Last night, at 7pm, we got back from our three day road trip round Shikoku. We put 700km on the odometer, had a bit of colour on our arms and got lots and lots of photos - altogether a successful trip.
In the weekend we got really low on sleep ('accidentally' went to bed at 5:20am on Friday night...!), so on Sunday night we crashed out at 9pm in order to recharge our batteries and wake up bright and early on Monday. Against all our principles, we woke up at 7 on Monday, despite it being our holiday, and were on the road a bit after 8am. We took the Shimanami highway - a series of beautiful bridges over small islands, linking Honshu to Shikoku. I used to take the first two bridges regularly when I worked at the private school on Innoshima and really really really wanted to follow the whole highway to Shikoku. I was not disappointed! On the way out there Jeff drove (ok, most of the holiday Jeff drove) while I looked around and took pictures.
When we hit Shikoku we headed down to Kochi - a city in the centre of the island, near the southern coast. We had a lovely wander round the castle (one of only 12 originals left in Japan) and appreciated the lovely breeze at the top while we took lots of pictures of the view. Although the castle itself was a much less imposing, grand structure than others, the grounds and gardens were lovely - very green and meandering.
We took advantage of the natural air conditioning at the top of the tower to jump on the smartphones and find our hotel for the night. Our last minute planning was rewarded with a half price last minute sale on the fancy-schmancy place we had walked past on our way to the castle, so on our way back to the car we ducked in and booked ourselves a very luxurious room for the same price we intended to pay at a budget hotel. Ah, lovely smelling toiletries and space to put our bags without tripping over them... not to be underestimated!!
In the afternoon we drove to a beach that our Lonely Planet mentioned, describing it as a popular local beach. Equipped with togs, towel and jandals we headed out... to one of the more bizarre experiences we have had in Japan. When we reached the beach, there was a large sign reading 'No Swimming - Big Waves'. We looked at the sign, then looked at the almost waveless ocean. Back to the sign, back to the ocean... We took a picture for posterity, then walked across the sand down to the sea, intending to get a picture of me standing on the waters edge looking for these 'big waves'. But as soon as we transitioned from the dry sand to the wet, we heard a furious whistling. A man in a cream and blue uniform, epaulettes and all, came running down the beach towards us, waving his hands furiously. Jeff signalled that we got the message, but he didn't stop loitering and fretting until we were back up onto the concrete path that ran above the high tide point.
We couldn't stop giggling. The idea of so many people coming to enjoy a beach where they weren't allowed to get wet, and the idea of the almost non-existant waves being dangerous was so ridiculous. While we wandered, taking pictures and investigating shrines, we noticed a bunch of school children repeatedly getting whistled at and shouted at by another very worked-up guard. We quietly cheered on the children!
Back at Kochi city we went wandering, looking for dinner inspiration and found what Lonely Planet had described as a bunch of street stalls. Instead it was like a big foodhall in a factory. There were all types of food and drink, with crowded wooden benches in the middle. Jeff went for seared bonito (the local specialty), dipped in yuzu (a yummy type of citrus, something between a lemon and an orange) sauce, accompanied by beer. I went for the traditional dish of, err, Indian chickpea curry, with a glass of yuzu alcohol. It was a really tasty dinner and an even better atmosphere. I had been the one who was unhappy with the other restaurants we had found earlier, while Jeff was so hungry he would have eaten anywhere, so once we found this place - and once Jeff tasted his fish - he couldn't repeat enough how happy he was that I hadn't settled for any of the earlier restaurants. His eyes glaze over whenever he remembers that meal.
The next day we headed down to Shimanto city - a small, tired-looking city near the southern tip of the island. On the way we found a real beach - 2km long, decent waves and beautiful warm water. We spent about an hour diving under the waves and trying to body surf. When we had enough salt in our eyes and sand in our togs, we headed back to shore, happy and refreshed.
Next stop was Shimanto city, to find our accommodation for the night. All the hotels felt old and tired and we were quoted prices that didn't reflect the fact that if they didn't rent us the room now, at 4pm on a Tuesday, they weren't going to rent it at all. We ran round the handful of hotels doing a price comparison (most were not 'modern' enough to be online, apparently!) and we went with the cheapest - stained carpet, air con that was like standing in a gale and 1000 yen more than our beautiful luxury room the night before.
Things perked up at dinner, when we found an Italian place that served the best pizza I've had in Japan. One was bacon and vegetable (zucchini, broccoli and ochra) and the other was tomato and smoked duck. The smoked duck one was particularly delicious - salty and tangy.
