I was on a crowded train and, you know how trains in Japan are usually dead silent with very few people talking to each other and nobody talking on a cell phone, well I see one guy (who, I could tell from the twinkle in his eyes, that he wasn't exactly the orangest pumpkin in the pumpkin patch) eye me up and starts walking toward me. When he gets about 10 feet away from me, he holds up this picture, points to a tree and shouts "WHATS THIS?"
I say "ki" (Japanese for tree) and he screams "A TREE!!" then punches me pretty hard in the arm. At this point everyone in the train was staring at us and I try to ignore him, but 2 seconds later I hear again "WHATS THIS?" I look over and he's pointing to a cloud, I say "a cloud." And he shouts even louder, "A CLOUD!!" then smacks me in the same exact same place.
The same thing repeats with him pointing to other random things and I just start spinning in circles so he stops punching me in the same places. One punch lands on the other arm, another square on my chest and I finally just get up and walk to another part of the train.
Of course, he follows me and now tries to start up a conversation. "where are you from?" He asks. "America, how about you?" I reply. "OOOOHH AMERICA!!!!" he says, then throws a punch to my arm that would make Mike Tyson jealous. So I get up and walk 5 cars down to the very back of the train.
He again follows me and this time I take the initiative, since all of his questions result in me getting whacked. "Where are you from?" I say. "AOMORI!!" he replies, and I see him winding up, but before he throws a punch, I say "Where in Aomori?" He responds "noheji."
At this point my heart skips a beat because that's where I live too and that means we are heading to the same spot. Luckily I distract him tons of pointless questions for the last 10 minutes of the train ride before we finally arrive in Noheji. I push my way through a few people and make my way to the door and it finally hits him that I'm getting off at the same stop that he is.
"OOOHHH NOHEJI MOOO" He screams, and I'm like "yep" just then the train comes to a complete stop. I see him winding up for one last heymaker, the doors begin to open, I am the first one through the door and he still goes through with the punch, but I am out the door fast enough to dodge it. I do my best hurried Japanese run/walk thing and haven't seen him since.
Every time I go to the grocery store I always keep an eye out for him though.
Friday, December 24, 2010
Monday, December 20, 2010
Third Humble Off
I was a member of a humble off today. On my way to the morning teachers meeting, I reached for the door to leave the teachers room and it opened with unexpected ease. To my surprise, one of the office assistants was entering the room and we opened the door at the same time and started a pretty brutal humble off.
I stood for a half a second before stepping to the side and saying "dozo!" (that means please, go ahead) but instead of walking through the door, she stepped to the side and one upped me, saying "dozo, dozo." I wasn't about to just walk through the door quite yet so I gave her a "dozo, dozo" slightly bowing with each "dozo." The rest was difficult to remember. Before long, we were each yelling at each other "DOZO!" and I was giving my crappy American-style-barely-bending-at-the-waist bows with each "DOZO!" and she was giving a full Japanese professional 90 degree, back parallel to the floor bow with each "DOZO!" I could not keep up with her pace, I began getting a little light headed and admitted defeat after about 15 "dozo's" and walked through the door, but I gave her a "ohayo gozai masu!!" (good morning) as a departing gift as I went down the stairs.
I stood for a half a second before stepping to the side and saying "dozo!" (that means please, go ahead) but instead of walking through the door, she stepped to the side and one upped me, saying "dozo, dozo." I wasn't about to just walk through the door quite yet so I gave her a "dozo, dozo" slightly bowing with each "dozo." The rest was difficult to remember. Before long, we were each yelling at each other "DOZO!" and I was giving my crappy American-style-barely-bending-at-the-waist bows with each "DOZO!" and she was giving a full Japanese professional 90 degree, back parallel to the floor bow with each "DOZO!" I could not keep up with her pace, I began getting a little light headed and admitted defeat after about 15 "dozo's" and walked through the door, but I gave her a "ohayo gozai masu!!" (good morning) as a departing gift as I went down the stairs.
Sunday, December 19, 2010
Christmas Cards
We made Christmas cards in class today. There were some awesome cards, but this one stands out: "Dear Santa, I want a girlfriend!! because I want to make a happy time If you giveme that, I will be impressed. This year become also alone christmas will a vainfull of chistmas..." Then he drew an awesome, awesome picture. On one side, labeled "dream" he has him holding hands with another person. On the other side, labeled "real" he shows him on the ground crying next to a Christmas tree and the words "tree is not speaking" written along the bottom.
Sunday, December 5, 2010
2年4HR Assignment
Today my supervisor introduced an assignment for one of her classes where students have to come into the teachers room and ask me 3 questions in English. Only 4 students have come in so far, but I can tell that this is going to be fun. I'll keep a list of the fun questions that they ask me:
Have you ever been shot?
How did you first meet your fiancee?
Do you have big body parts?
Have you ever been in situation where you thought you would be shot? (This kid was very smart, most students at Noheji couldn't put together a nice long sentence like this, but he did forget the a between in and situation.)
What do you think of North Korea and South Korea?
Are there homosexuals in American High Schools?
Have you ever been shot?
How did you first meet your fiancee?
Do you have big body parts?
Have you ever been in situation where you thought you would be shot? (This kid was very smart, most students at Noheji couldn't put together a nice long sentence like this, but he did forget the a between in and situation.)
What do you think of North Korea and South Korea?
Are there homosexuals in American High Schools?
Monday, November 29, 2010
Quotes From My Supervisor
So I went on a little trip yesterday with my supervisor and we had a nice hour and a half commute each way, so we got some good conversation in. Here are some of my favorite quotes from seriously one of the nicest people I know.
Most Japanese bullying is more like hiding peoples shoes, eating their lunches, or having everyone in the class ignore one student. After I told her about bullying in the US usually just evolves into a fight between two people, she says..
"I think the American way is better, to just have a fight."
"In Tennessee they had lots of Black music...do you know? R&B?"
me - "When did you last eat McDonalds?"
her - "I brought my children there Saturday and Sunday."
me - "whoa two days in a row nice!"
her - "Yes, but my husband does not know."
me - "why not?"
her - "he does not want me to eat there, but I often eat McDonalds, I love the food. Since I had twins I have gained weight and he calls me fat and doesn't want me to eat hamburgers, so I keep it a secret."
me - "If I told that to my fiancee, she would slap me."
her - "Yes, that is only natural feeling."
as I get off the train:
"see you later alligator!"
Most Japanese bullying is more like hiding peoples shoes, eating their lunches, or having everyone in the class ignore one student. After I told her about bullying in the US usually just evolves into a fight between two people, she says..
"I think the American way is better, to just have a fight."
"In Tennessee they had lots of Black music...do you know? R&B?"
me - "When did you last eat McDonalds?"
her - "I brought my children there Saturday and Sunday."
me - "whoa two days in a row nice!"
her - "Yes, but my husband does not know."
me - "why not?"
her - "he does not want me to eat there, but I often eat McDonalds, I love the food. Since I had twins I have gained weight and he calls me fat and doesn't want me to eat hamburgers, so I keep it a secret."
me - "If I told that to my fiancee, she would slap me."
her - "Yes, that is only natural feeling."
as I get off the train:
"see you later alligator!"
Wednesday, November 24, 2010
Wait for the ending...
Lately I've had the bad habit of starting blog entries, writing a paragraph, then thinking to myself "gosh this is boring, I don't really care if I remember this random story, and people definitely won't find it very interesting or entertaining." So that leads me to finish this blog post that I started a while back and it remains neither interesting nor entertaining. Until the end.
So my morning started out like every other morning. I woke up earlier than most people, but then proceeded to not make use of this extra time that I had. Many people can get ready for the day in about a half hour or less, I usually take about a hour and a half. And usually during that hour and a half, about the only things I do are eat/shower/brush teeth/get dressed/and browse reddit. And in case you were wondering, no I don't know why I used slashes instead of comas right there in that previous sentence, I just started with the slashes and kept the trend going. I thought about switching to comas after "brush teeth," but that would have just been silly.
After waking up, falling out of bed, and pulling a comb across my head. I made my way downstairs (and by downstairs I mean my kitchen) and drank a cup (of tea). Looking up, I noticed I wasn't very late and so therefore I had time to do my normal stuff. I had a super delicious breakfast (like every morning) of yogurt, fruit (I forgot which fruit exactly I had, but suffice it to say it was a delicious fruit, since there really is no such thing as a not-delicious fruit in Japan, they have very good quality control with their fruit. If it isn't ripe or has been bruised, they reject it before it hits the store shelves, so it's pretty impossible to find undelicious fruit here.) tea, and homemade granola.
As I get dressed for work, I notice a new feeling I have not had in quite some time...a slight chill ran throughout my body. Since this was by far the hottest summer on record in Aomori, I was beginning to think that it didn't get cold here, but I was wrong (why couldn't climate change only affect winters?) I spent my first two months sweating in my apartment and longing for air conditioning. Now suddenly, I longed for central heating.
The slight chill in the air caused me to reach for an article of clothing that I have not worn in a good 7-8 months, my winter jacket. I thought nothing of it as I slipped it on, one arm at a time, not quite remembering my cool cross-armed style where I can put both arms through at the same time while flinging it high over my head like President Bartlett does in The West Wing. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll remember the technique. But anyhow, the point is, I got the jacket on and headed out the door.
I didn't get to the bottom of my stairs before I realized that I had forgotten my gloves. Darn. My hands were pretty cold, so I put my hands into my jacket pocket...
