Kaley in Japan

On Moving and Things - Video

2012-03-26T17:46:00.000+09:00

So, I've started to use my Youtube channel to put up videos. Let me know if you think I should keep doing this! I'm trying to think of things to do that aren't just me talking at a camera. I recorded some footage from my walk back to my apartment after dropping my car off at the dealership to use for a driving in Japan video. It was really windy so the audio on it may be crap.

Anyway, I hope to keep it up if for no other reason than to see how I change over the next year, because I've got lots of thinking to do about my ~future~ and the ~next step~ and ~growing up~ that just scare the pants off of me. D:

Also, in a month or two the domain name for Kaley in Japan goes bye-bye so I MAY decide to switch it over and do an overhaul of the blog. :O

My Daily Life Teaching in Japan - Junior High School

2012-03-23T12:58:00.000+09:00

I've realized that I've not talked much on what I do on a day-to-day basis here in Japan. My life really isn't that interesting. I'm not running around on all these adventures constantly, and I mainly just sit around in my apartment reading when I get home and run a few errands on the weekend because I'm so exhausted from being unbelievably happy during the week.

I have tried my best to create a routine. It's hard because no two days are ever the same. I juggle seven schools and my schedule is really all over the place. One week I'll go to JHS 1 on Monday, ES 2 on Tuesday, JHS 1 on Wednesday, ES 3 on Thursday and ES 5 on Friday. The next week I'll head off to ES 3 on Monday, ES 4 on Tuesday, JHS 1 on Wednesday and Thursday and then ES 1 on Friday. If that sounds confusing, it's because it is. And I probably should of mentioned that JHS stands for junior high school and ES for elementary school. Regardless, it has been really difficult for me to adapt to most of my schools mainly due to the fact that I really don't go to them that often.

Now that I am done with my time teaching in Shunan (I had my last day on Wednesday!) and moving to Atsuma where I will have a drastic decrease in schools (two ES!) I've decided it is probably best to go over what my daily (or rather weekly) life here in Shunan was like on the teaching front. Since it will probably be lengthy due to my inability to not ramble on, I'll split it into junior high school and elementary.

Junior High Schools

Daily Schedule

My first semester here in Shunan I didn't really go to JHS that much, but this semester I spent quite a bit of time (about two days a week almost) at one of them. For me, JHS is nice because I don't really have to do much of anything. The Japanese teacher of English (here on out known at JTE because acronyms make everything easier yet more confusing at the same time) normally teaches the students and I find myself being some sort of human tape recorder. It's normally a nice break from the hectic and frantic ES life.

At JHS 1 there are three teachers for English, one for each of the grade levels (first, second and third years - or 7th, 8th and 9th graders in the States). There are 5 first year classes and 4 second and third year classes. Per my contract I'm only allowed four classes a day, so when I teach the first years it is normally split into two days that are close to each other. Which means boredom.

How it works is this: on the first day I'll go to three of the first year classes and then on the second day I'll go to two of the first year classes. Therefore, for the rest of the working day (approximately 6 hours) I am sitting in the teachers room not doing much of anything. In my downtime I'll plan lessons, or write down shopping lists, or study Japanese or do crafts, really anything that makes me look like a productive employee. I'll also bring my Kindle in (because the Nook broke because Nooks suck and no one ever buy a Nook please) and hide it among an array of Japanese textbooks to looks productive. I've read eight books so far this year. That's how much down time I've had.

When I teach the second and third years I normally have busy days, four classes with only two hours of down time and a lunch break. Though sometimes they play tricks on me and I have back to back days of only two classes that make me want to cry. I really don't enjoy sitting around with my thumb up my butt doing nothing for hours on end.

When I teach at JHS 2 it is much of the same. I don't go to that school often so I don't really have much of a need. I think I averaged two times a month. I generally only teach two or three classes. They only have two JTE and one teaches first and third years and the other teaches second and special needs. And the school is smaller so there are only 2 to 3 classes per grade.

Classes

During class it is normally pretty relaxed. Doing the same lesson multiple times a day gets kind of boring if I have a full day of teaching. Overall I greatly enjoy the fact that I don't have to basically shout over little children for close to an hour and just smile all the time and make everyone love everything I do.

Remember stepping on those little ships? Childhood...

At JHS 1 when I teach the third years I normally am asked to make a warm up game where the students practice English in a fun manner for a little less than half the class. Normally I just do games like Pictionary or Shiritori (where the last letter of the previous word needs to be used as the first letter in the next word). Sometimes I make games involving groups that have to speak. It's rather difficult for me to think of these games because I'm really not that familiar with what they even know how to do.

When I teach second years at this school the teacher normally plans some sort of activity for us to do with the students. On Monday this week I played Battleship against the kids and it just felt.... wrong. Since, you know, the game is modeled after... the whole... WWII... thing...

Then in the first years the teacher got in a habit of having the kids ask me questions since the target grammar were questions like, "Can you ~" and "Did you ~" so that was fun, getting the students to guess my answers.

For JHS 2 it is mainly just me being a tape recorder. Sometimes I'll participate in conversations with the students. On my last day at the school on Wednesday the second year teacher actually had me teach my first full JHS class. Ironic that it would be my last class teaching JHS for at least a year, huh? It went over really well. I explained the sentence structure, "Cats are not as strong as gorillas" and then had students give me animals where they completed a worksheet. We played a game that went over pretty well, a team member would come and grab a noun and they would need to make sentences based off of that noun for points. First team to give me an answer got 40 extra points and so on.

Overall

For the most part, JHS was a really nice break to just relax from the Chaos that is teaching ES. Having too many JHS days close together did make it kind of boring, though, because there are only so many things that you can do with hours upon hours of down time.

Will I miss teaching JHS? I'm sure there will be days where I will, because planning lessons for ES can get really, really exhausting. But overall I really just don't enjoy not being busy. That is one of the reasons I turned down the placement offer of teaching high school, because it is much of the same as JHS and I don't know if I can handle just doing that for a full year, five days a week.

I'm moving out of my apartment on the 27th (four days!) and then I fly to Chitose/Sapporo on the 29th. I'm going to spend a day or two in Shimonoseki/Ube before flying out. I think I'm going to write the elementary school post and schedule it to go out during that time, so look for that!

Dodgeball in Japan and Why My Students Think I'm Awesome

2012-03-15T18:39:00.000+09:00

During a normal school day there are many times when you come in contact with elementary students outside of class and can bond with them. Walking the halls, during lunch, during the two daily breaks and cleaning time. My favorite way to do some good ol' Eigo Sensei Bonding is by running around screaming as plastic balls are thrown at my face at far too great a speed.

This, of course, is a school-yard favorite from back when I was a youngster; dodgeball. I was surprised to see how much the kids seriously love this game, and even more surprised by just how different it is from the version I played as a kid. Maybe other areas of the States have these same rules, maybe they don't, but they are interesting, that is for sure. Though, there is ONE thing I do wish the students here would do. But more on that later!

For starters, you will have the playing area. There are two teams, white and red generally as the students just wear their school hats on either colored side, and each have their own area. This may look confusing, but it isn't!

Not a cubist representation of a Pokeball

So, as you can see there are four "areas" of sorts. On the outside you have the red team area on top and the white team area on bottom whereas on the inside the white is on top and the red is on bottom. This is really quite different from what I am used to. I am used to each team getting half the gym and you just run around trying not to get hit by however many balls they decide to use.

The layout of the team members is rather simple. You start with one person on the outside for each team (so one red team member in the top part there and one white team member on the bottom) and then the rest of the team is on the inside in their respective zones.

One member is picked from each team to go in the middle and start the game off much like a basketball match. Red team member stands on the line on the white side and the white team member does the same on the red side. The ball is thrown in the air and you hit it to your team mates and begin the match. I am normally picked for this and I am awful at it. Kids assume since I am 6 feet tall and American that I am a pro basketball player and therefore skilled in this sort of thing, when in fact I have zero reaction time and normally just end up embarrassing myself when that boy two feet shorter than me jumps in the air whacking the ball over my head. Every. Single. Time.

Once the game starts the rules are as follows:

Don't get hit by the ball
If you do get hit by the ball, catch it
If you fail to catch it, you get either one bounce to get it back OR you can catch it before it hits the ground (this rule is a bit shaky to me, it seems to vary slightly and I've never actually successfully been able to get the ball after failing to firmly catch it)
If you're hit by the ball, you go to the outside ring

Huh? That last rule is kinda confusing, at least to me it was! So, you're hit a ball. Great, that means you get to just sit on the sidelines and watch the game. No, not really. I mean, you can, but that's not really what you're suppose to do. What you're suppose to do is walk from that inside rectangle to your team's side on the outside (so behind or to the side of the opposite team) and then TRY AND GET BACK IN THE GAME!

This, surprisingly, does a great job of explaining the areas. MT. FUJI!

Yup, you can get back in the game. How? By hitting someone on the opposite team out. What does that mean exactly? When you play dodgeball in Japan the ball comes at you FROM ALL SIDES. Which can honestly be really scary at times.

Say you're in the rectangle for the red team up there and the white team has the ball, they can essentially just throw it back and forth across your rectangle trying to hit you guys like fish in a barrel. It's hard to explain the visual properly, but it involves a lot of being dizzy and a lot of wishing that someone would just fumble that ball into the red rectangle for a second so you can grab it and stop the madness. Since, basically, if the ball lands in a team's area, it is in possession of that team! And the kids are REALLY strict on this! REALLY.

This does a terrible job at displaying the team zones, but an awesome job at being awesome.

Here are some more basic rules of play:

When you are hit by a ball, you go to the outside ring to try and get back in.
To get back in after being hit, you get a person on the opposite team still "in" (aka in the rectangle), "out"!
Catching the ball makes you a god.
If you're in the rectangle, it isn't your job to get team members of the opposite team out, but to get the ball from the opposite team to give to your team members who are out so they can be back in!
When the bell rings the team with the most amount of members still in wins (or if all the members of a team are out, which happens rarely at my schools).