After dinner we went for a walk along the riverbank where Jeff gave me a lesson in skimming stones and we achieved nothing more than getting another set of clothes completely sweat-soaked. I'm not sure if Shimanto was actually hotter than anywhere else, but that twilight walk next to the river was the most I've sweated all year! I thought I was being excessive packing six outfits for three days, but it was spot-on!
The last day was the most driving of our trip. We drove inland across the bottom of the island, then followed the coast upwards. The scenery was stunning. The hillsides above and below us were stepped to allow citrus to be planted on these incredibly steep hills (if there weren't trees on them I would call them cliffs!). At the base of the hills, waves lapped at tiny little bays where the citrus trees ended, just begging you to explore them by kayak. Across the water we could make out distant mountains, which Jeff's iphone informed us were Kyushu.
The roads were super narrow and windy and the other traffic was noticeably ruder than up in this area - cars, trucks and motorcycles whizzed past with never a thank-you nod as we squeezed to the side of the road. All's well that ends well and we didn't die, but there were a few close encounters that got our hearts racing!
After lunch we came upon a little manufactured bay, of the type Japan loves - concrete steps on either side, a shallow slope of yellow sand and a net to keep out any sea creatures that might have thought about joining you (sorry Opo!). We went for a wade to cool down before finishing the last long leg back home.
Once we were on the highway, favouring speed over sightseeing, I took over driving. This was great for the bridges, as it allowed Jeff to enjoy the view I had seen on our way over on Monday. We had some amusing moments trying to take pictures of the road signs for tanuki ('raccoon dogs' http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_raccoon_dog) and inoshishi (wild boar) on the highway. There was some artistic license used in the illustrations - tanuki look like cuddly toys lying on the road while inoshishi look like high speed creatures dashing into the undergrowth. Anyway, we got some pictures, so hopefully those will be loaded to facebook soon.
Back home we unloaded everything and crashed out pretty early. We are now in school holidays so Jeff is at his Board of Education, hopefully studying Japanese but probably watching movies, and I'm hanging out at school catching up on the emails I ignored over the last five days. Tomorrow afternoon I have my English club coming in to school so I should have a think about what I intend to do with them. It may involve watching Boy. I don't expect them to understand native-speed English, but I figure they'll understand all the Michael Jackson references. Will see how much they can watch before they get bored...
Happy holidays to all those who have summer break now, and to those of you working through the winter, focus on the positives - you don't get a sweat up just by breathing!
Wednesday, July 25, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Farewells
We are currently in a very exciting and sad month. At the end of July lots of our friends are finishing their contracts and leaving Japan, while in early August we get a bunch of newbies.
Although we have theoretically been through this last year, most of the people we are friends with started at the same time as Jeff and therefore weren't leaving yet (two or three years seems to be the most popular length of stay). We didn't even go to the general leaving party last year. This year, however, there have been lots of leaving dinners and drinks and it's all very sad. I'm so busy sweating and sourcing ice-cream in this crazy summer heat that it keeps slipping my mind that those friends are actually LEAVING, but Jeff keeps reminding me how different the next year will be without the same network of friends we are used to here in Japan. Personally it's better to just not think about it!
The positive side (well, the two positive sides) is that because there are so many people leaving, there are so many parties! (That sounded Japanese... that wasn't good grammar, was it?) Last night we had dinner at a beer garden with Gabby, Danny and Maia (their wee one. Who has grown HEAPS over her time in Japan and is super shy around non-Japanese, even though Jeff and I look way more like her parents than anyone else in Hiroshima!). The deal is you pay a flat rate (about $50), then eat and drink as much as you like. Retrospectively maybe 'beer garden' and 'Wednesday night' shouldn't be combined... It was our first time drinking on a work night and what happened? Our gas alarm went off at 5:55am! Cue the two of us stumbling round in our underwear trying to find the source of the noise and shut it up. To cut a long story short, the building supervisor spent an hour playing round with the fuse box, gas taps outside, phoning the company etc, and finally got it to shut up. He told me he would get back to me to let me know if it is 'safety'. Anyway, that was totally off track, sorry - too tired to focus today after our horrific morning!
My point was that it was great seeing Gabby and Danny (especially when I didn't think about not seeing them again in AGES) and that we have not one, but two more all-you-can-drink experiences coming up this week! Yikes, lol. It will be a fun weekend though. Tomorrow after school I will jump on a train and race down to Hiroshima, where Jeff is spending the day planning the August Orientation meeting. I will dump my stuff at our hotel and head into town with Jeff. The next day we have a free day on Saturday (read sleeping in and city shopping!), before another party Saturday night.
