Yesterday wasn't a particularly eventful day, I had several classes which went well, enjoyed myself, and went to watch the 3rd year class 3 practice singing during 5th period. This was a fun time, and of course, they asked me for advice after they finished. I said that everyone was good, but that the bass section needed to be louder etc. I was thanked by their teacher later on for 'coaching his class', which was nice of him.
I found out just how 'convienant' japanese conbini's are yesterday, when I was able to pay my electric bill at one while picking up some coffee and such. That was awesome! :-) I cooked myself some super delicious spaghetti for dinner last night. I think I'm really getting the hang of being a solo chef :P
A new girl came to school yesterday, her japanese name is 'Mayumi' but she's actually Stephanie from Brazil. I really like the foreign students here :-) they're really nice.
I've been watching 'Firefly' this week, and I have to say it's really a shame that FOX messed it up, because it's a great show.
Today I checked papers in 1st period with Kawai sensei, and that was about it. boring-desu.
2nd and 3rd period the lvl 2 classes were practing a dialogue that was about calling someone on the phone, so to practice, i went to the english teacher's room and answered the phone with the students to do a mock conversation. It was mildly amusing, especially the part where for one of the boys who i knew, when he called (for kubota's class she let me know the order of students) i picked up and said:
もしもし。これは飯島中学校です。京都先生です。 aka. Hello, this is Iijima Junior High School. Kyoto-sensei speaking. ahaha, I scared the poor guy a bit :-p.
So, I"m paying about 50$ a month for school lunch, which is pretty darn cheap considering the meals we get. For example: today I had caviar for lunch. Actually, I bit into the fried fish we were having for lunch, and found it was stuffed with caviar. Holy cow. It was pretty good too!
It's been rainy today (and yesterday too) so my umbrella has gotten used too.
I'm going ot get my cell phone after work today with Kawai sensei, so I'm greatly appreciative of that. Finally! The city office is also still working on getting me that new bike, but the vice-principle seemed to be adamant about me not getting my car. I'll be tenatively pushing this forward next week too, because frankly, I can have a car whether they want me to or not, but I want to be civil about it.
I don't have any particular plans for tonight, but tomorrow I"m heading to Matsumoto to meet up with an OT'er who is there visiting family. Kinda excited! I'm unsure what we'll be doing exactly, I'm wanting to avoid anything particularly touristy since he grew up there, so maybe visit the shopping district or something. It's supposed to be pretty cool. We'll see!
Thursday, September 18, 2008
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
A fun and weird couple of days
So, tuesday was a good day overall! I had 4 classes which went pretty well, but there was a little bit of a hitch. I was in Omori's class with three girls who are extremely shy. Apparently there are several of these classes, and I was sitting in on one (and apparently they have friends in the same class to help alleviate some of the shyness. Well, class was going fine, and I was donig some readings with Omori. I had noticed one of the girls had been either stifling a yawn, crying, or something like that, and she never said anything while we were talking. Finally, Omori started freaking out and that was when I realized that the girl had a bloody nose and had made absolutely no effort to amend the situation, and Omori had only noticed when blood had started dripping onto her book. Yikes! No doubt the rest of her day was ruined! :'(
Then, I had a class with Kasuga sensei, and students were practicing have to / don't have to / must / must not grammar, and I would answer them using the grammar as well as elaborating a bit past their understanding and have Kasuga explain it to help facilitate some cultural exchange. well, things got interesting when a student said "In Japan, a man and a man must not get married, how about in America." I thought this was pretty interesting and was a great question. I also know that, from what I have heard, the conservative nature of this rural area of Japan was part of Jon's impetus for leaving for Tokyo. I'm not saying this particular student had any idea about Jon's lifestyle choices, but I'm pretty sure Kasuga sensei did, and I also know Jon and Kasuga weren't on the best of terms (and from what I've seen so far, I think it just makes Kasuga look extremely shallow, considering in almost every other respect I've gotten along with him swimmingly.
So, Kasuga started by saying something along the lines of "Can two men marry?" The first thing I said was "For the most part no, two men, or two women, cannot be married, although I think in San Francisco and Vermont it is ok."
Kasuga followed up with something along the lines of: "Dwight-sensei, I am concerned (I think he was looking more for the word apprehensive) about how many gay people there are in America, and then I have the recollection that he somehow asked if American's thought it was a problem, or if we think there are a lot of gays in America".
I at first pointed out how a major European (i think?) study suggested that 1 in 10 people in the world are gay, and it's by no way something resigned to America (Although I'm sure Iran's president would disagree, since they have NO homosexuals there. pfft.) I then mentioned how in San Fran and Vermont it's civil unions, which are different from marriages because it doesn't tie in religion (and don't even get me started on the whole state sactioning of religion that marraige is) and also how people in America still debate on the nature v. nurture aspects of homosexuality. Anyway, I didn't wanna force the issue too much with Kasuga, because I also realize he's a very conservative rural man in Japan, and by no means is everyone like that.
