Here you go mother, another blog post.
So for those of you who don’t know, AKA the two of you who aren’t related to me who read this, I’m officially coming home for Christmas. I bought my ticket and everything. My Visa’s still smoking a little from having that much put on it, but I’m still really excited. I’ll be home from the 23rd until the 5th of January. Parties and fun will abound.
And now back to Japan. It’s finally Fall. And a Fall I recognize. It went from over thirty degrees to ten in a matter of days. Honestly. I had to get one of the many extra blankets out of the cupboard so I don’t freeze at night. I am glad that I no longer feel like I’m going to die all the time which is what kept happening when it was that bloody hot. I feel a bit more at home now though I do fervently wish that my apartment was insulated. Or had heating beyond my two little kerosene heaters. And I’m not turning those suckers on until I absolutely have to. They scare me a little. I am planning on trying out my kotatsu tonight, provided it stays cool today and it’s not just a morning cold thing. So my next blog may feature my love of my kotatsu. We shall see.
As many of you know, I just had my birthday so I’m no longer the youngest ALT here. Well I still am but Emma’s 22 as well so it’s not as obvious anymore. Since Josh’s, another ALT, birthday is the 22nd, we combined mine and his birthday parties into one massive good time. And because everyone has just finished or are about to finish their Sports Festivals (Undokai) we decided to make it Night Sports Festival themed.
Night Sports Festivals occur at the enkais the teachers have after a school’s Sports Festivals. They involve a lot of ridiculous events that get progressively more hilarious as the teachers drink more. I only had one instance of a Night Sports Festival and it involved a hula hoop. And a lot of drunken catcalling from both teams. My team blatantly won. 3 times. But the other team kept saying it was just practice and didn’t count until they finally won one. Jerks.
So in this tradition, we, the ALTs, had the Poondokai. With events such as Dragon Boating, four team members use straws to drink alcohol out of a long container with the fastest team winning, and Pull the Cushions Out From Under the Person Jumping From the Seiza Position. That one involved a tiebreaker.
Danielle, one of my fellow Canucks, also taught the other non-Canadians how to shotgun a beer. I hadn’t realized until then that it was a Canadian thing.
It was a lot of fun. I couldn’t drink anything as I had to drive back to Miya, stupid trains stop running to Miya at like 9pm, but it was still fun to get involved with. We rented out the big room at the Karaoke place in Takayama so of course, at the end of the night we were all singing karaoke. It got hilarious.
All of us got super into both the Disney and the Spice Girls songs.
I apologize for not blogging earlier. I just discovered the joys of Japanese Amazon. It’s pretty much the same as Canadian or American Amazon but with one wonderful difference. You can pay for your orders at the Convenience Store. In cash. This makes me unbelievably happy. As does the fact that they sell English books on their site. I only bought 3 so far and one of them is sort of work related. The other two are the sequels to the book I bought 2 days before leaving. I spent all of yesterday reading the first one and I’ll spend the next two days, when not at work, finishing the other one. Don’t judge me.
Anyway that’s it for now. Bye!
Sep 26, 2010
Sep 15, 2010
September Drinking and Teaching Fun
So here I am at Kuguno Elementary with nothing to do. Lucky you because that means I’m writing a blog post. Not too much has been going on. I’ve now been to all my school’s Sports Festivals. I had 3 in one day. It was a little nuts.
The September birthdays have already started. We had two last weekend. Next weekend we have none though it is a long weekend, and the following week we have three. That is going to be a week of permanent inebriation I’m sure.
I did just find out, and I mean in the last ten minutes, that on November 1st all the English teachers in Takayama are coming to Kuguno Elementary School. To watch me teach a lesson. I might cry. Especially after the three failed attempts to teach the second graders the game I wanted to play this morning. We had to switch to Fruits Basket. And even then the kids couldn’t remember what colour they were until I taped colour cards to their shirts. I hope they’re going to watch me teach the grade 5’s or 6’s. All of my lessons so far, knock on wood, with them have gone smoothly. I live in fear of it being the grade 1’s or 2’s. As one ALT put it at Orientation, those grades are pretty much retarded.
I have been adopted by several of the grade 1’s. They seem intent on leading me around the school and playground. Which is a nice change from the normal lunch recess activity of “Chase Lauren up and down the halls and then attack her”. That one I don’t mind so much. It’s the packs of little girls that corner you and then either grope you, yes that has happened to me, or keep doing something you tell them not to, trying to lift up my shirt in my case.
Now that’s not to say the kids are bad or anything. Far from it. I love them. They’re adorable most of the time. I just occasionally want to murder them. I think that’s just kids in general though. And they seem to like me. If they way they lie in wait for me or try and coax me out of the staff room is any indication. The staff room is the only place they won’t follow me so it’s where I hide when I’m tired. If I manage to escape that is.
Oh I had my first fail of a class. It was my English conversation class and in hindsight I should have realized it was a bad idea. See I decided, because it’s an elective class and I have a blank slate for it, to let the students pick what they want to learn. So that’s what we did the first class. The problem was it was probably boring for them, a whole lot of English as I tried to explain what everything was, and I talk too fast when I get excited.
But now that that’s done, I know what I’m doing with them until November. Which is nice. And I don’t care that my Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog unit only got 1 vote. We’re doing it anyways because I want to do it. And I think they’ll like it.
So that’s about all that’s been going on with me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I hear small children attempting English outside.
The September birthdays have already started. We had two last weekend. Next weekend we have none though it is a long weekend, and the following week we have three. That is going to be a week of permanent inebriation I’m sure.
I did just find out, and I mean in the last ten minutes, that on November 1st all the English teachers in Takayama are coming to Kuguno Elementary School. To watch me teach a lesson. I might cry. Especially after the three failed attempts to teach the second graders the game I wanted to play this morning. We had to switch to Fruits Basket. And even then the kids couldn’t remember what colour they were until I taped colour cards to their shirts. I hope they’re going to watch me teach the grade 5’s or 6’s. All of my lessons so far, knock on wood, with them have gone smoothly. I live in fear of it being the grade 1’s or 2’s. As one ALT put it at Orientation, those grades are pretty much retarded.
