I wish:

If only... but soon I'll be drinking egg nog and enjoying friends and family. Hope to see you!

English is difficult.

These are the words the 3rd grade kids at Junior High had to learn today:

actor
act
spoke
line
skill
sign language
star

4 out of 7 words have more than one meaning, and they don't learn the obvious one. Line here refers to lines in a play. Star refers to feature (as in, starred in a movie). I don't expect teacher to explain every nuance of English and the games words play, but why aren't textbooks being written with useful words? I don't think I ever learned the Spanish word for line (meaning lines in a play) in 2 years of University Spanish. No wonder students get frustrated with learning English!

Erm..

These are the vocabulary words I had to practice with the class the other day. I would say them and a class of 40 students repeats after me:
help, run, touch, tell, someone, ear, assistance dog, deaf.

It made me think 2 things. 1- those first 5 words sound like someone is reporting abuse. 2- why on earth are we teaching 13 year- olds the phrase "assistance dog"?

Happy Movember!

Living in Japan has been internationalizing in more than the strictly Japan-Canada way. I've learned more than I thought about other (English speaking) countries, and in particular this Australian originated mustache loving event. Check out www.movember.com for more information.

Breast cancer seems to get a lot of publicity (and deservedly) so it only seems fair for men's health to get some publicity of it's own. On that note, I highly reccomend www.thebreastcancersite.com and the links on the top (for literacy, children's health, rainforest, hunger, and animal rescue). Each click helps. I spend a lot of time on the internet, so a minute of clicking for a good cause makes my internet time seem slightly less ridiculous.

Memory Lane

These are the 4th graders practicing for their culture festival at Awaga. It brings back memories of leaning the recorder and Christmas concerts. I think they look cuter than I ever did. Chances are they've learned more recorder than I did too.

(Apologies for the shaking camera work and fuzziness.)

Weekend options

I'll admit it, living in Japan has it's perks. I was thinking of weekend plans, and thought to myself "I miss Kobe."　and then made plans to go there this weekend. While train times might seem lengthy to you remember the following: I'm Canadian and not afraid of travel time, that there is nothing/no one to see in my own town, and that trains are fast and reliable (most of the time). Here are my 3 most visited cities in Japan.

1. Himeji. It's the closest to me (40 minutes by train) and has a population of 500,000. There are a handful of foreign restaurants, a Starbucks that never looks at you strangely for staying for hours on end, an English section in the library, 100Yen stores (equivalent to a dollar store, but better), foreign food sections in the grocery stores, a Muji (like a Japanese Ikea, with clothes) and a Uniqlo. It's a great meeting place. JET is great in that you make friends easily, however you usually don't live near them. As far as local attractions, THE CASTLE. Himeji castle is the last (?) remaining original castle in Japan. or one of the last. It wasn't destroyed in any of the wars, and it is a pretty sight if I do say so myself.

2. Kobe. The next closest (does that even make grammatical sense? My English skills are slipping. 80 minutes by train) and with a population of 1.5 million. Foreign restaurants a-plenty. Starbucks plural. a GAP, United Colours of Benetton and Zara (3 stores I rarely shopped from in Canada, but fully enjoy in Japan). A Tokyu Hands (a Japanese store with nearly everything you might want, aside from clothes), Don Kihote (erm, that's Japanese for Quixote, and it is a store of immense fun opportunities), and there are various liquor stores that sell foreign alcohols at nice prices. Kobe also has an Ikea (!) which newly opened its smartly designed, DIY Swedish doors this past spring. On the list of things to see/do in Kobe are: Kitano-- the north part of the city which has old-school foreign houses-turned tourist attractions, Mt. Rokko (although I've never climbed it), a lovely harbour, with a memorial to the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake that rocked Kobe, and shopping mall with miscellaneous stores and a floor dedicated to foreign restaurants. Kobe is an organized, friendly city, nice for small-ish adventures and walking about.

