Last night we went to one of my favorite restaurants. It is a Nepalese restaurant, which is just like Indian, as far as I can tell. The food is really good there, and they have "set"s for really cheap. A set is often just a drink with something you order, but in this case it is an appetizer, dessert, pre-dinner drink, and salad. You get a huge tray with about 5 types of curry and rice and nan (plus all the above) for about 1000 yen ($9). I think its a sweet deal for dinner. Tip is included in that price too. Tip is included in every restaurant price here actually, which I find kind of nice. The service is generally good despite not working for tips, which wasn't the case in some European countries. Maybe as foreigners we get a little better service, but we normally have communication problems talking with the wait staff to counter the good service.
I've been to the restaurant twice and they are really friendly and it is quite a lot of food. There is a restaurant guide for the prefecture, and I'm going to make sure this restaurant is added for next year. They also have an English menu, which is rare. Strangely enough, they didn't give the menu to me my first time there, just my second. So my first time I did my whole random pointing bit, which is how I often choose what to eat, assuming it is not too expensive. I haven't gotten anything too weird yet, so it seems to be working.
Friday, August 30, 2002
The class schedule here is the most complex thing I have ever seen. They have two different schedules, one where the classes are 45 minutes, and another where the classes are 50 minutes. Apparently we're supposed to figure out which schedule we'll be on for that day. However, many days there are big exceptions to the schedule, so that doesn't really help that much. Some days they'll just not have certain classes, or one of the grades will be doing something different during that period. Also, they will frequently change the order of classes, so that when you think you are teaching english for second period, you actually discover that you are teaching at sixth period instead. It is terribly complex, to the point that it is ridiculous. I much prefer the same periods every day and specific classes always being at the same time. I can't really think of many good reasons why you'd want to do something like swap periods. Apparently they make announcements about the time changes, but they do it all in Japanese, so if no one tells me, I just get screwed. My supervisor showed me this complex grid board and told me I could just read the changes off of that if I memorize the kanji for all the different subjects. Then he started writing some of the different kanji on the board. As I started to copy down a couple, he erased them all! So I asked him if I could see English again, and he wrote it and then erased it again! I don't think he quite understood what I wanted, so I just gave up. Apparently ALTs at smaller junior high schools don't have as many class changes.
Note, if I didn't comment before, Horikawa Junior High is one of the five largest in Japan, with about 1200 students. So it is not just big, it is really big for Japan too.
On Wednesday I got more details about my job at the different elementary schools. Each school has its own curriculum advisor which came up with a plan for what I should do. Two schools are large, but the third is really tiny. One school has about 20 different classes, about 3-4 classes in each of the different grades 1-6. I'll be visiting the school 9 times during the year. So they want me to teach two classes every time I go. Keep in mind I am only going Friday afternoons, so there are only two periods each time. This basically means that at Horikawa Minami (South Horikawa) I will teach each class exactly once and not teach two of the classes. Not really much you can do with that, except have simple fun games to play with the different age groups. Most of them won't be able to speak English, and it is doubtful their teachers will either. My first lesson there is on Friday the 6th. I'll just be like the special guest fireman who comes to class once a year or something.
The other large school is Horikawa Elementary School (Shogakko). This school decided that the younger grades will not get any education in English. Instead only the 5th and 6th grades will get lessons. There are 3 classes in each grade. So I will divide up the two 45 minute periods into three 15-minute slots and I will teach everyone each time I go for 15 minutes. At least these people will be a little more exposed to me, since they will see me more than once. However, they may only see me once or twice a month.
The small school is called Sogawa Shogakko. It is really tiny. To give you an idea, there are only two classes I need to teach. One is a combined third/fourth grade class with 35 students, and the other is a combined fifth/sixth grade class with 30 students. I'll teach each class for one full 45 minute period. These students will obviously benefit more than the others and I'll have to have more of a curriculum for them. They gave me notes about what Pak has talked to them about so far also.
Note, if I didn't comment before, Horikawa Junior High is one of the five largest in Japan, with about 1200 students. So it is not just big, it is really big for Japan too.
On Wednesday I got more details about my job at the different elementary schools. Each school has its own curriculum advisor which came up with a plan for what I should do. Two schools are large, but the third is really tiny. One school has about 20 different classes, about 3-4 classes in each of the different grades 1-6. I'll be visiting the school 9 times during the year. So they want me to teach two classes every time I go. Keep in mind I am only going Friday afternoons, so there are only two periods each time. This basically means that at Horikawa Minami (South Horikawa) I will teach each class exactly once and not teach two of the classes. Not really much you can do with that, except have simple fun games to play with the different age groups. Most of them won't be able to speak English, and it is doubtful their teachers will either. My first lesson there is on Friday the 6th. I'll just be like the special guest fireman who comes to class once a year or something.
The other large school is Horikawa Elementary School (Shogakko). This school decided that the younger grades will not get any education in English. Instead only the 5th and 6th grades will get lessons. There are 3 classes in each grade. So I will divide up the two 45 minute periods into three 15-minute slots and I will teach everyone each time I go for 15 minutes. At least these people will be a little more exposed to me, since they will see me more than once. However, they may only see me once or twice a month.
The small school is called Sogawa Shogakko. It is really tiny. To give you an idea, there are only two classes I need to teach. One is a combined third/fourth grade class with 35 students, and the other is a combined fifth/sixth grade class with 30 students. I'll teach each class for one full 45 minute period. These students will obviously benefit more than the others and I'll have to have more of a curriculum for them. They gave me notes about what Pak has talked to them about so far also.
Thursday, August 29, 2002
One of the cool things about Japan is that it actually is safe enough here to have people deliver things at night. The postal service often delivers packages at night to residences, and that NHK guy comes by at night too. Sarah got a package from UPS at 9pm. I don't think you'd find this too often in the US. Plus the large post offices are open 24 hours! This is wonderfully convenient, I think. However, some things close really early, such as bank branches. The banks all close at 3:00 and are not open on weekends. Hopefully I will not have to go to the bank personally ever, because I do not know if I can make it there before 3. The atms outside will do many things for you, but they are only open until 7 or so, depending on the branch.
The one really cool thing in the banks is that they do not give you statements in the mail like at home. Instead there is a bank book with an integrated chip inside of it. It looks much like the place in your checkbook where you write down all your checks as you make them. You put the book in the machine and it updates it with all the transactions that have taken place since your last update. This is quite cool I think. Obviously online access is really convenient too, but I like the bank book instead of statements idea.
The one really cool thing in the banks is that they do not give you statements in the mail like at home. Instead there is a bank book with an integrated chip inside of it. It looks much like the place in your checkbook where you write down all your checks as you make them. You put the book in the machine and it updates it with all the transactions that have taken place since your last update. This is quite cool I think. Obviously online access is really convenient too, but I like the bank book instead of statements idea.
Last night a guy knocked on my door around 8pm, but I had no clue who he was. He just kept saying NHK and asking if Pak was around. Pak was my predecessor, so I figured he owed money for a bill or something. Finally he gave me an English handout which explained everything. In Japan, all tv owners must pay about $12 a month for their equivalent of public television. Some of the tv stations are funded partially through this fee. I don't really mind paying it, since I do watch some Japanese television shows, though mainly ones targeted at kids. I just wish the overall quality of Japanese television was better. I think even if I understood it, I would probably think it was crap. They really like randomness in their television. I was watching what seemed like the evening news, and then they kept having random clips of people falling down in embarassing ways. Then it was back to the news again.
Also, their game shows really confuse me. Most of them seem incredibly long and drawn out. For example, one of the game shows involved a group of 7 people watching a series of 10 minute stories about animals. Then after ten minutes of watching this clip (we were watching it too), they would guess what would happen next. If the contestants were right, they would get points. After 30 minutes, they had each only scored a couple points because the thing was really about these different animals. It was just strange I thought. I didn't watch the gripping conclusion. They also have "Who wants to be a 10 million yenaire" or whatever they call it in Japanese. 10 million yen is a little less than $100,000 however, so it is not for as much money as in the States.
Only occasionally are there Japanese cartoons on, which is a little disappointing as those are fun to watch. They like these long drawn out dramas like soap operas in the evenings. And there is tons of baseball. I don't really like baseball, but it is better than the weird game shows, so sometimes I watch it. The Japanese commercials are hilarious, because they are even more crazy and off the wall than American ones. For example, there was one for a clothing store that seemed to be just a bunch of big dogs talking. I don't know what they were saying, but I thought it was about dog food. Then at the end, all this women's clothing came onto the screen and the name of a department store. Go figure.
The kids shows are some of the best and strangest though. I saw Sesame Street once, and that was pretty normal, but recently I've been watching this weird one with this guy dressed as a superhero in spandex who goes around to schools and watches very excited and confused kids fall down and attempt to sing. Often these kids are dressed in bumblebee suits and accompanied by an older girl who dances around them picking them up and actually singing the words. It's quite entertaining, and they generally put the words they are singing on the screen in hirogana, so I can practice reading it.
