Running a class and enjoying the week

After such an intense saturday, I figured I'd take it easy Sunday and just took the day to enjoy games, had some delicious food, and pretty much just took it easy.

Monday, I had an enjoyable day with my classes and students. There were only 4 classes, with the 5th being moral education. At lunch, I had a fun time talking with the students I was sitting with (as opposed to last week, where I sat at the front of the room since I only ate in the class a couple times last week. One of the boys I was eating with is pretty talkative. The guys at my table got a kick out of learning the word 'dumpling'. :-P

I also talked with Kawai-sense who wants me to lead a class on Wednesday, so I came up with the idea to do a 'baseball grammar' game.

In the afternoon I went to the gym and watched the 3rd years singing with a couple other professors. After the period ending, I stuck around with the choir teacher's homeroom which is also the 'select choir' of a sense. They were fantastic, energetic, and fun. the teacher asked me if there was anything I wanted to add after they got done, and I just gave some basic tips about how to stand and stuff, which was fun.

The teacher also was a little shocked I think that I actually had some experience singing.

After school got done, I left and walked 1/2 to the train station with some of my students and had a fun time with them. so far I'm really enjoying getting to know these students.

for dinner I made some curry, and although I had a tough time getting the rice cooker to work, I finally got it, had tons of curry, and basically felt like awesome.

today, I dropped off my garbage on the way to school, got in and had several classes with some beginning students and still did my self introductions, which was a tad boring, but these were classes I had on the first day of class, so it was neat to see them again.

I also had class with the 'amazing' students with Kasuga, which was fun just because I'm always surprised just how good these students are. I also gave some cd's to one of the girls in the class who I had told I would bring some music to after she played some music last class.

Today, I finished up the baseball game work, which went well, and Kubota-sensei told me that some of her students talked to her today saying that they walked with me yesterday and that they were shocked that I could speak japanese. But she told them it was just a bluff on my part. :-P

I was planning on taking some pictures of school today, and although my camera was fine this morning, as of this afternoon it was on the fritz. I'm still trying to get it to work. Hopefully all will be fine here in the 24 hours.
I made some fried rice for dinner tonight, which was interesting to try and make. But it all turned out well!

I'm looking into making a trip up to Matsumoto this weekend to meet up with an OT'er who's going to be there, and it's only a couple of hours away.

Whew! Today was long, exhausting, cold, wet, and a blast! I got up, got some food in me (delicious toast!), showered, got ready, and headed out. I made my way to the station, and got my ticket (less than 10 bux there!). Here's a picture from the train station platform, it was really pretty today!

But the train heading the opposite way as mine came in just a few minutes before mine did, and the window went down, and I heard some "Dowaito-sensei! Hallo!" So I waved and said hi to some of the boys from the jr. high, but then I noticed a stream of girls getting off the train from school! Their faces were blank, then a slow understanding and dumb-struck awe at seeing their teacher on the platform in regular guy clothes! Ahaha. Kawai-sensei was with them, and asked me where I was going, and they were all surprised I was going to the place of the fireworks show so late after the original show, but I assured them there were fireworks today. :-P

So I got my ticket, and rode the train. I got off at Okaya, and asked an attendant where I needed to go to catch my next train, got on the right platform, cought the next train, as was to Kawa-suwa with no hitches! It also helped that I was just following a huge stream of people. :-PMe following the stream of peeps.


So I got there, and I had detailed directions from Erica, the head of AJET (who sponsores a lot of events for JETs, including this one). I made my way where I needed to go, and noticed that since I was early, the gates weren't open yet. So I figured I'd save some of the time instead of standing in line, and walked towards where I was supposed to go. Well, I find a nice place in line, after I got to wander through the delicious smelling venders row:



Although this picture was taken later on that day, it still smelled delicious.

So I'm standing in line for a while, and finally 3 o'clock rolls around, and they start letting people in. Well, I finally get there, and the guy asks me something, and I pull out my headphones, and he asks me for my ticket. I told him I didn't have a ticket and asked wehre I could get one, and he pointed me in the direction. I was a bit confused though, because I was under the impression that this was a free event for me to attend. So I finally get down to where the tickets are sold, pick one up (for 2000yen, which upset me), and start walking back. As I'm walking, I'm thinking "man, there are a ton of people sitting outside of the fenced in area". And wondering if the AJET tarp could possibly be outside of the area? I didn't think so though, because I was told we were along the jogging path, and this area wasn't so wide, so it couldn't be the jogging path.

