sorry for the lack of updates

i blame pure laziness, because i have lots to post about. winter vacation has started, so i will have lots of time to write, but today we are moving, yay! also, i don't know if i'll have internet until february, so a temporary goodbye until then. woo!

Ohnoes!

I have run out of money until i get paid, so i have nothing to do, really. I need more work, because i have time to do things, but no money; so i'd rather have less time and more money, so i can actually do stuff.

Also in sad news, my camera is brokeded, i don't know why. So hopefully i will get a new one.

Adventures! We went for Karaoke with the teacher Dane replaced, Melissa, her husband Sousuke, and her friend (another american, can't remember her name). It was a lot of fun. We had a room to ourselves with an L-couch, a large tv, a couple mics, and a couple 'robots'. The robots were wireless controls for browsing music and managing the karaoke machine. They had free drinks, soups, and icecream. I drank soooo many cups of vegetable chowder, my throat was sore not only from singing, but because melissa and sousuke smoke a lot >_< We sang for about 3 hours. It was a bit expensive, but totally fun. By expensive i mean about 35$ each. The Japanese have a custom where they split the bill evenly; i'm always left wishing i had ordered more so that it was fair, because i always end up paying for more than i got. oh well.

I can't wait till Dane gets his car. No more endlessly walking, and we won't have to take the last train back to tendo early in the evening, we can stay and hang out with our friends in yamagata (after we move to tendo). I walked to a store and bought a heater a couple days ago, my arms and back are still sore from carrying it all the way home, heh.

Tendo will be way awesomer than yonezawa, i can't wait to move.

Rhuminations

I really like my adult classes in Tendo. They're not classes through my employer, they just have the contract to provide the teacher; and the classes are for fun. My wednesday class, we always just sit around chatting, it's great. Sometimes I go 'okay let's finish this chapter' or section or topic, so we try, but we always veer off course. My Friday class is not as comfortable, but when they make comments in Japanese I always make a face and say "Whaaaat?" It sounds corny, but they always laugh and try to explain. I find it amusing that the class that has difficulty just chatting is supposed to be the one that is more advanced. They all help me find out so many useful things; i learned the difference between and particulars about sukiyaki and shabushabu (sukiyaki is a pot with soysauce, vinegar, dashi, water for broth, where you dump in a plate of meat and vegetables; after it cooks, you dip an item from the pot in raw egg and then eat it. raw eggs in japan are very popular and safe. shabushabu (their version of 'swish, swish') is just a pot of water, with either meat or fish put in it (i think one at a time)); about strange places to visit (there's a mountain near tendo with a depression in it, and in that depression are lots of little holes that cold air comes out); and that the only thing japanese people eat with a spoon (specifically a chinese spoon) is a dish called chawanmushi (basically a savoury egg custard with mushroom, green onion, maybe some other tasty stuff), because it is impossible to eat with chopsticks (the chinese version is just egg, much plainer and less tasty). I bought a manga book i was drooling over a while ago even though I had no clue what it was about, simply because it looked cool. They informed me the title was 'black butler'. I'm very excited to translate it. it will be so worth it.

I went to another Onsen a few days ago, it was also awesome. It was the middle of the afternoon and therefore deserted, so I had the whole place to myself. There was an inside bath and an outside bath (rotemburo), but I was escorted to the inside one, and I didn't know you couldn't get from one to the other. That's all right, I'll be going back, and will go to the outside one next time. I wished I had brought my camera since it was so empty. It was a pretty little tiled room, and the water was oooo so hot. I went in for as long as I could, came out and cooled off, then went back in; I ended up having to take a few cold showers so I could go back in, because I was so warmed to my core that it would have taken a few hours sitting in the room to be able to go back in again.

Dane recieved a gift from one of his students; she had recently purchased a new car, and it came with some emergency rations (hardly suprising for the Japanese). She gave him a can of bread. (not suprising for the Japanese, but still suprising to me). This bread, ended up being intensely orange flavored (if it's an emergency, it might be your last meal, can't have plain bread, right?) and very can shaped. I wonder if they put the dough in the can, sealed it, and then baked it? Where would the air have gone? Oh well, haha.

