“Are There Schools in America?” + Golden Week

“Are there schools in America?”

Yes, sweet child, yes there are. And I was once an elementary schooler just like you! *cue gasps and cries of shock throughout the room*

That was a slightly exaggerated version of an exchange that took place during lunchtime with a 1^st grade class the other day (May 13^th). The cuteness and silliness of it all was just too overwhelming…

Actually, I thought I’d take the chance to reply to several questions I get asked often by students (and sometimes peers/older people) here:

1. No, I don’t have a boyfriend/husband. This is by far the most common question!
2. I like everyone! You’re all great! (In response to “who do you like?”)
3. I am 22 years old.
4. I live alone. (My family is back in America, and I’m the oldest sibling.)
5. I don’t have any children—didn’t I say I was 22?? (No disrespect to those people who do have kids at 22, though, that’s just too early for me!)
6. I bring my own lunch because I’m a vegetarian (albeit a seafood-eating one), and the school lunch often has meat in it.
7. I’ve been studying Japanese since ninth grade, so over 8 ½ years now. Darn, guess I should be a lot better then!
8. Cats are my favorite animal, and I also like bunnies and dolphins (I would say beluga whales but I don’t think they’d understand…)
9. My favorite Japanese foods include unagi (eel), okonomiyaki (Hiroshima-style forever!), sushi, tempura, tamagoyaki, takoyaki, soba and udon.
10. Yes, in America there are a lot of shops, fun places to see, and tasty foods! *insert examples here*
11. I came to Japan because I love Japan and got interested in its culture from an early age through pop culture (anime/manga, music, etc.) Then my interest expanded.

Anyway, to continue from where I left off… I was in the Kansai region for a Galneryus concert in Osaka on Sunday April 20^th, and stayed in Kobe with my friend from study abroad who is now a JET—not an ALT, but helping coordinate the hordes of other JETs in Kobe. Apparently it’s the city with the most JETs, which I can definitely believe since the small foreigner bar where we went to see our mutual study abroad friend’s cover band was packed with them. I was a little bit jealous of the big community there, but there are 9 of us Interac folks in Miyoshi, so I can’t really complain. I even know a few people who are alone in their town!

Because I hadn’t gotten to do anything for Passover and it felt weird (my dad’s side is Jewish, so we always did Passover back home), I had contacted a tiny temple in the city…it seems like it’s one of only two places for Jews to gather here, the other being Tokyo, of course. It was a cozy place up near the northern side of town where the mountain slopes begin, with a room for worship and a room for dining. There weren’t many people—a couple of Americans, a couple of Orthodox guys who may have recently come from Israel, and a couple of families with small children. There was some prayer and reflection, and then a lunch of delicious Israeli/Jewish dishes, some with Japanese ingredients like daikon radish. Overall it was a pleasant time, if a bit awkward for a newcomer. That week, after getting back home, I did end up cooking a makeshift matzo ball soup, but with crushed Carr’s table water crackers instead of matzo meal…so yeah, that was my Passover.

I explored Kobe that day and the next morning with my friend, including the foreign import stores and Kobe’s small Chinatown, one of three in Japan (the others are in Yokohama and Nagasaki—now I’ve seen all three!). The next day we got a cool view of the city from high up in Kobe’s city hall…for free! Travelers, take note. We then went into Osaka for some frozen yogurt and some shopping at Forever 21 (both pretty rare in Japan). After that, I went off on my own to revisit Tsuruhashi a.k.a. Koreatown and sample all the kinds of kimchi ever made before heading over to see Galneryus at the “Big Cat” concert venue that was conveniently…in a shopping building? Anyway, I went in and had to pay for a drink ticket, and who do I see at the bar but the only other foreigner at the show (it seemed)? I introduced myself and got a concert buddy who spoke English and also was into this same random Japanese power metal band! They’re pretty successful but I really only know maybe three other people who like or have even heard of them.