[And it is at this point in the story where you are probably thinking to yourself, I've just wasted 4 minutes of my life reading this stupid story, I don't even like Tom, why the heck am I still reading this? But really the reason that I'm posting this story is because in high school, there was a general agreement that any story, no matter how boring, could be saved as long as it had this ending. So I tried to make a really boring post, in hopes of testing this hypothesis.]
...and then I found 20 bucks in my jacket pocket!
So my morning started out like every other morning. I woke up earlier than most people, but then proceeded to not make use of this extra time that I had. Many people can get ready for the day in about a half hour or less, I usually take about a hour and a half. And usually during that hour and a half, about the only things I do are eat/shower/brush teeth/get dressed/and browse reddit. And in case you were wondering, no I don't know why I used slashes instead of comas right there in that previous sentence, I just started with the slashes and kept the trend going. I thought about switching to comas after "brush teeth," but that would have just been silly.
After waking up, falling out of bed, and pulling a comb across my head. I made my way downstairs (and by downstairs I mean my kitchen) and drank a cup (of tea). Looking up, I noticed I wasn't very late and so therefore I had time to do my normal stuff. I had a super delicious breakfast (like every morning) of yogurt, fruit (I forgot which fruit exactly I had, but suffice it to say it was a delicious fruit, since there really is no such thing as a not-delicious fruit in Japan, they have very good quality control with their fruit. If it isn't ripe or has been bruised, they reject it before it hits the store shelves, so it's pretty impossible to find undelicious fruit here.) tea, and homemade granola.
As I get dressed for work, I notice a new feeling I have not had in quite some time...a slight chill ran throughout my body. Since this was by far the hottest summer on record in Aomori, I was beginning to think that it didn't get cold here, but I was wrong (why couldn't climate change only affect winters?) I spent my first two months sweating in my apartment and longing for air conditioning. Now suddenly, I longed for central heating.
The slight chill in the air caused me to reach for an article of clothing that I have not worn in a good 7-8 months, my winter jacket. I thought nothing of it as I slipped it on, one arm at a time, not quite remembering my cool cross-armed style where I can put both arms through at the same time while flinging it high over my head like President Bartlett does in The West Wing. Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll remember the technique. But anyhow, the point is, I got the jacket on and headed out the door.
I didn't get to the bottom of my stairs before I realized that I had forgotten my gloves. Darn. My hands were pretty cold, so I put my hands into my jacket pocket...
[And it is at this point in the story where you are probably thinking to yourself, I've just wasted 4 minutes of my life reading this stupid story, I don't even like Tom, why the heck am I still reading this? But really the reason that I'm posting this story is because in high school, there was a general agreement that any story, no matter how boring, could be saved as long as it had this ending. So I tried to make a really boring post, in hopes of testing this hypothesis.]
...and then I found 20 bucks in my jacket pocket!
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Questions?
My cousin asked me a few questions on Facebook so I thought I'd start a post here. If you have any questions about Japan, me, Starcraft, Pokemon, Democrats, JET, wedding plans, bento boxes, Ichiro, baseball, coming to visit, teaching or whatever, feel free to ask me anything either on Facebook or in the comments here and I'll answer them.
What is the night life like?
Well, that's a really difficult question to answer. I guess it's about the same as the US. It is what you make of it. My idea of a great time is going out to eat at a nice restaurant or have an and then walking around town to one of the 5 dessert shops in Noheji and getting some absolutely crazy dessert that I'd never be able to find in the States.
I guess the typical US night life of going out to a bar with friends is probably a lot more popular in big cities. In my small town of Noheji, there are plenty of snack bars (place where old men go). Japan's got kind of a darker side to it that I probably shouldn't go in too much to, but lets suffice it to say that women really don't go out much. Rural Japan is pretty conservative.
What age are your students?
In Japan they go to elementary school for 6 years, junior high for 3 and high school for 3. I teach first year high schoolers, or the equivalent of 10th graders for the most part (8 times per week) Then once or twice a week I'll teach 11th or 12th graders. So the 10th graders are 15ish, 11th graders 16ish and 12th graders 17ish.
Do they already speak English, and if not, how do you begin to teach them?
Yea they're good. Starting this year, every student in Japan needs to take an English class. Most elementary and middle schools were already teaching English, so by the time they get to me, they're pretty good at sputtering out things. I'm at a low level high school though, so my students aren't the best. If you go to an academic high school, those students will speak better English than my 9th graders did last year in the US.
Also, what is the time difference from here to there?
Since daylight savings time ended, I am 15 hours ahead of Central Standard time.
Where do you stay?
One great thing about being a teacher in Japan is that the government subsidizes my rent. I thought Japan only had 1 room apartments that were a thousand bucks a month. I have a huge apartment (relatively speaking) in Noheji at a great location (like a 5 minute walk to the train station, a 5 minute walk to the ocean, and a 5 minute bike ride to school.) And it costs me about 300 bucks a month.
How you ended up in Japan and what your life is like there.
Well theres a long story and a short story, I'll start with the short story and if you want me to elaborate on the super long JET application process, I will, but it was quite a bit of work and lots of waiting. To make a long story short, I applied for an awesome program called JET (they hook you up with an apartment, cheap rent, good pay, no taxes, give you lots of support, etc) and was lucky enough to get selected.
My life here is, I guess, pretty normal. When I thought of Japan I always pictured super crowded cities and high tech and what not, but thats not my experience at all. JET places its people in rural areas to teach English, so I'm in a small town of about 12,000 people. It's so amazing, I can't go more than 10 minutes in a store in Noheji (my town) without running into someone who is like "Tomasu-sensei!! Konnichiwa!! Picture ok?" All my students are super nice and energetic and awesome. Other than that though, my days usually go something like this:
1)Wake up around 6ish, eat/workout/shower/waste time on the internet
2)Get to school around 730ish, teachers meeting at 8. Teach a class or two.
3)School ends at about 330 (or I should say, cleaning begins at 3:20, there are no janitors in Japan, the kids clean the school for 10 minutes at the end of each day.
4) More often than not, I go to badminton or basketball club until about 6:30
5) Get home cook dinner, either play starcraft, talk to heather, study japanese.
6) Repeat
What is the night life like?
Well, that's a really difficult question to answer. I guess it's about the same as the US. It is what you make of it. My idea of a great time is going out to eat at a nice restaurant or have an and then walking around town to one of the 5 dessert shops in Noheji and getting some absolutely crazy dessert that I'd never be able to find in the States.
I guess the typical US night life of going out to a bar with friends is probably a lot more popular in big cities. In my small town of Noheji, there are plenty of snack bars (place where old men go). Japan's got kind of a darker side to it that I probably shouldn't go in too much to, but lets suffice it to say that women really don't go out much. Rural Japan is pretty conservative.
What age are your students?
In Japan they go to elementary school for 6 years, junior high for 3 and high school for 3. I teach first year high schoolers, or the equivalent of 10th graders for the most part (8 times per week) Then once or twice a week I'll teach 11th or 12th graders. So the 10th graders are 15ish, 11th graders 16ish and 12th graders 17ish.
Do they already speak English, and if not, how do you begin to teach them?
Yea they're good. Starting this year, every student in Japan needs to take an English class. Most elementary and middle schools were already teaching English, so by the time they get to me, they're pretty good at sputtering out things. I'm at a low level high school though, so my students aren't the best. If you go to an academic high school, those students will speak better English than my 9th graders did last year in the US.
Also, what is the time difference from here to there?
Since daylight savings time ended, I am 15 hours ahead of Central Standard time.
Where do you stay?
One great thing about being a teacher in Japan is that the government subsidizes my rent. I thought Japan only had 1 room apartments that were a thousand bucks a month. I have a huge apartment (relatively speaking) in Noheji at a great location (like a 5 minute walk to the train station, a 5 minute walk to the ocean, and a 5 minute bike ride to school.) And it costs me about 300 bucks a month.
How you ended up in Japan and what your life is like there.
Well theres a long story and a short story, I'll start with the short story and if you want me to elaborate on the super long JET application process, I will, but it was quite a bit of work and lots of waiting. To make a long story short, I applied for an awesome program called JET (they hook you up with an apartment, cheap rent, good pay, no taxes, give you lots of support, etc) and was lucky enough to get selected.
My life here is, I guess, pretty normal. When I thought of Japan I always pictured super crowded cities and high tech and what not, but thats not my experience at all. JET places its people in rural areas to teach English, so I'm in a small town of about 12,000 people. It's so amazing, I can't go more than 10 minutes in a store in Noheji (my town) without running into someone who is like "Tomasu-sensei!! Konnichiwa!! Picture ok?" All my students are super nice and energetic and awesome. Other than that though, my days usually go something like this:
1)Wake up around 6ish, eat/workout/shower/waste time on the internet
2)Get to school around 730ish, teachers meeting at 8. Teach a class or two.
3)School ends at about 330 (or I should say, cleaning begins at 3:20, there are no janitors in Japan, the kids clean the school for 10 minutes at the end of each day.
4) More often than not, I go to badminton or basketball club until about 6:30
5) Get home cook dinner, either play starcraft, talk to heather, study japanese.
6) Repeat
Saturday, November 6, 2010
Noheji Alumni Event
Yesterday I went to an alumni event for Noheji and my supervisor was working at the front desk. I paid for my ticket and she was just like "go sit wherever you find an open chair." I go to the nearest table and as soon as I sit down, everyone around me started getting introduced to massive applause. I guess I sat at the head table accidentally.
