Harro!

I'm back. And today is literally the first day I've had a chance to stop and breathe since October. There have been christmas parties, making a music video spoof - that was fun, baking (believe it or not I have been cooking dinners and making edible snacks. I think living in Japan is finally getting to me), going to a concert of my favourite Japanese band - it was off the chain! And of course the usual hitting the town with friends. On Saturday night a huge group of us went out - 4 gaijin and 16 japanese people. Surprisingly, we ended up in a karaoke booth at 4 o'clock in the morning. Good times. I had just gotten home when Matt called - he had lost his keys somewhere and was locked out, so he stayed the night at mine and we spent most of yesterday staring at the television and being hungover. It was great. Also, it finally started snowing yesterday. It is bloody cold!
Oh yeah, and this is me being Japanese:

This is Steve and Luke wearing Shak masks (long story) drunk in a 24 hour supermarket after the Hagi Christmas dinner that I organised. Good times:)

Space World!

What a day! A few weeks ago our supervisor told us he was going to take us to Space world, which is an amusement park in Fukuoka (big city in the bottom island of Japan).
Despite Dad's prediction that it would just be a big open field ("wow, look at all that space!"), it actually turned out to be a really awesome trip. First we found Dairy Milk chocolate made in NZ - we practically cleaned them out of that. Then, at the park, we started with a roller coaster with a 60m drop - bloody terrifying - and went on to do a straight up and down roller coaster that goes at 130km/hr. I was so scared I couldn't even scream! There was a 4D movie thingy which was pretty trippy, a simulation thing where you stare at a big screen and your chair moves, a log flume (of course I got soaked. I was just surprised I didn't fall in) and heaps of other stuff. Good times. Bloody tired now, though. Thank god it was a school day today so I could have a rest>_<
Bugger, I've been trying to chuck some pics up, but I keep getting error messages. Sorry guys. You'll just have to trust me - it was a blast!

Party!

So last Friday I got to have a Halloween party at one of my elementary schools. It was for an hour and a half, and the whole school came, so there were 19 students.
We played a ton of games, including 'mummy making' and find the pumpkins, which I hid all around the school - good times. The kids also got candy for pretty much everything they did, so everybody was hyperactive for the rest of the day (insert evil laugh here).

Some of the costumes were brilliant! There was a jedi, several witches and vampires, death, Jason, a farmer, a tiger, a rabbit, a pumpkin. . . it was awesome!

This is one of my favourite kids. I couldn't resist taking the opportunity to shut him up for 15 minutes - the silence was worth all the hurt looks he gave me >_<

One more picture from the sake festival

This is Matt. On the train from the festival back into the city. He was tired. He wanted to sleep. He climbed into the luggage rack and got in a half hour nap. He got away with it, too!!

I love the Japanese dudes expression!

SAKE FESTIVAL!!!

The title says it all. This weekend a huge bunch of us went to Hiroshima for a sake festival, which is basically the same as a wine tasting - all you can drink for about $NZ10. What a weekend!

And so it began - I think Steve chose the better sake this round. . .

Chris Mack . . . words fail me (and him by the end of the evening)

So we met this random Japanese guy who had the kanji for sake shaved into the side of his head. How cool is that??

We just started talking to these Japanese boys, and they ended up going out in the city with us, too. They were good fun :)

Things just got better from here. Ok, after this point, I was too drunk to take any more pictures.

And I'm back

Ok, so out comes the usual excuse - I've been really really busy. Even so, I'm not sure the lack of updates really warrants a text message at 6:30 in the morning, mother!!!!
Anyway, since school started back up I've attended 2 sports days (and even took part in one), coached 10 students for the English speech competition (one of whom went on to place 5th in Yamaguchi - I'm very proud), been running a seminar for elementary school teachers and started an English conversation class for the community. So I reckon I have an honest excuse. Oh yeah, and I had a ripper of a birthday! The celebrations lasted for a week - presents from teachers and students, several birthday cakes (I didn't think it was possible, but I am all caked out) and more than a few drinks!
Ok, enough with the writing ; pictures!

Sports day fun. Relay race.

The dance competition.

Elementary school kids race (good photo, huh?)

Speech competition winners. I coached both girls over summer, the girl next to me came 5th in Yamaguchi.

The celebratory dinner - good times!