I need to try to figure out what I want to watch and when it is on. That way I'll get my $12 worth.
Also, their game shows really confuse me. Most of them seem incredibly long and drawn out. For example, one of the game shows involved a group of 7 people watching a series of 10 minute stories about animals. Then after ten minutes of watching this clip (we were watching it too), they would guess what would happen next. If the contestants were right, they would get points. After 30 minutes, they had each only scored a couple points because the thing was really about these different animals. It was just strange I thought. I didn't watch the gripping conclusion. They also have "Who wants to be a 10 million yenaire" or whatever they call it in Japanese. 10 million yen is a little less than $100,000 however, so it is not for as much money as in the States.
Only occasionally are there Japanese cartoons on, which is a little disappointing as those are fun to watch. They like these long drawn out dramas like soap operas in the evenings. And there is tons of baseball. I don't really like baseball, but it is better than the weird game shows, so sometimes I watch it. The Japanese commercials are hilarious, because they are even more crazy and off the wall than American ones. For example, there was one for a clothing store that seemed to be just a bunch of big dogs talking. I don't know what they were saying, but I thought it was about dog food. Then at the end, all this women's clothing came onto the screen and the name of a department store. Go figure.
The kids shows are some of the best and strangest though. I saw Sesame Street once, and that was pretty normal, but recently I've been watching this weird one with this guy dressed as a superhero in spandex who goes around to schools and watches very excited and confused kids fall down and attempt to sing. Often these kids are dressed in bumblebee suits and accompanied by an older girl who dances around them picking them up and actually singing the words. It's quite entertaining, and they generally put the words they are singing on the screen in hirogana, so I can practice reading it.
I need to try to figure out what I want to watch and when it is on. That way I'll get my $12 worth.
Someone asked me to talk a little more about the kids I would be working with and my job. So I'll explain as best I can, though I haven't really started working with the kids yet, so I don't know how it will all work out. For the most part I teach junior high school kids (7th-9th grade) but I also teach at one of three elementary schools on Friday afternoons. At the elementary schools, I will mostly teach 4th-6th graders, but maybe some younger kids occassionally too. Each of the three different elementary schools has a different plan for how things should be.
Normally I will teach 2-4 classes a day at the junior high school. I will not be alone with the students though. Instead I will team teach with an English teacher. The theory is that we should plan lessons together and stuff, but I guess it does not work as well in practice since the teachers can be quite busy. My predecessor also told me that many times he would plan team teaching lessons and then the teachers would cancel them at the last minute. This does not seem like much fun to me. Apparently many teachers, especially the third year teachers are concerned about big important tests that the students have to take. So they are constantly worrying about the tests and making sure they are in the appropriate place in the textbook. I am involved in the English speaking and listening comprehension classes only, which the students have three times a week. The reading and writing classes are more frequent and at a different time. I think many students read and write much better than they speak. Currently it seems like they speak quite poorly. I have only met first and second year students so far, but most of their English is limited to "Hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you" sort of things. Many of the students are quite embarassed about English also, so that does not help. No doubt they will improve over time.
Unfortunately many of the teachers do not speak English very well at all either. This does not help things for the students, since at least one of the English teachers holds his English speaking and listening class in Japanese almost exclusively. What has surprised me is that the teachers do not seem too eager to practice their English or really improve that much. All the English department meeting are in Japanese, and they often don't even talk to me in English. Maybe they are just embarassed, but if you do not practice, you will not improve. I am trying to start a conversation group among the teachers for every two weeks or so. Maybe a book group would work well too. I will say that all the English teachers are very positive about my being here and are very kind to me. So this gives me hope that they are interested in improving their English.
Normally I will teach 2-4 classes a day at the junior high school. I will not be alone with the students though. Instead I will team teach with an English teacher. The theory is that we should plan lessons together and stuff, but I guess it does not work as well in practice since the teachers can be quite busy. My predecessor also told me that many times he would plan team teaching lessons and then the teachers would cancel them at the last minute. This does not seem like much fun to me. Apparently many teachers, especially the third year teachers are concerned about big important tests that the students have to take. So they are constantly worrying about the tests and making sure they are in the appropriate place in the textbook. I am involved in the English speaking and listening comprehension classes only, which the students have three times a week. The reading and writing classes are more frequent and at a different time. I think many students read and write much better than they speak. Currently it seems like they speak quite poorly. I have only met first and second year students so far, but most of their English is limited to "Hello, how are you? I am fine, thank you" sort of things. Many of the students are quite embarassed about English also, so that does not help. No doubt they will improve over time.
Unfortunately many of the teachers do not speak English very well at all either. This does not help things for the students, since at least one of the English teachers holds his English speaking and listening class in Japanese almost exclusively. What has surprised me is that the teachers do not seem too eager to practice their English or really improve that much. All the English department meeting are in Japanese, and they often don't even talk to me in English. Maybe they are just embarassed, but if you do not practice, you will not improve. I am trying to start a conversation group among the teachers for every two weeks or so. Maybe a book group would work well too. I will say that all the English teachers are very positive about my being here and are very kind to me. So this gives me hope that they are interested in improving their English.
I bought another bicycle yesterday. My bike is quite old and rusty, plus the brakes don't work very well and it makes horrible sounds. The other day I stumbled across a small bike shop/ car repair place which had some used bikes for sale. The bike I bought is a tiny bit smaller than my first bike, but it was only 6,300 yen ($50). The mechanic had rebuilt the bike, and most of the parts seem new or in great condition. The seat was too small, so the mechanic came out and replaced the pole on the seat with a longer one. It even came with a bike lock, bell, lamp, and police security number. I think it was a great deal.
My neighbor's bike has also been broken for 5 months. I think I wrote about getting her chain out of the gears before. The people were so friendly and helpful when I bought my bike that I dragged her and her broken bike down to the same store when I got home. I had to go pick up my original bike from outside the store too. Elita, my neighbor, is so lazy that the only way her bike would ever get fixed is if I forced her to take it and went with it. When we got there, the store was closed, but one of the people who helped me out was in a back room. She went outside and I flagged her down and we explained about the bike problem and she took it into the shop so they could repair it the next day. Hopefully they will be able to fix it easily, but I don't really know. It might end up being really expensive since she has a nice mountain bike with gears and everything. It might be a good idea to replace the chain on her bike too, because it is rusted really badly.
My neighbor's bike has also been broken for 5 months. I think I wrote about getting her chain out of the gears before. The people were so friendly and helpful when I bought my bike that I dragged her and her broken bike down to the same store when I got home. I had to go pick up my original bike from outside the store too. Elita, my neighbor, is so lazy that the only way her bike would ever get fixed is if I forced her to take it and went with it. When we got there, the store was closed, but one of the people who helped me out was in a back room. She went outside and I flagged her down and we explained about the bike problem and she took it into the shop so they could repair it the next day. Hopefully they will be able to fix it easily, but I don't really know. It might end up being really expensive since she has a nice mountain bike with gears and everything. It might be a good idea to replace the chain on her bike too, because it is rusted really badly.
I had my first angry parent conference. No doubt the parents will be knocking on my door from now on telling me what a sucky teacher I'll be. The guy's name was James Pocari. He's an American, but I guess he's been here 17 years now. He was surprisingly blunt and forceful in our meeting, which is not common in Japan. He also used a bunch of curse words when he got really angry, but in Japanese there really aren't many curse words at all. The Japanese are so polite in that way. The teacher in charge of the English club, him, and myself were the only ones there. He basically talked about how my two predecessors have done nothing in English club over the last two years. This means his daughter's time has been completely wasted. Apparently my predecessors really didn't want to spend the time doing the English club, so they just skipped out or put on a movie and left. Now it has become the read comics and talk in Japanese club.
He wanted to give me some ideas for activities to do, and hopefully encourage me to become more involved in the English club. He was also pretty darn insulting I thought. I think since I am an ALT, he passes on some of my predecessor's lack of responsibility to me. He told me about how many teachers in Japan hate the JETs and aren't happy we're here. Why would he tell me something like that except to be mean? He went on to say that my lack of experience as a teacher will probably doom me to doing a horrible job anyway. He wasn't exactly a sunshine and roses type of guy. Of course, I understand that he is bothered as a father about his daughter's activities and English development. I can't promise English club will be the paradise he described it as, but at least it will be fun and educational I hope.
He wanted to give me some ideas for activities to do, and hopefully encourage me to become more involved in the English club. He was also pretty darn insulting I thought. I think since I am an ALT, he passes on some of my predecessor's lack of responsibility to me. He told me about how many teachers in Japan hate the JETs and aren't happy we're here. Why would he tell me something like that except to be mean? He went on to say that my lack of experience as a teacher will probably doom me to doing a horrible job anyway. He wasn't exactly a sunshine and roses type of guy. Of course, I understand that he is bothered as a father about his daughter's activities and English development. I can't promise English club will be the paradise he described it as, but at least it will be fun and educational I hope.
