In which this very ALT agrees to do a Q and A onstage at a school assembly and then burst into song.
Yes. Burst into song. With a backup chorus. Of 10 Japanese high schoolers.
You might be wondering, how and why, and what song? Every school in Japan has a 文化祭、a cultural festival. Ours happens to be right after the fall semester opening ceremony, so, next Tuesday. Usually at cultural festivals, classes and clubs put together food stands, activities, or little shops. Before this, there is an assembly where the clubs introduce themselves and perform or show off what they do. One of the clubs is the English Speaking Society, and their options for performance are limitied pretty much to skits.
However, this year, they discovered that they have a singing ALT. So, one of the students came to my desk the other and asked me to help them practice. I had no idea what I was in for. As a group, they asked if I would sing as part of the club activity. I thought this meant singing in the background of their exibit, kind of like a party performer. I said sure, of course. Then they started talking about an assembly, and it was too late to back out because they were so excited. I did refuse to do it alone--if there as a chorus, I told them that they were singing too.
Then I found out that there was more. I wasn't just singing in front of 956 students and 70 teachers. Nope. They were going to ask me questions on the stage, game-show style. Then, they would ask what I like to do most, but they scripted this one out. I'm to answer "I like singing" and then cue the piano player.
Most of the students play at least one instrument, so they combed through their sheet music for a piece for voice, piano, and violin that students would be familiar with. They found Imagine, the one by John Lennon. We rearranged it a bit, and I sing the first verses alone, and the whole club steps forward and joins me on "you may say I'm a dreamer..."
And that's how I came to agree to burst into song in front of 1,000 Japanese High School students. It's like Glee and a Japanese variety show have been conspiring against my dignity.
Let's just hope I can pull this off.
Friday, August 27, 2010
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Housekeeping
Tried it. I like blogger more.
Now, on to more literal housekeeping. My apartment is--and has been--most set up. I say mostly because I am expecting boxes from home, and need to store things accordingly and because I have leftovers from my predecessor. I misunderstood where certain stuff was going, and now have a spare toaster, landline phone, microwave, TV, and region-free DVD player. I don't really watch TV or DVDs, don't depend on toast, don't need a landline, and bought a combo microwave/oven because I like to cook. Right now I am trying to pass these appliances on to the ALT community. (Hint hint!) Once that's done with and the new stuff arrives and finds places, then I will consider my apartment set up.
Living on my own has turned me tidy. The apartment is small and can easily become full of interesting smells if I don't do dishes often, sweep often, take full on baths often, and do laundry often. This seems common sense, but there's another layer of meaning here: if I don't have water frequently going through all the major pipes in the apartment, it smells like rot and mold. Yaaaaay humidity! I'm not complaining, or the slightest bit upset. It turns out I really enjoy living in a clean, well-organized space.
Getting my first paycheck was an absolute joy, but it also made me take a good hard look at my finances. The first month, I did not live as frugally as I would like, mostly because I was terrified/skeptical of my kitchen and often bought meals at combini or delica. Yesterday, however, I reaquainted myself with Just Hungry and Just Bento, two sites devoted, respectively, to simple Japanese home cooking and Japanese lunch boxes. The result has been more delicious, healthy meals and less money spent. Between this and volunteering for the Ishikawa JET cookbook project, I don't plan on combini or delica lunches ever again. I'll save my not cooking food money for going to dinner with friends every so often, spending it on something I can really look forward to and enjoy rather than feeling guilty about slurping mediocre ￥500 combini noodles over my desk and wondering what to do with the plastic.
For watching my finances, I use my keitai. It has a receipt and barcode scanner that are connected to a budgeting program. With graphs and labels for expenses. On my cell phone. It doesn't need to hook up to my bank account.
Yaaay!
Sunday, August 22, 2010
Gifu and gadgets
This weekend was move-in weekend for my partner, now officially an ALT in Gifu with a rival company. I had a mild case of apartment envy (hers has a loft--a loft!) which very soon developed into a case of department store envy. While the last thing I need in my life is more stuff and less money, I really enjoy looking. It's a weird but fairly wallet-friendly quirk I have: I like to look at colorful or pretty displays but can't bring myself to buy any one thing from said display because it won't look as good alone. Catch and release shopping. The pens stay in their natural rainbow habitat. Anyway, there are lots of nice places with nice displays for me not to buy things from in Gifu.