Instead of going back in where I originally was, I kept walking just to see if I could find them anyway, and lo and behold, turns out the fenced in area wasn't the only place, and there were other areas that were free. Awesome. Ugh. So I ended up walking past the AJET tarp, because I figured, with everyone signing up for AJET, at 20$ a pop, they would have an EZ up or something. I then realized that not only did we really just have a 'blue tarp', there were only 3 people there, and none of them were block leaders. Whoops. So I meandered down, introduced myself to Nicole and Bren and their Japanese friend, and just kinda settled in. It was warm though, which was a bit of a bummer but the sun felt nice.

after a while people started showing up, and by 5-6 we had a full tarp of people, and I had introduced myself another million times, and was having fun chatting with people. The sun finally went behind some clouds before settling behind the mountain, which was great. The only problem was that if it went behind clouds, it meant that rain was on the way. LAME


So it finally got dark, and after grabbing some karaage (friend chicken) and a chuhai (fruity beer, MMM!. Also, hooray to Japan's OK attitude to public drinking) I went back to watch the fireworks.

The fireworks show is held in the same place as the major one on August 15th, but this one is done by competeing agencies to see who gets to do the job for the next year. The fireworks, as you can see from the video's ,were amazing. after this first video you watch (aka the first show) finished, I let out a resounding "YAY AMERICA" which got a lot of laughs. :-P

Some of the highlights of the fireworks included ones that blew up into pictures of shapes (personal favs: hearts and little piggy faces), as well as one that blew up, and then all the end points just HUNG IN PLACE and trailed off / rained white light from them. I have no idea how they did it, but it was the coolest effect I've ever seen with a firework.








So then, it was getting about time for us to go (we wanted to beat part of the rush and catch our trains) and a big wind came rushing in, which we were promptly informed meant that a huge storm was about to hit. It had been sprinkling earlier, and some lightning had been going off around us, but the woosh of air was kind of a good hint.

So we're packing up hurridly, and had thought the show had finished, when they set off the finale. the finale was done down at water level on the lake, not more than 400 feet from us. so when the first boom went off, it was like the firework was coming right for us, hah! This next vid is the finale, doesn't do it nearly enough justic.


So, like I had said earlier, the wind is just whipping through here, and the rapid and constand explosions combined with the wind to partially block the explosions while at the same time send huge clouds of gunpowder smoke flying over us. Well, we're walking away as this is finishing up, and after the finale (which was HUGE, intimidating as anything, and in general just amazing), we're all rushing away trying to beat the crowd (which was going to be impossible anyway), and the smoke is just everywhere. With the streetlights, it combined to make everything like a bad horror movie with people coming out of the smoke as you walked along. Kinda a post-apocolyptic / horror thing.




Well, we're making good time, and we can see the lightning seemed to be moving closer / over us, but we're getting close to the station. well, not more than 1 1/2 - 2 blocks from the station, the line stops. It was a complete jam of people up until the station, and that was with trains shoveling them out as fast as possible. So fast, in fact, that you didn't pay for your ticket until you got to your destination to speed up the trip. Well, as we're standing there, it starts to rain. And of course, I don't have my umbrella.

Then it starts to pour.

Then all of a sudden, I'm in a monsoon.

Wind is whipping, rain is just POURING, and i'm getting soaked. We're slammed-packed so close that people's umbrellas are emptying off onto me. First I feel my shirt start to get wet, and feel it spread across my shirt. then my shorts, then my underpants. Then I can feel water running down my leg and pooling in my shoes.

I turn to Tony next to me, and just go, "I don't know if I should laugh or cry, this situation is just so ludacris." I also turned to a young japanese guy standing next to me, also lacking an umbrella, and gave him a clenched fist and said "ganbatte" (Do your best / try and put up with it). We both had a "what else can I do in this situation" kind of look on our face.

so after 30 minutes in the rain, we made it to the station and out of the rain. I was wringing out my shirt and shorts, and trying to squeeze it out of my shoes too. Luckily, another jet gave me a ziploc baggy to put my zune, psp, and camera into. Bless your soul, JET who's name I've forgotten.

