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Wednesday, April 30th, 2008
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8:07 pm - Shame on me!
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Yes, shame on me!!! I perform this upcoming Saturday (May 3rd) and I still haven't updated with a follow-up about my audition on April 6. Shoot!! This will be replaced with a wonderful explanation in the very near future.
current mood:  chipper
current music: That's How You Know - Amy Adams - Enchanted SDTK
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| Wednesday, April 2nd, 2008
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11:48 am - shooting star?
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I've entered this karaoke contest sponsored by Hiroshima City for their annual Flower Festival, which is held during Golden Week at the beginning of May. One of my sister Sayuri's English conversation students, Matsumoto-san, mentioned that I should enter a singing competition all the way back in November. I'd treated a few of my mom's friends to a little show at the Karaoke Kan. ^^; Originally, she had mentioned there being some kind of singing event just for foreigners, but I don't think she ever found any concrete info about that. Anyway, Matsumoto-san looked up the information about entering the Flower Festival Karaoke Contest and strongly encouraged me to participate. She had high hopes of me showcasing my Japanese singing skills. The committee took entries by postcard starting from March 5, and I sent mine in on March 6. Only the first 100 entrants have a chance to audition, and since I had no idea how popular (or not-so-popular) this contest was, I rushed to decide on a song to sing and send in my info. People had until March 21st to send in their information, and the audition is scheduled for Sunday, April 6. So the Flower Festival people had a couple of weeks or so to let us know which entrants got a spot reserved or not. I was number 13. So, yay! I got a spot for auditioning on this upcoming Sunday.
The song I'm singing is called "I Wanna Know" and the original artist is AI. Maybe you've (never) heard of her? The song is about wanting to know what's going on in the world, and how a little kindness can go a long way. I wanted to sing a song with meaning, and that's the first one that popped in my head. Anyway, here is the song. Check it out! Or not. ^^; If I need to do something to convert the file so you can hear it, let me know! I kind of altered the karaoke version I'm using to include AI's voice on some overlapping singing parts, but I was doing the cutting and pasting of the sound bytes with solely the aid of my ear and women's intuition. So it's not as awesome as it ought ot be. The timing's a little off in places, and I don't like that. I'm going to try to fix the unbalanced bits today and tomorrow. I have to go into Kure for an extremely rare, but not-at-all-awesome meeting at the BOE on Friday, and I'll just stay over in Hiroshima until Monday. So I have today and tomorrow to adjust my altered karaoke version of "I Wanna Know."
My host family is quite confident in my Japanese language abilities, and my host mom's leaving me to go to the audition aloooone while she goes cherry-blossom viewing. Sayuri will have started grad school by then, and she won't be able to while away a morning waiting for me to perform, either. Well, entrants numbers 1 through 50 actually audition in the morning from 11:00 until 1:00 (doing the first verse of their little songs), and I assume that entrants 51 through 100 do their bit from 2:00 until 4:00 the same afternoon. That doesn't really leave time for the judges to eat or urinate or anything that they might need to do other than listen to entrants. I don't know if one hundred people even entered. Maybe only 70 people entered, so the afternoon auditions that I'm imagining will be short and sweet. The postcard I received only talked about info for my group of entrants (entry numbers 1 through 50). Everyone who made the cut from the preliminary round(s) will have to perform again from 4:00 on. Regardless of whether or not I get bumped from the roster that morning, I've decided to take April 7th (the first day of school) off so that I don't have to worry about getting my stuff together and getting on the bus that Sunday. The audition is in an actual recording studio, I think, or maybe it's just a stage. (It says, "Satellite Studio", but you never know...) Crossing my fingers for a recording studio. That seems more fun somehow. From the proposed 100 contest entrants, ten people will be selected to perform on stage during the Flower Festival in early May. They also have an enka section and a live band section, which will be auditioning on different days. No matter the result, I'm looking forward to the audition and seeing people on-stage during Golden Week! ^_____^
So, if you happen to think about the Janitha sometime this weekend, say a little prayer for me~~. Or just wing a "good luck!" my way, please. I'm practicing at home and at my favorite karaoke box when I get the chance.
current mood: excited - ウキウキ、ワクワク
current music: For Good- Idina Menzel; Kristin Chenoweth-Wicked: Original B
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| Friday, March 21st, 2008
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10:45 pm - Human again.
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My gosh, I don't know what it is about today--maybe it's the good weather and the official coming of spring, maybe it's the fact that I only have two more days left before school is out and that I managed to accomplish a few of my goals for gift-giving to my sixth- and ninth-grade grads. Whatever it is, I feel really invigorated and ready to write again, ready to share my mundane and selfish thoughts once more. I don't know how long this feeling will last, but I'll try to ride along with it as long as I can.
Had my ninth grade graduation at both schools two Sundays ago (around March 9). This time last year, I had only one junior high school and a lot more time on my hands, so I was able to write out a little message to each of my sixteen graduating students in addition to the inexpensive gifts I had for each of them. This year, the graduating kids weren't so lucky. ^_^ While I did give everyone an individual set of personalized pencils (ordered through Oriental Trading and sent over by my lovely mother), I didn't have the inclination to write messages to the 3-nensei this year. The kids at Toyohama got their copy of the yearbook we'd been working on since mid-October as well as the pencils. But the Yutaka kids only got the pencils. Oh, well.
I always have these grand ideas about what I want to accomplish (but don't start working on accomplishing this goal early enough), and eventually the goal is modified into a much-less magical conclusion. But the kids (or whomever I'm working towards the goal for) usually don't even know what I'm planning, so they don't know that I actually wanted to have a grander gesture for them. For example, I wanted to write messages to the individual sixth grade graduates at Toyoshima Elementary school this year, but I only ended up getting them their little graduation gifts. I got the messages out to my Yutaka sixth graders this morning (had one of my students who lives above me deliver them to his classmates), but it took all of my free time at work and four hours of bus and ferry goodness to crank out the finished projects. This is what happens when you don't really write in Japanese except for special occasions. It usually takes me longer than others to write personal messages in English, so I guess Japanese should be no different.
Back to the yearbook (were we every really at the yearbook?). It had a profile (birthday, likes, club activities, dream for the future) of each student with a picture, as well as a goodbye message and advice to the seventh and eighth graders, student collages, and a list of class and teacher superlatives. There was supposed to be a page that had a tally of what was popular for the kids during their time at school (sports players, musicians, TV shows, etc.) but that paper got lost somewhere along the way, and I didn't feel like looking for the filled-out copies or asking Mr. Uekiyo about it. I wonder did anyone but me even notice?
Anyway, though it took a really long time and (gasp) I even worked on it outside of work hours, I really enjoyed putting the book together and designing the cover and splash/title pages. It made me remember what I liked about document design and my dusty old major. I also realized that I try to use my computer to make worksheets several times a week, and even though the first time isn't always perfect, I try to go back and fix/explain better some parts of the sheet after I've run it through with a class. Even though the worksheets aren't beautiful or aesthetically noteworthy, I usually enjoy creating them. There's this one Assistant Language Teacher site called JHS Englipedia that I found out about late last year. ALTs from all walks of life and companies submit ideas for certain lessons, for both elemetnary school and junior high school. I usually don't like how the provided worksheet is set up, so I end up re-designing the sheet in a more Janitha-likeable format. Even though those worksheet ideas aren't from my own mind, they look much better to me, and thus become presentable. I don't turn up my nose at using them in class. ^_^;; Looks like I'm a document design snob.
I haven't had to go to Englipedia for activity ideas for a few weeks, and I'm glad for that. That doesn't mean that I haven't had crap to do, though. ;__; Where was I going with this document design thing? Oh, right. I went to my host mom's last weekend, and we had one of our sporadic conversations about "Janitha's future". I told her about a yearn-a-half-old memory I had from the time the family (all of us, even the now elusive Kazuma) went to a Italian restaurant called La Cima and had an expensive fine-dining experience. The Japanese menu for the restaurant was beautifully designed and tasteful, but the English version of the menu looked like a fourth-of-an-assed (that is, less-than-half-assed) attempt to quickly put something on paper and laminate it. I'm pretty sure the descriptions of the dishes were mostly accurate, but the lack of trying (or whatever you want to call words slapped on a plain piece of white paper) I'll forever remember as insulting. People (yes, even foreign people) are paying good money for their meal--which might or might not be deliciously filling, and they deserve a nice looking menu from which to make their meal choices even if they can't read Japanese. I really wanted to re-design their English language menu for them. La Cima had an impact on me, that's for sure. But going from business to business and checking it they need an English translation of a menu or a quick tutorial on how to ask what kind of noodles a non-Japanese-speaking customer wants for his or her okonomiyaki won't really be a steady job. I'm sure a job like that could grow into something, but I might not be the one who takes the step. I want to help out where I can, though.
