K-Port, Christmas Party

The last few weeks have been fairly quiet I guess, or at least I can't remember exactly what went on.

K-Port, the new coffee shop I wrote about, was apparently made to help the restoration of Kesennuma.  I like it and I go there sometimes, but I'm not sure where I stand on the fact that it's right next to the Yatai Mura.  Seems like it could be taking some business from the places in the YM, especially seeing as there's already an afternoon coffee shop there.  But they do have open wi-fi and... 3 pronged plug-ins!!!  They have pizza but it's expensive and they skimp on the toppings.  Still haven't tried the curry.

Last Saturday I hosted my 2nd Christmas party at my apartment.  It was potluck style and people brought some awesome food.  My favorite was the mac'n cheese.  Haven't had some real mac'n cheese in a long while.  Everyone seemed to have fun!  We had a sort of secret santa going on where we all brought presents ranging from 1,500 to 2,000 yen

and played bingo to see who got to choose which presents first.  It went well and I ended up getting an Anchor Coffee mug which was perfect, as I was planning on getting one eventually anyway.  Thanks Hiroe!  Frisa ended up getting the 16 gig usb drive I bought.

Christmas vacation is in less than a week!  Going to be busy this week finalizing plans and hopefully setting up a date between my elementary school teacher and another ALT.  Hope the teacher isn't sick anymore!

復興【ふっこう】 (fukkou) revival; reconstruction; restoration

Matsushima Light Up, K-Port

The weekend went pretty well.  Machiko came back on Friday and we went to Stray Sheep for a while before calling it a night.  It was too bad she could only stay for a little while, it would have been fun to do more stuff.  She went back to Hiroshima on Sunday.

Sunday I went to Matsushima for a light festival (松島紅葉ライトアップ).  They had lights all around a park-like area that really made the trees and plants look illuminated.  They did a really good job with the light placement and it was really beautiful.  There were a ton of couples walking around though, which made me feel a little lonely.

They opened up a new cafe right next to my place called K-Port.  It's apparently owned by Watanabe Ken.  I haven't been there yet as it closes at 6pm and I don't usually get home before then but I'm going to try it soon.  It looks cool and they seem to be laptop friendly.  They have pizza too, but if it's like Anchor Coffee's pizza ($8+ and barely any toppings to speak of) I'll probably pass.

Still haven't figured out what to do for winter break.  Maybe I should go to Hiroshima...

寂しい【さびしい】 (sabishii) lonely

Machiko Coming Back, Elementary Student's Advice

So Machiko is coming back for 2 days or so on a business trip.  While she'll be working most of the time we'll probably be able to meet up during the evening, which I'm looking forward to.  It hasn't been that long since she left but it feels like forever.  See you soon Machiko!  She'll be coming Friday and is in Fukushima right now.

I had a kid in elementary school (5th grade) ask me how old I was the other day.  I told her I was 29 and she asked if I was married, to which I said no.  Then she said 先生！早く結婚しないと苦労になるよ。"If you don't hurry up and get married it'll be really hard for you!"  I said she was right and cried as I walked off.  The things kids say.

Started going back to badminton on Wednesdays lately.  I should keep it up as I don't exercise much if I don't do that.  Also I'm still playing GTA5, they haven't fixed the car money glitch so I'll be abusing it for as long as I can before they fix it.  Once they fix it I'll probably stop playing as it's the only way to get real money without grinding for hours on end.

結婚【けっこん】 (kekkon) marriage

Machiko Transfer, Winter Vacation (?), Elementary School Unruly Kids

Cute birthday picture!

Machiko has moved down to Hiroshima after being transferred.  She seems to be doing well down there so far, even if her roommate wants her to have not so delicious sounding dinners (beer, wine and dry food).  I enjoyed the time we spent together, going out at night, billiards, your birthday party, etc.  Come back soon!  I'll be waiting for you!

I still haven't figure out where I want to go for winter vacation but am thinking to travel within Japan.  I haven't traveled as much as I've wanted, but I'm not so sour about it since I've been accomplishing my goal of living in a foreign culture and absorbing as much as I can out of it.  Maybe a warmer climate would be good though.  But thinking about it now, it'll likely be within Japan.

There is a kid in my elementary school that just laughs every time I look at him or try to talk to him.  He never does the activities and just runs around the class when there is one.  Sometimes I wonder what the parents are doing at home that their kids could act like that.  Many of the parents want to blame the homeroom teacher but I'm convinced a lot of it is the parents.  At least, it should be.

