Yay, teaching!

School has started once again! However, I spent the first two days of classes in the teachers' staffroom because the middle school students all had tests. That's kinda lame - tests are the last thing they do before winter break and the first thing they do when they get back. Ugh.

Anyhoo, I spent the first few days getting my sea legs back. I felt a little unsure of what to do and how to teach coming back to the new semester. But I'm happy to say that now I'm back! Last semester I was just getting the hang of teaching, but this semester I'm gonna be a pro! Those students will know so much English, they won't know what to do with it! OK, so maybe I exaggerate a little, but that's how I feel today. That's what 2 good days in a row can do for you. Make that 2.5, actually. Scratch that - it's been a good week! Here's a look at this week and why it makes me happy.

Wednesday, January 12. Not much teaching happened, though I did have some fun with the 8th graders during recess. Nozomi is an 8th grade girl who is very shy, but she's been brave enough to come to my Thursday evening conversation classes. Another teacher told me that she's felt unhappy lately, like she doesn't fit in or she's not good at anything (remember back to when you were 14 years old?). But she's been enjoying English class more recently, and during recess, she was a happy participant in the English conversation I struck up with some of the girls. The teacher commented that it was good to see her smiling and enjoying herself, and that comment really brightened my day. OH - one more thing!! I wore the full set of kendo gear at practice today for the first time! One step closer to being a kendo warrior!

Thursday, January 13. First day back at Yamanishi Elementary School. I was a little nervous, and felt a little underprepared, but the lessons worked fairly well. I taught "What do you want?" "I want ~" to the 5th graders and "Where are you from?" "I'm from ~" "Where is ~ from?" and "~ is from ~" to the 6th graders. The 6th graders also learned the names of countries, all of which have fantastically awesome gestures accompanying them. JaPAN! (punch the air) Ko-re-a (rub your cheeks) GERRRmany! (growl and flex your muscles). Then came my evening conversation class, or Eikaiwa Class. This is my Achilles' Heel of teaching. Controlling the kids for the first hour then raising the energy for the adults in the 2nd hour, both in such small informal groups, is very difficult for me. But today was a success! With the kids, we played a flashcard running game and memory. With the adults I played King's Cup, English Conversation Version, and that was also a great success. And time flew, and I was happy. Yay!
    I also bought new curtains. But they turned out to be too short (and they were the longest ones available in a pattern I liked). Damn. But, I took out the hem, and played with the hooks, so now they look fine. Yay!

Friday, January 14. A fairly normal day at school. In the evening, I spent the entire kendo practice in full gear! Practice was challenging, but I got a lot of compliments from the teachers afterward. There are almost more teachers than students in kendo, but there are usually no more than 3 or 4 teachers present at a time. Today there were 6 or 7, which is unusual, and one of them is actually a teacher at the middle school and that was the first time he saw me do kendo. Now we're officially double colleagues!

Saturday January 15th. A minor down point: I was supposed to go to the students' kendo tournament this morning, but everyone left at 7:55, rather than at 8:00 like I was told, so when I went outside at 8:00 exactly, everyone had left and forgotten me. Usually I ride with Masami chan, but she has been sick with the flu, so I guess everyone else just forgot. So I went back to sleep til 10, did some things around the house, then got ready for the Kendo New Year's party in the evening. The party was a ton of fun! Usually it's only adults at these dinner drinking parties, but this time all the kids were there, too, at their own table with slightly better-tasting food and drinks. I got to talk lots with the teachers I rarely spoke to, with the kids, with the moms. The adults were totally immature, while the kids played quietly on their Nintendo DSs. It was great! The kendo people are like my family. Conversations included, among other things: kids grabbing onto my legs, parents commenting on my different body type, japanese vs american culture, teenagers pretending to be too cool to talk to me, my new year's resolutions, my potential boyfriends (their suggestions, not mine), and discussions of general kendo techniques (several drinks in, one of the teachers did some hilarious impressions of the students' kendo quirks, to the vast amusement of everyone present). Definitely the best drinking party I've been to in Japan.

