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.
Friday, August 31, 2007
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.
the blue streak! [8/19/2007]
I have a bicycle! And I'm not quite a "blue streak", nor is that what I am going to call my bike (I don't think), but it just sounded good in my head.
Actually, I've had my bike for about a week and a half. I had gone with Yamaguchi-san to check out the bike that they gave Will, my predecessor, when he got here two years ago. Unfortunately, Will never used the bike and so it just sat outside, accumulating rust and losing air. They asked if me if I would use it if they fixed it up, but instead of fixing it up they just gave me a different one! A better one, to be more precise.
I actually found out where the bike came from this past weekend when I met Haruka, one of Naritomi-sensei's former students. It seems that her father is Nakashima-san, one of the BOE people that helped her out, and that when Haruka gave her old bike to her grandmother, the BOE gave her grandmother's old bike to me.
One of these days I'm going to be coming down the wicked hill / curve from Pine (the supermarket) all loaded up with groceries and I'm just gonna wipe out and bite it into one of the rain gutters or something. I basically have to break the whole way down this hill. But maybe if I managed to keep it under control with my basket full and a set of plastic drawers clutched between my wrists then perhaps I'll be okay.
I also picked up a sick Felix the Cat! sticker in Sasebo the other weekend in order to make the bike a little more distinctively mine. Perhaps I'll simply name my bike "Felix", on account of the sticker and the fact that it does in fact make me quite happy to be riding it around all over Oshima (how's your latin?). Any other name suggestions are more than welcome though. Pictures of the bike and decal over at the flickr.
Eric and Sean, I'm keeping the bike gang alive over here in Japan! I just gotta take it to the shop soon to really get her (er, him?) really into shape.
mad love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
Actually, I've had my bike for about a week and a half. I had gone with Yamaguchi-san to check out the bike that they gave Will, my predecessor, when he got here two years ago. Unfortunately, Will never used the bike and so it just sat outside, accumulating rust and losing air. They asked if me if I would use it if they fixed it up, but instead of fixing it up they just gave me a different one! A better one, to be more precise.
I actually found out where the bike came from this past weekend when I met Haruka, one of Naritomi-sensei's former students. It seems that her father is Nakashima-san, one of the BOE people that helped her out, and that when Haruka gave her old bike to her grandmother, the BOE gave her grandmother's old bike to me.
One of these days I'm going to be coming down the wicked hill / curve from Pine (the supermarket) all loaded up with groceries and I'm just gonna wipe out and bite it into one of the rain gutters or something. I basically have to break the whole way down this hill. But maybe if I managed to keep it under control with my basket full and a set of plastic drawers clutched between my wrists then perhaps I'll be okay.
I also picked up a sick Felix the Cat! sticker in Sasebo the other weekend in order to make the bike a little more distinctively mine. Perhaps I'll simply name my bike "Felix", on account of the sticker and the fact that it does in fact make me quite happy to be riding it around all over Oshima (how's your latin?). Any other name suggestions are more than welcome though. Pictures of the bike and decal over at the flickr.
Eric and Sean, I'm keeping the bike gang alive over here in Japan! I just gotta take it to the shop soon to really get her (er, him?) really into shape.
mad love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
Sunday, August 19, 2007
a new challenger has appeared!! [8/16/2007]
If you start to spend any amount of time with a Japanese person I can almost guarantee you that at some point they will ask you what your hobbies are, particularly what sports you like. When confronted with such questions I usually say things like basketball, soccer, ping pong, and listening to music, occasionally throwing in other things like swimming or reading.
During one such exchange with the teachers who sit around me one of them, Nagao-sensei, became very interested in the fact that I had mentioned ping pong. Well actually first they all laughed because "ping pong" sounds a lot like "pin pon" which in Japanese is used as sort of a "good job you win!" sort of sound, if my old Japanese 102 class is anything to go by. After sorting out what I meant (and learning the word for it), he started asking me if I was any good. I usually say I'm not very good at any of the sports that I mention (because I'm not), and this was no different. He pantomimes some snail's pace gameplay and I say that I'm a little better than that, so then he indicates himself and pantomimes wicked fast insanity.
He goes into the back room and comes out with two paddles, one pen grip and the other "shake" grip. I didn't even know they had specific pen grip paddles, but they are pretty damn serious about their たっきゅう here ("takkyuu", go install some asian fonts, haha). A pen grip paddle has rubber on only one side, has a raised grip on one side to make it easier to hold pen-syle, and is slightly shorter and more narrow than your typical shake style paddle, the kind that would be familiar to most of you. I told him that I play shake style and he puts them both down on my desk and says that next (this) week we're going to play in the gym!
He said that afterward we could go get some okonomiyaki at this place near my house. Okonomiyaki is usually referred to as a Japanese "savory pancake", a typical example of something that looks familiar but is in fact quite different (like curry donuts, oh man). He jokingly said that the loser would pay for dinner, but I took him up on the offer, knowing that he is probably going to trounce me like no other.
