Japan

So the day arrived when it was time to move from my temporary digs in Hongo, nagoya and to move on up in the world to my own place. Out of the training apartment and into my new home. So i boarded the lovely shinkansen and headed off to tokyo at top speed....oooh i should mention there were some packing issues, i had it seems accumulated far more possessions (ok shopping) than i expected and again my baggage was not able to tolerate the quantities of shoes, clothes anf other goodies i had aquired. Quick last minute emergency dash to the shops for yet another bacg to load my possessions into...okj back tot he bullet train, so off i sped to tokyo, now i had had a fairly good nights sleep before, so i was surprised when i found myself waking up to discover i was 10minutes from tokyo, the 2 hour journey sped by as i somehow managed to drift off to sleep, i didnt even get time to eat the obento i packed for myself. oh well there was always the next train trip from Tokyo to Koriyama. So i switched platforms and embarked on my next journey that was to be the final journey too. Shortly upon leaving the station, again in my super duper speedy bullet train, or shinkansen, the business man next to me started to unpack his obento...and wow, what an obento it was. he had a container with rice, with the customary pickled plum on top, a container with fish, one with some kind of radish and vegetable mix, and then one with something else too that io couldnt quite see without obviosly staring at the poor man. After he devoured his lunch he then proceded to take out his last container from his nifty insulated obento bag...this one contained some fruit..ahhh desert.
Well did i feel inadequate as i opened my pink obento lunch box from the 100yen store to reveal some pieces of fruit and some crackers....hmmmmm

well i arrived safely after an hours journey aside the bento man and was greeted at the station by a chap by the name of Ian who is to be my ps for the next year...(ps means he is my manager i guess u could say)
He showed me on the walk to what is to be my new home, all the places along the way. its about a ten minute walk but its quite nice. the more i saw of my new home town the more i liked. Its not too small, its not huge either, but its pretty good. kinda like the three bears u know, one bed too hard, one too soft, well Koriyama is the just right bed.
So we arrived at my apartment complex and Ian showed me the way to room 304..(he lives in 504, emma in 405, and the other NT james in 202)
I stepped in to a pretty much empty room, and was kind of..well i cant say disapointed as its exactly what i expected, i guess it just was this big empty space and i was looking for a home, and it didnt feel like one, well i made quick work of that..... more on that soon

so we set about doing all the administritave tasks required, move in paperwork, registering as an alien, getting information on where to shop etc
then it was time to clean..and the cleaning still hasnt stopped 3 days later. its surprising actually. this apartment is so small but i feel like its taking forever to get clean. You see it was preciosly tenenated by a young man by the name of TJ and i believe Tj and i have very didfferent standards when it comes to apartment cleanliness. As a requirement all teachers vacating apartments must ensure the apartment is clean. I have no doubts Tj walked away thinking, yeah it looks clean to me, im sure itll be fine, i dont need to do anything else....in walks Brandy...and well lets just say, as i mentioned, three days later cleaning the place...thanks TJ the pother guys got brand new apartments not previosly used by peppy, so their places were proffesionally cleaned, and all their appliences and furniture, BRAND NEW!!! i got ripped off. Oh well, its nearly done now.

Well ill set about getting photos asap.

xxx
Bella

I have been back in Nagoya for 2 weeks now. The first week was pretty much all working, mostly in the office doing not much at all, shredding paper, organising files, random menial tasks that were used to just keep us busy for our allocated office hours. I did get the chance to do some team teaching. So I went to schools and taught one of the classes and then observed the teacher teaching the others. I usually work around 5 to 730 each day, I mean it varies depending on the school and the classes, but that seems to be about the average at the moment. It may be different in my area though.
I haven’t done too much since I have been here. We did have one night where we went as a group (with several staff from the company) to a place called Miami beer garden, it’s in Nagoya. (I live about 20mins by subway out of Nagoya at the moment in a place called Hongo) The beer garden was fun, 3000Yen for all u can eat and drink until 10.30pm. That was fun. We then went to a place called hub, it’s a pub. It was pretty good, and then we did the traditional Japanese thing and went to karaoke until the subways started again at 5am. I didn’t sing, but was funny to watch others. At karaoke u pay for the room, its 1500yen per person and it was again all u can drink, so was lots of drinking that night.

