It's 500am Tokyo time and I don't have to be up for 2 more hours, but I haven't been able to sleep. Fortunately I'm not alone and there are a ton of us at the hotel checking email, ironing our suits, calling home.
About 150 of us flew directly from New York City to Tokyo on Saturday. After a 14 hour flight, we arrived around 200pm Tokyo time on Sunday (1am NYC). I managed to finish Harry Potter on the plane, so if anyone wants to discuss, please email me!
It was amazingly easy and fairly quick to grab our stuff, go through customs, and go to the hotel, after which I was thoroughly exhausted. I forced to make myself stay awake until 930pm and walked around with a big group of people. We had dinner at an udon shop. Vegetarian options are limited in Japan, but I was able to get a bowl of udon with radish and a seaweed salad. A little boy walked passed our table a couple of times to get a look at what the foreigners were eating. He wasn't very subtle about it and was pretty funny.
I haven't seen much of Tokyo yet, but will have by the time I leave on Wednesday. I still don't feel like I'm here, and probably won't until after I arrive in Kanazawa. My first impressions of the city are that it is amazingly quiet and clean, especially considering how many people live here.
I'll be in Tokyo for orientation until Wednesday, then will fly to Kanazawa and have a full day of meeting my teachers and principals, setting up bank accounts, etc.
Sorry, but I won't be able to post pics until I'm able to use my computer. Might be later this week.
Sayonara!
Sunday, July 29, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Japan ho!
The countdown has really begun! I fly to Japan in less than two weeks—July 28 to be exact. I alternate between being super stressed out and really excited. So far I'm not nervous, but I'm sure that will change.
For anyone unaware of my placement, I will be on the west coast of the main island (Honshu) in a town called Kanazawa. The population is about 450,000 and it's supposed to be a cool city. Read about it here: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/ishikawa/kanazawa.html.
I will take over the job and apartment of a Kiwi guy who has been there for two years. The apartment is a decent size by Japan standards. The Kiwi guy has been super nice and helpful and sent pics:
It was mostly furnished when he arrived, save a bed and a few other items which I purchased from him. It looks pretty cute from what I can tell, but we shall see.
As for my job, I will be teaching at a technical high school. The students study architecture, some types of engineering, and computer science. It's a low academic school because the students will not go on to university, and instead work immediately in their chosen profession or go to another technical school for more training. For me this means that some of the kids could care less about learning a language they will never use. The stereotype of the perfect, attentive Japanese student is not entirely true whether in a technical school or college prep high school. I may have to deal with a lot of apathy, although I'm hoping the kids are better behaved than the worst American students.
The school is 75% boys and I'll teach up to 600 14- to 16-year olds a week. "Teaching" means that I will assist 5 Japanese English language teachers. It will be a team-teaching environment so I'll help prepare lessons, instruct the class, and grade tests and homework among other things. I have no prior teaching experience, so we'll see how this goes. And my English ain't so good, so the kids might be speaking like hillbillies by the end of the year.
That's it in a nutshell. I could say a lot more, but I'm bored by this blog thingy already and maybe should hold back info to wet your appetites for the next post... I promise to post on a regular basis though. (Or try at least.) Feel free to add comments or email me.
Dewa mata! (Roughly: See you again)
For anyone unaware of my placement, I will be on the west coast of the main island (Honshu) in a town called Kanazawa. The population is about 450,000 and it's supposed to be a cool city. Read about it here: http://www.jnto.go.jp/eng/location/regional/ishikawa/kanazawa.html.
I will take over the job and apartment of a Kiwi guy who has been there for two years. The apartment is a decent size by Japan standards. The Kiwi guy has been super nice and helpful and sent pics:
It was mostly furnished when he arrived, save a bed and a few other items which I purchased from him. It looks pretty cute from what I can tell, but we shall see.
As for my job, I will be teaching at a technical high school. The students study architecture, some types of engineering, and computer science. It's a low academic school because the students will not go on to university, and instead work immediately in their chosen profession or go to another technical school for more training. For me this means that some of the kids could care less about learning a language they will never use. The stereotype of the perfect, attentive Japanese student is not entirely true whether in a technical school or college prep high school. I may have to deal with a lot of apathy, although I'm hoping the kids are better behaved than the worst American students.
The school is 75% boys and I'll teach up to 600 14- to 16-year olds a week. "Teaching" means that I will assist 5 Japanese English language teachers. It will be a team-teaching environment so I'll help prepare lessons, instruct the class, and grade tests and homework among other things. I have no prior teaching experience, so we'll see how this goes. And my English ain't so good, so the kids might be speaking like hillbillies by the end of the year.
That's it in a nutshell. I could say a lot more, but I'm bored by this blog thingy already and maybe should hold back info to wet your appetites for the next post... I promise to post on a regular basis though. (Or try at least.) Feel free to add comments or email me.
Dewa mata! (Roughly: See you again)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)