Okay, I'm going to go ahead and say it right now, the title sounds a lot cooler than what you're actually gonna end up reading here. So please, go ahead and let the air out of the balloon right now.
Before coming to Japan, I had heard on the news, from Japanese people, professors, people that have been to Japan before, and so on and so forth, that Japan is an extremely volcanic country (in more ways than one~), and that earthquakes are frequent and sometimes extremely damaging. The news of the 2004 and 2007 Niigata Earthquakes help convince me that yes, Japan does seem to get hit by a lot of earthquakes.
However, I didn't really feel any sense of anxiety or terror about coming here. I actually kind of welcomed it. Earthquakes anyone? Sounds like a free ride at an amusement park. Obviously, I understand that earthquakes are pretty serious, and sometimes lethal, but still, I couldn't help but wonder what it would feel like.
Since we never have earthquakes in Toronto, my curiousity got the better of me, and I was starting to look forward to my first earthquake experience that I would inevitably get while in Japan.
Unfortunately, nothing really happened when I first got here.
After 3 months of little to no activity, I had completely forgotten about earthquakes and that I had been looking forward to experiencing an earthquake. Seriously, I'm in Miyagi prefecture, which isn't too far from Niigata, so I was thinking, maybe I would get hit by an earthquake sooner or later. Unfortunately, after 3 whole months, yes 90 freaking days, not a single earthquake (at least not any I could actually feel). Sometimes, I'd arrive at school, and the teachers would be talking about "yesterday's earthquake". What earthquake? I didn't feel anything. I started to wonder if this was just something Japanese people could sense. Having been living in a volcanic, earthquake ridden area for the past 2000 plus years, they've probably developed some kind of earthquake sensor that I wasn't able to tap into. Or perhaps I was just sleeping when it happened, or too drunk to notice. Still, I was surprised though, that after 3 months, still no earthquake. I had high hopes, and day by day they were being crushed.
Finally, almost exactly 3 months to the day of when I arrived in Japan, something happened!
It was a Wednesday, November 7th to be exact. School had ended, so I had come back to my apartment. A neighbour had also come over, and we probably were going to have dinner somewhere in the town. The weather had begun to get cold, so I had the kotatsu on, and a couple of heaters, and we were both sitting on the floor in the Japanese way (seriously my legs still go haywire when I sit on the floor too long. even Japanese style chairs" are really just cushions that let you sit on the floor more comfortably). As we were talking, suddenly, the ground shoke a little, kind of like a big fat guy running accross the porch. My neighbour suddenly started freaking out, but I had no idea what the big deal was. I asked her "what's wrong?" and she looked at me with fear in her eyes. Then the ground shook again, this time a little bit longer (longer as in 1.5389 miliseconds longer), and it hit me, this must be an "earthquake" that everyone's always talking about. I looked at her and asked her "is this an earthquake?", and she said "yes", and started looking aprehensive and about to go out of control. I tried to hold her down, and told her it was "okay". "It's just a tiny earthquake." But hey, what do I know? They've been experiencing earthquakes for a lot longer than I have. I can't help but wonder if most Japanese people have the same reactions as my neighbour did.
Apparently, there were times when she would run into the rice fields with her kids when there were earthquakes. I'm guessing this is what a lot of Japanese out her in the "jungle" do. I guess rice fields ARE the safest place, since there's no chance of a building falling on you. Living out in the winaka, there really aren't any tall structures around. There are houses with 2 stories and that's it. I live on the second floor though, so maybe it might be difficult for me to get down stairs and into the rice fields. I guess I'll just take the advice other people have given, - sip a cold beer and get under a table. OR, make a run for my school (which doubles as an earthquake shelter).
I'd have to say my first earthquake experience was not what I had expected. The entire ordeal lasted about 5 seconds, and the actual time of the ground shaking was probably closer to 3 or less. At first, it felt different, and even kind of cool, but it was too weak to really be enjoyed properly. It seriously felt like a kids ride at an amusement park that ends too fast. Probably the thing I'll remember most is the reaction I got from my neighbour. If Japanese people have been experiencing earthquakes for 2000 years and have that kind of reaction to a miniscule earthquake, then I can't imagine what's in store for me ahead.
The anticipation is making me drool.
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Kannari Junior High School, Cultural Festival - 金成中学校文化祭
I actually planned on writing about this weeks before, when we had the actual school festival, but unfortunately, I didn't have time. I'm actually quite sick right now. Caught my first real cold of the year. Fortunately, today's a holiday for me, because I had to go on a business trip two friday's ago, which included me having to "work" on a saturday. So today, I'm just gonna try and relax at home, and write about as much as I can, before my memory becomes blurred.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On October 20 and 21, we had the annual school festival. Pretty much all Japanese schools have these cultural festivals, called 文化祭, where the parents get to come into the school and watch their kids perform, and also hear about what they've been doing at school for the past half year. The Bunkasai's usually happen on weekends, so that the parents have a better chance of attending. Sure, coming to school on a weekend certainly feels strange, but since the teachers and students almost always come to school on the weekends anyways, it probably doesn't make a difference at all to them.
The days and weeks leading up to the festival were pretty hectic. I didn't have any designated role, being the ALT, so I was basically able to to continue doing whatever I was doing (which was basically studying kanji and Japanese all day). I could see the teachers around me running around, frantically getting posters and other presentations set up with the students' help. It seemed like a pretty big thing, but unfortunately, my JTE and the other teachers didn't really tell me much about it, other than "there's gonna be a festival next week". Being an ALT in Japan, a foreigner working in a foreign country, does sometimes feel alienating. The teachers were crazy busy, and they don't really have time to tell the ALT what's happening, but at the same time, I think I would feel a lot better if I was better informed about what was going on at the school.
Anyhow, all of that really doesn't matter at this point, since the festival's already over. Fortunately enough for me, one of the assistant teachers at my school, has a deep interest in English - he likes watching horror and b movies, and he loves american and british rock and roll, and heavy metal music. It's really funny though, because he's such a nice guy, with a shaved head, but extremely polite, and always helping the students and talking to the other teachers. I would never have been able to guess he likes to rock it with guns and roses, and the sex pistols, while watching zombies getting blown to pieces by machine gun fire.
The really cool thing, is that when I first came to Kannari Junior High School, I took a walk around the school, and bumped into him as well as the female gym teacher, at the pool area. At first they had no idea who I was (again, the gaijin in disguise factor at play here). When I walked up to them, and started speaking English, he was like "whoaaaaa your the new ALT?? nice to meet you!" that was the beginning of a great friendship here at Kannari Junior High~ We started talking about music, and then about movies, particularly the newest big movie at the time "Transfomers". (I'm a big-time Transformers fan, so I think I'll save that topic for another post.) The next few days and weeks at the end of August and beginning of September, I found at that he also liked playing the guitar. Afterschool, while the 1st and 2nd graders would be doing their bukatsu activities, he would be jamming around a group of sannensei. Then, for some reason or another, he found out that I also play the guitar, and he started talking to me about an upcoming "school festival". Apparently, he would be playing electric guitar with some of the sannensei - they would be performing a song called "大切なもの". Then he asked me I wanted to play at the festival as well? At first, I wasn't too sure. I had self-taught myself how to play the guitar back when I was in the 6th grade, but I hadn't played for the last 4 years since entering university. And at the same time, at my high point, I wouldn't really say I was the greatest. I could play songs that I liked, because I had practised a lot, but the chances of him knowing the same songs that I do were slim.
Or so I thought. It turns out that he was a big Oasis fan. not as big as me, but pretty big anyways. He suggestted we play an Oasis song on acoustic guitar. Fortunately, before I came to japan, I bought an acoustic guitar off my predecessor, so when I arrived at my new home for the first time, the guitar was already sitting on the little guitar stand in my room. For the next few weeks, I'd bring my guitar to school, and we'd practise between classes and after school. i also visited his home several times. He lives in a huge house, that his sister had designed! Apparently, she's at a design school in Tokyo right now. The house is amazing, and his mom's food is amazingly delicious. They make their own rice and vegetables in the fields around their house. His father used to be a principal, now retired, and his mother works at an elementary school. A family of teachers - amazing. When I walked into his room for the first time, my jaw litterally dropped. Spread our across shelves built into the walls of his room were piles upon piles of CDs DVDs, and music/movie booklets. This guy was a collector. He had every Oasis album, and that was nothing at all compared to the other stuff he had. he had limited edition pirates of the caribbean memorobilia. Japan really gets it good, when it comes to consumer culture. They always have special limited editions items that you can get if you're the first few people to buy a movie ticket for an upcoming movie, and so on. I can't remember the last time I got anything for lining up for an hour to see the newest movie on opening day. Japan is really the country of collector's items. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I've lost basically any collector's spirit I may have once had, so I don't really feel anything, but it was quite amazing seeing all the stuff in his room.
He also took out some more precious stuff out of his desk. A few weeks before, at school, he had brought a stub of tickets, and handed them to me, telling me, those were his "most cherished items". I took a look, and holy moly, they were concert tickets for American, and British rock and heavy metal bands. There were at least 50 or so tickets. Frickin crazy! The stuff he took out of his desk, blew my mind as well. Apparently, he had been to sex pistols, rancid, and various other concerts. What he took out of his desk, were guitar picks and even a drum stick! You guessed it, he had gotten these at the concerts! You know, when the guitarist or drummer throws his picks and what not into the crowd of rabid, screaming fans? Almost impossible right? You'd never be that lucky right? Well this guy was, and he didn't get lucky just one time, he had gotten lucky 3-4-5-6 times. Amazing. What else can I possibly say?
Getting back to the actual point of this post - we started practising at his home. At first, we wanted to do "Wonderwall" by Oasis, by his was having trouble with the strumming. Wonderall if actually one of the easiest songs to play (it was the first song I taught myself), I would have to say, but the strumming is sometimes a bit tricky. Apparently, when he was a high school student, etc, and had played guitar like a maniac, that was all using an electric guitar. Playing an electric guitar is a lot different than playing an acoustic. I've used both before, but I'd have to say an electric is a lot easier to cover up mistakes, because anything you play on an electric just sounds cool and sexy. but, at the same time, if you just play chords (like i usually do on an acoustic) it sounds a bit boring after a while. solos, and guitar picking is much better with an electric, because the sound is amplified so much and you can make crazy effects using pedals, and all sorts of other machines. He had his friend come over with an electric guitar (his electric had broken somehow, probably out of exreme usage), and I heard him play a few parts of a few songs, and it sounded pretty impressive. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to play like him on an electric.
However, when it comes to the acoustic guitar, he had only started picking it up this year, and so although he was good at picking, he wasn't very good at basic strumming. Eventually, it looked like wonderwall would be too difficult for him. One day at school, he brought in sheet music for the Beatles's song "Let it Be". I had liked this song for a long time, and so we tried it out. We were able to get it down without many mistakes (it's a pretty simple song). Now we had to figure out who was going to sing. At first, I recommended both of us singing, but he said he was not good at singing, and a bit embarassed about singing in front of the whole school, so he recommended that I be the singer. I didn't mind, since I do enjoy singing songs that I can sing (with notes that I can actually hit). My voice usually starts breaking mid way through a song though, and it starts sounding raspy, kind of like how Liam Gallagher's voice now sounds after his billionth beer and cigarette. He liked the raspiness a lot, and said it sounded like cool like real rock. Maybe he was just flattering me, but it worked as I agreed to be the singer.
As the days leading up the festival passed by, we decided that maybe we would have time for two songs. Now, since Wonderwall was too difficult. We decided to go with "Stand By Me". This was one of his favourite oasis songs, and a song that I like as well. Also, it's not ridiculously difficult to sing, and pretty managable for me. So we decided to open with Let it Be and then do Stand by Me as an encore.
On October 4th, everyone had to audtion in front of the school council so that the teachers and some of the students could see what we had planned. The minutes leading up to the audition was probably the first time I actually felt a sense of nervousness since I came to Japan. For some reason, since coming to Japan, I've lost basically all sense of nervousness or apprehension. It's strange, but I feel a lot more confident here. (Maybe it's because the people aren't towering over me in height and body mass. Or maybe it's because everything looks and feels so familiar, even though I've never actually been here before, who knows?) Anyways, I found my throat drying up, so I drank some water from the water taps. Then it was time for the show. We performed Let it Be only. As we started the performance the room fell into dead silence. It seemed like everyone was really paying attention (although I couldn't tell for sure, since my eyes were glued to the sheet of paper in front of my with the lyrics). Unlike Stand By Me, I can't remember all the lyrics to Let It Be. And actually, Let it Be has a few high notes that are hard for me to hit. But all in all, it was a success, and the students seemed to really enjoy it. The teachers on the council on the other hand, didn't really give much of an impression. I guess they're not really into rock. They probably like classical music much better, and were wondering why they were gonna allow these renegades of rock perform at the school festival haha. The other teachers in the staff room however were excited and kept talking about the Beatles, and that they wanted to hear more songs from us at the festival. It gave us a lot more energy and confidence to go all out.
The day before the performance (the first day of the festival, October 20), we were supposed to have a trial run, where we could play on the stage for the first time, and check the position of the speakers and mics, etc. Finally, when it was our turn to go on the stage, the teacher in charge told us that we didn't have time to play the songs. Instead, she just asked us check the position of the chairs mics, etc, so we did that. The teachers on the council also told us, we wouldn't have time for 2 songs, so they told us to just play one. The funny thing is that the other teachers in the staff office were encouraging us to play more and more songs. What gives? Anyways, we decided it would be best not to offend the school council, so we went with just one song. But we decided to change it to Stand By Me by Oasis, cuz it just rocks so much better.
On the day of the performance, we shocked everyone by telling everyone we had changed the song to "Stand By Me" by Oasis. This was real drama at work here. The funniest part was, for our opening speeches, we decided to have it so that I would speak in Japanese, and that he would speak in English. It was hilarious, eveyrone got a kick out of watching the ALT speak Japanese, and watching the Japanese assistant teacher speak English. We also, had a lot of parents and towns people in the stands. It was an awesome feeling to be out there performing a kick ass song by Oasis. during the performance, I foudn that the mic really was positioned a little too far from my mouth, so I had to move closer to the mic while performing the song. It was a bit difficult and straning, and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. The kids and teachers were impressed with my singing so that was definitely cool. When the song was over, we gave our bows and thank yous, and walked off the stage. Again, another rock star feeling. Awesomeness.
The coolest thing was that in my subsequent visits to the various Elementary schools around my town, a few of the kids told me they had seen me before. I asked them "where??" and they told me "we saw you at the Kannari Junior High Festival, you were playing guitar and singing!", damn. I felt like a rock star again! Because the town is so small, the festival is not just for the school, but for the townspeople, and anyone is actually welcome to attend. These elementary school students also had brothers and sisters at the Junior High, or they would be attending the Junior High when they graduated from elementary (since there's only one junior high in the town). It definitely felt good to have that rock star feeling again! Also, a few of the elementary school parents were in the stands as well, watching my performance. It was definitely cool being able to do that.
As for "Let It Be", I think we'll save that for the next festival. And maybe, we'll even add a few more songs. Nirvana, anyone?
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On October 20 and 21, we had the annual school festival. Pretty much all Japanese schools have these cultural festivals, called 文化祭, where the parents get to come into the school and watch their kids perform, and also hear about what they've been doing at school for the past half year. The Bunkasai's usually happen on weekends, so that the parents have a better chance of attending. Sure, coming to school on a weekend certainly feels strange, but since the teachers and students almost always come to school on the weekends anyways, it probably doesn't make a difference at all to them.
The days and weeks leading up to the festival were pretty hectic. I didn't have any designated role, being the ALT, so I was basically able to to continue doing whatever I was doing (which was basically studying kanji and Japanese all day). I could see the teachers around me running around, frantically getting posters and other presentations set up with the students' help. It seemed like a pretty big thing, but unfortunately, my JTE and the other teachers didn't really tell me much about it, other than "there's gonna be a festival next week". Being an ALT in Japan, a foreigner working in a foreign country, does sometimes feel alienating. The teachers were crazy busy, and they don't really have time to tell the ALT what's happening, but at the same time, I think I would feel a lot better if I was better informed about what was going on at the school.
Anyhow, all of that really doesn't matter at this point, since the festival's already over. Fortunately enough for me, one of the assistant teachers at my school, has a deep interest in English - he likes watching horror and b movies, and he loves american and british rock and roll, and heavy metal music. It's really funny though, because he's such a nice guy, with a shaved head, but extremely polite, and always helping the students and talking to the other teachers. I would never have been able to guess he likes to rock it with guns and roses, and the sex pistols, while watching zombies getting blown to pieces by machine gun fire.
The really cool thing, is that when I first came to Kannari Junior High School, I took a walk around the school, and bumped into him as well as the female gym teacher, at the pool area. At first they had no idea who I was (again, the gaijin in disguise factor at play here). When I walked up to them, and started speaking English, he was like "whoaaaaa your the new ALT?? nice to meet you!" that was the beginning of a great friendship here at Kannari Junior High~ We started talking about music, and then about movies, particularly the newest big movie at the time "Transfomers". (I'm a big-time Transformers fan, so I think I'll save that topic for another post.) The next few days and weeks at the end of August and beginning of September, I found at that he also liked playing the guitar. Afterschool, while the 1st and 2nd graders would be doing their bukatsu activities, he would be jamming around a group of sannensei. Then, for some reason or another, he found out that I also play the guitar, and he started talking to me about an upcoming "school festival". Apparently, he would be playing electric guitar with some of the sannensei - they would be performing a song called "大切なもの". Then he asked me I wanted to play at the festival as well? At first, I wasn't too sure. I had self-taught myself how to play the guitar back when I was in the 6th grade, but I hadn't played for the last 4 years since entering university. And at the same time, at my high point, I wouldn't really say I was the greatest. I could play songs that I liked, because I had practised a lot, but the chances of him knowing the same songs that I do were slim.
