So I had just finished eating the pudding we got for winning in volleyball. It came in a nice glass that I was going to wash out and use at home.
Yamashiro sensei comes up to me at my desk:
Yamashiro: 'Sooooo.... cup... if you don't want... I can take it'
Me: 'Actually, I was going to save it.'
Yamashiro: 'Yes... but if you don't want....'
Me: 'No, I do want it.. I won't throw it away. I was going to wash it and I will use it at home.'
Yamashiro: 'Okay... but if you don't want, I can use when I make pudding.'
Me: ::finally realizing 'if you don't want' is the nice, subtle Japanese way of saying 'I want'::
'Ah, yes. No I don't want it... you can have it.' :)
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
...exam week...
- Exam week ::sigh::. I got my JET Japanese books on Monday. I've been working on them all week because there is nothing else to do. I had ordered the intermediate books, because I didn't think I needed another book full of 'hello, my name is Sarah, I am American and 23 years old and I enjoy art.' The grammar's been kind of giving me a headache, though, because a lot of it I haven't learned yet, so everything needs to be looked up or I have to ask either Andrew or one of the JTEs. I have learned a lot, though, so maybe it will work in my favor. Anyway, Andrew said I'm doing better than Carla, the predecessor from hell, so as long as I'm better than her, I'm good. That wasn't a catty thing to say at all.
- Yesterday after exams, there was a meeting for the teachers about the AED... Asomething Esomething Defribullator. The thing they keep at schools to jump start hearts. First they taught basic CPR, which was interesting in Japanese, then the teachers had to practice on dummies. That was interesting, too. One of the teachers got really into it and, as one of the other teachers said, 'he is in a movie' (i.e. he was acting), and he was pretty hilarious. After the training thing, all the teachers played volleyball. We were divided into teams according to year. I'm pretty sure they couldn't have picked a worse sport for me to play. Okay, maybe tennis. I think tennis is the only sport I play worse than volleyball. The point is, I'm terrible. And it turns out Yamada sensei, who happened to be on my team (!!!!!), is the fricken volleyball champion of the world. Seriously, he was quite hard core. I actually missed the ball a few times because I was distracted by him throwing himself in front of me to get the ball. I think he spent the entire time diving and sliding and rolling and doing all manner of dramatic movements. I've never seen the man more animated. Now he's just chillin over there by his desk, grading math papers, just hangin out. But put him on a volleyball court... and look out. ANYway... I played horribly, as I thought I would. I seem to remember playing in high school, or middle school or something in gym class and I was actually fairly decent at serving... but not during this game. I didn't make a single one of my serves over the net. Fricken lame. One of the other teachers kept saying, 'switch, switch,' which I assume is because I was accidentally standing in a position that was relatively important and he realized that it probably wouldn't work out. Our team did win, though, thanks to Yamada sensei and other assorted athletic ichinenseisenseis. Afterwards, the principal gave the winning team pudding. Everybody else got sports drinks and canned coffee.
- This week was also my welcome party. 'Hey, you've been here for almost 3 months, but now we're gonna welcome you.' It was actually really nice. It was at this restaurant that was in a sort of conference building. They apparently had a bunch of meeting rooms and a tennis court. It was actually a pretty fancy lunch. They served bread that was really good...they had this really awesome tool for taking bread crumbs off the table as the meal progressed, and I couldn't help wanting to call up CCF and tell them that thing was probably a great idea. We first had this fantastic salad on a really awesome plate with bubbles that was made with some kind of spinachy arugula kinda lettuce (omg thank god it was something other than plain, spikey CABBAGE) with persimmon, lotus, apple, shrimp, scallops, and some kind of vinagrette. Then we had potato soup (I miss CCF loaded baked potato soup!), then some kind of fantastic mystery meat with ginger and vegetables, then soba that we had to eat with a fork, which confused everybody, myself included, and then some kind of dark chocolate mousse pastry and fig sorbet. Awesome. It took forever, though. Clearly they don't worry about shoppers in Japan.
- I have officially pwned my kitchen! I bought pots and pans a couple weeks ago, and plates (my pred had no plates..... really?), and this week I've made dinner for myself TWICE. Not just spagetti out of a jar, but like really made dinner. For the first time:) I was inspired on Tuesday night, when I was in the grocery store and saw a whole bunch of stuff on sale because it was the end of the day. I bought some kind of red meat.... not really sure what it was, but it was fantastic, and cooked it with vegetables and some kind of sesame soy sauce and it was incredible. The following night, I made pasta. I had told my friend Katie before how horrible Japanese spaghetti sauce is and she said she makes her own with tomatoes, red wine, and whatever else. So I gave it a go. I put tomatoes and wine, then onions, peppers, oregano, basil, olive oil, and garlic... then decided to just be ridiculous and I had bought some shrimp so those went in too. Holy cow I am awesome. It was such a good dinner I was so proud of myself.
- Went shopping for winter things. I found pants that fit over my butt (I had a moment in the dressing room where I seriously jumped up and down a little because I was so excited... usually I can't fit the pants over my knees), and discovered my new favorite store is this place called Honey's that's really cheap, but has awesome things, like the puffy vest I bought that has a fur lined hood, the sparkly tights, and a super cute dress. Also, I found the 'fat people' section (i.e. section for people who are greater than a US size 0) in Daiei, which means I will be able to find pants there, too. Now I need to find a big foot store and I'll be set.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Snapshots of Japan
- Had a dream last night. Right before I woke up, 'Across the Universe' started playing in the soundtrack of my dream. I didn't know my dreams had soundtracks.
- Last night on the train home, a Japanese girl puked. My friend gave her a shopping bag, she was too drunk to stand, and we're not sure what stop she should have gotten off on.
- I had my work party. Apparently my kyoto-sensei (Vice Principal) is VERY fun when drunk. He kept pouring beer into people's drinks, regardless of what they had, and trying to set me up with all the single teachers. Also, I almost ate a moth that was in my salad. Very traumatic.
- It's hilarious how red Sekimitsu sensei gets when he drinks.
- My high school has Dell computers in their computer labs. Dell.
- Found an art supplies store. Great sense of accomplishment involved, as I had to ask one of the non-English speaking teachers for directions on how to get there, and then had to spend 20 minutes speaking awkward katakana English to employees trying to figure out what kind of ink to buy.
- The other day in class, students were asking me questions about America. Questions include:
Why do all Americans wear shoes inside their houses? (When I responded 'a lot of us don't' I was met by outbursts of shock and disbelief)
Do you feel unsafe in a place where everyone has guns? (My response:*blank stare* Really?)
What is some traditional American food? (was unable to answer this one and realized the US has no cultural identity)
What are some traditional American clothes? (pilgrim attire? feathers and deerskin? blue jeans? crocs?...again with the realization that my country has no history or identity of our own)
- Realized Japanese people are really friggen stuck up about their country and culture. Probably moreso than Americans, which is saying something. When people ask me, 'oh Japanese is such a difficult language, isn't it?' I've started responding "nope. it's no more difficult than any other language" because it's true, and because they need to be told the truth. I actually had some teachers freak out because I was eating rice crackers. They actually called over more teachers to witness the gaijin eating rice crackers. "IT'S SO JAPANESE!" they said. "Well I'm sure it is," I thought in my head, "But I'm also pretty sure I don't run into McDonald's and shout, 'Awwwwwww, LOOK AT YOU GUYS! YOU'RE SO AMERICAN!"
- By the way, any stereotype you've ever heard about Japan? Not true.
- Highlights from Silver Week:
Went to Kyushu to visit MM.
Started out in Kagoshima city. Random Japanese guys tried to take over our vacation on the first night. They were really nice, but kind of pushy, and didn't get the hint that we wanted to go away. So we eventually had to say, "Go away." Remember the whole thing about Japan being high context? yeah they're not. Next day, went shopping and spent entirely too much money as usual:) Realized on Kyushu, Japanese people stare at gaijin a lot more than they do on the mainland. Almost punched a couple girls in the face. Not really. But when people are staring so blatantly that they are actually turning around to look at you, it gets to you. When it comes to staring, Japanese are like children. They just keep staring and never know when to look away.
Next day in Shibushi at MM's apartment. We were in the bedroom, when I happened to look up at the wall in the living room. Upon seeing gigantic spider the size of my hand perched in the corner, I remember MM's penchant for placing fake lizards in her car for decoration. "Um... is that supposed to be there?" I ask hopefully. MM turns around and my only answer is her scream of terror. So no. It was not supposed to be there. Spent the next 30 minutes or so trying to figure out what to do with the thing, which more or less involved me cowering in a corner and MM standing in the other corner holding a broom. At one point she turned the lights in the living room on and from 15 feet away I saw the thing's EYES. This was an epic spider. MM closed the closet door to keep it from running in, but when she did, it ran down the wall and disappeared and the two of us were standing in the room screaming. I hadn't actually seen it run, but when MM screamed, I screamed, and I'm sure the neighbors had no clue what was going on. Eventually, she found it under the curtain and hit it like 10 times with a broom to kill it. All in all, scariest moment of my life. If I EVER find one of those things in my apartment and I'm alone, I WILL have a heart attack.
Spontaneously took a ferry to Nagasaki. Caught the last one of the night by accident. We went to the Peace Park, and then realized we don't care about all the other touristy things, so after that we went to Starbucks and went shopping.
Went to Fukuoka. Holy crap, best ramen EVER. We went to this huge mall called Canal City and stumbled upon Asian Week where they had a bunch of acrobat guys in the center of the mall doing a show. We met our friends there and at night went to this street along the river with a whole bunch of ramen vendors. Seriously, amazing. That night, wandered around drinking beer, shochu, and whiskey. Not all at the same time. Tried to go to a bar and meet some other friends, but repeatedly got lost, and everytime we stopped to ask for directions we ended up talking to the people we got directions from, and then forgot where they told us to go. Took epic jumping picture, perikura, found mall robo-cop, and fit 6 people in hotel room meant for 2.
Next day, hangover. MM and I went to Wendy's and I had amazing chili-cheese fries. Whoever invented chili-cheese fries=genious. Dave had taken MM's bag by mistake, so instead of returning to Kagoshima, onward to Beppu. Spent the day at a breakdancing competition. Best accidental Silver Week day EVER. The competition was amazing, and I now want to learn to breakdance.
Went to Oita. Went to onsen where they cover you in sand. Had awkward moment at the door with the woman who works at the onsen. She was trying to communicate that women aren't allowed to go in during that certain time of month. The sign was quite clear, so all she needed to do was point to the sign. But she didn't speak English very well, and I guess thought we didn't understand, and proceeded to yell at the top of her lungs, "Tampon! NO!" MM and I just looked at eachother, not sure what to do, and Dave replies, "Oh well I guess I'll go then!" and the lady realized we knew what she was saying and let us in. After being buried in sand and soaking in a hot tub, I had chocolate ice cream out of a vending machine and decided that Japan is awesome.