Sunday, January 16th. I did nothing. It was great.

Monday, January 17th. Middle school in the morning, but the students had tests, so I studied Japanese. Elementary school in the afternoon. Simon Says and "Head and Shoulders" with the 4th graders. Fairly normal day.

Tuesday, January 18th. TEACHING BREAKTHROUGH! At Kawahara Elementary School, I have a class of eleven 5th graders that are a really tough crowd. It's hard to get them really engaged. But today I did! They're a bit behind on their numbers, so I tried getting them to work on some math problems to warm up. They were intrigued, and started thinking really hard about their numbers, and after that I did a silly skit with the homeroom teacher, and they were much more energetic than they usually are, and really seemed to enjoy the class. A much better result than their usual State of Mild Confusion. The 6th graders were fun as usual, though a little unruly. 

Wednesday, January 19th. I introduced the 8th graders (middle school 2nd graders) to N'Sync's "Bye Bye Bye", which they really like. You can tell it's a hit when they're still trying to read and understand the lyrics on the second go around. There are a few boys I may even be able to convince to dance to it at the next school festival. Lunch time was great fun. The students I sat with asked me if I had a boyfriend. My response: "No. I have 10 boyfriends." This simultaneously conveys 1) it's not really your business and 2) let's turn this into something fun to talk about. I spoke so much English with these boys. I even had a Fake Boy/Girlfriend-Off with one of them. In English, he told me of his 3 significant others: his [male] friend sitting next to him (they do everything together, bowling, karaoke, soccer), 14-yr-old Stephanie from Nebraska, and 25-yr-old Jesse. Jesse has a young face, though. I should mention that this boy is very good at English, but usually acts like he's too cool for me. But today he stooped to my level. I laughed so much, it took me well into recess to finish my lunch. 

Thursday, January 20th. Minimal effort, maximum results. That best describes today's teaching efforts. I brought some play money for the 5th graders, had them cut out the set of fruit cards from their notebooks, put prices and practice shopping conversation, and then start buying things. I was amazed at how much English and how confidently they were speaking today. I taught them "Welcome!" and "Come in!" which they shouted freely. I taught them "It's on sale!" and "Do you have any change?" They'll probably forget it all by next week, but they were so good today! I told them as much, too. If nothing else, it's a great confidence boost for their ongoing English studies. 

    And my 6th graders were awesome as well. I have two classes of them at Yamanishi ES, and they have very different atmospheres, but both went pretty well. The first class is silly, thanks to the silly antics of a few hyper boys in the class. So we spent much of the class making faces at each other and doing silly voices. The other class is so well-behaved, they're almost boring. But both classes thoroughly enjoyed the writing game I played with them today. After practicing the new sentences ("Where do you live?" and "Where does ~ live?"), I had them practice their writing by spelling some country names. Then they raced. The row of students to finish writing down a country the fastest earned points based on how many students wrote it correctly. They ate it up! They wanted to play more, and by the time we finished, even the slow writers were finishing quickly and correctly. It was great! This really boosts my confidence in being able to make them strong writers in middle school. Then I ate lunch and jumped rope at recess with the silly 6th grade class. Then I found out that one of my best friends got into med school! Yay! And now I'm sitting here writing this blog instead of planning for my Eikaiwa (conversation) class, which starts in an hour. So I guess I should get going. 

Until next time!

Perspective

Today was a good day. There was no work because it was Coming of Age Day. Japanese people come of age at 20, and in Nishihara, there was a small ceremony held yesterday in honor of all those who turned 20 in the last year. It was a lot like a small reunion, with all the women dressed in beautiful kimonos and the men dressed in suits (a small number in traditional male kimonos, the name of which I do not recall). The board of education put on a small presentation of photos and memories from their middle and elementary school days. They said some other things that I didn't understand and a dude got on stage and did some strange chanting, which was referred to as the "Esasa" (he did, in fact, chant "EEE! SAA! SAA!" several times). Overall, it was an interesting experience.

