Quickie

hey all,

Just a quickie here. Michi and I will be heading to the mountains today so we can see the so called "Diamond Fuji".

This is only a two day trip, but it looks to be a spectacular one, if a very cold one too.

More on our return.

Cheers,

Izu and Others

hey all,

The explanation is really with each of the pictures.


View December 2012 Izu Trip in a larger map

A model of one of Perry's black ships. They have really embraced this thing.

Our dinner

Various views from our room

The cave we wanted to see by boat, but didn't have a chance to.

Might not look spectacular, but this is wasabi ice cream. Let me say that again: WASABI ice cream. It was sweet and yes it did clear out your nasal passages as well.

Christmas Eve Dinner: Some super delicious meatloaf that Michi made.

My contribution to Christmas dinner: this is a buche de noel. Which seems to be French for yule log.  The frosting is chocolate cream cheese, and the filling is coffee flavored cream. The bumps are chocolate covered coffee beans.

The spread from the Fam: Thank You!

Cheers,

Izu Trip

hey all,

So I'm back in blogland. Michi and I just got back from a sweet trip to Izu, but a full description will have to wait until tomorrow.

Otherwise, I've been keeping myself busy and classes are finally winding down for Christmas break.

Cheers,

Return, Space Heater, Three-Day Weekend

hey all,

Michi should be coming back tomorrow, so I've been getting the place ready: throwing out the trash, doing laundry, vacuuming, etc. I even bought her favorite kind of flower and made some tiramisu.

Right now, I'm making sure all is set for work tomorrow, and making sure that my bed is all set to sleep in. I've actually got my sheets draped over a space heater, because they didn't dry out quick enough. The space heater works really well, though.

Thankfully this was a three-day weekend, so I had plenty of time to relax, get in some data entry tasks for work, and catch up on my gaming and reading big time. I think I defeated the final boss in Dragon's Dogma, but after I did that, the monsters almost everywhere got three times tougher. There are a few wrapping up missions to do, but I'm kinda playing around with some side quests at the moment. I even went back to Dishonored and played that a bit, but I think I'll go back to the beginning on that one. Because of the setup, you can play each mission separately, but it feels a little too disjointed.

Cheers,

YES!

hey all,

So I just checked the website for my online class to see if the feedback for the final project had been posted, and it had.

I somehow managed to get 70/70. Not a single point was deducted. So, to use one of the vocabulary words I've recently taught to one of my classes, I am beside myself with joy. It's a really nice close to a difficult project. I'll remind everyone that this is the same instructor who gave me half credit on one of my previous assignments because of various formatting issues.

In related news, the biomes packet that we'll be using at school is basically finished. The final text has been set, and I have already done a recording for it. On advice from one of the other teachers, I went back and tweaked the charts a little bit. The questions have been more or less set as well. I'd still like to go back and add some more about the plants and animals, but that will have to wait. I'm also working on a teacher's version which has all the questions answered, and all the graphic organizers completed, just in case some other teachers have no clue what to do (Believe me, we need this).

In less than a week, Michi should be on her way back to Japan.

Thankfully, only two more days left this week. I kinda feel sorry for my students, because they had a vocabulary test today, they have bones test tomorrow, and a really tough matter/atoms test on Thursday (yes, Thanksgivings Day). But they actually seem to enjoy them, for some strange reason.

Cheers,

November Rain

hey all,

So it has been a little rainy this weekend, and I'm "on my own" like in the song, hence the title.

I have turned in my final project, so fingers crossed for that. It came out to a heavily edited 58 pages.

I already beat Deus Ex: Human Revolution. Shorter than I thought, but pretty interesting and fun. The used game that I'm playing through right now is infuriating and amazing: Dragon's Dogma. It came out almost a year ago, but I heard pretty decent things about it (basically the same situation as Deus Ex). The combat is really nice, the story and  quests are kinda mundane. Overall the game play is smooth, but the lack of fast travel really sucks. Every time you need to go from one end of the map to the other, you sigh internally. And if you fall to your death or get a sword through you before you get to your goal, you might be facing hours of lost game.

Next week we're having a Thanksgiving party at school, and we have Friday off, which is nice. I am beat.



Cheers,

Fourth Decade

hey all,

So it is that I have entered the fourth decade of my life. I don't feel any wiser, or even much older than I did just a few years ago.


I've got some great thoughtful gifts from everyone, and Michi and I made some delicious meatloaf.

I've got most of my final project for my curriculum design class finished, there are still some final details to polish up.

Not much else new, except that Michi is off to India for a few weeks. She's on her final trip before starting at her new company.

Cheers,

Ugh

hey all,

My latest and thankfully last curriculum design class has started. I just turned in the first assignment. The instructor is one of the tougher ones in the series, so my fingers are crossed.

On Friday, we had a Halloween party at school. Really fun, but exhausting.

I picked up Dishonored, which has been really fun but challenging. You can explore the maps and levels really thoroughly, but it is difficult to remain hidden from the guards, etc. Great game so far.

Last weekend Michi and I went indoor climbing for the first time in months. We both sucked, and had no stamina, but it was fun to be back on the walls again. If the weather is nice, we might climb Mt. Takao tomorrow, or we might go climbing again.

I've continued to hack and chip away at the biome packet. I think it is much better this time around, and I think I will use it for my curriculum design project.

That's all for now,

One More Class

hey all,

Been really busy, as I'm sure all you of have been as well.

The trip to the zoo a week ago went really smoothly. It was a little rainy, but cooler. Because of that, the animals were a little easier to find and a little more active. The students had fun and answered my questions pretty well.

This weekend I just handed in my last assignment for my current curriculum design course. One more class to go and then I finish and get my certificate.

Not sure if it is the time of year, but a ton of my students have taken ill with one thing or another.

Michi is over in Taiwan at the moment. Her new company doesn't start until December, so she's been taking lots of trips that she otherwise wouldn't get a chance to take. I believe it is a yoga retreat/workshop. She's also been helping me a lot with my lunches and dinners, which has been really sweet of her.

Like last year around this time, I've started working on the biome packet again. The last one took a ton of time, but still left a lot to be desired. I've been trimming it down, and changing the questions, and of course designing more graphics, charts, Venn diagrams etc.

In any case, it's been a lonely week without Michi, so that's all for now.

