So schools rocks. Thats pretty much the long and short of it! Ha, long my ass...some how I doubt that this post will end up that short...they never seem to. I think I should enter a 12 step typing course, because I just cant seem to put the keyboard down sometimes! All joking aside (well not all...) let me get to the first part of the title: bored.
School is anything but boring. Trust me, some days I wish I had time to be bored. Let me clarify a few things about my school, as there seems to have been some confusion. I am at a school called Kousha Chugakkou. The U’s after O’s sound like O’s. Ha, I am supposed to be clarifying things! Chugakkou kinda translates to Junior High School, but it is more like middle school. The kids are the equivalent of grades 7 to 9 back home. They are a lot less mature (by that I mean they act younger, I am not trying to insinuate that Canadian High School kids are mature by any means) for their age though…but that is simply Japan and not my school in particular.
There are 3 grades (called 1,2, and wait for it…3) and 3 classes per grade. There are also 2 ‘special classes’ numbers 5 and 6. These special classes are quite small, I would guess 6 kids in total. This is where things kinda rub me the wrong way. I can say with out a doubt that at least 2 of these kids are just unmedicated ADD or ADHD kids that have been pulled from regular classes. Back at home these kids would barely be on the radar. A few of the others have social or emotional problems that I don’t have the full scope of yet. Either way they are all great kids, and I could never see them being completely separated from the general student body in Canada. I guess that that is just one of the differences.
There are definitely a few other major differences between school in Japan and in Canada. Some are for the better, and some are for the worse (well for me at least!). For the worse first: the students stay in their own class (I’m pretty sure I already mentioned this, but I don’t really care!). The teachers, including me, run around the school between classes. This is good in that the halls aren’t so crowded, but it means a trip to the teacher’s room to grab my stuff from my desk, and then rush off to the next class. I often run down 3 flights of stairs just to run up 2. I wish I could cart a bag around with me, but my Japanese Teachers of English (JTE’s) all want me to meet them at my desk and head off together. C’est la vie.
For the better: Schools don’t have janitors. How is that for the better you ask? Well every day the students do 30 min of cleaning. This is thorough cleaning too! Each class has an assigned area of the school. They do everything from sweeping to hand scrubbing the wooden floors, to pulling weeds! You wouldn’t believe how clean the school is after the army of young Japanese kids swarm the mess…the down side is that if us teacher aren’t busy we are supposed to help out. I have found 2 consolations in that. 1, look busy and burry yourself in work, then you are fine to keep working. 2, dust. For all the cleaning, the majority of the kids and staff can’t reach that high. Not that I am a giant, or the tallest person in the school by any means, but I can reach the high up sills. It is amazing the number of dust bunnies you can capture with a wet cloth and 30 min. Mom, don’t even bother saying anything! Ha, ha, ha!
School lunches…a toss up between better or worse. The upside: I get a lunch, no hassle, everyday. They are cheap, about 300 yen, or 3 bucks a day. They come with soup, a small Japanese style salad (usually full of pickled stuff, which suits me well) a small portion of an entrée (today was gyoza, the other day was pork) and some rice or bread…and milk. It is all good except for the fact that we all (teachers and students) get the same portions. That kinda bites when you are hungry. Another down side, I am ruing the day that we get 2 deep fried fish…heads, guts, eggs and all. That will be the only day I will not be mentally complaining about small portions. The milk part sucks, but I have that under control. I bring my water bottle (which by the way is a foreign concept to the Japanese, why do you need a water bottle when there are vending machines EVERYWHERE…I mean everywhere, even in the middle of nowhere on some country road.) My milk is a daily prize, but the largest (both height and waistline) kid in my lunch class seems to have capitalized on the milk deal. I now call him Milk-Man. I traded him for some extra food one day, but the other days I make him say something in English, or answer English questions. He is in the remedial English class, so his friends help him. That’s ok, because it helps them, and hopefully he retains some of it. Come winter the Milk is coming home so I can make Mochas with my espresso and steaming machine!
There are 6 periods a day, 50 min each. I have 5 classes usually. Let me tell you that that is a lot of work. These kids are very fun, but often unmotivated. Also, the JTE’s let the kids get away with anything short of murder in class. There is very little discipline in the classroom, which I have to admit seems a little strange for the Japanese. That is just they way it is though. As math will prove, I have at least 1 free period a day. I usually spent that trying not to pass out, as I am expelling tonnes of energy being ‘on stage’ for almost 5 hours a day. The best kept secret of my school is the tatami mat floor room. It is in the grounds keepers’ area, and it is the secret hideout for tired teachers. Usually one is taking refuge there. If you have never lain down on a real tatami floor, you would never believe how comfortable they can be. The rest of my free time is spent burning through Japanese flash cards, and prepping my lessons.
Well school is exhausting, and writing about it hasn’t been any less so. Therefore I will move on to the other part of the title of this now lengthy post: Board.
So the beach that treated me so wonderfully to some crispy skin, gave me something back this past weekend. I learned how to surf! Oh yeah, chalk up one more board sport for me! Now the waves we were hitting weren’t monstrous, but I was able to catch waves and get up on the board. What a thrill! If you have never caught waves, I suggest you take the opportunity, it is amazing.
My neighbour Brandon, works at another Junior High in Nakano. One of the JTE’s there is his snowboarding buddy. Apparently J (the teacher’s nickname) is also a surfer. He met us at the beach and brought some extra boards along. One of the other AET’s in town, Rich, bought a surfboard. Brandon and I grabbed the extra boards and we all hit the surf. Being the heaviest and tallest of the 3 of us, I got the LONG board. I’m talking Big Kahuna long. This thing was definitely not less than 8 feet! We all busted into the waves and started trying to catch them. That, believe it or not is the hardest part. Once you are on the wave it is a quick motion…very similar to skim boarding, to get to your feet. I managed to get a good dozen waves in the hour and a half we were out there.
Yesterday, Brandon and Rich went back, and Brandon also bought a board. I needed a day to clean and rest (which I am glad I took) so I didn’t head out. Those guys are so dedicated (in the nutz sense of the word) that they even did the hour drive tonight in hopes of catching waves. It seems like the beach is going to be keeping us busy until the snowfalls, and we strap on the snowboards. A few of the other AET’s in town are thinking about getting boards. I am still a little unsure as to whether I will or not. I have never been good at making big purchases without much deliberation. I also want a better bike than I have now, and I know for sure I will get good use out of that. I might wait till the off season and get a surf board then…because I know that come spring we will be back at Joetsu Beach on a regular basis (read: every weekend).
Well that brings you all pretty much up to snuff. I just want to send out a huge thanks to everyone who is checking out this site. I am seriously only updating this because of you my audience. Also I can see the site counter on my computer, so if any one can read the Kanji (Japanese, Chinese) characters please tell me what the counter is at. I want to have a big celebration when it hits a certain number…although I don’t know what number that will be yet.
I am definitely rambling now, so it is time to go. I will update the site again later this week, but probably with picture not prose. Yes, feel free to cheer, you will have it easy that post.
And with that being the 1666th word of this post,
This is Adam (or A-Da-Mu as I am now called) signing off.
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Monday, August 22, 2005
Sun burns suck, but school rocks
Ouch! My back and shoulders are bacon. In fact I think I would make a pretty good meal right now. I was at the beach again yesterday, chilling with the boys before we all went into work today. The shitty deal is that I applies my favourite sunscreen (hawaiian tropics for the unenlightened) and reapplied 3 hours later (we were at the beach for 7 hours). The kicker is that I seem to be more severely burnt in the places where I reapplied. The sunscreen hasnt expired, according to the bottle, but I kinda dont believe that.