In fact, one of the largest selling genres of manga (comics) aimed at 13-16 year old girls are ones with young, pretty, boys flirting with / flaunting homosexuality. So pop-culture : 1 traditional values: 0.
In the afternoon I went to see the students sing at the cultural center and continue practicing for the school festival / something else I'm not sure about. That was a good waste of time. :-) I got a huge kick out of talking with Kubota sensei about how I just couldn't believe how, on the walk to the cultural center from school (all 3 blocks) that the students stayed in line, in order, didn't bunch up, and stayed quiet. Unbelievable. I also talked with Kubota about how she ended up teaching english (she went to america to study psych, but didn't have the english skills, so she enrolled to learn english, and ran out of money, came back to Japan, got her teaching certificate, and done. Lol.)
After school I made my way to the store with a group of students, which was an enjoyable, and fun to talk with them and in general have a good time. there are some really great kids at this school. :-)
Today went just as well / even better. I made sure to get a full night's rest and even treated myself to a nice hearty breakfast (eggs, bacon, milkcoffee and toast w/ jam!).
I got to see my buddy on the way to work, such a great kid! So that meant by the time I got to work I had a huge grin on my face. :-)
I had four classes today. First class was with Kawai sensei's 3-f group, who are 3rd years with a rather low english proficiency. We did work, and played Uno, which was pretty fun! I tried practicing my spanish with them, and in general it was a good time!
2nd and 3rd periods were with 1st year students, and these classes were actually a great time because of the fact that the students were energetic and Kasuga and I had a great time staying engaged. First, I played simon says with the classes,a nd I have to say, Japanese kids do not mess around when it comes to simon says. they are serious, honed, listening machines. To the point that with one of the classes I was playing as if I was with American kids and going so fast that I wasn't even paying attention to if I was saying 'simon-says' or not and was counting on others to see if the final few kids messed up or not. 学生は早いですね。 (they were fast!)
Kasuga and I also did the dialogue with the students, which was a blast, because of how I did the reading :-P
the dialogue went somethign like:
Mike: lets have lunch!
Emi: all right!
m: oh no! my cola! I don't have any tissues. Do you have any?
e: no, but I have a handkerchief. Here. Use this.
Well, the students got a big kick out of 1) me reading Emi's part in a high-pitched voice like a girl, and 2) me sounding really upset at "oh no! my cola!" Kasuga would read it and sound angry, and I was going for this really disappointed sound, and so then we worked with the students on kinda doing a groaning sound as they said "oh no my cola!" as well as stressing any as if the fact they didn't have any tissues just made the situation worse.
This made the readings really fun when the students did it in frnt of the class in pairs. Some students would sound really bland and cold, which made people laugh because it was so detached after we had been so animated.
My personal favorite was Caitlyn, a first-year girl from Brazil* who did this dramatic arm motions before she started as if she was getting herself into character. coupled with the 'illness' mask she was wearing (asains wear masks when they are coming down with a cold or think they are sick to prevent it from being spread, no it doesn't cover their noses, so no, it doesn't make any sense, I know) and talked with a high-pitched voice that made her sound more japanese than the japanese kids. she was really into it and 元気（genki), so that helped!
the last thing I did with these classes was structured dialogue back and forth, where students would say,
"Dwight-sensei, do you want to _______?"
"All right!"
"Do you have any ____?"
"Oh no, I don't!"
"Here, use my ___"
This was fine and dandy, until I realized that a ton of people would ask me to do a sport with them, and ask if I had the coresponding ball. I of course would say, "No, I don't have a basketball / baseball / volleyball" to help them use it correctly, but more than once it went like so:
"Dwight-sensei, do you want to play volley?"
"All right!"
"Do you have any volleyball balls?"
"Ah, no, I don't have any balls."
"Here, use my balls."
To which I had to stifle generous amounts of laughter that was welling up inside of me. I'm such a juevenile. Of course the students had no idea. :-P
My last class was another with kawai sensei, that wasn't particularly interesting, but it was kinda fun, so that's all right.
In the afternoon, I mentioned to Kasuga sensei how I still didn't have any cable TV, even though my internet (also cable) was working, adn I had no luck trying to get it to work. Kasuga let me know that some people from the cable company may be coming by later and to contemplate having to be around for them. I said I get home at varying times, and if he know what time they'd be there. Kasuga said he'd give the company a call, and so we called, and while he was on the phone, I was explaining to the secretary (a nice woman in her late 30's I'd guess, she has such a genuine smile.) that my tv was kinda old, and Kasuga was trying to ask me something about my TV, and while he was running to get his electric dictionary, me and the secretary figured out they were trying to ask if I had an LCD screen, but of course in Japanese the abbrev. is something different, but me and the secretary felt really good when kasuga came back, looked it up, and we had been correct.