- Last night, Sifton and I met up in Sannomiya. As we were walking to dinner, a random guy came out of nowhere and tried to hug us and speak to us in English. I tried to push him away, but apparently he really wanted a hug. He may have been drunk.
- I was very upset to learn that Yamada sensei, the math teacher at school that is very cute and I have had a middle school crush on since I got to Japan, got married over Silver Week. Why, God. Why?
- Learned choreography to "Thriller" by Michael Jackson. Also working on body waves and the moon walk. My friends and I have big plans for the Himeji Halloween Party.
- Slowly but surely redecorating my apartment. Gradually becoming my own :) I printed out pictures to hang up, bought new pillows and some wall hanging things.
- No longer afraid of my kitchen. Well, a little afraid of the stove still, but overall, doing well. I've made spaghetti three times, ramen once, and some rice krispy treats. Also, made a big step when I bought chicken and vegetables to cook for dinner. Very proud of myself.
- Typhoon hit last week. I was awake all night because the wind sounded like it was going to knock down my apartment building. We ended up not having school the next day, but the teachers were supposed to go anyway. It was beautiful out and I didn't feel like going, so I took a vacation day.
- Found out my little sister got her driver's ed books 2 weeks after her 16th birthday. Was very angry about that for a long time. Still bitter, but getting over it.
- Kobe is awesome.
- Things that I miss about home:
friends
buffalo sauce
ranch
tacos
bath and body works
shoes that come in my size
not being illiterate
not having to dress up just to run to the store
not being stuck in a stereotype everytime I do something remotely American
knowing what everything is at the grocery store
24 hour grocery stores
24 hour ATMs
non-cash based society
blending in
- Things that are cool about Jay-pan:
Random English
Japanese onomatopoeia
Kaitenzushi
Onsens
Fashion
I live near 4 major cities that I can get to at any time, easily, by train
Public transportation
Standing out
MM is here, too :)
JET community
Ubiquitous conbini (convenience stores)
History
Culture
Izekaya
Learning a new language that has no plurals, no articles, no future tense, and virtually no verb or noun conjugation
100 yen stores
Karaoke
Monday, September 7, 2009
Nara Party Weekend
Awesome weekend......
Friday night I had dinner with JET tomodachis. Emma made a very nice pasta and some gyoza. We watched some Youtube and I shared the magic of snuggies and shamwows with my foreign friends. After dinner, we went to a nearby onsen, which is a public bath thing where you basically shower and bathe with a whole bunch of people, but it's a lot less sketch than it sounds. When you walk in, after the main room it splits off into men and women through these really cool curtains. Then there's a lockerroom where you leave all your stuff. Then you go into the shower room, where there are all these stall type things, and you sit down in front of one and it has a shower head next to the mirror and you fill up a bucket of water, wash off, then use the shower head to rinse off. You have to be clean before you get in the bath :) So when you're done in the shower room, you walk into the next room where there are a bunch of different kinds of tubs. We just got in the warm one, but apparently there are cold ones and bubbly ones and whatnot. We found out that supposedly the people who own the onsen turn up the heat in the tub on weekends so people don't sit as long and they can control the crowds. We soon walked outside... there was a really nice patio ish setting with all these different pools and whatnot. Again, there was a bubbly one, but it was full the whole time so we just sat in the regular warm one. But we did get a spot on this awesome marble bench that has warm water coming over the back so your back and legs are all warm and stuff and we sat there and talked for awhile about fun Japanese things like how to use a squat toilet. Emma ran into one of her students which was kind of funny but in Japan it's okay to see your teacher naked at a public bath? So after being there for a couple hours, we were sufficiently warm and clean and relaxed, so we met back up with the guys and then went home and went to bed and it was awesome.
Next day..........
Goran and Joe had been planning to go to a party in Nara. There is a guy that lives/teaches in the middle of nowhere and his school was letting him have a party pretty much on school grounds. So I got to go to this party as well, and I was pretty excited about it, but it did mean that I had to get up early, but I thought at the time that it would probably be worth it, and it was. Goran called me around 8 or 9 or something to make sure I was awake. We met at the train station around 10ish to catch the 10:12 train. (Apparently the place we were going to was so in the middle of nowhere that only 3 buses per day go to the place, so we had to time our trains carefully.) I thought I was running late, but when I got there Goran had apparently gone to Daiso to get something to drink or something random like that but it worked out and we made the train.
::lots of joint iPod listening and that's-what-she-said jokes later::
We caught the bus at this place that I thought couldn't get any more middle of nowhere... until we got on the bus and started going further into the middle of nowhere. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive. I realized I had never been that far out into Japan country. The mountains were all over the place, with beautiful trees and houses that had bridges as driveways and were designed with actual Japanese architecture instead of the hideous 1950s cement block architecture that plagues much of Japan. We went through a bunch of tunnels and Goran wanted to play the game where you hold your breath when you go through a tunnel. Me and Joe both failed. Goran was the champ. No doubt.
So we finally get to the bus stop, at a shrine. We putt around for a few minutes and then Marty (guy throwing party) came to pick us up. It was a short drive. We put down our stuff, hung out for a few minutes, and then almost immediately the frisbee came out. We started out just throwing around, but eventually, as more people showed up, we had a really nice game going. I love ultimate frisbee. Best game ever. It was soooooooo hot out and I am soooooooooooooo out of shape, but it was sooooooooooooooooooo much fun. We played for several hours, during which I'm not gonna lie I made some awesome catches- including but not limited to a game winning point... not bragging ;)- and it was just ridiculous fun. Eventually we tired out and went down to the river. It was SUPER cold, but Goran got right in, and I got in, and between the two of us, we got Joe in. Everybody else was pretty much standing up to their waist. I found a random snail shell floating down the river, which was pretty sweet.
So then we went back, and as the sun went down people started setting up tents in the field to sleep in (I had to show the boys how it was done) and getting food ready for grilling out. I had brought my sweet tea vodka mini bottles and started drinking those. Between those and the beer, the rest of the night was a blur of awesome food and drunken conversation around a bonfire. I definitely taught a guy from the UK how to make a smore. He had never had or even heard of a smore, which should probably be illegal. There was also a girl there who had lived in I think Egypt for awhile, and could do tricks with spinning burning things on a rope. That was pretty cool. She let people practice with glow sticks and if they got good enough, she gave them fire. It was a little scary, not gonna lie, but cool to watch.
The next morning we got up super early to catch the first bus back to the train station. We temporarily lost Goran when he wandered off but he caught up with us a stop down. It took us a very long time to get home, and we stopped at a coffee shop to have coffee and sandwiches and play some cards. As I recall, I got home and immediately fell asleep. End good weekend.
Friday night I had dinner with JET tomodachis. Emma made a very nice pasta and some gyoza. We watched some Youtube and I shared the magic of snuggies and shamwows with my foreign friends. After dinner, we went to a nearby onsen, which is a public bath thing where you basically shower and bathe with a whole bunch of people, but it's a lot less sketch than it sounds. When you walk in, after the main room it splits off into men and women through these really cool curtains. Then there's a lockerroom where you leave all your stuff. Then you go into the shower room, where there are all these stall type things, and you sit down in front of one and it has a shower head next to the mirror and you fill up a bucket of water, wash off, then use the shower head to rinse off. You have to be clean before you get in the bath :) So when you're done in the shower room, you walk into the next room where there are a bunch of different kinds of tubs. We just got in the warm one, but apparently there are cold ones and bubbly ones and whatnot. We found out that supposedly the people who own the onsen turn up the heat in the tub on weekends so people don't sit as long and they can control the crowds. We soon walked outside... there was a really nice patio ish setting with all these different pools and whatnot. Again, there was a bubbly one, but it was full the whole time so we just sat in the regular warm one. But we did get a spot on this awesome marble bench that has warm water coming over the back so your back and legs are all warm and stuff and we sat there and talked for awhile about fun Japanese things like how to use a squat toilet. Emma ran into one of her students which was kind of funny but in Japan it's okay to see your teacher naked at a public bath? So after being there for a couple hours, we were sufficiently warm and clean and relaxed, so we met back up with the guys and then went home and went to bed and it was awesome.
Next day..........
Goran and Joe had been planning to go to a party in Nara. There is a guy that lives/teaches in the middle of nowhere and his school was letting him have a party pretty much on school grounds. So I got to go to this party as well, and I was pretty excited about it, but it did mean that I had to get up early, but I thought at the time that it would probably be worth it, and it was. Goran called me around 8 or 9 or something to make sure I was awake. We met at the train station around 10ish to catch the 10:12 train. (Apparently the place we were going to was so in the middle of nowhere that only 3 buses per day go to the place, so we had to time our trains carefully.) I thought I was running late, but when I got there Goran had apparently gone to Daiso to get something to drink or something random like that but it worked out and we made the train.
::lots of joint iPod listening and that's-what-she-said jokes later::
We caught the bus at this place that I thought couldn't get any more middle of nowhere... until we got on the bus and started going further into the middle of nowhere. It was a BEAUTIFUL drive. I realized I had never been that far out into Japan country. The mountains were all over the place, with beautiful trees and houses that had bridges as driveways and were designed with actual Japanese architecture instead of the hideous 1950s cement block architecture that plagues much of Japan. We went through a bunch of tunnels and Goran wanted to play the game where you hold your breath when you go through a tunnel. Me and Joe both failed. Goran was the champ. No doubt.
So we finally get to the bus stop, at a shrine. We putt around for a few minutes and then Marty (guy throwing party) came to pick us up. It was a short drive. We put down our stuff, hung out for a few minutes, and then almost immediately the frisbee came out. We started out just throwing around, but eventually, as more people showed up, we had a really nice game going. I love ultimate frisbee. Best game ever. It was soooooooo hot out and I am soooooooooooooo out of shape, but it was sooooooooooooooooooo much fun. We played for several hours, during which I'm not gonna lie I made some awesome catches- including but not limited to a game winning point... not bragging ;)- and it was just ridiculous fun. Eventually we tired out and went down to the river. It was SUPER cold, but Goran got right in, and I got in, and between the two of us, we got Joe in. Everybody else was pretty much standing up to their waist. I found a random snail shell floating down the river, which was pretty sweet.
So then we went back, and as the sun went down people started setting up tents in the field to sleep in (I had to show the boys how it was done) and getting food ready for grilling out. I had brought my sweet tea vodka mini bottles and started drinking those. Between those and the beer, the rest of the night was a blur of awesome food and drunken conversation around a bonfire. I definitely taught a guy from the UK how to make a smore. He had never had or even heard of a smore, which should probably be illegal. There was also a girl there who had lived in I think Egypt for awhile, and could do tricks with spinning burning things on a rope. That was pretty cool. She let people practice with glow sticks and if they got good enough, she gave them fire. It was a little scary, not gonna lie, but cool to watch.
