hey all,
I was able to check out the guest house near my new job after work yesterday. While talking to the teacher I'm replacing, I learned that if I move in there, I'll actually be moving into his old building.
The place seemed nice enough. To be honest, it is a little old, and a little dirty. But it will be temporary. That is the point of "guest houses:" they are places that you only have to put up with for a certain period of time. And I'm hoping that my period of time will be up next March.
The room does boast several benefits. First, it is larger than my current room. It has a massive 2 layer closet, which will probably be taken up by my suitcase, tent, sleeping bag, climbing gear, and assorted goodies. It has its own refrigerator: a model similar to the one I had in college with an real freezer compartment, and not just the little ineffective icebox thingy. And since the teacher I'm replacing lived there, it is close to my job. Probably about 30 minutes by walking, and he claims 10 minutes by bike, but that seems like taking a scenic route at a leisurely pace.
I'm going through reserving it, and planning my move for the weeks ahead.
However, the agent from the guest house in Shinkawasaki that I looked at earlier has been a little too persistent in trying to get me to move into one of his company's buildings. I keep telling him that I've been looking at a place which has a larger room than the ones he's showing me, is closer than any of the buildings he's suggested, and is cheaper as well. But he can't take the hint.
Anyway, today was supposed to be part of an outdoor rock climbing trip, but the weather has interfered and instead of a two day trip, it has been reduced to a day trip instead. We're heading out bright and early tomorrow morning and going to one of our favorite spots: Makuyama Park in Yugawara.
Some good news is that Michi and I went indoor rock climbing briefly today to make sure my shoulder was up to it, and I think I should be fine. I've got a little bit of soreness, but nothing like the shooting/jolting pain when I injured it swimming.
Cheers,
Sunday, October 10, 2010
Friday, October 08, 2010
British English, Finally Over
hey all,
I've finally said good bye to all of my schools. As much as I didn't like a few of the teachers, or teaching some of the rude or loud classes, for the most part the students and teachers were really good and fun working with. So I've been feeling a bit down the last few days saying good bye to all of them.
Something that has been bugging me as an English teacher is that British people are also allowed to teach English. They often get higher pay in fact, as there are some schools which only specialize in British English. But there are a lot of things just wrong with British English. For example, the headline here. They do this with "committee" and "government," as well: treat a morphologically, semantically, and syntactically singular noun as a plural, which changes the conjugation on the verb.
And of course, they say things like "I'm going to go to hospital." I try to look at this as an extension of "go to work" and "go to school" and even stranger "go home" (No preposition and no determiner!!?!). But still, it seems oddball.
No rest for the weary.
Cheers,
I've finally said good bye to all of my schools. As much as I didn't like a few of the teachers, or teaching some of the rude or loud classes, for the most part the students and teachers were really good and fun working with. So I've been feeling a bit down the last few days saying good bye to all of them.
Something that has been bugging me as an English teacher is that British people are also allowed to teach English. They often get higher pay in fact, as there are some schools which only specialize in British English. But there are a lot of things just wrong with British English. For example, the headline here. They do this with "committee" and "government," as well: treat a morphologically, semantically, and syntactically singular noun as a plural, which changes the conjugation on the verb.
And of course, they say things like "I'm going to go to hospital." I try to look at this as an extension of "go to work" and "go to school" and even stranger "go home" (No preposition and no determiner!!?!). But still, it seems oddball.
No rest for the weary.
Cheers,
Thursday, October 07, 2010
Almost Over/Beginning
hey all,
I'm in the process of saying good bye to my schools. Yesterday I said good bye to my least favorite school, today I said good bye to the school with the high tech which usually lets me go early, and tomorrow I say good bye to my second favorite school.
Saturday I go in to my new job and do more observing, training, and practicing. After that, I have an appointment to check out a guest house within walking distance of the school.
Sunday and Monday are rock climbing, and then Tuesday through Saturday I go back to my new school.
Something random I ran across is the picture below. It is a keyboard for typing Japanese developed by Google. Apparently, the way you type is like playing the drums, and there are also pedals which you can't see in the picture below.
Cheers,
I'm in the process of saying good bye to my schools. Yesterday I said good bye to my least favorite school, today I said good bye to the school with the high tech which usually lets me go early, and tomorrow I say good bye to my second favorite school.
Saturday I go in to my new job and do more observing, training, and practicing. After that, I have an appointment to check out a guest house within walking distance of the school.
Sunday and Monday are rock climbing, and then Tuesday through Saturday I go back to my new school.
