I am the most popular ALT!

On a drowsy feeling Saturday, I went shopping with a friend and our plan was to meet a bunch of other ALTs for a 4th of July BBQ and fireworks. We made it to the park and the day seemed to get more and more tiring and awkward since there was no food or fireworks, something we were promised. Eventually, we started playing frisbee. I was in the middle of a horrible frisbee toss when I hear a group of people scream "JUNI!!!". I turned around and it was one of my Ichiko classes. 40 students coming right at me. It seems that they were all together to celebrate their victory in the Sports Festival and came to the park to light fireworks. This was luckily one of my favorite classes. Any other class would have been much more quiet and awkward. It started to downpour on everyone so the big group of drinking foreigners were mixed in with my students. I got to have so much fun talking with my students and so many of them were saying how much they would miss me and how they don't want me to leave. I felt so lucky with a little too much pride as the other ALTs saw how my students gush over me and how freakin' brilliant they are with their English. Even after the rain stopped, the kids stuck around to light their fireworks so I know that they weren't haging out because they were stuck. I was light on my feet the entire evening knowing that I would be missed in my school.

Sports Festival!

3 days of no study and all play.

Around this beautiful time in June, students finish their vigerous exams and get to rest their brains with an all school Sports Competition. Softball, Badminton, Volleyball, Basketball, Dodgeball, Handball, and soccer are the games of choice. Being a teacher in Ichiko the number of female teachers to make up the female teacher team is quite slim. But this year, we managed to win at Badminton and Softball and win second in Soccer. I was goalie. I hate running. I had so much fun since the students would all be so happy to talk to me. I was having conversations with students the whole time. I felt the love. English, Japanese, they didn't care what language, but they were so willing to take their time to talk with me and I really enjoyed their company since they didn't have the reigns of education tugging on them. Last year, I only got to see one day. I'm so glad I got to experience beginning to the end. My body aches from so much fun.

My First Last Day

Yesterday I got a glimpse of what life will feel like in a couple of weeks. Yesterday and the friday before it, I made my way to another school, Matsuzono Yogo, a school that I visit for about two days while Ichiko has tests. So guess I've been to this school a total of 16 times in two years. But each time I go, I always leave with good memories. The initial smell of the school reminds me of tatami in the winter. The staff room always welcomes me with bright OHAYO GOZAIMASU. The kids in the first lesson are always incredibly shy, but by the end of the day, they are peeking into the staff room to get a HELLO from me. They like me. They want to talk to me. It's a very obvious affection which is what makes me love this school. After leaving Matsuzono Yogo, knowing that I wouldn't come back, it really bummed out my evening. If a school that I have only been to 16 times makes me so depressed, I'm worried about Mo Gakko and Ichiko where I've invested so much more time and effort. It's going to be a depressing three weeks.

Beer Party!

So, Ron and I promised ourselves that we wouldn't drink until after the Japanese test...but there are always exceptions to the rules.

Yesterday we met with my co worker, her husband, and his parents for a beer party. We have a local brewery in our city and once a month they hold a beer party in a local restaurant. 4000 yen will get you 6 courses of delicious food and at least 4 types of local and imported beers. We had our first encounter two months ago and we were looking forward to going again. So we spent the evening drinking with this new family and Ron and I were so tickled by all the cuteness of love that surrounded us. My coworker and her husband and his parents regained my faith in affection in Japan. The way they looked at each other and the soft touches I noticed the father giving his wife was so adorable, my cheeks hurt from all the smiling. They raved all night about their hometown an hour away from Morioka, which is renown for their onsen, so we made a date with all of them to have a last "onsen hurrah" the day before we leave.

I wish you could taste these pictures!

English Club Cooking

So after feeling huge guilt for not being an active part of English Club last year, I decided to go full force this year. Last year, they never really asked me to set anything up for them and I didn't want to intrude if they had study time. But I did make an awesome Halloween party and nade it to their end-of-the-year banquet, so I got some points there. This year, I get one day a week to do conversation practice with them. The past couple of times have been fun as we tried to get some short conversation out of this ridiculously shy group of girls.

