First Classes

Before anything else, I think I should explain something about how school years are counted in Japan.  Here, the counting starts over at each level, rather than continuing.  So, since I’m at a high school, if I say a class of first graders or first years, that actually means 10th graders/sophomores by American counting.  So, 2nd years/graders = juniors and 3rd years/graders = seniors.

I should also explain something about the school I’m at.  It has 3 curriculums, or “courses.”  There’s English, General, and Art.  There are 8 classes (groups of students, I mean) per year, and in each year, one class is English Course and one class is Art Course, the rest of the classes are General Course.

Anyway…

Last week was the start of the new term.  With my co-ALT and a few Japanese Teachers of English (JTE), I taught 4 classes, all my self-intro lesson.  Since we teach in the Language Lab, I made a PowerPoint presentation to show the whole class at once. I alternated between telling them stuff and asking them questions.  When I asked “What do you know about Detroit?” most classes were able to come up with the answer “cars.”  In one class I did mime of singing with a bit of swagger and one boy said “Eminem!” ^o^  Another funny moment was with the second years.  One class has a trio of particularly genki (lively, loud, energetic) girls.  When I asked “Why do you think my neighborhood is called ‘Mexicantown’?”, one of those girls shouted out “Tacos!!!” \^O^/

After the presentation, I asked if anyone had questions.  The two questions I got were “How old are you?” and “Do you have a boyfriend?”  The first time, in response to the boyfriend question I said it was a secret, but the second time I said that KimuTaku was my boyfriend.  I think the next time I get asked that I’m gonna say Tsumabuki Satoshi (the star of the current NHK Taiga drama Tenchijin).

With the exception of English Course 2nd years, I really won’t have too many chances to teach the 2nd years.  Since right now half the school day goes to taiikusai (Sports Day) practice, the students really aren’t concentrating on hardcore stuff like grammar, so that’s why I’ve been asked to do my self-into in classes I normally wouldn’t teach.

Taiikusai is this Saturday!

(What an abrupt way to end a post!)

Opening Ceremony

Today was Opening Ceremony, marking the start of the new term.  Since I’m new, I had to give a self-introduction speech.  I did it in English and Japanese, but as I got close to the end I started blanking and had to look at my cheat sheet. >_<

The ceremony is very formal.  You take your indoor shoes off before going up on stage.  Since the principal introduced me, he walked in front of me, so I did what he did.  Well, the other ALT had already told me about the shoes, but I didn’t know about the bowing to the Japanese flag.  When the principal bowed up on stage, I honestly didn’t realize what he was bowing for (I’m kinda slow sometimes, lol) and I bowed too.  I think some students might have laughed, but they could have been laughing at something else.  Anyway, I gave my speech, was a little confused about the procedure for going off stage, but I think it went alright.  Later, when the principal walked back on stage, I saw that he also bowed to the flag when going off the stage.  My co-ALT said it really isn’t expected that I bow to the flag since I’m not Japanese.  I figure if I at least do it when I walk on stage (not that that happens often) it’s alright.  It doesn’t make me feel any weirder than all the times I had to say something like “to serve my fellow Americans” with my right hand up in the City Year oath while I wasn’t an American.  To say nothing of the daily recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance in elementary school.

It was a bit sad to see that all the girls sit behind all the boys in assembly (that is, the students are placed that way).  If I get a chance, I’d like to ask some of the students what they think about that.  It could be that they don’t care at all.

Everyone also sang the school song.  The lyrics are up on what seems to be a wooden panel at the front of the auditorium/gym.  From where I was sitting I could read along.  Not that I tried to sing, since I didn’t know the melody and couldn’t read all the kanji anyway.  But eventually I’d like to learn it.  It’s not that long.

Well, tomorrow is the first class.  The schedule still isn’t quite normal because of all the practice for 体育祭 (taiikusai), or the Sports Day Festival.  So, there’s only one class tomorrow for us ALTs.  I hope it goes well!

Twilight Zone Moment

So, since the students aren’t in the school right now, and most of the teachers aren’t either, they’re testing the school’s PA System (I guess).  There’s the usual alarm sounds, like an old fashioned school bell, and something that sounds like an ambulance siren, beeps and chirps, a high-pitched droning sound…but the really, really creepy and weird thing is that through it all, there’s a constant duhn-duhn.  It sounds like a heartbeat.  Maybe someone’s pounding on the microphone.  Sometimes it’s a bit louder.  It’s funny/creepy because there’s so few people here and the lights aren’t on in the hallways.

They should just randomly start doing what they’re doing now on Halloween, lol!

