Jessica In Japan

To Quote Dorothy..."There's no place like home"

2006-04-01T23:08:00.000-08:00

Well, I'm back. I've been back for roughly two days now, and to be honest it feels quite like I never went away. Everything is pretty much the same. I guess time flew by, so it seems like I just havent seen everyone for a few weeks or so.

My flight home was fine. It only took 10 hours, instead of 11. I was on one of the airbuses, so i had my own small tv screen attached to the back of the seat in front of me and a remote to control it. I was able to choose what TV/movies/music/games i wanted and could pause, rewind, fast forward as much as i wanted. It was actually really good entertainment. I also managed to get about 3 hours sleep, which helped but I was still really tired once I got off the plane.

My adventures in Tomioka are over for the moment. The only thing left for me to do now, is to attempt to unpack....that will be an adventure in itself!

At The Airport

2006-03-29T14:08:00.000-08:00

I'm at the airport now. I got myself some wireless internet access to keep my busy for my 5 hour wait. The trip here was good - felt a little faster than usual, even though we were 2 minutes late getting to Ueno. The airport train was pretty empty. I've been here about an hour so far. My suitcase is being stored at the baggage storage area, and i had some seafood curry. I'll probably go shopping in a bit, depends on how long my laptop battery can last.

Last night I went to Kookai for the last time. It was nice Got to have my favourites for the last time, and also say bye to the kookai staff. They gave me a letter and a discount! Gotta love that. After I came home, I finished packing the final things and tidied up a little then hit the sack. This morning Yumi came to get me at 8.15am. We had a bit of a mission getting my suitcase down the stairs but we managed to do it and not get hurt. Then we went to the station and Mr Arai met us there. He helped us carry my luggage up and over the tracks and also onto the suepr hitachi. It was nice to have the help!

Last Day in Tomioka

2006-03-28T13:46:00.000-08:00

My internet is getting cut off this evening so I wont be able to undate this again until I get home on Thursday. Everything is pretty much done now. Just have a few things left to pack tomorrow morning (tooth brush, pjs etc). I went to lunch with the first year teachers (Yamataka, Fujiwara, Sakai, Sakurai and Yashima) for the last time. It was nice. I got along really well with them and they always included me so it was nice to be able to see them once more before i leave. Tonight I'm planning on going to Kookai for the last time. I will be taking the 8.45am Super Hitachi from Tomioka tomorrow morning to Ueno, where I will then switch to the Skyliner which will take me all the way to the airport. I will end up having to spend a few hours at the airport because my flight isnt until 6.15pm, but i think that will be ok. Narita isn't a bad airport to have to kill time at. Then I'll be back home around 8am Thursday morning.

Monday

2006-03-28T01:08:00.000-08:00

Today I managed to get a lot done. My suitcase is all packed. I sent two boxes to NZ, and I did most of the cleaning. I just have to vacuum and then I'm done. Phew. The place is looking kinda bare again. It's actually kinda nice with less clutter, but it's loosing it's "home" feeling very quickly.

I met Masato today. He helped me carry my box to the post office, then we went and hung out at Macdonalds for a while, because I wanted to "pay" him for helping me and also he wanted to hang out a little more. While we were there, he gave me a present. It's a small dog with an aroma pack and a gel hot/cold pad inside. You use it cold for your eyes and hot for your muscles. It's really cute. He also got me a cute little duck soap dispensor. He said that he thought it was really cute, which is why he got it. I like it when I get things I can actually use!

After that, I came home for a short while and found a homemade DVD in my letterbox. It was from Kubota-sensei (english teacher at JHS #2). He had made a DVD from a lesson with Shota, who was the special boy there. He graduated in March this year. Anyway the DVD is really funny - it shows Shota acting out the symptoms of carbon monoxide poisoning. He was really fixated with that during the last few months before graduation.

This evening I went to Yumi's house for dinner. We had a lot of food - prawns, salad, potato salad, sushi, udon, fruit. It was nice to have a homecooked meal. After that I came back home and relaxed.

Packing Ain't Fun.

2006-03-26T23:52:00.000-08:00

Today was mostly spent packing. I managed to get most things done so I am almost ready to leave. I have a few things left to pack and need to give the place a quick vacuum, but apart from that everything is finally on track.

I went to lunch with a couple of my adult students today. We went to Atom Boy, which is a kaitenzushi. One of the students gave me a CD with photos from the other night's farewell party. Some of them are funny, especially the one where one of them is passed out!

After that I came back home, and did a bit more packing and cleaning. Then Anna came and picked me up and we went to dinner with Christine and Jeff, Anna's replacement from Hawaii. We had soba and tempura at a restaurant in Naraha, and then headed to Namie's AA Family Restaurant for dessert. After that we dropped Christine off at her place and Jeff off at his host family's house. We then headed back here with Anna's scales in tow and I am happy to say that my suitcase weighs 20kgs exactly. I have a few pieces of clothing to add in, so I should be just about right for Wednesday. Phew!

Sushi

2006-03-25T10:03:00.000-08:00

Today I had no day time plans with anyone, so I was able to have a bit of a sleep in. I managed to get some cleaning and packing done, although I'm far from being finished. I do think that I will be able to have Tuesday to relax though, before I have to make my way to the airport.

This evening, I went to dinner with Yosimi and her mum. We went to a kaitenzushi restaurant. It's one of those restaurants where the sushi is placed on a conveyer belt thing and you just take what you want. It was delicious. Apparently, the place we went to is sorta famous and has been featured on TV before. It was really busy too. Yoshimi's mum gave me a present today. I got a small bag made from an obi (kimono sashbelt), a scarf/wall hanging with a geisha on it and this really cool mug. It's all ultra light cos they know that there is a weight restriction. I like it when people are considerate like that.

I forgot to mention yesterday that Mari-sensei gave me a present too. It's a scarf/wall hanging with cherry blossoms on it and some really nice origami paper.

送別会 (Farewell Party)

2006-03-24T21:24:00.000-08:00

The farewell/end-of-year party at JHS #2 was fun, and kinda interesting too. I can say that I have not been to a "party" like this before. We were given a programme and inside was a cartoon picture of each of the leaving teachers and a message. (see photo)

It started at 5.30pm, and was held at Sunrise Inn in Tomioka. Konno-sensei and I arrived and i was sent to sit with the other teachers who are leaving. Once everyone arrived, us leaving teachers then were allowed to enter the dinning room, while everyone was clapping. The dinner was then, of course, opened with a short opening speech (it truly is just someone saying, we will now start the party), followed by a short speech by Sachie-sensei, who is the head of the social club. After that, the principal made a speech and said a few words about each of the leaving teachers. Then we had to say something back and then we were given a present. The other 4 teachers got flowers, but i got a japanese doll thing. After that we were able to start eating and drinking. We had a lot of food again - curry, noodles, salad, sashimi, squid, fruit, vegetables, fries. I talked alot with Konno-sensei and Enei-sensei, but also managed to chat with a few other teachers, some for the first time! After dinner, we had a cheer done for each of us. It was lead by a teacher that had something to do with you. My teacher was Enei-sensei and it was really funny. I laughed all through it but I think that it's supposed to be serious cos the others just stood there but that is ok. After that we sang the school song, then the teachers made an arch tunnel with their hands and we walked through it. After that it was hometime. It was a lot better than what I thought it was going to be like, and because it started early, it finished early so i can finally have an early night!

Food, Food and More Food!

2006-03-24T15:43:00.000-08:00

Wednesday night was supposed to be my free night, but of course given the circumstances, I ended up going to dinner with Katie, Rebecca and Skye at Kookai. Anna was there too, but she was with Rie so she sat at a different table. It was fun, and I was glad that I got to say bye to them. They gave me a card that they'd all signed and also shouted me dinner, so that was nice.

Last night was dinner with the english teachers, and Noriko, at an Italian restaurant in Hirono (two towns down from here). We had freshly baked bread, corn soup, seafood salad, steak and veges(i had the veges), seafood pasta and tiramisu cake and tea/coffe for dessert. It was delicious, but so much food. We were also given bread that was left from the day to take home as we stayed at the restaurant until it closed. We had a lot of fun, laughing and talking. Enei-sensei gave me a CD he had made with different Japanese songs on, and a booklet with all the words in. He said it's to help me with my Japanese study, but I think it's really because he knows I like music and I gave him and some of the other teachers thank you gifts.

Tonight is the end-of-year dinner party for JHS #2. 4 other teachers are leaving so it's kind of like a farewell party too, apparently. We'll see how that goes anyway.

A Taste of China, A Little Karaoke and a Big Castle

2006-03-22T17:45:00.000-08:00

School on Monday went as usual. I had a few classes for the last time, so we had goodbye/thank you speech time at the end of those classes. Konno-sensei gave me a present, which was two hand made ceramic glasses. They're actually very cool.

Monday night was dinner with my adult english students. We had dinner at New China - a chinese restaurant in Okuma, the next town up from here. We stayed there eating and drinking and chatting (in Japanese of course) for about 3 hours, then we headed over to the Karaoke place. We ended up staying here for 3.5 hours. (Which was a pretty long time, but my record time is 4 hours with Amanda and her family in Yokohama last year in May.) They gave me a japanese lunch box, which has cherry blossoms all over it and a matching carry bag. I finally got in at 2.30am, only to wake up 5 hours later to go to Aizu-wakamatsu with Noriko!

It took about 2 hours for us to get to Aizu. On the way, it started snowing, so it was a little bit scary being in the car. We finally arrived at Aizu Tsuruga-jo Castle and strolled through the park (in the snow!) and up to the castle. It was really amazing, I think that the snow made it more spectacular. We went inside, and checked out the 5 levels. It has been made into a museum, with artifacts from the Edo period. The top level is open and has a deck around the outside so you can look at the view. It was really cold and a little scary standing up there with the snow falling around. Because it was snowing so hard, we decided to head home. The trip home took around 3 hours, which wasn't too bad going, considering the weather.

Dinner at the Arai House

2006-03-19T22:58:00.000-08:00

Mr Arai is the head of the board of eduation in tomioka. I don't often see him, so when I was invited to his house for dinner, it was hard for me to refuse. His wife picked me up with their son, Riku, who is one of my students, at 5.30pm today. We then went to their house and hung out until Mr Arai came home from another engagment. While we waited for him, Riku and I played computer games and card games. Mr Arai finally rolled in at 6.50pm and we sat down to eat dinner. Mrs Arai had made sashimi, chicken, lettuce salad and tofu salad. She also made Riku and I a huge bowl of udon noodles too. For dessert we had yoghurt that was flavoured with homemade strawberry jam. It was delicious. After dinner, we had hot drinks and chatted around the kotatsu. Riku is studying english at the moment at a private school but he seems to be having a few problems remembering words and phrasing so they were asking me how I remembered Japanese. During this talk, I discovered that the reason Riku is learning english isn't because he wants to, it's because Mr Arai is making him. That's the problem right there, if you ask me. I think that if you aren't interested in what you are doing, then you don't really improve much. At the end of the night, Mr Arai gave me a small screen with cherry blossoms painted on it, and Mrs Arai gave me some hand towels with japanese written on them.

Dinner at Kookai

2006-03-19T13:31:00.000-08:00

Last night I had dinner at Kookai with a few of my friends. We had a great time, laughing and eating fantastic food (as to be expected). I got some presents as well. Noriko gave me a photo frame, Tomoko gave me a bag filled with chocolates and Alanai gave me a book. The biggest surprise though was that the Kookai staff gave me presents too! Mama gave me a small make-up pouch, Takeshi gave me a mug set and Tomo gave me a necklace. It was very unexpected. After dinner, we went to Karaoke for 2 hours. It was a lot of fun. Tonight I'm going to Mr Arai's house for dinner, so we weill see how that goes.

Schedule Update

2006-03-17T22:28:00.000-08:00

The really busy part has just started but I'm already tired! I think just thinking about it has made me this way! My schedule of events has increased too.

17th March JHS #2 Ladies Dinner
18th March Farewell dinner with friends
19th March Dinner with Mr Arai and family
20th March Sayonara dinner with adult english class
21st March Hanging out with Noriko
23rd March Dinner with English teachers at JHS #2
24th March JHS #2 End-Of-Year dinner
25th March Dinner with Yoshimi and her family
27th March Dinner with Yumi and her family

I found these cherry blossom's flowering on my way home from school this week. Lovely, aren't they?

Free Lunch and A Dinner Party

2006-03-17T10:13:00.000-08:00

Since graduation, the 3rd year students have no longer been at school. It has been really quiet too. It's kinda strange to walk past the 3rd year students classrooms because they are still set up the same way for when the students were there, but they dont have the same feeling. Anwyay, because they arent coming to school, school lunch has been stopped and everyone is bringing their lunch from home. The teachers can order a lunch box at school if they want to. This week, the 1st year students did cooking. Whenever the kids have cooking class, they give some of the teachers (their choice) some of what they made to sample, then the teacher writes a comment about the meal. This week I received 3 meals, one from each of the 1st year classes. Wednesday's lunch was spaghetti bolignaise, salad, and fruit, pudding & jelly dessert. Thursday's lunch was spaghetti with homemade tomato sauce, vegetable soup and orange jelly. Today's lunch was gyoza (dumplings), fresh spring rolls, rice and soup. All three meals were pretty good and it meant that I didnt have to buy or make my lunch this week!

Today was a pretty easy day. I had 3 classes and then in the afternoon I played soccer and basketball with 1A class. 5th period today was replaced with "fun activities" and the students were allowed to choose to do different things (sports, cooking, craft etc). Our team did pretty well. We made the final for the basketball tornament, but we ran out of time play the final. It was fun though.

