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rebnessIt has taken me two weeks to find an internet cafe! Actually, I found this one yesterday, after a walk of several kilometres. Except that they wanted my passport, address and bank card just to use the computer.Ｉmay have been furious.
It`s unbearably hot here, with the sun rising at around 4am and beaming at full strength through my windows (two of the walls of my room are taken up by huge windows) by 6.30am, so that I'm forced to get up. It's pitch black by 6pm, which has taken some getting used to when it's not dark until what, 9pm in the UK?
So, Japan. I haven't had any crying jags of homesickness, which was weird because I had that to a ridiculous amount in Spain when I first went there. I find myself thinking of people fondly a lot, wanting to talk with them and being aggrieved that there has been no way to contact them. Absurdly, you can't make an international phone call from a public payphone in Koriyama, except if it's a special grey box. And I have hunted and hunted for these elusive international telephones for two weeks, to no avail. I had to make a quick call home on my mobile. I dread the bill.
Along with this problem, my laptop decided that it was too hardc0re for Japan and refuses to accept that the lower voltage will allow it to charge up. Hence, I am computerless. Hence, the two-week search for an internet cafe. It has made things unnecessarily hard and I just thank God that Spain taught me endless patience. (My employer asked why I wasn't having a nervous breakdown over everything. Anyone who has had to return to the police station 10,000 times just to get their NIE in Spain will understand.)
Onto the good stuff. Okay, well, I love teaching. I am astonished at this fact, because I have emphatically insisted that I hate children and the concept of teaching since my friend at university asked me to come to a teaching seminar. But it's an absolute delight! I teach primary age (four onwards) up until age thirteen. The kids are absolutely adorable. I swear, I could just eat some of them, they are so cute. Kyoka sticks out her tongue with concentration when writing the alphabet; Honoka likes to help me clear things away, Shodai is the smartest, cutest boy I have ever met.
The sense of satisfaction I get when, at the end of the lesson, a child can say 'I'm happy!' or when an adult student shook my hand and told me she had never had so much fun in a lesson and that she loves my accent (this northern accent!) fills me with such a rush, it's unbelievable. To think that you have managed to help someone learn, that the knowledge you possess is valuable in some way, is just incredible. I can't explain exactly why it's so wonderful, but there it is.
There is also K____, an evil child whom I would like to kick in the face. He loves nothing more than disrupting the lessons or making one of the girls cry. And when I tell him off, he gives me this freakish grin. I asked them all to colour in various animals, so he coloured them all in grey and then poked out the eyes of the elephant. Demon child! Unfortunately for him, I'm not the nicest person in the world, so gave him a Death Glare. We shall see how this battle of wills continues.
The adult students are a delight. They just want to talk about England, and English culture and talk and talk and talk. I have never traded so much on my homeland: once they learn I am from Liverpool (well, close enough), they're all, 'THE BEATLES!'. I have so much fun in those classes.
I am staying at the home of Itou-san, a man in his sixties who has more energy than most people my own age. He is obsessed with history (hurrah), English (hurrah) and beer (hurrah, I say!). He is teaching me Japanese, slowly, while I entertain him and his friends with English parties. Yes, English parties. Every Tuesday, some friends of his, of varying ages, come and cook for us and my job is just to speak English with them and be generally... English. I can do that!
We go out to eat every few days, for the freshest, most sublime sushi I have ever tasted; for yakitori so good it made my mouth water when I was convinced I hated yakitori. Itou-san will announce, 'Ｏkay! Challenge!' and I have to try whatever strange and wonderful dish he has ordered. My friend Matt, through whom I got this job, had never eaten Japanese food before and balked at some of the stuff. Not me. Belly, you say? Thanks for ensuring you told me what it was afterwards.
Itou-san is so passionate about Japanese cooking and food. He went on a rant about when he was in America and saw sushi, his beloved sushi, desecrated with the presence of avocado and even bananas. I wisely kept my mouth shut and didn't profess my love for California rolls (but I do love them!) even if I agreed on the bananas.
