Jenna in Japan

Valentines day

2008-02-21T20:01:00.000-08:00

So valentines day is interesting here.... On Feb. 14th only the girls give to boys. And what they give aren't little paper valentines, they give various types of chocolate, cakes, cookies, etc. Most of the students at my junior high gave little baggies with cookies or chocolate in them to boys, but not only to boys, they give to other girls too!! I was lucky enough to have a package delivered to me from my wonderful friend Yuri, in Tokyo, with these really cute, and really good, chocolate mini-cakes!!! I was soooooo surprised, and really happy too. I of course didn't send anything to her.... Now that I realize valentines day isn't just for happy couples here, I will make more of an effort to do something next year!! Even a few of my students gave me something, even though I think that a lot of it was pity based... That's ok, I still got chocolate out of it! But apparently I have to give back to them on White day. Which is Mar. 14th. This is when all of the boys give back to the girls who gave to them... And apparently the teachers give back to the students... I still don't understand most of the holidays here, but I'm trying!

Do you know what this is?

2008-02-03T21:54:00.000-08:00

I was teaching a grade 9 class the grammar point "Do you know what this is?" I had made a handout with a bunch of Canadian type things on it, and they were supposed to go around and ask their friends if they knew what the pictures represented. One of the, how should I put this, "less motivated" students started walking toward me. I had a feeling he was going to do something sketchy, because he had the typical smirk on his face like he had thought of something super clever and could barely keep it inside himself. So to my surprise, he started asking the correct question, but the sheet was rolled up in his hands. I told him to use the sheet, but he ignored me of course, and then said "Do you know what THIS is?" As he said "this" he pointed, of course, to his crotch. To be honest, I was actually kind of impressed, because he used the grammar I was teaching in a way that made sense and it showed that he really understood what it meant. Nice.

It's spring?

2008-02-03T21:26:00.000-08:00

Apparently it's supposed to be the begining of Spring already, and doesn't really seem like it at all. Mainly because of the giant piles of snow and cold temperatures of Nayoro. But the "coming of spring" came with some pretty weird traditions.

The first I experienced at one of my elementary schools. They tried to explain it to me in the morning when I got there, but that was a little difficult to do. The first word translated was "setsubun" which translates as "the day before the beginning of spring." Then the word "devil" came up, followed by "peanuts." I had absolutely no clue what they were talking about. What involves the coming of spring, the devil, and peanuts??? Well, apparently you throw peanuts at the devil to chase him away, and then you will have good luck all year. Or at least that is what I got out if it. It turned out to be really fun, a couple teachers dressed up as devils, and then all of the students ran after them and threw handfulls of peanuts at them. It was a chaotic mess of flying peanuts and devils running around chasing screaming kids.

Another tradition I experienced which was a little more low key was at my friend Airi's house. She made a giant rolled sushi for me, her, and her boyfriend, and we had to eat them facing south. You were also not allowed to talk until you were finished eating. The sushi was delicious, I love sushi! Even when I have to eat in in silence facing south.

Oh my god.

2008-01-24T16:11:00.000-08:00

I hope that no one is expecting a super exciting blog because of the title I chose.

My junior high students occasionally use the phrase "oh my god" which is sometimes weird to hear, but I much prefer it to the random swear words they like to use.

However, now my elementary students have started throwing it around. In particular, I was teaching a class, and then all of a sudden a tiny grade 1 student exclaims "oh my god!" This kid can't even understand English conversation, and she uses the phrase "oh my god" perfectly. It's weird to see...

Welcome to Japan.

2008-01-17T13:29:00.000-08:00

My return to Japan wasn't as smooth as I would have hoped. Customs was fine, but I kept filling in the wrong forms, which didn't impress the customs guy. I also barely made my connecting flight in Tokyo, because I had to change airports, and got to my gate as they were doing final boarding. I finally got to Sapporo at 10pm, and then had to drag my 2, 50 pound suitcases, to my hotel in Chitose. The next morning, I went and checked out at decided that even though it was only 3 blocks to the station, I didn't want to drag my bags there, so I asked for a cab. The hotel clerk helped me out to the cab, and the the cab driver asked where I was going. I said the station. Which obviously didn't make the cab driver very happy, I guess they assumed I should just drag my two giant suitcases through snow and uneven ground by myself. Then hotel clerk apologized to the cab driver profusely, on my behalf, reminding me of how over apologetic they are in Japan, and that I was most definately not in Canada anymore. It's funny, Canadians are known for being overly polite and apologetic, but it is nothing compared to Japan. I get out of the cab at the station, apologize a few times, and then all of a sudden, a clerk from the hotel, out of breath, runs up to me holding a key. He thought it was mine, and ran the three blocks to the station. Can you believe that? I don't think that would happen back home. Unfortunately for him, it was not mine, and you could just see his face fall when I told him. Poor guy...

I was riding the train back to Nayoro, and my supervisor told me that her and two men from my office were going to pick me up from the station and take me to my house to check my water. When it comes to things like this, I really don't have a choice. So they took me to my house, where I found out that one of the guys from my office had shoveled all of the snow from in front of my house, and off my car. Which was a LOT.

My house was below zero inside. My plant died completely, and my brita filter, which I had left water in, was frozen solid. I found this out when I wanted a glass of water, and pulled this out of my fridge.

Isn't my poor plant the saddest thing you have ever seen? I obviously should have given it to a friend... Ooops...