Apparently Galneryus doesn’t have openers, and they do three to four encores…crazy. Yes, many things about them impressed me, but I guess the biggest thing was their endurance. I kept expecting the singer Sho to lose his voice from all the belting, but he didn’t even sound tired…Also, at the first encore, they all changed into matching purple tees of their own band. SO adorkable. Another thing: some people have this image of Japanese audiences as being quiet/polite/reserved … maybe at some shows, but after seeing this show, along with a couple of other concerts and part of a J-rock festival during study abroad, I can say that this is just a stereotype and Japanese audiences are more than willing to move around and throw their rock fists up. Aw yeah. \m/

So yeah, those guys ended up performing for almost three hours with only a few breaks in between…hats off to them! They gave such a good show that it made the super-long drive back home until nearly 3 A.M. worthwhile. This is a good sampling of their live performances (feel free to skip to 2:33 if you're short on time): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CtNVuB_0Z6Q

The following weekend, I drove down to Hiroshima with an ALT friend (also working in Miyoshi) on Friday after work to meet some of the other Hiroshima ALTs and celebrate the end of training for a small group of new people in our branch (who are finally starting to teach this week, the 19^th) at an okonomiyaki restaurant. (What’s okonomiyaki? Check it, yo: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Okonomiyaki)  After that, some of us split off to a gaijin bar nearby and then ever fewer of us went for a good ol’ round of karaoke. Somehow we even ended up singing “Poor Unfortunate Souls” in full Ursula mode…uhh, go us? The new trainees, incidentally, were mostly placed in a town just under an hour north from me and they’re a great, fun group, so I’ve already gotten to meet up with them again a couple times.

My friend and I stayed in a hostel and then walked along a lovely river to see the Peace Park and Atomic Bomb Museum the next day. Neither of us had been in several years, and the impact was still just as potent as when I had visited with a school group during my first time in Japan at age 15, the summer after tenth grade. The first part of the museum is hard enough, but the second part has the remains of personal belongings, grotesque photos of the aftermath, and personal stories, including the tale of Sadako and the thousand paper cranes, which I read about in third grade. You know that thing called “white guilt?” Well, that—or rather, American guilt—weighed me down like so many sandbags as I walked through the exhibits. I am most definitely a pacifist, and though I know there were some logical reasons for using the atom bomb, there were also many reasons not to…including the deaths of so many innocent people. I just hate when war destroys the lives of civilians…or really, lives in general.

At least it was a beautiful day outside, and the Peace Park truly was peaceful…

Next came the long sought-after Golden Week. Golden Week is not usually an actual week, it’s a series of holidays that are clumped together, and the length of the break varies year to year. This time we got a random Tuesday off  (April 29^th) and a four-day weekend from Saturday to Tuesday…better than nothing! That Tuesday I had a bit of cabin fever, so I drove up to visit some fellow new teachers in Matsue. It’s the capital of Shimane Prefecture to our north, and is on the shore of Lake Shinji near the Sea of Japan. It takes over 1.5 hours even by car, but I didn’t mind… nothing else better to do, and I love exploring!

I told the other ALTs they were really lucky, because Matsue is in a beautiful location (awesome lake and mountain scenery, and not far from the beach), but is also pretty urban, at least by Miyoshi standards. They at least have a university and a castle—more than we can say! So we had lunch at a random tiny hole-in-the-wall we found called Green’s Baby, then explored the castle, its grounds, and a nearby shrine to Inari, the fox deity. We wrapped up with a stroll by the lake, and more karaoke (are you seeing a karaoke pattern yet? I may be addicted).

The Friday before Golden Week, many schools went on an ensoku (“long foot” a.k.a. field trip), and my school that day was no exception. We walked to the prefectural park, which took about 50 minutes. That wouldn’t have been so bad if it weren’t sunny and cloudless that day. We were out in the sun playing games and eating bentou and such for a really long time, and I didn’t notice a burn coming on until too late. Moral of the story: I’m a moron and didn’t expect sunburn time to come so soon. At least I had fun when the kids dragged me onto the fuwa-fuwa dohmu, or fluffy dome, a bizarre cross between a trampoline and a giant marshmallow… (???)

