24 November 2009
Lighto Speed!
Take California Disneyland, add some cutesy cell phone straps, replace all the English with Japanese and you pretty much have Tokyo Disneyland. The best part of being at Tokyo Disneyland was checking out all the different Mickey hats and eventually buying my own (Christmas 2009 edition, of course). I love how Japan makes it so easy to be fashionable, even when it's almost freezing outside.
20 November 2009
18 November 2009
"High toe! High toe! High toe!"
Today I went to the girls' soccer practice after school. Their practice "field" is a small sandyish area by the beach. It's kinda cool because when the sun goes down and it starts to get dark and cold, you can hear the waves.
But the best part of practice today was finally figuring out what the girls shout when they're doing laps (I've been to about 3 practices and haven't managed to figure it out). Basically, they line up in 2 lines and do laps around the field, taking turns shouting "High toe! High toe! High toe!"
High toe? It reminded me of my soccer days when the coach used to shout "On your toes! On your toes!" I thought maybe they were saying the same thing but it didn't translate correctly. Last practice, when it was my turn in line, I even shouted "High Toe! High Toe! High toe!"
I was completely wrong.
Today I finally asked a girl to explain what they mean when they shout "High toe." I could tell she was confused. She looked at me and said "Fighto." They say "Fight."
The end of practice is always interesting too. The girls all line up on the sideline, but instead of doing sprints (which is what lining up on the sideline at the end of soccer practice usually meant at my high school) they shout "arigato gozaimashita" (thank you very much) and then bow to the field.
But the best part of practice today was finally figuring out what the girls shout when they're doing laps (I've been to about 3 practices and haven't managed to figure it out). Basically, they line up in 2 lines and do laps around the field, taking turns shouting "High toe! High toe! High toe!"
High toe? It reminded me of my soccer days when the coach used to shout "On your toes! On your toes!" I thought maybe they were saying the same thing but it didn't translate correctly. Last practice, when it was my turn in line, I even shouted "High Toe! High Toe! High toe!"
I was completely wrong.
Today I finally asked a girl to explain what they mean when they shout "High toe." I could tell she was confused. She looked at me and said "Fighto." They say "Fight."
The end of practice is always interesting too. The girls all line up on the sideline, but instead of doing sprints (which is what lining up on the sideline at the end of soccer practice usually meant at my high school) they shout "arigato gozaimashita" (thank you very much) and then bow to the field.
17 November 2009
Rainy Day in Tokai
So today has been rainy and FREEZING but luckily I had a really good day at Tokai and an equally successful Japanese lesson to make up for it. This morning I got to school early because I took the train instead of carpooling with my English teacher. We left for the train station at 7a.m. which means I was supposed to get up at 5:30 but of course I woke up around 6:15. I hopped in the shower, knowing that I wouldn't have time to dry my hair. That was my first huge mistake-I didn't realize how ridiculously cold it was going to be.
I got to school early and pretended to look busy while really pondering how I was going to survive the freezing teachers room all day. I forgot to grab my jacket on the way out of my apartment this morning (huge mistake #2). But luckily, I was wearing "heat tech" under my blouse. "Heat tech" is a brand of under-armor type clothing that just came out at Uniqlo (popular clothing store in Japan). I went to Uniqlo about a week ago and was blown away by the crowd of women that surrounded the heat tech section, while the other aisles in the store were pretty much empty. I patiently waited and finally managed to grab a pair of dark gray pants (size L of course) and a light gray long-sleeved shirt. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunately, my heat tech wasn't going to save me today, so I made a hot cup of tea to warm my hands. It was seriously unbearable. I was then told that tomorrow is examination day for the students, so there would be no English club activity after school and all of my classes would be cancelled except for one! Then one of the English teacher's FINALLY closed the windows and turned on the heaters. My day was starting to look up.
