Pirates and Princesses Party

Saturday night we had a joint birthday party for Caitlin and Heke. The theme: Pirates and Princesses. It was our first party since everyone came back from break. Somehow I became the host of this party, and it was a crazy fun time, and a success, of the carnage Sunday morning was any indication. Does anyone know how to get beer out of tatami?

Spencer brought two of his friends from Chikusa, Sayaka and Hiroshi, both teachers at Chikusa High School, and both in their mid-twenties. They were both really fun, and I'm glad to be making friends with more and more Japanese people (especially young Japanese people).

Pirates and Princesses

Also, uploaded a few more pictures from Himeji.

Himeji

First Day of Classes

Today I taught my first class since the break. And why, God why? Guess who it was? 2B. The worst class in the history of organized education (well, perhaps the term "organized" is a bit of a misnomer...) Actually, it wasn't so bad today, either because they were better behaved, I had build them up a lot worse in my head over the break, or because I was expecting it and went in with appropriate expectations. Today it was my class, I planned everything and ran the class (only not really, the JTE and the judo coach were running interference the whole time). 

I decided this semester to put more effort into my work. This job can be really easy if you want it to be, you can just sit back and get by without doing much. I never wanted it to be that way, but last term I was really confused about my role and what I was supposed to be doing, so I kind of decided to hang back and just go with the flow, instead of following a course I chose. Now I know how things work here a little better, so hopefully I can direct my course a little more instead of letting it direct me.

Today I only had the one lesson, and the JTE asked me to prepare a lesson about Korea and New Year's in America. Normally for this kind of cultural thing I do a listening activity where I just read off a sheet, and the kids read along and sometimes fill in the blanks. I put pictures up on the board as I speak. I've always thought this was fairly boring, but I wasn't sure what else to do, and this somehow became the mode of doing things. This time, as part of my resolution to get involved in the actual grammar and such, I decided to find out where the kids were in the textbook and design an activity incorporating that and the Korea/New Year's stuff, which, really, is what I'm supposed to be doing. So I came up with this game where the kids are in teams and one person from each team comes up and they write the answers on the board. Each team has on the board a paper ball and post, and if they get the question right, the ball drops another notch. It's the Ball Drop game, and I thought it was quite clever. We managed to get through it, though not completely successfully, I had to cut some corners because we were short on time and the JTE had inserted a dreaded wordsearch into the middle of class, taking away 15 minutes. 

I spent 2 hours last night and all morning today working on this game, which I never did last term, and I'm hoping this will be a better term, where I'll actually be doing work and feeling like I'm accomplishing something.

My Car

By request, here are (finally) some pictures of my car. Enjoy!

Miriam-mobile

Himeji

Sunday I went to Himeji with Lara to hang out and do a little sightseeing, on the cheap since we're all broke after the vacation. We went to Himeji castle, climbed to the top and spent some time sitting in Starbucks reading. It should give you some sense of how very much we live in the countryside, that the nearest Starbucks is an hour away, and in Himeji it's known simply as "the Starbucks."

Himeji pictures

A Few Miscellaneous Posts

Michiko: Before break, I was over at Michiko's for dinner one night. I had just stopped by to drop off some Christmas cookies I had baked, and she invited me to stay for dinner. Gareth was there, and we cooked ramen on the stove in the living room. Michiko had suggested to Lara and Lana that we could watch a show called Winter Sonata as a fun thing to do for some Japanese practice. Actually, Winter Sonata is a Korean drama from a few years ago, that got HUGE in Japan. It's been dubbed into Japanese. It stars a really famous Korean actor named Bae Yong-Joon who is a megastar in Japan, particularly, I believe, among middle-aged housewives. Here, he's called "Yon-sama" ("sama" being an incredibly elevating honorific). We actually talked about this in my Japanese Civ class last year, that's how big this show is. Anyway, we watched the first two episodes, and it is melodramatic like you wouldn't believe. Two high schoolers have been best friends since they were children, he's in love with her but she doesn't know, then this new, brooding, handsome student comes to school. He's looking for his long-lost father who abandoned him. He thinks it's the girl's best friend's father. He and the girl fall in love, the friend is jealous, then, in a surprising twist, it turns out the new guy's father is probably the girl's father. Ew... He runs away leaving her heartbroken. Then he has a change of heart, is running back to her, when BAM! he gets hit by a truck and dies. Flash forward to 10 years later. The girl and her best friend are engaged, when back into their lives comes... guess who? It's the guy who died! Or is it? M-e-l-o-d-r-a-m-a. 

