Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Andy's LiveJournal:

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Saturday, July 7th, 2007
10:28 pm	So far, this week has been busy, tiring, and AMAZING. I'll post a full entry on it when I have more time, but until then, here are a few of the things that happened (although they aren't in any particular order): First and foremost, I got to hear a great Belgian boys choir who sing some excellent hymns. Translating, translating, interpreting, interpreting, translating, interpreting, interpreting, interpreting, translating, interpreting, interpreting. While I was interpreting a speech that the mayor of Shibushi was giving (live and in front of a fairly big crowd), he looked over at where I was and said, "This is completely different than what I have written here, should we stop?" I know much more about Belgium now than I did before. I learned that bamboo cuts like paper...except it's much thicker, sharper and more painful. I got to have dinner with some of my students' families for the first time. I learned that when I use my camera to tape something and I don't have much arm support, it looks like a bad bootleg video. Nami, one of my favorite students, lunged at me while yelling, "DON'T SAY IT! DON'T TELL HIM THAT!" Three of my former students, two guys from the choir and I danced around like we had some mental issues while singing a children's song using nothing but the syllable "la". My opinion that I'm pretty good at interpreting from Japanese to English, but terrible at interpreting from English to Japanese became nothing if not stronger. Considering the above statement, being asked to translate someone's English into Japanese in front of a news camera is terrifying. My theory was reinforced: Japanese students and signatures when there are foreigners around are like sharks and food when there's blood in the water. I learned that working 13 1/2 hours on a Saturday CAN be fun! ...and nerve-wracking! Students whom you haven't met for one and a half years will be really happy if you remember their names. Tomorrow, too, I have plans for a day trip, so I'll be sure to add anything interesting from that into my next post. Current Mood: exhausted (Comment on this)
Monday, May 28th, 2007
4:54 pm	Last week My weekdays last week can be summed up as follows: OK, good, good/bad, good and good. Tuesday At Izumi JHS on Tuesday, they had the first midterm tests for the first and second years. Since the English test would be held the following day, my class with the second years consisted only of helping them study. It was great, because they were studying hard, and I was able to explain a lot of the reasoning behind the grammar to them. Sometimes, I find myself unable to explain things about English due to either my lack of proficiency in Japanese, or because I just don't know myself. The last period of the day was kind of a free period, so many of the second years studied, and I helped them. When that class was over, the homeroom teacher asked the students to thank me for helping them, which they did very loudly. After they had thanked me, however, Ayumi shouted, "YOU ARE A VERY HANDSOME BOY!" in English. I had to laugh out loud at that. Maybe that's her way of saying "Thanks". Even though I have about 700 students, it's very rare for me to be at a school during one of their birthdays. Today at Izumi, Yumi (one of the second years) turned 14. Her class made a card for her, which I also signed, and the music teacher came to the classroom with a guitar and tambourines for when we sang "Happy Birthday" to her. We sang the song twice, just to make sure it stuck. Just as the students were about to leave, I realized that I had some stuff from America in my car, and that would make a good birthday present. In my haste, I chose a Carolina Panthers cap which Bucky donated and a Clemson University pencil. I barely caught her just as she was about to leave the school, and she was very grateful for the gifts. Wednesday Class at Matsuyama went very well, but after work wasn't so good. First of all, I've had this corn on one of my toes for well over a week now, and seeing as how it's kind of painful, I decided to see the doctor. When I arrived at his clinic, a nurse brought me to the back area and had me lie down on my stomach with my feet towards her. She proceeded to take out a tool, the likes of which I've only seen being used to prune bushes. Having spoken with the school nurse at Matsuyama JHS, I was certain that there were other options, and when I met the doctor, he agreed that cutting off a piece of my toe was not the way to go. He told me that my callous had signs of a virus in it, so cutting would be a bad idea. Instead, he gave me these pads which will soften the callous. When it becomes soft enough, I use some kind of tool (anything that can scrape seems fine) to basically shave it down. I've been doing this for about a week now, and I can safely say that the callous becomes more sensitive after it's been whittled. Still, seeing as how this corn is basically a blood-filled