Cold Shoulder

(kids on snowboards... in a game)

I went snowboarding recently! I was invited to go by a friend and the simple invitation made me ponder why it is I haven't gone before.

* The obvious reason is that it's just not convenient to go to ski mountains where I live in Australia --> but you know what? It's not that convenient to come to Japan for a year either.

* It's cold at the snow --> It's also hot in the sun but I still go to the beach.

Then I realised it may be due to the fact that everyone is better than me and I didn't want to humiliate myself and/or burden someone else with looking after me. But then it's not like I was prepared to go by myself so really it was a useless loop. Much like my thought processes on the issue.

So when I got this invitation to go I thought why not? These people are willing to help me out and the opportunity may never come again so I plucked up my courage, accepted the invitation and soon found myself in a car going up some windy roads in some obscenely snowed over environments. The level of snow over the houses, cars and trees was comical for me. I had never seen this much snow before and while I looked out at the scenery I tried to absorb as much information as possible before I got out on the ice.

I rented everything and the cost for the board, boots and the clothing (because I don't actually own anything waterproof) only ended up being 4800yen which isn't bad at all! We got on the ice and instead of practicing or anything we went straight up on the lifts and my 'tutorial' was on a stupidly steep hill at the beginning of the beginners course.

Needless to say I fell over in all matter of directions. The hardest part for me was even standing up on the board! As I mentioned before the hill was really steep so as soon as I would try to stand up the board would begin moving and I would just fall back down again. Frustrating. But I kept going because that's what people in my situation do and soon enough I was up on the board and working my way down the hill.

I won't lie. That first run took a long time. But the runs after that got progressively faster and faster until I could work my way down quite easily. I even bet one of the teachers down and fell over less!. The way I was snowboarding didn't really feel right though - it wasn't what I had seen on tv or on Snowboard Kids 2 (arguably the best snowboarding game for the Nintendo 64). So I enquired with one of the more skilled people that came to the mountain with us. He explained that what I was doing is what they teach the beginners and that I still need to learn another style and with practice I'll have a smoother rhythm and look more like the cartoonified children on ridiculously themed snowboards that I'm used to from Snowboard Kids 2.

So after a long day of boarding I got home and despite stretching and having a hot bath I woke up with some pretty nasty joint aches. But that is to be expected and they'll go away soon enough. Well worth it I think. Next I want to try skiing! Although it's such an unattractive word to type I may not blog about that.

Clear the Area

I missed the Christmas blog. Surprised? I'm not. I actually had to work on Christmas so while you were all eating good food and celebrating I was sitting at my desk doing absolutely nothing because I had no classes! After a really boring assembly some people from a local restaurant came to our school and made the teachers some soba (a kind of Japanese noodle) so I guess it was worth it. After the soba I left and ran some errands. Refusing to let Christmas pass without some kind of celebrating I went to dinner with some friends and then went to karaoke for 4 hours. I enjoyed my Christmas here! I would have preferred to be at home but this wasn't so bad.

The reason I missed the Christmas blog is because on the 27th I had planned to head off to Kansai. My friend Hayley and I were committed to going but had planned absolutely nothing except for one hotel for the first night. On hind sight maybe it wasn't such a good idea as it was around New Years which meant finding accommodation would be pretty heinous but we managed ok.

On the first day we just wanted to get out, get away, and get to a new destination. We took the bullet train and after about 4 hours of travel we finally arrived in Kobe. There's not really a whole lot to Kobe really. It's a city located between the mountains and the sea. It has an important port that for foreigners used to enter Japan before the days of airplanes so it has a little bit of a western feel to it which is... nice? We arrived in the afternoon, dumped our bags and went out to explore the town. It seemed every corner we turned we would find a new interesting place to walk towards and soon we had a pretty good idea of the culture/feel of Kobe. We visited a few bars and everyone was really nice and we could communicate fairly well with them.
So in short. We didn't really see anything in particular in Kobe - but we saw the lifestyle and what not. It's a nice place! I'd like to go back there and perhaps explore it more.

