Ah, too cute. Jeff just got a text from our elderly friend Makiko Yamamoto. He had messaged her to say he was unable to come to dinner on the 9th, but that I was still coming. She replied with this message:
Jeff I am regrettable :( Welcome Charly I am waiting for you :) MAKIKO YAMAMOTO.
The Yamamoto's run the English club held in the local town Yuki, that we attend every second Tuesday night. A few week's back, Mikiko dropped in to let us know that she is visiting NZ for a month to attend a language school for two weeks, then stay at my parents for two weeks (she had the dates for me to run by Mum). We were excited about her trip, so she showed us the brochure. We saw it was on the Coromandel and assured her it was a beautiful area, then we noticed with surprise Chris Lawry's (friend who has lived with both Jeff and I. Poor guy, lol) parents in the picture. Of course, it was their new language school! We were laughing with surprise and explained we were very close friends with their son. Such close friends that we would be home for his wedding in October 2012. Then we looked at the dates Mikiko was intending to attend. Yup... October 2012! So we will be in NZ, on the Coromandel, at the same time as our Japanese friend, while she attends language school run by our friends parents! How random! What a small-world moment!!
Ok, class time now so I better skedaddle (yup, Jeff, I did that just to irk you. I managed to put 'skedaddle' into my blog!).
Cheers,
Charly
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Back to it
Not much to say here... Work has started up again - there are FIVE working days this week!
In order to break up the week a bit, we are going bowling with friends tomorrow night. We keep talking about doing things with friends, now that I have an apartment in the city (don't think Tokyo style city :S ), but it's time to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. Starting with going bowling with Gabby and Danny and their toddler.
Actually, their kid is such a crazy situation. Mia/Mya/Mea (take your pic, cos I don't know!) was little more than a baby when they came here last year and is now 2 (or 3?). Her parents are from Montreal, so speak French at home and English when out with friends, but she hadn't started speaking yet when they came to Japan. She has been attending kindy with Japanese children, so now speaks. In Japanese. Which Gabby and Danny don't understand. They originally thought she was speaking babytalk until a Japanese neighbour held a conversation with her and reported back what they had talked about. It's pretty sad for the parents, but great for the child if she can keep up with the Japanese when she returns home.
Now I'm going to pack my bags and head home. I officially finish at 4:05pm but I invariably leave a little later. Somehow I am always ready to leave at cleaning time (4:20ish), so that I look like the lazyarse going home while everyone else cleans (hence my updating now :D ). Not that the Japanese kids version of 'cleaning' seems to involve much more than chatting to friends and hoping the teacher 'supervising' will do their cleaning for them! I know I should get more involved in school life and help out, but it's just another thing on my Should Do list (others on the list include try Kendo, start exercising, finish decorating my classroom, join the tennis club and do some Japanese study...). It's a fairly long list and I'm going to need a motivated day to get on top of it.
Hope you are all doing well and you enjoy the more socially acceptable blog length today!
In order to break up the week a bit, we are going bowling with friends tomorrow night. We keep talking about doing things with friends, now that I have an apartment in the city (don't think Tokyo style city :S ), but it's time to stop talking the talk and start walking the walk. Starting with going bowling with Gabby and Danny and their toddler.
Actually, their kid is such a crazy situation. Mia/Mya/Mea (take your pic, cos I don't know!) was little more than a baby when they came here last year and is now 2 (or 3?). Her parents are from Montreal, so speak French at home and English when out with friends, but she hadn't started speaking yet when they came to Japan. She has been attending kindy with Japanese children, so now speaks. In Japanese. Which Gabby and Danny don't understand. They originally thought she was speaking babytalk until a Japanese neighbour held a conversation with her and reported back what they had talked about. It's pretty sad for the parents, but great for the child if she can keep up with the Japanese when she returns home.
Now I'm going to pack my bags and head home. I officially finish at 4:05pm but I invariably leave a little later. Somehow I am always ready to leave at cleaning time (4:20ish), so that I look like the lazyarse going home while everyone else cleans (hence my updating now :D ). Not that the Japanese kids version of 'cleaning' seems to involve much more than chatting to friends and hoping the teacher 'supervising' will do their cleaning for them! I know I should get more involved in school life and help out, but it's just another thing on my Should Do list (others on the list include try Kendo, start exercising, finish decorating my classroom, join the tennis club and do some Japanese study...). It's a fairly long list and I'm going to need a motivated day to get on top of it.
Hope you are all doing well and you enjoy the more socially acceptable blog length today!