The game is good fun, but there is ONE rule I wish they made. And that is my favorite rule of dodgeball. If you catch the ball someone throws at you, they are out. Mainly because I'm awesome at catching the ball and I feel badly when I whack my students with the ball (though the kids love it when I can get someone out).

Big News! Moving to Hokkaido!

2012-03-02T20:20:00.000+09:00

Well, I have some big news on my front. I will be moving from my lovely city of Shunan in Yamaguchi prefecture allllllllllllllllllll the way across the country to a small village in southern Hokkaido.

The best part? My company is covering a huge chunk (if not all) of my travel expenses! The contract for my city was lost, so they're relocating me!

The contract was lost pretty late in the placement game, so my options are not the best. I was actually given two other cities that I turned down (one was really close to the reactor in Fukushima and the other was teaching high school) and eventually settled on the small village of Atsuma!

I talked to the girl I will be replacing at length on the phone the other night and she really eased my fears. The village is small, but it is a 25 minute drive from a town that is the same size as mine and a 25 minute drive from the airport in the other direction. And flights from Hokkaido to the rest of Japan are actually cheaper than if I were to take the bullet train around Honshu! So traveling won't be too expensive if I plan at least a month in advance.

Not to mention the airport has free parking and the train from the airport to Sapporo is only about 30 minutes. Overall, not a bad deal!

There should be overlap between my arrival in Atsuma and her departure, and she's leaving me behind some things for the apartment!

It definitely isn't the ~perfect~ placement, in my eyes, and it scares me coming from Florida. But, there are definitely worse options and I have heard only great things about Hokkaido.

So, if anyone is on that lovely island, let's meet up!

My Reward System For Japanese Elementary Schoolers

2012-02-26T10:52:00.000+09:00

I would like to begin by apologizing for the disappearance I made. I really am trying to be a bit more consistent with this, but a few things have happened to me this month that have been taking up much of my focus. I'd go into detail, but at least one of them isn't something I'd like to delve into. The other is really up in the air and you will be sure to hear more of it at a later date.

That being said, let's move onto the topic I'd love to go over, rewards for students. I've actually wanted to make this post for a while, I just keep forgetting about it or I get too lazy. I also wanted to really get a system going down when it came to rewarding my students.

For starters, I should say that in elementary schools I give no grades, I'm pretty sure for almost all of my classes the students are not graded at all on anything we do. That can cause issue when it comes to motivating students to actually want to learn. While just me being there (anyone other than the home room teacher probably has this effect, really) is good for most of the students, to get them really engaged I've found a really awesome system that works really, really well.

And it centers around these:

While they may not look too special, if you take a peak at the bottom you'll see five markers (black, maroon, red, orange and yellow). These markers are SCENTED. I found them at the Toys R Us here and that is the only place I know of to sell Crayola in the country, and other markers are very small and very expensive. I was so excited to find these!

I also brought some stamps from Target with me to use as prizes for students. So when I found these scented markers I got a genius idea. I have four stamps, I have five scented markers, why not use them as specific prizes for certain things?

The kids love them, they really do. I give a kid a stamp and more times than not they shove their nose in it so quickly you'd think there was something more than just a scent attached to that marker.

My reward system breaks down as follows (in a basic sense):

Orange stamp: Easiest to get, used for chanting, whatever I want.

Cherry Stamp: Used for volunteering/speaking in front of the class

Marshmallow Stamp: Used for winning games

Super Lemon Stamp: Rarely given out, mainly only if a student does something awesome or I REALLY need to motivate them

In elementary schools I do two types of teaching, one from the Eigo Note textbook and one from lesson plans my company makes. With the textbooks I just give stamps in the books on the pages. There are a few categories of activities that warrant stamps:

Chants: Orange for best chanters, lemon given out if students aren't chanting too well or difficult chant.

Listening: Cherry given out when they volunteer to answer the listening sections (break it down to as many answers as possible to give out maximum stamps).

Games: Such as bingo, Simon Says, chain game, etc. Games normally get tiered to 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. First is the marshmallow stamp, second is the cherry stamp and third is the orange stamp.

The kids really pick up on the ranking of the stamps and try to collect as many as possible!

Onto the second type of teaching I do, which are the lesson plans that my company makes that I use with (mainly) younger students (1st-4th grade). A typical lesson is me going over vocab, going over phrases, then doing a short practice and then a game. I don't give out as many stamps here for a couple reasons, the main one being that I mainly stamp name tags or hands in these classes, so space is limited. So I'll break down a simple lesson and say what I would give stamps for:

Go over vocab and sentences, then ask for a volunteer to demonstrate (in a recent class we were doing likes/dislikes so I had a student come forward and asked what they liked/didn't like from the vocab). Give cherry stamp. Play a game such as Simon Says, last five standing get marshmallow stamp. Play a team game using the new phrases, winning team gets marshmallow stamp team that comes in second gets cherry and depending on how many teams there are, a third place gets orange stamp.

A typical class can see kids having anywhere from 1-5 stamps depending on how many games/rounds of games we play!

I do have one fickle class though that is not a fan of the stamp system, they are a sixth grade class which does the lesson plans my company makes rather than the book (they have a separate Japanese teacher come in to do that). I've recently started giving them worksheets to complete and whoever completes them the quickest gets the number they finished written in the scented marker. It is amazing how much that has motivated them! This numbering system is also very common in Japanese teaching, I've noticed, which surprised me.

The stamps are currently in my car, but I'll take a picture of them and tweet them/edit them in this post when I go run my errands (surprisingly, to drive 45 minutes to buy more markers because mine have finally started to die after five months).

Winter Trip Part #5 - Kyoto!

2012-01-29T22:38:00.000+09:00

After heading to Nara for the day on the 28th we boarded the train bound for Kyoto. It was a pretty uneventful ride. I think I ate Funyuns I had bought at some random grocery store by the station.

We got to Kyoto at a decent hour, a little after midday. The sun sets super early in Japan so after about 5:30pm you have zero light. We got to the hostel easy enough, it was a straight shot from the main station (Kyoto Station...).

Upon checking in we were told that we were on the fifth floor, which made me go "UGH" at first, but then proved that since coming to Japan the amount of "in shape" I am has increased greatly. The layout of that place was kind of like a really tall and thin maze.

Anyway, Kyoto was really exciting and I there is still so much I want to do in the city! I almost want to go back during part of my break coming up here in a couple months.

Fair warning, this post is going to be kind of long. I want to finish up this series so I can post about more current things going on!

This was probably my favorite layout as far as the actual sleeping areas were concerned. In Kobe we had capsules which were very private, if claustrophobic and in Osaka we literally just had bunk-beds which did not provide sufficient privacy at all.

But Kyoto was the best of both worlds!

My travel mates are the ones in the left of the picture on those "bunks" and I had the bottom one on the right. They were really nice! Had curtains that actually went all the way around it (unlike Osaka D:)

We met a friend out for drinks at a British Pub the first night where I got this:

After a week (really, months) of drinking cheap light beers this was the most delicious thing I had all trip. I savored this boy like I would never get another one.

In the morning our first stop was Kamigamo Shrine, which was actually really beautiful.

After that shrine we decided to walk forever down a river to the next one, Shimogame Shrine.

We met the same friend for dinner at this random hole in the wall place where no one really spoke any English so I had to exercise my (horrible) Japanese skills to order us whatever I thought looked delicious. We had amazing yakisoba.

We went out that night to probably the best bar we went to the whole trip, and there was this guy:

Who plopped himself right now down to me and proceeded to drunkenly hit on me for most of the night. It was hilariously funny.

I decided to sleep in for a little while my travel buds went to Ryoanji (didn't really want to want to see it and I knew that I could easily see it when I came back to Kyoto eventually). So I woke up, took my time getting ready and decided to head to The Golden Temple (Kinkaku-ji).

It was completely breathtaking. If smaller than I expected.

I met back up with my travel partners at this point and we headed back to the train station to head to one of the coolest places here, Arashiyama! Or... MONKEY MOUNTAIN. Yes, we got to play with monkeys (and by play I mean panic as the fought over food).

We had to climb up to the top of a mountain and I was very tired and my knee hurt. The guys I was traveling with made fun of me.

But we made it to the top just as feeding time was about to begin. Which was... slightly frightening. Here is a video of monkeys.

And here are pictures:

View from the top

On the way back one of my friends and I decided to check out Toji.

We didn't really want to pay to go in and see the compound, so we left. That night we went back to the bar from the night before after meeting up with some other teachers in the area. There were mustaches involved.

And arm wrestling. I believe I lost horribly.

New Years Eve I shopped a bit. Found this and bought myself a new friend:

We decided to go to a nomihodai (all you can drink for xx amount of yen for xx amount of time) and then off to the same bar for a third night in a row.

I broke off from the guys I'd been traveling with to go to the shrine nearby for New Years. It was pretty awesome.

We got to the top of the temple right at midnight, which was pretty awesome.

And as we were leaving there was a lot of people waiting to get to the temple for their first visit of the year.

The street is clear because the police made it so. Imagine the whole area behind me covered in people

I called it a kind of early night and took the train back to the hostel. The next day was my time to leave! So I bought my Shinkansen ticket and said bye to my travel mates and made my way back home!

Winter Trip Part #4 - Nara!

2012-01-22T21:07:00.000+09:00

Originally we had planned to go to Kobe, Osaka and Kyoto for the trip. It was kinda last minute that we decided to add Nara into the trip. And I'm really glad we did. It is a wonderful city and home to my favorite temple of the whole trip.

We left bright and early the 28th of December (I believe I woke up at 7am and we left by 8am) and hopped on a train bound for Nara. It was a pretty easy ride, and I don't think we were on the train for more than 45 minutes. I was pleasantly surprised at how close everything was in the area. Made travelling around (cheaply) very easy!

After leaving the train station we walked to the park that had the majority of the temples and shrines. The first one we saw was Kofuku-ji! It was really rather lovely.

It wasn't long after getting in the area that we saw them. In all their glory. In all their amazingly cute awesomeness that had me giddy the rest of the day and really just made the trip worth it instantly.

