Ehime!Ehime!Daisuke!

Queerly Another JET Blog - the documentation of an ALT to Ehime prefecture during the 29th intake of the JET Programme.  Click 'Explore' for links and tag lists.

[astormyexjet]

Moving from JET, Where to now?

My last few months on Jet from the summer of 2021 to April 2022 were weird. COVID had changed the landscape, and the BOE was weird about all the new protocols, but I had fantastic schools and fantastic friends and really didn't know how good I had it until I had to leave.

In April 2022, I broke my extended contract. I had been working for the JET Programme under the Matsuyama Board of Education since August of 2015, and it was one of the hardest decisions I've had to make in my life. New Zealand was still locked up with COVID 19 hotel lotteries, and I was trying to stay in my beloved city of Matsuyama. My partner was living in Uwajima after having some rough luck in Osaka during the pandemic, and jobs were scarce.

I started working at a kindergarten that had a focus on English language education. The teachers, students and parents I worked with were all amazing (for the most part, there are some horror stories...), but the upper management/parent company were not fun to deal with. The person who was hired on with me, and a couple of other foreign teachers were let go after two years due to "restructuring of contracts". Which...sucked. The job left me feeling drained and small and stressed beyond belief, but I loved those kids, and it blows my mind that they are now in their last year of kindergarten or already elementary students. During those two years, in the little time I had free, I did manage to go on a number of amazing trips with friends. We hit Kochi twice. Once for a farm stay and road trip around the prefecture. Once for surfing in the summer. For my 30th birthday, we went to Kagawa to see the illuminations. Hiroshima for the new year where we stayed on Miyajima for the turn of the years and stayed awake with no hotel - being some of the first 100 people in the shrine for 2023 which is now a core memory for me. My brother visited for the first time since 2016 and it was weird to see how much he had grown. And of course there were various trips to Uwajima for festivals, and to see my partner when work hadn't worn me thin. Hobbies I managed to maintain in that time were; sleeping, PC gaming and playing DND/Pathfinder with amazing people. I also walked a lot, as I didn't have the time or hours to be able to train in Karate.

My health was mainly stable in this time - though I was having regular palpitations and weird fits of muscle spasms. The diagnosis of PMDD I got in 2020 was still the main theory, but it was clear there was something else alongside all that that need addressing but we couldn't figure out what. My doctor at the time was an absolute legend. It's thanks to her that I've managed to stick it out for as long as I have. After my contract ended, I found a job in Matsumoto, Nagano prefecture. My partner followed me and started working as an ELT in a small town an hour south. We were both finally on the same time schedule, even though I often have to work Saturdays. I do feel like we've been able to see each other even if we're both absolutely beat by the end of the week.

My parents have visited twice since I've been here. We spent a chunk of February in 2025 and this year skiing at Nozawa onsen. I met my brother's fiancé this year - and I'll be an auntie in October...so that is very strange to wrap my head around.

The school I work is a Secondary school - and my duties now include designing and implementing a communication based curriculum that supplements the students grammar classes for kids aged 11 - 17. Planning and running afterschool EIKEN prep workshops. Coaching for speech contests. Designing and attempting to recruit for an international program and being a co-home room teacher. I work with two other native English teachers, and we manage the foreign language club together. Last year we managed to clinch a prefectural speech and recitation contest at the senior high school level which was rewarding - especially with how hard the students worked. The club also worked on a subtitling project with FICTS which we are hoping to do again this year. And guiding in English around Matsumoto Castle which I am working on getting set up - I've been humbled over and over again this year by the system changes, but I am learning....

I visited Matsuyama in summer last year. I was trying to catch a bunch of people before they left and to a point I did manage that which was nice. I caught up with my coworkers from the kindergarten and my replacement which was WILD in the best way. I'm forever grateful for the kindness and patience from those folks... I saw some old students who are now in University and caught up with them and their families who looked after me a lot when I was working in the Junior High schools there. Of course I haunted Hi5 for evening snacks as much as possible, and in doing so I ran into some fellow ex-JETs visiting and some current JETs on their way out. It's wild to think that most if not all of my cohort and kohai have moved on from the city we all loved.

I also met up with "Super Sensei" for what I didn't realize would be the last time - I had a sinking feeling when I watched her walking away from our crepe date, but I didn't pay it much mind until a couple of months later when Harry messaged me with the sad news. I will be forever grateful for all the experiences and people I got to know through her and it still sits so weird that she's gone. Greif is hard.

On that trip I went through Osaka as well - I caught up in person with two of the most amazing people I've had the privilege to meet in my life. I was so nice to see them again without a screen in the way. Hopefully we can catch up again in August this year while my partner and I take our annual holiday back to Shikoku/Osaka. We have folks in Uwajima who have spawned or gotten married we're hoping to catch up with too. Since the start of last year I managed to pick up Karate again - this time Kyokushin. So I've started from the basics, and it has been a very humbling experience. My body won't move how I want it to, I'm heavier despite dieting and exercising more (PMDD BS) and I am slow. I train with a bunch of boys and men, ranging from 11 through to 60+ and I get used as mop for the floor most sparring sessions. The style has more kata than Goju-Ryu, but some of them are the same - the starting stance though is different and that can get really confusing when I'm so tired I'm operating on auto pilot. I have a grading on July 12th - which with my current level of fitness I am dreading (what even are push ups...) I've been doing some training at home, but I'm not seeing a lot of progress as I think work has me so tired that everything is just translating into physical exhaustion.

My current contract ends at the end of March 2027 and I will find out in August/September if I need to be looking for work again. This has been the most positive place I have worked at in my adult life, despite all the changes to my role this year and upper management harping on about "what value do you bring" on a regular basis...it's a valid question for a private school with no government funding, but it does get depressing when I know my limitations (language, nationality, lack of driving and/or special talents or areas of interest applicable to an academic school). I have observations in the next two weeks and a teacher test on the 17th. The observation I am fairly confident in...but the teacher test I feel like I have a snowflakes chance in hell.... I would love to continue working at this school - but tenure is a pipe dream at best.

Things in Japan have changed so much in the last two years, the attitude towards foreigners here has shifted into something more negative, finding jobs, places to live and visa support is getting harder and more expensive. I've encountered more grumpy racist old/drunk men in the last six months then I have in the last....11 years. It has always been present, but it for sure has been a case of the queit part is now being shouted out loud. Once a gaijin, always a gaijin, no matter how well you fit in or how much tax you pay. Of course I have a lot of thoughts and feelings on the whole issue, but me yelling into the void isn't going to change the outcome. So much like last time future scary. I need a job in a place with a clinic with hours I can go to for both dermatology and my PMDD and stomach issues...I need a job that pays me enough so that I can pay for these visits and also my taxes and pension (that I won't see jack of when I leave so I'd like a job I can save a decent amount monthly for...) and ahhhhh. I would like a job that means I can keep up Karate - even if I have to start again in a totally different style. I want to stay in Japan, but I am aware that the older I get...the less "value" people see.