lump of pain that's surrounded by a hard callous, I prefer this method! Bloodbath averted! Also on Wednesday, I left my car with the mechanic for some MUCH needed maintenance. In addition to all of it's usual problems, I noticed that the oil has been leaking, and my front two tires are...well, let's just say that I should have replaced or at least rotated them months ago. I'll just say that the pieces of metal inside of radial tires are darn sharp. The car is being fixed as I type, and the price is just ridiculous. I'm not going to say what it is, but Andy from Shibushi High School just spent about a week in Okinawa for less money. Also! New pictures! Chapter 19: Pictures From School It's the first time I've posted a picture of Mei-san, from Onomi Elementary! His name is pronounced "May," which is the sound that goats make in Japanese. I like to try to talk with Me-san, and he often replies to my calls of "me-e-e-e". Also, the pictures on my new camera are of a much higher resolution than my old one. If you want to view the picture as more than a thumbnail, but 3072x2304 is too big, just click on "Direct link to image," and it'll give you the photo at an appropriate size for the size of your screen. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, May 18th, 2007
7:40 pm	Fire BAD, Humidity BAD, Joke Maybe Not So Bad? At Matsuyama JHS on Tuesday, I helped Mrs. Taniyama, the "youmuin," get seeds out of some VERY hot peppers. A youmuin is someone who does things like gardening, cleaning, making sure the teachers have tea, etc. She wanted to plant these seeds. At one point, I felt an itch in my eye, and forgetting that maybe some residue from the seeds would still be on my fingers, gently rubbed my eye. People suggested that I wash my face with water, and while I know that milk or bread is supposed to be good when you eat something too spicy, I wasn't about to splash milk or rub bread on my face. Needless to say, the water on my face made my eyes swell, and my nose became a cavern of disaster. About 5.5 hours later, I found out the the cold baths that are in most Japanese bathouses seem to work wonders on an overly-spicy face :) I know that I've said it gets pretty humid here, and here's an example: I brought some metal coathangers from America, and just last week, I found out that most of them have a significant amount of rust on them! I never thought I'd say this, but does anyone know a good way to get rust out of clothing? I guess I can just bleach the white shirt, but the other one is green. As part of the ceremony welcoming new students at Tanoura JHS, the student council gives a welcome speech in English. The English teacher at Tanoura suggested that, if we ALTs weren't busy during the spring vacation, we could come and help with pronunciation. After we helped with that, we stayed and talked with a few of the students for a few hours. During the course of that conversation, Kurumi, the student body president, came up with nicknames for we three ALTs based on what we said/did. Keith: He spent some time talking with Fumiya (one of the boys) about anime and video games of which the rest of us had no clue, so he was dubbed, "otaku". Nathanial: The fact that he's afraid of bugs and spiders came up several times in the conversation, so his nickname became, "女の子" (little girl). Don't worry, much like anyone who lives here, he's becoming used to large spiders crawling throughout his house at night. Me: I was dubbed "oyaji," and the reason isn't found anywhere in that Wikipedia article. I had a bottle of water with me, and whenever I took a swig from it, I would let out a loud and overly long "AHHHHHHHHH". Kurumi said that it reminded her of an oyaji. Still, I hear that oyaji only do that when they're drinking an alcoholic beverage. Anyway, one other thing that oyaji are famous for is oyaji gags. My penpal Emi sent me a really good example of an "oyaji gag" a few years ago. It goes, "アルミ缶の上にあるみかん," and I had to think about it for a good 24 hours to figure out what was funny. Last week, while studying Japanese, I created my very own joke! It's not as clever as the ones in the wiki, but take a look: この部屋でハットはご法度だ。 (Maybe I should change the first part to, "建物の中で") Maybe it doesn't even qualify as an "oyaji gag," but then again in reality I'm no oyaji! (Comment on this)
Saturday, May 12th, 2007
