Fiver?

This is a gigantic rabbit. <---- understatement of the year

Spring?

The last week had been really warm. I took it down from long johns to tights and even got overheated walking to the train station. Bugs are showing up everywhere, and our flowers are starting to peak through the soil.

So imagine my surprise to find a blanket of snow this morning. And now Tajima is on a snow warning.

Apparently the Japanese government is considering officially acknowledging the heavy snowfall this year. Something like "Heisei 18 Snowfall" [18 being the current year of the Heisei emperor's reign]. Some dozen places in Japan had record snowfall this year, and there were over 100 deaths.

It's Not Heavy; It's Pretz

Sometimes I feel bad about taking pictures of the signs, ugly fish, or random things here in Japan. I mean, I usually laugh a bit, grab a friend and point it out to them, and then rearrange a display so I can better capture the kookiness. I can understand where many Japanese people might think I'm being rude or that I'm laughing at them. And sometimes they're right. But then I turn around and say "Konnichiwa" to a Japanese person. Result: Insane laughter. I feel vindicated and I continue taking my pictures. A fair balance.

Below is a bunch of people on Pretx boxes. Most of them are sweating. You're s'posed to poke out some holes and insert some Pretz, making it appear that the characters are holding the Pretz. By the amount of sweat, I deduce that Pretz is pretty heavy. The newest shipment had a Panda on the box, "Bamboo? I don't need no stinkin' bamboo. I got Pretz."

Sticky Fish

Ugly fish -->



<-- Stickers directly on fish.

Cups!

Hurray! Even though it makes me feel uber-domestic, I love love love our new cupboards. See, since we live in teacher housing, that pretty much means our apartment is tacky. It looks horrible, chips and scratches everywhere, scary dipping floorboards, etc. But since our rent is ridiculously cheap, and all the ugly things are only cosmetic, we've sucked it up. But when they told us we were getting new counters--- yeah, Marlene made a fool of herself. Too excited. And just for you, photos of the old nasty cupboards, and the new cool cupboards.

Good English

I normally don't post about school because I figure that most of the stuff is a little boring. But since I am here to teach and all, I thought I should write up a recent triumph.

So English is not exactly popular with the 1st year students. It's the last year it's required, and they only get Oral Communication once a week, so most students either talk through class, sleep, or just sit and stare at their desk. <-- these are all possible because there is no real discipline in Japanese schools. A teacher cannot send a student out of the classroom because the student has the right to be in class. Who cares if he's ruining the class for everyone else, you just have to ignore him. I usually kick the chairs of the sleeping students to wake them up [don't worry, nothing drastic- just taps to wake him up]. And for the talkers, I walk over and ask them questions.

Now, my bad class of 1st years has the lowest number of English enjoyers of all my classes. It also has several of the very bad boys- the ones all the teachers at school know about. Yet somehow, they've slowly turned around. The worst kid has become one of the most active participants. Sure, he's still loud and disruptive, but he's actually working with me instead of trying to derail the class. Good. Even better is the crazy fact that this class had the highest scores on their most recent listening test. This is a big shock-- my JTE was shocked, I was shocked, there was shocking all around. Following up on a pretty successful grammar absorption by my 2nd years, I am feeling that teacher-glow. "They get it, they actually understand!"

Gradiatin

Aaah, graduation. A time when students stop being students or rather, they become those lovely "students of life". Life changes, there are a lot of difficult challenges ahead, but if you stay focused and work hard, you will succeed. Yep, graduation speeches are the same in Japanese as in English.

Now, some actual differences:

*Japanese graduation are a bit more solemn; no school band or cheering

*Graduation takes place during school hours, so all students and teachers attend

*Everyone wears their school uniform. Girls get to wear pink flowers, while the boys wear yellow flowers

*Most non-students wore black. The men wore white ties [white ties are for celebratory occasions, like weddings and graduations]. While I knew that most teachers were wearing black, it still stunned me a bit. Walking into a room of people who are dressed like they're heading to a funeral, but who were all clearly happy, kinda threw me for a loop.

*The mayor attended the graduation

*There was a lot of bowing [hey, this is Japan, remember!]

But in general, it appears that ceremonies are all kinda similar- lots of speeches, most people are bored [sleeping students and some sleeping parents]. Afterword there's a mad dash to get pictures taken with the students' teachers. I gotta admit, you do feel pretty special when your students want to take a picture with you. Even though it kinda felt like a scavenger hunt "Picture with 5 teachers? Check. On to Mushi King card!"

Double it up

Ok, it's pretty official- we're here for another year. While the official recontracting isn't til June, I signed some seriously binding papers. In preparation for our 2nd year, Aaron and I are headed back to the States for a 2 week resupplying bonanza. Let's hear it for cheap floss, Mexican hot cocoa discs, and American deoderant!

These lovely ladies are two of my 3rd year students. They just graduated, as indicated by their flower sprays. More on graduation later.

Ice Follies

After being inspired by the Winter Games, Nick, Jenny, Aaron and I decided we'd get started on developing our latent ice skating abilities. So we got up early [well, for a weekend] and drove up to the always-cute Kinosaki. Found the outdoor ice skating rink, snagged some blades, and away we were!

Ok, maybe not so away. Ice skating is uh, kinda hard. Jenny was the most upright [damn dancing balance thing], while the rest of us stumbled after her. The only other ice skating experience I had was in 6th grade, and while there were a fair amount of amateurs, there were enough fancy skaters to make me feel self conscious. Not here, though! Most of the skaters were kids who were ok, but not up to crazy talent levels. We toughed it out for about an hour, then we were off in search of lunch.

Note to all Japan-dwellers: Kinosaki doesn't have a whole lotta restaurants, and most of those shut down for a few hours mid afternoon. Aaron and I have fallen into this trap a few times now, but the mere act of typing it and shaming myself in front of the cyber-world should serve as a future deterrant. I hope. After finally finding a food shack, Aaron and I loaded up on souveniers. Cool stuff to be had in the restaurant-challenged Kinosaki.

Happy Lion

Never been so happy to be so wrong. On payday I received cash for my Kobe expenditures [Mid Year Conference]. Despite enjoying my righteous indignation, I much prefer getting cash. In defense of my [self-] righteous indignation, my Kyoto-sensei and two JTEs both insisted I would not receive any money for lodging or travel. Since 1) I thought they should know 2) Several other HS ALTs were told the same thing, I figured we were out a few hundred. Love being wrong! Which I should really get used to, living in Japan and all....