[astormyexjet]

Winter of 2018 - Summer of 2021 TIME FILES WHEN YOU’RE IN YOUR 20s!!!!

OH BOY. It’s been three years (or more) since I updated this. “Time is a weird soup!” to quote a fave. I guess I quit tumblr around the time there was a purge of content and creators and a smack down on a lot of the fandom communities. Tumblr has always been something of a crapshow though so I’ve been more productive with my time than I was in some ways, but I’ve also found other ways to waste my time. *cough twitter/netflix/youtube/MTGArena cough*.

General Life Achievements since 2018 -JLPT N3 GET in 2019! -Blackbelt GET in 2018! -TESOL 120 Hour and BE 50 Hour Cert from online provider GET in 2021 -STUDENT LOAN BANISHED (Thank you grandparents) -Survived Apartment flooding in early 2020. -Mystery anxiety related illness and chronic pain in my left leg from early 2020 - Present. -A mythical 6th and 7th year on the JET Programme. -Started posting on Instagram a lot more about my wanderings around Matsuyama/Uwajima. Mainly old buildings and stray cats. @astormyknight -Surviving so far in Japan with old rona-chan.

2018 was rough. I was given an additional school in the first semester (March to July) as we had someone find a better job. I enjoyed it, but it was a bit of a rough go especially when I was transferred that August after three fantastic years at Tsubaki JHS and ES and only a semester there. I legit went through the five stages of grief - which I think is another reason I stopped blogging. I was given my current base school along with four other schools. Going from 2(3) to 5 schools was a bit of an adjustment. I still feel a bit spread out.

That said, I keep running into teachers and students who were at the Tsubaki’s. The teachers shuffle around every April, so it's always a lottery with which new faces are going to be old friends (or enemies…). A couple of kids moved and transferred into my current schools from Tsubaki too. So I have one kid I can say I've been teaching for 6 out of the 7 years I've been here!

One of the kids who was in JHS 3rd grade when I first got here (in 2015!) hangs out around one of my favorite cafes, so I got chatting with him recently. He's in his second year of nursing school - his class nearly broke me in the first year, it was really a trial by fire with those kids. I was 22 then, and he’s 20 now, so it was interesting chatting to him about that first year of teaching. His younger sister was one of my favorite students too, she was in the group of kids that graduated in the March of 2018, the year group that went through Tsubaki JHS with me - they’re newly minted University students now!

This Thursday morning when I was cycling in to work, a kid who was 2nd year JHS when I left  (so 2nd or 3rd year JHS now) pulled up with their Mum in a van and got their mamachari out of the back to bike to school. The franticness of it all was hilarious. Their Mum legit sat on the horn until I pulled over. I was so happy to run into this kid, even at social distance and both of us late to work/school - because we both remembered each other and as they were going around the corners they were yelling each time they turned and humming the old elementary school directions chant and pelting me with questions about what I’ve been up to.

I've had so many students and schools now, that everything is kind of running into a blur. I remember flashes of kids faces and voices, random memories of in class or out of class shenanigans out of the blue. Also, I now, more than ever, have issues remembering kids' names, but I still know their faces (even with their masks), whose homeroom class they were in, who their friends were and which club they were in. I get random flashbacks to past conversations with them when I see them on the street or we run into each other. I feel bad because the first thing former students ask is ‘Do you remember my name?’ and I always have to be like, ‘Honestly, no, but I remember you did this on x day, x month in x classroom’.

Socially in 2018 -2019 - a few of our friends went home and things shook up a little. Our DnD group changed a bit - one of our players stepped into the role forever DM (THANK YOU RALPH). From memory the newbies were great - some of them just went home at the start of last month and it’s weird not seeing them around (JESS DO YOUR BEST!). I think we only have one or two people left from that rotation. There’s no 6th year ALTs, and only two 5th years.

Aug 2018 - Aug 2019 was the year of Hiura - my mountain school. Dang man, they were so cool. The students of the JHS and the ES combined barely hit 30, so each class was between 3-10 students depending on the grade. It was easier to get to know the kids, their abilities and their goals than it has been for me at other schools. I miss it so bad, being in nature once a week did my country-kid heart so good! The bugs! The frogs! The river! The mountain! The monkeys! The lizards! The dilapidated houses and hidden shrines!!!! The random crabs in the English room...I forgot that there was such a thing as freshwater crabs, and being right next to a river, the invasion wasn’t as out of place as I first thought...  

The area is so picturesque and calming. Every week up there was a small adventure (after getting over my motion sickness from the bus ride up). The kids were constantly pranking either myself or the main English teacher. There was always some new weird bug or lizard in a tank to be educated about. There were chickens on the way to the JHS that used to escape from their cardboard box prisons to run riot on the gardens. There were old people to freak out with my youth and foreignness! The kids also got to do a lot of extra classes, sumiyakai (making charcoal the traditional way), planting and maintaining rice paddies, setting up vegetable gardens, raising fireflies, conserving a special breed of fire lily (only found in this particular mountain valley) and another rare flower, wilderness training ect.

I wish I could have stayed there a lot longer but SOMEONE (read...the BoE) decided that schools had to be shuffled again(thank goodness the dude who has it now was able to keep it from the 2021 shuffle, he's the best fit for the school). I had so many good memories from there, I wish I had been more consistent in writing it down. I do have a bunch of photos and videos from there though, so that's nice. The only thing I don’t miss is the bus trip up and down - not only was it motion sickness, there was a healthy dose of fear each ride as the driver brought us perilously close to the edge of the mountain drop…

2019 - 2020 was interesting. With the school I got given instead of the Hirua’s I was roped into more demonstration lessons which was a lot of pressure because I was also involved quite heavily with the JHS observation and training lessons too. They were somewhat rewarding, the third graders are now super smart 5th graders, but the teachers  who need to embrace the new curriculum and ways of teaching really haven’t taken on anything from the lessons....

Outside of work as well, I was given the chance, thanks to an ALT buddy of mine, to join in with the local festival. It's been one of the biggest highlights of my time here, and I am gutted it’s been cancelled for the last two years, but I understand the reason…. I was able to travel to Okinawa too during that summer for an international Karate seminar with the Dojo I train with. I met the head of the style I currently practice and a bunch of people from around the world. I also got to see Shuri castle before it burned down. So that was a stroke of luck. One of the places I want to go when/if we get out of this pandemic is Okinawa. I want to see more of those Islands so bad. Just before the whole pandemic thing too - I managed to see the Rugby World Cup, a Canada vs NZ match, I even ran into Tana Umanga in Oita city!!!

