Today I jumped out of a third story window.
It was in one of those fire safety chutes, but still, it was scary. Even with the genki fire chief telling me to let go of the rope and say 'banzai!' as though it were supposed to be fun. I can't imagine what it would be like if there was really a fire. The actual descent wasn't as fast as I imagined it to be, but the nerves leading up to letting go of the rope kinda ruined the whole experience. But I couldn't or wouldn't rather back down from Nathan's peer pressure. He knows how to get me do things...and that is by taunting.
Also, the kids did a fire drill today and I swear out of 500+ teenaged children not one word was said while they exited the building or while they waited for everyone else to come out. Sometimes they scare me. They're like cute Japanese robots. It's just not natural that kids should be so well behaved. Really, it's not.
Monday, October 20, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
How old am I?
Conversation today with my favorite class:
Student A: Miss Jennifer, how old are you?
Me: How old do you think I am?
Student A: 40?
Me: Whaaat?!?
Student B: 30?
Student C: 18.
Me: That's a good answer!
Student C: No, no, 80.
Me: I don't like you. I'm 26 years old.
Masamune: 36?
Me: I don't like you either.
So the lesson here is don't ever ask children how old they think you are because you aren't ever going to like the answer.
Student A: Miss Jennifer, how old are you?
Me: How old do you think I am?
Student A: 40?
Me: Whaaat?!?
Student B: 30?
Student C: 18.
Me: That's a good answer!
Student C: No, no, 80.
Me: I don't like you. I'm 26 years old.
Masamune: 36?
Me: I don't like you either.
So the lesson here is don't ever ask children how old they think you are because you aren't ever going to like the answer.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
I've had the nicest day. We only had a half day at school today because the teachers had some sort of inservice to do at another school nearby. I taught two classes, one of which included 20 minutes of playing cards with the students, did fifteen minutes of speech contest practice and then we were out of there by 12:30.
Since the weather was gorgeous and we were free, Nathan (the other ALT I work with) and I decided to make the most of it. We had lunch at my favorite cafe, where I ordered the bacon hamburger. We were both surprised when it came. First it was on a wheat bun. Wheat! You don't know how expensive and hard it is to get wheat bread around here. And the burger was huge. It looked like it could easily be served in any American restaurant. And it tasted great. I'll definitely be ordering it again soon.
With our tummies full, we jumped on our bikes and headed to Long Beach. It's about a 40 minute bike ride down the peninsula. Once there we beach combed for awhile and then climbed this big rock where we sat and talked and had a pebble throwing contest. I brought back several nice rocks that I found, although I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. Maybe start a rock garden?
I'm a little sunburnt and tired from riding, but it never ceases to amaze me how close to the ocean I live. Coming from the landlocked state of Ohio, it's truly awesome.
Check out the Shinto statue on the top of this big rock.
And not from today but last weekend when I biked up to the Eco Park to find a geocache. My town is so environmentally friendly! Check out all our windmills!
Since the weather was gorgeous and we were free, Nathan (the other ALT I work with) and I decided to make the most of it. We had lunch at my favorite cafe, where I ordered the bacon hamburger. We were both surprised when it came. First it was on a wheat bun. Wheat! You don't know how expensive and hard it is to get wheat bread around here. And the burger was huge. It looked like it could easily be served in any American restaurant. And it tasted great. I'll definitely be ordering it again soon.
With our tummies full, we jumped on our bikes and headed to Long Beach. It's about a 40 minute bike ride down the peninsula. Once there we beach combed for awhile and then climbed this big rock where we sat and talked and had a pebble throwing contest. I brought back several nice rocks that I found, although I'm not sure what I'm going to do with them. Maybe start a rock garden?
I'm a little sunburnt and tired from riding, but it never ceases to amaze me how close to the ocean I live. Coming from the landlocked state of Ohio, it's truly awesome.
Check out the Shinto statue on the top of this big rock.
