Hello, I'm in Hyogo

Monday, October 6, 2014

sports day

Everyone stands at attention looking west. As the sun begins its descent from zenith, the flags flying at our school grounds follow suit and make their way down the poles. Japan's national anthem plays solemnly over the PA system. When the last note finishes, it echoes off the mountains and reverberates through town, hanging in the air for one last moment. Our 体育大会 has come to a close.

Sports Day is an annual mainstay of Japanese school life, held at every elementary, middle, and high school in Japan. Some of the details vary from school to school, such as the time of year the ceremony takes place (some areas observe it in the midst of spring, while the majority celebrate at the dawn of autumn). But others are rather common, such as group presentations or the obstacle course relay. Finally are the events nearly universal in their practice across Japan: there will be marching, there will be foot races, and there will be ラジオ体操.

teaching english beyond the classroom

This past Tuesday marked an important moment in my work as a JET here in Japan. Along with a fellow ALT, I started an 英会話 in my hometown. While most ALTs will find this rather mundane (many JETs host classes of their own), it's exciting for me because to my knowledge, my town has never had one before. Having something I can point at and say "I started that!" is nice, as opposed to taking over responsibility for a project somebody else had a vision for. This is also one of the rare opportunities I get to meet new people and make friends in my community; unlike Tanzania, people aren't too keen about random visitors coming to their home for no particular reason but to see what they're up to. Unfortunately, I've had to restrain myself from sharing that particular part of Tanzanian culture with my town, as I've told many of my Japanese friends.

cleanup

This past Tuesday, Chikusa High School and Junior High School partook in a "beautification" project around various parts of Chikusa town. The general end goal was to clean up some of the areas that were prone to gathering trash, whether due to gravity or because it's a place that attracts litterers. I went up with the 2nd years to the Shibiki Pass, an area well-up a winding road from the center of town that leads to a neighboring village and looks down into a huge valley. The vista is amazing and lots of people go up to see it, but they tend to leave their trash on the side of the road before heading back down. I figured we'd be walking around with bags and sticks, picking up loose papers and wrappers in the gutters.

springtime is here!

In just a blink of an eye, we've gone from saying さようなら to the previous school year to holding mid-term exams here at Chikusa High School. Where did all the time go? A lot has certainly happened in the past 2 months, and it's about time to catch you up! Here's some of what's happened in my life since I last wrote.

weekend fun

Sorry I've been a little off the blog a while. I've been pretty busy and haven't had as much time to sit down and write as I'd like. Thankfully, my school schedule is starting to slow down as we near the end of the final term, so let me catch you up on what's been happening in my neck of the woods.

hadaka matsuri

Some of you may have caught a strange post I made on Facebook over the weekend:

I was in Okayama prefecture this past Saturday attending a very special, if unusual, Japanese festival that happens every year in Okayama City. At this festival, countless men, young and old, drop trou and hike a 褌 up their rear end, and then run around the streets surrounding 西大寺, one of Okayama's main temples. Why such an event takes place during the coldest month of the year says something about the people who choose to participate, though it is quite hilarious to watch a bunch of grown men clutching each other, jogging to the beat of taiko drums while screaming at the top of their lungs.

The event is called 裸祭り, or the Naked Man Festival.

in with the new

Wow! That holiday break was a real whirlwind of activity. The hardest part was keeping the majority of it secret—unbeknownst to my parents, I sneaked onto a bullet train to Tokyo on December 22nd, then boarded a triple-7 bound for IAD the next day to surprise them for Christmas. For the better part of a month, my brother and I plotted and schemed in the dark to guarantee maximum shock value. Did it work? I'd say so.

yep, it's winter

Today, I was supposed to participate in a golf tournament with a couple of teachers and some of the students from our school's golf team, but I decided last-minute to back out and stay home. I know, missing an opportunity to play golf?? What's wrong with me? I must be crazy! In my defense, this is what it looks like in my town today:

Frankly, the fact that they're still going to play is pretty bonkers, but apparently, it's not raining or snowing in the neighboring district where the golf course is. That's still something I have to wrap my head around living up in these mountains; weather is extremely local and follows certain trends, but is very much subject to change at a moment's notice. It will be sunny one minute and then all of a sudden, the sky will open up. In fact, over the past month or so, I've seen both at the same time on numerous occasions—yesterday being the most recent.

Either way, it's not going to be pleasant on the golf course today. I have no regrets.