I in my turn was offended when he told me about his travels in France - apparently, French food was so vile that he subsisted on McDonalds there. Itou-san, I wanted to shout, stop with this cultural genocide. He also hated German food (no comment) and won't even contemplate British (hmm), though Italy worked its magic and charmed his palate.
But seriously, the food suits me fine. I struggle, with the heat, my schedule and general whateverness, to eat more than 1300kcal a day. With all the walking and having to run after some of the more energetic children, I think Japan's good for my health and weight loss. I also am not suffering from acid reflux so much - I must, must try and retain these eating habits when I am back in Europe.
There are so many more things to tell you all: my observations on the people here and theirs on me. The temples, the park, the mountains, the weird and wonderful things, the charming things and the not-so-charming things. I have to go right now, but I will be posting more frequently now that this internet cafe has my life details. I'll try and get some pictures up this week, too.
Mwah! Miss you all.
It`s unbearably hot here, with the sun rising at around 4am and beaming at full strength through my windows (two of the walls of my room are taken up by huge windows) by 6.30am, so that I'm forced to get up. It's pitch black by 6pm, which has taken some getting used to when it's not dark until what, 9pm in the UK?
So, Japan. I haven't had any crying jags of homesickness, which was weird because I had that to a ridiculous amount in Spain when I first went there. I find myself thinking of people fondly a lot, wanting to talk with them and being aggrieved that there has been no way to contact them. Absurdly, you can't make an international phone call from a public payphone in Koriyama, except if it's a special grey box. And I have hunted and hunted for these elusive international telephones for two weeks, to no avail. I had to make a quick call home on my mobile. I dread the bill.
Along with this problem, my laptop decided that it was too hardc0re for Japan and refuses to accept that the lower voltage will allow it to charge up. Hence, I am computerless. Hence, the two-week search for an internet cafe. It has made things unnecessarily hard and I just thank God that Spain taught me endless patience. (My employer asked why I wasn't having a nervous breakdown over everything. Anyone who has had to return to the police station 10,000 times just to get their NIE in Spain will understand.)
Onto the good stuff. Okay, well, I love teaching. I am astonished at this fact, because I have emphatically insisted that I hate children and the concept of teaching since my friend at university asked me to come to a teaching seminar. But it's an absolute delight! I teach primary age (four onwards) up until age thirteen. The kids are absolutely adorable. I swear, I could just eat some of them, they are so cute. Kyoka sticks out her tongue with concentration when writing the alphabet; Honoka likes to help me clear things away, Shodai is the smartest, cutest boy I have ever met.
The sense of satisfaction I get when, at the end of the lesson, a child can say 'I'm happy!' or when an adult student shook my hand and told me she had never had so much fun in a lesson and that she loves my accent (this northern accent!) fills me with such a rush, it's unbelievable. To think that you have managed to help someone learn, that the knowledge you possess is valuable in some way, is just incredible. I can't explain exactly why it's so wonderful, but there it is.
There is also K____, an evil child whom I would like to kick in the face. He loves nothing more than disrupting the lessons or making one of the girls cry. And when I tell him off, he gives me this freakish grin. I asked them all to colour in various animals, so he coloured them all in grey and then poked out the eyes of the elephant. Demon child! Unfortunately for him, I'm not the nicest person in the world, so gave him a Death Glare. We shall see how this battle of wills continues.
The adult students are a delight. They just want to talk about England, and English culture and talk and talk and talk. I have never traded so much on my homeland: once they learn I am from Liverpool (well, close enough), they're all, 'THE BEATLES!'. I have so much fun in those classes.
I am staying at the home of Itou-san, a man in his sixties who has more energy than most people my own age. He is obsessed with history (hurrah), English (hurrah) and beer (hurrah, I say!). He is teaching me Japanese, slowly, while I entertain him and his friends with English parties. Yes, English parties. Every Tuesday, some friends of his, of varying ages, come and cook for us and my job is just to speak English with them and be generally... English. I can do that!