2019 - 2020 was supposed to be my last year on JET, so I was frantically Job hunting. I went to the Career Fair in Osaka in early Feb/Late January 2020. I applied and got interviewed for a position in Sendai in early Jan 2020. In the end though - the Rona hit. We started hearing whispers of it around the end of 2019, then the cruise boats happened, and then Japan refused to cancel the Olympics...every holiday season there is a new wave of infections, my nurse friends in Tokyo are struggling....my teacher friends in more populous areas of Japan are struggling…

JET couldn't get new ALTs for 2020-2021, I took the extra year when it was eventually offered, as the one job I had managed to get a serious offer for was hesitating because with the rona setting in, things were uncertain. There was a lot of time spent adjusting to the new rules surrounding what we could do in class with the kids as well as textbook change. Schools shut on and off during the spring months. 

I also got a reminder of my mortality mid May with an unrelated illness which is still smacking me around a bit - stress/age, it does things to the human body it has no right to. It's only been in the last three months I’ve been able to exercise like I used to, I’ve put on a bunch of weight I can't shrug off (one part medication, another part diet) My relationship with food needs to change, and I really need a kitchen that allows me for more than one pan meals. I also need to figure out what to do with a left leg that is in constant pain from the knee down and a heart that misses beats when stressed out (mentally and physically…). 

My apartment also got flooded by the guy upstairs at one point, I spent most of late February/early March living in a hotel while my walls and floor got redone - I think this was one of the things that really stressed me out and kicked my anxiety right up a notch, it was right when things were getting REALLY bad with rona-chan in Hokkaido and schools were shutting down here as it was filtering into the prefecture and so Japan closed schools for the first time…

Classes in covid times have been weird. We’ve been wearing facemasks full time since the early stages of the pandemic (March 2020) - so I admit that I get a bit pissed off seeing both Americans and New Zealanders back home bitching about just having to start wearing them full time in public. I have asthma and have been suffering with the things on during the 30*C plus with high 90s humidity summers. Teachers were offered vaccines late July 2021, just days before the Olympics were open - and I finished my two shots in the middle of August. But the overall distribution and take up of the jab has been slow.  As mentioned above, we can't play a lot of the games we used to play with kids in classes anymore, and a lot of the activities outlined in the textbook curriculum need to be adjusted too, so we’ve had to be creative. We use hand sanitizer a lot more too. One of the things I miss the most though, is eating lunch with the kids.

Socially from summer 2020 - now 2021 we played a lot of DnD and board games, both online and in person when we could. There were no new ALTs again for the 2021-2022 JET year, and those of us who were in 6th year were offered a 7th. Four out of six of us took it. As a whole we’re down from a peak of 38 ALTs for Junior High and Elementary school to 22 for now. We hopefully will get a new person at the end of September, and 4 more in November. Which will bring us to 27. This has led to ANOTHER round of school shuffles.

Summer vacation has been weird the last two years. With rona-chan, we haven’t really been able to travel. All the summer festivals (all the Autumn and Winter ones too!) have been cancelled, so the changing of seasons just feels, wrong. I dunno. There is so much we all miss from pre-rona-chan, and so much that doesn’t happen that makes this just feel like one long long unending year of sadness, coldness, raininess, unbearable heat and repeat. I’m tired. Time is going so fast, but so.dang.slow.

I lost my favorite school (AGAIN GDI!!!) and gained the school I taught a semester at in 2019....I had my first day there on Wednesday. Schools actually started back on September 1st so there was some drama as the BoE didn’t communicate fast enough about our school changes. We legit got told on the 27th of August (on a Friday) our schools were changing effective September 1st, but somehow some of our schools found out on the Monday 30th August. In July we were told we would be changing schools at the end of September, so.a lot of ALTs and schools were left short changed, not having opportunities to say goodbye to co-workers or students/having their planning for the semester more or less thrown out the window too. I love my job. I really dislike the way the BoE treats us, the Japanese assistant language teachers and our schools.

The new school I have is used to having an ALT there twice a week, who plans all the lessons and executes them. I’m at three elementary schools. I'm only at each once a week, I want to plan, but being that I miss an entire lesson in between visits, it's going to be difficult to do so. Not impossible, but being that I'm already doing it for two other schools, who are at two different places in the textbook ah…….. From what I have talked to my new supervisor about though, it sounds like the teachers have taken on more of the lesson planning and I'll be able to contribute ideas when I'm there. I just want to and wish I could do more without being confused all the time. (This is all usually done in my second language too, not in English so extra levels of confusion and miscommunication abound).

 I feel like this at my JHS too a lot of the time. I want to contribute more, but even with constant communication with my main in school supervisor (who is a badass and pretty much on the same page about everything with me) I still feel about as useful as tits on a bull. Especially now that classes have been cancelled and or shortened, there's less time to do stuff. Any game or activity I plan is usually cut in favor of making up time in the textbook. When I'm in class, I'm back to being a tape recorder, the fun police and general nuisance.　

Also in the last week...my two of my schools were  shut due to students testing positive for the rona. This is the second time my schools have had a scare in the last 8 months. And by shut, I mean the students were all at home, but the teachers  all had to come into the office. Because why not I guess….. I mean,  the cases increasing is really not unexpected with the amount of people who were travelling over obon and the increase of cases due to the Olympics/Japan being slow on vaccinating/delta being the dominant strain/Japan's leaders doing relatively little except asking shops and restaurants to limit people coming in at one time and closing before 8pm. I know my schools weren't the only one shut either - but still High Schools were having their sports days this week. I kept on seeing groups of kids hanging in the park after, so that was a little bit nerve wracking.

It's just frustrating - we’ve been on half days to “minimize the risk of infection” for kids and teachers, as if only being at school from 8am through to 1pm is going to reduce the risk.  My schools have only just started testing out Microsoft teams and Zoom lesson equipment. Thankfully our school’s run in this time was contained real quick, the family was super good about informing us when they got their results back, and the fact they needed to be tested. The homeroom teacher and the students from the same class were the only ones tested, and they all came back clear, which was nice. But the information came back so SLOW. 

I’m a little irritated because I found out on Wednesday night what was going on, and even if I am vaccinated, I am super worried that I will end up being the covid monkey due to being at different schools three days out of five. I think other than being worried that I will catch it myself and get real sick, my biggest fear is that I will be protected from bad symptoms from the vaccine, but still be able to pass it onto some of my more vulnerable friends and students. The whole thing is a mess.  