(Hugging a pillar at some pagoda [pagoda?] in Kobe)

After Kobe we had a day trip to Himeji. Himeji is famous for having a biiiig castle (and that's about it). We checked out of our hotel and went to a breakfast cafe the nice men behind the counter suggested to us and once in Himeji we put our things into a coin locker at the station. The whole layout of Himeji appears to lead people to the castle so it wasn't difficult to find (that and it's a big castle, you really can't miss it). Most of the signs were in English and we had the English guide so we could still learn about the castle and it was interesting! It's always fun to walk around those sorts of places because I like to pretend what it would be like to live in them. I do it in temples a lot too.
Next to Himeji castle there are a series of gardens which we went to... but at that stage we were really, really hungry so we had a whirlwind tour of the gardens and went out scouting for food. Hayley wanted noodles and after a long and boring search through a long and boring street we found stairs going underground. Signs like 'food!', 'gourmet food!' caught our eye and soon we were in what can only be described as an underground market place. The smells were amazing (BUTTER!) and the food all looked delicious. I was temporarily disorientated with what to eat but eventually we found a noodle bar and settled in there for some rejuvenating ramen.

(Himeji castle)
(A self-photo of Hayley and I in front of Himeji-jo)

We left Himeji that day and headed for Osaka. We had enjoyed our train trips so far, so instead of catching the rapid service we opted for the local service so we could take time to listen to music, think and what not. We hadn't thought about where we wanted to stay in Osaka so after we tried a few hostels I called my friend Kenny. Kenny used to live in the prefecture over and used to be part of the company I work for. That is until he suffered a serious of unfortunate situations (waking up on the street with a broken collarbone and a bleeding left ear, and, having a recently stabbed Brazilian man storm into his apartment and demand he help him stab someone else being some of the primary ones). Turns out Kenny was more than happy to help us so we went to his brand new apartment and we stayed there for two nights.
Osaka is a fun place. Like Kobe there isn't really so many 'sights' to see but it's the feel of the town that is the most appealing. Sure enough, a quick stroll around the town we could see that everyone in Osaka appears to ride bikes and that the sheer amount of cafes/restaurants/shopping venues would suggest a pretty laid back crowd. Osakans have a reputation for being pretty relaxed and it shows I guess. We went to 'America Town' which isn't so much 'American' as it is an area filled with cheap gaudy clothing. Or is that the same thing?
We took our time visiting a lot of different places and thanks to Kenny guiding us around I think we saw quite a large portion of Osaka. On the second night he took us to a friends place and we got to meet some new people and have a few drinks with them. It was nice to sort of see the city from the perspective of the people living there and not so much from the tourists perspective.

(Hayley and Kenny eating takoyaki [balls with bits of octopus in them])

After about two days in Osaka we moved onto Kyoto. Kyoto is generally considered to be the 'Cultural Capital' of Japan because it is bursting at the seams with temples and shrines and beautiful places. Upon arrival we met up with our pal Honda. He had a party to go to on New Years Eve but came a bit earlier to see Kyoto with us. He, like most Japanese people, went to Kyoto in junior high school which for him was 16 years ago. He took us around to many places in Kyoto including some of the famous, and not so famous temples. When he went to his party, Hayley and I went to a place called Gion to celebrate New Years Eve. We were told it's one of the most famous places to celebrate New Years Eve in Japan and there was a festival to prove it! We ate a whole lot of festival food and eventually retired for the night.


On Hayley's last day (New Years Day) we went to Nara. Nara is like Kyoto but on a smaller scale and I suppose with a different emphasis. I'd go into the history of Japan but I'm not 100% on it and I don't want to bore you. But to make it easy let's say the capital of Japan used to be Nara, then Kyoto and now it's Tokyo. Nara is famous for it's DEER! At the biggest temple in Nara there was a festival celebrating the New Year and this attracted all of the deer from the surrounding park. All the deer are tame and have for a long time existed around the city without too many problems. On this day they were just walking around amongst the stalls trying to find food. I thought they were absolutely amazing/adorable but Hayley likened them to a mix of seagulls and dogs... If you had food they would mosey on over and sort of just keep going for it despite obvious rejection reactions. I thought they just ate grass?
We wondered around a series of linking temples and and the whole time the temples and shrines seemed to fit perfectly into the natural setting around them. It didn't feel like anything was demolished to make the temples but that they were built naturally to exist with everything. It was quite a difference from Kyoto which is essentially a concrete jungle like most other cities but with the occasional flash of green (like most other cities). We were going to meet up with my friend Yuhki but he had familial obligations and couldn't meet us so after we had seen our fill we headed back for Kyoto.