The holy deer of Nara! They are literally all over the place here and very eager to eat the biscuits that you can buy to feed them.

I recorded a video of me feeding the deer. To begin, I would like to apologize for how obnoxiously annoying I sound in this video. I swear it was just the deer. With special cameos by my travel companions.

The deer were in front of this pretty awesome pagoda.

As we were walking around to the next temple, one of my friends dropped a glove. So we waited for him to find it and I made a new best friend.

Then, we made it to the main attraction! Todai-ji. Here are the deer in front of the main wooden gate.

And here are some pictures of the wooden gate!

After passing through some more gates and walking around a long wall to get inside, we finally say the main Buddha hall! I believe this is the largest wooden building in the world. And it is only 3/4 the size of how big it was originally (it has been damaged by earthquakes over the years, I believe).

I decided to pay some yen and light a stick of incense. It was very... I dunno. I've always wanted to do it, but I'd been afraid. It was amazing to light it and waft in the smoke. Healing, in a way.

The building really was just MASSIVE. I honestly felt so... daunted by it. I mean, I've seen far larger buildings, but this was made out of WOOD.

And inside was the largest casting of the Vairocana Buddha in the world. Vairocana is the sambhogakaya form of the historical Buddha, Siddhartha Gautama. I would go into greater detail of what all of that means, but I doubt many are too interested in it. If you'd like to to write a post on the three bodies of a Buddha I can!

And here are more pictures of the Buddha hall:

With that last picture: in the back of the hall is a pillar with a hole in it (which is a size of the Buddha's nostril). If you can fit through it, it is said that you shall reach Enlightenment in the next life. I, sadly, couldn't even get my shoulders in it. D:

Then, my friend spotted this on the wall, which is probably the coolest thing I did all trip:

Then we found an area that had two really neat statues in it. On the left is a remake of an Asoka pillar (which spread the teaching of Buddhism across the Asian continent) and the right is the spire of the pagoda which used to stand in Todai-ji.

Then we walked around some more and one of the guys wandered off and we went looking for him. It was then that I found this view:

Once we were all together again, we went to Kasuga-Taisha shrine, which is famous for having a lot of lanterns.

Then, it was time to walk back towards the train station! It was a bit of a cold, windy trek. But we made it and headed on our way to our final city, Kyoto!

Winter Trip Part #3 - The Rest of Osaka!

2012-01-17T22:03:00.002+09:00

Here I am, about the be blown off a building

So, we last left off at the end of my first day in Osaka, which was spent walking to Umeda to view the whole of the city and then going out with the manager of the hostel and realizing just how crazy some men are. And hilarious.

I actually left slightly early that night, my travel buds were heading to karaoke with the manager and another guy and I, well, I left my wallet at the hostel and felt stupid so I went back and passed out. I know, epic story. I can't believe I lived it sometimes. Getting the rest was welcome, it had been an exhausting few days and I honestly just wasn't used to all the walking about and activity. I'm pretty lazy.

We did wake up bright and early (I guess, we normally woke up bright and early) and headed towards the Maritime museum. It was suppose to have this really awesome underground tunnel to get there. I'm assuming it's awesome because we walked all the way there only to realize that it was closed until the new year. So here is a picture of the dome:

Then, we decided to take the train to the first temple of many on our trip, Shitteno-ji! I've been to a temple/shrine before in Japan, but this was my first straight up legit temple experience. Pagoda and everything. And it was amazing. What a great first temple! It even started to snow a little bit. Being from Florida this is a big deal.

The grounds were completely done in a zen garden style. It was amazing to think of all the work that must go into that. It made me think about the patience required to completely such a work. We went into the various buildings housing various statues, and I took a picture on my phone I wasn't suppose to:

Another building housed paintings of Siddhartha Gautama's life story. It was really, really cool. Sadly, I couldn't take pictures of it.

I also bought my first omamori of the trip! I bought one at every single shrine and temple we visited.

Heart Sutra omamori

We went back to the hostel and relaxed a bit after a long day of walking around. Then, my friend Joe and I headed to the main shopping area in town, Dotonbori! It was very overwhelming and we met a very frightened (maybe on something?) teacher from Korea who was there by herself. We tried to hang with her a bit to make sure she was okay, but she ran off. It was weird.

Then, it was time for something I have missed very much since leaving the States. And when we saw it, it was like angels sang down on us.

Yes, that is a beer with my burger and fries.

We headed back to the hostel and I honestly can't remember what we did after that. I'm sure it was awesome.

The next morning I pigged out on coffee and Mister Donut.

Yes, those are five creams. Judge me all you want.

Then, we headed to the Osaka Peace Museum. It was amazing and a great experience. It covered the attacks by American bombings in Osaka as well as the things Japan did during the Second World War. My last semester of college I took a (highly disappointing) class on WWII in the Pacific and seeing it put together like it was was astounding. It was super cheap to get in, and well worth it. I highly suggest going if you're in the area.

Then, we went to Osaka castle! Thankfully, the Peace museum and Castle are in the same park! Less travel!

It was actually kind of boring. Rather than being set up like a real castle inside, which I assumed based on my visit to Versailles five years ago (.....o.o) it was another museum. And I was burnt out on museums.

We then went back to Dotonbori since our other travel mate hadn't been there, and we got...

MORE BURGER KING!!

I pigged out. I got chicken tenders and saved one of the boxes for later. We walked back to the hostel, all the way down the length of the shopping plaza and do the hostel we stayed at. Here is a map to show you.

After that walk I decided it was a great time for the rest of my chicken. And then the rest of my pizza. It was delicious and I haven't eaten that badly the whole time I've been in Japan. I stayed in the rest of the night, getting some nice plum wine in me, before going to bed far too late to be waking up at seven in the morning to go to Nara, then Kyoto, the following day (December 28th).

Next post, is Nara. Temples, shrines, more temples and more shrines. And deer. Lots of deers.

Winter Trip Part #2 - Osaka! Day One!

2012-01-13T23:12:00.001+09:00

May need a couple of posts for Osaka and Kyoto, we'll see how it turns out and if I feel it just gets too long. Where we last left off I was on my way from Kobe on Christmas Day to Osaka. The train ride was insanely cheap and very short. I spent it sitting on the ground, hung over, eating cold Domino's pizza from the night before.

We were staying in Osaka for three nights, so the 25th through the 28th of December! There is so much to do in this city that is the second largest in the country. And boy, does it live up to the name! One night we walked all the way from Dotonburi (main shopping area) halfway across the city back to our hostel. Took a couple hours, but it was awesome (and cold).

We arrived at our hostel (one train station away from the main one, really within walking distance) and checked it. It was pretty nice and, while not as private as the first one we stayed at (similar to a capsule) it had a nice vibe to it. We'd stayed at one run by the same company in Hiroshima and had great experiences. Here is the view from my window:

And our room (for eight people, two bunks not pictured):

We immediately left to head towards Umeda Sky Building and the awesome German Christmas festival beneath it. Along the way we found a sports store that had really, really awesome football (American!) attire.

Okay, so that last one is actually basketball and from another small store we went into, but it was still awesome to see all the Florida stuff in random, hole in the wall stores in Japan! That sign in the bottom left really just shocked me.

After a brief walk we made it to Umeda and all I can say is, the building is kind of out of place! It is really the only one of its kind in the area! The rest aren't nearly as tall nor look so modern.

The German Festival was pretty awesome. Here are some of my favorite shots:

We went to the basement of the building first, where there is an Edo style shopping/eating area.

Then, outside to the garden that was made there. Which was really, really pretty.

And here I am with a backwards waterfall! Glasses! Windy! Cold! Tired (read: hungover)! Warning!

We ate lunch at a small restaurant in the basement. I got cheese curry and it was awesome. Joe finished it for me because I was still slightly full of pizza. There was also a pink Christmas tree on the table to make things festive.

Then, it was to the roof! It was really rather scary going up that elevator 173m above the ground. Since, you know, I'm afraid of heights and all. But the view was so amazing that it didn't even matter. There were a lot of people writing wishes on stars.

And I took some pics of my favorite stars. I only halfway know what most of them say, but they crack me up regardless.

The view was what made it awesome.

That night we were invited to go out with the manager of the hostel. Who was a crazy, crazy old Japanese man. I mean crazy.

Here is the owner taking apart the door to the room we were all sitting in. If you look closely you can see the concerned waiter to the right that is basically just trying to figure out what was going on:

I realize now that this is getting pretty long, so I'll stop for this post! The next post will include our trips to:

Shitteno-ji
Dotonburi
Burger King
Osaka Peace Museum
Osaka Castle

Look for it on Sunday (JST) most likely!

In the everlasting words of the manager at my hostel, "It's okaaaaaay!"

Winter Trip Part #1 - Kobe!

2012-01-09T21:17:00.000+09:00

Biggest Pika ever at Kobe Oji Zoo

Alright, as part of my New Year promises to myself, I will bring this blog back to life! To start, I will be giving recaps of my travels around the Kansai region of Japan! Winter vacation started (for me) on the 22nd and will be ending here on the 12th (my first day back). So hopefully over the next few days I'll be able to get each city I went to up on here for everyone to enjoy.

I met two of my friends, Joe and Ben, in Kobe on the 23rd. They had some travel issues getting to Kobe, so we got to the city later than we would of wanted. We spent two nights in Kobe and I really enjoyed the area we were in! Our main goal in Kobe was to go to the zoo there, which has a GIANT PANDA! I was very excited to get see a panda for the first time, and I am a HUGE sucker for zoos. The following will be my favorite five animals I saw at the zoo and then pictures of other things we did.

Top Five Animals at the Kobe Oji Zoo

5. This Penguin

I am always a fan of penguins, but this guy really won my heart. His little hunchback and the way he hobbled about towards the more... straight looking penguins really made me giggle like a little child the whole time looking at him. At Sea World the penguin display is always one that I go to and love, regardless of how many times I've been there.

