Bonnie

I love the times (few as they may be) when you actually feel like you're progressing and not just a stupid foreigner who can't grasp Japanese.

Today, I was able to almost perfectly understand what one of the teachers at my Non-English-Speaking elem. school needed to tell me.  There were a few words I didn't get, but I understood the most important parts:

"Next week on May 16th, we have Sports Day practice.  The whole school will be practicing first period, then the first/second graders will be practicing during second period.  You had to teach both grades, and there will only be three periods left to teach them.  Is it okay to combine the two second grade classes and teach them both at once?"

I totally understood.  I was really happy!  I'm not sure if the teacher thought I understood, since it was mostly the standard "hai" and "wakarimashita" responses, but later when I talked to him again, I think he knew for sure if he didn't before.

I realized that we're doing Introductions (Hello/My name is/Nice to meet you) and I only have 31 character cards (Hello, my name is Doraemon/Hello, my name is Stitch/Nice to meet you), and I needed another 18!  I also wanted to make sure we could get a large room.  So I went over to the teacher after he was done writing Monday's agenda on the board and
1) Asked him if we could get a big room (of course you can!)
and
2) Explained the character card problem.

Of course, I had a bit of trouble with some of the Japanese there, but I also had my cards and between showing and talking and saying that last year, the teachers at the other elem. school in my town helped me with the cards for the Japanese characters since I have no clue who the kids will know (Dokin-chan? Wakame-chan? Chibi Maruko?  Never heard of them before that day....), I was able to convey the problem. 

Actually, it was really cute.  After flipping through my cards and writing down all of the Japanese characters (not the Western ones such as Mickey and Spider-Man that they all know), he asked one teacher who had just come into the room, "So, what other characters are in One Piece besides Luffy?" (Luffy was one of the ones I already had)  She starts listing people and he writes them all down, then looks at the list again.  "Hmm, how about Naruto?"  She laughs and says she doesn't know, so he asks the secretaries, then moves on to other characters and other shows until we have enough people.  It's mostly the One Piece/Naruto/Chibi Maruko/Conan show now, though.  Before, I didn't have so many characters from the same show....

It was really funny, though, and they were all laughing, too.  Then I asked him where I should go online to look for the pictures, and he said he'd do it and have it all ready for next week.  He even asked about what my ribbon coding system is (red for boys, purple for girls, white for characters//unisex cards).

It was really nice and, honestly, I was relieved, since I've never seen any of the shows and wouldn't have been able to identify any of the characters.  Well, except Conan, but I never saw the series, only the live action movie...and only because Oguri Shun was in it.  I couldn't even identify anyone else from that show, though I have memories of a couple of the other characters.  No names, though.  Plus, every character card I have is animated--even Harry Potter and the two or three Superheroes they all know.  So, really, no help at all.


I was so happy to understand, though!  It's so nice when it does happen....





..........Okay, so this weekend I'll update w/more vacation stuff.  Promise.  Yesterday I was too busy, and tonight I wasn't home!

So in Japan, there were just a lot of holidays in a row.  First, I went to Kyoto, Osaka, and Hyogo, but I'll talk about those in another entry, and not tonight, since I have too many entries today.  You'll only read so much, right?  Next, I went to Seoul (in South Korea, for those not geographically-inclined), which was amazing.  I'll try to post about it tomorrow, I think?  Then on Sunday, I went to Nagasaki City.  I'll talk about it today, mostly because I have so much to update, and I think it's better to go backwards in time.  Sound good? ^^

Okay, so Nagasaki City.  It's not like I've never been there before, though I had some new experiences.  I met up with one of the girls from Siebold who was in my group back in August.  I hadn't seen her in ages b/c she couldn't come to the Siebold Intensive this past February (which I also have to update you on....).  We had so much fun catching up!  I ♥ her so much.  Really, I do. :)

Anyway, we met up to go to Glover Garden.  I'd never been there before, even though it's one of the "things to do" in Nagasaki.  Actually, even though she was born and raised in Nagasaki, T. had never gone, either. 

