Students make it all worth it

I realized that I am horrible about giving specific details and that these blogs have taken on the tone of simple, generic updates. Let’s try to remedy that!

My students are adorable, and I know I have said that several times. Allow me to finally elaborate.

At Iwatsuki, I teach a class called News English. It’s not necessarily about news, but we try to incorporate the media industry into it one way or another. For example, the final exam covered topics like advertising, censorship, fact and opinion.

Anyway, as this is a semi-advanced elective English class, the students have a slightly better grasp on the language. One student, however, approached me because she wants to improve. She has little confidence in speaking, although she listens attentively and is aware of the topics. Her strength lies in writing, so she came up with the idea of writing a daily English diary to me. It’s not overly complicated, but it’s daily reinforcement and I really enjoy making corrections and writing her little notes back at the bottom of each page. It has also cracked the barrier that lay between us. She has asked me questions about things I have written back to her, and then expanded the topic further in her journal.

There is also a pair of students that I like to call the ‘Society Girls’. Embarrassing as it is, I don’t know their names: I don’t teach their class (Sabina does) and I have 510 students total so cut me some slack. They earned their name because they asked me to translate the word 社会 into English one morning while walking to school, and it means ‘society’. Now, whenever they see me they shout out ‘Society!’.

Except… I had a cold when I said the word, so it came out sounding more like ‘Socie-tay’, ala Eric Cartman’s ‘authori-tay’. Of course the girls memorized my butchered pronunciation. I get a kick out of it every time.

Today, in fact, the girls bounded into the Staff Room, shouted ‘Socie-tay!’, then raced out and down the hallway shrieking ‘Teeeeeeigan!’, ‘Sabiiiiiina!’.

It’s a good thing the people around my and Sabina’s desk already think we are nuts, because we collapsed into giggles.

Hisashiburi!

Holy cow!

Last I checked I could have sworn it was still September! Where is my life going?

I am so backlogged on little snippets, stories and experiences that this might feel rather rushed. I guess I will just trim the fat off most of what went on last month.

During the month of November all the Assistant Language Teachers (ALTs) had their ‘Mid Year Skills Development’ conference, which took place at the bureaucratic center of Urawa, just a few train stations away from Iwatsuki.

While it was great seeing everyone’s faces again, particularly those who have been flung way out into the boonies of Saitama-prefecture, I rather felt that the entire 2 day affair was a waste of time. Not because the lectures weren’t interesting, and not because the skills and lesson plans highlighted weren’t relevant.

No, the thing that bothered me most was that every single ALT except for me was able to bring a Japanese Teacher of English co-worker with them to the first day of the conference. The conference was supposed to be a time for JTEs and ALTs to have open communication together about teaching, the classroom, and learning/teaching aims.

One teacher from my base school DID come, but she was technically assigned to my co-worker, who works there fulltime. I don’t even work with this particular JTE.

Had I been able to, I would have hauled in one (or several) of my JTEs from my visit schools. At least then there would have been some form of communication between us. As it was, the entire lecture was how to better ‘team teach’. Unfortunately, the whole concept of ‘team teaching’ doesn’t really apply to me either.

I am either a glorified tape-recorder and I just read from a textbook and have students occasionally repeat after me, or I make up lesson plans entirely from scratch and am more or less a bona fide teacher and not an assistant, OR the JTEs ignore me 90% of the time and then expect me to teach ‘as I like’.

Yeah, that is the one incredibly frustrating thing about this job. I almost wish I didn’t have any visit schools, but then I stop and realize that the students at each of my schools keep me going. Even if their abilities vary, even if some of them would rather sleep, there’s always ONE wide-eyed kid who keeps me motivated.

Ah, I feel like the above is a bad representation. I really do enjoy my job. I do, I do, I do! That was just a tiny rant that needed venting but….*deep breath* All good now!

Anyway, after the conference, work switched into high gear. It’s now final exam time, so the past several weeks consisted of trying to jam as much as possible into the unwilling brains of the pupils. I also had to help write the exams, which isn’t difficult, but rather time consuming.

However, none of that really mattered because I was looking forward to a huge bright spot in the month of November: my friend Krista was coming to visit!