The other things I have done while I’ve been here are going clubbing with my new friend Hiro. Its golden week here so I’m on holidays at the moment. At the beer garden I met a girl called Hiro who was friends of some other employees. She said she would take me clubbing this week. So Saturday night she met me at Sakae (Just 2 stops out of Nagoya) and she took me to a place called club id, it was 5 floors, you have to pay 3000yen entry but u get 4 drinks included so it’s not so bad. It was a really cool club and lots of fun with my new friend. Before the club she also took me to an izakaya for dinner and we had some yummy Japanese food. It was a really fun night.

On Friday (sorry it’s a bit out of order....) I went to the Higashima zoo and botanical gardens, I’d like to go there again and explore the gardens some more, but the zoo was a bit sad. There was so many animals there, everything u could imagine, I saw anteaters, rhinos, hippo, elephant, giraffe, monkey, koala, so many types of bear, farm animals, everything, but the sad thing was its so different to back home. Their cages/enclosures were so small. There were even 2 polar bears and they just did not look happy. It was a little depressing to see, but it was a nice day out. I guess our standards back home are much higher than here. All around the zoo there were young children, maybe about 10 to 12 years old all sitting by the enclosures, making sketches and paintings of the animals. These kids were so talented, I tried to have a look at many of their work and it was so good. Some of those kids are great artists, in fact most of them were! I think it must have been some sort of art class, or school subject or something. There were so many children there. Oooh and I had a shaved iced treat too, it was so lovely, it turned out to be quite a warm day and it was such a nice treat to have. Yum.

I think the rest of golden week for me will be lying low, the internet cafe a bit some cleaning, maybe the gardens again. Lots of reading and watching movies and preparing for my classes next week.

One thing I guess ill mention cos its driving me nuts is the rubbish situation over here. All garbage must be sorted into certain categories, burnable, recyclable (there is a few kinds) plastics, bottles, cans ergh its frustrating me, gone are my days of just throwing out the trash, now I have to rinse, sort and carefully examine everything I throw away to ensure I’m not making a mistake. It’s all a very big deal too. You can get in all sorts of trouble if you are not doing it right. Certain types of rubbish get disposed of on certain days at certain collection points. Oh it’s such an effort. I guess that maybe Japan has a good system in ensuring rubbish is effectively dealt with, and I imagine its necessary with the number of Japanese people that there is, but for me, coming from such relaxed standards at home it’s not fun. The most annoying thing I think is when you are walking along the street and u just want to throw out some rubbish u are holding, maybe ur chocolate wrapper, empty drink, anything and nowhere in sight is a bin. You have to hold onto it, and take it home. Most convenience stores have bins out front and also supermarkets. These bins have become my friends. You see some rubbish I just don’t know what separate area it’s meant to go in, is it recyclable? Plastic? Sometimes I’m not sure. Or sometimes I just have ten different types of rubbish all in a row that I’m sick of seeing it, so my latest thing is every day when I leave the house I take a bag of rubbish with me. Mixed rubbish generally (although not burnable, I’m good with the food scraps one) and I deposit it into my favourite bin at the convenience store. The ‘others’ bin this is the best bin. It’s the only bin u can put whatever into, and they are not everywhere so u have to find a convenience store with one. Once u've got that Ur set. So now I try and do my best to sort my garbage, but the others bin at the local konbini is suspiciously full these days and I think it’s because the several other foreigners living in my building have cottoned onto my scheme and are appreciating the others bin too! I don’t blame them, all this sorting is stressful business. I’m told the trouble u can get into if it’s not done right is quite extreme, including eviction, it’s a very serious matter. So I prefer my system, at least this way someone can sort my stuff the right way and there will be no errors. Oh I love the others bin!

ferris wheel in sakae

the easter bunny came to Nagoya

a little bit of oz in sakae

general direction of home..

central park in sakae

roof top waterfall in sakae

me on said waterfall

Well I’m off to bed; I shall upload this tomorrow at the cafe. Oh I’m so missing having the internet!!!!

