So the next two days are exam days, which means I come to school but have no classes and essentially have nothing to do all day. I suppose I'll use the time to try and do a little Japanese studying, but still so boring (hopefully I don't go crazy). Oh but my dad has been sending me a few questions about environmental policy issues for projects he is currently consulting on, which is nice I actually get to produce something of some use (i hope) related to what I actually studied.
now time to share the gossip in the English teacher work of my area. An ALT (assistant language teacher, what I am) was arrested this week for drug possession. This guy was not with the JET program, but rather is a privately hired ALT from America. While the stories have not been completely confirmed, it is believed the this guy had someone mail him marijuana from the states. they discovered it in the package at the airport, then set up a bit of a sting operation, where they nabbed him as soon as he signed to accept the package. now whatever your opinion of marijuana may be,this was just incredibly stupid. there is a no tolerance policy here in japan (especially for civil servants, that would be us!). so this fellow will loose his job, have to serve a prison sentence here in Japan and then be kicked out of the country.
in addition to just being a stupid idea, this guy has also created problems for other ALTs in the area. This all occurred in the town next to mine (where Tamae lives) so there are now many speculations that all ALTs do drugs. Teachers and principles have been asking a lot of us JETs if were friends with this guy and that we should not be doing drugs if we are (haha) just kind of annoying to have to face these questions when you haven't really done anything. And right after this story broke Tamae and I were at dinner in Kamisu and we defiantly received more speculative looks than normal. Thats the thing that is so frustrating, is that as foreigners, we already have a hard enough time trying to get the local Japanese people in the country to accept us, and then you have people do these things and it just pushes back the progress that years of ALTs have been working on.
Anyway, thats enough venting about that I suppose. I hope that everything works out for the guy, but he was pretty stupid.
In other unrelated news, some family friends from Guam will be flying through Narita this evening, so I will be meeting up with them for dinner, which will be nice.
Thursday, November 29, 2007
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
A fabulous weekend...
Thanksgiving weekend was supposed to be a trip to Hiroshima, but thanks to a few issues, that ended up not working out. But I was determined not to waste the three day weekend and celebrate Thanksgiving in some fashion.
Thursday, Tamae and I ventured down to Narita (we were hoping to get some alien registration things done at the airport, but no such luck). So instead we headed to the mall walked around a bit, stopped by starbucks (I even caved and bought the starbucks Christmas cd!). While at the mall we saw a game arcade and decided to take a look at what games they had. We ended up playing Mario cart a few times, which was actually fairly addictive. The best part of it was that it took your picture and then placed the characters head on you, and then these faces bobbed along the racecourse the entire time, quite amusing. It was a nice little end to the boring workweek. After that we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant (that I had been to once before ) for our ‘Thanksgiving dinner’. The dinner was great (this place is such a find in japan, real cheese and bread!), and the owner acted like he was a close friend even though I had been there only once before. He even invited us to join him and his friends on Saturday to celebrate a friends birthday (unfortunately I already had plans).
Friday, I did some cleaning in my apartment. And I discovered the nastiness that is the Japanese drain!! I will spare you all the details, but let me just say that there had always been a slightly funky smell in my apartment, that I couldn’t get rid of no matter how much I cleaned, well I found the source! It was the drain in the bathroom!! I will stop here, but trust me I had nightmares the next night!
That afternoon, I drove up to Mito (it was a great fall day, perfect for a nice relaxing drive). Did a little window shopping in Mito, met up with Emma and then headed back down to Itako. Once home, Tamae came over and we made a ‘Japanese style Thanksgiving dinner’. We made Nabe, which is essentially a big pot of boiling stock that you can cook just about anything in. We opted for a vegetarian version, with carrots, cabbage, lotus root, leeks, bean sprouts, pumpkin and tofu. It was pretty amazing. I am fairly certain this is what I will be living off of for the next few winter months, as it is incredibly warming!
Not our Nabe, but a close up of what it looks like
The picture below is of Emma and Tamae sitting at my kotatsu table all ready for dinner.
