First Days at Kozuya

I have just completed the first two full days of teaching. They have both been at Kozuya Junior High School. There are around 50 students in 3 grades here. This translates to there being three classes in the whole school. The first day I was here I only did one class of first year Junior High Students. I did my self introduction power point presentation. There were only a few students in the class who really seemed eager to participate. Don’t take this to mean that they were not interested. They were interested they just where to embarrassed to join in. I only have one story that I want to relate from the class. I went around the room and ask students their name, what sport they play, and what they liked. Every student in this school is part of a sports club which is why I asked what sport they played. I go around the room till I reach one of boys. He tells me his name. Then he says he plays baseball. So I ask the last question, “What do you like?” He looks at me like I’m a perfect idiot and says “I like baseball.” Even though his English was not the best in the class I felt that he reacted most like a native English speaker. After school all the students go to sports teams. My JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) is the couch of the boys and girls volleyball team. They have track and field, volleyball, baseball, and tennis. The school also has a pool but no swimming team. I tried volleyball a little, but quickly reviled myself to be terrible at volleyball. So, after that I helped out with baseball. It was a lot of fun I stayed about 40 minutes after school and played catch with the kids. Maybe when I have a bike I will stay longer. The next day I did my self introduction for the second and third year students. They seemed a lot more excited about it all. They asked a lot of questions in both English and Japanese. Being able to speak Japanese, even at the level I am, has helped a lot already. The other teachers don’t know English and so they feel more at ease because they can talk to me. Also, they have a really good impression of ALTs in general thanks to my predecessor Dan. (In a small aside when I ask something about how Dan did things or make a comment about how helpful Dan was they look at me like I’m crazy. Dan went by Daniel Sensei here and to call him anything else invites confusion.) The students seem to enjoy asking me questions in Japanese that are above their level of English, tough often the JTE has to translate. The second day I also helped to teach my first real lesson. We worked on teaching plural to the first years. Things like 1 pen vs. 2 pens or 1 CD vs. 2 CDs. We also did a dialog about ordering at a fast food restaurant. Samantha drew pictures of the food things like hamburger, cheese burger, and a truly hilarious picture of a chicken burger. The chicken burger had a whole live chicken between 2 buns the kids seemed to think it was funny. And you know what even if they didn’t I found it hilarious and will probably post a picture of it either with this post or latter and you all can tell me if it was funny or not. My vote is funny.
My name has been a big challenge here. Teachers students and well everyone has trouble with my name. They all make a very valiant attempt at it but its hard for them the L sound and the final B are very difficult. I hope that my other schools are this fun. Oh this weekend is the Ichinohe festival. It last for 3 days. I will miss the first day because I have to go to Morioka to get some immigration business taken care of but the second day Samantha, Stephanie, and I will dance in the festival. We will go to a class about the dance tonight or last night depending on when I manage to get this online. I hope that this will be a great time to meet some more people in Ichinohe. I also am going to say that I have heard the first round of post cards hit the US. We will be sending more and would love to get some post cards from home as well. If you want to send us one please email Samantha or I for our address and we will be happy to give it to you.
Part 2
Morioka was a lot of fun actually. I was nice to see the people I came to Iwate with. We also had some more training times. I did some shopping in Morioka. This weekend Samantha and I will get cell phones. We had to order them so that we could get English menus. We will be able to call each other for free which will be nice. I also found a bike. It’s a mountain bike that will be good for the snow. It’s a used bike but the frame is large enough for me and the bike shop is putting some work into it this week and I can get it Friday. I was in pretty good shape but they want to change the tires work a few places that were starting to rust and tune the brakes and gears. They were really helpful and the whole thing will be around 200 US dollars which is cheap for a real bike here. This weekend was the Ichinohe festival. Samantha, Stephanie, and I danced in it Saturday night. There were really cool floats that each area of town made. I have good pictures of all of them and will post those later. Sunday, Samantha and I helped our neighbors pull the float around town and through out area for 4 hours. We would stop and the kids would play flute and one of the older people would sing at different places in town. It was a lot of fun and we meet many people who lived around us. They were all very friendly. After, the festival we went with the adults from the area to a party above the local fire station. It was a lot of fun. We set with some of the town councilman until we reached the let your hair down part of the party. Then some more people came over and talked to us less formally. All in all it was a great day. People really made us feel a part of town. From our neighbor who saw us walking and invited us to help pull the float, to the old lady who gave us paper flowers to hang in front of the house like everyone else in town, to our local pharmacist who had us sit with her family at lunch, to the people who made it a point to talk to Samantha even if they had to wait for me to translate. It was just so nice to know that the people around us cared.

