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Published: August 1st 2005
ASIJ
Brent and the looming ASIJ Building.First things first. I would just like to express a huge thanks to everyone who has taken the time check out my blogs and even a bigger thanks to anyone who has dropped me a comment. They are awesome to read and they totally have a feeling of home. They keep laughing and smiling. I truly have the best family and the best friends. I'm lucky. Thanks everyone!
When I last left off Gordon had just arrived and we were getting ready to start our job: Summer Day Camp at the American School in Japan. Nothing really could prepare me for what was to come. I had a pretty restless sleep the night before camp started. I wanted to make a good impression and I want to do an awesome job for this school. Most of all I want these kids to have some fun. We got to school and began meeting the kids as the buses dropped them off by the masses. It was an endless sea of smiling faces rolling into the school...the only problem was that these faces spoke 1 to 2 words of english...the whole reason to attend this camp. The focus of this camp is
Kick-A-Base
Kick-A-Base in action...it's just like kickball! to expose these children to the english language and kind of force them to use it in "real life" settings.
I am in charge of Active Games with a senior & junior helper. Casey is going into his 2nd year at the Univ. of Minn. & Misa is going to be a freshman at a small school in Washington State. They both speak fluent Japanese...they grew up here their entire lives! This is a huge help due to one simple fact: the amount of japanese I know can fill an bottlecap! Case in point: I welcomed my first group of 2nd graders to class with my usual welcome I would give any students "GOOD MORNING AND WELCOME TO ACTIVE GAMES! I AM YOUR TEACER JOHN!" Blank stares...a few muffled "good mornings"...and some more blank stares. Oh no, I think to myself, I'm screwed...what have I got myself into, ahhhhh!! Then my boy Casey chimes and rattles off what I just said in Japanese...instantly the faces light up and smiles appear huge and on evey face. From that moment on I knew this was going to an amazingly fun time. These kids come to me and they are stoked on
Amped 2nd
This was a 2nd grade class pre-activities...how amped do they look? anything we do...as long as they are moving around and not sitting quietly!
I learned early on in the week that I needed to keep my directions for my kids short and sweet. We have basically fallen into a smooth routine for each 50 minute class and depending on the grade level we have a certain set of activities. Pretty much every class starts of with some "Fire & Ice" Tag. Grades 2 & 3 have been working with "GIANT JUMP ROPE". 3rd,4th,&5th grade boys is "Kick-A-Base"...basically kickball...but indoors. With my 3rd & 4th grade girls it is jump ropes & hula-hoops. Some of these little girls go bananas with these jump ropes! I have never seen a 3rd grader jump rope as fast or as technically efficient as some of these little girls. INSANITY! Boys...all they want to do is "kick-a-base"...so thats what I give them. It is a totally awesome feeling to have all these kids walk out of my gym drenched in sweat grinning from ear to ear. We have gotten into the routine of having each kid give us a high 5 on the way out of them gym. Talk about heavy hands. Some of
FirenIce
"Fire & Ice" Tag...controlled chaos! these little guys & girls take a running start from the other end of the gym!
One thing I have learned is that these kids are affectionate and they are not shy! They love to get High-5's, High-10's, and I even just pick some kids right up over my head. One interesting tidbit of information is that some of the boys like to play a little game..."Kancho". Basically you clasp both hands together stick out your index fingers...kind of like a gun...almost. Now, the point of this game is that these kids try and jab each other in the butt (or should i say rear-end?) and yell "KANCHO!!!!" really really loud! Not the best of games. Soooooo if your curious and feel like looking up "Kancho" in an Japanese-American Dictionary. No? Ok, I'll do it for you: Kancho: (n) enema. Thats right...enema. Only in Japan. Only in Japan. I have personally been "Kancho"ed twice. It catches you off guard and is not all that funny. But these kids get a kick out of it. So basically when a crew of kids roll by me, my "Kancho Alert" is on HIGH!