(patting what is presumably Bambi)

Hayley left with Honda to go back home but I stayed around for one more night to spend a day with my friend Michael and his girlfriend Jessie. They have been traveling around Europe for a while and were stopping by Japan on their way home. We went to a nice countryside area in Kyoto and explored that general area and finally found our way to another temple in Kyoto. What we saw that day wasn't particularly exciting, beautiful, but not particularly exciting. The best part was just talking to those two because I hadn't seen them in so long!

(Jessie, Michael and I at Kyoto Station)

So after 7 days of busy traveling and sight-seeing I boarded my train home and said good bye Kansai. Hayley and I didn't see everything but that's a good thing! It means we have a reason to return! I want to see more of each of the cities I saw, so I hope I visit there again sooner rather than later.

I'm back to work again tomorrow which is both a good thing. I miss working there but it would be nice to continue slobbing around the house like I am at the moment. It's probably best for me to do something with my life though so I'll go to sleep early tonight and hope I can wake up early enough tomorrow morning.

Wish me luck!

kris.



Photo's on facebook. I almost don't need to include this link as everyone seems to be on it now!

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=370458&id=680155088&l=69847db71a

Out There on the Ice.

It's cold. There I said it. Are you happy Australians in your god damn summer?! I saw snow for the first time last week and I must be honest - at first I thought it was ash. Once I realised it was snow I freaked out (good way), put my rubbish in the pile and drove to work. It was a pretty pathetic fall though really - it wasn't until that night when I went to a bar in a nearby town to see some friends (and one of my second year students?!) that it began to properly snow and it was amazing! Just like on tv! I don't remember how I got back to my place-of-sleeping but the stroll to my car the next morning was WONDERFUL! I had a blast! The snow covered everything in a beautiful white layer that, despite being cold to touch, warmed my heart! I made a snow ball and threw it at my car because I didn't have anyone else to throw it at. I imagine my car enjoyed it just as much as I did though.

I'm not really used to such cold temperatures. The coldest I remember being was in New York where I just didn't have the right clothing the entire time (Miami sort of doesn't require warm clothing ... clothing at all really) and froze my ass off almost everyday. I'm not overly fond of such cold weather and so in the face of such devastatingly cold weather here in Japan I don't cope overly well. I feel that the snow balances out the cold weather (in terms of my appreciation) but when it doesn't snow and it's just frost I feel cheated. I feel nature is giving me a test and I'm only just passing. Nature is Year 12 maths.

So I woke up yesterday after a particularly shivery night and when I eventually made it to the shower I turned it on to find no response. TURNS OUT.... my pipes had completely frozen. I say completely as not a single source of water would yield me the life giving liquid. I was dry people. Drryyyyyyyy. Fortunately I had boiled some water the previous night to indirectly melt chocolate to make rocky road so I could brush my teeth but I mean COME ON!

Strategies for surviving the cold?

- Wear layer, upon layer, upon layer of clothing.
- Not overly practical as then I have a lot of washing. Washing = sucks.
- Buy a whole lot of thermal clothing and wear layer upon layer.
- My current plan.
- Leave heaters on in all location within my apartment.
- Expensive and with the possibility of dying it's not a bright outlook.
- Maintaining a constant level of drunkenness to forget the cold.
- Doable but I gotta drive and I don't think everyone needs the rude awakenings of drunk-Kris' brutal verbal diarrhea.
- Putting my mind into the body of an alien species to explore their alien (and presumably warmer) world.
- That's not something that people can do. Yet.
- Setting myself on fire.
- I would need to buy more clothes. And the the whole needing to go to the hospital thing wouldn't be good for my wallet. And the smell of burnt hair? forget it.
- Hibernate
- I have to work! And don't bears induce constipation or something? Doesn't sound pretty.
- Going to Hell
- Not ruling it out!
- Manning up and dealing with it.
- Ha.