A few hours later, I had class with the same teacher. I was prepared for the worst because I know many of the classes at Tokai are low level, but I was completely shocked when I started to give my self-introduction. The students were attentive and quiet, they asked questions, and were totally into my worksheet. After this, we played a game [one side of the room starts by passing around an envelope filled with questions and the other side of the class starts by passing around a stuffed animal. I play music while they pass, and when I stop the music, whoever is holding the questions has to pick one and ask whoever is holding the stuffed animal] and they absolutely loved it. Some students even stayed after class to talk to me. I was so relieved.
I got to school early and pretended to look busy while really pondering how I was going to survive the freezing teachers room all day. I forgot to grab my jacket on the way out of my apartment this morning (huge mistake #2). But luckily, I was wearing "heat tech" under my blouse. "Heat tech" is a brand of under-armor type clothing that just came out at Uniqlo (popular clothing store in Japan). I went to Uniqlo about a week ago and was blown away by the crowd of women that surrounded the heat tech section, while the other aisles in the store were pretty much empty. I patiently waited and finally managed to grab a pair of dark gray pants (size L of course) and a light gray long-sleeved shirt. Mission accomplished.
Unfortunately, my heat tech wasn't going to save me today, so I made a hot cup of tea to warm my hands. It was seriously unbearable. I was then told that tomorrow is examination day for the students, so there would be no English club activity after school and all of my classes would be cancelled except for one! Then one of the English teacher's FINALLY closed the windows and turned on the heaters. My day was starting to look up.
A few hours later, I had class with the same teacher. I was prepared for the worst because I know many of the classes at Tokai are low level, but I was completely shocked when I started to give my self-introduction. The students were attentive and quiet, they asked questions, and were totally into my worksheet. After this, we played a game [one side of the room starts by passing around an envelope filled with questions and the other side of the class starts by passing around a stuffed animal. I play music while they pass, and when I stop the music, whoever is holding the questions has to pick one and ask whoever is holding the stuffed animal] and they absolutely loved it. Some students even stayed after class to talk to me. I was so relieved.
15 November 2009
Shichi-Go-San
Today, one of my teachers and I went to watch the Hitachi Second girls' soccer team play. On the way to the game, my teacher asked me if I would mind making a stop on the way there. She told me that today is Shichi-Go-San, a festival day in Japan for three and seven year-old girls and three and five year-old boys held annually on November 15th. The festival was packed with proud parents and beautiful children dressed in traditional Japanese attire. I thought the girls looked the cutest. They wore tiny colorful kimonos, hair pieces, makeup, and some held little matching purses to complete their ensemble! Small booths lined the outside area of the temple. They were filled with toys and candy for the children. It was a beautiful day too, which made the celebration even better.
14 November 2009
September Days in Tokyo
During Silver Week (Japanese holiday from September 19th-23rd) my ALT friend Ben and I decided to go to Tokyo for a few days. We met on Sunday, but I actually arrived Saturday afternoon and met with some friends from Sophia University, who I tutored in Santa Clara last summer (see picture). After roaming around their campus, we went out for dinner, drinks, and karaoke-always a good time! I met Ben on Sunday afternoon. After grabbing some dinner and getting settled at our hotel, the adventures began!
1) Tokyo Tower was the first stop. Built in 1958, it's 1,091 feet tall, the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower! We skipped the long line for the elevators and decided to walk instead (well, not really-we actually waited in the line for maybe 20 minutes because we thought it was the line for people who wanted to walk, but it wasn’t bad because the whole time we could smell fresh crepes from a small stand that was near the line). We finally managed to find the stairs and up we went. We made it to the first observation deck (about 600 steps). Our reward was a laminated wallet-size card that says “Certificate” at the top with a little blurb about our accomplishment and a funny little animation in the corner. Score…I guess. I wanted to do the climb during the day because I thought the view would be better but I was actually really happy we decided to go at night. The view from the observation deck was amazing and so was seeing the tower lit up. After we made our way back down, we headed to the Blue Note in Roppongi for dinner. I hadn’t heard of this place until Ben mentioned it but I was so glad we checked it out! It’s a small venue where we got a nice table off to the side and watched C.O.E.D. (Chronicles of Every Diva), a Jazz group from Los Angeles.
