Decemembered

Here's an update without the usual heart-wrenching pathos, thought-provoking themes, and literary sleight-of-hand that usually characterizes my blog updates. It is, if you can believe it, a collection of mostly-pointless unrelated blurbs. Shocking, right?

Last week I posted about the Sapporo Orientation. I then proceeded to get snowed out of Monbetsu, and had to stay overnight in Asahikawa as the major expressway that runs through the mountains was closed due to blizzard. It looked like this outside:



I actually took this picture because of the political poster, which is my favorite one in the world and features an older Japanese guy leering like he just saw Sailor Moon's panties. You can't really make it out that well in this picture, but it's really the worst-advised political portrait I've ever seen. Regardless, it also serves to show that it was very snowy! Note the person in my side mirror, who will soon try to pass me because I have the audacity to only speed by 10km in a blizzard.

On the plus side, I got to eat some delicious curry.



This particular restaurant, CoCo Curry, allows you to add on spiciness levels to your curry for extra money, up to a spiciness of level 10 for something like an extra 500 yen. To go beyond level 5, however, you need to have a card proving you've eaten a level 5 before and didn't die or sue anybody (the menu includes the gastronomically ominous phrase, please consider the consequences). Since I'd never been to this restaurant before, I had a five. It was delicious, but I don't think I'm in any hurry to go up to a ten just yet.

Back in Monbetsu, I finally got to try my hand at ping-pong in an environment other than an elementary school. As it turns out, the school is the probably the right place for me. I went to the local sports center on Tuesday, which is when the Church of Ping-Pong meets, and when it became evident that I was no match for anybody there I was kindly and gently schooled in the proper art of the game for two hours.

Linguistic note: When I went to the sports center to ask about it, I was told that the "Ping Pong Kyoukai" meets on Tuesdays. At this point, "kyoukai" meant "church" to me; so I thought that's what the guy said. I later discovered that a homonym for "kyoukai" is "society", which makes more sense but is less entertaining.

This weekend I once again went to Asahikawa, because I never learn. I had dinner with friends and failed at bowling, but made up for it by being able to reap the bounty of Kaldi, the local foreign foods store:



Mangoes, Mac n Cheese, and cayenne pepper. Yum!

Lastly, I turned in my form today indicating my intent to seek re-contraction for 2011-2012. So, Monbetsu until July 2012! Hooray!

On the Job

Subtitle: Yes, I actually do work occasionally

This week marked my first week of actual on-the-ground classroom teaching with real, live children. An apt way to imagine this would be a boxer's first big fight, except in this case I still have all my teeth and there is less blood. I visited three schools this week, and I'll cover them in order.

DAY 1

I began the week at my school the farthest away from town, about a half hour drive. While I had had some meetings with teachers prior to this session, my meeting with the teacher at this school was scheduled to take place when I got there - right before I was to teach. I wasn't nervous at all, that would be silly.

For my first class at any school, the obvious topic to cover is myself. The kids are always excited to have a new assistant teacher in the classroom, and always have lots of questions ranging from the predictable ("Do you have siblings?") to the esoteric ("What is your favorite insect?"). Since I am in elementary schools, my introductions are in both English and Japanese.

I knew all this going in, but I didn't really have a clear idea in mind about how, exactly, the 45 minutes would go by. I didn't know how the kids would respond to things, or how long any given activity or segment would take. I also didn't know, being new, where the kids were at regarding English or what subjects they had recently been working on.

The teacher met with me and we worked out a rough plan of attack. First, I'd introduce myself and my state, and a few other simple details of myself. Then, the kids would ask any questions they had about me. After this I'd get a simple self-intro from the kids, using English they had worked on earlier - primarily, names and likes. After this, since the kids had been working on numbers and times, we had a simple activity planned using a clock and various activities throughout the day ("What time do you get up? What time do you take a bath?"). We wrapped up with a game of bingo using numbers.

I'll be honest: I don't actually remember this class very well. I was suffused with terror and operated on auto-pilot; I have a vague sense that I was not very good. The kids were great, however, and there were no major disasters. My self-introduction, which I had pegged at perhaps five minutes, took about thirty seconds. The kids probably wondered if foreigners always have such confused smiles on their faces.

The class ended, however, and while I didn't do a great job the kids didn't seem too put out. I took my leave of the school and felt marginally more comfortable about the next day, since I had 1) met with the teacher previously and 2) had now had invaluable classroom experience, and knew a bit more of what to expect.