Cheers,

Video

hey all,

My curriculum design course instructor shared this video, and I love it.



Cheers,

Two Trips, Lost in Translation

hey all,

I wish I could take credit for the picture below, but it is not mine.

The peak in the middle, after the steep drop coming from the right, is the first peak of Kaerazu no Ken. Then there is the double peak to the left of that, and then the triple peak to the left of that.

Those peaks took us about 3 hours to get through. But I get ahead of myself.


View September 2012 Trip in a larger map

The first day was pretty similar to the last trip, but with a much shorter hike the first day: only about 1hour. The next day, we woke up at 5, and hiked for about 8 hours before reaching our lodging for the night.

(I should warn you that there is some profanity on one of those videos.)





Then a nice long rest, a good meal, and then we were up at 4:30 for the last day. Another 7 hours or so took us back to the gondolas, buses, and trains headed back to Tokyo.

The hike was pretty unremarkable, except for that 3 hour stretch of Kaerazu no Ken. That was some white knuckled, if-I-slip-now-they-won't-find-my-body climbing. It was really foggy, so visibility was low, plus there were the extreme ascents and descents and strong winds to contend with. The fog also kept condensing onto the chains and nearby plants, which the wind would whip and splash into our faces. Thankfully we had decided to stay at the lodges instead of camp, so our packs were relatively small and light, since we weren't carrying tents, sleeping bags, gas stoves, or dinner supplies.

I wish I had some good pictures of us going through this area, but it is not the kind of place that you just rest and stop to smell the roses. But here is one I took.

The fog makes everything hard to make out, but behind Michi there is no or less a straight drop. Behind me is a narrow rock face (which on the other side of that there is a sheer drop), and that rickety steel ladder crosses a straight drop.





Last week was also relatively uneventful.

This weekend, we went to a famous resort on the beaches of Zushi, which is just an hour or so away from our apartment. Her parents belong to some club, and we were able to stay there really cheaply.

Earlier today, we watched The Dark Knight. I kept glancing at the Japanese subtitles below, and they seemed to be doing a decent job of keeping up, except in one place.



In the subtitles, it says "You know what chaos causes/makes happen? Fear"  instead of "You know the thing about chaos? It's fair." In other places, such as the end where Harvey makes a speech about fairness before Batman takes him out, the translation follows the English pretty well. Not sure why the translator chose to do that, but hey.

One more week, and then we will head over to a zoo at work.

Cheers,

We have returned from...Sword of No Return

hey all,

We're back. More info coming later.

Cheers,

Sword of No Return

hey all,

That is where Michi and I are going this weekend. It is a hike very near where we went last time, and the Sword of No Return (Kaerazu-no-ken) is this knife ridge of steep drops and rises that runs south from Mt Shirouma.

More later. Still need to pack.

Cheers,

Age of Curry

hey all,

This marks the second weekend in a row where Michi and I have planned on going rock climbing, only to make excuses the day of. It really is just...not on our top list of priorities. In this kind of weather, I'd much rather go swimming. I mean, it is still 32 degrees C at 8AM. It gets even hotter in the afternoons.

Last Saturday, Michi brough home a curry cook book. This is one of those cookbooks that has lots of pictures in it, and lots of hints and advice, and the recipes so far are really good. In Japan, curry is really easy to make because you can just go to a supermarket and pick up some roux. All you really need to do is chop some meat and veggies, fry them up, add water and the roux and you're set. But these recipes taste like the curry you get at Indian restaurants. You've got to fry the cumin seed, chop and fry the onions, add the spices and other veggies step by step, add the meat and water, etc.

So we made curry Saturday night, and also Sunday night.

Not too much else going on. We have two mornings this week when the AM kids won't be coming in, so the teachers will be using that time to make even more material. I'm going to try to pick out some professionally made workbooks for my students to use, because hand making everything is too time consuming.

I just went through another spate of downloading teaching book samples onto my phone. I'd really like to be reading Batman comics, but I'm waiting to see how much the B1 Toughpad will be.

Cheers,

Prep Week

hey all,

This last week was prep week, which means that the teachers all spent from 9 to 6 or sometimes 7 scheduling, recording, typing and editing material. So we're totally set for the next month+, but also 100% burned out.

Anyway. I've still been going through Batman: Arkham City for my second playthrough, and I just finished it a few days ago. I also re-read Neal Stephenson's Reamde, and have just started The Mongoliad, which is by Stephenson and a collection of other authors. Decent so far.

The weather is...hot, to say the least. As in, it is 87 degrees outside before 8AM. In the afternoons, I don't even want to know how it is has been. In any case, Michi and I were going to go rock climbing at a gym for the first time in several months, but due to the heat and other factors (it seems that I am susceptible to wine headaches), we canceled. She went to yoga and I went swimming instead.

In other news, Michi has official given her month notice to her company (technically, two months notice because of unused vacation time). She's currently looking for work and taking interviews, but so far nothing she's been interested in.

Cheers,

Hell on Earth

hey all,

If I haven't mentioned it recently, it is really hot here in Japan right now. I know most of you might still have those images of snow-covered mountains in your minds from my trip about a month ago, but for several weeks I've been taking three showers a day just to survive. Three ice cold showers. One in the morning to remove the night's sweat. Another when I get home to remove the day's sweat, which is quite copious and feels like a layer of glue covering my whole body. And a last one just before going to bed.

A few months ago there were worries about there not being enough electricity to go around. To be honest I'm not sure what happened, but there doesn't seem to be any lack. Michi and I were avoiding using the AC until about a week ago, but we've had it going at work for quite some time.

Still, it is muggy. I really like that word. I think I forgot it for about a year or so and was only using humid.That's what happens to your English when you live abroad.

Good time for swimming.

I've only been watching a little of the Olympics. Mr. Phelps got himself 18 gold coins, I see. Mostly Japan has been getting their butts kicked. Only other results I kinda know is that it seems like Kenya took gold, silver, and bronze in the women's marathon (but don't quote me on that). Even though one of those runners looked like she was just girl-running-to-the-toilet the whole time.

Cheers,

Age of Batman

hey all,

Last weekend, Michi and I went to see The Dark Knight Rises, and the Age of Batman has begun. The next day, I watched The Dark Knight, and sometime next weekend, I will probably watch Batman Begins. I'm currently working my way through another go at Batman: Arkham City, which has become fun again (mostly; the NG+ is still pretty killer/frustrating).