Drinking trip

On the weekend before school started, I was invited to go on a trip with the teachers from one of my schools. We got on the bus at 8 and started drinking at half past. I had a hangover already and had only had 3 hours sleep the night before, so I learnt the Japanese for 'hair of the dog'. It has come in handy since then. Anyway, we went to Oita ken, which is in the bottom island of Japan which is full of onsen (hot spring bath houses). On the way we stopped at a toy museum, several temples and other places. We stayed in a really nice hotel that evening and sat up late in one of the male teachers' rooms drinking and talking - it was great fun. On the way back, we visited a geothermal power plant and a 400m long suspension bridge. Everyone was a lot quieter on the way back . . . can't think why :)

All of us. And yes, we had been drinking. We are wearing yukatta, which are basically bathrobes with a tie around the middle.

The next day, leaving the hotel, all the guys and 3 of the women are hungover. Can you guess which women are hungover?

The first course of dinner. I'm not joking. There were 7 courses; I could barely manage 1.

The suspension bridge.

Come on, who doesn't want a room full of buttons. This is at the geothermal power plant. Don't ask me why we went there!

Eigo de asobo

A few weeks before school started, the ALTs were asked to run a 'play in english' seminar for a group of children aged 5 to 11. Not the easiest mix to cater to, but I had fun doing it. The other ALTs only had to go twice during the week. I had the joy of attending every day. I reckon being the only 2nd year ALT left at the Board of Education, I seem to have drawn the short straw. On the bright side, I got to hang out with some pretty cool kids.

Summer holiday

This was a little bit last minute, but Chris Mack and I decided to go to Yakushima which is an island off the bottom of Japan where 1000+ year old cedar trees grow. We drove from Yamaguchi to Kagoshima (the city at the bottom of Japan), then caught a 4 hour ferry to Yakushima. It was choice. We went swimming and snorkelling around coral, saw pillow lava, really old trees, deer and monkeys. It was cool. Only four days, and I reckon our biggest achievement was not killing each other, but it was an awesome way to end the summer.
Anyway, pictures!

Chris Mack, master navigator.

mmm, looks tasty!

I'm actually standing inside a tree - neat!

another big tree.

MONKEY!!!

Finally

Yup, I've finally gotten round to another update. This one goes back to somewhere around the start of August.

I went meteor watching a while back as we were passing through the Perseid meteor belt (or something like that). Anyway, around midnight I jumped on my bike and rode about 5 minutes out of Hagi until I found a new road that hasn't been opened yet. I sat there for a couple of hours and watched meteors. It was pretty cool. Within the first 15 minutes I saw 11 meteors! Is that geeky?

Next, the new ALTs arrived. I was busy racing around after them trying to get them sorted and settled, which wasn't the easiest task. We took them out to dinner a few times to do the whole welcome thing.

The new ALTs are: Shak (English), Nicole (kiwi), Kate (Aussie), and Alex (American).

Shak, Kate, Nicole

Matt (3rd year ALT) and Alex

We also went to a festival at one of the temples in Hagi where over 1000 stone lanterns were lit, which was pretty cool:

the catch-up

Well, it has been a crazy couple of weeks. I said goodbye to Dan, Rosie and Jo, who all left Japan for other places. I admit there were a few tears (and not just from me!!), but there have also been good things. Like the night before Jo and her boyfriend left, there was a fireworks festival in Hagi which was awesome. And of course we couldn't let them leave without one more night of karaoke!

fireworks and karaoke - what a night!

Also, 4 new ALTs have arrived. They are from NZ, Australia, England and America, so it is a huge change from last years' all kiwis! I have been racing around like a blue-arsed fly trying to help them settle in. It was actually quite frustrating the first few days they were here because I didn't get any time to myself for 3 days, and I needed it.

Thank goodness Chris Mack and I had planned a trip to Hiroshima to watch baseball on the weekend! We both needed the mini holiday, and we had a great time.

Me and Chris Mack at the baseball game.

