I'm writing from Naruto Junior High School on that island that I posted a picture of yesterday. This morning I biked here and I was lucky that it was fairly cool and not raining. I got here about 20 minutes before the morning teacher's meeting, so I had enough time to get myself situated. The teacher's room is a big open air conditioned room (the only one in school) with all of the teacher's desks grouped together in pods. In Japan, the students stay in the same classroom and the teachers move from room to room between classes, so their desks are all in one room. I have my own desk at each school. This morning I made a speech in Japanese and English to all of the teachers. It was short, but I also passed out a newsletter about myself in English and Japanese. Jeff was kind enough to proofread it.
Today I am helping teach two "first-year" classes. The first year in junior high school is the same thing as 7th grade in the US. I have several laminated pictures and maps made so that I can show the kids my family, where Wisconsin is in the US (no one knows when I tell them that's where I grew up), and where I went to school. I'm so excited!
Since this is the first day of school, the entire school weeds the school property during the afternoon. I was told to bring outside clothes for this event so I'm assuming I will be participating. Bring on the ragweed allergy!!! On a normal day the kids clean the entire school at the end of the day though. I don't have to do that but I may be assigned to a part of the building to oversee during the cleaning.
Tomorrow I go to Seto Junior High School and go through nearly the same thing. I teach two classes and instead of weeding, participate in evacuation training. Tokyo experienced a massive earthquake on September 1st over 80 years ago and ever since then, they evacuate on September 1st. I'm not sure if they do this all over or if it's just that school. Should be interesting. I was told to bring a hat because we'll be outside for at least 2 hours.
Erin, I'm glad you feel like you're here. My job here is to internationalize the kids, so my existance is about 80% of my job. But I consider this blog part of my job too because I get to internationalize you guys at the same time. Japan is left out of the US curriculum (minus WW2), at least it was in Germantown. So I feel like everything will be just as amazing to you guys as it is to me, who started learning about Japan from scratch at Wellesley. You should still visit me though Erin!!! There's so much that you just have to experience yourself.
Grandpa J, those trucks are made by many companies but they are all identical. Honda, Suzuki, Mitsubishi, etc. No non-Japanese makers though.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
Wednesday, August 30, 2006
Everything seems tiny to me
Here is a snipet of pictures of things that seem small to me:
This is Jeff's car next to an American size car.
The minivans are actually mini.
Here is a neighborhood street. It looks like an alley, but it's a street that people live on.
Gas is 144yen/L, which is $4.64/gall so I'm sure that's why the cars are smaller. The engines are smaller. And small cars are easier to maneuver on tiny streets.
These are average size soda/coffee cans.
This is a tiny bag of popcorn. It's the same size as the single serving size in the states, but it's the only size that's available. This is pretty typical of all groceries. The sizes are smaller, but you pay the same amount you would in the states.
This is a shopping cart at all stores - grocery store, menards type stores, drug store, etc.
The cans maybe smaller, but they are available EVERYWHERE in vending machines. Snacks are only available in freeway roadstop vending machines, if that. Soda, coffee, water, ion supply drinks, beer, and cigarette vending machines are everywhere.
This is rare, but a couple blocks from my house is an egg vending machine!!!!
School starts tomorrow, so I won't be coming into the Board of Education office everyday with my computer. I'll also be busier than I have been, so I won't be posting quite as much until I get internet access in my apartment (which was ordered three weeks ago!!!!!).
Here's the Board of Education office which is layed out like all Japanese offices - desks pushed together in a wide-open room - no cubicles and no privacy.
Tomorrow I teach at Naruto Junior High school with is about 1km behind those white buildings on that island.
This is the ferry that I will take my bike on to get there because it's too dangerous to bike on the car bridges.
Dear Gypsy Sanchez (see previous comments), Yes I definitely had a "What About Bob?" moment while I was sailing. I didn't get tied to the front sail though!
I think I answered all other questions in the last couple posts. If not, ask me again - email or comment.
This is Jeff's car next to an American size car.
The minivans are actually mini.
Here is a neighborhood street. It looks like an alley, but it's a street that people live on.
Gas is 144yen/L, which is $4.64/gall so I'm sure that's why the cars are smaller. The engines are smaller. And small cars are easier to maneuver on tiny streets.
These are average size soda/coffee cans.
This is a tiny bag of popcorn. It's the same size as the single serving size in the states, but it's the only size that's available. This is pretty typical of all groceries. The sizes are smaller, but you pay the same amount you would in the states.
This is a shopping cart at all stores - grocery store, menards type stores, drug store, etc.