Friday, September 23, 2011
Osaka weekend
It may have come to your attention that I have not posted anything in the last week - apologies. Here in Japan it is what's known as Silver week - two three day weekends in a row, meaning a working week of only three days :)
Currently it's Saturday on the second of these long weekends. Last weekend we headed up to Osaka on the shinkansen. It's funny, we always assume there will be plenty to do in cities. Then we remember that a) their shops usually sell things we can't fit/don't use, b) we don't understand the signs on any tourist attractions/places we bump into and c) there is only a finite amount we can eat. Well, that Jeff can eat :D
However, we tested the limits of how much you can eat (apparently it's the done thing in Osaka!), trying butaman (steamed pork buns), Osaka-style okinomiyaki (cabbage pancake), takoyaki (octopus balls), omi rice (omelette with rice), pumpkin flavoured icecream, 'Freshness Burger', frozen yoghurt from Partyland yoghurt store and, er, Subway.
Our hotel turned out to be a worry from start to finish. I had booked online, but when we got there they had no record of my booking. I wanted to jump online and print off my booking info so I could show them, because I was concerned about double booking and they had my credit card details. However, the computer in the lobby wasn't working and we hadn't brought our own with us this time. Throughout this, the minimal English spoken by the staff made things more difficult (usually in big cities hotel staff speak English, we have found). After a lot of hassle they finally got us booked into a room and took our luggage.
When we returned that evening to actually check in, we went up to our room and were hit with the stench of old cigarette smoke. We went back downstairs and insisted on a NON smoking room! Although the room was even smaller than the smoking room, which in turn was smaller than any previous Japanese hotel room we have stayed in, we settled in for the weekend.
That evening, tired from the day's travel and walking in the heat, we got our takoyaki and took it back to our room. We figured we could watch a movie on the entertainment channel while we ate dinner and relaxed in our 'huge' bed. You may see where this is going but... our 1000 yen card for the entertainment channel allowed us access to three porn channels and one fuzzy music channel featuring J-pop. Awesome. So... the front desk got ANOTHER visit from the annoyed foreigner, demanding money back for the crappy pay TV card!
The next morning we headed out to the Osaka aquarium, excited about seeing the resident whale shark. Ah, foolish foolish tourists. Midday on a long weekend in Silver week? What were we thinking?? We spent what seemed like days (but was probably the best part of an hour) queuing up outside in the hot sun (we are talking well over 30 degrees here) before we even got in the door. Inside was only better because there was shade - we were still crushed on all sides by children, parents, grandparents and strollers. Jeff was still getting cranky with people pushing him and I was still moaning about the sweat trickling down the back of my legs.
BUT the good news is that by the time we reached the whale shark in all his awesomeness, the crowd had thinned out some and we had plenty of quality viewing time. Also, less publicised but equally exciting, was the huge manta ray also gliding around the tank. They were both truly amazing.
While we were watching them, a diver came into the ray tank to handfeed some of the smaller fish, sharks and rays in there. Although the manta ray didn't seem interested, there were two huge stingrays that were very, very interested in him (or her?). They both had a diameter the length of the diver and he spent his whole time pushing them away, trying not to be a stingray sandwich. With the limited visibility provided by goggles, he wouldn't realise where they were until a flipper kicked the ray beneath him and the tip of a wing caressed his face from above. The way he pushed them off was like a teacher scolding well-meaning but boisterous children. You could almost see him clucking his tongue.
Other exciting moments at the aquarium were seeing sea otters (huge!), dolphins (bit sad in their small pool) amd, our personal favourite, watching huge deep sea crabs fighting. Jeff alerted me to it by telling me to 'go and watch War of the Worlds over there'.
So we learnt two important lessons. Moral one: don't go to big tourist attractions on national holidays. Moral two: but if you go to Osaka, you must visit the aqaurium. Even if it is a national holiday.
Now it's lunchtime and time for us to prepare our supplies for watching the game. Yup, I am actually going to watch a rugby game of my own free will. Well, I think I will watch it. I intend to watch it. Maybe I will read a magazine while I watch it... we will see. But being overseas while all the World Cup hysteria goes on has made us rather homesick, so we have beer and chips and WILL watch the game!
Hope you are all doing well and - for the people back home - enjoying the rugby madness!!
Currently it's Saturday on the second of these long weekends. Last weekend we headed up to Osaka on the shinkansen. It's funny, we always assume there will be plenty to do in cities. Then we remember that a) their shops usually sell things we can't fit/don't use, b) we don't understand the signs on any tourist attractions/places we bump into and c) there is only a finite amount we can eat. Well, that Jeff can eat :D
However, we tested the limits of how much you can eat (apparently it's the done thing in Osaka!), trying butaman (steamed pork buns), Osaka-style okinomiyaki (cabbage pancake), takoyaki (octopus balls), omi rice (omelette with rice), pumpkin flavoured icecream, 'Freshness Burger', frozen yoghurt from Partyland yoghurt store and, er, Subway.