Or so I thought. It turns out that he was a big Oasis fan. not as big as me, but pretty big anyways. He suggestted we play an Oasis song on acoustic guitar. Fortunately, before I came to japan, I bought an acoustic guitar off my predecessor, so when I arrived at my new home for the first time, the guitar was already sitting on the little guitar stand in my room. For the next few weeks, I'd bring my guitar to school, and we'd practise between classes and after school. i also visited his home several times. He lives in a huge house, that his sister had designed! Apparently, she's at a design school in Tokyo right now. The house is amazing, and his mom's food is amazingly delicious. They make their own rice and vegetables in the fields around their house. His father used to be a principal, now retired, and his mother works at an elementary school. A family of teachers - amazing. When I walked into his room for the first time, my jaw litterally dropped. Spread our across shelves built into the walls of his room were piles upon piles of CDs DVDs, and music/movie booklets. This guy was a collector. He had every Oasis album, and that was nothing at all compared to the other stuff he had. he had limited edition pirates of the caribbean memorobilia. Japan really gets it good, when it comes to consumer culture. They always have special limited editions items that you can get if you're the first few people to buy a movie ticket for an upcoming movie, and so on. I can't remember the last time I got anything for lining up for an hour to see the newest movie on opening day. Japan is really the country of collector's items. Unfortunately, (or fortunately), I've lost basically any collector's spirit I may have once had, so I don't really feel anything, but it was quite amazing seeing all the stuff in his room.
He also took out some more precious stuff out of his desk. A few weeks before, at school, he had brought a stub of tickets, and handed them to me, telling me, those were his "most cherished items". I took a look, and holy moly, they were concert tickets for American, and British rock and heavy metal bands. There were at least 50 or so tickets. Frickin crazy! The stuff he took out of his desk, blew my mind as well. Apparently, he had been to sex pistols, rancid, and various other concerts. What he took out of his desk, were guitar picks and even a drum stick! You guessed it, he had gotten these at the concerts! You know, when the guitarist or drummer throws his picks and what not into the crowd of rabid, screaming fans? Almost impossible right? You'd never be that lucky right? Well this guy was, and he didn't get lucky just one time, he had gotten lucky 3-4-5-6 times. Amazing. What else can I possibly say?
Getting back to the actual point of this post - we started practising at his home. At first, we wanted to do "Wonderwall" by Oasis, by his was having trouble with the strumming. Wonderall if actually one of the easiest songs to play (it was the first song I taught myself), I would have to say, but the strumming is sometimes a bit tricky. Apparently, when he was a high school student, etc, and had played guitar like a maniac, that was all using an electric guitar. Playing an electric guitar is a lot different than playing an acoustic. I've used both before, but I'd have to say an electric is a lot easier to cover up mistakes, because anything you play on an electric just sounds cool and sexy. but, at the same time, if you just play chords (like i usually do on an acoustic) it sounds a bit boring after a while. solos, and guitar picking is much better with an electric, because the sound is amplified so much and you can make crazy effects using pedals, and all sorts of other machines. He had his friend come over with an electric guitar (his electric had broken somehow, probably out of exreme usage), and I heard him play a few parts of a few songs, and it sounded pretty impressive. I'm sure I wouldn't be able to play like him on an electric.
However, when it comes to the acoustic guitar, he had only started picking it up this year, and so although he was good at picking, he wasn't very good at basic strumming. Eventually, it looked like wonderwall would be too difficult for him. One day at school, he brought in sheet music for the Beatles's song "Let it Be". I had liked this song for a long time, and so we tried it out. We were able to get it down without many mistakes (it's a pretty simple song). Now we had to figure out who was going to sing. At first, I recommended both of us singing, but he said he was not good at singing, and a bit embarassed about singing in front of the whole school, so he recommended that I be the singer. I didn't mind, since I do enjoy singing songs that I can sing (with notes that I can actually hit). My voice usually starts breaking mid way through a song though, and it starts sounding raspy, kind of like how Liam Gallagher's voice now sounds after his billionth beer and cigarette. He liked the raspiness a lot, and said it sounded like cool like real rock. Maybe he was just flattering me, but it worked as I agreed to be the singer.
As the days leading up the festival passed by, we decided that maybe we would have time for two songs. Now, since Wonderwall was too difficult. We decided to go with "Stand By Me". This was one of his favourite oasis songs, and a song that I like as well. Also, it's not ridiculously difficult to sing, and pretty managable for me. So we decided to open with Let it Be and then do Stand by Me as an encore.
On October 4th, everyone had to audtion in front of the school council so that the teachers and some of the students could see what we had planned. The minutes leading up to the audition was probably the first time I actually felt a sense of nervousness since I came to Japan. For some reason, since coming to Japan, I've lost basically all sense of nervousness or apprehension. It's strange, but I feel a lot more confident here. (Maybe it's because the people aren't towering over me in height and body mass. Or maybe it's because everything looks and feels so familiar, even though I've never actually been here before, who knows?) Anyways, I found my throat drying up, so I drank some water from the water taps. Then it was time for the show. We performed Let it Be only. As we started the performance the room fell into dead silence. It seemed like everyone was really paying attention (although I couldn't tell for sure, since my eyes were glued to the sheet of paper in front of my with the lyrics). Unlike Stand By Me, I can't remember all the lyrics to Let It Be. And actually, Let it Be has a few high notes that are hard for me to hit. But all in all, it was a success, and the students seemed to really enjoy it. The teachers on the council on the other hand, didn't really give much of an impression. I guess they're not really into rock. They probably like classical music much better, and were wondering why they were gonna allow these renegades of rock perform at the school festival haha. The other teachers in the staff room however were excited and kept talking about the Beatles, and that they wanted to hear more songs from us at the festival. It gave us a lot more energy and confidence to go all out.
The day before the performance (the first day of the festival, October 20), we were supposed to have a trial run, where we could play on the stage for the first time, and check the position of the speakers and mics, etc. Finally, when it was our turn to go on the stage, the teacher in charge told us that we didn't have time to play the songs. Instead, she just asked us check the position of the chairs mics, etc, so we did that. The teachers on the council also told us, we wouldn't have time for 2 songs, so they told us to just play one. The funny thing is that the other teachers in the staff office were encouraging us to play more and more songs. What gives? Anyways, we decided it would be best not to offend the school council, so we went with just one song. But we decided to change it to Stand By Me by Oasis, cuz it just rocks so much better.
On the day of the performance, we shocked everyone by telling everyone we had changed the song to "Stand By Me" by Oasis. This was real drama at work here. The funniest part was, for our opening speeches, we decided to have it so that I would speak in Japanese, and that he would speak in English. It was hilarious, eveyrone got a kick out of watching the ALT speak Japanese, and watching the Japanese assistant teacher speak English. We also, had a lot of parents and towns people in the stands. It was an awesome feeling to be out there performing a kick ass song by Oasis. during the performance, I foudn that the mic really was positioned a little too far from my mouth, so I had to move closer to the mic while performing the song. It was a bit difficult and straning, and I couldn't help but smile and laugh. The kids and teachers were impressed with my singing so that was definitely cool. When the song was over, we gave our bows and thank yous, and walked off the stage. Again, another rock star feeling. Awesomeness.
The coolest thing was that in my subsequent visits to the various Elementary schools around my town, a few of the kids told me they had seen me before. I asked them "where??" and they told me "we saw you at the Kannari Junior High Festival, you were playing guitar and singing!", damn. I felt like a rock star again! Because the town is so small, the festival is not just for the school, but for the townspeople, and anyone is actually welcome to attend. These elementary school students also had brothers and sisters at the Junior High, or they would be attending the Junior High when they graduated from elementary (since there's only one junior high in the town). It definitely felt good to have that rock star feeling again! Also, a few of the elementary school parents were in the stands as well, watching my performance. It was definitely cool being able to do that.
As for "Let It Be", I think we'll save that for the next festival. And maybe, we'll even add a few more songs. Nirvana, anyone?
Thursday, November 1, 2007
Ridiculously Busy Month
It's been a long time since I've had the time or energy to post anything new, but I have a lot of stuff I want to write about, so here we go.
First off, this past October has been insanely tiring, but also extremely fun. Hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can actually get some rest and clean up the mess I've made in my apartment.
About four to five weeks ago (I can't really remember anymore, and I don't have the energy to look up the exact date), the Kannari Junior High School girl's softball team had a tournament. This was the first time seeing my own students in playoff atmosphere action. In some respects I was actually blown away. These girls meant business. Everyday, I see them practising afterschool for hours on end. They come in on the weekends and and holidays to practise, it's ridiculous really how hard to prepare. Of course it's also mandatory for them to do this, but most of them look like they really enjoy being there and practising hard with their friends.
On the day of the tournament, which I think happened to be on a Saturday, all the teachers had to come to school (and for doing this, I think we got a weekday off, but really it was too long ago for me to remember). I was looking forward to this, because even though it was a "work day", I knew I wouldn't actually be doing any "work". It turns out I was right. I got a sweet seat right beside my kouchou sensei (school principal) and we talked about various things. I had just come back from Sendai, so we talked about kokubuncho and other stuff, it was great. Baseball/softball are the only main sports where you can actually afford to just sit back, relax and enjoy the weather. Don't get me wrong, baseball can be a pretty intense sport at times, but all in all, it's pretty slow, and you can afford to take your eyes off of the match without missing much.
The softball team was again, as I said before, a girls team, but damn they looked pretty strong and athletic. I had never really seen them outside of school, and when they're at school, or in class, they're very timid and shy and easily embarrassed. But on the field, they were intense, serious, yelling out "さあ、来い！" and cheering each other on. Really it was an eye opener for me. I didn't really think I was going to be too in to a softball much between Junior High School teams but when the game started, my eyes were glued.
There was this one girl who I had helped practise for the past month for the annual English speech contest. She was a very shy and timid girl in class, but she was very talented and smart. She ended up getting second prize in my city, and apparently she's one of the top students at my school. However, I had no idea she was also athletic. Batting lead-off and playing shortstop, the way she moved reminded me of Ichiro. Japanese people are really crazy about baseball, and if you didn't know before, baseball is pretty much the most popular sport in Japan (go Daisuke). Another thing that surprised me was the speed and power with which the pitchers threw the ball. Again, these were 14-15 year old girls, yet they were playing at such a high level. My school ended up playing 2 games and winning both easily by over 5 runs. They won the city tournament and were crowned the 栗原優勝チーム. Pretty awesome, because I had no idea they were a powerhouse in these parts. Right after the final game ended, it started raining heavily, so we were all pretty lucky to get the game finished. All in all, I took a few pictures, but not too many, because I was too interested in watching the games with my own eyes. Unfortunately, for another girl team, they didn't have enough players so they couldn't enter the tournament. Those poor girls were instead, given the task of score keeping, and cleaning up the field and transporting equipment, etc. - ouch. Since I was sitting next to the score keeping table, I struck up a conversation with them in Japanese. It was interesting talking to kids from another school.
A couple of weeks later, the teachers had another one of their 飲み会s which are basically drinking parties. For us, it's usually at an izakaya. We usually pay 4000 yen, and we can basically eat and drink all we want. It's pretty cool. I'd have to say that izakaya's are one of my favourite parts of living in Japan (although I'm still not used to sitting on the floor for extended periods of time - my legs usually die on me, and I have to walk awkwardly behind everyone else, when we leave~) The unfortunate thing is that the teachers usually want to leave pretty fast and move on to the next party, so we don't really get our money's worth (at least if it was me, I'd stay longer and drink more, and just head back and save cash, but that's just not how they do it around here.)
All in all, after the izakaya, i had a pretty crazy night. We went to a karaoke bar after the izakaya, then me and an older teacher were supposed to take a taxi back home together, but he ended up giving the driver different instructions. We ended up at another bar/restaurant, met up with the same teachers from before who were having their own little reunion party with other ex-co-workers. The funniest part of it all is that after they were done here, they all headed back to the same karaoke bar, we had just come from. All in all, I got pretty wasted and my wallet took about a 一万円 hit - ouch.
The taxi ride home cost me another 2000 yen (taxis are ridiculously expensive in Japan, so be CAREFUL if you ever come here and wanna hitch a ride on a taxi thinking it's just gonna cost you a few bucks). the last time I was in a taxi, it was around a 40 minute drive, and it ended up costing 8000 yen (80 freaking dollars!). Fortunately, I only had to pay 3000, cuz my friend paid 5000. But still! I've made a promise to myself never to ride in a taxi again unless it's absolutely an emergency and there's nothing else I can do!
I think it's safe to say that I can't trust my teachers anymore. I've never spent money so recklessly in my life. The next time they have one of these crazy nomikai's, I'm definitely gonna keep a better tab on what I'm paying for. damn! japanese teachers work pretty hard staying late everyday and working on weekends/holidays etc., but when they party, they go all out. the strangest thing is the monday after the party (which is usually on a friday), they all show up at school, and it's like nothing ever happened. it's like the nomikai never existed. it's like everyone forgot about it. or maybe they were so wasted, they really dont remember anything that happened (who knows?). there's a pretty big divide with being in the classroom and outside of work. at least it seems that way!
anyways, I think i got a little bit off track there. to get back to the point of why i even introduced the izakaya story, is that since I don't drive, I had to hitch a ride to the nomikai 場所. since my town is, again, the COUNTRYSIDE, and there really ins't much here, all the nomikai's are in neighbouring towns (for example a 30 or so minute drive). so I ended up getting a ride from one of the teachers, who just happened to be the coach of the girl's softball team. in the car, we were talking about stuff. apparently, 20 or so years ago, for his honeymoon, he went with his wife to TORONTO! It looks like he visited Toronto before I did! But it looks like he doesn't remember much, other than the CN Tower revolving restaurant and Niagara Falls. Anyways, to get to the point, he asked me what I was doing over the long weekend
(3 day weekend), and he ended up inviting me to come play softball with the girl's 2007 Kurihara champion baseball team. I knew I had to take him up on the offer. Those girls were intense, and it was gonna be a great opportunity to interact with my kids on a different level. Also, he tempted me with free food - apparently, the girl's parents were gonna be there too, and they were going to make food! Since I can't turn down free food, there was absolutely no chance that I wouldn't be there! The coolest thing was that the 9th graders 中学校三年生 girls who had won the championship also the year before, we were gonna be there too, and they were gonna have a match with the new championship team made up of girls in the 7th and 8th grades (9th graders aren't allowed to compete, and are officially "retired" - interesting system, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the 9th graders needing to prepare for High School entrance exams. So instead of letting them compete in their club activities and sports, they advised to spend all their free time preparing and studying for the entrance exams). The softball coach told me there were a few players on the 9th graders team that couldn't make it, so he would love to have me play in their place on the 9th graders team. This was too cool.
