Christmas in Japan

Christmas was a few days ago now, so most places have already replaced Christmas decoration with New Year's decorations (which are totally different here - the Christmas stuff is all Western-imports like lights and trees and the New Years stuff is traditional Japanese). New Years is much more important here (Christmas is a relatively new import, after all), so I'm excited to see how that goes.

Fortunately, Christmas fell on a Monday this year, which is a day off for us. I think I would be sad to have to work on Christmas. We had a little North American Christmas celebration at my coworker Marina's house. It was me and Marina plus Chris, who works with us two days a week, and his coworker from his other school, Brian. Christmas was the first time I met Brian, but I liked him immediately because he is a fellow Seattle-ite. Anyway, our day consisted of homemade eggnog (DELICIOUS! I will be making this every year from now on), a small gift exchange, stuffed cabbages, immitation almond tarts, and lots of alcohol. It was a lot of fun even thoguh all we did was sit around eating and drinking from 3:30 until after 11, which is what Christmas is all about, I guess.

Today is my last day of work before 8 days off for New Years, so I'm looking forward to that. I think maybe tomorrow I'll take a trip to Hiroshima (about an hour and a half by bus) and Saturday I'm going to my tutor's house in Kasaoka (about 15 minutes away by train), but other than that I have no definite plans so far. Thanks for reading! I'll try to update more over the break.

The Office Christmas Party

First a big thank you to my parents and my brother who both sent things that I received this week! Merry Christmas!

So yesterday was the big office Christmas Party, which included about 30 of the students and all the staff. It was very structured, complete with announcements about when we were allowed to start drinking (non-alcoholic beverages only because there were high school students present), when we could start eating, and when the party was over (!). It was about three hours long, which was just about the right amount of time, I would say, especially considering that a few students arrived as much as half an hour early, and basically everyone was there by ten after 1:00. We had a small gift exchange, so everyone brought a little present worth 500 yen and we played a game to see who would get to choose first: everyone had an animal taped to his or back, and we had to ask questions to find out what the animal was (can I jump? Can I swim? What color am I? etc) and then find someone with the same animal and once we were in a pair we could choose a present. It was kinda fun and I got a nice little bath set. After that I had to make a little speech because the party was also my welcome party (they like to combine parties like that). That's the second time I've had to make an impromptu speech like that, so I just said 'Thanks for coming and Merry Christmas' pretty much. Then we played bingo for some little prizes but sadly I did not win anything. But the highlight for me was a student who was doing magic tricks! I really love magic so I watched him for quite a while. He kept saying that he wanted to talk to me but couldn't (he just started studying English). Maybe I'll ask him to be my Japanese boyfriend! Although first I think I should check his file to see how old he is -he looks young but I can never guess people's ages here.

After the party I went out for drinks with the other foreign teachers, followed by karaoke, which was really fun. Then today I had a lesson with my tutor and then she took me out to lunch (a ramen place in a little alley right by my office - I'm glad I know about it now because it's super-convenient, so I'll definitely go back!) and now the weekend is pretty much over. The Christmas party did feel a bit like work to the other foreign teachers and me, because we were required to be there, we were still expected to talk to students the whole time (instead of the staff or each other), AND we had to pay! The students all paid, too, and supposedly the money was for the bingo prizes, but we have a suspicion that perhaps it was also to help us make expenses for the month...

Oh, and one final thing - I finally have a cell phone! It's pink and it has a Japanese-English dictionary, a very nice camera, and lots of fun little programs, like a fortune teller, a daily proverb, and it will even play rock, paper, scissors with me! And it says, 'hai, chiizu' (say cheese) for the shutter sound on the camera!

Thanks for reading!

My Tutors

First of all, I wanted to thank Kory for the Christmas card, because it's the first piece of mail I've received here, so thank you, Kory!

Also, thank you all for reading even though I can't post very often and I can't put any more pictures up until I get internet access on my own computer. I've heard that you can pick up a signal at Mr. Donuts, so some weekend I may try carting my laptop over there and then I could upload some pictures!

