Don Quixote and German Tents

Okay, time for another quick and unremarkable post.  I’ve continued my hectic work schedule of going to six branches a week and getting home at 11:30 most nights.  I had my final “Tea Time in English” with two more Shimon teachers and we all agreed to have “Beer Time in English” next time we are all free.  The leading choice for venue is a converted greenhouse/tent thingy in a rice field that serves German beer.  It’s like three blocks from my house and it never occurred to me that a red, yellow and black tent could be a German restaurant.

Well mid-terms are coming up and that means several of my English conversation classes may canceled this week.  I’m not too bummed as these are my toughest classes, which combine 7^th and 9^th graders.  Not 7-9^th graders, just 7^th and 9^th with no 8^th graders.  It’s a very weird mix, especially considering most of the kids don’t know each other and have never been in a class where they were asked to speak English.  Last week we went around the room saying our favorite pets and it took about 2 minutes for each kid.  Come on Timmy, just fucking say “cat”!  My other classes are going pretty good though, and most of the elementary kids are starting to speak out.  They especially like it when they find errors in the power point presentation.  This week there was a slide with a picture of an orange umbrella and the Japanese subtitle said “white cat”.  I got a big rise out of the kids by pounding my fist on the screen and insisting that it said orange umbrella.  The power points are made by my supervisor, who is a really neat guy and a total workaholic, and are finished on average about 3 hours before the classes are supposed to start.  For some reason they refuse to just buy a text book.

Well the weekend has come and gone, and with the rainy season looming, I decided to get out as much as possible.  I went hiking in the mountains yesterday, and I walked around Gifu city today.  That’s the capital, which has like 500,000 people and is 12 minutes on the train from me.  All the main streets have like 5 stories of straight concrete on either side.  I bought a few new ties at a store called Don Quixote, walked down a river for a few miles and got home just as the other Americans were heading out to eat hamburgers.  We have one really good burger place in town where they play Elvis all the time and show Popeye cartoons on an old TV.  Very nostalgic.  Alright, hopefully I’ll do something other than work and wonder around this week.  See you all later!

More work :(

Another week has passed and I can’t think of anything to write about except work.  We had an ice cream party on Sunday at our main branch and around 50 kids showed up, swarmed around the office playing different games and then devoured several tubs of ice-cream plus about 90 pounds of toppings.  One of the toppings was sweet bean paste, which was very unpopular, so I spent about 20 minutes waving spoonfuls of bean paste at reluctant children.  None of my kids came since they’re not in the Hello!s English program.  (More on that later.)  It kind of made me miss my old classes where I would have just a handful of elementary kids and I could play around and get to know them a little better.  In my own classes I’m still learning the kids’ names (there’s over 100 of them in case you think I’m a moron). 

I also taught two “Tea Time English” classes for other teachers.  I had two students in both classes.  My supervisor attended and we spent an hour drinking $4 cups of coffee, playing connect four and discussing what we do on our days off.  I was somewhat shocked to find that four people were willing to drive out of their way and start work two hours early to talk with me.  I must be popular.

So overall not much fun to report this week.  I’ve been loving my free time so far but I’m still getting adjusted to work.  Today I taught two classes and then was informed that all my Jr high classes were canceled due to upcoming midterms.  So I sat there dicking around on my company-issued iPad for 3 hours.  That helped me feel a little more adjusted.  I’m not sure if I have 2 or 6 classes tomorrow.  Okay I’m going to cut this one short and hit the hay.  Stay tuned!

Week Five

It’s been another busy week but I’ll post a quick update before I doze off here on Sunday night.  My golden week vacation came to an unexciting end.  The last day I went on an excursion to Gamagori, which has an island connected to the mainland by a narrow bridge.  I rode the train for 90 minutes and then walked around the island for about 10.  The town also features an overpriced aquarium and museum that I passed on.  I brought one coworker who was similarly unimpressed.  Instead we opted for the boat racing stadium.  It’s a huge outdoor stadium around an artificial lake where guys race around on tiny motorboats.  Thanks to legal gambling admission is free.  I did not place any bets but I did get to see one guy wipe out and get scooped out of the water by the ambulance boat.  Kinda fun but not really worth $30 in train fare, especially when I live next to a bicycle racing stadium. 

