Jadpan

PS

2009-10-10T03:22:00.000+09:00

PS. A couple people pointed out that I didn't ever say whether I passed my Japanese test or not.

I DID!!!

I think I was so excited and busy letting people in Japan know that I just forgot to put it on my blog. I was sure I told everyone since I was so happy and surprised about it.

Last Entry

2009-10-06T20:14:00.006+09:00

I think it's time to retire this blog. I like the idea of this blog being the record of my time in Japan. Thanks to those of you that managed to continue to follow even when my posts began decreasing in number. It was nice to have your support while I was away.

If you would like to keep up with where I am and what I am doing, please bookmark my new blog below. (It's half English/half Japanese. That's for me to keep up with Japanese and so people back there can keep up, too.) And you can find my email address in my profile if you'd like to send something besides a comment to a post.

jadsjourneys.blogspot.com

Thanks again for reading!

It's a Grind

2009-09-04T02:38:00.005+09:00

Hello all.

I'm back in town as you probably already know. I'm planning to meet up with some former students tomorrow, Friday the 4th. We're gonna meet at It's a Grind off of exit 14 at 5pm. Come if you wanna join us.

See you there.

Coming Home Soon!

2009-07-21T16:18:00.006+09:00

I'm coming home soon! I'm running around crazy trying to see all my friends and go to all the goodbye parties and clean my apartment and pack up.

I'll be leaving Kagawa on August 2nd to travel around Japan a bit. Then, my flight is on August 16th. But I have a layover in New York. I will be back home on the 18th, I believe. I haven't been issued my tickets yet. But assuming they don't change, I think that's the schedule. (I don't have my itinerary right in front of me.)

I can't believe 2 years has come and gone. It's gone by so fast it seems. I'm still not sure if I made the right decision in coming home now, but I hope to make the most of this coming year before heading to grad school. Look forward to seeing everyone.

Birthday Weekend in Hikone

2009-06-02T19:09:00.007+09:00

I just got back from a weekend trip to Hikone. I turned 27 on Friday and thought it would be nice to go on a short trip with Alana. It had been a while since we last saw each other and this may have been our last opportunity to travel together in Japan before we leave.

Hikone is a small castle town located on Lake Biwa, the largest lake in Japan. I took a bus up to Osaka on Friday and we took the train up in the morning. It's fairly close to Osaka. We arrived and decided to stay at a ryokan rather than a hotel. Alana helped make that happen. I tend to be too frugal for my own good. Ryokan are more expensive than hotels but are more traditional. After we made our reservation, we went to the port and took a ferry out to Chikubu Island. It's the largest island on the lake (I think) and has a shrine and a temple. The latter is part of a pilgrimage of temples in the area. I think we were the only foreigners there. Lots of Japanese tourists and pilgrims. It was short but nice. The weather was nice for a boat cruise. Overcast and cool. The mountains around the lake were shrowded in mist and rain. It was nice.

By the time we made it back to shore, the skies had cleared up. We went to take in the castle. Lots of walking and pictures and souvenirs later, we decided to skip the castle gardens since it was starting to drizzle. Instead we went to the New Old Town. It's a section of the town that has been renovated to resemble a street of traditional merchant houses. All for tourists of course. And that's what we were. So we spent a while getting more souvenirs. Then we called and our ryokan sent a London cab to pick us up.

Then the night of luxury began. Our room was very spacious. With a large tatami room and an adjoining sitting room. Toilet and shower rooms as well. We scheduled dinner and went for a walk. When we came back, we went to our room where we were served dinner. It came in several courses and was delicious. Of course, it included many of the specialty foods of the area and was beautifully presented as are most Japanese meals.

After dinner, we went down to the onsen while they cleared dinner and set out our futons. The onsen is separate for men and women. About 12 people can fit in each section. But we each had our bath to ourselves. It was so nice. I did several cycles of sitting in the hot bath and then cooling off with a cold shower and then sitting in the jacuzzi section.

After our baths, we relaxed with some sake, music, and a little shodo. (Shodo is Japanese calligraphy.) Well, we had shodo sets. Someone just gave me one as a present and Alana bought one at the castle. They include a mini-stone suzuri and a block of ink. You add a little water to the suzuri and then rub the ink block in it to create black ink. There is also a mini-brush. I think the travel sets are usually used for writing messages and wishes on various papers and boards when traveling as a pilgrim. But we used them to draw pictures. It's fun because you can control the depth of color by adding more or less water.

In the morning, I had another bath in the onsen before they served breakfast, again in our room. It was lovely. Very fresh and tasty. Even the fish with heads and the miso soup with shellfish. Yes, that's breakfast in Japan. ;)

We were taken by the ryokan's cab to the train station where we deposited our bags so we could go see the garden which we had missed the day before. We almost didn't go, but we were both glad when we did. It was so calm and beautiful. We took many, many pictures. We stayed for tea and a sweet in the tea house above the pond. It was delicious. It also gave us an opportunity to write out postcards to each other. See, a teacher gave me a bunch of cool stamps before he left for another school in April. And then I always want to buy post cards when I'm on a trip, but not necessarily to send to other people. So I had the idea that we should send each other the post cards we want. That way we can keep our own post cards and the stamps actually get used and can also be seen later as mementos. And best of all, you get a fun message from your friend. So we spent a good while doing that.

Then we made a stop for a couple more souvenirs before heading down the lake to Otsu. It's the gateway city to the lake from the direction of Kyoto which is only 10 minutes away. Shiga prefecture has a sister state relationship with Michigan. So in addition to some university exchanges and other connections, Michigan gave Shiga a riverboat. Sure, it's on a lake, but still it was so touristy and fun. Guess what! It's called "The Michigan"! We of course had to ride it. It was a nice hour cruise around the lake. This time different, but still, perfect weather for a cruise: sunny and breezy. We enjoyed some sake on the top level of the boat as we went around a bit of the lake. After our ride, we of course bought some Hello Kitty "The Michigan" souvenirs and a picture they took of us as we were boarding the boat.

Next was PURIKURA. Have I mentioned purikura before? It's short for purinto kurabu, which as I'm sure you can tell is the Japanesified version of print club which means those machines where you can go in with friends and take several pictures of yourselves together. The Japanese machines are AMAZING!! After you take the pictures, you can use pens and special software to add pictures, stamps, and messages. They are great.

Then we walked down the lakeshore in the green space. We found the restaurant that the train station information woman told us about. We mentioned vegetarian and she said we might try this place. We thought that meant they would have a couple veggie dishes (which often include fish in Japan; on the whole, they don't really get the idea of not eating any animals). To our surprise, the whole menu was vegetarian. So she could order anything she wanted to. Unfortunately, we ordered foods that apparently took 2 hours to cook. So it ate up a lot of our evening time. But it actually worked out for the most part. We did have to rush a bit, but by the time we left the restaurant it was sundown and one reason we wanted to come to Otsu was to see the fountain at nighttime as was suggested. So we were able to do that on the way back to the station. It was quick but worked out.

At the station, we had to say a really quick goodbye since I misunderstood the ticket agents and they got me tickets for the VERY next train which was literally two minutes from when they handed them to me. That meant I had to run to Alana who was just opening our locker, grab my stuff, hug her goodbye, and then run for the train. But I did get to ride on a Shinkansen for the first time. I didn't get a reserved seat but was lucky enough to get one in the unreserved car. It was amazing to get home after only 2.5 hours of travel rather than the standard 4.5 whenever I go visit Alana in Osaka and I was even further away than that.

Now, I'm back to work and real life, which means school and figuring out the details of my plans for the 2 months between now and getting back to America. 2 months!!!

Been a while...

2009-05-25T19:08:00.005+09:00

Summer is almost here. The real heat doesn't start until June when the rains come. For now, the students are all switching over to the summer uniforms, they're cleaning the pools, and I'm starting to sweat in the morning on the way to school. I can say that as I've gotten my body conditioned to biking everywhere, it takes longer for me to start breathing hard and working up a sweat. My first year, I was hopeless, but now it's no problem to get to school and then run around and do errands after school.

I'll be heading home in about 2 and a half months. I'm trying to make the most of my time here. This past weekend I went to the soccer tournament on Awajishima. It was great again. But the backs of my knees are sunburned and my muscles and bones ache. Working on recovering.

As always, it's my intention to update back through Christmas, at least with pictures of what I've been doing. I've been keeping busy though, so there's a lot to tell. We'll see if I ever get to it. This coming weekend is my birthday and I'm planning a trip with Alana. Tonight is shodo (calligraphy) and tomorrow I'm swimming with some elementary students. Never a dull moment here.

Love and miss everyone!

Teachers'hobbies

2009-03-25T22:04:00.004+09:00

Cait if you're reading, you should stop and wait until after the trip.

I never really think of teachers here as really having lives outside of school considering how hard they work and how much time they put into school and club activities let alone that they could possibly have hobbies. It's always a bit shocking to learn that in fact they do make time. Like when I went snowboarding with the PE teacher back in November.

Well today, I learned about O-sensei and M-sensei's hobby. They are online auction fanatics. O-sensei mainly sells things while M-sensei mainly buys things. This little bit of insight into their lives came about because of my procrastination. I didn't start planning in detail my sister's trip to visit me in Japan until just recently. That means that of course sumo tickets are sold out. I actually hadn't really thought about sumo until I went myself last weekend. Somehow my friends and I were able to throw together a day trip. My friend bought the sumo tickets last Tuesday and I got the bus tickets on Wednesday. (I had work Thursday night and had to take a late night train to my friend's apartment because...) We were busy with an English camp Friday and Saturday over night. Then we took the bus Sunday morning. It was a lot of fun, so I thought I might try to do it for my sister. But it happens to be the last day of the tournament. So of course the seats are all sold out.

Anyway, I mentioned this to a teacher. And said that there are general admissions tickets that go on sale the morning of for 2000 yen which is a great price even though the seats are free-seating and not a great angle for watching. But she thinks some people may be waiting overnight and that many will come early in the morning. So it may be difficult. Apparently she mentioned it to another teacher who suggested online auctions. So we searched, and I found some tickets, but my credit card wasn't working on the site. So, some M-sensei was nearby and overheard. He got interested and started talking with us. Lots of talking later, O-sensei comes by. It was decided since he has a better internet connection at home, he will follow the auction. Actually, I just checked. It ends in 4 minutes and he is bidding right now! I hope he wins it for me. I gave him my limit and he will call if he needs to go over. I looks good so far. We will see.

Anyway, it's always funny to find out about my teachers. They always have surprises. Wish me luck!

US in August

2009-03-14T19:26:00.004+09:00

Just when I think I've gotten things under control and my blogger procrastination managed, I see that another month has gone by with nothing posted. Well, I'm trying to work things out.

I've got a lot of things on my plate at the moment it feels. I'm working on plans for when my little sister comes to visit me in a couple weeks. I'm working on plans for a possible volunteering/work experience in Africa for sometime after August. I'm thinking about starting on the application process to grad school. And of course still working, learning Japanese, and living a fairly full social life. Trying to get in lots of experiences before I go home.

As you have probably guessed, if I haven't already told you, I'm heading back to the states sometime in August. After that, as you can see, my plans are a bit up in the air. Not sure I like that, considering I'm leaving a stable job with a fairly high salary, but I have my reasons and they were deemed logical and intelligent by a trusted friend. So I'm going with it.

Hokkaido!!!

2009-02-08T21:07:00.003+09:00

I just got back from my trip to Hokkaido. It was amazing. I love snow!!

I went with my friend Angelina who lives on the other side of the prefecture from me. She was part of the Okinawa crew as well. This time it was just us 2. There were 4 others who also went but because we booked our package after them, we ended up at a different hotel. We tended not to be on the same rhythm so we didn't see them very much.

Angelina and I had a great time. Our first night, we took it easy. The other 4 went for all you can eat and drink. Angelina was getting over the flu and I wasn't really feeling the need to go all out drinking on the first night. It's not really a good move for a vacation, especially a short one with limited time. So we went to our hotel and settled in. There just happened to be a shodo shop right next door. (Oh, yeah, I never did get to those updates I mentioned. Shodo is Japanese calligraphy. Well, I guess it's really Chinese since the characters come from China. But it's a hobby that I picked up after the new year. I go to a class at a shrine in my city with a woman from work. It's a lot of fun.)

So, we made a stop in there and bought some stuff to do shodo with. I had brought my kit of shodo stuff with me since I had forgotten back at the mid-year seminar and I was only able to pick it up on the way out of town to Hokkaido. So, I figured we could do some artsy stuff while in the hotel room. The lady was really nice. We of course were polite and spoke in our best Japanese. At the end, she asked where we were from. Angelina, Canada and me, USA. But we mentioned we lived in Kagawa. Then, she ran off and came back with gifts. For some reason, that happens to us a lot. I guess it's what you get for being nice and talking with people and giving communication a try. She gave us these cool stationary sets. Then we walked through the nearby park where we found some snow sculptures. We started to take pictures at one that had 2009 carved into it. But a man said, "Wait, wait, wait!!!" and ran off into a building. We could see through the window that he was picking up a plastic crate of some sort. We were a bit confused. When he returned, he offered us these oddly shaped things. They were costumes of sorts. The 2009 was carved into the bottom of a snowman. The top was the hat that you wear as you stand behind it so it looks like you are a snowman. They had another hat too. It was too funny. We were the first visitors apparently. So he was really excited. On our way out of the park we of course had to make snow angels. You can't pass up that opportunity when it presents itself.

After, we decided to walk around to find a restaurant. I knew the direction of the train station station, so I figured if we walked in that direction, we would start running into busier sections with restaurant choices. But we kept walking and walking and nothing. We finally started heading back towards the hotel and found a place to eat. The next day when we tried to go to the main park, we kept walking and walking down the same street. I knew it would be a good distance away so we kept walking. Angelina just happened to mention some street signs that had numbers and directions. Like West 13, South 4 or something. It made something click from when I read through the Sapporo (Hokkaido's capital city and host of the snow festival) part of the guidebook. They numbered their streets north/south based on the park and east/west based on a river. The numbers didn't match what I thought they should with how long we were walking. I thought maybe I had mistaken the direction of the station. We walked one more block and it changed to West 14. That meant we had been heading parallel to the park the entire time. 14 was the end of the park, but at 0 North/South. So we just had to head 4 blocks north. A bit silly on my part. But with that, we came into the park where there was this old building and a nice secluded feeling area with trees and lots of snow. So we took some pictures and then decided it was time to make snowmen. We did western style ones - 3 balls. In Japan, the yukidaruma only have 2 balls. But after we spent a few hours walking the 14 blocks of the park where the snow festival is held and back, someone had altered our snowmen. My Herbert had inexplicably gone from 3 to 2. And it wasn't an accident, as if the head had just fallen off. The head was there, but the middle section was gone. And it was nowhere to be found. But it was fine, because he matched Franklin's height.

It was an amazing 4 days. Too short though. But I got to play in the snow which was my biggest goal. We sledded and played snow golf and made snowmen and slid down ice slides and ice skated and threw snowballs and icicles and made snow angels and all that. And though it was clear skies on the first and last days of the trip, which was nice for traveling in and out of Hokkaido, it was all kinds of snowy during the middle two days. I could go into detail about the whole trip, but it would probably just get boring. I suggest going to a snow festival if you ever can.

Pictures to be posted when my camera battery gets recharged. I forgot that it and the spare were both used up.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-18T16:58:00.004+09:00

Well, it's been quite a while since I last posted. Gomen. It's been quite busy around here. It's a good thing. But it means that I have lots of stuff to write about and less free time to write about it. I think I'll try to do a few updates over the next week or so about all the different things that have been going on. I had a great Christmas and New Year here in Japan. It was really a lot of fun.

To get things back on track, I'll let you know about this past weekend.

On Thursday and Friday we had our mid-year seminar. Generally, we have a day spent in workshops/demos about how to be a better ALT and team-teacher. The second day we spend doing something cultural. The first day went fine, but it's basically the same as last year. Went out to dinner with some friends that night and then home.

In the morning, I packed for an overnight stay with a friend and went to the cultural class. We learned calligraphy with Japanese characters. It's something I've recently been getting interested in, so I was excited to do it. It was a lot of fun. In the afternoon, we heard a presentation from someone in the government ministry about how to get the most out of JET and how to approach the decision to stay or go. This is something I'm still somewhat on the fence about. I'm leaning towards staying, but I've got a couple of weeks to finalize my decision. We'll see.

After the seminar, I went bowling with about 10 others. It was really fun. I didn't do so well, but had a great time. Then I met up with Angelina and Sam to catch the train. I stayed at Angelina's since we had planned to travel together the next day. The 3 of us went to the great izakaya in their town. The next day Sam ended up coming as well. We headed on the 2.5 hour train ride to Brian's town. (Brian is Angelina's friend from university.) He was having a Ukrainian Christmas dinner. Their orthodox Christian calendar is different from the western Christian calendar so Christmas falls in January.

We got there in time to help a bit with the final set up before dinner started. Then it was a lot of fun eating with a variety of Brian's friends, some ALTs and some Japanese friends. The Japanese ladies were really fun. Then it was clean-up time. I went back to Brian's to wait for my train. I almost decided to stay the night. (I had asked if I could earlier, and we were having a nice time talking and just hanging out, and it would have been so easy to just stay and then go home in the morning.) But I went ahead and got my train home. I wanted to get a lot of stuff done today. One of Brian's friends, Akimoto-san, actually drove me to the station. She decided to leave when I did. We had a nice talk on the way.

This morning, I held to my plan for the most part. I got up fairly early and went on a 2 hour run to get ready for the half-marathon. I ate breakfast and called my family. Then I spent a while tidying up and getting a package together I've been meaning to send for weeks. Then I started feeling the fatigue from the run. I really should be finishing my half-done laundry and organizing my desk, but I think I've done pretty well. And blogging was on my list of things to do, but I had prioritized laundry ahead of it.

Well, I'm gonna watch some more J-TV while I "recover". Perhaps, I'll feel up to laundry after that. Then around 7, I'm going to see my friend play a gig at a nearby bar. He's an ALT that plays the trumpet with a Japanese group. He's really good. It should be nice.

PS. I'm going to Hokkaido for the snow festival!!!!!

メリー　クリスマス

2008-12-25T13:05:00.001+09:00

Merry Christmas from Japan!!!

It's December!

2008-12-14T20:17:00.004+09:00

Sorry, sorry, sorry! It's been too long since I last posted. The first week of December I was putting most of my time into work, which got really busy, and studying, which was taking up the rest of my time. I took the JLPT test on the 7th. Then I let myself relax a bit this past week. But it wasn't really a good idea. I function much better when I'm busy and feel like I don't have enough time for everything. I make time to get it done. But when I feel relaxed I tend to waste time.

I think I have a 1 in 10 chance of having passed the test. I'll find out sometime in mid-February or so. (Which I don't understand so much since it's a multiple choice test that will be graded by machine. Then again it didn't make sense for a test that is 2 1/2 hours long to last from 9:45 until 3:00.) The reason I say that is because of the several practice tests I took, I only got a passing score on one of them. I just don't have the Japanese ability to pass that level of the test. I went for the 2nd highest level out of the 4. And I refused to totally change my way of studying fit the test. Maybe silly, but I didn't want to try to cram junk in my head only to forget it. Needless to say learning Japanese has given me lots to think about in terms of language teaching.

お知らせ (FYI)

I'm staying in Japan this winter break. No plans yet for Christmas day. Maybe I'll just go to work. I'm going to have a traditional Japanese New Year though. I'm looking forward to it. I'm not sure, but if I feel like actually getting it together, I may visit Korea after the New Year.

Snowboarding!

2008-11-30T08:47:00.004+09:00

I went snowboarding yesterday morning with a couple of my teachers. It was pretty great. I hadn't been to ski or snowboard since my year in France when I went on a ski/snowboard trip with friends there. Being in Shikoku which has similar weather to Georgia, it was obviously not real snow. We drove to the very tippy top of a mountain in Tokushima where the ski park had made a slope about 30 meters wide and 800 or so meters long. Not big at all, but they just opened recently for the season. They're adding more snow every day. It's not far and the teachers had club activities in the afternoon, so we only went for the morning. I felt bad because

Anyway, I'm sore as hell today but I'm glad I went. There is talk of a whole weekend long ski trip with some JETs and possibly a trip with some of the young teachers at my school. I was able to practice enough so that I can feel confident the next time I go. I was falling the first 4 or 5 times I went down. Then I asked Mr. Ishikawa, one of the school's gym teachers (who happens to be 50), to tell me how to turn correctly and from then on I was able to manage myself pretty well and my falls were more or less limited to when I hit a bump or hit some softer snow and not because I couldn't turn. Ms. Takahashi is the young English teacher I work with. She came but she got carsick on the way and didn't enjoy herself. She was pretty bad off. We stopped at least 5 times in the last 45 minutes of the trip. She still went snowboarding at least 7 or 8 times though. And then still had to go back and coach her gymnastics club. Pretty tough cookie.

Anyway, today I'm planning on going to one of my elementary's school fair. One grade is performing "The Very Hungry Caterpillar." Should be cute.

Udon Shop

2008-11-30T08:32:00.004+09:00

I forgot to mention. I went out with Megumi and Chie, the people my age in my Eikaiwa, for udon on Wednesday. Chie asked her friend to open up his shop for us that night. He usually only is open for lunch. It was good fun. It was just the three of us and him. His shop was in a part of the movie called "Udon" which was a big deal in Kagawa since it was centered around their food specialty. He also is a rakugo performer. Rakugo is the traditional form of Japanese stand-up comedy, except it's always performed sitting in the traditional Japanese seiza position, so maybe sit-down comedy. I think I mentioned rakugo before when I went to see a performance and when I went to see an explanation of it. One man sits on a raised zabuton (floor cushion for sitting) wearing kimono or yukata. He usually has a traditional fan as well. I think there might be another tool to use as well. I forget. But the comedy is in the form of a longer discourse with minor punchlines or comic situations supported by gestures and the use of the fan always culminating in a final punchline.

Anyway, he didn't do a performance or anything on Wednesday, but he is just a really funny guy which is probably why he is good at rakugo. He kept telling funny little stories or taking things we said and making stories out of them. We were there for probably 2 or 3 hours. He will be performing at Megumi's family's Buddhist temple/home on the 21st. I think I'll try to go.

Then we went to the new mall in the area and had some of Baskin Robbins 31 Flavors. MMMM. There's also a Mr. Donut. I'm glad that the mall isn't closer than the 20 minute bike ride otherwise I might start having a weight problem. At least I can count on the journey itself to counteract some of the effects of whatever sweets I buy there.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

2008-11-27T17:42:00.005+09:00

Well it's Turkey day back home. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. I thought I would take a minute and say a quick hello to everyone. I miss you all so much. I can feel it especially around this season of holidays. I had my own Thanksgiving with friends last Saturday. We had a turkey, green beans, mashed potatoes, candied yams, cranberry sauce, gravy, stuffing, and of course pumpkin pie. It was great. I made my grandpap's recipe for hariata again this year as well as a fruit salad. All the other things were claimed and I was really slammed last week leading up to the dinner day so cooking something was really out of the question. I had eikaiwa on Thursday like usual and the girls came over afterward. Friday I had a major workshop/demonstration lesson day at an elementary school. Over 100 teachers came, and I taught one lesson with one teacher and did a participation workshop with 2 other teachers. After that I jumped on a train to Takamatsu to celebrate a friends birthday only to make the hour trip back so I could have time to even make something as simple as fruit salad in the morning before taking the hour+ trip to my other friend's for Thanksgiving dinner.

This week has been a bit better but still isogashii! (busy!) I just keep having way more things I want to do than I have time to do. Today, I had about 50 different things I wanted to do. I've had to prioritize and cut out some things. It just stinks that so many of them have to be done at the same time and I couldn't use all the free time I had at school since it's testing time. (I can't really cook food at school.)

That brings me to what I'm doing now. It's eikaiwa night. So we are going to have a mini-Thanksgiving celebration and we'll talk about the holiday and our traditions. We'll also eat some foods. I encouraged the people to make traditional dishes, but many will probably bring their own style dishes. But I think that's appropriate since each family in America has it's own traditions apart from the basics of Turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes (in some form), cranberry sauce, green beans (in some form), and pumpkin pie. Those seem to be the absolute basics that most everyone has. My family always had spumoni for dessert in addition to the pies. We all LOVED my mom's spumoni even though it's fairly easy to make: fruit cocktail, crushed pineapple, cherry pie filling, cool whip and freeze. We never did figure out that we could make it anytime of the year. But isn't that the joy and purpose of traditions? Something to mark a season and the passage of time. Something to look forward to and be able to share with the people you care about. I guess that's why this season, so full of traditions, is more difficult to live through when living half a world away from many of the people I care about.

Know that I love and miss you all!

(Wish me luck--I'm making mashed potatoes which aren't too hard, but the dressing I'm trying to make from scratch is a new one for me. We usually use the stuff from the box back home. I hope it tastes right.)

JLPT

2008-11-18T22:10:00.004+09:00

Well, the Japanese Language Proficiency Test or 日本語能力試験 is just around the corner. December 7th is the big day. I decided to challenge myself by going for level 2 (there are 4 levels with 1 the highest). I did a trial test for the 3rd level back in August and passed (with a 76%) so it seemed silly at the time to take a test I knew I could pass. But now, it seems silly to be going for a test that will be almost impossible to pass. We will see.

This past weekend, I tried a practice level 2 test minus the listening section. I got a 51%. This gives me hope. The passing cut-off is 60%. So, I have just a bit less than 3 weeks to close that 9% gap. It just may be possible. I've just finished this book of grammatical phrases that account for a good chunk of the grammar section (which I did very poorly on and which is worth 2 points per question). Even though I had already finished most of the book at the time of the practice test, I hadn't reviewed any of it. So, now having finished, if I can focus on reviewing those grammar phrases and getting them in my head, I perhaps have a chance at passing.

And yes, I know that passing this test won't prove I'm fluent or anything. But goals can can be good to have. Also, up to this point, I haven't let my method of study be corrupted by studying for the test (as I just argued against doing such a thing in my last post). But having had this test in my mind has gotten me to do a lot more reading and living in Japanese than I was doing previously. And almost as a favor to it and because I don't want a poor showing, I don't think I mind doing some studying strictly for the test over the remaining weeks(in the form of memorizing those damn grammatical phrases, going over past test questions, doing practice listening tests).

Teaching to the Test

2008-11-15T09:19:00.004+09:00

I think it's very important to realize that for any subject, teaching with the goal of passing a test is 100% wrong. Tests should be measures of progress. Tests these days are, on the whole, poorly constructed, and their standardization generally weakens their effectiveness. And because of these problems it is possible to strictly prepare students for the test (as opposed to teaching students solely for mastery of a subject). But should we do it? Should we teach to the test? I say NO.

But because of high accountability on teachers and the high pressures of students to get high test scores and the subsequent high pressure from parents on teachers to prepare students for the tests, all focus is lost!

In Japan, English is especially easy to ignore while preparing for the tests. It amazes me that teachers can continue to teach (to the test) while evidence that their students can say and understand very little natural English (even natural English limited to grammar and vocabulary that have been "taught") appears daily in front of them.

In America, the same testing trend is sadly occurring. As a French teacher, I was able to avoid the stress involved with teaching to a test. So far, most states are focused only on math and English as far as federal school accountability tests are concerned. Many states are adopting their own tests for high school graduation in all subjects. Some more advanced states, New York for example, have already created tests for foreign languages. (Sidenote: I've seen the New York tests. They are very good proficiency based tests. But even good tests can be misused, i.e. used as a goal rather than a measure of progress/ability.)

The best tests for language are skill/performance based tests which are not easily standardized and require time and real-time adaptability. But these types of tests require a trained language expert to holistically evaluate a student's abilities. This seems subjective and isn't mass producible making them undesirable.

So what do we do? How can we have tests while not teaching to them? Is it possible? Is this having our cake and eating it too? Is standardization helpful or problematic? And as a lowly ALT am I ever going to have an impact on this problem in Japan?

GRE

2008-11-04T15:54:00.006+09:00

I got my results back for the test. I already had the math and verbal scores and I did well there. But I was worried about the analytical writing section. And rightly so. I got a 4.5 out of 6 on their holistic grading scale. That was at the 58th percentile. So really not good at all. I should have done some actual prep work for it.

For completely separate reasons, I've been considering not entering graduate school next fall. That would give me time to retake the test to raise the writing score. But I'm not all that worried about it. Just disappointed that I didn't prepare well enough for it. Well at all really. I didn't do any practice essays. I didn't even fully grasp what the writing section was until a couple days before when I finally read a description and started looking at the topic pool. I was hoping I would edge by with a 5 which doesn't look quite so bad I don't think. But oh well. Better luck next time.

By the way, I'm trying to do better about keeping in touch with family and friends back home. So if you haven't heard from me in a while, please leave a comment, send an email, find me on skype (usually on in the evenings Eastern Standard), or call me on my cell phone (which might be a bit expensive for you, unless you use skype where it's only about 2 cents a minute) - you can email me for the number.

LOL

2008-10-31T20:57:00.003+09:00

I just looked at the titles of my October posts. That has got to be the most eclectic mix ever. 面白い！　Oh and Beyoncé was just on TV here in Japan. Even funnier, there's this recent group that's become somewhat popular. It's a joke kind of. I think. You never know. But it's three Japanese guys dressed up Dream Girls style in matching sequin dresses with big wigs and big makeup. They pretend that they are American girls from a Las Vegas act (I think). It was just funny to see them getting introduced after Beyoncé. But they actually sing an actual song on the show and are treated basically like all the other acts. I bet you can find it at karaoke by now.

日本語でのブロギング

2008-10-31T19:54:00.004+09:00

今から時々日本語でのポストをする。何を言うんかなぁ。。。もちろん間違ってるところが多と思うけど。いい練習と思う。それで今日のことについて書こう。

最近とても疲れた。よく寝られないからだね。ちょっと病気な気持ち最近は。昨晩も２，３時まで寝られなかった。それから頭もお腹も痛くて学校へ行った。JTEと英語の授業が二回教えた。そうでも、本当に大変だった。給食の後で小学校の授業ある。あのハロウィーンのものをかばんに置いて自転車に乗っていった。小の先生僕を迎えた。今日は二年生だった。すごい準備できた。みんな変装して本当のジャッコランターンがあってハロウィーンの言葉も覚えた。びっくりした。一緒にtrick or treatingの会話を練習した。その後で子供たちが回ってキャンディーをもらった。それからフルーツバスケットした。楽しかった。でもその後で本当に疲れた。普通の時間に仕事から帰った。ついでにレデイで薬を買って西村ジョイで植物をかった。

今晩休むと思う。日本語でもちろん。明日アパートの掃除やガーデニングなど。

PS.　To English speakers. Sometimes I'm going to start posting here in Japanese to give me a place to practice.　Sometimes I'll translate what I wrote or give a synopsis.　Today I wrote about feeling a bit sick and tired this week and not have a great day until I went to elementary school and had a great Halloween lesson. But afterwards I was even more tired. So now I'm home relaxing. ;)

Language is more than copying

2008-10-27T01:21:00.006+09:00

I've been attempting to follow the self-study method described throughout the website alljapaneseallthetime.com. The creator of the site, Khatzumoto, is currently living in Japan and working on acquiring Cantonese. He continues to post his thoughts and ideas related to language learning, motivation, and general self-improvement. I like to comment occasionally.

