So, the last couple of weeks have seen spring arrive in full, which has been nice.
The heater has been turned off, the windows opened, and the weather enjoyed. :)
The snow pack on the mountains is melting now too, so there's a constant stream of water going through the gutters that line all the streets, even though we haven't had rain in a couple weeks.
The rice paddies are being worked on in earnest now as well.
The sakura (cherry blossoms) have already come and gone. about a week ago they were coming out here at school, and today i noticed that several trees have lost all the blossoms. it has been really great to be outside when they are blooming to either see them or watch them fall. or even sweep them up. like light pink snowflakes.
i also went up to takato last weekend to see the sakura there. takato is suppoed to be one of the top 3 places in japan to see the sakura, and i hav eto admit it was darn good.
you can view takato photos by clicking here
and you can see iijima junior high schools by clicking here
the low point from the last week was hurting my back. last thursday i was doing something, no clue what set it off, by by the time i was leaving school it was getting bad, and all evening it got terrible. I was pretty much bed-ridden all night and had trouble moving. The next day i went in feeling decently better but still pretty bad. I was able to ask Kubota-sensei for some help in finding a chiro, and lucky me there was one right across street from school. I went there last thursday and it wasn't exactly as we'd think of a chiro in america, a lot less of the intense back-focusing exercises and stuff, but it helped. I have gone back again on monday, wednesday, and will go again tomorrow. I'm pretty close to 100%, and always feel better after i go.
also a bonus is that w/ my health insurance, it's pretty darn cheap to make the trips as well. Yesterday, i paid a total of $4.50 for my 45 minutes at the chiropractor. :D
also of note is that I'm stil having a terrible time remembering japanese names,a nd it just bugs me to NO FREAKIN' END that It's so hard :( I had the young english teacher promise to help me study them, and to recipricate I'm helping her study for her english teacher's exam this next summer. Which I did yesterday, and it was a pretty horrifying affair as I was having a terrible time helping her. For example, she took the practice test and checked her answers, but it just told her what was wrong, and not why it was wrong grammatically, so there were a couple that just left me boggled, and while I could theorize what was wrong, it was not only hard to explain, but seemed correct in the first place to me. that was a bad sign ahha.
I'm going to cook some mexican food tonight with friends, which I'm really really looking forward to. We had meant to do it last sunday but it had been pushed off due to bad scheduling on my part. (whoops!)
I found out i won't be heading to Iijima elem until nearly the end of May now because of, well, i really don't know why. No changes with Nanakubo though.
We're implementing some new curriculum for the elem's, as part of the new national endevor to drum up english study for the elem students, but I'm a little unsure about how it will work (read: completely unsure) and I'm a bit nervous.
i've booked my trip to korea to visit bethany (more like she booked it) and we're working on getting the hokkaido summer trip figured out as well. I booked dad's ticket to Japan last weekend too, which will be fun!
this last little tidbit is just for me, but after 9 seasons, I was finally able to take the perrenially terrible Idaho Vandals football team and turn them into National champtions. I started the dynasty with them last summer and it was pretty satisfying to make it to the top with them :')
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Oops, my bad desu.
Yeah, So i've totally biffed and not been putting up lots of posts lately (it's been what, 3 weeks?) so i'll go ahead and drop a 'my bad' right here.
My last post mentioned the high schoolers taking their entrance exams. Since then, not too much has happened.
After the test, the school year was pretty much done, and the following week saw me with nothing to do at school and therefore i spent lots of time studying japanese and reading humor websites under the pretext of studying really hard.
We had closing ceremonies on the 18th of March, a long, serious event that I had a hard time getting much out of because I don't understand japanese. I caught bits n' pieces, but still.
We bid farewell to 5 teachers and the principal at the end of the year as well. Tradition in Asia sees teachers switching schools every 4-6 years (the principal was retiring). Kasuga was one of the teachers who was taking off (the head eng. teacher).