Lately there have been a lot of end of year parties these days. I went to one for my Japanese language class which I began two weeks ago and that was nice. I also went to one for the ALT's in the Otawara and surrounding areas and met like 20 people I had never met before. They're all really nice and it's exciting that there are people in my area I can hang out with. One of the girls even works in the same town I work in (now there are TWO foreigners there!). Last night I went to another end-of-year-party for one of my schools. It was a lot of fun! The teachers want to take me skiing and after a discussion of the school uniforms of the surrounding area they decided they wanted to dress me up in the boys uniform. Sounds like fun! The other school have their party on Christmas which isn't really convenient for me.

I'll do a post for Christmas next! If you have any tips in keeping warm let me know and I'll give it a burl.

Merry Christmas :D

Life

I just wrote a paragraph on things to complain about but I deleted it. I'm sure there's something more annoying than listening to people whine but I can't quite put my finger on it. How annoying. SO! Instead I'm going to answer a question sent to me by my pal Brendan. I like the idea of an online talkshow so I'll try to answer this to the best of my ability. He asks;

What's it really like being a teacher in Japan, and how did you cope with the fact of not initially knowing the language?

When I first arrived in Japan I thought I would try to brush up on the Japanese I learned in highschool. Turns out I didn't really remember a whole lot but I saw it as groundwork at least. I had some education in this language so at least I wasn't approaching this from ground zero. That is to say, I knew a little bit of the grammar and at least had a mind-set for the language. A girl I know came over to Japan the same time I did but with no knowledge of the language and she still hasn't picked it up very well. So I had a phrase book and a dictionary and I did my best. Trouble was/is - I teach English, I have many English speaking friends and I know enough Japanese to go shopping, order food, carry small conversations and so on. Which means sometimes I lack the motivation to learn more. I went to a Japanese language class last week though and it was good! It's free and it's on a Wednesday night so it's not like it's interfering with anything. What annoys me though is that Japanese people aren't as used to talking to foreigners as we are (obviously a gross over-generalisation there) but often I'll be trying to talk to Japanese people but they don't slow down or use simple language and it's hard for me! I should point out that I live right next door to my company's conversation school and so the Japanese people inside there speak English too. Which means if I have a bill, or a problem or something I don't understand then they can help me. They helped me get a phone and a bank account etc. So I do owe a lot of my happy living to them.

To answer the other question, what is teaching like in Japan... well it's nice! The pro's are that it's a lot of fun to interact with the students. I'm only considered an 'Assistant Language Teacher' so there's no pressure and I'm getting paid to have this interesting experience in two junior highschools that I love. The teachers are all friendly (if unwilling to try to speak English) and it's interesting for me to watch the students slowly become able to speak more English even though they don't particularly want to.

The con's are that often I'll have nothing to do at work. Indeed some would not think that this is a problem but it is. I can have entire days without classes if the students are having tests, and I only have this computer at one school which means if I'm at the other with no classes I get SO BORED! Usually I have around 4-5 classes a day which is fine for me as I can use the other time to correct work and think about making some stuff for future classes. Most days it's fine but some days like today (1 class) it can get a little tiresome. Also, as my Japanese ability isn't amazing it is sometimes difficult to communicate with the other teachers and although they're all lovely and respond when I speak to them in Japanese they're too nervous to start talking to me. I do believe that the conversation channels have opened significantly more than when I first arrived but there's still quite an obvious language barrier there. The English teachers are very kind though and they help me if I don't quite understand anyone but it's awkward to have to use them as a conduit to carry out conversations.

But on the flipside, if I was good at Japanese I would probably have been sent to an elementary school and I'm not really such a massive fan of children. So maybe I would be able to communicate with the teachers more but not be having as much fun at school. I'm happy with the situation as it is but I will try to work on improving my Japanese and talking to the teachers more as I think that is really my only con.

To REALLY answer the question; the hardest part about being a teacher is thinking of games for the students to play. Japanese students are quite reserved and don't respond well to games that Australians might. Getting them to stand up and do something generally doesn't go down well so instead things like group activities (trivia, drawing pictures etc) work the best. But there's only so many times I can do these sorts of things, so often I struggle to think of things to do. The job itself is generally pretty easy so the actual teaching component is quite easy. The other week the 2nd year English teacher was sick so I taught some lessons by myself and they went fine! I played some games (this time it was hangman and something else I don't remember), I made a worksheet and I explained it all in English. I couldn't explain it in Japanese but if they repeated back in Japanese what I said in English then I was able to say whether it was right or not. If that makes sense? It's like I wasn't able to properly form the sentences but I knew most of the words so if they said it back then I could confirm whether it was what I wanted to say or not.

