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A Good Day With the 3年生

This post is all about the 9th Graders today. 

The bell rings and classes start.  I have no classes so I go to check on my English Board.  A boy from 3-3 comes up to me with his friend.  They’re both part of the “gang” that like to surround me at times.  He says (in Japanese, of course…) “please go to class”.  3-3 is having english class that time.  I say (in English, of course) “I don’t teach now.  Aren’t you supposed to be in class right now?”.  He says, “nono, you need to go to class” (like I didn’t understand him or something).  I say “shouldn’t you (pointing at the two guys) be in class (pointing to the classroom) right now?”.  He then goes, “Ah!  Right!”.  And they wave and head off to class.

I love how, even though (they’re the reason?) 3-3 is the most difficult to teach, they still like to get my attention outside of class.  I’m slowly trying to quell the general animosity that class seems to have towards teachers.  Shame they’ll be gone in only a month *tears in my eyes*.

There are three girls who’ve started talking to me every day during lunch.  Today we spent the time talking about the boys who like to play oni-gokko (tag) all throughout lunch time. It seems like they all do.  Boys are tearing down the halls, laughing, sliding, being rolled, and my personal favorite…dragging.  We girls were on the second floor looking down into the very large open auditorium that is on the first floor, talking about things such as what “dragging” meant, why it is that only boys play the game now (everyone does in elementary school), and where all the girls hide during this time.  They would occasionally talk trash about the boys.  They pointed to one and said きもい　”kimoi” -> gross.  I had to defend him by saying that he was the only one in his class who actually answered all of the english questions.  That definitely doesn’t make him “kimoi” to me.  A dork?  Yes, but not “kimoi”.

And as I was walking down the hall, one of the gang boys wasn’t paying attention that I was coming his way until his friend said “oh, Charity!”.  By the time he had turned around to see me, I had raised my hand to his face level and went “how ya doin!”.  My hand was probably all he saw, coming right for his face.  He yelped and leapt to the side with a bewildered smile.  I kept walking all the way to the teacher’s room, laughing a bit to myself.

That totally made my day.

“Those Crazy SMAP Boys!” and Other Readings

So, I’ve decided to throw away the old files from some old sites of mine that never really saw much light of day.  I found some entries that I had never posted, but genuinely enjoyed reading again.  These are about a year and a half old, and written a month before applying to the JET program.  I was in Canada at the time, finishing up my last semester of university at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  KSU (Kansas State University) called it study abroad.  I called it cheaper than being in Kansas.  I had also lived in Halifax before, and had my first year of university there (before transferring to K-State).  My mother’s a professor at the school, and so I’m sure she enjoyed me constantly harrassing her during my free time.

Start of the Blog     9/7/05 

 Before beginning this blog, it would be good to let you in on something.  I am a terrible public speaker.  My nerves turn me into an adrenaline induced ball of freaking out wussiness.

On a whim…sortof, I signed up last minute for a TESL (Teaching English as a Second Language) course today.  The price was up there, but it looks like it could be a very firm foundation for my final Teaching-English destination.  The class is tonight.  Altogether, there will be 45 hours of training and 15 hours of practicum (teaching).  I am so nervous!  I hope I know what I’m getting myself into.  The main thing that made me go through with enrolling and not chickening out was knowing that I was planning on teaching English anyways,…so these 15 little  hours should be the least of my worries!  Even still…though…scary.

Those 15 hours were scary!  Being told to “teach whatever you want” is so difficult!  A note to future ALTs -> Teaching in school is rarely like teaching in an eikaiwa (conversation school) since you will either be working with a teacher, or will be told (typical for elementary schools) in advance the type of lesson they’d like (still vague, but better than nothing!).  Only a few times in middle school have I been told to teach “whatever I want” in an extra-curricular english class.  Immediately upon hearing this, my brain does the equivalent of hands-to-face screaming (Home Alone style).  Right, of course you might have to teach eikaiwa (like me…hands-on-face screaming), or kindergarten (again, like me, thought it’s a very rare situation), but you get paid extra for the eikaiwa, and the kindergarten is honestly like getting rewarded by hanging out with 5-year-olds who worship you while the younger kids look on in envy.