and last but not least,

3. Osaka. The farthest away (at 1hr and 40 minutes by train) with a daytime population of 3.7 million and a night-time population that drops to 2.6 million (commuter much?) it is a city worthy of note. Osaka has all of the aforementioned stores, plus Yodoyobashi electronics store, a Loft (like Tokyu Hands, but somehow different), designer stores (a la Dolce and Gabbana, Fendi, Marc Jacobs, Armani, Vivenne Westwood etc etc) plus a foreigner friendly nightlife scene. As a tourist, one can go to any of the multiple Ferris wheels (including one on top of a department store), view the aquarium (complete with whale shark) or the Umeda Sky building, bathe for hours with fellow naked folk in various baths at Spa World, see Sumo (along with the other major sports) and more. When my penpal came to visit, we stopped in Osaka on the way home from the airport and he said "Now it feels like I'm in Japan." It's the hustle and bustle and grit that you expect from a Japanese city.

So, while I sit here at my desk waiting for the day to finish, quietly resenting that I have no work to do and still am expected to sit here, I try to take stock of the perks of living near 3 different and excellent cities.

On a more positive note,

Arrrgh! (And not in the fun piratey way): a rant

There are 7 elementary schools in my town. I teach at 3 of them, and Suzie, the other ALT in my town, teaches at the other 4. To make sure the kids are learning the same thing, a representative from each school attends monthly meetings to make and discuss lesson plans (which are written in English and Japanese). This is a good idea. Standardized learning, sharing the workload, why not? However, what seems to be forgotten by the teachers who attend this meeting is that of the 2 ALTs they employ, one of them does not speak Japanese. Me. and Suzie does not speak formal, education specific Japanese. This means that I understand about 5% of what is said at the meeting. These meetings run for a minimum of an hour and a half.

The meetings always start off with a re-cap of how the lessons went the past month. This is good-- it helps us learn what teachers liked, how much students are learning, after all, Suzie and I are not trained teachers-- they are. However, this often turns into a "what the ALT did wrong" session. "The story you told didn't explain Halloween." Well no, it didn't-- because at last month's meeting we all decided it would be a ghost story, using words from the previous lesson. "Previous ALTs wrote up a little handout in Japanese for the kids to read so they could understand." Why didn't you mention that before we finished teaching this lesson? "The students didn't understand." I thought they did-- they all repeated the words back to me, why didn't the homeroom teacher let me know? It's very one sided-- we are not asked to evaluate how homeroom teachers worked with us-- if they read the lesson plan before we started, if they helped explain a complicated game, or translated words when students were confused.

What the teachers also fail to realize is that Suzie and I are both functional adults. This means that we are, in fact, capable of figuring out ways to adapt lessons to different class sizes. So no, we don't need to dedicate the next 10 minutes to deciding how big the groups should be for actives, because really, last time I checked, we have the ability to improvise lessons, we have been teaching for a year now, to classes of 8 students and classes of 30 students.

I appreciate these meetings, really I do. I think it's great to share the workload, to have qualified teachers help with lesson plans, and to learn how lessons went. But the simple things-- like how I can't understand their evaluations, discussing small details to no end, and not giving me or Suzie credit for being able to sort out small problems on our own... arrrgh!

Ok. I'm done now.

Sports Festival, now you can live it! (part 2 of 2)

Here are the final videos of sports day. We have the marching band at Ohyama-- pretty amazing for a group of 1st-6th graders I think.



And here we have Awaga's dance to Queen's "Don't stop me now". My footage isn't that great, but you can tell from the kids in the front that they really got into it.


I guess a teacher who was planning sports day was a big fan of Queen, because here it is again as part of the cheer-off, and also another clip of the "Don't stop me now" dance routine.

Robot reality check

Type of Robot	In the movie	In real life
Pet	Help people	Make people happy
Worker	Make life easy for people	Make cars in factories/clean houses for people
Fighter	Fight	Find landmines/find people in danger
Thinker	Think like people/cause many problems/try to control people	Understand weather/play games with us
Dream	Take us to other worlds/move us into the past or the future/make life better	Still dreams in real life

This was off a handout the 3rd years at Junior High received. I can't tell if this is robot loving propaganda, or not.