Tough day today, so I'm gonna head in early.

Cheers,

My Soy-Called Life

hey all,

Does anyone remember that TV series? With Claire Danes and Jared Leto way back in the day?

I was just reflecting on my lactose-intolerance. Here is about two weeks worth of soy milk.

Compare with my brother's weekly supply of milk.

Some chocolate mousse made from chocolate and silken tofu.

I also like to make mango lassis using mango juice and soy milk instead of yogurt. I've found that modern yogurt has the milk sugar added back into it after the bacteria have done their work, and will still upset my stomach some.

Cheers,

Week Off

hey all,

My week off from work is coming to an end. Tomorrow I'll be heading in to the school to drop off some texts I borrowed in order to catch up on some typing/prep. work, and while there I'll be setting up my new classroom, etc.

I don't have any exciting things to report about my week. I did a lot of typing at first: the scientist pack is mostly finished, I got a good number of essay questions typed for my various classes, and I fleshed out some more on a grammar packet about questions. I caught up on a few anime series, and even played Kingdoms of Amalur. I also finished two teaching books I'd been reading for several months now: Making Thinking Visible, and Teach Like a Champion (the regular book, not the Field Guide).  I was looking into reading The Dark Knight Returns on my Android, except the Kindle version is just unreadable. I downloaded a sample, and it was difficult to navigate through the panels, impossible to see the action, and near impossible to read what was written.

Maybe the only interesting thing is that I went swimming once, and an elderly Japanese guy came over and said in perfect English "Your swimming is very powerful!" After chatting for a bit, I had to compliment him on his English, and then we just went right on swimming. It is because of him that I finally got up the nerve to try a little butterfly. You see, he had been swimming a pretty decent, if a little stiff, butterfly for maybe ten minutes before that.

It seems like it was the combination of butterfly, breaststroke, and sheer fatigue that gave me tendinitis a few years ago, so I'd been holding out on trying it again. But it felt really nice to break it out again.

Otherwise, this week has reminded me a lot of my time in Tokyo. Between city taxes, health insurance, and paying off my student loans, money has been a little tight this month. So I really haven't gone anywhere the whole week.

Cheers,

Trip to White Horse Mountain

hey all,

Like many of our trips, this one was transportation heavy. It involved taking a train for 3 hours, a bus for another 30 minutes, and riding various ropeways/gondolas, before we even got to hiking.



View July 2012 Trip in a larger map

The map shows our route from Tokyo to Mt. Shirouma, which is one of the 100 famous mountains of Japan.

Getting to our first camp site involved about 3 or 4hours of hiking, some of it through snow fields.








We think that Michi got a little altitude sickness on the first day, which I can tell you from my perspective was frightening as anything. She seemed to recover pretty quickly, and we got some of the staff of the lodge to help us to get there. They even gave us free food and put us up in the staff room for the night.

This flower is called Mizubasho in Japanese. I have no clue what it is called in English. It is ridiculously popular in Japan.

Crampons!

First big snow field

Me at the summit of Mt. Shirouma

mountain flowers!

Part of the hike back to the lodge.

Part of the hike back to the lodge.

The next day, Michi decided to rest, and I went on to climb Mt. Shirouma by myself. It had started to rain the night before, and it kept up for part of my hike. There was also a lot of fog/low cloud cover, so the views were nonexistent. On the way back, however, it started to clear up.

The original plan had been to camp at the big pond, hike Mt. Shirouma, then camp at another spot just on the other side, then hike across to another ropeway/bus stop and then head home. So instead of camping on the other side of Mt. Shirouma, I hiked back, we made dinner, packed, and went to bed.

The next day, we hiked back to the ropeways and began our trip back to Tokyo.

The new hiking shoes worked out really well, and the crampons were definitely needed.

I've got the rest of the week off, so I have a whole laundry list of things to get done.

Cheers,

Return

hey all,

We're back safe and sound, and as usual, a full update will have to wait until tomorrow.

Cheers,

Trip

hey all,
Michi and I are on our way to Mt.Shirouma. Should be back on Monday.
Cheers,

Lunch

hey all,

I just finished Visible Learning for Teachers a few days ago, and I've gone back to reading Making Thinking Visible and Teach Like a Champion. I actually got reminded by one of the techniques in Champion that I'm being negative when I remind my students of how to behave during lunch ("Don't do that" "Knock it off") instead of telling them what to do ("We're eating lunch" "It's lunch time" "Time to eat")

Cheers,

Nostalgia

hey all,

This weekend was Michi's interview for the Eiken Pre-2. We're not sure if she passed or not. I guess she'll get the results in about three weeks.

We finally got our kitchen knife back from the store. We took it in the weekend before to get it sharpened, and the whole week in between was tough. Michi's old knife is about as sharp as the broad side of a barn, so cutting fruits and vegetables is not easy, and forget about chicken.

Yesterday we finally got around to making falafel. We had the ingredients for it a week ago, but weren't able to get around to it. We used canned garbanzo beans, and fresh grated onion and garlic, and of course plenty of spices. Once fried, the insides were softer than I remembered from the co-op, but still really good. It really took me back to be able to have that food again, and especially to make it from scratch (even more "from scratch" than we made it at the co-op). Although it feels like I've been enjoying something of a Renaissance at my current job, living at the co-op was also such a time. I learned a lot about life, school, friends, food, and work while living there.

Cheers,

And...We're Back

hey all,

I'm still kicking around here in Japan. Yes,I know it is now July, and no I didn't really do anything special for the 4th.

Michi and I are planning a hiking trip to one of Japan's 100 Famous Mountains. Length-wise, and fitness-wise, it does not seem too bad, but we are going shopping for crampons since they are recommended for this mountain. Oh, and Michi still hasn't gotten her foot x-rayed or spoken to a doctor to see if this is a good idea. It seems like her ankle is doing OK recently, but still. She didn't wear the brace as long as she was supposed to, and she had a resurgence of the pain after our last hiking trip to Aomori, which was somewhat lengthy but only involved walking along a river trail with no serious ups or downs...and for this climb we will need to be walking on snow/ice and using crampons. Sounds like it will do therapeutic wonders for her ankle, doesn't it?

