The funny thing about the JET Programme is that the interview and selection process take place in the spring. Applications are submitted in December, whittled down in January, interviews take place in March, and offers are sent out in April. By May most people have been placed and in late July/ early August the new JETs arrive in Japan.
Because of this, people currently in the program have to decide by mid-February whether they wish to re-contract for another year or not; so the coordinators know how many new applicants to accept. It's a difficult position to be put in, especially for 1st year JETs, only 6 months into the program and still with 6 more months to go; you have to decide if you want to stay for a time period longer than what you originally signed up for (18 more months!), and what your frame of mind will be like at the end of the current contract period.
My time in Japan has been an amazing experience. And I have found that I'm challenged here in ways that I never was at home - not only through being immersed in Japanese language and culture but in trying to communicate and connect with so many different people from different places. My current work responsibilities have nothing to do at all with what I spent 7 years of my life in school training for, and 2 years after school actually doing. And yet I feel like I am learning vast amounts of things, not only about Japan and Japanese culture, but about the other people on the program I have met here as well as myself.
Now I heard from a friend of mine on the program whose father spent years living abroad, first working with the Peace Corps and then with other agencies, and frequently moving from place to place - and maybe my friend Julien who is currently in Georgia (the country, not the state) can confirm or deny this for me - that there is a reason you have to sign for 2 years with the Peace Corps. That it takes about 6 months to get adjusted to life in a foreign country, then you spend about a year actually living in and experiencing the culture, learning the local language, etc, and the last 6 months you spend preparing to move on to the next phase in your life.
Seeing as JET Programme contracts are signed for one year only, by that logic you spend your first 6 months getting used to life in Japan and your last 6 months preparing yourself to go home, and you don't get any time to really get into the culture. And of course, that's the whole point I started this crazy adventure.
All of this is to say that I have made the decision to stay for another year. I struggled with it for months, putting it off until the absolute final moment I could. In the end, I chose to listen to the little voice inside that told me I am not finished with this experience yet.
This decision has some pretty big consequences for me and many people at home. At the very least, I know some of you are disappointed I won't be coming back at the end of July. Some relationships are changing considerably; but that's not something I'm going to discuss publicly here (sorry! I'm sure you're all dying to know :P). I am not sure how many people are still reading since I don't get many comments, but I will continue to post about life in Japan and my experiences as often as I can.
With so many big changes happening for me, I have neglected the blog a bit I admit. And I apologize for the lack of emails and responses that I should send out, I will try hard in the future to keep in touch better :)
For now, look forward to more stories and posts! I've got some great pictures from the snow festival in Sapporo 2 weeks ago and the crazy Nagano ski weekend trip from last week to tell you all about.
For now, じゃあね！See you!
Sunday, February 24, 2008
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
Remembering 3A
I've mentioned a couple of times how small my schools are. At Miya JHS there are currently 88 students and at Kuguno JHS there are 112. There is only one of each class at both schools, and they are small enough that I can get to know all of my students really well. 3A in Miya has 22 students, at Kuguno there are 32.
The school year here is coming to an end soon, and the 3rd graders are preparing to graduate on March 11. This week both schools had a ceremony/ rememberance for the 3rd grade class, put on by the other students and the teachers at each school. Again, because my schools are so small, all of my students know each other (at each school separately) and the ceremonies were quite fun. In both I had a part during the teacher's tribute; at Kuguno I sang (in Japanese of course) with the other teachers and at Miya we played taiko and did a sort of gag game show.
Anyway, the purpose of this post isn't the ceremonies themselves, per se. But at the end of each the 3rd grade all got up and addressed the school, thanking everyone for all the memories and experiences they had.
KJH 3rd grade (9th graders in the US)
MJH 3rd grade
Usually at these sorts of things, I sit there with only a vague understanding of what is going on. My Japanese is ok enough for stuff like "do you want a bag?" when I'm at the convinience store and "I have a flat tire" at the gas station, but when it comes to full-on, regular speeches, I get lost quickly.
So I knew they were addressing the teachers, but I didn't really know what they were saying at Kuguno until one boy busts out with "Jen-sensei, we really enjoyed your English class. It was fun to spend time with you, ..." I can't actually remember the whole thing. I was so surprised, not only that they made a speech for me but that it was coming from one of the lower-level boys I rarely get to have class with. The entire room turned to see my expression when they heard the English start, and I know I was grinning from ear-to-ear and beaming while he addressed me. I could tell they were pleased, I was really quite stunned and surprised.
After the ceremony finished, I headed back to the teacher's room to finish up some stuff for Friday, and got yet another surprise. It's not uncommon for students to come into the teacher's room, they do it all the time to ask questions and pick up or drop off things. But they really don't ever have any reason to come to my desk. So you can imagine my surprise when 2 of the 3A boys came up to my desk to deliver this:
A thank-you card, made by the 3rd grade class. All of the teachers got them. Mine, of course, is entirely in English.