Other than Covid and BoE drama, life is good. I’ve had a couple of other big changes - both fantastic and not so great, but yeah.  I have my health (and health insurance!) for now. I have a job, for now. I have a sense of existential dread for the next 12 months, but we’ll see where we end up. Life post JET is going to be way less cushy and I am TERRIFIED. I mean, I have a BA in Eng/Ling and no idea what to do with it…..because I am NOT suited for academia.

TLDR: Love my job. Don’t like the system. What is life? Future scary. 

[astormyexjet]

July 19th 2017 - January 7th 2018. Summer, Autumn and the start of 2018.

Ho boy. I have been useless at keeping this updated. Things got super busy with RA, working with the kids and just generally getting out and doing more, rather than being a shut in. I lie. I’ve been studying Japanese, doing more outside of school socially and sportingly AND playing more video games. But either way, I haven’t been chronicling my time here as much as I used to.

Ok, so summer. I went to Tokyo for a holiday some time in July/early August. I met up with Maya, one of the cool kids from up north that had actually contacted me about JET stuff before they got here the year after I did, I also met one of my sempai, who actually taught as an ALT alongside my Uni Japanese Uni friend who came to visit me in January last year. So that was a hilarious twist of fate. Tokyo was A plus as per usual, but I don’t see myself living there in the future. Too expensive, too busy. Too many people.

After getting back to Matsuyama, the new ALTs came. They’re all fab. Some of us oldies and a bunch of the newbies play DnD together now, so that’s taking some of my weekends. 

When they first got here, Miriam (the other RA) and myself organised a beach welcome party, we made a kick ass sand castle inspired by Matsuyama castle. We then destroyed it with a big rock. We also beat the crap out of a watermellon on the beach while blindfolded in an attempt to recreate an “authentic beach experience”. Basically in their first couple of weeks, RA duties saw Miriam and I making sure they were settling in all good and running/presenting at Ehime Orientation alongside the other RAs and the PAs. That was both fun, challenging and terrifying. 

Junior High sports day was in September. I jumped in on the white team, or rather the white teams 3rd years basically yanked me into their tent and told me I was their cheerleader, they even got me up doing their chant and dance. I love them all so much. They’re such genki, kind and hard working kids. It’s going to be hard for the last few months of teaching at my base school after they all graduate in March. I’ll have to change schools in August most likely as that is what happens here in Matsuyama to fourth year JETs. It’s probably time for a change, but with the new changes rolling out at Elementary school, I’m seriously concerned about the future of the JET Programme in Matsuyama...side note...our BOE still has no idea how they’re shuffling the new classes at ES 3rd and 4th grade is going to work...when everywhere else on the island had that sorted out last year.....argh. 

Halloween itself was pretty rough for me and a couple of my students. Along the route I bike to school, there is a few bridges with pretty high drops. From the hospital near my house to one of said bridges an ambulance and a police car kept pace (in early morning traffic) with me. By the time we got there, there were already a bunch of police cars and a group of the local community standing on the bridge pretty somberly. I made the mistake of looking down into the river and there was a guy who’d jumped. 

My students were standing nearby and one of the community members suggested that the four of us walk to school with the kids, so we did. It was pretty bleak, the kids weren’t really sure how to process it, neither was I to be honest, but I’ve been in a similar situation a couple of times with friends at Uni so I think that kind of helped me talk through some of what was happening with them. We got to school, informed the principal of what had happened and then the day went on as per usual.

Suicide here is a pretty big issue, luckily for the students and community it turns out the guy was from elsewhere in Matsuyama so it’s impact wasn’t as strongly felt in the community. The community has made efforts to reach out and support the family of the victim and the kids who saw the aftermath are being looked after as well. Thank god. 

I am a little bit worried about how they’re going to react to the whole Logan Paul thing that’s happened recently, and I am incredibly worried about who is going to be at school and who isn’t come the new term, as that is when youth suicide rises, but there’s very little one can do about stuff like that except keep an eye out for and support those who might be dealing with mental health issues.  

On a lighter note, Matsuyama Autumn Festival in October was fun as usual. I made my way down to my school block area and joined in with the community there. The shrines were beautiful, I saw a dragon/lion dance for the first time in real life. I got to hang out with a bunch of my students and their families and generally just put myself out into the community down there which has opened some pretty cool doors for me.

In October, Miriam and I were also in charge of sorting out the yearly Halloween Orphanage visit for the Chuyo region. It was stressful, but rewarding. The kids at the home are all getting so big! I really feel for the staff who take care of them, there’s so many. This year they actually provided costumes for the kids to wear, and boy did that go down a treat. We had a good time. The Christmas visit went along in a similar fashion. Stressful, difficult to co-ordinate, but we all survived.

Skills Development Conference happened at the start of December, it was as per usual, not fantastic. Basically the workshops were more of the same and the speaker this year was bloody useless. Japan is so frustrating in respect to educational change, despite how many JTEs and ALTs ask and suggest changes or improvements, it’s basically screaming into the void. 

After the last day of school, I ended up going to Osaka for Christmas break. I left on the 26th December and came back on the 30th. In that time I spent my first day up in Kyoto, where I hiked Mt. Inari in the snow...it was pretty cool. Figuratively and literally.  The shrine, Fushimi-Inari Shirine and the tori gates are a lot more beautiful than photos can capture. It’s eerie and quiet, but it’s also a peaceful place, if you go earlier on in the day, like before 9am as due to it being a tourist hot-spot, it gets busy fast. In Osaka I went to Nipponbashi and then a bunch of the surrounding places. I didn’t do as much shopping as I thought I would, but that meant I had a bunch more money to spend at USJ. 

USJ was unreal. I loved the Harry Potter world portion and was impressed by the Spiderman ride as well as a couple of the other smaller attractions. I avoided the Minion theme park like the plague, but probably would go if I go again and it’s still there. I also went to Osaka castle, but the museum portion was closed due to it being New-year break fro Japan, so next time. I also went to a cat cafe called Mocha which was really clean, relaxing and the cats were super well cared for. I saw the staff grooming the cats and cleaning the room while I was there, so they’re on to it. I also went to an owl cafe. I got pooped on. Apparently it’s lucky. The owls again were well looked after and the staff were on top of the animals welfare. Basically I had a blast in Osaka and have some ideas  of what I want to do with my partner when they come over in May. Yay!

