In preparation for tomorrow’s graduation ceremony, we had a final 3 hour practice/rehearsal in the gym.

The ceremony consists of lots of standing and bowing at appropriate times (sometimes all the students, sometimes just the graduating students, just the 1st and 2nd year student, sometimes just the teachers, and at other times everyone..). It all seems more complicated than it needs to be..!

What felt like an hour but might have been more like 5 or 6 minutes was spent having all the students stand and sit repeatedly until they moved as one. When they are seated, their hands are fists placed on their knees. When they stand, their hands should be by their side. There is no extra movement allowed.

It’s quite a sight to see all 800 students stand up, then sit down in perfect unison, with no fidgeting whatsoever. It's all very militaristic..The importance placed on the exactness of all movements is a bit intimidating!

Don’t ‘rage against the machine’…walk away from it.

...is the title of an article I thought was worth reading!

http://www.rense.com/general75/walk.htm

Sukiyaki dinner

I finally got through correcting all the term tests I'm responsible for, and had some time to kill before I could leave.

After work, I was feeling done in and just wanted to go home and take a nap. But a couple of weeks ago, we had made plans to have dinner at Miyamoto sensei's place. I really didn't feel like going anywhere tonight...I came home after school to drop off some things, and found it very difficult to leave the house again...

I met up with the English teachers' gang (Fukuda sensei, Shimansaki sensei and Kitano sensei) at Miyamoto sensei's place for some sukiyaki.

It's food that's usually eaten during winter. Last summer, when Miyamoto sensei found out that I had never had any, she said we should get together this winter and eat. So, roughly six months later, we head to her house and have ourselves some yummy sukiyaki. It's not only delicious, but healthy and very easy to make too!

We had a very efficient assembly line happening in the kitchen to prepare the udon, which was specially brought from the Goto islands.

I’m glad I went, because I had a really good time!

Chinese Lantern Festival

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Davidiiiieeeeee! :) I miss you!

After spending most of yesterday recuperating from my awful cold/strep throat/flu type sickness, I was happy to get out of the house today.

In the afternoon, Tom and Alex came by to pick me up to head downtown for the Lantern festival.

After a quick lunch at my favorite kaitenzushi place (where Tom’s pile of dishes was almost as tall as him..), we made our way to the Chinese park where there’s a gorgeous display of lanterns.

Actually, it seemed like all of downtown was decorated for this festival. The popular Hamanomachi arcade ('arcade' being what we would call a strip mall back in Canada):

China town:

Teachers at my school had told me that the ‘Maso parade’ was one of the highlights of the festival, and not to be missed. So we hung around, waiting in the crowd for the parade to arrive. It was a very solemn parade, not one I would wait so long to see again. Perhaps expectations were a little high?...

In midst of all the lanterns, there’s an enclosed area where crowds were pushing and shoving to get closer. Behind the glass, you see the following:

Pigs with their tails stuck in their mouths! Yum yum!

While waiting outside one of the many temples we went to visit, a lady approached me and said ‘Michelle? Are you Michelle from Seiryo high school?’ I turned around and didn’t recognize the lady. I was racking my brain trying to figure out if I should know who she is…it turns out she’s Shimansaki sensei’s mother! She recognized me from the purikura pictures we took at the dinner a few days ago… what a surprise it was to meet her! I ran into quite a few people I hadn’t seen in a while, including Lucas. Sometimes, Nagasaki has the feel of a really small town...

Later in the day, we met up with Shimasaki sensei and headed back to the Chinese garden to see the lanterns lit up. There was a dragon dance that was going to be starting in a short while, so we hung around waiting. While waiting for the show to start, we entertained ourselves taking pictures...

Alex sporting Shimansaki sensei's tuque.

The dragon dance was much more entertaining than the previous parade!

Tom with one of the lanterns in the shape of a monkey…they could be brothers!

The lanterns looked especially beautiful when lit up at night!

It was a fun day spent downtown, but I was exhausted when I got home...!

I slept very badly last night…my throat is so sore, it hurts when I swallow…I kept waking up because I had to cough but when I did the sharp pain would keep me up.

When I got to school this morning Uchida sensei came to check up on me and helped sort out the medicine, explaining what each one was for and how often they should be taken. I really appreciate everything she does for me all the time..!!

The students are writing the listening component of their test today. We were supposed to record the test, but because Motomura sensei has been absent for the last 2 days due to the flu we couldn’t record it. The recording we made using a regular tape player doesn’t play so well over the intercom…. so Kitano sensei and I had to do the listening part live over the broadcast system. I was a little worried because I was sure that I would have to cough at least once during our dialogue, but it all went all right. I’m glad it’s over.

I’m going to leave early today. I really don’t feel so hot....

