Once again, this is something I forgot that I do. The following was written on April 11th. I just... didn't post it. Expect my write-up on the first couple weeks of class by next weekend!
The welcome/farewell party last night was certainly interesting for me. It was a lot more formal than the year-end party (calendar year end, that is, not school year; technically this was the school year end party). Mostly we ate while people were speaking. The party was about two hours long, and an hour and a half of that was speeches. I`m not exaggerating about that. We had the opening speeches from the MC and the principal, and then there was a few minutes of socializing/eating. Eating continued to happen throughout the night, because it was, like, a 6- or 8-course meal and we didn`t really have much of a choice if we wanted to actually eat anything. After the social bit, our four teachers who were retiring came to the stage. One of the current teachers gave a speech about each of them, after which each retiree gave their own speech. And let me tell you, these people could talk. I have no idea what they were saying, but they were saying quite a bit of whatever it was. After those eight speeches were done, we had another few minutes to socialize while they rearranged the chairs onstage. Then they called up the teachers who were transferring to other schools (there were 11, I think?) and each of them gave a speech. More socializing while the stage configuration changed again, and then all of the new teachers were called up. Thankfully, they only went through their names, and then one of them made a speech on behalf of the entire group.
You`ll all be shocked to find that I actually did some socializing during the socializing times. You`ll be even more shocked when I tell you that only some of it was in English. I wasn`t lucky enough to end up at a table with an English teacher, so I had a halting conversation with the (biology? math?) teacher beside me, mostly about food and mostly in Japanese. Then one of the PE teachers came over to visit him, and ended up conversing with me as well (also in Japanese), asking where I had been in Japan, and where I wanted to visit next. During one of the breaks I went to speak with the English teacher who transferred out, the bio teacher I used to chat with who also transferred out, and the new English teacher who transferred in. I got a bit of a surprise when I was approached out of the blue by our new math teacher. She`s studying English on her own, apparently, and wanted to say hi and ask if she could come and speak with me sometimes. Uh, obviously!
The rest of the week was pretty standard. I continued to mostly not do work, except for the brief meeting I had to discuss my conversation classes with the two JTEs I`ll be working with (I still haven`t really had a meeting with my first year teachers, but that`s par for the course, really; I think I`m just used to it now).
On Friday, though, we had our first day of school, which meant an assembly for the returning students in the morning, and the entrance ceremony for the incoming first years in the afternoon (it`s a big deal, apparently; everybody`s parents were there). It threw my JTEs for a loop when they asked me about entering high school in Canada.
"You don`t have anything like this in Canada?"
"...No. On our first day of school, we just.... kinda show up? And our homeroom is posted on the wall, and we go there?"
"But the new students who are there for the first time?"
"Yep. We still just show up."
Saturday was awesome. I went into Nagoya to see Jekyll & Hyde at the Aichi Prefectural Art Museum Theater and it was amazing. I knew all the songs and the basic plot already, being the utter nerd that I am, and I`m not terribly concerned with the nuances. The performers were great, especially the guy playing Jekyll and Hyde and the woman playing Lucy. The costumes were standard period musical fare; nice, but nothing crazy spectacular. The set and the lighting, though... I was floored. And they just kept doing new things with it. Every time I thought I had a handle on what they could do, they pulled something new. My favourite was the first time we saw Jekyll`s lab. Until this point, we`d seen him writing in his journal in his drawing room, so I expected we`d eventually see that desk covered in his potion equipment, but no. As he`s singing This is the Moment, he moves up to the second level of the set (because safety), his drawing room glides offstage, and from behind a scrim comes the lab. It`s this hulking split-level piece, with a worktable covered in potions at the bottom, and big mechanical...thing with two levers up the small staircase. On the back, mounted above all that, is a circular vent with a fan that is easily about 12 feet high. Then, still singing, he dismounts the main set stairs onto the lab set, goes up to the mechanical things and yanks on the levers. The desk lights up as though the liquids in the bottles and test tubes are luminescent themselves (like a particularly well-lit bar shelf), and the fan starts turning. Like I said, I was floored.
My first year teachers (two out of three, anyway) came up to me today and basically said, "We`ll have a meeting when we can, but we want to have fun communicating in English, so you`re in charge and we`ll just do what you say." O...kay. Wow. Like, no pressure or anything, right? My first class in on Thursday, so we`ll see how things go. I`m just going to do my self-introduction stuff, though, which I`ve done before so at least it`s familiar material.
Thursday, April 21, 2016
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
Shaking Things Up
Well, we`re gearing up for a new school year (finally). April 1st was officially the start of the new year, so all of the new teachers started that day. There were a bunch of meetings, all of which were in Japanese, that I wasn`t expected to attend, so I spent the entire day in the teachers` room, virtually alone. The exciting part of the day came at lunch time, when all of the teachers were in the room (thankfully). The new teacher who sits across from me had introduced herself (and I already forget her name), and was settling in with some of the other teachers, when all of a sudden a bunch of people`s cell phones start beeping and whirring like mad. Some of the phones continue to scream bloody murder, while others start with a "5...4...3...2...1...0." The new teacher and I are looking around, and then we look at each other with confused expressions and shrug at each other like, "What the heck?!" ...And then we look up and realize that all the cables on the ceiling are swinging, and the ground seems to kind of be moving under our feet, and we went, "Oooooh. Gotcha." And thus was my first earthquake experience in Japan!
In Japan, or at least at my school and I assume the rest of Japan, the teachers move grades with the students. So all of the teachers who taught first year are now teaching second year, the second year teachers are teaching third year, and the third year teachers are with the new first years, with some exceptions. My supervisor taught all third year classes last year, but we`ll be teaching second and third year conversation classes together. I don`t teach standard second year English, but there was enough interest for two conversation classes, so the second of those will be taught with my favourite of my first year teachers from last year. The bulk of my teaching, the first year classes, will be with one former third year teacher, one new teacher, and my least favourite of my teachers from last year (not that she`s a bad teacher, because she`s not, but she`s fairly rigid, and seems to have expectations of me that she doesn`t actually tell me about until I failed to meet them). The former third year teacher, Shimozu-sensei, approached me Monday morning, and the following conversation happened:
S: So Mel, I`d like to know what your team teaching lessons are like. Like, what kind of textbook you would like to use.
M: Okay, sure! *gets last year`s textbook* I used the same textbook as the JTEs for their grammar lessons. So in my lessons, we would start with the more difficult vocabulary for that part, and read the passage, either together or in pairs, depending on the level of the class. Then we would go over the two sets of comprehension questions, and then I would plan an activity based on the material for that lesson.
S: So you like using the same textbook.
M: I think so, yes. It makes it easier to judge the level the students are supposed to be at, and I can see what grammar they`re learning and are expected to already know.
S: So you don`t want to use another textbook?
M: I could, but it might make things more difficult.
S: But what about other activities?
M: Well, like I said, I plan my own activites based on the textbook, plus I do activities without the textbook for special occasions like Halloween, Christmas, etc.
S: So, we`re going to discuss this and we will let you know. We will probably ask you to do things you don`t want to do, so please be kind to us.