待つ【まつ】 (matsu) to wait

The Last Night

Friday was the first night (Saturday morning to be exact).  Tonight is the last night.  I'm not really sure what to think.  Not really sure how to feel.  I don't know what will happen after this.  It hasn't even been a week, and feels more like just a day or two.  I've gotten maybe 13 hours sleep total after about 4 days (yesterday I got a full 8 hours).  The timing of all this was really bad.  It's weird to imagine what would have happened had I been, say, 2-3 weeks quicker.  I don't really know what to say, I'm sure I'll have a lot though after tonight.

有り難う【ありがとう】 (arigatou) Thank you

GTA5, Health Examination, End of Japan for Me

I haven't been as diligent in writing entries as I'd hoped, but it's fine, there's not that much to report I guess.  Since the last update I got GTA5 and have been playing that for a while, abusing the glitches.  It's much better than GTA4 as it isn't as repetitive.  The online is pretty cool too.

Took the annual health examination a week or two ago.  It's amazing because they give you a cup to pee in then make you walk around with it for a while before handing it off to someone.  We also have to give stool samples and the guy who took it was wearing one glove, and of course he took the sample with the hand without a glove.  Love this country sometimes.

A little over 2 years into my time in Japan, and it's decided.  I'm not signing up for another year.  The past 2 years I really felt that I wanted to do another year, but this year I don't feel like that.  I feel like I've stayed long enough.  I still have 9-10 months left, and those'll go by quick, and at the end I'll feel really sad about leaving, but I'll also feel like I haven't left anything behind.  I'll be very happy with my 20s and the fact that I was overseas or trying to get back overseas for roughly half of that decade.  I can't believe I'll be 30 by the time I get back to the US.  When I signed up to go over for Japan I was 26.  Seems so long ago.

I still don't know what I'm going to do for Christmas.  I definitely want to go somewhere.

保険検査【ほけんけんさ】health examination

Tokyo Game Show, Sumo, Tank Girls, Etc

So a week after my last post I went to Tokyo for 3 days and got to check out the Tokyo Game Show.  I've always wanted to go to one of those things ever since I found out about E3, and it was pretty much what I expected.  I got to see some people walking around cosplaying, got to try out some of the new games including the new Killer Instinct that'll only be for Xbox One unfortunately, and bought an overpriced Kingdom Hearts keychain. I also got to watch my neighbor get whooped by Daigo (famous street fighter player among competitive gaming nerds).  Cool experience, but since I don't play games as much as I used to, I'm cool with missing it next year.


The next day, on Sunday, we went to see sumo!  We bought a small box section to sit in which was really small, maybe the size of a standard dinner table, for a little over $100 a person to sit in.  I got there around 1 and watched the rest of the matches until 6.  Both the yokozunas won though, so there was no cushion (zabuton) throwing into the ring, which would have happened, had the yokozunas lost.  That night we also went to an AKB48 cafe in Akihabara and got served by a real AKB member (I think).


That same night we went to a place called Robot Restaurant.  It wasn't so much a restaurant as it was an entertainment show with near naked girls dancing around with robots.  It wasn't my idea to go but it was an awesome show!  Very erotic!  I want that tank!


Atsushi Hirano met us there for the show, and then we went back to his place to sleep which was ironically in Fujisawa.  We went back to where I used to live and it was really nostalgic.  The next day we went to see the Daibutsu and visit a few temples before I headed back.  It was a good trip and hopefully I'll have more of those before I go back to the states.

I just have to say that there is a lot of drama in Kesennuma with the ALTs here.  Lots of people don't like this or that ALT, it's hard trying to juggle who to hang out with and who I shouldn't invite to this or that.  I'm getting a little tired of it all.

懐かしい【なつかしい】 nostalgic

Speech Contest, etc

The speech contest ended with only one of my students winning a roughly 3rd place prize.  That's about what I expected though.  One of the girls had trouble remembering her speech and barely got through it, needing help from the judges about 3 times.  She made it though, and seemed relieved after it was done.  Good job kids, that was likely my last speech contest.

This weekend I'm off to Tokyo to see Sumo and the Tokyo Game Convention.  I've always wanted to see one of these game conventions since I was small, always hearing about E3 and such.  Can't wait to see all the new games that will be coming out!

I'm getting really tired of all the girls always telling me they're too busy to hang out.  It's a little regretful that I was born ugly.

忙しい【いそがしい】 (isogashii) busy

New JETs, End of Summer Vacation, Speech Contest, School Starts Again

It's been a while since my last post, but I've been a bit busy lately.  Full Tilt has a promotion going on so I've been putting in some volume to clear a $200 bonus.  It's going to be close but I think I'll make it..

New JETs

I got a new neighbor and we got a new person to replace Stephanie who got married and moved to Osaka.  Motoyoshi got Dara and we got Aaron.  We'll have to see how they turn out.

End of Summer Vacation

I was a bit lazy the 2 weeks after I got back and didn't do a whole lot like I planned, but that's ok.  I started playing Lol with Pierre-A and it looks like we might get into that, and other than that I've just been eating out and trying to keep cool.