Monday, August 26, 2002
This weekend was much more tame (most of it anyway) than my last week was. However, a group of us did leave town for the weekend. Some first years in Tonami decided to have a little shindig for other first years on the west side of Toyama prefecture. Tonami is about an hour by train from Toyama city. A girl from Oyama, which is actually on the east side of Toyama met the 4 of us (Marcus, Sarah, Victoria, and I) in Toyama, and she had our whole route planned out to Tonami. Unfortunately, she didn't notice one of the trains we were supposed to take was actually and express (it costs three times more), so we didn't get on our first train, thus messing up the next train too. We ended up in Tonami about two hours after our intended time. Oh well.
When we got there, everyone was eating at a yaki-tori place. Yaki-tori is basically meat cooked on a stick. It is similar to tiny shish-ka-bobs. Since we got there at 10:30pm, we actually had already eaten during our long train wait in Takaoka. We dropped our backpacks off at an ALT's house in Tonami. She had a huge apartment, with three separate rooms. Any one of her rooms was as big as my main room. When we came back to the center of town, everyone had moved on to a karaoke bar instead of the yaki-tori place. We had a lot of fun at the karaoke bar, but it closed at 1am, so we got kicked out. Then some of the people who were driving home left, and the rest of us moved on to another karaoke place, but this one had a bunch of private rooms. So we rented a room and started singing again. This time many people were much more drunk, so it really sounded horrible at many points. I was singing "Patience" by Guns and Roses and Susan, one of the hosts, was really drunk. She decided to sing with me, which was a lot more like shouting than singing. At one point she turned to me and asked if my mic was on since she couldn't hear me. It was really funny, but also pretty horrible. To make sure she couldn't ruin a song Victoria was going to sing, I had to hide the spare microphones and tell her I couldn't find a microphone to sing with, could I please borrow hers. Hey, it was a little deceitful, but it worked. After an hour of that, we went home around 3am. Being the most sober person, I ended up leading Jackie back to her own apartment. Good thing I have a good sense of direction, since I had only been there once. Jackie only figured it out once I got her pretty close to her apartment. Everyone kind of collapsed on the floor for the night.
Saturday morning we woke up really late (actually really early first since Sarah's cell phone alarm kept going off) and were pretty much bums for most of the morning. Around 2pm we got dropped off by Susan at the Apita, a big grocery store/ shopping mall area. There we ate some food and waited for our ride to Toga Village to show up. Laura D. agreed to take us to Toga if we paid for the gas in her car, so that sounded better than the 2400 yen each for the round trip journey by bus. She picked us up about 4 and we went to Toga. Toga is a tiny village of 950 in the mountains. It is about the smallest town in Toyama Prefecture, but they have this big drama festival for two weeks where they do many different plays in Japanese with lots of different actors. There is a JET in Toga, a CIR (think cultural assistant instead of a teacher) named Daniel. He has a huge house which is oddly shaped, but big enough to fit many people. He was able to get many free tickets to the last night of the Toga festival for many JETs, ourselves included.
We made it to Toga in about an hour, and beat the other 25 JETs who were supposed to come also. Many of them were late, and some missed the performance entirely. The performance was about the history of Japan, I think. It was all in Japanese, so I didn't understand much. It had a bunch of guys in wheelchairs though who were pretty funny. Also, they had guys wearing gray makeup and gray traditional clothes that were there. They also dressed up in other things sometimes too. The two most impressive things were the way they overdid many of their expressions and lines. It was similar to silent film in that regard (though not the lines part obviously). Oops, the second impressive thing was the fireworks display. They used fireworks throughout the play and it was very gorgeous. That night about 13 of us stayed at Daniel's place. I think he gets a little lonely being up there, so he enjoyed the company.
The next day we went to a fishing festival in Toga (good timing, huh?) where they dump lots of little fish in the river and people catch them with their bare hands. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to catch a couple which I gave away to the tons of little kids all swarming around us, since we were the only non-Japanese there. Sarah was hilarious because she really wanted to catch a fish but was petrified about touching one. It made for some hilarious shrieking and fish mayhem. Most of the caught fish faced a gruesome death at the end of a sharp stick, but Victoria's fish, Gilbert, was lucky. She spared him and let him out downstream.
After the festival, we went to a meditation center, and basically bummed around for another two hours. They had some large mandala paintings which were interesting at the center. Then we were going to go home and Daniel gave us faulty directions, so we got totally lost and ended up on a tiny mountain road with a cliff next to us. We had to keep driving over waterfalls too. Luckily we ran into a guy who was really nice and not just gave us directions, but drove us all the way back to Toga and put us on the correct road. However, the drive was really scary and we were not anxious to repeat it. We didn't have much choice though. There was a lot of fear in the car, but we were fine. I wasn't too worried, except that Laura was from Texas and was not used to mountain roads at all. The drive took almost three hours because of our detour.
So that was my exciting and relaxing and scary and strange weekend.
When we got there, everyone was eating at a yaki-tori place. Yaki-tori is basically meat cooked on a stick. It is similar to tiny shish-ka-bobs. Since we got there at 10:30pm, we actually had already eaten during our long train wait in Takaoka. We dropped our backpacks off at an ALT's house in Tonami. She had a huge apartment, with three separate rooms. Any one of her rooms was as big as my main room. When we came back to the center of town, everyone had moved on to a karaoke bar instead of the yaki-tori place. We had a lot of fun at the karaoke bar, but it closed at 1am, so we got kicked out. Then some of the people who were driving home left, and the rest of us moved on to another karaoke place, but this one had a bunch of private rooms. So we rented a room and started singing again. This time many people were much more drunk, so it really sounded horrible at many points. I was singing "Patience" by Guns and Roses and Susan, one of the hosts, was really drunk. She decided to sing with me, which was a lot more like shouting than singing. At one point she turned to me and asked if my mic was on since she couldn't hear me. It was really funny, but also pretty horrible. To make sure she couldn't ruin a song Victoria was going to sing, I had to hide the spare microphones and tell her I couldn't find a microphone to sing with, could I please borrow hers. Hey, it was a little deceitful, but it worked. After an hour of that, we went home around 3am. Being the most sober person, I ended up leading Jackie back to her own apartment. Good thing I have a good sense of direction, since I had only been there once. Jackie only figured it out once I got her pretty close to her apartment. Everyone kind of collapsed on the floor for the night.
Saturday morning we woke up really late (actually really early first since Sarah's cell phone alarm kept going off) and were pretty much bums for most of the morning. Around 2pm we got dropped off by Susan at the Apita, a big grocery store/ shopping mall area. There we ate some food and waited for our ride to Toga Village to show up. Laura D. agreed to take us to Toga if we paid for the gas in her car, so that sounded better than the 2400 yen each for the round trip journey by bus. She picked us up about 4 and we went to Toga. Toga is a tiny village of 950 in the mountains. It is about the smallest town in Toyama Prefecture, but they have this big drama festival for two weeks where they do many different plays in Japanese with lots of different actors. There is a JET in Toga, a CIR (think cultural assistant instead of a teacher) named Daniel. He has a huge house which is oddly shaped, but big enough to fit many people. He was able to get many free tickets to the last night of the Toga festival for many JETs, ourselves included.
We made it to Toga in about an hour, and beat the other 25 JETs who were supposed to come also. Many of them were late, and some missed the performance entirely. The performance was about the history of Japan, I think. It was all in Japanese, so I didn't understand much. It had a bunch of guys in wheelchairs though who were pretty funny. Also, they had guys wearing gray makeup and gray traditional clothes that were there. They also dressed up in other things sometimes too. The two most impressive things were the way they overdid many of their expressions and lines. It was similar to silent film in that regard (though not the lines part obviously). Oops, the second impressive thing was the fireworks display. They used fireworks throughout the play and it was very gorgeous. That night about 13 of us stayed at Daniel's place. I think he gets a little lonely being up there, so he enjoyed the company.
The next day we went to a fishing festival in Toga (good timing, huh?) where they dump lots of little fish in the river and people catch them with their bare hands. It was a lot of fun, and I managed to catch a couple which I gave away to the tons of little kids all swarming around us, since we were the only non-Japanese there. Sarah was hilarious because she really wanted to catch a fish but was petrified about touching one. It made for some hilarious shrieking and fish mayhem. Most of the caught fish faced a gruesome death at the end of a sharp stick, but Victoria's fish, Gilbert, was lucky. She spared him and let him out downstream.
After the festival, we went to a meditation center, and basically bummed around for another two hours. They had some large mandala paintings which were interesting at the center. Then we were going to go home and Daniel gave us faulty directions, so we got totally lost and ended up on a tiny mountain road with a cliff next to us. We had to keep driving over waterfalls too. Luckily we ran into a guy who was really nice and not just gave us directions, but drove us all the way back to Toga and put us on the correct road. However, the drive was really scary and we were not anxious to repeat it. We didn't have much choice though. There was a lot of fear in the car, but we were fine. I wasn't too worried, except that Laura was from Texas and was not used to mountain roads at all. The drive took almost three hours because of our detour.