But back to today. I got up late, walked Zuma, ate some breakfast (a bagel with cream cheese!! A rare treat for me!), and decided to get out of the house and do some shopping. Today turned out to be a FANTASTIC day for shopping! I found tons of things I liked at good prices. On top of that, one of the stores was having a 30-80% off sale (I'll mention that I could not tell which items were discounted what amount), and when I went to the counter expecting to pay about $40, the price was $9.

Yea. $9.

Needless to say, I was shocked. Those $9 bought me 3 shirts, 2 sweaters, a skirt, origami paper, and an oven mitt. The day was full of great finds. I think I may be addicted to shopping. It's becoming quite the weekend hobby...

And while I was out shopping, I made dinner plans with a fellow ALT. Jamiel is basically my mentor and pal in the gun (county, if you will). He's been in Japan 2.5 years now, and he was around for winter vacation, so I've hung out with him a bit since then. Today was filled with discussions, laments and jokes about life in Japan and life in general. It was great to talk to someone about how my life is going here and who can share some insight into the Japanese and their mysterious ways. He also let me know that he was generally very unhappy his first year here. Wow. Basically he felt unwelcome in the way his coworkers behaved toward him, and just didn't quite fit in. But to see him now, you'd think he was always happy here. I guess we all adjust, as well as learn to present our best side to people, which is not always what people want or need to see.

So here's something that I'm gradually understanding. In many ways, the first year in the JET program sucks. People feel lonely, helpless, angry toward their coworkers or other JETs. They have money problems, dating problems, bug problems, you name it, and for everyone, it can be overwhelming at times. And from the stories I've heard thus far, I have to admit that I'm settling in normally, even above average so far. I have my moments of loneliness, frustration, confusion. I've felt angry toward my boss (she seems more aloof these days, almost like she's angry at me, and I find this confusing). I've felt like nobody wants to be my friend and then like I don't want to be anybody's friend. Most of all, I've felt angry that everyone else is having such a great time, making new friends and settling in so well, while I feel so alone. But this feeling is normal, especially before you start listening to other people's horror stories. In the last month, I've felt such a boost of confidence from being around friends, from making new friends, from seeing the progress I've made in learning Japanese. I owe all of this to the fact that I am surrounded by wonderful people, who make the effort to reach out to me, when I've been too confused and embarrassed to take that step. So my hope now is that one day I can extend the same courtesy to someone who feels lost and confused and lonely and frustrated in this strange country, or wherever else I end up. It's too easy to feel alone in this world, even when we know it's not true.

Earthquake

Ok, first, you should know that it took me a whole day to realize that it was an earthquake. I was reading Kafka in the kitchen when the whole house shook one tme, like a really big animal bumped into my house. My reaction: what on earth could shake my house like that? I went outside, all was normal. I just shrugged and went back inside to get ready for dinner and that was that.

Funny. earthquakes are so far outside my realm of experience it didn't even occur to me as a possibility. Well, that's a first for me.

Adding to the list of firsts: moles! I don't have a garden, so they're not destroying anything, and my backyard wasn't exactly aesthetically pleasing to begin with. But they've gone EVERYWHERE in the yard. I can see where they burrowed into the cement step, got confused and had to come out of the ground. There are dirt piles all over the place. When I walk around, I can feel the ground sink in where they've tunneled, which is a lot of places. Among the possible solutions I've heard are a powder you sprinkle on the ground, and pouring hot cooking oil down their burrows. The latter sounds like a recipe for deep-fried mole. Mole Tempura. Yum!

Christmas Vacation Part 2 (I meant to have pictures, but I had a glitch. Next time, though!)