So then it was back to work for another fairly grueling week.  On Tuesday I teach for three hours with no break in a room that is intended to be used for parent teacher conferences.  There are two rows of desks and the back row is literally four desks wall to wall.  When I want Billy to come write on the white board I have to make him climb over or under his own desk.  Actually since all the kids are in 7^th-9^th grades they seem to enjoy it.  Next week I’m teaching “Tea Time English” classes for Shimon teachers before work.  My boss told me he wanted it to be a casual conversation class.  Then he decided half of it should be spent drilling pronunciation of vowels so the teachers could “speak more confidently” in class.   In case you didn’t know Japanese has only five simple vowels while English has roughly 600.  Honestly I don’t think English speakers care if a Japanese person pronounces the words “color” and “collar” the same.  So far I only have one student.

This weekend was the Ogaki festival.  They close down the main street and set up hundreds of carnival booths with every kind of fried food you could dream of.  They also have big groups of men carry huge floats around town.  I put a picture of one on facebook.  One of the floats had six girls aged 6-8 in Kimonos and full geisha make up.  Another one had a creepy 3 foot tall puppet.  I wound up going three times in two days with various coworkers, and also running into three other people I knew there.  I have also seen the same woman working at a pineapple booth at all three festivals I’ve been to so far.  It makes me wonder about the secret lives of Japanese carnies.  Really though it make me excited for the October festival where are the American men get to carry one of the huge floats while the townspeople cheer and hand us free beer.  Okay it’s late and I have another big week coming up.  I’ll update within a week or so.

Festival Season

Hello again internet comrades.  My golden week vacation is mostly over already and I haven’t gotten lost, stranded on an island or humiliated on a cruel game show yet.  At one point however I appeared to be lost (i.e. walking down the side of a rural highway) and a man stopped his car to ask me if I needed a ride (in English).  I said I was just walking and he drove off.  Then 20 minutes later after I turned on to a different road he drove up behind me again.  He had driven to his job, picked up an English guide to the town and then tracked me down again.  It turns out he was formerly in charge of the regional ALT program and had been the liaison for up to 15 American teachers.  He now manages a hot spring resort and after we chatted for a good 20 minutes he gave me a free bath ticket.  He also steered me off the main road up onto a twisty one-lane forest road that I hiked on for two hours while only seeing 4 cars.  I put a couple pictures on Facebook. 

Other than that I’ve been to two festivals.  One involved children performing Kabuki plays on mobile stages that looked like shrines.  The kids were around 8 to 10 years old and had flawlessly memorized a full hour’s worth of dialogue in 400 year old Japanese.  I understood about 8 words.  I went with a coworker who is very into both theater and understanding hard Japanese, so we watched three different plays.  I got tired and sunburned but luckily they had refreshment booths selling food on a stick.  The other festival was a fire festival in the town of Godo which is about 5 miles away.  It started at midnight so we biked there.  I’m not really sure of the significance, but it basically involved groups of men in loin clothes charging up and down the main street with huge burning torches.  Mostly it was cool to see this sleepy country town completely lit up and packed with people at 12am.  I got a couple pictures, but it was so crowded they weren’t very good. 

So far this week has left me surprised at the amount of fairly famous events in the very near vicinity of Ogaki.  I had never been to either of the festivals.  In fact this whole week I haven’t even been more than one train stop from home.  The farthest I’ve been is actually about 7-8 miles that I went in search of a Nintendo Classic Mini.  It’s like a miniature version of the original NES that comes with 30 all-time favorite games on it.  I didn’t find it, but I did pick up a cheaper used version that has 88 games including classics such as “fruit tree” and “whale”.  Hours of fun await.  The other pictures I posted where from an excursion to a shrine called Nangu Taisha.  It’s huge, over 1000 years old, located 6 miles from my house, and I had never heard of it before I went.  The surprises just keep coming. 

