Goodbye Y and Y!

We had a goodbye lunch for Yuji and Yukiko today and it was their last official day in their current jobs. We all met under the cherry trees near the river and enjoyed lunch together before presenting them with flowers, cake and bagels (not my idea). A good time was had by all. Thanks for everything Y&Y!

Cheeky (hungry) Monkeys

Minika’s cousins have been in town for a few days. It is the first time they have been outside of Tokyo and I think they had a great time making Micchan run around and eating all of her food. Dawn and I also helped keep them entertained which we didn’t mind as it gave us an excuse to be silly!

Surprise Hanami

On my way home the other day I bumped into some teachers I knew from Sanwa junior high school (I worked there last year). They were having a hanami party (cherry blossom viewing party where you eat, drink and look at the flowers) and I was warmly invited to join them.

It was good to see them again.

So Many Changes!

We had a big shock today as we found out both Yuji and Yukiko are moving. Yukiko is moving to the pensions department of City Hall (a total waste of someone who can speak such great English if you ask me). Yuji got a promotion and so instead of being in charge of the ALT’s he’s in charge of all teachers. He will still be in the same office but it won’t feel the same. I hope the guys are nice!

Tonight we had a leaving party for the teachers who have been moved out of our school. 29 teachers are leaving including half of the English teachers and my favourite vice principal. I have no idea what school will be like in April but we just have to look at it as a new challenge and hope for the best. The one good thing about tonight was that I ended up at a table with no English teachers and so I busted out the Japanese for a full two hours – yay me!

All Change?!?!

It is now spring break and we have two weeks at the Board of Education instead of having to go to school. It was nice to sit and talk to the other ALT’s as we’re usually so busy during term time we never see each other.

The end of March is a time for chance in Japan and working for the government we see a lot of changes. Every year the staff rooms and offices across the city get tense as people find out if they will be moving, changing jobs or staying put. I’m told that people get some say in what happens to them and they can request various positions but after this years’ changes I’m really not sure how much say they actually get.

The biggest thing for ALT’s is our supervisors Yuji and Yukiko. They have both been here since I started and they are so good to us I can never imagine them not being there. Our teachers also get changed around a lot which keeps things new and interesting as long as the change is for the better (which it not always is).

The strangest thing about the changes is that a math teacher can get moved to the tax department at the city hall or someone who was working in the pensions department can become a vice principal. The changes are sometimes mind boggling but I suppose it keeps things interesting and everyone gets a chance to try something new?? I guess I would just be really annoyed if I trained so hard to be a teacher and then ended up pushing papers around a desk??

Oh well, we’ll just have to wait and see……..

The Final Celebrations

Four birthday celebrations really spoil a girl and tonight was the last one. A few of us had Mexican food at Latino’s and, while we were waiting for our food, Dawn hosted a “Rebecca Quiz” to see how well they really did know me.

A good time was had by all and I got an amazing gift from Kei-san, my Japanese teachers’ husband. They know I am obsessed with Harry Potter and Dawn and I mention it every week during Japanese class so he made this picture

Christmas Cake

Birthday treat – watching my vice principal walk around the office blowing bubble gum bubbles while the other teachers looked frantically for the source of the noise – he’s great!

Dawn discovered ice cream cakes at invited the Maison Arita girls to come and celebrate my birthday (again). The cakes were good but the best part was definitely this stuff:

I’m 25 and not married. In Japan that earns me the title of “Christmas Cake” oh joy!

Monkeys and Mud

Minika had told me that I would be going on a road trip to Beppu for my birthday yesterday. Technically she didn’t lie it was just that we went a day later than I expected.

After stopping for a katsu lunch we went to the monkey park. Minika and I are slightly obsessed by monkeys which isn’t helped by the fact that when we both pull certain faces we actually look like monkeys. Here are just a couple of pictures from the park.

After all that excitement we headed to a mixed, naked mud bath (no pictures for obvious reasons) and even though it did smell very bad at the time, I’m sure my skin looks a million dollars now. I did like this polite notice though which reminds us not to go around flashing our bits - nice!

Treasure Hunt

I just had another wonderful birthday in Japan. Minika went all out and made me cry three times along the way. I could never put into words the range of emotions and whatever I write won’t do justice to this amazing day.

If you really want to know what it was all about – follow the trail here:

http://public.fotki.com/supergenki/march-2008---the-be/the-treasure-hunt/

Rant follow up

As a follow-up to my rant of Feb 28th I am happy to report that a lot of Japanese people feel the same way.

Thank you Ishii sensei. Thank you for listening to me and sorting me out.
Thank you for the tissues and the hugs.

After that I went back to being bored for the rest of the week. The kids are watching movies, there is nothing to do for the last week and every one is getting anxious wondering if they are staying or leaving.

The great April changeover is nearly here.

Unicorns and Shit

Seeing as there was no school for me to go to today I ended up going to Phil's school. I think he enjoyed it as I got to do my self intro all day and he got to relax a little more. We also had a lot of fun painting eggs with the special ed class!

We talked about love, life, family, friends, work and just about everything else.

He came up with a great example to show how different him, Akira, Dawn and I are.

Imagine you are relaxing in a forest when a unicorn walks up and craps all over you (I know it's weird just stay with me!)

What would you do?

Would you go mad and scream that you were covered in poo? (Me and Phil)
OR
Would you stand amazed staring at the beautiful unicorn? (Dawn and Akira)

I love crazy, randoms conversations with Phil : )

Hitoyoshi

Today a group of us went on a UNESCO organised trip to Hitoyoshi. I've never been before and since it was free I thought it was a good chance to see a different part of Kumamoto.

The best parts of the day were:

* Watching local crafts being made and then having a go ourselves
* Visiting the castle ruins and walking down a well or two
* Visiting the sake factory and sampling ten different kinds
* Falling asleep warm and tipsy on the bus home

Hukilau Dance

Because my students have tests I have been teaching at elementary school for three days. Yesterday Dawn and I taught together and it was so much fun. They didn’t have a lesson plan in mind and seeing as it was our first time there we decided to just do our introductions.

The kids went crazy when they saw two ALT’s in their class and it must’ve been intriguing for them to see two totally different looking foreigners. It made for an interesting class as we had money from two different countries, a wide range of pictures and to finish the class in style, Dawn taught them a Hawaiian dance which they loved!

This was filmed at a BOE party, hence the drunken Japanese people and random whoops from me! The dance is still the same so just imagine a class of 40 six-year olds doing it instead of this drunken lot.

3 days - 3 things!

Monday – I’m helping the teachers study for their English test too. Ms. Nagata asked me to test her for the upcoming level 1 eiken test – gambatte!

Tuesday – I had a talk with Mr. Kurokawa about the good old school days where you could slap the kids to keep them in line (a little scary actually)

Wednesday – 24 hour headaches are not fun!

Graduation!

Today was my first senior high school graduation. It was actually like a normal day except there was a very long ceremony in the middle. I didn’t really get much chance to get to know the seniors because I didn’t have any classes with them (something I hope changes next term).

I still can’t get over the fact they play the Auld Lang Syne tune for graduation but they think we’re strange when I tell them we sing it at New Year so I guess it all balances out.

I did have a hint of a tear right at the end of the ceremony as the classes were leaving the hall as all of the teachers ran to the door to cheer them out. The kids were hand in hand and even the cool boys were sobbing away.

The boys and the lunch we got from the parents of the graduating students.

There was nothing to do after lunch except sit and “look busy” until 5pm.