Back to school!

Yesterday was the 3rd of October so that makes it two months that I have now been here. Time is going so quickly! So I have now also been teaching for a month, here's how it has gone so far:

I spent my first two weeks doing a self-introduction presentation as I don't get to see every class every week so there was always another class that I hadn't introduced myself to. I showed them pictures of my family, where I lived, where I went to university and told them my hobbies. Some pictures got more of a reaction then others. Most of the students seemed completely unimpressed by the picture of me at the top of Mt. Fuji. Yet there was a fair amount of ooing and giggling at the picture of my brother, especially in 2nd grade classes. They then asked a lot of Alex-related questions; 

"How old is Alex?" 

"What does Alex do?" (which I still don't know how to answer) and 

"Does Alex like badminton?"

They also ask more general questions; 

"Do you like Japanese food?"

"Do you like soccer?" and then there are more unusual questions...

"How many friends do you have?" 

"What's your favourite word/ saying/ number?" and one of my favourites 

"Do you like american jokes?" When I said yes I guess so the student didn't even follow up with a joke. All the 2nd grade classes ask if I had a boyfriend as well, they find asking that really funny.

So...what's happening?!

So my self-introduction lesson was definitely perfected by the time I had finished. But then I got to start doing normal activities for lessons. I have 5 JTEs (Japanese teachers of English) and they are all so different. It's mad how varied the lessons are and what I do in them depending on the teacher. For example, for one JTE I have so far made two presentations on British themed topics. Sport in the UK and the history of the union of the UK. I present them to class while asking as many questions as possible so they don't get too bored and also make a worksheet for them to fill out. However, another JTE just asks me to read out words and sentences from the textbook for them to repeat. Definitely going to try and change that. 

Some other general things about school. 

1. I sit in the staffroom largely unaware of what's going on, ha! I get given the schedule sometimes which is nice of them but I can't read a thing! Obviously my JTEs don't have time to translate everything. 

2. I have never said hello so much, walking between classes nearly every student says hello, it's fun! 

3. There are some interesting customs in the staffroom, for example after lunch the teachers will brush their teeth. So it isn't uncommon for someone to just be wondering around the staffroom while brushing their teeth. 

4. Another great custom is bringing omiyage (souvenir/gift), whenever a teacher goes somewhere they HAVE to bring back a present for every teacher. So randomly small biscuits and japanese sweets will appear on my desk and often it's the only time other teachers will talk to me because they want to tell me what it is. 

Four pieces of omiyage in one day!

Something that is a massive part of school life is the lunch. This could almost have it's own post. School lunch or Kyūshoku is a massive deal in school. Everyone has school lunch and they eat it in their home-room classes and there are 5 or 6 students in charge of going to get the containers of food from the kitchen. These students all don special aprons, masks and hair nets so they look like they're going into a quarantine area. Then all the food gets divided out fairly in the classroom until everyone is ready before saying "itadakimasu". The food is pretty good as well, there are 5 components; a salad/vegetable dish, a soup, some sort of protein, a huge portion of the carb of the day and a carton of milk! For me lunch is always a surprise, I have been given a menu for the whole month but even after translating the characters I know I'm still none the wiser. The soup dish always has something in it that I don't really recognise but it normally tastes fine!! The size of the lunch is something I can not get over, it is SO big! The students always manage to finish someone and then go out and play. While I always need a nap after lunch! Sometimes I go and eat with the students and they're always quite surprised I can use chopsticks, as are some of the teachers! 

Climbing Fuji-san!

About two weekends ago now we climbed Mt. Fuji, the highest mountain in Japan. We only really decided the week before that we were going to do it, so we spent the few evenings before getting everything we needed. We received lots of advice on what we needed to take, things like a headtorch (because we were climbing at night), gloves (in case we wanted to grab onto the rocks on the way up) and lots of layers of clothing! We also got a rain mac just in case the our fears were realised and it started raining...