Bless her little chinchilla heart, she flew out to the Land of the Rising Sun for 10 days and willingly put up with Tour Guide Teigan for her adventure.

Om nom nom sushi!

We managed to accomplish quite a lot in the time that she was here. I didn’t want to exhaust her so our itinerary wasn’t TOO packed but…

I took a few days off work , stacked together with a national holiday, and we went to both Nikko and Kyoto.
Nikko is a famous area in Tochigi-prefecture, affectionately referred to as Shogun Country in my guidebook. I had been there before, back when I was studying abroad at Waseda, but I was still impressed with the place.

We visited Toshogu Shrine, a UNESCO World Heritage site and the final resting place of the Tokugawa Ieyasu. The shrine complex itself is a wonder of architectural effort and is absolutely beautiful. Too bad the day started out sunny (and my hair straight and manageable) and ended up getting snow-forecast cold (with poofy ridiculous hair).

 

Thanksgiving was spent at my friends Kelly and Clint’s house. I didn’t have the oven space to go to Costco and get a real turkey, but I baked up some chicken instead. There was a small gathering of Americans, non-Americans and Japanese people at their house. The Japanese in particular seemed horrified and fascinated that the English speakers were being willing gluttons on this day only.

That night, Krista and I took a night bus down to Kyoto. All in all, it was quite comfy and I was able to sleep better than I thought. We toured the city of Kyoto that day, saw some famous shrines and temples at a leisurely pace, then checked into our hostel before heading to Osaka for some dinner with my friends Erin and Evie.

Allow me to interject here that we went to a Host Club after dinner. I won’t get into the particulars of what exactly a Host Club is, but suffice to say, you pay for drinks and chatting with a (sometimes) cute and (sometimes) interesting young man. I had no expectations, and poor Krista had even less since she doesn’t speak a word of Japanese. Yet, we had a blast! Or at least I did….I definitely got my 500 yen drink set worth.

We made it home by 1 am, after making a mad dash through the train station to catch our last train back to Kyoto (silly boys were distracting!) and had a decent night of sleep.

Fushimi Inari and Nara were both next on the list. Again, I had already been to both, but that made it easier to slip back into my Tour Guide Teigan person! Just gimme a Dark Mocha Chip Frappucino and I will launch into a history spiel for ya!

Nara was overrun by deer which demanded to be fed deer crackers (sometimes impolitely), but Krista and I enjoyed the time spent there. Finally, it got to cold and too dark for us to deal with it anymore, and we headed back to Kyoto.

The next morning, we made it to the central station bright and early to catch the bullet train back to Tokyo. Man, the shinkansen (bullet train) is amazing and comfortable, although too expensive for regular use. I would love to tell you more, but, uh, I crashed and slept most of the way back.

Monday Krista returned home and I was a sad little American without her red-blooded pal.

But the memories will remain forever! So in a nutshell, that’s what I have been up to the past month. And now that it’s December it’s time to start focusing on Malaysia and India!

Passport Stamps: Gotta Catch ‘Em All!

Down time

Compared to the hustle and busy and insanity of October, November has thus far been very laid back. I haven’t really traveled anywhere, much less barely left Saitama prefecture. But, you know, that’s ok.

In fact, I think the highlight of the month so far was when my Twinsy Jamie and I went to visit the Yamazakis. I had been so busy the past month I never made it out there. We went on a national holiday (Culture Day, aka The Meiji Emperor’s birthday), so I called in advance to make sure Oba and Oji would have the shop open. When we arrived it wasn’t crowded, and Jamie and I were quite content to gorge ourselves to the point of carrying an 8 month food baby.

The fun started when Oba reminded me that she had invited us to dinner. Cue panic. I hadn’t heard that at all when I was calling her, but goshdurnit I loathe talking Japanese on the phone! Any refusals to not attend their dinner party were ignored, and so they told us to come back in 2 hours while they cleaned up the shop.

What did we do in our spare time? Laugh, share ridiculous stories, take purikura, and eat ice cream- even though we were still full. Dinner…I have no idea where we put it. But it was delicious! The company was quite colorful too- Oji’s daughter and her husband, the mythical Chinese woman who told me to eat more leafy greens because I have poor circulation (and then gave my arms a fantastic massage), aaaaaand their mutual friend whom I only know as K-chan. He (yes, he) was a lovely woman, and had a great manicure that I was insanely jealous of.