12:53 pm	Last year, the fourth grade teacher in Matsuyama Elementary found a version of the popular tale, Momotaro, in English. She wanted her class to perform it in that year's cultural festival. So, I helped the class with the pronunciation and made a tape of the script so that they could practice. You can read the link for the full story of Momotaro, but basically he comes into the care of a man and a woman and eventually has to go fight some ogres on an island to help his town. Also, he befrends a talking monkey, pheasant and dog. In this English version, when he meets the ogres, one of them says, "Who are you?" to which Momotaro replies, "I am Momotaro, number one in Japan!" Momotaro is often shown with a flag that says, "日本一" (number one in Japan). When I made the recording for this part, I figured that the ogres would be pretty angry to see some punk kid trying to ruin their good time, so I kind of said it forcefully and put a little bit of emphasis on "you". Although I didn't get to see them perform the play, they gave me a demonstration when I taught their class one time, and it was pretty good. Even though they're fifth graders now, there's something about that play that still lingers. Much like the "poop" students at Izumi, these students use some lines from that play so often that they remember them. Every time I go to Matsuyama Elementary, the boys in that class greet me with a hearty, "Who are you?" My response is usually, "I am Andy, who are you?" They often respond with, "I am Kazuki, number one Kazuki in Japan!" Of course the name varies with the student. At Matsuyama Elementary yesterday, one of the boys in that class said, "Andy look, I'm going to do something stupid!" He then pointed at a hand-drawn picture of someone gargling and said, "Who are you?" to it. I replied, "No, I'll show you something stupid!", went to a mirror, pointed at my reflection and said, "Who are YOU? WHO are YOU?" That cracked all of the kids up. (Comment on this)
Wednesday, May 2nd, 2007
8:00 pm	Photos galore! After lots of photo-uploading, I think I'm caught up! There are four new rolls from August to December for you to peruse. The Summer Lull and the Start of the Second Term The Junior High School Sports Festivals On to the Elementary Schools' Sports Festivals! Until My Camera Called it Quits As far as the second roll is concerned, both Tanoura and Izumi had their events on the same day, but my camera's batteries died shortly after getting to Tanoura. That's why the majority of those pictures are from Matsuyama, which had it's festival the next day. About the third roll: Five of my elementary schools had their festivals on one day, and the last had theirs about a week later. I'm really liking this new camera, so look forward to more regular picture updates! EDIT: Even though my camera quit last December, I was able to use my cell phone's camera to take pictures while I was visiting Fukui last month. The pictures are a bit fuzzy, and their order is the reverse of chronological order, but maybe they can give you a bit of an idea what it was like there. Vacation in Fukui (Comment on this)
Tuesday, May 1st, 2007
6:28 pm	Last week was pretty interesting. Monday at Moriyama Elementary was fairly normal, but I got to meet the two new first graders. Both are boys, and since there were more graduates than new students, the student population there is down to 17. Since my old camera is practically dead, I went out and bought a new one after school on Wednesday! The one I went with was a Casio Exilim. It's similar to this one, but it looks a little different. After testing the camera out at Izumi JHS on Thursday, I can say I'm really happy with it. It's small, takes good-quality photos, has a rechargeable lithium ion battery, and is really easy to use. It's also ready very quickly after the power is turned on. At Isakida Elementary on Friday, I had an awesome first lesson involving pronunciation with the new 6th graders. Even though there was no game, they were really into the lesson and I think it went really well. One topic I covered was "feelings". After going through the standards, "angry" came up. When I taught them "I'm angry," I said, "This is how your teacher often feels." After that, the teacher used his fingers to make devil horns and said, "I'm angry!" at which all of the students feigned horror. After the English class, I stayed with the 6th graders for their gym class. The subject of that period was the 100-meter dash. Much of the lesson was spent with the students racing each other in pairs. The students wanted to see me run, so I raced with a pair of the boys. They made me start with a handicap of several meters, but we were pretty much dead even by the end. The final race involved one of the boys I raced before, the groundskeeper, and me. The groundskeeper is actually younger than me and in good shape, so he really beat the rest of us. Although it was pretty close, the student came in second and I came in third. Even though it was four days ago, my legs STILL hurt! Sprinting uses different muscles than long distance running/swimming, it seems. Speaking of a new camera, I FINALLY got around to uploading my pictures from Sam's wedding and my visit home. It's nearly a year old, but you can check it out. Also, feel free to check out my more recent pictures. Current Mood: fine (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, April 23rd, 2007
