I had a pretty involved email mostly finished about how Christmas in Japan is similar to the US but there are little things that make it strange and weird and maybe a little unsettling, but I had to go and throw all that out the window. Here's why:
It might have been enough to have Christmas lessons at both elementary schools and a full-on Christmas party at the kindergarten, but there was more. Before you ask though, yes I did dress up as Santa Clauss for the kindergarten and no, I do not have any pictures. Seeing Christmas lights on random houses definitely helped, especially in the face of all the ridiculous consumerism that started the second week of November (gasp!), but that was not really it either.
No, it was Nagao-sensei and his family that really made everything just too nice to be down about Christmas. We had off this past Monday (12/24) and I had asked him last week about borrowing his vacuum to clean my heater, but I forgot to set up a time. I stopped by earlier in the day on Sunday to see if I could borrow but he wasn't home. Later, around 830pm or so, I get a call from someone with a deep voice speaking in English.
-- This is mumble mumble.
-- This is Carlo?
-- This is Nagao.
He was calling me to ask if I still wanted to borrow the vacuum, and doing it in English no less! I really appreciated the effort too, because if you don't know it can be damn intimidating to try and speak a foreign language on the phone. He asked if right then was okay, and I said sure, I'll be right over, but he said that he would come drop it off.
Well, when he got here there was some confusion because you have to manually turn the lights on outside my apartment, so I'm sure that they were a little creeped out. Yes, "they", because not only did Nagao-sensei come, but his wife and his two daughters came too! Nagao-sensei had on the Santa hat that his older daugher had made in (my) English class, and he handed me the vacuum.
He wasn't done yet though, because then he held out something in his hands with a "Merry Christmas". It was a little fake tree, about a foot tall, and decorated with swirling silver garland, white cotton snow, and a big yellow pipe cleaner star on top, secured with ample amounts of red yarn. I was so touched that I didn't even know what to say, I just kept bowing and saying thank you. It was so sweet, I was completely caught off guard.
Really though I should not have been so caught of guard, because that has been my experience here pretty much from Day One: unbounded kindness and friendliness, especially from the people I work with. The kindergarten teachers in particular are really sweet and are always looking out. They gave me this really cute woven Totoro basket from a bazaar they had and Kawaminami-sensei, the head teacher, got me a bilingual origami book for Christmas!
Even though the gifts are nice, it really is the fact that they would even do these things that makes it special. I am not one to often pull the sentimentality card, but this is one occasion where anything else would fall short of the warmth that I feel here. So much love. Wherever you spent the holidays, whatever you celebrate, even if it's nothing at all, I hope you spent it with people that are important to you.
mad love,
-greg.
ps: please enjoy pictures of Oshima elementary school students. adorable!
(flickr)
as always, check the album on the right-hand side.
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
Wednesday, December 12, 2007
ippon! [2007.12.12]
If you were to walk through the hallways of a primary school in Japan in the time between periods, you would think that there is no such thing as order or rule in the schools here. You would not completely correct, but it certainly does seem that way sometimes. Students are all over the place, running and playing and roughhousing around, doing things that would certainly get them a bit of a scolding back in the US.
After getting over my initial surprise and confusion though, it started to make more sense. Those breaks between periods give the kids a chance to use up a lot of the energy that might otherwise get let out during class time. That is not to say that during class all of the kids are perfect little angels, because that is definitely not the case, but overall I think it helps the situation. And since the rules with regard to roughhousing and physicality are a bit relaxed, sometimes that even extends to the teachers getting in on it too.
Like just yesterday, for example, when I went downstairs after cleaning time and came upon some students and their homeroom teacher, just closing up the room that they were cleaning. The students kept messing with the teacher, and I jokingly said "judo?" to the teacher, since I knew he was trained. He kind of laughed and the one student started to back away a little.
Two seconds later the kid was on his back in the hallway with the teacher on top of him saying "ippon!" (one / winning point) and the student repeatedly saying "bad teacher! bad teacher!" It was pretty hilarious.
After the teacher let him back up the kid just kept saying "bad teacher!" and joking around. In the US the teacher could easily face a lawsuit and termination but here it is not even a consideration. Maybe there is a balance between the two extremes, but I feel like maybe that balance ought to be a little closer to this side of the Pacific rather than the other.
Regardless of any pedagogical debate though, watching the two of them go flying through the air and hearing the students English (protests made my day, and what more can you really ask for?
judo chop!
-greg.
After getting over my initial surprise and confusion though, it started to make more sense. Those breaks between periods give the kids a chance to use up a lot of the energy that might otherwise get let out during class time. That is not to say that during class all of the kids are perfect little angels, because that is definitely not the case, but overall I think it helps the situation. And since the rules with regard to roughhousing and physicality are a bit relaxed, sometimes that even extends to the teachers getting in on it too.
Like just yesterday, for example, when I went downstairs after cleaning time and came upon some students and their homeroom teacher, just closing up the room that they were cleaning. The students kept messing with the teacher, and I jokingly said "judo?" to the teacher, since I knew he was trained. He kind of laughed and the one student started to back away a little.
Two seconds later the kid was on his back in the hallway with the teacher on top of him saying "ippon!" (one / winning point) and the student repeatedly saying "bad teacher! bad teacher!" It was pretty hilarious.
After the teacher let him back up the kid just kept saying "bad teacher!" and joking around. In the US the teacher could easily face a lawsuit and termination but here it is not even a consideration. Maybe there is a balance between the two extremes, but I feel like maybe that balance ought to be a little closer to this side of the Pacific rather than the other.
Regardless of any pedagogical debate though, watching the two of them go flying through the air and hearing the students English (protests made my day, and what more can you really ask for?
judo chop!
-greg.
Monday, December 10, 2007
it's turkey time... [2007.12.09]
Okay, so this is a bit after the fact, and way after Jess' wonderful piece (with pictures!):
euphemistical kashi
but better late than never, I reckon.
Jess K., Nathan, Christina, and I all met back in New York during the course of various pre-departure events. We all bonded even more during the (extended) wait to get on our flight to Tokyo, chilling on the floor at the terminal. Tokyo had the four of us thick as thieves, with several people thinking that Nathan and I actually went to college together, rather than meeting two days prior, much to our amusement. It was in Tokyo that we all decided that three months later, we would get together for Thanksgiving.
Now Jess and I live about three hours apart in Nagasaki Prefecture, and Christine technically lives in Nagasaki but way off on an island north of here, so it's a bit of a trek. Nathan though, he lives alll the way up in Miyagi Prefecture, which is quite a bit north.
Despite the distance, we planned it out over the months, and come the Sunday after Thanksgiving, three out of four of us were sharing table space at Jessica's house along with her father, her husband Scott, and her neighbor Alex (Christine couldn't make it). It was glorious!
While we didn't eat any actual turkey meat, we did have a pretty serious spread otherwise, with mashed potatoes, candied yams (WITH the marshmallows), green beans & bacon, salad, barbecued chicken, REAL Stovetop stuffing (thanks to Jess' parents), and gravy. We still had some turkey representation though, with an adorable (and soft!) plush turkey that Christina sent me (thank you!) and the bottle of Wild Turkey Kentucky Bourbon that Nathan brought. I'd never had Wild Turkey before, but we sure had some that day!
It really was a wonderful weekend, and it was really nice to be able to spend some time with good friends to make being away from the US for such a family-centered holiday not so bad at all.
sentimental *BRURRP* future love,
-greg.
ps: with apologies to Azad, Jim, Matt, and anyone else who has ever seen the movie Gigli. gobble gobble.
pps: man, that last one ("tie game") was positively littered with grammatically [wow, that is horrible] mistakes. i shouldn't write these at like one in the morning anymore...
euphemistical kashi
but better late than never, I reckon.
Jess K., Nathan, Christina, and I all met back in New York during the course of various pre-departure events. We all bonded even more during the (extended) wait to get on our flight to Tokyo, chilling on the floor at the terminal. Tokyo had the four of us thick as thieves, with several people thinking that Nathan and I actually went to college together, rather than meeting two days prior, much to our amusement. It was in Tokyo that we all decided that three months later, we would get together for Thanksgiving.
Now Jess and I live about three hours apart in Nagasaki Prefecture, and Christine technically lives in Nagasaki but way off on an island north of here, so it's a bit of a trek. Nathan though, he lives alll the way up in Miyagi Prefecture, which is quite a bit north.
Despite the distance, we planned it out over the months, and come the Sunday after Thanksgiving, three out of four of us were sharing table space at Jessica's house along with her father, her husband Scott, and her neighbor Alex (Christine couldn't make it). It was glorious!
While we didn't eat any actual turkey meat, we did have a pretty serious spread otherwise, with mashed potatoes, candied yams (WITH the marshmallows), green beans & bacon, salad, barbecued chicken, REAL Stovetop stuffing (thanks to Jess' parents), and gravy. We still had some turkey representation though, with an adorable (and soft!) plush turkey that Christina sent me (thank you!) and the bottle of Wild Turkey Kentucky Bourbon that Nathan brought. I'd never had Wild Turkey before, but we sure had some that day!
It really was a wonderful weekend, and it was really nice to be able to spend some time with good friends to make being away from the US for such a family-centered holiday not so bad at all.
sentimental *BRURRP* future love,
-greg.
ps: with apologies to Azad, Jim, Matt, and anyone else who has ever seen the movie Gigli. gobble gobble.
pps: man, that last one ("tie game") was positively littered with grammatically [wow, that is horrible] mistakes. i shouldn't write these at like one in the morning anymore...
Friday, December 7, 2007
tie game [2007.12.06]
You know, I have generally tried my best to avoid what I perceive to be the cliché things to write about when it comes to my experience as an English teacher in Japan, but I am going to forego all that and just come out and say it:
Japanese squat toilets are damned difficult to use.
It has been said a million times over, and really it is just the fact that most "Westerners" (Euro-centric?) did not grow up using one, but it is really rather annoying to be in an elementary school trying to squat over this little elementary-sized hole in the floor and get done what you have to get done before your next class needs to be underway. And that's not even taking into account the necessary cleaning maneuvers afterwards!
The potential difficulties of this somewhat (personally) confounding method of waste disposal are thrown into even starker relief in the case of Oshima Junior High, where one is situated in a stall immediately next to another stall containing a Toto Washlet 3000 Super Waste-Matic Hyper Plus, a contraption privy to the most modern amenities, including but not limited to: bidet! spray wash! variable water pressure! heated seats!! Truly quite the contrast.
On the up side though, the other day I was shopping in a department store and was offered a sample of some udon and soba noodles. I took my noodles and hungrily started slurping away, downing them in no time. I heard the woman remark to one of her co-workers on my skills, not with chopsticks, but with the slurping itself! It is actually quite polite to slurp your noodles, as it not only has the practical effect of cooling them but also is just good manners.
So if you come to Japan, make sure to practice slurping up your noodles with a minimum of splashing, it'll have everyone suitably impressed. Just don't forget to strengthen those leg muscles up plenty before you come too, just in case. Ah the wonders of cross-cultural exchange.
future i-feel-like-i'm-in-the-past love,
-greg.
ps: was it too subtle? did anyone catch it?
pps: oh, and of course get your legs ready if you go to Morocco, or India, or....
Japanese squat toilets are damned difficult to use.
It has been said a million times over, and really it is just the fact that most "Westerners" (Euro-centric?) did not grow up using one, but it is really rather annoying to be in an elementary school trying to squat over this little elementary-sized hole in the floor and get done what you have to get done before your next class needs to be underway. And that's not even taking into account the necessary cleaning maneuvers afterwards!
The potential difficulties of this somewhat (personally) confounding method of waste disposal are thrown into even starker relief in the case of Oshima Junior High, where one is situated in a stall immediately next to another stall containing a Toto Washlet 3000 Super Waste-Matic Hyper Plus, a contraption privy to the most modern amenities, including but not limited to: bidet! spray wash! variable water pressure! heated seats!! Truly quite the contrast.
On the up side though, the other day I was shopping in a department store and was offered a sample of some udon and soba noodles. I took my noodles and hungrily started slurping away, downing them in no time. I heard the woman remark to one of her co-workers on my skills, not with chopsticks, but with the slurping itself! It is actually quite polite to slurp your noodles, as it not only has the practical effect of cooling them but also is just good manners.
So if you come to Japan, make sure to practice slurping up your noodles with a minimum of splashing, it'll have everyone suitably impressed. Just don't forget to strengthen those leg muscles up plenty before you come too, just in case. Ah the wonders of cross-cultural exchange.
future i-feel-like-i'm-in-the-past love,
-greg.
ps: was it too subtle? did anyone catch it?
pps: oh, and of course get your legs ready if you go to Morocco, or India, or....
Thursday, November 22, 2007
echoes of spain [2007.11.21]
There are two things that I have had in my head from Hiroshima that I've wanted to write about but never got around to writing, and this is one of them.
"Hiroshima?", you might ask, puzzlement plastered all over your face.
"Yes, Hiroshima", I would reply. Even though it has been more than a month (a bit longer really, wow), and even though I have just gotten back from another trip to Nara (more on that later), the two things that I still have left to write about are important enough to merit inclusion in the logs, even at such a late date.
But what does Spain have to do with Hiroshima? Well, after going to Nara and being having Madrid come to mind even there, I am beginning to think that part of the reason that I see little pieces of Spain when I am there is because Madrid was the first city that I really got to know. Perhaps that is strange, living so close to New York, but it is true.
That isn't all of it though. The very first night we were in Hiroshima, Alice and I were chatting with one of the other travelers in our hostel, a girl from the US. At one point I turned to apologize to a guy who was sitting near by because we weren't really including him. He then apologized for not really being able to speak English. "Where are you from?", I said. Why, "Spain", of course!
That pretty much made my day right there. We launched off into this crazy discussion ("no manches!"), just talking about all sorts of things. He's originally from Asturias (woo Elena y Marlene!!) but lived for a while in Madrid in the neighborhood next to where I lived (Barrio del Pilar). Not only that, but he was a policeman in the Canary Islands, and he knew about their amazing honey rum. Memo, he knew about the rum!! It was a beautiful moment, sharing that love of ron con miel. That was only the start of what would turn into cause for a mighty powerful feeling of nostalgia and longing.
The next day Alice and I went to a sacred island off the coast of Hiroshima (the other thing I still want to write about) and got back to the city with evening well underway. Instead of going back to the hostel and cleaning ourselves up, we went off in search of this Jamaican restaurant that Alice had heard of. Along the way we passed a spot where some major avenues intersected with trees lining the wide sidewalks and I could not think of anything but Plaza de Cibeles, where the night buses come in Madrid. I spent more than a few nights walking down to Cibeles with Ana and Elena, talking in the wee hours of the morning, and the little similarities in Hiroshima brought out some serious nostalgia.
The last thing, and probably the most ridiculous, happened the last night we were there. Somehow Alice and I got onto the topic of sangria and how we both thought it was pretty great and that turned into a mission to find some. We saw a place that looked promising, and lo! they actually had it, but they were just closing. We saw another place with a Spanish sounding name and went upstairs to check it out.
The place was incredibly fancy looking and not what we expected at all. Dimly lit, cushy atmosphere, it seemed more like a place to drop $25 on a glass of wine rather than somewhere to find some good sangria. I decided to ask anyway but the bartender had no sangria to speak of, as expected. It was then that the only other patron, a Japanese girl in her early twenties, turned from her seat alone at the end of the bar and asked us if we were looking for someplace to get some sangria.
Creepy eh? But we told her yes anyway. She made a call on her cell phone, and told us that she new a place. Alice and I looked at each other, both sort of doubting, but then we both shrugged and took the "what the heck?" route. Now, any sane person with half a brain would be a little skeptical of following a tipsy Japanese woman to an unknown place in a city that they had less than three days experience with. Well, we were, but we were in the hopping commercial / bar district and I at least figured that as long as we stayed in main areas that we would be fine.
We arrived at our destination without being waylaid by any cutthroats or vagabonds and our guide knocked on the door of "Casa de Fujimori". I couldn't believe it as I walked in the door ; it was like crossing six thousand miles in a single step. There was serrano ham on the stone walls, wooden crossbeams all over the place, and a nice big bottle of sangria on the table.