So on Saturday afternoon, 5 of us got on the train and made our way to Fujinomiya, the town where we would catch the bus up to the mountain. We were pretty eager at this point, we had plenty of snacks packed (a bar of dairy milk was the highlight, it tasted GREAT halfway up the mountain). We got to Fujinomiya to get the bus and that's when the nerves started to kick in!! We spotted a poster which showed the route to the top...it looked long. But the bus soon arrived and it was no going back!!

The map

The bus took us to the 5th station (2,400 metres above sea level) and the journey up was beautiful, we drove through forests and as we got higher the roads got narrower but the views also got more spectacular. As soon as we stepped off the bus we noticed, in our shorts and t-shirts, that it was already colder. We made our way to the station where there was a shop, a restaurant and a couple of vending machines (of course- this is Japan) selling hot and cold drinks. So we had a quick drink, put on a few more layers, the head torch as it was already dark and bought a walking stick! One consultation of a map later and we were ready to go.

The first leg to the 6th station was only 20 minutes and it was a relatively gentle incline so when we got there we were like, yeah, we can do this, easy, while I was secretly worried about when it was going to get really hard. It got progressively worse. The terrain got a bit more challenging and by the time we got to the new 7th station (there are two 7th stations, which is irritating because you walk for an hour but feel like you haven't made any progress), there was a strong, bitterly cold wind that just made you want to curl up and find a bed! Unfortunately there was no shelter so we huddled for warmth as a group to have a rest (at that point we were ahead of ourselves in terms of time so decided to stay put for a while). One of our group was also feeling the effects of the altitude and had been feeling nauseous for nearly the whole climb, amazingly she struggled on. 

The glittering lights of the city below us.

Although it was still so cold for the last couple of stages, the summit was getting closer and closer so there was a clear goal. I was very lucky in that I didn't suffer with any altitude sickness but I could definitely feel the difference in the air. It was so much thinner and I became out of breath so much quicker than normal, it was bizarre! It had been fairly busy the whole way up but when it came to the last stage it got very congested on the path. We were queuing to reach the top. So it felt a bit longer than it probably actually was but finally we had made it!! And we were just in time to find a good spot to watch the sunrise. It was beautiful and I don't think anymore words would do it justice, i've tried with pictures! Turns out we were incredibly lucky because we went to get a hot drink, came out and clouds had descended. Couldn't see a thing! There was only one option now- down!! 

All the way up I kept thinking, oh geez this is bad but on the way down it is going to be so slippy, we're going to have to take it so slow. I had really psyched myself up for a difficult hike down, but luckily it wasn't too bad. It certainly took a little while and it did get boring but the end was in sight. All in all we worked out that we had spent 22 hours travelling to and climbing the mountain! Madness!! I'm so glad I did it but it was difficult, not so much the climb itself but the weather. It was just so cold and impossible to warm up. But something definitely ticked off the 'To do in Japan' list. I also appreciated my futon so much more that Sunday night.   

Definitely worth it.

Settling into life in Hamamatsu.

Hamamatsu by night!

It has now been three weeks since we arrived in Hamamatsu via Shinkansen (the bullet train). The journey was fun because we got to see some of the Japanese countryside instead of just city and obviously because we were on a famous Japanese bullet train! I can report that it was indeed fast and very spacious inside. Rows of seats which recline and have lots of leg room and space for luggage. From the train station we were taken straight to city hall to complete our registration and have our Zairyu card (residency card), which we first received at the airport, updated. The Board of Education (BoE) had provided us with already filled in forms which we just had to copy from- thank goodness! It sped up the process considerably and, as the forms were all in Japanese, I couldn't understand a thing so needed all the help I could get!! After getting all the paperwork sorted for that, we then filled in some more paperwork to open our bank accounts… 3 forms later we made our way to the actual bank. Lots of hanging around then followed until we were finally taken to the BoE and reunited with our luggage- hurray! The most exciting part happened after that- we were given the keys to our new flat...