And not from today but last weekend when I biked up to the Eco Park to find a geocache. My town is so environmentally friendly! Check out all our windmills!
Tuesday, October 7, 2008
I'm skipping choir. Every week I mean to post a rant about choir but then I get home and I'm too tired to do anything but go to bed. But this week I decided I was too tired to go so here I am.
We have two directors. One is actually a director. The other is an old choir biddy who thinks she can lead a choir. She can't. We are singing easy Christmas carols and the Hallelujah Chorus with her and we sound terrible. We are singing some very nice Japanese pieces with the other guy - Tanaka sensei - and though we still sound like a bunch of old people singing (I'm the youngest by at least 20-30 years) we sound like a bunch of old people who know what they are doing.
Unrelated to the choir in Tahara but in regards to a group in Toyohashi, I went to see Mozart's Requiem this past weekend. I have sung this piece before. I listen to it quite often. My friend Sue who goes to choir with me here in Tahara and Tanaka-sensei were trying to swing it so I could join in and sing it with them. They told me it was too late back in May. Now they just performed in October. So three months apparently was not enough time for me to relearn a piece of music I have performed before according to them.
At the time I thought, no big deal they must be really good to have such high standards. Uh no, actually they had elementary school kids singing it. And ladies who looked like they might fall off the stage and into their graves. They didn't even have an orchestra to play with them, just a lone piano, so in the end it would have been a great big disappointment anyway, but what's more disappointing is that they think so little of me. I don't know if it's because I'm a foreigner or because they just didn't know me, but still it irks. I could have easily sung with them this past weekend, and sung it well.
Other things that drive me crazy:
We take almost thirty minutes to warm up and at the end, I'm not very warmed up. But my legs are nice and stretched out so that's helpful.
Choir biddy director likes to warm us up on the syllable Eeee. Quite possibly the ugliest vowel and hardest to sing in the upper register.
They like to sing on solfege (do, re, mi, fa, so etc.) except that they sing them all as if we are in the key of C even when we are clearly NOT in the key of C. This drives me CRAZY! The distance between do and re should always be the same except that this way it isn't. So how is that helpful?
We have practice on Friday nights! Who does that? Although for a group of old people in the inaka I suppose they don't have anything else better to do. (And really who am I kidding neither do I but my cultural sensibilities are still maligned either way.)
And to end on a positive note because I really do enjoy choir:
I really like the music we are singing with Tanaka-sensei.
I may not have any idea what I'm singing but I can read hirigana now like nobody's business.
I get to hang out with my good friend Sue.
Tanaka-sensei seems to like me and I think he gets frustrated that I can't speak more Japanese. He likes to make me sing all the way to the top of my register, way past the rest of the other sopranos. It can be embarrassing but it's nice to go that high every once in awhile. (I can hit a high C if my voice isn't too tired.)
I was photographed and profiled in the monthly magazine here in Tahara (all the ALTs were) and I mentioned that I sang with the Tahara Chorus. I won major points with that. They loved that I gave them some extra PR.
I can't seem to live without choir and yet I can't really live with it either. I really miss Cincinnati Choral Society though. :-(
We have two directors. One is actually a director. The other is an old choir biddy who thinks she can lead a choir. She can't. We are singing easy Christmas carols and the Hallelujah Chorus with her and we sound terrible. We are singing some very nice Japanese pieces with the other guy - Tanaka sensei - and though we still sound like a bunch of old people singing (I'm the youngest by at least 20-30 years) we sound like a bunch of old people who know what they are doing.
Unrelated to the choir in Tahara but in regards to a group in Toyohashi, I went to see Mozart's Requiem this past weekend. I have sung this piece before. I listen to it quite often. My friend Sue who goes to choir with me here in Tahara and Tanaka-sensei were trying to swing it so I could join in and sing it with them. They told me it was too late back in May. Now they just performed in October. So three months apparently was not enough time for me to relearn a piece of music I have performed before according to them.