On the day of the softball "party", i showed up in shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. it was actually pretty chilly out. when i arrived, the girls were already practicing with some of their fathers. the softball coach introduced me to some of the parents. it was nice meeting the kids parents for the first time. they were all really nice and relaxed people. then as the game was between the ninth graders and the championship team was about to begin, the coach told me that i'd have to wait until later to get playing time, as most of the ninth graders actually did show up. watching the 9th graders play against the 7th and 8th graders was pretty interesting. apparently, the year before, they had won the kurihara championship and finished 2nd in miyagi prefecture. this was gonna be a sweet battle. when the 7th and 8th graders won the tournament, the 9th graders were always there cheering them on. 先輩、後輩 relationship. now thye were going to play against each other. i got a front row seat, and walked around taking pictures. the game started out pretty good, but the 7th and 8th graders jumped to a big early lead. the 9th graders looked a bit rusty. i guess they hadn't played in a while, so it figures they wouldn't be able to play as well as they had in the past. 9th graders haven't had bukatsu for a long time. the final score ended up being something like 10-7, and the 9th graders almost never threatened all game long. I found out that mitsuki, a 9th grade girl who I met on the very first day (and who gave me a tour of the school), was the former captain of the softball team. that was pretty cool. I enjoyed watching her play. she reminded me even more of ichiro.
after the game was finished, they had their usual formal game ending ceremonies, and it was time for lunch. the mothers had cooked some delicious tonjiru soup with potatos and all kinds of other delicous vegetables, etc. it was nice and hot as well, since it was such a cold day. i talked to the parents more, and passed around photos of toronto etc. the dads and moms were all pretty nice, cool people. during lunch, the coach told me that I'd get my chance to play now - as part of the "papa team". Japanese people often refer to their fathers as "papa". Sounds kind of strange for us English speakers (sounds like a child's word), but everybody uses the word "papa". I was pretty excited to be joining the "papa team". The afternoon game would be a match between the 7th and 8th grade championship team, and the "papa's plus one ALT". Sweet! He told me to take second base, so I went out there and started practicing with the other "papas." When I was in Toronto, I used to play softball with a church team. It wasn't really competitive or anything like that, but it turned out to be worthwhile practice, because it didn't take long for me to get aqcuainted to my new position at second. we tossed the ball around, I fielded some grounders, threw the ball around the bases and caught some pop flies. It was time to start the game!
in the beginning, the papas took a pretty big lead. soon it was 4-0 with a big inning. I had my first at bat. boy oh boy was it embarrassing! it's true that I had played softball before, but that softball included pitching to your own team.....UNDERHANDED. looking back now, I probably showed have been able to play a lot better before, when the pitches were thrown underhanded, by YOUR OWN teammates! When I went up to bat, against my own student, who yes, happened to be an 8th grade girl!, I thought....yea they're the champions, but she's in the 8th grade, she's 14 for goodness sakes, and I'm a 22 year old guy who's played softball before, I can handle this. I was in for it. The first pitch blew by so fast, it made my head spin. I swung feebly at the ball, probably missing it by a mile. I smiled and laughed, and everyone else did too. This was embarrassing but fun! I took a couple more silly looking swings before hitting a grounder to the shortstop. fortunately enough for me, i was able to beat out the throw, as the first basemen dropped the ball. I ended up coming around to score after the papas hit a few deep balls.
soon, we took an 8-2 lead, and it looked like we had this game in the bag. for softball, we only play 5 innings, and we were in the third inning already. this included a half inning, where all the balls were hit to me, making me involved in all 3 outs. the girls were happy and smiling, saying stuff like "wow, he's great!". i definitely felt cool, even though again, this was SOFTBALL, and I was playing with a bunch of 14 year olds~
as the game dragged on though, the papas began to tire. the girls kept getting hits, while we kept making mistakes! finally we went into the bottom half of the final inning up 10-8. the girls were at bat, and this was their chance to either tie the game by scoring 2, or winning it with 3 runs. we got a couple of quick outs, but suddenly, before we knew it, there 2 girls on base. I was still playing second, but for reason, they subbed in a different papa for right field. this papa, is a really nice guy, and really funny, but he's got to be the most sports-illiterate person around, and he knows it and isn't ashamed of it (which just makes everyone else love him even more, he's just cool, short, stocky, glasses, and really old style clothes). anyways, he was in right field. I guess maybe the regular right fielder had to leave early or they just wanted to give him a chance to play. the next girl smacked the ball over the head of the firstbasemen into right field. this was gonna be trouble. especially with that papa playing right field this inning. the ball bounced right by him, and he ran after it, but when he runs, he seriously looks like a penguin. its so funny, and maybe even kind of cute. I was at second, so i sprinted after the ball, running past the right field papa. i picked up the ball and nailed a throw back to the 3b basemen, who then fired a throw home, nailing the last girl at home for the third out. we had preserved the game, and prevented ourselves from the embarassment of losing to a junior high girl's softball team! the final score was 10-10. after making that play, the papas and mamas were all jumping, and happy, and complimenting me. I seriously felt like a rock star haha. the girls didn't look as happy though.
I'd have to say, since coming to Kannari, this has been one of the best experiences so far - being able to mingle with parents, play some "non"-competitive sports with my own students, and getting to eat tonjiru soup and udon for FREE~
I definitely can't wait until the next softball gathering.
First off, this past October has been insanely tiring, but also extremely fun. Hopefully things will calm down a bit so I can actually get some rest and clean up the mess I've made in my apartment.
About four to five weeks ago (I can't really remember anymore, and I don't have the energy to look up the exact date), the Kannari Junior High School girl's softball team had a tournament. This was the first time seeing my own students in playoff atmosphere action. In some respects I was actually blown away. These girls meant business. Everyday, I see them practising afterschool for hours on end. They come in on the weekends and and holidays to practise, it's ridiculous really how hard to prepare. Of course it's also mandatory for them to do this, but most of them look like they really enjoy being there and practising hard with their friends.
On the day of the tournament, which I think happened to be on a Saturday, all the teachers had to come to school (and for doing this, I think we got a weekday off, but really it was too long ago for me to remember). I was looking forward to this, because even though it was a "work day", I knew I wouldn't actually be doing any "work". It turns out I was right. I got a sweet seat right beside my kouchou sensei (school principal) and we talked about various things. I had just come back from Sendai, so we talked about kokubuncho and other stuff, it was great. Baseball/softball are the only main sports where you can actually afford to just sit back, relax and enjoy the weather. Don't get me wrong, baseball can be a pretty intense sport at times, but all in all, it's pretty slow, and you can afford to take your eyes off of the match without missing much.
The softball team was again, as I said before, a girls team, but damn they looked pretty strong and athletic. I had never really seen them outside of school, and when they're at school, or in class, they're very timid and shy and easily embarrassed. But on the field, they were intense, serious, yelling out "さあ、来い！" and cheering each other on. Really it was an eye opener for me. I didn't really think I was going to be too in to a softball much between Junior High School teams but when the game started, my eyes were glued.
There was this one girl who I had helped practise for the past month for the annual English speech contest. She was a very shy and timid girl in class, but she was very talented and smart. She ended up getting second prize in my city, and apparently she's one of the top students at my school. However, I had no idea she was also athletic. Batting lead-off and playing shortstop, the way she moved reminded me of Ichiro. Japanese people are really crazy about baseball, and if you didn't know before, baseball is pretty much the most popular sport in Japan (go Daisuke). Another thing that surprised me was the speed and power with which the pitchers threw the ball. Again, these were 14-15 year old girls, yet they were playing at such a high level. My school ended up playing 2 games and winning both easily by over 5 runs. They won the city tournament and were crowned the 栗原優勝チーム. Pretty awesome, because I had no idea they were a powerhouse in these parts. Right after the final game ended, it started raining heavily, so we were all pretty lucky to get the game finished. All in all, I took a few pictures, but not too many, because I was too interested in watching the games with my own eyes. Unfortunately, for another girl team, they didn't have enough players so they couldn't enter the tournament. Those poor girls were instead, given the task of score keeping, and cleaning up the field and transporting equipment, etc. - ouch. Since I was sitting next to the score keeping table, I struck up a conversation with them in Japanese. It was interesting talking to kids from another school.
A couple of weeks later, the teachers had another one of their 飲み会s which are basically drinking parties. For us, it's usually at an izakaya. We usually pay 4000 yen, and we can basically eat and drink all we want. It's pretty cool. I'd have to say that izakaya's are one of my favourite parts of living in Japan (although I'm still not used to sitting on the floor for extended periods of time - my legs usually die on me, and I have to walk awkwardly behind everyone else, when we leave~) The unfortunate thing is that the teachers usually want to leave pretty fast and move on to the next party, so we don't really get our money's worth (at least if it was me, I'd stay longer and drink more, and just head back and save cash, but that's just not how they do it around here.)
All in all, after the izakaya, i had a pretty crazy night. We went to a karaoke bar after the izakaya, then me and an older teacher were supposed to take a taxi back home together, but he ended up giving the driver different instructions. We ended up at another bar/restaurant, met up with the same teachers from before who were having their own little reunion party with other ex-co-workers. The funniest part of it all is that after they were done here, they all headed back to the same karaoke bar, we had just come from. All in all, I got pretty wasted and my wallet took about a 一万円 hit - ouch.
The taxi ride home cost me another 2000 yen (taxis are ridiculously expensive in Japan, so be CAREFUL if you ever come here and wanna hitch a ride on a taxi thinking it's just gonna cost you a few bucks). the last time I was in a taxi, it was around a 40 minute drive, and it ended up costing 8000 yen (80 freaking dollars!). Fortunately, I only had to pay 3000, cuz my friend paid 5000. But still! I've made a promise to myself never to ride in a taxi again unless it's absolutely an emergency and there's nothing else I can do!
I think it's safe to say that I can't trust my teachers anymore. I've never spent money so recklessly in my life. The next time they have one of these crazy nomikai's, I'm definitely gonna keep a better tab on what I'm paying for. damn! japanese teachers work pretty hard staying late everyday and working on weekends/holidays etc., but when they party, they go all out. the strangest thing is the monday after the party (which is usually on a friday), they all show up at school, and it's like nothing ever happened. it's like the nomikai never existed. it's like everyone forgot about it. or maybe they were so wasted, they really dont remember anything that happened (who knows?). there's a pretty big divide with being in the classroom and outside of work. at least it seems that way!
anyways, I think i got a little bit off track there. to get back to the point of why i even introduced the izakaya story, is that since I don't drive, I had to hitch a ride to the nomikai 場所. since my town is, again, the COUNTRYSIDE, and there really ins't much here, all the nomikai's are in neighbouring towns (for example a 30 or so minute drive). so I ended up getting a ride from one of the teachers, who just happened to be the coach of the girl's softball team. in the car, we were talking about stuff. apparently, 20 or so years ago, for his honeymoon, he went with his wife to TORONTO! It looks like he visited Toronto before I did! But it looks like he doesn't remember much, other than the CN Tower revolving restaurant and Niagara Falls. Anyways, to get to the point, he asked me what I was doing over the long weekend
(3 day weekend), and he ended up inviting me to come play softball with the girl's 2007 Kurihara champion baseball team. I knew I had to take him up on the offer. Those girls were intense, and it was gonna be a great opportunity to interact with my kids on a different level. Also, he tempted me with free food - apparently, the girl's parents were gonna be there too, and they were going to make food! Since I can't turn down free food, there was absolutely no chance that I wouldn't be there! The coolest thing was that the 9th graders 中学校三年生 girls who had won the championship also the year before, we were gonna be there too, and they were gonna have a match with the new championship team made up of girls in the 7th and 8th grades (9th graders aren't allowed to compete, and are officially "retired" - interesting system, but I'm guessing it has something to do with the 9th graders needing to prepare for High School entrance exams. So instead of letting them compete in their club activities and sports, they advised to spend all their free time preparing and studying for the entrance exams). The softball coach told me there were a few players on the 9th graders team that couldn't make it, so he would love to have me play in their place on the 9th graders team. This was too cool.
On the day of the softball "party", i showed up in shorts and a long sleeved t-shirt. it was actually pretty chilly out. when i arrived, the girls were already practicing with some of their fathers. the softball coach introduced me to some of the parents. it was nice meeting the kids parents for the first time. they were all really nice and relaxed people. then as the game was between the ninth graders and the championship team was about to begin, the coach told me that i'd have to wait until later to get playing time, as most of the ninth graders actually did show up. watching the 9th graders play against the 7th and 8th graders was pretty interesting. apparently, the year before, they had won the kurihara championship and finished 2nd in miyagi prefecture. this was gonna be a sweet battle. when the 7th and 8th graders won the tournament, the 9th graders were always there cheering them on. 先輩、後輩 relationship. now thye were going to play against each other. i got a front row seat, and walked around taking pictures. the game started out pretty good, but the 7th and 8th graders jumped to a big early lead. the 9th graders looked a bit rusty. i guess they hadn't played in a while, so it figures they wouldn't be able to play as well as they had in the past. 9th graders haven't had bukatsu for a long time. the final score ended up being something like 10-7, and the 9th graders almost never threatened all game long. I found out that mitsuki, a 9th grade girl who I met on the very first day (and who gave me a tour of the school), was the former captain of the softball team. that was pretty cool. I enjoyed watching her play. she reminded me even more of ichiro.
after the game was finished, they had their usual formal game ending ceremonies, and it was time for lunch. the mothers had cooked some delicious tonjiru soup with potatos and all kinds of other delicous vegetables, etc. it was nice and hot as well, since it was such a cold day. i talked to the parents more, and passed around photos of toronto etc. the dads and moms were all pretty nice, cool people. during lunch, the coach told me that I'd get my chance to play now - as part of the "papa team". Japanese people often refer to their fathers as "papa". Sounds kind of strange for us English speakers (sounds like a child's word), but everybody uses the word "papa". I was pretty excited to be joining the "papa team". The afternoon game would be a match between the 7th and 8th grade championship team, and the "papa's plus one ALT". Sweet! He told me to take second base, so I went out there and started practicing with the other "papas." When I was in Toronto, I used to play softball with a church team. It wasn't really competitive or anything like that, but it turned out to be worthwhile practice, because it didn't take long for me to get aqcuainted to my new position at second. we tossed the ball around, I fielded some grounders, threw the ball around the bases and caught some pop flies. It was time to start the game!
in the beginning, the papas took a pretty big lead. soon it was 4-0 with a big inning. I had my first at bat. boy oh boy was it embarrassing! it's true that I had played softball before, but that softball included pitching to your own team.....UNDERHANDED. looking back now, I probably showed have been able to play a lot better before, when the pitches were thrown underhanded, by YOUR OWN teammates! When I went up to bat, against my own student, who yes, happened to be an 8th grade girl!, I thought....yea they're the champions, but she's in the 8th grade, she's 14 for goodness sakes, and I'm a 22 year old guy who's played softball before, I can handle this. I was in for it. The first pitch blew by so fast, it made my head spin. I swung feebly at the ball, probably missing it by a mile. I smiled and laughed, and everyone else did too. This was embarrassing but fun! I took a couple more silly looking swings before hitting a grounder to the shortstop. fortunately enough for me, i was able to beat out the throw, as the first basemen dropped the ball. I ended up coming around to score after the papas hit a few deep balls.
soon, we took an 8-2 lead, and it looked like we had this game in the bag. for softball, we only play 5 innings, and we were in the third inning already. this included a half inning, where all the balls were hit to me, making me involved in all 3 outs. the girls were happy and smiling, saying stuff like "wow, he's great!". i definitely felt cool, even though again, this was SOFTBALL, and I was playing with a bunch of 14 year olds~
as the game dragged on though, the papas began to tire. the girls kept getting hits, while we kept making mistakes! finally we went into the bottom half of the final inning up 10-8. the girls were at bat, and this was their chance to either tie the game by scoring 2, or winning it with 3 runs. we got a couple of quick outs, but suddenly, before we knew it, there 2 girls on base. I was still playing second, but for reason, they subbed in a different papa for right field. this papa, is a really nice guy, and really funny, but he's got to be the most sports-illiterate person around, and he knows it and isn't ashamed of it (which just makes everyone else love him even more, he's just cool, short, stocky, glasses, and really old style clothes). anyways, he was in right field. I guess maybe the regular right fielder had to leave early or they just wanted to give him a chance to play. the next girl smacked the ball over the head of the firstbasemen into right field. this was gonna be trouble. especially with that papa playing right field this inning. the ball bounced right by him, and he ran after it, but when he runs, he seriously looks like a penguin. its so funny, and maybe even kind of cute. I was at second, so i sprinted after the ball, running past the right field papa. i picked up the ball and nailed a throw back to the 3b basemen, who then fired a throw home, nailing the last girl at home for the third out. we had preserved the game, and prevented ourselves from the embarassment of losing to a junior high girl's softball team! the final score was 10-10. after making that play, the papas and mamas were all jumping, and happy, and complimenting me. I seriously felt like a rock star haha. the girls didn't look as happy though.
I'd have to say, since coming to Kannari, this has been one of the best experiences so far - being able to mingle with parents, play some "non"-competitive sports with my own students, and getting to eat tonjiru soup and udon for FREE~
I definitely can't wait until the next softball gathering.
Saturday, October 27, 2007
It's Been a Long Time.............Again~
So it's been almost a month since my last post. Amazing how time flies. I've been so busy the past month, I haven't had much time to do anything. My room is a mess, my table is a mess, and I can't find important documents, let alone take the time to read them.
Funny thing happened last Wednesday. I tried to use my cellphone, but it wouldn't work. I wondered what had happened. I remember receiving a bunch of mails from softbank, but since I was so consumed with other things, I just threw them on the table, thinking I'd have time to open them "later". Well it turns out "later" turned into "never", and I was in for a big shock.
Since the beginning of September, people have been texting me constantly. When I first heard about Japanese "texting culture" - that they constantly send each other text mails rather than using their phones to make calls, I thought it was extremely weird, and that if I were in their positions, I would never become that crazy. How wrong I was. Since getting my cellphone, meeting some people in my area, and exchanging numbers and addresses, I've been receiving texts constantly, day and night. At one point I found myself probably writing and sending upwards of 20 messages a day, and that's just a rough estimate. My hand started hurting. I realized that Japanese people almost never make phone calls. There's good reason for this as well, it's freaking expensive! On my softbank plan, I have to pay 21 cents per half a minute, which means I'd be paying around 40 cents a minute to call someone. Insanity. Text messages on the other hand cost only around 3 cents per message, and you can cram a lot into one message.
A Japanese cellphone is more like a small portable computer. You can access the internet from anywhere, and you can send mail to other phones, or to email addresses which is pretty darn convenient. You can also receive email from anywhere in the world directly on your cellphone. It was incomprehensible to me at first, and it still kind of amazes me now.
Naturally, I thought maybe I had overused my cellphone, with texts, phone calls, internet, etc. I talked to one of my teachers at school and asked him what might have happened. I was pretty sure it wasn't money, cause when we he helped me sign up for the contract, I chose the option where softbank would automatically deduct the monthy charges from my bank account. He called softbank for me, and eventually, we got an English speaking operator to speak to me. Apparently, it really was money problems after all. For the first payment of the contract, I was supposed to go in and make the payment myself. I had no idea at all. She told me that softbank had probably sent me various mails etc. concerning this fact.
The good thing about Japan is that convenience is of the upmost importance. You can pay your bills and whatever else at the local convenience store. For me, it was Seven Eleven (yes there are Seven Eleven's in Japan. In fact, there are so many Seven Eleven's I practically see them everywhere I go). Around 6 hours later, my phone service was back to normal again. Gotta love Japanese service - quick and efficient.
Now, it's time to get back to cleaning the room. Hopefully I didn't miss any other important mails.
Funny thing happened last Wednesday. I tried to use my cellphone, but it wouldn't work. I wondered what had happened. I remember receiving a bunch of mails from softbank, but since I was so consumed with other things, I just threw them on the table, thinking I'd have time to open them "later". Well it turns out "later" turned into "never", and I was in for a big shock.
