School Comparisons

   I know I shouldn't do it because nobody wins, but I still do it anyway.

   I compare the junior high school I work at now with the one I worked at for the last three years.

   This school has come to feel like home, so it's not like I look down on it or think badly of it; it's just different. Jarringly different sometimes. For example, the other day, I was checking mini-speeches written by the second-year students about their dreams. It was strange in a lot of ways; the girls wanted to be doctors, nurses, and pastry chefs -- normal stuff. The boys had different aspirations, though. They wanted to be mailmen, delivery men, mechanics, farmers, maintenance men, office workers, and government employees. Sure, a few of them wanted to be astronauts or chefs, but the vast majority of them wanted to be... well, practical workers with a steady salary.

   Read on!

One More Thing: New Placement

   I made a promise to myself to speak less Japanese with the English teachers since I'm one of the few chances they have to speak with a native English speaker and it will (hopefully) help their English improve. I also sometimes feel like speaking Japanese makes some people feel like I don't trust their English... and that's not really the kind of feeling I want to be nurturing in English teachers.

   Well, I've been able to keep that promise pretty well.

New Placement Differences

   Something that's constantly lingering at the back of my mind, even after a month here, is the nagging feeling that I'm not really getting any work done up here. At Azuma, I felt more like I was teaching, despite frustrations. I was proofing tests before they went out, checking tests when they came back, helping teach the textbook and deal with grammar questions...

   Now, though, it seems like I've taken a step back. Although I'm more accepted at Fujimi as a person, I'm not really being used much as a teacher, albeit an assistant. This comes with the job, though; ALTs generally can only do what the school wants them to do, however satisfying or unsatisfying it is.

   Read on!

The Finger Game

   Japanese kids have a bunch of variants on rock-scissors-paper that they play, but they also have the finger game. The finger game is usually fast-paced and generally only ends when someone makes a dumb mistake because they were trying to hurry. You see, it involves very basic math: addition and subtraction.

   The setup is pretty simple; two people play and decide who goes first. Then both players stick out their index fingers. The game itself is also pretty simple -- you reach out and touch the opponent's hand with your hand and they add the number of fingers you have stuck out.

   So if you have one finger stuck out and tap a hand that has two, that person sticks out one more finger for a total of three. If you have three fingers stuck out and tap a hand that has three, that person goes down to one finger, because six minus five (the maximum number of fingers normal people have) is one. If you have two fingers stuck out and tap a hand that has three, that makes a total of five, and that hand is "out." You win the game by getting both of a player's hands "out."

   Additionally, since you have two hands, you can swap fingers between them. So if you have four fingers out on one hand and your other hand is out, then you can tap them and give them both two fingers, or give one three and the other one. The thing to consider is how many fingers your opponent has out on each hand -- if they have three fingers out on one, then going two and two isn't the best idea since they'll immediately knock one of your hands out, even though you can knock that three hand out.

   It sounds confusing when described like this, but it's really pretty simple.

   Does this game exist in America?

Busy Weekend -- Individuals Judo Tournament

   I woke up around 6:00 with a solid eight hours of sleep behind me. I woke up earlier because I wanted to have a bit more time in the shower to wake up before walking to school. Even though I hadn't made a lunch the night before, I didn't really worry about it since there would be bentos again; I hadn't known that on Saturday.

   As I was preparing to cross the main road to walk up to the school, a car pulled over and signaled that it was going to turn, so I backed up a bit. I don't really want to get hit by a car again, no matter how slowly it's going! It weirded me out a bit when the car stopped right in front of me, though.

   It was Oono!

   Read on!

Busy Weekend -- Team Judo Tournament

   I woke up, bleary-eyed, at almost exactly 6:30 in the morning. My body is remarkable in that it'll let me sleep pretty much exactly the amount of time I want to sleep... and for once, I actually slept deeply. The down side was that since I'd had around four hours of sleep, all my body wanted to go was sink back into that deep sleep.

   Oh, well.

   I hopped out of bed and stumbled to the shower. My apartment's still a mess; I have three piles of old clothes sitting on the floor, bits and pieces from some shelving that I wasn't able to put back together (because other bits and pieces were missing), random do-dads that I haven't found a place for, and some messenger bags sitting by the wall. Somehow, though, I made it to the shower without killing myself.

   Read on!

