Happy New Year everyone!

Today is the 31st December. As of tomorrow I will have been in Japan for five months; nearly half of my contract is complete. Time really flies and it's scary to think how quickly this time has passed.

It's 20:15pm as I start to write this post. Naturally, I have a list as long as my arm of stuff to do and tonight it's going to be a bit of a rush as the cleaning of this apartment needs to be finished before midnight in order to welcome in the New Year with a clean slate. I have a final load of laundry going so I don't have to wash any clothes tomorrow, but actually apart from that, all that remains to do is clean the bathroom, put the binbags out and hoover the apartment. Currently I feel like I am winning. We shall see.. I currently have BBC radio 1 open in one tab and flight departures open in another. I have been breaking everyone's balls for the last two months about my excitement with regards to a certain visitor, and not too long ago he got on his plane. Writing this post is one way to stop me pinging off the walls with excitement! Not long now. I have to be up at 6am tomorrow to go and meet him from the airport but it's around the time I would get up anyway to commute to my visit school so it isn't much of a trial. The question is though.. will I sleep tonight? I feel more excited right now than I did as a child on Christmas Eve!

This time last year, I had sent off my application to the JET programme, but I hadn't yet heard if I would go through to interview or not. I didn't honestly believe I would get an interview, and certainly not a place on the programme. Once I sent off the application I realised the idea actually really scared me. Japan? For a whole year? It was pretty ridiculous.

But I did get the job. And I did make it out here. And I have managed to make it work so far. Mindblowing stuff.

So in another moment of self reflection, here is a summary of my year:

Things I have learnt in 2010

- How to be strong and take control of my own future.

- How to fake confidence in front of forty teenagers.

- Enough Japanese to hold a very basic conversation (mostly about myself and my dietary requirements but hey, babysteps here.)

- How to make yakisoba, miso soup and onigiri.

- That no matter how many times I will up-sticks and move my life to a different country for a year, I will diligently ensure that packing is left until the last minute.

- That I love teaching more than I have been willing to admit.

- That despite my love for teaching, I simply don't command enough respect to be able to succeed in a British classroom.

Things that have surprised me in 2010

- I still put myself under ridiculous amounts of pressure to study and pass very difficult exams even though University is finished.

- I don't miss any British foods in particular, except for the good old ploughman's sandwich.

- I can eat more or less anything I want - I burn so much nervous energy whilst teaching that my cake-a-day habit has so far (touch wood) not seen me expand the waistline too much (for the record, I always put on a little weight at Christmas, for those of you who may have noticed me looking a little chunkier in recent photos :P)

- The supermarket is the place which is most likely to make me homesick. Nothing stresses me out more than being surrounded by infinite and incomprehensible kanji.. when all I want is a bottle of vinegar or a carton of milk.

Best things about 2010

- Closing old chapters and opening new chapters. No regrets.

- Getting to know friends better and building friendships that I truly treasure.

- Getting through my degree and getting the mark I wanted. Just.

- Passing my driving test. It took three flipping goes and there were many hairy moments, but the joy of passing..!

My resolutions for 2011

- To pass Level 4 of the JLPT (probably not in July, that's a bit unrealistic, but maybe in December.)

- To go to Church a bit more. I won't say every Sunday, because I know I won't, but every once in a while.

- To try a bit harder to inspire my students to travel and meet other people. Just recently I've re-discovered the excitement of making myself understood in a foreign language that I've been studying. If I can inspire that same excitement in at least some of my students, I'll feel like I've done a good job here.

- To keep in touch with my friends a bit better. It's hard because of working hours, timezones, and because of how dispersed you all are. But I think of all of you a lot, despite being so far away. I'm going to keep trying hard to write and call as often as I can.

- To learn to make a few more Japanese dishes.

- To pay my bills as soon as they come in and not wait until I have three to pay at once (and as a result eat rice and soy sauce for dinner three days in a row because I can't afford anything else.)

- To ring my Grandad more often.

- To eat fewer cakes.. maybe one every two days, instead of one a day. I am greedy, I admit it.

- To persevere with the KitKat challenge (this doesn't contradict the previous resolution as I am bringing joy to people back home :P)



Ah, my laundry is done. All that's left to do is to wish you all a HAPPY NEW YEAR! I hope it brings you all happiness and fulfilment.

皆さん、新年おめでとう　ね　(^_^)//

Karaoke in class

Today I had a class with my third years at my base school. There are seven of them in the class and their level is such that I can have fun with them and we can all chat and understand each other. At the 忘年会 (end of year party) with the teachers last week (details of that to follow in a separate post) the JTE for that class hinted that the students wanted to do something of their own for that lesson. At school, sober, I confirmed this with him a few days later and was told not to plan any lesson because he and the students would take care of it. So, somewhat nervously, I agreed to take this micro-holiday from lesson planning.

The lesson was, in fact, beautifully planned out and I was treated to performances and demonstrations by the students, who were eager to show me how the Japanese celebrate New Year's Day. Posters had been made detailing the food they eat (the best picture by far was of a lobster), the students also drew on the board and spoke of their favourite traditions. They got really excited at times, which is what makes me feel the happiest about teaching. Seeing the students flap around, resorting to charades and pictures to help them fill the gaps in their vocabulary makes me feel like we're really getting somewhere. It seems paradoxical but it shows that they are grasping the importance of the work we're doing. They are discovering why language study is so vital, and the honest satisfaction on their faces when I grasp what they are saying is so rewarding.

Sentimentality aside, there was a surprise waiting for me, just as I suspected there was. Towards the end of the lesson I was told I would be tested (nerve-wracking, to say the least.) The students taught me a typical children's song about being excited for the arrival of the new year - and then the JTE asked me to sing it for the class to show I had learnt it.

WHAT?!

Yes, I squirmed and tried to wriggle out of it a little. But no-one was letting me off the hook so I gave in and sang for them, finishing just in time for the bell to ring. They were so excited about having got me to sing that it kind of felt worth it!

But next time I am told not to plan anything before the lesson, I might take a swig of vodka before going up to the classroom!


**Disclaimer** I was joking about the vodka.

Time for a haircut

This evening I'm waiting in for a parcel so I thought I would share with you my first experience of Japanese hair salons. I know, I know. I write about such riveting topics.

I had my haircut in the UK a few weeks before I left for Japan. It was getting out of control really and I needed it to be decent enough for my graduation photos, so I had it cut more or less shoulder length with a trimmed fringe and layers. I think I remember paying a lot of money for it at a salon in the city centre, determined not to let someone hack into it and do a terrible job like the previous year (it still plays on my mind now.) Bad haircuts are somewhat traumatizing after all. This goes partway to explaining why I waited until December to get it cut in Japan; I didn't trust anyone enough as I couldn't go on word of mouth about which salon was best. The other, perhaps more obvious reason, is that my Japanese is still pretty pitiful and I didn't trust myself to communicate my wishes to the hairdresser. In two and a half weeks, however, my fella will be arriving from the UK so I decided I would prefer him not to find a birds nest with nearly six months of split ends. Swallowing my fear (and a little of my pride) I began studying phrases to face this mammoth task. The challenge itself can be broken into two:

Part 1) Making the appointment
Part 2) Going through with the appointment

I chose a salon near to the station as I had seen its staff out and about leafleting regularly. A young and friendly bunch, they all had decent hairstyles themselves. Even if they didn't understand what I wanted, I reasoned, they might still do something that suits my face. Right?

