hey all,
I had a great weekend. I didn't have to work on Saturday, so I picked up some root beer,chipotle Tabasco sauce, and tea from Kaldi, bought a new shower puff ball, and also two new study books for Japanese. My favorite website, smart.fm, is becoming a paysite soon so I won't be able to use it. I also made a fresh batch of peanut butter, but I do this almost weekly, so it isn't that big a deal.
I studied a little bit of Japanese, played some video games (and decided to sell 3 more games, leaving me with only two), until I went to Tokyo to meet up with Travis. A long island ice tea later, and we were watching Gantz at a nearby theater. Although it probably won't make it to US theaters, should you get the opportunity to see it, don't bother. The manga is much better, and if you haven't read the manga, you won't understand what is going on anyway. If you have read the manga, then you will just be disappointed at the shallow characterization, poor handling of the alien fights, and the disjointed pace at which the movie proceeds.
Sunday, Michi and I came to Yokohama and walked around the Chinatown district. No, there weren't any shootings, strange water shortages, or incestuous relationships (if none of that makes sense, go see Chinatown with Jack Nicholson), but there were some colorful temples, lots of Chinese grocery stores, and some really good Chinese restaurants. We had picked where we were going to eat from the internet before getting there, but we kind of stumbled onto the restaurant while taking in the sights. For 2000 Yen each, we got a bowl of mapo dofu, some sweet and sour pork, fried pork cutlet with chopped greens and jellyfish, a bowl of corn egg-drop soup, and a coconut flavored pudding/jelly of some sort. Everything was delicious, but I think I now have an unhealthy obsession with mapo dofu, because I'm now determined to see if I can make it myself and have it taste like that restaurant's. I've found 3 ingredients that are only listed in some versions of the recipe that I think will be the keys. In particular, there is a pepper-like spice called sansho in Japanese which gives you the weirdest feeling in your mouth, kind of like licking a battery except more pleasant.
The only other things worthy of note are that we now have new shower rooms at my guesthouse, which is nice because the old ones were really bad, and that I should be getting the results from the JLPT (Japanese Language Proficiency Test) in the next two weeks or so.
Cheers,
Sunday, January 30, 2011
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Really?
hey all,
So NHK was actually kinda boring. I guess they are supposed to come back at some point, but they've been in here earlier last week, and I guess from what the other teachers say they've been in here several times in the past. I was expecting a video crew, but it was just one person who came in and took some notes while walking from classroom to classroom. I guess the plan is that they will actually come back soon with a film crew, but I'm not sure why the boss had us prepare and basically script the lessons for just this one person to come in.
In any case, the boss said that the director was impressed by my lesson, so that is good to hear. I think all the lessons went pretty well.
I'd going to confirm this tomorrow, but it sounds like I've been given Saturday off. If this is true, my weekend is going to be amazing. I'll get to sleep in, play video games a little, catch up on my reading, going out with my expat buddies will be easier, etc. What a huge difference 8 hours not at work makes!
Cheers,
So NHK was actually kinda boring. I guess they are supposed to come back at some point, but they've been in here earlier last week, and I guess from what the other teachers say they've been in here several times in the past. I was expecting a video crew, but it was just one person who came in and took some notes while walking from classroom to classroom. I guess the plan is that they will actually come back soon with a film crew, but I'm not sure why the boss had us prepare and basically script the lessons for just this one person to come in.
In any case, the boss said that the director was impressed by my lesson, so that is good to hear. I think all the lessons went pretty well.
I'd going to confirm this tomorrow, but it sounds like I've been given Saturday off. If this is true, my weekend is going to be amazing. I'll get to sleep in, play video games a little, catch up on my reading, going out with my expat buddies will be easier, etc. What a huge difference 8 hours not at work makes!
Cheers,
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Japan, I Take It Back (Kinda)
hey all,
So as some of you might have guessed, I wussed out and went into the bank the other day to pay that health insurance bill. I didn't have to ask anyone to cover for me: as soon as I finished my first lesson in the afternoon, I knew I had a long break and if I hurried I could make it to the bank on time.
