Every Little Thing I Do Is Magic

Legitimate question: How does `conversation` end up shortened as `convo`?  It seems strange to choose any other letter, since it`s what we`re used to, but really.  Out of the remaining letters in `ersation`, we pick the `o`?  This makes no sense to me. (I was working on my lesson plan for my third year conversation class, and labeled the folder as `Convo`, which is where this came from.)

Moving on. 

Wednesday morning was awesome, because for whatever reason I slept like a rock and woke up actually feeling rested!  It`s been a few weeks since that happened.  Anyway, the math teacher came over after homeroom, and we spent about 15 minutes figuring out the math for today`s lesson.  The modified formula he has for Zeller`s algorithm makes a lot more sense than the code versions I was finding online, thank god.  I also learned about Kaprekar numbers, which are kind of cool, and we`re playing Sudoku.  I`m not actually a fan of Sudoku at all, but hey, I learned that it means "number place", so that`s neat.  And makes sense.

My English classes today were pretty boring.  I had the sports course for second period, and a make-up class for class 2 in period 4.  In between them was the math class, which was a lot of fun.  Turns out it was just the exchange kids, rather than a normal class with our students as well.  I really like this math teacher, because you can tell he`s really passionate about math and the cool things you can do with it, and he wants to share that enthusiasm with the students.  We started out with the "magic trick" math, which goes like this:
Think of your favourite number.
Add 3.
Double that.
Add four.
Divide by two.
Subtract your favourite number.
The number you are thinking of now is..... 5!

So yeah, they were impressed by that.  They also had fun calculating the day of the week they were born on.  The Kaprekar number activity worked, but they were less enthusiastic about it.  I got the, "Miss, what do we do with this?" once they had reached the Kaprekar number (6174).  Answer: "Pretty much nothing.  It`s just cool."  After that was Sudoku, which the kids really enjoyed.  Maegawa-sensei was really surprised that Sudoku was so popular in Western culture!  We also got to chat a bit while the kids were doing their puzzles, which was interesting with his broken English and my broken Japanese, but I think I`m beginning to understand a bit more.  Go me!  Apparently he used to run marathons in college, and he also very much recommends a trip to Okinawa.

The rest of my Wednesday work day was spent working on this week`s conversation class lesson.  I want to do the shopping lesson while the exchange students are here, because they can easily function as English-speaking retail workers, which gives all of my students a chance to practice shopping in English.  I think it`s more important for them to be familiar with customer phrases than employee phrases.  Let`s face it: none of them are going to be working in an English-speaking store any time soon.  They`re more likely to go on vacation and need to buy souvenirs.  So my first part of the lesson is going to be looking at ads.  I`ve printed out copies of the Metro and Foodland ads from home (PS, can someone please try the Cookies & Creme spread in the Metro ad?  And then lie to me and tell me it`s the worst thing you`ve ever put in your mouth?  Because right now I really, really want to try some.  Thanks!), and I`m going to make the exchange students give my students grocery lists; the students then have to find out which of the items on that list are on sale.  The second half, I`ve assigned the exchange students to stores, and made up shopping lists for each of my students.  I thought about making longer lists, and having the shops either be out of some items or not carry them, but I think that might be pushing it a bit.

After school on Wednesday, the exchange students were participating in a tea ceremony hosted by the tea ceremony club, and I was invited to join.  Of course I went, because I'm pretty sure I will only say "no" to tea when Mom is trying to serve me her orange cinnamon nonsense.  So we went down to the tea ceremony club room and had tea and sweets (again with the red bean paste).  The thing about formal tea ceremonies, though, is that they're conducted entirely in seiza position.  For the Japanese people, who are used to this, it's no big deal; it kills most foreigners after about a minute or two.  My supervisor is taking pictures as we're all sitting there, smiling or looking on interestedly, trying not to let it show that we can no longer feel our feet and legs.

I think I may begin practicing seiza at home sometimes, so that I'm not such an obvious failure in the future.  

Today began with me thinking it was Friday.  I hate it when that happens.  So depressing.  Anyway.  My school day began with attempting to explain the phrase "hit it off" to my supervisor, with the help of the Australian teacher.  I also spent some time making a fact sheet about Canada that my supervisor at the special needs school requested for my high school class (one kid) next week.  This meant delving into "Canadian Foods", which means that I have unsatisfied cravings for poutine, butter tarts, and beaver tails.  If someone express mailed me a beaver tail right now, they would be my new favourite person, hands down.  I wouldn`t even care if it was a Nutella and banana one, and I don`t really like either of those things.

Conversation class went AMAZINGLY well!  The kids were so surprised (and a little confused) by the supermarket ads, and had a lot of fun trying to look through for the items on their lists.  The only thing I would recommend if someone else ever wanted to do this, is try to get the original ads sent to you from home in advance.  The printouts on A4 size paper work alright, but the letters are sometimes tiny, so you only know that flour is on sale if you already happen to know that that Robin Hood bag is flour.  My supervisor was also really fascinated by the ads, though apparently the yogurt with M&Ms has been brought back, and the very idea of that absolutely disgusted her.  The shopping roleplay worked really well, too.  It`s definitely a benefit to do this lesson while you have a classroom full of native English speakers.  We could have done a similar activity with just the Japanese students, but I don`t think they would have gotten as much out of it, and they would have had to work with a much longer list of key phrases.  So right now I look like the greatest teacher ever, and I barely had to do anything during the class.  I`m cool with that.

Tomorrow we were supposed to have a field trip to Aoyama Plateau, but it`s been cancelled due to the weather (this might shock you, but it`s raining).  But my classes are still cancelled because the first years had another trip that`s still going ahead (my trip was with the third years), and all of my classes on Friday are first year classes...  So apparently there will be dodgeball tournaments or something in the gym that I can watch?  Whatever.  Lazy day for me!

I Don`t Care How Useful It Is, Math Sucks

For all of you who thought you missed my Friday Night Dinner post on Facebook, the staff at my high school had my enkai (welcome party) that night, so I wasn`t home and therefore did not cook.  Instead I went out with some of the teachers, including the Australian teachers.  I think, all told, there were fourteen of us, which is a decent number.  I was afraid everyone was going to be there, which would be forty-odd people, and that idea is terrifying.