9:20 pm	There's another thing that happened at Izumi last Thursday which I want to mention. First, I'll have to introduce the characters. In the crazy second year class at Izumi, there's a pair of twins, and I didn't realize that they were twins for a good 10 months. One day a few months ago, I noticed that the "Helper for the day" 日直 whose name was written on the blackboard was "川野　姉" (Kawano, older sister). I asked the English teacher, and she said, "Oh, Aoi and Azusa are twins." I nearly slapped my forehead when I heard that! In my defense, Aoi is noticeably taller, wears glasses, and they really don't bear more than a familial resemblance. Anyway, on Thursday, there were no classes after lunch due to 家庭訪問. Azusa was helping one of the teachers in the hall outside of the teachers' room, so I went to help, too. Azusa asked me, "アンディ、「下痢」は英語で何と言う？" (Andy, what is "diarrhea" in English?) Now, these kids asked me how to say "poop" in English some time ago, and I told them because I figured they would just forget it. Boy, was I wrong! They used the word "poop" so often that practically the whole grade knows it well. Well, I told Azusa how to say "diarrhea" in English, and she proceeded to say the word about 10 times over the next two minutes! She then asked how to say, "I have diarrhea" and I explained that since it's considered disease-like, so you'd use "have" as the verb. Then, on her own, she figured out how to say, "Do you have diarrhea?" When she learned the spelling, she wrote it down on a piece of tape and stuck the tape on her hand! Now, although these kids may seem kind of strange, it's great that they want to learn and use English! Also, how many of you can say that when you studied a foreign language, you didn't try to learn the bad words? In class with the second years that day, I received some good news! Well, the class consisted of all of the students, the teacher and me introducing things in English. When I did this at Tanoura JHS the day before, I used a New Year's Card that I received from Nanae last year. In the passage in the textbook, a boy talks about a koala keychain that his brother gave to him. The last sentence is, "I always keep it on my backpack". I thought I could use this sentence for my card, since I always keep it in my backpack. It's not that it's particularly important to me, I just keep forgetting to take it out. So, after each speech, we would ask the students questions to see if they understood. One question we had for my speech was, "Who gave the card to Andy?" This is always a difficult question for the students, since Nanae has an unusual last name, "五位塚　菜奈絵" and my pronunciation maybe isn't the best. I did say that it's a rare name, but one girl in the class, Ayumi, said that her sister knows someone with that name. Then, I put two and two together: Both Ayumi's older sister and Nanae recently entered Shibushi High School. I think it's great that some of my graduates from different schools are becoming friends :) Current Mood: sick (Comment on this)
Friday, April 20th, 2007
6:51 pm	Highlights of the week Wednesday, Tanoura JHS - I finally got to talk with Mayuko today. You see, Tanoura JHS gets its students from three elementary schools: Tanoura Elem, Moriyama Elem, and Youra Elem. I only teach at the former, so this is my first time meeting the Youra graduate (there's only one). Since teaching English in elementary school has no official standardization, schools do different things. At Youra, they focus on English more than any other elementary school I've been to. They even have fifteen minutes of English conversation every day. So, I spoke with her in English, and I can say that she'll be a really good student. Thursday, Izumi JHS - The rowdy, rambunctious rascals were at it again. Of course, I mean the second years. I walked in to their classroom during one break to find an interesting sight. Ruri, one of the girls, was on her back and was using her arms to shield herself from Saki, who was standing above her and dual-wielding thoroughly used fly swatters. So, Ruri managed to make a break for it, and Saki chased her around the schoolgrounds for a while before tackling her on the grass. Of course, they were laughing like crazy the whole time. Yes, these are 8th graders. After lunch in the second years' classroom, Saki starts headbutting Ayumi, who was sitting in a chair. Then, Miyuki jumps on Saki's back. So, there's this totem pole pushing Ayumi's chair slowly backwards, and all three of them are laughing like it's the funniest thing they've ever seen. Again, yes, these are 8th graders. They're also probably the most fun class I teach :) After school, I swam another new best: 84 laps. I think I'm really improving in this, since I swam the last 20 laps (500m) in one go. Friday, Tanoura Elementary - Since the last schoolyear, this school's student population dropped from 29 to 24. There are only two first graders here, and today was their first time meeting me. I went up to their classroom, and when they noticed me in the hallway, they were like deer in headlights. I waved and said, "Hello!" and they waved and said "Hello" back, but with the same, stunned expressions on their faces. I walked away as their teacher whispered something to them, and when I had turned a corner in the hallway, I could hear them shout, "アンディ先生だ！" (It's Andy-sensei!) One of the first graders, Emi, is really fast, and she even caught a teacher when we played tag today. I thought it was funny how, whenever she became "it," she would say, "まぁ、まぁ、まぁ、まぁ" ("Maa, maa, maa, maa," which means something like, "Well, well, well, well..."). Kind of like she was choosing who to chase. Just now, I went for a run, and thanks to my swimming, I can now run as well as I could the week I destroyed my knee. Back then, I would run the usual run (I calculate it at around 5.2km) every day. Because of that, I can't sit cross-legged (or "Indian-style," whatever it's called) for long without my knee hurting. Now, I plan to only run occasionally, but go swimming more often. This weekend, I plan to buy a new digital camera (my old one is kind of broken)...and not really do anything else. There's only one more week before a long vacation comes up. Yay! (Comment on this)