Today I taught my first Elementary School. Kozuya Elementary. It was fairly difficult actually. First, at Japanese Elementary schools they don’t have English teachers. This means that the level of English amongst the staff was pretty low. The fifth grade teacher had the best and I just had to do all communications in a horrible mix of English and Japanese, mostly Japanese. The students were friendly and really really high energy. The first thing they had me do was teach the fifth grade a game that I would later play with the whole school. That’s right I had to come up with a game for 87 kids who were in first to sixth grade to play. We did red light green light. The kinds loved it the teachers seemed to like it but it took them a whole to make the driving parallel. In the upper level classes I did an introduction in English and Japanese. Then the kids ask me prepared questions. The sixth grade teacher had a bit of trouble with the kids doing the questions. Some of the question were, “do you marry” and “what is your no thank you food.” Now the meaning of these questions is clear are you married and what food don’t you like so that’s a victory, but its still odd. At recess I played soccer with the kids. It was really more like mob with a ball. When it started there were two teams of five when it ended they were about 30 boys trying to steal the ball from each other. After that I did my introduction to 3rd and 4th grades and played some more games. Elementary is fun but exhausting.

Omagari Fire Works

These are pictures from Morioka and the Omagari fireworks festival. The top three pictures are from Morioka. I don't know the significance of the statue. I do wonder how they got it did an artist come to them and say I want to build a statue of a dog, but not just a dog a king dog, but not just a king dog a king dog in a scoop of ice cream. Oh yeah and all that will be in a coffee cup. Brilliant! The top fire work pictures are a tease Samantha is editing a video of the fireworks that she took. They had a type of fireworks that I have never heard of called day time fireworks. They were really smokey and would release parachutes that trailed colored smoke. Some of the parachutes like the one above said things. The one in the picture says Omagari fireworks. In Japanese fireworks is Hanabi or flower fire. So check back in the next few days for a video of the fireworks and a more detailed post about the fire works from Samantha.

Just got finished teaching Kindergarten. I was really nervous to teach my first class. All foreign English teachers taught together. Claire who has been here a year planned the lesson and we all helped. We taught them to say "I'm (your name)." Then we did a game where they would play rock, paper, scissors and then the winner would say, "hello how are you?" Then the loser would say how they were. The most popular answers were I'm happy and I'm hungry. Of course some kids got confused and said I'm and their name. They were a lot of fun we taught 6 and 3 years old. Claire used a mix of English and Japanese with kids and it worked really well. They were excited to meet us and try and learn English.

Reading-Japan Style

I have never thought of my self as a TV or Internet junkie. In fact left to my own devices in America I don't watch much TV or really use the Internet as much as my friends. However, not having TV that I can watch or the Internet at home has been a bit of a shock. I have read so much since I got here. I read 6 books cover to cover. Even for me that is a lot in such a short time. Some of them have been quite long like Pillars of the Earth and some quite weighty like Blink. Yet, I have devoured them all. In 13 days I have read thousands of pages of text. My pace will slow down when I start to teach, next week but I don't see it slowing that much. Having Samantha here has helped give me things to do since she brought our DVDs and some more Video Games. Oddly, Japan may turn me into a speed reader of English. Which would be nice. There are a ton of English books between the three teacher houses and the office. Quite a few being those classic books that everyone thinks they should try and read but realises that it will take being stuck in Japan with just that book to get them to read them. The complete list of books I have read is Blink, Treasure of Khan, Pillars of the Earth, This is your Life, The Post American World, Empire.

Blink- Very interesting its look at how we think and the subconscious was a great read. It really makes you think about your instincts and how you think.

Treasure of Khan- I had never read a Dirk Pitt book before this. It was the most preposterous over the top book I have ever read. Dirk trips falls and in the fall defeats two bad guys, save a damsel in distress, convinces China to give inner Mongolia back to Mongolia, and finds treasure. Oh and he body surfs a Tsunami.

Pillars of the Earth-Historical fiction about the building of Cathedrals and the event leading to the Second King Henry in England. Not being much for European history I remain unsure what was historical and what was fictional.

This is Your Life-British but funny any way. It is about a guy who has done nothing and bluffs his way into people thinking he is a celebrity. It has been the lightest book I have read here.

The Post American World- Really makes you think about the ways the world is changing. Looks at it not as a decline of America and the west but as the rise of the rest. Not a book of panic and fear mongering just a very level headed look at the world as it may be soon.

Empire- Civil war in modern America. A fun action packed book without being as silly as a Dirk Pitt book. A fun read all in all.

Currently I'm reading Pagan Christianity? that Mike gave Samantha and I. She and I will review it after we both finish.

Samantha's in Ichinohe

I'm sure all, or most of you, have followed the difficulty in getting Samantha here. It was very stressful and very difficult, but she is finally in Ichinohe with me. We had a pretty good time in Tokyo, but we're both glad to be home. So far all she has really done in Ichinohe is get a grand tour of the town and a library card. Considering how small the town is and how little I know of it the grand tour was a trip to the grocery store and home goods store. Its a bit of a walk from the house but not too bad. It will be especially easy after we get bikes.