Student Journal: I was asked to correct an English journal kept over break by one of the third year students, TM. In one entry, he writes about his dream of being an interpreter and learning about many cultures. He says "Ms. Miriam speaks about four languages, and I think she is very cool." Yay! I'm cool :) I said during my self-intro at the beginning of the term that I spoke English, French, Italian and Japanese, but I may have neglected to mention I'm only fluent in one of those. I like when I'm asked to help out with things like this. The speech contest, editing students' writing, the English club, these are the times I get to know the students better. Just seeing them in class is useless for that. 

New Term, New Approach: I came into this job last term with no clue what I was getting into. I had a number of expectations, almost all of which were wrong, about what this job would be like. Now that I've done this for a full term, I have a better sense of what I'm getting into. I've set some goals for myself, such as being more assertive with lesson planning and communicating better with the other English teachers. I also know how things work here now--or rather, I know that any attempts to plan a schedule will be thwarted by the unpredictability of the school calendar, so I have to take it one week at a time, and make sure I'm proactive about seeking out the information I need, so I don't end up being surprised at the last minute as I always was last term. 

OMG: So I'm a little strapped for cash now that break is over (or rather, I've gone over budget and there's still over a week until pay day). So I was planning on not spending any money for the next 10 days--eating the rice and cereal I have in the house, for example, and not going anywhere this weekend. Well, back in November, my teachers had a drinking party. No one ever came to collect my money the next week at work, so finally I asked the English teachers about it. She said she'd find out how much I owed and let me know. We had another party before the break in December. Then I left for Korea. Well, today, finally, she comes to me: "Ok, for the two parties combined, you owe 16,569 yen"-- 170 dollars! Why, why, WHY this week of all weeks? 

Did you lose weight?: Today, the music teacher said to me "have you lost weight?" I really don't think I have, if anything I think I've gained weight since moving to Japan. I assume it's because I was wearing a suit, since today was the opening ceremony, and it's slimming. But there are two other possibilities: either I actually have lost weight (possibly from not eating for a week in Korea) or I've gained weight, and she was using the same reverse politeness Japanese people use when a foreigner opens their mouth and speaks terrible Japanese, and the Japanese person automatically blurts out "your Japanese is so good!" In the West we say "if you can't say something nice, don't say anything." In Japan, it seems the motto is "if you can't say something nice, say something nice."

Engrish: Added some more Engrish. Now with more Korean! Check it our here.

Winter Break: Tokyo

After I got back from Korea, I spent a few days recuperating and watching TV. Then on the 3rd I went to Tokyo to meet up with my friend Lee, who spent the break with some friends in Yokohama. It took longer than I had anticipated to get to Tokyo, and by the time I arrived on Saturday it was already dark. I couldn't find the hostel, so I had to take a cab (it turned out to be right around the corner, but it still cost me 8 dollars. In Seoul, the 20 minute cab ride from the city center to Lana's aunt's apartment cost less than that. Go figure.) I hung out for the evening with an Italian guy I met at the hostel who's name I think was Adriano. I remember when he said his name, I had a sense of a body of water, presumably the Adriatic, but then later I forgot his name, and I kept thinking of the Baltic Sea. But I think it was Adriano, because that makes more sense than Balto. 

On Sunday I spent the morning in Ueno park. I went to the art museum and a small shrine. Lee got into town around 1, and I went and met up with him near the hostel. We went to the Imperial Palace (you can't go inside, because it's actually the Emperor's residence, right there in the heart of Tokyo. Two days a year they open it to the public: Dec. 23, the Emperor's Birthday, and January 2nd. I missed it by one day.) After dark we went to Tokyo Tower, because the view of the city is supposed to be better at night. It was pretty impressive. After that, we went to Shinjuku, which is a cool area of the city, and tried to find a movie theater, but failed, so we went to an Irish pub (I know, very Japanese). 

