Everybody's Working for the Weekend

Luke, Gabrielle and I went to Osaka last Saturday to check the city out and melt in the unbelievable heat.

We made it to the Umeda Sky Building. You take the elevator to the 30-something floor and then the escaltor accross the middle to the top. There is an inside circle to walk around along with an outside one giving you a panorama of the city. Pretty impressive scene- one I have to check out again at night.

Then we wandered around a bit more and finally got to the film festival-- a free one that focused on foreign perspectives of Japan/Japan perspectives in a foreign land. We caught the "experimental" section... odd... but there was one amazing one about a chicken, named Erni, wearing a sort of jacket... wandering around Vienna and a little Japanese boy who kept finding the Erni and talking to him. The highlight being when Erni is wearing a jacket that has a Japanese flag on it and it standing in front of an Austrian boys choir when one of the boys attaches a strap to Erni's jacket and presents him to the little Japanese boy. Check out http://www.chickenssuit.com/english/the_story/ if you can't quite visualize a chicken-jacket... or if you want to laugh and cry at the same time.

On Sunday I went to Himeji with my new friend Ayana. I met her on my first Saturday in Kamikawa and she invited me to a BBQ party (which I went to). This was our next outing and tres fun. She's studying English literature in her first year of university and is very sweet, if not a bit on the quiet side. We went to the Himeji museum where I was lucky* enough to get dressed in full Japanese princess regalia. There were over 12 layers of material.. at least. Officially there are " ju ni" (12) layers but "ju ni" can also mean "enough". There was also a huge train which you can kind of see behind me.

*Lucky because I had to draw straws for the opportunity and I picked the lucky straw. At the museum they have scheduled "dress-up" times and if more than one person wants to get suited up you draw straws. I won against a little boy... I felt a little bad but I wasn't prepared to pass up the opportunity.

After the museum we went to Himeji-jo (castle). It's one of the few remaining original castles left in Japan-- most likely because it never actually had to be used. We met up with some more JETs that I knew, who were also checking out the castle. We got a guided tour as Ayana had arranged for a volunteer guide to go with us and explain all the clever tricks that they used to help keep the enemy at bay, which they never got to try out.

Note the parasol in my hand-- very hip in Japan. Every second person has one and they are useful, if not a little annoying to carry around. After the castle Ayana and I parted ways with the other JETs and had a little lunch. I was back in Kamikawa by 5 and after some laundry, I went to Fukusaki to make dinner with Gabrielle and watched 13 going on 30. Very nice and relaxing, little did I know the excitement hadn't ended.

After that exhausting weekend, I got to party like nothing else at the an infamous "enakai" (work party). My BoE threw a welcome enkai for me and Suzie. We got picked up by bus and then went to a restaurant where they proceeded to tell me that I should eat and drink a lot. So I did. You can see the beer mug beside Mr. Yamada (the man in the back), I had 2 of those, and untold amounts of sake. You can also see the piles of meat... I've never see that much meat for so few people. The way this worked was there was a BBQ in the centre of the table and you got to roast your own meat and veggies on, very tasty. I didn't get too ridiculous, till I got home and proceeded to send incomprehensible messages to Gabrielle online. Around 9:30 I was fast asleep in bed. By some miracle I awoke feeling fine, and went to school by 7:50am as per usual.

A Different Story

(This picture sums up nearly all of these words)

So, as I mentioned in my previous post, what my job actually entails in the month of August is a bit of a mystery. I literally spend the day on facebook, checking email, trying to make plans for the weekend, and facebook. August is the unofficial holiday time and so far no one has really spelled it out to me what they expect of me at work. what is worse is that my computer is easily visible for most people who walk through the office, so they can see that I am busy... looking at pictures etc etc. I don't sign in* in the mornings, or out in the afternoons. I usually come in at 7:50 and leave at 3, but technically my contract says I am to be here till 4:35 but initially I was told by my BoE (Board of Education) that I should stay till 3 for now. I take random days off without telling them when my BoE has things for me to do like visit elementary schools or go get a keitai (cell phone) and don't know if that applies to my vacation time or not. I get 20 days and I want to make them count.

*by sign I mean stamp my inkan (name seal) in the mysterious blue binder

For extra fun, the day I got enough courage to talk to my kyoto-sensei (vice principal) about taking a day off next week, he thought I should talk to my BoE, when my BoE told me to talk to him. I got the 29th booked off though, only to find out the next day that I have to go to a Branch Office and make an introduction and talk about team teaching with all of the local English teachers. Sigh. I really like my town, and my co-workers, but I really wish that someone would sit me down and lay it out plain and simple. All of the training we get is prefaced with "Remember, every situation is different, but most places..." which is ultimately only medium useful.

But on a lighter note, huzzah! It's the weekend! I am off to Osaka and Himeji to get some nice English conversation on and some culture too. (But by leaving at 1, instead of my contract mandated 11:50, does that counteract my leaving early during the week? oi!)

The Adventure Begins

I have now been in Japan for over a week. One on hand, it feels as though I have been here forever, but on the other hand, I feel too illiterate to have been here any longer. However, learning Japanese gives me something to fill my free time, (as does facebook, and wandering around the school but that's a different story)

After arriving in Tokyo on July 29, finding out that my luggage was lost by Air Canada, attending the pre-departure conference for JETs, going to a railway/haunted/prison themed restaurant, reclaiming my luggage on Tuesday afternoon, and then taking the shikansen (bullet train) to Yashiro on Wednesday, I am now at my final destination of Kamikawa-cho, in the middle of the Hyogo prefecture, near Himeji, sort of near Kobe, south of Tokyo and north of Hiroshima.

I am now settled in my apartment—a very nice one at that. I have a bedroom, kitchen, bathroom, (complete with western style toilet, much appreciated after using a squat on the moving train,) tatami mat room, and living room/room with a couch. I have just finished giving my omyagi (gifts) to my neighbours, that my supervisor helped me pick out (Yea laundry soap! Maybe I’ll understand it better later…). I have met just about every person who works for the city and has an office job, introducing myself in barely understandable Japanese, and my superintendent has boasted of my drinking capabilities: something that previous ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) have lacked apparently.

Kamikawa-cho has a population of about 13,000 and is surrounded on all sides by unbelievably steep mountains/hills covered, for the most part, in trees. Otherwise, there are occasion clear cuttings and graveyards that dot the hills. The streets are amazingly narrow, what we would consider one way, but Japanese drivers a) drive smaller cars and b) have a system of sorts figured out as to avoid collisions. I’m thinking about getting a car, but have to overcome my fears first I think. (oh, and they drive on the left side of the road… excellent)

This past Saturday I went to summer festival and wore a summer kimono/yukata. This meant that my supervisor came to my house and dressed me. As her English is limited and my Japanese even worse, it was a fairly entertaining process, and it somehow involved a hand towel.. The summer festival was great—lots of fireworks, roasted squid on a stick, taiko (Japanese drumming), and other good stuff. I am off to another summer festival in a neighbouring town on Thursday, which will be nice as other JETs will be there.

The weather here is hot and humid, all the time. A bit of an adjustment to Ontario—but the fall is in sight. Japan is amazingly different from Canada in a lot of ways. Monkeys, lizards in my stairwell, steep steep mountains surrounding me, rice fields aplenty--- but some things stay the same (comb-overs, slow old people drivers, the appreciation of a good drink…)

I haven’t started teaching yet as the schools have a “summer vaction” time now—but the teachers still come in and do work and I practice writing Japanese and surf the internet. Come September I shall be busy though, and hopefully have some sort of handle on Japanese. everyday I get better, so I can't get worse.