Speech Contest

Yeah.... I haven't been doing that much during the break like I should have.  But now I'm in full out go-mode, but Jonan is really slacking.  They let Fire be in charge of the whole thing, and to date I've only seen one girl, Mako, twice, and the other girl likely doesn't have her speech memorized yet.  The contest is in one week.  The two Niitsuki girls are progressing well but I'm not sure I have enough time to turn them into winners.  I regret not going in during the break a bit now.

School Starts Again

Jason Wray came over again like he did last year for his bike around Japan trip.  Looks like we're both likely to leave August of next year.  It's sad to think about it already.  Been trying to get back into the swing of things but it's hard, I've been staying up late and waking up early for random reasons so that hasn't helped.  This year the undoukais were again on the same day, so I decided to go to Jonan for the morning half and Niitsuki for the afternoon half.  I went to Niitsuki's uchiage and went to their nijikai at Crayon afterwards.  Fun times!  I'd upload pictures but I'm too tired to do so now.  Maybe next post!

二次会【にじかい】 (nijikai) afterparty

Back to Japan

I'm sitting at the airport waiting for my 2:10 pm flight back to Japan.  3 weeks passed by like it was nothing.  It was good to see everyone and I'm happy with my decision to go home instead of going elsewhere for vacation.  I treasure the bonds I share with my friends and family and seeing them in person is really the best way to keep those bonds strong.  I'm glad I was able to hang out with Chiem on his birthday, and even got to see Agnes after 10 years.  I took my brother out to eat steak for losing a poker game to him a year ago, and got to follow up with a lot of other friends.  My parents are redoing their house, to eventually sell it most likely.  Right now they are thinking of moving to Washington, we'll have to see how that works out.

Actually I'm excited to get back to online poker.  They don't really have it in the states right now due to it being illegal, and I've missed it.  I also missed the Minato Matsuri this year, but whatever, I'll catch it next year.

Back to Japan!  Back to Kesennuma!  My second home.

帰国【きこく】 (kikoku) return to one's country

Broken Finger, Speech Contest, Museum Translations, New JETS, Back Home

 Broken Finger

Well this is going to be long.  I took a break from posting for a bit because I did in fact break my finger.  The distal portion of my right index finger.  I was playing dodgeball with the kids at Kujo and while I was looking at the clock, a kid threw the ball at me and it hit my finger, busted it backwards and broke a small part of the bone completely off the finger.  At first I thought I jammed it, so I waited a week or so to see if the swelling would go down, but it didn't, so I headed to the doctor's to find out it was broken.  Had to have surgery where, looking at the picture, they put 2 wires in my finger to keep the bone in place.  I went in every 3 days, and eventually every week to get it cleaned.  After 5 weeks I got the wires out and am now currently trying to rehabilitate it back to normal.  There's a big bump on the top of my finger apparently called a "fracture callus" that hurts quite a bit if I touch it, but it's supposed to go down over time.  At first I was told that since it occurred at work I could use workman's comp, but was told later that because it was during break time (happened at recess after lunch) that I couldn't use it.  But the person that told me started talking a little bit about the budget and then I figured it out; they just didn't want to pay for it.  They won't say that but that's what it really sounded like.  But whatever, it was only $50 (5,000 yen) to feign ignorance to keep good relations with my BOE.  The kid who tossed the ball figured out it was him somehow, even though I didn't tell anyone who actually broke it.  He said "I'm sorry!" some weeks later and the Japanese teacher immediately said "Don't worry about it!"  Well, that's true but, at least let me say that! Heh...

Speech Contest

The time has come once again for the English speech contest (英語弁論暗唱).  At Niitsuki they had a tryout between 4 girls, but I already had it in my mind who I wanted to do it.  There are 3 3rd year girls, and one of them did it last year, so I wanted to give the other 2 a chance, even though the girl who did it last year has the best English.  The English teacher (Thousand inquiries) agreed with me, and that's what we were going to do, but she told the other teachers, and they made her switch our decision to the girl who was best at English.  I felt so bad for the other girl, and was quite pissed off that the teachers that have nothing to do with the English contest forced my teacher to change the decision.  She cried last year when she didn't get in, and this year too again.  She messed up her audition too and cried during that.  I could feel her passion, I wanted to coach her really badly because of that, but, it was not meant to be.  Truthfully, I used to really like the teachers at Niitsuki, but because of that, I feel a bit awkward around them now.

At Jonan, they let Fire (joke of a teacher) be in charge of the speech contest.  Sigh... there were 2 girls that wanted to do it, and while that's how many we can let enter the contest for 1 school, he still made them do an audition (??).  One girl pokes herself in the arm with a pencil all the time and the other doesn't seem especially motivated to even do it.  It's a little worrying.  She still hasn't even written her rough draft while the girl at Niitsuki finished hers.  Jonan probably won't win anything this year.