So then we cought the train to Okaya, and thank goodness, a train was there for us to hop on, and left not more than 2 minutes after we boarded, saving us 40 minutes of standing there waiting. I then had another hour and a half to ride the train, wet, until Iijima. By the time I got to Iijima, was was only damp! :-P

I walked home, shucked the wet clothes, and hopped into nice dry ones. Now a hot bath, and I'm going to crash. Today really threw off my schedule, it's 2:30 am, and while I'm definitely tired, I'm not nearly as exhausted as I should be. I think the whole rainy experience kinda 'reset' me. :-P

Earthquake DRILL!

Another fun day! Although I'm starting to get a bit tired of being the best-dressed everyday. Polo-shirts would work, but of course I didn't bring any with me.

I did some introductions again yesterday for two classes, and also had class with Omori's 3-d class, who are supposed to be a less advanced class, but I love 'em. The brazilian kid is in that class, and he's awesome. I'm also eating lunch with a good portion of the students from that class, so that makes it more interesting. :-P

The highlight of the day though, was that we had an earthquake drill. So I was asked if I would hold the flag that the students run to. Answer: an emphatic YES. So, I head outside with a teacher who I need to get to know better (tangent time!): this guy is always energetic, funny, seems kinda subdued but commands a lot of respect from the other teachers. In other words: Awesome. He smiles and says hi to me several times a day, and in general rocks.

So I go outside with him, carrying this flag, unsure what it exactly means. This flag also looked like one of those old flags that samurai wore on their backs.

So we go outside, and set this flag up on the soccer field. The soccer field is right next to the school and is obviously a good point to go in case of earthquake. So the guy and I are set up, looking at the school, ready for this to start.

So then we hear the alarm bell and the warning over the PA. The student's had been doing some cleaning, so were more or less unsupervised for this, on purpose.

Then you see the students come jogging out of the school, along with the teachers, just pouring down the steps and onto the field. there was a safety supervisor from a japanese safety agency or something too watching.

So the kids come running out, and all have assigned places they go to, by homeroom, and in order within the line for homeroom. Certain kids are designated class leaders etc. But it was pretty amazing to see kids run and find their spot, silently, unaided by teachers. Impressive stuff, these kids.

So then after getting in line, class leaders do a head count, report to their teachers, who double check the head count, then report to the vice-principle, who in turn reports to the principle. The safety inspector guy talked to them for a bit about the importance of being prepared etc.

Then they thanked him, and the students (i still can't get over this) were given an order, did a 1/2 turn, and went back in, two rows at a time, silently again.

After school I picked up some cheap sushi again, and crashed early.

I'm now getting ready to head on out to okaya, fireworks tonight! :-D

Since I have nothing else particularly interesting to post: here's a picture of a mantis eyeing a frog on my window.

Almost the weekend!

So, first and foremost - it's been what, 2 days since I did that Rakugo reading, and my legs are still sore from that stupid seiza position. yowza!

yesterday I had to stick around until nearly 6 because of a teacher's meeting, which I felt obligated to do, even though I didn't understand a lick of it. I did catch the part where they congratulated me about being in the local paper (I gave them an 'interview' I had done previously with Kasuga-sensei), and had an official picture taken as well as the photo op in the classroom teaching.

Thanks again mom for getting me those pictures of Washington, I've been doing slideshows for the classes about Washington as a 'self-introduction' of sorts. They love the pictures, and think the courthouse is beautiful, as well as being shocked at all the corn, and love making the realization that we have a McDonald's too.

I had a great time yesterday finally going over my stupid garbage schedule (I haven't taken out any yet, and i've been here two weeks. Yuck!), but I finally understand it thanks to Kasuga and another funny and nice teacher helping me figure it out. (Kasuga gave me the great hint of just bringing lots of my recyclables to school and putting it in the school recyclables. For example: PET bottles (plastic pop bottles) are only collected once a month, and the same with aluminum or steel cans, LAME).

I've also done some work with reading and stuff in the classroom, but the best part of today was having a class with myself, the teacher, and the one (yes, 1) student. We talked, played uno, showed pictures. I also had class with my class I ate lunch with last week, the 3rd years, so they already knew me, which made the self-introductions more fun. One of the girls even took a shot at (and correctly pronounced) Glinsmann, which was awesome! (I don't think Kawai sensei cought on until the end that myself and the class already knew each other).