So I sat down and studied. よやくはできますか。(Could I make an appointment please?) カットです。(Just a cut and blowdry.) あした、四時半から。。(Tomorrow, from 4.30pm...)

Then, one day after school, I marched into the salon without thinking too hard about it so I couldn't change my mind. Five minutes later, I walked out with an appointment for 4.30pm the following day with the top stylist (second cheapest hairdresser) - Part 1 accomplished!

Studying for Part 2 commenced with a feverish desperation. しゃしんがあります。。 (I have a photo..) 前髪 (Fringe.) まえがみはみじかくきりすぎないでください (Please don't cut it too short at the front.) ここまでカットをしていますか。 (Could you cut it up to here please?) パッツン前髪 (Hairstyle with the fringe cut completely straight.)

The last one was to illustrate what I didn't want doing.

In any case, it turned out I didn't need to panic, as it turned out to be one of the best hairdressing experiences of my life - what service!! My hair was washed by a lovely guy who, despite talking very quickly, managed to coax enough Japanese out of me to maintain a conversation for the ten minutes he was washing my hair and giving me a head and shoulder massage. Three guys then fought over who got to dry my hair and comb it for me (they rotated in the end, two dried and combed whilst one would talk to me - who was my favourite rock band? Did I know Oasis? What did I think of Japanese boys? What was my favourite Japanese food?)

The haircut itself was exactly what I wanted - that is to say exactly what I had done last time I got it cut. The guy cutting my hair was funny and kind and patient, and took plenty of time to work out what I was trying to say with my pidgen Japanese. His colleagues continued to hover and joke around, firing more questions at me and showing me things they had that had English writing on them. One of them, upon hearing that I was a vegetarian, disappeared for a few minutes and came back with a keyring that had a large button on it. The character on the button was from Dragonball Z and it said 'Vegeta' on it. It's a present for you because you are a vegetarian, he said, handing it to me. When you press the button, it says phrases in Japanese. He said I should listen and repeat in order to improve my Japanese (which I won't be doing as I have no idea what it says, but I love it all the same!)

Finally, when my haircut was over (not a single stray hair was left on my neck to irritate me) I was handed my coat as three of the guys in the salon broke into You're beautiful by James Blunt (only three lines of the chorus mind, I don't think they knew any more of the words). What an amazing experience! I could speak so little of their language and yet they treated me like a princess. Customer service is something else in Japan. Not in Kobe, customer service is pretty shoddy in big cities, but out here where I am I have managed to find some truly lovely people.

And I'm happy with my haircut. Win.

KitKat Challenge (and iced tea)

Greetings KitKat fiends! Here are my latest two conquests, a gift from a friend of mine when she went to Kyoto.



This one is Kyoto tea. It has a strange flavour. Whilst there are definite hints of teabag in there, there was also an unfortunate overtone of something a little odd. It resembled the aftertaste of seaweed.



This little gem is Kobe pudding. It was almost unbearably sweet - not inedible, but best in the bitesized bars that were presented in this box. It was like a cross between creme brulee and white chocolate. A good one to have with a strong mid-morning coffee maybe.



A bonus for you. One of Lipton's (limited edition?) special Christmas iced teas - milk tea and custard flavour. It was like drinking sweet, watery, cold custard, but with a very convincing tea aftertaste. No, I will not be buying it again!

A Gruesome Tail

At the request of my dear old mum I'm writing today to bring you another glorious culinary episode. I was reluctant to write about this one, simply because of the analogies I will have to use. I know that my grandfather sometimes logs on to read my blog you see. However my mum has reassured me that my grandfather is 'a man of the world' and therefore won't be offended by anything I have to say - but apologies in advance anyway, grandad!

Last week the ALTs and some JTEs from my prefecture spent two days on a business trip in Kobe at the Board of Education. On the first day I ate lunch with two Japanese teachers and my ALT friend from the US. On the second day I went for lunch with the two friends I usually hang out with on my days off - the aforementioned American friend (who is crazy about Korean food) and the Kiwi (he just likes food.) We went in search of a place that serves vegetarian friendly food and chanced upon a tiny Korean place not far from the Board of Education. After reassurances that they could accommodate my perculiar tastes we settled down for lunch. So far, so good.

I may have mentioned this before, but my American friend speaks excellent Japanese, so she put the waitress straight when she said the chef would prepare me a squid omelette (because a squid 'isn't really meat'). My food was a sort of potato omelette with chili peppers on top, not too bad! In the meantime, the other two were glancing over the lunch menu, aided primarily by pictures. Whilst Team America opted for Miso Chicken (a fairly safe bet, I thought), Team New Zealand pointed at a picture for the waitress. Underneath, I noticed as she was making a note, it said テイル (te-i-ru)... I sounded out the letters in my head before venturing 'you're ordering oxtail soup?' A quick check with the waitress confirmed this. She scurried off to the kitchen before he could change his mind. Worry seemed to spread over his face, despite reassurances from our friend that oxtail soup is delicious and he had nothing to worry about. The true friend that I am, I too reassured him that all the gruffnuts are thoroughly brushed out of the fur before the tail is added to food. I like to do my bit.

By the way, I regret that I didn't take any pictures. In the words of our ten-foot tall kiwi pal, there 'wasn't enough room to swing a cat' in the place (there was seating for about fifteen people in total I would say), and I get the feeling that we were the only foreigners that had been there in a long time. 'Conspicuous', therefore, doesn't begin to cover it.

When the food arrived after a long time ('probably because they're still cleaning up the tail for you', I suggested), the presentation was fabulous. Each of my friends had a bowl of soup, a bowl of rice, and a selection of smaller dishes with pieces of fish and pickled vegetables. The Miso Chicken was tucked into straight away, with expert precision and culinary appreciation, whilst the Oxtail was met with a degree of hesitation (as I sniggered maturely in the background.) He picked up a chopstick and reluctantly dipped it into the murky liquid of the soup, and when he brought it back up again, something slimey and greyish was attached. 'Is that a..?' I began. He looked up, apparently in confirmation.

It looked like a large bogey.

A piece of skin or fat, no doubt, but it had a terrible aspect of something one would find inside a winter tissue. Bleugh. Back in went the chopstick.

So he picked up the other chopstick and plunged them together into the soup, hoping to find something a bit more edible looking. This time the chopsticks emerged with something much bigger and solid. Something long and cylindrical, greyish in colour, erect and wrinkly on the outside. It took every ounce of self control I had not to either laugh hysterically or vomit onto my own food (I settled for barely-controlled chuckling.) What he had just pulled out was an entire oxtail (which, so you know, looked NOTHING like anything I had ever seen in the Heinz oxtail soup my dad eats). It did not look edible. It looked like an old and diseased penis, one which had been miraculously preserved throughout the stewing process in its erect state.

I will never forget the look on our friend's face as he realised what he now had to eat. He went a shade of grey not dissimilar to the long object he was holding up with his chopsticks. His lips contorted as he struggled not to retch into the bowl. I continued to laugh silently until the tears were rolling down my face.

Unfortunately it doesn't end there. When the waitress / owner / resident mother saw our friend struggling to eat this piece of meat (gnawing at it tentatively as he gripped it with the chopsticks), she came running over to seize the utensils from him. Then, not content to simply show him what to do, she stood over him and used the chopsticks and a spoon in unison to scrape every last piece of meat from the tail into the soup (inside there was a bone, who knew?!) before tipping the rice in with it. Only when she was satisfied that he could manage without her did she walk away.. and stop right in front of me to see me laughing so hard that I couldn't even pick my omelette pieces up with my chopsticks. I was offered a fork, which I politely declined (much to her confusion.)

