A Fun Weekend

So from Wednesday to Friday I taught at Ueno, everyday went great. I get along with pretty much all of the teachers there really well. I wasn't able to show them my slide show but I talked with a few of the teachers a bit. The 2nd grade was great. I taught them for the first time, and now I think I've introduced myself to all the teachers/students finally. So no more introductions anymore! Which is good and bad because now eveyone knows me, but I like the self introductions, they're fun!

Friday night we all went out to Tanuma and tried to go to a french food place in a hotel, but it turned out it was closed. So we started walking around to find a new place, at first we wanted to get Pizza but we changed our minds, after that we met with Robb. He recommended a place close by so we headed there. We had a few beers and got some food. Here's my meal after I already ate some hah:


Good stuff. Matt was telling me a story of how he has this Autistic teacher at his school that say HEY MATT! Then just stands there. Or like says very obvious stuff like you have class today. He's like yep, then they both stand there for 10 minutes until the teacher walks away haha. So funny. Here's a video of it:

Anyways after that everyone wanted to go out to an Izakaya (Kind of like bar/food place) but I decided to call it a night because I was going to wake up early to go play Ultimate Frisbee in Utsunomiya. I had to get up at about 8:00am because it takes an hour to get there and I was supposed to meet someone at 10:00.

Saturday morning I woke up at about 7:30 automatically before my alarm hah because I'm in a rythm or something.. Anyways got all ready and headed to the station and barely made the train I needed to catch at 8:50. Finally arrived in Utsunomiya around 8:50 where I met Atsuhiro. I've emailed him alot but this was the first time we met. He thought I was going to be big and tall because I was American ahha, nope, he was taller than me. I told him I'm Japanese size and he laughed. Anyways he's a really nice guy because he picked me up and drove me to the fields even though he never met me.

We ran drills and played Ultimate all day, and it was so fun because it has been so long since I've played Ultimate Frisbee. Everyone on the team is really nice and apparently two of the girls on the girls team played in the world finals, which is amazing. One of them had most points scored at like 50 something, which is alot... They all did their best to talk to me in English, and I did my best to speak in Japanese, they said for only studying for 4 months I'm really good. Atsuhiro helped with translations from time to time, I also brought my Dictionary ha.

I asked for a group picture and they said why!? I was like what? Then they told me Why = Y and Y = Yatta which means YAY! So after that lesson in Japanese I took the pictures haha. Here's the teams, The boys team name is Hot Scream and the girls is Chaoz. They told me Hot Scream doesn't make sense in English and agreed, but said it was cool team name. Also Chaoz means gyoza apparently (I think? I don't really know.) I told them in English it looked like Chaos which meant crazy and they all laughed about it and were excited.

After playing ultimate with them all day they wanted me to come with them to go drinking. I had to decline because Atsuhiro had to go, and he was my ride so I don't think I'd be able to make it back to Sano if I stayed with them. Plus Atsuhiro was the only one who spoke enough English to really understand me and he was leaving hah. Anyways, next time I'll hang out/go drinking with them if they throw out the invite because that'd be alot of fun.

Atsuhiro drove me back to the station and I took the train to Oyama, where I waited around a bit then met up with everyone from Sano. After that we went to Adrian's place and had a little house party. I didn't drink but it was alot of fun. Just hanging out talking enjoying our convenience store food haha. I got potato salad, gyoza (which is like dumplings) and Peach Water haha. While at this convenience store this cat wouldn't leave me alone so I took a picture with it, because you know I like taking pictures with everyone.
Hahah... I think the flash made it angry. After that we headed back and just talked and enjoyed our time at Adrian's Place. He has a really nice place and its huge, but he pays alot for it apparently. I enjoyed the whole day really. Afterwards Yukari drove back home to Sano and I found out I couldn't get my bike because the parking thing I parked at closed. Anyways I asked Yukari if she'd drive me home because she lives close to me and she said it'd be ok. I was super greatful, we talked a bit on the ride back, all in Japanese. I was proud of myself haha! Turns out shes the same age and she just graduated. She was an English major but I don't think she spoke much English that night, but I think she understands more than can speak like me and Japanese.

