Last night I went to the cultural center in Tokushima City to see "The Marriage of Figaro" opera with my friends Smitha and Brian. It was a cast of Austrians singing in Italian and there were vertical digital Japanese subtitles going on both sides of the stage. I didn't understand much, but the music (Mozart) and costumes were beautiful! The program included sheet music and a manga (Japanese comic) of the play in Japanese. The experience was almost TOO cultural for me to handle.
During the train ride into the city, I ran into two of my students. They are siblings. Our conversation was quite limited, but I was impressed with their enthusiasm in trying to communicate with me outside of class.
Today I had more speaking tests. The English teacher told me that the students told her that it was hard to understand me during the test because I sounded so authentic but that I was really friendly... so they want to learn more English so that they can communicate with me! I was pleased to hear this. Perhaps I'll finally get a letter or two in my "letters" bin that I put on my desk at school in case someone wanted to practice their English in a less confrontational way.
After lunch two students came up to me and told me that the fried cheese portion of my self introduction last week had sparked their interest. They wanted to know how to make it. I told them that I had never made it before and that you need a special kind of cheese that I haven't seen in Japan yet. They were a little sad about this, but I told them where they could get some cream puffs and they got excited again. It was really cute.
I've mentioned these interactions because they were refreshing for me. I've been feeling like my job is a little pointless lately, but perhaps that's because I did the same lesson in every class for 4 weeks and it got really boring for me. A couple teachers don't use me effectively either... I'm a human tape recorder sometimes (repeating words over and over). But now that I know that there are some students that really want to learn English and my culture, I feel better about it all. Hopefully my tap shoes will arrive soon and I can win over a couple more students with a little demonstration. :)
Comments about comments: Ah yes, the plastic ants and cockroaches were used on mom and dad too. hehehehe To let everyone else in on the family pranks I pulled with plastic bugs (for the record, Aunt Jan started it with those ants at one of our family reunions)... Once Mary went to school without showering because she thought there was an actual cockroach in the bathtub. She didn't yelp or alert anyone else so that we could kill it. She just didn't shower that day.
Friday, September 29, 2006
HA
I just killed it! I think I'm going to invest in some spray because running after it all around my apartment was ridiculous! I just hope there aren't more that I don't know about. I also hope that the one I just killed didn't go to the bathroom in my apartment because that's how the diseases spread. yar. okay, it's 1:30am, I need some sleep!!!! ........with the lights and air conditioning on.
Thursday, September 28, 2006
AAAAAHHH
I JUST SAW A TWO INCH LONG COCKROACH IN MY APARTMENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I TRIED TO SMASH IT BUT IT CRAWLED AWAY AND I CAN'T FIND IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
What's ironic is that it looked just like those plastic cockroaches that I use to scare Mary with when we were growing up. It was the exact same size, shape, and color. Well it seems as though whats comes around, finally got around, back to me!
What's ironic is that it looked just like those plastic cockroaches that I use to scare Mary with when we were growing up. It was the exact same size, shape, and color. Well it seems as though whats comes around, finally got around, back to me!
Wednesday, September 27, 2006
speech contest
For the past 3 weeks I've been correcting speeches and coaching a couple kids in English pronunciation to help them prepare for an English speech contest. The students wrote the speeches in Japanese, the teachers translated it, and I took it from there. On Tuesday, they competed in the Naruto competition. One of my students came in third place, but only the top two get to go on to the prefectural level.
I just have to explain the difficulty in English coaching to you. I've never thought about what my tongue is doing during certain sounds that we make when speaking, until I did this coaching. In Japanese, r=l and l=r, so their entire tongue is trained to stick to the roof of their mouth while they talk instead of just the back up for an r sound or just the tip up for the l sound. Also, f= the h sound, w= the oo sound, and v= the b sound in Japanese, so you can imagine how a sentence like "I would like to eat my favorite food" would sound like "I ood like to eat my haborit hood." On top of that, Japanese has a vowel after nearly every consonant, so when Japanese people speak English, they add a lot of extra vowels (that's why that shirt I posted a picture of before says Okulahoma). So in the end, that sentence would come out as "I oo-do liku to eato myu haborit hoodo." And when they say my name, it sounds like Jie Lozyaazu to me. But anways, the kids listened to my instructions and watched my lips move a lot more than they were use to, so it was a good experience, but all the exaggerating of my tongue and mouth movements gave me a headache everyday that I coached. I was really impressed with their improvement in the end though. I'm really proud of them. It was worth it! I also learned a lot about how to move my tongue a little differently so that I sound more authentic when I speak Japanese. Here are the kids that I coached after the contest. They are all about 15 years old.
At all three of my junior high schools, I'm conducting the oral exam part of class all week. The oral exam was always my least favorite part of foreign language classes, so it was odd to be on the other side of the desk. But it was really interesting too. I always wondered how I sounded to native speakers and how other people in the class did. Turns out that some kids just sit there until you motion that they can leave no matter how clear you make the directions (non-verbally, verbally, and written down). The girls were all average or above average, and the boys were either silent the entire time or answered with incomplete answers. There were a few boys in each class that knew what was going on, but I couldn't help but notice the general trend. I have run into the same pronunciation problems that I mentioned before with all of the kids, but I wasn't sure if I should downgrade them for that since their teacher pronounces it the same, unclear way.
This is a really funny article:
Mom, no that foot bath was free, but you had to have your own towel, just like you need your own towel nearly everywhere else (bathroom, restaurant, etc) because paper towel and napkins are rarely provided. I'm pretty sure it's to reduce the amount of trash. I now carry a washcloth type handkerchief everywhere I go.
