Workin’ Halloweenin’ Stressin’ Student Storiesn’

Heya,
Well not a whole lot has happened since the last time. I worked a 6 day work week, burnt out and spent the weekend wallowing in sloth at my house, it was great. I need time like that every now and then, to just sit around and do nothing. That way when I went to work today it almost felt like I had a 2 day weekend instead, except for one of my dollar store alarms not going off on time again this morning, almost making me late again. Got the ‘scruff beard going on and baggy eyes, drinking tasty coffee (read: lots of milk and sugar) from a refrigerated milk carton enjoying luckily enough that days at Yayoi are rather relaxed after I make the lesson plan for the first years that will last about half a month (6 classes, visit one or two a day, at Yayoi twice a week). Last week I used that time to make more lesson-plans for Tatsuno and the tutoring group I am now meeting on Thursdays, and today I am writing this. But anyways enough about my schedule, all I really have this week are crazy student stories! Those are fun. (pictured: student learning how to use a fire hydrant during a school fire drill, assisted by an employee of the fire department. Yes, it's pink!)

I came to realize a lot of my conversations are like the following:
Student “Hello!”
Me “Hello!”
Student: “Hi!”
Me: “Hey!”
Student: brief pause… “Oh yea!” (Shoots their thumb in their air)
Me: “Alright!” (I shoot my thumb in the air)
Student: now mimicking as their vocabulary has been exhausted “Alright!”
Me: “Good job” with a quick nod.
Student: runs off giggling. I can hear the echo of “good job” in the distance.

Also many students now before I can even ask reply “I’m fine thank you.” Everyone here is “fine” which is alright ☺ every now and then I’ll get different responses like “I am hungry” or “I am sleepy” which is good.

Oh ya I got disciplined last week! Never happened to me before and wasn’t really pleasant. It was from (of course) a simple miscommunication. I guess I had to give a speech Saturday afternoon but didn’t know that and was going to use my perceived free time to attend a Halloween party in Ina. My absence wasn’t kosher so my principal disciplined my vice principal, caretaker and me. (picture: students enjoying the fire drill and the tall foreigner taking pictures like a tourist)

The students I’m tutoring on Thursdays are very good students, in the spring they are going to New Zealand. So to recap last Thursday, I taught 4 classes, got disciplined and did a tutor group. I was so exhausted; I went and got groceries but my motor functions were at the point of me blank staring at products and tripping on myself. Some how a quick beer when I got home sprang me back into action to put a good 3 hours of hard work in. I spent over an hour on my Halloween costume, over an hour fixing my bed (for good this time! I punched at least 15 screws in that wood frame sucker! Bo ya!) and the rest of that time cleaning as the underside of my bed hasn’t seen cleaning for I don’t know how long. The tatami mats are like stained grey from the dust, it’s pretty cool. I had to empty the vacuum twice.

On the subject of my Halloween outfit, I just hope it makes John proud :P (going as a hardcore rider fan! Flag cape, Paper Mache helmet, face paint and all) I didn’t get the chance to use it this weekend as I was too burnt out to finish painting it, it was raining (my excuse) and I just wanted to go to bed. I hope to post more photos of it in the next post maybe and I have yet to try out the face paint to be sure it works. My students will think I’m even crazier but that’s alright, just wish watermelons weren’t out of season so I could carve it up real nice.

While making the outfit I got the idea of emailing The Leader Post in Regina to see if they were interested in Japanese Rider fans, I could make a lesson plan out of getting the students to write words of support for the team in green. They told me that Rider fans are everywhere and the story has to be especially unique or eye-catching for them to consider it, but if the Riders do well in playoffs then the chances increase. I guess I could make a lesson plan regardless, but I like the comment from Jake: “nobody will know who or what you are dressed as, even if you explain.” Haha true enough, but maybe those are the best outfits. Da’ ladies all be like “NANDE sore wa?!?!?” (WHAT is that??)

Oh ya, knock ‘em dead tony boy ;) Green faces are teh hawtness.

Language gap and distractions aside, I taught the Thursday tutor group stuff like what they will be asked in New Zealand based on my experience in other countries “do you like (insert national past time here)?” and stuff like that. In other words I’m trying to teach them to be more polite instead of just saying “no” when they are asked if they like Rugby. As far as other crazy students stories, one class has to make commercials on random items and I gave them a list of questions to fill out. One of my favorite questions for them to answer is “In what country is it illegal and why?” One group put “In Arab because Arab.” I cracked up laughing but they didn’t get when I asked them to explain why, as if it explained itself. That or they couldn’t understand what I was asking; also possible. (pictured: students running from the slow moving fire extinguisher exhaust. Not pictured: them screaming and running even though the wind was going that way and the last 3 crowds ran away in a similar fashion)