Most of my Golden Week adventures were on Sunday and Monday. Going anywhere that required a travel ticket was pretty much out of the question since people snap all that up way ahead of time or it gets really pricey. So I went with a driving trip, which I mostly did with another new ALT who lives near Okayama and Kurashiki, where I spent Sunday. Although we trained in Okayama, all our work was during prime tourist-y hours, so we didn’t get out much. This time my friend and I made up for that, as we went to Korakuen (one of Japan’s three most famous gardens—I’ve already been to Kenrokuen in Kanazawa, so two down, one to go!) and Okayama Castle. They’re very close, so you get a lovely view of the castle from the garden and vice versa. The pictures should speak for themselves. Outside the castle, there were also a bunch of fun workshops going on, and a super cool old man dressed like a samurai, who we of course posed for intense photos with.

After I introduced my friend to the glory of Japanese curry (CoCo Curry House, why are you not in my town?!), we hurried to meet my JET friend at Kurashiki, the city next door that my high school group had also visited seven years ago. It’s known for the Bikan Chiku, a.k.a. Canal District, and Ivy Square. The Canal District looks straight out of Memoirs of a Geisha, mainly that one town scene near the bridge…in fact, when I first went in high school, I was convinced that they filmed it there. There are beautiful stone paths and narrow bridges, weeping willows, a shallow canal, and old white storehouses that have been converted to shops or museums. There was some special event called Heartlands Kurashiki (odd since that sounds very American), so there were a few cool performances. We saw people dressed as oni (ogres) drumming on taiko as their tiny boat glided up and down the canal. Then after walking around the Ivy Square, whose buildings were actually blanketed in Ivy, we saw a jazz band perform there in the middle with a huge audience! Then off to the mall for—you guessed it—karaoke, with a side of kaiten-zushi a.k.a. conveyor belt sushi, which is wonderfully common here.

On the morrow (haha, that doesn’t sound pretentious at all!), we drove further east to Himeji, known for Himeji Castle, called the most lovely castle in Japan…which is sadly still undergoing restoration on the main keep that should finish around the end of our contracts next year in late March. Sigh. But first, we saw the only spot in town rated higher on Tripadvisor than the famed castle—Engyouji, a serene temple complex in the mountains. Now I need to re-watch The Last Samurai since they filmed some of it there. We took the cable car up and back because it was way up the mountain, and ain’t nobody got time for that. There was plenty of trekking around all the temple buildings, which were lovely—overall a great side trip for getting your Zen on.

It says a lot about Himeji Castle that it was still radiant despite the top of the main tower barely peeking out of the scaffolding. The whole complex is just as elegant as I remember from high school! (As the first castle I ever saw, it set the bar pretty high.) Plus we got to learn a lot about the history, including a special exhibition on this lord named Kuroda Kanbee, whom I’d never heard of in my life. You learn something new every day, I guess.

That was just about it for Golden Week. I learned that road trips can be pretty easy and great, and reaffirmed my belief that humans are a fickle species (I had about four people cancel during various parts of the trip). Life lessons, hooray!

This is getting absurdly long so I’ll catch you guys up in the next post. Even more fun stuff has happened since May 4^th a.k.a. Star Wars Day for the geeks out there. Tune in next time for sketchy guys at da klubz, racial profiling, and chorus and ballroom dancing with grandmas and grandpas!

Over and out.

Kobe from city hall. Not pictured: harbor

                       

Kobe's Chuukagai (Chinatown) with zodiac statues

For kimchi aficionados only

See? Rock fists!

And this wasn't even the final encore... (I think)

Matsue Castle with teachers from my training group

The Genbaku Dome, a rare remnant of pre-bomb Hiroshima

Strolling through Korakuen

Okayama Castle, seen from the bridge to Korakuen

...And the view from atop Okayama Castle

Oni-daiko: taiko-drumming ogres!