As far as earthquakes go, I didnt feel that big one that was up near Miyagi-ken. I am sorrounded by mountians so Nagano doesnt get a lotta earthquakes or typhoons, which is nice...but the trade off is that we live near a few active volcanos! Well if one natural disaster inst gonna get you then the other will right? However, when I was at the beach yesterday we did feel a small tremmor. It was a 4 out of 6 on the Japanese scale, but a 6 is only like an 8 on the Richtor scale...trust me it wasnt that big.
So today was my first day of school. It started off with me getting hauled into the principals office...what else is new...hahaha! He just wanted to explain the schedule to me and then introduce me at the morning staff meeting. When I say explain to me I mean spit out some japanese while I stared at the teacher translating. At this point we went into the meeting and I had to introduce myself...in Japanese! Today was the day of self introductions. After the teachers meeting there was a school assembly. I had to deliver a speech in English. That was actually great, because I knew about it a week ago. I felt bad for the teacher that had to take my typed speech and translate it on the fly after I was finished.
I was in 2 classes today. My regular load will be 5, but they wanted to give me a break. I played a gambling game, where groups had to bet on things about me. I though it was a better way than just talking about myself. Both classes were 3 year students, which is about the equivelent of grade 9 or 10...that being said they are a little less mature than students back home. They are all really cute though.
For lunch, teacher eat in their homeroom class rooms. Oh yeah, in Japan students have set classes and teacher move around. It makes WAY more sense. The halls are way less crowded. Back to lunch, we had some excuse for a salad, soup, some rice, a piece of fried salmon skin (which was great) and oh yeah my favourite (not) a big jug of milk. I ate it all, save the milk that I gave away to the first student to remember my age. I nickednamed him 'meatball' because one of the other kids called him that. He is a little dude, but he is really cute. He is my favourite in my homeroom so far.
After lunch I had 3 free periods. I studied Japanese...and fell asleep at my desk. I slamed coffee and tea to stay awake...but that only slightly worked, especially since instant coffee sucks my balls. After school I am obliged to stay for about an hour after classes end. So I sat around...then walked around. Then finally got to go home.
The 5 japanese Teachers of English I am working with are pretty cool. Most of the teacher at my school are young. Infact I think I am older than 1 or 2. They are all super excited to have a dedicated AET (assistant english teacher) there, as before there were 2 for 4 shcools, and now 4 for 4. One of them even bought an electronic translator to be able to communicate with me.
Pretty much, I am going to love it at my school...except that there are no janitors. Why hire cleaning staff when you have an army of staff and students...but that is a story for another post!
Hope all is well in Vancouver!
As far as earthquakes go, I didnt feel that big one that was up near Miyagi-ken. I am sorrounded by mountians so Nagano doesnt get a lotta earthquakes or typhoons, which is nice...but the trade off is that we live near a few active volcanos! Well if one natural disaster inst gonna get you then the other will right? However, when I was at the beach yesterday we did feel a small tremmor. It was a 4 out of 6 on the Japanese scale, but a 6 is only like an 8 on the Richtor scale...trust me it wasnt that big.
So today was my first day of school. It started off with me getting hauled into the principals office...what else is new...hahaha! He just wanted to explain the schedule to me and then introduce me at the morning staff meeting. When I say explain to me I mean spit out some japanese while I stared at the teacher translating. At this point we went into the meeting and I had to introduce myself...in Japanese! Today was the day of self introductions. After the teachers meeting there was a school assembly. I had to deliver a speech in English. That was actually great, because I knew about it a week ago. I felt bad for the teacher that had to take my typed speech and translate it on the fly after I was finished.
I was in 2 classes today. My regular load will be 5, but they wanted to give me a break. I played a gambling game, where groups had to bet on things about me. I though it was a better way than just talking about myself. Both classes were 3 year students, which is about the equivelent of grade 9 or 10...that being said they are a little less mature than students back home. They are all really cute though.
For lunch, teacher eat in their homeroom class rooms. Oh yeah, in Japan students have set classes and teacher move around. It makes WAY more sense. The halls are way less crowded. Back to lunch, we had some excuse for a salad, soup, some rice, a piece of fried salmon skin (which was great) and oh yeah my favourite (not) a big jug of milk. I ate it all, save the milk that I gave away to the first student to remember my age. I nickednamed him 'meatball' because one of the other kids called him that. He is a little dude, but he is really cute. He is my favourite in my homeroom so far.
After lunch I had 3 free periods. I studied Japanese...and fell asleep at my desk. I slamed coffee and tea to stay awake...but that only slightly worked, especially since instant coffee sucks my balls. After school I am obliged to stay for about an hour after classes end. So I sat around...then walked around. Then finally got to go home.
The 5 japanese Teachers of English I am working with are pretty cool. Most of the teacher at my school are young. Infact I think I am older than 1 or 2. They are all super excited to have a dedicated AET (assistant english teacher) there, as before there were 2 for 4 shcools, and now 4 for 4. One of them even bought an electronic translator to be able to communicate with me.
Pretty much, I am going to love it at my school...except that there are no janitors. Why hire cleaning staff when you have an army of staff and students...but that is a story for another post!
Hope all is well in Vancouver!
Wednesday, August 17, 2005
I have heard of a barrel of monkeys, but never a bucket…
So this past week’s adventures include some very exciting things to write about. I’ll save the best for last though!
First off is the Suwa Lake Fireworks (Hanabi in Japanese, which is actually Fire Flower…a much more appropriate name if you ask me). This is the second largest fireworks show in Japan. The largest is in Tokyo, and how can Suwa, a city of under 200,000 compete with the 12.5 million ppl that demand only the best. But back to Suwa. As mentioned this display is on Suwa Lake, one of the largest lakes in Japan (it actually experiences tidal forces, read hi and low tide). Apparently over 1.4 million ppl attend this display. It is a 2 hour long display of various types of fireworks. This is actually part of a month long fireworks festival. Every day there is a 15 min show from a different group. There is the large night that I went to, and then on September 6th there is a bid for top spots next year, and all the new top secret fireworks are shown!
The night was great. We went early to try and beat some of the million odd ppl that all crowd in. We actually beat a lot of people, but still had to walk for 40 min. to find a spot to watch. With our big blue tarp down, and a body or two to watch the bags, it was time to brave the corner store for beer. Well if anyone ever tells you how polite Japanese ppl are, and that even in the Tokyo subway they only jostle, then they have never been to the bloody corner store during Suwa Lake fireworks! Using my powers of deduction, I sent my friend to stand in line to pay. I slowly moved towards the beer fridge, conveniently located in the back corner of the store. After some less than friendly pushing (from other ppl mind you, I am just the big Gaijin, I’m not actually in line for anything am I?) I finally made it to the beer cooler, and realized why some of the rude ppl had baskets (number 1 they hold a lot more beer than my hands, and number 2 they are good for pushing people and making it look accidental.) So there I am filling my arms with cans (why no 6 packs, why?) and I close the fridge door and turn to leave, only to get bowled over by some middle aged man a woman. They seriously shoved me into the door to the staff area; I almost landed on a staff member bent down to restock shelves. So needless to say(to those who know me)in a Canadian Moose way, I shove back. They lost their place in front of the beer fridge, and I had space to leave. Met up with my friend, paid, and got the hell out…to the slightly less crowded streets. Imagine Denman or Davie after the ‘Celebration of Light,’ and multiply that by a good 10 fold. The rest of the afternoon for me was spent eating and drinking on the tarp, too many people for my tastes!