In anycase, it went well I think.

So if anyone else has question then feel free to send them in. It's a stimulus to write blogs which I am needing now that things have really settled down. So until next time I suppose! Perhaps I can explain the story of the annoying car that I get stuck behind at least twice a week on the way to work. I hate that car.

kris.

Another Night

It's the end of the day at Ogawa (a.k.a. the school that I have a computer in) and I realised it's been a while. I haven't been up to much but I have started thinking about what I want to do for Christmas. For those playing at home I won't be there for Christmas I'm afraid. It's too expensive and not really practical - plus! This way I can have a Japanese Christmas and New Years which will be interesting anyway. I have maybe 2 weeks of holidays and whilst I was thinking of going somewhere in Asia, a friend made a proposition to go to Kyoto which would be just as fun!

Apparently KFC is immensely popular here at Christmas. Like... lines out the door popular. Christmas carols have just started in supermarkets and yet in class today a student thought Christmas was on the 24th. WRONG!

I'll still be home at some stage in March but these days I've been thinking that I would like to stay here a little longer. I've got a really good situation here; I love my apartment, I love the town I live in, I love where I work, the students are awesome and I'm still not bored yet! I miss everyone back home but this sort of thing might not happen again! I'll try to visit everyone in March but I do need to talk to my company and change my existing flight for like, 5 days earlier.

I want Australian food. If you want to see me it may be over some food that I've missed. Be warned vegans(sally). Haaaaaaaaaa just joking! Let's make vegan foccacias with a Mediterranean vegetables! I miss that too!

Lately it's been super cold. Mum sent over a package not so long ago with some thermals saying they were sent "half jokingly, half serious". Well, I'll let everyone know that I've been wearing thermals almost every night (half jokingly, half seriously). There was ICE on my WINDSCREEN. ICE! ON MY WINDSCREEN! People say it might snow and although the cold is a bitch, it would be nice if it snowed. A white Christmas would be priceless! It's fortunate that my Father and Brother both work in the area of heating/cooling and were able to fix my heater when they came to visit because it has been working a treat. However, if I turn on the heater and my toaster oven the power goes off so I have to be wary of that. Needless to say it happens all the time because I'm an r-tard.

For those wondering about my Japanese Skillzzzz then don't be expecting much upon arrival on home soil. I can understand moderately well and I can speak moderately well. That is to say, I can hold a conversation if I lead it (if I lead it, it stays at my level). Let's just say I know enough to get by quite well and that it's not a necessity for me to speak about the intricacies of life with the school nurse opposite me. Although she is lovely.

Last weekend I went to this place called Nasu which is really nice and beautiful. I actually went there to eat burgers because of a friend of mine wanted burgers and I wanted lunch which I guess includes burgers because lunch is such a broad umbrella (*breathes*). It wasn't quite a grill'd burger but it was good nonetheless! Expensive... But I now know that if worse comes to worse I can still travel about 30-40 minutes away to this burger place to indulge in a tricky to eat but delicious burger.

To keep up the trend of following every thought I have and regurgitating them onto this blog. I teach a class of kindergarten children every Friday. Two 4 year olds; Kotona and Shunsuke (Koto-chan and Shun-kun) which has been a bitch lately as they have become nigh on impossible to teach. For those in the know, I'm not crash-hot on children below the age of 10 so it was sometimes difficult for me. I find it difficult to deal with irrationality which Koto-chan was filled up to the brim of. I had just spent 30 minutes making this game where they use a magnet at the end of a fishing rod to pick up numbered fish. In the first few minutes Shun unwound the rod so I had to fix that... then he did it again... then Koto-chan shook the rod viciously and the magnet dislodged and I couldn't find it again.

LUCKY FOR ME Koto-chan's Father doesn't approve of how his children view English class (more fun than study) so he pulled them out. Which means the event that I begin dreading on Wednesdays (I'm not even shitting you) has now become significantly easier because this girl is really about 85% of the problem.