She dropped me off then I went to bed. Woke up today and walked to the station for the first time, it takes me 40 mins to walk and like 15-20 to bike there, therefore I love my bike. On the way back I accidentally scared some little girl. I was passing a field and there were some crows in it, I made some crazy noises to scare them away but they didn't move. There was a girl walking up ahead of me, and heard me. I think she thought I was some crazy foreigner so she started running away from me haha. I felt awful but it was hilarious. I wanted to go apologize but I knew it'd just scare her more so I biked a different way home so I didn't scare her anymore lol.

Tonight we're supposed to go to a Mexican food place. I'M EXCITED because it has been a while since I've had mexican. I'll bring my camera I suppose.. BLOG ABOUT IT!

Autumnal Equinox Day

Tuesday was a national holiday and there was no school. One great thing about Japanese Schools is that there are holidays like Autumnal Equinox Day. National holidays -- for things alot of the time I've never heard of.

Monday night a couple of us decided to get together and went to Shidax Karaoke. After school I got ready and headed out. Karaoke was actually alot of fun because there wasn't that many of us (only 7 of us) which makes it alot more enjoyable. Another good thing was that because it was a weeknight and because we didn't get nomihodai it wasn't ridiculously expensive.
After Karaoke finished up alot of people went home, but Becky, Oliver, and I weren't ready for that so we headed back to Becky's for some drinks. We talked for a couple hours and shared some Sake. After talking about pizza for a while we all got the munchies so we took our bikes to 7-11 and bought alot of snacks. It was a fun time and Oliver is hilarious. We discussed possibly taking a trip to Russia. At about 2:30 or so we decided to call it a night.

For Monday I sent an email out seeing what everyone was doing. I planned on possibly going to Ashikaga again except this time by train ahha. I wanted to explore a bit and maybe go to the museum there. Anyways that changed when I got an email from Kristine about playing tennis. After that I headed to a store called "House-Off" which is a 2nd hand store (used goods). I met Becky there and we both bought tennis rackets haha. Mine was only $10.00, can't beat that price. Afterwards we decided to get pizza at Salzeria (since we talked about it the night before haha). We met Carrie there and actually saw the head of all ALTs Noshiro Sensei and his family.
Good food good times. After we headed for Sano station to go to Tanuma to play tennis. Carrie went home since she wasn't feeling too well. When we parked our bikes we talked a little bit to the guys who run the bike parking place. They told us we're in the newspaper. All the ALTs were apparently printed in the local newspaper which is pretty cool, I kind of want to get a copy.

Once we finally got to Tanuma we met up with Kristine and Graham. They told us about their Mountain adventure and how they had leeches on they. SICK. Anyways Graham had to take care of business so he went home so it was just Becky, Kristine and I, we played for maybe two hours. It was alot of fun and I was happy to play sports because its been so long since I have.

After sweating it up at tennis Kristine invited us for some Shabu Shabu. We gladly accepted because we wanted a big meal after playing tennis. Once we got to the restaurant we decided to go with Sukiyaki instead of Shabu Shabu. Sukiyaki -- It consists of meat (usually thinly sliced beef), or a vegetarian version made only with firm tofu, slowly cooked or simmered at the table, alongside vegetables and other ingredients, in a shallow iron pot in a mixture of soy sauce, sugar, and mirin. Before being eaten, the ingredients are usually dipped in a small bowl of raw, beaten eggs. (But I didn't do that haha)

Anyways at the table I was trying to tell them my idea of a restaurant that after you eat a big meal you can sleep there. A restaurant that offers food and a nap basically. But when I explained it I was full and tired so I said... "so I wish there was a restuarant where you could stuff your ass." I was going to continue to explain but they busted out laughing so I just left it at that ahah.

Today (Wednesday) I taught at Ueno and taught the kids about color. I taught 3 first grade classes. They all went nuts over the game we played. Each class/teacher handles everything slightly differently so you have to be quick on your toes. Even though theres that ambiguity I still enjoy the job it keeps it interesting haha. I'm learning new Japanese vocabulary everyday and writing it on the back of my lesson plans, then when I get home I usually put it into my online flashcard deck. So eventually when I take lessons and learn more grammar I can put the vocab to use.