So that was my exciting and relaxing and scary and strange weekend.
Friday, August 23, 2002
I was sad on Wednesday to hear about layoffs at my old company, HAHT Commerce. I remember how bad the layoffs were last year, so I am sure they were equally horrible this year. But hey, look on the bright side, now those of you who were laid off have more time to read about Japan! If nothing else, the layoffs have confirmed that I made the right decision in leaving the company. I don't know that I would still have my job otherwise.
This week was slightly more sane than last Saturday. On Monday I went to work for awhile and then hung out with some other JETs and studied a little Japanese. Tuesday all day and Wednesday afternoon were orientation days for the prefecture. The first day was rather boring. It involved lots of speeches and introductions from people that I had already met. I think most of the JETs had too. Then in the afternoon we split into groups based upon our type of school. The people in charge of teaching the junior high school group were incredibly boring. They were second year JETs and they put me right to sleep. It was one of the most boring things I have ever sat through. One of the other new JETs talked to me later and pointed out that for a class about teaching, it was horribly taught. The next lesson was really awesome though and had a second year who knew Japanese working with one of her teachers to demonstrate team teaching. They taught us a Japanese lesson so we would see how they worked together and how a regular class might work. That seminar was fun and exciting. Then our final seminar was back with the boring people again.
Wednesday I had some time in the day, so I went to Sarah's place at Sunshine and she cut my hair. She had only cut women's hair before, so I was a little concerned, but I think she did a good job. At least I didn't have to pay the 30-40 dollars for a haircut in Toyama. She was pretty slow, so she only finished the back before we had to go. I think it looked a little funny, much like a bowl cut.
We stopped off at the city hall to pick up our foreigner cards on the way to the orientation. Having this card is nice because you can't get some things like a cell phone (keitai) until you have it, unless you are really lucky like me. The seminar in the afternoon only lasted 2.5 hours, and it wasn't as boring as the first. It was about daily life more than anything else. Afterwards we went to the library and got library cards. I want to get some children's books to practice simple characters. That evening we went to the internet cafe and then Sarah finished cutting my hair that night.
Yesterday was the best day of the orientation though. We went to Mt. Tateyama, which is the second highest mountain in Japan. Mt. Fuji is 3786 meters high, but Mt. Tate is only 3015 meters high at its highest point. We parked at Murodo, which is an area with two reflective lakes, an onsen (mineral water spa), sulfur fields, and access to Mt. Tate. This meant that people could do different things if they wanted to. We had only 3 hours, so the slow climbers had trouble making it. We had to pay to get our bus into the national park. The cost for the bus was $500! It was paid for, but cars have to pay around $100 each. That seems so expensive to me. I think it is close to $20 if you take the public bus there.
I started climbing very quickly. We started at around 2300m, so we didn't have to go up too much. The climb was more difficult than Mt. Fuji towards the end, because it was more climbing up boulders than just a regular path. I was the 4th person up to the top, and I did it in about 50 minutes, which was probably the fastest time up. I hung out on top and took lots of pictures, but I am still having a hard time FTPing them, so they aren't on the weblog yet. Sorry.
On top of the mountain you could see really clearly, because the clouds parted. The view was incredible actually, because Mt. Tate is surrounded by other mountains and rivers. There was still snow on many of the mountains, but this was not the case on Mt. Fuji, which I found strange. I went down the mountain quickly in hopes of going to the onsen also. I arrived at the bottom around 2:10, but then I was given faulty directions to the onsen, so it was nearly 2:30 before I figured out where it was. At that point I decided not to do it, but I am sure I will get another chance later. We didn't leave until 4 though because some people were slow coming down from the top.
Then we drove home and I basically collapsed in a heap because I was so tired. Today at work I found out that one of the teachers was climbing the mountain also, but I didn't see him. He wasn't sure it was me because of my haircut. He also told me he ran into another one of the teachers there also. I think it is popular to climb only in the summer since there is less snow.
So now I have climbed two of the three holy mountains in Japan, and I have only been here two weeks! I rock.
Wednesday I had some time in the day, so I went to Sarah's place at Sunshine and she cut my hair. She had only cut women's hair before, so I was a little concerned, but I think she did a good job. At least I didn't have to pay the 30-40 dollars for a haircut in Toyama. She was pretty slow, so she only finished the back before we had to go. I think it looked a little funny, much like a bowl cut.
We stopped off at the city hall to pick up our foreigner cards on the way to the orientation. Having this card is nice because you can't get some things like a cell phone (keitai) until you have it, unless you are really lucky like me. The seminar in the afternoon only lasted 2.5 hours, and it wasn't as boring as the first. It was about daily life more than anything else. Afterwards we went to the library and got library cards. I want to get some children's books to practice simple characters. That evening we went to the internet cafe and then Sarah finished cutting my hair that night.
Yesterday was the best day of the orientation though. We went to Mt. Tateyama, which is the second highest mountain in Japan. Mt. Fuji is 3786 meters high, but Mt. Tate is only 3015 meters high at its highest point. We parked at Murodo, which is an area with two reflective lakes, an onsen (mineral water spa), sulfur fields, and access to Mt. Tate. This meant that people could do different things if they wanted to. We had only 3 hours, so the slow climbers had trouble making it. We had to pay to get our bus into the national park. The cost for the bus was $500! It was paid for, but cars have to pay around $100 each. That seems so expensive to me. I think it is close to $20 if you take the public bus there.
I started climbing very quickly. We started at around 2300m, so we didn't have to go up too much. The climb was more difficult than Mt. Fuji towards the end, because it was more climbing up boulders than just a regular path. I was the 4th person up to the top, and I did it in about 50 minutes, which was probably the fastest time up. I hung out on top and took lots of pictures, but I am still having a hard time FTPing them, so they aren't on the weblog yet. Sorry.
On top of the mountain you could see really clearly, because the clouds parted. The view was incredible actually, because Mt. Tate is surrounded by other mountains and rivers. There was still snow on many of the mountains, but this was not the case on Mt. Fuji, which I found strange. I went down the mountain quickly in hopes of going to the onsen also. I arrived at the bottom around 2:10, but then I was given faulty directions to the onsen, so it was nearly 2:30 before I figured out where it was. At that point I decided not to do it, but I am sure I will get another chance later. We didn't leave until 4 though because some people were slow coming down from the top.
Then we drove home and I basically collapsed in a heap because I was so tired. Today at work I found out that one of the teachers was climbing the mountain also, but I didn't see him. He wasn't sure it was me because of my haircut. He also told me he ran into another one of the teachers there also. I think it is popular to climb only in the summer since there is less snow.
So now I have climbed two of the three holy mountains in Japan, and I have only been here two weeks! I rock.
Monday, August 19, 2002
Mt. Fuji was totally nuts this weekend. As we were climbing the mountain, a typhoon (think hurricane) swept over us, soaking everyone and nearly giving several people hypothermia. Only four of us made it to the top. Everyone else was forced back by rangers.
To start with, the trip was supposed to start at 9 on Saturday morning. Instead, one guy oversleeps and makes the other 29 of us wait for him. Most of us wanted to leave him when we found out he was so late, but our leader wanted to wait for everyone. We called him around 9:20 and woke him up, but he didn't make it to Toyama City until 10:30. We rented three mini-van like things. They fit 10 people each, and were very skinny and very tall. I could practically stand up in them! Each van had two drivers, who were all first year drivers thanks to changes in the Japanese driving laws recently, and one navigator. The navigators were all second year JETs, but none of them had been to Mt. Fuji the year before. Unfortunately, none of them possessed a good sense of direction either. We started out in front, with Tristan (US) driving and Becky (Scottish) navigating. We unfortunately turned the wrong way out of the rental place and headed the wrong direction. After awhile, we got a cell phone call from another van saying we were going the wrong way. So then we got demoted to following the other vans. The road there wasn't too bad, though it did contain tons of tunnels. Toyama is surrounded by mountains, so we took expressways to the east, and then south to Mt. Fuji. We must have passed through nearly 100 tunnels on the way there. I kid you not.
The expressways are also all toll in Japan, and pretty expensive. Going a long way on the expressways is cheaper than going a shorter distance, on a yen per km basis. The whole trip to Mt. Fuji costs about 8500 yen (78 dollars) per van. If you were driving by yourself, that would be quite expensive. On the way there, we missed one of the turnoffs we were supposed to take, and then had to go another 10 km down the road before we could turn around and go back. Unfortunately, this 10km was in really slow traffic, so the whole detour took nearly 1.5 hours! We finally arrived at the city near Mt. Fuji around 7pm, and grabbed some fast food for dinner. Then we drove around looking for where to park for Mt. Fuji. The lead van seemed pretty clueless, but then we finally called them up and suggested following all the signs that pointed at Mt. Fuji (which were in English). It was a radical suggestion, but it worked. Most people start climbing from the 5th station, which is around 2300 meters up. The top is around 3770 meters high. We couldn't park at the 5th station because it was too late at night. Instead we parked nearby and took a bus to the 5th station. The parking lot was very full at Mt. Fuji.
