I owe you all a post about my school festival!

Yeah... it was back in October.  BUT, it is never too late to share some stories.  At least, what I can remember.  Let me just remind you that schools here have school festivals.  I do not really know what to relate it to in America.  The festivals are are part field day (that day where you play sports outside) and are part music and part like "open house" where parents and friends look at things you have done and made at school.

Alright.  Well, last year, I only got to go to one day of my festival because of a JET meeting, but this year, I asked to be excused from the meeting and got permission to miss it and thus, I went to BOTH days of my festival!  And I am so glad I did.  These kids put a lot of effort into the festival and I like to be able to see it from start to finish.  Plus, the stage presentations that are on the first day (the day I missed last year) are hilarious!

I will now tell the story with pictures:

DAY 1:  Stage presentations and sports festival

One Step to Start was the slogan for the festival.  The two on stage are the chairs of the school festival committee.  The slogan is significant because this was the first school festival for the school.  If you recall, my school last year closed and we moved buildings and got half of the students from another middle school which closed completely.  So this year was one step to start a new school and new traditions.  I liked their slogan a lot.

 The video is from the stage presentations.  Some 2nd year boys did double dutch.  They were pretty good, too.

class jump roping competition.  See video below.  They jump as many times as they can in 3 minutes.  I think one class got into the 30s. It is A LOT harder than it looks.

 Here is the jump roping in action.

Part of the relay.  First, kids ran a quarter of the track giving piggy-back rides.  Then they switch to wheelbarrows, then a two-legged race, then three-legged, and then finally, the above, which I forget what it is called.  Their feet are tied together on both sides.

This was funny.  They had to take a piece of string from a box and then tie it to a water bottle.  The first time to make a string long enough to cross the finish line won.  I should mention that when the draw the string from the box, the length that came out was random. Some were several feet long, others were only a few inches.

Students and my school in the background.

The wheelbarrow part of the relay I mentioned above.

Ekiden relay race.  Each kid had to run like 600m I think.  Some uphill.

DAY 2:  "Open house" and music festival and closing ceremony

1st year English!  They wrote self-introductions.  15 sentences.  They are incredible.  I love my 1st years!

2nd year English  I do not know if you have been reading all my blog posts, but this is the project I had them do.  They made up a school name, a school emblem, and 5 school rules.  The goal was creativity, and only about half managed that.  But, they did all manage to finish, and they are good.  I was happy all-in-all

More 2nd year English

More 2nd year English

More 2nd year English projects

Decorated classroom. 

All the teachers!  Can you find me?

Amazing artwork.  It is painted onto graph paper.

Decorated ceiling!

Fabulous brass band

The whole school singing.  The video would not upload, but they are amazing.  Four-part harmony.  Could you do that in middle school?  I could not...and I still cannot, for that matter!

The courtyard (I guess) with the festival slogan.

Beautiful closing ceremony. They had candles and lit them all to spell out "One Step to Start."

Oh, the joys of teaching English in Japan!

Just a funny story from yesterday. 

Recently, my first year students have been learning the days of the week.  There is even a little song that they learn, though I had never heard the song before in my life until last year.  Anyway, so yesterday in class, we did a word test, so I said days and they had to write the day I said.  To spice things up, I say them in a random order and also mixed in some number review questions.  Here is the conversation:

Me:  " ok...number 6... Thursday" (students stare at me like I am crazy)
I repeat: "Thursday"
one student: "We have never learned that one before!  Is that another day?"
Me: "How many days have you learned?"
Students: "seven." 
Me: "Ok, well there are only seven days in a week, so you have learned this one... Thursday."  At that point, I knew what the problem was but it is fun to play with them a bit.
Students : "No, we have never learned that one!!!  This is unfair!!!!"
Me: "ok, try this... (pronunciation change) Saazuday"
Students: "OOOOOOOOOOOOOH!!   Saazuday!!!"

If you did not get that, let me explain.  There is no "th" sound in Japanese, nor is there that sort of "ur" or "er" sound.  Up until yesterday, the students had never heard a native pronunciation of the word "Thursday."  So, while this is entertaining (and it was, it really was) it brings up a major point of frustration for me.  The JTEs do not have perfect pronunciation.  Not even close.  Except for one... but anyway... there is a major disconnect happening here where the students cannot understand native English and cannot pronounce words correctly because they are rarely exposed to the proper pronunciations.  The school does have CDs they can use when I am not in class, but they do not.  I admit, the CDs are sort of hokey, but, I would rather the JTEs use a hokey CD than teach the kids that "Saazuday" is an acceptable pronunciation of "Thursday."  And when I am in class. they rely on the JTE to translate things I say or on me to speak a bit slower and adjust my English to more "Japanese English" in which you leave out "th"s and replace them with "s" or "z" and you leave out "l"s and replace them with the Japanese "r" sound, etc etc etc.  If these kids ever went to any English speaking country, they would be screwed!

The most frustrating part, at least as far as pronunciation goes, is that they CAN say words properly.  BUT, it is too embarrassing or there is too much peer pressure from the other kids so they do not.  I know that Crystal and Kim (elem ALTs) are working with the kids on sounds, and the kids can say the words beautifully, but if you put them on the spot, they immediately revert back to their Japanese English.  A lot of the problem is the need in Japan to conform.  They have to all fit in together, and if one kid is good at English and stands out, he gets made fun of.  A lot of students one-on-one with me are fantastic!  Perfect pronunciation, they know a TON of vocabulary, but as soon as you put them in class, they just refuse to be good at English.  I imagine it is also frustrating for the ones with good pronunciation to do the communication activities we do in class.  If they speak properly with a lot of their classmates, they will not be understood, so it is easier for them to just use the Japanese English to get by most of the time.  Clearly I am not going to be able to convince most of  these kids to stand out, and thus, I am left in a bit of a bind.  Any suggestions are welcome.

Oh yeah, since I am in a Japan criticize sort of mood anyway...the Japan Post service has implemented a new policy as of yesterday that packages over one pound cannot be mailed to the US.  So... do not expect anything from me anytime soon.  Nice going, Japan.  HOWEVER, you lovely people can still mail things TO Japan!  And I certainly encourage you to do so!!!

this week's funnies

Just a quick post with some funny things that have happened to me in the past few days.