The most fun though, has been the two cooking classes we had, the most recent being yesterday. Last month we made "American style" pancakes, which just meant making pancakes but with chocolate chips, sprinkles, and nuts in them. These girls love sweet food and gobbled it up. Then yesterday I decided to make Tacos, something these students will hardly get a chance to eat. So, I went to our local foreign food market and got a really expensive taco making set. Expensive because of the fact that imported prices are crazy up here. But they got to eat avocado flavored chips for a snack and each of them had a taco-making job and at the end, we made an assembly line of taco making. I could see the happiness in their faces. They were quite shocked with the meat oil dripping from the taco and freaked out when it got all over their hands. I just told them that "eating tacos is very messy." It was also really funny to see them contemplate how to eat the tacos since there isn't much Japanese food that required the tilting of the head. I had a great time. I gave them the recipe in English and sent them off as I heard "oishii katta" and "onaka ga ippai" exit through the doors.

Our Old Man

Ron wrote about this on his own blog, but I thought that I would write the translated version. About a month ago we went to the local bath house since our bath tub decided to turn off the hot water...again. So as I was showering up on the girls side, I heard the voice of Ron on the other side, not surprisingly talking to a Japanese man. Ron always comments about hating the foreigner attention when he is naked. So as Ron and I meet outside, he tells me that this man wants to take us out to sushi. He is a man over 70, whose wife is in the hospital and he as no children. So we decided to go on an adventure and hang out with this old man. We went with him to the sushi place and he destroyed us with the drinking. Beer and sochu were coming at every direction while plates of sashimi, katsu, and tempura were also being forced down our throats. We could barely walk back home, but we figured that our company made this man very happy. End of the story...so we thought.

About a week ago, Ron and I went to our donut shop to try and get some quality studying since we had been recently lagging. A phone call comes and it is our old man. He stops by the donut store and begins to talk with us (good Japanese practice?) When we get the chance to leave he insists of buying us some donuts, which we tried so hard to politely pass on. Finally when we tell him, "OK, 1 ko" He says "no no no 5 ko." We tell him that 5 will make us fat and he says "Don't worry, we will also buy fruit." So after buying us 5 donuts, we guiltily follow him to the grocery store where he buys us tangerines, cherries, and watermelon. I'm sure he would have bought us more if we weren't whining so much. Ron and I were feeling really bad about this until at the check out stand our old man goes to the check out lady and says,

"Do you see them? They are foreigners. They are my friends."

And the biggest smile was on his face. So I guess buying our company makes him feel good and he's not a bad guy. We have a tonkatsu date with him on Friday. Luckily, since that drinking night we've decided to give up drinking for the test. Hopefully, he takes our polite rejection for the real thing. NO MORE SOCHU!

Whatever happened to studying?

We had a busy weekend. Friday was finishing work, then meeting up with our ~married friends~ for some wedding sharing time. All their friends and our friends are single or dating, so no one but us is really interested in seeing wedding pictures and wedding videos. Besides, since they can speak only limited English and we speak barely speakable Japanese, connecting through pictures seemed very beneficial for our relationship. On Saturday, Ron had a business pow wow with a friend while I strolled the train station doing some errunds and window shopping, something I don't often so and miss so very much. We met back up and went to the next town to have a big family dinner with Ron's boss/priest agent's family. We enjoyed good company and good food and I remembered why children are so adorable. I should mention that it was a big family gathering with little 3 year olds running all over the place. I enjoyed the company of the cutest little 8 year old.