DAY 2

Day 2 took me to a school in town, with about forty kids between grades 1 and 6. I was scheduled to teach the 5th grade class that day, and we had previously worked on my self-introduction activities. While waiting for the class to start, however, I thought about the previous class and decided that perhaps my preparations were not adequate. I quickly came up with a game of charades in which the children could guess and ask what sports I liked, a common question in the introduction. This time, I felt a bit more level-headed, and the class was a success; we did have extra time so I was glad to have prepared an activity. The kids seemed quite happy.

I was scheduled to spend all day at the school, so I ate lunch with a class of students later in the day. In Japanese schools, students eat lunch in their homeroom classrooms, where they spend most of the day outside of breaks. The desks were clearly not designed for adults. The kids in the classroom were quite excited to have me eating with them, however, and peppered me with questions and explanations of the classroom. After lunch, the children clean up their places and then have a period of cleaning their classroom; older students also clean the school halls and other locations on a rotating basis.

After lunch, my assistance was requested as a native speaker example for the 6th graders. In Japan, English instruction is not required of elementary school students, but beginning in April 5th and 6th graders will be required to attend 20 hours of English classes per semester. For this reason, 5th and 6th grade class schedules are beginning to resemble the more rigorous curricula of the middle and high schools. ALTs like me are now in demand in elementary schools for this reason, as many teachers in those schools have not had post-secondary English instruction and are often not confident of their skills. For this class, I was asked to read passages from the book so the kids would have a native speaker's pronunciation to model after. I did manage to spice up the class by having the kids use the English they had practiced that day to guide me out of the classroom with my eyes closed (I only ran into one desk).

After this class, I was asked if I wanted to go practice with the kids for their "marathon" (a generic term for any kind of distance running event). I said "sure!" and thought myself that a bunch of ten year olds can't really be running that far. I heard 1.5 kilometers, and since I'm a big dumb American I don't really know how far that is. The answer is that it's not far, but it's farther than an out-of-shape guy like me can run without wanting to die. My legs still hurt three days later!

At the end of this day, I waved goodbye to most of the kids as they left, and consulted with the teachers about our next meeting. I felt much better about how the day had gone than I had about the previous one, and much more sure that I wasn't actually here by mistake.

This post has gotten quite long, and is already my second of the day, so I believe I'll save the third day (today) for another post. Suffice to say, it was the best one so far.

Get Your Obon On

At the end of last week, shortly after coming back from Sapporo, I participated in Mombetsu's Bon Odori, the three-day dance at the centerpiece of the nationwide Bon festival. Wikipedia states that Obon is

a Japanese Buddhist custom to honor the departed (deceased) spirits of one's ancestors. This Buddhist custom has evolved into a family reunion holiday during which people return to ancestral family places and visit and clean their ancestors' graves, and when the spirits of ancestors are supposed to revisit the household altars. It has been celebrated in Japan for more than 500 years and traditionally includes a dance, known as Bon-Odori.

What this means, in practice, is that the whole town gets together and stomps around in the street and yells a lot and drinks. Literally everybody comes. Some people go in costume, and we had guests including Lady Gaga re-imagined as a Buddhist deity and Michael Jackson (complete with, inexplicably, an entourage of children). Pretty much anything goes, as long as you more or less follow the very simple guidelines of the dance and are loud. It looks like this:



Of course, I wanted to really get involved as much as possible, which required the help of two separate people:



Whew! The dance goes for about an hour and a half, with a few hundred people going around in a circle and the rest standing around observing. I wore traditional Japanese sandals for the dance, which during that hour and a half implanted themselves in my feet in a manner that would be the envy of aspiring piercers anyway. They haven't healed yet.

Bombs at Noon

The Mombetsu ALT Krew (holla) went out on the town last night to see what could be seen. The week before had been long and harrowing, so it was time to end on a high note. We began our night at a local block party/festival/karakoke blowout. I didn't take any pictures, because I was busy eating yakisoba (lit. burned noodles) and yakitori (lit. burned chicken). I passed on the yakiika (burned squid). Like everyone else in the world, the Japanese know that it's not a proper party without beer and fire.
We met some friends of the departed ALTs, who introduced themselves to us and insisted that we treat them as family. Although you can never be completely sure, I believe that we were drafted into the local team for the upcoming Bon-Odori, a three-day festival that features townsfolk prancing around in costumes and dancing. The fact that we don't know the dance didn't seem to make much of a difference. One lady invited us to come to her with any problems we may have, as long as they didn't involve women or money. Fair enough! One family also noted that they frequently host exchange students (in Mombetsu?) and that a new high school student from America would be arriving soon. I believe we're having a party.