On Sunday we will fight the alcohol-induced nausea and head back up to my apartment in Fukuyama. There we will dump our Hiroshima bags and pick up our Shikoku bags, jump in the car and drive to Shikoku island for three days of summer road trip! Ye-ah! I think we are finally learning about our travel style - I hate the heat and Jeff gets really cranky in summer crowds, so I think we have got it right with this trip. It's mid-week so no crowds, it's Shikoku so no crowds, and we're in the car where we can crank the air con and stop for ice-cream as needed. It sounds like a great three days!
Anyway, I have totally distracted myself from my second good point coming up, which is the new people coming in (apologies for the incredibly rambling nature of this blog. I'm not even going to reread for grammar mistakes because I'm horrified how all over the place this whole thing is!). We have three newbies coming in to our local area (that is, within a half hour of our place in the mountains). I feel a little responsible for them, which is silly, but I think it's because I know what a tough time I had when I first moved here. The woman who will be the other Jinseki ALT with Jeff I'm particularly keen to meet and help. This is SUCH a rural place to be and she won't even have a hubby to keep her sane! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our village and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it can be tough when you have to drive so far to get foreign company, or when you miss most of the parties because they are in Hiroshima which is expensive and distant.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for today. I tried to do an entry to tell you about the fun stuff we have coming up because I'm trying to make a real effort to stop doing such negative blogs, well at least, not all the time. But this has ended up a complete rambling mess. See what happens when I don't have something to complain about??
It's now 3:56pm and I finish work at 4:05pm (because that's not a strange time to finish...). Then I am out of here SO fast. I will stop at a konbini to treat my lethargy with chocolate (maybe the KitKat Salt & Puff bar... I'm a fan!), then home to my little apartment, where I can nap, sprawl on the floor or read my book without any pressure to work. Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone would say anything if I did those things at work, but I'd feel weird about it!
Hope you're all doing well and have similarly fun weekends lined up.
Charly
xo
Although we have theoretically been through this last year, most of the people we are friends with started at the same time as Jeff and therefore weren't leaving yet (two or three years seems to be the most popular length of stay). We didn't even go to the general leaving party last year. This year, however, there have been lots of leaving dinners and drinks and it's all very sad. I'm so busy sweating and sourcing ice-cream in this crazy summer heat that it keeps slipping my mind that those friends are actually LEAVING, but Jeff keeps reminding me how different the next year will be without the same network of friends we are used to here in Japan. Personally it's better to just not think about it!
The positive side (well, the two positive sides) is that because there are so many people leaving, there are so many parties! (That sounded Japanese... that wasn't good grammar, was it?) Last night we had dinner at a beer garden with Gabby, Danny and Maia (their wee one. Who has grown HEAPS over her time in Japan and is super shy around non-Japanese, even though Jeff and I look way more like her parents than anyone else in Hiroshima!). The deal is you pay a flat rate (about $50), then eat and drink as much as you like. Retrospectively maybe 'beer garden' and 'Wednesday night' shouldn't be combined... It was our first time drinking on a work night and what happened? Our gas alarm went off at 5:55am! Cue the two of us stumbling round in our underwear trying to find the source of the noise and shut it up. To cut a long story short, the building supervisor spent an hour playing round with the fuse box, gas taps outside, phoning the company etc, and finally got it to shut up. He told me he would get back to me to let me know if it is 'safety'. Anyway, that was totally off track, sorry - too tired to focus today after our horrific morning!
My point was that it was great seeing Gabby and Danny (especially when I didn't think about not seeing them again in AGES) and that we have not one, but two more all-you-can-drink experiences coming up this week! Yikes, lol. It will be a fun weekend though. Tomorrow after school I will jump on a train and race down to Hiroshima, where Jeff is spending the day planning the August Orientation meeting. I will dump my stuff at our hotel and head into town with Jeff. The next day we have a free day on Saturday (read sleeping in and city shopping!), before another party Saturday night.
On Sunday we will fight the alcohol-induced nausea and head back up to my apartment in Fukuyama. There we will dump our Hiroshima bags and pick up our Shikoku bags, jump in the car and drive to Shikoku island for three days of summer road trip! Ye-ah! I think we are finally learning about our travel style - I hate the heat and Jeff gets really cranky in summer crowds, so I think we have got it right with this trip. It's mid-week so no crowds, it's Shikoku so no crowds, and we're in the car where we can crank the air con and stop for ice-cream as needed. It sounds like a great three days!