At work, we're still training one of the teachers, and we've started having another one come in to see how he does.

I finished Infinite Jest the other day. I'm a lot less satisfied with the ending this time around, and I find myself wondering about the meaning of the eponymous film in the book and the meaning of the main character's loss of communicative ability. I'm back to reading my teaching books sporadically.

Cheers,

Short Fuse

hey all,

Last week was E3. We got some interesting games coming out this year, but nothing that really grabbed me like last year.

I barely got any sleep at all last week, but that is my fault. I started a new series called The Kingkiller Chronicles, and the first two books were really good. So good, in fact, that I didn't get to bed until 1AM or 2AM most nights. Not sure when the third book is coming out, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm still plugging away at the teaching books, though my pace is slow. One of my coworkers complained about books all having the same plot, etc, and I recommended she read Gravity's Rainbow and Infinite Jest. I actually started Infinite Jest for my second read through this weekend, as well.

Friday was a brutish day. We had a potential new teacher come in and teach a bit, but he had zero experience and would need a lot of training. My class had to finish early so I could head over to the immigration bureau and pick up my new visa. I applied for the three year visa, and I actually got it, so that was nice. But then both of my afternoon classes severely disappointed me. The younger kids never look up any words, and I yelled at them for not making enough efforts at home (such as looking up words they didn't know). Then my high school class. It starts at 6:10PM, and despite telling them to review the vocabulary because there would be a quiz, they hadn't. The class only meets once a week, and is only 50 minutes long, but it is nothing but a waste of time. The students don't study, they don't seem to retain what is taught, etc. I told them to come back next week with a goal for us to reach. Hopefully, if they can come up with a reason to study, it will go much smoother.

Probably because of the stress and lack of sleep, I've come down with a headcold. One of those, "why did my ancestors need to have evolved sinuses?" headcolds that through off your balance, your hearing, and give you a killer headache. I slept through most of Saturday, and I'll be going to bed early tonight as well.

I have got in a few more hours in Kingdoms of Amalur, too. The combat really makes the game.

Next week we have more potential teachers coming in. We'll see if they work out.

Cheers,

Course

hey all,

I've gotten the feedback for my final assignment in that curriculum development course. I basically got half points on one part, and almost full points on the other part, so it evened out to 75% percent. The instructor liked my powerpoint presentation, but for some reason did not like the critique I wrote up. I think part of it was the formatting. He wanted a title page, references listed on a separate page, etc. And all I could think about was how much paper that would waste. Of course, he returned the files with digital comments on them, so I know he didn't print them out to grade them. But still.

The other part was citations. Apparently, I was supposed to cite the textbook (or some other source) as a credible source for my judgment of the quality of the presentation, but I didn't.

Oh well. I guess that's what I get for being out of academia for a few years.

Cheers,

One More Year

hey all,

Just finished watching the season finale of Game of Thrones. I have to say that I'm pretty pleased with how they have adapted the books so far. I still have my grudges and gripes about that one red haired whore character, and I'm a little tweaked that some characters were introduced and then apparently cut for no reason. But their handling of the battle on Blackwater was very well done, even if yes, it was different from the book. And they did manage to justify, at least partially, a major deviation involving the dragons and Qarth. Of course, down the road, this also means another deviation if they get around to filming A Dance with Dragons, as they have killed off one (at least implicitly) of the characters who comes back in that book.

But they can deal with that problem when they get there. For now, they have apparently already started casting for season three, and probably will be moving into shooting sooner or later. But that means I've got a whole ten months or so to wait for the next season.

And who knows when good old GRRM will get around to publishing the next book in the series. My bet is that I will have my student loans paid off before he finishes his next novel. I mean, he has the TV series to help with, his various conventions to go to, his other projects such as Wild Cards and others to keep going.

Cheers,

Funny

hey all,

Just a short one here. Yesterday there was an earthquake during one of my PM group lessons. I was quizzing them on pronoun references in one of our reading passages, and then the building started shaking a little. My students kept their hands up so I could call on them, even though their moms, myself and the other classes in session where judging whether or not to get out of the building. I only smiled and said "I love your focus right now."

Cheers,

1-1

hey all,

So I wasn't detained or put into handcuffs at the immigration bureau. I did have to wait 3 hours, but that is just a bit longer than average. I got the application in, and I was only missing one form, which nobody at the school, nor even Michi had heard of or seen before.

School is going OK, but as I mentioned, one of the unstable students has returned so the AM class can be a little touch and go.

Thankfully, I only had my group PM class after that, so I got a new packet printed out, plus I made a new vocab quiz, flashcards, and made two videos for my AM class.

Afterwards, I got to put in a few more hours in Kingdoms of Amalur: The Reckoning. Still fun.

For anyone keeping track, now that I have finished reading Dan Simmons' Hyperion Cantos for the second time, I am making some progress on those education books, like Teach Like a Champion, Making Thinking Visible, and  Visible Learning for Teachers.

I wanted to mention that Michi and I watched this really old Japanese flick (it feels like 1970's but was made in 1987) last weekend called Watashi-o ski-ni tsurettete, which is something like Please Take me Skiing. It is like your classic skiiing movie from the 1980's, but you can tell it is Japanese because the protagonists have a really tough ski course that they need to complete in order to save their company's butt. There is a romantic interest between the main character and an office lady that also happens to work at his company (of course). Pretty funny, worth seeing once, but Michi is obsessed with it now.

Cheers,

Pass and Fail

hey all,

Well, work-wise this week has gone pretty well. Morning classes are going pretty smooth again. But that probably has something to do with one of those mentally unstable students being gone again.

In terms of bureaucracy, I think this week's score is 1-0, them. If you look at the diagram, you can see that the Tokyo Immigration Bureau includes offices in Niigata, Utsunomiya, and other places pretty far from Tokyo itself. Since I work in Yokohama,I thought it would be more convenient for me to go to the Yokohama branch office, instead of the one in Tokyo-to Minato-ku.

Apparently this is not allowable. Why, don't ask me. So I have to go back to the Immigration office, this time I have to go to the one in Tokyo. At the time they told me I was really pissed. As in I folded my 100 ¥ umbrella into fourths on my way out of the building. I had waited for two hours before I even got to present my papers and application, and then I had to wait another 30 minutes while they consulted with various people about how to inform this gaijin without making him go Spartan on their Persian butts.