It wasn't quite what I was expecting.  I kept hearing it had beautiful flowers and stuff and is always so lovely in the spring, but really, it was mostly a house from this Dutch dude until the 70s or something, and there weren't so many flowers and stuff.  I was a bit disappointed with that.  T. was excited to see this one stone the whole time.  I didn't realize what she was looking for until we saw it.  It was shaped like a heart, and it was embedded with a bunch of other stones on a marble pathway.  Apparently, it's a really famous stone.  People go just to see it and take pictures, and it's just on the pathway with all the other stones.  Crazy, huh?  Oh, Japan...!!! ♥ ♥

After we finished walking around, we went to Chinatown for lunch.  I'd been to the Chinatown in Nagasaki once before during the Chinese New Year this past February, but it was so crowded that we couldn't really move, let alone look around!  Actually, last week I also went to the Chinatown in Kobe, but they didn't have champon, which is what my prefecture's famous food is.  Then again, the one in my prefecture didn't have my beloved Bubble Tea, so hmmm.... Strange, too, b/c even T. thought we'd find some "Tapioca Juice."  Anyway, we waited in line forever to get into a champon restaurant, but it was worth it.  So delicious!!!  Ahh, I love champon.  I'm going to really miss it!  It's my favorite noodle dish.... YUM.  And even more than Nagasaki Champon, I love the version with the extra seafood.... *glow*

More on champon here.

So, that was pretty much my day in Nagasaki.  Nothing too special, but still a lot of fun!!


Next time:  Seoul!!!

Okay, I know how behind I am on blogging.  For the winter holiday stuff, I wanted to wait until I had pictures, but PhotoBucket was too slow and then I tried, I think Shutterfly?  It all uploaded, but you couldn't view the pictures if you weren't logged in.  Then, it got so busy and I didn't have time to upload it all again.

Then, I didn't want to post anything new until I had the old stuff up to keep it all in chronological order.   ^^;;

So I think that what I'll do is make a journal entry that mentions some of the highlights for each of the past few months (from what I can remember, at least).  I can go into more detail later when I can actually get some photos on the web that you can SEE.

Does that sound okay to you?  (Or if not, what would be better?)

In the meantime, I guess I'll make an entry with my most recent fun since I went all kinds of places in the past week. :)

I guess I'll backdate it someday....I don't know how, though.  Has anyone ever backdated something before? ^^;

Yesterday, my JTE told me that last week, the first-year students were asking for me and sad I wasn't teaching them.  The one class had seen me walk past their room because I taught another first-year class that day, but they didn't have me.  When they asked why, my JTE said it was because I was with the third-year students and they got really sad!  They thought I should always teach them and that I was their own personal ALT.  <3

They were so thrilled when I came today, apparently.

And, honestly, I love my first-year kids.  They have such enthusiastic personalities!!


Oh, and in the hallway this afternoon, I was going down the stairwell and encountered a couple of first-year boys on my way up.  I asked them how they were and one goes, "I'm good.  I love you!" and I look at him and go, "Oh, yeah?" and him and his friend start giggling and take off.  It was amusing.

I've been teaching the first-years a lot lately because the new JTE likes to have me come and help teach.  It makes me happy.  On Thursday, she'll have me make Christmas cards for the second-year students who chose English as a special elective class (now that we're done preparing skits for Culture Day).  Next week, I'll be doing holiday stuff with the first-year kids.  I'm going to show them a music video of the "Christmas Shoes" song that all the kids saw and liked last year.  I'm supposed to be looking for a new song for the second and third year kids.  (Any suggestions?  One that has a good video that helps with understanding what the song is about?)

This past week, I've been teaching the third-year students about the JFK assassination.  They're learning complete sentences.  Instead of saying, "I don't know," they have to learn, "I don't know why Amy's angry," etc.  I made an activity where I wrote a short news article about the assassination and about the death of Lee Harvey Oswald.  The assignment was to pretend they were journalists (newspaper, Pulitzer Prize, etc. were vocab words this unit) and writing the article.  They had to "re-read" what they wrote, and then their "boss" was going to ask them questions.  They worked with partners, and for, like, five questions, they had to know the answer from the reading, and from the other five or so, they had to use the grammar point if they didn't know the answer.  They seemed to really enjoy the lesson and learning about real history. 