Just some randomness…

First Days in Dazaifu

Okay, I’ve been bad about updating this blog.  I still don’t have internet at home and realistically, probably won’t for another month or so.  While I’ve already done everything I need to do for the upcoming classes, I don’t want to be all blatantly blogging at work.  But, it turned out that the students, and most of the teachers, aren’t here today.  I’m not exactly sure why, but the term hadn’t really started yet (even though the students had been at school half-time for the past 2 weeks or so).  Tomorrow (the 25th) is the Opening Ceremony (始業式), marking the beginning of the new term.  I have to give a speech introducing myself to the school.

Anyway, this post is about my first couple of weeks in Dazaifu.  Well, technically I live in a nearby suburb, but the school is in Dazaifu.  (Plus, where I live doesn’t alliterate with Detroit, lol).

So, the first few days at school, since it was summer vacation there were hardly any teachers there.  It went by fast though, as much time was spent on trying to straighten out my paperwork.  I couldn’t get a cell phone because I didn’t have a bank account, and I couldn’t get a bank account because I didn’t have my actual Foreigner Card, only a Proof of Registration.  Argh! >_<

The first two nights in Dazaifu, I did a homestay with a Japanese teacher (I mean, Japanese is the subject she teaches.  Well, she is Japanese, but ^_^;). She’s really nice.  And she cooked really delicious food!  She invited me to her tai chi class.  I was able to do it, albeit a bit funky because of the limited motion in my right ankle, but it was fun.  I’m used to walking a lot, so it didn’t hurt in my legs too much, but my arms were sore the next morning.

My predecessor showed me around town on the weekend.  To be honest, I wasn’t paying as much attention to where I was as to not falling off the bike.  But it did come in useful later, as at least things looked familiar when I went out on my own.  We went all over the place.  My predecessor helped me register at Tsutaya Discas (a DVD & CD rental place) and at an internet cafe since I initially couldn’t log on at school (though I’d prefer not to go there too much as it seems to be used by uber-online-gamers and people…enjoying themselves a little too much, lol).  She also showed me a store that sold “Western size” clothes, a diner called “Son House” that serves American and “Mexican” food, a hundred yen shop, the train stations, etc. Oh yeah, she showed me around the various “recycle shops,” basically second-hand stores.  I got a small chest of drawers and a microwave.

At school, there really wasn’t much for me to do when I wasn’t seeing to paperwork because, like other Fukuoka Prefecture JETs, I was in “semi-quarantine” due to concerns over swine flue.  For a little over one week, I couldn’t leave the staff room.  I worked on my self-introduction lesson and speech, but that didn’t take all that long.  Once I could get online from my laptop, well, even though I didn’t want to be doing too much serious online stuff, I did spend time sending emails and reading news.  I’ve been told that at this school the staff doesn’t mind what the ALT does during summer vacation.  Indeed, there were no more than 10 teachers here on any given day, and the week of Obon there were like 2 people here besides myself and the other ALT.

Once out of quarantine, I got to walk around the school.  Since the school has an art curriculum, students’ works are displayed all over.  These kids are talented!  I also got to help two girls practice for a speech contest.  Not sure how that went at the moment.

When my Foreigner Card came, my supervisor and I went to get a cell phone and bank account set up for me.  Ironically, at the bank I had to put a phone number down! We used the school’s.  The application for the cell phone also required a phone number, so again, I used the school’s.  In the States this would never fly, but they actually scanned my passport and Foreigner Card at the cell phone place!  I don’t know if they scan Japanese people’s IDs.  They probably do, otherwise I don’t think they’d have a special scanner set up for the random gaijin that might waltz in.

I tried tonkotsu ramen, which Fukuoka is famous for.  It’s ramen made with pork bones.  The broth is super greasy though, so you don’t drink it all.  It’s pretty delicious.

Well, that’s pretty much it.  This past weekend I drew myself a map from the various atlases my predecessor had left and found my way back to the Tsutaya and the Western size clothing store.  I really didn’t bring much business wear, so I’m glad that store is nearby (about a 30 minute bike ride from the apartment).  The sizes are really, really weird though.  The “3L” shirts were huge for me, but I couldn’t get the “5L” pants past my hips!  I also went to the home goods store to get a nice, big, fluffy pillow, and some soil to start a compost bin.  I hope no one throws it out thinking that it’s trash!  I’m actually surprised they don’t compost as a policy here, what with all the separate-your-trash-into-10-kinds business.

Here are some pictures from around my apartment:

The welcome sign my predecessor made. The poster came in an Arena 37 I picked up. And yes, I brought my Sephiroth action figure with me. Because nothing can inspire quite like the plastic representation of a psychopath.