The next morning we got up super early to catch the first bus back to the train station. We temporarily lost Goran when he wandered off but he caught up with us a stop down. It took us a very long time to get home, and we stopped at a coffee shop to have coffee and sandwiches and play some cards. As I recall, I got home and immediately fell asleep. End good weekend.
Tuesday, September 1, 2009
I got my lunch packed up, my boots tied tight, I hope I don't get in a fight.....Back to school
Today was the first day of class... my first day teaching :) I only had 2 classes today, so it's an easy day. My first class had 20 something students in it. We started off with 'hello, how are you?' standard greeting. I had decided to ask the students some questions in the hope that they would speak to me. I caught the first girl completely off guard, though haha. I asked her what she did for summer vacation and she looked for a brief second like a deer in headlights. Overall, they were good though. Kind of quiet, but not as quiet as I thought. After I asked them a few questions, I handed out a worksheet I had made. A crossword puzzle with questions about me. I first had them guess the answers. I asked them what they thought my favorite color was, and both classes guessed white, blue, and yellow (in that order lol). I asked them how old they thought I was, and they actually guessed 25 (first class) and 24 (second class) which I think is the first time in my entire life somebody guessed my age as something other than 12. So yeah.. I had them guess things. I had to call on people because in each class there was only one or two students who would actually raise their hands and volunteer. But once I called on them, they would answer. Very quietly haha, but they would answer. After guessing some answers to questions, I showed them my powerpoint I made about myself. It was cool.. they paid attention. One kid in first period fell asleep but I think one out of 30 or so is an okay ratio. The timing of the lesson worked out very well actually. I had been a little worried about that. In the second class, I had a little time left over, but I filled it by asking the students what they wanted to be when they grew up. Apparently the two classes I had today were the higher level classes, which would explain why they did so well. In my second period class, there was one girl who had studied abroad for a year in the US... Silver Spring, MD of all places haha. She was cool. If no one else would answer questions, I knew she would. In my first class a boy with spiky Japanese hair was the one who always asked questions. It was kind of comforting having at least one student that would respond. They all seemed attentive though. It's probably just a very early class. After the second class, one of the girls came up to me and asked me about my necklace and where I have been in Japan. She was really cute and really shy, but it was cool that she came up to me like that.
Things I need to work on for coming classes: speaking slower! it's a huge pain in the butt trying to constantly think about speaking slowly and and I always end up sounding really silly. Sometimes I think I'm speaking slowly and then the teacher says 'slow down!' and I think 'gaaaaaah.... slower????' But I know what it's like to try to understand rapid-fire Japanese (not a fun experience) so I'm trying to pay more attention to myself. Me and my crazy Yankee fast talking.....
Overall, good first day:) I now have the rest of the day to continue my Facebooking and reading and whatnot. I'm reading this book called Freakonomics and it's really good, so you should read it too. It shows more or less how society works... what is at the core of problems and solutions... relationships between random things like schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, how much parents matter, why drug dealers live with their moms, the relationship between crime rates and legal abortions. Really interesting stuff. Read it now.
Things I need to work on for coming classes: speaking slower! it's a huge pain in the butt trying to constantly think about speaking slowly and and I always end up sounding really silly. Sometimes I think I'm speaking slowly and then the teacher says 'slow down!' and I think 'gaaaaaah.... slower????' But I know what it's like to try to understand rapid-fire Japanese (not a fun experience) so I'm trying to pay more attention to myself. Me and my crazy Yankee fast talking.....
Overall, good first day:) I now have the rest of the day to continue my Facebooking and reading and whatnot. I'm reading this book called Freakonomics and it's really good, so you should read it too. It shows more or less how society works... what is at the core of problems and solutions... relationships between random things like schoolteachers and sumo wrestlers, how much parents matter, why drug dealers live with their moms, the relationship between crime rates and legal abortions. Really interesting stuff. Read it now.
Monday, August 31, 2009
おともだちになってくれる？
So last night, I went salsa dancing. I met some JETs and this adorable Japanese gal named Mai outside Sannomiya, and we went to this place where this hispanic guy who speaks Spanglanese was giving lessons. Apparently they do a different kind of dance every month? This month is Salsa. It was very fun and made me very happy. Afterwards, we went to dinner at this sushi place that was really good and actually pretty cheap. I had ebi (shrimp), salmon, tuna, and cucumber. I wanted yellowtail, but they were out. I'm fairly certain my favorite quote from anyone ever was from dinner, when Mai said the guy she was interested in 'Looks kind of like Ewan McGregor, but also Stitch.'
This week the students come back to school. They had summer break, but actually now they're in the middle of a school year, because their year actually starts in April I think. It's kind of funny coming in the middle of everything. It's also been a bit complicated as far as lesson planning, because I've been trying to find out what the students have done so far this year, and none of the teachers can give me a concrete list of vocabulary or grammar, so I'm a bit lost for now... at least until I meet the kids and can talk to them and get an idea of what they know. For this week, though, the lesson is just going to be my self introduction. I get to introduce myself 14 times. BAH. I made a cool powerpoint and a crossword puzzle to go with it. I'm probably going to ask the students questions too... hopefully they will speak haha. I've heard horror stories about silent Japanese students. ::cross fingers:: If they don't say anything, I suppose I can just pretend they are my customers at the Cheesecake Factory who like to pretend the waitress isn't speaking to them only with my class I can't say 'yes? no? mmmmmmmmalright!' and walk away. We'll see how it goes..........
So yesterday all the teachers came back. Technically teachers still work over summer break, but a lot of them do take their vacations, or they are coaching sports or something so you don't see all of them until school starts. I had to introduce myself in front of all of them. Yamashiro sensei had helped me translate an intro into Japanese. I don't think I've ever been so nervous to speak in front of anyone. Normally I don't have any problem speaking to large groups, but this was SCARY. I think I was just very intimidated by all the teachers I didn't know, and I was going to be speaking in Japanese which, when you're nervous, has a tendency just to look like a bunch of syllables that don't mean ANYTHING. And then I had to sit up front, which made it even worse. ugh. I was actually shaking during my speech which was sooooo dumb. Stupid nerves. It made it even more scary for today... I had to introduce myself in front of all the students. It was cool seeing them all come to school this morning. I've seen them around, but in small numbers for their clubs and whatnot. Today, they all came in, and everybody went to the gym for the opening ceremony... which is a loose term to describe basically just an assembly. I was already nervous before we got to the gym. Luckily the other ALT Andrew was there to talk to and I didn't feel as horrified as I did the day before. The teachers spent about a half hour going through the students and checking their uniforms. If anything was wrong with their uniform they were sent home, and there were a few students that were kicked out. (I was neither sent home, nor written up... which is a new thing for me :) ) After all the students were situated, the principal did an opening speech, which was apparently a really metaphorical speech about dreams. Then I was introduced, and I had to get up on the stage and as soon as I did, my heart started pounding and I swear I felt like I wanted to run away haha. The principal said a couple more things and it was all muddled together cuz of the echo in the gym which made me freak out just a bit more. I was quite the internal mess. I gave the same speech I had given the day before... only this time I started out with a little bit of English which helped me calm down a bit. I read the thing straight out of my notebook-my public speaking professor would have been mortified- but I was able to look up a couple times. Overall, it went better than Monday so whatever. I do feel kind of dumb but I think once I start having class and the students start to know me better it will be okay.
**side note to Greco: Remember how you were always mad at me during public speaking because I never had to practice and just made everything up on the spot? Well, this is your karmic retribution**
Even though the students are back today, class doesn't officially start until tomorrow. For today, the students are cleaning the school (no janitors in Jay-pan), and I am Facebooking/trying to think of better lesson plans/blogging/reading/studying Japanese/whatever passes the time and makes me look busy. yay.
This week the students come back to school. They had summer break, but actually now they're in the middle of a school year, because their year actually starts in April I think. It's kind of funny coming in the middle of everything. It's also been a bit complicated as far as lesson planning, because I've been trying to find out what the students have done so far this year, and none of the teachers can give me a concrete list of vocabulary or grammar, so I'm a bit lost for now... at least until I meet the kids and can talk to them and get an idea of what they know. For this week, though, the lesson is just going to be my self introduction. I get to introduce myself 14 times. BAH. I made a cool powerpoint and a crossword puzzle to go with it. I'm probably going to ask the students questions too... hopefully they will speak haha. I've heard horror stories about silent Japanese students. ::cross fingers:: If they don't say anything, I suppose I can just pretend they are my customers at the Cheesecake Factory who like to pretend the waitress isn't speaking to them only with my class I can't say 'yes? no? mmmmmmmmalright!' and walk away. We'll see how it goes..........
So yesterday all the teachers came back. Technically teachers still work over summer break, but a lot of them do take their vacations, or they are coaching sports or something so you don't see all of them until school starts. I had to introduce myself in front of all of them. Yamashiro sensei had helped me translate an intro into Japanese. I don't think I've ever been so nervous to speak in front of anyone. Normally I don't have any problem speaking to large groups, but this was SCARY. I think I was just very intimidated by all the teachers I didn't know, and I was going to be speaking in Japanese which, when you're nervous, has a tendency just to look like a bunch of syllables that don't mean ANYTHING. And then I had to sit up front, which made it even worse. ugh. I was actually shaking during my speech which was sooooo dumb. Stupid nerves. It made it even more scary for today... I had to introduce myself in front of all the students. It was cool seeing them all come to school this morning. I've seen them around, but in small numbers for their clubs and whatnot. Today, they all came in, and everybody went to the gym for the opening ceremony... which is a loose term to describe basically just an assembly. I was already nervous before we got to the gym. Luckily the other ALT Andrew was there to talk to and I didn't feel as horrified as I did the day before. The teachers spent about a half hour going through the students and checking their uniforms. If anything was wrong with their uniform they were sent home, and there were a few students that were kicked out. (I was neither sent home, nor written up... which is a new thing for me :) ) After all the students were situated, the principal did an opening speech, which was apparently a really metaphorical speech about dreams. Then I was introduced, and I had to get up on the stage and as soon as I did, my heart started pounding and I swear I felt like I wanted to run away haha. The principal said a couple more things and it was all muddled together cuz of the echo in the gym which made me freak out just a bit more. I was quite the internal mess. I gave the same speech I had given the day before... only this time I started out with a little bit of English which helped me calm down a bit. I read the thing straight out of my notebook-my public speaking professor would have been mortified- but I was able to look up a couple times. Overall, it went better than Monday so whatever. I do feel kind of dumb but I think once I start having class and the students start to know me better it will be okay.