Not because any of the teachers are scary, but just the sheer number of people to have dinner with...   I`m really happy with my posting here, partially because of the fabulous staff here.  There was a ridiculous amount of food, and some great conversation!  The rules of cricket were explained (I still don`t get it, and can really only think of Shaun of the Dead), I practically waxed poetic about animal cafes in Japan (like the bunny cafe in Nagoya or the owl cafe in Tokyo), and got into a discussion with the principal about Martin Heidegger and the merits of studying philosophy.

On the weekend, I did virtually nothing.  I`d still been running on holiday time (aka staying up a lot later than I should have been), so between not going to sleep until after midnight and getting up at 6:30 AM on Thursday and Friday, I was kind of already exhausted!  I did a lot of cooking, though.  In addition to my replacement Friday dinner on Sunday (deconstructed cabbage rolls), I also made a chicken and fruit salad, and salmon salad with roasted red peppers.  And I roasted my own peppers.  Please, take a moment to marvel at my culinary awesomeness.  No, really.  Take a moment.  I`ll wait. 

....Good? Moving on, then.  I also learned how to use my rice cooker, mostly by grossly over-complicating things, texting Ros in frustration, and then finally figuring out that all I needed to do was push one button.  I`m still awesome.

Monday was a couple of English classes (one of which still basically refuses to speak unless I pick student numbers out of a box and force them to answer me).  It was also the day I had to help with math.  I`ll admit, I was terrified.  Then I get into the class and find out that it`s not actually a lesson, so I don`t have to try to translate a bunch of things from the teacher.  Instead, Morita-sensei and I have translated what turns out to be the math section of a practice university entrance exam.  This makes it easier for me, but harder for the students, because there`s really no way for me to talk around a lot of this and try to help them understand.  It`s really just do or do not (there is no "try").  Between having the math presented in a strange way (a bubble sheet for answers in Japanese that we couldn`t entirely figure out, but it wasn`t multiple choice, and odd fill-in-the-blanks more than actually just solving problems), and things being lost in translation between the original text and Morita and I, the result was predominantly DO NOT.  I felt really bad, because the kids were trying, but it didn`t really seem like they had all of the information they needed to complete the work.  Like, they`re looking at a quadratic equation relating to some "Graph G" (which they didn`t have), so they`re working with variables x, y, a, b, and c, and then all of a sudden the instructions start talking about how d equals the square root of 7, and no one knows where d came from!  So we`ve established that I should never be a math teacher, and I should really never be a math teacher in a foreign country whose language I don`t speak or read.  Good to know that`s off the table, because I was so seriously considering it for a while.  (I`m sorry, was that sarcasm not tangible enough for you on the other side of the internet?)

(Live update 3PM Monday: I just got roped into another math class on Wednesday.  How do I get myself into these things?!?!  This is like elementary school softball all over again.  "Oh, Mel`s pretty good at throwing a ball overhand across the field.  Let`s make her an underhand pitcher!"  "What."  And I never played softball again.  Note to self: stop being likeable and helpful.  Or only be helpful in things like art and possibly home economics.  I can do those.)

Today was my day at the special needs school.  This week I had the elementary kids, which was all kinds of awesome.  I only had two classes, third and fourth period, which kind of made for a boring day overall, but the classes themselves were great.  My period 3 class was Grades 1-4, where we sang the ABCs, head and shoulders, and then played 'Simon Says'.  There were nine kids, and they were all super adorable!  Period 4 was Grades 5-6, where there were only three kids, and we had a search and find-type alphabet activity and went over the weather descriptions.  The elementary teacher I work with is fabulous, too.  I swear she skips all over the room, and I don't know how she could possibly keep that energy level up all day!  I spent the rest of the day switching between reading The Monuments Men (so, learning history), studying Japanese, and attempting to figure out how to manually calculate Zeller's congruence for math class.  I got a lot of, "Whoa, you're really studious!" all day.  Add to that the fact that the elementary teacher also knows now that I speak English, decent French, some Japanese, and minimal Korean, and I'm pretty sure what they're actually thinking is more along the lines of, "What the hell is this kid even doing?!"  (Answer: I have no idea.  Clearly a little bit of everything.)  One of the junior high school teachers also randomly came up to me, introduced himself, and taught me some Japanese Sign Language, which was awesome, but since I barely know Japanese, I sort of feel like this:

This evening my package from home arrived, so now I have all of the cozy sweaters, should it ever actually get cold enough to need them (I swear the humidity has spiked again this week).  And also a lot more of my teas.  Thanks Mom!

Silver Week, Plus Thursday

Silver Week was fantastic and I never wanted it to end.  Partly because Ros was here and that was awesome, and partly because I just didn`t want to go back to work.  (What I need is a job where it doesn`t matter when I work, just as long as I`ve put in the necessary hours by the end of the week.)

Saturday morning and afternoon were spent cleaning like a madwoman, and shopping.  And laundry!  For once, it was actually gorgeous, so I was able to hang my laundry out to dry and it actually dried.  Amazing thing, sunshine.  Ros got in just before 11PM, and we commenced with our epic mini-holiday by watching The Emperor`s New Groove and drinking tea.  It`s like we never left university...

Sunday was our lazy day.  Ros accompanied me to the mall and the supermarket so that I could actually learn what some of the things were in my store, buy real sheets, and sign up for a supermarket point card.  Hurray for being a functioning adult, I guess?  Anyway.  The rest of the afternoon and evening were spent in our usual way, with video games, movies, and a massive amount of food.  We made chicken wings (Ros, and I paid attention), nacho dip, and cut veggies, and had a bottle of wine that I loved more than Ros did.  Pomegranate cherry Pinot Noir!  Fabulous stuff.  Like juice, but drier.  We made it through the tutorial and two temples in Zelda, all of The Monuments Men, and half of The Last Unicorn before calling it a night.  During this time, I was also cruising through Facebook (because I have ADD or something and can`t just focus on a movie), and found pictures from a couple of my fellow Mie ALTs who had gone somewhere really pretty.  Ros and I hadn`t really decided what we were going to do yet, so I was like, "Ros, let`s go here."  So we did.