Well, the fun didn't stop there. My pipes had frozen, a couple of them burst, and sprayed water all over my house. My BOE had to call in some guys to help me out. At the moment I am without warm water, and I only have running water in my toilet. Hopefully it will all be fixed today, but you never know.

As annoying and difficult as this all was, it would have been 10 times as difficult and annoying without my BOE. I honestly can't express how lucky I am to have the BOE that I have. They are the kindest, most helpful people, and I am grateful to be working with them.

YVR

2008-01-15T12:59:00.000-08:00

Well, I am heading back to Japan after a 1o day visit to Canada. I am sitting in Vancouver airport at the moment, not looking forward to my 9 hour flight to Tokyo. Unfortunately, Air Canada would not let me check in to this flight in Calgary, and I had to wait until I got to Vancouver to get my boarding pass. This resulted in no more window or aisle seats left on the plane, and therefore I am bracing for a cramped and uncomfortable flight. yay.

Being back home was wonderful, and seeing my family and friends again is something I definately needed. It was great being able to understand everything and be in a comfortable environment. I take for granted so many great things about my country, things which may seem really trivial to others, but I really miss. Things such as being able to walk and eat/drink at the same time. Or being able to read labels on products. Or completely understand what store clerks are saying to me. *sigh. I love Canada.

Switching back to driving on the right side of the road was a bit weird, and resulted in me occaisonally driving on the wrong side of the road, just ask my sister. Probably scared the crap out of her a few times... Lucky for me this only happened when there were no other cars around. Now I have to go and switch back again once I get to Japan. Hopefully that goes well...

random picture

2007-12-28T07:15:00.000-08:00

Because my previous blog was about me playing the koto, I thought I would post this picture of me at my lesson.

Koto

2007-12-26T22:35:00.000-08:00

The past few days Luke has been here in Japan with me. To be honest, I don't know how I would have handled Christmas by myself without him. It has been really fun having him here, and it will really suck when he leaves.

It also sucks that I have to be in the office today when he is at my house alone. Tonight he will probably come watch my koto lesson, and then we will go to a really cool restaurant where he can try all sorts of wonderful Japanese food. Tonight I am planning on making him try takoyaki, this doughy ball sort of thing with octopus in it. I'll let you know how that goes... ;)

I don't know if I have mentioned that I am taking koto lessons... A koto is a traditional Japanese instrument. It is really difficult!!

My teacher is great, she doesn't speak English, but is so kind and seems really happy to teach me, even though I am not the best student... Especially when it comes to seiza, how I am supposed to sit...

This lady is sitting in seiza, and it might look easy but it is really hard!!! My biggest problem is that my legs fall asleep and become numb, and somehow(most likely by the uncomfortable and pained look on my face) my teacher always knows when. Which then prompts her to say, "Ok, lets take a break and you can fix your legs" about every 15 min in the lesson. Then I stretch my legs, move them around, and try and bring them back to life from the dead, limp state they are in.

You wear these things called "tsume" on your fingers. At first my fingers got so sore from wearing them, but now I don't mind it at all. Just like when you start playing the guitar, your fingers hurt a ton, but then you get callouses and it doesn't hurt anymore. Which I never was able to do... Maybe someday... After I master the koto... Haha, yeah right...

I am going home on January 4th, and I am so excited! I can't wait to see my family, as well as to eat good food. As soon as I get off the plane at Vancouver airport, you will see me sprinting to the nearest Tim Hortons.

Happy Holidays!

Even snowmen are weird here...

2007-12-18T20:44:00.000-08:00

Christmas is different here. Obviously.

Children get presents from Santa, maybe their parents, but other than that no one really gets gifts. They are always shocked when I give an estimate of how many presents I usually get on Christmas. They also eat something called "Christmas cake," which is just a normal cake with decorations, as far as I can tell. No Christmas baking for me this Christmas... Generally Christmas just isn't that big of a deal here.

But I knew Christmas was different here. That wasn't a surprise.

What did surprise me is that something as simple as a snowman is different here. Snowmen here only have 2 parts, instead of 3. I found that incredibly weird...

How did that happen?

Christmas at Nakanayoro

2007-12-13T04:11:00.000-08:00

I once again have not blogged in a long time, so I apologize. I've been trying to arrange a trip home in January, and I finally have it all settled. I am going back to Canada for 10 days in January, and I couldn't be more excited!

I wanted to plan a special Christmas party for my students at Nakanayoro. They gave me an hour and 50 minutes with the kids, so it gave me tons of time to do pretty much whatever I wanted. In Japan at Christmas time they eat "Christmas cake" and therefore my students have never heard of Christmas cookies, or Christmas baking. So I had the brilliant idea of making cookies with my students. The more I thought it over though, I began to realize it would not be an easy task, especially since the oven in my school is the size of a small microwave(because it actually is a microwave, just with an oven setting). So then I decided that I would just make the cookies myself, because I also have one of those microwave/oven combined things, and mine is just slightly bigger than the one at Nakanayoro. I would then have the kids decorate them. How hard could that be?

Haha.

It all began when I drove around Nayoro looking for Christmas shaped cookie cutters. Well, I should have realized that if they don't make Christmas cookies in Japan, I wasn't going to find Christmas shaped cookie cutters in Nayoro. Ok, well, this wasn't enough to get me down, I had a conference in Sapporo on Monday and Tuesday, and the party wasn't until Thursday, and Sapporo being the largest city in Hokkaido, there had to be Christmas cookie cutters there. I checked out a few stores, and I finally found some, gingerbread people shapes, a star, and a tiny Christmas tree. Success.