Thursday, November 4, 2010
Academic High School
On Nov 4th, I got my first taste of an academic high school in Japan. For the record, high school is not mandatory in Japan and there are pretty much 3 classifications for high schools that students apply to; academic, technical, and low. Noheji is a low level high school. Now I always thought that my students were pretty good. As 10th graders, their English is about as good as my Spanish was when I was a 12th grader, so I haven't ever really thought that my students were bad, nor have I thought they were fluent.
Then yesterday I go to Misawa High School and got my first taste of an academic school. About 40 kids from Misawa are going to Hawaii on a school trip so I was lucky enough to be one of 5 ALTs chosen to participate in a day-long crash-course on what to expect in Hawaii. We began the day introducing ourselves. I did my best job to speak nice and slowly and enunciate every syllable in every word. I began; "helllllo.mmmy......naaame..is...tooomasu. I aam froom aaahmerikuh" And I went on and on and was thinking I was doing a great job.
Then after our introductions, one student stood up and gave a speech in perfect American-accented English and included things like "I am speaking on behalf of our class and want to extend to you a very warm welcome to Misawa High School. We look forward to learning all about various aspects of Hawaiian culture from you."
I was stunned, some of the students spoke better English than me. At first I was in charge of a little shopping skit where I gave the kids fake money and they had to buy some items. Like 20 seconds after we began, I was walking around, putting my Hy-Vee skills to work and asking people what they would like to buy. One girl was like, "Excuse me, this camera is broken, why does it cost $80 dollars? Even if it worked it would only be worth about 40 bucks." I didn't even try to answer her question, I was just like "so, are you from an English-speaking country or how do you speak so well?" She was just like "oh I am a member of English club, I haven't been outside of Japan, Hawaii will be the first time I leave."
The whole day was filled with students who basically taught me English. It was nice to see where all of the stereotypes come from.
Then today I am back at a my nice awesome low level school (I'm not saying that sarcastically, I actually do absolutely love it here and look forward to work every day), and I asked a student "Yesterday, what did you do?" and he answered "I goed shopped"
Then yesterday I go to Misawa High School and got my first taste of an academic school. About 40 kids from Misawa are going to Hawaii on a school trip so I was lucky enough to be one of 5 ALTs chosen to participate in a day-long crash-course on what to expect in Hawaii. We began the day introducing ourselves. I did my best job to speak nice and slowly and enunciate every syllable in every word. I began; "helllllo.mmmy......naaame..is...tooomasu. I aam froom aaahmerikuh" And I went on and on and was thinking I was doing a great job.
Then after our introductions, one student stood up and gave a speech in perfect American-accented English and included things like "I am speaking on behalf of our class and want to extend to you a very warm welcome to Misawa High School. We look forward to learning all about various aspects of Hawaiian culture from you."
I was stunned, some of the students spoke better English than me. At first I was in charge of a little shopping skit where I gave the kids fake money and they had to buy some items. Like 20 seconds after we began, I was walking around, putting my Hy-Vee skills to work and asking people what they would like to buy. One girl was like, "Excuse me, this camera is broken, why does it cost $80 dollars? Even if it worked it would only be worth about 40 bucks." I didn't even try to answer her question, I was just like "so, are you from an English-speaking country or how do you speak so well?" She was just like "oh I am a member of English club, I haven't been outside of Japan, Hawaii will be the first time I leave."
The whole day was filled with students who basically taught me English. It was nice to see where all of the stereotypes come from.
Then today I am back at a my nice awesome low level school (I'm not saying that sarcastically, I actually do absolutely love it here and look forward to work every day), and I asked a student "Yesterday, what did you do?" and he answered "I goed shopped"
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
Everything you need to get from Narita to Noheji
I created a nice little sheet you can print off and bring with you to Japan. If you meet a person that doesn't understand English, just bring out this piece of paper and point to whatever you need.
English | Japanese |
Where is JR East Travel Service Center? | JR East Travel Service Center は どこ ですか？ |
Walk to the travel center. | |
1 Flexible 4 day JR East Pass please. | １、Flexible 4 Day JR East Pass |
Where can I buy a train ticket? | どこでチケットを購入できますか？ |
When you get to the ticket window: | |
I want to go to Noheji | 野辺地まで行きたい |
You’ll be given a few tickets, if you show them to people, they’ll point you in the right direction. | |
What time does the train depart? | 何時に列車が出発しますか? |
What time does the train arrive? | 何時に列車が到着するのですか？ |
What track number? | 何ばんせんですか？ |
Where is the bathroom? | トレイはどこですか？ |
I’m hungry | お腹が空いている |
Where is a restaurant? | レストランはどこですか？ |
Thursday, October 28, 2010
Pen Pals
So I'm doing a pen pal exchange with one of my classes and I thought I'd share a part of one of the letters that a student wrote. At first I was sad, then I was happy, then I was confused. But without further ado, here it is:
English is difficult. And I hate my English teacher.
She is very very crazy.
But I like English <333 I like Thomas <333 wara.
Boo yea! Then I looked up "wara" and it means "straw." I don't know what to think about this.
For a bit of context, I teach each class with another teacher. So I thought at first she was talking about me when she said "I hate my English teacher." But she was just talking about the other teacher.
English is difficult. And I hate my English teacher.
She is very very crazy.
But I like English <333 I like Thomas <333 wara.
Boo yea! Then I looked up "wara" and it means "straw." I don't know what to think about this.
For a bit of context, I teach each class with another teacher. So I thought at first she was talking about me when she said "I hate my English teacher." But she was just talking about the other teacher.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Oma Tuna Festival
Well, since I posted a video on youtube, and plastered my facebook profile with Oma related things, I might as well complete the trifecta and make a blog post about it. Also, I will try to make this nice and fancy like I see other people doing what with the photos and videos and what not.
The trip was awesome, three of us went. It was me, another teacher from Noheji (藤森先生 Fujimori sensei) and his friend Ｊｕｎｅ (I don't know the kanji for his name). Here's a picture of us 3.
So we go to Oma, a 2 hour drive. And let me tell you, the car ride was something to write home about. It begins (about 10 minutes into the drive) with an innocent English song on June's super fancy Japanese DVD/CD/GPS thing in his car. I'm like "ooh English, cool, who's your favorite singer?" He says "hehrrieedoof" and I'm like, hmmm, not really sure if I know that singer. Then he pops in a DVD of his favorite singer. It begins with some crazy intro thing, then it hits me, Hillary Duff. The next hour and 50 minutes consisted of random Hillary Duff videos being played instead of his GPS being displayed on the car. This caused us to miss a few turns and having to pause the video so he could bring up the GPS. Each time the video was paused, he apologized like he had just accidentally chopped off my hand. I wasn't even really watching, because I had awesome views outside to look at. Japan's mountains are something I will miss.
In any case, after the DVD exclusive Hillary Duff music video of her hit single Fly, we arrived in a nice small town on the northern tip of Japan's main island. I got to see for my own eyes a nice traditional tuna chopping and serving. If pictures are worth a thousand words, and this video gets 30 frames per second, this video is 151 seconds long, that makes for a solid 4530 pictures, thus saving me 4,530,000 words. Anyways, heres the video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgEIHtLOe3s
Bonus extra at the end of the video, random people dancing at the festival. Sweet.
And then we ate.
And that's about it. Toodles.
The trip was awesome, three of us went. It was me, another teacher from Noheji (藤森先生 Fujimori sensei) and his friend Ｊｕｎｅ (I don't know the kanji for his name). Here's a picture of us 3.
 |
| I need to get my peace sign a little higher. |
 |
| <3 Japanese countryside |
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgEIHtLOe3s
Bonus extra at the end of the video, random people dancing at the festival. Sweet.
And then we ate.
And that's about it. Toodles.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Japanese Tapes
So during my down time at work I throw in my earphones and listen to some Japanese language mp3s. As I was listening to a random lesson, the principal walks into the teachers room and is like "ooh American music? Let me listen." (note, my principal can't speak any English, this was translated to me by my supervisor.)
The tapes work like this:
1) phrase is said in English
2) pause
3) phrase said in Japanese.
So I explain to him that I'm listening to Japanese language stuff, and he's set on listening. So I take out my earphones, and as I'm handing them to him, it is loud enough so I hear (in English) "where is the pharmacy?"
Of course, the second he puts in the earphones, he hears (in Japanese) "where is the pharmacy?"
This leads to like 5 minutes him asking my supervisor if I'm sick, then my supervisor getting worried and telling me where the pharmacy is and offers to go with me to the pharmacy to help me pick out some medicine. The whole time I'm just like "No no no, it was just a coincidence, I am learning how to speak Japanese, I don't need to go to the pharmacy, the tapes are just teaching me."
<3 Japanese people.
The tapes work like this:
1) phrase is said in English
2) pause
3) phrase said in Japanese.
So I explain to him that I'm listening to Japanese language stuff, and he's set on listening. So I take out my earphones, and as I'm handing them to him, it is loud enough so I hear (in English) "where is the pharmacy?"
Of course, the second he puts in the earphones, he hears (in Japanese) "where is the pharmacy?"
This leads to like 5 minutes him asking my supervisor if I'm sick, then my supervisor getting worried and telling me where the pharmacy is and offers to go with me to the pharmacy to help me pick out some medicine. The whole time I'm just like "No no no, it was just a coincidence, I am learning how to speak Japanese, I don't need to go to the pharmacy, the tapes are just teaching me."
