http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Jennie-T/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Jennie T en-us Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:35:37 +0000 Mon, 04 Jan 2010 18:35:37 +0000 This is my last blog entry. I decided to make it a kind of best of list. I've posted all of my favorite photos I took during my two years teaching in Japan. In addition I have a few lists I made during my last couple of months in Japan my opinion of the best things about Japan and the worst things about Japan. I realized that a lot of my favorite things and least favorite things about Japan in http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-347244.html The following is an essay I wrote about my experience in Japan. It was published in both English and Japanese in the 2008 Japan Exchange and Teaching Journal.Lessons from Obaachan and OjiichanOvercoming Ageism in the Aging Society of JapanJapan the land of contrast. It is the land of skyscrapers and mountains hitech toilets and hot spring baths vending machines and tea ceremony. Itrsquos http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-344106.html Well what can I say This is it. The end of my two years in Japan. The end of my life as JennieSensei as the only white person in the community as the first woman to come here to teach English as that weirdo who got countless stares but even more cheerful greetings as an independent woman taking on the world. Obviously the past two years hasnrsquot been all adventure and enlightenment. Th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-335895.html Note These last few blog entries are extremely overdue. I am posting them about three months after these events took place.With only one more week of school left before summer vacation and the temperature and humidity going up up up school life on the island of Yuge is going out with a bang. Not that the students arenrsquot studying as hard as ever and us teachers arenrsquot delivering ou http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-330155.html The countdown has begun. It is officially only one more month until I leave my Yuge home. Irsquove started to get schmaltzy about everything these days thinking it may be the ldquolast time.rdquo SeriouslyhellipI need to pull myself together. I even get tearyeyed if I see a commercial I like on TV thinking ldquothis might be the last time I see this commercialrdquo or if I buy some http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-285223.html The first week of May is a chain of holidays including Showa Day Constitution Day Greenery Day and Boyrsquos day that are strung together to form what the Japanese call ldquoGolden Week.rdquo It is one of the only times most people have a break from their jobs throughout the whole year so everyone flocks in huge masses to vacation spots. The chaos of it all reminds me of ldquomoving http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-280159.html Spring has come to my little corner of Japan And in Japan spring time means only one thinghellipSAKURA Sakura is the Japanese word for cherry blossoms. Sakura are a national symbol of Japan and Japanese people are not short of obsessed with the flowers. Every night the national news reports on the sakura developments throughout the country and every weather forecast is transformed into a sa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-270662.html Another school year has come to a close. Graduation and closing ceremonies were held students have gone on a twoweek spring break and teachers are in the midst of cleaning out their desks and their apartments to move to their next schools assignment. I canrsquot get over how destructive the Japanese teaching system is to teachersrsquo lives families and wellbeing. I suppose itrsquos ni http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-260477.html Well I have now crossed another item off my list of ldquothings to do in Japan before I leave.rdquo For a long time I have wanted to visit a small island in the Inland Sea called Naoshima. It is known to be an art island and although itrsquos about the same size as Yuge it has the attractions of two large contemporary art museums. Most of the people who live on the island are somehow affi http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-250833.html Setsubun is the day before the beginning of the spring season as associated with the Lunar New Year that Japan used to follow along with China. So Setsubun used to be like New Yearrsquos Eve until Japan switched to the Western calendar where New Years is January 1st. Setsubun is kind of like Japan's version of Groundhog Day in the U.S but involves throwing beans at demons instead of a groundho http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-249475.html January was a musical month. On January 20th I taught classes at the second annual International School Day. It was held on the island next to me that belongs to Hiroshima Prefecture. This is the same event at which I taught square dancing last year. It is an event sponsored by the rotary club for junior high school students in Hiroshima Prefecture and is meant to be a kind of international excha http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-242274.html So when the weather finally became good enough to get a ferry ticket off of the main island of Okinawa Erin a fellow English teacher in Japan whom I met at the hostel and I took off for Zamami Island. Zamami is a very small island about an hourandahalf ferry ride southwest of Okinawa's main island. The water was still turbulent and I got seasick pretty quickly. However things started looki http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-239238.html Itrsquos been a couple of weeks since my winter break but Irsquove been so busy with the new semester that I havenrsquot had time to write anything about my trip to Okinawa. I did so many things and took so many pictures there that I have decided to break this entry up into two parts. The first half of my trip was in the capital city Naha on the main island of Okinawa. The second half of http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-234208.html Happy Holidays EveryoneLike all good hardworking Japanese folks I worked on Christmas day and through the rest of the week. However I still managed to celebrate Christmas in many ways. About a month ago the head teacher at the preschool asked me if I would play my violin at their winter performance. Of course there was a catch. She requested that I do it dressed in a female Santa Claus costume. http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-230871.html Just before it started to get really cold her and winter came to stay I took a threeday weekend trip to the Iya Valley region in Mideastern Shikoku. I had been there once before last summer when I went white water rafting in the beautiful Yoshino River. At the time I thought it looked like such a beautiful place for hiking but I was with a group and we were on a time limit. So I decided to ret http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-226422.html The weather has become what itrsquos going to be like for the rest of the winter with temperatures lingering just above freezing so that itrsquos cold and rainy all the time. But during the last bit of autumn we had an unexpected Indian summer and it was a perfect day for a bike ride around the island of Yuge I started my bike ride early in the morning and didnrsquot know just how warm it http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-224606.html The last couple of weeks have been very busy with all the school culture festivals happening. The culture festivals or ldquobunkasairdquo are annual performances to showcase the schoolrsquos and communityrsquos talent. As soon as the undoukai are over with in September preparation for the bunkasai in November starts. I was involved in three different bunkasai this year my junior high s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-218422.html As I explained last year Halloween is a very popular thing in Japan but only commercially. Japanese people donrsquot actually celebrate the holiday in any way other than buying things like little plastic jackolanterns and pumpkin cakes. Still I can tell that Japanese people are really interested in the holiday and think itrsquos a fun idea. Itrsquos just they donrsquot really understa http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-217764.html Basically the biggest event of the year on Yuge the autumn harvest festivals are finally over. Each of the main neighborhoods holds a festival that continues for about three days so all of the islandrsquos festivals put together span over three weeks. There are three main festivals on Yuge Kamiyuge upper Yuge island the smallest is my neighborhood Hikino and the biggest Shimoyuge lowe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-215110.html The regional competition for the junior high school English speeches was last weekend in Matsuyama a city about two hours south of me on mainland Shikoku. If you were reading my blogs at this time last year you will remember that I went to this same competition last year with my student Emiko who left victoriously with second place. No such luck this time although I thought at least one of the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Japan/Ehime/Ochi/Kamijima/blog-211659.html