First... this one is me not being good at Japanese at all and reading and choosing my own interpretation for something.  Yesterday for the main course of lunch we had "元気の出るレバー”　  I know...it is in Japanese.  Well anyway, 元気 means like energy or healthy depending on context, and 出る means to go out, or exit.  レバー is liver.  So, in my head, I read that and decided that it meant "healthily taken out of the animal liver."  Well, I was wrong.  Apparently it means "liver that will make you (the eater) healthy"  or "liver that will bring out your energy."  Yeah, quite different.  There were some people amused by my misunderstanding.

Second...I received some love notes of sorts.  We did an activity in class where the students ask me questions, then report the answer to the JTE, and then at the end they have to write a  report about my answers.  This time we talked about my winter break plans and new years in both Japan and America.  At the end of the worksheet, they are supposed to think of 5 questions on their own to ask me that have some relation to winter break or new years or whatever.  Well, a group of boys was asking me things like "Do you have a boyfriend?"  and "How many boyfriends did you have?"  etc etc etc.  Well, you can read the reports below because I took a picture.  I will admit that this pretty much made my day/week/month/year (yeah, forgive me as I shamelessly post these for all to read).  The part in Japanese says "そのうちできるよ”　means "you can do that here, you know!"  I am glad that I have some courageous and creative students.  They make up for all the dunderheads. 

Third...I made my first Japanese pun!!!!!  Ever since Halloween the students have been hounding me asking for candy.  I cannot walk down the hall anymore without at least one kid shouting "Trick or treat!" and then running up to me with open hands expecting candy.  Well, I tell them nicely that Halloween is over and they have to wait for next year.  However, a very persistent group of 2nd year boys came to the English office asking for candy and I told them if they could ask me in English without using "trick or treat" I would give them eacha piece.  Ok...quick Japanese lesson!!!  お菓子 (read okashi) means candy.  and 可笑しい　(read okashii...but really it is the same pronounciation) means funny or strange.  K, so they spend like 5 minutes discussing how to ask me for candy and finally one boy comes up and says "I want okashi please!"  to which I said  "ah... that English is okashii!!"  hehehe.  If you did not get it, that is ok.  I was quite proud of myself and the JTEs in the office at that time were dying, as they have been all week as they watched me deal with students who want candy.

Fourth...today we did the same question/report activity in another class.  We changed the questions a bit, so the ended up asking me about December 31st in America.  I told them that many people go to parties, drink (a lot) and then at midnight, we shout "Happy new year!"  and kiss.  They asked who we kiss and just to keep it simple I said boyfriend or girlfriend.  And then one boy comes up to me and asks me real quietly "lip kiss or French kiss?" 

oh. my. God

Let me tell you about the teacher who sits across from me in the teachers' room...

He is a special ed teacher

He is old (completely gray except his eyebrows)

He smokes (always smells bad, and has a cigarette above his ear half the time)

He slurps his hot drinks and then sighs  (slurp...AH...sluuuuuuuurp...AHHHHH)

He mutters to himself in his 20-year smoker/old man raspy voice (mutter mutter mutter mutter...AH!)

He types with ONE FINGER (tap...tap...taptap...taptaptap...TAPTAP...TAP...TAPTAPTAP...TAP!!!)

He blows his nose really loud EVERY MORNING while just sitting right across from me  (I find this gross...every morning it is a really loud, snotty type of nose blowing. and half the time it takes all my willpower to not gag as I listen.  I should mention that generally speaking, in Japan, it is rude to blow your nose in public.  You are supposed to excuse yourself, or at least turn and face a wall.  grrrr)

Let me tell you about the teacher who sits next to me in the teachers' room...

He is a math teacher  (the one who was giving commentary as he graded tests)

He is messy  (his stuff is everywhere, half the time on my desk, too)

He sits slumped over sideways in his chair (to the point that sometimes I cannot get in to my desk drawers without asking him to move)

He burps (really gurgley burps...I think he has a zombie living inside him that is just trying to escape)

and...

he farts  (ew)

The farting is a new development (I wonder if he ate something)  but let me tell you about last Friday.  He farted very audibly  (cue my face of complete shock) and before I could even really register that it was a fart, he made the most interesting "oooooohhhhh" noise I have ever heard (cue my completely uncontrollable yet must be controlled giggles.  I was shaking from laughter.  I did not know what to do!)

So, between Mr. Mutter and Mr. Fart...every day I find myself very much on edge at times, especially if both are present and are being annoying (as was the case today which prompted this post)  Thankfully, the first teacher I mentioned is not full-time, so he is not always here, and the second teacher is full-time, but spends half his time at various elementary schools, so he is also not always here.

the end.

fun Thursday

Hi again!

So, I stopped my daily posting (lazy) and I decided I would just post when something interesting or fun came up.  So, I had no classes today, which I knew ahead of time (kids are on field trips and fun games at school and such) so I managed to get Kim to request me to come help her at elementary school!  I got to back to Okayama Elementary school again (it was my favorite last year) and we carved pumpkins and make pumpkin seeds with the 5th and 6th graders.  Just a reminder...Okayama has 18 students total.  Two 5th graders and four 6th graders so Kim and I only carved with 6 students. It was super fun!!!  I love that school!  I cannot really explain it, but the kids are just good.  They help each other, they do not complain, they try, etc etc etc.  That school feeds into my JHS, and I know which kids are from Okayama because they are just better kids.  I hate to say that some kids are better than others, but, let's face it, they are.  K, so we carved the pumpkins and roasted the seeds and then ate them!  I cut my thumb once, too.  oops.  I was a little nervous about the seeds because Japanese people tend to shy away from like peels and shells (they peel pears and apples and grapes here) but the kids all tried the seeds and loved them!  My other concern...as you can see in the picture, we carved one small pumpkin and one HUGE pumpkin.  Well, the seeds that came out of each were size-appropriate, i.e. small ones (regular to us Americans) and HUGE ones that I was not sure if they would cook or how they would taste.  But, we gave it a try and they turned out to be quite delicious.  I do still prefer the smaller ones that I have grown up with, but the big ones were good, too.

So, after that I came back to school.  As far as I knew, my first years were supposed to be making baked sweet potatoes (yakiimo...so very delicious!)  So I was sort of expecting one on my desk when I got back.  However, because it rained all day, they made delicious soup (with sweet potato in it) and rice instead, and one of the teachers offered me some as my lunch!  YUM!  I hastily hid the onigiri I had bought and accepted the delicious soup and rice.  Best part... halfway through, they told me that the rice I was eating was "brand" rice and costs like 3 times the regular price because it is more delicious and difficult to grow.  I will admit, it definitely tasted good, but if no one had told me that, I would not have thought anything special of the rice.  haha.  But apparently they can tell?  Guess I will have to practice recognizing the difference.