I have been adopted by several of the grade 1’s. They seem intent on leading me around the school and playground. Which is a nice change from the normal lunch recess activity of “Chase Lauren up and down the halls and then attack her”. That one I don’t mind so much. It’s the packs of little girls that corner you and then either grope you, yes that has happened to me, or keep doing something you tell them not to, trying to lift up my shirt in my case.
Now that’s not to say the kids are bad or anything. Far from it. I love them. They’re adorable most of the time. I just occasionally want to murder them. I think that’s just kids in general though. And they seem to like me. If they way they lie in wait for me or try and coax me out of the staff room is any indication. The staff room is the only place they won’t follow me so it’s where I hide when I’m tired. If I manage to escape that is.
Oh I had my first fail of a class. It was my English conversation class and in hindsight I should have realized it was a bad idea. See I decided, because it’s an elective class and I have a blank slate for it, to let the students pick what they want to learn. So that’s what we did the first class. The problem was it was probably boring for them, a whole lot of English as I tried to explain what everything was, and I talk too fast when I get excited.
But now that that’s done, I know what I’m doing with them until November. Which is nice. And I don’t care that my Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog unit only got 1 vote. We’re doing it anyways because I want to do it. And I think they’ll like it.
So that’s about all that’s been going on with me. Now if you’ll excuse me, I hear small children attempting English outside.
Sep 6, 2010
First Week of September
Okay so because mother is nagging me, I love you mom, here’s another post. If this one doesn’t make sense it’s due to the fact that I’m severely hung-over after my three day drink-a-thon. But I’m getting to that.
So Friday started in the most reassuring of manners. I spent a half-hour driving around Kuguno looking for my Junior High. Finally, after the second time I stumbled across it, I went up to my Elementary school and asked for directions. My principal, who’s sort of adopted me as I’m almost the same age as his daughter, drove in front and showed me where the school was. The sad part is I’d made it there by myself the week before.
So I was late for the first time. My English teacher, Omizou-sensei, found my story of getting lost hilarious and so I’m guessing no one found me being a few minutes late to be a huge deal. I introduced myself to some more classes. Questions I’m asked a lot include, What did you have for breakfast?, Do you like natto?, How old are you?, and of course Do you have a boyfriend?
Anyway I ended up leaving work early on Friday because I had to go to the Board of Education to meet the Superintendent. Luckily, one of my boxes of winter clothes was there so I was able to pick it up at the same time. I am a little concerned that it was only one box given that I sent two and I sent them at the same time, but there’s nothing much I can do but wait and see at this point.
Quick side note: We’ve had an increase of bear sighting in the Takayama area. One fisherman was attacked, he’s fine, but now everyone’s on hyper alert for them. Sometimes the teachers actually go check the paths/streets that the kids use to get home, if they’re near the forest, for bears. I just love the image of teachers doing a bear check before letting the kids go. And for those of you who are worried, there’s not been a single bear sighting in my village.
And back to Friday. After going to the Board of Education, I went home, got changed and then met up with Kuguno Elementary’s principal downstairs. We live in the same building though I live on the third floor and he lives on the first. Together we took a taxi to my first enkai.
An enkai is a work drinking party. They often are all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink so they are deadly. This one I only had 2 beers and I was very much inebriated. I found out I speak better Japanese drunk than I do sober. This particular enkai involved drunken language lessons from me. I taught all my teachers “the only Spanish you need to know.” Dos cervesas por favor. Or two beers please. I translated it for them and they loved it.
So I got home around 11pm went to bed, and then had to go to Kuguno Junior High on Saturday morning for the Sports Festival. It was actually a lot of fun. For me at least. I just sat there, took pictures, and tried to get the kid with the broken leg beside me to talk.
Some of the events were intense. They had some of the usual, relay races, tug-of-wars, and three-legged races but some of the other events…Like the most violent one was probably the rope-grabbing race. They leave a bunch of short lengths of rope in the middle of the field and the girls on each team line up on opposite sides. When the pistol goes, they run grab the ropes and drop them on their side. Doesn’t sound so bad does it? But once you’ve dropped one you can go back and help your friends. Which means you can have like twenty girls all trying to get the same piece of rope and they’re hardcore fighting each other for it. It’s a lot of fun to watch.
Another of the more interesting ones was the back running race. They have one kid on each team, the lightest, and they have him climb onto their backs, they’re have bent over, and he runs across the field this way and back again. It looks like it’s fun to be the kid doing the running.
One of the other ones I liked was the team jump rope. They get like ten to twenty kids in a line and they all have to jump this huge rope. The aim is to have the highest number of consecutive jumps. The winning number was thirty-four. I have no idea how they do this.
Halfway through the day the kids do their cheers. This isn’t like “Go lions go” or anything like this. First off, the kids have painted their own mascots, big boards with something on it in their team’s colours. White team had a white tiger and the Red team had a picture of Napoleon on a horse for some reason. I still have no idea why. The cheering itself involves chanting, synchronized movements, and in the case of both teams, coloured flip boards. They flipped these over and back to reveal the different colours and created patterns with them. It was frigging cool.
The Red team added in a number involving fans. They spelled the word WIN in English which was sweet. The White team however, took it to another level. Not only did they have their flip boards but half-way through they switch the colours from green and white to green and yellow somehow. Then, in the second half, they opened and closed their black uniform coats to reveal their white t-shirts and formed patterns with them. While chanting. And in the end they made a massive (A V in Japan often stands for Victory) out of both their shirts and their bodies. It was super awesome. I was thoroughly impressed.
So after a day of sun and sweat, I went home to get clean, change and I was right back out for another enkai. This time, I met up with my Science teacher from Kuguno Junior High, he too lives in Miya, and we took the train into Takayama. We ended up at Kanki, which is a favourite restaurant with us ALTs as they do a very good Caesar salad.
There was no Caesar salad in evidence at the enkai. There were however, not one, but two fish heads. One raw, one cooked. The teachers had a lot of fun trying to make me eat the cooked one’s eye. No one else ate it so I assume they were just messing with me. This was like an extension of lunch time where I made the mistake of sitting in the gym where the students and their families were and not in the staff room. Several people seemed to decide my sandwich was not a good enough lunch and began the game of ‘Feed the Foreigner’. I tried to refuse but they wouldn’t let me. And then I couldn’t not eat it. I thought I was going to die. So much food!