Saturday, Emma and I headed into Tokyo. We had intended on doing something cultural, like going to a museum. But once we got into the city and the weather was so nice out, we decided to go to Ginza. Ginza is the more upscale shopping district in Tokyo, perhaps equivalent to 5th Avenue in NYC. It turns out that they shut down the main street in Ginza so you are able to walk down this great ‘urban canyon’ created by all of the buildings and surrounded on both sides by fabulous store fronts (currently decked out for Christmas). It was wonderful. We decided that this was actually fairly cultural because window-shopping is quite popular with the Japanese people! Haha It was also a great area to people watch, as people were decked out in such fabulous outfits. I think that ‘fabulous’ is the word that I have decided best describes the style and mode of Tokyo.
Below are Emma and I in the great ‘urban canyon’ (with a million other people)
Ben and another Jet friend, Jay, eventually met up with us in Ginza and we walked around a bit more, before heading to Ben’s apartment for a little bit before we went to dinner. For dinner we decided to go to a ‘Mexican themed’ restaurant, Zest. It was kind of strange because walking in I felt like I could have been anywhere walking into an American Tex-Mex place, except everyone working there was Japanese as were the other patrons and the menu was in Japanese. Can’t really say the food was fantastic, but was able to have some fresh guacamole.
Jay, Emma, Ben and I at Zest
After that we decided to shake it up a little and go out for a little dancing, and so I leave you with this picture.
i love tokyo more and more every time i go in, i think i'm becoming addicted
Thursday, Tamae and I ventured down to Narita (we were hoping to get some alien registration things done at the airport, but no such luck). So instead we headed to the mall walked around a bit, stopped by starbucks (I even caved and bought the starbucks Christmas cd!). While at the mall we saw a game arcade and decided to take a look at what games they had. We ended up playing Mario cart a few times, which was actually fairly addictive. The best part of it was that it took your picture and then placed the characters head on you, and then these faces bobbed along the racecourse the entire time, quite amusing. It was a nice little end to the boring workweek. After that we decided to treat ourselves to a nice dinner at an Italian restaurant (that I had been to once before ) for our ‘Thanksgiving dinner’. The dinner was great (this place is such a find in japan, real cheese and bread!), and the owner acted like he was a close friend even though I had been there only once before. He even invited us to join him and his friends on Saturday to celebrate a friends birthday (unfortunately I already had plans).
Friday, I did some cleaning in my apartment. And I discovered the nastiness that is the Japanese drain!! I will spare you all the details, but let me just say that there had always been a slightly funky smell in my apartment, that I couldn’t get rid of no matter how much I cleaned, well I found the source! It was the drain in the bathroom!! I will stop here, but trust me I had nightmares the next night!
That afternoon, I drove up to Mito (it was a great fall day, perfect for a nice relaxing drive). Did a little window shopping in Mito, met up with Emma and then headed back down to Itako. Once home, Tamae came over and we made a ‘Japanese style Thanksgiving dinner’. We made Nabe, which is essentially a big pot of boiling stock that you can cook just about anything in. We opted for a vegetarian version, with carrots, cabbage, lotus root, leeks, bean sprouts, pumpkin and tofu. It was pretty amazing. I am fairly certain this is what I will be living off of for the next few winter months, as it is incredibly warming!
Not our Nabe, but a close up of what it looks like
The picture below is of Emma and Tamae sitting at my kotatsu table all ready for dinner.
Saturday, Emma and I headed into Tokyo. We had intended on doing something cultural, like going to a museum. But once we got into the city and the weather was so nice out, we decided to go to Ginza. Ginza is the more upscale shopping district in Tokyo, perhaps equivalent to 5th Avenue in NYC. It turns out that they shut down the main street in Ginza so you are able to walk down this great ‘urban canyon’ created by all of the buildings and surrounded on both sides by fabulous store fronts (currently decked out for Christmas). It was wonderful. We decided that this was actually fairly cultural because window-shopping is quite popular with the Japanese people! Haha It was also a great area to people watch, as people were decked out in such fabulous outfits. I think that ‘fabulous’ is the word that I have decided best describes the style and mode of Tokyo.
