伊勢ヨイ夜ナ(Ise Illuminations) and名古屋城 (Nagoya Castle)

Okay folks, sorry I haven’t written in a while. Let’s see….classes are going okay. There is this game called rows and columns that I play in my ES and JHS where the students all have to stand up and I ask them questions. If they answer correct then they get to sit down and pick their row or column. The ES kids are always so excited to play this game and get mad when their friends pick their row to sit down. They what to keep answering the questions, but for the JHS students this is a painful ritual to get them to participate. It’s interesting. 

Right now the schools are preparing for their 文化祭(Bunkasai; Culture Festival). From what I gather the JHS and HS bunkasai are a little different. The JHS does a song festival and some dances/stuff that clubs put together, but I believe that at the HS bunkasai, each class puts together some kind of event/display. So classes are getting replaced with song practice time. Watching them practice kind of makes me miss music and being in ensembles. But I’m looking forward to see how these culture festivals (this is plural because I have two JHS) turn out. 

Aside from the AJET Halloween Party the other weekend, this past weekend I went to Ise since they had two illumination nights. 伊勢ヨイ夜ナ(Ise Yoiyana). Another JET in Matsusaka invited me and we went with his supervisor to Ise.  They had candles light up along the street with all the shops and what not that leads to Ise Naiku Shrine. We also ate  てこね寿司 (Tekonesushi), a specialty of Ise. It kind of reminds me of an Ahi bowl sort of because it has slices of maguro shashimi on top of rice.

てこね寿司 (Tekonesushi)

A side street to the main street leading to Naiku

World Peace

In front of the front gate to Naiku.

Pass!
Hopefully I can pass the JLPT.

I also went to Nagoya to see the castle and shopped around for a winter coat. Nagoya castle was pretty neat, but not as cool as Himeji Castle. I bought a castle book and now I want to visit all the castles in Japan; a new goal of mine. There are 48 of them and I’ve seen 4 of them already (Shurijo, Nijo, Himejijo, and Nagoyajo) and there are a few pretty near to where I am. This weekend when I visit Ingrid in Kochi, I’m going to the castle there.

Nagoya Castle

They are doing some reconstruction and we were able to see

There are 2 parts of the castle, this is leading to the main part.

大須観 (Osu Kannon Temple) in Nagoya

 

The weather is getting cooler. It’s also getting harder and harder to wake up and get out of my warm bed. The hallways and classrooms are getting kind of chilly too. It’s not really that cold, but everyone knows that I’m always cold and like to complain. The lows in the evening are about 12~14C and the highs are 18~20C. I have no idea what that is in Fahrenheit. Time is going by fast. It’s hard to believe I’ve been here for 3 months already. There is still a lot more that I want to do in school and out of school. I’ll get there.

I'm a train Master! Kind of

Ok, so since the last time I wrote an entry I did another billion self-introduction lessons. Kamada (KJH) has a very different, how shall I put it, kuuki (air). Teachers are rushing off to deal with students. Let me say you wouldn’t normally think Japanese kids would behave this way. These kids talk back to the teachers, chatting while I’m talking….. yeah…… that kind of feeling. But the teachers that I’ve worked with so far are really nice.  

I visited the brass band club at KJH briefly and got to chat with some of the students. It was outside of class so I didn’t feel bad using some Japanese when they totally didn’t understand what I was saying.  One of the JTEs passed by and a student was like “Sensei, I spoke a lot of English today.” It made me feel good that I they felt they were able to communicate and use English with me. At first I probably spoke fairly fast and not clear, but I’m getting better at slowing down and speaking simple
English.

The previous weekend I went to Nagoya and did some shopping for autumn/winter clothing.

This past weekend was another 3 day weekend. Monday was Sports and Health Day. I love that Japan has a tone of holidays and that I finally get to be off on holidays. I haven’t observed holidays since I was in High School. DPU always had classes on holidays and when I was working at Borders I usually worked on holidays. Anyway, I went to Osaka/Kobe area to visit my YFU Program host sister from Okinawa.. Sayumi. And….my host mom came to visit too. What a coincidence. It's been six years since I've seen Keiko and three and a half years since I've seen Sayumi.

I left on Friday and stayed in Osaka/Kobe area till Monday afternoon. This was the farthest I’ve traveled by myself. I went to Osaka the other week but I was with a group of people. It was fine, I didn’t get on any wrong trains. Took the Kintetsu to Ise-nakagawa then got in a rapid express train to Tsuruhashi (in Osaka). Then I had to change to the JR Loop line to get to Osaka Station. Meet my host sister then we took the Hankyu Line to her place. 