We had an enkai (drinking party) to celebrate the end of the year, which was lots of fun for me because i had 2 eng teachers at my table so I could actually carry on some decent conversation, as well as having fun speaking with one of the young history teachers who really likes english. Gotta love how the japanese use alcohol to grease the wheels of the social construct.
The party culminated with some pretty whacky things: including singing the iijima school song, then making a tunnel for the teachers who are leaving and singing a song to the tune of aud lane syne but with japanese lyrics. I sang with english lyrics.
Then, spontaneously, we decided to toss the kasuga into the air as a congragulations kinda thing. After tossing him, the teachers decided they wanted to throw the principal, who's cries of 'i have a bad back!' were met with laughter. The teachers opted to ignore the warnign and toss him anyway. That was sweet. Then they picked up the teeny secretary who's leaving and she got some serious hangtime.
I was laughing so hard and turned to the young english teacher and said 'man, i HAVE to tell people back home about this, because we never do this type of awesome stuff in america!' to which she replied 'yes, but you have to be careful! someone died from this just a couple days ago!' which made me laugh even harder and elicited an angry slap from my english teacher. 'that's not funny!', 'yes, it is!'
anyway, after some additional talking we figured out that i thought she meant they died mid-toss but she meant the drunk fools dropped the poor schmuck.
My initial plan was to be in Korea from March 27-April 5th (with classes startign the 6th) but i made the mistake of asking if I needed to fill out any forms or anything. Kasuga brought me back this mock sheet that the ALT before Jon made.
So i fill it out, say i'll be at school half the days, and in Korea the other half. the principal says that won't work (mind you, i'd run this by kasuga who said it wouldn't be a problem) because i needed to be there april 1st because of the new teachers rollin' in. so i was told that i was outta luck. particularly becuase the JET contract states that we have to be there on spring break like everyone else, and stare at a wall for the two week break. Awesome.
I was getting pretty exasperated while takling with kasuga about it. the convo went like this:
Me: Kasuga, the calendar I have here says that there's no school from the 18th until April 5th!
Kasuga: Well, that's a calendar for the PTA and Students...
Me: Oh, so is there a special calendar for teachers that I'm supposed to have instead?
K: well since we're civil servants we know that we'll have to be here on break...
Me: I DON'T KNOW THAT! >:(
so long story short, I'm spending my break at school, trying to look like I give a shit.
I had Daniel, a private eng teacher from Auz, stay with me for a few days after his contract was up and he had to move out but didn't have anywhere to go for a couple of days.
Two new english teachers, both women. 5 women teachers and me.
My last post mentioned the high schoolers taking their entrance exams. Since then, not too much has happened.
After the test, the school year was pretty much done, and the following week saw me with nothing to do at school and therefore i spent lots of time studying japanese and reading humor websites under the pretext of studying really hard.
We had closing ceremonies on the 18th of March, a long, serious event that I had a hard time getting much out of because I don't understand japanese. I caught bits n' pieces, but still.
We bid farewell to 5 teachers and the principal at the end of the year as well. Tradition in Asia sees teachers switching schools every 4-6 years (the principal was retiring). Kasuga was one of the teachers who was taking off (the head eng. teacher).
We had an enkai (drinking party) to celebrate the end of the year, which was lots of fun for me because i had 2 eng teachers at my table so I could actually carry on some decent conversation, as well as having fun speaking with one of the young history teachers who really likes english. Gotta love how the japanese use alcohol to grease the wheels of the social construct.
The party culminated with some pretty whacky things: including singing the iijima school song, then making a tunnel for the teachers who are leaving and singing a song to the tune of aud lane syne but with japanese lyrics. I sang with english lyrics.
Then, spontaneously, we decided to toss the kasuga into the air as a congragulations kinda thing. After tossing him, the teachers decided they wanted to throw the principal, who's cries of 'i have a bad back!' were met with laughter. The teachers opted to ignore the warnign and toss him anyway. That was sweet. Then they picked up the teeny secretary who's leaving and she got some serious hangtime.