So Saturday’s enkai also involved me drunkenly teaching languages to people. This time it was mostly English with a tiny bit of German and Danish thrown in. One of my teachers kept thinking I was Dutch for some reason. I had to explain, using my little chart that I’d drawn in my notebook, to explain what background I come from. They all found this fascinating. Which kind of makes sense since all of them are Japanese and all they’re ancestors are Japanese so the idea of having a mixed background is a novelty.
Again, I managed to keep my drinking within acceptable drunken levels and got home at around 10pm. I went to bed, got up early, made cheesecake dip and then took the train into Takayama and walked to the Valor where I was meeting the other ALTs. We did a bit of last minute grocery shopping and then piled into 4 cars to head to the river in Kamioka.
It was Aiko’s, a Japanese friend of us ALTs, birthday. So we went to the river, crossed it, and set up a barbecue. We spent the day there, swimming, jumping off the cliffs, and sliding down the mini-waterfalls. Well that is until we discovered that there were leeches around the waterfalls. Then we stayed off those rocks. Though they were only tiny little leeches no bigger than tiny bits of thread. They came right off.
We ended the day with several bouts of river sumo wrestling or Mizumo as we called it (Mizu being water and Mizumo being a combination of the words Mizu and Sumo). Aiko was the girl’s champion and Carl was the boy’s. Finally, with the sun going down, the river is between two mountains so it gets cold quickly, we made our way home, tired but content.
So that’s what I was up to this weekend. Stay tuned because there are like 5 ALT birthdays this month so we’re going to spend most of this month in a drunken haze. Until the next time I’m bored at work, Bye!
So Friday started in the most reassuring of manners. I spent a half-hour driving around Kuguno looking for my Junior High. Finally, after the second time I stumbled across it, I went up to my Elementary school and asked for directions. My principal, who’s sort of adopted me as I’m almost the same age as his daughter, drove in front and showed me where the school was. The sad part is I’d made it there by myself the week before.
So I was late for the first time. My English teacher, Omizou-sensei, found my story of getting lost hilarious and so I’m guessing no one found me being a few minutes late to be a huge deal. I introduced myself to some more classes. Questions I’m asked a lot include, What did you have for breakfast?, Do you like natto?, How old are you?, and of course Do you have a boyfriend?
Anyway I ended up leaving work early on Friday because I had to go to the Board of Education to meet the Superintendent. Luckily, one of my boxes of winter clothes was there so I was able to pick it up at the same time. I am a little concerned that it was only one box given that I sent two and I sent them at the same time, but there’s nothing much I can do but wait and see at this point.
Quick side note: We’ve had an increase of bear sighting in the Takayama area. One fisherman was attacked, he’s fine, but now everyone’s on hyper alert for them. Sometimes the teachers actually go check the paths/streets that the kids use to get home, if they’re near the forest, for bears. I just love the image of teachers doing a bear check before letting the kids go. And for those of you who are worried, there’s not been a single bear sighting in my village.
And back to Friday. After going to the Board of Education, I went home, got changed and then met up with Kuguno Elementary’s principal downstairs. We live in the same building though I live on the third floor and he lives on the first. Together we took a taxi to my first enkai.
An enkai is a work drinking party. They often are all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink so they are deadly. This one I only had 2 beers and I was very much inebriated. I found out I speak better Japanese drunk than I do sober. This particular enkai involved drunken language lessons from me. I taught all my teachers “the only Spanish you need to know.” Dos cervesas por favor. Or two beers please. I translated it for them and they loved it.
So I got home around 11pm went to bed, and then had to go to Kuguno Junior High on Saturday morning for the Sports Festival. It was actually a lot of fun. For me at least. I just sat there, took pictures, and tried to get the kid with the broken leg beside me to talk.
Some of the events were intense. They had some of the usual, relay races, tug-of-wars, and three-legged races but some of the other events…Like the most violent one was probably the rope-grabbing race. They leave a bunch of short lengths of rope in the middle of the field and the girls on each team line up on opposite sides. When the pistol goes, they run grab the ropes and drop them on their side. Doesn’t sound so bad does it? But once you’ve dropped one you can go back and help your friends. Which means you can have like twenty girls all trying to get the same piece of rope and they’re hardcore fighting each other for it. It’s a lot of fun to watch.
Another of the more interesting ones was the back running race. They have one kid on each team, the lightest, and they have him climb onto their backs, they’re have bent over, and he runs across the field this way and back again. It looks like it’s fun to be the kid doing the running.
One of the other ones I liked was the team jump rope. They get like ten to twenty kids in a line and they all have to jump this huge rope. The aim is to have the highest number of consecutive jumps. The winning number was thirty-four. I have no idea how they do this.
Halfway through the day the kids do their cheers. This isn’t like “Go lions go” or anything like this. First off, the kids have painted their own mascots, big boards with something on it in their team’s colours. White team had a white tiger and the Red team had a picture of Napoleon on a horse for some reason. I still have no idea why. The cheering itself involves chanting, synchronized movements, and in the case of both teams, coloured flip boards. They flipped these over and back to reveal the different colours and created patterns with them. It was frigging cool.
The Red team added in a number involving fans. They spelled the word WIN in English which was sweet. The White team however, took it to another level. Not only did they have their flip boards but half-way through they switch the colours from green and white to green and yellow somehow. Then, in the second half, they opened and closed their black uniform coats to reveal their white t-shirts and formed patterns with them. While chanting. And in the end they made a massive (A V in Japan often stands for Victory) out of both their shirts and their bodies. It was super awesome. I was thoroughly impressed.
So after a day of sun and sweat, I went home to get clean, change and I was right back out for another enkai. This time, I met up with my Science teacher from Kuguno Junior High, he too lives in Miya, and we took the train into Takayama. We ended up at Kanki, which is a favourite restaurant with us ALTs as they do a very good Caesar salad.
There was no Caesar salad in evidence at the enkai. There were however, not one, but two fish heads. One raw, one cooked. The teachers had a lot of fun trying to make me eat the cooked one’s eye. No one else ate it so I assume they were just messing with me. This was like an extension of lunch time where I made the mistake of sitting in the gym where the students and their families were and not in the staff room. Several people seemed to decide my sandwich was not a good enough lunch and began the game of ‘Feed the Foreigner’. I tried to refuse but they wouldn’t let me. And then I couldn’t not eat it. I thought I was going to die. So much food!