The show itself was spectacular. I would describe the show, but I think describing something inherently visual, as fireworks are, is more than a little ridiculous. I have photos from my camera, but I haven’t loaded them onto my computer yet. And, I wont even go into leaving the damn place. 2 hours in a car just to get to the highway! Ok, enough about Suwa.
Time for some Monkey business!
On Saturday, me and the other dudes hit up the Monkey Park and Onsen. This is where the famous Time cover of a snow covered Monkey in a hot spring was taken. It is a short drive and a shorter hike from my part of town, so we headed over. For about 5 bucks, you get all the time you want to observe monkeys. This is no safari either; the monkeys are all around you. They run under your legs, they walk on the bridge with you. They are absolutely adorable. There are babies and moms; there are old guys and the next generation of leaders as well. It was really cool to see. Especially when they swim in the hot springs there! I can wait to go back in the winter.
There are 2 moments I will choose to describe.
1) I was watching some monkeys climbing cables that cross a river that is in the middle of the park. The monkeys are kinda dumb, but they have that figured out. All of a sudden I see a monkey in a bucket suspended over the river. It was hilarious. That’s all I’ll say, the photo is better.
2) Like I said Monkeys are dumb. There is a clear PVC pipe that one of the caretakers puts an apple piece, right in the centre. The monkeys arms are too short to reach the piece so they need to use a stick to push or pull the apple to where they can reach. Well it took one monkey a good 20 min to get it all worked out, and then a bigger monkey almost stole the piece. Then after the first one succeeded, a second piece was placed. This monkey though didn’t figure out that the stick in the tube would help, so he kept tossing it out, no matter how many times the caretaker put it back. We finally got bored and left before the damn monkey got the apple!
Well here are some monkey photos!
First off is the Suwa Lake Fireworks (Hanabi in Japanese, which is actually Fire Flower…a much more appropriate name if you ask me). This is the second largest fireworks show in Japan. The largest is in Tokyo, and how can Suwa, a city of under 200,000 compete with the 12.5 million ppl that demand only the best. But back to Suwa. As mentioned this display is on Suwa Lake, one of the largest lakes in Japan (it actually experiences tidal forces, read hi and low tide). Apparently over 1.4 million ppl attend this display. It is a 2 hour long display of various types of fireworks. This is actually part of a month long fireworks festival. Every day there is a 15 min show from a different group. There is the large night that I went to, and then on September 6th there is a bid for top spots next year, and all the new top secret fireworks are shown!
The night was great. We went early to try and beat some of the million odd ppl that all crowd in. We actually beat a lot of people, but still had to walk for 40 min. to find a spot to watch. With our big blue tarp down, and a body or two to watch the bags, it was time to brave the corner store for beer. Well if anyone ever tells you how polite Japanese ppl are, and that even in the Tokyo subway they only jostle, then they have never been to the bloody corner store during Suwa Lake fireworks! Using my powers of deduction, I sent my friend to stand in line to pay. I slowly moved towards the beer fridge, conveniently located in the back corner of the store. After some less than friendly pushing (from other ppl mind you, I am just the big Gaijin, I’m not actually in line for anything am I?) I finally made it to the beer cooler, and realized why some of the rude ppl had baskets (number 1 they hold a lot more beer than my hands, and number 2 they are good for pushing people and making it look accidental.) So there I am filling my arms with cans (why no 6 packs, why?) and I close the fridge door and turn to leave, only to get bowled over by some middle aged man a woman. They seriously shoved me into the door to the staff area; I almost landed on a staff member bent down to restock shelves. So needless to say(to those who know me)in a Canadian Moose way, I shove back. They lost their place in front of the beer fridge, and I had space to leave. Met up with my friend, paid, and got the hell out…to the slightly less crowded streets. Imagine Denman or Davie after the ‘Celebration of Light,’ and multiply that by a good 10 fold. The rest of the afternoon for me was spent eating and drinking on the tarp, too many people for my tastes!
The show itself was spectacular. I would describe the show, but I think describing something inherently visual, as fireworks are, is more than a little ridiculous. I have photos from my camera, but I haven’t loaded them onto my computer yet. And, I wont even go into leaving the damn place. 2 hours in a car just to get to the highway! Ok, enough about Suwa.
Time for some Monkey business!
On Saturday, me and the other dudes hit up the Monkey Park and Onsen. This is where the famous Time cover of a snow covered Monkey in a hot spring was taken. It is a short drive and a shorter hike from my part of town, so we headed over. For about 5 bucks, you get all the time you want to observe monkeys. This is no safari either; the monkeys are all around you. They run under your legs, they walk on the bridge with you. They are absolutely adorable. There are babies and moms; there are old guys and the next generation of leaders as well. It was really cool to see. Especially when they swim in the hot springs there! I can wait to go back in the winter.
There are 2 moments I will choose to describe.
1) I was watching some monkeys climbing cables that cross a river that is in the middle of the park. The monkeys are kinda dumb, but they have that figured out. All of a sudden I see a monkey in a bucket suspended over the river. It was hilarious. That’s all I’ll say, the photo is better.
2) Like I said Monkeys are dumb. There is a clear PVC pipe that one of the caretakers puts an apple piece, right in the centre. The monkeys arms are too short to reach the piece so they need to use a stick to push or pull the apple to where they can reach. Well it took one monkey a good 20 min to get it all worked out, and then a bigger monkey almost stole the piece. Then after the first one succeeded, a second piece was placed. This monkey though didn’t figure out that the stick in the tube would help, so he kept tossing it out, no matter how many times the caretaker put it back. We finally got bored and left before the damn monkey got the apple!
Well here are some monkey photos!
Saturday, August 13, 2005
Look, Pictures!
So I got a cell phone! You can't (seriously it is almost impossible) to get a cell phone with out internet, a camera, a video camrea, lights, and more. So that being said I got one with a 1.9 megapixel camera. They have ones with 3.2, but I still want a digital camera so I went for a lower model. That being said here are some shots for the time being:
So we made the local rag here in Nakano. From left to right: Brandon, Me, Rich, Devin. The title is something like the 3 new AET (assistant English teachers) that have come to Nakano. There is also a whole article about us, and we each have a paragraph or 2 about us...but I can only read half of it :(
This is my kitchen...it is a little messy in this photo...but big ups for stainless steel counters!
This is my living room. It is about 6 tatami. Again, I took the photos as procrastionation from cleaning. I have an other room the same size as this one...that is completely empty except for my luggage. My bedroom is a little bigger with wood floors, but the photos of that didnt turn out too well...
This is the view from my back door (the Shoji, or rice paper screen, in my living room). The door opens almost due south; this view is to the south west.
So we made the local rag here in Nakano. From left to right: Brandon, Me, Rich, Devin. The title is something like the 3 new AET (assistant English teachers) that have come to Nakano. There is also a whole article about us, and we each have a paragraph or 2 about us...but I can only read half of it :(
This is my kitchen...it is a little messy in this photo...but big ups for stainless steel counters!
This is my living room. It is about 6 tatami. Again, I took the photos as procrastionation from cleaning. I have an other room the same size as this one...that is completely empty except for my luggage. My bedroom is a little bigger with wood floors, but the photos of that didnt turn out too well...