Apparently our friend from the first bar had called her friend who was the owner of the restaurant, who was eating dinner. He gave us sangria, wine, serrano ham, nabe (Japanese hotpot) and kimchi. We spoke in Japanese, Spanish, and English. Simply put, it was amazing, and a wonderful way to finish off our time in Hiroshima... basically by going to Spain with some Japanese people.
The more I travel the more connections I make with people and places, making ever more difficult to really get everyone I care about in one place. I'd much rather have it this way though. I think my friend Ana Belén said it best: "el mundo es pequeñito y nosotros somos como aviones". If you don't speak Spanish, well, it's really pretty.
seriously long-winded future love,
-greg.
ps: all right, if you don't speak spanish, to me it means that as big as the world is there can never be real distance between friends.
"Hiroshima?", you might ask, puzzlement plastered all over your face.
"Yes, Hiroshima", I would reply. Even though it has been more than a month (a bit longer really, wow), and even though I have just gotten back from another trip to Nara (more on that later), the two things that I still have left to write about are important enough to merit inclusion in the logs, even at such a late date.
But what does Spain have to do with Hiroshima? Well, after going to Nara and being having Madrid come to mind even there, I am beginning to think that part of the reason that I see little pieces of Spain when I am there is because Madrid was the first city that I really got to know. Perhaps that is strange, living so close to New York, but it is true.
That isn't all of it though. The very first night we were in Hiroshima, Alice and I were chatting with one of the other travelers in our hostel, a girl from the US. At one point I turned to apologize to a guy who was sitting near by because we weren't really including him. He then apologized for not really being able to speak English. "Where are you from?", I said. Why, "Spain", of course!
That pretty much made my day right there. We launched off into this crazy discussion ("no manches!"), just talking about all sorts of things. He's originally from Asturias (woo Elena y Marlene!!) but lived for a while in Madrid in the neighborhood next to where I lived (Barrio del Pilar). Not only that, but he was a policeman in the Canary Islands, and he knew about their amazing honey rum. Memo, he knew about the rum!! It was a beautiful moment, sharing that love of ron con miel. That was only the start of what would turn into cause for a mighty powerful feeling of nostalgia and longing.
The next day Alice and I went to a sacred island off the coast of Hiroshima (the other thing I still want to write about) and got back to the city with evening well underway. Instead of going back to the hostel and cleaning ourselves up, we went off in search of this Jamaican restaurant that Alice had heard of. Along the way we passed a spot where some major avenues intersected with trees lining the wide sidewalks and I could not think of anything but Plaza de Cibeles, where the night buses come in Madrid. I spent more than a few nights walking down to Cibeles with Ana and Elena, talking in the wee hours of the morning, and the little similarities in Hiroshima brought out some serious nostalgia.
The last thing, and probably the most ridiculous, happened the last night we were there. Somehow Alice and I got onto the topic of sangria and how we both thought it was pretty great and that turned into a mission to find some. We saw a place that looked promising, and lo! they actually had it, but they were just closing. We saw another place with a Spanish sounding name and went upstairs to check it out.
The place was incredibly fancy looking and not what we expected at all. Dimly lit, cushy atmosphere, it seemed more like a place to drop $25 on a glass of wine rather than somewhere to find some good sangria. I decided to ask anyway but the bartender had no sangria to speak of, as expected. It was then that the only other patron, a Japanese girl in her early twenties, turned from her seat alone at the end of the bar and asked us if we were looking for someplace to get some sangria.
Creepy eh? But we told her yes anyway. She made a call on her cell phone, and told us that she new a place. Alice and I looked at each other, both sort of doubting, but then we both shrugged and took the "what the heck?" route. Now, any sane person with half a brain would be a little skeptical of following a tipsy Japanese woman to an unknown place in a city that they had less than three days experience with. Well, we were, but we were in the hopping commercial / bar district and I at least figured that as long as we stayed in main areas that we would be fine.
We arrived at our destination without being waylaid by any cutthroats or vagabonds and our guide knocked on the door of "Casa de Fujimori". I couldn't believe it as I walked in the door ; it was like crossing six thousand miles in a single step. There was serrano ham on the stone walls, wooden crossbeams all over the place, and a nice big bottle of sangria on the table.
Apparently our friend from the first bar had called her friend who was the owner of the restaurant, who was eating dinner. He gave us sangria, wine, serrano ham, nabe (Japanese hotpot) and kimchi. We spoke in Japanese, Spanish, and English. Simply put, it was amazing, and a wonderful way to finish off our time in Hiroshima... basically by going to Spain with some Japanese people.
The more I travel the more connections I make with people and places, making ever more difficult to really get everyone I care about in one place. I'd much rather have it this way though. I think my friend Ana Belén said it best: "el mundo es pequeñito y nosotros somos como aviones". If you don't speak Spanish, well, it's really pretty.
seriously long-winded future love,
-greg.
ps: all right, if you don't speak spanish, to me it means that as big as the world is there can never be real distance between friends.
Friday, November 9, 2007
do the monster mash! [2007.11.09]
I had a few opportunities for some fun Halloween activities here in Oshima at the junior high and West Elementary. I wish that I had that song, actually; I feel like the cheesiness of it would translate even across languages and cultures. Or maybe they would just look at me with that "who is this crazy person?!" look. Good times either way, really.
The first three classes I did were at West Elementary for the 3rd, 5th, and 6th, graders. It was on the schedule that they gave me, so I ran with it. They learned some Halloween vocab, the homeroom teacher and I gave them a "trick or treat" demonstration, and then everyone made masks out of paper plates and yarn that they decorated with markers and then used to do a little trick or treating of their own. I did the same thing with the 4th graders this past Thursday (11/8), but this time with the added benefit of a loads of goody bags and some other props that Mom put together and sent. She made 53 little goody bags, one for every student!! They all were super appreciate and really enjoyed it. I put the extra stuff in the teachers' room for them to share, so I hope they enjoyed it!
The other Halloween bit was at Oshima Junior High. Kita-sensei wanted to do have a Halloween party for the second year English Elective class's first lesson. She had so many crazy props, it was awesome! We did this class after I got my Halloween supplies but before my second visit to the elementary school, so I was able to steal some treats for the junior high kids and petition Mom for more supplies.
Kita-sensei went hardcore on this one, it was really awesome. We took over an empty room and covered all the windows with black trash bags to make it darker. She had this giant hanging fabric pumpkin person thing as well as streamers and garlands and a light-up jack o' lantern! We taught them some words, they did a word search, and then they went "trick or treating" with some of Kita-sensei's props but the real kicker was at the end when they all went bobbing for apples!! Oh, and they all seemed to like candy corn, which I thought was surprising; I thought for sure it would be too sweet.
Unfortunately I only have pictures of the junior high's trick or treat getups and nothing from West yet. I'm working on it! Until then, check these out.
flickr
sugar-rushing future love,
-greg.
The first three classes I did were at West Elementary for the 3rd, 5th, and 6th, graders. It was on the schedule that they gave me, so I ran with it. They learned some Halloween vocab, the homeroom teacher and I gave them a "trick or treat" demonstration, and then everyone made masks out of paper plates and yarn that they decorated with markers and then used to do a little trick or treating of their own. I did the same thing with the 4th graders this past Thursday (11/8), but this time with the added benefit of a loads of goody bags and some other props that Mom put together and sent. She made 53 little goody bags, one for every student!! They all were super appreciate and really enjoyed it. I put the extra stuff in the teachers' room for them to share, so I hope they enjoyed it!
The other Halloween bit was at Oshima Junior High. Kita-sensei wanted to do have a Halloween party for the second year English Elective class's first lesson. She had so many crazy props, it was awesome! We did this class after I got my Halloween supplies but before my second visit to the elementary school, so I was able to steal some treats for the junior high kids and petition Mom for more supplies.
Kita-sensei went hardcore on this one, it was really awesome. We took over an empty room and covered all the windows with black trash bags to make it darker. She had this giant hanging fabric pumpkin person thing as well as streamers and garlands and a light-up jack o' lantern! We taught them some words, they did a word search, and then they went "trick or treating" with some of Kita-sensei's props but the real kicker was at the end when they all went bobbing for apples!! Oh, and they all seemed to like candy corn, which I thought was surprising; I thought for sure it would be too sweet.
Unfortunately I only have pictures of the junior high's trick or treat getups and nothing from West yet. I'm working on it! Until then, check these out.
flickr
sugar-rushing future love,
-greg.
Saturday, November 3, 2007
mid-year conference [2007.11.03]
This doesn't really have so much to do with the JET ALT Mid-Year conference as it has to do with the events of the first night of the conference.
Basically, the beginning of the night was a complete debacle, exacerbated by my lack of a cell phone. Not having a cell is not really a big deal until one needs to coordinate several groups of people into one cohesive merry-making unit; in that case its utility becomes immediately apparent.
There was lots of calling (thanks Dino!) and fumbling and trying to figure things out, as well as confusion and misinformation. In the end, I managed to meet up with Jess (friend from New York), we gave up on Christine (also NY) and burgers, Dino got delayed in the hotel for a long time, Jyoti couldn't find a shirt, and Ellen had no issues whatsoever. So Jess, Jyoti, Ellen and I ended up going to Nagasaki's Chinatown to get some Chinese food, but not before Dino and Jyoti went up on the roof of the hotel where I joined them for some fantastic views.
Chinatown was ridiculous. "Ridiculous" as in "incredibly tacky and stereotypical". I actually couldn't believe it when I saw it at first, I thought I was at a theme park. Past the big plastic looking entry gate and the neon dragon there were flowing water displays and traditional-ish sounding music emanated from many of the buildings.
I guess I was supposed to feel like I was "really in China!", but I just felt like some stupid tourist in a really glitzy trap. The food was good and not too expensive though, so I guess alls well that end's well. The portions were a bit small and overall the experience just made me miss Far East Taste like whoa.
Afterwards there was a Halloween costume party organized by Miss Jennifer Willett wherein much money was raised for Laotian Commotion to build a new school. There were some awesome costumes (I hope the Blues Brothers won), but Jess and I ducked out early to play some Initial D and Taiko no Tetsujin! Taiko no Tetsujin being possibly the greatest rhythm game ever made, featuring taiko drums and musical treats ranging from "Turkish March" to the "Super Mario Brothers" theme, with a whole lot of crazy in-between. I'll have to get a video of Mario next time...
Oh, and the conference was actually pretty good too. How about that?
newly-inspired love from the future,
-greg.
Basically, the beginning of the night was a complete debacle, exacerbated by my lack of a cell phone. Not having a cell is not really a big deal until one needs to coordinate several groups of people into one cohesive merry-making unit; in that case its utility becomes immediately apparent.
There was lots of calling (thanks Dino!) and fumbling and trying to figure things out, as well as confusion and misinformation. In the end, I managed to meet up with Jess (friend from New York), we gave up on Christine (also NY) and burgers, Dino got delayed in the hotel for a long time, Jyoti couldn't find a shirt, and Ellen had no issues whatsoever. So Jess, Jyoti, Ellen and I ended up going to Nagasaki's Chinatown to get some Chinese food, but not before Dino and Jyoti went up on the roof of the hotel where I joined them for some fantastic views.
Chinatown was ridiculous. "Ridiculous" as in "incredibly tacky and stereotypical". I actually couldn't believe it when I saw it at first, I thought I was at a theme park. Past the big plastic looking entry gate and the neon dragon there were flowing water displays and traditional-ish sounding music emanated from many of the buildings.
I guess I was supposed to feel like I was "really in China!", but I just felt like some stupid tourist in a really glitzy trap. The food was good and not too expensive though, so I guess alls well that end's well. The portions were a bit small and overall the experience just made me miss Far East Taste like whoa.Afterwards there was a Halloween costume party organized by Miss Jennifer Willett wherein much money was raised for Laotian Commotion to build a new school. There were some awesome costumes (I hope the Blues Brothers won), but Jess and I ducked out early to play some Initial D and Taiko no Tetsujin! Taiko no Tetsujin being possibly the greatest rhythm game ever made, featuring taiko drums and musical treats ranging from "Turkish March" to the "Super Mario Brothers" theme, with a whole lot of crazy in-between. I'll have to get a video of Mario next time...
Oh, and the conference was actually pretty good too. How about that?
newly-inspired love from the future,
-greg.
Monday, October 29, 2007
are you, my judge?
Imagine, if you will, a teachers' room. This room is filled with the entire staff of the junior high school you attend, all twenty-four of them, and they are not happy. In fact, they are sporting some of the coldest, most serious expressions you have ever seen. And there you stand before them, with four of your friends, all tasked with making your apology. Would you be able remain steady in the face of this array of educational might and stern disappointment?
Well today five girls from the third year had to do just that. They were caught late last week chewing gum in the school, something that is taken very seriously here in Japan. Only one of them did not cry at some point, and one in particular was very upset. They all came in and stood in a row at one end of the room and had to make an apology to the whole room, and I don't mean that they just said "I'm sorry" and were free to go. I obviously don't know what they said really, but it was all fairly lengthy and involved.
When they had all finished, Watanabe-sensei, the head second grade teacher, had some stern words for them. After he lectured them, he went around the room to see if the Principal, Vice-Principal, or other teachers had anything else to say, but they all just nodded their assent to what he had already said. Only after this was finished were the girls allowed to go.
All of the teachers took this matter very seriously, but it seemed to me that the third grade teachers were particularly upset, especially Kawaguchi-sensei and Nakayama-sensei. After the girls had left, both teachers spoke, I would imagine as part of their responsibility as the homeroom teachers for 3-1 and 3-2, respectively. Nakayama-sensei was clearly upset, but Kawaguchi-sensei was even more visibly bothered by what they did, to the extent that after she finished she actually started crying a little at her desk with her head down.
You might think it a little extreme, but it makes a lot more sense when you consider the incredibly developed sense of group identity in Japan; everyone in a group is affected by the actions of its members, which makes Kawaguchi-sensei, as the leader of that group, even more invested than the average member of said group.
It's pretty understandable then that she would get so upset that they would bring disgrace and embarrassment like that, especially right before the Culture Festival this coming Friday. I think maybe they were chewing gum during practice or something, because I kept hearing the word for Culture Festival when they were apologizing. Maybe they were in danger of not being allowed to participate? I am not sure and I didn't want to ask given how serious everyone was.
So things aren't always peaches and cream but if that's as bad as it gets then I think that is just a-okay. This is in sharp contrast to Dino's other high school on the mainland, where he forgot his jacket in class and went back at the end of the day and it was gone. Gone I tell you!! Who steals the teacher's jacket? Geeze. Oh I guess someone did break into my junior high though two or three weeks ago and steal some of Kawaguchi-sensei's clothes from her locker. Yeah, that's pretty messed up. We still don't know what that was about. Kinda blows your mind a little, huh?
Other than that though it's a wonderfully safe and friendly place and the kids are awesome. Just don't go to Nishisonogi High School if you want to keep your jacket.
tough love from the future,
-greg.
ps: does anyone besides Azad recognize my subject line? where is Fred King when i need him....
Well today five girls from the third year had to do just that. They were caught late last week chewing gum in the school, something that is taken very seriously here in Japan. Only one of them did not cry at some point, and one in particular was very upset. They all came in and stood in a row at one end of the room and had to make an apology to the whole room, and I don't mean that they just said "I'm sorry" and were free to go. I obviously don't know what they said really, but it was all fairly lengthy and involved.
When they had all finished, Watanabe-sensei, the head second grade teacher, had some stern words for them. After he lectured them, he went around the room to see if the Principal, Vice-Principal, or other teachers had anything else to say, but they all just nodded their assent to what he had already said. Only after this was finished were the girls allowed to go.
All of the teachers took this matter very seriously, but it seemed to me that the third grade teachers were particularly upset, especially Kawaguchi-sensei and Nakayama-sensei. After the girls had left, both teachers spoke, I would imagine as part of their responsibility as the homeroom teachers for 3-1 and 3-2, respectively. Nakayama-sensei was clearly upset, but Kawaguchi-sensei was even more visibly bothered by what they did, to the extent that after she finished she actually started crying a little at her desk with her head down.