So Saturday’s enkai also involved me drunkenly teaching languages to people. This time it was mostly English with a tiny bit of German and Danish thrown in. One of my teachers kept thinking I was Dutch for some reason. I had to explain, using my little chart that I’d drawn in my notebook, to explain what background I come from. They all found this fascinating. Which kind of makes sense since all of them are Japanese and all they’re ancestors are Japanese so the idea of having a mixed background is a novelty.
Again, I managed to keep my drinking within acceptable drunken levels and got home at around 10pm. I went to bed, got up early, made cheesecake dip and then took the train into Takayama and walked to the Valor where I was meeting the other ALTs. We did a bit of last minute grocery shopping and then piled into 4 cars to head to the river in Kamioka.
It was Aiko’s, a Japanese friend of us ALTs, birthday. So we went to the river, crossed it, and set up a barbecue. We spent the day there, swimming, jumping off the cliffs, and sliding down the mini-waterfalls. Well that is until we discovered that there were leeches around the waterfalls. Then we stayed off those rocks. Though they were only tiny little leeches no bigger than tiny bits of thread. They came right off.
We ended the day with several bouts of river sumo wrestling or Mizumo as we called it (Mizu being water and Mizumo being a combination of the words Mizu and Sumo). Aiko was the girl’s champion and Carl was the boy’s. Finally, with the sun going down, the river is between two mountains so it gets cold quickly, we made our way home, tired but content.
So that’s what I was up to this weekend. Stay tuned because there are like 5 ALT birthdays this month so we’re going to spend most of this month in a drunken haze. Until the next time I’m bored at work, Bye!
Sep 2, 2010
Ceremonies, Festivals, and I'm a Real Teacher
I have to admit, I wondered about the wisdom of bringing it along, especially when I was overweight with my luggage. But I have to say, the Canadian umbrella hat was a good idea. Yes I have worn it. I wore it during all my opening ceremonies. It made the kids laugh.
Now initially I wasn’t going to wear it. I was going to wear the red and white maple lead top hat. But as we were walking to the gym, I was wearing the top hat at the time, the other teachers said the umbrella hat was better. So I wore that instead.
As I’m sure you can imagine, I was quite the impressive figure.
The Opening Ceremonies themselves are pretty boring. The principal gives a speech. Then the new teachers are introduced. Then the kids sing the school song. They’re really good at it! After that the students give speeches.
It wouldn’t have been so bad but as a teacher you’re required to stand and I hate standing. Mostly because I’m lazy. Oh well. It was neat to see all my students for the first time. The elementary school was the best. A bunch of kids noticed my hat first and then pointed it out to their friends and eventually I had half the students staring at me.
And during my introduction to the elementary kids I made the mistake of asking how old they thought I was. I forgot little kids believe anyone who doesn’t look like a student must therefore be their parents’ age. The guesses ranged from 27-45. They, like everyone else who finds out how old I am, went “Eeeeeh! Young!” Every time someone says this I feel that they’re refraining from patting me on the head.
Lately the students have been preparing for their Sports Festivals. My first day at Miya Elementary and I found out there were no classes. So instead, I spent the day watching the kids practice. The grade ones and twos do this adorable little cheer/dance with pompoms. I nearly had a cuteness overload watching them do it. Especially since some of them take this super seriously. The grade threes and fours do my favourite cheer. It’s like have gymnastics. They do various stackings of children on top of other children, kids kneeling in pyramids and lifting each other right off the ground. They do this in a specific order and I have no idea how they remember it all. I couldn’t. The last group is the grade fives and sixes. They have a whole dance routine, which has some gymnastics of its own, to do to a song. I’m sure there are militaries who can’t pull of drills like these kids can.
Speaking of elementary schools, I had my first day of elementary teaching at Kuguno. The kids there were super enthusiastic. They, like the junior high kids, love the hot potato game I make them play. And the fact they have to wear one of three ridiculous hats when they ask me a question/introduce themselves (which depends on what grade they’re in).
Another crowd pleaser is my altered version of Stella Ella Ola. The kids got super into it. It only takes about 5 minutes for even the youngest kids to get how to play it and it’s easily prepared as all it requires is them to sit in a circle.
And this Tuesday I get a day off because of Kuguno JHS’s Sports Festival. I’m using that day to finally send money home. The bloody bank closes at 4pm and that’s when I get off work. It has been unbelievably frustrating.
On a happier note, for those of you who’re related to me AKA everyone who reads this, from everything everyone’s said so far on the matter I’ll likely be home for Christmas. They normally only say no when you’re missing a lot of Elementary school because you’re the only real English teacher there but only one of the days I want to take off is an Elementary day. And it’s Kuguno Elementary. The principal there loves me. I still have to talk to all of my principals and teachers and to my supervisor but given that Christmas time is review time for exams, there’s not much for me to do anyway and I should be allowed to come back. Fingers crossed.
So that’s about all for now. I’ll write another post next time I have time to kill at work. Bye!
Now initially I wasn’t going to wear it. I was going to wear the red and white maple lead top hat. But as we were walking to the gym, I was wearing the top hat at the time, the other teachers said the umbrella hat was better. So I wore that instead.
As I’m sure you can imagine, I was quite the impressive figure.
The Opening Ceremonies themselves are pretty boring. The principal gives a speech. Then the new teachers are introduced. Then the kids sing the school song. They’re really good at it! After that the students give speeches.
It wouldn’t have been so bad but as a teacher you’re required to stand and I hate standing. Mostly because I’m lazy. Oh well. It was neat to see all my students for the first time. The elementary school was the best. A bunch of kids noticed my hat first and then pointed it out to their friends and eventually I had half the students staring at me.
And during my introduction to the elementary kids I made the mistake of asking how old they thought I was. I forgot little kids believe anyone who doesn’t look like a student must therefore be their parents’ age. The guesses ranged from 27-45. They, like everyone else who finds out how old I am, went “Eeeeeh! Young!” Every time someone says this I feel that they’re refraining from patting me on the head.