It was a pretty chill and relaxing weekend. We got to catch up. We went to Universal Studios in Osaka on Saturday. They had a Zombie Horror Special so the park was open later. Tons of long lines everywhere.  There was one ride that reminded me of Space Mountain at Disney Land but this was even better. It’s a coaster in the dark but the drops weren’t as steep, but the car turns (like the car in the Toy Story/Buzz Lightyear rides). It was pretty wild. There was a Spiderman ride too, that was pretty cool. And like the Toba Aquarium, Universal Studios is filled with couples and screaming kids, plus the long lines, except this time they were more fashionable since this is Osaka.

So in Japan Hello Kitty is part of Universal Studios......

Hidden stuff throughout the park

Hello Kitty Float

Another hidden picture thing

Zombie

This was part of the super horror area, he jumped out at us and there was another guy with a chainsaw down to the left of this photo

It was kind of scary, but I'm a wuss

 

Sunday, we walked around China Town (南京町 Nankinmachi) in Kobe. I got to try nikuman. I think it’s  supposed to be a manju with meat, but it kind of reminds me of a manapua/charsiubao  and a shumai blended into one. Kind of.  Then we went to Kobe Airport to meet my host mom, Keiko. She brought Okinawa Soba with her so we had that for dinner. On Saturday we had Osaka okonimiyaki for lunch and then I headed back to Matsusaka.

West Gate of Nankinmachi

It was Universal Studios all over again.....lines everywhere

Nikuman

East Gate

Okinawa Soba

Osaka Station, looks kind of like an airport

I’m back at Tonomachi (TJS) right now, but the 2^nd years are on their school trip (修学旅行 shuugakuryokou) right now so the school feels kind of empty this week.  I’m taking the Level 3 Japanese Language Proficiency Test (日本語能力試験三級; mid-advance intermediate; the new N3 is in the middle of the old N2 and N3) in December, so I’ve been studying more and more lately. Think I should be alright for the exam. It’s a good goal to get me to study, because I wouldn’t otherwise.

Long weekend and second JHS

So in the past week since my last entry I did quite a lot. There was a Monday/Friday holiday last week, and there was another typhoon so school so school got cancelled and I took a nenkyu day. Only worked 2 days that week. The long weekend started with heading to Nabari on Thursday to spend the night at a fellow JETs place. A bunch of us met up and hung out. Had a relaxing dinner at a really cheap izakaya (Japanese pub). Then on Friday we went to hike (it wasn’t really a hike…) Akame Falls（赤目四十八滝）.  After the hike we met up with JETs in Nabari and some JTEs and had a BBQ. Then we took the train in to Osaka for a girls night out.  I had to stay at a different hostel than everyone because their hostel was booked, so I went to my hostel on my own. I really have no sense of direction and got lost many times. I had to ask for directions. I eventually met up with everyone. We had dinner at Freshness Burger (my first time trying it. It seemed a little healthier, but I think I like Mos Burger better). After half of our group went back to the hostel to hang out with these other guys the met there and we went to karaoke for a few hours. I usually don’t like karaoke, but I surprisingly had a good time. After we met up with the rest of our group and randomly met up with friends of a friend. Then we went to a club and came home at the wee hours of the morning.

Saturday we took it easy and just walked around a bit and shopped. I got back to Matsusaka by around dinner time. 

One of the waterfalls at Akame Falls

Another waterfall

and another waterfall

BBQ

OSAKA!

 Sunday I went to Kyoto on a day trip. On Tuesday evenings I go to the Taki Community Center to study Japanese, so the people that went on this trip were mostly people who go to the Tuesday Japanese classes. It was kind of rushed but we went to Kiyomizu-dera and Shunko-in which is part of the Myoshinji Temple. A former Taki CIR married one of vice-abbot of Shunko-in, so that’s the reason we got a chance to visit and what not. Myoshinji is a Zen Buddhist temple of the Rinzai School, and is one of the main temples in Kyoto. We got a short lecture of zazen and we got to meditate for a 15mins. They had a really pretty rock garden and sliding door paintings by Kano artists (it was really cool to see stuff up close instead of copies in articles that I read in classes at DPU).  It was a good day trip, but there is so much to see in Kyoto that you have to go again and again to see different things.

Kiyomizu-dera

Kiyomizu-dera

Kiyomizu-dera (remodeling?)

Kiyomizu-dera

The wall looked cool

Some Maiko(Geisha) walking around

Myoshinji

I thought this looked cool

Ginger; reminded me of home

Garden at Shunko-in

Kano Wall paintings

 This was pretty trippy....so matter where you stand it looks like the stairs are facing you. The 1st picture I was on the left side of the room and the other was on the right side. It really does look like the stairs face you.

Kano Wall paintings

So, I started teaching at my 2^nd J.H.S. It is completely different than my other one. I had heard it was a rough school, so I was preparing myself. This is far for a typical school and it will be an interesting challenge. When I go back to my other J.H.S. it will be like heaven. There are good students at this school, but the general attitudes and behavior of the students is not what you expect.