We went out and hit the mean streets of Hamanasu-doori afterwards, where Mombetsu's nightlife lives. At a friend's grandmother's bar, I was given my own bottle to come back to. A couple of bars and clubs later made it a good night. No pictures of this because, well, thats not really cool. Here's some random pictures of Mombetsu from this morning though:



Today is dedicated to cleaning. Tomorrow at 7 we get on a bus to Sapporo for three more days of final orientation, at which there will be no drinking or entertainment whatsoever. After I get back, classes begin along with the Obon festival mentioned above. Good times ahead!

Also, the title of this post is inspired by the fact that the city hall uses it's air raid siren to announce noon every day, even on weekends. And the title of the last post was referring to a particularly tortured mispronunciation of "clerk".

"This is Tanaka-san. She is crack."

Today, ALT #2 and I got to escape the steam bath of the office to go for a drive (I keep thinkng of this whenever I'm there). We went around town to visit and tour our various schools. For the most part, the English teachers were gone on summer break, with the Principles or Vice-Principles manning the fort. I was offered tea at every school, and had to use the bathroom three times.

Seeing all of the schools was a really good experience, even if all the students and teachers were missing. I was able to set up pre-class meetings with several of the schools, so that I can ascertain what they are looking for from me and what the kids may be expecting. The schools run the gamut from 50+ year old ruins full of ghosts to incongruously new buildings in the middle of rice fields, and students range from 250+ to one school with a whopping total of three. One thing every school had in common was a level of support that was, to an American, shockingly high. Even schools in the middle of nowhere with more staff than students had up-to-date personal computers for the kids and large-size LCD screens for lessons, and music and art rooms were universally well-supplied. One school invited me to use their drumset "Any time," which would be tempting if the school wasn't 35 minutes away.

I am settling well into life here, and next week I'll be heading to Sapporo for Hokkaido orientation. After that, it's time for the kids to come back. I'm looking forward with trepidation and excitement.

First Day on the Job

After my less-than-stellar introduction to the staff at the Board of Education, I was determined to make a splash on my first full day at the office. Since I arrived in Monbetsu on a Thursday, I was asked to come in the following Friday. I got up early and made sure I was dressed to the nines, despite the relaxed summer dress code, and went in about fifteen minutes early. Thanks to a tip the night before from my apartment's previous occupant, I had prepared a short introductory speech; I was fully prepared to make up for my lackluster and jet-lagged display from the day before.
Japanese offices are set up as clusters of desks in an open room. The entire Monbetsu Board of Education (BoE) staff resides in one room, with the exception of the superintendent, who has his own office. The three below him have their own desks along one edge of the room; everyone else has desks in clusters according to department, with the head of that department seated at the end of the cluster. My desk is next to that of the other JET, who hasn't arrived yet. Unlike in an American office, no cubicle walls or other dividers separate desks from each other; the idea is to foster open communication and group spirit.
Shortly after arrival, a few of the higher-ups talked for a while about current events. I couldn't understand what they were talking about, but it seemed pretty long considering that school is not currently in session and it wasn't about me. After this, everyone in the office talked briefly about what they were up to... and then it was my turn! I've never been more thankful to have prepared something in advance. After this, it was time to begin the workday.
My normal schedule, once school begins again, will be to show up at the BoE on mornings that I don't teach early classes, and stay there until I leave for classes. On some days, I won't go at all, and on some days when I don't have classes I'll stay there all day. Since school is currently out, I get to stay at the office all day long for the next two weeks. Terrific!
After lunch, I got taken out to see to some of the necessary paperwork I had to complete. I applied for my official Foreigner Card©, which proves to the police that I'm not a Russian gangster (in theory). I changed the name on my apartment from my predecessor's name to my own. We tried to open a bank account, but discovered that the Foreigner Card would have to go through first... not a huge deal, since I won't be getting paid for a month and a half. Most importantly, I got a cell phone! Not having had a functioning cell for the last week had been very uncomfortable to me, and now I get to puzzle out all the various bells and whistles ubiquitous to Japanese cell phones. So far, I know that my phone will track how many steps I've walked, and can be set to automatically broadcast my blood type (Japanese equivalent of horoscopes). The wonders of the modern age.
Tomorrow I'll go back into the office and start my first proper full week of work. At some point, I'll be taken out and shown how to drive a manual transmission, and later this week the other new ALT will be arriving. Exciting times in the city of Monbetsu! Next time, I'll talk about my introduction to the official Drinkin' Street here. Until then!