Xxx
Bella

Ok so...where did I leave off...I often ask this because now that I am back using an internet cafe, I write up these entries at home and then just copy them across when I’m at the cafe, saves time, which saves money and that makes me happy as I’m running low until I get paid in a month. Ok so I think I’m at Kumagaya still, just after Tokyo. So it was back to training on the Monday a little worse for wear. But ready to go. Just back to Ageo School so nothing new/exciting there.

After that it was off to two more schools to observe and then also to teach some lessons. So firstly I went to Kurihashi School. This one was a little further out. It was pretty rural where I ended up after the train rides. Trying to think of some things that I saw that stood out...umm oh right so on the train I was looking out the window and I saw this guy, I guess he was exercising, he was running really slow, kind of power walking I guess, but his arms were moving like he was running the fastest race in his life, and he looked very funny, especially in his funny hat and the location which was the middle of nowhere. Hmmm doesn’t sound so funny when I write it, but when I saw him I laughed. The other thing that happened here, was I got really excited when I saw some orange fanta at the supermarket(I mostly only see grape flavour and I’m not a fan), so I bought a can and took it back to the classroom . I made my sandwich (ham mustard and salad, yum) and I cracked open the can and took a sip, and then I suddenly spat it out...ewwwww I thought what’s wrong with this fanta, is it off??? It was all gooey and had well...only way to describe it is to say...it had jelly like stuff in it. I read the can to find an expiry date or something, then when I inspected closer I discovered by deciphering some writing, that it was in fact jelly, and that it was fanta with jelly in it, it was meant to be that way. So upon discovering it was ok to drink I tried some more, and strangely it actually was pretty nice. Hmm was a bit of a shock and a little scary at first tho.

So after that came fukaya Kita, and well, I had been to Fukaya Minami earlier in the training, so this was easy to find, however it was on the other side of the tracks...hmmm and its everything u imagine when u hear that phrase, well I mean it was still safe and no dodgy people, but it seemed like every building was in some kind of condemned state, or if they weren’t condemned that should have been. One house was built and it was made out of what I can only describe as scaffolding and sticks. I liken it to the house made of sticks by one of the three little pigs!! I have photos, check the balcony out...I know I wouldn’t stand on it.

I have noticed that a lot of people have very ugly houses (sorry, but they are real eyesores) But they always have beautiful plants all the way around, so many pretty flowers and other plants everywhere here. Especially since its spring  I must note too, everything is so green, and not even like at home when we get a bit of rain and things green up, this green is unlike any green we have ever seen at home, it’s so bright and shiny and happy green, I really like the green 

I guess I really should mention how the teaching has been going since that’s what I’m here doing, it’s not all holidaying and sightseeing. So here goes:
The kids I teach range from 2 and a half to about I’d say 13 years old. There is a pretty set curriculum, but in general it’s up to you how you want to teach. Some parts of the curriculum are mandatory, certain songs/chants, but other than set sections and topics it’s pretty open to interpretation. For example, I may have to teach the children how to ask and answer the question: How are u? I’m fine/great/ok/ thankyou. There may be an activity in there textbook which introduces the idea, so I start with that so that they understand the concept, and then I find a way to make it fun. So in this case I could do something like say.....play a game of tunnel ball. Line the kids up, have them roll a ball thru their legs, and then the person at the end, runs to the front with the ball, and before they roll it they have to ask the person that is second the question (or if they are learning to introduce themselves they could do that, whatever the topic) then they roll the ball and continue the game.
For the ABC Phonics section, the goal is to practice alphabet for one class, so I do a variety of activities, I could show them a letter of the alphabet to only one student, they write that letter onto the palm of the next persons hand with their finger, they pass it down til the last kid has to shout it out, kind of like Chinese whispers, I could have them use the chart that has abc, where some of the letters are on a yellow square and some on blue, then I get them to sing the abc and every time the letter they say is on a yellow square they have to jump, then next time I get them to jump and clap, then I keep adding to its too hard and gets silly. These kids love silly.
Another mandatory thing is when they arrive you have to check homework, they stamp their book to show attendance then you do a picture card check. So the children have their own set of cards, they choose which two they bring to class to be tested on, and they work through all the sets throughout the year. So upon arrival one by one I check their cards and drill them on them. So the challenge is to find creative ways to make it fun. Changing speed, silly voices, tricking them is all good!

