29 October 2009
23 October 2009
Jishin! Jishin!
Another earthquale shook Japan this morning when I was at school. Japan and Taiwan use a scale that measures the degree of shaking of earthquakes. Earthquakes are measured in units of "shindo," which literally translates to "degree of shaking." There are 7 units in the Shindo scale, 1 indicating a really weak quake and 7 being pretty severe. Today's quake was only a 3 but I really felt it! What's weird is that this morning I could sense that there was going to be an earthquake. I had been thinking about places to go if an earthquake happened. I told this to my students after the quake and they were shocked and jokingly called me "kami" (a god).
21 October 2009
Free Money?
A few days ago I got a card in the mail that said around ￥4000 (about $40) will be deposited into my bank account because I live near a nuclear power plant. Not sure if I should be excited about this or not...
20 October 2009
"Because a diary is written by next, please read . . . "
Today is Tuesday, which means I spent the day at Tokai High School. I only had one class because the other two were cancelled. One teacher was sick and the students in the other class didn't come to school because of influenza (big surprise). I used my time to organize games and study Japanese. After school, I went to the English club meeting like usual. Only three out of six girls came today. Last week, I bought little notebooks from the dollar store and gave them to the students. My goal is to get them to write about some things they want to talk about (in English), since sometimes they are too shy to speak during English club. I collected the journals at our meeting today and told the girls I would respond to their entries and return the notebooks next week. I was so relieved when I opened their books after work today!
Most of the girls started with a short self introduction, listing their name, birthday, hobbies, and of course blood type (for some reason, EVERYONE knows their blood type in Japan and it's common as part of an introduction). One girl wrote a diary, telling me what she did each day since I last saw her.
Another girl told me about her favorite Korean drama called "Stairway to Heaven" and about how she's also interested in Christianity.
Mana (blood type AB) told me that she wants to join the badminton club when she becomes a university student. She also enjoys the music group "Orange Range" because "their music has many unique things."
Another girl talked about how she would like to do a "study tour" in a poor country to help needy people, but it's too expensive. She concludes with, "let's part-time job!!"
I really enjoyed reading what the students had to say and I think these journals will give me a good idea of what to talk about in future club meetings. It takes a lot of time and effort to have a conversation with these girls because my Japanese is as low as their English, but somehow we always manage.
After work, I rushed to the other side of Tokai train station to make it to my Japanese lesson on time. I met a really nice lady on the train on the way home from my Tokyo trip in September (check out my photo gallery here). She offered to give me Japanese lessons for free at her house every Tuesday. Her house is a twenty minute walk from Tokai High School. I feel so lucky that I met her! She's a Japanese teacher in Tokai and has a ton of good resources for teaching Japanese (last week, she gave me a book with simple Japanese folktales written in Japanese and English). Today was difficult because we started reading Japanese out of a textbook. I feel bad because she always speaks Japanese and sometimes I don't understand what she's asking me to do. But in the end, it all worked out ok and she even gave me a persimmon for the ride home. :)
Most of the girls started with a short self introduction, listing their name, birthday, hobbies, and of course blood type (for some reason, EVERYONE knows their blood type in Japan and it's common as part of an introduction). One girl wrote a diary, telling me what she did each day since I last saw her.
Another girl told me about her favorite Korean drama called "Stairway to Heaven" and about how she's also interested in Christianity.
Mana (blood type AB) told me that she wants to join the badminton club when she becomes a university student. She also enjoys the music group "Orange Range" because "their music has many unique things."
Another girl talked about how she would like to do a "study tour" in a poor country to help needy people, but it's too expensive. She concludes with, "let's part-time job!!"
I really enjoyed reading what the students had to say and I think these journals will give me a good idea of what to talk about in future club meetings. It takes a lot of time and effort to have a conversation with these girls because my Japanese is as low as their English, but somehow we always manage.