Unfortunately I have not yet seen him this week, since he and most of the rest of the staff have taken holiday for Obon. I am not sure when we're going to play, but I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes and how much dinner ends up costing me. I'm not saying I'm going to let him win, because I'll certainly give it everything I got, but things aren't necessarily looking good, you feel me? I'm certainly looking forward to the challenge, that's for sure. I hope he's back from vacation tomorrow so that we can get things going...
with love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
During one such exchange with the teachers who sit around me one of them, Nagao-sensei, became very interested in the fact that I had mentioned ping pong. Well actually first they all laughed because "ping pong" sounds a lot like "pin pon" which in Japanese is used as sort of a "good job you win!" sort of sound, if my old Japanese 102 class is anything to go by. After sorting out what I meant (and learning the word for it), he started asking me if I was any good. I usually say I'm not very good at any of the sports that I mention (because I'm not), and this was no different. He pantomimes some snail's pace gameplay and I say that I'm a little better than that, so then he indicates himself and pantomimes wicked fast insanity.
He goes into the back room and comes out with two paddles, one pen grip and the other "shake" grip. I didn't even know they had specific pen grip paddles, but they are pretty damn serious about their たっきゅう here ("takkyuu", go install some asian fonts, haha). A pen grip paddle has rubber on only one side, has a raised grip on one side to make it easier to hold pen-syle, and is slightly shorter and more narrow than your typical shake style paddle, the kind that would be familiar to most of you. I told him that I play shake style and he puts them both down on my desk and says that next (this) week we're going to play in the gym!
He said that afterward we could go get some okonomiyaki at this place near my house. Okonomiyaki is usually referred to as a Japanese "savory pancake", a typical example of something that looks familiar but is in fact quite different (like curry donuts, oh man). He jokingly said that the loser would pay for dinner, but I took him up on the offer, knowing that he is probably going to trounce me like no other.
Unfortunately I have not yet seen him this week, since he and most of the rest of the staff have taken holiday for Obon. I am not sure when we're going to play, but I'll be sure to let you all know how it goes and how much dinner ends up costing me. I'm not saying I'm going to let him win, because I'll certainly give it everything I got, but things aren't necessarily looking good, you feel me? I'm certainly looking forward to the challenge, that's for sure. I hope he's back from vacation tomorrow so that we can get things going...
with love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
morning exercises (8/16/2007)
Yesterday morning I stepped out of my door to go to work and saw a lone figure out in the margin of the East Elementary's sports field. He stood there, under the shade of the trees that border that dry patch of earth, practicing tai chi forms. It was beautiful and sublime, and a wonderful way to start the day.
mad love from the future,
-greg.
mad love from the future,
-greg.
how in the HELL?? (8/15/2007)
Hello my people,
You know, I was having a good day yesterday, I was. Like, really good. And then I got back to my apartment, waited until I had closed the door as is my habit, and turned the light on.
That which vexes me, thy name is COCKROACH.
This big fat cock-a-roach just chilling in the middle of my kitchen floor like it owns the damn place. I had always waited to turn on the light for two reasons: one) to not attract bugs in before I closed the door, and two) so that I could be sure to catch sight of any cockroaches fleeing from its brilliance. But I never expected to actually see any!! After I had been so careful with all of my food too, keeping it safely locked away in my freestanding piece of furniture with no wholes or cracks that I can see. I had just been thinking that maybe I could get a nice bowl or something to put my apples in oranges but now those plans are dashed against the rocks of calamity! Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but you get my drift.
Obviously I swiftly sent the little bugger straight to the hell where things are constantly squished and then tossed its carcass off the railing outside my door. All I could think about though were its many siblings, parents, offspring, whatever sure to be residing somewhere out of site. It wouldn't be quite so bad if I didn't also happen to live in Japan and thus sleep on the FLOOR. I also happen to hate the thought of things crawling on my skin, the combination of which produced a not very restful night's sleep.
While running some errands during work with Yamaguchi-san, my supervisor, I picked up some of those little bait / poison traps and put them all around my apartment as soon as I got home. I had also spent a fair amount of time at work reading up on effective methods of cockroach genocide (no mercy!), so I figured out how to say "boric acid" in Japanese and set off for the supermarket once again to buy some. Basically, boric acid is a sort of a crystalline powder (is that a contradiction?) that sticks to their bodies and dries them out, killing them over the course of a couple days. It is said to be quite effective though, and Mom had also suggested it, so I ran with it. Let me tell you, by the time I was done you'd think I was selling crack out of my house there's so much white around my apartment. My house to me is my sanctuary, and woe be unto any creature that disturbs that sanctuary, be it man or beast. I will not suffer such an invasion.
I guess one of the positive aspects of this situation is that I learned a whole lot about cockroaches today. Obviously I will let you all know if I encounter any other unwelcome raiding parties in my home.
lots of love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
addendum:
the oriental cockroach.
nuff' said.
You know, I was having a good day yesterday, I was. Like, really good. And then I got back to my apartment, waited until I had closed the door as is my habit, and turned the light on.
That which vexes me, thy name is COCKROACH.
This big fat cock-a-roach just chilling in the middle of my kitchen floor like it owns the damn place. I had always waited to turn on the light for two reasons: one) to not attract bugs in before I closed the door, and two) so that I could be sure to catch sight of any cockroaches fleeing from its brilliance. But I never expected to actually see any!! After I had been so careful with all of my food too, keeping it safely locked away in my freestanding piece of furniture with no wholes or cracks that I can see. I had just been thinking that maybe I could get a nice bowl or something to put my apples in oranges but now those plans are dashed against the rocks of calamity! Okay, maybe a little dramatic, but you get my drift.