Anyway, I have totally distracted myself from my second good point coming up, which is the new people coming in (apologies for the incredibly rambling nature of this blog. I'm not even going to reread for grammar mistakes because I'm horrified how all over the place this whole thing is!). We have three newbies coming in to our local area (that is, within a half hour of our place in the mountains). I feel a little responsible for them, which is silly, but I think it's because I know what a tough time I had when I first moved here. The woman who will be the other Jinseki ALT with Jeff I'm particularly keen to meet and help. This is SUCH a rural place to be and she won't even have a hubby to keep her sane! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE our village and I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it can be tough when you have to drive so far to get foreign company, or when you miss most of the parties because they are in Hiroshima which is expensive and distant.
Anyway, that's enough rambling for today. I tried to do an entry to tell you about the fun stuff we have coming up because I'm trying to make a real effort to stop doing such negative blogs, well at least, not all the time. But this has ended up a complete rambling mess. See what happens when I don't have something to complain about??
It's now 3:56pm and I finish work at 4:05pm (because that's not a strange time to finish...). Then I am out of here SO fast. I will stop at a konbini to treat my lethargy with chocolate (maybe the KitKat Salt & Puff bar... I'm a fan!), then home to my little apartment, where I can nap, sprawl on the floor or read my book without any pressure to work. Don't get me wrong, I don't think anyone would say anything if I did those things at work, but I'd feel weird about it!
Hope you're all doing well and have similarly fun weekends lined up.
Charly
xo
Tuesday, July 10, 2012
Apology letters part two
These I typed up ages ago, but due to computer/internet problems I never actually 'publish'ed them. Better late than never?
I'm going to give you the rest of these too, because they're so darn cute...
I'm sorry. I forgot an English notebook.
Because I forgot a charly's class.
I will bring an English notebook next class.
I promiss with you!
I'm sorry.
I forget notebook.
A bad thing does not bring a note to a lesson.
I leaves in understanding it.
Next, I'm not forget by any means.
I'm going to give you the rest of these too, because they're so darn cute...
I'm sorry. I forgot an English notebook.
Because I forgot a charly's class.
I will bring an English notebook next class.
I promiss with you!
I'm sorry.
I forget notebook.
A bad thing does not bring a note to a lesson.
I leaves in understanding it.
Next, I'm not forget by any means.
Student journal
This one is not the usual amusing bad English. This kid is clearly pretty smart and has a sense of humour. If I was 15, I would want to be friends with this one!
Topic: Imagine you are a famous musician. Tell me about your band and your life.
I'm a famous musician.
My band is very popular because my band have released beautiful tunes.
I am useful because I write a song.
But I can't sing a song.
My life is a lazy life because my work is very few.
Topic: Tell me why you love Lady Gaga or tell me why you hate Lady Gaga.
I hate Lady Gaga because I don't like her costumes.
Because her costumes make me displease.
I can't understand why she does strange things.
I like Japanese songs better than Western music.
So I hate Lady Gaga.
Topic: If an alien came to Fukuyama, what would you tell them?
Listen to my talk.
Do you understand English?
You are ET.
Your family is worring about you.
You have to go home.
Bye-Bye.
You mustn't come to the earth.
Topic: Imagine you are a famous musician. Tell me about your band and your life.
I'm a famous musician.
My band is very popular because my band have released beautiful tunes.
I am useful because I write a song.
But I can't sing a song.
My life is a lazy life because my work is very few.
Topic: Tell me why you love Lady Gaga or tell me why you hate Lady Gaga.
I hate Lady Gaga because I don't like her costumes.
Because her costumes make me displease.
I can't understand why she does strange things.
I like Japanese songs better than Western music.
So I hate Lady Gaga.
Topic: If an alien came to Fukuyama, what would you tell them?
Listen to my talk.
Do you understand English?
You are ET.
Your family is worring about you.
You have to go home.
Bye-Bye.
You mustn't come to the earth.
Top 10
I'm concerned that I mainly write complaining posts on here - partly because I think they are more amusing/interesting for my readers and partly because it's a good way for me to offload on people who see things from my point of view (that is, a Westerners point of view). But... when I'm having a good time, like climbing Mt Fuji (ok, 'good' is relative. Eventful, achieving, memorable...), I'm too busy to write. So... to rectify this a little, here is my top ten list of things I will miss when I leave Japan, in no particular order:
1. Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima-style. Oh cabbage noodle pancake, how I love you!
2. People bending over backwards to help you and apologising for not speaking your language, even though you're in their country!
3. Bento boxes (lunch boxes of rice and various meats and pickled vegetables) - and their availability at every konbini (dairy/convenience store/corner store/etc) and supermarket. Where else can you get a range of filling meals for $5, 24 hours a day?
4. Konbinis themselves. 24 hours (except for our strange Jinsekikougen-cho one which closes at 9pm, wtf??), selling everything from beer to facewash. And they NEVER complain about you popping in just to use the toilet!