Monday was another beautiful day, perfect for what we had planned.  We left my place in the late morning and took the train all the way out to Akameguchi.  What`s in Akameguchi?  Well, frankly, not much.  But 5km away is something called Akame 48 Waterfalls.  This place is absolutely gorgeous, and fantastic exercise.  There is a bus that runs from the train station to the beginning of the falls trail (and surrounding shop area), but we had just missed one, and would have to wait around an hour for the next one.  So we were like, "Forget that," and decided to walk the 5.2km partway up a mountain to the shop area, and the additional kilometer or so to the beginning of the falls trail.  This area is part of the birthplace of ninja, so ninja-related souvenirs are everywhere.  On our way up, we came across a gate that asked us to make sure it was closed behind us as we ventured along the hiking path so as to not let out the wild boars (um...), Ros bemoaned not bringing her bear bell (there`re a lot of bears in Japan), and we saw the notice asking us not to bother dogs wearing orange bandanas, as these are monkey dogs busy at work.  Yeah.  Monkey dogs.  As in, dogs whose job it is to protect areas and people from pesky and potentially dangerous monkeys.  I can`t make this stuff up! 

Once we actually entered the waterfalls area (there aren`t actually 48; 48 is a Japanese representation of `many`.  Don`t ask.), we were greeted first by tanks displaying giant salamanders.  Japanese giant salamanders, particularly the ones here, are a designated national natural treasure.  Many of the ones in the tanks were older than me, and probably as big as my arm.  And I don`t mean my forearm.  I mean my whole arm.

Beyond the salamander station begins the actual falls trail, which according to the internet is about 4km long, and takes about an hour and a half to walk.  What they don`t tell you (in as many words) is that some of this trail will be flat, some of it will be a dirt hill, some of it will be legitimate stairs, some of it will be tree-root-stairs, some of it will be foot-and-a-half-tall and half-a-foot-wide stone steps, and some of it will just be piles of rocks for you to navigate your way over.  I sort of felt like I was back in Norway, but warmer.  Despite being me, I actually only fell once, and that was on the way back.  The falls were awesome, and I took way more pictures than were probably necessary.

As we reached the last waterfall, we heard the announcement that equates to the ultra-polite version of, "We`re getting ready to close in an hour and a half.  Get the hell off our mountain."  At this point, we`re much, much closer to the other end of the trail (it`s a linear trail, not a circuit), but there aren`t buses to the station at this other end, and we don`t really know that area, so it`s better for us to head back the way we came, from the beginning of the trail and down to Akameguchi.  So we have to go back another not-quite-4km of waterfall trail.  This would be the point when I fell (thankfully not really hurt, but my arm got pretty dirty).  This is also the point wherein we saw the snake (I made Ros walk in front the whole trip for the sake of this eventuality).  We were both quite proud of me, as after her warning I only slowly backed up a few steps instead of screaming and running (narrow, treacherous mountain path may have had something to do with that).  When the snake was a respectable distance off the path and up the side of the mountain, I was able to move past it (while keeping an eye on it the whole time in case it decided to turn around, leap off the mountainside and attack us) and continue our trek down.  By the time we got back to the trail entrance and the souvenir town, we`d missed the last bus back to the station by a lot (we knew we would), so we did the 5.2km back down on foot (but keeping to the road this time, rather than going through the apparently wild boar/monkey infested forest, because the sun was setting and there would be virtually no light in there).  We had a lovely dinner of udon (sitting down has never been so glorious) before hopping the train back home for more movies.

On Tuesday we headed to Ise so that I could actually see the shrine.  This is the holiest and most important Shinto shrine in all of Japan, holding one of the three sacred artifacts belonging to the goddess Amaterasu.  The thing is, every twenty years they rebuild the main shrine housing the sacred mirror (which no one gets to actually see, you just pray at the building it`s in), so it`s a) not old at all, and b) not decorated.  The less important shrines that have stood for a few hundred years are a lot more interesting. 

There was some sort of special dance presentation, though, so we got to see some of that!  It was boring at first, because I could hardly see the stage thanks to the television camera in front of me, but eventually he went away to film something else, and I got a great view of the rest of the performance.

On our way out of the main shrine complex, Ros saw a banner for free tea.  Free tea?!  Heck yes!  So we had a lovely traditional Japanese tea in a very informal setting that we didn't have to pay for.

These are the little sweets that accompanied the tea.  Basically icing sugar paste.  Tasty!

We had an awesome lunch in the temple-town area that was ridiculously filling and tasty.  After that, we hopped a bus to the other side of Ise to see the married rocks.  Yes, you read that right.  Rocks.  Rocks that are married.  I ... can`t really explain it.

Anyway, it`s a really popular spot for couples to visit, for obvious reasons.  Ros and I kind of stuck out a bit, along with the random solo foreigner dude who had been on the bus with us from the shrine.  From there, we tried to make it back to the smaller shrine close to the station, but by the time we caught a bus back into that area, the shrine had closed.  At some point on that bus ride, I got an inexplicable craving for pie.  I said as much to Ros.
Me: I want pie.  Like, I really want pie.  Which is weird.  Other than crumble or meat, I don`t even like pie that much.
Ros: Huh.  Well, we could try to find a cafe?  Maybe?  But I don`t think we`ll really find anything.  I mean, the point of this city is that it`s super-traditional, holy Japan.
Me: Yeah, I know.  I`m not really expecting to find it.  But I still want pie.  Maybe there`s a Starbucks by the station.  They might have pie.
So when we got to the shrine and found it closed, we wandered the small street of shops and restaurants.  We were a bit peckish by this point, even without the pie craving, so Ros pointed out a taiyaki (pastry with filling, usually in the shape of a fish; while other fillings are becoming more popular, the traditional ones are either red bean paste or custard) place.  I said I would have some if they had custard, because red bean paste is nasty as all get-out.  When we looked at their menu, glory hallelujah!  The solution to all of our problems!  They have apple pie taiyaki!  So I was the happiest panda ever, my craving was appeased, and we still had a somewhat traditional Japanese snack.  We headed home after that for a snack-supper, and more movies and video games.