For the last couple of days, I’ve had a pretty nasty cough that doesn’t seem to want to go away. Today, my throat has become so sore and I was feeling achy all over..Uchida sensei got all worried because since yesterday there’s been 3 teachers who caught the flu.

I left school as soon as I could, and went to a walk in clinic that Uchida sensei recommended. The waiting was ridiculously long, taking almost an hour and half. The end result, I don’t have the flu but have a bad throat infection which I should take better care of (If I understood the doctor correctly). I was given a bunch of different pills to take, but wasn’t quite clear on the instructions on how to take them!

When I finally got home, I went straight to bed.

Dinner at Amu

With the end of term coming up soon, it was a busy day at school.

After having finally finished correcting all the journals, I’m afraid my ability to distinguish between good and bad English is starting to deteriorate…

Tomohiro (one of the English teachers from Alex's school) came by with Alex to pick up both Shimasaki sensei and I from school and from there got stuck in traffic because of a car accident. Eventually we made it to Amu plaza where we were meeting Ryo (aka 'pretty boy') and his friend, Tsuyoshi.

We had dinner at Capriciosa, one of my favorite Italian restaurants. It was a fun evening!

Cooking get-together

How sweet is this! Knowing how much I love chocolate, Uchida sensei brought back some Arnott's chocolate from her Hiroshima trip!

Fukuda sensei organized a little cooking get-together at her place for this evening. I've been wanting to learn how to make some of the more simple Japanese dishes, so this was kind of Fukuda sensei to do!

From school, Kitano sensei, Shimasaki sensei and I made our way to Fukuda sensei's place. She has three young kids (age 6, 3 and 2 years old) who were all very eager to help with the cooking! We spent the evening making okonomiyaki, takoyaki and gyoza (from scratch).

Here's Shimasaki sensei and Keiko working together.

Keiko happily keeping an eye on the gyoza.

Ready to feast. It turned out very yummy!

When I got home from school yesterday, there was a notice stuck in my mailbox. I can’t distinguish a lot of the junk mail from important mail, so I usually bring the papers to school with me to have my supervisor look through them.

She looks at it and says ‘Oh, this is very important! This is from the gas company, some people have died because of this’. Have died??? I wait for her to explain a little more. ‘Hmm..it is… difficult to explain. But we must be careful if not people die.’ she says.

‘WE’ must be careful? Of what?? The bell goes, so things get really hectic and because it’s difficult to explain, I will have to wait till we have a larger chuck of time when we can work through what it says. In the meantime, all I know is that something from the gas company has killed people and I should be careful.

So turns out that the gas company found a problem with some of the water heater tanks with a particular serial number. There’s been a problem of them exploding for no reason...I should check the serial number when I get home.

I get home, check the water heater, and sure enough, it is one of the ones with the serial number mentioned.

I’ve been using it for 2.5 years with no problems. However, just to be on the safe side, I don't think I'll use it anymore until the gas company people come take a look at it.

Happy Valentine’s day!

Valentines’ is celebrated a little differently here in Japan:

Girls give chocolate to the boys on valentine’s day!…..they got it backwards!! Valentine’s day is followed by ‘White Day’ in March which is when the guys return the favor to the girls in the form of sweets or presents.

Many of the girls at school baked their own sweets..I received all sorts of homemade cakes, cookies and sweets today!

This doesn’t help with my resolution of not eating (too many) sweets..

Day downtown

Today is a National Holiday. I was woken up this morning by the doorbell at 8:30am. Usually, I’m quite an early riser, but apparently not today. Someone was ringing the doorbell very persistently. Once it woke me up, I figured they’d go away soon since no one was answering the door.

But no. They wandered around to the front of the apartment and started calling out my name. The weather has gotten warmer, so I usually leave the windows open.. so his voice carried in loud and clear. From the sound of where the voice was coming from, it seemed like he was making a tour of the apartment…

So I dragged myself out of bed, flung on a sweater and went to the door. It was the secretary from my school who lives in the apartment just down the street. He was with his 3 kids (the cutest kids ever..!!) The kids were all holding traditional Japanese kite-type things. They were on their way to the park and thought I might want to join them in flying the kites…I took a rain check…

I met up with Alex and his friend Kyle downtown for lunch. Alex reads a lot of mangas and suggested that I use them to practice my Japanese as well. He gave one called ‘Naruto’. From the looks of it, it will be more interesting than the children’s books I’ve been (very VERY slowly) working through from the library.

We had lunch at a soba shop that Dr. Izumi had treated my sister and I to a couple of years ago which I've been wanting to go back ever since, but didn't know where exactly it was..I was excited to find it today! The owner is very outgoing and talkative and it made for a very entertaining lunch!

