30October2011

School Festival

Posted by Roland under: JET.

Back when I was studying in Tsuru in 2005, we had something called a “bunkasai” which would loosely translate to “School Festival”. It is what it sounds like, a festival at school. In the case of my studying abroad at Tsuru, there was a music stage with performances, random games across the campus, and various clubs had rooms all to themselves, where they would either sell food, crafts, or run some kind of activity, like a haunted house. For reference, the foreign students and our Japanese tutors ran a place called “Tsurufornia” where we sold popcorn and possibly chicken nuggets. We were supposedly selling “American” food, so that’s probably as good as we could have done under the circumstances.

Here in the present day, I was told that my middle school would be having their School Festival soon as well. I had seen them prep here and there throughout the school days. Some classes would practice singing, playing instruments, others looked to be hard at work with artworks of various mediums. I was never asked to participate directly in the festival so I didn’t get too heavily involved in any planning. But everyone seemed to be hard at work in some role doing something for the festival all across the school.

Eventually I came to the realization that the middle school festival would not be like the one I had at my university. When I had saw a school festival pop up on the school schedule, I had been assuming games and booths, similar to that of my university experience. I wised up when I got a schedule for the day, where it would consist of musical performances and skits by each of the classes at the school. Not quite the festival experience I had expected, in fact, it seemed more like an all day assembly, but that’s the tradition of the middle school festival. I guess they save the fun stuff for high school and up.

Of course, the school festival turned out to be a lot of fun. While I didn’t have an active part in planning I did enjoy seeing my students in action. In fact, I was kind of surprised to see some of them excel in their singing/art/skits since my only exposure to some of them is in English, in which not everyone can be a superstar. But it’s a testament to the fact that everyone has something they’re great in, and for some of them, while not English, it can definitely be something they did at the school festival. I was extremely impressed by the third graders, who actually had to do an hour long play. Now if they could only use the energy they had in memorizing lines into memorizing English.

The gym was decorated with artwork from various students all around the walls. There were pictures of sights around Amakusa, some anime style pictures, sculptures, and even calligraphy. Family members and friends would filter in and out during the day, depending on if their child was up on stage. I think the third graders took it especially serious as well. It’s their last festival in middle school, and for some, possibly their last school festival ever since high school is not mandatory education in Japan. It was most noticeable when they picked the winners of the class singing competition and both third grade classes won (although I hear that the third grade always wins regardless, because of the significance of the last school festival.

It was a great time, although I’m hoping I’ll have a chance to participate myself next year, possibly in some sort of English capacity.

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9October2011

Driving in Japan

Posted by Roland under: JET.

Driving around in Amakusa was not my first dance with the Japanese roadways. I had the pleasure of first driving in Japan when I visited Okinawa. Like Amakusa, it was a necessity to get around. There were no trains in Okinawa (like Amakusa), so if you wanted to go anywhere, you’d probably have to drive there (I didn’t want to spend half my vacation trying to figure out Okinawan bus schedules). I didn’t have too much trouble picking up the driving on the left thing, mainly because when I landed it was during rush hour so I had no choice but to go through traffic and basically be forced into the left.

My time in Okinawa wasn’t too bad. There were no accidents, maybe a few close calls with the curb and an almost getting pulled over by police for speeding (which would’ve been a huge incident because I wasn’t carrying my international drivers’ license at the time). One of the first things I learned about Amakusa during my research is that there are no trains. In order to do my job, I would need to get a car and I would need to drive. I had no problem with that, in fact having a car would give me freedom to explore the area around (and I may have gotten a car even I could use trains to get around, if my location permitted it).

Now that I’m driving on a daily basis, I feel like I throw out a few more valid responses to the Japanese way of driving.

The biggest issue I’ve had in Japan is the fact you can’t turn on a red light. At first I assumed this was an all over America thing, but I did find out some states don’t let you do that. Regardless, I had always grown up being able to turn on red. It’s a timesaver. In fact, when I was in Okinawa, I actually turned on red lights quite a few times. Then one day I was behind another car at a red light and after getting aggravated at the car not turning on red, I realized that you’re not supposed to turn on red in Japan. It’s not the worst of things, it’s just an efficiency thing. Especially since a lot of streets in Amakusa don’t have any oncoming cars yet you’re still sitting there at the red light.

These mirrors are amazing. I was told at a JET orientation to use them because they work. And well, it’s true. There are loads of blind spots all over Amakusa and without these mirrors, I can’t imagine anyone being able to drive. I’ve come to rely on them so much that I’m wondering why we don’t have more of them in America. Do we just build our streets with better view points? If anything, I wish Sacramento had them when I was around (they really shouldn’t have 2 way stops at a 4 way intersection).

