Spring Break

It's spring break, and with it has come an enormous sense of relief. School is so stressful for me here, I think because I am running blindly and not getting any feedback, so I constantly feel like I'm failing and not doing what I'm supposed to be doing. But now that it's break and I don't have to be doing anything particular, I feel so much more calm. The funk and depression I was in for most of March seems to have disappeared. I've been working full time, despite the break, because I don't have enough days off left to really go anywhere, and I decided to get a big jump on the new year by doing a lot of planning and preparation before the term starts. 

I've been kind of stumped as to what I ought to do with the second living room in my house, and so far I've just kept it closed off as a kind of empty storage room. But now that I've been here 8 months (woah...) I'm really sick of the set up in my house. I hate not having a table to sit and work at. The one decent sized table in the house is in the kitchen. Back when I moved in, I tried to bring it into the living room to use as a desk, but it was too big and I couldn't get it out of the kitchen. So it kind of became a counter top for me to pile all my crap on. I'd eat all my meals at the little table on the floor in the living room, I'd do all my school work (if I had any) at the table in the living room. But the problem is that the little table on the floor is so comfortable, and I can't focus sitting there. If I'm going to be doing something where I have to focus, like working, or writing, or studying Japanese, I have to be sitting at a real table in a real chair. So, I'm redecorating! I cleaned off my kitchen table and moved it so I can actually sit at it, and that's where I'm going to eat my meals. I also took down the hideous curtains that hung in the kitchen, and I'm going to get some nice new ones. While I was sick a few weeks ago, someone came to clean up my garden. There was a little bamboo grove of sorts at the back of my house, which partially obscured the view. But the person who cleaned the garden ripped out the bamboo. So now the back of the house is exposed to the view of the houses across the rice paddy. I've been trying to open the screens more, because one of the things I love about spring is throwing open the windows and letting the natural light in. My house is so traditional, it's anything but light and airy, which is a bummer. But I'm working on it.

I've been planning on redecorating for a while, but I'm finally getting it done. I went to the home goods store Nanba to buy a desk. I actually ordered one, but then Caitlin took me to this used goods store, and there were all these really nice desks and things for WAY cheaper, so I cancelled my order at Nanba and I'm going to go get a desk there. I bought a beautiful painting of a woman wearing a kimono, apparently its an original painting (by a local or what, I don't know) but it looks old, the way the picture was mounted was not modern looking, and the frame and everything is really weathered. I hung it over where the desk is going to go.

This used store (recycle store, its called) is AMAZING. Caitlin's been talking about it for ages, but I kind of got the wrong impression of it, and didn't realize how awesome it is. It's a huge warehouse-like place, piled to the ceiling with second hand stuff. There are tables, chairs, desks, lamps, dishes and glasses of every kind, jewelry, artwork, movies, CDs, pillows, exercise equipment, mirrors, wardrobes, so much stuff and I can't even think what else, but I'll put it this way: a child with an active imagination would have the time of their life in this store. 

This has been my spring break. I come to work at 8 (or a little after, since no one's really there and there's no morning staff meeting) and I'm only supposed to stay until noon, but I've been staying until usually 2 or 3, sometimes till 4 or 5, because I'm trying to get work done. Also I'm trying to build some good credit at school by putting in the time to show that I'm not one of those ALTs who just wants to jet off and get away from school. 

Anyway, I'll post pictures of the room as soon as it's finished. Which will hopefully be soon. Right now, I'm in that phase where you start cleaning and making improvements at home, but it gets way messier before it gets better. But I'm trying not to let it bug me. It's going to be so much better once I get everything in order. 

Japanese man is a double A-bomb survivor

I found this interesting story this morning. 

Japanese man is a double A-bomb survivor

Meet the man who survived Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Hitting the nail on the head

While doing some research into teaching Phonics online today, I found a page written by a former ALT who had some thoughts on the dichotomy between theory and practice in the Japanese English education system I've been trying to put my finger on in the past few months. He kind of hit the nail on the head, I think. This is what he had to say:

"The bureaucratic system that often regards ALTs as nothing more than window dressing in the fantasy world, which the Ministry of Education refers to as 'Japan's English education system.'

