SENSEI SENSEI!

So what's it like to teach English? I can only give a smaller opinion because I am still with Patricia and we're teaching a little bit together but if you ask me... It's a blast!!!

This family offers the teacher a treat after class--they have bought my love anyway!

So far, 99% of my students are pretty much the sweetest kids (and kind adults). Unlike a normal school, we are hired out so most of them want us to be there, minus a few company classes where the boss said so. But they take it pretty well. It has been rainy season here so for me, it's non stop raining cats and dogs. I can't believe it could pour this much, all the time. It will pass they say, and at least it won't be rainy when I move into my apartment--knock on wood. Ok, safe.

I went to the City Office yesterday with Kiyomi, my most visible boss, to get my foreigner ID card, health insurance, and a bank account. I should be all set in a few weeks at latest waiting for the card but everything is good! I have a paper one for now, haha. :) Only a few days until I move into my apartment and expand my horizon with driving on the left side of the road! If only the rain would let up enough for me to practice. So far, I have walked to the 7-11 so often I am sure all the employees have heard about me. The 'konbini's over here are actually more like clean, nice, gas stations. I would be desperate to get a meal from one in the U.S. but here, they are pretty typical. Well, off to teach kindergarten and classes until 9 pm! Observation/team teaching is a workout, wow. At least it's fun :)

My First, Half-Day of 'Real' Work

It's like the first day of school all over again, aww. And it kind of is since well, I'm teaching. Thankfully Benda gave me the morning off to recover from my 14 hour jet lag and I will say the sun rises REALLY early here it feels like, aiiie... But after practicing Japanese in my room, Patricia (my replacee) came to pick me up earlier than I was informed because she wanted to pick up some things for the students on her last Thursday. I got a nice little tour as we drove and then TADA my mall! I can see a lot of happy memories will be spent there. :)

For the first class I was a little nervous since this was it--feet in the water! There are 3 children, their 2 mothers and 4 siblings who sit in the room while we teach. They are very energetic and adorable to boot. Patricia has worked with them so long they can actually read English even though they are 6-7ish, one maybe younger. YAY! HOW FUN!

Then we had to speed off to a company called UMGCo. It was pretty industrial on site and the employees are required to take 20 English lessons, so they are small classes and they eventually stop coming. There was 4 today and will be 3 next time. They are pretty funny 25-29 year old gentlemen (Japanese people look so young, all of them, I swear) and because they are advanced, it's a nice break from ABC sing a longs (but hey, who doesn't like sillyness?) Ken is very good and jokes that Penelope Cruz is his girlfriend. That should be fun as well.

The last class (next week there are two more afterwards, woah!) is two brothers 8 and 10 who are very good since they lived abroad a few years. One is spunky while the other is serious and the rules are no farting and burping, which I like as well. :)

Hopefully I won't screw up directions next Thursday while I drive by myself but the car I inherit is very nice compared to the others and awesome compared to my '91 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme 88. May he rest in peace. I also glimpsed my apartment as we drove by Patricia pointed it out and also compared to the dorm rooms I've inhabited for the past 3 years a suiteeeee. Can't wait to move my whopping two bags into it (UHM, BALCONY!!).

However this was a 'half day' and tomorrow will be an overly full day since I observe classes with other teaches that I won't be teaching later anyway. But all experience is good anyway and it should be fun to meet the rest of them, maybe I'll even get to watch a dance class (they teach jazz and hip hop here too!!! CRAZY!). May I say this is ten times cooler than Teach for America, sorry guys, thanks for making me look elsewhere!!!

Casey

Arrival!

After 28 hours, I finally made it back to Japan. I woke up at 3:50 am and headed to MSP to catch my 6:50 am flight to Chicago. I was in for the surprise of learning that my flight to Tokyo was to Narita Airport and the connecting one after that was at Tokyo Handea--across town :) All was pretty normal for travel until I boarded the super-jet to Tokyo Narita. That's the way to fly, tv's in every seat, reclining chairs with foot rests (within reason, there IS another seat in front of you). So for 12 hours I napped, watched Chicago (ah acting class) and a Japanese anime to help warm me up.

After the flight landed everyone had to go through customs which took a very, very long time to someone who needed to be across town in just a few hours. Although I did see something a little unusual, on the escalator a woman caught my eye in front of me because her eyes weren't dark, they were blue. I figured they were just contacts because it does look a little strange but then I saw her little daughter talking to her husband and she had the same blue eyes! That's the first time I've seen that! And all this time I thought Memoirs of a Geisha was just bluffing.

Sayanara Tokyo.

I made it in time for my express bus (30 bucks, boo) even though I tried to get on the 3:00 instead of the 3:10. Oops. Nervous. It was about an hour and ten minutes and thankfully my gate was the first drop off. I bolted inside and after a small panic because the machine wouldn't let me check in, an employee got me through the normal way. And surprisingly my chocolate raisins made it all the way from MN in my carry on... surprise. I had just enough time to laugh at the 7-button Japanese toilets again and buy bottled tea before I scurried onto the last 1:45 plane ride.

My hotel toilet, if you can see the array of magical buttons to press.

Just when I think I'm free my arranged Taxi driver tells me my city is two hours away. Naptime. Sanyo and Onoda must be extremely close and technically I am in Onoda right now. Last night I was greeted by the owner's wife who treate me to a very late dinner (9:30 pm). I will stay in a hotel until Wednesday but this room is pretty cute--it's like a fancy dorm room! Haha, so after two years of being a Community Adviser in a tiny room in a resident hall, I think I can absolutely manage.

My Japanese is a little rusty, but more seems to come back pretty quickly. I'll spend the rest of today observing the other teachers and meeting more staff. Hooray, now off to explore! Maybe not too long though, I did forget how humid Japan was. Tokyo's heat almost punched me in the lungs, I think I will develop gills from the humid air.

Jaa, mata!

The Return

It's kind of a long, swirly path to how to got my job teaching English in Japan, but in short, after a couple of setbacks and changes of heart, I got a phone interview with a school in Sanyoonoda-shi and I suppose the rest is history. It was my lucky day (St. Paddy's Day) and paid off! I've spent the time since then getting my international driver's license (not that expensive, but stood in the wrong line for unfortunately, a very long time) and then my visa (this was a nightmare in which the hardest part was convincing my college to post my degree/transcripts, a long game of phone tag and assertive calls later, stuff got done), and then my plane ticket! Aiiie! But you gotta spend money to make money, right?

I will be filling in for a woman on maternity leave in just a few days, but many people aren't too familiar with the layout of Japan. You know Tokyo and maybe Kyoto and Kobe, famous for the Kobe beef which no one can afford to eat (I ate some "Kobe" beef, as in "this is beef and I'm in Kobe"). However, Tokyo is a long way away, and sadly so is my favorite city Kyoto but Hiroshima is 3 hours by normal train. Sanyoonoda (San-nyo-oh-no-da) is at the bottom of Honshu, the main island of Japan. Population: 68,000 roughly and cute little note is that in 2005 the cities of Sanyo and Onoda combined to bring us the city it is today! Apparently it is a little industrial town, with a manmade beach that I look forward to getting to know called "Kirara" Beach. The plan is on Tuesday I leave for take off at 6:50 am to Chicago, and then from Chicago to Tokyo, and from Tokyo to Fukuoka airport, a measly hour or so away by plane. Grand total of air travel time is around 18 hours with a landing time of 3 am to my sleepy body but around 7 pm to the Japanese population. It's gonna be fun! But really, I mean it.


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