The speed limits are pretty conservative around Japan. While 50 km sounds fast at first, it apparently equates to 31 miles per hour, which doesn’t make sense on the main roads in Amakusa. Then again, everyone seems to go at least 65 km anyway, so just like America, people take them as speed limit suggestions, rather than limits.

Japanese drivers are almost always defensive. Maybe it’s part of the overall culture, where you are more responsive to other people’s needs. But there have been times when cars will stop to let me turn or pass and I’m almost at a loss at what to do. I’m just not used to such niceness.

However the best part about driving in Japan has been the fact that Amakusa is full of great scenery to drive to. There’s the ocean road right by my house that I take for work. But if I drive just a bit to the west, then I’m treated to lush green mountains which I can only imagine get better with fall colors and spring cherry blossoms. That, and the lack of heavy traffic, makes driving in Amakusa some of the most enjoyable moments here.

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2October2011

Settling In

Posted by Roland under: JET.

I guess you could put a full month of school work in the books now. October is here and with it has come some cooler temperatures. It’s been a gradual descent into fall. There was a week of chilly temperatures (I had to pull out the futon blankets) but things have leveled off into cooler than super hot summer, but not quite jacket time winter. I’m still waiting for the real fall to come (the leaves haven’t even changed color yet), although there are newly sprouted flowers in the area that I’ve heard only come out in the first week of fall.

I’m getting into a happy little rut with the work schedule. While still getting used to the bouncing from elementary to middle four days out of the week, it’s not as tiring as it was in the first few weeks. It is quite a shame I don’t get to play with the kids during recess, especially since some of them have apparently gathered enough courage to ask me to play with them. This is mainly because I have to get back to the middle school in time for their recess so I can help the kids there with the English speech contest (although to my dismay, they don’t always show up). Once the contest is over though, I’ll make an effort to stay a bit longer at the elementary schools (and try not to turn into a sweaty mess for when I do get to the middle school).

For the middle school classes and my 5th/6th grade classes at the elementary schools, I pretty much follow what the books prescribe, which make lesson planning quite a breeze (that is to say, there is almost nothing on my part I have to prepare). If anything, I’ve taken to noting down what I’ve worked with the kids at each elementary (each elementary has a notebook just for them) so I know what to expect at each school. But that’s a difficulty just in having so many schools to work with, not with any actual planning.

Some of the elementary schools have wanted me to start working with the 1st-4th graders. English is not required for them by the Japanese educational system so there’s no set plan for them. Also to make things a bit more difficult, the class sessions are usually 10-15 minutes, so I can’t go ahead with a fully fledged lesson plan. I have to make up my own plans, but in reality, they’re just English games if anything. Not that I expected to go in head first with the younger kids and teach them English grammar, but the shortened class period adds another wrinkle to my plans. If anything, this will be the most troublesome part of the next few months (although maybe the most fun, as the younger kids all have infectious energy).

Outside of school, I’m slowly making a name for myself in the neighborhood. They’ve asked me to participate in the neighborhood festival (which my predecessor did) so that can only increase my neighborhood fame. There’s nothing I’m participating on a set basis so far in terms of activities, but I’m still shopping around and trying to meet as many people as I can. There’s a difficulty in that in that I don’t live in the “big” city of Hondo. My area of Ariake is all families that disappear to home after hours, so there’s little chance for me to just run into people or observe something interesting going on. I could always drive over to Hondo, but most days I find myself just relaxing at home and trying (usually failing) to get to bed early. I believe there are fun opportunities to be had, but I just need the proper introductions. I guess just like consulting, it’s all about network. Use the people I do know to get my name out there and see what happens.

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29September2011

Louie Bares His Soul

Posted by Roland under: Personal.

From personal experience, that walking awkwardly part definitely happens.

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20September2011

Friend Zone

Posted by Roland under: Personal.

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19September2011

Sports Day

Posted by Roland under: JET.

First off, feel free to browse the photos (on Facebook) here: It’s the 運動会 time of year

One of the big events of the Japanese school year is the 運動会 (undoukai), which loosely translates to “sports day”. But this is no normal field day that you may have had in elementary school. At least from my experience, all we did on field day was go outside and play a bunch of random games (races, dodgeball, throwing a water balloon back and forth). The Japanese sports day has activities for the kids, but that only makes up a part of the entire sports day experience.