Tomorrow I have to show the newbies how to catch the bus to Yamaguchi city because we have a two-day seminar - BORING!!! I have to do a presentation on the second day, as well, but I'm just gonna wing it because it is on successful games and activities, and I got a million of them!
Tonight we took the newbies out to dinner (again), but we called it an early night because, while 3 of them arrived last Wednesday, 1 arrived today, and she is pretty shell-shocked.
Ah well, fun in games at the start of my second year in Japan!

the new ALTs at dinner tonight. Left is Chris Mack (not new), behind him is Matt (not new), on the right is Nicole from NZ, behind her is Shak from England and Kate from Australia.

in a rush

I've been crazily busy over the past few days and will do a proper update soon. Until then, here are a few more jinglish examples:

Japanese English

I've come across some really random attempts at english during my first year in Japan, and although I often take pictures on my phone, I usually forget to blog them. I'm bored right now, though, so here are a few examples:

This is meant to say 'drink'. Don't ask me to explain, it would take too long.

WTF??? If anyone can tell me what this is trying to say, please let me know.

You can't see it, but the next line on this t-shirt was 'please cry for me'. Ok.???

Well, do you have a life to devote? Mildness? Makes perfect sense, right?

Can't argue with that.

Natsuyasumi (summer holiday)

Today has been pretty mixed. Dan and Rosie left Japan today after 3 years of teaching. They are heading back to NZ to settle down and get married, etc. We drove them to Yamaguchi city (about 45 minutes from Hagi) and took them to the bullet train station. Saying goodbye was difficult, and Dan, Rosie and I were all in pretty bad shape. Here are a few of my favourite photos from the year:

As we were leaving the train station, we realised all the clouds and humidity had cleared up and the rainy season is finally over!! After about a month of rain, storms, humidity and dampness, the sun has decided to come out at last! We decided to celebrate this with an afternoon and the beach, so Jo, Eugene (Jo's boyfriend) and I hit the beach.

I was sitting next to Jo, and there was about a foot between us. I was just about to take a bite of a pastry I had in my hand, when a hawk swooped down between me and Jo and tried to take my food! But it missed and grabbed my face instead. I'm not kidding! Luckily I was wearing sunnies and its claw caught those and only scratched down my eye instead of gouging it out. It bled so I washed it in the sea, and hopefully it won't get infected. Do hawks have lots of bacteria on their claws?

I tried to take a picture of it, but it isn't very clear. You can see the cut under my eye, and can just barely make out the scratch that runs down my forehead and through the corner of my eye. It happened about 7 hours ago and it is still hurting. Should I be worried???

Japanese lesson 3

So by now you should be able to write hiragana and katakana correctly, right? The next step is realising that there are no spaces between words in Japanese. For example:
私は日本にきょねんの８月にからきました。
This is read as: ‘Watashi wa nihon ni kyonen no hachi gatsu ni kara kimashita’ which means ‘I came to Japan in August last year.’
As you can see, it is a mix of hiragana, kanji and numbers. Also, you sometimes get katakana in there as well. For example:
私はニュージランド人です。This reads as ‘watashi wa nyu geerando jin desu’, which means ‘I am a New-Zealander.’
In that example there is kanji, hiragana and katakana. And these are just simple sentences. So before you can read anything, you really need a fairly large vocab just to be able to figure out where one word stops and the next one starts!

Also, in order to be able to read the newspaper, you have to know at least 1000 kanji. That is a little bit beyond me at the moment. Hell, I still struggle with bus time tables and easy stuff that 3 year olds can read.

Ah well, talking is a lot easier. People are pretty forgiving when you try to talk to them. I had a 10 minute conversation with a taxi driver about the differences between NZ and Japan and few months ago and although he didn’t speak any English and I hadn’t exactly been doing a lot of study at that point, we had a really good chat.
Speaking of study, I have been doing quite a bit lately and have really noticed an improvement. The other day at an elementary school, I had no trouble talking to the kids while we were playing outside at lunchtime, and this old woman at a bus-stop last week wouldn’t shut up when I answered her in Japanese – and I haven’t figured out how to say ‘stop talking to me’ yet! So I am thinking of taking the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in December. There are 4 levels (4 being easiest and 1 hardest). I am looking at level 3, where you have to be able to carry out a conversation and know 800 kanji. I reckon I’m up to the challenge.

Sorry, got a little off track. Back to the language lesson:
The best thing to do is carry a dictionary around. My cell phone has one built in which has saved my ass a few times, and you can also get electronic dictionaries which fit in your pocket. Or, if you are ordering food pretty much anywhere in Japan, just point to the picture and say ‘kore’ (core-reh). That is about all you need to get around!

Oops, I wrote this last Thursday and forgot to post it. Sorry.