All in all, it was quite a wonderful way to spend the evening!

Otherwise I have just been schlepping around, going to school, trying to jam something intelligent into the heads of my students. Oh the life of a 9 to 5er!

Hi ho, it's off to Nagano we go!

The past month has been absolutely crazy busy! I don’t know what I was thinking, organizing so many things. I am definitely ready for a quiet month of lazy weekends and movie nights now though.

To spare detail overload, I was away every weekend in October (minus this one). I was actually in the same prefecture each time, but I was in a new part every weekend. Absolute insanity. Although Nagano, the prefecture I went to, is quite beautiful, so it really was a great way to spend my weekends out of Tokyo suburbs.

The first place I went was Karuizawa, which is a nice mountain getaway. Apparently, people flock there during the summer to escape the heat, and during the winter, for the gnarly ski slopes man. I went twice, first with Ryouta and his family, and then again with my ALT coworker, several Japanese teachers and the daughters of my Japanese coworkers.

About to go zip-lining with Ryouta and his family

Teachers and kids in Karuizawa

Obviously, fun times were had!

I also made it out to a quite little town called Ina, which is where one of my JET friends, Maya, is living. It’s definitely a tiny town, but it’s charming, and is nestled in a valley between the Japanese Alps mountain ranges.

I was even lucky enough to go to an ALT Canadian Thanksgiving party! All in all, it was really relaxed and nice to experience Japanese smalltown life.

Oh, and Nagano is famous for soba. And my body is always telling me that it’s time for soba!

Conveniently enough, we went to a soba festival

Another day, another year

It’s hard to wrap my mind around 23. It was weird trying to comprehend being 22. I blame the awkward transition of exciting, significant birthdays to…the bleak waiting till I can officially get the senior citizen discount at 55. I think that’s the only other milestone to look forward to. 30 is terrifying. Heck, 25 is terrifying!

Last week, however, was far from terrifying. In fact, it was one of the nicest birthdays I’ve had.

No trip is complete without mouse ears!

     Officially, the celebrations began two Fridays ago when I went to Disneyland with Lena. We forgot that it was a national holiday, which meant the park was overwhelmed with people and Fast Passes for every ride had run out before noon. Nonetheless, we still managed to ride everything we wanted. Additionally, we went to guest relations and got a birthday sticker to proudly wear around, which resulted in a bilingual celebration of my entrance to this world from all cast members and, most amazingly, a weird sort of shout out from Roz at the end of the Monsters Inc ride. I’m still trying to figure that out, but I doubt Disney Magic will ever speak.

Ryota and I also went shopping in Ginza- oh la la- before we went to see Beauty and the Beast the musical. I am ridiculously looking forward to my gift when it’s finished being sized but until then…I shan’t say a word more.

Along the Rodeo Drive of Tokyo

    Beauty and the Beast was amazing, and I found out it was Ryouta’s first time seeing a professional musical. Considering my family had season passes to the Starlight Theater in San Diego for numerous summers growing up, that boggled my mind. I then decided that I we were going to see the mother of all musicals, The Phantom of the Opera. Cats is also playing but a.) I don’t like furries and b.) I don’t know the story so it’ll be harder for me to follow in Japanese.

And Tuesday, I wanted to curl up and just cuddle with all the warm fuzzy feeling my coworkers endeared upon me. I honestly wasn’t expecting a big hulabaloo-birthdays just aren’t that big of a deal on this side of the pond- but even W-sensei gave me a Free Lunch coupon! And Sabina really outdid herself by making a cake and sewing a ridiculously kawaii skirt that embraces my identity as ‘Mama Duck Teigan’.

Not to mention the Mexican Fiesta themed boxes my family sent, which contained not only chips, salsa, cheese dip, tortillas and taco shells but two-TWO-pairs of new shoes. Thank goodness, because my old pair was falling apart, and unless I want to cut off my toes it’s impossible to find shoes in Japan.

