The festival season is coming to an end at the moment, but there was a cracking one in the city centre the other night which I wandered around. During it, a big dance competition takes place - big dance troupes of about 40 or 50 engage in these amazing routines with drums and singing, all while wearing outlandish costumes in 30C+ heat. Impressive stuff. Here's a couple of videos of the dancing - the seats were all full up so the only way to get a decent gander was to keep scooting up and down the walkways. Hence the slightly Blair Witch-esque footage.
(NB - there's sound so watch out if you're at work!)
Tuesday, 28 August 2007
Free food and tears....
Today was a proud day indeed - not only did I manage to have a little conversation in Japanese with the guy in the Lawson near the school I was working in, but we bonded so well that he gave me some free food!! Result!
When I walked in he walked past me and exclaimed "wow, big!" which made me laugh. Then at the counter he asked me how old I was and how long I'd been in Japan. I told him and asked if he spoke English; he said "no, only Japanese" but in English - I decided not to try and explain the logical inconsistency in that. Then he asked me how old I thought the lady working there was - I said I didn't know and that it was dangerous to say; this was the clincher which made him chuckle and give me a free tasty snack. And very tasty it was too. The secret ingredient was free-ness.
I had my favourite and smartest class today - 8 kids all about 6 or 7 who are really well behaved and proper clever. One of them had been on holiday the previous week and when that happens you have to send them a little postcard saying what they missed and a little message. She came in this week with a postcard for me saying thank you - aah, so cute!
Anyway, one of the kids had been getting a little too energetic in previous lesson - he's probably the smartest kid in the class and not badly behaved; just needed to chill a bit so I asked the staff to tell him if he didn't calm down, I'd send him out. Of course, they can't really take one kid aside and say that, so she just spoke to all the kids very nicely reminding them of the rules while I smiled in a friendly way to reassure them they hadn't done anything wrong.
After she left they were all a bit quite like they'd been told off, so I felt a little guilty. This was compounded when I asked them for their homework books and one of them had forgotten hers - she started crying! Aiee!! Normally she's the life and soul, but I guess maybe she thought she'd been naughty - her and her two friends usually sneak up on me before the lesson and shout silly things at me - usually "monkey", but sometimes it's "monster" and today "ghost" was inexplicably added into the mix. It's tricky to know in these situations whether to grab a staff member and let the little 'un have a time out, or just throw them back into it - I decided to start a game and soon enough she was laughing away and having fun - relief!
Today is also the one week in four that we have to teach teenagers - maintaining discipline in these classes is an interesting experience as I always feel like I'm slightly skirting the precipice of keeping them under control and that a moment's hesitation will make them realise "actually, this lanky guy can't understand anything we say - let's call him a dickhead and talk amongst ourselves". So far though, I've kept disorder to a minimum through a combination of a) running them ragged with some games; b) shouting; c) ridiculing the ones that get cocky. Oh, and occasionally resorting to mild physical violence by bonking them on the head with my teacher's manual. So far so good - but maybe next time the revolution will begin....
When I walked in he walked past me and exclaimed "wow, big!" which made me laugh. Then at the counter he asked me how old I was and how long I'd been in Japan. I told him and asked if he spoke English; he said "no, only Japanese" but in English - I decided not to try and explain the logical inconsistency in that. Then he asked me how old I thought the lady working there was - I said I didn't know and that it was dangerous to say; this was the clincher which made him chuckle and give me a free tasty snack. And very tasty it was too. The secret ingredient was free-ness.
I had my favourite and smartest class today - 8 kids all about 6 or 7 who are really well behaved and proper clever. One of them had been on holiday the previous week and when that happens you have to send them a little postcard saying what they missed and a little message. She came in this week with a postcard for me saying thank you - aah, so cute!
Anyway, one of the kids had been getting a little too energetic in previous lesson - he's probably the smartest kid in the class and not badly behaved; just needed to chill a bit so I asked the staff to tell him if he didn't calm down, I'd send him out. Of course, they can't really take one kid aside and say that, so she just spoke to all the kids very nicely reminding them of the rules while I smiled in a friendly way to reassure them they hadn't done anything wrong.