Main building at Engyoji: One of Himeji's best-kept secrets

Himeji Castle, why you do dis to my heart...? You know I still love you though

"Sensei WAKA-!” (Teacher, you’re young!)

Settle in and grab a snack; this is going to be a sort of long post since I haven’t updated for a while. As my third week of teaching draws to a close, I figure it’s about time I got my thoughts in order.

A lot of things have happened—starting free Japanese lessons at the library, an international potluck, a welcome party, fun interactions with students, and a weekend trip out to Kansai to see a band I like, Galneryus, in Osaka. (It was so, so worth it.) I’ll write more about that in the next post since this one’s a biggie.

I’ve almost gotten used to the routine of things and the teaching environment, but there are still times when I have a minor freak-out if my lessons are all at the start of the day without any planning periods before, and it’s a new one I haven’t taught before at another school. Thankfully, there are online resources with lesson plans for each grade level, which we can of course modify, perhaps adding in or substituting games we’ve learned from another teacher or from training.

I arrive at school at 8 and get to go home around 4:30 each day, but the other teachers get there earlier and stay later, so I feel a little guilty leaving them behind. There is sincerity behind my perfunctory “Osaki ni shitsurei shimasu” (“I’m being rude by going first!”) that I say when leaving. Another standard phrase, which is handy and would be nice to have in English, is “Otsukaresama desu/deshita!” This literally means something like “You must be tired” and basically expresses that you think someone’s been working hard—good for them. Another thing I feel bad about is having fewer lessons than everyone … typically I teach for three periods a day, sometimes two, sometimes four, but there are six periods in total.

Now for funny things that have happened more than once, in no particular order. When the kids find out I’m 22 (during Q & A at the end of my self-intro, for example), some are like “Wakai!” (“So young!”) Which is ironic given that they’re, you know, the ones in elementary school. Many times now, I’ve been asked if I have a boyfriend or if I like anyone (today I just responded “I like everyone~!” and gestured to the whole class. Evasive tactics!). When one girl at lunch asked about my living situation and I said I lived alone in an apartment, she asked if I had a boyfriend and when I said no, she went, “Oh, but I think you can find one soon. ;) ” Uh…thanks for the reassurance, little lady. A couple kids have even asked if I have kids! But that’s before they find out my age. Not that there aren’t 22-year-old moms, but still.

Another fun thing: this Tuesday, I had my first sudden schedule switcheroo (SSS?) in which I taught 3^rd, 5^th and 6^th grades instead of 1^st through 3^rd and the special needs 2^nd and 3^rd graders, and the order was all switched around. But the English representative had a lot of things planned out, so it worked out okay. Another surprise was the quick interview with the broadcasting kids, a pair of 6^th grade girls. They asked me and the young teacher whose desk is next to mine about things like our birthday, what mascot characters we liked (I said Doraemon and Rilakkuma), what the best things were about that school’s students, and what our goal for this year was. I did my best in Japanese but threw in a little English to help them learn!

Then, after that lunch period, I found out some of the girls in 4^th grade were reeeally into Frozen (or Anna and the Snow Queen as they call it here) as they started singing some of “Let it Go” in Japanese and encouraged me to also sing in English. Damn, that song is high! Then they got more into it and one girl (who is an interesting mix of Japanese, Filipino and Brazilian) started acting out all the motions, even as they switched into other songs like “Do You Wanna Build A Snowman?” and “In Summer” …her Olaf was on point! She did his little jazzy tap section, too (“ta-ra-ta-ta-ta tata!”). Then she periodically collapsed on the floor. Crazy young’ins!

At my biggest school, we also talked about Frozen’s greatness, and the homeroom teacher encouraged me to draw myself on their 6^th grade blackboard which one kid had already doodled on. I did, though I haven’t drawn in a while and chalk is hard, but the kids were nonetheless impressed, more than was warranted. “Umai!” (So good!) “Niteru!” (It looks like you!) Someone said my style was like Osamu Tezuka’s—haven’t gotten that before! Then they started doing their own versions all around it—I loved the variety of styles, so I ran down to grab my phone for a picture. Side note: I’m loving this iPhone, can’t believe I survived until Japan without one.

