Meri Kurisumasu

Well, it’s nearing Christmastime for everyone around the globe, and Japan’s no different! While they still put up the lights and give gifts and think about Santa, there are a few differences at least. Christmas is all in all a completely commercial holiday – less than 1% of the population is Christian, so that ‘birth of Jesus’ thing isn’t mentioned at all. It’s just a consumer-led holiday over here.

One thing that completely didn’t make any sense to anyone over here is: Americans don’t eat Christmas cakes! At all! What the heck!?!? Yes, here in Japan they sell Christmas cakes, which are basically cakes with white icing and strawberries on top. There’s a rush to buy them before Christmas, and after Christmas the unsold ones get tossed. Weird. Also, KFC (a pretty big chain over here) has convinced Japan that fried chicken dinners are the way to go on Christmas Eve. So, it’s also super-surprising that Americans don’t have fried chicken on Christmas Eve.

While most of us back home tend to see Christmas as a time to spend with family and friends, here it’s more of a romantic holiday, kind of like Valentine’s Day in the states. In a weird tie-in to the Christmas cakes, once a woman is past 25 and doesn’t have a boyfriend/husband, she’s considered an ‘old cake.’ (Just like if a cake’s around past December 25^th…)

I myself am not doing much on Christmas. (Well, besides feeling really homesick. I would have gone home but, honestly, a one-way ticket bought even a month in advance would have been about the cost of one month’s salary.) I have taught a few Christmas lessons and made my classes sing a few Christmas carols, and today I went to the kindergarten and dressed up as Santa. The costume was hilariously small on me and I wore the flimsiest beard ever but the kids loved it. They get cuter the tinier they get, I swear.

But in any case, the real reason for celebration around this time of year for me is two weeks off from work – the last week of December and the first week of January. Those are going to be quite welcome. I plan to relax and maybe travel around a bit in Kyoto, Tokyo and Omiya. Perhaps then I will have more stories to tell? The only entertainment I’ve been up to is last weekend, going to Kumagaya where my friends Erinn and Rebecca teach, and hitting the town. And by that I mean we did karaoke for hours and I sang Toto and David Bowie and Metallica and gosh it was fun.

Well, Merry Christmas to everyone out there! Hope your holidays are eventful and fun and safe. Sayonara!

(sidenote: my Japanese has not become any better. I’m terrible at this immersion thing.)

And We Saw Parade of Falling Stars

Hey everyone! I know I haven’t blogged in a while, but I’ve been busy with one thing or another. I took part in Nanowrimo this year, resulting in the worst 50,000 words known to man. I also started catching up on House and played EarthBound on an emulator. Life is exciting!

Actually, it truly isn’t. I have settled into a pretty regular routine of things. Work during the week, go to Tokyo on the weekend. Repeat. It’s just settling in on me that my time here is half-over – don’t know how to feel about that!

My camera is still being wonky, so no pictures for anyone. Sorry. But there will be a few stories here and there, mostly from school.

-I have one class on Mondays where one of the English teachers plays guitar and we all sing songs in English. These songs include a few Beatles classics (“Yesterday,” “Let it Be”), “Honesty” by Billy Joel, and… er… um… “My Heart Will Go On” and “Dancing Queen.” (Whatever, I like ABBA. Can’t say the same for Celine Dion.) So this past week we had a singing test, where students would come in groups of two or three and sing the song. I would judge them on their pronunciation of the lyrics – if they sounded like correct English. A lot of the girls did “My Heart Will Go On,” while pretty much all of the boys did “Honesty.” There were a couple of “Yesterday” fans, too. However, the highlight was clearly the last student, a boy who came in by himself and sang “My Heart Will Go On” with amazing gusto. His pronunciation was a little off and he was sort of tone-deaf, but I couldn’t NOT give him an A after that performance.

-One of my students asked me, “why are you gross?” :(

-One day a week I help out with the special education classes. (Actually it might be twice a week, one day last week I played badminton with some teachers and the special education students.) On Fridays I sit around and watch one of the students draw and maybe sometimes translate for him. This kid likes to come into the teachers’ room, speak Japanese really fast at me, and then get frustrated when I can’t answer in Japanese. So during class I get to watch him draw Mario getting in fights with this kid’s noisy neighbor or whoever he wants Mario to fight. Because this kid knows that Mario is awesome, and can do anything.

-I had dinner with a Japanese family a few weeks ago. It was pretty fun! The mother helps me out at one of the elementary schools, translating for me during lessons. The father was trying to learn English, as his company has a few American branches. He’s been to Kentucky and Tennessee. (Nashville, in fact.) He tried to out-drink me that night. I had to bike home, so he ended up winning. :(

-Some of my coworkers just gave me coffee-flavored Jell-O. I ate it to be polite. Yechh.

-What have I been doing in Tokyo? Well, not much; I visit Akihabara a lot (not an otaku, I promise!) and eating at this curry place that is out-of-this-world good. It’s seriously worth visiting Akihabara just for that. One time we visited a maid café in Akihabara (basically, a place where girls dress up in maid outfits and serve you food… my friend Tom was hilariously uncomfortable) and that was pretty interesting. The music was pretty generic Japanese pop except for one point when they started playing death metal. Huh?