Kasuga then told me that it would cost ￥3000 (~$30) for them to come fix it for me. I told him I'd try a little bit harder to figure it out. Kasuga offered to come to my place this eveneing to help me figure it out, but he said he wasn't too confident about his ability to figure it out.
I said, "I can't read Japanese, but I know electronics. You can read Japanese, but don't know electronics. Between the two of us, I think we could figure it out!" he replied with, "Cooperation!"
the secretary and the woman who goes between the school and the town-hall also got a laugh when I showed them and kasuga how I hadn't been paying attention early on when I was signing in each day (I have to use my inkan and stamp in each morning in a log-book) and how I realized that at the beginning of a new month it goes back to the beginning, and I had just kept on stamping in order, and had logged about 7 or 8 stamps into the section for either sick / vacation days or something. Whoops! 外人スマシュGaijin-smash!
I had been hoping to leave school promptly at 4:30, but when I went down at 4 to discreetly pack my stuff up and then head back up to the english teachers lounge to continue doing my japanese homework in private so I could sneak out at 4:30 (no, it's not early), but a teacher's meeting had started at 4. I didn't wanna feel awkward by going in 10 minutes after it started (and everyone is there, including teachers I never see any other time, as well as the principle.) and start packing my stuff up. but I didn't wanna sit around there either. So i went back to the english teacher's office adn did work up there until about 4:45, then went down so I could start packing up. Instead I sat there and waited for it to end at 5-ish, and then went home. I walked home with caitlyn, the brazilian girl, and the 3rd year boy from brazil too. Both of whom have very good english and aren't so scared to talk to me, even though they aren't in the highest lvl english classes.
*Ok, so now for the divergence about why there are south american's in Japan. turn of the century, Japan looked to avoid some of it's over-population by sending lots of it's citizens abroad. Most to south america (and a good portion to the USA). This was also done so that the Japanese could gain a foothold of sorts in other nations. Well, many opted to come back to Japan after WWII due to a lack of promised support from the japanese govt while living abroad. So that's why this small school of 300-ish has two brazilians, a peruvian, and two other students with south-american heritage. Pretty cool! It was great to hear them talking in portuguese today and hearing EMOTION in the way they spoke!
As I was right near my place, we stopped and started talking about spiders (there were some really big ones over the flowing water along the side of the street) and kasuga and kawai sensei pulled up. I went inside and apologized for the state of my apt (but they both said it was pretty clean, so I didn't feel too bad.)
After about 20 minutes of dinking around, we got the cable to work! I was pretty eccstatic to see children's anime on TV :-P I also found out that on NPT, one of the big channels, from 7-10 pm every day (news and some other programs), I can hit a button on my remote and it will switch to english dubbing (not closed captioning) of whatever I'm watching! I thought that was really cool!
I watched an episode (or two) of firefly tonight while having my apple & honey hot curry for dinner (which was supremely delicious!)
I also wore a new gray w/ black stripes shirt today that I had yet to wear with my gray / red tie that I normally wear with my red shirt, and I got several compliments on it!
Lunchtime with students: yes, they eat in the classrooms, students get the food, bring it up, and dish it up. Responsibility!
On stage at the cultural center, the 3rd years practice singing Finlandia. I have this song memorized now. Lol.
the names of all the teachers on little wooden plates. If the name is black, the teacher is there, orange, they're out. Can you find mine?
Then, I had a class with Kasuga sensei, and students were practicing have to / don't have to / must / must not grammar, and I would answer them using the grammar as well as elaborating a bit past their understanding and have Kasuga explain it to help facilitate some cultural exchange. well, things got interesting when a student said "In Japan, a man and a man must not get married, how about in America." I thought this was pretty interesting and was a great question. I also know that, from what I have heard, the conservative nature of this rural area of Japan was part of Jon's impetus for leaving for Tokyo. I'm not saying this particular student had any idea about Jon's lifestyle choices, but I'm pretty sure Kasuga sensei did, and I also know Jon and Kasuga weren't on the best of terms (and from what I've seen so far, I think it just makes Kasuga look extremely shallow, considering in almost every other respect I've gotten along with him swimmingly.
So, Kasuga started by saying something along the lines of "Can two men marry?" The first thing I said was "For the most part no, two men, or two women, cannot be married, although I think in San Francisco and Vermont it is ok."
Kasuga followed up with something along the lines of: "Dwight-sensei, I am concerned (I think he was looking more for the word apprehensive) about how many gay people there are in America, and then I have the recollection that he somehow asked if American's thought it was a problem, or if we think there are a lot of gays in America".