Sports Festival, now you can live it! (part 1 of 2)

Yes, now you too can enjoy Sports Festival day, without the 10 hours sitting under a tent, 4 of which are spent watching kids run relays. Here are the highlights from the 4 sports festivals I attended, my last ones ever (sob). My smallest school (Ochidani) was the least exciting, but they did do a nice traditional dance. You can watch them practicing it. I've seen this dance, or slight variations of it every year. Practice practice practice means they learn next to nothing in the month of September. But boy does sports day make mom and dad proud! My Junior High was largely relays and repeats of last year. They changed it up a bit by doing the all-class skipping contest which I thought to be very cool, the winning team jumped 20 times before stepping on the rope!

!

The day ended at Junior High, as it does every year, with each grade standing in a circle and doing 2 dances. The first one is very boy-girl centred, and I was thrown into it on the practice day (I think this made the boy I was paired with cool) and the 2nd one feels like the macarana gone askew. or something.



The Ohyama day was pretty good, they had some new events and they pushed the cute factor. This was by far the cutest thing I witnessed. The kindergarten kids were paired up with a 1st grader and they did this Indiana Jones themed relay. (Awwww).

Stay tuned for more! I promise ode's to Queen and a marching band!

What I love about my job:

-When I’m reading “Mr. Brown can Moo, can you?” by to the 1^st and 2^nd grade. Seeing how happy they are to shout “cock-a-doodle-doo”, “dibble dibble dopp dopp”, kissing noises and slurping ones makes it a good day automatically. Also, I get inordinate pleasure from reading “BOOM BOOM BOOM! Mr. Brown is a wonder! BOOM BOOM BOOM! Mr. Brown makes thunder! He makes lightening SPLAAT SPAAT SPAAT, and it’s very very hard to make a sound like that.”

-The group of girls waiting for me when I come back from lunch at Junior High, who talk to me in English, not saying anything new, but giggling every time I tell them they are cute.

-The group of boys, who have this year, decided I’m cool, who eagerly await my “How are you today?” when I walk though the school halls during cleaning time.

-Getting more responsibility from the teacher who barely used me last year

-How happy the 1^st graders are to see me, it’s the perfect place to go when I’m feeling low and wishing I was in bed, in Canada. Even better if this happens while standing in a sunbeam.

-Gems of English, unprompted and the perfect surprise.

-Sneaking in lessons on geography into English

-The colouring and cutting and pasting I do in the name of work

-That I can read for pleasure without worrying about readings for classes I’m not doing.

-Where I am—Kamikawa is a beautiful town and biking around with the sun on the mountains is gorgeous.

A Japanese Wake

A few weeks ago, I attended a Japanese wake, it felt distinctly Japanese, at least when compared to the very Christian funerals I have attended. I've mentioned that I went to a few friends and they were all very curious as to what it was like, so I thought I'd share it with you. My understanding of Japanese is still pretty minimal, and the words I do know are not particularly funeral related, so some of this is speculation on my part, and others with the help of our dear friend, the internet.

I went to junior high on Monday and was told that the father of the vice-principal had died, and all of the teachers were attending the wake, which was the next day. One of my JTEs came up to me and told me about it, and told me I could get a ride to the funeral home with some of the teachers. I was told to wear a black suit if I had one.

The next day, at a different school, I asked my super friendly supervisor about giving money-- which I knew about from reading the JET handbook. She told me I should give 3,000Yen (or about $30). She also gave me the appropriate envelope to put it in, and showed me where to put my name, wrote the name of the Junior high I work at, and on the back of the envelope I wrote the amount.

After school I went home and changed into a black suit (or the closest thing I had, which was a white blouse with a black jacket and skirt) and then went to the Junior high to get catch my ride. Once at the funeral home, I followed the teachers in, we signed our names in the register, entered the home and greeted the family with a bow, and they bowed back. Then we went to a side table and gave our money envelopes. Each person who gave an envelope was given a gift bag in return, and took our seats midway into the hall. At the front of the hall was the casket and a huge floral design, with a large picture of the deceased in the middle.

We got there about 30 minutes before the service began, so I had time to realize that all of the women there were not wearing black suits, but rather black dresses with black tights, or black pants with black shirts and grey or black pearl necklaces- so I was a little out of place, but not terribly. Being tall and blond made me stick out in the crowd already, so I wished I had worn a black shirt and black tights. (I didn't really want to make a fashion "look at me" statement at a funeral) but all of the men were wearing white shirts, so it wasn't terribly out of place, and was likely the most conscious of my fashion misstep.)