4. The Elephant Couple

I am a huge fan of elephants. They aren't my favorite animal, per say, but when students ask me what it is rather than say "sloth" or "alpaca" or "llama" (which are my favorites) that are really, really hard to translate over I say "elephant" because they are right there at the top of the this. PLUS in Japanese an elephant is called "zoo" which really, really tickles me (though it is said "ZOH").

3. Snuggling Porcupines

We just passed by these guys quickly because it was getting late, but I LOVED them. They were just so cute and all snuggled up for warmth. And they were HUGE. I had no idea that these guys got to big.

2. This Bobcat

I have no idea why it was doing this, but the whole time we stood there staring at it (maybe 5-10 minutes) it just walked back and forth... forever. As an aside, that is my friend Joe's voice commenting on bobcats.

1. THIS GUY.

This picture was taken by my friend, but c'mon.

I honestly can't even say anything about him. I just laugh.

I realize that the panda isn't on this list, because, well, he gets his own section.

He was pretty awesome.

And here are pictures of other things I did in Kobe:

Creeped with curry

Went to a sake brewery that has creepy, creepy mannequins.

Drank free sake while still being fearful.

Saw a huge Tetsujin.

Had legit pizza for the first time in Japan. For Christmas Eve dinner.

We really didn't do a lot during our stay in Kobe. We had only one full day there, which was spent at the zoo, and then we left early Christmas morning for our next city, Osaka! Watch out for that post sometime soon (hopefully tomorrow but don't place any bets on that one...)

It's Been A Long Time! Photo Dump!

2011-12-09T17:45:00.000+09:00

I have been completely lacking in the motivation department when it comes to the blog! I have so much that I want to write about but barely any motivation to sit down and do anything. Plus, it has been so long that I'm almost embarrassed. I think about the blog a lot, but I always get home and I'm just so exhausted.

I am thinking of maybe changing the direction of the blog a tad. Maybe make it less 'informative' and more 'personal'. I still want to keep up with my Teaching Japanese series and comparing Japanese life to the American lifestyle I'm used to, but I really want to talk more about what I do at school and the memories I make.

To tell you the truth, I don't do too much of anything other than work, make stuff for work, sleep, and fiddle around in Paint Shop Pro (because I like it loads better than Photoshop... there I said it!).

I have plans this winter break to go to Kobe, Osaka and then Kyoto for New Years. I bought my Bullet Train ticket yesterday and I will DEFINITELY be making loads of posts about that come January. But for this month, I'd like to catch you all up on what I've been doing/seeing lately. I've taken a load of pictures that you can see on my Twitter via Instagram, but in case you've missed some, I'm going to put my favorites up here for you guys to see!

So here is what I've been up to via pictures:

I've gotten a number of care packages.

I dressed up for Halloween

I take random drives

And I take lots of pictures at red lights.

I take lots of pictures around my schools

I went to a soccer game in Hiroshima

I got to experience a real Fall for the first time

I got winter tires on my car, and now have no backseat.

And I bought a Christmas tree! Need to buy more ornaments for it.

That's all for me these days! I will hopefully post this weekend about school supplies here, because I honestly love them. And maybe make a post of gifts I've gotten. I'd like to make both of those posts very much so hopefully I'll finally get around to doing it!

I'm making boiled peanuts currently and should probably check on them, since I think my stove top turned off (it does that..)

Bonsai, Suibakuga, and Flower Arrangement in Japan

2011-11-03T19:00:00.000+09:00

again for the time between posts. Got a wicked sore throat this weekend and have been pretty out of it. But, I hope some of these pictures will make up for it! I promise to make a load of posts to say "I'm sorry!"

On Monday I was invited to take part in a tea ceremony of sorts (culture festival thing at a community center in my town). I accepted and, despite later feeling like death, I was excited this morning when I woke up with fairly minimal pain in my throat!

I was, of course, quite the site for many of the older people there. I was even called out in the middle of the tea ceremony display and asked who I was (in a nice way) and my fellow teacher simply stated that I was "from America" and then later at the end the sensei gave me a bow and thanked me for coming. It was nice.

But, that isn't the main topic of this post. There wasn't much to the tea ceremony (other than some guy making tea for two special ladies while they talked to the sensei and then we were brought out some tea). I did get invited to partake in flower arrangement and tea ceremony classes, though! That'll be in the coming weeks so I'll try and make a detailed post on that in the future.

This, is about the art that I saw there. After the ceremony we went upstairs to an art gallery of sorts and I was truly blown away. The way in which Japan mixes natural and structured form is something I've always love. The country is surrounded by it what with the mountains and industry scattered about (especially in my city).

So under the cut are some pictures I took today of three different types of Japanese traditional art; bonsai, flower arrangement and what I believe is called "suibakuga" (if it's not please tell me the name, I can't remember!)

Flower Arrangement

Bonsai

Suibakuga

Blogger was being a jerk, so to view the fuller sized images you're going to have to drag those without links to the address bar (just click on the image and hold down the left mouse button while dragging it to the address bar).

The quality is pretty awful because it was my cell phone that took the pictures.

What are your favorites? I'm a big fan of the foggy mountain picture up there!

Reasons Why I Love Japan: My Favorite Class

2011-10-20T19:32:00.000+09:00

I go to a lot of schools. A lot. Five elementary schools and two junior high schools. I see over 700 junior high school students and nearly 500 elementary school students. That is a lot of faces and at this point I think I'm lucky to know maybe.... 5 names? 10? It definitely makes me sad thinking about that, there are a couple schools I haven't seen in a month plus, and others I see once a week or once every two weeks. It really makes getting to know those students hard.

But, that being said. I love the change of scenery the number of schools I have provides. I love the different vibes from different classrooms I get. And I love the variety I get to see. Some days I sit around doing nothing except read from a sheet of paper when I'm called upon, and it's great because most times the day before or day after I have worked two to three hours preparing lessons and activities and props and games and I'm drained. It really all balances out.

There is one class, though, that when I see it on the sheet for that school that I will be teaching my whole week is made. And this week, is one of those weeks. Not only did I get to teach them, but I got to eat lunch with them. I love this class, they are my favorite. I don't know a single name of a single student in it, but I recognize them all. And the groove we've got going on in that class is magic.

For starters, the teacher is awesome. You can tell just by stepping foot in that classroom that he is one of those teachers that is just great at his job. It is a third grade class, and the kids have so much energy and it is just a happy, happy place. The walls are decorated more than average (they get kinda bleak in these country schools, resources stretched thin) and the arrangement of the desks is even different than the average school, half the room faces the other half, there is no big desk at the front to separate teacher from student, and it just feels like America! As weird as it is to say, I feel that in spite of everything I learned in college about Japanese schooling, that in my experience American schools are far more personal, homey, and comfortable. Less serious. At least in elementary school where schools should still be FUN! That seems not the case in Japanese schools for a variety of reasons (which I'll delve into at a later date).

Back on topic, this class has clicked with me since the beginning. This week was my third or forth time teaching them (see, I got too much going on with these schools, I can't remember). We started a new lesson unit and prior to that we had been learning shapes and colors. We had great lessons of finding colors around the room and shouting them loudly to the telephone game where they whispered vocab and raced to bring me the correct flashcard.

This week, was by far the best one yet. It started with the teacher reading off of a flashcard to me "We always look forward to your lesson." It was really nice and made me feel great, because it shows that they like having me there as much as I like being there. I only see them every other time I go to this school, so I'm not there often.

We started a new lesson of following directions, so a lovely game of Simon Says was in order (I use 'please' instead, it is a bit harder and makes more sense than 'Simon Says' does) and tried my new positive reinforcement with the Crayola markers I had found that previous week - scented stamps for the winners! Boy, was that all they needed to get REALLY into the lesson. These stamps have proven to be a great motivator this past week and I am using them in every class from here on out!

So after a lovely game of Simon Says, I brought out my next game. I was really rather nervous about being able to explain this game without using much English, but it was a great success. The previous day I had been at a junior high school, which meant lots of planning time, so I went through and drew some materials for this game I had an idea for. I would split the class into four groups, and then put two groups in teams together; one group as callers and one group as placers.

The callers would get a completed sheet of paper with colorful shapes on it (since they just learned about those) and then yell to the placers where it went on the board. I gave the placers sheets of paper with big colored shapes on them and then ran to the board and looked to the callers to tell me where it went. It took a bit of me looking confused to get it, but eventually the table was yelling out "left, left, left! Down! Down! STOP OKAY!" And it was onto the next group of callers to make sure they understood.

Once one shape was on the board for each time I let the class have at it. It was a mad house! Screaming and shouting, confusion and best of all.... English! It is very easy in these hectic situations for students to revert back into Japanese by default, without realizing it. But I noticed a distinct use of English for every single one. My job was done, it was a success. I switched the teams off (I had made four different sheets with shape placements) and let them have at it. In the future, I'd probably make eight of these sheets.

After the class was done, I felt great. I taught the same lesson with the forth graders and the vibe just wasn't the same. The class went great and the kids spoke English the whole time, but that glee and joy and just... great feeling wasn't there. Maybe because in that third grade class the teacher sat down the second round and placed the shape on the board, having to run back twice because he kept getting it wrong.

I also had lunch with these kids and it was really great. I sat at a table with five girls and one boy and they talked to me quite a bit, I asked them what the food was and told them the food in English (carrots, what I thought was potato but wasn't, milk, soup, bread, etc) and that never happens when I eat with students, they normally sit there quietly staring intently at their food. At one point the teacher said something to the class in Japanese that I didn't understand and the whole class just stared at me for an uncomfortably long amount of time with huge smiles on their faces. I think he was talking about my hair or eyes, those are normally popular topics that get similar reactions from almost every student I have.

Then, once we were done eating, it was time for my present. I must tell you I was afraid at first, but then... they started singing and the teacher started playing guitar. It was some song in Japanese that sounded strangely like "Why Don't You Get A Job" by the Offspring (which really tickled me, picturing a classroom full of third graders singing that song to me in Japanese) and it was just... great.

I really, really love that class. I never have a bad day when I teach it. I don't really ever have bad days but when I teach that class all the other ones just seem to fall kinda short. My favorite school is a different, smaller school than that one, but that class is special.