We are presenting the “Project Time Capsule” stuff as well and a great idea presented to me was to get each group to form one question about what was being put in the capsule. Ideas varied form sunflower seeds to Red Hot Chili Pepper concert tickets, but a couple groups all chose their old cell phones. One of the more interesting questions one student brought up “which is your favorite email address on the cell phone?” Haha what a mean question. (They don’t do “text messages” here; cell phones have their own email.) Later after blushing the girl responded “my best friend.” The group further inquired after my evil persuasion “who is that?” She looked around nervously at her 3 group members who were looking back at her expectantly. After more blushing and stuttering I suggested she could just say, “It is a secret” and avoided embarrassing anyone (further).

Students stop me in hallway and ask for candy sometimes. One asked for some lunch money the other day, “I am poor! Give me money!” heh if he and his friends weren’t laughing so hard I could maybe lend him a dollar but I don’t want to start anything. My idea of dressing up the next couple days and giving away treats to whoever says “trick or treat” is risky enough.

Speaking of not starting something, a student asked me the other day the thing all JETs keep talking about that makes me nervous. First it started all casual, like “I had 4 classes with you so far” (rough translation) and later she asked “do you know my name?”

Oh man, it has started. I teach 6 first year classes at Yayoi as I mentioned earlier and there at least 40 students in each class, most don’t talk and I saw her 4 times in 2 months. Well after she saw through my ruse of “you over there” and other name avoiding techniques, her head hung and she was very disappointed. Many JETs talk about this moment, as “the time the student stops talking to you forever”. I wrote her name down and made sure to say it later in the day when I had to go and couldn’t watch their basketball practice anymore but at any rate it is just the start of me disappointing many people unfortunately. (I still don’t know the name of the teacher who sits beside me, how embarrassing is that ☹)

Wow I ramble a lot, my “nothing to talk about” sure gets long, I still have lots of student stories that are so all over the place they are hard to write down coherently. Like the student who burst out “Tony I love you!” last week now screams it and runs down hallways when she sees me. Or the other student that wanted to shake my hand and said “touch, touch”. I tried to explain you shake with your right hand and not your left and she was ecstatic to be able to shake my other hand as well. Or the classes Saturday where the parents stood in the back of the room and watched their children in school, I never seen the class that well behaved and organized before they were amazing! The “form groups and work together” command was realized in seconds, orderly and quietly! Crazy stuff, I usually have to walk around the room and make pushing motions with my arms to show that they should group together. (Pictured: me at Craven '07. Just 'cause.)

Oh man! I see Uncle Francis everywhere here! At first no one minded my wave much, but now they ALL stop, pose, and wave back to me just like Uncle Francis does. It is so eerie. Didn’t know my wave warranted so much attention. Also one student started shaking her head no when I was trying to get her to ask a question for the project time capsule. I started nodding my head to combat it, so she started shaking her head faster. Needless to say I won the head shaking war when she bust up laughing at me nodding super fast trying to get her to talk. I won and she spoke, body language does speak loudly sometimes.

My hip doesn’t hurt so much from the marathon anymore, I should get into some sports again, I still have to get my cell phone working though, long story I don’t want to talk about, just annoying as it has been almost a month with no service. Going to dress up at Tatsuno tomorrow (Tuesday) Yayoi Wednesday, then Thursday apparently I am taking holidays to go for my Japanese driving exam (found this out a couple days ago…). Since I am Canadian it should just be an eye exam I hope, I should bring some translations just in case they want me to do more. I am trying to juggle the schedule to make time that day to go to Nagano and get my re-entry permit. (pictured: the siblings and I at Christmas last year)

Another busy week ahead and a flier for some kind of international food day at Kitaaiki village this weekend (same place I went for the kangaroo and crocodile) I need to plan further ahead or else risk being shut down like the Okinawa trip (that one had over 2 months notice and still got a no) I’m not much for planning so I have nothing set, I find it kind of surprising I’ve only left Nagano prefecture once since being here, there really is too much to do, quite positive I won’t see most of Japan in my time here, there are many things I still need to do in Nagano prefecture itself like tour the medieval castle in Matsumoto or tour the Winter Olympic stuff in Nagano city, but I guess I didn’t even see that stuff in Calgary. At any rate there are options and I am trying harder to figure them out, like if/when to visit MoonJu in South Korea. I also got my first of 6 Japanese tests in the mail recently, this one is due first week of December, I got lots of catching up to do, maybe I should be studying right now…

"If you choose not to decide, you still have made a choice." -Neil Peart

Tony

Housewarmin', Homestayin', Humorin'

