cake made by pounding rice into a paste) by men standing in towers. I have learned that I am quite adept at catching small heavy things when they're flying at my head.
It was so interesting, and so fun, and so absolutely unlike anything I have ever done before. I'm doing it next year for sure!
It was heavy!!
We were only one small group in the giant circle of groups of drunk Japanese screaming, carrying and spinning mikoshis and drinking their hearts (or stomachs) out from the many booze carts.
Afterwards I stood in a crowd and was pelted with mochi (a rice cake made by pounding rice into a paste) by men standing in towers. I have learned that I am quite adept at catching small heavy things when they're flying at my head.
It was so interesting, and so fun, and so absolutely unlike anything I have ever done before. I'm doing it next year for sure!
Saturday, October 6, 2007
Yay, weekend!
Well, I tried to make cookies with my new toaster oven (with convection ability, which means a fan to blow the air around, ooooh) today with mixed results. I can turn out either slightly burned or totally white cookies. I think I almost had it perfect once but I let them got for two minutes under a higher setting to brown more and the edges burned. *le sigh* I will get the hang of this though! Next project will be scones. Unsurprisingly the challenge was finding the ingredients to bake with. I took a picture. Thank goodness I can read hiragana and katakana! Brown sugar and raisins in particular were difficult. Luckily the import store had the big bag of raisins and I was able to find (the sugar section in general and differentiate it from the salt section) brown sugar near the white sugar.
This week went okay as far as classes go. I'm back on the ball with planning activities ahead of time. I did my first special (as in kids with special learning needs, so positive context) class and it went well, too. I love them, actually, they're really sweet kids. And most of them are really smart and like English class.
I visited with Yumiko last night and afterwards we went to her house and I talked with Keith,too. He gave me some awesome recommendations for an electronic dictionary to buy since my DS version can only go so far. He's also lent me some textbooks since he's already passed his JLPT (Japanese Language Profeciency test) level one, which means he's fluent enough to work for a Japanese company.
Oh, also, with my Amazon.jp order this week I finally got the right version of the translation and notes guide to go with my Japanese textbook. The first one I bought had all the Japanese words written in the English alphabet. I think it's better to be able to recognize them when written in normal Japanese letters, too, so I had to get this new one. (I also now have all of the 'Catwings' books by Ursula K. Le Guin which makes me really happy, too.)
My brain has finally let out enough useless info that I can read again. I've gotten through five books since arriving. This is a record for the past few years. It's so nice to not worry about stuffing my brain for exams anymore!
Anyway, I'm off to do some knitting or something else to relax!
This week went okay as far as classes go. I'm back on the ball with planning activities ahead of time. I did my first special (as in kids with special learning needs, so positive context) class and it went well, too. I love them, actually, they're really sweet kids. And most of them are really smart and like English class.
I visited with Yumiko last night and afterwards we went to her house and I talked with Keith,too. He gave me some awesome recommendations for an electronic dictionary to buy since my DS version can only go so far. He's also lent me some textbooks since he's already passed his JLPT (Japanese Language Profeciency test) level one, which means he's fluent enough to work for a Japanese company.
Oh, also, with my Amazon.jp order this week I finally got the right version of the translation and notes guide to go with my Japanese textbook. The first one I bought had all the Japanese words written in the English alphabet. I think it's better to be able to recognize them when written in normal Japanese letters, too, so I had to get this new one. (I also now have all of the 'Catwings' books by Ursula K. Le Guin which makes me really happy, too.)
My brain has finally let out enough useless info that I can read again. I've gotten through five books since arriving. This is a record for the past few years. It's so nice to not worry about stuffing my brain for exams anymore!
Anyway, I'm off to do some knitting or something else to relax!
Thursday, October 4, 2007
My first earthquake.
Happened just as I was starting to fall asleep last night. According to Yahoo Japan's Weather Information service it was only a 1 (out of a possible 7) but was a Gifu earthquake! I very much hope that they're all so small while I'm here! It only rattled my house like a train was going by for a couple of seconds and then nothing more.
I don't think it's a really big event though, it was the 10th earthquake in Japan since October started (Yesterday was only the 3rd) and almost every single one is only a ranked as a 1 or 2.
I don't think it's a really big event though, it was the 10th earthquake in Japan since October started (Yesterday was only the 3rd) and almost every single one is only a ranked as a 1 or 2.
Wednesday, October 3, 2007
Update!
My walk to school on a nice, sunny day~I'm discovering that I suck at being a teacher, but mostly only because I lack experience and training. It should get better with time. Maybe. After my first class with any particular activity/topic things go a little smoother but the first one is usually rough. When a class goes well and the kids have fun though... Oh, that's a nice high. It's worth staying for.
Hm, I haven't done a lot of travelling recently but I think I should be looking into doing more. Or at least more exploring. I've been hanging out with lots and lots of people but not doing much exercising or just plain looking around. I haven't even gone hiking although there are tons of places to do that near me. I am going to go to Tanigumi temple for Momiji viewing (enjoying the fall colors in the trees) though. Turns out it's actually a really famous place to go hike and watch that. Who knew? I do want to go north to Toyama-ken to do some hiking though. They have a lovely looking two-day hike on a pair of mountains (some info here) that I want to check out sometime. Perhaps in May.
Let's see... So I haven't become alcoholic from stress like so many other expats (click word for definition), yay me! I'm actually usually a DD now. I was a little worried about a major personality change but it doesn't seem to be. Or not in that regard, at least.
I saw my first hummingbird moth today!! (And guess who looked at her camera and then left it on her table this morning?) It was feeding off one of the bushes outside my school! It was only about two inches long but it was beautiful. I got so close, too! I'm going to take my camera every day from now on. Just in case. I think George, the huge spider living over the stairs to the teachers room, is dead though. It's sad. We were friends in that, 'you exist and I exist, that's nice. Please don't touch me.' sort of way.
I have also successfully paid for and received my order from Amazon.jp. You can pay at convenience stores here and I managed to understand the delivery lady when she called so I'm feeling pretty good about my infantile listening and communication skills right now.
Oh my that was random.
(I'm working on a potential photo gallery program. Hopefully I'll be able to post lots of pictures if it pans out.)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Recent life...
Yeah, I'm no good at this updating thing. I did actually try to upload pictures but my internet is having none of this constant connection stuff tonight so I couldn't make the program work. This is just going to be a 'what have I been up to' post.
So... I think I mentioned how amazingly awesome my middle school's sports day was? The elementary one I went to last Saturday totally blew it out of the water. Here they not only make the parents and grandparents participate in a lot of the games but the PTA has to play a game, too! It's so funny watching adults running around a field trying to guide giant inflated balls.
Sunday I went to Tokyo for the day with Keith and Yumiko and four of their friends. One was an ex-ALT but the rest were Japanese and couldn't speak any English. Practice day for me! We took the bullet train to Tokyo in the morning and then ate at Subway (it was so good, I haven't had it since I left North America) before heading to Tokyo Game Show 2007. This is a huge, huge video/computer game convention where you can try out games before they come onto the market and check out the booths of different game companies. I was very please to see a large Canadian booth there.
I spent most of the time there with Patrick, the ex-alt, and the Japanese girl who came with us who's name absolutely escapes me. But it was cool! She likes a lot of the same kinds of games I like so we were able to chatter away in some Japanese and bits of English and gestures. We visited the Square Enix booth (they created the immensely popular Final Fantasy series) and just generally wandered around. It was my first experience seeing cosplayers (people who dress up like characters from games or books) and their costumes and hair were just amazing. I was so impressed. I am absolutely going to go to more cosplay events with a friend from Nagano who's into that.
After the Game Show we went to Akihabara (geek and technology central in Tokyo) and went to a maid cafe. The Japanese girl really likes the costumes and wanted to visit one. Maid cafes are resturants where you can go and be greeted by girls dressed in stylized maid outfits who will then serve you a meal or drinks. Often they are mainly visited by guys going to see pretty girls in costumes with less than chivalrous motives. It's part of the job to talk with the customers. I think the girls were all very pleased to have some visitors who just wanted to talk with them for the sake of talking. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures (a very good rule with the clientele they have) so I can't show you what it was like.
On Monday I slept in very, very late and then Yumiko and her friend Chiho showed me a new mall where they have a store that sells both nice yarn and knitting needles! This is the first store I've found with such things. I was really excited. And there's an import store that sells Walker's shortbread there. They have real Canadian maple syrup, too, but it's about $20 a bottle. Since I almost never had it in Canada I can most definitely do without! The shortbread is wonderful~ In the evening Yumiko and Keith had Chiho and I over for okonomiyaki, which is kind of like a giant omelet except there's no cheese and you mix everything in before you pour the egg onto the large griddle. You make it on a griddle in the center of the table where you're going to eat so you can talk and watch it cook. It was delicious! There was only shrimp and veggies in the one Yumiko made because she's vegetarian, too.
Sunday I slept in again and then did a massive house cleaning. Keith told me that it's okay to throw away paper and cardboard products in the burnable if you make sure it's in 10x10 cm or less pieces. So my arms kind of hurt from tearing up all the paper/cardboard I've collected on my own and from guests. But my house is clean! Or at least, it was before I made dinner. As soon as I find places to put all my little knick-knacks I can actually take pictures of my house. And just when I was starting to think about dinner Ashley called and invited me over for dinner with her, Alice, and Brandon. It was really nice and relaxing.
I have discovered that my nighttime nemesis is indeed the Japanese mosquito. The little jerks have the normal, irritating bite that itches for 10 minutes and swells for about 1/2 an hour. Unfortunately, when the swelling goes down I and the rest of the foreign ALTs I've talked to get a little pink welt that's occasionally itchy/painful and persists for 3-5 days. Thank goodness it's getting cold enough to keep my balcony doors closed at night. See L, I told you they weren't as nice as you thought.
So... I think I mentioned how amazingly awesome my middle school's sports day was? The elementary one I went to last Saturday totally blew it out of the water. Here they not only make the parents and grandparents participate in a lot of the games but the PTA has to play a game, too! It's so funny watching adults running around a field trying to guide giant inflated balls.