I at first pointed out how a major European (i think?) study suggested that 1 in 10 people in the world are gay, and it's by no way something resigned to America (Although I'm sure Iran's president would disagree, since they have NO homosexuals there. pfft.) I then mentioned how in San Fran and Vermont it's civil unions, which are different from marriages because it doesn't tie in religion (and don't even get me started on the whole state sactioning of religion that marraige is) and also how people in America still debate on the nature v. nurture aspects of homosexuality. Anyway, I didn't wanna force the issue too much with Kasuga, because I also realize he's a very conservative rural man in Japan, and by no means is everyone like that.
In fact, one of the largest selling genres of manga (comics) aimed at 13-16 year old girls are ones with young, pretty, boys flirting with / flaunting homosexuality. So pop-culture : 1 traditional values: 0.
In the afternoon I went to see the students sing at the cultural center and continue practicing for the school festival / something else I'm not sure about. That was a good waste of time. :-) I got a huge kick out of talking with Kubota sensei about how I just couldn't believe how, on the walk to the cultural center from school (all 3 blocks) that the students stayed in line, in order, didn't bunch up, and stayed quiet. Unbelievable. I also talked with Kubota about how she ended up teaching english (she went to america to study psych, but didn't have the english skills, so she enrolled to learn english, and ran out of money, came back to Japan, got her teaching certificate, and done. Lol.)
After school I made my way to the store with a group of students, which was an enjoyable, and fun to talk with them and in general have a good time. there are some really great kids at this school. :-)
Today went just as well / even better. I made sure to get a full night's rest and even treated myself to a nice hearty breakfast (eggs, bacon, milkcoffee and toast w/ jam!).
I got to see my buddy on the way to work, such a great kid! So that meant by the time I got to work I had a huge grin on my face. :-)
I had four classes today. First class was with Kawai sensei's 3-f group, who are 3rd years with a rather low english proficiency. We did work, and played Uno, which was pretty fun! I tried practicing my spanish with them, and in general it was a good time!
2nd and 3rd periods were with 1st year students, and these classes were actually a great time because of the fact that the students were energetic and Kasuga and I had a great time staying engaged. First, I played simon says with the classes,a nd I have to say, Japanese kids do not mess around when it comes to simon says. they are serious, honed, listening machines. To the point that with one of the classes I was playing as if I was with American kids and going so fast that I wasn't even paying attention to if I was saying 'simon-says' or not and was counting on others to see if the final few kids messed up or not. 学生は早いですね。 (they were fast!)
Kasuga and I also did the dialogue with the students, which was a blast, because of how I did the reading :-P
the dialogue went somethign like:
Mike: lets have lunch!
Emi: all right!
m: oh no! my cola! I don't have any tissues. Do you have any?
e: no, but I have a handkerchief. Here. Use this.
Well, the students got a big kick out of 1) me reading Emi's part in a high-pitched voice like a girl, and 2) me sounding really upset at "oh no! my cola!" Kasuga would read it and sound angry, and I was going for this really disappointed sound, and so then we worked with the students on kinda doing a groaning sound as they said "oh no my cola!" as well as stressing any as if the fact they didn't have any tissues just made the situation worse.
This made the readings really fun when the students did it in frnt of the class in pairs. Some students would sound really bland and cold, which made people laugh because it was so detached after we had been so animated.
My personal favorite was Caitlyn, a first-year girl from Brazil* who did this dramatic arm motions before she started as if she was getting herself into character. coupled with the 'illness' mask she was wearing (asains wear masks when they are coming down with a cold or think they are sick to prevent it from being spread, no it doesn't cover their noses, so no, it doesn't make any sense, I know) and talked with a high-pitched voice that made her sound more japanese than the japanese kids. she was really into it and 元気（genki), so that helped!
the last thing I did with these classes was structured dialogue back and forth, where students would say,
"Dwight-sensei, do you want to _______?"
"All right!"
"Do you have any ____?"
"Oh no, I don't!"
"Here, use my ___"
This was fine and dandy, until I realized that a ton of people would ask me to do a sport with them, and ask if I had the coresponding ball. I of course would say, "No, I don't have a basketball / baseball / volleyball" to help them use it correctly, but more than once it went like so:
"Dwight-sensei, do you want to play volley?"
"All right!"
"Do you have any volleyball balls?"
"Ah, no, I don't have any balls."
"Here, use my balls."
To which I had to stifle generous amounts of laughter that was welling up inside of me. I'm such a juevenile. Of course the students had no idea. :-P
My last class was another with kawai sensei, that wasn't particularly interesting, but it was kinda fun, so that's all right.