Tonight was the JHS #2 ladies dinner. It was at a restaurant in Odaka, a town 30 minutes from here. We had a huge meal. It started with baby prawns and gnocci in a seafood sauce, follwed by a sashimi and strawberry salad. This was then followed by a vegetable soup. We next enjoyed fish with almonds and brocolli and mustard sauce. Next you could choose to have meat or fish, so I got fish. This was lightly fried and served wth vegetables. Finally, we had a crepe with ice cream and orange sauce follwed by coffee. I was stuff by the time the first fish dish came out, so you can imagine how ready to explode I was by the time the coffee arrived. It was all very good though.

Next week is the last week of school. We have classes on Monday and Wednesday only. Tuesday is a public holiday and Thursday is the end of year assembly, and tidying up of the school.

Another Goodbye

2006-03-14T18:24:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day at PS #2. It was a pretty easy day - two classes to teach and one to participate in. I also got some presents from different teachers and classes. It was a little sad to leave, because all the teachers and students are really nice and made me feel like a part of the school.

My schedule has increased again:

10th - 12th March Tokyo Weekend
13th March JHS #2 Graduation
15th March Dinner with Yumi
17th March JHS #2 Ladies Dinner
18th March Farewell dinner with friends
19th March Dinner with Mr Arai and family
20th March Sayonara dinner with adult english class
24th March JHS #2 End-Of-Year dinner
25th March Dinner with Yoshimi and her family
27th March Dinner with Yumi and her family

I only have a few days left that are free now....Whoah!

Graduation

2006-03-13T23:23:00.000-08:00

So today was graduation at JHS #2. The ceremony started at 9.30am, but we were asked to arrive in the gym (the ceremonial location) at 9.20. So everyone began arriving from around 9am onwards, and trying to nab the best seats next to the heater. Little did these people (parents, friends, relatives etc) know, the heaters were to be turned off BEFORE the ceremony began. With The teachers, parents (and other audience members), first and second year students all seated, the officals were then escorted into the gym, to take their seats. (Officials being the superintendent, board of education members, principals, PTA members and so on.) The orchestra began playing the graduation song once everyone was seated and the 3rd year students were then paraded in, and took their seats. The graduation ceremony was then opened and the principal gave a speech. The students were then given their graduation certificates and speeches from the officals were then said. After that, the representative of the graduating students accepted the present all the students were getting. The student council president for next year then did a speech and the current one said a speech back. Then the 3rd years sang a song to the rest of the school, then the whole school sang a goodbye song together and finally the school song. The students were then paraded out to the graduation song with everyone clapping as they left. After the ceremony was closed, the students went back to their classroom to get their presents and the rest of the school lined up to send the graduates off (to the other side of the school field...). Once they were sent off, they came back to our side of the field and we took photos together. I was given two message boards, one from 3B class and one from the student council. It was a pretty good day, although the celebrations, smiles and happiness werent shown until the graduation ceremony was finished.

Spring in Ueno Station

2006-03-12T21:52:00.000-08:00

Ueno Station is very up-to-date with it's centre display. It's cleverly changes with the seasons. As you can see, it is now proudly displaying a cherry blossom tree in place of the Christmas tree from December.

Spring in Tokyo

2006-03-12T21:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend I went to Tokyo to visit my friend Naoko. I left Tomioka on Friday afternoon and arrived in Shinjuku at around 8pm. Naoko and Akane had come to pick me up and then the 3 of us went to dinner together. It was pretty good food and great company so we all had a good night. After dinner, Naoko and I went back to her apartment. The next day, we went to Kichijoji and hung out in Inogashira park for most of the day. We walked around for a while, looked at some of the plum blossom trees (see photos) and ended up watching a street performer. He was making balloon animals and doing magic tricks. We then did a bit of shopping, had a coffee break and headed back to Naoko's place for a stew and salad dinner. Today we took it easy in the morning, then met Akane at Ueno station for lunch. I then jumped back on the train and got back here at 6.30 this evening. It was warm in Tokyo, almost as if Spring had already arrived. Too bad it's still so cold here. All in all though, I had a really nice relaxing weekend.

P.S Naoko, it was great to see you. thanks for having me!

A Day Off.

2006-03-08T14:38:00.000-08:00

Today is test day at the JHS. So I took the day off. I had two choices - either go to school and sit in the staff room, doing nothing but reading books for 8 hours or stay home, relax, and do whatever i want. So as hard of a decision as this was, I decided to stay home.

Last night I had my adult english class. We have only one class remaining after this. I'm glad. It's really hard to go out during winter from 7-9 on a Tuesday night and teach people who are really only there for socialisation. They are nice people and we do have a bit of a fun time, but still.

My bookings for this month have increased. My diary now looks like this:

10th - 12th March Tokyo Weekend
13th March JHS #2 Graduation
17th March JHS #2 Ladies Dinner
18th March Farewell dinner with friends
20th March Sayonara dinner with adult english class
24th March JHS #2 End-Of-Year dinner
25th March Dinner with Yoshimi and her family

I have also been invited bowling (10th), and dancing (17th) but I've had to say no to both of those because I already have plans. Gotta be fast if you wanna hang with me.

News...

2006-03-06T18:29:00.000-08:00

So I arrive at school this morning to find that 8 of the windows at JHS#2 and 2 at PS#2 have been smashed by someone throwing rocks through them. This was big news - it made the TV news, and the news paper. There was a slightly sombre mood in the staff room, which continued throughout the day as the banging and hammering from the glass man echoed throughout the school. It was kinda strange for me, because it felt like some huge disaster had occured, not just some glass being broken. Don't get me wrong, it's not a very nice thing to happen, but I dont think it's worth getting all depressed about it. I say, at least it was something that can be fixed.

Haha, Looks Like I Did Something Right!

2006-03-04T21:59:00.000-08:00

You Should Learn Japanese

You're cutting edge, and you are ready to delve into wacky Japanese culture.
From Engrish to eating contests, you're born to be a crazy gaijin. Saiko!

What Language Should You Learn?

2006-03-04T18:52:00.000-08:00

Time is really flying by. I have only 26 days left until I leave.

The past few weeks have been fine. Not much drama or excitement either. School has pretty much gone as usual, although everyone is getting ready for graduation which is on March 13th. We have had 2 full school practice run throughs, and the 3rd years have been practicing almost every afternoon. It is a very important ceremony and also a very long one (2.5 hours). Dress code is formal, and the venue is the school gym. Apparently, the heaters will be turned off when the ceremony begins, which means it will also be a cold ceremony.

Out of school, I have just been packing, posting and preparing to leave. I have pretty much everything under control at this stage. I went to Alanai's birthday dinner last month. It was pretty good fun. We had it at Kookai, of course.

The remaining days here are going to be very busy. Here's an overview of my month at this stage (it will change....):

10th - 12th March Tokyo Weekend
13th March JHS #2 Graduation
17th March JHS #2 Ladies Dinner
18th March Farewell dinner with friends
24th March JHS #2 End-Of-Year dinner

Plus I have school up to the 23rd March, and two adult english classes remaining. With so much rushing around, I know I'm going to need a holiday when I get back home!

Walk Home With Me.

2006-02-23T18:57:00.000-08:00

This is what I see when I walk home from school.

A Little Off The Topic But Apparently I'm This Kind Of Girl...

2006-02-21T18:36:00.000-08:00

Your a happy go lucky girl! You love excitement and

fun anywhere! Very protective of your friends

and family you will do anything to make

people smile!

What Type of girl are you?
brought to you by Quizilla

Today's Conversation

2006-02-20T18:19:00.000-08:00

Conversation between myself and a 1st year boy:

Boy: Jessica-sensei, do you know what the opposite of yesterday is?
Me: Umm...Yesterday doesnt have an opposite.
Boy: Yes it does.
Me: No it doesn't.
Boy: Yeah, it does, really.
Me: Ok, well what is it?
Boy: NOterday hahaha.
Me: ...

No new is good news...

2006-02-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

I have been at JSH #2 and PS #2 for two weeks now. Nothing eventful has happened. Therefore, I dont have any news. But this is a photo from when I was walking home from school the other day.

Saying Goodbye

2006-02-06T18:42:00.000-08:00

Last Friday was my last day at JHS #1 and PS #1. I used to think goodbyes were kinda hard but I had no problems this time. I had a "farewell ceremony" where the principal talked about me a little, I said a goodbye speech and the student council president said a speech back. After that they gave me a bunch of flowers (see picture), split the school in half to make a walkway and clapped me out of the school gym. The staff gave me a drawstring bag with sakura flowers on it, a keyring thing and a hinamatsuri (dolls festival) ornament. The kids also wrote me letters as you can see in the photo. It does feel more like I'm going home now though. I feel happy about it too. I've had a good time but I've also had enough so I think it's a good time to leave. The count down begins with 7 weeks to go.

Snow

2006-02-05T16:07:00.000-08:00

As you can see, Tomioka has been getting some snow and poor me has had to walk to school in it. It's ok when it's falling because it takes time to build up, but it's really scary when it's all piled up, especially when it's on the stairs to your apartment. eek!

And So The Packing Begins....

2006-01-29T20:54:00.000-08:00

The start of a very busy 54 days to go.

Harry Potter in Tomioka

2006-01-24T22:32:00.000-08:00

After school today I was talking with some of the 3rd year students about which high school they are applying to go to. In Japan, compulsory education ends when the students finish junior high (15 years old) but most students go on to high school. Anyway, they are all busy applying, studying and waiting for results to come back. So i was asking these kids which school they had applied to and the conversation went a bit like this:

Me: What high school are you guys planning to go to?
Masato: Iwaki Engineering high school.
Kenta: Yumoto HIgh school - it's famous for soccer.
Takayuki: Iwaki High school.
Kenta: Yeah only smart kids can go there.
Me: Yuma? How about you? Where are you going?
Yuma: Hogwarts.

Harry Potter fever is still running high by the looks of things. We had another kid who waited at the doorway of the language lab for me and Yoshimi and said "Hogwarts, welcome" as we walked through the door. There are also a pair of eye glasses that someone left in there that are round and look like Harry Potter's glasses. So I bet you can guess what we hear all day....I'm Harry Potter! Alohamora....

Time Flies When You're Doing Nothing.

2006-01-23T18:03:00.000-08:00

The past few weeks have gone by rather uneventful. Pretty much all I've been doing is going to school and going to bed. I have been out shopping and to dinner with Anna, Alanai, Yoshimi and Skye (not all together) but apart from that, I've been leading a rather boring life.

School is going ok. The P.S. is still alot of fun to go to, although the 6th graders are really hard to teach. They seem to develope this attitude that because they are 6th graders now, and "top" of the school, they are really cool and dont need to learn/enjoy english/listen to the teacher. Thing is though, they are still just kiddies so all I have to say is "ok well no games, no stickers today", and they shut up. How great it is to be the teacher, finally.

We had a couple of quite warm days this month, where all i needed was to wear my jacket. Usually i have my jacket, gloves, scarf and on really cold days, ear muffs too. I thought that perhaps this was the lead up to Spring, however it snowed quite hard today. I had to walk to school in it, taking care not to slip. It was especially scary going down my stairs from my apartment as they are really steep. It all melted by lunch time though.

Back To School...

2006-01-10T23:29:00.000-08:00

Winter holiday is over. School started back today, although classes don't start until Thursday as the kids have tests tomorrow.

Anyway, i spent a fantastic two weeks with Josh, who came to visit again! We were in Tomioka for just over a week (from the 24th Dec to 2nd Jan) then headed down to Tokyo until January 8th. We just chilled out here in Tomioka - Anna lent us her car so we were mobile for the week, which was handy cos it was cold here. We went down to Iwaki a couple of times, and to all the games centres around here. We are both addicted to the UFO catcher machines.

Christmas Eve night we went to Kookai for a Christmas menu. It was a 5 course meal with champagne and coffe/tea too. On Christmas day we just opened presents and relaxed - it was kinda like being at home but without all the rushing around and craziness which was a nice change. New Year's Eve was spent eating sushi and sashimi and drinking fake champagne (which was really just sparkling apple and grape juice). We then headed down to Tokyo on the 2nd Jan and went shopping, games centering, saw Harry Potter movie and went sightseeing - Shibuya (see photo), Tokyo Disneysea, Ueno Zoo, Tokyo Dome & Tokyo Dome City, Park Hyatt's New York Bar (where Lost in Translation was filmed), Shabuzen (the shabushabu restaurant on Lost in Translation), Sunshine city Aquarium (fish photo) and Planetarium - so we were quite busy but it was a heap of fun.

I came back to Tomioka on the 8th and found some new year cards some of the students had sent me(see photo). New Year is the biggest holdiay in Japan so they send out millions and millions of New Year Cards which are like postcards with a message on them. I then had yesterday to rest/do washing/prepare for school and then started back today. Tonight we had a New Year Party with all the teachers at J-Village (the soccer stadium/hotel/conference area/restaurant place to go) which was quite fun. We had a huge meal which consisted of crab, sushi, sashimi, shabushabu, salad, dessert, and all you can drink. We also played Bingo (Japanese people are obsessed with this game) and everyone got a prize. I got a small bath towel, which I was happy with cos it's light and small for when i go home. Although, I was not really wanting to go to this party, it ended up being quite fun. Funny that.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

2006-01-10T23:28:00.000-08:00

MERRY CHRISTMAS 2005!!

2006-01-10T11:27:00.000-08:00

The big tree in the middle of Ueno Station.

Winter Holidays!