Who I Went With
 So when I left off, I mentioned that we spent a few days in Nishihara and Aso. I should also mention that by this time I discovered that I rather enjoyed spending time with Krista and Kyle. There's nothing like traveling to cement a friendship (or tear it apart, as I've heard some unhappy traveling companion stories as well). Krista is something of a quiet one at times, very sweet, a little quirky and amazingly reliable, able and willing to go places and try new things and follows through on her plans - which, I can tell you from having tried to plan things with many people, is a rare quality. She lives about 2 hours south of me, and we met at orientation back in August. She also did a lot of the driving on the trip, so I largely have her to thank for travel this vacation. Kyle is Krista's college friend, who has been stationed way up north in Aomori, the northernmost tip of Honshu (which is the main island of Japan), a stone's throw from Hokkaido. Kyle's the outgoing one, quick to make friends and loved by all who meet him. I think our immediate bonding points were 1) a keen interest in learning Japanese (Kyle is much more advanced and made an excellent teacher) and 2) an interest in observing and studying culture (which we both did in college).

What I Did with Zuma or How I Spent Christmas
I had no plans for Christmas eve, which I actually spent opening packages from family and reveling in various goodies and reminders of home. Christmas morning, I was invited to make pizza at the special care home next door. It turned out to be a small gathering of families and the workstaff. I met the mother of one of my students as well as an English professor who works in the city and was actually the keynote speaker at the midyear conference. The pizzas were quite yummy, and I got to do everything from mixing and molding my dough to cutting the finished pizza and taking it home. It turns out corn is a very popular pizza topping in Japan.

By this time I still had not found someone to take care of Zuma for the 3 nights I would be gone. So in mild desperation, I asked a couple of the kendo moms if they could take him. One of the moms, who I call "Masami chan" and with whom I've become rather close, called me to tell me that she couldn't take care of Zuma because her daughter has dog allergies, but she could call another kendo mom to see if she could take care of him. Ok. So she hung up on me, called the other mom, called me back and said she was coming to my house to get us and drop us off at Komeda san's house. What?! So I quickly gathered Zuma's leash, bowls, food, and blankets and a minute later Masami was there, ready to whisk us away into the night (it was 6:30 pm but quite dark). A light snow was starting to fall, and we sort of managed to find Komeda san's house. Really, Masami chan called Komeda san, who came out of her house to come get Zuma, in what seemed like a midnight ransom exchange in the middle of the street.

Masami and I laughed and laughed in the car on the way back. Masami chan doesn't speak English, though she's trying to learn a bit. So you can probably guess that the whole exchange pretty much took place in Japanese, and that I didn't understand about half of the events until after they had happened. So the fact that we had pulled this off at all was amazing, and we both felt like very successful fools. I thanked her profusely all the way home (about 3 minutes), and she left before it occurred to me to ask how to get Zuma back, since I didn't have Komeda san's phone number. So I ended up making a surprise phone call when I got back, but more on that later.

Right after that, I went to a Christmas party. Jamiel is a 3rd-year ALT (assistant language teacher) who lives about an hour from me. He was spending Christmas here, too, so he invited me to a Christmas party at a diner that serves American food and often has live music. There I met a few of his Japanese friends, and we hung out, even danced to music played by 40-smthg Japanese men with greased hair and leather jackets and pants. It was in interesting night.

Back from Takachiho
 So my last entry talks about the days Kyle, Krista and I spent in Takachiho. When we got back, I called Masami chan, who was coming back from a doctor's appointment with her kids, so stopped to get me on the way back. Her 3 kids were in the car, being goofballs (the boys) or quiet and sweet (the girl). Rest assured, Masami chan will get her own blog entry very soon. We picked up Zuma, who had become good friends with Komeda san's 12 year old boy, Takafumi. On the way home, I offered some dog food to the kids. There weren't any takers.

Jamiel was hosting a movie night that same evening, so we decided to hit up Mt. Aso for a couple hours then head to his place on the way back. Mt. Aso turned out to be freezing cold, though quite beautiful with the snow, and was closing by 4:30, shortly after we got there. So it was nice to see the mountain, but there wasn't much to do in the freezing cold. So we ended up at Jamiel's place a little early. Six people total showed up and we gathered around a very small kotatsu (heated table) cooking meat in a small grilling pot thing. We watched Scott Pilgrim vs. the World, which proved to be very silly and I thought surprisingly clever, even though I didn't understand half of the video game references, at least. We stayed up a long time talking about, well, everything. Religion, the environment, politics, Conan the Destroyer, and other important issues of the day.

