Ojiiiii-san! (Grandpa)

First FULL week of work.  Since I started teaching, it's been various national holidays and free days in the work week.  It's gonna be full weeks until summer vacation, better get used to it.

 

This week's also what I called Tour de 小学校 (elementary school) week.  I got 8 different schools, just one or two classes per school, all half days, and mostly just playtime.  By the end of this week, I would've finally taught at all my schools at least once.  Finally get to close out my intel reports.

 

It's been a while since I cut my hair, and I look like a hippie.  In Japan, when I ask people to guess my age, everyone so far had started at 24 or mid-20s.  Today, at my morning school, the initial guesses were in the 30s.  Whenever I let my hair grow out, it shows some semblance of a receding hairline, making me look old.  While I wasn't offended (because I'm old), it ruined the shock factor of looking young but not actually so.

 

I shaved my head as soon as I got home.  The age guesses were "back to normal" the next day.

 

An Old Friend

To set the backdrop: 

 

This's my first week of "real" teaching. I mean, sure, I still have plenty of 自己紹介 (self-intro) to do in 6 other grade schools. I was pretty pumped about teaching actual lessons (if you count teaching the alphabet to 1st year JHS / 7th graders). I had an epic fail teaching present prefect tense (e.g. I "have read" the book) to 3rd year JHS students. This's hard enough to grasp for native English speakers, so trying to push this to Japanese kids through a language that they can hardly understand was a death sentence. Luckily, my JTE stepped in and set everything straight again. If anything, I learned to leave the hard stuff to the JTE from now on and just be an English prop; I get paid the same either way. But, I was really bummed out afterwards.

 

 

Earlier in the week, I spotted an old college pal on the desk of my other JHS JTE -- Red Bull! I had forcibly been on the wagon since leaving the States, mainly because I couldn't find it at the grocery or convenience stores. In college, I drank at least one a day, the whole 4-pack on exam nights. This is dangerous indeed.

 

Thursday morning. Quick stop at Lawson's for breakfast (2 onigiri). Right past the front door, on the energy drink shelf, a tall cold can of Red Bull for 275円. I chugged the whole can before driving off the parking lot. I was officially off the wagon, and off to great day at school.

 

By the time I went to bed around 3am, I had (only) 3 cans. My heart's pounding like a jackhammer when I woke up a few hours later for another day of teaching.

 

Saturday Night

Work's been busy, lots of lesson prep.  Still trying to catch up from Golden Week...

 

 

Saturday:

Pretty much continued when I got back from Morioka.  Got a bunch of stuff around the house to do, and actually managed to get everything done.  I even called my mom in the States.  Then need to hit the road back to Morioka, pick up my wingman from Shizukuishi, and meet up with the girl from a week ago.  Oh, and I got a copy of my pizza poster!

Tried to shop for meat (there's a lot of meat jokes that weekend) for my friend's birthday BBQ the next day.  Burgers here aren't like in the States, no frozen patties in a box.  Had to go old school and make the patties from ground beef.  And like most foods here, cost a pretty penny extra than the States.

 

Picked up my wingman and returned to Morioka almost an hour late, and then spent a few more minutes finding the izakaya (because I read the wrong Japanese name on the FB message).  Met some acquaintances from last week, plus the friend that the girl brought.  To set the tone here, I've been going hardcore for past 2 days with 2 hrs of sleep, at a rest stop in my car.  It escalated very quickly: first beer became rounds of sake, and her friend was running me to the ground.  Some point that night, I mixed soy sauce with sake (and drank it).  By the time we stumbled into a karaoke, I blacked out.

 

According to my wingman, I sang Backstreet Boys (a staple song even when I'm not faded), passed out in the cab back to his apartment, fell out of the cab and laid outside in front of his apartment.  I blew it, but I wasn't feeling the vibe from the girl anyway.

 

Oh well, it's only been a month in Japan, so there'll always be another...

2nd Week of School

2nd week of school (teaching) had been a hit-or-miss.  Just another round of self-intro lessons.  I was particularly excited about this week, because of the small schools, which means more 1-on-1 time with the students.  I also had good rapport with these schools from my initial meet-and-greet.

Tuesday:

Coming back from a 3-day weekend, I was ready to rock.  Got to my school about 30 mins early.  Had lots of time to prepare since my only class of the day starts in late morning, even managed to explain to my principal what I will be doing in class in (broken) Japanese.  Here's the twist: my class has every students in the school, 12 total, which had the grade schoolers who are normally too young to be learning English.  And all the teachers and the principal were there.  In the end, I nailed it.  I took what I learned last week with the games and everyone had fun, including me.  Lots of running around, and I was genuinely smiling the whole time.  Still couldn't believe I'm getting paid to do this!

