I think i'm in Japan...

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You know you're in Japan when:

...the only water you get from a tap is cold.
...everyone around you seems to be speaking a different language.
...the only English you hear is 'Nikky!'.....'Hello'.....'I like soccer'.....'I love you!' (my students are so kawaiiiii!)
...you have to train yourself to use American spelling...colOr not coloUr...gah!
...you need help when buying a mobile phone - and it takes an hour.
...you answer this phone (as does everyone else) with 'Moshi Moshi'.
...you are given a microwave.
...you are given a bicycle.
...you eat katsu and ramen for dinner.
...you are woken by the sound of drums.


Well that sums up my week really. I'm settling in now...but still waiting for the grand realisation that i'm in Japan. I'm in fairy land at the moment. Little by little reality is creeping in, and this is at times rewarding and at other times depressing (miss you guys!)

School life has perked up considerably. I have taught my 'self introduction' lesson about 9 times now?....I'm at a very big school with 770 students so theyre are 8 classes in 1st year, 8 classes in 2nd year and 7 classes in 3rd year. It's a junior high, so all of my students are about 12-15 years old...and oh so cute! SOme of them are quite shy, but i hope to change this. I get other students calling out to me in the halls...with whatever english they know (hence the i love you!). Now the english they know comprises of things from my lesson, so they call out 'I like......' and 'My favourite food is .........'. SOme students just give me a shy nod of their heads. I'm still having fun though, just waiting on a proper schedule of teaching because right now i just get called to teach classes at random (since it's only the one self intro lesson i am ALWAYS prepared...). I would like to be able to plan ahead, but I know things are in the making so i'm not worried. Theamerican spelling thing galls though. They use american textbooks - the problem is i have an Australian brain! I write colour and favourite without thinking to change it....so it's going to take some training to break this 14 year old habit of mine. I have taken part in English club after school too. In first year each student has to pick a club and they stay in that clup for the 3 years they are at the shcool, and there are some competitions throughout the year. My school has English, Kendo, Judo, Tennis, Soccer, Table Tennis, Chinese, Basketball, Volleyball.....and i'm sure there are more. These kids have a full on lifestyle.

Wake up, come to school around 8 (train, bus, bike).
Class from 8.50 to 3.30, then club to 5 or 6 o'clock.
Cram school (to get into a decent highschool) until 8/9.
Go home (bike, bus, train).
Eat then do homework - 10/11pm.
Study some more.
Go to sleep and do it all again the next day.

Can you imagine an Aussie kid, American kid or British kid doing that?

The other thing is, for the most part they seem happy to be at school. I have about 36 students per class, and they're all quite well behaved. Some of the boys get a bit rowdy but I welcome it because they're not then sitting quietly blushing to the roots of their hair.

I have a lot of portuguese/spanish speakers as well yay! They're a minoroty sure, but there are about 10 on average per grade so now and then i can babble away with them and relax a little bit. I love the teachers I work with as well. I felt intimidated at first, but now I am beginning to connect with a few and not feel SO much like the strange foreign teacher. My school has had some native English speakers come to teach before so i'm not stared and pointed at......as much. No....foreigners really do seem to be old hat to most of the people around. I'm living pretty much in the city centre so it's not like being out in the sticks.

I got my cell phone yesterday! Yay! It's wine coloured.....yum! And it makes pretty sounds that would annoy most people but for me it's all new and i like the beeping and chiming as it doesn;t really beep and chime of it's own accord (getting calls/messages) just yet. This way I can pretend that people are contacting me (^_^)......So if you feel like wasting some money - i mean putting your money to good use, give me a call. (e-mail me for my number if you want it...i'm not going to post it up on here - you think i'm crazy?)

I went back to school after organizing said phone and health insurance....to find that a woman from the Board of Education had given me her son's bicycle! Now that's kindness. I'm not sure if I wrote about it but at the Board of Education meeting before i started going to the schools.....they talked about my need for a bicycle for 20 minutes! ...well, now I have one! Fujikawa-san is organizing a light for it and then i'll be set. I am also getting one of the shcool microwaves now...everyone is so kind! Also, i'm supposed to be getting my car some time this month......i'm leasing a car monthly, and the paperwork for transferring it to my name is taking a long time. After all of the paperwork i filled out yesterday - I believe it! In 50 years i'll still remember my address, having written it about 50 times already. It's:

#*** blahblahhblah *-* blahblahblahblah Minakuchi-cho, Koka-shi, Shiga-ken.

And that's as much as you're getting. I figure you knew i was in Minakuchi from my pictures of Minakuchi castle...again, e-mail me if you want to send gifts/flowers/chocolates/ug boots/warm clothes/books in ENGLISH.....not that i'm asking you understand. (^_^)

I love the japanese food i'm eating. At the moment it's all of my own making. Fujikawa san brought me an old stove day before yesterday! It's like a little camper one. Brings back memories of cooking on a single burner in Margaret river. Aah.

I was woken this morning, not by the train, but by some drumming!
There's a festival on this weekend - the 'Minakuchi Matsuri' They have some 200 year old wooden cart things here, that I thought were small from their pictures, but I have since learnt that they are about 10 metres tall! I think they're practising their drumming. It's quite catchy. When they started up i went out to my balcony just for a listen. It's things like that which make me realise i'm not in Perth. Tonight is like the eve of the festival, and tomorrow is the actual festival. I think things are kicking off mid-afternoon, and i might even have a friend coming from Kyoto to see it.

I'm heading to watch a Japanese lesson this evening at around 7.30. Fujikawa-san took me to the Koka International society yesterday and I met some lovely women who arrange Japanese lessons and things. We even had lunch with them. I'm meeting one of them-Rumi and i'm going to watch some classes that i might be signing up for! yay! I hope I get to hang out with her and them some more, they really are pleasant and friendly and happy - and they speak English really well....woohooo! Rumi and I are in the same boat as we both have loved ones who are currently in Australia...

Well i'm off to make my breakfast. I have eggs! And something to cook them with! Luxury!

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Comments

[Kathy]

Sounds like you're settling in fine chica! Along with drums, the garbage truck and kerosene-selling-truck melodies are some of my least favourable sounds to wake up to. Did I mention I used to live right by a temple that had amazingly loud bells that rang at 6am, 12pm and 6pm? And then on New Year's Eve you'd get a special treat of 108 bell chimes for the 108 sins of man. All in all I think one of my strongest feelings about Japan is that it is NOISY!! P.S Once the American spelling takes hold, then comes the American pronunciation...have fun!! xx k