While walking down the streets, some random person falls in step beside me and starts chatting in English. I was in the middle of speaking with Kyle and Alex…not much later on, another person decides he wants to practice his English too and starts chatting away. It’s like I have a sign on my head that says ‘talk to me’...

There are plenty of lanterns set up around the city in preparation for the upcoming Chinese Lantern Festival which will be starting this weekend.

Later in the evening, we met up with the guy I met while jogging last week. He seems like a pretty cool guy, but doesn’t speak a word of English which makes for very difficult communication…Good thing Alex was around to translate!

Marathon Day

Today was ‘Marathon’ day. All the girls ran about 6km, while the guys ran 9km. Everyone completed the required course!! It’s unbelievable what these kids can accomplish by sheer strength of determination.

Kitano sensei, Shimaski sensei, Nakashima sensei and I went out to Pietro’s for a late dinner and then called it a day. Just watching the kids exert themselves so much is tiring…!

Japanese Language Proficiency Test results

I PASSED!! Yoohoo!!

If I worked really diligently, maybe I could pass the Level 2 test this December. That would give me something to show for the extra year I'm in Japan!

When I woke up this morning, my right eye was bothering me. It felt like when I get dust in my eyes while wearing contacts. I thought it might be due to the fact that I’ve been wearing my contacts for long hours almost every day. However, yesterday I wasn’t wearing them, and had no trouble…

It was still bothering me later on in the morning, so one of the English teachers accompanied me to the eye doctor to get it checked out. It turns out I have an eye infection….I was given drops to take for the next week. It’s now later in the afternoon, and it’s still hurting.

As of this week, I will no longer be making weekly visits to Bunko. I spent the day at school attending open classes, visiting eye doctors, correcting journals and working through the children's book (in Japanese) from the library, etc. Not a terribly exciting day..!

I joined the students again for their PE class and ran their practice marathon with them. Shimasaki sensei also joined me in joining the students. After the greeting (indicating the start of class), the PE teacher announced ‘today, we have an international group!’.The ‘international group’ was made up of 40 Japanese Seiryo students, Shimasaki sensei and I….very international, eh?...

When I get home from work, all I want to do is go straight to bed..this weather really makes me unmotivated!

Time just flies on Mondays...I love busy days.

I met up with a professor and the head of the Japanese language department at the Foreign Language University after school. I had a little trouble finding the university, but eventually made it there. We talked for about an hour, but the end result was that signing up for a class wouldn’t work out with my work schedule. The classes all end by 5pm, and the earliest I could get to the university after work would be 5:30pm…I was disappointed.

However, the professor gave me the name and phone number of a personal tutor who he highly recommended. I will give her a call and see how that works out.

Setsubun (Bean Throwing day)

Since I had no plans for the day, I decided I would go for a jog (I’ve been running every other day for the last week and a half, I’m on a roll!)

I don’t particularly like jogging because I don’t like the fact that people stare. I try to ignore the drivers twisting their necks back to get a better look at me as they drive by….

Having jogged for 20 minutes non-stop during the PE class, I now know that I can at least manage that before having to stop. So, I tried for 25 minutes, and made it!

While jogging over the bridge, yet another car with a twisted-neck-back-driver went by. I noticed that it pulled over up ahead. When I reached it, a man called out ‘can you help me?’ (in Japanese). We ended up chatted for a while, It was a great opportunity to practice my Japanese…!

February 3rd is Setsubun in Japan. What is Setsubun? It’s a day when people throw beans out of their houses to drive the evil spirit away and beckon the good luck that year.

Many people celebrate Setsubun at home. Usually the oldest man in the family will dress up as a demon and the rest of the family members throw beans to the demon saying ‘oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi! (Evil is out, good luck is within!)

Many will congregate at shrines where selected people will be allowed to go on the stage a fling bags of beans into crowds of people, all hoping to catch one. Catching one would assure them of good luck for the year.

Generally, people born in that particular astrological year (There are 12 different animals in the Chinese zodiac signs, this is the year of the boar) are allowed to throw beans at the shrine.

The head priest at Aso jinja (shrine) near my school happens to be friends with one of the teachers at my school (and his son was a graduate). So, I was given special permission to participate in the bean throwing ceremony!

There was a fire right outside the shrine being fed by all the previous years good luck charms.

There were 7 ‘bean throwers’. Before we were brought on stage, there was a short ‘cleansing’ ceremony. First, we were each dressed in a hakama.

This was followed by the head priest waking up the Gods by banging on a taiko drum and chanting each of our names and address while seated in front of the altar. Then we all bowed while he shook what looked like a broom overtop of all our heads.