You might think it a little extreme, but it makes a lot more sense when you consider the incredibly developed sense of group identity in Japan; everyone in a group is affected by the actions of its members, which makes Kawaguchi-sensei, as the leader of that group, even more invested than the average member of said group.
It's pretty understandable then that she would get so upset that they would bring disgrace and embarrassment like that, especially right before the Culture Festival this coming Friday. I think maybe they were chewing gum during practice or something, because I kept hearing the word for Culture Festival when they were apologizing. Maybe they were in danger of not being allowed to participate? I am not sure and I didn't want to ask given how serious everyone was.
So things aren't always peaches and cream but if that's as bad as it gets then I think that is just a-okay. This is in sharp contrast to Dino's other high school on the mainland, where he forgot his jacket in class and went back at the end of the day and it was gone. Gone I tell you!! Who steals the teacher's jacket? Geeze. Oh I guess someone did break into my junior high though two or three weeks ago and steal some of Kawaguchi-sensei's clothes from her locker. Yeah, that's pretty messed up. We still don't know what that was about. Kinda blows your mind a little, huh?
Other than that though it's a wonderfully safe and friendly place and the kids are awesome. Just don't go to Nishisonogi High School if you want to keep your jacket.
tough love from the future,
-greg.
ps: does anyone besides Azad recognize my subject line? where is Fred King when i need him....
Saturday, October 27, 2007
PSA
My friend Nathan up in Miyagi Prefecture (also from New York!) made this groovy video with some clips from our three days in Tokyo. Check it out! Also featured in the video and easily identifiable by hair color are: Jess K. (black), Christine (red) and Erica (blond). The soundtrack and the editing are solid. The food, the atmosphere... Tokyo was pretty great. That little café that we were at was really awesome. I had to sit on it a while because it would have given away a surprise for Drew, but now everything is sprung, so it's all good. Anyway, please enjoy.
"arrival to Japan"
moving picture future love!
-greg.
"arrival to Japan"
moving picture future love!
-greg.
any given sunday
For the past month, Sunday morning has found me engaged in various school-related activities, all requiring me to wake up and get out of the house perhaps earlier than one would prefer on a Sunday morning. Thankfully though every time I had to get up early it was well worth it.
The most recent such event was this past Sunday when the junior high PTA, as well as a bunch of students, got together to clean up the school grounds. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but it more or less amounted to lots and lottts of pulling weeds out by the sports field. I also had a chance to have some out-of-school interaction with a bunch of the 1st and 2nd years, which was nice. The beautiful weather was certainly a plus as well.
The level of community here is pretty ridiculous. Part of that is certainly due to the small-town / rural location, but I think it is also just a part of the makeup of the Japanese mindset as a whole. That's not even just baseless speculation either! It can be seen in the Nagasaki Kunchi Festival, one of the three biggest in Japan, where every year seven neighborhoods (out of 77 I think), train their hearts out and come together to perform in the three day celebration. The unity, the coordination, the balance, the dedication... You get what I mean.
That community aspect was even more apparent at the three sports festivals that I attended the other three Sundays. In reverse chronological order they were: Oshima Town's sports festival, the kindergarten's, and East Elementary's. I'll describe them in the order they occurred though, just to be difficult.
I have to say I had no idea really what to expect from East's undokai (sports festival). I figured since it wass a celebration of fitness I would at least dress the part though, so I showed up in track pants and runnings shoes. This turned out to be a good call, because most people were sporting similar attire. This is probably a good time to mention that I actually wear track pants and polos every day to work (because I can), thus making me look a lot more like a gym teacher than an English teacher.
My digression into poor fashion choices aside (it's practical!), I was completely surprised when they sat me in the center tent with all of the important people. By "important" I mean principals of other schools, leading (older) citizens, even the mayor of Saikai City! They served us tea!! What?!?! We also were called up to participate in one of the races though, which was pretty entertaining. We had to use a rod with a string and paper clip to "fish" a bag with presents in it. Woo presents!
At sports festivals the students are split into two teams, usually red and white but at the kindergarten it was pink and blue and at the town undokai it was split by neighborhood. The teams are based on the kids' reversable hats for their athletic uniforms, which they all wear when they go outside. This falls off in junior high though.
There is a whole series of events throughout the day, usually either some kind of standard footrace or a relay of some sort. The relays usually include lots of fun involvement from everyone there, not just the kids. For example there was a relay where the fathers had to go through a daily routine, "waking up" at the start of the gun and then walking around the track, eating breakfast (with no hands), washing their face, picking up lunch (hanging from a pole and using only their teeth) and then saying good morning to the principal! Pretty ridiculous, and lots of fun. The "taking food from a string hanging from a pole with your teeth" was actually a common thing at all three sports festivals, so I guess it's a big hit. I certainly enjoyed it at the town undokai when Nakayama-sensei and I were called out to represent Higashimachi!
The kids also practice and learn dances and songs for the undokai. At the elementary school they even had a cheer contest that I had to help judge! The Red Squaaaad (Mr Cannon?) totally won, no contest.
The three festivals were fairly different, given the main participants, but they all were a lot of fun. I am going to steal my friend Jess K's idea and say that it really is one of the only times the whole family can get together and have a day just to have fun. The parents and the kids both have such crazy busy schedules.
I only have vids / pictures from the kindergarten undokai, but you can check them out here:
videos: blogspot
foto: flickr
Jess also has a bunch of good shots of her schools' undokais. You should check them out here: blogspot
Okay, so perhaps only four Sundays in a row does not constitute "any given Sunday", but I think I can be allowed a bit of creative license.
extra speedy love from the future,
-greg.
ps: how do these things keep getting so long? i mean detail is good but i don't want everyone's eyes to fall out!
pps: i just found out that there are culture festivals both this coming weekend and the weekend after. man, the days are just packed...
The most recent such event was this past Sunday when the junior high PTA, as well as a bunch of students, got together to clean up the school grounds. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect, but it more or less amounted to lots and lottts of pulling weeds out by the sports field. I also had a chance to have some out-of-school interaction with a bunch of the 1st and 2nd years, which was nice. The beautiful weather was certainly a plus as well.
The level of community here is pretty ridiculous. Part of that is certainly due to the small-town / rural location, but I think it is also just a part of the makeup of the Japanese mindset as a whole. That's not even just baseless speculation either! It can be seen in the Nagasaki Kunchi Festival, one of the three biggest in Japan, where every year seven neighborhoods (out of 77 I think), train their hearts out and come together to perform in the three day celebration. The unity, the coordination, the balance, the dedication... You get what I mean.
That community aspect was even more apparent at the three sports festivals that I attended the other three Sundays. In reverse chronological order they were: Oshima Town's sports festival, the kindergarten's, and East Elementary's. I'll describe them in the order they occurred though, just to be difficult.
I have to say I had no idea really what to expect from East's undokai (sports festival). I figured since it wass a celebration of fitness I would at least dress the part though, so I showed up in track pants and runnings shoes. This turned out to be a good call, because most people were sporting similar attire. This is probably a good time to mention that I actually wear track pants and polos every day to work (because I can), thus making me look a lot more like a gym teacher than an English teacher.
My digression into poor fashion choices aside (it's practical!), I was completely surprised when they sat me in the center tent with all of the important people. By "important" I mean principals of other schools, leading (older) citizens, even the mayor of Saikai City! They served us tea!! What?!?! We also were called up to participate in one of the races though, which was pretty entertaining. We had to use a rod with a string and paper clip to "fish" a bag with presents in it. Woo presents!
At sports festivals the students are split into two teams, usually red and white but at the kindergarten it was pink and blue and at the town undokai it was split by neighborhood. The teams are based on the kids' reversable hats for their athletic uniforms, which they all wear when they go outside. This falls off in junior high though.
There is a whole series of events throughout the day, usually either some kind of standard footrace or a relay of some sort. The relays usually include lots of fun involvement from everyone there, not just the kids. For example there was a relay where the fathers had to go through a daily routine, "waking up" at the start of the gun and then walking around the track, eating breakfast (with no hands), washing their face, picking up lunch (hanging from a pole and using only their teeth) and then saying good morning to the principal! Pretty ridiculous, and lots of fun. The "taking food from a string hanging from a pole with your teeth" was actually a common thing at all three sports festivals, so I guess it's a big hit. I certainly enjoyed it at the town undokai when Nakayama-sensei and I were called out to represent Higashimachi!
The kids also practice and learn dances and songs for the undokai. At the elementary school they even had a cheer contest that I had to help judge! The Red Squaaaad (Mr Cannon?) totally won, no contest.
The three festivals were fairly different, given the main participants, but they all were a lot of fun. I am going to steal my friend Jess K's idea and say that it really is one of the only times the whole family can get together and have a day just to have fun. The parents and the kids both have such crazy busy schedules.
I only have vids / pictures from the kindergarten undokai, but you can check them out here:
videos: blogspot
foto: flickr
Jess also has a bunch of good shots of her schools' undokais. You should check them out here: blogspot
Okay, so perhaps only four Sundays in a row does not constitute "any given Sunday", but I think I can be allowed a bit of creative license.
extra speedy love from the future,
-greg.
ps: how do these things keep getting so long? i mean detail is good but i don't want everyone's eyes to fall out!
pps: i just found out that there are culture festivals both this coming weekend and the weekend after. man, the days are just packed...
kindergarten undokai videos
i have a feeling that watching a group of four to six year olds doing a dance / exercise routine to energetic music is always something happy. unless you are filled with hate. maybe not then.
the kids also did a lip-synch / dance to an audio track about Momotaro. read more about Momotaro here (flickr) or here (wiki).
in this clip they are about to go to the island of the Oni, i think.
pink = Momotaro
green = the Bird
blue = the Dog
yellow = the Monkey
climactic showdown battle! the Oni (red) try to defeat Momotaro and his crew, but they are just no match for the kibidango (millet-powered) fighting force!
the kids also did a lip-synch / dance to an audio track about Momotaro. read more about Momotaro here (flickr) or here (wiki).
in this clip they are about to go to the island of the Oni, i think.
pink = Momotaro
green = the Bird
blue = the Dog
yellow = the Monkey
climactic showdown battle! the Oni (red) try to defeat Momotaro and his crew, but they are just no match for the kibidango (millet-powered) fighting force!
Sunday, October 7, 2007
mm.. meat
Most people that know me know that I really like food. I love to eat delicious things. Thus I was fortunate that my Vietnamese friends invited me to a party with "grilled meat" (but in Japanese) that was going to happen at the shipyard on Saturday Oct. 06. From what they said in Japanese I expected it to be a general small-type festival atmosphere with some meat skewer stands.
Man was I wrong. I went over to their dorm at 830am so that we could make our way over early to the festival, which started at 10am. I figured that it would be in the space near the shipyard, but it was actually IN the shipyard itself. There was a large area cleared with tarps laid down underneath huge metal ceiling frames. There was a stage in front and the area was ringed with cauldrons and griddles suspended over barrels full of burnables. "Small-type festival atmosphere" this was certainly not.
Upon entry to the shipyard complex everyone was given a sheet with a tear-off raffle ticket and a voucher for one ice cream. Other than that limitation, everything was free and all you can eat. The ceremony opened with a bunch of shipyard officials speaking some Japanese and then opening a wicker basket with a flourish and a pop of fireworks and releasing a flock of white doves into the air. It was pretty impressive. The officials were all garbed in festival clothing covered in elephants. See, in Japanese, "shipyard" is "zousen" (make + ship, or something along those lines) and "elephant" is just "zou", but with a different kanji. Japanese people love stuff like that, it seems.
There was a full schedule of events throughout the day besides the ridiculous amounts of food. One of the first was a children's taiko group. In a word, they were adorable, but they were also pretty good too. Some of these kids couldn't have been more than 5!
In a change-up from the kids entertaining everyone there was also a pretty intricately choreographed and lip-synced character show. Think "Power Rangers" if you are not sure what to imagine. Or just go check out the pictures on the flickr. There is also a video of one of the other musical acts there. It almost sounds like it could be Native American or something. Pretty groovy anyway.
All of these things were great and all but the main attraction was really the FOOD. Oh geeze it was all so good. They had so many stations cooking up beef with vegetables, chicken with noodles ("yaki soba"), just meat... so much. In addition to all that, they had stands with rice balls, udon noodles, hot dogs on a stick ("american dogs"), oden (Japanese hotpot), and.... other stuff that I can't remember. It was really glorious. The picture on flickr of the spread we have does not even do it justice. It was a good day, let me tell you.
Overall there were probably more than 4000 people there, judging by the raffle numbers that were called at the end. Unfortunately none of us (me or my Vietnamese friends) won any of the prizes, but we still had a really good time. I am really happy that I took that alternate route home that one day and ended up meeting them. It is also a good thing that I ride my bike so much so that I can afford to do things like that every once in a while. Even a week later I still remember how stuffed I was! Mm... delightful.
full & contented future love,
-greg.
ps: if you forgot... fotos
Man was I wrong. I went over to their dorm at 830am so that we could make our way over early to the festival, which started at 10am. I figured that it would be in the space near the shipyard, but it was actually IN the shipyard itself. There was a large area cleared with tarps laid down underneath huge metal ceiling frames. There was a stage in front and the area was ringed with cauldrons and griddles suspended over barrels full of burnables. "Small-type festival atmosphere" this was certainly not.
Upon entry to the shipyard complex everyone was given a sheet with a tear-off raffle ticket and a voucher for one ice cream. Other than that limitation, everything was free and all you can eat. The ceremony opened with a bunch of shipyard officials speaking some Japanese and then opening a wicker basket with a flourish and a pop of fireworks and releasing a flock of white doves into the air. It was pretty impressive. The officials were all garbed in festival clothing covered in elephants. See, in Japanese, "shipyard" is "zousen" (make + ship, or something along those lines) and "elephant" is just "zou", but with a different kanji. Japanese people love stuff like that, it seems.
There was a full schedule of events throughout the day besides the ridiculous amounts of food. One of the first was a children's taiko group. In a word, they were adorable, but they were also pretty good too. Some of these kids couldn't have been more than 5!
In a change-up from the kids entertaining everyone there was also a pretty intricately choreographed and lip-synced character show. Think "Power Rangers" if you are not sure what to imagine. Or just go check out the pictures on the flickr. There is also a video of one of the other musical acts there. It almost sounds like it could be Native American or something. Pretty groovy anyway.
All of these things were great and all but the main attraction was really the FOOD. Oh geeze it was all so good. They had so many stations cooking up beef with vegetables, chicken with noodles ("yaki soba"), just meat... so much. In addition to all that, they had stands with rice balls, udon noodles, hot dogs on a stick ("american dogs"), oden (Japanese hotpot), and.... other stuff that I can't remember. It was really glorious. The picture on flickr of the spread we have does not even do it justice. It was a good day, let me tell you.
Overall there were probably more than 4000 people there, judging by the raffle numbers that were called at the end. Unfortunately none of us (me or my Vietnamese friends) won any of the prizes, but we still had a really good time. I am really happy that I took that alternate route home that one day and ended up meeting them. It is also a good thing that I ride my bike so much so that I can afford to do things like that every once in a while. Even a week later I still remember how stuffed I was! Mm... delightful.
full & contented future love,
-greg.
ps: if you forgot... fotos
Saturday, October 6, 2007
endless kindness
I was riding around on my bike Wednesday afternoon when I passed by a mechanic sitting outside of Honda Motors working on a scooter. I smiled at him and he smiled back so after I passed him I decided to turn around and go back. It was in the area by the shipyard and I knew that there was a bike shop around there somewhere but I was not exactly sure where and I figured he would be a good person to ask since he seemed friendly.
I rolled up and said hello and then asked him where the bike shop was, explaining that I was maybe a bit too tall for the handle bar / seat height that Felix was currently sporting. He started to say that it was over by the traffic light and then asked me to hold on a second and goes inside the shop. He comes back out with some tools and starts fiddling with my bike, raising handle bars a little and the seat a fair bit (both to the limit). Then he starts checking the tire pressure and puts some more air in!