2005-12-22T20:05:00.000-08:00

Today was the last day of school. We had two classes today - I watched two movies and taught no english today. Then we had cleaning time for 30 minutes (it's usually only 15) where we cleaned the staff room from top to toe, and even hand washed the windows. Once that was done, we had our end of term assembly. The usual things were said - be careful, don't get hurt, don't do anything you're not supposed to etc - and then it was lunch time. After lunch the kids had home room for about 45 minutes then they were allowed to go home. I got picked up at 2.15pm to go to the jidoukan (afterschool care centre for primary school kids) to be Santa again. This time all the kids were so sure it was "Jessica-sensei" but we managed to (kinda) convince them that they were wrong. All though, all our hard work was ruined as once I got changed they walked me past the kids so they saw me in normal clothing! This afternoon it started snowing. This time it acutally started to pile up a bit although, it's mostly melted now.

It's All Downhill From Here!

2005-12-20T10:18:00.000-08:00

Yay! 2 more days of school then it's Winter holiday!! So exciting!

Not much has been happening this week, except that it snowed while I was walking to school! So now I can say to spoilt children, "When I walked to school in the snow....."! How fun!

Today was the last day of PS #1 for this term. School starts back from 10th January. There is a new year party with all the teachers that night and I've been roped into going. I tried so hard to not socialise with them outside of school, but I guess I can't avoid this fate. They are nice people, just not people I wanna see on my evenings/free time/weekends, if you know what I mean. It's the same as seeing the students on Saturday or Sunday.

Funny conversation for this week:

In one of the 1st grade classes at PS #1 there is a little girl who is half Japanese and half Kiwi. Anyway, when I walked into their classroom their teacher said that I was from NZ and the little girl was very happy. Another kid in the class said to her, "So, before you came to Japan, did you have blonde hair like Jessica-sensei?" and the little girl said "Yup!" hehe. It was ultra cute. (in case you dont see the funny side, this little girl has dark brown hair.....)

Christmas Concert

2005-12-18T16:39:00.000-08:00

Today I went to the Christmas concert at the community centre. There were quite a few people there, and I saw several people I knew too.

The concert consisted of an 8-member all women choir, two woman pianists and a male conductor. It started at 2 pm on the dot, with them singing a Japanese medely about the Japanese celebrations - childrens day, green day, dolls day etc - and then went into a song about the 4 seasons in Japan. (Although, personally I don't think they have 4 proper seasons like us. It seemed to be really hot and then really cold, with no gradual change at all.) After that, there was a short break then they had a kinda play thing with this lady who talked and then the choir sang about what she'd said. That went on for about 20 minutes then we had a 20 minute half time interlude. Once the halftime break was over, the lights in the hall were turned out, (a tape of) church bells were ringing and the choir came from the back of the hall, down the stairs, holding candle-torch things and singing. Once they reached the stage, the Christmas carols began. They sang Deck the Halls, White Christmas, Noel, and some other songs that had been translated into Japanese. At the end of the concert, they were given flowers and then made everyone sing Silent Night along with the choir. It was in Japanese so i refrained from singing.

It was actually a pretty nice concert and I'm glad I went. It kept me busy for the day and got my christmas spirit flowing.

P.S. 5 days to go!

Christmas Bells, Those Christmas Bells

2005-12-17T17:03:00.000-08:00

Everyday this week I have made Christmas cards in every single class I've taken. It made for a nice relaxing, getting-into-the-christmas-spirit week. I recieved some christmas cards from the PS #1 kids, which were all very cute and a bundle of them from JHS#2's 2nd year kids. In their textbook it has a list of greetings that can be used when you send a Chritmas card - Season's Greetings, Best wishes, Take care, All the best for 2006 etc - and on several of mine, they had used "Don't eat too much cake!!". They must all think that I eat cake alot and often.

Last night I went to a Christmas party with one of my adult students. It was quite fun, we had heaps to eat and they forced me to take a doggy bag too. So I just took some mandarines and nashi pears.

Tonight I'm going to dinner with Yoshimi and Alanai at Kookai. I haven't been there for a while, so it will be fun to go. Tomorrow afternoon I am going to a Christmas concert at the community centre.

Even better news: 6 days to winter holidays!!

You Know Its Winter When There's Ice on The Inside of Your Windows!

2005-12-12T19:39:00.000-08:00

Yup, that's right. When i got up this morning, there was a thin layer of ice covering my windows on the INSIDE. It was cold, maybe the coldest day so far. It was certainly the first day for ice to form inside my apartment.

Yesterdays Christmas Party at Anna's house went well. We ate so much food - nut loaf, salad, fried rice, macaroni cheese, roasted veges, quiche, pistachio nuts, apricot and apple pie, chocolate mousse cake, custard and cookies. We were all so full and relaxed while watching "ElF' the movie, which wasn't as bad at I thought it would be. With all that food, dinner was not needed!

Today was a normal school day - no major events. We made Christmas cards with one 2nd year class and I also made them at the primary school with the 3rd graders. I even got given two cards!

Good news: 11 Days til Winter Holiday!!

Ho, Ho, Ho!

2005-12-10T06:28:00.000-08:00

My attepmt at getting into the Christmas spirit. With the limited selection of Christmas goods available here, I went for simple but effective.

So ends the first week back at JHS #1. Things went well. I had a lot of events this week - Dinner with Yumi on Monday and Wednesday, dinner with Sato-san (from the BOE) and his daughters, dinner with Anna and today, I was Santa at the Kindergarten. I actually wore a Santa suit - complete with black boots, belt and beard. Most of the kids were convinced, although there was one who said "I'm not sure this is the real Santa.." but he soon changed his tune once I started giving out lollies. They asked me questions like What do you eat? (christmas cake) and Where are you from? (North Pole) and seemed generally a little scared. Some of the primary school kids were there as their little sisters/brothers go to the kindergarten and they also were given gifts from Santa. One boy said, Hi Jessica-sensei...and I said, hmm? My Name is Santa! But he just laughed.

Tomorrow, Anna is having a Christmas lunch at her place with all the ALT's in the area. It's potluck so i'm sure there'll be a strange array of food.

A Conversation From Today

2005-12-06T05:49:00.000-08:00

I took the first graders class (6 + 7 year olds) at the primary school today and had this conversation with one kid:

Kid: Jessica-sensei, are you rich?
Me: Why?
Kid: Because you look it.

Keep in mind that today i was wearing grey trousers, a light blue sweater and a fleece jacket on top. (it's cold, y'see) Not sure that portrays a "rich person" image, but it made me smile.

A Change of Season = A Change of School

2005-12-02T10:33:00.000-08:00

So today ends my second two months at JHS #2 and PS #2. I am going back to JHS #1 and PS #1 from Monday for my last 2 months of this school year. Can't say I'm sad to be changing either. I like both schools, but it's a lot easier on my health to be at the schools close by during the unkind Japanese winter. We are already experiencing minus degrees at night and in the morning and it does fail to get past 10 degrees during the day, most days. It is cold.

Anyway, this weeks recap:

Dinner with my adult students went well. We went to a little bar/restaurant place near here. We had a lot of food and drink. They wanted to go to karaoke but I was too tired so I came home. Tuesday I went to dinner at one of my adult students houses. She made home-made gyoza! It was delicious! The rest of the week past by uneventful, so i'm not sure why i feel so tired! Must be the weather!

Quotes For the Year

2005-11-26T09:46:00.000-08:00

I team-teach with Japanese english teachers at the junior high schools. For people who should be able to speak the language they are teaching, they aren't very good. Anyway, today I want to share a few quotes I have collected from these teachers:

"Let's play The Bingo!"

"Can I bother you for a while?"

"I will appreciate it"

"Make Haste!"

Don't make a haste!"

"Thank you very much" (said to the blackboard, the flashcards, the Cd player.....)

"Name cities, 3 names!" (said when we are playing a quiz game called Name 3 ___)

In other news:
Wednesday was a public holiday so I went up to Sendai with Anna, Katie, Rebecca and Ally to do some shopping. It was ok, but we spent a lot of time doing nothing which was kinda boring. I did manage to get the rest of my Christmas Shopping done which is good. The students are having tests at the moment, so I have been relaxing in the staff room this week. Tonight I'm going to dinner with my adult english conversation students. Hopefully it will be fun.

S.I.C.K

2005-11-21T08:31:00.000-08:00

I'm am currently in a battle. I have had a cold for a month now. I first caught this cold at the end of October, and it has lasted all this time. It seems that when I start to get better, the symptoms come back again. My main symptoms are a cough, a headache and achey/tired muscles. I have taken medicine, vitamins, increased fruit and vege intake but nothing seems to help. I do think its perhaps partly due to four things: 1) It is really cold here now. Almost everyday is under 10 degrees and the mornings are 3 degrees on a good day. 2) the way i have to get to this school. 3) the japanese teachers coming to school when they are really, really sick, and spluttering and coughing all over the place. I'm not sure if covering your mouth with your hand has been introduced here. 4) the heaters at school are not allowed to be turned on until December 1st! (I'm not even gonna say what I think about this....)

Therefore, I have been taking extra steps to keep warm/healthy at school - washing my hands after I use anything that's "communal" (photocopier, fax, computers), drinking lots of water and orange juice, wearing extra clothing etc. I even went as far as taking a blanket to school, to keep warm. I am looking forward to the change this time very much. Only 8 days to go. ganbaru.

Sukugawa Fire Festival

2005-11-13T11:02:00.000-08:00

This week's highlight was the Sukugawa Fire Festival. This festival is held once a year. The meaning I got behind this festival (i could be wrong) was that years and years ago, there was a castle on top of the hill that was burnt down by the "enemy" samurai clan of this area. So each year they built a fake castle out of poles and burn it down. They also have taiko drummers and food stalls. I went with Anna, Ally (a previous ALT, that has come back and is working for a university for 3-months), and Katie. After checking out the taiko (which was really great), we climbed the small mountain to see the burning castle. There was also some fire dancing which was kinda interesting but ultra amatuer. (they keep dropping their sticks....). After that we went down to the food stalls and ate baked potatoes and crepes! Delicious!

PS #2 Festival

2005-11-05T17:25:00.000-08:00

This morning was PS #2's school festival. It started at 8.45am, with the 1st year kids doing a dance and skipping, and the 2nd year kids having games you could play. I was happy when I got a bronze medal for throwing a ring over a bottle, a gold medal for fishing, and two mystery prizes (filled with origami) for bowling and ball throwing. From 9.40am the 3rd and 4th years had their presentations - they had researched different things such as the games played in Japan in the "old days", the old school days and old music instruments. It was quite interesting, especially when they played with the old school toys. Then it was the 5th and 6th graders from 10.35am. I wasn't able to go and see the 6th graders because I had helped with the group doing english theme I mentioned earlier, so they wanted me to see them when it was "showtime." They all did really well - no mistakes, clear, loud voices - although it was a bit embarrassing when the newspaper came out and they did a quiz about me. One of the questions was about how tall I was, and as I was standing up, I could see all the parents trying to guage how tall I am. They got it wrong too! After that it was hometime. So I went to YOKUBINIMARU TOMTOM (that's it's name, for real) and then came back here to do cleaning and some washing. Tomorrow I can relax and have a sleep in! Yay!

JHS #2 Bunkasai

2005-11-03T19:44:00.000-08:00

Today was the bunkasai. Overall, I have to say it was an experience - I'm sure you can all picture it by imagining listening to children sing and dance all day long. I think it was a little 'overwhelming' because i have a cold, but I do have to say that I enjoyed it. The day went as follows:

Opening ceremony was at 8.30 - 8.45 am. As with everything done in Japan, this was just to open/start the bunkasai. After that, from 8.55 - 11.15am it was the school class choir competition. Each grade had a song that all classes in that grade had to sing, then they were allowed to sing one song of their choice. Each class had a piano player and a conductor. They were actually pretty good. After that we listened to the school orchestra play two songs and then the english speech contestants said their speeches. We then had lunch which was yakisoba and soup (300 yen! So cheap!) and watched some of the first year boys try and "breakdance." After lunch we were able to check out the kids classrooms that they had decorated to a certain theme. The themes were (a few photos of these are at the top of this entry):

1A - Halloween
1B - The Great Milk Way Railroad (Japanese story)
1C - Traditional Japanese Games - workshop (you could make things!)
2A - Planaterium
2B - Music, Stars, Famous People
2C - Summer Festival (you could play games and win prizes)
2D - Sea World (it was decorated like an aquarium)
3A - Love Story and Sports Story (they made two short movies)
3B - Star Wars Project (they had black lights and pictures drawn on the walls)
3C - Animation (Spirited Away, Tonari no totoro etc)
3D - Showa Emperor Newspaper, Futaba History, Announcer Job Description (Shota is in this class by himself as he is disabled. He is a really nice boy and is really smart. He is really good at English and wants to be an announcer when he grows up.)

All the rooms were really good and really well done. The kids put heaps of effort into their decorations. After looking at the rooms, it was back to the gym to watch some more performances. There were some more singing, some more breakdancing, a few skits and some japanese dancing too. It all finished at 4.30pm. All in all, it was an enjoyable day, especially for the kids.

Bunkasai Preparations

2005-10-29T10:04:00.000-07:00

Next week on November 3rd (which is actually a public holiday) the JHS #2's Bunkasai (schools festival) will be held. So this week periods 5 and 6 have been put aside to be used for "preparations" and then the kids carrying on "preparing" until 5.30pm at night. Each class has their own exhibit/theme and they decorate their classrooms based on that. Some of the these this year are Halloween, Sea World, Star Wars Project, Planatarium, and a Japanese folk tale. The kids are ultra into this, and i have to admit, some of the things they have, are actually really cool. The coolest thing I have seen is a steam train made out of boxes.

