First of all, it's cold here. When I came home it was only about 16 degrees (61 F) in my apartment. I wouldn't mind it so much if it was just the weather outside, but the school doesn't have any heat so I was cold all day long. But right now I am sitting at my kotatsu and have a space heater sitting next to me and now this room is about 23 degrees (73 F). My new heater is much nicer than my old one. I said something at school the other day about my apartment being cold so a teacher let me borrow an extra heater. I'm able to stay pretty comfortable in my apartment for now, but I'm NOT looking forward to the winter! My apartment is so drafty and it doesn't have any insulation.
Anyways... I've realized that my posts rarely talk about school even though I spend a lot of time there. So, even though today was pretty uneventful, I will describe my day so you can know what a typical day is like "teaching" at a Japanese junior high school.
It takes me about ten minutes to walk to my junior high school, which is nice. Once I get to the school I am greeted by several teachers, and every now and then a few students, at the crosswalk. I feel kinda like a little kid as they hold up flags to stop traffic so that I can safely cross the street (often there aren't any cars but they hold the flags there anyway). I greet them with "ohayo gozaimasu" (good morning) and then head for the entrance. A few kids are usually running in between the entrance and the gym so I say good morning to them but usually not much else because they seem to be in a hurry.
The first thing I do when I walk in the school is take off my shoes and put on my indoor shoes. One side of the entrance is lined with cubby holes where the teachers keep their shoes. I change my shoes and walk to the staff room while saying good morning to the students. When I enter the staff room I say "ohayo gozaimasu" and all the teachers say it back.
The staff room is where all the teachers have their desks. In Japan, the teachers move from classroom to classroom. The students stay in the same classroom all day (though they do go to different rooms for subjects such as home economics, art, P.E. and maybe some others). So the teachers do their work in the staffroom.
This morning the 1st/2nd grade English teacher had some worksheets she wanted me to copy. Sometimes she even wants me to make copies of stuff for her homeroom class, which is not my job. But I actually don't mind it because I strangely enjoy making copies, lol.
Today was Thursday so it was a busier day than most. All five classes have English on Thursdays. First period I went to class 1A. Every first grade class begins with one student who says something and then they all bow. Then the teacher says, "Good morning/afternoon everyone" and the students reply with "Good morning/afternoon Ms. name and Jenna." Then we usually have Hello Time which is where all the students have to talk to 3 boys and 3 girls and 1 teacher. They ask each other "How are you?" and one other question which changes everyday. Today's question was, "What sport do you like?"
Today we played a game called Crossfire where a row of students stands up. I ask a question and the first student to raise their hand and answer correctly gets to sit down. It continues until one student is standing. Then that column has to stand up. That made class a little more interesting than the usual reading and memorization of the text book.
Though we did still do reading and repeating from the text book. Part of the dialogue says, "Does she read kanji?" "No, she doesn't, but she reads and writes kana very well." So then the students asked me if I can read and write kana (Japanese alphabets). So then the students asked me to write some of their names up on the chalk board. I did very well with writing in hiragana, but then they wanted to see katakana and I messed up a little bit. I hate katakana! But it was funny, lol.
However, we didn't have time for the Halloween quiz I made, but I wasn't too disappointed because I would rather not do it at all than have it so rushed like yesterday. She told me I'd have 10 minutes to do the quiz, but then I really only had 3 minutes and I had to make it less fun. Not cool. :(
Next was class 2A. They are learning the word "if." So the teacher found a song using "if" and she played it for them. It's called "If You Come Back," by Blue. Before she played the song she told the students that Blue is really cool and popular in England. I think that they were popular at some point, but I don't think they are anymore. Oh well, lol.
A Typical Day in Junior High
Plushies! Randomness!
When I get back to the US I'll make some more large plushies because I think they would do pretty well in my Etsy shop. I sold several small pancake plushies and the larger one is even better! Though I'll need to buy a sewing machine... it would definitely be helpful!