It's also a really beautiful city, though different from what most people think of when they think of pretty Japanese cities. Most of the architecture is new and pretty much all the temples and castles I saw were recently refurbished--very, very shiny and orange. A river runs through the city, and I learned that cormorant fishing is a nightly occurance, at least in the summer. Cormorant fishing has fascinated me for a long time and I really, really want to see it. The city is also punctuated by rugged, forested mountains. It looks like a brush painting, and I wish I could go back in time and see what Gifu was like before it was bombed, or even before the Meiji Restoration. (It's not necessarily a well known fact, but a fair number of castles and old buildings were torn down in smaller cities throughout Japan during the Meji Restoration--the 100 year old high school I work at stands on the ruins of Toshie Maeda's castle.) Also, Gifu has bamboo forests. They are awesome.
Seeing Erin meant learning all manner of new things about my fancy cell phone. The nice front display panel I thought was just a clock? It's really a touch screen. With a features menu that includes a compass. There is a feature that allows me to scan receipts for monthly budgeting. There is a feature that scans kanji and finds them in a dictionary. There are at least five different menus. The camera has more options than my digital camera, including editing software that will give the photo subject bigger eyes, a smaller face, or fairer skin. (Yes, this is problematic.) There are enough widgets to make the app store gawk and blush. I'm a little terrified of what I'll find next.
Generally, I've found that everything I've wanted to organize by hand in the US, a machine in Japan will do for me. Budgeting? My phone scans receipts and the ATM prints my balance and transaction record in a little book every time I visit. Keeping organized? The calendar on my phone can pretty much go to all the events for me. I have no doubt that the phone secretly laughs at me as I try to figure out interprefectural train schedules.
It's also a really beautiful city, though different from what most people think of when they think of pretty Japanese cities. Most of the architecture is new and pretty much all the temples and castles I saw were recently refurbished--very, very shiny and orange. A river runs through the city, and I learned that cormorant fishing is a nightly occurance, at least in the summer. Cormorant fishing has fascinated me for a long time and I really, really want to see it. The city is also punctuated by rugged, forested mountains. It looks like a brush painting, and I wish I could go back in time and see what Gifu was like before it was bombed, or even before the Meiji Restoration. (It's not necessarily a well known fact, but a fair number of castles and old buildings were torn down in smaller cities throughout Japan during the Meji Restoration--the 100 year old high school I work at stands on the ruins of Toshie Maeda's castle.) Also, Gifu has bamboo forests. They are awesome.
Seeing Erin meant learning all manner of new things about my fancy cell phone. The nice front display panel I thought was just a clock? It's really a touch screen. With a features menu that includes a compass. There is a feature that allows me to scan receipts for monthly budgeting. There is a feature that scans kanji and finds them in a dictionary. There are at least five different menus. The camera has more options than my digital camera, including editing software that will give the photo subject bigger eyes, a smaller face, or fairer skin. (Yes, this is problematic.) There are enough widgets to make the app store gawk and blush. I'm a little terrified of what I'll find next.
Generally, I've found that everything I've wanted to organize by hand in the US, a machine in Japan will do for me. Budgeting? My phone scans receipts and the ATM prints my balance and transaction record in a little book every time I visit. Keeping organized? The calendar on my phone can pretty much go to all the events for me. I have no doubt that the phone secretly laughs at me as I try to figure out interprefectural train schedules.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
那谷寺 Natadera Temple
Nestled between Kaga and Komatsu, Natadera is a large and wooded Buddhist temple compound famous for the beauty of its trees, especially in the fall. While I plan to go back there to view the Momiji (autumn leaves), it certainly doesn't look too shabby in the summer.
I especially loved how many high vantage points there were throughout the temple grounds. You could climb almost anywhere to see the roofs of the many temples and pavillions. While the ancient steps carved into cliff faces wreaked havoc upon my knees, the views were spectacular.
Places like Natadera make me feel slightly guilty for looking at it through a camera lens. Next time maybe I won't bring one and just enjoy the place how it was meant to be enjoyed.
The rest are here on the littlepines flickr!