Now, back to the first week—that Sunday was a busy one, as my big school actually had class that day, with Monday off in exchange. Thankfully I got off early after I finished teaching 3 classes and rushed up to an international potluck in a lovely park north of town. It was a little drizzly and cold, but thankfully there was plenty of shelter. The sakura were still in full bloom there, which brightened things up a bit. The highlight of that was getting to try dishes from various countries and hear how different people sounded in Japanese—there’s not just one “gaijin accent.” I hung out with other ALTs and met Japanese, Jamaican, Indonesian and Thai people. My “baked” mac and cheese was a big hit—I did my darndest with what was available! I couldn’t find cheddar (I bought what looked like it but turned out to be American cheese; I cried inside as I threw it in the sauce) and my shredded cheese didn’t specify what kind, and I didn’t have an oven, but I toasted the breadcrumb topping in the toaster oven and it somehow worked! One of my Japanese instructors, who helped set it up, was such a fan she asked if she could bring the rest back to finish off and return the baking dish next class. Clearly they need some mac and cheese revolution up in this country!

That night was my first and only welcome party … yes I had only been invited that morning, and yes it was around the cost of one’s firstborn child (kidding; ¥5000 or $50), but it was my only chance and I don’t get many chances to party or bond with people, so I YOLOed it (said ironically, of course). At the party, which was in honor of new staff members, I found out why it was that costly…it was a lovely traditional restaurant that had a small courtyard inside and served very high-class old-school Japanese food. And beer, of course…though some teachers drove alone so they had oolong tea or 0% beer. There was a funny skit by a young male and female teacher, and I managed to get on the LINE messaging list for the house parties that the guy has sometimes in summer. Yay social lives! Also, hilarity ensued when some of us were trying to exchange LINE contact info and frantically shaking phones at each other (there’s a “Shake It” feature). My English representative was super nice and gave me a ride back home since I had drunk a bit.

Now it’s time for “Read Between the Lines” – a look at that famous Japanese subtlety.

What is said: “Aren’t you cold?”

What is meant: “Why aren’t you wearing more clothes?” (Ok, that time I didn’t really get it, since I was wearing a blazer, dress and tights…plenty covered up!)

What is said: “Is that enough?” (referring to my amount of lunch)

What is meant: “Teacher are you dieting???” (one kid asked me that another time…really it was a pretty normal amount of food, and I usually snack after school anyway)

What is said: “It might be hard to prepare the school lunch without meat.”

What is meant: “It is literally impossible to make anything without some form of animal remains. You’re on your own for lunch every day. Welcome to the Japanese Hunger Games and may the odds be ever in your favor—good luck, ya weirdo hippie!”

What is said: (email from work) “Sometimes you have to pay some for the free drinks at school, because sometimes teachers buy them. It’s free, but be careful about Japanese culture….”etc. etc.

What is meant: “Your coworker at this one school may have told you that the coffee is free during the start of the year, but time’s up: you gotta bring your own drinks or pay up, f***er.”

Okay these were slightly exaggerated for comedic effect…I meant no harm!

Tune in next time for my experiences at a tiny Kobe synagogue and a metal show in Osaka…

I'll do a big photo dump in that entry since I'm having some internet problems. Shikata ga nai / C'est la vie!

"Sakura, Sakura..." and First Lessons

The title of this post was chosen because sakura be everywhere, yo. In a way, it's kind of nice that the start of the school year coincides with the peak of cherry blossom season ... makes everyone feel better about going back to school, I guess.

This past week since training has been fairly laid-back. After we finished up and each gave our full 25-minute demo lesson to a small group of our peers, we had a nice celebratory farewell dinner -- ahh, back to the days of the expensive group nomihoudai "all-you-can-drink" with a set course meal. Oh well, it was worth it. The next day, we all checked out, turned over any extra luggage to the delivery service, and split off into groups that were going in the same direction. All in all, it was a pretty useful training, full of sage advice and amusing anecdotes. I still freaked out about my first real lessons today, though, because they were for 4th grade and special education 2nd-3rd grades, which have no textbook.