In the afternoon, I mentioned to Kasuga sensei how I still didn't have any cable TV, even though my internet (also cable) was working, adn I had no luck trying to get it to work. Kasuga let me know that some people from the cable company may be coming by later and to contemplate having to be around for them. I said I get home at varying times, and if he know what time they'd be there. Kasuga said he'd give the company a call, and so we called, and while he was on the phone, I was explaining to the secretary (a nice woman in her late 30's I'd guess, she has such a genuine smile.) that my tv was kinda old, and Kasuga was trying to ask me something about my TV, and while he was running to get his electric dictionary, me and the secretary figured out they were trying to ask if I had an LCD screen, but of course in Japanese the abbrev. is something different, but me and the secretary felt really good when kasuga came back, looked it up, and we had been correct.
Kasuga then told me that it would cost ￥3000 (~$30) for them to come fix it for me. I told him I'd try a little bit harder to figure it out. Kasuga offered to come to my place this eveneing to help me figure it out, but he said he wasn't too confident about his ability to figure it out.
I said, "I can't read Japanese, but I know electronics. You can read Japanese, but don't know electronics. Between the two of us, I think we could figure it out!" he replied with, "Cooperation!"
the secretary and the woman who goes between the school and the town-hall also got a laugh when I showed them and kasuga how I hadn't been paying attention early on when I was signing in each day (I have to use my inkan and stamp in each morning in a log-book) and how I realized that at the beginning of a new month it goes back to the beginning, and I had just kept on stamping in order, and had logged about 7 or 8 stamps into the section for either sick / vacation days or something. Whoops! 外人スマシュGaijin-smash!
I had been hoping to leave school promptly at 4:30, but when I went down at 4 to discreetly pack my stuff up and then head back up to the english teachers lounge to continue doing my japanese homework in private so I could sneak out at 4:30 (no, it's not early), but a teacher's meeting had started at 4. I didn't wanna feel awkward by going in 10 minutes after it started (and everyone is there, including teachers I never see any other time, as well as the principle.) and start packing my stuff up. but I didn't wanna sit around there either. So i went back to the english teacher's office adn did work up there until about 4:45, then went down so I could start packing up. Instead I sat there and waited for it to end at 5-ish, and then went home. I walked home with caitlyn, the brazilian girl, and the 3rd year boy from brazil too. Both of whom have very good english and aren't so scared to talk to me, even though they aren't in the highest lvl english classes.
*Ok, so now for the divergence about why there are south american's in Japan. turn of the century, Japan looked to avoid some of it's over-population by sending lots of it's citizens abroad. Most to south america (and a good portion to the USA). This was also done so that the Japanese could gain a foothold of sorts in other nations. Well, many opted to come back to Japan after WWII due to a lack of promised support from the japanese govt while living abroad. So that's why this small school of 300-ish has two brazilians, a peruvian, and two other students with south-american heritage. Pretty cool! It was great to hear them talking in portuguese today and hearing EMOTION in the way they spoke!
As I was right near my place, we stopped and started talking about spiders (there were some really big ones over the flowing water along the side of the street) and kasuga and kawai sensei pulled up. I went inside and apologized for the state of my apt (but they both said it was pretty clean, so I didn't feel too bad.)
After about 20 minutes of dinking around, we got the cable to work! I was pretty eccstatic to see children's anime on TV :-P I also found out that on NPT, one of the big channels, from 7-10 pm every day (news and some other programs), I can hit a button on my remote and it will switch to english dubbing (not closed captioning) of whatever I'm watching! I thought that was really cool!
I watched an episode (or two) of firefly tonight while having my apple & honey hot curry for dinner (which was supremely delicious!)
I also wore a new gray w/ black stripes shirt today that I had yet to wear with my gray / red tie that I normally wear with my red shirt, and I got several compliments on it!
Lunchtime with students: yes, they eat in the classrooms, students get the food, bring it up, and dish it up. Responsibility!
On stage at the cultural center, the 3rd years practice singing Finlandia. I have this song memorized now. Lol.
the names of all the teachers on little wooden plates. If the name is black, the teacher is there, orange, they're out. Can you find mine?
Monday, September 15, 2008
Concert Time!!
So, I went to the band concert today, and it was awesome!! First and foremost, these were Junior High kids and they did stuff that was better than WHS as well as having a more diverse range of instuments (3 Euphoniums? I nearly cried!). Although I will mention that it was heavily lopsided in favor of the girls, well over 2, maybe 3-1.
But yes, the music was fantastic! They had a wide selection of music, including a 70's tribute, a John williams tribute, the marine's official march (that was a bit wtf) as well as Disney music! Fantastic work kids! Of course, the program had a questionairre in it on things we liked etc, but I didn't fill it out.
I waved to my students as I left the concert and said hi. I also saw one at the conbini afterwards and talked to him for a bit.
