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Well, not really. I do have valid excuses such as not having time due to 2.5 days of orientation in Tokyo, extreme jet lag and consistent lack of sleep that caused my brain to stop functioning correctly, and limited access to the Internet...
Orientation was a blur. Most of the new group of teachers were there. I think there were at least 400 of us, but am not sure. We had to attend seminars to help us with our new jobs and life in Japan. There were seminars on Japanese etiquette, being vegetarian in Japan (not as bad as I had thought, but still not easy), being a women in Japan (for a first world country women here have surprisingly little support in some ways. It`s like they`re stuck in the 1950s), and a bunch of other stuff I can`t remember. A couple things were mandatory, but we could pick and choose from the rest.
I think I am one of the older people in the group which made things annoying at times. The majority of people just graduated from college and have never had a real job or lived in the real world. Some of those people still act like they`re in college and would skip the seminars or talk the entire time during a seminar. During one I had to turn around and tell two guys to shut the hell up. (But in a much nicer way.) They gave me blank looks but stopped, then skipped out altogether during the break. Some people do not get and I hope they learn very quickly what it means to be an adult...
I had to go to a seminar for grade school teachers but found out later that I will not be teaching grade school at all, which is a bummer. But during that seminar I did learn the difference between serif and san serif fonts and also learned that comic sans is amazing and one of the best fonts ever created. (Note the sarcasm.)
About a week ago I flew to Kanazawa with the rest of my group. Everyone was jealous because my supervisor is very organized and sent me a schedule for the day. No one else had any clue what they would be doing upon arrival. I had a really full day and was a zombie by the end.
My supervisor from the Board of Education and a senior ALT met me at the airport. My supervisor is of course Japanese and I must call him Mr. Ikeda even though I`m at least 3 years older. He`s very nice, but doesn`t speak English very well.
(Note: ALT is the name of my position and the term will be used a lot in my posts. It means Assistant language teacher.)
I set up a back account, applied for my alien registration card, hung out at the Board of Education (BOE) for a bit, met the head of the BOE, met my school supervisor, had lunch at a Chinese restaurant, signed a billion lease forms and learned to write my name in Katakana, went to my apartment where the real estate agent and the gas man were waiting, went to a grocery store, then walked around my apartment like a zombie before finally passing out. This was Wednesday of last week.
I talked about an alien registration card. If you`re a foreigner in Japan, you MUST sign up for this. It`s required in order to get a cell phone, Internet access at home, and some other stuff. Of course it can take up to 3 weeks for it to arrive, so I am sans technology for a couple more weeks. It`s sad, but I feel naked without that stuff. And it`s really hard to make plans without it. Thank God for email.
The next day I walked around my place like a zombie a bit more and eventually unpacked. When I finally ventured out I got lost in my neighborhood. The streets here are completely crazy and windy and are definitely not on a grid. Many of them are dead ends and since I can`t read Japanese I am forced to find my way using landmarks. Everything kind of looks the same on your first day in a foreign place and needless to say I walked around for 45 minutes before I figured out where I was. I`m not alone though because another Kanazawa ALT did the same thing in a different part of town.
I biked into town later to meet a senior ALT for a drink and fell in love with my bike along the way. It is a borderline piece of crap and I`ve already had to put about $40 into it, but it gets the job done. I haven`t owned a bike in years because I was terrified to ride around Columbus. But here everyone has a bike and they actually prefer that you ride on the sidewalk instead of taking your chances on the street. The only problem is that there are so many lanes that branch off from the main roads that you have to watch to make sure that a car doesn`t zoom out and hit you. And the heat and humidity are horrible and you`re a nasty, dripping mess afterwards. But I still love it. I even have a basket to carry groceries in.
I biked around a bit with the senior ALT and then went to Starbucks and the GAP. Not what I should be doing while in Japan some might say, but the senior ALT wanted to go and I had no opinions that day. I just wanted to speak to someone in English.
The next day I went to school and learned that I will have nothing much to do until school begins at the end of August. I`ve basically been talking to the teachers and students, trying to study Japanese, watching the students` clubs, and getting on the internet.
Japanese schools are very different from American schools because when the kids are on summer break, they don`t have time to lay around and do nothing or get into trouble or have a summer job. Instead they spend 10-12 hours a day Monday through Friday involved in school clubs. The clubs at my school are mostly sports teams and range from sumo wrestling to archery to baseball to badminton. Can you imagine practicing and playing baseball for 10-12 hours a day? That would get old really fast and it`s so incredibly hot that you might be miserable most of the time. The only rooms that are air conditioned at school are the administrative and teachers` rooms. But I will get a taste of it once I begin teaching. The classrooms on the third floor are especially hot and stuffy.
The school is in need of repair, but they have problems getting funding for renovations just like American schools do.
Ok, this is a really long post and I think I`ll stop now. I`ll try and post some picks in the next one.
Ja mata!