On the 31st I climbed up the Shiroyama-park hill to Matsuyama castle and watched the last sunset of the year. It was pretty lackluster, but it was a nice way to end the year. I spent the rest of the evening curled up in my room with the heat on and watching Kohaku uta gassen. 2017 wasn’t a bad year for me, it was just an average year. I think now that I am a little more established in Japan, but coming towards the end of my time on JET (only 2 more years! CRIKEY), I’m starting to think about, and panic a little, the future. Like I have no idea what to do after this, but I know I want to stay abroad, but weather that is in Japan, England or Canada, I don’t know. I don’t know if I want to go back into study, or if I want to stick to doing odd jobs with my somewhat useless BA in English, Linguistics and TESOL Minor. I enjoy teaching, and I enjoy working with kids and young adults, learning from them and encouraging them to reach their goals, but I don’t know if I can find a good, stable job with my current qualifications. 

On New Years day I went to the big mall and lined up for lucky bags, I got the Pokemon Center one. I was stoaked, as initially I’d been in the wrong line, but 10 minutes before the doors opened I saw the right one, jumped in and managed to get one of the last bags!!! I also went and bought new running shoes and a Nintendo 3DS  for an early birthday present.

On my actual birthday, I went to work, hung out with the Volleyball kids, the table tennis kids and made paper cranes for the kids graduation in March. I then came home, ordered Pizza and spent the evening on my DS and PC gaming. It was nice. 

I haven’t made my New Years resolutions yet, but I think I’m going to do something similar to what I did last year and write a list of 25 things to do before I am 26. I got about 20 out of 25 things done last year, so I’ll carry over the five I didn’t manage. I have my first shot at my Karate Blackbelt on Wednesday, I don’t think I’ll pass this time around (dammit, why are test fees so expensive), but I think that getting it by the end of the year is on my list. Along with JLPT N3.

I signed my re-contracting paper before I went away, so I am definitely here until August 2019. I’m equal parts excited for the changes in the Elementary school English Education, and dreading how poorly our BOE has been planning it out. But we’ll just have to see. Until next time, this has been Kai, the 25 year old, sleep deprived and slightly Jaded 3rd year ALT.

[astormyexjet]

March 13th - July 18th 2017: ES and JHS Graduation Round Two, Korea and Osaka, Hanami, Early ES Sports Day, Becoming RA, Shiminami Kaido Round Two, More Farewells and the Start of Summer.

Yeah, it’s been a while folks. Life hit me full force. As did the looming threat of the future. I’ve been working on trying to motivate myself. It’s pretty hard, when you set the bar low and you eventually achieve what you want, there’s this big moment of well, this is temporary, what the f**k am I going to do with my life after this. Basically the last few months have been one existential crisis after another. Fun times.

A bunch of really cool 6th Grade Elementary School kids and 3rd Year Junior High School kids graduate in March. I keep seeing a bunch of the JHS Graduates on my bike to and from school this year, my fave tennis kid from last year nearly ran me off the road and into the river the other day she was so stoaked to see me. A bunch of my faves from ES came to the JHS, but I haven’t really had the opportunity to teach them or be in class with them as much as I was with the 1st years last year.  It’s made me a little jittery to be honest.

 I’ve only really had the chance to go to 2nd year classes, and that’s not picnic being that 80% of the kids are little punks. I love them to bits, but they are disrespectful, lazy little shits - and have been since they were in the 6th Grade. In part this is due to the way their English teacher taught them last year, but it’s also on them. It takes WAY to long to explain anything to them, so we’re stuck in discipline mode for 90% of class, review mode for 5% and have very limited time to do anything outside of the text book. They’re getting better, we’ve made more headway with the tougher kids which has bought the mood of the classroom back a bit, but there is still SO MUCH TO COVER. I want to go to 3rd and 1st year classes more. *sobbing* At least my 3rd years have been writing to me a lot. I have ninja-ed my way into some of their classes during my free periods, but it’s not the same...

My new 5th Graders are fantastic, cute and terrifyingly smart kids. I mean all the kids I teach are smart, but this lot are quirky and just so...genki? My 6th Graders are still great too. Which is a relief. I was worried they’d get one of the teachers from last year and that would change them for the worse, but that particular teacher was moved to another grade. English club is going well, it was so popular this year that a bunch of kids got turned down. We’re at capacity with 28 kids, and boy is it stressful having to think of fun stuff to do with a bunch of kids for an hour and a half every two weeks. But I love it.

South Korea and Osaka were fun. I’ll be honest, I think I bought the mood down A LOT in Korea, which I feel really guilty about. The person I was travelling with had so much they wanted to see and do, but I was a total fun sponge. I just felt REALLY uncomfortable in Seoul. I walked past a couple of anti-gay protests, and I think that had something to do with it. Being around other tourists also just..drove me mad? People are so rude? I think I’ve been in Japan too long as the standards I have for politeness are way too high...

That said, the lady in our hostel was really sweet. As were the other guests. Most of the vendors I interacted with were civil, even when I fucked up and started speaking Japanese instead of English out of habit (guy took it in his stride, and was almost relieved I think because his Japanese was better than his English). It was easier to find clothes that fit, particularly pants. The food was delicious, and the things we did go and see were pretty fun. I loved K-star Road and Myeondong. When we were leaving for Osaka, there was a drama or a CM being shot in the Airport, so while we were trying to get to sleep there was a lot of yelling and camera people running by. It was pretty cool. 

Osaka was much more my speed. I enjoyed going up the tower and doing some shopping in the Pokemon Center (this time minus the encounter with random 5th Grader from my ES) and ironically enough the Korea Town there. We were only in Osaka for a night, but as soon as we hit the ground back in Japan I just felt like I was home. There’s something that has always pulled me towards this place. I’m not sure how I’m going to leave in a few years. Hopefully by then somewhere else will be calling to me just as strong. 

After that trip it was right back into the new year with the teacher change and the new classes. Introduction lessons were about the only time I’ve had lesson with my 1st year JHS kids this semester so I’ve had words with my JTEs and they’ve paid lip service at least to timetabling me in for next Semester. Somewhere in this time I got pissed at my ES Supervisor for all the mucking around with the timetable and not informing the Japanese ALT about the changes and making her come all the way in for no classes or classes in the afternoon only. It stopped happening for a while...then it happened again today. Hopefully it was a one off thing or I’m going to have to talk to the BOE because it’s really not fair on anyone.

There were a bunch of Hanami parties ect too around this time. Also a couple more farewell parties. I applied for RA some time in Feb and got the position in March/April along with another person who is super cool and motivated, so that has had me busy.  In May there was Golden Week, which I did pretty much nothing in, besides go down to the Ikazaki Kite festival on Children's day again. It was fantastic. My ES had their Undokai/Sports Day in May too due to the big Paralympic championship being held here in September. It was so much fun this time, I dodged between tents and got to hang out with the really little kids as well as their parents and we all enjoyed cheering for our teams. The team I was on won for a change!!!