I was laughing so hard and turned to the young english teacher and said 'man, i HAVE to tell people back home about this, because we never do this type of awesome stuff in america!' to which she replied 'yes, but you have to be careful! someone died from this just a couple days ago!' which made me laugh even harder and elicited an angry slap from my english teacher. 'that's not funny!', 'yes, it is!'
anyway, after some additional talking we figured out that i thought she meant they died mid-toss but she meant the drunk fools dropped the poor schmuck.
My initial plan was to be in Korea from March 27-April 5th (with classes startign the 6th) but i made the mistake of asking if I needed to fill out any forms or anything. Kasuga brought me back this mock sheet that the ALT before Jon made.
So i fill it out, say i'll be at school half the days, and in Korea the other half. the principal says that won't work (mind you, i'd run this by kasuga who said it wouldn't be a problem) because i needed to be there april 1st because of the new teachers rollin' in. so i was told that i was outta luck. particularly becuase the JET contract states that we have to be there on spring break like everyone else, and stare at a wall for the two week break. Awesome.
I was getting pretty exasperated while takling with kasuga about it. the convo went like this:
Me: Kasuga, the calendar I have here says that there's no school from the 18th until April 5th!
Kasuga: Well, that's a calendar for the PTA and Students...
Me: Oh, so is there a special calendar for teachers that I'm supposed to have instead?
K: well since we're civil servants we know that we'll have to be here on break...
Me: I DON'T KNOW THAT! >:(
so long story short, I'm spending my break at school, trying to look like I give a shit.
I had Daniel, a private eng teacher from Auz, stay with me for a few days after his contract was up and he had to move out but didn't have anywhere to go for a couple of days.
Two new english teachers, both women. 5 women teachers and me.
Tuesday, March 10, 2009
Awesome Day
So yesterday was the test day for high school entrance exams for the 3rd years. They're all back today and seem to be good. I'm happy for them. Two of my students came into my room on Monday and thanked me for all the fun they've had the last year. It was pretty awesome of them. :-)
So today, I find out for my 2nd class of the day we're watching Sister Act 2 (well, they'd started it). So at the beginning of class I say i'm happy we're watching the movie today (but the teacher was like, ah, not yet). So i wasn't sure if they knew or not, but anyway!
The teacher goes, 'I went to Tsutaya last night (the movie rental place) and got a movie!" students get excited, she starts to pull it out, I see the '2' on it and think, 'oh, Sister act 2' I think. The teacher then goes, 'I got TERMINATOR 2' and my face just LIGHTS UP. Since there were more boys than girls in the class, the votes for T2 won and we got to watch the first 50mins of it. AWESOME
Then it got better:
I go down to the break room and my teacher from the last class is in there
and she's talking with some other teachers about how she doesn't think she wants to watch T2 next class because it's so violent.
Then Ushiyama-sensei says outta the blue
'you should do the theme song at the beginning of class now!'
'diwght-sensei should start it, 'dun dun dah dun dun, dun dun dah dun dun' while Kubota-sensei, you can be crouched down and slowly rise up like the terminator!
At this point I just lost it. This was such a brilliant idea.
Then we ended up talking about movies for a bit, and Ushiyama-sensei said, 'you should watch robocop instead' LOL
Finally, as I'm leaving, that same teacher said something about how she's a vegetarian, and another teacher goes 'muri (impossible)' first teacher goes 'why? veggies are delicious!' 2nd teacher, 'i know, but so is meat!' as i was leaving the first teacher was saying something about BBQ sauce for veggies and i lost it again
So today, I find out for my 2nd class of the day we're watching Sister Act 2 (well, they'd started it). So at the beginning of class I say i'm happy we're watching the movie today (but the teacher was like, ah, not yet). So i wasn't sure if they knew or not, but anyway!
