Day ?: Let It Snow, Let It Snow

I woke up today and was surprised to see snow on the ground. The forecast (at least for neighboring Takachiho) called for rain, not snow. Then again, because Gokase is higher up the mountain than Takachiho is, I really shouldn't have been surprised about the snow. In any case, this was this winter's first snowfall, for me anyway, so I made sure to get some pictures of it.



As the day went on, it continued to snow, but we only ended up with about 2 inches, at most. I knew the snow would disappear relatively quickly, too, since the next two days were supposed to be sunny, even bordering on warm.

I had actually planned to go running today, but decided to postpone that activity until tomorrow. By the time I wanted to start my workout the temperature was only about 1C (about 34F) and some of the snow had turned to ice, making for semi-treacherous running conditions.

Since the only kids who are at school today are the seniors (the rest of the students return tonight, mostly by bus), there were neither snowball fights nor snowman building to report. I guess that will come tomorrow.

Day 39: Kamen Raida

I had such a nice vacation in Okinawa that it felt like ages since I was at school. I guess the new vice-principal must have felt the same way, because when he saw me as I entered the school building this morning he said the English equivalent of "Long time no see." I actually only missed one day of school, last Friday, but I guess the vice-principal noticed. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing or if it even matters, but no one else said "Long time no see" to me all day, so the VP's remark stuck with me.

About the first thing I noticed when I got to my desk was that the door to the office was wide open, meaning it was relatively warm for a change. All winter long, the doors remain closed (except for when people don't close them, which is often!), but when it's warmer, the doors remain open, which is what I like to see.

Anyway, even though today is Monday, we were on a Thursday schedule. I checked to see if I was teaching any classes today and it appeared that I wasn't. One teacher did come by and tell me what he was doing for his third-period class, however, but as is so often the case, he didn't say what I was doing for the class. In other words, I wasn't going to be doing a thing. The teacher still wanted or perhaps expected me to go to his class, but I've done that too many times and am usually left frustrated by the experience.

Since I had to prepare for GT, anyway, I kept working on that until I was finished and then went to the class. By the time I got there, there were only 15 minutes left, but those 15 minutes left me shaking my head countless times. I'll just leave it at that.

I did go to one other class, but that was my choice, so even though I didn't do anything for that one either, I can't complain.

About an hour before GT, I asked a student if he felt like reading today's dialogs with me, since he had mentioned to me several weeks ago that he wanted to help out someday. He said he did, so I gave him the script and quickly went over it with him.

As usual, instead of introducing my guests by their real names, I made up a name for my helper and said he was (the fictitious) "Professor Saga, from Oita International College." (One girl apparently even believed that, because when she asked who helped me and I repeated the fake name (with a straight face), she replied with a really surprised, approving look. That was cool!)

The rest of the day was almost totally uneventful, except for the famous (former) Japanese TV star (Hiroshi Fujioka of Kamen Rider fame) who showed up with a television crew to do some filming around school. I was told who he was, but his name means nothing to me. Several of the teachers obviously got a kick out of seeing him, however, which was nice to see.

Day 34: Peace Memorial Park

Today I went to the Peace Memorial Park. I took a bus there, which took forever. I had to take a bus to Itoman, which took about 45 minutes, wait 30 minutes for the next bus, and then ride another for 15 minutes to the park. The ride was long and the price was high: ¥560 and ¥440, for a total of ¥1000.

While I was waiting at the bus "terminal" in Itoman, which was just a small building and parking lot in the middle of nowhere, I couldn't help think about how much I was paying for the ride to the park, which was less than 20 km from town. "I'm paying more than $20 just to get to this park and back! The round-trip fare should be more like ¥500. This is outrageous!"

As my bus made its way to the park, I semi-regretted not having had rented a car, since that would allow me to stop wherever I wanted to. I saw some quiet beaches from afar, for instance, that I would have liked to have checked out more closely, and there was another memorial on the way to the park which I probably should have gone to, especially since a bus to that memorial departed just after I arrived in Itoman. From there, I probably easily could have hitched a ride to the Peace Park, or even walked the four kilometers. Oh, well...

