Hello!
I am now officially a teacher! I've started teaching at my junior high school (ages 13-15) and I really enjoy it!
The students are... well, they're teenagers! A lot of it is a front though, because they make great effort at times to say hi and get a response back with a wave. So the amount of times i say hello or good morning or whatever when i walk down the hall is crazy. And when i sit with some students at lunchtime, they start to get really scared, it's quite funny. It doesn't particularly make it easy to play games in class and make it fun, because they all want to be treated 'age appropriate' I may have to step up my game for the older ones...
The teachers are really friendly, which has helped me feel at home a lot quicker. Not to say taht i'm not totally uncomfortable pretending to learn japanese when i don't have any lessons to teach or preparation to do. Here, even if you have nothing to do for school you still have to pretend to be busy with stuff relevant to school. Though i also think that some of the stuff they taught us in training isn't always applicable to the school because they seem to be pretty chilled out. Also, this week and last is a bit out of the ordinary because the kids had a sports day one day and this week the 3rd years are off to Tokyo...
Trying not to make mistakes is always hard to, culturally. I often find myself making the worst ones when i'm feeling a bit too relaxed, so it keeps you on your toes, again not helping me feel totally comfortable yet. It's still constantly walking on eggshells.
Last weekend i went to a cultural day for foreign residents of nagoya, which there are quite a few of because of the english curriculum taught at the university. It was really interesting, we had a short tea ceremony (thank god, otherwise my legs would've given in), learned how to make onigiri (famous in nagoya, rice balls filled with fish or tempura) and there was a koto performance, i even tried playing it! It was really interesting, and best of all... free!
Then i went and visited Nagoya castle, the only thing for tourists really ehre, and it gave a good view of nagoya from the top, but other than that nothing special.
I'm hoping to head down to kyoto next weekend weather permitting, so i should have a nice post next time!
Monday 25 May 2009
Friday 15 May 2009
Hey there,
Thought i'd give you a little bit of an update on my life in Japan!
So far i'm finally getting settled in in Nagoya. The apartment is in a very nice location, very residential to the point where locals grow vegetables around us, but this also means that there's not much to find around here in terms of restaurants or even a good supermarket! I've only been here less than a week but i really hope to find one soon. I did find a good plant shop though, and my apartment looks really home-y now with a few plants here and there. The location is good in that within 10 minutes i'm at the station and 10 minutes later i'm in central Nagoya. So i can be in the city if i want or out.
My apartment is also really nice! There's even a washing machine, and a bath tub (though designed for midgets) and i have my bed up in a little loft, which mean that the space downstairs is 'big' and very much like a living room! One or two things more and then this is a nice place to stay for the next 8 months. It's at a reasonable price, though one thing i didn't like was dishing out almost one months rent for various bits and pieces including 'key money' which is basically a present to the landlord. But all in all, can't complain about leopalace yet!
I meet my school today, i hope they're nice! I've been getting some smiles around here (especially when i was carrying the plants back to my place) but a friend of mine located elsewhere hasn't been treated nicely by the japanese at all! And when we went to open bank accounts, we has to write our address out in Kanji and they weren't allowed to do it for us! That was interesting.
I've made a new best friend and it's name is the 100 yen shop! (100 yen = $1 US, 130 = €1) They have this huge one and it has everything you could dream of. i mean EVERYTHING! i kitted out most of my apartment there. bought so much and only spent like 7000 yen. The food shopping is a bit of a different matter, and i think i won't be cooking too much when i could easily get a bowl of ramen for 500 yen or so.
Everything is all falling into place, finally, though there are some issues in the contract with my company that haven't been agreed on yet. I'll keep you posted!
Thought i'd give you a little bit of an update on my life in Japan!
So far i'm finally getting settled in in Nagoya. The apartment is in a very nice location, very residential to the point where locals grow vegetables around us, but this also means that there's not much to find around here in terms of restaurants or even a good supermarket! I've only been here less than a week but i really hope to find one soon. I did find a good plant shop though, and my apartment looks really home-y now with a few plants here and there. The location is good in that within 10 minutes i'm at the station and 10 minutes later i'm in central Nagoya. So i can be in the city if i want or out.
My apartment is also really nice! There's even a washing machine, and a bath tub (though designed for midgets) and i have my bed up in a little loft, which mean that the space downstairs is 'big' and very much like a living room! One or two things more and then this is a nice place to stay for the next 8 months. It's at a reasonable price, though one thing i didn't like was dishing out almost one months rent for various bits and pieces including 'key money' which is basically a present to the landlord. But all in all, can't complain about leopalace yet!
I meet my school today, i hope they're nice! I've been getting some smiles around here (especially when i was carrying the plants back to my place) but a friend of mine located elsewhere hasn't been treated nicely by the japanese at all! And when we went to open bank accounts, we has to write our address out in Kanji and they weren't allowed to do it for us! That was interesting.
I've made a new best friend and it's name is the 100 yen shop! (100 yen = $1 US, 130 = €1) They have this huge one and it has everything you could dream of. i mean EVERYTHING! i kitted out most of my apartment there. bought so much and only spent like 7000 yen. The food shopping is a bit of a different matter, and i think i won't be cooking too much when i could easily get a bowl of ramen for 500 yen or so.
Everything is all falling into place, finally, though there are some issues in the contract with my company that haven't been agreed on yet. I'll keep you posted!
Saturday 2 May 2009
Japan!
Hello! I don't know if anyone is still reading this as it's been so long since i've written. But i thought i'd give a little update on life in japan so far.