It's been a while, never really posted last week as I felt there wasn't too much to write about. That and I was pretty busy again. Anyways the marathon went well! I ran 30Km in under 5 hours. By "run" I mean "mostly walked" and my hip still hurts a little bit but it's not like I'm hobbling quite as bad as I was for most of last week. I'm not sure what place I got in, but my long legs and my fast-walking-to-not-miss-the-train training had me mostly prepared :) Anything other than that that would be remotely close to being called "training" would be that time I practiced with the soccer team and volleyball team. Either way I'm in much better shape than I was in Canada and I'm mostly all over the place yet, no real "routine" per say. (picture: me at Disneyland Tokyo)

So ya, the marathon was neat, I inspired the students to try harder, or maybe just gave them the motivation when they heard the 100KG foreigner lumbering up behind them breathing heavily. The girls didn't have to run as far so when we reached the part in the road where the girls joined on the main route with the boys more people would slow down to chat. One pair of girls tried asking me how to say "crap" in English. I'm not sure if they were trying to learn swears, but it was funny to see them go through the motions of going to the bathroom and making the "poo" noise. Also the scenery was beautiful and I was starving having burnt how many thousands of calories in those 30 km. We even passed a dairy farm seemingly in the middle of town. Interesting at any rate. (Picture: me and Neal at TGS'07!)

If I haven't said it before those students really make the job fun, the days I don't see them drag on and can be stressful. For example I was teaching this one in class how to do an exercise. She understood, pulled back her face mask (if people have a cold they wear face-masks and go to work/school anyways, look like those "SARS" masks) looked me in the eye and said "can I?" I thought she was talking about the exercise I just told her how to do so I was like "uh... yes you can do the question here..." and she was like "can I... toilet?" Haha classic, the puppy dog eyes and face mask really sold it. Never had someone ask me for bathroom permission before and I couldn't say no. Then later that day another student just starts yelling out "Oh!!! Toni desu!" (it's tony) then after the crowd giggled themselves into a frenzy the one screamed "Toni I love you!" hahaha oh man, my caretaker was with me at the time and she started laughing as hard as me. I responded "uh-oh abunai!" (abunai=danger) and said "you're going to get me in trouble" haha. It's all good I suppose. (Picture: Me at TGS07 with Suzumiya Haruhi. The students go nuts if you mention her name, it's like crack or something. I tell other JETs to just mention her name, but if they are inclined then watch it too, it's pretty entertaining)

So Saturday I couldn't move very much from the jogging pain but managed to clean up enough for my housewarming later that night. In all there was about 6-8 people who showed up (all girls except Jake ;) and we had some potato sauce that I made (potato sauce is a family recipe for those interested) and it was very popular. Compliments ranged but one of the best ones was "I have never tasted anything like this before". I thought that was interesting, as if all foods have a taste category you can pile it into but this dish broke out into new territory. Of course the toughest critic is yourself so I was apologizing for any little thing that I thought didn't turn out right (lack of white vinegar for one).

After the party we went to a dance club about an hour away by train. I somehow busted a move with my broken body and it was a good time, many people were dressed up like these guys who dressed as the village people and did the YMCA for their costume contest winning victory dance. We were there until 4 in the morning then went to an all night restaurant to wait 2 hours for the first train to take us back home. Everyone was bushed and fell asleep. I somehow forced myself to stay awake but unfortunately didn't get a picture of everyone sleeping on the train, it really was a cool sight to see. Most of us went back to my place to catch 4 hours of sleep or so before heading home. Clean up went surprisingly well even though there was day old potato sauce involved. I like cooking and was glad to have the chance to cook for people again after (I guess over 3 months now, I was home alone mostly the last month in Regina). It's tough just cooking for yourself sometimes.

Another week of school, another week of Genki (energetic/healthy) students. I couldn't do club because my body was sore from the marathon even though I was invited back numerous times. One student has a college entrance test approaching and took my offer on eating lunch together in the teacher's lounge to work on their English. I'm trying to put myself out there all the time and it's catching on more and more it seems. I'm an awkward guy at the best of times so I'm sure this is a learning experience for me at any rate. They love seeing photos from home and one student even asked to see pictures from the game show! It was great because then we talked about video games for a while and I didn't feel so much like an outsider for a while. On that note, I remember the one JET compared himself to being a pet dog. Sure they are cute and do crazy things, but ultimately they aren't that important or relevant. Sometimes people just need to vent I guess but I know what he means sometimes. Like today when a student looked me in the eye, said something, then after a short awkward pause of me giving the deer-in-the-headlights look she mumbled "wakaranai" (doesn't understand) and turned away. Sucks really but what can you do.