Then Sunday, we woke up bright and early to go to Ron's baseball game. He played in the later half as left field and did a very good job. He even caught a fly ball to get the batter out. We returned home, put on some nice clothes and then make our way to a little chapel where Ron donned the outfit to make him a "priest." I had weird thoughts of it before, but if they are going to hire foreigners to do this anyway, it should at least be someone who has been married and does believe in the faith. It's better than some random guy that hasn't even gone through the motions himself. That's what I figure. I was in the sound room during this time and Ron did great. I can tell he was a bit nervous, especilly when the couple decided that walking in with their 10 month old baby and holding him during the service would be a good idea. It kinda kills the romantic notions of the TWO people. But, it was their wedding. But the baby cried...and cried...and cried... and Ron did not falter. He says he did, but it wasn't big enough to matter. He did great!



We came home and then off to the next event, matchmaking a date between Ron's baseball buddy and a foreign friend we know. We slipped out to our married friends of the meeting and they decided to come too. But we had a great time. Us, not the matchmade couple. They didn't talk to each other much. But Ron and I had a great time and although we were busy and couldn't study much, I think 3 nights of constant Japanese dialogue works just the same.

It's really difficult to capture into pictures what has been happening recently, but since it has been fairly busy, perhaps my descriptions will be just as colorful.

Ron will start his marriage duties this weekend. It's been a long awaited process and finally he can start. There was a bit of drama at one point. Ron's boss/agent Joe was able to find Ron a steady church and we were thrilled with the news. However, he called us a couple days later and told us that the company that the church uses to find priests are trying to take money from the church and the priests and putting it into their own pocket. I guess being Japanese, stealing from the church doesn't seem too life-condemning. If Ron took the job, it would be steady income until we left, however Joe would not get rightfully paid and the man whose church it is would also not get his rightful share. In addition to the crazy web one action creates to another, Ron settling for a lesser pay would also give other companies the idea to give their priests less money. After thinking about it, it was simple that the solution was to not commit to the offer unless Ron, Joe, and the church was getting the money that is deserved. The meeting is next monday and we aren't sure what the outcome will be.

Other than that, we've been enjoying the slower pace of staying in town for the weekends. With no more destinations to fulfill and Japanese study on the brain, we have been staying in, however many friends have been pulling us out to have nights out, keeping us for our desire to study but not enough of a desire to reject the invitation. We've also dedicated sleeping an hour earlier in order to get up earlier to exercise. That in turn creates and even more difficult time schedule to do study, eat, bath, relax, and such. 6 hours seems like a lot, but it really isn't.

The other night on a Wednesday, we were treated to sushi by this old man that Ron met at the bath. Ron was telling me the sad story of this lonely man with no children whose wife was in the hospital and who wanted to take us out to sushi. On the day of, this old man took us to his favorite sushi place and drank us under the table. Beer and sochu was all over the place and after a while so were we. Good thing Ron had nothing to do the next day. But for me, I slowly awoke from my drunken stupor and trudged my bicycle to work. As I was getting there, a student on his bike didn't see me and we crashed and I fell to the ground. It didn't help the headache.

Only at Ichiko

An example that my students are so smart that it's funny.

I asked two of my students whom I've just finished a class with how much English they understood in class. They took a couple minutes to think about it and then said... four-fifths.

Happy Halloween!

I just finished my school's Halloween Party. This was quite a large feat since I had never planned a party before. Plus, making a party for about 1,000 students in a 30 minute time period. This past month has been pretty busy with making decorations, costumes, and other Halloweeny things. But it was worth it. The party was a big success. I also had to teach 4 classes that day which didn't help my stress, but with some lucky breaks before the party and super helpful students, it was flawless. Once lunch time started, kids just started spewing into the classroom. We had a Candy Jar guessing game, a voodoo game and a bobbing (fishing-it's cleaner) for apples game. We gave out some prizes and students all left with a little bit of American culture. One of my teachers even came in and offered some of his own candy for me to share with the kids. My English Club especially seemed to have a great time and I think that this will be a good memory for Ichi-ko students. It's one of my favorites.

We climbed Mount Iwate!