Lately the students have been preparing for their Sports Festivals. My first day at Miya Elementary and I found out there were no classes. So instead, I spent the day watching the kids practice. The grade ones and twos do this adorable little cheer/dance with pompoms. I nearly had a cuteness overload watching them do it. Especially since some of them take this super seriously. The grade threes and fours do my favourite cheer. It’s like have gymnastics. They do various stackings of children on top of other children, kids kneeling in pyramids and lifting each other right off the ground. They do this in a specific order and I have no idea how they remember it all. I couldn’t. The last group is the grade fives and sixes. They have a whole dance routine, which has some gymnastics of its own, to do to a song. I’m sure there are militaries who can’t pull of drills like these kids can.
Speaking of elementary schools, I had my first day of elementary teaching at Kuguno. The kids there were super enthusiastic. They, like the junior high kids, love the hot potato game I make them play. And the fact they have to wear one of three ridiculous hats when they ask me a question/introduce themselves (which depends on what grade they’re in).
Another crowd pleaser is my altered version of Stella Ella Ola. The kids got super into it. It only takes about 5 minutes for even the youngest kids to get how to play it and it’s easily prepared as all it requires is them to sit in a circle.
And this Tuesday I get a day off because of Kuguno JHS’s Sports Festival. I’m using that day to finally send money home. The bloody bank closes at 4pm and that’s when I get off work. It has been unbelievably frustrating.
On a happier note, for those of you who’re related to me AKA everyone who reads this, from everything everyone’s said so far on the matter I’ll likely be home for Christmas. They normally only say no when you’re missing a lot of Elementary school because you’re the only real English teacher there but only one of the days I want to take off is an Elementary day. And it’s Kuguno Elementary. The principal there loves me. I still have to talk to all of my principals and teachers and to my supervisor but given that Christmas time is review time for exams, there’s not much for me to do anyway and I should be allowed to come back. Fingers crossed.
So that’s about all for now. I’ll write another post next time I have time to kill at work. Bye!
Aug 24, 2010
Garbage, Gas, and the Other 100 Things I’ve Had to Learn While Being Here
Sorry about the lack of updates. Settling in here has taken more time than I thought. That and I always seem to be doing something.
As I write this I’m sitting in the staff room of Miya Junior High School while the rest of the teachers are in a meeting. The meeting is held entirely in Japanese so the Vice Principal told me to just stay here. You might think that I should be doing some kind of work rather than writing a blog entry. And I agree with you.
However, I have nothing to do. No work. No responsibility. I got my first pay check and I honestly got paid for sitting around, reading novels off my computer, and making the odd lesson plan.
No I don’t spend all day reading but it keeps me occupied. I can only make so many lesson plans in a day. Add in the fact that I still haven’t been in a classroom, exploring the school doesn’t count, and you can see why I’m hesitant to make too many lesson plans. For all I know I’m going to have to scrap the lot of them. Or they’re going to blow up in my face.
Thankfully school starts at the end of the week so I’ll finally have something to do. So now that you know what my work life is like, I’ll start describing my home life.
First off, I love my apartment! Honestly it’s perfect. Well almost perfect. It having air conditioning would have made it perfect. As it is I have a fan. As is one single electric fan. The weather has been in the high thirties, almost forties for a large portion of my time here so far. And that’s the temperature when you don’t count the humidity. And it is humid! I have never sweat so much in my life. Luckily, I have a bathtub in my apartment. Cold baths are awesome!
Since I’ve been here, I’ve come to appreciate how awesome Jen, my predecessor, is. She left me instructions on how to do pretty much everything. Which is good. Because I’d have never figured out the garbage otherwise.
Yes, garbage is in no way the same as it is in Canada. Oh no. You have to sort it. And this isn’t just recycling sorting. The categories are Burnable, Non-Burnable, Plastic, PET (AKA plastic drink bottles), Metal, Glass, Paper, and Milk Cartons. Each day a different thing is picked up. So you have this massive complicated calendar of pick-ups you have to remember.
Sorting this stuff is stressful enough. What makes it worse is that if you don’t sort it right they bring it back. That’s right. Like a child, if you screw it up they bring it back and make you fix it. Now being more or less told by the garbage people you’re an idiot is bad enough, but what’s the worst is that sometimes, especially if you have old, retired neighbours, they will go through your garbage to see if you’ve sorted it right. Oh my yes. Random old people will can be judging you based on your garbage sorting skills. And they can, and often will, bring your garbage back to you if you haven’t done it properly. Now I’m lucky as this hasn’t happened to me. Yet.
Another unexpected difference I found was when I went and got gas for my car for the first time. With Japanese gas pumps you have to pay before you pump. No matter how you intend to pay. And you have to choose between a set number of litres going into your car, a set amount of money, or pumping the car until it’s full. Thankfully, one of the super nice gas attendants walked me through the process. That and the pump has an English button.
One thing that I’ve finally gotten at least slightly comfortable with is driving. Given that the first time I got in the car, I was driving it off the lot, I nearly got hit by a truck, I didn’t have the most confidence for a while (I looked the wrong way when trying to get into the left hand lane. I was at least trying to get into the lane on the correct side of the road). I know I’ve gotten more comfortable because I’ve started yelling at other drivers again. From my car of course. With the windows rolled up. In English. So I have no worries about getting into trouble. Unless of course the cops pull me over.
Yeah that’s another thing that was stressed to us over and over again in our orientations. Do Not Break the Law! Not just because we’re supposed to be representing our countries and all that jazz but because you will get caught. There is very little crime in Japan and because of that, the police are really really bored. Seriously. They sometimes pull foreigners over so that they have something to do. God help you if you don’t have your Gaijin card. The Gaijin card, which is what we ALTs call the Alien Registration card, has your address and place of employment on it and is pretty much your life here. I still haven’t gotten mine in the mail yet. None of us new JETs have. I lie in fear of getting pulled over.
Mind you, Japan being so safe and all has its advantages. People will totally leave their cars running while they go into the combini (convenience store). And no one takes them! When I left my wallet at the 100 yen store, basically the Japanese equivalence to a dollar store in Canada, it was turned almost immediately in to the cashiers. When I finally came back for it, yes I am an idiot, all my money was there and the cashiers were very nice about it. Though I’m pretty sure they were laughing at the stupid foreigner.