-I’ve also been spending some time at Shinjuku and Shibuya, and sometimes Roppongi. Funny story: we went to Roppongi and found a restaurant where they’d prepare your food in front of you, and good food it was. Turns out that this is a pretty famous restaurant – they passed around a book of photos with celebrities like Stephen Spielberg, Tom Cruise, the cast of Lord of the Rings… yeah, after that we knew it was going to be expensive. About 70-80 dollars a head, altogether. We saved afterwards by not finding a place to stay for the night and huddling in Starbucks and McDonalds for warmth until the trains started up again. (Huddling in a McDonalds to hide from the cold in a foreign city? Flashbacks to Amsterdam…)

So yeah, sorry my life hasn’t been more exciting for those of you who choose to live vicariously through reading these things. I think over the Christmas – er, winter break – I’ll try and visit some places like Kyoto, Osaka, or Hokkaido. (It’s interesting how they treat Christmas here – pretty much totally commercial, since Christianity isn’t that big over here. Lots of lights and decorations anyway, though.) Maybe I’ll come back with crazy stories from there! Who knows? Later, y’all.

Imagine: Reality without Affection

If anyone is wondering, I generally take the titles of my blogs from t-shirts that I see in Japan. The above is written out super-girly and with glitter. It’s a bit weird!

So I’m paid and happy. Good times! The payday celebration with other ALTs in Shibuya was a lot of fun. Some carousing was involved! Amusing anecdote: one of the places we went was a hip-hop club. There was a large mural-type thing up on one wall of the United States, with each state showing a picture of a (even vaguely) hip-hop star. I didn’t recognize who was representing Georgia, but Snoop Dogg was Texas and Justin Timberlake was South Dakota.

One of the things that annoys me about living where no one speaks your language is that no one can see how darn witty I am. For example, I met a class of first-graders (oh gosh so cute) and one of the girls was named Riyo. I said “yeah, I bet you dance on the sand, too,” and it was lost on everyone, teachers included. Gah.

Speaking of the first graders, I’m starting to understand some of the questions they are asking. That’s right, folks! My Japanese is almost as good as a first grader’s!

Saturday was both a great day and a pretty rough day. My junior high school was having a music festival, which of course I had to attend. It was pretty neat, really – the ninth graders all did a song that was based off of Pachelbel’s Canon in D, which is basically my favorite musical piece of all time. (Probably because I’m not a cellist.) I don’t know, something about that song hits all the pleasure spots in the brain that music can hit. Also, I was dragged up on stage with the rest of the teachers to sing a song in Japanese. I can read some hiragana and can also read music, so I winged it. Fun!

However, the weather was absolutely terrible. Windy, rainy, and it got dark at about 4pm. Biking 2-3 miles in it was a bit of an ordeal. I found out later that it was a bit of a tropical storm – not quite typhoon level, but still terrible to bike in! Boy, some of that rain should have gone towards Georgia, eh?

And, even worse, I was waiting on some very important news! The night before, I found out that my sister’s water broke! So, as it was hard for the folks back home to send me news when it happened, I was spending every free moment I had checking my email to make sure no one back home had died. Luckily, I now know I have a nephew and he is ridic. Cute. It sure was frustrating at the time, though!

Today, Sunday, was a great deal better! I woke up to find that the tropical storm had left the world’s most beautiful weather. I headed out to Tokyo for a few hours and had a pretty good time. I stopped in Akihabara to pick up some electronics stuff and a new Nintendo DS game, then went to Ueno to check out Ueno Park.

Unfortunately, no one in Akihabara spoke enough English to help me find lithium batteries for my (admittedly old) digital camera.

Me: “Is this a LITHIUM battery?” (shows the clerk the package of batteries I was holding, along with the old depleted battery that helped the old camera work)

Clerk: “Yes.”

Me: “Can I use it for digital cameras?” (asking pointing to the wall stocked with digital cameras)

Clerk: “Yes.”

(I buy the batteries, put them in the camera, try to turn it on, of course it doesn’t work, and I give up. At least I have batteries for the tv remote, now!)

I’m pretty upset that my camera was not working in Ueno Park. There were some sights that even put Harajuku to shame. There was a street performer who stacked six chairs on top of four glass bottles on a table and was doing handstands on top of them, which was horribly impressive, and then he was approached by someone on stilts in some weird monster costume who gave him a high five. Also, there were men wearing suits and some sort of eyeball dome on their heads. Maybe inspired by The Residents? Also, a man dressed all in black, with black paint on his face and hands, holding up a black sheet around him so he was a solid wall of black walking around.

So yeah, next time I go there, I’ll hit the zoo as well, and maybe at that point I’ll have a working camera.

Hope everyone’s doing alright out there!

McSister

Well, hello again everyone! I haven’t blogged in a little while now. Mainly, that’s because nothing very interesting has happened. I’ve made a couple of trips to Tokyo that weren’t worth mentioning, and also stopped in Omiya, which is the biggest city in my prefecture – kind of like a half-sized Tokyo that’s half the distance away. I’ve been hanging out with ALTs in this region while in Omiya, and that’s fun too.

