Teachin' and beachin'

Good news, everyone!

My modem was delivered last night, so I FINALLY have Internet at my apartment! I'm so glad to be out of the Dark Ages. I mean really, what did people do before Internet?

Anyway, I've been teaching for almost a couple of weeks now. I've been to four of my schools (the fifth one doesn't have classes until next month). I have lots of variation, too. My smallest class has fewer than 10 students, and my biggest has nearly 40; some days I'll only have one class, and other days I'll have five; I have three special-needs kids (a boy with a hearing disability, a girl with a learning disability and a boy who has some kind of UV ray sensitivity and has to be completely covered head to toe in order to go outside, including wearing a spacesuit-looking thing on his head — they each have a separate teacher who sits with them and helps them out in class).

I love the first graders — they're just so adorable and excited about everything — but I have a sixth grade class that's probably my favorite. Maybe it's because the class is so small (seven students) and they can't get away with goofing off like most kids can, but they just seem vastly more mature than any of my other classes with kids the same age. Plus, homeroom teacher got jokes!

By now I've gotten used to strange reactions to my presence... stares, whispering (yeah, it's pretty easy to tell when someone is talking about you, even if you don't speak the same language), pointing, even gawking... but I was not prepared for being ambushed by several children after every class! Fourth, fifth and sixth graders all want to touch my hair, third graders want my autograph, and first and second graders just want to play me in rock-paper-scissors.

English classes are run by me and the students' regular homeroom teacher. Most JETs get to plan their own lessons, but for some reason the Aki City Board of Education writes all the lesson plans for us, so it's kind of like reading a script. It took me a few days to get the hang of the routine, and half the time the homeroom teachers are just as clueless as I am. I had a class yesterday where the homeroom teacher was completely unprepared. He didn't know what lesson we were on, he didn't have the lesson plan, and he gave the students the wrong instructions for one of the activities. Most of the time the teachers are on their game, but I guess everyone has those days.

Teachers in Japan do not discipline kids the way I'm used to seeing it. If a kid is acting up, the most I've seen teachers do is tell the kid once or twice to cut it out, but usually they just ignore it. I've had stuff go down in class that kids would get in serious trouble for in the U.S., like hitting each other and getting the teacher's attention not by the raising of the hand, but instead by banging a fist on the desk and whining, "Sensei, sensei!" I had one particularly obnoxious fourth-grade boy who was disruptive throughout the entire class, and at one point he just started yelling, "RAMEN! RAMEN! RAMEN!" I looked at the homeroom teacher, and he didn't say a word, and I don't have the authority to tell a kid to stuff it, so I just tried to talk over the shouting.

Also, whereas in the U.S. the troublemakers usually sit in the back of the class, I've noticed that my most disruptive students here sit in the front. The better to hassle, I suppose.

So far I've had a couple of dinners with other JETs who live on the east side of the prefecture. It might end up being a weekly thing. One of the east side JETs, Dave, lives in Toyo, a beach town on the northeast side of Kochi. Dave hosted a beach party last weekend. Hey, I'm from SoCal — say the word "beach" and I'm there!

Shirahama Beach:

 

(I just started using Blogger's new post editor, which lets you choose the size of your pictures. I'm giving medium a try.)

 

(David, who lives in Yasuda. Not Dave, who lives in Toyo and hosted the beach party.)

(This is Dave, the beach party host, attempting slacklining.)

Kym:

George helping out Lisa:

I think George is the only one who knows how to do this properly:

Huw and Naomi hurling (the Irish kind, not the vomit kind):

 

  

  

The campsite:

(The JETs in Tokushima Prefecture had a beach party at Shirahama that same night, so we mingled with them as well.)

 

(Kym hiding behind her boyfriend Louis. Apparently she doesn't like having her picture taken.)

 

(Matt, the grill  master.)

Kym, Louis and David, the group I came with, left that night. I was planning to leave with them, but I was having a really good time, so I decided to stay since Michelle had extra room in her tent and Dave let me borrow his sleeping bag. I'm glad I stayed. There was food, fun, swimming, and even a late-night singalong, since a couple of people ended up bringing guitars.

The next day, I woke up really early, covered in mosquito bites. I saw that a couple of the perpetrators had infiltrated our tent, and I couldn't go back to sleep knowing they were hovering around, so I went swimming with a couple of the Tokushima guys who hadn't gone to sleep at all. Then I came back to the campsite, helped clean up and take the tent down, and spent the rest of the morning wandering with my camera.