Those Crazy SMAP Boys!     9/26/05 

I usually find myself wearing a lot of black, and a generally, if not merely disinterested, thoughtful look to me (think Snape, minus the sneer…and wrinkles, and age, and everything else, never mind).  Occasionally, I can’t help but break out into a grin, as if I’ve heard a very stupid joke, for only I know that for all of my appearances, I am listening to SMAP on my iPod.  I don’t know how it is in Japan, but in principle, brooding folk do not listen to upbeat boy bands whose messages are “you are a unique flower” or “let’s have fun through upbeat music”.  Now that I’m on the subject, I don’t know about you guys, bt there’s nothing like starting your morning with a little “Let’s Tap” playing.  Nothing.  At all.  I have the attention span of a ferret.  I think…I’m in the library…for some reason.  Well, I can’t remember, and SMAP is telling me that I should love life…and to jazz (I never knew you could make that into a verb).  Hahhah, those crazy SMAP boys will say anything to make me want to hug myself.  I think I need to put down the iPod before this gets too disgusting.

I’m amending that.  You can make “jazz” into a verb, just not in that context!

Goodbye to My Warranty…     9/26/05

Either today or tomorrow…I’m not really sure, is the last day to call in any problems with my beautiful 17″ PowerBook G4.  That makes me sad.  I have these light spots on the screen that I never bothered to call in.  I should call Apple about it.  I really should.  But…they’ve kind of grown on me.  Kind of.  I’m also lazy enough to say they’ve grown on me in order not to call it in.  I wonder if the warranty even applies since I’m in Canada…hmm…

One really nice thing that will happen once my warranty runs out is that I’ll finally be able to properly deface my laptop with stickers.  Any sticker good enough to be put on my laptop still didn’t make it on there in fear that I’d have to get a replacement comp if this one crapped out on me.  Perhaps, even still, I’ll refrain from putting stickers on the outside (back of monitor screen).  I have some dignity.  Perhaps I should look for a PowerBook skin.  That would be cool.  I’ve heard that some people in Japan like to go all-out with with their laptops.  So shall I…someday.

And as of yet, still no stickers.  go figure.

Who Do I Look Like?

In general, as an ALT, you’ll be put somewhere where you are an oddity to everyone else around you.  Having only famous people to base off of, you’re probably going to hear very bizarre versions of “you look just like (fill in name of random celebrity here)”.  I hadn’t heard anyone doing this until some students stopped me in the halls (over a month ago) to tell me that I looked just like Angela Aki.

Who?

So, I looked her up on my dear friend google.

Ohhh, THAT chick!  I had seen her CD for sale and had appreciated that her jawline seemed a bit stronger than your average Japanese person’s.  Upon further investigation, I found that her father mother is American, and her mother father is Japanese (I also heard a rumor that her father is the president of Geos Aeon, one of the nicer English Conversation schools in Japan an English Conversation School…and perhaps a whole lot of other stuff…seen that name on many buildings that didn’t have an eikaiwa.  Anyone want to help me on this one?).  Some of you maaaay know her as the person who sang the FFXII theme song.  I didn’t know this, and I have the game.  I’m so not in touch with the culture I swear I’m part of.

And I had always thought I looked more like Lisa Loeb!  Admittedly, I wasn’t scouring the Japanese idol market to find my celeb twin.

I’ll admit it.  Her hair looks just like me in this photo (I was having exceptionally flat hair the day I took my site photo).  She has far more promotional pictures on the web if you want to look them up, but this one is more natural, and thusly, more similar to how I look.  She also wears glasses similar to mine.

And now if I just lost a little weight, perhaps I could be mistaken for her straight-up (not likely getting that skinny though).

Though I do hear enough as it is already.

Oh Boy…

I have no clue as to how this post was put as private, but I’m re-posting it, 11 days after it had originally been put up.  Freaking obnoxious! 

I went to Costco two days ago and…

and…

I bought what I wanted!

And that was the turning point. I’m now on an anti-diet, and will eat what I want. I’m hoping (kindof already working) that I’ll feel so junked-out that I’ll change my ways. Or at least exercise, which is part of my anti-diet. I’m making a trip to Tokyo at the end of next month. I have a goal to lose 10 pounds by then. We’ll see what can be done.