Sunday I went to Tokyo for the day with Keith and Yumiko and four of their friends. One was an ex-ALT but the rest were Japanese and couldn't speak any English. Practice day for me! We took the bullet train to Tokyo in the morning and then ate at Subway (it was so good, I haven't had it since I left North America) before heading to Tokyo Game Show 2007. This is a huge, huge video/computer game convention where you can try out games before they come onto the market and check out the booths of different game companies. I was very please to see a large Canadian booth there.
I spent most of the time there with Patrick, the ex-alt, and the Japanese girl who came with us who's name absolutely escapes me. But it was cool! She likes a lot of the same kinds of games I like so we were able to chatter away in some Japanese and bits of English and gestures. We visited the Square Enix booth (they created the immensely popular Final Fantasy series) and just generally wandered around. It was my first experience seeing cosplayers (people who dress up like characters from games or books) and their costumes and hair were just amazing. I was so impressed. I am absolutely going to go to more cosplay events with a friend from Nagano who's into that.
After the Game Show we went to Akihabara (geek and technology central in Tokyo) and went to a maid cafe. The Japanese girl really likes the costumes and wanted to visit one. Maid cafes are resturants where you can go and be greeted by girls dressed in stylized maid outfits who will then serve you a meal or drinks. Often they are mainly visited by guys going to see pretty girls in costumes with less than chivalrous motives. It's part of the job to talk with the customers. I think the girls were all very pleased to have some visitors who just wanted to talk with them for the sake of talking. Unfortunately we weren't allowed to take pictures (a very good rule with the clientele they have) so I can't show you what it was like.
On Monday I slept in very, very late and then Yumiko and her friend Chiho showed me a new mall where they have a store that sells both nice yarn and knitting needles! This is the first store I've found with such things. I was really excited. And there's an import store that sells Walker's shortbread there. They have real Canadian maple syrup, too, but it's about $20 a bottle. Since I almost never had it in Canada I can most definitely do without! The shortbread is wonderful~ In the evening Yumiko and Keith had Chiho and I over for okonomiyaki, which is kind of like a giant omelet except there's no cheese and you mix everything in before you pour the egg onto the large griddle. You make it on a griddle in the center of the table where you're going to eat so you can talk and watch it cook. It was delicious! There was only shrimp and veggies in the one Yumiko made because she's vegetarian, too.
Sunday I slept in again and then did a massive house cleaning. Keith told me that it's okay to throw away paper and cardboard products in the burnable if you make sure it's in 10x10 cm or less pieces. So my arms kind of hurt from tearing up all the paper/cardboard I've collected on my own and from guests. But my house is clean! Or at least, it was before I made dinner. As soon as I find places to put all my little knick-knacks I can actually take pictures of my house. And just when I was starting to think about dinner Ashley called and invited me over for dinner with her, Alice, and Brandon. It was really nice and relaxing.
I have discovered that my nighttime nemesis is indeed the Japanese mosquito. The little jerks have the normal, irritating bite that itches for 10 minutes and swells for about 1/2 an hour. Unfortunately, when the swelling goes down I and the rest of the foreign ALTs I've talked to get a little pink welt that's occasionally itchy/painful and persists for 3-5 days. Thank goodness it's getting cold enough to keep my balcony doors closed at night. See L, I told you they weren't as nice as you thought.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
Small photo update!
(Note: I've changed the settings so everyone can comment. Just please leave your name, too, so I know who it is! I am also going to be a smarter cookie and I've set this page up to notify me when I get a comment so I can actually post replies to instead of not realizing they were there. And I've replied to comments already posted.)
Actually this is in celebration of a number of events, not the least of which is that I finally got a micro SD card for my cellphone so I can now transfer pictures from my phone to my computer (that particular bit of Japanese software doesn't like my computer) so these are all taken on my phone. Explanations are with those photos that need them (which is most).
These shots are of a rather lovely sunset from my balcony. Looking over the rice fields. It makes my happy :)
This is the corner of my living room where I usually sleep. Or, at least, where the top of my futon points when it's out. That is officially the biggest mirror in my house leaning against my TV stand. The little closet is where all of my clothes live when they're properly put away. Oh, and you can see my happy little bamboo! I pruned him by about three feet when I got here because he was about to fall over.
I took this one last Monday when Brendan and I went to Gifu-city on an adventure. This is one of a pair of excessively shiny buildings there.
Now onto the sad passing of a good friend (if the photos are loading slowly I am talking about a thing, not a person):
This is the screen of my poor, poor camera after it took some unknown hit during last Saturday's sports day. It actually still works but the screen is most definitely gone for good. And with a digital camera that means that the camera is a lot harder to use.
An interlude of silly me since I almost never put pictures of myself up. I am getting my protein in though. (I'll just apologize for that pun right away.)
And the the following good news:
I was actually planning to buy a new camera at some point while here this was just a little earlier than planned... But luckily all the new models are coming out right now so I stuck with a brand I trust and went for it. I also beat down my greedy thoughts that wanted the bigger, shiney, super-cameras because this one is much more portable, cheaper, and more suitable for what I use cameras for. Usually involving running around and being active and I would no doubt drop a bigger camera or otherwise hurt it accidentally. Plus this one will fit safely under an umbrella if I'm taking rainy-day photos. This one is a Canon IXY 8.0 mega pixel with a 3.8x zoom and a rechargeable, built-in lithium-ion battery. I love Canon. Not only do they make their products with optional Japanese or English menus but the CD installed the English software on my computer automatically.
But, I can only assume it was my own stupidity and pride that lead to this and I have made a promise to my new camera to always keep it in it's case when not in use. I'm sorry mom and dad, I only seem to learn lessons the hard way even when I'm told better and I know better.
I will upload proper camera photos later.
Actually this is in celebration of a number of events, not the least of which is that I finally got a micro SD card for my cellphone so I can now transfer pictures from my phone to my computer (that particular bit of Japanese software doesn't like my computer) so these are all taken on my phone. Explanations are with those photos that need them (which is most).
These shots are of a rather lovely sunset from my balcony. Looking over the rice fields. It makes my happy :)
This is the corner of my living room where I usually sleep. Or, at least, where the top of my futon points when it's out. That is officially the biggest mirror in my house leaning against my TV stand. The little closet is where all of my clothes live when they're properly put away. Oh, and you can see my happy little bamboo! I pruned him by about three feet when I got here because he was about to fall over.
I took this one last Monday when Brendan and I went to Gifu-city on an adventure. This is one of a pair of excessively shiny buildings there.
Now onto the sad passing of a good friend (if the photos are loading slowly I am talking about a thing, not a person):
This is the screen of my poor, poor camera after it took some unknown hit during last Saturday's sports day. It actually still works but the screen is most definitely gone for good. And with a digital camera that means that the camera is a lot harder to use.
An interlude of silly me since I almost never put pictures of myself up. I am getting my protein in though. (I'll just apologize for that pun right away.)
And the the following good news:
I was actually planning to buy a new camera at some point while here this was just a little earlier than planned... But luckily all the new models are coming out right now so I stuck with a brand I trust and went for it. I also beat down my greedy thoughts that wanted the bigger, shiney, super-cameras because this one is much more portable, cheaper, and more suitable for what I use cameras for. Usually involving running around and being active and I would no doubt drop a bigger camera or otherwise hurt it accidentally. Plus this one will fit safely under an umbrella if I'm taking rainy-day photos. This one is a Canon IXY 8.0 mega pixel with a 3.8x zoom and a rechargeable, built-in lithium-ion battery. I love Canon. Not only do they make their products with optional Japanese or English menus but the CD installed the English software on my computer automatically.
But, I can only assume it was my own stupidity and pride that lead to this and I have made a promise to my new camera to always keep it in it's case when not in use. I'm sorry mom and dad, I only seem to learn lessons the hard way even when I'm told better and I know better.
I will upload proper camera photos later.
Monday, September 17, 2007
What's been up with me recently:
Firstly: HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!
I hope you had an awesome day!
Hm, well, where to start. Once again it's been a huge amount of time since I've updated properly (btw, I did upload all of my entries written before I got my internet, I just dated them properly. They start at 'Tokyo') or uploaded pictures. No pictures yet but I will update.
Well, the best news I have is that my bike came home this week! Some of my kids found it at the shopping centre downtown and phoned the school on Tuesday. The best part is that they're some of my little brats in class. I'm so proud of them! It's still up in the air as the whether they, other kids, or graduated students took it. I actually am more and more suspecting the graduated students since they came by and buzzed the school on loud scooters the next afternoon. They're bored and not going to high school so... But, honestly, I don't really care and since everything is fixed everything is forgiven.
Um, so L has come and gone this past week and I'm really enjoying both the ability to sleep in and my me space. Not that I mind having company, it's just my house is 1-person sized. And I'm tired from all the sports festival prep for the last few weeks and the final culmination that occurred Saturday.
Teaching is really fun so far because I'm actually allowed to either a) lead most of the class on my own with support from my JLT, or b) wander around and talk with the kids in the back or who are misbehaving when I'm not needed immediately by my JLT. My English Passport scheme to bribe my children into wanting to at least participate in my classes seems to be working for the most part as well. I know intrinsic (internal) motivation is better than extrinsic (external) but when they're being forced to learn a language in high school the intrinsic won't be there most of the time anyway. Actually, I'm finding I love the little wanna-be gangsters the best in class because they keep things fun. I'm also discovering that I have a terrific internal goofball that comes out in class so I can play well off of my students no matter what they're doing.
My squishies (elementary students) are also absolutely amazing and I love them to pieces. Those days are going to be the most tiring but the most fun, I think. Most of them are still totally into playing games and lunch break is friggin' awesome. But I have to find more durable clothing and not wear my nice shirts. The kids are going to trash my clothing. I need to look into getting guys shirts.
Hm, well this post was actually interrupted by about six hours. I went to Gifu with a friend and when I hit up Uniqlo I discovered that they have clothes that fit me! T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, and polo shirts! Admittedly in the largest men's size they carry but I'm still ecstatic. I didn't think it would be so easy to find elementary-appropriate clothing! And the best part is that guys clothing here comes in girl's colors, too. Pink, purple, light blue, you name a color and you can find it in the clothing section somewhere. Sadly the shirt that said, "Eat more turkey, be perky!" with the picture of the chef carving up the turkey wasn't there in my size. Uniqlo is cheap, too, most of my shirts were around 1000 yen (~$10). (Thank you Tanya, you were right, that store is amazing).
Anyways, I should be working on what I'm going to do in class tomorrow so I'm going to sign off now.