....So this conversation, combined with the facial expressions I was reading, was basically, "I`m asking you for the sake of politeness, but we don`t want to do what you want to do, so we`re just going to take your opinion and toss it." Which I`m fine with, really, so long as they actually communicate what they want from me. Honestly. The lack of communication is the thing that bothers me most anywhere, but especially here. So many of the world`s problems could be solved with proper communication! (Or tea. Or duct tape. One of the three, depending on the problem at hand.)
On a happier note, the new teacher who sits across from me speaks some English! Her grammar needs some work, and she doesn`t have a ton of vocabulary, but she`s still easy enough to understand. And she wants to improve, so I told her she`s welcome to talk with me anytime. She seems super nice, so that`s a plus too. I was sad when the previous teacher left, because even though we didn`t talk much, we had kind of a comraderie since she also attended our ladies` lunch days, but I`m pleased with this new person. Even if I can`t remember her name. (I`ll get it eventually.)
Today Shimozu-sensei came up to me again, and told me the teachers talked about their lessons with me. They want the students to feel comfortable with English, and to see English as a fun thing, and as a useable tool rather than something strictly in the textbook (I completely agree). So apparently they want my lessons to be maybe a few textbook things, but mostly games and songs. I am... totally okay with this. This requires so much less work on my part. It`s often difficult to figure out the timing of textbook lessons, because you don`t know how quickly or slowly students will be able to complete a given exercise. I would sit at my desk for 10 minutes sometimes, just trying to figure out how much time each section of a lesson would take, so that I had time to go through everything they needed to be taught. Games are so much easier to time!
Tonight is our welcome/leaving party in honour of all the teachers who have changed for this coming year. Should be lots of fun! Except for the part where it`s random seating again (like the holiday party), and there are still very few English-speaking teachers. I just have to hope I get lucky enough to sit with one of them again! But the food will be beyond fabulous again, I know, because it`s at the same place, so at the very least I have that to look forward to!
In Japan, or at least at my school and I assume the rest of Japan, the teachers move grades with the students. So all of the teachers who taught first year are now teaching second year, the second year teachers are teaching third year, and the third year teachers are with the new first years, with some exceptions. My supervisor taught all third year classes last year, but we`ll be teaching second and third year conversation classes together. I don`t teach standard second year English, but there was enough interest for two conversation classes, so the second of those will be taught with my favourite of my first year teachers from last year. The bulk of my teaching, the first year classes, will be with one former third year teacher, one new teacher, and my least favourite of my teachers from last year (not that she`s a bad teacher, because she`s not, but she`s fairly rigid, and seems to have expectations of me that she doesn`t actually tell me about until I failed to meet them). The former third year teacher, Shimozu-sensei, approached me Monday morning, and the following conversation happened:
S: So Mel, I`d like to know what your team teaching lessons are like. Like, what kind of textbook you would like to use.
M: Okay, sure! *gets last year`s textbook* I used the same textbook as the JTEs for their grammar lessons. So in my lessons, we would start with the more difficult vocabulary for that part, and read the passage, either together or in pairs, depending on the level of the class. Then we would go over the two sets of comprehension questions, and then I would plan an activity based on the material for that lesson.
S: So you like using the same textbook.
M: I think so, yes. It makes it easier to judge the level the students are supposed to be at, and I can see what grammar they`re learning and are expected to already know.
S: So you don`t want to use another textbook?
M: I could, but it might make things more difficult.
S: But what about other activities?
M: Well, like I said, I plan my own activites based on the textbook, plus I do activities without the textbook for special occasions like Halloween, Christmas, etc.
S: So, we`re going to discuss this and we will let you know. We will probably ask you to do things you don`t want to do, so please be kind to us.
....So this conversation, combined with the facial expressions I was reading, was basically, "I`m asking you for the sake of politeness, but we don`t want to do what you want to do, so we`re just going to take your opinion and toss it." Which I`m fine with, really, so long as they actually communicate what they want from me. Honestly. The lack of communication is the thing that bothers me most anywhere, but especially here. So many of the world`s problems could be solved with proper communication! (Or tea. Or duct tape. One of the three, depending on the problem at hand.)
On a happier note, the new teacher who sits across from me speaks some English! Her grammar needs some work, and she doesn`t have a ton of vocabulary, but she`s still easy enough to understand. And she wants to improve, so I told her she`s welcome to talk with me anytime. She seems super nice, so that`s a plus too. I was sad when the previous teacher left, because even though we didn`t talk much, we had kind of a comraderie since she also attended our ladies` lunch days, but I`m pleased with this new person. Even if I can`t remember her name. (I`ll get it eventually.)
Today Shimozu-sensei came up to me again, and told me the teachers talked about their lessons with me. They want the students to feel comfortable with English, and to see English as a fun thing, and as a useable tool rather than something strictly in the textbook (I completely agree). So apparently they want my lessons to be maybe a few textbook things, but mostly games and songs. I am... totally okay with this. This requires so much less work on my part. It`s often difficult to figure out the timing of textbook lessons, because you don`t know how quickly or slowly students will be able to complete a given exercise. I would sit at my desk for 10 minutes sometimes, just trying to figure out how much time each section of a lesson would take, so that I had time to go through everything they needed to be taught. Games are so much easier to time!
Tonight is our welcome/leaving party in honour of all the teachers who have changed for this coming year. Should be lots of fun! Except for the part where it`s random seating again (like the holiday party), and there are still very few English-speaking teachers. I just have to hope I get lucky enough to sit with one of them again! But the food will be beyond fabulous again, I know, because it`s at the same place, so at the very least I have that to look forward to!
Friday, April 1, 2016
Another Tokyo Adventure
So it`s been three weeks. Again, I kinda forgot that this was something I do. I think partly it`s because I`ve been reading, and partly because I`ve hit a wall of ennui due to the utter lack of work I`ve had for a month now. Everyone who knows me knows I don`t do well with boredom.
Almost literally nothing has happened to me since my last update (again, see my lack of work). But I guess I can tell you about my trip to Tokyo? I mean, most of it was focused on Disney again, because I`m me and I really don`t go to Tokyo for anything else, but I can still tell stories.
So I got into Tokyo at 6AM on March 16th, thanks to the glory (torture) that is the overnight bus, and made my way to Disneyland without incident, despite having to change trains at Tokyo Station (AKA Hell on Earth). I met up with Ros, and we stood in line for a little less than an hour, waiting to get into the park. We`ve never done actual restaurants at Disneyland before, so we`d decided that was something we wanted to do this trip. We headed over to the Crystal Palace and had a lovely breakfast wherein Ros was startled by five different Winnie the Pooh characters as they came around to our table from behind her. Did I laugh every time? Yes, yes I did. I`m such a caring friend.
When we finished breakfast, people were lining the streets for the first run of the event parade for Frozen Fantasy (the reason we were there - I still don`t love the movie as a whole, but it`s pretty, and Let it Go is a fun song to sing at the top of your lungs while flinging your arms about dramatically, which is something I already did so it justifies it). The park wasn`t terribly busy, though, being a Wednesday of a non-holiday week, so at half an hour before parade time we got bench seats right outside the restaurant. It was a big deal, and so luxurious-feeling! I held our spots while Ros went to get Fastpasses for Space Mountain.