Since the beginning of September, people have been texting me constantly. When I first heard about Japanese "texting culture" - that they constantly send each other text mails rather than using their phones to make calls, I thought it was extremely weird, and that if I were in their positions, I would never become that crazy. How wrong I was. Since getting my cellphone, meeting some people in my area, and exchanging numbers and addresses, I've been receiving texts constantly, day and night. At one point I found myself probably writing and sending upwards of 20 messages a day, and that's just a rough estimate. My hand started hurting. I realized that Japanese people almost never make phone calls. There's good reason for this as well, it's freaking expensive! On my softbank plan, I have to pay 21 cents per half a minute, which means I'd be paying around 40 cents a minute to call someone. Insanity. Text messages on the other hand cost only around 3 cents per message, and you can cram a lot into one message.
A Japanese cellphone is more like a small portable computer. You can access the internet from anywhere, and you can send mail to other phones, or to email addresses which is pretty darn convenient. You can also receive email from anywhere in the world directly on your cellphone. It was incomprehensible to me at first, and it still kind of amazes me now.
Naturally, I thought maybe I had overused my cellphone, with texts, phone calls, internet, etc. I talked to one of my teachers at school and asked him what might have happened. I was pretty sure it wasn't money, cause when we he helped me sign up for the contract, I chose the option where softbank would automatically deduct the monthy charges from my bank account. He called softbank for me, and eventually, we got an English speaking operator to speak to me. Apparently, it really was money problems after all. For the first payment of the contract, I was supposed to go in and make the payment myself. I had no idea at all. She told me that softbank had probably sent me various mails etc. concerning this fact.
The good thing about Japan is that convenience is of the upmost importance. You can pay your bills and whatever else at the local convenience store. For me, it was Seven Eleven (yes there are Seven Eleven's in Japan. In fact, there are so many Seven Eleven's I practically see them everywhere I go). Around 6 hours later, my phone service was back to normal again. Gotta love Japanese service - quick and efficient.
Now, it's time to get back to cleaning the room. Hopefully I didn't miss any other important mails.
Friday, September 28, 2007
Bean Ice Cream 豆アイスクリーム, Asari Sakamushi アサリの酒蒸し, first Visit to Hagino 萩野
Yesterday, the 8th graders at the Junior Highschool, were doing volunteer activities are various places around the town to get work experience. I ended up going with the principal to see how the kids were doing. A local supermarket that sells various things that the farmers in the town grow was one such place. The name was Agurikko (agriculture?). The cool thing is that there are baskets with various vegetables, fruits and various other foods, and on the front of each basket is a picture of the farmer that grew the particular food being sold, as well as his/her name and other information. They also were selling ice cream, with some of the strangest flavours you'll ever see. I didn't have much time to take a look at all the different flavours, but my principal was urging me on to try the ice cream, so finally I did. They gave me Mame Icecream, which basically means Bean Ice Cream. Yea, beans. I don't know how ice cream is made, but beans doesn't seem like an ingredient that should be used in ice cream. At first, it tasted a bit strange, but by the time I was halfway through it, it had grown on me already, and I was kind of hoping there was more inside the cone.
Also, just to add in some extra information - when I walked in with the principal, everything was just business as usual. When I bought the ice cream, things were just business as usual. When they handed me my change, I said "Thank you", and everybody just started looking confused. Then I told them I'm a foreigner, I'm not Japanese, and the principal explained that I was the new English teacher. Then everybody was smiling and looking at me more closely, and saying "we though he was Japanese". Priceless. I'm really digging this special "power" I have to just hide or appear whenever or where ever I basically want. It's definitely fun, cause nobody expects a person that looks like me (an Asian) to be able to speak such good English. When they hear me speak English, something in their brains just goes off and they start staring at me, and smiling strangely. Definitely cool.
I also took some nice pictures of 地酒 Jizake, which basically means local alcohol, made in the town itself. Kannari's Jizake is 萩の鶴 Hagino Tsuru. Although I can't really tell the difference between all the different kinds of Japanese alcohol (it all tastes like vodka to me..), I did consume an entire large bottle of this at a local sushi chef's party a few weeks ago. The following day was probably the toughest so far since I've arrived in Japan. I threw up all over the tatami mats in my home, and at the school, I pretty much felt like throwing up every 5 minutes (although I never did end up throwing up). It was actually a great day though, because during the classes, I felt this "extra" energy, and since that day, I've been more comfortable with the kids, talking and messing around with them. Alcohol is very important in Japan. That's a key lesson I've learned so far over here. I don't mind it at all~
Last night, I was invited out to dinner by some people in my town. We went to an Izakaya. I had Asari Sakamushi for the first time in Japan. In Canada is was probably my all time favourite dish. Simple, and amazingly delicious. The Asari I had last night was pretty good as well, but not as great as I expected from a Japanese restaurant. It only cost 370 yen though, so it's probably no wonder why the clams were so small. The soup was great though.
We also had different kinds of sashimi, and some really tiny fried shrimps - they tasted like potato chips. They also ordered "chow men", which is basically the Chinese dish "chow mein". You'd be surprised how many words the Japanese use that are basically just taken from other languages and asimilated to their own pronunciation. I had 4 sapporo 生beers. Then it was off to the next party.
Japanese people are pretty crazy in that they don't seem to stay in any place for too long. After eating, it's off to a bar, or karaoke box, etc. Last night, we went to a Karaoke bar, where I had shochu and wine. It probably wasn't the best idea, since I had to make a visit to an elementary school today. To make things worst, it was the first day at that particular school. But the Japanese, they just keep pouring you drinks. Everyone's pretty cool in that way, at least over here in the inaka. They all knew I had to work, and not just work, but work with kids the next day, yet they just kept telling me it was alright. Some of these people had kids too, kids at my elementary school too! And it wasn't like they didn't have to work the next day either. Some of them had to go to day-long meetings today. I have no idea how they made it through an entire day of meetings, when they stayed out until 1am the night before drinking alcohol and blasting karaoke songs one after the other. Definitely cool though.
They also ended up being right that it would be okay. Although I woke up this morning a bit groggy, I had a great time at the school. Hagino Elementary school is quite a ways from my apartment, and because going there is uphill, biking is nearly impossible. And if I did end up biking, I would probably have been too tired to teach anything at all. The school's vice principal called me a week ago telling me he'd come and pick me up. This time I remembered to bring some indoor shoes with me. The Japanese have this custom where you have to take off your shoes when entering particular buildings, especially schools. I actually bought a new pair of nikes when I first got here just to use them as indoor shoes because the slippers the school lets visitors wear were just too uncomfortable. The last 2 weeks at Kannari Elementary school, I forgot to bring an extra pair of shoes, so I had to walk around in their slippers. It was alright, but I couldn't really move quickly - it's just not comfortable for teaching, especially with small kids, as I tend to like moving around the classroom a lot.
The Vice Principal is a pretty cool guy. His English was great, probably better than the English teachers teaching at my Junior Highschool. I asked him why, and eventually, he told me had taught Japanese for 3 years in Dubai. Amazing. He's a short round fellow, very nice guy.
When I first arrived at the school, I noticed the building was much nicer than the Junior Highschool. The classrooms were newer, and the overall feel of the building was pretty relaxing. The teachers were all cool - unlike the Junior Highschool and Kannari Elementary school, it didn't really feel like work at all. It was genuinely all fun. The teachers seemed much more interested in teaching, and learning about foreign cultures. They also seemed a lot more relaxed. Also, the principal and vice principal were just cool guys - friendly, and mainstream "with it", unlike the old fashioned teachers at the other schools I've visited so far.
The kids were great too. A pair of twin girls were waiting for me at the entrance when I came in. They looked so familiar yet I couldn't put my finger on it. Then they told me they had met me at the town hall, when I had visited one of their painting classes. The hilarious thing was, once I stepped out of the car, me and the vice principal started waving at the first and second graders through the window, and shouting out phrases in English like "good morning" and "hello". The kids got pretty excited and started talking to each other pretty loudly. Then, I heard a few kids say "hey that guy's Japanese isn't he?" (日本人みたい！日本人じゃない？？). There you go again, it's the Asian foreigner in Japan syndrome. But, I definitely don't mind it. I definitely fit in a lot better than most other foreigners. The kids are hilarious, cause all I do is remind them of their older brothers or friends. They always tell me this. And again, the teachers kept commenting on how I reminded them of their sons. These people warm up to me pretty quickly - perhaps it's the inaka effect, or the fact that I look like them, but it's definitely a nice thing.
The fact that I'm in such a small town is really starting to hit me now as everyone seems to be connected to each other somehow. Apparently, a Senior High School student's mom is working at Hagino. I had met him at the Town Hall when I first arrived. And then of course, there was another teacher who had a son that is in the 6th grade at Kannari Elementary. It's definitely cool when people know you but you don't know them. Kind of makes me feel like a star. There are only 8000 people in this town.
Another funny thing is, everytime I do my self-introduction lesson, I show them pictures of myself and my family. Almost everytime I show the kids and teachers these pictures, someone will yell out Peyonju! (ペヨンジュ). Well, what the heck is Peyonju? That's the question I was asking myself for some time. Turns out he's a Korean Drama star. I've never seen any Korean Dramas, nor do I intend to, but I definitely wanna see what this peyonju guy looks like. It's funny, cause during my first week at the Junior Highschool, the students were cutting the weeds and stuff that were growing on the soccer field. I decided to go out there and take some pictures and talk to the students. I had my sunglasses on. I go out there, and they start yelling out "Korean Star!" What's up with that....seriously, I need to find out who this peyonju guy is.
Today was definitely fun. I can't wait to visit this school again, but unfortunately, I only get to visit this school once a month, so it's goodbye for an entire month. Damn.
Also, just to add in some extra information - when I walked in with the principal, everything was just business as usual. When I bought the ice cream, things were just business as usual. When they handed me my change, I said "Thank you", and everybody just started looking confused. Then I told them I'm a foreigner, I'm not Japanese, and the principal explained that I was the new English teacher. Then everybody was smiling and looking at me more closely, and saying "we though he was Japanese". Priceless. I'm really digging this special "power" I have to just hide or appear whenever or where ever I basically want. It's definitely fun, cause nobody expects a person that looks like me (an Asian) to be able to speak such good English. When they hear me speak English, something in their brains just goes off and they start staring at me, and smiling strangely. Definitely cool.
I also took some nice pictures of 地酒 Jizake, which basically means local alcohol, made in the town itself. Kannari's Jizake is 萩の鶴 Hagino Tsuru. Although I can't really tell the difference between all the different kinds of Japanese alcohol (it all tastes like vodka to me..), I did consume an entire large bottle of this at a local sushi chef's party a few weeks ago. The following day was probably the toughest so far since I've arrived in Japan. I threw up all over the tatami mats in my home, and at the school, I pretty much felt like throwing up every 5 minutes (although I never did end up throwing up). It was actually a great day though, because during the classes, I felt this "extra" energy, and since that day, I've been more comfortable with the kids, talking and messing around with them. Alcohol is very important in Japan. That's a key lesson I've learned so far over here. I don't mind it at all~
Last night, I was invited out to dinner by some people in my town. We went to an Izakaya. I had Asari Sakamushi for the first time in Japan. In Canada is was probably my all time favourite dish. Simple, and amazingly delicious. The Asari I had last night was pretty good as well, but not as great as I expected from a Japanese restaurant. It only cost 370 yen though, so it's probably no wonder why the clams were so small. The soup was great though.
We also had different kinds of sashimi, and some really tiny fried shrimps - they tasted like potato chips. They also ordered "chow men", which is basically the Chinese dish "chow mein". You'd be surprised how many words the Japanese use that are basically just taken from other languages and asimilated to their own pronunciation. I had 4 sapporo 生beers. Then it was off to the next party.
Japanese people are pretty crazy in that they don't seem to stay in any place for too long. After eating, it's off to a bar, or karaoke box, etc. Last night, we went to a Karaoke bar, where I had shochu and wine. It probably wasn't the best idea, since I had to make a visit to an elementary school today. To make things worst, it was the first day at that particular school. But the Japanese, they just keep pouring you drinks. Everyone's pretty cool in that way, at least over here in the inaka. They all knew I had to work, and not just work, but work with kids the next day, yet they just kept telling me it was alright. Some of these people had kids too, kids at my elementary school too! And it wasn't like they didn't have to work the next day either. Some of them had to go to day-long meetings today. I have no idea how they made it through an entire day of meetings, when they stayed out until 1am the night before drinking alcohol and blasting karaoke songs one after the other. Definitely cool though.
They also ended up being right that it would be okay. Although I woke up this morning a bit groggy, I had a great time at the school. Hagino Elementary school is quite a ways from my apartment, and because going there is uphill, biking is nearly impossible. And if I did end up biking, I would probably have been too tired to teach anything at all. The school's vice principal called me a week ago telling me he'd come and pick me up. This time I remembered to bring some indoor shoes with me. The Japanese have this custom where you have to take off your shoes when entering particular buildings, especially schools. I actually bought a new pair of nikes when I first got here just to use them as indoor shoes because the slippers the school lets visitors wear were just too uncomfortable. The last 2 weeks at Kannari Elementary school, I forgot to bring an extra pair of shoes, so I had to walk around in their slippers. It was alright, but I couldn't really move quickly - it's just not comfortable for teaching, especially with small kids, as I tend to like moving around the classroom a lot.
The Vice Principal is a pretty cool guy. His English was great, probably better than the English teachers teaching at my Junior Highschool. I asked him why, and eventually, he told me had taught Japanese for 3 years in Dubai. Amazing. He's a short round fellow, very nice guy.
When I first arrived at the school, I noticed the building was much nicer than the Junior Highschool. The classrooms were newer, and the overall feel of the building was pretty relaxing. The teachers were all cool - unlike the Junior Highschool and Kannari Elementary school, it didn't really feel like work at all. It was genuinely all fun. The teachers seemed much more interested in teaching, and learning about foreign cultures. They also seemed a lot more relaxed. Also, the principal and vice principal were just cool guys - friendly, and mainstream "with it", unlike the old fashioned teachers at the other schools I've visited so far.
The kids were great too. A pair of twin girls were waiting for me at the entrance when I came in. They looked so familiar yet I couldn't put my finger on it. Then they told me they had met me at the town hall, when I had visited one of their painting classes. The hilarious thing was, once I stepped out of the car, me and the vice principal started waving at the first and second graders through the window, and shouting out phrases in English like "good morning" and "hello". The kids got pretty excited and started talking to each other pretty loudly. Then, I heard a few kids say "hey that guy's Japanese isn't he?" (日本人みたい！日本人じゃない？？). There you go again, it's the Asian foreigner in Japan syndrome. But, I definitely don't mind it. I definitely fit in a lot better than most other foreigners. The kids are hilarious, cause all I do is remind them of their older brothers or friends. They always tell me this. And again, the teachers kept commenting on how I reminded them of their sons. These people warm up to me pretty quickly - perhaps it's the inaka effect, or the fact that I look like them, but it's definitely a nice thing.
The fact that I'm in such a small town is really starting to hit me now as everyone seems to be connected to each other somehow. Apparently, a Senior High School student's mom is working at Hagino. I had met him at the Town Hall when I first arrived. And then of course, there was another teacher who had a son that is in the 6th grade at Kannari Elementary. It's definitely cool when people know you but you don't know them. Kind of makes me feel like a star. There are only 8000 people in this town.
Another funny thing is, everytime I do my self-introduction lesson, I show them pictures of myself and my family. Almost everytime I show the kids and teachers these pictures, someone will yell out Peyonju! (ペヨンジュ). Well, what the heck is Peyonju? That's the question I was asking myself for some time. Turns out he's a Korean Drama star. I've never seen any Korean Dramas, nor do I intend to, but I definitely wanna see what this peyonju guy looks like. It's funny, cause during my first week at the Junior Highschool, the students were cutting the weeds and stuff that were growing on the soccer field. I decided to go out there and take some pictures and talk to the students. I had my sunglasses on. I go out there, and they start yelling out "Korean Star!" What's up with that....seriously, I need to find out who this peyonju guy is.
Today was definitely fun. I can't wait to visit this school again, but unfortunately, I only get to visit this school once a month, so it's goodbye for an entire month. Damn.
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
Gaijin in Disguise
One of the big questions before coming to Japan was the reactions I would receive being an Asian looking foreigner. I had definitely heard a ton of different stories, but I really didn't know what to expect until I actually got here. For starters, I definitely think my experience is a lot different than the other JETs in my area just by talking to them and hearing their stories. Everyone here thinks I'm Japanese when they first look at me. My supervisors asked me if my parents were Japanese when they first met me. When I go into a restaurant, the town hall, or the supermarket, I get absolutely 0 stares. I guess it IS a lot harder to tell the difference between Asians, then most people think. If Japanese people can't even tell whether or not I'm one of them or not, it's quite obvious, it's a difficult thing to pinpoint.
My first few weeks here, I felt a bit dissapointed that I wasn't getting paid any attention in this tiny rural town. It also felt quite awkward going into the local stores, and buying stuff, and when they talk to me in Japanese, I kind of answer back in strange Japanese, or in English. This one time, I was buying food at the supermarket, and this young girl cashier just completely froze when she heard English come out of my mouth. She just had no idea what to do. I just smiled at her, and she smiled back a little bit embarassed. The next time I went to the supermarket, I decided to look for the same girl, and enter her line. This time she looked a lot more comfortable, smiling a bit embarassingly - at least she recognized me this time.