2) After grabbing some delicious chocolate chip scones and fruit muffins from a small café near our hotel (the Oak Hotel) the next morning, we headed to Shinjuku. Here, we explored the Meiji shrine. The entrance is through a 36-foot torrii (gate), the largest in the country, built from 1,600-year-old Japanese cypress trees imported from Taiwan. After passing through the torrii, we moseyed around the Inner Garden and eventually found the shrine. The whole area was really quiet and peaceful, nothing like the busy Takeshita Dori street we explored after. I had a maiko appointment at a studio in Harajuku at 2:00p.m. and we didn’t want to be late, so after seeing the shrine (and watching 2 wedding processions there!) we stopped by the Softbank store (the store has a bunch of English-speaking staff and Ben had some questions about his phone so I decided to speak to someone too, just to clarify my plan. I’m not sure if that was the best idea because I discovered that my bill for the first month was about $192.00. Yikes!:/)
This is how my maiko appointment went:
First, I chose a kimono. There were 60 to choose from, each made up of different colors and designs! I chose a black one with pink flowers outlined in gold. Next, I selected three poses for the photo session. I chose two standing poses [one with a fan and one with an umbrella] and one sitting pose. Then I changed into a thin, white robe and the intense makeup session began! After tying my hair back, the man and woman who worked at the studio began applying a Vaseline-like base all over my face and shoulders. Next, my face and shoulders were painted white with a huge, thick brush. Then came the white powder, which gave the paint a finished look. Next came the eyes-the man applied black liquid eyeliner to my lids, attached fake eyelashes on top, and smeared a little dab of red paint under my eyes. The red lipstick was the finishing touch. My eyes had been closed for about 10 minutes at this point. When the man moved away from me and I saw myself in the mirror, I was totally shocked but definitely amused!
1) Tokyo Tower was the first stop. Built in 1958, it's 1,091 feet tall, the world's tallest self-supporting steel tower! We skipped the long line for the elevators and decided to walk instead (well, not really-we actually waited in the line for maybe 20 minutes because we thought it was the line for people who wanted to walk, but it wasn’t bad because the whole time we could smell fresh crepes from a small stand that was near the line). We finally managed to find the stairs and up we went. We made it to the first observation deck (about 600 steps). Our reward was a laminated wallet-size card that says “Certificate” at the top with a little blurb about our accomplishment and a funny little animation in the corner. Score…I guess. I wanted to do the climb during the day because I thought the view would be better but I was actually really happy we decided to go at night. The view from the observation deck was amazing and so was seeing the tower lit up. After we made our way back down, we headed to the Blue Note in Roppongi for dinner. I hadn’t heard of this place until Ben mentioned it but I was so glad we checked it out! It’s a small venue where we got a nice table off to the side and watched C.O.E.D. (Chronicles of Every Diva), a Jazz group from Los Angeles.
This is how my maiko appointment went:
First, I chose a kimono. There were 60 to choose from, each made up of different colors and designs! I chose a black one with pink flowers outlined in gold. Next, I selected three poses for the photo session. I chose two standing poses [one with a fan and one with an umbrella] and one sitting pose. Then I changed into a thin, white robe and the intense makeup session began! After tying my hair back, the man and woman who worked at the studio began applying a Vaseline-like base all over my face and shoulders. Next, my face and shoulders were painted white with a huge, thick brush. Then came the white powder, which gave the paint a finished look. Next came the eyes-the man applied black liquid eyeliner to my lids, attached fake eyelashes on top, and smeared a little dab of red paint under my eyes. The red lipstick was the finishing touch. My eyes had been closed for about 10 minutes at this point. When the man moved away from me and I saw myself in the mirror, I was totally shocked but definitely amused!
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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