Just kidding. Seriously, though. It's been forever since I've updated this.
So Thanksgiving was fantastic. Mr. Oogushi invited Marisa and I over to his house for a feast. We spent the evening eating turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and other traditional Thanksgiving foods with his friends and family, and you know what? It actually felt really homey and comforting. I started to realize something that I'll talk about a little bit later because I just realized it fully today and want to share the good news with everyone. Moving on....
Over the long weekend, Marisa and I went to Mt. Takao, just west of Tokyo to see the leaves changing color. It was my first real experience hiking up a mountain, and the pain in my legs the next day stood as an testament to that. On the way up, I was just fine. On the way down, we said to ourselves, "Well, let's take the ropeway", but by that time of day the ropeway was full and we had no choice but to hobble all the way down. Marisa was a lot better at it than I. At any rate, the mountain was absolutely gorgeous, awash of gold, red, and brown.
This is only tangentially related, but I'm pretty sure that Ginko trees sport the most impressive fall colors. They turn this brilliant, golden yellow, and when the leaves fall they make the ground this sea of gold. I just love it.
Okay, so December. A month of frigidity. There's very little insulation in Japan, so seeing your breath in your own house is a regular occurrence. The kotatsu has become my holy sanctuary, and I dare not leave it lest I become Popsicle-sensei. For the unaware, a kotatsu is a coffee table with a heater built in to the bottom. You cover the table with a blanket, put your feet inside, and voila! Comfort!
Last weekend (was it only last weekend?!?), Mr. Oogushi surprised me and Marisa with an early Christmas gift. He bought us tickets to a helicopter ride over Tokyo. I was stunned by his generosity. I mean, really? A helicopter ride over Tokyo? Needless to say, it was amazing. Marisa is uploading the video now, so you'll see it shortly.
This weekend, I visited my host family again. I got to see the extended family too, this time. Ryou is still so cute. We played New Super Mario Bros. Wii together and it was a blast. Stayed up with my family chatting and watched the Nodame Cantabile season finale. Just a great time.
(You might want to skip with next part. Just nerdy stuff.)
I saw the One Piece: Strong World movie today and my mind was blown. Amazingly fun, amazing animation. I've been a fan of One Piece since the beginning of high school, and I'll continue to be a One Piece fan for the next 10 years that I expect it'll be around. It's become one of the most epic adventure stories ever written. *gushing*
This week Joseph and Randy arrive along with a slew of year-end parties. Karaoke Monday, enkai Tuesday, Festivus Wednesday, rest on Thursday, two Christmas parties on Friday, die on Saturday, and wake up at the crack of dawn to find out how mochi is made on Sunday.
Which brings me to the point: I'm finally starting to feel really settled. I have new friends now--Akiko, my Japanese teacher, Mr. Oogushi, Mr. Endo from the cooking class, my host family. I speak Japanese most of the day. I have to eat weird food all the time. But all of this has stopped feeling incongruent with me. Like somehow it fits together in a comforting way. I don't want to suggest that I'm not coming back. I miss the U.S. very much. It's just that I have roots now. I feel comfortable. It's nice.
It's real nice.
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=215044665377
Sunday, December 20, 2009
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
Lucky Curry
Now where was I?
Right. The weekend before last, I went with my the staff of my junior high school on their trip. The first destination on our trip was a theatre. "Oh! A theatre!" I hear you cry. "Something classy and cultural, am I right?" No. You're most certainly wrong about that. We went to see 'Muscle Musical', a circus-like variety show featuring a bevy of shirtless men. I mean, it had broader appeal than just that (some of the stunts were genuinely impressive), but I couldn't help but feel that I was just watching a trashy version of a Cirque show. Speaking of Cirque, 'Muscle Musical' is actually playing in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace under the name 'Matsuri', I think. Anyway, the most exciting part of the show was when they broke the record for the most jumps on a jump rope in 60 seconds. They did it live and had it verified and everything.
Sorry about my English tonight. I sometimes feel like it's becoming my second language.