I hope you had an awesome day!
Hm, well, where to start. Once again it's been a huge amount of time since I've updated properly (btw, I did upload all of my entries written before I got my internet, I just dated them properly. They start at 'Tokyo') or uploaded pictures. No pictures yet but I will update.
Well, the best news I have is that my bike came home this week! Some of my kids found it at the shopping centre downtown and phoned the school on Tuesday. The best part is that they're some of my little brats in class. I'm so proud of them! It's still up in the air as the whether they, other kids, or graduated students took it. I actually am more and more suspecting the graduated students since they came by and buzzed the school on loud scooters the next afternoon. They're bored and not going to high school so... But, honestly, I don't really care and since everything is fixed everything is forgiven.
Um, so L has come and gone this past week and I'm really enjoying both the ability to sleep in and my me space. Not that I mind having company, it's just my house is 1-person sized. And I'm tired from all the sports festival prep for the last few weeks and the final culmination that occurred Saturday.
Teaching is really fun so far because I'm actually allowed to either a) lead most of the class on my own with support from my JLT, or b) wander around and talk with the kids in the back or who are misbehaving when I'm not needed immediately by my JLT. My English Passport scheme to bribe my children into wanting to at least participate in my classes seems to be working for the most part as well. I know intrinsic (internal) motivation is better than extrinsic (external) but when they're being forced to learn a language in high school the intrinsic won't be there most of the time anyway. Actually, I'm finding I love the little wanna-be gangsters the best in class because they keep things fun. I'm also discovering that I have a terrific internal goofball that comes out in class so I can play well off of my students no matter what they're doing.
My squishies (elementary students) are also absolutely amazing and I love them to pieces. Those days are going to be the most tiring but the most fun, I think. Most of them are still totally into playing games and lunch break is friggin' awesome. But I have to find more durable clothing and not wear my nice shirts. The kids are going to trash my clothing. I need to look into getting guys shirts.
Hm, well this post was actually interrupted by about six hours. I went to Gifu with a friend and when I hit up Uniqlo I discovered that they have clothes that fit me! T-shirts, long-sleeved shirts, and polo shirts! Admittedly in the largest men's size they carry but I'm still ecstatic. I didn't think it would be so easy to find elementary-appropriate clothing! And the best part is that guys clothing here comes in girl's colors, too. Pink, purple, light blue, you name a color and you can find it in the clothing section somewhere. Sadly the shirt that said, "Eat more turkey, be perky!" with the picture of the chef carving up the turkey wasn't there in my size. Uniqlo is cheap, too, most of my shirts were around 1000 yen (~$10). (Thank you Tanya, you were right, that store is amazing).
Anyways, I should be working on what I'm going to do in class tomorrow so I'm going to sign off now.
Monday, September 10, 2007
Quick Check-in
So today I`m visiting my second elementary school. They`ve put me at a desk with a computer, how awesome is that? I feel a bit in the way though. My kids are so cute! I love being at smaller schools. This one is only about 100 kids between seven classes. They`re all practicing for Sports Day, too, which is awesome!
This morning I had to go talk to my Kocho-sensei at Onochu (my middle school) because my bike was stolen on Friday before I left the office. They`re looking into it but I feel like such a bother. I hope it doesn`t cause everyone a lot of trouble. I doubt I`ll get it back (as do they) but I can hope that by not letting it slide I`ll set a good precedent to my students.
I should (this is a key word) be getting my internet set up soon. Hopefully by tomorrow or Wednesday, actually. And then I can update regularily again.
This morning I had to go talk to my Kocho-sensei at Onochu (my middle school) because my bike was stolen on Friday before I left the office. They`re looking into it but I feel like such a bother. I hope it doesn`t cause everyone a lot of trouble. I doubt I`ll get it back (as do they) but I can hope that by not letting it slide I`ll set a good precedent to my students.
I should (this is a key word) be getting my internet set up soon. Hopefully by tomorrow or Wednesday, actually. And then I can update regularily again.
Saturday, September 8, 2007
September 8th
Last week work was a bit boring because I didn’t have a huge amount to do over the first half but by the end I had more than enough prep for this weeks introduction classes to keep me busy all day.
L stayed until Tuesday morning when she headed off on her Shikoku pilgrimage. It was really nice to catch up with her, too. We did some shopping and exploring and she wandered around town some while I was in school. On Saturday we went to Gifu and watched the cormorant fishing. That was really cool! We couldn’t get a boat seat (last weekend before school, of course) but the view from the edge of the river was pretty awesome and they’ve got stone steps leading down to the water to sit on.
Monday was the opening ceremony for my middle and elementary schools. I attended the middle school ceremony in the morning and gave a little speech and then I did my health check at town hall before heading to Naka elementary to have lunch with one of my second-year classes and give another little speech to the students there. I got a bit of prep done with my Naka teachers for the next Monday I’m there, too. The rest of the week was my introduction lessons in various classes. I think they all went alright but I’m happy that I only have one class left to do. I changed things bit by bit over time but it was still 16 repetitions of the same lesson. I think I’m going to like doing the different lessons for different years better.
This week and next week we actually have shortened classes because all of the students are preparing for the school sports festival. It’s going to happen on the 15th and the whole school is divided into three teams: red, blue, and white. I’m on blue team, but luckily the teachers don’t have to participate, only oversee. They play a lot of very strange games, most of them races, like seven-legged races, mukade (house centipede) which involves a series of students standing behind each other with their left and right ankles attached to two ropes running down the row. Both of these involve a lot of falling over so far. They’ve got other games like jump rope with entire classes, a tire pull where one student sits on the tire and three pull him/her with a rope, and replay races. It’s so fun to watch and I can’t wait until I can see the actual event. It’s an all-day Saturday thing.
Some of my kids are little brats (for example: two third years were having a water-gun fight during cleaning time and then another kid caught one of them with a water balloon inside the dining hall) but a lot of them are really sweet. A lot of the girls are little darlings. Unfortunately I think some of my third-years may have had a hand in my bike wandering off before I finished at school on Friday. I need to talk to my Principle on Monday to see if he can do anything. I also discovered yesterday (after the bike thing) that I’d left my car light on last Monday so I had to ask Ryan and one of his friends to help me out with some jumper cables. I need to buy some of my own. Anyway, we got it going again and I had a lovely drive around town and got to relax a bit and then had coffee with Ashley, Alice, and Brendan. After that we hit up an arcade and then a used stuff store before coming home.
I think the best part of the whole things is that although I was pretty pissed -- I mean, I was warned by a teacher but I didn’t think they’d take it the first week so I though I had a bit of time to buy a new lock – I just can’t be too upset over it. My cat Velcro came home (in Canada) and I’d prayed so hard that she would be okay and not dead and the fact that she’s safe and home is more important than any stress about objects.
I’m hoping things start to calm down a bit soon. This week a big typhoon hit Japan but luckily it passed safely to the north of Gifu so we had nothing to worry about. Sadly a few people died in Tokyo from roof tiles (they’re usually ceramic and heavy here) being blown off roofs and flooding rivers.
Today I’m mostly lazing around and relaxing. Just because I can.
Addition: In an extremely happy extra, I have officially moved onto a new belt loop as of today. I’ve lost an average of 3 pounds in the past three weeks and have noticed some lovely new definition to my calves thanks to my recent biking activity. Now if I can just start eating healthier I hope I can see many more improvements over the next little while!
L stayed until Tuesday morning when she headed off on her Shikoku pilgrimage. It was really nice to catch up with her, too. We did some shopping and exploring and she wandered around town some while I was in school. On Saturday we went to Gifu and watched the cormorant fishing. That was really cool! We couldn’t get a boat seat (last weekend before school, of course) but the view from the edge of the river was pretty awesome and they’ve got stone steps leading down to the water to sit on.
Monday was the opening ceremony for my middle and elementary schools. I attended the middle school ceremony in the morning and gave a little speech and then I did my health check at town hall before heading to Naka elementary to have lunch with one of my second-year classes and give another little speech to the students there. I got a bit of prep done with my Naka teachers for the next Monday I’m there, too. The rest of the week was my introduction lessons in various classes. I think they all went alright but I’m happy that I only have one class left to do. I changed things bit by bit over time but it was still 16 repetitions of the same lesson. I think I’m going to like doing the different lessons for different years better.
This week and next week we actually have shortened classes because all of the students are preparing for the school sports festival. It’s going to happen on the 15th and the whole school is divided into three teams: red, blue, and white. I’m on blue team, but luckily the teachers don’t have to participate, only oversee. They play a lot of very strange games, most of them races, like seven-legged races, mukade (house centipede) which involves a series of students standing behind each other with their left and right ankles attached to two ropes running down the row. Both of these involve a lot of falling over so far. They’ve got other games like jump rope with entire classes, a tire pull where one student sits on the tire and three pull him/her with a rope, and replay races. It’s so fun to watch and I can’t wait until I can see the actual event. It’s an all-day Saturday thing.
Some of my kids are little brats (for example: two third years were having a water-gun fight during cleaning time and then another kid caught one of them with a water balloon inside the dining hall) but a lot of them are really sweet. A lot of the girls are little darlings. Unfortunately I think some of my third-years may have had a hand in my bike wandering off before I finished at school on Friday. I need to talk to my Principle on Monday to see if he can do anything. I also discovered yesterday (after the bike thing) that I’d left my car light on last Monday so I had to ask Ryan and one of his friends to help me out with some jumper cables. I need to buy some of my own. Anyway, we got it going again and I had a lovely drive around town and got to relax a bit and then had coffee with Ashley, Alice, and Brendan. After that we hit up an arcade and then a used stuff store before coming home.
I think the best part of the whole things is that although I was pretty pissed -- I mean, I was warned by a teacher but I didn’t think they’d take it the first week so I though I had a bit of time to buy a new lock – I just can’t be too upset over it. My cat Velcro came home (in Canada) and I’d prayed so hard that she would be okay and not dead and the fact that she’s safe and home is more important than any stress about objects.
I’m hoping things start to calm down a bit soon. This week a big typhoon hit Japan but luckily it passed safely to the north of Gifu so we had nothing to worry about. Sadly a few people died in Tokyo from roof tiles (they’re usually ceramic and heavy here) being blown off roofs and flooding rivers.
Today I’m mostly lazing around and relaxing. Just because I can.