They started the assignment last week, and finished yesterday and today.  I grabbed a video of both events from YouTube (making sure there was nothing graphic), and converted them to AVI, but they didn't play on the school comps, which are monitored by the Board of Education, and my computer wouldn't hook up to the projector, so we wound up having groups of kids (six at a time) come up to watch the videos.  After three class periods and countless watches, I felt like JFK and Oswald were probably frowning at me!!! 

[Ah, and before you say so, nooooooo, I'm not morbid.  I came up with the JFK idea b/c when I went home in Oct, I saw the musical Assassins with my dad, and afterwards, he was talking to me about conspiracy theories he knew, and then the anniversary was last month.  Due to all that, it was fresh in my mind and the first thing I thought of when looking for a good topic.  Plus, my JTE really liked it b/c he likes JFK, too.  So yeah.  I'm not morbid.  REALLY!]

On Saturday, I did a bit more exploring in Nagasaki City.  I was bored and wanted to get out of Yoshii for a bit.  Plus, I wanted to pick up these study books at Kinokuniya (those children's books that I mentioned recently) because Amazon isn't selling them anymore and it's the only store where I've seen them.

I met up with Asami from the Siebold Summer Intensive (the one who helped me buy my electronic dictionary that day, if you recall the story).

We went to Youme Plaza, went to the book store, then wandered around.  (And interestingly, I ran into three people I know through JET while there, one who had been at the Siebold Intensive, so it was a mini-reunion.) 
Anyway, she took me to the toy section and told me stories about all of the Japanese cartoon characters, where they came from, etc.  I'd never seen many of them before, and others, I'd heard of, but knew nothing about. 

After that, we ate lunch--big bowls of hot tempura soba soup.  Mmm.

After that, we went across the river to the Nagasaki Museum.  Typically, I don't like museums because the ones I've been to are always so crowded, and paintings get mundane after a while.  I liked going to this one, though, because the special exhibit was for sculptures by Naoki Tominaga.  Plus, there weren't many people there at all.

It was interesting to hear that Tominaga was a resident of Nagasaki City.  Some of his sculptures are even at the Peace Park.  Apparently, he's pretty famous here.

His scultures were so beautiful.  The detail was amazing.  There were life-size (bigger than life-size, actually) sculptures of sports players and you could see outlines of rib, muscle, shirt buttons, pants stitching, etc.  There was a huge samurai on a horse that nearly touched the ceiling.  It was gorgeous and exquisitely detailed.  (Here is a small picture of it that I found on the 'net.) My favorite was the sculpture of a tree and all these koala bears.  I forget the name, but it was something about not disturbing their sleep.  He'd used bronze, and managed to tint the leaves green, and together with the branches, it looked so real.  It was absolutely amazing. I wish I could find it online!

Here is a site that has a few of his pieces: click here!  The golden statue five down of the girl with the flute was Asami's favorite piece.

I also searched for him in Kanji via Google JP, and here is a search list where you can see some of his stuff. (And another from Yahoo.)

Um, after that, we went through the other room of the museum, which was various paintings and stuff, mostly from Nagasaki artists.  From that set, I most liked the silkscreen....I don't know what to call them.  They're those large board-things that people used to change behind or use instead of walls, etc.  Do you know what I mean?  Well, the Japanese art was so beautiful and traditional.  And there was one painting that I really liked.  The colors were very rich and fresh.  The red jumped off the canvas and really looked like velvet, etc.  It was a portrait of one of the Spanish kings, though I forget which.  I think the artist was foreign, too.  Beautiful colors, though!

After that, it was back home for me!

On Friday, I got to see my  junior high school's Cultural Festival.  Granted, it's nothing like  a high school one (they're pretty intense), but I didn't think I'd be able to due to the fact that I had to go to Minami Elementary that day.  The two schools were able to arrange it so that I could go to the JHS during 3rd and 4th period, though.  (Yep, the festival is only two periods long and not on a weekend.  Shows how small it is, ne?)

Um, when I went into the auditorium, there were curtains over all the doors and windows to keep sunlight out.  All over the walls, student artwork hung (from when they had their annual Sketch Day outside while I was on break in the States).  There were also charts and posters and stuff from other subjects, pillows and other objects made during home ec, and even some homemade robotic cars which, when my principal tested one to show me, kind of died, so...uh, yeah.