PS #2 is also having a festival on November 5th. They are doing things all about school life, i think. There is one group of kids who are doing "English class with Jessica-sensei" as their theme. They have been split into four groups - one group is doing "English Converstaions" and are using the stuff we studied together (Do you have..../Can you play....), another group is doing "English in everyday life" where they act out a day in the life of a 5th grader, including having english class. One kid even pretends to be me and they sing London Bridge is Falling Down, although, I DID NOT teach them that. The third group is doing "3 Little Pigs" as a mini-play. They have made puppet things and I translated their Japanese into simple english. The last group have made a newspaper called "ALT Newspaper" and it's all about....Me! It has photos of me, and photos of us doing activities and games, copies of the bingo cards and worksheets we used. It's very sweet but slightly embarrassing.

So next week will be quite a fun week by the looks of things. Wednesday has been put aside for getting ready for the cultural festival, finishing everything and getting all decorated. Thursday is the cultural festival, Friday is a holiday because we used the public holiday to come to school, and Saturday is the primary school cultural festival.

So this week in brief - School was fine, no major probs, Tuesday night was Skye's birthday dinner at Kookai (of course), last night I went to Iwaki with Anna for dinner. This Sunday, Anna is helping out with a Halloween party in Odaka for primary school kids ( a town about an hour up from here) and she's invited me to go to that. We're gonna try and make a costume today. Hope it works out.

2005-10-28T19:58:00.000-07:00

Check it out!

2005-10-24T18:38:00.000-07:00

It's my bike!

Earthquake AND a Storm #2

2005-10-23T10:38:00.000-07:00

Ok, sometime back in August (i think) we had that HUGE earthquake, and then a couple of days later we had a big storm. Last night, the sequel to these two occured, however, this time it was on the same night.

Yesterday I went to lunch with Yumi at Rondonkan, which is a restaurant that has been decorated to how Japanese people think is western-style but just ends up being over-the-top guady. Anyway, after that I came home and then met Yoshimi for dinner at Kookai. We had a nice dinner and catch-up and then decided to head home. Yoshimi drove me home and just as I was getting out of the car, the earthquake occured. So we shut the car door and sat inside the car while it was shaking and dancing to the beat of the 'quake. It lasted for quite a while (maybe a minute) and then all was well again. (This was a 4 on the Japanese scale.) I make it safely back to my house and check that there is no damage. Everything is fine. So I go to bed. At around 3.30am i hear a HUGE thunder clap. It was so loud it woke me up. Then there was lightning, and then it started to hail. No rain, just hail. It beat down so hard I really did think that my windows were going to break! It lasted for about an hour or I fell back to sleep before it had finished. This morning when i woke up there was no damage, but the sky is really, really grey.

Oh, on a lighter note, my foot is almost back to normal. I can almost walk without a limp now!

A Trip To the Pediatrist!

2005-10-21T15:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, well as the title says, i succumbed to Yumi's harrassment and went to the pediatrist today.

Yumi picked me up at 8.45am and we go to the doctors at 9am. It was chocka block full of elderly people all waiting to see Dr. Kawamura. We went up to the receptionist who said that the doctor would be able to see me at 11am. So after being stared at by all the old people and all the staff, because apparently young people hardly ever go there and it's ever more unusual to see a gaijin, I came back home to wait until 11am.

Yumi came and got me and we went back to the doctors. I went in to see Dr. Kawamura who had a quick look and then sent me for some x-rays. After that he said that my extender tendon thing in my foot was "overworked" and that I need to rest it as much as possible. But before i could go home, i got an injection right into my foot - just under my ankle bone on the outside side. it was so painful. So i was then sent home with an ankle support, muscle relaxing pads and instuctions to not "overwork" my foot.

Anyway, it's feeling a bit better than before so hopefully this means i'm on the mend and i can go to school on Monday. See photo for current status.

An injury and an earthquake

2005-10-19T22:05:00.000-07:00

I have an injury.

Well, maybe not so much an injury as a fatigued muscle in my right foot. On the outside area of the sole. Which is a strange place to hurt. But it is possible. It started on Friday but i just rested on the weekend and it came right by Monday. Unfortunately, due to running around at PS #2 all day Tuesday (i think), it started to hurt again and by the time it was Adult English Conversation Class time, I had developed a limp. Anyway, i woke up this morning and had problems walking around my apartment, so there was going to be a problem walking to the station. I called Yumi and being the hypercondriac that she is (she goes to the doctor when she has a cold and gets an injection and hooked up to a drip.......for real.) said "Right! Let's go to the doctor!! He can take an x-ray for you!!" Ah, No. But she dragged me to the doctor, who said that my muscle was fatigued and that i need to rest for a few days. So I got today and tomorrow off. He also gave me some muscle relaxtion deep heat like stuff to rub on the muscle to help with the "healing." I'll keep you updated.

On another note, we had another big-ish earthquake tonight. It was like the big one we had in August, but it didnt last as long. I really hate them. This time i just opened my front door to establish an escape route, turned off the TV, computer etc and stood under that doorway closest to the escape route. I dont think I'll ever get used to it. Anyway, i was glad that it didnt last too long and that there was no major damage around here cos I'd have had trouble escaping with my fatigued muscle!

Chibi Maruko-chan

2005-10-16T18:11:00.000-07:00

My favourite cartoon on Japanese TV is Chibi Maruko-chan. This is her and info about the programme is below:

This is a funny cartoon about the everyday life in school and at home of a little 9 year old girl with a great imagination named Chibi Maruko Chan. Maruko spends most of her time daydreaming in her 3rd grade classroom rather than paying attention to her teacher. In her class, has many friends including her best friend (Tama-chan), a rich kid who lives in a mansion, a weird kid who lacks friends, and many more. At home, lives with her parents, one older sister, and her grandparents. Whenever she has a question about something, would ask each of her family members but they are not always free to answer her.

Doesnt it sound like a really intellectual programme!

2005-10-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

Last week...

We had a public holiday on Monday (Sports Day, thanks Tokyo Olympics!). I can't remember what I did, which means probably not much! I really should take advantage of these public holidays and do stuff but I'm so tired from the children by the end of the week it's hard to be motivated to do anything but chill out and relax!

Tuesday was PS #2 day. We learnt Days of the Week and Month of the Year in 40 minutes. Kick ass! The kids got it really quickly so we played snakes and ladders using flash cards with the days vocab written on them. If you couldnt read what was on the card, you had to go back the number of spaces on the dice. Ha. They love this game, it's the second time we played it this term (i've only been back there for two weeks!!) and they want to play it again next week! I don't think we can though, as I will be taking two of their classes at a time because of the marathon (or something). So I'll probably let them play it the following week when we do the summary lesson. We had English club in 6th period. The club are writing their own english mini-dramas. They have to write it in Japanese first, then me and Mieko-sensei have to translate them into English. The poor kids are then being made to memorise the play and put it on for the club only. We're gonna be video-taping them too. I have a feeling I will have to excercise brilliant self-control when it's presentation day - we dont want to hear Jessica cackles in the background now, do we?

Wednesday night I went to dinner at KOOKAI with Skye, Christine, Rebecca, and Katie. We ate a lot of yummy stuff. I think it's safe to say I'm addicted to Kookai.

Thursday, the JHS #2 kids did work experience (read slave labour) around town. As hardly anyone was going to be at school that day, the Vice Principal said that I can either come to school and do nothing or take a holiday. I was like hmm ok well i guess i'll come to scho......TAKE A HOLIDAY FO'SHO'! No need to tell me twice! So I went to the Super Centre which is about a 15 minute walk from here. I'm not sure I would describe it as being super, but it does have a big SUPERmarket, pharmacy, clothing/junk area and a small games centre. So that was totally worth going to.....I saw some of the kids doing (slave) work there. Strangely enough, they seemed to enjoy restocking the shelves at the supermarket.......

Yesterday, I had a kinda easy day. The kids has done tests this week so some of the classes were just going over the test together (which, thankfully, I didn't have to go to). So I ended up with 2 classes instead of 4. The highlight was when Konno-sensei told me to "make haste". I just laughed at him and said we dont say that. He's so old school - nice but awfully proper.

Today I've done a bit of washing and cleaning. Tonight, Im' going out with Anna for dinner at....you guessed it....KOOKAI!! Lucky i walk home from school, otherwise I'd develope a KOOKAI tummy! Oh dear!

Here's a photo of the stop sign painted on the footpaths for pedistrians here. Cos, obviously, who'd stop and look both ways before crossing the street if there wasn't one anyway???

Sometimes, it even has STOP (tomare) painted below the feet.

This is pure genius, if you ask me.

Two photos

2005-10-10T16:47:00.000-07:00

the photo on the left is PS #1 (it's called tomioka dai isshogakkou). there are about 600 kids at this school. the pic on the right is my latest attempt at kanji. this means moonlight/moonbeam.

Change is good.

2005-10-08T23:19:00.000-07:00

First week at JHS #2 is over. It was quite nice being able to change schools this time. The 2nd year students at JHS #1 have started to get some attitude with the teachers so I was glad to be out of there.

All in all, it was a pretty uneventful week. Took some english classes, watched a presentation about road safety - in particular riding your bike - and chatted with the students. Masato and Co. came and welcomed me back first thing Monday morning which was nice.

This Monday is a public holiday. It's Sports Day. This holiday was added because 45 years ago the Olympics were held in Tokyo on October 10th. So this has now become a public holiday.

Speaking of public holidays, there are 16 here in Japan. We have 10 in New Zealand. There is at least one public holiday per month here. It's really great. Sometimes you just need a 3 day weekend.

Kids!!

2005-10-02T20:04:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd share three funny stories with you. I guess these things are bound to happen if you work with children.

1) Do you go home on weekends?

Yoshimi and I were talking with some of the 3rd year girls during a break one day. They were asking me about NZ and if I lived with my family etc. Then one girl, Ritsuko, said "Do you live here by yourself?" I said yes I do. She said, "Oh, so do you go home to New Zealand on the weekends then?" At first I thought I'd misunderstood her question (we were talking in Japanese) but then Yoshimi started laughing so I knew that I had understood ok. I said that I couldnt because it was a 11 hour flight and that would mean I could only spend a couple of hours with my family and friends at the airport. Also, it's very expensive. THEN, she asks "So, how many times per month do you get to go back to NZ then?" HUH?? I was like, "Uh, Ritsuko? I havent been home since I arrived here." Then she said, "Oh dear! Dont you miss your family and friends??" I said I was ok, but she still seems to be worrying about me...

2) Writing Poems

One day we were writing poems with some of the students. They had to write poems that had the following pattern: 1 (word), 2(words), 3(words), 4(words), 1 (word). Anyway, so we told them that they were allowed to write about whatever they wanted. So we got lots of LOVE, FRIENDS, DISNEY CHARACTERS, MOON etc poems. However, one of the boys in that class has a major crush on Yoshimi (everyone knows) and always tries to make her get mad at him. I think this is because she hits him in a playful, stop that manner, which he likes. Anyway his poem went as follows:

Yoshimi
Whose this?
Bad English Teacher
She wasnt really cute
Bye

When they showed me, I had to try very hard not to smile. I said, "We're showing these to the principal y'know." Then he said "Oh, quick, better change this.." It now goes:

Yoshimi
Whose this?
Good English teacher
She is really cute
Peace

3) Jessica.....Lopez?

One of the boys at school asked if he could call me Lopez. At first I was like "Why?" Then he told me why.

Jessica sounds like Jennifer.
A famous Jennifer is Jennifer Lopez.
Therefore, I'm Jessica Lopez.
Lopez for short, cos it's a cool nickname.

OH-Kay then.

Time to change again....Already??

2005-09-30T17:25:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day at JHS #1 and PS #1 for this term. I go back there for December and January. Time certainly went fast, but then I was there for most of the summer vacation which counted as some of my two-months there.

Ok recap of the week:

Tuesday (my proper birthday) was the sports day. This day was for the 1st and 2nd years to show what they are made of. It was kinda like their debut, so to speak. Anna, Rebecca and I went around together and watched basketball, baseball, volleyball, soccer, and tennis. It wasn't a hot day but it was fine so we actually had a lot of fun, skivving off. We went and had lunch at AA Family Restaurant (I kid you not, it really is called AA) which was a bit naughty but no-one has to know. JHS #1's baseball team came in 2nd, the boys tennis came 3rd, and girls basketball came 2nd.

Wednesday and Thursday were normal school days. Thursday night I went to Kookai with Anna. And today was also uneventful. Next week I'm off to JHS #2 and PS #2 for 2 months. Wish me luck.

My weekend....

2005-09-26T20:49:00.000-07:00

Friday night went well. Everyone came, celebrated, and ate heaps. I got some presents too! Anna gave me a really cool hat, Yoshimi gave me a Stitch soft toy (in-joke), Katie gave me some cookies, Skye gave me some flowers and Christine got me a birthday cake. Afterwards, we we to Karaoke for a hour too.

Saturday I went to Iwaki with Anna to find out about getting a tattoo. (For Anna, not me.) Afterwards, we got ice cream and then went and had soba and tempura for dinner at this cute little rustic place out on the coast of Naraha (the town before mine).

Sunday, another typhoon came so I spent most of the day at home, cleaning and doing laundry. I did a quite sprint to tomtom supermarket when there was a break in the storm for some supplies.

And that brings us up to today. I only had 3 classes today as we had a pep rally in 6th period for the kids who are participating in the sports competition tomorrow. The competition is for the 1st and 2nd years kids. It's kinda like their debut. The 3rd year kids have "retired" in order to study for their entrance exams to high school. So as there are no classes tomorrow, I am allowed to go and watch the sports teams play. Didn't really feel like spending my birthday sitting in the staff room so this will be a nice change.

I also got two boxes in the mail today - one from my family and one from Josh. I haven't opened them yet, so dont worry guys!!