After that, I worked on my scavenger hunt project and ate candy.  haha.  I am so glad that I got my scavenger hunt idea approved.  I hope the students enjoy it.  I am going to bring take candy tomorrow for the teachers in honor of Halloween.  I am also considering wearing a costume all day...

Also, I got pudding!  In America (and perhaps the rest of the world) we call it flan, but, they call it pudding here.  And just to clarify, it is more like American pudding in that you can buy it at the grocery store in little individual containers, so, I guess the flavor is flan but the thing itself is more like pudding.

And in other news, it was cold enough today to meet the requirements for turning the heaters on.  yeah.

I had some minor battles with Microsoft Excel, too, today.  If you are good at Excel and you can tell my why when I look at it on the screen, it looks one way, but when I do a print preview, it changes format a bit, and when I print, it is again different.  My battle was finding the way to set it so when it printed it would be correct.  I think I wasted some ink today.  Sorry, school.  Also, it does not help that I use Excel in Japanese at school.  haha.

What was that about 4 seasons?

 I cannot remember (and I am too lazy to read old posts) if I have complained about this yet.  People in Iiyama (and all of Japan, I think) like to brag about how Japan is special because it has four proper seasons.  Well, Virginia has 4 seasons, too, people.  That is my usually non-verbal reply, but as of today, I have proof that Japan does not have 4 proper seasons.  Today is October 27.  Here is the snow.  Fall?  What fall?  It was relatively hot until about 2 weeks ago and then the temperature dropped rapidly and last night it snowed.  Granted just on the mountains, but my point is, Iiyama does not have four distinct seasons and therefore that is not something they should consistently brag about.  Iiyama has hot summer, long, cold winter, and then bits of time that sort of resemble spring and fall, but not really.

 

Quick saturday post

What did I do today?

I ate bear soup!  Yeah, bear meat.  That was a new one.

I went to a small festival of sorts today where Alaina was carving pumpkins with kids.  So first, I helped out with that, and then a guy offered us bear soup.  Kim and I decided to give it a try.  haha.  In all honesty, if I had not know it was bear, I probably would have just thought it was beef.

Another funny story.  I was waiting for the stage performances to start (one of my students was in a performance) and these girls came up to me, one of the group had been at the pumpkin carving earlier, so she knew my name.  But here is the conversation I had with some 5 year old girls tonight.

Girl from pumpkin carving: "This is Elissa.  She is a teacher!"
Other girl:  "Oh, really?   But, you look like an American!"
Me:  "I am an American!"
Other girl: "So, why are you in Japan?"
Me: "I am an English teacher."
Other girl: "Oh, right.  How old are you?"
Me: "24"
Other girl; "Oh!  You are younger than my mom!"

I thought it was a pretty funny conversation.  The things that kids say!

Anyway, that is all.

It's Friday, I'm in love

Yep.  This time it IS Friday.  It has been a long week. 

Funny moment from this morning.  I was walking into school and some of my first years shouted "Good morning!" to me from their classroom window.  so I looked up, waved and said "Good morning!" back.  But then as I was walking closer I heard them talking:

student A: "She is not smiling!"
student B: "Well, she is holding her coffee.  Maybe she hasn't drunk it yet." 
And then I smiled.  Also, it was tea, not coffee.

Also...drunk?  drinken?  according to the 3rd year English text book, it is drunk, but for some reason I want to say drinken, but that gets little red squigglies under it.  Of course, squigglies also gets little red squigglies under it....so.....drinken!

The good news?  I had classes today!  Two of them!  Not only that, but we tried my Halloween game.  The problems I anticipated...kids would not wear the costumes and that they would not do the "Jack's Challenges" which include things like "laugh like a witch" and "walk like a zombie."

so here is the play by play of the board game:

2nd period, 3rd years:  they were totally into it!  Clearly not all of the students, but a good number of them were willing to wear the costumes, and my favorite part...a "Jack's Challenge" came up and it was "howl like a werewolf."  The student who was supposed to do it was hesitating and I was like "what's wrong?"  and his answer?  "The other classes will be able to hear it!"  So I said "don't worry!  Just go for it!"  and at that point he howled the best wolf howl I have ever heard!  It was fantastic!  I was completely shocked and that, I think, made the students laugh the most. 

Ok, so after such a successful debut, with my confidence up, I took the game to 3rd period...2nd years.  And once again they have proven themselves more than capable of completely ruining my day and my mood. 

Let me explain... when creating the game I went back and forth as to whether wearing a costume should be a good thing or a bad thing.  I ended up deciding it should be a good thing because these kids are already easily embarrassed but I thought if a costume was a reward they might be more into it.  I also decided to make more chances for winners, so in the game the first team to reach the GOAL wins, but the team that is wearing the most costumes also wins.  Hopefully it will work out that these are always two different teams. 

Anyway, the 2nd years pretty much suck at life.  That is mean, but...read my other posts about them and you will understand.  In my bag of costumes, there are some embarrassing ones (funny noses and wigs and masks), but there are also easy things like hats, crowns and headbands and even fake neckties and such.  These headbands are actually really cute, if I do say so myself...like cat ears or bunny ears, and then random ones with ghosts or pumpkins on them.  But these kids would NOT wear the costumes at all!  I explained again in the middle that it did not matter if they had the costumes, and that it was the team WEARING the most that would win.  Of course, at the end, a team (Team 2 for that matter) had like 8 costumes and they were all cheering and such thinking they had won.  And I, having had my mood completely mashed into the ground, said "Ok, so team 6 got to GOAL first!  Winner!  and Team 5 is WEARING the most costumes!  Winner!!"  Team 2 then threw a fit because they had so many costumes and Team 5 only had 2.  But, as I said at least three times during the game, the team WEARING the most would be the winner.  And the worst part (for them) was that I had given all my candy away during 2nd period because they were all such good sports, so I had none to give during 3rd period.  Now I knew this was going to happen and during 1st period when I had a break I was going to run home and get more, but then I decided that the 2nd years do not deserve that kind of special treatment and they can wait until next week or until I manage to remember.  Too bad for them.