Ok, onto some other interesting things that have
Jumprope1
This is "GIANT JUMPROPE TIME"... been happening. It is true that I did experience my 1st earthquake last saturday. It was something like a 5 or 6 on their scale which was one of largest they have seen in Tokyo in a looong time. We were just sitting around listening to some music and all of a sudden everything starts shaking. Brent was the 1st one to acknowledge the fact that we were in the middle of an earthquake. It was over before it started. It only lasted 10 seconds if that...but it shook me pretty darn good. If that wasnt enough, on Monday we got word of a Typhoon that was bearing down on Japan. From what we could figure out from an all Japanese Newscast was that it was heading right for Tokyo. Lots of rain & Lots of wind...pretty much a Hurricane. No sweat. We rode to work on Tuesday in our boardshorts and flip flops...soaked to the bone, but we were smart...we had our clothes in our backpacks! Fast forward to Thursday night. Gordon, Brent, & myself are enjoying dinner on our roof/porch. Chatting it up the table starts to shake. Who's shaking the table? No one...earthquake...into the house we fly
Jumprope2
One...Two...Three...JUMP! They almost have it! and into 3 separate doorways. Not has hard or long as the previous one...but an earthquake nonetheless.
The pictures that I have posted for this update are a mix of everything. I took some photos from where I work so you can all see for yourselves the stoke that is in each of these kids. I also threw some funny ones of just us being us. I tried to capture the feeling of all of riding our bikes to work and how Gordon + Brent+Johnny+3 Bikes= A Recipe for Disaster. The picture is while we are riding home from work...all 3 of riding bikes...me trying to snap a photo while moving. This was the best one!
Friday night we found ourselves in Roppongi...which is downtown Tokyo. When you go to Roppongi you are basically going out all night due to the fact that the trains stope running at around 12:30am. So we made it to our location around 12:30am...Club Vanilla. Now, I am 26. I have been to my fair share of bars, pubs, watering holes...especially with the crew of friends I have. But this was definitly the 1st "club" I have ever been to. Think of "A
Stoked
A few stoked 3rd grade boys. It was not very easy getting them still to take a pic! Night at the Roxbury" and there you have it. 3 floors of Hip Hop, Dance, and anything else they got. 30,000 Yen to get in and you get 2 watered-down drinks with it. Needless to say we destroyed the dance floors. Japanese people everywhere! Chanting...jumping up and down...going bananas! We figured it was time to roll at about 4:30am. We wanted to cool off from the heat of the club...wrong...wrong...it was WAY hotter outside the club than inside. Got the 1st train home and rolled into the house at like 6:30am...I showered and slept until 3pm. Crazy.
Sunday afternoon we took the train down to Tokyo Station to do a little sight-seeing. We decided on the Imperial Palace & Gardens. Unfortunatly the Palace is only open to the public twice a year and we were out of luck. But we did walk around the grounds and took some cool snaps. Got back to the house were we just tried to re-charge our batteries for the 2nd week of Session A of Camp.
We are anxiously awaiting the arrival of one Technician I Chris Adams. Thats right Chris will be flying out to stay with us for a solid
Harajukin'
We had to show Gordon the "Harajuku Girls". We just cant resist a photo when we see one. Are you kidding me? week. He arrives in Tokyo on the 2nd of August and he is in for a real treat. I just talked to him on the phone and he is more than ready to get here. We have a solid amount of stuff to do while he is here. Just a little taste of some of the antics we are going to get into: Climbing Mt. Fuji on Friday Night, hitting up the Pachinko Parlors, pretending we are rock stars during Karaoke, attending a full-on Japanese Baseball game, and there are sure to be some other crazyiness mixed in all the while. You will all see it first hand here on my blog.
Again, I have come to an end of another blog. I have a ton of thoughts and ideas swirling through my head and I wish I could share them all. Let me know what else you might like to see on the blog next time. I cannot repeat this fact enough: This trip has been nothing but an unreal experience. I liken it to going out to Oregon for the 1st time. Learning new things everyday. Seeing new things everyday. Meeting new people everyday.
I want
Flair
Everyone in Japan has a mobile phone. Everyone also has little pieces of flair hanging from the ends of their mobiles. We have seen some outrageous flair around Tokyo. But this one took the cake. Just look in awe of this girl's flair! to say hi to all my family and friends reading this. As always I want to say hi to my neice Sarah. HI SARAH! GIVE YOUR BROTHER & SISTER A BIG HUG & KISS FOR ME! ALSO GIVE ONE TO YOUR MOMMY FOR ME TOO! UNCLE JOHNNY IS WORKING ON A REAL FUN & COOL GIFT TO BRING FROM JAPAN!
Take care everyone. Be safe & stay healthy. I cant wait to hear from you all soon!
-Johnny
PS-Scroll down to see all the pictures from this update...
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allison
non-member comment
howdy
wow yall look like japan is treating you well! your stories are amazing...thak you for sharing your trip! love hugs and kisses!