After work, I rushed to the other side of Tokai train station to make it to my Japanese lesson on time. I met a really nice lady on the train on the way home from my Tokyo trip in September (check out my photo gallery here). She offered to give me Japanese lessons for free at her house every Tuesday. Her house is a twenty minute walk from Tokai High School. I feel so lucky that I met her! She's a Japanese teacher in Tokai and has a ton of good resources for teaching Japanese (last week, she gave me a book with simple Japanese folktales written in Japanese and English). Today was difficult because we started reading Japanese out of a textbook. I feel bad because she always speaks Japanese and sometimes I don't understand what she's asking me to do. But in the end, it all worked out ok and she even gave me a persimmon for the ride home. :)
07 October 2009
Forget Trick-or-Treating, I'd Rather be at Baskin Robbins . . .
Most of the people I talk to here tell me that Japanese people don't celebrate Halloween-no costumes, haunted houses, or trick-or-treating. However, my experience today made me think otherwise. One of my students invited me to go to Baskin Robbins with her (commonly referred to as "31" in Japan) to get the Halloween special.
I knew I was in for a treat when I walked into Baskin Robbins and felt like I was in an American Halloween store. The workers wore pumpkin hats and the entire store was decked out in Halloween stuff. Banners with ghosts and pumpkins on them hung from the ceiling and there was even a stuffed pumpkin dressed like a witch near the entrance (hmm). And of course there were special Halloween ice cream flavors. I forget the names of the flavors I chose, but one had POP ROCKS in it and one was filled with mini peanut butter cups.
After I paid for my ice cream (590 yen...a little expensive but so worth it), the lady at the cash register held out a plastic pumpkin and told me to pull out two scratch tickets. Halloween prizes at Baskin Robbins? Score! I didn't win anything, but my friend won a Halloween glow bracelet. Then we ate our ice creams-I've never felt so bad about eating something in my life. I was destroying a work of art. The pumpkin stem was an almond, the pumpkin was a small orange cake that had been carved out, the eyes were small chocolate triangles glued to the pumpkin with whipped cream. On one side, a little white chocolate ghost stood next to a pile of whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and nuts. The pumpkin was filled with the pop rocks ice cream and the scoop of peanut butter ice cream hid underneath it, like a stand for the display.
The excitement didn't end there. My friend ordered a few Hallowen specials to go. As I savored the last few bites of my treat, I watched the lady prepare the order. When she was finished, she carefully placed the sundaes in a paper bag along with a few pieces of dry ice and then sealed the bag quickly. How cool is that?! The whole experience was very amusing. I guess Japan does celebrate Halloween, you just have to know where to look.
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I knew I was in for a treat when I walked into Baskin Robbins and felt like I was in an American Halloween store. The workers wore pumpkin hats and the entire store was decked out in Halloween stuff. Banners with ghosts and pumpkins on them hung from the ceiling and there was even a stuffed pumpkin dressed like a witch near the entrance (hmm). And of course there were special Halloween ice cream flavors. I forget the names of the flavors I chose, but one had POP ROCKS in it and one was filled with mini peanut butter cups.
After I paid for my ice cream (590 yen...a little expensive but so worth it), the lady at the cash register held out a plastic pumpkin and told me to pull out two scratch tickets. Halloween prizes at Baskin Robbins? Score! I didn't win anything, but my friend won a Halloween glow bracelet. Then we ate our ice creams-I've never felt so bad about eating something in my life. I was destroying a work of art. The pumpkin stem was an almond, the pumpkin was a small orange cake that had been carved out, the eyes were small chocolate triangles glued to the pumpkin with whipped cream. On one side, a little white chocolate ghost stood next to a pile of whipped cream, chocolate syrup, and nuts. The pumpkin was filled with the pop rocks ice cream and the scoop of peanut butter ice cream hid underneath it, like a stand for the display.
The excitement didn't end there. My friend ordered a few Hallowen specials to go. As I savored the last few bites of my treat, I watched the lady prepare the order. When she was finished, she carefully placed the sundaes in a paper bag along with a few pieces of dry ice and then sealed the bag quickly. How cool is that?! The whole experience was very amusing. I guess Japan does celebrate Halloween, you just have to know where to look.
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