Come December 20th, Dane will have a vehicle; he will be purchasing this car from the teacher he replaced here. So holidays, here we come! We have about a week and a half off. I wonder where we'll go. We should totally go south, so it's warm enough to sleep in the car, and just go to an onsen every day to get clean (it's customary in Japan to wash yourself before going into the bath, so that you don't sit in your own dirt, so there's little wash stations everywhere). It would be fun! Haha.

I signed up for a wwoof membership (willing workers on organic farms); in exchange for helping on a farm, I get to stay with a Japanese family and get fed. I'm very excited about it. Also, very excited about moving to Tendo at the end of the month; it's much smaller, and therefore easier to get places; also, much prettier I think. I will also be able to take a whole bunch of classes, like calligraphy, flower arrangement, hiphop, ink painting, pottery, and so on. I hope. :)

Zao Onsen

Dane and I got up real early in the morning a couple weeks ago and took the train to Yamagata; then we took the *correct* bus to Zao Onsen. (We had previously taken the bus to Sendai, the capitol city in a different prefecture, heh; not only that, but we discovered, in very plain English, a schedule for departures to Zao.) Zao Onsen is the name of a little town on the side of a mountain that is very popular for skiing and snowboarding, as well as having a few hot springs. It was very pretty, I already posted the pictures. We walked like a third of the way up the mountain to go to a hotspring; when we got there, we discovered it was closed. We walked around some more, got some prices for the slopes, and made our way back down. We ended up going to an onsen that a co-worker recommended to me. It was way awesome. They had an inside pool, and two outside ones of varying temperature; they also had some barrel-like tubs for people to sit in with little streams of water falling into them that were even cooler. I loved it.

My hair is getting pretty long, I'm starting to look like Rukia from Bleach again. I don't really like it, but it's all right. We'll keep going.

Having to wear a suit to work initially bothered me; but after beginning work, it didn't bother me at all. It was no longer about me feeling like they were suppressing my individuality; it became about me putting on an outfit and taking on a role. I want to look good for my students. Now I just need to pull together the perfect outfit to satisfy my steampunk cravings.

Apologies

I am sorry to inundate you with so many posts at once - a lot happened that I didn't make time to write about during the weekend. Hopefully my writing and stories are intrigueing enough that you want to read all of it, despite the amount. I wanted to try and post more frequently throughout the week, instead of creating a backlog of articles; but I have lost my access to the internet, and must find it elsewhere.

here is a link to the first photo of the second batch i uploaded: http://www.flickr.com/photos/22687419@N06/3057976513/
just click next. there are quite a few of them. sorry, i have no time to organize or comment!
Enjoy.

Sensei Desu

Being a teacher is very neat. The first week was pretty surreal. "So that's what being a teacher is like..."

I spent two days observing classes, where I saw different teaching styles, different ages being taught, and different methods. It all seemed pretty straightforwards, but what I really needed was practice. My notes from my TESOL course happened to be in my notebook, which saved me really - I had an example lesson plan that came in very useful on my first day. I arrived very early. Shiomi was observing my classes, which I hadn't known about, and made me even more nervous; however, I was able to forget she was there, and focus instead on the problems I was having. I managed to get through the first week with only a few mishaps. The next week was even better, but then I got tossed a few classes that Adrian usually has, as he asked for the day off. Being a substitute teacher is not fun. My regular classes had improved for two reasons: I knew what my students were like and could teach accordingly, and I had learned how to prepare a lesson. I could prepare the lessons for my classes, but I had no idea what to expect from the students. It was my first unhappy experience as a teacher. Tough I had had, unusual circumstances like teacher a toddler and teaching an old man, but Saturday was Not Fun. Fortunately, the rest of my day was saved when I remembered a quote from Nathan Fillion that I had seen, coincidentally, on a colleague and co-worker's facebook page - "One day, I was unhappy. Then I stopped being unhappy, and started being awesome. True story."

My most difficult class is a kids class, where the students are old enough that they don't enjoy flash card games, but not old enough to have a very large command of English. I think, however, I have solved that problem - I have modified battleship, and another teacher had very valuable suggestions. My most favorite class is a beginner English class for High School students. Not sure why. Probably because I can see their personalities the best.