Although I don't get the rock star treatment, most distinguishable foreigners get, there are some pros to being in disguise. For one thing, I love walking down the street, or going to the restaurant with other Japanese people, having a good time using Japanese and having no one look at all, and then suddenly just turning on the English. People around me sitting at other tables, or working at the store suddenly start staring - it's great. It definitely has a James Bond type feel to it. I basicaly have control of when I want to make myself noticed. Otherwise, I can just blend into the crowd, and do whatever crazy stuff the other Japanese people are doing. For example, this past Sunday, I went to Sendai to visit one of my Toronto camp kids, who lives in Sendai now. I basically used English all day, talking to him and his parents. We went shopping at a department store, and these 2 girls behind us just kept staring at me. I was going down the escalator, and they just kept staring. In fact she couldn't keep her eyes off of me to the point that she bumped into the kid's father who was standing right in front of her. Sweetness~
It's also definitely funny when we have JET meetings, and the teachers from other schools don't really know who I am, or what I'm doing there. Am I an English JTE? Am I a JET? They just don't know. The kids from other schools don't really have any idea either. It's quite fun playing around with their minds a bit. Sometimes, when I meet strangers, I'll just use Japanese. Other times, I'll use English, it's definitely fun seeing their different reactions. Some have no idea I'm a foreigner. Some probably just think I have a mental defect when I make mistakes when using Japanese.
One definitely interesting thing is that a few people I've met have already told me I remind them of their sons/brothers/friends. A nice woman at the local board of education took me to see Transformers, treated me to dinner, and gave me some food to put in the fridge. The crazy thing is that she actually thanked me for spending time with her, and that it felt just like the days when she used to spend time with her son. Apparently, we have the same facial features/body type. She also lent me her basically unused mountain bike and told me I didn't have to return it until I leave Kannari. Just this past Friday, one of the teachers at the Elementary school said I reminded her a lot of her son. Things like these help a lot in integrating into the town. I can't be exactly sure, but I think looking like a Japanese person has definitely helped in some regard, as most people in the staff office at school basically treat me like I'm their kid. They have no fear of talking to me, they throw food at me constantly, and because I actually have some ability in Japanese, they compliment me a ton and talk to me about whatever's on their mind. Although my real mother is in Toronto, I feel like I have a bunch of mothers here in Kannari.
It's also definitely helped me as well, because although I'm in a foreign country, it doesn't really feel much different to me. Everyone looks familiar to me, even though I've never met them before, and I'm supposedly in a foreign country. This thing called "culture shock" hasn't happened yet, and it probably won't happen...ever. Being able to speak basic Japanese also helps me communicate a lot better than most foreigners. At times, I feel like I'm more at home here than in Toronto. Maybe it's an Asian thing, I don't know, but I used to feel a bit strange at times in Toronto. In Japan, things seem a lot more familiar. People are around the same height as me. Most girls are actually shorter than me. Being skinny isn't actually a bad thing anymore. Strange isn't it? I'm in a foreign country, yet it doesn't really feel like one to me.
I'm definitely digging this gaijin in disguise thing.
My first few weeks here, I felt a bit dissapointed that I wasn't getting paid any attention in this tiny rural town. It also felt quite awkward going into the local stores, and buying stuff, and when they talk to me in Japanese, I kind of answer back in strange Japanese, or in English. This one time, I was buying food at the supermarket, and this young girl cashier just completely froze when she heard English come out of my mouth. She just had no idea what to do. I just smiled at her, and she smiled back a little bit embarassed. The next time I went to the supermarket, I decided to look for the same girl, and enter her line. This time she looked a lot more comfortable, smiling a bit embarassingly - at least she recognized me this time.
Although I don't get the rock star treatment, most distinguishable foreigners get, there are some pros to being in disguise. For one thing, I love walking down the street, or going to the restaurant with other Japanese people, having a good time using Japanese and having no one look at all, and then suddenly just turning on the English. People around me sitting at other tables, or working at the store suddenly start staring - it's great. It definitely has a James Bond type feel to it. I basicaly have control of when I want to make myself noticed. Otherwise, I can just blend into the crowd, and do whatever crazy stuff the other Japanese people are doing. For example, this past Sunday, I went to Sendai to visit one of my Toronto camp kids, who lives in Sendai now. I basically used English all day, talking to him and his parents. We went shopping at a department store, and these 2 girls behind us just kept staring at me. I was going down the escalator, and they just kept staring. In fact she couldn't keep her eyes off of me to the point that she bumped into the kid's father who was standing right in front of her. Sweetness~
It's also definitely funny when we have JET meetings, and the teachers from other schools don't really know who I am, or what I'm doing there. Am I an English JTE? Am I a JET? They just don't know. The kids from other schools don't really have any idea either. It's quite fun playing around with their minds a bit. Sometimes, when I meet strangers, I'll just use Japanese. Other times, I'll use English, it's definitely fun seeing their different reactions. Some have no idea I'm a foreigner. Some probably just think I have a mental defect when I make mistakes when using Japanese.
One definitely interesting thing is that a few people I've met have already told me I remind them of their sons/brothers/friends. A nice woman at the local board of education took me to see Transformers, treated me to dinner, and gave me some food to put in the fridge. The crazy thing is that she actually thanked me for spending time with her, and that it felt just like the days when she used to spend time with her son. Apparently, we have the same facial features/body type. She also lent me her basically unused mountain bike and told me I didn't have to return it until I leave Kannari. Just this past Friday, one of the teachers at the Elementary school said I reminded her a lot of her son. Things like these help a lot in integrating into the town. I can't be exactly sure, but I think looking like a Japanese person has definitely helped in some regard, as most people in the staff office at school basically treat me like I'm their kid. They have no fear of talking to me, they throw food at me constantly, and because I actually have some ability in Japanese, they compliment me a ton and talk to me about whatever's on their mind. Although my real mother is in Toronto, I feel like I have a bunch of mothers here in Kannari.
It's also definitely helped me as well, because although I'm in a foreign country, it doesn't really feel much different to me. Everyone looks familiar to me, even though I've never met them before, and I'm supposedly in a foreign country. This thing called "culture shock" hasn't happened yet, and it probably won't happen...ever. Being able to speak basic Japanese also helps me communicate a lot better than most foreigners. At times, I feel like I'm more at home here than in Toronto. Maybe it's an Asian thing, I don't know, but I used to feel a bit strange at times in Toronto. In Japan, things seem a lot more familiar. People are around the same height as me. Most girls are actually shorter than me. Being skinny isn't actually a bad thing anymore. Strange isn't it? I'm in a foreign country, yet it doesn't really feel like one to me.
I'm definitely digging this gaijin in disguise thing.
Saturday, September 15, 2007
My First Day at 小学校
Yesterday was my first day at an Elementary school. They told me to come in at around 10am, so I actually got to sleep in a bit which was great since I figured I would need extra energy with the little kids. I left my home at around 9:30am, giving me about half an hour to get their by bike. I wanted to give myself some extra time in case I got lost. I ended up getting there in 6 minutes flat, but since the school is, like all the other schools in this town, located on top of a hill, it took around another 6 minutes to bike/push my bike up the hill. By the time I got up there, I was already breathing heavily...damn those hills.
I brought all my self introduction materials I had used at my Junior High School. The first thing I noticed was that the staff were much more relaxed here. The kids were small and cute - they reminded me a lot of the kids I worked with back in Toronto. My supervisor showed up to help introduce me to the staff and kids, and they asked me to give a little speech in Japanese. The teachers really don't know English well enough, so I did my best.
After that, I sat down on the couch and waited for the kids to come and get me. Soon enough, a little boy came to get me. He was in the 5th grade. I asked him what his name was, and he said "Sugawara Sho". I was shocked, because just a week earlier, I spoke with this guy who was the local sushi chef's friend, and he told me his son went to Kannari Elementary School, and that his name was Sugawara Sho, and to look for him.
I did my self intro for the 8th time. The feeling was definitely different. The kids had much bigger reactions to the pictures I showed them. At the same time, it felt pretty cool to finally be in control of the class. At the Junior High School, I'm really just a helper, as in I do whatever the teachers tell me to do. But here in the Elementary School, I'm the only English teacher, so I get to control the class and do basically whatever I want.
After I did my self intro for the 9th time with the 6th graders, it was time for lunch. I was eating lunch, when suddenly a small 2nd grader started yelling at me from outside the staffroom. He kept asking me to come play with him in Japanese. I had never seen the kid before, but after I finished lunch, I went outside and asked him what his name was. He said his name was "Kou". I played with him and his friends. They asked me to be an "Oni", which basically means "demon" or "beast" or whatever, and to chase them around the field/playground. This definitely felt like camp all over again. After chasing them around for a while, they told me that they were the Oni now, and started chasing me. I started running, dodging these little "demons". Then, finally I got caught. Not only did I get caught, soon enough, I felt some fingers jabbing into my behind.
Sure enough...I had been Kancho-ed. And not only that, the kids started going for the front as well~ I started playing dodge games with them, but for me, I was just trying to run as far as I could. Thankfully, outpostnine had given me a heads up on this crazy stuff. I definitely didn't have to worry about that stuff back in Toronto.
After lunch, I did my self intro for the 10th time, this time for a combined class of 3rd and 4th graders. The really interesting thing was that one of the 4th graders, named Hitomi looked really Chinese to me. Soon enough, one of the teachers let me know that her mom was from China. I was pretty surprised by this. Kannari is a small small town out in the middle of nowhere. With a population of around 8000, everyone in my town could go to the Air Canada Centre for a hockey game, and they'd only take up around 50% of the seats.....yet there was this girl with a Chinese mother. Wow. Kannari definitely just became more interesting to me. I'm really hoping I'll get a chance to meet her mother soon enough. Unfortunately, the kids all go home by themselves, and sure enough, Hitomi left by herself. I told her to talk to her mother for me. I also tested her Mandarin, and sure enough, it sounded pretty native level, although the only phrase I could remember to utter was "ni hao".
After my classes were finished, I went outside to play with "Kou" again, and we used this frisby-type thing. They kept throwing it in an awkward yet successful way, and soon enough they started complaining about the way I was throwing it. Apparently, since it's not a regular frisby, my throws kept veering away from the target. Anyways, I ended up staying there 2 hours past the required time, and left at around 6pm. I hadn't had that much fun since, well summer camp back in Toronto.
On my way home, I decided to take a different route home, since I really hadn't had a chance to explore the town much up to that point. I went through a few back alleys, and ended up going up and down, curving around a few houses. Finally, I ended up in front of a church. I knew there was a church in the town, since I had seen photos of it on the internet, but I hadn't actually seen it in person up to that point. It was definitely an interesting feeling. There was this Russian Orthodox church in the middle of a town of 8000, in rural countryside Japan. Interesting, but at the same time, a bit creepy, since apparently, no one in the towns knows if they can actually go inside the building. I intend to find out soon enough though.
Elementary school was a refreshing break from my job at the Junior High School. Definitely looking forward to my next visit.
I brought all my self introduction materials I had used at my Junior High School. The first thing I noticed was that the staff were much more relaxed here. The kids were small and cute - they reminded me a lot of the kids I worked with back in Toronto. My supervisor showed up to help introduce me to the staff and kids, and they asked me to give a little speech in Japanese. The teachers really don't know English well enough, so I did my best.
After that, I sat down on the couch and waited for the kids to come and get me. Soon enough, a little boy came to get me. He was in the 5th grade. I asked him what his name was, and he said "Sugawara Sho". I was shocked, because just a week earlier, I spoke with this guy who was the local sushi chef's friend, and he told me his son went to Kannari Elementary School, and that his name was Sugawara Sho, and to look for him.
I did my self intro for the 8th time. The feeling was definitely different. The kids had much bigger reactions to the pictures I showed them. At the same time, it felt pretty cool to finally be in control of the class. At the Junior High School, I'm really just a helper, as in I do whatever the teachers tell me to do. But here in the Elementary School, I'm the only English teacher, so I get to control the class and do basically whatever I want.
After I did my self intro for the 9th time with the 6th graders, it was time for lunch. I was eating lunch, when suddenly a small 2nd grader started yelling at me from outside the staffroom. He kept asking me to come play with him in Japanese. I had never seen the kid before, but after I finished lunch, I went outside and asked him what his name was. He said his name was "Kou". I played with him and his friends. They asked me to be an "Oni", which basically means "demon" or "beast" or whatever, and to chase them around the field/playground. This definitely felt like camp all over again. After chasing them around for a while, they told me that they were the Oni now, and started chasing me. I started running, dodging these little "demons". Then, finally I got caught. Not only did I get caught, soon enough, I felt some fingers jabbing into my behind.
Sure enough...I had been Kancho-ed. And not only that, the kids started going for the front as well~ I started playing dodge games with them, but for me, I was just trying to run as far as I could. Thankfully, outpostnine had given me a heads up on this crazy stuff. I definitely didn't have to worry about that stuff back in Toronto.
After lunch, I did my self intro for the 10th time, this time for a combined class of 3rd and 4th graders. The really interesting thing was that one of the 4th graders, named Hitomi looked really Chinese to me. Soon enough, one of the teachers let me know that her mom was from China. I was pretty surprised by this. Kannari is a small small town out in the middle of nowhere. With a population of around 8000, everyone in my town could go to the Air Canada Centre for a hockey game, and they'd only take up around 50% of the seats.....yet there was this girl with a Chinese mother. Wow. Kannari definitely just became more interesting to me. I'm really hoping I'll get a chance to meet her mother soon enough. Unfortunately, the kids all go home by themselves, and sure enough, Hitomi left by herself. I told her to talk to her mother for me. I also tested her Mandarin, and sure enough, it sounded pretty native level, although the only phrase I could remember to utter was "ni hao".
After my classes were finished, I went outside to play with "Kou" again, and we used this frisby-type thing. They kept throwing it in an awkward yet successful way, and soon enough they started complaining about the way I was throwing it. Apparently, since it's not a regular frisby, my throws kept veering away from the target. Anyways, I ended up staying there 2 hours past the required time, and left at around 6pm. I hadn't had that much fun since, well summer camp back in Toronto.
On my way home, I decided to take a different route home, since I really hadn't had a chance to explore the town much up to that point. I went through a few back alleys, and ended up going up and down, curving around a few houses. Finally, I ended up in front of a church. I knew there was a church in the town, since I had seen photos of it on the internet, but I hadn't actually seen it in person up to that point. It was definitely an interesting feeling. There was this Russian Orthodox church in the middle of a town of 8000, in rural countryside Japan. Interesting, but at the same time, a bit creepy, since apparently, no one in the towns knows if they can actually go inside the building. I intend to find out soon enough though.
Elementary school was a refreshing break from my job at the Junior High School. Definitely looking forward to my next visit.
Friday, September 7, 2007
Typhoon #9
Miyagi's being hit by a typhoon today. I woke up to the sound of rain smacking against the windows of my small apartment room. I've never seen such rain in my life. There doesn't seem to be anything else though - just strong winds and a lot of rain. Damn..I forgot to move my bike inside - it's getting shelled by rain right now.
At least I live on a small hill, less danger of flooding..
Today I'll be heading out to a neighbouring town to attend a business meeting on English education in Junior High Schools. We'll see how it goes with the typhoon.
At least I live on a small hill, less danger of flooding..
Today I'll be heading out to a neighbouring town to attend a business meeting on English education in Junior High Schools. We'll see how it goes with the typhoon.
Sunday, September 2, 2007
日本語で＃１
私は日本に着いたのはもう一ヶ月ぐらいかな。もうすぐ、秋だ。先週から急に雨が降ってて、だんだん寒くなっていくそうだ。金曜日はジャケットを着なければいけないほど寒かった。東北の本当の天気が出てきたようだな。毎日学校に行って夜遅く６時半ほどまで働いている。毎日子供と仲間といろいろしてて楽しい。だが、疲れた～ この週末ずっとベッドに寝てしまった。長い時間寝てたのに、まだ疲れている。
金成は本間に田舎だ。毎夜早く暗くなって道に誰もいないんだ。自転車で晩御飯とかいろいろな普段のものを買うとき、道に誰もいないし、静かなので、ちょっと変な感じがするんだ。ずっと都会に住んでて、田舎の生活に慣れるのがちょっと大変だ。運転免許もなくて、毎日どこにも行けなくて、残念だ。しかし、今週から、テレビ、インタネット、携帯を使うことができるようになって、もっと快心になってきた。
ちょっとつまらないけど、毎日日本語が使えてよかった。お金を使ってしまう所もあまりないし、金を貯めることができると思う。時間もあるから、一所懸命日本語を勉強するつもりだ。一年間こちらにいるんで、どんなに上手になれるかな。はやく流暢になりたいと思っている。そうならばもっと面白い仕事ができると思う。それに、まだ用事があるんで。
いろいろな人と話せるといいと思う。言葉の勉強は面白くて、大切なことだろう。
夜、遅いから、ここで終。おやすみ。
・・・つづく
金成は本間に田舎だ。毎夜早く暗くなって道に誰もいないんだ。自転車で晩御飯とかいろいろな普段のものを買うとき、道に誰もいないし、静かなので、ちょっと変な感じがするんだ。ずっと都会に住んでて、田舎の生活に慣れるのがちょっと大変だ。運転免許もなくて、毎日どこにも行けなくて、残念だ。しかし、今週から、テレビ、インタネット、携帯を使うことができるようになって、もっと快心になってきた。
ちょっとつまらないけど、毎日日本語が使えてよかった。お金を使ってしまう所もあまりないし、金を貯めることができると思う。時間もあるから、一所懸命日本語を勉強するつもりだ。一年間こちらにいるんで、どんなに上手になれるかな。はやく流暢になりたいと思っている。そうならばもっと面白い仕事ができると思う。それに、まだ用事があるんで。
いろいろな人と話せるといいと思う。言葉の勉強は面白くて、大切なことだろう。
夜、遅いから、ここで終。おやすみ。
・・・つづく
Saturday, September 1, 2007
School on a Sunday
My head English teacher asked me to come in on Sunday to help the speech contest students practice their speeches. I didn't mind helping out, and since I had nothing really important to do on Sunday, I told her it would be alright, so today, I headed out to school on a Sunday morning. The last time I can remember being at school on a Sunday was well..........never. I really can't think of the last time I was at school on a Sunday. In Toronto, we never have school on Sunday, at least not that I was aware of.
