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.

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.

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.

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.

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!