Addition: In an extremely happy extra, I have officially moved onto a new belt loop as of today. I’ve lost an average of 3 pounds in the past three weeks and have noticed some lovely new definition to my calves thanks to my recent biking activity. Now if I can just start eating healthier I hope I can see many more improvements over the next little while!
Friday, August 31, 2007
Quick but long update from Ono-cho
I feel so sneaky. I’ve decided to write the occasional post on my computer so I can pop it onto my blog when I use the internet-enabled everyone computer at work for printing. This means I don’t have to cramp my poor thumbs typing on my cell phone to e-mail people. The poor thing will recognize and suggest Japanese words after the first character or two but doesn’t know any English words.
Anyways, work is going well. I went and watched my kendo club two mornings this week and they’re awesome. I adore my children more than I can say! I actually think I’m happier working at a ‘rough’ school than I would be at a ‘good’ school. These kids are really good kids (on the inside, outward appearances and behaviour can be deceiving) they just don’t like to study. I can’t blame them, I didn’t like French much when I had to learn it myself either. But, they’ve got lots of energy outside of class so I hope I can harness that in class. If not, oh well. I’ll hang out with them at clubs and lunch and the like. Next week is opening ceremony and self-intro week so I’m excited. We have our annual Sports Day next Saturday, too, and I’m on Blue Team so I get to practice with them all week!
My teachers don’t come and ask me for anything. So I’ve started hunting them down and harassing them. I’ve come up with some ideas for each level of class based on the textbook so I ask them if that’s the kind of thing they had in mind, if they think it would be okay, all that stuff. I think they’re lying sometimes when they say it looks good but hopefully that will pass when they realize I don’t get bothered by that sort of thing. So far I think we’re set to go for the first week or two though. Now I just have to get all my materials printed off and practice my introduction. I spend a lot of time making clip-art since I don’t have access to the internet on my computer yet, too.
Speaking of printing I decided to invest in a printer and lo and behold the printer I wanted anyway was on sale for 13,000 yen down from 22,000! When I first got here I’d just take two zeros off each number to approximate the amount in dollars, so it’s a difference of about $100. I was so happy! It’s a lovely Canon scanner/printer/everything machine and I’ve been told that replacement Canon ink is cheap here.
When I’m out and about I occasionally get recognized by a kid and they yell my name and run over to say hi and then stand awkwardly near me because neither of us have the ability to converse well in the other’s language yet. I bug them a little in English anyway before saying, ‘See you’ which means they can go. It’s so nice! I’m feeling like I’m becoming more a part of the community.
Last week Elissa came to visit for two days and we had a lovely time wandering around when I was off work and shopping. Then this last weekend I went to visit Midori in her home town (her family is lovely!) and we went to Nara on Sunday. I was mobbed by the ‘friendly’ deer who wanted the deer cookies we’d bought and got to see the biggest Buddha statue in Japan and some gorgeous temples. I can’t wait until I can upload pictures again!
My only trouble on my trip was when I took the last bus from the train station home and picked the wrong one. Apparently there is another town with exactly the same kanji that’s south of Ogaki instead of north. But after a very stilted conversation with the poor bus driver and a few minutes of frustrated crying at a dark bus stop I called Ryan on my cell phone and we managed to figure out where I was using a road sign. I cannot be thankful enough for this because road signs are few and far between in Japan and I’d just gotten my cell phone on Friday. Anyway, he and Alice came and rescued me in her car so everything worked out okay. And now I know which bus I should not take again.
Actually I went to pick L up in Ogaki last night because she’d just gotten into Japan around lunch and was really jet-lagged. The way to Ogaki station is actually ridiculously easy! I was so pleased! No trouble getting there and back even in the dark! The map books they’ve got in Japan really are awesome. So she’s going to stay for the weekend before she goes on her pilgrimage in Shikoku which is exciting.
My other exciting news is that not only did I survive my first real adventure in Japan but I’ve got a drivable car now, too! Dan and Ryan helped my get my insurance over the past few days and then took me out to practice driving on the wrong side of the road. I’ve done a couple of shorter trips by myself and I think I’m going to be okay. I just keep turning my windshield wipers on when I want to hit the left turn-signal.
Anyway, I see another teacher I need to bug so I’ll sign off for now. I hope all of you are doing well!
Anyways, work is going well. I went and watched my kendo club two mornings this week and they’re awesome. I adore my children more than I can say! I actually think I’m happier working at a ‘rough’ school than I would be at a ‘good’ school. These kids are really good kids (on the inside, outward appearances and behaviour can be deceiving) they just don’t like to study. I can’t blame them, I didn’t like French much when I had to learn it myself either. But, they’ve got lots of energy outside of class so I hope I can harness that in class. If not, oh well. I’ll hang out with them at clubs and lunch and the like. Next week is opening ceremony and self-intro week so I’m excited. We have our annual Sports Day next Saturday, too, and I’m on Blue Team so I get to practice with them all week!
My teachers don’t come and ask me for anything. So I’ve started hunting them down and harassing them. I’ve come up with some ideas for each level of class based on the textbook so I ask them if that’s the kind of thing they had in mind, if they think it would be okay, all that stuff. I think they’re lying sometimes when they say it looks good but hopefully that will pass when they realize I don’t get bothered by that sort of thing. So far I think we’re set to go for the first week or two though. Now I just have to get all my materials printed off and practice my introduction. I spend a lot of time making clip-art since I don’t have access to the internet on my computer yet, too.
Speaking of printing I decided to invest in a printer and lo and behold the printer I wanted anyway was on sale for 13,000 yen down from 22,000! When I first got here I’d just take two zeros off each number to approximate the amount in dollars, so it’s a difference of about $100. I was so happy! It’s a lovely Canon scanner/printer/everything machine and I’ve been told that replacement Canon ink is cheap here.
When I’m out and about I occasionally get recognized by a kid and they yell my name and run over to say hi and then stand awkwardly near me because neither of us have the ability to converse well in the other’s language yet. I bug them a little in English anyway before saying, ‘See you’ which means they can go. It’s so nice! I’m feeling like I’m becoming more a part of the community.
Last week Elissa came to visit for two days and we had a lovely time wandering around when I was off work and shopping. Then this last weekend I went to visit Midori in her home town (her family is lovely!) and we went to Nara on Sunday. I was mobbed by the ‘friendly’ deer who wanted the deer cookies we’d bought and got to see the biggest Buddha statue in Japan and some gorgeous temples. I can’t wait until I can upload pictures again!
My only trouble on my trip was when I took the last bus from the train station home and picked the wrong one. Apparently there is another town with exactly the same kanji that’s south of Ogaki instead of north. But after a very stilted conversation with the poor bus driver and a few minutes of frustrated crying at a dark bus stop I called Ryan on my cell phone and we managed to figure out where I was using a road sign. I cannot be thankful enough for this because road signs are few and far between in Japan and I’d just gotten my cell phone on Friday. Anyway, he and Alice came and rescued me in her car so everything worked out okay. And now I know which bus I should not take again.
Actually I went to pick L up in Ogaki last night because she’d just gotten into Japan around lunch and was really jet-lagged. The way to Ogaki station is actually ridiculously easy! I was so pleased! No trouble getting there and back even in the dark! The map books they’ve got in Japan really are awesome. So she’s going to stay for the weekend before she goes on her pilgrimage in Shikoku which is exciting.
My other exciting news is that not only did I survive my first real adventure in Japan but I’ve got a drivable car now, too! Dan and Ryan helped my get my insurance over the past few days and then took me out to practice driving on the wrong side of the road. I’ve done a couple of shorter trips by myself and I think I’m going to be okay. I just keep turning my windshield wipers on when I want to hit the left turn-signal.
Anyway, I see another teacher I need to bug so I’ll sign off for now. I hope all of you are doing well!
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
August 22nd
The rest of my weekend consisted of hibernating in my house and getting some alone time. Ryan was a sweetie and changed the tires and grips on my bike with the ones from his broken bike. So I think I’ll stick with it for a while, although it’s tempting to get one of the ones with the gear cover so I can wear skirts and bike.
Monday was pretty fun. My first real day at school and I did my self-intro and then learned CPR (luckily I was drilled to death during multiple years of swim lessons and my occupational first-aid a few years back) and how to use an AED (defibrillator thing to help restart hearts) in Japanese. I didn’t understand the majority of the talking but I took my turn with the Little Anne doll and the practice AED machine. I can tell someone to call the Japanese 911 (119) now.
After lunch I went to Ogaki for a meeting about the Seino summer workshop for ALTs and we got the rundown on judging the regional speech contest and the various activities for elementary and junior high students. Afterwards we picked Elissa up at the train station and we all had dinner at Cocos then she came home with me.
Tuesday was awesome, too. I spent the morning alternately puttering away at my self-intro class and introducing myself to the huge number of students who were there for a homework check. (Remember, in Japan summer is the space between 1st and 2nd semester. Third semester runs from January to the beginning of March) I got to watch the basketball and volleyball teams practice, too. At one my Kyoto-sensei (Vice-principal) said it was okay to leave when I told him Elissa was here. After I got home Elissa and I spent the afternoon shopping downtown and exploring some. We would have taken an evening walk, too, if it hadn’t suddenly poured rain fifteen minutes after we got home. It was fun, though! I hadn’t been to a lot of the stores yet, either.
Today we dropped Elissa back in Ogaki on our way to the Seino workshop. I’m sad she couldn’t stay for longer but she wants to come back next summer so that’d be awesome! It was so good to have her here and to be able to talk with her and explore with her!
Today was fun but tiring. I was assigned to the elementary group in the morning so we played a few games with 120 children in the main hall and then we broke into groups to learn veggie names and play karuta (a slap card game) for an hour. We ate lunch with the students and in the afternoon I was with the elementary students again. I ‘read’ The Rainbow Fish to four different groups of children, by which I mean I summarized it loosely for them and two other ALTs acted it out with a few paper fish cut-outs. Then we endlessly repeated ‘which color would you like’ while all the children made their own rainbow fish from paper and glue. It was actually not too bad but I’ve learned that I most definitely prefer to make my own lessons to using a lesson plan someone else has handed me. It’s really tiring working with so many students over and over again, too. I definitely need to work on stamina for my Monday schools.