Anyway, I went back to work, having already called them on the way back and made plans for Monday to go in again. The only good news is that my new passport has arrived, so at least on Monday I can give them all the paperwork they need.

In health news, the temperature is still climbing here, and last weekend I started going swimming at a local pool. It is a little on the pricey side, about 4 or 5 dollars each time, and I'm only swimming for about 20 or 30 minutes (about 500 to 700 meters), since I don't want to mess up one of my shoulders again.

Cheers,

Bean Counting

hey all,

So I am now being screwed by the bureaucracy of not one but two nations. The people at the US Embassy told me at the Embassy that it would be 4-5 days before I got my passport back, and then said it usually takes 2-3 weeks when I called. They still have not even shipped the thing.

Michi was kind enough to write a letter to the Japanese Immigration Bureau explaining that I don't have my passport on me, and thus wouldn't be able to come in before my visa expired. However, they called me at work and explained that that was unacceptable, and that I should still come in with the paperwork that I had before the visa expired. So now I've had to ask one of my coworkers to take over one of my classes, and explain to the parents and students of my AM class that I need to leave a bit early on Friday; otherwise they will soon have a new teacher and I'll be headed for the US.

The thing that really gets me about the Japanese end of this is the paperwork. They need proof from the city or ward office that I have paid my taxes. I need to physically go there, ask for this piece of paper in person, carry it in my bag, and play mailman to deliver it into the hands of the people at Immigration. Now, the people at Immigration know full well where I have lived. They are the ones that said "Make sure you go to the city office of ___" and pick up these forms. Why can't they call, fax, or e-mail that office and get them sent over? What is so mystical or special or essential for the legality of this process about me playing mailman? They are government officials who have a legal right (and according to them, a need) to view these documents, why do I need to be involved at all? Given the fact that I am a foreigner, it should actually be easier for them just to do it themselves.

Anywho,

Two More Days

hey all,

Two more days until the weekend. This week has been pretty tough. Last week two of my AM students were gone all week, but now they are all back, so I'm up to 9 students again. And of course, the two who came back are not exactly the best students. One is just in over her head and more or less lost, but the other is emotionally unstable...as in you tell him (or his mother tells him) calmly that he can't do something and he switches into maniacal laugh/cry mode. There isn't a day when I don't kick him out for disrupting others at least once.

In other news, I'm still waiting for my new passport. It was supposed to be here by now, and when I try to track the package online it just doesn't come up...the system can't find it. So I'm gonna have to call the yahoos at the US Embassy and see what is going on. And here I thought it would simple for once.

My next curriculum design class started on Monday. And there was much rejoicing. Actually, it should be an enjoyable class, but I don't really welcome the frantic pace that these classes always move at. They're only 4 weeks long, so there is a major assignment and major readings every week.

On top of that, the teachers at the school have got a lot of prep work to do so that the students can take a school trip to an aquarium. I've already laid the ground work by visiting the class last weekend, taking photos and videos, writing notes, etc. But I've still got the same prep. to do for my own class.

It has been over 25°C recently, so everyone is burning up before, during, and after classes. And it is only May!!! I don't want to see what July or August will be like.

Cheers,

More on Teaching Like a Champion

hey all,

I'm still focusing on Strong Voice, Positive Framing, and Do It Again. I've also started to add in more At Bats and Take a Stand. These are where you keep track of how many tries a student gets in class. If you ask a question, or pose a problem, how many times does a student get to try to answer it?; the second one is where you refuse to be the initial judge of a student's answer (you get the other students to judge it). These are primarily aimed at getting/forcing the students to take an active part in class. They discourage passivity and also (for Take a Stand) promote listening to other students carefully and with respect as an everyday practice.

Cheers,

More on Tagging

hey all,

One of the things I noticed when I copied the pics from my camera the other day was that I was really far behind on tagging my photos. Like 8 or 9 months behind. I wanted to use Tagged Frog to do this, but despite having the Meta extension on it, it doesn't seem to find the metadata on sound files and on picture files, except for data that I've personally added there using Tagged Frog in the past. So all those tags I created using Picasa (which are visible to Windows Explorer, BTW), and all the tags on my music files...yep, they're invisible to Tagged Frog.

Why does that matter? Because I've already tagged thousands of photos using Picasa, and I'm not going to do it again in a different program just so I can use Tagged Frog. And since I can't tell which files are tagged and which aren't in Tagged Frog, it is kinda a waste. Still waiting for a solution to this.

On top of that, I had to make sure I had everything ready for my trip to the US Embassy today to renew my passport. I'm not sure it was an exception, but their website said it might take up to 45 minutes to do the paper work, but it only took me about 15 minutes. That is to say, I had already done the paper work at home, and it only took them 15 minutes to process it. This was like a revelation. Recently, it seems like at the Japanese Immigration bureaus I'm always made to wait and wait and wait. I'm hoping when I go in later this month to renew my passport, it will be quicker than before.

I've still been watching Game of Thrones episodes as they are coming out. The second season is just about reaching the climax, and there are only four more episodes left. The next season has already been approved, but they will only cover one half of the next book in the same number of episodes. (Book 3 is really long, ya'll.)

But I've been noticing a lot of random changes. Like they will introduce a character, only to combine things which that character is supposed to say with a main character later on...thus, one would think, eliminating the need to have introduced that character in the first place.

Or, adding material not in the books that just doesn't make sense. I understand the need to cut things from the books. Heck, with the exception of Tom Bombagil in The Lord of the Rings, I think the movies are better than the books in terms of drama, actions, pacing, and story-telling. But if you are going to add nonsense stuff in place of good stuff from the books, why not just stop making the TV series and let me imagine them the way they were written? For example, they keep adding scenes about this red haired whore (I think that was her original cast listing...). She isn't in the books, and really doesn't add anything much to the story, except as a way of getting inside/near some of the characters that didn't receive POV chapters in the books. But this is TV folks. Just show what the freaking non-POV characters are doing when they aren't with the POV characters. Why add a whole new character just do accomplish this?

And in the latest episode, they have added an incident where Dany's dragons are stolen from her by a mysterious someone. I don't know what function the incident is to serve, but it is one of the most drastic departures from the books yet. I'm hoping they can justify it.