The real kicker was when he got some spray lube for my chain and then checked out the gears. Yeah plural. Apparently my bike, since it is a "family bike", actually does have gears, they are just inside a bit of casing by the rear wheel of my bike. So I've got three gears now! It makes sense that those hills are so wicked now that I know I've been riding around in third this whole time.
Regardless of any of the negative things that could be said about people here there is no denying the incredible kindness and helpful nature of people out here in the countryside. I am sure that knowing who I was had some influence on the situation (the mechanic explained to a police officer who stopped by that I was an English teacher at the junior high), but I still think that it is pretty remarkable how kind and willing to help out everyone has been. The little adjustments he did made a woorrrld of difference on my ride too. Pretty wonderful.
ridin' easy in the future,
-greg.
ps: oh i also threw up some Hiroshima pics. check them out in the usual place. there is an album on the right which has an actual order to the fotos as opposed to the randomness of the photostream. anyway, enjoy!
I rolled up and said hello and then asked him where the bike shop was, explaining that I was maybe a bit too tall for the handle bar / seat height that Felix was currently sporting. He started to say that it was over by the traffic light and then asked me to hold on a second and goes inside the shop. He comes back out with some tools and starts fiddling with my bike, raising handle bars a little and the seat a fair bit (both to the limit). Then he starts checking the tire pressure and puts some more air in!
The real kicker was when he got some spray lube for my chain and then checked out the gears. Yeah plural. Apparently my bike, since it is a "family bike", actually does have gears, they are just inside a bit of casing by the rear wheel of my bike. So I've got three gears now! It makes sense that those hills are so wicked now that I know I've been riding around in third this whole time.
Regardless of any of the negative things that could be said about people here there is no denying the incredible kindness and helpful nature of people out here in the countryside. I am sure that knowing who I was had some influence on the situation (the mechanic explained to a police officer who stopped by that I was an English teacher at the junior high), but I still think that it is pretty remarkable how kind and willing to help out everyone has been. The little adjustments he did made a woorrrld of difference on my ride too. Pretty wonderful.
ridin' easy in the future,
-greg.
ps: oh i also threw up some Hiroshima pics. check them out in the usual place. there is an album on the right which has an actual order to the fotos as opposed to the randomness of the photostream. anyway, enjoy!
if you can dodge a car....
... you can dodge a frisbee! Yeah, that's right, a frisbee. Thursday night Oshima's Junior High PTA hosted a little dodgebee tournament at the school. Dodgebee is a combination of dodgeball and frisbee (as you might have guessed) and ends up sounding something like "do-ji-bee" with a long 'o' like in "home" (and said more quickly without splitting syllables).
The game itself is not quite just "dodgeball with frisbees", however. There were three teams, divided up into teachers / parents of grades one through three (seven through nine in the US). Each team could field 12 people per match, which was timed into two three minute halves. The playing area is split into two parts, each with an inside and an outside, so it looks kind of like this...
A A B B
A B :: A B
A A B B
Six people from B team are on the "inside" of the left half and six people from A team are in the "outside" of the left half, and then the opposite on the other court. There is only one frisbee in play, and whichever team has the most people on the inside at the end is the winner. I evidently misunderstood how that changes, but it has to do with outside people somehow. I don't know, I don't speak Japanese, haha. Oh, the frisbees are made of foam so people weren't in danger of losing eyes / teeth / arms or anything.
At the end the PTA people gave out prize certificates. The first place team, the 1st graders, got a certificate, and then an MVP from each team. We lost every game, haha. One of the teachers from the second grade got an honorable mention for "best catch" (we battled back and forth and the third one he caught falling backwards) and then I actually got one for like "most energetic" or something. We didn't get certificates, but all the winners got a can of beer. Then when we were leaving eeeveryone got a can of beer, so I ended up with two. I gave them to Umino-sensei the next day because what do I need to drink at home for? It just takes up space in my little fridge.
Afterwards a bunch of the male teachers and fathers went out to a little bar for food, beer, and shochu, a drink that is weaker than whisky, stronger than sake, similar to soju, and has its production centered here in the Kyushu region. It was interesting to see how the "junior / senior" roles actually functioned in context, with Umino-sensei and Nakayama-sensei playing the role of everyone's alchohol server, basically. I felt bad, because they are 25 and 27, respectively, making me the youngest, but they said it was okay. I made a drink for Umino-sensei anyway and then at least made sure that the people need me had their shochu topped up, not going so far as to be standing up and going around to people though. I might be in Japan but I'm still American dammit.
The shochu was okay, but the food was amazing! I think it's good that all you can eat /drink places tend to be expensive because it keeps me from pigging out all the time! Man the food was good. I didn't stay the whole time, but apparently they went home around 130am. And on a school night! I love it.
mad future love,
-greg.
The game itself is not quite just "dodgeball with frisbees", however. There were three teams, divided up into teachers / parents of grades one through three (seven through nine in the US). Each team could field 12 people per match, which was timed into two three minute halves. The playing area is split into two parts, each with an inside and an outside, so it looks kind of like this...
A A B B
A B :: A B
A A B B
Six people from B team are on the "inside" of the left half and six people from A team are in the "outside" of the left half, and then the opposite on the other court. There is only one frisbee in play, and whichever team has the most people on the inside at the end is the winner. I evidently misunderstood how that changes, but it has to do with outside people somehow. I don't know, I don't speak Japanese, haha. Oh, the frisbees are made of foam so people weren't in danger of losing eyes / teeth / arms or anything.
At the end the PTA people gave out prize certificates. The first place team, the 1st graders, got a certificate, and then an MVP from each team. We lost every game, haha. One of the teachers from the second grade got an honorable mention for "best catch" (we battled back and forth and the third one he caught falling backwards) and then I actually got one for like "most energetic" or something. We didn't get certificates, but all the winners got a can of beer. Then when we were leaving eeeveryone got a can of beer, so I ended up with two. I gave them to Umino-sensei the next day because what do I need to drink at home for? It just takes up space in my little fridge.
Afterwards a bunch of the male teachers and fathers went out to a little bar for food, beer, and shochu, a drink that is weaker than whisky, stronger than sake, similar to soju, and has its production centered here in the Kyushu region. It was interesting to see how the "junior / senior" roles actually functioned in context, with Umino-sensei and Nakayama-sensei playing the role of everyone's alchohol server, basically. I felt bad, because they are 25 and 27, respectively, making me the youngest, but they said it was okay. I made a drink for Umino-sensei anyway and then at least made sure that the people need me had their shochu topped up, not going so far as to be standing up and going around to people though. I might be in Japan but I'm still American dammit.
The shochu was okay, but the food was amazing! I think it's good that all you can eat /drink places tend to be expensive because it keeps me from pigging out all the time! Man the food was good. I didn't stay the whole time, but apparently they went home around 130am. And on a school night! I love it.
mad future love,
-greg.
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
hiroshima (finallly) [2007.10.01]
I am going to forego any sort of fancy email thing with pictures for this one, considering that I am writing (starting) it two weeks to the day after I actually returned from Hiroshima. "Slacker" is my name, it appears. I think for the moment I will just start off with the time we spent with things related to the A-Bomb and add anything else later, if I end up doing that at all.
I arrived in Hiroshima on Friday at around 1130am after getting up at 6am to catch the 650 ferry over to Sasebo to start my journey on the train. My friend Alice had been there for an hour and was waiting for me at the station. I met Alice in college, in Japanese class actually, and we had always talked about the JET Program. Last year she made that dream a reality (graduating on time, who does that?) and now so have I, so it was really nice to finally get to see her after more than a year.
She took me to the hostel on the street car so that I could drop off my stuff, and then we headed off to the Peace Memorial Park.
The stop for Peace Memorial Park on the trolley car line is the only one that features English. It actually started to get pretty funny, riding back and forth on the trolley and always hearing the warning that the "next stop is for the Peace Memorial Park... please get off at the next stop if you are going to Peace Memorial Park".
We did get off there, and the first thing we saw was the Atomic Bomb dome. The dome was almost directly underneath the hypocenter of the bomb when it exploded, just under 500 feet (150 m) away. Miraculously, much of the structure survived the blast and it has been preserved in its current form since that day. I have pictures of this, and most of the other things I will talk about, but I will have to put them up later and let you know.
The building was certainly impressive to see, but set in amongst the beautiful park on a wonderful day it was hard to really get the full effect of it. We were in high spirits, enjoying the weather, the reunion, and the park, and it would be hard to bring us down.
After we passed the dome a group of elementary school students ran out to meet us. They started to tell us that they were there on their school trip, how far away they lived... it was cute. They also asked us if we knew okonomiyaki, which Hiroshima is famous for, and momiji manju. Okonomiyaki is a crazy mixture based around a sort of pancake batter but with all sorts of delightful things on / in it and momiji (maple tree) manju is a pastry shaped like a maple leaf with Japanese red bean paste (or other things) inside. Later we ran into another group and their script was almost exactly the same. Ha, it was cute. I am sure they practiced a lot to get it right.
The next stop in the park was the Children's Peace Monument, dedicated to the memory of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died from leukemia caused by the bomb's radiation. There is a legend in Japan that if you fold one thousand cranes and fill each crane with your heart's desire then your wish will come true. Sadako believed this and kept folding paper cranes long after she had made her thousandth. After her death her friends got support to build a monument for her and all the other children that died. Thousands of cranes arrive almost every day from around the world and are placed near the statue in display cases. Millions of cranes on are display there, strung together or assembled into collages with peaceful imagery.
The sun was still shining brightly in the sky and there were school children milling about when we passed by the Memorial Cenotaph on the way to the Peace Memorial Museum. The Cenotaph is a sort of symbolic tomb for all the (Japanese) people that died in the attack. It is on a straight line with the Museum, the Bomb Dome, and the Peace Flame, which will stay lit until all of the nuclear weapons on the planet are destroyed and the world is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.
The Museum was an incredibly sobering experience. There is a defined path through the museum and it leads visitors through the events and historical context preceding the attack, the attack and its immediate aftermath, as well as the long term effects. There was too much to be able to really be able to write about it all, but one of the most arresting things in the beginning was a pair of huge circular models of the city, one before and one after. There were also lots of fotos of the destruction, taken by the Army Air Corps before and after the fact. All of the cities that were considered as targets for the atomic bomb were not bombed at all so as to be able to assess the destructive capabilities in the most accurate fashion.
What I originally mistook for the end of the tour turned out to be a pathway into the next section of the museum, detailing the human effects of the bombing. It was horrible to think of what happened to the people that were there. One of the first things in this new section was a life size scene with models of a mother and two children trying to escape to safety. Their clothes were in tatters and seared to their skin, which was dripping off in some places, everything covered in blood. Behind them everything burned.
There were pictures of people with their whole bodies covered in burns; articles of clothing and other personal affects with the story of their owner; descriptions of the effects of the radiation over the months and years for the people who survived the initial blast. They detailed cases where babies still in the women were born with mental disabilities, requiring lifelong care from their parents, with video included.
The museum ended with some thoughts and images of peace in the shop. It was an incredibly moving experience. I walked out of there feeling like if everyone in the world were somehow to go through and experience everything in that museum that the world would know peace, but I know that even that is not realistic, nothing more than a wisp of a dream. I guess that's no reason to stop people from trying though.
There were other things in Hiroshima obviously, but this is more than enough for now. More will come, either in handy email format or as words attached to pictures.
wordy but necessary future love,
-greg.
I arrived in Hiroshima on Friday at around 1130am after getting up at 6am to catch the 650 ferry over to Sasebo to start my journey on the train. My friend Alice had been there for an hour and was waiting for me at the station. I met Alice in college, in Japanese class actually, and we had always talked about the JET Program. Last year she made that dream a reality (graduating on time, who does that?) and now so have I, so it was really nice to finally get to see her after more than a year.
She took me to the hostel on the street car so that I could drop off my stuff, and then we headed off to the Peace Memorial Park.
The stop for Peace Memorial Park on the trolley car line is the only one that features English. It actually started to get pretty funny, riding back and forth on the trolley and always hearing the warning that the "next stop is for the Peace Memorial Park... please get off at the next stop if you are going to Peace Memorial Park".
We did get off there, and the first thing we saw was the Atomic Bomb dome. The dome was almost directly underneath the hypocenter of the bomb when it exploded, just under 500 feet (150 m) away. Miraculously, much of the structure survived the blast and it has been preserved in its current form since that day. I have pictures of this, and most of the other things I will talk about, but I will have to put them up later and let you know.
The building was certainly impressive to see, but set in amongst the beautiful park on a wonderful day it was hard to really get the full effect of it. We were in high spirits, enjoying the weather, the reunion, and the park, and it would be hard to bring us down.
After we passed the dome a group of elementary school students ran out to meet us. They started to tell us that they were there on their school trip, how far away they lived... it was cute. They also asked us if we knew okonomiyaki, which Hiroshima is famous for, and momiji manju. Okonomiyaki is a crazy mixture based around a sort of pancake batter but with all sorts of delightful things on / in it and momiji (maple tree) manju is a pastry shaped like a maple leaf with Japanese red bean paste (or other things) inside. Later we ran into another group and their script was almost exactly the same. Ha, it was cute. I am sure they practiced a lot to get it right.
The next stop in the park was the Children's Peace Monument, dedicated to the memory of Sadako Sasaki, a girl who died from leukemia caused by the bomb's radiation. There is a legend in Japan that if you fold one thousand cranes and fill each crane with your heart's desire then your wish will come true. Sadako believed this and kept folding paper cranes long after she had made her thousandth. After her death her friends got support to build a monument for her and all the other children that died. Thousands of cranes arrive almost every day from around the world and are placed near the statue in display cases. Millions of cranes on are display there, strung together or assembled into collages with peaceful imagery.
The sun was still shining brightly in the sky and there were school children milling about when we passed by the Memorial Cenotaph on the way to the Peace Memorial Museum. The Cenotaph is a sort of symbolic tomb for all the (Japanese) people that died in the attack. It is on a straight line with the Museum, the Bomb Dome, and the Peace Flame, which will stay lit until all of the nuclear weapons on the planet are destroyed and the world is free from the threat of nuclear annihilation.
The Museum was an incredibly sobering experience. There is a defined path through the museum and it leads visitors through the events and historical context preceding the attack, the attack and its immediate aftermath, as well as the long term effects. There was too much to be able to really be able to write about it all, but one of the most arresting things in the beginning was a pair of huge circular models of the city, one before and one after. There were also lots of fotos of the destruction, taken by the Army Air Corps before and after the fact. All of the cities that were considered as targets for the atomic bomb were not bombed at all so as to be able to assess the destructive capabilities in the most accurate fashion.
What I originally mistook for the end of the tour turned out to be a pathway into the next section of the museum, detailing the human effects of the bombing. It was horrible to think of what happened to the people that were there. One of the first things in this new section was a life size scene with models of a mother and two children trying to escape to safety. Their clothes were in tatters and seared to their skin, which was dripping off in some places, everything covered in blood. Behind them everything burned.
There were pictures of people with their whole bodies covered in burns; articles of clothing and other personal affects with the story of their owner; descriptions of the effects of the radiation over the months and years for the people who survived the initial blast. They detailed cases where babies still in the women were born with mental disabilities, requiring lifelong care from their parents, with video included.
The museum ended with some thoughts and images of peace in the shop. It was an incredibly moving experience. I walked out of there feeling like if everyone in the world were somehow to go through and experience everything in that museum that the world would know peace, but I know that even that is not realistic, nothing more than a wisp of a dream. I guess that's no reason to stop people from trying though.
There were other things in Hiroshima obviously, but this is more than enough for now. More will come, either in handy email format or as words attached to pictures.
wordy but necessary future love,
-greg.
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
chitinous! [2007.09.26]
Yo,
All I have to say is that when they still look like this AFTER you squish them it is pretty freaking ridiculous. Usually when you squish something it is all squishy and nasty, not still more or less completely whole. I sent this picture to my friend Jessica, who had previously encountered them on several occasions in her house here, and she had this to say:
Jessica: ok yours looks way scarier
ours was mostly evil
yours is pure evil
Apparently hers are bigger but mine (this better be the last!) are uglier. It sure gave me one heck of a shock, that's for damn sure. It was just chilling on the wall above the door to my kitchen, a door that I had just passed under right before I turned around and saw it. Fast too! It seriously almost dodged my broom swipe. And even after I crippled its legs it still tried to move around. This picture was taken after I had full-on squashed it with my shoes on. Full-on!! As Azad says, "the bugs in Japan are on performance enhancing drugs".