Teigan and the Very Blustery Day

The real work has started, and yet I often catch myself thinking, “I can’t believe I’m getting paid to do this”.　I adore my coworkers and have trouble wrapping my head around the extreme level of kindness they have showered me with. My students are, for the most part, normal sixteen and seventeen year olds who try to sleep during class and take the path of least resistance.

              That’s not to say this little adventure hasn’t been a cake walk-certainly there are moments when I am frustrated, although usually at myself. Some of my shyer kids occasionally get to me, but I’m learning to shrug it off the way I used to shrug off nasty clients at the animal hospital. ‘You can’t please everyone’.

              There are certain moments that I’m falling in love with. When I first arrived, despite not being on nearly as tall a cloud as some of the other JETs I’ve met, I was nonetheless ecstatic and thrilled to be back. Some of that euphoria has rubbed off, but it’s been replaced by the happiness by experience; eating lunch every day with a teacher, the contented quiet of a cup of tea when I wake up in the morning (My coworker has taken it upon herself to ‘make a proper Englishwoman’ of me yet, and she’s succeeding in more than just tea consumption), the way the (newly) crisp, autumn morning air smells like burning leaves, the looks of shock and worry when my students realize I understand everything they’re muttering and cooing over, and a thousand other moments that last for only a second.

              In other news, I survived my first direct typhoon hit. In all honestly, I wasn’t expecting much considering Saitama is one of the few prefectures without a coastline, but things still got quite blustery. Scratch that, the wind was positively howling.

              School was cancelled for students at noon, and they were told to go home. Teachers, however, had to stay. Some sort of ‘public servant’ thing, but I just shrugged and went with it. I was told I could most certainly go home, but I’d have to take Vacation Time to do so.

              Eventually, as the skies got darker and the wind began picking up, the vice principal finally told me to go. He was worried that my trains would shut down and that I’d be a sad, stranded foreigner. I later found out that while most of the metros and trains in Tokyo shut down, the sturdy ol’ Nobu Line smashed through the storm like a boss. Poor Ryouta waited it out with his coworkers in a bar- classy.

              It is with a heavy heart that I admit I did not have a hurricane/typhoon party. Although I spent it in a relatively festive manner: dinner, tea, and Sabina from upstairs for company. Oh, and I found a giant toad hopping across the road on my way home. Like any good animal lover, I of course picked him up, debated kissing him to see if he’d magically transform into a prince, then safely deposited him in a garden on the other side.

              All was well.

Under the summer rain

Maybe it’s because a typhoon is a-whirling, but there’s a breeze blowing through the town that is practically lulling me to sleep with whispers of cool autumn weather that is just around the corner. Oh my, I can barely wait! Scarves, boots, hats and sweaters-woohoo!

Recently, my other JET friend came to visit from Nagano- which is to the west of Saitama. We had an enjoyable mini San Diego JET reunion and…God we feel old. We had such epic plans of karaoke, purikura and living by the midnight lights of Tokyo and it just didn’t happen.

All was not lost, however. We went to visit the Yamazakis, together with the boy and Michelle, and scored a huge bowl of delicious, handmade udon for free. Oh, and they fattened us up with coffee and cake afterwards. It’s my dream to become a regular somewhere, and ideally it would be at an izakayay, but I think an udon shop is a worthy second place!

We also happened to run into a huge dance festival going on in Koenji. Teams wear brilliant costumes and have choreographed steps that are judged by a panel and the winner gets…I have no idea. If it were me, I would want my own puri-kura machine but I know that no one is that awesome. Apparently, this festival is kind of a big deal. Unfortunately, I’ve realized that I’m not as crowd tolerant as I used to be and, after an hour or organized chaos, I was ready to leave. So leave we did. And later, okonomiyaki was had and we crashed out like old ladies.

Ridiculous dance steps

 More good news came out of this, however, in that I think I have found a travel partner to come on just one of my pre-planned adventures.