Honestly, though, things are starting to settle into a routine, and I don’t really do all that much that’s exciting. Maybe once I get my first check I can do some wild and crazy things – a bunch of the Heart School employees I met during orientation are planning exactly that on payday, in fact – but I haven’t had too much of a chance to cut loose recently. (I did recently get a care package sent from my parents, which included the first season of 30 Rock. Thanks mom and dad! 30 Rock is such a good show. If you haven’t heard me talking about it, you probably haven’t talked to me recently.)

I’m getting more settled in a ‘teacher’ role. During junior high hours, I basically sit at my desk and try to learn Japanese. (A doomed venture.) Then, I go up in front of classes and repeat things in English so that kids can hear a native speaker say it. It can be boring, but I try to goof around a little to get the kids to laugh, and that’s fun. Recently, some of the teachers have asked me to create some lessons for their classes. My favorite lesson was one I made recently, where I played Stevie Wonder’s “Superstition” and gave the students chopped-up lines of the lyrics, which they had to put into order. (Veterans of Mrs. Jackson’s class in Parkview might remember that exercise with a lovely song called “Aicha.”) When they were done with that, I talked about American superstitions and asked them about Japanese superstitions. I like when I get to be creative.

Elementary school classes are also kind of like that. I work at two elementary schools, and visit them each once a week. At one of them, I have to create the lessons beforehand, and at the other, I have to stick with the Heart School regimen of classroom lessons. Either way, it’s definitely more work than the junior high classes – I’m the head teacher in the class and I’m usually the only person who understands English.

Welllll, like I said – not much going on. I’ll leave you guys with some weird/funny things I’ve noticed about Japan…

-People slap each other on the back of the head, Three Stooges style. It’s hilarious. Students do it to other students, and sometimes teachers do it to students! I can’t help laughing. Then, the rest of the class laughs, because apparently my cracking up is hilarious.

-Stitch is huge. You know, of “Lilo And…” fame? You see that little dude everywhere in the Elementary and Jr High schools. There are keychains, pencil bags, patches on bookbags… I’d say 90% of kids in schools here have some sort of Stitch merchandise. It’s like, “Mickey who?”

-People wear face-masks if they’ve got a cough. Like, those masks you see doctors wearing during surgery. It’s weird to see little girls walk around school with those on… kind of creepy, as well…

-Maybe it’s just me being a cultural imperialist, but honestly, why do they have such a ridiculous writing system? In class, a teacher’ll write up something in English on the board, then write it in Japanese – which takes about 4 times as long as writing it in English. It’d just be easier to learn the English language!! Then again, I’m sure the brains of Japanese students get much more of a workout from learning thousands of characters instead of 26 letters, so maybe that’s why everyone thinks they’re smarter than we are.

Well, here’s hoping that everyone back home is doing alright – and thanks, everyone, for the birthday wishes! It was a pretty low-key birthday, but it was definitely all sorts of alright. Any birthday where Radiohead gives me an album is good by me.

Candy Toy, Kubrick, BE@RBRICK

Well, another week, another blog. Things are starting to settle into routine around Kitakawabe. There’s not too much that surprises me, now – except for students who get a little grabby. There are about three or four students who like to try and touch my chest. Note to anyone who thinks that Japanese students are way more well-behaved than American students: you are wrong. They can be as noisy and disruptive as any American class.

Again, nothing much happening in Kitakawabe these days. So this weekend, we went to Tokyo again! And you know what that means…

No, actually, we didn’t see this guy. (Alas.) However, thanks to Alison, I did end up seeing this guy:

And getting my copy of American Gods signed…

Unfortunately, I was in a rush to catch a train and couldn’t stop long enough to chat with Neil Gaiman about my dream casting for an American Gods movie. (That’s fortunate, though. He’d probably just roll his eyes.) One amusing thing that happened was that another American had come to the signing having only found out about it the afternoon of that day, so he didn’t have any of Neil Gaiman’s books. Instead, he had a Margaret Atwood book, which he gave to Neil to sign. Gaiman was like, “why am I signing this book?” and everyone laughed. He ended up signing it, “I didn’t write this. Sorry Margaret, Neil Gaiman.” The guy’s pure class. (Also, his voice sounds like Alan Rickman’s, which is just a cool voice to have.)

The next day we went out to the Tokyo Dome to see a game! We figured, hey, a Japanese baseball game must be fun. When I exited the station, imagine how surprised I was to see this:

Yeah, a random rollercoaster in the middle of Tokyo. A pretty serious one, too. Look at that first drop. Also, it goes through a building! Crazy! In fact, there was a whole mini-amusement park around the Tokyo Dome, called Tokyo Dome City. There was a ferris wheel, a log flume ride… however, we didn't go on any, because we decided to save our money for the game.

A few pictures outside the park:





And here's an outside shot of the stadium...

The team name is “Giants,” but it beats me how those are giants.

I think we were a bit too loud at the game, but "loud fan" in Japan is something altogether different than a loud fan in the USA.

