far, far away

Beat

I'm tired, so this will be short.

Yesterday was terrible as far as the weather was concerned, so we didn't do much. Actually, we didn't do anything.

Today was beautiful, so we went into Kyoto.

It's always nice to take a trip to Kyoto. Just the ride there is quite peaceful. The noises and commotion of Osaka quickly dissipate as the train speeds from one prefecture to the next. Apartment complexes and malls give way to rice fields and ancient looking dwellings.

Kyoto itself has a relaxed laid back feel to it, yet it retains a certain air of eloquence from its 1000 year stint as Japan's capital. Geisha and Maiko, faces painted white, walk the streets in their kimono. The mountains to the north, east, and west are home to some of the most important Buddhist temples in Japan, many of them the founding temples for the various sects of Buddhism practiced in Japan.

It's a cool place.

We walked around the shopping district for a while, picked up a few things and then headed for the Eastern Hills. I have recently been to Ginkakuji, another famous temple in the area, so instead we went to Kiyomizudera, probably the most famous temple in Kyoto. The locals like to call in Gionji. The walk up the mountain was difficult, but definitely worth it. Pictures are up on Flickr (click the upper photo badge!).

I'm beat. Work doesn't sound like much fun tomorrow, bleh. I'm off to bed.

Yesterday and Today

I apologize for not posting last night. I was just totally beat from the day. So, as I said several times before, I went to Universal Studios Japan on Friday. It was a great time. I enjoyed spending some time with my students outside of the class room. I also never cease to find humor in seeing rides that I'm used to in America dubbed over in Japanese. Back to the Future the Ride has to be the best for this. Doc's voice and Biff's voices are just absolutely priceless. So, great day overall. I got paid to go to an amusement park, just that in itself is pretty cool. Pictures are up!

I've also had a few new postings to my Moblog. I would post more, but I  haven't seen a bill yet from sending so many pictures from my cellphone. Once I get that, I'll either post a lot more, or go out and buy a memory card for the phone, so I can take shots on the go and then just upload them from home. I do have to say though that it always brings a smile to my face when I'm out and about, take a picture, and send it right to the page. That's just pretty damn cool. I couldn't have even imagined that ten years ago. Crazy. So, anyway, check it out. Now!

Lastly, I just thought that I should do a little public service. Often my friends and family complain about their computers being slow or buggy. My own sister has been the victim of identity theft. The culprit? Most likely SPYWARE. You don't need to know so much what it is, rather how to stop it and get rid of it. So here are the tools you should be using.

Firefox- Ok, internet explorer is sooooo yesterday. Move on to Firefox (or for those more adventurous types Opera). It's safer and not so much a target for spyware and other sorts of nasty attacks that affect internet explorer.

Microsoft anti-spyware- Ok, this was a good move on Microsoft's part. It's free and is pretty easy to setup. So go get it! It runs all the time, so you'll have real time protection!

Spybot search and destroy- Awesome awesome tool, but a little harder to use. It has several features that permanently block bad sites and bad software. Very nice. I'm pretty sure it doesn't auto-update, however. So you need to run the update every week or so!! This is super important.

Go get them now!! Run them and you'll be amazed at how much junk you have on your computer, really. It'll run much faster and safer afterwords.

That is all.

Time is just flying by

October is pretty much over. I'm surprised at how fast the time is going by. Tomorrow will be my 100th day here. Pretty crazy. At the same time that would mean I have some 265 days left. Not bad.

These past few weeks have been going by so slowly. I'm not sure why. Maybe it's just because it's the end of the month. The beginning went by so quickly. Maybe things just aren't so exciting anymore at this point. For example, every day I ask the kids in each class the day, month, date, time, and weather. It might just be me, but at this point I'm waiting for one of the kids to stand and scream "It's October for god's sake! Just like yesterday!" Hasn't happened yet, but I'm glad we're moving on to November soon.

Point is I've just sort of settled into a routine and during the week I can't say that it's much of a thrill ride. No major complaints though.

Ok. I'm done for now. I'm going to Universal Studios tomorrow. Cool. Pictures to follow.