Our hotel turned out to be a worry from start to finish. I had booked online, but when we got there they had no record of my booking. I wanted to jump online and print off my booking info so I could show them, because I was concerned about double booking and they had my credit card details. However, the computer in the lobby wasn't working and we hadn't brought our own with us this time. Throughout this, the minimal English spoken by the staff made things more difficult (usually in big cities hotel staff speak English, we have found). After a lot of hassle they finally got us booked into a room and took our luggage.
When we returned that evening to actually check in, we went up to our room and were hit with the stench of old cigarette smoke. We went back downstairs and insisted on a NON smoking room! Although the room was even smaller than the smoking room, which in turn was smaller than any previous Japanese hotel room we have stayed in, we settled in for the weekend.
That evening, tired from the day's travel and walking in the heat, we got our takoyaki and took it back to our room. We figured we could watch a movie on the entertainment channel while we ate dinner and relaxed in our 'huge' bed. You may see where this is going but... our 1000 yen card for the entertainment channel allowed us access to three porn channels and one fuzzy music channel featuring J-pop. Awesome. So... the front desk got ANOTHER visit from the annoyed foreigner, demanding money back for the crappy pay TV card!
The next morning we headed out to the Osaka aquarium, excited about seeing the resident whale shark. Ah, foolish foolish tourists. Midday on a long weekend in Silver week? What were we thinking?? We spent what seemed like days (but was probably the best part of an hour) queuing up outside in the hot sun (we are talking well over 30 degrees here) before we even got in the door. Inside was only better because there was shade - we were still crushed on all sides by children, parents, grandparents and strollers. Jeff was still getting cranky with people pushing him and I was still moaning about the sweat trickling down the back of my legs.
BUT the good news is that by the time we reached the whale shark in all his awesomeness, the crowd had thinned out some and we had plenty of quality viewing time. Also, less publicised but equally exciting, was the huge manta ray also gliding around the tank. They were both truly amazing.
While we were watching them, a diver came into the ray tank to handfeed some of the smaller fish, sharks and rays in there. Although the manta ray didn't seem interested, there were two huge stingrays that were very, very interested in him (or her?). They both had a diameter the length of the diver and he spent his whole time pushing them away, trying not to be a stingray sandwich. With the limited visibility provided by goggles, he wouldn't realise where they were until a flipper kicked the ray beneath him and the tip of a wing caressed his face from above. The way he pushed them off was like a teacher scolding well-meaning but boisterous children. You could almost see him clucking his tongue.
Other exciting moments at the aquarium were seeing sea otters (huge!), dolphins (bit sad in their small pool) amd, our personal favourite, watching huge deep sea crabs fighting. Jeff alerted me to it by telling me to 'go and watch War of the Worlds over there'.
So we learnt two important lessons. Moral one: don't go to big tourist attractions on national holidays. Moral two: but if you go to Osaka, you must visit the aqaurium. Even if it is a national holiday.
Now it's lunchtime and time for us to prepare our supplies for watching the game. Yup, I am actually going to watch a rugby game of my own free will. Well, I think I will watch it. I intend to watch it. Maybe I will read a magazine while I watch it... we will see. But being overseas while all the World Cup hysteria goes on has made us rather homesick, so we have beer and chips and WILL watch the game!
Hope you are all doing well and - for the people back home - enjoying the rugby madness!!
Thursday, September 15, 2011
My sister is a God. Bow down.
I feel the need to share a link here. Why? Because my sister is freaking amazing. I'm thinking about starting a Laura Draper Appreciation Group on facebook. If you don't already agree, watch this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekD6E5lKVYE
Man I wish I was as cool as my little sister!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ekD6E5lKVYE
Man I wish I was as cool as my little sister!!!!!
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Badass teacher??
Hey there,
I'm feeling a bit quiet on it today. Yesterday was sports day. And it was at least 33 degrees :S I feel like a wuss because I wasn't even doing sports (and by sports I mean tug of war, dancing and obscure games with fighting over sticks or caps). I spent most of the day hiding under a shady tent, with a cap and sunglasses. I only emerged to join in the folk dancing a couple of times. So I feel bad making the students study, knowing I'm only getting by because I've taken painkillers for my headache!