Obviously I swiftly sent the little bugger straight to the hell where things are constantly squished and then tossed its carcass off the railing outside my door. All I could think about though were its many siblings, parents, offspring, whatever sure to be residing somewhere out of site. It wouldn't be quite so bad if I didn't also happen to live in Japan and thus sleep on the FLOOR. I also happen to hate the thought of things crawling on my skin, the combination of which produced a not very restful night's sleep.
While running some errands during work with Yamaguchi-san, my supervisor, I picked up some of those little bait / poison traps and put them all around my apartment as soon as I got home. I had also spent a fair amount of time at work reading up on effective methods of cockroach genocide (no mercy!), so I figured out how to say "boric acid" in Japanese and set off for the supermarket once again to buy some. Basically, boric acid is a sort of a crystalline powder (is that a contradiction?) that sticks to their bodies and dries them out, killing them over the course of a couple days. It is said to be quite effective though, and Mom had also suggested it, so I ran with it. Let me tell you, by the time I was done you'd think I was selling crack out of my house there's so much white around my apartment. My house to me is my sanctuary, and woe be unto any creature that disturbs that sanctuary, be it man or beast. I will not suffer such an invasion.
I guess one of the positive aspects of this situation is that I learned a whole lot about cockroaches today. Obviously I will let you all know if I encounter any other unwelcome raiding parties in my home.
lots of love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
addendum:
the oriental cockroach.
nuff' said.
The students of Oshima Middle School, Sakito Fireworks (8/12/2007)
yo!
So last time I think I wrote to tell you all about the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony, but I didn't really mention any interaction with the actual students that were there for the ceremony. Obviously the new foreigner English teacher at the school is going to elicit a bit of staring, so whenever one of the kids looked my way I would just smile and give them a little nod or wave or something. During a break in the ceremony two third-year boys actually came up and introduced themselves, and I was mighty impressed. I'll be damned if I can remember their names now though.
The real kicker came after the ceremony was over. I went to the entrance of the gym to change from my gym shoes back into my inside shoes and one of the kids like grabs my shoulders and shouts to surprise me! It turned out to be another third-year named Hiroki, who promptly introduced himself and two of his friends. Hiroki though I do remember for the simple fact that he is crazy.
Also that day I was introduced Manami, a third-year who is practicing for an English speech contest. I helped her out with the rhythm / accentuation of a sheet she was practicing. She seemed a little shy, but her English was really good.
The next day, Friday 8/10, I went to the Sakito Fireworks Festival with Dino (Rachel's successor), Jyoti (new ALT right across the bridge), and Naritomi-sensei (Dino's supervisor & English teacher at the high school). Sakito is an island just off the west coast of Oshima, connected by bridge to Oshima, and there's actually another ALT named Ellen who lives there. Ellen is starting her fourth year here in Japan, so she definitely knows what's up.
Summertime in Japan is synonymous with local matsuri (festivals) that each town has in addition to more well-known, nationwide festivals like the upcoming Obon, a festival of Chinese origin that celebrates a family's ancestors. The Sakito Fireworks Festival is just a simple local festival though, and my first one here in Japan. It was really interesting to see all of the colorful food stalls set up next to the harbor. A lot of the people there were also dressed in traditional clothes, either summer-weight kimonos called yukata for the girls... I can't remember the name but a robe-type shirt and shorts for either guys or dolls.
Of course a lot of my soon-to-be students were there, including of course Hiroki and his crew as well as a group of mischievous girls that I met earlier that day. One of them swears that her name is "Arien". Like an "alien" I guess? I don't know, but they all kept trying to steal my beer / food. Greedy little buggers, I say, but they seem like pretty fun kids.
The fireworks started maybe an hour after we had gotten there, giving us plenty of time to stuff our faces with the delightful chicken skewers and fried soba noodles. The aerial show was really good, especially for such a small town, but the most surprising part came when fireworks started exploding out of the water. We hadn't noticed them at first but there were two boats that were making slow passes across the harbor in front of us, tossing lit charges off the back so that the fireworks exploded like flowers from the water! "Fireworks" in Japanese is a combination of "fire" and "flower", so I think it was pretty appropriate.
After the matsuri was over we hung out and talked to random people while Naritomi-sensei did her teacherly duty and patrolled for mischievous kids. Jyoti, Dino, and I went back to Dino's place and chilled for a bit, and then I took a nice stroll through town on my way home. I got back to my house around 2am to see Naritomi-sensei just pulling in next door after going and setting off fireworks with some ex-students and stargazing. Even though I'm alone in my building it's nice that I've got a friend that lives in the block next door.
All in all it was a pretty awesome night and I'll try and get some pictures up from the whole bit soon. I'll let ya'll know when they're up.
with love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
ps: i am taking Michael Robbins' suggestion and just making that the tail-end to them all... thanks Michael.
So last time I think I wrote to tell you all about the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony, but I didn't really mention any interaction with the actual students that were there for the ceremony. Obviously the new foreigner English teacher at the school is going to elicit a bit of staring, so whenever one of the kids looked my way I would just smile and give them a little nod or wave or something. During a break in the ceremony two third-year boys actually came up and introduced themselves, and I was mighty impressed. I'll be damned if I can remember their names now though.