Recently, he posted a video that he participated in. I disagreed with part of it and left a comment about it and someone else disagreed with me. You can find this below the video. I wrote a response but it ended up being 2 pages long. So I only posted part of it there and said I would put the rest here. So it may be boring for some of you. But this is the kind of stuff I get passionate about. Hence the 2 page response.

I think you missed my point. Yes, it was an ad hoc video. Yes, his answers were off the cuff. But I figured the fact that he stuck with the copying/mimicking connection long enough to leave an impression on me was enough for me to post as I did. If you take a better look, you'll see that I too agreed with his general point and I simply took issue with calling it copying/mimicking. Language is much more complicated than that.

I thought maybe I should have rewatched the video before posting, but I gave listening to Japanese priority to watching another 30 minutes of an English interview. I also figured it would be unfair to rewatch to nitpick it given that it was unrehearsed, unplanned, and unedited. Given your comments I decided to rewatch it to see if I was off base, and I actually found I disagree in whole with Khatz’s relating language acquisition with copying in the way he did. Language is not copying. It is actually highly creative.

(It's not really fair to Khatz to analyze what he said too closely considering it was an unexpected interview and he might not have stated everything he wanted to just as he wanted to. So the rest can just be taken as my take on language acquisition vs. copying rather than a criticism of what he said. That's all it is after all. Just me expanding on my previous comment which I still agree with.)

If we're looking to somewhat recreate a child's experience acquiring their first language through input, then let's look at their baby step's towards fluency.

"Want ball"

If that's not creativity, I don't know what is. And it's not copying. It seems redundant to say so, but I think it's important considering Khatz's statements about mixing and matching the copied parts creatively. Statements I agreed with above but, after thinking about them, have come to disagree with now.

If you are copying, then you are trying to be conscious about your language use (this is different from being conscious about the content of your language). If you are being conscious about your language use, then you are not speaking with fluency. The definition of fluency is not thinking about the language when you are using it. It simply falls out of your mouth and sounds natural/good/correct to native speakers while expressing the ideas you want to express.

If we look at what someone has said, we probably will be able to see how the different parts of the sentence have come from this or that source of input, and maybe this grammatical structure was "copied" but used with this other "copied" structure and used with different vocabulary, etc, etc. But it's actually not copying. This is descriptive linguistics. This is looking at language after the fact and analyzing it and describing it. Language looks like a bunch copied and interchanged parts. But this is not how language works in the brain. And this is not how language is created in a given utterance.

I do understand Khatz's warning about not producing on your own or being creative with the language. It's because you're not a native speaker and you'll like create unnatural phrases. This is at the beginning of your acquisition phase. Eventually, you'll hopefully have had enough input to trust your brain's ability to put together the language in natural sounding ways that correctly represent your ideas.

And I think I just got what perhaps went unsaid or was implied but I didn't catch in the interview. Maybe Khatz can clarify. At the beginning of your acquisition process, you should resist being "too creative" with the language. You're not a native and you haven't had enough input to just produce the language. If you want to talk, try copying what you've heard. If you have to use Japanese in your life, this maybe this is a good idea. But if you don't, then it's probably a better idea to not speak until the words fall effortlessly from your mouth. (Just like your native language.) Until that point, you might have fun or get by using copied phrases. By copying correct phrases you won't be risking the fossilization of incorrect grammar or unnatural wording. But eventually you shouldn't be copying. And you should be able to use the language creatively. That's what being native or near-native is.

Speaking to your nash equilibrium (I had to look that up... I'm not a gamer) time and today's political boundaries and high mobility have created language barriers where they once rarely existed if at all. We have identifiable, distinct languages. Take a look at all the dictionaries and grammars. They're so tangible. But language is not tangible. The fact is, even with something as tangible as a spoon, your spoon is not the same as my spoon. Language, after all, is the imperfect representation of one's ideas. And my mental image and definition of a spoon are not the same as yours. We use the same word and can get along in a conversation about a spoon because our mental images and definitions overlap enough to have mutual comprehension. But if you were at my house and you heard "get the spoon" you might be confused since no soup is in sight, but I would know that one of my siblings was talking about getting a whooping like when we were kids. We got the cooking spoon at my house. To sum up, depending on how you define it, every person speaks a different language from everyone else. It's just that there's enough of an overlap for almost 100% comprehension for everyone who lives within a certain community that we recognize what they're speaking as a single, distinct language. If the meanings of words were copied from person to person, then there would be no difference in meaning at all from person to person and there would be no change in meaning over time and space. This is not so.

"A building site" vs. "A building place". Good example of grammatically correct and dictionary-ly correct, but dead wrong. Again, to come to a level of ability to make the correct word choice here you need to have lots of input. It's not copying. If it was copying, then it means you've memorized this phrase. And unless your willing to memorize a million other such phrases to sound natural, copying won't work for competence in the whole language. Input, input, input.

In a movie, you may consciously take note of a certain phrasing. You hear it later in a conversation. You make a mental note to use that phrase just the same way next time you need it. A week later you have a natural opportunity in a conversation and you think to use the phrase. Great! Good for you. That's one phrase. Assuming that the rest of your conversation went smoothly and wasn't entirely made up of copied phrases, you can thank your input for your ability to get by in the conversation and not your ability to copy.

Sorry, I'm a big old dork and I like linguistics and feel strongly about good methodologies in language teaching/study. Basically, I took issue with calling language acquisition copying. I don't comment all that often here. Sometimes, to agree, sometimes to say thanks, sometimes to expand on a point with my own point of view, and sometimes to disagree. The reason I comment, even when disagreeing, is to keep an intellectual dialog going or to create one. Khatz asks us to comment, after all.

Octopus Fishing!!

2008-10-21T20:38:00.006+09:00

Well, I never thought I would do it. Well, to be honest, I don't think any of us Americans ever really have it cross our minds. But I went octopus fishing on Sunday! We took a boat from Tadotsu, a town not too far from me, out into the Setonaikai (inland sea) and dropped our hooks in the water and snagged up some of those eight-legged creatures.

Pretty fun day in all. We left around 10 30 in the morning and stayed out until 2 or so. I would have thought that you catch octopuses with traps at the bottom of the ocean. But nope. We all were given rod and reel to catch them. We didn't even need bait. Apparently, fall is the season for fishing for them. And they must be just crawling along the bottom in the thousands upon thousands. Seriously.

The hook is weighted and has several upward pointing hooks. (It actually looks like an octopus itself, but not so much to fool octopuses but probably because it's cute and actually effective.) And once it hits bottom, the octopuses will crawl on it and get snagged. Then you yank it up and reel it in. I think there's a certain feel to it. I caught 6 or 7, but some of the more experienced people caught at least 40 each. And seriously there were more than a hundred boats in our area each with 3 or more people fishing for octopuses. So tons of octopuses. Or tako, as they say in Japanese, pronounced like the mexican food.

And when we were done, all the octopuses were put together and divvied out. So I came home with 25 of the little buggers. We were given a quick demo of how to remove the ink sac by driving your thumb in and ripping it out. (By the way, the demo was done with a live octopus.) So, I had to do this 25 times. At least mine were dead by the time I got home. At least I think so. Some of them were still changing color, like they do. Then I boiled them up and invited my friend Matthew over to enjoy some tako tacos. Yes, I'm even corny with my food.

Here you can see just how easy it was to catch them. These three guys all snag them up in this minute long video. Crazy.

This video is after about 15 or 20 minutes of trying to take the ink sacs out. It was really hard and you can hear me getting frustrated. I would have posted all the videos but it takes so long to get them uploaded. I just chose a few to give you the idea of the whole process. WARNING: Gross video! If you don't like dead things or are squeamish, you might not want to watch this!

Here you can see me finally done de-inking them and boiling them. WARNING: Again dead things. General ickiness. Beware.

And here is the result of boiling them for 20 minutes. They look pretty cute. Like little dancing octopuses.

And voila! The tako tacos! Well not really tacos, but best I could manage in Japan. Even though they look like Pringles, they are corn chips and have the right taste. See if you can spot some tentacles!!

It was quite delicious. I did cheat and mix in some beef, but I didn't think just octopus meat would be enough or have quite the right flavor.

GRE

2008-10-15T22:09:00.003+09:00

Well. It's already time to start thinking about my plans for the future. My original thoughts were to come here for 2 years. When the decision to re-sign or return home came last year, I had some trouble, but ended up staying, obviously. The truth is I'm not so certain about where my life is heading at this point. But I've started making some preparations for returning home. One of them is taking the GRE to have the option of returning home and starting graduate school.

About two and a half weeks ago, I talked with another JET at a party who I knew was planning on taking the test and she said that it she was taking it in a week (so, last Saturday in September). This got me thinking about the application process timeline. And I realized deadlines are already approaching. I think many schools are already accepting applications with deadlines sometime in the winter. I've got to think about having my test scores ready as well as all the accompanying application materials. My friend Alana who lives in Osaka where one can take the GRE was already asking me to come up for the weekend of the 11th (this past Saturday) since another friend of hers was coming to visit. So I decided to check if I could manage a test appointment and luckily there was a spot on Saturday morning, so I could get it out of the way early and enjoy the weekend with Alana and her friend.

I had bought a book for preparing for the GRE back in March I think. But of course I hadn't really started studying with it other than taking a practice test and starting to look at the strategies they suggest for a couple days before getting distracted and putting it aside. But I figured if I waited to sign up for the test until after I'd prepared, I would never get it done. So, I gave myself two weeks to prepare and that was it.

I think I did ok. I'm pretty happy with the score the computer showed for the verbal and math sections. The official scores will come in a few weeks and will include a score for the essay portion. That section was a bit of a mess. There are two parts. The first is an essay in which you analyze a quote of some sort and explain your position related to it giving support with details from your knowledge of the world, literature, history, current events, etc. etc. The second part is an analysis of a brief paragraph usually describing someone's idea for a plan of action or a change in a given situation. You must analyze the quality of the reasoning behind the idea. You have to point out the faults while explaining what sort of information would strengthen the argument.

I think I did fine on the second essay. You have less time, but you're just working with information that's provided. The only stuff you have to come up with is how to make it better. But the first essay, I was stumped. They have two quotes to choose from and I made myself choose quickly. A good step. But then I spent 15 minutes staring at the quote and making a few notes on paper and then typing a few ideas on the screen. Not a good step. Finally with only 2/3 of the time left, 30 minutes, I started really typing. But unfortunately, I only got 2 full paragraphs done and a sad excuse for a third clearly unfinished paragraph. Later when I was thinking about what I wrote, it seems that I had been making a connection in my head (a connection between what I was writing and the original quote) that I don't think I very clearly defined. They say that it's not just about great writing given the short time. But I really don't know if I showed enough of the kind of analytical and academic thinking that they're also looking for in my writing. We'll see.

Anyway, this is the first step to graduate school. But I'm not sure that's where I'll be, come next August. The possibility of staying in Japan a 3rd year has crossed my mind more than once. Right now I'm trying to keep my options open. I don't know if that's good. I think I'd do best to make a definite decision soon and work to accomplish whatever goal I set, rather than half-heartedly go through the motions just to "keep my options open". Being wishy-washy will just have wishy-washy results.

A hair.

2008-10-05T07:51:00.003+09:00

Did I tell you? The other day I was at school. I was washing my hands after a messy lunch, you know, picking bones out of fish with chopsticks which doesn't really work so I end up using my fingers. Anyway, I look in the mirror and there's something on my ear. So I wipe it off. But it's still there.

It's a hair. On my earlobe. Just one hair. But it's a peachfuzz hair. So it's light blondish. But it's freaking an inch long! Sticking straight out from my ear. I only saw it cause the light hit it just right.

Of course I plucked it. And of course I was wondering just how long it had been growing to such a grotesque length. Thought you might like to know.

That and I went to my second bonsai lesson. I didn't really learn anymore. Just finished up clipping the tree I started last week. And then I started a new tree. Well it's Matt 1's tree. He couldn't take it home with him.

Then I met Hashizume-sensei for dinner. She's the music teacher who retired. But guess what, she's working again! I knew she would find something to get her out and working. She likes being busy. She is filling in for an elementary music teacher on maternity leave. She'll be there for a year she said. But she also has to teach math. So she wakes up at 4 in the morning.

I know, she's crazy. She spends the time getting dressed and then studying the math assignments since she isn't good at them. (Even though, she co-teaches math and the other teacher is the one who takes the lead.) Then at 5 she prepares her and her husbands breakfasts/lunches. I think at 5 30 is her 1st year NHK radio English lesson for a half hour followed at 6 by the 2nd year lesson. Then, she finishes up and heads to school. She cooks 4 nights of dinners and freezes them on Sundays, so when she gets home (maybe around 7 30 or 8) she only has to defrost them. Her husband has taken over some of the cleaning and laundry that she had been taking care of. And she goes to bed at 10 30.

I would say this isn't an uncommon schedule for many Japanese people. They work a LOT. I often hear about teachers who are trying to finish this or that and stay up until 2 in the morning only to get up at the normal time. And there isn't really any sleeping-in ever. That's why there's so much sleeping on the train, I guess. And for the women, it's perhaps a bit tougher, because even they've moved into the workplace as much as in the states, they still are VERY much the person in charge of the kitchen and many inside household duties. And even if some of the responsibilities are shared, it's almost universal that they are expected to get up early to cook breakfast and make dinner when they get home after work. The kitchen is the woman's place. Men here in general have no interest in cooking and never cook (unless they are in the restaurant business).

Well, I guess that post grew longer than I meant to. But yeah. A freaking inch-long hair! Sticking straight out of the side of my ear lobe.

My first bonsai lesson!

2008-09-28T18:38:00.003+09:00

Well, after visiting the place over a month ago, I finally had a weekend to go back and have my first bonsai lesson.

It was great. Nothing big, but a lot of fun. There's a nice couple, Yoichi and Kana, who are running the family business. I saw Yoichi's father today, so he's still working around the shop. And then there are the other staff, including a Frenchman, Xavier. He's actually the only other person I've met who works there. I think more people work out in the bonsai fields.

So anyway, I showed up and they weren't expecting me because they hadn't understood my text message and it was so late (sent this morning). But anyway, we started off working with a white pine, goyoumatsu (specifically ginyattsufusa). Yoichi ran through the basic yearly care cycle for the white pine. How often to water, when to change the pot, when to prune the dead leaves, and when to wire it. October is when you usually prune it, so that's what he showed me how to do.

It looked simple enough. You look for the older needles, generally lower than the newer ones and a little yellowed, and snip them off with some scissors. At first, I said, "This is nervewracking." But mainly because he was pretty quick with the demonstration pruning and I was slow and Yoichi and Kana were right there watching my every snip. But after several snips, I started getting the hang of it, and they felt satisfied enough to walk away and before long I spontaneously said, "This is relaxing." It took a second for me to realize how opposite that was from my first statement.

It really was nice. I got into a nice snipping mood. And that was all I did for about 2 hours. I didn't finish the tree, so I will follow up next time. I wish I had taken a picture so you could see. But next time.

They have a website. And before you freak out, click the English link. And they also have a blog. They posted a picture of when I went last time with the other Matt. (Matt from Kanonji who has already returned to the States in preparation for his new job in Singapore, I think.) By the way, I'm マット２. (That means Matt 2.)

What a trip!

2008-09-17T10:17:00.004+09:00

Back already from the Okinawa adventure. I'm at work. We got in this morning to Kagawa and went our separate ways in Takamatsu. I managed to check my emails and do a load of laundry this morning before work. I'll have to sort through the mess of baggage that I brought home with me. Of course, that will be after 3 classes (more if I decide to help with Sports Day stuff) and speech contest practice. I've got to check on what elementaries I have coming up so I know if I have any planning to do. I've got to figure out who gets what omiyage (souvenirs) because at the end I remembered lots of people, but it was too late to run back and get stuff in the airport stores. Luckily I think I got enough small stuff to last for lots of people and can rearrange other things that I got for me. And I remembered all the big gifts for people I had wanted to get. So no worries.

It's already back into the old routine. (Get to school barely on time, remind the teachers I have class with them, find out what we're doing while we walk to class, etc.) It feels as if I haven't even been gone. But during the trip it felt like time was stopped. In a good way of course. It was one of those trips where our days were just so long and filled that we thought two had passed in one.

Anyway, I'll update again with pictures when I get a chance to breathe.

Whew!

Okinawa

2008-09-13T09:45:00.003+09:00

Woohoo for being on vacation. Boo for it raining on vacation.

Already got caught in a downpour. Bought cheesy souvenirs. Ate goya champuru. Drank shiquasa or shiquasur.

Still need to get out and see some sights and eat some other well-known foods and drink some awamori, the lethal okinawan sake.

No ferries out to the island we wanted to get to due to the typhoon. So we're playing it by ear on the main island. Wish us luck!

School's Back in for the Year

2008-09-08T20:14:00.004+09:00

Thanks friends for keeping on me. I've been neglectful once again. But I've been having a pretty great time and been pretty active. And now that I [don't really] have the time, I'll take a quick moment to update on a few things.

Not even sure where I last left off. Well, August was 夏休み (summer vacation) but, as you know, that just means kids had no class. Everyone was still at school doing stuff. I had grand plans to study Japanese everyday, organize my desk, do some lesson planning for the new semester, get back into working out, go to some club activities, take a couple trips, etc. Not very much of that happened. I took a couple trips. But a lot of my time (and mostly my energy) went into saying goodbye to my friends who were heading home and then very quickly after, saying hello to all the new friends that were coming. Dinners, parties, nights out, short train rides here and there, out til all hours. I just never had the energy to do much when I was "at work". I studied 漢字 (kanji) each day, but that was about all the studying I did.

On to the trips. I went to Osaka for a week to hang out with Alana and our friend Erin (my friend through Alana who had moved from Atlanta to New York and was visiting for a couple weeks). I was there for the last 5 days of her trip in Japan. It was great fun hanging out together and exploring Osaka. Erin and I took a trip to Arashiyama and the monkey mountain when Alana had work one day. We ate Mexican and Indian and Mexican and American and Combini. We went to a city pool. We laid in a park and read books and drank a beer. We rode a red ferris wheel on top of a building. Alana and I had grand plans for a trip to Hokkaido after Erin left, but due to our utter lack of real planning and an unforeseen lack of energy due to Alana's crazy schedule leading up to that point, we opted for hanging in Osaka. Had a couple lazy days watching movies and hanging out. Took a trip to a beach which was a lot of fun. Then I headed home.

Actually, it went like this. Night out on Friday in Osaka which went until after midnight (not quite sure of the time... probably later). Up before 7 maybe for my 4.5 hour bus/train rides + 10 minute walk home. Showered and had maybe 3 hours to myself and then took an hour ride with the music teacher down to Awaikeda in the neighboring prefecture for a festival. They dance the Awaodori there. The same dance as in the big city, but just a small town festival. We were meeting some of my friends (and friends of friends) before the festival to get ready. The teacher had brought traditional festival clothes for me to wear. She helped me and my friends get out our clothes. She pretty much took over that part of the evening. When I get a sec, I'll post the picture. I had on a yukata (what we would call a kimono probably) and geta, the raised wooden sandals. I carried my traditional bag and a fan. I was styling. I even got a "かっこいい" (cool) from this restaurant owner.

Let's see. After that we went home. The teacher said she would maybe sew me a yukata. (At this point, she's already bought the fabric and will probably have started on it. She said it might take a whole year though.) She's a handful. I need to talk to her. It's been a while.

The next weekend, I went to basically the same city, just one town over, for a friend's house party. That was quite a night. I was up til maybe 5 or 5 30. Got up at 9 the next day and (barely) made the train (are you surprised). I literally broke into a sprint for the last 3 minutes. The train wasn't taking me home, but to the other side of Kagawa where there was a festival. It was on the beach, so some of us met early to enjoy the beach and swimming and a lot of others joined later throughout the afternoon and evening. Eventually we had probably more than 30 people in our group. It was a crazy night. I couldn't quite enjoy all of it since I was soooo tired. I ended up crashing at a friends around 1. Then made my way home the next morning. (By the way, I had found out at the party Friday night that my friend Sandra's goodbye dinner with the teacher would be that Sunday around 5.) So anyway, I was up in the morning early enough to get the train that would arrive at 12. Guess who called me right at 12. Yes, my friend, the music teacher. She wanted me to come over then to help make a cake. I absolutely couldn't. I had to get home and decompress for a moment, maybe take a nap. Definitely a shower. I managed to be ready to go over at 3 to help prepare. The cake couldn't happen since I wasn't able to help because she had everything else to prepare. :( But it was a great night. It lasted forever and of course ended in tears when the teacher gave Sandra a handmade apron with Japanese fabrics. It was really beautiful.

Since then...
Sandra had her hands-down-best-party-ever goodbye party. We went to an izakaya followed by karaoke. We had 20 people? more? Insane. Insane. And tearful at the end. She was really gone the next day. :(
School has started up again (last Monday) with my list above of things I wanted to do still looking about the same.
Planned a trip to Okinawa which leaves in 4 days.
Registered for the fall ALT tournament for the following weekend.
Spending my afternoons helping students for the speech contest.
Restarted my Japanese tutoring.

Today I got home and did a lot of cleaning and work and still only got through half my to-do list. Trying to get ready for my trip. Leaving Thursday night in preparation to get to the airport for the flight on Friday. I have elementary classes every afternoon starting tomorrow through Thursday. Speech contest practice every afternoon after elementary (which means biking hurriedly back to the junior high). Tutoring tomorrow for 2 hours. Wednesday packing/preparing plants for my absence. Maybe racing for a train on Thursday.

Anyway, that brings us up today. And I even got a picture up (despite my computer trying to foil me by not producing any text in my file browsing windows whenever I really want to use them).

I hope all is well with everyone. Mwah! Miss you all!

1 YEAR!!!

2008-08-06T11:06:00.004+09:00

I can't believe I let the day pass without posting! It has officially been a year since I came to Japan. (As of July 29th)

Time really flies.

People I run into keep asking if I'll stay another year and I say yes. And then they ask why. It's funny because I don't really know why. JETs who knew that I was wavering on my decision back in January/February ask me if I regret signing on for another year. It's hard to answer. Parts of me wish I was already back in the US but other parts are perfectly happy being here and have plenty of things to do before leaving next year. Sometimes I have pangs of "Why did I decide to stay!!!" But just as often, I think... "Maybe I could stay for 3rd year."

Well, most of you know, but just to set the record straight, I won't be coming home this summer. It would really be a major expense and wipe out all of the savings I have managed to accumulate (since I started saving in December after I realized I had spent more money that I had made in Japan by that point). Not to mention my family and friends are now all over the map and just traveling to Atlanta wouldn't provide me with the opportunity to see everyone. I'd want to go to Arizona, Savannah, Pennsylvania, London, Sweden, etc. and that just can't happen. Plus summer is the easiest time to travel home for an extended period, but it's also the time when I have to say goodbye to the leaving JETs and I get to welcome the new JETs. And if you recall from last year, it's the time when there are summer festivals EVERY weekend. I'm getting to see ones that I didn't get to see last year. And I'm going to travel up to a big music festival in Osaka and possibly Hokkaido!?! Still working on those plans. I'm a little upset because I'll be missing Tokushima's Awa Odori Festival. But I did get to go last year and I don't get to see my Osaka friend Alana very often. She's a blast to travel with.

I'm still working on getting pictures up on the blog and picasa and facebook. My friends here are always mad at me because they see me take lots of pictures, but I never put them up on facebook like everyone else. I just need to start making it a habit. I think I may try to use mainly the picasa albums online and just link to them rather than trying to post on all three sites. I'll let you know when that gets started.

By the way, I just took over the eikaiwa (English Conversation Class) in Takase that Dan used to teach. He's gone home now and so I've got the job. It didn't go how I thought it would last week. They have been doing it a certain way for 2 years and they don't really want it to change much. Every time I try to stretch my teaching wings here, it seems someone is there trying to cage me back up.

Anyway, It may be a while before I post again. I've got a lot of cleaning and packing to do before Friday. That's when I head to Osaka and who knows where, after that. I'll be gone until the 18th or 19th. Then a couple more weeks of summer vacation and then 2nd term starts at the beginning of September.

Good luck to all my teaching buddies back in Cherokee who are starting a new school year!

Me on a webpage!

2008-07-16T21:23:00.004+09:00

Oh yeah, I forgot. This is me with one of my elementary principals. We are at the Furosatomatsuri. It's a tea festival. In the picture, you can see the kanji (Japanese character) for tea made with tea bushes. It's pretty cool. Good luck reading the page! ;)

http://www.city.mitoyo.lg.jp/forms/info/info.aspx?info_id=4004

2 weeks later...

2008-07-16T20:36:00.004+09:00

It seems that I'm destined to not keep up with this as often as I did when I first got here. Gomen ne. (Sorry).

The day of that last post, I actually tried to get pictures off my camera to post on here. But my computer is messed up. After it's been running for a while, all the programs get a glitch. The glitch involves the pop-up windows within a program. Like when you click for options or tools or something. The window will open, but all text is missing so I don't know which buttons are which and or in some cases the box is completely misshapen and unusable. I can sometimes get things back to normal by simply rebooting the computer, but it's not a definite fix.

Anyway, hopefully pictures to come soon. Not tonight, though. I'm tired.

Let me tell you that I am better though! It was about 2 weeks of unpleasantness. But by last Friday I was feeling almost normal again. Which was good since Saturday was our Sayonara Party. It was pretty fun, especially after being cooped up in my apartment for 2 weeks. We basically take over an island for a couple days. I got there around 2pm and left at 1pm the next day. It's just a great beach day with most of the JETs in the prefecture. Grilling, swimming, talking, dancing, drinking, bonfire, fireworks, etc. I finally got to use my underwater camera feature again. I'll try and post some of those on here. I didn't get to sleep until about 3 and even then the really drunk people who stayed up all night kept me up. And then in the morning around 5 or so, it was quiet and winding down. But that's when the crows or something started cawing right above the tent. I couldn't believe it. And then the whole sleeping on a slant started getting to me and I was up at about 7 I think. But I stayed and enjoyed some swimming and frisbee until about 1. It was sooooo nice to be outside and on the beach. I LOVE the beach and swimming and being out and active. I really need to do it more. Since the soccer tournament I haven't really been running and working out. I need to get back into it.

Hope all is well with everyone back home. Love and miss you all!

Sick Day

2008-07-01T08:49:00.003+09:00

So I'm sick and decided it was best to stay home. It's a stomach thing. Maybe best not to describe. But anyway, I have the time to update my blog finally.

I'm really sorry for not posting a lot. When I first got here I was posting at least 3 or 4 times a week it seemed. Now it's been a month since my last post. I've been thinking it might be easiest for me to just do a sort of update through pictures instead of writing about all the stuff that's been going on. You guys know how long winded I can be. But even that's going to take time. I haven't uploaded pictures from my camera in a while. But I think I'll get started on that in a bit. I'm just moving slowly today, not having slept really the past two nights.

Anyway, I'll just get started by doing a post about the past weekend. Which really started on Thursday night. And, of course, is probably the cause of me being sick now.

Thursday I had class at the closest elementary in the afternoon. But when I got back the young new teachers were learning the school's sports day dances. (It was weird I thought that the new teachers to the school that are older don't have to learn the dance). I never got to learn them last year. So I went in and tried learning them, too. But they had already been going for an hour so I didn't really get it. Afterward, us young teachers played a few games of badminton which was surprisingly fun. That evening we all went out to an izakaya. It was pretty fun. One of the young new teachers is an English teacher, but I didn't have to ask her to translate everything for me. I was able to mostly follow along and even participate sometimes in the conversation. It was nice. This place we were at is called Yamacho, 'mountain bird'. It's probably because they specialize in sashimi chicken. Yes, that's raw chicken. And of course, I had to try some. I had breast, thigh, heart, and liver. The liver had a very complex flavor that was amazing. The thigh was the easiest to eat and tasted good.

Friday was a long day since we were out until midnight and I had had 5 drinks. On top of that, I had a special lesson at an elementary and I had to ride my bike there and back. Then, in the afternoon, I had my regular elementary lesson. By the way, these elementaries are the 2 farthest and most uphill of the 5. After, that 2nd lesson, I went out to another izakaya with some of the teachers from the first elementary for an otsukare (good work) dinner. I wasn't going to drink but then was convinced by the principal to have a beer. I only had two though. She was also determined to "challenge" me with different foods. So, I had sashimi (fish, this time) which I've had before. I tried some raw squid that had been in this weird sauce. Not that good. I also had whale for the first time. (For you save the whale types, apparently, there is a time period when it's ok to kill certain types of whales, and usually the meat comes from whales that have been collected by scientists for testing, etc.)

Saturday morning, I went to my friend's apartment and she helped me buzz my head into a mohawk. I'd been wanting to buzz my head, and why not have a mohawk for the weekend. (A mohawk wouldn't go down well at school, or I might have kept it.) After that, I went to a friend's photography exhibition closing party. I even got the retired music teacher who cooks for me sometimes to come with me. But she was shy about speaking in English and didn't really try. But we had a great time anyway. Lots of people were there. Afterwards, we went to an izakaya. The teacher was quite the center of attention there. She kind of does that. She went home and the rest of us went out to karaoke. By the end of the night, I kind of wished I had gone home. I had a great time, but I was regretting having stayed out so late and that I wouldn't get to sleep in my own bed. Sunday, I was up early and already feeling a bit sick and so went home, but I felt well enough to meet everyone again to see the new Indiana Jones movie. It was ok. Didn't like the ending so much. Then did some shopping. By the time I was heading home I was really feeling tired. And that night is when I started feeling really sick.

I went to work yesterday because I felt fine in the morning. But after a couple hours, I could tell I wasn't well. But I was lucky because it worked out that I had only one class. So I figured I'd tough it out. But just after lunch I started feeling really hot. Near the end of school I asked the school nurse to take my temperature and it was 38.7 C (101.6 F). I didn't really know what that meant at the time, but she said it was a fever and so one of the assistant principals took me to the hospital and I got some medicine to get me better. But last night was no better than Sunday night so that's why I'm home today. No real sleep in two days (actually three since I only got about 4 hours Saturday night) really sucks.

Anyway, so obviously this past weekend was really busy. If you can imagine, about the past 4 or 5 have been this busy. And during the week I've managed to stay busy as well. Hence, the slip in posting. I'll try and do better though. I love and miss everyone back home.