"[Japan has] a future generation whose government has the proper resources, yet constantly robs them of future opportunities and chances because they lack the knowledge to properly teach a foreign language or are too proud to rely on 'outsiders' to play a pivotal role in the education of their youth."

All of this does nothing except help me form a better understanding of why my job is so damn frustrating 95% of the time. At least I know it's not just me. 

Boys will be boys

It is refreshing to see that men are the same in every country. Right now Japan is competing in the World Baseball Classic, and everyone is following it. Today was the last day of school, and the students left at lunchtime, so now all the teachers are just hanging around with nothing much to do. So the men are glued to the TV in the corner of the staff room watching Japan vs. Korea. Every few minutes there is an eruption of sound from that side of the room. It's ironic, all last week and yesterday and today, I had nothing to do and was sitting at my desk trying to not fall asleep. Then, today my JTE gave me an assignment, and now I actually have something to do. And this is when the other teachers decide to watch a baseball game in the middle of the day (though to be fair, they're nowhere NEAR as obnoxious as American sports fans. And being form Boston, I know obnoxious sports fans).

My principal is really funny, he's like a little boy (always, actually, but especially while watching the game). Every time something good happens, he jumps up and turns to the rest of the room, like "did you see that? Did you see?" He's carrying a yardstick or something around and swinging it like a baseball bat. But he's doing it with the over-excited happiness of a five year old. It's really amusing. I like him, I'm sad he's going to be leaving. He and a few other teachers are being transfered. This is common in April, when the new year starts. The BOE redistributes teachers all over the district. Both of my JTEs are staying, though. While I think we need to improve our communication to work more effectively together, I really like them both. One of the teachers who is leaving, I just found out, is the music teacher, who I really like. She's retiring I think. Also one of the math teachers who I don't know so well, but who I like, is leaving. The PE teacher is leaving, but I don't know him at all, and he's kind of gruff and has no interest in talking to the ALT I think. 

Tomorrow is the first day of spring break, and I'm going to be spending the time planning my curriculum for next term. It's only a week and a half break, so it's actually the perfect amount of time for what I need to do. I think. I guess I'll see.

Road Trip to Fukuoka

A while back, we decided that we wanted to do a big trip this weekend, because it was a three day weekend, and it was Lara's birthday. We were going to go to Okinawa, but we couldn't get cheap tickets. So we decided to do a road trip to Fukuoka instead. Fukuoka is in Kyushu, and it's about a 7 hour drive south of here.

We rented a car and left on Thursday after work. We drove about two hours and stopped in a town in Okayama called Kurashiki. It's a very small city, but it has this one area with canals running through it, and cute little shops and things on either side, little bridges, vendors selling things, it was really cute. We spent the night and Friday morning there, then drove down to Fukuoka. We got in around dinner time. Saturday we saw some of the sights in Fukuoka. We went to a temple with a big statue of Buddha inside. Fukuoka is far enough south that the cherry blossoms were already starting to bloom. There was one big tree in front of the temple that was blooming, it was really pretty. Then we went to Ohori-koen, a big park. There is a big lake in the park, and the park kind of wraps around the lake. There were things like museums and gardens around the outside of the lake, and a stretch of land linked by bridges cutting across the middle of the lake. The weather was absolutely perfect. It was about 70 degrees, sunny, with a clear blue sky. We wandered around the park, went into one of the Japanese gardens, saw the remains of the castle walls where Fukuoka castle once was. Then we did a little shopping, and went back to the hotel for a little rest before dinner. For dinner we went to the Canal City area and had ramen from a vendor along the river. Fukuoka (or rather Hakata, which is part of Fukuoka) is famous for its ramen. While we were eating outside at this vendor, it started to rain. Most people left, but we stayed there, sitting at our table in the rain. The waiters brought us umbrellas. I think they thought we were crazy foreigners, sitting there eating ramen in the rain. We were determined to have the Hakata-ramen-from-a-vendor experience. 

