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Published: March 15th 2006
Takaashi and the girls
Takaashi playing with Mayu and LinaHi! This week I’ve been very busy! Or I should say these last two weeks! I didn’t think I would write that late. But here it’s pretty a working beat so there isn’t too much big events to talk about. Still, I’ve plenty of things to say!
I’m homestay in a family of five: Diana, Toyo and their three daughters: Miku, Mayu and Lina, 9, 6 and 4 years old. Their house is also Diana’s private school, so I’m sleeping in the classroom. She has something like 70 students plus she goes in kindergarden and elementary school few times a week. Takaashi is working for her, they’re splitting the job. My job is to go with them and help them with the classes! It’s all very basic courses: alphabet, numbers, days of the week, self-presentation and talking practice. The first days I felt really uncomfortable and ackward… kids are generally pretty shy here… and when they’re shy they’re just freezing… that’s what happen pretty much the first days with me… but now it’s less bad because they saw me once. I had to do my first class by myself last week-end… aye aye aye… it was a private class, so
I was alone with a young girl that was just tooooo shy!!! And I can’t talk Japanese, this is an other big difficulty because I can’t explain anything to them… so if I have to do exactly like Diana and Takaashi are doing if I don’t want to lose them… but it’s hard to remember everything they exactly do! Yesterday I went in two classes where the kids were really really outgoing and energic. They were not shy at all and we had a lot of fun. I didn’t have any difficulty there!
I think if one day I teach, its not gonna be to beginners… and its not gonna be English language, blah. Maybe French… or archaeology… the thought of being a teacher in Canada wasn’t pleasing me that much… but I thought of it if it would be here and I already want a bit more…
The three girls are just awesome! Here in Japan kids are habitually really calm compared to Quebec kids. But not the girls here! They have so much energy, they just run, jump, scream and play all day and they never get tired! But you know, they’re not these kinds of
annoying noisy and mean kids that we see so often in Quebec. There are really nice and cute. Sometimes I have to stop them when they go too far… but I guess every kid is like that!
They don’t have shower here so every two days we go to the onsen. It’s just great. I used to take only showers in Quebec… but to enter in a hot and steamy big outside bath under the stars after a long and tiring day… wow you can’t know how it feels good. The first time I was ackward still to go naked amongst all these people but I got rid of that feeling quick enough. Now I enjoy it very much… we really have to import this in Quebec… people would be so more relax and peaceful! After the onsen, everybody in the car is calm and feel good. It’s just magic. I would have like to take some pictures because sometimes it’s really beautiful but oh well, they didn’t want me to… don’t know why 😉
I had pizza here. I took a bite of what looked like a normal greasy pizza… and I was under shock…
special demand
karine asked for a picture of the toilet... its full of buttons i dont understand but i know some are for cleaning your butt... hum... it was the exact same taste that Montreal’s pizza… to be here and eat something that makes me feel like I’m in Montreal… that was weird… I was kind of happy… ah nostalgia of the after-bar pizza with friends, hihi.
Theres snow but its warm so I don’t mind. Well last week it was warm and there was snow but not too much and it was melting… but now it’s been three days that we have this big snow storm, it’s crazy, I feel like I’m in Montreal at the beginning of January… but it’s not as cold so it’s alright… still it sucks because the spring was already there and now winter is back! I looked at the temperature in Tokyo and it’s something like 10-15 degrees!!!! Haaaa!!!!
I’m leaving for Tokyo by plane! On the 23 in the morning. Toyo had some kinds of points on a kind of card… so he got me a plain ticket for free! I’ll spend only one day in Tokyo, until the 24 in the morning. I’ll then take the bus to Nagoya, where I’ll spend 3 months and a half at school…. What a change! So before I wanted
Miku
Shes nine bt Im sure shes lying to me... shes looooves books... to make sure to spend one last day in Tokyo with friends and party all night. Seb has already moved to Tokyo. He’s trying to find a job. Yanick and Chris are gonna join with him soon and find an apartment. Keita is turning 26 on the 31st , so maybe we’ll do something for him on the 23rd…. I know it’s a bit selfish because it’s only because I’ll be there but I want to be there for his birthday.