Tomorrow I’ll be helping a group of junior high students draft a play on the situation ‘samurai in the airport’. I’m interested to see how things go!
Monday was pretty fun. My first real day at school and I did my self-intro and then learned CPR (luckily I was drilled to death during multiple years of swim lessons and my occupational first-aid a few years back) and how to use an AED (defibrillator thing to help restart hearts) in Japanese. I didn’t understand the majority of the talking but I took my turn with the Little Anne doll and the practice AED machine. I can tell someone to call the Japanese 911 (119) now.
After lunch I went to Ogaki for a meeting about the Seino summer workshop for ALTs and we got the rundown on judging the regional speech contest and the various activities for elementary and junior high students. Afterwards we picked Elissa up at the train station and we all had dinner at Cocos then she came home with me.
Tuesday was awesome, too. I spent the morning alternately puttering away at my self-intro class and introducing myself to the huge number of students who were there for a homework check. (Remember, in Japan summer is the space between 1st and 2nd semester. Third semester runs from January to the beginning of March) I got to watch the basketball and volleyball teams practice, too. At one my Kyoto-sensei (Vice-principal) said it was okay to leave when I told him Elissa was here. After I got home Elissa and I spent the afternoon shopping downtown and exploring some. We would have taken an evening walk, too, if it hadn’t suddenly poured rain fifteen minutes after we got home. It was fun, though! I hadn’t been to a lot of the stores yet, either.
Today we dropped Elissa back in Ogaki on our way to the Seino workshop. I’m sad she couldn’t stay for longer but she wants to come back next summer so that’d be awesome! It was so good to have her here and to be able to talk with her and explore with her!
Today was fun but tiring. I was assigned to the elementary group in the morning so we played a few games with 120 children in the main hall and then we broke into groups to learn veggie names and play karuta (a slap card game) for an hour. We ate lunch with the students and in the afternoon I was with the elementary students again. I ‘read’ The Rainbow Fish to four different groups of children, by which I mean I summarized it loosely for them and two other ALTs acted it out with a few paper fish cut-outs. Then we endlessly repeated ‘which color would you like’ while all the children made their own rainbow fish from paper and glue. It was actually not too bad but I’ve learned that I most definitely prefer to make my own lessons to using a lesson plan someone else has handed me. It’s really tiring working with so many students over and over again, too. I definitely need to work on stamina for my Monday schools.
Tomorrow I’ll be helping a group of junior high students draft a play on the situation ‘samurai in the airport’. I’m interested to see how things go!
Saturday, August 18, 2007
August 18th
I finally got to cook my first dinner this evening. It was a really tasty Italian donburi recipe that I pulled from some Japanese cooking show I watched. I love how many kinds of mushrooms the grocery stores have here. No white button ones though.
I am sad to say that I have reached a new level of horror/ amusement at the state of my house. I went to use the microwave to reheat some frozen rice and I just... couldn’t. I don’t even want to clean it I just want to trash it straight away. The inside is covered in baked-on black crud and there are bits of mummified and scorched food lying around in there. It’s a biohazard in an extreme sense. I made new rice and saved the other stuff for later.
After deciding to make ice cubes today I discovered that one of the trays (which had both been sitting in the freezer since before I arrived) had brown stuff and mold in it. It must have grown when the electricity was off, but really now. *sighs* Almost half of the pots hanging in the kitchen are too rusted to use. The unusable ones were just put up or tucked behind the good ones so they weren’t visible at first sight.
Today turned into deep-clean-my-apartment day as soon as things cooled down enough for me to move around. There are still a few places that need a good scrub or dusting but my list is getting much shorter. I hearby resolve to make enough time to properly clean before I leave so my successor doesn’t need to deal with icky things right away.
I am sad to say that I have reached a new level of horror/ amusement at the state of my house. I went to use the microwave to reheat some frozen rice and I just... couldn’t. I don’t even want to clean it I just want to trash it straight away. The inside is covered in baked-on black crud and there are bits of mummified and scorched food lying around in there. It’s a biohazard in an extreme sense. I made new rice and saved the other stuff for later.
After deciding to make ice cubes today I discovered that one of the trays (which had both been sitting in the freezer since before I arrived) had brown stuff and mold in it. It must have grown when the electricity was off, but really now. *sighs* Almost half of the pots hanging in the kitchen are too rusted to use. The unusable ones were just put up or tucked behind the good ones so they weren’t visible at first sight.
Today turned into deep-clean-my-apartment day as soon as things cooled down enough for me to move around. There are still a few places that need a good scrub or dusting but my list is getting much shorter. I hearby resolve to make enough time to properly clean before I leave so my successor doesn’t need to deal with icky things right away.
Friday, August 17, 2007
August 17th
The Gifu orientation was pretty fun. We finally got a few good lectures where I learned some techniques really applicable to teaching. I’m getting really inspired to do the best for my students that I can! I tried an Onsen (public bath) for the first time, too. Luckily not a mixed one. It was the only option at the Sports Centre where the orientation was held and another first-year girl and I acted as moral support for each other. It’s really more like a hot tub that requires you to bathe first and has no gross chemicals.
I just got home from Gujo dancing! It’s this amazing evening town festival (matsuri) held over most of the summer. The big event is the folk dancing which happens around a lovely tower in the centre of a town square. The people in the tower have instruments and drums and sing five different songs for two hours and everyone rotates slowly around the tower doing one of five different traditional dances. I was totally awful but just went ahead and tried to learn the steps anyway. Luckily it was fairly simple and all of the dances had some sort of sequence that I decided started at the clap(s) and then ran for five to ten moves past that before repeating. It was really fun!
Ashley and Brandon’s supervisor (such a nice guy) drove us and two other ex-JETs and their lovely girlfriend and wife respectively out to Gujo. I haven’t managed to find a yukata (summer kimono) to fit me yet but I plan to look consistently for the next month and then check into custom-ordering one if I have no luck.
The drive was almost two hours each way so we had some great conversations in the van as we traveled. When we arrived we had enough time to visit the Food Replica Workshop before the festival started and I bought a Hershey chocolate square dangly with an H on it for my keitai (cell-phone) when I get it next week! It looks so real I’m almost afraid it will melt on my fingers! I also tried fish chips of some sort that are a full, gutted fish that’s been sliced into cross-sections then breaded and deep-fried. It was... interesting. Eating the fins and bones kind of freaked me out although the taste was okay. Seeing heads left attached to things I might eat still makes me squeamish. I had partially mashed and grilled rice on a stick with sweet miso sauce after that.
Before I left home I was really uncertain about where I was being called to go and if I was making the right choices but now I’m certain that I’ve found exactly the right place to be at the moment. After eating and dancing and talking with everyone this evening I just felt that comfortable sort of rightness that makes me almost drowsy and lethargic. I’m just so in love with my town and the nature around me and I like all of my new friends so much that I couldn’t imagine leaving.
I haven’t even been in Japan for two weeks and already my new house feels like home. Being so far away from family and friends is difficult and makes me sad and I’m not sure if I could be much more nervous about teaching and working with my new teachers but just existing here really feels right, something I haven’t felt in a really long time. I don’t even have the time or desire to think about the things I couldn’t get out of my head before.
I just got home from Gujo dancing! It’s this amazing evening town festival (matsuri) held over most of the summer. The big event is the folk dancing which happens around a lovely tower in the centre of a town square. The people in the tower have instruments and drums and sing five different songs for two hours and everyone rotates slowly around the tower doing one of five different traditional dances. I was totally awful but just went ahead and tried to learn the steps anyway. Luckily it was fairly simple and all of the dances had some sort of sequence that I decided started at the clap(s) and then ran for five to ten moves past that before repeating. It was really fun!
Ashley and Brandon’s supervisor (such a nice guy) drove us and two other ex-JETs and their lovely girlfriend and wife respectively out to Gujo. I haven’t managed to find a yukata (summer kimono) to fit me yet but I plan to look consistently for the next month and then check into custom-ordering one if I have no luck.
The drive was almost two hours each way so we had some great conversations in the van as we traveled. When we arrived we had enough time to visit the Food Replica Workshop before the festival started and I bought a Hershey chocolate square dangly with an H on it for my keitai (cell-phone) when I get it next week! It looks so real I’m almost afraid it will melt on my fingers! I also tried fish chips of some sort that are a full, gutted fish that’s been sliced into cross-sections then breaded and deep-fried. It was... interesting. Eating the fins and bones kind of freaked me out although the taste was okay. Seeing heads left attached to things I might eat still makes me squeamish. I had partially mashed and grilled rice on a stick with sweet miso sauce after that.
Before I left home I was really uncertain about where I was being called to go and if I was making the right choices but now I’m certain that I’ve found exactly the right place to be at the moment. After eating and dancing and talking with everyone this evening I just felt that comfortable sort of rightness that makes me almost drowsy and lethargic. I’m just so in love with my town and the nature around me and I like all of my new friends so much that I couldn’t imagine leaving.
I haven’t even been in Japan for two weeks and already my new house feels like home. Being so far away from family and friends is difficult and makes me sad and I’m not sure if I could be much more nervous about teaching and working with my new teachers but just existing here really feels right, something I haven’t felt in a really long time. I don’t even have the time or desire to think about the things I couldn’t get out of my head before.
Wednesday, August 15, 2007
August 15th
Yesterday morning I got my bank account set up. Ryan was nice enough to get me set up at one that’s got branches all over Japan so that I can take out money when I travel if I need to. I tried to get a cellphone, too, but I don’t think that’s going to happen until I get my gaijin (foreigner’s) card. They have some pretty neat waterproof ones that I’ve got my eye on.
I tried to go to work but the door was locked so I gave up and went home. I got a bit of cleaning and laundry done (it is so nice to have my washer right in my house) and then Alex called me and she took me to an awesome housewares store where I was able to get some proper summer bedding instead of the heavy quilts in my closet and a few more towels and the like. I spent the evening hanging out with her little girls and then Alex and her husband took Sandra, one of the new JETs in their area and me out to dinner at one of those sushi places where the food travels around on a little conveyor belt.
I tried to go to work but the door was locked so I gave up and went home. I got a bit of cleaning and laundry done (it is so nice to have my washer right in my house) and then Alex called me and she took me to an awesome housewares store where I was able to get some proper summer bedding instead of the heavy quilts in my closet and a few more towels and the like. I spent the evening hanging out with her little girls and then Alex and her husband took Sandra, one of the new JETs in their area and me out to dinner at one of those sushi places where the food travels around on a little conveyor belt.
