Not much new, but here you go.

Hi friends.  It’s been a couple weeks and I really don’t have anything new to share but I thought I would check in to give you your much deserved peace of mind.  The rainy season is here in Japan, although it seems to have started a couple of weeks later than usual.  I’m not sure if that means it will end later or not.  Work is about the same.   They continue to throw new classes at me every week which continues to piss me off.  I have realized that for almost all of my students, my class is their first English speaking class ever.  This Thursday in one of my elementary classes, one boy started shouting all the answers.  With him being the largest student in the class, all of the other children naturally followed.  Now I have 11 fifth and sixth graders bellowing in unison at my command.  Not sure where to direct this energy.

Outside of work, I’ve been running a few times a week, reading some Japanese on the internet and trying to figure out ways to meet more people.  I’m slowly getting to know the Japanese people at work, but they all seem sort of stressed out and don’t chat much before or after class in any language.  I’ll continue working on this, and hopefully find an alcohol based solution soon.

Well this morning I was shaken awake by a 5.2 earthquake in Nagano, a couple hundred miles away.  It was the first one I’ve felt since I’ve been here.  I think my room being one floor higher than last time makes them seem stronger.  It’s either that or my reoccurring nightmare of being stuck on a malfunctioning mechanical bull.  Okay, I will check back in in a while.  Have a super night!

Full Trains and Empty Mountains

Another fairly bland week is in the books folks.  The highlight this week was a hike I took to a mountain called Shizugatake.  It was about 90 minutes by train from my house and the hike to the top took another 90.  The summit offered a 360 degree panorama including two major lakes: Lake Yago (the small one) and Lake Biwa (the biggest Lake in Japan, where I lived during study abroad.)  My original plan was just to hike around the smaller lake and I didn’t even realize there was a trail to the top of the mountain.  Overall one of the coolest views I’ve seen anywhere, and not a soul in sight anywhere on the mountain.  See my picture on Facebook if you haven’t yet.

Other than that work is about the same.  Next week I am going to start a four week one-on-one class with a fourth grader who is going to the US over summer break.  I have no idea how these classes come into existence.  I imagine someone just walks into a branch and asks if they can whip up a custom course for their kid.  My boss must be hoping to rope in a 10 year old who will continue for the next five years.

On Friday I rode a full train for the first time.  You must be thinking “that’s impossible, he’s ridden hundreds of trains.”  Well the trains out of Nagoya run every 15 minutes and the 10:30 train was delayed 35 minutes.  (Yes, 10:30 pm).  Then when it showed up it was four cars long instead of eight.  So three trains-worth of people in half a train.  I was literally shoved against the wall with four people pushing into me.  Lovely.  Now I understand why groping on trains is a problem.  One guy actually got his watch caught on my belt buckle while trying to check his phone.  I’m really glad I don’t commute in rush hour now.

On Saturday night a few Americans watched the movie Tusk.  I highly recommend it if you’ve ever wondered about surgically altering a human to resemble a walrus.  It has Johnny Depp too!

Okay, back to work tomorrow.  I’m off to practice cooking rice and learn those last 700 Kanji!!

Two Months in.

Hmm, looks like it’s already been two months since I’ve moved to Japan.  The time is passing quickly and I feel mostly settled into a routine.  Work is getting smoother and I’m able anticipate most problems before they occur based on the people I work with at each branch.  For example: Branch where the guy gets there 45 minutes before class and spends 30 minutes frantically apologizing to people on the phone:  Didn’t have the new workbook.  Branch where the guy gets there 45 minutes before class and spends 30 minutes eating fried chicken:  Did not have the new workbook or the printed homework.  Branch where the guy sits in on every class and gets to work early to pull weeds out of the parking lot: Had extra workbooks and homework prints. 

Two days a week I still have Japanese teachers that sit in on my elementary classes.  One of them is fluent in English and seems like he wouldn’t mind teaching the class.  The other has never said a word of English to me but I’ve seen him helping students with English homework.  So I don’t know if he’s evaluating my teaching or just trying to learn shapes and colors.  He also wears sweet custom suits and cowboy boots to work.  The mysteries continue to unfold.

So outside of work I’ve been getting to know to the other American teachers and biking/running/hiking a fair amount.  The nice weather has been holding up and I’m currently slightly sunburned and enjoying a cool breeze I’ve created by cracking my door and window.   This week we had Sunday brunch complete with Bloody Marys.  Five of us also went to see the latest X Men movie which had amazing stabbing sound effects but a pretty basic plot.  I’m a little bit frustrated because it’s taking longer than I expected to make local friends.  It doesn’t help that all the Japanese people I work with are full-timers, so they work past midnight most nights, and also a lot of weekends.  For inspiration, I’m reading my old blogs from my first two trips here.  They remind that it took a lot of time and patience to build up a fun social life.  They also remind me of main regret, which was not studying more in the free time I had in the first few months.  Fortunately this time around I’ve mostly made the jump to studying real Japanese as opposed to text books.  Today I read the Huffington Post article about overcoming eating disorders and then watched a dubbed episode of Castle with Japanese subs turned on.  I think listening to the Japanese and reading it at the same time helps.  The dubbed American shows are actually easier to understand.  I think it’s because the voice actors are speaking straight into the mic.  Well I kind of feel like I’m rambling here and not really saying much interesting.  I’ll update again when I do something cool.  Good night all.