Snapshot Saturday #3 - A Short Bike ride, then... PARTY! - Halloween in Aomori (10/31)

Being a hermit for the past few days made me desprately want to get out, even though I had plans for Halloween night. My friend and I biked up the road that went parallel to the coast and eventually got this sight when we reached the area where my base school was. It wasn't as great a sight as I hoped, but on the plus side - exercise!

(L-R) Peter, Kelsey, Me

At the venue for the ALT Aomori Prefecture Halloween celebration. Lots of alcohol was to be had here. Had a Strong and another chu-hai while walking to the venue (Strong is the brand name of a popular chu-hai. Chu-hais are basically delicious mixed drinks in cans coming in flavors ranging from pear, to peach and proofs of 6 to 16. Strong is 9% alcohol!) Oh yeah, and you can legally drink in public in Japan. AWESOME RIGHT. Drink a beer while passing a cop on the street, they can't do anything to you!

Already drunk at this point - and so are these random Japanese folk! This is technically "after" the ALT party. The ALT party stopped at around 11PM, and from there a party with a different host took over, and a whole bunch of Japanese pepole came in. Apparently the DJ was famous? and from Tokyo? It became much more fun after the crowds came in though, for sure.

Another photo with some random Japanese folks. Throughout the night in my drunken stupor, I would shout over the blasting music to random people, "一緒に！一緒に！" (issho ni! issho ni!; together! together!) and dragged countless Japanese people, some of whom were sober, and not feeling it, to the dance floor and to the raised dancing platform.

Last photo to conclude the night. The 3 people no the left are ALTs and the 3 girls on the right are complete strangers. Someone shouted at me to take a picture with them so, still drunk, I thought, "why not?"

Snapshot Saturday #2 - 「ビタミン愛」と「久保田酒」 (10/24)

Today's Snapshot Saturday is called ビタミン愛 (bitamin ai; Vitamin Love or Vitamin "I") and お酒 (osake; alcohol). The first title, bitamin ai means Vitamin Love in English, but phonically, it sounds like Vitamin I, so it's a Japanese pun / play on words.

ビタミン愛

"Vitamin I" was the title of this month's free lunch event that a professor from Aomori University helps lead every month. It's a way for the community members, and especially the elderly, to gather and eat lunch together. They particularly focus on the elderly as well because often times they live alone and as they say, "eating lunch with others is always more enjoyable than eating lunch alone". A member of the group who helps lead the free event explained that every piece of food that we make, and every step of the process, has love in it - from the folks who grow the crops (which were locally grown and donated for free) and we who cook the meals, to the customers who eat them.

We started work at 9:00AM and had until a bit after noon to prepare the meals. We made Miso Soup, Croquettes, Salad, Chopped Apples and served green tea from Korea - all from scratch! Each time they hold this event, they aim to serve 50 guests, so preparing the food in just a few hours was definitely a group effort. Everyone was always doing something.

Among the volunteers who were helping cook the meal were Thai exchange students from Hirosaki University and Vietnamese exchange students from Aomori Chuo Gakuin University, which made the experience even more enjoyable. It was interesting because while the Vietnamese exchange students knew a bit of English, we mainly relied on our Japanese speaking ability to communicate with each other. I felt much less pressure than I do when I usually speak Japanese because all of us were around the same age give or take a few years, and Japanese was also their second language.

Long story short, we managed to pull through while getting to know our fellow volunteers. Among the group were 2 Vietnamese students, 4 Thai students, the 4 older Japanese women who organize these events, and us 5 Americans, among a few others.

By 1:30PM, the last guest was served and the folks who organized the event said that we can have free time and explore the building until 2:00PM. One of the older ladies chimed in emphasizing that "We should be here at 2:00PM sharp to start cleaning up. Japanese time, not American time."the statement rubbed me the wrong way a bit, but every single one of these women were so casual and cordial that I couldn't stay bothered for long. While exploring we went through a WWII exhibit and a "planetarium" that mostly consisted of constellation stuff. By 1:55PM we came back and helped clean. When we finished, a Japanese woman from a room that was holding a tea ceremony demonstration recognized one of the American ALTs who had been in Aomori for 5 years and invited 10 of us to watch and participate, so we did. We watched 4 girls, probably around 10-12 years old serve us tea, and the older woman in charge explained each step, each rule, and what we should say. Side note: There are TONS of rules. OMG. After that, the same older woman gave us a demonstration on the Korean Drum.

Korean Drum performance. She told us afterwards a story about how N. Koreans would kidnap Japanese people using the large bag things that carry the drums.

Tea Ceremony with a young apprentice.

By around 3:00PM we were all finished cooking and cleaning and so all began heading home.

Clockwise from Me: Andrew, _____, Shonda, _____, _____, _____,
Niiyama-sensei, Mi, Bo, Som, Kelsey, Heidi, Phi, Huy, Sasha

久保田酒

The next portion of this blog post will be about the evening where I was luckily invited to a sake tasting event by a fellow ALT who had an open spot. The ALT who invited me was actually invited by a man who has been teaching her calligraphy, and she wanted to know if I was interested as well. Since I expressed that I was, the man who was teaching her wanted to use this event as a means to get to know me better in order to decide whether or not he will take me under his wing as well. Besides me, Tiffany (the other ALT), and the man who is teaching her calligraphy, we were accompanied by many other of his friends who were all retired high school teachers aged somewhere between their late-40's and early 60's. Nonetheless, they were all very friendly -- and even moreso after a few glasses of sake.