I graded from Green belt to brown finally after a four year period of dodging grading for Karate. I’ve learnt about 4 more kata since I have been here too, which is overwhelming. My teacher is threatening me with my black belt either at the end of this year or middle of next....so better get into shape a bit more before then. 

I bought a new skate board and have gone out a couple of times with my friend and his girlfriend. It’s surprisingly easier to cruise on compared to the old k-mart board I had, though I miss my longboard something shocking. I also miss being able to cruise around on it like back in Uni, you can’t really do that here without breaking the law or getting run over by someone. 

In June we held our first RA event, doing Iyo-kasuri dying in Matsuyama. It went well for a first event, I just need to relax a bit and plan stuff out for myself a bit more. The next event we’re hoping to hold is one for a Beach day after all the new people come in. But that is after Orientation, so I am going to start plotting that in about two weeks. 

I also did the Shimanami Kaido again with AJET. This time it actually went a lot better, it RAINED something fierce on the second to last island so we basically swam up the last couple of hills, but it was well worth it. It was hot, but not unbearable. There was also a festival at the end of it in Onomichi which was cool. The morning after, on the way to get breakfast we ran into on of the guys I came in with in 2015. I can’t for the life of me remember his name, but he pointed us in the direction of a really nice bakery. So props fellow kiwi. Best Curry-pan I have ever had. 

I took the JLPT N4 on July 2nd. I’m pretty sure I failed again. But I only have myself to blame. I need to figure out how to study. I was always one of those kids that did really well on tests with relatively little study at High School, I just needed to pay attention in class and do the homework. But everything changed when the firenation..I mean Uni attacked. I know for a fact my conversational Japanese has gotten heaps better (though it is strongly Iyo-ben/Yankii/Inaka), my reading and writing hasn’t improved at all. Nor has my ability to do their shitty grammar puzzles, really the format of that section is going to be what makes me fail in tests I study for even...but for now it’s over, I think I’ll wait until this time next year to sit it again, if I pass I’ll aim for N3. 

This last weekend there was the AJET leaving party on Kashima island in Hojo. It was a bit surreal to be quite honest. A fair few of the people who came in with me, as well as the sempai who guided us through our first month, are leaving. I know life will plug on as normal after they’re gone, that is the transient nature of this job, but it is going to be odd for a bit having new faces around in a couple of weeks.

It’s made me realize how fast time is going. I have no plan for after JET yet. I have no ambition or motivation really. I don’t really have anything waiting for me back home other than Student debt and few job prospects. So for now I guess the plan is to take more TESOL courses, brush up on my Japanese and look into what I need to acquire a similar job after my final renewal.

One of my 5th graders was on the island when we got there. So that was weird....but she was really cool today, bragging to all her friends about how she saw me and my friends. A bunch of kids were surprised I even had friends, but that’s another story for another time. The next day as I was going to pick my bike up from the repair shop (my back tire burst on my way to the supermarket/station on Saturday) I ran into one of the shyer 6th Grade kids and her cousin. We had a special fifth grade lesson with my teacher for JHS, we’re doing phonics, and it’s equal parts hilarious and terrifying how kiwi these kids sound. 

This weekend there is E-Talk camp, which I am looking forward too. One of the few decent 2nd year JHS boys is doing it again this year as well as one of my fave 3rd year girls. I think there might be one more kid, but my teacher didn’t really confirm that yet. I’ll find out on Saturday hopefully.

I’m going to my ES End of term party on Thursday, which I am looking forward to, but also dreading. The nurse who has been at the school for the last year or so is transferring out to Seiriyo High School and we’re getting someone new. So this party will be the last time I see her for a while. She’s been pretty cool about me coming in and out and chatting with the kids who have anxiety issues and the kids who aren’t feeling well, but are still genki enough to be sitting up. It’s also been really nice to hide in the nurses office while I don’t have classes because I can do my homework there a lot faster than I can in the teachers room, and they had the aircon on earlier...and not as high as the teachers room does...either way, I hope the dynamic doesn’t change too much, especially for the two kids who have that place as their refuge.

Next week, I have a trip to Tokyo coming up. I need to get off of the island for a bit again I think. And I need to do it on my own. So I’ve booked five days away, and only have tentative plans to meet up with my former Japanese housemate. I want to climb Takao-san, even though people say it’s nothing special and I want to go to Ueno Zoo and do a couple of nerdy things in Akiba/Ikebukuro again. I just need to push myself a little more. Then it’ll be right back into Orientation Prep and welcoming the new kids.  

Orientation prep is a bit stressful. I screwed up and made things complicated for everyone by trying to be considerate of my stressed out JHS JTEs. At the end of the day I should have just bitten the bullet and started planing the whole demonstration lesson on my own and run through it with whoever I was going to do it with a couple of times before the actual event, but noooooooo I had to go and try change things up by asking if we could have one of the other ALTs in our region do it with our old boss....but that’s a problem for tomorrow or the end of the week. I am confident I can pull it off if things fall through, but if not, there is really only me to blame for it all.  

I have so much to do before I leave, but I should wack the last of the urgent stuff out by tomorrow afternoon. If not, I took leave on Friday, so between cleaning my house up for Micheal to stay here on his last night while I am away and packing (hopefully not too hung over) I have time to get the bulk of what I need done out of the way before my holiday and the printing deadline. 

Basically I am happy, a little stressed, somewhat frustrated with lack of classes at my JHS, but also shit scared of the future. What else is new....

[astormyexjet]

December 28th 2016 - March 12th 2017. Hiroshima Part 2, New Year, A Visit From Some Old Friends, Birthdays and a Few Long ‘See-you’s!’.

Opps. I got lazy. What else is new? As per usual a bunch has happened since I last wrote. Things got busy basically as so as I started back after Winter Break and I haven’t had time to think. Or sleep properly. But hey, that’s being an adult right?

On the 28th I got on the Ferry and took myself to Hiroshima for a few days of shopping and just wandering around. I met up with an old Uni friend and her sister. We went out for dinner on my first night in the city, I took them to the big Okonomiyaki tower and then Hannah and I walked around the Heiwadori Illuminations.

We hit the Itsukushima Shrine on the 29th and I climbed up Mt Misen from the top of the Ropeway station. I had taken like three steps into the bush track when two Pheasants ran out in front of me. I nearly had a heart attack because at first I thought they were snakes, because all I saw were their tail feathers, but then they started clucking at me/each other and I spotted the rest of their bodies as they bolted up the hill. The view from the top of the mountain was pretty amazing. It would have been better if it had been a clear day though. There was snow on the mountains on the mainland, but the sky was pretty grey and you couldn’t see out to the other islands as well as you can when the sun is out.