My host mom also asked if I planned on staying in Japan indefinitely. Though I get requests from some teachers at school to "stay forever", I don't feel the pull to stay in nearly the exact same lane for very much longer. I love making people happy, especially my students, but I don't think I'm cut out to be a main teacher. I do okay at elementary school where I may or may not have input from my teachers on what kind of activity they'd like to do in class next, but I can't see myself being the main source of junior high school students' English language skills. And work life aside, despite how much I love my island life right now, I honestly can't see myself living in Yutaka-machi for the rest of my life. Around October or November of last year, I started looking for alternative places to work in case I ended my association with the JET Program after two years. I foolishly gave in to my mother's encouragement and got in contact with this random cousin of mine working for another English tutoring company in Okinawa. He immediately started talking as if I would always be in Japan (because, according to him, "Okinawa is the place to BE."), and I literally felt panicked at the thought. At the time, I'd been thinking about leaving the JET program and Kure BOE and working somewhere else for at least a year. I soon realized that if I'm only going to stay in the teaching English profession one more year, I might as well stick to a place that has less hassle and that I'm familiar with. So here I am, on board until July 2009. I'm already in retirement/saying goodbye to my island mode, though. I've had strange thoughts like, "I need to say goodbye to the sunset. I may never see the sky this clear and beautiful again." I'll try to appreciate the nature I'm surrounded by for a little longer. But not the blood-sucking mosquitoes that ravage our bodies each summer.
All right, I'm just gonna press send. I've sat on this entry for four hours or so.
P.S. Totally got back into One Piece a few months ago (more than I had been with the sporadic K-F releases) and read ahead in the manga to Thriller Bark. Now, I'm piecing together subs from other places to unravel the mystery of Water 7 and Sogeking and such. I've spoiled myself by watching 100 episodes later than where K-F was at the time, but I'm ready to watch other subs now as I wait for quality One Piece Water 7 episodes from K-F. Earlier this week, I was originally only interested in hearing Sogeking's theme song in the actual episode, but I'd figured what the heck? I'll go ahead and watch the fifty episodes I skipped to get to the feudal Japan special. I'm slowly getting the story. Can't wait for Kaizoku-Fansubs' next episode to come out, though.
Take the One Piece Character Quiz!
current mood: content, yet a bit exhausted.
current music: We Are! - Kitadani Hiroshi
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| Wednesday, December 12th, 2007
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10:59 am
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T-minus several dozen hours, and then I'll be up in the air, flying over the sea and burrowing under my airline blanket in search of rest. I'm not ready for air travel. I'm not packed. My ear itches. Gosh, all these woes don't become me! I'll leave school around 3:00 today, so that I can do all my last minute bits of work. I've got class at Toyoshima elementary tomorrow morning and Toyohama JHS tomorrow afternoon. It'll be a Christmas extravaganza. I hope everyone likes their little trinkets. Goodwill and peace towards youths on the islands, and all that rot. ^__^
I should be organizing the little goody bags for Yutaka JHS while I have a minute. But I decided to dust off my iJournal application and type up a quick one. There'll be plenty of time to finally organize my thoughts on past occurrences on the plane and while I'm waiting for transfers, but I have a feeling I'll never get to update anyone on my life unless someone stands over me in a threatening manner and demands I write something informative. My apologies, world of warcraft. ^^;
current mood:  pensive
current music: Can't be Stopped-Crystal Kay-4REAL
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| Sunday, November 11th, 2007
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11:04 pm - ...and her name was Alma.
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Alma. Yeah, I've been chewing on the name all week, and I think it fits. I wanted my little car to have a name that described her, since she's got spirit. And she's a Honda Life. So "Alma" kinda stuck in my head.
She seems to approve--meaning that I don't think she's rejected the new name or me, the new driver.
Mmm...I've had a couple of very nice culture festivals since I last posted. The Toyohama JHS Bunkasai was Saturday, October 26 and Yutaka's culture festival was earlier today, Sunday. I played taiko with two teachers and four students at Toyohama's bunkasai, and hit the bongos and chimes for a Simon and Garfunkle medley. Didn't do anything musically at Yutaka's culture festival except sing a couple songs with the teachers. I liked how both the festivals were different. I think it kind of reflected what the students and teachers were like at both schools.
Yesterday, I also suffered through a common form of Japanese torture, also referred to as the Kure City Junior High School English Recitation Contest. I was a judge with two other Kure JETs, Rob and Vicki (I'm sure you all remember Vicki...Or not. ^_^; Well, anyway, she was one of my esteemed visitors to the island.) and our not-so-esteemed supervisor, Mr. Sakata. Judging was haphazard and based on each person's own opinion. There was no scale that we were supposed to use to assign points for each student's prowess in the broad areas of "Voice, Memorization, Manner, Pronunciation, and Intonation/Stress." We listened to nearly sixty speeches from seventh, eighth, and ninth grade students. They way I learned how to judge each student was very similar to the way I learned to "teach" on the JET Program: the first students we heard were graded on a learning curve. I think I got better at judging as I went along, but i would have been waaaaaay easier (and way more fair) if stupid Mr. Sakaa had done like he was supposed to and held a "judges' meeting." I mean, the guy does this each freaking year. I'm pretty sure he could have given us tips on what to look for in shining students. That would have helped even out the haphazard way we were judging the poor students. I admit that I often cheated off Rob's paper in the first ten--okay, the first twenty--or so contestants.
In the end, the winning students weren't exactly the best speakers. They had a combination of good prounciation, intonation, and some form of stage presence--uh, manner. There were dozens of kids peeling the lines off the ceiling as they recited, and there were others who looked everywhere but at the judges/audience while they were on stage. Ultimately, I'm sure the judges began awarding points to anyone who made an effort to make gestures (though they're supposed to be "frowned upon") and liven up their otherwise dull textbook recitations. But if the poor students had been informed on what they would be graded on before the contest instead of after, I'm pretty sure there would have been more kdis trying. So shame on Mr. Sakata for that in addition to many other things.
I was also forcibly asked (the Japanese Way, at least for Mr. Sakata) the morning of the contest Saturday to make a speech during the closing ceremony at the end of the day. It would have been one of the three of us JET judges anyway, and apparently I had the least scary face when I heard the not-surprising-but-still-fairly-annoying news. Vicki phrased it very diplomatically when she said, "It's very difficult to ask us to give a speech the day of the competition. You knew a long time ago that someone would have to do it." Or something like that.
It just makes you wonder what the hell is going through Mr. Sakata's mind most of the time. Even if he hadn't told us this weeks ago, say, around the time that he was soliciting judges for the contest, just a day's notice would have been enough for most people to think up some short words of praise to say without feeling too much pressure. Not having the decency to let us know about this Added Judge Bonus! just shows what little respect he has for the JETs. I'm sure he wouldn't have gotten away with doing some sh--doing something like that with his J-pals from the office. Gosh, he's such a turd.
Anyway, I gave the speech, working on it off-and-on in the thirty-five minutes total of break that we had throughout the day, not counting lunch. Of course, around lunch time, Mr. Sakata kindly informed me that nope, there wouldn't be a translator like there had been last year for the other young man who gave his (most likely impromptu) speech at the end. I managed to get a mix of sarcastic English for the ALTs and the Japanese teachers who recognized sarcasm and mock-reverent Japanese for everyone who didn't. It appeared to work out all right. I came off as "cuuuute" according to one of my girls who came to cheer our other students on. I was happy to see bright, happy faces from the kids at the end of the competition when I invaded strangers' personal bubbles and congratulated them on a job well done. I really like making people happy. It's such an awesome high.
Oops. I let this entry sit too long. I've lost the will to write more. Off it goes into blurty cyberspace!
current mood: a little itchy
current music: Ultimate Secrets-Toshiro Masuda-Naruto Orginal Soundtrack III
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| Saturday, October 20th, 2007
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9:26 pm - It's a girl!
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Here she is...My little '97 Honda Life.
She's a sweet little car. I think she's a really happy car, and that she had a good owner before me. No name yet, but I still dig her quite a bit.