The service was run by the hall staff, who made announcements and told people what to do when. A priest came to the front and read (what I assume to be) a sutra. He read this sutra for a solid 45 minutes, while people went up and offered incense on small burners in front of the floral display. First the family members offer incense, after which the visitors take turns in offering incense, and then bow at the family, who bows back. Everyone is ushered about by the hall staff and it is all very orderly.

Once back in our seats, everyone holds their juzu-- which is like a Buddhist rosary between their hands, until all of the guests have gone up, put incense on the burner and bowed at the family. Then once the guests are done and the priest has finished his sutra, my vice principal (I assume to be the highest in the hierarchy of the family) said a few words, the internet tells me he was thanking the visitors, but I think it was also a bit of an eulogy, and his words lead to some teary eyes around me. After which the family goes outside and everyone leaves, bowing once more as they go outside, and we also received a box of cookies from the grandchildren.

Back at home I investigated my gift bag. I received a box of green tea powder, an envelope with the details of the deceased on it, and a cardboard box with two half orbs of sugar, one in clear plastic and one in pink plastic. I haven't been able to figure out what the sugar is for-- I think it's an offering for a shrine, as it certainly doesn't look like it's intended to crack open and stir into your coffee, but can’t find any writing to confirm that.

The all black, no exceptions, attire, the chanting of the sutras, and the bowing were very different from Western funerals, but still lead to the overall feeling of sadness and mourning. I was thankful for being included with the teachers in attending the wake to give my condolences to my vice principal and his family.

Shikoku Adventure

The photos of rafting and canyoning were taken by the Happy Raft staff with their waterproof camera, and then burned to CD for us. Here we are, Gabrielle and I are in the front, paddling away, while our raft companions seem slightly less enthusiastic.




and here is me, going down a water-slide, with many a ridiculous face. This was one of the first things we did canyoning. As you can see, we would get lowered 2/3rds of the way, and then the last bit we'd just go. I'm all grace and class here, and I finish my moment of glory in a truly Japanese way.

and the rest of the trip has been documented on my facebook page for your perusal.

Home is where exactly?

I left my home for my home just under 2 weeks ago. I am over my jet-lag and settling back into my old routines of more or less isolated weeks and busy weekends. It was strange at first because I was so used to having people constantly around, but I'm adjusting and appreciating my situation for what it is again.

It feels a bit strange to be here for a second year, but also exciting. I am working on making concrete goals for my school and for my social life to make the most of my time here. While a part of me wouldn't mind going back to Canada for good now, I feel like my time in Japan is unfinished, and I don't want that feeling at the end of my contract next summer.

At school, summer vacation is nearing it's end, which means the end of half days at school and a trip to Shikoku this weekend with Gabrielle while I can take days off without cutting into my classes. However, while the opening ceremony is on September 1st, classes won't really get going until mid-month because the students will be preparing for the very elaborate Sports Day. So it will be full days of school, with not much to do, alas.

Photos of home and adventures are pending my buying a reader for my memory chip, as the one I was using before I left at home, the other one.

Canada is:

-delicious
-the opposite of Japan
-the home of 2 babies I coo at
-home to an adorable dog and 2 very soft, very loud purring cats
-where I drive, and want to drive faster
-lovely

3 Things About Bathrooms in Japan

1. Good Idea:
Fresh flowers, everywhere. In the bathroom, at the corner of desks, on wall mountings, at entrance ways, anywhere. My schools constantly have fresh flowers out. I love it. I don’t know if it comes from educating generations of girls in the art of ikebana, or a “let’s enjoying nature” mentality, but it’s a lovely touch to have fresh flowers looking at you while you wash your hands

2. Bad Idea:
99% of bathroom taps don’t have hot water options. Hot water helps kill germs Japan, it’s true. Also, in the winter when your fingers feel like they might fall off from the cold, because the room you’re in doesn’t have an actual heating system, there is no hot water available to warm them up to regain feeling.

