3 Weeks of no internet is too long!

Hi Everyone,

I know you've all been holding your breath since our last post, so sorry if anyone has died of asphyxiation in these long 3 weeks. We still have no internet in our apartment, but hope to get that taken care of ASAP. We can check email at some of our schools, but it's not a place where we can blog from.

SO....We are living in a small, but fairly comfortable apartment in Asou, Namegata City. Asou used to be a tiny town, but 4 years ago it joined with a bunch of other nearby towns and became Namegata City. Think of it as a kind of neighborhood. All of Namegata City is extremely rural. We are practically surrounded by rice paddies and vegetable fields. We are constantly driving past old Japanese farmers, standing in the middle of their rice paddies working, or driving tractors down the highway very very very slowly....It's like this all over our prefecture, apparently. So no internet cafes, only one library (30 min away from our apt), and a few different shopping "plazas" we can get to within 20 or 30 min.

We loaded up at a few different 100 yen stores, where we found housewares, clothes drying racks (no dryers here!), and other miscellaneous goods. It took me at least a week to find some kind of lotion that was meant for my face (the first time I bought something that advertised a "beautiful skin experience" it turned out to be soap). Yes, aisles full of products labelled in Japanese characters is always an adventure.

School is pretty good. My first week was exhausting, what with meeting all the teachers, principals, etc, and going through a lot of the cultural niceties that I don't quite understand yet. Lots of green tea, lots. Now that I know how to drive to each school, and know the teachers I'm working with, it's much easier. I am provided with one lesson plan each week that I teach to all of my classes, with minor differences depending on the teacher. So on Mondays I am just getting a feel for that week's lesson, but by Friday I could do it in my sleep. Sometimes a class is doing a test or something, so the school throws a younger grade at me, assuming I have a lesson I can do with them. At first I was a bit overwhelmed - but grateful for all my preschool/daycamp experience. At least I know kids' songs and games I can pull out of my back pocket to do with younger kids.

I don't think anyone wants to read a 5 page blog post, although I could write 50 at this point. So I'll save some for next time. If you have Q's, please post them and I'll try to answer them in my next post.

Hope life is busy and happy for all of you - without internet we're fairly isolated. We don't even know what's going on in global news, so if something huge happens, don't expect that we'll know immediately.j

Take care, and practice your hashi (chopsticks) skills so you can keep up with us when we come back!

-Tessa Sensei / Miss Tessa (all my students call me one or both of these titles)

Japan, like woah.

Sorry for the lack of updates! We dont yet have net access at home, and we can't update our bog from the schools. More exciting info to (hopefully) come soon!!!

Training is done!!!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibaraki_Prefecture

Here's the link to the general area we will be living in, the Ibaraki prefecture. Our apartment will be in the town of Tamatsukuri, which is roughly 13,000 people. We haven't seen it yet, but Chris will be doing his interview with his Board of Education in Inashiki tomorrow, and he'll see some of the landscape on his drive down. Wish him luck!

I don't start till the 13th, so I don't know yet when I'll have my interview. These interviews are more for the BoE to get to know our personality and make sure we look presentable and capable. Today we practiced some Japanese, and worked on creating a short, formal introduction to the BoE or principal (and a more fun one for the first day of school when we introduce ourselves at an assembly). I'm feeling pretty good about pronunciation, but of course I need to really memorize my intro because I'll be doing at least 4 or 5 at each school I start at - that's 5 *8, so roughly 40 intros!!!

So for the next few days, we'll be hanging around our hotel in Mito, getting our hankos (signature stamps with a special character that we like or find special meaning in), and maybe doing a few local train trips to check out the region.

Hopefully the next time I post I'll have pictures to post of our area - it's a neat city!

Over and out.

Done with Training Day Two

Today was less intensive so that was nice. Now I have more time to post, so I'm going to try and give as much of that info as possible.

We have been in Japan for 4 days now I think. I haven't quite had a huge culture shock yet, but things are still a bit strange. Here in Mito, there is a lot less printed English around, but it is there in some places there is, like on the cars. There are all the makes of Japanese cars that you would find in the States, like Toyota, Honda, Suzuki, Mazda, etc; but not the Models. The Models are all written in English on the backs of the cars, but they are weird ones I've never heard of, like the Toyota Noah or the Honda Wish.

There are vending machines EVERYWHERE. Not snack machines, but beverage machines that dispense everything from soda to juice to water to hot coffee in cans and even beer. In one city block there usually is at least one machine on each side of the street, at least from what I have seen in Mito and Narita.

If you have ever seen pictures or videos of Japanese people wearing white surgical masks, I can tell you, they really do wear them here. If you have a cold or flu or any type of illness like that you are expected to wear one, and I have seen people wearing them everywhere I have gone.

The Japanese do not sign their name. On anything. They have a small stamp called a "hanko" that is about the diameter of a dime in the characters of their name. Tessa and I each need to get one to secure a "gaijin card" (basically a green card) and need that to get a Japanese bank account. Our name will have to be in Katekana (one of the scripts the Japanese use).

Oh, and tomorrow I have a meeting with the Board of Education in the area I am teaching in...hopefully that goes well.

Quick Update

We are now in Mito for training. Yesterday was an intense day of information overload that I dont have the time to post about now. We did find out a few bits of important information though. I will be teaching at 2 Junior High Schools in Inashiki, and Tessa will be teaching at 8, count'em, 8 elementary schools each week in Namegata and surrounding area. We will be living in a single apartment in Tamatsukuri. We will each be driving our own car that we will have to lease from the company for about $180 per month, including insurance. I start April 6th, and Tessa on the 13th. It would appear that we are some of the lucky ones. Some of the ALTs who arrived here were informed that there were no more full-time positions available. Heart lost out on some of the contracts to provide ALTs to the schools, so some ALTs only have the option of teaching part-time in Tokyo and living in a guest house and/or finding other work. Luckily, we don't fall into that group...That's all I have time for now, I will post more when we have the time.