Here’s the scoop! I kind of want to go to China. I mean, it’s right there and all. I could probably just wait on my balcony with my umbrella for a strong enough gust of wind and just float on over. However, there are few things standing in my way of going there. First of all, I find it shocking that I have to pay $150 for a tourist visa….If I had 2 weeks to spend in the Middle Kingdom, then I would reconsider, but I don’t want to use up all my vacation time. Second, not speaking more than 5 words of Chinese is terrifying, even though I would be awkwardly and non-functionally literate because I can read some kanji. Third, they are shady, shady, shady and I like bright and sunny. Let’s not forget the bullet train accident of last month where the officials decided it would obviously be in The People’s best interest to have the carnage buried 2 days later-conveniently before any official investigation could be done.

Shady shady shady!

Bearing that in mind, I thought ‘Let’s go to Hong Kong!’

Wrong. Too expensive for my meager amount of days. But dang it, I want to eat Dim Sum! I’ve never had it before and have been dying to try it!

Oh, wait....There is still an opportunity to experience Chinese culture without opening a vein to pay for a visa, do some shopping , not get into a horrific cover up, and eat my way across a city. Taiwan, here I come!

The Inexcusables

It’s common knowledge that when you are getting to know new people that there are certain taboos you are not supposed to bring up. The ‘inexcusables’ are: religion, politics, and money (I guess sex could be one too, depending on the crowd).

Former PM Kan

Yet, the cool thing about being a stranger in a strange land is that there’s a surprising amount of things I can get away with. I’ve already discussed religion with a few of my coworkers, but purely from a cultural or academic standpoint (Since I was a Religious Studies minor they are more understanding of why I have traveled to the most sacred Buddhist area of Japan despite not being worth my own salt). Money hasn’t been brought up yet aside from lamenting about how expensive this country is. Politics, on the other hand…Ah, it’s always a fun one.

Japan’s Prime Minister Kan resigned just the other day. It came as no surprise; He’d faced growing criticism for the way he handled the Earthquake/Tsunami/Nuclear Crisis triple disaster (then again, ALL leaders do) and his ratings had already been poor. Couple this with the fact that a few weeks ago, the entire nation observed moments of silence to remember the end of the second World War.

Pretty Cure: A crummy Sailor Moon knockoff!

I had talked to one of my coworkers about how I was inundated with depressing war-era movies and that I needed to see something happy and sparkly- preferably My Little Pony but I’d settle for Sweet Pretty Cure 

This led to digressed discussion on: the best war movies, the worst war movies, the best history movies, the worst history movies and then…The clincher!

‘Teigan, did you grandfathers fight in the war?’

‘Yes….’

‘Oh, which side [of the conflict]?’

And I’m mentally trying to backpedal as images of crazy, right wing, imperialist Japanese men at a recent shrine function barrage my mind. No way this can end well! I’m going to be shunned at work! Noooo!

‘Uh…The Pacific side…On a battleship,’ I stammer.

W-sensei barely blinks. ‘My grandpa served in China, like, interior China. Where Chang Kai Shek was’.

O-sensei popped her head up and looked sheepishly around. ‘My father served in Manchuria,’ she said, then giggled at her own age.

And then the conversation carried on. No slamming wheels. We were just normal people talking about old wounds that have long healed- at least, in all our cases. It was refreshing, enlightening, and made me adore the 2 of them even more.

This definitely feels like summer!

The weather has been so-so hot but the humidity has been obscene and it is positively draining. I keep telling myself that it will all be okay in about a month, but right now, I’m melted to my carpet. Whenever I watch the weather reports it seems like Saitama, and particularly my area of Saitama, is the hottest part of Japan! Yuck!

However, seeing as I am deathly terrified of a ridiculous electric bill, I try to keep my air conditioner off. I draw the line at being able to sleep though. During the day I just sweat it out with a fan and drink tons of water (hooray for hydration!).

So last week we had the Saitama Prefectural Orientation, and it was a welcome relief to see all my other friends again (and get to spend a day out of the office to boot!). The first day was kind of dull, but we did get to enjoy a tea ceremony and calligraphy session as part of the cultural workshops.

My mis-spelled name and the properly spelled "Japan"

 Day two was spent at the Saitama Natural Disaster Training Center. It was basically a reproduction of the one I went to in Ikebukuro in 2009, but this one had a typhoon wind simulator. Overall, the company of hanging out with my ridiculous friends made the day.