Oh, and also guess what I found at the craft store... fleece! They had a whole shelf of it. There wasn't a very large selection and they didn't have any colors that I want, but I was still surprised to find it after all my searching in Tokyo. I guess they just carry it seasonally.
I ♥ Tokyo: Gardens, Skyscrapers, and a Cross-dresser
But first I went to Itoya, which is one of my favorite stores EVER. It's just awesome. It has stationary and art supplies. The range of products is crazy. You can buy 100 yen pens, and pens well over 1 million yen. Crazyness...
Anyways... I didn't buy anything because I thought I might come back later to buy some large sheets of pretty Japanese paper and didn't really want to carry those around.
So then I went to Uniqlo and successfully found a sweater, skirt, and some Heattech undershirts and leggings. The Heattech stuff is supposed to keep you warm. It's endorsed by Orlando Bloom, so it has to work... right?
I had planned on visiting some other stores after Uniqlo, but I decided to head to Ikebukuro instead. I remembered seeing a Uniqlo there before. I went there but it was really small and they didn't carry the shoes either. I was pretty sure there was another Uniqlo in Ikebukuro though.
I found it pretty quickly, which is good because I wouldn't have looked for very long because it was really pouring down then.
They had them! Yay!!!!! I was very glad I had finally found them. I wouldn't have searched so frantically for them if it hadn't been for the rain. My tennis shoes were completely soaked and I knew they wouldn't be dry by the next day and it was supposed to rain that day as well. So I was very happy to have dry shoes for the next day... and they would keep my feet dry too!
I can't remember if this was after buying the shoes or between the two Uniqlo stores in Ikebukuro, but at some point I went into Seiyu. It's owned by Walmart. I was interested in how it compared. This one was mostly just a grocery store with some basic cooking and office supplies (I think some of the larger stores sell a bigger variety of things like in the US). I was amused by the Great Value rice, ramen, and tofu.
I saw several funny Docomo (cell phone company) ads around Tokyo. They're so random so I love them.
I saw some awesome Harajuku fashion. I felt like a stalker when I took this picture, lol.
There's a cafe up there. I want to go back and have some ice cream while looking at the city!
This is the outside of Sunshine 60.
Fall is Here... A Scary Trail, A CultureFestival, and More Randomness
It's gotten a lot cooler lately. Usually I would hate that, but after a super hot summer without air conditioning, I'm appreciating the cool down. During the summer it would often be about 90 degrees (32 C) by 6:30 when I got up for school. Ick. Lately it's in the low to mid 70s (22-24 C) when I wake up. When it was hot I didn't want to get up for school because I didn't feel very rested. I couldn't sleep in on the weekends either because it was just too hot to sleep. Now I don't want to get up because it is a nice temperature for sleeping. :)
Right now (a little after 8 pm) it's about 70 degrees (21 C) outside. It reached about 77 (25 C) today. It was nice and sunny, too. If the weather stays like this for the rest of the time I'm in Japan, I'll be very happy. Unfortunately it's going to get cold. I asked a couple teachers yesterday what the weather is like here in Toi in the winter. They said it rarely goes below freezing and that snow is uncommon. That doesn't sound too bad... except... they all mentioned the wind. They said the wind here in the winter is terrible. Ugh. I'll just stay under my kotatsu all winter.
But for now, I will enjoy the nice weather while it lasts! :)
On Friday after school I went to check out a trail that starts here in Toi. This is not the one that I tried finding that one day where the senile lady was convinced I was lost. This is one that I noticed on my way to the ferry dock a couple weeks ago.
On my way to the trail I took a picture as the ferry arrived in Toi. It wasn't very dark yet, but this picture turned out a bit dark. I like how the sky looks.
I soon arrived at the start of the trail. There's a sign and even a few parking spaces. The first bit of the trail is paved, but very very steep. This picture is very blurry, but you can kind of see the trail.This is after the really steep part.