We go out to eat every few days, for the freshest, most sublime sushi I have ever tasted; for yakitori so good it made my mouth water when I was convinced I hated yakitori. Itou-san will announce, 'Ｏkay! Challenge!' and I have to try whatever strange and wonderful dish he has ordered. My friend Matt, through whom I got this job, had never eaten Japanese food before and balked at some of the stuff. Not me. Belly, you say? Thanks for ensuring you told me what it was afterwards.
Itou-san is so passionate about Japanese cooking and food. He went on a rant about when he was in America and saw sushi, his beloved sushi, desecrated with the presence of avocado and even bananas. I wisely kept my mouth shut and didn't profess my love for California rolls (but I do love them!) even if I agreed on the bananas.
I in my turn was offended when he told me about his travels in France - apparently, French food was so vile that he subsisted on McDonalds there. Itou-san, I wanted to shout, stop with this cultural genocide. He also hated German food (no comment) and won't even contemplate British (hmm), though Italy worked its magic and charmed his palate.
But seriously, the food suits me fine. I struggle, with the heat, my schedule and general whateverness, to eat more than 1300kcal a day. With all the walking and having to run after some of the more energetic children, I think Japan's good for my health and weight loss. I also am not suffering from acid reflux so much - I must, must try and retain these eating habits when I am back in Europe.
There are so many more things to tell you all: my observations on the people here and theirs on me. The temples, the park, the mountains, the weird and wonderful things, the charming things and the not-so-charming things. I have to go right now, but I will be posting more frequently now that this internet cafe has my life details. I'll try and get some pictures up this week, too.
Mwah! Miss you all.
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no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 03:12 am (UTC)It sounds wonderful, just wonderful, and I applaud your efforts to kinda crash course your way into a completely different culture and make it an adventure. Surely everything is not sparkly butterflies but I also applaud your effort to maintain calm and decorum when you want to scream.
The man you live with sounds just fascinating....it all does and I cant wait to hear more and see pictures and read about Japanese adventures.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 03:18 am (UTC)I promise I'll try and get some pictures up as soon as possible!
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 04:12 am (UTC)What a fantastic opportunity - to teach in Japan.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 08:43 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 09:13 am (UTC)If you want anything sent to you, such as tourist brochures for English sites, to use in lessons, or anything else I could send your way, just say so. I'd quite like to take up letter writing again :)
Tea! What's the tea like?
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 09:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 09:46 am (UTC)Hope to hear more of your Japanese adventures soon.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 10:41 am (UTC)K__ will kill you.
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 10:50 am (UTC)K is clearly a demon child from Japanese movies... or a genderswapped version of Claudia. But the others sound so luffly.
Italian cuisine pwns.:D
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 12:58 pm (UTC)Enjoy your great adventure :)
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 01:16 pm (UTC)Bahaaahaaa! I love this! The good stuff you wrote about just made me totally forget the 'bad stuff' - what was it again? :P
This sounds wonderful, Becky! I'm so glad you're loving Japan! <3
no subject
Date: 2010-08-30 06:17 pm (UTC)Not even walking around for internet cafes for miles only to be asked for your bank account (wtf??).
I'm so glad you're enjoying the teaching, though! Just one demon child is actually quite manageable, especially considering how he won't be able to win over The Death Glare in the long run!
Um...French food being vile enough to make Itou-san appeal to McDonald's?? HELP.
(Never tell the French this. Ever.)
Eee, looking forward to more on Japan! And photos :D
Have a lovely, lovely time! *glares at ill-behaving laptop*
no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 01:17 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-08-31 03:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-09-03 07:00 pm (UTC)Funny about the phones and the internet though. You always assume Japan is so up there with technology and compatability and whatnot. What a pain! Ah well, at least you found the cafe!