Below are Emma and I in the great ‘urban canyon’ (with a million other people)
Ben and another Jet friend, Jay, eventually met up with us in Ginza and we walked around a bit more, before heading to Ben’s apartment for a little bit before we went to dinner. For dinner we decided to go to a ‘Mexican themed’ restaurant, Zest. It was kind of strange because walking in I felt like I could have been anywhere walking into an American Tex-Mex place, except everyone working there was Japanese as were the other patrons and the menu was in Japanese. Can’t really say the food was fantastic, but was able to have some fresh guacamole.
Jay, Emma, Ben and I at Zest
After that we decided to shake it up a little and go out for a little dancing, and so I leave you with this picture.
i love tokyo more and more every time i go in, i think i'm becoming addicted
Thursday, November 22, 2007
just wanted to say...
Happy Thanksgiving!
Seems a little strange to be sitting here at work on Thanksgiving. Might try and get together with a few friends tomorrow and make a "Thanksgiving" dinner or might just decide to head into Tokyo for the night, who knows.
hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving!
Seems a little strange to be sitting here at work on Thanksgiving. Might try and get together with a few friends tomorrow and make a "Thanksgiving" dinner or might just decide to head into Tokyo for the night, who knows.
hope everyone has a lovely Thanksgiving!
Monday, November 19, 2007
getting cold...
now time to discuss a few things that confuse me about japan. so japan is supposedly such a technologically advanced society yet...
1. they don't have garbage disposals in their sinks, most people have a weird drain system that you have to clean out manually, it requires you to stick your hand down in the drain and retrieve all that grossness. this results in some food inevitably getting too far down in the drain, and creating funky odors in your house.
2. there is no such thing as central heat. japan uses space heaters to heat all places. houses are also very poorly insulated. so basically this means whatever temperature it is outside it is inside (minus the wind chill factor). and in the schools, classrooms are not heated (luckily the teachers room is, but i feel horrible for the kids).
As temperatures are beginning to drop i am learning that i never appreciated central heat or insulated walls enough. it is always the worst in the morning when i stick my hand out to turn my alarm off and i realize that its pretty cold, the worst its been so far is about 48 F, but its not even december yet!! i keep hearing about how people sleep with ski hats on!!
so this weekend i decided that i finally needed to go buy a futon (blanket) for my kotatsu, so that i could put it to use. a kotatsu is a japanese low style table that has a heater attached to the bottom, and a removable top. so during the cold months, you lift the top and put a blanket over the frame, put the top back on top. then you sit at the table with your feet sticking underneath the blanket. i am currently sitting at mine, and have to say it is quite cozy. i have a feeling i am going to be living at this thing through out the winter.
here is a picture i found online (a little nicer than mine), i'll post a picture of mine soon. now that i have this kotatsu set up in the living room of my apt, i think that my whole apt is feeling more like a home and more comfortable, which is a huge change from when i first got here!
1. they don't have garbage disposals in their sinks, most people have a weird drain system that you have to clean out manually, it requires you to stick your hand down in the drain and retrieve all that grossness. this results in some food inevitably getting too far down in the drain, and creating funky odors in your house.
2. there is no such thing as central heat. japan uses space heaters to heat all places. houses are also very poorly insulated. so basically this means whatever temperature it is outside it is inside (minus the wind chill factor). and in the schools, classrooms are not heated (luckily the teachers room is, but i feel horrible for the kids).
As temperatures are beginning to drop i am learning that i never appreciated central heat or insulated walls enough. it is always the worst in the morning when i stick my hand out to turn my alarm off and i realize that its pretty cold, the worst its been so far is about 48 F, but its not even december yet!! i keep hearing about how people sleep with ski hats on!!
so this weekend i decided that i finally needed to go buy a futon (blanket) for my kotatsu, so that i could put it to use. a kotatsu is a japanese low style table that has a heater attached to the bottom, and a removable top. so during the cold months, you lift the top and put a blanket over the frame, put the top back on top. then you sit at the table with your feet sticking underneath the blanket. i am currently sitting at mine, and have to say it is quite cozy. i have a feeling i am going to be living at this thing through out the winter.
here is a picture i found online (a little nicer than mine), i'll post a picture of mine soon. now that i have this kotatsu set up in the living room of my apt, i think that my whole apt is feeling more like a home and more comfortable, which is a huge change from when i first got here!
back to school #1
So, as I have been reminded I have been slacking on writing here in awhile. So I actually need to back things up a bit now and explain a few things that have happened since my last post.