Anyway, I am a teacher here, ergo I require the students to study. Which generally they do, when they're not asleep. But today I had a class where two girls were continually chatting instead of doing their worksheets. Every time I came past I told them to stop talking and do the worksheet, but they only had the answers I had helped them with, while a number of students were finished and waiting. Yet, even as I tried to tell them to work, one of the girls kept trying to point out something about me to her friend - probably my not-in-the-lobe earring that they seem to love. All I caught was 'kawaii' (cute). Although I'm sure she had the best intentions, it was very irritating to have the students focusing on my physical attributes and/or jewellery when I needed them to catch up to the rest of the class! I was very clearly annoyed at her doing it, but she didn't seem to get it. She didn't seem the brightest bunny in the box. About the third time I came past them with empty sheets, I lost patience and moved them to seperate seats at the back of the room. As I write it, imagining it back home, it seems like nothing, a very standard teacher response to dealing with chatty students (I should know all about it!! I still feel bad for Mr Beach!). However here they have a very different teacher-student relationship.
Afterwards the teacher wanted to know why I had moved them and I felt a need to make my case as to why I felt it was necessary. Perhaps it was less how he asked and more about me, because I have already had my supervisor (grumpy as hell to adults, but can't - or won't - discipline his students) ask me to discipline students 'gently'. I don't really care what my supervisor thinks of my teaching, but I don't want it going around the office that I'm innappropriately rough on the students. So now I feel odd. But when the only discipline I've done all week is move two students seats, that's pretty good, really. I'm so torn... I'm not the kind of person to let the students run over me, but I also know I make my life much harder if I scare them too much. I figure, though, that 16 yr olds probably learn pretty fast - I doubt I will have to move those girls again for a while, now they know I will do something about it if they don't knuckle down.
Bah, it's so hard adjusting from NZ classroom behaviour expectations to Japanese ones!
Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Hope you're all doing well :D
Charly
I'm feeling a bit quiet on it today. Yesterday was sports day. And it was at least 33 degrees :S I feel like a wuss because I wasn't even doing sports (and by sports I mean tug of war, dancing and obscure games with fighting over sticks or caps). I spent most of the day hiding under a shady tent, with a cap and sunglasses. I only emerged to join in the folk dancing a couple of times. So I feel bad making the students study, knowing I'm only getting by because I've taken painkillers for my headache!
Anyway, I am a teacher here, ergo I require the students to study. Which generally they do, when they're not asleep. But today I had a class where two girls were continually chatting instead of doing their worksheets. Every time I came past I told them to stop talking and do the worksheet, but they only had the answers I had helped them with, while a number of students were finished and waiting. Yet, even as I tried to tell them to work, one of the girls kept trying to point out something about me to her friend - probably my not-in-the-lobe earring that they seem to love. All I caught was 'kawaii' (cute). Although I'm sure she had the best intentions, it was very irritating to have the students focusing on my physical attributes and/or jewellery when I needed them to catch up to the rest of the class! I was very clearly annoyed at her doing it, but she didn't seem to get it. She didn't seem the brightest bunny in the box. About the third time I came past them with empty sheets, I lost patience and moved them to seperate seats at the back of the room. As I write it, imagining it back home, it seems like nothing, a very standard teacher response to dealing with chatty students (I should know all about it!! I still feel bad for Mr Beach!). However here they have a very different teacher-student relationship.
Afterwards the teacher wanted to know why I had moved them and I felt a need to make my case as to why I felt it was necessary. Perhaps it was less how he asked and more about me, because I have already had my supervisor (grumpy as hell to adults, but can't - or won't - discipline his students) ask me to discipline students 'gently'. I don't really care what my supervisor thinks of my teaching, but I don't want it going around the office that I'm innappropriately rough on the students. So now I feel odd. But when the only discipline I've done all week is move two students seats, that's pretty good, really. I'm so torn... I'm not the kind of person to let the students run over me, but I also know I make my life much harder if I scare them too much. I figure, though, that 16 yr olds probably learn pretty fast - I doubt I will have to move those girls again for a while, now they know I will do something about it if they don't knuckle down.
Bah, it's so hard adjusting from NZ classroom behaviour expectations to Japanese ones!
Anyway, I just wanted to get that off my chest.
Hope you're all doing well :D
Charly
Monday, September 12, 2011
A day of highs and lows...
Hey there,
Second post in a day! Guess that's what a desk job does to you! Actually I'm now at home fighting to keep my eyelids open, but I feel the desire to tell about my slightly crazy day.
The morning way pretty normal - staff meeting, two classes, some photocopying, etc. Other than the fact in the second class we spent the latter portion with the students teaching me a folk dance (named the Oklahoma mixup or something similarly traditional Japanese...).