Getting ready for the concert to start, this is the dad of one of my students, who also happens to be an english teacher!
The students pulled out garbage bags and put on headbands, I'm not really sure why. Awesome though!
For the disney tribute, they had tons of these cutouts with students running by holding them. It was so hard not to break out laughing really hard during this. absolutely hysterical.
But yes, the music was fantastic! They had a wide selection of music, including a 70's tribute, a John williams tribute, the marine's official march (that was a bit wtf) as well as Disney music! Fantastic work kids! Of course, the program had a questionairre in it on things we liked etc, but I didn't fill it out.
I waved to my students as I left the concert and said hi. I also saw one at the conbini afterwards and talked to him for a bit.
Getting ready for the concert to start, this is the dad of one of my students, who also happens to be an english teacher!
The students pulled out garbage bags and put on headbands, I'm not really sure why. Awesome though!
For the disney tribute, they had tons of these cutouts with students running by holding them. It was so hard not to break out laughing really hard during this. absolutely hysterical.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Man, nothing to do on a Saturday night...I know, lets blow stuff up!
So yesterday, I spent a good amount of time looking busy and taking it easy. Not too hard to whittle away some time doing that. I had been awakened sat. morning by booms that I originally thought was someone knocking at my door. turns out Iijima was having some sort of festival or something, so they were setting off these loud bangs all day. Well, that evening, instead of loud bangs I had earth-shattering explosions. Well, I went outside and took pictures and video, and realized that since they were setting them off at the local shrine, it was no more than 2-3 blocks away - aka they were going off right overhead and were immensely loud. Here is a video, the bang isn't really captured, but the reverb off of the mountains nearby is :-P
I took a shot at making something I had in Kansai (karaage-don) although I used a fish instead of chicken. It turned out pretty darn good and looks awesome but I still need to work on perfecting it if I wanna have it more than just this once. I also had american spaghetti last night (and for lunch today as leftovers) and it was awesome. I can make some mean spaghetti!
I'm going to the brass-band's concert tomorrow, I look forward to it! :-)
I took a shot at making something I had in Kansai (karaage-don) although I used a fish instead of chicken. It turned out pretty darn good and looks awesome but I still need to work on perfecting it if I wanna have it more than just this once. I also had american spaghetti last night (and for lunch today as leftovers) and it was awesome. I can make some mean spaghetti!
I'm going to the brass-band's concert tomorrow, I look forward to it! :-)
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Today I got to experience some of the reasons I made the decision to come here :-)
So on my way to work, if I leave about 5 after 8, I will pass a mother and her 4 or 5 year old son on the way to school. He likes to wave and I'll say good morning. He's pretty cute and fun. So I saw them this morning, and as I was walking up, I said "Hi!" and he ran up towards me saying "HELLLOOOOOO!!!!" and gave me a high five. What a champ. I had a huge grin on my face the entire rest of the way to school. Also, at school today I had a couple of classes, inluding doing baseball twice with the first years. Both first year classes were fun, but the first class was by and large much more fun, minus the little bit where one of the students missed a question and was on the verge of tears for about 5 minutes, poor guy. :(
After that first class, i was assaulted by a group of girls who wanted to know Bethany's name (they thought it was cute), and then went absolutely nuts when I told them that she 1. was an english teacher in korea, and 2. would come visit Iijima and the school. They're pretty fun and energetic! :-D
I also had Kasuga sensei take me to the bank to help me figure out how to use my debit card (turns out they had a button for english, so that was a freakin piece of cake, lol.) I wanted to wait until payday before I took a shot at using it, and so when I asked for my statement, I nearly fell out of my chair (even though I was standing) to see I had over 300k yen in there! (3k$). I almost teared up, I've never had that much money before! YAY!
Cleaning time went well today, I joked with Kubota sensei that there should be a contest to see who can clean the most, so I could win, because I keep shocking people with how dirty I get my rags during cleaning time.
And then we went to get my Gaikokujin card (my alien registration card). Now that I have that, I can work on getting my cell phone! :-) among other things! Woohoo!
So, in the teacher's office here, students come in, and say "excuse me, i'm xxxxx and I need to talk to xxxx" Well, a student came in today and asked for me, and instead of the general chorus of 'hai!' etc. from the teachers, it was more 'EH? Do-wai-to sensei??' lol. I had talked to one of the students and asked her to come get me the next time the choir practiced, so I went and joined them today, and they were fantastic. They asked me for advice and I really didn't have anything to tell them (although next time I might mention blending better or that the tenors are sometimes going flat, but it's no big deal!).