Soccer Tournament

2008-05-30T18:25:00.004+09:00

I'm about to head out of town for a soccer tournament on Awajishima. It's a tournament put on by JETs for JETs to play in. It should be fun. We don't have enough players in our prefecture to make a team so we are combining with the prefecture next to us since they had more than enough players and we'll make two teams. I've been practicing in the mornings for about a week. I know, not much. But it's something. The only bad thing is that the first day, being uncoordinated from lack of practice, when I went to kick the ball, I kicked the ground... twice... harder the second time. And so I pulled the muscle on my shin. And it's been bothering me all week. And then today, I woke up with the worst backache ever. It's a weird pain. But it hurts. We'll see if I can manage to play through it.

As usual, sorry for not keeping up like I should. And sorry for not staying in touch via email and real mail and calls like I should. I'm trying to get that into my habits.

Also, I don't really need to do the kanji countdown anymore. I finished. I did all 2042. But the last few hundred are still quite shaky as usual. It would take about a week or two as I went along for the kanji to really stick. And unfortunately it's been the busiest week ever right after finishing the book of kanji and I haven't been reviewing like I should be. So I will have to relearn a bunch. But I have gone ahead and started my first novel. I'm trying to keep it mostly in Japanese. I'm trying to consult my children's Japanese/Japanese dictionary first before using my Japanese/English dictionary. I've gone about 2.5 pages in about 2-3 hours. A lot of that time is taken up by looking up definitions and then looking up definitions for the words in the definition and on and on. It's kind of fun. And it's really helpful because eventually you get a circle and you can use that to create connections in your mind for the various words. It's exciting to find entire sentences that I can read and understand without the help of a dictionary, too.

Anyway, I really gotta get going. Train leaves in 15 minutes.

By the way, I'm driving a rental car to the island. That should be interesting.

All Japanese, All the Time

2008-05-13T00:30:00.004+09:00

Just got finished with our weekly Japanese lesson. It was actually our sensei's birthday, so we had a pretty big dinner before studying. We had tacos and coronas and wine and cake. It was a lot of fun. Anyway, I got back home at 11 and instead of going to bed like I should have, I decided to post a comment on the All Japanese, All the Time (AJATT) site. Here's what I posted:

Enjoyed this post. Am still enjoying exploring the vast reaches of this site.

I’ve been in Japan since last August. I came on the JET Program.. somewhat on a whim. (How much of a whim considering the 9 month long application->arrival period.) My real goal was to live abroad and learn a new language. (I studied French high school to university and taught it for 3 years.) But then I got here and some culture shock set in. I think a big part of it was the “what have I gotten myself into” factor since I never really fully considered the consequences of such a move.

Anyway, my studies thus far:
- 8 week community class for business Japanese (cost $300, got through 5/6 lessons of Japanese for Busy People, learned a few counters, basic greetings, and a very simple understanding of how the grammar works, ie particles, sentence-final verbs, etc. - oh in addition to the cost was having all my CDs stolen and paying for a broken window - the class was in downtown Atlanta.)
- Learning the kana on my own before arriving.
- Self-study since then - mainly through a semi-decent beginning text provided by JET

In October, I was recommended Heisig’s kanji method, and I jumped on it after reading the forward. I made it pretty strong through 500 in a couple of months. In December, around 600 or so, I started fading. Then I made the decision that I wanted to focus on input (what I based my teaching of French on). That didn’t really work. The problem was a lack of comprehensible input (and I think I was just stuck in some winter blues and lost motivation. This was also the time when I had to decide if I wanted to recontract, and it was a difficult decision.) In March, I got back on the ball. I got a library card, and I’ve been devouring the children’s books. (Written mostly in hiragana, occasional furigana-ed kanji) End of March or so, I was recommended your site. I was wary at the description at first. There are lot of programs out there that claim a lot but deliver little.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that you were basing your study habits off of the same research that I based my pedagogy on. Most prominently, Krashen’s input hypothesis. (The method I used was TPRS, or more commonly storytelling. You might check it out.) After finding your site, I was actually really upset at myself for simply complaining that I didn’t have access to a teacher who used the method I used so that I could acquire Japanese the “right” way. I knew I needed input, but I didn’t really know how to go about it. And the whole needing kanji to access most things written in Japanese was a huge obstacle of course. Duh, on my own, without a teacher, I’m going to have to put more effort forth, and I’m going to need to find already translated input or establish meaning of the input on my own.

Well, since the beginning of April, I’ve been back on the kanji train. My goal is to finish by June 1st so I can start mining sentences in earnest. I was at 670ish beginning of April. I’m at 1340ish as of today. できるかな？I’m still reading the children’s books. It’s helping my kana fluency at least. That’s something. And it’s helping me get a feel for the grammar and flow of sentences. In the meantime, I’m continuing with the JET text though I’m more just skimming the grammar points, using the dialogues for input, and attempting the exercises without really thinking too hard.

Also, I’ve got my first J-J dictionary, one for 小学生. When reading the kids books, I try to be sure to check there first and only if I’m stumped resort to a bilingual dictionary.

The only thing I’ve yet to do is be 100% AJATT. I’m growing my music list, I’m searching for audio, I’m watching more J-TV (which I’ve fallen in love with!), and I’m re-organizing my bookmarks with all Japanese websites right at top.

Basically, me saying “hey look at all the stuff I’m doing” is really my way of saying 本当にありがとう。While I knew about input and was trying my best to get it, your site has provided me with confidence. Your words have shown me what true dedication and self-discipline are. You have reminded me that acquiring a language is really difficult and requires many hours of work (that can be fun) and that if you want to acquire quickly, you must change the way you live. I’ve had access to all the Japanese I could ever want all around me, and I’ve been living in an English speaking bubble. It’s time to pop it.

By the way, I’m never concise. ごめんね。

日本のテレビ　（Japanese TV)

2008-05-11T21:32:00.002+09:00

Have I told you how much I LOVE Japanese TV. It’s so crazy. Right now I’m watching this show where they sent a famous Japanese TV personality to Europe to get people’s moms to cook for her. They had to cook the national favorite home meal. She’s been to Portugal, Spain, France, and the Czech Republic. She’s got an interpreter, but other than that, it’s up to her to stop people in the street to ask them to cook for her.

It’s for a mother’s day special. But the thing is, they have show’s like this alllll the time. They aren’t doing it here, but often, they’ll have a famous person go out and experience something and film it. Later, they’ll play it for a bunch of other famous people to watch and comment on. And that’s the show. Sometimes, they make it a game, like showing a sequence and then pausing it and asking them what will happen next.

I just love it. I still don’t understand all the Japanese but I usually can catch enough and with the actions get a good understanding of what’s happening. And I can justify sitting around watching TV as my study time. Except when I’m watching the movies. They show dubbed English language movies fairly often on TV. But all TVs now have buttons that allow for them to be heard in Japanese, Japanese over top of the English, or English (or whatever the original language is; I just watched Shaolin Soccer the other day which is a Chinese movie). And you can watch certain news shows with English translations. It makes life a little easier when I need it to be. Except, oh yeah, I’m going all Japanese all the time. By the way, kanji countdown: 800 to go.

Anyway, I’m really going to miss Japanese TV when I leave. Maybe I’ll import it somehow.

(((((Happy Mother’s Day, Mom!!!!)))))

Japanese Study 日本語の勉強

2008-05-05T21:23:00.003+09:00

So I'm back into studying Japanese pretty hardcore. After winter vacation, I really dropped the ball. Since then, I had a few false starts, but since the spring break (end of March), I've been going steady and strong.

It's sometimes frustrating, because I'd like to learn from a teacher using the method that I used to use in class. But that's just not available. And that method isn't really adaptable to self-study. So I've just been going the traditional route with textbooks, etc. Also, lots of listening to the Japanese spoken around me (but most of it is still out of reach).

I was recently suggested this website, alljapaneseallthetime.com (which is actually based on this website ). The method described there is based on the research that the method I want to learn by is based on. It's not the same and isn't ideal, but it looks like through a lot of hard work, it can be effective and much more interesting than a textbook and grammar exercises (even though I secretly love that stuff).

The first step is learning all 2000 or so common-use kanji. Remember, kanji are the Japanese written characters. (They are actually from Chinese, but I hate it when people call them Chinese characters because they are really different at this point.) Anyway, you need to memorize how to write and recognize them and attach a single meaning to the character. In reality, each kanji represents a general idea that might have several different words in the actual language that it can be used for. But the first step is just knowing a single meaning and the writing. The next step is just getting out there and reading as much as you can and taking the time to figure out the various readings for the kanji as you go. You also will pick out various sentences from what you read and input them into a computerized flashcard program that you use daily to reread the sentences and slowly absorb the grammar and the readings of the kanji. Though you start with reading, once your vocabulary is advanced enough, you move to listening to music, news, TV, radio, etc. from which you can also pull sentences. The goal is about 10,000 sentences. Once achieved, your language skills should have developed "like magic"with no real need for studying explicit grammar rules. Of course, it's not magic and will take a LOT of work. But I think I'm up for the challenge.

I had started the process with the kanji back in October or so. I can't remember. But by December I had decided to put it on the back burner and just do a textbook lesson once a week and just pick up the language from hearing it. So when I decided to get going again, I just had to review the ones I had done and then move from there. It took about a week I think, to work back through the 600ish that I had done. Now I'm around 950. My goal is to finish by June. (Well that was my goal when I counted up the days on my calendar and found that I could reach that goal by doing 30 a day. Not very difficult and a pace that I kept up with for more than a week. And then, the other day, May 1st actually, I realized that I had counted that overlap week that shows up at the end of April and the beginning of may as two weeks instead of just one. So, while I'd like to finish by June 1st still, since that's what I told people my goal was, I'd be ok with June 15th. I know that's more than the week I miscounted by, but I don't want to feel totally stressed to finish. I want to keep a nice pace, but not feel like I have to rush. )

Anyway, in the meantime, while I'm working on learning all these kanji, I've been checking out children's books at the library. They usually contain no kanji or only a few kanji with the pronunciation printed just above (furigana). It's been a great confidence booster to go from real picture books with maybe 5-10 words on a page to books with smaller pictures and 5 to 10 sentences per page. I still need to have a dictionary at hand, but I'm often able to grasp the story without the dictionary. I just use it to make certain and to help add more vocabulary.

Oh and I also just got a children's Japanese dictionary. So Japanese-Japanese. All kanji have furigana and there are sample sentences for many words. This gives me lots of examples to put into my computer to study from and helps me stay all in Japanese even when I'm reading. Though I'll often have to resort to my Japanese-English dictionary.

I'm just excited about learning Japanese again. If you couldn't tell.

Hackey Sack with the priests

2008-05-05T20:53:00.004+09:00

Well, it's amazing how much fun life can be when you stop worrying so much and just get out and do stuff.

Friday night went out for drinks and karaoke. We did a nomihodai (all you can drink) for 78 minutes. It was about 10 bucks if you ordered a certain amount of food. Good times all around.

Major headache Saturday morning. Not really sure why though. (facetious) Anyway, ended up going to a castle festival in Marugame with Dan. It was fun. Your average festival. Highlights: seeing the black and white Great Dane and saying "Ushi mitai" and making a Japanese woman laugh. ("Looks like a cow") Saying to Dan, should I get a beer? followed by oh if you see some of those fans, I wanna get one as a souvenir. 3 minutes later a man who was with a dancing group walked up to Dan and me to give us each a fan and a beer.

Afterward, we took a nice car ride up to the mountains for the sunset. There's some pretty amazing landscapes around here.

Sunday: up early and did some laundry and studying. I invited Sandra on a bike ride with me. It was supposed to be a nice jaunt out where I was for the Furosatomatsuri last Tuesday (sorry, didn't post about that... maybe later). We did this walking course that day and I wanted to do it again to take my time and enjoy the view more peacefully and to maybe dig up some plants for my ever-expanding apartment garden. Well, when you're walking at a slow pace and stopping every 10 or 15 minutes for pictures or activities, it's different than biking. I also remembered slighter inclines. Needless to say, we got a major workout. We were out for a few hours and picnicked and took pictures. It was nice. Then back to town. She went home to clean up while I got all my plants situated. Then, Dan picked me up and we met Sandra and Brent at Marufuku in Kanonji. Afterward we went back to Brent's for some Futurama episodes. A nice evening.

This morning: up early and studied kanji. Brent trained to Takase and Dan picked us up to go to Konpirasan for kemari. I wasn't sure what it was about. I just knew it was a soccer-like ball game played by priests that Dan just had to see. So we went. By the way, konpirasan is one of the most famous temples in Japan and is more of a series of temples and shrines all the way up the side of a mountain. So we hiked up about halfway to where the kemari games were held. We were early and got some seats up front.

We waited a bit and made friends with the people around us sort of. There was a couple from Kyoto and they helped us understand what we were there to see. One interesting aspect was the court. It was outlined with stone or concrete-a big square. In the corners were four trees. A cherry, a willow, a maple, and a pine. They represent the four seasons. Then, the priests appeared walking through the gate in their traditional clothes carrying a white ball, slightly smaller than a soccer ball with some stitching and a purple tab.

The game consisted of 6 priests entering the court with a ball. Then they stood in a circle to see how many times they could kick the ball while keeping it in the air. Hence, the hackey sack reference in the title. That's what it most closely resembles, even though the Japanese will call it "Japanese soccer".

The only rule was to kick with the right foot only. No left foot. But as with all Japanese culture, special attention must be paid to form and style. You should kick your leg up very high. The ideal trajectory is high and forward. Also, when serving, you step right, left and then kick with your right. You hold the ball between both hands with the purple tab held by your right hand. You must drop the ball and not toss it.

The reason I know these rules so well now is because after they played a few games, they had several people from the crowd play, including me and Dan. It was a great experience. We didn't think they would let people join in, but they were very friendly and insistent that people try it. They helped us figure it out and played with us for awhile. Then, the 6 of us were left to play together. We managed 9 kicks in a row. When the priests were playing, the highest they got was 30 or 31.

After we finished our game, the priest called Dan and I over and this younger female priest and had her explain that this game is played for world peace and happiness and to please come and play again and share our experience with others. It was very nice. There were many pictures taken and they may even send us a book that may have our pictures in it eventually.

Well, as usual, I don't have the pictures and videos uploaded yet. And I'd like to get a bit of studying done before bed. I hope this is the start of more posts. By the way, this week is called Golden Week. This year, it's not actually a week because two of the holidays fell on the weekend. But Saturday through Tuesday are 4 Japanese national holidays. It is a time when almost everyone in Japan who works in traditional companies get time off. These days, 2 or 3 in August for Obon, and 2 or 3 around the New Year are the only holidays they really ever get. So there are many, many events at all major tourists areas all over Japan. And thus my having Monday off for kemari.

Random

2008-05-02T13:03:00.003+09:00

Well, I know I said I would be updating more often now. Ha. I really need to make it a part of my daily routine. Post something even when there's nothing to post really. Just random stuff.

Like today. Just an average day. But I did get a chuckle just a bit ago. All the teachers and students wear aprons for lunchtime. When I was getting my lunch, I passed the assistant principal. He doesn't usually wear an apron because he doesn't eat with the students and doesn't help prepare the lunch. But today he had on a playboy apron. It didn't have the bunny. Just some black and white design and a very clear PLAYBOY written at the top.

It almost stopped me in my tracks. I thought it was an interesting choice for a school apron.

Today's Laugh

2008-04-24T20:02:00.001+09:00

The faculty has one big office that they all work in at my school. This includes the teachers, the counselor, the lunch lady, the principals, the nurse. Well, the students often have to come find a teacher before and after school and between classes. There’s a set protocol for announcing themselves and asking for who or what they need. Sometimes, it’s just to get a key off the rack in which case they only have to say “Excuse me (Literally, I’m being rude). I’m taking the key for such and such room. I’m leaving (Literally, I was rude. [the past tense of the first thing they said]).” If they need a teacher, they have to do the same thing and ask if the teacher is there.

Today, a student came to the door and said, “Excuse me. I’ve forgotten the name of the teacher I need.” Needless to say, everyone started cracking up. Poor kid. It’s understandable though, since it’s the beginning of the school year. I still don’t know the names of all the teachers that I work with.

Anyway, what was awesome for me was that I was finally able to enjoy something funny WITH all the teachers. I didn’t have to hear everyone laugh, and then ask “What is so funny?” And it’s all the more impressive (to myself anyway) since I was sitting at my desk on the other side of the room working on something and only overheard the Japanese. I wasn’t paying special attention or anything. Anyway, with the constant reminders that my Japanese still sucks (ie, not understanding what’s going on EVER), I have to relish the moments when I have hard evidence of improvement.

歌舞伎！！！

2008-04-13T07:33:00.003+09:00

Wow! I am soooo exhausted, and I've already had a chance to sleep through the night. So yesterday was Kabuki Day for me. My Japanese parents took me to Kotohira for my very first Kabuki experience. It was quite a day. While there was nothing spectacular that happened really, it was just an all-around great Japanese cultural experience. But boy was it a long day and boy am I tired.

I woke up around 6:30 but laid in bed until 7:30 or so. Then I got up and cleaned my apartment a bit since it's been sorely needing it. Dishes, laundry, general pick-up. Then, I finally shaved my beard. (I don't know if I ever posted a picture with my beard at its longest. Or with my hair at it's longest. I finally got it cut.) Anyway, then I showered and Hashizume-sensei was there to pick me up at 9:30 (actually she was a bit early). She was in a kimono, which I wasn't expecting. I was in jeans. So I offered the change. At first she said no, but then I said it would be easy and she paused and thought. So, I knew the answer. After I put on slacks, we went back to her house and got her husband and our lunch for the day. When we got to Kotohira there were lots of people already there. So Mr. Hashizume dropped us off to go get good seats. We were actually some of the last people in our section, so we didn't get great seats. We didn't get any of the bench seats, only some floor seats where you have to sit "seiza", which means on your knees with your bum on your feet. Though, you could go Indian style, but with all the people, it's kind of difficult. And we were pretty jammed in there. But when her husband arrived, he noticed 3 seats at the end that were where the steps were. It was right in the foot traffic, but it allowed two of us to hang our legs down. So, we moved. And an added benefit was the fact that we no longer had a huge column blocking the middle of our view. We actually had a pretty awesome view.

I've got to explain a view things about kabuki, and this actually goes back a few weeks. (I should have already blogged about this but I was too busy at the time.) Hashizume-sensei made me a "Kabuki How-to" packet a few weeks ago. She typed up some paragraphs and worked on translating some key parts into English (even surreptitiously using me to help at times). She printed off and meticulously cut out colorful pictures to help demonstrate key concepts. Then she sat down with me when she handed it to me and helped me understand parts of it. I couldn't believe the time she put into it. Anyway, so this is where my knowledge of Kabuki began.

One special aspect of Kabuki is the way actors enter and exit. They use the "hanamichi". It's an elevated walkway that runs through the audience starting stage right and going straight to the back of the audience. And we were up in the balcony all the way to the right so that the "hanamichi" was on the opposite side of the theater from us. It made it so that it formed a nice open L shape with the stage and when the characters were entering and leaving we could see everything as one big scene. Basically, I'm saying even though we were in the cheap seats, we really had a nice view. And we didn't have cramped legs.

Anyway, so we got settled in and then Mr. Hashizume took me outside and pointed out various parts of the theater and we talked as much as we could in Japanese. And he made me stand for several pictures.

Back inside, the plays began. I was actually confused at first. I thought it was one show with an intermission. But there were three different stories with 2 intermissions. After the first show which I didn't understand, but was interesting and funny enough, we got out the "bento" that Hashizume-sensei had prepared. She had made some sandwiches and onigiri and pickles. All homemade of course. The second show was a little easier to understand. There were more actions and I actually could catch a few words. It was about two men fighting over a sword whose ownership was eventually to be decided by an elder. And if I understood the end (which was the only confusing part) the bad guy took the sword and knocked down all the other guys and ran off with the real owner chasing him. The guys who got knocked down meanwhile were laying on their backs with their hands and feet in the air doing what looked like a doggie paddle. The third show was the grandest one with the biggest costumes, a more elevated stage, a bigger cast, and the "shibaraku" which this style of Kabuki is famous for. I, of course, couldn't understand any of the details of this story. There were not very many actions that went with the dialogue. It was a love story where the hero arrives and beheads some guys and takes the woman away with him. Yes you see the heads on stage and the guys running off with blood spewing (red cloth) spewing from their necks. But before that happens, the story goes along with not much movement. People just talking. Then, when all is explained, the hero makes his entrance. "Shibaraku" ~ Wait a minute! He comes in wearing platform sandals and about 15 layers of costume to make him larger than life. His outer robe sort of ends in pant legs that are so long that he is actually walking on them inside them. Which I don't know how that works. Especially in platform sandals. Meanwhile his sleeves are about a meter and a half long with rods in them to hold them taut, like a kite, but square. He has two white feathers in his hair as well and his face is painted with red blood lines. He, of course, saves the day. But not before three stagehands help him remove three layers of kimono to reveal his belt and take apart the super-sleeves and help him get his sword out. All on stage.

Afterward, we stayed back a minute and snapped a few pictures together. And then we all walked down to the car together. Even just that would have made for an exhausting day as it was all in Japanese. But we went back to their house. We relaxed a bit in the afternoon as Hashizume-sensei got out of her kimono and went about the house doing things. But eventually she came into the den and we talked about Kabuki for a while. The conversation drifted and she showed me some of what she's been studying with English. Around 6 (or maybe 5) we started cooking dinner. That was quite a process. We made homemade sushi, tempura, and donuts. And when I say 'we' I mean, me and Mr. Hashizume only helped a little. And when I say sushi, don't think of what Americans think for sushi. Sushi in Japan, I think, just means rice that's been mixed with vinegar (and sugar and salt) and then put with something else, usually some sort of seafood either uncooked and rolled or cooked and diced up and mixed (often with egg) with the rice. We had the latter, which is "daisuki" (big like). The tempura was bamboo shoots, fish, squid, and something else. And the donuts were just regular donuts, fried and sugared. Some had "an" sweet bean paste though. There was a huge amount of food, but we managed to make a pretty big dent in it. And of course, most of the remainder came home with me.

Meanwhile, all throughout cooking and eating, it's all Japanese with the occasional English thrown in there. Hashizume-sensei LOVES to talk and when she gets going, there's no stopping her. By the end of the night, I wasn't so much physically tired, but my brain was literally shutting down. I couldn't focus any more on what she was saying to even TRY to understand. And when we were ready to leave, her husband wanted to sit and finish a TV show he had started. So, it was more talking. Somehow, I found a second wind though, and I started putting together some pretty good sentences from what I could tell. They flowed and made sense. But luckily the show ended and I was able to get home and rest. But it was a pretty amazing day. I'm so grateful to the Hashizumes.

....

ほんとにたのしかったです。歌舞伎ははじめて。日本語まだじょうずじゃない。そしてぜんぜんわからなかったです。でもいま歌舞伎のものをならいたいです。

Tomorrow is the big show!

2008-04-11T07:41:00.003+09:00

I'm getting excited because tomorrow I'm going with Hashizume-sensei and her husband to see Kabuki. The place we are going is apparently very well known and high quality. The teacher and her husband go every year. I'm happy that I get to go with them. They are picking me up in the morning at 9:30 and the show opens around 11 and will go until around 2:30. Then we will have dinner together afterward. Should be fun.

It will be a nice end to a very long week. This was the first week of the new school year. Monday were the opening and entrance ceremonies. Yes, there's a difference. And we started classes on Tuesday. It's neat getting to see all the new students here at the school since I know them all from having taught them as 6th graders in the elementaries. Well, I don't really know them, but they are at least familiar faces. Anyway, it's time for school and I gotta get going.

(BTW I'm still working on getting updates going. With this sort of thing, if I get behind, I tend to get discouraged and stop altogether. But I need to keep documenting what I'm doing. I hope to write up all that's happened in the past month or so. A lot of fun and important things have happened. I hope to write a bunch of posts and then backdate them and then link to them in one final post like I did before. Meanwhile, I'll keep posting shorter current posts so I don't forget things.)

Gomenne!!

2008-04-03T22:01:00.003+09:00

Sorry!!!! I've been crazy busy for about a month. First there were a few social events that came up and then there was the busyness surrounding the end of the school year and graduation and closing ceremony and enkais. Then, there was spring vacation. I went to Osaka to visit Alana again with her parents in town. We all went to Kyoto and Nara. Then we spent a day in Osaka itself. After we saw her parents off at the airport, we took a bus back to Kagawa. And it was utter craziness from there. Me the nonplanner, had actually planned way too much to do. We still managed to do most of it, and I only had to extend my vacation time by about 2 and a half hours.

I started an update last week, but then had to go out of town before I could finish. I'm still too tired to sit down and try to figure out all the things that have happened in the past month, but there were a lot of interesting things that I would like to post on, of course, with pictures. There are some really good ones too. And the good times keep rolling. Work today and tomorrow, welcome enkai tomorrow night, flower viewing party Saturday, rehearsal and maybe some more flower viewing Sunday, opening ceremony Monday, and first day of classes Tuesday.

Sorry for not being in contact with people or not responding to emails right away. I'm trying to get back into some semblance of a routine.

News

2008-03-06T22:32:00.003+09:00

OK. So it's about time I get my butt back in gear with this blog. I actually meant to about 2 weeks ago. I started a post (below) but never finished it. So, tonight, even though I'm dead tired, I'm doing an update. Not too long like usual though. Here's that update from before.

"My dad was behind reading my blog from traveling and finally got caught up the other day [a couple of weeks ago by this point]. He let me know that I kind of left people hanging about my decision to stay or leave Japan after one year..

I have decided to stay for an additional year. So I won't be back until July or August of 2009. I was just blowing the bad-teaching practices stuff way out of proportion after that mid-year conference. It's really not so bad and it's only part of being here. And I'm enjoying most of the rest of my life here. I sometimes get lonely. I sometimes get bored. But to be honest, that happened back in Georgia. Here though, I have an incredible amount of free time. I'm getting paid very well. And I can study and practice my Japanese whenever I want. It's pretty great. (Plus, I didn't have any graduate school stuff ready. Something I'm starting to work on again.)

And I realized I left people hanging on some pictures, and one post, that I promised (or that I had mentally promised)."

So here are links to the updates/pictures below. Please check them out.

Udon

Ninomiya Visit

Naked Man Festival

Hinamatsuri

Today's Run

PS If you comment and it doesn't show up it's likely that I felt it was more appropriate as an email. Remember my email address is listed in my profile. So if your comment is becoming lengthy, that's a sign you should send it as an email. And that way I'm more likely to be able to get back to you.

Today's Run

2008-03-06T21:11:00.004+09:00

Well, I'll start with the day. Average for the most part. I'm getting the hang of my schedule and how the teachers are and can even recall some of my elementary teachers' names these days. And even though I'm getting used to my JTEs' manners, there's one that when I work with her, it's either a homerun all the way or a complete dud. And not only that, I feel useless, used, or undervalued, usually a combination of the three. I'm trying to use it as a learning experience. I do like teaching, but I think I perhaps invest myself too much personally into it. I'd like to be able to turn it off or disconnect myself from it whenever I need to. It may sound odd or cold, but it can be useful for certain situations like today or certain comments the students thoughtlessly make. If you're too personally attached, it can strike a little too deep.

Anyway, that was a bit further than I meant to go. I was just trying to say it was a so-so morning. Lunch perked me up a bit. I had a nice talk with the kids I ate with. Played around a bit. Did half-English/half-Japanese. So I'm learning and they're learning, and we don't have to sit in silence anymore.

After lunch, I went back to the teacher's room to finish up my lesson prep for the elementary. The topic was time, so I made a giant digital clock with holes where the numbers would be so I could post it on the board and write in the numbers and erase as I needed. But I decided to be a little creative and made it a Hello Kitty clock, just for kicks. It turned out pretty well. Let me know if you wanna see pictures. Of course, when I got to the school, I realized I had forgotten to make the only thing I needed for an activity. Luckily, it wasn't hard. I just needed to write out various times for the students to use. But that got me a bit in my rush mode. Then, in class, I realized I had forgotten to bring some number flashcards so I had to run back downstairs to get them. I didn't waste the time though, I had them count with their homeroom teacher until I got back. It only took them counting to 38 for me to return. Anyway, we had a grand old time, but afterward, I was in a daze and accidentally went to the next class early. That one was just as crazy as the first one in terms of activity and genki-ness. (Have I taught you all genki yet?) It ended with a mini-concert of Edelweiss on recorders in C major with a tendency for C sharp, really sharp. But it was cute and then the teacher called the students forward who wanted to say a goodbye to me. Several did and they had nice things to say. This was the last class of the year. But I'll be seeing them next year (read: school year, meaning in April) as 4th graders.

Needless to say, I was tired afterward. But I'm training for a half-marathon in a couple of weeks. Check that. It's in about a week. I didn't realize it was so close. And my dad's been training for a full marathon for a while now. And I've been complaining to myself about the running I've been doing, maybe an hour's run 3 or 4 times a week. He's out doing at least 7 miles a day, it seems. At this point, those are his "light" days. His hards days are about 15 miles. So anyway, today I upped it to an hour and 45 minutes. Man, I didn't think it would make that big of a difference, but I'm wiped out. I think I'll still run tomorrow, but perhaps change it up a bit and do interval work instead of just straight running. Then Saturday, I can try a longer run, perhaps the full 13 miles. Then, next week, I'll lighten up a bit so energy can build up for the race.

Also, while I'm on these runs, I've started taking my iPod and doing Japanese lessons. Pimsleur's is pretty great. I recommend it to anyone trying to learn a language. I just started a few weeks ago and it's back to the basics for me, but I'm able to just run through each lesson once and move on. I think if I had started with the audio lessons right when I arrived here, I would have had to listen to each one at least twice if not more to get the hang of it. Believe me, it's a very slow and appropriate pace, but sometimes it surprises me with the complexity of some of the sentences it asks you for when you start getting to lessons 6, 7, 8 or so. With the timing, I usually end up in the middle of a lesson at the end of the run, so I usually just start back at the beginning on the next run. I like the review. Anyway, the Japanese is coming along fairly well. I always feel like it's going soooo slowly and that I'll never be able to speak with the people around me, but sometimes, I can see just how far I've come. Here's a taste. I'm not using a book to help me, so if you do know Japanese, then forgive any mistakes.

私はアイポドで日本語をべんきょうします。むずかしいです。でもおもしろいです。高瀬中学校のほかの先生といっしょにはなしたいです。それから毎日べんきょうをします。

I study Japanese with an iPod. It's difficult. But it's interesting. I want to speak with the other teachers at Takase Junior High School. That's why I study every day.

