Bunkasai!

Bunkasai (school festival) has started. Jeremy and I wandered around a visited many of the classes. We played some games, which I mostly sucked at. My hand/eye coordination has never been great. But, I did manage to win some things, my favorite being the yoyo I fished out of a kiddie pool.

Here's the lion the students made to decorate the gate at the school entrance

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This is one if our classes, the 2-4 (2nd year 4th class) class' room, where I won my yoyo.

And this is my yoyo.

The students have all worked very hard the past few days to make their events. All the rooms are crazy decorated and everyone seems to be enjoying themselves.

I may have to come to work on a Saturday and Sunday, but at least it's an interesting way to spend a weekend at work.

HELLO!!!!

I have internet! Isn't that exciting? WiFi and everything too! :D

I've written a couple of things these past 3 weeks, so those will be going up soon. Otherwise, I'm doing good and settling in pretty well. I'll before settled in later today as my predecessor is dropping off the last of the stuff I bought from her later today. So, I've got to go and make sure the place is cleaned up a bit. I'll try and get some pictures up soon too.

From the week of August 10th

I put the finishing touches on the worksheet I've spent most of the afternoon putting together a little before 4pm. I save it in my folder on the teacher's public server and print out a copy. I look over the sheets one more time, then add them to the small pile of other things I've printed out in the last two days. This one is an information gap, pair exercise to practice giving directions. There's another worksheet in the pile to practice describing a room, as well as a draft of a tentative class schedule for the upcoming term. I write out a short note describing these, as well as the partial bits of things I left saved in my folder so Jeremy can pick up where I left off tomorrow.

It's only Thursday, but I am taking Friday off as one of my four days of summer holiday (natsu yasumi). I put the note and pile of papers in the center of Jeremy's (my fellow ALT and sempai (senior) JET) desk, next to my own, and spend the next few minutes fiddling around, cleaning my desk, and mostly waiting for the clock to hit 4:10, so I can get started on my weekend.

The office is ridiculously empty, and only one teacher looks up as I head to the door. We trade the traditional leave-taking phrases. Osakini shitsureshimasu (Excuse me for leaving before you.) on my part and Otsukaresama deshita (Thank you for your hard work.) on hers.

I make my way down the stairs to the entrance without running into anyone else. I grab my outside shoes out of my locker, which is still labeled with my predecessor's name, and quickly switch shoes, leaving my indoor ones in the locker for next week. Then it's a short walk to the bike area. My purse and tote are wedged into the basket. Then I go through the increasingly familiar routine of unlocking the back tire, kicking the kickstand up out of the way, and backing it out of the row of bikes, past the row of cars, jumping on, adjusting my skirt, and pedaling for the school gate.

A quick check for cars, and I'm across the street, and under the railway bridge. From the bridge to the main road is my favorite part of the ride to and from work, because the street is lined with rice fields which are dotted with the occasional group of crows or an egret and the wide blue sky and afternoon sun are clearly visible. It's a bit of a strange sight for me, seeing as I'm used to corn fields towering above me, but a beautiful view all the same.

I cross the main road and ride past the Lawson's (a chain convenience store), and then turn down a narrower road to take 'the back way' home. The first time taking this route, I felt lost in a maze of winding streets with hidden curves and random crossings. But I've got it down now and while the road I follow twists and curves, it is technically the same road, and I think of it as straight in my mental map of the area. I catch the scent of incense soon after turning. The bigger of the two cemeteries along my route comes into view, and sure enough there's a couple of cars parked on the street. It's the week of Obon, the Festival of the Dead. That's the main reason the office was particularly devoid of life this week, most of the teachers took it off to go home and spend the holiday with family. Extra cars and incense have joined me in my travels to and from work this week.

Jeremy also took part of this week off, but for his natsu yasumi, not Obon. He had the heads up that office would be dead. But the empty office gave me the chance to figure out stuff on my own, and try my hand at working with the curriculum. He'll be in tomorrow and hopefully what I've produced in the past few days will past muster and actually be useful.

I pass the second, much smaller cemetery, and that's my signal to look for my turn off. Then it's through a short tunnel under a busier road, watching carefully for cars from all sides. Now I've reached the green slope that runs up to the paved river walk/bike path. I follow along this slope for a few blocks and then practice my dismount. I feel more graceful every time I don't fall on my face while doing that! After wheeling my bike to it's spot, and doing the unlocking routine in reverse, I head into my slightly-cooler-than-outside apartment and immediately turn on the air con. I'll sit under the fan until I don't feel like a puddle of sweat. Then I'll start on dinner.

Morning Routine

I wake up with curtain-filtered sunlight in my face. My hand pats around on the tatami mat next to my face until my phone is located. A push of a button reveals that the sun is still lying to me about the need to be doing things, so the phone is turned off again. I roll over, kicking the last bit of blanket off my feet. Getting up and turning the air con back on is briefly contemplated before my brain shuts off again.

An hour or so later, the wake up alarm on my phone goes off, and I obediently, roll up onto my feet. I pad out of one room, and onto the wooden floored 'Western Style' room. This is the room with the almighty air con, which is promptly turned on and up. A visit to the bathroom is the next stop, then to the fridge for bread and jam. I go through the increasingly familiar routine of turning the hood on, flicking on the gas, and pouring a bit of water into the grill drawer thingy. Within a few minutes, my toast is toasted and jam is then applied. I pour myself a glass of juice, grapefruit this week, and head back into the now cool room. My plate and cup are set in the middle of the desk, in between a pile of papers and a pile of electronics. I turn around and slide the door to the kitchen closed, to keep the cool air contained to the room I'm currently occupying.

While I eat my breakfast, I peruse the internet on my phone. Smartphones are awesome. I can hold the internet in one hand. And that's not even all it does! Technology is great sometimes. Eventually, another alarm goes off, reminding me that at some point I have to get dressed and leave the house. I laid out my skirt and shirt combo yesterday, so getting dressed takes approximately no time at all. The next task is to fold the futon and blankets, and put them along with the pillows away in the closet. Once that's done, dishes are dropped in the sink to be washed later as I'm feeling a bit lazy today. Then it's into the bathroom for teeth brushing and face washing. And when I say bathroom, I mean a little room with a bath tub, a moveable shower head, a little sink, and some tile to stand on in front of the sink. All behind it's own door, so quite literally a room for bathing in. The toilet is in a separate little room next to the bathroom, behind it's own door.

I have some time for reading before I need to head off, so I do so until the leave the house alarm chimes. I grab my bags, turn off the air con, and head to the door. My walking shoes are slipped on as I step down into the little entrance way directly in front of the door. I unlock both locks, before squeezing out the door, turning around, and locking it again. My bike key is slipped off the keychain as I walk to my bike. My bike is inherited from Sarah, my predecessor. Originally I didn't like it much, as it is bright pink, but I soon grew to love that obnoxious color, as it is easy to spot wherever I park it. It's not much of a problem here at home, the bike parking area for the apartment building usually only holds 3 scooters/motorcycles and 3-4 bikes, but at school or at the grocery store, it's nice to walk out and be able to spot my bike in the sea of gray and silver.

I unlock the bike, throw my bags in the basket, and wheel it out from under the awning. I jump on and adjust my skirt a bit, as the bike starts to roll down the slight incline into the street. I make a wide turn out into the road and take off on the 10 minute ride to school for another day of work.