**side note to Greco: Remember how you were always mad at me during public speaking because I never had to practice and just made everything up on the spot? Well, this is your karmic retribution**
Even though the students are back today, class doesn't officially start until tomorrow. For today, the students are cleaning the school (no janitors in Jay-pan), and I am Facebooking/trying to think of better lesson plans/blogging/reading/studying Japanese/whatever passes the time and makes me look busy. yay.
Sunday, August 30, 2009
cup of bacon... hold the pickles.
This past weekend, I took off work Thursday and Friday and went to Tokyo. Why not:)
I went with my friend Tyler, and we took the night bus there, which was alright. We watched Gran Torino on the ride up there, and were completely exhausted and grumpy when we finally got there so we went to an internet cafe for a nap. Undoubtedly one of Japan's better ideas, those internet cafes. They have slushies and vending machines with french fries and rice and other random things. They also have bathrooms where when you open the door and walk in the toilet lid comes up automatically. And the seat is heated. Amazing. But yeah internet cafes. They're pretty cool. A lot of people go in there to nap, they have couches and bean bag chairs and whatnot. Very nice. That night, I don't remember doing too much. I think we went to Shibuya and more or less wandered around. We had Indian food that was pretty good. I bought some really cool fake glasses that I wore around and they made me look artsy. We tried to go have some wine at this place, but it turned out to be one of those places where a bottle is at least $100 so we had a fun little gaijin walk of shame out the door to a cheaper bar. We went first to a Gaijin bar and then ended up at a Mexican restaurant, that actually wasn't really Mexican it just said it was.
The next day was my shopping day. Tyler had some things to take care of before leaving Japan, so while he dealt with paperwork, I went back to Shibuya. There's a big 8-story (10 counting the basement) mall thing called Shibuya 109 that is awesome. I am now broke. I hadn't bought anything exciting since coming to Japan, so I allowed myself a bit of a binge. It's actually really awesome that I have ginormous clown feet and can't buy shoes in Japan, otherwise I REEALLY would have been in trouble. The main point of my shopping was to buy clothes for the 'White Party' we were going to later that night. To all my friends at the Cheesecake Factory- believe me, I thought it was hilarious that I was going to attend a white party. I almost called Cassie to ask her to super-fast deliver my fabulous Cheesecake Factory Standard Issue Apron for the occasion... with customary center crease :) I did find an awesome pair of Japanese tights, they're white with all kinds of emo, pseudo political writing on them. They're so dramatic and I love them.
So yeah... shopping for 3 hours, then I ran to meet Tyler... he knew about this boat ride around Tokyo Bay... a booze cruise type thing, but kind of a family thing as well... and it was only about $25. Pretty sweet. We got to ride around on a boat at night (yes, I was ON A BOAT) and see all of Tokyo and have free beer and it was fun. Afterwards, we met up with one of Tyler's friends from Oshima, and got changed in our White outfits and went to a club for the party. It was pretty fun... lots of people including a random Japanese guy in a velvet jacket that was awesome. There was no last call (which is good, as trains stop running around midnight) so everybody stayed at the bar til 5ish, when the first trains start running. We did take a quick break and run to Macudo (McDonalds) to enjoy double cheeseburgers and ebi burgers (shrimp burger). We got back to Ikebukuro around 6:30am, fell asleep and slept for a long time. Then went somewhere and bought an iPod touch (that's right, I now have officially joined the 21st century) with sweet dalmation print headphones, and headed out to Kamakura. We wanted to go see the Daibutsu buddha thing, but after falling asleep at 6:30, there was no waking up before 3pm so we got to Kamakura too late. We did go to the beach... yay! It was the first time I've ever been to a beach in Japan, and it was pretty cool. The water was super warm. I forgot my bathing suit though :( so I couldn't go swimming, but it was nice just to hang out and people watch. Some Japanese kids sitting near us were playing this game that was kinda like trying to break a pinata, only it was a watermelon instead and they had this really scary looking sharp stick. They would get blindfolded, then spin around the stick and try to smash the watermelon that was sitting on the ground. It was crazy watching them stumble around with a pointy stick in the sand. Prolly not the smartest thing for them to do but its whatevs. We stayed there for the rest of the evening. I saw the sunset, moonrise, and moon set. There were a bunch of restaurants and vendors and whatnot on the beach, and my favorite was this place that sold 'American style bacon' where you basically just ordered a cup of bacon. I'm really glad that's what American Style is. A cup of bacon. That sometimes comes with pickles. Haha aaaah Japan.
I went with my friend Tyler, and we took the night bus there, which was alright. We watched Gran Torino on the ride up there, and were completely exhausted and grumpy when we finally got there so we went to an internet cafe for a nap. Undoubtedly one of Japan's better ideas, those internet cafes. They have slushies and vending machines with french fries and rice and other random things. They also have bathrooms where when you open the door and walk in the toilet lid comes up automatically. And the seat is heated. Amazing. But yeah internet cafes. They're pretty cool. A lot of people go in there to nap, they have couches and bean bag chairs and whatnot. Very nice. That night, I don't remember doing too much. I think we went to Shibuya and more or less wandered around. We had Indian food that was pretty good. I bought some really cool fake glasses that I wore around and they made me look artsy. We tried to go have some wine at this place, but it turned out to be one of those places where a bottle is at least $100 so we had a fun little gaijin walk of shame out the door to a cheaper bar. We went first to a Gaijin bar and then ended up at a Mexican restaurant, that actually wasn't really Mexican it just said it was.
The next day was my shopping day. Tyler had some things to take care of before leaving Japan, so while he dealt with paperwork, I went back to Shibuya. There's a big 8-story (10 counting the basement) mall thing called Shibuya 109 that is awesome. I am now broke. I hadn't bought anything exciting since coming to Japan, so I allowed myself a bit of a binge. It's actually really awesome that I have ginormous clown feet and can't buy shoes in Japan, otherwise I REEALLY would have been in trouble. The main point of my shopping was to buy clothes for the 'White Party' we were going to later that night. To all my friends at the Cheesecake Factory- believe me, I thought it was hilarious that I was going to attend a white party. I almost called Cassie to ask her to super-fast deliver my fabulous Cheesecake Factory Standard Issue Apron for the occasion... with customary center crease :) I did find an awesome pair of Japanese tights, they're white with all kinds of emo, pseudo political writing on them. They're so dramatic and I love them.
So yeah... shopping for 3 hours, then I ran to meet Tyler... he knew about this boat ride around Tokyo Bay... a booze cruise type thing, but kind of a family thing as well... and it was only about $25. Pretty sweet. We got to ride around on a boat at night (yes, I was ON A BOAT) and see all of Tokyo and have free beer and it was fun. Afterwards, we met up with one of Tyler's friends from Oshima, and got changed in our White outfits and went to a club for the party. It was pretty fun... lots of people including a random Japanese guy in a velvet jacket that was awesome. There was no last call (which is good, as trains stop running around midnight) so everybody stayed at the bar til 5ish, when the first trains start running. We did take a quick break and run to Macudo (McDonalds) to enjoy double cheeseburgers and ebi burgers (shrimp burger). We got back to Ikebukuro around 6:30am, fell asleep and slept for a long time. Then went somewhere and bought an iPod touch (that's right, I now have officially joined the 21st century) with sweet dalmation print headphones, and headed out to Kamakura. We wanted to go see the Daibutsu buddha thing, but after falling asleep at 6:30, there was no waking up before 3pm so we got to Kamakura too late. We did go to the beach... yay! It was the first time I've ever been to a beach in Japan, and it was pretty cool. The water was super warm. I forgot my bathing suit though :( so I couldn't go swimming, but it was nice just to hang out and people watch. Some Japanese kids sitting near us were playing this game that was kinda like trying to break a pinata, only it was a watermelon instead and they had this really scary looking sharp stick. They would get blindfolded, then spin around the stick and try to smash the watermelon that was sitting on the ground. It was crazy watching them stumble around with a pointy stick in the sand. Prolly not the smartest thing for them to do but its whatevs. We stayed there for the rest of the evening. I saw the sunset, moonrise, and moon set. There were a bunch of restaurants and vendors and whatnot on the beach, and my favorite was this place that sold 'American style bacon' where you basically just ordered a cup of bacon. I'm really glad that's what American Style is. A cup of bacon. That sometimes comes with pickles. Haha aaaah Japan.
Sunday, August 23, 2009
holy guacamole!
OMG I also saw fireworks!!!!!!
I've been soo resentful of all of my friends because they've all been to fireworks festivals and seen all these beautiful displays of light while I was probably at home cleaning up after my slob of a predecessor.
But during dinner on Sunday, someone was shooting them off near the river and they were really dumb and little but I saw them and they were Japanese fireworks so they count and my life is complete :)
Happy day.
I've been soo resentful of all of my friends because they've all been to fireworks festivals and seen all these beautiful displays of light while I was probably at home cleaning up after my slob of a predecessor.
But during dinner on Sunday, someone was shooting them off near the river and they were really dumb and little but I saw them and they were Japanese fireworks so they count and my life is complete :)
Happy day.
WhataWeekend
Weekends are so short here in Japan. I'm so used to working at a place where weekends don't really exist... you just kind of make your own weekend whenever you feel like having one. I don't like this real people work schedule haha.
So Friday night I went to Himeji again. We went to this cute bar where the bartender makes the biggest Long Island Ice Tea you've ever seen in your entire life. Don't drink too many cuz you'll waste all the next day recovering, and miss playing frisbee and going to a lantern festival. Unhappy times.
Sunday was a bit more happy. I went to Kyoto for the day to go to something something Inari something shrine. haha I'm so ridiculously bad with Japanese names. I'll look it up. If you've seen Memoirs of a Geisha there's this part where she's running through this tunnel of orangeness... that's what this place is. A bzillion tori (I think that's right) gates that go on forever through woods. It's more or less mosquito capital of the world. I have 20 bites on my left lower leg. That doesn't count my right lower leg and the rest of me. However, the mosquitos seemed content to chow down on my shins and leave most of the rest of me alone. *thinking positive*
Despite being eaten alive, it was beautiful. Very peaceful. It was a bit of a trek through the woods though...about a billion stairs that ALL went UP. But worth it. Afterwards there was wandering around Kyoto. We ended up in Gion, geisha district, but I didn't see any geisha. Only a random Japanese Irish band. They were pretty good actually. I may have bought their CD had it not cost 2000 yen ($20ish). We had dinner at this fantastic Thai restaurant right on the river. You have to pay like $5/person to sit outside, but it was soooooooooooo worth it. The weather was absolutely amazing and we were literally on a deck that hung out over the river. The food was incredible as well. We were fat gaijin and ate way too much but it was amazing and I don't care anymore. That is probably officially my favorite restaurant EVER. I will never find it again lol. I don't even know the name of it. Yay for me and my directionally, locationally challenged self.