Only bad thing about teaching that class? It means later that day I am teaching my least favorite. But, that is for another day at another time.

Japanese Public Schools: The Basics

2011-10-15T19:01:00.000+09:00

I want to start off by apologizing for being horrible at making blog posts. I have the time, I guess, but I've been busy with other things. It is my goal for the remainder of the month to make at least two blog posts a week. Which is basically doubling my output at this point so it's a good place to start.

That being said, I've been taking some notes in my downtimes at the schools and have come up with a nice comparison of schooling in Japanese versus schooling the United States. Or rather, Florida, since it may vary slightly compared to how things are in your own respective State.

To preface: I can't take pictures of my schools for safety reasons, so all photos are found via Google. Just so you know.

Most of my schools are smaller. I have one that has 16 kids, another at 24, and another at probably around 50. That is for the whole school. Then I have some that have one full sized class per grade, others with multiple. None are bigger than what I had in Orlando, I actually thing they are all smaller.

In Orlando, my elementary school was pretty big. We had three classes per grade levels; kindergarten then first through fifth grade. So probably between 400 and 500 students. That is about the size of my largest school. Middle school (grades six through eight) was even bigger, we probably had around 800-900 students (really kinda pulling that number out of my butt). And lastly in high school, we had closer to 2,000 (maybe around 1,700). These are about average for the city of Orlando. Which is a pretty big city, too. So that makes things different. I teach in the country.

In the States, teachers have their own classrooms. In elementary school they are decorated to the brim and in middle school they are filled with things to learn and keep things interesting. Really has a good vibe. In Japanese schools, this is not the case. In elementary schools the students have one main teacher and that teacher does basically have the classroom such as in the States, but during break times and recess the teacher has their desk in the teacher's room (hitting on that next). In junior high schools, the students have a room and the teachers circulate. To me, this makes the classrooms look bare often and kinda makes me sad. And as a student I would probably go crazy stuck in one room all day like that!

I actually sit in that chair with the pillow at my schools...

So the teacher's room. That picture is a pretty big one. Normally it is located near the guest entrance to the school (students have their own entrances) and in elementary schools the desks are normally in some sort of rectangle shape, and in junior high schools they are separated by year levels. The desks looks almost exactly like in the picture, some have different drawers. The vice principal (kyoto sensei) is always in here doing... whatever a kyoto sensei does. Sometimes it's sleeping. Next to the kyoto sensei there is normally a helper of sorts. She (since it's often times a woman) brings people drinks and gives announcements of sorts. I don't really completely understand their purpose other than to be like some sort of secretary-but-at-the-same-time-not-really. I've also noticed that it always (at least in my schools) faces the field (or rather, a big sand field) that the students have PE activities on. At the bigger schools there is a room attached to it (or across the hall in one of my schools) that has a printer and school supplies in it; in smaller schools this is done in the teacher's room (often in front of everyone so when the copy machine confuses you everyone sees you make a fool of yourself...). There are also sometimes mini-kitchen type rooms with a fridge, sink, and coffee machine.

The principal (kocho sensei) has a desk in the teacher's room, but it often in a really nice office attached to, or across the hall from, the teacher's room. This room scares me and at one school I get to sit in it alone for thirty minutes while they have a teacher's meeting. The kocho sensei's room normally has a small seating area in it. A short table (like a coffee table) between a loveseat that is love to the ground across from two matching chairs. Guests sit on the couch and the kocho/kyoto/whoever else sensei sit in the chairs. There are normally pictures from across the years of the school and a school motto/song on the wall in fancy calligraphy. It is, hands down, the nicest room in all my schools.

As I've mentioned, classrooms (for lack of a better description) basically 'belong' to the students. Teacher's have their work spaces in the teacher's room and the students have their classrooms. There are normally two big boards on opposite walls, a wall of windows (that open with no screens, image that one in the States, "Johnny has no self control and will FLING himself from the window with hopes of becoming a big, you must use screens!") And two doors with more windows that are normally open. So the layout of schools is pretty open. Teachers can normally here the children's excited screams of my lectures next door. The two boards serve different purposes, one is for writing and the other is to display stuff. And they're chalk boards, which means it's very dusty. The back of the room (with the display boards) has cubbies for the backpacks of students. The picture to the left is of an elementary school backpack. One of the teachers just this week told me that grandparents normally give money to the students for these backpacks as they are normally 20,000 to 50,000 yen (so like $400). In middle school they have messenger bags with the school logos.

At the desks of students they have a plastic drawer of sorts they take out at the end of the day. This holds their notebooks, textbooks, pencil cases, etc. On the side hands a little bag of sorts, for who knows what. Whatever a student needs I assume. There are also areas in the classroom in which notebooks are stored as I've seen children run up when they realize their English notebook isn't on them.

Speaking of pencil cases. I love these. I love Japanese school supplies. I'm going to do a post on them later because they are so AWESOME. But I am completely obsessed. Here are my pencil cases (I have two, one for pens, one for highlighters; there is also an eraser and ruler in one). Or rather, I would post pictures if my backpack wasn't in my car because it has been raining nonstop for the past 30 or so hours. I will post those later this week, in my school supple post.

Lunch is also very different. After forth period students go downstairs to the lunch area and grab metal lidded posts and trays that hold that day's lunch. It has been delivered late 3rd to early 4th period from the lunch center (each area has their own). Students wear masks and these apron things and it's really kinda funny. I like it. Two students normally carry the metal pots, one on each handle. There is also milk that is delivered. Students take it upstairs to their classrooms and serve each other (this duty rotates out) and the students either leave their desks where they are in rows, are eat in small groups. I am not really a fan of eating in the classroom. I think the change of scenery a lunchroom provides is really beneficial to the learning environment and that the vibe of a lunchroom provides much needed relaxation during the school day. Kids marvel at the notion when I talk to them about it. I actually have one school that does have a lunchroom and the different in the atmosphere is night and day. I will be making a post on school lunches, too, because I know many of you are interested in what I am eating.

The school day has six periods of rotating classes, so one day you'll have math first period and the next day third. Lunch is always after forth (at least in my Board of Education) and in elementary school cleaning time is after lunch. In junior high schools it is after sixth period. Cleaning time is really cool. Japanese schools don't have janitors so the students clean the school. They vacuum, sweep, and get on their hands and knees and wipe the floors with wet cloths, etc. Music plays and it is normally around fifteen minutes long. I try and help out when I can. Some schools look at me all weird when I offer, as there aren't normally "jobs" for me unless students are absent at the larger schools.

Uniforms are, of course, completely standard. Girls were a long skirt with gym shorts under it, two... straps... go over their shoulders to hold it up. A white shirt is normally worn under it. Boys wear shorts and a white shirt. In my city the girls wear blue and the boys wear black. This is the same in elementary and junior high schools. Indoor shoes are normally more like slippers with rubber soles. In colder days the boys wear jackets that are awesome and I'm tempted to buy (seriously. Though they are probably more expensive than those backpacks) and girls a sailor's coat of sorts with a jaunty little scarf around their neck. The scarf color varies by city, apparently.

That is the basics of schooling. I plan to write school level specific ones in the future, because things at elementary schools and junior high schools are different. Especially the classes at junior high school ones. So look out for those!

So You Want To Learn Japanese - 20 Useful Kanji I Think You Should Know

2011-10-08T19:24:00.001+09:00

It has been quite some time since I made one of these. I was sitting at work with a little bit of time on my hands and decided on how I wanted to make this post. I knew I wanted to do a kanji post next in my learning Japanese series, I just wasn't sure how to go about it.

After living in Japan for about a month and a half now (I can't believe it has been that long! I feel like I just boarded that plane yesterday) I have really started to learn kanji better than I had before. And I know a number of people will probably say that you don't really need kanji in Japan to survive, and you really don't need it but BOY does it help.

I have broken it down into a few categories based on different reasons to come to Japan, as well as an overall one that I think anyone who comes in Japan should attempt to learn. In this one I am going to give my top twenty. I also plan on doing a "visiting" list and "teaching" list.

For starters - these are mainly outside the kanji for days of the week and numbers. Those are very important and I may do a post on those later as well.

Top 20 Kanji I Think Everyone Learning Japanese Should Know

1. 円 - Yen (said "en") is very important. Sometimes the ¥ sign isn't on prices of things, and signs on Japanese are very cluttered with all the symbols, so being able to easily spot the kanji for "yen" is very handy.

２．月 - This means month (read either gatsu or getsu) and is used for Monday. So if you're buying something and want to know when it expires, this is important. The Japanese normally write the expiration dates in a different order, and I honestly still can't remember the order off the top of my head.

３．日 - This means sun or day, is also in "Nihon". It is said either "ni" or "nichi". Is also in Sunday. It is used to mark the date (so like the first or second day of the month).

４．出 - This marks exits. It's said "de". If you see it, that means it's an exit. Important! I don't really think I need to explain this much.

５．本 - This means "book" or "basis". It is also in "Nihon". It is said "hon" or "moto". So that shrine I went to had this kanji in it. It is normally on book stores.

６．店 - This is said "mise" and I think there is another pronunciation I haven't learned yet. All you need to know is that is marks a store. So if you're lost and in an area that looks like a bunch of houses, look for this sign and you've found a store!

７．県 - This is the kanji for "ken", which marks the prefecture that you're in. So, when I see the kanji for my prefecture - Yamaguchi - it has this sign after it. Meaning that I live in Yamaguchi-ken.

８．市 - "Shi" marks cities. So if you're trying to find something and you see "Shunan-shi" it means the city of Shunan. The "ken" and "shi" are important to distinguish because most prefectures have a city with the same name.

９．入 - This means enter. It is said "i" from what I remember. If you're looking for a way to enter a store, look for this.

１０．南　- This is the kanji for "south" said "minami". It is in my city and I had no idea until I started to plan for this. Directions are useful to know because streets often have them marking them.

１１．西 - This is "west" or "nishi" in Japanese. Again, important because street names will normally have them in it.

１２．東 - Here is "east" or "higashi". Again, useful to know for finding your way.