Here’s a picture outside the Tokyo Dome, after the game was almost done:

So overall, trip to Tokyo #2: a success! However, I think this’ll be the last Tokyo visit for a while, at least until payday in October. We’re planning karaoke for the weekend after payday. ;)

I’ve been doing a bit more exploring of the area around Kitakawabe, with the help of Clint – the old ALT. The city on the other side of the river, Koga, is actually somewhat city-like, and not just a rural town like Kitakawabe. However, this can lead to occasional instances of getting lost. So far I’ve found the Koga post office. That’s about it.

Living here has its ups and downs, really. On one hand, the kids are great; you’ll never feel so much like a celebrity as when you’re seen outside of school. (“It’s Kyle-sensei!!!”) I've even started making some inside jokes with some of my students. None of them are REALLY terrible, except this one elementary school kid. But I see him maybe once or twice a month, so whatever on him.

On the other hand, aside from Clint, it’s hard to communicate with anyone around here, and most of my evenings are spent just chilling out at home, listening to music. It's kind of slow sometimes, and I'm glad I'm only here for 7 months. I'll just have to enjoy it while I'm here, right?

WEEKEND OF INTEREST: It’s the dawg bollocks!

Wow, what a crazy weekend! And it’s not quite over yet... yes, I know it’s Tuesday. I told you it was crazy.

On Saturday, Kitakawabe Jr. High had their Sports Day. We were dreading that it would get rained out, but the weather was actually pretty decent. And by decent, I mean hot. Here I was thinking that going to Japan would actually be cooler… nope. It’s not quite as hot as Georgia, but it’s just as muggy. It’s usually overcast, but when the sun comes out it is just about as hot as Georgia can get. Doh.

Sports Day was kind of a more structured field day with parents attending. They had been practicing pretty much all week – Thursday and Friday they hardly had any classes at all! There were several events, including

Several relays…

Tug of war…

And jump rope competitions! I actually had a favorite team going into this – the green team. They asked me to sit with them during practice. It takes very little to earn my loyalty. ;)

It is an army bred for a single purpose… the destruction of the world of man. Wait, no. This is just the whole school lined up in their classes.

I wanted to get pictures of the boys’ gymnastic routines, but as I was recruited to be a spotter and make sure none of them broke their neck when they were making pyramids or anything like that, I couldn’t get any pictures. The boys did several gymnastic routines, and the girls did this dance routine that was actually kind of cool to some Indian kind of music.

One of the best things about that day was that the ALT who had been there for 2 years before me showed up! He was a very chill and relaxed dude, and it turns out he lives a few miles away, so I can probably get a lot of info from him! I’m not the only English speaker within five miles! Woo!

After the Sports Day was over, there was a teachers’ party afterwards at a nice restaurant. Now, I’m not sure what you assume about Japanese parties, but rest assured they are off the hook. The food is good (even if it’s raw fish and raw cuttlefish) and everyone has a good time. One of the most interesting parts is that most everyone goes around to everyone else with a bottle in hand (usually of beer or Coca-Cola or whatever the drink of choice is) and offers to refill partygoers’ glasses. I won’t lie, there was a bit of beer going around the tables at this party – large bottles of Asahi, actually. Matsumoto, one of the gym teachers, had a bit much to drink. When I tried to refill his glass, he took the beer from me and poured himself some, and then me some. He sang a song that went along the lines of “one beer, two beers, three little Indians…” That guy is totally hilarious.

I was especially glad that the Sports Day wasn’t rained out. Why? Because I, and some of my friends from the Heart School, had planned a visit to Tokyo on Sunday. If the Sports Day had been rained out, it would have been rescheduled to Sunday. Since the weather was good, Sunday was Tokyo day! And what a day it was.

I took a journey on the trains to Tokyo. At one point, the train car was so crowded that it seemed like I was on MARTA in Atlanta in 1996. (For those who don’t make the connection, the public transport trains in Atlanta were particularly crowded on the year that Atlanta hosted the Olympics.) However, the process of getting from Kitakawabe to the decided meeting place – Harajuku – was actually fairly painless and easy.

While our plans were to meet up at around 12:40, I went a little early and arrived around 11am. I made a bee-line for McDonald’s; yes, I know. I know. I couldn’t help it, though. You can only have so much food you’re not used to until you crave something from home, bad as it might be. Plus, while there are McDonald’s every two blocks in Tokyo, there was no such thing in Kitakawabe. However, if I was given a chance to eat a serious hamburger… man, I would destroy that thing.

Leaving McDonald’s, I ran into Marc, one of the ALTs I’d made friends with at the orientation. We wandered around Harajuku for the better part of an hour, waiting for the others to arrive. Harajuku is a pretty busy place, especially this main street with shops:

Back to the train station, where our friends were arriving. It was actually a little harder than “just look for the white people,” actually – there are actually other white people in Tokyo. After spending two weeks without seeing a single other whitey besides Clint, it was kind of weird seeing other non-Asians, white and black. I kind of wanted to talk to them, but that would be all sorts of weird.