I got back on Tuesday night at 8:30, and thought that I better get a start on the cookies. I made 2 batches of sugar cookie dough, and started my cookie making extravaganza. My "oven" caused me a few problems, the first being it is so small I could only cook about 10 cookies at a time. The second was that because it isn't actually a real oven, the heat was very uneven, which made for quite a few burnt cookies.

Another problem, not crappy-oven related, was my love of cookie dough. Your stomach can only tolerate so much, and I am very sure I crossed the line... It didn't help that I also enjoyed eating all the of broken baked cookies too... Anyway, moving on...

So it's a good thing that I started on Tuesday, because I sure as hell didn't finish all of them that night. I continued my cookie making the next day too.

I realized I didn't have anything for the kids to decorate the cookies with, so I thought I would just buy pre-made colored icing in those cans. Haha, forgot I was in Japan, no such luck! Must make the icing myself... crap. Thank god I found tiny packets of icing sugar, each containing only about half a cup. I won't get started on how tiny the food packaging is here, I'll save that for another blog, but seriously... I bought 3 packets and hoped it was enough... Also found candy to put on the cookies, which actually was intended for making Christmas cake.

Made the icing Thursday morning before my class. So I actually did succeed in making enough cookies for my class, about 100 I think, only after 2 days of cookie making hell.

The lesson went well, the kids make a lot of adorable cookies, and I though maybe they would take them home or something, maybe show them off, but instead they ate them right after they finished decorating them. In 2 minutes all of my cookies disappeared. Hours and hours of baking was gone. I guess that was the point... Needless to say, I certainly have a lot more respect for the amount of time my mom puts into Christmas baking.

And to finished of my long, drawn out, cookie-making saga, here are some pictures from my Nakanayoro Christmas party!

My unexpected classroom assistants

2007-11-29T00:00:00.000-08:00

As I have mentioned before, there are two kids(a girl in grade 1 and a boy in grade 3) in Nakanayoro whose father is from Canada. I thought at first that they only understood the English I was speaking, and couldn't really speak it themselves, as they never seemed to say much in class. However, lately they have be shocking me with the amount of English they know, and I hope it is because they are feeling more comfortable around me.

Today I was playing in the gym with a few of the students, and the little girl came up to me and said "count," so I would count her skipping rope. That surprised me a little, but it wasn't that much out of the ordinary, especially since she only said one word. However, a little bit later she turned to me and said, "Wait here, I will bring another," referring to another skip rope. Then a few minutes later said, "I'm going over there," pointed to the other side of the gym, and then skipped across the room. I don't know if I have ever been this shocked by a student since I've been here. The first few days I was in the class, she would barely say anything!

Her brother also has started to reveal that he knows a lot more English then he let on before. Today I was teaching his class right after they had finished playing in the gym. I asked how they were, and most of them said they were hot. I asked why they were hot, and he says "Because we were playing." All of the other students had no clue what I had just asked. He is also extremely helpful when I am telling the students what to do. He usually understands everything I say, and then relays it to the class in Japanese. I can't express how convenient this is. It allows me to speak in English, and have the kids get used to hearing me talk. Also, when the teacher is not in the room, I have someone there to help me out.

I feel bad for these students though, what I'm teaching them must be so boring. However, I think that they enjoy the opportunity to speak English, or at least I hope they do. In any case, it sure is nice for me!

Where is my car?

2007-11-23T06:15:00.000-08:00

I just learned that I can upload pictures directly from my computer(See, I told you I'm not good at this blogging thing!) so from now on I can include more pictures! This is a picture of my car, it looks like this every morning.
This next picture isn't very good, because it was very early and still dark out, hopefully soon I will have some better pictures of all of the snow. Since I took these pictures the amount of snow has probably doubled. The locals seem to all hate the snow here, and many get a weird and somewhat disgusted look on their face when I tell them how much I love snow. It may have to do with the fact that this is apparently not that much snow at all. The months with the most snowfall are January and February, so really I have no clue what that will be like. A few people have told me that they have woken up to find that they can't open the door to leave their house, and they have to call someone to dig them out.

I don't know if there are people who leave Hokkaido for the winter, but it wouldn't surprise me. I can't imagine any senior citizens being able to shovel the amount that is required of you here.

I just want to take a moment to send all of my love and support to my family who is in Saskatchewan this weekend. I can't express how sorry I am that I'm not there, but I want everyone to know I am thinking of you, and wishing I was there.

You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey...

Snow, snow, snow

2007-11-19T02:17:00.000-08:00

Wow.

They weren't kidding when they said it snows here. A lot. Yesterday morning there was almost no snow on the ground. It started snowing late last night, and I opened my door this morning to about a foot and a half/two feet of snow on the ground. I absolutely adore snow, but this also meant that there was a foot and a half of snow on/around my car that needed to be shoveled at 7:30 am this morning. It continued to snow all day, so when I got back to Nayoro(I am teaching in Chiebun this week, half an hour from my house. This was quite the drive today as I was unable to see the road at all!!!) I had to go buy 3 shovels in order to deal with all of the snow. I bought one giant thing called a "snow dump" which you push along the ground and it can plow large amounts of snow, another normal sized shovel, and a small shovel to keep in my car. When I got home I shoveled for about an hour, and now my back is telling me that I maybe should have stretched or something before I decided to do that. Ouch. The nice thing is that it's still pretty warm outside. It is so beautiful, today everywhere you looked was white, everything covered with snow!! I haven't seen anything like it in Edmonton. I think if you added up all of the snow we get in Edmonton the entire winter, it would add up to just this one day in Nayoro. And everyone tells me this is nothing, and that we get the most snow in January and February!