At the time I thought, no big deal they must be really good to have such high standards. Uh no, actually they had elementary school kids singing it. And ladies who looked like they might fall off the stage and into their graves. They didn't even have an orchestra to play with them, just a lone piano, so in the end it would have been a great big disappointment anyway, but what's more disappointing is that they think so little of me. I don't know if it's because I'm a foreigner or because they just didn't know me, but still it irks. I could have easily sung with them this past weekend, and sung it well.
Other things that drive me crazy:
We take almost thirty minutes to warm up and at the end, I'm not very warmed up. But my legs are nice and stretched out so that's helpful.
Choir biddy director likes to warm us up on the syllable Eeee. Quite possibly the ugliest vowel and hardest to sing in the upper register.
They like to sing on solfege (do, re, mi, fa, so etc.) except that they sing them all as if we are in the key of C even when we are clearly NOT in the key of C. This drives me CRAZY! The distance between do and re should always be the same except that this way it isn't. So how is that helpful?
We have practice on Friday nights! Who does that? Although for a group of old people in the inaka I suppose they don't have anything else better to do. (And really who am I kidding neither do I but my cultural sensibilities are still maligned either way.)
And to end on a positive note because I really do enjoy choir:
I really like the music we are singing with Tanaka-sensei.
I may not have any idea what I'm singing but I can read hirigana now like nobody's business.
I get to hang out with my good friend Sue.
Tanaka-sensei seems to like me and I think he gets frustrated that I can't speak more Japanese. He likes to make me sing all the way to the top of my register, way past the rest of the other sopranos. It can be embarrassing but it's nice to go that high every once in awhile. (I can hit a high C if my voice isn't too tired.)
I was photographed and profiled in the monthly magazine here in Tahara (all the ALTs were) and I mentioned that I sang with the Tahara Chorus. I won major points with that. They loved that I gave them some extra PR.
I can't seem to live without choir and yet I can't really live with it either. I really miss Cincinnati Choral Society though. :-(
Monday, September 29, 2008
The perks of living in a small town
I left my umbrella on the bus Friday coming home from one of my elementary schools. Today it is raining again so I take a different bus to my junior high school. I have to take my beat up broken umbrella and get pretty wet, but as soon as I get on the bus this afternoon the driver tells me, in English no less, that he has my umbrella in his office. Then he stops the bus, calls the office, and tells them to expect me. When we got to the station he got off, pointed me in the right direction, and now I have my good umbrella back. Good thing because it is supposed to rain again tomorrow.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
O-matsuri
Here are the pictures from the Tahara Festival. It was tons of fun.
There are three dashi floats in Tahara, each one dedicated to a different local shrine. Drummers sit in the bottom while girls with flutes walk behind. The music is sedate while they walk down the street but it quickly picks up when they have to turn a corner, to inspire the men pushing and pulling it. Every ten minutes or so they stop to take a rest while the puppets on top perform traditional Japanese dances. Several of my students were up front, carrying flags and holding onto the long ropes that attach to the float. They were so excited to see me.
At Tahara Castle they had food booths set up and a large stage where they had dancing. One nice older man bought me some flavored ice and then asked to take his picture with me before showing me over to where the dancing was starting. All part of my celebrity status here in Tahara.
Other than the dashi floats there are several others that wander the streets throughout the day as well. This one had many of my students helping to pull it. The floats act as their own traveling party so the festival is never really in one place at a time but moving around town. They stop and perform like the dashi floats, first with two cute elementary school girls doing a fan dance and then some drunken men dancing to a pop song. The party continues into the night.
On Sunday all three of the dashi floats come together at one of the temples where a special service is held. Large fireworks are carried around town and then shot off in the evening. The festival ends with a large fireworks display. I went to a party hosted by City Hall Sunday evening and then got VIP seats for the fireworks. Because it was still warm, I jumped at the chance to wear my yukatta, or summer kimono. At one point, they let me help make mochi. Using a big hammer, I beat at ball of rice. They do that until it sort of resembles taffy and then add different things for taste like sesame.