<3 Japanese people.
Monday, October 4, 2010
I missed you
One of the office assistants (Daimaru-san or 大丸）was gone yesterday, and so when I tried to say "I missed you yesterday" I of course used the wrong "miss" so she tilted her head and was like "what?" Turns out, I said "I failed to hit you yesterday." And I said it in a sad tone, so she probably thought that I really wanted to hit her.
Sunday, October 3, 2010
Humble-off: Round 2!
I hesitate in calling this "round 2" since the participants are different, but it was the second humble-off that I have witnessed so the title will stay.
First, to set the stage. It was my supervisor’s (Nishidate-sensei or 西舘先生） last day on Friday and my new supervisor (Yamaguchi-sensei or 山口先生）was getting her little tour of the teachers room. Apparently, 山口 used to work here at Noheji High School, but she took 3 years maternity leave and is just now returning. As a result, she knows a few of the teachers here.
So 西舘 of course offered her some tea and was showing her where her teachers desk is and what not, when suddenly, an office assistant （Daimaru-san or 大丸さん）entered the room. 山口 and 大丸 obviously knew each other and they started talking.
I didn't really understand everything they were saying to each other, but there was lots of bowing and repeating "so wonderful to see you again." Of course, 西舘 was standing right next to 山口 and 大丸 bowing repeatedly at each other and must have felt a little left out because she started bowing along with them. Since this was happening right next to my desk, I decided I might as well join in so I started bowing and a great time was had by all.
So anyway, a few minutes later, 山口 finishes her tea and the humble-off begins. 山口 is clearly a veteran of the office and knows how to clean the dirty dishes and put them back, but of course, she was the guest, so 西舘 felt obligated to do the cleaning. 西舘 noticed the empty cup and grabbed it and was on her way to the sink to wash it, but 山口 wouldn't go down without a fight. She stole the cup right from 西舘's hand and started doing a little Japanese walk/run/jog mix thing to the sink, of course 西舘 was chasing her the whole way screaming something like "no no no, I will clean that! Give that back!" and 山口 was just all like "no no no I got it."
So they get to the sink and a really awkward two person washing takes place and they both seem content to have drawn the humble-off.
First, to set the stage. It was my supervisor’s (Nishidate-sensei or 西舘先生） last day on Friday and my new supervisor (Yamaguchi-sensei or 山口先生）was getting her little tour of the teachers room. Apparently, 山口 used to work here at Noheji High School, but she took 3 years maternity leave and is just now returning. As a result, she knows a few of the teachers here.
So 西舘 of course offered her some tea and was showing her where her teachers desk is and what not, when suddenly, an office assistant （Daimaru-san or 大丸さん）entered the room. 山口 and 大丸 obviously knew each other and they started talking.
I didn't really understand everything they were saying to each other, but there was lots of bowing and repeating "so wonderful to see you again." Of course, 西舘 was standing right next to 山口 and 大丸 bowing repeatedly at each other and must have felt a little left out because she started bowing along with them. Since this was happening right next to my desk, I decided I might as well join in so I started bowing and a great time was had by all.
So anyway, a few minutes later, 山口 finishes her tea and the humble-off begins. 山口 is clearly a veteran of the office and knows how to clean the dirty dishes and put them back, but of course, she was the guest, so 西舘 felt obligated to do the cleaning. 西舘 noticed the empty cup and grabbed it and was on her way to the sink to wash it, but 山口 wouldn't go down without a fight. She stole the cup right from 西舘's hand and started doing a little Japanese walk/run/jog mix thing to the sink, of course 西舘 was chasing her the whole way screaming something like "no no no, I will clean that! Give that back!" and 山口 was just all like "no no no I got it."
So they get to the sink and a really awkward two person washing takes place and they both seem content to have drawn the humble-off.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
One awesomely awesome student
This morning, maybe the best example of Japanese amazingness displayed itself. First, I'll tell the story of my trip to school yesterday.
Since Take and I went out for sushi the night before, I did not have leftovers from supper to eat for lunch. This means, I either stop at Lawson (convenience store) and get Onigiri (rice balls) or I buy a school lunch. Since I was hungry for おにぎり(o-ni-gi-ri), I decided to go to Lawson and get a couple. Since it is very close to school, there is almost always at least one student that I run into whenever I go to Lawson.
So I get to Lawson and they have a many choices for おにぎり, and of course there is something in the middle of the rice balls (either fish, vegetables, eggs, or meat) and since I can't read Kanji, I usually just pick a couple randomly and eat whatever is inside. This has made for some interesting lunches in the past, but since a student was right next to the おにぎり I decided to strike up a conversation with her. なんはおいしいですか？ (What is delicious?) I asked. This is about the extent of my Japanese knowledge, so she replied with something I couldn't understand, so I just started pointing at random おにぎり and asking her if she liked them. She ended up pointing to two of them, so I thanked her, bowed a few times, bought the おにぎり and was on my way to school.
Now flash forward to this morning. I get to school and as soon as I take off my shoes, put my helmet in my locker, and look up, there is the student from Lawson yesterday, yelling "トーマス先生！” (Tomasu-sensei), and running down the hall. She gets to me and hands me a sheet of paper and says "read this please!" It was handwritten in excellent penmanship and said:
You bought onigiri in convenience store.
I gave a proposal to you.
I feel uneasiness.
If you don't like sea tangle?
I would make the wrong advice.
I am sorry.
And then at the bottom was translations for all of the onigiri at Lawson!
Now I was shocked. I guess one of the types of onigiri that i bought was sea tangle and she was very worried about me not liking it. This poor girl took time out of her studying (big tests next monday tuesday wednesday, so students are at school until like 7:00pm studying) to write me this heartfelt note. And she probably lost some sleep thinking to herself "oh I made that poor foreigner hate Japanese food forever." And on top of it all, she went through the trouble of translating 11 different onigiri for me on the bottom of the letter.
All of those thoughts ran through my mind in 4 seconds as I was struggling to find the right words to say to her. I pretty much just said "no no no, it was very delicious, thank you very much for helping me!" And she seemed relieved and bowed a lot and thanked me. I don't know what she was thanking me for, maybe for enjoying the delicious food that she pointed out to me? Either way, it was awesome.
In the interest of full disclosure, the other onigiri was some sort of fried pork shavings. It was extremely delicious, and now, thanks to her translations, when you visit I will be able to pick out an onigiri that you will enjoy!
Also, one more thing to note: one of the onigiri is "dried bonito shavings." I did not know that bonito was a type of fish. For anyone that has ever taken spanish, they know it is a pretty fish, but not only is it a darn good-looking fish, it is also delicious when rice is wrapped around it.
Since Take and I went out for sushi the night before, I did not have leftovers from supper to eat for lunch. This means, I either stop at Lawson (convenience store) and get Onigiri (rice balls) or I buy a school lunch. Since I was hungry for おにぎり(o-ni-gi-ri), I decided to go to Lawson and get a couple. Since it is very close to school, there is almost always at least one student that I run into whenever I go to Lawson.
So I get to Lawson and they have a many choices for おにぎり, and of course there is something in the middle of the rice balls (either fish, vegetables, eggs, or meat) and since I can't read Kanji, I usually just pick a couple randomly and eat whatever is inside. This has made for some interesting lunches in the past, but since a student was right next to the おにぎり I decided to strike up a conversation with her. なんはおいしいですか？ (What is delicious?) I asked. This is about the extent of my Japanese knowledge, so she replied with something I couldn't understand, so I just started pointing at random おにぎり and asking her if she liked them. She ended up pointing to two of them, so I thanked her, bowed a few times, bought the おにぎり and was on my way to school.
Now flash forward to this morning. I get to school and as soon as I take off my shoes, put my helmet in my locker, and look up, there is the student from Lawson yesterday, yelling "トーマス先生！” (Tomasu-sensei), and running down the hall. She gets to me and hands me a sheet of paper and says "read this please!" It was handwritten in excellent penmanship and said:
You bought onigiri in convenience store.
I gave a proposal to you.
I feel uneasiness.
If you don't like sea tangle?
I would make the wrong advice.
I am sorry.
And then at the bottom was translations for all of the onigiri at Lawson!
Now I was shocked. I guess one of the types of onigiri that i bought was sea tangle and she was very worried about me not liking it. This poor girl took time out of her studying (big tests next monday tuesday wednesday, so students are at school until like 7:00pm studying) to write me this heartfelt note. And she probably lost some sleep thinking to herself "oh I made that poor foreigner hate Japanese food forever." And on top of it all, she went through the trouble of translating 11 different onigiri for me on the bottom of the letter.
All of those thoughts ran through my mind in 4 seconds as I was struggling to find the right words to say to her. I pretty much just said "no no no, it was very delicious, thank you very much for helping me!" And she seemed relieved and bowed a lot and thanked me. I don't know what she was thanking me for, maybe for enjoying the delicious food that she pointed out to me? Either way, it was awesome.
In the interest of full disclosure, the other onigiri was some sort of fried pork shavings. It was extremely delicious, and now, thanks to her translations, when you visit I will be able to pick out an onigiri that you will enjoy!
Also, one more thing to note: one of the onigiri is "dried bonito shavings." I did not know that bonito was a type of fish. For anyone that has ever taken spanish, they know it is a pretty fish, but not only is it a darn good-looking fish, it is also delicious when rice is wrapped around it.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Why Not Drink Coke?