At Hiroshima Station, we met with our ICs, local Japanese people who help us get all settled in to our new lives. My soon-to-be neighbor and I were picked up by a very kindly middle-aged mom in a neon green VW beetle ... very cute, but pretty squished with all our stuff! She helped us get our keys, pay the gas deposit, and go buy things at various stores to start us off in our little one-person Leopalace apartments. She was so helpful and always knew where the best prices would be! On Monday she came back to help us and another new ALT get our foreigner registration cards and health insurance cards at city hall, open JP Post Office bank accounts, and get cell phones. I was very lucky to have corresponded with an ALT from last year who was leaving Japan--he sold me his iPhone so neither of us have to pay the very hefty contract-breach fee (it's a 2-year contract, but we are each staying for only 1). Just a small transfer fee and oh, the fact that I have to pay off the other half of the phone, which is about $300... yeah, they don't give discounts here for starting a new contract. Ouch. So anyway, with the extensive paperwork, that all took about forever and a day, but hey we survived and got some cheap tasty udon (made in front of us!) along the way.

Then I got a cold so I spent the better part of the next several days holed up in my place, though I did go out to explore some places with other ALTs and do karaoke. I also went to the gym at the community center in the park, which is...hrmm...fairly low-tech, shall we say, and doesn't even have ellipticals. It's fine, it's not super-pricey at least...but I did learn  that you have to bring your own indoor gym shoes or borrow theirs. I bought some right after because the pair they had was really old and squeaky!

This past weekend there was the Miyoshi City sakura matsuri (cherry blossom festival) right in my neighborhood, at a park on a nearby hill called Ozekiyama. There was a pre-festival the night before, but it was dreadfully cold and rainy, so me and another guy left after less than 2 hours, but we got to see some real-time sand art and some traditional kagura dancing with live music and eat tasty festival food! I tried fried shark on a stick just to be adventurous. (Shark is a local specialty in Miyoshi because it would last those long treks up into this mountainous region. And here they call it ワニ, wani, which means alligator...huh?) The next day was more about the food and drinks because the weather sucked again, and it even started to hail at one point despite being sunny! Can someone explain this weather please? Yeesh. Then some of us went back to my place and played a bilingual Apples to Apples with English and Japanese on the cards! That made for an interesting time for sure.

And now the moment you've all been waiting for...my first day of work! I didn't actually teach anything, ironically. It was at my biggest school of about 511 students, which I go to on Mondays and Wednesdays. They had an "inauguration ceremony" for the new staff, including me, in which the principal read our names and we introduced ourselves briefly. Everyone was so pleasantly surprised that I did it in Japanese. Also, some girls ran up to me in the hall and greeted me, told me I was the most kawaii sensei (cute teacher) even though they're the cute ones, and asked for many high fives, which I gave freely. Then there was the school entrance ceremony (nyuugakushiki) for the tiny, adorable first graders, whom upperclassmen led by the hand to their seats in front. I almost died every time they earnestly said "Arigatou gozaimasu!" to members of the PTA who all congratulated them on entering school. Then it was back to the teacher's room, where the people at my section of desks (the music teacher and the three 6th grade teachers) decided to take a group photo....but they walked outside with their indoor shoes on! I did the same, despite feeling wrong about it since that goes against everything we've been taught. Apparently some teachers will run out to their cars in indoor shoes, but we're not supposed to follow their example. Oh well, at least it wasn't muddy ...and the picture turned out well!