We managed to get done everything we wanted to, but a lot of our day was just spent wandering around. We got a lot of Fastpasses, and other things didn`t have particularly long lines, so we just sort of strolled, ducking into shops and people-watching. There were some really interesting pseudo-costumes (often known as "bounding", but that`s a lecture for another day)! Ros also managed to get us some priority seats for the stage show One Man`s Dream II: The Magic Lives On.
It`s your typical "characters on stage, with lots of dancer extras (most of whom are white, and that`s actually kind of really jarring)" thing, but it was really well done. Plus the fact that we managed to get tickets was kind of awesome, because priority seats are given out via a lottery system that I can`t really explain.
Thursday was my lazy day. I got to sleep in (thank god, because I didn`t really sleep on the overnight bus, and then going all day at Disneyland... I was exhausted!), and then just spend some time wandering around wherever I wanted. I`ll be honest: Tokyo doesn`t thrill me, as a whole. It was huge and exciting the first time I was there, six years ago, but since then it`s lost a lot of its awesome factor for me (I don`t think it helped that I went to Hong Kong). So I went and got my train ticket for Sunday, and then wandered (AKA got lost in) Tokyo Station City, had some lunch, and then headed over to Ueno Park with my book to sit in the sunshine for a couple hours. Turned out a couple of the park`s cherry blossom trees were blooming early, so I got to see those before I found a nice bench to park myself on.
In the evening, I headed into Yokohama for the first time ever to meet with Ros for supper. Yokohama has a really large Chinatown, and I`ve been craving Chinese food for months. That craving hasn`t entirely gone away, because I want the sugar, MSG-infested, highly Americanized Chinese food, and what they have there is, like, legit Chinese food, but they still had sweet and sour pork, so that was alright. Then we wandered around the harbour area so that I could see some of it, got brownie sundaes courtesy of the local Hard Rock Cafe, and called it a night.
Friday I got the chance to meet up with my friend Hitomi, who was one of my housemates for a while when I lived in Florida. We met up in Asakusa, where the Kinryu no Mai (Golden Dragon Dance) was happening at Senso-ji. This was actually a new experience for both of us, since being somewhat local means Hitomi doesn`t often do the big tourist things. This was also her first temple visit of the year, so we made sure she did the obligatory fortune telling and such as we watched the giant dragon-on-a-stick parade around and dance. It was really neat!
We stopped for lunch at a really famous ramen restaurant, and I was surprised at how much I liked it! I`m usually rather indifferent to ramen, but this stuff was really good! Then we took a stroll around Hibiya Park before heading to our reservation for afternoon tea at The Peninsula Tokyo. Hitomi had never done afternoon tea before; I`ve had it a few places, but The Peninsula Hong Kong was my favourite, so I knew the one in Tokyo would be high quality. I was right! The service was sakura (cherry blossom) themed (like everything else in Japan at the moment), but not overly so.
The savory plate had a poppy seed waffle cone filled with green pea butter (this was actually my favourite savory item), egg and shrimp salad on a sakura bun, smoked salmon and cream cheese in a wrap, and I honestly have no idea what the tiny triple-decker sandwich was, but it was pretty good. The scone plate featured both plain and strawberry scones, with dishes of Devonshire cream and raspberry-mint jam for spreading. I didn`t think I would like the jam much, but it was actually delicious! The dessert plate featured two kinds of cake (raspberry mousse and strawberry sakura, both of which were typical Japanese cakes), a strawberry tart, and a strawberry sakura madeleine that I probably could have eaten an entire pan of on my own. We ate at a leisurely pace, so we each ended up having a different kind of tea with each plate. I started out with the chocolate mint tea, moved to a rose hibiscus (which was much stronger and more hibiscus-y than I`d anticipated, unfortunately), and finished with some kind of vanilla tea that was really smooth.
Saturday involved getting up at the crack of stupid to head out to DisneySea (worth it, always). As soon as we were through the gates when the park opened, we waited in the half hour line for Fastpasses for Toy Story Midway Mania (which were for, like, 5:20-6:20 that night, and it was only 8:45AM!). It started spitting while we were waiting to get into the park, and it just kept going, often a bit harder, for most of the day. By the time we were out of the Fastpass line, we discovered that you can actually fit, like, four fully-grown humans under a standard umbrella when you`re not worried about silly things like personal space (welcome to Japan). We went back and forth across the park I don`t even know how many times that day, checking the times on various rides. Despite the fact that, at one point, the standby line for Toy Story was 4 hours long, all the popular rides were still at least an hour and a half wait, with most of them sitting around the two hour mark. After hitting up the Arabian Coast for our beloved Nap Ride (it`s not actually called that; that`s what we call it. It`s like `small world` but telling the story of Sinbad, and it`s very relaxing) and the carousel (which Aladdin was riding while we were waiting in line, and it was forty different kinds of exciting), we were able to get a Fastpass for something else, so we grabbed one for Tower of Terror and then went and stood in line for Journey to the Center of the Earth for two hours. It was relatively warm, and definitely dry, so we were happy to wait. Plus it`s not like we had much of a choice at that point. We had a nice lunch of barbecue pork sandwiches at the Cape Cod Cook-Off, by which point my jeans were soaked from ankle to knee and my shoes were sloshing with every step. It was gross and cold, but there was good food so I only complained a little. We grabbed a Fastpass for StormRider, which was the only thing I was adamant that we needed to do that day, because they`re closing it permanently and I`ll never get to ride it again, and then... I dunno, did some shopping? Whatever. Not important. We circled back to do all of our Fastpasses (once we returned to Toy Story, we still had to wait at least a half hour in line before we got on the ride), and then we had dinner reservations at Magellan's, which is one of the two fancy restaurants in the park. It was so good! It was a four course meal, with hors d'oeuvres, a soup or salad, a main course, and a dessert.
I would definitely go there again, but there are so many other places to try!
Sunday was my last day in Tokyo, with my train departing in the late afternoon, so I coerced Ros and Hitomi to come with me for lunch to the Kawaii Monster Cafe. I'd been wanting to go to this place for quite a while, because bright colours and cute things, so it was awesome to have willing company! The food was pretty good (though Ros's sandwich took forever to come to the table), the atmosphere is awesome, and there's entertainment, too! ...Ros and I ended up being part of the entertainment, which was unexpected, but a lot of fun. We're just standing there, watching the Merry-Go-Round stage like everyone else, and then one of the hosts comes over to us and reaches out her hands to us, and we're like, "O...kay?" So then we get pulled up onto the stage, and they're like, "We're going to dance together!" So we're taught this basic dance that's vaguely reminiscent of the Thriller hand motions, and we go round and round on the stage, doing this. I felt a bit ridiculous, especially since my outfit was a clear statement of "Yes, I'm out for lunch, but then I'm going to sit on a train for three hours," so I wasn't exactly at my best to be stared at by everyone in the restaurant like that.
And then we hung out around Harajuku and Shibuya until it was time for me to head off. End of vacation!
Almost literally nothing has happened to me since my last update (again, see my lack of work). But I guess I can tell you about my trip to Tokyo? I mean, most of it was focused on Disney again, because I`m me and I really don`t go to Tokyo for anything else, but I can still tell stories.