That's about all I've got to say about that.
heebie jeebie love,
-greg.
All I have to say is that when they still look like this AFTER you squish them it is pretty freaking ridiculous. Usually when you squish something it is all squishy and nasty, not still more or less completely whole. I sent this picture to my friend Jessica, who had previously encountered them on several occasions in her house here, and she had this to say:
Jessica: ok yours looks way scarier
ours was mostly evil
yours is pure evil
Apparently hers are bigger but mine (this better be the last!) are uglier. It sure gave me one heck of a shock, that's for damn sure. It was just chilling on the wall above the door to my kitchen, a door that I had just passed under right before I turned around and saw it. Fast too! It seriously almost dodged my broom swipe. And even after I crippled its legs it still tried to move around. This picture was taken after I had full-on squashed it with my shoes on. Full-on!! As Azad says, "the bugs in Japan are on performance enhancing drugs".
That's about all I've got to say about that.
heebie jeebie love,
-greg.
Thursday, September 20, 2007
john denver?! [2007.09.20]
Today I had my first day over at West Elementary. Oshima is not very large but there are two elementary schools because there is a big ol' mountain in the middle of the island. Kids in junior high can ride the bus by themselves, kindergarteners get picked up and dropped off, but elementary school kids are kind of stuck, so they keep West Elementary open for those kids on the other side of the mountain.
All 53 of them. The first grade consists of exactly five boys. Grades two through six are a little more substantial, but not by much. It is kind of ridiculous.
The teachers at West are all really nice overall, but especially Yamaguchi-sensei, not to be confused with Yamaguchi-san of the BOE, who is the team-teaching coordinator. Yamaguchi-sensei is a woman, Yamaguchi-san is a man, although the endings / titles have nothing to do with gender. Anyway, she gave me a timetable with the periods for the day and when I would be teaching but she ALSO gave me a sheet with a diagram of the staff room with everyone's name on it (in English!) and a map of the school on the reverse, something that was completely unprecedented. It will certainly make learning everyone's name easier.
The three classes I had were the standard self-introduction lesson that I have been doing for the last month and will continue doing until October, abouts. In my last class though, the sixth graders, I got a very nice surprise. Hasegawa-sensei is the sixth grade teacher and probably the best at English in West Elementary, or at least the most enthusiastic about it, and I think he was the driving force behind what happened next.
I walked in and Hasegawa-sensei said that the class wanted to sing me a song to welcome me. He puts a cd in and the kids all break into "Take Me Home Country Road" by John Denver. And they were good, let me tell you!! They had a sort of echoing / harmonizing thing going on, it was great. They had obviously put a lot of practice in and I was really touched by their gesture.
It's even funnier because on Tuesday Kawaguchi-sensei, at the junior high, asked for my help in teaching that same song to one of the second-grade glasses, so I was familiar with it when the West sixth graders started singing it to me. Now of course it is stuck in my head and I find myself humming a John Denver song. Life can be pretty strange.
country-lovin' from the FUTURE,
-greg.
All 53 of them. The first grade consists of exactly five boys. Grades two through six are a little more substantial, but not by much. It is kind of ridiculous.
The teachers at West are all really nice overall, but especially Yamaguchi-sensei, not to be confused with Yamaguchi-san of the BOE, who is the team-teaching coordinator. Yamaguchi-sensei is a woman, Yamaguchi-san is a man, although the endings / titles have nothing to do with gender. Anyway, she gave me a timetable with the periods for the day and when I would be teaching but she ALSO gave me a sheet with a diagram of the staff room with everyone's name on it (in English!) and a map of the school on the reverse, something that was completely unprecedented. It will certainly make learning everyone's name easier.
The three classes I had were the standard self-introduction lesson that I have been doing for the last month and will continue doing until October, abouts. In my last class though, the sixth graders, I got a very nice surprise. Hasegawa-sensei is the sixth grade teacher and probably the best at English in West Elementary, or at least the most enthusiastic about it, and I think he was the driving force behind what happened next.
I walked in and Hasegawa-sensei said that the class wanted to sing me a song to welcome me. He puts a cd in and the kids all break into "Take Me Home Country Road" by John Denver. And they were good, let me tell you!! They had a sort of echoing / harmonizing thing going on, it was great. They had obviously put a lot of practice in and I was really touched by their gesture.
It's even funnier because on Tuesday Kawaguchi-sensei, at the junior high, asked for my help in teaching that same song to one of the second-grade glasses, so I was familiar with it when the West sixth graders started singing it to me. Now of course it is stuck in my head and I find myself humming a John Denver song. Life can be pretty strange.
country-lovin' from the FUTURE,
-greg.
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
the color of money [2007.09.19]
I wanted to talk a little about the makeup and value of the Japanese yen. I went to Hiroshima this past weekend and while I was there it got me to thinking about money and perspective a little. The Hiroshima lowdown will probably extend over the course of a few letters, but since I am currently in the full-on throes of a meeting, the likes of which I am both incapable of understanding or contributing too, I decided to write something a little shorter. This may be completely uninteresting to you, and if so, I apologize.
Like Europe, Japan makes extensive use of coins for its currency. There are 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen coin denominations, with the 500 yen coin being the coin with the highest value minted in the world. After that there are 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 notes. There are probably other notes as well, but I will never see them. Actually most Japanese people never see 2000 yen notes either, and the possession of one immediately marks you as a freshly-arrived foreigner. They are kind of treated like $2 bills in the US.
In Japanese counting, they have the standard hundred and thousand business but then ten thousand has it's own special counter, the "man" (with a short "a" like "Vietnam" and not like in "mankind").
Counting in in ten thousands is a really awkward concept at first and seems very strange until you get accustomed to how much an amount of yen is worth. Yesterday it was maybe 115yen to the US$, making one man worth about $85 or so (sorry to my international comrades). One man is a convenient breaking point; when stuff starts costing more than a man then it's getting serious.
I've also noticed that most (foreign) people that have been here for a while will use Japanese numbers for discussing costs (so "ni man san zen en" for 23,000 yen), even if the rest of the conversation is in English, which is an interesting phenomenon.
I think that I have pretty much adjusted to the value of the yen here in Japan and have stopped relating it (inaccurately) to the (us) dollar. I just wish the yen would get a lot stronger over the dollar for when I send money home for those college loans...
monetarily-minded "futures" love,
-greg.
Like Europe, Japan makes extensive use of coins for its currency. There are 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, and 500 yen coin denominations, with the 500 yen coin being the coin with the highest value minted in the world. After that there are 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 notes. There are probably other notes as well, but I will never see them. Actually most Japanese people never see 2000 yen notes either, and the possession of one immediately marks you as a freshly-arrived foreigner. They are kind of treated like $2 bills in the US.
In Japanese counting, they have the standard hundred and thousand business but then ten thousand has it's own special counter, the "man" (with a short "a" like "Vietnam" and not like in "mankind").
Counting in in ten thousands is a really awkward concept at first and seems very strange until you get accustomed to how much an amount of yen is worth. Yesterday it was maybe 115yen to the US$, making one man worth about $85 or so (sorry to my international comrades). One man is a convenient breaking point; when stuff starts costing more than a man then it's getting serious.
I've also noticed that most (foreign) people that have been here for a while will use Japanese numbers for discussing costs (so "ni man san zen en" for 23,000 yen), even if the rest of the conversation is in English, which is an interesting phenomenon.
I think that I have pretty much adjusted to the value of the yen here in Japan and have stopped relating it (inaccurately) to the (us) dollar. I just wish the yen would get a lot stronger over the dollar for when I send money home for those college loans...
monetarily-minded "futures" love,
-greg.
Thursday, September 13, 2007
cue that guy from Price is Right [9/11/2007]
A NEW CAR!!
Technically it is not as new as it was when I started writing this a week ago when I got the car [9/03/2007], but I've been kind of busy, what can I say?
Before I say anything though...
It's a 2007 Daihatsu Mira. I've got a one-year lease currently and the price isn't even too bad, although if I were a bit older (25+) I think I would be paying half the insurance that I currently am. Fortunately, that is less than $70 a month, so it's not really that serious. Also, I didn't have it up in the pictures because I took them literally right after I got the car, but there is also a groovy TCNJ Air Freshener suspended from my rear-view courtesy of the ever-so-kind Bobby Walsh. Thanks Bobby!
I actually have not yet driven my car anywhere (besides home) because I want to try and only use my bike or walk when I am on Oshima to try and get some extra exercise in and maintain a pressence on the island. Maybe after I go to Hiroshima this weekend (!!) I will take a drive somewhere the following weekend. I could probably drive somewhere that has real cheese! Oh man that would be intense. Oh I guess I will be driving to West Elementary every other week because it is on the other side of the island and there is a mountain (!) in the middle and trying to go over it on my one-speed bike would probably kill me haha.
Anyway, please enjoy the fotos. I have not thought of a name for her yet, but my last car took me at least two or three months to name so I am in no rush. Some things just have to come with time.
motor-fueled love from the future!
-greg.
Technically it is not as new as it was when I started writing this a week ago when I got the car [9/03/2007], but I've been kind of busy, what can I say?
Before I say anything though...
It's a 2007 Daihatsu Mira. I've got a one-year lease currently and the price isn't even too bad, although if I were a bit older (25+) I think I would be paying half the insurance that I currently am. Fortunately, that is less than $70 a month, so it's not really that serious. Also, I didn't have it up in the pictures because I took them literally right after I got the car, but there is also a groovy TCNJ Air Freshener suspended from my rear-view courtesy of the ever-so-kind Bobby Walsh. Thanks Bobby!
I actually have not yet driven my car anywhere (besides home) because I want to try and only use my bike or walk when I am on Oshima to try and get some extra exercise in and maintain a pressence on the island. Maybe after I go to Hiroshima this weekend (!!) I will take a drive somewhere the following weekend. I could probably drive somewhere that has real cheese! Oh man that would be intense. Oh I guess I will be driving to West Elementary every other week because it is on the other side of the island and there is a mountain (!) in the middle and trying to go over it on my one-speed bike would probably kill me haha.
Anyway, please enjoy the fotos. I have not thought of a name for her yet, but my last car took me at least two or three months to name so I am in no rush. Some things just have to come with time.
motor-fueled love from the future!
-greg.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
class 3-3 [9/04/2007]
I had my first class today, much to my surprise. From what I was told my first class was to be tomorrow (Wednesday) when I visited the kindergarten, but instead I had my first class with Grade 3 Class 3. There is exactly one student in 3-3.
Sometime last week Imamura-sensei had asked me if I would be willing to help her teach the special needs classes, since she doesn't really speak English. I readily agreed. So today at about 9:27 or so she came and asked me if I could help her teach and English class the next period. I consulted my schedule and found that the next period began at 9:30. So right now then? Okay.
In Japan the students have their own room and the teachers are the ones that move around, going from class to class according to their schedule. As we were walking to the classroom on the second floor Imamura-sensei explained that there was only one student in the class and that he was a third grader.
One of the saddest things that I have ever seen was walking into his classroom and seeing him just sitting there quietly by himself. In between periods the students usually talk, unwind, good off... you know, normal junior high school stuff. But there is NO ONE in the room with him. Granted, I don't know how the other kids interact with him or not, or if they do what it's like, but I feel like it's not too likely that they are going over and saying hello, especially when the other third grade classes are on the first floor and he is on the second.
We all went into another room that was cooler and played a matching game. There was a deck of cards with letters of the alphabet on it and a deck of cards with lots of vocabulary words. It was a Memory game but we also said the letter and the word of each card that we flipped over. After the first game we just played again, but this time if there was no match we were supposed to use the word in a sentence... in Japanese. I kind of refused to do this, although not directly, by pretending that I could not make any sentences at all, saying mine in English. I'm an English teacher right? And this is English class, right?
Imamura-sensei explained that Ryusuke was much more shy than he normally is, which I would imagine was my fault. However I feel like maybe he can do more than he is presented with right now, and I am really looking forward to working with him.
One other thing: later in the day I looked up at the board and checked the breakdown by grade, class, and gender of all the students and there indeed was Ryusuke's 3-3 with just one male student. I guess if they want to keep the special needs kids separate that makes sense, but then I looked at the second grade breakdown and saw two classes with just one student, one with a boy and one with a girl. That doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe their abilities are vastly different and so they can't even have class together? I wonder if it was two boys or two girls would they be put together? I guess this is part of why I am here too.
the future doesn't always make sense,
-greg.
Sometime last week Imamura-sensei had asked me if I would be willing to help her teach the special needs classes, since she doesn't really speak English. I readily agreed. So today at about 9:27 or so she came and asked me if I could help her teach and English class the next period. I consulted my schedule and found that the next period began at 9:30. So right now then? Okay.
In Japan the students have their own room and the teachers are the ones that move around, going from class to class according to their schedule. As we were walking to the classroom on the second floor Imamura-sensei explained that there was only one student in the class and that he was a third grader.
One of the saddest things that I have ever seen was walking into his classroom and seeing him just sitting there quietly by himself. In between periods the students usually talk, unwind, good off... you know, normal junior high school stuff. But there is NO ONE in the room with him. Granted, I don't know how the other kids interact with him or not, or if they do what it's like, but I feel like it's not too likely that they are going over and saying hello, especially when the other third grade classes are on the first floor and he is on the second.
We all went into another room that was cooler and played a matching game. There was a deck of cards with letters of the alphabet on it and a deck of cards with lots of vocabulary words. It was a Memory game but we also said the letter and the word of each card that we flipped over. After the first game we just played again, but this time if there was no match we were supposed to use the word in a sentence... in Japanese. I kind of refused to do this, although not directly, by pretending that I could not make any sentences at all, saying mine in English. I'm an English teacher right? And this is English class, right?
Imamura-sensei explained that Ryusuke was much more shy than he normally is, which I would imagine was my fault. However I feel like maybe he can do more than he is presented with right now, and I am really looking forward to working with him.
One other thing: later in the day I looked up at the board and checked the breakdown by grade, class, and gender of all the students and there indeed was Ryusuke's 3-3 with just one male student. I guess if they want to keep the special needs kids separate that makes sense, but then I looked at the second grade breakdown and saw two classes with just one student, one with a boy and one with a girl. That doesn't make any sense to me. Maybe their abilities are vastly different and so they can't even have class together? I wonder if it was two boys or two girls would they be put together? I guess this is part of why I am here too.
the future doesn't always make sense,
-greg.
active duty begins [9/04/2007]
I got up yesterday morning pretty much the same as I would any other morning: wishing that I could sleep just a little more. When I walked out of my front door, I was immediately greeted with a cacophony of sounds emanating from the elementary school. Have you ever seen a movie where nearly everyone is driven mad by some sort of gas or virus or something, leaving only a few sane people left in the world? That is what I felt like when I stepped outside of my apartment. Screams, howls, deranged laughs... I imagined them swinging from the rafters and bounding through the hallways. It reminded me of the sound the infected humans make in the movie "28 Days Later", if you've ever seen it. Certainly an unnerving start to the day.
We had the morning meeting, as usual, and then everyone went off to fill up the school gym for the opening ceremony of the second term. I am not sure if I have explained already, but the Japanese school / civil servant year starts in April, making the first term of the school year April - July, second term September to December, and third term January to March.
The Vice-Principal spoke and then the Principal took me and the school's new dietician (the old one is on maternity leave) up to introduce ourselves. When I originally talked to the Elementary school teachers, they asked me to make my introduction 3-5 minutes, so I wrote out something beforehand and asked my Junior High teachers to check the Japanese for me. After a little revision, I was pretty happy with the result.
You can imagine my surprise then when the new dietician went up and said maybe three sentences before finishing. What?! Well, I had written it out and practiced it, so I'll be damned if I wasn't going to say the whole thing. I said where I was from, how New Jersey was next to the ocean, and what I studied in college. I threw in my hobbies, because that's what everyone always asks it seems, and some hopes for a good year.