Something random I ran across is the picture below. It is a keyboard for typing Japanese developed by Google. Apparently, the way you type is like playing the drums, and there are also pedals which you can't see in the picture below.
Cheers,
Monday, October 04, 2010
Belated
hey all,
Above is a belated video from my Golden week camping/climbing trip (early May 2010).
Sunday, October 03, 2010
More Ughishness
hey all,
I got back a while ago from checking out the guesthouse in Shinkawasaki, and it seemed really nice. The area seemed OK, but there weren't really any stores or anything: no big shopping complexes by the station like I've come to expect in most Japanese cities. The building itself was pretty good: clean, well-maintained, new, and the people seemed pretty friendly.
I decided I'd sign an application for them, but they called later today saying that I hadn't passed their application process, but they'd still like to give me the room, as long as I'd pay double the deposit. Well, the building is nice, but it isn't that nice, and especially given that there were no stores around, it doesn't seem like it is worth it. Even with their promises the I'll get the money back when I move out. I don't really care. I'm not handing over that much money to even a reputable company like that housing firm.
So, I started up the process of looking again, and I've come up with at least one place that is closer to my job, and might offer more in the way of stores, etc. The rent is also cheaper, but we'll see how things go.
More actual good news is that my arm is almost back to normal. I'm still getting some twinges of pain every now and then, but the pain and the grinding have greatly lessened. I decided I'd see what my rock climbing training book had to say about shoulder injuries, and I've been doing several reps of two simple exercises everyday. Combined with the shot I received, it seems like I should be back to rock climbing soon. The ugh part here is that the exercises look unfortunately like you're practicing for seppuku. Yes, the ritual slitting open of one's belly following a disgrace.
Cheers,
I got back a while ago from checking out the guesthouse in Shinkawasaki, and it seemed really nice. The area seemed OK, but there weren't really any stores or anything: no big shopping complexes by the station like I've come to expect in most Japanese cities. The building itself was pretty good: clean, well-maintained, new, and the people seemed pretty friendly.
I decided I'd sign an application for them, but they called later today saying that I hadn't passed their application process, but they'd still like to give me the room, as long as I'd pay double the deposit. Well, the building is nice, but it isn't that nice, and especially given that there were no stores around, it doesn't seem like it is worth it. Even with their promises the I'll get the money back when I move out. I don't really care. I'm not handing over that much money to even a reputable company like that housing firm.
So, I started up the process of looking again, and I've come up with at least one place that is closer to my job, and might offer more in the way of stores, etc. The rent is also cheaper, but we'll see how things go.
More actual good news is that my arm is almost back to normal. I'm still getting some twinges of pain every now and then, but the pain and the grinding have greatly lessened. I decided I'd see what my rock climbing training book had to say about shoulder injuries, and I've been doing several reps of two simple exercises everyday. Combined with the shot I received, it seems like I should be back to rock climbing soon. The ugh part here is that the exercises look unfortunately like you're practicing for seppuku. Yes, the ritual slitting open of one's belly following a disgrace.
Cheers,
Saturday, October 02, 2010
Better
hey all,
So today was a much better day than yesterday. I stayed with the class that I taught the first time I came in to demo teach, not the little hellions that I had yesterday.
The class went really smoothly, for the most part, and I also brought a lunch today since I was expecting to be there for a long time. They actually let me go early, which was excellent, but I do have to come back in next Saturday.
And then, of course, the Monday after that I start teaching for real.
I've got my last five days of work at my old company, and I'm in a little quandary as to how to pay for my last school lunches. As far as I know, my schools don't know that I'm leaving, and my company has asked me not to tell them. (My guess is that they want to find a replacement first, and then inform the schools, but still. If they can't find one, then they still have to explain at some point that I've quit.) But I normally pay for school lunches at the end of the month. So, how do I insist on paying for one or two days worth of school lunch before the end of the month, without cluing them in that I'm leaving?
One piece of random news I ran across is about squatters in Amsterdam. This is been legal for many, many years, but apparently a new law has made it illegal. In my own experience, even when I was living in Amsterdam two years ago, the Dutch police still evicted squatters from several buildings, despite it being legal to squat. So what gives? Now that it is illegal to squat will the police stop evicting people? The Dutch have an infamously negative attitude towards their police. I wonder what will happen now that the police have to evict people from their homes. There's already been news of riots in Amsterdam.
