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