At least all the English teachers were impressed with my creation.

Lunch today was also pretty good.  Bread (instead of rice), milk, cream-based soup with corn, carrots, cabbage and chicken in it, a hamburger patty with bbq sauce of sorts, potato salad that had tuna, soybeans and carrots in it.  The only thing wrong with it was that it was all sort of white-bland looking. 

We have "bread days" once a week, generally.  Sometimes we have what they call "shokupan" (which is just white bread to us bread eating countries) with a jelly or margarine/jelly of some sort, or we have "agepan" which is like fried bread, and then they usually coat it in something such as cocoa powder (my favorite) or kinako(soybean powder), or we have "melonpan" which has a delicious crust top of sorts, and then there are other round breads we get:cheese, carrot,etc.  So, generally bread days are delicious, but today we just had the white bread with nothing, but the soup was good for dipping so it sort of balanced out.  I would prefer a jam of some sort, however, but I am not in charge of the lunch menu, am I?

5th period was free and then cleaning and then a "music assembly" which just means that everyone meets and they sing!  And can these kids sing!  They sing parts, too!  And a student conducts and a student accompanies on the piano.  I love going to the music assemblies.  However.  Let me tell you about today.  They are starting to learn a new song and it has a line in English in it.  So, I get to the gym and the music teacher asks me how to pronounce it.  "Every day I listen to my heart."  Not really that difficult, but for some reason, she decided that I should get up on stage and do some pronunciation practice with the whole school!  THAT was embarrassing, though I cannot really define why.  I think because all the other teachers were there, too, and also because I am not usually involved in other school things.  I just stand and observe..  Anyway, I really like the music teacher, so I was willing to do it, but...let's just say that at the end, I jumped off the stage and ran (yes, literally, ran) to the back of the gym.

All in all, not a terrible Friday.  It would have been nice to have switched the order of my classes so the game could have failed first and then been really fun.  That would have been a much better way to end the week.  But, I will just erase the 2nd years version from my brain and all will be well.

Weekend!  I have no plans, but I am sort of ok with that.  Maybe laundry and grocery shopping.

Friday! Oh, no. wait. It's just Thursday.

I had one of those incredibly disappointing moments today when I woke up.  I was picking my clothes and thinking through what colors I had already worn this week(don't want to be a color repeater!) and I was thinking how today would be the last day it mattered being Friday and all, when I realized that today was not Friday but Thursday.  Has that ever happened to you?  You wake up convinced it is one day only to discover its another?  It is really unfortunate when your brain puts everything together.  At least I was not convinced it was Saturday and then realized I had to go to work.  That would have been much worse.

So, I finished my Halloween board game (picture posted with yesterday's post), and now all I have to do is give it a try in a class!  My classes are all very different so I know now that some will receive it better than others, I just hope that all receive it well, and some receive it very well (rather than some bad and some good...see the difference?)  Anyway, I have some final details to do like thinking of the rest of "Jack's Challenges" and making dice.  But I have costumes and everything else ready to go.  Whenever I spend a lot of time on something, I get very nervous in class (to the point that my hands shake) because I really want the students to not be bored, and it is nearly impossible to think of activities that are not boring for at least one person.  The good news...my school lets me give out candy (other schools are not so lenient) so I plan to take it to class and have it sitting up front just tempting the kids and telling them from the start that if everyone participates, everyone will get candy, otherwise just the winners will get candy.  That works with 1st years for sure.  So, after I play it for the first time, I will let you know.  Unfortunately with the school calendar for October, I am going to end up doing it in most classes after Halloween, but I think that is still ok.  After Christmas would be bad, but after Halloween seems ok to me.

Anyway, so it is Thursday.  I did end up with one class this morning because the teacher had not finished grading the tests yet.  So she sat there and graded, and I played Halloween bingo with the students.  I thought I was only going to have half the class or I would have taken my board game!  She said I should think of a game to play and she was going to grade and then give the tests back at the end, but...we just played bingo the whole time.  Which was fun.  I taught them a bit of vocab first and then we used it to play bingo.  Amidst the calling of words, I was trying to tell the students a bit about America like how when we go trick or treating we end up with a TON of candy.  And how at parties they do things like bob for apples and use toilet paper to make people into mummies.  But then, a student was like "can you hurry up and call the next one."  SHOCK!  So I gave them a hard time saying "what?  Isnt this interesting?  Don't you want to know about America?"  And they were like, "it is interesting but we want stickers so can we get going already?"  hahaha.  It was funny.  And my throat hurts a LOT because I was shouting over them.  They are a rowdy bunch.  We also played number bingo because we had time left and I taught them about "blackout" bingo and it got to the point where we were down to two numbers.  I did not have a random way of calling prepared because I did not know we would be doing number bingo too, so I ended up writing one number on my right palm and the other on my left and then asking the kids "right or left?"  So they chose their own fate, which worked out well, I think, except that I now have a 14 on my left hand and a 17 on my right that just will not quite wash off (what pen did I use?!)

After that... nothing.  Lunch was pretty unremarkable.  very bony fish, slimy salad, milk rice and good soup.  The slimy salad is made using daikon (I mentioned it before, but Japanese radish) and this radish can be prepared in many ways.  Today's was grated, but when you grate daikon, you get a sort of slimy textured mess.  Not my favorite texture, even though the taste is generally fine.  It was mixed with mushrooms and cucumbers, so that made it fine, and if anything, it made it possible to eat it with chopsticks rather than a spoon.

Speaking of chopsticks...I have gotten really good!  I mean, I could always use them (contrary to the average Japanese person's beliefs), but I could not always debone a fish with them or cut fried pork with them or pick up and eat a whole boiled egg without dropping it at all or cook with them.  So, I would say I have improved.  Let's go back to the comment about how I could always use them for a paragraph or two.  Japanese people like to believe many silly things about themselves and/or their country.  One of these is that Japan is unique in the world in that it has four distinct seasons.  Think about it... yeah, ok, moving on.  Japanese people also like to believe that they are the only ones who can use chopsticks like they do.  Last August when I arrived, a teacher complimented me on my chopstick usage and I told her that we do use them in America sometimes, but in my case, I had visited China for 3 weeks and had had to learn to use them well by default.  Her response "Well, Chinese chopsticks are a bit different than Japanese ones."  Yeah, right.  But anyway, I have now been here over a year and I still get "complimented" on my ability to use chopsticks.  There are several ways to look at this... one is that the speaker is looking down on me and essentially making fun of me (you can tell by tone, and surprisingly it is not a sarcastic tone but one that is very much filled to the brim with surprise...ask sometime, I will demonstrate).  The second is that they just want to start conversation and "hashi jouzu desu ne" is pretty much in every phrasebook everywhere so they assume it is a good place to start trying to talk to a foreigner (you can tell by the eyes).  And the third is that the person is generally astounded that me, a foreigner, can use the unique and oh-so-difficult pieces of wood to not only pick up my food but to manage to get it all the way to my mouth (this one you can tell by looking at their general facial expression).  I am sure there are other ways to examine the chopsticks compliment, but these are the three I have encountered.