I can't imagine... I really, really can't... But even though shoveling is not the most fun thing to do at 7:30 am, I am still excited. I LOVE SNOW!!!!

New pictures!

2007-11-17T05:28:00.000-08:00

finally...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078807&l=e90cf&id=120405652

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078809&l=c875a&id=120405652

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2078810&l=7aa0f&id=120405652

enjoy!

My Privacy?

2007-11-17T01:35:00.000-08:00

A couple things have happened recently that make me question my privacy a little, here in Japan. Of course I heard before I got here that privacy, more specifically lack thereof, may be an issue in Japan, but I had figured since Nayoro is fairly large (~30000 people) that this would not be an issue for me.

A few days ago I got home from club activities and was taking a shower in my house. I thought I heard voices, but convinced it was only in my head I continued taking my shower. However, once I turned off the shower I realized that the voices were definitely not in my head. Loud voices, I’m guessing from students, were coming from directly outside of my shower room, yelling “Jenna Sumisu-san, Jenna Sumisu-san!!” Lucky for me, that was the extent of what they did, but it still made me really nervous.

Yesterday I was driving home from Asahikawa, and was on the expressway (because I don’t enjoy speed limits of 50km/h on the normal roads…) and had reached the booth where you pay the toll. So I stop my car and give the man the money, and he says to me “From here you are going to Nayoro?” For some reason, I didn’t find it odd he knew this, although in retrospect I don’t know how he would ever guess that. I could have been going anywhere, and I was still about 30 min from Nayoro. He then said, “What schools do you teach at?” Well, I am a foreigner, and many foreigners teach English, so I didn’t find it that odd he “guessed” that either. But then he says, “And you are only 21….” Ok, ok, now this is weird, how does he know my age…. “Do you know me?” I ask. He replies, “I read about you in the newspaper.” Now, I knew I was in the newspaper, but the fact that people actually pay attention to it freaks me out. I wasn’t even in Nayoro, and this guy knew me!

Sometimes I wish I didn’t stick out so much. Even when I am in a huge city like Asahikawa, which is the second largest city in Hokkaido, I still seem to run into people that know me. Today I came into work, and one of the English teachers says to me, “I saw you this weekend, outside of Loft, by the train station in Asahikawa. But you were with someone, so I couldn’t say hi.” I hadn’t seen him, but that isn’t surprising, Loft was really busy. The truth is I stick out like crazy, largely due to my long blonde hair. In a country that has a very small population of foreigners, and all of the natives have generally the same hair color, I don’t blend in even a little bit. Sometimes I think about dying my hair black, but somehow I doubt that would really solve my problem... But maybe it would help a little…

Any thoughts?

Questions

2007-11-08T04:28:00.000-08:00

I always get questions about my hair color from the students, because they all have the same color hair color here. I get asked all the time if it's natural, and in Higashi JH one of the girls asked me a ton of biology questions, like, "What happens if a person's parents have blonde hair and brown hair? What color would their hair be?" Needless to say, I had difficulty explaining all of those questions through the language barrier...

In Nakanayoro Elementary today one of the grade 1 students came up to me and asked me, "Jenna, why is your hair blonde?" I didn't need to answer though, because there happens to be a little girl in that grade whose father is a Canadian. She told the other girl, "It's because she is Canadian." Then she said to me, "My hair is brown and black mixed!" She said it with pride, which made me so happy! I've heard that many kids who come from interracial parents here are ashamed of their background. I then explained to the girls that there are people with all different kinds of colors of hair where I am from, red, brown, blonde, etc...

To tell the truth, I never even considered that I would be explaining things like this to my students. It just goes to show that I am teaching a lot more than English over here...

What's your pantie color?

2007-11-07T23:31:00.000-08:00

Lately I have been attending the club activities at Higashi Junior High School, which has about 200 students. To explain, in Japan they have what are called "clubs" most days after school, from about 4 to 6. Each student must join a club, only one, and must stick with that club until they leave the school. The teachers work really, really long hours here, because I have left the school at around 630 and all of the teachers are still there, working. They all start work at 8. Mind you, it seems as though most people work really hard here, I have no idea how late people at city office work, but I know that it greatly exceeds a "regular" 8 hour work day.

I am really enjoying going to the clubs, so far I have only been to tennis and basketball. I'm not good at sports, but all of the students seem really happy to have me there anyway. The teachers are also starting to open up more, which is important to me because I really want to build a good relationship with this school. All of the teachers seem really nice, and I'm looking forward to becoming better acquainted with everyone, students and teachers.

However, the students are getting more and more comfortable asking me weird, out of the ordinary things. The latest being, "What's your pantie color?" They claim it's some sort of Japanese thing, but they use that to explain any weird question they decide to ask because they know I will have no idea if they are lying or not. I wouldn't answer right away, so one girl started poking my butt. They said that if I didn't tell them, they would pull down my pants. Judging by the fact that one girl was poking my butt I guessed that they would have no reservations pulling down my pants. So I said white... That's a safe color to pick, right?