This is the view from my back door (the Shoji, or rice paper screen, in my living room). The door opens almost due south; this view is to the south west.
Wednesday, August 10, 2005
from Binzuru to the Bizarre
Well Hello,
I swear this country will never stop being weird. I cannot even begin to explain all the bizarre things and situations there are…but I will get into some.
Before I get on to all the weird stuff, let me tell you about a really cool family, the Nakazawa’s. This past weekend I participated in a homestay Many of us JETs were given a host family in Nagano City, and we stayed over Saturday night at their homes. Saturday also happened to be Binzuru, a big festival in Nagano. Most people were taken to Binzuru by their host families, and many participated in the dancing. The Binzuru festival consists of ‘teams’ of people who all, in unison, dance to the same music all around the town. Imagine a parade with only people, no floats. There were tens of thousands of people following the course around the city…it was definitely spectacular.
I got to participate in a very different way than everyone else. The Nakazawa’s own a large Izakaya (kinda like a bar…but not). Their restaurant (which is actually a 5 story building) is right in the heart of Nagano, and right along the festival route. They were not dancing in the festival, they were capitalizing on in. Out front of their building they set up a stand to sell Yakitori (chicken on a stick), karagge (fried chicken wings), and nama-biru (draft beer). Not only did they have a prime selling location, they also had a killer spokesperson announcing the menu…namely ME! That’s right, I was helping them sell the food and beer (in exchange for all the chicken and beer I wanted) to the goers of the festival. I cannot count the number of people with shocked expressions on their faces while I was standing on the road yelling in Japanese. Many of those people ended up buying something (just to note beer was by far the best seller). Binzuru was a riot…many people in crazy outfits dancing for about 3 hours with only 2 breaks of 10 min.
Now onto the Bizarre!
What do you get when you cross Croquet and Pitch n Putt? MALLET GOLF (マレットゴルフ, maretto gorufu). Now what the hell is Mallet Golf you might ask …well that is a very good question… Mallet Golf is played on a course similar to a pitch n putt course. There are a few (4 at the one we went to) sets of 9 holes, ranging from 30m to 90m in length. There are doglegs, bunkers, and ‘greens’ (which are really dirt patches that have a large hole with a flag in it.) You stand in the tee-box, put your roughly croquet ball sized ball down, take your club (which is a modernized japanized version of a croquet mallet), and wack the hell out of the ball. Now I know kidsfesters will know how hard you can wack a croquet ball, but imagine the ball has more mass, and the mallet is metal. Needless to say, those things fly! The courses are evil, up hills with roll backs, down hill slopes with room to roll off the green, trees, rocks, more trees, oh yeah did I mention trees? It is a brutally fun and ridiculous game. The most bizarre part was when the old grannies and grandpas started passing us, and they all had full regalia going: gloves, extra ball holsters, ball markers, and personalized mallets. I don’t know what to say but…bizarre.
I didnt take those photos, but I thought they may help with my explination...
------
Today was a great day! After a long night of poker with 7 other JETs from the area, it was nice to have a low key day. Brandon (my neighbour), his brother, another English teacher from farther south, and I all piled into Brandon’s little car and headed for Niigata. Nigatta is the prefecture North West of Nagano, and it is on the Sea of Japan. That specifically was our destination…the Sea of Japan. After a little over an hour on the highway, and a few local roads, we were there: a sandy beach with some pretty decent waves. We found a spot on the sand and then hit the water. My oh my was that water ever refreshing. I would say it was a good way to beat the heat, but the water was pretty damn warm too. It was almost like a salty bath. We bodysurfed and played in the waves for a few hours. When we were finally all prunes we sat in the sun to dry. What an amazing view: the sea spread before us, the mountains right behind us, the little huts selling food and renting water toys just off beside us. It was simply amazing. I cannot believe I can go from the best area for snowboarding in Japan, to a kick ass beach, in a little over an hour!
I cannot believe the amazing situation I have landed in!
On some other notes:
-Tomorrow I meet all the teachers I will be assisting
-I am currently looking for a cell phone plan to suit me
-I am also looking for a used car (which are quite cheap to buy, but there is a hefty inspection fee…kinda like air care, but for the whole damn car…right down to the windshield wiper blades)
-I am also going to get a digital camera soon, so I share my own crazy photos of Mallet Golf and other bizarraties (hey if Shakespeare could make up words, wby cant I?)
My telephone number is
269-23-3524
I am sure from Canada you need to punch in more numbers…locally here we just dial the last 6…
I hope everyone at home is doing well. Please feel free to email me at aj22@shaw.ca if you don’t want to post publicly on this page. Thanks to everyone who is keeping in touch and checking up on my site…I am really doing this sire for all of you, so it is encouraging to see that people are interested.
Cheers
Adam
I swear this country will never stop being weird. I cannot even begin to explain all the bizarre things and situations there are…but I will get into some.
Before I get on to all the weird stuff, let me tell you about a really cool family, the Nakazawa’s. This past weekend I participated in a homestay Many of us JETs were given a host family in Nagano City, and we stayed over Saturday night at their homes. Saturday also happened to be Binzuru, a big festival in Nagano. Most people were taken to Binzuru by their host families, and many participated in the dancing. The Binzuru festival consists of ‘teams’ of people who all, in unison, dance to the same music all around the town. Imagine a parade with only people, no floats. There were tens of thousands of people following the course around the city…it was definitely spectacular.
I got to participate in a very different way than everyone else. The Nakazawa’s own a large Izakaya (kinda like a bar…but not). Their restaurant (which is actually a 5 story building) is right in the heart of Nagano, and right along the festival route. They were not dancing in the festival, they were capitalizing on in. Out front of their building they set up a stand to sell Yakitori (chicken on a stick), karagge (fried chicken wings), and nama-biru (draft beer). Not only did they have a prime selling location, they also had a killer spokesperson announcing the menu…namely ME! That’s right, I was helping them sell the food and beer (in exchange for all the chicken and beer I wanted) to the goers of the festival. I cannot count the number of people with shocked expressions on their faces while I was standing on the road yelling in Japanese. Many of those people ended up buying something (just to note beer was by far the best seller). Binzuru was a riot…many people in crazy outfits dancing for about 3 hours with only 2 breaks of 10 min.
Now onto the Bizarre!
What do you get when you cross Croquet and Pitch n Putt? MALLET GOLF (マレットゴルフ, maretto gorufu). Now what the hell is Mallet Golf you might ask …well that is a very good question… Mallet Golf is played on a course similar to a pitch n putt course. There are a few (4 at the one we went to) sets of 9 holes, ranging from 30m to 90m in length. There are doglegs, bunkers, and ‘greens’ (which are really dirt patches that have a large hole with a flag in it.) You stand in the tee-box, put your roughly croquet ball sized ball down, take your club (which is a modernized japanized version of a croquet mallet), and wack the hell out of the ball. Now I know kidsfesters will know how hard you can wack a croquet ball, but imagine the ball has more mass, and the mallet is metal. Needless to say, those things fly! The courses are evil, up hills with roll backs, down hill slopes with room to roll off the green, trees, rocks, more trees, oh yeah did I mention trees? It is a brutally fun and ridiculous game. The most bizarre part was when the old grannies and grandpas started passing us, and they all had full regalia going: gloves, extra ball holsters, ball markers, and personalized mallets. I don’t know what to say but…bizarre.
I didnt take those photos, but I thought they may help with my explination...