I love hanging out with these kids, they are such a blast! :-D I'm going to the brass-band's concert on monday, and hope to join them for practice here in the future too :-)
I'll get pics up on this post later, although I forgot to take my camera to school today, so I'll get the inside and some of my students on tuesday or monday or something. :-)
After that first class, i was assaulted by a group of girls who wanted to know Bethany's name (they thought it was cute), and then went absolutely nuts when I told them that she 1. was an english teacher in korea, and 2. would come visit Iijima and the school. They're pretty fun and energetic! :-D
I also had Kasuga sensei take me to the bank to help me figure out how to use my debit card (turns out they had a button for english, so that was a freakin piece of cake, lol.) I wanted to wait until payday before I took a shot at using it, and so when I asked for my statement, I nearly fell out of my chair (even though I was standing) to see I had over 300k yen in there! (3k$). I almost teared up, I've never had that much money before! YAY!
Cleaning time went well today, I joked with Kubota sensei that there should be a contest to see who can clean the most, so I could win, because I keep shocking people with how dirty I get my rags during cleaning time.
And then we went to get my Gaikokujin card (my alien registration card). Now that I have that, I can work on getting my cell phone! :-) among other things! Woohoo!
So, in the teacher's office here, students come in, and say "excuse me, i'm xxxxx and I need to talk to xxxx" Well, a student came in today and asked for me, and instead of the general chorus of 'hai!' etc. from the teachers, it was more 'EH? Do-wai-to sensei??' lol. I had talked to one of the students and asked her to come get me the next time the choir practiced, so I went and joined them today, and they were fantastic. They asked me for advice and I really didn't have anything to tell them (although next time I might mention blending better or that the tenors are sometimes going flat, but it's no big deal!).
I love hanging out with these kids, they are such a blast! :-D I'm going to the brass-band's concert on monday, and hope to join them for practice here in the future too :-)
I'll get pics up on this post later, although I forgot to take my camera to school today, so I'll get the inside and some of my students on tuesday or monday or something. :-)
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
The latter part of my day...
So, after lunch today was a brief cleaning period (i opted to clean the railings outside the 2nd story (the earthquake escape route) so I could enjoy the outside). After that, I went to the gym and watched the three different 3rd year classes sing some songs as individual classes, which was neat to see classes with students who aren't even that big on choir still give it a go. They were all good, but of course the class with the choir students were incredible. In fact, they were on par with some of the stuff we did in high-school, awesome stuff.
I rounded out my day with preparing my lvl 1 baseball game, and then headed on out from school.
I stopped by the store to pick up some more soy sauce, veggies, and meat (to stock up). I saw a guy there who looked like a buff native American, mainly because he was driving a black Bronco pickup, and yes, it had the steering wheel on the American side, so I wonder if there are even laws about that in Japan (or america for that matter!).
As I was walking home, I turned a corner and saw three girls from the Jr. high, I stopped, pulled out my headphones, said hi, and asked if they were walking the same way I was. Man, those poor girls were completely blindsided. One of them tried to immediately turn up the street to walk a different direction, but the other two finally pulled her back, and they basically had no idea what to do. So I laughed, said I'd see them tomorrow, and continued on. I got to my turn, and started walking up the hill, I turned around and waved goodbye to them (since there's a little path to take straight ahead that i've seen numerous students take (originally i thought it was to a house, but turns out it just goes right by a house/through a garden and saves them all of 10 seconds of walking :P). Well, they waved back, and I just went on home. As I was getting close, I turned around to make sure it was ok to switch sides of the street I was walking on, and saw two of the girls walking up the hill.
So I turn into my driveway and start walking up it to the house, and as I'm walking along the front, I have a really good view (since there's no obstructions and I'm higher up) but from where the girls were, It's really hard to see anything, so I saw them running up the hill to see where exactly I lived. Well, I see this and I'm laughing pretty hard and wave at them again when they come into view. they look pretty sheepish again and wave back.
After I got in, I saw them reading my address (at the end of the driveway) to see exactly where I lived. Hah.
I had gyoza (dumplings) and fried rice for dinner. I gotta say, I'm loving making it, it's super delicious, filling, etc. I also snagged some coffee for tomorrow.
I've been asked by Ben (the nagano PA (Prefectural Advisor) to make sushi at the nagano JET workshop in early october. Apparently Matsuda-sensei mentioned that I make sushi in my letter of rec. to JET way back, and so now they have this notion that i'm some sort of freakin chef! ahah. We'll see :P
I rounded out my day with preparing my lvl 1 baseball game, and then headed on out from school.
I stopped by the store to pick up some more soy sauce, veggies, and meat (to stock up). I saw a guy there who looked like a buff native American, mainly because he was driving a black Bronco pickup, and yes, it had the steering wheel on the American side, so I wonder if there are even laws about that in Japan (or america for that matter!).