Ok, back to my day.

My 5th period was canceled because the teacher was giving the tests back, just as I predicted.  So, I took a slight catnap sitting at my desk while trying to pretend that I was not actually sleeping (held the pencil in my hand the whole time and everything).

Then cleaning.  ♪ ♫ Time to say goodbye.....♪ ♫  (enough of that song!)

Then home.

hump day

Yep,  Wednesday.  Test day.  Finally. 

I will probably not have classes tomorrow because they give the test back, but fingers crossed for Friday!

A funny conversation from lunch.  We had these like delicious beans and cashews that are like toasted and then coated in sugar and parsley.  Yum.  Anyway, the girl sitting across from me was done and there were still some beans left and...
boy next to her "Aren't you going to eat those?"
girl "No.  I am full."
boy "umm..Can I eat them?"
girl "I guess, but my chopsticks were in them." (so her spit had come in contact with them)
boy "I don't care.  I am a boy!"

And then after lunch in the teachers room...the math teacher next to me was grading tests and giving commentary at the same time!  So I can hear the pen checking things off and then every once in a while he would say "oh...that's so close!"  or "oh, that is wrong."  or "that won't work."  or "why couldn't anyone do this problem?"  or "oh..I am so strict."  It was hilarious.

Other than that...nothing fun today.

Further expansion of lunch... milk, rice, tuna and mushroom curry, and cucumber and grilled meat salad, plus the aforementioned delicious sugary beans/cashews.

...end...

PS... Look what I made today:

Terrible Tuesday

It's Tuesday!  What does that mean?  Nothing, actually.  Just that it is no longer Monday, but it is not yet Wednesday.  Also, nothing terrible happened today, I just wanted a title of some sort.

So... tomorrow is tests and that means no classes today, too, just like yesterday..  I sat and sat and sat.  Studied kanji.  Took a walk around the school.  Ate lunch and then sat some more.  Then cleaned.  It is weeks like this that I am ready to go back to America and sit there and do nothing where at least the TV and I speak the same language. (not that I am watching TV at school...I wish!)

One funny... a teacher told me (he actually told me yesterday, but if I had posted it yesterday there would have been nothing  to tell for today).  So he said "I have to go to the police station so can we cancel 1st period?"  Talk about a way to make me curious!!  wow.  I think that even if he had not had to go to the police station, he would have canceled class because of tests, but...police station trips are more interesting so we will leave it at that.

And something interesting that Japan does (or at least Iiyama does).  Today for second period, all of the principles from Iiyama came to observe classes here.  They just walked around and sat in each one for 5 minutes or so.  After that they have a meeting and discuss what they saw.  It is very interesting to me that they do this.  I know why my principal would want to see classes at my school, but going around to other schools of all levels?  And yes, they rotate and go to all the schools.  Do principals in America do things like this?

Lunch today: special "fall" rice (it had mushrooms, soybeans, carrots, chicken, and my personal favorite, sweet potato in it), fall vegetable miso soup, milk, fried pork and fried tofu in delicious sauce, daikon kimchi salad (daikon is the Japanese radish and kimchi is like Korean spicy cabbage.)  and a slice of apple.  YUM

Something I learned during lunch...3rd year boys need to be wearing deodorant.  yuck.

Let's talk about apples.  Apples in Japan are delicious.  Seriously.  They are huge and delicious.  They are also EXPENSIVE as are many fruits here (ever paid 5 bucks for 12 grapes? or 100 bucks for watermelon?)  It was funny yesterday when I heard students talking about watermelon and one said, "oh, I heard they do not have watermelon in America."  don't worry, I cut in on that conversation and informed them that not only do we have watermelon, but our watermelon is delicious, CHEAP and you can get it seedless!!!  take that, Japan.  But anyway, I love when we get fruit with lunch because then I do not have to buy it myself!  The pears here (I guess we call them Asian pears in the US) are also a-mazing! 

and that...was my day.

We are going to the delicious Italian restaurant for dinner.  YUM!

♫♪singing the inaka blues ♪ ♫

inaka = countryside

I am trying to plan a trip to Hokkaido in February to go to the snow festival with Sarah and possibly Crystal.  Since I seem to have an abundance of free time today (finished my kanji book...sad) I decided to research a bit more into flights and hotels and such.  In my opinion, prices seem reasonable based on what I have found.  Looks like we can book a package of sorts that includes flight and hotel for under $1000.  So what is my problem?  The flight to Hokkaido is 90 minutes, BUT to get to an airport from where I live it takes at least 4 hours!!  I am so spoiled by America that has more airports than states, and here I come to Japan that, from my perspective, is really lacking in the airport department.  It is going to cost an extra $200 or so to get to and from the airport, no to mention the 8 hours of travel time and the challenge of booking a flight that coordinates with train times. 

 ♫♪♪And thus, I am singing the inaka blues. ♪ ♫♪ ♫

a Monday in the life

Ok... in the interest of being consistent, I am going to try to write about my day today, too.  I skipped Friday because it was the "research meeting" and I was not at my school.  I also picked a really bad week to start writing these because test day is Wednesday and therefore I will probably not have any classes this week, and therefore nothing extremely exciting.  But I am still going to write a bit about the days if I can.  sometimes funny things happen even when I am not in class.  For example, there was a funny moment this morning during the teachers meeting...

Head teacher: "Ok, let's have the club reports.  First, table tennis."
Table tennis adviser (is adviser really spelled with an e?  I like advisor better but it gets red squiggly lines under it...) made his announcement, if I understood correctly, a student got 2nd and another got 5th.  YAY!
(head nodding and smiling all around and other teachers said "good work")
Head teacher: "good work.  Baseball?"
Baseball adviser: "Um...I do not really want to remember it.  We lost."
(general chuckles all around)
Head teacher: "good...work?"