I’m not sure if there’s a set time of year that elementary schools have their sports days. I found out the middle school has their sports day in May, but all of my elementary schools decided to have theirs in September (on the same day nonetheless). So it may or may not be a fall thing for all Japanese elementary schools, but in any case, in my first few weeks of working at the schools here in Amakusa, I would discover that my morning schedule would be interrupted by the whole school going outside for a few hours each day to practice formations. I quickly discovered that all the schools were doing preparation for their sports days.

This didn’t mean they were going out to have PE, the kids would go out, practice their formations for the opening ceremonies, go through opening ceremony rehearsals, which usually involved formalities such as team introductions, warm up exercises, and speeches from both school staff and kids. It almost seemed like performance in the actual sporting events didn’t matter, as the kids would be critiqued for their performance in rehearsal, for example if they were standing up straight, paying attention, even bowing the right way or responding in a loud enough voice. I wouldn’t say they were particularly intense dress rehearsals, but the teachers would make sure students were doing it correctly. If they weren’t, the students would hear about it.

And once the students got the opening ceremony practice down, they would then have to practice their dances as well. Peppered throughout the actual sports day would be dance performances by the students, some created on their own, some that were traditions handed down year after year for that specific school. Again, the same rules about formality applied here. If the students were out of step, they would be focused on until their mistake was corrected. And finally, once that was out of the way, the students would then have to get back into formation for the closing ceremony practice.

So yes, the Japanese sports day is quite a formal experience. The students were practicing it right after summer break ended, which meant at least two weeks of practice for sports day. I don’t know if they started before summer vacation started, but it’s quite possible the students had to practice some during their summer break because some of their formations/dances seemed too complicated to learn in a two week period.

Each elementary school printed out a program for their respective sports days, which made it a little easier for me to determine my schedule the day of, since I would be bouncing from school to school to try and catch parts of their sports days. Sad I wouldn’t be able to see one school from beginning to end, but I felt it more important to see as many children as possible.

The sports days are big events, not just for the school, but probably more importantly for their respective communities. Amakusa is not a big city by any means, so each sports day had a very community oriented feel. Most people know each other in their school neighborhoods. Their children go to school with their neighbors’ children so it is also a important community building event. This is helped by the fact that the sports day with inevitably incorporate events that include not just the elementary school children, but graduated children who are now middle schoolers (there seemed to be a middle schooler relay at every sports day), parents of the children, and even local kindergarten kids who will be entering that elementary school once they leave.

This is definitely not just going outside and throwing a water balloon around. But aside from all the formalities, it was in essence, just elementary school kids, divided into two teams, doing their best to help their team win. From all the tired faces I saw of children during the sports day practices, it would be easy to think that the children were not looking forward to the actual day. But when I saw them in action, running, throwing, jumping, and pulling as hard as they could, I could see they were doing what children do best, which is have a good time.

And don’t worry friends, I also got involved too. As I said the sports days were neighborhood events, so at the school closest to my home, there are several neighborhood events built in which the different communities take pretty seriously. Unfortunately, my area didn’t win at the neighborhood competition, but that’s just something to look forward to next year.

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11September2011

The First Week

Posted by Roland under: JET.

Just got through my first full week of teaching at the schools and I have to admit, I am worn out. I remember when I did Junior Achievement and we had to put in full days at the schools, it was more tiring than any consulting day I had. But now we had back to back days of teaching, i.e. actually teaching at the schools. And even then, I wasn’t a fully fledged teacher, but rather the assistant, so I didn’t have to deal with other problems teachers faced, like lesson planning.

But man, by the end of the week I was done. If anything, it made me realize that I need to get more sleep. Maybe somehow in consulting I got through with 6 hours of sleep, but that would not play at the schools. Basically, you’re always on. It’s a constant drain on your energy and made me realize that 8 hours is required. When was the last time I got 8 hours of sleep? It was tough for me to remember. One day this last week, I was able to get 8 hours and while I did yawn through the day, I didn’t feel the need to nap, which was a marked improvement over other days. That, combined with the humidity makes sleepiness easy to find.

Another difficulty that I have, which is probably unique to my situation is that 4 days out of the week, I’m doing half a day at an elementary school and half a day at the middle school. So after lunch at the elementary, I have to head on back to the middle school. It’s not a particularly hard transfer or anything but it does admittedly break up the rhythm of the school day. After spending the morning getting in the elementary mindset, I have to switch gears to the middle school and sometimes it’s not so easy. While grateful it increases my exposure at my “base” school, the middle school, it makes it harder to get to know the elementary kids (which is always on the playground).

While I start off with complaints, in the end, I’m extremely happy I’m here. Sure, I get tired, but it’s nothing a good night’s sleep can’t fix (as long as I fight the desire to watch Japanese TV till late). The classes themselves have been great. Some classes are a bit more energetic than others, but no one has really misbehaved. If anything, they’re a bit too excited to have a change of pace. I’ll find out throughout the year if they’re actually paying attention to the English lessons, but the kids seem happy to see me. And really, that feeling can’t be beat.