Last night I talked to a guy online who is a Japanese translator but from Japanese to Korean. He's really into American football and his favorite teams are the Bears and Giants haha. I told him I liked the Broncos and he showed me some videos of Japanese people playing football here. I didn't know it existed here but they actually play it. He wants to go with me to Tokyo sometime and watch some football. Maybe I'll meet him or go with him to watch the playoffs or the superbowl. On a side note I really want to get an electronic dictionary because its so much faster haha.

Tomorrow I might bring my laptop to school for the first time. I want to show the staff some of my slideshows and maybe videos haha. We'll see how that goes.

Ueno ES 植野小学校

Today I returned to teach at Ueno. I taught all 6th grade classes today which is a little weird because in the US 6th grade is part of middle school. I taught "What are you doing?" Then "What is he/she doing?" After getting the phrases down we played a gesture game and the kids had a blast. We broke them into teams and they got really competitive. Of the four classes I taught, two stood out because they were alot more fun. In those classes the kids were more into it, and seemed to be more interested in what I was teaching and me haha. The kids favorite new phrase is "Sasuke Please" (They all want a picture of the character I drew). I'm going to have to make copies and hand them out as prizes.

Afterwards I watched the kids set up/practice for their "Sports Day", which I think is coming up this weekend. Sports day here is weird.. its not sports its like a combination of weird activities. They stretch and do like cheerleading poses (where they hoist each other up). Its really ceremonial and no real sports go on from what I saw today.

For lunch we had some fish.. Ehhhh! I gave mine away. Also our rice has seafood all in it, I ate as much as I could.. haha. Also the miso soup had some fishiness in it, I drank as much as I could haha. So basically I came home hungry and ate a big dinner.

Teaching: DAY THREE

Today I taught my third and final day this week at Ueno. I taught all of the 1st grade classes and the average class size was about 35 students. The first graders enjoyed my self introduction and some reoccuring responses are developing from every class I have introduced myself to I've noticed. After the class the kids came up to me and asked a couple questions and a few of them wanted to touch my beard hahaha.

The first graders were SO FREEKIN CUTE! I taught them about the weather. How's the weather? It's sunny, windy, cloudy, rainy, ect. The kids all had a blast learning because I was being really funny. For wind I would pretend to get blown away they were all cracking up. And during some of the other ones I would do a little dumb dance or mess around and a few kids would catch it and mimic me it was funny.

The teachers had to encourage them to speak louder so when they started yelling I pretended to be shocked and covered my ears. This made them yell even louder hahah then the teachers had to tell them to quiet down. I ate lunch with the kids too, we had some good food today, we had 2 meatballs (ahahha) some asian version of vegetable soup, a small sub sized piece of bread (covered in sugar like a doughnut) and some apple jello. After that I went out to play recess, alot of the kids from my previous classes recognized me and wanted to play frisbee again WOOP!

Shortly after getting outside one of the teachers (Ms. Matsumoto who's 22 like me yay!) told me I had a meeting so I had to skip recess. I was bummed out but its ok because the meeting went well and the teacher Mr. Ayuse kept saying that I was skilled in Japanese. I was like hells no I'm not!

Whenever I'm bored in the teachers room I learn from my Genki textbook and use my dictionary to learn some new words. Even if I don't learn much new grammar its always good to know more vocab. Everyday I've been taking notes of stuff I want to say in Japanese and then adding it to my Digital Flash Card deck, so even though I'm not getting any official schooling on Japanese I'll learn new stuff. I almost fell asleep in the teachers room the past two days, so I should start getting more sleep. It's rough because I eat, then go to recess, then come back and sit for two hours in the hot teachers room and try to study but always come inches from dozing off.

I also am a bit bored at home so I've been drawing more pictures haha, tonight I drew Sasuke from Naruto. Its cool because they will make great prizes for kids in some of my classes. Check em out.

Tomorrow I go teach at Funatsugawa Elementary School, which is about a 30 minute bike ride out in the country side. I'm actually teaching the entire school in one day. It's funny because an average class size I've taught so far has be around 35. Funatsugawa Elementary has a total of 21 students (including 1st - 6th grade). It's crazy, but its great because then I can actually get to know the kids names! Unfortunately I only get to teach there twice a month but by the end of the time I'll def. know the kids names there.


Tomorrow should be fun.
EXCITEMENT!

Day Two of Exploration

I found all of my schools by bike, except the video for Azuma ES and Azuma JHS got corrupted so I wasn't able to add it to this video. Please enjoy.