Cheers,

Aomori, Part 2

hey all,

This is going to have to be rather short as well. I have about 500 things on my to-do list, and like the mythical hydra of yore...you get the idea.

Michi and I made it up to Aomori station where we parted ways. She went to the wedding, and I went to Hirosaki, to see Hirosaki Castle.

Some art/sculpture on the way to Hirosaki castle from the station.

A still blooming cherry tree near the castle.

Hirosaki Castle

This is crazily delicious! It is mango flavored soda/jello with chunks of nata de coco thrown in for good measure.

Afterwards, we met up again and spent the night in Aomori City. The next morning we traveled to the Towada Lake area, which is famous for the eponymous crater lake, and for the Oirase River, which has lots and lots of waterfalls on it. We spent most of that day hiking the river trail.

One of the many waterfalls along the Oirase River.

The view from the hot spring at our hotel. Can you believe we paid something like $70 per person for these views?

One of the views from a boat on Lake Towada

Yet another of the many waterfalls on the Oirase River

The next day, we took a bus from our hotel over to the lake itself so we could ride the boat across the lake. Somewhat stupidly, we took a taxi back to the river so we could hike a little more. (There was some confusion about the bus stop we wanted, since it was apparently so obvious what this one bus stop's name was that nobody bothered to label it on any of the maps.)

We then started the Odyssey back to Tokyo. Just after we had exchanged our train tickets at Hachinose station, the staff announced that there was a stop signal for our train and they didn't know when it would get moving. We had to wait for 40 minutes or so before we could get on, and then it stopped for at least the same amount of time at Morioka station. We got off there, and waited for a Yamabiko bullet train, because that bullet train starts at Morioka and it has three free seating cars. That meant that we actually had a chance of sitting down during the 4+ hour ride back to our place. Luckily, we were able to get seats and the rest of the ride went pretty smoothly.

We didn't get back until around 10PM, three hours later than we had originally planned, but we made it back.

Cheers,

Aomori, Part 1

hey all,

I'll have to just say that we made it to Aomori, got to see some great stuff and eat and good food, and made it back to Tokyo. It is almost midnight and I've been up since 4AM, so I'm going to hit the sack. The pics and story will be coming soon.

Cheers,

Typhoon

hey all,

Today and tomorrow are Japanese National holidays, so for today at least I'm relaxing at home. I went over to a coffee shop this morning and got some typing done for one of my Eiken Pre-2 classes, and I also got some more work done on a lesson plan on the six kingdoms.

Tomorrow, Michi and I head to Aomori, where a friend of hers is getting married. Technically speaking, I'm not invited because I only know the bride and the bride is only allowed to invite girls, as the groom is only allowed to invite boys. Anyway, there is a castle about 40 minutes away in Hirosaki that I'll go see while Michi is busy. After the wedding, we'll do a little walking/hiking around a lake trail that is supposed to be really beautiful. Although here in Tokyo the Sakura season has already passed, in Aomori it will still be going.

Michi has been doing a better job of wearing her ankle brace, but I hope the walking will not be too much stress on her ankle.

In other news, I seem to have gotten Tagged Frog working better. I gave up hope on Nemo Docs. Any program that can't even complete a proper string search is too dumb for me (i.e., that can't even find all the files that have "Jackendoff" in the title). Even Windows Explorer can do that. For Tagged Frog, I think I was using some of the rules incorrectly, but now I have it set up OK.

Cheers,

Prep, Prep, Prep

hey all,

So this morning was all prep work. I typed up some addition word problems for my AM students, got more scheduling and quiz making done, typed up a few more questions, etc. I also received a new contract and some assorted documents with which to combat the various paperwork ninjas.

Cheers,

ABM

hey all,

Tomorrow is Monday, but this is the first of those holidays known as Golden Week. Michi is taking a 2 day yoga class, so yes, I'm toughing it out. (Cue All By Myself by Celine Dion)

I've been messing around with the computer some. I finally got the printer setup on the new computer, for example. I've also been doing some typing for work. Two vocabulary quizzes set, questions for 5 essays typed up, plus a set of pictures going from the animal kingdom down to Home sapiens to show my AM class.

Cheers,

Stupid and Stupider

hey all,

I've been trying to get a decent semantic desktop going, but have been unable to do it so far.

We all know by now the wonderful things that Gmail's labels let you do with emails. Of course it is impossible to surf the internet without encountering lables or tags everywhere. I was using Tagged Frog to do this on my computer, except that it is retarded. Now I am trying out Nemo Docs, but it too is retarded.

Say you have a bunch of pics in a folder named Japan. But inside that folder, you have lots of other folders (Yokohama, Hakone_Random_Date, etc). Tagged Frog supposedly allows you to create a rule that says: give all the files in folder X the tag X. You can set this to be recursive, so that Japan pics all get the tag Japan, Hakone pics all get the tag Hakone, etc. But these tags only show up in your tag manager if you run a manual scan and tag. That is, the automatic tagging is useless.

Nemo Docs has similar problems, but more extreme. If I do a search for files that have SEMANTICS in the file name, it only returns a certain number of those files. Plus you can't set up any autotagging rules, so you might as well go through each and every file and tag it one at a time. In my Linguistics folder, I have 1,700+ files, and well more than 6,000 photos in my Pictures folder, and another 1,700+ music files. It would be more cost effective to hire some poor 3rd world tech savvy drone to do it for me.

Tag2find doesn't seem to work on this computer, and neither does TaggTool. iTag looked nice, but it has a limit of 3 tags per file for the free version and is designed primarily for photos.

Yes, Picasa will also put tags on your photos, and also let you manage the people, locations, etc associated with them, but what about the .doc, .docx, .ods, PDFs, and other files? Sure, Windows Media Player and others will help you manage the tags on your OGGs, MP3, and WAV files, but what about your AVIs, MPEGs, MP4s, and WMVs?

My point is that I want a program that will let me tag or label any file, and that will store and make searchable all that metadata in the same place. I don't want to have to use Picasa to find that one particular picture just because the tags on it are unavailable to Explorer, etc. This shouldn't be a difficult proposition, and yet I have yet to see it implemented on Windows effectively. After all, I can easily add a label to this blog post.