After that, we went over to Ebisu and made a quick stop at the Beer Museum before heading off to dinner. Drinking and dining with your co-workers is a cultural embedded activity in which the professionalism of the workplace is thrown out the window... on the condition that it is never spoke of again after that night. Summarily, my vice-principal got quite drunk. We went out to karaoke afterwards, and at one point he started singing a song by Kinki Kids, and he turned to me and said in English, "Kinky. Get it?" He also bought a bicycle horn beforehand which he honked whenever someone said something inappropriate.
I had canceled my hotel reservation earlier that week because of my cold, so after karaoke, I made the long trek home. Probably about an hour and a half of trains.
Flashing forward to Tuesday: We had the first day of our Saitama JET mid-year conference. One of my junior high teachers, Mr. Takeuchi went with me. During the first day, I discovered that the way my junior high classes are run is not necessarily 'normal', and if I think they suck (which they do), I should really try harder to do something about it. So now I am. It's a slow process, but I'm just going to be a persistent little mosquito buzzing in the ears of my English teachers. On day two, the guest speaker in the morning was fantastic (gave me a lot of great ideas for class), but the afternoon workshops were a bore because they were mostly pertinent only to high school ALTs.
Moving on to the weekend now:
Right. The weekend before last, I went with my the staff of my junior high school on their trip. The first destination on our trip was a theatre. "Oh! A theatre!" I hear you cry. "Something classy and cultural, am I right?" No. You're most certainly wrong about that. We went to see 'Muscle Musical', a circus-like variety show featuring a bevy of shirtless men. I mean, it had broader appeal than just that (some of the stunts were genuinely impressive), but I couldn't help but feel that I was just watching a trashy version of a Cirque show. Speaking of Cirque, 'Muscle Musical' is actually playing in Las Vegas at the Imperial Palace under the name 'Matsuri', I think. Anyway, the most exciting part of the show was when they broke the record for the most jumps on a jump rope in 60 seconds. They did it live and had it verified and everything.
Sorry about my English tonight. I sometimes feel like it's becoming my second language.
After that, we went over to Ebisu and made a quick stop at the Beer Museum before heading off to dinner. Drinking and dining with your co-workers is a cultural embedded activity in which the professionalism of the workplace is thrown out the window... on the condition that it is never spoke of again after that night. Summarily, my vice-principal got quite drunk. We went out to karaoke afterwards, and at one point he started singing a song by Kinki Kids, and he turned to me and said in English, "Kinky. Get it?" He also bought a bicycle horn beforehand which he honked whenever someone said something inappropriate.
I had canceled my hotel reservation earlier that week because of my cold, so after karaoke, I made the long trek home. Probably about an hour and a half of trains.
Flashing forward to Tuesday: We had the first day of our Saitama JET mid-year conference. One of my junior high teachers, Mr. Takeuchi went with me. During the first day, I discovered that the way my junior high classes are run is not necessarily 'normal', and if I think they suck (which they do), I should really try harder to do something about it. So now I am. It's a slow process, but I'm just going to be a persistent little mosquito buzzing in the ears of my English teachers. On day two, the guest speaker in the morning was fantastic (gave me a lot of great ideas for class), but the afternoon workshops were a bore because they were mostly pertinent only to high school ALTs.
Moving on to the weekend now:
Monday, November 9, 2009
The Pall is Lifted
Two weeks ago, I went with Marisa to far away Waseda University to see an amazing concert. Three acts were playing: Eiko Ishibashi & (some other guy), mama!Milk, and the performer who we'd really come to see, Shugo Tokumaru. The concert took place in a campus hall that doubles as a Christian church on Sundays. The spectators sat in rows of chairs arranged like pews facing a small stage with a giant organ behind it. In front of the organ, a painting of a desolate beach dune; to the right, a bunch of twigs propped up to invoke a tree; and to the right, a number of glass vessels filled with water, illuminated by a strategically placed spotlight.
The first act was basically some guy using delay pedals and an electric violin to layer a sound that was mirrored in the desolate picture behind him. As he did this, Ishibashi blew into a flute to make the sound of the wind, played piano a little, and sang.
