10 days worth of updates.... well at least the main parts

                                            Post XIV

 I cannot believe it has been 10 days since I last wrote on the Blog. I guess not having internet in the house has kind of made me forget that it exists. I find it surprising how little I miss the internet. Considering how much time we all spend on the bloody thing, one would think that you might not know what to do with yourself without it. But, that has not been the case really. I have barely even noticed not having it. It means contacting the family is a massive pain, but actually sending a letter is like 100 Yen (60p) so that’s the best way to stay in contact if I am honest. Might cancel the internet altogether (I would have to send A LOT of letters in a month to rack up a 5000 Yen bill in stamps – what I am currently paying for internet). But, at the same time, I really want to keep up the blog, as much for myself as for any readers that might happen to give it some time. So, I will decide about the internet later.

 So what have I done of late? Well, my student had her speech contest. It’s a very strange phenomenon the speech contest, and there seems to be two strategies: recite good English, or, recite bad English but cover it up by being extremely enthusiastic. A bit like the Eurovision song contest, it seemed less about the quality, and more about the performance. Which is a great shame as it meant that my student, who speaks extremely well but who is rather shy, didn’t place in the top three. Despite confidence building exercises, she just felt too uncomfortable with big gestures and smiles, and so, despite her near perfect speaking, she was overshadowed by the extra energetic students. I am still so so proud of her, and she has come an extremely long way since I met her (all down to me of course………..) and she has a lot to be proud of too. Not many people would have the confidence to speak a foreign language for 5 minutes, whilst being judged, to a room full of people at just 12 years old. I’ll also miss the practice sessions themselves, weirdly, as it was a great time to goof around and make a fool out of myself, and really try and help her to realise that the most important part of the contest was just to enjoy it.

 Other than that, I played a gig with some of my teachers at the island music festival. It was a good laugh actually, though we played really cheesy JPOP songs which probably didn’t do my ‘street cred’ much good. The kids liked it though. A bunch of the kids had various performances too, and so did a lot of factory workers, which meant that the festival was a miss-match of thrash punk, JPOP, Jazz Dance, Hula and acoustic Bruce Springsteen covers in hybrid Japanese/English. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this al got a bit much by around 4 so I went for an Onsen again. The Onsen on the island is interesting because it always has tourists (Japanese and otherwise) in it, which means it doesn’t have a ‘locals only’ type of feel to it which they often do. It also means that there are often people who want to talk to you. I find it very strange that once you are naked, everyone is perfectly comfortable to speak to strangers, foreigners and so on. The conversations are often similar, but it’s always nice to meet new people.


 I’ve also been to Okayama, which is a city with a castle, cool garden, and a shit ton of skate shops, guitar shops, second hand shops etc. Really cool little place and I’ll definitely be going back frequently as it is not too far from me!

 Well all of that was a bit of a stream of consciousness, but I don’t really have the energy to check it. I hope it’s remotely comprehensible, but perhaps not. I wanted to fill people in on what’s been happening, and though I have missed a lot of things out, I think the post is way too long as it is. So, to sum up, I’ll end with a cliché hope that I can post more frequently etc etc, and I think this week should be less busy than average, so perhaps I actually can post more frequently this week….

A quiet afternoon at school, and time to share some thoughts

                        Post XIII

Still no internet, but I don’t mind. I have been really busy at work and also socialising with the teachers so I have barely been home anyway. The workload is rather relentless, but the work is also rewarding so I don’t mind. My only issue is that sometimes I have very little to do during the school day, but once school finishes and I should be going home, all of a sudden I am given a million things to do. But yeah, I guess I have to fit myself in around the Japanese teachers schedule because they are significantly more busy than me. 

School lunch is always the hardest part of my day. I have eaten things that taste gross, things I didn’t even know were eaten, and things that the very concept of is gross. Example: the theme of one meal was “mother and child”. Which meant that we had an egg and chicken rice dish, served next to three whole fish about 4 inches long. I don’t like eating whole fish, but I have gotten used to it so I was like “fuck it” and just cracked on. After biting in to it, I quickly realised that the fish was very heavily pregnant, because it was full of tiny eggs. This is without a doubt the most disgusting thing CONCEPTUALLY I have ever eaten, but actually it didn’t taste that bad I have to say.