Cheers,

Classes and Computer Again

hey all,

It seems that plan C is also a bust. I tried reformatting the HDD from the new computer, but the results are the same. It could be that the CPU or the graphics card have finally bit the dust, but I kinda doubt that, since I was able to see the Fedora and Kubuntu loading screens come up and get to work...But after a minute, I'd get a screen that was half white and half black. In any case, I might take the HDD and give myself another storage possibility and try to sell the rest of the components in Akihabara this weekend. Whatever is wrong with it, it doesn't seem worth the effort of getting it working again.

Classes are moving along. My AM class is more or less stable. I'm still experimenting with different techniques, but Positive Framing, No Opt Out, Do It Again, and Strong Voice are becoming my combo of choice. These amount to setting a positive tone through focusing on the students who are doing what they should and "narrating a success story" ("I've got two students writing, now I've got 4 students writing, and now I've got everyone writing...Good focus everyone"), not allowing a student to not answer, practicing something again if it is not done correctly the first time, and maintaining a formal, controlled register and bearing at all times.

PM classes are becoming more stable, but I'm still trying to figure out how to cope with teaching a different level basically every day, and I'm still adjusting to the level difference between my current classes and my previous class. One technique I'm going to try out for the PM class is teacher generated summaries for reading comprehension. These amount to restating and shortening the original passages, but with key words left blank, so the students have to do some work to fill them in. I'm thinking a word box and the occasional MC question would also be good additions.

There is a three day holiday, then two days of work, then a four day holiday, so there'll be lots of homework to do.

Cheers,

New Computer

hey all,

This is being typed from my new computer. It's pretty nice, although the Japanese OS is turning out to be a pain in more ways than one. For example, even after going out of my way to download the English versions of programs, like Chrome, Gimp, etc, they look at the language of the OS and decide to switch to Japanese.

I did manage to get all my files off of the old laptop (including my bookmarks, which were buried in C:\Users\Hunter\AppData\Roaming\Mozilla\Firefox...places.sqlite, you get the idea), but my project of turning it into a Linux box hasn't really progressed too far. I downloaded Kubuntu, but despite getting a loading screen, nothing seems to happen. I'm currently downloading Kororaa and Fedora, so we'll see if I have any more luck with those. If not, I'll try reformatting the HDD from this computer, then using the Linux install discs again. If that doesn't work, I'm selling it for scrap parts.

Today is also Michi's birthday. I'll have to leave out how old she's turning, but she had a really busy day which included traveling to Sendai.

(Later) Fedora didn't work either, so on to plan C.

Classes need to be updated too, but that is a separate post.

Cheers,

I am Teacher! Hear me teach!

hey all,

The last two days have gone pretty well. But first, the week in recap. This whole week I've been given out evaluation tests to my new PM students. They showed that we need a lot more work on vocabulary, and that reading comprehension is mostly not there. But at least I've got a picture of where my students are now.

My AM class has gone better and better. There was one young boy (three years old), who was very disruptive and I finally had enough and asked him to leave the room. It is one thing to act bored, disrespectful, and make noises and distract other students. It is another to do it after being asked not, then told not to, and to still persist after being punished (made to stand or go to the corner) for it. I sense that there are sibling issues involved. His older brother is the compliant one, so to distinguish himself, he turns himself into the rebel.

So he is gone. We've moved him to a lower level class, where hopefully he can be a star and help the other students instead of disrupting because the level is over his head. But my students are by no means angels with him gone. However, I've been reading through The Teach Like a Champion Field Guide, which covers a bunch of techniques for establishing classroom routines, setting high expectations and communicating them, and for maintaining students' attention and behavior. So every day I scroll through it on my Android during my morning commute, and I pick a few techniques to focus on for the day.

Friday went really smoothly, mostly because of those techniques.

On a separate note, I also went to the dentist. He just jumped right in and started drilling three or four teeth after I explained that I was having some pain on the back teeth. He explained that my crowns were probably bashing into each other while chewing, or while grinding my teeth in my sleep (something my previous dentist also mentioned). He he started rounding and smoothing the edges of them. I think, however, that one of the crowns will have to be replaced. This is the crown that came out while I was in Amsterdam. It has been gradually losing its porcelain coating, and now on the top it is mostly metal showing.

 That's all for now.
Cheers,

400 Posts, and 3 Years

hey all,

I've been in Japan for over 3 years now. That seems so strange to type. Three years ago I was 27 years old. At times I wish I had a more visual or concrete profession. I mean, I can't really go around pulling a great student out of my pocket and showing them to people. Architects can point to their buildings, musicians have people listen to their music, painters can show their paintings, game developers can have people play their games, and movie professionals can show their films. The results of my efforts reside in the neurons of the brains of my students, who are off wandering around the earth. Not exactly the most accessible place to reach. And nobody appreciates all the blood, bone, broken hack saw blades, and screams that it takes to show them off.

Three years is around 1000 days. I have to say that three years doesn't feel like a long time. Of course, there are times when I have to plan a lesson that 50 minutes seems like a long time to fill, but the last three years of my life have gone by pretty quickly. I feel pretty ambivalent about that, actually. I guess time does seem to move quickly when you are enjoying yourself, but sometimes I wonder about the hustle and bustle of daily life and where mine is going.

My new AM and PM classes are...going, as well. They really deserve more comment, but for now that will have to do.

Cheers,

In America

hey all,

It seems a little strange to be writting this in America. I suppose there might be a few people in Japan who know of this blog and who read it when I publish a new post, but I think the majority of my readers (all two of you), are in the US.

In any case, my flight in was pretty ordinary. No crashes, no problems locking the cargo doors, no passengers sitting next to me who suddenly need medical attention. The wind was rather strong, so our take off was delayed about an hour. But that was it. Luckily for me, I just read that some massive tornadoes swung through the Fort Worth area today, so it looks like I missed them.

I made it to Texas, and then caught another flight to Georgia and met up with Bri. It was great to see him, and it went much smoother than his trip to Japan. On the second day, we worked out at his gym, and my whole body still aches. We did biceps, triceps, abs, quads, and deltoids/pecks. I logged about 900 points on Fitocracy. Later that day, we went to the Oyster and Crawfish Festival, and although they had run out of oysters and crawfish, we still got to see Cowboy Mouth. I had no clue who this band was, but apparently they wrote the song "Jenny Says" way back in the 90's. In any case, the band rocked. I would definitely go and see them again.