Ok, so that was just part of the meeting.  poor baseball team.  It must have been bad.  He did give some other details about good plays and such, but something extremely bad probably happened. 

On to the rest of my day...

No classes because the students are studying for midterms.

Let's sidetrack for a moment while I tell you about midterms (or test days in general) in Japan...

They schedule midterms here (remember, junior high school) all on one day.  So the teachers all coordinate and they produce reports that show what the kids will be tested on and what the kids should know, etc.  BUT THEN...leading up to test day, they do nothing new and review only.  Can you imagine?  I suppose I am just considering my own experience in school (the only experience I have, as a matter of fact) but when I had midterms, the teachers did not give us time in class to study and review.  We had to do it on our own.  They kept going, and often we started new material that would not be on the test.  Also, after school activities were not canceled.  But in Japan, they stop everything and review, review, review!!  Granted, I do not think I ever had all my midterms on one day, but still...I guess it is just a very different system.  The strangest part?  NO GRADES!  The kids do get scores out of 100 points on the test, but they count for nothing.  I can tell you now, that at least half of the students will get under 50 points on English.  But it does not matter at all.  Last year I saw scores in the teens, and it was just completely irrelevant to life.  Also, on test day, the teachers who proctor the tests are rotated around, so English teacher might proctor for social studies and social studies for math, etc etc etc.  They do not want the teachers in the rooms to be able to accidentally give students a hint when answering questions.  Also, if students drop a pencil or anything, the proctor has to go get it.  Students cannot turn around, pick up their own pencil, move their chair or desk,  blink more than 24 times a minute, or, obviously, talk.  In fact, even during lunch, the students are not allowed to turn their desks.  (usually for lunch, they make groups, but on test day, they have to stay in their lines facing front)  Remember, no grades here...  And then... after test day, the teachers grade frantically that night and give the tests back the next day.  And when they give the tests back, they spend the whole class period going over the correct answers!  That is something a teacher in America would probably not do.  I think my teachers would go over problems that a lot of people got wrong, but never the whole test word for word.

In all my free time today, I studied kanji and worked more on my Halloween game.  It is really difficult to think of games and activities that keep these kids interested.  Part of the problem is that I go to class and do quiz games often, so another quiz game, only Halloween themed was out of the question.  I think I am going to do a board game.

Lunch today.... rice, milk, soup, veggies, and oden...(oden can be a soup or served on a plate or a skewer and it's made of delicious things like konnyaku (pretty much fiber and water) chikuwa (fish cake) daikon (big radish) and a boiled egg.)  And during lunch something happened to me for the first time.  A student said my eyes were scary and would not make eye contact with me.  There is a confidence booster for ya.  I also go to listen in on their conversation about how old they think all the teachers are (they are wrong) and which ones they think are cute and which ones have nice handwriting.

Back to doing nothing.

Cleaning.

Home.

Luckily, tonight I have eikaiwa (English conversation class) and it is super fun.  Something to look forward to since the MatsuJun drama ended.

Let's try something...

I decided (based on a suggestion from Crystal) that I am going to write a diary of sorts of the things that happen at school or the things that I do.  Sometimes my days are boring, and sometimes they are interesting.  I thought it could be fun to just write it all out and see how that goes.

So... Thursday, October 14.

Teacher's meeting today.  nothing especially interesting.  On Monday, a teacher retired, but nothing today.

First period, I had 2nd years.  UGH.  I really just do not get them. First, we do greetings.  Here is how the conversation goes:
Me: "Good morning!"
Students "..."
Me: "GOOD MORNING!!"
Students: "g....d  mo.....g"
Me: "How are you?"
Students "I'm..."  (at which point they look around to see if their friends are answering or not.
Me: "ok... How's the weather?"
One student "It's sunny."
Me:  "Yes!  It's sunny!  Yay!"
Students (laughing at me)
Me: "What day is it today?"
Students "It's....."

etc etc etc...I think you get the idea.  It is like pulling teeth to get these kids to talk.  These are questions that they should most definitely be able to answer.  The fact that they still stumble over the ever-intimidating "how are you" is really frustrating for me.  But...oh well.

 Ok, so a bit of back story... I had them do a project for the school festival.  The project was to make up a school including a name, a symbol mark, and 6 rules (thereby practicing the "have to/don't have to/must grammar they just learned)  Anyway, my original plan for the project was to have them all on display at the festival and have everyone who came vote for their favorite.  well, that just didn't happen, which I should have expected.  But, they did finish the posters and they were displayed, so I was happy,and surprisingly, the posters turned out pretty well.  However, in this particular class that I had today, we did have the students vote for their favorite and today I announced the results.  You would expect there to be some excitement, but NOOO.  nothing.

Ok, so I announce the two groups who tied for second place.  Applause?  NO!  Then the JTE tells the members of the groups to come up front and get their homework passes.  Does anyone come?  No.  They have to look around and check and make sure their friends are going.  And even then, it is just like hesitation all around.  WHY?  We were giving them homework passes!!  Ok, so the winning group is announced.  Applause?  No.  this group got candy and a homework pass.  Were they excited about the candy?  No.  Did I get a single "Thank you"? NO.

So, we end that and move on to the day's activity.  But first, a bit of review.  And here we have a prime example of something I deal with daily:  a JTE makes a mistake when writing on the board and I am faced with a dilemma...do I say something or not?  There is a lot of advice given to JETs about this very category.  Some say that you should never (ever ever ever) correct a JTE in front of students because it embarrasses them and it makes them look bad as professional teachers.  Others say to tread lightly and maybe sneak in a correction when the students are busy with something else.  And others still insist that JTEs are allowed to make mistakes and that it is our job to correct them, but to correct in a nice way, of course.  here is the mistake today, it's not a big one, but this is a real example.  On the board the JTE wrote: 
             I wan to play soccer.
So, really not a big deal at all, right?  Well, I am still faced with the same dilemma.  I chose today to let it slide because a few seconds later he wrote a correct 'want to' sentence, with both t's.  The problem is, these students (the 2nd years) are the type to write exactly what is on the board.  They do not try to answer problems for themselves, so I guarantee that at least 20 of the 26 kids have it written incorrectly in their notebooks.  the other 6 are the exceptions to the rule, but we will talk about that later.