１３．北 - "North" or "kita". Important for finding your way, again.

１４．時 - "ji" or "toki" marks hours or time. So if you see a sign for something interesting and it has this on it, it's probably saying something about the time.

１５．年 - "Nen" for year. This is important for finding dates of things.

１６．魚 - "Sakana" or "fish". Important for ordering food. If you see this it is a fish dish!

１７．肉 - "Niku" or "meat". This is for beef. So if you're ordering food and see this it normally marks meat. Chicken is written in K=katakana most times (or in hiragana "sasami" for the cutlets, I believe).

１８．手 - "te" for "hand". This is normally in signs for bathrooms! If you see a sign with the hiragana "o" and this kanji I can pretty much assure you that it means a bathroom.

１９．右 - "migi" or "right" in Japanese. Good for directions.

２０．左 - "hidari" or "left" in Japanese. Again, good for directions.

I know that there is probably other kanji people will find important, but from my time here these have been the most helpful and the ones I see a lot of. I think it is a good foundation because you'd be amazed at what you can understand with just these twenty under your belt!

What kanji do you find most useful?

Falltime Matsuri at Motoyama Shrine in Shunan

2011-10-01T21:48:00.001+09:00

Last Sunday after climbing the mountain to see the lovely windmill I went to the fall season festival here in town. I have no idea what any of it meant so I'm not going to talk much about it. The Japanese woman I talked to was equally as unhelpful. I guess it's true that most of what the Japanese do it just tradition and even they don't understand why it happens.

Anyway, I took loads of pictures! So I am going to post some of my favorites for you all to look at and enjoy.

The Dream Windmill of Shunan-shi

2011-09-30T20:36:00.000+09:00

So my town has this windmill. It's pretty awesome. You can see it from almost any spot in the town. When I first got assigned my location it was one of the first things I learned about in my searches about the area. I have been wanting to find out how to climb it for a while now. And this past Sunday I finally decided to give it a shot! There was a festival that day, and I had some time to kill, so I looked for it.

I drove down the main roadway and saw some walkways that had windmills on them, so I parked in a parking lot and decided that it must be where I go to find it! And I was correct! I saw signs for the windmill - called the "Dream Windmill" or yume some kanji I don't know. And followed the signs! I took loads of
pictures.

The sign for windmill. I was very excited when I saw this sign because I figured the climb wouldn't be so bad to it because I was already so high up the mountain side. Well, I was wrong. Or rather, I am very out of shape.

Here is the sign directing me towards the windmill. These stairs were just the first of many. Many. Many. Manyyyy stairs. At least my butt got a good work out.

Along the way I found this. The dead body on the sign instantly peeked my interest. The grave is boring so I won't post a picture of that, it's just an empty, tiny, stone pit that looks exactly like that one. Minus the skeleton. I have no idea what this has to do with a windmill but it was kinda weird. I won't lie.

Not only were there stairs but there were ramps. These ramps sucked. I honestly don't know if I dislike ramps or stairs more when it comes to climbing in 32 degree weather. And that is in Celsius. I'm trying to convert my way of thinking. It's hard.

Here is another grave thing. It was in the middle of the walkway in a grass.. mound... thing. I wonder who these people are... Never had I wanted to understand more Japanese/kanji more in my entire life. These guys were so interesting to me.

On the way up I stopped to sit on a bench. Then a pregnant woman starting to huff it up behind me and show me up. So I pretended to take a picture of this clock to save my ego a little bit. The fact that I could barely breath and was dripping in sweat didn't seem to blow me cover any...

But at last I reached the windmill! It was very.. big. A lot bigger than I expected, honestly.

Here is the view form the windmill. It was so pretty. I stared at it for a long while. I completely forgot I was afraid of heights, which is also a plus. Conquering fears one small mountain trek at a time!

Here is a front picture of it. I like this picture a lot. I'm going to brag about it and stuff. Look at how perfect those windmill... blades? are positioned! Totally not an accident.

There was this inside the windmill which was infinitely creepy. Some guy stood behind it and played music that I knew. I wish I remembered the songs. It wasn't Peter and the Wolf because I waited for it to come on and it never did. That is my favorite children's song from that era. Of creepy puppet things...

I walked back down, which was almost as exhausting as walking up because walk down steepish slopes is actually very dangerous when you're me and don't quite know how to not fall on your face. At the bottom of the trail there was a little park of sorts that I walked around. Here are some pictures I took of that.

First Impressions: Teaching in Japan; Students and Teachers

2011-09-24T21:41:00.000+09:00

Since I've now been living in Japan for a month, and have finally gone to all seven of my schools, I felt it would be a great time to give a "first impressions" look at what it is like to teach English in Japan. I can definitely say that a lot of it is what I expected, and some of it is completely out there to me. And some things I expected just haven't happened.

For starters, most of my schools are in the country. I have three really small schools (I'm talking less than fifty kids total, my smallest has 17 I believe). And the other four are decent sized at one full sized (around thirty students) classes per grade to four to five classes per grade. So I have a little bit of everything as far as it is concerned with teaching. I teach at five elementary schools (grades 1-6 in the US) and two junior high schools (grades 7-9).

Due to privacy reasons I'm not going to talk about any one school in particular. I will, at most, vaguely reference a class without stating what grade they are in. This is for the safety of my students and my company. I hope you will all understand and not think I am being some weird... vague... loser. Okay!

Elementary Schools
I am completely loving elementary schools. I teach literally every grade and I have so much fun with these kids. They are normally full of this great energy that just infects you and makes you want to jump around and act crazy. I've mainly done self introductions with these students and let me tell you, when I stick those Pokemon and Sailor Moon magnets I made up on the board they are putty in my fingers.

It is like I have some weird kindred connection with these students. I love being goofy with them, whether it is jumping around the classroom counting with first graders or being the referee for a team speed test in the higher levels. I move around, I sweat my butt off since there is no A/C and I smile and laugh and just really try and have a good time with these kids.

So far my favorite grade to teach would be third graders. Second graders in a very, very close second. To me, the third graders are just now starting to "get" English and can follow me very well, but are still young enough where I can be goofy and have fun with them and they don't find me lame yet. A game of "Simon Says" (which I may harder by saying 'Please', plus it makes more sense grammatically) is their favorite and they get really into it. Second graders are basically the same, though their English knowledge is normally a bit below the third graders.

First graders are cute and fun, I've only taught one full class of them and it was a BLAST and I had them yelling my name every time I walked past the classroom. Forth graders are pretty fun as well, but I can't really remember any classes I had teaching them so that basically says it all right there. Fifth and sixth graders can be a bit tricky because the elementary school fun vibe is starting to disappear, mores in the sixth graders than the fifth. Sixth graders have probably been my biggest challenge so far.

Junior High Schools
I really enjoy the Junior High Schools so far. I haven't really taught a class at a JHS yet, so I'm not really sure how that will go. I did do one half lesson with some 9th graders after my self-intro and it went over well enough. I didn't have too much time to plan for it, though, so that was slightly difficult.

I'm not as "cool" or interesting to the Junior High students, so that aspect is kind of lost. While I'm definitely different, I'm not the exciting foreigner to them as I am in Elementary schools, which is kind of refreshing at points because I can get away with walking down the halls without hearing choruses of my name, and I don't get swarmed in classrooms. Even though I love it, the break from those types of encounters are very nice.

They really like how young I am, though. I guess I'm young compared to some ALTs, because when I write my age on the board after being asked I always get the same reaction from both students and teachers of just how young I am. Maybe just in my area at these schools they have had older ALTs. The kids kinda like how young I am, though, and I have had many boys give me some... extra attention? I don't really know how to say it without sounding weird or awkward or conceited. I don't want to say "I think there are some crushes on me", because I don't know that. But I do have a lot of boys stop in the hallway when they see me and say that lovely schoolboy "HELRO!" Which is so awkward for me because, anyone who knows me will tell you, in middle school I was the exact opposite of attractive. I've even had crushes tell me that I was too dorky to date in middle school.

I find I don't connect with these students as much. I think I need to look at some Japanese names for animes I watch because the English names aren't translating. I should of prepared for that. But normally at these age Pokemon has lost its flair (I know it did for me in middle school only to come back with a vengeance later on) and my Sailor Moon magnet has gotten the girls to... well... giggle and find ways to joke about it? I doesn't bother me at all and I've taken up the habit of flashing a Sailor Moon pose to the ones I know find my love of her hilarious, but I definitely feel that disconnect.

Teachers
Let me just say the teachers have probably been the most shocking experience while working in Japan. I was expecting them to be sort of aloof and disinterested in me. Look at me, this 22 year old college graduate who can barely speak any Japanese coming in here and teaching students. I was really expecting a sort of distant attitude from most of the teachers. And granted, some definitely give off that vibe, but most are really, really nice.

They are all really sort of... afraid of me? Especially the ones I teach with. It is like they are really afraid of what I will think of their class, especially in elementary schools since there is only one teacher. I had one teacher who after I got done with the class (it has actually been my favorite lesson so far) came to me in the teacher's room and said things like "Oh, I am so sorry they were so noisy" and "They shouldn't of swarmed you like that". In different words, of course, but that is definitely what he was trying to say.

That attitude is so funny to me. Because, not even six months ago, I was the student. It is really weird for me to be in a school now and be THE TEACHER. It is such a weird transition to go from student to sensei in the matter of MONTHS. Literally I can count on one hand the numbers of months I went from being a student to a teacher. I still hop down the hallway with that student bounce with my floral backpack on as if I were a student still. I still feel like a student sitting in that teachers room while students peer in at me and look like a deer caught in a headlight once they realize I am sitting in there.

So to be treated like an equal to most of these teachers and that respect, while I was told about it in training and my interview, that I will be on par with these teachers. I never really thought it would be true at all. It's just weird. That's all I can say.

Anyway, to keep this from being a super long and boring post I will make a sort of mini-series out of it. I think some ideas for it will be as follows:

My city
School system in Japan
Driving in Japan
Grocery Shopping in Japan
Clothes Shopping in Japan

I think those are four topics I get asked a lot of questions about and have had some pretty interesting experiences with so far. So look out for those! I'm sorry my posting has been so off lately, I swear I am trying my best to keep updated! I just need to get in a groove of things, definitely.

