The Year in Numbers

I have 8 days left in Japan, 4 days left in Kyoto, 1 day left of work and 0 days left of school.

As I prepare to leave there are a few good-bye parties and ceremonies at which I'm supposed to feel sad about leaving and say that I had a wonderful time and that I will miss it so much. I don't think I'm doing a very good job because my automatic response to the idea of leaving is a big smile with excitement and relief behind it.

This has been a difficult year for me, but I made it through!
Here are some numbers to sum it up:

I taught 181 self introduction lessons.
I taught about 2700 students at 9 elementary schools.
I taught about 1200 students at 3 junior high schools.
I taught about 100 adults in 5 conversation classes.
I taught at 4 community events.
I taught at 2 kindergarten schools.
I taught an average of 3 classes per day.
I worked with 12 Japanese Teachers of English.
I worked with about 270 Elementary School Teachers.

I had 12 house guests.
I went to Tokyo 4 times (and will go once more before I leave).
I went to Hiroshima once.
I stayed in 2 hostels.
I went salsa dancing 4 times.
I stayed out all night once.
I went to vegetarian restaurants an average of once a week.

I have read 37 books.
I have followed 5 American TV shows.
And I have spent countless hours in front of my computer communicating with friends and family (skype saved me)!

I've missed you and I'll see you soon!

A Snowy Spring

No, it's not snowing in May, that's my best friend Snow, from college! She and our mutual friend, Sumon, had been traveling around the world for 7 weeks and made Japan their last stop! As always it's wonderful to have friends around! We didn't really do any sight-seeing but we talked and talked, and got out of the house a couple times.

Get In The House

Those of you who have lived with me (and probably most of the rest of you) know that I'm a total slob at home, so you can understand why I haven't posted any pictures of my apartment yet, but a friend was coming over for dinner and LOST so I cleaned all weekend! It's not perfect, but it's very clean for me, so here you go:


First, my building from the outside, I live on the second floor.


Here's a rough layout for reference.The front door is in the kitchen.

The bathroom is on the right.

This is looking back at the front door.

There are two rooms, but the sliding doors between them open all the way. This is my living space.

This is what it looks like at night. I sleep in a traditional Japanese futon, which is nothing like futons in the States! It's basically thick blankets that you put in the closet during the day (theoretically).

And this is what it looks like in the winter. There is an electric heater attached to the underside of the table. It so toasty warm under there!

This is looking back at the middle room.

I have a small balcony where the washing machine is, and I hang my clothes to dry out there. There is a grocery store right behing my building. Here's the view.

Get Out The House

In January I made a deal with my friend Kesha to do something interesting at least once a week, take pictures and report back to each other. We were both a little unmotivated and thought the agreement would encourage us to "get out the house" and enjoy the time we have in the places we are. Because of the time difference we had a hard time getting ahold of each other for the reporting part, so we decided to make a blog that we could add to and check at any time. Plus hopefully we'll help other people "get out the house" too!

I'll still be writing on here about my experience living and working in Japan, but I'll be putting sight seeing and other outings on there instead. Enjoy!

Get Out The House

Back to School

I haven't written much about the job, that's because it's mostly awful. Actually, I enjoy the teaching part, but I have an average of 2.5 classes per day, which leaves about 5 hours that I have to be at school or the Board of Education Office, usually with absolutely no work to do. So the boredom that I wrote about in my first post has been pretty consistent, just the place where I'm sitting around doing nothing has changed. Which leads me to my second issue with the job. I go to a different school every two weeks! I mentioned this schedule before, but at the time I really didn't know what it would be like. It has meant that it is difficult to follow where they are in the English curriculum, it's nearly impossible to have relationships with teachers, and it's actually impossible to get to know any students.

But, this post is not meant to be focused on complaints (that might come another time) but to highlight an exception! This week was the first of the school year, which runs from April until March, and I was at Nishi Joyo Junior High School for the first time. The first few days don't have any regular classes and are full of preparations and ceremonies, so I didn't expect to have much to do all week. I was pleasantly surprised to have 5 classes scheduled in the second half of the week and almost shocked that the lead English teacher had some assignments for me on the first day!