Saturday night we went out to celebrate Lara's birthday. We went to a club that ended up being full of foreigners. It took us a while to find a place. Going out in Japan is not at all like going out in the US, or even Europe. Back home, you know you're going to get either a bar, a lounge, or a dance club (roughly). You see a building, with a door and a sign, and you know what it is. In Japanese cities, things are stacked on top of each other and every inch of the block is exploding with signs for places you can't even see. Most of these buildings have maybe 6 to 10 floors, say, and on each floor is a different business--a restaurant, a club, a bar, a hair salon, I don't even know. There is a huge sign sticking off the side of the building with the names and floors of the places inside. It's like a vertical strip mall. But there's a much wider variety of types of places you can go. There aren't just "bars." There are hostess bars, the male equivalent host bars, sex clubs, karaoke bars, karaoke boxes, dance clubs, one place we found was a virtual golf bar, where you could hang out, have drinks and snacks and play virtual golf, and I don't even know what else. Everything is just MORE. So it took us a while to find a place. But once we did we had fun. 

We got back late and slept in Sunday morning. Then we checked out of our hotel and went to get breakfast, did some last minute shopping and got on the road around 2pm. We drove straight back with only a few rest stops and breaks for meals, and got back to Yamasaki around 9:30.

Pictures from the Fukuoka Road Trip

Nara

About two weeks ago, Lara, Lana, Caitlin and I went to Nara for the weekend. Nara, like Kyoto, is a very historical city, and many of the old buildings still remain. We arrived early on Saturday morning and checked into our hotel. We decided to splurge a bit and stayed at a ryokan, a traditional Japanese style inn. This one was very small, on a little back street in the center or town. It had a beautiful Japanese garden in the middle, traditional rooms with futon, Japanese communal showers--the works. It was an interesting experience. It was fun and I'd do it again, but I do kind of prefer the privacy of a Western style hotel.

On Saturday we walked around a bit in the center of town and did a little shopping as we walked towards Nara Koen, a big park and the location of many of the sights. One of the things Nara is famous for is the deer that roam freely in this park. They are considered to be messengers from the gods, and are given the status of National Treasures. There are about 1200 of them wandering around (it's a big park), and you can buy deer crackers to feed them. We had a lot of fun feeding the deer (and running from them when they chased us looking for food). 

We went to Todai-ji, supposedly the biggest wooden building in the world, and home of the Daibutsu, a giant statue of Buddha. After that we wandered around the park, enjoying the weather and seeing a few other sights. We had a relaxed dinner at a little jazz bar we found (its name was Gentry. We thought that was pretty classy, until we realized they had meant it to be Gently. Whoops. Typical Engrish mistake).

Sunday we were planning on going to this one garden in the park, then traveling a bit outside of the city to visit another famous temple, but at that point I was starting to feel sick (the feeling which subsequently turned into pneumonia and a week home sick). We made it to the garden, which was pretty, but I was feeling really sick, so I decided to come back early. Caitlin's knee was hurting so she decided to leave too, and then Lana and Lara decided they might as well leave as well. So we came back early. But Nara is not that big, so I felt we got a nice little taste of it in the day and a half we were there. 

Pictures from Nara

With spring comes the return of traveling (I hope!). First stop: Osaka

A few weeks ago, I went to Osaka for about 24 hours. We went on a Friday after work, with the intention of going dancing, because we hadn't in a long time (there are no clubs in Yamasaki). Lara, Heke and I took the bus to Osaka, checked into our hotel and had a late dinner at a really cute izakaya near where we were staying. It was dimly lit and we were in our own little room at our table on the floor. It was warm and cozy and we ended up staying until they closed at midnight. Then we went dancing, and ended up staying out all night. I had planned on staying all day Saturday and coming back Sunday to Yamasaki, but I was so tired I was thinking I might just go home on Saturday morning. Heke did do that, but I rallied and stayed Saturday with Lara to do some sightseeing. I'm glad I did, because it was a gorgeous early spring day and I've been wanting to see Osaka (not that I really "saw" Osaka. It's a HUGE city with a lot to do there's no way to get in all in in one day). We went to Osaka castle (which is not as impressive as Himeji castle, since it's actually a replica of the original) but it was still cool. There were some beautiful views of the city from the top. We ate sakura (cherry blossom) flavored ice cream and wandered through the park. At the base of the castle there was a vast plum orchard and the blossoms were just starting to come out. Since the weather was so nice, many people had decided to picnic under the trees along the river beneath the castle. In the afternoon Lee joined us and we checked out a temple, then I caught the bus back to Yamasaki in the evening. 

Pictures from Osaka