Tomorrow, I have some pictures to post!

I get it, I'm the awkward foreigner.

2011-09-19T19:02:00.000+09:00

What I bought today.

Today I spent the day looking for some new clothes. I've been scouting out places to clothes shop in my spare time and decided that I had the little extra cash to treat myself. I gave myself a budget of 12,000 yen and set off for an adventure.

But, this post isn't about my shopping experience. It was pretty uninteresting. Shopped around, found a couple shirts for work and a couple for the fall and a new dress. Found a store I need to go to once I start getting paid. Those types of things. But what was really weird today that I haven't quite experienced yet in Japan was people being really obvious about how not-Japanese I am.

Yes, I expected this coming to Japan. I am about as un-Japanese as they come. I'm six feet tall (185cm just about) and I have big curly lighter brown hair. My eyes are sharp blue and very round. I'm pale as can be and I have many freckles. I'm very English looking. I stand out, easily. I've gotten glances from children every so often, and I've had people yell at me "HELLO, HOW ARE YOU!?" while I was around, but today it was just... weird.

I'm sure many expats to Asian countries have similar stories, and I'm sure some are worse. I'm not really upset by any of it, just confused. It baffles me, coming from a country with such a diverse range of people, how people see me as being so different. How I am like seeing some endangered animal in the wild or something. It's weird. I get it, though. When you're from places outside the Kansai and Kanto areas foreigners aren't as popular, I've yet to see another as I've been out and about honestly. But still. I'm not a zombie or anything!

It started yesterday, actually. Three 13 year olds (I'm guessing) were waiting to cross the street, I'd already half crossed it so I was a little ahead of them. I turned around to look behind me and they were taking pictures of me on their cell phones! It was definitely very.. invasive? I pretended like I didn't see it and just turned around. It was definitely weird.

Then today I was looking at Gapachin and Muzzu stuff (because I'm obsessed with those two guys now) and these two elementary aged girls walked into the aisle with me. The older one leaned close to the younger and whispered something, obviously about me, and I just moved to the next aisle and they looked at the Gapachin stuff. It was weird. Kids here are very... bold. They aren't rude, just bold. And it was odd for these two girls to just sort of stop a few feet away from me and wait for me to move before looking at the display.

Then, there was this older lady (maybe in her late 50s?) who was bagging her groceries (in Japan you bag them after you check out at these counters). It was pretty crowded in the store and I just needed a small plastic bag for my milk I bought. She was the only one on that side of the counter (all the others had multiple people) so I just walked around the edge and grabbed the bag. As I did so, she picked up her stuff and moved to a very crowded counter to bag her stuff. I just had milk! And I was standing on the corner on the side adjacent to hers. She had a whole half table by herself and now she was shoved in with three people at the same sized area.

It just baffled me. I get that I don't "belong" here. My feet being a couple cm too big and the large skirts being a good bit too small for my waist prove that point pretty nicely. But these weird avoidance maneuvers really weird me out. Most people are pleasant to me. The ladies at the Post Office love me and are so nice, everyone I come in contact to that works guest services here puts America to SHAME (even my lovely self working retail). But it is the people just going about their day that make me scratch my head.

I'm American, not an Alien! Though, I guess, technically I am an Alien but that's just a technicality.

Reasons Why I Love Japan #2 - Mountains, why you should visit

2011-09-18T12:18:00.001+09:00

The September theme for the Japan Blog Matsuri is "Reasons to Visit Japan". I think this is a great topic at a great time for me, as I am beginning to finish up my first month living in Japan. Still doesn't really feel like I'm here, but I'm sure it will soon enough! So I am going to share why I think people need to visit Japan, and that is because of all these freaking mountains!

Yeah, yeah. Kinda cliche. Oh Japan, mountains. We all know. But these mountains are just like... amazing. Coming from Florida anything taller than a twenty foot hill is impressive to me. But it is something about the constant fluctuation in the topography here that really stand out to me.

I've been to places with mountains before, it isn't like I've never seen them or anything. But the mountains I've seen are just so big and overwhelming that you don't really SEE the mountain, just the side of it, or the top of it, or the base of it. And while they're cool and interesting to drive around, it isn't anything much like the mountains here in Japan.

The mountains behind the city I was training at, around Hiroshima

Every day that I drive to work I drive through mountains. All of my schools are in little farming towns around my main city of Shunan. Shunan used to be the port town of Tokuyama (where I live) and a bunch of smaller cities that are inside the mountains. So it covers a pretty big area. Tokuyama has everything I need, is right on the coast and pretty urban (considering), but once you go a few kilometers inland it is like this whole different world. You just see all of this rolling mountains.

You drive along them and it is just peak after peak after peak of lush green mountains with bamboo sticking out of them. And while I'm sure these mountain drives will get increasingly more frightening as the winter months approach with my little, tiny, Suzuki WagonR. Right now they set a great mood for my days. Twisting along the paths and turning a blind corner to see a huge mountain in front of you, nothing is more gorgeous. Nothing!

These are smaller mountains than what I've seen in the states. Mini-Mounts as I've dubbed them. While they are still pretty big, they are not daunting, huge alps. And they are just there, sticking up in the background. Most people are oblivious to them, but me it's still completely breathtaking.

Smaller mountains behind the city

One of my schools is at the top of these mountains, in an area covered with rice fields and traditional Japanese style houses. It is a ten minute drive up this mountain, through twisting roads and blind turns and my little car sputters up it going as fast as it can. Then it opens up into this green valley in the center of all these mountains.

There is another school situated between a number of mountains. From the top floor of this junior high school you can see highway overpass fit between two mountains. Then to the left a cemetery cascading down the sides of another. I do not know why the Japanese put their cemetery's on the sides of these mountains but I am in love with it. It is seriously beautiful. There are at least four of these cemeteries that I see on a regular basis. They are small, they are in really random locations, and they are just that little bit of something that reminds me where I am (that and driving on the left side of the road all the time).

Mt. Fuji from the airplane

One of the things that I will not leave Japan without doing, is climbing Mt. Fuji. I've yet to really "see" it. I've flown past it and got some amazing pictures of that and the Japan alps. But I want to climb that mountain and I want to experience Japan as it is from the top!

I really wish I had even more pictures to show you guys of these mountains. And maybe my goal in the next week will be to take my camera with me everywhere and take shots of these amazing sights. I guess that will be my promise to you lovely followers! I will take some pictures of these mountain scenes for all of you this week and next weekend you shall have some pretty images to see.

This was written for the Japan Blog Matsuri of September 2011. If you want to learn more about the Japan Blog Matsuri please visit this link. If you would like to see more entries of the September 2011 topic please visit this link.

My Apartment in Shunan, Japan!

2011-09-13T18:26:00.000+09:00

The much long awaited post, I'm sure! My apartment! I have finally gotten it together enough to share some pictures. I would like to add some stuff on the walls because the white is slowly driving me insane, but other than that it is pretty cozy.

At the end of the post is a video on youtube I made of a walkthrough of my apartment. I apologize ahead of time for how insanely dorky I am and for singing about my Shunan magnet and bed.

From the doorway!

The doorway. My shoe pile and my pantry (which is really a shoe closet apparently) to the right.

My garbage rules! Super confusing kinda!

My pantry!

To the left when you come in is my laundry/bathroom area.

My toilet room!

The controls of my toilet which I don't understand/scare me.

The hand washing fountain on the back of my toilet.

The washing machine and cleaning supplies area.

Close-up of my washing machine.

Bathroom stuff above washing machine.

Control panel for my shower room. Blue for cool air when I shower and red for hot air to dry my clothes.

Shower room! There is a tub and showerhead...

Onto the kitchen! Microwave, fridge, dishes...

Inside my freezer.

Inside my fridge.

This is where I cook. Under the towel are two stove eyes for cooking.

My room!

My bed.

Work area. Don't judge the suitcase desk.

My closet.

My table.

My stupid frosted window.

And here is the video.

Picture Post: Today I Took A Walk

2011-09-11T20:49:00.000+09:00

I went out today with the intent of taking my camera and snapping lots of pictures of the city while on my walk. Only to realize when I was much too far from home that my camera was missing its memory card. Alas! So I snapped pictures with my cell phone to play around with Instagram a bit. It was lovely!

I was on the hunt for postcards and figured my best bet would be the train station. It isn't that far from my apartment so I thought a walk was in order. They have postcards at the post office but they are over 100 yen a piece and I'm cheap!

I found this pretty river in the middle of the city...

So I decided to go ahead and follow it since it ran all the way to the train line.

I saw some cool sights along the way.

Until I came to a large crossing

I walked down some pretty paths.

Saw a lot of pretty flowers.

Walked down more paths

Crossed more roads

Saw some neat statues

And finally reached the end (covered in sweat)

So I took this side street

Along the railroad.

Past a love hotel.

And made it to the station!

There were local vendors at the plaza.

And I found a stationary shop that sold packs of 10 postcards for 200-300 yen a piece! Great deal! I even have my Christmas cards.

Picture Post: Random School Projects

2011-09-09T18:28:00.002+09:00

Here are just a couple pictures from this week with things I made for my classes. I'm exhausted as my first week is finally over! I wasn't given some flash cards I needed (the girl before me sent them to the office too late or something) and it caused a lot of extra at home planning time for me (as I haven't had too much as schools yet). Laminating, cutting, gluing, printing. More printing. I've used nearly 150 sheets for just this week.

Next week should be easier, though! So that's something to look forward to most definitely!

Elementary self-intro pieces. I'll probably use the Pokemon in junior high schools, but I'm going to check out the classroom and see if any of the kids have Pokemon themed supplies first. The kids went crazy with the Pokemon, yelling the names. Three have the same name in Japanese, and three have new names. I have some of my Pokemon cards from home that I may bring in one day...

I made and colored some cubes for a location word game. In the bag, under the bag, next to the bag, behind the bag, on the bag! I have since stepped on nearly all of them. So much for that. I need more storage! This weekend I am definitely getting a plastic tub for these supplies.

