Rural Japan: House Tour, Riding the Limited Express, and Two Festivals

Just a quick update here.

I've been really busy doing things around town. Between getting all settled into my house (ie cleaning like CRAZY), visiting schools, meeting teachers, and planning lessons, I've been pretty pressed for time.

This week I've mostly been practicing riding the bus to various places around town and planning Elementary school lessons. At my biggest Elementary, I'm pretty much in charge of planning lessons for the 1st through 4th graders. However, the way things work out I'm going to only have to plan 6 lessons to get me through the end of the academic year (late March). Each lesson will be used across all four grades, just with more intense grammar/vocabulary/material as the grades get higher. Each lessons will be used 6 times (once for 1st grade, once for 2nd, twice for 3rd & 4th grade because they are split into two classes). It's actually kind of nice to be given the freedom to create my own lessons. My predecessor covered the following topics: 1) Greetings & Feelings, 2) Animals, 3) Numbers 1-20, 4) Foods, 5) Body Parts, & 6) Sports. I've made a rough outline of the topics I hope to discuss (each one is about 20 minutes explanation, 20 minutes activity/game, and 10 minutes opening/closing/review). The six that I think I have decided on are: 1) Colors, 2) Family, 3) Using/telling time, 4) Weather/Seasons, 5) Transportation, & 6) Basic Directions.

In my spare time I've been continuing practicing Taiko with some of my elementary kids. Practices are three times a week: Thursdays from 5:30-7:00pm + Saturdays & Sundays from 6:00-9:00pm. So yeah, I'm pretty busy. Eventually, I plan on getting an adult English class set up in my community. It will probably be 2 hours every other week. I also hope to join the Table Tennis club at one of my Elementarys and possibly set up an after school English club at one of my Junior Highs. Needless to say, I probably won't make it out of my town too much haha. But its okay, some of the people I have met so far are amazing.

Two of my kids in the Taiko group already stand out quite a bit. It's been really fun getting to know them, and they are both extremely gifted. One of them is the 4th grade girl I mentioned earlier, and the other is a 6th grade boy who pretty much does everything and is the student leader of the group. Also, today as I was walking down the street I walked past a woman who displayed a LOT of interest in me, and I could tell a "stop and chat" was in order (and this is saying something - I get looks everywhere I go in my town). I was looking forward to another advanced version of charades with her, but lo and behold: she whipped out her PERFECT English on me. As it turns out, she actually lived in New York for 8 years. Hello, friend!

Of course there is still my supervisor who is pretty awesome, and the office lady I mentioned before who I've been chatting with everyday on remarkably deep subjects, especially considering the struggle we go through to communicate with one another (just today we discussed 9/11 and her/my perspective on it). That was surely a run-on sentence. I don't care.... Back on subject: There is also another older man in the office who I'm starting to like quite a bit. My predecessor told me that he was pretty funny, but I just wasn't seeing it at first; I thought he hated me. But I'm slowly catching on to his humor. He frequently sleeps (and snores) at his desk (which is pretty centrally located in the rather small office), he waters all the plants outside when he gets especially bored (although it rains practically everyday here), and he has taken it upon himself to come help me with Japanese when I'm studying. Today we exchanged American/Japanese tongue-twisters with one another. Another thing that he does which pretty much makes me crack a smile or chuckle every single time: whenever he sits down or gets up from his chair, he loudly proclaims "YOSH!" in his awesome older man voice. (This basically means "All right!" or  "Let's do this!" or "Yes!")

Alright, this "quick" update has become rather lengthy. My original intention was just to post four videos and call it a day... I guess I got a little carried away there.

Anyway here they are (please make sure you have the sound on! - a shout-out to my Brookfield peeps).