Anyway, now I that I have wheels, I feel a lot freer somehow. No more relying on the bus to get me home on Toyohama/Toyoshima days. All four months of dusty driving experience are being put to the test!
Had a pleasant visit with two Kure JETs who started the program when I did. Their names are Beth and Vicky, and they come from Australia and Ireland, respectively. About three weeks ago, Vicky emailed me and asked if she and Beth could come for a visit one weekend. I was so flattered that they wanted to see me and see where I lived. We actually haven't had a meeting with all the BOE JETs since the beginning of August, so I hadn't actually seen any of the Kure kids for a while. So Vicky and Beth came to see me instead. ^__^
From the crappy bus trip and ferry riding and such, they began to understand the appeal of just staying where I was most of the time. ^^; They came home with me after a conference on Friday, and I drove them around my stomping grounds without managing to physically damage any of us. We even went the extra four minutes over one of the (many) bridges connecting my island to its brothers and sisters, and checked out the view from nearby Ehime-ken in Shikoku. It was nice to have guests. It was nice to cook for more than one person and watch Sixteen Candles together.
current mood:  good
current music: High School Musical tracks
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| Saturday, August 25th, 2007
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8:29 pm - Music is nice.
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The jazz event was great. It was at a temple on a nearby island, a place called Okamoto, I think. Regardless, it was in Shikoku. I'm just that close to the next island. I'm just that far out in the water.
I slept an hour and a half or so before the performance, and didn't eat before leaving, but I shall eat now. I shall. Lately, my stomach's been rolling a lot, regardless of whether it's hungry or not. I thought it might be food poisoning, but I've tried the suspected foods (granola cereal and milk) on several separate occasions since I first felt heard my innards talking a few days ago, and haven't had a "I've been poisoned!" biological response. So I figure it must be something else. I'll try to drink this cleansing tea my mom sends over before bed so that it can have time to do its stuff all Sunday. Woo hoo. Good times with the self analysis.
Anyway, the jazz concert. Very nice. We had the requisite piano, bass and drum, as well as an alto sax, bass sax (?), and trumpet. We learned a little about all the mutes available for trumpet players. I'd completely forgot about mutes (and what they were called). It was cool. Also got a mini jazz history lesson in Japanese by the leader. His name is Takeshi Inomata, and he played the drums. He's probably in his sixties, but he's still got it. It's nice when you see the players having fun and enjoying themselves as they perform. It's like the feeling is transmuted through the music and reaches the listener, making them enjoy the performance even more. I don't usually listen to jazz, but I really got into the performance tonight. It brought back to memory my year in the jazz band, and my guitar lessons at Howard Vance Guitar Academy in Memphis with my long-haired teacher David. I wasn't a very diligent student, but I enjoyed learning. I also liked working within the "box" of the scale/chord/I forget the right terminology and doing improvisations, even though I couldn't quite let myself loose enough to just let the music flow. Fault of my classical training on the violin, maybe. We don't really have improv opportunities, and I think that spilled into my guitar lessons and hindered me. Now that I'm older, it would be nice to give improving another chance (on some kind of instrument), but I'll save that for another day. Music is great, though. I like both playing music and singing it. If I'm having to do it in front of others, I'd choose playing in a ensemble/solo over singing, though. That's what I have karaoke for: singing and getting my vocal kicks that way. Once I joined the taiko group, I realized that music was ingrained in me somehow, and I'm so glad that I've got that outlet at my disposal here in Japan.
Bah. What am I saying? Darn it. I always jumble my thoughts. But you guys don't mind too much, do you?
current mood:  cranky
current music: Shimatani Hitomi - last shooting star
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11:19 am - Marty McFly and the Truck of Manure
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Man. Back to the Future is sheer gold. I watched the first two yesterday, and woke up to complete the trilogy this morning. I'm halfway finished (Mag Dog Tannen has just challenged Clint Eastwood to a duel), and I'm really enjoying it. I never noticed that the girlfriend, Jennifer, changed from the first to second movie. I thought that they had Lea Thompson playing both mother and girlfriend to the 1985 Marty. But it was just some other chick named Elisabeth Shue. I don't think she's the same as the first girl, though. Not as cute. Or if she is the same, she sure aged in the four-year gap between Part I and Part II.
Mmm...yes! I just finished talking with Alicia!! She's back in Murray and doing good. Going for a M.S. degree in Mass Communications. I have no idea what that is. Her boyfriend Masimba is still working in Reno (that's where they were this summer while Alicia figured out what to do with her schooling). I think the hotel (??) is paying for Alicia to go back to school. Either that, or Murray awarded her a scholarship. Regardless, she has a seemingly financially worry-free school life ahead of her for a while. Yatta!!!
It might not work out that we'll get to see each other this winter. She'll be going back home to Trinidad and Tobago to renew her visa around the 15th of December or so. That'll probably be about the time that I'm landing in Memphis (after a whopping twenty hours of travel, surely). So, I guess I'll just make sure I ring her while I'm in Memphis. I should really send pictures of myself or something to put a face to the pen, if you will. Just lazy, everybody! I'm a bit overheated and stuff thanks to the summer heat, but I'm really all right. I promise.
Quick and Easy Music Rant:
Man, I really like Japanese pop music, but I can't respect Bad English. So even if it's a song that I want to sing at karaoke, I'll either have to think of better English lyrics during those parts, or just not sing the song at all. Shimatani Hitomi screws up English a bit. BoA does, too, but she's gotten much better. And I hate it when people talk in the middle of songs. I don't know what that's called. It's not ad libbing because that's more like the thing adult Simba did at the end of "Hakuna Matata." Can you hear the tune in your head? I can.
Anyway, I've decided to call it blathering. It really takes me out of the song, and lowers my respect for that artist. If you're going to talk, make it an "interlude" and leave the actual song out of it. That way, I can delete that track without remorse. As far as I know, Hikki has never talked through the intro, middle, or ending bars of a song, and recorded it on the CD, incorporating it as part of the lyrics. I don't think Angela Aki has, either. And I really appreciate that. AI (a new favorite of mine, as of last November), has interludes, and I happily de-select those from my playlist. Hmph. I guess it's just a pet peeve of mine.
End Quick and Easy Music Rant
Yoshi, okay. I think I had something to say...Shoot, I lost it. Oh! Got it. I was going to mention that school officially starts back on Monday, September 3. I'm not looking forward to going back to the daily grind. I'm a bit apprehensive about working with this new four-school schedule (I've got Vanessa's schools as well as my own two), but I'll make it, I'm sure. Just take a couple of weeks to adjust. I've got to figure out what kind of introduction I'll do for Toyohama JHS and Toyoshima Elementary. Soooo lazy! I've done nothing. Just read ridiculously short, trashy novels, one-shot manga, and watched episodes of Hanazakari no Kimitachi e. Well, I've been watching Naruto: Shippuden, too. Can't forget that. But it's not been anything like preparing for class, that's for sure. Next Friday, there's an induction ceremony for the new JET contract year at the BOE in Kure. I think I have to be there early, but the damn trip takes quite a long time to complete. For meetings, I usually get there at 9:15, and they start at 9:30. I think this meeting starts at 9:00am this time. I might have to go in overnight and stay with someone in Kure. Or I'll have to get up ridiculously early for a seemingly meaningless mission. I'd better check the schedule. Later, later.
Going to some kind of ¥2,000 jazz concert on a nearby island this evening. I hope it's worth it. Haven't heard much jazz, but I'll see how I feel when the evening's over.
Anyway, my phone convo with Alicia is over, and now it's time to get back into what's happening with Marty and Doc. Farewell!
current mood:  cheerful
current music: Shimatani Hitomi - thinking of you
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| Friday, August 17th, 2007
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10:03 pm - Random dip into surreality.
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Big news, everyone!
My dear, dear friend, the Karaoke Oniisan, is back! "What?" you say. "But I didn't even know he went anywhere!" Since the last (and only other) time I talked about him, I hadn't seen him at the Karaoke Kan for the last five months or so. But I saw him yesterday (Thursday) when I happened to go into Karaoke Kan for a two-and-a-half hour solo singing spree. I had just been thinking on the way there how karaoke just wasn't as fun without the Karaoke Oniisan there to smile at me and greet me. I really missed him every time I didn't see him on trips to the Karaoke Kan. It was like with my friend there, I could sing happily, knowing that there was a nice person working hard on the other side of the door.