We actually had a bit of luck in getting to the parking lot. Tristan was driving again in our van, and leading the way. We told him to take a left at an intersection, and he started taking a wide left, into a bunch of cars waiting at the stoplight. All the Brits started screaming "Nooo," so he swerved back to going straight through the intersection. Turns out we were supposed to go straight anyway. Luckily, he didn't make this mistake into moving traffic ever. Though he did nearly get hit when he was making a right turn and someone ran a red light.
There is a very limited time when you are able to climb Mt. Fuji without it being really cold and covered in snow. It is pretty much July-August that this is possible. This means lots of Japanese people climb it during this time also, not just tourists. Also, for reasons I don't understand, it is traditional to climb it all night long and see the sun rise from the top. The sun rise is supposed to be very beautiful from Mt. Fuji since it is so high up.
We got dropped off at the 5th station, which is a bunch of tourist shops and some bathrooms, etc. Then we started up to the top as a big group. Our basic plan was to buddy up more or less and then try to stay somewhere in the group. This worked in getting up to the 6th or 7th station, but at that point the path upward becomes quite narrow and very densely packed. Starting at around the 7th station, there are a series of huts, which are like small stores where you can eat or rest for awhile. They are all very expensive though. The higher you go, the more expensive they are also. Most of them have pit toilets and electric generators.
Sarah and I ended up being buddies and climbing up. We moved pretty quickly and found ourselves at the front of the group when arriving at huts. There were many Japanese tours ahead of us, but most of them moved in single file lines, so we could skirt them when the trail was wider. Once we got to the last hut, which was above the old 8th station, it looked like there was nothing else above but a weather tower. This did not sound promising to us, since the weather had quickly gotten worse. It was pouring rain, and very, very windy. I only had on my shorts, waterproofs pants, t-shirt, and waterproof jacket. Luckily the waterproof items were also very warm, but they were starting to soak through after awhile. There wasn't any good place to change clothes though. We found ourselves with two Americans, Jason and Eric, who weren't JETs. They were waiting at the hut for their friends, but decided to go on up with us. We had about 400 meters higher to climb, and the going was slow because oxygen was scarce and there were many Japanese people in front of us. This part of the climb was really demoralizing because we kept climbing and it never seemed to end. We couldn't see anything in front of us except darkness and other flashlights. Normally when climbing you could see huts above you, but we had passed the last one.
Eventually we did make it to the top (around 3:00) and discovered another hut up there, but it was closed at the time. There were a bunch of people standing around, and some vending machines. We got hot tea out of the vending machines just to hold and sip. It was our only source of warmth at the time. We huddled next to a large group of people crowding around the hut. The hut opened its doors around 3:10 and everyone crowded in. There were a couple coal fires around the room, and we huddled near one. Many people ordered noodles to eat, but I wasn't feeling too well. I just munched on crackers and cookies and drank tea. The room was packed full of people, but then no one else seemed to be showing up outside, so we didn't know what was going on. Sarah, Jason, Eric, and I found another JET up at the top, Aida. She was standing outside the hut and shivering horribly. It think she was getting close to being hypothermic, so we gave her some tea when we found her. We had climbed with her earlier, but had gotten separated at a trail fork, and she had gone on with two other girls. These girls turned back while climbing to the summit, leaving Aida all alone. She seemed really happy to see us. The five of us sat around the fire for a long time, waiting for the sun to come up. Around 4:45, the sun started rising, and I felt really bad. I realized I had to throw up, so I went outside and did that. It wasn't much fun, and it caused me to be even more dehydrated than I already was. I think I had altitude sickness.
The sunrise only lasted a couple minutes, then the clouds came back and covered everything up. I changed clothes since I was cold, though most of my spare layers were also soaking wet. I didn't think it would rain much, so I hadn't packed much in plastic, except t.p. and my camera. We waited another hour and a half for me to warm up and eat some more food slowly. Then we headed down. We weren't quite at the summit, which is a giant crater, but we were right next to it. There was no way I was going to make it there. We also discovered that Michelle, another JET was next door in another room of the top hut. She arrived before everyone else and had snuck in quietly, I guess. So only four of us out of 30 made it to the top.
We started down the mountain, and I started to feel much better as I moved and dropped in altitude. The trip down took a lot less time, and we ended up at the bottom after about 2 and a half hours. When we got there, there were only 4 or 5 people there though, so we were pretty confused. Those people didn't know if they were supposed to go back to the vans, or wait for everyone at the 5th station. There wasn't really much of a plan for what happens when people got split up. Eventually we went back to the vans and the rest of the people were waiting for us. After changing clothes, we started back around 11:30.
When we talked to the other people, that's when we found out everyone had been turned away at the old 8th station starting about 10 minutes after we went through there. The typhoon was making things too dangerous on the way to the top, so no one could pass. Most of the JETs headed back down after eating ramen for several hours. There were about 4 of them that were hypothermic and spent the night in a hotel/hut near the 8th station instead.
Tristan started driving on the way back, and was supposed to lead everyone back again. This time he knew where to go, but our navigator started leading him the wrong way several times. Then another van took over and proceeded to drive us around the city near Mt. Fuji for over an hour looking for the expressway. It was about two turns from our original location, and I knew how to get there. However, we couldn't find our way back after getting lost for so long. We finally made it to the expressway after an hour and a half of being lost. The drive home was uneventful, except when we got to Toyama, the driver turned away from Toyama, yet kept insisting he was going towards the city. They dropped me off near my flat since I was on the way back to the rental place. Then I pretty much collapsed in a big heap at my apartment. Sounds fun, huh?
To start with, the trip was supposed to start at 9 on Saturday morning. Instead, one guy oversleeps and makes the other 29 of us wait for him. Most of us wanted to leave him when we found out he was so late, but our leader wanted to wait for everyone. We called him around 9:20 and woke him up, but he didn't make it to Toyama City until 10:30. We rented three mini-van like things. They fit 10 people each, and were very skinny and very tall. I could practically stand up in them! Each van had two drivers, who were all first year drivers thanks to changes in the Japanese driving laws recently, and one navigator. The navigators were all second year JETs, but none of them had been to Mt. Fuji the year before. Unfortunately, none of them possessed a good sense of direction either. We started out in front, with Tristan (US) driving and Becky (Scottish) navigating. We unfortunately turned the wrong way out of the rental place and headed the wrong direction. After awhile, we got a cell phone call from another van saying we were going the wrong way. So then we got demoted to following the other vans. The road there wasn't too bad, though it did contain tons of tunnels. Toyama is surrounded by mountains, so we took expressways to the east, and then south to Mt. Fuji. We must have passed through nearly 100 tunnels on the way there. I kid you not.
The expressways are also all toll in Japan, and pretty expensive. Going a long way on the expressways is cheaper than going a shorter distance, on a yen per km basis. The whole trip to Mt. Fuji costs about 8500 yen (78 dollars) per van. If you were driving by yourself, that would be quite expensive. On the way there, we missed one of the turnoffs we were supposed to take, and then had to go another 10 km down the road before we could turn around and go back. Unfortunately, this 10km was in really slow traffic, so the whole detour took nearly 1.5 hours! We finally arrived at the city near Mt. Fuji around 7pm, and grabbed some fast food for dinner. Then we drove around looking for where to park for Mt. Fuji. The lead van seemed pretty clueless, but then we finally called them up and suggested following all the signs that pointed at Mt. Fuji (which were in English). It was a radical suggestion, but it worked. Most people start climbing from the 5th station, which is around 2300 meters up. The top is around 3770 meters high. We couldn't park at the 5th station because it was too late at night. Instead we parked nearby and took a bus to the 5th station. The parking lot was very full at Mt. Fuji.
We actually had a bit of luck in getting to the parking lot. Tristan was driving again in our van, and leading the way. We told him to take a left at an intersection, and he started taking a wide left, into a bunch of cars waiting at the stoplight. All the Brits started screaming "Nooo," so he swerved back to going straight through the intersection. Turns out we were supposed to go straight anyway. Luckily, he didn't make this mistake into moving traffic ever. Though he did nearly get hit when he was making a right turn and someone ran a red light.
There is a very limited time when you are able to climb Mt. Fuji without it being really cold and covered in snow. It is pretty much July-August that this is possible. This means lots of Japanese people climb it during this time also, not just tourists. Also, for reasons I don't understand, it is traditional to climb it all night long and see the sun rise from the top. The sun rise is supposed to be very beautiful from Mt. Fuji since it is so high up.