So I paid it, and that was that. Or so I thought. I ended up getting about 10 phone calls from someone at my bank, and one of the voice messages explained that they wanted me to come in for some reason. I couldn't really follow all the Japanese, but I understood that much. It turns out that they give me the wrong receipt. To really understand this, here's how most bills work. There are several slips of paper, most often just the same piece of paper that has been perforated into different sections. One of these is for the place where you pay, another is sent on to the payee, and the last is for your own records. Usually, these are similar looking, with almost the same information on them, but differently sized. The slip for the payment I made was three identical (as far as I could tell) pieces of paper. In any case, they gave me the wrong one, which means that the wrong one was sent to the national insurance agency.
Why would this make me want to take back the things I said about the payment system? Well, it really doesn't. What does, is that after I explained that it would probably cost me money and definitely take more time than it was worth for me to come in, one of the bank employees met me at the train station closest to my job (a 2 minute walk), and I passed the receipt on to her. I didn't have to come in to the bank, and I was able to make sure that my lessons were all prepared for. I can't think of a company in the US that would do the same. My credit union in the US is a really unique place, and Moosejaw is a really great company, but I still can't conceive of them making that kind of trip.
In other news (in the near future this will literally be true), NHK, the national broadcasting service of Japan, is going to do another special about my school. The nerve-wracking thing is that it looks like I will be one of the teachers who gets a lot of air time. At least, who actually gets the most air time will depend on which classes perform well, and all that, but still.
In still, other news, I do actually have to work this Saturday, so I'm probably going to hang out with some of my fellow US expat friends Saturday night after work. One of the only nice things about all these Saturday work days is that my paycheck will be very good.
We're in the process of hiring more teachers now (which means that myself and another teacher will not have to take turns working 6 days a week), and two of them seem very good. But a different two are not native speakers, and they would need lots of training and still they might not be able to perform adequately. And then there is another teacher who I haven't seen teach much.
Cheers
So as some of you might have guessed, I wussed out and went into the bank the other day to pay that health insurance bill. I didn't have to ask anyone to cover for me: as soon as I finished my first lesson in the afternoon, I knew I had a long break and if I hurried I could make it to the bank on time.
So I paid it, and that was that. Or so I thought. I ended up getting about 10 phone calls from someone at my bank, and one of the voice messages explained that they wanted me to come in for some reason. I couldn't really follow all the Japanese, but I understood that much. It turns out that they give me the wrong receipt. To really understand this, here's how most bills work. There are several slips of paper, most often just the same piece of paper that has been perforated into different sections. One of these is for the place where you pay, another is sent on to the payee, and the last is for your own records. Usually, these are similar looking, with almost the same information on them, but differently sized. The slip for the payment I made was three identical (as far as I could tell) pieces of paper. In any case, they gave me the wrong one, which means that the wrong one was sent to the national insurance agency.
Why would this make me want to take back the things I said about the payment system? Well, it really doesn't. What does, is that after I explained that it would probably cost me money and definitely take more time than it was worth for me to come in, one of the bank employees met me at the train station closest to my job (a 2 minute walk), and I passed the receipt on to her. I didn't have to come in to the bank, and I was able to make sure that my lessons were all prepared for. I can't think of a company in the US that would do the same. My credit union in the US is a really unique place, and Moosejaw is a really great company, but I still can't conceive of them making that kind of trip.
In other news (in the near future this will literally be true), NHK, the national broadcasting service of Japan, is going to do another special about my school. The nerve-wracking thing is that it looks like I will be one of the teachers who gets a lot of air time. At least, who actually gets the most air time will depend on which classes perform well, and all that, but still.
In still, other news, I do actually have to work this Saturday, so I'm probably going to hang out with some of my fellow US expat friends Saturday night after work. One of the only nice things about all these Saturday work days is that my paycheck will be very good.
We're in the process of hiring more teachers now (which means that myself and another teacher will not have to take turns working 6 days a week), and two of them seem very good. But a different two are not native speakers, and they would need lots of training and still they might not be able to perform adequately. And then there is another teacher who I haven't seen teach much.
Cheers
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Lucky Gods?
hey all,
We visited Kamakura today, and did a tour of the "Seven Lucky Gods." In Japanese mythology, they are:
Each of these gods had a small shrine located at seven larger temples in Kamakura, and we visited each of them. It was a pretty fun day, with some interesting sights, a good lunch, and Michi even found an amazing obi (the belt worn with a kimono) as a gift for her mother.