Museum Translations

So they have an exhibit up at the Rias Ark Museum (museum in Kesennuma) dealing with debris from the tsunami.  There are pieces of debris like phones, dolls, anything, along with stories from either the owners, people related to it, or who found it.  I'm helping to translate those stories into English.  It's hard, but I can tell it'll be a rewarding experience.  The people I'm working with are having a bit of a hard time understanding that you can't translate things word for word, but I'm slowly getting through.  Hopefully I can sneak some pictures of it later on to post here.

New JETs

So we're losing Paul and Stephanie.  I'm getting a new neighbor and Motoyoshi is getting the other one.  Can't wait to see what the BOEs say about the apartment situation muehehehe!

Back Home

On the 18th I took an overnight bus with Pierre-Adrien to Narita Airport and flew back to Oregon the next day at 3:30 PM.  Met up with Chiem-Ay, Hieu and Andus at Edgefield when I got back and was running on about 2 hours of sleep for over 50 hours.  Still jet lagged.  Woke up this morning at 5 am and couldn't sleep, so I started wondering about what happened to a music artist I used to listened to back in high school.  Looked up some of them, then found the music I listened to back in high school.  Despite enjoying my time in Japan immensely, after coming back to Oregon and realizing I don't have much here, I noticed that I just think of the past.  It's probably because I don't have a clear path for my future here yet.  How boring, I really need a girlfriend :)  I'm back to Japan on August 11th (Japan time).  I made a mistake when buying my ticket so I'll be missing the Minato Matsuri.  Sucks, but I guess I can live without listening to the same song for 4 hours this year.

労災【ろうさい】 (rousai) (abbreviation) workers' compensation insurance

Hiatus

Have not been posting since I broke my finger bone.  I'll post more in depth after a month!  It's too hard to type now.

Kesennuma Rising 2, Trip Planning

This last weekend they had Kesennuma Rising 2 at the Yokocho Yatai Mura (横丁屋台村).  The same people as last time performed and it was pretty cool.  Freiddie (sic) Mercury was once again the best act of the night.  These events are pretty uplifting in this city.

They had a a party for singles the other day in the yatai mura as well, but you had to have tickets to get in, and by the time I knew that they were full... supposedly.  But my neighbor Pierre-A went down without intending to participate and they said he could!  Those bums.  I wanted to join in.  It's so lonely here it's killer sometimes.  The girls, despite my thinking they would be desperate for boyfriends since it's super hard to meet people here, are not desperate.  In fact they push me away at every opportunity (If I have time I'll call you!).  Maybe one day.

Planning for a trip to Tokyo in September.  Going to go see sumo, a baseball game, the AKB48 cafe, the Ghibli museum and some other things too likely.  I also need to find out details on how to get back home for the summer for 2 weeks.  Looking forward to this next year because I'm going to be doing stuff like traveling and essentially going all out.  It'll be my last year living in a foreign country, likely forever, and it's going to count!

合コン【ごうコン】(goukon) Party where singles meet with the intention of finding a dating partner

Golden Week

Golden Week has come and passed.  I planned to take a trip but ended up not doing it, in large part because I am lazy, and in small part because I wasn't sure what was going to happen with my passport (it expired and I had to wait for a new one to get sent to me from Tokyo).  I ended up volunteering one of the days and met some cool people (Maki) and someone I met the 1st time I volunteered (Atsushi) came back also.  We cleaned up the original Koyo high school, which is close to Iwaisaki, and it was interesting as it was the first time I'd really been in a building that was damaged by the tsunami (I had always planned to go into one but never did).  I found a lot of textbooks and stuff washed up that had been used by the students before, and it was sort of a strange feeling.  I stood in classrooms that were now filled with debris and rubble.

I'm quite excited to see what the new JET batch will bring.  I hope it's 2 new good ones.  I've already posted a picture on Facebook about luck that no one got.  Soon we'll know.  I need a good neighbor, I really do.

瓦礫【がれき】 (gareki) rubble

Ideal working conditions

Posted on Facebook, posting again here.

Just for fun, thought I'd compare the ideal working conditions of my current job as a "teacher" in Japan to what I have now.  Of course I'm very happy to be working and living in Japan, but nothing's ever perfect.  This is NOT a complaint.

1. The Job
Ideal: 1 university (Realistic ideal: 2 high schools)
Current: 2 middle schools (junior high) and 1 elementary school
[*] Kids are cute, but they're cuter when I don't have to try and keep them focused and teaching them.  In university I could teach people who, for the most part, were there to actually learn.  I remember my college Japanese class, I would like to teach English in that sort of setting.