After she left they were all a bit quite like they'd been told off, so I felt a little guilty. This was compounded when I asked them for their homework books and one of them had forgotten hers - she started crying! Aiee!! Normally she's the life and soul, but I guess maybe she thought she'd been naughty - her and her two friends usually sneak up on me before the lesson and shout silly things at me - usually "monkey", but sometimes it's "monster" and today "ghost" was inexplicably added into the mix. It's tricky to know in these situations whether to grab a staff member and let the little 'un have a time out, or just throw them back into it - I decided to start a game and soon enough she was laughing away and having fun - relief!
Today is also the one week in four that we have to teach teenagers - maintaining discipline in these classes is an interesting experience as I always feel like I'm slightly skirting the precipice of keeping them under control and that a moment's hesitation will make them realise "actually, this lanky guy can't understand anything we say - let's call him a dickhead and talk amongst ourselves". So far though, I've kept disorder to a minimum through a combination of a) running them ragged with some games; b) shouting; c) ridiculing the ones that get cocky. Oh, and occasionally resorting to mild physical violence by bonking them on the head with my teacher's manual. So far so good - but maybe next time the revolution will begin....
Saturday, 25 August 2007
Japanese weather....
The summer in Japan is unbelievably hot - and apparently this year it's especially so. All the veteran staff warn you that it's going to be bad, but I don't think anything can prepare you for just how sweltering it is. In Tajimi, the city nearby which I work in on Wednesday (lucky me!), the temperature got up to 40C while I was away. This is a record, one of the hottest summers ever. There are two main problems with Japanese summers. 1) They're incredibly humid; the feeling of oppression as you dash from one air conditioned building to the next is quite formidable and often it's only when you sit down and the negligible breeze made by your walking disappears that you realise how thick the air around you is. 2) Even though we're dashing about teaching kids, we still have to wear some semblance of a suit, which means trousers and a shirt are mandatory (but not a tie, at least not for kids' classes). So traipsing to the station with your trousers sticking to your legs is another fun part of the season - yay!
I'm not sure if there's any physiological basis for this, but it does seem that Japanese people don't sweat quite as much as us gaijin. Usually when it gets hot they have a little towel, like a flannel which they use to delicately dab the beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. Meanwhile, I'm literally dripping with perspiration like I've just passed a house brick or something - every once in a while you'll see some chubby Japanese guy (a rarity in itself outside of the sumo ring) with a damp patch on his chest, but by and large they seem to cope with the temperature pretty well. The hot weather does however provide an easy topic of conversation when in the local convenience store; the Japanese, like us Brits love to talk about the weather. Just using single words though - usually either "samuii" (cold) or "atsuii" (hot). I also looked up humid: "mushiatsuii" - check it out, one quick peek in the dictionary and I increased my vocabulary by a third!
I'm not sure if there's any physiological basis for this, but it does seem that Japanese people don't sweat quite as much as us gaijin. Usually when it gets hot they have a little towel, like a flannel which they use to delicately dab the beads of sweat forming on their foreheads. Meanwhile, I'm literally dripping with perspiration like I've just passed a house brick or something - every once in a while you'll see some chubby Japanese guy (a rarity in itself outside of the sumo ring) with a damp patch on his chest, but by and large they seem to cope with the temperature pretty well. The hot weather does however provide an easy topic of conversation when in the local convenience store; the Japanese, like us Brits love to talk about the weather. Just using single words though - usually either "samuii" (cold) or "atsuii" (hot). I also looked up humid: "mushiatsuii" - check it out, one quick peek in the dictionary and I increased my vocabulary by a third!
Sunday, 29 July 2007
Toyota Fireworks party...
There's tons of summer festivals going on in Japan at the moment, and that means tons of fireworks going off. On Sunday, Toyota City had one of the biggest ones, with 15000 fireworks going off over two hours! I headed down there with Mari, one of the school directors - the train down was absolutely rammed with people, most of whom were wearing yukatas or jimbeis and looking very cool (not literally though - apparently it gets pretty toasty in them). It's not surprisingly, but Japanese people really pull of these traditional clothes well - the women look stunning in their yukatas, and the guys look pretty snazzy too.
Here's Mari in hers:
I wanted to get a few photos of random people in their yukatas too, but I only managed to get one in the end as everyone was watching the fireworks!