Now, other than the fact that apparently the entire 3rd grade thinks my name is Jane, I was most surprised by this:
...Yoshiki is a boy.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I love that kid. He's so not-shy, it's awesome. I'm really going to miss this class.
The school year here is coming to an end soon, and the 3rd graders are preparing to graduate on March 11. This week both schools had a ceremony/ rememberance for the 3rd grade class, put on by the other students and the teachers at each school. Again, because my schools are so small, all of my students know each other (at each school separately) and the ceremonies were quite fun. In both I had a part during the teacher's tribute; at Kuguno I sang (in Japanese of course) with the other teachers and at Miya we played taiko and did a sort of gag game show.
Anyway, the purpose of this post isn't the ceremonies themselves, per se. But at the end of each the 3rd grade all got up and addressed the school, thanking everyone for all the memories and experiences they had.
KJH 3rd grade (9th graders in the US)
MJH 3rd grade
Usually at these sorts of things, I sit there with only a vague understanding of what is going on. My Japanese is ok enough for stuff like "do you want a bag?" when I'm at the convinience store and "I have a flat tire" at the gas station, but when it comes to full-on, regular speeches, I get lost quickly.
So I knew they were addressing the teachers, but I didn't really know what they were saying at Kuguno until one boy busts out with "Jen-sensei, we really enjoyed your English class. It was fun to spend time with you, ..." I can't actually remember the whole thing. I was so surprised, not only that they made a speech for me but that it was coming from one of the lower-level boys I rarely get to have class with. The entire room turned to see my expression when they heard the English start, and I know I was grinning from ear-to-ear and beaming while he addressed me. I could tell they were pleased, I was really quite stunned and surprised.
After the ceremony finished, I headed back to the teacher's room to finish up some stuff for Friday, and got yet another surprise. It's not uncommon for students to come into the teacher's room, they do it all the time to ask questions and pick up or drop off things. But they really don't ever have any reason to come to my desk. So you can imagine my surprise when 2 of the 3A boys came up to my desk to deliver this:
A thank-you card, made by the 3rd grade class. All of the teachers got them. Mine, of course, is entirely in English.
Now, other than the fact that apparently the entire 3rd grade thinks my name is Jane, I was most surprised by this:
...Yoshiki is a boy.
HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA! I love that kid. He's so not-shy, it's awesome. I'm really going to miss this class.
Monday, February 4, 2008
Kobe!
Waaaaaaaay back in December (Dec 15-16 actually), my friend Theresa and I took a weekend trip to Kobe and Himeji. I've finally gotten around to cropping and uploading photos, so here you go, 2 months late. Kobe!
The "purpose" of our trip was to see the Kobe Iruminarie (or illumination). We left early Saturday morning and took a bus from Takayama to Kyoto, where we caught a train to Himeji. As it turns out, the bus drops you off at a random stop along the highway in Kyoto, nowhere near the station. Or anything, for that matter. We ended up catching a cab once it became apparent we had no idea where we were in the city, ha ha ha
In Kyoto station we found these fabulous ice cream sandwich things. Heart-shaped and made of delicious ^_^ I got mint chocolate chip. They're so adorable they force you to make cute poses in pictures
....anyway, we actually rode the train through Kobe to a town called Himeji, which is the home of what has been called Japan's most beautiful castle, Himeji-jo.
We were lucky and got a great English tour of the castle, for free! So what would have been the two of us quickly wandering through the castle and gardens not having much of a clue of what we were looking at turned into a 2 hour, very informative, stroll.
We got a nice lecture on all the fasicnating defensive designs built into the castle, as well as a little history on who lived there and how they lived. For example, these ladies are playing a type of "memory" game using colored seashells. The cat, however, is just sitting there.
The castle is full of really cool defensive structures that were never used. It was never attacked, and even managed to avoid destruction during the bombing campaign of WWII.
The different shapes of the holes are for different types of weapons - guns and arrows mostly. It's cool to think it was first designed right after guns were introduced in to Japan (castle was built in the 17th century, guns arrived in the 1500's I believe).
As a (somewhat dormant) geologist, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the "oil-slick" wall, which is actually the original wall. It's 400 years old, and made of dirt. I am SO impressed
Himeji, as viewed from the top of the castle
And our guide was kind enough to show us the perfect spot for getting an up-close shot in front of the castle. Cause we didn't already have like, 50 pictures in front of it, ha ha ha
One of the most famous ghost stories in Japan purportedly originated from this castle. The story goes that there was a maid in the castle whose sole responsibility was to care for 10 priceless dishes. Each day she would take them out, polish and count them, and then put them back. One day she was asked by the lord to bring the dishes... but she could only find 9. As she lost one of the dishes, and had therefore been derelict in her duty, she was executed and her body was thrown in this well
The story goes that her sould is unable to rest, and you can hear a sorrowful voice coming from the well, counting... ichi-mai, ni-mai, san-mai (1, 2, 3...) up to kyu-mai (9), at which point it wails and starts all over again.