We stayed on the stage after our respective introductions and two third grade (ninth grade equivalent) students came on stage and stood opposite us at the podium. The first student read what I assume was a welcome to the dietician, and then it was my turn. The student who welcomed me was none other than Haruki, who you maybe remember from my story about my first interaction with the students. If you don't, Haruki was the crazy one that was reaallly friendly.
I stood there, expecting to simply nod and smile and not understand a word, but to my surprise he started to read in English!! He was much more subdued than outside of class, but I thought it was really sweet that they wrote something in English. I mean I'm sure Kawaguchi-sensei or Kita-sensei helped, but it was still nice.
After that, I was whisked away to East Elementary, where I was to participate in their opening ceremony as well. I trimmed a little bit out of my speech and obviously changed the names since I was not at the Junior High. Afterward I returned to the Junior High to finish preparing my lesson plan that I had to discuss with the Eastern Elementary teachers at 3pm.
Your first thought might be "Wait, you've been there that long and you were doing the lesson plan the day of?" Well yeah man, it was vacation, there wasn't anyone here, I didn't know what I was doing. Maybe the second thing you would think is "Why were you going back and forth so much? That's ridiculous!" But really, the two schools are maybe three minutes apart on my bike, so it's pretty great.
Lunch was... interesting. Now that school has started all of the teachers eat the school lunch, which is generally very nutritious (dietician!) and really cheap (around 200yen or about $2), which is great overall. Yesterday though, lunch included these little crunchy fishies that I had seen before and wasn't overly thrilled about:
Not the most appetizing looking thing in the world for a boy from Jersey, but I sucked it up and crunched them all down. They tasted about how I expected them to, but I just chalked it up to eating healthy and experiencing new things.
My meeting with the Elementary teachers at 3pm went well. I got a tour of the school as well, which was nice. Ueno-sensei is the coordinator for team teaching, so he was the one that took me around. We stopped to chat on the stairwell and watched the sixth graders practicing the 30-leg run. They all have to run fifty meters, but their legs are all tied to the people next to them, so they really have to coordinate and work together. It's a really interesting concept.
It was interesting communicating my lesson idea to the 5th and 6th grade with their limited English and my limited Japanese, but with some perseverance, circumlocution, and my handy dictionary, we worked everything out.
It's gonna go like this: the teacher and I will demonstrate a basic "What's your name / Nice to meet you" dialogue and then I will practice it with the class. Then I will do my self-intro, talking about New Jersey, where it is, the different seasons, and the different features (beach, mountain, city, farmland), with accompanying pictures. There will also be a family segment.
After that it's time to learn Rock Paper Scissors and the "How Are You? Song" with appropriate ridiculous gestures. Rock, Paper, Scissors is really important because Japanese people play it ALL THE TIME. Kids are seriously constantly playing Janken (their name for it) to decide things like who gets to go first or other random stuff.
I went straight from East to the car dealership, where I left my bike, precipitating the already described events of my previous missive.
in the FUTURE i'm a teacher?!,
-greg.
We had the morning meeting, as usual, and then everyone went off to fill up the school gym for the opening ceremony of the second term. I am not sure if I have explained already, but the Japanese school / civil servant year starts in April, making the first term of the school year April - July, second term September to December, and third term January to March.
The Vice-Principal spoke and then the Principal took me and the school's new dietician (the old one is on maternity leave) up to introduce ourselves. When I originally talked to the Elementary school teachers, they asked me to make my introduction 3-5 minutes, so I wrote out something beforehand and asked my Junior High teachers to check the Japanese for me. After a little revision, I was pretty happy with the result.
You can imagine my surprise then when the new dietician went up and said maybe three sentences before finishing. What?! Well, I had written it out and practiced it, so I'll be damned if I wasn't going to say the whole thing. I said where I was from, how New Jersey was next to the ocean, and what I studied in college. I threw in my hobbies, because that's what everyone always asks it seems, and some hopes for a good year.
We stayed on the stage after our respective introductions and two third grade (ninth grade equivalent) students came on stage and stood opposite us at the podium. The first student read what I assume was a welcome to the dietician, and then it was my turn. The student who welcomed me was none other than Haruki, who you maybe remember from my story about my first interaction with the students. If you don't, Haruki was the crazy one that was reaallly friendly.
I stood there, expecting to simply nod and smile and not understand a word, but to my surprise he started to read in English!! He was much more subdued than outside of class, but I thought it was really sweet that they wrote something in English. I mean I'm sure Kawaguchi-sensei or Kita-sensei helped, but it was still nice.
After that, I was whisked away to East Elementary, where I was to participate in their opening ceremony as well. I trimmed a little bit out of my speech and obviously changed the names since I was not at the Junior High. Afterward I returned to the Junior High to finish preparing my lesson plan that I had to discuss with the Eastern Elementary teachers at 3pm.
Your first thought might be "Wait, you've been there that long and you were doing the lesson plan the day of?" Well yeah man, it was vacation, there wasn't anyone here, I didn't know what I was doing. Maybe the second thing you would think is "Why were you going back and forth so much? That's ridiculous!" But really, the two schools are maybe three minutes apart on my bike, so it's pretty great.
Lunch was... interesting. Now that school has started all of the teachers eat the school lunch, which is generally very nutritious (dietician!) and really cheap (around 200yen or about $2), which is great overall. Yesterday though, lunch included these little crunchy fishies that I had seen before and wasn't overly thrilled about:
Not the most appetizing looking thing in the world for a boy from Jersey, but I sucked it up and crunched them all down. They tasted about how I expected them to, but I just chalked it up to eating healthy and experiencing new things.
My meeting with the Elementary teachers at 3pm went well. I got a tour of the school as well, which was nice. Ueno-sensei is the coordinator for team teaching, so he was the one that took me around. We stopped to chat on the stairwell and watched the sixth graders practicing the 30-leg run. They all have to run fifty meters, but their legs are all tied to the people next to them, so they really have to coordinate and work together. It's a really interesting concept.
It was interesting communicating my lesson idea to the 5th and 6th grade with their limited English and my limited Japanese, but with some perseverance, circumlocution, and my handy dictionary, we worked everything out.
It's gonna go like this: the teacher and I will demonstrate a basic "What's your name / Nice to meet you" dialogue and then I will practice it with the class. Then I will do my self-intro, talking about New Jersey, where it is, the different seasons, and the different features (beach, mountain, city, farmland), with accompanying pictures. There will also be a family segment.
After that it's time to learn Rock Paper Scissors and the "How Are You? Song" with appropriate ridiculous gestures. Rock, Paper, Scissors is really important because Japanese people play it ALL THE TIME. Kids are seriously constantly playing Janken (their name for it) to decide things like who gets to go first or other random stuff.
I went straight from East to the car dealership, where I left my bike, precipitating the already described events of my previous missive.
in the FUTURE i'm a teacher?!,
-greg.
priority shift [9/03/2007]
So I started the day planning to write about our Prefectural Orientation last week in Nagasaki City, my first day of school, and my new car (!!). However, all three of those topics have been pre-empted by the events of this afternoon / evening. Yeah, it's that serious.
You see, I spent the day bouncing around between schools, introducing myself and talking about Thursday's lesson with the East Elementary teachers. I left from there and went straight to the dealership (I am still not going to say which one) on my bike. This is important.
I left my bike at the dealership and drove my car home, where I took a few pictures in preparation for the email that I was going to write later. I then left to walk back to the dealership to pick up my bike and then go to the supermarket, since I would still prefer to walk / bike if I am going somewhere in Oshima. Needless to say, I never got the milk I was going to buy.
While I was walking through my neighborhood I could hear drumming echoing from the direction of East Elementary. At least I thought it was coming from that direction, it can be kind of tricky with all the echoes. Could it be? Was there actually a group of people practicing taiko somewhere? Taiko is really the bit of Japanese culture that I was most excited to get involved with when I came here, so you can imagine my surprise and dismay upon learning that there really wasn't any taiko in the area. From the sound of it, it had to be people who knew what they were doing, and I started pretty excited.
When I got to entrance I was looking around trying to figure out where it was coming from when I saw one of the teachers pulling out of the parking lot. I asked her if she heard the drums and if it was taiko, thinking that it was coming from the school. I stumbled around linguistically a bit, and eventually realized that she didn't know what it was or where it was coming from either. So I shrugged, said "thank you" and she drove off. I kept walking on my way, trying to listen and determine where this wondrous sound was coming from.
When I turned the corner I saw that the teacher had stopped by the gas station and was asking one of the attendants if she knew where it was coming from. Eventually between the attendant and another woman standing nearby the teacher was able to find out where it was coming from and offered to drive me there. Really?! Oh man, heck yeah!
When we got there we found an old woman with bright purple hair standing outside the gate of the nursery school watching a group of seven or eight women practicing with a bunch of different sized taiko drums. Yes, she really had bright purple hair. Yeah, I think it's pretty awesome too. But anyway, those women were intense! At this point, I think it is important for you to have an idea of what taiko is. Please watch:
general idea
(just watch a little bit, don't need to see the whole thing).
and:
wicked crazy
The first is more representative of the setup the women had, although the women were way better and had more drums, and the second is just way cool.
So the teacher and the old woman exchange some words, and they both go off, telling me to wait. I see the grandmother reappear moments later inside the courtyard and speak to the woman, making me feel quite embarrassed for disturbing, but one of the drummers came over smiling and let us all in to the courtyard.
It was amazing. They were arrayed in the middle of the courtyard, with walls and shrubs all around, so it was like their private practice space. They played two songs for us, and the three of us clapped wildly at the end of each. It was truly something to see. It would be pretty awesome to be a part of that, but I suppose I shall have to find something else.
I still needed to get my bike, however. The teacher offered to drive me, but I declined, preferring to walk. Instead of going back the way we came, I decided to try a different path, which ended up taking me past the dorm housing for the shipyard workers. This was to end up being one of the most fortunate things I could have done.
As I was approaching the dormitory closest to the corner where I would turn and continue on to the dealership I saw three men sitting out on the steps. They seemed friendly, and when I said "good evening" they responded in kind and one of them asked me where I was from, in English. So I sat down and we started to talk in English the best that we could. They recruited a fourth person whose English was a little better, and soon we going back in forth and a mixture of English and Japanese.
I found out that they were from Vietnam, part of a group of 13 in total. Twelve of them were welders, including the one who first said hello to me, Lao. The last was an engineer named Ain, and he was the one who spoke the best English. They asked me about America, why I was here in Japan, etc. and I asked them how long they'd been here, if they had family back in Vietnam… you know, conversation as best we could. As time went on, we all gradually shifted to more and more Japanese, although I would say their English is better than most Japanese I've met, with the obvious exception of English teachers. That was when "it" happened...
Lao turned around and pointed and asked me if I liked to play. What did I see? What else but the most glorious thing man has ever fabricated from wood: a ping pong table. My eyes lit up like no other and I replied that I certainly did like to play. "Do you have time?" I had not eaten dinner, my bike was still at the dealership, and I hadn't gone shopping. You're damn right I had time.
"Unadulterated joy" is the only way to really describe it. I played with Lao for a long time, not keeping score, just back and forth giving it everything we had. Lao was quite good and it forced me to play to new levels, bettering myself in the process. We had some truly epic exchanges. I felt bad and kept offering the other guys to play, but they kept declining. Eventually one of the other guys jumped in for Lao and challenged me to a real game. He was pretty intense, but I was able to properly represent our American tradition. And like Nagao-sensei, they also remarked upon my apparently odd "wrist-turning" shake style method.
Afterward I just sat and talked to Lao and some of his other Vietnamese comrades for a while, maybe an hour or so, about all sorts of random things. It was a wonderful experience, and really I feel like that sort of thing is what the JET Program is all about. Maybe the people who run the program would prefer that we were interacting with Japanese people, but for the people who actually sign up for the program, I think it's all about meeting new people and communicating in whatever way you can, especially if that common language turns out to be a second (or third) language for both of you. Exciting!! Equally exciting is the fact that their days off for September are Sunday and Monday, which means that come next Sunday I will once again be submerged in ping pong bliss. Oh the glory...
whirlwind of future motion,
-greg.
You see, I spent the day bouncing around between schools, introducing myself and talking about Thursday's lesson with the East Elementary teachers. I left from there and went straight to the dealership (I am still not going to say which one) on my bike. This is important.
I left my bike at the dealership and drove my car home, where I took a few pictures in preparation for the email that I was going to write later. I then left to walk back to the dealership to pick up my bike and then go to the supermarket, since I would still prefer to walk / bike if I am going somewhere in Oshima. Needless to say, I never got the milk I was going to buy.
While I was walking through my neighborhood I could hear drumming echoing from the direction of East Elementary. At least I thought it was coming from that direction, it can be kind of tricky with all the echoes. Could it be? Was there actually a group of people practicing taiko somewhere? Taiko is really the bit of Japanese culture that I was most excited to get involved with when I came here, so you can imagine my surprise and dismay upon learning that there really wasn't any taiko in the area. From the sound of it, it had to be people who knew what they were doing, and I started pretty excited.
When I got to entrance I was looking around trying to figure out where it was coming from when I saw one of the teachers pulling out of the parking lot. I asked her if she heard the drums and if it was taiko, thinking that it was coming from the school. I stumbled around linguistically a bit, and eventually realized that she didn't know what it was or where it was coming from either. So I shrugged, said "thank you" and she drove off. I kept walking on my way, trying to listen and determine where this wondrous sound was coming from.
When I turned the corner I saw that the teacher had stopped by the gas station and was asking one of the attendants if she knew where it was coming from. Eventually between the attendant and another woman standing nearby the teacher was able to find out where it was coming from and offered to drive me there. Really?! Oh man, heck yeah!
When we got there we found an old woman with bright purple hair standing outside the gate of the nursery school watching a group of seven or eight women practicing with a bunch of different sized taiko drums. Yes, she really had bright purple hair. Yeah, I think it's pretty awesome too. But anyway, those women were intense! At this point, I think it is important for you to have an idea of what taiko is. Please watch:
general idea
(just watch a little bit, don't need to see the whole thing).
and:
wicked crazy
The first is more representative of the setup the women had, although the women were way better and had more drums, and the second is just way cool.
So the teacher and the old woman exchange some words, and they both go off, telling me to wait. I see the grandmother reappear moments later inside the courtyard and speak to the woman, making me feel quite embarrassed for disturbing, but one of the drummers came over smiling and let us all in to the courtyard.
It was amazing. They were arrayed in the middle of the courtyard, with walls and shrubs all around, so it was like their private practice space. They played two songs for us, and the three of us clapped wildly at the end of each. It was truly something to see. It would be pretty awesome to be a part of that, but I suppose I shall have to find something else.
I still needed to get my bike, however. The teacher offered to drive me, but I declined, preferring to walk. Instead of going back the way we came, I decided to try a different path, which ended up taking me past the dorm housing for the shipyard workers. This was to end up being one of the most fortunate things I could have done.
As I was approaching the dormitory closest to the corner where I would turn and continue on to the dealership I saw three men sitting out on the steps. They seemed friendly, and when I said "good evening" they responded in kind and one of them asked me where I was from, in English. So I sat down and we started to talk in English the best that we could. They recruited a fourth person whose English was a little better, and soon we going back in forth and a mixture of English and Japanese.
I found out that they were from Vietnam, part of a group of 13 in total. Twelve of them were welders, including the one who first said hello to me, Lao. The last was an engineer named Ain, and he was the one who spoke the best English. They asked me about America, why I was here in Japan, etc. and I asked them how long they'd been here, if they had family back in Vietnam… you know, conversation as best we could. As time went on, we all gradually shifted to more and more Japanese, although I would say their English is better than most Japanese I've met, with the obvious exception of English teachers. That was when "it" happened...
Lao turned around and pointed and asked me if I liked to play. What did I see? What else but the most glorious thing man has ever fabricated from wood: a ping pong table. My eyes lit up like no other and I replied that I certainly did like to play. "Do you have time?" I had not eaten dinner, my bike was still at the dealership, and I hadn't gone shopping. You're damn right I had time.