As it always goes, my time at home went by way too fast. Another week or so wouldn't have gone amiss! But i had a great time hanging out with my family over easter and my friends in london thereafter, even if it was a bit of a cramming session to try and fit as many people in as possible!
Anyway, on the 20th of April i left home to go to japan, though the 20kg luggage limit proved to be rather tricky as ihad more than twice the amount... thank god my dad was there! In Tokyo i was met by someone at the airport and brought to the hotel, and that afternoon i stayed in the area of my hotel because i was quite tired and it was raining. I'm currently still at the hotel, which is located in Asakusa, also known as old tokyo. It's a nice area, though sometimes a bit long-ish to go to some of the more popular central places like the emperor's palace and shibuya. I really like tokyo though, i've tried to do as much sighseeing as i can when i'm not in training and when it's sunny, which it usually is, it's beautiful! I have no issues with the trains, and there's SO much to do here.... you can tell it one of the world's biggest cities! But in a good way, it's quite clean and it has some really interesting buildings, architecturally.
I had training from wed the 21st till the 28th. It involved talking about teaching, strategies, some policy stuff and then a demo lesson at the end. It was really useful, especially as the guy who was training us was good. i mean real good. I trained with 10 others at the beginning but 2 days in 2 guys left and it was 9 of us (all staying in the same corridor in the same hotel). We all get along really well, which has been a nice change from travelling by myself, and we've been out in the city several times! I've actually been placed with 5 of them down in nagoya, which is supposed to be one of the most liveable cities in japan, the 4th biggest, and it's really close to kyoto and osaka and about 2 hours from tokyo so i can't really complain! i'm most likely teaching junior high (13-15yrs) and slim chance of high school, but i'd ideally wanted elementary. Beggers can't be choosers eh? The good news was that we're only going down on the 8th of may, so we had a load of time to do sighseeing, but they were originally only going to start paying us from the 15th of may (so almost a month in japan without being paid for it... they only pay at the end of the next month as well!!!) but they've agreed to start paying us from the end of training.
For anyone interested in coming to tokyo, this is what i've seen so far:
- shibuya (only at night) is pretty hectic, and the crossing is as busy as they say! will see it in daylight tomorrow, so that should give some great pictures! good for clubbing
- ginza, this is the shopping high end area, with all the designer shops and the sony center (8 floors of displays) and the mac store etc. it's really nice to walk there on a sunday cos they close the highstreet (chuo dori) off
- shinjuku - part of it is lots of shops and part is some wacky but interesting architecture. nice for a walk on a sunny day.
- daikin'yama - the best shopping as far as i'm concerned - all retro shops in small alleys, quite authentic
- roppongi - a busy gaijin (japanese word for foreigners) area with a few clubs, not many are good, and a rip-off of the eiffel tower called the tokyo tower.
That's about it for now! Hopefully won't be too long before i get back to you
As it always goes, my time at home went by way too fast. Another week or so wouldn't have gone amiss! But i had a great time hanging out with my family over easter and my friends in london thereafter, even if it was a bit of a cramming session to try and fit as many people in as possible!
Anyway, on the 20th of April i left home to go to japan, though the 20kg luggage limit proved to be rather tricky as ihad more than twice the amount... thank god my dad was there! In Tokyo i was met by someone at the airport and brought to the hotel, and that afternoon i stayed in the area of my hotel because i was quite tired and it was raining. I'm currently still at the hotel, which is located in Asakusa, also known as old tokyo. It's a nice area, though sometimes a bit long-ish to go to some of the more popular central places like the emperor's palace and shibuya. I really like tokyo though, i've tried to do as much sighseeing as i can when i'm not in training and when it's sunny, which it usually is, it's beautiful! I have no issues with the trains, and there's SO much to do here.... you can tell it one of the world's biggest cities! But in a good way, it's quite clean and it has some really interesting buildings, architecturally.
I had training from wed the 21st till the 28th. It involved talking about teaching, strategies, some policy stuff and then a demo lesson at the end. It was really useful, especially as the guy who was training us was good. i mean real good. I trained with 10 others at the beginning but 2 days in 2 guys left and it was 9 of us (all staying in the same corridor in the same hotel). We all get along really well, which has been a nice change from travelling by myself, and we've been out in the city several times! I've actually been placed with 5 of them down in nagoya, which is supposed to be one of the most liveable cities in japan, the 4th biggest, and it's really close to kyoto and osaka and about 2 hours from tokyo so i can't really complain! i'm most likely teaching junior high (13-15yrs) and slim chance of high school, but i'd ideally wanted elementary. Beggers can't be choosers eh? The good news was that we're only going down on the 8th of may, so we had a load of time to do sighseeing, but they were originally only going to start paying us from the 15th of may (so almost a month in japan without being paid for it... they only pay at the end of the next month as well!!!) but they've agreed to start paying us from the end of training.
For anyone interested in coming to tokyo, this is what i've seen so far:
- shibuya (only at night) is pretty hectic, and the crossing is as busy as they say! will see it in daylight tomorrow, so that should give some great pictures! good for clubbing
- ginza, this is the shopping high end area, with all the designer shops and the sony center (8 floors of displays) and the mac store etc. it's really nice to walk there on a sunday cos they close the highstreet (chuo dori) off
- shinjuku - part of it is lots of shops and part is some wacky but interesting architecture. nice for a walk on a sunny day.
- daikin'yama - the best shopping as far as i'm concerned - all retro shops in small alleys, quite authentic
- roppongi - a busy gaijin (japanese word for foreigners) area with a few clubs, not many are good, and a rip-off of the eiffel tower called the tokyo tower.
That's about it for now! Hopefully won't be too long before i get back to you
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)