5. Kei cars. Tiny little cars with yellow number plates (white is reserved for 'big' cars), they look like something only midget grandmas should drive and they cost almost nothing to run. Strangely, mine actually has more leg room than my station wagon back home!
6. Students LOVING interacting with you. They make me feel like the most interesting, amusing person on the planet. The teachers here look baffled when I try to explain how different it would be teaching teenagers back home.
7. Macha (green tea) flavoured things. Macha ice cream, iced macha lattes, macha biscuits, macha chocolate... I just can't get enough of it!
8. Having so many exciting holiday destinations only a short drive/train/flight away. Whether it's a 2 hr flight to Taiwan, a few hours drive to Shikoku island, or even just a wee train ride to Hiroshima city, it feels like holiday destinations are always so near!
9. Meeting so many awesome people. As an ALT living in Japan, you obviously meet lots of other ALTs. And by being foreigners in Japan, you are pre-selecting for some pretty out-there, adventurous, interesting people from a whole bunch of different countries. Then there are the intrepid Japanese who are willing to befriend a foreigner (even though foreigners do wear funny clothes, talk too fast and have no idea about etiquette!). In two years at home I might make a couple of new friends, but here we meet so many cool people every year!
10. Japanese kawaii (cute). I found it really strange at first, but I have grown to love the fact that in Japan, there is nothing wrong with a 27 yr old enjoying the cuteness Japan has to offer - from my Jinglish pencil case ("This is my perfect moment with you" - picture is a duck in a bonnet, hugging an oversized carrot), to my Care Bear earphones (actually I don't recommend them. They always fall out!), to my Rilakkuma collection (small brown expressionless bear. Cracks me up. So far I have the sheet, duvet, chopsticks, gloves, two mugs and a glass...).
So there you are. In case my wild misrepresentations of my time here led you to believe we didn't enjoy Japan!
I am also tempted to add something that has only come up very recently - since my exam two weeks ago, in fact. Since my bout of serious study coming up to the exam, I have really noticed an improvement in my understanding, mainly in reading kanji. It's nothing major, but I have little 'oh!' moments that feel so great. For example, last night, climbing into bed/futon, I glanced across at my foot cream. And went 'oh!' When I had bought it, I had used gesture to show I wanted cream for my feet, but now I've learnt some basic kanji, I realised the first kanji on the name is the word for foot/leg (they have one word to cover the both. Causes all kinds of amusement when my students tell me they have big legs, or that their favourite singer has sexy feet). So now I am proud to say NEXT time I need foot cream, I can find it myself! Every little victory counts!
Hope you are all having a good week xo
1. Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima-style. Oh cabbage noodle pancake, how I love you!
2. People bending over backwards to help you and apologising for not speaking your language, even though you're in their country!
3. Bento boxes (lunch boxes of rice and various meats and pickled vegetables) - and their availability at every konbini (dairy/convenience store/corner store/etc) and supermarket. Where else can you get a range of filling meals for $5, 24 hours a day?
4. Konbinis themselves. 24 hours (except for our strange Jinsekikougen-cho one which closes at 9pm, wtf??), selling everything from beer to facewash. And they NEVER complain about you popping in just to use the toilet!
5. Kei cars. Tiny little cars with yellow number plates (white is reserved for 'big' cars), they look like something only midget grandmas should drive and they cost almost nothing to run. Strangely, mine actually has more leg room than my station wagon back home!
6. Students LOVING interacting with you. They make me feel like the most interesting, amusing person on the planet. The teachers here look baffled when I try to explain how different it would be teaching teenagers back home.
7. Macha (green tea) flavoured things. Macha ice cream, iced macha lattes, macha biscuits, macha chocolate... I just can't get enough of it!
8. Having so many exciting holiday destinations only a short drive/train/flight away. Whether it's a 2 hr flight to Taiwan, a few hours drive to Shikoku island, or even just a wee train ride to Hiroshima city, it feels like holiday destinations are always so near!
9. Meeting so many awesome people. As an ALT living in Japan, you obviously meet lots of other ALTs. And by being foreigners in Japan, you are pre-selecting for some pretty out-there, adventurous, interesting people from a whole bunch of different countries. Then there are the intrepid Japanese who are willing to befriend a foreigner (even though foreigners do wear funny clothes, talk too fast and have no idea about etiquette!). In two years at home I might make a couple of new friends, but here we meet so many cool people every year!
