More New Pictures!

Many new photos have been added to my flickr page! I have also added the locations of all of my pictures on the flickr map. However, I am sorry to say that the map is sub-par in terms of quality and user usability, but you can still have some fun with the zoom and pan features while looking at the locations that I’ve visited (and photographed).

Teaching – I have created a new set of strictly teaching and school related pictures. You will see some action shots (both of me and of the students), graduation shots, and formal shots with the teachers. I will continue adding pictures to this set as I take them.

Iwate Snow Festival – These are pictures from the 2009 岩手雪祭り(Iwate Snow Festival) held on February 7th at Koiwai Farms near Morioka. Tyler, Jar, Miyuki, and I went early in the day to view the large and quite impressive snow sculptures. We met up with some of our friends and went sledding. The day finished with a fireworks display.

Snowboarding – Snowboarding is pretty much a necessity while living in Iwate for two reasons: 1. Iwate has the most number of ski resorts in Japan. 2. It maintains one’s sanity, assuming one’s brain isn’t frost bitten or fumigated from kerosene. These are some pictures and videos of me and my friends on numerous trips to our local ski area called Okunakayama Kogen. Okunakayama is only twenty-five minutes away and lift tickets are cheap.

Towada Art Center – I recently discovered an art museum in Towada (about an hour North of us) while looking at this Japanese architect’s website. The picture on their website is of a model so I did some investigating and I found this! Tyler, Jar, J9, and I went there for one of our weekend road trips and we were not disappointed. This is a legitimate art museum displaying twenty-two permanent installations, sculptures, and large-scale works of art from artist from many different countries. In addition, there is a gallery that houses temporary exhibits. We were thoroughly impressed. See for yourself. I would recommend this museum to anyone!

Ikebana – is traditional Japanese flower arrangement. This display was put-on at our library on a day that Tyler and I happened to be there. The pictures do not do justice for the beauty of these arrangements.

Tomb of Christ in Shingo, Aomori Japan - The legend goes (quoted from the sign):

“When Christ was 21 years old, he came to Japan and pursued knowledge of divinity for 12 years. He went back to Judea at age 33, and engaged in his mission. However, at that time, people in Judea would not accept Christ’s preaching. Instead, they arrested him and tried to crucify him on a cross. His younger brother, Isukiri casually took Christ’s place and ended his life on the cross.
Christ, who escaped crucifixion, went through the ups and downs of travel and again came to Japan. He settled right here in what is now called Herai Village, and died at the age of 106.
On this holly ground, there is dedicated a burial mound on the right to deify Christ, and a grave on the left to deify Isukiri.
The above description was given in a testiment by Jesus Christ.” See for yourself.

Dragon Temple Shingo, Aomori Japan - Here are pictures from a neat temple that we discovered on the roadside while traveling to the "Tomb of Christ".This temple has many beautiful wood carvings of mostly dragons. I am unsure of the actual name of this temple.

Stay tuned for:
Craggly Coastal Pictures

Internationalization

Today, I am showing my 3rd year (9th grade US) Junior High School students, “How the Grinch Stole Christmas”. You may remember that I am a huge fan of Dr. Seuss. I wrote my senior paper on him in high school (and I received an A, I might add).

Our library has a few translated children books that are popular in the states. Among them, I have seen “Adventures of Frog and Toad” and “The Very Hungry Caterpillar”, but I haven’t found any Dr. Seuss. At first, I thought that it was just the region of Japan that we’re in - believe it or not, we don’t have robots hovering around and dispensing any electronic ever made. But, I thought for sure that Dr. Seuss would be popular in other areas of Japan. I am beginning think that he isn’t. There are only a handful of Dr. Seuss books available on Amazon.co.jp and I have asked my teachers if they have heard of him and they always reply with, “Who”?!?.

I guess that it only makes sense that reading books filled with fabricated words and written in a particular rhythmic meter is probably not best for people learning English as a second language. However, this is Japan. There are many things in Japanese lifestyles that don’t make any sense (ie. Why do my colleges run everywhere?, Why is it OK for grown men to have cute “Lilo and Stitch” stuffed characters dangling off of their bags and cell phones?, Why is “Godzilla” pronounced Gojira - Goduzirra seems like a closer alternative). The way I see it, English is a damned tough language to learn, let’s have some fun learning it like I did/still am.

Japanese Schools and Teaching English

1st grade jr. high students.

Teaching is getting easier for me. I am getting used to each of my JTE’s (Japanese English Teacher at the jr. high schools, 3 JTEs total) teaching styles and the classes are becoming less awkward and more productive for my students. I have mentioned my elementary school that I have dubbed “my baby”; the classes at this are getting better and this school is becoming my favorite. I am only at this school 2 days every 3 weeks. I have planned 3 lessons: “Halloween in America”, “Body Parts”, and “Big vs. Small and Other Adjectives”. I am lucky in that I can typically make a single lesson plan per visit and adapt it for each of my 6 classes held at this school.