The title of this portion, 久保田酒 (ENG: Kubota Sake) is actually the brand name of the sake that we tasted. There were 6 different sake choices to choose from, and we were given glasses to try 4 of them.

The sake that I tasted (From L to R): Kobata Hyakuju, Kobata Senju, Kobata Manju, and Kobata Kouju

We were also served small dishes of assorted foods on the table that included chikin karaage (ENG: Fried Chicken), Sashimi, some beef dish, vegetables, and other things. The total fee for the event was 5,000 yen, but was worth it nonetheless.

Everyone got drunk quite fast. I personally talked a lot to the man on my left (Tiffany was on my right) who was a retired high school English teacher named Mr. Ikaria (I think). He had really great English and was so extremely friendly. The sake helped make things even more casual and had a great conversation, probably around 40% of the conversation was simply laughter. The rest was small talk and conversations about sake, Japanese, and Japan. We later had a visitor from another table too who was blowing kisses to Tiffany. Her name was. Ms. Osanai and was probably mid-50's or 60's (and most likely a lightweight, happy drunk). She was super friendly, and invited us two to go to her cafe that was opening up called Cafe 0371. The title is actually another play on words based off of her name. If you take the first hiragana "letter" from each number, it spells her name, with the exception of 0. In Japanese, it's kafee zero(O) san nana ichi. If you put the bold parts together, it spells (O)sanai, which is her name!! Cool right?

Besides sitting at the table and enjoying conversation with the teachers and Tiffany, there was a stand in the back where you would first taste 3 different sakes. Then, you would try a taste of 5 different, unlabled sakes. The goal was to correctly guess which bottles were the 3 sakes that you originally tasted. Tiffany and I got only 1 of the 3 correct... we also had to make sure not to pour too much into the glasses since sake is as strong as wine.

Anyways, the night was great -- we had a lot of great conversations and, actually, I enjoyed this night more so than the Welcome / Sports Festival Enkai that I went to with my Base Schools. The older, retired teachers were much more laid back and it probably helped that this wasn't exactly a work function.

As we left, we were all a good amount tipsy/drunk, and while we headed to the elevator, one of the men in our group was saying something in Japanese, and so Mr. Ikaria translated, saying that he was jealous of my height. The other man gave me a soft slap across the cheek, but it was all in good fun and didn't hurt at all.

All in all, the drinking event was one of the most fun I've had in a really long time and by far the best drinking event that I've been to (Out of only about 3-4 drinking events that I've been to in the almost 3 months I've been here). Tiffany and I went to Starbucks at around 8:30PM after the event ended, and gave ourselves some time to sober up before biking home. We ran into our P.A. (Prefectural Advisor) and chatted with him for a bit before it was time to go.

Anyways, that was my Saturday. Hopefully I can keep this up -- Until next time family and friendsss!

Homesickness and Difficulties Abroad

I'll admit it. I'm getting homesick.

As bad as it sounds, it's not so much the individual people that I'm missing -- I can see them over webcam (thuogh I've been slacking on that, too). It's the overall sense of being in a place where you can feel "at home" and relaxed without worrying about not being able to communicate with folks on the bus trying to talk to you, your coworkers at work, or even grocery store clerks.

It's not all bad, though.

When I visit my schools, the students are usually quite excited to see me. I often hear them saying "Andrew da!" (It's Andrew!) or something along the lines of that. Middle schoolers are less energetic in the classroom, but they always say hello to me as I pass through the halls, and I give them high-fives in return (JPN: hai tatchi; high touch). There have been occassions where some students have stopped me for a short conversation inbetween classes, but even that is a struggle at times because there's so much more that I want to say (probably the same case for the student), but we just have such a large language barrier.

Elementary schoolers are genki all the time. In and outside the classroom. They scream "hello!!!" to me as I pass through the halls and stick their hands out for high-fives as well. Them being energetic in the classrooms, and the teachers generally being more laid back takes some stress off my shoulders as well, but I just wish there was a way that I can magically be fluent in Japanese, or my teachers in English.

Also, there are some coworkers of mine in a few of my visit schools that are absolutely amazing. Today for example, I was talking to my visit junior high school janitor who was waiting at the same bus stop that I was. His knowledge of English was about the same if not more than my knowledge in Japanese. I feel like there is no tension or anything when talking to him, so I don't hesitate to say hello and engage in conversation. The whole conversation is in Japanese, with the exception of a few English words when I don't know it in Japanese. He corrects my Japanese when I say something incorrect, and makes small talk at school when I'm there. At that same school, my teachers are better at English than my base school, so I speak to them and they speak to me. There's also a person at the front gate (who I guess might be like the school clerk) who is comparatively very good at English and we talk as well.

I think most of the stress appears when I'm at my base school, but I do have moments where I silently get stressed out and frustrated at the other schools. Half of time it's during the 5 minute discussions with the teachers before class. The elementary school teachers explain it in Japanese, but there is a resource setup where we can print the lesson plans in English. However, they still add small changes to the lesson plan, and those changes are hard to understand at times. I can probably understand around 30-40% of what they're saying, but it's not enough. The second half is from general communication with coworkers during work. I've been here only for 2 weeks. I don't know the office culture, and I don't have a strong grasp on the language. If I were to speak up, I would only be able to ask simple questions in Japanese. Furthermore, people engrained in our heads that Japanese schoolteathers work 10+ hours a day and are very busy so I feel like there is no time to chat. Another part of it is nerves, which I have a lot of. I'm a bit too shy for my own good -- but there are still times where I do engage in simple conversations.

