Saturday, April 25, 2009

Ejio Park School Trip

Friday I got to go on a school trip with the 2nd years at the commercial school. It was a lot of fun! The entire school had some sort of trip depending on which grade it was. The 1st years had an overnight trip to Akiyoshidai where I guess they had to do a lot of exercise and I'm sure team building activities. The 3rd years all met at Tokiwa Park for a day of activities. Since I only teach 2nd years at this school, it's no surprise I ended up on their trip. The 2nd years walked 1.5 hours to Ejio Park which is in Onoda (the next town over). Once they got there, they had a few jump rope competitions. They used a giant jump rope and half the class had to all jump under it at the same time and whichever class got the most jumps won a prize. The prize was coke with their lunch. After that, everyone went off and had a picnic with their friends. The teachers all ate a nice bento from this place called Hotto Motto. We also had bottled green tea to drink. I've aqcuired a taste for many different things since I've been here. I remember the first time I ever came to Japan and tried bottled green tea, I seriously wanted to spit it out. By now, though, I can actually drink it without a problem. After the picnic, everyone was free to walk around or play in the park the rest of the afternoon. It was fun hanging out with the other teachers and my students. Around 1:30pm we all made the 1.5 hour walk back to the school. It was cool and overcast all day with the sun trying to peak out. I definetly got a sunburn on my face though. Finally, some color! I forgot to bring my camera, so no pictures. Oh well. A few students had cameras - mostly disposable cameras. I think that's really interesting that so many students still use disposable cameras here. It's kind of refreshing to see that.

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Wet Bicycle Seats & Chest X-Rays

Yesterday, it rained hard core all day... and all night... It was like there was a typhoon or something. Really windy. This morning I went to ride my bike and even made sure the seat was dry before getting on. When I got to work I realized that somehow the back of my pants were soaking wet. I'm pretty sure the seat on my new bike is like a sponge. It just soaks up all the water. Wiping it off won't help. I had to wear my long (bright red) jacket around all day to cover up my butt because of the wet mark. My pants FINALLY dried by the end of the day, but then I got back on my bike to go home and it was STILL wet. Not visibly. But once I sat down it was like sitting on a wet sponge. Not cool.

I was teaching today during 1st period and about 20 minutes into it a teacher comes in, interrupts, and says that it's time for the entire class to go down to the nurse's office to get a chest x-ray. What the heck?!?! I guess they do it once a year. My supervisor explained to me that the school is very concerned about all of the students' health. I think taking a chest x-ray once a year is a little extreme. They're looking for tuberculosis. But still. I think they had a few other medical checks. I just went back to the staff room because their physical checks took the rest of the time. Weird.

Wednesday, April 15, 2009

Ube News

I. Asbestos was found in the technical school that I go to every Thursday. They said it's only in some of the downstairs rooms... so they just aren't going to use those rooms anymore until it's taken care of - they hope by sometime this fall.

II. They made an announcement today at school that there was some crazy man wearing a white shirt and blue jeans riding around on a bicycle somewhere near Ube station with a knife. I live near Ube Station. They told me to be careful.

Exciting stuff, huh?!

Monday, April 13, 2009

Camping and Yabusame


This past weekend was a Yamaguchi AJET organized event - camping! We stayed in Mongolian huts at this camp ground in the north eastern part of Yamaguchi Prefecture (near Shimane prefecture). It was a lot of fun. There were around 50 people - Yamaguchi JETs, Shimane JETs, a few marines from the base in Iwakuni, and a handful of other people. All we did was eat, drink, and hang out the entire night. The weather was great, too! The next day we made our way about 20 minutes east by car to Shimane Prefecture. We went there to see Yabusame which is traditional horesback archery. It was pretty cool. I think I take the mountains and beauty of Yamaguchi for granted sometimes. I really love Japan's landscape. It's a pretty country.


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Last week was a really good week. There are quite a few changes that have been made at all of my schools for the new school year - and I'm really happy with the changes. Friday night I went to my base school's welcome/goodbye party (enkai). It was a really good time! A few new teachers were there and the teachers who had been moved to new schools were there to say goodbye. Among the 12 or so new teachers at my base school are 2 young female teachers. One is 24 and the other one is 25. They aren't English teachers, but their desks are basically next to mine and they are eager to practice English. Finally. Somebody to talk to at work! That change alone makes a HUGE difference. Besides that, I'm pretty happy with the classes I've taught so far. I feel a lot more confident in my teaching and so far this school year I really enjoy going to work. I enjoyed it before, but knowing how things work and not being the new person anymore makes a huge difference. It's nice. I really like it. It will be hard to leave at the end of summer.

Sakura! (Cherry Blossoms!)



The cherry blossoms were in full bloom last week and the weather has been perfect. I went to Tokiwa Park after work on Thursday and it was really nice. I'd say Tokiwa Park is Ube's "claim to fame." It's actually listed as one of the best (maybe top 10?) places in Japan to see the cherry blossoms in spring. There are over 3,000 cherry blossom trees in the park! It's also famous for the many pelicans!





Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Catch up time!

Where to start...


I flew up to Tokyo 2 weekends ago (March 27-30) and stayed with a friend who lives in Chiba. I had a really nice time :) One thing I realized while I was there, though, was that I could never live in a city anywhere near as big or crowded as Tokyo. It was more crowded than usual because it was spring break, but still - way too many people in one place. That said, it's still a cool place to visit. I went to Harajuku, Meiji Shrine, Yoyogi Park, Shinjuku, Disney Sea, and Asakusa. Like I said above, I didn't actually stay in Tokyo. I was staying at my friend's apartment in Chiba which is about an hour train ride from the center of Tokyo. My friend is Japanese and she seriously knows how to make food. It was nice to have someone prepare breakfast for me every morning - and it was actually GOOD breakfast... unlike my usual grab whatever food is in my apartment and go. The cherry blossoms at Yoyogi Park were still kind of on their way to fully blooming, but that didn't stop people from gathering and having hanami parties. I've come to find out that hanami parties consist of going to a park where there are cherry blossoms, drinking lots of alcohol, and eating lots of food. Pretty fun. Disney Sea was cool to see... but just too crowded. The wait for everything was 2-3 hours. It was also pretty cold the weekend I was there. I'm still glad I went to Disney, regardless of the crowds. Here are some pictures from my weekend trip to Tokyo:


Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

This past weekend I celebrated my birthday with some friends. Saturday night I had dinner in Ube with Meng, Jimmy, Saranne and her fiance Hideki. We went to a yakiniku place... because I love yakiniku. After that, Meng, Jimmy, and I went down the road and went bowling. We bowled 5 games and had a few drinks in the process. These 3 girls were bowling in the lane next to us and it turns out they were 20 years old and had graduated from the commercial school where I teach. They weren't that interested in being our friends though, haha. After bowling we decided to go down the road and we stopped at this really cool store called Don Quixote. We took advantage of their awesome photo booths. We then made our way to this Japanese style restaurant. I had 2 pieces of salmon... and they were delicious. After that, we made our way to McDonald's where I believe I had some kind of hamburger. I thought I was being smart and ordered another burger to take home with me (so I could eat it for breakfast Sunday morning... yeah...), but I ended up leaving it in the back of a taxi... yeah... All in all - it was a great night! The next day (Sunday) Jimmy, Meng, and I met up with Richard at Space World. Space World is an amusement park in Kitakyushu. I was a little disappointed in the park, but it was fun hanging out. I just thought there would be more rides... there were only 3 "big" coasters and 1 of them was closed. Richard has all of the pictures from the day on his camera, so as soon as I get them I'll post them. After Space World, we made our way to Kokura and had dinner at the awesome Thai place. The cherry blossoms at Kokura castle were really pretty!


So that covers the past 2 weekends. Work is what falls in between... or rather the lack thereof. Going to my base school for the past month and sitting at a desk for 8 hours a day with no work to do has taken its toll - that's for sure. I'm just not going to get into how not fun it has been. Old teachers left and new ones came in which is a nice change. There are these 2 younger females who sit very close to me who are new... there is potential there for work friends. It's nice to not be the only young person there, that's for sure. I have nothing in common with the older teachers so they don't really talk to me. I FINALLY got my base school schedule today. Tomorrow is the opening ceremony. They weren't shy in giving me classes... I have 4 classes Mondays and Tuesdays, and 3 classes on Wednesdays. Teaching 4 classes in 1 day takes its toll. I'm not complaining though... not yet. I'll have 4 classes every Friday at the commercial school. I'm not sure yet how many I'll be teaching Thursdays at the technical school. I hope the teachers at my base school actually give me some guidance in terms of lesson plans this year. Last year they just said "do whatever"... but I'd rather make lesson plans that are relevant so that students HAVE to pay attention. There are 2 new English teachers at my base school that I'll be working with. My first day of teaching at my base school is Monday. If they don't approach me about lesson plans then I'll approach them and make them give me a topic. I hate how non-confrontational people are here... just talk to me!

What else... hmmm... oh, well today is my actual birthday. I did nothing today because I did all of my birthday celebrations on Saturday and Sunday. I actually had some self-control and managed to not open any of the birthday cards I received in the mail until this morning. My mom sent me a wrapped box of Hostess cupcakes with some birthday candles. It was nice to have something to open AND cake to eat! She was the only one to sing happy birthday to me and it was through my phone email which I received at 7:30am... perfect timing... very nice mom, thanks!! I didn't tell anyone at work that it was my birthday... I didn't really see the point. It will be interesting when they hear me do my self-introduction in class. Will they notice that I'm 23 and not 22 anymore when I introduce myself? I had a nice birthday. It is a little weird though that it's practically over... in Japan... but just beginning in the US. That's weird.