When my English teacher asked me to come in, I had the idea that it would just be me, her, and the 3 students at the school. However, when I biked over to the school, and began walking up the hill, I could hear the sounds of brass instruments. As I walked into the school, I saw 4 or more cars parked out in front of the school. When I entered the building, I saw the music teacher talking to a student. He bowed and said "ohayo gozaimasu". I did the same, and before I entered the teacher's room, he told me that the English teacher was across the hall near the gym. I walked over there, and saw her practising with the students. In the gym, there were students playing sports, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a student doing his laps around the school grounds. Holy moly. I was definitely wrong when I thought it would just be me and the English people. It seemed as though everyone was at the school practicing their club activities.
After I finished the practice with the students, I headed into the teacher's office. Yes there were a few more teachers sitting at their desks. Not everyone was there, but more than I had thought. The day finally ended at around 3pm. It was definitely an eye-opener. I guess school never really ends in Japan, at least not where I am. I wonder if these kids ever have time for other things, or if these teachers ever have free time for themselves. It felt really good though - the school here is more like a community centre/school. Basically open everyday, it's a place where students can come and practice sports and a place for them to study. There really aren't any community centres or any real places for kids to go and participate in activities over here, so the school is where all the action is. Without it, the kids would not have activities to do.
When I finally left, I headed over the small library at the town hall to return a couple of CDs I had borrowed. Then I went to some stores to purchase pens and folders, and other stuff that I needed. On my way back at around 5pm, I saw two kids with bikes, but I couldn't really tell who they were. Then I heard one of them scream "Jon sensei". It was a student of mine. He was in his baseball uniform. I said "hey, see you tomorrow" and continued on my way. These kids never stop practicing. It's definitely different from where I'm from.
Since I live so close to the school, it really isn't much of a hassle to go in for a few hours.
In fact, I might just go in again next weekend and participate in some more activities. I might even be able to get some Japanese studying done.
When my English teacher asked me to come in, I had the idea that it would just be me, her, and the 3 students at the school. However, when I biked over to the school, and began walking up the hill, I could hear the sounds of brass instruments. As I walked into the school, I saw 4 or more cars parked out in front of the school. When I entered the building, I saw the music teacher talking to a student. He bowed and said "ohayo gozaimasu". I did the same, and before I entered the teacher's room, he told me that the English teacher was across the hall near the gym. I walked over there, and saw her practising with the students. In the gym, there were students playing sports, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw a student doing his laps around the school grounds. Holy moly. I was definitely wrong when I thought it would just be me and the English people. It seemed as though everyone was at the school practicing their club activities.
After I finished the practice with the students, I headed into the teacher's office. Yes there were a few more teachers sitting at their desks. Not everyone was there, but more than I had thought. The day finally ended at around 3pm. It was definitely an eye-opener. I guess school never really ends in Japan, at least not where I am. I wonder if these kids ever have time for other things, or if these teachers ever have free time for themselves. It felt really good though - the school here is more like a community centre/school. Basically open everyday, it's a place where students can come and practice sports and a place for them to study. There really aren't any community centres or any real places for kids to go and participate in activities over here, so the school is where all the action is. Without it, the kids would not have activities to do.
When I finally left, I headed over the small library at the town hall to return a couple of CDs I had borrowed. Then I went to some stores to purchase pens and folders, and other stuff that I needed. On my way back at around 5pm, I saw two kids with bikes, but I couldn't really tell who they were. Then I heard one of them scream "Jon sensei". It was a student of mine. He was in his baseball uniform. I said "hey, see you tomorrow" and continued on my way. These kids never stop practicing. It's definitely different from where I'm from.
Since I live so close to the school, it really isn't much of a hassle to go in for a few hours.
In fact, I might just go in again next weekend and participate in some more activities. I might even be able to get some Japanese studying done.
広島焼き、もんじゃ焼き
Last night, I was finally able to pick up my cellphone. It took 3 days, but fortunately, it came right before the weekend, so I could get a ride down to the store. After picking up the new cellphone (sweeet), I went with a fellow teacher to a place called Dohton Bori. Originally the plan was to eat some お好み焼き, but he decided to order hiroshima yaki instead. I had never heard of hiroshima yaki before.
Soon, a young girl came and started heating up the stove thing in front of us. This place was definitely cool. In my town we don't have many restaurants, and the food places we do have are basically fast food style, and have like 2 seating areas (yea...pretty brutal...). This place, we had to take off our shoes, and sit on these square pillow things. I have to say, I still haven't gotten use to sitting like that while eating. Every time I got up to go to the drink bar (which is what they call free refills for tea/soda/juice), my legs were in pain and I almost stumbled over, but it was definitely still cool.
Anyways, back to the main story. So the girl heated up the stove and started putting stuff on it like a frying pan. She put soba noodles, squid, shrimp, octopus - all my favourite seafoods.
Then she put an egg on there, and started doing stuff that I really can't explain well in writing. Anyways, all that stuff I just mentioned ended up being wrapped into some sort of okonomiyaki looking crazyness. Her movements were pretty quick and precise. It was like watching a master at work. We asked her what she had to do to be able to work this job, and she told us that she had to take a 6 month course on how to cook this stuff. Amazingly, this was just her first time making hiroshima yaki. We thanked her, and started eating. Damn, it was delicious. In Toronto, we can't really get this kind of food - it's just not possible, unless there's a Japanese person in town who happens to be good at making this stuff. Restaurants don't have it on their menus. To eat it, you usually top it off with fish flakes, shredded pieces of seaweed and mayonnaise. I'd have to say, I was starving at that point, and that food certainly hit the spot.
We were still hungry afterwards, so we decided to order something else. It's quite difficult ordering at that restaurant, because everything looks so damn good. And at the same time, everything looks the same! My co-worker kept asking me what I wanted to eat, but being new to the country, and really not knowing anything about the stuff on that menu, I told him he could decide. Eventually, he settled on Monja yaki. Apparently, from what he told me, Hiroshima yaki is from Hiroshima..hence the name hiroshima yaki....go figure. Okonomiyaki is from the Kansai region of Japan, particularly Osaka - that I already knew from before. However, Monja yaki is from the Tokyo region - this I didn't know. In fact, I had never heard of "monja-yaki". Somes like something illegal...hmm. Anyways, we ordered it, and a different girl came to start frying the stuff (gotta love Japan..). This was quite different from hiroshima-yaki, in that basically she just put a bunch of stuff on the frying pan and started mixing and mashing it up. Our Monja-yaki's main thing was mochi, so she put a lot of mochi in there. The interesting thing was that apparently, we were not to use our chopsticks to eat this "monja yaki". So I asked, well, what are supposed to use? Well, the girl handed me this thing that is difficult to explain. It was like a split between a fork and a knife, and was quite small sized. Apparently, from that mashed up mixture in front of us, we were to use this tool to "scratch off" what we wanted, burn it on the pan, and then stuff in our mouths.
It was definitely an experience I won't be forgetting for a while. In Toronto, we don't really heard much about Japanese food that isn't sushi, sashimi, miso soup, and so on. Looking forward to eating more crazy Japanese food.
Soon, a young girl came and started heating up the stove thing in front of us. This place was definitely cool. In my town we don't have many restaurants, and the food places we do have are basically fast food style, and have like 2 seating areas (yea...pretty brutal...). This place, we had to take off our shoes, and sit on these square pillow things. I have to say, I still haven't gotten use to sitting like that while eating. Every time I got up to go to the drink bar (which is what they call free refills for tea/soda/juice), my legs were in pain and I almost stumbled over, but it was definitely still cool.
Anyways, back to the main story. So the girl heated up the stove and started putting stuff on it like a frying pan. She put soba noodles, squid, shrimp, octopus - all my favourite seafoods.
Then she put an egg on there, and started doing stuff that I really can't explain well in writing. Anyways, all that stuff I just mentioned ended up being wrapped into some sort of okonomiyaki looking crazyness. Her movements were pretty quick and precise. It was like watching a master at work. We asked her what she had to do to be able to work this job, and she told us that she had to take a 6 month course on how to cook this stuff. Amazingly, this was just her first time making hiroshima yaki. We thanked her, and started eating. Damn, it was delicious. In Toronto, we can't really get this kind of food - it's just not possible, unless there's a Japanese person in town who happens to be good at making this stuff. Restaurants don't have it on their menus. To eat it, you usually top it off with fish flakes, shredded pieces of seaweed and mayonnaise. I'd have to say, I was starving at that point, and that food certainly hit the spot.
We were still hungry afterwards, so we decided to order something else. It's quite difficult ordering at that restaurant, because everything looks so damn good. And at the same time, everything looks the same! My co-worker kept asking me what I wanted to eat, but being new to the country, and really not knowing anything about the stuff on that menu, I told him he could decide. Eventually, he settled on Monja yaki. Apparently, from what he told me, Hiroshima yaki is from Hiroshima..hence the name hiroshima yaki....go figure. Okonomiyaki is from the Kansai region of Japan, particularly Osaka - that I already knew from before. However, Monja yaki is from the Tokyo region - this I didn't know. In fact, I had never heard of "monja-yaki". Somes like something illegal...hmm. Anyways, we ordered it, and a different girl came to start frying the stuff (gotta love Japan..). This was quite different from hiroshima-yaki, in that basically she just put a bunch of stuff on the frying pan and started mixing and mashing it up. Our Monja-yaki's main thing was mochi, so she put a lot of mochi in there. The interesting thing was that apparently, we were not to use our chopsticks to eat this "monja yaki". So I asked, well, what are supposed to use? Well, the girl handed me this thing that is difficult to explain. It was like a split between a fork and a knife, and was quite small sized. Apparently, from that mashed up mixture in front of us, we were to use this tool to "scratch off" what we wanted, burn it on the pan, and then stuff in our mouths.
It was definitely an experience I won't be forgetting for a while. In Toronto, we don't really heard much about Japanese food that isn't sushi, sashimi, miso soup, and so on. Looking forward to eating more crazy Japanese food.
Friday, August 31, 2007
疲れた～～～～～～！・・・・・・・日溜り君～～～～～
So I finally got my internet hooked up last night. I hadn't been able to use internet freely for almost a month, so as expected, I was pretty much glued to the computer all night.....until around 3am. The main problem was that that same day, my school had their 運動会 which meant that I was already dead tired when I got home. Going to sleep at 3am wasn't a good plan, seeing as I had to get up at 7am this morning. I crawled out of bed this morning, and crawled to school. Well no, I biked, but you know what I mean. At school, I did my final 自己紹介 lesson - it was really fun. I like to make jokes, it loosens up the kids. Some of them are really shy, they won't even look up at you really. But if I can crack a smile on one of those kids, I consider it a step in the right direction. Anyways, I survived my final self-introduction lesson, and headed back to the teacher's room. In the teacher's room, I sat at my desk, with my laptop open, working on an activity. Mind you, half my brain was asleep at this point.
After lunch, I went with another teacher to sample another class. The problem was there was no sitting room so I had to stand. I thought after lunch, I'd be more 元気, but I thought wrong. Halfway through the lesson, I was pretty much dozing off, using the shelf on the side of the room as support. The other teacher saw, and asked me if I was okay. Then I asked him if there were any places I could take a nap. Mind you, it was just a joke, I didn't except a serious answer. But then he told me, I could sleep in the nurses office. We went down to the nurses' office and low and behold, there were three beds, and the nurse prepared one for me, and just like an ill child, I was allowed to sleep in there. I ended up napping for an hour. I have no idea how that happened, but when I woke up, I was ready to do some speech contest 練習！ I had no classes in the afternoon, so it was all good.
When I woke up, I a bunch of kids came in - apparently they were doing measurements, weighing themselves and measuring their heights. Then I saw a bunch of cute bobbly head things on the nurses desk, and I asked a kid what that was. The nurse told me it was a 日溜り君. I was like, "hidamari"?? Those things were cute, and cool. Solar powered, it's this cute thing who's head moves left and right slowly. The nurse gave me one as a present.......that was definitely cool. I put it on my desk, and sat down, watching it. Apparently, it helps relax your heart......especially when you're alone at home. I have yet to try it, but at my desk..I could feel it's magical powers putting me at ease, and laying all my stress to rest. I love you 日溜り君！It's just so cute.
now I should probably go to sleep. don't want to sleep at school again anytime soon. Although when I woke up, there was a kid in the other bed...wonder what happened to her. While I was sleeping, I had this guilty feeling、I even had a 30 second nightmare about sleeping on on a boat and then finding out it was sinking. Apparently..it's okay..but I dont know...seems strange. However, I have been working overtime everyday, so I guess I should give myself some leeway here. Japanese teachers stay afterschool everyday until around 6:30 doing club activities and other stuff. My contract stipulates that I only have to stay from 8:10-3:55 each day. But I've been staying as late as the other teachers since school started. One day, I was the last teacher out of the staff room, leaving at around 7:30. So I'm not sleeping on the job. Just すごく疲れた～
After lunch, I went with another teacher to sample another class. The problem was there was no sitting room so I had to stand. I thought after lunch, I'd be more 元気, but I thought wrong. Halfway through the lesson, I was pretty much dozing off, using the shelf on the side of the room as support. The other teacher saw, and asked me if I was okay. Then I asked him if there were any places I could take a nap. Mind you, it was just a joke, I didn't except a serious answer. But then he told me, I could sleep in the nurses office. We went down to the nurses' office and low and behold, there were three beds, and the nurse prepared one for me, and just like an ill child, I was allowed to sleep in there. I ended up napping for an hour. I have no idea how that happened, but when I woke up, I was ready to do some speech contest 練習！ I had no classes in the afternoon, so it was all good.
When I woke up, I a bunch of kids came in - apparently they were doing measurements, weighing themselves and measuring their heights. Then I saw a bunch of cute bobbly head things on the nurses desk, and I asked a kid what that was. The nurse told me it was a 日溜り君. I was like, "hidamari"?? Those things were cute, and cool. Solar powered, it's this cute thing who's head moves left and right slowly. The nurse gave me one as a present.......that was definitely cool. I put it on my desk, and sat down, watching it. Apparently, it helps relax your heart......especially when you're alone at home. I have yet to try it, but at my desk..I could feel it's magical powers putting me at ease, and laying all my stress to rest. I love you 日溜り君！It's just so cute.
now I should probably go to sleep. don't want to sleep at school again anytime soon. Although when I woke up, there was a kid in the other bed...wonder what happened to her. While I was sleeping, I had this guilty feeling、I even had a 30 second nightmare about sleeping on on a boat and then finding out it was sinking. Apparently..it's okay..but I dont know...seems strange. However, I have been working overtime everyday, so I guess I should give myself some leeway here. Japanese teachers stay afterschool everyday until around 6:30 doing club activities and other stuff. My contract stipulates that I only have to stay from 8:10-3:55 each day. But I've been staying as late as the other teachers since school started. One day, I was the last teacher out of the staff room, leaving at around 7:30. So I'm not sleeping on the job. Just すごく疲れた～
Thursday, August 30, 2007
危ねぇ～～～～～～～～～
Biking here is dangerous. Two Sundays ago, I biked home from Tsukidate, which is a town just south of mine. It was around 8pm, but it was completely dark out already. The first 20 or so minutes were fine, but then the side lane disappeared. In Japan, at least where I'm at, there are only 2 lanes - one for each direction. The lanes are narrow. Very narrow. The lack of proper lighting also makes it difficult for the cars to see, and for me to see what's in front of me. I had my bike light on, but it's a pretty weak light. Also, I have no helmet. To compound matters, it started raining. If the roads were really roads things would have been alright, but the roads aren't really roads. They're more like trails, and for a biker, it's difficult to follow the road when you can't see anything. Going over rivers, and going past rice fields without really being able to see anything was quite an experience. Fortunately, the road home was literally just one road. All I had to do was keep following it. Eventually, I made it back, completely soaked, and legs in pain. Good workout, but seriously, a bit too dangerous for me to attempt too often. I can't drive though, so it's gonna be tough getting around. Hmmm.
Sports Festival - 運動会
Today, we had a sports festival at my school. The entire day, the children split up into teams based on which classes they were in. They played soccer, racket baseball, volleyball, badminton, dodgeball, and various other relay events, including a natto eating competition...*shudders*....
It was a fun day. But I'm very tired now.
Today, I finally got m internet set up! I've been here for nearly 4 weeks already, and yes, it took this long to get it set up. The only real problems were minor things. From the date that I applied for the service I'm currently using, only a week passed before I could actually use it. It definitely feels good to be "connected" again, and I can finally talk about how it's going so far in this small town of mine.
