Whirlwind

So what have I done since Tokyo?

Let's see. Aug 18-20, I was in Kudamatsu City, about 45 minutes away from Hofu, teaching at an English camp. There were 8 ALTs (Assistant Language Teachers) and 70 students, plus a bunch of JTEs (Japanese Teachers of English).

We stayed at a traditional style Japanese hotel - futons, tatami mats, and communal showers (and no, I am not even slightly kidding about that last one). The kids were great, and we split into groups of 3 ALTs to design a 30-minute workshop and a 45-minute workshop. Considering it was literally the first time I'd ever had to function as an ALT, I think it was a lot of fun. I'll try to put up some pictures from camp includin

g the awesome drawing my kids drew of me for my poster.

Every night, the teachers had drinks and snacks from 10-12, which is how I discovered my unending love for Chu-hai. If you ask me, Chu-hai tastes like a mildly alcoholic version of Sprite. I don't know why I like it as much as I do. It might have something

to do with the fact that it costs 100-200 yen.

The day after English camp ended, we had another orientation at Kencho. Kencho is the name of the giant government building in the capital of Yamaguchi prefecture (coincidentally, this is called Yamaguchi city). That night, Friday, Steff (the other Hofu ALT) and I went over to Tokuyama for dinner/hanging out with the JET who lives there (Al). Tokuyama is one city over from Hofu, and is slightly bigger population-wise but seems to have a lot more shopping than Hofu. It also has a shinkansen stop.

The next night, we went over to another city in Yamaguchi, Ube City, which is where the airport is. It's almost an hour away by train, and we got there at 8, so instead of getting on the last train back at 10 pm, we stayed over and hung out with the Ube JETs - Ryan and Kholo - until the sun came up!

Then we finally had to go back to work. September 1st was our opening ceremony, where the entire school gathers in the gymnasium. My main school has 1000 students, but luckily 200 of them were on a school trip. As the new teacher, I had to give a speech entirely in Japanese, which was fairly nerve-wracking.

I finally started teaching last Thursday at one of my visit schools. To get there, I have to ride my bike to the train station and then take a 45 minute bus ride, which somehow costs 820 yen. So roundtrip, for one day of teaching, it costs 1640 yen. I think I get reimbursed, but it's pretty expensive! The first day of teaching went okay. The kids are really loud and friendly... in Japanese. Getting them to speak English is a pretty big challenge.

Friday I had my first class at my base school, which also went okay. It's really hard to spend 50 minutes on a self-introduction so I suspect it'll become easier as the

year goes on and the lessons have actual content.

On Saturday, one of Steff's schools had a bunkasai, a cultural festival. The entire school is decorated and food stands are set u

p. A couple of us ALTs went and it was a lot of fun. One of my students from my school actually recognized me! Being an ALT kind of makes you a mild celebri

ty around your city. We stayed to watch the brass band perform, since we were told they were the best in the prefectur

e. It was incredible

- I've never heard a high school band play like that. There was singing and dancing, too! We talked with the conductor afterwards and I think he's going to set me up with an ensemble in Hofu since I've decided to start playing the violin again, now that I have all this free time. The only thing left is to actually find an affordable violin somewhere.

On Sunday, we went over to Yamaguchi City for dinner and bowling! Bowling in Japan is pretty much the same as bowling in America except the shoes are MUCH cooler here. I lived up to my title of regional bowling champion with scores of 55 and 43 for the two games we played. Next time I'll aim for mid 70s if I'm feeling ambitious.

Anyway, that gets the blog up to date, so people can stop wondering what I've been doing with my time. From here, I've got two more weeks of classes until there's a 5-day long national holiday, which I'll be spending in Yokohama, the second-biggest city in Japan!

The conclusion of our Tokyo trip!

Alright! So the second morning in Tokyo was spent entirely trying to find the Sakura House Hostel in Asakusa, Tokyo. It took quite a while, but it was SO much nicer than the Mayflower House. For instance, we weren't sharing our unsecured bathroom with a random tenant and there were no dogs. The hostel was awesome and I would definitely stay there again.

To be honest, I can't really remember what we did during the day, but I know at night we went to the VAMPIRE CAFE which was one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. It also involved navigating my first entirely in Japanese phone call which was horrifying. The vampire cafe is not just a name - the ENTIRE place is decorated. The waitstaff is all wearing full vampire gear, including face paint and fangs and capes. The food is ALL themed. I got cross-shaped pieces of toast with spreads, for instance. I'll have pictures up later but all I can say is: if you go to Tokyo, you must go to the Vampire Cafe. If you're lucky, maybe you can sit at the table that is actually a real coffin!

Saturday in Tokyo was probably my favorite day because it was spent at.... TOKYO DISNEYLAND! Going to Disneyland Paris was one of the highlights of my time in Paris, so naturally I had to make it over to Tokyo Disneyland. Space Mountain was incredible. I wish I could ride that rollercoaster all day. Surprisingly, we only saw maybe 5 other foreigners at the park. We were expecting a lot more. We were at Disney from 10 AM to 10 PM so we were pretty exhausted by the end.

Sunday was pretty leisurely. After a brief visit to Akihabara, Steff and I trained it up to Ueno Park. Ueno Park is absolutely gorgeous. I spent most of the time in the Tokyo National Museum which was GREAT. They had a free English tour, and they had a free set up where you were able to make your own woodblock print! Woodblock prints are essentially my favorite art form of all time. To make them, a series of plates are carved - one for each color - and then dipped in ink and applied sequentially to the same paper. Each template has only the raised parts that will need whatever color is being used for that template. I'm not describing it very well, but if I could spend my life studying woodblock prints, I would.

Sunday night was awesome because I got to see AKI!!!!!!!! While I'm making very good friends out of my fellow Yamaguchi JETs, at this point I hadn't seen anyone I'd known for more than a few weeks in quite some time. We grabbed dinner in Shinjuku and hung out until our bus back to Hiroshima left. Seeing a friend made me day and I highly encourage all of you to visit me in Japan ASAP. I'll provide the futons!

Anyway, we caught our 10-hour bus ride back to Hiroshima and then had 5 minutes to catch our 2.5-hour train back to Hofu, at which point we passed out completely.