On the 30th we got on the Ferry and came back to Matsuyama. We climbed up to the Castle for the sunset and then I took them out to my fave Izakaya. I think we went our own ways pretty early that night in prep for doing stuff the next day. On the 31st they explored Matsuyama a bit, and I sorted my life out before meeting them at their hostel. We watched the Kouhaku (Red and White Singing Wars) together with the other guests in the house plus the lady who was in charge. At a little before midnight we went up the road to a wee pub behind the Dogo Onsen and saw in the new Year with a beer, and then we climbed up the stairs to the Shrine on the top of the hill for Hatsumode.

On New Years Day Hannah and I met Jiovaane and a few other ALTs to go “Fukubukuro” shopping. Basically this is when you get to the mall as soon as it opens and the go and buy a pre-bundled lucky bag from a shop. You can pay anywhere from 1000yen to over 20000yen for a bunch of stuff. I got bags from Right On, Village Vangaurd and a sports store. I basically paid 25000yen and got over 40000yen worth of clothes and home goods. It was a cool experience.

Hannah left on the 2nd or 3rd and I celebrated my birthday on the 4th. I’m 24 now apparently. Probably should start planning what I’m going to do with my life from now on...

Nothing much other than work happened between then and the Tsubaki-Matsuri on the 3rd-4th-5th of Feb. I went down with my mates on the 4th. A bunch of my students were there and said hello. A group of my third-year JHS kids stuck around and tried to figure out what we were saying. During that weekend we went and saw a concert/live show that one of our Japanese friends was playing with his new band “Seaslugs”. It was pretty cool!

On the 11th of Feb, the Chuyo RA held a “Harry Potter” Murder mystery night which was a heap of fun. Props again to Jiovaane and his imagination for making the night enjoyable.

On the following weekend one of the other ALTs had a game night at his house, where a bunch of JET Program ALTs, Private ALTs, Eikaiwa teachers and University Students were massive nerds and played board and card games. We also ate a heap before going back into town and hitting the bar. The following night was also a game night, this time at Mat’s, as him and his girlfriend were getting ready to leave for travel. Both nights were a blast even if I was shattered by the end of the weekend.

On the 25th, my mate from Uni came and visited. She took me out to a wee station on the ocean front famous for it’s sunset. Shimonada was the name of the place. We got out there and enjoyed the view with a surprising number of other tourists. It was such a great day for it though. The sun was out and there was hardly a cloud in the sky. It was a bit hazy out towards the islands, but as the sunset drew near, it got easier to see out to where the islands were. There was lovely older couple who volunteer out at the station who made an effort to come and talk to us both. The old dude was super keen on photography and helped Misa out with a few cool angles and shots of the station and the islands. The Iyonada-Monogatari, a local sight seeing train, pulled up a little before the sun started to properly set, and everyone scrambled to snap photos of it. It was about twenty minutes after that that the sun started to do it’s thing. We snapped a few shots and then jumped back on our train to Matsuyama.

That night we went out for dinner and then walked into town to meet up with my mates. There was a birthday/farewell party on for Mat, Miku and Paul. It was a good night, albeit a bit sad. But that’s what happens when you live in another country. People come and go fairly regularly.

Misa and I went up to Matsuyama Castle in the morning and got some shots of the plum blossoms and the castle itself before we walked down to JR Station and parted ways. It was really cool to catch up with someone from Otago. It’s amazing how far everyone has come since graduation.

On the 4th of March I went and watched my Baseball boys play a game. Basically the pitcher had been bugging me to come and watch them play since I watched them lose a game at the fall tournament. This time they played fiercely and stole a last minute win. It was really neat to see how confident they’ve become since September. I’m hoping to catch the Girls Basketball team play next weekend. I havent watched them play yet, but a few of them have been bugging me to come watch since they heard I went to the soft tennis tournament to support their classmates there. Which is fair enough - and I am honestly looking forward to it. It’s really awesome that they want me there, and that even if the hate English as a subject, they’re not opposed to interacting with me in English outside of the classroom.

This Friday night, a bunch of us went and had nabe (hotpot) at Dillions in celebration of his birthday. Basically we cooked, ate, played card games and just enjoyed each others company. After how hectic the last few weeks have been, it was really nice. The food was fantastic too, Yukie made the soup base and it turned out really well.

Last night we all met at Pauls place for another game night/the actual birthday party for Dillion. We played Dixit (which is a fantastic abstract concept game), at a bunch of junkfood, watched a bunch of youtube and then got on our bikes and headed into town to continue at the bar. I got home fairly early bar.

Today I basically woke up and hit the ground running to get chores done before rolling out the door to do a bit of exploring. I finally stuck my head into the shrine by the castle park moat. It was super cute, and the lighting was really nice. There was also a part where you could hang over and photograph the fish from close up, which was really cool. I also went up to the big cemetery on the hill. I wanted to take photo’s of the cats that hang out there and live off of the offerings people leave. I found a few but wasn’t fast enough to get pictures. Still it was nice to get out into the sun and see parts of the city I hadn’t.

Basically in between the busy weekends, there’s been even busier weeks. I go to Karate twice a week from 7pm-9pm and I have a Japanese Lesson every Tuesday from 4.30-5.30pm. I study, clean and plan lessons on the other nights, so I haven’t really had much in the way of a proper break for a couple of months. Being this social really takes it out of me. Not that I hate it, I’m just not used to it after so long being a hermit Today was the first time in forever I had some time to myself and could ride my bike around for the sake of it.

I finished teaching my 3rd Year JHS students on Monday this week. I have one lesson left with all the other classes from ES grade 5 to 2nd year JHS. My ES kids have done so well over the last couple of months, the 6th graders surprised me with their creativity when doing the Momotaro unit of Hi Friends and also with their dreams for the future.

Graduation for my JHS kids is this week on the 16th. I’m going to cry so hard. I really hated teaching them last year, but something changed this year and they became really cool to teach. I think because I’ve known them for nearly two years now. that it will be harder than last year. ES Graduation is on the 23rd, but that’s not so hard as most of them come to the JHS. A couple of my favorites are leaving to other schools though, largely for special needs or sporting reasons. Which is really cool but sad at the same time. The teacher shuffle happens in April too, which will be interesting.

I’m going to Osaka South Korea with one of the other ALTs on the 25th of March. So I’m looking forward to that and the three day weekend next weekend. Hopefully the political situation will stabilize a little bit there so we’re ok.

This has been a bit drier/disjointed than the last couple of entries, but to be honest I am so tired. I just wanted to get everything down before I forgot it all and had some time to think.

[astormyexjet]

October 30th - December 27th, 2016. Another Year Gone! Time to Make Decisions. 