Yesterday, I went to a Softbank shop to get my cellphone, but they didn't have the model I wanted. It'll take a few more days for them to get it shipped over from wherever it currently is. It's actually an older model, but it looks much better than the newer version.
I have my internet now, and soon, I'll have my cellphone as well. My TV got fixed up on Monday night..so it feels like everything's coming together now. I watched my first J-drama that same night. Really, there wasn't much else to do. Most people go to sleep at 9-11pm. When I bike home from the supermarket, with my bento or whatever I decided to eat for the night, I really don't see anyone on the street. There aren't many lights either, so the silence is definitely creepy sometimes. Usually, around 9pm, a strange children's song plays.....hmmm..I really want that cellphone right about now......!
It was a fun day. But I'm very tired now.
Today, I finally got m internet set up! I've been here for nearly 4 weeks already, and yes, it took this long to get it set up. The only real problems were minor things. From the date that I applied for the service I'm currently using, only a week passed before I could actually use it. It definitely feels good to be "connected" again, and I can finally talk about how it's going so far in this small town of mine.
Yesterday, I went to a Softbank shop to get my cellphone, but they didn't have the model I wanted. It'll take a few more days for them to get it shipped over from wherever it currently is. It's actually an older model, but it looks much better than the newer version.
I have my internet now, and soon, I'll have my cellphone as well. My TV got fixed up on Monday night..so it feels like everything's coming together now. I watched my first J-drama that same night. Really, there wasn't much else to do. Most people go to sleep at 9-11pm. When I bike home from the supermarket, with my bento or whatever I decided to eat for the night, I really don't see anyone on the street. There aren't many lights either, so the silence is definitely creepy sometimes. Usually, around 9pm, a strange children's song plays.....hmmm..I really want that cellphone right about now......!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Good Times
It was raining again today, but I didn't have to leave the school for anything, so I'm pretty dry today. Today, when I woke up, I genuinely felt cold. For the first time since arriving in Japan, I put on an extra layer of clothing before leaving my home.
Today, I had my first couple of classes that were not my self introduction speeches. It was interesting to see how Japanese teachers teach English. I was also asked to make a reading activity and a quiz. The Japanese teachers of English translate a lot of the lesson into Japanese, so to save them trouble, I translated the quiz questions into Japanese myself. My JTE was pretty happy about it - he even asked me to ask the kids those questions in English and then after, he told the kids I studied Japanese and asked me to read the questions again in Japanese. The kids were pretty happy about it too. Some of them were surprised as well.
Knowing some Japanese has certainly been beneficial so far, and I'm picking up new words on a daily basis now. It's pretty cool.
After class, I was heading back to the teachers room when I saw two girls walking past me in the hallway, on their way to class. I didn't really recognize them, but I said "hello~" anyways. Funny thing, they giggled and smiled and started making strange noises. The next thing I know, they were running down the hall.
I just came back from playing badminton with mentally challenged child. He was actually quite good. I also met him last week at the yakuba when I joined him and some other children to paint some pottery. I enjoyed it very much. He's a really nice kid.
Also, hopefully, I'll have more chances to spend time in the gym. One sad thing is that they have no hockey sticks here. They also only have two badminton rackets. I guess I'll try learning a different sport. Right now, after I get settled in and have everything set up, I think I might join some school clubs. Learning Kendo would definitely be cool. I might even join the homemaking classes - I need to learn how to cook!
Good times.
Today, I had my first couple of classes that were not my self introduction speeches. It was interesting to see how Japanese teachers teach English. I was also asked to make a reading activity and a quiz. The Japanese teachers of English translate a lot of the lesson into Japanese, so to save them trouble, I translated the quiz questions into Japanese myself. My JTE was pretty happy about it - he even asked me to ask the kids those questions in English and then after, he told the kids I studied Japanese and asked me to read the questions again in Japanese. The kids were pretty happy about it too. Some of them were surprised as well.
Knowing some Japanese has certainly been beneficial so far, and I'm picking up new words on a daily basis now. It's pretty cool.
After class, I was heading back to the teachers room when I saw two girls walking past me in the hallway, on their way to class. I didn't really recognize them, but I said "hello~" anyways. Funny thing, they giggled and smiled and started making strange noises. The next thing I know, they were running down the hall.
I just came back from playing badminton with mentally challenged child. He was actually quite good. I also met him last week at the yakuba when I joined him and some other children to paint some pottery. I enjoyed it very much. He's a really nice kid.
Also, hopefully, I'll have more chances to spend time in the gym. One sad thing is that they have no hockey sticks here. They also only have two badminton rackets. I guess I'll try learning a different sport. Right now, after I get settled in and have everything set up, I think I might join some school clubs. Learning Kendo would definitely be cool. I might even join the homemaking classes - I need to learn how to cook!
Good times.
Drenched
Yesterday I finally felt cold in Kannari. Up to this point, it had been extremely hot on a daily basis, but yesterday morning, when I woke up, it was raining and the streets were pretty much soaked with water. I went to school as usual by bike. It only takes around 2 minutes by bike before I have to get off and push the bike up the steep hill along with all the other students. Today, the not many kids had bikes - I guess their parents drove them, or they took the school bus because it was raining. So there I was, pushing the bike up the hill alone.
I had a few more introduction lessons, and after lunch, I was scheduled to go to the yakuba (town hall) to pick up my 外国人カード（Alien Registration Card). The rain had stopped by lunch time, so I was hoping to to make it there and back with minimal damage. At around 1:30, I got on my bike and started biking to the yakuba. About halfway there, it started to rain again, but I was still relatively dry by the time I arrived. I picked up my card, but apparently there was a piece of paper in an envelope I was supposed to give to them upon receiving the card. So, I got back on my bike and biked home to look for the envelope. Just a few minutes after I got on my bike, it started to pour heavily. I was getting hit in the face with drops of water. I made it back home, and quickly grabbed the documents in question and headed back out again. My bike was dripping wet. I wiped the seat with a towel and got back on. The rain was so heavy that my glasses were dripping wet - I could barely see anything. Since I already don't feel 100% comfortable biking in this town because of the narrowness of the roads, I contemplated going back to the school, since it was only a few minutes away. However, since I was already dripping wet, I thought, I might as well just keep on going and get it over with. When I arrived at the yakuba, I was dripping from head to toe. My dress shirt had become nearly see through. Thank goodness I was wearing something under it. My dress pants were also quite thoroughly soaked. I walked up to the lady at the office, and handed her the form. Crap..........I grabbed the wrong one. It was all in vain. She told me it would be okay to bring it in the next day. So, I headed back out in the rain, arrived back at school, completely drenched with water.
At school, I headed into the office, a bit embarassed at just how wet I was. The vice principal saw me, and quickly took me to the nurse's room. I changed my shirt, and the nurse put my clothes in the washing machine. I wiped my face with a towel, and sat down at my desk. Damn...I really need to buy an umbrella....the ones at the hyaku-en shop look pretty cool.
I had a few more introduction lessons, and after lunch, I was scheduled to go to the yakuba (town hall) to pick up my 外国人カード（Alien Registration Card). The rain had stopped by lunch time, so I was hoping to to make it there and back with minimal damage. At around 1:30, I got on my bike and started biking to the yakuba. About halfway there, it started to rain again, but I was still relatively dry by the time I arrived. I picked up my card, but apparently there was a piece of paper in an envelope I was supposed to give to them upon receiving the card. So, I got back on my bike and biked home to look for the envelope. Just a few minutes after I got on my bike, it started to pour heavily. I was getting hit in the face with drops of water. I made it back home, and quickly grabbed the documents in question and headed back out again. My bike was dripping wet. I wiped the seat with a towel and got back on. The rain was so heavy that my glasses were dripping wet - I could barely see anything. Since I already don't feel 100% comfortable biking in this town because of the narrowness of the roads, I contemplated going back to the school, since it was only a few minutes away. However, since I was already dripping wet, I thought, I might as well just keep on going and get it over with. When I arrived at the yakuba, I was dripping from head to toe. My dress shirt had become nearly see through. Thank goodness I was wearing something under it. My dress pants were also quite thoroughly soaked. I walked up to the lady at the office, and handed her the form. Crap..........I grabbed the wrong one. It was all in vain. She told me it would be okay to bring it in the next day. So, I headed back out in the rain, arrived back at school, completely drenched with water.
At school, I headed into the office, a bit embarassed at just how wet I was. The vice principal saw me, and quickly took me to the nurse's room. I changed my shirt, and the nurse put my clothes in the washing machine. I wiped my face with a towel, and sat down at my desk. Damn...I really need to buy an umbrella....the ones at the hyaku-en shop look pretty cool.
Friday, August 24, 2007
It's Been a Long Time! - 久しぶりだね～
Sorry for the long absence, but amazingly, this if the first chance I've had to make a post since I arrived in Japan.
My town is extremely rural. There is almost nothing here. The fact that I don't have a driver's license compounds things greatly. I guess JET really doesn't take into account what you write in your application. Everyone in this town reccomends using a car, and they feel pity for me when they find out I can't drive. I do remember saying that I don't plan on driving in Japan. Perhaps they should re-write the question as "can you drive?" That aside, I've been biking everyday, so I guess I should be in better shape physically by the end of the year.
The three days in Tokyo went by fast. I made a few entries about my time leading up to now, but I haven't had a chance to post yet, because of the lack of internet in the town. I finally got my computer hooked up to the school internet, so hopefully, I can make more regular posts, albeit short ones.
There are only two computers in this town available for public use, both located in my town's city hall/board of education. The computers are so old, and slow - it feels like living in the mid 90's. To make things worse, email and blog sites are heavily blocked, so I haven't been able to post anything at all. Sending emails are difficult as well. The school blocks yahoo, which is my primary email. For people that want to contact me, send email to my uoft email - jonathan.lam@utoronto.ca, as I can check it anywhere anytime (it's not blocked - they probably have no idea what it is.)
Today was the first day of classes. In the morning we had a school assembly in the gym. The principal made a few opening remarks, and then it was time for my self-introduction speech (自己紹介）. I did my speech in English and then Japanese. The students and teachers seemed to enjoy it, and a couple of teachers were quite impressed. It felt pretty good.
Here's the text that I wrote, although the actual speech was a bit different, as I added some things and removed some things to keep the flow of the speech even.
My town is extremely rural. There is almost nothing here. The fact that I don't have a driver's license compounds things greatly. I guess JET really doesn't take into account what you write in your application. Everyone in this town reccomends using a car, and they feel pity for me when they find out I can't drive. I do remember saying that I don't plan on driving in Japan. Perhaps they should re-write the question as "can you drive?" That aside, I've been biking everyday, so I guess I should be in better shape physically by the end of the year.
The three days in Tokyo went by fast. I made a few entries about my time leading up to now, but I haven't had a chance to post yet, because of the lack of internet in the town. I finally got my computer hooked up to the school internet, so hopefully, I can make more regular posts, albeit short ones.
There are only two computers in this town available for public use, both located in my town's city hall/board of education. The computers are so old, and slow - it feels like living in the mid 90's. To make things worse, email and blog sites are heavily blocked, so I haven't been able to post anything at all. Sending emails are difficult as well. The school blocks yahoo, which is my primary email. For people that want to contact me, send email to my uoft email - jonathan.lam@utoronto.ca, as I can check it anywhere anytime (it's not blocked - they probably have no idea what it is.)
Today was the first day of classes. In the morning we had a school assembly in the gym. The principal made a few opening remarks, and then it was time for my self-introduction speech (自己紹介）. I did my speech in English and then Japanese. The students and teachers seemed to enjoy it, and a couple of teachers were quite impressed. It felt pretty good.
Here's the text that I wrote, although the actual speech was a bit different, as I added some things and removed some things to keep the flow of the speech even.
Hi, nice to meet you. I am your new ALT. My name is Jonathan, but since it’s quite long, you can call me Jon for short.
I come from Toronto, Canada, and although I was born in the United States, my parents are from Hong Kong so that means I’m Chinese American Canadian. I’ve also studied a little bit of Japanese, so if you have any questions at all, please feel free to ask me in English or Japanese. Please don’t be shy, I enjoy answering questions.
Things I like are sushi, asari sakamushi, junior highschool students that try their best and study their hardest, and so on. Things I don’t like much are natto..I guess. My hobbies are skating and playing hockey. I also like baseball.
I’m looking forward to teaching English at Kannari Junior Highschool. Let’s do our best to learn English, and find out about different countries, customs and cultures. I think that if we can do that, the world would be a much better place to live in.
Thank you.
はじめまして。私はあなたたちの新しいALTです。名前はジョナサンです。でも、長いので短くしてジョンと呼んでもいいです。
私はカナダのトロントから来ました。アメリカで生まれたんですが、両親は香港からなので、私は中国系です。トロントは都会で人口が４５０万です。日本語も少し勉強してたから何か質問があれば、英語でも、日本語でも聞いてください。
私の好きなものはすしとか、あさりさかむしとか、頑張っている一生懸命勉強している中学生たちとかね。あまり好きじゃないものはなっとうかな。趣味はスケートをすることとか、ホッケーをすることとか、です。野球も好きです。
金成中学校で英語を教えるのを、とても楽しみにしています。一緒に頑張って英語を勉強しましょう。それから、いろいろな外国のこととか、別な習慣と文化とか、習いましょう。世界の全ての国のことがもっとわかるようになったらもっといい生活ができると思います。
では、これからどうぞよろしくお願いします。
I also attended my first two classes of the year. The first class was for first graders (一年生）. That is the equivalent of a Canadian seventh grader. They call them ichinensei here. The second class I attended was also an ichinensei class, but it was a lot smaller, as it was an elective English class. These students had an interest in English and so they chose to take an extra English class. For the first class, I did my self introduction lesson which I had planned this week. I used two large maps of the world and downtown Toronto which I bought at Chapters in Toronto. The kids really liked these maps as there were drawn depictions of famous buildings and things like that. I particularly like these maps because I can actually point out where I live, and where I went to school, etc. After my introductions, we had a short quiz that I wrote. The questions were quite easy, because most of these students are just beginning to learn English. Also, my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) even asked me to give him the quiz earlier so he could translate the questions into Japanese for the students. I ended up translating them myself, and he was pretty happy about it. He even asked me to ask the questions in Japanese to the students. The students and teachers were pretty excited about it.
Two students ended up getting a perfect 8/7 on the quiz (I added a bonus question).
So far, the students are quite energetic here, and seem a lot more active in school then I ever experienced in Toronto. After school, they have club activities that they must attend, and they usually end up staying until 6 or 6:30pm. I've also been staying at school quite late, sometimes even later than 6:30pm (two days ago I left at 7:30pm), to help students, and prepare my lessons. Right now, I'm helping three girls practise for their English speech contest. They are very cute, but also quite shy. They try their best everytime, and I enjoy hearing them speak English. They smile when I wave to them in the halls. In fact, many of the kids here smile and get excited when they see me. It's a great feeling.
Today we spent an hour on the soccer field cutting the grass. I was wearing dress pants and a dress shirt (because of the assembly today), and I didn't know about the grass cutting, since nobody had told me, so I ended up just walking around the field taking pictures and talking to students and teachers. It's quite different here than in Toronto. There are no maintenance people at the schools. The teachers and students have to do all the cleaning and maintenance work. Good training for the students, but tough on the teachers. It was amazingly hot out there. I wore my sun glasses, and a few kids kept saying that I looked like some Korean star - in Japanese of course (I didn't know what it meant until a teacher told me).
I also experienced my first school lunch (給食）. It's amazingly cheap - only around 300 yen per meal, so I was definitely in. Today we had Japanese curry. It's the first time I've felt genuinely full after a meal since arriving in Japan. The great thing is, they have more than enough, so sometimes I might be able to get seconds. The strange thing is that they only serve milk - and it's quite a small carton.
In between writing this entry, I helped a student practise for an hour with her English speech. Soon, I'll be going to Tsukidate, a neighbouring town in Kurihara City for my 'welcome party'.
I'll try posting what I've written over the last couple of weeks soon.
Monday, July 30, 2007
The JET Programme Part I
When I first seriously started contemplating doing the "teaching English in Japan" thing and more specifically participating in the JET Programme, I had the mistaken belief that it would actually be possible to be placed in a big city such as Tokyo or Kyoto, and so on and so forth. Clearly, I didn't do my research. Fast forward three years, and there's a much more well informed guy, sitting here typing up this blog. This wasn't for the lack of interest in seeing other parts of Japan; I just didn't know any other parts of Japan at the time. Three years of University courses changed that.
At the beginning of last September, I went to a convention to get more information about the JET Programme. There was a JET spokesperson from New Zealand who had just finished her tenure on the program. It was at this convention that I picked up an application form, and got a clearer picture of how the application process would work. NOVA, another type of "teach English in Japan" employer also had a little table there with some brochures, etc. There was also one for teaching in Taiwan. I picked up a couple of brochures as back-ups in case things didn't work out as planned with the JET Programme.
Over the years, I heard a lot of good things about the JET Programme. It was heavily endorsed by my Japanese History professors and TAs as well as my Japanese language teachers, as an excellent opportunity to learn about Japan, and being a program with a good reputation, a decent employment opportunity coming out of University. Before this, I already had my sights set on travelling to Asia. I also had an interest in teaching because of my work with children, so upon hearing of the JET Programme, I was immediately interested.