Small, Uneventful, Update + 2 Public Holidays!

2005-09-23T20:47:00.000-07:00

Monday was a public holiday - Respect for the Elderly day. I had a picnic with some of the students and we also checked out our baseball team who were playing another school (Odaka JHS) from in the area. (it was a friendly game.)

Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday were normal school days. No major events. However, we do have a new art teacher, as the other one is away on sick leave. He started this week and the third year girls think he is really good looking, but both me and Yoshimi disagree, totally.

Last night I went to Kookai with Emi and Ayako, two of my adult students, for dinner. They are both around my age so it was fun.

Today is another public holiday - Autumn Equinox (i think). I'm going to go to Sendai with Anna and Christine. Then tonight we're going to Kookai (again!) to have a b'day dinner for me with Skye, Katie, Yoshimi and Michio.

A sample of my calligraphy

2005-09-18T18:52:00.000-07:00

Not sure if I mentioned it before, but I've been doing some calligraphy here. My first piece if on the left - it says DAICHI which means earth, the right one is my second attempt and means early summer breeze and the third one(on the bottom) is my latest try.

Touch your...chin?

2005-09-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Well this week is finally over. Pretty much a normal week apart from the gas fiasco and the following:

In the first year class at the JHS we were playing "Simon Says." So before we started we were practing different gestures and words to make sure the kids understood what I was saying. So the game started off with the kids just copying everything I did. E.g. Touch your head, point to the window, stand up, sit down etc. Then we practised the kids just doing the gestures while we did nothing. Anyway, Yamada-sensei was doing the calls this time and he said, touch your head, point to the door, clap your hands - so far so good - then he said touch your CHIN. Most of the kids were ok with this and touched their chins, however, one boy touched his private part because in japanese that is called chinchin! I couldnt help but laugh, and Yamada-sensei barely kept a straight face!

Apart from that, I havent really been up to much. Last night I went to dinner with Anna at Kookai, which was fun. We're having my b'day dinner there next Friday. Anna and I are also going to Sendai on FriDAY cos it's a public holiday (Autumn Equinox). Tomorrow (Monday) is also a public holiday (Respect for the elderly day) so this week is only 3 days long! Whoop!

A Gas Problem mixed with (a lack of) Common Sense

2005-09-12T21:07:00.000-07:00

Last night I made fried rice for dinner. Now this in itself is not very exciting. However, just as i was sitting down to eat my dinner, i heard this electronic voice. At first I thought it was coming from the TV cos the TV programmes here are crazy and use all sorts of strange sounds and voices. However, upon muting the TV, the voice continued to be heard. I realised it was coming from the kitchen so I went to investigate. It appeared to be coming from the small white box stuck on the side of the wall that i (previously) did not know was for. It was saying "The gas has been stopped at the metre" over and over again. Hmm, what does this mean? I have a gas leak? So I turned off the gas and then called Yumi. Unfortunately, she did not answer her phone so I then called Yoshimi to ask her what I was supposed to do. She said "Maybe call the gas company?" So I called Tomioka Gas company and they sent a guy out to check it out. There is no problem. He said that sometimes due to either A) earthquakes, B) cleaning/bug spray fumes or C) rubbish fumes this can occasianally happen. Well, I had no rubbish and I hadn't been spraying bug spray so the only other option is the earthquake we had early Sunday morning. The gas man then showed me how to turn off the annoying automated voice and said that if it happens again give him a call. So that was that. So once that was fixed, I finished my dinner, had a shower and went to bed. THEN at 11.45pm (on a Sunday night, the day before Monday when everyone works) I get a phone call on my house line from Yumi, calling to see why i had called her earlier!! Where is the common sense? I mean, a normal person surely would have waited until today to call someone back? Also, I only called her cell phone once so it was obviously not a major problem. The lack of common sense round here sure is starting to frustrate me more and more.....

NEWS FLASH

2005-09-10T21:29:00.000-07:00

My beloved TOMTOM has a new owner and will be closing for a week or so in October (apparently). This is because when there is a new owner, new shops come too. So all the shops at TomTom are closing down! The toy shop has already left. It moved into an empty shop that is in main street - probably about 30 seconds walk from my place. Sweet. Love that toy shop, way too much. The rest of the stores are having sales to get rid of as much stuff as they can, so i've managed to get a few bargains - mostly stationary but a few other things (bags, socks etc) too. Even the supermarket is going to be changing. Luckily for me, there is a small supermarket thing round the corner - probably about 35 seconds walk from here. So that will have to be my supermarket for a short while until TomTom opens again.

Thursday and Friday were normal school today. Except Friday we had no classes at the JHS. They are practising their stuff for the BUNKASAI (school cultural festival) and were given a whole day to get heaps of practise in. I had a good "staff room" day. I managed to make heaps of stuff for my classes at the PS next week.

Today I clean my whole apartment properly from top to bottom. It's now spic and span. I then just relaxed for the rest of the day - reading and relaxing. Tomorrow looks set to be along the same lines! Can't wait!

Speech Contest

2005-09-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

Yoshimi's dinner was good. Afterwards, we went to karaoke for a while. Then I stayed at Anna's place.

The next day we went to the school festival at Futaba High School. It was quite fun. We played a few games, and won a few prizes. Afterwards, we went and got lunch and then I came home.

Monday was the speech contest day. We left school at 7.30 in Yamada-sensei's car. We got to Okuma Culture Centre at just before 8am. We were able to practise for about an hour or so in the hall and on the stage. At 9.45am the opening ceremony began, and the Recitation part of the contest began from 10am. Haruka was in this category, and the 10th speaker. I thought she did a really good job. We had a short break in between 10th and 11th speakers because there were 19 students in this category. After that we had lunch, and then practise time again for the Original Speech category. Kirika was the 5th speaker and again, i thought she did really well. When we'd been practising both Haruka and Kirika were having trouble projecting their voices, but they were awesome when it came down to the crunch. Overall, Haruka came in 5th and I'm not sure about Kirika as the judges only annouce the top 6. I will try and find out though, I am interested to know. After that contest, we went to CHATEA which is a coffee shop for coffee and cake. It was a nice way to end the day.

Yesterday and today were usual days, except that I took some classes by myself today because Yamada-sensei had hurt his foot and can't walk properly. He went to the doctor then home so I had to be the main teacher. It's at times like these that i'm glad i can speak Japanese - it means i can tell the kids off and they understand!!

Busy Busy Busy

2005-09-03T12:01:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the LIVE and TAlK happened on Sunday. This guy who was famous in the 70s came to sing and talk to the kids. It was boring for me because a) I didnt know who he was, b) I didnt know what he was saying because his tohoku dialect was really strong and c) it was boring. The kids were falling asleep in their chairs and talking to each other so I'm guessing that they also found it relatively boring.

Monday was a day off at the JHS. I had to go to the PS and take 2 classes because I wont be there on Monday because of the speech contest. That was pretty uneventful - two 3rd grade classes. They were quite into it though, so that's always good.

Wednesday night I went to Namie to have dinner with the ALT's in the area - there are 3 new people so we met them too. After that Anna and I went to Karaoke, which is always fun.

Thursday night I went to Kookai with Anna for dinner. Last night I finally managed to have a rest. Speech contest this week was hard out. The kids are starting to panic so wanted to practise more. I was also taking classes by myself because Fujiwara-sensei and Yamada-sensei were busy doing other stuff.

Today I'm going out with Yumi to go to lunch and do some shopping, then tonight is Yoshimi's birthday dinner. Tomorrow me and Anna are going to Futaba High School's Festival. Busy, busy, busy.

Back to School.....and typhoon season....

2005-08-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

School started back this week. On Thursday to be exact. So Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday were short days for me - just helped the speech kids practise their speeches and prepared for my primary school classes. Thursday started with the 2nd term opening ceremony. Straight after this we had a small award ceremony for the kids who had done well in sport. After that it was back to the staff room (for me anyway) and then we cleaned up the school. Once that was done, the kids had to take some tests. Apparently, these are start-of-the-term tests. So I had another sit-in-the-staff-room day, which was really strange because I hadn't had one of those in ages. Friday the tests continued for the first two periods, then normal classes started. I went to two classes with Yoshimi. It was strangely normal being back at JHS #1 even though I hadnt seen most of the kids for the 2 months I was at JHS #2.

Yesterday, we had a typhoon. It started Thursday night and carried on all the way until about 5.30pm on Friday. That was Typhoon #11 or #12. I'm not sure. I'm beginning to loose count with all the typhoons we are having. Apparently, it's typhoon season from the end of August to early September. Fantastic.

We have school on Sunday for some reason. It says TALK AND LIVE but i have no idea what that means, who who is gonna talk to us live or what. Monday is going to be a holiday, but i have to go to the primary school for 2 hours because I need to take September 5th off for the speech contest. I dont mind, the primary school classes are easy - we just play games! I just try to make the kids as hyper and excitable as possible in the 50 minutes I have, then escape and let their classroom teacher calm them down...hehe!

A BBQ, and a Beach Party

2005-08-23T12:20:00.000-07:00

Saturday afternoon was the BBQ with my adult english conversation students. It was quite fun, better than what I though it would be. We had vegetables, meat, noodles, and salad. After that I went to the beach party with Anna, which turned out to be a bit of a bomb. This party is held every year by this foreign guy who lives here and it's supposed to be a welcome party for all the new ALT's in the area. However, this weekend all the newbies went on an intensive language course and weren't around, and the ones who are staying for a 2nd or 3rd year were off holidaying so there werent many foreigners. Quite a few Japanese though. Anna said that there were heaps less people that what there usually is. Bad planning is all I can say to that. So Anna and I decided to go to Koriyama (a big-ish city about an hours drive from here) for something to do. We strolled around there for a bit, had some dinner then came back home. Sunday, I had a big sleep in and then me and Anna went to Iwaki to go shopping. We had dinner at Italian Tomato, which quite obiously is an italian restaurant. It was delicious.

Yesterday and today i have been able to come home early from school. The speech kids are doing ok, i think. One is way better than the other but I found out that her father is one of the english teachers at Tomioka High School and apparently he has really kick-ass english skills. I think he might be helping her at home too. The head teacher want the english speech kids to do their speeches in front of the school on the 31st August so hopefully they'll do alright. Fingers crossed....

Big Storm

2005-08-19T19:38:00.000-07:00

Okay, so this week we had a HUGE earthquake, so I guess it is rather fitting to have a HUGE thunder and lightning storm 3 days later. It was actually fine this morning, but when I left school (at 10.30am, may i add!), it started to look a bit overcast. Then at around 6pm we started having really big claps of thunder, followed by ligtning that lit everything up like a Christmas tree. Whoa! Just had a power cut, but everything is back on now. Man, TOO many natural disaters for me to handle. Anyway, because of the storm, I've decided not to risk going dancing in Sendai with Anna tonight.

Anyway, apart from the earthquake and the storm, I've had another easy week. I was able to come home even earlier this week because we changed the times of the speech practises. The girls seem to be doing ok. I managed to help the girl whose having trouble memorising her speech, get half of it properly down. So now we have half a speech, and presentation skills left and 2 weeks until The Contest.

Last night, I went to Kookai with Anna and Rebecca, who is the new ALT in Namie. She took over from Eve, who went home to be a ballerina (or something like that.). She seems really nice, a tad homesick by the sounds of things but she'll be right now that we have found her.

Tomorrow is the BBQ and beach party. Hopefully, the storm will be gone by then. Fingers crossed.

A little Karaoke, and a BIG earthquake

2005-08-16T15:30:00.000-07:00

Phew, we had a HUGE earthquake today. It was the biggest one I have experienced since I came here. My apartment shook so much I was actually scared that it might fall down. I stood in a doorway (that's what i was taught at primary school...)and hoped that it would end quickly, all the while watching my TV and dryer shake precariously close to falling over! I was half tempted to go and hold the TV in place but then thought, well a broken TV is better than a broken Jess, for sure! Anyway, it was a 5 on the Japanese scale, on which apparently 7 is the highest, so it was pretty serious. There were a few minor injuries and apparently two small tsunami's but it seems to be safe now. The warning they had issued has been removed so that's a plus.

On a lighter note, last night I went to dinner and Karaoke with Anna. She's come back from her summer holiday to NZ. We're thinking about going dancing in Sendai this Friday cos it's Ladies Night so it's free entrance for us, then there is a beach party for ALT's in Iwaki on Saturday night. I also have a summer BBQ with my adult english students on Saturday afternoon so if i do all this i'm sure i'll be sleeping ALL day on Sunday. It's ok though, I like sleeping!

Oh and incase you're wondering, today and yesterday are holidays because of Obon so I got to have an almost 5 day weekend cos I came home at 11am on Friday! How sweet is that!

2005-08-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

It's Sunday morning. True to my word, I have managed to keep this weekend plan-free. I have been to TOMTOM twice (once today and once yesterday), talked to my family and Josh and basically just hung out at my apartment.

While waiting for the washing machine to finish, I was checking out some other blogs and I found this. http://rumandmonkey.com/widgets/toys/ghetto/index.php

This, you will see, generates a Goddamn Rock Solid Ghetto Shiznit Name for yourself. When I entered my name this is what it spat out:

Yo yo yo yo yo!
You one of us now, baby! Ready to walk the ghetto streets with yo' homies. All you gotta do is assume the following name:

Ass Machine Weed

Ass Machine Weed?

Summer Holidays Rock!

2005-08-12T21:44:00.000-07:00

So ends my first week back at JHS #1. It's still summer holidays (until 24th August) so there aren't many kids or teachers about. There also isn't much to do. So I have been coming home at lunch time! I got to school and put in a good 3-hours of good 'ole sitting in the staff room then I come back home!