One last bit of commentary. Now that I'm commuting a pretty decent distance to work (from Eastern Tokyo down to central Yokohama), I get to read the announcements on the train LED boards as I ride. It seems like everyday, there is some train that is delayed because of 人事故 or "human accident," the euphemism for someone jumping in front of a train. I know I've mentioned it before: Japan has half the population of the US, but the same number of people commit suicide in each country, i.e., the suicide rate in Japan is double that of the US. When I've spoken with one of my Taiwanese housemates, he has also mentioned that Taiwan has a very high suicide rate. Recently, even the Prime Minister of Japan (Mr. Kan) has announced his intention to create a government group to look into the problem. Aside from costing the country a lot in terms of human life, the economy, etc, it isn't really something you want your country to be famous for. "Yeah, more people kill themselves per capita than in any other post-industrial country in the world."
Cheers,
So today was a much better day than yesterday. I stayed with the class that I taught the first time I came in to demo teach, not the little hellions that I had yesterday.
The class went really smoothly, for the most part, and I also brought a lunch today since I was expecting to be there for a long time. They actually let me go early, which was excellent, but I do have to come back in next Saturday.
And then, of course, the Monday after that I start teaching for real.
I've got my last five days of work at my old company, and I'm in a little quandary as to how to pay for my last school lunches. As far as I know, my schools don't know that I'm leaving, and my company has asked me not to tell them. (My guess is that they want to find a replacement first, and then inform the schools, but still. If they can't find one, then they still have to explain at some point that I've quit.) But I normally pay for school lunches at the end of the month. So, how do I insist on paying for one or two days worth of school lunch before the end of the month, without cluing them in that I'm leaving?
One piece of random news I ran across is about squatters in Amsterdam. This is been legal for many, many years, but apparently a new law has made it illegal. In my own experience, even when I was living in Amsterdam two years ago, the Dutch police still evicted squatters from several buildings, despite it being legal to squat. So what gives? Now that it is illegal to squat will the police stop evicting people? The Dutch have an infamously negative attitude towards their police. I wonder what will happen now that the police have to evict people from their homes. There's already been news of riots in Amsterdam.
One last bit of commentary. Now that I'm commuting a pretty decent distance to work (from Eastern Tokyo down to central Yokohama), I get to read the announcements on the train LED boards as I ride. It seems like everyday, there is some train that is delayed because of 人事故 or "human accident," the euphemism for someone jumping in front of a train. I know I've mentioned it before: Japan has half the population of the US, but the same number of people commit suicide in each country, i.e., the suicide rate in Japan is double that of the US. When I've spoken with one of my Taiwanese housemates, he has also mentioned that Taiwan has a very high suicide rate. Recently, even the Prime Minister of Japan (Mr. Kan) has announced his intention to create a government group to look into the problem. Aside from costing the country a lot in terms of human life, the economy, etc, it isn't really something you want your country to be famous for. "Yeah, more people kill themselves per capita than in any other post-industrial country in the world."
Cheers,
Friday, October 01, 2010
Ugh
hey all,
What a brutal and grueling day. The last time I went into the school, I came in expecting to teach. But this time, I came in expecting to talk about what I'd be teaching the week after next, and ended up teaching from 9:30 until 19:00. "I'd like you to come in and talk about your teaching schedule" doesn't really send the message or have the meaning of "You'll be teaching for the better part of 10 hours today."
Despite the mis-communication, things went OK. At least, the first several hours were grueling, because they were spent trying to teach the youngest regular students: from 2 to 3 years old. But after the regular classes finished, I got to eat lunch and prepare for 3 rounds of private lessons, all of which went pretty decently.
The major ugh part is that I'll be going back tomorrow, even though I promised to meet Michi. I might still be able to meet her, but it looks to be another relatively full day. I really need to get this school's teaching style down, as I only have a short time before I have to teach classes by myself.
It's is already a bit late and I'm going to eat dinner.
Cheers,
What a brutal and grueling day. The last time I went into the school, I came in expecting to teach. But this time, I came in expecting to talk about what I'd be teaching the week after next, and ended up teaching from 9:30 until 19:00. "I'd like you to come in and talk about your teaching schedule" doesn't really send the message or have the meaning of "You'll be teaching for the better part of 10 hours today."
Despite the mis-communication, things went OK. At least, the first several hours were grueling, because they were spent trying to teach the youngest regular students: from 2 to 3 years old. But after the regular classes finished, I got to eat lunch and prepare for 3 rounds of private lessons, all of which went pretty decently.
The major ugh part is that I'll be going back tomorrow, even though I promised to meet Michi. I might still be able to meet her, but it looks to be another relatively full day. I really need to get this school's teaching style down, as I only have a short time before I have to teach classes by myself.
It's is already a bit late and I'm going to eat dinner.
Cheers,
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