The application process itself was quite hectic. The application booklet contained many pages which had to be filled out according to the guidelines set out in the first few pages. Actually, the application package was sort of a replacement for the handing in of resumes as most of the questions were about previous employment, volunteer work, etc., but in much more detail. Some typical questions were also about Japan-related interests, and international travel, and so on. These questions weren't hard to answer, but one stumped me - placements. They asked us to choose which cities or prefectures we would prefer to be placed in. For me, these types of questions always stump me, and end up making me wander around in circles for hours on end, seemingly coming to a conclusion only to ultimately end up back at square one. After consulting professors, friends, and actual Japanese people, I settled on Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture as my first choice, Miyagi prefecture as my second choice, and Kanagawa prefecture as my third choice (we were allowed to state which particular city we wanted to be stationed in for the first choice).
The application deadline was November 17, and I had picked up the application booklet in late September from the job fair. I thought I had plenty of time, but as most of us know, deadlines always seemingly creep up on unsuspecting victims very quickly. On top of the application booklet that needed to be filled out, a 500 word "statement of interest" was also required, as well as two reference letters which needed to come from either a professor or an employer or both. Let's just say it took a while to get all these things in order, on top of all the school work that was piling up on my desk. Strangely enough, the application directions also asked the applicant to sign each page of the packages and to make three copies of every document, placing them in three different envelopes and finally sending them all off in one larger package. Confusing? Yes, very much so. Only later was it confirmed that yes, the interview would consist of three interviewers, and yes, each person would have a copy of all your documents in front of them while interviewing you. After a lot of second-guessing, downright anxiety (didn't wanna screw anything up for this thing we've been planning on for three years now would we?), and phone calling the JET office, I was finally able to send the package off on November 16, just a day before the deadline. To make sure it arrived on time, I added the signature service, and soon enough, I received confirmation that my package had been received.
JET also gave us the option of including a self-marked postcard in the application package for them to send back to us to confirm their receiving the package. I included one of the CN Tower, and sure enough, I received it a couple weeks later. Whew...they received it. So now what? Well, it was time to play the "waiting game". From November 17, the deadline for sending in applications, until late December, the JET people would be screening all the applications from the entire JET pool to, for a lack of a better term, "weed out" applicants whom they thought were not qualified enough to warrant an interview. So...after two months of anxiety and nervousness over the actual applications, I had about 2 weeks to relax and actually be satisfied about sending that sucker in, only to have to go through all that anxiety all over again all the way till Christmas.
Sounds like fun doesn't it? Now since my head is unfortunately keeping me from being able to continue to write clearly (it is quite late isn't it..and I need to buy luggage tomorrow), I think I'll save the rest for later.
Stay tuned~
At the beginning of last September, I went to a convention to get more information about the JET Programme. There was a JET spokesperson from New Zealand who had just finished her tenure on the program. It was at this convention that I picked up an application form, and got a clearer picture of how the application process would work. NOVA, another type of "teach English in Japan" employer also had a little table there with some brochures, etc. There was also one for teaching in Taiwan. I picked up a couple of brochures as back-ups in case things didn't work out as planned with the JET Programme.
Over the years, I heard a lot of good things about the JET Programme. It was heavily endorsed by my Japanese History professors and TAs as well as my Japanese language teachers, as an excellent opportunity to learn about Japan, and being a program with a good reputation, a decent employment opportunity coming out of University. Before this, I already had my sights set on travelling to Asia. I also had an interest in teaching because of my work with children, so upon hearing of the JET Programme, I was immediately interested.
The application process itself was quite hectic. The application booklet contained many pages which had to be filled out according to the guidelines set out in the first few pages. Actually, the application package was sort of a replacement for the handing in of resumes as most of the questions were about previous employment, volunteer work, etc., but in much more detail. Some typical questions were also about Japan-related interests, and international travel, and so on. These questions weren't hard to answer, but one stumped me - placements. They asked us to choose which cities or prefectures we would prefer to be placed in. For me, these types of questions always stump me, and end up making me wander around in circles for hours on end, seemingly coming to a conclusion only to ultimately end up back at square one. After consulting professors, friends, and actual Japanese people, I settled on Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture as my first choice, Miyagi prefecture as my second choice, and Kanagawa prefecture as my third choice (we were allowed to state which particular city we wanted to be stationed in for the first choice).
The application deadline was November 17, and I had picked up the application booklet in late September from the job fair. I thought I had plenty of time, but as most of us know, deadlines always seemingly creep up on unsuspecting victims very quickly. On top of the application booklet that needed to be filled out, a 500 word "statement of interest" was also required, as well as two reference letters which needed to come from either a professor or an employer or both. Let's just say it took a while to get all these things in order, on top of all the school work that was piling up on my desk. Strangely enough, the application directions also asked the applicant to sign each page of the packages and to make three copies of every document, placing them in three different envelopes and finally sending them all off in one larger package. Confusing? Yes, very much so. Only later was it confirmed that yes, the interview would consist of three interviewers, and yes, each person would have a copy of all your documents in front of them while interviewing you. After a lot of second-guessing, downright anxiety (didn't wanna screw anything up for this thing we've been planning on for three years now would we?), and phone calling the JET office, I was finally able to send the package off on November 16, just a day before the deadline. To make sure it arrived on time, I added the signature service, and soon enough, I received confirmation that my package had been received.
JET also gave us the option of including a self-marked postcard in the application package for them to send back to us to confirm their receiving the package. I included one of the CN Tower, and sure enough, I received it a couple weeks later. Whew...they received it. So now what? Well, it was time to play the "waiting game". From November 17, the deadline for sending in applications, until late December, the JET people would be screening all the applications from the entire JET pool to, for a lack of a better term, "weed out" applicants whom they thought were not qualified enough to warrant an interview. So...after two months of anxiety and nervousness over the actual applications, I had about 2 weeks to relax and actually be satisfied about sending that sucker in, only to have to go through all that anxiety all over again all the way till Christmas.
Sounds like fun doesn't it? Now since my head is unfortunately keeping me from being able to continue to write clearly (it is quite late isn't it..and I need to buy luggage tomorrow), I think I'll save the rest for later.
Stay tuned~
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Cleaning Out My Closet
I spent the last week cleaning out the storage room and my closet in my small, dinky family apartment. One thing that struck me was how much stuff I actually still had from my childhood. Whoever's been to my home, or seen pictures of it, it really is quite tiny. Yet when I started cleaning out my stuff, throwing old junk out, and figuring out what to do with things I wanted to keep, boxes and boxes just kept appearing. A 1 day job ended up taking me 4 days, and causing me a lot of back pain. Great~ Who knew a box stuffed with paper could be THAT heavy?!
It was definitely amazing seeing projects I had worked on in elementary school, and essays that I wrote in highschool, and so on and so forth. One thing I noticed was that I was a pretty hyper kid, in that I used A LOT of exclamation marks in the stories that I wrote. Haha. A bit over-intense in my writing. But I do remember being a pretty quiet guy in school - I guess I put all my energy into my writing. Another thing I realized was that I was a pretty lucky kid - I found at least four boxes of Legos and Transformer toys - wow. I remember being a Lego and Transformers-obsessed kid when I was younger, but I had no idea just how much I had. After working with children for the last five years and chatting with their parents, I think I have a better idea of just how much I had. I guess I have to think twice next time I say my family's from a lower income bracket than most Canadians. Haha. Jokes aside, we may have had barely enough money to get by at times, but my parents didn't hesitate in showing their love. That's definitely something I'm thankful for~
A lot of people say I'm a sentimental guy - at least they used to. Now people usually say I'm strange or crazy or something weird like that. Usually these comments come from people my own age... At the same time, I get a lot crazy comments from my kids. Boy..children can be mean sometimes, even if they're just making jokes just to be "funny", (and this is about 110% of the time~haha). But, looking at the boxes of things I kept since I was a first grader, I think my sentimental side's having a resurgence.
It took me from Tuesday morning to Thursday night to finish the job, but all my things are "neatly" packed into no less than 10 boxes, and stuffed into the back of my closet. The amount of "trash" I threw out to be able to fit everything into 10 boxes is undecipherable. At one point, the entire garbage room was full of my things - old university notes, ruined shoes, a humungous fido cellphone (that's almost the same size as the cordless phone my family now uses), and old ruined clothes. Even after that, 10 boxes remained. Pretty much, everything I have from my life from when I was a first-grader to now are packed into those boxes. Funny how that works.
Speaking to fellow JETs, it seems that a lot of people want to pack their entire lives and take it with them to Japan. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to take a suitcase of clothes, and some bare essentials, and pick up whatever I need after I get to Japan. It was great reminiscing for the past week about the last fifteen or so years of my life. Now it's time to move on, and get ready for a new life in Japan.
It was definitely amazing seeing projects I had worked on in elementary school, and essays that I wrote in highschool, and so on and so forth. One thing I noticed was that I was a pretty hyper kid, in that I used A LOT of exclamation marks in the stories that I wrote. Haha. A bit over-intense in my writing. But I do remember being a pretty quiet guy in school - I guess I put all my energy into my writing. Another thing I realized was that I was a pretty lucky kid - I found at least four boxes of Legos and Transformer toys - wow. I remember being a Lego and Transformers-obsessed kid when I was younger, but I had no idea just how much I had. After working with children for the last five years and chatting with their parents, I think I have a better idea of just how much I had. I guess I have to think twice next time I say my family's from a lower income bracket than most Canadians. Haha. Jokes aside, we may have had barely enough money to get by at times, but my parents didn't hesitate in showing their love. That's definitely something I'm thankful for~
A lot of people say I'm a sentimental guy - at least they used to. Now people usually say I'm strange or crazy or something weird like that. Usually these comments come from people my own age... At the same time, I get a lot crazy comments from my kids. Boy..children can be mean sometimes, even if they're just making jokes just to be "funny", (and this is about 110% of the time~haha). But, looking at the boxes of things I kept since I was a first grader, I think my sentimental side's having a resurgence.
It took me from Tuesday morning to Thursday night to finish the job, but all my things are "neatly" packed into no less than 10 boxes, and stuffed into the back of my closet. The amount of "trash" I threw out to be able to fit everything into 10 boxes is undecipherable. At one point, the entire garbage room was full of my things - old university notes, ruined shoes, a humungous fido cellphone (that's almost the same size as the cordless phone my family now uses), and old ruined clothes. Even after that, 10 boxes remained. Pretty much, everything I have from my life from when I was a first-grader to now are packed into those boxes. Funny how that works.
Speaking to fellow JETs, it seems that a lot of people want to pack their entire lives and take it with them to Japan. I'm not going to do that. I'm just going to take a suitcase of clothes, and some bare essentials, and pick up whatever I need after I get to Japan. It was great reminiscing for the past week about the last fifteen or so years of my life. Now it's time to move on, and get ready for a new life in Japan.
Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Time Flies~
I'm leaving Toronto in exactly two and a half weeks. Wow, it's finally starting to hit me now. Three years of hard work is finally paying off and I'm heading to Japan as part of the JET Programme in early August. When I look back on the last three to four years of my life, I'm pretty amazed at how things have changed. In High School, I had no thoughts of leaving Toronto, or traveling to a place as far as Japan. In fact, I really knew nothing about the area, except that my parents were from Hong Kong, a city located in a place somewhere in "East Asia". My geography outside of North America was terrible, and it wasn't helped by the fact that Toronto High Schools never taught us a thing other than North American and European geography, history, and culture. In fact, I would have to go as far as saying I learned basically nothing in High School, but fortunately, I was able to get high enough marks to be admitted into a decent University. My fellow 2003 double cohort people know just how freaky that year was, but I'll save that story for another day...
Now how exactly did I become interested in East Asia, and specifically Japan? Well, after locking myself up in my room, and forcing myself to conjure up memories three to four years in the making, I've come to the conclusion that it was an accumulation of various things. In my first year of University, I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I was interested in history, and Ancient civilizations, so I ended up taking an amalgamation of courses from various disciplines including psychology (OUCH..big regret there), politics, history, english literature, and greek mythology. I still had one space open, and had no clue what to take, so I asked my cousin who was also a University of Toronto student, what courses she recommended. She told me to take a course called "Introduction to East Asian Civilizations". Let's just say that that course ended up being the most interesting, and fun course I took all year. From being immediately captivated by cultures and histories I knew nothing about , yet felt a deep connection with, from there on out, I knew East Asian Studies was what I wanted to do.
At the same time, I had been working at a local community centre close to my home. Originally, I had only taken up a job there as a volunteer in their summer camp because it was a requirement for all High School students to do 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Originally, I had no intention of staying more than 2 weeks (which would amount to 80 hours). However, it turned out to be the most fun and enjoyable experience of my life up to that point, and I ended up volunteering for the rest of the summer. Go figure. After that, I promptly applied for a job in their afterschool programs, and was hired without an interview - I guess they liked me..! Sweet. Since then, I've been working there for the past 5 years in the summer camps and afterschool programs. During my time there, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to people of various backgrounds. Downtown Toronto, and I mean DOWNTOWN Toronto is definitely a sight to behold. Being able to walk down the street and see Asians, African Canadians, South Americans, etc. is pretty amazing (and I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, but I'll go as far as to say it'll probably seem even more shockingly amazing after I spend a year in homogeneous Japan).
My local community centre was a very interesting place, in that many of the children were from families that were newly immigrated from China and other countries. At the same time, there was a significant group of Japanese doctor/scientist families who had come to Toronto to work and study at various hospitals and institutions such as Sick Kids (Hospital for Sick Children). Who knew Toronto had one of the leading children's health institutions in the world?? I certainly didn't until just the last few years... There were also several children who's mothers had come from Japan on working holiday visas and had ended up liking Toronto so much they decided to stay and even get married to locals. I was fortunate enough to build some good friendships with these families, and that was a big reason why my interest in Japan increased over the years. It become strong enough that it convinced me to learn Japanese at university, and to switch my major from history to East Asian Studies. At the same time, exposure to various Chinese children and families ignited in me an interest to learn more about my own origins, and my family background.
Looking back at the last three to four years of my life, I feel pretty fortunate to be where I am right now. If a few things hadn't happened, or I had decided to go a different route in my studies or my work, things would probably be completely different at this point. However, I'm very happy how things turned out, and at this moment, I've never been so sure of something in my entire life. The JET Programme and teaching in Japan seems like a perfect fit - I get to work with kids, and I get to learn about Japan. And in terms of traveling around East Asia, Japan is a great location to operate out of.
So, farewell Toronto, thanks for all the good times and good memories. Thanks for all the bad times too, because without those, we wouldn't know what good times are would we?
So farewell, I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again.
Now how exactly did I become interested in East Asia, and specifically Japan? Well, after locking myself up in my room, and forcing myself to conjure up memories three to four years in the making, I've come to the conclusion that it was an accumulation of various things. In my first year of University, I had no idea what I wanted to do. All I knew was that I was interested in history, and Ancient civilizations, so I ended up taking an amalgamation of courses from various disciplines including psychology (OUCH..big regret there), politics, history, english literature, and greek mythology. I still had one space open, and had no clue what to take, so I asked my cousin who was also a University of Toronto student, what courses she recommended. She told me to take a course called "Introduction to East Asian Civilizations". Let's just say that that course ended up being the most interesting, and fun course I took all year. From being immediately captivated by cultures and histories I knew nothing about , yet felt a deep connection with, from there on out, I knew East Asian Studies was what I wanted to do.
At the same time, I had been working at a local community centre close to my home. Originally, I had only taken up a job there as a volunteer in their summer camp because it was a requirement for all High School students to do 40 hours of community service in order to graduate. Originally, I had no intention of staying more than 2 weeks (which would amount to 80 hours). However, it turned out to be the most fun and enjoyable experience of my life up to that point, and I ended up volunteering for the rest of the summer. Go figure. After that, I promptly applied for a job in their afterschool programs, and was hired without an interview - I guess they liked me..! Sweet. Since then, I've been working there for the past 5 years in the summer camps and afterschool programs. During my time there, I was fortunate enough to be exposed to people of various backgrounds. Downtown Toronto, and I mean DOWNTOWN Toronto is definitely a sight to behold. Being able to walk down the street and see Asians, African Canadians, South Americans, etc. is pretty amazing (and I'm taking a wild stab in the dark here, but I'll go as far as to say it'll probably seem even more shockingly amazing after I spend a year in homogeneous Japan).
My local community centre was a very interesting place, in that many of the children were from families that were newly immigrated from China and other countries. At the same time, there was a significant group of Japanese doctor/scientist families who had come to Toronto to work and study at various hospitals and institutions such as Sick Kids (Hospital for Sick Children). Who knew Toronto had one of the leading children's health institutions in the world?? I certainly didn't until just the last few years... There were also several children who's mothers had come from Japan on working holiday visas and had ended up liking Toronto so much they decided to stay and even get married to locals. I was fortunate enough to build some good friendships with these families, and that was a big reason why my interest in Japan increased over the years. It become strong enough that it convinced me to learn Japanese at university, and to switch my major from history to East Asian Studies. At the same time, exposure to various Chinese children and families ignited in me an interest to learn more about my own origins, and my family background.
Looking back at the last three to four years of my life, I feel pretty fortunate to be where I am right now. If a few things hadn't happened, or I had decided to go a different route in my studies or my work, things would probably be completely different at this point. However, I'm very happy how things turned out, and at this moment, I've never been so sure of something in my entire life. The JET Programme and teaching in Japan seems like a perfect fit - I get to work with kids, and I get to learn about Japan. And in terms of traveling around East Asia, Japan is a great location to operate out of.
So, farewell Toronto, thanks for all the good times and good memories. Thanks for all the bad times too, because without those, we wouldn't know what good times are would we?
So farewell, I have a feeling we'll be seeing each other again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)