Getting Ready for English Camp

Last week was a nice, easy week at work. I felt a bit under the weather, but I was still able to go to all my classes and talk with the students. One of the upperclassman girls came to me last Wednesday with a DVD full of English concerts and asked me if I knew the songs. It was all pop music and we had a good time singing the songs together in the hallway. I was even able to make her a CD of popular American music.

There are also two upperclassmen girls who come to talk to me during their free time after lunch. The teacher gives them a topic to start a conversation with (i.e. school trip, favorite singers, Japanese and American culture) and we talk about it English. I really enjoy it and it helps them a lot with their English. I feel bad, though, because over the summer there will be an English camp that I'm helping run. They both wanted to come, but only one student from every school was excepted. Even though I have no control or even input into that decision, I felt bad only one of them was accepted. I'm hoping that after summer on a day when both girls don't have club activities we can have our own little English camp and watch a movie or play a game in English.

The JET ALTs are doing a lot to get prepared for this English camp. The camp will be three days and two nights a little outside of the city center. We'll have fake passports for them where they can collect stamps and write about their experience and phrasebooks to help them with any English they might need. The camp will be total immersion in English and we have some fun stuff planned like curry making, a treasure hunt, and tower building. We have some mandatory activities we have to do like teaching other subjects in English. I'm in charge of teaching math and my friend Dave is working with me. I'm worried the students will be skeptical at first, (who wants to go to English camp to learn math?) but I think we can make it interesting and fun! We have a meeting on Sunday with the parents and students who were accepted to pass out the materials they will need, such as the phrase book so they can study it before the camp starts, and give a brief outline of all the activities. I'm excited to meet students from all the schools around Kitakyushu!

Along with school, I also had a great weekend. On Friday I went to my friend Kikumi's apartment right after school. She had been at the public offices all day getting her last name changed and finishing the last of the paperwork for her divorce. She didn't want to be alone, so I came over to keep her company while she got ready for work. We went out to dinner at a great Korean restaurant before heading across the street to clean her bar and get ready to open. Her regular bartenders were unavailable that night, so I was helping her out and another ALT friend of ours, Vixay, came in to DJ. It was a lot of fun and as always is a great Japanese practice.

The next day I went out with Vixay and some of our other friends to T・Joy, the movie theater in Riverwalk. We saw X-Men: フューチャー＆パスト (Future & Past) before getting some donuts and playing around a bit in the arcade. Sunday morning was spent watching the soccer game between Japan and the Ivory Coast. After keeping the score in Japans favor most of the game, the Ivory Coast scored two goals in less than two minutes towards the end of the second half and came out victorious. Japan will face Greece at the end of the week and we're all hoping for a win this time!

Sunday night I went out with my friends Kyoko and Miki. Kyoko and I work together at Shinozaki and Miki used to work at Shinozaki, but was moved at the beginning of the school year. She's now a school nurse, which is what she wanted to be, so the transfer was good for her! It was nice to sit and talk outside of school and we're hoping to do it again soon! Next Monday all the female teachers from Shinozaki are going out and even though I'll be at Ishimine that week they want me to come with them. I'm really excited! This week should be nice and easy again, which I'm grateful for. I've also started my countdown to summer and coming back home to visit! My plane leaves in a little over a month! As much as I love Japan I'm excited to see everyone back home and get away from this heat for a little while!

Back to the Bases

I'm sorry there was no post last week! I was incredibly busy and just didn't have time to write anything. My aunt, uncle, and cousins back home also had a very busy week last week preparing for a Bat Mitzvah! I'm sad I had to miss it, but I look forward to seeing everyone when I visit the states this summer. I also sent a few presents from Japan, but since they they were sent last Wednesday the package is still in transit.