I think that this feeling that I've been having for around a week or so is akin to the feeling that I had when I first left for college. It's textbook homesickness. It's the sort of feeling where, if I went home, I'd feel like I'd become 50 pounds lighter. Like a giant weight has been lifted and I can finally relax.

Getting into this slump also sort of creates a chain reaction. Just before writing this, I was thinking about what songs there are about California or San Francisco, so I listened to a few songs on YouTube. And just now I was thinking about how warm it must be in the Bay Area right now, comparatively.

That being said, there's obviously a list of things that I could do to "fix" this. I put fix in quotations just becuase I'm honestly a bit skeptic that it'd fix the problem. I think the "fixes" would be short term fixes, but the feelings would once again appear in time. For example, I can reach out to the other ALTs and hang out with them to get my fix of English in for the day, but then what about after that? I could be advised to just speak with my coworkers and not be afraid of making mistakes or interrupting them, but I'm quite shy with folks that I don't really feel comfortable with, so it's easier said than done. It's not like someone could tell the folks in my base school to just speak more English with me -- I wouldn't really want to force that on them just to make my life easier. I'm the sort of person that, as bad as it might be on myself, doesn't want to "burden" others by asking favors, or asking them to do something on my behalf. So, I'm sort of in a pickle.

But rather than being cynical and talking about all the negativity about my situation, I need to just find a way to change my mindset, or simply gamansuru (ENG: to endure) because I know, in time, this feeling'll pass.

Apart from all the ranting, there are some key takeaways for people who are thinking about living abroad in a non-English speaking country or doing the JET Program.

1. Homesickness is real - don't assume that you won't get it. You'll see it pop up in different forms. You might not miss people... you might miss your hometown in general and just the general feeling of being in your comfort zone. You'll be finding yourself in your awesome, inexpensive apartment thinking that it's way too quiet, it's way too cold, and that you wish you were home.
2. Don't expect that your Japanese coworkers or EVEN YOUR JTEs will have conversational English. This is something I assumed prior to the JET program, and while I wasn't entirely wrong, the JTEs don't have the English level that I was expecting, and they weren't as excited for me to be there as I was expecting either. What I expected from the JET Program didn't match up exactly with what I am now experiencing. You might be finding yourself at your desk inbetween classes just looking at your desk if you didn't bring work to do / don't have any work to do since you don't want to disturb your coworkers / cannot speak English.
3. Assume a certain level of uncomfortability at the workplace and in day-to-day life if you can't speak or read Japanese. There is a chance that you'll be placed in a small city, town, or village that doesn't have many accommodations for those who speak English. You'll need to get accustomed to what your bus stop's kanji looks like and how it sounds just to get to and from home, you'll probably be trying to look for something at a grocery store, going aisle to aisle just to find it, and if you meet some nice old lady who's speaking your region's dialect you might not be able to respond. It's pretty stressful.

As a parting gift, here's one of the songs I was just listening to before I wrote this post... I actually have never heard of them before, but I really enjoy the song / music video!

(Day 80) Oirase Stream / Lake Towada

Two days ago (10.19.2015), Ben, Sasha, Kelsey and I took a bus to Ishigedo Station along the Oirase Stream. It took around 2.5 hours to get there, but it was well worth it.

Kōyō (ENG: Autumn Leaves) were changing and so during the bus ride there as well as the moment we got off, I felt overwhelmed by all the brilliant yellows, oranges, and reds. As we rode to Ishigedo, I met a man who was from Seattle and was in Japan for a business trip. There were a surprising amount of English speakers, which included a few folks from the U.S. and a few Chinese people who spoke English well.

From Ishigedo station, we rested for a bit as we were all hungry from the lack of a proper breakfast. We took the 7:50AM bus from Aomori Station and arrived at Ishigedo at around 11AM. So, instead of starting the hike right away, we stopped by a small souvenir / snack shop.

Clockwise starting @ top left: Half & Half, Dark Lager, Weizen, Pilsner

Unfortunately, I had a few impulse buys, but I don't regret any of it. I ended up buying a Tohoku Apple flavored Hi-Chew (5pk), a handkerchief for my Mom (Mom I hope you don't see this), a 4-pocket hanger with 3 hooks on the bottom with an Aomori Prefecture theme, and 2 bottles of Oirase Brewery Beer (Weizen and Dark Lager - The Dark Lager was an Asia Beer 2015 winner). After that we stopped by the vending machines, where I bought a couple more drinks.

The hike itself was about 3 hours long. It would've been shorter, but we stopped like every 5 minutes on the first half of the hike. We came across a older man who spoke tons of English to us and was apparently from a suburb between Nara and Kyoto, a man who was painting the river scene, and a few old obaachan (ENG: Grandmas) whom we spoke with about mushrooms along the trail.

The Oirase Stream a few moments after starting the hike.

A stone stairway with wooden railings covered in moss.

Another beautiful view of the Fall leaves and Oirase Stream.

One of the many waterfalls that we saw on the hike along Oirase Stream. Photo Credit: Ben

Running into the old ladies was actually a fun encounter because after talking about the first set of mushrooms, one of the old ladies shouted back at us, "Hey! Hey! Hey!" Sasha and I looked back at them, and all they wanted to show us was a different kind of mushroom that they wanted to point out.