10. Japanese kawaii (cute). I found it really strange at first, but I have grown to love the fact that in Japan, there is nothing wrong with a 27 yr old enjoying the cuteness Japan has to offer - from my Jinglish pencil case ("This is my perfect moment with you" - picture is a duck in a bonnet, hugging an oversized carrot), to my Care Bear earphones (actually I don't recommend them. They always fall out!), to my Rilakkuma collection (small brown expressionless bear. Cracks me up. So far I have the sheet, duvet, chopsticks, gloves, two mugs and a glass...).
So there you are. In case my wild misrepresentations of my time here led you to believe we didn't enjoy Japan!
I am also tempted to add something that has only come up very recently - since my exam two weeks ago, in fact. Since my bout of serious study coming up to the exam, I have really noticed an improvement in my understanding, mainly in reading kanji. It's nothing major, but I have little 'oh!' moments that feel so great. For example, last night, climbing into bed/futon, I glanced across at my foot cream. And went 'oh!' When I had bought it, I had used gesture to show I wanted cream for my feet, but now I've learnt some basic kanji, I realised the first kanji on the name is the word for foot/leg (they have one word to cover the both. Causes all kinds of amusement when my students tell me they have big legs, or that their favourite singer has sexy feet). So now I am proud to say NEXT time I need foot cream, I can find it myself! Every little victory counts!
Hope you are all having a good week xo
Monday, July 2, 2012
To leave, or not to leave
So I'm a bit riled up at the moment. It's not a good day today. Got woken at 5am by a thunderstorm, ran out the door without either my sweat towel or my drink bottle, and hit INSANE traffic on the way to school. The journey that usually takes me seven minutes took me twenty-five!!
Which meant I arrived five minutes late. And, as this is Japan, that meant I was told I needed to take an hour's nenkyu (leave), because I wasn't in the door at 8:20am.
As you can imagine, I'm pretty unhappy about that. As I explained to Kyoto-sensei (vice principal), if I was local, with kids to take to the doctor etc, then sure taking a couple of hours leave here and there is convenient. But I'm not, I'm a foreigner, and I take my leave by the day, so I can explore Japan. (Note: half of this experience is about us bringing foreign culture to Japan, but the other half is about us going home to tell the world about Japan). And coming back from Tokyo to do an hour's work in the morning sure wouldn't be convenient! As it is Jeff has more leave than me, so if I lose a day of holiday for the want of five minutes, it's a serious inconvenience!
As I am in Japan, I should behave like a Japanese and just lose an hour of leave. But, you may have noticed, I'm not Japanese, so I'm PISSED. Board of Education rules state that if you drive, it doesn't matter what happens, you are responsible for the time you arrive (I've heard this includes if you get stuck behind an accident for an extended period). But I think that's bull and I cannot control the fact the drive took me over three times as long today!
So... I'm digging my heels in. When I first started I was told that I start late on the Fridays when I have English club (and therefore work late), but they later told me that was a mistake and that I needed to start on time. Which I was, understandably, annoyed about (losing my Friday sleep-in!). But I finally gritted my teeth and just came to school at the regular time.
But now they are telling me I need to take this hour's nenkyu, I decided to use it as a bargaining chip. I told Kyoto-sensei "on Fridays we don't follow the rules, I have to start earlier than my contract every Friday. But today we do have to follow the rules." I was even mature enough to say "It's not fair". Oops, lol. But I felt I needed to say something extra because the Japanese have this way of giving excuses instead of reasons, so straight logic doesn't work. You are supposed to focus less on what is said and more on the underlying meaning (we want you to do X, Y, Z). If you are a good 'problem solver' and address the issues they give you, no-one will thank you for it!
Sometimes this is good, because if I'm bull-headed enough I can plow on through and get my way. But often it sucks because I give in for reasons I think are lame and could be easily addressed (oh, you arrived at school five minutes late? Just work five minutes late! Oh - what's that - you work a minimum of 25 minutes late EVERY DAY? Well no worries then!).
So now I've been a stroppy bitch and created a big fuss about it, embarrassing no. 2 and 3 (vice principal and whoever-the-hell the other bloke is. The two principal-wannabes), and putting my poor supervisor into a really awkward situation! One part of me feels horrible for doing this and I just want to be nice and do whatever is easiest. And then I think about wanting to leave for a holiday, but my having to come in and sit at my desk for an hour before we can get on the road (plus travel to and from school, the necessity of wearing work clothes etc). And I realise this is worth fighting for. Serves them right for inviting a foreigner into their school.
I also feel a little better about it because I really feel I pull my weight. I often work late doing student journals and I happily give up my time to help the English group. I am sure that the work I do and the effort I put in would be very appreciated in NZ. But here it's more just about putting in the hours. Preferably long hours, but more importantly the RIGHT hours. As in, working three hours late does not make up for arriving two minutes late (as another ALT recently found out when her train was running late. She got in two minutes late and had to take an hour of nenkyu despite the fact she was working late helping students that night. So I'm not the only one to get stuck in this situation!!). However, you definitely feel guilty leaving on time. No-one else does. Although I was given the important advice at training 'don't try to outstay the Japanese teachers. You'll never beat them.'