After lunch the same teacher had organised for one of the PE teachers to also run me through the dance (I was under strict instructions to say the students taught me at LUNCHTIME, not during class!). That was a nice thought, but I fear the English teacher forgot the overwhelming seriousness of people who have sport as a way of life. Not only was I put through my paces on not just one but two different dances, but poor Wasada-sensei was too! She had only meant to take me down to the weights room to introduce me to the teacher, but she got roped into helping as my alternate partner, until finally the PE teacher decided I had the hang of the steps, so she focused on making sure Wasada-sensei got it too! We were both super sweaty and giggling by the time the PE teacher decided we were up to scratch and our dance lesson ended.
At the end of the lesson, as we passed through the PE teachers office, I finally gave myself the mental kick up the bum I've needed for a long time and asked about trying Kendo. The other teacher - a fresh-faced guy who turned 23 today - was one of the Kendo teachers, so he invited me to come along at 4pm to watch the students training.
That all sounded like fun and I was very excited, but just before 4pm I discovered the sapphire had come out of my engagement ring. I discovered this about ten minutes after the students had finished cleaning the school. I paled to think of my sapphire (ok, I'll put it out there, it's worth over a grand) in the bottom of a vaccuum cleaner or thrown into a bin by some student who made the safe assumption it was plastic. I remembered knocking my ring on the fan in Jinseki yesterday, but couldn't recall actually looking at the stone all day, so I had no idea when it would have come out. This meant it could have been in Jinseki, in my car, on any one of the four levels at school or down the drain from washing my hands. My response was the only suitable one - panic. Unfortunately, in one of those horrible bad timing situations, I found my stone was missing seconds before I was due to have my picture taken for the school magazine, so in my permenant school photo I will be looking like a startled rabbit, trying not to cry!
So I then spent a good while going up and down stairs, crawling round my classroom on my hands and knees and sticking my finger down the bathroom sink when I thought the students weren't looking (there was gunk. Gross, but it was plausible it could have caught my ring).
Finally, almost half an hour after I had promised to be at Kendo, I dragged the Kendo teacher out of practise to make him unlock the weights room for me, where we had been dancing. The Kendo teacher and I both did a couple of circles of the room looking for it and I had actually shrugged and said it wasn't here, we might as well lock up again, when I saw a small blue thing glinting in the centre of the wooden floor. Turns out the problem with circling the room is you don't check the middle! I was so happy to have it back I very almost hugged the teacher. Only, as I didn't even know his name yet and we had only met that afternoon, I didn't think it was the best way to make him feel comfortable round his new student. Instead I was so happy that - after a quick phone call to tell Jeff it was ok, it was FOUND - I went and spent almost two hours watching and talking to the Kendo students.
Now my Wednesday is truely a cultural experience. I will have Sports Festival, where I will be performing two American-style folk dances with hundreds of Japanese students, followed by my first Kendo lesson, where I can safely assume I will be hit over the head repeatedly with a bamboo sword (turns out that's what Kendo is!).
Next step is to also try Japanese archery (kyudo, I think it's called. Done with bows significantly taller than the students - a truly elegant sport) and tennis. Yes, you heard me, tennis. My theory is that if I'm making an ass of myself with my lack of Japanese and my lack of ability in traditional Japanese sports, I'm unlikely to make myself look any worse trying a sport we have at home. This could be my chance to stop being quite such a sporting retard... Of course, these are big words. Jeff keeps laughing at me for being so 'first year', with my excess of enthusiasm and plans to get involved in everything. So I'm not swearing on my hamster's life or anything, just telling y'all of my intentions...
Cheers,
Charly
Second post in a day! Guess that's what a desk job does to you! Actually I'm now at home fighting to keep my eyelids open, but I feel the desire to tell about my slightly crazy day.
The morning way pretty normal - staff meeting, two classes, some photocopying, etc. Other than the fact in the second class we spent the latter portion with the students teaching me a folk dance (named the Oklahoma mixup or something similarly traditional Japanese...).
After lunch the same teacher had organised for one of the PE teachers to also run me through the dance (I was under strict instructions to say the students taught me at LUNCHTIME, not during class!). That was a nice thought, but I fear the English teacher forgot the overwhelming seriousness of people who have sport as a way of life. Not only was I put through my paces on not just one but two different dances, but poor Wasada-sensei was too! She had only meant to take me down to the weights room to introduce me to the teacher, but she got roped into helping as my alternate partner, until finally the PE teacher decided I had the hang of the steps, so she focused on making sure Wasada-sensei got it too! We were both super sweaty and giggling by the time the PE teacher decided we were up to scratch and our dance lesson ended.
At the end of the lesson, as we passed through the PE teachers office, I finally gave myself the mental kick up the bum I've needed for a long time and asked about trying Kendo. The other teacher - a fresh-faced guy who turned 23 today - was one of the Kendo teachers, so he invited me to come along at 4pm to watch the students training.