So I'm really bad at remembering my water bottle, and whenever I forget my water bottle at home, I go to the cafeteria to buy a drink from the vending machine. Each time this happens, it creates a nice mob of students who are all very interested in seeing what crazy foreigners drink. Of course, the students point to the Coke and are like "トーマス先生！ coke!" And expect me to get the only drink with Roman letters, but I never get the coke. They are always super confused. They ask; "Tomasu sensei, why not drink Coke?" and I reply, "In America, I can drink coke, in America, I can not drink Black Boss Coffee - decaffeinated and desegregated, for the equal opportunity executive suite." They usually just give me a head tilt and look at me like "what the heck are you talking about?"
Although I feel like I do need to point out; I rarely get the coffee, I usually go for the tea or Pocari Sweat, but the label on the coffee is awesome..
Although I feel like I do need to point out; I rarely get the coffee, I usually go for the tea or Pocari Sweat, but the label on the coffee is awesome..
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Badminton
So I go to badminton club and it is very interesting. Every day after school, about 85% of the students participate in a club. This club becomes something students take great pride in. For the badminton club, this is no exception.
Each day starts out with a hour and a half training session followed by an hour and a half of drills. During club, no games are played (this holds true for basketball club too, and pretty much every sports clubs, they mainly do drills and very rarely play games). So any student wanting to play an actual game of badminton has to wait until about 7:00 pm (school gets done at 4). After a few games, it is not uncommon to see students leaving at 8:00pm every day. In fact, when I leave at 7, about a third of teachers and students are still at the school.
All of this practice pays off obviously. When I was student teaching at Evansville, I challenged a few of the baseball players to a match and none of them scored even a single point on me over the course of about 6 games. Here, the top half of the boys and the top 4 girls can all score in the double digits. I've only played 4 of the kids in 1v1 (after club) and am still 4-0, but one of the students lost by a score of 21-17. I will definitely be beaten by the end of the year. Or maybe not, but if a student has a good day and I have a bad day [which never happens :)] they could take a game.
But anyways, first badminton practice finishes and the kids form a circle, the coach of the badminton club (who speaks very little English) talks for about 5 minutes while I stand there and I have absolutely no clue what hes talking about. Finally, as I start daydreaming, he stops talking and there was a second where I got an uneasy feeling like everyone was watching me.
I snap out of my staring at the floor and everyone is staring intently at me. I'm thinking to myself "omgomgomgomg what did I do?" I look to the coach and he looks back at me and thinks about a proper English translation for the what he just said. Finally he just says..."advice?"
Now, my command of the Japanese language right now is pretty similar to the command that a bronze level Starcraft player has over a large army. I have a good idea of what I want to say, but what I actually end up saying usually isn't quite right. (A quick example; I spent my first month here asking people "nan de hirugohan tabemashita ka?" which I thought meant "what did you eat for lunch?" and I only received blank stares and people walking away from me. Finally, my supervisor said, "Why did I eat lunch? Because I was hungry." Finally it stuck me that I had to say "nan yo hirugohan tabemashita ka?") So of course, 20 kids staring at me, I didn't want to make a fool of myself and say something bad. So I was just like "eto eto (Japanese thinking word, instead of "ummm") zenbu josu desu!" Which means, "ummm, you are all very skilled."
Each day starts out with a hour and a half training session followed by an hour and a half of drills. During club, no games are played (this holds true for basketball club too, and pretty much every sports clubs, they mainly do drills and very rarely play games). So any student wanting to play an actual game of badminton has to wait until about 7:00 pm (school gets done at 4). After a few games, it is not uncommon to see students leaving at 8:00pm every day. In fact, when I leave at 7, about a third of teachers and students are still at the school.
All of this practice pays off obviously. When I was student teaching at Evansville, I challenged a few of the baseball players to a match and none of them scored even a single point on me over the course of about 6 games. Here, the top half of the boys and the top 4 girls can all score in the double digits. I've only played 4 of the kids in 1v1 (after club) and am still 4-0, but one of the students lost by a score of 21-17. I will definitely be beaten by the end of the year. Or maybe not, but if a student has a good day and I have a bad day [which never happens :)] they could take a game.
But anyways, first badminton practice finishes and the kids form a circle, the coach of the badminton club (who speaks very little English) talks for about 5 minutes while I stand there and I have absolutely no clue what hes talking about. Finally, as I start daydreaming, he stops talking and there was a second where I got an uneasy feeling like everyone was watching me.
I snap out of my staring at the floor and everyone is staring intently at me. I'm thinking to myself "omgomgomgomg what did I do?" I look to the coach and he looks back at me and thinks about a proper English translation for the what he just said. Finally he just says..."advice?"
Now, my command of the Japanese language right now is pretty similar to the command that a bronze level Starcraft player has over a large army. I have a good idea of what I want to say, but what I actually end up saying usually isn't quite right. (A quick example; I spent my first month here asking people "nan de hirugohan tabemashita ka?" which I thought meant "what did you eat for lunch?" and I only received blank stares and people walking away from me. Finally, my supervisor said, "Why did I eat lunch? Because I was hungry." Finally it stuck me that I had to say "nan yo hirugohan tabemashita ka?") So of course, 20 kids staring at me, I didn't want to make a fool of myself and say something bad. So I was just like "eto eto (Japanese thinking word, instead of "ummm") zenbu josu desu!" Which means, "ummm, you are all very skilled."
Monday, September 20, 2010
Cooking
Another Aomori JET (Steven) was cooking the other day and came upon this:
"Chicken applies the taste in the switching making to the under off as big as the unit massaging sake and the soy sause [sic] and crowding."
What they were trying to say was....I have no idea.
"Chicken applies the taste in the switching making to the under off as big as the unit massaging sake and the soy sause [sic] and crowding."
What they were trying to say was....I have no idea.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Random Differences
There are too many differences between Japanese and American culture to list them all, but the ones I find very interesting are:
1) Japanese people do not shake their head to mean "no," they wave their hand in front of their face.
2) Japanese do not point to their chest to signify "me." They point to their nose. When I point to my chest, my students are like "why is he pointing at his chest?" When my students point to their nose, I'm like "why are they pointing to their nose?"
3) Japanese people do not play tic-tac-toe.
4) Nor do they play paper-rock-scissors. However, they do play a game very similar that follows the same idea called Janken.
5) Nobody knows what Starcraft is. This makes me a little sad.
6) There are several foods that are very common in America that are not present in Japan. Worth noting: skim milk, peanut butter and granola. Also, your choice for cereal is: sugar flakes or cocoa flakes.
7) When Americans count with their hands, they start with a fist, and raise 1 finger, usually the pointer, then the middle finger, then the ring, then the pinky, then the thumb. When Japanese count, they start with all five fingers extended, then fold in the pinky, then ring finger.
8) People who work in customer service are so happy.
9) In America, people extend their fingers and then clench a fist to say "bye bye" In Japan, it means "come here." This has probably caused a few confusing situations.
1) Japanese people do not shake their head to mean "no," they wave their hand in front of their face.
2) Japanese do not point to their chest to signify "me." They point to their nose. When I point to my chest, my students are like "why is he pointing at his chest?" When my students point to their nose, I'm like "why are they pointing to their nose?"
3) Japanese people do not play tic-tac-toe.
4) Nor do they play paper-rock-scissors. However, they do play a game very similar that follows the same idea called Janken.
5) Nobody knows what Starcraft is. This makes me a little sad.
6) There are several foods that are very common in America that are not present in Japan. Worth noting: skim milk, peanut butter and granola. Also, your choice for cereal is: sugar flakes or cocoa flakes.
7) When Americans count with their hands, they start with a fist, and raise 1 finger, usually the pointer, then the middle finger, then the ring, then the pinky, then the thumb. When Japanese count, they start with all five fingers extended, then fold in the pinky, then ring finger.
8) People who work in customer service are so happy.
9) In America, people extend their fingers and then clench a fist to say "bye bye" In Japan, it means "come here." This has probably caused a few confusing situations.
Thursday, September 16, 2010
The last 5 minutes.
So I have been talking a lot about granola to my coworkers. Nobody has eaten it and I keep saying that it is my favorite food. So Mikami-sensei (三上先生) found some グラノーラ (gu-ra-noo-ra) and gave me some. It definitely did not look like the granola bars that I am used to in the states, but I promised them that Heather was bringing some so they will be able to taste the difference.
So anyway, I eat it all up, and another teacher, who has been on my case about granola (Katsurahara-sensei) comes in and was like "oh granola!" and Mikami-sensei tried to give her a pack of granola bars too.
(this is when the story gets fun)
What proceeded was a good old fashioned humble-off. Mikami sensei and Katsurahara-sensei were dead locked, each wanting to be more humble than the other. Katsurahara-sensei denied the offer of granola bars at least 10 times before Mikami-sensei finally just put the bars on her desk and walked away. Not about to lose the battle, Katsurahara-sensei dug through her purse and found a chocolate bar that she had brought for dessert for lunch. She proceeded to chase down Mikami-sensei and offer him the chocolate bar. However, he was determined to win the battle. Mikami-sensei refused the chocolate bars another 10 times before finally, Katsurahara-sensei literally throws the chocolate bar at him and walks away.
I'm going to have to to call it a draw.
So anyway, I eat it all up, and another teacher, who has been on my case about granola (Katsurahara-sensei) comes in and was like "oh granola!" and Mikami-sensei tried to give her a pack of granola bars too.