 

  

 

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

  

(I'm so jealous of Dave — if I lived here I'd never leave the beach!)

Lunch and ice cream with Michelle, Dave, Annie and Leeako:

 

After lunch, we said goodbye to Dave and headed back down through the mountains in Michelle's car, stopping for pics by this gorgeous river!

 

  

(Attempting the self-timer.)

 

  

Driving across the bridge:

 

We stopped at an onsen in Kitagawa Village:

 

I'm not quite sure how to describe an onsen. It's kind of a bathhouse, but not really — you have to shower and be completely clean before you get in the water. Onsens are a big part of Japanese life and culture, but I was planning on avoiding them. The whole group nudity thing is way awkward for me (and that's gender-separated... I could never go to a co-ed onsen). Even so, I did leave feeling really relaxed.

That's about it. I'm going on a tour of Nahari town tomorrow, so stay tuned for more east-side adventures!

Random thought for the day: There's a polite way to express curiosity about a foreigner, and there's an incredibly rude way to do so. See if you can guess which is which.

Guy who delivered my modem: "What country are you from?"
Creeper on a bike, after doing a triple-take and swerving in front of me so that I was forced to stop: "Nani jin, nani jin?" ("What are you? What are you?")

Oh, Japan.

Peace,
Britt

Go Fish, Kochi-jo and the case of the missing keitai

Salutations comrades,

My oh my, it's been a crazy few days. Last Thursday was the International Understanding Education Meeting, held at one of my elementary schools. I'm not quite sure what the first part of the meeting was about, other than a group of teachers sitting around a table, but I had to give a five-minute self-introduction. I had no idea how I was going to talk about myself for five minutes, so I just printed a bunch of pictures of my family, house, friends, hometown, etc. beforehand and passed them around — luckily, everyone seemed really interested, and it filled up the time.

The second part of the meeting was way more fun. We went to a classroom, and Kataoka-sensei led a sample class where we got to be the students. We watched a DVD of Matt explaining numbers, then played a counting game, an adjective game and a rousing game of Go Fish.

It was a lot more laid back than I thought it was going to be.

Work on Friday was nothing new, just another uchiwase (meeting about teaching plans) at one of my schools. Friday night, I kicked back in my apartment, prepared for another long, Internetless weekend of nothing, when I got a phone email from Emma in Kochi City inviting me to come hang out with her and some of other the Kochi City JETs (and since the last Aki-bound train leaves Kochi City at 10:30, she said I could stay over at her place — she's a sweetie).

I grabbed a train into the city, and she met me at Harimayabashi:


(The bridge is a landmark in Kochi City... it's mentioned in the Yosakoi song.)

We went to a bar, where we met up with James, Lauren and Rob, but, sadly, the place was neither hip nor happening, so we left and went to a different bar called Stylish. This one was the place to be. A lot of JETs were already there, so I got to catch up with people I hadn't seen since Prefectural Orientation, as well as meet a couple of new people.

George (a fellow Californian), Emma and I were the last to leave. We said goodbye to George, then walked to Emma's apartment. It's pretty cute, maybe about the same size as mine, but it's hard to tell since my apartment is shotgun-style. She doesn't have a living room, but she has a much bigger kitchen.

Anyway, the next day I left Emma's place and decided to check out Kochi-jo (Kochi Castle) since it was nearby. The castle is inside a park:






Then I explored the grounds for a bit:






And now, the castle!










View of Kochi City:





For ¥400, you can tour the inside of the castle:












And a few more pics I took as I was leaving:










After leaving, I grabbed lunch and headed back to Aki.

I made plans with Arisa for Sunday, so she picked me up. We were going to do dinner and karaoke, but neither of us were that hungry, so we somehow ended up going to Aeon in Kochi City.


(God help me, I have discovered a mall.)

We did a bit of shopping (there was a tense moment when I forgot to take my shoes off before entering a dressing room), and P.S. — Japanese jeans are NOT designed with the booty in mind.

Then we headed to the food court. There was a crepe place!


Good thing this mall is far away from me, otherwise I'd probably be there all the time.