The real kicker came after the ceremony was over. I went to the entrance of the gym to change from my gym shoes back into my inside shoes and one of the kids like grabs my shoulders and shouts to surprise me! It turned out to be another third-year named Hiroki, who promptly introduced himself and two of his friends. Hiroki though I do remember for the simple fact that he is crazy.
Also that day I was introduced Manami, a third-year who is practicing for an English speech contest. I helped her out with the rhythm / accentuation of a sheet she was practicing. She seemed a little shy, but her English was really good.
The next day, Friday 8/10, I went to the Sakito Fireworks Festival with Dino (Rachel's successor), Jyoti (new ALT right across the bridge), and Naritomi-sensei (Dino's supervisor & English teacher at the high school). Sakito is an island just off the west coast of Oshima, connected by bridge to Oshima, and there's actually another ALT named Ellen who lives there. Ellen is starting her fourth year here in Japan, so she definitely knows what's up.
Summertime in Japan is synonymous with local matsuri (festivals) that each town has in addition to more well-known, nationwide festivals like the upcoming Obon, a festival of Chinese origin that celebrates a family's ancestors. The Sakito Fireworks Festival is just a simple local festival though, and my first one here in Japan. It was really interesting to see all of the colorful food stalls set up next to the harbor. A lot of the people there were also dressed in traditional clothes, either summer-weight kimonos called yukata for the girls... I can't remember the name but a robe-type shirt and shorts for either guys or dolls.
Of course a lot of my soon-to-be students were there, including of course Hiroki and his crew as well as a group of mischievous girls that I met earlier that day. One of them swears that her name is "Arien". Like an "alien" I guess? I don't know, but they all kept trying to steal my beer / food. Greedy little buggers, I say, but they seem like pretty fun kids.
The fireworks started maybe an hour after we had gotten there, giving us plenty of time to stuff our faces with the delightful chicken skewers and fried soba noodles. The aerial show was really good, especially for such a small town, but the most surprising part came when fireworks started exploding out of the water. We hadn't noticed them at first but there were two boats that were making slow passes across the harbor in front of us, tossing lit charges off the back so that the fireworks exploded like flowers from the water! "Fireworks" in Japanese is a combination of "fire" and "flower", so I think it was pretty appropriate.
After the matsuri was over we hung out and talked to random people while Naritomi-sensei did her teacherly duty and patrolled for mischievous kids. Jyoti, Dino, and I went back to Dino's place and chilled for a bit, and then I took a nice stroll through town on my way home. I got back to my house around 2am to see Naritomi-sensei just pulling in next door after going and setting off fireworks with some ex-students and stargazing. Even though I'm alone in my building it's nice that I've got a friend that lives in the block next door.
All in all it was a pretty awesome night and I'll try and get some pictures up from the whole bit soon. I'll let ya'll know when they're up.
with love FROM THE FUTURE,
-greg.
ps: i am taking Michael Robbins' suggestion and just making that the tail-end to them all... thanks Michael.
Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony (8/10/2007)
At 11:02 am on August 9th, 1945 the "Fat Man" atomic bomb exploded in the sky above Nagasaki City. Every year since then people all across Nagasaki Prefecture have remembered the event with the Nagasaki Peace Memorial Ceremony. The event is dedicated not to blaming and reinforcing hate but instead to remembering the horror and atrocity of what happened that morning and reminding everyone why peace is so important.
August 9th also happened to be my first day of work. The kids normally have vacation during August but they would all be in school for the Memorial Ceremony and so Kawaguchi-sensei, one of the two English teachers, invited me to attend.
The ceremony itself was a pretty interesting experience, but it was also interesting to see the differences even in just the way that assemblies are handled. All of the students sat in vertical lines according to which grade they were in. In Japan junior high is three years and the US equivalents would be 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. For the most part all of the kids were very well-behaved for the hour+ assembly. About half of the students made big newspaper-style posters for the ceremony that were displayed in the halls but the other half had put together presentations and one group actually did a short dramatic bit. They clearly had put a decent amount of work into their presentations.
A little before 11am the presentations were interrupted and all of the students spread out within their lines. At 11:02 a bell began to sound throughout the town (like a recording, I mean), and everyone lay down and pretended to die. And I mean everyone: teachers, students, the principal... everyone. And yeah, you bet I did too. I thought it was actually a really interesting ceremony and idea but even if I didn't, I suuure wasn't going to have the only person standing up in a room full of "dead" Japanese on Nagasaki Peace Memorial Day be an American!
After the kids had finished their presentations three banners were unrolled in the back of the room so that they hung vertically. Kawaguchi-sensei translated them for me and they said something like "We must pay attention to small things", "We must understand each other and work together", and "We must attain enduring peace". I'm not exaaactly sure of the last two, but you get the general idea.
Overall it was a really good experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity to attend. Dino, Rachel's successor, told me that in the high school they watched a video and nobody pretended to die, so I guess it's not a universal thing. Maybe just in the younger grades? I don't know. "This world was made for love and peace!!" (they didn't say that at the ceremony, it's from somewhere else... don't worry about it).
-greg.
August 9th also happened to be my first day of work. The kids normally have vacation during August but they would all be in school for the Memorial Ceremony and so Kawaguchi-sensei, one of the two English teachers, invited me to attend.