I just have to explain the difficulty in English coaching to you. I've never thought about what my tongue is doing during certain sounds that we make when speaking, until I did this coaching. In Japanese, r=l and l=r, so their entire tongue is trained to stick to the roof of their mouth while they talk instead of just the back up for an r sound or just the tip up for the l sound. Also, f= the h sound, w= the oo sound, and v= the b sound in Japanese, so you can imagine how a sentence like "I would like to eat my favorite food" would sound like "I ood like to eat my haborit hood." On top of that, Japanese has a vowel after nearly every consonant, so when Japanese people speak English, they add a lot of extra vowels (that's why that shirt I posted a picture of before says Okulahoma). So in the end, that sentence would come out as "I oo-do liku to eato myu haborit hoodo." And when they say my name, it sounds like Jie Lozyaazu to me. But anways, the kids listened to my instructions and watched my lips move a lot more than they were use to, so it was a good experience, but all the exaggerating of my tongue and mouth movements gave me a headache everyday that I coached. I was really impressed with their improvement in the end though. I'm really proud of them. It was worth it! I also learned a lot about how to move my tongue a little differently so that I sound more authentic when I speak Japanese. Here are the kids that I coached after the contest. They are all about 15 years old.
At all three of my junior high schools, I'm conducting the oral exam part of class all week. The oral exam was always my least favorite part of foreign language classes, so it was odd to be on the other side of the desk. But it was really interesting too. I always wondered how I sounded to native speakers and how other people in the class did. Turns out that some kids just sit there until you motion that they can leave no matter how clear you make the directions (non-verbally, verbally, and written down). The girls were all average or above average, and the boys were either silent the entire time or answered with incomplete answers. There were a few boys in each class that knew what was going on, but I couldn't help but notice the general trend. I have run into the same pronunciation problems that I mentioned before with all of the kids, but I wasn't sure if I should downgrade them for that since their teacher pronounces it the same, unclear way.
This is a really funny article:
Mom, no that foot bath was free, but you had to have your own towel, just like you need your own towel nearly everywhere else (bathroom, restaurant, etc) because paper towel and napkins are rarely provided. I'm pretty sure it's to reduce the amount of trash. I now carry a washcloth type handkerchief everywhere I go.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
local stuff
A couple weekends ago I did a bit of exploring around Naruto. Here's the Chomeiji temple near one of my junior high schools.
Here's the view of Naruto from that temple.
Here's another temple at the bottom of that hill.
These are some cool trees that are everywhere.
These are shots of Tokushima City.
This is a frog that was waiting for me on my bike in the morning last week.
random updates: There was a 5.2 earthquake this morning between Shikoku and Kyushu. It happened around 7am, and many people felt it here, but I didn't. Also, it still gets up to about 80F everyday, with humidity at about 50%. It cools off quite a bit at night though. Also I'm thinking about getting a turtle for a pet.
Here's the view of Naruto from that temple.
Here's another temple at the bottom of that hill.
These are some cool trees that are everywhere.
These are shots of Tokushima City.
This is a frog that was waiting for me on my bike in the morning last week.
random updates: There was a 5.2 earthquake this morning between Shikoku and Kyushu. It happened around 7am, and many people felt it here, but I didn't. Also, it still gets up to about 80F everyday, with humidity at about 50%. It cools off quite a bit at night though. Also I'm thinking about getting a turtle for a pet.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
fantastic weekend
I had a great weekend. I finally got internet access in my apartment, I reconnected with some JET friends, and visited a town on the southern coast of Shikoku.
On Saturday I attended disaster training with other JETs. We participated in an earthquake simulation, high wind simulation, fire/smoke simulation, and practiced using fire extinguishers. It was a little silly, but it was nice to see everyone that I met during orientation and hear about how their first few weeks have gone. Here I am in the earthquake simulation.
I didn't get a good pic of the wind situation, but here are some people putting out an anime fire.
Today I went to Hiwasa, a town south of Anan (where the English camp was). I rented a bike for ~$4.50 for the day and saw the sights. During the summer, many loggerhead sea turtles come to the Hiwasa beach to lay eggs. In the last ten years the number of turtles that come has been decreasing. I don't think more than 10 came this year, but never the less, there is a sea turtle museum right on the beach. They had a tank of turtles and many facts and figures about sea turtles. Ever since I did a report about the Galapagos Tortoise in 3rd grade, I have been fascinated by turtles. So I really enjoyed the visit and of course, the souvenir shop. This is the beach.
This is the first exhibit in the sea turtle museum. That shell is an adult loggerhead turtle shell.
These are baby loggerhead sea turtles!
Hiwasa also has a castle and temple. The temple is called Yakuoki and it is the 23rd temple in Shikoku's 88 temple pilgrimage. I liked it better than the ones in Naruto. I saw some people on the pilgrimage too! Here are some pics:
The castle Hiwasajo sits on top of a mountain near the downtown area. It's a reconstruction of the actual castle, and not that spectacular for a castle. I didn't pay to go inside because I heard it's more museum (all Japanese) than castle.
These are some flowers that I haven't seen in Naruto, but were all over Hiwasa.
This is a foot bath that was next to the train station. You rinse your feet, then stick them in the troff of scalding hot water for ten minutes, and then dry off your feet and go!
On Saturday I attended disaster training with other JETs. We participated in an earthquake simulation, high wind simulation, fire/smoke simulation, and practiced using fire extinguishers. It was a little silly, but it was nice to see everyone that I met during orientation and hear about how their first few weeks have gone. Here I am in the earthquake simulation.
I didn't get a good pic of the wind situation, but here are some people putting out an anime fire.
Today I went to Hiwasa, a town south of Anan (where the English camp was). I rented a bike for ~$4.50 for the day and saw the sights. During the summer, many loggerhead sea turtles come to the Hiwasa beach to lay eggs. In the last ten years the number of turtles that come has been decreasing. I don't think more than 10 came this year, but never the less, there is a sea turtle museum right on the beach. They had a tank of turtles and many facts and figures about sea turtles. Ever since I did a report about the Galapagos Tortoise in 3rd grade, I have been fascinated by turtles. So I really enjoyed the visit and of course, the souvenir shop. This is the beach.