Actually, on September 5th there is an English speech competition for junior high kids in the region, so I have been helping the two JHS #1 entrants practise their speeches. So really, I do about 1 hours work and 2 hours muck around. It's good because it means that I get paid for doing the small amount of work I have to do, and I'm also having a bit of a holiday/relax on the side! Talk about a sweet deal!

I haven't got any plans for this weekend, which I hope stays that way. I just wanna relax some more, tidy up this place and maybe go to TOM TOM. I have only been there once this week - I think i'm having withdrawl symptoms!! Anyway, that's all for today. Short, but sweet.

My Visitor

2005-08-08T20:09:00.000-07:00

I have a reason as to why i have not updated for a while. I have had a Visitor named Josh come and see me. He came here for 2 weeks. It was great fun. It was even better being able to speak English all the time. Here's a rough outline of what we did:

23 July - Josh arrives just after there is a huge earthquake in Tokyo. We are then stuck at the airport for a couple of hours with no way to leave - trains are stopped, buses are stopped, highway is blocked. We decided to stay at a hotel near the airport for the night and try to escape the following day.

24 July - Everything is back into working order. We leave the hotel, go back to the airport then catch the skyliner train to Ueno, jump on the subway to Ginza and arrive at our hotel in one piece.

25 July - Disneyland. Great fun.

26 July - Shopping at Akihabara

27 July - Shopping in Shinjuku and Shibuya. Dinner in Roppongi with Kate (friend from AUT).

28 July - Disneysea. Even better fun than Disneyland.

29 July - Check out of hotel, catch the subway to Ueno, catch the Super Hitachi to Fukushima.

30 July - Lunch at Yumi's restaurant, participate in Japanese Obondori (festival) and Karaoke with Yumi and her brother.

31 July - Lazy day at my apartment, went to TOM TOM. Dinner with Yoshimi at a yakiniku restaurant in Iwaki.

1 August - Another relaxing day in my apartment.

02 August - Went to Sendai for the day. Did lots of shopping and eating!

03 August - Relaxed at my apartment. Went to Kookai for dinner with Yoshimi.

04 August - Packed up stuff and got ready to go back to Tokyo the next day.

05 August - Went back to Tokyo by super hitachi, then jumped on the subway and went back to stay at the same hotel in Ginza. Went to the Apple store in Ginza where Josh was in heaven.

06 August - Went to Odaiba. Rode the 150metre high ferris wheel, did some shopping, checked out the Toyota car show, spent hours in the games centre. Josh won me 11 toys on the machines that have the toys inside and you have to try grab the with that metal hand. Good times.

07 August - Checked out of the hotel. Did a final bit of shopping (and eating!) in Ginza. Caught the subway to Ueno, jumped on the skyliner for the airport. Checked Josh in, and saw him off. Then jumped back on the skyliner to Ueno, and back on the super hitachi to get back to my apartment by 10pm. phew.

Ok, i think i got most of the basics down. If i remember anything more I'll add it later.

I'm back at Junior High School #1 now. 5 minute walk to school again~! Bliss!

Cough, Cough

2005-07-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

I have ANOTHER cold. This is the 3rd one in 2 months. How is this possible? Each time has been different though - the first one was a full blown cold, with runny nose, sore throat and head aches. The second one was tonsilitis, and this time it's a cough, runny nose and husky voice. AND it's summer here. Retarded. Anyway, I took today off because, although it was a PS day, I had no classes scheduled and was expected to hang in the staff room all day. So I'd rather have not sat at my desk coughing all over the place when I could have easily been at home sleeping.

Saturday, I went to watch the tennis with Yoshimi. It was a friendly match that was supposed to be between JHS #1 and a school from Fukushima City, but JHS #2's teacher found out from the coach and forced them to include the kids from JHS #2. I love JHS #2 kids but I can't stand the teacher in charge of the girls tennis team. She is ultra fake and really really pushy. Anyway, it was really hot and I got a bit sunburnt, and that is when my cold started.

Sunday, I stayed home and relaxed. It was a hot day plus I had my cold. I think we had an earthquake that day. But it was a small one so no damage was down. Monday was a public holiday and I just stayed here and did some stuff for the english speech competition kids. Which brings us to today. I slept most of the day, watch a bit of TV and did a small bit on the speeches but it was hard to concentrate. We had a small earthquake again today, I think. Or maybe I dreamt that one too, I'm not sure.

Tomorrow is the last day of the term so of course, in pure Japanese style, we are having a closing ceremony. We are also having a "drinking" party tomorrow night with the teachers.....we'll see how that goes.

A Strange Feeling...

2005-07-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

This week was my last full week at JHS #2 for this term. I'm having a strange feeling at the moment - I kinda don't want to swap schools! Which is strange because I really love JHS #1 and didnt want to leave there either. I really enjoyed teaching/getting to know the kids at JHS #2 - I have made "friends" with a lot of the kids, so it's kinda sad but as least I will be going back there again. Also, the kids live around this area so i'm sure i'll bump into them sometime.

So last week we had parents day and got to have Monday off. Which was nice but totally mucked up my normal week routine. I was ultra busy with the English speech competition kids this week, at both schools! The English Speech Competition will be held on 5 September but as I am changing schools in August, I have been helping the kids at JHS #1 at the same time. Plus I've been having full days with lessons and assemblys, so I've been having to bring some work home with me....

This week I had my last day of classes at the PS for this term. One of the 5th grade classes gave me a really cute winnie the pooh soft toy because they really enjoyed my lessons. That was really nice and it makes me feel like I'm actually doing an ok job!

I forgot to add this last time: We were practicing "I want to be a __________ like _________" in class last week. For example, I want to be an actor like Johnny Depp. Anyway, one of the girls wrote, i want to be a LADY like JESSICA! Haha, I'm a lady. When Konno-sensei asked why she wanted to be like me, she said it's cos she is always smiling and laughing and is fun! (....but i think she really meant cos i'm so beautiful :P) That made me happy too. I'm going to encourage that! We need more of me!

Tomorrow I'm going to watch the JHS #1 girls play tennis at the local courts with Yoshimi. Sunday, I have no plans yet and Monday is a public holiday so another busy week next week. School finishes on Wednesday so it'll be a short teaching week but the kids still come to school to do club activites so it wont be the last I see of them. They're so hard out. Plus I also have to help with the speeches again. ganbaru wa (i'll try my best!)

Parents Day again....

2005-07-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

Saturday night I went to dinner with Yumi to this great little restaurant in HIRONO (two towns south of here). It was in the middle of nowhere and was totally like an old victorian house inside. We had some really good italian food and the owner gave us extra cake!

Sunday I spent the day lounging around my house - doing cleaning, practising my calligraphy, getting ready for the week. It was really nice not doing anything for a change.

Monday was kinda boring as the kids were getting their test marks back so I didnt have any classes. It was ok though, because i had to prepare my primary school and adult conversation class lessons for the next day.

Tuesday I went to the primary school for the whole day. I had the fifth graders for the first time. They were great fun - their teachers are mega enthusiastic which makes it more fun as they really get into the games. I had lunch with the kids in 5-1 and then played dodgeball with them at lunch time. In the afternoon I went to see the school choir practising - and for kids they are really good! Apparently, it's because they practise all the time.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday were pretty uneventful. Konno-sensei has now taken to calling the third grade boys my "groupies" because they always kidnap me if they see me in the hall and Konno-sensei has to fight to get me back! They're sweet kids though so no-one really gets that mad about it.

Saturday, we had school. It was parents day again. Konno-sensei and I had 3-C's english class which went really well. The kids were enthusiastic and seemed to enjoy the class. We were doing table manners so we did a skit where Konno-sensei served me chocolates and ginger ale. This of course went down well with the kids because they got to eat chocolate in classtime!!

Saturday night, I went to KOOKAI with Anna again for dinner. That place is so cool. The atmosphere is really nice and the staff are really friendly too. We got there at 8pm and left at 1am. Time sure does fly when you're having fun.

Tonight, Yoshimi is coming over for dinner. I'm looking forward to seeing her cos it's been a while since we have hung out. Tomorrow we get a day off cos we went to school on Saturday. I have no plans.....................................yet. Hopefully, nothing will come up and I can just laze around my apartment - I really like to do that!

Test Week, Calligraphy and Karaoke

2005-07-02T14:14:00.000-07:00

This week was test week at the Junior High. Thursday and Friday were two full days of tests for every subject. So I had two relaxing days in the staff room.

Wednesday afternoon I started calligraphy classes with the vice principal and one of the first year classes. I am allowed to join them every week to learn more calligraphy. It's a bit harder than what I thought, but it was fun. Wednesday night I had a bit of a sore throat and when I woke up on Thursday is was still sore and when I looked down there, it was not pretty. So Yumi took me to the doctor and he said that I have tonsilitis. I have some medicine to take but i think that i'm getting better, slowly.

Friday night I went to Kookai ( a bar/restaurant) with 6 of my adult students and Anna. One of the students is going to Niigata-ken for 3 months for his job so we had a "see you later" dinner for him. Afterwards we went to karaoke and sang up a storm. Perhaps this was not the best idea for someone with tonsilitis, but man, was it fun!

This weekend I've finally got no plans! I am looking forward to just chilling out in my apartment for a change. Weather is nice today - not too hot and not too cold. Great day for lazing around the joint.

Next week, I have to go to school for 6 days. We have parents day again on Saturday 9th July....Good thing is though, we get Monday off instead but still...school on Saturday...argh.

Dancing in Sendai and I Love You Part #2

2005-06-27T20:54:00.000-07:00

Last week went by without any major hiccups.

I took the 6th grade kids at PS #2 on Tuesday. One of the kids in one of the classes is half Japanese/half British, but he totally looks like a foreigner. He has brown hair, white skin, freckles and green eyes. I did a double take when I first saw him. The strangest thing is though, he can't speak English so we talk to each other in Japanese. I think that maybe he can understand some stuff because when I was talking he seemed to get the gist of what i was saying, but I dont think he can speak much. It was hard not to keep looking at him but it made me realise how I must look when I'm surrounded by Japanese people.

Thursday I went to the community centre with the 1st year kids and teachers for a tour of the amenties/services available to the people who live/work in Tomioka. There is a huge hall for concerts/plays/movies, a ballet/dance practise room, a tea ceremony room, a tatami japanese style room, library, pottery room, meeting/class rooms, a sound proof room for practising music etc, a computer room and a huge outdoor deck/rest area. It was really interesting and even though i have to go to the community centre for the adult english conversation class, i did not realise there were so many different things/service available. Thursday afternoon, I also took photos with Masato, Yu, Shigeru, Shishido and Satoshi. I had taken my camera to school to take a photo of JHS #2 and they had seen me outside taking the picture. When I came back inside school they came up to me and said "Jessica-sensei, you should take a photo with us." So we went back outside and took a group photo, then we took individual photos with me because they wanted to. Since that happened, everytime I walk past their classrooms or see them in the corridor, they yell out Jessica!! Hello!! Even if they are in class having a lesson with another teacher. They even yell out if I'm in the staff room because as they walk past they check to see if I'm there.....Shigeru is the worst, but Satoshi is not far behind.

Friday began with Shigeru yelling out my name from his classroom as I went to the 2nd year kids class with Konno-sensei. He was like "What is up with that?!?" and started laughing. I told him it's because we all took a photo together and now they think we're all friends. He just laughed some more as he does. (Actually, he kinda reminds me of the doctor from The Simpsons, cos he's got the same kind of laugh, and he always laughs at me even when i'm being serious....) Anyway, after class it was just before school lunch was being served, Masato, Yu, Shishido and Satoshi grabbed me as I was going back to the staff room. They were asking me about some music and translations of some words in different songs when Shigeru came running up and said, Jessica-sensei, suki! (Suki means like/love in Japanese) in front of his friends. Then immediately after that he said Jessica, Rabu...(love but y'know they can't say L or V...). I was like "Thank you." What else am i supposed to say? On the way back to the staff room (Konno-sensei had come to see where I was and why all the 3rd year boys were standing in the corridor) Shigeru came running after me and in front of Konno-sensei, he said, Jessica, I Rabu (love) You! Konno-sensei of course, thought this was great and started laughing, hard. I wish they wouldn't say it in front of him......Konnon-sensei tells everyone.

Saturday, me and Anna went shopping in Iwaki. I got a few clothes, some shoes and a hat. That evening we went to Sendai and did Karaoke and dancing at a place called "Bar, isn't it?" It was great fun, apart from the gross foreign guys who were totally on the prowl for Japanese girls. All the gross foreign guys come here because they can get Japanese girls easily and it makes them feel studly, but we all know its cos they can't get anyone else. Anyway, so we didn't end up getting home until 6am so most of Sunday was spent sleeping. We did go to Uniclo (a reasonably cheap clothing store) and then I came home. It was really really fun, but I did need to go to bed early that night.

Today was uneventful. I am going to do Japanese calligraphy with the first years kids and the vice principal, who is the teacher. I brought my calligraphy set today. It comes in a cute little (fake) leather case and has "calligraphy" written on it (in japanese of course.) Also, I'm finding out about doing Ikebana (flower arranging). Apparently, Mr Arai from the BOE knows a lady who teaches it on Saturdays so I am going to meet her to find out more. I'll keep you posted.

Sports Day and Shopping

2005-06-19T16:54:00.000-07:00

Third week at JSH #2. It turned out to be an easy week because the regional sports meet was held this week on Wednesday and Thursday. Also, I went to the primary school for the whole day on Tuesday so i was only at the junior high two times this week.