The most exciting of which was decorating an empty classroom that will now be the English room for 2nd grade students (corresponds to 8th grade in the US). I'm hoping to add more but here's what I have so far. (I had a lot of fun with the months and the weather!)

The pictures on these days of the week are too light, oops!

I'm planning to add information about which countries speak English.

On the left there are current 10-day forecasts for Seattle and Kyoto. The weather signs are cut from construction paper.

Lunchtime

Today as I climbed the stairs with a group of children wearing white hats and smocks and carrying tubs of food I thought, "This is different, I should show my friends at home!" So let's enjoy lunchtime at Kutsukawa Elementary School!

There's a central facility that makes lunch for all the elementary and junior high schools in Joyo City. They deliver it in insulated tubs along with lunch trays, bowls, spoons and cartons of milk. The students wash their hands at the sink in the hallway and put on their white smocks, hats and masks like these two.

A few students go pick up everything they will need for lunch. The other students rearrange the desks into groups or, in this class, into a strange formation that was difficult to navigate.

They serve up the food in equal portions with some help from the teacher and soon each student's desk looks like this:

Most of the time they prefer to use their own chopsticks instead of the provided spoons. Before they dig in, the class leaders for the day ask everyone to put their hands together and say, "itadakimasu!" which means "humbly receive" and serves to show thanks for the food and the people who prepared it.

After eating they put their empty dishes back in the crates and head back out the sink to brush their teeth. Then they take everything back.

Winter Vacation Part IV-Tokyo

My flight back to Japan went in to Tokyo and I was hoping to spend a few days there, but hours before my trip began I had no idea where I would stay in Tokyo. I was afraid I would be leaving loved ones in the States to spend the New Year holidays in a hostel all alone, but a friend came to the rescue just in time!

The Tokyo portion of my trip ended up being relaxing and energizing. I was able to see several friends, visit the temple in Asakusa, experience the insanity of the New Year sales in Shinjuku, and try a few more vegan (and vegan friendly) restaurants!

Winter Vacation Part III-Vegan Paradise

I was really spoiled, taking the leap to veganism while living in Seattle. The availability of natural foods and a variety of vegan alternatives is definitely a luxury, not to mention the fact that I can read everything on all the labels! My first stop was Madison Market, where the excitement of vegan "dairy" products got me to buy much more than I could eat in my five-day visit, but somehow I got back to Eric's house with nothing that could qualify as an actual meal.

Of course I had to go to my two favorite restaurants too! Hillside Quickie's Cafe is the perfect place to take non-vegans with its filling, greasy, delicious sandwiches and the best vegan macaroni and cheese you will ever find! Miranda goes there even when I'm not in town. Teapot has so many options in its pan-asian menu. My favorites are Asian Fries and Mongolian Vegetarian!

Winter Vacation Part II-Family

After years of life in the islands, my whole family is back in the States. In fact four of the six of us are in Colorado! Tadashi (19) is working as a ski lift operator in Breckenridge, Mariko (16) is working at a restaurant, doing correspondence school and living with our dad in Rye, and our mom is working from home for a company based in Washington, D.C. and living with her husband in Colorado Springs. The four of us "kids" went to Mom's house first where we celebrated Christmas early. On the 22nd we opened our Christmas Eve Gifts from Rudolph, which were pajamas, as is our tradition, and talked and wrapped presents and had vegan chili for dinner. The next morning we had cinnamon rolls and bagels for breakfast while we opened our gifts and stockings. On Monday the four of us stopped in Pueblo for some last minute shopping on the way to Rye. Christmas with Dad included silly putty, a huge coloring book and a Hot Wheels track, we spent most of the day playing! It snowed about 7 inches making it a very White Christmas!