All in all, I had a great time. It was very different than the festivals I'm used to in Cincinnati, which are generally parish festivals that consist mostly of rides, beer, and gambling. I'm glad I had Marie with me though to scan the newspaper so we knew which floats would be where and when. Maybe next year I'll don my own hoppi (blue vest everyone is wearing) and help pull one of the floats.
Click on the links for two short videos of the dancing and floats.
http://video.xanga.com/jenken04/a243b882864/video.html
http://video.xanga.com/jenken04/f364c882836/video.html
There are three dashi floats in Tahara, each one dedicated to a different local shrine. Drummers sit in the bottom while girls with flutes walk behind. The music is sedate while they walk down the street but it quickly picks up when they have to turn a corner, to inspire the men pushing and pulling it. Every ten minutes or so they stop to take a rest while the puppets on top perform traditional Japanese dances. Several of my students were up front, carrying flags and holding onto the long ropes that attach to the float. They were so excited to see me.
At Tahara Castle they had food booths set up and a large stage where they had dancing. One nice older man bought me some flavored ice and then asked to take his picture with me before showing me over to where the dancing was starting. All part of my celebrity status here in Tahara.
Other than the dashi floats there are several others that wander the streets throughout the day as well. This one had many of my students helping to pull it. The floats act as their own traveling party so the festival is never really in one place at a time but moving around town. They stop and perform like the dashi floats, first with two cute elementary school girls doing a fan dance and then some drunken men dancing to a pop song. The party continues into the night.
On Sunday all three of the dashi floats come together at one of the temples where a special service is held. Large fireworks are carried around town and then shot off in the evening. The festival ends with a large fireworks display. I went to a party hosted by City Hall Sunday evening and then got VIP seats for the fireworks. Because it was still warm, I jumped at the chance to wear my yukatta, or summer kimono. At one point, they let me help make mochi. Using a big hammer, I beat at ball of rice. They do that until it sort of resembles taffy and then add different things for taste like sesame.
All in all, I had a great time. It was very different than the festivals I'm used to in Cincinnati, which are generally parish festivals that consist mostly of rides, beer, and gambling. I'm glad I had Marie with me though to scan the newspaper so we knew which floats would be where and when. Maybe next year I'll don my own hoppi (blue vest everyone is wearing) and help pull one of the floats.
Click on the links for two short videos of the dancing and floats.
http://video.xanga.com/jenken04/a243b882864/video.html
http://video.xanga.com/jenken04/f364c882836/video.html
Friday, September 19, 2008
Typhoon Masamune
My first ever typhoon hit today! It sounds bad but it really means that I got to come home from school early and I am banking on choir practice being cancelled tonight. (Only in Japan do you get choir practice on a Friday night. I mean c'mon!)
Here's a random fact: in Japan they give their typhoons numbers rather than names like we do in America. While trying to explain this to one of the second grade classes, we decided to name this one (#13) after one of the genkier students - Typhoon Masamune.
After class, Masamune came up to Nathan and me and said, "Typhoon Masamune is strong." He flexed his muscles.
"Like you?" I asked.
"Yes. Please be careful."
So here I am, being careful - drinking tea and eating cookies while sitting on my couch in my pajamas.
Here's a random fact: in Japan they give their typhoons numbers rather than names like we do in America. While trying to explain this to one of the second grade classes, we decided to name this one (#13) after one of the genkier students - Typhoon Masamune.
After class, Masamune came up to Nathan and me and said, "Typhoon Masamune is strong." He flexed his muscles.
"Like you?" I asked.
"Yes. Please be careful."
So here I am, being careful - drinking tea and eating cookies while sitting on my couch in my pajamas.
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