2. Location
Ideal: A city with a population of over a million but less than 2 million.
Current: Kesennuma, population around 70,000
[*] I enjoy the city life a bit more than the rural one.  I like having things to do (bowling, billiards, etc) and plenty of opportunities to meet people.  Not to take away from rural areas, which have their advantages as well, but yeah.

3. Working hours
Ideal: 9:30-5:30
Current: 8-4
[*] With this I could wake up at 9, which means I could go to bed from around 1-2.  Going to bed at around 11 or 12 is hard for me.

4. Commute
Ideal: 5 minute walk
Current: 10 minute drive
[*] I have 3 schools and even the farthest one is just over 10 minutes, but with a 5 minute walk I could do that even when it's too hot or too cold, and could save gas!  I'm all about the environment (and my wallet of course!).

5. Coworkers
Ideal: 1 or 2 that speak decent English, the rest speak to me in Japanese.
Current: 1 or 2 that speak decent English, the rest speak to me in Japanese.
[*] Well this is pretty spot on for me.  Most the English teachers talk to me in English and the rest in Japanese.  It's good for when I need to know important things and also lets me practice my Japanese.  Of course there are the ones here and there that I don't really talk to, but whatever.

6. Students
Ideal: Everyone loves me, loves studying English, wants to talk to me and secretly tries to give me money.
Current: Maybe 1 or 2 students in each class that like English, but are drowned out by the students who could care less.  The students who do tend to like English rarely talk to me, while the ones who don't care about English talk to me way more.  None of the students try to give me money.
[*] Ever seen a Japanese school drama or anime on TV?  Yeah, it's not exactly like those... The money thing was a joke, unless they actually want to give me money, in which case, cash only please!

7. Salary
Ideal: 400,000 yen a month ($4k)
Current: 300,000 yen a month ($3k)
[*] Obviously more is better, but with that salary I could save 1k a month, spend 1k a month, and have 1k a month for trips.

8. Workload
Ideal: Planning 3 lessons a week, one for each grade of junior high.
Current: I do next to nothing in middle school.  The teachers who did let me do some things have moved on to different schools.  I plan a little bit for elementary school, but that's it.
[*] It's a good thing I've found ways to get job satisfaction outside of teaching, because I don't actually do much of that at all.  It is nice in the evenings when I don't have to worry about lesson planning, because being the procrastinator that I am, that's what would be happening.

9. Napping
Ideal: Would be able to take a nap, somewhere in the vicinity of 1 to 3 pm, for about 20 minutes.
Current: While saying I've never dozed off would be a lie (maximum of mere minutes), I'm too scared to be looked unfavorably upon by the teachers for doing so.  I'm not sure I'd ever find out if it were bad or not.  I try not to.
[*] When I was teaching in Korea I was in an office with one other teacher.  He used to take naps and I did too.  That was good times, and I felt much better throughout the day with the nap.

10. Job excitement
Ideal: Just like in the movies, I'd like to save my students from massive yakuza mobs and teach them about life by saving them from the brink of death.  I'd like to have teachers try to kill me, leading to big adventures where everything turns out alright.  I'd like all my coworkers to be hot female teachers who are interested in me. I would like to be involved in a love dodecahedron.
Current: Just about fell asleep in class the other day waiting for the teacher to ask me to pronounce a word in the textbook.  In elementary school I watched a 4th grader throw up his lunch.  I have one hot teacher who isn't interested at all in me.
[*] I really don't think this one is all that much to ask for!  Come on now! 

11. Job title
Ideal: It would be nice to be recognized as a teacher in my contract.
Current: I'm known as the "Foreigner Guidance Assistant" or something to that effect.
[*] My current title is actually pretty appropriate, seeing how little teaching I actually do.  Not to mention my lack of any official document stating that I can in fact teach.

理想【りそう】 (risou) ideal; dream

Earthquakes, Camcorder

We had a weak 5 earthquake the other day.  A lot of people post things about earthquakes on Facebook, rightfully so I suppose, but I don't really see why they bother with things below a 6 or maybe a strong 5.  Weak 5s don't do anything.  I've never seen a tsunami from a weak 5 and they aren't enough to do anything but get your attention and break some glasses if they were on the edge of your table possibly.  Living where I am though, it's hard to say that out loud.  People don't want to listen to where you're coming from, they just want to get offended at everything nowadays.  Anyway yeah, I think 5s are fun haha

I got my camcorder the other day!  It's very cool and I can't wait to test it out.  Tonight at Kevin's birthday party I probably will.  The only thing I don't like about it is that I can hear the mechanics of the camera on the video when it's otherwise silent.  If someone's talking it's fine, so likely just a minor irritation.

