Japan's Hottest Summer in 113 Years

July 6th and August 23rd - Interactive Forum
Interactive Forum is a competition in which a select number of junior and senior high school students in Japan get the opportunity practice their English conversational skills. Students sit in groups of about 3 or 4 and discuss various topics. The topics for junior high school students are things like ‘hobbies’ or ‘my favorite place.’ High school students discuss topics that require some deeper thought, like ‘should only English be spoken in Japanese classrooms?’ and ‘should Japanese high schools have cafeterias?’

My role in Interactive Forum both times (once in July and once in August) was judge. The judges rate students based on their individual performance, which includes English fluency, not using any Japanese, and so on. They also evaluate students based on their performance within the group: Were they afraid to make mistakes? Did they monopolize the conversation? Things like that.

While judging this kind of competition may not seem like the most difficult task, I actually found it to be quite challenging. Students put an enormous amount of time and dedication into preparing for these competitions-I’ve worked with some of my students for Interactive Forum before. And speaking English in front of a panel of different English teachers is probably scarier for the students than I can imagine. So I wanted to be as fair as possible when judging. But of course when students who are practically native speakers are thrown into the mix, I feel conflicted as a judge: give more points to the ‘native speaker’ who clearly deserves to win based on my judging criteria sheet, or give more points to the Japanese student, who might benefit more from the confidence boost that winning would give them.

While this bothered me a bit, I was glad to see that in the end, a number of different awards were presented to students for various things. And I hope that whether or not students won this competition, they walked away feeling accomplished and proud of themselves for having tried something so intimidating. I always tell my students that they are very brave for entering Interactive Forum. I know that if I were in a similar competition for people who are learning Japanese, I’d be proud of myself just for having the guts to go!

July 17th-20th: Osaka and Kyoto Adventures
Ben and I visited Osaka and Kyoto in July. And while I hate to say it, the first thing that comes to mind when I think of this trip was the HEAT. It was almost unbearable. Usually, Kyoto is one of the hottest places in Japan during the summer and this year was no exception. Not to mention that this year’s summer was the hottest one in Japan in 113 years. But other than that, we had a great time visiting the Fushimi Inari Shrine (my favorite place by far), the Golden Pavilion, Kyomizudera, and other popular spots in the area. And as we ate a quick lunch before heading home, we saw a wedding take place in Kyoto Station! Kyoto Station is Japan’s second-largest train station and one of the largest buildings in the country. It includes a shopping mall, movie theater, and tons of restaurants, smaller stores, and omiyage (souvenir) shops!

July 24th-28th: Tokyo Orientation
Tokyo Orientation takes place every year in Tokyo to welcome the new JET participants to Japan. The JETs stay at the luxurious Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku for 3 nights and attend various workshops during the day, that will hopefully help them arrive in their prefectures feeling more confident about their roles as ALTs.

I was happy to go to Tokyo for this orientation. It was nice to get away from school for a few days and stay in a nice, air-conditioned hotel!  My duties as a TOA (Tokyo Orientation Assistant) were as follows: (1) spending the night at an airport hotel near Narita Airport and welcoming new JET participants at the airport the next day (2) riding the bus with new JETs to the hotel in Shinjuku, while giving them announcements about Tokyo orientation and taking care of paperwork (3) assisting other TOAs in the hotel’s hospitality and information centers, which were open during the day (and night:/) for JETs who had questions, needed to use the internet, iron their clothes, etc. The orientation was a lot of work but definitely worth it in the end.  I was able to stay in the Keio Plaza Hotel for free during the days I worked and I met a lot of great new and current JETs from all over Japan.

JaLaLa Cat Cafe, Akihabara, Tokyo

I don’t know what gave it away first: the entrance
door handle shaped like a cat paw, or the sleeping
cat with a fluffy head rested against the main window. In any case, Neko JaLaLa Cat Café was easy to find.

The café is nestled in a quiet area away from the booming electronic stores on Akihabara’s main streets and it looks more like a small house than a café. But even so, there are plenty of reasons why this cat café deserves recognition.

This café provides humorous English (actually more like “Engrish”) bios of the cats. One bio emphasizes the size of a cat by saying something like, “He’s big like a cheeseburger, big like Tokyo Tower!”

JaLaLa is also unique because it has customized pillows, curtains, and even key chains that feature the cats. The pillows and curtains decorate the café  and the key chains are sold for about 500 yen near the front counter.  And that's not all!

The day I was there, customers were presented with a small souvenir on the way out, a JaLaLa calendar featuring…guess who?

While paying, I couldn’t help but to admire the huge cat sprawled across the front counter, sleeping in the same position as when I had arrived. The cat looked completely at ease as it rested, unknowingly attracting passerbys and drawing visitors into JaLaLa.

Relax Bearing in Cat Cafe #2!

Last weekend, Ben and I checked out a different cat cafe called Calico (how appropriate). He had been there before but it was my first time. This cafe was a 100x better than the first one we went to in Harajuku.  Here's why:

--> this cat cafe is two stories.
--> it houses 20 different cats, representing 17 different breeds!
--> there's a separate little room with huge glass windows and bar seats for people who want to eat while they cat watch.
--> you can actually feed the cats at Calico- this definitely made the experience more worthwhile.  Our little containers filled with shredded chicken created some intense competition!

There was only one problem with this cat cafe: it was kinda hard to pay...

I wonder which one will be next?