To his credit, he ate the whole thing and was very brave about it. Despite my unwelcome observations on the appearance of the oxtail and the use of the word 'tail' in contemporary English, he choked down every scrap and did not vomit over himself or us. Kudos to you, my friend.

As we ate our lunch, I laughed until I cried. When I got home, I wrote an email about it to someone and laughed until I cried. Then I went to bed, and on recalling his face drop at the sight of the chopstick bogey, I again laughed until I cried. I've forgotten now how much the oxtail soup even cost, but going on my enjoyment alone I would say it was worth every penny.

Moral of the story? Play it vegetarian. It's the only way.

The Kit Kat Challenge II

After a break (geddit?) I have begun sampling kit-kats again, albeit with some reluctance. For some reason I just can't find any new ones to try. The only ones available are normal, dark chocolate, and salt and caramel kit-kats. A few days ago I was at the train station and happened to chance upon these.


Yes, that's right. Cheese flavoured kit-kats. I tried to tell myself they would be 'cheese cake' flavoured kit-kats, but no. Look at that big lump of European cheese on the front. That, my friends, is exactly what the kit-kat tasted like. Luckily it was a pack of mini ones.


For that reason I didn't feel so guilty about throwing it away after one bite. I was on skype at the time being egged on by someone to try it, not realising that it would have me retching in an hour. For the record, the cheese kit-kat smells like feet.

You have been warned.

Something I said?

Today I gave a lesson to two classes on Bonfire Night, complete with the story of Guy Fawkes. One teacher was prepared for it and had even given the students and information sheet on Guy Fawkes earlier in the week, so the lesson was a complete success. The second class was with a teacher who hadn't really done more than glance over the story I had given him (which was fair enough as I hadn't asked him to.)

When it came to the part of the story where Guy Fawkes was hung, drawn and quartered however, I was in need of a translation. I was describing the process of drawing the victim when I heard a strange sound. I turned around to find the JTE dry-heaving in the corner of the classroom.

Another successful day, then.

A Crap Streamer?

Today is a public holiday in Japan - Culture Day. I did ask my students yesterday what that entailed but neither they nor my JTE could explain it to me. I had a 'special days' lesson with a different class last week where I assigned groups of students a special day to make a small presentation on, but unfortunately none of them did Culture Day. Having said that, though, I'm not sure how accurate their information would have been. The students in charge of Children's Day drew a carp streamer on the board and, with the aide of an electronic dictionary, wrote 'a crap streamer' above it. I had to bite my cheeks really hard as they were doing their presentation.

There are people milling around outside and there seem to be events going on at the university across from where I live, but I've not really been out today apart from walking my friend to the bus stop. You see, last night I met up with two friends for okonomiyaki in Nishinomiya, and afterwards we went for drinks at a small bar that reminded me of a 1950s black and white flick. It was small and clean and there were not many tables for people to sit at; mostly the customers were sat at the bar and talked a lot to the barmen. The seating charge was 300 yen. I'm not used to paying seating charges, but it's fairly standard in Japan and 300 yen is nothing compared to some of the seating charges in Kobe! I had a really good time, as I always do when I go out with these particular friends, because we always laugh a lot. I also like the fact that our meals / drinks together sound like the start of a bad joke - 'a Brit, a Kiwi and a Yank walk into a bar..'

It's true that we're supposed to be sampling the culture out here and seizing as many opportunities as possible, but sometimes you really need gaijin company. Only another gaijin will truly understand what you mean when you say 'I feel homesick', or realise immediately that you have just delivered the punchline to a joke, or give you a straight yes or no answer when you ask a question. And, depending of course on their character (I obviously can't lump all gaijin into the same category), they tend not to judge you when you drink more than you should on a Tuesday. Generally.

So after downing five beers last night I am, understandably, feeling a little green around the gills today and didn't make it to Ikea where I hoped to buy a new bed. Darn it. It was worth it though. Despite my firm resolution to make the most of my public holidays and go somewhere everytime one appeared on the calendar, I have spent the whole of today in my apartment eating junk food (mmm.. instant noodles..) and listening to music. Wrapped in my duvet for the most part. I would add that I do not regret this arrangement one bit.

It's pretty cold in Japan now, though obviously it's a lot colder back home, so I have invested in these:


Hand warmers! They're really good; when you take them out of the plastic, the chemicals inside the teabag-like warmers react with the air and start to give off heat. They last a long time too, about twelve hours, so I have taken to setting one going five minutes before my first lesson and taking it into the classroom with me (no heating in the classrooms) and warming my fingers on it in between writing on the board. In the evening it's still going strong so I cozy up with it in front of the laptop or as I get stuck in with my Japanese lessons. So Japan fails on one count for not having decent heating or insulation in its buildings, but wins on the accessories front.

I don't really have any news as such. The past week or so has been a hard slog of overtime at work, helping students to practise for the speech contest and preparing special lessons that have had mixed reactions (as ever) from all my classes. I've started adding ginger to my soups to keep me warm, wearing extra layers to work, and allowing myself to get excited about Christmas and New Year. In a couple of weeks (when the new bed is ordered, paid for and assembled) I'm going to go out and spend some money on winter clothes, yey! A coat, elbow-length gloves, heat-tech tops, as well as other wintery accessories. I'll keep taking pictures of Japanese things for you all, I hope it's not too cold where you all are. I was lucky enough to receive a parcel recently of chai tea and custard cream biscuits (thank you!), so every time I stop for a tea break I think of all my Frenchies :) Missing you all.

TGIF

Kicking back with a beer on a Friday night, listening to music and letting the week go. This is the stuff. As a student I appreciated many things. It’s not that I didn’t realise how lucky I was, being able to sleep in late safe in the knowledge that I would be able to work into the night if necessary (though my body clock would often ping my eyes open at 8am regardless.) And it’s not that I didn’t know what a charmed life I led when I meandered out onto the piazza on a warm afternoon for an ice cream, just because the mood took me and just because I could. I truly valued all these wonderful perks for what they were - elements of a life I was soon to leave behind but spend the rest of my life thinking fondly of. What I will readily admit to, however, was not appreciating the true value of a Friday night. Only now that I am working full time in the real world do I place Friday night on the deity worthy weekend pedestal. Ah Friday, how I love thee so.

I haven’t had a bad week. I actually don’t really have bad weeks - I have bad lessons, or even bad days, but weeks are such a mix that more often than not I am drained. It’s like I am on a constant rollercoaster of teaching related emotions.. except I have to push my rollercoaster up the slopes myself, consequently arriving at Friday completely cream-crackered.

Friday is my favourite day because I have two whole days ahead of me where I can stay in bed even after I am awake. It is my favourite day because I am at my visit school where the students are always excited to see me. It is my favourite day because I don’t have to panic at the last second about whether I have a shirt ironed for the following day. It is also the day I teach to my favourite class ever.