Before all of you start freaking out, I have to mention that the relationships between students and teachers here are very different than in Canada. In Japan they are MUCH more friendly with their students. So what happened to me wasn't that out of the ordinary... I think... ;)

Halloween

2007-11-07T22:04:00.000-08:00

I have mentioned it before, I think, but I work in a tiny elementary school outside of Nayoro. There are only 13 students in the entire school. I told the staff that I wanted to do a Halloween party, and they generously gave me an hour and a half with the students, as well as 4 giant pumpkins. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me carve them. That was probably for the best, because I can't imagine things going smoothly if I were to whip out a few giant knives, give them to the kids, and say "Go for it!" So instead they got giant pens, and drew their own Jack - O - Lantern faces on them.

I made a bunch of games for them to play, and most were successful. A few games didn't go as smoothly as I would have hoped though... I had them throw balls through giant paper Jack-O-Lanterns I had made. The boys decided it would be funny to throw the balls as hard as they could, which made it so much fun for me and the other teacher holding the pumpkin. I didn't enjoy that, but I kind of saw it coming. However, the one problem I didn't forsee was this. I decided to play "musical pumpkins," and I printed off a bunch of pumkins to put on the floor. Paper would rip, so I thought a good idea would be to laminate the pumpkins. I didn't consider the fact that this school has hardwood floors. Put a laminated pumkin on a hardwood floor, and then add a kid racing to stand on this pumkin, and you get slipping and sliding all over the place!! I was terrified the entire time that some kid was going to sail across the room and land on their head. However, there were only a few minor slips, thank GOD!!

The best part was at the very end of the class. I told them that I had candy, but if they wanted to get some they had to dress up and say "Trick or Treat!" I had bought a bunch of costumes from the 100 yen store for them to wear. They really loved it! Which was good, because it took me awhile to prepare all of those costumes. After the party, the students came up to me saying thank you! thank you! in English, which made me even happier!! Even some of the really shy ones. I could even hear them talking about the party after it had finished. Overall, a successful halloween!! I didn't do anything for halloween myself, and I did miss Halloween at home, but it was nice to share it with my students!

My name is Yuuta, and don't you forget it!

2007-10-19T00:11:00.000-07:00

Today I was sitting in the school office at Nayoro Junior High, and a boy comes up to my desk. He says "Hello, My name is Yuuta." So I replied, "Nice to meet you! I'm Jenna" He then asked me how I was, and I told him I was fine. He then turned to a random teacher and asked "How do I say 'remember my name?' in English?" The other teacher told him that he didn't know any English, so I then told the student that I understood Japanese. He didn't seem to believe me, because then he told me "I don't speak any English"(In English), and turned to the other teacher again and asked "How do you say, 'I want to become good at English' in English?" The teacher then told him again that he didn't know any English, and the student turned back to me and said "I want to learn English." Then he said "I like math," and after that said "I don't like Japanese and English," which I found to be hilarious, seeing as he had just told me that he wanted to learn English. Although I suppose I can understand, I don't particularly enjoy studying Japanese, but I do want to be able to speak it!

The thing I found really weird about this encounter is that his name was Yuuta. I mentioned another student at Higashi Junior High named Yuuta. The first time I met that Yuuta, he also specifically told me to remember his name. They are the only two people that flat out said, "Remember my name!"

I love when students voluntarily come and speak what little English they know to me. It gives me courage to try and speak Japanese with other people, even though I am not very good. That, and it's so cute!

Oops...

2007-10-17T21:27:00.000-07:00

Well. It happened. The worst mistake I've made since I've been here. Here goes...

The grade 7 class at Nayoro Junior High was learning how to say "Yes, he does" and "No, he doesn't." They had sheets with questions on them, like "Do you play the piano?" and "Do you play baseball?" They then asked their partners these questions, and wrote down their answers. My job was to then go around the class and ask each student "Does he/she like baseball?" So I would look at the students partner and choose the correct pronoun. You may see where this is going...

So everything was going great. I'm almost finished the whole class. Then I look up, and to my horror realize that I have no idea if the kid's partner is a girl or a boy. And I panic. I have a split second to decide what to do.

So I guess.

Me: "Does........he play soccer?"

And I guessed wrong.

I threw off the poor kid who had to answer the question. So he replies, "Yes, he?...she?..." and the teacher helps by saying, "She" which is when I realized I had definitely failed in guessing the right sex of the student. Not only that, I am very sure that my teacher realized my wonderful error as well. Oh, the embarrassment.

And in my defense, a LOT of boys here have long hair.

どうぞ!

2007-09-27T03:52:00.000-07:00

I'm extremely tired, so I will make this short. I just wanted to share a cute story that happened today at Higashi Junior High.

I was heading downstairs after eating lunch with one the classes and this boy Yuuta (the grade 9 who likes Blink 182 I mentioned before) sees me and shouts, "Hello!" So I of course say "Hello" back. But then he runs after me saying, "hello, hello!" and follows me down the stairs. He says "I'm Yuuta!" and I told him that I of course remembered him. So he follows me to the staff room where I was headed, then gestures towards the door, and says "Douzo" which basically means, "Please, go ahead" and then as I walk through the door, he bows really deep, and then says "Bye!" and goes back up the stairs!

So cute!

All The Small Things

2007-09-19T23:39:00.000-07:00

Today was a really fun day! I did my self introduction classes to the grade 9 students at Higashi Junior High. They were so much fun! The grade 9 students are quite rowdy, and sometimes difficult to control, but it made for very interesting classes. During the question period, they don't really hold back at all. One question I didn't understand, and the teacher wouldn't even translate it for me because it was too rude... I'm still dying to know what he said, although it's probably better that I don't. I was asked how much I weigh, how tall I am, if I would be their boyfriend... One boy felt the need to tell me that I looked better with my hair down, and not in a headband like how I was wearing it. Thanks? And one girl even said she wanted to marry my dad...