So, after around 3 hours, we made it to Nenokuchi Station, which is the stop where Oirase Stream meets Lake Towada. Just before the lake, the stream was dammed up, and on the part of the stream that meets the lake, there was crystal clear water, as well as some fishes in the river.

Crystal Clear portion of the Oirase Stream after what I thought was a dam. If you look closely, you should be able to see some small trout swimming about.

The sight of the Lake was beautiful. It sort of reminded me of Lake Tahoe, but the mountains in the background looked completely different. We decided against taking a ferry on the lake since we were pressed for time, and instead had lunch at one of their restaurants, and waited out the rest of downtime at the bus station. I saw a Apple Chocolate Bar (White Chocolate w/ Apple Flavor) and it was actually pretty good.

Photo of Lake Towada, taken at the mouth of the river where Oirase meets Towada.

(Day 77) 中学校文化祭 Base School's Culture Festival

Today I went to my base school's culture festival. My feelings about it were sort of like a mixed bag because I wasn't invited by my coworkers to the Bunkasai Work Party following the end of the festival. Regardless, I still went and enjoyed it. It was a very small-scale festival, held within the school building itself. Upon arrival I watched each class from each grade sing in a chorus. I wasn't too sure how it was all setup, but it was my understanding that they were competing against each other. They all sounded great, but at the end of the day, the teachers would announce who won / did the best.

After the chorus, we were allowed to walk around the school to see each of the exhibits that the classes made for culture festival. There were exhibits showing calligraphy, woodwork, crafts, writing, and even elementary schoolers' crafts.

Elementary Schooler's Crafts Exhibit

Scarecrows made by the middle schoolers.

Throughout the free time I kept running into my students, who didn't interact with me too much, but still smiled and said "hello!" to me as I passed by. One of my notoriously genki and noisy 1st year student tried selling me the snacks that he bought (or at least that's what I took it as). I kept refusing and told him to eat it, but instead he followed me around for a little while, lowering the price until he ultimately offered to give it to me for free, but I thought that he should have it since it was his, and I also didn't know why he was offering it to me, and whether or not I would be allowed to take food from the kid.

Later, I ran into my teacher, who in hindsight I should've asked about the enkai, but I felt too uncomfortable to ask because I didn't do anything prior to bunkasai to help prepare and they haven't told me or given any hint that I was welcome to go (despite the fact that every single ALT's schools invited them and it's basically assumed that we're invited, even if we don't do anything to help prepare). We talked a bit about bunkasai and she was trying to explain and point out some of the exhibits that I had already looked at, then told me that I should eat lunch.I saw a line earlier on the first floor, but I didn't know what it was for. She explained that it was the line to buy lunch tickets that we redeem on the 3rd floor for several different menu items. I bought coupons for karaage and yakisoba. 

When I was eating, I was complimented on my ability to use chopsticks, which is something that every single foreigner gets complimented on. I tried explaining to her that there are many Japanese restaurants in America, and so there are many Americans who are able to use chopsticks. I added that my Dad is also good at using chopsticks as well. After the woman left, I started talking with the other man who was sitting at our desk and asked about how long I'd be in Aomori, and let him know that I'd be here for a year. We talked about my hometown of San Francisco for a few minutes and he told me about how he went to San Francisco 35 years ago.

Afterwards, we reconvened at the gym to watch the last bits of Bunkasai. We watched a Karate demonstration, a singing performance by a student, a demonstration of Nebuta dancing, a Yosakoi dance demonstration, and lastly a short Alice in Wonderland play. Obviously there are students who are talented, but it didn't really click until then. The student who sang a song sang absolutely brilliantly. He sung a song called "I Love You," which resulted in many students chuckling since they're at that age where that's the natural response to anyone who says that phrase. For security reasons, as much as I want to, I can't post the video of him singing, but this is a video of the song that he sung, by the original artist.

The festival ended with a few teachers announcing the winners of each of the chorus competitions. Many of the different teams won in different categories, but one of the 3rd year classes seeemed to win the most. Oddly enough, the students were really into it because after the announcements, some of the teams began to cry.

Another note about the festival, or rather any sort of ceremony in general, the students seem to be so well disciplined. They know what to do, when to do it, how to boy, where to walk, and teachers circle around them like sharks to make sure they're behaving.

By the end of the ceremony, bunkasai ended, and I walked to the bus stop to go home. It was only around 4:55pm at this time and the sun was already going down. When I got on the bus, there was a small baby, less than 2 years old, and I started talking with the mother and who I assumed was the grandma. We did a bit of small-talk and she complimented me on my Japanese. We talked about Aomori Winters as well as my job as an ALT. She was curious about what the elementary school students are learning, and I let her know that they're learning about days of the week, months, counting from 1 to 31, and other simple things. It was actually a really enjoyable conversation that sort dissipated some of the bitterness I was holding onto that day. I even missed my stop, but it was worth it. 

Now, it's 7:38PM and I don't have any other plans for tonight, hence the blog post! I haven't eaten dinner yet, and since It's long overdue, I'll probably do some cleaning or shopping or something like that.

Admittedly, I am beginning to either get winter blues or homesick because I don't so much miss seeing or hearing people (since that can be fixed by webcaming), but rather I miss being surrounded by an environment where I can easily communicate with others and feel relaxed beecause of it. I'll keep active though so that I can fight that feeling of. Homesickness is all part of the experience anyways, right? (It's not that bad, so please don't worry). 