The ceremony itself was a pretty interesting experience, but it was also interesting to see the differences even in just the way that assemblies are handled. All of the students sat in vertical lines according to which grade they were in. In Japan junior high is three years and the US equivalents would be 7th, 8th, and 9th grades. For the most part all of the kids were very well-behaved for the hour+ assembly. About half of the students made big newspaper-style posters for the ceremony that were displayed in the halls but the other half had put together presentations and one group actually did a short dramatic bit. They clearly had put a decent amount of work into their presentations.
A little before 11am the presentations were interrupted and all of the students spread out within their lines. At 11:02 a bell began to sound throughout the town (like a recording, I mean), and everyone lay down and pretended to die. And I mean everyone: teachers, students, the principal... everyone. And yeah, you bet I did too. I thought it was actually a really interesting ceremony and idea but even if I didn't, I suuure wasn't going to have the only person standing up in a room full of "dead" Japanese on Nagasaki Peace Memorial Day be an American!
After the kids had finished their presentations three banners were unrolled in the back of the room so that they hung vertically. Kawaguchi-sensei translated them for me and they said something like "We must pay attention to small things", "We must understand each other and work together", and "We must attain enduring peace". I'm not exaaactly sure of the last two, but you get the general idea.
Overall it was a really good experience and I'm glad I had the opportunity to attend. Dino, Rachel's successor, told me that in the high school they watched a video and nobody pretended to die, so I guess it's not a universal thing. Maybe just in the younger grades? I don't know. "This world was made for love and peace!!" (they didn't say that at the ceremony, it's from somewhere else... don't worry about it).
-greg.
Friday, August 17, 2007
teacups. (8/07/2007)
Hello, um, again.
So I'm sorry for the deluge but there isn't a whole lot to do at 930pm when you haven't started to go to work yet and you've got no internet, tv, phone, or anyone around you who really speaks English. Basically I've been washing a lot of dishes and trying to fit things away and figure out what else I might need.
"A lot of dishes?," you say? Well yeah, I'd say. It's kind of compounded by the rather awkward configuration of the sink in my apartment: the sink is awkwardly low and the faucet is awkwardly high (foto - the door is good for comparison). All together that's a whole lot of "looking down and bending" awkward. But for some reason there is a rather largely disproportionate number of tea cups (foto one, two). I'm not quite sure why there are so many; perhaps every JET that's come before me in Oshima has felt the need to add his or her own favorite cup to the mix. Or maybe they all buy the cups thinking to bring them home and then end up having to leave them here when they realize they're fragile and not worth the room they would take up in the suitcase. Regardless, I think it's a little silly.
I hope you're not all cursing my name for sending so many emails at once. It's not my fault that I had to save them all up until I could actually get some access to the internet! Be gentle...
-greg.
So I'm sorry for the deluge but there isn't a whole lot to do at 930pm when you haven't started to go to work yet and you've got no internet, tv, phone, or anyone around you who really speaks English. Basically I've been washing a lot of dishes and trying to fit things away and figure out what else I might need.
"A lot of dishes?," you say? Well yeah, I'd say. It's kind of compounded by the rather awkward configuration of the sink in my apartment: the sink is awkwardly low and the faucet is awkwardly high (foto - the door is good for comparison). All together that's a whole lot of "looking down and bending" awkward. But for some reason there is a rather largely disproportionate number of tea cups (foto one, two). I'm not quite sure why there are so many; perhaps every JET that's come before me in Oshima has felt the need to add his or her own favorite cup to the mix. Or maybe they all buy the cups thinking to bring them home and then end up having to leave them here when they realize they're fragile and not worth the room they would take up in the suitcase. Regardless, I think it's a little silly.
I hope you're not all cursing my name for sending so many emails at once. It's not my fault that I had to save them all up until I could actually get some access to the internet! Be gentle...
-greg.
the fauna of oshima (8/07/2007)
hello again,
Upon first arriving in Oshima I think the thing that first struck me regarding its native fauna was how freaking huge the crows are! Maybe it's not that they are extremely large though, perhaps it's simply that they are so numerous and are less scared of people. One night I was in my house and I heard them cawing pretty loudly so I opened the door and looked out to find three of them perched on the railing about 15 feet to my right. They looked at me and then flew away. This probably would have been much less creep if I wasn't the only person that lived in my apartment block. It's two stories with a row of five single-person apartments on each floor and not a single one of them is occupied except for my very own. At least I live on the second floor.
To be honest though I don't really mind the crows, creepy as they are sometimes. That's because crows eat insects, and insects are what I was most worried about when I came here. There are two types that I was specifically warned about: cockroaches and mukade (mu-ka-de). Cockroaches I was worried about simply because I didn't want to have any in my house. Nasty! But apparently having cockroaches is almost okay in a way because it would supposedly mean you don't have any mukade, poisonous Japanese centipedes that eat cockroaches. I'm not sure how much stock I put in that logic, since I feel like an abundant food source would just attract predators, but then I'm not much of an
ecologist anyhow.
Maybe there's something to it though, because I'm almost positive I don't have any cockroaches... The other night I went to bed early and was sound asleep when I felt something on my ear. I swiped it off and immediately bolted to my feet, completely awake, and hit the lights. I didn't see it at first, but after moving my futon mats around a little I saw it bolt out. Sneaky little devil! I caught it in a plastic cup and took it outside to kill it because it's said that the smell they give off after they die attracts more of their kind, and I certainly didn't want that. Then I walked to the FamilyMart (24 convenience store) to throw out the cup because Japan pretty much only has public trash cans at convenience stores and throwing the cup out in my house would defeat the purpose of taking it outside to kill it in the first place.