What I see from my balcony. And a special bear.

Well, tomorrow is Opening Ceremony, so I should practice my speech!

Tokyo Orientation

All new JETs go to Tokyo Orientation, where we learn more about the program, our jobs, the Japanese educational system, etc.  It was held at the swanky Keio Plaza Hotel.  They say many JETs skip out on the workshops to wander around Tokyo, but I went to all of them.  There was one I really wanted to skip because I knew it wouldn’t tell me anything new, but, ultimately I went anyway.  So, my only chance to go to the one place in Tokyo I really wanted to go to was on arrival day, Sunday the 2nd.

It’ll probably sound silly, but the one place I absolutely had to go to was the Square-Enix Show Case.  I won’t talk much about it here, since this blog is supposed to be about JET not geeking out, so, yeah.  But I was really happy I got to go!

At the hotel I had two roommates who also had flown out of Detroit.  There was one ethernet connection in the room that we took turns using.  AJET (an organization that supports JETs, to keep it simple) had set up a room with computers and gave everyone a free 5-minute Skype call.  I was also able to change the last of the American cash I had at the hotel.  (Side note: I had changed most of my money to yen in the States.  When I first heard that one should take yen, I was worried about where to get it, but it was really easy at Chase.  You just request it, give the money to be exchanged, and it comes within one to two days!)

Every prefecture had a special night out event.  Fukuoka’s was on the second night, on Tuesday.  We went to Torigen, a restaurant specializing in chicken.  It was a 食べ放題　飲み放題　(tabehoudai + nomihoudai), meaning “all you can eat & drink.”  Most of the food was great, but it was expensive (4600￥, or about $45 per person)!  One of the JETs made friends with some of the other customers in the restaurant, and since they were a bit drunk they were really funny and crazy.  One of them introduced himself in English as “Samurai.”  When he left, he waved and said “Japanese Bye-Bye!!!” (Not to imply none of the JETs were buzzed because, well, some were.)

During the dinner, I learned that one of my fellow Fukuoka JETs was also a Square-Enix fan.  We decided to go to the store, even though it would be closed.  I offered to lead the way since I knew how to get there from the hotel.  But, there were some… circumstances and we didn’t leave directly from the intersection I knew so…we ended up walking in circles! >_<  It wasn’t too bad though; at least I got to see more of Shinjuku, which I would not have seen otherwise.  On the way we stopped to get “bubble tea,” which is tea with tapioca (the “bubbles” I guess) in it.  I think it took us an hour to find the store, even though it should’ve only taken 15 minutes!

The SE Store is on Koshu kaido, but we were a ways off at this point

Being a total geek

The next day, everyone went off to their respective prefectures.  People close to Tokyo just took trains, but since Fukuoka’s far away on Kyuushuu we flew out of Haneda Airport to Fukuoka.  Everyone was greeted at the airport by someone from their Contracting Organization.  I was greeted by one of the Vice Principals, my supervisor, and my predecessor.  They were all very nice.  Both of the gentlemen from the school speak English well, so that made things easy.  The four of us had lunch at a Japanese restaurant in the airport.

Then, we went to the immigration office since it’s right there in the airport and I got a re-entry permit.  My predecessor commented that most people don’t know you can do that (get the re-entry permit right when you first arrive), and that it should be more widely announced.  Indeed it should be!  While I’ve had difficulty getting other things set up, at least I know that should I need to travel outside of Japan I already have the re-entry permit.

Whoops, this is no longer about Tokyo!  Stay tuned for the next post: “First Days in Dazaifu.”

Up in the Sky

“I’m flyin’ coach class, up in the sky

Sippin’ cola, livin’ the life”

^o^

Yeah, I wrote the same thing in my personal blog. What can I say? I laugh too much at my own jokes.

So, in six hours I gotta be at the airport. During the pre-departure orientation, I couldn’t help noticing once more how many things in JET are like City Year: the constant idea that you have to learn to roll with the punches, expect the unexpected, and, unfortunately, the “no one will understand what you’re going through.” At least for City Year, I know that’s certainly true.

But then again, isn’t that the case with all fields, now that everyone’s so specialized? For example, the orthopedist that fixed me specialized in ankle reconstruction. Can anyone else know what goes through his mind? It’s why I don’t think there’s such a thing as “common sense.” Common sense comes from common experience, but there’s all these little groups with their own little worlds, having experiences different from those of others.

Anyway, I probably won’t be able to update this blog until September, depending on when I get home internet up and running. Till then, O World!