Here’s another fun thing that frustrates us JETs to no end. The ATMs here have hours. Yes, after a certain time they are closed. My banks ATM in Miya closes at like 3pm on Saturdays and 6pm on weekdays. The ones in Takayama stay open until 9pm. Now this might suck more if things actually stayed open late but everything shuts down about 6pm every night in Takayama. Miya tends to close a bit earlier than that. The only things that stay open later are bars, karaoke places, combinis, and arcades. Oh and the bowling alley too.
Well that’s about all for now. I’ll do another post once I’ve actually started teaching. Bye!
As I write this I’m sitting in the staff room of Miya Junior High School while the rest of the teachers are in a meeting. The meeting is held entirely in Japanese so the Vice Principal told me to just stay here. You might think that I should be doing some kind of work rather than writing a blog entry. And I agree with you.
However, I have nothing to do. No work. No responsibility. I got my first pay check and I honestly got paid for sitting around, reading novels off my computer, and making the odd lesson plan.
No I don’t spend all day reading but it keeps me occupied. I can only make so many lesson plans in a day. Add in the fact that I still haven’t been in a classroom, exploring the school doesn’t count, and you can see why I’m hesitant to make too many lesson plans. For all I know I’m going to have to scrap the lot of them. Or they’re going to blow up in my face.
Thankfully school starts at the end of the week so I’ll finally have something to do. So now that you know what my work life is like, I’ll start describing my home life.
First off, I love my apartment! Honestly it’s perfect. Well almost perfect. It having air conditioning would have made it perfect. As it is I have a fan. As is one single electric fan. The weather has been in the high thirties, almost forties for a large portion of my time here so far. And that’s the temperature when you don’t count the humidity. And it is humid! I have never sweat so much in my life. Luckily, I have a bathtub in my apartment. Cold baths are awesome!
Since I’ve been here, I’ve come to appreciate how awesome Jen, my predecessor, is. She left me instructions on how to do pretty much everything. Which is good. Because I’d have never figured out the garbage otherwise.
Yes, garbage is in no way the same as it is in Canada. Oh no. You have to sort it. And this isn’t just recycling sorting. The categories are Burnable, Non-Burnable, Plastic, PET (AKA plastic drink bottles), Metal, Glass, Paper, and Milk Cartons. Each day a different thing is picked up. So you have this massive complicated calendar of pick-ups you have to remember.
Sorting this stuff is stressful enough. What makes it worse is that if you don’t sort it right they bring it back. That’s right. Like a child, if you screw it up they bring it back and make you fix it. Now being more or less told by the garbage people you’re an idiot is bad enough, but what’s the worst is that sometimes, especially if you have old, retired neighbours, they will go through your garbage to see if you’ve sorted it right. Oh my yes. Random old people will can be judging you based on your garbage sorting skills. And they can, and often will, bring your garbage back to you if you haven’t done it properly. Now I’m lucky as this hasn’t happened to me. Yet.
Another unexpected difference I found was when I went and got gas for my car for the first time. With Japanese gas pumps you have to pay before you pump. No matter how you intend to pay. And you have to choose between a set number of litres going into your car, a set amount of money, or pumping the car until it’s full. Thankfully, one of the super nice gas attendants walked me through the process. That and the pump has an English button.
One thing that I’ve finally gotten at least slightly comfortable with is driving. Given that the first time I got in the car, I was driving it off the lot, I nearly got hit by a truck, I didn’t have the most confidence for a while (I looked the wrong way when trying to get into the left hand lane. I was at least trying to get into the lane on the correct side of the road). I know I’ve gotten more comfortable because I’ve started yelling at other drivers again. From my car of course. With the windows rolled up. In English. So I have no worries about getting into trouble. Unless of course the cops pull me over.
Yeah that’s another thing that was stressed to us over and over again in our orientations. Do Not Break the Law! Not just because we’re supposed to be representing our countries and all that jazz but because you will get caught. There is very little crime in Japan and because of that, the police are really really bored. Seriously. They sometimes pull foreigners over so that they have something to do. God help you if you don’t have your Gaijin card. The Gaijin card, which is what we ALTs call the Alien Registration card, has your address and place of employment on it and is pretty much your life here. I still haven’t gotten mine in the mail yet. None of us new JETs have. I lie in fear of getting pulled over.
Mind you, Japan being so safe and all has its advantages. People will totally leave their cars running while they go into the combini (convenience store). And no one takes them! When I left my wallet at the 100 yen store, basically the Japanese equivalence to a dollar store in Canada, it was turned almost immediately in to the cashiers. When I finally came back for it, yes I am an idiot, all my money was there and the cashiers were very nice about it. Though I’m pretty sure they were laughing at the stupid foreigner.
Here’s another fun thing that frustrates us JETs to no end. The ATMs here have hours. Yes, after a certain time they are closed. My banks ATM in Miya closes at like 3pm on Saturdays and 6pm on weekdays. The ones in Takayama stay open until 9pm. Now this might suck more if things actually stayed open late but everything shuts down about 6pm every night in Takayama. Miya tends to close a bit earlier than that. The only things that stay open later are bars, karaoke places, combinis, and arcades. Oh and the bowling alley too.
Well that’s about all for now. I’ll do another post once I’ve actually started teaching. Bye!
Aug 13, 2010
In Japan!
So here it is, my first post from Japan. I arrived at Narita Airport in the middle of the afternoon. Walking into the place felt like walking into a sauna, the humidity and heat were intense. Then, we JETs were subjected to the never ending line. Seriously. It took us nearly two hours to get through Immigration. Not Customs, Immigration.
From there we picked up our baggage and went through customs which as actually relatively painless. Then, the helpful people in the JET t-shirts pointed us in the right direction which is good, because I’d never have found my way otherwise. I specialize in getting lost.
Eventually we were sent out to the buses that would take us to our hotel in Tokyo. Stepping outside in Japan for the first time I was struck by something. The wave of intense heat and humidity that is the bane of Japanese summers. Seriously, I though the airport was bad but this was like walking into a broiling hot, soaking wet towel. Thank god the bus had air conditioning.
The ride to the hotel didn’t take too long but I think that was mostly due to the fact every so often one of us would look at the other and say “Guess what? We’re in Japan!” This would then set the rest of us off. It was fun seeing all the different variations of the “I’m in Japan! Woohoo!” dance.
