Happy Thanksgiving

Obviously, Thanksgiving is not celebrated in Japan, but one of our friends hosted a Thanksgiving potluck dinner at her house. We had all the typical Thanksgiving food items: turkey, stuffing, cranberry sauce, corn, mashed potatoes, and many desserts.

We wish that we could have been home for Thanksgiving, but this year, we are especially thankful for such a wonderful and supportive group of friends. They really have become integral to our well being while in Japan away from our families.

Hello Winter

This entry was posted from Dan`s phone.

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.

Making Soba

There is a soba (Japanese noodles) place in Ichinohe that Tyler and I really enjoy. It is a small grocery shop on one side, and a seating area with a kitchen on the other side. The restaurant is only open during lunch, so we rarely eat there except on holidays and vacation days. We’ve caught them a few times when they were not technically open but they’ve served us anyway. The most recent time we went, the cook (maybe owner) brought us into the kitchen and he taught us how to make soba from scratch. Here are some pictures of our soba class.

がんばります! (I am trying)

I have been studying Japanese on and off for the three months that I’ve been here. I was using a college textbook that I inherited from one of my predecessors, but now I am taking a correspondence class offered through JET. So far, I am able to read the two different Japanese alphabets, Hiragana and Katakana, and I recognize some Kanji. Hiragana is the alphabet used for Japanese words, ie. いぬ (dog) is pronounced eenu. Although I can read Hiragana, I don’t typically understand the words being read. Katakana is the alphabet that approximates foreign language’s words. Most of the words are English words, but there are also other language’s words that are katakana-sized. An example is アメリカ (America), pronounced A-ma-ree-ka. The “A” is like “o” in on, “me” is like “may” minus the “y”, “ree” is a mix between “ree” in reef and the name Lee, and “ka” sounds like “cot” minus the “t”. Japanese also uses Kanji, which is Chinese characters or symbols. There are thousands of characters and each of them have different Japanese and Chinese pronunciations. Many of them have numerous meanings as well. I have heard that high school graduates typically know around 1,800 characters. 一戸 is the Kanji for Ichinohe. As for the language, I am able to say basic greetings, tell time, count, order food at some restaurants, and drop a few vocabulary words here and there. I am not studying as much as I should be.

It's getting cold, thank goodness for Kotatsu

As the winter approaches we are catching our first glimpses of fall in Japan. The trees are beginning to change color, the rice is being harvested, and the cool fall breeze is visiting more frequently. With the transition comes the obvious drop in temperatures. There have been a few mornings that the temperature in our house has been 8 or 9 degrees Celsius. That translates to 46 and 48 degrees Fahrenheit. We are well aware that it is only going to get (much) worse before it gets better. We have taken a few preparatory measures: we got some of our winter clothes from the states shipped, we have done some winter clothing shopping, we've purchased a sleeping bag and an electric radiator heater, and we've fired up the Kotatsu.

The Kotatsu is essentially a coffee table and an electric blanket combined into one ingenious device. The table has a removable surface in which you lift off, place a blanket on top of the table's structure, replace the table top, and plug in the table. There is a heater that is attached to the under side of the table that heats up the blanket. You sit with your lap and legs under the blanket and as you might imagine, the Kotatsu becomes an instant hit for the frozen Northern Japan residents.

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.