That all sounded like fun and I was very excited, but just before 4pm I discovered the sapphire had come out of my engagement ring. I discovered this about ten minutes after the students had finished cleaning the school. I paled to think of my sapphire (ok, I'll put it out there, it's worth over a grand) in the bottom of a vaccuum cleaner or thrown into a bin by some student who made the safe assumption it was plastic. I remembered knocking my ring on the fan in Jinseki yesterday, but couldn't recall actually looking at the stone all day, so I had no idea when it would have come out. This meant it could have been in Jinseki, in my car, on any one of the four levels at school or down the drain from washing my hands. My response was the only suitable one - panic. Unfortunately, in one of those horrible bad timing situations, I found my stone was missing seconds before I was due to have my picture taken for the school magazine, so in my permenant school photo I will be looking like a startled rabbit, trying not to cry!
So I then spent a good while going up and down stairs, crawling round my classroom on my hands and knees and sticking my finger down the bathroom sink when I thought the students weren't looking (there was gunk. Gross, but it was plausible it could have caught my ring).
Finally, almost half an hour after I had promised to be at Kendo, I dragged the Kendo teacher out of practise to make him unlock the weights room for me, where we had been dancing. The Kendo teacher and I both did a couple of circles of the room looking for it and I had actually shrugged and said it wasn't here, we might as well lock up again, when I saw a small blue thing glinting in the centre of the wooden floor. Turns out the problem with circling the room is you don't check the middle! I was so happy to have it back I very almost hugged the teacher. Only, as I didn't even know his name yet and we had only met that afternoon, I didn't think it was the best way to make him feel comfortable round his new student. Instead I was so happy that - after a quick phone call to tell Jeff it was ok, it was FOUND - I went and spent almost two hours watching and talking to the Kendo students.
Now my Wednesday is truely a cultural experience. I will have Sports Festival, where I will be performing two American-style folk dances with hundreds of Japanese students, followed by my first Kendo lesson, where I can safely assume I will be hit over the head repeatedly with a bamboo sword (turns out that's what Kendo is!).
Next step is to also try Japanese archery (kyudo, I think it's called. Done with bows significantly taller than the students - a truly elegant sport) and tennis. Yes, you heard me, tennis. My theory is that if I'm making an ass of myself with my lack of Japanese and my lack of ability in traditional Japanese sports, I'm unlikely to make myself look any worse trying a sport we have at home. This could be my chance to stop being quite such a sporting retard... Of course, these are big words. Jeff keeps laughing at me for being so 'first year', with my excess of enthusiasm and plans to get involved in everything. So I'm not swearing on my hamster's life or anything, just telling y'all of my intentions...
Cheers,
Charly
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Osaka in five nights!
I realised in the weekend that we have two three-day weekends coming up and no plans, so I have booked Jeff and I a hotel in Osaka for Friday-Monday. We have no definate plans other than visiting the aquarium (zoos and aquariums are always top of our list!). As it's still very (very!) warm, we intend to spend most of the day in air-conditioning, eg. our hotels or shopping malls, only emerging outside once the sun goes down. Cities are good for this type of thing. We have only spent one night in Osaka before, so it's very exciting! Bar hopping and shops with English, here we come!! :D
Tuesday, September 6, 2011
New job resolutions
To continue with my new resolution to write more often, I thought I would do a quick update now. Not that a lot has happened in the last 24 hours, but little and often is probably preferable for all concerned :)
Last night Jeff and I went to the adult English class that we help out with in Yuki. It took the cake as the most awkward class yet and I was so grateful to have Jeff there too. Only four of the seven regulars turned up, one of which, Tokura-sensei, seemed to be off form. Granted, he is 80-something, but he didn't actually face in our direction all lesson. In my language course in Hiroshima a couple of weeks ago we did an exercise in calling on the telephone, which we practised by sitting back-to-back. I got the shock of my life when I realised how much of my 'understanding Japanese' is actually understanding body language! As such, I was really concerned by this old bloke not even looking our way all lesson. So... I believe Jeff and I were less than useful in that lesson, but at least we showed up to help. And Tokura-sensei gave us apples :) He always gives us something, but my favourite is when he gives us big, delicious apples off his apple tree.