Hina Matsuri

2008-03-02T20:58:00.004+09:00

Today was officially the Girl's Day Festival, but several of us celebrated it yesterday by going to the town of Hiketa in eastern Kagawa. The town is known throughout Japan for it's Girl's Day Celebrations. Hina means doll. So, of course, everywhere you go, you see dolls on display. But these aren't just any dolls. They are special dolls that only come out for this day. They are displayed on a 5 or 7 tiered display that looks like red felt carpeted stairs. At the top are a man and woman, like a lord and a lady. And as you go down the stairs you find the various members of their court. The reason Hiketa is well known for this festival is because almost every shop and many private citizens put out displays for everyone to view. Many dolls are a few generations old and there was one set that dated from the 1860's.

We started the tour of the town with a tea ceremony in a community center. We were served by little girls dressed up in their kimono. Then we toured the town of dolls. Some stores are completely shut down by their doll displays. Others stay open for business and just have the doll displays next to their merchandise. There was one electronics store that just looked crazy with its display next to the appliances. We stopped in a converted soy sauce factory that has an open courtyard and seemed to serve as sort of town square. Then we took a walk to one of the town's shrines. I bought a couple of ceramic dolls almost right away. I tend to be more of a tightwad or spend my money on cheap useless stuff. But I saw these and thought they were perfect right away. I started walking away but something brought me back. They were a little expensive, but I'm trying to be on the lookout for more meaningful and lasting souvenirs that I can use or display for real. These were perfect I thought. They are somewhat abstract glazed ceramic lord and lady dolls with the stand and red velvet and backdrop screen of gold fabric. They were handmade by an artist from Kagawa. I'm pretty happy with them.

Anyway, of course, pictures are to come. (They're here obviously) I've been slacking on the blogging lately. I've been meaning to post a few pictures for some previous posts and do some follow-up blogging to things that I mentioned earlier. Perhaps I'll have some time tomorrow. Now I'm tired.

Naked Man Festival

2008-02-16T23:59:00.002+09:00

So a couple weeks ago (I decided to backdate this though), I went to the famed Naked Man Festival of Saidaiji in Okayama prefecture. You might have a certain impression of the Japanese from images you find in American pop culture. The business CEO living to work, running his corporation like a military operation, the office workers always working as a team, doing morning exercises together, staying late until all work is finished, the serious school students studying every minute of their free time (ha, as if that exists in Japan). While those images have some basis in reality, they aren't exactly true and definitely can't be generalized. However, there does seem to be an utter lack of free time. Somehow, though, the Japanese find some. And boy do they make the most of it. There is a sort of staid politeness and formality that characterizes most public interactions. But all that goes out the window when it comes to enkais and festivals.

And as you can guess from the title, they get naked at this festival. Sorry ladies, as the title also indicates, you gotta have a thingie to join in. Even though it does get covered up. You can't have a thousand men running willy-nilly 100% buck-naked. But you can have them strip down and put on what amounts to a piece of cloth designed to be a wedgie. It's called a fundoshi, and it's a loin-cloth basically. You have to buy the fundoshi and other accoutrements there for about 50 bucks altogether. Then, the men get in groups and run around the town mostly naked (remember, it's still winter) yelling and getting their pictures taken. When they are warmed up enough, they are then purified with ice cold water thrown on them by the bucket. Usually not just once. Eventually, they make it to the shrine where there is a big stage. They try to make it on the stage because at midnight, the real chaos starts. The lights go out. Then someone tosses several sacred sticks out into the mass of men. Everyone scrambles to get one. But grabbing it isn't enough. You must make it outside the walls of the shrine with the stick (and your life) still intact. And that parenthesis isn't a joke. This year one of the JET participants broke his arm. It got caught between two guys and then the men on that side shifted forward and it snapped it. If you do make it out with the stick, you are guaranteed happiness for the coming year. And I believe the sticks have monetary value, as well; one is worth about 10, 000 dollars, I believe.

No I didn't join in the mayhem this year. But it seemed like a pretty crazy adventure, and I might take part next year. We'll see. I know this is the part you wanted to see. Here are the pictures and video.

Well, the guys do have to get to the festival somehow. And it's pretty damn cold out. There were tents there to stash their belongings. This was a pretty common, but still comical, sight around the town.

Heading through town to get warmed up before being purified (aka frozen) before entering the shrine.

I think the blurriness captures the essence of thousands of naked men searching for a sacred stick while trying to stay alive.

Crazy guys running around town.

Nakedmayhem.

Ninomiya Visit

2008-02-13T13:26:00.004+09:00

Today we had testing all day at the junior high. I usually just sit around and watch everyone working hard. But I have nothing to do. Generally, I find something to work on, lessons for elementary or Japanese studies. But a whole day of that can get boring. So, I asked Ninomiya if they could use me for the day, since I was free. And they invited me over.

I did a regular lesson with the 5th graders. It was probably good that I went; it gave me a chance to see where they are and tomorrow's lesson, which will be a continuation of today, will have parents observing.

Then I hung out with the 3rd graders for a couple periods. It was more of a cultural experience lesson for them. For one period, we learned about different Korean teas with Judy-sensei. (She is another English ALT for the school and that's her fake name. I'm not sure how to spell her Korean name. But she speaks Korean and English flawlessly while Korean is her native tongue.) Most of them were good or great, but the last one was bitter and worse than coffee. Then the next period, we learned in English how to order a drink and what to say if it's good or bad and how to order another one.

Afterwards, the 4th through 6th graders went outside for a test drive of the Honda FCX (a fuel cell powered, H2 car). It was pretty cool. (And cold outside for that matter; it was snowing a bit.) The guy passed out info flyers and gave an explanation of the car. He turned it on and showed how there was no real muffler. It just sends out water vapor. (I think... since it was all in Japanese.) Everyone got to take a ride in it around the gravel sports field. Each teacher would take a few kids from their class at a time. I got to take it for a spin as well. Meanwhile, the car is 一億円 (ichi oku en). That's 100,000,000 Yen. In other words, about a million dollors. So I can say I've driven a million dollar car. Pretty exciting.
I was supposed to stay for lunch, but unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on the perspective) no students were absent, so there was no kyushoku (school lunch) for me. It's not appropriate for anyone to eat something different, so bringing my own wasn't an option. The principal drove me back to the junior high and will come and pick me up a little before two. I'm not sure what the afternoon holds in store for me. I think I'm supposed to choose between a Japanese calligraphy class (where I might not have a writing brush or the necessary knowledge to really participate) or a Japanese lesson from the assistant principal. Not sure which one I'll do.

The Mountain Top

2008-02-09T10:22:00.001+09:00

I've been meaning to hike to the top of a mountain in my town. You can look around from my apartment and see all these mountains around. Finally, on Tuesday, I got the urge to do it, wrote it on my after school to do list and managed to keep the desire going when I got home. When I've thought about hiking like that, I've always worried that I wouldn't find a good place to start, because houses and farms butt right up against the bottoms of the mountains. But I luckily chose a good mountain and the right side of it to go up. There was a shrine at the bottom of it and behind the shrine I found a trail that was maintained and led all the way to the tip top. It was nice. It was a nice way to get my legs moving again after the 20k on Sunday, and it finally gave me a chance to see all of Takase from above, something I've been wanting to do. So without further ado, here are the pictures:

This is the heart of Takase, Katsuma. In the distance and to the right is Ninomiya. To the left of that behind the first row of mountains is Asa. To the left outside the picture is Kamitakase and Hiji is to the lower right and out of the picture.

This is the view toward Mino and, further out, Takuma. They are also towns in Mitoyo City. You can see some of the islands in the Seto Inland Sea in the distance. I knew I was close to the sea, but when I was on the mountain I could see it so clearly.

I'd definitely like to make the hike again and regularly. And find other trails to go up.

Half-Marathon

2008-02-03T20:47:00.001+09:00

Well I learned about the half-marathon back in September. It was on February 3rd. I thought it would be cool to do another one (did one on Thanksgiving 2006 with my dad and sister). No big deal. Except a few months later and I haven't kept up with my running. Then I'm on vacation in Thailand and Cambodia. I often use vacations to jump-start my running regime back home. But this one didn't really lend itself to running a lot. So it was my New Year's resolution (one of many) to start running again and do the half-marathon no matter what. At the mid-year seminar several people said they were going to do and that they probably were going to just register the day of. Great. I'm a procrastinator so that suited me. I managed to get serious about running again for the past two weeks. Saturday night I check the marathon website to see when late registrations would begin. Except they don't have any. Had to register by Saturday at 5. I text a few friends who seem convinced that you can still race. I go to Marugame for the marathon. No dice. I'm pretty pissed at myself. I had 5 months to figure it out and register. And I blew it. And that was after telling several people I was racing. Including a class of 34 students. Great. But I was determined. So I went back home. Relaxed a bit since the morning was sort of rough to begin with. I woke up at got a migraine which put me out of commission for an hour or so and I left later than I wanted and had to race for a train. I didn't pack up everything I wanted and then the whole not being able to register really sucked too. So after I calmed back down a bit. I loaded up. I was going to run my own half-marathon. I picked this town in Mitoyo that's way back in the mountains with no train station. I said I'd just run to that for about an hour and 15 minutes and then run back. That would be about a half-marathon. You should have seen me. I had my provisions stuffed inside my underarmor. I managed to also stuff in my iPod and my digital camera. It was a great run. The best I've felt in a long time. I let myself stop and take pictures occasionally. Never more that 2 minutes and maybe a total of 10 times the whole run. I think a couple times I stopped for closer to 5 minutes. I was technically in the town by the hour fifteen mark, but I wasn't to a place where I had been before and I wanted to keep running. So I jogged around the town some before heading back. I ended up being gone from 12:15 until 3:45. So probably a bit farther than 20k. But it was good. Here are some of the pictures I took while out. You'll see that cherry blossom season is soon upon us. Apparently there will be official cherry season watchers who will announce when it's officially time to go cherry blossom viewing.

PS. Sorry about the single paragraph. I sometimes forget to indent when I should and I'm too lazy to go back and find the right spot.

One of the first pictures of the run. Some dumped mikan (oranges). Guess after all the freezes they weren't good anymore. Typical Japanese farmer's truck in the background.

Abandoned van. Orange grove in the background.

Mountain views. The ridge to the right is entirely bamboo forest. Cool huh?

And here's a sideview of the bamboo forest.

These are some of the first cherry blossoms.

A mini-snowman. Notice only made of two balls of snow. That's the Japanese way apparently. And his eyes are mikan. Probably because they are everywhere this time of year. And about a dollar will buy 3 or 4 kilos.

Did you throw your beans today?

2008-02-03T08:43:00.001+09:00

So today was Setsubun! It's a Japanese holiday where you throw and eat roasted soybeans. I think any beans will do actually. But it sort of marks the last day of winter and the coming of spring, which is the 4th of February on the Japanese calendar. But you throw beans and say, "Devils out; Happiness in". And it does just that. And you are also supposed to eat your age in beans.

So make sure to throw your beans!!

SNOW!!

2008-01-21T10:20:00.002+09:00

So it snowed last night. Only in the mountains though. But still. The first snow!!! I took pictures, but I'm at school now, so I can't upload them yet. Of course, along with the snow come cold temperatures. Japan is not a fan of central air or heating in general.I'm not sure, but I think even up in the north. So at school the classrooms are all cold. In the elementary schools they do have space heaters that they turn on occasionally. At my school, I guess since there are air conditioner/heaters installed in each room,they haven't purchased space heaters. And I guess it hasn't been deemed cold enough yet to turn on those heaters. Except in the teacher's office, for which I'm glad, even though my toes still get cold. But when I was vacuuming after break -- remember opening ceremony day? I vacuumed the whole teachers' room for about an hour --I saw a mini-space heater under a teacher's desk. A very good idea that I might have to copy. Anyway, I hope to remember to post the snow pictures later. I love snow.

UDON!!!!!!

2008-01-21T09:46:00.002+09:00

We made Udon on Friday. Udon are Japanese noodles. But they are a specialty of Kagawa, my prefecture. They are often called Sanuki udon. (Sanuki being Kagawa's former name) It was our cultural workshop for the Mid-Year JET Seminar. It was a lot of fun. And surprisingly easy. But there is an art to it and a precision to making it just right that is not so easy. So I should say, making bad to not-so-bad udon is easy. Making it just the way you like it is difficult. Udon noodles were introduced by a monk who came to Shikoku from China back in the 8th century. They are a thick flour noodle that shouldn't be too hard and not too soft. They can be eaten hot or cold. They can be eaten in a broth or with a broth on the side to be dipped in. Usually they are topped with scallions, sesame seeds, ginger and a red spice - or any combination thereof. There are variations to the ingredients that can be included with the broth. You can have meat or a fish cake, tempura or tofu, seaweed or fish flakes. I don't know all the names or types that are possible. I usually just point to choose. Or I just order the same thing as the person in front of me.

Anyway, on to the noodle making. We were at a cooking school with our instructor being a famous udon making chef who owns several udon restaurants. He showed us in steps how to make it allowing us to complete each step after a demonstration of the step. You start with 700g of flour in a bowl. Pour in 200cc of salt water (10% concentration). You mix it together by rubbing the forming dough between your hands quickly. It should result in an even dispersal of the water and a uniform texture to the flour. Then you add 150cc of the salt water a little at a time and you begin kneading the dough. You probably won't use all the water. The dough shouldn't be too soft or sticky, but it shouldn't be too hard either. Then you take the dough and and place it in sturdy plastic bags. 2 should be good. And you knead it again with your heels (no shoes). It's good to put some cardboard down. After you have kneaded it, you pull it out and roll it up. Then you knead it again. And repeat once more. Once it is sufficiently kneaded, you take it out. Then, you fold over three "corners". Then you take the last corner and the three combined corners and you try to pull them together. You must work slowly so the opposite side remains smooth and uncracked. You are trying to work the corners together so that no lines or creases appear in the dough. It should end up like small puckered mouth on the bottom of a dough mushroom. When you have the right shape, you put the mouth part down, so it looks like a proper mushroom and you mush it down with your hands. You don't knead it completely; you just want a nice round mound of dough with no cracks or creases on the top. Then you use cornstarch to dust your dough and your surface. You begin to roll out your dough into a circle with a rolling pin. It should be like a small pizza. After that, you then work it even thinner, but into a square. You can get a square by choosing where your diagonals will be and then rolling the dough on those diagonals. But you don't roll it the traditional way. You actually roll the dough onto the pin. Then you knead it out from the center while it's on the pin. Then you unroll it and move to the next consecutive corner and repeat. Make sure you are using corn starch to dust your dough and surface when you need. Eventually, it should magically take the shape of a square. It should make a rather large square. Almost a meter on each side. When, you have the right size and shape, you roll the dough onto the pin one more time, but from an edge, not a corner. Then hovering in one spot, you unroll the dough moving back and forth so that you are folding the dough over itself, like an accordion or a paper fan. Each fold should be about 2 or 3 inches. Make sure to dust the dough with cornstarch once more. Then you pull the folded dough close to you and with a sharp knife, you cut the dough into noodles. You just need to move along the folded dough and slide it as you go. The slices should be less than half a centimeter. So about 4 millimeters. Maybe even less. Be consistent as you go and make sure you slice all the way through. We didn't slice all the way through at our table and had to cut again to separate the noodles. As you're cutting stop (or have someone else) and pick up the noodles and shake the folds out and get the excess cornstarch off. Then lay them out elongated. Make sure that you separate them well where the cuts have closed up. You should have your water boiling by this point. And you plop the noodles down into the water. You should have enough water to allow them plenty of room as they boil. As you boil them for 15 minutes, you should be constantly stirring in a figure 8. If you like harder noodles, stop sooner and for softer noodles let them boil longer. Then you use a ladle or chopsticks to get them out of the water into a bowl. At this point you can add the broth or the various ingredients you plan to use. Some people will put the noodles immediately into cold water to help the noodles maintain their texture (or if they are going to eat them cold) and then heat them back up later with the broth. I think the broth is just water and soy sauce. But it's probably got more to it or at least can have more to it.

If you made it this far, wow. I really need to learn how to be more concise. It would be helpful.

Here's a couple of links to the news footage from the day. You can see me in the background of the group shot (where everyone is watching the chef demonstrate) in each of the videos. And in one of them you can see me in the background to the right wearing a brown sweater standing next to another guy who is bald in the background (That's Matt, my neighbor).

http://www.rnc.co.jp/news/index.asp?mode=1&nwnbr=2008011809

http://www.ksb.co.jp/newsweb/meta/jn08011804.asx

January Update

2008-01-21T08:45:00.001+09:00

So, this month has been typified by a lethargy due in large part to my inability to decide whether I should recontract or not. Generally, when I have a major decision looming over my head, I tend to do anything and everything but that which would be beneficial. So, rather than discuss the issues with people close to me or make lists with pros and cons in an effort to bring myself closer to a decision, I become lazy and find activities that will take my attention away from that decision. Usually, it involves reading lots of books or playing lots of computer games. Lately, it's been the latter, but one day I read this really good French book called La grammaire est une chanson douce (Grammar is a Sweet Song). When this happens, it not only allows me to procrastinate the inevitable 'to stay or not to stay', but also to put off any unrelated by still quite important work that needs to be done. So the weekend after making mochi, I had three days to recover more fully from traveling and prepare for a presentation to be given on Wednesday to a group of Mitoyo teachers. Did I do either? No, I stayed up late and didn't really sleep in and did no planning at all. So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday preparing.

The Presentation

I really enjoyed myself. I was told to give a talk to a group of teachers and "any topic is OK, maybe American culture." I could get no other information of any use for me to plan. I finally decided on "American School Life from the Perspective of a High School French Teacher". Maybe boring, but something I know about so I can easily liven it up with anecdotes and be more comfortable than with an unfamiliar topic. Once I got going, I couldn't stop. I told them I can talk forever. And me not knowing when something is over in Japan because the cultural context clues are different didn't help the matter. So, the hour-long talk, after starting fifteen minutes late combined with my interest in the topic and the cultural misconnection, turned into an hour and forty-five minute deal. Oops. But I really tried to end it. First at 7:15, since that was an hour from when we started. I said, "Well, it's 7:15 now, and that makes it an hour. We can end there even though we haven't made it through the outline. As I said at the beginning, I planned more than I would be able to finish." Even though I wasn't done, we were at a clear breaking point in the outline with the last part not directly related to school life. It was more a discussion of methods. But no one reacted. I thought I made it clear enough that it was over. And silence isn't always fun, so I started talking again. And that happened a couple more times before finally it ended. But nonetheless, I really enjoyed myself. And the teachers said they found it interesting. (Though I know Japanese culture prevents them from giving any negative comments publically.)

Mid-Year Seminar

Thursday and Friday were given over to the JET Mid-Year Seminar. Of course, I had left my computer and important papers at the school after giving my presentation. And so I wasn't sure of the time the seminar started and I just wanted my computer so I could use email and skype. I sent a text to Matt and found out that he would be leaving at 7:33. So I planned to get up early enough to get ready and get to the school and get my things before then. ZZZZzzzzz.... I slept until 7:05. But I still managed to get up, take a shower, get dressed, ride my bike to school, get my papers and computer, ride back home, drop off my computer, grab my bag, (5 minutes left to the train coming at this point), race to the station and get on the train. I made it with about a minute to spare. This "extra" time almost resulted in me getting on the wrong train since mine hadn't actually arrived yet. It would have taken me in the wrong direction. And in a funny turn of events, Matt missed the train. Then got in the wrong section of a train and, when it decoupled from the rest of the train at a later stop, ended up going across the Seto Inland Sea. Anyway, the first day of the seminar was filled with workshops to make us better ALTs. The funny part is, most of us are gungho about doing our job well. At least at the beginning. And most of what they tell us is not news to us. It's a shame that our JTEs cannot attend the workshops with us, so that we can all have a better understanding of each other's expectations. After the first day though, I was in a foul mood. I didn't even want to eat lunch. I can't remember a time when something made me lose my appetite. It happened when I found out that all the repetitions that we do in class are actually deeply cultural. They have a name and are almost considered a cultural heritage. Definitely a tradition. I thought it was maybe just that methods were a little behind the times here for teaching English. But in actuality, these repetitions are used in all subjects in some way. I thought before that maybe I could influence the teachers to use them less and less or maybe in different ways. But I see now that it's not something that will change. The only thing that I could hope for would be that we use them less in the lessons when I am in there. But for my teachers, I think they really like having their students repeat after a live native speaker rather than the recorded ones. So maybe not so hopeful. Apparently there is a large body of Japanese research that supports the success and usefulness of this repetition. I don't know if it specifically targets language education, but if it does, it contradicts most everything that I have read or learned about language education. If it is successful, it is successful at helping generations of Japanese English learners be able to recite a dialogue (both parts one after the other) 20 years after they learned it. But as most everyone knows, reciting a dialogue is hardly communication. In the unlikely event that a situation presents itself that closely resembles one from the book, the learner may be able to actually start the conversation, but if it differs from the one in the book, chances are there will be miscommunication. Now, what the repetition does do, is help the students memorize bunches of vocabulary. If they work hard at it. And when I put a student on the spot outside of class, it may take a minute, but I can see their brain chugging away searching for a word that they know they know. And eventually, sometimes, they can put together some of those words to make something intelligible to me. Success! But it takes many, many of those opportunities for the student to be able to put all of that random vocabulary to use on their own. And it's when the students use the language on their own, that they can solidify the language in their own mind. If whatever they say is met with a response and it matches their expectation, then they are successful, and the language they used is given a power up. If they get a confused look or the wrong reaction, then they must start over at the beginning. And if they don't get these opportunities to try the language out and get feedback, then eventually time runs out and game over. Most of the useful language is gone from lack of ever being acquired. What is learned can be forgotten, what is acquired is there forever. Like riding a bike. When you are starting out, the explanations you internalize are examples of learning. When you are on the bike and your body is getting accustomed to the sensation of finding equilibrium, it is acquiring.

Anyway, see I love talking about teaching and I could go on forever. Let's just say learning about the repetition made me feel hopeless. And made me focus on whether or not I should re-contract. I had been leaning towards staying, but that made me feel like I would never be really happy at the junior high. And I only go to the elementaries so often. And even there, I don't always get to have a big impact on the lesson planning. After the seminar, I went to eat with friends and then went home.

Friday was better. We got to go in later and it was our cultural workshop. We made UDON!!! See the next post. And after that we had someone from CLAIR (a governmental organization related to JET) give a talk called "Making the Most of your Team-teaching Relationship". It was excellent and included research date from surveys they recently sent out. It was quite interesting. But again would have been made better had the audience included our JTEs. But luckily he had a copy of the notes in Japanese and I plan on showing that to my teachers.

Afterward, a bunch of us went bowling. That was good times. While we were there, we saw the Udon making workshop on the news. We were celebs. And after that we had Indian food and then I went with a group to karaoke where I fell asleep, as usual. I just can't make it through. I stayed at another JET's apartment. We got in around 3 and had to be up at 8 to get back to town to get tickets for the opening of Sweeney Todd. I stayed in town by myself after we got the tickets. I spent TOO much money on doodads at this really cool store called Loft. Then I bought some clothes (as I hadn't packed an overnight bag). I grabbed lunch from the grocery store and went to the international office where I watched the news in English on CNN until 3 when the Robin Hood the Musical auditions were being held. Some JETs are trying to get the play started to put on in June. They have done plays in the past, but it's been difficult to get interest this year. Not enough people showed up to audition. So we've got to recruit more people or it won't happen. It should be fun though if we can pull it off.

After that, a group of us went to Sweeney Todd. That was a pretty interesting if not terribly grotesque movie. I enjoyed it though. It was well done. And afterward, we went to dinner at this really cool cafe type place called Umie. Great food! But I missed the last train that would get me in at a decent time. I can either get home a quarter to 11 or 25 minutes after midnight. I always seem to miss the train by just a few minutes, too, which is incredibly frustrating. Anyway, yesterday was an almost wasted day. I started off pretty well. I did a load of laundry and had it hanging and a second one started and then I let myself get sucked back into the computer. Eventually around 10, I got up and got everything done. I picked up all the junk on my floors, cleared my kitchen table, cleaned my room, hung up that second load of laundry, did the dishes, took a shower, and got to bed. I think part of the wasted day was from not getting good sleep and just being tired. Because I felt pretty energized around 10. Obviously. Made this morning a little difficult getting up and all. But I've managed.

Monday

And once again I failed to know (either by my own deductions or by someone telling me) that I would be teaching no classes today. I mean I guess I don't mind. It's better than when I don't know I'm supposed to be teaching. But I feel like it's such a waste of my being here in Japan. Please utilize me. I'm sure there's an elementary school that would be happy to have me or maybe a kindergarten or pre-school where I could go and give students a small dose of English. But at this point it's kind of late to try and arrange something. Oh well.

Mochi!!!!!

2008-01-10T18:38:00.001+09:00

Bet you thought my next post would be about the Thailand trip. But I'm back and already the Japanese fun starts. After a bit of boring stuff.

Work was a bit dull the first day back. I thought the re-opening ceremony would be bigger and more interesting. Instead the students came in as usual and the teachers all met for about 20 minutes. Then it was cleaning time for a half-hour. Then everyone met in the (freezing) gym for about 30 minutes where the principals talked and presented various awards. Then they had an extended homeroom after which the students went home. That was all done before 11 am. In the afternoon, there was a teachers' meeting. So I just sat in the office until 3:45.

Yesterday was more interesting. I had a couple classes where I talked about my trip and one where I sat for most of the period while the students went over a recent test. Taught a little at the end.

BUT, in the afternoon, the real fun started. I went to Ninomiya (ニノ宮) Elementary for a special day. They were making mochi. Mochi is this mushy rice dough usually used as a dessert. In the olden days, they made it by hand. You make sticky rice first. There is a big stone bowl called an usu. You have to warm it up by pouring in boiling water. But it can't be too wet, so you have to continuously pour it in and ladle it out before you start to make the mochi. When the rice is ready, you pour it in to the usu. There is a special wooden mallet called a kine. It's big and long like an ax, but the end, of course, is like a wooden hammer. You start by kneading the rice in the bowl holding the kine near the top and putting a lot of pressure on it. This gets the rice to start losing it's individual grains. After a bit, you back up and start hammering away at the rice. Usually the men use the hammer. The women have the dangerous job of taking care of the mochi. To make sure all of the rice gets mushed together, the women have to keep turning it over and pulling the rice from the sides of the usu. They do this in between throws of the hammer. It takes good timing so that their hands don't get mashed. While the hammer is down, the women wet their hands, and when the hammer goes up, they move the mochi. It doesn't take long before there is no more rice; it's just a big mushy ball that looks like dough.

Nowadays most families don't make mochi by hand. If they make it at home, they use a machine to do it. The principal wanted the students to have this experience. We did it yesterday because traditionally the Japanese will make mochi for the new year. They make "mochi-bana", mochi flowers. They take branches and wrap pieces of mochi around them to look like flowers. They hang this branch up at the entrance to their houses so it hangs over and brings good fortune and a good harvest for the following year. Mochi is white because it's made of rice, but they add red coloring to it (not sure if it's just dye or something special) to get pink mochi and a type of grass (mugwort) to get green mochi. Since the Ninomiya area is known for its green tea, they used that to make the green mochi.

The principal invited important community members and parents to come in and help make the mochi and she also asked journalists to come in. I got my picture in the paper with some of the kids and a mochi-bana branch.

You can eat mochi in different ways. You can just have a piece of mochi as is. Usually it's powdered with flour since it would be too sticky to handle otherwise. Often there is an that is rolled up inside. An is a sweet red bean paste that you can find EVERYWHERE in Japan. They put it in bread, ice-cream, mochi, cookies. It's a dessert ingredient. You think you're buying a pastry with some berries inside because that's what the picture looks like. NOPE. It's an. (pronounced AHN). You get used to it and you might even begin to like it. Anyway, that's what they did with the mochi from yesterday. But today for school lunch, there was mochi in the soup. Sometimes you can find mochi with ice-cream. The texture is very interesting. Think of a marshmallow but much thicker and less flavorful. If it's in soup, the added moisture changes the consistency. Think of cotton candy but where you can't feel the individual strands. It's like your biting into nothing, yet there is something there.

Not sure if you could ever find it in the states, but mochi is definitely worth trying.

thailand and cambodia

2007-12-26T02:34:00.001+09:00

bangkok was cool. had some fun looking at the wats there and doing some shopping. got a thai massage as well. ate some awesome and crazy cheap street food. 5 of us ate several dishes of food with rice and had fresh squeezed orange juice for under 13 dollars.

we were in phnom penh yesterday and saw some of the city but mainly it was a stop before coming up here to siem reap. it's where angkor wat is. that's the place where tomb raider was filmed.. you know the ruins with the girl and the butterfly that she followed.

it's been amazing and hectic and jarring and breathtaking and just so interesting to see the sites and get to meet the people. tuk-tuks are sooooo fun by the way.

tomorrow is the 6 hour boat ride back to phnom penh. not so fun... especially being up until after midnight... but i had to call my family. it's christmas after all. and i figured if im already up late, might as well blog.

love everyone and miss you.

Hong Kong

2007-12-20T15:30:00.002+09:00

Well that's a first. I was at Kansai Airport at my actual gate ready to board a full 2 hours before we took off. I wasn't thinking about the fact that Alana left on a Saturday and I was leaving on a Thursday. She said to leave plenty of time so as they left the apartment at 6am or so and had a 10am flight as well. So I was up at 5:05 and showered and dressed and left by 5:45 or so. I was a little dazed or I would have been quicker about leaving.

Nothing really of interest to say. I purchased a drink at a restaurant so I could use their internet so I could take care of some online banking stuff and check for any last minute emergency emails from Alana. I'll try and post as often as I can along the way on the trip.

From what I can tell, Hong Kong is very hazy... or smoggy. But then again I'm just at the airport. I can see some huge hotels in the distance, but I won't be able to visit here. Just passing through to Bangkok. Ended up on the plane with another JET from my prefecture sitting right in front of me. He's heading home to New Zealand. A nice 12 hours flying trip for him. Well, I don't want to ramble too long. I do enough of that.

Winter Holidays

2007-12-19T22:44:00.001+09:00

Well, I'm just about to leave for Thailand, 11 hours and counting. (Why did I say that; I just got more nervous!) I've been sick for the past three weeks and have been lazy as a result. Well lazy with the extra things that I usually like to do, like keep up this blog, study Japanese, take care of myself. So, I haven't blogged since the 5th, I haven't touched a text book in about as long, and I have a jungle growing on the back of my neck and my fingernails need cut. But I'm trying to be happy since I'm finally feeling like I'm recovering, though I still have a bit of a cough and runny nose. And I am happy since I've made it through the end of ni-gakki (I think that's how you say the 2nd term) and am in Osaka ready to catch my flight.