Anyways, until next time everyone! I hope you're all doing well back home. If you're reading this, please get in contact with me so that we can webcam over the weekend or something since weekdays don't really leave any time to webcam because of the time difference.

Snapchat Saturday #1 - 駅伝 (10/19)

Snapshot Saturdays: Every Saturday I will be posting a photo of something I did that day, so that I can 
1) Keep track of the things that I do on weekends
2) motivate myself to keep busy since we only have 52 weekends throughout our year on the JET Program.

This Saturday, on October 17th, I participated in Aomori City's ekiden, the teams competing were made up of people that work for the city. There were 6 people on our team and there were about 12 kilometers to run in total. I ran first so I had to run 3 kilometers whereas everyone else ran 2 or 1 kilometer, but I managed to pull through without a lot of practice (I should've practiced much more than I did).

The race was held at Aomori Prefecture's Sports Park (JPN: 青森県総合運動公園) and the park was full of trees that were starting to change color.

The whole park was so beautiful. I've never seen this much open space designated as a sports park.
Until then, I had only seen dirt tracks, but this park had a well-paved track that part of the relay was held on. Not only that, but until that day we've been having super cold, rainy, overcast day so this was a real treat.

The race was in general really fun actually. Although I felt like I was going to collapse immediately after my 3k (showing how unfit I had become) I was able to talk with some other BoE workers (whose names I sadly didn't get / don't remember) and get to talk a bit more with the BoE workers that I had already met.

We didn't get first place, but we didn't get last place either. I got to keep the team number that we had to pin to ourselves, so I'll have that as memorabelia. Each team also got a prize for competing, even if they didn't place well. Turns out, out prize was just a box of 黒豆茶 (Black Bean Tea) which actually didn't taste that bad. Someone also handed out gifts individually for each of us, which ended up just being some type of Fabreeze-like spray, but the thought was nice.

All in all it was a good, warm day. After the race, I was supposed to go to my school's bunkasai (ENG: Culture Festival) but I didn't have enough time after eating lunch and showering. I also lost my keys for a quick 20 minutes, but it turns out it was in my supervisors car, who gave me a ride to the track.

(Day 75) Bunkasai Preparation Day and Bus Debacle

Today was kind of a confusing day for me. In the beginning of the week, my JTE (Japanese Teacher of English) gave me the weekly schedule and said that "you don't have classes on Friday." I wasn't sure if this mean't that I should go to the BoE office or that I just won't have classes that day and am still expected to go to the school. In hindsight, I should've asked because then it would've prevented this confusing situation I was in today.

Last night, on Thursday, I asked fellow ALTs on what they're doing since Friday is the day that everyone is preparing for Bunkasai (EN: Culture Festival). Bunkasai preparation is the reason why I didn't have any classes, but I also overheard them say, in Japanese, that they won't be serving lunch either. I was told by my ALT senpai (EN: Senior) that I should just go anyway and ask if they need help, so I did just that.

Upon arriving, none of the teachers were in the staff room except for my kyoto-sensei (EN: Vice-Principal). I asked him if there's anything that I can do to help prepare for bunkasai and he simply told me to walk around the halls and see if anyone needed help. At this time, at roughly 8:30-8:40AM, everyone was still in their homerooms doing what I assumed were morning announcement. So I walked around the halls for a bit, then just returned to the staffroom. On the way back, I ran into my 3rd year JTE and asked her if she needed any help. She suggested that since all the students are going to be doing their own thing, I should just return to the BoE office. So, after about an hour, I did.

I talked to my kyoto-sensei and told him that since they are not serving lunch today, and since there's nothing that I can do, I will go back the BoE office. As a rebuttle, he showed me the form where teachers were putting their order in for bento for ~600-700 yen. I decided against it and he said it was fine if I went.

Around 10:00AM I left for the bus stop.

As a side note, busses work differently than in the U.S. In Aomori.

In Aomori, you enter through the door in the back. Just next to the door, on the inside right side is a mini box that dispenses tickets. You need to grab one of these paper stubs because they keep track of which bus stop you got on at. On the front of the bus, you'll see a screen towards the cieling that'll display what stop is next as well as a chart with numbers, telling you how much money you need to pay the driver, depending on what stop you got on at. When you disembark, you walk to the front of the bus, drop your ticket into a receiptical thing, which then automatically tells you how much money you owe.

So. As I was on the bus, I realized I forgot to grab my ticket stub, so when I got off I had to basically say, "Sumimasen, kippu wo totteimasendeshita. nibandeshita." (EN: Sorry, I didn't take a ticket. I was number 2). The bus was crowded with obaachans (EN: Grandmas) too so it was hard getting through. I felt pretty bad.

Hopefully that whole bus debacle won't happen again. I hear that it's quite common for people to forget to grab a ticket, so maybe it will. Also, in regards to the confusion about whether or not I was really supposed to go to school, I'm not sure if I'll figure that out -- it's an issue of communication.

(P.S. Apparently there are enkai (EN: Work party) after bunkasai. Usually the ALT gets invited to that as well, but I wasn't told anything. If they aren't told, they usually get a slip of paper explaining the price, where, and when the enkai  would be taking place, but I didn't receive any sort of slip either.

I'm at the BOE office now. I've got a race tomorrow, and my school's bunkasai through the whole weekend, so I might go to those. We'll see though.

Besides work, I still want to visit Lake Towada to see the leaves change color. The leaves are changing now, so I hope to catch it before the first snow falls.

UNTIL THEN!!!