The younger ones like a lot of high fives, and the older like games where they can win tokens. Lots of songs, and games and moving about are the secret, lessons straight from the book are not popular. So being creative is really important. Making the content fun, otherwise ull have a very boring lesson, and also you may find the kids get silly and naughty. On that note ill mention the kids here are very cheeky, often rude and disruptive. I hate to generalise but that is what I have encountered so far. It seems to be the norm here. It’s not fun. But I have found the only way to deal with it is to be firm from the start. And to also set rules and to make the class fun so they don’t act up. I have also perfected a look, which recently whilst observing a class that was being very difficult for an experienced teacher, came in very handy, those poor boys that were beating each other up and yelling and being rough and noisy and rude, well by a few minutes in the lesson they would start playing up, and the teacher would try to stop them but they ignored her, then they turned to me, and with just one look, they stopped. Now I think it was a combination of the" if looks could kill look" I perfected, but also the fact that I was a new presence on the room, that stopped those boys in their tracks. But whatever it was whenever they were being silly I just watched them and after a short time they would look to see if I was watching and when they saw I were they stopped. Was pretty impressive. 

Well ill leave the kids there for now. Maybe more again soon.
So we got to Saturday in Kumagaya, and after a week of having no kitchen in the hotel I was getting frustrated and craving home cooked food. So I was pleased to hear only a few days til I was back in the training apartments in Nagoya with a kitchen (when I say kitchen it’s no way near back home, but its 2 gas burners and a convection oven, so it’s better than nothing, but still hard to cook in) Problem was I was getting a kitchen back in Nagoya but id lose my internet in the room. Back to cafe’s  so I had been frantically watching TV shows on a site called project free TV which was really cool. Saturday we set off to Saitama office to take the test and complete the final day of training. It sure was a relief to be over. It was quite an intense schedule for 2 weeks.
Sunday I chilled in Kumagaya, we all did, although the other 3 had gone to Tokyo again Saturday night although I declined their offer to join. I felt like a realaxy one after the training was complete. So Sunday while they nursed hangovers, I went for a walk around Kumagaya as I hadn’t seen much.
I went for ages, I found a river, and I walked along for what seemed like forever, then I walked past these kind of small swimming pools, which I was curious about, they were fairly clear water, and they were only the size of spa baths some of them, others smaller, and also bigger ones too. I soon discovered they must have had fish in them, and I think it was sort of like a farm kind of deal, people were paying to go in, and to go fishing, and there was a small crowd by one of the bigger ones. Was pretty interesting as so far I hadn’t seen many people at leisure and this seemed to be one Sunday activity. As I strolled on I soon discovered more. I found loads and loads of people playing what can only be described as putt putt golf, but on big fields, with markers placed on for each area. There were so many people; there were cars and push bikes everywhere. And all this took place by the river, was quite the pleasant Sunday stroll. As I passed the mostly middle aged to older people playing golf I received many friendly smiles and occasional ohayo gozamasu. So I continued on, and I came across boys playing soccer, here I received many smiles also, but this time I got hello’s to which I smiled and hello’d back. Then I got, some I love you's much to my surprise from 15 yr old boys, was quite funny, I laughed at them, and they laughed back, then as I continued to walk ( with a little faster pace) I received many goodbyes yelled in my direction. Was quite funny and a little embarrassing too. I next came to some girls playing soccer where I was met with hellos and giggles when I said it back and waved and smiled at them. Lastly I crossed the bridge and I discovered a game of...well it was baseball, but it had no bat, they kicked the ball. It was pretty cool to watch, this was an all girls game, there were 4 matches going. I came right at the last few minutes which I was quite disappointed at; I would love to have watched a whole game. I guess back home the teams at the end usually shake hands, and sometimes thank the coaches and the parents watching. Well here at the end, they all lined up, they bowed to each other, then they ran to the opposing teams side, they lined up and bowed to the coach (all the while they said something but I was far away and only caught the arigato gozaimasu at the end..) Then the first three in line step forward one step closer than the rest of the team and they bow to the coaches again, they then swap sides, they bow to their own coaches, and the first three again bow to the coaches separately for the second time, then they all bow to the parents and onlookers. Then they could go and pack up and go home. It was very very formal, but was really cool to watch.
So I headed back to Nagoya after that, and watched some more TV, and made the most of the last of the free internet for a while, and then that was it. On the train back to Nagoya Monday morning. Checked back in and here I am. Wow, this was a lot of catching up.
And I still have more to come. I’m almost up to date. Have some pics to add, and some more to write but I’ll get to it all soon. I’m sure u need a break after reading all this.
Well till next time.
Xx
Bella