The class in question was particularly boisterous today. There are a few characters who always like to shout out answers and crack jokes, which believe it or not I am grateful for. Do you remember being in school and thinking the teacher preferred the students who knew everything? It’s rubbish. Teachers prefer students who, without crossing the line, inject energy into the classroom and keep things moving along. Today I gave a lesson on ‘going to the doctor’s’, which included what I call a ‘vocabulary booster’ (where I amass words on the board contributed by students and related to the given topic), a worksheet where words had to be linked to pictures I had drawn (a series of stick men running around and whining about their ailments) and a dialogue which students had to alter according to flashcards indicating the problem they needed to talk about. Now, remember what I was saying about the success of a lesson plan depending on the class itself? I distinctly remember delivering this lesson to a different class two weeks ago and being met with blank stares and reluctant groans. Today, however, the students enthusiastically participated, competing with each other to give me the answers to my questions and generally adding hilarity to the classroom. When asked to perform a dialogue between a doctor and patient, one student pulled on (apparently from nowhere) the biggest pair of glasses I have ever seen and pretended to write down his patient’s symptoms in a book, nodding with mock concern as he did so. I can never keep a straight face in that class.

So today I’m feeling exhausted, but upbeat nonetheless. On the way home from school (an hour long commute, sometimes longer depending on traffic) I stopped at the 100 yen shop and bought some more props for future lessons. I also bought these teacups for green tea:



The owl one is pretty awesome and was the first to catch my eye. The cat one was bought with someone else in mind, a much anticipated visitor who arrives in nine weeks - yey!

Whilst I’m on the subject of loading photos, Kate has requested more food photos. So, here is a photo from last weekend, when I trekked into Sannomiya with a friend and had coffee and cake at an apparently German café.


In Japan coffee is fairly expensive, it’s not unusual to pay about 500 yen for a cup of coffee. That’s not to say coffee itself is expensive out here - everything is expensive compared to back home. I’m starting to relax about it a little though, and stop comparing everything to what I could have bought from Gregg’s at lunchtime, or Tesco for my weekly shopping. Anyway, I did have a point to make. My point is that my items - coffee, crème brulée and cream horn type pastry thing - came to 630 yen. For central Kobe in a chic European style café, that is pretty reasonable! I would further like to add that I didn’t buy two cakes because I’m a greedy fat pig. Rather, the menu was broken down into ‘sets’ where you couldn’t choose individual items without paying through the nose. So I chose the ‘Berlin’ set. The coffee was really good, and in the crème brulée were soft chestnut pieces. The Japanese seem to be going crazy over chestnut season; chestnuts are in absolutely everything!

Also for the benefit of my dear Kate, some common supermarket items.



Fish heads, which are nutritious and tasty (according to a colleague of mine).


Finally, dessert cheese. The picture is not too clear I’m afraid, but these cheese triangles have such flavours as ‘rum and raisin’, ‘vanilla’ and ‘whole nuts’. Interesting. I guess it’s a new take on serving cheese plates instead of sweet desserts.

That’s all for now folks. If you have any requests for more photos of certain things, or if you want to hear more about something in particular then please let me know. I’m content to drivel on in this blog, but am more than happy to tailor to requests.

Frustrations of a first-grade teacher

Today was a bit of a frustrating day. It never ceases to amaze me how no matter how hard you plan and prepare for a lesson, one factor can throw it all out the window. That one factor? The students.

For my first years at my base school I write a new lesson plan every week and a half or so. I see them all on a rotation, and because there are so many of them I don't get to see them every week like I see the first years at my visit school. Before I walk into a classroom with my new lesson plan, I always feel a little apprehensive. Luckily I'm good at hiding my sickening nerves when it comes to public speaking, so the kids have never really picked up on how anxious I get sometimes. Normally, the first lesson I give goes really well, and I come out of the classroom afterwards feeling like I'm walking on air - maybe I am a good teacher! Maybe I did reach those kids! Maybe they will pass their exams with flying colours! Then I give the exact same lesson to another first year class, in the exact same way, with the exact same material. And it crashes and burns.

From what I can surmise, the following are factors which affect the level of participation amongst my students:

1) Is it before lunchtime? (If so then forget it, they don't care about anything other than getting to 12:40 and ripping open their lunchbox to appease their voracious adolescent appetite.)
2) Are they mostly boys? (If they are then you'll get more participation. But probably dumber answers as they try to show off to their friends.)
3) Are they mostly girls? (Then they're probably too shy to speak.)
4) Is this the last lesson of the day? (If so then expect snoozers.)
5) Have they just had PE? (Then expect nothing. The spirit ain't willing and the flesh is weak.)
6) Is it dark and raining outside? (In that case they're going to be depressed as well as inattentive. Perfect.)

Individual students can vary based on many factors. Exhausting club activities, being sat near their boyfriend / girlfriend, wanting to be part of the 'in' crowd... It's a teenage minefield.

What I'm getting at is that yesterday I delivered a spectacular lesson where I transformed the classroom into a restaurant, and with the help of a few minor props I had students become waiters and take food orders from their classmates. They were competing with each other for merit stamps and basically being perfect students. Today it was all I could do to get my students to pick up a pen. Why?! I put so much work in, and they gave me nothing!

The more time I spend in the classroom, the more I realise that teaching is about improvisation. Obviously you need to put in a hell of a lot of work before you even set foot in the room, but ultimately you have to make choices about when to change your lesson plan and focus on something else. If the students aren't responding then you just have to abandon an idea sometimes and push on with something else. It can be infuriating, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. What I can't get the hang of is shaking that miserable post-lesson feeling of being an absolute failure when my students have made no effort and retained nothing.. I hope that will come with time too, though I guess that emotional separation may be what separates real teachers from try-hard JETs such as myself.

Countdown to Christmas

One of the things that worried me slightly about coming to Japan was the idea of Christmas in a country where, according to wikipedia, 84% of the population say they are not religious. Christmas is not even a public holiday in Japan, though luckily it does fall on a Saturday this year.

With this in mind I didn’t really think it would feel like Christmas this year for me, although having questioned some of the students in my classes I discovered people still put up a tree and exchange presents. I went to the nearest shopping centre yesterday to kill some time (and get out of my shoebox apartment) and was quietly thinking to myself how in the UK the shops would already have had their Christmas stock in for a good three weeks. Now, I complain about this aspect of our culture just as much as the next person, but it is nice I guess to have a reminder that even though the nights are drawing in, there is something to look forward to. Lost in my musings and drowning out the sound of the crowd with my ipod, I stepped on an escalator and became aware that at the top something was emitting a series of flashing lights. Out came the earphones, I could hear something in the distance…

Sleigh bells!!

Gliding off the escalator I found myself in front of Izumiya, my local supermarket. In the space of a week the entrance to the home section had been transformed into a winter wonderland!! There were Christmas trees galore, beautiful decorations, the most elaborate and technical Christmas cards I had ever seen (where you open them up and they become 3D card Christmas trees with flashing lights) and Christmas songs were playing in the background! I took some pictures of the main Christmas tree, decorated in true kawaii Japanese style with Rilakkuma (relax bear).


Sorry for the bad quality, I wish my ipod had auto focus! I guess that’ll be the aim for the next ipod they bring out.. although I have no intention of buying one for another few years. This one bankrupted me this month as it is.

So even if the Japanese don’t really celebrate Christmas per se, I now think that at least I won’t feel as if it never happened this year. I’ll take more pictures as time goes on anyhow to show you all the decorations that they sell here - I think there may be some sort of light festival coming to Kobe soon too so I will have to check that out. Ah, festivities!