‘Specially after I bought a four-package box of brownies, two bags of tortilla chips, 8 pounds of tater tots, and other goodies that will be detrimental to my long-term well-being if I don’t pace myself.

I can feel my arteries hardening even as I think of my planned dinner of tater tot poutine.

Why Are You At School?

To the First-Year English Instructor at my middle school,

You were in a car wreck this weekend. You can’t move your head and have broken ribs. Why are you at school?

So, the response I got from the teacher, as to why she was teaching, was something on the lines of, “I want to, but they’ve got to finish the book work”. I told her that I could teach the class while she was gone. Then I laughed. And she laughed. Which is bad, because it hurts when she laughs. I told her that her students would come to her house and bring flowers and beg for her to return.

Sorry. I was just interrupted by some girls waving at me from the hallway. I went to talk to them and they said such eloquent things as “We are small, you are big” (motioning towards the chest area), and “nice body!”, which made me laugh (amazing how many things they say…oh so bluntly…that have that effect). Once again, it is proven that girls are about five gajillion times more likely to comment on my very shapely figure (or whatever else they spontaneously feel like doing). Anyways, there are several groups of girls that like to talk to me. Only one group of boys…or rather, one boy in the group, but I believe this is a different type of issue. He has no interest in speaking to me in English, whereas the girls at least make a valiant effort.

Where was I? Right. Teachers in Japan do not take sick leave. It isn’t that they can’t, but won’t. I know they take paid holiday leave, but I’m sure it isn’t anywhere near the amount they could take off. And they work on Saturdays. And late into the evening. Almost makes me feel lazy and selfish. And that would be before I remind myself that I don’t owe my work my own personal time, including holidays that are rightfully mine. Perhaps if my country wasn’t so far away as to practically demand several weeks just to justify the cost of the ticket, and if I was living with three generations of people in the same house…perhaps then I would be all, “hey, I might as well stay as long as possible at my place of employment”. And habitually drink with co-workers.

Charity’s Not Wearing a Jacket!

I caused quite a stir by not wearing the fleece I’ve worn every day since it became cold this winter.  It was just a t-shirt today, baby!  One teacher said, “aren’t you cold?”.  I said, “no, I’m ok”.  I showed that I had also brought my fleece along, so I hadn’t just forgotten it at home.  Then another teacher said, “she’s young”.  The one who asked me if I was cold (who also happens to be younger than me) showed that he also had short-sleeves on…under his two light jackets.  I said that this weather was like Canada in early summer.  They made comments about how hot Fukuoka got in the summer and that was that.  So far.

It’s not yet 10 AM.

Quite a few Japanese people have commented on how *crazy* the ALTs are because we aren’t constantly wearing long-sleeves during the winter.  Seriously though?  If the weather isn’t too freaking cold for all the layers, and I’m already wearing a jacket that I most likely won’t take off, why wear long-sleeves when I’m already warm?  Not to mention, sometimes places ARE heated (I know, craziness here).

But then, perhaps I should be more amazed at their ability to wear long sleeves during the hellish heat of Fukuoka summers.  And maybe therein lies the issue.  Japanese people are more comfortable covered, while I’m more comfortable when my arms aren’t covered.  And any excuse to show off my crazy freckles!  Hah!

Onsens はダメ、but Yufuin はオッケイです！

I don’t like onsens.

Don’t get me wrong.  It’s not the onsens themselves that I don’t like.  They sound quite nice, really.  What I don’t appreciate are the other people who are also appreciating the onsens.  While I’m naked.

Not to sound so self-conscious, but even with my clothes on, I’m gawked at and groped by other women in casual situations.  Add that to my own self image, and I’m not exactly the first in line to share an onsen, naked or not, with other women.

Which is why, when a teacher told me that there would be a 3rd-year teachers’ trip to Yufuin, I momentarily froze.  Yufuin is famous for its onsens, and I’d be betting that the teachers will all take a lot of time relaxing in them.  Together.  I’m just not ready for it.  I am, however, ready to use this as a serious driving force to crack open those workout dvds and see what damage (hopefully good) I can do with my exercise ball.  Gotta impress those…you know…other tourists who are young, attractive, and…  Ok, honestly, I don’t expect many tourists to Yufuin to be all that young.  Okok.  I’ll switch my focus to the young, attractive workers.  Yeah.  I’m sure they exist!