In other news, I got payed today. Its a nice feeling, though without a bank account I just have a fat wad of cash. The reason that I don't have a bank account is that my Alien Registration Card has not gone through. I also don't have my insurance card yet either. On other banking news, I found out that Japan does not have joint bank accounts. When you get married it's normal for the bank accounts to be put into the wife's name and the husband to get an allowance from her. Since, my Japanese is better and I will get my Alien Registration sooner, Samantha and I will be bucking that tradition and will have the account in my name. She can just use my cash card to get cash when she needs it. I do wonder if they will pay us in cash every month. Stephanie has a bank account and our boss Sugosawa just handed her an envelope with cash in it too.

The first pay check is a great thing to have because we can now buy some things that we where holding off on like bikes, a rice cooker, rice, cellphones and a few other odds and ends. This month we will spend more of the pay then we will in subsequent months but we are both determined to keep the budget we are making and it looks like my income will be able to support us comfortably.
The pictures are of us in Tokyo.

Mission Accomplished

I have arrived. I think I`m half dead. Japanese keyboards are weird.

Oh and just so everybody knows, in Canada, milk really does come in bags.

S.

Some better news

Crisis averted!
I'm typing this from a hotel in Toronto Canada.
I leave for a direct flight to Tokyo tomorrow afternoon.

I'm watching The Empire Strikes back on cable TV.

Life's good.

S.

It's a nightmare

How do I say this...

I'm not on my flight.
It is not my fault.
I'm equal parts angry and terrified.

Orbitz didn't fix my ticket the way they said they would. As a result, the airline's computer said that I had an unpaid ticket. Orbitz swore that the ticket was fixed. I had to watch a clock tick by and know that my plane was leaving without me.

Basically, Orbitz has stated that it's my fault for not arriving even earlier than I was. They pawned me off on Air Canada. The representative from Air Canada was very nice and worked very hard to get me a new flight that wouldn't break my bank. That phone call was two hours long. It was an emotional roller coaster I hope to never board again.
The additional out-of-pocket expence yo-yo'ed from around $ 300 to $514 (and for a brief yet horrifying moment it hit $1,500). Remember this is even AFTER the $815 already paid for this ticket.

Eventually we got to a point where if I leave from Nashville tonight at about 6 PM and stay over in Vancouver overnight. I will arrive a day late, in Tokyo, for an extra expense of about $300. But nothing is sure yet. Air Canada is still working on it.

I'm trying desperately to contact Caleb to let him know of the circumstances but the number he gave me didn't have a city code on it, so that's a dead end.

I'm so shaken. I don't know what to do. I can't believe that this all went so bad so fast.

I want to scream but I really don't think that would make me feel better.


Hopefully I'll be back with some better news later on.
S.

Pictures of the House

These are pictures of the house. When Samantha gets here we will do a video walk trough. Its in really good shape and Dan and Tyler did a great job cleaning. It was nice to sleep on clean sheets in my own bed that first night. There is tons of weird stuff left by former JET. I have a closet filled with old computer stuff. There are 2 snowboards and tons of boots. There are several pairs of cold weather boots. We have a good amount of kitchen stuff including a large supply of forks and spoons. All in all if you don't mid that nothing matches, but its all in good repair we have a great house. Though there is one oddity no rice cooker.

I leave tomorrow

I leave tomorrow. As in after today I leave. And it's early too. I leave in about 18 hours. Do you hear that people? 18 hours.

I'm not sure whether to run around in a frenzied little circle or breath a sigh of relief.

~S.

Meeting the Mayor

Today they surprised Stephanie and I and had us meet the mayor of Ichinohe. First, after a whole day of not really having any work to do Sugosawa, our boss called, and told us to come to him office to meet the mayor. So we head down there and half way to his office he stops us and says that we will meet the mayor in half an hour not right then. So we walk back to our office. As soon as we get there Sugosawa calls and says to come to his office to meet the mayor now instead of in half an hour. So we go to his office and then up to the mayor's office. We were both really nervous about having to meet the most important person in Ichinohe and do self introductions. However, they never really had us do them. Sugosawa said who were, where we were from, and who we were replacing. Then the mayor asked if we had graduated college and I told him my major and minor. Then they talked rapidly about us in Japanese for a few minutes and after that Sugosawa started to talk about the fact I was married. He asked if I had been married when I applied and I said no only engaged. Apparently it was a bit of a surprise to them on the paper work for visas that I was married. The mayor confirmed that Samantha would be living with me in Ichinohe then in English he said. The he wanted us to make baby in Ichinohe. Not just one many babies. 3 or 4 babies. Which cracked up Stephanie and since it was in English she understood and can now laugh about forever. They also got on lock down that while Stephanie played the Bassoon she didn't bring on with her.

