Project Yuge Island

Well, it's only been about two weeks since I came back to Japan, but it feels like I've been here forever. I am teaching English on a remote island in the Inland Sea of Japan called Yuge. Yuge is part of a town made up of four islands called Kamijima. It is technically part of Ehime prefecture in Shikoku, but it's much closer to Hiroshima prefecture in Honshu. Yuge is only accessible by ferry. There are no roads or trains that connect the island to the mainland. Therefore, life here is much more isolated, rural, traditional, and laid back. There are only about 3,000 people living on this island.

My job is to teach English at the nursery school, elementary school, junior high school, senior high school, and adult conversation classes. Luckily each school has a lot fewer students than your typical Japanese public school. For example, my junior high school has only fifty students. There are 26 third-year students, 12 second-year students, and 12 first-year students. It is much easier to teach a foreign language in small classes like these.

I haven't had too much experience at the schools yet, because school doesn't officially begin until September 1st. My first couple of weeks here have been spent in orientation and teaching training in Tokyo and Matsuyama city. While on Yuge island, I spend my work days at my office at the Board of Education. However, I do have a few school experiences to share.

My first experience was at the junior high school. I was asked to go to work there last Thursday and Friday because all of the teachers and students would be there for the 'mid-summer vacation assembly.' I was to make my self introduction speech for everyone. I prepared a short speech in both English and Japanese so that everyone wouldn't be totally clueless. I worked John Denver's 'Take Me Home, Country Roads' in to my speech to make sure they all knew what West Virginia is. The speech went well. The students seem like a great bunch of kids and surprisingly very eager to learn English.

Then, after my speech was over, the principle spent the rest of the assembly time yelling at the students for things they've been doing wrong over the summer vacation. They haven't been wearing their helmets while riding their bikes; they haven't been working hard enough to keep the island and the sea of Yuge looking clean; they've been walking around without their shirts tucked in; and of course, they haven't been studying enough. This all makes Yuge Junior High School look very bad of course. I mean, who would ever think of letting their shirt hang out during summer vacation?! It's ridiculous. Personally, I couldn't even believe the students came to school in the middle of their vacation. This must prevent them from traveling at all.

Aside from the interesting method of discipline, I am really happy with my junior high school. With so few students, and not too many teachers either, the atmosphere is very relaxed. The Japanese teacher of English is young (28), well traveled, and can actually speak English (the only person I've met on the island that speaks English so far!). The rest of the teachers seem to have good personalities as well.

The second experience I have for y'all actually just happened. I came in to my office at the BOE as usual this morning. I started to work on this blog. Eventually my supervisor came in and said, 'Oh Jennie, you know you're supposed to be at the nursery school in five minutes?' No! I didn't! But I wasn't really panicking (yet), because I figured it would just be another self introduction thing. I hadn't prepared a self intro for this age or English level, but I would have to improvise.

After running over to the nursery school, giving a very, very brief self intro to all the kids, and listening to each one of them half introduce themselves in tiny voices, the teacher said, 'Okay everyone! Now it's time for the English lesson today! Please listen to Jennie-sensei!' Ahhh! English lesson?! I was barely able to produce a self intro on the spot…but a whole hour lesson would be quite a challenge.

I started to teach them all how to say simple greetings: 'Hello. My name is…., How are you? I am fine.' After about ten minutes of this, the kids were either shouting out, 'Jennie-Sensei we're tired of this,' or Jennie-Sensei this is too difficult!' Of course, if I had actually prepared a lesson, I could have made a game for them to practice these greetings so that it didn't just seem like useless information with no meaning attached. Quickly, I decided to switch to colors…a more concrete, seemingly easier task. This was also a complete failure with no game or activity to make things interesting. Eventually, I went back to the greetings topic and had the kids practice with partners for the rest of the time. Most of this was spent just convincing the kids to speak to their partners (English or Japanese). This was probably the least effective lesson EVER! But, what was I supposed to do with no warning that I would be teaching a lesson today?

Anyway, enough school talk. I'm sure what all of you are really interested in is the island and the people here. Well, the island is like paradise. The area is absolutely gorgeous. A view out from the island shows the calm waters of the inland sea and several nearby small islands. I live in one of the only two apartment buildings on the island. My apartment is two bedrooms, bathroom (complete with awesome Japanese bathtub!), toilet room, and kitchen/dining/living room. I sleep in the tatami room because it is the only room with an air conditioner, but I have absolutely nothing to do with the other bedroom, and I have lots of extra futons. So, ANYBODY who wants to take a trip over to Japan anytime, please come stay on Yuge with me!

My apartment is about a three minute walk to the water, or a fifteen minute walk to the nearest nice beach. There is a nearby seawater onsen (outdoor hot water bath on the beach) too! I am the only western foreigner on the island, but there are also some Chinese and Indonesian people who work in the ship yards. It takes about an hour to ride around the entire island by bicycle. I have not yet made it around the entire island. It's so hot right now that i'm lucky if I make it from my apartment to the office without suffering from heat stroke. Everyday is about 35 degrees (Celsius). That wouldn't be so bad, but the humidity is also unbearable. On weekends I've just been hanging out on the beach closest to my apartment and riding the ferry to other nearby islands.

Another favorite past time of mine is chilling with the obaa-sans (or elderly, grandmother-type women). They are the best people to hang out with! For example, yesterday I knocked on the door of the obaa-san who lives next door to me. I just wanted to ask her a couple of questions about my hot water and the garbage system. She came over to my apartment and answered all of my questions in detail. Then, she brought me over to her apartment to show me some useful things that I could get for my own apartment. Then she gave me a beautiful yukata (summer, cotton kimono) as a present! Next, after learning that I am a vegetarian, she insisted that we go out behind the apartment building where she has a garden and pick some vegetables. We picked all kinds of awesome vegetables that I've never seen before, and I got to keep them all! But I told her that I didn't know how to prepare most of them, having never seen these kind of veggies before. So, she brought me back over to her apartment and cooked up a whole bunch of stuff for me so that I could learn how to use the veggies. This lady is my hero!

Well, my first entry is beginning to look like a thesis paper or something. I have loads of pictures to post, but I dont have a way to get them on my computer just yet. I should be posting pictures very soon though. I have so much more to tell all of you, but I will save these details for future entries. I hope to write in this blog at least once a week, so check back often if you are interested!

---

---