Luckily the boot's on the foot

A couple of days ago I was on my way back from work when I walked past two school boys in the courtyard area by my apartment building. In a typically schoolboy-ish way they were gazing in fascination at an insect on the ground. They looked up as I walked past so I pretended not to be interested, but as soon as they were gone I ran back with my camera.


This is a Japanese caterpillar. If it bites you, it is extremely painful. At the very least you have to go to the doctor as it requires medical treatment. Another JET told me recently that there are neurotoxins in its bite, so get bitten by more than one at a time and you could find yourself in trouble. Apologies for the poor focus, as it turns out my iPod touch doesn’t zoom or focus. For your benefit though folks, I put my boot next to the little demon so you can see its relative gi-normity. Note that even with boots on, I was reluctant to get too close.

Too much kindness?

As it turns out, this week is turning out to be a bit of a strange one too. Where do I start? Perhaps I should write more often, then I wouldn’t need to ask this question so often.

The biggest event that has happened so far this week is the concert that I went to on Tuesday. The reason I say this is because it is an event that has left a lasting impression on me. I’ll explain.

During orientation in London and in Tokyo for the JET programme, we were told that the best way to cope with culture shock in Japan was to accept pretty much anything our colleagues invited us to. This way we would give a good impression, build good relationships with everyone and experience new things at the same time. So when one of the teachers came over to me last month and said there was a piano concert in Osaka in October, with free tickets to teachers from our school, I accepted his invitation to go to it. I didn’t really have a choice actually, but it certainly didn’t seem like much of a chore as I love the piano.

So the concert rolled around on Tuesday. Between being invited and actually going to it, this same teacher had intermittently been coming to me with information on new concerts / music events etc., often writing them on my desk calendar before I could stop him. He’s quite a bit older - I assumed he was just interested in music and in practising his English (he isn’t an English teacher so doesn’t have much opportunity). I admit the constant invitations were getting a bit wearisome but I tried to keep a balance between refusing stuff and staying friendly.

Before leaving school with him on Tuesday evening, one of my colleagues, with a worried expression, asked me if he was married. Of course! I replied. I’m sure I’ve seen a ring on his finger. She looked a bit sceptical. When he came over to my desk I checked.. no ring. Oh dear.

The guy had a BMW. A very new, clean and expensive looking one at that. I didn’t think teachers got paid that much. We made small talk on the way into Osaka and I was feeling a little uneasy because of my colleague’s comment, but I tried to push it to the back of my mind. We arrived at the hotel, the Royal Hotel no less, where he began making requests to the staff in Japanese. From my basic grasp of the language I could tell he was ordering vegetarian food for after the concert, then he ordered flowers from the florist. I could feel rising panic.

When it was time, we went up to the concert itself and listened to some very beautiful and inspiring music performed by one of his ex-students (this explains the free tickets to our school) and the Kansai Philharmonic Orchestra. I really enjoyed the music, it was truly inspiring to hear such talented musicians perform live. Whilst the music played, I began to calm down a little. The flowers couldn’t possibly be for me - could they? And the meal, surely it was a small meal somewhere inexpensive. I started at the sound of applause, and to my huge relief saw the huge bouquet of roses the teacher had ordered being presented to the pianist. Wonderful! Now I could enjoy the food and really relax. I had overreacted as usual.

Except I’m not sure that I had overreacted. After the concert he said to me Right, let’s go eat some vegetable tempura! So I followed him through the hotel to an elevator which took us up to the 28th floor and then an esclator.. and stepped into a restaurant where the panoramic windows gave a breathtaking view of Osaka by night. The ceiling was black but it had small lights embedded into it to make it look like the night sky. What a romantic restaurant I thought, as my heart sank. A waiter quickly whisked us to the table that had been reserved for us, where a small bouquet of five pink roses awaited me. A present for you! he said with a broad smile. Later he insisted on taking a photo of me with the flowers against the backdrop of the city view. He also paid for dinner, which as it turns out, was as expensive as you would expect from the Royal Hotel in Osaka.

What started out as a kind invitation to a free concert left me feeling seriously uncomfortable. Other teachers have bought me things and taken me places, but it normally extends to a slice of cake and a trip to a local festival. I’m going to be careful about what I say yes to in the future so I don’t get put in this position again. More than likely he is just a kind man with a keen interest in music and doesn’t mind spending money on people. However, for my own peace of mind I will be keeping male colleagues at arm’s length, at least until I suss out what Japanese people consider to be too much in the way of gifts. I hope I don’t seem ungrateful, it’s just that where I come from this would all be considered too much, so it’s probably best to err on the side of caution.

On a different but related note, the following day a different teacher extended a more relaxed and welcome invitation (in the middle of the day, I might add). I’m about to go to the best cake shop in Nishinomiya if you’re interested in coming, said one of my JTE colleagues. At this, I was practically at the entrance of the school with my outdoor shoes already on. So we set off in his car, talking about food and cakes and the students in our class.

But the best cake shop in Nishinomiya was apparently closed on Wednesday. Typical.

So we went to the second best cake shop instead, where said JTE colleague said he was buying. But only this time I’m afraid, he grinned. This was exactly what I wanted to hear after the night before!! The cake was delicious:


The very professional staff even put a small sachet of ice in with my cake to make sure it was still chilled by the time we got back to school:


Needless to say, this slice of chocolate cake was a less intense but greatly appreciated act of kindness!

How.. convenient.

When I lived in France and Italy, I found it wasn’t long before the novelty of being in a new place wore off and I got used to seeing everything in a different language. Certain things still tickled me, of course, but on the whole everything was very much like home. I’m not sure why, maybe it’s because Japanese has a different script, but I still find myself gazing in wonder at things on a regular basis. I have been here for almost three months now! I still marvel at the coins:


50 yen and 5 yen pieces have a hole in the middle. Sometimes I consider threading them together on a piece of string, like something from Muppets Treasure Island.

I still yearn to know what all of the buttons on my A/C remote do:


Other regular day-to-day items just look so much cooler in Japanese:




I would also be grateful to be able to buy food from the supermarket without limiting myself to items whose packets have a picture of the cooking method with ５分 (5 mins) next to the picture. My diet would certainly be more varied if my kanji wasn’t limited to about 60 words, as it is at the moment.

An element of my life which I feel will never cease to be a source of wonder (and vague nostalgia) however, is the コンビに (conbini - convenience store.) There are so many convenience stores in Japan; I pass three on my way to school alone. They are generally open 24/7 and sell snacks, newspapers, a limited selection of hot food, alcohol, tobacco and manga comics (every time I walk in there are at least three boys in the manga section, reading their favourite comics before replacing them on the shelf and leaving.) Many of them also have an ATM inside. At the counter you can pay utility bills and buy tickets to baseball games. Sounds like an amazing place to go, right? It gets better. If you order something from Amazon, you can print off your order and take it to the conbini and pay for it there. They scan the barcode, take the payment, and trigger the delivery. If you want, you can have your items delivered to the conbini and collect them when you are free - extremely handy if you work during the day and are always missing deliveries!

As they are open 24/7, I sometimes slink off to my local one in the wee hours if I’ve been up late and fancy a snack, just like I did at university. Of course, Costcutters back home would always be closed by 11pm six days a week, but it’s the same idea. That slightly guilty feeling of knowing you’ve already had dinner but fancy a cream-filled doughnut, a box of Pocky (chocolate covered sticks of biscuit) or a carton of indulgent, sugary drink.