As I was walking home, I turned a corner and saw three girls from the Jr. high, I stopped, pulled out my headphones, said hi, and asked if they were walking the same way I was. Man, those poor girls were completely blindsided. One of them tried to immediately turn up the street to walk a different direction, but the other two finally pulled her back, and they basically had no idea what to do. So I laughed, said I'd see them tomorrow, and continued on. I got to my turn, and started walking up the hill, I turned around and waved goodbye to them (since there's a little path to take straight ahead that i've seen numerous students take (originally i thought it was to a house, but turns out it just goes right by a house/through a garden and saves them all of 10 seconds of walking :P). Well, they waved back, and I just went on home. As I was getting close, I turned around to make sure it was ok to switch sides of the street I was walking on, and saw two of the girls walking up the hill.
So I turn into my driveway and start walking up it to the house, and as I'm walking along the front, I have a really good view (since there's no obstructions and I'm higher up) but from where the girls were, It's really hard to see anything, so I saw them running up the hill to see where exactly I lived. Well, I see this and I'm laughing pretty hard and wave at them again when they come into view. they look pretty sheepish again and wave back.
After I got in, I saw them reading my address (at the end of the driveway) to see exactly where I lived. Hah.
I had gyoza (dumplings) and fried rice for dinner. I gotta say, I'm loving making it, it's super delicious, filling, etc. I also snagged some coffee for tomorrow.
I've been asked by Ben (the nagano PA (Prefectural Advisor) to make sushi at the nagano JET workshop in early october. Apparently Matsuda-sensei mentioned that I make sushi in my letter of rec. to JET way back, and so now they have this notion that i'm some sort of freakin chef! ahah. We'll see :P
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Baseball Grammar goes to the bottom of the Ninth
So, first period today was my first time leading a class all the way through, and we played baseball grammar. I explained the game to the kids for about 5-10 minutes, and then we started. They were a little lost at first (which I expected) but within 10 minutes or so they had gotten the hang of it. The girls started, played it safe by only choosing 'singles' (which are the easiest questions) and ended up making it through their entire team and racheting up nearly 10 points. I was worried that everyone would take this approach and I'd run out of 'single's, but the boys came out and picked 'home run's for the most part, and did well which encouraged others to take shots at the harder ones.
It was of course a learning experience, and I figured out that the little pictures I used weren't too accesible to the rest of the class since they couldn't see it (but I'll amend that by using the large picture cards that come with the 'New Horizon' books we are using next time). I also have to remember to talk slowly and clearly so everyone can hear and understand me, but again this was my first time doing it :-p. I also got to work with dicipline in a class, since a game this engaging obviously riles kids up. I had to also be a bit hard and call outs if students shouted answers out or tried to whisper it to their partners who were 'up to bat'.
The best part of the game though, was that with only 10 minutes left, the boys were down by 8 and started to storm back, making the game interesting. This included a 'grand slam' (aka the bases were loaded from 'singles' and a student went for a home run, aka very hard question) and answered it correctly as the time limit expired.
The finale included the boys being down by 1, with a person on third, and the student coming up holding this big 'An-pan man' statue thing (an-pan man is a super-hero who looks like 'an-pan', the sweet red bean paste inside of a pastry food that is hugely popular here.), and taking a shot at a home run to win the game on the last question of the day. The kid nailed it with less than a second left, and pretty much sent the room wild.
I particularly loved playing this game because classrooms are, for the most part, never anywhere near this engaged or relaxed during an actual class (this says nothing for between classes though).
I'm pretty stoked because I get to play the game again on friday with the first years. :-)
It was of course a learning experience, and I figured out that the little pictures I used weren't too accesible to the rest of the class since they couldn't see it (but I'll amend that by using the large picture cards that come with the 'New Horizon' books we are using next time). I also have to remember to talk slowly and clearly so everyone can hear and understand me, but again this was my first time doing it :-p. I also got to work with dicipline in a class, since a game this engaging obviously riles kids up. I had to also be a bit hard and call outs if students shouted answers out or tried to whisper it to their partners who were 'up to bat'.
The best part of the game though, was that with only 10 minutes left, the boys were down by 8 and started to storm back, making the game interesting. This included a 'grand slam' (aka the bases were loaded from 'singles' and a student went for a home run, aka very hard question) and answered it correctly as the time limit expired.
The finale included the boys being down by 1, with a person on third, and the student coming up holding this big 'An-pan man' statue thing (an-pan man is a super-hero who looks like 'an-pan', the sweet red bean paste inside of a pastry food that is hugely popular here.), and taking a shot at a home run to win the game on the last question of the day. The kid nailed it with less than a second left, and pretty much sent the room wild.
I particularly loved playing this game because classrooms are, for the most part, never anywhere near this engaged or relaxed during an actual class (this says nothing for between classes though).
I'm pretty stoked because I get to play the game again on friday with the first years. :-)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