Animal necklaces! For an animal version of "Fruit Basket". I had no idea that is what I was doing until someone mentioned Fruit Basket to me. #ForeverGaijin

I've also cut out six sets of number cards 1-20 for "Karuta" today. Made a ton of flashcards. Made dice with numbers 7-12 that I didn't end up using because the kids like the jumping game too much in the first grade class I taught.

Things are definitely starting to adjust for sure! I'm getting the swing of things (even using my tiny kitchen).

Tomorrow I hope to organize my room enough to get some pictures up of it. It's about 85% ready, I just gotta get some plastic tubs for school supplies and figure out a way to organize my shoes by the door... since what I've been using as my pantry is actually a shoe closet.......

Guest post - On The Road Again... With Rascal

2011-09-08T09:06:00.002+09:00

I told a friend I would write this for her blog, however I'm missing my doggy tonight and this story is a big part of my life. With that in mind I decided I would share the story on my own blog as well. In the passage below is the story of my solo road trip with just my little Honda, my pup-kid Rascal, and myself. Destination: FL.

My husband Andrew had just left for our second deployment together, and I was a hot mess. We had already decided I would drive myself and our pup-kid Rascal to FL in February. The plan was to surprise my daddy for his birthday on Valentines Day. What ended up really happening will be something I'll never forget. Ready to go on the mental adventure with me? Cool, then let's go! *waves arm over shoulder*

A week before the first of February, I made a snap decision to leave at the start of the month. It would put me in FL 2 weeks ahead of schedule. I decided that this would be so much more fun to not tell ANYONE, and surprise them all.

I got the car all ready to go, packed myself and Rascal up for 2 months of stay, and early morning on February 1st, 2009, Rascal and I headed out. I didn't exactly have a "plan", but was going to drive as long as possible. Pulling our of our San Diego parking lot, I took a deep breath, looked at Rascal and said "Welp, pup, here we go".

Day 1- total driving time: 10hours
On Day one we left the house in San Diego about 6am or so. The Sun was just starting to peek up behind the clouds. Rascal made himself comfortable on the maps in the front seat, and I tried to focus on listening to the CDs I had pre-made for the trip.

After driving about two hours, I decided to stop for a drink and some gas. I called my friend at the time, Heather, and we talked and that conversation helped me power through to keep going. I'd never done anything like this before, so it was kind of scary.

I made it to Tuscan AZ about 1pm... I had hoped to drive until dark and then stop at a hotel. I had hoped to meet a friend who lived in the area for lunch but she was 'too busy' or lived to far away to make it in time so I decided to just grab gas and move on.

For the night, I stopped in El Paso, TX. I had driven all the way from CA through AZ, NM, and finally into TX. I was super proud of myself. Normally when I took road trips with Andrew, I couldn't drive more than 2hours without wanting to fall asleep. Rascal and I had dinner and I got a relaxing bath that night and then slept peacefully.

Day 2- total driving time: 10hours.
Rascal and I were on the road by 7am the next day. During this days trip we decided to stop and view the scenery and take in the area. We only stopped a few minutes but it was needed. At one time I had to pull over and take a short cat nap to refresh myself. While Rascal was an amazing companion, it was a boring, long journey.

We stopped for lunch and gas and kept on going. Rascal spent much of his time sleeping the whole way. He slept on top of the luggage in the back seat. This day, we made it as far as Houston TX.

Again, I was proud of us. 10hrs, 20hrs total in 2 days. That's mind blowing if you really know me. Rascal and I got another good dinner, this time at Crackle Barrel. (Of course Rascal impatiently waited for me back at the hotel while I got our order to go :) ).

That night, I talked to my dad and step mom. At this point, no one knew anything. My friends back home knew, and by this time Andrew knew I had left early....but no one in FL knew I was only 10hours away from them. I put up a good act to my dad and step mom, and they believed me.

After another relaxing bath, (I love those, can't ya tell?), Rascal and I curled up together and once again, got a good nights rest. Dreaming sweet dreams of the final leg of our journey that awaited us the next day.

Day 3- total driving time 10 hours
After a good, hotel-wise, breakfast and a new gas fill up we were on our way bright and early at 7am. I have to say this was my favorite part of the trip. On the third day we would go through the rest of TX which before leaving we got a picture of us in front of the TX sign, on to Louisiana Mississippi, Alabama, and finally Florida.

I made it out of TX within about an hour. Then Louisiana was a lot of fun. We got stuck in a traffic jam where I sat singing to Rascal as he stared out the window wondering why I wasn't getting out because we were stopped. (Silly Boy!). Crossing the bayou was amazing, it reminded me of the times we used to go on truck runs with my daddy.

Mississippi and Alabama went by so fast I felt like I blinked 3 times and we were entering into FL. We decided to stop in Pensacola and took a picture in front of the FL sign. A nice elderly couple took one of me and my pup-kid.

That night, I arrived in my home city of Tallahassee around 8pm. I decided to stay at a hotel one last night, and go and surprise everyone when I was fresh the next day. We ordered a Pizza and settled in to wait. While we waited it was time for the last big "fake" call.

I called my dad and he asked how I was doing, I told him I was fine and that we had just ordered a pizza. Daddy was assuming I meant at home and not that we were less than 30mins from him. *excited little girls giggle*

I've never been able to keep a secret that long, and it was amazing. I made sure that he would be home in the AM because I wanted to "call him", and hung up saying I needed to get dinner eaten and into the bed.

SURPRISE DAY!!!!!!!!!!

On February 4th, 2009 I woke up to a chill Tallahassee morning. It was about 6:30am, and I showered and packed up the car. While I was packing up the Honda, these two men on motorcycles asked me to take a picture of them with their bikes. Back in FL, people are nice so of course I took the picture :). They asked me where I was heading and I filled them in on my plan.

These guys were amazed that I had driven so far, and wished me well. I realized I was shaking while talking to them, and it wasn't because of the cold weather. I was shaking from pure excitement.

Rascal and I make the final drive to my dads in Crawfordville FL. I follow the GPS to his house and park out front. I call him as I am pulling in and he answers with...

"You're up early" (back home in CA it was only about 3am). I told him yeah, that I had things to do that day and asked him what he was doing. He tells me that he's just getting up himself and having coffee.

I then ask him to look outside. He said "where" (sigh), "out front" I say.

He goes, "hold on, let me go to my bedroom because the windows in the living room are covered up" (how funny how much he shares hehehe.)

So he looks out and goes "I don't see anythin......I see you!!!!!!" I was like "Surprise"!

He then tells Mickie, my step mom that I'm outside. She didn't believe him. He told me to come to the back door, and so I did...I hear Mickie in the house saying "Doug, you are lying to me, Sarah isn't here". (*giggles*).

She then opens the back door and stands there for what felt like 45mins yelling, "OH MY GOD, OH MY GOD" (*giggles*).....she then hugged me, and let me in the house.

Daddy was just inside the door waiting for me, with what I could swear were tears in his eyes. He hugged me for awhile and said it was good to see me.

Everyone else was excited too, but the reaction I got with my daddy and Mickie were priceless and they help make up the positive experience of this incredible journey I just completed.

Rascal and I only stayed a month of the two months that were planned. We decided to leave due to some unpleasantness but not before taking daddy to Golden Corral on his birthday in February, and him taking me on an "early birthday fishing trip".

I miss home, but I've come to realize that life only happens when you get out there and make it happen. Sitting in a small town waiting for the wave to catch you, will only get you so far. Life is a blessing that is created, not given.

This is a friend of mine! She is awesome and you should check out her blog by going HERE.

My Neighborhood in Shunan, Japan

2011-09-05T20:43:00.000+09:00

View from front door

Things are definitely time consuming when it comes to planning about a dozen different lessons a week for students, so I'm going to do a short post of mainly pictures to hold you all over while I go laminate even more pages and kill even more trees with the massive amounts of paper I am using. I'm really not a fan of being this wasteful. Though I guess it's not wasteful if I need it. Okay, rambling.

Anyway, during the "typhoon" a few days ago the lighting outside was pretty so I decided to go ahead and take pictures of my neighborhood, mainly the road that I drive down to get to my apartment. Keep in mind I live off of the main road in Shunan, so dropping down into this little slice of traditional Japanese lovely was really a surprise. Not to mention frightening.

Down the stairs we go! For those who don't know what that green and white box it at the bottom, it is my "dumpster". Meticulously clean, super tiny, and in the PERFECT location. Back in the States walking all the way across an apartment complex in the opposite direction of the exit made garbage a hassle. I guess that's one less annoying thing about the Japanese garbage system...

View from downstairs towards the street. That is my car on the right! Hi Karuma with your tiny wheels that scare me when driving up mountains!

This path is to the right of the picture above. I have no idea where it goes. One day I will explore. Maybe this weekend.

This is the road leading to the main street. Notice how it disappears into scary blackness.

When you get to the scary dark place and turn left, this is what you see. This stretch of road is probably... oh... 8 feet wide maybe? Just enough for one small Japanese car to squeeze through. Notice the first completely blind corner...

Here is what is around the first blind corner. It is small. Since taking this picture all of that green on the right has been cut away. The leaves had holes in them, so I can only assume it was due to bugs. It kinda makes me sad. It was so pretty (though it did add about a foot more of driving space).

Here is the road continuing after that love narrow stretch. This is normally where, if two cars were coming head to head... one would reverse and move to the side in. It is very Japanese, from what I have experienced driving here.

And here is the second blind turn. There are three houses on this blind turn and you basically have to scoot down it and pray that no one comes towards you. This people WHIP around these blind turns like crazy people.

We're almost out! So close to the end! Still a bit more scary turning to go...

And then up that super steep ramp and you're on the main road! It is a super busy road and you can only turn left onto it. It's right by a light, too, so 9 times out of 10 you wait for the light to turn red and then pray no one blocks you in and someone will leave space for you.

The amount of U-Turns I do in this country is insane, and most of them aren't even due to me not knowing where I am going...