This is ‘café au lait’ if the carton is anything to go by. Iced coffee is very sugary in Japan. I’m starting to get accustomed to it now, but I do wish they would put only half the sugar that they normally do. It’s good on a hot day anyway, especially as during the summer here you sweat an inconceivable amount. I’m not saying this to be disgusting - it’s the truth! People carry towels around during the summer to periodically mop themselves up. Replacing salts and sugars lost during the summer sweating is probably one of the reasons drinks are so sweet here.


I bought this recently, thinking it was just banana milk. To my delight it turned out to be choco-banana milk! On the carton it says チョコ　バナナ (choco-banana) in katakana, the alphabet used for foreign words. For the record, I did discover the true flavour of my drink by reading the carton before I opened it, but only once I got home. It was delicious.



This is an iced-coffee drink made with soymilk. I thought it would be like the iced coffees Aimée made for me at university. Alas, it was vile. Nothing like the refreshing, delicious drink I imagined. Gag.

So thus far I don’t quite feel like everything is ‘normal’ yet, not in the way that I have done in other countries. It’s not such a bad thing though; now that I have settled more or less into the routine of my job, it is nice to still come across things that make me go ‘wow! That’s actually pretty cool!’

Even if, at the same time, I can’t help but wish some of you were here for me to say it to!

Where do I start..?

Hello everyone! I can’t apologise enough for the huge gap that stands between my last post and this one. I guess it goes without saying that I’ve been really busy since I started teaching, but I’ve also found myself staring at the computer screen on numerous occasions just not knowing where to start! I imagined I would right a ‘first lesson’ post, followed by a ‘summary of the first week’ post.. But I have yet to write a single post about my teaching experience at all.

So.. I’m going to start from the middle. I’m in a completely different time zone from the rest of you and I often feel like I’ve slipped into a different dimension thanks to the complete change in scenery and language and everything, so it makes perfect sense to start in the middle and swing backwards from time to time. That is whilst all the while looking forward, keeping the past in mind and living in the present. But I digress…

I’m not drunk by the way, just exceptionally tired, in the way that only adolescents can make you feel tired.

This week has been a bit of a strange one as the students are now about to take their mid-term exams. I work in two schools, my base school (not far from my one-roomed mansion) and my visit school (an hour long commute.) The basic set-up is that I work at my base school on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday, and I work at my visit school on Tuesday and Friday. It’s a good set-up actually, I adore my visit school but the journey is a bit of a pain (two buses, two trains and a ten minute walk) so the balance is just right I feel. Anyway, since exams are starting a few days earlier in my visit school, I have been told to stay at my base school for a couple of weeks. A good excuse to spend time planning ahead for lessons and studying for the Japanese exam I am taking in December!

The kids are a fairly mixed bunch. I have a handful of amazing students, a bunch of good students, and a hell of a lot of unmotivated and painfully shy students. Some of them try and get away with murder in my classes; they act up, talk over me to their friends, do their homework instead of the worksheets I assign to them.. and then there are others who can’t wait for me to walk into their class and break up the week for them. Now, I know you’re not supposed to have favourites, but I can’t help preferring some students over others. Surprisingly, it’s nothing to do with their ability! Since I started teaching I have realised it isn’t about which ones shine more than others, it’s a question of who takes part. More and more I find myself looking forward to certain classes because I know that there are a few students in them who will joke along with me, eagerly put their hand up to answer a question just so I will give them a stamp, and motivate their friends to compete with them to win a game or finish a worksheet first. They move the lesson along, which is more than I can say for some classes. One class in particular drives me to distraction. I have affectionately renamed them the ‘blinking fish’ class. Blinking is a vital skill on their part - it lets me know they haven’t stopped breathing. It is the only way I know they haven’t stopped breathing.

In a few of my very first lessons, a few boys thought it would be hilarious to practice their English with me through what appeared to be a succession of dares. Open-armed declarations of ‘I love you’ persisted throughout the lesson. Only one student so far has used the F-word. He went down on my black-list for a couple of weeks but managed to redeem himself eventually; at the end of the day, there aren’t really any swear words in the Japanese language so he probably didn’t even realised quite how offensive he was being. But boys will be boys I guess.

Girls, inevitably, will also be girls. The female reaction to my presence has been as varied as the academic level at my schools. Some girls were really excited to meet me, their cried of ‘kawaii!!’ and ‘small face!’ echoing down the corridor. Others have been less than kind, laughing openly at me in class as they point at me and talk about me in Japanese to their friends. It doesn’t bother me so much - I would rather be where I am now than back in year 11 where they are with braces, spots, boy troubles, and general adolescent woes!

Small face is a compliment, by the way. Just thought I’d throw that out there!

Lunch is normally spent in the teachers’ room. I have become food -lazy recently, due in part to the lack of proper sandwich bread (the toastie bread is amazing but not so practical) and the abundance of instant noodles.


Never again will I eat pot noodles from the UK! Here, I normally eat vegetable noodle pots or deep fried tofu noodle pots. Not so healthy of course, but I am only here for a year after all!

For those of you that are interested, breakfast is different all the time. Sometimes I buy the impossibly creamy full fat milk from the convenience store (conbini) and have cereal à la anglaise, other times I grab a quick pastry containing chocolate (if I don’t grab a sweet bean bread by mistake) or apples.



“This forest seems to be very delicious.”

This pastry has apples in it and the character on the packet is called Rilakkuma (relax bear). I took this picture with a certain person in mind.

So, to keep these posts at a reasonable size I shall finish here for now. I will endeavour to continue posting as often as possible despite the exhaustion to keep you all updated. I’m missing you all immensely!

Put the kettle on...

A bit of a sentimental one for you tonight, guys. A week ago a parcel appeared on my desk at work. It was a package my mum had sent me from England with various bits and pieces including Maryland cookies, salt and vinegar flavoured crisps, sachets of instant porridge, and a box of tea bags.

I tidied my desk, emptied the parcel out, admired my spoils, then put everything but the tea bags back in the box. My lesson plans had already been done for the day anyway so all I was doing was going over my Japanese study notes. I could concede myself a tea break. With more care than is normally paid to tea packaging, I opened the box and made a cup of tea, sitting back to breathe in the smell of it and think of home.

Now, I’m not the kind of girl that cries normally. It takes a lot to make me blub, and when I do it is normally the result of huge stress such as money worries or dissertation stress. But I was struggling a little as I stared into my cup of tea. I didn’t have a breakdown at work, I’m pleased to say, but I had to force myself to hold back a couple of tears as a wave of homesickness engulfed me. Sometimes smells trigger memories for me, which seems perfectly normal to me but I don’t know if it’s true for anyone else. Certain spices, for example, remind me of when my cousins and I used to play hide and seek at my grandparents’ house, and I always made a beeline for the pantry. The smell of freshly baked pastry puts me back in the café of the university campus in France where I used to buy my breakfast on cold days.

The smell of tea unlocks more memories for me, and not necessarily distant ones. It makes me think of funny cups of tea with an amazing friend of mine in my final year at university. It makes me think of those post-essay class gatherings I used to have from time to time in my student flat with other Frenchies. It reminds me of second year when another close friend would often come in for a cup of tea and a chat on the way home from lectures. More poignantly it conjures up cups of tea on lazy mornings, on the sofa and watching bad TV with someone. As strange as it is (and stereotypical this might be, as an English person), I can probably name a moment spent with everybody important to me where tea was present, despite some of my best friends not being tea-drinkers themselves. That morning then, when I finally had my first cup of tea after almost a month away from home, I suddenly felt very far away from everyone.