Last night five of the Americans celebrated Cinco de Mayo be making tacos and mixing margaritas from sprite and green syrup.  A couple Japanese people came and fortunately didn’t ask too many questions about Mexican history.  I’m trying to get a few people together to go the beach tomorrow.  It’s the last day of break and the weather says 73 and sunny!  Hope everyone back home is getting some spring weather by now!  Later!

Golden what now?

Wow, it’s been two weeks since my last post.  You are probably thinking I am so deeply involved in my various adventures I haven’t had a second to keep you updated.  Or you may be thinking that I am getting home from work at 1130 at night, drinking a large beer while watching half an episode of The Mentalist dubbed in Japanese and falling asleep.  Those of you in the second group are correct.  Congratulations, you win a rice ball.  Work has been sucking up a lot of time, and unlike before it doesn’t look like I’ll be able to start early and sneak out at 8 or 9.  I’m also commuting super hard core to a total of 6 branches, none of which are close.  Monday and Thursday I’m going to try to ride my bike.  Both of these days my branches are around six miles away.  On Thursday I’ll actually be going about 3 miles west, stopping to teach 2 classes, then continuing three more miles and teaching another two classes.  So far I have three totally different kinds of classes:  Elementary classes that follow a popcorn-themed power point, Jr. high “Practical Conversation” classes that I teach with almost no materials, and high school classes that prepare students for the English listening portion of an SAT type test.  So far my high school classes have only one or two kids each.  This week when I asked them what they thought kitchenware was, three classes in a row answered “an apron?”  I think we should just go ahead and change that word so they get the points.

What else besides work?  I finally got a phone.  My number is 080 4962 1773.  I think you need to dial 011 81 to get Japan from the USA.  But the best way to get a hold of me is through the Facebook messenger app or the line app.  Both are free and only use cell data.  By the way I have seen the future of text messaging, and it is going to change into an art form in about a year.  Emojis are just the beginning.  When I came back from study abroad in 2007 I predicted the rise of texting, so you can trust me on this!

If you want pictures I’ve added a few to Facebook.  Last weekend I took two separate hikes.  One was to a temple I had visited before and one was up a random trail I found at the base of the hills.  It led to a power line tower.  Since I’m in sort of a fridge suburb here, I’m only a few miles from the mountains.  (Like the ones that cover 80 percent of the island).  I’m planning to go back tomorrow to see what else is up in there.

The other small thing I want to mention is that I just started a one week vacation!  It’s golden week here which is a cluster of holidays that result in many people getting a week off.  This one really snuck up on me, but I promise I’ll do something fun and unexpected and hopefully meet some new people.  The other Americans at work are a nice bunch and we’ve hung out several times.  They invited me to play games and have drinks both days last weekend.  I’m not sure if they’re into going out, or my type of random exploring adventures, though.  Hopefully I can convince someone to take off with me for at least a day or two this week.  I’m going to see a few of them in a couple hours, so I’m going to go dig through some maps and see if I can’t find somewhere appealing to go for break.  I’ll update in a few days!

It's time to check in.