Japanese schools are pretty different from American schools. One of the major differences is school discipline. It pretty much does not exist in Japan. There are no detention, suspension, or write up systems in place. If a student wants to talk and disrupt the entire class, too bad for the other students, but they can talk away without the teachers stopping them. The students can sleep in the classes without any consequences. Students do not have to participate in their classes either. That being said, the student’s at all of my schools (over 200 total) are very well behaved students. I do, however, have a fourth grade class that is very excited and loud that I have a difficult time with. It’s not that they are bad students, I think that they’re teacher does nothing to control the class and when the famous foreigner (me) makes an appearance, it is similar to the puppy and the wet floor when the owner comes home from work.

Another difference is that the student’s are always at school, especially at my jr. high schools. There were a few times over the summer break (no classes) that I stopped into my schools and some of the students were sitting around their classrooms. When school is in, my students arrive around 7:45-8:00 AM and go straight to their classrooms. Their first class doesn’t start until 8:45, but somedays they organize highly formal assemblies before school. They have a regular load of 6 classes throughout the day and they finish classes around 3:20. After school, the 1st and 2nd year jr. high students (7th and 8th grade to Americans) are forced to participate in a school club. The clubs at my jr. high schools are basketball, volleyball, baseball, tennis, and table tennis. The 3rd year students (9th graders) are required to stay and study for their high school entrance exams. It is pretty common for the students to stay past 5:00 PM. The jr. high students are rarely under supervision. Similar to in America, they have different classes at different time periods. Dissimilar to America, the student’s stay in one room and the student’s visit them in their classrooms.

School lunch in Japan is totally different than in America. A few students from each class put on “sterile” clothing covers, masks, and a type of hair net and retrieve classes’ lunch from a serving area where one school employee rations out the proper amount of food. The students then take the food back to their classrooms and serve their classmates. Before the students can dig in, they must say the phrase “i-te-dak-imas” in unison, which is basically saying grace with out any religious connotation. The students are given 15 minutes to eat their lunches and they eat in their classrooms. They finish their lunches with the phrase “go-chiso-sama-deshita”, again, giving thanks for the food. After lunch, they must take all of the serving dishes back to the food distribution area. The students are not allowed to bring their own lunches.

The students are also required to clean the schools. There are no janitors at the schools , so the students are in charge of the cleaning. They organize into groups of varying age and grade levels (again with no teacher supervision) and the go through a checklist and clean their designated area of the school. I am thankful that there were janitors at my schools when I was a student because I know that they would have been absolutely filthy, but my japanese students do a really great job.

My jr. high student’s are always taking tests. It is pretty common for them to have a test once a month. The 3rd year (again, 9th grade in US) are constantly taking preparatory entrance exams for sr. high school. A problem that comes from this type of curriculum, however, is that most of the teachers teach to the tests. My student’s of teachers that are taught specifically for their tests will test well, but mostly, are unable to comprehend simple English phrases that are essentially, just variations of the test questions. It also seems that my students of teachers that use the textbook and the test materials to compliment their lessons rather than restrict them, will test lower but they can typically understand the larger picture when spoken to in English. Unfortunately, comprehending a language is subjective, and the student’s progress is currently being evaluated by tests (and probably always will :( ).

School festivals

Each of the schools hosted a festival that showcased choir performances, plays, art work/projects, awards, and individual student’s written works (some in English). These were similar to an open house but the students mostly ran the festivals with the occasional speech by the principal and teachers. These events, just like the morning assemblies at these schools, were very formal and organized. The festivals were basically a chance to allow the community see what has been happening at the schools. Remember that the schools are halfway through their school year. I came in at the beginning of their 2nd semester.

I've posted some video of the festival from Kozuya middle school. This is a link to my 1st year (7th US) student's performance. My 2nd year student's did "Asian Dream Song", a really beautiful song that is popular among many pianists. The video of their performance is below this text. For the festival's closing ceremony, the underclassmen (1st and 2nd years) thanked the 3rd year students with a cheer. They finished by singing the school song and opening the Japanese piñata. Click on the colored words to view the videos.

I am an English teacher.

School has been keeping me on my toes during the week. I am teaching at four schools, 2 junior high schools (JHSs) and 2 elementary schools. My schedule repeats itself every three weeks, for example, I am at one JHS one week then I am at the other JHS the 2nd week and I split the 3rd week between my two elementary schools. The JHS's have a set curriculum and a full time English teacher so at one of my JHS's, I am primarily used as a human cd player to spit English phrases on command. The other JHS I play a larger role. I am encouraged to create lesson plans and fun games to help the student's gain an understanding of the grammatical points from their textbooks. I am enjoying the latter mentioned JHS much more. The elementary schools are both very fun. One of my elementary schools is pretty similar to the JHS's in that I am an assistant to the homeroom teachers but I have more fun with the youngsters. I play a more important role in these classes and they mostly go smoothly because the teachers and students are really great. I am looking at this school as a sort of mentoring program. I am using my experiences from the elementary school I've mentioned to help me at my other elementary school. The other elementary school is sort of my baby. I plan and teach my own lessons and I am getting an idea of what does and doesn't work in an elementary classroom. I am enjoying the responsibility I have, but it is overwhelming at times because of the short amount of time that I see them in my 3 week cycle. Since there is no English that is taught between my visits at this particular school, I end up reviewing mostly with very little forward progress. I am, however, enjoying this school because it really is a challenge. The classes that go well are very encouraging and the classes that do not go that well, make me think of ways to improve the next class.