So I got into Tokyo at 6AM on March 16th, thanks to the glory (torture) that is the overnight bus, and made my way to Disneyland without incident, despite having to change trains at Tokyo Station (AKA Hell on Earth). I met up with Ros, and we stood in line for a little less than an hour, waiting to get into the park. We`ve never done actual restaurants at Disneyland before, so we`d decided that was something we wanted to do this trip. We headed over to the Crystal Palace and had a lovely breakfast wherein Ros was startled by five different Winnie the Pooh characters as they came around to our table from behind her. Did I laugh every time? Yes, yes I did. I`m such a caring friend.
When we finished breakfast, people were lining the streets for the first run of the event parade for Frozen Fantasy (the reason we were there - I still don`t love the movie as a whole, but it`s pretty, and Let it Go is a fun song to sing at the top of your lungs while flinging your arms about dramatically, which is something I already did so it justifies it). The park wasn`t terribly busy, though, being a Wednesday of a non-holiday week, so at half an hour before parade time we got bench seats right outside the restaurant. It was a big deal, and so luxurious-feeling! I held our spots while Ros went to get Fastpasses for Space Mountain.
We managed to get done everything we wanted to, but a lot of our day was just spent wandering around. We got a lot of Fastpasses, and other things didn`t have particularly long lines, so we just sort of strolled, ducking into shops and people-watching. There were some really interesting pseudo-costumes (often known as "bounding", but that`s a lecture for another day)! Ros also managed to get us some priority seats for the stage show One Man`s Dream II: The Magic Lives On.
It`s your typical "characters on stage, with lots of dancer extras (most of whom are white, and that`s actually kind of really jarring)" thing, but it was really well done. Plus the fact that we managed to get tickets was kind of awesome, because priority seats are given out via a lottery system that I can`t really explain.
Thursday was my lazy day. I got to sleep in (thank god, because I didn`t really sleep on the overnight bus, and then going all day at Disneyland... I was exhausted!), and then just spend some time wandering around wherever I wanted. I`ll be honest: Tokyo doesn`t thrill me, as a whole. It was huge and exciting the first time I was there, six years ago, but since then it`s lost a lot of its awesome factor for me (I don`t think it helped that I went to Hong Kong). So I went and got my train ticket for Sunday, and then wandered (AKA got lost in) Tokyo Station City, had some lunch, and then headed over to Ueno Park with my book to sit in the sunshine for a couple hours. Turned out a couple of the park`s cherry blossom trees were blooming early, so I got to see those before I found a nice bench to park myself on.
Friday I got the chance to meet up with my friend Hitomi, who was one of my housemates for a while when I lived in Florida. We met up in Asakusa, where the Kinryu no Mai (Golden Dragon Dance) was happening at Senso-ji. This was actually a new experience for both of us, since being somewhat local means Hitomi doesn`t often do the big tourist things. This was also her first temple visit of the year, so we made sure she did the obligatory fortune telling and such as we watched the giant dragon-on-a-stick parade around and dance. It was really neat!
We stopped for lunch at a really famous ramen restaurant, and I was surprised at how much I liked it! I`m usually rather indifferent to ramen, but this stuff was really good! Then we took a stroll around Hibiya Park before heading to our reservation for afternoon tea at The Peninsula Tokyo. Hitomi had never done afternoon tea before; I`ve had it a few places, but The Peninsula Hong Kong was my favourite, so I knew the one in Tokyo would be high quality. I was right! The service was sakura (cherry blossom) themed (like everything else in Japan at the moment), but not overly so.
Saturday involved getting up at the crack of stupid to head out to DisneySea (worth it, always). As soon as we were through the gates when the park opened, we waited in the half hour line for Fastpasses for Toy Story Midway Mania (which were for, like, 5:20-6:20 that night, and it was only 8:45AM!). It started spitting while we were waiting to get into the park, and it just kept going, often a bit harder, for most of the day. By the time we were out of the Fastpass line, we discovered that you can actually fit, like, four fully-grown humans under a standard umbrella when you`re not worried about silly things like personal space (welcome to Japan). We went back and forth across the park I don`t even know how many times that day, checking the times on various rides. Despite the fact that, at one point, the standby line for Toy Story was 4 hours long, all the popular rides were still at least an hour and a half wait, with most of them sitting around the two hour mark. After hitting up the Arabian Coast for our beloved Nap Ride (it`s not actually called that; that`s what we call it. It`s like `small world` but telling the story of Sinbad, and it`s very relaxing) and the carousel (which Aladdin was riding while we were waiting in line, and it was forty different kinds of exciting), we were able to get a Fastpass for something else, so we grabbed one for Tower of Terror and then went and stood in line for Journey to the Center of the Earth for two hours. It was relatively warm, and definitely dry, so we were happy to wait. Plus it`s not like we had much of a choice at that point. We had a nice lunch of barbecue pork sandwiches at the Cape Cod Cook-Off, by which point my jeans were soaked from ankle to knee and my shoes were sloshing with every step. It was gross and cold, but there was good food so I only complained a little. We grabbed a Fastpass for StormRider, which was the only thing I was adamant that we needed to do that day, because they`re closing it permanently and I`ll never get to ride it again, and then... I dunno, did some shopping? Whatever. Not important. We circled back to do all of our Fastpasses (once we returned to Toy Story, we still had to wait at least a half hour in line before we got on the ride), and then we had dinner reservations at Magellan's, which is one of the two fancy restaurants in the park. It was so good! It was a four course meal, with hors d'oeuvres, a soup or salad, a main course, and a dessert.
Sunday was my last day in Tokyo, with my train departing in the late afternoon, so I coerced Ros and Hitomi to come with me for lunch to the Kawaii Monster Cafe. I'd been wanting to go to this place for quite a while, because bright colours and cute things, so it was awesome to have willing company! The food was pretty good (though Ros's sandwich took forever to come to the table), the atmosphere is awesome, and there's entertainment, too! ...Ros and I ended up being part of the entertainment, which was unexpected, but a lot of fun. We're just standing there, watching the Merry-Go-Round stage like everyone else, and then one of the hosts comes over to us and reaches out her hands to us, and we're like, "O...kay?" So then we get pulled up onto the stage, and they're like, "We're going to dance together!" So we're taught this basic dance that's vaguely reminiscent of the Thriller hand motions, and we go round and round on the stage, doing this. I felt a bit ridiculous, especially since my outfit was a clear statement of "Yes, I'm out for lunch, but then I'm going to sit on a train for three hours," so I wasn't exactly at my best to be stared at by everyone in the restaurant like that.
Tuesday, March 8, 2016
Graduation
Well, our third year students graduated this past week. Graduations are fairly solemn affairs in Japan, and definitely formal. I had to wear my suit, which hasn`t seen the light of day since my first day here. I hate wearing suits. I violently dislike not having full range of motion. I wore my pants, though, because I woke up Tuesday morning and it looked like a snowglobe outside. I was displeased, and there was no way on this Earth I was wearing a skirt, even if that is what actually came with this blazer when I bought it. Anyway. Formal affair. The principal, who wears a regular suit every day, was wearing a tailcoat. TAILCOAT. Do you even know how ridiculously awesome that is?!?! Anyway, it wasn`t so terribly different from graduations back home. I`ll highlight some of the key differences:
1. It takes place during the day, rather than in the evening after school.
2. No gowns or caps. Students graduate in their school uniforms, with a corsage pinned to their blazer.
3. Instead of each student going across the stage, the students remain at their seats, standing up when their name is called. After all of the students have been named, the first student goes up and accepts some sort of group diploma on behalf of the class. (I honestly have no idea if they get individual certificates after the fact or not.)