Tonight David is going to the Fleetwood Mac concert. I'm so jealous.

Everyone should start listening to a Fleetwood Mac song now. May I suggest 'Gypsy'? Any will be fine as long as it's the Fleetwood Mac with Stevie Nicks and not the kind before her appearance. You can listen to some Stevie Nicks if that's all you have but it's really the combo that does it for me.

Apparently some awesome bands (individuals that sing?) are coming around February next year so I can begin the long lead-up to that now. TWO MONTHS! WOOOOOOO

I'll write maybe 2 or 3 student evaluatations for funzies while I waste the last remaining minutes.

"The phantom of the opera is here..."

The influenza is still rife in Japan, it only seems to have gotten worse with the 1st years being sent home last week and now the 2nd years this week. This has lead to many students and teachers wearing masks to protect themselves. Personally, I hate wearing the masks as it muffles my voice and to be frank I don't like to smell my own breath. I also figure that if everyone else is wearing a mask - it eliminates the need for me to wear a mask. It's not so much an issue in the teachers room but in the classroom when the students are all wearing the identical P.E uniform and have a mask covering half of their face I soon find myself in front of a class of phantoms (from the aforementioned opera). Gender ambiguity skyrockets, students speaking softly also increases its altitude. The only good thing about masks is... nope... it's 10 minutes later and I still have nothing.

"pinheads"

There are a myriad of hairstyles in Japan which is probably due to an attempt at individuality from the thin, straight black hair they're born with. In junior highschool students aren't allowed to dye their hair or do anything really interesting so it seems a number of students have found that putting a single hair pin in their fringe is enough of a fashion statement for them.

What's the big deal about this pin you ask? Why even mention the pin you ask? What annoys me about the pin is the fact that it can't possibly be used as a method to keep hair in place (presumably in a nice-looking way) but it's sheer obviousness detracts from the look of the hair in the first place.

There you have it. Two. Yeyyyy.

'till next time!

kris.

Kids

It's the beginning of a long weekend (suck it Australia) and I've opted to begin it with a few drinks and an otherwise relaxed night. I just taught my kindergarten class at the conversation school next door after a big running session after school. All the clubs have been running for what I assume is for fitness but it's good for me to.
I haven't posted in a while despite previous suggestions that I would and in the absence of anything really important to blog about I thought I would begin a series detailing the inhabitants of my schools. I won't be going student by student of course, more a brief examination of the various categories they could slot into. So without further adieu;

"the desk is my canvas"
We're all a victim of this. We're faced with a boring situation that we're bound to commit to and all we have is a pencil in one hand and a blank desk in front of us. Oh sure, it begins with a scribble of the name, a scribble of 'hello'. Why not add some flowers, some animals, some other catchphrases? It's not long until the desk is at least half covered in the inane imaginings of a teenager. I have been witness to desk size portraits of faces, craploads of stickers, song lyrics and more recently a quite well drawn picture of a scooter. It is no doubt a combination of boring classes and a desire to express themselves in gray lead/table format but it's all entertaining for me.

"blink once for yes, blink twice for no"
The student that appears to be so utterly vacant that all of their bodily resources appear to be dedicated to important bodily functions, blinking, and looking stupid. Due to the system of Junior High School in Japan these students can actually advance years without being able to do anything. These students never give any input under any situations even when being directly spoken to, will leave worksheets completely untouched and have severely restricted facial expression. They stare ahead in class but appear not to be looking at anything and any thoughts about what they're pondering only ends up depressing me. They scare me a little.

"did you get lost?"
A seven year old walks into the class and sits down. Only, they're not 7 years old they just look exactly like it. Some students in Japan look so severely underaged that it looks as if they have been skipped ahead. Generally they're totally adorable and their marks are only average but they are definitely where they are supposed to be. On the flip side there are some elementary school students that look much older than they are. I don't really know why this is but people keep thinking that I'm 25 or older so I guess I fall into a similar category.

Shit.

More next time. I wrote out a list when I was bored at school so at the very least expect a few of these.