My legs are so sore. So much in fact that it takes me 10 seconds to get up from the floor and another 10 seconds to return back down. Yesterday, Ron and I came back from the largest mountain in Iwate (hence, Mount Iwate). It is about 2,500 meters high. On Saturday we hiked uphill for three hours. About 2, 000 feet. We slept over with 30 other foreigners in a small hut. The following morning after no one could sleep because of the blustering wind, we awoke at four in the morning to climb an hour and a half more to the top. It was very cold and we couldn't see the sun rise, but just knowing I was at the top was enough for me. Then the rest was "easy". Just five more hours descending and ascending three mountains until we got to the other side. The grand prize of it all was a hot onsen waiting to relieve out tired tootsies. I was very proud making such a trip. I was even in the "fast" group. Although I can safely say that I will not do that again. I'm glad that I did it at least once. Ron... I'm sure could do it again and again. I am not that strong.

I think we've skipped a season

After living here a year, I am calm with the fact that there are few surprises in Japan now. I know when the Yakitori car goes in front of our supermarket (tuesdays). I know when tofu goes on sale (wednesdays) and I can plan our travels knowing when I can and can't take off work. Although I enjoy the surprises in life, there is something safe knowing that where you live, you know some secrets.

However in good ol' humorous form, the world throws us for a loop. After a sweltering summer that took a little long to come and left all too shortly. Now, I wake up in the morning and a see my breath. I leave to work wearing a scarf and mittens. At night, Ron and I bundle in our warmest clothes and thickest blanket. The heater and the electric blanket are already out. Did I mention this is September and last year we didn't feel this cold until November?

I was told that last year was a very mild winter. Apparently -15 degrees C is mild. I guess this year will be a bit rougher, starting with the short, near skipped altogether autumn.

I miss T-shirts.

My School Festival

My school has just finished their school festival, one of the best parts of a school year. Last year, I experienced the school festival, but since I was only at the school for a month and had not started teaching, I knew none of the students. It was a lot of wandering around, not knowing where to go, and all these faces that knew me, but who I didn't know. This year was much better. Not only did I know what a school festival actually was, but I was constantly pulled into different rooms and booths since my students wanted my attention and to see their handiwork. They probably wanted me to spend money on their booth, but in my eyes, they really wanted my attention.

A Blind Mistake! Part II

The week following last at Mougakkou (School for the Blind).

There is a service for all the students and some teachers called "Teishoku", which is going to the students' dormitories and eating lunch there. For a well-prepared lunch for ￥300, I couldn't refuse. So today, I started eating lunch with the students. First, I had to wait with my supervisor teacher for the senior high students so we can walk them to the dormitories. I introduced myself to all the students that I haven't met and gave them some English practice. Then Junior high started to make their way out. There was one girl who seemed shy at first, but slowly made her way over to me. It was obvious that she was fully blind so I came up to her and offered my hand. She took both my hands and started to grip really tight.

No problem.

Then she started scratching my palms while she was holding my hand.

No big deal, I thought it was to feel the lines in my hands or something.

Then... too quickly, she lets go of my hands, grabs the bottom of my shirt, and tugged down...really hard. So hard it left my pink bra exposed in front of the students and my fully-seeing male supervisor.

I was later told that this student suffers from a disability where she can't control her movements of her feelings. I soon saw her in the cafeteria subdued by three teachers as she grabbed a handful of rice and started to shake the rice everywhere. Hopefully this was just a bad day for her. I couldn't imagine her going through this everyday. Needless to say, however shocking that experience was, it didn't feel that embarrasing. Maybe I'm getting used to embarrasing things happening to me at my school.

A Blind Mistake!

During my 25 years of life I have taught a number of different people; from toddlers, elementary age, high school, to adults and the elderly. I've worked with the very sick, and those that are physically, mentally, and emotionally disabled. I feel that I have a pretty good range so far. However now, every Wednesday, I work at the School for the Blind. It's a whole new experience for　me. I don't think that I've ever really met blind people. But I looked forward to the experience, knowing that the best I could do was treat them as if nothing is different.