3. Interesting idea:
Toilet slippers. You take off your own shoes and slide on a pair of (in my case) usually too small plastic slippers. You go to the bathroom, you change your shoes back, you leave. It’s a dilemma. On one hand—wearing your own shoes puts you at risk to both peeing on your own shoes and standing in someone else’s pee (when using a squat, not everyone has great aim). On the other hand, you have to put on slippers that someone else may have peed on. In the summer, that means putting your bare feet in these slippers.



The bathroom slippers at Kanzaki Junior High. Teachers, girls, and boy's bathrooms from left to right. Note that girls and boys are colour coded.

Gossip

My (male) friend Sami came to visit last night, to check out what it’s like to live in the countryside. (I think he mostly just realized that living in the countryside means longer train times.) Anyway, this morning we went to the train station together so he could get back to civilization.

On our way, a woman from my Board of Education (BoE) drives up behind us. I gesture for her to pass us, thinking that she's stopping because we are in the way. As she slowly passes us she says one thing. What was it? Was it "ohayogozaimasu" (good morning) or "hello”? No. It was "boyfurendo?". That’s all. She just wanted to see if the male foreigner I was with was my boyfriend. I responded with "Iie, tomodachi" (no, friend) and she finally drove away.

I understand that a person’s relationship status is interesting, but in Japan there is this strange rule, that while this woman, who likely knows the rules of politeness inside and out and is in her mid-late 50s, can call out into the street to see if I’m with my boyfriend. This would NEVER happen to a Japanese person. I have staff members that I’ve known for a year and see weekly, but don’t know if they are married and would never consider asking if they were because it’s considered rude. From my teenage students, this wouldn’t bother me as much, but this woman should know better.

Seeking out a juicy piece of gossip about the foreigner breaks all the rules of politeness. In the words of the ALT on the other side of my town “I’m beginning to think it IS all that matters, what with my girls telling me that I am OBVIOUSLY lying and OBVIOUSLY I have a boyfriend (why this I have no idea) and Mr Yamada’s repeated attempts to convince me that Sakai is a perfectly eligible man at ONLY 18 years my senior. …but in the meantime you can rest assured news of your “friend” will probably be spread through the BoE like wildfire.”

Sigh. Japan, you're great, but you drive me crazy.

Fuji-san thoughts:

On the way to Fuji-san: 9:30pm Friday/2pm Saturday
/Why am I taking a night bus, which I can’t sleep on, to go climb a mountain?/I’m tough, I don’t need to buy oxygen/Wahoo! I’m going to climb Mount Fuji!/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?



Beginning the climb: 2pm-5pm
Hey, this isn’t so bad/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/We’re already half way up, look at us go! /Wahoo! I’m climbing Mount Fuji... along with quite a few others...


Rest period: 5pm-10:30pm
Ok, time for a nap to rest up for the climb that takes us to the summit at sunrise/Why can’t I sleep? I haven’t slept more than 2 hours since Thursday night, I need to sleep. Oh well, I’m a machine, I can make it./Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/ This sunset above the clouds is beautiful/Wahoo, Mount Fuji sunrise at the summit, here I come!



The beginning of the dark time: 10:30pm Saturday- 2am Sunday
I can’t believe there are so many climbers…/If one more person with a walking stick almost hits me in the face, that walking stick is going over the edge of this mountain/I think this is the 8th station?/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/Yes, I will pay twice as much as usual for that chocolate bar and 400Yen for poorly mixed hot chocolate. /I’m liking this cool breeze.

The dark time: 2am-4am
This is worse than the bank or a theme park. I’m in a line to get to the top of a mountain, and I can’t figure out why on earth I’m taking a step, waiting a minute. Taking a step, waiting a minute. /Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/I’m trapped in an Escher painting of Mount Fuji, walking in an never ending loop/This wind is evil/Where did my friends go?/Gahhh! Get out of my way! I just want to sit down at the summit!


Sunrise: 4am-6am
Hey, that sunrise is pretty beautiful/Sophie! Yea! Someone I know!!/Ahh! Have to pee, will pay 200Yen to pee!/Wait, there is more than 1 vending machine?/This place is a zoo/ There is no way I’m walking anywhere uphill from here/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/Holy crap, I’m on top of Mount Fuji.