I also finally managed to send out some Christmas cards and Christmas gifts. I had wanted to send out cards to a lot of people, but I was sick (and on top of that, I'm a procrastinator) and when I went to look at cards, the only place I had time to go to had ones that were super-expensive. The cost more that it would to send the card. They aren't as big with Christmas cards here. They are more into New Year's cards. The post office has a special box for them, I found out during my several trips there. And apparently they have a special system for them so that ALL the cards are delivered exactly on New Year's day. I didn't really know about this until too late as well. Maybe next time. I'll have to ask the teachers what kinds of cards you get and what you say in them. Anyway, so my Christmas mailing list was short and my gift list was even shorter. But I do love everyone and miss everyone! Even if I've neglected sending you emails that say so. And for those who I didn't manage to send something to:

MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!

I know I've said in others that a picture post was coming and that they haven't appeared. But the really will be posted some day. Just not until after the 8th of January at the earliest. And likely not until after that weekend after I get back. And then of course I will have a zillion more pictures to post from thailand (which will probably take 3 months to post).

Ok, I really need some sleep tonight.

Wish me luck.

Shadow Puppets and Appearance Checks

2007-12-05T16:43:00.002+09:00

The students have been testing all week. Something like 3 tests every morning and then no class in the afternoon. They went home Monday and Tuesday, but today they stayed in the afternoon for a shadow puppet show. Somewhat similar to the bunraku I went to recently in that there was a narrator who was out in front doing the voices and narration. Behind the scenes were the characters moving, but it was all in shadow puppets. Fancy ones. They were different colors with crazy trippy backgrounds. I have no idea what was going on, but it was entertaining enough. Afterward they showed us how they do it and then they did some of the traditional hand shadow puppets that we all know and love. But they did some that I haven't seen before, like a rabbit with the whole body and tail and a swan with body and tail and a snail and a crab. It was fun.

Then, the 9th graders (sannensei/3rd year students) had to go in to get checked for their appearance. Throughout the year I have noticed teachers commenting on hair or uniform, but today it was official. They all had to line up and get checked. Tomorrow is picture day. But not a regular picture day. They will have their picture taken to go on their high school entrance exam. Their bangs can't go past their eyebrows and their sideburns can't be too long. Girls hair is expected to be shoulder-length I believe. Boy's hair can't be all funky and sticking up as is the trend these days. They have to have clean uniforms appropriately buttoned and with their class pins and name tags neatly fastened. It's pretty serious. One teacher would comment on the student while another would write notes on a class roster. I have no doubt they will recheck the student before the picture is taken. I talked with the students who didn't pass. They will be going to the barber's tonight to get their hair cut shorter.

I'm not sure how typical this is across Japan. In discussions with other JETs, I've found that some people have less strict schools or at least schools where the students are not as well behaved and much less compliant. But it's interesting.

Oven!

2007-12-05T07:39:00.001+09:00

Did I mention that I bought an oven?

Well, I did. I thought I would use it for the Thanksgiving potluck, but alas, I didn't plan well. Last night, I was determined to make use of it. I made some toast with the toaster setting and ate that with my dinner. And I had gotten a bunch of ingredients for a casserole that my friend makes. Couldn't find everything I needed, so I had to improvise a bit, but I think it worked out. I'm going to eat that tonight with some friends. Or maybe just one. I didn't sound too confident in the message I sent out to invite them. But I just tried it and it tastes good enough.

Let's see if I keep using it. If nothing else, it makes toast easier than the broiler thing in the range that's supposed to be for fish.

Singing with the Kyoto-Sensei

2007-12-01T12:05:00.001+09:00

So, I meant for this week to be one where I got my apartment in order and got myself organized once again. But then I got sick and let that be my excuse to not do anything really all week on that end at least. Because I actually stayed busy otherwise.

I started off well by writing up a weekly schedule. You may recall that things were pretty slack at work in terms of ... well work. So I was studying Japanese every day for 2 or 3 hours in between classes and elementary visits. Well recently as you may have noted (although perhaps not as I've not posted, that in itself being a sign), I've actually been asked to do more work at school. This has given me little or no time for Japanese study at school and has made me more tired after school so that I go home and crash. Which actually isn't too different from before. I might have done some cleaning or gone out to do something with friends, but as far as doing something productive, I didn't really do. But now that I have to work at work, I am not studying Japanese and not taking care of my apartment or shortening my to do list, which includes various tasks from mailing Christmas gifts to organizing all the important papers that have amassed in a pile in my bedroom (futonroom?). Well, at the beginning of the week, I got my week scheduled out. Not so much a specific, do-this-then schedule, but more of a you have this free time here and this open time at work here, and these are some of the things that you should be doing then, so choose and do. I was starting to feel very rushed at school, but with the schedule done up I think I will be able to manage my time better and perhaps get back to studying some Japanese. There's a teacher who I have asked in the past for some help with my studies and who has recently come up to me multiple times saying she was free and could help me with any Japanese questions I had. Unfortunately, I've been working last minute on lesson plans each time. (Why can I not be concise?) All that to say, I made a schedule and didn't stick to it because I got sick. I hope after this weekend I start feeling better and can commit to it more firmly.

So, this was a perfect week to get sick. I didn't really have much to do. I didn't have a race to prepare for tomorrow, I didn't have to practice singing songs for a cultural festival, I certainly didn't have 3 demonstration lessons to prepare for and which were definitely not observed by board of education members including the superintendent, and I sure didn't have my long commute (25 minute bike ride to an elementary) either. Sure glad that all that didn't happen.

So obviously that all happened.

The long commute: Usually I don't mind it as that is one of the schools where I get to do what I want and I've been having fun with them. But it came on Friday in the afternoon, so at the very end of a long week. And just before lunch, I realized that I didn't have the typed up lesson plan with me at school. It was on my computer at home. So I had to race home to get it and come back before lunch. That worked out well enough and I didn't really have to race. (But I did have to race on Thursday when I realized that I had left my self-introduction posters at home right before my other elementary lesson which is only about 5 minutes at a leisurely pace away. So I was actually on time when I gave myself 10 minutes to get there. But that's when I realized I had to go home and get the posters. It takes 6 minutes at a leisurely pace to get home.... so a little math and... yes, if I were to go at a leisurely pace it would take me 17 minutes to get there making me about 7 minutes late for the lesson. So I raced. By the time I got to my bike and started heading out I had 9 minutes. Somehow, I made it to the school in exactly nine minutes. I know because I kept checking my watch and I arrived when the bell for class was ringing. Geez even my asides are too long.) Anyway, when I got there and started my lesson I realized that I had forgotten some pictures which were essential to a good chunk of the plan. I tried to make something up but that sucked, so I just decided to move on and stretch out the rest of the lesson and that worked. But this class totally wasn't into it like the other one was. So, I rode the 20 minutes back (it's quicker because it's more downhill). And I went home and just crashed in front of the TV. I watched some figure skating that happened to be on and I stayed up to watch the Japan vs. American volleyball game. I've been really into the World Championship that's been going on. I'll miss the game tonight though.

Demo lessons: Each teacher was to be observed for one period by a special prefectural person and evaluated on their lesson. During that lesson, about 8 or 9 local board members would come in for about 5 minutes to observe as well. Since there are 3 English teachers, guess who had not just one observed lesson but 3? Oh yes, that's right the Assistant English Teacher, ME! I wasn't too stressed about it because it's not so much me they are looking at, but the main teacher. But still the stress from the other teachers got to me a little bit. They kept coming to me to check the lesson plan and make sure we were clear. Which was great actually and I think all the plans went well. A couple of times I was thrown a curveball during the lesson, something we hadn't discussed, but it all worked out. And some good came of the evaluation. One of the teachers had been resistant to trying some of the interactive question and answer style that I did back home. I kept trying to explain it to her, saying it was like a discussion. We would read and then discuss by me asking questions that they answer. Well I finally just did it in class without her knowing what I was doing. After the lesson, she came up to me on her own and said that she really liked that and I said "That's what I mean by doing discussion!" And so we did that again for the demo lesson and lo and behold the evaluator commended her for actually using the language with the students in an interactive way. So, I think we will start doing that more. But I really have to commend her. I went up to the other two teachers to ask about their feedback. The first said, " Ok, good." and turned back to her desk. The second said it went well and talked about how much he liked the video she did and everything was great. The third one wasn't embarrassed to talk about the negative stuff as well as the positive. That can be really hard to do, admitting something like that to a peer (or even more so to an inferior, as ALTs are usually seen by Japanese teachers). She said how he thought her handwriting was too sloppy and she sometimes speaks too fast. I think she does fine. It's not my style but she does about the same as the other teachers. My two complaints are that she uses too much Japanese and doesn't escape the confines of the text. But then again, that's like the other teachers. Although they do tend to use English a bit more.

Singing: Today, this morning, I sang with three teachers and a Kyoto-Sensei (vice-principal) at a local cultural festival. We sang Edelweiss and 3 Japanese songs. I only can sing 2 of the Japanese songs as I only started learning them this week. I have no idea what they mean, but I've managed to learn them well enough to read the hiragana as I sing along. I have a picture that I will post of us singing.

Picturepost

It's been fun, but not as much fun as it would be if I wasn't sick.

(sorry gotta run, we are to sing again this afternoon, and we are leaving now. to be continued)

Well the rest of the singing went well enough. We were well fed also. And we went back to the school and that was that.

The race: Afterwards, I went home and started packing. The plan was for a bunch of people to go to Jeremy's in Nio and hang out for the evening and get up in the morning for Nio's First Annual Mikan Good Health Marathon (every run in Japan is called a marathon マラソン). Well that bunch of people dwindled to 3; Jeremy, a friend of his from out of town, and me. So, we met up with a bunch of people in Kanonji for darts, beer, and food. We had a pretty good time. The 3 of us at Jeremy's ended up staying up until about 2, which was silly since we had to be up at 8 15 for race check-in. Luckily, the race was literally next door to his apartment. We all opted for the 8k race. Our omiyage for the race was a big bag of mikan. Nio apparently has really good mikan. Mikan are mandarin oranges. But for some reason, I think of really big oranges when I hear mandarin oranges. These are very small but OISHII!! (delicious) No one collapsed. Everyone finished the race. So it was a success. Jeremy finished first and then me and then Sandra and then Leann. Afterwards we hung out at Jeremy's eating hummus and pasta and watching movies and chatting. Before leaving Nio we all went to the local coffee shop, Café de flots, which was amazingly cool, surprisingly so since it is in this out of the way small town with no train stop.

Wedding Weekend

2007-11-26T08:38:00.001+09:00

Friday after the festival for the Matts and Dan and the onsen for the girls, we went to Takamatsu for dinner to celebrate Sam's birthday. We tried to go to Surfer's for Mexican, but it was closed. Friday was Japan's Thanksgiving holiday. However, theirs is more of a "Thanks for working so hard, please have a day off" day. But people still work on Saturday and possibly Sunday as the concept of a work-free weekend is not a Japanese one. I didn't really understand that until recently. I was confused from the beginning because if I mentioned traveling somewhere or doing something on a weekend, the English teachers would say, "Oh yes, you had yasumi." And I know enough Japanese to know that 'yasumi' means vacation or holiday. And I would politely say, "No, it was just the weekend." It took a while to realize that the teachers actually will come to school and have practice for clubs and do work for lessons etc. on Saturday and Sunday. Maybe not every weekend but the majority I would wager. Anyway, afterward, we went on to Sambommatsu to Angelina's to hang out a bit, after which Sam and I headed back to hers.

Saturday morning, Sam and I went shopping in her town which had very few stores to get something dressy for me to wear to the wedding dinner. I did eventually find something but had to pay more than I intended, but it's ok. They are things I will wear again. Anyway, the wedding was between Dustin, a former JET that I met in Tokyo when the JETs from my prefecture went out together and Xiaofang, a woman who lived in the town he was teaching in. They met at their Japanese class. He's a cool guy who hails from Georgia coincidentally and graduated from UGA. We were there at the same time actually but never crossed paths. And Xiaofang comes from China and is funny and beautiful and very intelligent. They married officially a few months ago but are having celebrations in China, Japan, and the US because of their origins and the place they met. They are living in Tokyo now and will be there for a while.

The celebration was very nice. They had profiles instead of programs so that we could read about them and things like their first impressions of each other. It was a good idea. They had three people give speeches and we kanpai'ed. One of the speeches was done by the woman who coordinated the event; she was the teacher of the Japanese course they met in. The whole thing was bilingually emcee'd as well. Xiaofang did a Japanese dance as well that was quite beautiful. I took some pictures, but I was too far away to get any good ones. I'll post some if they turn out.

Afterward, we went to a local izakaya where we had an after party. The newlyweds joined us and it was quite nice. Afterward a bunch of us headed back to Angelina's where we all crashed. I left before most people were up since I wasn't feeling too well after several late nights and a couple of those including drinking. I got home and did 3 loads of laundry and watched too much TV. I was just exhausted. I really had been going hard since Wednesday night (out to a bar with friends for no real reason, just to hang out). I watched the volleyball game. For some reason, I've been really getting in to the World Volleyball Cub (I think it is) and rooting for Japan. They beat Egypt last night, but overall, they have some work to do to make it to the top 3. And the end.

Bunraku

2007-11-26T08:25:00.001+09:00

After Thanksgiving a bunch of us (Matt, Sam, Angelina, Nick, Megan, and me) stayed at Matt's. We were to watch 300 but it was too late to start it really. We missed an earlier train and had to wait for one getting us home after midnight I think.

Friday, I got up and got breakfast and around noon Nick went home and Matt and I left the girls to go to a festival in Mino. The girls went to the local onsen (Japanese hot bath). The festival had the requisite food stands and kids' game stands. But this one also had people selling lots of plants. I could't resist and bought an azalea and some pine trees that I might try to do some bonzai with. They are really small, so don't get the wrong picture.

And at 1:00 o'clock there was bunraku at the local international civic center. (Can local and international describe the same thing?) Bunraku is a special type of Japanese puppetry. The puppets are quite large with movable hands and eyes. The puppeteers are dressed in black and cover their faces in black as well. They don't attempt to hide themselves during the play. It's as if they are to be considered shadows in the background. The puppeteers don't do any talking for the puppets. Off to the side and usually elevated a bit, you will see generally two people. One will read the narration and the dialogue using a special singing type voice. The woman would use different notes and variations to distinguish the different characters and her narration. Next to the narrator is the shamisen player. Shamisen is a Japanese stringed instrument that is plucked with a special device. They have a very unique sound. The music supports the spoken language and the movements on stage. It's all very cool. Though, I obviously couldn't understand the show, I think I caught that the language was an older form or something of Japanese and the first couple of acts were very emotionally wrought while the last ones were funny and triumphant. I enjoyed it and would like to see something like it again, perhaps when I've learned more Japanese. Apparently, what we saw was a specialized form of bunraku called Sanuki gen, I think, as my prefecture was formerly known as Sanuki.

(Picturepost and videopost to come)

Thanksgiving Dinner

2007-11-24T11:26:00.001+09:00

Chris Brashears is a nearby JET in Tadotsu (he hosted the BBQ a while back) who hosts the yearly Thanksgiving dinner. About 10 of us showed up this year and everyone brought something to share, a recipe from home that makes you feel all warm inside. That was the request at least. And he provided the specially ordered turkey. I didn't realize that night, but apparently it was supposed to show up Wednesday, but didn't arrive until noon on Thursday, still frozen. So he had to thaw it and cook it in about 6 hours. But it turned out great. And the food everyone brought was good too. Since I couldn't get all the ingredients I needed for my mom's green bean casserole (mainly because I'm a bad planner, I really could probably have found everything at foreign foodstores in Osaka) I made my dad's hariata. (Don't know if that's how it's spelled.) Anyway, it's a whisky drink made by boiled a cinnamon stick until the water is almost gone and then adding sugar and simmering that until it's a syrup and then mixing in the whisky until everything is dissolved together. Pour it back in the bottle and keep the cinnamon stick in it and there you go. I've never made it before, but it turned out quite well, and everyone who tried it enjoyed it for the most part I think.

Good times.

Another Update

2007-11-21T17:26:00.001+09:00

Sorry guys. I know it's been another week since I last updated. And I've been horrible about keeping in touch via email and real mail. I'm trying. I think I've been going a bit to hard on the weekends and letting myself off to easily on weeknights saying it was a long day... even if it really wasn't. Also, I've been keeping fairly busy on weeknights with going to dinner and hanging out with friends and I saw my first movie in Japan and it was a Japanese one. It was called Crow's Zero. It was about a high school gang turf war. It was pretty wicked at parts, had a couple of goofy scenes, but was very much like a manga (Japanese comic book) just in movie form.

I managed another weekend trip to Osaka. This time I planned on less partying out and more touristy stuff, but the actual ratio this time was only slightly lower. Out til 4 on Friday night and out til maybe 2ish or a bit later on Saturday night. This time I didn't take a whole day off. I went up Friday after school and came back Monday morning taking a half day off and working my afternoon classes (well one before lunch and one after). The trip didn't start off too well. I, of course, had procrastinated, but not too bad this time. I had my packing started and mostly thought out. I knew I would have about an hour after my last class until my train. I was able to finish my packing quickly and thought I would grab a shower since I had just biked from my elementary school. I think that did it, made me late I mean. I had wanted 15 minutes so I could calmly ride to the station, get money, and get my tickets squared away. But I still had 10 minutes to catch the train. No problem. Except I step outside with my suitcase and bookbag and see that it has suddenly started raining. It went from cloudy and dry to somewhat sunny and rainy. So I went back in and grabbed my umbrella went downstairs road my bike to the station still getting soaked along with my suitcase. When I saw my bank, I realized that I hadn't gotten my money out yet (my bank doesn't have ATMs in Osaka and my card wasn't accepted the last time I went and I ran out of money). So I went for my wallet and it wasn't in my pocket. It's still raining, I'm thinking my wallet is at home, I'm already soaked, I now have 6 minutes to get the train.

(post continued a few days later)
I'm trying to decide if I should leave my suitcase when I bike home to get my wallet. Then I realize that I had packed it in my backpack. So I grab it out and get money out of the ATM. I race over to the station in time to see the train pulling away. So I was wet along with all my belongings AND I still missed the train. Then I go to the counter to get my ticket squared away. As I'm walking away somehow my button gets caught and pops off. I was about to just go home, but I waited it out and got on the train. Oh and between when I started this post and finished it, I discovered that there is actually a cheaper and marginally quicker way to get to Osaka. There's a bus for about ten bucks cheaper. It requires no stops or transfers. You don't have to worry about your belongings because they are stowed beneath you. Oh well, for next time.

Anyway, so Osaka was pretty great! I got in and met with Sophie, a friend of Alana's that I met last time, and her friend Tamir. We grabbed some dinner and then met Alana back at her place. We started the night there and then cabbed it over to a former NOVA teacher's apartment for a goodbye party. (NOVA if you haven't heard of it, was the biggest (keyword: was) private English teaching company in Japan which recently collapsed and went bankrupt amid financial scandal and questionable business practices a month or so ago. The Japanese workers hadn't been paid since July and the foreign employees hadn't been paid since September before the company officially and publically acknowledged anything was wrong and promptly filed for bankruptcy. Anyway, so there was and is a big crisis for all these former foreign employees trying to find work or leave the country, paying for past due bills and rent, because some of them were a bit clueless because nothing official was said until the very last minute, but there had been rumblings and the more savvy had made preparations. End sidenote.) It was a pretty cool party, just hanging out and talking and dancing etc. Then our group of people left and went for ramen. And afterward we headed for a bar and hung out for a bit and eventually went home around 4. That was supposed to be my early night. Oh well. I was up at 8 for some reason. Alana had to babysit for a friend and I was deciding on whether to join her or go off by myself and do touristy stuff. I eventually just decided to stay with her and we had fun with her friends' daughter at the part. She was cute. Afterward, Alana suggested Nara instead of Kyoto. So we went there. Unfortunately the main temple was closed so I didn't get to see the huge buddha that resides there, and the lights weren't on at the gate to illuminate two other big guardian statues. But we did get to see some great views from the top of the hill and the changing colors of the leaves. AND!!! There are deer that wander around there. All over. They are kind of in a park, but there aren't really any fences, so they just wander around all over. AND!!!! The monks train them to bow. So you can buy little cakes and walk up to them and bow and they will bow and then you give them the food. IT'S SO FUN!!! Then we went souvenir shopping and ate Vietnamese before heading back to Osaka where the group got together once again and went out this time to celebrate Alana's friend James's birthday. It was pretty fun. We just went to some local bars and I eventually left early because I was pretty tired. But early was maybe 2 am I think.

On Sunday, I was up around 9 maybe and was getting ready and then Alana was up. I was considering leaving early and then she would join me, but it seemed silly to go since she was already up and getting ready. So, I waited and we left and grabbed lunch (which was soooo good, we had galettes, I haven't had those since France) and headed to the station where Sophie joined us. We were on the train by about 1 I think and in Kyoto by 2. We started in Arashiyama which isn't in the city center. It's more to the west in the mountains. TONS of people there to walk around and see the leaves changing. We walked through this realllllly cool bamboo forest and took some nice pictures and bought some souvenirs and ate candied fruit. We mainly do candied apples in the states, but here they have candied strawberries, mikan (oranges), pineapple, plums, etc. It's nice. Then, we headed to the center of Kyoto, specifically the Shijo area to meet up with Sandra and Aki, friends of mine from Kanonji in my prefecture. They were traveling and we thought it would be neat to meet up. And we walked along the main strip over to Gion and area of Kyoto known for it's small shops and restaurants. A bit touristy, but we were in the souvenir mood. I think I have a lot of my Christmas shopping done. Which is odd for me, since I'm usually last minute. The test comes with whether or not I will get everything shipped in time. We ate Indian together and then around 9 Alana, Sophie and I went back to Osaka. I packed up my bags as Alana uploaded all the pictures of the weekend and we got to bed around midnight maybe. I had thought I was going to have to get a 5 am train. But luckily I found one that left just before 7 that would get me in at 11 in time to go to work at 11 30. I had just taken the morning off. So all in all, it was a very nice weekend.

I was pretty tired though during this week. I dozed off Monday and Tuesday night around 9. Wednesday night I bought a small oven hoping to get ingredients and such together to make something for Thanksgiving, but that didn't work really.

That's better.

2007-11-14T10:19:00.001+09:00

I had to get the immediate frustration out. And I tried working on it, because an hour is a fair amount of time, but it just wasn't happening. So, I talked with the teacher and she agreed to wait until next week. Chances are they will still be working on the lesson or will only just have finished it. So today I will try to do a simple religious explanation of the holiday and next week I will do more of the mostly secular traditions surrounding Christmas.

Arggghhhh!!!

2007-11-14T09:53:00.001+09:00

So. Frustration level is up now. Since I don't have that much actual work, I try to keep myself busy by studying Japanese. This morning I've been studying kanji. So, an hour before a lesson (and believe me, I'm thankful it was that much, considering it's been as little as 3 minutes before, but not for something this involved) I was asked to, you know, whip up a Christmas lesson like my Halloween one. WHAT?! That took me at least 4 hours to get all together. I had spent several hours searching for clip art, making little cards, creating a Halloween quiz in Japanese, etc for my elementary lesson. And when I did the lesson in the Junior High I wanted a quiz in English and a little puzzle and that itself took about an hour to complete. And on top of that trying to simplify how to explain a holiday into words and grammar structures that the students know is reallllly difficult. And so I'm supposed to just put together a similar lesson in less than an hour. I've only now just brainstormed some simplified topics related to Christmas. And realized I was superfrustrated because she really wants a worksheet to go along with the lesson. And I know there's a crap ton of clip art but it's hard to get it all sized right and put on a single worksheet... argh... I guess maybe I'll check out mes-english.com... apparently it has good stuff. But when I don't usually like using ready-made lessons and things because it's not exactly what I want. Guess it will have to do because I'm not going to stress myself out for this.

PLUS! It's freaking November 14th!!!! And why are we doing the lesson now???? Because that's the next lesson in the book. And heaven forbid we skip it and come back. (Then again, I know that would be very difficult since this book actual works in a cumulative fashion, which is good. But the timing is a bit off.) I had Thanksgiving on my mind. Was thinking of putting something together for that. Oh well. And no luck having a predecessor who had their act together to have some leftover lessons and materials to work with. There is a box o' Christmas crap in my apartment most likely from before my predecessor's time. But it's there and I'm at school.

Oh and did I mention, I didn't go to a single class at the junior high yesterday?!?!? I was sitting at my desk twiddling my thumbs alllllllll day!!! (well studying Japanese, but you know what I mean, doing no work!!!!)

SOOOO frustrated.

Forgot to post this.... mmmm.... FISH!

2007-11-08T09:08:00.001+09:00

So, remember that fried fish that was curled up and facing me as I ate it??? Yeah, thought you might. Well, that was on a Friday. And lucky me, I got more fish with the head still attached on Monday!! I forgot to post the picture though. So, here you are! Enjoy!

Yes, these were what I ate. They are called シシャモン (shishamon) which sounds like sea salmon to me, but I forgot to ask if that's really what it is. Usually, they are pregnant, but I think the ones I had weren't pregnant, because I didn't get the gritty texture that people told me you usually get. And the eggs didn't burst out like they did to my friend when he had it. Anyway, believe it or not, I liked this more than the fried up fish from the Friday before. I could actually see myself ordering this at a restaurant possibly. Oh and as usual, if those two weren't enough fish for you, the side dish of mixed vegetables on the plate also contains the little minnows. You can never have enough fish in Japan!

Quick Update

2007-11-06T09:04:00.001+09:00

Sorry, it has been a while since I posted. Let's see. Halloween Party on the 27th. It was fun. Drank too much. Resolved to treat my body better and start getting back into shape. I've been running semi-regularly since then. Just went this morning actually. The past week was pretty good. A bit off because I didn't really have a good sleep after the party and I didn't sleep at all that Sunday night. But it was still ok. I got to do my Halloween lesson all week which was fun. It was different for each level because the teachers didn't all have the same picture of what I was doing. One gave me 5 minutes (which invariably turned into 10-15), one gave me about 20-25 minutes (she gave me more and more time as the week carried on), and one gave me the whole period (I think she was happy about not having to plan the lesson). I had a lesson first thing Monday morning and of course I wasn't prepared. When I saw she only gave me 5 minutes to talk about Halloween, I thought, "Great! I'll just talk a bit and she'll translate and we'll move on." Yeah, I wish it would be that simple. I talked too fast; she couldn't translate easily because I hadn't chosen common words and simple sentences constructions and she was on the spot; and it was boring besides. So, I spent the 2nd period which I had off fixing the lesson and adding to it especially since I was going to have 20 or so minutes in the next one. The next one was 1000 times better. I chose my words better to make it easy for the students to try to figure out the meaning just from my words and easy for the teacher to translate ensuring that all the students understood. I had laminated picture cards (already prepared from an elementary lesson) and a fill-in-the-blank and crossword worksheet. I had Halloween stickers. By the end of the week, the lesson was just about perfected. I even remembered in the last lesson of the week to bring the witch's hat and the ghost's sheet and dressed up the students. During the 2nd lesson, I realized it would be good to liven things up a bit, so I added a mid-speech scare. I chose someone who wasn't quite paying attention and casually walked to their desk as I talked and "Boo!!" made them crap their pants. Even though I taught the same thing in all the classes, I managed to scare the kid every time. I even got 2 kids in the same class a couple times. But by the end of the week, I was sick of Halloween, but I had already agreed to help Tye with a Halloween culture thing in one of his teacher's towns on Saturday the 3rd. That took from noon until 7 and it wasn't all that great. But the drive there was neat. It has given me some new places I might bike and/or run to.

Sunday, we had school. Yes, since Japan has no national religion officially (unofficially, it might be Shinto, I think, but even then, I don't think they have a sabbath day as in Christianity) you can have school and/or school events any day of the week. We had Sports day practice on Saturday and sports day on Sunday. And Sunday, we had classes in the morning and it was sort of open house. So during 2nd period, families started showing up and walk around the school and the classes had put projects and assignments on display. The parents also got to walk into the classrooms as lessons were being taught to observe their child in class. Then, in the afternoon, we had the chorus contest. Every homeroom has to sing the school song (I think that's what it was) and then they got to choose their own song to sing. They've been practicing everyday for about a week and a half. Some classes were canceled to allow for practice. People stayed after school to practice. And there is no choice. Everyone participates. And so we all go to the gym (yeah have I mentioned the lack of an auditorium. I guess that's not so different from the US. I remember my elementary schools had stages in the gym or cafeteria. Well, the stage is in the gym. But the difference is that no chairs are brought in. Everyone sits on the floor. There are a few bleachers at the back, but not enough even for just the parents. But remember gym shoes are different from outdoor and indoor shoes. So officially there shouldn't really be any dirt on the floor.

Anyway, all the homerooms got up and sang their two songs and some teachers and student leaders were judges and voted on who did the best. At the end the trophies were awarded to the 2 best 3rd year homerooms.

Yesterday was a regular day at school. Though, I did manage to take over part of the lesson. The teacher had come to me earlier to say what we were doing and she mentioned that she disliked these pages in the book because they were boring. So, before the lesson I came up with something that might make it more relevant to them. It worked out, but then again I have an edge sort of. I think in general since I'm not their real teacher and I'm a foreigner, things I do might seem that much more interesting. Anyway, they were practicing how to say whether you agree or disagree with someone. The book had some lame situation about cell phones and whether or not middle schoolers should have one. I mean I guess it would be interesting if it wasn't in the text book. But then again, I think the controversy over cell phones has past if there ever was one. But it's still in most textbooks as something to hopefully grab students' attention. It never does. Anyway, I didn't think what I came up with was good, but I figured I'd give it a try. I just wrote 4 sentences and the students had to write whether they agree or not and give an additional thought or explanation. The example was "Math is difficult." With possibly answers: "I agree. I have to study a lot." or "I think so, too. I don't understand it." "I disagree. I think it's interesting." or "I see what you mean, but I think it's useful." The sentences I gave them were: "Students should study for 5 hours after school every day." "English is the best subject." "Fall is the most beautiful season." "School lunch is always delicious." The teacher said she thought they really tried to answer these seriously when usually they don't take their work seriously. So, it felt good. And I asked her to collect the notebooks so I could look at the sentences and give them feedback.

I had been asked by my supervising teacher to help her grade notebooks. But it turns out she just was feeling too busy and tired and wanted me to do the useless/meaningless stamping of the book. You just go to the last page write the date and stamp or sign it. No checking really. No comments really. No actual assignment that I could tell either. Students just spent hours copying vocabulary, sentences or entire dialogs from the textbook. No evidence of understanding. No evidence of cognition. Simply copying shapes from one page to another page. Anyway, because of that, and because of the way she asked me to do it, I wasn't really happy about it. But collecting notebooks that actually have some work that can be corrected or commented on, that I'll do. I guess it helps, too, if I'm the one who assigned it. But I can't tell if it's that I'm the one who came up with it or if it's that I know what I'm actually looking at and grading.