The cans maybe smaller, but they are available EVERYWHERE in vending machines. Snacks are only available in freeway roadstop vending machines, if that. Soda, coffee, water, ion supply drinks, beer, and cigarette vending machines are everywhere.
This is rare, but a couple blocks from my house is an egg vending machine!!!!
School starts tomorrow, so I won't be coming into the Board of Education office everyday with my computer. I'll also be busier than I have been, so I won't be posting quite as much until I get internet access in my apartment (which was ordered three weeks ago!!!!!).
Here's the Board of Education office which is layed out like all Japanese offices - desks pushed together in a wide-open room - no cubicles and no privacy.
Tomorrow I teach at Naruto Junior High school with is about 1km behind those white buildings on that island.
This is the ferry that I will take my bike on to get there because it's too dangerous to bike on the car bridges.
Dear Gypsy Sanchez (see previous comments), Yes I definitely had a "What About Bob?" moment while I was sailing. I didn't get tied to the front sail though!
I think I answered all other questions in the last couple posts. If not, ask me again - email or comment.
Tuesday, August 29, 2006
FOOOOOD
Over the last week I've tried to take pictures of all the food that was in front of me or the other people around me. There are many Japanese dishes that will be missing, but as I eat more everyday, I'll continue to post random food pictures.
Tempura set meal てんぷらセート - fried vegetables and jumbo shrimp, tempura sauce, white rice, and miso soup with seaweed (wakame/わかめ):
Curry Udon カーリうどん- curry on top of udon noodles - Jeff noted that this one was a little watery:
Oyakodon おやこどん- chicken and raw egg over steaming rice:
Sashimi さしみ - raw fish, here there's raw tuna, river fish, and salmon:
Takoyaki たこやき - it's basically a hush puppy with octopus inside (much easier to eat than raw octopus):
Grilled Squid with mayonnaise:
Korean Kimchi:
Yakisoba やきそば - Chicken and buckwheat noodles:
Mochimochi もちもち - this comes as either smashed rice or potato and fried like a hashbrown, served with lots of butter - I'm sure no one is surprised to find out that this is one of my favs despite the fact that it tastes nothing like a hashbrown:
Jyoza じょうざ - Chinese dumplings
Pickled vegetables - I stay away from these:
Here is a plate of mini corndogs, french fries, fried chicken, and fried something else:
Here I am eating a french fry with chopsticks, but after I took this pic the Japanese people that I was eating with told me I could eat them with my fingers:
Edamame えだまめ - a classic Japanese appetizer of salted beans
Here's a mix of yakitori (chicken on a stick), wieners, and meatballs (I'm not sure what was actually in them but they were tasty):
Salad - every salad that has come with my meal already has dressing on it and it's always the same dressing - 1000 island:
This is an obento lunch that you can get at any convenient store. It's cold and comes with a light sauce. It's noodles with egg, ham, cucumber, and radish.
Onigiri おにぎり - a triangle rice filled with either plum, tuna, or something mysterious and wrapped in seaweed:
Bread - it's huge here, literally - slices are an inch thick and come in bags of about five slices:
Japanese pear - it tastes like a pear, but looks like an apple:
Okonomiyaki おこのみやき - the meal where you cook it yourself at the restaurant - You tell them which ingredients you want, they bring it along with the egg and batter base, you oil the grill, you mix and layout your food, it cooks, you flip it like a pancake, you add bbq sauce or any other sauce, you eat it. We are sitting on the floor here by the way.
So far I've been surprised by the amount of mayonnaise that has come with many foods. At my second welcome party, there was Japanese pizza that was really just thin pizza crust with garlic and mayonnaise all over it. Packets of mayonnaise come with nearly ever noodle obento. The only milk that is available is 3.7% fat, so it's basically whole milk or no milk. Since I found out how much calcium is in seaweed and sesame seeds, I've stopped drinking milk and started eating seaweed and sesame seeds everyday.
I've gone out to eat a lot in the last couple weeks and in every single restaurant there has been at least one person smoking. Usually half the room is smoking though. That was shocking and slightly disturbing to me. The only places where smoking is banned is school property and maybe the library. Otherwise, smoking happens indoors and outdoors, everywhere. Cigarettes are very cheap and very available in vending machines, so I guess that explains half of it. The other half might be explained by the fact that the Japanese government has a large percentage of stock in the tabacco industry.
A bonus for eating out - there's no tipping! Even if you try to tip, someone will run after you outside of the restaurant to return your money to you (so I've heard). Once I forgot a pen in a restaurant and our waitress ran after me in the parking lot to return it, so I'd believe the same for money.