Other than that, it`s just a lot of ceremony. There`s music and speeches and standing and bowing, and I didn`t really understand any of it. I stood when all the other teachers stood, and sat when they sat. Basically I was that person who never goes to church and just follows the cues from everyone else when they have to. Thankfully, because non-school people would be in attendance, they decided it would be a good idea to pull out the BIG portable heaters, because normally the gym is absolutely frigid in the winter. The only thing those walls keep out is the wind.
(I would also like to add that apparently most of the teachers around here hate suits as much as I do. Many of them brought a change of clothes for the rest of the day, especially the PE teachers and teachers who have athletic clubs.)
The graduating students from my English club brought in bouquets for Morita-sensei and I, which was unexpected and sweet and gave me warm fuzzies all over! What made it even better is that the arrangement contains my favourite flowers - Gerbera daisies!
I was also asked to sign one girl`s yearbook. But not a girl from English club. Or my third year class. I have no idea whatsoever who this kid was, but she was really excited about having something in English in her yearbook.
After that, things calmed down quite a bit. Until announcements are made about what assignments the teachers are being given for the coming year, we don`t know who I`m going to be working with, plus I`ve heard comments in passing that we`re getting updated versions of the textbooks, so I can`t plan anything. I`m going out of my mind with boredom. But next week I`m headed to Tokyo again, so that will be a nice break for me.
1. It takes place during the day, rather than in the evening after school.
2. No gowns or caps. Students graduate in their school uniforms, with a corsage pinned to their blazer.
3. Instead of each student going across the stage, the students remain at their seats, standing up when their name is called. After all of the students have been named, the first student goes up and accepts some sort of group diploma on behalf of the class. (I honestly have no idea if they get individual certificates after the fact or not.)
Other than that, it`s just a lot of ceremony. There`s music and speeches and standing and bowing, and I didn`t really understand any of it. I stood when all the other teachers stood, and sat when they sat. Basically I was that person who never goes to church and just follows the cues from everyone else when they have to. Thankfully, because non-school people would be in attendance, they decided it would be a good idea to pull out the BIG portable heaters, because normally the gym is absolutely frigid in the winter. The only thing those walls keep out is the wind.
(I would also like to add that apparently most of the teachers around here hate suits as much as I do. Many of them brought a change of clothes for the rest of the day, especially the PE teachers and teachers who have athletic clubs.)
The graduating students from my English club brought in bouquets for Morita-sensei and I, which was unexpected and sweet and gave me warm fuzzies all over! What made it even better is that the arrangement contains my favourite flowers - Gerbera daisies!
I was also asked to sign one girl`s yearbook. But not a girl from English club. Or my third year class. I have no idea whatsoever who this kid was, but she was really excited about having something in English in her yearbook.
After that, things calmed down quite a bit. Until announcements are made about what assignments the teachers are being given for the coming year, we don`t know who I`m going to be working with, plus I`ve heard comments in passing that we`re getting updated versions of the textbooks, so I can`t plan anything. I`m going out of my mind with boredom. But next week I`m headed to Tokyo again, so that will be a nice break for me.
Thursday, February 25, 2016
Tick Tick... Boom! (Most of You Don`t See What I Did There)
So, this past week there was a bomb threat against the Mie prefectural government. I don`t know a lot of the details, because I haven`t bothered to Google. The only reason I even know about it at all is that my school is governed by the Mie Board of Education, and is therefore a prefectural property, so the teachers had to search the school for strange objects/bombs. I got the short, translated version from my supervisor, after the news was delivered by the principal, but apparently the bomber stated that the bombs would go off on February 24th at 3:34PM. That`s a strangely specific time. And there are a LOT of prefectural buildings in Mie. It`s likely this has something to do with the Summit being held in Ise in May, so there`s a chance the threat isn`t even coming from someone Japanese. I suppose it`s rather callous of me to even think about it, and shows how incredibly desensitized we`ve become as a society to such threats of violence and terrorism (or maybe it`s just me), but all that`s really going on in my mind is, "What does a bomb threat from a Japanese person even look like? I mean, the Japanese people as a culture are very formal, polite people... It must be the politest, most apologetic bomb threat ever."
For those of you who are now panicked about my safety (Yes, you, Mother), I would like to remind you all that Japan is still probably one of the safest countries in the world, and that this is a very irregular occurence. Also, I survived York University. Which sits on the Jane-Finch corner. And Disney gets a good few bomb threats that the public never really hears about (for obvious reasons). I appreciate your concern, because it means you care about me, but I`m fine. Seriously.
Today was my last day of classes for this Japanese school year. I`ll miss my first and second period classes from Friday because they were awesome, but good riddance to my fifth period class! ...Okay, I`m kidding, they`re sweet kids, but seriously, they don`t talk. Even to each other. It`s terrifying. I`d say you could hear a pin drop, but you couldn`t because the room is carpeted and that`s why they won`t let us put a heater in the room, but that`s a whole separate issue... Anyway, I thought I`d share some of my last homework gems. I`ll be getting more next week, since I only assigned it to some classes today, but I have some of the earlier ones on my desk now. So this assignment was to complete a chart in their textbooks about World Heritage Sites. They had to choose a site to research and give its name, the date it was named a Site, its location, and two facts about it. Most of the students wrote about either Mt Fuji or Himeji Castle, one class wrote almost exclusively about the monuments of Old Nara, and then I got this one: Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Good for you, kid! Branching out! Googling! One of the fact points, though, is... I`m really not sure what`s happening here:
"Pope Benedict XVI came on November 7, 2010 and held mass and I poured holy water in a temple of Confucius and did sacring, and in Sagrada Familia, it was with Bali deer."
...
Yep, just let that sink in for a minute.
What does your mental image look like? Because mine has the pope standing beside a Japanese kid (who was obviously not actually there and they`re not using the right pronoun), pouring water into a shallow metal bowl at the altar of a temple while a bunch of deer stand on either side of the temple. And they`re anthropomorphic deer, so they`re standing on their hind legs. And wearing priest robes. And holding incense sticks.
But why are the deer Balinese? And what are Balinese deer doing in Barcelona? Is there even a type of deer specific to Bali? (I Googled it - there`s no such thing as a Balinese deer. However, West Bali National Park is home to Javan Rusa and Indian Muntjac deer, and the Javan Rusa is technically native to Java, Timor, and Bali.)