Anyway, that brings us to today. This morning I went for a run, but before I did, I managed to get a shot of the little elementary students on their way to school. They all wear their uniforms, and when they are on their way to or from school, they have their yellow hats. AND if it is raining, like today, they have their yellow umbrellas.

(Sorry, picture to come soon.)

Now I'm heading out to do some shopping. I'm playing soccer on Saturday and need some cleats. I also want to get a winter coat before it gets too cold. I'm sure I'll find some other things I absolutely need along the way. Well, I'm off.

Halloween Party

2007-10-31T07:06:00.000+09:00

Badminton Club

2007-10-24T18:14:00.001+09:00

Today was good. Maybe I'm getting the hang of the sort-of teaching that they are asking me to do. I enjoyed the classes for the most part. Got my Japanese studying in. About 3 hours or so. (Found out that I've gone now from 2 classes tomorrow to 4 classes. Because I missed class 1-1 earlier this week because she was passing out tests and I couldn't teach 2-1 today because of chorus practice.) But it should still be ok, they are still spaced out pretty well tomorrow. And I don't have elementary because it was canceled.

Anyway, after school I came home and unloaded my stuff, checked email, picked up my bedding to hang it outside, knitted a few rows, and changed to gym clothes. I asked Monday if I could go to badminton club. So, that's where I went this afternoon. It was pretty fun. Boy am I tired!! All the running and reaching and hitting. And after my first-in-a-long-time run yesterday, I think I will be super-sore tomorrow. But it was worth it. Tonight, I'm going to Tye's eikaiwa (Remember that one? Yes, community adult English class. Think more conversation class.)

I'm actually ready early for it. I thought I was gonna get picked up at 6 so I was in the shower by 5:58 and ready by 6:05. (Take a sip ST and AH!) But I won't be picked up until 6:40.

Cleaning and Thai/Japanese Food

2007-10-24T09:39:00.001+09:00

Monday, I had some major cleaning to do. I had left all the mess from making my costume for the weekend. And Sunday night, I didn't have time to clean because I got in so late. I had to wear a sweater because I hadn't washed any of my dress shirts. It's still a bit warm for sweaters. So anyway, I got 2 loads of laundry done and all my mess cleaned up. I stained the table red though from the food coloring. And I left a quart of milk on the table that went bad. Along with a thing of butter. That was annoying. So yeah, it was a super exciting day for me Monday.

Yesterday (Tuesday), school was fine. Got a fair amount of Japanese studying done. Went to elementary and had a pretty good lesson. This one teacher keeps having me read a book in the last 5 minutes. I don't understand. Like, yeah if I just read "Brown bear, brown bear" straight through I could finish in 5 minutes. But that's not how you read a book. At least not a storytime book. You have stop and ask questions. Do voices. Get crowd participation. Review. Act it out. I could probably spend 30 minutes reading "Brown bear, brown bear" and still have extension activities I could do for afterward. Seriously.

Anyway, after I got home, I finally went running again for the first time in a month or two. I think I've gone running maybe 6 times total since I've been here, and 4 of the those times were right when I arrived when I was waking up at 5 in the morning and had nothing else to do. I happened to pass the track club for my junior high and so I stopped and chatted with them for a while. I was taught how to throw discus and did a long jump. It was fun.

Then, a bunch of us west siders went out to Jeremy's where we had yakisoba (fried noodles with veggies) and thai curry. It was good food and good company. We got home later than I thought it was gonna be so I'm pretty tired today. I was late, of course. Today, though, was the first day the bell had finished ringing by the time I got in the door. Usually, I manage to get there right before it rings or as it's ringing. Oh well. I'll try harder next time.

Craft Day

2007-10-22T22:24:00.001+09:00

After the Halloween party, I went straight to Takamatsu. Yes, that's right. As a zombie, I took the train (45 minutes) all the way to the capital city. Then I proceeded to walk the 15 or so minutes to the restaurant where I was meeting friends, in a very well lit shotengai (covered pedestrian-ish shopping thoroughfare) still in my zombie garb. I had one lady walk completely to the other side to avoid me. And I caught several Japanese-standard I'm-staring-but-I'm-nots. It was pretty fun.

We had some food at the Sea Dragon which has good foreign food. Their tacos are delicious!! (Note that's taco, not tako, cause tako is octopus! I wonder if a tako taco would be good?) Then we meandered to the station to catch a train out to the east side.

We went to Angelina's to watch an episode of "The Office" and the Nick and I went with Sam back to hers to crash for the night.

In the morning, we all met up and went to a flea market that Angela had heard about from her eikaiwa (adult community English class). It was cool. You had to pay 100 yen to get in and then you go around to all the booths and it was basically like an American flea market. I found some cool cups and sake glasses. I also bought a neat looking plant. Sam found a Mariah Carey Christmas CD. It was good times.

Afterward, we headed to Alison's where we met to do some crafting. First, we got some bento (ready-made lunches in plastic containers from the grocery store) and then we went to the beach. We ate and then walked around collecting sea glass -- you know, those bits of glass that have been worn smooth by the sand and water -- and other beachy-type items worth collecting. Next, we went back to her apartment for some good ole crafting. She was a textile major and so has lots of crafty/artsy experience and know-how. She had a whole sewing machine set-up. We started off by most of us learning to knit. Then, I went through the stuff I collected at the beach to see if I got any ideas for making something. Which I do, but I have see if it will work. But before we could really do much more, it was time to go. So, I'm working on a scarf now. It's kind of cool being able to make something like that. I feel productive. We might try to meet regularly to do more because it was a lot of fun. It was sitting around and having fun. And not drinking.

Nick and I took the train back to Takamatsu. I knitted; he played video games. But then at one point I stopped and we played Tetris against each other on our DS Lites. That's a cool feature: being able to connect wirelessly to another DS and play. I think you can do up to four. Maybe more, I don't know. We played 4 player Tetris on the train the night before. It was pretty cool. Or dorky. Depending on your perspective.

Kids' Halloween Party

2007-10-20T18:30:00.001+09:00

The party went well. I, of course, was running late. Who would have thought? Well, I was instructed to be something really creepy, so I went with zombie. I found a site that had instructions for making good entrails to hang out of my stomach. And then I found a website for making fake blood. That was the mistake. I don't know why I didn't just think to use regular paint or markers. (I ended up using the former.) So, it took several trips to various grocery stores, lots of dictionary usage, and a few hours of mixing to figure out that you can't make fake blood with an American recipe and Japanese ingredients. That's when I happened to see my markers and thought, "DUH!!" Well, here's how I looked in the end:

I ended up only about 15 minutes late for the set up time. But it was OK. Everything was already done even before I was supposed to be there. So we were just milling around for a while. Then, all the kiddies came. I tried to stay in character most of the time. I would lay down for a while and then grab a kid as they walked by. It was fun. Except there were two or three kids who cried just when they saw me. That wasn't so fun for the mom's, I don't think. I helped during the activities, but then my main job was the trick or treating. I sat in this miniature house and the kids came and knocked and I gave them candy.

Good times were had by all.

Halloween Costume and Fall Festival Out Back

2007-10-20T09:44:00.002+09:00

So, I'm trying to decide what I want to be for the kid's Halloween party this afternoon. Surprise, surprise, I've procrastinated once again. The woman who is putting this together told me to be something creepy. So I think I will go with zombie. It's a classic and can be gory. Maybe some intestines falling out of my stomach cavity.

Anyway, so as I'm deciding what to be, I hear the telltale sound of taiko drums and a bell. (It's not a bell; it looks like a gong but it's high pitched; however, I don't know what it's called.) Well, they were right next to my conbini. I thought I might throw on some clothes and go out and watch, but it would have taken too long and I would have only seen a little bit of what I had already seen before. If only I could see them from my window....

As luck would have it, the next stop on their tour around the town was right behind my apartment. So, here are some pictures of the taiko drummers, the dragon, and the bell ringer with the spectators in the background.

(By the way, did you know you can see the full sized image by clicking on it?)The dragons have two dancers underneath. One that moves the head around and another that controls the body and tail. They can make some pretty interesting movements that look fairly creepy. It's interesting to watch the different groups way of dancing. Note the guy in the background with the mini-beer at 9:30 in the morning. Yes, the Japanese love their drinking. In general and especially at festivals.
These are the taiko drums and the little drummers. Usually it's a boy and a girl that drum with two men that get the beat going and maintain the rhythm. Those two old people live in the house behind my apartment.

This is a short video of the end of the dance.

Today's Lunch!

2007-10-19T13:27:00.002+09:00

Just had to post this. I promised some lunch pictures and here is today's.By the way, I ate it head first. Seriously.

i'm so beat.

2007-10-18T19:45:00.001+09:00

and i have probably around 1300 pictures already and only 400 or so are somewhat organized. yeah i guess ive been picture crazy. its a good thing though... i think. at least my time here will be well documented. and i thought 2000 pictures over my year spent in france was a lot.

and plus im really tired today... just absolutely drained. i didn't clean or cook or do pictures or even study japanese. and that's been what i do almost every free minute i have. i guess today was different because i was actually working. planned for 2 straight hours. did two lessons. went to lunch. had to scarf half a bowl of white rice in about 2 minutes cause i talked too much and all of sudden lunch was over. then i gathered all my elementary stuff and rode the 20 minutes to the school... on a bike, remember? did a mediocre lesson there because i was already feeling a bit sick and tired... but it still went ok. and all that effort i put into it. actually i think it went very well, im just seeing in clouded by my current mood. there were things that i could have done better and if i get to do the lesson again, ill be able to fix them.

anyway, so yeah, it will be a few days for the pictures. ive got a pretty packed weekend planned. maybe poker night tomorrow, costume hunting sat. am, kids halloween party sat. afternoon, dinner/karaoke in takamatsu sat. pm, craft day on the east side sun., come home sun. pm.

but i have taken the first step and the pictures are now all on my computer. here are a few from today to add some interest.

First Pictures

2007-10-18T19:44:00.001+09:00

Sunrise by my apartment this morning.

Footprints that mark where students will be entering a street or sidewalk. Near Asa, today.
Woman sowing seeds. Taken today on my way back from Asa.

Halloween Lesson and Pictures

2007-10-17T17:49:00.001+09:00

Hey, I get to plan my own lesson for tomorrow. Except all that pent-up lesson-planning potential has now exploded. I literally spent about 5 straight hours working on it and it's still not done. Given, I had interruptions, I was working in Japanese (that I don't know) a bit, and the internet computer in the office won't let you download files to a USB drive -- I was printing (original image), scanning, downloading (the scan to my USB drive), uploading (from USB to my computer), editing, downloading (back to the USB), re-uploading(to the office computer), re-editing (since paper sizes are different in Japan), and then re-printing (the final image). Since, even the editing of the clip art images was taking a while, I didn't want to sit on the office computer seemingly playing around in the paint application.

Anyway, I think it will be fun. I was gonna go straight for the storytelling that I did for French, but I thought, since it seems they are letting me plan what I want, I would prepare them for a future story. So, they are learning some good verbs that will help make a story along with a lesson on Halloween and the necessary noun vocabulary - witch, ghost, jack-o'-lantern, etc.

Oh, and I promise, now that I have internet pumping directly into my very own computer, I will soon be uploading pictures to make this blog a lot more interesting to read and look at. I also have a Google Picasa account and will give out the link as soon as I start getting pictures in albums there. I'll put most of the pictures that I take (you know some of them are too scandalous for public) and only post here the photos most relevant or necessary to what I'm blogging about. As well I'll include ones that I think are just cool. I haven't been doing a good job of uploading photos from my camera and organizing them so far. I have one full memory stick and one half full one. Hopefully, this internet connection will be my motivation. I had meant to get that done today at work, except I forgot all the necessary cords at home, not to mention I was busy working on my lesson junk.

Good Lesson at Chugakko

2007-10-16T13:33:00.001+09:00

Today was fun at the junior high. Even though they are testing tomorrow and Thursday, I got to come to the class. It sounded like I would just be sitting there for half of it. But she had me prepare some questions using the target sentences so I could ask a few after they reviewed and before they studied. Well, they didn't get to study really; we had just a good time with the questions.

I got to do the questioning sort of like my regular style with French. It's harder, though, now that I'm in a foreign culture. I almost missed the prime opportunity to win over the class's attention. One kid said that he did play an instrument, and when I asked him which one, he answered castanets. I almost didn't realize that the class was laughing at his answer and was about to move away when I decided to stick with him and ask some more questions. And before we knew, we were all interested in his castanet playing and I was then able to move around the room with most of the kids paying attention even when I moved away from the subject of castanets. I would make sure to revisit the student occasionally to reintroduce the humor. It was good fun. Didn't have the same luck in the next class, but you can't really recreate something like that just as you can't force something like that to happen. At least not in Japanese culture. In America, I was able to do a 'wink, wink', and the student would know to answer with something silly. Oh well, still learning to maneuver in this foreign culture. My old tricks just don't work quite the same.

Well, I'm off to elementary. I hope it goes well.

INTANETTO!! インタネット！！

2007-10-15T17:14:00.001+09:00

Sorry it's been 10 days since the last post. I have one actually mid-draft, but I was pulled away from the computer at school and I've long since stopped taking my computer back and forth between home and school. But guess what? Could you figure out the title of the post? Yes, it's true. I now have internet. My very own home connection. It only took two and a half months of waiting, an entire afternoon of connection and agony and misunderstanding and impatience and near misses and, when all seemed lost, when hope was all but extinguished, victory! Sweet, sweet victory.

Yes, I raced home after lunch because I was late. I was supposed to be home and ready from 1 to 5 in the afternoon. I got home at 1:05, worried that perhaps, as is the cultural norm, the internet guy would have arrived punctually and left. But there were no notes on my door or in my box. So, I didn't miss him. He showed up thankfully (at first at least) within about 15 minutes. He had a little doodad that apparently showed him that my phone jack was now internet capable. That took about 15 minutes. Then, in Japanese that I didn't really understand, he told me that the connection was good and asked if I had a modem. I did not, and he said when I get it, I can connect it right away with no problems. Great! Except I don't remember hearing anything about a modem. I actually had some vague memory that my supervisor asked me if I already had one when he was signing me up online. I thought that I had said I did since my computer has some sort of internal modem and wireless capability and all that. So, I went to the local electronics store and got some cords that said ADSL and bought them and came home to find that they didn't fit. So I went back. Found cords that would fit. Came back. Didn't work. Pondered my situation for a while. Then I decided to grab my dictionary and my set up information packet along with a pen and paper for drawing if it came to it and head to the electronics store where there is a Yahoo BB! (internet service provider) desk. I was literally out my door when I saw a van pulling in and a guy get out. He looked at the mailboxes and seemed a bit confused. Then, I went downstairs and he said, "ごひゃくさん？”　And I said, "はい！" and he opened the doors to his van and voila! My very own Yahoo BB! set up modem pack!!!

So I raced upstairs, only vaguely aware of the fact that I might have missed him had I left only a couple minutes earlier which would have necessitated another prolonged wait period for a second delivery time for which I most likely would have had to take more time off of work, to finish my set up process. I took the time to translate the poster that has the pictures of all the wires and outlets and how things go. I just wanted to be sure. So, I got the order of what to plug in when figured out. I did that. Then I had the CD ROM and I put that in... "Not supported on English OS." What!!?!? So, I freaked out a bit. I texted a friend. And as my phone was buzzing this a message from him that said to do so, I was clicking on my firefox icon just to see if internet was flowing, and it was!!! So here I am. Blogging from home for the very first time. Well, from my Japanese home.

Can I get a what what?

Camping Weekend

2007-10-10T13:10:00.000+09:00

Well, the week ended on an unquestionable high note. Great school days on Thursday and Friday. Good eats and times on Thursday night. Friday night, I was tired after the table tennis and probably still just a hold over from the weekend before. I think I went home and vegged out. I don't quite remember.

Saturday, I got up and did some tidying up. I was determined to keep things chill. I eventually got ready and ate breakfast and left around 10 or so. I wanted to go on a bike ride and take pictures and enjoy the beautiful day. It really was beautiful. I figured I would have Tye's place as a destination. He had mentioned some sort of festival around his town. I made it there by about 1pm, after many detours and pictures. I actually came upon 2 different shrines that were also in some sort of celebratory state. At one, one of the teachers from my school spotted me and chased me down. I got a picture and we chatted briefly.

At the shrine in Tye's town, we watched some kids do sumo wrestling. It wasn't a huge festival, but they did have 4 gigantic portable shrines or something that they were carrying around with drums beating. Then, we headed back to Takase.

Great end to a rough week

2007-10-05T17:52:00.001+09:00

Yesterday was just amazing. I mean I already wrote about it, but it was just fun. Junior High was so so, but elementary just made it all OK. I was singing on the way home on my bike for no reason. I was unaware of it until suddenly I realized "Why am I singing?" and I started to laugh at myself. I went to basketball club afterward and that was good. I think that's something I've been missing is being active. Things have just been happening so fast -- at least that's my excuse -- that I haven't been able to get a good running/working out routine. Anyway, I left on time for when I wanted to make the train, but I hopped in the shower to cool off and get the sweat off before getting the train and I forgot I was in a hurry. When I got out, I had about 4 minutes to throw on clothes and ride my bike to the station and get on the train. 4 minutes is really pushing it if you are actually stepping out the door. Needless to say I didn't make it. I was on the stairs that take you over the first set of rails to the platform when I saw the train leave with my friend Matt on it. That's the second time I've missed the train for dinner.

I was able to get the next train though and got a taxi in the city and got to the restaurant not too long after them, maybe 20 minutes or so. The had already ordered and so I just joined in. It was a cook-your-own-meat kind of place. (yakiniku) Then we went to Baskin Robbins and then Toys R Us. Crazy, huh? I got some good ice cream, a puzzle, the Mario Kart DS Lite game, and some corn tostitos. Then, I went home and had a decent night of sleep for once.

Today was great simply because I only had one class at the junior high. I got my kanji list caught up. Remember, kanji are the ideographic symbols used in Japanese (and Chinese for that matter) . I have about 45 that I am officially working on and can write given the word in English. For most of them, I can come up with at least one reading, maybe half I can come up with all or multiple readings, and then there are a handful that have maybe 10 different readings each, which I'm at a loss for until I can get my literacy and vocabulary up. But anyway, I worked on that most of the morning. Then, right before lunch, I was able to have a pretty decent Japanese exchange -- I wouldn't call it a conversation -- that made me very happy. I was able to use some of what I've picked up from around me and some of what I've been studying, and I was able to understand and speak with some success. Then I went to Hiji Elementary. I had a great time there. It seems they will also be preparing my lessons for me. (I wonder if they would stop if I said I would like to. Probably not.) Anyway, I did my self-introduction even though they didn't have it on the lesson. But I think I do it pretty well and it's my thing and I get to do it with gusto since it's my one little bit. Then, I did what they had prepared, and it went pretty well I think.

Then, I came back to the school and I went to the boys table tennis club. I am sweating, not as much as with basketball, but I still worked my butt off. It was a lot of fun. I'm not good and I haven't played for an extended amount of time since that month-or-so-long unit in junior high gym class. I was pretty crappy to start with, but eventually, I was able to do OK. I played a game with one kid. He beat me in all three sets. But I was able to get it to 11-8 in the last one. I will be back to play again. Maybe with the ladies next time.

I hope the weekend will be great as well. It's another three day, but it seems plans that people have started are not exactly working out. Maybe we'll get it together before Sunday. Saturday is going to be movie night at Matt's. He got a huge screen and projector on eBay and he has it all set up now. It's about 4 foot by 8 foot. Crazy big.

2 months +

2007-10-04T15:55:00.001+09:00

It's freaking OCTOBER!!!!!! I've been here for more than 2 months already!! Can you believe it? I mean we are already starting to plan our Christmas/New Year's Vacation. And Halloween is right around the corner. It's fall already. I had meant to buy a fan, but since they are seasonal and it's fall, they no longer sell them. Japan is crazy on the seasons. Everything has a season, it seems.

Well I just had an awesome lesson at Asa Elementary. It seems that will be the best ones. At least so far; I haven't been to Hiji Elementary. Anyway, they are pretty much letting me do what I want at Asa. Which is so odd for here, that I don't really know what I'm doing. I stutter a bit and it takes second to find my stride.

I have to go now. Gonna play with the basketball club. Then I'm off to Marugame for the weekly ALT dinner that we do. Ciao... or さようなら

frustration

2007-10-01T14:59:00.001+09:00

So, normally elementary school visits are pretty fun. But today was sooo frustrating. I think it's because things work differently at each school. And I still haven't visited one, so I have yet another one to get accustomed to. I also can't read the social cues that should indicate to me that it's time for me to leave. I wish they would just say, "We have another class in here next, so let's go downstairs" or more directly "It's time for you to leave now." It would save us all those awkward 3 to 5 minutes of them waiting for me to leave.

It happened the other day at my base elementary as well. I should have clued into it better because the principal was saying hints, but that was the problem; they were just hints. "I have a staff meeting now." I thought she meant she had a meeting with some of her staff but not everyone. If she had said 'we', I think I would have gotten the picture. But the "I" threw me off. And it's also frustrating that I can't get across my own ideas for lessons at some of the schools. I think I have to learn where and when I can do my own thing.

Today, for instance, I got the fax this morning for the lesson this afternoon. That's pretty short notice. (Although at the Junior High, I'm lucky if I get a sit down more than 10 minutes in advance.) But she said we would learn numbers and then play bingo. I thought cool, I can handle that. I have a little thing I do with numbers that makes them pretty easy to learn by having the students use little squares with the numbers on them, 0-9. First, each student gets their own set, and we practice using the numbers 0-9. Basically, I'll say a number and show it to them. And maybe I'll show them 2 or 3 this way. Then, I'll go back and call a number and hold up a card so they can't see; they have to find the number I've called and hold it up and see if it matches mine when I turn mine around. It's instant success for them which builds confidence and lets them master the numbers gradually but fairly quickly. And so I'll do that for 0-9. Then, for double digits, the first time around, I have them pair up with another student and we add 10-19 in the same fashion, and eventually 20-29. (For some reason, she had me go up to 30, which doesn't really make sense, since they already have 1-9, learning 30 automatically means they know 31-39.) Anyway, I cut up all the numbers for this activity, I made 60 of each actually just in case, and there ended up being 54 in the group, since both 4th grade classes were combined. However, before class started, I showed the squares of paper to the English teacher, and she did that dismissive, characteristically Japanese quick intake of air that is most definitely a no yet allows them to save face since they aren't actually vocalizing the word. So, I had to scratch the number thing. I did my self-intro like I wanted though, with asking questions and reviewing and practicing words. But she got me back with bingo. Normally, you start over after someone gets Bingo. But she said to just continue. I knew this would be a mess, since we were only playing with 16 squares and everyone was using the same 16 numbers. And true enough, after the first bingo, I called one number and there were 5 more bingos. I called another and there were 7 or 8. So, the game actually only reviewed 8 numbers because that's all that I was able to call out before the bell rang. I made sure to explain the possibility of starting a new game which would allow for more review of the numbers (while preserving my quickly dwindling stock of English language stickers). Oh and another annoying thing was this one teacher who translated everything. An occasional translation is great when it's well timed, ensures understanding, and helps the flow of the lesson. But when it is constant, it undermines the objectives of the lesson, namely learning numbers. How counterproductive to practice the numbers in English and then play Bingo in Japanese! Needless to say, I'm frustrated. That's the second time I've come back feeling frustrated from that school. So, it may be something that recurs.

And today, before leaving, the "English teacher" (I put this in quotes because she is a regular elementary teacher who just happens to know some English and coordinates my lessons there) asks me if I know any interesting games. Of course I do, but, as I explained to her, it would help if I knew the topic of the lesson earlier than the day of, as that would allow me time to match the topic with an appropriate game, get a Japanese copy of the directions faxed to her, and prepare any necessary materials. Not unreasonable in my opinion. We'll see what happens for the next lesson there on the 12th.

that's a first

2007-10-01T12:46:00.002+09:00

Today, was the first time I made it to school and didn't immediately start sweating necessitating a 20 minute cool down period where I alternate fanning my face and neck and rolling up my pants to fan my legs and feet. This morning it was only 24 degrees (remember it's celsius) inside my apartment with the AC off. I seriously considered a light jacket or cardigan.

In other news, Osaka was fantastic and I will have to write about it when I have a bit more time.

I'm off to the Katsuma Elementary School now for yet another self-introduction plus a lesson on numbers followed by bingo. Let's hope it goes well.

Updating

2007-09-25T09:54:00.001+09:00

Sorry guys. I know it's been a while. I have been pretty busy at school during the week and on the weekends. Two Saturdays ago, I went to Matt's high school's festival which was pretty fun. It was like a school carnival / open house night mixed together. All the clubs and groups had projects or booths to display. There was artwork all over. There were various carnival like games. The band and dance groups performed. It was fun. Then on Sunday was the Ninomiya Elementary Sports Day and I attended that. But since I was told to arrive "sometime before noon", I was sitting at home at 10:30 when I received a call saying that they were waiting on me. Apparently "before noon" meant 8:30. But I got there in time to do this crazy obstacle course with the teachers and other parents and community members. We had to run halfway around the track and at one part stop and chug this bottled drink that was carbonated and had a little glass marble in it that would stop up the drink if you didn't tilt it right. Then, we had to find a candy from a tray filled with flour without using our hands. Meaning we had to blow the powder to find it and then get it out with our teeth. Then, we had to toss a bean bag into a basket lifted into the air about 15 feet on the end of a bamboo pole. Then I tagged off the next person to run the other half of the track. They had to go about 10 meters on stilts and then spin around 5 times with their head on a baseball bat. Then they had to grab a pastry in a plastic wrapper suspended from a pole with string and a clothespin. It was crazy. There were all kinds of other races and games for the kids, parents, community members, and faculty. They had an old people's race as well. I took some pictures and have a video of some of the stuff which I will post when I can.

As well, I've had my first visits to elementaries. Awhile ago I had a welcome party and mini-lesson at my base elementary. Last week I got to work with 1st and 2nd graders and that was some craziness times 40. But I had soo much fun. This week I went back to my base elementary and I actually got to plan my lesson. We were reviewing body parts and I decided to introduce "How many .... do you have?" "I have # ......" And maybe some more actions than they already knew for Simon Says "Kiss your hand", etc. to liven it up a bit. Then, I thought maybe they could do "He has, she has" as compared with "I have". But the teacher thought it would be too difficult, so that's fine. I disagree, but they Japanese seem to have a pretty set idea of what kids are able to understand and when to introduce. I just happen to disagree. But I go along so I don't cause problems. Anyway, of course all that above stuff sounds kind of boring, so to make it more interesting, I created fake body parts for the kids to attach to themselves. Mainly, round balloons for heads and feet, long balloons for arms and legs, blown up plastic gloves for hands, and small felt balls with black dots for eyes. And then they got to go around and ask each other how many such and suches they each had. It was pretty fun. We ended with a crazy body drawing game. It was fun. But still a little awkward. I'm not used to the team teaching thing, and I guess I can't tell when I'm supposed to be taking control and when the other teacher is in charge.

I haven't planned too many other lessons since they all do that for me. It's kind of weird. I feel really underused. I usually just play along and do what they tell me to do. I try to take some freedom where I can and do my own thing and put a my own touch on what they've asked me to do. And I'm trying to put my spare time and energy into studying Japanese which is going OK. It's pretty hard though with the constant reminder of how little I really know. But I am definitely making strides from where I was when I arrived. I thought I would be fine before getting here and then reality hit. And the "basics" I had learned only got me through an introduction. And even then, I was lost at times, as introductions vary. And for some reason, all that filler language is not seen as necessary in beginning chapters of textbooks. But I see it as extremely important since it is used so commonly. You think they are saying complete sentences, when in reality, they are thinking of something to say and just using filler. "Ja, eto ne, ano, eto na, asoka." And none of it means anything really, "Ah, well, um, so, anyways, hmm."

Oh, I think I've mentioned lunch before. The food has been pretty normal, or at least what normal now is for me. It's nothing really to be eating what basically amounts to minnows cooked in various ways, always whole, except at the end when there are just little black eyes and maybe a tail fin or two, maybe a head. Yesterday, we had clam chowder which was pretty good, but the side of minnows was only cooked in some sort of oil with sesame seeds, so it was basically straight fish. I prefer it cooked with nuts and some sort of breading. It masks the fishy flavor a bit better.

What else? Oh we had our own Sports Day at the Junior High. I was applauded for helping to put up the tents. It seems anything I do makes me seem like the hardest worker ever. I think my predecessor had perhaps an aversion to work. The festival was pretty fun even if a little boring at certain parts with a ton of marching. But I entertained myself with all the little elementary kids running around. And afterward was the all important teacher party. We went to this place were low tables were set up in rows with cushions. We sat and had our food on the table in boxes with small drinking glasses and little sake cups and then big beers were passed out. And they announced that speeches would be made, so we poured our drinks. But you can't drink until everyone is done with speeches and the traditional "Kanpai" is shouted. It was interesting to eat the food. Lots of sashimi and unknown substances. I managed to eat most of it, even though I didn't quite find it that appealing. Although, the cooked octopus was good, I like it better than the kind that is soaked in vinegar. The eating and talking lasted for a couple of hours, with some of the teachers getting pretty drunk I think. One guy came over to show me Japanese style. I thought he meant a way of pouring that I already knew about. See at these enkais, it's important to not pour your own drink. You always are on the look out for others' empty glasses and you offer to pour. You hold the bottle with two hands and they lift their glass with two hands. Often, if your glass is empty they reciprocate by then pouring for you. But he meant a different Japanese style, with sake. You do basically the same thing, but you both drink from the same cup, taking turns pouring and drinking. It was funny though because he kept saying Japanese style and re-pouring as if I didn't get it, so I had to keep drinking, but I was kind of done with sake, but I think it's rude to refuse like that. Eventually, he stopped though.

After, the party, some of us went to karaoke. That was pretty fun. I think it helped some of the teachers see me in a different light. Actually, the whole sports day weekend and teacher party and English Speech contest that I've been working on as well have all helped teachers see me as separate from the previous JET and from other JETs from their past experience. Anyway, it just so happened, that Chris from two towns over was at the same place for his Sports Day karaoke fun. So when my teachers finished and went home, I stayed and joined Chris's school. And then when, theirs ended, Chris and I decided to make a night of it and went to Kanon-ji. We tried all night to get people out and to get something happening, but it didn't really work, and we actually ended up at a karaoke bar by ourselves since it's cheaper than getting a taxi home (trains stop at about midnight) and it's cheaper than getting a hotel and less troublesome than trying to wake someone up to crash at their place at 2 30 in the morning. So eventually we made it to the station for the first train home.

And now, I'm back at school. I have the real speech contest today. I'm going with the 4 students to a nearby town to watch them. I hope they do well. They have been working very hard on it. I'm only really worried about one of the students, but I think he will do ok. And then, tonight I have to pack, because tomorrow morning (Friday), I will be going to visit Alana in Osaka!!!!!