We ended up missing the last train back to Kobe (::shakes fist at Japan and non-24-hour transportation system::) and spent the evening sitting by the river waiting for first train. Had trouble finding a cab to the station, had to stand most of the way back while being miserable from lack of sleep, and was late for work. My b.
Overall, worth it. Probably my favorite weekend so far :)
So Friday night I went to Himeji again. We went to this cute bar where the bartender makes the biggest Long Island Ice Tea you've ever seen in your entire life. Don't drink too many cuz you'll waste all the next day recovering, and miss playing frisbee and going to a lantern festival. Unhappy times.
Sunday was a bit more happy. I went to Kyoto for the day to go to something something Inari something shrine. haha I'm so ridiculously bad with Japanese names. I'll look it up. If you've seen Memoirs of a Geisha there's this part where she's running through this tunnel of orangeness... that's what this place is. A bzillion tori (I think that's right) gates that go on forever through woods. It's more or less mosquito capital of the world. I have 20 bites on my left lower leg. That doesn't count my right lower leg and the rest of me. However, the mosquitos seemed content to chow down on my shins and leave most of the rest of me alone. *thinking positive*
Despite being eaten alive, it was beautiful. Very peaceful. It was a bit of a trek through the woods though...about a billion stairs that ALL went UP. But worth it. Afterwards there was wandering around Kyoto. We ended up in Gion, geisha district, but I didn't see any geisha. Only a random Japanese Irish band. They were pretty good actually. I may have bought their CD had it not cost 2000 yen ($20ish). We had dinner at this fantastic Thai restaurant right on the river. You have to pay like $5/person to sit outside, but it was soooooooooooo worth it. The weather was absolutely amazing and we were literally on a deck that hung out over the river. The food was incredible as well. We were fat gaijin and ate way too much but it was amazing and I don't care anymore. That is probably officially my favorite restaurant EVER. I will never find it again lol. I don't even know the name of it. Yay for me and my directionally, locationally challenged self.
We ended up missing the last train back to Kobe (::shakes fist at Japan and non-24-hour transportation system::) and spent the evening sitting by the river waiting for first train. Had trouble finding a cab to the station, had to stand most of the way back while being miserable from lack of sleep, and was late for work. My b.
Overall, worth it. Probably my favorite weekend so far :)
Thursday, August 20, 2009
Ichigo Ichie!
I am now sitting at my desk at Suma Tomogaoka High School. It has been awhile... I will do my best to recap the last several weeks which are, in fact, more or less a whirlwind of craziness.
Tokyo was awesome.. I met lots of good people, sang some karaoke.. good times. We loaded onto buses headed back to our respective Jay-pan locations. The Hyogoians got to ride the shinkansen (bullet train), which I've been on before, but it's always cool to ride the shinkansen. I had an awesome bento meant for children but it had EVERYTHING. French fries, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, sandwich, chicken, mini hotdogs with cute little designs cut in them. Japanese people make good bentos:) I was exhausted for most of the trip and more or less struggled to stay awake. We read some fun articles about scary Japanese bugs that thourougly freaked most of us out... especially the more rural JETs.
So we got to Kobe station.... I was about to die of heat stroke from the fricken humidity and carrying hundreds of pounds of STUFF. Not really hundreds of pounds, but all the stuff I did carry was awkward and a pain in the butt so it made it feel like more than it was I suppose. We took a bus from Kobe station to Yashiro in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of a roundabout way for me to get home, as I live about 30 min from Kobe station, and about an hour and a half from Yashiro. But whatever. So they took us to Yashiro and we went in this room with a whole bunch of teachers. They introduced us ceremonially (in Jay-pan everything's a ceremony :) ) and then the teacher from our school came up to us and took us back. I had about an hour drive ish and spent most of it looking things up in the dictionary and trying to remember my Japanese. It worked out. I heard of many people who suffered through silent car rides so luckily my JTE was patient haha. I got back to school, and some of the female teachers met me to take me back to my apartment. It's a nice apartment, actually. It is on the first floor of a high rise... I was hoping for higher up, but its convenient I suppose. There's, of course, the customary entryway (genkan I think it's called) to leave shoes and whatnot. Then a little hallway with a bathroom area on the right, including a sink that comes up to my knees, a small toilet room that I could barely turn around in, and an ofuro room, or a room for showering and bathing. The hallway runs into a decent sized kitchen, and then there are some sliding doors, with my bedroom on the other side. I have a tiny balcony outside as well which is nice. My bedroom is the only room that will have heat and airconditioning... that will be fun in winter :) But I've done it before and survived it... so maybe I'll do okay this time??????? Everyone send blankets!!!
K so here's when my life gets fun. After looking around the apartment and taking everything in, I begin to notice that my predecessor apparently had no concept of CLEAN. The floor wasn't swept, the bathroom tiles had NEVER been scrubbed... most surfaces were COVERED in DIRT and DISGUSTINGNESS. And OMG CLUTTER. I am admittedly not the neatest person but I mean holy cow. I eventually spent an entire afternoon going through closets and cabinets and drawers and everywhere else things could be stored and combining things and throwing out things and cleaning and organizing and tearing my hair out. I spent an entire night cleaning black mold... yes the deadly stuff... out of the shower room. Actually only half because I was so overwhelmed and overheated I just gave up. The fridge was moldy, all the molding on the walls was BLACK (supposed to be off white).. the place was just gross. It made me so mad because I knew if the previous renter (my predecessor that biatch) had even remotely tried to clean it wouldn't have been as bad. She was just fricken lazy and that's it. She sent me all these emails asking me to pay her for things she left in the apartment, which at first I was going to pay her, but after spending $$money$$ and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.... and hours and hours cleaning up after her I told her I wouldn't pay. She originally said it was cool but then sent me a nasty email questioning my integrity, and trying to say I spent so much time because I was trying to put everything in my definition of clean which she said was clearly different from hers. Yes, Carla. I'm sorry that I don't like to live my life rolling in filth and inhaling black mold. I apologize for questioning you. I could go on, but I think she doesn't deserve any more space on my blog. She's not worth the time it takes to type her name. MOVING ON.....
So thankfully I had friends who are 2nd year JETs and know about this MIRACLE that is Kabi Killer. Anyone reading this who is in Japan and has a dirty bathroom needs to use this stuff. I'm sure it gives you cancer on contact, but it kills mold without any scrubbing or effort whatsoever and its amazing and I love it. My bathroom now sparkles. Very happily:)
So yay...a week after I get to my apartment it is finally clean. I get to go about the business of figuring out how to throw away trash in Japan. Again, thank God for older JETs. I had read about Japan being all complicated with their rubbish and recycle bins, but didn't really understand until I got here and realized that not all plastic is the same, everything needs to be washed before being thrown out, burnables, non-burnables, recycle, pet-bottles, batteries, electronics, .... every category you could think of!!!.... all go out on different days of the week and different times of the month, and some things you have to take them to the store to be thrown away, and some things you have to pay for people to come get them and omg headache. I have the majority of things figured out... the big things anyway. It's not as intimidating as it used to be I guess, but it's still kinda crazy. I miss America where you throw everything in one bin and no one cares haha.
Around the 12th, I had another orientation to go to... back in Yashiro aka prison. Haha actually it wasn't that bad... but there is absolutely NOTHING in Yashiro, and we're stuck in a building that feels like a hospital all day trying desperately to stay awake while we're lectured (i.e. Japanese people read lengthy powerpoints word for word) about Japan and education and yadda yadda. There were some interesting JETs who helped out and helped mix things up a bit. One Austrailian guy told us `just don't be muppets' which made me laugh a lot. I pretty much just doodled the whole time. Oh and I got massively lost on my way there. I was running a bit late to begin with (story of my life), but nothing major. But I got to Sannomiya train station aka the LABRYNTH and spent about an hour trying to find the correct bus station, then another 20 min trying to figure out how to buy a ticket. Thank God there was a very nice Japanese woman behind me in line that was also going to Yashiro, otherwise I think I would still be looking for the bus itself. Luckily I got there just in time for lunch :)We definitely had really good food there.. and there was a bakery down the street we all ventured out to and I got ice cream and it was awesome. We were finished our meetings in the evening around 6ish and during and after dinner we'd all hang out and talk and stuff (all Hyogo JETs) and these Japanese guys in the kitchen apparently have a band that performs at a local bar so after dinner they'd start playing music in the kitchen. They were pretty awesome... they only played older music like the Beatles (their specialty haha) and Twist and Shout and Country Road and stuff like that. It was soooo cooool. Everybody was drinking gigantic beers and singing along and it was so happy. We had a curfew though, which was pretty lame. We were supposed to be in our rooms and asleep by 11. Supposed to be muahaha. The first night a bunch of people went to the Irish guys room and the next night the party was moved around as we got caught, but we still managed to sneak back out and find other rooms. Apparently the only reason they were so strict is because some stupid JETs in the past did dumb things like attack some guy who was in charge so they had to lock down a bit. But whatevs it was fun:)
We got back on Friday night, I spent the evening wandering around Kobe. Saturday night we had our welcome party in a beer garden in Kobe that was on the roof of a building so it was pretty cool. There were beer machines that poured your beer for you. It was pretty sweet. It was cool to see even more people I hadn't met yet... I got a bunch of numbers of JETs. lol I only remember who some of them are... but if I can remember they're all cool people:) That was over around 9:30ish? and afterwards we went to Karaoke... where else haha.
So most of my days run together... today is apparently Friday? I just found that out. I know at some point I went to Himeji castle, which was really pretty. Its cool cuz you take your shoes off to walk around and its really big and you can see all of Himeji from the top. Apparently the walls used to go all around the city... it was super gigantic. The grounds are really nice as well, but it was so hot and humid and we were hungry so there wasn't much walking around. During spring they have a nice cherry blossom display, and I imagine fall is really nice as well. That night we ate dinner at a restaurant near a friends house... they make this stuff that I cant for the life of me remember what its called but its awesome. Its like a stew kinda thing and first you eat all the stuff out of it, then you put noodles in it and eat that, then you put rice in it, and by that time you're so full you can't stand upright. We then went to our friends house...'Pablo' haha... who is super cool and also a JET. He has a bathroom with shiny round stone floor tiles and sparkly walls that made me happy. We all hung out there for awhile and played guitar and watched Youtube, and basically did all the things I do with my friends at home, and I had a lame Stage 2 moment where I started to cry because I missed home which was really dumb. But everything was cool. When I went home I listened to happy music and everything was good. Until two days later when I started crying as I was putting on my shoes lol. Yeah they warn you about this stuff at orientation but you don't think about it til it happens lol. Don't anybody worry though. There are just certain things that frustrate me, and I suppose everything's been kind of building up since I got here little by little. Like how I can't get ready in the morning without being drenched in sweat by the time I leave the house (no central air with ridiculous heat and humidity), and when I do leave the house, my hair is sticking out in all directions, regardless of hairspray and bobby pins. And Japanese people don't tend to show their shoulders, but it's really hard to convince yourself to layer up or wear anything other than a tank top when its a billion degrees out. Happy day. That kind of thing would wear on any spoiled rotten American who's used to constant AC, being able to jump in the air conditioned car and drive somewhere when its hot, and wear anything they want without worries of a social backfire. Compound random little things like that with a horrible predecessor who made you spend your first week drenched in sweat, cleaning like a fricken Japanese Cinderella and I believe you may hit your phase 2 a bit early lol.