"Unadulterated joy" is the only way to really describe it. I played with Lao for a long time, not keeping score, just back and forth giving it everything we had. Lao was quite good and it forced me to play to new levels, bettering myself in the process. We had some truly epic exchanges. I felt bad and kept offering the other guys to play, but they kept declining. Eventually one of the other guys jumped in for Lao and challenged me to a real game. He was pretty intense, but I was able to properly represent our American tradition. And like Nagao-sensei, they also remarked upon my apparently odd "wrist-turning" shake style method.
Afterward I just sat and talked to Lao and some of his other Vietnamese comrades for a while, maybe an hour or so, about all sorts of random things. It was a wonderful experience, and really I feel like that sort of thing is what the JET Program is all about. Maybe the people who run the program would prefer that we were interacting with Japanese people, but for the people who actually sign up for the program, I think it's all about meeting new people and communicating in whatever way you can, especially if that common language turns out to be a second (or third) language for both of you. Exciting!! Equally exciting is the fact that their days off for September are Sunday and Monday, which means that come next Sunday I will once again be submerged in ping pong bliss. Oh the glory...
whirlwind of future motion,
-greg.
Friday, August 31, 2007
low-tide frenzy [8/30/2007]
Today on the way back from work I decided to forgo the left turn that would have ended at my apartment and instead continued straight ahead to the little stairway that leads to the water. I wanted to check out the water because it seemed like it was low tide from the look of the island off in the distance.
What I expected was quite different from what I was greeted with, however. I guess being from Jersey I wasn't really expecting much of a difference from the low tide; low tide just makes the sand a little more visible. Here though the water comes right up to the rocks so when low tide hits it recedes out a good twenty feet or more.
When I rode my bike onto the platform of the steps I provoked a chorus of angry cawing from the large group of crows that had been flitting among the rocks, feasting on the various creatures left behind by the tide. I ventured out among the rocks and followed the shore for a ways, but the crows continued their incensed chatter, displaced now as a group to a larger rock jutting up fifteen feet or so from the shore. I conceded their right to the spot this day, but now that I know the tide pulls back so far I would like to go back one day and see how far I can go following the shore before the tide rushes back in. The next time the crows will just have to eat it, so to speak.
random future shore-side wandering,
-greg.
What I expected was quite different from what I was greeted with, however. I guess being from Jersey I wasn't really expecting much of a difference from the low tide; low tide just makes the sand a little more visible. Here though the water comes right up to the rocks so when low tide hits it recedes out a good twenty feet or more.
When I rode my bike onto the platform of the steps I provoked a chorus of angry cawing from the large group of crows that had been flitting among the rocks, feasting on the various creatures left behind by the tide. I ventured out among the rocks and followed the shore for a ways, but the crows continued their incensed chatter, displaced now as a group to a larger rock jutting up fifteen feet or so from the shore. I conceded their right to the spot this day, but now that I know the tide pulls back so far I would like to go back one day and see how far I can go following the shore before the tide rushes back in. The next time the crows will just have to eat it, so to speak.
random future shore-side wandering,
-greg.
Thursday, August 30, 2007
hi, my name is... [8/30/2007]
It rained this morning. Luckily I was already at school when it started, in sharp contrast to the last time it rained. I looked out the window of the staff room and saw rain just pouring down out of the sky. Most of the kids were still out there playing their respective sports though. I guess when it starts to rain like that by the time you would be able to get under cover you would already be soaked anyway, so you might as well just stay outside and play. Later when I got back from my lunch, Nakayama-sensei shared with Umino-sensei and myself that he had no underpants on because they had become too soaked while playing soccer outside. While this doesn't really have anything to do with the rest of my email, it did make me smile, which I think is certainly enough.
Classes start next week in junior highs, elementary schools, and kindergartens all across Japan and today I was finally able to speak to Kawaguchi-sensei, my supervisor here at Oshima Junior High, about lesson plans, the structure of the classes, and what her expectations for me are. She explained how each class will generally run and helped me to understand the basic daily schedule of life here at Oshima Chu (middle school), since the schedule is obviously all in Japanese.
More specifically, she explained how the third year classes (think 8th grade if you're american) will run, since Kita-sensei is in charge of the first and second graders. I am feeling more comfortable overall though now that I have some idea of what my responsibilities will be. My general schedule is four classes on Monday and two on Tuesday and Friday.
I will not be participating in any classes next week, however, at least not here at the junior high. The kids will be too busy taking tests to have time for regular class, so I will start up the following week. I do have a meeting this coming Monday at East Elementary to go over my proposed self-introduction lesson that I will be teaching next Thursday at the school, after of course introducing myself to the whole school during the opening ceremony, something that I will have to do at each of my school's.
I got curriculums from both of my elementary schools at an teaching workshop for English teachers in Saikai-city, held last Friday before the enkai. Each Thursday I will alternate between East and West Elementary. East Elementary even scheduled out which class I would be eating lunch with, which is good in a way because it saves me having to figure it out. Basically it looks like I will be doing my self-introduction lesson for quite some time. East Elementary specifically asked me to teach them about New Jersey culture, something that I was planning on incorporating for all of my self-introductions anyway. Apparently Saikai-shi is famous for tomatoes as well, so that should be a nice little connection point. I still don't really know what I am supposed to do with the kindergarten though. Maybe I can stop by today after work.
I am getting a little less nervous as things get closer, but really it's because I am able to talk to people and find out more about exactly what I am supposed to do. I am a little disappointed that I won't have any junior high classes next week, but I'll get my feet wet in East at least.
It's weird to have been here and not really done a whole lot of work. One thing that I have done though is help out a third year student named Manami practice for an English speech competition. She is at the stage where she has to record a pre-written speech on a tape and mail it in. Even though we've only worked together twice, I have noticed improvement in her pronunciation and her inflection, which is really quite impressive I think. We've got another practice tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.
soon-to-be-a-real-teacher(?!) love from the FUTURE,
-greg.
Classes start next week in junior highs, elementary schools, and kindergartens all across Japan and today I was finally able to speak to Kawaguchi-sensei, my supervisor here at Oshima Junior High, about lesson plans, the structure of the classes, and what her expectations for me are. She explained how each class will generally run and helped me to understand the basic daily schedule of life here at Oshima Chu (middle school), since the schedule is obviously all in Japanese.
More specifically, she explained how the third year classes (think 8th grade if you're american) will run, since Kita-sensei is in charge of the first and second graders. I am feeling more comfortable overall though now that I have some idea of what my responsibilities will be. My general schedule is four classes on Monday and two on Tuesday and Friday.
I will not be participating in any classes next week, however, at least not here at the junior high. The kids will be too busy taking tests to have time for regular class, so I will start up the following week. I do have a meeting this coming Monday at East Elementary to go over my proposed self-introduction lesson that I will be teaching next Thursday at the school, after of course introducing myself to the whole school during the opening ceremony, something that I will have to do at each of my school's.
I got curriculums from both of my elementary schools at an teaching workshop for English teachers in Saikai-city, held last Friday before the enkai. Each Thursday I will alternate between East and West Elementary. East Elementary even scheduled out which class I would be eating lunch with, which is good in a way because it saves me having to figure it out. Basically it looks like I will be doing my self-introduction lesson for quite some time. East Elementary specifically asked me to teach them about New Jersey culture, something that I was planning on incorporating for all of my self-introductions anyway. Apparently Saikai-shi is famous for tomatoes as well, so that should be a nice little connection point. I still don't really know what I am supposed to do with the kindergarten though. Maybe I can stop by today after work.
I am getting a little less nervous as things get closer, but really it's because I am able to talk to people and find out more about exactly what I am supposed to do. I am a little disappointed that I won't have any junior high classes next week, but I'll get my feet wet in East at least.
It's weird to have been here and not really done a whole lot of work. One thing that I have done though is help out a third year student named Manami practice for an English speech competition. She is at the stage where she has to record a pre-written speech on a tape and mail it in. Even though we've only worked together twice, I have noticed improvement in her pronunciation and her inflection, which is really quite impressive I think. We've got another practice tomorrow and I'm really looking forward to it.
soon-to-be-a-real-teacher(?!) love from the FUTURE,
-greg.
kampai!! [8/26/2007]
This past Friday (8/24) the Saikai City Board of Education hosted a Welcoming Party for the new ALTs that had arrived. Unfortunately Dino, although he is a new ALT in Oshima, is employed by the Nagasaki Prefectural BOE and not the Saikai City BOE, thus he was not invited. This means that "new ALTs" were myself, Jyoti, and Wendy. They also invited the veteran ALTs, so Ellen was there along with Elizabeth, her husband Elliot, and their new baby Sam. Ellen lives on Sakito, an island off the west coast of Oshima connected by a bridge, and Elizabeth and company are in western Saikai City. Claudia, another ALT who lives near Wendy, is currently in Tokyo doing an internship with the Canadian Embassy and obviously couldn't make it.
The "kampai!!" ("cheers", more or less) in my subject is a little misleading, because unusually for an enkai (party), there was no alcohol. Usually an enkai will be all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink, but the place we went to was simply two hours of all-you-can-eat, which was completely fine by me, to be honest. I love food!! Even though there was no endless beer, the kampai is still quite important; no one is supposed to eat or drink anything until after the most senior / important / respected person has made a toast and given the kampai! I ALMOST slipped and drank from my water while we were waiting but I caught myself at the last second. Phew! I think I rather like the kampai custom, it's very energetic and just sounds really cool when everyone else echoes it.
There were maybe twenty or so people there, perhaps a little more, and we all sat at a long, traditional-style table, that is to say about a foot and a half / two feet off the ground with cushions ("zabuton") surrounding it. Oh man and the food! Overall it was very delightful. I took advantage of the plentiful fruit, especially the apples in yogurt (apples!!), but also made sure to try and sample as much of the other dishes as I could, topping it all off with some Japanese shaved ice with fruity syrup and condensed milk. So good, jiminy. It's a good thing I don't know anywhere to get that in Oshima.
The enkai gave me a good opportunity to talk to the other ALTs in the area and get to know them. They seem to be pretty cool people and we are planning on meeting for dinner sometime during the week and getting together after Claudia gets back from Tokyo, so it's shaping up to be some good times here in Saikai City. I also spent some time talking to a few of the Japanese teachers there, two who were English teachers but one gentleman who favored the sciences. We went back in forth in the best fashion that we could, he trying with the English and I with the Japanese. And it worked out pretty well, surprisingly enough. Incremental improvements!
We had a conference of the English teachers and ALTs in Saikai City right before the enkai, but that is going to have to wait. It's off to Nagasaki City tomorrow for our Prefectural Orientation! Things are starting to ramp up a bit..
gluttonous future love,
-greg.
The "kampai!!" ("cheers", more or less) in my subject is a little misleading, because unusually for an enkai (party), there was no alcohol. Usually an enkai will be all-you-can-eat and all-you-can-drink, but the place we went to was simply two hours of all-you-can-eat, which was completely fine by me, to be honest. I love food!! Even though there was no endless beer, the kampai is still quite important; no one is supposed to eat or drink anything until after the most senior / important / respected person has made a toast and given the kampai! I ALMOST slipped and drank from my water while we were waiting but I caught myself at the last second. Phew! I think I rather like the kampai custom, it's very energetic and just sounds really cool when everyone else echoes it.
There were maybe twenty or so people there, perhaps a little more, and we all sat at a long, traditional-style table, that is to say about a foot and a half / two feet off the ground with cushions ("zabuton") surrounding it. Oh man and the food! Overall it was very delightful. I took advantage of the plentiful fruit, especially the apples in yogurt (apples!!), but also made sure to try and sample as much of the other dishes as I could, topping it all off with some Japanese shaved ice with fruity syrup and condensed milk. So good, jiminy. It's a good thing I don't know anywhere to get that in Oshima.
The enkai gave me a good opportunity to talk to the other ALTs in the area and get to know them. They seem to be pretty cool people and we are planning on meeting for dinner sometime during the week and getting together after Claudia gets back from Tokyo, so it's shaping up to be some good times here in Saikai City. I also spent some time talking to a few of the Japanese teachers there, two who were English teachers but one gentleman who favored the sciences. We went back in forth in the best fashion that we could, he trying with the English and I with the Japanese. And it worked out pretty well, surprisingly enough. Incremental improvements!
We had a conference of the English teachers and ALTs in Saikai City right before the enkai, but that is going to have to wait. It's off to Nagasaki City tomorrow for our Prefectural Orientation! Things are starting to ramp up a bit..
gluttonous future love,
-greg.
and i shall name thee... [8/26/2007]
Felix! Yeah, I've pretty much decided that my bike will be Felix. The combination of the sick sticker plus the "happiness factor" has firmly decided in the aforementioned moniker. That is not really enough to warrant an email by itself though, but I also wanted to mention a few of the ridiculous things that I've managed to get home with just my bike.
There have been a few times when I've overestimated the capacity of my wonderful basket and I've had to tie some grocery bags around the handle bars, but that really isn't too bad. I think the first possibly unwise thing I attempted was this:
Minus the clipboard and general paper supplies obviously, but still pretty tricky. Obviously my basket was full of groceries too, because I certainly would not waste a trip all the way up the hill to Pine and not come home with everything that I could.
Just today I also managed a pretty good trip after picking up my dry cleaning (and groceries as well, of course).
I was originally going to ask Naritomi-sensei if she could help me out and just drive me to Pine so that I wouldn't have to walk or try to cart it home on my bike, but then she wasn't around so I figured, what the hell? Go big or go home, right? And I made it without a hitch, too. On the way out of Pine I ran into Dino and Jyoti too, driving by in their car, and so I stopped to talk to them a little bit. I said that I was looking forward to getting a car so that I wouldn't have to do all this crazy cartage and they said that I looked "mad local" with all the stuff I was carrying.
I gotta say, the fact that I'm riding home with this stuff balanced on my bike is pretty fun and something that I take some strange pride in. Oh! This feeling is increased by the ridiculous curve / hill that I have to go down on the way home to my house. I don't really have any decent picture of it right now, but trust me it's pretty wicked, such that I apply my (ridiculously squeaky) brakes all the way down in order to not bite it big time into one of the rain gutters. Man I love bikes.
balanced biking love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
There have been a few times when I've overestimated the capacity of my wonderful basket and I've had to tie some grocery bags around the handle bars, but that really isn't too bad. I think the first possibly unwise thing I attempted was this:
Minus the clipboard and general paper supplies obviously, but still pretty tricky. Obviously my basket was full of groceries too, because I certainly would not waste a trip all the way up the hill to Pine and not come home with everything that I could.
Just today I also managed a pretty good trip after picking up my dry cleaning (and groceries as well, of course).
I was originally going to ask Naritomi-sensei if she could help me out and just drive me to Pine so that I wouldn't have to walk or try to cart it home on my bike, but then she wasn't around so I figured, what the hell? Go big or go home, right? And I made it without a hitch, too. On the way out of Pine I ran into Dino and Jyoti too, driving by in their car, and so I stopped to talk to them a little bit. I said that I was looking forward to getting a car so that I wouldn't have to do all this crazy cartage and they said that I looked "mad local" with all the stuff I was carrying.
I gotta say, the fact that I'm riding home with this stuff balanced on my bike is pretty fun and something that I take some strange pride in. Oh! This feeling is increased by the ridiculous curve / hill that I have to go down on the way home to my house. I don't really have any decent picture of it right now, but trust me it's pretty wicked, such that I apply my (ridiculously squeaky) brakes all the way down in order to not bite it big time into one of the rain gutters. Man I love bikes.
balanced biking love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
Saturday, August 25, 2007
real, honest to god, bread [8/23/2007]
Tonight I discovered something amazing at the Pine supermarket: wheat bread!!
See, one of the frustrating things about living out in the styx is that our local supermarket, while offering a pretty good range of items that one would need, isn't the most well-stocked place in the world. To wit: they had a number of refill packets for a toilet scrubber but were out of stock of the scrubber itself for two weeks. They recently restocked on Monday, and there was much rejoicing.
