6.30.2004 - 悪戦苦闘中

This has been one of the craziest weeks I've had so far in Japan. I've gone from being comfortably planning a fun summer and a new JET year to things going crazy. Completely crazy. Out of the prefectural ALTs, Paula and I are the only two that work at junior high schools. With her leaving next month, I guess they decided that this would be a good time to cut out the whole position, so as a result I'm becoming a high school teacher. And since there are already ALTs in Yawatahama and Ozu (the two towns that I teach in) I will have to move to a town that has a high school where this year's ALTs are leaving from. Just when I got used to my towns, all of their teachers and students, and the curriculum, they up and move me and change my job. So in less than in a month I will have to be in my new apartment getting ready to work at my new school (neither of which I have any real info about at this point).

Here's a picture of most of the English teachers in my Yawatahama Junior High schools that I will soon be parting from:

The cool part is that due to the special circumstances they're giving me the choice of where to go within the prefecture, which is a gift I have never heard of another ALT getting. Although I could move to a couple of other places for free, I will go to Matsuyama, the largest city on my four-prefecture island (population 500,000). Yay, a place large enough that it has interesting places to go, and a population where the average age isn't 60! Of course I will end up paying for it, probably in the neighborhood of an extra $1500. I haven't even paid off my original loan for the place that I'm in now (sigh). I also have to say goodbye to all of my teachers and students, some of whose schools I've already had my last visit to. And then there's the whole "getting a new apartment, packing, and moving into the new apartment in less than a month" thing.

Since this coincides with all of the leaving JETs packing up, I've also got a ton of farewell parties to go to, some of which I have now become the subject of. Less time to pack up. And of course, now that I'll be broke and in a new job, I have to cancel my Hawaii trip, seeing as a) I have no money, and b) it doesn't look too good to take your first 3 weeks off of work. Especially when I don't know what my work schedule is yet. With any luck Matt and Kristine will be coming down in the middle of August though, so I'll take some time off and go with them on a tour of Western Japan. Assuming I have enough money to leave my new house.

Of course things are still good, and will remain so, just good and different. Nothing like being kept on your toes. All of the Yawatahama kids were kept on their toes at the recent track and field day. Nothing like knowing that no matter what you're good at, there's always a Japanese junior high kid somewhere who's better at it than you. Unless you're into juggling, never seen a Japanese run more than a simple 3 ball cascade. I guess they're not better at English than me either. Otherwise, I'm whipped.

Watching the tiny tiny first year girl beat everyone in the 1500m was fricking sweet. Look at her go!! Cheering on all my students was a lot of fun too.

And finally, the Yawatahama junior high ALTs repping their hood:

6.21.2004 - Typhoon Tom

Ah, typhoon #6, my savior of the day. I woke up around 10, had a leisurely morning, and did a little shopping. not only that, but it didn't even rain that hard. Odds are I won't have another school cancellation like this for a long time, if ever, so I'd better enjoy it. I plan on eating some ice cream and watching 踊る大捜査線. It's going to be productive.

Other news? I got paid today. Yay. Plans for Hawaii are starting to form, very very slowly, despite the fact that it's not that far in the future.

6.16.2004

Despite making more money here than I did at home (and actually getting days off!) my net worth has actually dropped a few thousand dollars since I arrived 9 months ago. And now I hear of people who manage to meet my saving goals and still visit Osaka and Kobe every weekend. And the actual Osaka JETs, who not only live in the city for the same costs as me, but also teach private lessons that boost their income about 30% higher than mine. Must control.... FIST ... OF DEATH.... Of course, these same Osaka JETs will now have to deal with the fallout of one of their ilk who was dumb enough to mail himself some dope from the States. I don't envy them for that.

The local convenience store guy commented today that I wasn't sporting the same trendy drawn-in sideburns that I was last time I came into the store, at around 2 AM after a school teacher party. Oh how I wish I could show you all pictures of these ever amusing activities that go on in these parties, but Japanese decorum insists that I show nothing that could reflect negatively on the fine educators of this country. Especially since both teachers and students(!) would be able to see these pictures and beat me severely the next day.

So I managed to survive the renewer's conference in Kobe and the following weekend in Osaka without having to jack a car and kill a lot of people. I did run out of money though, as expected, and had the lovely experience of missing the last few minutes of open ATM time when I forgot my bank card in my hotel. My subsequent attempts to take money from both my American accounts and my credit cards were also shot down. ATMs in this country blow.

An average four hours of sleep every night combined with drinking made the whole experience a big weird conglomeration of disoriented events in my mind. I think it was mostly the sleep deprivation that did it. I imagine it's something similar to heavy drug use. Or old age. Ha.

Despite my mental ineptitude at the time, there were honestly a lot of things that I got out of the conference. Teaching theory on TEFL (TESL, TESOL, whatever), a good conference on multiple intelligences, and some good ideas shared by fellow attendees. I made a lot of new contacts around Western Japan, and met a lot of JETs that I didn't know from my own prefecture. Now I've got a lot more people to meet up with the next time I travel.

And now it's time for some random photos of last month's camping trip in Kochi prefecture:

6.1.2004

Apparently today is the day where everyone is officially allowed to stop wearing their neckties, and here I am sitting around in my neck noose like a sucker. I wonder when the schools will be officially allowed to turn on the A/C. Hopefully sometime before I melt.

I watched one of the most awesome classes ever a few days ago at Yashiro JHS, it was designed to show students the lifestyles of the elderly, so that (presumably) they would have more respect for their frailties. So I got to watch a bunch third year students roll around wheelchair obstacle courses. Watching the kids in the wheelchairs get mocked by the "able" kids taught me a lot. Watching them try to pull tricks and fall over was also pretty fun.

The best part though, was definitely on the other side of the gym. In order to understand the elderly, the kids had to wear hunchback braces, dark goggles, among other disabling devices, and then run a elderly person obstacle course. Grandpa training.

I rounded off the day by watching kids beat each other with sticks.

Alright, off to Kansai for the rest of the week. Nothing beats a paid vacation. On the off chance that I run out of money while in the city, I've been playing enough Grand Theft Auto recently that I think I could manage to jack a sweet car, pick up some prostitutes, and blaze out of the city in a hail of gunfire easily enough.

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