I say phase 2, but really I'm still enjoying myself here. My main problem as of yet is trying to find my routine, but I haven't been here long enough for that yet. But I have my cell phone, I ordered internet, I'm going to work everyday, going out on weekends and whatnot... I think a routine will be coming any week now :) Work has been really nice. Such a HUGE contrast to the fast-paced, suck-your-soul-out-of-you, stress Factory where I used to work (though strangely, I miss it :( ). I get to work around 8:30 am and sometimes I have to write an introduction, or work on some other small assignment, but usually I just kinda chill out and wait for lunch and then chill some more til it's time to go home. I spend a lot of time studying (yay Facebook Kanji Box!) and some time Facebooking and checking email. For lunch, there's a grocery store across the street that most teachers go to get bento (very cheap... lunch for about $4), but sometimes I go to restaurants to have lunch. Since school isn't technically in session yet, there really isn't too much for me to do. It's quite relaxing, and doesn't feel like work at all. Yesterday, I got a tour of the school and it's big and I will get lost. But it's all good.
The teachers are all very nice too. Yamashiro sensei is the main JTE that has been helping me out and taking me everywhere. She is super awesome. Tonight she invited me to her house for dinner. I get to meet her two daughters and her dog lol. Her husband is also a teacher, but he won't be home. He is apparently an American football coach. I use the term American to describe the football, not her husband. The team went to Northern Hyogo to practice, where I suppose it is cooler. The funny thing is, she said her husband can't play football at all. I've found that many teachers that coach sports don't actually know how to play them. They just coach them. But being a coach of a team is very important to Japanese teachers. I've heard of instances where some become teachers just because they want to coach a sports team. Quite interesting. I met the teacher that is part of the kendo club. She's very cool and actually lived in Belize for awhile. She said I can come try kendo sometime, which might be fun.
The other day, I went to Kyoto. We basically just went for dinner. We went to this place where they have yakiniku and it was tabe/nomihodai (all you can eat and all you can drink) which is always a dangerous thing. We ate soooo much food it was ridiculous but it was so good. Since I've been here I've had cow tongue, chicken heart, and cow cheek, which I hadn't had (or didn't think I had haha) the last time I was here. The cheek freaked me out just a little cuz I couldn't help thinking about reading Hannibal Rising and anyone who's read that book knows what I'm talking about lol.
So.... so far Jay-pan is definitely the happy place I remember it being. I got paid recently so I'm quite excited to go shopping again... which will make it even happier:)
Yay Jay-pan! Come visit!
Tokyo was awesome.. I met lots of good people, sang some karaoke.. good times. We loaded onto buses headed back to our respective Jay-pan locations. The Hyogoians got to ride the shinkansen (bullet train), which I've been on before, but it's always cool to ride the shinkansen. I had an awesome bento meant for children but it had EVERYTHING. French fries, spaghetti, mashed potatoes, sandwich, chicken, mini hotdogs with cute little designs cut in them. Japanese people make good bentos:) I was exhausted for most of the trip and more or less struggled to stay awake. We read some fun articles about scary Japanese bugs that thourougly freaked most of us out... especially the more rural JETs.
So we got to Kobe station.... I was about to die of heat stroke from the fricken humidity and carrying hundreds of pounds of STUFF. Not really hundreds of pounds, but all the stuff I did carry was awkward and a pain in the butt so it made it feel like more than it was I suppose. We took a bus from Kobe station to Yashiro in the middle of nowhere. It was kind of a roundabout way for me to get home, as I live about 30 min from Kobe station, and about an hour and a half from Yashiro. But whatever. So they took us to Yashiro and we went in this room with a whole bunch of teachers. They introduced us ceremonially (in Jay-pan everything's a ceremony :) ) and then the teacher from our school came up to us and took us back. I had about an hour drive ish and spent most of it looking things up in the dictionary and trying to remember my Japanese. It worked out. I heard of many people who suffered through silent car rides so luckily my JTE was patient haha. I got back to school, and some of the female teachers met me to take me back to my apartment. It's a nice apartment, actually. It is on the first floor of a high rise... I was hoping for higher up, but its convenient I suppose. There's, of course, the customary entryway (genkan I think it's called) to leave shoes and whatnot. Then a little hallway with a bathroom area on the right, including a sink that comes up to my knees, a small toilet room that I could barely turn around in, and an ofuro room, or a room for showering and bathing. The hallway runs into a decent sized kitchen, and then there are some sliding doors, with my bedroom on the other side. I have a tiny balcony outside as well which is nice. My bedroom is the only room that will have heat and airconditioning... that will be fun in winter :) But I've done it before and survived it... so maybe I'll do okay this time??????? Everyone send blankets!!!
K so here's when my life gets fun. After looking around the apartment and taking everything in, I begin to notice that my predecessor apparently had no concept of CLEAN. The floor wasn't swept, the bathroom tiles had NEVER been scrubbed... most surfaces were COVERED in DIRT and DISGUSTINGNESS. And OMG CLUTTER. I am admittedly not the neatest person but I mean holy cow. I eventually spent an entire afternoon going through closets and cabinets and drawers and everywhere else things could be stored and combining things and throwing out things and cleaning and organizing and tearing my hair out. I spent an entire night cleaning black mold... yes the deadly stuff... out of the shower room. Actually only half because I was so overwhelmed and overheated I just gave up. The fridge was moldy, all the molding on the walls was BLACK (supposed to be off white).. the place was just gross. It made me so mad because I knew if the previous renter (my predecessor that biatch) had even remotely tried to clean it wouldn't have been as bad. She was just fricken lazy and that's it. She sent me all these emails asking me to pay her for things she left in the apartment, which at first I was going to pay her, but after spending $$money$$ and hours and hours and hours and hours and hours.... and hours and hours cleaning up after her I told her I wouldn't pay. She originally said it was cool but then sent me a nasty email questioning my integrity, and trying to say I spent so much time because I was trying to put everything in my definition of clean which she said was clearly different from hers. Yes, Carla. I'm sorry that I don't like to live my life rolling in filth and inhaling black mold. I apologize for questioning you. I could go on, but I think she doesn't deserve any more space on my blog. She's not worth the time it takes to type her name. MOVING ON.....
So thankfully I had friends who are 2nd year JETs and know about this MIRACLE that is Kabi Killer. Anyone reading this who is in Japan and has a dirty bathroom needs to use this stuff. I'm sure it gives you cancer on contact, but it kills mold without any scrubbing or effort whatsoever and its amazing and I love it. My bathroom now sparkles. Very happily:)
So yay...a week after I get to my apartment it is finally clean. I get to go about the business of figuring out how to throw away trash in Japan. Again, thank God for older JETs. I had read about Japan being all complicated with their rubbish and recycle bins, but didn't really understand until I got here and realized that not all plastic is the same, everything needs to be washed before being thrown out, burnables, non-burnables, recycle, pet-bottles, batteries, electronics, .... every category you could think of!!!.... all go out on different days of the week and different times of the month, and some things you have to take them to the store to be thrown away, and some things you have to pay for people to come get them and omg headache. I have the majority of things figured out... the big things anyway. It's not as intimidating as it used to be I guess, but it's still kinda crazy. I miss America where you throw everything in one bin and no one cares haha.
Around the 12th, I had another orientation to go to... back in Yashiro aka prison. Haha actually it wasn't that bad... but there is absolutely NOTHING in Yashiro, and we're stuck in a building that feels like a hospital all day trying desperately to stay awake while we're lectured (i.e. Japanese people read lengthy powerpoints word for word) about Japan and education and yadda yadda. There were some interesting JETs who helped out and helped mix things up a bit. One Austrailian guy told us `just don't be muppets' which made me laugh a lot. I pretty much just doodled the whole time. Oh and I got massively lost on my way there. I was running a bit late to begin with (story of my life), but nothing major. But I got to Sannomiya train station aka the LABRYNTH and spent about an hour trying to find the correct bus station, then another 20 min trying to figure out how to buy a ticket. Thank God there was a very nice Japanese woman behind me in line that was also going to Yashiro, otherwise I think I would still be looking for the bus itself. Luckily I got there just in time for lunch :)We definitely had really good food there.. and there was a bakery down the street we all ventured out to and I got ice cream and it was awesome. We were finished our meetings in the evening around 6ish and during and after dinner we'd all hang out and talk and stuff (all Hyogo JETs) and these Japanese guys in the kitchen apparently have a band that performs at a local bar so after dinner they'd start playing music in the kitchen. They were pretty awesome... they only played older music like the Beatles (their specialty haha) and Twist and Shout and Country Road and stuff like that. It was soooo cooool. Everybody was drinking gigantic beers and singing along and it was so happy. We had a curfew though, which was pretty lame. We were supposed to be in our rooms and asleep by 11. Supposed to be muahaha. The first night a bunch of people went to the Irish guys room and the next night the party was moved around as we got caught, but we still managed to sneak back out and find other rooms. Apparently the only reason they were so strict is because some stupid JETs in the past did dumb things like attack some guy who was in charge so they had to lock down a bit. But whatevs it was fun:)
We got back on Friday night, I spent the evening wandering around Kobe. Saturday night we had our welcome party in a beer garden in Kobe that was on the roof of a building so it was pretty cool. There were beer machines that poured your beer for you. It was pretty sweet. It was cool to see even more people I hadn't met yet... I got a bunch of numbers of JETs. lol I only remember who some of them are... but if I can remember they're all cool people:) That was over around 9:30ish? and afterwards we went to Karaoke... where else haha.