Preparing for the way down: 6am-8am
Time to mail my letters from the top of Mount Fuji/Must. Write. Faster. Can’t. Feel. Fingers/holy crap, I’m cold in Japan and it’s July!/Where is Myrie? I hope she’s not dead, I haven’t seen her in hours…/Wait, there’s Myrie, she’s not dead! /Oh no, have to pee again, another line, another 200Yen…/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet? /There better not be a line going down the mountain…


Going down: 8am-10:30am
Sweet, no line /Volcanic mountains are desolate/Hmm, maybe I’ll try running…/This is so much fun/Have either of my sisters had their babies yet?/It’s warming up, time to take some layers off my body and add them to my backpack/I can’t believe my body is still functioning, let alone running down a mountain/I’m running down a mountain! /is this the end of the world? Am I trapped in another Escher painting? We’ve been walking in this cloud for ages…



Recovery: 10:30am Sunday/ Monday 5am
Onsen, food, karaoke, a perfect way to end this trip/I keep falling asleep when I blink for too long/Back on the bus.. ugh/One of my sister's had her baby!/Ok, so the trick to sleeping on an overnight bus is to not sleep for a night, climb a mountain and not sleep another night, got it/I climbed Mount Fuji. I actually did it. I didn’t need oxygen! Yatta!

(most photo credit goes to Myrie, my climbing buddy and photographer extraordinare)

In other news...

I'm newly aunted! My sister Joanne is now the happy mom to Margot Jane Feddes DeZoete. Born on Sunday morning, Margot is my first niece and I'm excited to meet her in a week. Congratulations Jo and Matt.

My pending journey

This weekend I am climbing a mountain.
I am going with a group of 40 other JETs. I know of another JET group of 40 people, and 20 people outside those groups who are also going. It is a long weekend, so many Japanese people will also be there. There will be hordes of people. There will most likely be lines going up the mountain: a slow one and a fast one. The hike is broken into distances between stations.
5th station to 6th station: 1.5km
6th to 7th: 1.2km
7th to 8th: 1.2km
8th-8.5th: 0.7km
8.5th to top: 0.9km
I have heard there is a vending machine at the top.



Mount Fuji, you seemed so much more glamorous before I knew the details, but I'm still excited to climb you.

How to pretend you're not in Japan for a weekend:

Head to the annual San-in beach party in Tottori-ken. It's about a 3 hour train ride away from where I live. Arrive on a Friday night, in the dark, and set up your tent on the beach amongst a maze of others. Only hear English being spoken. Head up to the main area where there are djs spinning, couscous, pizza, tacos and curry for sale. Dance dance dance dance dance. Wake with the intense heat of your tent at 7am. From here you have 2 options-- stay on the beach in luxury and really believe you aren't in Japan, or venture out and maybe risk running into Japanese people and shattering the illusion.


I chose the venturing out. We went on a random hike, which lead to a beautiful inlet. Rocky cliffs, clear cool water, perfect. Well, perfect minus the random tour boats that went by, which we dutifully waved to. I can't quite decide if we made the photos better or worse for the tourists. Note and appreciate the beauty of you're surroundings, and the lack of concrete barriers.


After the the hike, catch the bus to the Tottori sand dunes. I had visited before in the winter-- but this was my first time in the summer. The views were amazing, but it felt more impressive in the winter. This time there were footprints everywhere and there was little to no breeze- compared to the windstorm and desolation of winter. The experience could have been made complete with camel rides from money hungry camel owners (to just take a picture cost 100Yen/1$). Here you run the chance of meeting Japanese people, but as they have largely come on group tours, you can maintain the illusion you are not in Japan.

Then, return to the beach, dance dance dance, wake up to music still going, laze on beach, etc. Illusion is shattered when separating garbage in complicated ways, and everyone does along with utter lack of garbage cans. Return home, shower and stand in your own mini-beach from all the sand that has collected. Remind self you are still in Japan, and you should not wear that sleeveless shirt in public... unless you're a man. But that's a different post.