The flowers on the sakura trees are getting ready to bloom here!  They were early in most parts of Japan this year for some reason.  Just a while longer before we can go for Hanami!

The third years are on their school trip right now to Tokyo at Jonan.  2 periods today.  Good time to update the Kesennuma website!

地震【じしん】(jishin) earthquake

Spring Vacation, Speed Dating, New Computer, Migraines

So over the spring vacation I didn't actually do all that much.  I stayed around Kesennuma for the most part and just relaxed.  It was good times.  On the first Wednesday I went with Pierre-M and Tara to Oshima and volunteered my time getting flower beds ready to plant flowers, that was fun.  We got to go around and see Oshima too which I hadn't done before.  I played Saints Row the Third which is like GTA on steroids.  Good game, nice and short too, which is how I feel GTA should have been, with less busy missions to do.

The 2nd Wednesday I went speed dating.  This was interesting.  We went to a place in Sendai that was the size of maybe 2.5 living rooms or so.  We filled out a profile card then sat down and had 2 minutes to talk to the girls.  There were about 6 guys and 10 girls.  After we finished a round, we had to rate which girls we liked and wanted to talk to.  We got 2 approach cards that we could give to show them that we liked them.  I got flustered and didn't write anyone's name down so halfway through the first I was trying to figure out who was who.  We got a second round with the girls, after which we ranked them in terms of who we wanted a date with.  Then they announced the couples.  There were 3 couples, but I failed to get a date.  It was fun, and I'd do it again, but it costs $50 (5000 yen) for no guarantee, so I'm not sure how willing I'll be to seek it out again.  Good experience though!

We played beer pong one night which was fun.  I played 3 games and won them all.  We went to Kappa Sushi for dinner first, then to my apartment for the beer pong.  Kevin, Frisa, and Pierre-A joined in.

I finally got my new computer.  Not liking Windows 8 as I feel they catered more to the tablet people and forgot to transition it correctly to PCs/laptops.  Slowly getting used to things though, and switching things to match my preferences, so it's cool.

I got a migraine the other day.  Of course it had to happen the 2nd day back at work and the 1st real day of teaching with some of my new teachers.  One of my friends mentioned that she threw up due to the low pressure + lack of oxygen, so I might try to keep records on that to see if my migraines are related.  It would be nice to be able to guess when I'm going to get those things.  Such a pain.

On the upside, it's starting to get warmer!

カップリングパーティー (kappuringu/paatii) Speed dating

Graduation, Computer Problems

So graduation has come and passed.  I'm sad.  I really liked the 3rd years at Jonan this year, it's sad to see them go.  Each class was great, I can't say the same for the 1st and 2nd years.  In fact, I don't like the 1st year classes so much.  Well that might be a bit much.  The truth is that there are a few kids (read: boys) in each 1st year class that are attention whores.  It's ridiculously obvious and super annoying.  I hope they put them all in one class next year so I can at least enjoy 2 out of the 3 classes and then just have 1 class where it's hell for 50 minutes.

I went to Niitsuki's graduation this year.  It was good.  The graduation representative, Kana, gave a good speech to the principal.  I didn't get it on tape though.  Here's what I did get on tape (sorry if people actually read this blog.  I'm under the impression there's no one reading it, so you can't view the videos.  If you want to see them for whatever reason let me know).

Niitsuki Graduation 2013- Gunji Atsuya Goodbye Speech

Niitsuki Graduation 2013- 3rd years singing

Niitsuki Graduation 2013- School Song

Niitsuki Graduation 2013- 3rd years leaving

Niitsuki Graduation 2013- 3rd Years Send-Off

Here's stuff from Jonan

Jonan 2nd years singing goodbye song

Jonan 3rd years entrance

Jonan 3rd years exit

Jonan 3rd years memories pictures

Jonan send off Kouhai 1

Jonan send off Kouhai 2

Jonan 3rd years Last Class 3-2

Jonan 3-3 Last Class 

Jonan 3rd years Last Class 3-1 

Jonan Grad prep (National Anthem) 2013

Jonan Grad prep- Receiving Diplomas 2013 

Jonan Grad prep- Singing songs 2013 

Jonan Grad prep- School Song 2013 

Jonan Grad prep- 3rd years singing 2013 

Jonan Grad Prep- 3rd years leaving 2013

Jonan Grad prep- 3rd years leaving again 2013

I felt a little awkward with the Niitsuki 3rd years but I still love them all the same.  Hope they all do well in high school!  My favorite English teacher, Abe Shizuko sensei, is retiring this year.  I'll miss her.  I feel honored to be her last ALT!  There were goodbye speeches by all the teachers and of course some of the teachers cried.  I wonder if I'll get any crying teachers when I leave.  I don't think I've left that big of an impression for that.  That's kind of the type of person I am though, not so impressionable.