Monday, April 16th, 2007
5:48 pm	尾野見小 (Onomi Elem.) probably has the highest amount of cuteness per capita out of all of my elementary schools. Today, when I was teaching the 1st and 2nd graders, one girl standing towards the front of the room caught my eye. She had a look on her face that said she was obviously deep in thought. With her hands, however, she was making THE FINGER PYRAMID OF EVIL!! You know, it's what villains do when they're hatching a plot. I had a great time eating the school lunch with the 3rd and 4th graders (their classes were merged due to their small size). I would mess with the kids by tapping them on the shoulder or pointing and shouting "WHAT'S THAT?!?" and then switching my half-full milk carton with their unopened one. Recess consisted mostly of tag with kids of various ages. It's starting to get hot, so running around in a dress shirt and long khaki pants (cue my New Orleans accent)"Nearly gave me a case of tha vapors!". I do declare. I guess many things in life are about perspective. Ever since I had my last vacation, my perspective has been good, and my mood has been great. I find that I can exercise better, I'm always in a good mood for school, heck, I think I even sleep better. I guess my blogs can be a bit repetitive at times. Like today's, they may just become, "At X school, Y-san either a: Did something really cute, or b: Had a great English conversation with me." Really, if I don't update for awhile, just imagine some situation and pick people/places/events for the above three variables. Let me give you a few examples, none of which actually happened (or did they...?): 1-At Izumi JHS, Yuki Nishizono and I discuss the causes of the American Revolution, entirely in English. 2-At Tanoura Elem, Ayaka Senzaki finds an injured bird and nurses it back to health THROUGH THE POWER OF LOVE. 3-At Matsuyama JHS, Yuri Shirasaka and Nami Fukubeppu dress up as penguins for an English play. 4-All of the students at Youra Elem perform in "The Phantom of the Opera," entirely in English (this one is true!). I'm going to stop now. It should be obvious that I'm in a good, though weird mood! Current Mood: weird (Comment on this)
Saturday, April 14th, 2007
12:03 am	Well, I was out late tonight too, but it's Friday, so it's OK. The Matsuyama section of the BOE had a barbeque/drinking party, and it was good fun. Unfortunately, the section chief kind of passed out during the event, so we called an ambulance and went to the hospital with him. Luckily, he's OK and he didn't even have to spend the night in the hospital. While I was coming back to my apartment, however, I had an interesting experience. Picture yourself in bed, when suddenly a large creature sneaks up on you. You jump out of bed, and head for the nearest lighted area, but you find that the light is behind a wall of glass! Fearing for your life, you head for the darkness, hoping to escape, and you eventually manage to get away from the hulking beast. Well, when walking up the stairs to my apartment, I happened upon a sparrow who was roosting there. The poor thing was startled and flew into a window that had a light behind it, then managed to figure out that it could get away through pretty much any other route. My plans tomorrow all start with "S" 水泳(suiei) - swimming 洗濯(sentaku) - laundry 銭湯(sentou) - public bath 茶道(sadou) - tea ceremony Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Thursday, April 12th, 2007
11:34 pm	I hope Friday the 13th tomorrow goes this well! Due to a going away party that the BOE had, I didn't get home until after 11:00 pm. I'm too tired to write about everything today, so I'll explain it in more detail later. Today was a great day at Izumi JHS! I love the new first years, and I learned all of their names already. That's not really so special, though, since there are only seven new students there. Still, because of that, I now know the names of all of the students at Izumi. Also, the class with the second year students showed that they're just as energetic and weird as they were last year. It was a really fun class, full of 下ネタ. Finally, I swam a new best of 76 laps today, including several 200m runs (each lap is 25m). Swimming is a great cardiovascular workout, and since it's really low-impact, I don't have to worry about my knee giving me a month of pure hell like a year and a half ago! Well, it's really low impact if you don't run into the wall while doing the backstroke! That was a joke... ... I apologize. Current Mood: tired (Comment on this)