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Summer Seminar
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I helped out at Ishikawa Prefecture's English Summer Seminar. It's been going on for 32 years now, and took place in a camp in the Noto Peninsula. We could see the sea from the cafeteria.
Students came from high schools all over the prefecture. They were split off into randomized groups and encouraged by a profusion of ALTs and English teachers to speak only in English as often as they could. We kept them occupied with hours of conversation practice games and a full day to prepare a skit in English based on randomly assigned genres, props, and characters.
My group of eight students (which I shared with three ALTs and two senseis) had the following draw: romance, a lei and an oven mitt, Hillary Clinton, and the proverb "there's no smoke without fire." The ALTs left the students to brainstorm ideas on their own, and while I was sitting with other ALTs chatting, a sensei came out to ask me a question.
It went something like this: "Ehto, Lauren-sensei, the students have a question about the Clintons. They heard that Bill Clinton had some sort of scandal. Could you explain it to us, please?"
So, using very simple English, I had to explain the Monica Lewinsky debacle to a room full of 15 year old Japanese girls. Another sensei helped by drawing a diagram.
The resulting skit involved Hillary Clinton catching Bill and Monica in Hawaii, fighting Monica, dragging Bill back to America, poisoning him, and running off with the cook. This was all their idea. We won funniest skit.
Over the course of the other games, I made friends with the students. They were shy about speaking English at first, but the games really helped. My personal favorite was a game where the students had to describe a trend, movie, art form, or food of Japan in English to the ALT, who then had to describe it to a Japanese teacher who left the room. The Japanese teacher then had to guess the original object. Explaining unaju when you don't know how to say "eel" in English is apparently difficult ("it is like a fish...but not a fish--it's like a snake?") and also apparently hilarious when the ALT pretends she has absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
I was kind of sad to go, honestly, because it was so much fun and I got to know both my seminar students and the members of my school's English club pretty well. I won't see the club until after the prefectural debate on the 23rd (of which I am a judge!) but I promised them a party with American snacks and a movie as a celebration of being done with said debate. I keep hearing it's stressing them out, and I feel so bad for not being able to help out with prep. But the party idea made them all really excited, so yay for that.
Well, off to go grocery shopping so I can bring a lunch with me tomorrow to Prefectural Orientation. More on that can of worms later--for now I can just say that my time would be better spent at my school even though I officially have nothing to do there but check on the English club and study Japanese.
Students came from high schools all over the prefecture. They were split off into randomized groups and encouraged by a profusion of ALTs and English teachers to speak only in English as often as they could. We kept them occupied with hours of conversation practice games and a full day to prepare a skit in English based on randomly assigned genres, props, and characters.
My group of eight students (which I shared with three ALTs and two senseis) had the following draw: romance, a lei and an oven mitt, Hillary Clinton, and the proverb "there's no smoke without fire." The ALTs left the students to brainstorm ideas on their own, and while I was sitting with other ALTs chatting, a sensei came out to ask me a question.
It went something like this: "Ehto, Lauren-sensei, the students have a question about the Clintons. They heard that Bill Clinton had some sort of scandal. Could you explain it to us, please?"
So, using very simple English, I had to explain the Monica Lewinsky debacle to a room full of 15 year old Japanese girls. Another sensei helped by drawing a diagram.
The resulting skit involved Hillary Clinton catching Bill and Monica in Hawaii, fighting Monica, dragging Bill back to America, poisoning him, and running off with the cook. This was all their idea. We won funniest skit.
Over the course of the other games, I made friends with the students. They were shy about speaking English at first, but the games really helped. My personal favorite was a game where the students had to describe a trend, movie, art form, or food of Japan in English to the ALT, who then had to describe it to a Japanese teacher who left the room. The Japanese teacher then had to guess the original object. Explaining unaju when you don't know how to say "eel" in English is apparently difficult ("it is like a fish...but not a fish--it's like a snake?") and also apparently hilarious when the ALT pretends she has absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
I was kind of sad to go, honestly, because it was so much fun and I got to know both my seminar students and the members of my school's English club pretty well. I won't see the club until after the prefectural debate on the 23rd (of which I am a judge!) but I promised them a party with American snacks and a movie as a celebration of being done with said debate. I keep hearing it's stressing them out, and I feel so bad for not being able to help out with prep. But the party idea made them all really excited, so yay for that.