The first performance was some students playing those bell instruments.  I hadn't seen them since fifth grade when I was in Bell Choir!  Ah, memories... 

After that, there was a powerpoint demonstration where three third-year girls demonstrated pitch using the bells.

Next, some kids got up on stage with their guitars (and the 3rd year math teacher!) to play, and it was arranged so that, two times, they stopped as a boy pretended to lose his place and get lectured.  In the background, a few girls sang the song "Take Me Home, Country Roads" (in English) by John Denver.  Next, the female gym teacher came up on stage, got cat-called by the students, and started to sing a song in Japanese.  She was really nervous, but eventually got into it, and all the students were clapping along and stuff.  It was cool.


Finally, the big moment I waited for the most!  It was time for the second year English skit!  I've been helping my JTE practice with students during the weekly class, and the moment had finally arrived.  I must say, I'd had doubts because the props were painted onto paper and the kids had made these white bands with ears to strap around their heads.  I wasn't sure if anyone would be able to tell what anything actually was.  Boy was I wrong!

Everything came together so beautifully on stage.  I wish I had it on video for you.  Hell, I wish I had a PICTURE for you!  My camera's a piece of shit.  But you know that already.  I absolutely HAVE to get one when I go to Tokyo next month.  Akihabara is THE place to go, supposedly.  That, and Den-Den Town in Osaka, but I looked there briefly this past spring. Meh.  I WILL have a new camera, though.  I WILL.  And just in time for great pics of vacation, ne?  With my current camera, it doesn't zoom in, everything is blurry, and if I have it on the setting that WILL come out?  Ants on a stage.

Anyway, the set.  The kids took their painted sheets of paper and physically put them on stuff.  The fireplace went over the podium, the grandfather clock was attached to some sort of locker so that the one little goat could hide in it (getting a huge crowd laugh) and pop out later (another laugh).    They put two desks together with sheets and a pillow, and we had a bed.  They somehow constructed the paper over something that was a moving door.  There was a blue bucket for a wash tub.  It was so great.

On top of that, the COSTUMES!!  It wasn't just paper headbands!  Everyone painted their faces white with little pink noses, and they all wore white, long-sleeved sweatshirts and their gym shorts.  The mother goat (played by a boy, for whatever reason) also had an apron on--decorated to look like the American flag-- and a basket!  He came around in front of the stage when he was entering/leaving the house and would go up/down the steps.  It looked so real.  The wolf had some sort of brown shirt on with a tannish belly, and the kid really did do a great job with his paper muzzle.  He also had brown facepaint or something.  They all looked really, really amazing, though.  I should ask my JTE if there's any way I can get a picture.

They were really nervous, and forgot a few lines, but did really, really well!  I'm so proud of them!<3

You've probably heard that Japanese students get amazing grades.  It isn't true.  They don't study or do their homework a lot, and get pretty poor grades, but there is no hold-back program in Japan.  They study for the major entrance exams, and that's about it.  Granted, some subjects are easier than others.

All the kids took major tests last week, and in my first year classes, this is how they averaged in English:

1-1: 64%
1-2: 62%
1-3: 56% (and one kid took the test today, so that figure will either rise or fall)

That's pretty poor, if you ask me.  One kid got an 8%.  Another got 12%.  Most had 50s and 60s, and there were only a couple in the 80s or 90s.

What's interesting is that some kids with bad grades leave it out on display for everyone to see, while others fold the lower right-hand corner of their paper in shame (that's where the grade total is).  The weirdest part is that some of the kids with really GOOD grades also hide the mark.  I have to wonder if it's b/c they're embarrassed they did well, as a safety measure for the day they don't do well, wanting to mind their own business, etc.

It was interesting, though.





....I think this is what gave me that YA novel idea that I mentioned on my main journal...*laughs* 
The things that *inspire* us...

Want to know how to almost give yourself a heart attack?  Open up your mail and find volume 2 of your Japanese course book sitting there waiting for you...and you still have about a week and a half to go in your current book, never mind the test.