The Road to Monbetsu

Finally, thousands of miles and more than a week later, I've arrived at my new home in Monbetsu, Japan. No picture or description can ever truly communicate a place, but this is the view outside my window this morning:



But that's getting ahead of myself. When last I wrote I was in Shinjuku, in Tokyo. From there, the Hokkaido JETs flew out on Wednesday morning to Shin-Chitose airport, near Sapporo. Sapporo is the biggest city in Hokkaido, with a population of two million, it was here that I met my new boss and my predecessor. We stayed there for a night before heading out the next day for Monbetsu. Our hotel was the aptly-named "Swanky Hotel", which presents rooms that look like this:



Swanky indeed! We went out to a "Genghis Khan" restaurant, in which you grill strips of lamb over a fire at the countertop. The proprietor sticks a piece of fat on top of the grill to keep it greased up. Not knowing what this was, I was halfway through my second piece before she advised me not to eat it ("This is really chewy, whatever it is", I thought). We then hit the beer gardens, which is exactly what it sounds like.

The next day my supervisor and I got on a train for Asahikawa, where we changed over for a bus bound for Monbetsu. Although it took quite some time, this ride really allowed me to see some of the heart of Hokkaido, passing through gorgeous mountain roads and minuscule farming villages.



At this time, I finally felt I was getting somewhere - going deep through these isolated villages on the way to our eventual destination, my new home. We arrived in the afternoon, and I was given the harrowing experience of being introduced to the office right away upon arrival. I went to work the next morning, but this will have to be covered in my next update.

I'm in my apartment now, but not quite moved in yet; I've explored the town a bit, but not yet made it my home. It's only been two days, however, and I'm looking forward to the weeks and months ahead greatly. My new coworker, the middle school ALT, will arrive next week; I'm looking forward to meeting him, and having someone around going through the same process I am. This is the biggest adjustment from Tokyo Orientation; I'm no longer part of a huge and aimless herd of folks in the same situation as me. I'm on my own now, which is scary and exhilarating. Of course, I've been getting a lot of help, but I'm not longer just a face in the crowd. Now I'm home.

Suddenly, information!

The information drought is over. I have my placement information!

It has been decided that I will be taking over the Elementary school positions in Monbetsu, teaching at a number of elementary schools throughout the city and ranging from full size to outlying schools with class sizes below ten. As everyone says that the elementary school kids are the most fun, I'm pretty stoked about this.

I've also received information about my apartment. It looks like I'll be living in a fifth floor apartment that comes fully furnished, and provided with a company car for traveling to the schools - I couldn't be happier. This is great, since I won't have to worry about getting the money together to buy a car right away, and I can wait a few months to look into getting a car for personal use. The furniture being sold by my predecessor also amounts to less than a hundred dollars, so for now my money worries appear to be over. Rent is pretty cheap, too!

My predecessor sent me a long text file describing the living conditions, schools, and town in detail - it sounds like Monbetsu is a fine place to live. Although I'll have a better idea once I get there, it sounds like most of the necessities are within easy walking or biking distance.

August can't come fast enough! Now to go shopping for my tracksuit.

Welcome to Monbetsu

So I finally got my long-awaited placement today. Although the days until I leave are still crawling by, I now know at least the city where I will be living, which helps a lot.

For at least the next year, I will be living in Monbetsu, Hokkaido, which can also be spelled Mombetsu thanks to the lovely Japanese alphabet. Having never heard of this town, I looked it up promptly on Google. Google tells me that this is Monbetsu:



Charming! Turns out that's just the ocean, which is celebrated for being covered in ice. Scientists from all around the world come here once a year for a conference to talk about sea ice, apparently. This is Monbetsu:



It's a town of 26,000, situated along the northeastern coast of Hokkaido, Japan's northernmost main island. Monbetsu is known for the aforementioned sea ice, as well as apparently having the best crab in all of Japan. It's quite isolated, as Japanese cities go, and as a city in Hokkaido it enjoys long winters and heavy snowfall.



When I applied for JET, I requested Hokkaido, as I've always wanted to visit the region and it's said to be full of natural beauty and wilderness. Many JETs don't get placed where they want, and many view Hokkaido as a "worst-case" placement, but I enjoy the cold and I thought it would be a neat place to go, as well as perhaps more available due to the number of applicants who specifically don't want to go there. Apparently, this plan worked, as I'll be headed there in August!

The next step of my process is to hear from both the local Board of Education and my predecessor. The JET program itself does not employ me or any of the other JET program participants; my employer will be the Monbetsu Board of Education. Once they get in touch with me, I'll know more details about the schools I'll be teaching at and my living arrangements. At this point, all I know is the city.

My predecessor is the person who is currently residing in my position, and will be leaving before I arrive. They will tell me all about the area and the appointments, including the living situation and transportation. They may also sell me their furniture and other items that they won't be taking home with them. Again, once I contact this person I'll know much more about my position.

I'll post more information about my placement as I get it; for now, anyone who wants to know more can check out the official city homepage, in English. In my next post I'll be going back in time once again and talking about the interview process, back in February. Until then!