(Day 74) The Middle Schoolers are Finally Warming Up

Today was actually a pretty good day. First off, I was only scheduled for one class today, but I ended up getting two! - Both of them were with 1st year classes (7th graders) so they were all very genki (EN: energetic).

My first class of the day was the class that my kyoto-sensei (EN: Vice Principal) assigned me. He is also the English teacher for 1st year students. It wasn't until lunch time, however, that I really noticed kids were warming up to me.

For lunch, I usually rotate through each class of each grade. This week, I was rotating through they 2nd year classes (8th graders). They're usually not really a talkative bunch - by 2nd and 3rd year of Junior High School, they all become quite shy -- especially with English. Today's lunch, however, was a breakthrough lunch in my opinion. The students must've gotten to the point of feeling comfortable enough with me to speak English, even if it's not too good. One student was talking to me, asking in broken English, "What...ramen......kind....duu....like" or something alone the lines of that. Still it was a good gesture and it definitely means there's progress being made.

After lunch I was walking back to the Staff Room, saying "hello!" to all the students passing by, when one of the 3rd years (9th graders) saw me and gave me a very genki "HELLO!"
 He started talking to me a lot in broken English and I figured out that he was captain of the school's baseball team. I also learned that he was a pitcher and also knew about Buster Posey ("He is number one catcher!" he says) I asked if he wanted to become a professional baseball player, but he said no. I started asking if he wanted to play for any of the Japanese teams, and it seems that he wants to play for the team in Osaka, Japan.

Anyways, as I was talking to him, more 3rd year students were strolling by -- most of them would be stretching their arm out, getting ready for a high-five, as I seem to have made that a common greeting with the students (but they like it, so yay). One boy passed by, gave me a high five, and suddenly, after that, he gave me a sort-of half hug. My reaction was something along the lines of "Um, Oh, what? Awww"I was under the assumption that kids his age felt "too cool" to do anything like that, or that they simply grew out of it.

After lunch was 5th period. I was scheduled to go with Kyoto-sensei to his 5th period English class, so I went. This class was crazy genki. They had so much energy despite saying that they were all tired when I was doing the daily greetings. We were planning to play a game of bingo with the new vocabulary, but the sheets were misplaced, so we got straight into the day's lesson, which was "self introductions". Many of the students were asking for my help. So, between the talk with the 2nd years during lunch, the talk with the 3rd year baseball captain after lunch, the countless high-fives and my 1st year classes, I'm starting to think that they're finally starting to warm up to me. Even if they aren't, today was a good day.

(Day 71) Oni Gokko, Enkai, Volunteering at Aomori University

Hello family and friends! It's been about a week since I've written in this blog, so let me get you up to speed! Another disclaimer. I know this is written really poorly, I tried fixing it like two times, while still making it sort of stream-of-consciousness. Didn't really work so I gave up, but please enjoy it still. Something's better than nothing when updating folks back home about my life here.

Monday, Oct. 5

I had my base school today. This is when I wrote my previous blog post. I didn't have any classes, so it was a pretty lazy day and I was just sitting at my desk all day.

Tuesday + Wednesday, Oct 6+7

Tuesday and Wednesday were a particularly good set of days. On these days, I was at elementary school and for the first time, the kids asked me to play Oni Gokko, which is Japan's version of tag. They picked me up at the Staff Room since they're required to clean the school after lunch for like 10-15 minutes. Once we got outside, the kids tugged at my arm, signaling that it was time to run as the oni counted to 10. As we ran across the field, this little 1st grader tugged at my arm, trying to compete for my attention and latched on to me, but sadly I couldn't stay since I already gave my time to the 5th graders. As lunch break continued, more kids joined in and I was basically lost as to who was playing and who wasn't.

As one would expect I got tired before the kids and I kept saying tsukareta to them to let them know that I was out of breath, but they just kept running on, taunting me to try and chase them since I became the oni. Luckily after sitting on the struggle-bus for a while, the bell rang and we head back inside. I returned to the office, drenched with sweat and very uncomfortable in my work clothes. It was time to leave anyways, so I packed up and headed for the bus stop.

That night, since I'm signed up to run a relay-12k (I'm running 3 of the 12 kilometers) I practiced and I was glad to find out that I was able to run 3k. (It's an accomplishment since I haven't run in a long time). I took it very easy after that.

On Wednesday, I worked with the 6th graders. None of the kids really asked me to play tag during lunch, so I left for the bus stop right after I finished eating. I was sort of relieved though, because it turns out I was kind of sore.... and I was starting to feel sick.

Thursday + Friday, Oct 8+9

On these days I was at my Visit Middle School. We did one-on-one Q and A tests for all the classes that I was scheduled for. It was basically a 2 minute quick session with each student, where I would ask them 3 questions, 1-2 of them being yes/no answers, and then I'd grade them based on how they responded.

Friday was a short day for us because both ALTs and JTEs were required to go to an event called Chu-Kyo-Ten. Chu-Kyo-Ten is basically an event made so that ALTs and JTEs can team teach better. The event concluded at about 1PM, so a few of us ALTs went out for lunch.

We went to the first place we saw, and it ended up being a hidden gem. There were about 5 of us foreigners and we walked into this small mom and pop restaurant. We were seated right away, and the woman who took our order was so kind!

First off, the prices were crazy -- we were able to get a Set Meal (Miso Soup, Salad, Pickles, +Entree) for only 500-600Yen!! She also gave each of us a pear towards the end of our meal, and some much needed coffee, free of charge. She was a very pleasant lady and told us to come back next time.