Out and About

Busy weekend. Saturday we went to Umeda and did some shopping. Bought some simply delicious green tea and a few other things. I forgot how cool the basement level of department stores are. First, you must know that ALL Japanese department stores have the same basic floor layouts (and how Japanese is that..) and the basement floor happens to always be restaurants and tons of little specialty food stores. They're great places to find hard to get food items or to just find high quality, if not somewhat expensive, food. They also have a terrific open market type atmosphere. I wish I had taken some pictures. Next time.

After that, we took a trip to Osaka Castle. That was pretty nice, though the weather was not. I had been there before, but it's a beautiful site to see either way.

We spent Sunday at my old host family's house. I hadn't seen them in a while. I always enjoy going there, though I usually end up staying hours longer than I planned on. Miwa, my host sister, was in a particularly good spirits, which is quite rare, to say the least. She wanted to go out to karaoke, but it was a little too late and a school night at that. Maybe next time.

I have off tomorrow! And this coming week is super easy. Monday and Tuesday are mid-terms, so no classes and Friday is school trip day. I'll be accompanying the 8th graders on their trip to Universal Studious!

Lastly, I would like to start adding in some more general interest type content, but still keep with a Japan theme. I sort of did this in the beginning, but lately I haven't. So here is a nice picture that helps to sum up Japan in the fall. It almost time for fall leaves here, so I hope to get some nice photos posted in the coming weeks, check back soon!

Who knew

I learned an important teaching lesson today- Just because lesson X worked great with group A does not mean it's going to work well with group B, in fact it may not work well at all with group B while it was a big hit with group A.

Yesterday I did a nifty little lesson at the kindergarten using a TPR strategy. TPR stands for total physical response. The idea is that saying a command, such as "stand up," in conjunction with doing an action (standing up, or moving ones arms in an upward motion) can convey meaning without having to explain in the learners native language. So, I got the kids doing a few different things, like standing up, sitting down, jumping, spinning, simple things like that. Then we played a game of Simon says, but I substituted "please" for "Simon says" (how often do we use the words "Simon says" in English...).  When the kids did something and I hadn't started the command with "please" they were out. Worked great, kids had a good time and they were able to understand a little English.

Today I strolled over to the kindergarten with a little extra bounce in my step, still riding high from my success the day before. I had lunch with my favorite table of little tikes and then played with the kids during recess.

Right from the start I could tell these kids weren't eating it up like the previous day's children were. Most were paying attention, but a few in the back were roaming around aimlessly, one spun around on the floor, and another thought it a good idea to cling to my legs the entire lesson. The real fun didn't begin until the game started, however.

The problem started when the teacher wasn't really down with making the kids that messed up sit out. It was a game after all and games have winners and losers, but the teacher wasn't keen on that. So, right from the get go I didn't have teacher support. Unfortunately, I had already explained the game and the children understand the word "out" (from baseball). A boy up front noticed a girl jump when I hadn't said please, so he pointed and yelled "Out!" Well, that was when the crying began. Her teacher took her aside and comforted her, leaving me without backup.

The rest is a blur to me...let's just say it didn't go as well as yesterday. Luckily I had to be back at the middle school quite early today, so I had an easy out.

Lesson learned. Be prepared for the worst.

From Yesterday

Today was just fine and dandy. I spent my afternoon at the elementary school. The class that I had lunch with was really nice and friendly. Two of my English club students were in the class, they seemed happy to see me, which is good.
So here is what I was going to post last night-

I am writing. I am tired. There is a small spider ferrying itself between two pieces of paper. She seems tired as well. I want to go home. I'm not really sure I have a home, at least not a permanent one right now. I need coffee or something. A gin and tonic with a nice lime twist would be great. Just walk around all day, gin and tonic in hand, like it's no ones business. "Ya, that's right, I'm teaching and drinking...what's it to you?" Gin and tonic. That would hit the spot. Man, I want to go home. This is just meaningless. I'd be better off reading some book or anything really. Sometimes ya just feel like nothing is being accomplished. That's what this feels like.