Tokumaru was on next. His 30 minute set was painfully short considering how mind-blowingly fantabulous the performance was. I was already a huge fan of his after last year's 'Exit', but now he's pretty much been elevated to the pinnacle of awesome. We were treated with compositions consisting of a percussion part played on overturned ashtrays, buckets, and wood blocks, and accompanied by one of those cans that when you shake it, bird noises come out. It was pretty much everything I like about music on display. Most mind-blowing part? When I learned that the intro to 'Parachute' is not played on multiple guitars, but just played by him. On guitar. By himself. It looked like his fingers were going to fall off.
Mama!milk, on the other hand, was just about the sexiest contra-bass and accordion duo I'd ever seen. In fact, I'm almost sure it's the only contra-bass and accordion duo I'd ever seen, but even still... The way the man kept smacking the bass and the way the woman would breath so heavily before arching her back to open up the red folds of her accordion... It was really bizarre.
After that amazing Sunday concert day, came Halloween week. I say "week" because I wore my costume 3 out of the 5 days. I was permitted to teach my classes dressed as Spiderman, and, of course, I couldn't resist. Here's a picture.
On Saturday, I attended two Halloween party. The first was at the house of the head of the PTA at my junior high school, Mr. Oogushi. Marisa came with me (dressed as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction) expecting that it would probably be an adult costume party sort of situation, analogous to what you might see in the U.S. Not so. People don't really celebrate Halloween in Japan, so I guess I should have seen this coming, but it was actually a party thrown for the neighborhood kids, mostly my students from Gongendo Elementary. There was a costume contest, bingo, and Mr. Oogushi even set up the chance for kids to trick or treat at one of the other parent's houses. It was adorable.
From there, Marisa and I biked across town in the dead of night to our friend Lauren's party. Long story incredibly short: I fell asleep on one of her extra futons.
I rode home through the brisk morning air and later that day, by 7pm, my throat felt like sandpaper. Sandpaper lined with hot coals. I was sick through the rest of the week (luckily Tuesday was a holiday; Culture Day! You remember, right?). On Wednesday, they sent me home from work so that I could go to the hospital for a fever. Everyone's so H1N1 crazy that they can't take any chances, so the hospital it is. It was an educational experience. When the nurse moves to put a tiny q-tip like object up your nose and says, "This is going to hurt", you can bet that it's going to hurt. Luckily, I didn't have the flu. I use the past tense here to emphasize that I'm nearly cured! Huzzah!
Stay tuned for another update soon. (P.S. I embeded a video of 'Parachute' just in case anyone was curious about that intro I mentioned)
The first act was basically some guy using delay pedals and an electric violin to layer a sound that was mirrored in the desolate picture behind him. As he did this, Ishibashi blew into a flute to make the sound of the wind, played piano a little, and sang.
Tokumaru was on next. His 30 minute set was painfully short considering how mind-blowingly fantabulous the performance was. I was already a huge fan of his after last year's 'Exit', but now he's pretty much been elevated to the pinnacle of awesome. We were treated with compositions consisting of a percussion part played on overturned ashtrays, buckets, and wood blocks, and accompanied by one of those cans that when you shake it, bird noises come out. It was pretty much everything I like about music on display. Most mind-blowing part? When I learned that the intro to 'Parachute' is not played on multiple guitars, but just played by him. On guitar. By himself. It looked like his fingers were going to fall off.
Mama!milk, on the other hand, was just about the sexiest contra-bass and accordion duo I'd ever seen. In fact, I'm almost sure it's the only contra-bass and accordion duo I'd ever seen, but even still... The way the man kept smacking the bass and the way the woman would breath so heavily before arching her back to open up the red folds of her accordion... It was really bizarre.
After that amazing Sunday concert day, came Halloween week. I say "week" because I wore my costume 3 out of the 5 days. I was permitted to teach my classes dressed as Spiderman, and, of course, I couldn't resist. Here's a picture.