Hum… now its time for some philosophy. Its just so weird how time passes and you cant stop it. I find it crazy when I think: oh, the last second is gone forever… oh this one too… what was I doing in that second? And sometimes when I talk with people about for exemple something that happened in 1997, I feel that its so close, like 2 years ago. And then I realized its been almost 10 years!!! 10!!!we are in fucking 2006! Where all those years have gone!!! From the time I was 19 up to now… its only 3 years! But I feel at the same time that my 19 years old is sooo far
because so many things happened! Am I contradictory here? Aye aye aye… crazy… and next year I’ll be thinking of right now and be like… oh, its passed… and its gonna do that all my life! Its crazy!!!! I cant say its scaring me… I don’t know… I just think its crazy… yeah maybe its scaring me a bit… I don’t want the day of my 28 years old to come… I feel like tis so old… and then theres 30… 35…40… I feel like the good years are now and that theyre passing by me without me being able to catch a glimpse of it…
I feel like it’s a time in my life where I would want to live in Tokyo… work to get money… and have fun with friends… as much as possible. Until I get bored of it… I realized how I’m not ready to go to school for years still and get a steady job. Some people are made for that… I feel like I didn’t enough party, enough fun… I still have an energy inside me that wants to get out… if I don’t do it I think I’ll regret it someday, when
I’ll have kids and a 9-5 job. So I’ll finish my BA, that’s for sure, then after maybe come back here and let life guides me.
Ok, I’m not a big fan of too personal weblog, where people share all their personal thoughts to people they don’t know… but I felt like sharing this… would like to have a conversation about it with someone I guess. It feels lonely sometimes here.
Random things now…
Last Friday I went to the cinema with Chris (Takaashi). The closest one from here is at more than an hour from here so i twas a long car ride. But car rides are one of my favorites things so it was allright. Takaashi is really nice, we talked a lot and realized we were both big nerds about everything… hihi… We went to this clothes shop, there was plenty of nice clothes and it was cheap. The person who says that Japan is expensive is just not looking at the good places! It’s like in Montreal… you can get a shirt for 50$ but if you look a bit more you can find another one for 10$. And there’s plenty of fashion
Lina and Mayu
Today was Mayus kindergarden graduating... heres it seems more inportant than in Quebec shops… the kind of clothes I don’t wear but that everybody does here… but there’s also nice shops that have my kind of clothes. For dinner we went to this nice restaurant and I ate sashimis… fried eggplant and gooood tofu… wow, it was just great ooishii. After, Diana, Takaashi and I met with some ALT in a bar… ALT are the foreign teachers in Japan. So I met with three Americans… but there were also Japanese girls and boys and I talked more with them… And we also met this 40 years old ish Japanese guy that wanted to speak in English with us. He was drunk a bit and very happy to meet English speakers. His English was really good. He made his B.A. in the States… when I asked him in what he did it he said Anthropology…. !!!!!! what!!! It’s the second anthropology person I meet in Japan. You remember, the first one was that elementary school principal in Konu that gave me a magatama. I was really happy… That second guy studied pretty much the same things than what I’m doing right now, since the Canadian and American anthropology programs are the same.
Saturday it was Toyo’s birthday. We went to a buffet… like the ones we have in Quebec, but in 100 times better. There were sushis… but really good ones! All you can eat! I went nut and ate wayyyy too much. Hihi. After, onsen again… hum… nice day!
You can’t know how much fun it is to just look at the english writings on the shirt here. They must translate word for word or have bad translators… most of them just don’t make noooo sense, so it’s pretty funny to read. And there are cheap, so I’ll buy some to give as gifts! I’ll go cut my hair this week… I’ll try something different… I don’t tell you right now since I don’t know yet what i twill be… but it’s gonna be short! I’m a bit scared but fuck… if it’s ugly I’ll just have to cry… I can never know until I try!
It feels nice to be Canadian here… when people learn that you’re not American they become suddenly sooo nicer with me and they smile. And yeah, at least one time out of three I specify that I’m French Canadian.
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karine
non-member comment
allo ma belle!! je suis super contente d'avoir enfin eu de tes nouvelles!! sa faisait un petit bout que tu avait pas écrit, mais je sais que tu as pas accès à internet bien souvent, alors tu est pardonné! Je suis bien contente de voir que tu t'amuse bien et que tu profite de ton voyage, c'est vrai que le temps passe vite et tout ce que tu peux faire ces vivre le plus pleinement possible a chaque seconde et ces ce que tu fait alors continue!! je t'embrasse fort, jespere qu'on va pouvoir se pogner sur gmail bientot pour placoter un peu!! lache pas la patate face de raie ! a prochaine xxx