A Video Tour of my House in Rural Japan

Riding the Limited Express Train in Rural Japan

Kumano Fireworks 

(the BEST firework I've ever seen in my life! This video doesn't do it justice as it's hard to get a sense of scale. The best moment to grasp the scale is the very first scene - if you look close enough you can see a man walking on the beach. The show was 2 hours and featured over 10,000 fireworks... right on the beach!)

Taiko Festival in Kumano

Okay thanks for reading and watching! See you next time! 

Jordan

PS. Please forgive my spelling/grammar - as usual I wrote this pretty fast without bothering to read what I was writing. 

The Little Things in Life

I'm not going to lie to you.

As expected, I experienced a bit of a rough patch for a few days there. During that time, my head was swirling with such thoughts as, "What the hell am I doing here?" and "I can barely speak with anyone here at all!" and "Damnit, I gave up the awesome weather and good friends I had in California!" and "I want to go home... NOW!" 

Needless to say, these thoughts are pretty much gone. My sanity has returned, I'm finally over jet lag, and I'm getting to know people here just a little bit more as each day passes.

First, there is my supervisor. He is awesome. I can tell that he genuinely cares about any concerns I bring to him, and he tries his best to accomodate me and my requests. Yesterday, I mentioned the fact that I STILL didn't have a bicycle yet. The position which I am filling has been borrowing a bicycle from a liquor store lady in town. After a few unsuccessful attempts to get in touch with her, rather than trying again, he took me to the store and bought me a brand new bicycle. :D

Second, we have one of the ladies in my office. Between her English and my Japanese we really struggle to communicate. However, we've been getting along terrifically (with the aid of google translate, charades, and our broken dialogue). Just yesterday I found out that she LOVES American football, and she actually calls in sick on Superbowl day to stay home and watch. She followed this by a "Shh! Secret! Don't tell!" :D She is awesome.

Next, is the local news reporter. He speaks pretty good English, and tonight I attended my first Taiko lesson (which he is in charge of). It is a group for elementary school students ranging from first graders to one seventh grader. Despite being so young, they are really quite good. Oh, and they are SO GOSH DARN CUTE. I asked them to call me JJ (even though I've always hated the nickname back home, it's easy for them to remember me by) and they thought that was the coolest thing ever. 

At the end of practice a fourth grade girl came over and gave me a hug. Without getting too emotional on you, let's just say that I can't remember the last time when I had such a strong wave of emotions come over me (I didn't cry... but it's definitely the closest I've come in quite a long time and took some willpower to prevent). Of course leaving the US was emotionally taxing, but at the time it didn't seem quite so real. Now that I am here however, and after those rough couple days I mentioned earlier, this is as real as it gets. I guess what I'm trying to say here is this: because of my lack of ability to communicate with the adults around me, this cute little fourth grader giving me a hug has been the single most reassuring thing to happen to me since I've been here. I think I already have a favorite student.

I hope that made sense. It's hard to put my feelings in words. 

Switching gears, I got to see the newspaper articles which I was featured in. Of course I can't read them, but the pictures aren't bad. Also, my TV interview/self-introduction is set to air next week. It will be on the local news station and will run once every hour for six days.

I know that I've been lacking on posting pictures/videos to go along with these posts, but rest assured they are coming! I'm just to lazy to dig through them all right now. I have a ton from the Taiko festival I went to in Kumano, and I've also got a bunch of random ones from around town.

Mmk, that's enough for now. I apologize for getting so candid for a bit - that's not like me at all.

Please stay tuned for next time!

Jordan

Jordan in Japan

Here it is!

The one I've been waiting to write and hopefully the one you've been waiting to read!

I arrived in Japan on Sunday July 31, 2011. After landing all the SF JETs went to pick up our luggage. One of my bags was already on the turntable when I got there, but my other bag never showed up!!! Yes, that's right, they lost my second piece of luggage on a DIRECT flight... -_- This ended up delaying me quite significantly and I ended up getting to Shinjuku around 8pm that night... whereas I probably would've been there at around 6pm if I had had all my luggage. I ended up filing a lost baggage claim, and everything ended up being all sorted out (the lost bag made it to my Board of Education before I even made it there! And I didn't have to pay for it!) Even still, it was stressful nonetheless.