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Today was a great day! After a long night of poker with 7 other JETs from the area, it was nice to have a low key day. Brandon (my neighbour), his brother, another English teacher from farther south, and I all piled into Brandon’s little car and headed for Niigata. Nigatta is the prefecture North West of Nagano, and it is on the Sea of Japan. That specifically was our destination…the Sea of Japan. After a little over an hour on the highway, and a few local roads, we were there: a sandy beach with some pretty decent waves. We found a spot on the sand and then hit the water. My oh my was that water ever refreshing. I would say it was a good way to beat the heat, but the water was pretty damn warm too. It was almost like a salty bath. We bodysurfed and played in the waves for a few hours. When we were finally all prunes we sat in the sun to dry. What an amazing view: the sea spread before us, the mountains right behind us, the little huts selling food and renting water toys just off beside us. It was simply amazing. I cannot believe I can go from the best area for snowboarding in Japan, to a kick ass beach, in a little over an hour!
I cannot believe the amazing situation I have landed in!
On some other notes:
-Tomorrow I meet all the teachers I will be assisting
-I am currently looking for a cell phone plan to suit me
-I am also looking for a used car (which are quite cheap to buy, but there is a hefty inspection fee…kinda like air care, but for the whole damn car…right down to the windshield wiper blades)
-I am also going to get a digital camera soon, so I share my own crazy photos of Mallet Golf and other bizarraties (hey if Shakespeare could make up words, wby cant I?)
My telephone number is
269-23-3524
I am sure from Canada you need to punch in more numbers…locally here we just dial the last 6…
I hope everyone at home is doing well. Please feel free to email me at aj22@shaw.ca if you don’t want to post publicly on this page. Thanks to everyone who is keeping in touch and checking up on my site…I am really doing this sire for all of you, so it is encouraging to see that people are interested.
Cheers
Adam
Thursday, August 04, 2005
What a Whirlwind
Wake up Saturday morning, and head to the Airport around noon. My flight wasn’t until three but I wanted to be there early. It’s a good thing that I did, since I thought the line was a little large when I got there, but by the time I had checked my baggage the line was over 3 times as long. I was also luck for a few other reasons. I wasn’t charged extra for the walking stick I took, and best of all I had a window seat.
After some teary goodbyes it was off to the departure lounge. There were many other Vancouver JETs there, and also some from Winnipeg. When I finally took my seat on the plane I was pleased to find that I was sitting with 2 other Vancouver JETs. I won’t bore you with the details of the 9.5 hour flight, just that there was good sake and bad food. JAL has great service, but they make the most disgusting ham sandwich that has ever been known to this universe. The other great thing about JAL is the TV screens in the back of the chair in front of you. Not only do you get a remote that controls 9 movies in repetition, but the controller turns sideways and you can play video games. All in all the flight wasn’t bad at all.
Upon landing we exited the plane straight on to the tarmac after walking through the wall of humidity. A shuttle bus took us to the terminal where a short escalator revealed the queue for immigration. I was one of the first JETs to line up (mostly due to the fact that I didn’t stand around gawking) so I made it through in about 20 min. Then we got our luggage and went to customs. After stepping through the last door into the arrivals area I was greeted by a dude in an orange shirt and a JET PROGRAMME sing. He told me to keep moving down the hall. There was another orange shirted person every 40 feet or so. The hilarity of the situation is that they all kept telling us to keep walking to the next orange shirted persons, but we could see the next 5 or 6, so it wasn’t as if we couldn’t infer that that was the direction to head in. I mean, we are all university graduates with at least a 3.0 GPA to get accepted.
After we were ushered (or herded) outside it was time to line up again, this time to choose which of our bags were going to go straight to our homes, and which would accompany us to Tokyo. It was at this point that I discovered that our flight was not the only flight that had just landed with JETs. I don’t know why I didn’t think that would be the case, since there were almost 1500 of us in that training group, but at the time I hadn’t thought of it yet. The way I found out that there were other JETs there was from some loud, funny accented, swearing. Kiwi’s, go figure. Once we ditched some of our stuff, we lined up again, this time for the bus that would take us to Tokyo. The bus ride was cool, but I think our driver was a snail in his last life, because every vehicle on the road was passing him. I am not exaggerating when I say every vehicle. Finally we started to enter the looming towers; finally we were in the worlds largest city; finally we were in Tokyo.
When I though the ushering at the airport was a little ridiculous, it was nothing compared to the Hotel. Nearly all of the 1500 JETs were staying in the Keio Plaza Hotel, and since we all arrived that day we were pretty much sheep. So dripping wet from the 15 seconds off the air conditioned bus, toting my laptop case, carry on back pack, and the walking stick, I entered the lobby to the familiar and smiling faces of the Yamaguchi Family. (For those of you who may not know, I tutored the 3 Yamaguchi kids for 3 years while they lived in Vancouver). After a quick hi, it was back to the ushering:
Through the lobby, up the escalator, turn right, go down the hall, turn right, find your name tag, get a book bag stuffed with books and sheets, get a invitation to an night at the Embassy (more on this later), pick up room key, out the door, find your suitcase in the growing pile, get to the elevator, wait for the growing queue to file on, cram into elevator, up to the 24th floor, find the room, go in, drop shit, fall on to bed.
I really wanted to spend the rest of the night there, but that was the only time I was going to have for the Yamaguchi Family. I went back down and then we went for dinner. We actually went to the building next to the hotel. We went to a restaurant on the 49th floor that had the most beautiful view of Tokyo at night. It was great to see the Yamaguchis. The kids were a little shy to speak English, because they have lost a little since they left, but Taiki, the eldest and one I worked the longest with, has actually just taken the English Proficiency test and scored higher than Japanese High School Graduates. He will continue to study and test…he is going to do really really well. After dinner it was back to the hotel, as I was feeling that fact that it was almost morning at home.
The next morning I woke up and went to breakfast. It was western style and buffet. There is really nothing quite like mass produced scrambled eggs…and I mean that in the worst possible way. There was some fruit and juice to go along with it all, and some black swill that was meant to be an excuse for coffee. After scarfing down some food, it was back to the room for a shower and to get into my suit for the conference. We met in our Prefectures for the opening ceremonies. Most of the people in my group were pretty cool. The day was filled with speakers and lectures. Some were good, some weren’t so hot, but all in all they were good, save for the fact that if you listened at the pre-departure orientation and read all the paper work that you already knew everything they said that day.
That night we had a Nagano night out. First we went deeper into Shinjyuku, the area of Tokyo we were in. We found the flashing neon and packed streets! We hit up a super cool bar that was full of kitch in the automated way. We had to ring a gong 3 times for a robotic face to appear in the door, then we had to ask his permission to enter. Once inside it was time for booze. The Nagano peeps really are awesome, and we polished off about ¾ of a pitcher each. At about 12:30am we all left the bar. We were going in the direction of the hotel, but we weren’t done yet! The group leader wanted to hit up some Karaoke in Tokyo. I was hesitant, being a little drunk already, and the fact that we had to be up for a 9am conference start in the morning. But damn those Kiwis can pressure people, and in the end the majority of the people who were going to sleep ended up hitting up Karaoke. I also felt that being the only Canadian still there that I had to defend our National Pride, since we weren’t going to any Karaoke, we were going to a Nomihodai. For those of you our of touch with Japanese, Nomihodai means ‘all you can drink.’ Drink we did, with plenty of drunken singing. We were there for about 2 hours. I believe I sufficiently defended our pride, as in the end (at about 3:30am) I had drunk the Kiwis under the table. Not only that, but when I got up for breakfast at 7am, I wasn’t even hung-over. The Kiwis on the other hand, had as much trouble avoiding a hangover, as they did standing up the night before!