Well this month, I moved back to my first school, Hinode. Its been a bitter sweet move, as I enjoy working with the kids here, but feel that I am better utilized at Itako 2nd. In other words there I actually feel somewhat like a “real teacher”, more or less this is the way that both students and teachers view me too. But here at Hinode, I don’t really get much input into lesson planning, and when I do present ideas, they seem receptive, but then never really follow through with them, so all the work I’ve put into it ends up being a waste of time, very frustrating! This school is also just a little more ‘prim and proper’, this mood is really established by the Kyoto Sensei (vice principal, the guy that runs the show), because when he is not around everyone is a lot more relaxed and actually seems to be having fun. The two schools are like being in two separate worlds.
Anyway, even though I am at Hinode this month, I went to Itako 2nds Bunkasai (cultural festival) the first weekend of November. I was prepared to be bored beyond belief as I had been at Hinode’s, but was pleasantly surprised when I spent the entire Saturday there from 8am to 6pm, and was pretty much entertained the entire time.
A little run down of the days festivities included, viewing a movie made by students that had something to do with playing on the volleyball team but not being happy, and then magically a few rabbits appeared and helped these students find what they should be doing instead, art, basketball and music. It was a bit strange, but entertaining.
The day had various music and performances. The highlights of the performances being the girls dance group being accompanied by one of the male teachers dressed up in a cheerleaders uniform and dancing the routine with the girls. The principal joing a group of students doing some very high energy dance (I was quite surprised by this because I literally thought this principal hated kid and did nothing but sneak smoking cigarettes and sleeping in his office. I had never seen him interact with any students). And finally the “fantastic eleven” a group of 11 boys who ran around the auditorium dancing in nothing more than their swim shorts (the ones that look like spandex shorts). It was hilarious! There were even two, 1 hour long plays written and performed by students. One of which made many people cry (I didn’t cry, I was just happy that I could understand what was going on, since it was all in Japanese)
choir
brass band
Fantastic Eleven
girls dance
principal is in the middle somewhere there
In addition to all the performances, every class had set up a different display or activity around the school (carnival like, I suppose). We were given about 2 hours to explore all of these, but this was not nearly enough time. Some of these displays included a junkan (rock, paper, scissors) tournament, a paper making room, a under the sea room with math games, a gigantic model flower, and a haunted house.
There were also different displays of kids work all around the school, and I’m proud to say that my jack-o-lantern was displayed alongside all of the students art work, by the art teacher. Haha
Anyway, it was interesting day, and I’m glad that I went. The students kept dragging me around to various places, because they wanted to show me all of their hard work. It was all quite impressing.
various pictures...
the flower room, i swear the room was even scented with floral aroma
crazy kids!
a few girl students
chaos in the hall
junkan contest
girls visiting itako 2nd from hinode (their boyfriends go to school there, they were all so embarrassed when i figured it out, but they didnt do a very good job hiding it)
this student always tries to talk to me, even though his english isnt too wonderful, i love that attitude!
you have to hit the pigs on the head
2 of the best english speakers at the school pretending to be shy in front of the camera
girls band (with a male guitarist)
paper making with the "office ladies" (i don't really know what there jobs are, make tea, school nurse, help with lunches...)
1990's boy band like performance, complete with choreographed dance
more to come soon...
Well this month, I moved back to my first school, Hinode. Its been a bitter sweet move, as I enjoy working with the kids here, but feel that I am better utilized at Itako 2nd. In other words there I actually feel somewhat like a “real teacher”, more or less this is the way that both students and teachers view me too. But here at Hinode, I don’t really get much input into lesson planning, and when I do present ideas, they seem receptive, but then never really follow through with them, so all the work I’ve put into it ends up being a waste of time, very frustrating! This school is also just a little more ‘prim and proper’, this mood is really established by the Kyoto Sensei (vice principal, the guy that runs the show), because when he is not around everyone is a lot more relaxed and actually seems to be having fun. The two schools are like being in two separate worlds.