The teacher goes, 'I went to Tsutaya last night (the movie rental place) and got a movie!" students get excited, she starts to pull it out, I see the '2' on it and think, 'oh, Sister act 2' I think. The teacher then goes, 'I got TERMINATOR 2' and my face just LIGHTS UP. Since there were more boys than girls in the class, the votes for T2 won and we got to watch the first 50mins of it. AWESOME
Then it got better:
I go down to the break room and my teacher from the last class is in there
and she's talking with some other teachers about how she doesn't think she wants to watch T2 next class because it's so violent.
Then Ushiyama-sensei says outta the blue
'you should do the theme song at the beginning of class now!'
'diwght-sensei should start it, 'dun dun dah dun dun, dun dun dah dun dun' while Kubota-sensei, you can be crouched down and slowly rise up like the terminator!
At this point I just lost it. This was such a brilliant idea.
Then we ended up talking about movies for a bit, and Ushiyama-sensei said, 'you should watch robocop instead' LOL
Finally, as I'm leaving, that same teacher said something about how she's a vegetarian, and another teacher goes 'muri (impossible)' first teacher goes 'why? veggies are delicious!' 2nd teacher, 'i know, but so is meat!' as i was leaving the first teacher was saying something about BBQ sauce for veggies and i lost it again
Monday, March 2, 2009
Hinamatsuri
Today is Hinamatsuri, literally 'doll festival' but also called 'girl's day'. I had one of my teachers ask me at lunch with his class if we have 'girls day' in america. I told him every day was girls day in america. He thought that was hysterical.
Jigokudani Yaenkoen (Snow Monkey Park)
Bethany and I spent wednesday at this awesome part at the north end of my prefecture. It was a very cool place and we had a fantastic time up there. :-) Adorable little buggers.
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Elementary school
On monday and tuesday after coming back to Iijima, bethany came to school with me. Monday afternoon we were at the elementary school and bethany was awesome enough to take some pictures for me. the day was lots of fun and the kids had a great time too; something that was really pleasing for me. :-)
Bethany's visit to Kyoto
So I woke up early last Friday, ready to catch my bus to Osaka and then transfer to the train on out to the airport. I kept getting woken up every few minutes because it kept sounding like someone was walking outside of my window / house and then it would stop, leaving me a bit confused. I kept sleeping through it, and finally when it was time for me to wake up I realized that it sounded like it was raining outside. I looked out and sure enough, it was, but the reason I kept hearing the walking was because it had snowed several inches before it warmed and switched to rain, so the snow was sliding off my roof and landing outside my window in the puddles making plopping sounds like someone walking. I made my way to the bus stop, and waited for my bus. my pick-up time came and went, and then an additonal 20 minutes, then 30. I was getting worried because the day before, I had told Kasuga I would see him on Monday (since I was taking friday off) and he gave me a weird look and was like (but tomorrow is friday) and I said, 'yes, but I'mgoing to kyoto tomorrow.' since kasuga had purchased my ticket for me, I was worried that he may have gotten the dates mixed up and made my reservation for saturday. I tried calling him but to no avail.
I finally decided I didn't wanna wait any longer (40 minutes past pick-up) and started walking back to my car. I was crossing the bridge back to the parking lot over the highway and saw a bus. I slowed my pace to see if it was potentially my bus, and lo and behold, it started slowing down. the only problem was that I now had to run back to the bus stop, and the road was covered in a goopy soupy mix of snow and rain. By the time I got to the bus I was soaked. LAME.