Scratch that, having my advisor take me and 2 other JETs to her house for homemade Thai curry was the highlight of my week! Not only was the food delicious, the company amazing, but she has cats! Ten of them! YES! So I could get my kitty cat fix =)

Mimi-chan!

 

The rest of the week was spent brainstorming over future lesson plans. Call me lazy, but for the 3 classes I teach at Iwatsuki, I don’t really feel the need to go into full battle mode and try to make plans from September through March without knowing where the students are at…And since most of the teachers are on holiday it seems rather presumptuous to decide “This is what we’re teaching” when I am the lowest person on the school totem pole.

On the other hand, I definitely have my Christmas and Halloween lessons outlined! If I’m able to do it, I plan to dress up for the entire week- I have another school  I will be teaching part time during the week as well, so that should liven things up a bit.

I guess this is more of a generic update that a recap of any one particular adventure. I’ve mostly been hanging out with friends, straightening up my apartment (I swear, I’ll post pictures soon!), eating awesome food and trying to stay cool.

I had 4 days of “Cultural Furlough” off this week, so Wednesday I went to a museum in Ueno and then met up with about 11 other JETs for food and drinks a few stations away. I was also productive and decided to go to the Immigration Office on the rainiest day of the summer thus far to get my re-entry permit. Now I can enter and exit the country as often as I like, but I really did not enjoy the soaked skirt, horizontal wind, and flooded shoes.

Things that make me sad.

 Karaoke was also enjoyed by all. God, Bonnie Tyler makes a great song to karaoke too. But when I’m really feeling into it, I enjoy busting out that classis “Moonlight 伝説“ AKA The Sailor Moon theme. Yes, I have the heart of a child…

Before Rick Astley, but after Bonnie Tyler

Eventually, there will be a sleepover at my place at.　Oh dear, we’re going to have to play tetris to all fit but….Oh well! This is the land of Human Tetris!

But hey, at least I found I can accommodate 4 people for dinner at the Tic Tac Palace!

Scrumptiousness was had!

It's Matsuri Season!

              Matsuri are festivals, and they can range to simply celebrating summer, the return of ancestor’s souls to the family home, various Shinto and Buddhist spirits, martyrdom, phallus, and snow. The majority seem to take place during the summer, a time of bounty and nauseating humidity.

              My friend Lena in Tokyo invited me to come with her to a Bon-Matsuri next to Tsukiji (the famous fish market). Bon, in this case, simply refers to the dance that usually accompanies O-bon, aforementioned festival of ancestral spirits. Of course, we saw this as less of dance-off and more of an excuse to dress in yukata and eat some tasty vendor food.

             Now, I’ve worn a yukata before, but I always have trouble with tying the sash and making it look proper. Too bad I’m so tall and they were designed for short people, so I normally can’t make the quintessential waist fold. Oh well. We managed to wrangle ourselves in, then put our brave faces on while navigating public transportation and getting stared at left and right for being two weird blonde chicks with obvious crises of identity.

              Once we got to the temple courtyard however, all nervousness and cries of agony along the lines of ‘My body wasn’t built for these clothes!’, ‘I’m sweating like a whore in church’ and ‘My yukata/obi looks lumpy!’ vanished. No one cared. And there were tons of people around anyway.

              Apparently, it was cool to dress up in cosplay outfits too. I thought the guy working a beer stand was just a very poorly disguised transvestite, but apparently he was some normal-ish anime character. I heard the organizers didn’t care if you cross dressed, so long as you came out to enjoy the fun.

              Of course, I had to let my inner 10 year old get a picture with pikachu and Ash Ketchum…After some guy from the news saw the crazy blonde duo, swooped in and started taking our photos.

              In the center of the courtyard was a stage decorated with lanterns, taiko drummers and dancers. Lena and I started chatting with an elementary school girl, who thought we must be half since we could speak her language (I don’t even…What? I don’t look remotely Asian!), and we all agreed to wobble our way through the dance. It was ridiculous, mortifying, exhilarating and an absolute blast.

              As Lena and I were leaving, a group of grannies commented on how nice we looked in our yukata. Their surprise when we told them, yes, we did wrangle ourselves into them, was very cute. We walked away with a sense of accomplishment: if the grannies say nice things to you, you have been successful!

Taiko, lanterns and dancing!