The downside of this is that I feel guilty every time I leave work. The upside is that if I sit at my desk after work, whether I'm writing emails, studying Japanese, or playing around on facebook, I get 'bonus points' for still being at work after my hours! Yup, only time in my life I will be judged positively for facebooking!
Currently I'm still waiting on hearing a decision. Kyoto-sensei asked for time to think about it. Probably means he will phone the Board of Education, who will say no and I will get another no. But at least I tried.
Ok, to end this all on a more positive note, on Sunday Jeff and I (and many other ALT friends) sat a Japanese exam. We did level N5, which is the easiest level. Although I don't expect to have passed, I do expect to have passed the first section (kanji - that is, the Japanese characters based on Chinese, with each picture representing a different word) and I felt really good about the last section (listening). The middle was Reading and Grammar and was, without a doubt, the hardest (mainly you could tell that because it was twice as long as the other sections!). I only know about half the vocabulary you can be tested on in that exam, so I was rather adrift in the Reading and Grammar section, but it wasn't a total loss. The time limit is very tight and involves reading fast (all in Japanese, of course). I impressed myself by just managing to read all the hiragana and katakana fast enough to answer all the questions - even if half of them were guesses because I had no clue what was the correct answer.
My goal was to pass the kanji section, so to come away feeling I had passed kanji AND listening was a good feeling. On Monday it hit me - against all the odds, I had learnt enough Japanese to sit a Japanese exam. I find languages very difficult and I struggle to motivate myself to study, so to have learnt enough to enter an exam (even if I haven't passed it) was an achievement in itself. It doesn't sound that amazing over here, where everyone speaks at least a little (even if it's just knowing how to order beer!), but it buzzes me out when I think about where I was a couple of years ago. Actually, today two years ago I was probably sitting on my bed in tears, freaking out about moving to Japan when I spoke no Japanese! Although I don't think my fear was unfounded (moving to a rural community when I had no Japanese, no job and no heat-tolerance was not pleasant!), it's nice to see I survived!
Yay! To end this all on a really positive note, I have just received a phone call letting me off from the nenkyu thing! I'm sure this is my one free ticket, so now I will have to be super punctual and make sure next time there is lots of rain to leave 20 minutes earlier than usual!
It's not the first time I've been late to school for weather reasons, but the other time is was because of snow and I beat about half the teachers to school, so the powers-that-be couldn't even be bothered dealing with all that paperwork! The problem is I live on the ground floor of an apartment that has a solid deck railing and tall buildings on the other side of the carpark - it feels like living in a rabbit warren. So I get a very limited view of the weather! I will have to make a habit of stepping outside and taking a look before I get in the shower, so I don't end up in this situation again!
Hope you all have a good day and don't get to work five minutes late!!!
Which meant I arrived five minutes late. And, as this is Japan, that meant I was told I needed to take an hour's nenkyu (leave), because I wasn't in the door at 8:20am.
As you can imagine, I'm pretty unhappy about that. As I explained to Kyoto-sensei (vice principal), if I was local, with kids to take to the doctor etc, then sure taking a couple of hours leave here and there is convenient. But I'm not, I'm a foreigner, and I take my leave by the day, so I can explore Japan. (Note: half of this experience is about us bringing foreign culture to Japan, but the other half is about us going home to tell the world about Japan). And coming back from Tokyo to do an hour's work in the morning sure wouldn't be convenient! As it is Jeff has more leave than me, so if I lose a day of holiday for the want of five minutes, it's a serious inconvenience!
As I am in Japan, I should behave like a Japanese and just lose an hour of leave. But, you may have noticed, I'm not Japanese, so I'm PISSED. Board of Education rules state that if you drive, it doesn't matter what happens, you are responsible for the time you arrive (I've heard this includes if you get stuck behind an accident for an extended period). But I think that's bull and I cannot control the fact the drive took me over three times as long today!
So... I'm digging my heels in. When I first started I was told that I start late on the Fridays when I have English club (and therefore work late), but they later told me that was a mistake and that I needed to start on time. Which I was, understandably, annoyed about (losing my Friday sleep-in!). But I finally gritted my teeth and just came to school at the regular time.