I am able to list on one hand the things that were in my flat when I opened the front door. To be fair, how much can you get into a one room flat?! Minimalist is definitely the term. However, the BoE found our flats for us and they have also sorted out all the bills etc. So I am very grateful, if I was left to sort out my own flat then I’d probably be in some sort of shed. Looking around my room three weeks later I haven’t really bought any more furniture. I have acquired kitchen equipment to cook with (it’s been used twice so far) and hangers so I'm not living out my suitcase like the first few days. I do have quite a large balcony though which is cool!

The view from my balcony. 

For the past three weeks we've mainly been having another orientation but it’s been far more specific and useful! We received our weekly and yearly schedules for school. Japan likes to have a day off to celebrate things so nearly every month we have a 3 day weekend, it’s great! It did take, however, about two weeks before we even got to go to our schools so when the time finally came I was raring to go. We’d heard so much about what to expect and we’d even had a practice commute to school. I have to get the city train which is known as the “Akaden” (red train), for the most obvious reason. It takes about 20 minutes to get to my Junior High school and luckily for me the school is opposite the train station, so easy commute! My elementary school requires a 20 minute walk from the station but I'm not there that often so it’s fine.

My first day at my Junior High school was very quiet! It’s still summer holidays so there aren't many students around and not many teachers either. I have five JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English) and three were in on my first day, which was nice. I was given a tour and had my photo taken and added to the list of teacher’s photographs, which I was also given. So every time a new teacher comes into the staffroom I take a quick look and work out who they are and what they teach! Due to my lack of Japanese, I'm not able to communicate with the majority of the teachers, I just do a lot of smiling and make sure to greet everybody and say goodbye. I hope as my Japanese improves that will also improve. Back to actual teaching though, something I did start doing from day one was helping a 3rd year student with her preparations for the city’s speech contest! I've seen her 4 times since last week and she has already memorised the story she is telling AND we've started adding gestures. She’s in with a good chance of getting through if you ask me!

I'm sure everyone knows that I climbed Mt. Fuji last weekend, it was amazing and therefore definitely worthy of it’s very own post. So I will leave it here and promise to post updates more frequently!

Orientating in Tokyo

A display of plastic food!

So after a hectic and incredibly enjoyable July saying goodbye to everyone and anyone, the time came on Saturday the 2nd of August to get on a plane to begin my JET experience!  We arrived in a VERY hot Tokyo at 10am local time on Sunday after a long flight, on which I got little to no sleep. However, determined to see some of Tokyo and have some Japanese food for lunch a group of us headed out. It paid off! We found somewhere that had all the dishes recreated in plastic in the window (standard in Japan) and we discovered we had to order on a machine- how modern! The whole process involved a bit of guesswork, not knowing what most of the food was or how to operate the machine but I ended up with a very tasty fish dish and my first use of chopsticks in Japan! We had well and truly arrived.

Monday and Tuesday were then spent at orientation in the hotel; I’ll just give brief highlights of what I discovered: 

• We were informed we could wear ‘Cool Biz’ for the rest of orientation, an official dress code in Japan, which doesn’t require suit jackets or ties. Cue sighs of relief!

• Japanese teachers are very dedicated and work an average of 53.9 hours a week!

•  In Japanese schools, there is an allotted time for students to clean the classrooms. 

• Club activities are taken very seriously in schools by students and teachers so we should probably get involved as well. 

• There is a HUGE amount of etiquette that we should try to follow, we even practised bowing. 

• In Japan, acts that may be seen as simply misbehaving at home will in fact land you in jail. An example given at the British Embassy reception was of a girl who stole a cardboard cut-out of Justin Bieber (of all people) from a karaoke bar on a night out and then spent two weeks in jail for it. TWO weeks! They take this stuff seriously in Japan.

Tokyo by night.

Taiko drumming. 

All of the British JETs were invited to the embassy on Tuesday night and we were given sushi and drinks and told again not to misbehave. The highlight was definitely going into the garden and watching Taiko drumming performed by some of the embassy staff. It was very impressive and nice to be shown some Japanese culture.  

Orientation was a whirlwind, lots of information (some boring) and meeting loads of new people. I met most of the people that are in Hamamatsu City like me and then had to say goodbye to many of the good British friends I’d made. But finally it was off to Hamamatsu!!