Next, actually doing the activity!  Today was practicing using the conditional 'if'.  We do an activity called "Interview & Report".  This involves the students first translating Japanese questions into English, then asking me, and then reporting my answer to the JTE.  I think it is a good activity because the students have to practice a lot of things.  first, making questions itself is always a challenge for them.  Then, they have to ask me, as in come up to me and ask me the question out loud.  (oh no!)   And then, when I answer, I use first person, but when they report my answer to the JTE, they have to make it 3rd person, and this is the best practice ever.  "I want to see my friends." has to be changed to "She wantS to see HER friends."  It is not hard to do, but it definitely makes the students think, and that is always a good thing for them.

Well... again 26 kids in the class.  I think in 30 minutes, only 10 of them came to ask me questions.  that means that the other 16 were just goofing around.  They were doodling on the handouts, passing notes to each other, flirting (oh yeah) and I saw one sleeping.  I understand that kids are kids, but I feel that this ratio is unacceptable.  I recognize that not everyone likes languages or school or wants to study English, but the 2nd years have their numbers backwards.  usually, most people are fine with a class and then a handful are just ridiculous.  However, this class, for example, 6 like English and try and the rest just don't give a damn!  The good news here is that it is not just English.  According to the other teachers, these kids are not interested in ANYTHING.  They do not try in their other classes, either.  While that makes me happy to a point, I also feel bad for these kids because that is no way to go through life.  These kids are the first ones to say "oh, thats too much of a bother" when I give them an assignment.  Life is a bother!  Get over it!  Also, until these kids have had some real experiences and hardships in their lives, I think they are not allowed to just blow things like English worksheets off as "too much of a bother"  If they are already thinking that now, what are they going to do when life ACTUALLY hits them and becomes truly difficult?!

OK...end of rant.

Next...second period!  first years!  YAY!  This was the special ed class.  12 students.  They are so much fun!  They know how to properly say "Good morning" which always makes a class better.

Today we did a Halloween quiz.  First they guess answers about random Halloween facts, and then we go over it.  And if they got half right, they get stickers.  (once they collect 25 stickers, they get 2 pieces of candy).  What amazes me most about this bunch is how if I speak English slowly and use gestures, they can usually get most of what I am saying.  And their pronunciation is impeccable.  I also like how they are interested in the activities and they try a bit and are surprised by the answers.  When I did the Halloween quiz with the 2nd years, all they wanted to know was if they were going to get candy.  grr.

And that brings us to 3rd and 4th periods.  I had no classes so I sat in the teachers' room and worked on this entry and studied kanji.

Good news of the day: I got a key to the ladies locker room finally so now I can bring a track suit to keep here for emergencies.  And also a suit jacket for those days when I forget.  and also now I can wear skirts because I would be able to change before cleaning time!  Isn't that exciting?!  Of course, it is frustrating that it took them 6 months to realize that giving me a key might be a good idea, but better late than never.

Lunch today was milk, mushroom shumai (like dumplings...steamed...and delicious) rice, soup (eggdrop of sorts, but with mushrooms, carrots and onions in it and a better broth) and a 5- veggie mix...I think the only one America has too is carrot, but the rest are the only in Japan type of vegetables.  I ate with 3rd years.  Sometimes they talk to me, but not usually.  There are a few in this class who like English, so they talk to me before we eat, but during the eating time, not so much.  Oh well.  I rotate where I eat lunch every two weeks.  Generally eating with the 3rd years is fine.  Even if they do not talk to me much, it is not awkward.  Eating with 2nd years...well...how do you think it is, based on the first half of this post?  The good news is that the 2nd year teachers are nice to me, so they talk to me, even if the students do not.  Eating with 1st years is AWESOME!  I look forward to when I am back with the first years.  I ate with them once already, and I really cannot wait to go back.

5th period... 1st years!  Regular ones, this time.  First we reviewed grammar which they still seem to struggle a bit with: the third person 's'.  They learned how to do questions and negatives recently, but they are thrown off by the fact that if you have a 'does' in the sentence, the third person 's' is attached to the does, and therefore the main verb does not need the 's.'  But, they like their 's's so I get sentences like "My brother does not eats breakfast."  I think it clicked for two girls I was helping today.  I saw her "aha" moment and then she asked me "Oh, so when you use does, the verb does not need the 's' right?"  That made me happy.  The question is if that was a today only understanding or if she will remember it from now on.  My 2nd and 3rd years (and most Japanese people for that matter) mess this up frequently because it is something very very very different from Japanese.  After grammar, we played a fun game, and they seemed to enjoy it.  aaaaand that is that!

6th period...nothing.  more kanji studying and I did a bit more preparation for the Halloween game I want to try.

then cleaning.  I do not particularly enjoy cleaning, but I participate.  Last year, I sort of hid in the English office and pretended to sweep.  This year, I actually clean.  I take the trash out, and then zoukin (clean the floor).  There are students who come help clean the teachers' room, but they are a bit on the lazy side, so I do a lot of it on my own.  These students also like to complain that the teachers should clean the teachers' room for themselves.  If only I were a bit meaner and more confident with Japanese.  I would let them know that the teachers do more for them than they could possibly imagine, and the least these kids can do is clean the staff room for 15 minutes.  But, I never get to say anything.  Anyway,I think it is good that the students clean their own school rather than custodians.  I think it helps at least a little bit with their responsibility.  If they spill something, they will clean it up because they know that eventually a student has to clean it up.  American students are not so considerate.  I think American students would be a LOT more likely to just take a "oh, the custodian will get it after school" and they will leave the mess.  Of course, not all American students are so inconsiderate, just like not all Japanese students are considerate.  But in general...

Random thing for you...every day 5 minutes before cleaning there is an announcement over the speakers and they play a song.  For the first few months of the school year it was a different song every day that the students chose, sometimes popular j-pop songs, sometimes English songs (Avril Lavigne is really popular here) and now, for some reason that I have yet to find out, for the last few weeks, the song has been the Andrea Bocelli/Sarah Brightman "Time to Say Goodbye."  I have no idea what the inspiration was for choosing this song, nor do I know why it has been played EVERY day for the past three weeks at least..  If you are unfamiliar with it, it's quite pretty, but also quite operatic and quite in Italian.

And so ends my day.  Tomorrow we have some sort of teacher training and a demo lesson in Nakano.  Unfortunately, it will be all Japanese.  And we, the ALTs have to just sit in the sessions because that is how it works.  The training like this last year that we went to was a complete waste of a day for people like me who cannot understand Japanese.