Anyway, I hadn't seen him since February. I had to come to grips with the fact that he'd probably stopped working there since I didn't see him the next five times I went over the series of a few weeks. My sister Sayuri assumed that he'd quit. ;_; But he was there today and I was so happy!! I couldn't stop grinning. He looked good. And happy. Maybe his face was a little thinner than I remembered, but his voice was the same. And he remembered me! When I finished my session, he checked me out at the register. That would have been the opportune time to say some of the things that had been going through my head since I first saw him again: like, "Where have you been?" and "I missed you!" and "I'm glad I got to see you today. You look good." But I shamefully said nothing. Even our conversation was limited to the standard customer/employee fare: "Wait just a little longer, please."/"Please come again." But I felt like those words had some kind of hidden meaning. I know my responses of "Yes" and "Thank you" sure did. Dang it! I chastised myself as I left the building and headed back to my host family's. I'm gonna try and go again on Saturday to see if he's there again, and if he is, I'm gonna ask him where he was and how he's doing. Maybe I should even ask him for his name. I think I want to be his friend. Karaoke no Oniisan makes me too happy not to want to talk to him about subjects other than business.
All right. I'm off to shower and get ready for bed. My host mom and dad are watching Independence Day, and I'm trying to get in my PJs before Will kicks the first alien's ass. (Oops. I lost.) Ta-ta!
Saturday update: I went back to Karaoke Kan like I promised myself I would before I go back home on Sunday, and he wasn't there. :( (Needless to say, I did not sing my best. lol) But I tried to describe him to one of the workers ("A boy about yea-high, with somewhat neck-length hair who's always smiling; he's been here since it first opened last November."), and she thinks that he might be "Hayashi-san", who usually works on Wednesdays and Thursdays. She asked could I come in on a Wednesday or a Thursday, but I said I couldn't since I lived far off in Kure's boonies. But I'll try to come back on a Wednesday or Thursday when we get off on one of those days. I think the next time will be for Thanksgiving in November. I'm just glad that he still works there. It must have been because I always went to karaoke on the weekends. That's how I kept missing him.
But he lives! And life is good.
current mood:  sleepy
current music: Sounds of alien weaponry and "Jimmy, nooooooooo!"
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7:49 pm - Again with the orientation.
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All right. These are some thoughts about this year's prefectural orientation that I wrote down in a moment of idleness. I will expound on these rough sketches as I type.
Really wasn't feeling the three-day orientation in Hiroshima this week. For the first time, I went to the ￥3,500 all-you-can-eat/drink (ha!!) event featuring the new people. I only met a couple of new people I actually wanted to talk to, and I re-met a bunch of second- and third-years from last year. The enkai (as these types of events are called) was not worth the price paid, but I doubt they ever truly are when foreigners are eating. They put out a few pieces of chicken, some fries, and some cheesecake. And there was a small all-you-can-eat salad bar. Luckily my stomach is relatively small and is easily filled up with salad. The bar people were noticeably overwhelmed by our Western appetitites, but learned to ignore the cries for more chicken wings and cake. They also started ignoring group drink orders. People were encouraged to come up and order their own beverage, which is understandable somewhat.
Mmm...yes. There was this one young woman named Carla at the orientation (she hails from Jamaica) who latched onto me this week, and I had to be a mom, translator/interpreter, and guide in my spare time. (Yes, me, who sickeningly easily finds herself turned around and lost even in a department store or mall--and especially on the mean streets of Hiroshima.) I don't like being a translator/interpreter, especially not for ungrateful people. And a word to the wise for poeple traveling to/planning to live in a country where you don't know the native language: gestures and facial expressions (and pictures) accompanied with some kind of words goes a long way on the road to communication. Even if you don't know the word for "water" or how to say "Water, please", in the target language, don't just point to your glass and look expectantly at your waitress. That is rude. If you must point, ask for what you want in your native language in accompaniment to your gestures, for goodness' sake. Otherwise, I will begin to loathe you and your demanding personality. Tone of voice also plays a role in effectively communicating with gestures and speech. Just be a pal, and try, okay?
Anyway...anyway...I was kinda peeved to have the leisurely night I'd planned on turning into show-Carla-around-and-cater-to-her-selfish-foreigner-whims type evening. Okay, that was unfair. But I'm a complainer, and I can't fight it. My final opinion on the orientation incarnation of Carla was that she was a bit stuck on herself and suffering from acute homesickness. She hasn't even had a chance to really suffer from culture shock because she's still wrapped in the Gaijin Bubble, and won't be forcibly released from it until school starts. (And what the hell? She has a sister who's been doing the JET program for a year already somewhere else here in Japan, so it's not like she doesn't have family on the same side of the world. But she doesn't seem to want to work with what she has/ask her supervisor to help her get stuff she wants for her place. I just don't understand.) Okay, back to the Gaijin Bubble again. Hanging out with just English-speakers is not the way to go in a country like this--especially when you'll eventually have to leave that foreigner bubble and go back to the real world, where you may be the only one out of a thousand people in your whole town who looks like you. It's like living in a dream world, a place that's only going to make you more homesick and negative when you wake up because you're not trying to adjust to your new situation.
I really wish that Carla would have tried meeting people who were not black and trying to get to know them. Maybe she did at Tokyo Orientation. If she's smart, she'll try to find some friends at the mandatory newbie language seminar next week in Saijyo, Hiroshima.
Having someone attached at my hip like that made me feel weird at the orientation. Other black people unerringly gravitated towards us when sitting or standing, and it was a bit annoying. Most of them seem to be tools. Must be something about most of those boys who come from Caribbean islands that make them into asses. It's not just the accent that makes them seem that way. Becoming a blob of black guys and gals made me feel more conspiciuous than I usually do alone in a band of J-people. Keeping to a cluster of five black people whom I really wasn't interested in (there was one guy I already knew and liked, one guy I knew and didn't like) didn't give me a good feeling of togetherness. It made it seem as if we were wary of making friends outside our own race, and I was uncomfortable with being a part of that message. Yes. That's exactly how it felt. I have some kind of hang up about associating with people of the same color all the time (stemming from relationships in high school and at university, where cliques and bitchiness abounded), just because we share the same ethnic heritage. I like to hang out with people I like, not just people who happen to resemble me physically.
Blah. Enough complaining. Back to the actual orientation. Though everything wasn't interesting. I felt that the JETs who worked on it were great. I know they heard some second and third years complaining about how "useless" some of the presentations were for them, but hopefully those hardworking JETs realized that these people were ignorant. It's obvious that these orientations are for the new people, and that us old salts are only there to explain stuff more thoroughly/answer area-related questions. Maybe those complaining JETs have since realized this. I only realized it this morning, two days after the orientation ended, so who knows if anyone else already has.
Okay, I've had enough of this disjointed topic, and shall now close with a spirited period.
current mood:  full
current music: It was news on the radio. Now, it's the fan.
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| Friday, July 6th, 2007
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9:52 am - My life on the island. Part XXXIV
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You know, I didn't think I'd be updating my blurty for a few more months at least, but the whim has come upon me. I don't even remember what I last wrote about. Probably New Years and not knowing if I wanted to stay at my school with my teacher. But soon after that time (before the recontracting deadline in early February), I weighed the pros and cons of transferring to the city (where I would have been in line for a senior high school once the guy who was there made up his mind about leaving or not) and staying where I was on the island. The goods of staying more than outweighed the bads. Let me try to remember and further elaborate.
Pros of Staying
- Nice townspeople
- Exercise every day by riding my bike to and from school
- Already know the kids and they know me
- Cheap rent
- Eikaiwa (English Conversation Class)
- Less temptation to spend money--save for groceries and internet shopping
- Kyuushoku (school lunch)
- Taiko (drum group)
- Close but not too close to my host family in Hiroshima City
- Can ignore the BOE and talk directly with my schools about switching dates and such
Cons of Staying
- My teacher and her lackadaisical approach to teaching
- Easier for Mr. Sakata to brush off my comments since I can't come into the BOE and see him during the week like other JETs can
- ???