See the World

It's culture festival time ladies and gentlemen so strap on your bonnets, tip your top hats and sit down for the wild ride ahead. The term 'culture festival', for me at least, arouses such images as aboriginals doing their thing, stalls of food etc. A culture festival in a school probably has like a crepe stand, or someone singing a song in French or something. Generally it's all something we've seen before but at the very least it puts a welcome blip on our daily life seismograph.

So what does a Japanese cultural festival entail? Well. It's not so much 'culture' as it is essentially a day-long performing arts night. About a week and a half ago I went to school on a Saturday for my smaller schools' culture festival (Ogawa). It had been coming up for quite a while and I guess there was what you could call 'hype' about it. One of my students for the speech contest was a member of the student council so she was practicing for 4 performances on top of the speech contest (possibly why she came 4th...) and she would sometimes tell me the goings on.

(class 3-1 singing)

It all began at 8:45am with the choral competition where each class sang a song and all the teachers judged them. After this ordeal it was the PTA's turn to sing. I was invited to join the PTA choir and I was sort of keen to sing a song in Japanese so this was a lot of fun for me! We had practiced a few times and we were sounding good! We sang our songs very well and the students liked that I was singing in Japanese so that was probably my highlight for the day.

(Student Council Taiko performance)

After a break the day became interesting. All the windows were covered up and it sort of became like a talent show minus judging. It began with this awesome, fantastic taiko performance which was really, really cool. From then on, however, it was plagued with poor organisation, microphone issues and a nasty case of quantity over quality. I feel obliged at this stage to point out that when it comes to events like these I compare it to performing arts nights at my highschool. Everything was well planned, the performances were top-notch and it was generally pretty impressive. Of course it's not fair to compare the two as performing arts is a bigger deal in schools in Australia than it is in Japan...

But to the student's credit some of the bands were pretty cool. The microphones weren't working properly so it was impossible to hear the singer most of the time but they did look pretty cool up on stage. All the students watching would rush up to the front and mosh every time a band came on. The dances and singing all looked like they were conceived the night before and yet I know that can't be the case as all the 3rd years had special t-shirts signifying the occasion. One redeeming act was the whole school choir who sang this amazing song with awesome harmonies and everything.



The 3rd year students also sang a song in English! "We are the World" is one of those charity songs that never goes very far but holds a decent melody. The 3rd year English teacher had been making the students sing it in English class and so I think the tone was slightly mocking but they tried their hardest with each member singing a sentence each. They didn't have to perform it on stage like that - they chose to! Which I'm going to take as a good thing.

Next cultural festival was at Bato. This festival also began with a choral competition only this time I had heard most of the songs from my prior cultural festival (I was an expert at this stage) which made things, like, massively interesting for me.......
I offered to join the PTA choir at this school but it I couldn't go to any rehearsal so I was surprised to find out (on stage) that they had a skit and dance moves involved with the first song. I should have known that something like this would happen and it was su-per embarrassing to be standing there on stage watching everyone do things that I didn't know about in front of the whole school. The second song was kinder to my soul (*sigh*) and involved simple standing and singing...

(The 1st years contribution. Flipping cards that spelled various things I couldn't understand)

After this experience, instead of having bands and so on perform, each class had to put on a skit. Some were interesting and funny. Some were awful. It was a bit of a mixed bag really but again - it was fun to see my students up on stage doing something fun like that so I didn't mind sitting there all day again.

(Some art from the students at Bato)

After both of the cultural festivals there was a drinking party with the teachers. These parties usually cost something like 4000yen (which is like what, $47? I don't know exactly) and are supposed to include all I can drink but as I live about half an hour away by car, I have to drive. Which makes these nights an expensive endeavour indeed! I do like spending time with the teachers in an informal setting though and everyone is more inclined to speak English to me when they've been drinking which is nice.

In both cases it was an interesting experience to observe. I'm sure the students had a good time too and that's the goal really so mission accomplished!

P.S. Couldn't really be bothered dealing with formatting issues so it's pretty much picture, writing, picture, writing...... as you probably know at this stage.

P.P.S. I read some of Averil Byrne's emails and boy she has a poetic way of putting things. I'm sorry my best writing is of cynicism and sarcasm. It's what I do best. Apparently.

P.P.P.S. Halloween was last weekend! I went to a halloween party on the Sunday. I was a pirate.

kris.