Well, off to go grocery shopping so I can bring a lunch with me tomorrow to Prefectural Orientation. More on that can of worms later--for now I can just say that my time would be better spent at my school even though I officially have nothing to do there but check on the English club and study Japanese.
Saturday, August 7, 2010
bridges
Today, myself and three other ALTs went to Kanazawa to help out a bridge-building seminar. Yes. A bridge-building seminar for high school students. It was a two day conference with about 30 Komatsu High students and five guests from a science high school in Korea. On the first day, members of each group of eight individually designed bridges using testing software and then built them out of thin balsa wood splinters. The groups chose one person's bridge to represent them for testing. Testing involved a basket of juice boxes suspended from the bridge (which was placed on a special stand to span a "valley") by means of a cable and a styrofoam anchor, which sat on the roadway part of the bridge. The bridges were tested until they broke, and on the second day, the groups analyzed the bridges and began planning together for a new one, using information given to them about arches, trusses, tension, and compression.
So, why do you need ALTs?
In addition to designing and building a winning bridge (the teams were competing for the best weight of bridge to load of juice withstood ratio) these students also had to make and give a powerpoint presentation in English. They had about five hours to do it all, tops, and most of them also worked through lunch.
The resulting bridges were gorgeous. The strongest of them, made entirely of balsa wood and crazy glue, held 18 juice boxes--3 kilos.
Most of them had names. My favorites are easily Glorious Peace and Bridge of Love (slide description: "a bridge to connect all the world LOVE"), although Legendary Bridge and King of Bridges are very good as well.
The presentations ranged in quality from "decent considering that you had to chose between practicing and building your bridge" to "on par or better than most American high school speeches, but with interesting pronunciation." I was especially proud of about a dozed students who even prepared something beyond just reading the slides, and even sometimes explained things in English on the fly.
However, "load" is a terrible word for Japanese learners of English to have to spell (for some reason, many of the bridges in the presentations I helped with had lords on them) and "glory" is a terrible, terrible word for Japanese learners of English to say. I kept asking "but what is glowing?" until the poor teacher pulled out a dictionary and spelled it out.
I'm going to have to get very, very good at psuedo-homonyms.
So, why do you need ALTs?
In addition to designing and building a winning bridge (the teams were competing for the best weight of bridge to load of juice withstood ratio) these students also had to make and give a powerpoint presentation in English. They had about five hours to do it all, tops, and most of them also worked through lunch.
The resulting bridges were gorgeous. The strongest of them, made entirely of balsa wood and crazy glue, held 18 juice boxes--3 kilos.
Most of them had names. My favorites are easily Glorious Peace and Bridge of Love (slide description: "a bridge to connect all the world LOVE"), although Legendary Bridge and King of Bridges are very good as well.
The presentations ranged in quality from "decent considering that you had to chose between practicing and building your bridge" to "on par or better than most American high school speeches, but with interesting pronunciation." I was especially proud of about a dozed students who even prepared something beyond just reading the slides, and even sometimes explained things in English on the fly.
However, "load" is a terrible word for Japanese learners of English to have to spell (for some reason, many of the bridges in the presentations I helped with had lords on them) and "glory" is a terrible, terrible word for Japanese learners of English to say. I kept asking "but what is glowing?" until the poor teacher pulled out a dictionary and spelled it out.
I'm going to have to get very, very good at psuedo-homonyms.
In which I get a host family
It all began with a leaky air conditioner.
My supervisor asked me if everything worked okay in the apartment, and I mentioned that my AC was dripping copiously onto my deck. He called the landlord, who called the man who repairs AC units in the apartment complex. Somewhere along the line, it turned into an AC emergency and both the repair man and the landlord fussed over the AC, looking for something more severe than a missing pipe to channel the water to a proper drain. The repair man said he could come the next morning to add pipes.
During this inspection, my apartment was in all manner of disarray. I was just finished with assembling an epic piece of kitchen furniture, and the boxes, plastic, and styrofoam were sorted on the floor. That combined with several bags of linens and cups made the apartment look horrendous. The landlord hinted that I should sort my trash (which I took to really mean "please clean your hellhole") and the AC man asked if I was a sensei. Because teachers are given so much esteem in Japanese communities, I wondered if he was genuinely curious or also remarking on the state of my apartment.