Some of my lessons are epic fails; the students don’t talk and are uninterested. But some classes are wonderful; the JTEs help translate and the students understand and fully participate. I’m still getting used to things and maybe after my self-introduction lessons are over things will be different.
 

I went to watch the brass band club for a little bit and talked with some of the members. I used some Japanese when they completely didn’t understand, I think it gave them confidence to talk with me. One of the JTEs was passing by and a student told him she was speaking a lot of English. That made me really happy that they felt confident and were using English able to communicate with me

Oh yeah, after the typhoon rolled by the weather cooled down a bit. It’s not as humid and the air is fresh and crisp. I’m wearing long sleeve shirts now to school. It’s a little nippy for me, so I’m going to have to get a coat soon. It’s starting to feel like Fall.

21 Self Introduction Classes so far....

I was meaning to post this entry on Monday, but my internet was spotty and I couldn't upload the photos.

So I’ve had a full week of teaching (18 classes to be exact). I’ve done my self-introduction a total of 21 times already. And to top it off, I’m going to my second Junior High School starting tomorrow where I’ll probably have to give it another 20-billion-times. But even having four classes back to back is better than sitting at a desk all day doing nothing. The kids are at a lower level than I thought, so I am dumbing things down a bit. But they have only studied English for  a total of 1-3 years so…if I compare it to when I studied Japanese I couldn’t really understand much either.

So each class usually has around 40kids but for the English classes they split the class up so it’s 15-18kids per class. They have 2 JTEs per grade so 6 JTEs total at Tonomachi. Its good this way, so they can kind of get more attention from the teacher. Each class usually has 1 trouble maker/very talkative/ wants attention student, and they always look the same. I taught only 1^st and 3^rd years (7^th and 9^th graders). With the 1^st years I gave my intro then they did a self intro (they had already done some short 5ish sentence intro), and I had a worksheet to test if they remembered my intro. With the 3^rd years, I did my intro then they had a worksheet activity using the sentence ‘The place I want to visit is …….’

Things are going okay, but I want to make my self-intro lesson more fun/interactive. Feels like I’m just talking at them. I still have time to work on it since I have a chance to do it all over again at Kamada JHS. But without fail I always get asked my age and if I have a boyfriend. I am always reminded that I am soooo young. But I tell them I have 5 boyfriends, one for each day of the week.

On Friday the Tonomachi JHS JTEs took me out to dinner for my ‘Welcome Party’. At first I thought it was going to be the whole staff, but it was just the JTEs. It was nice to chat with them and get to know them a little better. They chatted mostly in Japanese, but I was able to follow what they were talking about.  I learned a new word; kimotameshi. There isn’t really an exact word that it translates to in English, but its like testing your bravery. Examples are like at a haunted house, our going out at night go a graveyard. Something like that.

When I was going home it kind of made me sad because now I’m going to Kamada. But it’s not like this is the end of it. I’m kinda nervous and excited at the same time to go to a new school. I just got used to things at Tonomachi. 

So it was also a three day weekend. Saturday I went to Toba with friends and we went to the Mikimoto Pearl Island and the Aquarium.  The weather was kind of junky, but it cleared up a little. I haven’t really ever bought myself jewelry and I’m not really in to it, so I had a hard time picking something out. Ended up getting a cheap heart shaped ring with a pearl in the middle.  Just like I would rather someone else cook for me, I would rather someone else buy jewelry for me. Oh, must not forget to mention that the Aquarium is either filled with couples on dates holding hands and being all cute, or screaming kids and families. Both are gross.

Some boat by the Mikimoto Pearl Island

Pearl Catcher!

They did a demo but didn't see much of it because it was raining.

Reef Shark

Crayfish

NEMO!

Porpoise, but they were too fast

Japanese Spider Crab

At one of the shows

Giant Hamster/Rabbit/Guinea Pig?

Manate

Walrus which are called セイウチ(Seiuchi)

Penguins

It gives kisses

and it has a popping sound when it gives a kiss.

and the trainers can make them kiss each other

more and more tricks

Sunday, I was supposed to go out and watch my Elementary School’s Sports Festival, but I ended up staying home  doing stuff around the house.  Today I went out with friends to Odai and we went to nice spot along the river and swam. The water was kinda cold, but it felt really refreshing. It doesn’t look it, but the current was kind of strong. Swimming up current was rough, but going down was breeze.

The river we were swimming at. we also swam at another spot, but I didn't take a picture of that spot

There were sooo many rocks. My feet were sore.

Wow I can actually cook.
One of the teachers at one of my Elementary Schools gave me clams.

Hayashi Rice

I only have 3 days of school this week then another three day weekend. WHOOOO HOOOOOO!!!!!!