Wednesday morning I said goodbye to Ros at an ungodly hour (it was 7:30 AM) and headed to school.  It was the last day of our holidays, but the Australian exchange students had arrived on Sunday and there was a trip organized for them and their host students (and the teachers) to go to Osaka, and I was invited along.  I`ve never been to Osaka before, so that was an experience.  I didn`t really talk to the students (except through the bus loudspeaker system to translate the important information from my supervisor), but the teachers are really nice.  We pulled into the Namba area, walked to our designated meeting space, and set the kids loose.  The other Japanese teacher who had accompanied us had made reservations for us at a takoyaki restaurant (the female Australian teacher really wanted some too; it wasn`t just me), so the five of us headed there for a great lunch of yakisoba and takoyaki.  After that, Morita-sensei and the other Japanese teacher headed to a cafe to relax.  There wasn`t really anything in the area I was interested in, since I`m not really a shopper, we`d already eaten, and the district is just shops and restaurants, but there was one shrine, so I figured I`d head there and then hit up Starbucks for a frapp and some free wifi so that I could get a new book from the library on my tablet.  We didn`t have enough time for me to head to another district and do something more interesting.  The Australian teachers asked if I minded taking them to Starbucks first, as they needed to connect with home, and needed some help navigating technology.  I ended up staying in Starbucks the whole time, playing tech support and chatting with them.  This was totally cool with me (like I said, I was going to the temple because it was the only thing on the map that wasn`t shopping; also, it was hot and I like AC).  Then it was right back on the bus for the ride home, wherein I finished one book and read two-thirds of another, making me really glad I`d decided to get ebooks that afternoon.

Today (Thursday) was the first day at school for our exchange students and teachers.  The day began with them introducing themselves at our morning teachers` meeting, and again at a school assembly much like my own introduction.  The students are pretty good at Japanese (they`re studying it in school, and the female teacher is their instructor)!  The principal gave a speech to them in English, and seemed to be channeling William Shatner a bit, but that`s totally understandable.  The rest of my day was spent in classes, preparing for classes, and writing this.  Super exciting.  After school the English club hosted a welcome party for the students, which they really seemed to enjoy.  They did a paper balloon relay (imagine that game where you try to keep a balloon in the air, but you're trying to move across the room with your partner, and the balloon is made of paper) and played bingo.  Now I'm relaxing before heading to bed, and there's only one more day before the weekend!

L8r On

Wednesday
Oh look, it`s cloudy and they`re calling for rain.  It must be - No, wait, that`s pretty much every day for the past month.  Don`t get me wrong, I love rain.  Water and life and making things grow and all that happy nonsense, but this is getting ridiculous.  I would really love to keep up my running for more than one day per week.

This was my first lesson with the second half of the sports class, since their lesson last week was typhooned-out (it`s a word now).  They were... Well, frankly they were like every other class I`ve had, which shocked me.  I expected them to be more like the first half of the sports class.  Instead, they were quiet, didn`t really ask me questions (we crammed both my self-introduction and the regular lesson into the same period so that they weren`t a week behind), and stared blankly.  Their English is also not as good as the other half of the class.  We`ll work on that.

Thursday
Rain.  It started yesterday afternoon.  Mostly it`s just grey and drizzly and gross, but occasionally it outright pours.  Yesterday evening I basically just said "eff this noise" and went for a run anyway.  The universe took pity on me and it only spit while I was out.  But today it was back to full-scale drizzle/pour, so I walked to school with my trusty umbrella in hand per usual.  I spent almost two hours this morning prepping all the materials for today`s conversation class.  Today is phone/text day!  I`m so ridiculously excited.  And nervous.  What if this lesson isn`t as awesome in the classroom as it is in my head?  What if they don`t understand it?  What if I forgot to print something (even though I`ve gone through the lesson plan and materials three times)?

Before that, I had Class 7 of my first years.  I`m reasonably sure these kids are my favourites.  They`re not too loud, but they do actually talk to me and participate without much prompting.  I say the word "volunteer" and hands actually go up!

So, the phone/text lesson did not go as smoothly as it did in my head.  Obviously.  I thought my explanations and character sheets were simple, but I suppose I`m really not the best person to gauge what`s actually easy and what`s not.  But Morita-sensei still loved the idea, and if they "got" the characters (Haruna ended up with a character from our strange swimming anime at one point, so she had fun with that, and other people recognized some of the names I was using) they had fun with it, but it was too much, too quick.  Lesson learned for me.  Now I`m marking the sheets they completed, and the text message ones actually aren't that bad!  (The phone messages are a disaster, but that's my fault.)  My favourite so far is one of my Frozen ones.  It looks like this:
Anna: Let`s build a snowman.
Elsa: I don`t want to build a snowman.
Anna: Then let's go ice skating.
Elsa.  Yes.  And then I want hot chocolate.
Anna: OK!!! 
The juxtaposition of the two wildly different writing sizes for these characters is making me giggle like a madwoman at my desk.  It`s perfect!  ...I`m really glad the staffroom is mostly empty right now.

And my supervisor was just approached by one of the other teachers, which led to this gem:
Morita: Mel, are you good at math?
Me: (thinking she wants me to solve something for reasons unknown) Yeah, kinda.  Why?
Morita: The Monday after the holiday, there will be exchange students in the math class, and I need help translating these math worksheets and explanations into English.
Me: Uh...

Morita: So this is... (she translates it) quadratic function?  Is that right?
Me: Oh, right!  I remember that.  Vaguely.  From twelve years ago.
Morita: Please help me!
Me: Let me refresh myself on quadratics tonight, and we'll see what we can do tomorrow.
Morita: Thank you!  Do you have class second period on Monday?
Me: Nope.
Morita: So maybe you can go and help teach the math lesson that day?
Me: Uh...

So now I'm helping to teach math in a week and a half.  I mean, sure, I was good at it and could help explain things to my classmates when I was taking it, but that was when I was taking it,  not twelve years later.

Friday
I have two favourites.  My second period first year class on Fridays is also awesome.  They were super-awesome at volunteering for answers, to the point where I actually had to make them janken (rock paper scissors) to decide who got to answer my question.  My first period class this morning was alright, but these kids are so great!

The school bought me a set of lock/stopper things for my patio doors for extra security.  The nice man from the reception office and showed me how to use them!  His explanation was all in Japanese, but it was visual, so between the two media I understood everything.  To be sure, though, the VP called one of my JTEs over.  I just smiled and nodded through it, but internally I was like, "No, I get it.  I totally understand this.  I`m picking up what you`re throwing down, dude."  Ah well.  They care, which is the important part.

Last class sucked.  They just kind of stared, silently.  Even more silently than usual.  I`m going to start referring to this class as The Silence.

I spent the rest of the school day helping my supervisor prepare for the arrival of the exchange students on Sunday, and brushing myself up on quadratic equations and trig.  I discovered that I`m still really good at calculations, but the explanations of a lot of these things still elude me.  If you give me the information, I can crunch numbers until the cows come home, but I can`t honestly tell you why I`m doing it. 