Tempura set meal てんぷらセート - fried vegetables and jumbo shrimp, tempura sauce, white rice, and miso soup with seaweed (wakame/わかめ):
Curry Udon カーリうどん- curry on top of udon noodles - Jeff noted that this one was a little watery:
Oyakodon おやこどん- chicken and raw egg over steaming rice:
Sashimi さしみ - raw fish, here there's raw tuna, river fish, and salmon:
Takoyaki たこやき - it's basically a hush puppy with octopus inside (much easier to eat than raw octopus):
Grilled Squid with mayonnaise:
Korean Kimchi:
Yakisoba やきそば - Chicken and buckwheat noodles:
Mochimochi もちもち - this comes as either smashed rice or potato and fried like a hashbrown, served with lots of butter - I'm sure no one is surprised to find out that this is one of my favs despite the fact that it tastes nothing like a hashbrown:
Jyoza じょうざ - Chinese dumplings
Pickled vegetables - I stay away from these:
Here is a plate of mini corndogs, french fries, fried chicken, and fried something else:
Here I am eating a french fry with chopsticks, but after I took this pic the Japanese people that I was eating with told me I could eat them with my fingers:
Edamame えだまめ - a classic Japanese appetizer of salted beans
Here's a mix of yakitori (chicken on a stick), wieners, and meatballs (I'm not sure what was actually in them but they were tasty):
Salad - every salad that has come with my meal already has dressing on it and it's always the same dressing - 1000 island:
This is an obento lunch that you can get at any convenient store. It's cold and comes with a light sauce. It's noodles with egg, ham, cucumber, and radish.
Onigiri おにぎり - a triangle rice filled with either plum, tuna, or something mysterious and wrapped in seaweed:
Bread - it's huge here, literally - slices are an inch thick and come in bags of about five slices:
Japanese pear - it tastes like a pear, but looks like an apple:
Okonomiyaki おこのみやき - the meal where you cook it yourself at the restaurant - You tell them which ingredients you want, they bring it along with the egg and batter base, you oil the grill, you mix and layout your food, it cooks, you flip it like a pancake, you add bbq sauce or any other sauce, you eat it. We are sitting on the floor here by the way.
So far I've been surprised by the amount of mayonnaise that has come with many foods. At my second welcome party, there was Japanese pizza that was really just thin pizza crust with garlic and mayonnaise all over it. Packets of mayonnaise come with nearly ever noodle obento. The only milk that is available is 3.7% fat, so it's basically whole milk or no milk. Since I found out how much calcium is in seaweed and sesame seeds, I've stopped drinking milk and started eating seaweed and sesame seeds everyday.
I've gone out to eat a lot in the last couple weeks and in every single restaurant there has been at least one person smoking. Usually half the room is smoking though. That was shocking and slightly disturbing to me. The only places where smoking is banned is school property and maybe the library. Otherwise, smoking happens indoors and outdoors, everywhere. Cigarettes are very cheap and very available in vending machines, so I guess that explains half of it. The other half might be explained by the fact that the Japanese government has a large percentage of stock in the tabacco industry.
A bonus for eating out - there's no tipping! Even if you try to tip, someone will run after you outside of the restaurant to return your money to you (so I've heard). Once I forgot a pen in a restaurant and our waitress ran after me in the parking lot to return it, so I'd believe the same for money.
Monday, August 28, 2006
Check out my sweet ride!
It's the bike in front :) The bike they got me was an 18 speed, but the seat was super uncomfortable, it didn't have a basket (for groceries and such), no bell, no lock, no light, and the back wheel had a serious wobble. I figured that it would cost just as much to add all that stuff as it would be to buy a new bike entirely. So I bought this bike for $115 and it came with two baskets, lock, front light (powered by the moving wheel!), comfy seat, umbrella holder, registration (in case it's stolen), and crash insurance (I would get $2000 worth of hospital bills paid if injured and $1000 or so to my family if I die, heaven forbid). It's a one speed granny bike, but it's so comfortable to ride. I have to bike up to an hour to get to one of my schools, so this bike will make that an enjoyable ride. There aren't many hills that I have to tackle, so there wasn't much need for multiple speeds on a daily basis. I might take it off some sweet jumps though :) Oh and note the size of the cars behind my sweet ride. My bike is nearly the same length as a car!
I got a lot of positive feedback from many of you this weekend! Thank you!!!!!! Thanks for reading too. To answer a few questions and requests....... The whirlpools are strong enough to suck a person or small boat in but we went right through them in a big tour boat. They also have peak times when the currents/whirlpools are strongest, so for the majority of the day they are weak or non-existant. I'd assume they bridge builders stopped building during peak times. Plus each individual whirlpool lasts about 10 seconds. I'm not about to jump in one, but I'd imagine a skilled swimmer with a good lung capacity could make it out of one okay.