So, we met up, and our first stop was a shrine (mostly for the reason that the road going there was nice and shady and cool.)

There was the shrine…

A prayer tree…

And a wedding procession! At least, that’s what we assumed was happening.

Leaving the shrine, we all sort of split up, some of us to eat, some of us to shop/laugh at awesome Engrish shirts. Finally, we came back to the bridge near the train station. Now, this spot is fairly infamous. Why, you ask? Well, it’s where Japanese teenagers come dressed up as their favorite anime characters on Sunday. Well, that, or they just dress up as “gothic lolitas,” which is basically “I’m in really fancy clothes, but they’re all black, and I have black eyeliner, look at me pout.” They were really pouting that day, because it was stupid hot out and they somehow didn’t realize that fancy black clothes and standing around outside didn’t mix. However, there were some interesting costumes, like

Pikachu, and

…whoever these folks are. But the people who dressed up were only half the show. There were some real crazies on the bridge, as well. There was, for one, Japanese Bono, who wore his hair slicked back, his shirt unbuttoned, and stood around on the bridge howling along to his copy of “Achtung Baby.” There was also iPod Jazzercise man, who was basically just listening to music and dancing around in his own little world. There was also The Rainbow-Hair Screamer… who was exactly what he sounds like.

The crowd really liked him. There was also some girl playing guitar and singing, and she sounded really nice… but she was right next to the Screamer, so you could hardly hear her. There was also Jungle Boy…

He was really something. He would do interpretive dances in his boxers, sometimes blowing on his little piano-flute, sometimes crawling around on his hands and knees. At one point, this big black guy started dancing with him and everyone was filled with glee. Finally, there was this dude…

About whom I have no words whatsoever.

So, after Harajuku, we decided to go to Akihabara, because Danielle needed a new laptop and Hylton needed a prepaid cell phone. Neither of them ended up getting what they wanted, but I did get a Nintendo DS game, so the trip wasn’t a huge waste! Akihabara is the “electric district,” where they sell all sorts of electronics and have lots of neon signs. Here it is near dusk:

And, just to show that the weirdness doesn’t end when you leave Harajuku…

So, a sports day and a trip to Tokyo! An unnecessarily long and picture-ful blog! Not sure if there’ll be as much to report next time, but I do plan on going to Tokyo this Friday to see Neil Gaiman. (Thanks for the heads up, Alison!) Oh, and thanks to Erinn, Danielle, and Marc for the pictures I shamelessly stole from them.

oh man....

The cutest thing ever happened today.

So I had just finished my first lesson at Nishi Elementary School (literally: West Elementary) with a room full of first graders. I had the help of the Watanabe-sensei, the lady who had helped me out at Hitoshi Elementary (East Elementary!) and the lesson went decently well. (She took over a bit again. The next lesson was actually done to a lesson plan that I worked out and it was also a hit!)

But yes. After the first lesson, I went back to the teacher's room, and was planning out how to do the next lesson. Then, escorted by his teacher, one of the students from the last lesson came in and gave me this:



Then his teacher had to coach him how to say "present."

:3

It was probably the cutest thing of 2007, except for maybe Youngest Duncan. I've figured that this is the probable name for my future nephew, if my sister and brother-in-law are as creative with their kid's name as they are with their cats' names. ;) (i kid because i love)

Puma 24

Sorry for not updating for a while… I’ve actually been busy! Weird, I know. Also, I wanted to get a decent collection of photos before I updated again. I’m still working on that, so I’ll put in what photos I’ve taken already.

Well, let’s see. Last time I updated, I had gone through 1 day of school. I hadn’t actually taught any classes, just given a short speech in Japanese to the students. Now, though, I actually have a few classes under my belt. A few.

Tuesday, I had no classes at the jr high, but I had my first stint at the elementary school. This is actually the harder of the two schools; in junior high, I serve as an aide. I read things aloud, I make worksheets occasionally – but in elementary, I’m responsible for the whole lesson. What’s more, the language gap is even more severe, and the homeroom teachers know very little English. So, I was expecting my first visit to Higashi Elementary School to be, well, disastrous.

Overall, though, it went alright. When I arrived, I met a woman there who I honestly have to say is the best non-native speaker of English in Kitakawabe. She is the teacher for grades 5 and 6 at the elementary schools; I would be put in charge of grades 1-4. For my first day, though, she was here to help me out. And she did help me out, aiding me in putting together a coherent lesson and helping translate between the teachers, the students, and me. She sort of took control of the lesson, actually. Oh well, at least the children were able to understand me.

Wednesday and Thursday, I had my first few classes at the junior high school. These were much less nerve-wracking, as I had them with teachers who had a decent grasp of English and who mostly controlled the lessons. I don’t think I’ve actually met all my students, yet, even a week and a half in. The grouping of students is complicated and I still haven’t completely figured it out; I just follow teachers who tell me to come to class with them. They’re still ironing out my schedule.