My class at the end of the day was a class of 6 of adult students learning acupuncture (isn't that cool?!) I gave my introduction and the team teacher asked if I could ask each person a different question to get to know them. As I was trying to think of questions, my mind was racing as to find good, personal questions that did not deal with seeing, fashion, movies, and vacations. Since I am not a person who can multi-task, I ended us asking one student the worse possible question I could ever imagine to ask.

...What is your favorite color?...

By the time this processed as completely wrong, my teacher already hesitantly translated it in Japanese. It got quiet for a little while and then the student graciously answered,

"My favoite color is black and white."

I could not feel more of a horrible person. In my defense, there are various levels of seers. Some of them are completely blind, some need technical resources, others are legally blind, but can see colors. Since this girls looked like there was nothing to really aide her, I made the mistake of assuming she could at least see color. Rookie mistake! Never again. At least I can look back at that moment after I'm done with this school and hopefully see how much more sensitive and understanding I have become.

I hope, I hope, I hope.

A Whole New Start

As of the first of September (unintentionally, it just worked out this great) 3 major things have started that give Ron and I all new things to work hard for together.

1. Ron's New Job- Ron has taken out his last bag of garbage, and mopped his last floor. He has left his Senior Center job, due to the work constantly changing his schedule without talking to him about it. Luckily we were able to find another job... Teaching, yet again. However, Ron gets to work a third of the hours he did at Kurumi and more the same amount of money. He now works for the Morioka School of Business, a trade school where various college-aged students learn beauty, hotel or restaurant management. So far, Ron works three days a week for 2-4 hours a day. We are hoping for additional hours as time progresses.

2. P90X- Thanks to our Choseph, Ron and I are in possession of a butt-kicking workout video. This has made us feel so sore this week, but it's a sore, we haven't felt in a long time, and we are enjoying it. We have also been currently enjoying Vegetable Sandwiches for dinner, and Chicken Soup for dinner. Nabe (soup) season is coming, and Ron and I are more than excited.

3. 勉強- Since my family was here and left and right I was being pummeled with having to translate and explain things that I should know, but couldn't say, I've started to feel a little more motivated for Japanese. Luckily, I have a great motivation coach, and we are trying to spend more time studying. Since Ron has his time freed up, he also gets more time with his studying.

Lots of goals for us.

The Coolest Thing I have ever seen

I am a lucky ALT.

First, I get placed in Tohoku, where the traditional spirit of Japan still lives without being tainted with too much modernity. Then I am put in one of their largest cities that saves me the sanity of having to go tens of kilometers just to get face cream or avocados. Then, I am based in the highest academic school in the city, nay, the entire prefecture. These students are motivated and have a purpose for themselves. I can speak in a slower, but still natural way and these kids are smart enough to catch on and understand what I'm trying to get at.

Now I'm almost done with my boasting.

In the schools in Japan they have what's called an Undoukai (運動会）which is a competition day. A day of various relays with different teams. There are tug of wars, class jumproping, a "Capture the Flag" sort of thing, and running relays. It's a day where students can stop thinking about their studies and just enjoy themselves. Well, this in itself is a great event to watch, but my school, Ichi-ko takes it one hilarious step forward.

Since the beginning of the new school year, the first year students have gone through an intensive month long initiation. Since Ichi-ko is the oldest school in the area and is killer hard to get it, they are allowed to do this. So, since the first day, the first years have after school activities of learning the 10 school songs overnight and then singing to the top of their lungs in a group while the second and third years taunt them like Boot Camp. Students are losing their voices, getting sick, throwing up. It's a bit ruthless. After the two weeks of memorizing the songs, they then learn a dance to prepare for the Undokai. Girls and boys learn separate dances. Then a couple days before the festival, I noticed that many of the boys started to wear school scarves on their heads. I figure it was a part of school spirit. Apparently, the senior students take a hair razor to the boy students. Zing! Zing! Zing! With only patches of hair gone. The day before the festival, I go outside of the school and my boy students are painted up in red and blue paint with grass skirts on. The girls are wearing decorated smocks to look like Japanese Kindergardeners. On this day, they have to walk 10 km around the city and do their dance for anyone who will watch. I tagged along. It was crazy. Not only did the first years have to dance, but the second and third years also dressed up, but in cuter outfits. There was crazy cross-dressing goin on.