Wednesday: 

Today's the first time that the textbook was used, and I was unprepared.  I just couldn't mate the self-introduction lesson with a "how're you?" lesson (you think it's easy, but not with the way the book presents it).  And it's the first time with a Smartboard, too much tech for 6 kids and an entry-level English class.  But really, it's because I got complacent and over-confident with all those self-intro lesson.  Ended up with a lot of downtime during class, and I was not happy with myself.  But they were so nice to invite me to have watermelon at lunch with them.

Thursday:

Double duty today.  I was determined not to screw up today, and to go into the 4-day Golden Week holiday on a good note.  I got scheduled for a special self-introduction lesson with the whole school (about a dozen kids) and the teachers.  Then, I had playtime with the younger kids before my actual class, played "Fruits Basket", which is a variant of musical chairs.  Anyway, my class was awesome!  I made packs of flashcards with celebrities and everyone had to do mock self-introductions with those faces, including the principal and vice principal (who sat in on my class).  My teacher really likes James Bond (so he got the pack with James Bond in it), and my vice principal knew all the AKB48 girls and anime characters I had.  In the end, my vice principal and I talked about various things and he even gave me some constructive feedback.

Long drive to my afternoon school.  Just in time to have school lunch with the 5th and 6th graders, like all 4 of them plus the teacher.  One girl's already going to cram school, so her English level's high.  Another school-wide welcoming ceremony, and I gave all the kids high fives.  I did the same routine for class and worked fabulously.  However, the best part happened after school.  Ended up spending 2 hrs running around outside and playing soccer with the kids.

Lots of plans for the 4-day.  2nd week and I haven't been to half of my schools yet...

Man vs Nature

At the time of writing, I'm a week behind on the blog.  So, Golden Week was last week, but still plenty to write about.

My work week closed on an awesome note.  I got to know one of my vice principals really well (they're the ones who really run the schools in Japan), and I bonded with the kids at my last school of the week, with like 2 hours of outdoors playtime.  I even taught a little girl how to kick a soccer ball properly, with her scoring the goal I was guarding afterwards (sadly, I was actually defending the goal that time).

 

 

My plan for the 4-day:

• Climb Mt. Hayachine
• Go to Morioka to meet up with this girl I met last weekend
• My ALT friend's birthday
• Fix another friend's bike

Friday:

I woke up much later than I should.  By the time I arrived, it was noon.  I lost half an hour because I missed the access road entrance off 106 and the trail entrance. The weather's also not looking good, but I was determined.

 

About 50 m in, a large tree blocking the path, but I will just shuffle underneath it with some crouching. Then another tree... I will just climb over it.  Then the path's gone, looks like a landslide took it out, but the rocks seem scalable... I will just hug the cliff wall and spider-man my way across.  Success!

At the 5th station, there's a torii gate across a small river, which added to the mystic feel of the mountain. This is the start of the real hike/climb. No idea on the altitude, but it's cold enough for snow to remain. After a pregame dump in the woods, I pressed forth.

At first, not too bad, trails still visible.  Then a few 100m's up was the hillside blanketed with snow. The danger was what's under the snow; it could be flat ground or a large skewer of a branch that'll take out my leg.  The snow also looked partially melted underneath, where I could step through into who-knows-what below. I proceeded slowly.

 

As I climbed up, it's getting colder and the ground was more hard packed with snow.  It also started snowing at some point.  I had extra clothes and food, but my shoes and gloves are wet from earlier (hypothermia risk); it started to dawn on me that I wasn't equipped for this climb, or maybe the trail's actually closed.  However, I'm stubborn.

Past 7th station.  I couldn't see trails anymore, just pink flags.  So I will just connect the dots with the fastest and safest way possible.  I was feeling like Bear Grylls, getting deep in a nature survival scenario; the adrenaline kept me going.

 

 

I said I would stop at 3:30, but it's more like 4 before I backed down.  I was just climbing the most direct and clear path, so I was on my hands and knees a lot, not to mention it keeps me from falling through some thin snow sections.  I gave up when my sanity won: it's getting dark, there's a snowstorm, and I couldn't find any more pink flags.  I believe I had 2 km left to the peak.

When I finally got back to my car, it's almost 6.  I ate "it" quite a few times, but I felt like a bad ass. Looking back, glad I stopped when I did.  I would've certainly got lost in the dark and froze to death, or got hurt and then froze to death.  There wasn't a soul for miles to know I was in trouble, plus no cell signal nearby.  I bid my trusty partner, a hiking stick (found a nice solid branch at the start of the hike, saved me dozens of times), a ceremonial goodbye.  I decided to make a spur-of-the-moment trip to Morioka.

 

The trail entrance at Kadoma was closer to Morioka than Miyako (my town), so I may as well go.  I bought stuff, had yakiniku with my ALT friend nearby (epic fail on the meat ordering; he doesn't like a lot of fat on his meat... giggity), and bought more stuff.  At my final shopping stop, I ran into another ALT from Miyako.

 

I finally got home around 4 am.  I had to sleep at a rest stop because I almost crashed my car, bumped the tire on the highway curb at 60+ kph.  Woke me the f*** up real quick!