Pros of Leaving
- Can wear skirts to work if I want since I'd probably be taking the bus
- Possibly more control of lesson in classroom
- Closer to my host family
- Possibility of better English teachers to work with
- Easier to travel places on the mainland
Cons of Leaving
- No kyuushoku
- Have to learn everyone's names all over again
- More kids to deal with
- More rules and protocol to follow
- Won't see my kids anymore
- No bonds with neighbors/townspeople
- Less motivation to exercise
- More temptation to eat out and spend, spend, spend
- Higher rent (but still reasonable, probably)
- Have to find another taiko group to join
- No more elementary school visits as a SHS JET (probably)
- Have to see more of Sakata-sensei even if I don't want to
Anyway, to make a long story even longer, I decided to stay. I gave my supervisor Mr. Sakata the ultimatum that I'd only transfer schools if I got to have the SHS. (That JET was still wishy washy about whether he wanted to stay another year--he finally decided near the middle of June--a good five months after he was supposed to let Mr. Sakata and the BOE know. Needless to say, I declined stepping up to the position. I'd already told every on the island who'd asked that I was staying. I'd already told my kids. It was just too late, and I wasn't all the gung-ho about leaving to just leave anymore.) And it's not like I wanted to leave my school or island because I didn't like them. I just didn't like how lazy and unmotivated my teacher was. Other Kure JETs assumed that it was inconvenient on the island, and while that may be true to an extent, I like the peacefulness and relative safety of this place. Hiroshima is probably as big a city as I'd like to visit. I once went to Osaka for eight hours with my friend Vanessa to see a traditional puppet show called bunraku, but in the little time that I was there, I got a bad headache. I think it was from the pollution. lol So, I'm really glad that I don't live in a place like that. And the big cities are soo dirty. Nothing like the green of the islands. Sure, there are fewer young people to interact with, but maybe that's for the best for now. I'm safe from most advances, save for the drunken Ojiisan
Today, my BOE supervisor is coming to watch a class at my JHS. Good to see him keep his promise to come and see a class ten months after I first asked him. Ugh. I used to be more passionate about this job and helping the students and wanting everyone to be here for the kids and not for the paycheck...but I've since been educated by society. I'm sure it's the same everywhere, though I have no real experience working outside of MSU. ::sigh:: When I get back from Japan, I'll have to enter a dirty work world like the one I'm in, without the cushioning touch of the JET Program. I'm dreading it. I don't know what I want to do with my life after JET. I know I'll need more education if I'm going to do something with this Professional Writing/Document Design bit.
Blah. What was I saying? I don't really remember. I'll just stop here.
current mood:  cold
current music: Teachers' chatter. Chatter, chatter, chatter.
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| Saturday, January 6th, 2007
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11:10 am - The magic is over...
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Okay. Yes, I still have all ten fingers. I just don't really write anything that's not an email anymore. >_< But since Lilly was wonderful enough to write about her holiday, I felt inspired to do the same. So...here goes!
I feel like I've been off from school for three weeks, but it's really only been two. On the 19th of December, I skived off the monthly meeting at the Kure BOE to spend most of the day in Hondori, the main shopping district in Hiroshima. I got all kinds of gifts for everyone that I have yet to send, and I bought a sweater or two (I go a little crazy when I locate a shirt that's both not crap and that'll actually fit a human my humongous size...it's just so rare here. So rare. ^^). I also spent an hour and a half at my new favorite haunt in Hiroshima, a wonderful place called the Karaoke Kan (Or the "Karaoke Place/Room/Whatever." Ooohhh.)
So, yeah. Since they opened at the very end of November, I've had a really good relationship with the employees there. I talked to them (usually just this one guy--he's on the street when they had to stand out in the cold and advertise their business and pass out coupons and stuff. And before that I bust into the place to sign up for a card, even though I had no intention of renting a room at that moment. Karaoke Kan is a good place because it's conveniently located across from the train station, and I can have my fix (around 40 yen for half an hour--wha-id??!), then walk across the street and catch the bus home. It's really great.
So when I went to my haunt on that Tuesday, I wanted to know if there would be a Christmas special or if they would be closed or what, but all I said was, "What should I do on Christmas Day?" And my friend, whom I call the Karaoke Oniisan, was like, "Please come." And so I felt compelled to come again on Christmas Day, and it was good. I bought a couple of gift-wrapped food boxes (gosh, what do you call those things?), and gave them to the guy working the front desk. I hadn't ever seen him before, so I think he was really surprised to get anything from a customer, let alone me. I told him that it was for everyone and that they should eat it during their break time, as I'd rehearsed with my host mom. ^^ My friend came to work about an hour after I'd been there, and he checked me out when my time was up. He said that he was really happy for the Christmas present. I was glad to make him smile. But he always seems to be smiling, so whatever!!
Mmm...Yeah. I actually came to my host family's on Saturday the 22nd, I think. They all opened their presents on Christmas Eve, which I found a bit upsetting. I didn't get anyone but Asumi anything. I'd planned on getting stuff for Kazuma and Sayuri (and even asked them what they wanted), but my host mom wanted me to act as big sister and give the sibs a traditional New Year's gift: cold, hard cash. Which I did gladly. And they were happy. But I received now hugs. ::sob:: Maybe Sayuri hugged me after that, but it wasn't for the toshi-dama I gave. Needless to say, I felt bereft. ~_~
I've lost my train of thought. It's taken me three days to eke this out. Mmm...I'm preparing for this nice taiko recital (if you will) at the culture festival for my island on my birthday, February 10. Performance!! That's the word I was looking for. We're performing. Yes. Just three songs. That's all we know. We're working hard, though. Hopefully, some kind soul will take pictures for me. I'll even wear my contacts so people can see my face.
Anyway, we had practice yesterday (Monday, the 8th), and we all sucked ass from not practicing for twenty or so days. It wasn't horrible, though. We're getting back into the groove, though. Got just one more month to go before the big day.
Oh! Back to my holiday. I went to a pilates/cardio hip-hop class at the YMCA about three times with my host mom and Sayuri over break. It was rather invigorating. I felt like I could dance, thanks to Kihara-sensei, who has us shaking our thangs in to the beats of nice R&B jams from my childhood. I felt happy to know the songs. I also felt a lot of pain from exercising unused muscles. Hopefully, I can keep some kind of exercise going now that I'm back in my cement apartment and am responsible for my own welfare.
...And I'm back from another pause in my writing. I've wasted too much time emailing my friend Vanessa about our supervisor and possibly transferring and junk. Now I've gotta go wash my hair and get into bed by ten so that I can read for an hour and go to sleep at eleven (meaning eleven-thirty). Yaaay!
I'm out for now, but I've got more to say. One day!!
current mood:  productive
current music: GO!!! - FLOW (old school Naruto...yes)
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| Thursday, December 21st, 2006
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9:37 pm - A thousand words
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Is that you, Jerry? Nooo. Is he your future? Possibly.
I love this photo. I found it last month when I was looking up mountains of all things. I don't know you, Dr. Tateyama, but you remind me of Jerry, and I bless you for it. You make me smile.
Here's a picture of Assata from her school Christmas pictures. I'm told that she resembles me.
So...The semester is at a close. Tomorrow's the last day before winter break. I am looking forward to sitting on my tuffet and sleeping. I wanted to play games all holiday long, but I promised my host brother that I wouldn't do anything to jeapordize his mother's sanity this month before his college entrance exams. She's going a bit ballistic with Kazuma's relaxed stance on studying. They're reading graphs and charts in his English class and answering questions from passages. Even I would lose focus with crap like that. Don't know about his other classes, but if he struggles in English, no one in the house will probably forgive him. I wonder how Asumi will fare when she gets into junior high. I told her that I'd tutor her whenever she needed it for English. I think I might be more effective on a one-on-one basis anyway when it comes to English. I think everyone needs a little individual attention sometimes when it comes to language learning.
Mmm...even though it was hardly worth my time, I made it through. I've got a lot of cashed knocked off my scary credit card, and I have yet to use it again since I finally purchased my computer. It's such a crappy deal now that I'm out of school and out of the country that I hope that I don't have to swipe it any time in the future. I'll probably pack a bag and go into my host family tomorrow after school. I should pack the bag tonight, but that would indicate that I was planning ahead, and I'm lazy enough not to want to go to the trouble. Maybe I'll at least get my pajamas ready. ::yawn::
I can't hit the sack yet until I stuff some bags with candy canes for the elementary kids, but the bed is calling me. Like Doug's song, "Bangin' on a Trash Can", which goes, "One little voice is calling me, calling me. One little voice is calling meeeee." And then it goes into the "bangin' on a trash can" chorus. And he plays his bango. And I'm really sleepy.
current mood: sleepy
current music: Heater pawaaaaa!