So Friday comes around and there is a big JET conference. It was alright, learned problem solving stuff and teaching ideas. We all went for drinks and stuff after which was good too (all you can eat/drink for 2.5 hours for around $33) we emptied the beer fridge twice then later in the night we went to a Reggie bar. Beside the DJ booth there was none other than a Super Nintendo and a basket full of various games from chrono trigger to Japanese games I haven't hard of before. They were playing Mario Kart when I first saw them and later I sat down and played games we had back on the farm like teenage mutant ninja turtles, Super Mario 3 and Donkey Kong Country. Of course I looked like a nerd when everyone else was dancing and drinking but that's alright, I was starting to burn out from the long hours and constant busy schedule so I was taking it easy.

Speaking of being busy all the time, we did a home-stay that weekend. So we took a train in the morning to Kiso village, about an hour and a half west of me. The guy I stayed with was 89 years old and went on hiking trails with us, jumped out the back of a truck and did some jungle gym stuff. Pretty amazing I thought for his age. Also his wife was 50 or so and they were married for about 20 years which again was a little strange to me but maybe normal for Japanese culture, exactly the reason why we were on this stay in the first place. Let me tell you the houses we saw were just amazing, gave me all kinds of ideas for what I want to do when I build a house someday (might have to win the lottery first).

So first after a quick bite to eat we went and saw a nearby damn. They gave us a tour and and it was pretty neat, we even went inside the thing, like 100 meters underground down this crazy tunnel. I was almost getting a little claustrophobic after a bit, remembering bad movies like "daylight" where Silvester Stallone was stuck in an underground tunnel and was going to die... anyways it was really cool and the size boggles the mind. The scenery was just breathtaking.

After the tour we went back to town to a community center and met with people. We were shown different Japanese dances by different age groups and we showed them... the electric slide! I didn't know the dance before then, but I guess it is very similar to line dancing. Even some of the grandmas were dancing along and it was really neat to see. Later all the foreigners had to go on stage and do a dance with one of those rice field hats with flowers on them. It was a little tricky but I don't think I did too bad.

We split up and went to different houses for supper. One of the ladies we met was over 90 and was a midwife for over 54 years. She went on to tell us stories (in Japanese of course, I only got rough translations) like how she delivered maybe 1000 babies over the years and that she has been to Hawaii before during the war. I of course wanted to know more... but I sure don't know how to ask unfortunately.

We had an amazing supper and our hosts even played music and danced a bit for us. Again I was just blown away by how nice the house was. After we went back to our host's houses and chatted for a bit even though we were waking up early the next day. I unfortunately was way too tired while our 89 year old host was still mixing drinks and talking with us past midnight. I feel bad that we couldn't stay up later but oh man, I fell asleep 3 times in the car on the way to his place. I can't say I'm getting old because he almost 4 times my age and can probably kick my butt!

We went on a nature hike the next day after breakfast and again it was beautiful. After we went to a park for lunch and exchange of dances again. We did all kinds of various things that will show up in the pictures later. We exchanged omiyage (I gave a Canadian flag, coins and other tidbits) and went home for the day, I spent the rest of the day cleaning and stuff since I was gone all weekend again.

Speaking of photos, I hope everyone is enjoying the hundreds I posted last time. There is snow on the tops of the mountains now and things are still getting colder. They say you can watch the snow move it's way down more and more the mountain until it is at your house. Our host was saying his yard gets over a meter and a half, and it can reach -20 Celsius in the winter. I haven't really turned on my carpet half because I don't know how much power it sucks, half because I can muscle out the numb toes (and now fingers) until my hot shower before bed.

I got a comment on how it is surprising how an advanced country like Japan can be 50 years "behind". It is interesting to think about for sure, people here just live more simply. You could heat your house and such if you want but again the philosophy is heat the person and not the house. You have heated toilet seats here, heated tables (kotatsu) and other things so they're not exactly suffering and energy isn't as cheap here as back home. At the very least, maybe it will help humble me to know how my parents and grandparents used to live at least by a little bit. As a kid it was always hard to believe the stories on how brutal winter could be and I can see from that point of view how much of a jump the standard in living must be to have central heating and a warm house among other things.

Heh here I am talking about living simply when I rely on the train to go to work and have a car outside my house, not to mention my necessary weekly grocery trips. Some JETs here definitely take it a step further with some of the stuff they do and it is kind of tempting myself considering how much I even use my car and how much of a hassle it is to find parking or anything like that. The bottom line though, vehicles really do open up your world. (Picture: host Hojo-san doing the electric slide with some of the JETs. He is a pretty cool guy)

I need to go though, this post took 2 hours and I am exhausted. I got most of the stories in here. I almost missed my train this morning as I set my alarm at the wrong time. I work 6 days this week so Halloween will be tricky, what with a normal work day being on Saturday. I was starting to feel the effects of "burning out" last week so maybe one of these days I'll simply need to do nothing, go to bed early, and recharge the batteries. It doesn't help much either where much of the time spent on my bed is worrying whether I will finally fall through it. I will need to buy screws or nails soon to make more permanent fixes to it...

