Oh, all the bowing...

Today I'm going to discuss what was probably the most taxing day of my life in Japan thus far.

On Monday I arrived at work at 8:30, and at about 9 I was off to visit pretty much every school in the Nayoro area. We visited all 6 of Chris' schools(The other ALT), my 6 schools, and also the schools that Shelley, another ALT, works at. We did not get back to the office until about 5:30. What made it so difficult was all of the formalities I had to endure. I will describe how a typical visit played out...

We arrive at the school, take off our shoes and put on school slippers. We then go to the office of the principal. Before entering the office you bow, and say "shitsurei shimasu," which roughly translated means "I'm going to be rude." You then meet the principal and the vice principal. You take out your business card, hold it with both hands and present it to them facing towards them so they can read it. The very first school I went to, I handed it to them with the words facing myself, which got quite the reaction, mostly laughter at my ignorance. You then say, "My name is Jenna Smith." They then take it from you with both hands, read it carefully, check both sides, and say "Jenna Smith, right?" you say, "Yes." (just a side note, this is said in Japanese, I'm just trying to translate it for those who don't know Japanese). It is then repeated for the other person, and you finish the introduction by bowing, and saying "Yoroshiku Onegaishimasu," which means something like "I humbly ask you to be kind to me." We then would all sit around a table, us being me, Chris, my 2 supervisors, the section chief of the Board of Education, and the principal and vice principal of the school we were visiting. I learned that you should then take the business cards just received, and lay them out on the table in front of you. The writing should face towards yourself, and the cards should be in the order that they are sitting around the table. The meeting would usually consist of my supervisors and the chief talking to the principal about me in Japanese, and I couldn't understand anything. Sometimes the principals would show some interest and ask simple questions about me or Canada, other times next to nothing was said to me. Then we would be introduced to the staff of the school, and say a couple sentences in Japanese to everyone. Then another bow, and another yoroshiku onegaishimasu. Then we would leave the room, saying "arigatou gozaimashita" and "shitsureishimasu" while bowing. We would then go to the entrance, put our shoes back on, and then bow again, and say "arigatou gozaimashita" or "shitsureishimasu" again. Then it was off to the next school!

Trying to learn the names of everyone was impossible, not only because there were so many, but also because they were all Japanese names(obviously), and most often ones I had never heard before. Fortunately for me, this morning my supervisor gave me a complete list of all of the principals and vice principals, along with pictures and their names. I didn't even ask for it! Have I said how much I love my supervisor?? She is the best supervisor I could ever ask for.

I start teaching on September 3rd, for all of those who are curious to know, and I've started making lesson plans and the like. I'm a little nervous, but the kids here are so cute, I can't wait to start teaching!

I will finish off by linking to a video of me and some friends on what is called a "fuwa fuwa dome." It is basically the coolest trampoline ever, and the video captures it much better than pictures do. Thanks to Chris for taking it!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gxda4vuJavQ

Mata, ne!

More pictures!

I've posted pictures of my house, as well as a few other things, so here is the link:

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2063379&l=b7bb1&id=120405652

Today I am going to an onsen for the first time, which is basically a hot spring in which you don't wear a bathing suit. A little nervous, but looking forward to it too!

Tomorrow I'm going to Sapporo orientation, which is 3 days long... Which most likely means no posts for 3 days! Sorry!

Finally... A new blog entry!

Well, first off, I'm sorry for taking so long to update! As of now, I will have no excuses because I finally have internet at my house! So I will do my best to update frequently...



Also, before you couldn't make comments if you weren't a member, but I changed that so now anyone can comment. And I love comments, it will encourage me to blog more!

So I will talk about Nayoro, the town I will be living in for the next year. It is a nice small town, with just over 30000people. For me it's the perfect size because there is everything I need, but it is small enough I can get everywhere on my bicycle. It also isn't very busy or crowded, so I feel comfortable here. So far I have been working at the city office with the Board of Education. About 16 people work here, and they are all very friendly. My supervisor is a lady named Haruka Kawasaki, and she is 23 years old. There is also another ALT(Assistant Language Teacher, this is what my title is) named Chris who works here. He is also from Canada. Haruka is such a sweet girl, and her job is to take care of me so she has basically done everything for me. She got me a cell phone(sorry mom... ;) love you! ), bank account, TV, internet, car insurance... you name it, she helped me get it. I'm so lucky to be working for the Board of Education because you are way better taken care of then if you are employed by just a school. Plus I have my own desk and everything!

I won't start teaching until September, and that is creeping up fast so I am getting a little nervous. But I'm getting excited too because I don't really have much to do here at work. Once I start teaching I will feel like I am actually working! Plus the kids here are so cute!!

I'm living in a cute little house which I really like, even though it is pretty old. I don't think it is small, except for the kitchen, which is a little crowded! It is pretty normal, the only thing that is very different from Canadian homes is how the washroom is set up. I have a little room that has just a shower and VERY small tub. Then I have a separate room with just a toilet in it. Finally my sink/vanity is actually in my kitchen next to the kitchen sink. I will post pictures of my house very soon, because that is so much easier than explaining it!