At times, I forget that I was hired to be an English teacher. Those who know me well (and those who read this blog) can attest that the English language is not one of my strong areas, but I really am enjoying my time in the classroom. With my weekends as busy as they are and all the traveling that I'm doing, I feel that it probably won't hit me that I am teaching English until I'm saying goodbye to these kids at the end of my contract. I hope that they learn something from me whether it's English or otherwise.

Settling in

Things are good in Ichinohe! Tyler and I are pretty settled, I began teaching last week, and we've met lots of new friends.

The month of August was very slow in the office, but Tyler and I were very busy with traveling and trying to setup the living luxuries. We have our keitais (cell phones) but we haven't had any luck with getting the internet set up. The latest quote for us having internet in our home is the 3rd week in September. One of my fellow JET colleagues reminds me almost daily that I should have used the internet company he used, but it just wasn't an option for us after I applied to YahooBB. Ah well...

We traveled to Morioka on a quest to find a bike and do other random shopping. We also went to Hachinohe to continue looking for a bike but we had no luck. We went back to Morioka for a JET orientation. This time, I went with the ALTs (assistant language teachers) that live next to and met some of the other JETs and ALT's from other private companies that live in Iwate. We went to this really great Ramen place (that has a chain opening in Brooklyn soon) and we went to an activity center that had indoor soccer, batting cages, basketball and volleyball courts. It also had kareoke booths, a large arcade, rollerskating ring, and bowling alley. The place was awesome. Tyler met up with us the next day so that we could get our re-entry permits in case we want to travel outside of Japan. We also had some pretty good Italian food followed by Starbucks. We went to a karaoke booth after dinner. The next day Tyler and I did some more shopping. I was successful in finding a bicycle.

I began teaching last Tuesday (8/26) at Chokai Junior High. This school has close to 30 students. Chokai is a town that is West of Ichinohe and takes about 20 minutes on a bike (1-1/2 hrs to walk). Tyler came with me because the school had a welcoming ceremony for me/us. The ceremony was really impressive. It was a pretty formal ceremony with speeches (including my speech in Japanese and English) and a pep rally of sorts with shouting kids and Taiko drumming. It was quite flattering. After the ceremony, I accompanied the full-time English teacher to our classes and I gave my Keynote introduction presentation. I think that I will have a good time at this school. Wednesday (8/27) I started at Chokai Elementary school. This school had a similar welcoming ceremony. Most of my teachers here have a very basic level of English so sometimes it gets a bit quiet when there are only a few of us in the office. I gave my introduction presentation to each of my classes (only 5 classes) and met all of the students. There is a lot of free time between my classes, so I try to visit the students through out the day. I played dodge ball with the 4-6th graders, I ate lunch with the 4 and 5th graders, and I participated in the daily, school-wide run in the mornings. The kids in the elementary school are much more out-going than the junior high schoolers. A few times this weekend, students from elementary school came up to me and siad hello. It is really great that they will come up to me, but I wish that I could speak to them. Their English abilities are pretty poor and my Japanese ability is worse. I hope that this will be motivation for me to learn.

This past weekend was the weekend of the Ichinohe Matsuri (festival/carnival). There were a series of parades and events each day. Tyler, Alex, Claire, and I danced in the parades on Saturday with a group from our office. The parade also had 5 large floats that represented neighborhoods around Ichinohe. Each of the floats were handmade by the community and had room for children to play the taiko drums that were affixed to them. Flutists and dancers accompanied the floats along with community members pulling/pushing the floats. Some of our friends from the areas around Ichinohe came over to our house after the festivities and we had a BBQ. Sunday, one of my neighbors invited all of us Gaijin (foreigners) to help pull the float from our neighborhood. Tyler wanted to watch the parade and the others were busy, so I pulled the float with the rest of the community members. It was a really great experience that I am glad I participated in. I will post some pics and video when I can.

Placement in Japan

We recieved news of my placement in Japan today! We're moving to Ichinohe, Iwate. Ichinohe (meaning "First Door") is a town of ~15,000 people in the state of Iwate. Iwate is the largest state on the main island of Honshu. Ichinohe is (apparently) located in the Northern area of Iwate, but we have a difficult time finding any information on our town.

Cold fronts from Siberia make this area very cold from late October through May which may make for some snowboarding opportunities as there are a few ski areas that are relatively close.

I've been informed that I will mainly be teaching in an elementary school and middle school and will be teaching an adult conversation class a couple times throughout the year. We will be living in an actual house that I believe my contracting organization owns. Hopefully this means rent will be cheap.