"The only person who cannot be helped is that person who blames others" -Carl Rogers

Anthony

Eating kangaroos, seeing monkeys and throwing rubber boots

Have been really busy again, seems to be the theme of this trip. Something is always happening and there is always stuff that needs to be done like food shopping or laundry. Good experience for me at any rate, hopefully it will teach me to start budgeting time or not be so lazy. I've uploaded a whole lot of new photos, I decided I can just post them all and maybe give them titles and/or descriptions later as that's the part that is the most time consuming for sure. Don't forget that I have a comments section and I will address any questions/requests as they come. For example I can easily email the pictures out if you want a full size copy.

Last week was pretty relaxing, one day I was walking to work half asleep again when I stopped, and was like 'holy crap a monkey!' Right in front of me maybe 5 feet away was a monkey! Then it must have been like "holy crap a human!" as it started to run away. By the time I got my camera out it was kind of far away but you get the point. I keep being told they are dangerous but I didn't have any food on me and he looked small and fuzzy. Attached is a picture of him when he was a safe distance away after I got my camera out.

On Wednesday my students at Yayoi had shorter classes than normal as Thursday was the day for their "chorus contest." Each classroom faced off against each other in a singing competition, and let me tell you some of the singing was just unreal. They have been practicing for weeks on end for this and they sounded amazing. Sure I couldn't understand half of the songs, but when they sang "glory glory lord" from Sister Act 2 or "We are the world, we are the children" then I recognized the songs. Brought back memories from when Chris and I sang that in China and how everyone would be pretending to sing along during rehearsals so they could listen to Chris and I sing it a couple times and they could follow suit. Kinda strange though, especially considering they had the song, they could have listened to the chorus and imitated that like Chris and I did. But anyways, I couldn't see the competition direction as it was on Thursday and I was teaching in Tatsuno that day. Pity, they sounded great. Only thing that was strange/funny though was the moderator of the rehearsal. The classes only got 5 minutes each to sing and when time was up she would jump on the mike and firmly tell them to get off the stage in a robot voice. It was especially funny because many of the songs really were moving, you were getting a little emotional and all of a sudden she would boom over the speakers; even when they were about to finish the song off in a strong finale! Good times, we got a kick out of that (went with my caretaker Miss. Matsushima, she was going to be a judge)

I've introduced a project to both my advanced classes in both schools. "Project time capsule" so they have to pick an item and present to the class why it is important to them and/or Japan and/or the world in the year 2007. I like to make them form opinion pieces because those have no right/wrong answers and I am trying to spark their creativity. You can tell some of the students aren't overly confident with doing so but hopefully I can encourage them enough to look past those brutal tests I gave and know that they can do it if they try.

We had some students come visit us from New Zealand as well for a little exchange program, speaking of which I have to interview 4 students from my school to help prepare them to visit New Zealand themselves in spring. Anyways, the one guy was pretty quiet but the girl that came was just loving the experience. I definitely put the idea in her head that she could get her degree and come teach like I am as during their good bye meeting with the Kocho (principal/boss) she mentioned how her goals in the future are to graduate and come back to Japan to teach for a while. I even worked them into one of my classes, getting them to introduce themselves and talk a bit about their home, and having them participate in the English games we played that day (it was hangman). It was fun either way.

So the weekend comes around, 4th 3 day weekend in a row, and Jake and I were up for a road-trip. There was a town festival happening in Kitaaiki village about 2-3 hour drive away. The Australian in charge of organizing the "international team" had a "Gumshoe" throwing competition. In Australia a Gumshoe is what we would call a rubber boot back home. So anyways there we were trying to drive straight to this place that happens to be separated from us by a mountain range. I tell ya, I got new confidence in my car after that treck and a new appreciation for video games. There were all kinds of steep hair pinned turns in beautiful surroundings. At one point I was cruising down a hill when I caught a glimpse in the mirror that showed me what was around the corner and a big bus took the turn! Good thing I saw it and slowed down, there were a couple close calls as it was but it was fun. We gave up being on time as it was taking a lot longer to get there than we hoped so we found a payphone (no cell reception on top of a mountain). The picture attached came from a quick nature hike we took at top, it is now my wallpaper on my compy.

This is a basic excerpt of the conversation: "Hey we're at the top of a mountain, it is taking a lot longer to get there than we hoped and might not get there before it ends" (we thought it was over at 2p.m.) "should we still come out after coming this far? Like is something going on after?"

"What are you talking about? The festival is tomorrow. We're going to a cabin tonight and you're welcome to join us."