Today Delta sent me an email to inform me that it's time to check in!  For some reason my company bought me a round trip ticket and the return portion leaves tomorrow.  It's funny to think that if this were a two week vacation I'd be packing up and heading home.  Instead it feels like I'm only half way unpacked here.
Well in terms of physical unpacking I'm pretty much in to my new apartment.  I must have been shopping a dozen times already for things like juice, coffee, neck ties, an iron, a new belt, multi colored pens, a squishy soccer ball, drain cleaner and  bags to do more shopping with.  Somehow after all of this I do not have a phone or internet access at my home.  This is irritating.  Especially since it took me like a day to get a phone last time.  Apparently the fact that I misplaced my official seal could slow things down even more.  The seal or "hanko" is a stamp with Kanji for a person's name.  It's used in place of a signature.  In my case my boss made up name Kanji for me: Mai (to dance or whirl) and keru (to kick).
Work has been going alright.  Two days a week I'm riding the train to the town of Tajimi, which means I'm going from the far northwest corner to the east corner of a 10 million person metropolis.  The ride there is okay, but for some reason the 10pm train out of Nagoya is always full.  What where doing until 10pm downtown Japanese businessman?  Couldn't you just do that at your house??
Classes look like they should be easy.  I have one elementary class that I teach 10 times a week called Popcorn English.  It's actually designed to be taught by a Japanese teacher so all the English is pre-recorded.  The students just follow a power point, repeat and listen to my various lewd interjections.  I have been dispatched to teach it at a few select branches because management feels other schools are encroaching on our territory.  Schools in our safe territory will have the classes  taught by the regular Japanese staff.  I am also required to stand outside as the students arrive for class.  Tactical.
I gave my introductory speech at the big company meeting on Tuesday.  I made it very polite and short.  Later several new Japanese employees gave speeches.  One guy described how he drove his car through 46 different prefectures and another guy talked about how his most noticeable asset was his powerful baritone voice.  I regret worrying about my speech now.
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I also went to my favorite bar yesterday only to find that it was totally empty at 8pm on Saturday and the only staff member left was the owner.  He was also very drunk.  Kind of a downer couple of days.
Well my first week back was fairly relaxing and kind of dream-like in a way, but the second week was pretty much run and gun.  Next week promises to be more of the same.  I'd like to do some reflecting but I have to use my computer time to look up a few a things for this week's classes.  Keep it classy and check back in a week or so.

A few introductory details

Hello friends and thank you for your patience as I slowly set myself up here in Ogaki, Japan.  I arrived safely and without a single delay.  The company sent a guy with a van to scoop me up and an hour after clearing customs I was back at the old HQ talking with old colleagues and meeting new ones.  I got a three day crash training course and next week I'll visit each school and observe classes.
So far the only difficulty has been not having a phone or internet in my apartment.  Whoever usually takes care of the American teachers phones is off on vacation somewhere and I'm going to wait for help so I don't get stuck with an incomprehensible $95 bill every month like last time.
I did bring my phone from the states, if you were wondering.  Virgin Mobile advertises that it charges "no roaming fees" but doesn't mention that it has absolutely no coverage once you stray away from its towers.  That's right, it doesn't transfer you to another network, it just lets you sit there with a dead phone wondering why the hell you paid an extra ten dollars for the "international service bundle".  Nice.  Hopefully we'll get that remedied soon, as I'd really like to communicate without yelling at people's balconies like Romeo and Juliet.
My apartment is nice.  It's on the third floor, has two rooms with a double sliding door and a tatami floor in the bedroom with a single bed.  Basically the same as last time.  What's different you ask?  Well first of all there are 11 Americans, up from 6 when I was there last time.  Also unlike last time they tend to do everything together in big groups.  Some one came knocking on my door Friday, Saturday and Sunday to invite me out.  In the past I've avoided the roving pack of foreigners, but it's actually kind of nice to have a some people to hang out with right from the start.  We did Karaoke on Friday, watched pro wrestling at a guy's house on Saturday and went biking under the cherry blossoms today.  If you want to know what my karaoke sounded like, put on Holiday by Green Day, crank up the volume and then also squeeze your cat really hard.
What else is different you ask?  Well this year I'll have between 3-5 classes a day, ages 4th-12th grade, at 5 different schools.  I'll be repeating a lot of lessons so I'll actually only have to make 3 lesson plans a week.  (one elementary, one Jr. high, one high school).  My branches are all pretty far, so although I'll only be working around 7 hours a day, my commutes will be 1-2 hours each way (I think).  Speaking of commutes, I need to use the rest of my time at the Net Cafe to look up directions to the place I'm going tomorrow.  I will post again probably next weekend, unless I somehow get internet at home sooner.  I'll also upload a few pictures of my new place to facebook when I get some wifi for my phone.  Thanks for staying tuned as I sort a few things out.