Day 2 consisted of more specific workgroups. The one on Team Teaching was very well done. We got lots of ideas for activities and games, and the first real feel for what the hell it is that we are actually being paid to do. The other good meeting that day was our official Prefectural meeting, where we got more Nagano specific info. I had to skip an optional seminar spot to make sure I got my suitcase in order, since we had to have our stow away luggage packed and checked in that evening between 6 and 8 pm, in preparation for departure in the morning. I had to do a shit load of re-arranging since all the conference seemed to be was a way for JET to give us ‘reformatted trees.’ I think I had an entire juvenile tree in my suitcase by the time it was all said and done. The reason I was in such a rush to pack my bag was that the Canadian Embassy was hosting a reception for the new Canadian JETs that night, and we had to meet at 6:20pm in the lobby.
We took the subway to the Embassy, and my gawd what a building it is! Not only is it right next to the Imperial Palace, but it is simply beautiful. Before the festivities inside kicked off we were greeted by an open bar that was serving juice, wine, and Moosehead lager. It was great to have some real Canadian beer…don’t get me wrong, Japanese beer is good, but really I wouldn’t trust Canadian Sake if I could have Japanese. Some Embassy dude (who I had a great conversation with later) greeted us. He told us what they did and didn’t do for Canadians Abroad, and introduced the staff. The best part of it all is that he was a JET himself. Not only that, he was in the first year that Canada participated (the second year of the Programme, 1988). He was actually the first Canadian JET to step foot on Japan! Not only that, but he was stationed in Northern Nagano!!!!! That is why he and I had such a great chat.
After the food and beer at the Embassy, it was back to the hotel. A quick change out of the tie, and then our for a final night with some of the Canucks (no not the freaking hockey team…) We hit us “Sega Land,” a three story arcade. After a couple hours it was back to the hotel for my last sleep in Tokyo.
Wednesday morning was another rush. Up, showered, dressed, and carry on’s packed and in tow, for break fast at 7:30am. At 8:15 we met in our Nagano group again, and shortly headed for the bus. We had a lot of room on the bus so we all had some room to stretch out a bit. The bus ride to Nagano Prefecture is simply beautiful. It is through the mountains, which are full of rivers and small towns. After a few hours we made it into Nagano, and shortly after stopped for lunch at Lake Suwa. Suwa is one of the most famous lakes in Japan. It is very large (I think it might be the largest in the country) and is surrounded by mountains that get covered in snow in the winter. It is also the site of the largest fireworks (hanabi) display in the country…which just happens to be in a few weeks! Kick ass! After an extended break (apparently we are the most on time JETs Nagano has had in a few years) we were on the road again. About an hour and a half down the road we were in Matsumoto, the first drop off point. I watched as half the group, and many of my new friends, met their new Supervisors and headed off to their new homes. The rest of us got to relax for a little while, because we were a little ahead of schedule.
About another hour and a bit down the road we finally hit Nagano city, the second (and final) drop off point. When I was called, I left the bus and met my new supervisor: Takeshi Kobayashi. My new neighbour, Brandon, was also there. Kobayashi-san is a super cool supervisor…I think it helps that Brandon has broken him in a little. Kobayashi likes rock music, like Green Day! We were rocking out in the car on the 30 min drive to Nakano, my new home! Before going to our new homes (another new JET Devin is in Nakano as well) we went to the local municipal hall. This houses the driving office, the alien registration centre, the city council, and the Board of Education…my employers. We were taken to the BOE and introduced to the Superintendent of Schools here in Nakano. We also met his assistant, and also Kobayashi-san’s direct supervisor. They were all really nice, but the Superintendent was a little stodgy…I guess it comes with the job. After that we went to the main floor where we applied for our Alien Registration Cards, more commonly called Gaijin (foreigners) Cards. Finally after all of that we were off to our new houses. We hit Devin’s house first. His place is quite new, but if you can imagine living in a shoe box, then you are still thinking too big. After making sure Devin was ok, we were off around the corner to my new pad!
My place is a sweet (though definitely NOT new) house. It is a duplex, and as I mentioned, Brandon has an identical suite beside me. There are three large rooms, each larger than my bedroom was in Vancouver! One has wood flooring, the others have tatami floors. There is also a bathroom, a kitchen, and a shower/bath/laundry room. I bought a bed and a table from my predecessor, and the rest of the house has the basics. Like I said it is kinda old, but quite nice. There is a fairly large (but overgrown) yard that we are going to clear out and make a little nicer. I have a view of the mountains from my back porch. I live in a neighbourhood called Nanguu, and my house is on the corner of a curve in the road on a little side street. I say side street, but imagine an alley, then make it a little more narrow…but hey that’s Japan! On the other side of the road are some train tracks for the commuter trains. The trains only run until the late evening so they are not a bother to sleep, and they are also quite short and quiet so they aren’t really a bother at all. I will post photos when I get the chance.
Still on Wednesday (the day we left Tokyo, the day after the Embassy, 3 days after landing) all the local JETs got together. There were 8 of us in total, and we first went to Yakiniku…bbq meat! We ordered 4, count ‘em 4 family platters of raw meat to cook on the bbq’s in our table. After gorging ourselves it was off for more Karaoke. Again, 2 hours of Nomihodai and singing were in order. My voice was still a little shot from the other night of belting it out, and the dehydration from the heat (did I forget to mention that Nakano is so fucking hot!) It was home time after that, and thankfully this was before midnight because I was in need of some sleep.
That brings us to today. Up and ready to go for 8. That was no problem since I had no food to make for breakfast anyways. We went to the City Hall again, this time we signed our contracts, were officially sworn in by the superintendent, and introduced ourselves to the whole Board of Education. The BOE wanted us all to say a few words in Japanese. Brandon is an old card at that since he was a Japanese Major. One of the other new JETs, Rich, doesn’t speak a lick of Japanese and he was so embarrassed. Devin did a 50/50 Japanese English intro. I managed to stumble my way through a 5 or 6 line introduction which appeared well received. Oh, I forgot to mention that a reporter for the local rag was also taking photos and recording the whole thing…how embarrassing! After that it was down a level to the Mayors office. We all sat with him, the Superintendent, the Assistant Sup, and Kobayashi-san and chatted about where we were from. The mayor gave us words of encouragement and asked some questions, all through Brandon’s Translation.
After that, we got temporary papers for our Gaijin Cards, and then headed to the bank. We applied for accounts, which incidentally takes just as long in Japan as it does in Canada. We stopped for lunch then made a trip to Devin’s School. It is only 4 years old and is very beautiful. He met some of the teachers and we took off. This time we were headed for Kousha, my school! If Devin;s school is beautiful, mine is a work of art. It was just finished being built in May. It is absolutely stunning. I cannot believe the luck I have had with the JET programme! I met 2 teachers, but the Principal was not there, but apparently he was excited about meeting me.
When we finally finished the duties of the day, Kobayashi-san took us to the supermarket upon request. I could go into detail about it, but I think I have written enough to keep everyone happy, and my fingers are also getting a little tired. I cooked my own dinner in my new kitchen tonight. It was very satisfying…the act of cooking it, the food itself was ok. I need a rice cooker…and some rice.