Haha so ya, we were in the clear. We stopped at a fancy restaurant and I maybe had the best pasta I have ever eaten, it was so tasty and for a good price too. Just delicious. We met up with some new JETs I havn't met yet (hey there are over 100 in Nagano prefecture alone) and all headed together to the cabin to throw our stuff in and head to the onsen.

Not sure if I talked much about onsens yet (translated: hot spring). Melissa kind of experienced one with her "spa" in South Korea. It is basically a big bath house and they are famous and plentiful in Japan. Now this place really was a spa too with big massage chairs and other goodies. I enjoyed sitting out in the hot tub under the stars (still getting used to the having to be naked bit) and even did the sauna and ice water bit, that was great. We went back to the cabin and ate... Kangaroo meat! The kangaroo is the one on the left and it's sales pitch was "it'll keep you hoppin'!" I found the meat to be a little tough, nothing too special but I guess the price was right, not that expensive. The crocodile was kinda pricey though.

Anyways, so later that night we went out to do a nearby maze with crazy footing as it was built into the side of the hill. You walked around it blind as a bat with crazy slope on the ground but it was lots of fun. Some of the JETs were cold so they had a blanket on their backs. You had to be close to see but when you did I thought it looked like batman! So I started running around the maze saying the batman theme "na na na na naaaa doko da!" (doka da = where is it? as in the exit) I got a little loud so I heard a few "shhhh"s from some people. The song then changed to "na na na na naaaa shitsureishimasu!" (shitsureishimasu = しつれいします = my apologies/sorry for intruding) alot of people got a kick out of it and it quickly became the running joke of the road trip which is great though. My philosophy is that every good road trip needs an inside joke as any body not on the trip wouldn't get the joke but for the rest of the weekend whenever someone started singing shitsureishimasu! we would all bust out laughing. I suppose this picture that was taken on my camera had something to do with it as well as the "excuse me" joke was still going around and this picture was taken completely by accident but helped make "shitsureishimasu" a legend.

It was a lot of fun but we needed rest for tomorrow's festivities. There would be sprinting! A fearful thing indeed, especially for someone of my size and terrible shape. (on that note I am running a 30km marathon tomorrow....scary) It was really neat seeing a whole town come out and play games together. Again I literally posted hundreds of photos and this road trip has its own folder under kitaaiki to see some of the cool and crazy games we played and watched the town play as well. Everything from a relay to tug of war to large jump-roaping. My favorite event was a combination relay where you had to run under a net, eat a mashmellow from a tub of flour, run with a ball on your tennis raquet, pop a balloon, walk a balancing beam, then potato sack jump it to the finish line. I made a dramatic dive at the finish line and took first place by swatting down the finish marker and cutting up my arm on the gravel in the process. I somehow ended up with 3rd place though, guess they only counted it once my sack crossed the line and not my flour-face and now bloody arm. Heh ah well, it was fun. Attached is a picture of some students after eating the marshmallow and having to run with the ball.

We ate the crocodile here too, it was alright I suppose, not a lot of flavor by itself and it had a texture of overcooked chicken mixed with fish. It was good though, I kinda wanted to make a patty of it and eat it like a burger. Maybe next time. This event ended up taking all day and we were really tired when it ended. Jake and I got a bad sunburn and we all went home. This time we went around the mountains and saved an hour plus maybe a 1/4 tank of gas by doing so. The rest of the weekend was pretty relaxing.

Back at school later, I wanted to show off photos of my trip but my computer wouldn't boot, it would beep at me instead! I searched google on another computer and found out something was wrong with my ram. I guess one of my sticks died so now I'm running with 1/2 the ram but at least it is running, I'm happy for that. It's almost sad to say how reliant I am on technology but I guess I make myself that way, it doesn't have to be like that. I sometimes feel like being here is something of a camping trip, the last 2 nights for example will be the first of many where I sleep with sweat pants, bunny hug and socks on as it is too cold at night to not do so. I took a quick look the other day at heated blankets and whatnot but they're kinda pricey. Being warm though might be worth the price though, especially considering the long winter ahead of me. Weird how I am getting tips like "sleep with a hat or something on" as most warmth is lost from the head and in turn your digits start getting cold as the brain shuts down their circulation to look after itself. Hence the bunny hug, I've been waking up really cozy and warm thanks to it.