We got dropped off at the 5th station, which is a bunch of tourist shops and some bathrooms, etc. Then we started up to the top as a big group. Our basic plan was to buddy up more or less and then try to stay somewhere in the group. This worked in getting up to the 6th or 7th station, but at that point the path upward becomes quite narrow and very densely packed. Starting at around the 7th station, there are a series of huts, which are like small stores where you can eat or rest for awhile. They are all very expensive though. The higher you go, the more expensive they are also. Most of them have pit toilets and electric generators.
Sarah and I ended up being buddies and climbing up. We moved pretty quickly and found ourselves at the front of the group when arriving at huts. There were many Japanese tours ahead of us, but most of them moved in single file lines, so we could skirt them when the trail was wider. Once we got to the last hut, which was above the old 8th station, it looked like there was nothing else above but a weather tower. This did not sound promising to us, since the weather had quickly gotten worse. It was pouring rain, and very, very windy. I only had on my shorts, waterproofs pants, t-shirt, and waterproof jacket. Luckily the waterproof items were also very warm, but they were starting to soak through after awhile. There wasn't any good place to change clothes though. We found ourselves with two Americans, Jason and Eric, who weren't JETs. They were waiting at the hut for their friends, but decided to go on up with us. We had about 400 meters higher to climb, and the going was slow because oxygen was scarce and there were many Japanese people in front of us. This part of the climb was really demoralizing because we kept climbing and it never seemed to end. We couldn't see anything in front of us except darkness and other flashlights. Normally when climbing you could see huts above you, but we had passed the last one.
Eventually we did make it to the top (around 3:00) and discovered another hut up there, but it was closed at the time. There were a bunch of people standing around, and some vending machines. We got hot tea out of the vending machines just to hold and sip. It was our only source of warmth at the time. We huddled next to a large group of people crowding around the hut. The hut opened its doors around 3:10 and everyone crowded in. There were a couple coal fires around the room, and we huddled near one. Many people ordered noodles to eat, but I wasn't feeling too well. I just munched on crackers and cookies and drank tea. The room was packed full of people, but then no one else seemed to be showing up outside, so we didn't know what was going on. Sarah, Jason, Eric, and I found another JET up at the top, Aida. She was standing outside the hut and shivering horribly. It think she was getting close to being hypothermic, so we gave her some tea when we found her. We had climbed with her earlier, but had gotten separated at a trail fork, and she had gone on with two other girls. These girls turned back while climbing to the summit, leaving Aida all alone. She seemed really happy to see us. The five of us sat around the fire for a long time, waiting for the sun to come up. Around 4:45, the sun started rising, and I felt really bad. I realized I had to throw up, so I went outside and did that. It wasn't much fun, and it caused me to be even more dehydrated than I already was. I think I had altitude sickness.
The sunrise only lasted a couple minutes, then the clouds came back and covered everything up. I changed clothes since I was cold, though most of my spare layers were also soaking wet. I didn't think it would rain much, so I hadn't packed much in plastic, except t.p. and my camera. We waited another hour and a half for me to warm up and eat some more food slowly. Then we headed down. We weren't quite at the summit, which is a giant crater, but we were right next to it. There was no way I was going to make it there. We also discovered that Michelle, another JET was next door in another room of the top hut. She arrived before everyone else and had snuck in quietly, I guess. So only four of us out of 30 made it to the top.
We started down the mountain, and I started to feel much better as I moved and dropped in altitude. The trip down took a lot less time, and we ended up at the bottom after about 2 and a half hours. When we got there, there were only 4 or 5 people there though, so we were pretty confused. Those people didn't know if they were supposed to go back to the vans, or wait for everyone at the 5th station. There wasn't really much of a plan for what happens when people got split up. Eventually we went back to the vans and the rest of the people were waiting for us. After changing clothes, we started back around 11:30.
When we talked to the other people, that's when we found out everyone had been turned away at the old 8th station starting about 10 minutes after we went through there. The typhoon was making things too dangerous on the way to the top, so no one could pass. Most of the JETs headed back down after eating ramen for several hours. There were about 4 of them that were hypothermic and spent the night in a hotel/hut near the 8th station instead.
Tristan started driving on the way back, and was supposed to lead everyone back again. This time he knew where to go, but our navigator started leading him the wrong way several times. Then another van took over and proceeded to drive us around the city near Mt. Fuji for over an hour looking for the expressway. It was about two turns from our original location, and I knew how to get there. However, we couldn't find our way back after getting lost for so long. We finally made it to the expressway after an hour and a half of being lost. The drive home was uneventful, except when we got to Toyama, the driver turned away from Toyama, yet kept insisting he was going towards the city. They dropped me off near my flat since I was on the way back to the rental place. Then I pretty much collapsed in a big heap at my apartment. Sounds fun, huh?
Friday, August 16, 2002
Garbage is pretty insane here in Toyama City. We have to divide our garbage into different piles. There's burnable, non-burnable, plastic wrappers and containers, cardboard boxes, paper boxes, newspaper, cans, glass bottles, plastic bottles. Certain things should be returned to the store you got them at, like styrofoam trays for food. Then there is a schedule for when they pick up everything. Burnable is twice a week, and most other things are sometime every two weeks, depending on the item. It is really confusing, and I don't think I am doing it quite right yet. I discovered that I am in a different area than my school told me I am, so I was reading the wrong schedule. i am in Hoshii-cho, but they told me I was in Horikawa, which it turns out is the next block over. I figured it out when I realized the garbage was getting picked up at a different time than I expected it to. I asked my neighbor, this really friendly old man about it and he explained in Janglish that I was in Hoshii-cho. Doh! Now I need to redo the garbage calendar I wrote out for myself and my neighbor.
So my neighbor Elita has a bike, but it was totally messed up when I arrived. The chain had slipped off the gears attached to the wheel and gotten wedged horribly in the gears. We took it to the neighborhood bike shop, and he said "no hope." So I got some tools and basically chiseled the chain out of the gears, which took a lot of effort and some improvising. Then our neighbor showed up with some nicer tools and oiled the chain and gears, and we put the bike back together again. Unfortunately this did not fix the bike entirely. The gear shifter is somehow damaged, so the bike is messed up still. However, now the bike rolls on its own, which is an improvement. Before, the chain was preventing the back wheel from moving, so we had to carry it to the bike store. Now, Elita can push her bike downtown to the big repair store to see if the bike can be fixed there. So at least it wasn't all for nothing. My bike is quite old, and I have considered buying a new or used bike too. I found a new one for 12800 yen (110 dollars), but I will check the used bike store first.
So my neighbor Elita has a bike, but it was totally messed up when I arrived. The chain had slipped off the gears attached to the wheel and gotten wedged horribly in the gears. We took it to the neighborhood bike shop, and he said "no hope." So I got some tools and basically chiseled the chain out of the gears, which took a lot of effort and some improvising. Then our neighbor showed up with some nicer tools and oiled the chain and gears, and we put the bike back together again. Unfortunately this did not fix the bike entirely. The gear shifter is somehow damaged, so the bike is messed up still. However, now the bike rolls on its own, which is an improvement. Before, the chain was preventing the back wheel from moving, so we had to carry it to the bike store. Now, Elita can push her bike downtown to the big repair store to see if the bike can be fixed there. So at least it wasn't all for nothing. My bike is quite old, and I have considered buying a new or used bike too. I found a new one for 12800 yen (110 dollars), but I will check the used bike store first.
Last week a student told me I looked like Tom Cruise. I thought that was a little weird. Of course, once I was told I looked like Reggie Miller, which was perhaps even stranger. Though I think in many ways I do look more like Reggie Miller than Tom Cruise. Apparently my brother Paul was told he looks like Matt Damon. At least he has the right color hair.
I've tried uploading some pictures to my website and linking them here, but I'm having a little difficulty. I should be able to do it soon. If nothing else, I can hunt down the internet cafe and try to upload a bunch there. That might be the best option.
This week was O-bon, a religious festival where the ancestral spirits of the family return, stay a day, and then leave. Many people travel home to be with their families during this time. It is also a time where the school becomes deserted. I think about 3 teachers and a kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) have been here each day this week. Most of the school clubs have been canceled this week too. Thankfully, the band was canceled today, so no Star Wars theme song. Yay!
I didn't go to an O-bon public ceremony, but I did run into a family with torches waving them over the water while standing on a bridge. They were chanting something. Apparently they were calling their ancestors to come home. It was pretty neat, though I felt a little weird cycling past them on the bridge. I was worried I'd hit my bike bell or something and ruin the moment. I'm not terribly good on my bike either, so I was worried I would accidently run into one of them. Thankfully nothing happened.
Next weekend I am going to Toga Village for an outdoor drama with fireworks and stuff. It is supposed to be pretty cool. Toga is up in the mountains, so it should be cooler there. We got free tickets because we are foreigners. Pretty neat, huh? Apparently this is a world drama festival, or at least that is what they call it. The CIR (JET program participant that doesn't teach, but instead organizes international stuff) in Toga told me about it, and offered me some free tickets and a place to stay. So a group of 4 or 5 of us will venture up into the hills. It should be fun. I've actually got a mountain theme to my next week. We are going to Mt Fuji tomorrow, Mt Tateyama on Thursday, and then Toga village on Saturday. Lots of mountains!