When I got back to my house I didn't see any other mukade but let me tell you I certainly checked because it's also said that they always travel in pairs. It wasn't too easy getting back to sleep that nigh on my futon spread over the tatami floor. I was lucky though because it didn't bite me. I've heard anything from their poison being strong enough to have "killed small children and put grown men in the hospital" to it basically just really hurting a lot. I think I'd lean more towards the latter, but maybe it depends on the size. If you go to google and search the images for "mukade" you should be able to find some pretty gnarly pictures. Keep in mind though that the average mukade is probably nowhere near as large as the ones you are likely to find on google. Ewwww haha.
Other than that there're lots of dragonflies, random cats (regular and Japanese short-tail) and tons of little crabs down by the water, especially at night. The cicadas here are crazy loud! It's one of the iconic sounds of summer here in Japan. There are spiders too of course, but nothing too crazy. I wish they would work a little harder at eating more of these damn mosquitos though... if anyone wants to send me some itch cream that'd be great (not really though, cause they have that here too. geeze they're not savages!).
I hope you've enjoyed this slightly shorter email. Until the next one,
-greg.
Upon first arriving in Oshima I think the thing that first struck me regarding its native fauna was how freaking huge the crows are! Maybe it's not that they are extremely large though, perhaps it's simply that they are so numerous and are less scared of people. One night I was in my house and I heard them cawing pretty loudly so I opened the door and looked out to find three of them perched on the railing about 15 feet to my right. They looked at me and then flew away. This probably would have been much less creep if I wasn't the only person that lived in my apartment block. It's two stories with a row of five single-person apartments on each floor and not a single one of them is occupied except for my very own. At least I live on the second floor.
To be honest though I don't really mind the crows, creepy as they are sometimes. That's because crows eat insects, and insects are what I was most worried about when I came here. There are two types that I was specifically warned about: cockroaches and mukade (mu-ka-de). Cockroaches I was worried about simply because I didn't want to have any in my house. Nasty! But apparently having cockroaches is almost okay in a way because it would supposedly mean you don't have any mukade, poisonous Japanese centipedes that eat cockroaches. I'm not sure how much stock I put in that logic, since I feel like an abundant food source would just attract predators, but then I'm not much of an
ecologist anyhow.
Maybe there's something to it though, because I'm almost positive I don't have any cockroaches... The other night I went to bed early and was sound asleep when I felt something on my ear. I swiped it off and immediately bolted to my feet, completely awake, and hit the lights. I didn't see it at first, but after moving my futon mats around a little I saw it bolt out. Sneaky little devil! I caught it in a plastic cup and took it outside to kill it because it's said that the smell they give off after they die attracts more of their kind, and I certainly didn't want that. Then I walked to the FamilyMart (24 convenience store) to throw out the cup because Japan pretty much only has public trash cans at convenience stores and throwing the cup out in my house would defeat the purpose of taking it outside to kill it in the first place.
When I got back to my house I didn't see any other mukade but let me tell you I certainly checked because it's also said that they always travel in pairs. It wasn't too easy getting back to sleep that nigh on my futon spread over the tatami floor. I was lucky though because it didn't bite me. I've heard anything from their poison being strong enough to have "killed small children and put grown men in the hospital" to it basically just really hurting a lot. I think I'd lean more towards the latter, but maybe it depends on the size. If you go to google and search the images for "mukade" you should be able to find some pretty gnarly pictures. Keep in mind though that the average mukade is probably nowhere near as large as the ones you are likely to find on google. Ewwww haha.
Other than that there're lots of dragonflies, random cats (regular and Japanese short-tail) and tons of little crabs down by the water, especially at night. The cicadas here are crazy loud! It's one of the iconic sounds of summer here in Japan. There are spiders too of course, but nothing too crazy. I wish they would work a little harder at eating more of these damn mosquitos though... if anyone wants to send me some itch cream that'd be great (not really though, cause they have that here too. geeze they're not savages!).
I hope you've enjoyed this slightly shorter email. Until the next one,
-greg.
howdy. (8/06/2007)
(this email is long. i will try to keep them shorter in the future but when one first arrives in a completely new place there will by nature be quite a bit to tell. if you'd rather not hear about my random travels / experiences in Japan, or if i missed someone, just lemme know.)
Hi everyone!
As I start to write this it's a been a week and a day since I arrived in Japan. You will be reading it quite a bit later, though, as it is quite a lengthy process to get everything one needs when moving to a foreign country where one does not speak the language. Espeeecially Japan, where it seems like things like getting internet and telephone take extra long. Being more or less completely dependent on other people for anything more than buying food (and sometimes not even that) is kind of rough.
We got to Tokyo on Sunday afternoon (7/29) and stayed there until Wednesday morning (8/1). During the day we had training sessions and whatnot and at night we were more free to explore. I mostly went around with three friends that I made in New York: Nathan (going to Miyagi Prefecture) and Jessica and Christine (both also coming to Nagasaki Prefecture). We also started to chill with Erica, who will be living in the boonies of Nara, toward the end. Between Nathan and Jessica, who both had decent Japanese, the five of us got around all right and wandered through the large crowds of people. It was pretty crazy, especially in Harajuku and Shibuya, where people dress up in fashions that might be better described as costumes.