Note: Miranda (25) is living in Seattle with her tiny Chihuahua named Maile and working with the 1-year-olds in a daycare.

Winter Vacation Part I-Transport

School was out for two weeks for winter vacation, and although the Board of Education Office wasn't closed that whole time, I used a few vacation days to fill in the gaps. I was so excited to get out of here but I didn't take the time to get any Christmas gifts! Fortunately the airport was pretty empty (actually, at 6pm it felt like 2am, it was so quiet), so I got through check-in and security in time to start my vacation with a little airport Christmas shopping. I'll admit, most of the gifts weren't great, but they were from Japan...

Everything was going well until I found my seat on the plane. It was a middle seat in the middle section of the 60th row of a 747. We pulled away from the gate basically on time, but then there was some kind of problem on the flight deck and the pilot was on the phone with a technician in London! Why London, you ask? I have no idea! It was a Boeing plane with United Airlines and we were sitting at Kansai International Airport, you'd think someone in Japan or the US could help, but he was on the phone with London. Pretty soon we were back at the gate and some local technicians were coming on board to fix a circuit breaker and I was finding out that there were two Marines to my right. One young and one older, they didn't know each other, but they seemed to enjoy talking about guns and crazy nights at bars and various Marine stuff that I prefer not to know about. I'm sure they were just as thrilled to find out that they were sitting next to a vegan when we were in the air and my special meal arrived. It's a good thing I can read some Japanese, because my special meal didn't turn out to be so special. The entree and salad (without the creamy dressing) were OK, but the packaged bread (which was served with butter) clearly listed milk products, eggs AND lard in the ingredients. The dessert didn't have a list of ingredients, but since it was clearly gelatinous, I didn't want to risk it. By this time I had spoken with the older lady on my left and found out that she was on her first trip to Japan, tagging along with her husband who was on business, and was sitting in business class. It seemed that she didn't really enjoy Japan, she claimed that she didn't see any other foreigners (although when I asked her where she had gone, they were all the tourist spots) and she thought it was terrible that the Japanese people...in Japan...couldn't speak to her in English.

To top things off, there were no personal TV screens on this flight, so when the movie started I noticed that I was too short to see the screen and the jack for my headphones didn't work. It was really a lovely nine-hour flight, and once we arrived in San Francisco, I had missed my connection to Colorado Springs! I was rerouted through Denver with stand-by tickets, the woman helping me said that my bags would be going on those flights even if there wasn't room for me. I was really happy to make it on the plane to Denver, and I was even sitting next to good company! When we landed, I thought I had already missed my connection again, but checked the board just in case. That flight was running late, but it was just about to leave, so a I ran from gate 40-something to gate 80-something and just made it! When I got to Colorado Springs, miraculously only about 4 hours late, they said my bag was still in San Francisco.

Visitors!

In December my long-time friend and original host brother, Shinya, from Ishigaki was able to come visit me with two of his friends from high school for sight-seeing in Kyoto. It was so great to have someone to talk to and something to do for a few days, of course the fact that they cooked dinner and did the dishes didn't hurt!

It was my first time to visit Byodoin, a famous temple in Uji City, Kyoto Prefecture, which is pictured on the 10 yen coin and is only one stop away from where I live on the JR train line!





Then we went to Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavilion, in western Kyoto City.





And had a late lunch at the Buddhist vegan tofu restaurant at Ryoanji, a temple known for its rock garden that also has beautiful natural-looking grounds. (Ryoanji photos taken on trip with family in 2005.)

Fall Leaf Viewing

Fall leaf viewing is a popular pastime in Japan and Kyoto is known for being a great place to do it! Last week I went to Eikando, a Buddhist Temple, that is famous for the bright red fall leaves on it's Japanese Maples. During November they have night viewings with the trees lit-up.

Flower Viewing in Saitama

In October I went to Tokyo for a 4-day weekend and got to see a bunch of friends, but, of course, didn't take many pictures, I really need to work on that!