Anyway, I wanted to tell you about my two Japanese tutors. Fukuyama has a program called FAGE, which I think is the Fukuyama Association for Global Exchange (or something) and one of the things they do is hook up foreigners with volunteer Japanese tutors. So I signed up with them right away when I got here, but I also got the name of the tutor that the man I replaced was seeing, Kaori. Kaori is a young woman (maybe in her 30s?) who speaks a lot of English and sells kimonos at one of the fancy department stores in town. Unfortunately, because her English is so much better than my Japanese, we spend a lot of time talking in English and I'm not sure how much I've actually learned from my first two lessons with her. However, it's nice to have someone to ask questions of and get some practice in every week.

My other tutor, the one I got through FAGE, is an older woman. I've only seen her once so far, when we met at the FAGE office to exchange info and set up a time for tutoring. She seems very sweet and I don't think she speaks much English, so hopefully we'll be forced to communicate in Japanese! We will be meeting at her house, which I think is great because I like seeing people's houses and it's not something you get to do very often here.

And even if I don't get to practice as much Japanese as I'd like during tutoring, I have to practice every day, so I'm sure I'll learn a lot, anyway!

I guess I'd better head to work. I don't have class until 2 today (I start at 1 or 2 Tuesday-Friday and finish my last class at 9; on Saturdays everything is an hour earlier), but I need to finish preparing the article my discussion classes will be reading next week. Thanks for reading!

Cate

My Students

I wish I could update more often, but my internet access is pretty limited right now, so I can't. In two weeks I will get my Alien Registration Card, and then I can get a cell phone and hopefully start the process of installing wireless, but until then it's internet cafes for me!

Anyway, I wanted to tell you a little more about my wonderful students. Most of my students are women (at least two-thirds, I would say)and they're mostly older than I am, though I have quite a few high school students as well. The system is set up so that Japanese teachers teach the beginning levels (the first two or two and a half years) and the native-speaker teachers get all the advanced classes. My students vary from people who have been studying for just two and a half years to people who are nearly fluent, so it's never boring! The lower-level students are fun because the classes are more active and they are great at asking questions I can't answer (why do we always put "the" in front of the name of a theater, but not in front of a restaurant's name? And when would you use the word "candies" instead of "candy?" Every sentence I could think of worked best with "candy" and not "candies.").

The more advanced students are fun, though, because they are better at expressing themselves in English so I can get a Japanese perspective on a wide variety of issues. I especially like my article classes because I get to choose the article and the questions so I can hear what they think about whatever I happen to find interesting that week.

Yesterday I finished my first full week here, and I can't believe it's already been more than three weeks! I'm sure my time here will just fly by.

I was going to try not to publish anything on here that would connect me with my company in case I ever write something they don't like, but I can't resist putting up my school's website, because I really like it: http://www.aeonet.co.jp/school/school.php?sno=3412

If you click on the second option under "school menu" on the right you can see me and the other staff, and if you go back to the front page and click on the third option in that same menu you can see student testimonials. The staff are constantly taking pictures of us doing strange things like holding paper flags and pretending to teach. It makes me feel like a celebrity now, but I have a feeling I will get a little tired of it by the end.