(this is when the story gets fun)
What proceeded was a good old fashioned humble-off. Mikami sensei and Katsurahara-sensei were dead locked, each wanting to be more humble than the other. Katsurahara-sensei denied the offer of granola bars at least 10 times before Mikami-sensei finally just put the bars on her desk and walked away. Not about to lose the battle, Katsurahara-sensei dug through her purse and found a chocolate bar that she had brought for dessert for lunch. She proceeded to chase down Mikami-sensei and offer him the chocolate bar. However, he was determined to win the battle. Mikami-sensei refused the chocolate bars another 10 times before finally, Katsurahara-sensei literally throws the chocolate bar at him and walks away.
I'm going to have to to call it a draw.
複数形
My entertainment for today: going around asking people what 複数形 means in English. So far, everyone has said "pearl." And I'm like "Nooooooo..."
For the record, 複数形 means "plural."
For those who don't know, the Japanese have no sound for L and R so they find them very difficult to pronounce, just like a native English speaker has a difficult time pronouncing らりろれる (ra ri ro re ru). So when I show them the kanji, they try to say plural, but it is very difficult.
Yes, I know I'm going to hell for this.
But for what it's worth, they keep asking me how to say "old" (furui) and I am terrible at pronouncing "ru" so they always have a good laugh when I say "free" instead of "furui."
For the record, 複数形 means "plural."
For those who don't know, the Japanese have no sound for L and R so they find them very difficult to pronounce, just like a native English speaker has a difficult time pronouncing らりろれる (ra ri ro re ru). So when I show them the kanji, they try to say plural, but it is very difficult.
Yes, I know I'm going to hell for this.
But for what it's worth, they keep asking me how to say "old" (furui) and I am terrible at pronouncing "ru" so they always have a good laugh when I say "free" instead of "furui."
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
First Earthquake!
My first experience with an earthquake was quite the event. I'm not gonna lie, I always wanted to feel what a real earthquake was like. But after experiencing my first, I hope it's my last (although it won't be).
It was a 5.8 on the Richter Scale at it's epicenter and closer to a 4 or so in Noheji, but it was enough to send books flying from their shelves. I apologize for the crappy video, but I think the lack of image stabilization on that camera adds to the earthquake experience.
In hindsight, it wasn't that bad at all, but when the entire school started shaking around me, I definitely freaked out. I stood up right away and was about to run for the exit, but I figure my co-workers had been around plenty of earthquakes in their lives, so I just followed their lead and sat there.
So yea, that was my first earthquake, it happened right during the middle of classes. Teachers paused for about 30 seconds while the school held on for dear life, then as soon as the shaking stopped, they went right back on with their lessons.
It was a 5.8 on the Richter Scale at it's epicenter and closer to a 4 or so in Noheji, but it was enough to send books flying from their shelves. I apologize for the crappy video, but I think the lack of image stabilization on that camera adds to the earthquake experience.
In hindsight, it wasn't that bad at all, but when the entire school started shaking around me, I definitely freaked out. I stood up right away and was about to run for the exit, but I figure my co-workers had been around plenty of earthquakes in their lives, so I just followed their lead and sat there.
So yea, that was my first earthquake, it happened right during the middle of classes. Teachers paused for about 30 seconds while the school held on for dear life, then as soon as the shaking stopped, they went right back on with their lessons.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
5 day vacation
Just got back on the internet after a 5 day break. It's crazy how little I think about the internet when it's gone, but then as soon as it's available to me (at school), I feel like something missing just reentered my life.
But anyhow, I got to spend 3 days in the biggest city in Aomori (Aomori City). It was really nice to get out of my small little town of Noheji. I got to experience things that I haven't seen since Tokyo (giant arcades, anime/manga stores, busy streets, incredible restaurants [although there are plenty of awesome restaurants in Noheji]).
Of course, the thing that I most look forward to when I go on trips is sampling the food. So I will talk a bit about the food. First, the breakfast at the hotel was amazing. Seriously, maybe my favorite breakfast ever. They had a Japanese side and a Western side. I frequented both sides plenty. It had awesome seafood/rice/soups and of course Aomori's specialties, scallops and apples. I had more apples in the last 3 days than I had in the last 3 months. Apple picking season is about a month away, and when that happens I hear you can get 5 giant, delicious, juicy apples at the store for 1 dollar. Right now they are about a dollar per apple. I can't wait for the apple harvest!
The first night we went to a very delicious Indian restaurant and I ordered garlic curry and naan bread. It was amazing. The next night was Korean food, I had never had the stuff before, but it was awesome. Videos to follow.
Other than that, Thursday night was awesome, 3 other ALTs (Melissa, Anne, Mike and I) went on a hunt for All-Fruit cookies. We went to about 15 conbinis (gas stations without gas pretty much). There is a type of japanese cookie called All, and they have cookies such as All-Raisin, All-Apple, All-Pineapple, etc. Now they are all delicious, but we were on a hunt for All-Banana. I enjoy banana flavored things and I had never had them before. Our 4 hour search came up semi-successful, we were able to find All-Raisin cookies (still delicious) but unable to find All-Banana.
Aaaand oh yea, the whole reason I was in Aomori City, the JET orientation. That was good, I got a few teaching ideas, but for the most part it was aimed at people who had never taught before. In any case, good weekend. Next weekend is zen mediation at the temple! I can't wait!
But anyhow, I got to spend 3 days in the biggest city in Aomori (Aomori City). It was really nice to get out of my small little town of Noheji. I got to experience things that I haven't seen since Tokyo (giant arcades, anime/manga stores, busy streets, incredible restaurants [although there are plenty of awesome restaurants in Noheji]).
Of course, the thing that I most look forward to when I go on trips is sampling the food. So I will talk a bit about the food. First, the breakfast at the hotel was amazing. Seriously, maybe my favorite breakfast ever. They had a Japanese side and a Western side. I frequented both sides plenty. It had awesome seafood/rice/soups and of course Aomori's specialties, scallops and apples. I had more apples in the last 3 days than I had in the last 3 months. Apple picking season is about a month away, and when that happens I hear you can get 5 giant, delicious, juicy apples at the store for 1 dollar. Right now they are about a dollar per apple. I can't wait for the apple harvest!
The first night we went to a very delicious Indian restaurant and I ordered garlic curry and naan bread. It was amazing. The next night was Korean food, I had never had the stuff before, but it was awesome. Videos to follow.
Other than that, Thursday night was awesome, 3 other ALTs (Melissa, Anne, Mike and I) went on a hunt for All-Fruit cookies. We went to about 15 conbinis (gas stations without gas pretty much). There is a type of japanese cookie called All, and they have cookies such as All-Raisin, All-Apple, All-Pineapple, etc. Now they are all delicious, but we were on a hunt for All-Banana. I enjoy banana flavored things and I had never had them before. Our 4 hour search came up semi-successful, we were able to find All-Raisin cookies (still delicious) but unable to find All-Banana.
Aaaand oh yea, the whole reason I was in Aomori City, the JET orientation. That was good, I got a few teaching ideas, but for the most part it was aimed at people who had never taught before. In any case, good weekend. Next weekend is zen mediation at the temple! I can't wait!
Monday, September 6, 2010
Last minute lesson
So today is my last day of work for the week. Wed-Fri I've got Aomori prefecture orientation. I was supposed to teach just 2 classes today, 1st and 3rd period. I get done with 3rd period and I'm like "awesome! 5 day weekend ahead of me!" Then another teacher comes up to me as I'm cranking open my anko/pan/strawberry jam lunch and says "Tomasu-sensei, can I have a favor?" I'm like "of course" she's like "can you teach my class next period." Now when I say next period, I mean class starts in about 3 minutes, and she is a 2nd year teacher (I teach first years.) So I'm like "ummm...what do you want me to teach them" and she's like "oh whatever you want, thanks."
So I walk to class, the bell rings as I enter, all the students stand up, and I'm just thinking to myself, "ok what the heck am I going to do for the next 50 minutes?" As the students are standing there staring at me (they stand at the beginning and end of every class, I usually say something, either 'good morning' or 'thanks for being good today' they bow and sit down). So I ended up playing some Beatles songs, having them guess missing lyrics, we sang 'mary had a little lamb', and played a little relay game where they had to write lots of words.
Good times.
ps. should have internet in my house in about 2 weeks! boo yea!
So I walk to class, the bell rings as I enter, all the students stand up, and I'm just thinking to myself, "ok what the heck am I going to do for the next 50 minutes?" As the students are standing there staring at me (they stand at the beginning and end of every class, I usually say something, either 'good morning' or 'thanks for being good today' they bow and sit down). So I ended up playing some Beatles songs, having them guess missing lyrics, we sang 'mary had a little lamb', and played a little relay game where they had to write lots of words.
Good times.
ps. should have internet in my house in about 2 weeks! boo yea!
Sunday, September 5, 2010
This Past Weekend
Friday
So the weekend started out excellently. One of my fellow teachers invited me over to their house for dinner. The thing was, she doesn't live near a train station so my traveling abilities were very limited.