It's not bad, not at all. It's just blah, not good, not bad. Man that gin and tonic might make things better. A nice Wawa turkey sub would be pretty killer too right now, none of that subway shit. A gin and tonic and a turkey sub. It's settled. That's my first meal when I return home.

It's funny what you miss when you're away from home. Like sometimes I wish I could just spend a few hours walking around a book store, like Barnes and Noble or some place like that. I like looking at all those books and maybe getting a coffee too. I could do that for hours. But no book stores like that here. Guess I'll just have to wait. Damn that turkey sandwich sounds pretty good right about now. American cheese, lettuce, onions, a little spicy mustard, pepper, and oregano, ya that would really hit the spot.

American food is...well, so American, straight forward and to the point. I'm a little tired of the subtle and delicate Japanese food. It's good, but sometimes you just want it to hit you, the taste I mean. Wham! I don't want to search around for it...ohhhh there it is, not I got it. Just give it to me.

Alright...I guess I should get back to work. Something like that...a bookstore would beat the pants off of work right about now though...

The spider is gone.


Hey, what can I say? I was bored!

Damn

I was pretty bored at work today, so I did a stream of consciousness thing. For those that aren't familiar with the concept, you just sort of write whatever comes into your head. During one of my periods off I did that and it turned out pretty cool...but I left the paper at work. I'll bring it home tomorrow though and type it  up. I promise.

This week is going by soooo slow. That's all I can say. I feel like tomorrow should be Friday...dear god it's only Wednesday. Argh.

I got paid today, that's good too.

Sorry, I'm boring today.

By Popular Demand...

My old man complained about the lack of blogging in recent days, so here we go.

Let's see...Michelle arrived on Tuesday night. We've spent a lot of time over the last few days trying to get her up to speed. I showed her around town and all the important places, like the grocery store, post office, train station, stuff like that. We also took a few test runs on the train, trying to get her to buy the right tickets and listening for the right stop. She's been doing pretty good.

It's been nice to have someone to come home to after work. It's also really nice to have a clean house all the time! I know no one will believe me, but I did really keep the place pretty clean. It's just that sometimes I couldn't be bothered, like who was I trying to impress, so it did get messy sometimes. Shell keeps it really clean and makes the trips to the grocery store. I pay her with food. Heh.

Today I think we are going to go to my host family's house. They want to meet Michelle. They also probably want me to help out with the kid's English work. So, that's the plan. I'll report back later.

English Club

Today I had my last first. I am now doing everything that I will be doing as far as work goes. Thank god! I was kind of getting tired of new surprises.

So, I was pretty nervous about running the English club. The two teachers that help out with it speak little English. Overall it went well, I was pretty happy with how everything went. There were a few slow spots, but it was the first time. I personally think a whole hour for 9 year olds is too much, but it should be ok. I'm looking to make it a bit more fun next week, so I'll be adding in some songs and games. I'm looking forward to it.

Grrrrr!

Well, I was looking forward to doing some shopping, taking a trip somewhere, or maybe going to see my old host family this weekend. But all those hopes were suddenly dashed when I found out that UFJ (my bank) doesn't just close down ATMs on actual holidays (Monday being the holiday), but they like to close their ATMs for the entire three day weekend. That left me with 2000 yen (little under $20) for the entire weekend. After a trip to the food store, I was left with about $5. Cool. Now I'm glad none of my co-workers would let me pay for anything on Friday night....

At least I got a lot of cleaning done. That was much needed. I had a ton of laundry and dishes to do. Eating over the sink is only fun and new for so long...same goes for wearing clothes a few more times than they really should have been...

On a much brighter note...In just about 24 hours I'll be getting home from work and an hour after that I'll be off to the airport to pick Shellie up. Cooool. It's nice that I live two train stops from the airport...

In about a week I'll have been here for 3 months. Keeping in mind that I have 20 days of unused vacation time and the month of July off I can say that the time is just flying by. The last time I was here was just August to December. I'm quickly approaching that mark.