I've been doing practice interviews with the third years for the past few days. Before we start individual interviews, Fumie-sensei and I demonstrate A-level, B-level, and C-level interviews to the class, and I can't keep from cracking up when Fumie-sensei acts out her C-level student. I also made a video self-introduction for Oshita-sensei, the ( Read more... )

Yesterday was another visit to an elementary school. Luckily it was within biking distance of my apartment and my first class wasn't until 9:30, so I could sleep in a little. I had three classes, all sixth years. Keeping to the schedule was difficult because the teachers wanted me to cover a lot of new material, including several adjectives to ( Read more... )

This weekend was the last big sports tournament in Morioka for the year, so there were various games and matches all over the city. I biked to the far north-west of the city yesterday to see my school's baseball team play against Kuroishi Junior High School. It wasn't a proud day for Mirumai Minami Junior High School. We lost 5 to 1. Still, there ( Read more... )

Tomorrow is my school's sports festival. Everyone's been practicing for the relays and the cheering competition for the past few weeks. The students and teachers are divided into four teams, the red, blue, green, and white. I've equated these teams with the houses from Harry Potter. I'm on the green team, which means I'm a Slytherin. All of the ( Read more... )

The cherry blossoms are blooming here in Morioka. I went to see the famous Rock-Splitting Cherry Tree in front of the Morioka Courthouse on Saturday with a Japanese friend, then we walked around Iwate Park and saw the cherry trees there. The cherry blossoms on the Rock-Splitting Cherry Tree are almost perfectly white and the area around the tree is ( Read more... )

I'm starting to get busy again at work. I alternate between helping the first year and third year English teachers and I had four classes yesterday and wednesday. I'm getting to know the students a little better, although I'm told that the second years (formerly the first years) miss having me in their English classes. That's flattering. I've been ( Read more... )

I had a busy weekend. I went to the new Iwate International Center in the Aiina Building near Morioka Station to renew some books on Japanese religion and ended up going out for dinner with some JET ALTs. They were putting on an Easter program for children and I got to talking with them after it was over. I knew one from the speech contest in ( Read more... )

A new semester began today. In the morning there was a ceremony introducing the new teachers to the second and third years, then each grade had a separate meeting. All of the third year teachers gave a short speech to the students. I think that mine was pretty bland and cliched, but I was able to say it all in Japanese, which makes me happy. There' ( Read more... )

Not a very eventful day today. I sent contact info for a census to the US Census Bureau, then had breakfast/lunch at Mr.Donut. They gave me a free lunch box set, only everything in it is pink and has pictures of penguins on it, so I don't think I'll be using it anytime soon. A new version of Taiko no Tatsujin, the taiko drum arcade game, is out; ( Read more... )

It's just about time to start the new school year here in Morioka. Last week we had farewell parties for the teachers who were transferred to other schools and the new teachers start work on monday. The first year English teacher who I regularly worked with is leaving, which makes me unhappy. At first I thought she was being transferred to the ( Read more... )