The best part of my day today, was when a grade 9 boy asked me to have lunch with him. He found out I like Blink 182 and he wanted to talk about music. So I sat at a desk by him and his friends, and I talked to them about what bands they liked, what bands I like, and things like that. Him and his friends are actually in a band, I really want to hear them now! Maybe someday... It was nice to have so many students who were willing to try and speak in English, and listen to my awful Japanese.

At least I'm getting used to something...

2007-09-19T02:09:00.000-07:00

So, this is just a short, random little blog entry...

I get home from a long day, and I had rented some sex and the city to unwind...

I'm watching an episode, and it zooms out on a road in LA with all of these cars...

And for a split second, my brain thinks "Why are they driving on the wrong side of the road??"

Wow.

The incredibly genki kids of Higashi Junior High

2007-09-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

Today I did my self introduction for the 3 different grade 8 classes at Higashi Junior High in Nayoro. It was a blast!! The classes each had about 27 kids in it, so it was VERY different from Chiebun! They were all excited to see me, and love to say hello, and good morning, and other random stuff in the hallways. One guy even said, "yo," which I was quite impressed with! Many, many students commented on how large my nose is, which I am used to now, but the first time someone told me I had a large nose I was a little offended... I don't really like how large my nose is, and it's so odd hearing a bunch of people comment on how large it is. It's also weird to know that they mean it as a compliment, not as an insult...

In my first class today, I got asked the inevitable question, "Do you have a boyfriend?" I decided to have some fun, and told them that I was dating the members of Rip Slyme, my favorite Japanese band. The funny thing is that one of the boys could not let it go, it seemed like he actually believed me... He asked me for their autographs, but I said that Rip Slyme is just too busy to give out autographs. Then he told his friends outside of the class, so everyone in the hall started asking me about Rip Slyme. It was really funny, but I don't know if I will give that answer again, it caused too much craziness!

The aspect of my life the students are most surprised about is the fact that I own a donkey. Some of them don't even know what a donkey is!

Tomorrow I have classes with all of the grade 9 students... I'm sure I will have something to say about that tomorrow!

Kussharo and Kawaii

2007-09-17T23:08:00.000-07:00

So I went on my first big road trip in my own car this weekend, and it was a blast! I left saturday morning at around 8am , drove to Asahikawa to pick up my friends Parker and Laura, and from there continued on to Lake Kussharo. We got there around 4:30 I think... It was a beautiful drive, Hokkaido is so lush and green, and we drove through lots of mountains. I love mountains! It was so nice to see more of Hokkaido, I can't get over how beautiful it is. We camped on the edge of Lake Kussharo for 2 nights, and it was really fun. It was nice to hang out with other JETS for a few days! We also went to an onsen in one of the towns close by. This particular town has a bunch of onsens made from natural hot springs in the area. I love onsens! How onsens usually work is that men and women are split up, you go into a room, take off your clothes, enter the onsen area, wash yourself thoroughly, and then enter the pools they have. There is usually a few different pools of varying heat, some are so hot I can't imagine how anyone could ever possibly get in at all. I actually love the system of onsens, because you know that the water is clean. Its much more relaxing being in clean water than in water where there might be band-aids or other random stuff floating around in it...

Today I started at a brand new school, it's a junior high school with about 200 kids. Which is significantly larger than any other schools I have been to so far! The kids are so curious about me, it's very strange. They come up to me, and most just say hello, but a lot of the girls just go crazy! Once girl came into the office, saw me at my desk, and then exclaimed "KAWAIIIIIIIII" about 20 times! Kawaii means cute in Japanese. Anything I did, caused her to say it. I say "hello", she says "KAWAII!!" I say konnichiwa, she yells "KAWAIIII!!" I sit there and do nothing, "KAWAAAAIIIII!!!!!!" It was a little embarrassing...

Well that's all for today, I hope everything is going well back in Canada!

Bad, bad, blogger...

2007-09-14T00:28:00.000-07:00

Alright...

So I admit, I have not been so good at the blogging... I will continue to try my best to keep it updated, for those of you who read it, and I'm so sorry I take so long to put new ones up! If anyone has anything they would like me to write about, please let me know! If I have a topic, it may make it easier for me to think about things to write about!

So I am officially an assistant language teacher, and have started teaching! So far I have taught at 3 out of the 5 schools I will be teaching in. The first school I taught in was Chiebun Junior High school, a small country school with 9 students in grade 9, 1 student in grade 8, 4 students in grade 7, and 2 special needs students. My Japanese-English teacher is a 25 year old guy, who is so nice, and always tells me what I need to do. I basically read the text, do repeat after me activities, and other random stuff. For example, he had me write a haiku to show the grade 9 class. Here it is:

The food of Japan

Soba, Sushi, Tempura

Oh, so delicious

And that is why I took math in university.

Anyway, regardless of the fact that it is probably the worst Haiku ever written, my teacher was quite impressed by it. Why? I have no idea...

This week I had my first lessons in elementary schools, which is completely different, because I have to create lessons and run them myself. The first lessons were at Nakanayoro elementary school, a small country school with about 12 students in total. The lessons were ok, however the kids were way smarter than expected... So my lesson ended up being a little boring, but for it being my first lesson and all, it went alright. The kids seem to like me no matter what I do, they grab your hand, give you hugs, and they are soooo cute.