 Lunch is often quite fun too, there was this one kid goofing around who stole one of the other kids muffin and refused to give it back. I have like zero authority over the kids because I goof around as much as they do, so instead I offered the other kid “my” muffin. The little joker who stole the muffin’s face instantly washed out. You could see that he was thinking: Oh shit, sensei doesn’t realise I am joking and thinks I have actually stolen the kid’s muffin. He promptly returned the child his muffin, and gave mine back to me, with a look that said “alright kill joy” on his face. Then, he suddenly realised that I had two muffins. Then, it clicked that I had sneakily stolen his muffin, pretended to be offering my own to the child, but all the while offering the little jokers muffin. The look on his face when he realised he has been beaten at his own game was priceless.

 I also had my first Nabe party. You all cook a stew together on the kitchen table, and just continuously add food and drink beer until you can eat and drink no more. So that was pretty awesome. So much so I think I will buy a Nabe pot in time for winter. Other than that, it’s been practicing for the music festival, training my speech contest student for tomorrow, keeping half an eye on Scottish independence, sleeping whenever I get the chance, and parties. I often think “I wish I had more time”, but then I think to myself, well I am already just doing all the stuff I want to do anyway, so what would I even do with the extra time?

Little update

                 Post XII and a half

Today I showed my secondary school kids some of my Pokemon cards. They found them really interesting, but it turns out the cards were older than the kids. Holy fuck did that make me feel old!!  

I still have no internet, because the hotline for setting it up closes at 6, and I have rarely left school earlier than half 6 at the moment because of demonstration lessons coming up (a bit like ofsted in Britain). 

Also I am now in a band with some of the other teachers. We are called 'raw power' and we are going to play anime songs and Disney covers at a small festival on the island. The irony was lost on the teachers, unfortunately but unsurprisingly I guess...

First Week at School

                         Post XII 

Wow it’s been a while since I managed to sit down and actually write a post. I have lacked motivation actually because my internet has run out, so I knew I would have to type it up in MS word, take it to school and then upload it – which all seemed like a bit of a faff. But, it has been an interesting week and I finally have some time so I thought its worth sitting down and typing away. 

This week has been my first week of teaching. First thing Monday morning; kindergarten. From 2 years old to 5 years old. So damn cute! But fuck do these kids have energy! Also, none of the kindergarten teachers speak English so I had to completely wing it – which seemed to go ok. They can’t get enough of high fives, they will literally do it until they are told to stop. I also experienced the two extremes of affection. One kid just continually hugged me, another, too shy to give me a high five, instead punched me as hard as she could in my stomach. Fortunately she was 4 so it didn’t hurt, and it seemed to release her fear-of-foreigner tension, because after that she was quite happy to high five like all the other kids. As soon as it began, so it was over. I was back behind a desk at Junior high. Then all of a sudden, and Amazon delivery man appeared at the school asking for me. I signed and paid for my parcel (in Japan paying online for things doesn’t really happen, so Amazon offer a ‘cash on delivery’ option). Now, I had not put the schools address anywhere on my Amazon page. This delivery guy must have gone to my house, realised I wasn’t in, and then asked people where I would be, before tracking me down and making sure I got my parcel. In the UK, Amazon sometimes leave a ‘sorry we missed you’ not when you are in the fucking house!! I don’t know why I was so surprised, it’s not so hard to track down a foreign person living on a tiny island, but still – it was cool. 

I then met all the other kids, and I could go on and on with little stories about them but it would maybe get repetitive for you. Basically there is a wide mix of them, but they are all really cute and interesting! School lunch, however, has been the most difficult thing to understand. I have mucked it up 5 days in a row now. Firstly, all the kids eat in the classroom together, and all help to dish up the food. The food itself has been hit and miss. Well, it has always been prepaired well, but sometimes I have had to force down food that I would not usually eat. Ever. Like fried small whole fish and egg soup – that meal really was a struggle! But, if I made it through that alive, it can’t get any worse (it bloody better not anyway). Once they finish, this hilarious song comes on and all the kids brush their teeth. It really is quite a spectacle and I spend the entire 3 minutes trying to hold in my laughter. I have to look away because if I watch them for too long I just can’t help but laugh – it’s just so surreal! 

Then, we all go outside and I play a mixture of football with the older kids (who can talk to me), and them some game that I don’t really understand with the younger kids where I think basically I am some sort of monster they have to catch. So that just consists in me running away from a hoard of kids for 20 mins in the 30 degree mid-day sun! So as you can imagine it’s pretty tiring! All of this tom-foolery is over by half 1 and then it’s back to class – drenched in sweat and bright red (not a good look). I tend to recover about halfway through the class, get some energy back and continue to goof around and generally try to keep the kids engaged. Meetings and various other things keep me occupied till around 6, and then, after my 11 hour day, I come home and have a cold beer. Very tiring work, but already very rewarding and fun even though the kids barely know me! I look forward to more if I can maintain my energy levels….