Ok, that's all from me. Thanks for reading! Cate

My Apartment

I moved into my apartment Saturday night, and it:s a relief to finally be there, but it means I no longer have internet access. I am planning to get wireless, but I can:t even start that process until I get my Alien Registration Card in two and a half weeks. Anyway, let me take you on a tour. So, you walk in the door and take off your shoes and on your right is a closet with a nice little library of books left from the last few teachers (including a few good Japanese language books and quite a few others I:d like to read) and then you go into my little hallway and my washing machine is now on your right (it:s a good size and I did laundry today and it seems to work okay) and the shower and main sink are on your left. Walk a little farther and now my "kitchen" is on your right and the toilet room is on your left. Now let:s turn our heads to the right to take a closer look at the kitchen. There;s a mini-fridge at the floor and then above that is a small sink and one burner. Then a cabinet. And... that:s all! There are a few old-looking appliances in the cupboards around the kitchen, but I:m not sure about any of them. I think I may buy a 3000 yen toaster oven that I saw today because I really can:t do much with just a single burner and nothing else. We:ll see, though. I splurged today and bought a 2000 yen laundry rack because the one I had was completely unacceptable, so I need to be careful how much money I put into this apartment (because a toaster oven certainly would not be coming back to america with me, so it would have to be worth it for however long i:m here). Ok, please continue on down the hall to my main room. This room is probably 9 feet wide (if not a little smaller) by about 12 or 13 feet, I would say. Once I have internet access with my computer again I:ll upload some pictures, but it:s basically just a small room with a chest of drawers, a low kidney-shaped table, a regular table with a folding chair and.... that:s it! Oh, actually there:s a t.v. and dvd player, too, and the teacher before me left a small dvd library of things he bought here, so that:s nice. Last night I watched Napoleon Dynamite (or Bus Boy as they translated it) while I cleaned and unpacked.


Ok, I:m almost out of time (and it:s 100 yen every 20 minutes), so I suppose our tour has to end. But please note as you leave that my nice view (I:m on the fifth floor) includes two cemeteries right below me.

Also, please note the blank, depressing walls. If you send me a decoration for my walls I will be ever so grateful! Thanks for visiting!

Cate

Thanksgiving

Today is Labour Thanksgiving Day in Japan, which happened to coincide with American Thanksgiving (or maybe it’s always the same day?) so we had today off. It’s nice to have a day off after only two days of work, but I wouldn’t have minded another day to observe the teacher I’m replacing, either.

This morning a group of us (the other full-time foreign teacher, the teacher I’m replacing, one of our two assistant managers, and about six students) met at the station and then we left in three cars to drive somewhere to the North (away from the sea). After a very long time sitting in the back of the car on some very windy roads we stopped for lunch and then a boat trip. The trip had been introduced to us as some kind of canyon and cave visit, but it was actually just sitting on the floor of a boat for about half an hour going through a canyon and listening to narration in Japanese. The boat was pretty packed, mainly with older people, and it never fails to impress me how all Japanese people seem to be able to sit so still with their legs folded under them for as long as they want. Also, they never mind removing their shoes, something that takes a little getting used to for westerners. The boat trip was interesting, but I would imagine it’s prettier in any of the other three seasons and it must be more interesting when you can understand the narration (I kept thinking, “welcome aboard the Washington State ferries…).

After the boat trip we stopped at an onsen, or hot spring. We always think of the Japanese as very modest people, but no one here seems to have any problem getting naked together, so maybe our definition of modesty doesn’t quite fit. At the onsen you disrobe and then go into the room with the baths and wash (you can never be too clean for the onsen!) then go in the water. There are usually a few different baths, and they may be different temperatures or have different things floating in them (today there was some kind of apple-mint tea bag type thing floating in one of the smaller pools). My favorite onsens are the ones that have both indoor and outdoor pools, but this one unfortunately did not. Most of the time if you go in a medium-sized group there are a few people who don’t go in (they never explain why) and today only three (out of seven) of the women went in. Anyway, you hang out in the water for as long as you can stand it and then wash again and leave. The post-onsen feeling is similar to the feeling one gets from a bath, but even better.

After the onsen we drove back to the city and then went to a restaurant for a goodbye meal for James, the teacher I’m replacing. We had at least four courses, most of them based on tofu, and plenty of alcohol. It was nomi-houdai, which means “all you can drink,” a very popular style here. And on that note, I suppose I should get to bed! Tomorrow is my last day to observe James and then Saturday I am on my own (but then I have two more days off to prepare for next week).

Happy Thanksgiving!
Cate

Fukuyama

Last night I took a 5:00 train to Fukuyama, my home for the next year. One of my school’s two assistant managers met me at the station with flowers and a hug, which was very nice! Then we walked the two blocks to the school and I put my training stuff with the rest of the luggage and hung out at school for a few hours.