Finally, we were each given a small box full of beans and were asked to throw the beans towards the altar while chanting ‘oni wa soto, fuku wa uchi!. When that was done, a professional photographer took a group picture of this year's 'bean throwers' with the priest.

Having finished, we made our way to the stage.

This was not a very large shrine, but the area in front of the stage was jam packed with people. Once we were on the stage, the host lady who asked each of us to introduce ourselves. I spotted many Seiryo students in the crowd. Finally, it was bean throwing time!

As we were walking off the stage, 3 of us were asked by a TV crew if it was all right to have a short interview.

We all headed back to the inside of the jinja (shrine) where we took off the hakamas. Before leaving, we were each handed a bag full of gifts.

There was a festive atmostphere around the jinja (shrine), with many stalls selling food, raffles, games, etc..I ran into many Seiryo students.

It was an interesting evening!

One more year in Japan!

When I looked out the window this morning, I found a thin layer of snow covering everything...it's the first snow of the year!

I handed in my intent to re-contract this morning. I will be staying another year!

While at school, it started snowing again. It's so beautiful to watch. Especially from inside the staff room where all the kerosene heaters are working at full blast. However, if it continues for much longer, I might not be able to drive back home after work today.

When I mentioned that I would be joining one of the PE classes today, Shimasaki sensei decided to join as well. Because it was snowing, the class consisted of running around the inside of the gym for 20 minutes non-stop. I'm not sure what distance I covered, but I felt like I got quite a workout.. I couldn't believe that out of the 80 students (2 classes), not a single person stopped to take a break during the 20 minute run. Everyone is in such good shape...and if they're not, they'll still push themselves to the max because quitting is not an option.

I've decided I'm going to start running regularly.

I got an answer back from the Foreign Language university about possibly sitting in on one of the Japanese classes that they offer. I'll be heading down to the university to meet with one of the professors after work on Monday.

During today's daily morning meeting, the teacher responsible for enforcing the rules (all teachers enforce rules, but he makes annoucements regularly about checking that all skirts reach below the knees, that pants are not falling off the boys' behinds, that the top button of the shirts are always done up, greetings are done in a loud enough voice etc...) announced that they received a phone call from someone who lives in the school's neighbourhood. According to this individual, two Seiryo students were sitting at the back of a bus and making out..! So he/she called the school to complain about it. "What are the teachers teaching!" He asked, " Why aren't the teachers doing their job teaching the students what is acceptable behaviour in public!" In the 2.5 years at Seiryo, this is the first time they've received a call complaining about a student.

For a westerner, it might seem a little ridiculous to think that any undesirable activity that students partake in AFTER school, AWAY from school grounds still be the responsability of the teachers. But that's how it goes here.

I never cease to be amazed at how much responsibility is placed on the school/teachers to raise the students. They are responsible not only for teaching subject school matters, but also (and more importantly) for teaching manners and how to behave properly with one another (to work together, to think of others, to make everyone feel included etc.). A lot of importance is placed on greeting people correctly, being polite, always striving for excellence, always doing your best. One of the most commonly heard phrases is 'gambatte!' (do your best!) or 'gambarimasu'! (I will strive to do my best!).

Every aspect of the student's life is monitored by the teacher. The intellectual, emotional and physical developement of each student is closely followed by the teachers. The students are required to write about how they feel after school events, special talks, performances etc. The students have forms they have to hand in to the teachers accounting for how they spent every hour of their weekend. The amount of information that the teachers know about each student would be considered a total invasion of privacy in any Western school.

Teachers have one of the highest regarded jobs in Japanese society and are very well respected. But along with that comes huge responsibilities. The time spent at school is unbelievable. Between managing club activities, preparing for classes, teaching classes, meeting for all the committees that each teacher is on...I don't know how they manage to find time to do anything other than work!

Today was an uneventful day at work. There were no classes, and students were not allowed on the school premises today because Junior High school students were having their entrance exam for next year. Those who pass the written test and the interviews will be admitted for the new school year in April.

I spent most of the day chatting with some of the teachers and studying my Japanese. I borrowed a couple of books from the library, and started working through them. My reading (kanji recognition) skills have improved quite a bit, however my speaking skills still sucks...!

In the evening, Iwata san came over bearing a few gifts, one of which was a good luck charm she bought at a shrine in Daizaifu, Fukuoka.

When I told her I have decided I will stay another year, she gave me a big bear hug! It's very unsual for Japanese to hug. But then again, Iwata san is a very unusual (in a good way!) Japanese lady.

I was told that we're expecting a lot of snow tomorrow. If so, we may not be able to drive to school...the combination of the steepness of the hills and the fact that they don't salt the roads here makes for very dangerous driving conditions if there's even the slightest bit of snow that gathers on the ground.

We'll see what the weather's like tomorrow..!