Ah well.  After my cleaning spree tonight I`ll look up some more things and see if I can`t get some practical applications to cement my knowledge.  (The website I`m currently working with says "You can figure out how tall a building is just by knowing how far you are from the building and what angle the top of the building makes with the ground!"  My question is, "Why the bleep would I know what angle the top of the builing makes?  And wouldn`t that be `what angle the top of the building makes with the ground at my point?"  Otherwise this claim makes zero sense to me.)

In other news, it is now Silver Week!  I have three days off next week, but I`m going to Osaka with our exchange students on Wednesday.  Still.  Days off work are always fantastic.  In the meantime, Ros is coming over and we will paint the town... chartreuse, probably.  Maybe teal?  Red is just so overrated.  Anyway, my point is that Ros is coming, and we will be weird.  I`ll check in again after Osaka!

No Joker, Just Thief. And Things Exploding.

As many of you know, this weekend started out pretty awful for me on Friday night when I discovered that no, my iPod had not just been misplaced, it had been stolen.  I'd been missing it for at least a week and a half, when I wanted to grab it for a walk to the store and it wasn't where I thought it was, but I misplace things all the time (most often, my glasses), so that's not actually that weird.  Friday night it was irritating me, so I decided I was going to go through everything and figure out where this thing was.  Well, when I did that, I discovered that the DS games in the travel case in my closet were also gone.  So I'm not actually sure when my place was broken into.  There's a game in progress on my DS already, so I haven't touched those cartridges since I got here, or I would have noticed a lot sooner.  Naturally, I was fairly upset, talked to my supervisor, and we decided to go to the police on Saturday morning.

Now, I figured: it's been possibly almost two weeks, there's obviously not a lot they can do at this point, so we'll sit down with an officer and do up a report and that's going to be the end of it, right?  Nope!  We went down to the station, they took down the information, and said a couple officers would be by to check my place out.  So my supervisor and I are imagining a couple uniformed officers comine to look at my doors and windows, right?  (Already more than I really thought would happen.)  Nope again!  Two plain-clothes guys with briefcases and bags show up, show me their badges when I open the door (just like in the movies), and proceed with the statement-taking, fingerprinting, and taking photos of things with number cards beside them.  Full-on CSI.  It made me feel a lot better about the whole situation!  Not in a "Wow, I'm totally going to get my stuff back," kind of way, but in a, "This is wildly amusing and I'm waiting for the theme music to start," kind of way.  Oh well.  Looks like now my chances of beating the water temple in Ocarina of Time are.... a longshot.

For those who don't get it: It's a pun.  The dungeon item for the water temple is called a longshot.  And you've just ruined the joke because I had to explain it.

By the time the police were done, I'd missed the train I was supposed to take to go to Ise with everyone, but my supervisor offered to drop me off at the station so that I could catch the next train and meet up with them quickly.  But when I got to the ticket machine at the train station, I realized I'd taken the bag with my wallet out of my purse because the police needed my inkan (personal stamp, like an official signature in Japan) and that it was still sitting on my living room floor.  So by the time I walked back home to get that, I've now missed the second train, and I'm hot and tired.  So forget trying to get there to see the temple.  The temple's not going anywhere anytime soon, I'll just go see it another day.  I decided to just wait until later in the afternoon and go to meet up with them for fireworks in the evening.

I managed to actually do this (go me!).   The Ise summer fireworks are one of the three best displays in Japan.  Normally they take place in July, but due to typhoons they were postponed, so I got to see them!  They were absolutely fabulous, and I wish my pictures did them justice.

Our fabulous spot on the riverfront.

 

One of the guys brought his three-year old daughter with us, and her reactions were probably just as much, if not more, fun as the fireworks themselves.  Also, the Japanese seem to view fireworks the same way they do everything else: in relative silence.  Naturally, we were that loud group of foreigners.  No one seemed to really mind that much, though (not like they do on the trains), so we continued to be ourselves throughout the spectacle.

Sunday I did nothing.  I maybe read a book, but I'm not even sure I did that.

Monday morning we phoned to have my locks changed.  It was also my first day of real classes, wherein I teach children actual things rather than just fun games and slideshows about me.  I think it went fairly well.  There were some struggles, but I expect that everywhere.  I also went for my doctor's appointment.  The electrocardiogram was, in fact, false results due to my anxiety in the original test, so that was fine.  However, I was told that I am fat, and need to diet and exercise.  You should all be proud that I managed to smile and nod and not punch anyone in the face or solar plexus.

Today was my first day at the special needs school; I was teaching Junior High School.  The kids were all great (I had one class of each grade, and my largest class was five students).  There's one kid in each class that is noticeably better at English than the others.  Automatically that student is my favourite in the class.  The English teacher for JHS level classes is really nice, too.  I think I'm going to let her keep planning the lessons for a little while before adding in any of my own material.  Working with each school level, I only see the kids once a month, so it's hard to get a good grasp of where their English skills are actually at.  I also met the Elementary level English teacher, who's really sweet and went over her lesson plans with me.  I get to sing ABCs and Head and Shoulders!  Yay!

The End.

End of the Beginning

Wednesday there was a typhoon, and the warning wasn`t lifted by 11AM, so there was no class all day.

This is not actually my area.  This is a picture of Hamamatsu from the news.  But still.

But, like bus cancellations back home, teachers are still expected to be there.  I don`t even know how to check this, so I didn`t have an inkling that classes were delayed until I got to the point in my walk when I should have started seeing students and didn`t see any students...  My "rain" jacket that I bought for Norway is useless in the heavy rain here, but I found a sturdier one that actually fits me (and reaches to my knees) in the closet, so I wore that.  I tucked my pants into my boots, and off I went with my umbrella.  The problems: a) the jacket I found goes down to my knees, yes, but obviously the buttons don`t go down that far, so it flies open and most of my pants are exposed at the front; b) there was so much rain that the exposed parts of my pants were so incredibly soaked, my socks and boots were wet inside just from the water dripping down; c) capillary action means that the excessive amounts of water also travelled up, so I was soaking wet basically from the waist down.  And had to sit like that in the staff room all day.  Between the bottoms of my pants and my socks, my indoor shoes ended up soaked, so those had to come home with me to be stuffed with newspaper.