All in all meeting the mayor was not as bad as it could be and now I have a decent story about meeting the town mayor. As soon as we got back to our office we both started to write about meeting the mayor. I'm glad we now have meet everyone important except the teachers at the schools we are going to and any of our students. So, there are many more scary and probably humerus self introductions to come.

Ichinohe/ waiting for the bride

I got to Ichinohe OK. I don't have the Internet at home yet and it may be a few weeks before I do. I can use it at work during the week and for an hour at a time on the weekends. I took pictures of the house but forgot them at home on Friday and so I can upload them till Monday at work. There is nothing for us to do at work till school starts. We have been using the Internet and studying mostly. I have started trying to translate a few things and read some Japanese comics.

I cant wait for Samantha to get here. It will be so nice to have her here. I know that it will be hard at times but I think it will be great for us.

It's always the little things

My computer is being... frustrating.

This is not the first time that I have found myself in this situation.

Let me paint you a picture. (Those of you who deem themselves computer illiterate might just want to jump past the big block of text.)
Two days ago, my computer was fine. I could check my email and surf the boundless shores of the internet without undue ire. Then my dad bought me a webcam. (His hope was that I might be able to video chat with him while sequestered in the frozen north of Japan.) I installed the software gleefully, completely unaware of the trouble that lay in wait for me. Huzzah! The camera works! It shows me my own pixelated face in a little box on my monitor. I open up skype to make my first ever video chat... skype crashes. No problem! I'll update my version of skype, surely that should fix it... it didn't. Oooohkayyy, lets defrag the computer/delete unnecessary files to make room/ restart several times! That cocktail has never failed me before.... until now. Wait, why isn't Yahoo letting me open my mail? Why is everything running slow? Did this machine seriously just fail to run it's own Search function? AUUUUGHHHHHHH.
It was time for me to face the most likely truth. I had a VIRUS. A big, ugly gorilla of a virus. I'm still not sure if the whole thing is gone, even as I type this. While I'm working on ridding myself of the dregs of viral infection I'm left with this:

It shouldn't bother me this much to have my computer threatened, but it does. This sorry hunk-a-junk is going to be my direct link back to the people I love in America (and elsewhere for that matter). Sure, Caleb has a computer too, but that's his computer. I want my computer to work. Thankfully, both my brother and Brandon have given me some very calming reassurance. (If need be I can always purge this whole thing by reformatting it. )

Somewhere in the middle of this technical debacle, I got the sneaking suspicion that all this wouldn't bother me if the big move wasn't only a few days away.

It's always the small things that send us sputtering into the land of hysterics.

Personally, I'm hoping that this is my biggest upset between now and August 11th, and that my computer will bend to my will sooner rather than later.

Pics

These are all pictures from Tokyo. The Statue of Liberty and Gundum are in Odiba Tokyo. The Gundum is there to promote green living and Tokyo's Olympic bid. No one could tell me why there was a lady liberty. The first picture is the view from my hotel window in Morioka the capital of Iwate. More pics will go up later.

JET Training in Tokyo

Well I have completed the first day of JET training and one night out of Japanese style bonding with the other new teachers going to Iwate prefecture. There are only eleven new teachers hired in Iwate this year. Just five of us are at this training season. Its a good group there are 3 of us that speak Japanese the other 2 better than me. Four of us are American guys basically straight out of college 3 with experience living in Japan and one who taught English as a foreign language. The last person is an Australian girl who actually taught high school before. She is by far the oldest at 32. That's the group in a nut shell.

As for the training we had a formal opening ceremony. There were speeches by Japanese government representatives and by former JET program participants. The key note speech was on culture shock and ways of recognizing and dealing with it. It was pretty funny and very true. I remember the culture shock the first time I was in Japan. After that we could go to classes of our choosing. I went to one about teaching at multiple school, another about teaching elementary, and lastly one about JETs with families. They were all great. The elementary season was really good and gave me a lot of ideas for teaching the kids. Especially because in elementary we are not supposed to teach grammar or even give grades we are supposed to give them the desire and motivation to learn English latter in life, i.e. Junior High School. Which when I found out we didn't have to teach grammar my response was done and done. The season for married JETs was a bit less helpful than I had originally hoped. It was like find something for your spouse to do like teach English. Which may be less then helpful advice in a small town where the desired English teaching is covered by me. However, it was nice to see that Samantha and I wont be alone there are plenty of other married JETs. In fact the majority at that class were wives who were on the JET program with husbands coming who weren't.

On a lighter not when people find out I'm married they add about 5 years to what they guess my age is.

In Tokyo

I'm finally in Tokyo trying to figure out Skype to call Samantha and tell her that I'm here. Just planing on doing that finding a restaurant eating and then going to bed. The picture is the building outside my room window.