So I’m not quite sure what JET has done to me exactly, or why I’m feeling this sentimental. Small things are triggering homesickness at unexpected moments and in unexpected places. But I’m pushing through, helped largely by the fact that since my internet was installed I am only ever a skype call away from seeing or talking to most people. Just so you all know, if I have ever had a cup of tea with you… I miss you.

Cakes, celebrities and question time

It’s been a random week or so with not a great deal of news or discoveries. I’m settling into something that resembles a routine now, waking up at 6am, going to work, churning out lesson plans and photocopying handouts, spending the weekends at Nishinomiya Gardens pigging out on doughnuts.. You get the idea.

This weekend I took a trip to Kobe to meet up with another JET for shopping and cake. Sounds like a good plan, right? Fortunately this happens quite often. There are various things about Japan which I dislike (or, it’s fair to say, about being a million miles away from home that I dislike), but there is a very long list of stuff which makes up for it all. One of these is the fact that the Japanese seriously know how to do desserts. I’d even go so far as to say that they beat the French hands down. Sorry to any Frenchies reading this but you have to trust me on this one - head to Japan and try desserts, cakes, pastries… Kobe sweets in general are just divine. I will start taking pictures of the desserts that I eat out and about. Part of the reason I haven’t so far is that I feel a bit rude taking pictures in cafes and stuff. The other (bigger) part of the reason is that I would feel like a fat pig if I started to amass photos of every treat devoured. One week’s worth alone would probably take over this blog.

The trip in question developed into a long shopping trek, pit stop for coffee and cake (ok, one of these days we’ll talk about the coffee - or lack thereof), more shopping, and meeting up with another JET for dinner in a restaurant where the entire menu was in kanji and the food a little overpriced. Still, good times, good company, and beer. Weekends are getting better all the time!

At work the dynamics are changing quite rapidly. Yesterday was the day of the opening ceremony, in which I had to give a speech to 1200 students. I guess it goes without saying that in the two days leading up to this event I slept very little and studied a huge amount. Fortunately I had to give a speech to the teaching staff in the teachers’ room first, which I did solely in Japanese, thereby boosting my confidence a little. Most of them have never heard me speak Japanese before but all of them knew that I couldn’t speak a word when I arrived a month ago. For that reason perhaps they were all incredibly friendly to me after I had spoken - I have been quietly studying by myself for the past month, determined to break down the language barrier. Now they can see how much effort I have been putting in, even the teachers who can’t speak English have been coming over to say hello.

It’s not just the teachers either. Students at my base school and my visit school have been filtering through the teachers’ room over the past week or so, eager to speak to the new ALT, the one from England with the ‘small face’ (ah, Japanese compliments - I think). My new found celebrity is somewhat overwhelming - it’s certainly small scale, but it’s still unnerving to know that you’re being watched all the time. It turns out nothing is sacred in a country where bowel movements and menstrual pain are freely discussed between colleagues.

A student approached me in the teachers’ room today and told me he wanted to talk to me, but that he had class. We arranged for him to come back at lunchtime, at which point he took me up to his classroom where all of his classmates were eating their packed lunches. I won’t deny feeling awkward. There’s something very bizarre about sitting in a classroom surrounded by teenagers, knowing that you’re now a teacher and thus on the other side of the glass. Anyway it was a very pleasant half hour. The student spoke very good English and I enjoyed speaking to him. Some of his classmates interrupted from time to time, asking personal questions and trying to get reactions from me. At all of our orientations we had been warned about this but it still came as a bit of a surprise - though I don’t know what I was expecting from a group of teenage boys who actually weren’t all that much younger than myself! One lad in particular, goaded on by a friend, asked me my name and then if I had a boyfriend. Smiling sweetly, I replied ‘yes, I do, he’s English’ [snorts of laughter from friend, followed by what was probably a crude comment, judging by the response it got], then I added ‘do you have a girlfriend?’
The laughter died down a little as the student who invited me into the classroom pointed at a girl at the back of the room. ‘He doesn’t have a girlfriend, but he has a serious crush on her.’ Red faces ensued. The nosey boy’s friend thought this even more hilarious than the question itself, but I got no more personal questions (to my great relief) as the boys realised I was going to probe them as much as they probed me. Situation saved. I really wasn’t ready for the ‘experience’ questions.

My first lesson is actually tomorrow. I am absolutely scared out of my wits. 27 students all looking at me and wondering how far they can push me. Fingers crossed they’ll be kind and participate!

Small victories

Living abroad and trying to find your feet in a new culture is really tough. Some people go on about how difficult it is (and we all know I do my fair share of moaning, it hasn’t all been Kit Kats and grape Fanta you know!) whereas others seem to be having the time of their lives all the time. I think it’s your perspective. You can dwell on the things that drag you down (like when the sales assistant at the local convenience store makes you look like an idiot because you can‘t read kanji) and you can loudly boast about the amazing places you are seeing and the crazy new things you are experiencing. This makes for a bit of a roller coaster and I find that can be a bit exhausting. Still, everybody has a way of getting them through the culture shock of being in a new country and having to learn new words, new customs, and even new facial expressions.

My way is by counting the small victories.

The small victories are the tiny little things that might happen once a day, or once every two days, or maybe once a week. They’re the moments which disappear as quickly as they came and risk being forgotten completely when you have a negative experience. So when I get to the end of the day I think about the small victories of the past couple of days, and it helps give me some perspective when I’ve had a bad day and want to book a flight back to London. To give you an idea, here are the small victories from the past 48 hours:

- I asked the vice-principal for permission to go to the shop, in Japanese, and was understood.

- I learned to dance at the local ‘Bon Dance’ festival of my supervisor’s home town - in front of everyone and wearing the tightest tied kimono known to womankind.

- I went to the convenience store and paid an electricity bill. By myself.

- I asked for two customs labels at the post office, in Japanese, and was understood.

- I spent over half an hour in the supermarket looking for dashi stock, miso paste and tofu, then came home and made a really good miso soup first time around.

Individually these things don’t look like very much at all, but every single one of these experiences felt like overcoming an insurmountable obstacle. That’s not to say I don’t have a long way to go of course, but reminding yourself of the small things helps you to keep a grip on the bigger picture; it makes those misunderstandings, those wrong trains, those frustrations at having bought the wrong item at the supermarket seem like mere blips on what is ultimately a slow but steady journey.

So, having put in my two pence worth for the evening, here is a picture of me in a yukata.



I wasn’t joking about it being tight by the way, but I couldn’t tell the kind lady who tied me in that she was being a bit over eager. I’m not sure I would have even if I did possess the necessary linguistic abilities - as it turns out, putting on a kimono is a lot more complex than wearing a bathrobe with a big sash. Also, it is just as hard to get out of as it was to get in, so I would probably still have left her to it. Learning Japanese is one thing, learning how to put on a kimono properly is an entirely different thing altogether! That won’t stop me buying one to bring home by the way. I can’t come home from Japan without a yukata. It just wouldn’t be right.

The Kit Kat Challenge

There are many worthwhile things to do in Japan. My prefecture, for example, runs an event once a month where JETs go and play games with the children at the local orphanage. And I intend to do this.