But Tokyo is not Japan, or so I've been told, and after arriving in Oshima Town I wholeheartedly agree. I am one of two ALTs (Assistant Language Teacher) on the island of Oshima, about a two hour drive from Nagasaki City. Oshima Town is part of Saikai City, a newly created entity comprising several smaller towns; you can think of it like a county or a township. There is one other new ALT in Saikai City, Wendy from Jamaica, and we were picked up at the airport by Yamaguchi-san, our supervisor from the Saikai Board of Education. At the BOE we split up, and Torisei-san took me to my apartment. In a completely unexpected gesture, he returned an hour later with a bottle of water, coke, some chips and crackers, three things of Cup Noodle, and disposable chopsticks. In general, all of the BOE people have been very kind and helpful to me.
I have a different apartment than my predecessor, so all of the stuff that he had in a three room + kitchen apartment now had to squeeze into my one room + kitchen. What didn't fit they put next door in an empty apartment so it's been quite a process sorting through and trying to figure out what I should keep and what to throw away. My apartment, though small, is pretty nice though and it's got some modern touches that my predecessor's didn't, like push-button hot water (instead of cranking to get the hot water going) and built-in water-removal for the washer (instead of putting the hose into the shower). The air conditioner is quite nice now as well, since we're just now in the height of Japanese summer, which means mid 80s-90s and100% humidity all the time. Woo!!
So yeah it can get pretty nasty, but that is counter-balanced by the fact that Oshima is beaaautiful. Driving from the airport to Saikai and then on to Oshima that's the one thing I was constantly struck by, just how amazing the natural scenery is. Out the back door of my apartment there's a line of evergreens and then just perfect blue water and islands off in the distance.
The first night Yamaguchi-san, Torisei-san, and Murai-san (also from the BOE) took me and Wendy out for dinner at a restaurant in Saikai. Note: Japanese people are generally surprised if you can do anything "Japanese", like eating with chopsticks or saying anything in Japanese. Yamaguchi-san, Torisei-san, and Murai-san were more relaxed about it, with simple compliments on my use of chopsticks, but when entire offices of teachers give you a round of applause after a simple memorized introduction in Japanese... well, the role of a foreigner in Japan has often been described as that of a "dancing bear" and it is certainly accurate in many cases.
After dinner though it was back to my apartment though for a pretty lonely night spent surrounded in chaos. Over the next few days, Murai-san and another BOE worker, Nakashima-san, took me around to various offices, applying for an alien registration card, getting a bank account, things like that. The second day, after doing our errands, I asked Murai-san and Nakashima-san to help me call the other ALT on the island, Rachel, since I didn't have a phone.
It took some doing and calling about, but I finally got in touch with her. Before I came to Japan my predecessor gave her my info and she emailed me with her number and told me to call her when I got here. It was such a huge relief when I finally heard her voice on the other end and we set up a time to meet and get some dinner. It was overwhelming to come here with very limited Japanese and only be able to interact with the BOE people, whose English is only slightly better than my Japanese. Rachel drove me to Sasebo, a city about 45 minutes away, to go shopping and get dinner. This in itself was really nice, since Oshima isn't exactly a retail mecca, but more than anything it was just having someone to talk to (in English!) that understood the difficulties I was having and could help me out. I told her a bunch of times, but I don't think she fully grasped how grateful I was that she was here and took the time to help me out.
Rachel left Saturday morning (8/4) to spend a few more days in Japan and then head back to the UK, but I met her friends who live in Sasebo (30 min by ferry from Oshima) when they came for her going away party, giving me more friends in the immediate area. I actually went to Sasebo later that day to hang out with them for a bbq, so I'm really quite fortunate that I had Rachel here to guide me around and introduce me to people. Ha, we even all hit up the karaoke for her party, which I gotta say was a lot of fun. Which of course just makes it more sad that she had to leave, but I guess that's JET for you, people constantly coming and going.
I don't start work until this coming Thursday (8/9) because my JTE's (Japanese Teachers of English) aren't in town and there really isn't anything I can do until they get back. The 9th is actually a school day for the kids because it's Nagasaki Peace Day, the conmemoration of the day we dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. In the meantime, I've got time to try and really get situated in my apartment and explore the island some more, although that'll be a little more difficult without a bycicle or a car. Last night I did walk down to the beach (where we shot fireworks over the water for Rachel's going-away) and then allll the way to the far side of Oshima Bridge, which seems a lot shorter when you're riding over it in a car. It was a nice walk though.
It also gives me time to write really really long emails. Sorry. I can only wash dishes and tidy up for so long though and this is a good distraction / outlet. I'll try not to write too many emails before I actually get internet so as to prevent a deluge in your inbox. Until then..
lots of love (from the FUTURE!)
-greg.
Hi everyone!
As I start to write this it's a been a week and a day since I arrived in Japan. You will be reading it quite a bit later, though, as it is quite a lengthy process to get everything one needs when moving to a foreign country where one does not speak the language. Espeeecially Japan, where it seems like things like getting internet and telephone take extra long. Being more or less completely dependent on other people for anything more than buying food (and sometimes not even that) is kind of rough.