There were quite a few spiders. They were large, but they weren't the really huge ones. They were these black and yellow ones that have been hanging around lately. I don't like them, but they weren't going to make me turn around.
I got a nice view of Toi.
Soon after this last picture was taken, the trail got a lot wilder and there were low branches hanging in the way. I knew I wouldn't be able to walk the whole 2 km trail because it was almost sunset, but I stopped and turned around sooner than expected. I saw some large animal run down the hill. I have no idea what it was because I only saw it at a distance and couldn't see clearly through the trees. I've heard that there are wild boars on the Izu Peninsula and that they're not nice. There aren't many wild animals around here besides birds so I don't know what it could have been besides a boar. Well I guess it could have been a stray dog, but I haven't seen any of those around here either.
So, I turned around and headed to 7-11. I went past a shrine and took this picture.
Then I passed by something that looked like it was a food stand at some point.
The next day was Saturday but I had to go to the culture festival at school. I wasn't really wanting to go to school very much that day. I knew that the various classes were going to perform the songs they have been practicing for the past few weeks and that the students that did the English speech contest would give their speeches. I had seen them practice many of these things so I didn't think that the actual day would have so much more.
A lot of the performances were groups that are practiced outside of the school, so I learned about many of the students talents that I did not know about. The first thing was a taiko group. I have heard them practicing from my apartment almost every evening for the past couple of weeks. I had no idea that it was my students!
Soon the choir performed. One of the songs was a cappella. One student was off to the side and I thought he was going to sing a solo. This particular student is very energetic and kinda ADD. He really likes to sing. Sometimes he'll be singing when the teacher is trying to get the class quiet. Often he is singing very over dramatically to be funny, but he has a good voice. He's not a great student, but he does make a good effort in English class and he always makes me laugh. So, I was expecting him to sing. Instead he started beat boxing. It totally fit his personality and was very entertaining.
Later this same student performed a dance with a few other students. He was the lead dancer. The song started and he moonwalked across the stage and then they did Thriller! They did a really good job. One of the teachers video taped everything and I'm going to try and get a copy.
The high school band came and performed. I didn't recognize a couple of the songs, but I know that the conductor said he is a big fan of Dragonball so I think one of the songs was from that anime. They also played an Arashi medley and the theme song of One Piece (a popular anime).
After a break for lunch, we went back into the gym for the afternoon performances. For the next performance the only part of the program I could read was "band." So I thought it would be the students who can play musical instruments... like flutes and stuff like that. However, it was a rock band. Four of the 3rd year girls have a band. It was so cute! They were really good too. The lead singer was the 3rd year girl who did the English speech contest. I had no idea she played the guitar and had a band. So much fun!
Next was the PTA band, which was also a rock band. One of the teachers played the electric guitar and the other members were parents. During the 3rd song, one of the teachers ran up onto the stage dressed in a leather jacket and started singing. I (and everyone else) was cracking up. Later that night at the teachers' party he asked if I liked the band. I said I did and he said he thought it was noisy and that he's not usually like that. He likes enka music. This is enka music:
I tried an apple Oreo bar. I've tried several flavors of these bars, but none of them has been as good as the first one I had, which was green tea flavor. I still haven't tried the regular kind though.
I buy Kraft macaroni and cheese at Sun to Moon in Mishima. I love that they even have the white cheddar flavor... even if it is almost 300 yen a box... haha. The zucchini was also almost 300 yen for just one. I'm not sure how much the vegetables or orange juice cost, but this meal was much more expensive than it would be in the US. Sooooo good though!
This was at the bakery in Kanazawa. I forgot to upload this to that post because this photo was on my phone. They were really cute but I didn't buy one because there were many other things I wanted instead of melon bread.
The tea lady at the junior high school gave me some peppers that she grew. I'm not a huge fan of green peppers, but they tasted pretty good when I put them in curry. :)
I hung a bunch of paper cranes from the light in my bedroom.