Sunday was mostly relaxing, since we were still sore from the workout. And the next day we got up early and he dropped me off at the airport. I met up with the fam here in Michgan, and was shocked to see that Sarah is almost as tall as I am, and Rachel is only slightly shorter than that.

Since I arrived around noon, I spent the rest of the day sorting through my books. I am now the proud owner of 13 fewer boxes of books. Gone are most of my science fiction, science, psychology, fantasy, magic and occult, and philosophy books. I only got about $200 for the 13 boxes, but with Project Gutenberg, the Nook and the Kindle, and the economy the way it is, I was lucky to get that much. Besides, the point was to get rid of a bunch of books, not make lots of money.

Today, we went and sold those books, renewed my driver's lisence, and went shopping.

That's all for now.
Cheers,

To America, and Beyond! Er, What does that mean?

hey all,

In a matter of hours, I'll be heading over to Narita to get through security so I get on a plane that will (hopefully) land in the state the would be its own country, Texas. Then I have a layover before meeting up with Bri at his current abode in Georgia.

After hanging out with him for a few days, it will be back through security again, then off to the arctic wastes of...Michigan. See the family, do some shopping, throw out some old stuff, pick some stuff to cart back to Japan. And then back through security again, to the Land of the Rising Sun, (insert your own L/R joke here).

My fellow teachers and I have spent the last two days typing, counting desks and chairs, planning classes and getting materials ready. It was a valiant effort, and the first few months should go pretty smoothly. After that, and we'll need to prep more material.

Cheers,

Graduation

hey all,

Last week on Wednesday we had the graduation ceremony for my class. It was really touching, and emotional, and it went pretty well. The odd thing of course is that everyone came to school the next day and we tried to have regular class. The students were all afflicted with a severe case of "senioritis,"  which seems like it will continue until March 27th, the last day of class for the school year.

On Friday last week I asked my teachers to complete some worksheets from a curriculum design book to help them think about the big ideas, skills, goals and concepts we wanted our students to walk away from class with. The more books I read about curriculum design, classroom instruction, school management, and classroom discipline, the more books that get added to my "to read" shelf over at Good Reads.

My hope is to get some teacher development started, and maybe change the school for the better. We'll see. I stayed late at the school yesterday to have a conference with the boss and the father of one of our graduating students. He gave us some wonderful comments and some things that he thought we might want to focus our attention on in the future. And one of his best points was not whether or not we listened to him, or were thankful for his advice, but whether we actually did anything about it. Reading all those books will be interesting, I'm sure (as one of the proverbs in the "Kushiel" fantasy series goes, "All knowledge is worth having"), but what really matters is whether anything changes at the school.

I've got my trip to the US coming up, with all the attendant worries, concerns, plans, intentions, etc that go with an international trip. Also coming up is the second season of Game of Thrones on HBO, which I'm highly looking forward to catching. The new season of South Park has already started, with their first episode being a satirical take on the TSA (Transportation Security Administration), or Toilet Safety Administration in the episode. Speaking of which, it just occurred to me to check my visa status and I realized that my re-entry permit expired last year and I need to go to the immigration bureau and renew it. Luckily, this can be done in one day, and I have two days off before I leave for the US. I could probably even go to the bureau early on the morning that I leave and get it done in time, but there's no reason to push it so far.

Today was a national holiday, so Michi and I went to see Star Wars: Episode 1 in 3D. Not bad, but not great either. Michi can't stop saying "May the Force be with you" and talking about how cute the young Anikin was.

Cheers,

Fukushima, One Year Later

hey all,

As I'm sure you all know, remember, or have been reminded by one news source or another, it's been one year since the big earthquake that actually changed the rotational speed of the earth, and cost so many lives here in Japan.

Strange as it is to say, my life has improved a lot in that year. I've moved into a nice apartment with Michi. We've taken a good number of fun and interesting trips, including the Yarigadake trip. My teaching has gotten a bit better. My salary and working conditions have improved some, even though I'm still at the same company.

I don't really have anything too profound to say about it. Things have improved a lot since last summer, with all the worries about radiation, etc. The radiation is actually still a little scary, and energy and water costs so far this winter have been pretty outrageous. I hope that this coming year goes as well, all things considered, as last year.

Cheers,

Nara Story and Pics

hey all,

The story of Nara goes like this.

I had wanted to check out various places in Nara in 2010, when Brian came and visited me in Japan. However, he was pretty worn out from tramping around Kyoto, and really just wanted to head back to Yokohama and chill. So I didn't get to do any sightseeing that time.

Last year, Michi's parents visited Nara during March and went to see a festival called Omizutori. They gave us a few sprigs of semi-burnt pine branch as souvenirs. Her parents explained what would happen during the festival, most of which I didn't understand too well, but it sounded interesting and Michi was more or less determined to go.

So we booked a really nice ryokan, and started looking up places to see. The festival is held at night, so we got to spend a whole day and a half sightseeing, and of course got to see the festival as well.

Kofukuji's 5 storied pagoda was actually visible from the outdoor hot tub at the ryokan. We got to take in Todaiji, Horyuji, and one other temple whose name I can't remember right now.

Nara is famous for these deer, among other things. They're viewed as messengers from the gods, and are quite tame. In my view, they are really boring creatures. They just stand there in the middle of the streets and sidewalks, waiting for people to give food to them.

Todaiji, which houses the biggest bronze Buddha in Japan, is also the largest wooden building in the world.

In Todaiji, there is this pillar with a hole in it. Those who are able to pass through it are supposed to achieve enlightenment in the next life. So it looks like I'm set.

Some early cherry blossoms at Horyuji with a 5-story in the background.

You might want to view the video I took of part of the ceremony. It is not the most riveting but it does have its moments. I have to apologize for the really annoying Japanese people from Hiroshima that you can hear commenting on everything. I wanted to tell them to shut up, but...


The main "snag" is that I forgot my glove liners and winter hat in the bathroom at Nara as we were waiting for the train to Kyoto (and from thence, by shinkansen to Shinagawa). I don't know if I'll be able to get them back. If not, I'll just have to pick up a new pair of liners and a new winter hat.

Cheers,