My work that I had yet to finish for Thursday next week`s lessons only took me until around 11 (it required creativity, but most of my brain was focused on how uncomfortable I was, otherwise it probably would have taken 20 minutes), so the rest of the day was spent alternating between looking up recipes, reading awful fan fiction, and typing out Beauty and the Beast in its entirety (because, you know, that`s a thing I can do...).  It wasted time.  I could have been printing out stuff for the rest of my lessons this week, but the good printer was being fixed, and I refuse to use the awful printer and photocopier unless I absolutely have to (translation: it`s 30 minutes before class and I`m desperate).

Thursday you`d never have known there was a typhoon if you hadn`t actually experienced it.  It was warm and bright and relatively cloudless.  I will never understand weather.  I also, for reasons unknown, had Call Me Maybe stuck in my head all day.  There are probably not that many songs I hate more than that one, and yet there it was.  All.  Day.

 You're welcome.  If I had to suffer, so do you.

My first class that day was fourth period, another first year English class.  These ones were actually really good at English and focusing, so we made it through all of my material in one class!  Then after lunch was my double-period third year English conversation class.  I like this class for a couple reasons: a) it`s an elective course, so the kids in that class actually want to learn English, and b) there isn`t a strict "they need to know this and this and this in this particular unit," so I have more freedom to make my own materials, like the texting worksheets I was talking about before (I showed them to Morita-sensei and she was impressed, so I`m really happy; I think it would have broken my heart if she thought it wouldn`t work).  There`s a particularly loud girl in this class, so I`ll have to work on finding the line between reining her in and just ignoring her.  She was excited for class, though, so maybe I can harness her loudness for class purposes?  I`m not above exploiting my students a little bit for the purpose of a lesson.

Today (Friday) was my last day of new classes (barring that one on Wednesday that was cancelled because of rain).  They were all first year classes, first, second, and fifth periods.  First period was okay, but again, most of the students didn`t really speak much.  Second period class had great English, and they weren`t as shy as the other classes at participating (though they weren`t as boisterous as the sports class; no one is as boisterous as the sports class).  Fifth period was really quiet.  And I got the boyfriend question in all three classes.  Seriously, I`m going to start a drinking game.

Well, after all that, I think I can safely say this will be a fun job.  I`m glad I don`t have to teach grammar, or I would like this job a lot less. 

I got the results of my health exam today, too.  My love of this country immediately died.  I have to go for further examinations and testing because I`m fat (Dear Japan, I`m aware that I`m not one of the tiny 52kg women in your country.  Go die in a fire.  Love, Mel) and my heart rate was high.  Yeah, heart rate.  That part where they shoved me in a room with someone who doesn`t speak English and clamped me to a table.  Gee, I wonder why my heart rate was high?!

But that`s it for now.  I`m heading with a group to Ise tomorrow for shrine and fireworks!  Yay!

Getting Schooled (First Day of Classes)

Nervous left the building a long time ago.  Abject terror was the name of the game today.

My first lesson was first period.  Nothing like throwing me right in the deep end!  As expected, the students didn`t really talk, even to each other when they were supposed to be working in groups.... There was noise a few times, though.  It`s progress.  I was asked for the first time if I was married.  I expect that by the end of this month I will have wanted to start a drinking game with variations of this question ["Do you have a husband?", "Do you have a boyfriend?"... They never actually say, "Are you single?"], as it`s right up there with your blood type in "popular questions Japanese students ask."

I`m glad I already had the materials printed for my first class, because the big printer I use as my default broke, so I had to print things out for my other two classes today on the tiny, awful printer that puts creases in pages and sometimes skips printing letters.  Eventually I taught myself to use the photocopier (trial and error, folks, trial and error) so I only had to print out one bad copy, fix it up with my pen, and then make enough semi-decent copies for the rest of the classes, so I`m set until Thursday.  Which I keep thinking of as Wednesday.  Monday wasn`t an official holiday here, but since I had to be at school on Saturday for bunkasai I had Monday off, so now Monday classes are running on Tuesday, where normally I would be at the special needs school today.  Mostly my plan is just to get up on days when my alarm goes off, and sleep in on the days that it doesn`t go off, and go to class when the JTEs approach me to walk together, because otherwise I`m going to give myself a migrane trying to figure out what day of the week it actually is.

Anyway.  I had two free periods to do all of this prep work, which actually took maybe one period (technology is hard when it`s not in English).  My fourth period class was less scary, since I already had one class under my belt, but it`s still thirty-odd pairs of unfamiliar eyes staring at you and only understanding about 20% of what you`re saying. The second class was about the same level of non-noise, though.  You ask a group a question, and you get the, "You say it!" "No, you say it!"  ...And then no one says anything until you pretty much single someone out and prompt them to say it.

Fifth period was a "sports class".  I`m still not entirely certain what this means, but from what I understand it`s a specialty class for kids who want to go into professional sports or PE teaching.  I think.  These kids were the exact opposite of the previous classes.  Instead of getting them to speak, the problem was getting them to shut up!  They`re really enthusiastic, though, and they do try, so I think we`ll have fun.  I was actually able to play a real game of my "Jeopardy" self-intro instead of just going team by team!  Got some interesting questions that they wanted to ask me, too.  Like, "Are the UV rays in Japan strong?" (Uh... I haven`t really been sunburnt since I got here and I don`t own sunscreen, so... No?) or "What Japanese guys do you think are cool?" (Cool basically = super-hot-and-dreamy here.  The only Japanese celebrity I can name off the top of my head is Gackt, in the vague sense of "I`m pretty sure I`m picturing the right guy when I say that," and he looks like a girl, so I really couldn`t answer; I told the kid I`d watch Japanese movies and get back to him) or "What is your favourite Japanese word?" (I said "Shika!" [deer] with my hands on my head like antlers, and the kids thought that was hilarious).