So most of my days run together... today is apparently Friday? I just found that out. I know at some point I went to Himeji castle, which was really pretty. Its cool cuz you take your shoes off to walk around and its really big and you can see all of Himeji from the top. Apparently the walls used to go all around the city... it was super gigantic. The grounds are really nice as well, but it was so hot and humid and we were hungry so there wasn't much walking around. During spring they have a nice cherry blossom display, and I imagine fall is really nice as well. That night we ate dinner at a restaurant near a friends house... they make this stuff that I cant for the life of me remember what its called but its awesome. Its like a stew kinda thing and first you eat all the stuff out of it, then you put noodles in it and eat that, then you put rice in it, and by that time you're so full you can't stand upright. We then went to our friends house...'Pablo' haha... who is super cool and also a JET. He has a bathroom with shiny round stone floor tiles and sparkly walls that made me happy. We all hung out there for awhile and played guitar and watched Youtube, and basically did all the things I do with my friends at home, and I had a lame Stage 2 moment where I started to cry because I missed home which was really dumb. But everything was cool. When I went home I listened to happy music and everything was good. Until two days later when I started crying as I was putting on my shoes lol. Yeah they warn you about this stuff at orientation but you don't think about it til it happens lol. Don't anybody worry though. There are just certain things that frustrate me, and I suppose everything's been kind of building up since I got here little by little. Like how I can't get ready in the morning without being drenched in sweat by the time I leave the house (no central air with ridiculous heat and humidity), and when I do leave the house, my hair is sticking out in all directions, regardless of hairspray and bobby pins. And Japanese people don't tend to show their shoulders, but it's really hard to convince yourself to layer up or wear anything other than a tank top when its a billion degrees out. Happy day. That kind of thing would wear on any spoiled rotten American who's used to constant AC, being able to jump in the air conditioned car and drive somewhere when its hot, and wear anything they want without worries of a social backfire. Compound random little things like that with a horrible predecessor who made you spend your first week drenched in sweat, cleaning like a fricken Japanese Cinderella and I believe you may hit your phase 2 a bit early lol.
I say phase 2, but really I'm still enjoying myself here. My main problem as of yet is trying to find my routine, but I haven't been here long enough for that yet. But I have my cell phone, I ordered internet, I'm going to work everyday, going out on weekends and whatnot... I think a routine will be coming any week now :) Work has been really nice. Such a HUGE contrast to the fast-paced, suck-your-soul-out-of-you, stress Factory where I used to work (though strangely, I miss it :( ). I get to work around 8:30 am and sometimes I have to write an introduction, or work on some other small assignment, but usually I just kinda chill out and wait for lunch and then chill some more til it's time to go home. I spend a lot of time studying (yay Facebook Kanji Box!) and some time Facebooking and checking email. For lunch, there's a grocery store across the street that most teachers go to get bento (very cheap... lunch for about $4), but sometimes I go to restaurants to have lunch. Since school isn't technically in session yet, there really isn't too much for me to do. It's quite relaxing, and doesn't feel like work at all. Yesterday, I got a tour of the school and it's big and I will get lost. But it's all good.
The teachers are all very nice too. Yamashiro sensei is the main JTE that has been helping me out and taking me everywhere. She is super awesome. Tonight she invited me to her house for dinner. I get to meet her two daughters and her dog lol. Her husband is also a teacher, but he won't be home. He is apparently an American football coach. I use the term American to describe the football, not her husband. The team went to Northern Hyogo to practice, where I suppose it is cooler. The funny thing is, she said her husband can't play football at all. I've found that many teachers that coach sports don't actually know how to play them. They just coach them. But being a coach of a team is very important to Japanese teachers. I've heard of instances where some become teachers just because they want to coach a sports team. Quite interesting. I met the teacher that is part of the kendo club. She's very cool and actually lived in Belize for awhile. She said I can come try kendo sometime, which might be fun.
The other day, I went to Kyoto. We basically just went for dinner. We went to this place where they have yakiniku and it was tabe/nomihodai (all you can eat and all you can drink) which is always a dangerous thing. We ate soooo much food it was ridiculous but it was so good. Since I've been here I've had cow tongue, chicken heart, and cow cheek, which I hadn't had (or didn't think I had haha) the last time I was here. The cheek freaked me out just a little cuz I couldn't help thinking about reading Hannibal Rising and anyone who's read that book knows what I'm talking about lol.
So.... so far Jay-pan is definitely the happy place I remember it being. I got paid recently so I'm quite excited to go shopping again... which will make it even happier:)
Yay Jay-pan! Come visit!
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Tokyo Orientation- 8/2/09-8/5/09
Apparently, I've been in Japan since the 2nd. Although I'm kinda feeling like I'm missing a day, since we left on the 1st, spent forever and a half on planes and in airports and buses-no boats though:(- and somehow ended up here on the 2nd. It felt like FOREVER. The plane was pretty cool though. All the seats had their own touch screens where we could choose whatever we wanted to watch. I played tetris, then watched Monk, The Office, 30 Rock, Simpsons, My Life in Ruins (suprisingly good movie btw), and probably about a thousand other things. Overall, okay flight despite the fact that it was pretty much the longest flight ever. Random JETs were wandering around the plane saying hey to everybody which was pretty cool. MM did some yoga in the airport. And we ate Fuddruckers. mmmm.
All the DC JETs I met at orientation I feel like I've known them for weeks when actually it's only been a few days. It's been fun hanging out with everybody. I'm gonna miss my non-Hyogo peeps. My wifey included. We've spent some time exploring local Tokyo at night...getting lost and following pretty lights:) Mostly, it's been exhausting, as the days consist of endless meetings on top of sleep deprivedness on top of jet lag. Good times.
It's odd as well that it doesn't really feel yet like I'm in Japan. When I studied abroad, the second I got off the plane I had this feeling of being somewhere different. The look and feel of everything was somehow out of the ordinary, and it was a very "out of body experience?". I'm not sure that's the best term to describe the feeling, but it was more or less like I was conscious of every detail of everything and just very aware of my surroundings and myself in them. This time has been different. I think it may be partially because I've been here before, so things feel familiar, and also because I've been traveling with a large group of people that has remained constant throughout the past several days. I almost feel like I might still be in DC, or at any moment I'll be heading home to Charlotte. Very odd feeling.
Tomorrow we will be heading to our home prefectures. It's kind of funny that everyone has already developed a pride in their prefecture. By the way... HYOGO ROCKS. I have to get my bags ready tonight which is dumb. Sooooooo tired of packing. It'll all be over soon though... I get to move into my new place tomorrow and will no longer be living out of a suitcase. yay! We get to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) which is quite exciting. Then a bus. Then my people come pick me up and take me to my apartment. I assume it's an apartment ::shrugs:: I'll find out tomorrow.
Another very cool thing. The window in my hotel room overlooks the government building that I went to the top of the last time I was in Tokyo to get a view of the city. On a clear day you can see Fujisan. Kinda weird that I was pretty much in this exact location 3 years ago.
All the DC JETs I met at orientation I feel like I've known them for weeks when actually it's only been a few days. It's been fun hanging out with everybody. I'm gonna miss my non-Hyogo peeps. My wifey included. We've spent some time exploring local Tokyo at night...getting lost and following pretty lights:) Mostly, it's been exhausting, as the days consist of endless meetings on top of sleep deprivedness on top of jet lag. Good times.
It's odd as well that it doesn't really feel yet like I'm in Japan. When I studied abroad, the second I got off the plane I had this feeling of being somewhere different. The look and feel of everything was somehow out of the ordinary, and it was a very "out of body experience?". I'm not sure that's the best term to describe the feeling, but it was more or less like I was conscious of every detail of everything and just very aware of my surroundings and myself in them. This time has been different. I think it may be partially because I've been here before, so things feel familiar, and also because I've been traveling with a large group of people that has remained constant throughout the past several days. I almost feel like I might still be in DC, or at any moment I'll be heading home to Charlotte. Very odd feeling.
Tomorrow we will be heading to our home prefectures. It's kind of funny that everyone has already developed a pride in their prefecture. By the way... HYOGO ROCKS. I have to get my bags ready tonight which is dumb. Sooooooo tired of packing. It'll all be over soon though... I get to move into my new place tomorrow and will no longer be living out of a suitcase. yay! We get to take the Shinkansen (bullet train) which is quite exciting. Then a bus. Then my people come pick me up and take me to my apartment. I assume it's an apartment ::shrugs:: I'll find out tomorrow.
Another very cool thing. The window in my hotel room overlooks the government building that I went to the top of the last time I was in Tokyo to get a view of the city. On a clear day you can see Fujisan. Kinda weird that I was pretty much in this exact location 3 years ago.
Friday, July 31, 2009
DC Orientation 7/31/09
So after about 3 straight days of packing in Rock Hill (one of which was approximately 14 hours long), donating 3 trash bags of clothes to Schoolhouse Exchange/Goodwill/Cassie, donating a pile of assorted other belongings to Goodwill, and trashing/packing the rest...I filled my car to the brim and headed to Roanoke, where I dropped off some of my stuff for storage, then drove to MD where I spent another day and a half rearranging and getting rid of more stuff, only to h
ave a suitcase that is slightly overweight, and another that is so jammed full of stuff it's probably going to explode, a humungo-purse that weighs a million pounds that may or may not count as my carry-on on the bus, and a miracle called "I'm actually able to bring my guitar as a carry-on".^Run-on sentence? Yes. Accurate verbal representation of the way I've felt for the past few days? Absolutely.
July 31:
Woke up at 6am. Actually a little before as my mom decided to come wake me up about quarter of 6. Not that it mattered, seeing as how I didn't really sleep anyway, on account of stress due to packing, leaving friends, leaving my house, leaving my car, leaving my life as I've known it for the past 2 years at least. Showered, got ready in my businessy, 'real people job' attire, went to metro station, sent MM a text declaring 'No me gusta jobs that require me to wake up at 6am', got to station, went to Starbucks, met MM, exchanged money, cleaned out Currency Exchange of all yen, orientation.
