Ok, here's a bad update. I'll start from the beginning or something. So I live in Kumamoto, Japan. I teach English at two junior high schools and a random elementary school once a month for a week. My two JHSs are Izumi and Izumi Minami, commonly referred to as Izunan. My fellow JTEs at Izumi are Mr. Kitazato, Mr. Susami, Mr. Nakata, Ms. Matsumoto and Ms. Yamasaki. My Izunan JTEs are Mr. Sakata, Mr. Naraki, Ms. Tango and Ms. Yamamoto. So far I've spent one 3 week period at each JHS and am in the middle of a two week stint at Izumi. The elementary schools I've visited are Nishibaru, Akita Higashi, Ezu and Kurokami. Very interesting, eh? This is more for the far future. Ok, maybe it will get interesting now. I'm finally finished my self intro at my schools, so I'm doing normal stuff now, getting into classes and exploring what I can do inside the schools. So far I've played some taiko and some 'volleyball', but not too much yet. I spent a good week and a half helping some students prepare for a speech contest where they had to write their own speeches, memorize them and recite them. I turned out writing 2 of the 3, as the students wrote them in Japanese and translated them online, which is a terrible idea and its easier for me to understand the original Japanese. So I had to rewrite 2 of them, one turned out pretty well, but the girl unfortunately didn't place at the contest. We should have practiced a bit more.
On the weekends I've done a bit of traveling, we visited Aso a while ago, we visited Austin on Yakushima the weekend after that, then I met up with everyone in Osaka for the epic weekend fantastically captured in pictures and on Chris's blog. I'm settled in quite nicely here in my apartment, although I seem to have a mold problem or something is killing my allergies. Cait recently bought a DS for me, that sweetheart that she is, and I've been playing it because it is fun. These past two weeks I've been helping another set of students practice for a recitation contest, this time of material from their textbooks. Today was the competition, and while it was tedious and long, the post before this shows the most triumphant of my students, the middle two holding certificates took second place in their grade and get to go on to the prefectural meeting. Two of my other groups from Izunan placed in the top seven in their grade levels, so I'm also very proud of them. It was quite fun and now I have experience so I'll kick ass next year.
When I get around to it I'll post pictures somewhere, but not here bc blogger gives me a hard time uploading pics. Until then, or until my next post, which could be a while, I'll see you later.
10.30.2006
9.24.2006
More pictures
View from my house, not very pretty
Suizenji Park
Suizenji Park
Ready to travel up Mt. Aso, that's Dawn on the left, Natalee on the right. Not Pictured: Cait
View from the ropeway up Mt. Aso, aobut halfway up at this point
9.18.2006
i have the internets!
I finally received my modem from yahoo BB on saturday, so more frequent updates of this blog are sure to come. I guess I'll do a quick run through of what has happened up until now. Here goes:
So I we got to Tokyo ok, long flight and whatever. We got to the grand Keio Plaza hotel around 8, and went out to get something to eat. I ate, then promptly returned to my room and died. The next day we had meetings scheduled from 10 to 8, and it proved to be a very tiring day. The next day, we all flew/rode to our respective prefectures, where we got another prefectural orientation. Me and the other two new Kumamoto JETs, Dawn and Natalee, were very tired, but did our best to stay awake. After sitting around for a while, we found we were invited to our city opening ceremony. We showed up, having no idea what was going on, and were quickly whisked on stage. We were all very tired, but the food was good and we met most of the people we would be working with, so it was fun, but a little sudden. Next I stayed over at one of the veteran ALTs' houses for a night, followed by a night at a host family's house. The host family was very nice, and I had fun hanging out with their two kids Daiki and Cota (I remember their names!). They gave me their email, so maybe they'll be able to show me around some of the places near Kumamoto.
After a whirlwind first week, I moved into my own apartment in the Izumi area of Kumamoto on Sunday. Its a brand new building, and I'm the first person to live here, so its in great shape but I don't have any hand me downs from previous ALTs. So much of my first week was spent buying items for my house, eg a toaster, towels, eating things, a futon, etc. The next week I began school at Nishibaru Elementary School, for one of my solo, random elementary school stints. They happen approx once a month and are probably going to be quite fun. I'll stop here bc I have to go to bed, but I'll give a full report up to now in my next update.
So I we got to Tokyo ok, long flight and whatever. We got to the grand Keio Plaza hotel around 8, and went out to get something to eat. I ate, then promptly returned to my room and died. The next day we had meetings scheduled from 10 to 8, and it proved to be a very tiring day. The next day, we all flew/rode to our respective prefectures, where we got another prefectural orientation. Me and the other two new Kumamoto JETs, Dawn and Natalee, were very tired, but did our best to stay awake. After sitting around for a while, we found we were invited to our city opening ceremony. We showed up, having no idea what was going on, and were quickly whisked on stage. We were all very tired, but the food was good and we met most of the people we would be working with, so it was fun, but a little sudden. Next I stayed over at one of the veteran ALTs' houses for a night, followed by a night at a host family's house. The host family was very nice, and I had fun hanging out with their two kids Daiki and Cota (I remember their names!). They gave me their email, so maybe they'll be able to show me around some of the places near Kumamoto.
After a whirlwind first week, I moved into my own apartment in the Izumi area of Kumamoto on Sunday. Its a brand new building, and I'm the first person to live here, so its in great shape but I don't have any hand me downs from previous ALTs. So much of my first week was spent buying items for my house, eg a toaster, towels, eating things, a futon, etc. The next week I began school at Nishibaru Elementary School, for one of my solo, random elementary school stints. They happen approx once a month and are probably going to be quite fun. I'll stop here bc I have to go to bed, but I'll give a full report up to now in my next update.
8.14.2006
First trip pictures
Bridge in Takayama, home of good ramen and very expensive microbrews
My favorite little guy, directing traffic all through the night
Dead fish in Tsukiji Fish Market, the coolest thing in Tokyo. Evidently, some of the tuna can sell for 10's of thousands of dollars. Because they are so tasty.Welcome to the Orient!
Hello,
Here I will journalize my excursions in Japan, and hopefully some of the nearby nations. Hopefully I'll do it mostly picture style, but if I have a good story I'll write it down.
I just returned home from a ~2 week trip to Tokyo, Takayama and Hakuba to see off my JET peeps, see some scenery and chill with Hashimoto. I was kind of bored and lonely when I was in Tokyo, as I didn't have much to do. It was really hot and it seems that Japanese people have higher sweat points than I do. Wasting a day in Shinjuku Gyoen was fun though, I got to read and sit on the grass and sleep and be afraid of ants crawling up my pants. Maybe I'll put some pictures up! I wonder how editable this blog is, when I feel like it I'll try to tinker with the html and see what I can do. For now, peace out!
I am actually posting at this ridiculous hour in the morning. I am not in Japan, but my sleep schedule is still screwed.
Here I will journalize my excursions in Japan, and hopefully some of the nearby nations. Hopefully I'll do it mostly picture style, but if I have a good story I'll write it down.
I just returned home from a ~2 week trip to Tokyo, Takayama and Hakuba to see off my JET peeps, see some scenery and chill with Hashimoto. I was kind of bored and lonely when I was in Tokyo, as I didn't have much to do. It was really hot and it seems that Japanese people have higher sweat points than I do. Wasting a day in Shinjuku Gyoen was fun though, I got to read and sit on the grass and sleep and be afraid of ants crawling up my pants. Maybe I'll put some pictures up! I wonder how editable this blog is, when I feel like it I'll try to tinker with the html and see what I can do. For now, peace out!
I am actually posting at this ridiculous hour in the morning. I am not in Japan, but my sleep schedule is still screwed.
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