Over this first week I’ve been mainly focusing on my introduction lesson, which is easy enough (talking about me, Maryland, San Francisco, things I like). The elementary school kids love it when I bring out the American football for them to feel and play with. They also like to hit it on their heads and smell it for some reason. But for pretty much everyone, it’s their first time seeing a football in person.

Still, I’m glad to be done with that Powerpoint though. That brings the next challenge for me though, which is lesson planning. I don’t have nearly as much to do as my high school counterparts, as the middle schools pretty much have a set lesson plan. The elementary schools are a little different, the 5th and 6th grades usually have a vague plan to work with, but there’s a lot of room to add things. And then some schools want me to teach the 1st to 4th graders, where there is almost never a plan in place. Rather, I have to bring my own ideas to the table. This is the part that worries me a bit, as it’s nothing I’ve had to do before. I have a lot of materials left over here at the house, now it’s a matter of picking the right ones to use in my classes.

One week down, many more to go, but I’m loving it so far. Tiring, but fantastic.

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30August2011

One month in

Posted by Roland under: JET.

The first month in Japan has passed. When I think about it, it’s an interesting mix between thinking where the hell the time has gone and also seeming like I’ve been in Japan a lot longer than just a month. Probably the biggest deal is that with the coming month is the beginning of school. While the students are starting their second term (the school year starts in April), I’ll be jumping in during the middle of their year as the brand new ALT. It almost feels like I’m interrupting the flow of things for everyone, but that’s just the way JET works.

I’ve been able to see some students at Ariake Middle since they’ve been coming to the school almost everyday during summer vacation for club activities. Since almost every student participates in some sort of club, that means every student is coming to school during their so called vacation. If anything, they don’t have any homework and get to go back home by noon, but they still have to wake up early and also deal with the ridiculous summer heat. My spoiled American self, I would try and spend the entire 3 months (they only get one!) inside the house and away from humidity. And no way would you see me anywhere near the school until I had to show up again.

Differences in school year aside, it did give me a chance to see the students. I haven’t really had a chance to interact with them directly since we’re not in the classroom and I haven’t had the “formal” introduction yet. But there have been some limited conversations and most students are friendly enough to shout an “ohayo gozaimasu” when I’m walking by. I’ll occasionally get a “hello” or “good morning” if the student is a bit adventurous. I’m hoping once school has “officially” started, I’ll be able to interact more with the students. If anything, they should have more downtime, as the mornings when I do see them now are occupied with club activities.

The “I’m finally here” mentality in early August has turned into excitement and nervousness for the upcoming school year. Part of it is wondering how I will actually do in the classroom. Another part of it is having to work across many schools, each of which with different student bodies and challenges. One thing I’m noticing a lot is that Amakusa is a sparsely populated location. Some of my classes can boast only around 5 students in it. The schools all make do somehow, but it’s an interesting challenge I didn’t foresee when I applied for the program. Then again, I’m sure rural Japan deals with that on a daily basis.

But I came to Japan to teach and so the teaching will begin. The welcoming speech is all ready and then self introduction lesson should be good to go. Now it’s just a matter of getting in the classroom and getting to work.

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22August2011

Trip to the Big City

Posted by Roland under: JET.

No, not Tokyo.

In what seems like a neverending stream of orientations (San Francisco/Washington DC/Tokyo) it was time to get orientated once again, this time in Kumamoto City. Whereas Tokyo orientation was for all JETs nationwide, Kumamoto orientation hoped to be a bit more localized in their advice, focusing on things at the prefectural level. I appreciate the thought, although one had to wonder how much orientated one could get. I mean, there are only so many things one can hear about being in a rural placement (the session on which was attended by most of the Amakusa JETs).

Doesn’t mean I was going to take up the prefecture on their offer of a free trip to the “big city” of Kumamoto. Compared to Amakusa, of course Kumamoto became the big city, although it definitely by no means a Tokyo. In fact, Kumamoto City just got hooked up to the national bullet train (shikansen) system in March, which is promising to be a big lift for the Kyushu region. So there were little inklings of growth and development to come in Kumamoto, but it felt more like a Kyoto or Hiroshima (a quieter big city) rather than a Tokyo or Osaka.