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| Saturday, November 4th, 2006
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2:12 pm - That was Halloween.
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My Halloween over here went pretty well. For the last few weeks, I've had my elementary kids working on Halloween colorings, mask-making, and even Halloween card writing for one class. Anything to help them practice their English speaking and/or writing. Last Friday and this Tuesday, I got the Halloween goody bags/cups together for my kids that my mom had kindly sent over. It took a while to divide the candy up into 57+ bags and put pencils and coloring books hither and thither, but it worked out. On Halloween day, I had all the kids in the gym during fifth period where they played a few games. I wasn't confident about explaining the games to everyone in Japanese, so I left it to this one elem secretary (Mrs. Shimoji). The secretary I really dig (who's in her thirties), Ms. Kunizane, was over at the middle school all day having a secretaries' meeting, so I didn't have her support. She and I kind of had the same vision for some of the games when we discussed them during the day last Friday. But Mrs. Shimoji (she's like in her fifties or sixties and considered to be the school nag--at least from the kids' reactions to her during mandatory school cleaning time) was all for shortening this one game I had (Pin the Face on the Pumpkin), and of the six groups of mixed grades that we had, only one kid from each group got to be blindfolded and guided by a helper to make their Jack o lantern face by feel. The other kids just sat there. I thought that sucked. If they had been sitting closer (and not on the other side of the gym), I could see it being more of a team effort. It was just kind of sad. So I was disappointed about that.
But the other two games didn't have too much interference from Mrs. Shimoji: one was a bowling game (I looked for orange balls a couple of days before the event at the dollar store, but they were nowhere to be found. >_< Maybe next year.) The kids got into the relay race aspect. No points were awarded (I don't think). People just raised their hands if they hit the (one) pin and how many times they did it. The other game was a spider relay race, and the teams were split in half and sent to either end of the gym. The kids had to go across the floor with all four appendages touching the ground. That was hilarious. It was tiresome, though. Dang, I'm glad that I didn't have to do it. lol
Mmm...after that, I gave out the Halloween presents, and had another secretary call out the students' names (I'd made little bats out of construction paper and wrote everyone's names on them. The teachers got bigger bats.) and came up for their gifts. I did pretty good. I only missed putting candy in one bag. >_< But I hooked her up as soon as the kids came and told me.
That night, I had little bags of candy ready for the middle schoolers who came to my place. I'd told them last September that if they came to my apartment on Halloween, I would give them candy. (I gave a bit spur of the moment Halloween presentation in front of the whole school--it was supposed to just be for the eighth grade class because their textbook lesson was about Halloween--but I was encouraged to do it at the whole-school monthly meeting thing they do.)
The only thing I regret is not bringiing up Halloween earlier at the elementary school. If I had, the kids could have had time to actually get costumes (some places in the city sell Halloween crap even here). Then we could have had a real Halloween party. Maybe next year, I'll try to do a haunted house. Maybe the middle schoolers could set it up. Or maybe I'll just do it at the elementary school. We'll see. Maybe I'll feel more inclined to throw on a costume. ~_~
Mmm...I guess that's about it for what happened on my Halloween. Oh! Yesterday, we had a culture festival at the middle school, and a whole bunch of the moms that came today came up to tell me thank you for Halloween. One lady was like, "I'm Hitomi's mom!" She was cute. When the middle schoolers came to my place on Tuesday, the last group of kids to arrive was a gaggle of girls and one guy, and they wanted to come inside (lucky I'd figured that someone would want to and stashed most of my papers and crap in the other room, making the kitchen look relatively neat. They ate the cookies some teacher had brought all the other faculty as souvenirs, which was fine witih me since I didn't want all that sugar in my place. I'd planned on leaving it at my host family's, but having it eaten in the space of two minutes was just as good.
Arthur also came to my humble abode. Arthur is this guy who was the ALT here five years ago (when Yutaka-machi was under another city's Board of Education--a lot of things were different under that BOE, it looks like. Or maybe the teacher was just better. They move the teachers around every five years or in case they get too "comfortable" in their jobs. Doesn't really let anyone work near their family if they're moved to another school every few years, though.) Anyway, Arthur's here to visit the town. Good for him. He's been here a couple of weeks already. I think he leaves on Tuesday. He brought some candy bars (he'd heard from the kids at the middle school about my Halloween promise and tagged along with the last batch of girls) and when everyone went on home we talked about how to work around crappy teachers and make suggestions about what to include in class/for homework. He's cool. He works in Chicago at some place that became part of the Homeland Security when they decided to make that or whatever. I just know that he works in security-ish stuff. I keeping hearing "border patrol" in my head, but surely that's wrong. I don't know. Arthur's 37 now. The only teacher that's still at the school from his time is Era-sensei, who's a cool guy. I promise, he speaks more English to me than Mrs. Sakimori, my English teacher, does. Ugh.
Well, I guess that's enough for now. Friday was actually a holiday, but since we worked and came to school for the festival today, we get Monday off. I'm gonna take that time to go into Hiroshima and get my Re-entry Permit. The office (wherever it is, I forget) is closed on weekends, and it closes at 6:00 on weekdays. So it's a bitch. If I don't have the permit, and I have to leave Japan for a family emergency, say, next week, I won't be able to get back into the country for another three months or some crap like that. So now that I have the chance (a free weekday that's not a national holiday), I want to take my $60 and get it. The $60 permit lets you come and go out of the country as many times as you want until your visa expires. Sounds good to me(and more economical than the one-time only $30 permit).
Yes. Halloween. Excuse the rampant typos and bad command of grammar. See what JET is doing to me? You see?
current mood: sleepy
current music: A bird just cawed outside my host family's house. Yes.
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| Thursday, November 2nd, 2006
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1:32 am - ...
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I stumbled across this in a Google search for "furikomi" (wire transfers) and "how long." That's all I can say. For now.
I thought that being a male on JET took care of this. Maybe I was wrong...
current mood: sleepy
current music: My cell just beeped. So...a beep?
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| Tuesday, October 24th, 2006
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2:37 pm - Atlantica
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Mellow greetings, everyone! 'Tis the season to be sleepy. And spooky? Yes, sure.
Before I forget any more than I have, let me talk a little about my school life. I go to my junior high (Yutaka-machi Chuugakkou) thrice a week, and my wonderful elementary school twice a week. ES is every Tuesday and Friday, and I'm across the way at the JHS on Monday, Wednesdays and Thursdays. Up until recently, I really didn't care all that much for my JHS. Why, you ask? Well, because my English powers are not really being utilized. I like (most of) the kids, though. ^^ Never been around so many boys in my life, let me tell you.
At my middle school/junior high/whatever you deem it, I've got ten kids in seventh grade, thirteen in eighth, and sixteen in ninth. Ninth grade also has the most staggering amount of boys. I am often overwhelmed by their Y chromosomes and tendency to sleep in class. I like my first years (seventh graders) the most. They're cute, not too "cool" to smile at me when I greet them, and most are shorter than me. I love that. That's probably what makes me feel off-kilter when it comes to the third years: they're too darn tall! I can't really reach up and put them in headlocks like I can with the first years and elementary kids. That has to be the problem.
Mmm...the eighth graders/second years. The girls are cool. The four boys...well, one out of the four really is a tool, and a couple of the others go along with him. His name is Tetsushi, and he is selfish and not a hard worker. He has a twin sister, Takumi, who is also not so good at English. But at least she's a girl.
Speaking of girls, there's really only one girl who I think just sucks completely. Her name is Rika Tanaka, and she is in the third year. She really needs to go back to the first year of English learning if she ever wants to progress in the subject (which she totally doesn't want to do). Can't read, can't speak, can't listen/understand...All she does is laugh this high pitched, derisive, psychotic (?) laugh. It's not just English. She has a bad attitude in most of the classes I've seen her in. She can't understand katakana English, let alone a native speaker's voice. We're supposed to call on people every day in class and ask them questions about their lives/their day. I have yet to get around to her. It's because I know that she won't be able to answer, and I refuse to translate every question I ask/sentence I say, unlike my Japanese Teacher of English (JTE).