Aah, cute (and younger than I realised from the back - they probably thought I was a dirty gaijin perv. Which of course I'm not)
The streets were packed as you can see:
But there fireworks were amazing! Whereas in England we just say "oooh" and "aaah" to fireworks, the Japanese let out this constant exclamations of "pretty!" or "cool!" or "big!" (when it's a huge flash type one). Each time they do, it's like the first time they've seen fireworks; they sound completely surprised by each one even though the show was going on for two hours. If the firework goes off once, then has lots of smaller explosions after, the exclamations stack up: "Cool! Ah, coolcool coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool!!!!". It's all very charming.
The firework show was also a notable cultural contrast to the UK in how people behaved there - despite it being really crowded, everyone was very considerate and didn't stand in other people's way or sit down in stupid places so you couldn't walk. Getting to the trains afterwards was also very organised and easy - the police had it all sorted and controlled the massive flow of people into the station, then onto the platforms and into the trains so we got home very quickly. I think it's going to be a shock for me to get back on the Tube in London....!
Here's Mari in hers:
I wanted to get a few photos of random people in their yukatas too, but I only managed to get one in the end as everyone was watching the fireworks! 
Aah, cute (and younger than I realised from the back - they probably thought I was a dirty gaijin perv. Which of course I'm not)The streets were packed as you can see:
But there fireworks were amazing! Whereas in England we just say "oooh" and "aaah" to fireworks, the Japanese let out this constant exclamations of "pretty!" or "cool!" or "big!" (when it's a huge flash type one). Each time they do, it's like the first time they've seen fireworks; they sound completely surprised by each one even though the show was going on for two hours. If the firework goes off once, then has lots of smaller explosions after, the exclamations stack up: "Cool! Ah, coolcool coolcoolcoolcoolcoolcool!!!!". It's all very charming.
The firework show was also a notable cultural contrast to the UK in how people behaved there - despite it being really crowded, everyone was very considerate and didn't stand in other people's way or sit down in stupid places so you couldn't walk. Getting to the trains afterwards was also very organised and easy - the police had it all sorted and controlled the massive flow of people into the station, then onto the platforms and into the trains so we got home very quickly. I think it's going to be a shock for me to get back on the Tube in London....!
All you can drink...
On Saturday two of the schools here joined forces to throw a big all-you-can-drink party at a nearby Izakaya. For two hours, you could knock back as much booze as you liked for a measly 3000 yen. And let me tell you, the Japanese do NOT mess about at these things - beer was flying left right and centre and the air was filled with Japanese drinking songs and chat.
Needless to say, everyone got completely plastered. There was also a kid of one of the students there called Yukito who was hilarious - he was a little shy to start with but he gamely tried to speak a little English and by the end of the night he was the centre of attention, pretending to throw fireballs at people ala DragonBall and playing Rock Scissors Paper (and winning - damn his mad janken skills). I managed to have a conversation with him in Japanese which makes sense seeing as we both have the interests and vocabulary of a seven year old (actually, I think I'm doing him down there): what his favourite Pokemon was, did he want to see Transformers etc. Here's a couple of photos:
What was also really cute is that however much Anna (school staff, in the purple t-shirt) tried to get Yukito to say rude things about us in Japanese (e.g. "Chris and Thom are old men"), he wouldn't do it! He kept shouting "no they aren't!!" - yay.
And a couple more of other people:
There's an inexplicable disparity between the Japanese social scene and it's municipal transport system, so whereas most of the izakayas are open till at least 3am , the trains stop running at 12. So after the mass exodus of people dashing for the last tube, a few of us decided to go to a nearby karaoke. I don't remember this too well, but I do remember that you were allowed to take your own booze in - normally we have to sneak it in people's bags.
I should also mentioned that after this on Sunday I had a NASTY hangover which even lovely Starbucks couldn't shift. Bleugh.
Needless to say, everyone got completely plastered. There was also a kid of one of the students there called Yukito who was hilarious - he was a little shy to start with but he gamely tried to speak a little English and by the end of the night he was the centre of attention, pretending to throw fireballs at people ala DragonBall and playing Rock Scissors Paper (and winning - damn his mad janken skills). I managed to have a conversation with him in Japanese which makes sense seeing as we both have the interests and vocabulary of a seven year old (actually, I think I'm doing him down there): what his favourite Pokemon was, did he want to see Transformers etc. Here's a couple of photos:
And a couple more of other people:
There's an inexplicable disparity between the Japanese social scene and it's municipal transport system, so whereas most of the izakayas are open till at least 3am , the trains stop running at 12. So after the mass exodus of people dashing for the last tube, a few of us decided to go to a nearby karaoke. I don't remember this too well, but I do remember that you were allowed to take your own booze in - normally we have to sneak it in people's bags.