Next day we slept til 12. Big surprise. The plan was to hit up Kurokawa onsen town, but it was snowing and raining alternately, not a day to be strolling through quaint streets, so we called up Jamiel and headed to a closer onsen and ate a nice dinner afterward. I'll write about onsen soon, since those are very much a part of the Japanese experience and deserve their own entry.

The next day, we headed to Fukuoka!

To Fukuoka and Back
 On our way to Fukuoka, we added a new member to our group. We ran into Jamiel's friend Yuusuke (pronounced "you skay") at the restaurant the night before. It turned out he needed a ride to Fukuoka where he was meeting his family for New Year's, so he got my number from Jamiel, and we drove to Aso to pick him up. On the drive, we got to know Yuusuke and helped add to his extensive knowledge of English swear words and phrases. I think WTF was the phrase of the evening. It was New Year's Eve, so once we got settled into our hotel, we invited Yuusuke to have dinner and drinks with us. We had a great time, but Yuusuke unfortunately had to leave before midnight, because his parents were sleepy and called him home.

So the three of us continued our revelry until 5 am further cementing the bonds of friendship, slept late the next day and spent a liesurely January 1st walking through Fukuoka and doing a bit of shopping. I finally ate conveyor belt sushi for the first time, which is a really chill and fast way to eat sushi, though not necessarily cheap since 2 pieces of sushi cost $1-5. But it's all-you-can-drink green tea for free :D

The next morning, Kyle caught the bullet train back to Aomori. Krista and I stopped to Costco to search for American food we could take back. I believe oatmeal and cheese and baked goods formed the bulk of our purchase. As great as it is to have a Costco here, it's still missing a lot of things from back home. And they sell a number of strange Japanese foods in bulk. So it was reassuring and unnerving at the same time.

Reflections
 This certainly was an unexpectedly pleasant winter vacation. What was especially nice about it was that I didn't spend it alone, and I had great company. I didn't know what to expect. It was my first time away from family at this time of year. The first time in over 8 years maybe that I haven't flown somewhere for Christmas. So Christmas Eve I felt very alone, no one to celebrate with. In Guatemala, Christmas Eve is the Christmas celebration, so that was very hard for me. The one or two people I wanted to call I either didn't have a phone number for or I couldn't bring myself to explain to them: I don't want to be alone today - please just let me come to your house and play with your children. I definitely don't know how to convey that in Japanese.

But I made it, and spent every day after that in good company. Talking with other ALTs made me think about how far I've come in such a short time. I watched Anna and the King the other night, and saw it in a whole different light. This time I know what Anna was going through (sort of), being so obviously foreign, unsure what to do, teaching students who don't speak your language. Making your way through strange customs, and struggling to keep your own. I've often thought this experience will somehow separate me from so many of my friends, because this experience is so far from their own. But on the other hand, it brings me closer to Mamá, who went through some of the same experiences when she came to the U.S.

Being here has changed me. I can feel it, but right now it seems more like a plainly visible tattoo - an unmistakeable plot change in the story of my life, though I don't feel different on the inside. I don't feel the urge to find a career in Japan, and I don't see myself becoming a Japan-o-phile. I don't get sudden urges to bow all the time and my taste in men hasn't changed. I still love limes and eat way too much chocolate. I haven't disguised myself as a vending machine or dated a pillow. My attitude toward Japan has changed only insofar as I know more about it, which I guess is pretty significant. I've decided that I couldn't live here the rest of my life. It's too far removed from many of the things I value most in life. But the experience of being here has been and continues to be intellectually and socially challenging, and has opened my eyes in ways I never expected.

And as I reflect on where I've been, I also wonder where I'm going. In the short term, I want to plan my lessons a little more in advance, bring in more props, challenge the students to use more English, inside and outside the classroom. In the long term, well, I can only hope that my future career is as stimulating as my current job, and that I continue to be surrounded by and in touch with the wonderful people who fill my life.

Happy New Year!
Feliz año nuevo!
明けまして　おめでとう　ございます！！