Unrelated to anything else, I would like to take a moment to express how grateful I am that Japan embraces the lesser-known and not-as-popular musicals that no one likes but me. I have a love of somewhat obscure musicals. Not all of them, obviously, because some of them are obscure for a reason (they sucked) and no one should ever perform them again. But some of them are fantastic! An ad showed up on my Facebook last night out of nowhere for a revival production of Jekyll & Hyde that`s going around Japan, and I basically freaked out like the strange fangirl that I am and sent the link to Ros so that she could read it all for me. She`s going to help me buy a ticket tonight. She also found me a Japanese production of the German musical Elisabeth that`s going to happen in the summer, and I`m so stupidly excited about that. I haven`t seen a Musical That No One Likes But Mel since the London touring company of Chess came to Toronto back in (I think?) 2011. (I`m 99% sure I was the only person in the balcony who was there on purpose, and not because it was part of the subscription and therefore already paid for.) Now I just need to convince someone that people would love to see Tanz der Vampire remounted, because there are few things as entertaining as hearing Total Eclipse of the Heart in German.
(A note for the people who don`t get it but want to: The title of this post, "Tick Tick...Boom!", is the name of a musical that no one performs by the same guy who wrote Rent. So it`s a reference to the bomb, as well as an obscure musical. Get it?)
For those of you who are now panicked about my safety (Yes, you, Mother), I would like to remind you all that Japan is still probably one of the safest countries in the world, and that this is a very irregular occurence. Also, I survived York University. Which sits on the Jane-Finch corner. And Disney gets a good few bomb threats that the public never really hears about (for obvious reasons). I appreciate your concern, because it means you care about me, but I`m fine. Seriously.
Today was my last day of classes for this Japanese school year. I`ll miss my first and second period classes from Friday because they were awesome, but good riddance to my fifth period class! ...Okay, I`m kidding, they`re sweet kids, but seriously, they don`t talk. Even to each other. It`s terrifying. I`d say you could hear a pin drop, but you couldn`t because the room is carpeted and that`s why they won`t let us put a heater in the room, but that`s a whole separate issue... Anyway, I thought I`d share some of my last homework gems. I`ll be getting more next week, since I only assigned it to some classes today, but I have some of the earlier ones on my desk now. So this assignment was to complete a chart in their textbooks about World Heritage Sites. They had to choose a site to research and give its name, the date it was named a Site, its location, and two facts about it. Most of the students wrote about either Mt Fuji or Himeji Castle, one class wrote almost exclusively about the monuments of Old Nara, and then I got this one: Sagrada Familia in Barcelona. Good for you, kid! Branching out! Googling! One of the fact points, though, is... I`m really not sure what`s happening here:
"Pope Benedict XVI came on November 7, 2010 and held mass and I poured holy water in a temple of Confucius and did sacring, and in Sagrada Familia, it was with Bali deer."
...
Yep, just let that sink in for a minute.
What does your mental image look like? Because mine has the pope standing beside a Japanese kid (who was obviously not actually there and they`re not using the right pronoun), pouring water into a shallow metal bowl at the altar of a temple while a bunch of deer stand on either side of the temple. And they`re anthropomorphic deer, so they`re standing on their hind legs. And wearing priest robes. And holding incense sticks.
But why are the deer Balinese? And what are Balinese deer doing in Barcelona? Is there even a type of deer specific to Bali? (I Googled it - there`s no such thing as a Balinese deer. However, West Bali National Park is home to Javan Rusa and Indian Muntjac deer, and the Javan Rusa is technically native to Java, Timor, and Bali.)
Unrelated to anything else, I would like to take a moment to express how grateful I am that Japan embraces the lesser-known and not-as-popular musicals that no one likes but me. I have a love of somewhat obscure musicals. Not all of them, obviously, because some of them are obscure for a reason (they sucked) and no one should ever perform them again. But some of them are fantastic! An ad showed up on my Facebook last night out of nowhere for a revival production of Jekyll & Hyde that`s going around Japan, and I basically freaked out like the strange fangirl that I am and sent the link to Ros so that she could read it all for me. She`s going to help me buy a ticket tonight. She also found me a Japanese production of the German musical Elisabeth that`s going to happen in the summer, and I`m so stupidly excited about that. I haven`t seen a Musical That No One Likes But Mel since the London touring company of Chess came to Toronto back in (I think?) 2011. (I`m 99% sure I was the only person in the balcony who was there on purpose, and not because it was part of the subscription and therefore already paid for.) Now I just need to convince someone that people would love to see Tanz der Vampire remounted, because there are few things as entertaining as hearing Total Eclipse of the Heart in German.
(A note for the people who don`t get it but want to: The title of this post, "Tick Tick...Boom!", is the name of a musical that no one performs by the same guy who wrote Rent. So it`s a reference to the bomb, as well as an obscure musical. Get it?)
Thursday, February 18, 2016
WTF, Sports School?
Hey guys. Still not much going on around here. The school year is winding down (Japanese school and fiscal years run April - March), so I`m teaching my last few classes this week and next week, and then I have pretty much zero work to do in March. I`m going to go out of my mind. I predict another "What`s Happening in Mel`s Head" post in your future.
I was talking with one of my first year teachers today as we were walking back from class, and she said that she was surprised that one of the boys in the class was participating. Apparently he was bullied at the beginning of the year by the older boys on the soccer team, so he is always really reserved (even for a Japanese kid). I am choosing to take some credit for his new confidence. My English classes are just so awesome and engaging that he can`t help wanting to participate! And he`s quite good at English, too. At least, his reading aloud is, which is what he usually volunteers for.
Oh, and I can also tell you about the school marathon, because that happened right after my last post. So every year at the end of January, my school has a race that all the students are required to participate in (first and second years - by this point, third years are pretty much exempt from everything). I use the term "marathon" here because that`s what the Japanese say, but it`s not a legit marathon. The Japanese use the term "marathon" as a title for any distance footrace, regardless of whether or not it`s 26 miles. In the case of my school, there are separate races for males and females. Normally, the girls` race is 6K and the boys run 8K; there was construction along the usual route for the boys though, so they ran 6.5K instead. I knew about the race in advance, and had even considered joining the students. Then I got the plague, and there was no way I was putting my lungs through that, so instead I joined my supervisor at her assigned post near the finish to cheer the students on. It was while I was chatting with her that I learned that not only are the students required (unless there`s a legit reason for them not to) to run this thing, they have to do it in a certain amount of time. If they don`t manage to complete it in time, they have to do it again. I don`t think they have to do it again the same day, but I didn`t really get clarification because my mind was too busy freaking out about this. What the heck, sports school?!?!? The girls have 50 minutes to complete the 6K. That`s a pace of 8:20 per kilometer. I can do that on a good day. With a lot of warm up. And if I`ve been keeping up with my training. It seems less insane now that I`m doing the math, but at the time, I thought it was cruel and unusual punishment (I still kinda think that anyway, but that`s because I`m normally about as athletic as a stick of butter).
But yeah, really not much going on. I have another trip to Tokyo planned for mid-March. There are events happening at Disneyland that I must experience! Extra characters! Limited merchandise! Decorations! Also, we`re going to the Kawaii Monster Cafe, because it looks like most of my dreams come true. Seriously. It`s ridiculously flashy, with bright colours and cute things... My childhood dreams met with Lisa Frank and then plastered themselves all over every inch of a restaurant.
I think I`m also going to make some cards for my graduating students. Not all of the third years, obviously, because I don`t know most of them. But my class of 20, plus Mayu (the English Club VP that Haruna and I confused with our excitability over anime with strange premises) and Tetsuro (the boy I had conversation lessons with on Friday). That should occupy me for a while, especially if I make them at school! ...Except our graduation is on March 1st, so really I have to have them done by next week... Rats! There goes my plan to keep myself busy during my dead month.