Later, I went to an ALT-organized Enkai (Work Party), which consisted of dinner at a local burger joint and Karaoke for (5,000Y). There were about 15 of us including our supervisor at the Board of Education and a few others. We talked and ate for a few hours before relocating to the karaoke place where beers, drinks, snacks and mixers were provided.

Starting Wed/Thurs I had started feeling sick, so throughout the Enkai I didn't feel too well, but I persevered. I only had a small headache and body aches, so it wasn't too bad.

Saturday

Saturday was a recovery day basically. Also, I had signed up to volunteer at a Aomori University event, so I had to make a poster. Another ALT from Hachinohe named Liz came to the city and spent the night at a friend's house and we all hung out while putting our posters together. It was a pretty lax day -- we had Indian food for dinner at a place called Tajis

Sunday

On Sunday, myself and a few others were driven to Aomori University in the morning to volunteer at their school's festival. We were in a room that was dubbed "English World on Campus" or something. There were some presentations about the UK, Romania, and Canada and afterwards we had small talk with Japanese people who wanted to know more about where we were from.

During lunch, our hosts took us around campus to get food from the stalls, and we were able to get a few free things, probably because we were foreign and the students were excited to see us. Regardless, it was a good time.

I talked with one guy who was in the Writing Club and wanted to study abroad in California since he was studying Sociology, but it was too expensive. I told him about California and we talked about movies based out of San Francisco as well as things to do in California and eventually the conversation led to Anime and so I told him about Avatar: The Last Airbender, and he introduced me to an anime called Tokyo Ghoul -- I only just started watching it. It seems pretty interesting.

Monday

Monday was definitely a lazy day. I didn't get up until 2PM. It was needed since I have been sick. I stayed in and watched some Netflix, then eventually went to an ALT neighbor's apartment to hang out.

That's pretty much it. Sorry for the wordiness....

As of now, I'm STILL sick. I don't have a headache / body ache like I did on Thursday, but I do now have a cold -- I've got a crazy runny nose and It's super annoying. I got two more classes with the second-year students, and it's almost lunch.... UNTIL NEXT TIME.

(Sorry this entry is pertty lame)

(Day +63) Winter is Coming

First off, apologies for not starting this blog earlier. Between work, exploring, getting internet set up, and all the other things I needed to take care of, I couldn't really get to this blog that I wanted to write. BUT! Now that I downloaded an app that is allowing me to tether, I can use the spare time at work to write this family and friends back home who may want to read my wordy, stream-of-consciousness blog posts about my time in Japan.

I'm awkwardly starting you about 2 months into my 12 month stint in Japan, but maybe I'll return to some of the earlier dates to sort of give you an idea of what's been going on. Maybe I'll start a weekly photo thing, or a post about my living situation, pay, etc., but for now we'll start with what's happening now.


ANYWAYS, Hello! Good morning! buenos dias! おはようございます！Guten Tag! It's 9:49AM as I write this -- It's about 5PM yesterday in the U.S. I'm not scheduled for any classes so I have toooonns of time to do "stuff," which in this case is writing a blog. :)

Until now, Japan's had a policy called "Cool Biz" in order to save energy that is typically spent on A/C units during the summer. "Cool Biz" encourages office workers to forego the Tie and Jacket for just slacks and a short-sleeved dress shirt. Now that the weather is cooling down (Especially in Aomori), I'm starting to get the hint that Cool Biz is over. Nearly all of my co-workers are back to the fancy tie + jacket routine, and I suppose I will have to follow suit (get it?) as well. They should really create a thing called "Warm Biz" where you can just come to work in your pajamas to work for the coming winter.

Along with the dress-code change, the weather's been changing as well. Up until now, we've been having weather that's very similar to that of San Francisco -- Half cloudy, blue skies, cool breeze, warm weather. It's been super pleasant. However, since the start of October, we've been getting stronger wind, colder weather, and rain. It's been more difficult to get out of bed, and unfortunately it's only going to get colder.

Since we're creeping into Autumn, the leaves will begin to change colors soon. In Japan, the leaves first begin to change in the north and go in a southward direction. That means that, generally, we in Aomori will get to see the leaves change before the rest of Japan down south. In my prefecture, the peak time for viewing the leaves change is mid-October. The trees on the summits of the surrounding mountains apparently change in late-September, early-October, so they should be changing around now. However, I still haven't seen anything yet.

Despite the colder weather, I still intend on doing home hiking through the red, yellow, and orange trees of Autumn at one of two well-known areas for viewing the leaves changing: Lake Towada and Mt. Hakkoda. Lake Towada / Oirase Stream is the most famous places to view the change in Aomori Prefecture and so I'll try to go here in mid-October (about 2 weeks) before we start getting snowed in. I'll upload some photos of the place when I go, but until then, here's a spoiler.

Source: http://www.japan-guide.com/blog/koyo12/g/121031_19.jpg

Once the snow sets in, I'm probably going to do a lot more hibernating and less outdoor activities. I won't be able to bike places, it's going to be icy and dangerous to walk, and I might get sick, so I will be living it up and exploring until then (hopefully).
Also, click here for more information about Lake Towada

If you haven't heard me mention it before, Aomori Prefecture gets the some of the heaviest snowfall in the world. Wikipedia says that Aomori gets ~22 feet of snow a year (roughly 6 meters), and more than 80% of it falls in the months of December, January, and February. So that's going to nearly my height in snow for each of those months. Imagine that.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aomori,_Aomori

So. I think I've run out of things to talk about.