This is the first exhibit in the sea turtle museum. That shell is an adult loggerhead turtle shell.
These are baby loggerhead sea turtles!
Hiwasa also has a castle and temple. The temple is called Yakuoki and it is the 23rd temple in Shikoku's 88 temple pilgrimage. I liked it better than the ones in Naruto. I saw some people on the pilgrimage too! Here are some pics:
The castle Hiwasajo sits on top of a mountain near the downtown area. It's a reconstruction of the actual castle, and not that spectacular for a castle. I didn't pay to go inside because I heard it's more museum (all Japanese) than castle.
These are some flowers that I haven't seen in Naruto, but were all over Hiwasa.
This is a foot bath that was next to the train station. You rinse your feet, then stick them in the troff of scalding hot water for ten minutes, and then dry off your feet and go!
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
more food!
This is chicken curry. The sauce is on the side here:
This is soba (buckwheat noodles). It's served cold with a sauce/juice on the side that you dip each noodle in before eating.
These are Naruto sweet potatoes. They look like red potatoes and have the consistancy of red potatoes, but taste like sweet potatoes!
This is a meal that I made with the Naruto sweet potatoes. That's my classic rice dish that I made - cooked rice with seaweed, onions, tomatoes, sesame seeds, and soy sauce. And on the right is smashed, buttered and salted sweet potatoes.
>
These are buns filled with strawberry jam. Some come with bean filling or other fruit filling.
These were next to the ritz bitz..... I did not purchase them for fear of a metamucil-type ingredient.
mmmmmmmmmm ramen the way it was suppose to be made. Ramen is actually a Chinese food, but it is eaten in Japan often. This is from a ramen shop. There's a small fatty piece of beef on top and a large container of black pepper on the right.
This is a teriyaki burger from Mosburger, a Japanese fast food restaurant. It wasn't very fast though. It wasn't crowded and it still took 15 minutes to serve this up. It's mostly lettuce as you can see. The burger wasn't very good, but the fries were! That's my cell phone on the left. Note the reusable cup that they serve the water in. They really try to reduce the amount of trash in Japan, even at fast food restaurants.
This is udon, the thickest noodle I've ever eaten. It's very Japanese. It can be eaten hot or cold. That's a sheet of seaweed in my hand.
This is the average size of a peanutbutter jar here. I buy the kind with chocolate already mixed in of course. It's my special treat.
This is just a funny shirt that I saw at a store.
This is soba (buckwheat noodles). It's served cold with a sauce/juice on the side that you dip each noodle in before eating.
These are Naruto sweet potatoes. They look like red potatoes and have the consistancy of red potatoes, but taste like sweet potatoes!
This is a meal that I made with the Naruto sweet potatoes. That's my classic rice dish that I made - cooked rice with seaweed, onions, tomatoes, sesame seeds, and soy sauce. And on the right is smashed, buttered and salted sweet potatoes.
>
These are buns filled with strawberry jam. Some come with bean filling or other fruit filling.
These were next to the ritz bitz..... I did not purchase them for fear of a metamucil-type ingredient.
mmmmmmmmmm ramen the way it was suppose to be made. Ramen is actually a Chinese food, but it is eaten in Japan often. This is from a ramen shop. There's a small fatty piece of beef on top and a large container of black pepper on the right.
This is a teriyaki burger from Mosburger, a Japanese fast food restaurant. It wasn't very fast though. It wasn't crowded and it still took 15 minutes to serve this up. It's mostly lettuce as you can see. The burger wasn't very good, but the fries were! That's my cell phone on the left. Note the reusable cup that they serve the water in. They really try to reduce the amount of trash in Japan, even at fast food restaurants.
This is udon, the thickest noodle I've ever eaten. It's very Japanese. It can be eaten hot or cold. That's a sheet of seaweed in my hand.
This is the average size of a peanutbutter jar here. I buy the kind with chocolate already mixed in of course. It's my special treat.
This is just a funny shirt that I saw at a store.
Tuesday, September 19, 2006
shoe custom
This past weekend was relaxing for me. There was movie renting, long bike rides, a good storm, and most importantly, no choking.
There's only one custom that has given me trouble so far. In Japan, you must change your shoes when you enter most places - schools, doctor offices, hotels, homes, cafeterias, nice restaurants, etc. If you don't bring along your own pair of 'indoor shoes' to change into, you often HAVE to wear a pair of communal slippers. If there aren't any communal shoes provided, you go barefoot. The communal shoes look old and rarely cleaned. They don't have any signs of fungi or anything, but it still grosses me out. How are people not getting warts????? Here's Justin puting his pair of communal shoes back. These are open-toed, but all the school ones are closed.
These are the shoe cubbies that were provided at the Kochi Castle. There weren't any communal shoes, so we went through the castle barefoot. I've never liked having dirty feet, so even being barefoot without an opportunity to wash my feet soon afterwards bothers me.
So I got a pair of indoor sandals to wear at school during the day. I thought I was covered and could kiss the communal shoes goodbye. I was wrong. All bathrooms in all of my schools have communal bathroom slippers that you switch into from your indoor shoes. The cafeteria at the high school is the same, and as I found out during an assembly today, so is the gymnasium. Here are the bathroom slippers (the girls get pink and the boys get blue ones).
My high school doesn't have hallways to connect the buildings, so we walk outside on paths to get to and from classrooms. During my first tour I ran back to get my outdoor shoes before we left the building onto one of these paths, but the teachers told me it was okay to wear my indoor shoes on the paths. So I think this custom has lasted out of tradition since it's clearly not about keeping dirt off of certain floors.