Anyway, the Peace Park was big, nice, and relaxing. There were all sorts of memorials, some wide-open spaces, and great views of the coast. There was also a very good museum (which only cost ¥300).

The museum left me with the impression that the Japanese soldiers and civilians who were in Okinawa during the battles that took place there toward the end of World War II suffered terribly. The island was completely bombarded, countless civilians lost their lives, and just about every Japanese soldier on the island died as well, as they fought to the last man, even if that basically meant suicide.

When I left the park, after several hours... (to be continued)

(More later, including... the Peace Park itself, lunch, the way back, plans for the next day, rain.)

Day 33: Okinawa

I arrived in Okinawa yesterday. One of the first things I noticed was all of the Hawaiian-style shirts that people working at the airport were wearing, which caused me to let out a little chuckle, since I thought, "Hawaii, baby!" Well, I knew I wasn't in Hawaii, but I was still happy to be here.

When I told some students and colleagues that I was going to Okinawa, the most common response was, "Ii naa," which basically means, "No way. That's so cool!" That's because most people, including me, associate Okinawa with sunshine, beaches, and blue water. The problem is, it's already rainy season here, so all I have is grey skies and rain.

Where I live, in Kyushu, the rainy season starts in early June. As far as I know, the rainy season isn't supposed to start here until a couple weeks from now. Lucky for me it started early.

Rainy season is a mean joke that Mother Nature plays on us. All winter long, it's been freezing. Just when the weather is finally warming up, it starts to rain every day. My response to that: "No way. That's so not cool!"

I had no clue that it would be raining here every day until I looked at the weather forecast a few days before I flew here. About ten days ago, one teacher actually told me it'd be raining every day, but I simply shrugged off what he said. I guess he knew better than me.

Anyway, I'm in Naha right now, the capital of the prefecture, down in the southern part of the island. The city is, for the most part, pretty ugly, to tell the truth. There's one beach in town not too far from where I'm staying, but even that is pretty lame, mostly due to the pathetic view, which includes a major roadway.

I was thinking about going to a small island called Zamami today, which is a 2-hour ferry ride away. Due to the crappy weather, though, I've decided to do sightseeing here instead. If I go to Zamami, I will have to pay more than $50 for about four hours on the island before having to catch the last ferry back.

I've seen pictures of Zamami and they make the island look ridiculously beautiful, making me think, "Zamami is where it's at." Zamami = White sand beaches, crystal clear water, and luscious vegetation. I think that's where I'm supposed to be hanging out, rather than here in a big city.

I guess I'll have to save paradise for some other day.

Day 30: Unofficial Start of Golden Week

Today is Saturday, but again we had school. (Yesterday was a holiday, however, so we had the day off.) We always have school on the Saturday before Golden Week, because it's the day when the students go home for about a week of vacation. Since the parents (or guardians) have come to get their children, the school takes advantage of the situation to have a PTA day.

As you probably guessed, I had nothing to do today, but I still went to school. I actually didn't mind going to school, however, because I had a chance, as usual, to chat with some of the kids, which I really enjoy.

I even talked to a few parents for a few minutes, but I didn't meet some of the parents I was hoping to see. Some of the teachers refer to the parents as "monsters," which is semi-understandable, since here in Japan, in general, teachers have much more responsibility toward students than they do in America or Europe (in most cases). If you're a good teacher, though, I don't really think the parents will act like monsters. Maybe that's why I have a good relationship with some of the parents. :-)

Anyway, today two of the students who just graduated in March were at school. One came to pick up his little brother, while the other came to talk to some teachers. The one who came to pick up his brother is one of the two students from the Class of 2011 who did not get accepted to a university. I talked to him about that a little bit and heard some interesting stuff.

Since he didn't get accepted to a university, about the only way for him to do so is to try again next year, by taking the National Center Test again next January. To prepare for that, he is taking classes at a high school. From Monday to Friday, he commutes to the high school by train. It takes him about 1.5 hours each way. He is the only student in the classes, he pays for the classes, and he has to wear his school uniform.

As far as I know, the guy has several options with regard to getting tutored in whatever subjects he needs to improve in, but he has decided to do what he's doing because it's the cheapest option.