Anyway, even though I am at Hinode this month, I went to Itako 2nds Bunkasai (cultural festival) the first weekend of November. I was prepared to be bored beyond belief as I had been at Hinode’s, but was pleasantly surprised when I spent the entire Saturday there from 8am to 6pm, and was pretty much entertained the entire time.
A little run down of the days festivities included, viewing a movie made by students that had something to do with playing on the volleyball team but not being happy, and then magically a few rabbits appeared and helped these students find what they should be doing instead, art, basketball and music. It was a bit strange, but entertaining.
The day had various music and performances. The highlights of the performances being the girls dance group being accompanied by one of the male teachers dressed up in a cheerleaders uniform and dancing the routine with the girls. The principal joing a group of students doing some very high energy dance (I was quite surprised by this because I literally thought this principal hated kid and did nothing but sneak smoking cigarettes and sleeping in his office. I had never seen him interact with any students). And finally the “fantastic eleven” a group of 11 boys who ran around the auditorium dancing in nothing more than their swim shorts (the ones that look like spandex shorts). It was hilarious! There were even two, 1 hour long plays written and performed by students. One of which made many people cry (I didn’t cry, I was just happy that I could understand what was going on, since it was all in Japanese)
choir
brass band
Fantastic Eleven
girls dance
principal is in the middle somewhere there
In addition to all the performances, every class had set up a different display or activity around the school (carnival like, I suppose). We were given about 2 hours to explore all of these, but this was not nearly enough time. Some of these displays included a junkan (rock, paper, scissors) tournament, a paper making room, a under the sea room with math games, a gigantic model flower, and a haunted house.
There were also different displays of kids work all around the school, and I’m proud to say that my jack-o-lantern was displayed alongside all of the students art work, by the art teacher. Haha
Anyway, it was interesting day, and I’m glad that I went. The students kept dragging me around to various places, because they wanted to show me all of their hard work. It was all quite impressing.
various pictures...
the flower room, i swear the room was even scented with floral aroma
crazy kids!
a few girl students
chaos in the hall
junkan contest
girls visiting itako 2nd from hinode (their boyfriends go to school there, they were all so embarrassed when i figured it out, but they didnt do a very good job hiding it)
this student always tries to talk to me, even though his english isnt too wonderful, i love that attitude!
you have to hit the pigs on the head
2 of the best english speakers at the school pretending to be shy in front of the camera
girls band (with a male guitarist)
paper making with the "office ladies" (i don't really know what there jobs are, make tea, school nurse, help with lunches...)
1990's boy band like performance, complete with choreographed dance
more to come soon...
Friday, November 2, 2007
narita...
in addition to trying to bake halloween cookies this weekend, sunday, tamae and i ventured down to narita. narita is only about a 20 minute drive away, it is where the largest international airport in japan is located, and an airport that i am much too familiar with from flying through it on countless occasions to and from guam. but i had been told that the city itself, outside of the airport region was actually nice, and surprisingly it was quite quaint with a large complex of shrines and cute little pedestrian shopping streets.
and of course we stopped by the mall that was there and indulged in starbucks, haha. but no pumpkin spice lattes :(
oh and also, saturday was the cultural festival at hinode (my first school) so i decided that i should probably go to that. it was basically a choir contest between the different grades. here are a few pictures of them singing.
tomorrow is the cultural festival at itako 2nd. which i tend to believe will be a little more exciting. i know that the students have been building a haunted house and a large maze. more to come on that...
and of course we stopped by the mall that was there and indulged in starbucks, haha. but no pumpkin spice lattes :(
oh and also, saturday was the cultural festival at hinode (my first school) so i decided that i should probably go to that. it was basically a choir contest between the different grades. here are a few pictures of them singing.
tomorrow is the cultural festival at itako 2nd. which i tend to believe will be a little more exciting. i know that the students have been building a haunted house and a large maze. more to come on that...
Thursday, November 1, 2007
happy halloween!
Happy Halloween!