Heh the students are a lot fun. They are opening up even more, asking how I am and stuff. I tell them how I am sleepy because I was up late watching One Piece again (my favorite anime) and they get a good laugh out of it. Also another student today was like "you like Suzumiya Harumi?"(name of an anime character) and I was like "yes, she is funny". After some teacher assisted translating I found out her older sister also likes it and wants to be my friend now. Heh so there I am thinking to myself "I want to be her friend too!" but kept it restrained, might have to follow up on it later. I later found out she is a little bit of an otaku. I may have mentioned it before but being an "otaku" over here is like being a kind of "maniac". Some of my students think I am one, especially when they find out I like video games, anime, have been to the game show AND akihabara in the same weekend. That's ok though, it gets a laugh out of my students and it is a good feeling.

Speaking of which the other day we were drawing groups to work on that project and I had to write the students names on the board as I heard them :) well my students loved that, watching a foreigner trying to write their names and misspelling them terribly. Even I was laughing when it was over they were in such an uproar, practically rolling on the floor. My Japanese is coming along slowly (would go better if I spent more time studying) and conversations are getting better all the time. They love seeing pictures of my family and I love seeing their reaction when I show them "this is half my family" and even go on to show Dale in the yearbook I brought along and comparing him to the family picture. Everyone loves his rock-star hair. They also tell me I look really cool in my grad photo so that is a good feeling :P I even had students stop me in the hallway, take a minute to piece together some English words, then suddenly blurt "You are very cool!" haha priceless. I just hope I don't let it go to my head. A group of students asked me repeatedly if I had a "honey" today. I knew they were trying hard to find the right word "girlfriend" and it was cute listening to them say "honey" over and over while giggling. Eventually they got it and I answered them; I said "honey" is technically correct but girlfriend is the more formal word for it. This teaching thing is great.

Well enjoy the photos, hopefully I have time to put captions on them later but for now at least you can see them. I am running a 30 KM marathon tomorrow (ya I'm crazy) have line dancing Saturday, house warming party later that day, maybe go to a costume party at a club after, then maybe go to a traditional Japanese story telling thing in town Sunday.

Busy, busy, busy...

"If I try to be like him, who will be like me?" -Yiddish proverb

Anthony

Trying times. Perseverance is required.

Bonsoir,

I'm not really in the best of moods, a certain thing went down at work that I wasn't happy about that escalated and became way more complicated and painful that I ever would have imagined. But I don't really want to get into that; you don't want to hear it and I don't want to re-live it. Let's just say asking to use 5 days of my 20 holidays in the contract 2 months in advance was alot harder than I imagined. I'm posting because it's been a while and my memory is poor so good to get it down while it is a little fresh. Even then I rely on pictures I have taken to boost it.

So anyways! Last week was alright, students fantastic again. I gave a test out and after marking them today I still have a long ways to go to making good tests, let's just say the average was below 60. I hope the students don't start hating me, I'm making extra effort now to try and connect with them. It was suggested to me from another JET to invite them to eat lunch with me so they can practice their English during lunch break. It is clear, like he said, that people are very shy here. You really need to reach out to get a response.

One of the students suggest I join an upcoming marathon! Well I must be crazy because I'm all signed up now. Thursday after school I visited the soccer club. (they love me since I taught them Marco Polo, they still yell it at me in the hallways) I did this because I'm going to need to get into shape, and fast. I say that now but of course I haven't done anything slightly aerobic since Sunday or so, nor have I really sat down to study the Japanese I want to study, but for now let's blame it on the drama at work... but I digress...

Soccer practice was alot of fun. I don't think I did too bad and my neighbor is the soccer coach. Just today I saw him whittling wood blocks. I was curious so he told me he is making toy blocks for his new born son. I thought that was really cool, he was doing a good job too. I see his wife often when I walk to work, taking care of the new baby. He is starting to walk I think, really cute kid. But anyways back to Thursday, practice was fun! I was horribly out of shape of course and the students had lots of fun trying to communicate with me about drill instructions or anything really. They get a kick out of me speaking Japanese too. Sure I can't say alot but I think they appreciate the effort. They were still doing the Marco Polo with me during practice, and after my foot was sore as I'm not used to kicking a hard ball with the side of it for as long as I was.

I left a little early to get ready for my other enkai (work party) this time for Tatsuno. It was another enjoyable evening, only 2 people drinking though which I found strange again. They tell me they wish they could drink though but that will have to wait for another party around Christmas or so. I ate strange things again, from cooked grasshoppers to... bee larva.

Yes, bee larva. It was strange, but not that bad I guess. I could only eat a little, too many conflicting mental images of them moving in that small cup. (don't worry they were cooked) The best part of the meal was a small container that cooked in front of you. It has vegetables and meat and stuff inside, really good stuff. I got compliments from my Kyoto sensei (vice principal) about how clean my house is... and how my predecessor always had it messy. I found it strange he lets himself into my house in the first place but I guess I can kinda see it, being something of a landlord and all. I like to run a clean ship, usually things are a little easier to find and it's nice to be able to throw a shirt on the floor and not have to worry about something weird being stuck to it when you pick it up again later. Like those slugs I keep finding around my house (shudder). I found one on my potato chips I think I mentioned earlier, 2 in the shower already while I'm bathing and another one today on the side of my wash basin. Man they get big, and creepy.