Monday we went to Tokyo Disneyland! I'm on a quest to visit all four Disney parks. I've now been to three: Disney World in Florida, EuroDisney in Paris, and Tokyo Disney. Someday I'll make it to California. Tokyo Disney was a lot smaller than I had expected, but it was a lot of fun. I flagrantly disregarded the warnings about people with bad backs and motion sickness riding the roller coasters and went on Space Mountain and the Star Wars ride where it's like you're riding in a runaway spaceship. We did Pirates of the Caribbean (they've added the Johnny Depp character to the ride since the movies came out) and the Haunted Mansion, all the Disney staples. The weather was great considering it was January. It only got cold at night. 

Lee left to go back to Yokohama on Monday night, and I stayed intending to do a little more sightseeing on Tuesday morning before heading back home. But by the time I had checked out of the hostel and gotten to Tokyo station where I was going to check my bags while I went sightseeing, I was to hot and tired from lugging my stuff all over the subway system, that I just decided to got on a train and go home. Plus, I was re-reading the last Harry Potter book, and I put it down at the worst possible moment the night before, and I really wanted to finish it. I'll be back in Tokyo, probably more than once, so it's alright.

Tuesday night after I got back, we had a New Year's party with some people from out Calligraphy class (me, Lana, Lee, our teacher Fusako, and Yukako from the car dealer and her mother, Mrs. Miyawaki). We went to this restaurant called Maiwai, right around the corner from my house, which Fusako's son owns. It's also right under the calligraphy studio and in front of Fusako's house. I love living in a small town :) We had some great food, we played bingo, we chatted, it was a lot of fun. After dinner I drove Lee home, because he had just gotten back on the bus from Yokohama and his car was at his house in Ichinomiya. As I left his house,  backed out of the space and made a U-turn to get back on the road. It was about 11 pm and there are never any cars in Ichinomya, so it took me a moment to realize I was driving on the wrong side of the road! That's the first time I've done that since I started driving here. There are times when I get a little confused, but I've never actually turned into the wrong lane before. Luckily it was in Ichinomiya and there was no one around. 

Tokyo Pictures

Winter Break: Seoul

Over New Year's I had about 2 weeks off, so I went to Seoul for a week, and to Tokyo for a few days. 

I went to Seoul with my friend Lana, who's aunt lives there. We left on December 24th, around 9am, and took the bus to Osaka. We had bought a package train and ferry deal from Osaka to Seoul, which was cheaper than flying. From Osaka we took a train to Shimonoseki in southern Japan, and then took the overnight ferry to Korea, arriving in Pusan the next morning. Then we took a train to Seoul, and finally arrived after a day and a half of travel. 

It was freezing cold in Seoul. Somehow I didn't think about how much farther north it was than where we live in Japan, so I didn't pack any pants (just tights and leggings with sweater dresses and what not). Lana says she told me it would be really cold, but... it's debatable. We did a lot of shopping though, since things are so cheap in Korea. We saw two movies. Cost of a movie in Himeji (not even Tokyo, but Himeji, a pretty small city): 20 bucks (1800 yen). Cost of a movie in Seoul: 6 dollars. We saw Australia, the new Baz Luhrmann movie. I didn't really have any desire to see it, but it was actually really good. We also saw Twilight, another movie I had not desire to see (this is how cheap these movies were) but which I also enjoyed. 

Those of you who know me (which I guess is everyone, because I'm pretty sure my blog doesn't have much of a following beyond my family and friends) know I can sometimes be a slightly picky eater ;) I wasn't sure how I was going to do with Korean food. I realized I'd never actually had it before. The first few days we were there, Lana's aunt was preparing all these meals for us, and I didn't want to be rude, so I made a real effort to try everything. I can't honestly say I enjoyed it, but Lana's aunt was being so hospitable, I didn't want to hurt her feelings. 