In other news... I have finally submitted my new car contract (under my name, not Jeff's) to my school, so HOPEFULLY they will now officially allow me to drive to work. It has been an on-going saga because a) I work on Tuesdays at a different school, which the ALT traditionally takes the train to and b) I'm the first ALT in this position to have a car and a reason to drive (the other school is 40 minutes closer to Jinseki than my base school). Over the last month and a bit I have been continually asked to come down to the office to answer questions about my car and show relevant paperwork. This is a problem because even if I did understand the requests in Japanese, it's a hire car so I don't have any of the paperwork. Finally I convinced them to just call the hire company and that sorted most of the issues. Until they came back to me and said that I needed a new contract under my name. Originally it was under Jeff's name because it was through his work, he had the bank account and pay cheque and I was on a Dependent's visa. But now my school decided that despite the fact I've been covered for insurance for the last year driving that car, they can't possibly 'allow' me to drive it without it being under my name. I feel so bad for the lovely couple who run Jinseki Motors - they have had so many requests from my school for paperwork and information. I don't say this lightly, but they actually deserve some of the NZ chocolate Mum brought over. Yup, they are THAT lovely.
Actually, I got a fright when I went in yesterday afternoon. When we first hired the car, the wife was heavily pregnant and over the year I've 'conversed' a few times with her baby while he lay next to the cat on the couch. But yesterday when I went in, he was walking around the office, pulling the cat's whiskers and repeatedly falling out the door. He has a shock of dark hair that sticks straight up (if you haven't seen Japanese babies, their hair has to be seen to be believed!) and he was grinning at me as he used my trousers to support himself while he attempted to follow the cat. His Mum said he would be one next week. I know that time frame makes sense, but seeing how big and capable he is now really brought it home how long we have lived in Japan! When I told Jeff about it, he pointed out it will be the same for Jason and Shelley's wee one, when we next make it home (for Holly's wedding!). There's nothing like baby pictures to show how time is passing!
Now I better stop procrastinating and mark some more My Dream essays (*sigh*) or plan Friday's lesson. The weather here is finally starting to cool down - at 6am this morning I had to put on a sweatshirt for the first time in months! Hope you are also experiencing more pleasant weather. Japan has taught me to dislike weather extremes!
Cheers,
Charly
Last night Jeff and I went to the adult English class that we help out with in Yuki. It took the cake as the most awkward class yet and I was so grateful to have Jeff there too. Only four of the seven regulars turned up, one of which, Tokura-sensei, seemed to be off form. Granted, he is 80-something, but he didn't actually face in our direction all lesson. In my language course in Hiroshima a couple of weeks ago we did an exercise in calling on the telephone, which we practised by sitting back-to-back. I got the shock of my life when I realised how much of my 'understanding Japanese' is actually understanding body language! As such, I was really concerned by this old bloke not even looking our way all lesson. So... I believe Jeff and I were less than useful in that lesson, but at least we showed up to help. And Tokura-sensei gave us apples :) He always gives us something, but my favourite is when he gives us big, delicious apples off his apple tree.
In other news... I have finally submitted my new car contract (under my name, not Jeff's) to my school, so HOPEFULLY they will now officially allow me to drive to work. It has been an on-going saga because a) I work on Tuesdays at a different school, which the ALT traditionally takes the train to and b) I'm the first ALT in this position to have a car and a reason to drive (the other school is 40 minutes closer to Jinseki than my base school). Over the last month and a bit I have been continually asked to come down to the office to answer questions about my car and show relevant paperwork. This is a problem because even if I did understand the requests in Japanese, it's a hire car so I don't have any of the paperwork. Finally I convinced them to just call the hire company and that sorted most of the issues. Until they came back to me and said that I needed a new contract under my name. Originally it was under Jeff's name because it was through his work, he had the bank account and pay cheque and I was on a Dependent's visa. But now my school decided that despite the fact I've been covered for insurance for the last year driving that car, they can't possibly 'allow' me to drive it without it being under my name. I feel so bad for the lovely couple who run Jinseki Motors - they have had so many requests from my school for paperwork and information. I don't say this lightly, but they actually deserve some of the NZ chocolate Mum brought over. Yup, they are THAT lovely.
Actually, I got a fright when I went in yesterday afternoon. When we first hired the car, the wife was heavily pregnant and over the year I've 'conversed' a few times with her baby while he lay next to the cat on the couch. But yesterday when I went in, he was walking around the office, pulling the cat's whiskers and repeatedly falling out the door. He has a shock of dark hair that sticks straight up (if you haven't seen Japanese babies, their hair has to be seen to be believed!) and he was grinning at me as he used my trousers to support himself while he attempted to follow the cat. His Mum said he would be one next week. I know that time frame makes sense, but seeing how big and capable he is now really brought it home how long we have lived in Japan! When I told Jeff about it, he pointed out it will be the same for Jason and Shelley's wee one, when we next make it home (for Holly's wedding!). There's nothing like baby pictures to show how time is passing!