Wednesday, April 11th, 2007
9:54 pm	Still going strong! I had another good day at Tanoura JHS today! One difference between Japanese and American schools is that Japanese teachers are moved to other schools every 3-7 years. Also, the teachers who haven't passed some test that's required to be a "full" teacher are contracted one year at a time. So, between last school year and this school year, over half of the vice principals in Shibushi Town were moved and when they left, they took their children with them. Many of these schools are very small (they range from 11-39 students), so pretty much all of them shrank in population. There are now only four second year students at Tanoura JHS, so that class is often very different than others. Still, at least one vice principal brought a child with him/her. There's a new third year girl, Yuka (I forgot her last name, but I think it's really rare), at Tanoura JHS. Since she's new, and the class today was the first English class of the school year, Nakamura-sensei had the class give self introductions in English. Listening to the introductions was a lot of fun, and giving my own was even more fun. Even though we ran several minutes long, I didn't want that class to end. One thing that was mentioned in our self introductions was blood type. In Japan, they have this idea that your blood type determines (or at least affects) your personality and compatibility with others. Whenever I'm asked what my blood type is, I have the person asking the question guess. The students at Tanoura JHS know me really well, so when I told the third years to guess today, they immediately and almost unanimously guessed "A". I think of this "blood type personality" thing as something just for fun, like zodiac signs (which also claim to determine personality, if I'm not mistaken). Still, others are often shocked to learn that my blood is type "O". Kagoshima dialect word time! キバル(kibaru)-->頑張る(ganbaru)-->to do one's best Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)
Tuesday, April 10th, 2007
7:48 pm	I drank SO much pool water today! When I said that three weeks ago I was "in a slump," that was putting it a bit mildly. I would say I was downright depressed on Friday, March 23rd. I was worried about the situation at Matsuyama JHS, what with my favorite students leaving and the students who were staying being, well, less than good. Also, there was the car accident, which was my fault, on March 15th. It was a really slow collision, and I came out of it with just a dented door, which is far from the top of the "What's wrong with my car" list. Everyone involved in it was very kind, but the other person said that her neck hurt, so the police had to get involved. Her injury was really light, so there was no fine, and I came out of the experience with four points on my license. I guess I was focusing on these and a few other problems too much. But don't worry, everything's fine now! My trip to Fukui was great, especially March 29th, which was the best day I've had in seven months! I shouldn't have to tell you that the reason starts with "真" and ends with "美". Also, classes just started, and I had an excellent day at Matsuyama Elementary yesterday. Today put my fears concerning Matsuyama JHS to rest, as the new first years were friendly and well-behaved beyond my expectations. Since Yuka graduated, the spot of "my favorite student" has been open. I know, I sound like Slughorn from Harry Potter. Nami Fukubeppu is a new first year student at Matsuyama JHS, and she would sometimes talk with me in English even in elementary school. See, she goes to a "juku" (think "school after school") and learns English there. She's always very friendly and cheerful, and today she spent her lunch break gathering wildflowers to make a bouquet for her homeroom teacher. How adorable is that? After school, I went swimming with Nathanial and Emily, and I have never swam 60 laps better. If Tanoura JHS, Izumi JHS and Taino Elementary are this good, then I think I can call this the best school week I've had here! Current Mood: happy (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, April 5th, 2007
5:28 pm	Long time, no see! Well, it's spring break now, but the entrance ceremonies at my schools will be tomorrow. I was in a bit of a slump a few weeks ago, but the trip to Fukui revitalized me.今年も頑張るぞ！ Well, about the trip. March 28th - Getting to Fukui was a little difficult, as the nearest airport that I could fly to without transferring was in Osaka. From Osaka, I just took a train to Fukui, and the whole trip was about five and a half hours. Akari said it was all right for me to stay with her family, but she wouldn't be able to pick me up at the train station because she had a going away party to go to. Instead, her father and younger sister, Mayumi, picked me up. When I met them, they were a bit surprised at my height, which is normal. This time, however, it was my turn to be surprised, since Akari's sister is the tallest Japanese woman I've ever met! At Akari's home, I met the rest of her family and we had a nice dinner. This was the first time that the Oshino family had had a foreign guest, but everything went well. Although I didn't know it at the time, Akari sent Mayumi an email asking if I made it to Fukui and if they were able to bring me to their home. Mayumi's response was simply "いえす" (pronounced kind of like "yes") in hiragana. Akari was confused by such a short reply, so she sent another mail, asking if everything was all right. The reply? "いえす". Due to these short answers, Akari thought something was up, and that maybe they didn't know what to do with me, so she called. During the phone conversation, the majority of Mayumi's responses were simply "Mm-hm!" (in an "affirmation" kind of way). She's really quite a funny girl. Akari ended up coming home a little early, since she thought something was wrong. March 29th - Mayumi, whose university was still on spring break, was the only one with free time in the morning, so she and I went to a local shopping mall and then made curry together for lunch. Unfortunately, she had classes the next day, and the train ride was seven hours, so she had to leave in the afternoon. Akari was able to take the afternoon off, so she and I went to a town called Echizen, which is famous for Japanese-style paper. We made some paper and listened to an explanation, and then proceeded to the school where Akari teaches English. We met some of her students there, and they were really good at forming questions in English. After that, Akari took me on a tour of the school. Although Akari says that it's an "inaka" (think, "the boonies") school, it has a higher population than the biggest JHS in Shibushi city, and more than 10x the number of students as my small junior high schools! March 30th - I went to Eiheiji temple. Akari's mother was the only one who could take time off from work, so she went with me. It was a really interesting temple, and its grounds are huge! Like the wiki says, lots of monks train there, and we were able to see plenty of them. I hear that, if you make reservations, anyone can experience the training of a monk there for three days. Sounds kind of difficult, even though it's an easier version of what the actual trainees do. Afterwards, we visited the prefectural library and saw an exhibit dedicated to a Fukui native who did a lot of research with ancient kanji. I really enjoyed seeing how some of the characters evolved into their present forms, and the reasoning behind their forms. March 31st - Akari had to work in the morning (yes, on a Saturday; it's hard to overemphasize how much teachers here work), so I just helped out around the house and looked at things on the internet. In the afternoon, she and I went to the Fukui Prefectural History Museum. There were examples of what things were like in Fukui during ancient times, but the Showa time period (1926-1989) exhibit was far more interesting. We then attempted to look at the cherry blossom trees, but they hadn't really bloomed yet and a thunderstorm decided to stop by. We met Akari's boyfriend for dinner, and we had sauce katsudon, which was delicious! April 1st - Akari, her father and I visited the cliffs of Tojimbo. The ocean kind of carved holes into the cliff, and the pillar-like rocks look really neat. After Tojimbo, we walked around a small island and then visited Maruoka Castle, which is apparently the oldest standing castle in Japan. For dinner, Akari and I met Yuki, who had just returned from helping a group of kids who had homestays in Australia. There was lots of catching up to do, and we had a great conversation over dinner. April 2nd - Akari's mother gave me some rice, fruit and tea for lunch and I returned to Kagoshima via train and plane. It was a really great trip! (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Monday, March 26th, 2007
6:12 pm	The Useless Room Well, it's spring break now, so Keith, Nathanial and I are spending our time in the BOE. This gives us a chance to do a lot of talking as well as prepare for the coming school year. We also make lots of jokes. Today, Nathanial was talking about the 多目的室 (multi-purpose room) in Ariake Elementary. He said that it's virtually empty, except for a blackboard and a few chairs stacked against the back wall. Since the room doesn't seem to be so "multi-purpose," I proposed that they replace the "多" ("many") with "無" ("nothing; none"). I was just trying to make a joke, but when I looked it up, I discovered that "無目的" is indeed a word! I was both amused and pleasantly surprised. This Wednesday (March 28th), I'll take my first trip since visiting home last summer! I'm going to go to Fukui and visit Akari and Yuki. I think I need a bit of a break, and I'm looking forward to meeting two of my exchange student friends. Today's Kagoshima word: ノンカタ(nonkata)-->飲み会(nomikai)-->Drinking party (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, March 9th, 2007