I also went down and watched the student choir practice, and I still can't get over just how good these kids are. This is the entire school, divided into 4 parts, and everyone sings, well. Awesome stuff: here's a vid:





Tonight I went out to get some chinese food with some other ALT's, and had a great time. The food was absolutely amazing, and I had a ton of it, although it was a bit expensive (ちょっと高い）. Now I'm back, enjoying my night, and ready for friday.

I now officially have the internet in my name, and supposedly have cable TV too (since my internet is though the cable company) but I don't have it yet. So i'll talk about that tomorrow and see if I can't figure it out.

I've also gotten addicted to doing the crosswords every morning in the paper, but I realize that despite my robust vocabularly, I'm still not so hot at crosswords :-P

This weekend I'm going to a huge fireworks show in Okaya near lake Suwa. It's the biggest in the prefecture and the 24th biggest in Japan. It has a huge showing on August 15th that draws somewhere around 300-400k people, but the one i'm going to saturday is where different companies compete to get to show the fireworks for the following year and always has significantly less people at it. Awesome!

Rakugo and Uno!

Today was a fun day! I had some time early in the day to start a book Jon had left at school about how to understand the inferences and subtleties of language, which will be beneficial to help explain meanings behind things in english later on this year. I'm about halfway in, and while it's obviously a scholarly text, it's still pretty interesting to understand why we say what we do. :-P

I then did my rakugo-reading for kasuga's class. And of course, he gave me a fan to use (because you use a fan to help demonstrate things in rakugo), but the hardest part, was that I had to sit on a pillow in the dreaded seiza position. Which is where you kneel, then sit back on your haunches. which is rough when you're anyone (the japanese sometimes use it as punishment), but particularly rough when you're a big guy haha. I did get to kneel on a pillow (in traditional rakugo fashion) and tell the story. I was thinking "well, this is uncomfortable" but just told the story. Then Kasuga has me repeat it again, and while i was talking with him in-between, i got up on my knees, and was thinking 'wow, i haven't sat in the seiza that long ever'. But then I did the story again. The punchline kinda went over the kids heads, but then i finished up, got up, and realized just how much that position hurt!!
My legs were sore the rest of the day! Ouch!

My next class was with Omori-sensei, and after doing some work with the students, I played Uno with them, using colors and numbers (this was a remedial class). Then I had some time off in the afternoon due to some scheduling conflict.

the 3rd years when to their choir presentation today, so I ate with the teachers / principle that don't have their own homerooms. Today's lunch was...a bit different. I resigned myself long ago to not think about what I'm eating, but rather to just enjoy the taste. today we had dried mini-fish (minnows?), bits of potatoes, and some crunch bean thing with lots of green spice on it (along with salad and a good soup). but it was weird because the fish were whole. i distinctly remember holding my chopstick with a little fish-head on it, the dead eye staring into my soul. the crunchy flavor of it's kin resounding in my mouth.

I went to pick up cheap sushi from the convienance store, but I guess i keep going there too late, as they didn't have what I wanted (i don't wanna pay 6.50 for the shashimi, even though it's great!). so i bought more coffee, and came home.

I made some garlic salmon for dinner, super delicious.

yesterday I bought 2 peachers for $3. I've just given up thinking about how expensive japanese food is. It's no good to worry about it. But lemme tell you, these peaches. Best I've ever had. Bar none. You just don't do fruit this good in america. Man oh man.

Beginning of week 2

Today wasn't too bad, with some classes in the morning, but the afternoon being off as the students had some special events going on. they were going over their tests from last friday.

Which reminds me, I helped them check papers on friday, and Kasuga & Kawai sensei were both impressed at how fast I could add up the scores for the test, which made me laugh. but then of course when they came by to watch me add it up as I finished up I of course had problems donig my addition. :-P

I didn't have to do my Rakugo reading today, but was told I'd be doing it tuesday since they were going over tests. I spent time studying Japanese, continued to go through my teaching guide book, and ate lunch with a new class.

A modest weekend

The weekend wasn't too eventful. I did some prep work for school on monday, cleaned my apt, did laundry, and relaxed around the apartment. I also spent time going around town to see more places and just meander.

Sunday I did some Japanese language study as well as some more relaxing, which was a nice relaxing day. I also made sure to get my omiyage gifts off to the teachers before I left on friday.

That was about it!