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!
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