It's Been a Month...

I arrived in Japan near the end of March, had training in the first week.  It's been one month since I settled in my city, and one week since I started teaching.  It's been nothing but stories and highlights.  And yea, there's also the daily struggle, mostly with the language, but I assume it'll get better.

Some highlights include:

• Went through a basic training style program for the 3rd time in my life (one of them was actually Army basic training)
• Bought my 1st Japanese cell phone with a contract, only to have it taken away 3 hrs later (residency issues)
• Had an hour-long nonsense conversation with an old drunk Japanese man
• Went skiing for the 1st time
• Caught panty shots from 2 different Japanese girls at a mall (pretty easy with the way they dressed)
• Walked 2 hours up a mountain for a great scenic view, only to find out on my way down that I could've driven up there
• Spilled green tea all over the place at a power meet-and-greet at my city's Board of Education
• Got fiber optic internet hooked up in 3 days, with a massive service discount, when normally it takes several weeks
• Had my face put on a pizza restaurant poster
• Drank multiple umeshu (plum wine) cocktails laced with copious amounts of tabasco at a hanami after-party, and chucked one (about the size of a rum & coke in the States)
• Went to a craft beer festival
• Molested/boob-grabbed by a drunk male Japanese friend at the same beer festival
• Managed to explain my lesson plan to one of my principals in (broken) Japanese
• No one had been able to guess my age correctly... no one

Some stories from schools & kids:

• Was introduced to my 3rd junior high Japanese twin
• On my first week at junior high, during the self-introduction lesson, one of the kids said "I like meat!" for his likes.  I was fighting so hard from yelling "That's what she said"
• Sat in an afternoon-long student body meeting.  It's amazing how the students in Japan govern themselves and all the ritualistic protocols (e.g. bowing) that they go through
• Had a lunchtime conversation with a student on the anime Evangelion
• Had a short conversation with a student (a girl, surprisingly) about guns.  And no, not about gun control
• Graded almost 100 junior high papers about a school field trip to Tokyo
• One of my 6th graders made me an origami frog
• Taught a bunch of grade-schoolers how to do secret handshakes

Some quirks & impressions of daily life so far:

• Amazon standard shipping in Japan is super fast, on par with expedited in the States, and I can find anything there (except for a snow brush for my car)
• Some things like paying bills are convenient (literally can be paid at any convenience store), but banking is a pain in the ass (no online banking available in the area)
• Spent too much time at Homac (the local Home Depot) & Seria (the local 100 yen store), like everyday at one point
• Drank a lot of milk tea and melon soda

Some challenges ahead:

• The language!
• Lessons beyond self-introduction
• Small talks with other teachers
• Kuroneko (a.k.a. Yamato Transport, the UPS of Japan)

I'll try to be faithful about the blog, whenever something awesome happens.  Stay tuned!

The Buildup...

Working abroad, specifically teaching abroad (in Japan), is an once-in-a-lifetime experience.  So, a blog is required.

Since I was too lazy to start one when I first arrived in Japan, I need to do a prologue.  I'll try not to be too wordy.

Why I took the leap of faith abroad?

• Got tired of my $69,000/yr engineering job (Loved the people there, but not the daily shenanigans)
• Couldn't settle down after years of on-and-off traveling (been to 18 countries in my adult years)
• Inspired by my mentor/friend from work, with his ballin' stories from his time in Asia (Thanks, Dan)
• Survived a pretty spectacular motorcycle accident (miraculously w/o anything broken)
• Thought about my 1st overseas deployment (Army)
• Had friends who took the leap of faith, still there
• Needed another life challenge

Why Japan?

• Liked the country, went back every year since 2007 (USA still #1 though)
• Studied Japanese in university (Illinois), did a summer program abroad (Hiroshima, baby!)
• Made good friends there, lots of nice people
• Pays better than other Asian countries (but not rollin' deep like $69,000/yr, not even close)
• High standard of living (not a shithole)
• Like my friend James said: exotic yet accessible

Why teaching?

• Wanted to try something new and completely different (from engineering)
• Enjoyed it from my pseudo-teaching experiences from university
• Liked working with kids
• Life challenge, one of those "bucket list" items
• People say it's a rewarding experience

How I got started:

• Started looking jobs abroad, particularly non-engineering jobs
• Researched on eikaiwa positions, remembered JET program from my last year at university
• Found out about ALT positions, and then a good company
• Applied, interviewed, got hired, and off to Japan (with paperwork and months of anxious waiting in-between)

What I do now:

• Teach English at elementary and junior high schools on the east coast of Iwate Prefecture, near the epicenter of the 2011 tsunami
• Make sure the kids have fun, and get paid to do it
• Travel, hobbies, make new friends, have new experiences, etc.
• Enjoy life! (responsibly, of course)

Do I like it?

       Hell yea!  One of my best life decisions yet.