Our first night in Tokyo was ours to do what we liked with it. I wandered around and got lost for about a half hour (I wasn’t kidding about my superhuman ability to get lost). However, I did manage to feed myself along the way.
The next two days were filled with orientations and workshops. For the most part, these were unbelievably boring. People were actually sleeping through them. After the first few that were useless, I bailed. I mean come on, who’s going to sit through boring lectures about how you need to be polite and not hurl sharp objects at children’s head when you’re in Tokyo?
The answer is most people. Only a few of us slipped off to go exploring. Now when I say skipped I don’t mean I didn’t go to anything. I just didn’t go to the optional workshops where you had to choose them from a list, mainly due to the fact that none of them interested me.
So I went off into the city one afternoon so that I could find an Internet Café so that I could contact my family. I’m still not sure where I wandered off to. I know I ended up in both an above and under ground mall and I found a station somewhere along the way but I really don’t know where I was in Tokyo. It took me an hour to get back to the hotel. I’m not sure how I got back because I definitely came from a different direction, but I suppose it’s not really important.
When I got back to the hotel I found out we could get internet in our rooms. No, of course this didn’t make me feel like an idiot.
Two days later and I was on the train to Gifu, the capital of Gifu prefecture. It was fun watching Japan whiz by. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures as I have a tendency to do.
Once we arrived in Gifu it was another two days of orientation, this time they were a lot more fun, and then I was off to my new home in Ichinomiya, a village just outside of Takayama city,
I’ll describe my first few days in my new home in my next post. Until then, bye!
From there we picked up our baggage and went through customs which as actually relatively painless. Then, the helpful people in the JET t-shirts pointed us in the right direction which is good, because I’d never have found my way otherwise. I specialize in getting lost.
Eventually we were sent out to the buses that would take us to our hotel in Tokyo. Stepping outside in Japan for the first time I was struck by something. The wave of intense heat and humidity that is the bane of Japanese summers. Seriously, I though the airport was bad but this was like walking into a broiling hot, soaking wet towel. Thank god the bus had air conditioning.
The ride to the hotel didn’t take too long but I think that was mostly due to the fact every so often one of us would look at the other and say “Guess what? We’re in Japan!” This would then set the rest of us off. It was fun seeing all the different variations of the “I’m in Japan! Woohoo!” dance.
Our first night in Tokyo was ours to do what we liked with it. I wandered around and got lost for about a half hour (I wasn’t kidding about my superhuman ability to get lost). However, I did manage to feed myself along the way.
The next two days were filled with orientations and workshops. For the most part, these were unbelievably boring. People were actually sleeping through them. After the first few that were useless, I bailed. I mean come on, who’s going to sit through boring lectures about how you need to be polite and not hurl sharp objects at children’s head when you’re in Tokyo?
The answer is most people. Only a few of us slipped off to go exploring. Now when I say skipped I don’t mean I didn’t go to anything. I just didn’t go to the optional workshops where you had to choose them from a list, mainly due to the fact that none of them interested me.
So I went off into the city one afternoon so that I could find an Internet Café so that I could contact my family. I’m still not sure where I wandered off to. I know I ended up in both an above and under ground mall and I found a station somewhere along the way but I really don’t know where I was in Tokyo. It took me an hour to get back to the hotel. I’m not sure how I got back because I definitely came from a different direction, but I suppose it’s not really important.
When I got back to the hotel I found out we could get internet in our rooms. No, of course this didn’t make me feel like an idiot.
Two days later and I was on the train to Gifu, the capital of Gifu prefecture. It was fun watching Japan whiz by. I took a ridiculous amount of pictures as I have a tendency to do.
Once we arrived in Gifu it was another two days of orientation, this time they were a lot more fun, and then I was off to my new home in Ichinomiya, a village just outside of Takayama city,
I’ll describe my first few days in my new home in my next post. Until then, bye!
Jun 3, 2010
A little more on Takayama
So not too much to write about. I did just get my information package from Takayama. I really lucked out in my placement. My apartment is paid for by the schools o I only have to pay utilities. The rest was just the do and dont's sort of stuff along with some minor specifics like holidays and sick leave.
I sent an e-mail to my supervisor as the letter in my package said to. I was rather formal in the e-mail, after the 15 minutes it took me to write the 3-4 sentence long e-mail, as I was unsure of what kind of person my supervisor was and really I'd rather err on the side of caution and be overly polite. I needn't have worried. My supervisor, a man by the name of Hidekazu Itou, sounds like an awesome guy. Not only did his reply include little smiley eyes like ^^ this more than once, but he told me to call him Tom. Because all the other ALTs call him that though he doesn't know why. I laughed.
Anyway that's all for now. More to come once I get talking to my predecessor.
I sent an e-mail to my supervisor as the letter in my package said to. I was rather formal in the e-mail, after the 15 minutes it took me to write the 3-4 sentence long e-mail, as I was unsure of what kind of person my supervisor was and really I'd rather err on the side of caution and be overly polite. I needn't have worried. My supervisor, a man by the name of Hidekazu Itou, sounds like an awesome guy. Not only did his reply include little smiley eyes like ^^ this more than once, but he told me to call him Tom. Because all the other ALTs call him that though he doesn't know why. I laughed.
Anyway that's all for now. More to come once I get talking to my predecessor.
May 13, 2010
Placement!
I just found out my placement! I'm going to Takayama city in Gifu prefecture. It looks awesome! I'll be in the middle of mountains and I'm only a few hours away from Tokyo, Kyoto, Nagoya, and Osaka.
Takayama is known for its festivals and for its preserved buildings. The city's about 95,000 people and I'll be there just in time for a bunch of their festivals. I'm super excited! And because I've been hired by the city, I'll be teaching either Junior High or Elementary students. People start getting details around May 27th so I should know precisely what grades I'm teaching around then.
And so I'll leave you now as I continue my obsessive research into my new city which will likely continue for weeks. So until I get further details, bye!
Takayama is known for its festivals and for its preserved buildings. The city's about 95,000 people and I'll be there just in time for a bunch of their festivals. I'm super excited! And because I've been hired by the city, I'll be teaching either Junior High or Elementary students. People start getting details around May 27th so I should know precisely what grades I'm teaching around then.