I arrived at the school a little after 6 and had a quick tour (I think there were about 8 classrooms, a prep room, a staff room, and two for storage, plus a lobby and reception area) and then I talked to one of the other foreign teachers, Chris for a while. After that I sat in on a discussion class with James, the teacher I’m replacing. The class was about an article in the Japan Times discussing how Prime Minister Abe is very popular with women despite what feminist’s consider backwards policies. Only one student (out of three or four, I think) showed up, so we mostly just listened to his opinions. I think discussion classes like that will be very interesting for getting a Japanese perspective on a variety of issues.

Class ends at 8 on Saturday (9 Tuesday-Friday) but there are a few things to do after classes (call students who didn’t show up, clean up, etc), so we didn’t leave until 9. The three other foreign teachers (Marina, from San Francisco, Chris, who I mentioned above, and James, who I’m replacing) helped me and the assistant manager who met me at the station carry my training bags to the hotel (I won’t have all my stuff until I move into my apartment next Saturday). After we put my bags in my room we went to a pub-type place next door to the hotel and had curry pizza and beer. It was a good way to end a slightly stressful day and to start my stay in Fukuyama! Also, I tried two new Japanese dishes yesterday, curry udon and curry pizza, and they were both great! Japanese curry is different from any other curry I’ve tried – the flavor and texture are almost like stew, but usually a little spicy. Fortunately it’s easy to make and easy to find in Seattle.

Today is Sunday and I have today and tomorrow off to explore. I think I’m meeting Marina tomorrow morning and she will help me set up Japanese tutoring, a free service that is arranged through city hall. Hopefully she can also help me apply for my alien registration card because I need to get that process started so I can get a cell phone and bank account!

Thanks for reading and thank you for your comments, I really enjoy them!!

Cate

Teaching Practice

Introductions yesterday were just fine, so that’s a relief. It was fun to see our division's headquarters and meet some of the important people there. After a short tour of the building, we waited for a minute in the hallway before being led into a room where a line of people were waiting and applauding as we walked in. Then they went down the row saying a few sentences in English (“My name is Mr. Suzuki, I hope you enjoy your stay…” etc). Then it was our turn and I said, “watashi wa keito (Cate) desu. Fukuyama kou ni ikimasu. Dozo yoroshiku onegaishimasu.” That means, “I am Cate. I am going to Fukuyama school. It’s nice to meet you.” Then I bowed and they all clapped. It was nice.

After that we had a short introduction to the company from the head of the education department. Her English was flawless and she didn’t say “eh” once, despite having studied in Canada. Next we practiced interviewing, which is something we’ll do at our schools to help assess the level of new students and also to try to convince them that our company is worth the money (close to $2500 a year for one 50-minute class per week). We practiced on two Japanese people who pretended to not speak English as well as they do and that was pretty fun. Since half the point of the interview is convincing them that our classes are fun, we get to make some small talk and just generally be as welcoming as possible.

After lunch we had a few more hours to prepare and then our first real Japanese students started showing up! They were very nice, although most of them seemed nervous at first. We practiced “lobby talk,” which is just the term for conversing with students outside of class and making them feel welcome as soon as they walk in the door and helping them switch to English mode. After a few minutes of that I got to teach a class! Fortunately, my students were just about the right level for my material and I think they actually learned something from the class (I hope). It was nice to get their feedback and I feel so much better about teaching now that I’ve tried it out.

Today my sample lesson was about reported speech, and it’s framed in terms of a break-up (“my boyfriend broke up with me. He said he needed to focus on his career. He said he doesn’t like my friends” etc). So it’s a little more advanced than yesterday’s class was and I was lucky to have students who were about at the right level for that grammar. Today’s class went well, too, though it was harder. I guess it’s good that I’m starting to feel ready to teach because I only have two more days of training!