I certainly applaud him for going to all the trouble to get into a university next year, but I also feel sorry for him, mostly because he has to wear his school uniform. Basically, he's a fourth-grade student at a school with three grades, and that has to be embarrassing.

I think he'd be a bit happier if he could have transferred to another high school and simply started as a senior, so that no one would necessarily know what boat he was in.

I imagine the guy must feel like a loser at times, given his situation, but he really shouldn't. He has to be at least partially responsible for not making it into a university, but I also believe he was a victim of the system. The teachers simply don't do enough teaching and place the learning burden on the shoulders of the students, which just isn't fair.

***************

The students went home today and don't come back to school until Thursday night. Why? Well, since we had to come to school today, we get Monday, May 2, off, and since Golden Week (not really a week!) is from May 3-5, a string of three holidays in a row, we don't have school again until Friday, May 6.

I don't understand why we can't have next Friday off and just add on an extra day of school at some other point later in the year to make up for it, but that's the way it seems to always go with school systems, especially in a workaholic-filled country like Japan.

As for me, well, I'm taking Friday off so I can have a nice little vacation. On Monday, I'm heading to Okinawa for the first time, and I don't come back until Sunday.

I'm not Japanese. I'm American. I believe in the importance of vacation!

Day 27: Teaching

Today is Wednesday, so I got to teach an Oral Communications class. (If you ask me, every English class at my school should focus on speaking rather than grammar and memorization of words and sentences, but the Japanese simply don't believe speaking a language other than their own is very important, so they limit the number of Oral Communications classes to a whopping one per week and only offer the class to the high-school sophomores.) Oral Communications is probably my favorite class, because I actually get to teach, which is a rarity. Most of the time in the other classes I attend, all I do is ask the students some questions for a few minutes, give advice to students, answer a few of the teacher's questions, or do absolutely nothing. (I often wonder why I'm getting paid.)

Anyway, when I teach Oral Communications, I'm really in charge of the class, which is great, but I make sure to get whoever I'm teaching with involved in the activities. Unfortunately, however, no matter how successful my classes are, no matter how much the students' English improves as a result of what I do, and no matter how little Japanese is spoken when I teach, my English teaching colleagues refuse to adapt any of my methods to their teaching. As you can imagine, that is not only disappointing, but also unbelievable.

The other little bit of teaching I did today was about a 5-minute warm-up lesson for the new students. Because they are learning the alphabet, I had them spell some words, but I also asked some fairly easy questions, just to mix things up a bit. The warm-up went really well, even though only a few of the 40 students actually volunteered answers.

The lame thing is, as soon as I was done, the main teacher took over and switched right back into Japanese. He also did a bunch of useless activities, so the rest of the class was actually a big waste of time. That's life here in Japan, though, and there's very little I can do about it.

I was actually quite surprised when the main teacher asked me to do a warm-up activity in the first place, because the last two times he asked me to come to his class, I did absolutely nothing. I think the vice-principal, who is going to be teaching half of the class, might have told the teacher that he has to use me in some manner or other rather than have me just stand around in the classroom. 5 minutes of teaching is still not nearly enough, however, but I am pretty sure that's all I'm going to get.

Day 22: Hungry Menu/Another Welcome Party

Today is the one day of the month when the school lunch is fairly skimpy. All we got to eat this afternoon was a bowl of rice complete with a few specks of veggies and meat, as well as two tiny dried fish (with an umeboshi, which is a reddish/pinkish dried fruit that is really sour and salty and some tsukemono, which is a kind of Japanese pickle that comes in many different varieties).

I guess you could say the meal's official name is the "Thanks for our daily rice" meal, but I call it the "Hungry Menu." The main purpose of the meal is to remind everyone that we are rather fortunate to be able to eat a lot of food and that we should not complain when we are served very little. I think it's actually a pretty cool idea. The problem is, just like most days, the students and teachers are allowed to get seconds. That makes zero sense to me, but if you stay long enough in Japan, you'll find plenty of things that don't make any sense!

The other thing that is going on today is the final welcome party of the new year. This one is for the one new teacher who moved in to the apartment complex where I (and many other teachers and their families) live. This year, three teachers and one person from the personnel department moved out, but only the one teacher moved in, meaning there are now several empty apartments.

Anyone out there care to move in?