This week was O-bon, a religious festival where the ancestral spirits of the family return, stay a day, and then leave. Many people travel home to be with their families during this time. It is also a time where the school becomes deserted. I think about 3 teachers and a kyoto-sensei (vice-principal) have been here each day this week. Most of the school clubs have been canceled this week too. Thankfully, the band was canceled today, so no Star Wars theme song. Yay!
I didn't go to an O-bon public ceremony, but I did run into a family with torches waving them over the water while standing on a bridge. They were chanting something. Apparently they were calling their ancestors to come home. It was pretty neat, though I felt a little weird cycling past them on the bridge. I was worried I'd hit my bike bell or something and ruin the moment. I'm not terribly good on my bike either, so I was worried I would accidently run into one of them. Thankfully nothing happened.
Next weekend I am going to Toga Village for an outdoor drama with fireworks and stuff. It is supposed to be pretty cool. Toga is up in the mountains, so it should be cooler there. We got free tickets because we are foreigners. Pretty neat, huh? Apparently this is a world drama festival, or at least that is what they call it. The CIR (JET program participant that doesn't teach, but instead organizes international stuff) in Toga told me about it, and offered me some free tickets and a place to stay. So a group of 4 or 5 of us will venture up into the hills. It should be fun. I've actually got a mountain theme to my next week. We are going to Mt Fuji tomorrow, Mt Tateyama on Thursday, and then Toga village on Saturday. Lots of mountains!
Wednesday, August 14, 2002
Sorry all this is in one big message, but I have been very busy and have little time to get adjusted and ready. On August 1 my family drove up to Washington D.C. for the JET program orientation. My whole family went since Paul is in the JET program also, even though he is in another prefecture. There was a pre-departure orientation where we learned some information about our time in Japan, and picked up our passports and plane tickets for the next day. After the orientation (around 6pm) there was a reception, which my family came to. It was pretty crowded and there wasn't much food available, so we went to a really noisy Italian restaurant for dinner afterwards.
The next day I left on one flight and Paul left on another. I was lucky enough to have the nicer airline, and a direct flight. We had personal TV sets with Nintendo games on them and stuff like that, while Paul's flight just had a couple TVs in the aisles. It was a pretty enjoyable flight overall, and it didn�ft seem like the 14 hours that it was. The funniest thing about the flight is that it started 30 minutes late, and the Japanese hate being late. So while people were still loading stuff in the overhead compartments, the pilot turned on the safety video and started taxiing to the runway! People were losing there balance and having a really difficult time. Also, no one saw the safety video, so thankfully we didn�ft crash. We even arrived 5 minutes early!
In Tokyo airport, there was an hour line at the passport control center, but almost no line at customs. I arrived with other people from DC, but there were other flights arriving at the same time from London and places like that. I ended up racing through customs while other people who hadn�ft traveled internationally tried to figure out what to declare. Then the JET program had staff members in blue shirts pointing you in the right direction in the terminal. Basically you just had to keep going right until the end of the terminal. However, there was a blue shirt person every two meters, just in case you couldn�ft see the long line of blue shirts! It was overkill, but I guess it worked since no one got lost. When I got to the line to send your luggage to your new home, I realized there were no US people near me! There were a bunch of Brits and Canadians instead. I think I just kind of sped past everyone. Then we boarded buses and went to Tokyo. Narita airport is about two hours away from Tokyo, but I slept through most of the bus ride. We were staying at Keio Plaza Hotel in downtown Tokyo, so it was really nice. They had free internet in the rooms and stuff like that. Oh yeah, we arrived at 3pm on the 4th since we crossed the international date line.
The orientation lasted two days, and was a great chance to meet people going to your prefecture and other people nearby. Paul and I ate together most of the time, which was nice since we�fll be so far away during the year. I estimate the distance between our prefectures to be about 6-7 hours on a train. I think it is considerably less when driving, though. I may get a group of people together to rent a car and drive there. Driving is a little strange since it is all in Japanese and they drive on the left side of the road. I can legally drive, but I am a little concerned about the safety of doing so. Hopefully once I�fm on the highway, things will feel the same.
After the orientation ended, we split up into our prefectures and took different modes of transportation to get to each. My prefecture has a convenient airport, so we were lucky enough to fly into it. After a slightly nerve racking flight (the plane shook while taking off and landing), we arrived in Toyama. There were over a hundred people from our schools waiting to talk with us. My school had several students, 5 English teachers, and a vice-principal all waiting for me, with two banners. I was so stunned. I figured there would be one person waiting there for me. Two of the teachers and the vice principal drove me into town. We went to the city hall first to register as alien residents, to get a bank account, and I had to pay 80,000 yen for my apartment. Normally my rent is 42,000, however I get a subsidy later in the month for 25,000 yen. The first month I had to pay extra because of fees to set up the apartment. I was really lucky however, because it costs tons in Japan to rent an apartment. You have to pay lots of deposits, including a nonrefundable �ggift�h for the landlord allowing you to stay there. This gift is often 2-6 months worth of rent! Thankfully the school system pays for these costs. I also got my official hanko while I was there. A hanko is a seal that contains your kanji name. In my case, my name is Irwin (A, Ri, Na) spelled in katakana, a phonetic character alphabet for foreign words. Note that everyone else�fs is in kanji, so mine tends to stand out at lot. I doubt a Japanese person could get away with stealing it and using it. This seal is used everywhere instead of your signature. I hope I don�ft lose mine, or I�fm screwed.
Next the teachers drove me to the school (Horikawa Chugakko, a junior high school that is actually one of the largest in Japan) to meet the principal and the vice-principals, along with some of the other teachers. Waiting for me at the entrance way to the school was a pair of slippers for me to wear around the school. I think they brought out their largest pair, but it was way to small. I was trotting around with about 3 inches of my foot hanging out the back. At the end, I just gave up and took off my slippers for the stairs. It turns out that school is out until September 2nd, so many of the teachers are taking vacations. It is a little weird, but teachers are still obligated to go to work during the summer vacation. Most of them only come in for a couple hours and rarely do any real work, as far as I can tell. I�fve taken to studying Japanese, sending email, and looking through my predecessor�fs materials.
After a couple hours at the school, they took me to my apartment. I walked with one teacher while another drove my luggage there. They wanted to make sure I could walk to school the next day for work. I discovered that the other three teachers who were at the airport had been waiting at my apartment for the gas man to turn on the gas. That was a big help, so I had hot water when I arrived. The teachers and I sat around my new apartment and drank some juice boxes. One weird moment was when we were all standing around, and they encouraged me to sit down. I sat down, but no one else did. They just stood around me talking in Japanese for awhile. I may have mentioned that these were all English teachers. Well, they barely said anything in English to me at all. I think their English level is not that strong, or else I imagine they would�fve talked to me more. In the next couple days at work, I got to talk to many of them. Their English is not horrible, but I think they lack good practice and confidence. One of them mentioned to me how much she liked Harry Potter, so I asked her if she read it in English, and she said no. I couldn�ft help but think it would be a good type of practice thing for her to read it in English. Hopefully through our working together, their English will improve.
I stayed in my apartment and unpacked that afternoon. Later on, I ventured next door to meet my neighbor, Elita. Everyone in Toyama City has at least one JET in their apartment building, as far as I can tell. There�fs also one building with about 15 JETs in it. It is kind of the party building. Elita is my neighbor, and she is a second year JET. This is great for me since she can show me around the neighborhood. She is from Toronto, and is really nice. We got along almost instantly, so that is great. That evening I went out to dinner with Sekihara-sensei, a 24 year old English teacher, and his friend Mikuni-sensei, a Japanese teacher. They took me to a nearby sushi bar for dinner. It was much cheaper there than in the US. There were some more expensive sushi plates for 700 yen ($6.00) however most of the plates were 110 yen-220 yen. I had a really nice time with them, even though Mikuni doesn�ft speak much English.
After dinner, Elita and I went to the supermarket to buy some food. It is amazing how much different things cost. Fruit is horribly expensive. Watermelons are $50-100, and peaches are $2-5. At the store we went to, a bunch of bananas was $3. I found a cheaper bunch today (8 bananas for $1) at a different store, though. Milk and juice are more expensive too. Other things, like noodles, rice, and tofu are cheaper. I bought a package of tofu for 30 cents today. That is pretty much unheard of in the US. I also found a similar product to peanut butter. It is called peanut cream. It wasn�ft too expensive, but when I opened it, I discovered it was really runny. After I put it in the fridge, it turned into a more solid product. It tastes like peanut butter, so I just use it the same way.