5:42 pm	Over the winter vacation, all of the second and third year students at Matsuyama JHS wrote diaries in English. Since there were nearly 100 of them, I only finished checking this week. There were more than a few interesting entries, particularly from Yuka. One of her entries begins, "Today, I know how to use 'smack'." She goes on to explain that she learned it from Winnie-the-Pooh, and that it means "a small amount of something". I'll readily admit that I didn't know it has that meaning, but it certainly does. Another of "smack"'s definitions that slipped by me is that it's slang for heroin. Reading the sentence in that context is a little funny. Another of her entries begins, "To be frank, one of my cats is very thick." In Japanese, the word that they use for "fat" usually translates to "thick". Anyway, I thought that it would be great if someone "Your mom"ed it: "To be frank, your MOM is very thick!" Yeah, I think that works. I've got two links today. First, a funny beatbox video. This next one isn't safe for work, but it's one of the most incredible songs I've ever heard. People were using the Kagoshima JETs' message list to discuss cursing in Japanese. Then, Andy from Shibushi City (not me; there are two Andys here) linked this group's myspace page. First of all, their name is "Kokujin Tensai," and "kokujin" means "black person" and "tensai" means "genius". Listen to the song, "Waruguchi Sensei". Basically, almost the whole song is them saying bad words in Japanese and then in English. Their translations are correct as far as I can tell, but the severity of the words changes based on how you say the words. Many of those words/phrases probably wouldn't be cursing if said in a pleasant way. Well, I think... (Comment on this)
Friday, March 2nd, 2007
11:51 pm	Oh frabjous day! Well, I just saw my first huntsman spider of the year. Of course, they haven't had time to grow yet, so this one is still pretty small. The best part about it is that it was in my bed! I'll post when I see the first one with a 5-6" legspan. It's like seeing the first bluebird of spring. I finally learned some conjugation for the Kagoshima dialect, but I'm too tired to figure it all out right now. So: ちんこめ(chinkome)-->小さい(chiisai)-->small Also, I just found this: Clockspider! I thought it was funny. (Comment on this)
Monday, February 19th, 2007
9:46 pm	Today, during recess at Onomi Elementary, a first grade girl said to me, ”アンディしぇんしぇい、あしょびましょ！” (Andy-sensei, let's play!). The way she said it was SO cute! Sometimes elementary school kids are adorable beyond all comprehension. Especially at Onomi. Must be something in the water. Kagoshima dialect word time: ラッフル(raffuru)-->黒板消し(kokuban keshi)-->blackboard eraser I learned this some time ago, when I was teaching stationery at an elementary school. I held up a blackboard eraser, and some of the students said, "raffuru". The teacher let out a little laugh and said, "That's in the Kagoshima dialect!" (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, February 18th, 2007
4:57 pm	Making BLTs on Friday went pretty well. Not great, but it could've been a lot worse. After I gave the initial instructions, the students kind of went on auto-mode, which helped to speed things up, but caused the bacon to turn out a bit differently than I had hoped. There was no vegetable oil, but luckily the bacon wasn't too lean to be cooked in its own fat. As I anticipated, this was the first time most, if not all, of them had seen bacon fried, so they tended to take the bacon out of the pan a bit earlier than I wanted them too. In a way, that helped to save the lesson, since the students also turned the heat up much higher than I had asked for them to. One other problem concerns the bread. The only bread that I found in the grocery store is very, very thick. When the ingredients were put in between two of those hulking slices, the result was a very big sandwich, even by American standards. Pretty much everyone there had difficulty eating their sandwich, and some of them ended up becoming salads! We made the sandwiches during the period just before lunch, so we just ate the sandwiches with lunch. The teacher suggested that next year, we make the sandwiches during the last period, as a kind of snack. Still, none of the students seemed to have any difficulty finding room for the sandwich along with their school lunch, albeit with smaller portions than normal. Seriously, I have never seen someone so small eat so much! I really have to wonder where they're putting it all. Kagoshima dialect word time! かごっま(Kagomma)-->鹿児島(Kagoshima)-->Kagoshima, the prefecture where I live. (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 15th, 2007
9:44 pm	In one class at Taino Elementary tomorrow, I'll be helping to feed a small army. As I hardly ever cook, I was a bit nervous about it at first, but now that I've had a little bit of practice, I think it'll be really fun. We'll be making the good ol' BLT sandwich. I heard that they never fry bacon in Japan (well, pretty much never), so I guess that'll be a new experience for them. Should be fun! Current Mood: sleepy (Comment on this)