Monday, August 13, 2007
August 13th
This last weekend was pretty busy. Visiting with Alex and her family was great! She came to pick me up with her two daughters, who are lovely, and we went to the local big mall. I’m debating whether to get a color printer so I can print things like photos at home. Since I can get paper at some of the hyakuen stores it’s probably cheaper overall. They showed me around the mall and we picked up the replacement that the store gave for the youngest daughter’s new bike that wasn’t working right. After that we went back to their apartment and I met her husband and had lunch with them. She was so nice, she even let me use her internet! When she drove me home she had a look at my place and taught me how to clean out the sink and my air conditioner and how to hang my futon out to dry! Her daughters play animal crossing so I’ve promised to come over and play sometime so they can get the next level of store in their town. Cute little things :)
They stayed until Alice, Simon and his girlfriend came to pick me up for the Seino welcome dinner. We picked up Ashley, too and drove to Ogaki where the dinner was being held. After meeting all the other ALTs we went to this restaurant where we had nomihoudai (all you can drink) and a sort of tabihoudai (all you can eat) where they brought out about five different courses over the evening. The food was okay but about half the courses were meat-only so those of us who were vegetarian had to wait a little for the sashimi, salad, and bread courses. The nomihoudai is nice because you can try new drinks without worrying about prices. I only had two but they were pretty tasty. There was a little kid (maybe 4 or 5) with another group who came over and beckoned me down to his level so he could give me a kiss on the cheek and then insisted on taking pictures of some of us! He was such a cutie!
After dinner those of us who didn’t have to worry about taking the train or bus home went 10-pin bowling. I got three strikes my first game, which I think is a first for me. One of the other guys (extremely drunk) got eight strikes in one game! I made friends with a Chinese CIR who’s trying to improve his English, a really cool girl from Scotland, and got to talk with at least half a dozen other new people over the evening.
On Sunday I went back to Ogaki with Alice, Ryan, and Brandon and met Dan and one of his Japanese friends. We went out for lunch and then after a bit of wandering the mall and playing in the Arcade we went for karaoke. It was my first time ever so I had to really work myself up to it. I don’t actually like my own voice much when I have to hear it and singing into speakers is pretty intimidating. Everyone was really encouraging though so I got into it after a little bit, too. I need to see what songs on my computer are in the karaoke catalog so I have a better idea of what to pick next time.
Last night was my town’s Obon festival. I couldn’t find a yukata yet (but I’m going to try again this week since I’m going to learn some traditional dancing on Friday evening with some of the others. It was a really cute festival though! They had a main tower where they were leading dancing and a lot of little food and game booths for the children. I met a whole ton of kids and teens and one of the little ones even came by and very seriously gave both Ryan and I each a milk candy. They’re all so sweet when they’re out of class! A bunch of my Junior high students-to-be were nearly jumping over each other to introduce themselves to me and a mother from Tokyo nearly cried she was so delighted that Ryan and I stopped to speak English with her. From the stories I hear I need to stay prepared for anything in the classroom though. Right at 9 the festival ended and everyone headed home.
Japan is so interesting. Town bells go off at 7 with announcements and then the bells go at noon and 6, too. Or those are the ones I’ve head, anyway. By 9 everyone is at home and going to bed. It’s so very civil.
Today was a little more normal going in to work and looking through all the activity books and the like for a few hours. My predecessor’s predecessor left a lot of stuff to work with. I hope I can make some decent games from it all! I’m still nervous about teaching and activity planning and all of that stuff.
Tomorrow morning I get my bank account set up and I might get my keitai in the evening, we’ll see. I’m asking Shiloh what went on when she tried to get high-speed internet and I’m hoping things might be different for me. If not then I might be able to get a phone I can use as a modem since my computer has Bluetooth. Hopefully there will be some way that I can set up internet so I can use Skype!
They stayed until Alice, Simon and his girlfriend came to pick me up for the Seino welcome dinner. We picked up Ashley, too and drove to Ogaki where the dinner was being held. After meeting all the other ALTs we went to this restaurant where we had nomihoudai (all you can drink) and a sort of tabihoudai (all you can eat) where they brought out about five different courses over the evening. The food was okay but about half the courses were meat-only so those of us who were vegetarian had to wait a little for the sashimi, salad, and bread courses. The nomihoudai is nice because you can try new drinks without worrying about prices. I only had two but they were pretty tasty. There was a little kid (maybe 4 or 5) with another group who came over and beckoned me down to his level so he could give me a kiss on the cheek and then insisted on taking pictures of some of us! He was such a cutie!
After dinner those of us who didn’t have to worry about taking the train or bus home went 10-pin bowling. I got three strikes my first game, which I think is a first for me. One of the other guys (extremely drunk) got eight strikes in one game! I made friends with a Chinese CIR who’s trying to improve his English, a really cool girl from Scotland, and got to talk with at least half a dozen other new people over the evening.
On Sunday I went back to Ogaki with Alice, Ryan, and Brandon and met Dan and one of his Japanese friends. We went out for lunch and then after a bit of wandering the mall and playing in the Arcade we went for karaoke. It was my first time ever so I had to really work myself up to it. I don’t actually like my own voice much when I have to hear it and singing into speakers is pretty intimidating. Everyone was really encouraging though so I got into it after a little bit, too. I need to see what songs on my computer are in the karaoke catalog so I have a better idea of what to pick next time.
Last night was my town’s Obon festival. I couldn’t find a yukata yet (but I’m going to try again this week since I’m going to learn some traditional dancing on Friday evening with some of the others. It was a really cute festival though! They had a main tower where they were leading dancing and a lot of little food and game booths for the children. I met a whole ton of kids and teens and one of the little ones even came by and very seriously gave both Ryan and I each a milk candy. They’re all so sweet when they’re out of class! A bunch of my Junior high students-to-be were nearly jumping over each other to introduce themselves to me and a mother from Tokyo nearly cried she was so delighted that Ryan and I stopped to speak English with her. From the stories I hear I need to stay prepared for anything in the classroom though. Right at 9 the festival ended and everyone headed home.
Japan is so interesting. Town bells go off at 7 with announcements and then the bells go at noon and 6, too. Or those are the ones I’ve head, anyway. By 9 everyone is at home and going to bed. It’s so very civil.
Today was a little more normal going in to work and looking through all the activity books and the like for a few hours. My predecessor’s predecessor left a lot of stuff to work with. I hope I can make some decent games from it all! I’m still nervous about teaching and activity planning and all of that stuff.
Tomorrow morning I get my bank account set up and I might get my keitai in the evening, we’ll see. I’m asking Shiloh what went on when she tried to get high-speed internet and I’m hoping things might be different for me. If not then I might be able to get a phone I can use as a modem since my computer has Bluetooth. Hopefully there will be some way that I can set up internet so I can use Skype!
Friday, August 10, 2007
August 10th
After waking up later I went into the office today for the first time. I met another one of my JTEs who is also near-fluent and he seems really nice, too! Shiho-san took me on a little tour of the school and my desk and prop cupboard. The schools here are organized by year so there are three floors for second year, third year, and first year bottom to top. We all eat in a central lunchroom with the children. We’ve decided that I’m going to bring a lunch every day while I try out the Kyushoku lunches we pay for so that if it’s got a lot of meat then I still have food. This means I need to make things that won’t go bad if there’s no fridge space for me. I also don’t have to go into work over Obon next week since almost no one is going to be at school, so I’ve got three more days off before the Gifu orientation and when I really start to work.
It sounds like my predecessor didn’t take her job very seriously so I’m hoping that I’ll get the chance to actually teach eventually and that the JTEs will want to let me really work with them. I don’t want to just be the stereotypically lazy ALT who plans a few activities, says a few words, slacks off at her desk and goes home as soon as she’s allowed.
I rode a bike for the first time in more than six years today. It was actually pretty easy, I only messed up one time and there was a metal fence I could catch myself on. Here’s hoping that I get better and less wiggly over time. If I can walk to and from school every day and do some biking I should be in great shape in no time! Haha, if that doesn’t do it the constant sweating buckets should! Don’t worry, it’s only 3 now and I’ve had way more than 8 glasses of liquid already.
I got my first call today, too! It was from my Seino PA just checking in on me and seeing how things are going for me. He also wanted to know if I’m going to the Seino welcome dinner tomorrow. My town festival is on Sunday night, too! This weekend is going to be really, really fun! Ryan said I should be able to find a nice men’s Yukata that will fit. Tomorrow Alex, a lovely older JET with a family who I talked to a lot on the Shinkansen, is going to pick me up and take me to visit her town and family! Everyone is so nice~!
Hm, hm... Tonight I’m going out with Alice and some of the other local JETs for sushi. She came over with Brandon and Ashley last night to say high and I’m so brain-dead that when she said she was one of my students (accent and everything) I actually believed her. XD And I thought I was becoming less gullible, haha! I haven’t met Dan, the English teacher who’s been here for 13 years now (or our crime boss, as Brandon says) but the more I hear about him, and everyone really, the more excited I get to meet them!
P.S. So this evening I met Simon who actually lives like right by where we parked to go to the temple yesterday. His students gave him two little Rhinoceros beetles to raise recently. *envy* Sushi was good and we hit up some more stores I hadn’t been to yet. I saw a huge toad on the drive home. I thought he was a fist-sized rock at first.
My new futon is actually absurdly comfortable and easy on my back and man, the only time I stop dripping sweat here is when I’ve been lying down immobile for at least 20 minutes with the fan on me. I even sweat when I sleep. I don’t want to be an inch higher than I have to be. I’m going to sweat off a few pounds if nothing else, I think! I actually have a mild rash on my throat from sweating so I’ve been trying to rinse it whenever I can and keep it as dry as is possible in this disgustingly hot country. Gifu is the hottest prefecture in Japan and more humid than Tokyo, hey? I’ll appreciate it in the winter but for now it sucks.
It sounds like my predecessor didn’t take her job very seriously so I’m hoping that I’ll get the chance to actually teach eventually and that the JTEs will want to let me really work with them. I don’t want to just be the stereotypically lazy ALT who plans a few activities, says a few words, slacks off at her desk and goes home as soon as she’s allowed.