At least the trip won’t be all that expensive.  Not exactly.

And I can’t see why the teachers wouldn’t take this opportunity to drink heavily and have a generally jovial time.  I look forward to it.The 3年 (san-nen-> third-year) teachers are fun to drink with.  I wonder if that one teacher will try to have a sake-drinking contest with me again.  I actually heard him tell students that I was a strong drinker.  Students!  Seems to be a good thing here though, to brag about alcohol strength.  If he said it to those students in the teachers’ room, it most likely meant that he thought it was a nice thing to say, and that he thinks highly of my ability to drink so much AND THEN not call in sick the next day (unlike*ahem*him).

And it looks like they’re now planning our visit to a shochu factory.  I can already tell, besides the communal nude bathing with people I work with, this should be a fun trip!

A good thing this post went from glum to happy.

A good thing.

Is It Spring Yet?

Two days ago, I saw a swarm of little flying insects, yesterday I saw a bee buzzing around some flowers on a bush that never let winter slow it down. Birds are singing. I planted flowers. The car window was rolled down all the way because it was too warm inside. Arm out the window. I can’t believe it’s just the beginning of February.

Though I hear it’s going to get cold again.

But “cold” compared to what?

The green never died here. And the palm trees on the school grounds and tropical plants EVERYWHERE… It’s just surreal when you’re used to living in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Eastern Maritime Canada.

Palm trees!

And you’d think I’d be more amazed by the bamboo forests. Ok, so I am. You’re driving along, taking in the scenery, when suddenly you notice…something’s not right with those trees… It’s like they’re made of bamboo or something!

At least that isn’t such an unbelievable thing…bamboo forests in Japan, that is. I just…never expected it to be quite so tropical here!

And I leave you with this warning: Beware Fukuoka summers!

ALT Party

Described as an “American-Style Party” by one of my Japanese friends, it was a large ALT&Co. get-together.

It was held near Dazaifu, which is…let’s say…a serious jaunt from my house. It took over two hours to get there due to the distance, and then afterwards, getting lost finding the house. Story of my life.

First things first, here’s a picture of what your genkan *entranceway* looks like when you have a get-together with 17 people in a small apartment.

Afterwards, there was a bit of karaoke *woo!*. We rented out two karaoke rooms due to the massive amount of people. Here is a pic that shows a (bit dirty) page from the karaoke song-list book.

I love Southern All-Stars, but I can’t help but wonder what the lyrics are like to “I am a Panty (Yes I am)”, and what motivated them to choose that name for a song.

Earlier that night, I had been lamenting that I could never get たこ焼き (takoyaki) after 9PM, when I always started wanting them. After leaving the karaoke place with my friend to go home, we crossed the street…and then I saw it!  A takoyaki store that was still open!

I raced back across the street and waited the 10 minutes (totally worth watching the cooking process) for it to be made. I had ordered negi (green onion) mayo takoyaki. There was so much negi and mayo, you could hardly see the takoyaki! It was totally awesome.

The drive back took over an hour, but I had a good time.

Setsubun: 鬼は外！福は内！

…which roughly translates to “Oni go outside! Luck goes in!”

Setsubun is a unique holiday where children throw roasted soybeans at people dressed up as oni, a japanese-style ogre, to chase them away. Young kids do activities for the holiday. I took pics at my kindergarten during my Thursday visit.

Ok, so Setsubun is on a Saturday, and they weren’t going to do anything until Friday, but they put on their *adorable!* masks for a nice group shot! Appreciate the heart sign the two girls in the lower left corner are making in the first pic.

They also decorated their room’s wall with origami oni drawings.

And here’re two sans-mask pics. Just look at that boy in the middle! Classic!

Anyways, as usual, they gave me jazz-hands around the door as I was leaving the kindergarten. They are truly adorable! It almost makes up for the fact that I get sick practically every time I visit them!