I should also mentioned that after this on Sunday I had a NASTY hangover which even lovely Starbucks couldn't shift. Bleugh.
Thursday, 26 July 2007
Aloha month...
Every school seems to be having Alohoa shirt month at the moment, but actually it's really great because in return for wearing a psychedelic nightmare of a shirt, you can also wear jeans and trainers. Here's a charming photo of me in mine:
I'm holding fans because that's what we're giving out at the moment as flyers to pimp ECC, and I went to the station to give some out. It was pretty fun - most of the punters thought it was hilarious that a gaijin in a terrible shirt was chucking fans at them, and some even tried a bit of English out. I also ended up giving a load out to a gang of troublemaking youths hanging around the local fast food joint ("troublemaking" in Japan being "wearing outlandish clothes and talking quite loudly"). The police eventually turned up to have a word with them - not sure how good a publicity that was, them chatting to the local constabulary while twirling our fans.
Here's a nice photo of the Japanese teacher Eri and me:
Behind the scenes info - Eri is actually quite tiny and is balanced precariously on a tiny stool. She also taught one of my students that day who said to her "Chris is my teacher, he's really fun" - which chuffed me up until she told me he added "and he's got a big nose!". Whaaaatt???!!! Where did that come from?!
Finally, here's a couple of my students getting into the Aloha spirit - maybe not entirely willingly.
I'm holding fans because that's what we're giving out at the moment as flyers to pimp ECC, and I went to the station to give some out. It was pretty fun - most of the punters thought it was hilarious that a gaijin in a terrible shirt was chucking fans at them, and some even tried a bit of English out. I also ended up giving a load out to a gang of troublemaking youths hanging around the local fast food joint ("troublemaking" in Japan being "wearing outlandish clothes and talking quite loudly"). The police eventually turned up to have a word with them - not sure how good a publicity that was, them chatting to the local constabulary while twirling our fans.
Here's a nice photo of the Japanese teacher Eri and me:
Behind the scenes info - Eri is actually quite tiny and is balanced precariously on a tiny stool. She also taught one of my students that day who said to her "Chris is my teacher, he's really fun" - which chuffed me up until she told me he added "and he's got a big nose!". Whaaaatt???!!! Where did that come from?!Finally, here's a couple of my students getting into the Aloha spirit - maybe not entirely willingly.
Summer Intensive Course...
This week all normal kids classes are off and the kids have a Summer holiday. However, work doesn't stop for the teachers - oh no - as we get to teach Summer Intensive Courses to 2-3 year olds and 4-5 year olds. The students come every day for three days and have a different teacher each day. It's a nice chance for the kids to mess around with a new person and for us to play around with some new kids. HOWEVER, I was a little nervous as past experience dictates that kids that age have one of 4 reactions to me:
1) Shyness
2) Curiosity
3) Enthusiasm/amazement
4) Fear/crying/telling their mum they want their old teacher
In fairness, I'd be freaked out by a gangly foreigner with big starey eyes and - as it happens - a loud Hawaiian shirt on (it was Aloha week at that school), but that's little comfort when children all around you are sobbing and forming massive snot bubbles out of their little noses.
Thankfully, all the kids were great - a little bit of shyness, but generally hugely excitable and very very cute. One kid in particular was full of beans and kind of roared before every answer - "what're these?" "rrrrrrRRRRRRROAR BANANAS!!". I have more of these classes on Saturday so it could still go tits up, but at the moment they're not the cry-fest I feared they might be.
1) Shyness
2) Curiosity
3) Enthusiasm/amazement
4) Fear/crying/telling their mum they want their old teacher
In fairness, I'd be freaked out by a gangly foreigner with big starey eyes and - as it happens - a loud Hawaiian shirt on (it was Aloha week at that school), but that's little comfort when children all around you are sobbing and forming massive snot bubbles out of their little noses.
Thankfully, all the kids were great - a little bit of shyness, but generally hugely excitable and very very cute. One kid in particular was full of beans and kind of roared before every answer - "what're these?" "rrrrrrRRRRRRROAR BANANAS!!". I have more of these classes on Saturday so it could still go tits up, but at the moment they're not the cry-fest I feared they might be.
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