On the drive back to Aki, we stopped at Arisa's house in Yasu so she could get her Doraemon books. Doraemon is a manga/anime series about a robot cat who goes back in a time machine and uses his 4-D pocket of gadgets from the future to keep a kid named Nobita out of trouble. She bought the first six books of the series, and since the ones she bought have both English and Japanese, she's reading them in English and loaned them to me so I could read them in Japanese.

I waited in the car while she ran in the house to get her books. I heard something clatter to the floor of her car. I scanned the floor but didn't see anything, and she, like any normal person, has a bunch of random crap in her car, so I didn't think anything of it.

About half an hour after she dropped me back off at my apartment, I realized, in horror, what it was — my cell phone.

I was panicking to no end about how to get it back: How am I going to call Arisa, since all her contact info is in my phone? I could call my own phone and hope she hears it, but that would require her to be in her car at the same time, and what are the chances of that happening? What if she's listening to the radio and doesn't hear it? Soon, my mind started jumping to more dire conclusions: Eventually my phone will die, and what if she never realizes what happened? She would call me one day to hang out and I would never answer. She'll think I'm not only blowing her off, but also that I stole her books. If I get a new phone, will it have a new number? We'll never be able to contact each other again and it will be the end of our friendship forever!

It went on like this until I got to work Monday. Before coming to the Board of Education office, I had to give my self-introduction at one of my schools, at an assembly in front of the entire school. Introducing myself in front of the kids was actually a lot less terrifying than when I've had to do it in front of teachers and coworkers. I think the cuteness factor helped alleviate some of the anxiety.

Still, getting my keitai back was all I could think about. When I got back to the BOE, I enlisted the help of Matt, who dutifully called my phone at intervals throughout the day to see if Arisa would answer. I sent my phone an "ARISA, if you read this please help!" email in the desperate hope that she would see it. I tried Googling her. Matt feverishly searched Mixi (the Japanese Facebook). Finally, we told our supervisor what was going on, he made a few calls, and somehow he found her! (Maybe there's a Japanese 411?) So he called and explained the situation, and she said she'd search her car and call back when she found it.

I had plans after work to meet Sarah. Sarah was the first JET in Aki, 11 years ago. When she first emailed me, she said she had only planned on staying one year, but then she met a Japanese guy, fell in love, got married, had two kids and is still here in Aki. As I was walking out the door, Arisa called my apartment phone with good news — she found my phone! (I could actually hear it ringing in the background as I spoke to her.) She said she'd call me back when she was done with work for the day.

So Sarah and her kids picked me up and we hung out at their house for a while (her son Connor actually goes to the school where I introduced myself at the assembly that morning). Sarah and I chatted while her kids excitedly showed me their toys. Then they took me back home, and I had barely walked in the door when Arisa was calling my landline again. We agreed on a time to meet in Yasu. I had seven minutes to dash out of the apartment and be on the next train. She met me at the station, my keitai in tow, and we hung out and goofed around in Yashi Park, which is right next to the station. (There's a beach there, too!)














There are a few restaurants in the park. We were going to go to the Italian place, but it was completely devoid of customers (never a good sign). Meanwhile, the Indian place next door was bustling with people. Arisa was worried that the Italian place was empty because the food sucked, so we decided to play it safe and went to the Indian restaurant.


They had the most amazing curry on the face of the Earth (except for, I assume, India). Now, I know what you're thinking: "Brittany ate curry? But she hates any food that's even the least bit spicy!" Well — bless their souls — they let you choose the level of spice you want! Mild, medium, hot, and for ¥100 more, extra spicy. It was mild all the way for me :)




Now, before I came to Japan, I got an International Driving Permit. Even though I wasn't planning on driving here (left side of the road + no street signs + narrow roads = no thanks), I thought it would be good to have just in case. The first time I hung out with Arisa, she said I should try driving. The second time I hung out with Arisa, I purposely left my permit at home so I'd have an excuse not to. But this time, I slipped up and had the permit with me. She insisted I drive, and I was out of excuses, so I drove from Yasu back to Aki. It actually wasn't as scary as I thought it would be — though, since the car is reversed, I kept turning on the windshield wipers when I meant to hit the turn signal.

When we got back to Aki, we went to a (the only?) karaoke place in town.



(I stuck to the basics — Disney and Spice Girls.)

We stayed there for about an hour, then she dropped me off at my apartment — and I made sure I had my phone.

I've got another uchiwase today, and tomorrow is my first day of classes!

Peace,
B