On Monday and Tuesday (the 1st and 2nd of August respectively) I attended many a workshop. Both days these ran from about 9-6ish, but I had to wake up around 7 each day to get breakfast and whatnot. Combined with Jetlag, these days proved to be insanely exhausting. Still though, I was able to meet up with Takeya and Yasuchika two times and overall I had a pretty good time and met some pretty awesome people. On one of the nights, there was a 6.2 magnitude earthquake at around 1am. I was already asleep, but the initial surge was so strong that it woke me and my roommates up. Because we were on the 20th floor, it felt a lot more like we were riding some waves on the ocean, rather than a strong quick burst of force. I would say it probably lasted a good minute. It was pretty surreal and it was the first earthquake I've felt in several years. Throughout the Orientation in Tokyo, I felt a good 3 or 4 more mild earthquakes - more than I've felt in the last 10 years in California.

On Wednesday August 3rd, 2011 the Mie JETs all left Shinjuku station at around 9am. We rode a local train (the good ol' Chuo line!) to Tokyo station. There, we caught a bullet train headed for Nagoya. Despite this being my first time on a bullet train, I spent more time reveling in the good company than I did focusing on the fact that I was moving so darn fast. After the relatively quick bullet train ride, we caught the Kintetsu Limited Express down into Mie. After about an hour on this train, the Mie JETs all started getting off at different stops. Myself and two others got off at Matsusaka, where we were met by our supervisors.

From Matsusaka, I hopped in a car with my supervisor (as well as the supervisor of another JET to the north of me) and it took about 2 hours to get to my town. The car ride was not nearly as awkward as I had imagined it would be, and on the whole I enjoyed the ride. I feel like this is a good time to mention that the area where I live IS SOOOO AMAZINGLY BEAUTIFUL.

Upon arriving in my town, we headed straight for me BOE (where I have a desk in the office). I did a brief self introduction, and then I was whisked away by my supervisor who took me to my house. We set up the basics (ie water and electricity), and then we went to a store called Komeri (which I would describe as somewhat of a Japanese Walmart). I bought some odds and ends, then we went to the City Hall to do some official paperwork stuff. Eventually, I was taken back to my house where I immediately showered (by this point I was drench in sweat, haha). I then set up my bed and hopped in bed around 8pm.

The next day I went on to meet the Mayor of my town, as well as a local reporter and his crew. My interview with the mayor will supposedly be in a newspaper somewhere, and later this week I have a video interview which should be on the local news - crazy! Anyway, the head reporter is a really nice gentlemen who speaks pretty darn good English (he lived in the US for a year or two in the 70's or 80's... i think). I expressed interest to him about joining a Taiko group, and as luck would have it, he actually runs a Taiko group for elementary school students. He invited me to join, and I think I'm going to go to my first session sometime next week. That was pretty much it for my second day in my town.

On Friday, August 5, 2011 another JET from up north came down. With his help I was able to get a bank account, set up my TV and internet, and get a cell phone. He is a really nice guy and without him there is no way any of this stuff would have happened.

Today is Saturday the 6th of August and I made my first trip to the grocery store on my own. I came back with quite a lot of drinks, and not so much food, so I'll probably have to go back in a day or two, lol. BTW: the drinks here are AMAZING. I am in love with milk tea.

I plan on spending most of the weekend sprucing this place up as it needs a lot of work. Tomorrow I'm going down south to Kumano to meet with a bunch of other JETs and attend a Taiko festival.

Overall, things are going pretty smoothly thus far. There's not much else that I can think to write about for now, and I am suddenly sick of typing... So stay tuned for next time!

Jordan

PS. sorry for spelling/grammar errors... i'm too lazy to go back and read/fix this beast of a post