***It is important to note that this was a decision of the various school boards, not the company we are working for.

The first 24 hours (or so)

Hi Everyone,

Chris has already posted the details of our flight, customs experience, hotel, etc. This is going to be a short one from me because I'm pretty exhausted - woke up at 3:30am today! I'm going to nap a bit so that we can stay up later and get ourselves on more of a schedule.

Here are a few pictures we took so far today. The first one is from my first episode of culture-shock. We were literally 50 feet off the plane, and I stopped in the ladies' room. The first thing I noticed were the ceiling to floor stall doors. But when I got into one, I thought I had opened the wrong door. There was no toilet. Only a porcelain trench built directly into the floor. All I can say is, Japanese women must be super flexible if that's what the typical toilet is like.

The car picture above might seem normal, but the name of the car is a "NOAH" - so, I had to post it for my big brother Noah.

We had a pretty good breakfast this morning at our hotel - it was a buffet featuring Japanese breakfast and Western breakfast options. The Western stuff included omelets to order, bacon, french toast, cereal, etc, while the Japanese spread included rice, cold noodles, miso soup, tofu, and various unknown meats and vegetables. Asian breakfast foods are apparently much closer to what they eat the rest of the day, rather than saving certain foods for only evening or morning.

Then we took a longish walk through the area around the hotel. It was only 6:45am or so (and a Sunday) so hardly anything was open and no one was out. But we did see interesting signs - one read "Yankee's Crew Lounge", another was apparently an American Old-West themed store/coffee shop called "Big Country" (see above). We went into a convenience store where I bought some tweezers and lotion (for your face I think, but I'm not 100% sure) - the clerks didn't speak any English and the screen that lists your purchases had so many characters and anime characters all over it that I couldn't even figure out how much I owed. But hey - we're here to learn!

Later we caught the hotel shuttle into the Narita city mall. We had wanted to see a nearby temple, too, but were so tired that we agreed we would see temples in other towns during our year in Japan. The stores were a bit overwhelming - one had like 10 rows of small anime books. I'm not used to seeing stacks and stacks of books without one word or letter that I recognize! One store was called Mother Garden - it was full of cutesy kids' toys, clothes and stuffed animals. Mainly cartoony-looking stuffed white seals wearing a variety of funny hats and clothing. One kind even sang "You Are My Sunshine" when you pressed its flipper;) I'm going to have so much fun shopping for my three nieces and my nephew!

Today at the mall, I was happy to find a "regular" toilet, although it wasn't without its own oddities. When you sit down on the seat, the sound of water running is played out of a speaker (so no one can hear your own noises, I think?). Then there were various buttons that I didn't understand, probably for bidet functions... Things are certainly interesting here!

We walked out of the mall only to see our hotel shuttle bus pulling out of the parking lot - and the next one didn't come for another 1.5 hours. So we passed the time playing cards on a bench, and I think I counted about ten different little kids who stopped to stare and/or point at us. I hadn't really gotten any strange looks until today - I'm relieved to see that kids are kids regardless of country or nationality.

Now we're lounging around in the hotel room, and will probably take a nap soon.

Over and out,

Tessa

We Are in Japan

We left Sea-Tac at about 1:10 pm in a small DHC-8 twin-prop plane bound for Vancouver, BC. One quick flight later, we were in Vancouver and ready to leave North America; which we did, at about 3:15 pm in a Boeing 747-400. It was easily the largest airplane I've ever flown in, with two floors of passenger seating. It was about a 9.5 hour flight, which of course was long, but the plane was fairly comfortable. We were seated on the right hand side of the plane on the window and the seat next to it. Thankfully there were video screens in the back of the seats in front of us that had a variety of computer games, crappy movies (Madagascar 2, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Sweet November, etc.) and other things to help keep us entertained.

After we finally touched down at Narita airport we went through immigration, got our bags, went through customs, then changed some of our US cash into yen. We then waited for a shuttle to take us to the Hotel Radisson. Driving through Narita, I was surprised at how many American companies had a stronghold in the city. We passed by two 7-11s, a Mobil gas station, ads for McDonalds and Coke. A lot of things were in Japanese and English too. I don't expect that to be the norm everywhere in the country, but it will help ease us into the culture, I think. Driving on the left side of the street in a right-hand drive car might take a while to get used to, if we ever get the opportunity though. Just being in the bus and watching us drive through the city was hard enough!

We arrived at our Hotel at about 7:00 pm Japan time/3:00 am Seattle time. We were quite tired, as I'm sure you can imagine, and fell asleep by about 8:30 pm, waking up this morning at 4:00 am Japan time. The hotel is nice, and it seems most of the workers here are bi-lingual, which makes sense given the amout of tourism they must get here. There is also an "American Sports Bar" and "California Restaurant" here too. Interesting note, like in the US, the hotel here had a copy of the bible in it, but also a copy of the teachings of Buddha.

Japanese money is interesting. So far what I have seen is 1, 10, 50, 100 yen coins and some paper yen notes that don't look too different from some of the newest US dollars. The 50 yen coins have a hole in the middle. My first Japanese purchase was a bottle of apple juice from a vending machine.

Tessa will post soon too, hopefully.