But now they are telling me I need to take this hour's nenkyu, I decided to use it as a bargaining chip. I told Kyoto-sensei "on Fridays we don't follow the rules, I have to start earlier than my contract every Friday. But today we do have to follow the rules." I was even mature enough to say "It's not fair". Oops, lol. But I felt I needed to say something extra because the Japanese have this way of giving excuses instead of reasons, so straight logic doesn't work. You are supposed to focus less on what is said and more on the underlying meaning (we want you to do X, Y, Z). If you are a good 'problem solver' and address the issues they give you, no-one will thank you for it!
Sometimes this is good, because if I'm bull-headed enough I can plow on through and get my way. But often it sucks because I give in for reasons I think are lame and could be easily addressed (oh, you arrived at school five minutes late? Just work five minutes late! Oh - what's that - you work a minimum of 25 minutes late EVERY DAY? Well no worries then!).
So now I've been a stroppy bitch and created a big fuss about it, embarrassing no. 2 and 3 (vice principal and whoever-the-hell the other bloke is. The two principal-wannabes), and putting my poor supervisor into a really awkward situation! One part of me feels horrible for doing this and I just want to be nice and do whatever is easiest. And then I think about wanting to leave for a holiday, but my having to come in and sit at my desk for an hour before we can get on the road (plus travel to and from school, the necessity of wearing work clothes etc). And I realise this is worth fighting for. Serves them right for inviting a foreigner into their school.
I also feel a little better about it because I really feel I pull my weight. I often work late doing student journals and I happily give up my time to help the English group. I am sure that the work I do and the effort I put in would be very appreciated in NZ. But here it's more just about putting in the hours. Preferably long hours, but more importantly the RIGHT hours. As in, working three hours late does not make up for arriving two minutes late (as another ALT recently found out when her train was running late. She got in two minutes late and had to take an hour of nenkyu despite the fact she was working late helping students that night. So I'm not the only one to get stuck in this situation!!). However, you definitely feel guilty leaving on time. No-one else does. Although I was given the important advice at training 'don't try to outstay the Japanese teachers. You'll never beat them.'
The downside of this is that I feel guilty every time I leave work. The upside is that if I sit at my desk after work, whether I'm writing emails, studying Japanese, or playing around on facebook, I get 'bonus points' for still being at work after my hours! Yup, only time in my life I will be judged positively for facebooking!
Currently I'm still waiting on hearing a decision. Kyoto-sensei asked for time to think about it. Probably means he will phone the Board of Education, who will say no and I will get another no. But at least I tried.
Ok, to end this all on a more positive note, on Sunday Jeff and I (and many other ALT friends) sat a Japanese exam. We did level N5, which is the easiest level. Although I don't expect to have passed, I do expect to have passed the first section (kanji - that is, the Japanese characters based on Chinese, with each picture representing a different word) and I felt really good about the last section (listening). The middle was Reading and Grammar and was, without a doubt, the hardest (mainly you could tell that because it was twice as long as the other sections!). I only know about half the vocabulary you can be tested on in that exam, so I was rather adrift in the Reading and Grammar section, but it wasn't a total loss. The time limit is very tight and involves reading fast (all in Japanese, of course). I impressed myself by just managing to read all the hiragana and katakana fast enough to answer all the questions - even if half of them were guesses because I had no clue what was the correct answer.
My goal was to pass the kanji section, so to come away feeling I had passed kanji AND listening was a good feeling. On Monday it hit me - against all the odds, I had learnt enough Japanese to sit a Japanese exam. I find languages very difficult and I struggle to motivate myself to study, so to have learnt enough to enter an exam (even if I haven't passed it) was an achievement in itself. It doesn't sound that amazing over here, where everyone speaks at least a little (even if it's just knowing how to order beer!), but it buzzes me out when I think about where I was a couple of years ago. Actually, today two years ago I was probably sitting on my bed in tears, freaking out about moving to Japan when I spoke no Japanese! Although I don't think my fear was unfounded (moving to a rural community when I had no Japanese, no job and no heat-tolerance was not pleasant!), it's nice to see I survived!
Yay! To end this all on a really positive note, I have just received a phone call letting me off from the nenkyu thing! I'm sure this is my one free ticket, so now I will have to be super punctual and make sure next time there is lots of rain to leave 20 minutes earlier than usual!
It's not the first time I've been late to school for weather reasons, but the other time is was because of snow and I beat about half the teachers to school, so the powers-that-be couldn't even be bothered dealing with all that paperwork! The problem is I live on the ground floor of an apartment that has a solid deck railing and tall buildings on the other side of the carpark - it feels like living in a rabbit warren. So I get a very limited view of the weather! I will have to make a habit of stepping outside and taking a look before I get in the shower, so I don't end up in this situation again!
Hope you all have a good day and don't get to work five minutes late!!!
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