All the classes I’ve been in so far tend to be introductions. I have a short speech prepared about who I am, where I’m from, what my hometown/state is famous for (I said “Coca-Cola, peaches, and famous baseball team Atlanta Braves” – they love baseball around here.) and so on. Then, the teacher either moves on to a lesson they’ve already prepared or we do a Q&A with the students that lasts all period. Some of the questions are a little odd (“What is your favorite fruit?” “What is your favorite food on the McDonalds menu?” “Who do you think is the best-looking guy in the class?” and this last one spoken in English, “What did you think of Brokeback Mountain?”) Also, every class tends to ask if I have a girlfriend, but I hear that’s a pretty normal question for ALTs. Unless, of course, the ALT is female, in which case they’re asked if they have a boyfriend.

The lessons have mostly been in Japanese, with me occasionally being asked to read something aloud or help the children review with flash cards. One story that I’ve read to the class is fairly infamous among ALTs – it’s about a girl who loses her parents in Hiroshima, and then dies a week later of radiation poisoning. Yeah, cheerful stuff, eh? I wonder if they planned it out so that American ALTs would read the story aloud.

As I’m being introduced to hundreds of students, 30 at a time, I can’t quite say I have names down just yet. There are a couple of students I recognize – one girl I call Velma in my mind because she’s got rockin’ orange glasses, and that makes me think of Velma from Scooby Doo. Also, there’s one student, a seventh-grader, who spent four years in Michigan, so he is probably the best English speaker in Kitakawabe besides me. I like talking to him, not only cause he’s a cool little dude, but because talking to people who don’t understand you can get unnerving. A conversation in regular English with someone who’s a near-native speaker is wonderful.

My Japanese is progressing slowly… very slowly. For all the immersion I have in going to the store, working among Japanese people, and everything else, I also spend a lot of time on the internet, which is usually all in English. (Google and LastFM have reverted to Japanese in some cases, and that’s obnoxious. My grasp of katakana and hiragana – two of the written alphabets of Japanese – is getting better, I’ll say that.)

Friday was interesting because of one word: typhoon. As I discovered when my coworkers were watching weather reports on Thursday, “typhoon” in Japan means “hurricane” in America! School was cancelled, but… well, guess who had to show up anyway? I can now actually say that I have biked through a hurricane. (It was basically just rain. Most of the wind had blown itself out overnight, and the morning was just the leftovers. Still. Biking through a hurricane, rah.) I also didn’t get to visit the other elementary school where I’ll be teaching (closed because of typhoon weather) so I still don’t know what to expect there.

I had a very slow, relaxing weekend this past weekend, just staying in and sleeping and doing very little of anything at all. My next weekend is going to be on an odd schedule! All this week, the students are training for “sports day” on Saturday. I can’t tell if it’s more like a field day or more like a multi-school meet, but I guess I’ll find out. Sometimes we play relay games (which the kids always try to make me join) and sometimes the students are separated by gender to do gender-specific exercises. I saw the boys making formations that were not unlike cheerleading formations. I didn’t see the girls practice, but I assumed they must be playing American football in the gym.

(I found out later that the girls are doing dance routines. Still, I couldn’t pass that joke up.)

Next weekend, the big plan is to go to Tokyo. I may well meet up with some of the other Heart School ALTs, which would be fantastic. Hopefully, I can figure out how the trains work before then!

Finally, yesterday (Tuesday) marked my second visit to the Higashi elementary school. This time, I had the help of one of the parents, who had been hired part-time at the school to help translate for me. I was prepared for the same lesson that I had taught last week to the 3rd graders, but this time the 4th graders didn’t have the materials that I’d used with the previous classes, so I had to improvise. I grabbed my juggling balls out of my bookbag and started tossing them to students, asking them to repeat a phrase that I’d taught them. (These were general, well-known phrases like “good morning,” “good night,” “how are you,” etc.) It went well enough in the first class (those kids LOVED the juggling balls), but with the second class I ended up finishing my lesson very early, and so I did some geography lessons as well, with the map up on the board. The school has since told me they want me to submit lesson plans ahead of time. Doh.

Well, that’s how things are going so far. Without further ado, here are some pictures! (click for big)


My apartment. It’s not usually this messy, I promise.


The view of the train station from my apartment. I can basically just walk there.



My junior high school. I took this picture on a Sunday so there are no kids around.


This is what about 75% of Kitakawabe looks like. Rice fields everywhere!


I just took this picture because it was idyllic. Look at the guy fishing!


The room in which I spend most of my time. The guy in the back there is Kyoto-sensei, who is I believe a vice principal.


And that's all folks!

Portly Regina

(warning: long)

Hello everyone, from Kitakawabe!

The past few days have been interesting, at least for me. I should have pictures in my next update, but we’ll see about that.

Let’s see, where did I leave off? I was in Mito, waiting to ship out. I had about two days of downtime, a great deal of which I wasted benefiting from the unsecured wireless network that my friend Mitch found in the lobby of the youth hostel where we stayed. The computers that the hostel provided had most everything blocked – most email services, Facebook, Livejournal, AIM, Something Awful… in other words, everything fun. Thus, Mitch’s discovery was a godsend. Plus, everybody had left by Friday morning, and while I had a few errands to run, Mito had lost its thrill without a huge group of Americans/Britons/Canadians to raise hell with. (Raising hell generally consisted of going to some restaurant and having our voices be normal American volume, honestly.)