I rode a bike for the first time in more than six years today. It was actually pretty easy, I only messed up one time and there was a metal fence I could catch myself on. Here’s hoping that I get better and less wiggly over time. If I can walk to and from school every day and do some biking I should be in great shape in no time! Haha, if that doesn’t do it the constant sweating buckets should! Don’t worry, it’s only 3 now and I’ve had way more than 8 glasses of liquid already.
I got my first call today, too! It was from my Seino PA just checking in on me and seeing how things are going for me. He also wanted to know if I’m going to the Seino welcome dinner tomorrow. My town festival is on Sunday night, too! This weekend is going to be really, really fun! Ryan said I should be able to find a nice men’s Yukata that will fit. Tomorrow Alex, a lovely older JET with a family who I talked to a lot on the Shinkansen, is going to pick me up and take me to visit her town and family! Everyone is so nice~!
Hm, hm... Tonight I’m going out with Alice and some of the other local JETs for sushi. She came over with Brandon and Ashley last night to say high and I’m so brain-dead that when she said she was one of my students (accent and everything) I actually believed her. XD And I thought I was becoming less gullible, haha! I haven’t met Dan, the English teacher who’s been here for 13 years now (or our crime boss, as Brandon says) but the more I hear about him, and everyone really, the more excited I get to meet them!
P.S. So this evening I met Simon who actually lives like right by where we parked to go to the temple yesterday. His students gave him two little Rhinoceros beetles to raise recently. *envy* Sushi was good and we hit up some more stores I hadn’t been to yet. I saw a huge toad on the drive home. I thought he was a fist-sized rock at first.
My new futon is actually absurdly comfortable and easy on my back and man, the only time I stop dripping sweat here is when I’ve been lying down immobile for at least 20 minutes with the fan on me. I even sweat when I sleep. I don’t want to be an inch higher than I have to be. I’m going to sweat off a few pounds if nothing else, I think! I actually have a mild rash on my throat from sweating so I’ve been trying to rinse it whenever I can and keep it as dry as is possible in this disgustingly hot country. Gifu is the hottest prefecture in Japan and more humid than Tokyo, hey? I’ll appreciate it in the winter but for now it sucks.
Thursday, August 9, 2007
August 9th
I have to start out by taking a moment to remember all of the lives lost in the Nagasaki and Hiroshima bombings. I would have never thoughts of it, spoiled little westerner that I am, except that while Chantelle and I were watching the news in our room at the Keio and then I was watching this evening I saw coverage of both memorial services. I’m taking it as a reminder to me to open my eyes once again because at the Keio it was mere chance and then today is the first day that my TV here has been fixed.
Since I arrived in Japan I’ve been just overwhelmed. It’s quiet, and subtle, and it creeps up on me a little at a time but the whole experience is just like a dream. An extremely vivid dream that I’m aware is my reality. All at once it’s so far from anything I’ve ever experienced in my life and just like every other day I’ve lived. And it’s the most brilliant dream my brain could ever have cooked up.
Omg, I just found Japanese pokemon on TV.
Anyway, my neighbor Ryan = bestest person in the world. He has been beyond helpful and gone massively out of his way to make me feel at home since I arrived. He seems like a pretty cool guy and takes his teaching very seriously. I’ve been learning just how much I have to learn about my new job :D I’ve also been learning that I am in the most wonderful position any AET (assistant English teacher) could ever want. I can do as much or as little actual teaching as I want. I’m hoping that I can actually learn enough to be teaching my own classes. How awesome would that be?
Apparently my school is ‘rough’ so I’m going to have to learn commands and really lay down the law in my classroom. That’s cool though, I think I’d actually rather have a room where there energy than an academic school where I’m a human tape-recorder for kids who are just there to ace their entrance exams. We’ll see how things go. I’m really excited to become as involved a teacher as I can. Ryan is so amazing even when we meet some of his or my students in the town.
Now Naruto is on, how funny! I didn’t even think I’d be seeing the same shows that are on at home on Friday nights.
Today I met the mayor (!!!) who seems really nice. Mind you, I only saw him for 5 minutes so who really knows. After that I met the real boss in my office. Now I just have to meet our ‘handler’, or my supervisor, and I think I’ve met all the higher-ups.
We went to Ryan’s office and I got to check out the textbooks and watch him help a student with her speech for the Seino (my district in Gifu) English Speech Contest. It was really neat. One of his cowokers offered us ‘Bees baby’ which turned out to be, duh, inch-long bee larvae. I ate one and strangely the worst parts were the initial ooze into my finger which I had to lick off and the afterthought that its head might have gotten caught in my teeth, which it didn’t thank goodness. I ate a LARVAE. In Japan. One of the last places I thought I’d have my first on-purpose insect-eating experience. Aside from the mental ‘eeeeew’ it actually wasn’t bad, not something I’d want to eat again but not disgusting. Strangely I am actually as bothered by this as I thought I’d be.
After that we went to the different malls in town and I experienced a hyaku-en store, the equivalent of a 99 cents store, which are absolutely amazing in Japan, visited the foreign-foods store (where I found root beer, Mexican food supplies, and my new plastic Pingu who came with little jelly snacks), this crazy store with everything from stuffies to manga to lighters and martini sets, and a music store.
He also took me to a beautiful temple just out of town which is the last one on a 38 temple (I think) pilgrimage he’s doing again in the area. It was pretty amazing. I washed my hands to purify myself on the way in, donated and prayed, and then bought a little charm for healing and prayed again. It’s such an intriguing religion and just like an old church you can really feel the sanctity of the place itself.
It’s so refreshing to have my jadedness peeled away so I can see a little more clearly. I didn’t realize how negative and selfish I’d become again over the past I don’t know how long. I’ve been realizing I’ve got emotions that can reach a lot deeper again and my empathy for life is coming back. It’s good to feel like I really care about little things like the welfare of the spiders in my kitchen window and the giant moth-critter that was stuck upside-down yesterday again.
Anyway, I’m going to go into my base school on my own tomorrow morning to use the internet and to get accustomed to my teachers and desk. I might have to wait a while for my internet to get hooked up. It’s going to be dial-up only so unfortunately Skype is out of the question. Phone cards here I come!
Also: My Japanese SUCKS. I need to kick my butt into gear learning new words around the office and studying. Without Ryan and Shiho-san I’d be totally lost in a world of gestures and confusion.
Since I arrived in Japan I’ve been just overwhelmed. It’s quiet, and subtle, and it creeps up on me a little at a time but the whole experience is just like a dream. An extremely vivid dream that I’m aware is my reality. All at once it’s so far from anything I’ve ever experienced in my life and just like every other day I’ve lived. And it’s the most brilliant dream my brain could ever have cooked up.
Omg, I just found Japanese pokemon on TV.
Anyway, my neighbor Ryan = bestest person in the world. He has been beyond helpful and gone massively out of his way to make me feel at home since I arrived. He seems like a pretty cool guy and takes his teaching very seriously. I’ve been learning just how much I have to learn about my new job :D I’ve also been learning that I am in the most wonderful position any AET (assistant English teacher) could ever want. I can do as much or as little actual teaching as I want. I’m hoping that I can actually learn enough to be teaching my own classes. How awesome would that be?
Apparently my school is ‘rough’ so I’m going to have to learn commands and really lay down the law in my classroom. That’s cool though, I think I’d actually rather have a room where there energy than an academic school where I’m a human tape-recorder for kids who are just there to ace their entrance exams. We’ll see how things go. I’m really excited to become as involved a teacher as I can. Ryan is so amazing even when we meet some of his or my students in the town.
Now Naruto is on, how funny! I didn’t even think I’d be seeing the same shows that are on at home on Friday nights.
Today I met the mayor (!!!) who seems really nice. Mind you, I only saw him for 5 minutes so who really knows. After that I met the real boss in my office. Now I just have to meet our ‘handler’, or my supervisor, and I think I’ve met all the higher-ups.
We went to Ryan’s office and I got to check out the textbooks and watch him help a student with her speech for the Seino (my district in Gifu) English Speech Contest. It was really neat. One of his cowokers offered us ‘Bees baby’ which turned out to be, duh, inch-long bee larvae. I ate one and strangely the worst parts were the initial ooze into my finger which I had to lick off and the afterthought that its head might have gotten caught in my teeth, which it didn’t thank goodness. I ate a LARVAE. In Japan. One of the last places I thought I’d have my first on-purpose insect-eating experience. Aside from the mental ‘eeeeew’ it actually wasn’t bad, not something I’d want to eat again but not disgusting. Strangely I am actually as bothered by this as I thought I’d be.
After that we went to the different malls in town and I experienced a hyaku-en store, the equivalent of a 99 cents store, which are absolutely amazing in Japan, visited the foreign-foods store (where I found root beer, Mexican food supplies, and my new plastic Pingu who came with little jelly snacks), this crazy store with everything from stuffies to manga to lighters and martini sets, and a music store.
He also took me to a beautiful temple just out of town which is the last one on a 38 temple (I think) pilgrimage he’s doing again in the area. It was pretty amazing. I washed my hands to purify myself on the way in, donated and prayed, and then bought a little charm for healing and prayed again. It’s such an intriguing religion and just like an old church you can really feel the sanctity of the place itself.
It’s so refreshing to have my jadedness peeled away so I can see a little more clearly. I didn’t realize how negative and selfish I’d become again over the past I don’t know how long. I’ve been realizing I’ve got emotions that can reach a lot deeper again and my empathy for life is coming back. It’s good to feel like I really care about little things like the welfare of the spiders in my kitchen window and the giant moth-critter that was stuck upside-down yesterday again.
Anyway, I’m going to go into my base school on my own tomorrow morning to use the internet and to get accustomed to my teachers and desk. I might have to wait a while for my internet to get hooked up. It’s going to be dial-up only so unfortunately Skype is out of the question. Phone cards here I come!
Also: My Japanese SUCKS. I need to kick my butt into gear learning new words around the office and studying. Without Ryan and Shiho-san I’d be totally lost in a world of gestures and confusion.
Wednesday, August 8, 2007
Arriving in Ono
We took the shinkansen from Tokyo to Gifu Mt. Fuji
Ryan came with one of my new officemates from the BOE office to pick me up. This is good since very, very few of my coworkers can speak more English than, ‘Hello, how are you’ and the like. We had pizza for lunch after the drive into town and then puttered around town and to my school for paperwork/meet-in-greets. I met my base school Principal and Vice-Principal and the awesome, fluent English teacher who I hope can give me a major hand this year, and the second-highest boss in my BOE office.