On Saturday, I attended two Halloween party. The first was at the house of the head of the PTA at my junior high school, Mr. Oogushi. Marisa came with me (dressed as Mia Wallace from Pulp Fiction) expecting that it would probably be an adult costume party sort of situation, analogous to what you might see in the U.S. Not so. People don't really celebrate Halloween in Japan, so I guess I should have seen this coming, but it was actually a party thrown for the neighborhood kids, mostly my students from Gongendo Elementary. There was a costume contest, bingo, and Mr. Oogushi even set up the chance for kids to trick or treat at one of the other parent's houses. It was adorable.
From there, Marisa and I biked across town in the dead of night to our friend Lauren's party. Long story incredibly short: I fell asleep on one of her extra futons.
I rode home through the brisk morning air and later that day, by 7pm, my throat felt like sandpaper. Sandpaper lined with hot coals. I was sick through the rest of the week (luckily Tuesday was a holiday; Culture Day! You remember, right?). On Wednesday, they sent me home from work so that I could go to the hospital for a fever. Everyone's so H1N1 crazy that they can't take any chances, so the hospital it is. It was an educational experience. When the nurse moves to put a tiny q-tip like object up your nose and says, "This is going to hurt", you can bet that it's going to hurt. Luckily, I didn't have the flu. I use the past tense here to emphasize that I'm nearly cured! Huzzah!
Stay tuned for another update soon. (P.S. I embeded a video of 'Parachute' just in case anyone was curious about that intro I mentioned)
Monday, October 19, 2009
Participations
This weekend, I had one of the greatest moments since I've been here.
Our school had its road race and bazaar on Saturday. This meant that I had to work on Saturday. Unfortunate, but I got Monday off, so I guess it works out. I arrived at 8:30, like usual, dressed in my typical school attire. As I enter the office, one of the first things the secretary says to me is, "Are you going to run in the race today?" I just replied, "I didn't even know I was allowed to particiapte!" I quickly threw off my sweater and collared shirt, put on my track jacket, and ran outside with my dress pants still on. I confirmed with the teachers that I was in fact allowed to participate, chatted with the students for a while, and prepared for the moment when the starter would fire and off I'd go.
I'd never run that sort of distance before (what sort of distance that was, I'm not really sure). In all honesty, I didn't have a whole lot of faith that I'd complete it. But there I was, jogging next to one of my favorite students while he raises his arms triumphantly saying, "umaku iku!" (not sure how to translate this; literally, "going well", but maybe "git 'r done" is more fitting, given the circumstances), ironically quoting the back of my track jacket. So I responded, "umaku iku!" in the same fashion, and eventually we had this rhythm going:
"Umkau iku!"
"Umaku iku!"
They didn't place me, because I'm not a student, but I estimate that I was around 25th place. Plenty of others behind me!
At the bazaar afterwards, I ate a lot of carny food, chatted with a bunch of students who wanted to know if Manaka-sensei or Masshu-sensei was my type, and then bought salt and pepper shakers in the shape of a tiny duck and a tiny frog (they're actually the same characters featured in Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 for those of you who might give a damn).
Saturday, I went to a festival in downtown Satte. It was mostly like a flea market with some performance art. Donald McDonald was there! Also, a monkey on a leash!
After that, I went with Marisa to Gongendo park. We sat, snacked, painted, read, talked. She's really one of my favorite people. As for Gongendo, you'll be seeing plenty of pictures of it in the spring when it explodes with pink cherry blossoms.
Today, I had no work. And nothing to report.
Our school had its road race and bazaar on Saturday. This meant that I had to work on Saturday. Unfortunate, but I got Monday off, so I guess it works out. I arrived at 8:30, like usual, dressed in my typical school attire. As I enter the office, one of the first things the secretary says to me is, "Are you going to run in the race today?" I just replied, "I didn't even know I was allowed to particiapte!" I quickly threw off my sweater and collared shirt, put on my track jacket, and ran outside with my dress pants still on. I confirmed with the teachers that I was in fact allowed to participate, chatted with the students for a while, and prepared for the moment when the starter would fire and off I'd go.