This morning I am heading off to a big party for other JETs in Hokkaido, and I am really looking forward to seeing my friends again! Next post I will talk about the many reasons why Japanese schools are different than Canadian schools. And perhaps if there are good stories from the party this weekend, I will talk about them!

Love from Japan!

Oh, all the bowing...

2007-08-28T00:10:00.000-07:00

Today I'm going to discuss what was probably the most taxing day of my life in Japan thus far.

On Monday I arrived at work at 8:30, and at about 9 I was off to visit pretty much every school in the Nayoro area. We visited all 6 of Chris' schools(The other ALT), my 6 schools, and also the schools that Shelley, another ALT, works at. We did not get back to the office until about 5:30. What made it so difficult was all of the formalities I had to endure. I will describe how a typical visit played out...

We arrive at the school, take off our shoes and put on school slippers. We then go to the office of the principal. Before entering the office you bow, and say "shitsurei shimasu," which roughly translated means "I'm going to be rude." You then meet the principal and the vice principal. You take out your business card, hold it with both hands and present it to them facing towards them so they can read it. The very first school I went to, I handed it to them with the words facing myself, which got quite the reaction, mostly laughter at my ignorance. You then say, "My name is Jenna Smith." They then take it from you with both hands, read it carefully, check both sides, and say "Jenna Smith, right?" you say, "Yes." (just a side note, this is said in Japanese, I'm just trying to translate it for those who don't know Japanese). It is then repeated for the other person, and you finish the introduction by bowing, and saying "Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu," which means something like "I humbly ask you to be kind to me." We then would all sit around a table, us being me, Chris, my 2 supervisors, the section chief of the Board of Education, and the principal and vice principal of the school we were visiting. I learned that you should then take the business cards just received, and lay them out on the table in front of you. The writing should face towards yourself, and the cards should be in the order that they are sitting around the table. The meeting would usually consist of my supervisors and the chief talking to the principal about me in Japanese, and I couldn't understand anything. Sometimes the principals would show some interest and ask simple questions about me or Canada, other times next to nothing was said to me. Then we would be introduced to the staff of the school, and say a couple sentences in Japanese to everyone. Then another bow, and another yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Then we would leave the room, saying "arigatou gozaimashita" and "shitsureishimasu" while bowing. We would then go to the entrance, put our shoes back on, and then bow again, and say "arigatou gozaimashita" or "shitsureishimasu" again. Then it was off to the next school!

Trying to learn the names of everyone was impossible, not only because there were so many, but also because they were all Japanese names(obviously), and most often ones I had never heard before. Fortunately for me, this morning my supervisor gave me a complete list of all of the principals and vice principals, along with pictures and their names. I didn't even ask for it! Have I said how much I love my supervisor?? She is the best supervisor I could ever ask for.

I start teaching on September 3rd, for all of those who are curious to know, and I've started making lesson plans and the like. I'm a little nervous, but the kids here are so cute, I can't wait to start teaching!

I will finish off by linking to a video of me and some friends on what is called a "fuwa fuwa dome." It is basically the coolest trampoline ever, and the video captures it much better than pictures do. Thanks to Chris for taking it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxda4vuJavQ

Mata, ne!

More pictures!

2007-08-17T19:24:00.000-07:00

I've posted pictures of my house, as well as a few other things, so here is the link:

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063379&l=b7bb1&id=120405652

Today I am going to an onsen for the first time, which is basically a hot spring in which you don't wear a bathing suit. A little nervous, but looking forward to it too!

Tomorrow I'm going to Sapporo orientation, which is 3 days long... Which most likely means no posts for 3 days! Sorry!

Finally... A new blog entry!

2007-08-17T00:03:00.000-07:00

Well, first off, I'm sorry for taking so long to update! As of now, I will have no excuses because I finally have internet at my house! So I will do my best to update frequently...

Also, before you couldn't make comments if you weren't a member, but I changed that so now anyone can comment. And I love comments, it will encourage me to blog more!

So I will talk about Nayoro, the town I will be living in for the next year. It is a nice small town, with just over 30000people. For me it's the perfect size because there is everything I need, but it is small enough I can get everywhere on my bicycle. It also isn't very busy or crowded, so I feel comfortable here. So far I have been working at the city office with the Board of Education. About 16 people work here, and they are all very friendly. My supervisor is a lady named Haruka Kawasaki, and she is 23 years old. There is also another ALT(Assistant Language Teacher, this is what my title is) named Chris who works here. He is also from Canada. Haruka is such a sweet girl, and her job is to take care of me so she has basically done everything for me. She got me a cell phone(sorry mom... ;) love you! ), bank account, TV, internet, car insurance... you name it, she helped me get it. I'm so lucky to be working for the Board of Education because you are way better taken care of then if you are employed by just a school. Plus I have my own desk and everything!

I won't start teaching until September, and that is creeping up fast so I am getting a little nervous. But I'm getting excited too because I don't really have much to do here at work. Once I start teaching I will feel like I am actually working! Plus the kids here are so cute!!

I'm living in a cute little house which I really like, even though it is pretty old. I don't think it is small, except for the kitchen, which is a little crowded! It is pretty normal, the only thing that is very different from Canadian homes is how the washroom is set up. I have a little room that has just a shower and VERY small tub. Then I have a separate room with just a toilet in it. Finally my sink/vanity is actually in my kitchen next to the kitchen sink. I will post pictures of my house very soon, because that is so much easier than explaining it!