I've taken comfort in the fact that a Japanese friend of mine is also disgusted by the communal shoe phenomenon. She doesn't think they are cleaned, and when they are, it's probably just a wipe down. No sanitizers.
There's only one custom that has given me trouble so far. In Japan, you must change your shoes when you enter most places - schools, doctor offices, hotels, homes, cafeterias, nice restaurants, etc. If you don't bring along your own pair of 'indoor shoes' to change into, you often HAVE to wear a pair of communal slippers. If there aren't any communal shoes provided, you go barefoot. The communal shoes look old and rarely cleaned. They don't have any signs of fungi or anything, but it still grosses me out. How are people not getting warts????? Here's Justin puting his pair of communal shoes back. These are open-toed, but all the school ones are closed.
These are the shoe cubbies that were provided at the Kochi Castle. There weren't any communal shoes, so we went through the castle barefoot. I've never liked having dirty feet, so even being barefoot without an opportunity to wash my feet soon afterwards bothers me.
So I got a pair of indoor sandals to wear at school during the day. I thought I was covered and could kiss the communal shoes goodbye. I was wrong. All bathrooms in all of my schools have communal bathroom slippers that you switch into from your indoor shoes. The cafeteria at the high school is the same, and as I found out during an assembly today, so is the gymnasium. Here are the bathroom slippers (the girls get pink and the boys get blue ones).
My high school doesn't have hallways to connect the buildings, so we walk outside on paths to get to and from classrooms. During my first tour I ran back to get my outdoor shoes before we left the building onto one of these paths, but the teachers told me it was okay to wear my indoor shoes on the paths. So I think this custom has lasted out of tradition since it's clearly not about keeping dirt off of certain floors.
I've taken comfort in the fact that a Japanese friend of mine is also disgusted by the communal shoe phenomenon. She doesn't think they are cleaned, and when they are, it's probably just a wipe down. No sanitizers.
Saturday, September 16, 2006
check it out
Hey I just added more pictures to the mountain post from a week ago, so check it out.
My water company is doing work aroun dour neighborhood for the next two weeks and has to shut off the water for a bit. They notified everyone ahead of time and gave everyone a soap gift set for the inconvenience!
I'll write more next week. I have Monday off because it's a national holiday honoring "the aged." Have a good weekend.
My water company is doing work aroun dour neighborhood for the next two weeks and has to shut off the water for a bit. They notified everyone ahead of time and gave everyone a soap gift set for the inconvenience!
I'll write more next week. I have Monday off because it's a national holiday honoring "the aged." Have a good weekend.
Thursday, September 14, 2006
slurping is polite
Japanese people slurp up noodles - ramen, udon, soba - all slurped. It's a very specific sound. I'm learning to make it. Anyways, I mention this because for lunch today we had spaghetti (with sauce and vegetables already mixed in), bread (that was possibly suppose to be Italian bread but it was really sweet), and salad made of pickled vegetables and tuna. We ate with forks but without the spoons for noodle twisting. While I was eating at my desk I noticed that ALL of the teachers were making the usual slurping noise as they ate their spaghetti! It was so funny, but I didn't laugh out loud.
Spaghetti seems to be considered one of the three main "American" foods. Pizza and hamburgers are the other two. Spaghetti and pizza are originally Italian! Anytime I mention that tidbit, people get reeeally confused. They are also flabbergasted that I don't like to eat pizza all the time and that Americans actually eat some Japanese dishes. Anyways, the only really American food that I can think of is a hamburger, hotdog, and maybe a casserole!? Help me think of more. I don't want to say fast food is American since we can't make that at home. When I introduce new foods, they ask me how to make them. They were confused that I had never physically made a cream puff or fried cheese curd. I was like, no, you just buy them.
Spaghetti seems to be considered one of the three main "American" foods. Pizza and hamburgers are the other two. Spaghetti and pizza are originally Italian! Anytime I mention that tidbit, people get reeeally confused. They are also flabbergasted that I don't like to eat pizza all the time and that Americans actually eat some Japanese dishes. Anyways, the only really American food that I can think of is a hamburger, hotdog, and maybe a casserole!? Help me think of more. I don't want to say fast food is American since we can't make that at home. When I introduce new foods, they ask me how to make them. They were confused that I had never physically made a cream puff or fried cheese curd. I was like, no, you just buy them.
Wednesday, September 13, 2006
English
I can't take any credit for that baseball game. I won a book in a raffle during orientation that is filled with games focused on warm-up activities, grammar, spelling, pronunciation, etc. The book is great because it has a description of each game in English and Japanese. This has been a life-saver because the teachers barely speak English. Out of the 10 teachers that I team-teach with, four know/speak English well enough to communicate with easily. The others know basic sentences and only vocabulary that is in the textbooks that they use, so there has been some confusion.
These are a few things that one of the teachers said to me:
What, name? (she was asking the name of my college)
Oh, there are much snow in Boston?
Do you like animal?
Do you know sushi?
Actually, that last question is used by every Japanese person I've talked to so far. They ask Do you know....? And put in inanimate objects. It makes me cringe a little when they ask me if I know sushi as if it is a person. I think my new goal this year is to explain to the teachers that 'of' or 'about' needs to be added to that question unless it is a person. I know that this is a tricky part of English, and I understand why they make those particular mistakes, but I guess I'm just shocked that I'm getting this from the people that are teaching English. Plus, I know enough Japanese to know that a teacher was translating parts of my self-introduction incorrectly.