One of the highlights that I DID take pictures of was flower viewing in Saitama Prefecture (northwest of Tokyo) with Chiharu and her parents.

This is Chiharu.

We were surrounded by fields that looked like this.

This is what the actual flower looks like.

It's called higanbana or cluster amaryllis.

This lonely white higanbana drew a lot of attention.

There were also great cosmos fields.

Let's Do Crazy Stunts...Formally

In September and October, schools all over Japan have Sport's Day. One class from each grade join forces to create a team, represented by a color, which competes against the other team(s) in running races, and a variety of crazy stunts such as jumping rope as a group of 10 or more...on one rope!

You would think the kids would end up running wild, but the whole thing is so ceremonious! There is a school-flag raising and a formal greeting from the principal complete with standing at attention and bowing. In addition to practicing for the events they will compete in, they practice entering the field as a team and getting into the right spot over and over again!

At Minami Joyo Junior High School they have "centipede races" where they run one in front of the other with their feet tied to a rope so they all have to step with the same foot at the same time.

They have "hurricane relay races" where they run next to each other while holding a length of bamboo

and have to circle around cones.

And of course they do tug of war.

But this was the craziest event, and I have no idea what to call it! First they stand shoulder to shoulder and bend over so their backs are parallel with the ground. Then two kids help with balance as one kid runs from start to finish by stepping on his teammates' backs!

The team isn't big enough to cover the length of the race at one time, so once they have been stepped on, they have to run to the other end and get ready to be stepped on again!

It had been a hot sunny day, but after lunch it started pouring!

It didn't last too long but it was really hard rain, and was close to flooding the sandy dirt field. But when the dark clouds left, the students came back outside and prepared for the last few races. Instead of turning to mud, there were puddles everywhere. I couldn't believe the students and teachers got big pieces of foam rubber out of a shed and started soaking up the water!! They used huge push brooms to get the water off of the track, dragged flat rake-like things to smooth things out and re-chalked the lanes! Unbelievable!

Duck, Duck, Goose

Remember how I said I’d be working at 2 Junior High Schools and 5 Elementary Schools? Well, this is how my schedule works. I go to one school for two weeks and then switch to another school for two weeks. For the elementary schools I probably won’t go back. I’ll go to Joyo Junior High School twice for a total of four weeks and I’ll go to Minami (South) Joyo Junior High School 5 times for a total of ten weeks. As an Assistant English Teacher (AET) I don’t have my own classes, I team teach with Home Room Teachers (HRT) in Elementary Schools and Japanese Teachers of English (JTE) in Junior High Schools.

Generally Elementary Schools don’t teach English as a regular subject in Japan (but that might be changing), so there is no national curriculum like there is for most subjects. English is included under something called International Understanding. I don’t know what else they do with International Understanding, but in Joyo it includes 4 English lessons with an AET per school year. A few years ago the AETs here in Joyo together with a JTE created a curriculum for the Elementary School visits. The main purpose of these lessons is really encouraging the students to like English by making them fun. It’s good for them to hear a native English speaker’s pronunciation too, but I don’t think they see us enough for it to make much difference.

Now I am at Fukatani Elementary School. They have two classes in each grade. In two weeks I have two lessons with each class covering things like colors, animals, fruit, sports, “want,” “like,” and “favorite.” Later in the school year a different AET (I’m one of 3) will go to that school for lessons 3 and 4. I think the idea behind having different AETs go to the Elementary Schools is to expose them to more foreigners for International Understanding, and more styles of speech for better English comprehension in the future.

The kids are really cute and energetic! Many of them are excited to learn English and even more are interested in talking to me and playing with me during lunch or after school. They know very little English, so they tell me stories and ask me tons of questions in Japanese.

Most of them are well behaved, but it’s not like most people in the States would expect. Especially in the lower grades the students are encouraged to be energetic and the classroom can get really noisy. So far all of my lessons have included a short self-introduction, and in some of the classes they call out so many questions at once that I can’t hear any of them. They don’t get in trouble for talking too much, it seems like the teachers want to teach them to figure out when they can be noisy, when the should listen, and when they should participate. If they are still talking when it’s time to listen, the teacher generally doesn't single people out, but reminds the whole class to quiet down.