I KNOW I'm on schedule.  The test isn't due until the 7th, and if I finish it next Thursday and mail it next Friday, it will be in by then.  I'll be fine.  I do realize this.  It's just, last year, I'd be done and have the test mailed off, and the book would come after that.  Yeah, I wasn't spending eons translating everything b/c the grammar explanations were in English last year, but I also could study more in a day and remember more.  Now, I dedicate so much time to translation so that I can figure out what's going on that I don't have as much time to remember all of this new vocabulary.  I also have to wait to make sure that I translated things properly and that the grammar point is right before I try to memorize, for in case I'm doing something more.  I only see my neighbor once a week, though, and lately, we've had a lot of stuff come up on that night and have only met once.  I can only hope I pass the test!  UGH.  >.< 

On days like today, Japanese is far from my best friend.

While it sucks seeing your breath fog the air in the morning, the nicest part about biking to school is the fact that, if you've accidentally left your bike in a strange position and the sun hits it at JUST the right angle, then even though it's cold enough to see your breath, you're sitting on a very toasty seat.  It's like having my own heated toilet seat...on a bike!  It's very nice. 

Today, I dug out my gloves b/c my hands are getting too cold against the downhill wind, and last week, I got a zip-up sweater.  I don't think I'll need the heavy coat until Dec or Jan still--well, I probably should because it's somewhere b/w 6 and 12 degrees Celsius, but if I break it out now, then when it's really cold, I'll freeze to death.  I feel that I just have thin blood b/c I lived in FL for so long.  Then again, I found out today that my town is one of the coldest areas in all of Kyushu b/c we're boxed in by mountains, but really, that still isn't bad, because it only flurried, like, two or three times last year and nothing stuck.  So it can't be that bad, right?  I've just turned into a complete wuss.  I grew up in PA--and I want to move to New England!  Come on, now!


On the lighter side of things, I get to leave the junior high an extra hour early all three days this week.  Last week, I stayed after for a total of six overtime hours because I was helping a few third-year students practice for an oral/reading English Proficiency speech exam thingie that they had in Sasebo City yesterday.

I saw two of the kids today, and the boy said he had been so nervous and thinks he only did so-so, while the girl said she think it went "okay."  I'll see the other three kids tomorrow when I teach 3-2.  Oh, and I totally have to put my lesson on here when I can take good pics of it.  I spent eight hours drawing comic strip panels for their grammar worksheet and did a rough sketch-draft of it the day before that!  They seem to like it, though.  Better than an ordinary worksheet, right?  Plus, this is Japan, and kids worship manga here, so when they see comics--even if I'm not the world's best artist--they fawn all over getting to write their own strip. *laughs*  I'm quite impressed and happy. ^_^


Ohh, and I found out today that I can attend Siebold University's Spring Intensive in February, even though it's during three school days.  YAY!!!

Okay, so this isn't a critical post.  It's mostly for me.  I'm planning out the trip next month during winter break, but there are so many things that I don't want to forget anything.  Feel free to skip to the next two posts! (Man, when I update, I really update, ne?)

Anyway, I'm planning a trip to Kyoto and Tokyo with lazzchan, and we'll meet up with my friend Kyle for Kyoto and possibly a leg of the Tokyo trip.  I think I’ll probably leave earlier than everyone else and take a longer vacation because I’m the only one who wants to go to Nara.  It’s too old and uneventful for everyone else.  I think I can spend a day there and do the biggest things:

 
Tōdai-ji (the largest wooden building in the world; it also has a huge Buddha and deer roaming around and gardens that are supposed to be really pretty…though probably dead at this time of the year…)  and Hōryū-ji (one of the best temples in all of Japan and one of the oldest in the entire world), and Hokki-ji (the oldest pagoda temple in all of Japan), and possibly  Kōfuku-ji  and if there’s extra time, but it’s not as interesting as the others.

 

And, finally, Heijō Palace  (Because, uh, Nara was the capital before Kyoto, which was the capital before Tokyo, but most people forget about good old Nara..).

 

A day is plenty of time, don't you think?

 

After that, I may or may not go to Kyoto a day early.  It depends on what the others want to do.  I mean, I don't want to not do something when this is one of the places I want to see the most, you know?  I've been wanting to do a Kyoto/Nara trip for the LONGEST time.