It turns out I read way too deeply into it. The landlord double checks my bicycle baskets and watches me unlock my bike before I go out--he just wants to make sure that I understand tricky things like trash days and how to work a Japanese bicycle. As for the AC man...
Nakada-san added pipes the next day. I was home, so I offered some iced tea and we chatted for a while in English while he worked. I learned about his family and also why he asked if I was a teacher. He and both of his children went to the school that I work at, and he said, beeming, "Komatsu High is my school." Both of his kids are doing very well--his daughter has a one-year-old daughter of her own and his son is in the Japanese Air Force. Both of his kids studied abroad in Anglophone countries, and know English. Before he left, Nakada-san invited me to dinner with him and his wife.
I just got back from said dinner. They treated me to sushi, broiled mackerel, yaki-udon, beer, and Japanese spaghetti at a nice izakaya by the station. (I offered to pay; they would have none of it. They got special omiyage from Oregon.) We spoke in English for almost the whole time, and they looked like they were really enjoying practicing. They asked how I was adjusting to life in Japan, and if my family was worried because I was so far away. Both of their children live far away, so I think I've been adopted by empty nesters. Mrs Nakada climbs mountains in her spare time (she did Hakusan today) and promised to show me the sites of the nearby Minami Alps. They both told me numerous times to be careful on my bicycle, especially at night and especially in the snow. They also promised to introduce me to both of their children, and I hope I can also meet Mrs Nakada's dog Leon.
It's nice to know a family so rooted in the community and in my school. Komatsu is technically a city, but it wakes and breathes like a small town. I feel accepted, and I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to be able to get to know kind and outgoing people like the Nakadas.
My supervisor asked me if everything worked okay in the apartment, and I mentioned that my AC was dripping copiously onto my deck. He called the landlord, who called the man who repairs AC units in the apartment complex. Somewhere along the line, it turned into an AC emergency and both the repair man and the landlord fussed over the AC, looking for something more severe than a missing pipe to channel the water to a proper drain. The repair man said he could come the next morning to add pipes.
During this inspection, my apartment was in all manner of disarray. I was just finished with assembling an epic piece of kitchen furniture, and the boxes, plastic, and styrofoam were sorted on the floor. That combined with several bags of linens and cups made the apartment look horrendous. The landlord hinted that I should sort my trash (which I took to really mean "please clean your hellhole") and the AC man asked if I was a sensei. Because teachers are given so much esteem in Japanese communities, I wondered if he was genuinely curious or also remarking on the state of my apartment.
It turns out I read way too deeply into it. The landlord double checks my bicycle baskets and watches me unlock my bike before I go out--he just wants to make sure that I understand tricky things like trash days and how to work a Japanese bicycle. As for the AC man...
Nakada-san added pipes the next day. I was home, so I offered some iced tea and we chatted for a while in English while he worked. I learned about his family and also why he asked if I was a teacher. He and both of his children went to the school that I work at, and he said, beeming, "Komatsu High is my school." Both of his kids are doing very well--his daughter has a one-year-old daughter of her own and his son is in the Japanese Air Force. Both of his kids studied abroad in Anglophone countries, and know English. Before he left, Nakada-san invited me to dinner with him and his wife.
I just got back from said dinner. They treated me to sushi, broiled mackerel, yaki-udon, beer, and Japanese spaghetti at a nice izakaya by the station. (I offered to pay; they would have none of it. They got special omiyage from Oregon.) We spoke in English for almost the whole time, and they looked like they were really enjoying practicing. They asked how I was adjusting to life in Japan, and if my family was worried because I was so far away. Both of their children live far away, so I think I've been adopted by empty nesters. Mrs Nakada climbs mountains in her spare time (she did Hakusan today) and promised to show me the sites of the nearby Minami Alps. They both told me numerous times to be careful on my bicycle, especially at night and especially in the snow. They also promised to introduce me to both of their children, and I hope I can also meet Mrs Nakada's dog Leon.
It's nice to know a family so rooted in the community and in my school. Komatsu is technically a city, but it wakes and breathes like a small town. I feel accepted, and I'm so happy that I have the opportunity to be able to get to know kind and outgoing people like the Nakadas.