We have been trying to work it out all month and it finally is going to work out. I will leave early since I have the day off and will stop in Himeji to see a castle that is supposedly one of the nicest original ones in Japan. And it will soon be closed for something like a 10 year renovation. Then I will head over to Osaka where Alana will be getting off work around 4 and we will make a weekend of it. Anyway, that's everything for the past few weeks in a nutshell.

It's been really busy with Sports Day practice, actually having lessons every day, speech contest practice after school, and then difficult with no internet at home really. But I will try to keep up with posting.

Also, to those who have sent emails, I've been reading them, but again I haven't had much time to respond. I've started trying to send short messages to at least say hi, but I'm still behind. I've got my fingers crossed that internet will be connected by mid-October.

Haircut

2007-09-14T11:37:00.002+09:00

Well, until yesterday it had been about two months since my last haircut. So needless today, it was getting a bit shaggy around the ears and there was a forest growing on the back of my neck. Last week, I used a phrase book to work out mostly what I would want to say in the barbershop, but said I would wait to go until I practiced saying the sentences. Then, Tuesday (after not practicing) I drove around Takase looking for a barbershop. I knew I had seen the telltale barber's pole somewhere. I eventually found one. I circled around and looked inside. Then, I thought, maybe I'd just rather get clippers and cut it myself. And I saw the guy smoking inside and thought it would smell really bad and talked myself in heading to Ks Denki to look for electric clippers. I found some, but then talked myself out of that because they were so expensive. Yesterday, I finally decided I don't care if I don't really know how to say what I want, and I don't really care if it's all smoky, it will be a good experience to try to get a haircut.

Well, last night was my first Japanese haircut and also my first completely non-electric haircut (that I remember). Well, I went in and it smelled bad from the smoke, but it was ok. Then I said that I don't speak Japanese and read off the sentence "I would like a haircut, please." And they ushered me to the chair. Then, came the asking of what I wanted done. I pulled out my sheet to read and she ended up just reading everything that I pointed to before I could read it. So, eventually they figured it out. And I just trusted that I had chosen the correct phrases and put them together correctly. The woman sprayed my hair with a lemony smelling liquid and got a hot towel and rubbed my head. Then the guy came over and cut my hair. He tapered in up like I usually get it done but using only scissors and combs. It was pretty amazing how he could get it so close and so even with just scissors. But I thought to myself, "well, my main concern is the vast forest that is creeping down my neck that makes me look the most slovenly." I needn't have worried. When the man was all done, he and the woman asked if I wanted a shave and I said that I didn't. And the woman began removing the towels from around my neck. Then she pointed to my neck and asked something making a motion of evening off the back and so I shook my head yes. Still no electric clippers. She grabbed another hot towel and the straight razor. Yes, folks, she shaved my neck and around my ears. That was a first. It didn't hurt at all. It actually was quite nice, the hot shaving cream and the razor must have been quite sharp.

So, I felt quite triumphant when I left. So much so that I didn't read my watch well and thought I had plenty of time to stop at a store before going home and catching a train to have dinner with people in another city. Alas, I missed the train. But it felt good to finally have a haircut. And it all worked out as everyone was waiting on another person who didn't show up, so when I arrived they were still all waiting.

OH and the food was pretty good. I forget what it was called exactly (Onigomiyakisomethingorrather). Which apparently means 'as you like it'. It's Japanese "pizza." You order a bowl of ingredients that have a raw egg and cheese in it that help combine the ingredients. You mix them together and dump them on a griddle in the table and cook it with sauces and spices. And then you eat it. Pretty straight forward. But it was delicious. I will probably be back.

Barbecue Weekend

2007-09-10T11:23:00.001+09:00

On Friday, after I got home, I figured I would clean up my apartment since it somehow was once again a disaster area. All my dishes were dirty, I hadn’t done laundry in a week or two and had already reworn at least two shirts, somehow all my possessions were out and on tables, chairs, and the floor in all my rooms. So of course, I got home and settled for a second and then made dinner and started reading Harry Potter. And then I read Harry Potter some more. And then some more. And eventually I went to bed, not cleaning anything.

So the next day, I got up and started reading some more as I ate breakfast. Eventually around 11, I decided I wasn’t going to read anymore until I had cleaned my apartment. So in the next 3 hours or so, I got everything cleaned, I did all my dishes, organized my trash (yes, it has to be organized), and did two loads of laundry. And I did all this knowing I had about 75 pages left to read. It was pretty hard not going back to the book, but it was a good motivator. Then, I got ready and went to Tadotsu, a city not too far from me, where Chris, one of the JETs, was having a barbecue in a park by his apartment. It was pretty fun, but I drank a bit too much. We came back to Takase with a crowd, Nick, Megan, Sam, Matt, Matt’s friend Chris who was visiting from Ehime, Angelina, Tye, and me. I wasn’t in a state to ride my bike, but I tried and failed, and have the slightly skinned knee to prove it. I also wasn’t able to make it the few minutes back to my place apparently and we all slept at Matt’s. I had an unfortunate incident that I’m not going to discuss, but otherwise it was a pretty fun night. The next day for some reason we were up early. Like 8ish. I wasn’t feeling too bad considering. After breakfast, we went on a trip to the antiques store. It’s a nice place to visit occasionally, especially when out of towners are visiting.
Everyone loaded up on old stuff to use or decorate their apartments with. I got a guitar for about 4000 yen ($40) and Matt got another one as well. He said he would teach me. Then we went back and got some food from this hokka hokka tei and ate at Matt’s. That’s when I started feeling the effects of my previous night’s libations. I eventually had to go home, taking my guitar, bookbag, and waste bin containing my reminder to avoid excess.

I tried napping, but that didn’t work. I tried drinking water, orange juice, and CC Lemon, but everything tasted bad. I tried eating eventually, but nothing was appealing. So I just accepted that I was going to feel miserable for a few hours. I also put off finishing HP7 so that I could actually enjoy it. So I tidied up what things I hadn’t already picked up. I got the internet working, so I sent a few messages to people. I accessed a guitar lesson site and began practicing scales and a few notes. Then, I forced myself to eat dinner and drink as much water as I could. I took some vitamins to help and an Aleve. After awhile I started feeling somewhat normal. And then I laid down in bed and finished Harry Potter. It was a good book. I think it ended well. I then tried going to sleep around 9 30 to help aide my recovery. I couldn’t fall asleep so I started reading The Mayan Prophecies, a book that was left in the apartment by some previous JET. It was interesting and eventually I fell asleep.

Now, it’s Monday, and I’m at school. Today and tomorrow, I’m giving my last self-introductions at the middle school. These are to the 9th graders (3rd years). I’m also starting my first actual team teaching lessons. It was awkward at the start because the teacher was yelling at some students for something, I don’t know what. And that took a good five minutes to yell at him and get an apology from him. Other than that, the lesson went fairly well.

I am starving though.

Mmmmm.... Natto!

2007-09-07T09:20:00.002+09:00

So yesterday, I had the pleasure of trying natto. I’ve been told about this by everyone from Day 1 it seems. It was a long awaited trial of my Japanese transition. The Japanese like to ask about food. All the time. What you like, what you don’t like, what you’ve tried, what you are going to try, can you use chopsticks. They sometimes ask about American foods, but usually they focus on the foreigner trying Japanese foods.

Natto is one that they mentioned often, wondering if I had tried it. Then they go on to describe it in less than complimentary ways, followed by, them telling me how much they like it. They start off simply enough. “It’s beans.” Ok, so I’ve had beans. No big deal. “They are fermented beans.” Hmmm. Interesting. Doesn’t ferment basically mean rot? But then again wine is fermented and that’s not so bad. “They look like beans but when you start to eat them with chopsticks they become like strings that stick together and you have to eat it like this.” [Regular chopsticks hand motion, then twist, twist, twist, twist, twist…. like they are wrapping something around the chopsticks.] Well then. That’s interesting. Not sounding so pleasant anymore. So you have to wrap the stringy part up to eat it? “And they smell bad.” Well, why would someone eat that? “It’s better/easier to eat if you mix in a raw egg.” Wait, what? Since when has anything been easier, let alone better, when you add a raw egg? Then, they say, “I like natto very much.” Are you kidding me? Is this a national joke played on foreigners? And then the other JETs get in on the explanation. “Yeah, it’s kinda like the consistency of snot.” Sounds appealing. “Just mix in mustard and they taste fine.” Great, I hate mustard.”

So, I had all this in my head before even seeing natto for the first time. I translated the lunch menu with the help of a couple of dictionaries the first day I ate with the students. But yesterday, I didn’t do it. I looked at the drawing they had on the lunch menu and everything seemed pretty harmless. But then I arrived in the classroom and I heard “natto,” and I thought, “Well here it is.” It came in a little paper cup with a plastic wrap lid that I peeled off. Inside was another plastic sheet with mustard and some other sauce packets. So I pulled those off with the 2nd plastic sheet and saw the beans. They seemed like fairly normal beans. Think baked beans minus all the sauce. Or maybe with half the sauce but it’s somewhat dried or hardened around the beans so you can see the beans but they look connected. I put the sauce on and the mustard. I didn’t really smell the natto yet. Then I began mixing like I saw the kids do. And that’s when the strings appear. And it really is like snot. It’s like beans in a snot sauce. Seriously. Shiny strings that just grow and grow as you stir the beans with the sauces. I waited to see how the kids ate the natto. Then I gave it a try. I gathered a few beans with my chopsticks and then brought them to my mouth. The flavor wasn’t my favorite, but it wasn’t altogether bad. More interesting. And then I pulled the chopsticks from my mouth. This is where I found out why you do all the spinning with the chopsticks. It’s not so much to gather the strings but to try and break them. They are like spider web strings, only worse. Spider web strings eventually break and then you can wipe them away. It’s a little troublesome, but after a few seconds you can usually manage to get the spider web off. Not so with natto. The strings are extra sticky and never really break. They just lengthen and become skinnier.

I can’t say I quite have the hang of it. Nor that I have a desire to seek out natto on my own. But I think it’s something I could try again. Maybe even with the raw egg. I did get a better whiff of it as I ate it, and it really was unappealing, but you can manage to eat it without smelling it too much. Actually, I would say I enjoyed the natto more than this weird fried vegetable mixture that they served. It was like carrots and potatoes and maybe some other root vegetables in thin slices that made a loose patty of sorts that was breaded and fried so that the outside bits were somewhat disconnected and you could see the vegetable bits and they were hard and the inside was mushier and not so hard. It was just kind of bland so all you could focus on was the texture which wasn’t very pleasing.

The next thing to try: pregnant fish.

That’s whole pregnant fish, head to tail. I’ve seen the calendar and I noticed a few days with little fish drawn on it. I’m going to try to avoid looking at it again so that it’s a surprise and so I won’t be able to dread it or anything in the days leading up. I promised myself I would try everything at least once. We will see if I can stick to that.

Testing day

2007-09-05T11:06:00.002+09:00

And now, I’m back at school, just blogging away. I’m on page 11 now. The students are testing all day so I don’t have anything to do really. I think I will start studying Japanese once I get this posted.

Sorry about the time lapse since the last post. I’m really trying. I just got pretty busy last week.

First Day of Lessons!

2007-09-04T23:05:00.001+09:00

Tuesday was the real deal. My first lesson. I got to school extra early. I actually drove since I knew I would be going to Ninomiya which is at least a 10 minute bike ride and I didn’t want to be stressed about getting there especially with all the posters I had made. Anyway, I didn’t have to do my normal 10 minutes of fanning myself to cool down routine since I didn’t bike to school. So I got out these question word posters I had made and laminated and got them hole-punched and connected them with binder rings. It worked really well. And they magically fit perfectly into this little carrying case that I picked up in Takamatsu. I had also purchased some magnet clips and they were just strong enough to hold up the question words. Then I grabbed my computer and went up to the A/V room and set everything up. Of course, something was wrong and I couldn’t get the sound to work. Then I realized that I had plugged the cord into the microphone jack on my computer instead of the headphone jack. When the class finally did come in, I was a bit nervous. But I greeted them at the door and said good morning to all of them. I had “Georgia on my mind” playing as they sat down. Then, I started right in with my presentation. It was a rocky start. I had been warned, but they were reallllly quiet. Almost totally non-responsive. Even though I was just saying hello and trying to get them to say it back, it took several tries. And then I just had to move on. I didn’t know what they were understanding because there was no response so I just kept repeating and asking questions about what I was saying. But that was pointless as there were maybe one or two people who were trying to answer. When I finished I didn’t have a lot of time for the Jeopardy game. So we didn’t keep score and we didn’t have a winner. We just answered a few of the questions. But it was still fun. I hit my stride about ¾ of the way through the presentation and felt good at the end of it. And then I faltered a bit when I realized the time crunch with Jeopardy, but overall I felt pretty good. The kids left and I said goodbye to them as they walked out.

It was good to finally have taught something. But then I had two periods off. I shut everything down and took my computer back to the office. I thought I would catch up on the blog for an hour and then do a Japanese lesson for an hour since we were supposed to meet Tuesday night for our second study group and I hadn’t completed a single goal we set forth. But the blog ended up taking on a life of it’s own. I typed about 5 pages when it was time to go back up for lesson number two.

This lesson went much more smoothly. I was very comfortable and this class was a bit louder and more engaged with the lesson. I was able to ask questions and actually get answers and move through the presentation more quickly. Occasionally, I would go back and review some of what I explained about myself to check their comprehension and prepare them for the game. We actually had about 20 minutes for the game this time around and it worked a little better. We only did about 7 or 8 questions, but it was good. We had a winning group and I gave them all stickers. Some of them tried to get two stickers which I was surprised at. And also, someone tried to cheat in the game, but I caught them. They tried to change their answer after I revealed the one on the board. But I really liked that class. I felt like they really got what I was saying. The teacher said that she thinks even though the first class was quiet, that they understood most of what I was saying but that they were shy. I’m good with that. It just makes it hard on me to know if I need to slow down or just keep going if they don’t respond.

Afterward we had lunch. Since I had to go the elementary, they served me mine early on my desk. It was curry and rice. Pretty good actually. There was also a bottle of really bad tasting milk. It really tasted rotten even though it wasn’t. And there was a salad of chickpeas, ham, cucumbers, and cabbage. And half a kiwi fruit. I liked everything except the milk. And I’m a big milk drinker.

I had to drive home because at some point during the second Jeopardy game I got some of the red marker they were on the front of my white shirt. So I changed and then went to Ninomiya Elementary. This is my base elementary that I will visit weekly. They are superexcited about English and internationalization. There is another English ALT who comes there (she is actually from Korea but speaks really good English and Japanese. I met her at the barbecue in Nio.). And the 5th grade teacher is a former junior high school English teacher and he has excellent English as well. They have various international connections. One in the US and one in Paraguay that I know of. Anyway, I went there and met with the principal and we went over the schedule. At 1 we went to the gym where the 98 students, grades 1-6 were waiting. First the kochosensei spoke and then I got up and gave my introduction in Japanese. Then I gave it in very simple English using my posters. The 5th grade teacher, Yoshida-sensei, translated most of what I said so they could understand it all. Then they asked questions. I got some about food likes and dislikes, sports, trouble/accidents in Japan, etc. Then we played a game where the students were given a card with a fruit on it and they had to walk around asking “Are you… (peach, apple, etc.) or Do you have…?” to find others with the same fruit until they formed a group of 5 and could sit down. After that, I went back to the kochosensei’s office were we sat and talked in Japenglish over some tea and cookies. Then I went up to the 5th grade class for their English lesson. We did “Head, shoulders, knees, and toes” with some Simon Says thrown in there for good measure. It was fun. I also played a game my high schoolers loved for some reason where two students are at the front and you tell them to do something and the fastest one gets a point for their team. At first, they didn’t really understand, but by the end they were in to it.

Oh and I don’t know if I mentioned this. All of these lessons were done with NO AC!!!!! After lesson number 1 at the JHS, my shirt was drenched through. And that was with an undershirt and shortsleeves. By the 2nd lesson, I was completely soaked and if anyone had touched my pants, the would have felt damp. I had to change shirts because of the stain, and I decided to take off the undershirt also. Well, I wasn’t thinking clearly because the new shirt was blue and of course, no AC at the elementary and the sweat was clearly visible as soon as I got out of the car and I just had patches all over for the rest of the day. I guess I’ll get used to it, but it starts feeling really sticky after awhile which is uncomfortable. But I know it’s not just me. One of the teachers was wearing a black shirt and at the end of the day another teacher pointed out the sweat lines on her back. You know how on some fabrics in dark colors you’ll see a whitish line show up where you’ve been sweating? She had a clear one running in a wide circle across her back. So I guess I just need to always remember an undershirt and to get used to it.

When I got back to the JHS, the teachers told me that the kochosensei’s mother-in-law had passed and they were going to visit his home for a few minutes but that I didn’t have to come, but I could if I wanted to. I’ve heard that you get that a lot as a foreigner. “You can do this, but you don’t have to.” And it’s hard to interpret whether they are actually a) asking you to do it, b) suggesting you do it, c) making an exception for you as a foreigner, d) really trying to make your life easier, or e) all of the above. I decided to go. He did come to greet me at the airport for just 10 minutes which was probably a 30-45 minute drive for him one way. I felt even though I don’t know him well, it would be good to pay my respects. After that I went home.

Tye, Matt, and I canceled our study session since none of us had completed our goals and Matt had some trouble with getting his bike on a train to go home with it as well as getting on the wrong train and having to do a lot of work to prepare for his lessons. We will either meet Thursday or just wait until next Tuesday when we’ve had time to complete the goals.

Opening Ceremony!

2007-09-03T23:03:00.001+09:00

Well Monday was the big day. Opening Ceremony. Don’t let the name confuse you. It is just the reopening of school after summer holiday which is the beginning of second semester. The summer holiday marks the middle of the school year. I got to school early so I would be ready. I hadn’t practiced either of my speeches since they too were in that plastic bag I lost and then when I got it back I was pretty busy with… you know… partying and then …. relaxing….. Ok so I procrastinated and whatever.

But everything went well. In the morning, all the teachers were gathered in the office and the kochosensei spoke and then I went up and introduced myself in Japanese (reading the whole thing). It was funny. There is this one teacher, a music teacher who is really outspoken and energetic and all that. When I got to the part about how I was a high school French teacher for three years, she did one of those Japanese “Ehhhhhhhhhh!?”s really loud. It totally threw me for a second and I just stared at her and then the other teachers were like “Please go on” but in Japanese. Apparently, it’s not common for ALTs to have real teaching experience in an actual school. Usually, they are right out of college. I finished and they clapped. Several teachers came up and said it was very good. So that was nice. Afterward was cleaning time. In Japan, they don’t have custodians in schools. The students and teachers clean up. So I was put to vacuuming the teacher’s office. Not that anything ever gets that dirty. Which makes since, because why would the kids make a mess when they have to clean it up later anyway. Hmm… why can’t we do this in the States? Then, we went to the gym for opening ceremony. No, seats or benches or bleachers for the students and teachers. There was a chair for the kochosensei on the gym floor and one for me on the stage for when he was introducing me. The students came in in lines by grade and class (remember in Japan the students don’t move classrooms, the teachers do, unless it’s a special subject, like art, music, shop, home ec, or lab science). They all lined up in columns facing the stage and then put their arms out in front of themselves to give space between them and the person in front of them. And then sat down. They could either sit on their knees or sit on their butts with their knees bent and their hands around their knees. But I guess the arm spacing part is maybe from the old school, because the teacher yelled some stuff in the microphone and they all got up and looked at the floor where there were little dots in rows and they then spaced themselves according to this. Then the kochosensei and I went to the stage where I sat and he spoke about me. And then I got up and gave my speech in English. Which was basically what the kochosensei just said. And then we went down off the stage and an English teacher translated my speech which was basically what both I and the kochosensei had just said. Then came awards time I presume. I didn’t really know, but they were calling names and students would stand up and some eventually went to the stage where they received certificates. Meanwhile, through all of this the students are sitting silently. And I mean silently. I guess some might have whispered or something, but I didn’t hear it. However, a couple teachers saw some things and they walked up to the students and yelled something really loud in Japanese. Right in the middle of the calling of names and awarding of certificates. It kind of scared me because I wasn’t expecting it at all and it was so loud and literally right in the middle of someone talking. But no one reacted. Things just kept moving along. The teachers were kind of spaced out along the walls of the room either standing, squatting, kneeling, or sitting in some fashion. No chairs for us either. Oh and did I mention no air conditioning? Yeah none of that either. So the windows were open which allowed in a mild breeze from time to time, but it was really hot. I did manage to sit near one and stayed relatively cool. One or two of the students, however, got overheated. One of them was actually taken away by a teacher and the nurse. After that, the students went back to their rooms and had a homeroom and then went home for the day.

I went to lunch with some of the guy teachers. We had udon of course. I got a big hot udon (kake dai) and a fried something or rather. I can’t remember if I’ve described udon. But basically they are big thick noodles that are whitish. They are served in a broth that can be either cold or hot. Generally, you have green onion bits on top and possibly a ginger substance. Some places add seaweed and a fish thing (it’s a little white thing that has a pink design on it that looks like it could be a cookie but is somewhat flexible and mushy and is made of fish bits but doesn’t taste like fish… or anything really). You can also add some spice to it as well. You also have the option to buy a tempura vegetable to add on top of it and also some rice on the side. Usually the rice is formed in a triangle or round and possibly wrapped in seaweed (I think this is called onigiri) so you can pick it up with your chopsticks altogether. Anyway, so I got the kake dai udon and a tempura and it still only cost me 360 yen (about $3.30). It’s a pretty filling meal as well.

Anyway, after lunch the teachers had a meeting that I was exempt from. I found out that yes Japanese teachers have the dreaded teachers meeting that lasts for 3 hours (probably unnecessarily so) just like we do in America. I worked on tidying up my powerpoints and also getting pictures set for making posters to take to the elementaries for my self introductions there. I figured powerpoint wouldn’t have the same effect there, not to mention I have no idea what their facilities are like. So I worked on that the whole time they were gone. It gave me the chance to explore the office a bit as well. I found where a lot of the supplies are in the copy room. I also figured out how to print on to A3 sized paper. A4 is about like our regular 8.5x11/letter sized paper. I think it’s a tad longer. And A3 is basically the size of two A4s sitting next to each other. So, I was able to get my pictures in a word document and print them off really big for the posters. I think they turned out rather nicely. I actually ended up staying at the office until around 6 or 6 30. Most of the teachers were still there as well scurrying back and forth looking really busy and stressed. I asked one of the English teachers what time the school would close since I wasn’t quite done and I wanted to finish before leaving since I would have my first elementary self-introduction on Tuesday. She said, “Oh around 7 or 8.” That’s pretty crazy, but I’ve heard that teachers generally work themselves pretty hard. During summer break you wouldn’t know this, but then again, I did see a couple teachers come in to do one or two things and then leave on their vacation day. And they would stay after hours to do their club activities as well though most had moved their club hours to during their work hours. But apparently once school starts they will be here until quite late. Working on lessons and doing club activities. And when I say club activities, it’s really more like our actual teams in the states. Except they don’t get paid extra. Although, when I was talking with Sachie on the train, she mentioned something about bonuses that teachers get.

Well, I did finish and left and I’m learning the appropriate sayings more and more. They have taught me either a colloquialism or a more informal way (or maybe it’s both) to say goodbye. Something like “Hondarana”. Because they laugh when I say it. And then there is “Tsukaresamadeshita” which I think means something like “We worked hard today, didn’t we.”

Anyway, at home I decided to make something half-way decent for myself and I wanted to get stickers to give as prizes. So I went to the grocery store and I got some cucumbers and a tomato and I thought of making a tricolor salad that I’ve had before. You just slice those up with some mozzarella and olive oil and maybe some spices and that’s it, but it tastes pretty good. Then I remembered I was in Japan where cheese is not very common. Especially something like fresh mozzarella. But I gave it a shot anyway. I bypassed the section marked “Dairy” as that is where they have fresh fish. And went to where they have yogurt. And then I found the cream cheese and the cheese products. And lo and behold, they had fresh mozzarella!! I also found an Italian spice mix which was perfect. I couldn’t find any stickers with English on them there or anywhere else, so I went home and made my salad. I thought about making some pasta, but by this time I was too tired to complete the "halfway decent meal" and I opted for ramen because it was easier. I settled in and read Harry Potter and went to bed.

Crazy Weekend - Pirates vs. Ninjas

2007-09-02T21:02:00.001+09:00

Matt was nice and had bought us pizza. And even in my mad dash packing, I thought to grab us beers for the ride. So we had a nice meal on the way. We met Tye who was on the same train when we changed trains at station on the way. When we arrived, Matt suggested putting our things in a locker, but I said since we would just be at a beer garden all night and heading straight to Sam’s, we wouldn’t need one (this is also important.). Well we had a great time eating and drinking (nomihodai and tabehodai, of course). Afterward, as people were deciding what to do, I was thinking it would be better if I just went home, but the mention of karaoke made me forget all that. So I went with a bunch of people to karaoke. We sang and drank a bit more that night. It was fun, but I’m not sure it was worth the hazy morning. Anyway, after we finished karaoke, I grabbed by blue bag and my plastic bag and we ate some food. I don’t really recall what it was, but it was good. Then we got a taxi and headed to Takeshi’s place. He is a guy who met us up at the karaoke place and who is married to a former JET. He was letting us crash at his place, so when we got out I grabbed my blue bag and we went in. (Did you notice it?) Apparently, when Takeshi got out his futon, I laid down on it and fell right asleep. I didn’t realize this until the morning. But the odd thing was, I didn’t wake up there, at some point in the night I went down stairs to go to the bathroom, but never made it back up. I was on this really short couch with my legs over the arm. Anyway, as we were getting ready to leave, I grabbed my blue bag and… (did you figure it out?) my plastic bag was NOT there! Let’s make a list, shall we. It contained my:

digital camera (3rd time misplacing/losing/forgetting it)
cell phone
Nintendo DS
apartment keys
car key (Dan’s car)
1300 yen
an apple

So, that was a downer. I was so off for the day. Morgan (one of the new JETs who was out with us) had a car since he lives way out where no trains reach really and Tye, Iain, Morgan, and I left Takeshi’s and went out in search of ninja-wear. The reason being Angie’s Pirates vs. Ninjas party. Angie lives way out east past Sam in a town called Hiketa. And she has an actual house. Well it’s more like a duplex. But she has an upstairs with two rooms and a downstairs with a toilet, bath, kitchen, and living room. It is pretty big. Anyway, she was having a big bash just to get everyone together and bring some life down to her town. So, we guys were out looking for stuff in the hundred yen shops at the malls. We found some pretty good stuff actually. Also, the other three guys are really into either paint ball or air soft. So they got some air soft guns at the mall as well. I may have to invest in one as well. They seem pretty fun. Sort of like BBs but not as painful. And you don’t have to pump the gun a thousand times to make it shoot. I got a nike shirt that just says BALLS on the front. I thought it was funny. And I picked up a kanji dictionary for my Nintendo DS (that I didn’t have at that point since I had lost it). But I was certain that I would get it back… or I would replace it if I had to. Anyway, we drop Iain off and go to Morgan’s to relax for a bit and shower off the previous night. I tried to nap a little, but it didn’t really happen.

Meanwhile, Morgan has been trying to call my cell phone to see if anyone might pick up, but no one is answering. We are going to leave around 4 to pick Iain up and take him to the train station where we will pick up Dan to head to Angie’s. Of course, everything starts happening around that time. I get up and take a shower, Morgan gets a call from a Japanese person that he can barely understand because it’s hard Japanese and about 3 different people keep trying to call him so his phone is beeping the entire time he is talking to the Japanese guy. He is able to understand that the guy has my phone. Something about police. Something about taxi. But that’s it. Then he tries calling all the fluent Japanese speakers we know to get some help and of course no one is answering. I was pretty relieved though. Even though we don’t know where to go exactly we head out because we are late to pick up Iain and get to the station and we will figure out where to get my stuff when we get back in Takamatsu. Right before we get in the car, Morgan gets another call from the guy and this time he is able to understand him. I left my stuff in the taxi and the driver just dropped it off at the police station right near where she dropped us off. The funny thing is, Iain had seen a bag in the taxi and asked the driver if it was hers (in English) and she nodded or something and then he just left it. She probably thought we were really stupid. I’m just glad she dropped it off. But that’s something that is different about Japan. You can be a bit more trusting with your belongings. Not that you should make it a habit, because theft does exist. It’s just that you’re more likely to come across honest good citizens than people who believe finders keepers is a natural law. I’ve been out shopping a number of times when I realize I need to stop at another store and I feel awkward bringing in my bags from another store into this one and I leave them in my bike’s basket. I come out and they are still there. I’ve seen a few items that people have dropped or forgotten that others have put up somewhere so they can be seen and reclaimed. Other people have lost things that have been returned to them. Someone left a cell phone at a hotel, Sam left her passport in a taxi, someone left a computer at a bar (though I haven’t heard if they got that back or not). Anyway, we went back and the police station was literally right across the street from Takeshi’s place.

Eventually we made it down to Hiketa where we grabbed dinner and then provisions and went to the party. It was pretty fun. About 19 people showed up which is a lot for a gathering at someone’s place considering the size of apartments around here. Everyone dressed up so it was a lot of fun. We had demon masks and black head wraps and those shoes that have the big toe separate and that go up the calf most of the way. Oh and plastic swords and throwing stars and rubber nunchucks. Anyway, the partying and talking and drinking lasted until about 2, but I was pretty exhausted from the night before so I was sleeping off and on in the room where everyone settled from noon until 2 and then we all went to bed eventually. For some reason I felt really good and chipper the next day. I was up at around 7 or 7 30 I think. I took a shower and changed and got ready. Eventually the other guys going in Morgan’s car started getting up as well. He was hoping to get back early for a school event. We ate breakfast and tried cleaning up a bit and headed out.

Back in Takamatsu, I went shopping in the shotengai for a few things I had been wanting to get. That dang book bag that I still haven’t found. I’m not sure what kind I’m looking for, but I’ll know it when I see it. I got a kanji game for my DS as well. When I got to the train station I got my ticket and figured out what time I would need to board and then settled on some seats and started to situate all the stuff in my bags because I still had that plastic bag o’ expensive stuff, plus the bags of stuff I had bought in Tak. So I got all that set and was sitting there for a second. I checked the time and it was getting close so I went to grab my ticket….. which was NOT IN MY POCKET. The ticket costs about 9 dollars to get back to Takase. Not a ton, but I didn’t really want to pay it again. So I had to go through all the stuff I had just organized and couldn’t find it. I gathered all my stuff and walked back to the ticket machine and didn’t see it there or anywhere on the way. Then I went back to the seat and decided to grab the bags and trash that I had thrown in the bin and went through those. NO ticket. On the way back to my seat I looked at the ground which was black and barely made out this little square. See the tickets are bright orange on one side with all the info printed on it, and then black on the other side. So it blended in completely. I must have forgotten I had it in my hand when I sat down and just let go of it.