So there's a bus that takes me really close to Take's house, but I didn't know when it left, how much it was, etc. I casually asked my teacher about what time I should be at the train station. Flash forward about 5 minutes and there are 7 teachers huddled around this giant map of bus times and locations and they are all speaking in Japanese so I couldn't understand them, but they just kept talking. It was really the most amazing thing ever, seeing everyone drop what they were doing, getting together, and finding the answer to this random guys question. Every teacher is extremely busy, but they all made sure I knew exactly when, where, and how much the bus was going to be. The prices weren't listed on the giant map, so there was a few minutes of everyone sitting at their computer, madly typing away on yahoo search, trying to find out exactly how much it would cost for me to go to Shichinohe. Finally, one of the teachers ended up calling the bus company, talking for 5 minutes, and getting me the exact info. I really expected them to just say "i think it comes around 7 and 1000 yen should be plenty" but instead they said (after 10 minutes of 7 teachers working together) "the bus leaves at 18:52 right across the street from the south entrance of the train station and it costs 880 yen.
Japanese people are so thorough and awesome.
I caught a bus to Shichinohe (kinda big town near Noheji) and another ALT (Takefumi, he speaks fluent Japanese and English, his name is pronounced Tah-Kay, but everyone calls him Tah-ka) picked me up and we went back to his place for a little bit. I saw he had some rolled oats, and he was nice enough to sell me a giant bag (like 4 pounds). So now I will be able to make my favorite food: Granola.
After hanging out for a little bit, we went to one of my coworkers house. She happens to live in a temple. She treated us to a very traditional Japanese meal with lots of fish and rice and other things that don't have English names. It was all made with a generous amount of deliciousness.
Then her brother, a Buddhist Monk, took us out for a night on the town. I went to my first Japanese bar, although it wasn't so much of a bar as it was a lounge. We sung karaoke and since Take and I were the only ones that spoke English, I was treated to a good sampling of Japanese music, and it was excellent. Also, they don't really know how any of the songs I sang were supposed to sound, so I kind of get a free pass on my terrible singing abilities, which is awesome!
So we get back to the teachers house at like 1am after having been treated to a feast and a night on the town, and waiting for us on Take's car is a bunch of Onigiri (Rice balls), bananas, leftovers from the feast, natto, anko bread, and other goodies. The night was absolutely amazing and they refused to let Take or me pay for a thing.
The trip back was also pretty interesting. When you call for a taxi from a bar, two people arrive in the taxicab. One person drives you in the cab home, and the other person drives your car home. Pretty snazzy.
Saturday
Saturday had the starting of an average day and then it quickly took a turn for awesomeness. We woke up and ate the leftovers from the previous night (delicious), played some Wii, and didn't really have any plans until the night. So at like 10am, Take wanted to get his car checked out [there was a wire hanging down from the steering wheel] and then he wanted to do some phone shopping. At this point I had no interest in getting a phone.
We get his car fixed, head to the cell phone store [AU] and start looking. Take quickly finds a very good deal (free phone, 20 bucks a month if you sign a 2 year contract, free incoming calls). So I didn't have a phone and was like 'dang, that's a really good deal' so I ended up buying the same phone as Take. Sweet.
I could write about 5 pages on how awesomely we were treated during the buying process, but suffice it to say that the cell-phone-selling-people were amazing, and when we left every employee in the store, even the ones who hadn't helped us, stood up and gave Take and me a 90 degree bow. Unreal.
Then we went for lunch at Kappa Zushi, a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant of deliciousness, and got tons of sushi and more (yes they do have cooked fish, soup, and other stuff).
Then it was off to my first experience at a 100 yen store. (the equivalent of a dollar store). It was awesome. I can't really explain, but theres a clothes section, a school supply section, an electronics section, a toy section and everything is a dollar! I have no idea how they can sell so much for so cheap.
Then the whole reason why I went to Shichinohe in the first place, the AJET welcome party. I got to hang out, eat hot dogs and hamburgers for the first time here, and meet about 30 other JETs in Aomori. It was an amazing time.
Sunday
You'd think my weekend couldn't get any better. But you'd be wrong. Woke up early, got back to Take's, stopped at a convenience store for breakfast (onigiri, bread stuff, anko, ice cream, bananas, leftovers from Friday).
As we're eating, Take was like "do you want me to take you back to Noheji or do you want to stay and be in the Shichinohe festival?" Obviously, I chose to take part in the festival. Take and I walked to the temple at Shichinohe that is on top of a giant hill and overlooks the city. I should say at this point, that neither Take or I knew anyone there. Take eventually ran into a teacher he taught with 2 years ago, but for the most part, we were just two random people standing around at this temple not knowing what to do. Of course, I was the only white guy there, and there were several old people that were no more than 5 feet tall, so I got stared at a lot. Finally, one person just grabbed us and lead us up the stairs to the temple. They pulled out a uniform that was 3 sizes too small (I wear size 31 shoes in Japan, the biggest they had was 28, but they were fine) and I got all dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes and was treated to a giant lunch.
We got herded into a car and driven across the town to a shrine that held the spirit of the temple we were just at. The spirit only comes out 3 days a year during the Fall festival and it was our job to make sure the spirit got back to the temple safely. So Take and I were 2 of about 20 people that had to push this massive Ark-of-the-Convenant style thing that weighed hundreds of pounds and was home to the spirit.
We push it around for about a mile or so and they tell us to stop, give us all the drinks we want, then start back up for the home stretch...pushing the massive Ark up a very steep hill to the top of the town. After a good 2 hour parade walking route, we were back in the temple and not really sure what was going to happen next. Since it was getting kind of late on a Sunday, I thought the weekend was about over. I was wrong.
They told us to wait around for about 20 minutes, and then we got to worship at the temple. Sweet. (meditation is actually awesome, if you've never tried it, that is a shame, it is so relaxing and refreshing. But of course being from America, I thought I was always way too cool to waste my time sitting around looking like a fool. I'm glad I gave it a chance).
Then the fun began, after the quick worship service (a thanks for the safe return of the spirit to the temple) the festivities began. We cleared out the area everyone was just in, and tables were brought in, followed by enough food and drink to feed the state of Minnesota for 3 days. It was such a feast, and everyone there was sooooo nice and polite and did their best to speak as much English as they could. We ended up staying for about 4 hours just stuffing our mouths and chatting away with people we had never met before. Truly an amazing experience and something you would only find in Japan.
Then Valerie (another ALT from Shichinohe area) was nice enough to give me a ride back to Noheji (I dont have a car and theres no train to Shichinohe).
Monday morning
So I woke up from a very good sleep on Monday, all ready to start the new week. And of course, being an American, I was walking on the right side of the road [there really arent sidewalks in japan]. And a bird thought I would make good target practice so it dropped a bomb and it landed right on my shoulder. Yes, that's right, I was mistaken for a toilet. A bird shat on me. Talk about a proper ending to an amazing weekend. That bird made sure I was brought back down to earth. And the best part about it, is as soon as it pooped on me, it squawked really loud and flew away, as if to say "hahaha, see ya."
So I'm sorry this was really long.
tl;dr [that stands for too long, didn't read] - I had an awesome weekend and then a bird pooped on me.
Videos
Bird Poop on me
Video of the Weekend
So the weekend started out excellently. One of my fellow teachers invited me over to their house for dinner. The thing was, she doesn't live near a train station so my traveling abilities were very limited.
So there's a bus that takes me really close to Take's house, but I didn't know when it left, how much it was, etc. I casually asked my teacher about what time I should be at the train station. Flash forward about 5 minutes and there are 7 teachers huddled around this giant map of bus times and locations and they are all speaking in Japanese so I couldn't understand them, but they just kept talking. It was really the most amazing thing ever, seeing everyone drop what they were doing, getting together, and finding the answer to this random guys question. Every teacher is extremely busy, but they all made sure I knew exactly when, where, and how much the bus was going to be. The prices weren't listed on the giant map, so there was a few minutes of everyone sitting at their computer, madly typing away on yahoo search, trying to find out exactly how much it would cost for me to go to Shichinohe. Finally, one of the teachers ended up calling the bus company, talking for 5 minutes, and getting me the exact info. I really expected them to just say "i think it comes around 7 and 1000 yen should be plenty" but instead they said (after 10 minutes of 7 teachers working together) "the bus leaves at 18:52 right across the street from the south entrance of the train station and it costs 880 yen.
Japanese people are so thorough and awesome.
I caught a bus to Shichinohe (kinda big town near Noheji) and another ALT (Takefumi, he speaks fluent Japanese and English, his name is pronounced Tah-Kay, but everyone calls him Tah-ka) picked me up and we went back to his place for a little bit. I saw he had some rolled oats, and he was nice enough to sell me a giant bag (like 4 pounds). So now I will be able to make my favorite food: Granola.
After hanging out for a little bit, we went to one of my coworkers house. She happens to live in a temple. She treated us to a very traditional Japanese meal with lots of fish and rice and other things that don't have English names. It was all made with a generous amount of deliciousness.
Then her brother, a Buddhist Monk, took us out for a night on the town. I went to my first Japanese bar, although it wasn't so much of a bar as it was a lounge. We sung karaoke and since Take and I were the only ones that spoke English, I was treated to a good sampling of Japanese music, and it was excellent. Also, they don't really know how any of the songs I sang were supposed to sound, so I kind of get a free pass on my terrible singing abilities, which is awesome!
So we get back to the teachers house at like 1am after having been treated to a feast and a night on the town, and waiting for us on Take's car is a bunch of Onigiri (Rice balls), bananas, leftovers from the feast, natto, anko bread, and other goodies. The night was absolutely amazing and they refused to let Take or me pay for a thing.
The trip back was also pretty interesting. When you call for a taxi from a bar, two people arrive in the taxicab. One person drives you in the cab home, and the other person drives your car home. Pretty snazzy.