My elementary school kids graduated too as 6th years.  At the banquet at Plaza Hotel, the mothers of one of the classes dressed up and danced to AKB 48's Heavy Rotation.  The kids kept yelling "stop it!"  It was cute.

So really bad timing!  My computer decided to go bust on me.  Luckily, the guy I'm having "fix" it was able to recover the data on the D drive, but not the C drive.  There's a lot of stuff on the C drive too, but whatever.  Can't be helped.  I decided to fix it with really low specs and use it as a back-up of sorts.  I bought a new one, a Sony Vaio, for around $1,100.  I bought it off Amazon and am having it shipped here by my parents since they won't ship to Japan.  I also had to buy a new external hard drive because the one I have now is making clicking noises.  I hope I can transfer everything over to the new hard drive before it too goes kaput.  My computer breaking is the reason I haven't updated in a bit.  Right now I'm borrowing Tara's laptop.  Going to get the fixed one tomorrow in the afternoon, and hopefully the new one maybe a week later.  I'm actually kind of excited to get my new one.  It has Windows 8, which I could do without, but whatever.

On spring break now!  No real plans.  My spring break budget was completely broken by all the electronics going belly up on me.

卒業 [そつぎょう] sotsu/gyou: Graduation

End of the School Year

The school year is coming to an end.  I've seen the last of my 3rd years for my base school.  If they even have a class tomorrow, I'll see the last of my 3rd years for my other middle school tomorrow.  I saw the last of my 6th graders in my elementary school yesterday.  Well not really, they all move up to my base middle school so I'll see them again.  I really liked the 3rd years at my base school.  They were all very nice and had a perfect energetic energy.  Quite the contrast to my 1st years, which I largely don't like going to class to teach.  For the last class I had them tape a piece of paper on their back and walk around writing messages to each other.  Then I had them write a letter to themselves about their memories now that they could read 10 years down the road.  I hope at least one of them will keep it and read it years later.  I only need one student to read it years later to feel like the project was a success, but since I'll have no way of ever knowing, I'll just assume that out of the roughly 90 kids, at least one did read it.

Rachel is coming back this Friday for about a week.  I gotta clean!

思いで【おもいで】 (omoide) memories

End of School Year, Yearbooks, New Restaurant Mondays

So the school year in Japan ends in March, right when spring break in the US would be starting.  I've been asked to come up with an idea for the last class of 3rd years and I think I've got something good.  Basically we'll tape a piece of paper to the back of the student and then we'll let other students walk around and write stuff on the paper.  Positive comments of course.. at least for the main part!  I've watched these kids grow up since they were in 2nd year, not even halfway through their middle school years yet, and now they're graduating.  It's hard to believe, and makes me feel even older.

This year I'm finally buying all 3 year books.  The year books here are ALL in color, but only include the graduating year.  It sucks because that means there will be kids whose year books I won't get to have when I go back home.  Also, these things are EXPENSIVE.  I'll be paying 34,000 yen, or about $370, for all of them.

I'm on a quest to get to as many restaurants in Kesennuma as possible.  I've been going every Monday and so far I've been liking what I've been going to.  Last Monday I went to Sushi Taihei and it had DELICIOUS sushi.  The sushi second on the lower left (right above a pure white sushi) is called uni, or sea urchin.  The difference between fresh and not so fresh uni is the difference between day and night.  Kappa sushi has uni, but it's not fresh so it tastes like garbage.  Taihei's uni is AMAZING.  I will likely go back, even though it was a bit expensive (4,000 yen to get full.  Ouch!)

卒業アルバム【そつぎょうアルバム】 (sotsugyou/arubamu) classbook; yearbook; graduation album

Chiko Sensei

In February of probably 2005 or 2006, my Japanese teacher from both high school and college passed away due to cancer.

I remember the 1st year of taking Japanese in high school.  We had a non-Japanese teacher, Mrs. Nielsen (on? en?  I don't remember).  You couldn't even really call her our teacher because there might have been all of 1 or 2 days where she actually taught us.  The rest of the time we were taught by her assistants.  They knew all they needed to know in order to teach us, but they were still just high school students.  We learned a very simple self introduction and how to write hiragana and katakana that year.  That was it.

The 2nd year we had a Japanese teacher come down from MHCC (the community college I'd end up going to) to teach the Japanese classes because Mrs. Nielsen had a full schedule.  She found out we didn't know anything and started over teaching us how to do self introductions.  I barely remember the 2nd year because she was so nice that she would let me sleep during class (it was right after P.E. and I was always on the phone at night time during sophomore year).  The 3rd year I actually started studying and learning stuff.  Our 3rd year class was 8 students.  There was no 4th year.  During my senior year in high school, I found out she had cancer.  It was an especially humbling day.