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

preparing for winter

It's been a long, long time since I've had the full autumn experience—mourning the waning daylight, feeling the brisk chill in the air, and most of all, watching the color-shifting landscape. The cold has been rapidly approaching since the end of October, and with it, a rapid change in the temperature in my apartment. I suppose the nostalgia of the autumn seasons of my youth are keeping me afloat at the moment, but there's no doubt that the thought of winter, when the temperature isn't likely to climb much above freezing, has me a bit worried. Fortunately, I'm no longer living on a Peace Corps salary and I can actually afford to make my life a bit more comfortable. In this entry, I'm going to introduce some of the things that will hopefully get me through the harsh winter of Japan.

international friendship festival

After my travels in Kyoto over the weekend, our city held its 9th annual International Friendship Festival on the outskirts of Yamasaki. Though it rained throughout the day, it drew a good crowd, including a number of foreign residents I hadn't met before and our PAs in Hyogo!

kyoto travels: in photos

This past Friday and Saturday I made an overnight visit to Japan's former capital, 京都市, to see my uncles and take in the sights around town. Rather than bore you with a laundry list of places I went and things I saw, I will let the pictures speak for me. Needless to say, Kyoto is a gorgeous city with a ton of history.

autumn festival

This weekend was the 秋祭り in my town. I had only heard about it from the other ALT that lives in my area earlier in the week, so I had no idea what it entailed. Turns out it was mostly just townspeople walking through the streets carrying a 神輿, while somenone hit a drum to cue everyone to yell something. What's interesting is that there were a few different festivals happening at the same time, and the one you went to depended on where you lived in town. This is because there are several different shrines in my town, and each one had their own festival.

blog series: david goes everywhere!

Just to make everyone aware, I have been writing short essays for my school's English blog. If you want to hear about some of the larger events and extracurricular things I do at the school, keep an eye on the "Chikusa High School" blog link in the right-hand sidebar under "Blogs you should follow." I will still post here on my personal blog about school, but it will be less formal in manner and more personal with regards to the topic. For the big stuff, refer to the school's website. Also don't be afraid to check out the Japanese entries that show up; most of them have a host of pictures of the activities going on here!

Thursday, October 3, 2013

how to run an english class by yourself

If you had asked me how to do this yesterday, I would've had no idea. If you ask me now, I still wouldn't have any idea. The only difference is that I was thrust into this position during 1st period this morning. My JTE had to deal with some school administrative issues, so he asked me to cover his 3rd Year (seniors) Writing class. My only direction was to perhaps try something involving listening. Hmm...

the japanese trash system

Pretend you are me for a moment. Having just arrived in Japan, there is so much you need to learn. Things you don't consciously think about until they become a physical problem, taking up space on your kitchen counter, piling up on your dining table. You went to the store to buy some important items, like a bed, some utensils, and food, but of course you forgot the all-important, often forgotten receptacle, a trash can. "Wait!" you think. "Perhaps there is a dumpster somewhere around my apartment complex. I can just go straight there and skip the middleman!" So you look around. Nothing in the backyard, and nothing around the side. Confused, you decide to ask the teacher who lives in the apartment next to yours. He's an English teacher, surely he'll be able to tell you where things are. So you ring the door bell...and his wife answers. 「こんにちわ！」, she says. You ask for her husband by name, and she replies in Japanese and shakes her head. You assume she said something like, "he's not here right now." Figuring it shouldn't be too hard to ask "where do you put trash?" using gestures, you make silly, exaggerated motions with the empty bag of potato chips in your hand, along with one of the question words in Japanese that you know, どこ. She doesn't understand, so you keep repeating the same motion over and over, until you extract the Japanese word for trash (ごみ) out of her. She catches on, then blurts out a string of sentences that make absolutely no sense. After she shows you her trash bins, and you try to tell her you don't have any, she resolves to interrupt her husband's baseball practice to have him come explain it to you.