I'd never run that sort of distance before (what sort of distance that was, I'm not really sure). In all honesty, I didn't have a whole lot of faith that I'd complete it. But there I was, jogging next to one of my favorite students while he raises his arms triumphantly saying, "umaku iku!" (not sure how to translate this; literally, "going well", but maybe "git 'r done" is more fitting, given the circumstances), ironically quoting the back of my track jacket. So I responded, "umaku iku!" in the same fashion, and eventually we had this rhythm going:
"Umkau iku!"
"Umaku iku!"
They didn't place me, because I'm not a student, but I estimate that I was around 25th place. Plenty of others behind me!
At the bazaar afterwards, I ate a lot of carny food, chatted with a bunch of students who wanted to know if Manaka-sensei or Masshu-sensei was my type, and then bought salt and pepper shakers in the shape of a tiny duck and a tiny frog (they're actually the same characters featured in Metal Gear Solid 3 and 4 for those of you who might give a damn).
Saturday, I went to a festival in downtown Satte. It was mostly like a flea market with some performance art. Donald McDonald was there! Also, a monkey on a leash!
After that, I went with Marisa to Gongendo park. We sat, snacked, painted, read, talked. She's really one of my favorite people. As for Gongendo, you'll be seeing plenty of pictures of it in the spring when it explodes with pink cherry blossoms.
Today, I had no work. And nothing to report.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Surreal Sabatical
Last weekend was insane.
Friday night after my college Japanese class (which I just realized I haven't mentioned before now), I went out for dinner with my friends, as we sometimes do. The class is taught by Japanese students of Bunkyo University who want to be Japanese language teachers in the future. Thus, the class is very cheap and a lot of ALTs around Northeast Saitama do it. Due to the sheer amount of people going to dinner with us that night, I ended up sitting with the Japanese student-teachers and having a long, and very strange conversation that covered topics as simple as conversational English, and as weird as Katahira-san's interest in The Klaxons. It was a blast.
You'd think the weekend would stop there, but then if that's the case, you haven't properly learned the order of the days in a week. Saturday, I attended a 4-person combined birthday bash in Tokyo. The location was (and here's the best part) a Texas-themed bar, complete with live country music, line dancing, and chili fries that are topped with CheezWhiz, as if it were some kind of delicacy. Listen: You haven't lived till you've been taught to line dance by a Japanese woman to the soothing strings of a Japanese man singing "All My Exes Live in Texas". His Southern accent was perfect! I mean, perfect! And don't get me started on the roughly 8 dollar price for a bottle of their "imported beer"--Coors Light!
By the way, Sunday comes after Saturday. We had Monday off for Health and Sports Day (despite what you may think, the Japanese love holidays), so once again, we were off to have fun. We ended up doing Karaoke in a town a few stops away called Kasukabe. Not so fun fact: A famous comic book author living in Kasukabe was found dead in Gunma prefecture recently when he went hiking and fell off a cliff while trying to take a picture. Going to Kasukabe to have fun just seemed sort of wrong to me at the time, but that didn't stop me from having a great time. We sang, drank, and we were merry. You'd think that at the end of this, I'd be too tired to do anything, but Marisa and I were in such high spirits that we decided to watch a pirated copy of Zombieland (look, I miss American movies).
And Monday I slept.
Friday night after my college Japanese class (which I just realized I haven't mentioned before now), I went out for dinner with my friends, as we sometimes do. The class is taught by Japanese students of Bunkyo University who want to be Japanese language teachers in the future. Thus, the class is very cheap and a lot of ALTs around Northeast Saitama do it. Due to the sheer amount of people going to dinner with us that night, I ended up sitting with the Japanese student-teachers and having a long, and very strange conversation that covered topics as simple as conversational English, and as weird as Katahira-san's interest in The Klaxons. It was a blast.