I think Kiyomizu-dera and Daigo-ji and Kinkaku-ji (Rokuon-ji) sound like really good temples to see, and I also think I’d like to see Nijō Castle and the Philosopher’s Walk and the old Geisha district (and possibly the Geiko district, too).  I’m not sure that anyone else will want to do those things, though, and I don’t want to make anyone do the things I want to do because it can be boring or “once you’ve seen one, you’ve seen hem all” kind of a thing.  So I’ll find out if the others want to since we’re probably there two full days now.

 

The days that we’re all there, we’re going to the Tō-ji Temple and, of course, the Imperial Heian Palace.  I think we’re also going to some kind of samurai/ninja/jidaigeki  place, but I’m not really sure what it is.  And Kyle mentioned going by the Nintendo HQ (but may do it on his own; he isn’t sure) and lazzchan mentioned getting a city tour pass, but I’m not sure if she has a list of stuff yet or if we’re winging it.  ^_^

 

After that, we’ll go to Tokyo.  lazzchan wants to go to Akihabara and spend $$ at the Square-Enix store and I think there are one or two other places there she wants to go.  I might buy a digital camera there because they’re supposed to have really good prices and you all know I need one.  It’s just sad that it would be after Kyoto/Nara….*sigh*  I mean, I COULD stop in Osaka on the way and go to Den-Den Town since I’ll be on my own schedule, but I wasn’t too impressed last time…

 

I’m not sure if Kyle will join us or go straight to Roppongi.  I guess it depends on the time.  We still don’t know if we’re taking the Shinkansen or flying yet.  I e-mailed the agent earlier tonight.

 

We’ll spend a full day at Tokyo Disney Sea because lazzchan really wants to go b/c she really liked my entry about it last year.  Luckily (if the time is right in my head, which I’m pretty sure it is), we’ll be doing the park on December 30^th, which means none of the shows will be canceled and they won’t kick us out early for New Year’s prepping like they did last year.

 

lazzchanThe next part is complicated.  I’ll talk to the agent to make sure this is the case before we do anything, but traveling on December 31^st/January 1^st is a nightmare because 1) it is so very, very crowded, and 2) it is more expensive.  Actually, it’s more expensive through Jan….either 3^rd or 4^th, but those two days are the worst.  We’re traveling at a bad time of the year, but that’s okay.  Anyway, we might need to stay in Tokyo for longer.  If we do, we’ll definitely hit up a Shrine on the 31^st for a traditional New Year’s, and I think lazzchan would like the Asakusa Shrine where we were last year, since it’s one of the best in all of Japan….but it’s really crowded on New Year’s Eve, so I’m not sure…  and maybe we’ll do Tokyo Tower. (Did you want to go to Ginza for something, too, Laz?  I forget…)

 

 I might stay an extra day on my own because I want to do a couple of things that lazzchan doesn’t want to do and I don’t want to force her to go with me.  I really, REALLY want to go to Yebisu Garden Place (and not just because they filmed near the  cool statue thing where they’d sit for Hana Yori Dango, but because it just sounds—well, really cool.)  Plus, it’s in Shibuya which is an awesome district.  The street outside of the station is the most amazing thing.  It totally reminds me of NYC.

I also want to go back to Shibuya because if you go out this one exit at the station, there’s a statue of the dog Hachi.  At my conference last week, I bought some eacy picture books to study Japanese.  One is about this famous dog named Hachi. I’ll try to translate and put the story online over the weekend.  It was so sad—I wanted to cry!!  But now I want to see the memorial so much!!!

 

I also really wanted to go to the Imperial Palace last year, but that got canceled at the last minute.   I also think it would be cool to go through and do the Azabu-Juuban tour and see the antique market and stuff that they mentioned at the hostel last winter.  The_sweet hadn’t been interested and neither is lazzchan, so I may not go since it wouldn’t be fun to go alone, but I might because it’d be neat.  We’ll see.  I think I’d like to go back to Harajuku because there are a two or three small shops I need to go back to.  Plus, we were NEVER there in the day--it was always when they were closing down for the night!  If there’s time, I’d like to go through Ueno park because the_sweet hadn’t wanted to last year and we passed through it on our way to the museum.  That isn't an imperative, though.

Anything else I'm missing?