I`ve heard a lot of people throughout our orientations say, "Don`t let your students know you speak Japanese!"  I disagree with this idea, and have taken a different approach.  I think back to taking French in high school. Our lessons were in French (unless we really didn`t get it, and then we got an explanation in English before switching back to French), we spoke in French in class, but we didn`t speak French with the French teacher in the halls! So I`ve adopted the same kind of thing.  In class, yes, I`m all-English because that`s what I`m contracted to be, and I`ll say "hello" and "good morning" in the halls in English because I know that they know those words, regardless of their level.  But otherwise it`s a mish-mash of Japanese and English.  Using my (admittedly limited) Japanese sometimes outside of the classroom makes me more approachable to students.  If they know that my Japanese is level with their English, it makes them more comfortable around me, and more likely to even just say "Hello!" to me first.  Like a conversation that happened recently (maybe at bunkasai?  I think it was with the anime club...):
Student: (Very haltingly) Do you enjoy live in Japan?
Me: Do I like living in Japan?
Student: Ah!  Yes!  Living in Japan!
Me: Yes.  It`s very hot.  Totemo atsui desu. ("It`s very hot" in Japanese.)
It just creates a more relaxed atmosphere when you`re not this intimidating, impenetrable wall of things they don`t understand all the time.

Fun Fact: Anteaters adopt this pose to intimidate their enemies.

My habit especially helps in the case of second year students.  I don`t have class with them, so if they know that they can still come talk to me and be understood even if they don`t know every English word and have to say a couple things in Japanese to get their point across, I think it will generate a lot more interest in English as a whole.  (And I never just answer a question, either.  If they need a word or some correction, I always give that before answering, like I did with the "living in Japan" conversation.)

Well, that`s about it for now, I guess.  No one cried, no one died; I'm calling today a success. I still can`t believe how often I`m updating this...  You`ll probably get less updates when everything becomes more routine, but right now everything is new, so you`re getting a barrage of "foreigner life in Japan."  Lucky you.

PS.  It`s raining again.  This seems to be the default weather setting in Tsu.  I`m not enjoying it.  It makes it difficult to go sight-seeing.

Bunkasai (Culture Festival), A Live Blog

CULTURE FEST IS THE GREATEST THING EVER.  The energy right now is so ridiculously high.  I`m going to update as I go, so I`ll give you times since pretty much everything will be written in present tense.

9:42AM The day started out with takoyaki (baked, battered octopus).  Anyone who`s heard me talk about my trips to Japan before knows that takoyaki is my absolute favourite Japanese food.  There are few things better than fresh takoyaki.  One of these things is having fresh, free takoyaki delivered to your desk unexpectedly.

Apparently my supervisor is the alternate homeroom teacher for the class that was running that booth, so the regular homeroom teacher just came in and brought us some.  Best day ever, and it`s not even 10AM!  Morita-sensei says she might have to help out at the booth later, so I get to go with her!  I can learn how to make this most joyous of foods! 

11:02 AM Am now back in the staff room after braving the crowds in the courtyard.  Morita-sensei and I started out with a couple of the clubs.  The science club did some weird things with liquid nitrogen (like deflate and reinflate a balloon), and apparently at noon they`re using it to make sorbet.  Of course we had to do a stop in at the anime club, who sort of freaked out in the best way possible when they were told I like anime.  The Calligraphy Club had some gorgeous works posted, some of which were framed, or written on fans... It was crazy.  Then we went down to the library, where we could make our own bookmarks!  Super cool.  The librarian had two sizes of laminate pouches, a whole bunch of washi (the pretty, decorative origami paper), and then these pieces of hard plastic that you colour on and then shrink in the toaster oven to make charms.  Weird? Yes.  Possibly one of the most awesome things ever? Also yes.  After that was the tea ceremony we already had tickets for.  That was super exciting because TEA.

We were first given the small sweet (this varies seasonally; we had mochi filled with red bean paste, which still isn`t good, but this one wasn`t the worst I`ve ever had), and then served tea.

 The supervising teacher for the tea ceremony club kept a running explanation of what was happening, and what we should do (formal tea ceremony is rare, even among Japanese people, so it wasn`t just something for my benefit).  I was served tea in the best tea bowl they have, because they love me just that much.  Or because I`m the visiting foreigner and they want to impress me, but I`m going with the first one.  Anyway, it was the porcelain kind with the cobalt blue ink, in a very complicated curve pattern with many different patterns inside the curves.  Then we headed out into the courtyard, where all of the third-year classes had their food tents.  Oh my god.  Utter chaos.  We were going to stop at the takoyaki place first so I could check out how it`s made and take some photos, but then were strongarmed by a group of (loud) boys into visiting their Frankfurt sausage stand on the other side of the courtyard.  From there, it was a constant barrage of students wanting either myself of Morita-sensei to come eat their food.  I got a waffle (with chocolate sauce, of course!), and we handed in our tickets to have our yakisoba delivered to the staff room when it was ready (they were quite busy).

11:54 AM Sugiura-sensei (the science teacher with the good English) had said I should stop by to see his class`s aquarium, so Morita-sensei and I went to check it out.  It was cool, and a little bit gross.  There was a pool where you could fish for crabs (I tried, but I think enough people had already been there that the crabs were all like, "Oh no, I know how this goes.  I clamp on that thing and you pull me out of my water to flail around before you toss me back in," so I didn`t get one.

Then there was another pool where the gross factor came in.  This was the "reach in and grab a sea creature" pool, with starfish (but the spindly ones that look like failed octopods) and sea cucumbers.  SEA CUCUMBERS.  Why would you ever want to handle one of those things?!  It looks like a cross between an eel and a stool sample!  There were also some normal aquariums with different fish, including a stingray, so those were cool.

On the way back to the staff room, I stopped in to see the Photography Club display (some fantastic pictures!), the Ikebana (traditional flower arrangement) club, and headed up to the outdoor crosswalk between the class and club buildings to take some overhead shots of the courtyard.  Then I got distracted by the calligraphy club, who were doing a gigantic demonstration to music in the courtyard.  When I got to the staff room, my yakisoba was waiting, but I`m going to let it sit because I`m headed back to the anime club for.... something.  I don`t really know what, but I know I`m supposed to go back at noon.

12:37 PM So the thing I was supposed to go back for was kind of like the bookmarks.  I drew an anime character, and then we laminated it.  There was a lot of silence and awkward "oh god, what do I say?!" from the students, which was funny.  I tried to ask them questions, and I could understand a good portion of their freak-outs as they tried to figure out what to say in English.  I asked them what things I should see in Mie, and I`ve been told to check out the theme park and aquarium.  Typical teenager answers, but I enjoy both of those things, so I`ll definitely have to take their suggestions!  Once I figure out where they are...  I think we all had fun, though, and now I have a poorly-drawn, laminted souvenir of my time spent with the anime club!  (There`s a reason I always preferred working with charcoal on giant pages.)

