Catching Up on the Last Four Months
ahoy minna!!
my attention has been divided amoung many things as of late, and sadly my LJ was one of those things that had to be pushed aside. Not that I haven't been blogging about everyday of my life in Japan on the internets... I've just been doing it in a more public-place. The blog I set-up over at anime-source.com has proven to be very successful. I'm coming up on the 100th entry soon. Very excited about that and happy to see so many users participating over there.
So what have I been doing since arriving in Japan? Teaching and playing with the kids mostly. The first few weeks were strange for us all, but now that I have been "accepted" as a part of the school community, things are going pretty well. I have my "fan clubs" in different areas, particularly the elementary school 2nd and 3rd graders and the junior high school 1st graders. All the students have been very warm and welcoming, as well as many of the teachers (all of the JHS teachers love me, though 1 or 2 of the ES teachers are douches at times... though the others make up for it immensely).
I have joined many clubs including the JHS Girls' Soft-tennis Club, the JHS Boys' Volleyball Club (even though I hate volleyball), the ES Soccer club (mainly 6th grade boys), and the ES Tea Ceremony Club (mainly 4th grade girls). I also help with the after-school program which is so much fun since I get to play with my ES 1st and 2nd graders. They all want piggyback rides all the time now.
Graduation season is coming up sooner that I realized. At first I was kinda "meh" about the idea of my 23 JHS 3rd-graders leaving forever, but in the last few weeks, they've really come to accept me. I had one group come up to me and tell me "you are nice teacher" and they prefer having classes with me over classes with their real JTE, haha. Speaking of which... in the JHS, I am the assistant teacher with two other JTEs who are incredibly kind and run great classes. In the ES, I am the primary teacher, which is something I was completely nervous about, but now I absolutely love it. My students are always engaged in my lessons and we have so much fun together. When my company sent a rep to evaluate my lesson, that person was probably in awe at how energetic and excited my 4th-grade girls were to have English time.
What else? Hmmmmm... I just made my last payment off my loan that I had to take when I moved in, so now I can finally get to enjoying this country on a full budget. Not that I haven't taken trips already... I went to visit Phil and Jenny in Tokyo for 4 days, Austin in Tsuyama for 2 days, and to Osaka and Kyoto with the JHS teachers for 2 days. I also went on a few daytrips to Takamatsu and Kurashiki... still need to see more of Okayama. I have friends in Hiroshima, Kyoto, Ibaraki, and Kochi that I want to see.
Plenty of anime goodness all around... I found 3 bookstores here that are fully-stocked with manga and anime artbooks. Two have DVDs, but they are so freakin' expensive. Oh well, not like I have much time to watch anime anymore these days. I am at school until 6pm at the earliest everyday... and that's during the winter when club activities are cut short because of the short days. When Spring comes around, I'll be at school until 7-8-9pm like I was in August. Too bad my company is naive and thinks we only "work" for 6 hours a day. Yeah... thanks for the royal-screw-job. Oh well, not like I didn't know it was going to happen anyway.
In terms of living arrangements, Takahashi is wonderful. There is a YouMe Town Department Store just 10 minutes down the road. They have a McDonald's and a nice little Italian restaurant that makes a good cheap American pizza. There's a bowling alley and a castle here, plus many hot springs and mountains. My apartment overlooks the river. Most of my outside activities are centered around school-events anyway, like the ES Dodgeball Tournament and a few of the Track & Field Competitions. I love cheering on my kids. They seem to appreciae it.
I look forward to next year when I can attend the Undo Kai and finally have an idea of who is who. I took many photos there and elsewhere... I had to buy an extended membership at webshots.com since the free account only lets you store 1,000 pictures. I think I surpassed that amount after my first week here.
There's a family here that's been taking care of me, and there are a few nice foreigners here who have been kind to me (3 other INTERAC ALTs and 4 other JETs). The teachers and some of the parents check up on me occassionally, too. The kyoto-senseis at both schools have been extremely helpful in making sure I am doing okay both inside and outside of school.
Well, that's the quick-update. Hope all is well in everyone else's lives. Sorry I don't check here more often, though I know a few of you read the A-S blogs and send me IMs every other week or so. I am on winter break right now (3 weeks long!!!!), but I'll be going back to school next week to work on the graduation video I am making for the chugakou no sannensei and help with the volleyball club practice. Hopefully I can return here to catch up with everyone else soon. I am on Facebook daily since that's where all my ALT friends talk to me, so if I don't come back here, check there... or read the blog at anime-source.com
Take care and have a happy new year!!!!!.