Speaking of Mrs. Sakimori...yes, she is a terrible teacher. But at least she's not a terrible person. She doesn't know how to team-teach. (Perhaps this is because she didn't show up to the team-teaching orientation the year that Brandon came. Perhaps it's because she doesn't want to team teach, and therefore refuses to learn.) I don't even know how to team teach. I only know the theory, since I've never done it before. Classes with Mrs. Sakimori are more often than not dull and boring. I am more of a writer of workbook answers on the board than a helper of our little angels. I've spoken with my supervisor about this each time I've come into Kure for our once-a-month meetings (so, just twice really), and he has yet to do anything about it. At least now he knows that she's not using the book she's supposed to for the eighth and ninth graders. This could harm them during test time when they try for the high schools of their dreams. Yes, it could. Maybe Mr. Sakata will do something about her teaching methods now. I'm supposed to send him a list of a typical class with her. She hasn't even been at the school two years yet.
I can only assume that she didn't work with a JET at her previous school, wherever that was. They move teachers around every five or six years around here. That's quite sad. And she has two little kids. She's about forty minutes away from our island by speed boat/ferry, and she leaves every morning around six for the boat. She gets back around seven, then she cooks dinner, helps her kids with their homework and baths, and puts them to bed. Wow. Just wow.
Alternately, I feel both sympathy and consternation with Mrs. Sakimori. I feel that she doesn't make class interesting enough for the students (or let me make class interesting enough for the students). They're not retaining anything. I deliberately use words that they studied the chapter before in example sentences and they're all, "Eh? What do XXX mean?" That makes me want to grrr sometimes, it really does.
Mmm...So, I don't really get a chance to help the kids practice speaking (or hear them speak very much at all--they're too busy with their stupid sentence translations that she assigns). It's a struggle to see how I'm making a difference in their lives. Especially that of the third years. I feel as if I'm letting their futue slip between my fingers. I know that many of them could improve if they just had the opportunity to review and actively practice what their learning. Arrrrgh.
And that's my life for now. I'll sign off here. I've gotten off track, I think. ^^;
current mood: sleepy
current music: The humming of the machines in the computer room.
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| Thursday, October 12th, 2006
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10:24 pm - Desperate Revival
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Yes. It is I. Long time, no see, blurty. Long time no see. I've not turned my back against journal writing. It's just that whenever I get the blurty writing feeling inside me and press the update button, the page takes forever and a day to load. Blurty is the slowest loading site I've been to since I've received my not so fast cable internet here on the island. So, I really need to just use the ijournal application, as I'm doing now. I wrote the following post in an email to Zandria the other day, and we both felt it was very blurty-ish. So here I go!
I'm alive and tired. Last Sunday, I did this thing where you help carry a portable shrine around town during Kure City's harvest festival, and it tuckered me out. The JETs who did it got fifty bones and a day off work. I'm trying to figure out when I should take my paid leave. I might make three-day weekend a four-day weekend. Or even loooonger!. We'll see.
Mmm...Yes. So I spent the weekend with my host family as usual. This time --and, well, the week before last, too--Ivo, another YFU exchange student, was there to hang out with the family. Ivo was on the year-long program, and we went to the same international-ish school. He's my age and from Switzerland. (Apparently, they're free spirits there, so he up and quit high school to do the year-long program. I just found that out. He just finished high school, and is going to begin university this month. )Yes, during my brief stay in Hiroshima, Ivo took me home a lot of times. (I was just as clueless about directions then as I am now. ^^) Ivo moved in with my host famliy after I left and finished out his year. My host family is just that cool. I think Ivo stayed with them for three months. His other host family (families?) were probably all crap compared to mine. Yeah. So Kazuma and Ivo were all masculinity and games and stuff. I felt a little left out. I actually got to spend more time with Kazuma when Ivo was there than I do usually, though. He always locks himself in his room with the Playstation. I know I sleep in his technical game room, so maybe that's why. Maybe it's just Kazuma being courteous and removing a possible disturbance from my room. Or he's just stingy with the FFX. I'll ask him sometime.
My host sister Asumi (who's twelve now) had this sports day thingy on Saturday, so we went to see that and ate lunch with her. I went home with Kazuma and Ivo at about 1:00, and they played the taiko game. Ivo either bought it while he was in Japan (he'd been traveling around for a month and staying at friends' places before he made his last stop at my host family's), or he brought it with him from Switzerland. Probably bought it here. I did one song, but went upstairs to get away from their testosterone. I could tell they were drooling to continue beating things with sticks to receive their points for musical accuracy. So I went upstairs and made a couple of mp3 cds for Ivo since he didn't have much Japanese music and was interested in sampling.
Last Friday, I went on this field trip with my elementary school students to this place called Imabari on the furthest island south, Shikoku. (Hiroshima City is on Honshu, and so is Tokyo. Honshu's the biggest island. I call it the mainland. I feel very Hawaiian when I so do. ^^) The trip was pretty boring (we went to a towel factory--Imabari City is apparently famous for its towels. In fact, every town in Japan claims to be famous for something.) They get their cotton from Australia. That's all I learned. That's all I remember, anyway. I don't know how the younger kids stood it! There were only two places to laugh in the whole thirty minute video, and they were within the first two minutes. Maybe the first, second, and third graders went to sleep. After the video, the tour guide guy (who patronized me by saying, "How are you??" several times--really pissed me off. I didn't respond after the first time. I just kind of widened my eyes.) further engendered my disdain by handing out useless flyers about towels to the kids for correctly responding to questions about the presentation. The kids played in two parks, ate lunch, and went back home to Ocho Port via ferry. That was cool that the most expensive cost was the train ferry. Everyone's mom packed them a lunch. Well, everyone's mom but the Head Teacher Mr. Tamaoka and me. We're sorry! (We bought some stuff at the store. Maybe I should go to Imabari to shop for groceries more often. >_<)
All weekend long, I outlined, drew on and cut out bats and pumpkins. I plan to give them to my elementary and middle school students in honor of Halloween. I'm gonna write their names on them, and it'll be just like my RA days in Springer all over again. It took most of Friday afternoon and evening to outline and cut out the bats. Asumi helped me cut them out. I promised to give her a few. I'm just glad she enjoyed helping. On Saturday, I started on the pumpkins, and Asumi helped me think up faces and draw and color them. Sunday morning and afternoon, I was in Kure City having my breasts flattened down with white fabric and wearing white shorts with hairy legs and underarms with forty other girls. Four other female JETs did it with me, so at least I got to see them for a while. When I got back home (around nine in the evening), I continued to work on my stupid--my pumpkins. I made Asumi watch a movie on my computer in her room while I worked so that she could relax. Sayuri, Kazuma, and Ivo had gone to see Miami Vice, so I talked with my host mom (my host dad mostly just listens ^^) and worked. Later, Asumi came down and helped me some more. She's just awesome. We moved upstairs after my host mom started complaining that Asumi should go to bed (Ivo was sleeping in the room I usually used on the weekends, so I slept in Asumi's room on the floor last weekend). We had fun. We talked about her many hamsters and how the family eventually wound up getting a dog a couple of years ago. We went to sleep around two.
On Monday, I had planned to go to the 100 yen store and get some pens and stuff for my apartment anyway, and Kazuma decided that he and Ivo would join me. They made a big deal out of dressing for the occasion. Sometimes, I forget that Kazuma is just seventeen. I shouldn't have laughed so much. Oh, well! They know my personality.
Mmm...I wanted to go home after hitting the 100 yen store at this mall-like place called Diamond City that's fifteen minutes away from Hiroshima City by train, but they were all gung ho about going in stores and shit. I followed them, but my heart wasn't in it. They were boys, after all. I've never been shopping with boys. I rarely go shopping with myself. They noticed that I was tired (Could it be from the day-long carrying of the mini-shrine the day before?), but at least I wasn't tired and grumpy. They went into a game center (still at the mall) and I made them take pelicula pictures with me. Wouldn't you know, the Japanese pronunciation is puricura. Whatever, man. The original Spanish word is pelicula, so I'll stick with my pronunciation. I think we went home soon after that. Then I made a couple of cds for Asumi from my computer. Then I went back to the island. Boo.
Well, I guess that's enough for now. I know it's coming out of the blue. I've forgotten a lot of what's happened in my life already. Last weekend was actually the second time I did the carrying of the mikoshi (portable shrine). The first was for the harvest festival on my island on September 26th. I think if I hadn't already participated in that first one, I wouldn't have understood half of what was going on. It was definitely bigger in Kure, though. And longer...