1:51 PM I`m pretty sure I`m sunburnt now.  Haruna asked if I had seen her in the dance performance on Thursday, but I wasn`t able to pick her out, so I told her I would go again today.  The dance club was scheduled to perform again at 1:20, so I went down to the courtyard and caught the end of the acoustic guitar performance so I could get a good spot.  Dance club is still awesome the second time around, and I was able to spot her.  But yeah.  Sitting out on the courtyard in the full sun for almost an hour was not one of my smartest ideas.  I think I`ll chill inside now, since the festival ends soon anyway.

Chapter (Week) 5, In Which I Get Cultured

It appears that the habit of stating that the phone is ringing is not limited to the English language.  You know how the phone rings at home and most of the time, someone inevitably yells, "Phone!" as though it`s not the most obvious thing in the world and everyone else can`t hear it ringing?  It happens in Japan too.  I was sitting here, pretending to work as I so often do, and my supervisor is sitting here with her supervisor going over some stuff.  The phone for our desk-pod starts ringing, and he goes, "Ah, denwa (phone)," before proceeding to answer it.  I was amused (probably because I`m the most guilty of this habit at home and I like to know I`m not alone).

My school`s Culture Festival is this weekend.  I`m ridiculously excited.  Before that happens, though, there are two days of performances at the Prefectural Cultural Centre in Tsu.  I guess our facilities aren`t large enough or something.  But the classes who are doing foodstuffs on Saturday are already going around with their tickets (pre-buying means a discount), so I now have tickets for a tea ceremony and yakisoba (fried buckwheat noodles.with sauce, veggies, and sometimes a meat or shrimp).  I love food!  And Culture Fest!  Overall, it just makes me really excited, and like I`m really a part of the community to be able to attend an event like this (school`s culture festivals are usually attended by the community at large, but at the very least by friends and family of the students, as well as the teachers).  Also this is something that appears a lot in anime and they make it seem like one of the greatest things to happen all year.

Wednesday was a plethora of guest performers who are apparently famous, but I`ve never heard of them because I`m not Japanese.  There were four sets of comedy duos, and one guy who seemed to be a combination comedian/singer.  I didn`t understand a lot of it (like, 98%), but sometimes I could get enough of a basic context to understand that they were, in fact, funny even if I didn`t know the exact joke.  One of the Science teachers here has pretty good English (he went with our exchange students to Australia), so he explained to me some of what was going on beforehand, and then a bit after.  We also chatted during the break between programs, and he asked how long I had studied Japanese, since my Japanese is apparently very good (what little I can speak of it).  Naturally, I had to admit that I have zero Japanese training outside of the "Japanese for JETs" textbook and most of what I know is from about 8 years of watching anime.  He then told me that that was how he had learned some of his English pronunciation, by watching English-dubbed anime!  VALIDATION!  Anime is a legitimate learning tool!

I spent the afternoon on Wednesday (the performances only took up the morning) at my desk, looking up some grocery-related kanji (ideographic Japanese writing based on Chinese characters, as opposed to the two phonetic alphabets also in use in Japan.  Because everyone needs three writing systems) and making myself flashcards.  I tried not to draw attention to myself as I did this, because I know I got the stroke order really, really wrong on most of them; I can`t find it online, and I don`t want to offend anyone.

Thursday was full of performances by student clubs and classes.  I will admit that most of the time I had no idea what was going on.  The morning started with a performance by the brass band club, which was fairly talented.  I prefer strings to brass, though, so the second performance was a bit more to my taste.  There were seven students playing the Japanese harp (koto) and one playing the shamisen (Japanese guitar, but I think less a few strings?).  Then there was a video that seemed to be a giant sporting montage done by one of the classes, which was amusing, and full of high-energy English music.  There was some kind of skit about a sports team practice by another class, but beyond that description I have no idea what it was about.  Then came the acoustic guitar club, and holy hell are those kids talented.  They sounded awesome.  My favourite, though, was the last performance of the morning, the dance club.  I was absolutely blown away.  I forget sometimes that dance can actually be a competitive club activity.  (Also, my favourite student - the one from English club who likes the same anime - is in the dance club.  Yes, I have favourites.) 

In the afternoon there was an attendance-optional performance by the drama club, which of course I went to because it would be wrong of me to not support a club I belonged to when I was in high school!  ...And also I didn`t want to go back to the office.  Anyway.  So that was an hour-long one-act play with four cast members, three girls and a boy.  I got the part where one of the girls had a boyfriend that her friends didn`t know about.  Then the boy character comes in and is all awkward with the boyfriend-girl, so I thought it was going to be revealed that he was her boyfriend. Then they were helping her rehearse to break up with the boyfriend for reasons unknown, and the boy character was helping, and I got really confused because it makes no sense that he would be her boyfriend if he`s helping in the breakup rehearsals!  At the end, he`s all dejected and walks away to an empty classroom, and the girl with the boyfriend-breakup goes running after him, so I was assured by the student I was sitting with (my other 3rd year English club student, Mayu) that it was a happy ending, but I really have no idea what exactly was going on.  It was like watching Spanish soap operas on a weekday afternoon when you`re sick and there`s absolutely nothing else on TV.

Also this week was a welcome party for all the new JETs specifically in Tsu (my city ...sort of.  My area used to be its own city, and then it got absorbed).  There was a lot of food from our delicious set-menu meal, some fabulous drinks, and excellent company.  Basically we discovered that we`re all compatible brands of weird, and no one really likes bugs.  (Clarifier: pest-type bugs.  I don`t mean that the restaurant served us bugs and no one liked the dish.  That did not happen.  We were fed meat and seafod.  Normal things.  Just because I know some people`s minds went there.)

Unrelated: I fell off my bike for the first time (shocking, considering I`ve been here for a month and am a competition-level klutz)!  That figures.  My last bike-related injury (slamming my leg off the back when attempting to dismount, causing a bruise at least the size of a tennis ball) is pretty much gone now, so I needed a new one.  But I fell on the way to school, so I got to visit the school nurse`s office!  Our school nurse is a super sweet lady, so I was glad to meet her!  It would have been better without tiny bits of road speckling my arm, but whatever.

Anyway, I`m super-stoked about all the awesome things set to happen tomorrow!  I just have to make it through today in all its utter boring-ness.  It`s Culture Fest prep day, so I think I`ll take to wandering the halls and checking out all the preparations.