I will do "food" and "tiny things" posts in the next couple days, but today I will just share my weekend with you. I went sailing!!! One of the guys that works downstairs has been sailing for 40 years and he invited Jeff, Jill, and me out on Saturday. We sailed for about 2 hours in the morning, parked at another island, ate lunch, and sailed back. There wasn't any wind in the morning so we had to use the engine, but we were able to move with a full sail on the way back. I've been on many boats before but this was my first time on a sail boat. There's a lot that goes into sailing and the boat tips back and forth quite a bit more than, say a speedboat. Anyways, here's the boat, the view of many nearby mountains, and me stearing the boat on the way back at full sail. The guy that took us out told me that I was a natural at steering!
Yesterday I biked to a nationwide fundraising event for people with disabilities. There were events all over the nation and each event was on tv for a bit. There were many performances, including Jeff and Kagawa-san from the office. They did a little folk singing. The German in Naruto that just started working for the German House (former German concentration camp) via JET was there too. He did a little European geography lesson in Japanese. I just watched and participated in the awa odori dancing.
As you can see I was in the sun a lot this weekend. I was wearing spf 45 and reapplying it whenever I realized that I probably sweat it all off. Despite this effort, I still got quite a bit of color. Others were wearing spf 30 and got burned!
Friday, August 25, 2006
Naruto tourism sites
I was going to post an entry about all the tiny things in Naruto, but then around 10am this morning my coworkers said, "You must be bored, let's go see the sites." So off we went to visit the first temple on the 88 Buddhist temple pilgrimage on Shikoku and the Naruto whirlpools!!!
On the way to the temple, we stopped in at a store in the region well-known for the pettery made there (not far from my apartment!) The pottery is called otaniyaki - otani is the region and yaki means bake. Here I am standing next to the large pieces that I was told were used as coffins a long time ago. The put the body inside, and bury the whole thing.
This piece costs about $200:
We may go back and make our own pottery there next week!!!!!
The first temple of the 88 temple pilgrimage (for more info look it up on wikipedia) is also fairly close to my apartment. Here is the entrance:
Here I am washing my hands and rinsing my mouth before entering:
Here's the candle I lit for Grandma Rodgers:
A few more pics:
Then we ate lunch and ventured off for the Naruto whirlpools. On the way there, we stopped at a place with a picturesque view of Naruto. Here I am with Jill and Jeff with Naruto in the background:
The shape/phenomenon of the whirlpools is called an Eddy. So all of the tour boats and buses are called "aqua eddy" or "the Eddy"! hehe The bridge that the whirlpools form under and one of the whirlpools:
I was afraid that this would be like whale watching, where you really have to be there to capture the moment because pictures won't do, so I took another video and uploaded it onto google. The big whirlpool is at the end - the link is on the right under links.
I think pictures say more than words, but if you have questions, please ask! I'm so happy you are reading and that motivates me to keep updating this. Thanks! Mary has been asking me about food, so I'm going to take many pictures of food this weekend and post more about that next week. There's more to Japanese food that sushi! Have a good weekend everyone!
On the way to the temple, we stopped in at a store in the region well-known for the pettery made there (not far from my apartment!) The pottery is called otaniyaki - otani is the region and yaki means bake. Here I am standing next to the large pieces that I was told were used as coffins a long time ago. The put the body inside, and bury the whole thing.
This piece costs about $200:
We may go back and make our own pottery there next week!!!!!
The first temple of the 88 temple pilgrimage (for more info look it up on wikipedia) is also fairly close to my apartment. Here is the entrance:
Here I am washing my hands and rinsing my mouth before entering:
Here's the candle I lit for Grandma Rodgers:
A few more pics:
Then we ate lunch and ventured off for the Naruto whirlpools. On the way there, we stopped at a place with a picturesque view of Naruto. Here I am with Jill and Jeff with Naruto in the background:
The shape/phenomenon of the whirlpools is called an Eddy. So all of the tour boats and buses are called "aqua eddy" or "the Eddy"! hehe The bridge that the whirlpools form under and one of the whirlpools:
I was afraid that this would be like whale watching, where you really have to be there to capture the moment because pictures won't do, so I took another video and uploaded it onto google. The big whirlpool is at the end - the link is on the right under links.
I think pictures say more than words, but if you have questions, please ask! I'm so happy you are reading and that motivates me to keep updating this. Thanks! Mary has been asking me about food, so I'm going to take many pictures of food this weekend and post more about that next week. There's more to Japanese food that sushi! Have a good weekend everyone!
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