Friday, August 6, 2010
Internet!
Hello world, I have internet in my apartment!
There's a lot to say about my experience so far, and probably a lot of little details that I have become used to over the past 10 days that I've been here.
I'll try to start at the beginning. Most of the Ishikawa JETS flew from Tokyo to Komatsu Airport. The landing was gorgeous--we circled over the Sea of Japan and flew toward the shore and the mountains, landing amongst rice fields and pine trees. My supervisor, fellow ALT, and one of my JTEs met me at the airport and took me straight to Komatsu High School to meet the Principal. Eek! We talked for about ten minutes, me trying to sputter out a self introduction and saying that my husband, rather than hometown, was Portland Oregon. Ooops! I corrected my mistake, and the teachers and principal all decided I was too young to marry anyway. Then we sat down and had a conversation, half of which I understood and half of which my supervisor and the JTE translated for me, as the principal hasn't used English for a while. Every bit of formality I knew, I used, and my supervisor seemed really happy about it. Then we briefly toured the school, and then went to sign up for my Alien Registration Card. Then it was lunch--zarusoba, which I had told the principal was my favorite Japanese food in summer time. We all shared a huge plate of it. And finally, I was dropped off at my apartment to meet my predecessor and unpack.
My pred and I met up with another outgoing JET (with a car) and we drove all over doing errands. I had my first crash course in navigation when after dinner, they gave directions to bike home. I was a little worried about getting lost in the rice paddies (of which there are hundreds interspersed throughout the city) or worse, falling in to the rice paddies and getting a) bitten by a poisonous snake or b) catching ensephalitis. But I did not fall in, nor did I get lost. In fact, I think my sense of direction in Komatsu--which has about two main, straight roads and 5 billion narrow, twisty, dead ends-- is stronger for the experience.
The next day, my other supervisor took me to set up a bank account and get essential shopping done. Her English is great, and she was also very encouraging when I tried speaking in Japanese. It turns out that one of the few manga I follow has been made into a drama, which is the favorite of her youngest daughter. When we went to get a cell phone the next day, she was more resolute than I was about finding an iPhone---for which, apparently, there is a one month wait in Japan. Even for the 3GS. I got a Japanese phone which includes in its features a link to my bank account so I can buy things by scanning the phone, a "relax time" tool that shows me pictures of flowers and cats, a TV receptor, a GPS, and command over a missile station in central Africa.
Since then, I've been settling in, meeting the other new ALTs, and getting to know the sights. There's a gorgeous garden right by my school, complete with a giant koi pond and a huge section of cherry trees. There's also a big Shinto shrine by the river, and a combination Buddhist temple and daycare on the way to the train station. The houses are almost all old and a little worn, but beautiful. The streets are full of tiny canals for the rain and snow--we call them gaijin traps because of the danger they pose to unwary foreign bicyclists.
The Garden:
The people here have been nothing but kind. My landlord had decided that he needs to look after me, and I found his advice about garbage days and how to unlock my bicylce patronizing at first until I thought it over. He's just making sure that I have all the information I need. My supervisors have driven me all over and made sure that I am comfortable in my little apartment. Other teachers have asked me how I'm getting along, students wave and greet me back in Engish, and one teacher even gave me a really cute mug to use in the office. The man who fixed my air conditioning discharge pipe invited me to dinner with him and wife so that they could practice their English. Middle school students have escorted me to my destination when I ask for directions. The lady down the hall gave me a bottled water on my way to the store and told me to be careful because it's hot out.
My school is great and a little intimidating. It's the second best in the prefecture, and emphazises science and engineering. Tomorrow, I'm going with some students to--I kid thee not--a bridge building seminar. These students are at school from 8 to 6, and then go to cram school afterward to study for their entrance exams. The third years are in school full time over summer vacation to study. These teens are hard core.
My courtroom...er...classroom:
One of the girls in English Club told me, after they finished working on a debate about immigration, that there are no clubs: "only study!" Everyone laughed, but it did make me worry, and made me realize that part of my job is to allow these students to have fun.
That, I am looking forward to most of all.
There's a lot to say about my experience so far, and probably a lot of little details that I have become used to over the past 10 days that I've been here.