Whether you've lived in the same place your whole life, or you've never lived in the same place for more than a year, culture shock is something we all experience in our lifetime. It doesn't even necessarily have to be in a different country; just visiting another area within your own country can have you reeling for "home." Being in Japan, it is an inevitable fact of life—it's going to happen sooner or later. People tend to think of it with a negative connotation, but that isn't always the case. Although rare, things can be different in a way you think is an improvement on what you're used to.

the joys and headaches of teaching in a foreign land

Please read Learning How to Teach, a wonderful blog entry by my friend Adam, who is currently teaching up in Fukushima Prefecture. We went to college together at the University of Maryland and were a part of the same Christian fellowship on campus, and now we've both ended up in Japan at the same time, rather coincidentally. Although he works for a different organization, and teaches at a junior high school rather than a senior high school, our jobs are just about identical. In his post, he talks about some of the differences between Japanese and American culture, and also has some great insights on what Japanese students are like. I'm finding lots of this to be true in my own situation. I'm writing this as a sort of reflection on his entry.

open school

This past Tuesday, we held an event called "Open School," where soon-to-graduate students from some of the neighboring junior high schools come to see what their life will be like next year. There didn't seem to be a whole lot of preparation for this—though I did only start working here about 2 weeks ago—but there were a considerable number of activities taking place throughout the school during the 6 hours the students were here.

new life

Last night was my first night in my new house. I have basically no furniture yet—only the standard fittings in the kitchen so far, plus a washing machine and a bed. And by bed, I mean a futon mattress. In case you don't know what a futon is (if you're American, you probably don't), it isn't a couch that folds down into a bed. No, a futon has no frame whatsoever. It is simply a pad that you lay on the floor and sleep on. It sounds very uncomfortable, but there's another piece of the equation that the average American (i.e. me 6 days ago) isn't aware of.

arrival in tokyo

I'm going to try to write as much as I can before I succumb to jet lag and forget everything tomorrow morning.

Yesterday may have begun with some bittersweet goodbyes, but today ended with some wonderful new friendships. Despite being the longest part of the journey so far, I have very little to say about the plane ride. I've done long plane rides before. No, they aren't fun, but they aren't necessarily that intolerable. I spent most of my time trying to fall asleep, hoping to offset the time jump; I figured I only needed a few hours to keep me awake until bedtime in Tokyo. Considering it's 9:30pm now and I'm still awake (but dragging pretty heavy), I did as well as I could have.

another adventure, another blog

Rather than figuring out the far more important "what I need to pack", I set up a new blog so I can write a complete nonsense post. Now this feels vaguely familiar...

My flight into Narita International leaves in little more than a week, and I haven't even begun to consider what's going into my bags (maybe just bag?) yet. I suppose this is a sign that packing for a long trip has become something of a challenge for me. A challenge to see how much time I can spend doing other things before all the pent-up nervous energy forces me to take action. Sort of like playing chicken with the departure date. Unfortunately, I don't anticipate Time swerving out of the way at the last second to protect me from being unprepared. I hope something happens soon because I'm supposedly responsible for buying gifts for all my new friends. Note to self: shop for gifts.

Pages

Monday, October 6, 2014

体育大会

たいいく たいかい

taiiku taikai

ラジオ体操

ラジオ たいそう

rajio taisou

１００人百足競争

ひゃくにん むかで きょうそう

hyakunin mukade kyousou

障害物競走

しょうがいぶつ きょうそう

shougaibutsu kyousou

るろうに剣心

るろうに けんしん

妖怪ウオッチ

ようかい ウオッチ

youkai uocchi

ジバニャン

jibanyan

ニャ~

nyaa

体育祭

たいいく さい

taiiku sai

ソーラン節

ソーラン ぶし

so-ran bushi

オクラホマミクサー

okurahoma mikusa-

教頭先生

きょうとう せんせい

kyoutou sensei

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

英会話

えいかいわ

eikaiwa

し

shi

Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Monday, May 19, 2014

さようなら

sayounara

梅

うめ

ume

ざうお

zauo

京セラドーム

きょうせらどーむ

kyousera do-mu

Buko

Khanga

Lola

Butanding

花見

はなみ

hanami

桜

さくら

sakura

Friday, March 14, 2014

ナイター

naita-

炬燵

こたつ

kotatsu

Monday, February 17, 2014

褌

ふんどし

fundoshi

西大寺

さいだいじ

Saidai-ji

裸祭り

はだか まつり

hadaka matsuri

Friday, January 17, 2014

Saturday, December 21, 2013

たいいく　たいかい

ラジオ　たいそう

ひゃくにん　むかで　きょうそう

しょうがいぶつ　きょうそう

るろうに　けんしん

ようかい　ウオッチ

たいいく　さい

ソーラン　ぶし

きょうとう　せんせい

はだかまつり

あきまつり