Saturday morning, one of the coordinators for Heart School picked Mitch and me up in the same car, and thus began a day-long journey. First, we went to Tokyo to arrange things for Mitch’s guest house. (Guest houses are basically dorm situations… you have your own room, but you share a kitchen, bathroom, etc. with other tenants.) Tokyo is… confusing. I’ve decided Atlanta highways and expressways are rather simple things in comparison to Tokyo. (And, according to Mitch, L.A. I’ll believe it.) There are about 15-20 highways heading into Tokyo. I didn’t see any awesome Tokyo sights, just lots of roads, cars, and uninspiring tall buildings. The highlight of Tokyo was probably the parking spot that we found while Mitch was finalizing his contract. It was a small garage, which led to a small carousel-like thing that would hold several cars and rotate them around. Kind of weird, but cool.

Once out of Tokyo, we made quick time to Saitama City, where Mitch was based. He had arranged things with the guest house company to stay for a month, while a friend of his looked for a Japanese family that he could stay with. Mitch is all about the immersion. It’s a good thing he didn’t plan to stay 7 months – his guest house room was little better than a broom closet! His extensive luggage barely fit in the room with him.

A little scared by that, I got into the car with the Heart School coordinator and we headed off to Kitakawabe – with a quick stop in at a home center to grab a bike for me. (Think Home Depot with bikes.) Now, both my own coordinator and this lady had never been to Kitakawabe, so they had to use a GPS device that would give them directions. We still ended up getting lost! Finally, we found the place – owned by a company called Leopalace that Heart School goes through sometimes. It is actually pretty nice for a single apartment; it could use some furniture like a desk and chair, but overall I’m pretty happy with it. It is right next to the train tracks, but Japanese trains are fairly quiet. The only major problem I can see is that I am apparently miles away from the grocery store. Also, as I discovered when the coordinator took me to the grocery store, I can’t read a single label. Food is going to be… fun, here. I ended up getting a ridiculous small amount of food, and from lunch on Saturday to lunch on Sunday, I ate nothing but two bananas.

Sunday was a fairly uneventful day. I biked around the city a couple of times, trying to get my bearings. (I got lost three times!) The entire city area is about one to one and a half times the size of the UGA campus. In my freshman year, I got lost there, too – and I had a car AND everything was in English! So I figured out where my schools were, but I’ve yet to figure out where the grocery store is… doh… (when the coordinator took me there, it was night, and we made a lot of turns.)

So then we get to today! The big day, my first day at Kitakawabe Junior High. And what did I do?

Well, very little, actually.

I arrived a bit early, settled down at my desk, and got quite confused by the hustle and bustle. One of the English teachers (there are four, actually – not two!) told me to come outside, where we (the teachers) all stood in a line and welcomed the students as they arrived on their bikes. (“Ohayau gozaimasu” is “good morning!” You can also say “ohayau,” which is what those Yatta guys were saying when you thought they were yelling OHIOOOOOO!) Once that was all finished, we went inside, and I booted up my computer and started studying katakana and hiragana. (They’re the easy, phonetic parts of the Japanese alphabet. 47 characters each… as opposed to the thousands of kanji, which all stand for different words/ideas, and are much more complexly drawn)

At about 9:30, we went to the gym where the entire student body was waiting. The principal, vice principal, and various students gave speeches. Then it was my turn to come up; I delivered the same Japanese phrase that had given me a little trouble a few days back as an introduction. This time I nailed it! (“Konnichi wa. Watashi no namae wa Kyle Hurford desu. America kara kimashita. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” Hello, my name is Kyle Hurford. I am from America. I am very glad to meet you.) Applause, and some stares. It’s going to be weird being the center of attention!

The rest of the day was kind of uneventful. We had a earthquake drill (basically, get out of the building and line up) and some students came up to me and said “Hello!” quite enthusiastically. Then, there were various teacher meetings in the teacher’s room. We had very, very nice (and expensive) catered food. This was my first encounter with raw fish, and I have to say I think I handled it well enough. There was a lot to eat! I managed to at least try everything, and some of it was very good. However, after a very scant diet of fruits, water, and an occasional 7-11 boxed meal, that much rich food on an empty stomach threatened my gastrointestinal well-being. I finished the green tea, cleaned my cup, and drank water for the rest of the day. I got trapped in an hour-and-a-half meeting where I didn’t understand a single word, but I got free eventually and left early – since there was no class after lunch anyway! There were club activities, like soccer teams, etc. I was asked by some of the junior high boys if I played any sports. I kind of fibbed about basketball – I like playing it, but I’m all sorts of terrible at it. I did promise to teach them to play ultimate Frisbee, though. ;)

Once I’d left, I went to get a gaijin card – i.e. an alien registration card. I had some help from one of the members of the board of education that I had met last week! Really nice guy; he’s all about some American music from the 60s. Talking outside, we sang “Getting Better” by the Beatles and “Sound of Silence” by Simon and Garfunkel. I like him, he’s neat. :)

So, that’s what’s been going on recently in my life. I’ll leave you with a few random tidbits about cool/odd things about Japan:

-They have kiwi fruit flavored Kit Kat bars. They are delicious.