This story is quite famous at many castles, but our guide assured us it really started at this one. I asked her if there was some back story or alterier motive for them killing her (seems a bit harsh for losing a dish, even if it was expensive). Apparently, she doubled as a consort and her lover happened to be a samurai the lord was plotting to assassinate. However, she found out about the plan and warned the samurai, who got away. So the lord hid one of the dishes and used it as an excuse to execute her, which then enraged her samurai lover who then attacked the lord and was himself disposed of.
Pretty sneaky, hu?
After the castle we wandered over to the gardens that are right next door, and absolutely beautiful. I'll let the pictures do the talking...
After Himeji we headed in to Kobe to see the Illumination. Which involved waiting in a line that puts even the best wait at Disneyland, during New Years to shame. It was more like following a parade route through Sannomiya (the district of Kobe we were in) than waiting to see anything
It took us about a half an hour of shuffling along with the herd before we finally approached what drew so many people to Kobe to stand in line in the cold...
You can see all the cellphones sticking up taking pictures ^_^
From far away it looks like a church, but as you get closer you can see that it's made of many separated arches along an arcade
Once we finally got into it, we started to wonder, there aren't any tickets or anything, it's all outside, how do they enforce the 10pm close time? About 20 seconds after we took this picutre we got the answer
As all the lights went out precicely at 10pm. lol, Japan.
The next day we got up and found an enormous outlet mall near our hostel.
It came complete with a Starbucks, which we hovered around until it opened. While we waited, we took in the view of Akashi Strait, where you can see the longest suspension bridge in the world - the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge.
Once we got bored of looking at the view, we literally sat outside the Starbucks until it opened. I was too embarrased to walk in immediately after they opened the door... so we waited a good 30 seconds before making our way in ^_^
People here usually assume Theresa is Japanese until she openes her mouth, but nobody makes that mistake with me (I can't quite figure out why... must be something about the way I carry myself -_^). The guy behind the counter was trying to talk to me in English and gave me the price - 4500 yen. Hee hee hee, I didn't have the heart to tell him he was an order of magnitude off, I just smiled and said "wow, great English!" in Japanese. Which ended up endearing us to him apparently as he personally delivered our coffee to our table after making a special trip over to the condiment counter to get cream and sugar and napkins. I love this country!
After Starbucks we headed into Kobe and visited the Chinese market.
Theresa was in heaven, and I got my first taste of bubble tea!
And then, before we left, we set off in search of Kobe beef for lunch. Which turned out to be quite the odyssey as we could not find ONE coin locker in the station. Not one! So we hauled all our crap with us, all over Sannomiya looking for a restaraunt in the guidebook. Which we neved did find. But we took a chance and actually ended up in a great tempanyaki restaraunt with a nice view of the city and a good lunch deal.
The beef was really good. Well worth it's reputation.
After we finished eating, and while we were drinking our coffee, one of the watiers/ cooks brought out a giant slab of Kobe beef and plopped it on the grill in front of us. Bewildered, we just looked from it, to him, and back to it, before he said "take a picture"...
And then he said "now I'll take a picture of you with the beef." Quite matter-of-factly. And so, I found myself holding a giant cut of raw cow, an inch from my face...
I kept going back and forth between a smile and a strange look on my face, and managed to wind up with a strange-looking smile instead, ha ha ha.
After that we got some Kobe Pudding (which all of my students had instructed me to get when I told them I was going), and headed home. To the snow!
The "purpose" of our trip was to see the Kobe Iruminarie (or illumination). We left early Saturday morning and took a bus from Takayama to Kyoto, where we caught a train to Himeji. As it turns out, the bus drops you off at a random stop along the highway in Kyoto, nowhere near the station. Or anything, for that matter. We ended up catching a cab once it became apparent we had no idea where we were in the city, ha ha ha
In Kyoto station we found these fabulous ice cream sandwich things. Heart-shaped and made of delicious ^_^ I got mint chocolate chip. They're so adorable they force you to make cute poses in pictures
....anyway, we actually rode the train through Kobe to a town called Himeji, which is the home of what has been called Japan's most beautiful castle, Himeji-jo.
We were lucky and got a great English tour of the castle, for free! So what would have been the two of us quickly wandering through the castle and gardens not having much of a clue of what we were looking at turned into a 2 hour, very informative, stroll.
We got a nice lecture on all the fasicnating defensive designs built into the castle, as well as a little history on who lived there and how they lived. For example, these ladies are playing a type of "memory" game using colored seashells. The cat, however, is just sitting there.