The garbage system here is soooo confusing, I have to talk about it! There are 7 categories of garbage. Burnables, Non burnables, recyclables... You even have to pay for the garbage bags! It took me awhile to figure it out, that's for sure. Imagine, every little thing you throw out has to go in a certain category. I still don't really get it. Can't you burn anything?? Anyway, if you do it wrong they don't take it and they leave a little note saying what you did wrong. So every time I put out garbage in the morning, when I come home from work I always get a little anxious. Did they take it?? Is there a note?? So far no notes.... But I'm sure I will get one eventually. I've seen even a few of the Japanese people who have gotten notes. At least it's not just me who thinks it's confusing...

Japan is alive with festivals right now, and I've gotten to see all different kinds of parades. I was even in one! Last monday evening was a festival in Furen, a small town outside of Nayoro, and it was the most exciting one so far. I got to be a part of it! After work I went on a bus to Furen and got to a room where everyone was drinking free beer, and eating free food. We dressed up in Happi-coats(i think...), a traditional Japanese outfit. Everyone was part of a team, and each team had it's own giant lantern. A few girls rode the lantern, the guys pushed it, and a few people(including me) got to play different instruments such as drums, flutes, and cymbals. The lanterns are lit up and everyone goes through the streets of the town, chanting, drinking beer on the streets, and basically having a good time! It was lots of fun! Then after everyone went to a big room in a restaurant, had awesome Japanese food, and visited and drank more alcohol, and it only cost about 10 bucks. A few of the highlights of that meeting were all the men getting up and dancing around the room, and one guy breaking chopsticks with his butt cheeks after everyone in the room counted to 3. It was probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my whole life! However, this festival was on monday, and all the free beer made it a little hard to go to work... And as soon as me and Chris walked into the room, everyone started asking us if we were OK... Haha, I guess they knew what these kind of festivals are like! They drink a lot here, I don't know if it is just because it's summer and there are a lot of festivals, or if it's like this all the time. It may be all the time, because when I signed up for my cell phone I got a free 6-pack of beer... Pretty sure that wouldn't happen in Canada!

There is another festival tonight in Nayoro, and I will be dressing up in a yukata(A type of kimono) and dancing for everyone. I'm sure I will have something to say about that later... I have to go now, because a lady is going to help me put on my yukata!!

Here are links to some picture I have taken so far, including the festival in Furen!

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062969&l=eaf4d&id=120405652

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062968&l=b3928&id=120405652

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062967&l=99f82&id=120405652

The Office and Orientation

2007-08-02T18:31:00.000-07:00

Well, It's time for me to start blogging because I have been in Japan for some time now, and many people have not heard from me. Bear with me, as I only have internet access from my office computer, and it is a Japanese keyboard. The difficult thing being that the only way for me to function is to switch it to "western keyboard" setting. Seems easy enough, except that then I basically have to do everything by memory since the western keyboard setting has no pictures at all. Good thing I can at least remember where _ and @ is on a western keyboard, otherwise I would not even be able to check my mail! My Japanese is very poor, but I foresee it coming back pretty fast since I am surrounded by it all the time! People here are surprised by how young I am, a guy just walked by and was talking to my supervisor and he was like "wow, so young", only he said it in Japanese of course. Which brings me to another difficult aspect of my office experience. I can understand bits and pieces of Japanese, but actually speaking it is hard. They all think I speak basically no Japanese. So people talk about me a lot, and I know they are talking about me but I can't understand much of what they are saying. Maybe one day...

Tokyo orientation was very boring during the day, a lot of information I already knew was repeated over and over. And our schedules took up all day, from 9 until 8, both days. But the first night I saw Yuri, my Japanese friend I met at the U of A a year ago. It was weird to see her in Japan, after meeting her so many times in Canada. The second night I went out on the town, first for free beer from the Embassy of Canada(along with 3 extremely boring speeches about statistics of Canadians in Japan, and not to do drugs in Japan.. go figure..), and then out for all you can drink(alcohol) karaoke. From what I can tell, the "all you can drink" option is common, at karaoke as well as restaurants. Wish we had that in Canada! For those who don't know, karaoke in Japan is where your group of friends goes into a private room with couches and a TV, and you take turns(or not) singing. It ended up that pretty much all of us sang at once. I really like it! We had a blast... Drank a lot of beer, sang a lot, and it only cost ~27 dollars for around 2 hours. Japanese beer is good, very light and easy to drink. However, the Japanese like "good foam". What I mean by this is the horrible way they pour beer so that it has about an inch of foam on it. They say it enhances flavour. I certainly don't like "good foam," but I suppose I will have to get used to it! At first I kept getting mad at every one's incompetence in pouring beer, and then I finally asked about it and learned that is just how they drink beer here!

My supervisors are nice but don't speak great English, but the superintendent speaks very good English. I have been taken care of from the second I arrived. They even took me grocery shopping!

For now, this is all I will write, but I have many other things I will talk about later.

Love from Japan!

My first blog

2007-06-21T10:36:00.000-07:00

So here it is... This will be my way to let people know what is going on in my life during my time in Japan. I haven't ever blogged before, but I thought I would give it a shot. I leave for Japan in 38 days so the countdown has definately started! I will be living in Nayoro, a city of about 27000 people on the island of Hokkaido. I am very far north in Japan, so the weather will be very similar to here, just with more snow in the winters. I have pictures of the car I will be driving, and the house I will be living in. Maybe if I get ambitious I will even post pictures on here!