-There is a Mario Kart sit-down racing game in arcades over here. Pacman is a playable character.

-The arcade the above game was found in was called YOU’SLAND: MAGIC RAINBOW. It is the pinkest place I have ever seen in my life.

-I took seedless grapes for granted. One of those “you don’t know what you’ve got til it’s gone” things.

-Same with a car. Biking everywhere is exhausting but fun.

-One of the first students to approach me showed me a painting of Mario in a city at night. It was awesome!

Next update: elementary school adventures, and pictures!

Reggae Soup: In Your Hand

(blog from August 30, 2007)

So, here I am in Japan. It’s been a wild couple of days so far, and I’ve had fun… so far.

A little background: I am going to be employed as an assistant language teacher in Kitakawabe, a small town on the edge of Saitoma prefecture. I’ve been recruited and employed by Heart School, which is a smaller-scale program along the lines of JET or NOVA. I’ll be here for seven months, teaching English to elementary and junior high students. It’ll be… interesting. I’m sure I’ll come back a different Kyle Hurford.

I left for the airport early Sunday morning, with my parents in a mad rush. There were a few snags, but I got on the plane fine… only without shampoo. (Don’t pack your shampoo in a carry-on bag, folks.) I flew from Atlanta to Houston, where I had a connecting flight to Narita Airport. The first flight was kind of lame and short, but I had a fairly luxurious flight from Texas to Japan. Plenty of room to stretch out and a buddy in the Japanese flight attendant who saw my new Nintendo DS and thought I was the coolest guy on the plane. (Thanks, Whitney and Corey! It’s awesome!) I’m glad that flight was so nice, because if I’d been stuck on a crappy plane for 13 hours I might have gone mad.

Arriving at the airport was a bit overwhelming, but I got through customs fine and exchanged money and then oh god, bus tickets and taxi cabs, and what the hell am I supposed to do?! Thankfully, when I got to the bus stop, I ran into other people who were working for Heart School as well, and I was able to relax as I was around other people who spoke English and who were heading where I was heading. I even met one guy who was wearing a Bluth Company shirt, which basically made him the coolest person ever in my book.

One long and boring bus ride later, we grabbed cabs and headed to the youth hostel in Mito, the capital of Ibaraki prefecture, and the home city of Heart School’s operations. There, I met up with Eri, the lady with whom I’d been in contact via email and phone, and several other ALTs. Some were Canadians recruited by some fellow named Ian, and many were members of the Something Awful forums recruited by Kent, who was in charge of our orientation program. Needless to say, lots of nerds, but cool folks nonetheless. (I’m surprisingly one of the few guys who didn’t bring their Wii or Xbox 360 to Japan. Seriously, what the hell? I had trouble with a laptop.)

The next day was the first day of our training, but thirty minutes in I was grabbed by my coordinator (basically my supervisor) and was told that I’d have to meet the board of education for my city. I was expecting to meet them today or Friday, but apparently they asked for Tuesday, so I missed half of the training. (If I turn out to be a terrible ALT, I’ll blame it on this.) We drove for two hours, and arrived in my city, Kitakawabe – a pretty small one, bordered on several sides by rivers. Apparently they are famous for their rice? Yeah, exciting, I know. I met the Board of Education directors (who all talked to my coordinator for about an hour in straight Japanese, meaning that I had to look interested when I couldn’t understand a word of what was going on), then was taken around to the three different schools where I will be teaching. There is one junior high school in the center of the city and two elementary schools on either side. I found out later I’d be living on the edge of the town, so I’m very close to one elementary school, very far from another, and a so-so distance from the junior high, where I’d be spending most of my time. I’ll be biking everywhere, so that’ll be a lot of fun.

I came back and hung out with some of the ALTs, unwinding from a surprisingly stressful day. They are some cool folks, and we’ve all talked about meeting up on weekends – I could take the train to Tokyo or Saitoma City and meet up with folks there. I’ve already friended several of these folks on Facebook. Unfortunately, after developing some great friendships with people from Britain, Canadia, and all over the United States, we are now being sent off to different cities in the Tokyo and Saitoma area. Also, I’m the only ALT in Kitakawabe, so I’ll be the only person within miles who is a native English speaker. I bet I’ll be learning Japanese pretty quickly, eh?

So now, I’m still hanging out at the youth hostel where we all gathered. Our training’s done, and slowly but surely we’re leaving Mito. I’ll be one of the last to leave, as I move into my apartment in Kitakawabe on Saturday. It’ll take about two days to set up internet there, so maybe my next entry will be all about my first day at school and how colossally I screwed up. ;)

This is the new blog for me in Japan!

Hello, everyone! This is Kyle, and this is my new blog for my Japanese adventures - whatever they may be. I've named it after the Japanese phrase for "alarm clock," something I never got around to finding, but what will probably be one of the few Japanese words I remember years from now.

(The Nintendo DS ended up having an alarm, after all.)