Busy Weekend -- PTA Party

   This past weekend was a pretty busy one for me, with the festivities starting, quite literally, on Friday. Friday night featured a party run by the PTA to greet the new teachers and PTA members and also to send off the leaving teachers and PTA members. It started from six, so I stayed at school, went to the literature/culture club (which is really the story-writing and manga-drawing club), then got a ride to the party.

   My original plan, you see, was to ride my bike down the mountain to the party since it was a 20-minute trip at worst, and all of that downhill. I mean, how bad could it have been?

   Read on!

Neglect

   I've been neglecting a lot of things lately, mostly due to work. I haven't been taking pictures (though I tried -- more on that later), updated my resume, exercised/worked out, cooked, worked on the proofing company idea with rav, or punched up my blog's layout. What I have been doing is a lot of work and kendo followed by vegging out and not sleeping well.

   Read on!

Stormy Mountain Clouds

   One of the reasons I really love living in this area is the scenery. Not only are there tons of nicely-sculpted mountains all over the place, but there are also tons of great cloudscapes. Every once in a while, the two come together to make a really, really neat mountain cloudscape.

   Like this one from yesterday afternoon.

   Unfortunately, I didn't have my good camera on hand to take a picture and I had to make do with my cell phone camera. Too bad.

   All of the dark and brooding clouds seemed to predict rain, and sure enough, it's drizzling a bit today.

   I'm really annoyed at that, since I have to go down into the city for a farewell party from my old school for all of the teachers who left this year (including me) -- that means a bit of biking in the city, in a suit. I also was going to bike back after the party thanks to my replacement screwing me over... but I really don't want to go through that again.

   Maybe this time I'll "sleep" in the 24-hour McDonald's near the bus stop.

Morning Mountain Mist

   I thought about titling this post "Misty Mountain Hop," but there was no hopping involved.

   On Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday mornings, I walk to school. The school is so close that I'd barely save any time at all by riding a bike and the brisk walk is probably better exercise, too. Another thing that makes me prefer walking is the road; it's steep and covered in loose gravel, with very small shoulders, which would make me incredibly nervous on a bike with cars flying by.

   If I go by foot, though, I'm only very nervous.

   Read on!

Junior High Scenery

   Today's my first day of classes at the junior high and, appropriately enough, the scenery is changing. Since it's spring and finally starting to warm up a bit, flowers are blooming, the cherry blossoms are finally all coming out, and of course, my allergies are acting up.

   The scenery inside the school is changing too; students are a lot more active now that they're out of the seemingly endless tedium of orientation. Hand-drawn posters are going up around the school, advertising various club activities -- all of the clubs want to attract new first-year members to replace the third-year members that will retire, come August.

   Some of these posters are really good!

   Read on!

The Picture Extravaganza

   First, I'd like to point out that I made two backdated posts that I wrote at home, before I had internet access here at school. You can read about my first night in Fujimi and the disaster that was my school introduction.

   Someone asked me to take more pictures, so I did, last Friday. It was dark and I was using my cell phone, so the pictures are less than stellar, but here they are.

   Read on!

Day of Clubs

   Yesterday afternoon was the most eventful part of the day; I can't even remember what happened in the morning, other than a staff picture.

   I also took a picture from the teachers' room. You can see the whole city spread out beneath the mountain from up here... well, at least on clear days.

   Read on!

First Day of School

   Yesterday was my first day of school here; it was basically all introductions. The new teachers were introduced to the second- and third-year students before the opening ceremony; the opening ceremony itself was basically an introduction of the new first-year students. After it ended, the teachers all filed back to the teachers' room and the students went to their respective homerooms for an hour or two of orientation.

   Read on!

School Introductions

   I haven't slept well for a single night since I moved here and it's been frustrating me, especially since I can't figure out why. It's not doing my mood any good that I'm always tired, either. It could be the light streaming in through the giant glass doors right next to my pillows -- if it is that, I need to get ANOTHER expensive curtain because the one I bought just isn't up to the job. I guess I can't just get by with only one layer of fabric.

   Another thing it could be is the neighbors; they tend to bang around a lot from five to six -- if that's what it is, I can just try going to bed earlier. I tried a few nights ago and woke up around three in the morning, though, so I don't know if that's it. I kind of wish it were that simple so I could just fix it, because I'm really tired in general; I just feel like I need one good night's sleep to get my mood back on track.

   Yesterday was probably the most eventful day I've had here since I moved, and I was actually kind of excited about it. Was.

   Read on!