I helped put away some of the first graders' chairs in their rooms, and then it turned out I had to stay for the full school day plus a little extra--that is, 4:30--which is the usual time, even though I had no lessons. I just used the time to work out a general lesson plan with one of the 6th grade teachers and to go check out the denshi kokuban, or electric blackboard...it's basically a giant touchscreen computer with lesson materials in it! I wish we had that when I was their age... Incidentally, the guy at the desk to my right who showed it to me has the same last name as the guy to my right at my next school...whoa! It's not like it's the most common name in Japan, either. Another oddity: one of his students is named Abe Maria! He started humming the tune of "Ave Maria," I asked why, and he showed me the class list. I guess the Abe family has a sense of humor or a love of music.

Now for the next day (today), at another school of 150 students, with my first actual lessons! I managed to push through on a mostly-empty stomach, since in my rush and slight lateness, I didn't have time to stop and buy an onigiri (filled rice ball), and thus, I had only a fried egg for breakfast and a tiny yogurt, tiny pudding, and smallish banana for lunch. I've been surviving off of cocoa and sugared coffee throughout the day, and even now, the thought of food after work is magical. During lunch, one kid asked in Japanese, "Sensei, aren't you hungry?" I paused and said, "Ah, no, I'm fine!" Bald. Faced. Lie. "...I'll eat more after school." Not a lie.

Anyway, I luckily had the first couple periods to prep, including making a full set of flashcards for 1-20 since the school didn't have any. I beefed up my self-introduction--complete with flashcards, maps, a flag, money, and a bald eagle finger puppet--to last 10 minutes instead of the 5 we had rehearsed, and plunged right in! Thankfully, the cheerful kids were curious and responsive, despite being a little bit rowdy or sassy at times. By the time I had taught two 4th grade classes and eaten lunch with the 5th grade class, I felt like I knew what to expect. But then I had a special needs class with one 2nd and one 3rd grader, and I was nervous because that was new territory...but it turned out fine! I just did things more slowly with more repetition. They (and all the others) are so darn sweet! Sometimes they're a bit fresh, though -- one girl asked if she could call me "Nata-chan." Nope, kid, Natasha-sensei.

Tonight I'm going to a free Japanese lesson at the library with some other ALTs, and the next three days are school days, so let's see how all that goes. I feel a little bit reassured now that I know what it's all like!

Photo time!

Sunset sakura stroll in my neighborhood

Sunset sakura stroll in my neighborhood, part 2

A bunch of tiny tori-i (shrine gates) in the neighborhood~

Sand art at the pre-festival: it was in real-time and she kept changing it. So cool!

Kagura dancing: the part where the demons came out to kick butt and take names

Nighttime sakura: almost worth the horrible weather

Ozekiyama Park entrance

View of the north side of Miyoshi

My Tuesday school

Let the Training Commence (or in Engrish, "Let's Training!")

Typing this before 7:00 AM in my Okayama hotel room during training. I can’t believe I’m up this early, but at least the jetlag curse has been broken and I’ve gotten two good nights’ sleep in a row. Much better than waking up around 4:30 and not getting back to sleep…

If you go to Tokyo sometime, I definitely recommend Tokyo Skytree. On my only real day in Tokyo, I met up in the morning with a Japanese friend who came in from the neighboring city of Saitama to hang out there with me, since neither of us had been—it was opened to the public in May 2012, the month after I went home from study abroad (why?!). It was even more popular than I expected—the ticket sales began at 8, but when I got in line around 8:20~30, it was already around an 80-minute wait according to a sign. Thankfully my friend Kanaho, who had already gone through the line and gotten a ticket voucher, came and saved me. Meeting up without a cell phone can be really hard and stressful! How did people ever manage it? Anyway, the big crowds may have had to do with the fact that it was a long weekend (Friday was off)…which would later screw me over again.

            So, Skytree—the world’s tallest tower at 634 meters, but not the tallest structure because a building in Dubai has that title—has pretty much completely eclipsed Tokyo Tower in the observation tower department. It looked so small and sad from where we were standing in Skytree—and that was from the lower deck! We would’ve gone up to the higher one, but it was an extra 1000 yen, or over $10. They also have a glass section of the floor where you can walk out and look down at the ant-like people below—acrophobic people, beware!