The punchline is that we had just gotten off the train at Yokohama, when we realized that she had left the bag with the obi on the train. We then spent a bunch of time trying to explain to the station staff exactly what train we had been on, where we had been sitting, and what the package and its contents looked like. And then we spent even more time waiting at the station to see if someone had found it, or turned it in at one of the stops down the line.
I had a good time overall, but I think losing that obi really seemed to make a huge impact on Michi. Afterall, we just visited the each of the seven lucky gods' temples, and then she gets hit by this bad luck? She's convinced that she has to go to one of her god's temples and cleanse herself...
If I'm lucky, I'll have a regular 5 day work week this week, and actually get Saturday and Sunday off.
Cheers,
We visited Kamakura today, and did a tour of the "Seven Lucky Gods." In Japanese mythology, they are:
- Hotei, the fat and happy god of abundance and good health
- Jurōjin, god of longevity
- Fukurokuju, god of happiness, wealth and longevity
- Bishamonten, god of warriors
- Benzaiten (Benten-sama), goddess of knowledge, art and beauty, especially music
- Daikokuten (Daikoku), god of wealth, commerce and trade. Ebisu and Daikoku are often paired and represented as carvings or masks on the walls of small retail shops
- Ebisu, god of fishers or merchants, often depicted carrying a sea bream
Each of these gods had a small shrine located at seven larger temples in Kamakura, and we visited each of them. It was a pretty fun day, with some interesting sights, a good lunch, and Michi even found an amazing obi (the belt worn with a kimono) as a gift for her mother.
The punchline is that we had just gotten off the train at Yokohama, when we realized that she had left the bag with the obi on the train. We then spent a bunch of time trying to explain to the station staff exactly what train we had been on, where we had been sitting, and what the package and its contents looked like. And then we spent even more time waiting at the station to see if someone had found it, or turned it in at one of the stops down the line.
I had a good time overall, but I think losing that obi really seemed to make a huge impact on Michi. Afterall, we just visited the each of the seven lucky gods' temples, and then she gets hit by this bad luck? She's convinced that she has to go to one of her god's temples and cleanse herself...
If I'm lucky, I'll have a regular 5 day work week this week, and actually get Saturday and Sunday off.
Cheers,
Friday, January 21, 2011
6 Days
hey all,
Tomorrow is Saturday, but I'll be at work. Saturday is a monster of a schedule. 9:30~10:20, 10:30~11:20: 11:30~12:40, 1:00~2:00, 2:00~2:30, 3:00~3:50, and 4:00~4:50. As I said, there's not much free time there. If you actually do the math, there is 90 minutes of it, but only 30 minutes of it is stuck together and that is lunch time. The rest of the time is required to get from one class to another, and get materials organized, etc.
The week has gone pretty well so far. As always, it wouldn't be life without the drama, and it seems that especially life at my school seems to abound in it, and there is always private drama.
Probably the best news is that I have gotten one of my problem classes to focus for me using a combination of swamping them with material, being strict, and never giving the answers to their homework questions to them in class. This is the graduating class, and they need disciple and they need to be given as much English and material as they can take, since they'll be leaving and going to Japanese public schools where everything will be in Japanese. My problematic afternoon class has also gotten much easier, since the boss has said to reduce the pace and to be more lenient with them; they are only 3 years old, and they have to sit for 4 hours and write and speak English. By the time I get to them after lunch, they're exhausted. Something cool for me is that I'm building a working Archimedian screw from cardboard discs, duct tape, a pencil, and a plastic pop bottle (I'm a little out of touch on this. Are they called PET bottles in other countries as well, or just in Japan? I can't remember.) I'm currently teaching the kids about Archimedes, and my recent visit to the Da Vinci museum had left me with an urge to build something.
Sunday should be kinda exciting. Michi and I are planning on visiting some temples in a nearby town, drawing some Buddhas and maybe some sutras, and also visiting an island that has an origin story similar to that of Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.