So far I have had given to me a drawing of a person by one of my youngest students - apparently he made it because he thought he wasn't very good at english, and when he gave it to me he said 'here is my best!' So cute; and a set of sticks carved by one of my retired students for eating 'japanese cake' - ocha flavor, or green tea. A set of 6 smaller sticks, for eating the cake from your plate; and a pair of chopsticks, not for eating with but for putting the cake from the sharing plate into your own bowl.

The students have been a wealth of information about places to go in Japan and in Tendo, the city I will be moving to in January. My favorite part of the intermediate classes is when we have discussions pertaining to everyday life, rather than following the syllabus.

Overall, aside from the difficulties of being a substitute teacher, and learning how to be a teacher in general, I enjoy it very much. And the more I teach, the better I get, and the better I get, the easier it is - pretty soon, substituting won't bother me, because I'll have experienced and be prepared for most contingencies. My lesson preparation time has gone from half an hour a class to an average of 10 minutes. It always amuses me that when learning different languages, you learn all sorts of things that native speakers of the laguage in general don't know. The best way to learn something is indeed to teach it - can you tell me what present perfect vs. simple past is?

Teh Snow

Yesterday it was raining as I made my way to the train. By the time I got three stops in, it was snowing - everything had a light coating. When I reached my destination, it was raining again, haha. By the time I got back to Yonezawa, it was cold enough that snowflakes were again landing on my umbrella on the walk home.

This morning when I left the apartment to go grocery shopping, everything was absolutely covered in snow! It seemed almost a foot high.
And right in front of my feet, the sprinklers were raining hot water on the parking lot to melt it off.
It strikes me as both lazy and convenient - I imagine, with the amount of snow Yonezawa is supposed to get, that shovelling would probably take up several hours every day. Why spend the time and backbreaking effort, when you can just throw some water on it? The coldest it gets in this area is apparantly -5, so it doesn't turn into ice! I need to get me some rubber boots instead of winter boots, because that's what they wear here :)

Got to Get Back to Madera

Sunday I spent at home, just moping around a while. Monday I spent doing things I had neglected the day before, and venturing into the outside world to obtain groceries to sate my hungry tummy. I ate pretty much everything I bought that day too - my hollow leg actually ended up being filled. Tuesday, I felt guilty enough about wasting two days that I worked up the courage to go, all by myself, to Yamadera - a place I had heard was very pretty, and it more than lived up to my expectations.

Yamadera is a small town, with a set of shrines and temples accessible by stairway going up the side of a mountain. At the base of the climb are a few temples and shops. In front of one of the temples, they had a box with incense bundles you could leave a coin for, and a large pot for burning them in as an offering. Along the way, were little papers and trinkets you could buy for one or two hundred yen (about a buck or two). I collected a few, but I have no idea what they say - one of them is a half of a yin-yang symbol, of which the color has some significance; and the other two I assume have my fortune, and I was supposed to use to tie on somewhere with my wishes. I reached the gate, paid my entry fee, and began my climb, surrounded almost the entire way with little statues of what I think were Buddhas, wind catchers, and flowers. Every bend in the stairs had a small platform with a larger statue. After climbing out of the gigantic trees, the stairway went past buildings and gardens, all the way up to another temple. It was really very neat, and it smelled *fabulous*. I started taking pictures too late and missed the part in the trees (I took photos on my way down instead of up), because it gets dark very early here. It started raining when I was back near the bottom, just in time to get wet on my way back to the train station. Monday I am taking Dane, so he can experience it and I can get the rest of my pictures - besides, it smells so good!

sweet window face

The other day, I happened by a sweets shop on my amblings through town. This seems to be a common occurrence, and I always drool as I go by, because I love little shops that sell treats; even ones that make treats from beans. I decided that instead of standing in the window wishing, I would go in for once. (OMG look at all the capitols, can you tell I was just writing a business email? engish teacher FTW). I walked in to a chorus of "Irashaimasse!" (welcome) and began to browse. I was immediately presented with a cup of warm tea on a small saucer - so cute! I wish I could have felt comfortable taking pictures (most places that have 'art' dislike you photographing it). There were candies and tarts and little pancake like things, and tonnes of packages all nicely wrapped with ribbons. I selected a small bag of candy and a random small, cheap, wrapped item. The last thing I came upon was the cake counter - oh I wanted a picture of that cake! it was a double layer cake, the top layer smaller than the first, with round edges, covered with white frosting, small strawberries, little flakes of white confetti, and a kitty face and paws! I will make it one day, I swear.