I took a little bike ride around my neighbourhood tonight. I met some people, spoke some poor Japanese, and bought a map (in Japanese of course) of Nakano. I have so much more to share, and I am sure I will have more as the next few weeks unfold.
The ultimate part of why Kobayashi-san kicks ass (as if being a Green Day fan isn’t enough) he feels that when the students aren’t in school, that we shouldn’t have to be there. So while the teachers are sitting in an empty school right now planning the next year, we get to be on vacation…paid! And, it is on top of our vacation days! I don’t have to start going to school until August 22nd!!!!!!! I have one day of training on the 19th, and probably a meeting before then, but I might actually get to check out the Expo before I have to work! I might go do a Mount Fuji Climb too. That is why Kobayashi kicks-ass!
Well, that really is all I am going to write for now. Please feel free to email me. I am still checking my shaw account. If I haven’t hit you back yet it is because I have been living all the insanity of the last five days.
I hope everyone is doing well, and will someone please email me and tell me what happened with that plane in Toronto! Well keep looking for updates and if it is hot there, just think it is 35 here, and it got to 100% humidity this afternoon!
Kampai!
A
After some teary goodbyes it was off to the departure lounge. There were many other Vancouver JETs there, and also some from Winnipeg. When I finally took my seat on the plane I was pleased to find that I was sitting with 2 other Vancouver JETs. I won’t bore you with the details of the 9.5 hour flight, just that there was good sake and bad food. JAL has great service, but they make the most disgusting ham sandwich that has ever been known to this universe. The other great thing about JAL is the TV screens in the back of the chair in front of you. Not only do you get a remote that controls 9 movies in repetition, but the controller turns sideways and you can play video games. All in all the flight wasn’t bad at all.
Upon landing we exited the plane straight on to the tarmac after walking through the wall of humidity. A shuttle bus took us to the terminal where a short escalator revealed the queue for immigration. I was one of the first JETs to line up (mostly due to the fact that I didn’t stand around gawking) so I made it through in about 20 min. Then we got our luggage and went to customs. After stepping through the last door into the arrivals area I was greeted by a dude in an orange shirt and a JET PROGRAMME sing. He told me to keep moving down the hall. There was another orange shirted person every 40 feet or so. The hilarity of the situation is that they all kept telling us to keep walking to the next orange shirted persons, but we could see the next 5 or 6, so it wasn’t as if we couldn’t infer that that was the direction to head in. I mean, we are all university graduates with at least a 3.0 GPA to get accepted.
After we were ushered (or herded) outside it was time to line up again, this time to choose which of our bags were going to go straight to our homes, and which would accompany us to Tokyo. It was at this point that I discovered that our flight was not the only flight that had just landed with JETs. I don’t know why I didn’t think that would be the case, since there were almost 1500 of us in that training group, but at the time I hadn’t thought of it yet. The way I found out that there were other JETs there was from some loud, funny accented, swearing. Kiwi’s, go figure. Once we ditched some of our stuff, we lined up again, this time for the bus that would take us to Tokyo. The bus ride was cool, but I think our driver was a snail in his last life, because every vehicle on the road was passing him. I am not exaggerating when I say every vehicle. Finally we started to enter the looming towers; finally we were in the worlds largest city; finally we were in Tokyo.
When I though the ushering at the airport was a little ridiculous, it was nothing compared to the Hotel. Nearly all of the 1500 JETs were staying in the Keio Plaza Hotel, and since we all arrived that day we were pretty much sheep. So dripping wet from the 15 seconds off the air conditioned bus, toting my laptop case, carry on back pack, and the walking stick, I entered the lobby to the familiar and smiling faces of the Yamaguchi Family. (For those of you who may not know, I tutored the 3 Yamaguchi kids for 3 years while they lived in Vancouver). After a quick hi, it was back to the ushering:
Through the lobby, up the escalator, turn right, go down the hall, turn right, find your name tag, get a book bag stuffed with books and sheets, get a invitation to an night at the Embassy (more on this later), pick up room key, out the door, find your suitcase in the growing pile, get to the elevator, wait for the growing queue to file on, cram into elevator, up to the 24th floor, find the room, go in, drop shit, fall on to bed.
I really wanted to spend the rest of the night there, but that was the only time I was going to have for the Yamaguchi Family. I went back down and then we went for dinner. We actually went to the building next to the hotel. We went to a restaurant on the 49th floor that had the most beautiful view of Tokyo at night. It was great to see the Yamaguchis. The kids were a little shy to speak English, because they have lost a little since they left, but Taiki, the eldest and one I worked the longest with, has actually just taken the English Proficiency test and scored higher than Japanese High School Graduates. He will continue to study and test…he is going to do really really well. After dinner it was back to the hotel, as I was feeling that fact that it was almost morning at home.
The next morning I woke up and went to breakfast. It was western style and buffet. There is really nothing quite like mass produced scrambled eggs…and I mean that in the worst possible way. There was some fruit and juice to go along with it all, and some black swill that was meant to be an excuse for coffee. After scarfing down some food, it was back to the room for a shower and to get into my suit for the conference. We met in our Prefectures for the opening ceremonies. Most of the people in my group were pretty cool. The day was filled with speakers and lectures. Some were good, some weren’t so hot, but all in all they were good, save for the fact that if you listened at the pre-departure orientation and read all the paper work that you already knew everything they said that day.
That night we had a Nagano night out. First we went deeper into Shinjyuku, the area of Tokyo we were in. We found the flashing neon and packed streets! We hit up a super cool bar that was full of kitch in the automated way. We had to ring a gong 3 times for a robotic face to appear in the door, then we had to ask his permission to enter. Once inside it was time for booze. The Nagano peeps really are awesome, and we polished off about ¾ of a pitcher each. At about 12:30am we all left the bar. We were going in the direction of the hotel, but we weren’t done yet! The group leader wanted to hit up some Karaoke in Tokyo. I was hesitant, being a little drunk already, and the fact that we had to be up for a 9am conference start in the morning. But damn those Kiwis can pressure people, and in the end the majority of the people who were going to sleep ended up hitting up Karaoke. I also felt that being the only Canadian still there that I had to defend our National Pride, since we weren’t going to any Karaoke, we were going to a Nomihodai. For those of you our of touch with Japanese, Nomihodai means ‘all you can drink.’ Drink we did, with plenty of drunken singing. We were there for about 2 hours. I believe I sufficiently defended our pride, as in the end (at about 3:30am) I had drunk the Kiwis under the table. Not only that, but when I got up for breakfast at 7am, I wasn’t even hung-over. The Kiwis on the other hand, had as much trouble avoiding a hangover, as they did standing up the night before!
Day 2 consisted of more specific workgroups. The one on Team Teaching was very well done. We got lots of ideas for activities and games, and the first real feel for what the hell it is that we are actually being paid to do. The other good meeting that day was our official Prefectural meeting, where we got more Nagano specific info. I had to skip an optional seminar spot to make sure I got my suitcase in order, since we had to have our stow away luggage packed and checked in that evening between 6 and 8 pm, in preparation for departure in the morning. I had to do a shit load of re-arranging since all the conference seemed to be was a way for JET to give us ‘reformatted trees.’ I think I had an entire juvenile tree in my suitcase by the time it was all said and done. The reason I was in such a rush to pack my bag was that the Canadian Embassy was hosting a reception for the new Canadian JETs that night, and we had to meet at 6:20pm in the lobby.