Until next time!

tl;dr Weather's getting hella cold. It's gonna get colder. Gotta go see the leaves before I get trapped by the snow. TTYL.

(Day +59) Silver Week in Tokyo

This is a late post but I had a little bit of time so I decided to put this up. When I didn't have tethering, I started a journal on Microsoft Word to kill some time. Here's the entry that I made after coming back from Silver Week.

I’ve run out of things to do at my base school.

Just last night. My supervisor e-mailed me that I would be at the base school both today and tomorrow, instead of one of my elementary schools. This was because of some event and they thought it’d be easier to have me at the elementary school on the 6^th and 7^th of October, so that’s what I’m going to do. This wouldn’t be much of an issue if I was scheduled for classes, since I haven’t seen my students in a while, but…

…for the next 3 visits to my base school (Today, Tomorrow, and Monday) I am not going to be scheduled for any classes because the students are testing. -_______-

I tried killing time by making a budget spreadsheet, but I don’t know all the variables yet so I couldn’t complete it. I think that this spreadsheet will help me save money now that I’m not using the $2,500 USD that I brought from home anymore – that all disappeared into thin air from Silver Week in Tokyo, which by the way was tons of fun.

Silver Week in Tokyo

Friday, Sept. 18

·        Arrived to Tokyo in the Evening – Checked into the hotel with Kevin and met up with Ashley for Chuhais and Ramen for dinner in the Asakusa area.

Saturday, Sept. 19

·        Tokyo Game Show – met up with Jon from I.C.U. for TGS. Stayed there until the evening. Super crowded, a bit hot, and spent tons of money.

·        Met Amy and Kevin in the Evening – After TGS, I charged my phone at the hotel, where they held my luggage, and then met Amy and Kevin at Kami-Itabashi station, where we walked to Amy’s house.

Sunday, Sept. 20

·        Ueno with Scarlett – I met up with Scarlett for lunch in Ueno, then walked around Ueno Park where we went to a temple and I got my fortune, walked around a lake, and also found a sort-of flea market type thing. Saw some cool chopsticks, didn’t buy anything. We played the new Luigi’s Mansion game at a game center.

·        Shabushabu Dinner in Shibuya – Scarlett, Amy, and I met in Shibuya’s Starbucks where we talked, then ate dinner at a Shabu-shabu place that was actually quite inexpensive. We definitely overate and I had to try and finish the rest of the meat. It had good Ramune Icecream. Kevin met up with us towards the end of dinner, but he had to wait outside.

Monday, Sept. 21

·        Ramen Lunch in Nakano – I went to Nakano to have lunch with Shigeru at 1:30PM, but he was late, playing Pachinko. I arrived early so I explored Nakano Broadway, then waited at Starbucks. Later, at about 2:00PM ~ 2:30PM, Kevin met up with me since he was free to have lunch. Shigeru finished playing Pachinko, so we all ate lunch together and had a beer at an Izakaya afterwards. He had a “Hoppy Beer,” which was Soju + a non-alcoholic beer – I’ve never heard of it before.

·        Super Mario Brothers 30^th Anniversary Concert: Amy, Kevin, and I met up prior to line up early. I bought the tickets ahead of time. We had a glass of white wine and a snack (Waffle/Churrito) before the concert. The concert was amazing – the band was composed of a drummer, bongo player, pianist, violinist, trumpet player, saxophone player, electric guitar player, bassist, etc. and had an extremely jazzy feel to it. The lights and the booming music was much more than I expected. Shigeru Miyamoto (Creator of Mario) was there, and ___ Kondo (Composer of Zelda and Mario songs) played us a piano solo encore. We tried buying souvineers afterwards, but more than half the merchandise was sold out – I bought a Kuribo and a Super Mario Brothers coaster.

Tuesday, Sept. 22

·        Mt. Takao Hike – Hiked with Kevin, and Thanwa to the summit of Mt. Takao. It was beyond crowded, but the weather was nice. Amy decided to stay home since she was exhausted from her weekend. The summit was crowded too. It was a fun hike though.

·        Visit to I.C.U. – Amy met up with us at Musashi-sakai station to visit the ICU campus that we all studied at 2 years ago. Amy and I walked to the Honkan, which was locked because it was a holiday, and the Gakki, which was also closed for the same reason. We got into Dialogue House, but the Tomitas weren’t there anymore. At dialogue house, we ran into some of the new UCEAP kids. They weren’t that great. From there we went to Bakayama and relaxed until Kevin messaged us to meet up. We went to Global House (Kevin’s dorm) and met some exchange students there as well.

·        Tare Katsu and Nomikai in Kichijoji – following ICU we went to kichijoji – the place we used to frequent when we were studying abroad. We had dinner at our favorite restaurant with Kevin, Amy, Masaru, Elena myself. We meant to meet up with Go, but it was short notice and difficult to plan, and the restaurant was full so we met up afterwards. We bought Taiyaki at another place that we loved, which sold really good sakusaku Kyarumeru Taiyaki. After we met up with Go, we went to Hanbei – the place that we were meeting for the Nomikai. We met up with Koki and his girlfriend, as well as Thanwa and Alex (Ace) and all enjoyed a Nomikai before having to take the last train home.

Wednesday, Sept. 23

·        Snake Café in Harajuku – Held snakes with Kevin and Ashley.