The castle is full of really cool defensive structures that were never used. It was never attacked, and even managed to avoid destruction during the bombing campaign of WWII.
The different shapes of the holes are for different types of weapons - guns and arrows mostly. It's cool to think it was first designed right after guns were introduced in to Japan (castle was built in the 17th century, guns arrived in the 1500's I believe).
As a (somewhat dormant) geologist, I couldn't help but be fascinated by the "oil-slick" wall, which is actually the original wall. It's 400 years old, and made of dirt. I am SO impressed
Himeji, as viewed from the top of the castle
And our guide was kind enough to show us the perfect spot for getting an up-close shot in front of the castle. Cause we didn't already have like, 50 pictures in front of it, ha ha ha
One of the most famous ghost stories in Japan purportedly originated from this castle. The story goes that there was a maid in the castle whose sole responsibility was to care for 10 priceless dishes. Each day she would take them out, polish and count them, and then put them back. One day she was asked by the lord to bring the dishes... but she could only find 9. As she lost one of the dishes, and had therefore been derelict in her duty, she was executed and her body was thrown in this well
The story goes that her sould is unable to rest, and you can hear a sorrowful voice coming from the well, counting... ichi-mai, ni-mai, san-mai (1, 2, 3...) up to kyu-mai (9), at which point it wails and starts all over again.
This story is quite famous at many castles, but our guide assured us it really started at this one. I asked her if there was some back story or alterier motive for them killing her (seems a bit harsh for losing a dish, even if it was expensive). Apparently, she doubled as a consort and her lover happened to be a samurai the lord was plotting to assassinate. However, she found out about the plan and warned the samurai, who got away. So the lord hid one of the dishes and used it as an excuse to execute her, which then enraged her samurai lover who then attacked the lord and was himself disposed of.
Pretty sneaky, hu?
After the castle we wandered over to the gardens that are right next door, and absolutely beautiful. I'll let the pictures do the talking...
After Himeji we headed in to Kobe to see the Illumination. Which involved waiting in a line that puts even the best wait at Disneyland, during New Years to shame. It was more like following a parade route through Sannomiya (the district of Kobe we were in) than waiting to see anything
It took us about a half an hour of shuffling along with the herd before we finally approached what drew so many people to Kobe to stand in line in the cold...
You can see all the cellphones sticking up taking pictures ^_^
From far away it looks like a church, but as you get closer you can see that it's made of many separated arches along an arcade
Once we finally got into it, we started to wonder, there aren't any tickets or anything, it's all outside, how do they enforce the 10pm close time? About 20 seconds after we took this picutre we got the answer
As all the lights went out precicely at 10pm. lol, Japan.
The next day we got up and found an enormous outlet mall near our hostel.
It came complete with a Starbucks, which we hovered around until it opened. While we waited, we took in the view of Akashi Strait, where you can see the longest suspension bridge in the world - the Akashi-Kaikyo Bridge.
Once we got bored of looking at the view, we literally sat outside the Starbucks until it opened. I was too embarrased to walk in immediately after they opened the door... so we waited a good 30 seconds before making our way in ^_^
People here usually assume Theresa is Japanese until she openes her mouth, but nobody makes that mistake with me (I can't quite figure out why... must be something about the way I carry myself -_^). The guy behind the counter was trying to talk to me in English and gave me the price - 4500 yen. Hee hee hee, I didn't have the heart to tell him he was an order of magnitude off, I just smiled and said "wow, great English!" in Japanese. Which ended up endearing us to him apparently as he personally delivered our coffee to our table after making a special trip over to the condiment counter to get cream and sugar and napkins. I love this country!
After Starbucks we headed into Kobe and visited the Chinese market.
Theresa was in heaven, and I got my first taste of bubble tea!
And then, before we left, we set off in search of Kobe beef for lunch. Which turned out to be quite the odyssey as we could not find ONE coin locker in the station. Not one! So we hauled all our crap with us, all over Sannomiya looking for a restaraunt in the guidebook. Which we neved did find. But we took a chance and actually ended up in a great tempanyaki restaraunt with a nice view of the city and a good lunch deal.
The beef was really good. Well worth it's reputation.
After we finished eating, and while we were drinking our coffee, one of the watiers/ cooks brought out a giant slab of Kobe beef and plopped it on the grill in front of us. Bewildered, we just looked from it, to him, and back to it, before he said "take a picture"...
And then he said "now I'll take a picture of you with the beef." Quite matter-of-factly. And so, I found myself holding a giant cut of raw cow, an inch from my face...
I kept going back and forth between a smile and a strange look on my face, and managed to wind up with a strange-looking smile instead, ha ha ha.
After that we got some Kobe Pudding (which all of my students had instructed me to get when I told them I was going), and headed home. To the snow!
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