            From there, we had enough time to visit Asakusa and the famous temple Sensouji. It was my fourth time there, navigating the throngs of people walking amongst the stalls on the way to the main pavilion. It’s basically the perfect place to get souvenirs before leaving Japan, while also getting fat off of street food like age-manju (little fluffy dough balls that are fried on the outside and stuffed with various fillings—I had ume, Japanese plum).

            Before getting on the shinkansen (bullet train) to Okayama that afternoon, I was going to see Harajuku with a friend but the friend canceled so I figured, ah what the heck, I’ll still go anyway…I was back at the hotel so I brought my suitcase and backpack in a quick taxi to Tokyo Station, thinking I’d leave my stuff in one of the many coin lockers and come back to hop a 4:30 train…but literally every large locker was full. The locker areas had cool little touchscreen maps showing where other locker sections were and what they had available, and every once in a while a small or medium would open up—I actually ran over to get a medium a couple times, but by the time I got there, people would already be buying it. Noooo! It was definitely because of that long weekend. I threw in the towel just after 2 (I had already been to Harajuku several times) and lined up at 2:20 for a 2:40 train.

Which reminds me… If the assigned seats are all gone, get there early, like at least 15 minutes early, or you might have to stand. Only the first 3 cars out of a maybe 12-car train are open seating. Good thing this was the first stop…a few people who got on at Nagoya, Kyoto or Osaka had to stand or sleepily crouch in the aisles. I got a nice window seat where I could catch a glimpse of Mt. Fuji, the Kamogawa (Kamo River) and Kyoto Tower (I wanted to jump off in Kyoto!), and Himeji Castle engulfed by black scaffolding—sigh, when will that be finished?

An Interac head teacher from this area was waiting to meet me at the fountain outside the station, and brought me to the hotel, which was literally right across from the station, but the help was appreciated. I met the head of my branch and some other fresh faces, picked up my big ole 50.5 pound rolling duffel I’d shipped there, and headed off to my room, which is considerably bigger and nicer than the one I had in Tokyo.

People went off to find food fairly quickly, and we happily settled on the Japanese curry chain CoCo Ichibanya, which brings back memories from study abroad because one was right across from Doshisha’s campus. You can add so many mix-ins or toppings to your curry; it’s great. I had cheese and spinach in it because that was a legit thing on the menu and I like them both, so why not. Afterwards we found a place to do karaoke for an hour before crashing, and blasted such classics as “F***k You” (my go-to alto range fun song), and lots of ‘90s songs from folks like Britney and the Backstreet Boys. I felt alive again! I seriously wish there were more karaoke places in America—there’s only one similar place in Boston, a Korean one called Do Re Mi.

So far we’ve had two days of training—long and eventful days, but not too exhausting. I think I’ve learned all of the other 21 trainees’ names by now, but 3 more just showed up Tuesday afternoon (aw man, more names!). I have had more than one convenience store canned coffee a day though. The first day was mostly just policy stuff, objectives, rules, and piles of paperwork…I think I have a whole tree worth of paper with me right now. Yesterday (Tuesday) was more practical and dealt with life in schools and classrooms and stuff. We practiced our very first self-introductions to the class and were judged pretty harshly but it was to catch bad habits before they start. In the evening we also had a drug test and presentation on drunk driving and drugs in Japan (DON’T DO IT, your life will be over. They are adamant about anti-drug laws here, and the no drunk driving is kind of common sense).
          One cool thing that happened: some of us went to Japanese McDonald’s for lunch yesterday (more interesting options than back home!), and as we got in line some doll-like high school girls in short skirts (yes, these ones fit all the stereotypes) said “Hello” to us in English on their way out! We said hello back encouragingly and asked “how are you?” They said “I’m fine thank you” …well one said “I’m guddo” (good) but I think she wasn’t serious. As they left, one more said “I’m hungry!” Wait why are you leaving a restaurant hungry? Oh well, at least they’re using English! A lot of people here will be too shy to speak it, especially to random foreigners, but these seemed like the popular girls so I guess they were less inhibited.