I keep forgetting to talk about garbage! Things are much different in Japan! A can of Pringle chips, for example, goes into 4 different garbage containers. The plastic lid goes into plastic recycling, the freshness seal goes into a "burnable" garbage bag, the paper cylinder goes into paper recycling and the metal bottom goes into metal recycling. There are 3 main types of bags: Plastic recycling, burnable garbage and non-burnable garbage. You get coupons from city hall (like quotas so you don't make too much garbage). These coupons allow you to buy these expensive specially marked and color coded bags at a grocery store of wherever. Garbage collection happens on specific days at specific locations in the city for a very specific period of time (6a.m.-8a.m.). Alot of things, like getting rid of your pop cans, only get collected once a month. So if you miss that 2 hour window that stuff piles up! It took me over a month to take out my burnable garbage mostly because it took a while to fill up the bag and I didn't know where to put it. 1/2 the bag turned to a green/brown water in that period... and oh boy it smelt something fierce. Luckily they collect burnable twice a week but again it takes a while to fill up when most of your garbage goes into other recyclable bags.

So Friday comes and I have the day off! The reason for that is because in 2 or 3 weeks time I will work a Saturday for reasons I'm still not sure about. But because I'm working that Saturday I get a day off and everyone got that Friday. I largely had a lazy weekend which was great so not too many crazy stories. Friday night we went to a fellow JET's house who served us lasagna. It was very good and then Saturday night we went to a rave at that Gram House again that I talked about earlier. That was easily one of the best nights of my life, I dance for hours on end. You had room to move, they had incredible music and incredible lights. I rolled my ankle twice while dancing because near the stage there is a little drop that is hard to see. I kept dancing though after the swelling went down, just tied my shoelaces and prayed for the shoe's ankle support. One of those times when I was recovering I asked for some water at the bar. They gave me a bottle of water for free! I couldn't believe it! If I was shocked about that, later at 3 in the morning when the music stopped they gave free coffee and snacks to everyone!

I was shocked. Back home they turn the lights on and the bouncers kick you outside to wait in the cold for a ride; they don't care. Here they came and talked with you, gave you coffee and snacks, I even got a picture with the DJ! I'm a little self conscience about posting it however, I'm sweating like mad in it because I was dancing so hard. I chatted with a bunch of people and it was great. Again for the $15 entry fee you got a towel, and this time they gave us a CD of music too. Oh and one free drink I think. Pretty good deal, I plan on going there again.

Walking from the club I found a stray cat at the station. I stopped for a bit and it crawled on my lap and started purring. I stayed and pet it for a while as it was raining out and I was somewhat waiting for it to clear. (if it's raining, usually it's a long slow affair as I maybe mentioned earlier) I could tell the cat would shed alot but regardless I was pretty close to adopting it. Eventually I decided against it but I was pretty close, someday I hope to get a cat.

Earlier that Saturday we were helping a fellow JET out teaching a cooking class to her students. We made some sweets and it was alot of fun. The students were pretty giddy especially around Noboru who is something of a rock star. (kinda literally too, he plays guitar I found out) The food was good and it was a fun time. We walked around the school and saw other displays the students put up. I think my schools did their school festivals already unless if that's the Saturday approaching where I have to work. Either way I'm looking forward to seeing my students throw together something like this.

So today comes along and there are students from a New Zealand high school doing a home stay with some of my students. I went with them to a calligraphy class and made some calligraphy. It was interesting as we were very much on display. They would watch and when I finished about 6 or 8 students that were standing around watching would start clapping their hands. Most of the kangi I know involve meat (pork, beef, fish etc) so they found it amusing but I guess it is strange when you think about it. I also did the 4 directions too though, not that I can say them in Japanese yet. We later had a welcome party for them where we played games and had snacks, it was fun.

The last 3 days it has got noticeably colder. Sunday it rained all day and I was shivering pretty hard when I went to bed. Something of a bad omen for days to come it looks like, I hope it won't be too bad but I know snow will be coming eventually. I'll have to form some makeshift insulation around my room and get an electric carpet among other things to keep warm. Keeping my laptop in my lap helped yesterday a fair amount, so did that hot shower later too I guess. But at any rate I should get to bed and hope for sunnier days in more ways than one. Staying positive is important.

"When a defining moment comes along, you can do one of two things. Define the moment, or let the moment define you." -Tin Cup

(Having said that quote I wonder if I should put up a stink about this vacation mess...)
Tnoy