You'd think the weekend would stop there, but then if that's the case, you haven't properly learned the order of the days in a week. Saturday, I attended a 4-person combined birthday bash in Tokyo. The location was (and here's the best part) a Texas-themed bar, complete with live country music, line dancing, and chili fries that are topped with CheezWhiz, as if it were some kind of delicacy. Listen: You haven't lived till you've been taught to line dance by a Japanese woman to the soothing strings of a Japanese man singing "All My Exes Live in Texas". His Southern accent was perfect! I mean, perfect! And don't get me started on the roughly 8 dollar price for a bottle of their "imported beer"--Coors Light!
By the way, Sunday comes after Saturday. We had Monday off for Health and Sports Day (despite what you may think, the Japanese love holidays), so once again, we were off to have fun. We ended up doing Karaoke in a town a few stops away called Kasukabe. Not so fun fact: A famous comic book author living in Kasukabe was found dead in Gunma prefecture recently when he went hiking and fell off a cliff while trying to take a picture. Going to Kasukabe to have fun just seemed sort of wrong to me at the time, but that didn't stop me from having a great time. We sang, drank, and we were merry. You'd think that at the end of this, I'd be too tired to do anything, but Marisa and I were in such high spirits that we decided to watch a pirated copy of Zombieland (look, I miss American movies).
And Monday I slept.
Sunday, October 11, 2009
A few of my favorite Silver Week pictures
I'm having trouble uploading these to facebook for some reason. Anyhow, here's a few of my favorites.
Here's the bullet train I rode (I think). It's so fast that when trees pass the windows, it causes the light to strobe so fast that I think a epilepsy warning should be written on the back of every passenger's ticket. It's much, much more comfortable than an airplane though.
This is a pachinko parlor in Osaka. That strip on the front is some sort of elevator that takes you to a platform dangling in the middle, or something.
There we are.
And now so that you can actually see what that wonderful building in the background is. That's Todaiji, the largest wooden structure in the world. Inside, there's a Buddha statue that makes the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial look tiny.
There's that bad motha'.
A Taiko rock band in the middle of Osaka Castle park.
Osaka Castle!
A famous spot along Dotonbori in Osaka-- just look at those lights.
I couldn't resist posting at least one more deer picture. Honestly, could you?
Here's the bullet train I rode (I think). It's so fast that when trees pass the windows, it causes the light to strobe so fast that I think a epilepsy warning should be written on the back of every passenger's ticket. It's much, much more comfortable than an airplane though.
This is a pachinko parlor in Osaka. That strip on the front is some sort of elevator that takes you to a platform dangling in the middle, or something.
There we are.
And now so that you can actually see what that wonderful building in the background is. That's Todaiji, the largest wooden structure in the world. Inside, there's a Buddha statue that makes the statue of Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial look tiny.
There's that bad motha'.
A Taiko rock band in the middle of Osaka Castle park.
Osaka Castle!
A famous spot along Dotonbori in Osaka-- just look at those lights.
I couldn't resist posting at least one more deer picture. Honestly, could you?
Monday, October 5, 2009
A Month in the Life
As you may expect, I've got a lot to say.
I just bought a new keyboard today. Now I can continue, but its a little hard to decide exactly where to begin. Well, in the words of Lewis Carrol, "begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop."
I've started teaching. I teach 14 classes a week in about 20 sessions. Granted, I like some classes better than others, but at the end of the day, I love my job. I mean, L-O-V-E it. Here's a metaphorical snapshot of my day:
I've started something at school which I call "Mr. Clark's English Box". Original, I know. Basically, I provide the students with a non-mandatory writing prompt every month, usually pertaining to the month in some way. There are also other fun little writing activities like filling in speech bubbles in a comic strip, and whatnot. I've made it clear to the kids that if they don't want to write about the prompt, they don't have to. Anything's fine as long as they're studying English.
I received my first entry today. Last week, the girl lamented to me that she couldn't write one for me, but that she'd do it next time. When I came in today, it was in the box on my desk. She hadn't written about the topic, but that didn't matter to me. The fact that someone submitted something at all had me all antsy. Her essay was titled "My Dream", and was about how she has dreams of being a famous actress, so she's taking classes with a local theatre company and working really hard to get the roles she wants. That sort of thing. It made me think, though. The idea of self-motivation is a lot different in Japan, but I'm sure that when I was her age, to some extent I felt the same way. I wasn't constantly thinking about my future the way this girl does, but I can't deny that I had that same dream at some point.