Today the 2nd years (9th graders) were extremely rude. One kid in particular spoke whenever I spoke and lots of kids were laughing. So I asked him to come up to the front so that the entire class could hear. I asked him twice. Then he started doing his homework (writing) instead. It's not my job to discipline the kids, but I don't want to give up or give an incomplete lesson because the other kids in the class shouldn't have to suffer. I'd rather have one kid hate me if the class runs well than the two kids in the front being the only ones that understand the lesson. I can't discipline them, so I'll use embarrassment in worst-case classes.
Updates:
- I got my modem in the mail last night, but my service won't start until Sept 22. So that's when my vonage line will start working too.
- My water bill was only ￥485 (about $4.50) for one month of service! My rent is only about $160/month. My phone and internet bill (once service starts!) will probably make up for it though. Everything but rent is automatically withdrawn from my account each month.
- September 11th was covered in Japanese news. They rarely report on non-Japan news, but September 11th, Pres Bush, and America's war on terrorism were all mentioned.
These are a few things that one of the teachers said to me:
What, name? (she was asking the name of my college)
Oh, there are much snow in Boston?
Do you like animal?
Do you know sushi?
Actually, that last question is used by every Japanese person I've talked to so far. They ask Do you know....? And put in inanimate objects. It makes me cringe a little when they ask me if I know sushi as if it is a person. I think my new goal this year is to explain to the teachers that 'of' or 'about' needs to be added to that question unless it is a person. I know that this is a tricky part of English, and I understand why they make those particular mistakes, but I guess I'm just shocked that I'm getting this from the people that are teaching English. Plus, I know enough Japanese to know that a teacher was translating parts of my self-introduction incorrectly.
Today the 2nd years (9th graders) were extremely rude. One kid in particular spoke whenever I spoke and lots of kids were laughing. So I asked him to come up to the front so that the entire class could hear. I asked him twice. Then he started doing his homework (writing) instead. It's not my job to discipline the kids, but I don't want to give up or give an incomplete lesson because the other kids in the class shouldn't have to suffer. I'd rather have one kid hate me if the class runs well than the two kids in the front being the only ones that understand the lesson. I can't discipline them, so I'll use embarrassment in worst-case classes.
Updates:
- I got my modem in the mail last night, but my service won't start until Sept 22. So that's when my vonage line will start working too.
- My water bill was only ￥485 (about $4.50) for one month of service! My rent is only about $160/month. My phone and internet bill (once service starts!) will probably make up for it though. Everything but rent is automatically withdrawn from my account each month.
- September 11th was covered in Japanese news. They rarely report on non-Japan news, but September 11th, Pres Bush, and America's war on terrorism were all mentioned.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
technical high school
My first day at the technical high school went soooo much better than I expected. Beforehand, I was warned that the kids would sleep, use their cell phones, listen to their mp3 players, swear at teachers, and sit in class with some of their clothes off (when it's hot out). The technical high school has about 400 students there, 11 of which are female. They "major" in computer science, agriculture, or mechanics. The school is very famous for their baseball team, so although the grades are very low, it is still hard to get a spot in the school because kids from other prefectures take the entrance exam. Last year their team was among the top 8 in the country. Baseball in Japan is like American football or Nascar in the States. The baseball players at the high school live in dormitories near the school if they are from other prefectures.
Before going to class, I talked to one of the teachers. At that time I was undecided as to how to handle the classes - super sweet or strict and mean. She told me that the kids misbehave because they don't get enough attention at home and that they take advantage of the female teachers because they are more supportive and kind. I decided that super sweet was the way to go. During my 3 classes, there were a couple kids sleeping, listening to mp3 players, and using their cell phones. In one class, the talkative leader kid kept asking questions. He was really interested in middle names and why they exist. And one kid asked what kind of men I like, to which I replied, "Men who speak English very well." They asked that even after Eddie was introduced in my self introduction!!
I had them play "baseball" for a comprehension quiz on my self-introduction. There were two teams, and when a team was up to bat, they could ask for a 1, 2, 3 base, or homerun question. A 1 base question was a yes/no question. A 2 base question was an easy one word answer. A 3 base question was much harder, and a homerun question was usually "What state am I from?" since all of them forgot. They got outs for wrong answers. By the end of the period, all eyes and ears were on me when it was time for a question! There wasn't any mocking me, which was what I was most worried about, so I was sooooo relieved at the end of the day.
At lunch time, I bought lunch in the cafeteria. Actually, I bought a ticket from a vending machine and took it up to the counter. I had tempura udon which was really tasty. I sat next to a couple kids who actually attempted to speak English with me. Once they left, some kids nearby got me a glass of water to go with my lunch.
Before going to class, I talked to one of the teachers. At that time I was undecided as to how to handle the classes - super sweet or strict and mean. She told me that the kids misbehave because they don't get enough attention at home and that they take advantage of the female teachers because they are more supportive and kind. I decided that super sweet was the way to go. During my 3 classes, there were a couple kids sleeping, listening to mp3 players, and using their cell phones. In one class, the talkative leader kid kept asking questions. He was really interested in middle names and why they exist. And one kid asked what kind of men I like, to which I replied, "Men who speak English very well." They asked that even after Eddie was introduced in my self introduction!!
I had them play "baseball" for a comprehension quiz on my self-introduction. There were two teams, and when a team was up to bat, they could ask for a 1, 2, 3 base, or homerun question. A 1 base question was a yes/no question. A 2 base question was an easy one word answer. A 3 base question was much harder, and a homerun question was usually "What state am I from?" since all of them forgot. They got outs for wrong answers. By the end of the period, all eyes and ears were on me when it was time for a question! There wasn't any mocking me, which was what I was most worried about, so I was sooooo relieved at the end of the day.
At lunch time, I bought lunch in the cafeteria. Actually, I bought a ticket from a vending machine and took it up to the counter. I had tempura udon which was really tasty. I sat next to a couple kids who actually attempted to speak English with me. Once they left, some kids nearby got me a glass of water to go with my lunch.