At the moment it is a very busy time of year. Tomorrow is the last of term, which means no lessons, just closing ceremonies and cleaning and mucking around with the kids. Ok, I know that doesn’t sound like much is going on, but it is also the time when ALTs go home and new ALTs start arriving in Japan. It is also the time when all the teachers have enkais (parties) to celebrate the end of school, the start of summer, the end of the rainy season . . . actually, any excuse is good enough for an enkai.
Last Friday our Board of Education had a leavers enkai for Dan, Rosie, Jo and Pauline, who are all leaving. This means that yours truly is the new leader of the Hagi ALTs. Scared? I know I am! Basically it means I get the oh-so-exciting job of organizing the new ALTs who start arriving on August 1st. Already I have been racing around like a headless chicken sorting things out at the Board of Education, getting in contact with the newbies and answering questions, etc. This is on top of teaching and also doing proof-reading for the Hagi Tourism Board (I think I mentioned that in a previous post?).

Anyway, the enkai on Friday was bittersweet because all the ALTs from Hagi and the surrounding country came to the party and it was great to hang out, but it was also the last time we would all be together, so we had no choice but to drink the pain away :)
The drinking led us to a karaoke bar where bad singing (and Y.M.C.A.) was perpetrated. Unfortunately (or maybe luckily), the typhoon was already starting to make its presence felt, so we called it a night a little after midnight. The next day was the All Blacks vs. Australia rugby game, and we had talked the barman at our favourite bar to open up just for us to watch the game. He opened at 4:30, and by 6pm the place was absolutely full of ALTs from all over Yamaguchi because a few weeks ago we sent out an email inviting everyone to come and play and Hagi, and a huge group came in spite (or maybe because of) the typhoon. Saturday night it really hit us, and Sunday the weather was absolutely shit. Monday was a public holiday, and by about 7pm, the wind and rain finally buggered off and the sun came out. Just in time for the working week to begin. Typical.

This Friday Jo and I are going to an enkai for one of the schools we both teach at. It will be the last enkai we will have together, so we will make sure it is a good one.
Saturday and Sunday there is a sand-art festival / competition in Hagi and I am going with some of my students. Looking forward to that!
And then on Monday Dan and Rosie are leaving! I’m dreading it, because I know there will be tears! Jo leaves in a week and then I have maybe 2 days before the newbies start arriving. This year has gone insanely fast, especially when I look back at how long I thought it would be when I first got here. I know I said I was only going for 1 year, but it is so much fun, I’m not ready to come home, yet. Maybe after 2 years I’ll be sick of it. . .we’ll see.

Last weeks' events

So I spent Tuesday and Wednesday on an island half-way to Korea. Ok, so it is only about 1/3 of the way to Korea, but it felt like further because of the typhoon over the weekend! I never used to be one to get sea-sick, but the last few times I have visited island schools it has been painful!

Anyway, this island has about 1000 people living on it, and 20 kids. 4 at junior high school (12 – 15 years old) and 16 at elementary (6 – 11 years old). And because the island is so far out from the mainland, I had to stay overnight at a hotel. Now, I know this sounds like luxury, but the life of an ALT is not always as glamorous as it sounds!

After recovering from the boat trip out to the island I had 3 classes at the junior high and then had to wait around until 5:30 to escape to the hotel. You’d think it would be a fairly nice place, especially considering I paid 4200 yen (about $65) for one night. However, my theory is the hotel was built in the 70’s, and nothing has changed since then! Including the bedding. The futon and blanket were damp, the air con either turned the room into a freezer or didn’t work at all, the TV was coin operated (WTF??) and in the bathroom there was no towel or soap, just a handful of toothbrushes and some toilet paper (I suppose I should be grateful for the small mercies!).

And the toothbrushes did come in handy in the end: My stomach wasn’t really up for a proper meal, so I didn’t go to the one restaurant on the island before it closed, and ended up with a cup of instant mashed potatoes which I lucked upon in the tiny shop. I made it back to my hotel room no problem and made the mash, then realised there were no spoons with the tea, no cutlery whatsoever, and I hadn’t packed any – my own fault really. I guess you can see where this story is going. I was reminded of an episode of Black Books where Manny is forced to eat scrambled eggs out of a shoe with a comb, and this inspired me to use a toothbrush (non-bristle end)! Here is the proof: