I am working on the story about my weekend, but it's running long and rather than rush it and screw it up, I thought I'd take my time and do it right.
In the meantime and for a good laugh, check out the new link I put up to the left. It is a website devoted to the maiming of the English language by the Japanese. I too have seen a few signs and t-shirts like these. I have two favorite shirts: one was in a store window and was printed with "mongoloid friendship", it was bright orange and had a picture of a rather neadertalish looking guy (a drawing) with the words printed around it, I was going to buy it later but it was gone, the other one was worn by a young Japanese girl I saw in a department store, she was probably about 20 and her shirt said "No pay, No lay." I kid you not. Great stuff.

Well, it looks to me like this site has discontinued blog plus, which means that I don't think I'll be able to post pictures here. I could be wrong though. But that's the way I read what I read. So I'll have to figure something out. I am not a computer whiz so I'm not sure where to go from here. I might do some research on starting my own site, but don't hold your breath on that one. I have no idea what's involved with starting a site from scratch.

Thought I'd write a little bit about transportation.........
Since I don't have a car, I have been learning how to get around over here via other methods of travel. We Californians (hell, most Americans at that) have intimate relationships with our automobiles. So much so that we feel quite lost and depressed when they break down, like having to take a sick pet to the veterinary's office. And this is not to mention the major inconvenience of having to walk that half mile to the bookstore, "Walk!? Are you crazy!? No one walks."
"What do you think people did before the car was invented, Bob?"
"Horses! They rode horses, of course."
And so in our quest to be someplace else in the least amount of time possible, the automobile has become a work of art and to some folks is an as much beloved part of their life as is their first born. Ferraris are beautiful. Yes they are.
But there is something else about the car, something more than just mere transportation. I mean, why haven't we Americans developed mass transit systems like many other countries? I think this can be summed up in three simple words: individuality, selfishness, and convenience. We want to go where we want to go when we feel like it and without the distractions other people cause. Maybe I'm being harsh here, but this is way I see it. And yes, I am one of these people too. What strikes me as funny here is that in our quest to be traveling alone we end up with thousands of other people, all moving along the LA freeways slower than we could walk. "But I've got my windows rolled up, thus making me alone and free to listen to the radio station of my choice."
But over here it is different. Yes, there are many cars, but there are also other highly convenient means of getting around. Take the trains, for example. The trains over here are clean, run frequently, and are highly punctual. Don't get to a train station one minute late cause your train will have already left. If you can endure the less than frequent but more than occasional stares of the other train goers who also happen to be from this country then the trains are a great way to travel. Speaking of the natives and trains...they don't like to sit next to foreigners. And I don’t know why. Perhaps one got bit at sometime in the past after his/her husband/wife/boyfriend/girlfriend/mother/father said "oh sit down, he won't bite you," and the story spread like wildfire. I don't know. But I've had individuals come up from behind me with the obvious intention of sitting down across from me (many of the seats on the Minobu line are benches two asses wide that face each other) but when they see what I am they run screaming to a different car. Well, alright, they don't exactly scream, but I can swear that I sometimes hear the voices in their heads and they are screaming to themselves; and in the end they don't sit down across from me, much less next to me, "AAHHHH!" I, of course, don't take this personally due to my superior intellect and the knowledge that now I have two whole seats to myself.
So the trains are great. Little pricey sometimes, but great.
I've only ridden the bus during official JET events, once to Fujiyoshida, and once on the way Shizen Gakuen. Of course, the official JET events don't count because everything is taken care of for you. But the times I caught the bus to Fujiyoshida and back and to Shizen Gakuen do count and there is really nothing extraordinary to tell. But apparently the busses run like the trains and there are many of them. I read somewhere that the busses here are really a support system for the trains. I don’t know if this is true but it sounds about right, though, to some people, I’m sure, the busses are the main source of getting around. Anyway, they seem to work just fine when I have used them, but you mainly use them within a town or city and if I am staying in town I prefer to use another method of travel.
Which leads me to my next point....the bike. Now, I realize that some of you Americans have probably not been on a bike since the days of yore. This is where I part ways with you. In Bakersfield, I often rode my bike to work and school and loved it. Well, if you throw out the traffic. And the smog. And the nearly nonexistent bike lanes. And the summer heat. Ok, maybe I should have driven, but I didn't and honestly I did like biking to where I had to go. There is a feeling of great power when you out accelerate a car across the intersection, or when you hit a construction zone and slice right through it while the cars are backed up over the horizon, or in knowing that you are getting exercise and not contributing to or taking part in the economy devoted to the maintenance of vehicles and all that they entail. Call it a holier-than-thou attitude but it is nice to bike around feeling good in what you are doing.
So to make the transition to the bike over here was not that big a deal for me. I enjoy biking to the schools that I can, to the Kencho, to the train station, and just generally to anywhere I want to go. Give me a good bike and I am happy to pedal it out, which brings up the idea of “a good bike.” The bike I was given by either my predecessor or the Kencho (I haven’t yet figured out who owns the bike) is what I refer to as a “granny bike” but has also been called a “Japanese bike.” You don’t see too many of them in America, at least not where I’ve lived, but they are all over the place here. Typical bikes with a basket on the front, a kickstand, fenders, and a chain guard. No big deal. So I got one of these on the first day I was here. My supervisor showed it to me and I said, “Oh,” to which he laughed. It is not a nice bike. I used this bike for the first month I was here and still use it to run errands where the basket will come in handy (namely beer and grocery runs). But I wanted a better bike. I wanted a bike I could be proud of. A bike with gears so I could go fast when I wanted, or uphill when I needed. A bike that I could I go off-road with. A bike that I would need to lock due to would-be-thieves walking by and saying to themselves, “Oh, what a nice bike, perhaps I’ll steal this one.” I wanted a mountain bike.
So I was going to indulge myself and buy one but Amy informed me that she had bought a mountain bike off her predecessor and that she really had no use for it. She told me that if I bought her a regular Japanese bike that she would give me the mountain bike. A regular bike costs about one hundred dollars. “Hhmmm,” I thought, “what’s the catch?” But there was none and the deal was done. So at this point I had a mountain bike but it’s down in Ichikawa where Amy lives. I considered my options on getting it up here: train? not allowed, in someone’s car, perhaps, “or maybe I could ride it,” I thought. So I asked one of the veteran JETs about the possibility of me biking from Ichikawa to Kofu. “Oh, no,” he told me, “there’s really no straight shot and the road aren’t good for biking.” So I took this at face value. I mean, he had been here a year and seemed to know what was going on.
But a few weeks later, still without a mountain bike, and no leads on how to get it here I decided, “Screw it, I’m just gonna bike it some early morning now matter how long it takes.” So I spent a Friday night down at Amy’s, got up the next morning at around 6:30 and took off. The night before I had checked with some maps and it looked like the road marked “3” basically made a straight shot from her town to mine. “What the hell was that guy thinking?” I thought to myself as I rode along this road at 7am with very little traffic and Mt. Fuji where it should be, off to my right at about 4 o’clock.
And you’ll be happy to know that I pulled into my apartment complex just about an hour after I left Amy’s place. “Jeez,” I said to myself, “that was easy. I should have done that a couple weeks ago.” Between the walking to and from the train stations and the train ride itself, it takes Amy and I about fifty minutes to get to one another’s places. The bike had taken me one hour. Not bad. Might have to do that again. So now I am the proud owner of a Trek mountain bike with gears and good brakes. Ah! What a life.
So anyway, transportation isn’t really a problem. If any of you come to visit you will see that the walk into town is a little long but it ain’t bad. The only down side to all this is getting groceries home. That tends to be a pain in the ass. You can only fit so much into a little bicycle basket. But that’s the only down side. I do miss driving but not all the auto maintenance and insurance and whatnot that goes into owning a car. So there you are.

I'm at the Kencho today because the aviation academy is having exams at this time. It would actually be nice to come here one day a week or one every two so that I could get ready for classes; you know? prepare some lessons, do some research regarding esl (English as a second language) games and such. I'd like to come here so that I wouldn't have to do this in my time at home. But I understand that this is the life of a teacher, so I guess I should get used to it. Not that I have a lot of preparation to do anyway, but hell, any of it cuts into my beer drinking--baseball watching--internet surfing--just enjoying Japan time. Ah well, they are paying me well and really, I can't complain at all.
I had an idea today (not really my idea though). Was looking through a book I bought in Shinjuku when I first got here and there was a small section in which they printed an information card. It is designed for the students to fill out so that I can then collect them and better hope to remember who they are and what they like. For now I will just be happy to remember a few names. I have about 450 students with names like Myumi Shiuki or Takami Fujikama or Sumini Watame. Actually I made those names up, but that is what they sound like to me. And with 450 of the little buggers running around I don't stand a chance of getting their names down, especially since they are all dressed alike (school uniforms) and have the same color hair and eyes. So these cards have a small place for a passport sized photo and their names and then spaces for other information: birthday, hobbies, interests, favorite this and that, all the general stuff. So maybe if I can get them to do this for me, I can then call them by name and impress the hell out of them. We'll see.

My first class yesterday at Yuda (all girls high school) was fun. This is the class with the 71 year old teacher who my predecessor said "is set in his ways and not my favorite teacher to work with." Well, different strokes...........cause this guy is great. He and I get along extremely well and his class is always fun and entertaining for me. There are only eleven students and they are damn rowdy. But I mean rowdy in a good way. They will snap to attention if you need them too, but they have fun and seem to enjoy being there. Yesterday, before class, Mr. Tanoguchi (the teacher) came to me and gave me the general lesson plan for the day. "We will do this and this," he said, also telling me a few jokes here and there. Some of his jokes I get and others I don't. I assume they loose something in the translation but I guess maybe some of them just arn't funny. I have no idea. Anyway, we went in to class with a game plan, but as we were saying "Hello" and "Good morning" a couple of the students asked me if I was coming to their school festival. "When is it? I asked. So they told me and it turns out that I can make the saturday but not the friday as I have to be at my friday school that day (go figure). They were a little disappointed at this because on that friday is when they will be performing a song and they wanted me to see this. So then, out of nowhere, and almost as a collective identity, they all screamed (in Japanese, of course), "We can do the song now!" So after a bit of begging and pleading Mr. Tanoguchi turns to me and says, "I can't teach my class today," to which I busted out laughing and next thing I know we were all heading upstairs to the music room.
We all go into a music room in which there were those sheet music holder things and a large black piano. The students got out two chairs and told me and Mr. Tanoguchi to sit down. So we did and they all lined up in front of us with one girl on the piano and within seconds the song had started. What struck me here was the organization of the group. I've never seen that in America without a designated leader (usually an adult). But here there was no leader. They all just knew their places and went right to them. There was one sort of lead-singer, a girl on piano, and the rest were the chorus and they performed and sang damn well. They sang some gospel song, I think; the chorus part goes "Oh happy days......" Some of you might know it. It went on for about five minutes during which time I looked, listened, and wondered how the hell I ended up in Japan, in a high school classroom, with ten girls and one boy singing an American gospel song to me.

I might write more in here later this afternoon if I can think of a subject to write on. Which reminds me...if any of you want to know something, some aspect of life over here, drop me an email and I will attempt to answer you on this journal. I am getting so used to life over here that I forget what might be interesting to those of you who've never been here. So if I can, I will attempt an answer, just be aware that I've still been here less than two months and am by no means an expert on anything.

It was Amy's birthday yesterday. She's getting old. And the really funny thing was that yesterday was also a national holiday in Japan. Any guesses as to what it was? "Respect for the Aged Day." Ah HA HA HA! I'm not kidding. Does anyone else find that hilarious or is it just me?
Anyway, we went to a zoo here in Kofu. It's kinda hidden inside a small park, but it's there. Last week when that teacher took me out for sushi we drove past the park and he told me there was a small zoo inside. So I figured I might be able to find it again. And thanks to a map and sense of direction like a radar, I did. We took along another JET named Kayla. She's from Texas. So the three of us went there and walked around a bit. It was only 310 yen to get in (about $2.50) so I really wasn't expecting much. And to be honest it was small. But it was bigger than I thought it would be and they had more animals than I thought they would. But this was a double edged sword. Nice to see lots of animals, but it sucked to see them locked up in some of those cages. In situations like this you're not sure whether you should donate money so that they can improve the facilities or if you should never go back in the hopes that they run out of money and have to give the animals to bigger and better places. But hell, I can't do a damn thing (can't even speak the language) so I just walked around enjoying the fact that you don't see animals like this everyday. Some of the smaller animals had nice sized places to live, I guess, but seeing the chimpanzees was really depressing. One of the older guys just sat there, leaning up against a wall, with his knees up so that his arms could rest on them and one hand up with his chin resting on that. He looked very bummed. It was him and two others who were lying there sleeping. All they had was a concrete floor, a metal structure and the bars to keep them in. It is one thing to see a turtle or a rabbit or a snake in a small enclosure but it is quite another to see a chimp with no trees to climb, no grass to lie in, and no place to go. They are not far behind us humans (if you subscibe to a kind of directional sense in evolution, which I do not, just not sure how else to word that), and we treat them like criminals sometimes. Bummer.
Anyway, to get off that.....we did have a fun day for the most part. Amy brought it to my attention that she'd been to a zoo on her birthday for the last three years. Two years ago, the Albuquerque Zoo (I was not there), one year ago, the San Diego Zoo (I was there), and now this one. Kinda strange, don't ya think?
After the zoo we walked around the park and then headed into downtown Kofu for some food. Had tempura, rice, some pickled something or other, and miso soup. Good stuff. Then we went to the 100 yen store, bought a few things and then headed home.

Schools are still going well. I am making it work somehow. So far it's been mostly games with my classes. Some teachers like me to play games all class long, while others seem to like it but want to also do some bookwork. Since I only visit these classes once a week or once every two it is hard for me to know what their typical day in English class is like. My visits are special days for them so I imagine they do more work than what I see. The games I play with them are at least geared towards English, but I'm not sure how much they actually learn from me. Not much, I guess, but perhaps that will change as time moves on. It has only been two full weeks that I've been going to their classes, so I guess I shouldn't expect them to write me a novel just yet. I guess the good part of all this is that my classes with them are fun for them (for the most part) and they will probably associate me with "good times" (Die-No-Mite!, no no, not the show). Maybe they'll begin to associate English with good times too. If that happens my job here is done and done well.

I was going to tell you about that sixth school, Shizen Gakuen. Takes me about an hour forty-five to get there; bike to Kofu station, catch train west three stops, catch bus up into hills, change from bus to a small bus/large van and ride to the school. It is a high school out in the hills and I mean way out in the hills. Pretty out there though.
The school has a student body of.....get this.....count your fingers....ten students. That's right. Only ten students! How they pay the bills, I have no idea. They have the honorable designation of being the smallest school in all of Japan. Or that's what they told me. And hell, I believe it.
All the students and the principal and his family live there at the school. To me it looks like the school used to be bigger as there are plenty of classrooms and dormotory space but I really don't know. It is a Christian boarding school according to my predecessor but I never asked about the religious aspects. I didn't want to ask any questions that might bring up my beliefs (or lack thereof) on my first day.
I have two classes out there. A first year class consisting of seven students and a second year class consisting of (do the math) three students. So yes, I teach the entire student body at one of my schools. Impressive, aye?
I don't mean to bore you here but again, everyone one on the staff was nice and friendly and the principal was especially nice. He spent a few years in Texas about twenty years ago and his English isn't bad, though it seems like he must have forgotten much of it. He was an electronic engineer and was doing research at some university in Arlington. How he got involved with this school, I have no idea. But he was really great. He took me for a drive after my classes and showed me some place up in the hills where apparently much of the country came at the end of WWII to plant trees. Emperor Hirohito himself was there and I guess the site is famous in Japan. There was a small parking lot, a small building and a monument. Couldn't read a thing but it all felt a little strange after he told me about it. Wasn't that long ago, you know?
After that he drove me all the way back to the train station, allowing me to skip the two busses step, and I was back on a train headed for Kofu before long.
Because of the way the weeks work and because of a well placed holiday, I don't go out there again till October. Don't mind that in regards to the trip, but I think I'm gonna enjoy the small classes. Nice place.

So now I have to get because I am meeting someone at Kofu station to give her some money for Sumo tickets and a hotel room for friday night. Sumo on saturday, I can't wait. I think there are about twenty of us going. Nothing better than a day at a sporting event, with friends, and lots of good food and drink. Should be fun. I'll take my camera so I can make you jealous.

Alright, man. I am really falling behind here. The second week of school is now over. Not much to tell as the little details arn't that interesting. I did go out to my sixth and final school on Tuesday. Good place but I'll get to that later. Now, I must continue my story from last Thursday.
So at the beginning of the third period Ms. Ito came and got me at my desk and took me over to a classroom that was just a large room with tatami on the floor. She said something to the teacher in the room and then left me there. There were only 5 students and the teacher, all females. So I take off my shoes and go in. Nobody spoke English except for a word here and there and even that took a major effort on their part. Words like "try" and "you" were spoken only after I saw the wheels turning for many seconds in their heads. Of course, they asked me if I spoke Japanese and I told them I didn't but in all reality, there wasn't much need for talking here. The girls were being coached on how to conduct a tea cermony and I was really just supposed to watch.
So I sat down while they practiced. The girls were probably around 16 or 17 and were all very nice and smiled a lot. They seemed a bit more mature than many of my previous students as they didn't just sit and giggle at me. Yes, we all laughed a few times but it seemed like I was in on most of the jokes. Anyway, I sat and watched as each girl took her turn (two at a time) going through the motions of "tea ceremony." It was pretty interesting as they had to fold the cloth a certain way, hold their hand a certain way, turn the cup as they prepared it, wisk the dried tea leaves in the hot water in a certain manner, etc. Some of the girls were better at it than others but they all seemed to enjoy it. The real plus was that I got to drink some of the tea. I've always liked green tea and being served by these girls was great. "I could get used to this," I thought.
So I stayed there for the full period and had a good time. I thanked everyone on my way out and they all thanked me for being there. So that was cool.
After this I had a class, then lunch and then another class. The classes ran smoothly as by this point in the week I had my self-intro and two games down solid. Ms. Ito seemed to like the way I ran the classes and again, I marvelled at how I was actually pulling this whole thing off.
After the classes I took a short tour of the school with the head of the international division (I forget her name) for the real purpose of telling her how to label the buildings and offices. I was told that the chancellor of the academy is really gung-ho on getting the entire staff there to speak English inside a year and also wants to improve the image of the school by labeling the buildings and offices in both Japanese and English. So my job was to simply tell her how to label these places. It was pretty easy for me and from what I understand saves them a hell of a lot of time, so it went well. She and I just walked around the campus and she would say things like, "This is where the students come and get councelled if they need it. What would you call this." And I would search in my bag of extensive knowledge of American businesses and schools and come up with "How about 'Councelling Center'?" There were many places that needed names so I helped her and got a free tour at the same time.
After this I had to go get my picture taken for the school yearbook or something like that. It took only 3 minutes and then I was free to go.
I like this school. They are a bit military-like but everyone seems friendly. Some of the students salute the teachers, they have a morning asembly in which they raise the flag to the national anthem, and the beginning of school is signaled by and air-raid siren. All a little strange to me as this isn't a military school but then again they are turning out future aviation mechanics and we don't want them slacking off on the job now do we? Discipline is high here but for good reason, I imagine.

Friday took me on a 10 minute bike ride to Yamanashi Gakuen Junior High. There's really not much to tell here as this is just another regular school as I think of them. The kids are smart though. I teach four classes and work with three teachers. All are very nice and again, seem happy to have me there. I did have lunch with a class (not mine) which was rather interesting as the boys kept with each other and it was the girls who tried to talk to me. A few seemed dazzled by my blue eyes (this seems to catching on at other schools too), and some of them spoke pretty good English. So we had a nice short chat and then it was time to get to my class of the day. The best part about this school is that is very close to my place, so on the average Friday I will be home by about 3pm. Beer time!

So that was week one. A good week for me. I will tell you about my first visit to Shizen Gakuen later.

Last night Amy and I went to a soccer game here in Kofu. From what I've been told, ever since Japan hosted the World Cup a couple years ago soccer has been very popular. Baseball is still the biggest sport here but apparently soccer is growing quite quickly. Japan has two leagues. Kind of a majors and minors, if you will. J1 is the top rung, and J2 is just under. Kofu's team is a J2 league team and is the only professional sports team in all of Yamanashi. It was great fun last night. There were probably around five thousand people there (very rough estimate) and we ended up sitting next to what looked like the official cheering squad. There were probably about 50 people with jerseys, flags, and a large banner up behind them. I never saw the large drum but there obviously was one and they spent much of the game singing chants, beating the drum, and cheering (and very organized about it too). Sounded like the soccer games I've seen on tv in all honesty. This is obviously more a European influx than it is an American one. We don't really have musical chants in America. We all just cheer what and when we want. Anyway, the first half was scoreless but then Kofu scored at around 15 minutes to go and the place went wild. Then with about 3 minutes to go Kofu scored again and if you know anything about soccer, that basically put the nail in the coffin. So we (I do live in Kofu, you know?) won 2-0. So I am now an official "Ventforet Kofu" fan. Don't yet know what "ventforet" means but I'll find out eventually. Oh, and beer was only 500 yen a large cup. Less than they are at major league baseball games in America. Whoo hoo!

Alright, don't know how far I'll get tonight. I just got back from dinner with one of the teachers I work with, Mr. Yazaki from Yuda high. Went to school today and he asked if I would be able to come to the "chat room" again this afternoon. I said I could. So I showed up and the girls, he, and I went over some stuff during which he asked if he could take me out for sushi after we were done there. Not gonna turn down sushi. So we went and got some. Damn good. I know I haven't talked too much about the food over here, so maybe someday I will. But let me say this....I love Japanese food. I have no idea what's in most of the things I eat but man, do I love it. I am not starving over here, that's for sure (at least not when I go out). I thought I'd miss some of the things (Mexican, BBQ, etc) that you can get in California that you can't get here, but so far, I don't. There is just too much good stuff over here to try.
Anyway, to continue the first school day thing...
Thursday I headed to the Aviation Academy. For this school I must ride down to the Kencho, drop the bike off there (safer due to a guard), walk 2 minutes to Kofu train station, and hop the train two stops west, then usually I will walk about 15 minutes to the school, although this day Ms. Ito (head of English) came to pick me up at the station. All went well except for the part where I was supposed to get on the train (just a small detail). You see, my directions from Alaina were for catching the 9-something am train. But Ms. Ito had requested that I get to school earlier on the first day. So I thought I'd just catch an earlier train and otherwise follow her directions. Well, I went down to platform 3 like she said to do but almost instantly I had a bad feeling. Seemed to me I was on the wrong side of the tracks (so to speak). Good thing was that I was 15 minutes early and had time to figure things out. So I walked around the platform a bit looking at signs in Kanji and looking for the right time for my train. It wasn't there. Then I looked at some other signs and they seemed to be telling me that trains on this side of the tracks head east, not the direction I wanted to go. So I decided to ask someone for help. But if you know anything about the Japanese, you'll know that they almost never make eye contact. So I'm looking for a friendly face to ask about my situation and I am gettin nothing. Meanwhile a train pulls up on the other side of tracks. I looked at my watch, about 5 minutes till my train is supposed to leave. At first I thought that that train over there wasn't mine, but it sat there and sat there and sat there. 3 minutes till my train. "Maybe that is my train," I wondered. "Damn, do I run over there and risk missing the right train over here? Or do I stay put and risk that being my train?" Time is ticking fast and I decided to just walk up to someone and ask. I picked a young guy, maybe 20, and walked up to him (I figured maybe he'd remember something from his high school English class). "Sumimasen," I said and pointed to my paper with the name of the station I wanted to get to. I motioned towards the number 3 and said the station name as best I could. Now, if that wasn't the easiest thing to understand I don't what is. I look lost, I am a foreigner, and I am trying to pronounce the name of the train station I want to get to while pointed to the sign that indicates platform 3. I mean, if some foreigner came up to you at a train station or a bus stop and said "Ros Ahngeres," while looking lost, wouldn't you know what was being asked? But this guy just looks at me and gives me the international sign for "I don't know," two outstretched arms with palms raised and a shoulder shrug. I thanked him anyway and ran back up the stairs to the ticket checkers/takers. Up there I asked one of the ticket-guys in the exact same manner I had asked Mr. Huh and he was much more helpful. "Ichiban," he said, "Number One!" "Arigato, arigato," I said as I ran off and down the stairs to jump on that train that had already been there 5 minutes.
I made it on and about 15 seconds later the doors closed and we were off. And in the right direction, too. Close call that was.
So with that disaster averted, I made it to the station and got off to find Ms. Ito waiting for me in the parking lot. I told her what had happened and got almost no response. It was if she was indicating that I had indeed made the right train, so why talk about it. "Hmm," I thought, "no sympathy here."
We drove on in to the Academy and she showed me to my desk while mentioning that I'd be meeting the chancellor and the principal of the school. "Ok. Been meeting all the big wigs at each school this week. I can handle another two." So she shows me to my desk in a large teachers' room and then takes off for the emergency teachers' meeting she had been told of upon our arrival. What an emergency teachers' meeting might consist of, I have no idea. She told me to sit and that she'd be back in about 10 minutes.
30 minutes later she comes back apologizing to me for being gone so long and then we were off to meet some people. I met the chancellor first, nice guy but not overly so, then the principal, all smiles and handshakes, and then various people around the office. Then she takes me into another room and I meet the international division's people. This is where I am. And it turns out that my desk is actually in here. I just got confused earlier due to the emergency teachers' meeting. Nice people in the international division and they all speak pretty good English. So she tells me to sit, gives me a piece of paper and says that she will be back later. She also mentioned that due to the emergency teachers' meeting I would not be giving my short speech to the entire school. No time for the entire school to gather, I guess.
Looking at the paper she gave me I noticed that I was off the first two periods and in the third period slot was written "tea ceremony." "What the hell is this?" I thought, "Do I have to teach a class in tea ceremony? I know nothing about tea ceremony. Beer ceremony. Now there's something I know about. But tea ceremony? What could that mean?"
Well, I ended up finding out but I'll have to continue this tomorrow. I need a shower and I have to do a little research for Friday's classes before I go to bed. Goodnight.

So the first week is now done and I have been to five of the six schools. I will attempt to write about my first day at each school but it might take me a while. I’ll do this chronologically and continue with Tuesday.
So I went to Sundai Junior High the day after Minobusan (the Buddhist school). I will only be going there once every two weeks and to be honest, that’s a bit of a bummer for me. The teacher I work with is great, the students seemed to warm up to me quite quickly, and what’s more is that they really seem to understand English pretty well. Little shy about speaking it (most of them) but they are able to comprehend most of what I say, and they seem to be able to read the language very well. Makes me feel like an idiot in regards to their language.
I just bike to this school, takes about 35 minutes. A bit hot to be biking right now for that length of time in my nicer clothes so I am looking forward to it cooling off. But I am sure I will change my tune when the full force of winter hits.
Anyway, I taught three classes, all with Mr. Yamashita. He’s the guy I visited last Friday. He is great. I think he and I will be getting along famously and that my infrequent times in his school will be some of favorite times here. All three of my classes consist of 2nd year students, which, to us, means 8th grade. They tend to classify their students based on how many years they’ve been in that particular school. So there are Junior High 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students (7th, 8th, and 9th grades to us). And there are High School 1st, 2nd, and 3rd year students (10th, 11th, and 12th grades to us). Each class has about 40 students which I agree may sound quite large but actually didn’t seem too much so. For each class I did exactly the same thing: quick warm-up game, self-introduction, bingo game based on my intro, and then passed around some pictures of my family. Doing the same thing over and over got slightly boring for me, but really every class was slightly different and I realize that the next time I go this school it will be completely different for me as every week’s lesson will change. So although I do have to do the same thing sometimes I don’t think that it will really ever stay the same for too long. Thus, I haven’t gotten too frustrated with monotony yet, and I don’t think that I will. Although talking about myself so much gives me the creeps (as I write this journal—ha ha). Anyway, all three classes seemed very smart and most of the students seemed interested in the foreign guy standing in front of them.
After the three classes I am supposed to be essentially done, but last Friday during our meeting Yamashita had mentioned that he’d like to take me out of lunch and also wondered if I could help him review some speeches the kids wrote for an upcoming school festival. Each level 2 class will send 2 representatives who will then be judged by various people, one of those people being me. So yesterday the task was to read through the 120 (!) short essays and pick out the best 6 or 7 from each class. Then I was to correct those 6 or 7 and give them all back to Yamashita. So that’s what I did when he and I got back from a lunch he treated me to at some Japanese restaurant. Good food, by the way: raw fish (sashimi) on a bed of rice, udon noodles, and miso soup. I am really loving the food over here. But anyway, I sat and read for a couple of hours during which time another English teacher at the school came over to me and asked (I had been introduced to her earlier in the day) when I was leaving. “I don’t know,” I said, “when I finish these papers, I guess.” Then she asked if I could help her with some of the speeches her students had written. So of course, what am I going to say? No? So I asked her how many she had to read. “About 100,” she said. Now I want to be helpful but I’m thinking, “Damn, c’mon, not another 100 essays by these kids.” I knew how long the first 40 had taken me and I saw myself sitting in the teachers’ office until late evening had I blindly said “why sure, I’ll help you do anything.” So I asked as politely as I could, “And how many of those do need me to read?” I had to be careful here, don’t want to seem lazy, don’t want to overextend myself. Then she answered me, “ten.” A great relief hit me like a nice breeze on a scorching day “Oh,” I thought, “yeah I can do that.” So I told her of the conclusion I had reached. She seemed happy, I was happy, and the world suddenly seemed a nice place to live.
So I read for quite a while longer and eventually was all done. Yamashita seemed happy with the essays I had picked, none of which were faultless but were overall much better than most of the rest. And after we went over his classes’ essays, I took the other teacher the 10 she had given me and told her about a couple of the notes I had written on some. She seemed grateful for my help and I left the school on bike thinking, “damn, I really am a nice guy.” (please don’t spread that around though)

Next day, Wednesday, Yuda High School. This school is only a short bike ride away, maybe 15 minutes. It is an all girls high school and specializes in music. Not sure to what capacity it specializes in music or if it has some genre of music it specializes in but this is what I heard from a teacher at another school. And I never heard any music during this day, so I don't know much.
I showed up at about 8:05am to find that two of the three teachers I will be working with were out in the hall near the main entrance to the main building looking out for me. I wasn’t late, so I can only assume that they didn’t want me going to the wrong building. Nice people and they seemed happy to see me.
As I was changing from my shoes to school slippers, Mr. Yazaki introduces himself and tells me that his is the third class I will have at this school. Ms. Chinami is the one who came to meet me all those weeks ago but it seems as though I will be more closely working with Mr. Yazaki. He is nice guy who seems highly interested in both teaching his students English and also improving his own.
So he shows me to my desk and then takes me to meet the vice-principal. The vice-principal was a really nice guy, spoke no English, and asked me various questions (translated through Mr. Yazaki). He asked me everything from “where do you come from?” to “do you like baseball?” to “how can the Japanese school system improve its English programs?” This last one threw me as I’d only taught two days up to this point. “What the hell?” I thought, “I just got here. I can’t be expected to know the finer details of the Japanese English program. I don’t even know the finer details of the American English program and I went to school over there!” But I threw some ideas into the air and he seemed interested. One thing’s for sure over here….you have to be able to think on your feet. Though, come to think of it, I was sitting down at this point. Bad joke, I know.
Anyway, we had a nice visit and after about 10 minutes we all stood up and walked into the teachers’ room. Now, I had been asked to prepare a short speech. They requested that I say a few words in Japanese and I had agreed, adding that I’d also say a few words in English as my Japanese is crap (and I’d been hired to speak English!). So in we go to the teachers’ room. We entered through a side door directly from the vice-principal’s office and all at once the teachers stand up, face us, bow slightly and the vice-principal starts talking. “Uh-oh,” I thought, “this is the meeting. And I’m gonna have to make my speech.” You see, the problem here was that when I’d been shown to my desk, I’d dropped my bag on it; the vary bag that contained the notebook that contained my speech. And that desk was all the way on the other side of this quite large teachers’ room. And now everyone was standing, the vice-principal was introducing me, and in a few seconds it would be my turn to talk. I didn’t know what to do. I’d make a major scene if I suddenly bolted to my desk. The path was blocked, all eyes were on me, and I had exactly two seconds till I had to open my mouth, out from which Japanese was supposed to spill. “Damn it,” I thought, “I’m screwed.” I had thought for sure I’d have access to my bag before the meeting would start.
So, alas, I started my speech in Japanese…from memory. I said, “Ohio-gozaimas. Watashi was Marcus Frame (“Good morning. My name is Marcus Frame.”). Watashi wa America no California...” and that was it. I couldn’t remember the verb for that sentence. I tried and tried for a solid and long five seconds but I knew it would never come. So I gave up, telling them that I really can’t speak Japanese (as if they hadn’t figured that out already) and continued in English with Mr. Yazaki translating. I did manage to thank them in Japanese which received a round of applause (“thank you for ending your speech, you stupid American”) and I left the room with Yazaki vowing never to let that notebook out of my sight again!
But after that, the day got better. Mr. Yazaki turned out be a great guy, Ms. Chinami is very shy and quiet but seems happy and grateful to have me in her class, and Mr. Tanoguchi…well, he deserves a bit more than a sentence.
After the debacle that was my speech, Mr. Yazaki and I snuck back into the teachers’ room through the door on the side of the room that has my desk. He takes me to my desk and tells me to have a seat while at the same time introducing me to Mr. Tanoguchi. But the meeting was still going on. So Mr. Tanoguchi looks at me wrinkles his brow and puts his finger to lips, “Later. We must be quite now and listen to the meeting.” Now, normally I don’t take offence to these sorts of things but this guy looked disgusted with me and I hadn’t even said a word. And besides, it was Yazaki that tried to introduce us. So I sat down and listened to the rest of the meeting, of which I did not understand one word and about five minutes later it was over. Yazaki had gone back to his desk but Tanoguchi was still at his (our desks are back to back). At this point he stands up and hands me a small piece of paper which read, “Yoshiharu Tanoguchi. 71 years old. Wednesday the 2nd class with you.” That is word for word as I have it right here. “Why’d he put his age?” I thought. And I’m still not sure. But anyway, we talked a bit and things seemed ok. Then, later I asked him if I could make some copies of my bingo game for the classes, to which he said “yes” and showed me to the copy room.
“How many copies do you need?” he asked.
“Three of each of these,” I answered showing him the different bingo boards.
“Only three? I think you’ll need more.”
“No, no. Just three. One for each class.”
“How about 5 or 8?”
“No really, just 3.”
“I think you’ll need more.”
So I tried explaining to him that not every student would be getting their own copy. I’d be putting them into groups and each group would get one, but only one of each bingo board would be needed for each class. I had made up eight different boards so that no two groups in the same class would get the same board.
“Maybe you’ll find you need more.”
“No, no. 3 of each will do.”
“I think you’ll need more.”
I had visions of us standing there until mid-afternoon with me saying “No. Just 3.” and him offering “How about 6? or 9? Or maybe you’ll need 12?” “No, just 3.” “17, you say?” “NO JUST 3!”
“This is getting nuts,” I thought after his final offer. But he somewhat relinquished and made four copies of each before any screaming on my part was needed.
After this, though, Mr. Tanoguchi and I got along quite well and when we went to class it was obvious that he and his students have a good time together. I think I am going to enjoy his class.
His was my first class of the day. His note, “the 2nd class with you,” referred to the 2nd school period. Although I heard Yuda is an all girls school Mr. Tanoguchi’s class did have one male out of 11 students. I’m not sure of the story behind that. Ms. Chinami’s class is made up of 24 females and Mr. Yazaki’s class has 27 students with two being male. So there are a lot of girls. And they seem to like me for some reason.
After the classes I came home, ate lunch, killed a couple hours, went to the Kencho for about an hour, and then went back to Yuda around 3:45pm. Mr. Yazaki had asked if I would attend what he called a “chat room.” It was made up of three female students who spoke pretty good English, Yazaki and me. We sat in the library and went over a short essay, me helping them with their pronunciation and explaining any words they didn’t know the meaning of, and them asking me about this and that. They were all shy at first but they came around. We spent about an hour together and then left. I think I’ll be joining them nearly every Wednesday, or at least I was invited to. Nice girls. And Yazaki took the opportunity to improve his English as well. So the day went well. Three for three so far. Not bad.

Well, alright. Had my first day of teaching today. Went quite well if I do say so myself.
Today I went down to Minobu. It's about an hour fifteen on the train. I'm sure that eventually this will seem like a long journey but since today was my first time, I just looked out the window at all the sights and the hour went by quite quickly. Amy lives about a half hour south. I've been down there twice and for the most part, it is hard to tell when Kofu ends and the other small towns begin. But south of her it gets quite rural. Lots of small towns and lots of rice fields. I mean a lot of rice fields. Makes me wonder why rice is so expensive here. Also there are a few rivers along the way, some mountains with tunnels for the train, and many many trees. Damn nice country.
Stuck in between some mountains and next to one of the bigger rivers is Minobu. I don't know the population of the town, but it isn't too big. Bigger than some of the towns along the way, but not nearly the size of Kofu at 200,000. Although Kofu actually feels quite larger than that due to the surrounding towns being separated by a only a street at points.
Anyway, I got off the train and walked out to where I was supposed to catch a school bus up to the school. It was supposed to be about a fifteen minute ride according to Alaina. But there was no school bus out there when I got there. "Well, no big deal," I thought, "I'm sure it will be here soon." So I sat down and waited for about 5 minutes when this man walks up to me from the side (so I didn't see him coming) and says, "Excuse me, but are you Mr. Marcus?" In regards to names they do things the opposite of how we do. Family name first, given name second. So I have gotten quite used to the misunderstanding surrounding which name is my last. So I jumped up, because being out in public alone and hearing English wakes you up, and looked over and here was Mr. Kobayashi, who I had met about 3 weeks ago, coming towards me. He told me that today there was no school bus running so he was here to pick me up. "Damn good thing," I thought.
So off we go, making small talk and heading for the school. Quite suddenly though, he says something (to himself?) in Japanese and we make a u-turn. I figured he'd forgotten something but what it turned out to be was that he'd seen one of the students waiting at a bus stop. He yells out the window what was obviously, "Name, would you like a ride to school?" The young man says, "Hai," runs across the street, gets in the back seat and we are off again. Kobayashi introduces me as Marcus-sensei (teacher) and the young guy and I exchange pleasent but very brief greetings. "Marcus-sensei," I think to myself, "how the hell did I get to be that?"
So we arrive at the school and quite honestly I was a little disappointed with the look of the place. As this was my Buddhist school, I was expecting some kind of temple looking building. But this looked like the rest of the school buildings I'd seen. It was just a big concrete thing, off white, about 3 stories tall, really no big deal. But that is where my disappointment ended.
We walk in, change into school slippers (you DO NOT wear outside shoes into schools here), and head for the teachers' room. Kobayashi had told me in the car that I'd be meeting the principal and that we'd be having a school assembly where he (the principal) would introduce me to the school. Ok, I can handle that. So we go into his office and Kobayashi announces our pressence to which the principal comes over bows to me and says a few words in Japanese. He was smiling the whole time and seemed extremely happy. So that, of course, loosened me up a bit and all in all it was good meeting. He asked if I spoke Japanese to which I said, "no." And then he says, and I actually understood this part, "well, I don't speak English." Then he uses his right hand to smack me in the chest and then himself and said (I am translating), "we don't speak each other's language, we are comrads in this way." "What a great guy," I thought.
So after this I had to write a quick speech that Kobayashi would then translate into Japanese so that the principal could introduce me at the assembly. So I did, then we went over it together, he liked it, and then he worked on the translation while I went back to my desk to waste some time and review my self-intro for my class.
Kobayashi then came over to clear up some points on my speech and also to tell me that the school assembly was taking up one of my class periods and that I had only one class to teach this day. "Ok," I said, thinking, "well, that makes my day a little easier." Then a few minutes later, Mr. Watanabe comes over and hands me his business card and introduces himself. I'm not exactly sure what he is (probably the vice-principal) but he was very friendly and also seemed happy to have me there. So far, so good.
Soon after we all walked up to the assembly together where the students, that's right, the students, were getting out the chairs and putting them into neat rows in a large room. Over here the students are responsible for much more than just showing up and learning. From what I hear, they clean their school, and from what I saw today have a lot more responsibility in the maintainence of their school. Seems like a good idea to me. But anyway, the students, of course, looked at me as I walked in, probably wondering, "who the hell is this guy?" I just smiled and gave slight waves. So soon all the chairs were in place and the assembly got under way.
First they all bowed with hands together, then there was a Buddhist chant, and then they all bowed again. The chant lasted maybe two minutes. I had no idea what was going on, but it was all rather interesting. There were about 90 students and probably 10 faculty members present. Small school. After the chant, I was the first order of business. The principal introduced me using what Kobayashi and I had written, and it was kinda strange to know that this guy was talking about me, but that I could not understand him. The students all laughed at one point and I still wonder what he said at that point, guess I'll never know. When he was done I got up there with Kobayashi and I basically read what I had written earlier while Kobayashi translated. I thought I'd be nervous for sure, but I really wasn't. And I thought to myself later that that was a nice easy intro for the 700 people I have address on Thursday. So all in all, it went pretty well. After I took my seat, they had a few more points of business to conduct and then they all sang some song accompanied by recorded piano (school song?) and then had another minute of chanting. Then it was over and once again the students got busy folding all the chairs and stacking them away.
About 10 minutes later my first class started. I have never taught a class before and thought I'd feel more nervous than I did but I chaulk the lack of that anxious feeling up to being pretty well prepared. I thought I had plenty of material to cover the 50 minutes and it turns out I did. In fact, we didn't get to much of what I thought we would. We got through my introduction and the bingo game and when I asked Kobayashi how much time I had left, "three minutes," was what he said. "Eggcellent," I thought to myself in that Mr. Burns from The Simpsons sort of way. So I thought I'd fill the last three minutes by taking questions. No harm in that. Maybe these little buggers want to know something more about me, maybe they want to know something about American sports, maybe they have a question about the finer points of English grammer, but what did I get? Well, at first I got a question in Japanese to which I answered, "English!" And I have every right to answer that way as this is an English class after all. So the kid looked for the words and came up a minute later asking, "is it dangerous in the Bronx?" Shit, man, I don't know. I've never been to the Bronx. So I told him I'd never been there but that I'd heard the Bronx are dangerous sometimes. Just makin' it up as I go along. That's probably going to be a way of life for me over here.
Kobayashi came to me after class and said that he thought it went very well. So I was pleased to hear this as I too thought it went pretty well. No, not every one of them was hanging on my every word, but I guess that's the life of a teacher. Overall, they seemed to enjoy themselves and I did too.
Now it was lunch time and there is not much great stuff to tell. Kobayashi and I had lunch together in the cafeteria and then he offered to show me the temple. This temple is apparently pretty famous if you are into that sort of thing and in the next half hour I would find out why. It was quite large, very clean, and really beautiful. We took off our shoes and walked in. There were many Buddhists (priests and/or those below them on the chain of command) walking around. All very polite and quiet. There was also some small ceremony going on, more chanting, a great garden complete with pond, trees, rocks, koi, and a water fall coming down from the mountain behind. The garden was the best part. Then there were many rooms, some with just tatami and low tables, others with many sorts of trinkets (for lack of a better word) in them. And then this guy walks up to us, and lo and behold, after asking Kobayashi where I was from, starts telling me about the garden in English. He was some kind of a worker there and I probably could have talked to him for a couple hours if I'd had the time. But alas, I did not and we had to move on. Kobayashi also pointed out the cherry blossom trees (not in bloom right now) and said that they bloom in spring and that many people come to see them. "Great," I thought, "I'll already be coming out here for school." Can't wait for that.
So we went back to the school and I just had to kill a half hour at my desk until Kobayashi took me back to the train station and I was gone. Good day. Good first day of teaching. I just might be able to pull this off.