Of course kids are kids. Some are shy and some want lots of attention. Some listen and some don’t. There have been some tears and some scraped knees. One class was really energetic and it was hard to get them to listen or practice the words we were supposed to learn, but they loved playing “duck, duck, goose” with “short, short, tall” and “big, big, small!”

Let the Self-Introductions Begin!

I have no idea how many times I have introduced myself since I got to Japan. Of course during Tokyo Orientation we all wanted to know where people were from and compare what little we knew about our placements. The Kyoto Prefecture JETs want to know where we work, where it is in relation to Kyoto City and who we’re replacing. During my first two weeks here I had awkward introductory meetings with the Mayor of Joyo, the Superintendent, 5 Junior High School Principals, 10 Elementary School Principals and 2 Kindergarten Administrators. I had to introduce myself in front of everyone who works at the Board of Education Office, and I was the first order of business at a meeting of the actual Board (volunteer positions, I think). On the first day of school after summer vacation I introduced myself in front of the whole school and then again in a teacher’s meeting.

Now I’m at Minami Joyo Junior High School, where I’ll spend most of my time between now and March*. There are four homeroom classes in each of 7th, 8th and 9th grades. In my first two weeks I have one English class with each of them. And in each class the focus of the lesson is (drum roll please)…my self-introduction! I prepared a PowerPoint presentation about Seattle, my interests and my family. After the 20-30 minute presentation (in slow, simple, repetitive English) The Japanese Teacher of English (JTE), who I team-teach with, asks the students to introduce themselves to me on paper.

It’s gone well so far, and I really like being in the classroom and interacting with the students! I still have a lot of time to sit at a desk with no work to do, but hopefully I’ll be able to integrate myself into the school and get some more responsibilities.

*In Japan the school year starts in April and ends in March. My schedule, and even the schools I go to will probably change at that time. The JET program recruits heavily from Universities, so it follows our school year.

Summertime

Summer in Kyoto starts and ends with rain. Between is the blaringly bright, swelteringly hot, stiflingly humid period in which I arrived. There is no relief from shade, from a breeze or even at night. I wouldn't survive without my air conditioner! This year we were really lucky in Joyo. It got up to 40°C (104°F), which is hotter than it has been in over 70 years! Now it has started raining. It’s not the cold constant drizzle of Seattle, but warm heavy downpours with thunder and lightning that could end (or start) at any moment. My primary mode of transportation is bicycle and the school I start working at next week is 30 minutes away. I've been advised to get a poncho.

Summer’s redeeming quality is that it is full of festivals. Soon after I arrived one of the other AETs and I went to a small children’s festival in our neighborhood. Most of the kids knew him from school and were excited to see him. We talked with the children, looked around at the food and activity booths and had some kakigori (shaved ice).

In the middle of August many people celebrate Obon, a Japanese Buddhist holiday honoring their ancestors. Some go to their hometowns to visit and clean their ancestors’ graves. There are also fireworks shows and lantern festivals. I went to Nara Tokae, a festival in which tens of thousands of candles are lit throughout Nara Park. It was beautiful! (Hmm...the flash kinda ruins it, sorry.)

Last week I went to a Jizo Festival with Makiko, who works at the Joyo International Exchange Association, and her parents. Jizo are small stone statues that “live” in little shrines all over the place and protect the neighborhood children. In preparation the families in the area offer food to the Jizo. The gifts are displayed with the Jizo, a donation box, a couple candles and a container of sand. There were about 15 of these in the area. Children go around to each one, put some change in the box, light a stick of incense and stand it up in the sand, and pray. Then they get a treat, it’s like Halloween without costumes!

Today was my last work day before school starts. I’m excited to have something to do and start working with students, but I’m also nervous. Wish me luck!