But to return to the primary focus of my email... bread that is not white! I was amazed! To be honest I was also a little skeptical, since I had seen anything besides super-bleached white bread anywhere. I suppose the little filled breakfast rolls would be an exception, but they more sweets than bread so I'm not going to count it.
I hadn't seen this bread stocked before but that is not overly surprising considering the hours that I generally visited the supermarket, i.e. 5pm and later. My first clue were the stalks of grain on the outside of the packaging, and although I couldn't read what the package said I was filled with hope. At last, something substantial! I moved in for a closer look, and lo! the bread was not bleached! That was enough for me, and I snatched it up before continuing on my rounds.
Speaking of the packaging, bread is very strange here. I have only seen loaves of bread sold pre-sliced and only in packs of 3, 5, or 6, with the exception of a few smallish french-type breads. The wheat bread that I found is sold in a three-pack. The slices themselves are also quite thick. I don't understand it, but really that's just adding to the list. Check it out.
It's not the most amazing wheat bread that I've ever had but it smells right and it's way better than the mushy, Wonder Bread-looking, nutritional wasteland that I was eating previously.
with wheaty, yeast-induced future love,
-greg.
ps: i also found these little snack crisps tonight that taste EXACTLY like corn on the cob with butter and salt. hand to god. i have no idea how they did it, but it's wonderful.
See, one of the frustrating things about living out in the styx is that our local supermarket, while offering a pretty good range of items that one would need, isn't the most well-stocked place in the world. To wit: they had a number of refill packets for a toilet scrubber but were out of stock of the scrubber itself for two weeks. They recently restocked on Monday, and there was much rejoicing.
But to return to the primary focus of my email... bread that is not white! I was amazed! To be honest I was also a little skeptical, since I had seen anything besides super-bleached white bread anywhere. I suppose the little filled breakfast rolls would be an exception, but they more sweets than bread so I'm not going to count it.
I hadn't seen this bread stocked before but that is not overly surprising considering the hours that I generally visited the supermarket, i.e. 5pm and later. My first clue were the stalks of grain on the outside of the packaging, and although I couldn't read what the package said I was filled with hope. At last, something substantial! I moved in for a closer look, and lo! the bread was not bleached! That was enough for me, and I snatched it up before continuing on my rounds.
Speaking of the packaging, bread is very strange here. I have only seen loaves of bread sold pre-sliced and only in packs of 3, 5, or 6, with the exception of a few smallish french-type breads. The wheat bread that I found is sold in a three-pack. The slices themselves are also quite thick. I don't understand it, but really that's just adding to the list. Check it out.
It's not the most amazing wheat bread that I've ever had but it smells right and it's way better than the mushy, Wonder Bread-looking, nutritional wasteland that I was eating previously.
with wheaty, yeast-induced future love,
-greg.
ps: i also found these little snack crisps tonight that taste EXACTLY like corn on the cob with butter and salt. hand to god. i have no idea how they did it, but it's wonderful.
they live too fast! [8/23/2007]
Last night I had my first opportunity to drive in Japan. I had invited Naritomi-sensei for dinner, but Dino wanted to take her out by way of thanks for everything that she's done for him, so the three of us met at my apartment. Naritomi-sensei apparently had planned from the get-go for me to get some practice in driving in Japan before I got my own car on Sept 3rd (incidentally also the first day of classes), and so we all piled into her red 2004 Subaru Forrester to head to one of her favorite restaurants. Isn't it pretty?
The foray had a slightly uncomfortable start, as the exit to Naritomi's parking lot is kind of narrow and bounged on one side by a fence jutting out toward my left side. Unfortunately since I had only just gotten in the car I was not very sure where the left side of the car WAS, so I simply took it verrry slowly turning out onto our itty-bitty little road. Of course Naritomi has an automatic, which is quite fortunate considering I have never driven a manual. Would anyone care to help me out with that once I get back stateside? I feel like it's an important skill to have.
Wending my way through our little back streets through a slalom of cars parked along a road that is essentially one and a half cars wide was also interesting, but I made it without any hiccups.
Once out onto more open road it was smooth sailing all the way more or less. Not once did I accidentally turn into the wrong lane of traffic, although I must confess to turning the wipers on once when I went to make a left turn. Oops.
It was quite strange at first to be on the right side of the car, but I'd say that I adjusted fairly quickly. When I asked Naritomi how my distance was in relation to the side of the road she said it was "perfect", so I guess no worries. Going in reverse, however, is QUITE AWKWARD, and will certainly take more getting used to. I kept looking over my right shoulder, and it took some time before I realized that was not correct.
Also worthy of mention are the roads in Japan. While narrow, they are also lots of fun!! Japan is very mountainous, as I am sure you were all no-doubt aware, and so the roads are very windy with all sorts of fun hills. There is a little mini-mountain complete with twisty road right in the middle of Oshima as well, which is pretty cool. I am excited to get my car, which I will tell you more about when I actually have it and can take a few pictures.
One last thing: before i get all sorts of emails telling me to "drive safely" and to "not go crazy on the mountain roads"... I'm not some kind of reckless fool people! Just because I said I said the roads were fun does not mean I'm going to be zipping around on them at reckless speeds. Jiminy Christmas...
Oh, we also ended up naming Naritomi's car: Georgie, short for Curious George. The car is red, his shirt is red... and she has a Curious George plush hanging from the inside of her windshield. Perfect, eh?
space boy love (is in danger!) from the FUTURE,
-greg.
ps: i am aware that four people max will understand my closing to this letter and have fully accepted the confusion of everyone else as a consequence of that.
The foray had a slightly uncomfortable start, as the exit to Naritomi's parking lot is kind of narrow and bounged on one side by a fence jutting out toward my left side. Unfortunately since I had only just gotten in the car I was not very sure where the left side of the car WAS, so I simply took it verrry slowly turning out onto our itty-bitty little road. Of course Naritomi has an automatic, which is quite fortunate considering I have never driven a manual. Would anyone care to help me out with that once I get back stateside? I feel like it's an important skill to have.
Wending my way through our little back streets through a slalom of cars parked along a road that is essentially one and a half cars wide was also interesting, but I made it without any hiccups.
Once out onto more open road it was smooth sailing all the way more or less. Not once did I accidentally turn into the wrong lane of traffic, although I must confess to turning the wipers on once when I went to make a left turn. Oops.
It was quite strange at first to be on the right side of the car, but I'd say that I adjusted fairly quickly. When I asked Naritomi how my distance was in relation to the side of the road she said it was "perfect", so I guess no worries. Going in reverse, however, is QUITE AWKWARD, and will certainly take more getting used to. I kept looking over my right shoulder, and it took some time before I realized that was not correct.
Also worthy of mention are the roads in Japan. While narrow, they are also lots of fun!! Japan is very mountainous, as I am sure you were all no-doubt aware, and so the roads are very windy with all sorts of fun hills. There is a little mini-mountain complete with twisty road right in the middle of Oshima as well, which is pretty cool. I am excited to get my car, which I will tell you more about when I actually have it and can take a few pictures.
One last thing: before i get all sorts of emails telling me to "drive safely" and to "not go crazy on the mountain roads"... I'm not some kind of reckless fool people! Just because I said I said the roads were fun does not mean I'm going to be zipping around on them at reckless speeds. Jiminy Christmas...
Oh, we also ended up naming Naritomi's car: Georgie, short for Curious George. The car is red, his shirt is red... and she has a Curious George plush hanging from the inside of her windshield. Perfect, eh?
space boy love (is in danger!) from the FUTURE,
-greg.
ps: i am aware that four people max will understand my closing to this letter and have fully accepted the confusion of everyone else as a consequence of that.
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
round one: fight! [8/21/2007]
-------------------------------------------
Azad: do the cellar proud
me: hahah.
i shall give it my all.
even if i am to fall.
i shall not give up without wringing every last ounce of ability from my soul.
Azad: that's what i like to hear
also, have fun
me: oh yeah that too.
-------------------------------------------
This was the conversation that I had with my dear comrade Azad mere hours before engaging in the fated ping pong showdown with not just Nagao-sensei, but two other teachers here at the middle school as well (Umino-sensei and Nakayama-sensei). It has been a full day since the carnage was wrought, and I can say with full confidence that I had quite a bit of fun and also that I lived up to the legacy of the cellar. "The cellar" of course is my old basement at 88 Tinton in Eatontown, where the ping pong saga began oh so many years ago.
We first took part in some preliminary basketball to warm the blood and steal the nerves for the competition that was soon to take place. The four of us quickly discovered that it was wayyy too hot to be playing lots of basketball and that none of us was in fact very good. We still enjoyed ourselves mightily, however.
Then, the main event: たっきゅう！！ (takkyuu!!)
The ping pong tables are located in the gym but on a sort of mezzanine-type area overlooking the basketball courts. We alternated pairs to warm up and then Nagao-sensei faced off against Nakayama-sensei for the first round. The games went to ten points with a service change every three. Nakayama-sensei emerged victorious.
Then it was my turn to play, paired up with Umino-sensei. Umino-sensei, as well as my other two respected opponents, played pen-grip style with a fancy pen-grip paddle, but I represented our proud shake-style tradition. It was a good match, but I was able to triumph over Umino-sensei, leaving the "final battle" (rampart Jonathan?) between myself and Nakayama-sensei. I came out with an early lead but Nakayama-sensei rallied ("don't call it a comeback"), shortening the gap. It proved to not be enough, however, and I was able to come out on top.
But what about Nagao-sensei, the man who originally challenged me? We were leaving, but I called him out so that we could have our match...
True to his word, when we went out to lunch today for okonomiyaki, he paid for everyone. I didn't really expect him to, but he snuck off and paid the bill. I'll save the okonomiyaki description for when I can grab a picture of it.
I also found out today that the school's gym is open until 6pm, making its availability rather limited. BUt if I want to play, that's my only option, so I suppose it'll have to do.
Nagao-sensei says that "Ping Pong Festival Part 2" is next week. I anxiously look forward to the festivities.
shake-grip craziness FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
Azad: do the cellar proud
me: hahah.
i shall give it my all.
even if i am to fall.
i shall not give up without wringing every last ounce of ability from my soul.
Azad: that's what i like to hear
also, have fun
me: oh yeah that too.
-------------------------------------------
This was the conversation that I had with my dear comrade Azad mere hours before engaging in the fated ping pong showdown with not just Nagao-sensei, but two other teachers here at the middle school as well (Umino-sensei and Nakayama-sensei). It has been a full day since the carnage was wrought, and I can say with full confidence that I had quite a bit of fun and also that I lived up to the legacy of the cellar. "The cellar" of course is my old basement at 88 Tinton in Eatontown, where the ping pong saga began oh so many years ago.
We first took part in some preliminary basketball to warm the blood and steal the nerves for the competition that was soon to take place. The four of us quickly discovered that it was wayyy too hot to be playing lots of basketball and that none of us was in fact very good. We still enjoyed ourselves mightily, however.
Then, the main event: たっきゅう！！ (takkyuu!!)
The ping pong tables are located in the gym but on a sort of mezzanine-type area overlooking the basketball courts. We alternated pairs to warm up and then Nagao-sensei faced off against Nakayama-sensei for the first round. The games went to ten points with a service change every three. Nakayama-sensei emerged victorious.
Then it was my turn to play, paired up with Umino-sensei. Umino-sensei, as well as my other two respected opponents, played pen-grip style with a fancy pen-grip paddle, but I represented our proud shake-style tradition. It was a good match, but I was able to triumph over Umino-sensei, leaving the "final battle" (rampart Jonathan?) between myself and Nakayama-sensei. I came out with an early lead but Nakayama-sensei rallied ("don't call it a comeback"), shortening the gap. It proved to not be enough, however, and I was able to come out on top.
But what about Nagao-sensei, the man who originally challenged me? We were leaving, but I called him out so that we could have our match...
True to his word, when we went out to lunch today for okonomiyaki, he paid for everyone. I didn't really expect him to, but he snuck off and paid the bill. I'll save the okonomiyaki description for when I can grab a picture of it.
I also found out today that the school's gym is open until 6pm, making its availability rather limited. BUt if I want to play, that's my only option, so I suppose it'll have to do.
Nagao-sensei says that "Ping Pong Festival Part 2" is next week. I anxiously look forward to the festivities.
shake-grip craziness FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
Monday, August 20, 2007
pan! a humble request for assistance [8/20/2007]
Thus far I haven't really spoken much on the topic of food, something which might be surprising to many of you because of my well-known love of all things gastronomical. Well, I aims to remedy that a bit right here and now.
Worth noting is the rather large variety of different roll-type breakfast breads that are available, even here in our little Oshima. My personal favorite are the "maple & margarine" rolls; it's about as close to eating a real honest-to-god pancake as I think one could reasonably come here. "Banana & chocolate" is also a popular combination, although it's generally a little thick and hard to eat. Tasty though. Oh, and the "pan!" in the subject is actually the Japanese word for bread, owing no doubt to fact that the Portuguese were the first "western" civilization to come into contact with Japan.
Various flavors of tofu also exist, although so far I have only tried peanut and sesame. Peanut's pretty solid, but sesame.... yeah maybe just stick with the peanut.
In a rather distressing turn of events, fruit is really expensive here!! The cheapest apples that one can buy at my neighborhood Pine usually cost 480yen for a three-pack, which is about $4.50. Crazy! Bananas aren't tooo expensive, at least.
Okay, so maybe that's not the big crazy food lowdown that you were expecting, but really I just wanted to talk about the pancake buns, so that's way more than I was going to write originally. I don't really have any pictures of fun stuff, so I'll save other food descriptions until I get some.
The last thing I would like to talk about is the aforementioned "humble request for assistance". You see, I'm not much of a cook. I'm certainly willing to try things, but ideas and suggestions would definitely be helpful. In my house I have a toaster oven, two-burner gas stove, and a rice cooker. Oh, and a not-very-spacious refrigerator. I'm looking for stuff that's pretty simple, but it doesn't have to be caveman style or anything like that. If you are going to send me a recipe or idea or something, I only ask that you make it a separate email with an appropriately descriptive subject.
Thanks for the help! I'll try to keep my eye out for maybe some more interesting food stuff and snap a picture or two. Perhaps after Nagao-sensei beats me in ping pong I'll take a few pictures of the okonomiyaki. Supposedly we're all going to play today...
Let's battle!
future love and all that jazz,
-greg.
Worth noting is the rather large variety of different roll-type breakfast breads that are available, even here in our little Oshima. My personal favorite are the "maple & margarine" rolls; it's about as close to eating a real honest-to-god pancake as I think one could reasonably come here. "Banana & chocolate" is also a popular combination, although it's generally a little thick and hard to eat. Tasty though. Oh, and the "pan!" in the subject is actually the Japanese word for bread, owing no doubt to fact that the Portuguese were the first "western" civilization to come into contact with Japan.
Various flavors of tofu also exist, although so far I have only tried peanut and sesame. Peanut's pretty solid, but sesame.... yeah maybe just stick with the peanut.
In a rather distressing turn of events, fruit is really expensive here!! The cheapest apples that one can buy at my neighborhood Pine usually cost 480yen for a three-pack, which is about $4.50. Crazy! Bananas aren't tooo expensive, at least.
Okay, so maybe that's not the big crazy food lowdown that you were expecting, but really I just wanted to talk about the pancake buns, so that's way more than I was going to write originally. I don't really have any pictures of fun stuff, so I'll save other food descriptions until I get some.
The last thing I would like to talk about is the aforementioned "humble request for assistance". You see, I'm not much of a cook. I'm certainly willing to try things, but ideas and suggestions would definitely be helpful. In my house I have a toaster oven, two-burner gas stove, and a rice cooker. Oh, and a not-very-spacious refrigerator. I'm looking for stuff that's pretty simple, but it doesn't have to be caveman style or anything like that. If you are going to send me a recipe or idea or something, I only ask that you make it a separate email with an appropriately descriptive subject.
Thanks for the help! I'll try to keep my eye out for maybe some more interesting food stuff and snap a picture or two. Perhaps after Nagao-sensei beats me in ping pong I'll take a few pictures of the okonomiyaki. Supposedly we're all going to play today...
Let's battle!
future love and all that jazz,
-greg.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