Oh yeah, I forgot to describe my apartment. It is pretty tiny, but not bad for one person (Especially for only $200/month). My living room is about 9 feet by 15 feet. My kitchen is 6 by 5. The bathroom is 4 by 5, and the entrance way area is abut 3 by 10. I think the whole apartment is about 9 by 25. I think it feels bigger than that though. All the furniture is low to the ground. The sofa and bed are on the floor, and the table only goes 1 foot off the floor. I think I will have back problems after too long in Japan. I almost hit my head when I walk through my doorways, and frequently do in other people's apartments. My dad and older brother will have a fun time here, since they are 3 inches taller than I am.
I have a group of friends I've already made. There's Sarah from Michigan, Marcus from Toronto, and Victoria from some small town in England (Norfolk). We've decided that the biggest culture shock is not coming to Japan, but instead trying to understand our accents (especially Victoria's).
I'll try to write more at a later time.
Funny English phrase of the week:
�gThis is the most comfortable loose leaf you have ever run into. You will feel like writing with it all the time�h - on some loose leaf paper I bought.
The next day I left on one flight and Paul left on another. I was lucky enough to have the nicer airline, and a direct flight. We had personal TV sets with Nintendo games on them and stuff like that, while Paul's flight just had a couple TVs in the aisles. It was a pretty enjoyable flight overall, and it didn�ft seem like the 14 hours that it was. The funniest thing about the flight is that it started 30 minutes late, and the Japanese hate being late. So while people were still loading stuff in the overhead compartments, the pilot turned on the safety video and started taxiing to the runway! People were losing there balance and having a really difficult time. Also, no one saw the safety video, so thankfully we didn�ft crash. We even arrived 5 minutes early!
In Tokyo airport, there was an hour line at the passport control center, but almost no line at customs. I arrived with other people from DC, but there were other flights arriving at the same time from London and places like that. I ended up racing through customs while other people who hadn�ft traveled internationally tried to figure out what to declare. Then the JET program had staff members in blue shirts pointing you in the right direction in the terminal. Basically you just had to keep going right until the end of the terminal. However, there was a blue shirt person every two meters, just in case you couldn�ft see the long line of blue shirts! It was overkill, but I guess it worked since no one got lost. When I got to the line to send your luggage to your new home, I realized there were no US people near me! There were a bunch of Brits and Canadians instead. I think I just kind of sped past everyone. Then we boarded buses and went to Tokyo. Narita airport is about two hours away from Tokyo, but I slept through most of the bus ride. We were staying at Keio Plaza Hotel in downtown Tokyo, so it was really nice. They had free internet in the rooms and stuff like that. Oh yeah, we arrived at 3pm on the 4th since we crossed the international date line.
The orientation lasted two days, and was a great chance to meet people going to your prefecture and other people nearby. Paul and I ate together most of the time, which was nice since we�fll be so far away during the year. I estimate the distance between our prefectures to be about 6-7 hours on a train. I think it is considerably less when driving, though. I may get a group of people together to rent a car and drive there. Driving is a little strange since it is all in Japanese and they drive on the left side of the road. I can legally drive, but I am a little concerned about the safety of doing so. Hopefully once I�fm on the highway, things will feel the same.
After the orientation ended, we split up into our prefectures and took different modes of transportation to get to each. My prefecture has a convenient airport, so we were lucky enough to fly into it. After a slightly nerve racking flight (the plane shook while taking off and landing), we arrived in Toyama. There were over a hundred people from our schools waiting to talk with us. My school had several students, 5 English teachers, and a vice-principal all waiting for me, with two banners. I was so stunned. I figured there would be one person waiting there for me. Two of the teachers and the vice principal drove me into town. We went to the city hall first to register as alien residents, to get a bank account, and I had to pay 80,000 yen for my apartment. Normally my rent is 42,000, however I get a subsidy later in the month for 25,000 yen. The first month I had to pay extra because of fees to set up the apartment. I was really lucky however, because it costs tons in Japan to rent an apartment. You have to pay lots of deposits, including a nonrefundable �ggift�h for the landlord allowing you to stay there. This gift is often 2-6 months worth of rent! Thankfully the school system pays for these costs. I also got my official hanko while I was there. A hanko is a seal that contains your kanji name. In my case, my name is Irwin (A, Ri, Na) spelled in katakana, a phonetic character alphabet for foreign words. Note that everyone else�fs is in kanji, so mine tends to stand out at lot. I doubt a Japanese person could get away with stealing it and using it. This seal is used everywhere instead of your signature. I hope I don�ft lose mine, or I�fm screwed.
Next the teachers drove me to the school (Horikawa Chugakko, a junior high school that is actually one of the largest in Japan) to meet the principal and the vice-principals, along with some of the other teachers. Waiting for me at the entrance way to the school was a pair of slippers for me to wear around the school. I think they brought out their largest pair, but it was way to small. I was trotting around with about 3 inches of my foot hanging out the back. At the end, I just gave up and took off my slippers for the stairs. It turns out that school is out until September 2nd, so many of the teachers are taking vacations. It is a little weird, but teachers are still obligated to go to work during the summer vacation. Most of them only come in for a couple hours and rarely do any real work, as far as I can tell. I�fve taken to studying Japanese, sending email, and looking through my predecessor�fs materials.
After a couple hours at the school, they took me to my apartment. I walked with one teacher while another drove my luggage there. They wanted to make sure I could walk to school the next day for work. I discovered that the other three teachers who were at the airport had been waiting at my apartment for the gas man to turn on the gas. That was a big help, so I had hot water when I arrived. The teachers and I sat around my new apartment and drank some juice boxes. One weird moment was when we were all standing around, and they encouraged me to sit down. I sat down, but no one else did. They just stood around me talking in Japanese for awhile. I may have mentioned that these were all English teachers. Well, they barely said anything in English to me at all. I think their English level is not that strong, or else I imagine they would�fve talked to me more. In the next couple days at work, I got to talk to many of them. Their English is not horrible, but I think they lack good practice and confidence. One of them mentioned to me how much she liked Harry Potter, so I asked her if she read it in English, and she said no. I couldn�ft help but think it would be a good type of practice thing for her to read it in English. Hopefully through our working together, their English will improve.
I stayed in my apartment and unpacked that afternoon. Later on, I ventured next door to meet my neighbor, Elita. Everyone in Toyama City has at least one JET in their apartment building, as far as I can tell. There�fs also one building with about 15 JETs in it. It is kind of the party building. Elita is my neighbor, and she is a second year JET. This is great for me since she can show me around the neighborhood. She is from Toronto, and is really nice. We got along almost instantly, so that is great. That evening I went out to dinner with Sekihara-sensei, a 24 year old English teacher, and his friend Mikuni-sensei, a Japanese teacher. They took me to a nearby sushi bar for dinner. It was much cheaper there than in the US. There were some more expensive sushi plates for 700 yen ($6.00) however most of the plates were 110 yen-220 yen. I had a really nice time with them, even though Mikuni doesn�ft speak much English.
After dinner, Elita and I went to the supermarket to buy some food. It is amazing how much different things cost. Fruit is horribly expensive. Watermelons are $50-100, and peaches are $2-5. At the store we went to, a bunch of bananas was $3. I found a cheaper bunch today (8 bananas for $1) at a different store, though. Milk and juice are more expensive too. Other things, like noodles, rice, and tofu are cheaper. I bought a package of tofu for 30 cents today. That is pretty much unheard of in the US. I also found a similar product to peanut butter. It is called peanut cream. It wasn�ft too expensive, but when I opened it, I discovered it was really runny. After I put it in the fridge, it turned into a more solid product. It tastes like peanut butter, so I just use it the same way.
Oh yeah, I forgot to describe my apartment. It is pretty tiny, but not bad for one person (Especially for only $200/month). My living room is about 9 feet by 15 feet. My kitchen is 6 by 5. The bathroom is 4 by 5, and the entrance way area is abut 3 by 10. I think the whole apartment is about 9 by 25. I think it feels bigger than that though. All the furniture is low to the ground. The sofa and bed are on the floor, and the table only goes 1 foot off the floor. I think I will have back problems after too long in Japan. I almost hit my head when I walk through my doorways, and frequently do in other people's apartments. My dad and older brother will have a fun time here, since they are 3 inches taller than I am.
I have a group of friends I've already made. There's Sarah from Michigan, Marcus from Toronto, and Victoria from some small town in England (Norfolk). We've decided that the biggest culture shock is not coming to Japan, but instead trying to understand our accents (especially Victoria's).
I'll try to write more at a later time.
Funny English phrase of the week:
�gThis is the most comfortable loose leaf you have ever run into. You will feel like writing with it all the time�h - on some loose leaf paper I bought.
Monday, August 05, 2002
Well, now I'm in Japan. I'm staying at the Keio Hotel in Tokyo. It is very nice at the hotel, and full of other JET participants. Today we saw a funny movie about team teaching. One of the JET teachers seemed interested in promoting her vegetarian ideas onto her students in the movie. It didn't work so well. She kept saying "If a person can not pluck and skin a chicken, then they have no right to eat it." Everyone in the auditorium just cracked up watching it. There were some other very funny moments in the video too. More on arriving here later.
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