Saturday
Saturday had the starting of an average day and then it quickly took a turn for awesomeness. We woke up and ate the leftovers from the previous night (delicious), played some Wii, and didn't really have any plans until the night. So at like 10am, Take wanted to get his car checked out [there was a wire hanging down from the steering wheel] and then he wanted to do some phone shopping. At this point I had no interest in getting a phone.
We get his car fixed, head to the cell phone store [AU] and start looking. Take quickly finds a very good deal (free phone, 20 bucks a month if you sign a 2 year contract, free incoming calls). So I didn't have a phone and was like 'dang, that's a really good deal' so I ended up buying the same phone as Take. Sweet.
I could write about 5 pages on how awesomely we were treated during the buying process, but suffice it to say that the cell-phone-selling-people were amazing, and when we left every employee in the store, even the ones who hadn't helped us, stood up and gave Take and me a 90 degree bow. Unreal.
Then we went for lunch at Kappa Zushi, a conveyor-belt sushi restaurant of deliciousness, and got tons of sushi and more (yes they do have cooked fish, soup, and other stuff).
Then it was off to my first experience at a 100 yen store. (the equivalent of a dollar store). It was awesome. I can't really explain, but theres a clothes section, a school supply section, an electronics section, a toy section and everything is a dollar! I have no idea how they can sell so much for so cheap.
Then the whole reason why I went to Shichinohe in the first place, the AJET welcome party. I got to hang out, eat hot dogs and hamburgers for the first time here, and meet about 30 other JETs in Aomori. It was an amazing time.
Sunday
You'd think my weekend couldn't get any better. But you'd be wrong. Woke up early, got back to Take's, stopped at a convenience store for breakfast (onigiri, bread stuff, anko, ice cream, bananas, leftovers from Friday).
As we're eating, Take was like "do you want me to take you back to Noheji or do you want to stay and be in the Shichinohe festival?" Obviously, I chose to take part in the festival. Take and I walked to the temple at Shichinohe that is on top of a giant hill and overlooks the city. I should say at this point, that neither Take or I knew anyone there. Take eventually ran into a teacher he taught with 2 years ago, but for the most part, we were just two random people standing around at this temple not knowing what to do. Of course, I was the only white guy there, and there were several old people that were no more than 5 feet tall, so I got stared at a lot. Finally, one person just grabbed us and lead us up the stairs to the temple. They pulled out a uniform that was 3 sizes too small (I wear size 31 shoes in Japan, the biggest they had was 28, but they were fine) and I got all dressed up in traditional Japanese clothes and was treated to a giant lunch.
We got herded into a car and driven across the town to a shrine that held the spirit of the temple we were just at. The spirit only comes out 3 days a year during the Fall festival and it was our job to make sure the spirit got back to the temple safely. So Take and I were 2 of about 20 people that had to push this massive Ark-of-the-Convenant style thing that weighed hundreds of pounds and was home to the spirit.
We push it around for about a mile or so and they tell us to stop, give us all the drinks we want, then start back up for the home stretch...pushing the massive Ark up a very steep hill to the top of the town. After a good 2 hour parade walking route, we were back in the temple and not really sure what was going to happen next. Since it was getting kind of late on a Sunday, I thought the weekend was about over. I was wrong.
They told us to wait around for about 20 minutes, and then we got to worship at the temple. Sweet. (meditation is actually awesome, if you've never tried it, that is a shame, it is so relaxing and refreshing. But of course being from America, I thought I was always way too cool to waste my time sitting around looking like a fool. I'm glad I gave it a chance).
Then the fun began, after the quick worship service (a thanks for the safe return of the spirit to the temple) the festivities began. We cleared out the area everyone was just in, and tables were brought in, followed by enough food and drink to feed the state of Minnesota for 3 days. It was such a feast, and everyone there was sooooo nice and polite and did their best to speak as much English as they could. We ended up staying for about 4 hours just stuffing our mouths and chatting away with people we had never met before. Truly an amazing experience and something you would only find in Japan.
Then Valerie (another ALT from Shichinohe area) was nice enough to give me a ride back to Noheji (I dont have a car and theres no train to Shichinohe).
Monday morning
So I woke up from a very good sleep on Monday, all ready to start the new week. And of course, being an American, I was walking on the right side of the road [there really arent sidewalks in japan]. And a bird thought I would make good target practice so it dropped a bomb and it landed right on my shoulder. Yes, that's right, I was mistaken for a toilet. A bird shat on me. Talk about a proper ending to an amazing weekend. That bird made sure I was brought back down to earth. And the best part about it, is as soon as it pooped on me, it squawked really loud and flew away, as if to say "hahaha, see ya."
So I'm sorry this was really long.
tl;dr [that stands for too long, didn't read] - I had an awesome weekend and then a bird pooped on me.
Videos
Bird Poop on me
Video of the Weekend
Friday, September 3, 2010
Ganbatte
Today, being sports day, I told a student "kyo wa, ganbatte" (good luck today!)
the student replied "I'm fine thanks and you?" (this is how every student replies to "How are you")
the student replied "I'm fine thanks and you?" (this is how every student replies to "How are you")
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Beautiful lunch
Sitting on my desk when I arrived this morning:
Welcome Lunch Party for Thomas-Sensei
Welcome to Noheji high school, Thomas-Sensei!
Let's enjoy beautiful lunch at Cafe R, the most popular restaurant in this areas, and become better acquainted with each.
Welcome Lunch Party for Thomas-Sensei
Welcome to Noheji high school, Thomas-Sensei!
Let's enjoy beautiful lunch at Cafe R, the most popular restaurant in this areas, and become better acquainted with each.
It was amazing. Ate a ton of food and the other teachers wouldn't let me pay.
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
First Day in Japan
So, first day in Japan consisted of running around town trying to get my alien registration card. When we got to the government office, they asked if I had any passport sized photos, I did not. So Nishidate-sensei (my awesome supervisor) took me to this little one room picture studio. Inside was a very nice lady of about 50. I get to the step and see that there is no way their sandals will fit me, she apologizes like 15 times and I insist that walking in my socks is fine.
When I get to the picture taking area of the room, two boys pop out (they happen to be Noheji High School students and will be taking my classes) and they start speaking in their awesomely accented english to me. Unfortunately they exhaust their english knowledge after ''herro, how are yuu?'' Then they resort to speaking to their mother, my supervisor and each other in Japanese. I'm sitting there for about 5 minutes and finally say ''pokemon wa ski desu ka?'' (do you like pokemon) and they laugh a lot and a good time was had by all.
Obviously the lady owned the store and her two kids were just hanging out there. But it was the boys who did their best with hand gestures and nodding to get me to look just right so they could take my pictures. I find out later that I was the boys' first client and when they gave me the photos, I opened up the wallet expecting a 10 dollar charge, but they insisted that it was free since the boys took the pictures. I gave them an american dollar and they were amazed. I bowed a lot, they bowed a lot, and we headed back to the government office to finish my registration.
Then the next day (yesterday) Nishidate-sensei showed me around town and took me to a grocery store. On our way out of the high school parking lot, the two boys were walking to school (most kids come to school every day during summer vacation to take classes, participate in clubs, or play sports) and they started screaming ''oooooh Tomasu-sensei!!'' and they took lots of pictures of me and nishidate-sensi as we were driving out of the parking lot. To gain extra cool points with the kids, I gave them the asian-two-finger-peace-sign thingy and they got a kick out of that.
And today, as I'm walking back from a teachers meeting (yes teachers have to come to school every day during summer vacation). I see the boys again! 3 times in 3 days...awesome! And one of the boys runs over to me and says ''good morning, here you are'' and he gave me an awesome picture of me and nishidate-sensei riding in the car. When I get internet at my home (probably 2 weeks from now) i'll be sure to post the picture.
When I get to the picture taking area of the room, two boys pop out (they happen to be Noheji High School students and will be taking my classes) and they start speaking in their awesomely accented english to me. Unfortunately they exhaust their english knowledge after ''herro, how are yuu?'' Then they resort to speaking to their mother, my supervisor and each other in Japanese. I'm sitting there for about 5 minutes and finally say ''pokemon wa ski desu ka?'' (do you like pokemon) and they laugh a lot and a good time was had by all.
Obviously the lady owned the store and her two kids were just hanging out there. But it was the boys who did their best with hand gestures and nodding to get me to look just right so they could take my pictures. I find out later that I was the boys' first client and when they gave me the photos, I opened up the wallet expecting a 10 dollar charge, but they insisted that it was free since the boys took the pictures. I gave them an american dollar and they were amazed. I bowed a lot, they bowed a lot, and we headed back to the government office to finish my registration.
Then the next day (yesterday) Nishidate-sensei showed me around town and took me to a grocery store. On our way out of the high school parking lot, the two boys were walking to school (most kids come to school every day during summer vacation to take classes, participate in clubs, or play sports) and they started screaming ''oooooh Tomasu-sensei!!'' and they took lots of pictures of me and nishidate-sensi as we were driving out of the parking lot. To gain extra cool points with the kids, I gave them the asian-two-finger-peace-sign thingy and they got a kick out of that.
And today, as I'm walking back from a teachers meeting (yes teachers have to come to school every day during summer vacation). I see the boys again! 3 times in 3 days...awesome! And one of the boys runs over to me and says ''good morning, here you are'' and he gave me an awesome picture of me and nishidate-sensei riding in the car. When I get internet at my home (probably 2 weeks from now) i'll be sure to post the picture.
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