Heh. My supervisor is talking with the Japanese teacher who sits across from me about Disney. It`s funny. There are so many times I`ve caught conversations about Disney around the room, even on the opposite side. Like I`m conditioned to automatically start paying attention when that name is said in the same room as me.
I`ve also decided that Friday is Tea Day. When I had the plague, and Morita-sensei came back from her flu leave (seriously, it`s policy that you are not allowed to work if you have the flu, and you`re given five paid days to recuperate), I brought in some Organic Detox from David`s Tea. I`d talked about tea before, when I got here, and when I got care packages/gifts from home. But she never really understood the scope of Western tea-drinking. So when I brought that stuff in, she went on the website to check it out. I have never seen a woman so excited over everything before. Like, I think I was less crazy when Ros and I discovered the original David`s store in university. Everything was "so creative" or "so cute" (because she looked at the mugs and stuff as well)! And the idea of chocolate tea pretty much blew her mind. Last week I brought in Forever Nuts for her to try, since it`s my favourite and I now have a metric tonne of it thanks to Christmas. She was so startled by the colour! It took a bit to explain, though, that "herbal tea" to us means "hot flavoured drink made of dried things that are not tea leaves," and doesn`t always have healing properties or a purpose.
Morita: So this is herbal tea. What is it for?
Me: ...To...taste good?
Today was Yogi Berry. Less exciting than Forever Nuts, but still pretty good. And oolong is a flavour the Japanese are much more familiar with.
I was talking with one of my first year teachers today as we were walking back from class, and she said that she was surprised that one of the boys in the class was participating. Apparently he was bullied at the beginning of the year by the older boys on the soccer team, so he is always really reserved (even for a Japanese kid). I am choosing to take some credit for his new confidence. My English classes are just so awesome and engaging that he can`t help wanting to participate! And he`s quite good at English, too. At least, his reading aloud is, which is what he usually volunteers for.
Oh, and I can also tell you about the school marathon, because that happened right after my last post. So every year at the end of January, my school has a race that all the students are required to participate in (first and second years - by this point, third years are pretty much exempt from everything). I use the term "marathon" here because that`s what the Japanese say, but it`s not a legit marathon. The Japanese use the term "marathon" as a title for any distance footrace, regardless of whether or not it`s 26 miles. In the case of my school, there are separate races for males and females. Normally, the girls` race is 6K and the boys run 8K; there was construction along the usual route for the boys though, so they ran 6.5K instead. I knew about the race in advance, and had even considered joining the students. Then I got the plague, and there was no way I was putting my lungs through that, so instead I joined my supervisor at her assigned post near the finish to cheer the students on. It was while I was chatting with her that I learned that not only are the students required (unless there`s a legit reason for them not to) to run this thing, they have to do it in a certain amount of time. If they don`t manage to complete it in time, they have to do it again. I don`t think they have to do it again the same day, but I didn`t really get clarification because my mind was too busy freaking out about this. What the heck, sports school?!?!? The girls have 50 minutes to complete the 6K. That`s a pace of 8:20 per kilometer. I can do that on a good day. With a lot of warm up. And if I`ve been keeping up with my training. It seems less insane now that I`m doing the math, but at the time, I thought it was cruel and unusual punishment (I still kinda think that anyway, but that`s because I`m normally about as athletic as a stick of butter).
But yeah, really not much going on. I have another trip to Tokyo planned for mid-March. There are events happening at Disneyland that I must experience! Extra characters! Limited merchandise! Decorations! Also, we`re going to the Kawaii Monster Cafe, because it looks like most of my dreams come true. Seriously. It`s ridiculously flashy, with bright colours and cute things... My childhood dreams met with Lisa Frank and then plastered themselves all over every inch of a restaurant.
I think I`m also going to make some cards for my graduating students. Not all of the third years, obviously, because I don`t know most of them. But my class of 20, plus Mayu (the English Club VP that Haruna and I confused with our excitability over anime with strange premises) and Tetsuro (the boy I had conversation lessons with on Friday). That should occupy me for a while, especially if I make them at school! ...Except our graduation is on March 1st, so really I have to have them done by next week... Rats! There goes my plan to keep myself busy during my dead month.
Heh. My supervisor is talking with the Japanese teacher who sits across from me about Disney. It`s funny. There are so many times I`ve caught conversations about Disney around the room, even on the opposite side. Like I`m conditioned to automatically start paying attention when that name is said in the same room as me.
I`ve also decided that Friday is Tea Day. When I had the plague, and Morita-sensei came back from her flu leave (seriously, it`s policy that you are not allowed to work if you have the flu, and you`re given five paid days to recuperate), I brought in some Organic Detox from David`s Tea. I`d talked about tea before, when I got here, and when I got care packages/gifts from home. But she never really understood the scope of Western tea-drinking. So when I brought that stuff in, she went on the website to check it out. I have never seen a woman so excited over everything before. Like, I think I was less crazy when Ros and I discovered the original David`s store in university. Everything was "so creative" or "so cute" (because she looked at the mugs and stuff as well)! And the idea of chocolate tea pretty much blew her mind. Last week I brought in Forever Nuts for her to try, since it`s my favourite and I now have a metric tonne of it thanks to Christmas. She was so startled by the colour! It took a bit to explain, though, that "herbal tea" to us means "hot flavoured drink made of dried things that are not tea leaves," and doesn`t always have healing properties or a purpose.
Morita: So this is herbal tea. What is it for?
Me: ...To...taste good?
Today was Yogi Berry. Less exciting than Forever Nuts, but still pretty good. And oolong is a flavour the Japanese are much more familiar with.
Friday, February 5, 2016
Mostly Deer
Monday was my first day back to regular classes at my
high school. I was kind of dreading it, because I had this (completely
justified, I swear) fear that I`d forgotten everything about teaching
and I was going to screw up, or my lesson was horrible and wouldn`t work
with the students... This is why I just shouldn`t have breaks, ever.
Objectively, I knew I would be fine, but there was still that panic in
the forefront of my mind going, "You`re gonna crash and burn so bad."
I was fine. I asked for feedback from the teacher after my first lesson, and he was really enthusiastic about it. "I think it was much better than the lessons before!" Ouch, dude. Way to trample on my professional feelings. I know I have no idea what I`m doing, and I`ve been making this up as I go since I got here, but I didn`t think I was doing that badly. I mean, I`ve always thought my first year lessons sucked in comparison to my third year lessons, because I get to do the crazy stuff with my third years, but they don`t have that comparison to make. On their own, I thought my lessons last term were okay. Ah, well. Maybe this will teach them to actually communicate what they want with the ALT. (But probably not.)