Anyway, I noticed a girl that I thought was someone I had met at the Mexican dinner (actually I met her in Tokushima but I didn’t remember that). I eventually decided it was probably her and called out her name and she looked up. So I sat down over by her and found out that my train was one that would need a transfer whereas if we just sat and waited a bit more then we could take the train that would be direct. So we sat and talked and eventually made it back home. She lives one town over from me in Mino. Her name is Sachie and she has great English. She lived in Colorado for two years working at a university.

Well I made it home where I finally felt tired, but I was resisting napping because I wanted to be on a normal schedule since Monday was opening ceremony. So I watched TV and played the DS and read Harry Potter 7 and cleaned up the place. Oh wait, no I didn’t clean. Ha ha ha. My place is a pig sty right now. Anyway, I did go running though. I made it around this small lake behind the high school near me and then headed over to this small mountain that has a big chunk of it quarried out. I went up it and found this little pond of rain water where they quarried the stone out. It looked pretty cool, like it would be nice for swimming and possibly cliff diving if you could find one low enough (most of them were about 100 feet it seemed which is a bit much) but there was a sign saying not to enter. I made it around and you could look out and see a lot of Takase. I’ll have to go up there again and find a clear view and take a picture so I can point out where I live and where the school is and all that. I swear I’ll start posting pictures soon.

I made it back home and took a nice hot bath, my first since being here. No, I’m not dirty, I’ve just been taking showers. But a hot bath in summer is kind of pointless. Because when you get out, you start sweating right away. So I had to take a cold shower to cool off. But it was actually refreshing all together. I ate some dinner and went to bed after reading Harry Potter for awhile.

So that gets us up to Sunday.

Last Week of Summer Break

2007-08-31T17:00:00.001+09:00

For the rest of the week I was actually fairly busy at school. I was helping students with the English speech contest in the mornings and the afternoons. In between, I was finishing up my powerpoint and creating a Jeopardy game on powerpoint to go along with it. Tuesday night was Matt, Tye, and my first Japanese study night. We met and grabbed dinner and then sat down and basically decided what our weekly goals would be. We also shared what resources we had so we might be able to borrow things from time to time. Then I headed home and stayed up late reading Harry Potter 7 which I didn’t get to read before leaving and another JET (Angie, you’ll hear about her in a bit) loaned me at the orientation on Friday. So I was pretty tired from Wednesday on through the week. Oh and I finally got a call from Alana, my friend from UGA whose family lives in Alabama and who is also on the JET programme but placed in Osaka. She didn’t have internet and so we couldn’t communicate that way easily. I had sent her my cell phone number when I got it, but she didn’t get to read her email for 2 weeks and on Tuesday she was at a party where someone had internet and she got it and called me. We didn’t talk too long, but it was good hearing from her. She was supposed to call Wednesday, but when she called at 10pm I had already turned my phone to silent for the night and gone to bed. I was soo tired. Then I didn’t get a chance at school to call her and forgot when I got home. And Friday was equally busy if not moreso. I thought I would have time after school, but I didn’t realize I was going to have to get the train so soon after school. You see, there was aNOTHER event in Takamatsu for us JETs. Not that all these are required, but I’ve heard the outings decrease after school starts back up again and I’d like to get to know these people around me so that maybe we can plan travel together in the future etc. And plus they are pretty cool people. Oh so after school. Yeah I left a bit late around 4 I think. I got home and realized I had left my keys at the school. So I had to truck back. Meanwhile I’m supposed to meet Matt at the train at 4:48. And I haven’t packed yet. I finally get home at 4 25 or so with my keys. I ram a bunch of clothes in my little blue bag and then realize I haven’t packed my electronics etc. And I have all of that in a pile with my pocket stuff (wallet, phone, change, etc.). So I throw that all in a plastic bag (this is important to remember) and head out the door. I make it to the train station. The set up is so that where we park our bikes you can see the platform with tracks on either side where the trains arrive. But you have to head 50 yards away to go through the station building and then go up stairs over the train tracks and then down them to get to the platform in between the tracks. That takes a good 45 seconds at least if you’re running. But I could clearly see the train was there and Matt was getting on. But I also saw the conductor who could clearly see me. I thought I would just run for it the right way, but then I saw him putting the whistle to his mouth. So I jumped the fence and crossed the tracks jumped onto the platform and dashed onto the train. Apparently the conductor just smiled at me. But at least I made it.

2nd Orientation and Weekend

2007-08-27T22:58:00.001+09:00

Well, let’s see where I left off… it has been awhile.

So, of course I didn’t do any of the things I meant to get done (dishes, etc.). I went home and then went out to an izakaya to wish Andy farewell. (Andy is the New Zealander who was working as a CIR in Mitoyo and helped Tye and I out a whole lot getting settled in and all.) That was pretty fun. A lot of people ended up showing up and we had quite a time. At one point everyone rapped out the entire intro to Prince of Bel-Air. It was pretty cool. Or uncool depending on how you look at it. After that I sort of got ready for Orientation, but not really. So it was another mad dash in the morning trying to get everything set to go. I packed an overnight bag this time, but I only used it to change into something more comfortable after the orientation stuff. The orientation this time was pretty good. They focused on school stuff which gave me some more ideas. My problem is that I get so many ideas that I don’t know which one I want to use and then I end up not using any of them and doing too much work on my own. Too bad I’m not organized. The best part was the video time. One of the Chrises and one of the Dans had some pretty cool videos to show about horror stories and examples of lessons and just some funny stuff.

After, orientation was the pub crawl. We grabbed a bite to eat before hand and then headed for the meeting bar and were divided into teams and began making our way around to the different bars in our teams. The first place we went was totally empty with some OK music and beer that tasted bad. So we left pretty shortly after arriving. We went to a place called Roughhouse after that. It was in a basement and was realllly small, but it was cool. You could tell that when it’s busier it gets realllllly smoky as well. But it was still pretty empty at the time. They had a vast selection of music and you could make requests for just about anything and they would have it. I played darts with Jeremy (He’s the guy also in Mitoyo City but in a secluded town called Nio right on the coast. We had the Mexican dinner at his place.) It was fun. He one once and I one once. It was luck as my aim was severely impaired due to….. ummm… well, you know.

After that we went to the King’s Yaad. It was this funky Jamaican bar. Pretty interesting to find a place like it in Japan I thought. Several of us ordered specialty drinks. They probably aren’t used to having 5 people order one each at the same time. It took a good while before they all arrived. They came in waves and after the last one had arrived and was drunk, we didn’t have time to make it to the fourth bar, but I and most of the others had been there before, so it wasn’t a big deal. So we met all the teams at the World Sports Bar. I didn’t drink anything there. I just used the internet and talked with people. And by that point I had decided I wasn’t going to travel on the weekend. I had heard about a festival in Marugame which is not too far from me on the West side. And the more I thought about it, an actual weekend spent at home would do me a lot of good. I ended up spending less time in my apartment than I had intended but it was good to relax a bit instead of being gone from Friday to Sunday or Monday. So I headed back to Takase on the last train with several others.

Saturday, Matt and I met at the train station and went to Marugame around 1pm for the Basala Dance Summer Festival. It was pretty cool. For this festival, everyone dances a different dance which is different from most of the other festivals. So we walked around for a while watching the different dances. We walked up and down the Shotengai as well. (Shotengai is a covered [mostly] pedestrian area with lots of shops along it. You find them in downtown areas.) And we happened upon a bookstore that had a CD and game section. They had Nintendo DSs which a lot of JETs had been recommending since there is a kanji dictionary cartridge and kanji games as well as lots of other fun games like Mario Kart and Tetris and you can hook up with other Nintendo DSs and play against people. So I decided to go ahead and get one. I decided to wait to get it so I wouldn’t have to carry it around too long. We went to the ATM and then started back for the dancers. We found a drink machine and started sipping on the Chu-hi around 3 or 4 I think and kept at it most of the afternoon. We just walked up and down the streets and by the main stage watching the different groups. Eventually we went back to the bookstore where I got the DS and a game and a case and where Matt completed a rubic’s cube.

Then we went back to the main area in front of the train station where we ran into a group of JETs that had just arrived. They were heading to an Indian place and we were just following along and before we knew it we were sitting at a table trying to decide what to eat, even though we had just had Indian the night before in Takamatsu and hadn’t really wanted it again. Oh I forgot to mention that at one point we bought kazoos. So of course after eating we got out our kazoos and began playing them for the people in the restaurant. Of course, the others hadn’t been drinking chu-hi’s all afternoon and so didn’t find this as amusing as we did. After eating I think we milled around for a bit and then headed down to the waterside to watch the fireworks. They were OK, but it will be hard to beat watching fireworks from the water like we did in Tsuda.

Afterward, we went to the Grasshopper, a bar that foreigners often frequent with a fair sized selection of imported beers and foreign foods. I got some nachos and had a couple of English beers I think they were. And at some point I fell asleep with my head against the wall. I don’t know if I mentioned it, but for some reason, in Japan, so far I’ve fallen asleep three times while I’ve been out with people. I don’t think that I’ve done this before, but maybe so. Of course, there is plenty of photographic evidence and lots of tampering with the sleeping person, but who could blame them. Eventually we hit the last train home. Sam (who had come from way out on the west side with Tye and who had been out in Takamatsu until 6am with Tye the night before after the pub crawl) came back with us to Takase. Apparently, I befriended a guy on the train. At first, I was playing my kazoo and he was yelling something at me. I guess cause we were being so loud. But at some point in the ride, I went over and sat with him and had some sort of conversation with him and we played the kazoo and made up.

Sam stayed over at my place. We got up and had breakfast. She actually helped clean up my place a bit which was still fairly messy. It was really nice of her. We just focused on the kitchen mainly and tidied up the living room a bit. We got Matt up and out and we all went and ate udon together. Afterwards we went to the 100 yen shop and got some useless, unneeded, yet somehow totally necessary junk. Actually, I got a few things I had been intending on getting for a while. A magnetic shelf for my bathroom and some plants and seeds and pots. Dan from Mino called up to say he was on his way to Takase and as we left the shop he was coming up on his bike. He took us down to an Antique store he had mentioned to us before. It was pretty cool. This little shop with tons of stuff from floor to ceiling. They had instruments and records and dishes and clocks and scrolls and books and trinkets. Eventually they brought out iced coffee and crackers and we all sat down and had a conversation mainly via Dan who can speak more Japanese than us of course. I got a few fans and a drawing of a seascape. Afterward, we went back to my place and got in the car to head to Utazu. Matt had been wanting to get guitars, an acoustic and an electric. There’s a used electronics/instrument store called Hard Off. So we went there after picking up Tye from his place. I got to drive, so that was cool. Except we missed a turn and it took about 15 minutes to finally turn around and get back to it. The shopping trip was successful as he found both types of guitars he wanted and a guitar stand and I got a couple of games for my Nintendo DS. While Matt was still selecting his guitars I drove Sam to the train station so she could make it back to her town before it got too late since she was pretty exhausted from the nights out and had her opening ceremony stuff on Monday. That was the first time I drove the car by myself. No accidents. So that was good. We grabbed a bite to eat and then headed home.

Monday I just stayed at home and played with my DS and lounged around avoiding the work that I was supposed to be doing. I actually did eventually work on my desk and got that mostly sorted and I did 3 loads of laundry. I felt good with that.

Feeling sick at school

2007-08-23T16:35:00.001+09:00

Wednesday, I was feeling the worst I had. Lots of coughing, sore throat, sneezing, etc. I thought it was a cold, but now I’m thinking it’s allergies since all the snot is clear. I didn’t get allergies until my senior year in high school I think was the first time. And since then I get them but not consistently. Sometimes in the spring and fall, sometimes one or the other, or one year I didn’t get allergies at all. So, when I get them, I’m always taken by surprise and think I’m getting sick. I also had to work with the two speech contestants which wasn’t that much fun with the sore throat, but the kids were nice and I did enjoy getting to work with them. They are only 7th graders and they can actually read English. As for understanding it, I don’t think they could read it on their own and get it, but I think the English teacher explained it all to them and they know which parts mean what, but today when I was working with the one who showed up again, I asked him “Who is your English teacher?” and he didn’t know what I was asking. He said, “yes.” I’m still amazed at his ability to even read English with any sort of fluency. After school Wednesday, I just went home and changed, went to the grocery store for a bento and some chips, and went home to rest. After I finished the bento, I fell asleep for about an hour which was nice. When I woke up, there was a soccer game on, Japan v. Cameroon, which the Japanese won. Then I went outside for some internet, and I think I found an area that will be more consistent, but it’s a bit longer of a walk. I did some reading with the Disney book with my dictionary right nearby and went to bed early. Today, I’ve been feeling a lot better, mainly sneezing and a runny nose. So hopefully things will be cleared up tomorrow.

My goal this afternoon is to actually do my dishes, iron my shirts, clean up the apartment and start organizing my desk. I didn’t realize it was so close to the weekend already, I have asked for this Monday off, so I should make some type of plans. We have to go into Takamatsu tomorrow for the 2nd orientation after which a pub crawl for charity has been organized. So, maybe I’ll stay out there again. I still haven’t gotten that bag I’ve been meaning to get. Since, I’ll have Saturday, Sunday, and Monday, maybe I’ll try to get off Shikoku for a destination. Well, school time has been over for about a half-hour, so I need to get out of here.

Meeting the Governor and Shopping at the Mall

2007-08-21T22:35:00.001+09:00

Tuesday, we had to meet in Takamatsu for an official meeting with the governor. I got the morning off because I had originally thought I had to go to the city office in the morning and I had already asked to have the day to do that and go to the capital before getting the payslip and didn’t mention anything after getting the payslip. So I took my time getting up and getting ready. I ate breakfast and went to the bank where thankfully the money had been placed into my account. I was so happy I got 5 man (man, pronounced mahn, is 10,000, so 5 man = 50,000) yen, which is about $500. I didn’t want to run short of money again. After that I went to the Joy homestore and got some floor cushions and a floor mat that were all on sale for half price. I got some bungee cords so I could strap stuff to the back of my bike. And I got a couple of foldable outdoor chairs, I thought they would be good for if we do camping like people mentioned and to pull out if I have extra people over. Plus, the “couch” I have is low to the ground and it’s a pain to move the kitchen chairs around, so they will probably be a semi-permanent feature of my living room. I headed home and was going to catch the train at 11:22. Somehow, even though I got a text from Matt asking when I would be leaving to which I responded “11:22” at about 11:10, I failed to realize that I needed to hurry. So I unpacked the stuff I had just bought, and hopped in the shower, and started ironing a shirt, and then I looked at the time again and it was 11:16, which is when I realized I really needed to hurry. The station may only be a couple minutes away, but the trains are incredibly punctual barring a summer festival. Anyway, I managed to leave with 2 minutes to make it to the train. Matt was equally as rushed and we got to the station at the same time and boarded with only 10 seconds to spare. The train luckily was waiting for an express train to go by in the other direction.

We grabbed some udon on the way to the prefectural building which proved to be a mistake for me, one I wasn’t to realize until about an hour later. We made it up to the meeting room and put on our ties and got ready to meet the governor. We all sat on one side of this really long circular table that was open in the middle and there were places for the governor and two other officials on the other side and a table in the middle that had all the flags for the countries we represented. There was a TV crew there as well and a cameraman. The governor came in and gave a short introduction speech that Andy (a different Andy, a prefectural advisor in Takamatsu) translated. The other two officials introduced themselves as well. Then Jenny, another new JET, gave a short speech on the behalf of the rest of us new JETs. Then, we each introduced ourselves in Japanese saying our names, where we were from, and where we work in Kagawa. It was fun listening to everyone speak in Japanese. There are maybe 3 or 4 among us that actually have studied it before and can actually speak it. A couple had prepared longer self-introductions that the governor enjoyed. I just did the basic one. Meanwhile, the udon was playing tricks on my stomach. I thought I was going to explode. Tye kept laughing at me. Part of the meeting was aired on the news that night because a teacher mentioned seeing it the next day. I wish I had thought to ask which station it might be on, but then again, I think the channels differ from place to place and I haven’t figured out how they name stations and where or what the logo might be. We were also in the paper. I think someone said they would bring in a copy for me. Tye said he saw one in his paper and that my head almost completely blocked his. (No comments Alison ;P.)

After that, a few prefectural JETs (High schools are considered prefectural, whereas junior highs and elementaries are considered local and run by cities or towns – I’m a city level JET) had to stay for the official signing of their contracts or something, so some of us went to a book store, where I got a practice test for the yonkyuu or something like that. Basically the lowest level of the official I-know-some-Japanese test. We met up with the prefectural JETs at the train station and caught the bus for the mall. Aeon Town. It was pretty impressive, but not unlike malls in the states. It was 3 stories and all of the store names were either in English or at least romaji. But mostly English. If any of my students remember those pictures of people on the bulletin board and the one with the old guy where it said something about “boo” are reading, I have a picture from the mall to show you, once I get a chance to load up some pictures. It’s kind of funny. Anyway, seeing as I had just gotten paid and I had 5 man burning a hole in my wallet, I of course went on a spending spree. I got a sleeping bag for guests and camping and weekends away, a nalgene bottle for my biking treks to the various elementaries, a couple carabeaners for keys etc., a few more Japanese books for reading (2 manga and 1 Disney story book and 1 book that I had bought in France for my French classes that I absolutely loved and I’ll be happy when I can read it for real in Japanese), some actual bed sheets (the ones I got before ended up being duvet or futon covers or something), a hat for the beach (it’s pretty suave actually, kind of 50s debonair feel, at least I think so), a taco kit and spaghetti sauce from the foreign foods place, and about 6 shirts from Uniqlo that were all 1000 yen or under, which was pretty good. Devin, have you been to uniqlo? You’d probably like it. Some of the t-shirts I got, I would pay about $20 or more for in the States, and I got them for 500 yen (less than $5). My wardrobe took a hit when I moved. I’ve been basically wearing the same rotation of clothes each week. The bad part is I usually change out of my school clothes into shorts each day and maybe another shirt, which means after about 4 days, everything is dirty basically and I have to do laundry. I keep hanging up my shirts to be ironed and I guess I just hope they unwrinkled themselves because I always end up ironing them right before putting them on in the morning instead of ironing them all at once. Anyway, the shirts I got will ease things a bit since I won’t have to do laundry mid-week now. And I definitely wear the pants and shorts multiple times per week, but I did that back home. Of course, I was the last one in a store getting those shirts. I thought I had plenty of time before the bus, but I didn’t and they ended up leaving but Matt stayed. If I wanted, I could have thrown my basket of clothes down, but since I had actually tried stuff on, I was pretty set on getting it and I knew I needed it. I figured I could just wait the half hour for the next bus. It was very nice of Matt to stay though. We ended up seeing Tye back at the train station anyway because there wasn’t another train back before then. Needless to say, my wallet is considerably lighter now. But I mostly got things I’ve been thinking of getting or saw and realized I needed (you know how that goes). I still have a few more fairly big items I’d like to get. I’d like either one or two standing fans, a Nintendo DS, and maybe a small oven. I have a little grill that’s included in the stove, but it fits maybe two pieces of bread and even then, it doesn’t toast both sides at the same time. But maybe I’m not using it right. And I have a microwave. I have to think if I’ll actually use it. In France, we got an oven, and we actually used it. And when I say we, I mean I acted as my roommate’s pseudo-sous-chef. So I don’t know if I would use it as much now that I’m on my own. I need to check out some cookbooks in English here, if I can find some. And I wish I had brought one from home now. I was thinking about it, but it was on the cut-it-if-I’m-at-my-weight-limit list, and I definitely hit that limit, so cut it I did. Other than that, I can’t think of anything else I really want or need. Maybe another futon mat or two and sheets to go with for guests.

Payday and Pizza

2007-08-20T21:00:00.001+09:00

Monday, I was back at school and I got some work done. I met with the 9th grade speech contestant who was very nice. She did a nice job with the pronunciation. The problem I see is that even if she pronounces it well, is she really understanding it? And then, what’s the point of the contest? It’s not like she actually wrote it. It seems kind of pointless. These contests are a big deal apparently. And I’ve heard it’s equally as pointless to try and change the status quo in your Japanese school as a foreigner.

At one point, I had a nice conversation with one of the female teachers. She doesn’t speak much English, but it’s better than my Japanese. It’s mainly one word utterances to get her point across, which was surprisingly effective. Occasionally, one of the English teachers would step in to clear any problems up. She was asking about the Japanese foods I liked and disliked. This seems to be a popular conversation for Japanese people to have with foreigners. The trouble is I haven’t had the opportunity to try much that I haven’t had before coming here. The main new food is udon which is just another type of noodle. I’ve had a couple new sushi and sashimi items, but that’s not really different. So I mainly talk about what I think I might have trouble eating. Things that people have described to me. One is the whole fish that sometimes gets served with school lunch. It’s small fish with the head and tail and eyes, whole. Sometimes, they are pregnant so you can squeeze it and the eggs come out. And you eat it all. I don’t know if I’ll be able to handle that. But I promised I would try. Another is natto. Some sort of fermented bean dish that supposedly has a really off-putting smell and less than appealing texture. She ended the conversation by saying we should all have a karaoke night out sometime. Which I would enjoy. When I’m feeling better of course. By Monday, I was dealing with a really sore throat and a bit of a cough. The good news was that I got paid though. They gave me my pay slip at work. I was under the impression that since I didn’t get my bank account until late in the month, that my first direct deposit wouldn’t go through. So I would have to go to the city office to get my money. But they gave me my slip at work. I was sooo happy to finally have money!! (That I didn’t have to get from my American account.) Oh and right before leaving work, another teacher, the one who cooked for some of the teachers before, came to my desk. With the aid of Ms. Hara, one of the English teachers, she told me she had made lots of pizzas and wanted to know if I wanted one. She even offered to deliver it to my house. I said I could wait, but she was going to be at work for a couple hours after I was to leave and then it would take an additional 45 minutes. So she said she would bring it by since she already knew the place from my predecessor. I couldn’t believe it. Homemade pizza. I sent a text to Matt and invited him over to enjoy it with me. Since I knew I had my paycheck, I headed to K’s Denki to see what electronics I might want to get. People have been suggesting a Nintendo DS which you can play games on in addition to having a cartridge with a kanji dictionary that would make reading Japanese a thousand times easier. It has a stylus that allows you to draw it right on the screen. It seems pretty cool. Anyway, I ran into Matt there who was also perusing some of the electronics. We headed to the home store after. I wanted to get some small glasses for cold tea if the teacher wanted to come in when she dropped of the pizza. I wasn’t even thinking and I ended up being about $10 short when I got to the register. I almost looked in my wallet before shopping, but thought for sure that I had about 5000 yen. I only had 3000 and the bill was 4000. Luckily Matt was there and didn’t mind loaning me what I needed. I felt pretty stupid. He bought some trash cans for sorting his garbage so he had to walk his bike home and I took off so I could get a few more things and clean up before the teacher and he showed up. Since I had just run out of money, I knew I needed to stop at the bank. So of course, I went straight to the grocery store, hopped off my bike, and was almost in the store when I realized my blunder. So I got back on and went to the bank where I found out that getting a payslip doesn’t mean the money is in the bank. (It did at my school in Canton, but not here.) So that meant if I wanted to get orange juice and cereal and milk for breakfast and to pay Matt back I had to head back over to the side of town where we just were to get to the post office to draw on my home bank once again. Eventually I made it home and I got things mostly clean, which mean a lot of throwing things into the closet and my bedroom. I didn’t then and have yet to do the dishes completely since being here in Japan. I think I will do them tonight. Anyway, Mrs. Hashimuze, the teacher, came over a bit after six with the pizza and also some fried chicken nuggets (that’s basically what they were). It was so nice. But she really doesn’t speak English, just like I really don’t speak Japanese. So her attempt to explain something to me completely failed. It was really bad seeing as we both had our Japanese-English dictionaries with us. She kept pointing at the pizza or right under the pizza and was saying something about kiji. So I looked it up and it said “textile, fabric, cloth”. I thought she had been referring to the dish and that I needed to bring it back to her. But when I saw that definition I was confused and showed it to her thinking I had heard her wrong. When she saw it, she said “So, so, so, so”, which means “Yes, yes, that’s so” basically. So I was really confused at that point. I invited her in, but she said she had to leave I guess and after about 5 minutes of working on kiji, she just left. When Matt came over and we sat down to actually eat, I realized there was a piece of something like waxed paper between the pizza and the dish. I guess she was saying not to eat that or something. Anyway, It was a pretty good pizza. The sauce was homemade perhaps. It had lots of onions and other veggies in it. It was pretty think with a lot of cheese on top and some basil leaves on top of that. The chicken was pretty good as well. Which reminds me, there were a couple pieces left over that I think I’ll have for a snack today. Matt stayed over for a while and we talked for a bit while listening to music. He’s a nice guy. Comes from England and was in a circus group in college and president of the badminton club. He’s interesting to say the least. I think he will be a good friend to have around. He’s literally 2 minutes from me door to door on a bike.

Barbecue

2007-08-19T23:00:00.001+09:00

Well Sunday’s barbecue was nice, though I was starting to feel kind of sick, like a cold or something. I was getting the sniffles and a slight sore throat. And by the end of the day, I was not doing so well. We headed out to Nio for the BBQ, which is where Jeremy lives and where we had the Mexican dinner. It was nice. Fewer people than I had expected, but it was nice. The principal of the elementary was there and she is really spunky and totally digs English, even though she doesn’t necessarily have the greatest command of it. Andy and a couple other JETs were there, along with Yukari and Che, Andy’s coworkers, and Yoshida, who is the elementary teacher I’ll be working with at Ninomiya, among others. Andy and I swam out to an island that sits a few hundred meters out. It was a nice swim. He was saying we should do that every day. It’s just that it takes a car or a bit of a bike ride over a mountain.

Oh and as for the Japanese style barbecue, it is a bit different. The set up was similar. They didn't have park grills, so they had brought their own camping style grills. They had charcoal that looked a bit different, but worked the same way. But they had this thing, basically it was a flamethrower that they used to make the coal burn faster so it would get hotter faster. The meat and cooking was where things got different. Think barbecue buffet. In America, if you're grilling as a family, you might cook everything all at once and time it so that it's all done at the same time and you sit down as a family and eat your barbecued meal. Or in a big group, you have your hotdogs and hamburgers going and maybe steaks and corn on the cob and as it's ready you get yours and walk away and put on your condiments and get your chips and drink and sit down and eat. You might go back for seconds if you want. At this barbecue, they threw on the meat which was in little chunks and cooked a bunch at a time and had bowls of sauce. So we went around with our chopsticks and got what we wanted and dipped it in the sauce and they were constantly throwing more meat and veggies on the grill until everyone had eaten enough. It was interesting. I enjoyed it though.

After the barbecue, I just went back home and rested. Dan came over for a bit after a short trip to the neighboring prefecture, Ehime, with some of his adult English class.

Sanuki-Tsuda and Driving

2007-08-18T23:00:00.001+09:00

Saturday, I was up at nine and headed into town in search of the other Matt from Takase who had already gone in earlier. I’ve been looking for a lighter back pack for weekend use which I still haven’t gotten by the way. And he was in search of weekend supplies as he hadn’t been planning on staying. I got more cash from the post office to last me for the weekend and we took the train to Tsuda Beach. I don’t like drawing on my American account because I feel like I’m losing money, paying for the exchange and all. At that point I had my Japanese account, but I hadn’t been paid yet. So I ended up having to get more money a couple hours later after we bought provisions for the beach. Sanuki-Tsuda is where a JET named Alison lives. When we got there, several JETs had already rented a shelter for us. So we stowed our stuff and got into our suits. And we had a great time. I opted to not drink as I was not feeling too good after Friday night. I also bought this little elephant float from the store. There wasn’t much of a selection and I thought it would be fun. The trunk inflated in a very erect form which provided much humor throughout the afternoon. It ended up being a very good purchase. Since it was Tsuda’s summer festival there were lots of food stands and music and dancing. They had a stage set up where they had dancers earlier on and Sam and I saw a magician. He kept saying “Amerika” and I wished I could understand the rest of it so I knew what he was saying. And later on, there were the requisite fireworks. What makes this festival cool is that the fireworks are shot from very close to shore on this rickety pier and people will sit on the beach to watch them. Us being the foreigners that we are, we of course took our drinks and our floats and headed for the water. Those were the best fireworks I’ve seen. It wasn’t the biggest show by any means, but they were literally exploding above us. We could see where some of the sparks were actually hitting the water. It was pretty awesome.

Andy had driven from Takase with Dan and Brent, some other JETs from the west side. They said I could get a ride back which I was thankful for since it meant I wouldn’t have to get the early train and I could avoid the cost of the ticket as well. And since I hadn’t been drinking and Andy wanted to drink, they asked if I would drive back for them. So Saturday night was my first driving experience in Japan. They drive on the left side, if you didn’t know. And I didn’t know that before coming here. When I found that out recently (I can’t remember if it was before getting here or just after), I thought that I should have known that somehow. I’m sure Alison back in Canton knew it. So the drive back…. Well, no incidents really. I was really nervous about landing in one of the common roadside gutters, but that didn’t happen. I joked that I did that twice in a text to Sam but that we had pushed it out both times. Apparently, it’s possible to push the car out if you do that, because the cars are so small. Andy said that he did that once. But I was mainly on the highway so I didn’t have anything to worry about. I can’t remember if I mentioned these gutters though. Instead of having a road with curbs on the side that help funnel the water to an eventual drain which takes the water to a pipe under the road, they just have these open gutters on one side or the other or both that collect water. Think mini-canals or concrete creeks. Some of them are maybe a foot deep and a foot wide, but others can be a 12 foot drop… with NO railing. Sometimes these gutters are covered, but sometimes sections of the covered parts are open. Just to make sure you’re paying attention, I guess.

Anyway, I would have preferred to have had my first driving experience during the day, but I guess it’s better this way. I didn’t really have the opportunity to get nervous and over-think it all. I just had to do it. The guys gave me the directions and I followed them. Easy as that. Well mostly. I didn’t have that big of a problem with driving on the left side. It was having the steering wheel on the right and the gear shift on the left and the turn signal on the right and the windshield wipers on the left that got me. I can say that I only turned the wipers on maybe 3 times during the whole trip. And I have to give it to Andy, one section of the highway was JUST like one of those car racing video games, which I guess are largely developed in Japan, so that would make since. It was pretty cool, though. But we did make it home safely. And I now feel more comfortable driving. Though I think I’d still like having a knowledgeable passenger to direct me and remind me to make those wide right turns and close left turns to stay on the right correct side of the road.