I got all tucked into my apartment and Ryan took my grocery shopping and then we went out to dinner with one of his friends who is also totally awesome. She’s a teacher at an unregistered English immersion kindergarten. We had the sushi that comes around on a little conveyor belt and I tried many new things including cuttlefish, salmon sashimi, and a new type of inari-zushi. Actually, really delicious! The cuttlefish was a little too chewy for me though.
I love my apartment. It’s bigger than I expected and as soon as I get my stuff settled in I’m going to take photos. The bathroom is super-tiny and made of all one molded piece of plastic but I really have no complaints to speak of. And my fridge is a full size instead of the beer-fridge I was warned almost everyone gets! I even have a freezer (two actually, since the fridge has a freezer drawer), which kicks some major butt. Tatami mats rock, btw. Super-nice to the feet.
Tuesday, August 7, 2007
Tokyo
Lets see, what all did I do during the rest of Tokyo orientation... Well, there were a lot of speeches (my favorite was the one talking about how we need to teach our students to speak English like we’d teach them to swim, you can’t swim until you’ve been pushed into the water. Just don’t make it too deep or they might drown *laughs* So I will be trying not to asphyxiate my students with a new language) and workshops. I learned some things and my common sense was reaffirmed in others.
Monday night I tried out the JR rail with some of the other Vancouverites and we hit Akiba (Akihabara, or geek central). A lot of the stores were closed but we found a 6-story shop with only up escalators for the top levels and a stairway down from the top outside the building. We also saw a maid handing out pamphlets for her café, so I have officially experienced real-life Moe.
Tuesday after workshops my roommates (awesome girls, I really like my fellow 1st-year Vancouver JETs), several of the boys, and I trotted off to the Vancouver Embassy welcome event via a guided subway trip. It was less than expected. They couldn’t do anything for us right there since it’s all online so they just speeched at us for a while and then gave us nibblies. After that was the awesome part: one of Chantelle’s friends from Uni works at the embassy now and he walked Chantelle, Silvia, Kalen and I over to Mori tower in the Roppongi hills. It’s an art gallery but there is a magnificent view of the Tokyo skyline (and Tokyo tower) from the 52nd floor. We had a drink in the Sky Aquarium bar which was pretty cool and watched all the lovely lights. It was beyond breath-taking. It was just... the highlight of my Tokyo trip, really. My heart gets sort-of fluttery thinking of how beautiful it was. I got a postcard to go with my photos in case they aren’t as awesome.
Monday night I tried out the JR rail with some of the other Vancouverites and we hit Akiba (Akihabara, or geek central). A lot of the stores were closed but we found a 6-story shop with only up escalators for the top levels and a stairway down from the top outside the building. We also saw a maid handing out pamphlets for her café, so I have officially experienced real-life Moe.
Tuesday after workshops my roommates (awesome girls, I really like my fellow 1st-year Vancouver JETs), several of the boys, and I trotted off to the Vancouver Embassy welcome event via a guided subway trip. It was less than expected. They couldn’t do anything for us right there since it’s all online so they just speeched at us for a while and then gave us nibblies. After that was the awesome part: one of Chantelle’s friends from Uni works at the embassy now and he walked Chantelle, Silvia, Kalen and I over to Mori tower in the Roppongi hills. It’s an art gallery but there is a magnificent view of the Tokyo skyline (and Tokyo tower) from the 52nd floor. We had a drink in the Sky Aquarium bar which was pretty cool and watched all the lovely lights. It was beyond breath-taking. It was just... the highlight of my Tokyo trip, really. My heart gets sort-of fluttery thinking of how beautiful it was. I got a postcard to go with my photos in case they aren’t as awesome.
Sunday, August 5, 2007
Tokyo - Day 1!
Wow... suddenly my whole life including this site is in Japanese...
Anyway! I have arrived safely in Tokyo after a 10 hour flight. Saying goodbye to Mom and Luke was hard, even though I'd had a few days to recover from saying goodbye to Dad and the other boys but I know this is going to be worth it. And I'm still healthy and smiling, if a bit tired.
The flight was lovely even with 3-5-3 people across. They gave us warmed, damp towels before meals and everything! Both baggage pickup and customs went smoothly and quickly which was a lovely surprise, and we were divested of our third piece of baggage (to be sent to our contracting organizations separately) and ushered onto buses to the hotel with no problems. All in all I can say that I am truly amazed by the efficiency of the Japanese systems we used today.
On the hour long ride into Tokyo to the hotel we passed right by several landmarks I recognized including Tokyo Disneyland and that giant ferris wheel that's featured in so many movies and anime. I saw everything from homeless shelters and tents under bridges to a blue heron hunting in the edge of one of the cemented in rivers underneath a bridge we were on. This city, more than any other I've ever visited, seems to be able to flip from stunningly gorgeous to slum and then back again in almost no distance at all. Tokyo bridges seem to exist on large cement posts following various rivers and canals a lot, must be to conserve building space.
When we got checked in we got little totes full of stuff and had the chance to take our suitcases up to our rooms. I was pleased to find out that I already know one of my roommates. Once we were settled we headed downstairs to join a bunch of the other Canadian JET for a wander through the Shinjuku district to find dinner. (The formal reception isn't until tomorrow night so we were on our own.) We ended up finding a lovely little Udon shop were we ate and then we spent some time wandering before heading back to the hotel to collapse in one of the guy's rooms for a bit. When I finally got too tired I came back to my room and now I'm trying to last a little longer before I head to bed 'cause it's not quite 9pm here.
So, to take a little more time, here are some pictures!
The view from my hotel room. I've got two roommates, one from the Vancouver consulate and one from somewhere else.
My hotel room from my bed. Those are my hotel slippers on my feet. They actually say Keio Plaza Hotel :D We've all got a yukata in the room, too.
Shinjuku station, busiest train station in the world!
Looking down the road from the station. So many noises and lights!
The Udon resturant we ate at and my dinner! It was so cool, they have plastic copies of all the food displayed in the front window so once you know what number you want you go inside and put your money in a machine and press the corresponding button, then you take the little ticket to the front and pick your noodle type and they make up your order! All of us were so pleased. I think it really brought home the whole 'we're really in Japan now' feeling.
Anyway! I have arrived safely in Tokyo after a 10 hour flight. Saying goodbye to Mom and Luke was hard, even though I'd had a few days to recover from saying goodbye to Dad and the other boys but I know this is going to be worth it. And I'm still healthy and smiling, if a bit tired.
The flight was lovely even with 3-5-3 people across. They gave us warmed, damp towels before meals and everything! Both baggage pickup and customs went smoothly and quickly which was a lovely surprise, and we were divested of our third piece of baggage (to be sent to our contracting organizations separately) and ushered onto buses to the hotel with no problems. All in all I can say that I am truly amazed by the efficiency of the Japanese systems we used today.
On the hour long ride into Tokyo to the hotel we passed right by several landmarks I recognized including Tokyo Disneyland and that giant ferris wheel that's featured in so many movies and anime. I saw everything from homeless shelters and tents under bridges to a blue heron hunting in the edge of one of the cemented in rivers underneath a bridge we were on. This city, more than any other I've ever visited, seems to be able to flip from stunningly gorgeous to slum and then back again in almost no distance at all. Tokyo bridges seem to exist on large cement posts following various rivers and canals a lot, must be to conserve building space.
When we got checked in we got little totes full of stuff and had the chance to take our suitcases up to our rooms. I was pleased to find out that I already know one of my roommates. Once we were settled we headed downstairs to join a bunch of the other Canadian JET for a wander through the Shinjuku district to find dinner. (The formal reception isn't until tomorrow night so we were on our own.) We ended up finding a lovely little Udon shop were we ate and then we spent some time wandering before heading back to the hotel to collapse in one of the guy's rooms for a bit. When I finally got too tired I came back to my room and now I'm trying to last a little longer before I head to bed 'cause it's not quite 9pm here.
So, to take a little more time, here are some pictures!
The view from my hotel room. I've got two roommates, one from the Vancouver consulate and one from somewhere else.
My hotel room from my bed. Those are my hotel slippers on my feet. They actually say Keio Plaza Hotel :D We've all got a yukata in the room, too.
Shinjuku station, busiest train station in the world!
Looking down the road from the station. So many noises and lights!
The Udon resturant we ate at and my dinner! It was so cool, they have plastic copies of all the food displayed in the front window so once you know what number you want you go inside and put your money in a machine and press the corresponding button, then you take the little ticket to the front and pick your noodle type and they make up your order! All of us were so pleased. I think it really brought home the whole 'we're really in Japan now' feeling.
Thursday, August 2, 2007
Image test
A family (sans pets) photo taken today. I'm so happy we managed to get everyone together!
Wednesday, August 1, 2007
Second to last night in Rossland...
And my bags aren't even packed yet. Tomorrow is going to be hectic! Luckily dad is staying home to help out and spend some more time with me before mom, Luke and I head for the coast.
I still don't think it's set in my brain that I'm going to be leaving the country (for at least a year!) yet at all. I'm not sure it will really click in that I'm not just going back to PG and UNBC until I spend a few nights in my new apartment. I talked with Hollie (PG roommate) on the phone tonight and it's really weird thinking I'm only going to be seeing her and Amera (our cat) and everyone through pictures this year.
I still don't think it's set in my brain that I'm going to be leaving the country (for at least a year!) yet at all. I'm not sure it will really click in that I'm not just going back to PG and UNBC until I spend a few nights in my new apartment. I talked with Hollie (PG roommate) on the phone tonight and it's really weird thinking I'm only going to be seeing her and Amera (our cat) and everyone through pictures this year.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
First Post
This is a blog started to record my adventures as an English teacher in Japan.
This year I was accepted into the JET program and I've just gotten my notification that I will be heading to Ono-Cho in Gifu-Ken come August! To see a map showing the location of my new-town-to-be click the underlined 'Ono-cho' in my profile.
This year I was accepted into the JET program and I've just gotten my notification that I will be heading to Ono-Cho in Gifu-Ken come August! To see a map showing the location of my new-town-to-be click the underlined 'Ono-cho' in my profile.
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