Monday, September 11, 2006
a weekend in the ER
Did anyone think that I could move to Japan and NOT have an odd medical problem? Please don't read this post if you're eating (ahem, Erin!). So on Friday night, I made myself a really nice dinner of fish, toast, and rice with tomato, onion, seaweed, sesame seeds, soy sauce, and seafood seasoning. Needless to say I was really excited about it. That excitement, along with the fact that I'm an inexperienced fish eater, caused me to forget that fish in Japan still have bones in them.
Well I ended up getting a sharp bone stuck in my esophagus on my first bite. At first I thought I might be choking, and die alone in my Japanese apartment which was embarrassingly messy at the time. But then I realized I could breathe and talk, so I ran over to Jeff's apartment and informed him of the the situation in case he had any ideas for what to do. It was reeeeally painful. From what I could tell the bone was sharp and hooked or perpendicular to my esophagus. It made me salivate more, which caused me to swallow more, and swallowing made it dig farther into my esophagus! We called one of my bosses, who was eating with everyone at the office (so everyone found out) and he said that Japanese people just eat rice when that happens to them. So ate the rest of my dinner, which was delicious, but didn't help. The pain was so bad that I didn't think I could sleep, so I decided that I should probably go to the hospital.
The Naruto hospital said we should go to Tokushima, so my boss's wife picked me and Jeff up and took us to the Tokushima Hospital. By the time we got there, it had been two hours since I had eaten the boney fish and the pain was getting worse. Once we got to the ER and I signed in with my spiffy Japanese National Healthcare card, we waited in the waiting room. Twenty minutes later, a nurse came into the waiting room, took my temperature, and discussed my problem with us in front of everyone else in the waiting room (from what I've read, lack of privacy is common in Japanese doctors offices). Then I went back and saw a doctor, who couldn't see anything by just making me say AAAAAH. So he called a specialist, who arrived 15 minutes later. He told me that the only way for him to know what was going on would be for him to stick a tube/light/camera down my throat via my nose. If he saw something, he would stick a tiny pair of scissors onto the end of the tube and cut it. If he couldn't see anything, he wasn't sure he could do anything to help.
I was already freaked out about the whole situation and being in a hospital altogether, but I was in a lot of pain so I thought I'd try out the tube thing. Jeff was translating everything for me, by the way. He's studying for a Japanese proficiency test, so he was learning a lot of vocab throughout the evening. The doctor hadn't mentioned exactly how it was going to go down, so I was quite freaked out when he started blasting my nostrels with some chemicals and then sucking them back out. The tube with a light went through my nose easily, but I could feel the heat of the light as it went down. I'm not really sure what happened then, but I know I was making one heck of a squinting-what-the-heck-is-going-on-face. The tube came out and I started to feel faint, but threw up instead. The bone was still there. I found out later that the doctor didn't see anything during the whole process. He kept saying kowaii, which I found out later means scary. But at the time I thought he was saying kawaii, which means cute. I was so confused why he was telling me I was cute while I was crying and throwing up.
They gave me two options - I could either come back in the morning when the best ear, nose, and throat doctor would be there and go through the same thing with him, or just take pain medicine/antibiotics while I wait for my body to get rid of it on it's own. So I took option B. I got the medicine and the entire visit for 10,000 yen, which is a little less than $100, but that was before the health insurance kicked in! I get to go back sometime this week to get money back (probably about $70) for what insurance covered. They couldn't get it to go through at the time because the computers were down and a real emergency case had just come in.
The medicine helped me fall asleep, and I stayed in on Saturday to rest. I was sad that I had to miss the kids' cultural festivals. The pain slowly moved down on Saturday and the pain reminded me of strep throat minus the congestion and sinus pressure. By dinner time on Saturday the bone had dropped into my stomach and the long scratch down my throat was healing.
Another highlight of the weekend was the discovery of two food items - I found fried pockets of cream corn that are absolutely delicious. They were in the frozen foods dept at the grocery store. I also found a conffectionery shop that sells cream puffs! They are medium size, but otherwise made exactly like those in Wisconsin! They are called shyoo creamu in Japanese, which sounds like shoe cream to me in English... not as appealing. Anyways, they were only 147 yen (~$1.20), so I might give them as gifts in the future.
Today is my first day at the technical high school. I'm teaching three classes. I have no idea what to expect. There are only 11 female students in the entire school. One of the female students who happened to have a ridiculous amount of eyeliner on, told me this morning in the teachers office that I was cute and commented to the teacher that my head was so small!
....jya, never a dull moment
p.s. Dad - those are not hotdog buns. They are like a tiny loaf of bread. Once they were sweetened with little chunkes of apple! I think the bread is tasty.
Well I ended up getting a sharp bone stuck in my esophagus on my first bite. At first I thought I might be choking, and die alone in my Japanese apartment which was embarrassingly messy at the time. But then I realized I could breathe and talk, so I ran over to Jeff's apartment and informed him of the the situation in case he had any ideas for what to do. It was reeeeally painful. From what I could tell the bone was sharp and hooked or perpendicular to my esophagus. It made me salivate more, which caused me to swallow more, and swallowing made it dig farther into my esophagus! We called one of my bosses, who was eating with everyone at the office (so everyone found out) and he said that Japanese people just eat rice when that happens to them. So ate the rest of my dinner, which was delicious, but didn't help. The pain was so bad that I didn't think I could sleep, so I decided that I should probably go to the hospital.