Wednesday started out early - I caught the 7am train to meet Konno-sensei (one of the english teachers) at the station close to school then we went to Okuma (the next town up) to watch the volleyball. Konno-sensei is the volleyball coach. Anyway, i had arranged to meet Anna and Katie at Okuma so when they arrived we went to watch Baseball, tennis, softball, and basketball before going back to catch the final game of the volleyball.

Thursday was pretty much the same except i caught the train to Futaba (two towns up from here) to meet Anna to go to the soccer. We picked up Katie on the way and made it in time to see Anna's JHS cream the team they were playing. After that we checked out the table tennis, softball, baseall and finally the tennis before coming home.

Friday was pretty uneventful, except heaps of the kids (and teachers!!)were bummed because they'd lost most of their games. Every week in the Friday Japan Times it has a section which has some type of japanese grammer or kanji or something for foreigners. Anyway, last Friday's one had the phrase, "It doesnt' matter if you won or lost, it's how you played the game." So I used this phrase for all the kids that came and told me that they'd lost and looked like they were gonna cry. They were really happy when I told them that and the soccer coach almost cried when i told him. He said he was very moved!

Yesterday, Yoshimi and I went to Sendai for shopping. It was great fun. We did heaps of shopping, walking and eating. Today I went with Yumi to Haramachi (6 towns up from here) for lunch and a bit of shopping too.

I love You.....

2005-06-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Second week at JHS #2 went by without a hitch, bar the fact that I had my cold. I fell asleep on my desk twice but it was ok because i had free periods what that happened. Love the 3rd graders at the new school. They are friendly and crack me up. I had the following two incidents with the 3rd graders this week:

Incident #1 Blood Type
After class on Wednesday Masato (my secret favourite student. It's a secret because we dont wanna be playing favourites really do we?) came up to me after class with Satoshi and asked me what my blood type was. I said it's B (right mum??) and Satoshi was like yeah! i got it right! and Masato was like awww i got it wrong, I thought you were A, and looked all disappointed. The thing to note here is that in Japan your blood type is apparently connected to your personality. Here is a basic rundown of what each blood types personality characteristics are, just for your information:

Type O:Type O's are outgoing, and very social. They are initiators, although they don't always finish what they start. Creative and popular, they love to be the center of attention and appear very self confident.

Type A:While outwardly calm, they have such high standards (perfectionists) that they tend to be balls of nerves on the inside. Type A's are the most artistic of the blood groups. They can be shy, are conscientious, trustworthy, and sensitive.

Type B:Goal oriented and strong minded, type B's will start a task and continue it until completed, and completed well. Type B's are the individualists of the blood group categories and find their own way in life.

Type AB:Type AB's are the split personalities of the blood groups. They can be both outgoing and shy, confident and timid. While responsible, too much responsibility will cause a problem. They are trustworthy and like to help others.

Compatability by Blood Groups:
A is most compatible with A and AB
B is most compatible with B and AB
AB is most compatible with AB, B, A and O
O is most compatible with O, and AB

Incident #2 "I Love You"
On Friday some kids took the English Proficency Test at school. As one of the english teachers was away that day, I was asked to supervise/administer the exam for the first graders taking level 5. Anyway, because they were taking the first level it was a lot shorter than the other classes so we managed to finish first. I went back to the staff room and on the way I met Sho, who is one of the kids at school who often talks to me about music and stuff. Anyway, he was like "Sensei, why are you still at school?" (it was almost 5pm) and I said "I was helping with the English test. Why are you still here?" He said, "I have something that I have to do." I was like "Well what is it?" because he looked like he was just standing in the corridor doing nothing. He said "I'm looking for love, Sensei." And I was like "What? Love?" and he said "Yes." Then at that moment a girl student came outta the classroom and I said "Well how about her? She's cute isn't she?" and he was like, "No I can't love her." So I said, "Why not?" and he said, "Because, Jessica-sensei, I love You!!" Now the funny thing about this is, this kid is really bad and english and doesnt really like it much but he said I love you in english! Maybe this will motivate him to study english more!

This weekend I hung out at home on Saturday and caught up on laundry and cleaning. Today I went shopping in Namie with Katie (another english teacher). It was fun but it was really, really hot today. I think Summer's acoming..........

JHS #2 and BBQ

2005-06-05T20:41:00.000-07:00

My first week at JHS #2 has finished and i have managed to come out relatively unscathed. The kids and teachers are quite nice and friendly at the moment. A few of the kids from JHS #1 know the kids at JHS #2 so i have managed to get to know a few kids that way. The classes are pretty much the same as at the other school - they use the same textbook anyway.

We had a BBQ at the beach for Anna's (another ALT) at the beach today. It was fun. Some other ALT's came too who i haven't seen since the hanami so that was nice to see them again. Yoshimi came too so we played the fool (as usual.) We're thinking of becoming a comedian duo.

I have caught a cold. It's kinda annoying cos it's really just a runny nose but it's still enough to make me feel crappy. I will have to go to bed soon so that i can get up for school tomorrow. I have two 3rd year classes so i gotta be enthusiastic and happy.

Yokohama and Changing Schools...

2005-05-31T05:18:00.000-07:00

Friday was my last dat at JHS #1 and PS #1. It was fun and a bit sad but at least I am going to go back there in 2 months time. I took some photos with the kids at the JHS. At the PS I had my last class with my favourite 5th grade class. They had made play houses in the gym and asked me to go and see them. So we went there and took a photo together and i signed their "guest books." They also gave me a "key" to their classroom and said come back anytime!! It was cute.

This weekend (27-29 May) I went to Yokohama to see my friend Amanda and her family. They were here on holiday for about 2 weeks. It took just over 4 hours to get from here to where they were staying. This is the hour breakdown:

1) Local Train from Tomioka to Iwaki - 30 minutes
2) Super Hitachi from Iwaki to Ueno - 2 hours 16 minutes
3) Ueno to Yokohama - 55 minutes
4) Yokohama - Apartment - 15 minutes walk

Friday night we had no plans. I didn't arrive until abut 9.45pm anyway so it was kinda late. Saturday morning we went to Atsu's (Amanda's fiance) sister's kids sports day at their school. It was fun - loud and heaps of people. We had lunch with Atsu and his family then we left to take Amanda's father to the station as he was going back to NZ before the rest of the family. After that we went shopping in the station then headed home for lunch. While Atsu had a nap, me, Amanda and her mum went to the games centre and played this taiko drum game for a while then went and had a coffee. After that we went home and got ready to go out for dinner and karaoke for four hours. I sang so much my voice is still cracking when i talk, even now! Sunday I came back to Tomioka, on pretty much the same route as when i went except this time I took the Super Hitachi right to Tomioka.

Monday was my first day at Junior High School #2 and today was my first day at Primary School #2. Things are ok so far. I had an incident however. I was supposed to take the bus to JHS #2 and PS #2 from outside the bank near my house. I was told to take the 7.43am bus which would get me to school by 8am. So i jumped on the bus i was told to take. I take a seat and we start to drive off. The driver then says, where are you going? I said, i'm going to JHS #2. He then said, well this bus doesnt go there y'know. I was like what?? So then he was like well i'll take you to the bus depot then you can walk from there, you know the way right? I was like um no i dont know the way, today is my first day there... So then he drove me to school in his own car because he felt sorry for me! So now i have to take the train to school then if i want i can ride a bike from the station to school (about 5 mins) or i can walk (about 10 mins).

What i dont understand is, first, why did the lady tell us that there was a bus going the route i need to take when there isn't even one? and second, how can there be a bus that only goes one way?

Strange Happenings In the Land of The Rising Sun...

2005-05-23T20:42:00.000-07:00

There have been several strange and baffling things I have noticed since I arrived in Japan. For a country that leads the world with cutting-edge technology they sure are backward when it comes to other things. Please consider the following:

1) The Trip To The Bank

I was taken to the bank to open a bank account and to set up direct payments for bills such as phone, gas, water and power as this is the easiest payment option. Your other option is to go to the post office or bank with cash and pay that way but with limited operating hours it’s apparently difficult to pay bills with cash. Anyway, so we arrive at the bank and walk in. We then take a numbered ticket from the machine at the doorway. We then get a new account form from the teller by (oh my god!) jumping the queue. This form is then filled out for me and we take a seat. Our number is then called. We approach the counter and present the completed form. The teller then tells us to take a seat. She then passes the completed form along with my foreigners card to a person behind her who checks that the form is complete properly. This person, once this check has been passed, then passes the form and ID to ANOTHER person who then proceeds to open my bank account. All this time we are sitting in the waiting area watching this process take place. Once the account has been made it is then returned to the person who checked the ID in the first place to make sure that this is the correct ID and account as it’s quite possible they could’ve lost my ID with all this passing on…(not). It is then passed back to the teller who then calls us back up to the counter to present the account to us. While up there we then apply for a cash card. I am told this will take a week to arrive at my home. I said “One week?!?” and the person I was with said “Yes! Isn’t that quick?” and I was like “Um…..no…..at home we can get it over the counter.” The person I was with just smiled as if to say, yes I’m sure you can.

2) The Trip To The ATM

The ATM’s here are all enclosed in glass rooms with automated doors. When a person is inside the little room no-one else enters. They stand outside to wait for their turn. I went to the ATM by TOM TOM for the first time last week. I went inside the glass room when it was my turn. I noticed a lady standing outside at the right-hand side of the glass room. I thought she was waiting for someone but when I left the room she waited until I had passes her then went into the glass room. Why she stood so far away I do not know. Maybe she thinks I have foreign cooties but the jokes on her cos she’ll get them anyway since I used the machine!

3) Applying for the Internet

As you know, I haven’t had internet for a while. I went on Monday to apply for a reconnection. I went to the same shop that the previous teacher had gone to when she’d had internet thinking that this would be the easiest thing because they would have all her account details etc. Anyway, we get there and are told that we can’t apply for the internet there for 1 or 2 months. Why I do not know. The guy said that we have to apply via the internet and could use the computer that was in the shop. So we fill in the form and then the guy comes to check it. Ok, so you’d think that a guy who works for a store that sells internet connections would know how to fill out a form for his product. Well, he didn’t and it took him a while to work out why it wasn’t being submitted even after I pointed out that there were parts that hadn’t been filled in that need to be. All of a sudden he said, oh you haven’t filled this in….I was like D’uh.

4) Safety Issues

Japanese people appear to be overly safety-conscious at times and extremely loose at other times. For example, when wanting to cross the road you cannot cross unless the green signal is showing, even if there are absolutely NO cars around you MUST wait. However, when we went to Sendai for our school trip, groups of 12 year old kids were let loose in a town that is known as Little Tokyo, to fend for themselves. They had to ride the train, subway and navigate their way around the city by themselves. I don’t understand why their parents weren’t worried about them but panic if they cross the road before the green man appears.

5) Club Activities

Japanese kids join clubs like NZ kids do. They have pretty much the same ones as us - soccer, tennis, music, art etc - but the strange thing i have found is that they have practise everyday after school and on the weekends too but they dont have hardly any games against other schools. The only time they have games seems to be during the summer at the big sports event that was held this week. I dont understand why you'd wanna bust your behind off and stay at school until around 6,7pm each night to practise for no reason. I guess it's because they enjoy it and wanna do well when a game comes around but if you only have a couple of games per YEAR it seems pointless to be to go so hard out. Maybe I'm just lazy but i think it's pointless.

Major Update

2005-05-23T20:39:00.000-07:00

I have not had the internet for a while so I haven’t been able to update my blog. Instead, I have kept a record of what I have been up to on my computer. I’m afraid that this update is going to be quite long and quite summarized. I’ve tried to keep it as to the point as possible and thus it may be slightly boring. For this I apologise.

5th May

Yumi called me today to see if I wanted to go to lunch with her and to this pottery market. We had lunch at Rondonkan – a restaurant that sells “western” cuisine – then went on to the market. There were heaps of people and heaps of pottery. I brought a bowl that has cherry blossom petals painted on it. It’s very cute and there isn’t an imperfection on it even though its hand made.

6th May

School started back today even though it was a Friday. A lot of the teachers and kids were saying that it was dumb having to come to school on Friday but I guess that is how the cookie crumbles. I had a rather uneventful, yet full day - four classes at the junior high, one at the primary school.

That night I went out to dinner with Anna (the previous NZ teacher who did my job), Skye (an Australian ALT who lives in the mountains) and Nicky (An American ALT who is leaving on the 14th). This was Nicky’s farewell party. We went to this bar/restaurant that Nicky goes to a lot for dinner and drinks. We then went to Kookai, another bar/restaurant that is nearby my apartment for dessert.

7th May

Today I went to lunch with Yumi at a restaurant called New China. Funnily enough, it was a Chinese restaurant. Afterwards, we went to Sun Plaza, a shopping mall like TOM TOM but slightly bigger. After shopping, I came back home and started cooking dinner because Yoshimi (Fujiwara-sensei) was coming over for dinner. We had curry and rice and just relaxed and chatted.

8th May

Today, our school girls and boys tennis teams were competing in the community tennis competition. Yoshimi invited me along to watch so I went off to the tennis courts at 10am. The kids were surprising good. Two of our girls teams placed first and second but the boys didn’t place at all.

9th May – 13th May

Weather Report: It has been raining almost everyday this week. Not pouring but continuous light showers. Which means you can still go out but you need your umbrella and you still get a bit wet. It’s also gotten cold again. We are apparently in the beginning of Rainy Season.

School stated back properly this week. A few of the teachers were away for various reasons – off on holiday leave, attending meetings and conferences – so it was quite quiet in the staff room. This week we also had the student council meeting which the teachers had to watch. The kids who are heads of their clubs and different school activites – school newspaper, school radio station etc – presented the years schedule for each activity/club then held an open forum for the rest of the school to ask questions/voice concerns. It was very organized and official.