But in the meantime I have taken up The Kit Kat challenge.

Kit Kats change fairly regularly in Japan, it would seem. So I have decided to try each and every flavour available on the market. Here are the first three of my challenge:

Green tea Kit Kat



I had my reservations about how much a Kit Kat could possibly taste like green tea.. But it really did. It tasted a bit like white chocolate had been mixed with the dregs of a cup of green tea and put on the Kit Kat instead of normal chocolate. A little strange.. but not bad if you’re not put off by just how green it is.

Banana Kit Kat




As soon as I opened this I was overwhelmed by the smell of banana milkshake. It was bright yellow, too! It tasted like a delicious banana milkshake with the crunchiness of wafer. This is one that I would definitely have again.

Salt and Caramel Kit Kat



I was a bit dubious about this one as well actually… it is a bit difficult to describe the taste. It wasn’t overly salty but it definitely tasted more savoury than other Kit Kats. I don’t think I’d have it again. It’s like the Kit Kat that can’t make its mind up.

And now, as an added treat, some photos I took in the supermarket of the frozen desserts, just in case you wanted to see how they did haagen dazs in Japan:


Maple Cookie flavour and Strawberry flavour (so far, so normal)


Tahitian Vanilla Caramel flavour (sounds nice! But what is Tahitian about it, exactly?), Milk Classic flavour (I’m confused) and the standard Green Tea flavour.


Finally, Cookies and Green Tea flavour (eh?!), Cookies and Sesame Cream flavour (what?), Almond Praline Cream flavour (ok, a little more normal) and Honey Milk flavour (actually this one sounds quite nice.)

I would love to take up the Haagen Dazs challenge, but alas my funds do not stretch that far. Kit Kats are probably better suited to my budget!

Japanese for beginners

I couldn’t let too much time go by without writing something about the Japanese language. Whilst learning it is genuinely the most difficult task I have ever undertaken, I am truly fascinated by it. Now seems like right time to write about what I have learnt so far as I recently unlocked the Japanese IME on my computer and learnt how to type in Japanese - so I can show you exactly what I’m talking about!

Ok, for those of you who know little / nothing of Japanese: There are basically three writing systems - two alphabets (where each symbol represents a syllable) and kanji (ancient Chinese characters where each one has a different meaning and pronunciation.

The first two alphabets are called hiragana and katakana. Hiragana is derived from the Chinese characters and are pronounced more less as they are read (unlike English where words are often spelt differently from their pronunciation). Hiragana are slightly more rounded, cursive symbols, and can look like this:
わたしは　(I am)

Katakana is used in a similar way but is employed for foreign words and onomatopoeia:
マイケル　(Maikeru - Michael)

It’s slightly more angular.. I prefer hiragana.

Kanji is used for many words, and there is a basic foundation of about 2000 kanji that will help you get by in daily life. In newspapers about 40% of the words are actually in kanji. They are so difficult to learn for foreigners, especially as there is no true way to look them up in the dictionary. You can look them up by stroke order (so the number of lines you use to write them) or by radical (a smaller kanji within a kanji). The concept of a radical might be easier to explain with an example.

火　this is ‘hi’, meaning fire. It sort of looks like a little flame. This can be used as an element of bigger kanji, making this a radical in some cases.

炎　this is ‘honoo’, meaning blaze. A double fire! Makes sense I guess.

災　and this kanji means disaster. If you use your imagination you can see a destructive fire doing some real damage in the symbol.

So, many kanji are symbols which represent ideas. Reading names of people and places is really fascinating as the kanji that make up their names portray different ideas and aspects of the culture. Take the common surname ‘Yamashita’.

山下　‘yama’ is the first symbol and it means mountain. It looks like three mountains in a row. Or three Diglett. But mountains for the sake of this explanation. The second, ‘shita’, by itself means to come down. When part of this name, however, it means ‘person who lives under the mountain.’ So, ‘a well balanced person.’ At least, this is how it has been explained to me.

I live in Nishinomiya.　西の宮。The first symbol means West. The final symbol means palace. The middle one is a particle which is often dropped when the name is on signs.. It links the two together. I like the name more now that I know the meaning!

I realise that this is the most basic of summaries so I hope my Japanese friends won’t think I’m simplifying things too much. I have a long way to go yet. Of the 2000 or so kanji, I have thus far memorised… 30 odd. Of these 30 odd I can only remember the pronunciation of about… 10. Of these I can probably reproduce half on paper; I am only capable of recognising the rest. It’s going to be a long year of flashcards!

Orientation

20-08-2010

Time for an update again! For the past three days I’ve been in Yashiro having the final orientation with Hyogo Board of Education. I have to say it has been a strange few days. In all we had about 10 seminars based on life in Hyogo, the educational system and various team-teaching techniques. Some of the information was really useful, but the rooms we were in for the seminars didn’t have air conditioning and there was no supply of fresh drinking water between meals for the first day, so everyone struggled to concentrate in the 34 degree heat. Japan is a beautiful country but the heat is unbearable, and in all honesty the only humidity comparable to the Japanese climate is that of a sauna.

And I don’t last very long in saunas.

We had an opening ceremony where our notice of employment was presented to us. The Japanese are big on ceremonies, even for small things, so when I arrived (on time! Woohoo!) and forgot to change out of my canvas shoes with bright pink laces (D’oh!) I thought I had set myself up for a fall. I seem to be the queen of bad impressions. In fact, the day I arrived in Hyogo I was dressed in my scruffs for the long journey as one of the group leaders gave the impression that we wouldn’t be meeting anyone important… but when I was collected by one of the English teachers I was taken straight to school to meet the two vice-principals and the staff. In any case the orientation staff weren’t the slightest bit bothered by my shoes, and I even checked with one of the Japanese ladies organising it beforehand, so the ceremony had a bizarre feel to it.. semi-relaxed but definitely a formality. It was pretty cool to get an official notice of employment anyway. The Japanese take such pride in a lot of things, their work in particular, and it’s such a nice change when you contrast this with Britain and its nation of job-hoppers.

The ceremony wasn’t the only part that had a bizarre feel to it. In one of the opening speeches the main supervisor from the Board of Education listed the rules of the institute and joked that previous JETs referred to the place as Yashiro prison, reassuring us that this was not at all the case. I suppose it depends on your perspective - to me it felt like being on a school trip with a twist. We were allowed to drink alcohol and even encouraged to do so, but requested not to get so drunk that we would set off the fire extinguishers in the toilets. We could go out if we wanted but there was a curfew of 10pm. Lights went off at 11pm and anyone who was caught wandering the halls was sent off to their dormitory (four JETs to a room, men and women on separate corridors.) In the morning, the tannoy played gentle piano music into the dorms at 6.55am, followed by a wake up announcement at 7am. After this, the music switched to ‘I like to move it move it.’

I think I can safely say that this is the one part of my Japanese experience so far where I have truly woken up and thought ‘where… on Earth… am I…’

So it’s been a change of scenery, to say the least! But I feel much better for having done it. I had no idea there were so many JETs close by - there are even some in South Nishinomiya! I got to meet loads of other people from the surrounding areas and I feel so much better for it. For the past few weeks I really have felt like the only gaijin in the village. This was not a good feeling! Yet it seems I have struck the right balance - whilst I have JETs close enough to meet up with if I want, I am still living around Japanese people, so I have the incentive to learn Japanese.

All I have to do now.. is learn Japanese.
Uh…