Several hours later I got into umeda, a stop along the Keihan line I rode when I was at Kansai. I just walked around for a bit and finally found a ticket counter; after looking at it for a couple of minutes i found that there was indeed a train that went out to the airport from there, as well as even having a rapid train, which was the next one that was coming. ( I asked an attendant to find out. :p) I got out to the airport with no problems (minus being 40 minutes late) I found bethany after just a few minutes, but she wasn't too happy about me being late. I can't blame her. I had accidently given her the wrong number to my cell phone so she couldn't get ahold of me either. bwah. :(
We then took the train on back to Kyoto station, and from there walked to our hostel we were staying at, which won an award for best hostel in Asia in 2004. the place was quite nice :-) We dropped our stuff off and went out to go to Kiyomizu-dera temple, so we could see kyoto at nighttime. We ended up hopping on the bus and riding it for a while, but unfortunately it ended up going back to Kyoto station, which left us a bit confused. I asked the driver if it went to kiyomizu, and it turned out we had hopped on 206 instead of 208. GAH. We got on 208 at kyoto station finally and rode it out to kiyomizu, and walked up the hill. Everything was dark though so it was kinda creepy. We got tot he top and found out it had been closed since 6 (it was about 7:15). DOUBLE BAH. So we went back. We stopped at a restaurant not too far from the hostel but they had an hour wait, so then we proceeded to a beef bowl place across the street and got some food to take home. the food was very delish and we just had a nice evening inside.
the next day we went to Fushimi-inari to meet up with my friend Alberto who lived in my seminar house when I was at Kansai Gaidai. Neither of us had been to Fushimi inari before. Inari's are these orange gates that are guarded by fox deities.
The place at Fushimi is famous because it allows local businesses to purchase Inari's so you end up having thousands of these things along numerous paths that go through the entire park. It leads to some gorgeous views:
After spending several hours there, the three of us tried to go to Kinkakuji temple, but again, it was closed early (stupid winter in Japan), so then we proceeded to find a Kappa-zushi place to eat at (converyer belt sushi, yum!)
Dinner pretty much rounded out our day, and from there we bid alberto goodbye and went back to the hostel.
I finally decided I didn't wanna wait any longer (40 minutes past pick-up) and started walking back to my car. I was crossing the bridge back to the parking lot over the highway and saw a bus. I slowed my pace to see if it was potentially my bus, and lo and behold, it started slowing down. the only problem was that I now had to run back to the bus stop, and the road was covered in a goopy soupy mix of snow and rain. By the time I got to the bus I was soaked. LAME.
Several hours later I got into umeda, a stop along the Keihan line I rode when I was at Kansai. I just walked around for a bit and finally found a ticket counter; after looking at it for a couple of minutes i found that there was indeed a train that went out to the airport from there, as well as even having a rapid train, which was the next one that was coming. ( I asked an attendant to find out. :p) I got out to the airport with no problems (minus being 40 minutes late) I found bethany after just a few minutes, but she wasn't too happy about me being late. I can't blame her. I had accidently given her the wrong number to my cell phone so she couldn't get ahold of me either. bwah. :(
We then took the train on back to Kyoto station, and from there walked to our hostel we were staying at, which won an award for best hostel in Asia in 2004. the place was quite nice :-) We dropped our stuff off and went out to go to Kiyomizu-dera temple, so we could see kyoto at nighttime. We ended up hopping on the bus and riding it for a while, but unfortunately it ended up going back to Kyoto station, which left us a bit confused. I asked the driver if it went to kiyomizu, and it turned out we had hopped on 206 instead of 208. GAH. We got on 208 at kyoto station finally and rode it out to kiyomizu, and walked up the hill. Everything was dark though so it was kinda creepy. We got tot he top and found out it had been closed since 6 (it was about 7:15). DOUBLE BAH. So we went back. We stopped at a restaurant not too far from the hostel but they had an hour wait, so then we proceeded to a beef bowl place across the street and got some food to take home. the food was very delish and we just had a nice evening inside.
the next day we went to Fushimi-inari to meet up with my friend Alberto who lived in my seminar house when I was at Kansai Gaidai. Neither of us had been to Fushimi inari before. Inari's are these orange gates that are guarded by fox deities.
The place at Fushimi is famous because it allows local businesses to purchase Inari's so you end up having thousands of these things along numerous paths that go through the entire park. It leads to some gorgeous views:
After spending several hours there, the three of us tried to go to Kinkakuji temple, but again, it was closed early (stupid winter in Japan), so then we proceeded to find a Kappa-zushi place to eat at (converyer belt sushi, yum!)
Dinner pretty much rounded out our day, and from there we bid alberto goodbye and went back to the hostel.
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