The Naruto hospital said we should go to Tokushima, so my boss's wife picked me and Jeff up and took us to the Tokushima Hospital. By the time we got there, it had been two hours since I had eaten the boney fish and the pain was getting worse. Once we got to the ER and I signed in with my spiffy Japanese National Healthcare card, we waited in the waiting room. Twenty minutes later, a nurse came into the waiting room, took my temperature, and discussed my problem with us in front of everyone else in the waiting room (from what I've read, lack of privacy is common in Japanese doctors offices). Then I went back and saw a doctor, who couldn't see anything by just making me say AAAAAH. So he called a specialist, who arrived 15 minutes later. He told me that the only way for him to know what was going on would be for him to stick a tube/light/camera down my throat via my nose. If he saw something, he would stick a tiny pair of scissors onto the end of the tube and cut it. If he couldn't see anything, he wasn't sure he could do anything to help.
I was already freaked out about the whole situation and being in a hospital altogether, but I was in a lot of pain so I thought I'd try out the tube thing. Jeff was translating everything for me, by the way. He's studying for a Japanese proficiency test, so he was learning a lot of vocab throughout the evening. The doctor hadn't mentioned exactly how it was going to go down, so I was quite freaked out when he started blasting my nostrels with some chemicals and then sucking them back out. The tube with a light went through my nose easily, but I could feel the heat of the light as it went down. I'm not really sure what happened then, but I know I was making one heck of a squinting-what-the-heck-is-going-on-face. The tube came out and I started to feel faint, but threw up instead. The bone was still there. I found out later that the doctor didn't see anything during the whole process. He kept saying kowaii, which I found out later means scary. But at the time I thought he was saying kawaii, which means cute. I was so confused why he was telling me I was cute while I was crying and throwing up.
They gave me two options - I could either come back in the morning when the best ear, nose, and throat doctor would be there and go through the same thing with him, or just take pain medicine/antibiotics while I wait for my body to get rid of it on it's own. So I took option B. I got the medicine and the entire visit for 10,000 yen, which is a little less than $100, but that was before the health insurance kicked in! I get to go back sometime this week to get money back (probably about $70) for what insurance covered. They couldn't get it to go through at the time because the computers were down and a real emergency case had just come in.
The medicine helped me fall asleep, and I stayed in on Saturday to rest. I was sad that I had to miss the kids' cultural festivals. The pain slowly moved down on Saturday and the pain reminded me of strep throat minus the congestion and sinus pressure. By dinner time on Saturday the bone had dropped into my stomach and the long scratch down my throat was healing.
Another highlight of the weekend was the discovery of two food items - I found fried pockets of cream corn that are absolutely delicious. They were in the frozen foods dept at the grocery store. I also found a conffectionery shop that sells cream puffs! They are medium size, but otherwise made exactly like those in Wisconsin! They are called shyoo creamu in Japanese, which sounds like shoe cream to me in English... not as appealing. Anyways, they were only 147 yen (~$1.20), so I might give them as gifts in the future.
Today is my first day at the technical high school. I'm teaching three classes. I have no idea what to expect. There are only 11 female students in the entire school. One of the female students who happened to have a ridiculous amount of eyeliner on, told me this morning in the teachers office that I was cute and commented to the teacher that my head was so small!
....jya, never a dull moment
p.s. Dad - those are not hotdog buns. They are like a tiny loaf of bread. Once they were sweetened with little chunkes of apple! I think the bread is tasty.
Friday, September 08, 2006
School Lunch
I don't have much time to write today, but I uploaded a couple pictures of school lunch so that you can get a feel for what I eat everyday. This school has an sd card reader, so I can post pictures! More often than not, everything tastes good. There's some squid in this one, and that packet is full of jam:
I didn't care for this salad, but the rest was good. Keep in mind that milk is whole milk:
This is what I had today. All of it was delicious. That thing on the right is kind of like a slice of cold omelet:
There's no such thing as cold lunch at these schools, even for teachers. A set of students from each class goes to the kitchen and picks up all the food and trays, and brings it all back to the room. They set it all up in the front of the classroom and two students serve everyone. They wait until everyone has food and then they begin eating. The teachers eat with their homeroom class or in the teachers office room. They do the same thing as the students. Everyone eats the same thing. After lunch all the teachers brush their teeth. I got myself a brush and tube of toothpaste for every school so that I can participate in teeth brushing time. What's weird is that most of them have bad teeth by American standards. I'm guessing that the smoking and constant tea and coffee drinking has more of an effect than the constant brushing.
Tomorrow all three of my junior high schools have cultural festivals which is mostly a recital from what I can tell. They all spent every afternoon this week preparing for it. There will be band performances, singing, dancing, speeches, etc. At lunch time at one of the schools each class will set up a store selling food. So I'm going to attempt to go to parts of all three. Then I'm going to relax on Sunday!
I didn't care for this salad, but the rest was good. Keep in mind that milk is whole milk:
This is what I had today. All of it was delicious. That thing on the right is kind of like a slice of cold omelet:
There's no such thing as cold lunch at these schools, even for teachers. A set of students from each class goes to the kitchen and picks up all the food and trays, and brings it all back to the room. They set it all up in the front of the classroom and two students serve everyone. They wait until everyone has food and then they begin eating. The teachers eat with their homeroom class or in the teachers office room. They do the same thing as the students. Everyone eats the same thing. After lunch all the teachers brush their teeth. I got myself a brush and tube of toothpaste for every school so that I can participate in teeth brushing time. What's weird is that most of them have bad teeth by American standards. I'm guessing that the smoking and constant tea and coffee drinking has more of an effect than the constant brushing.
Tomorrow all three of my junior high schools have cultural festivals which is mostly a recital from what I can tell. They all spent every afternoon this week preparing for it. There will be band performances, singing, dancing, speeches, etc. At lunch time at one of the schools each class will set up a store selling food. So I'm going to attempt to go to parts of all three. Then I'm going to relax on Sunday!