Totally random jibe at Japan: for all that Japan seems to be a country about convenience, I sometimes find myself asking Convenient For Who? I went to a bank recently to try to pay a health insurance bill that was 742 Yen, which is something like $9. Yes, they bothered to send this bill to me, and yes I took a train that cost 120 Yen to get to the bank (and another which cost 120 Yen to get back to work). And they told me that it was after 3PM (it was 3:04, and they had made me wait for 10 minutes), and they couldn't pay the bill because they had to call the ward office of the prefecture where the bill was from in order to confirm the payment. How and when am I supposed to pay this thing? Why should I bother when they are stacking the cards against me this way? The banks don't open at all on Saturday or Sunday, and I can only pay at a bank. Most bills I can take to the convenience store and pay there, quickly and simply, any day at any time. Do they really expect a sane person to take time off of work to pay a 742 Yen bill? There is no option for mailing it in. And as a teacher at a private school, how am I supposed to find someone to cover for me before the afternoon? It could be done, but I'm not going to ask someone to do this so I can waste time and money paying a bill that has been PURPOSEFULLY DESIGNED TO BE DIFFICULT TO PAY.
Phew.
Cheers,
Tomorrow is Saturday, but I'll be at work. Saturday is a monster of a schedule. 9:30~10:20, 10:30~11:20: 11:30~12:40, 1:00~2:00, 2:00~2:30, 3:00~3:50, and 4:00~4:50. As I said, there's not much free time there. If you actually do the math, there is 90 minutes of it, but only 30 minutes of it is stuck together and that is lunch time. The rest of the time is required to get from one class to another, and get materials organized, etc.
The week has gone pretty well so far. As always, it wouldn't be life without the drama, and it seems that especially life at my school seems to abound in it, and there is always private drama.
Probably the best news is that I have gotten one of my problem classes to focus for me using a combination of swamping them with material, being strict, and never giving the answers to their homework questions to them in class. This is the graduating class, and they need disciple and they need to be given as much English and material as they can take, since they'll be leaving and going to Japanese public schools where everything will be in Japanese. My problematic afternoon class has also gotten much easier, since the boss has said to reduce the pace and to be more lenient with them; they are only 3 years old, and they have to sit for 4 hours and write and speak English. By the time I get to them after lunch, they're exhausted. Something cool for me is that I'm building a working Archimedian screw from cardboard discs, duct tape, a pencil, and a plastic pop bottle (I'm a little out of touch on this. Are they called PET bottles in other countries as well, or just in Japan? I can't remember.) I'm currently teaching the kids about Archimedes, and my recent visit to the Da Vinci museum had left me with an urge to build something.
Sunday should be kinda exciting. Michi and I are planning on visiting some temples in a nearby town, drawing some Buddhas and maybe some sutras, and also visiting an island that has an origin story similar to that of Sleeping Bear Dunes in Michigan.
Totally random jibe at Japan: for all that Japan seems to be a country about convenience, I sometimes find myself asking Convenient For Who? I went to a bank recently to try to pay a health insurance bill that was 742 Yen, which is something like $9. Yes, they bothered to send this bill to me, and yes I took a train that cost 120 Yen to get to the bank (and another which cost 120 Yen to get back to work). And they told me that it was after 3PM (it was 3:04, and they had made me wait for 10 minutes), and they couldn't pay the bill because they had to call the ward office of the prefecture where the bill was from in order to confirm the payment. How and when am I supposed to pay this thing? Why should I bother when they are stacking the cards against me this way? The banks don't open at all on Saturday or Sunday, and I can only pay at a bank. Most bills I can take to the convenience store and pay there, quickly and simply, any day at any time. Do they really expect a sane person to take time off of work to pay a 742 Yen bill? There is no option for mailing it in. And as a teacher at a private school, how am I supposed to find someone to cover for me before the afternoon? It could be done, but I'm not going to ask someone to do this so I can waste time and money paying a bill that has been PURPOSEFULLY DESIGNED TO BE DIFFICULT TO PAY.
Phew.
Cheers,
Sunday, January 16, 2011
ahhhh
hey all,
Finally, a nice relaxed weekend. I got to touch base with Bri for the first time since coming back to Japan, made something half way between a chicken chili and a normal soup together with Michi, and watched The Holiday. Yes, it is a chick flick, but I thought it was watchable.
Today, we went over to a gym in Yokohama called Pinnacle rock Climbing. Not a bad place, but very small. It was inside a shopping mall, so actually most of the "customers" were kids who their parents were indulging or keeping busy for an hour of two so mommy and daddy could get some shopping done. Again, not a bad place, but a far cry from the climbing gyms that we usually go to. They also had a lot of gear all by Millet, which seems like a decent company, but everything was so expensive that I couldn't bring myself to even be interested in it. Clothes, most of which were 30% off, were still over $80, and they weren't that amazing. (Their backpacks, on the other hand, seemed nice, but I now have 3 Osprey backpacks: an 18L, 46L, and my new massive 70L. So, I'm kinda set in terms of backpacks. Although, the 46L is getting old, and something in between 18 and 46 would be handy, say, a 28L or 30L, especially something geared towards climbing needs...See what a problem I have when it comes to this? Outdoor gear has definitely replaced my past obsessively collected items of books, CDs, and movies.)