I retook the beginner classes in college so I could get an easy A.  During the summer after the 1st year we went to Kyoto, Japan with our Japanese class and her.  Lots of stuff happened, and I'll never forget it.  The 2nd year of Japanese was good, but she quit her job midway through to deal with the cancer.

She was strong.  She never once even hinted at complaining about her cancer or the chemo treatments she received that made her lose all her hair.  She was always understanding, kind and personable.  She was my favorite teacher and has been since then.  I like to think she is a big part of why I'm in Japan today and I appreciate all she did and the influence she still has on me today.

いつも有難うございます、渡辺千鶴子先生。

影響【えいきょう】 (eikyou) influence

Japan American Differences Part 4

As I live longer and longer in Japan, I get used to things more, and these become harder to write.  Maybe I'll think of more when I go back home.

61. Japanese police drive around with their lights on even if they aren't chasing anyone.  I've heard it's just to provide more "police awareness" but who knows.

62. Teachers here go to school on Saturday... and often Sunday.  Ouch.

63. The way people say no to hanging out with you is to act all interested, then say that something came up later on through a "don't have to see your face but can still turn you down" method, such as texting.

64. The milk here is like 3.5-5%.

65. The space bar on a computer is about half the size of English keyboards.

66. Wi-Fi is still pretty rare here.

67. The word "difficult" in Japanese is often used to mean "no."

68. Japanese people do not laugh during movies.

69. Japanese school year books only include the graduating class.

70. Japanese snowmen have 2 bodies while American ones have 3.

My Birthday, Recontracting

So my birthday was a little over a week ago.  I turned 29.  It's crazy to think about how I decided I was going to try for the JET when I was, what... 27?  And I'll be done with the program when I'm half past 30.  It was a hard decision actually but I decided to stick around a 3rd year so I can study for the JLPT (Japanese Language and Proficiency Test) Level 2.  I have a year and a half to do it.  I think I can!

There is this girl at Niitsuki who I teach and she is the sweetest girl ever.  She is the only student who remembered my birthday and made this card for me.  I met her when I she was a 1st year, and now that I've decided to stay for a 3rd year I'll watch her graduate in a little over a year.  Sometimes the students do the coolest things.  I'm glad I decided to stay for this.

On the other side of things, there's a bar that's a 30 second walk from my place (that's right, 30 seconds!).  Stray Sheep.  It has an awesome ambiance and can't complain with the travel time to it.  I went there on my birthday with Kevin and Frisa, and the owner, Toro-san, told me to come back again Saturday for a b-day party there.  We did, and he bought me a cake.  Those things cost around $25-$30!  I love that bar.  I'll miss it when I finally leave.


So the final year and a half of my stay in Japan is on!  Soon I need to start planning things for the entire rest of my time here.  Budgeting out the money I want when I go back home (the yen is getting weaker... NO!), where I want to go for vacation, and how I'm going to study for the JLPT Level 2.

I just found out my friend Diana, who I "met" back in middle school, is now engaged.  Time has passed so quickly, it makes me a little sad.  It's also not like I have anything going on in that department either haha...

In other random news, the other day, while eating lunch with my 4th graders, I looked up just in time to see a kid vomit his tasty school lunch back onto his tray.  I wasn't hungry after that.

誕生日【たんじょうび】 (tan/jou/bi) birthday

New Year's, Volunteering

We had a good new year!  We spent it at Stray Sheep drinking and playing N64.  Man that N64 brings back some memories.  I remember playing Smash Bros. at Ike's back when he still lived at his parents, and playing Mario Golf when we used to have sleep overs at my house all the time.  Seems like yesterday but I know already it was many years ago.  Time sure flies.  I'm sure it won't be all that long before I'm talking about this entire trip to Japan as if it were in the past.

The weekend after I went to volunteer for Kesennuma.  It was an awesome experience.  The whole organizational side of it wasn't put together so well, and we ended up not doing a whole lot of work, but that's ok.  I went, I did.  That's what matters.  Seeing how much we got done that day vs how much there is left to do, and I can see that cleaning up Kesennuma will take the better part of many, many years.  We went to Iwaisaki, a famous place in Kesennuma with a blowhole thing near the ocean.  We cleaned it for a while and then met up with some of the other volunteers afterwards for dinner and drinks.  Met some awesome people and had a really good time.  Definitely planning to go again!

I feel like I've already made a decision on staying another year or not.  The thing is to see how people on the other side react to it.  It's not an easy decision by any means.  I'm still thinking about it actually.  Why do I have to be on the verge of 29 right now??

光陰矢のごとし【こういんやのごとし】 (kouinya/no/gotoshi)(idiom) time flies