Orientation was actually very informative. Since my interview site was in DC and I lived in South Carolina, I was unable to make most of the Q&A sessions and other useful JET events. We talked about cultural etiquette, cu
lture shock, luggage, lesson plans, drugs are bad, JET alumni associations, getting involved, and got our plane tickets. It actually made me not stress out so much about things. Up until orientation, I really felt like I had no information. My predecessor really wasn't very helpful from that standpoint...it was mostly like pulling teeth trying to figure things out. Unless I wanted to know the location of the nearest McDona
ld's and important things like that (see pictures from previous blog). I had gotten in touch with the other ALT I work with, and he was able to tell me some thiebgs, but overall both of them just seemed kind of busy and not overly excited about their jobs, which kind of worried me. But after today, and talking with JETs from previous years, and actually getting answers and finding out what it's like to be a JET, I think I feel a lot better about it. The main message I got from many of the ALTs was that the experience is really what you make of it. I hope I'm able to get involved and have fun with my students so they don't hate me. They are high schoolers which means they're probably dramatic. I want to find clubs and whatnot that I can be involved in. If there is no Ultimate Frisbee I'm probably going to try to get that started. Best game ever.
lture shock, luggage, lesson plans, drugs are bad, JET alumni associations, getting involved, and got our plane tickets. It actually made me not stress out so much about things. Up until orientation, I really felt like I had no information. My predecessor really wasn't very helpful from that standpoint...it was mostly like pulling teeth trying to figure things out. Unless I wanted to know the location of the nearest McDona
ld's and important things like that (see pictures from previous blog). I had gotten in touch with the other ALT I work with, and he was able to tell me some thiebgs, but overall both of them just seemed kind of busy and not overly excited about their jobs, which kind of worried me. But after today, and talking with JETs from previous years, and actually getting answers and finding out what it's like to be a JET, I think I feel a lot better about it. The main message I got from many of the ALTs was that the experience is really what you make of it. I hope I'm able to get involved and have fun with my students so they don't hate me. They are high schoolers which means they're probably dramatic. I want to find clubs and whatnot that I can be involved in. If there is no Ultimate Frisbee I'm probably going to try to get that started. Best game ever.Basically, I feel better. Although I kinda want the 12+ hour flight to be over. And I kinda don't want to wake up at 6 again, but I guess I have to. On one hand, I can't stand not knowing what's going to happen, but it's pretty cool knowing the next time I go to bed, I'll be in Tokyo:)
Tuesday, July 21, 2009
It's up to you！～輝く未来を手に入れる～
Apparently this is the slogan ^ :)
More interesting finds on the website as well... some newsletter type things. This is the site that has all the newsletters... they are under the links in partial English--->
http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~tomogaoka-hs/241%20suisinbu/suisinbu-top-frame.htm
The link at the bottom in the middle of the page is my favorite... it has pictures and introductions by the ALT that I'm replacing , Carla, and another ALT named Andrew, who I'll be working with. :)
More interesting finds on the website as well... some newsletter type things. This is the site that has all the newsletters... they are under the links in partial English--->
http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~tomogaoka-hs/241%20suisinbu/suisinbu-top-frame.htm
The link at the bottom in the middle of the page is my favorite... it has pictures and introductions by the ALT that I'm replacing , Carla, and another ALT named Andrew, who I'll be working with. :)
Picture of Suma Tomogaoka
From the Website.... something about June 20-21, 2008... who knows... but it's a pic of the outside of the school!
http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~tomogaoka-hs/161%20topikus/2008nendo/tomokosai2008/tomokosai2008-frame.htm
http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~tomogaoka-hs/161%20topikus/2008nendo/tomokosai2008/tomokosai2008-frame.htm
My School
This is the website of the school where I'll be teaching... it's all in Japanese but there are pictures and it's cool :)
http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~tomogaoka-hs/
http://www.hyogo-c.ed.jp/~tomogaoka-hs/
It's coming............
So I've recently realized that I am, in fact, actually going to Japan. It's not something that I just randomly talk about to take my mind off Cheesecake Factory. No. I'm really going. For real. Crazy.
I'm actually very grateful to have my wifey, MM, coming with me. The last time I was in Japan when I studied abroad, I more or less went by myself. Of course I went to school with people and made friends and whatnot, but there's something to be said for having a person that you already know to share your experience with. It will definitely be nice to know that I can call her whenever and stuff like that, which sounds kinda dumb, but if you've ever lived for an extended period of time in another time zone you should understand. I'm not one to need company for everything necessarily, but this is quite a large change in my life, and having a bit of consistency I think will make it a bit easier.
So now that the day draws closer, and the majority of the paperwork is finished, I, the eternal procrastinator, need to start getting serious about the daunting task of packing. I've been working on it in bits and pieces for awhile, as I understood awhile ago that my classic move of "let's pack the night before" or my favorite "let's pack at 4:30am the morning of my 1:00pm flight that I have to drive 8 hours to catch", will probably not fly on this occasion. Luckily, my friend Cassie is moving into my house and is in need of furniture and vacuums and whatnot, and so I won't have to move every last little thing out, which is awesome. Because I have a lot of stuff. It's quite the no bueno.
By the way, if anyone needs a piano or various Swarovski knick knacks, let me know:)
Other things I need to get in order:
-omiyage (gifts to give to coworkers, neighbors, etc.). Also, pictures and whatnot to show my classes about my life. Apparently I have to do a lot of self-introduction so I'll probably be working on that on the plane.
-boxes to ship winter stuff, Herbie my stuffed moose (who is definitely coming with me), possibly my guitar, and some art supplies
-buy some businessy clothes. Not too many, Japan has awesome fashion and I'm looking forward to buying stuff there, but I'm a server and have absolutely no business appropriate attire so I need a base. Especially pants, as I am a giant cow in Japan and none of the pants will fit me. And shoes, as I have clown feet ::shout out to my parents for that one :) ::
-pick up currency I ordered from the bank.
-buy a computer... which I actually did a few days ago. (Thank you, Barnes-again-for selling me the wrong one. It was quite the happy accident:)) A computer is uber necessary for keeping in touch.
-boring stuff: sell my car, cancel things like insurance, cell phone, et. al.
Quite the list, really. It doesn't look like it, but I promise you, it is.
I'm actually very grateful to have my wifey, MM, coming with me. The last time I was in Japan when I studied abroad, I more or less went by myself. Of course I went to school with people and made friends and whatnot, but there's something to be said for having a person that you already know to share your experience with. It will definitely be nice to know that I can call her whenever and stuff like that, which sounds kinda dumb, but if you've ever lived for an extended period of time in another time zone you should understand. I'm not one to need company for everything necessarily, but this is quite a large change in my life, and having a bit of consistency I think will make it a bit easier.
So now that the day draws closer, and the majority of the paperwork is finished, I, the eternal procrastinator, need to start getting serious about the daunting task of packing. I've been working on it in bits and pieces for awhile, as I understood awhile ago that my classic move of "let's pack the night before" or my favorite "let's pack at 4:30am the morning of my 1:00pm flight that I have to drive 8 hours to catch", will probably not fly on this occasion. Luckily, my friend Cassie is moving into my house and is in need of furniture and vacuums and whatnot, and so I won't have to move every last little thing out, which is awesome. Because I have a lot of stuff. It's quite the no bueno.
By the way, if anyone needs a piano or various Swarovski knick knacks, let me know:)
Other things I need to get in order:
-omiyage (gifts to give to coworkers, neighbors, etc.). Also, pictures and whatnot to show my classes about my life. Apparently I have to do a lot of self-introduction so I'll probably be working on that on the plane.
-boxes to ship winter stuff, Herbie my stuffed moose (who is definitely coming with me), possibly my guitar, and some art supplies
-buy some businessy clothes. Not too many, Japan has awesome fashion and I'm looking forward to buying stuff there, but I'm a server and have absolutely no business appropriate attire so I need a base. Especially pants, as I am a giant cow in Japan and none of the pants will fit me. And shoes, as I have clown feet ::shout out to my parents for that one :) ::
-pick up currency I ordered from the bank.
-buy a computer... which I actually did a few days ago. (Thank you, Barnes-again-for selling me the wrong one. It was quite the happy accident:)) A computer is uber necessary for keeping in touch.
-boring stuff: sell my car, cancel things like insurance, cell phone, et. al.
Quite the list, really. It doesn't look like it, but I promise you, it is.
Thursday, July 9, 2009
Fotografias de mi casa!
Happy day! My predecessor sent me pictures of my apartment and nearby stuff.
Estan aqui---->
What would Jay-pan be without McDonalds a.k.a. "Makudo" :)
Nearby shopping center.
Yay fridge and microwave!
Yay, blender next to computer:) I can drink while blogging...
I have a bed! Exciting to know I don't have to sleep on the floor everyday for the next year or so.... :)
Estan aqui---->
What would Jay-pan be without McDonalds a.k.a. "Makudo" :) 
Nearby shopping center. 
Yay fridge and microwave!
Yay, blender next to computer:) I can drink while blogging... 
I have a bed! Exciting to know I don't have to sleep on the floor everyday for the next year or so.... :)Jay-pan's getting closer... pretty crazy.
In addition to my pictures, I also got info about the classes I'll be teaching. Apparently I'll be teaching 14 classes a week, with 9 different teachers, ranging from the US equivalent to 10th grade through 12th. That's a lot of kids names to learn. No bueno. I'm excited though because from what I read, I'll actually be doing a lot of the teaching and not just being an English speaking tape-recorder... although apparently some of that is involved, but not a lot so its cool:)
Also, my rent is only $200. I can't get over how ridiculously awesome that is.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
My Address!!!
I got my address in Japan!
Everybody send me ranch, buffalo sauce, and postcards of love!
501-103, 2-2 minami ochiai
Suma-ku, Kobe-shi
Hyogo-ken 654-0153
Japan
Everybody send me ranch, buffalo sauce, and postcards of love!
501-103, 2-2 minami ochiai
Suma-ku, Kobe-shi
Hyogo-ken 654-0153
Japan
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
3 weeks and Counting!
I leave August 1, 10:05am from Reagan Airport in DC, short layover in Chicago, and I'm off to Japan, where I will spend the next year...or two or three... being an assistant English language teacher at Sumatomogaoka High School in Kobe, Japan.
My BFF and Official Facebook wifey, Mary Margaret aka MM, will be going too, but sadly she will be on another island. Luckily, MM discovered a ferry we can take back and forth so that I can go surfing at her fantastic little beach apartment, and she can come hang out and eat Kobe cows. Although the last time I was there, I didn't see any cows so ::shrugs:: we'll see.
I'm pretty excited as well that I will be decently close to Osaka, where I studied abroad in 2006. My host family, the Takas, live there. It will be fun to see my little brother Reize. He was only 3 when I was with them so he must be getting big by now:)
While I'm excited to go, I've lately developed a bit of anxiety about the whole thing. Not necessarily the being in Japan part- been there, done that. But I've got a LOT of stuff to get rid of and ship home... and inevitably right before I sell my car, it decides to get run into by a trailer hitch on a truck, and belts start squeaking, the little plastic thing on the gear shift is popping out and making my life complicated every time I want to reverse the car. I pretty much hate cars and can't wait til I don't have one anymore. Just a bunch of little stuff.
Also, I'm not quite sure how I'll survive without my Cheesecake Factory family, and Sunday Funday and Half-Off Wednesdays at Fairview. It'll be okay, and I know it, but it's going to be a lot harder leaving this time. This time, I'm not lame and spending all my time with a stupid boyfriend, so I actually have friends to leave behind. No bueno. For the record, I love all you CCFers. Even Jeff Brown and his Matrix will be missed at some point. Not too much. But a little.
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