Anyway, we stopped by Yokohama station, which was convenient for Michi, since she had to return to Tokyo, and convenient for me since I live in that general area. I took her to a ramen/tsukemen restaurant, but alas, she was not too impressed. Their ramen is so-so, but their tsukemen is really quite nice: the soup is served boiling hot (literally still bubbling when they set it in front of you), and once it cools, has a thick meaty flavor and consistency which goes well with the noodles. She ordered the ramen.
Tomorrow, I go back to the grindstone. This week will be a long one, as will the next one: Monday through Saturday. One of our Saturday teachers has left, and myself and another teacher have agreed to divide each month's Satudays between us until we can get a replacement. For next month, it looks like I'm actually supposed to be in charge to supervising the new teacher for a few Saturdays, which is kinda a hoot because I still consider myself a new teacher.
Cheers,
Finally, a nice relaxed weekend. I got to touch base with Bri for the first time since coming back to Japan, made something half way between a chicken chili and a normal soup together with Michi, and watched The Holiday. Yes, it is a chick flick, but I thought it was watchable.
Today, we went over to a gym in Yokohama called Pinnacle rock Climbing. Not a bad place, but very small. It was inside a shopping mall, so actually most of the "customers" were kids who their parents were indulging or keeping busy for an hour of two so mommy and daddy could get some shopping done. Again, not a bad place, but a far cry from the climbing gyms that we usually go to. They also had a lot of gear all by Millet, which seems like a decent company, but everything was so expensive that I couldn't bring myself to even be interested in it. Clothes, most of which were 30% off, were still over $80, and they weren't that amazing. (Their backpacks, on the other hand, seemed nice, but I now have 3 Osprey backpacks: an 18L, 46L, and my new massive 70L. So, I'm kinda set in terms of backpacks. Although, the 46L is getting old, and something in between 18 and 46 would be handy, say, a 28L or 30L, especially something geared towards climbing needs...See what a problem I have when it comes to this? Outdoor gear has definitely replaced my past obsessively collected items of books, CDs, and movies.)
Anyway, we stopped by Yokohama station, which was convenient for Michi, since she had to return to Tokyo, and convenient for me since I live in that general area. I took her to a ramen/tsukemen restaurant, but alas, she was not too impressed. Their ramen is so-so, but their tsukemen is really quite nice: the soup is served boiling hot (literally still bubbling when they set it in front of you), and once it cools, has a thick meaty flavor and consistency which goes well with the noodles. She ordered the ramen.
Tomorrow, I go back to the grindstone. This week will be a long one, as will the next one: Monday through Saturday. One of our Saturday teachers has left, and myself and another teacher have agreed to divide each month's Satudays between us until we can get a replacement. For next month, it looks like I'm actually supposed to be in charge to supervising the new teacher for a few Saturdays, which is kinda a hoot because I still consider myself a new teacher.
Cheers,
Saturday, January 15, 2011
More Drama
hey all,
Work is going pretty well. As I mentioned, there's been a bit of drama what with one teacher leaving (a Saturday only teacher), and other teacher just leaving unannounced. I guess this is what tends to happen at this school a lot. Because the expectations of the parents and the boss are so high, there is a lot of stress and pressure to perform. At the same time, I think both the parents, other teachers, my boss, and the kids appreciate a teacher who tries their best.
There's some additional drama that I can't get into here, but for the most part things are going well.
This weekend I'll actually be relaxing.
Cheers,
Work is going pretty well. As I mentioned, there's been a bit of drama what with one teacher leaving (a Saturday only teacher), and other teacher just leaving unannounced. I guess this is what tends to happen at this school a lot. Because the expectations of the parents and the boss are so high, there is a lot of stress and pressure to perform. At the same time, I think both the parents, other teachers, my boss, and the kids appreciate a teacher who tries their best.
There's some additional drama that I can't get into here, but for the most part things are going well.
This weekend I'll actually be relaxing.
Cheers,
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