We arrived on Christmas day, which was Thursday. From then until Saturday night I ate nothing but Korean food. Lana's aunt was accompanying us around the city, and she took us to a bunch of restaurants. Saturday night we went out for Chinese food. It was very different from American Chinese food, and I assume it was more authentic, seeing as we were much closer to China. I had been feeling kind of queasy all afternoon, a fact I attributed to an unpalatable lunch and a ride on the second deck of a double-decker city tour bus. The Chinese food didn't help matters (I'm getting nauseous just thinking about it). That night I got so sick. I was up half the night vomiting, and the next day I couldn't keep food down. I spent Sunday alternately sleeping, moaning and chewing on a bit of bagel Lana's aunt scrounged up (I think the first bread I had eaten since arriving in Korea-which is a big deal for someone like me, who's diet consists 99% of bread products). By Sunday night I was able to be vertical for more than a few seconds without feeling like I was going to pass out. But for the rest of the week I was unable to go near Korean food (or really any food). I mean, literally go near it. I couldn't look at the table when Lana's aunt put food out. For the next four days I lived on mini loaves of molasses bread and sweet butter from Outback Steakhouse (Lana wanted to go, and I was glad of an opportunity to eat Western food. However, my appetite hadn't really returned, and there was no simple pasta dish (they had all been Korean-ified) and so I ended up ordering fettucine alfredo, not what my stomach needed. I ate maybe a quarter of it. It was really good but my stomach wasn't very happy about it. But they gave us all these loaves of bread and butter to take home, so I subsisted on those for the rest of the week). 

Other than that, we did a little sightseeing. We went to two palaces and N. Seoul tower, which is up on a hill and has a great view of the city. Beneath the tower, there is a teddy bear museum

that had dioramas of Korean life throughout history. After that we spent another afternoon shopping. There is a big department store, something like nine stories tall, which is unlike anything I've ever seen. Each floor is dedicated to a different thing (women's clothes, men's clothes, accessories, shoes, home goods, food court, souvenirs, etc.) The layout is nothing like department stores back home. For one thing, everything is packed much more tightly into the space. It's not big and open like department stores back home. It's like carts in an outdoor flea market stacked practically on top of one another, but it's inside, and they are little stores, not carts. The aisles snake around like a maze. I got separated from Lana and her aunt a few times, which was a little frightening because I know zero Korean, and, I realized the first time this happened, I don't know her aunt's name, her address, or even what part of the city she lives in. And my cell phone didn't work over there. So pat on the back for me.

Shopping in Korea was a little bit of a blow to my ego. It's pretty hard to shop in Japan, because the women are so much smaller. I've never been, like, a size 2, but I'm not that big, so I've never really had a problem finding clothes that fit back home. But in Asia, it's like I'm morbidly obese. I wear a size 8 1/2 shoe, which I think would be about a 25 or 26 in Japanese sizes. The largest I can ever find is a 24, which feels like a 7. I haven't even tried to buy pants (which is how I ended up wearing leggings so often). and it's next to impossible to find shirts that can fit my shoulders (actually, that was a problem back home too). But in this store in Korea, it was worse. They only had smalls and mediums, if they had sizes at all. A lot of the clothes were simple "one size fits all," which I don't understand, because there are fat people in Korea (more than I've seen in Japan). The large sizes were in a special plus-size section in the basement. Ouch. 

So overall it was an up and down trip. I am glad I've seen Seoul. But I much prefer Japan. One thing I really hadn't counted on was how much culture shock I experienced in Korea. I guess I didn't think I would, because I've been living outside my own culture for a while now. But in hindsight, I think I experienced some pretty bad culture shock, and, in the second half of the trip, it manifested itself as the nausea I continued to feel even after the food-related sickness had ostensibly ended (or at least was a contributing factor to it).

So, Lana and I left Korea on the 31st, at around 8 in the morning, took the train to Pusan, the high-speed ferry to Hakata, and the train to Himeij, before barely making the last bus back to Yamasaki and arriving at 10:30 on New Year's Eve. We had planned on going to Osaka (our tickets were good that far) to celebrate New Year's there, but we were so tired from traveling, that we just went home. I ushered in 2009 by making macaroni and cheese and skyping with my parents. Not a particularly exciting New Year's. 

Here are the Korea pictures.