With my crazy schedule this month, I`ll be teaching my Monday and Wednesday classes Part 2 of this lesson before my Thursday and Friday classes have gotten Part 1, so I`m all over the place with my lesson plans. Since I did a Canadian World Heritage Site lesson for Part 1, I`m thinking Part 2 will be a reading comprehension exercise. I`ll write a short travel journal entry, but out of order. The students will have to put the sentences in the correct order, and then practice reading it. Man, this is not an easy lesson to make materials for. I mean, the Sphinx?! Who, in their right mind, thinks something so far removed from their daily lives is a good lesson topic for students who have to be reminded that there`s an `h` in `where`? And then. THEN. We`re doing the comprehension quiz (true and false), and the first statement is, "The head of the Sphinx will fall off in a century if nothing is done." This is true, but none of the students know this because the word century is not in their vocabulary and wasn`t used anywhere in the passage. The passage they`re being tested on says "one hundred years." Ridiculous. I heard a rumour that we`re using different textbooks next year. I can only hope they`re more relevant than this. Except then I`ll have to remake all of my lessons so that I have relevant activities.
Monday night and Tuesday night were horrible. Out of nowhere, the weather decided to get super cold and ugly. The wind was blowing so hard that my windows rattled, and every little thing the wind picked up got flung against them, so I didn`t really get much sleep. At least Tuesday was a Junior High day at my special needs school, and that doesn`t really involve much thinking on my part, because the teacher there plans the lessons out so well. You`d think the Elementary lessons would be the easiest, but the teacher for those classes has less English, so it`s harder for me to figure out what she actually wants me to do. Wednesday morning I woke up to snow. SNOW. And it snowed pretty much all day, blasting around in ridiculously high winds. I was less than pleased.
Thursday and Friday were team-teaching conferences for JTEs and ALTs together. They were... interesting. And some were definitely more helpful than others. It was definitely fascinating to hear from other ALTs and JTEs about the activities and work they do in their classroom, and their students` skill levels. Many of my students are definitely below par.
On Saturday I went to see a mountain on fire! No, seriously. Mountain. On fire. On purpose. It`s called Yamayaki Matsuri, and it`s a festival that occurs every year on the fourth Saturday of January in Nara. This means I got to see the deer again! I haven`t been to Nara in about two and a half years, so I was definitely excited to be going. And I dragged my friend Mary with me, so I wasn`t babbling at the adorable baby deer by myself. It was COLD, though. Really cold. But we didn`t really care. We had an enjoyable, relaxing day. It`s about an hour and a half trip for me to Nara (Mary was already on the train, because it`s something like another forty minutes to an hour for her to get to me), so we sat on the nice, warm train and caught up, because we hadn`t seen each other pretty much since we met in August. I found the greatest train snacks EVER (Kinako Ritz Bits Sandwiches)!
Our chat somehow came
around to pizza (likely my fault), so we decided to search out pizza
once we got to Nara. Turns out there`s a Pizza Hut about a five minute
walk from the station! Huzzah! Once we got there, though,
we discovered it was strictly a take-out location, so we had to order
our pizza and then head back out into the cold to find a bench somewhere
to eat it. The problem: it`s not really a thing to just eat in public
in Japan, so things like park benches are really only found at bus
stops, and something like wide, sit-able planters are few and far
between. Finally we found a bench in the area outside another train
station, so we could stop and enjoy pizza-y goodness.
The street
leading up to the park and temple was peppered with festival food
stalls, and despite being utterly stuffed from our pizza, we just had
to get these chocolate-coated bananas. Because reasons.
After that we
strolled through the park, just chatting and bothering random deer. I
also heard the deer for the first time. So, for anyone back home, the
white-tailed deer that you see while camping or in your backyard sound a
lot like sheep. They bleat, okay? Not so much the Shika deer (which
is somewhat redundant. The Shika is the only kind of deer in Japan, so
the Japanese word for "deer" is "shika", but technically that
word still only applies to the specific type of deer...). The Shika
deer squeak. Not like short, high-pitched mouse squeak, though. This
is a long, drawn-out squeak like a dog`s squeaky toy being slowly
squeezed. Basically they sound like Wheezy from the Toy Story movies.
I was fine. I asked for feedback from the teacher after my first lesson, and he was really enthusiastic about it. "I think it was much better than the lessons before!" Ouch, dude. Way to trample on my professional feelings. I know I have no idea what I`m doing, and I`ve been making this up as I go since I got here, but I didn`t think I was doing that badly. I mean, I`ve always thought my first year lessons sucked in comparison to my third year lessons, because I get to do the crazy stuff with my third years, but they don`t have that comparison to make. On their own, I thought my lessons last term were okay. Ah, well. Maybe this will teach them to actually communicate what they want with the ALT. (But probably not.)
With my crazy schedule this month, I`ll be teaching my Monday and Wednesday classes Part 2 of this lesson before my Thursday and Friday classes have gotten Part 1, so I`m all over the place with my lesson plans. Since I did a Canadian World Heritage Site lesson for Part 1, I`m thinking Part 2 will be a reading comprehension exercise. I`ll write a short travel journal entry, but out of order. The students will have to put the sentences in the correct order, and then practice reading it. Man, this is not an easy lesson to make materials for. I mean, the Sphinx?! Who, in their right mind, thinks something so far removed from their daily lives is a good lesson topic for students who have to be reminded that there`s an `h` in `where`? And then. THEN. We`re doing the comprehension quiz (true and false), and the first statement is, "The head of the Sphinx will fall off in a century if nothing is done." This is true, but none of the students know this because the word century is not in their vocabulary and wasn`t used anywhere in the passage. The passage they`re being tested on says "one hundred years." Ridiculous. I heard a rumour that we`re using different textbooks next year. I can only hope they`re more relevant than this. Except then I`ll have to remake all of my lessons so that I have relevant activities.
Monday night and Tuesday night were horrible. Out of nowhere, the weather decided to get super cold and ugly. The wind was blowing so hard that my windows rattled, and every little thing the wind picked up got flung against them, so I didn`t really get much sleep. At least Tuesday was a Junior High day at my special needs school, and that doesn`t really involve much thinking on my part, because the teacher there plans the lessons out so well. You`d think the Elementary lessons would be the easiest, but the teacher for those classes has less English, so it`s harder for me to figure out what she actually wants me to do. Wednesday morning I woke up to snow. SNOW. And it snowed pretty much all day, blasting around in ridiculously high winds. I was less than pleased.
Thursday and Friday were team-teaching conferences for JTEs and ALTs together. They were... interesting. And some were definitely more helpful than others. It was definitely fascinating to hear from other ALTs and JTEs about the activities and work they do in their classroom, and their students` skill levels. Many of my students are definitely below par.
On Saturday I went to see a mountain on fire! No, seriously. Mountain. On fire. On purpose. It`s called Yamayaki Matsuri, and it`s a festival that occurs every year on the fourth Saturday of January in Nara. This means I got to see the deer again! I haven`t been to Nara in about two and a half years, so I was definitely excited to be going. And I dragged my friend Mary with me, so I wasn`t babbling at the adorable baby deer by myself. It was COLD, though. Really cold. But we didn`t really care. We had an enjoyable, relaxing day. It`s about an hour and a half trip for me to Nara (Mary was already on the train, because it`s something like another forty minutes to an hour for her to get to me), so we sat on the nice, warm train and caught up, because we hadn`t seen each other pretty much since we met in August. I found the greatest train snacks EVER (Kinako Ritz Bits Sandwiches)!
NOTE: This was posted two weeks after I wrote it, because I got, like, the plague. Nothing interesting has happened since then, though, so you haven't missed anything.
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