The garbage system here is soooo confusing, I have to talk about it! There are 7 categories of garbage. Burnables, Non burnables, recyclables... You even have to pay for the garbage bags! It took me awhile to figure it out, that's for sure. Imagine, every little thing you throw out has to go in a certain category. I still don't really get it. Can't you burn anything?? Anyway, if you do it wrong they don't take it and they leave a little note saying what you did wrong. So every time I put out garbage in the morning, when I come home from work I always get a little anxious. Did they take it?? Is there a note?? So far no notes.... But I'm sure I will get one eventually. I've seen even a few of the Japanese people who have gotten notes. At least it's not just me who thinks it's confusing...

Japan is alive with festivals right now, and I've gotten to see all different kinds of parades. I was even in one! Last monday evening was a festival in Furen, a small town outside of Nayoro, and it was the most exciting one so far. I got to be a part of it! After work I went on a bus to Furen and got to a room where everyone was drinking free beer, and eating free food. We dressed up in Happi-coats(i think...), a traditional Japanese outfit. Everyone was part of a team, and each team had it's own giant lantern. A few girls rode the lantern, the guys pushed it, and a few people(including me) got to play different instruments such as drums, flutes, and cymbals. The lanterns are lit up and everyone goes through the streets of the town, chanting, drinking beer on the streets, and basically having a good time! It was lots of fun! Then after everyone went to a big room in a restaurant, had awesome Japanese food, and visited and drank more alcohol, and it only cost about 10 bucks. A few of the highlights of that meeting were all the men getting up and dancing around the room, and one guy breaking chopsticks with his butt cheeks after everyone in the room counted to 3. It was probably one of the funniest things I have ever seen in my whole life! However, this festival was on monday, and all the free beer made it a little hard to go to work... And as soon as me and Chris walked into the room, everyone started asking us if we were OK... Haha, I guess they knew what these kind of festivals are like! They drink a lot here, I don't know if it is just because it's summer and there are a lot of festivals, or if it's like this all the time. It may be all the time, because when I signed up for my cell phone I got a free 6-pack of beer... Pretty sure that wouldn't happen in Canada!

There is another festival tonight in Nayoro, and I will be dressing up in a yukata(A type of kimono) and dancing for everyone. I'm sure I will have something to say about that later... I have to go now, because a lady is going to help me put on my yukata!!

Here are links to some picture I have taken so far, including the festival in Furen!

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062969&l=eaf4d&id=120405652

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062968&l=b3928&id=120405652

http://ualberta.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2062967&l=99f82&id=120405652

The Office and Orientation

Well, It's time for me to start blogging because I have been in Japan for some time now, and many people have not heard from me. Bear with me, as I only have internet access from my office computer, and it is a Japanese keyboard. The difficult thing being that the only way for me to function is to switch it to "western keyboard" setting. Seems easy enough, except that then I basically have to do everything by memory since the western keyboard setting has no pictures at all. Good thing I can at least remember where _ and @ is on a western keyboard, otherwise I would not even be able to check my mail! My Japanese is very poor, but I foresee it coming back pretty fast since I am surrounded by it all the time! People here are surprised by how young I am, a guy just walked by and was talking to my supervisor and he was like "wow, so young", only he said it in Japanese of course. Which brings me to another difficult aspect of my office experience. I can understand bits and pieces of Japanese, but actually speaking it is hard. They all think I speak basically no Japanese. So people talk about me a lot, and I know they are talking about me but I can't understand much of what they are saying. Maybe one day...

Tokyo orientation was very boring during the day, a lot of information I already knew was repeated over and over. And our schedules took up all day, from 9 until 8, both days. But the first night I saw Yuri, my Japanese friend I met at the U of A a year ago. It was weird to see her in Japan, after meeting her so many times in Canada. The second night I went out on the town, first for free beer from the Embassy of Canada(along with 3 extremely boring speeches about statistics of Canadians in Japan, and not to do drugs in Japan.. go figure..), and then out for all you can drink(alcohol) karaoke. From what I can tell, the "all you can drink" option is common, at karaoke as well as restaurants. Wish we had that in Canada! For those who don't know, karaoke in Japan is where your group of friends goes into a private room with couches and a TV, and you take turns(or not) singing. It ended up that pretty much all of us sang at once. I really like it! We had a blast... Drank a lot of beer, sang a lot, and it only cost ~27 dollars for around 2 hours. Japanese beer is good, very light and easy to drink. However, the Japanese like "good foam". What I mean by this is the horrible way they pour beer so that it has about an inch of foam on it. They say it enhances flavour. I certainly don't like "good foam," but I suppose I will have to get used to it! At first I kept getting mad at every one's incompetence in pouring beer, and then I finally asked about it and learned that is just how they drink beer here!

My supervisors are nice but don't speak great English, but the superintendent speaks very good English. I have been taken care of from the second I arrived. They even took me grocery shopping!

For now, this is all I will write, but I have many other things I will talk about later.

Love from Japan!