Thanks for reading!
Cate

Teaching Practice

Today is the first day we will teach a sample lesson to real Japanese students. This means that we will have to teach for 50 minutes and try to cover a whole lesson correctly! I’m pretty nervous about it, but I guess we’re ready. My lesson is about tag questions, which we use to check information (i.e. “You’re a doctor, aren’t you?” or “You haven’t climbed Mt. Fuji, have you?”). It’s hard for non-native speakers to know what words to use at the ends of those kinds of sentences.

Today we are also going to be introducing ourselves to our bosses at our division headquarters. Apparently they will introduce themselves to us in English and then we have to introduce ourselves in Japanese. Fortunately, Marcus and I both know enough Japanese to get around, and most people do not know any when they get here, so the intro they have for us won’t be very difficult. I’m sure I will be nervous enough, so knowing a little Japanese is a big comfort! And I don’t think you can get deported for bad Japanese, so I should be ok.

Thanks for reading!

Cate

A Few Pictures

Per Darcy's request, here are a few pictures:



The first is of Korakuen, the large garden in Okayama (by garden they mean a large space that I would call a park with beautiful landscaping). The next one is of Okayama castle, which Marcus and I visited Sunday, when we saw Korakuen. Sunday had perfect weather, so it was a good day to see the sites. The last picture is a statue of a dog. There are statues all over Okayama but this is my favorite.

This morning I went to Mister Donuts because they have FREE REFILLS on coffee!! It was amazing, and the coffee was pretty decent.

Also, this is Marcus's blog, and he'll have a few more pictures of our adventures: http://sdsumarcus01.blogspot.com.

Thanks for reading!

Cate

Japan Part Dos

Today Marcus and I went to see Korakuen, a large garden, and Okayama Castle. The garden was very beautiful but my favorite part was seeing all the little girls in pink kimonos. The castle was fun but there wasn’t really all that much to see and all the explanations were in Japanese only so we didn’t learn much from it. I’m glad we went, though, and the weather was beautiful all day.

This evening we went out for a walk again before dinner and had a long conversation with a very dedicated Yahoo employee who wanted to sell us internet connections. I had a really good time trying to communicate with him (mostly unsuccessfully) and it was nice to see that I actually do remember a fair amount from the last time I was here. I can understand a lot, at least, which I guess is the first step. It helped that he was determined to make us understand the offer and his colleague even tried calling their office to see if an English-speaking employee was in but it was his day off, so no luck.

Thanks for reading! I’m about to get a lot busier because we actually have full-time training for the rest of the week, but Saturday I’ll head to Fukuyama and hopefully settle in to my life there as quickly as possible.

Cate

Arrival in Japan

I’m here! The trip really wasn’t bad, though I’m glad it’s over. Things are strangely familiar, though I’m just starting to remember a lot of things I hadn’t thought about since I left nearly two and a half years ago, like the cigarettes everywhere (and cigarette vending machines everywhere), the bright colors and neon lights, and the crazy hairstyles.

I’m training in a city called Okayama with two trainers and one other trainee. We’ve only had a half-day of training so far, but it was fun and I feel like I’m learning a lot. I especially liked the Japanese lesson, and I’m surprised at how quickly I’m remembering the language. Not that I don’t feel awkward most of the time, but I can pretty much get by, which is great. The other trainee, Marcus, is Asian so people assume he speaks Japanese whereas I am clearly not Japanese so people are surprised (and pleased) when I manage anything at all.

Tomorrow is our day off so Marcus and I are going to visit Okayama’s two big tourist spots, a garden called Korakuen and a castle. Korakuen is supposed to be one of the three most beautiful gardens in Japan (the Japanese love making lists like this – the ten most sacred shrines or the five oldest hot springs, etc).

Oh, and the best thing I’ve seen so far: make-up for men. I know what Nick’s getting for Christmas!

Ok, that’s all for now. Thanks for reading!

Cate

Pre-Departure

Please e-mail me if you'd like my address in Japan (it's Cate (dot) my last name at gmail.com). Thanks!

I leave for Japan on Thursday, November 9 and will arrive at my school sometime around the 20th or 21st. Thanks for reading my blog, I plan to update when funny or interesting things happen.