The adventure of going into the shop being enough with all the other activities I had that day to make me fully satisfied, I saved the tablecloth checkered little paper bag with my treats in it for later. I haven't, as yet, tried the candies - I will probably keep them as a souvenir. The random treat, however, was demanding my attention, and I opened it a few days ago. A square, incomparable treat was staring at me. It had little symbols stamped in it, which I didn't, at the time, think of looking up before I ate it. I had to open it up to see what was in side - you guessed it, a paste made from anko beans, and a strange white substance. I took a big bite out of it anyways, but decided against eating the whole thing. Despite not enjoying the taste, it had been worth the effort.

And thus continue my adventures in Japan!

Here We Go

it took me like 3, 4 hours to upload, sort, and comment my pictures. bleh! so, here we go!

micky!
i stopped by victoria to visit her on my way out of the country. <3

when the shops close at night, they bring down barricades, and in asakusa, the district of tokyo where we stayed, they put murals on them. also, right outside of our hostel, was this huge section of wall that was painted, it was great.
my favorite piece of wall art: japanese graffitti, murals, etc (click for the set):


japanese food - on the whole, pretty gross, hahaha. but here are a lot of the things i was excited about (click for the set):


looking down - there's lots of cool things on the sidewalk. in every city, where there IS a sidewalk, they have a path for blind people to follow. either it blends in really nice, or it's the opposite color of the pavement. we thought maybe it was a 'bicycles this side, pedestrians that side', then we asked.
looking down (click for photo set):


shibuya. was. freaking. cool. (click for photo set)


somehow, everyone manages to fall asleep on the train (click for photo set)


temples
statues
random
for my sister
for my mom

ZOMG! start blogging!

Ladies and Gentlemen, Natalia's blog of her Travels In Japan.

i know, i know, it's taken me forever to set up, but here we go! and besides, i'm in japan, i have things to do :D

i think the 'novelty' part of being in japan has worn off, but i am still super excited to be here. the beginning was rough, dane and i were under so much stress we got mad at each other all the time, but things have stabilized. it's great to have someone here from home.

we started out exploring tokyo for four days. it was great, because our hostel was in an 'old style' part of tokyo called asakusa. we spent the first couple days exploring there, finding many treats and getting used to just being here. we usually went to bed early and got up around 6am local. nothing opens until 10, so we spent our mornings exploring; everything looks completely different during the day.

the 28th we took the train to yonezawa. it was pretty confusing, but fun; if you don't know how, it's a pretty complicated procedure, but once you get the hang of it it's easy. We needed two tickets to take the super express, not one; we asked someone for help in broken japanese at every opportunity; we got onto the correct train, but the wrong part - express trains split in two and go to different places. fortunately before it split we figured it out, got off at the next stop, and RAN RAN RAN to the section we were supposed to be on. There are also two types of tickets, reserved and non reserved; so we found our way to the proper section of the train and sat down. we were early to arrive because we took the express train instead of the regular, waited for a bit, got picked up, moved into our apartment.

Dane has to duck to get through every door in our apartment, it's pretty amusing. It seemed small at first, but there's really more than enough room. We have a tatami room, a livingroom, and a kitchen. we split dane's futon into the two halves and he took the livingroom. Yuki-san took us around to the school, and to pick up some food, kerosene (for our heaters... seriously), and bedding for the apartment. She said she'd ask the school if they needed a part-time teacher, which was awesome.

Thursday Dane got an email asking if i could come in for an interview, friday i went in for an interview and got hired, saturday i started observing classes. Super-lucky. I can stay with dane, i work part-time so i can go exploring, and i started right away! Also, as i'm part-time, i don't have to wear a suit *phew* but i still have to dress formal, and i only have one outfit appropriate, because Shiomi-san said i was 'too sexy'. heh. i hope my clothes dry before work T.T I've been teaching for one week already, it's a very strange experience. being a teacher is very cool, and having a job is a great way to socialize.

can't think of anything else to mention except stories about my photos!

except a) i'm out of time and b) flickr decided to only show the last 200 of the 600 photos i uploaded, so i have to finish later. sayonara!