Ja,oyasumi!
current mood: sleepy
current music: Hikki - Colors
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| Sunday, September 17th, 2006
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12:20 am - :: yawn ::
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Oh, so much to write, so little motivation to sit and do it. What happened to the old me, who'd spend hours penning a missive and posting it with a joyous click of the mouse? School happened, that's what. School. I hardly do anything at the JHS/middle school I'm at three days a week, yet when I get home, all I want to do is listen to BoA and stare at an episode of Conan subbed by a rival group and uploaded onto GUBA.com (YouTube's successor in anime episodes...at least for me. ^^; Bless people for upping Conan eps for view. I feel good about seeing other people make an effort to share somewhat.) I go to bed around 10:30 every night, and wake up about 6:20 the next morning. I still haven't gotten into the habit of fixing myself breakfast (bread is my friend--don't tell my host mom!!), but one day I will. The only time Mom really ever fixed breakfast for everyone was on the weekends, when we could just take it easy. The rest of the week we were running out the door with bowls of cereal or a hurriedly cooked piece of turkey sausage, egg and bread combo. Ahh, high school. Those were the days I never want to go back to.
You know, I napped quite a bit this evening after dinner (three-day weekend here--thank you Old Folks Day!) and in the world between waking and sleeping as I subconsciously listened to the wonderful music mostly provided by the ladies of 1203 CC, I got to thinking about High School Musical. I know I got that album off some forum somewhere. I never listened to it, though. The other day I was finally reunited with my beautifully fat case of cds (mostly Naruto, Conan, One Piece, random music and assorted dramas--oh, and my nice games that I can't play yet because Mom can't find my PS2 I packed up to send >_<). So, yeah. What was I saying? Oh, right. High School Musical. In my sleep-induced delirium, I was all "You know, I have no idea why the hell that musical was called 'Twinkle Town.' That's an insult to stage performances everywhere." I believe that I was also upset that the feature was written around the songs, or so it seemed. But that's Disney for you. And I didn't like how the high schools for teens and tweens always look like such magical places. I understand that reality is depressing, so marketers lie about how kids lives really are and sell merchandise to perpetuate this lie (good job, Target and MaryKateandAshley! And WalMart, too. Can't forget you, WalMart! MKandAshley are at Walmart, right?). These were just my ramblings as I periodically awoke to nice background music. I'm kind of ashamed that I still remember so much about High School Musical. I remember all the hype that went into it, too. A High School Musical special dance edition. A special karaoke edition. A special encore presentation. They're all special because they're Disney. Yes, got it. And speaking of youths and Disney, why did you cancel Phil of the Future? Why? If you hadn't canceled it, that would have been one Disney show I'd have asked people to tape and send over to me. Now, I have nothing to watch but the Japanese shows I watch anyway! Gosh.
Ah. Note to self: Naruto comes on Fridays at 6:30pm. Yes, you already missed it, Janitha. Darn you, memory! I think they're supposed to air the "3 years later" arc this week or next week. I don't want to miss seeing my favorite twelve and thirteen year olds All Growed Up. Maybe I already have, though. Crap.
Look! I did it. I only too thirty minutes writing this entry this time, though. Maybe I should just save all my thoughts for the weekend when I have no excuse. Hmm hmm.
Good night!
current mood: sleepy
current music: Darn "We're all in this together, na na na" Disney song.
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| Thursday, August 17th, 2006
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3:02 pm - She's alive!!!!
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More or less. Like I wrote three weeks ago, Tokyo orientation was a bust, Kure BOE orientation was all right (much more specific), and Hiroshima-ken orientation (which just ended Wednesday) was a bust. Apparently, the point of the Tokyo and Hiroshima-ken orientations was to "make friends and be merry." This was a waste of time for me since I usually don't imbibe alcohol to be merry. Karaoke does that. Speaking of which, I've only been twice so far since I've been in Kure. One time was with a bunch of the ALTs, and the last time (last Saturday, actually) was for my nice friend Melody's birthday. I had my host brother Kazuma come down to sing with us and Jason, Melody's husband. All of the Kure JETs I've met so far seem really, really awesome. Well, except one. I'll have to break down all the names sometime soon. There are about seventeen of us, actually, and maybe twelve of us are new. Lots of fresh meat around town. It really sucks for the island kids, though, since it's such a hassle to get to the mainland for all these meetings they keep throwing at us. Mou!!
Ahh, too much to communicate. I've been staying with my host family in Hiroshima for the most part. Haven't been back to my island to sleep in over a week. It's a bit strange, but necessary because of all these seemingly useless meetings and orientations and whatnot they keep throwing at us.
current mood: sweaty
current music: Hum of the machines. Japan must be the origin of the Matrix.
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| Monday, July 31st, 2006
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2:58 pm - Orientate me.
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Orientation in Tokyo seems like most orientations--mostly useless. ^^ Some of the speeches from important employees of the Ministry of Education were very honest and straightforward ("Don't let your Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs) slack! Make sure they allow the students to communicate! It's not just about test scores. The students will never understand or even like the language if they can barely use it."), and some of the accompanying speeches (mostly by previous JETs who've "moved up" to work for the company that contracts us, the Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (CLAIR)) were decidely dry, rehearsed, bland, and fake-sounding. Hate to say it, but on the whole, the speeches by the non-native speakers were more heartfelt.
Yesterday afternoon (Monday), there were optional sessions to attend sponsored by one of the many organizations associated with JET participants. I went to one entitled, "Getting the Most Out of Your Yen--Finances in Japan" (that one was awesome) and tried to go to one about travelling, but I left a long time before it started after seeing the unattractive setup of the PowerPoint Presentation and the ugly typefaces used to construct it. I also went to this "Food and Cooking in Japan" session, and it was such crap. The three girls presenting appeared to have no notes on the actual presentation, which consisted of pictures of their convenience stores and supermarkets with little to no info on how to make anything. It was so stupid. I left about halfway through. There was some kind of fair going on around the same time where you could get free, mostly useless stuff (a bit like Taste of Murray, but without any food or cheerleaders), and I went on to that. Then I emailed people from the JET-only hospitality room for the allotted twenty minutes, then took a nap and slept through the Welcome Reception. The nap was waay worth it. I'm rather sorry I missed the food, though. I made up for it by going to this Hiroshima prefecture drinking and bonding event at an izayaka, where I downed juice after juice after juice (and a bit of nasty ol' beer at the initial "Cheers/Kanpai!!") I was such a citrus lush. Then my new friend Natalie and I headed home earlier than the rest of the crowd. We had to find our shoes in this cupboard of shoes before we could leave, though. One of the nice young men working there helped me. Totally could have described the shoes, but all I said initially in Japanese was, "They're like these..." pointing to some black dress shoes. He totally listened to my heart and was like, "Kuro?" Totally, man, totally. And, thus, I got my black flats back.
Today there's a meeting with my prefectural JETs in Hiroshima where we'll find out more information about travelling arrangements to Kure City on Wednesday. My host family (they live in Hiroshima City) wants to know if they'll be able to see me for a minute on Wednesday (apparently, the Hiroshima prefecture JETs will be taking a plane from near Tokyo to Hiroshima, then the Kure people will be taking the train to Kure), and so I'm waiting on hearing the flight information.
I'm still tired from my horribly long 14-hour flight (not including layovers and such before that flight started), but I'm glad to be here and ready to get somewhat moved in. Today will probably be pretty long, with all of the activities being "mandatory." Mandatory meaning the only time they take attendance is at your Prefectural Meeting (even our current JETs said so. Amazing!). A lot of the sessions seem interesting from their book descriptions, but you never know. They could be like that crappy food one from earlier. >_<
I've been hearing some real horror stories about the people that some of the new JETs will be replacing (haven't hear anything from them, no one's told them about their school(s), don't really know where they'll be living), and I really think that I've been blessed with a very nice and decent predecessor. One of my new friends, Natalie, has barely heard the name of her school from her pred for all of two months, and now the ass wants her to pay for a bunch of stuff, sight unseen, days before she gets to her place. She'd better not, that's all I can say. He sounds like a real piece of work. I think she should give him monopoly money, if anything. I also think that she should bludgeon him. I hope that this lack of communication on the part of the school and her jerky pred doesn't bode ill for her time at her school--which is apparently some kind of alternative school for wayward boys...I'm gonna pray for Natalie.
Mmm..what else? I'm so happy that I'll soon be closer to my host family. I wonder how much everyone's grown. It'll be so weird seeing them again.
That's it for now!
current mood: carpet's a little itchy, so...
current music: Classical music from this station/channel on television.
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