OOOOsaka!

Hello, hello.  Once again, I am lazy and some complaints about my lack of blogging have reached my ears.  (you know who you are).   warning...lots of pictures!

So, here you go...a post about my trip to Osaka (and Kyoto)!  So, a few weeks ago, we hopped on a bus at 10:30pm and headed to Osaka.  We got to Osaka around 7am, so all in all, not a bad deal.  The bus was a bit nicer, too, in that it had only 3 seats across with aisles between them all, so you don't have to sit directly next to anyone.  The seats also recline really far, which is fine, but also are awful when the guy in front of you decides to recline all the way back from the start of the ride.

Anyway, so to start off, people in Osaka are really nice!  I have always heard that Kansai people are friendly and outgoing, at least as far as Japanese people are concerned, (Kansai is a bigger area of Japan that includes Osaka and Kyoto among other locations) but I got to experience this nice-ness first hand.  We were wandering around the train station looking for a restroom and we found one, only to discover, as we walked closer, that it was on the other side of the gates! We were walking away looking a bit disappointed when a random lady comes up to us and asks "Do you need a toilet?"  We nod, and she goes into the like station attendant office and asks if we can just go through to use the toilet and come back out!  haha!!

So on Sunday, we met up with Sarah (yay!) and wandered around Osaka!  We went to the longest covered shopping street in the world (I think in the world) and we had a-mazing okonomiyaki for dinner.  Osaka is well known for takoyaki (octopus dumplings) and okonomiyaki (which is like pancake batter with cabbage and other veggies and meats mixed in covered with sauce and mayo) and other delicious foods, but these two in particular.  I ate both.  Takoyaki are actually quite good, as long as I do not see the piece of octopus because then I get freaked out.  So, the top picture is takoyaki and the bottom is okonomiyaki.  It was so cute, our waitress drew pictures on our okonomiyaki!!

Takoyaki

Okonomiyaki

On Monday, we went to the aquarium!  Unfortunately, it was a holiday, so it was super crowded, but it was still fun!  The Osaka aquarium has whale sharks!  Of course, they have the usual otters and crabs and rays, too, but whale sharks!  two of them.  I thought the aquarium was really well laid out, and I would like to go again on a non-holiday so I can see all of the exhibits properly.  After the aquarium we went to a NEWS concert!!!  This is another of the Japanese "boy bands" that I have grown so fond of.  They are pretty fantastic live.  I think I still like Arashi a bit better, but NEWS is definitely fantastic.  Last month, we went to Tegomasu concerts, if you recall, and the two guys who make up Tegomass are in NEWS. 

Massive sting ray!

hehe...one of the greatest things about Japan is the random signs.  Except when they are bad English, but this one is ok as far as I am concerned.

Whale shark and his groupies.

He is smiling!

BIG crabs.  awesome!

 Ok, so that brings us to Tuesday... KYOTO!  Let me say that when I told my teachers I was going to Kyoto, they were so excited that they did not care I would be  missing school for it.  Apparently Kyoto is one of those places that Japanese people go to over and over again.  It is a common destination for school field trips.  My vice principal said he has been more than 20 times and still would go again if given the chance.  Well, we only spent a day there, but it was beautiful.  And we barely scratched the surface of famous places to go.    We went to Fushimi Inari which is a shrine with thousands of the red "tori" gates.  If I understood correctly, companies from all around Japan pay to have a gate put up and it is supposed to be beneficial for the company?  yeah, so anyway...incredible.  It was like walking through a tunnel of the red gates.  Check the pictures!

Which way??

Based on my quick wikipedia research, Inari is the god of fertility and the foxes are the messengers?  I am in the process of learning more about Shinto.   Anyway, there were foxes everywhere. AND you could buy a fox and write a wish on it and decorate the face!  So here is my fox!

 

And my wish!...I wished for world happiness.  In bad Japanese.

Me walking.  We walked like this for at least 2 hours.  It is really incredible.

 Just another shot of the endless "tori" gates.

Then we made it to the top!  Here is Kyoto from the top!

Also in Kyoto, we went to Uji which is well known for green tea.  In Uji is the Byoudouin which is the building on the back of the ten-yen coin.  I am always fascinated by seeing things on money in real life.  It must be important if it was put on the back of the money, right?

  Here is the Byoudouin and a 10-yen coin!

No sketching!!!

K...next day!  back to Osaka!!!  We split into two groups today... Crystal and I who had never been to Osaka before went to the castle and Kim and Alaina went shopping.  Then we met up in "Amemura" which is short for America Mura, or American village.  It was just a bunch of "hip" shops and there was even a statue of liberty!  Then, Sarah came and met up with us and we ate some delicious Italian food and then went to the Umeda Sky building.  Another observatory of sorts.  But this one was really neat because the view from the top was actually outside!  With black lights!  I am so used to buildings where they are so scared of people jumping that the view is obstructed by poles or mass amounts of glass.  However, this one was done in such a way that you could see everything unobstructed!  YAY!  Also, being the mature individuals we are, we had some fun with clothes and our teeth in the black lights.

Osaka Castle!  It was nice, but inside it is redone and is a museum and I much prefer castles that are more authentic.  But, lots of good Japanese history in here... Oh wait..I didn't understand most of it!

View of Osaka.

Umeda Sky Building

View of Osaka at night

teeth in the black light.  who is who?!

aaaand this brings us to Thursday...a quick trip to Yogurt Land and then on the bus back to Nagano!  yay!  YogurtLand...a-mazing.  So, frozen yogurt, but you go in and can choose from like 15 flavors and then there are toppings galore and then you pay by weight.  ok...little advertisement there...not sure if they even have Yogurt Land in America...

YogurtLand! My beautiful, delicious creation!

The end.  Yay!  I finally went to Osaka and Kyoto!

Up next... school festival.

Some other pictures that did not fit into my commentary...

This one is so Japan...there were zoning issues apparently, so the highway runs through the building

Only in Japan...I think there is an anime with an eye-ball father, but I am not sure if that is what these guys are supposed to be or not...

 Me and the Glico Man.  Glico is the company that makes amazing things like Pocky and other candies and sweets and the headquarters is in Osaka.

Things like this make me sad at heart.  Why can't they get their spelling checked first?

Pancake-flavored drink.