Then the day of the festival, the games were ruthless, but everyone's spirit shone crazy bright. I myself dressed up like a Kindergardener and another teacher and I crashed the girls dance and started to dance along with them in front of the school. Once my students realized it was me, there was an insane roar of cheering. I felt so proud and popular. I guess they do like me.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kC2PacfQqL8
By the end of the day, I was completely bubbling up with joy. Apparently, no other school goes to the lengths of Ichi-ko for their Undokai. I felt so blessed to be a part of this school and enjoy their activities. I'm so glad I'm staying longer.

A New Season

With the start of April, I can see why spring has that essence of new beginnings. Even in our own lives, we have experienced a multitude of things that brings us to a brand new place. Within a month, the snow has completely melted, new flowers have bloomed, there are birds chirping in the early morning, Ron has started his new job, I have begun to wear open-toed shoes. We have put away the skiis and started to pull out the road maps. And the most surprising change of all... this past weekend, we moved into a new home!

It was neither expected nor was it something we ever thought we'd consider, yet in a weekend we have moved from our 3 room, 9 meter squared two-story apartment, to a 5 room, 20 meter squared one-story home for only $230 a month.

There has always been a house behind ours that we always assumed was taken, but my supervisor recently told me was vacant and if we wanted to see it, we could. Curiosity killed us and we looked at this new place. Apparently it is the teacher's housing for principals or vice principals, but since it has gotten so old, they don't use it for their housing anymore. What we came to was an incredibly spacious home, with a backyard, easy access to our garden, ample parking space, and a dance floor (as Ron calls it).

Our home has always been wonderful, but there has always been a few things that has kept us from truly loving it. Since Ron and I are spending more time together, it is hard to both be in a space meant for one person. Also, the stairs that we have are really scary and I always have the fear that one day, it will take my life. And... probably the worst of all, everyone knows of Ron's teeny bladder and he continuously wakes up in the middle of the night needing to relieve himself. He has to trek out of the warm room, into the cold, brave the deady staircase, make his way to the bathroom, and then find his way back, in the dark. He tells me he's fully awake by the time he gets upstairs. Now all he needs to worry about it making it the meter from our new room to the new bathroom.

We are so happy with our newest string of luck and we are looking forward to lounging in the backyard, having an American style BBQ with friends. We are also looking forward to people visiting, both in America and in Japan and being able to give them a whole room to sleep in, rather than a portion of a room in between the dining room table and China cabinet. We are continually being blessed by so many wonderful things and we can see that both prayers and good vibes are keeping us happy, healthy, and apparently, in new housing.

Everyone, please come and visit.

"Bento" means "March" in Japanese

Because of all the graduations, exams, corrections, farewell parties, and welcoming parties, I have had my fill of food this month. The best part of this month, however was in the free bentos that our school would give the teachers. So, to give everyone a chance to feel the Japanese spirit in the best way, I want to share with you my school bentos. I wish you all can taste it. It is as good as it looks. Now I have to wait a whole year for more bentos.






Itadakimasu!

ハッピ イスター！

Happy Easter everyone.

Ron and I didn't even know it was Easter until it was Friday. We thought we still had another couple of weeks. I guess that just means that SPRING IS HERE! Yesterday, Ron and I started our new project, a vegetable garden. It was a whole 65 degrees warm and we ran out and started digging in shorts and t-shirts. Then quickly changed back to pants and sweaters after the night time drops the temperature back to 45 degrees. So far we've planted carrots and snow peas, but eventually we want to add zucchini, tomatoes, and watermelon to our family. Can you imagine watermelon? Tiny ones here cost ￥３０００. Waaaaayyyyyy too much. So now we look forward to enjoying the fruits (veggies) of our labor. Anyway, hope everyone had a wonderful and colorful easter.





God Bless!