Nonetheless, it was good to get a taste of the big city after some time in Amakusa. I’m by no means tired of Amakusa but part of me still wanted the excitement of city life, seeing as I had just left from years in San Francisco. There wasn’t much time for exploring the city however, most of my walking around Kumamoto was limited to and from the hotel and orientation buildings. But it was enough to give me a taste that if I wanted the big city escape, it could be found in Kumamoto. I could drive myself over or take the bus, at least I knew either option was now feasible (and the bus stop in Amakusa being conveniently close to home).

In regards to the orientation itself, there wasn’t much I hadn’t learned before. While there was some Kumamoto specific advice, unfortunately I felt like it was Kumamoto city specific, which was unfortunate. I don’t expect anything Amakusa specific, as the size of newcomers to Amakusa can vary widely from year to year (last being only four while this year we came in at around ten). Then again, I don’t think I can take any more orientation anyway. At least we could network with people we had a reasonable chance of seeing again, as opposed to all the great friends I might have made at Tokyo orientation who would then be shipped off to northern Japan.

At least orientation provided validation that my Japanese was somewhat still reasonable. They made us take a test during our first day which then determined which language class we got placed into in our third day (from beginner to advanced). I would then be placed in the highest level class, although I actually wish I was in a lower level class by the end of the day. Our reward for being so advanced was a lack of a lesson plan by our teacher. In essence, it became, what did you want to learn about, because we have nothing to teach you. If I knew it was like this, I would’ve thought harder about the question at the end of the placement exam, which asked what we wanted to study in our classes. While there were brief moments of education (mainly around Kumamoto-ben), it was an all day exercise in just sitting around while having to listen to conversations about popular Japanese culture. Not exactly what I expected.

Probably the best parts, as with any business related trip, were the nightly activities. While the AJET group promised a bar hopping night after our first night all you can drink beer garden, I would bail on that in favor of karaoke with some of the Amakusa folk. Unfortunately, I would come late and only get to sing briefly (which really, was fine). However, the second night would be pretty much a repeat, although just for the Amakusa people. We would go to an izakaya, do all you can drink, and then some of us headed off to the same karaoke place again. I think it was the all you can eat ice cream that was the temptation. I got to sing more this time, for better or worse.

In any case, it was just a small taste of what Kumamoto City has offer. While I probably won’t come back there again in such the same scenario (with a bunch of foreigners in tow), it looks like it will be the place for Amakusa people to go when they need escape. And then when we’re finished with that, we can head on up to Fukuoka (which will happen!)

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10August2011

What’s the sweating point in Celsius?

Posted by Roland under: JET.

One of the most unfortunate parts about Japan is that its summer is hot and humid. Not that I haven’t experienced this myself, Maryland is just as hot and humid as Japan is, but the weather is one of the big reasons that I left Maryland for San Francisco. And if anything, California never gets that humid, for the most part, it’s a dry heat that is much more enjoyable to be around.

So while I would love to visit Japan in the height of their cherry blossom season, not just for the trees but also for the cooler spring weather, inevitably it is the summer when I get a chance to go over there. They have always been enjoyable trips, but I’m definitely sweating through most of it.

However, this time around is different than before. Not only for the obvious reason where I’m actually living in Japan now (where I have to make sure my air conditioning stays in tip top shape…if it breaks I’m done), but also for the fact that Japan is still trying to recover from the March 11 earthquakes. Even though Amakusa is pretty much the other side of the country from Fukushima, I believe even people here are trying to help out by limiting their electricity usage. I attribute it to Japan’s group mentality, basically all of Japan is in it together for post-earthquake recovery, so everyone has to do their part.

And unfortunately, one of the biggest uses of electricity in the summer is air conditioning. It was prevalent even in Tokyo, where the hotel had their air conditioning turned down a little bit (making the sessions with a lot of people in the cramped room somewhat uncomfortable). But like I said, I didn’t think the far south would be sharing in the load quite as much.

Now I could be wrong, this may be how they do things in Amakusa on a daily basis, I mean saving electricity is always a good thing, for the environment and for your pockets. But I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because of the earthquake as well. Nonetheless, I try to limit my time outside and bounce from air conditioned room to room, which unfortunately, in the summer, just means the teacher’s office. The students are still on break, and the ones who show up are out in the fields practicing.

But in any case, it is hot down south. That’s the theme of the story, and will probably be the theme for the next few months of summer. My house is a hot box when I get back from school, because my windows in the living room are facing the sun and the paper screen windows do not really do much to block heat. It may also be a problem come the winter as well, so expect something about that in a few months as well. I’ve been shopping for bamboo screens although I have no idea how to put them up just yet. But the living room is so uncomfortable in the afternoon that I’d rather just stay outside while the air conditioning does its best to cool down the room, which takes at least 15 minutes.

Take heart though, that I’m by the coast. It could always be hotter.

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