Tuesday, September 05, 2006
Special Ed
I had a better day today with the kids. There's a pretty big difference in the way that the kids behave at each school. Today I team taught three classes, one of which was the special ed class. I've asked many people what they mean by the term they use to describe this class and they can't really translate it well. They say that the kids are slower, but when I interacted with them they seemed fine. So I don't think there's anything severely wrong. They were a lot of fun to teach because they seemed really eager to learn. Tomorrow I have the same type of class but a different grade level to teach. They have been described as kids that have epilepsy and hydrocephally. In the electronic dictionary that this school provided me with, the term for this class means flap or flutter. hmm
In every class after my self introduction there is time to ask me questions and so far I've been asked a lot of the same questions like who my favorite singer is or what my favorite Japanese food is. But today they asked me much more creative questions like how much my glasses cost! I was really impressed.
In every class after my self introduction there is time to ask me questions and so far I've been asked a lot of the same questions like who my favorite singer is or what my favorite Japanese food is. But today they asked me much more creative questions like how much my glasses cost! I was really impressed.
Monday, September 04, 2006
mountains!
I had a fun weekend packed with site seeing. I took the train out to Nishi-iya (near Nishi-yama on the map in my "Pre-Japan" post) and met up with my friend Justin. I met Justin during orientation. He's from Arkansas and studied economics along with Japanese. But don't worry Eddie-fans, Justin is just a friend. He has a serious girlfriend. Just thought I'd get that out there since he'll probably be mentioned on here a lot.
Anyways, I was able to see and experience practically everything in Nishi-iya. Nishi-iya is gorgeous because it is in the heart of Shikoku's massive mountains. There's a river running through the mountains too. For anyone that knows anything about Japanese history, this area was where the Heike clan found refuge after being overpowered. We went to a Heike "museum" but I'm not quite sure I knew what I was looking at. We went to the famous vine bridge in the area and it looks really old and cool, but we read that they rebuild it every three years for safety reasons. So it's not actually that authentic when you think about it. On the side of the road there's a statue of a young boy going to the bathroom over the side of the mountain into the river. That's always mentioned in the tourism pamphlets, and it was really funny, but it was just on the side of the road. Kinda random.
We also went to three onsens. Onsens are Japanese style bath houses. I'll explain more about them when I have time and internet access at home (to post pictures), but basically I bathed naked in a hot spring hot tub at the top of a mountain with Japanese women that I didn't know (genders were separate). Pretty awesome.
This was the elavator we took up to the top of the mountain.
This was the women's onsen.
This is the indoor one. This is wear you undress beforehand and redress/primp afterwards. Blow driers and nice facial creams are provided.
No one was in here so I was able to take a pic. It's kind of hard to see but the shower area is on the right. You sit on a little stool and wash yourself. The hot spring water is near the window. It's a really big hot tub.
We also went to Kochi City which is on the central southern coast of Shikoku. We visited the Kochi castle, and ate a lot of food. I took 103 pictures this weekend, so it was well documented. I'll post a few as soon as I can.
Today I team taught three classes. The third-year students were loud and quite rude. The teacher just let it go and went on with class despite the constant banging on the window and talking that was going on. But from what I've heard the classes at my technical high school are much worse. hmm. We'll see.
One thing to note before I go is the Asian mullet. I just can't get over it. The majority of the Japanese girls have them. The hair on the top isn't super short or anything, but the back is a tad longer than I'm use to. The hair that is longer is only one layer thick. I don't know if I'm describing this accurately, but be on the lookout for it once I start posting pictures from school events. Next weekend Seto JHS is having an all day culture day, and I've been asked to come.
Despite the fattening food, I've lost 6 lbs since I got here! It's probably all the biking though.
Anyways, I was able to see and experience practically everything in Nishi-iya. Nishi-iya is gorgeous because it is in the heart of Shikoku's massive mountains. There's a river running through the mountains too. For anyone that knows anything about Japanese history, this area was where the Heike clan found refuge after being overpowered. We went to a Heike "museum" but I'm not quite sure I knew what I was looking at. We went to the famous vine bridge in the area and it looks really old and cool, but we read that they rebuild it every three years for safety reasons. So it's not actually that authentic when you think about it. On the side of the road there's a statue of a young boy going to the bathroom over the side of the mountain into the river. That's always mentioned in the tourism pamphlets, and it was really funny, but it was just on the side of the road. Kinda random.
We also went to three onsens. Onsens are Japanese style bath houses. I'll explain more about them when I have time and internet access at home (to post pictures), but basically I bathed naked in a hot spring hot tub at the top of a mountain with Japanese women that I didn't know (genders were separate). Pretty awesome.
This was the elavator we took up to the top of the mountain.
This was the women's onsen.
This is the indoor one. This is wear you undress beforehand and redress/primp afterwards. Blow driers and nice facial creams are provided.
No one was in here so I was able to take a pic. It's kind of hard to see but the shower area is on the right. You sit on a little stool and wash yourself. The hot spring water is near the window. It's a really big hot tub.
We also went to Kochi City which is on the central southern coast of Shikoku. We visited the Kochi castle, and ate a lot of food. I took 103 pictures this weekend, so it was well documented. I'll post a few as soon as I can.
Today I team taught three classes. The third-year students were loud and quite rude. The teacher just let it go and went on with class despite the constant banging on the window and talking that was going on. But from what I've heard the classes at my technical high school are much worse. hmm. We'll see.
One thing to note before I go is the Asian mullet. I just can't get over it. The majority of the Japanese girls have them. The hair on the top isn't super short or anything, but the back is a tad longer than I'm use to. The hair that is longer is only one layer thick. I don't know if I'm describing this accurately, but be on the lookout for it once I start posting pictures from school events. Next weekend Seto JHS is having an all day culture day, and I've been asked to come.
Despite the fattening food, I've lost 6 lbs since I got here! It's probably all the biking though.
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