Now I better stop procrastinating and mark some more My Dream essays (*sigh*) or plan Friday's lesson. The weather here is finally starting to cool down - at 6am this morning I had to put on a sweatshirt for the first time in months! Hope you are also experiencing more pleasant weather. Japan has taught me to dislike weather extremes!
Cheers,
Charly
Sunday, September 4, 2011
Sorry!!
Hey people,
Ok, no promises of greatness for this post! I know I've been shite at updating lately, but the last couple of months have been crazy.
After our Fuji climb we had my parents arrive. They lived with me in my Kurashiki apartment for a bit until Jeff and I went up to Sapporo, Hokkaido, for a week of holiday (it was awesome. Beer, beer and more beer!). In August I spent the first week in Tokyo training, the next week we both had training in Hiroshima and the third week Mum left and I had a lanaguage camp in Saijo (look out for my youtube debut as the Japanese-speaking nurse!). The following week my classes started and I have been busy trying to get my head round the new workplace, signing paperwork for god-knows-what and driving back and forth between the new Fukuyama apartment and our big place in Jinseki.
Things are starting to settle down finally, as I'm into the third week of school. I spent Sunday night marking 64 'My Dream' essays, which included one which was a page explaining how the student wanted to be a sports sweat shirt. I don't think he was taking the piss, so I have no idea what he actually wanted to be...
Anyway, for the future, this is a list of things I should give you more details of when I find the time:
* Climbing Fuji
* Our Sapporo holiday
* Was going to say our training in Hiroshima. But suffice it to say that we met, we trained and we got horrifically drunk. If you're not sure what kind of party scene to imagine here, let's just say that there was a DANCE FLOOR. The first one I have seen in Japan. So things may have got a little crazy. At least we weren't like one new JET, who woke up at 3am under the bar with two broken ribs and no recollection of how it happened. We were not that crazy. But Jeff was drunk enough to dance and I was drunk enough to ask Jeff why our (Japanese-speaking) friend was talking about eating first year students. Turns out she was talking about teaching first year students about food. Hey, I was half right.
That's not a super long list, so I'm hoping I will get around to giving you a more comprehensive rundown of those two. I keep encouraging Jeff to write something on here, but he is resistant. Although he may not have my self-indulgent turn of phrase, he has a much more accurate memory than me and doesn't change smaller details to make the story run smoother ;) I blame my travel writing paper at Massey, which clearly taught us to sacrifice details for the good of the story!!
Apologies that this is neither thorough nor informative, but hopefully it will be something to tide y'all over until I get back into this!!
Charly
Ok, no promises of greatness for this post! I know I've been shite at updating lately, but the last couple of months have been crazy.
After our Fuji climb we had my parents arrive. They lived with me in my Kurashiki apartment for a bit until Jeff and I went up to Sapporo, Hokkaido, for a week of holiday (it was awesome. Beer, beer and more beer!). In August I spent the first week in Tokyo training, the next week we both had training in Hiroshima and the third week Mum left and I had a lanaguage camp in Saijo (look out for my youtube debut as the Japanese-speaking nurse!). The following week my classes started and I have been busy trying to get my head round the new workplace, signing paperwork for god-knows-what and driving back and forth between the new Fukuyama apartment and our big place in Jinseki.
Things are starting to settle down finally, as I'm into the third week of school. I spent Sunday night marking 64 'My Dream' essays, which included one which was a page explaining how the student wanted to be a sports sweat shirt. I don't think he was taking the piss, so I have no idea what he actually wanted to be...
Anyway, for the future, this is a list of things I should give you more details of when I find the time:
* Climbing Fuji
* Our Sapporo holiday
* Was going to say our training in Hiroshima. But suffice it to say that we met, we trained and we got horrifically drunk. If you're not sure what kind of party scene to imagine here, let's just say that there was a DANCE FLOOR. The first one I have seen in Japan. So things may have got a little crazy. At least we weren't like one new JET, who woke up at 3am under the bar with two broken ribs and no recollection of how it happened. We were not that crazy. But Jeff was drunk enough to dance and I was drunk enough to ask Jeff why our (Japanese-speaking) friend was talking about eating first year students. Turns out she was talking about teaching first year students about food. Hey, I was half right.
That's not a super long list, so I'm hoping I will get around to giving you a more comprehensive rundown of those two. I keep encouraging Jeff to write something on here, but he is resistant. Although he may not have my self-indulgent turn of phrase, he has a much more accurate memory than me and doesn't change smaller details to make the story run smoother ;) I blame my travel writing paper at Massey, which clearly taught us to sacrifice details for the good of the story!!
Apologies that this is neither thorough nor informative, but hopefully it will be something to tide y'all over until I get back into this!!
Charly
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