We took the subway to the Embassy, and my gawd what a building it is! Not only is it right next to the Imperial Palace, but it is simply beautiful. Before the festivities inside kicked off we were greeted by an open bar that was serving juice, wine, and Moosehead lager. It was great to have some real Canadian beer…don’t get me wrong, Japanese beer is good, but really I wouldn’t trust Canadian Sake if I could have Japanese. Some Embassy dude (who I had a great conversation with later) greeted us. He told us what they did and didn’t do for Canadians Abroad, and introduced the staff. The best part of it all is that he was a JET himself. Not only that, he was in the first year that Canada participated (the second year of the Programme, 1988). He was actually the first Canadian JET to step foot on Japan! Not only that, but he was stationed in Northern Nagano!!!!! That is why he and I had such a great chat.
After the food and beer at the Embassy, it was back to the hotel. A quick change out of the tie, and then our for a final night with some of the Canucks (no not the freaking hockey team…) We hit us “Sega Land,” a three story arcade. After a couple hours it was back to the hotel for my last sleep in Tokyo.
Wednesday morning was another rush. Up, showered, dressed, and carry on’s packed and in tow, for break fast at 7:30am. At 8:15 we met in our Nagano group again, and shortly headed for the bus. We had a lot of room on the bus so we all had some room to stretch out a bit. The bus ride to Nagano Prefecture is simply beautiful. It is through the mountains, which are full of rivers and small towns. After a few hours we made it into Nagano, and shortly after stopped for lunch at Lake Suwa. Suwa is one of the most famous lakes in Japan. It is very large (I think it might be the largest in the country) and is surrounded by mountains that get covered in snow in the winter. It is also the site of the largest fireworks (hanabi) display in the country…which just happens to be in a few weeks! Kick ass! After an extended break (apparently we are the most on time JETs Nagano has had in a few years) we were on the road again. About an hour and a half down the road we were in Matsumoto, the first drop off point. I watched as half the group, and many of my new friends, met their new Supervisors and headed off to their new homes. The rest of us got to relax for a little while, because we were a little ahead of schedule.
About another hour and a bit down the road we finally hit Nagano city, the second (and final) drop off point. When I was called, I left the bus and met my new supervisor: Takeshi Kobayashi. My new neighbour, Brandon, was also there. Kobayashi-san is a super cool supervisor…I think it helps that Brandon has broken him in a little. Kobayashi likes rock music, like Green Day! We were rocking out in the car on the 30 min drive to Nakano, my new home! Before going to our new homes (another new JET Devin is in Nakano as well) we went to the local municipal hall. This houses the driving office, the alien registration centre, the city council, and the Board of Education…my employers. We were taken to the BOE and introduced to the Superintendent of Schools here in Nakano. We also met his assistant, and also Kobayashi-san’s direct supervisor. They were all really nice, but the Superintendent was a little stodgy…I guess it comes with the job. After that we went to the main floor where we applied for our Alien Registration Cards, more commonly called Gaijin (foreigners) Cards. Finally after all of that we were off to our new houses. We hit Devin’s house first. His place is quite new, but if you can imagine living in a shoe box, then you are still thinking too big. After making sure Devin was ok, we were off around the corner to my new pad!
My place is a sweet (though definitely NOT new) house. It is a duplex, and as I mentioned, Brandon has an identical suite beside me. There are three large rooms, each larger than my bedroom was in Vancouver! One has wood flooring, the others have tatami floors. There is also a bathroom, a kitchen, and a shower/bath/laundry room. I bought a bed and a table from my predecessor, and the rest of the house has the basics. Like I said it is kinda old, but quite nice. There is a fairly large (but overgrown) yard that we are going to clear out and make a little nicer. I have a view of the mountains from my back porch. I live in a neighbourhood called Nanguu, and my house is on the corner of a curve in the road on a little side street. I say side street, but imagine an alley, then make it a little more narrow…but hey that’s Japan! On the other side of the road are some train tracks for the commuter trains. The trains only run until the late evening so they are not a bother to sleep, and they are also quite short and quiet so they aren’t really a bother at all. I will post photos when I get the chance.
Still on Wednesday (the day we left Tokyo, the day after the Embassy, 3 days after landing) all the local JETs got together. There were 8 of us in total, and we first went to Yakiniku…bbq meat! We ordered 4, count ‘em 4 family platters of raw meat to cook on the bbq’s in our table. After gorging ourselves it was off for more Karaoke. Again, 2 hours of Nomihodai and singing were in order. My voice was still a little shot from the other night of belting it out, and the dehydration from the heat (did I forget to mention that Nakano is so fucking hot!) It was home time after that, and thankfully this was before midnight because I was in need of some sleep.
That brings us to today. Up and ready to go for 8. That was no problem since I had no food to make for breakfast anyways. We went to the City Hall again, this time we signed our contracts, were officially sworn in by the superintendent, and introduced ourselves to the whole Board of Education. The BOE wanted us all to say a few words in Japanese. Brandon is an old card at that since he was a Japanese Major. One of the other new JETs, Rich, doesn’t speak a lick of Japanese and he was so embarrassed. Devin did a 50/50 Japanese English intro. I managed to stumble my way through a 5 or 6 line introduction which appeared well received. Oh, I forgot to mention that a reporter for the local rag was also taking photos and recording the whole thing…how embarrassing! After that it was down a level to the Mayors office. We all sat with him, the Superintendent, the Assistant Sup, and Kobayashi-san and chatted about where we were from. The mayor gave us words of encouragement and asked some questions, all through Brandon’s Translation.
After that, we got temporary papers for our Gaijin Cards, and then headed to the bank. We applied for accounts, which incidentally takes just as long in Japan as it does in Canada. We stopped for lunch then made a trip to Devin’s School. It is only 4 years old and is very beautiful. He met some of the teachers and we took off. This time we were headed for Kousha, my school! If Devin;s school is beautiful, mine is a work of art. It was just finished being built in May. It is absolutely stunning. I cannot believe the luck I have had with the JET programme! I met 2 teachers, but the Principal was not there, but apparently he was excited about meeting me.
When we finally finished the duties of the day, Kobayashi-san took us to the supermarket upon request. I could go into detail about it, but I think I have written enough to keep everyone happy, and my fingers are also getting a little tired. I cooked my own dinner in my new kitchen tonight. It was very satisfying…the act of cooking it, the food itself was ok. I need a rice cooker…and some rice.
I took a little bike ride around my neighbourhood tonight. I met some people, spoke some poor Japanese, and bought a map (in Japanese of course) of Nakano. I have so much more to share, and I am sure I will have more as the next few weeks unfold.
The ultimate part of why Kobayashi-san kicks ass (as if being a Green Day fan isn’t enough) he feels that when the students aren’t in school, that we shouldn’t have to be there. So while the teachers are sitting in an empty school right now planning the next year, we get to be on vacation…paid! And, it is on top of our vacation days! I don’t have to start going to school until August 22nd!!!!!!! I have one day of training on the 19th, and probably a meeting before then, but I might actually get to check out the Expo before I have to work! I might go do a Mount Fuji Climb too. That is why Kobayashi kicks-ass!
Well, that really is all I am going to write for now. Please feel free to email me. I am still checking my shaw account. If I haven’t hit you back yet it is because I have been living all the insanity of the last five days.
I hope everyone is doing well, and will someone please email me and tell me what happened with that plane in Toronto! Well keep looking for updates and if it is hot there, just think it is 35 here, and it got to 100% humidity this afternoon!
Kampai!
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