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,
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Sunday, May 27, 2012
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,
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.
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,
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
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,
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,
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
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,
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,
Wednesday, May 09, 2012
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,
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,
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,
Monday, May 07, 2012
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.
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.
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,
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,
Sunday, May 06, 2012
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,
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,
Thursday, May 03, 2012
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,
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,
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
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,
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,
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