Yamada-sensei the senior English teacher was away from Monday to Thursday so I had three English classes with a math teacher and the Japanese teacher. As neither of them speak much English, I became the main teacher and they were my assistants. Yamada-sensei had left a list of work for the kids so it was not very hard to do. We also played the time bomb game (see below), which all the kids love. Almost everyday this week I had a full day – four classes at the Junior High and one at the primary school. Yesterday was the only day that I had an afternoon free. So as you can imagine, I was quite tired by the end of the week. Yuichi, one of the kids who I walk home with sometimes, told me yesterday that I had dark rings under my eyes…don’t you just love kids?

The Time Bomb Game

You Will Need:
1x “bomb” (Use a ball or make a fake bomb))
Stopwatch
Cards with English Words or Alphabet Printed on them

How to Play:
Set the stopwatch to x-minutes.
(Usually I start with 3-4 minutes and decrease by one minute each round.)
Decide who will start and give them the “bomb.”
Start the stopwatch timer.
Show the first child a card, if they get the answer right, they pass the “bomb” onto the next child.
Continue through the class until the timer goes off.
The child holding the “bomb” at that time then has to do something.
Examples include: singing the alphabet, self-introduction, spelling their name out using their body to make the letters of their name etc.

Tip: To make the game harder, add another “bomb.”

14th and 15th May

Had a relaxing weekend – did some washing, tidying up and shopping. No major events.

16th-20th May

Our timetable was slightly different again this week as we were having Athletics Day this week. I had 5 classes per day most days this week. I took the 2nd years kids at the primary school for the first time. They are all around 6 or 7 years old. The topic for this week at the primary school was “My Body” so we sang “Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes.” They were very cute and very enthusiastic when we sang the song.

On the 19th we had our school athletics day. In the morning the timetable was as follows:

1st Grade girls – Dodge Ball
1st Grade boys – foot-baseball (a mix of soccer and baseball)
2nd Grade girls – Volley Ball
2nd Grade boys – Baseball
3rd Grade girls – Basketball
3rd Grade boys – Soccer

In the afternoon we had two track events - 1500 metres boys and girls, and 200 metres boys and girls. We also had full class skipping and relay. It was a fun but tiring day.

On the 20th I had a meeting at the Community Centre about the Adult English Classes. They start from 7th June, twice a month for two hours. I am free to do whatever I want but apparently the class representative has expressed that the class would like to learn something to do with the seasons………how I’m going to incorporate that I do not know.

This week I also found out that 27th May is my last day at this junior high and primary school. I will go to Junior High #2 and Primary School #2 from 30th May. I told a few kids – some of them cried a bit and all of them said don’t go……Even when I said that I’ll be back in August they were still like that sucks, don’t go…. I told Fujiwara-sensei what they were saying and she said that I should go back and visit them once in a while. So maybe I’ll show my face there once in a while just to keep everyone happy.

Golden Week

2005-05-04T12:41:00.000-07:00

It's Golden Week this week, which consists of 4 national holidays. As our school was opened on Friday for parent's day despite being a national holiday, we got to have Monday (which was a normal working day)as a holiday instead. School starts back on Friday.

A friend of mine came to stay with me from Sunday to Tuesday. It was a lot of fun - we didn't do much because there really isn't much to do here. But we did have fun hanging out and catching up.

Last night Fujiwara-sensei invited me to go out with her friends and little sister. We went to a chinese for dinner. It was a lot of fun.

Today I've decided to just hang around here and do some housework. Tomorrow I'm meeting Yumi-san for lunch and a bit of shopping in Namie ( a town about 15 minutes drive from here). And on Friday, I'm going out to dinner with some other English teachers around here.

So that's my plan for the next few days. I'll update again next week.

Fire Drills and Parent's Day

2005-04-29T19:14:00.000-07:00

Yesterday we had a practise fire drill. Two firemen came to the school to adminster the drill (or to supervise the teachers pressing the fire alarm button...) and to check for any major fire hazards at the school. Because our school (the junior high), the primary school and the kindergarten are all in the same area, all 3 schools participated in this practise. Anyway, back home when we have a fire drill, we aren't told when it's gonna happen but here everyone knew when it was going to happen and were all ready to go when the alarm went off. And when i say ready, they were literally standing by the "escape" door.

Ok, so here's how the fire drill went in a few sentences:

The alarm goes off, everyone starts "escaping", the kids who are not running get told off. We assemble on the field and the kids from all 3 schools line up in their class lines. The principal says a few words, the fireman says a few words, then the vice pincipal says a few words then we go back to school.

Finish.

Hmm, now that i think about it, that's probably how we'd have a fire drill at home too, apart from the fact that everyone was prepared for this one. It put some variety in my day anyway.

****

Today was Parent's Day. The kids parents came to school at 1pm to watch the 5th period class. We (Fujiwara-sensei and myself )had a first year english class. It was quite good because we also had them in 4th period so we could "practise" the lesson before the parents came. This class is normally really loud and excitable, they really get into the games and lessons we do but when the parents came they were so quiet. It was almost like something had happened as they were all so solemn.

Anyway, it went well, the kids got used to having their parents there and loosened up a bit. They (for some reason) decided that B-U-S should be prounouced boos, instead of bus. Ths funny this is, BUSU (boosoo) means ugly in japanese and someone in the class pointed out that if they were to say the bus is coming, they'd actually end up saying the ugly is coming.... This of course encouraged them even more so now we have a class of first year kids walking around saying i ride the boosoo.....oh dear me.

We're now on holiday for 6 days. This holiday is called golden week because 4 public holidays fall around the same time. We worked today which was actually a public holiday (greenery day) so we get Monday off instead....yatta! (cool!)

Cellphones and Rucky Grobes...

2005-04-25T17:46:00.000-07:00

This weekend i purchased a cell phone. It's a blue one that can take photos, movies, send/recieve email, play music etc etc. I doubt I will ever really know how all the features work but it looks cool and I'm happy. It was cheap too - 4000 yen which is roughly 50 bucks (if you take the exchange rate at 75 yen = $NZ1). The expensive part is that everyone has to be on a contract. Apparently, prepaid phones were introduced into Japan but as they were not very popular they are slowly being fazed out. Anyway, i got the cheapest contract which is around 30 bucks per month, 100 free mins and roughly 100 text messages are included in the price. Of course if you go over, you pay extra so i think that if i'm careful it will work out to be ok.

I also went to the 100yen store with Yumi. It was great - they dont have crappy stuff like out $2 shop does. I got a few things - some paper and notebooks - but i think that i will go back again and get heaps more stuff. We were on a bit of a time limit so we had to hurry a bit but it was still fun and i still managed to get stuff :P

Sunday I just spent relaxing around the apartment - tidied up a bit, did some washing. I went to TOM TOM and met a few of my students who were also killing time by shopping.

Today, I had 3 classes - one from each year. The kids crack me up and I stand at the front of the class room laughing at their pronouciation. I know i shouldn't do that but what can i do when a kid askes me if have have an ararm cock or a rucky grobe? (it's supposed to be alarm clock and lucky glove) They are mostly very eager to learn english and play games but i'm not sure if it's because they want to have the most stickers on their books (they get one for actively participating in class) or if they enjoy it....I'm guessing it's probably not the latter.... I recieved a present today from two of my 3rd year girl students. I had met them at TOM TOM on the weekend and had shown them my new cell phone. They gave me a cell phone strap to put on it because in Japan you can't have a cell phone and not have a strap. Honestly. It's blue and white beads on silver chains. It's actually very cute and very un-kidish. (is that a word....well if not, it is now)

I checked the timetable for this week and we have a practise firedrill scheduled for wednesday or thursday. I asked Fujiwara-sensei what we have to do and she said we have to act scared. So on that note, I think I had better go and practise being scared.

Be Good.

Presents and Speeches....

2005-04-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

On Wednesday evening I recieved a phone call from my supervisor telling me that the Board of Education Committee meeting was going to be held today and that I was required to do a self-introduction. I thought okay, that will be easy until he said that it needed to be more than, "Hi I'm Jessica. I'm from NZ." So I spent Thursday at school during my free periods writing a speech and translating it into Japanese. I had two classes scheduled for this morning but as no-one told me how long I was going to be, I told Yamada-sensei that I might not make it to the classes because I had to go to this meeting. Anyway, to cut a long story short, i got picked up at 9.10am from school, said my speech at 9.12am and was back at school by 9.17am with just enough time to sprint up to the language lab and help take 1A's english class...phew.

The Sendai trip on Tuesday was for the first year students only. The second year students went to Tokyo for the day and the third year students went to Kyoto for 3 days, 2 nights. The third year students arrived back last night and came to school in 3rd period today. They were all very excitable and bursting with gifts and news about their trip. I recieved three presents today - Satomi-chan gave me chocolates, Ritsuko-chan gave me a snoopy cell phone strap and Suzuki-sensei gave me some stickers in exchange for the ones I gave her last week. It was really nice and really unexpected!

Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

2005-04-20T18:40:00.000-07:00

I wasn't going to update on an everyday basis but something funny happened today and I thought i'd share it.

I had one class today at the primary school. The kids were about 9 years old and it was the first time i had taken this class. So I started the lesson with doing a self introduction and talking a bit about New Zealand. Once i had finished, the kids were allowed to ask questions. One boy (he seems to be the class clown) asked me what my favourite colour was. I said blue and he looked at me and said, FINAL ANSWER?? just like on who wants to be a millionaire. It was rather cute and funny. Later, we played a game where the kids had to answer the question the fastest and one girl, who said before the game started "i bet i don't do well", beat 3 people then got really serious about the game and said, "i gotta get my glasses!!" She didn't win the game but she did get a lot faster once she put her glasses on!

Sendai and a little ohanami

2005-04-19T20:43:00.000-07:00

Hanami (cherry blossom viewing) on Sunday.... The general idea is to have a picnic under the cherry blossoms with family, friends, or colleagues. There are a few food stalls and some games, like catching goldfish, but mostly you just relax while viewing the cherry blossoms. Ideally, this should be done on a fine spring day, without a strong spring breeze, or in our case typhoon :P well the wind was so strong and cold that our picnic blanket kept blowing away so we gave up. And that's all I have to say about that.

Today was the school trip to Sendai City. My day started at 5.30am and i was at school by 6.20am. Our scheduled departure was 6.45am and surprisingly enough we managed to depart by 6.40am. After a 3-hour bus ride, we arrived in Sendai City. The kids had been put into groups of 5 and each group had to make an intinerary with the places they wanted to see, what transportation they would use and how long it would take to get to each destination. The groups were then "set free." Us teachers did not have to go with the groups, which I had trouble understanding because the kids we had are all about 12 years old and Sendai City is bigger than Auckland city....The Japanese teachers didn't seem too worried about anything so I thought, well if they aren't worried, i guess I don't need to be. So Fujiwara-sensei, Shiho-sensei and I went to a few of the places on the group's itinerary to make sure the kids were okay, then we went shopping. We didn't have much time so we didn't buy much but I think i will definitely go back for a major shopping spree. Everyone met at 2.30pm at the space museum and then jumped on the bus for anohter 3-hour trip home. We watched Spirited Away on the way home which seemed to calm the kids down. (They had been allowed to eat lollies and junk for a while on the way home which of course made them hyper...) We arrived back at school at 6.15pm to a group of waiting parents and were then able to go home.....

And despite my previous forecast, i did indeed have to go to TOM TOM.....

Welcome

2005-04-16T17:29:00.000-07:00

I will be writing about my adventures here as I am really bad at keeping up to date with emails. I'll try my best to update on a regular basis, no promises though.

Okay, to get you up to speed:

I am in Japan now. I have been here since April 01, 2005. I have been working since April 06, 2005 at a junior high school and a primary school as their ALT. (Assistant Language Teacher). My classes at the junior high just began properly last week. The teachers at the school mostly friendly - I had a whole bunch of stickers I'd brought over with me from NZ for the kids but the female teachers at school went nuts over them. It was indeed a good ice breaker.

The kids at the junior high are great. They say HERO JESHIKA to me everyday. After school, the kids have to clean the school everyday before they go home (sweep the floors, clear out the rubbish bins, clean the toilets....and i thought scab duty at high school was bad...). Anyway, there is a goup of four students who clean the staff room and I have become part of this team. One of the boys in our team is quite hard case. He always tries to speak to me in English (bad english i might add here, but at least he is trying) that makes me laugh. Things like, How is the time? (instead of What is the time?) Do you boyfriend? (i think you get this one) I'm tiREEEEEEDo. (i'm tired...for some reason he likes to roll the "r" in that word....hmmm. Another boy says HERRRRRRRRRRRRRO and rolls the "r" in hello even though there isn't one...go figure.)

Yesterday, I went to TOM TOM (the local (read that ONLY) department store/supermarket) afterschool to get a few supplies. On the way I met 3 of my 3rd grade junior high kids. (they're about 14/15 at this stage so i guess that makes them 3rd/4th form right?) They wanted to go and take some of those sticker photos (purikura in japanese, translates to print club) so we took a bunch of those. They said that they want to take me with them to Karaoke sometime.......it's nearly getting time to break out the mic!

Apart from that I haven't been up to much - we have had 2 small (apparently) earthquakes that shook my apartment like crazy. Nothing was damaged but it was an.....interesting experience to say the least. Tomorrow I'm going Cherry Blossom Viewing (ohanami) with my supervisor and his family. Then on Tuesday, the first years at the junior high school are going to Sendai (a large city north of here) for the day and i've been invited!! yay! no TOM TOM for me on that day, that's for sure. Anyway, i'll update how both of those go next time.

Take Care.

Jess
xxoo