And so I'll leave you now as I continue my obsessive research into my new city which will likely continue for weeks. So until I get further details, bye!
May 3, 2010
Waiting Again
Honestly, the JET program is a lesson in patience. One I am sadly failing. I know that I likely won't find out my placement until the end of the month and possibly not until June but I can't help hoping. I really want to know where I'm going. And what grades I'm teaching. There's only so much planning of things I can do before I get concrete information.
For example, choosing what DVDs to bring. I intend to bring a few that I could possibly show classes. But the difference between movies elementary school children would like and ones that high school students would enjoy is not small by any means. Also the lessons I've already begun planning and the prizes/stickers/things about Canada I get are all going to be tailored depending on the ages of my students. Of course some of them I'll be picking up regardless, like the map of Canada place-mat I found at Walmart, but some will depend solely on my students.
I apologize for yet another post of me complaining about waiting to hear back from JET. JET has pretty much taken over my life at the moment. I'm just ridiculously excited. Every so often I remember I'm going to Japan, not that I forget but that it becomes real for me again, and then I grin and/or giggle for a minute before going back to normal. Well my next post should be my placement. Unless I don't hear until June in which case you may end up with another rant about waiting which I will do my best to refrain from. So I guess I'll say goodbye for now.
For example, choosing what DVDs to bring. I intend to bring a few that I could possibly show classes. But the difference between movies elementary school children would like and ones that high school students would enjoy is not small by any means. Also the lessons I've already begun planning and the prizes/stickers/things about Canada I get are all going to be tailored depending on the ages of my students. Of course some of them I'll be picking up regardless, like the map of Canada place-mat I found at Walmart, but some will depend solely on my students.
I apologize for yet another post of me complaining about waiting to hear back from JET. JET has pretty much taken over my life at the moment. I'm just ridiculously excited. Every so often I remember I'm going to Japan, not that I forget but that it becomes real for me again, and then I grin and/or giggle for a minute before going back to normal. Well my next post should be my placement. Unless I don't hear until June in which case you may end up with another rant about waiting which I will do my best to refrain from. So I guess I'll say goodbye for now.
Apr 16, 2010
Forms and Placement
So I just sent off my JET reply package indicating that yes, I do want to go. It took all my willpower to keep from adding stars and exclamation marks all around the yes. Now I just have to wait until May to find out my placement.
What went into the reply package? Well first was the reply form. Which just involved me ticking off yes I want to go, no I'm not married nor do I have children, and I want to leave from Montreal. Then I had to put on 2 passport sized photos. The JET program requires your photo plastered on nearly everything you send to them. On the plus side at least they'll know you on sight.
The second thing I had to put in was a photocopy of my passport. Luckily I already had it scanned into my computer so I didn't have to move my giant pile of papers off my printer so I could use the scanner.
The last thing in the package, and the one that took the most work to deal with, was my medical form. Even then it only took me 2 days to fill out. First I made an appointment with Health Services on campus. So in I went and the doctor started compiling my entire history right there. This was not necessary for the form, I checked, but I'm guessing because it was my first visit that she decided she wanted it for her records. She started off with do I have any conditions, have I had any surgeries, and then have I had any other injuries. I answered that last question chronologically. She was shaking her head by the end of it.
Next she poked and prodded me to make sure I had no pain anywhere then she took my blood pressure. Then I had to pee in a cup. Oh the fun of peeing in cups. The test was fine, everything was great, until she came to the section of the form that said I had to get a lung X-ray. She pulled out a sheet, drew me a map, and told me to head into Sherbrooke.
So I did. Of course I waited until the next day because I had other things to do. I got on the bus, got off at the wrong stop, backtracked, walked up a giant hill of death, and then found the Radiology Clinic. I was in and out of there in under 40 minutes. 10-20 of those minutes was me and the receptionist trying to figure out if I had to pay or not. I did. After that, I waited about 10 minutes in the waiting area and then got called in. The X-rays themselves took about 3 minutes. After that I came home. My form was finished later that day, yesterday, and today I got my passport pictures done and sent it off!
I was really worried it would take a really long time. The JET office has to receive the form by April 30th so I was panicking a little. But it all worked out in the end.
My next post, which should be sometime in May, will be about where I've been placed. I have my fingers crossed for somewhere in Hokkaido. Until then, bye!
What went into the reply package? Well first was the reply form. Which just involved me ticking off yes I want to go, no I'm not married nor do I have children, and I want to leave from Montreal. Then I had to put on 2 passport sized photos. The JET program requires your photo plastered on nearly everything you send to them. On the plus side at least they'll know you on sight.
The second thing I had to put in was a photocopy of my passport. Luckily I already had it scanned into my computer so I didn't have to move my giant pile of papers off my printer so I could use the scanner.
The last thing in the package, and the one that took the most work to deal with, was my medical form. Even then it only took me 2 days to fill out. First I made an appointment with Health Services on campus. So in I went and the doctor started compiling my entire history right there. This was not necessary for the form, I checked, but I'm guessing because it was my first visit that she decided she wanted it for her records. She started off with do I have any conditions, have I had any surgeries, and then have I had any other injuries. I answered that last question chronologically. She was shaking her head by the end of it.
Next she poked and prodded me to make sure I had no pain anywhere then she took my blood pressure. Then I had to pee in a cup. Oh the fun of peeing in cups. The test was fine, everything was great, until she came to the section of the form that said I had to get a lung X-ray. She pulled out a sheet, drew me a map, and told me to head into Sherbrooke.
So I did. Of course I waited until the next day because I had other things to do. I got on the bus, got off at the wrong stop, backtracked, walked up a giant hill of death, and then found the Radiology Clinic. I was in and out of there in under 40 minutes. 10-20 of those minutes was me and the receptionist trying to figure out if I had to pay or not. I did. After that, I waited about 10 minutes in the waiting area and then got called in. The X-rays themselves took about 3 minutes. After that I came home. My form was finished later that day, yesterday, and today I got my passport pictures done and sent it off!
I was really worried it would take a really long time. The JET office has to receive the form by April 30th so I was panicking a little. But it all worked out in the end.
My next post, which should be sometime in May, will be about where I've been placed. I have my fingers crossed for somewhere in Hokkaido. Until then, bye!
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