Well im still in Kumagaya, its been a super busy week, the days are all so long. Im either in the training classroom, or at classes, and when im home im preparing for the next day. Its pretty full on and tiring. Im looking forward to training being over.

I think ive mentioned before but if i havent, after training ill be going to Nagoya again for one month until my apartment becomes available. So its still another month before ill be settled. Its a little frustrating becasue i just want to get into a routine.

so a few new areas i have been to (part 1):

Fukaya, this was a bit surreal, heading out to the sticks on a train that clunks, clatters and crashes you from side to side, at each station it struggles to start up again leaving me to mutter "i think i can i think i can" under my breath much to the amusement of the locals altho i dont think they understand what im saying, more so they think im a nutter talking to myself. I passed all last traces of surburbia, then had to change trains at a medium sized station with some resemblence to a town....then off i went again, seemingly back in the direction i came (i am really comfused here, i seem to go backwards sometimes but end up in a different place, these trains and subways are so full on!) Any way i ended up in a very small place called Fukaya. I was here to observe today, no teaching but just get a feel for what the lessons are like.

I walked to 20minutes from the station to the school, and was amused to find it was have rural half urban, so ull pass huge apartment complexes, then u get a farm..it was quite different to what im used to of course. but made for a nice walk.

So i got to the class, observed, and headed home exhausted. On the way home i passed this guy, with a very big nose, so he makes it in my "interesting things about the towns i visit catagory"

check him out, he was on the side of a building a restraunt maybe i think.

Ok so where to after that, well then came Tokyo. The next post will be about tokyo

Until then.

xxx
Bella

so its day 4 of training done, today i had to do a demo lesson, well let me take a step back, ok, so we have been at classrooms in groups, mine is the Saitama group. There is 4 of us: Myself, Emma (Aus), Armatesh (Can) and Alex (Can).
We go off to a classroom each day, there are no classes during the day, they are usually afternoons, so we have the use of the classroom all day. We have been shown how to teach the various lessons, and today as i mentioned, was our first demo day. So we had to demonstrate a leson using the other trainees as the kids. I think everyone did really well for a first time. I wasnt so scared as ive had a lot of experience with kids, so it was just remembering the content that is my challenge, but i think i did pretty good.

During lunch we wandered around. (the classroom is in a place called Ageo, its about 25mins on the train to get there from our hotel, and approx $7 each way on the train, ill never complain about brisbane public transport again. p.s we do get reembursed the following month for commuting costs) So around Ageo i found a few interesting things. Its kinda a small place but i want to try and find some cool things at each place i visit, so here is Ageos.

This is a very beautiful view

Check out this super thin building!

Well thats it for Ageo, i told u it was small, im excited i found 2 things. Oh also, the first day we had indian for lunch. A tiny indian restrant was nestled in the back of some buildings, it was really good, but kinda surreal to be in this little bit of india in the middle of Japan.

Oh cute note,

i take my Saru with me everywhere(he is my monkey travelling companion) and at the hotel housekeeping make up my bed each day...check the picture, Saru loves it..see his smile:

well thats it for now, i have to be off to bed, tomorrow i visit my first actual class, just as an observer but looking forward to it.

Night