This is the Jack-O-Lantern I made with the pumpkin that mysteriously showed up on my desk. Didn't turn out too bad considering that the pumpkin was pretty small and I was dealing with a pretty large knife (they don't seem to have small knives here, strange).
So Halloween in Japan mostly consisted of doing things in school with my kids. Which was actually quite a bit of fun. The kids loved it.
My JTE and I had come up with a Halloween plan. We both were going to 'dress up' as witches, I just wore all black and put on a witches hat, but everyone was pretty impressed, haha. We decided that we would tell the students 'the story of Halloween' and explain the Jack-o-Lantern I had made (I really didnt know much about this before doing research, but if anyone would like to know I could tell you the story now after teaching it to 8 different classes!).
Then we would play a relay Halloween vocabulary game with the kids. But the 'batons' that they had to pass off to one another were different costume type things (my witches hat, pig ears, monkey ears, cat mask...), the loved this. And they all really got into the game (I was really glad it went over so well.
After we played the game, the kids got to go 'trick or treating' to me, and I gave them a pack of candy corn (that my parents had brought from america). the reactions to candy corn were pretty mixed. some of the kids thought it was too sweet (I agree) but others loved it. but either way they loved that they got to try candy from america! (i also gave some to the teachers, and surprisingly most of them liked it!)
tasting candy corn, this kids face is priceless...
my kids are pretty cute!
as for halloween outside of school, i was supposed to go to a halloween thing in tokyo on saturday, but there was a typhoon (just a bunch of rain really) but decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to head out into the storm. instead tamae and i stayed up all night trying to bake pumpkin cookies, using a small japanese pumpkin and my oven (more like an easy bake oven, that I was able to pack up and take with me to Tamae's apt). cookies turned out alright but took so long to make in my little oven.
but last night on halloween, a few friends decided that we would meet up and watch scary movies. but once we all got together we decided to just sit around and talk all evening since we hadn't seen each other in awhile. it was a nice evening. we even had halloween decorations. but quite different than the halloweens of the past.
hope everyone had a wonderful halloween!
This is the Jack-O-Lantern I made with the pumpkin that mysteriously showed up on my desk. Didn't turn out too bad considering that the pumpkin was pretty small and I was dealing with a pretty large knife (they don't seem to have small knives here, strange).
So Halloween in Japan mostly consisted of doing things in school with my kids. Which was actually quite a bit of fun. The kids loved it.
My JTE and I had come up with a Halloween plan. We both were going to 'dress up' as witches, I just wore all black and put on a witches hat, but everyone was pretty impressed, haha. We decided that we would tell the students 'the story of Halloween' and explain the Jack-o-Lantern I had made (I really didnt know much about this before doing research, but if anyone would like to know I could tell you the story now after teaching it to 8 different classes!).
Then we would play a relay Halloween vocabulary game with the kids. But the 'batons' that they had to pass off to one another were different costume type things (my witches hat, pig ears, monkey ears, cat mask...), the loved this. And they all really got into the game (I was really glad it went over so well.
After we played the game, the kids got to go 'trick or treating' to me, and I gave them a pack of candy corn (that my parents had brought from america). the reactions to candy corn were pretty mixed. some of the kids thought it was too sweet (I agree) but others loved it. but either way they loved that they got to try candy from america! (i also gave some to the teachers, and surprisingly most of them liked it!)
tasting candy corn, this kids face is priceless...
my kids are pretty cute!
as for halloween outside of school, i was supposed to go to a halloween thing in tokyo on saturday, but there was a typhoon (just a bunch of rain really) but decided that it probably wasn't the best idea to head out into the storm. instead tamae and i stayed up all night trying to bake pumpkin cookies, using a small japanese pumpkin and my oven (more like an easy bake oven, that I was able to pack up and take with me to Tamae's apt). cookies turned out alright but took so long to make in my little oven.
but last night on halloween, a few friends decided that we would meet up and watch scary movies. but once we all got together we decided to just sit around and talk all evening since we hadn't seen each other in awhile. it was a nice evening. we even had halloween decorations. but quite different than the halloweens of the past.
hope everyone had a wonderful halloween!
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