I was very moved by the way she had bared herself like that. I corrected it quickly, left her a note on the bottom, and handed it back just before lunch. When I came in to her class, she quickly stood up and just started repeating over and over again, "thank you, thank you" (in English, thankfully) and reaching out to shake my hand.
I was going to make some sort of judgment at this point, but now I'm not sure to think, so just decide for yourself what that means.
I really failed at starting at the beginning, eh?
So I go to work 5 days a week. Lately, by bicycle through the rain. I get along with most of my teachers really well. In fact, the vice principal of one of my elementary schools took me and my predecessor out to dinner this past Saturday. I had 'red clam' sashimi for the first time.
Last month, we had a five day vacation. A series of holidays just happened to line up in the perfect configuration, the kind of thing that happens once every 9 years. As a sort of joke, people called it Silver Week, a play off of Golden Week, another 5 day holiday week that happens every May.
For Silver Week, I went down to Southern Japan and visited my friend Lauren and Mr. Joseph Carter, the one and only. I was constantly moving that weekend, all around the area, so I bet it'll just be easier to let the pictures do the talking.
In Nara, there are wild dear that wander the temple grounds. They are considered sacred animals, and you are encouraged to feed them. Yes, the picture below actually did happen.
I just bought a new keyboard today. Now I can continue, but its a little hard to decide exactly where to begin. Well, in the words of Lewis Carrol, "begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the end; then stop."
I've started teaching. I teach 14 classes a week in about 20 sessions. Granted, I like some classes better than others, but at the end of the day, I love my job. I mean, L-O-V-E it. Here's a metaphorical snapshot of my day:
I've started something at school which I call "Mr. Clark's English Box". Original, I know. Basically, I provide the students with a non-mandatory writing prompt every month, usually pertaining to the month in some way. There are also other fun little writing activities like filling in speech bubbles in a comic strip, and whatnot. I've made it clear to the kids that if they don't want to write about the prompt, they don't have to. Anything's fine as long as they're studying English.
I received my first entry today. Last week, the girl lamented to me that she couldn't write one for me, but that she'd do it next time. When I came in today, it was in the box on my desk. She hadn't written about the topic, but that didn't matter to me. The fact that someone submitted something at all had me all antsy. Her essay was titled "My Dream", and was about how she has dreams of being a famous actress, so she's taking classes with a local theatre company and working really hard to get the roles she wants. That sort of thing. It made me think, though. The idea of self-motivation is a lot different in Japan, but I'm sure that when I was her age, to some extent I felt the same way. I wasn't constantly thinking about my future the way this girl does, but I can't deny that I had that same dream at some point.
I was very moved by the way she had bared herself like that. I corrected it quickly, left her a note on the bottom, and handed it back just before lunch. When I came in to her class, she quickly stood up and just started repeating over and over again, "thank you, thank you" (in English, thankfully) and reaching out to shake my hand.
I was going to make some sort of judgment at this point, but now I'm not sure to think, so just decide for yourself what that means.
I really failed at starting at the beginning, eh?
So I go to work 5 days a week. Lately, by bicycle through the rain. I get along with most of my teachers really well. In fact, the vice principal of one of my elementary schools took me and my predecessor out to dinner this past Saturday. I had 'red clam' sashimi for the first time.
Last month, we had a five day vacation. A series of holidays just happened to line up in the perfect configuration, the kind of thing that happens once every 9 years. As a sort of joke, people called it Silver Week, a play off of Golden Week, another 5 day holiday week that happens every May.
For Silver Week, I went down to Southern Japan and visited my friend Lauren and Mr. Joseph Carter, the one and only. I was constantly moving that weekend, all around the area, so I bet it'll just be easier to let the pictures do the talking.
In Nara, there are wild dear that wander the temple grounds. They are considered sacred animals, and you are encouraged to feed them. Yes, the picture below actually did happen.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)