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.