I wanted to send the package earlier, but I couldn't because of something I find very annoying in Japan. Many government businesses and banks are only open between 9:00 AM and 4:00 PM. Working from 8:30-4:15 means that it's almost impossible for me to get to the post office or bank during the week. Many banks and post offices are also not open on the weekends. This closing can even happen to ATMs, many bank ATMs close in the evening. There are 24 hour ATMs and even a 24 hour post office, but they also have drawbacks. The ATMs that are 24 hours often have a huge usage fee after about 9:00 PM and the 24 hour post office closes it's international window at 4:00 PM. Thankfully, I had a meeting at the Board of Education last Wednesday, so on my way between school and the BoE I was able to mail the package.

Last week and this week I'm finally back at my base schools! The private company ALTs are working again, so us JET ALTs (11 of us in junior high schools) no longer have to visit all 62 junior high schools in the city. Last week I was back at Ishimine. It was great to see all the teachers and students again and going back to chorus club after school was the highlight of my days. This week I'm back in Shinozaki. I've missed the teachers and students here as well and can't wait to start my classes here. I'm also excited to go to art club after school!

Last week was also busy, but so relieving, because my friend Kikumi was not only released from the hospital, but she also started to finalize her divorce. (Just to be clear those two things are in no way related, it was just very bad timing.) I've been helping her refurnish her apartment and keep her business on track while she files all the paperwork and announces the divorcer her friends and family. She's very excited to start the next chapter of her life and I'm excited for her!

This Friday she will have a big party at her bar for all her Japanese friends and customers. Unfortunately, her regular bartenders can't work, so I will be helping out! She will have a special all night 飲み放題 (nomihoudai, all you can drink) deal, so it will not be too hard! She said she will work as well, but it's her party so I want her to relax. Then next Friday we will have a party at her apartment for her English speaking friends. I'm going to go to her place early and we will make gyoza, 春巻き (harumaki, spring rolls), すき焼き (sukiyaki, fried meat and vegetables - we'll make tofu, beef, and mushroom sukiyaki), and たこ焼き (takoyaki, octopus in a doughy ball). I'm very excited to learn how to make these Japanese and Chinese foods!

Two weeks ago I also learned how to make 手巻き (temaki, hand rolled) sushi. A friend of mine, Teppei, who lives near Orio (about a 20 minute train ride away) invited me to another friends house, the 豊田 (Toyoda) family, for dinner. Asakawa, the school I was at, was near Orio as well, so I could easily get there. I met Teppei after school and we walked to the apartment where Mrs. Toyota had made two beautiful spreads of fish, vegetables, and meet. There were big strips of 海苔 (nori, seaweed) and bowls of rice. They showed me how to put the rice and any fillings I wanted into the nori and roll it up to make 手巻きずし (temaki zushi). It was very good Japanese practice for me and it was a lot of fun!

Another good Japanese opportunity came last night. My friend Junko was going to come over for dinner with Kikumi. Junko is a hairdresser and nail artist, so she was going to paint Kikumi's and my nails. Something came up and Kikumi was very late, so Junko came over first and was at my apartment for two hours before Kikumi could come over. Kikumi knows English, but Junko doesn't and she was worried that without Kikumi to help translate it would be difficult to communicate. However, We talked about everything from scary movie to places we want to travel and I didn't need to look up any words!! I was so excited! I know I've been studying Japanese for a while and I can use every-day words and phrases easily, but I still have to trouble and have to look up words sometimes when I'm talking about more complicated topics, like what's going on in Thailand right now. However, yesterday I was able to have a complicated conversation for two hours completely in Japanese without having to look up any words! My grammar still isn't perfect, but I'm so excited to have reached this point with my Japanese! (Not to mention get some great gel nails!)

That's about it for my last two weeks. Lots of low-key dinners with friends. My Japanese credit card arrived and I used it to book hotels for Phuket. Everyone is saving money now in preparation for summer vacation and we're all excited to meet the new JETs who will arrive in Kitakyushu on July 31st. We don't know much about them yet, just that one will be American and the other will be Australian. We don't know who they are or where in America and Australia they're from, but we're very excited to meet them! On the other side we're starting to plan our さよなら (sayonara) parties for the two JETs leaving. This month will (hopefully) be a relaxing welcome back to our base schools before things get hectic again over the summer!