We got to Tokyo on Sunday afternoon (7/29) and stayed there until Wednesday morning (8/1). During the day we had training sessions and whatnot and at night we were more free to explore. I mostly went around with three friends that I made in New York: Nathan (going to Miyagi Prefecture) and Jessica and Christine (both also coming to Nagasaki Prefecture). We also started to chill with Erica, who will be living in the boonies of Nara, toward the end. Between Nathan and Jessica, who both had decent Japanese, the five of us got around all right and wandered through the large crowds of people. It was pretty crazy, especially in Harajuku and Shibuya, where people dress up in fashions that might be better described as costumes.
But Tokyo is not Japan, or so I've been told, and after arriving in Oshima Town I wholeheartedly agree. I am one of two ALTs (Assistant Language Teacher) on the island of Oshima, about a two hour drive from Nagasaki City. Oshima Town is part of Saikai City, a newly created entity comprising several smaller towns; you can think of it like a county or a township. There is one other new ALT in Saikai City, Wendy from Jamaica, and we were picked up at the airport by Yamaguchi-san, our supervisor from the Saikai Board of Education. At the BOE we split up, and Torisei-san took me to my apartment. In a completely unexpected gesture, he returned an hour later with a bottle of water, coke, some chips and crackers, three things of Cup Noodle, and disposable chopsticks. In general, all of the BOE people have been very kind and helpful to me.
I have a different apartment than my predecessor, so all of the stuff that he had in a three room + kitchen apartment now had to squeeze into my one room + kitchen. What didn't fit they put next door in an empty apartment so it's been quite a process sorting through and trying to figure out what I should keep and what to throw away. My apartment, though small, is pretty nice though and it's got some modern touches that my predecessor's didn't, like push-button hot water (instead of cranking to get the hot water going) and built-in water-removal for the washer (instead of putting the hose into the shower). The air conditioner is quite nice now as well, since we're just now in the height of Japanese summer, which means mid 80s-90s and100% humidity all the time. Woo!!
So yeah it can get pretty nasty, but that is counter-balanced by the fact that Oshima is beaaautiful. Driving from the airport to Saikai and then on to Oshima that's the one thing I was constantly struck by, just how amazing the natural scenery is. Out the back door of my apartment there's a line of evergreens and then just perfect blue water and islands off in the distance.
The first night Yamaguchi-san, Torisei-san, and Murai-san (also from the BOE) took me and Wendy out for dinner at a restaurant in Saikai. Note: Japanese people are generally surprised if you can do anything "Japanese", like eating with chopsticks or saying anything in Japanese. Yamaguchi-san, Torisei-san, and Murai-san were more relaxed about it, with simple compliments on my use of chopsticks, but when entire offices of teachers give you a round of applause after a simple memorized introduction in Japanese... well, the role of a foreigner in Japan has often been described as that of a "dancing bear" and it is certainly accurate in many cases.
After dinner though it was back to my apartment though for a pretty lonely night spent surrounded in chaos. Over the next few days, Murai-san and another BOE worker, Nakashima-san, took me around to various offices, applying for an alien registration card, getting a bank account, things like that. The second day, after doing our errands, I asked Murai-san and Nakashima-san to help me call the other ALT on the island, Rachel, since I didn't have a phone.
It took some doing and calling about, but I finally got in touch with her. Before I came to Japan my predecessor gave her my info and she emailed me with her number and told me to call her when I got here. It was such a huge relief when I finally heard her voice on the other end and we set up a time to meet and get some dinner. It was overwhelming to come here with very limited Japanese and only be able to interact with the BOE people, whose English is only slightly better than my Japanese. Rachel drove me to Sasebo, a city about 45 minutes away, to go shopping and get dinner. This in itself was really nice, since Oshima isn't exactly a retail mecca, but more than anything it was just having someone to talk to (in English!) that understood the difficulties I was having and could help me out. I told her a bunch of times, but I don't think she fully grasped how grateful I was that she was here and took the time to help me out.
Rachel left Saturday morning (8/4) to spend a few more days in Japan and then head back to the UK, but I met her friends who live in Sasebo (30 min by ferry from Oshima) when they came for her going away party, giving me more friends in the immediate area. I actually went to Sasebo later that day to hang out with them for a bbq, so I'm really quite fortunate that I had Rachel here to guide me around and introduce me to people. Ha, we even all hit up the karaoke for her party, which I gotta say was a lot of fun. Which of course just makes it more sad that she had to leave, but I guess that's JET for you, people constantly coming and going.
I don't start work until this coming Thursday (8/9) because my JTE's (Japanese Teachers of English) aren't in town and there really isn't anything I can do until they get back. The 9th is actually a school day for the kids because it's Nagasaki Peace Day, the conmemoration of the day we dropped the bomb on Nagasaki. In the meantime, I've got time to try and really get situated in my apartment and explore the island some more, although that'll be a little more difficult without a bycicle or a car. Last night I did walk down to the beach (where we shot fireworks over the water for Rachel's going-away) and then allll the way to the far side of Oshima Bridge, which seems a lot shorter when you're riding over it in a car. It was a nice walk though.
It also gives me time to write really really long emails. Sorry. I can only wash dishes and tidy up for so long though and this is a good distraction / outlet. I'll try not to write too many emails before I actually get internet so as to prevent a deluge in your inbox. Until then..
lots of love (from the FUTURE!)
-greg.
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