I'll try to start at the beginning. Most of the Ishikawa JETS flew from Tokyo to Komatsu Airport. The landing was gorgeous--we circled over the Sea of Japan and flew toward the shore and the mountains, landing amongst rice fields and pine trees. My supervisor, fellow ALT, and one of my JTEs met me at the airport and took me straight to Komatsu High School to meet the Principal. Eek! We talked for about ten minutes, me trying to sputter out a self introduction and saying that my husband, rather than hometown, was Portland Oregon. Ooops! I corrected my mistake, and the teachers and principal all decided I was too young to marry anyway. Then we sat down and had a conversation, half of which I understood and half of which my supervisor and the JTE translated for me, as the principal hasn't used English for a while. Every bit of formality I knew, I used, and my supervisor seemed really happy about it. Then we briefly toured the school, and then went to sign up for my Alien Registration Card. Then it was lunch--zarusoba, which I had told the principal was my favorite Japanese food in summer time. We all shared a huge plate of it. And finally, I was dropped off at my apartment to meet my predecessor and unpack.
My pred and I met up with another outgoing JET (with a car) and we drove all over doing errands. I had my first crash course in navigation when after dinner, they gave directions to bike home. I was a little worried about getting lost in the rice paddies (of which there are hundreds interspersed throughout the city) or worse, falling in to the rice paddies and getting a) bitten by a poisonous snake or b) catching ensephalitis. But I did not fall in, nor did I get lost. In fact, I think my sense of direction in Komatsu--which has about two main, straight roads and 5 billion narrow, twisty, dead ends-- is stronger for the experience.
The next day, my other supervisor took me to set up a bank account and get essential shopping done. Her English is great, and she was also very encouraging when I tried speaking in Japanese. It turns out that one of the few manga I follow has been made into a drama, which is the favorite of her youngest daughter. When we went to get a cell phone the next day, she was more resolute than I was about finding an iPhone---for which, apparently, there is a one month wait in Japan. Even for the 3GS. I got a Japanese phone which includes in its features a link to my bank account so I can buy things by scanning the phone, a "relax time" tool that shows me pictures of flowers and cats, a TV receptor, a GPS, and command over a missile station in central Africa.
Since then, I've been settling in, meeting the other new ALTs, and getting to know the sights. There's a gorgeous garden right by my school, complete with a giant koi pond and a huge section of cherry trees. There's also a big Shinto shrine by the river, and a combination Buddhist temple and daycare on the way to the train station. The houses are almost all old and a little worn, but beautiful. The streets are full of tiny canals for the rain and snow--we call them gaijin traps because of the danger they pose to unwary foreign bicyclists.
The Garden:
The people here have been nothing but kind. My landlord had decided that he needs to look after me, and I found his advice about garbage days and how to unlock my bicylce patronizing at first until I thought it over. He's just making sure that I have all the information I need. My supervisors have driven me all over and made sure that I am comfortable in my little apartment. Other teachers have asked me how I'm getting along, students wave and greet me back in Engish, and one teacher even gave me a really cute mug to use in the office. The man who fixed my air conditioning discharge pipe invited me to dinner with him and wife so that they could practice their English. Middle school students have escorted me to my destination when I ask for directions. The lady down the hall gave me a bottled water on my way to the store and told me to be careful because it's hot out.
My school is great and a little intimidating. It's the second best in the prefecture, and emphazises science and engineering. Tomorrow, I'm going with some students to--I kid thee not--a bridge building seminar. These students are at school from 8 to 6, and then go to cram school afterward to study for their entrance exams. The third years are in school full time over summer vacation to study. These teens are hard core.
My courtroom...er...classroom:
One of the girls in English Club told me, after they finished working on a debate about immigration, that there are no clubs: "only study!" Everyone laughed, but it did make me worry, and made me realize that part of my job is to allow these students to have fun.
That, I am looking forward to most of all.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Quick, photos!
I'm at a mangakissa (combination hotel, karaoke, comic shop, gamer store, and internet cafe) to quick upload pictures. I should be getting internet tomorrow, so expect a real update then.
Until then, though, take a look at my city!
More photos to come.
Until then, though, take a look at my city!
More photos to come.
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