Over the past coupe of days I’ve sat down a couple of times with the intention to write about the last two months, but I’ve either run out of energy or gotten distracted. So here we go, for real this time!

Since I last wrote I’ve survived;

-Halloween Lessons and the Halloween Orphanage visit.

-The Yuruchara Gran Prix

-Tobeyaki trip with a handful of Matsuyama ALTs.

-A trip to Hiroshima with some of the other ALTs from Matsuyama.

-The yearly Skills Development Conference and consequent enkai.

-The JLPT N4, pretty sure I bombed, but at least I have a feel for it now.

-Christmas Lessons and the Christmas Orphanage Visit.

-My microwave blowing up and having to buy a new one.

-Multiple breath taking morning commutes to work with the sun rising as I bike along the river.

-Murder Mystery night ‘Who Killed Santa Claus?’ version. 

-My JHS Bon Enkai, where I drew the ‘lucky’ card that meant I had to open the night with a short speech before ‘kanpai’.

-Christmas where I thought I was going to be alone but at the last minute someone let me tag along on their Christmas dinner party thing, which I really appreciate. 

-Two months of Karate. Learning two kata and then starting on a third that I haven’t been taught before. I still have a way to go, but it’s been a bit of a shock to the system how much I’ve picked up over the last three months. I also destroyed my gi a little, so I need to invest in a new one and sew on the dojo crest. 

So yeah. It’s been a full on. It’s gotten colder quickly, and my motivation flew out the window some time in late September. I go through patches where all I want to do is sleep or watch Anime, and then other patches were I get cabin fever and need to get out of the house/city. 

Hiroshima with the other ALTs was pretty cool. Since I first visited in 2009 I’ve felt a weird pull to the city. This time we did the usual, Miyajima, A-Bomb dome, Peace Park, but we also found an Owl Cafe to go to. That was pretty cool. 

Work is going well. I do feel a bit helpless sometimes, when they’re grading or setting tests and I don’t have to be in classes when they’re handing tests back is when it hit’s worst. This year has been so up and down at my JHS, but for the most part it’s evened out and I’ve been given a green light for a project in the third semester so that’s exciting. 

I’ve been trying to be more social lately - but I’ve also been trying to get used to operating on my own and enjoying doing things on my own. I took myself to see both Fantastic Beasts and Rogue One in the last couple of weeks. I’m taking myself to Hiroshima again tomorrow, where I’ll be meeting a friend of mine from Uni and her Sister.

Often I see the photo’s that go up of the other ALTs here in Ehime when they hang out together outside of events run by the RAs or AJET and it kind of hits me that I really only exist briefly during the monthly meetings. Like I know this has a lot to do with our personalities and interests not really lining up, but it still bites that everyone is out there enjoying themselves and I am just...existing in my apartment or in the game-center on my own (which is fine sometimes, but all the time it kind of starts to sting). It’s the curse of being an ambivert I think. Like before coming to Japan I had a small handful of really close and important friendships - not having that here yet kinda blows. I am trying to claw my way back to being positive and just getting on with life, but it really hit me hard over the days leading up to Christmas.

Last year I worked on Christmas Day and we had our School’s Bonenkai, so I didn’t really have time to think about the holiday season. This year it fell on a Sunday so when I woke up and started getting everyone’s snaps and insta photos it hit me pretty hard how alone I am a lot of the time - that’s the most homesick I’ve felt this whole time I’ve been here. Usually I friggen hate how busy Christmas is, I’m not a fan of being obligated to hang out with relatives or family friends who I don’t really know, I used to find every opportunity to vanish into my room and read or play computer games. This year I missed out on puppies and my cat. I’d kill for a mince and cheese pie and a decent roast lamb and the opportunity to smash the tennis swingset thing around on the lawn.  I went and made a sandman on the beach at Baishinji instead, that’s was the closest I was going to get to a summer Christmas day here. 

I have been hit by the seasonal blues recently too. Like it hits me even when I’m in NZ, just usually it’s in July/August, not around Christmas, cause y’know, the seasons a switched. As I said two of things hitting me the hardest lately have been loneliness and lack of motivation. Comparison really is the thief of joy. Like to me, it seems everyone both here and back home has a solid group of friends and a clear sense of purpose/direction. 

Now I know I have friends, what sucks is not being able to text and arrange a quick hang out (on that note, I have a bunch of Americans coming to visit in August which will be neat!), because sometimes you just need to hang out in person and not over the screen. 

The other thing, motivation. Everyone seems to have a clear idea of where they want to go either within the JET Program, in Japan or back in their own countries. At the moment I have no idea what the heck I want to do with my life. I don’t have many talents that are applicable to the workforce because playing the Ukulele and singing badly, writing shitty poetry and sub-par gay fanfiction are not employable skills (not with my attitude anyway).  There’s not a lot I’m interested in anymore, and whether that’s the weather speaking or something else niggling at me again I’m not sure. We’ll just have to wait and see how I’m feeling come March.

That said, I’m more or less satisfied with how things are here. I have regular income and a somewhat cosy apartment. I have opportunities to train under a fantastic sensei at a dojo with lovely people. My kids are little shits and I love them (apart from the 1st years at my JHS, those kids are little terrors). I’m dreading graduation this year as I’ve actually had a chance to get to know the third years, but I’m also excited to see where they will end up. I should have more opportunities to travel next year. I made my decision to re-contract and have handed in the paper work - so I have at least a year and a half to pull my head out of my ass and make a go of things.

I’ve always been a slow starter. Until next time. Peace. 

[astormyexjet]

September 21st - October 29th 2016. I Climbed a Mountain in the Rain.

Since I last wrote, my Elementary school has had its sports day and my family have been through. I also scaled a mountain and have been furiously planning and executing special lessons for Halloween, Christmas and my JHS Culture day. Today was my first sleep in since September and boy, was it overdue. 

My ES Sports day went much the same way as my JHS one. It rained. Heavily. Like what does the weather have against my schools? Last year my ES had their sports day cut short as the wind picked up so much that it was lifting the tents up and throwing them on my kids. This year it was a bit more fun and a lot less nerve wracking for me. I flitted between the tents interacting with the different grades and managed some basic conversations with parents and grand parents. The rain set in just before lunch - my poor 6th Graders had to do the acrobatics routine in the pouring rain - which was super scary as they made a bunch of human pyramids and trust bridges ect. Nobody fell, and unlike my JHS sports day, nobody was injured seriously. 

My family visited from September 26th - October 3rd. I took my brother to school with me on the 27th of September which was fun. My teacher had asked if he would like to come, so I pretty much pressured him in to doing it. The kids loved him. My 3rd Year JHS kids had to interview him and then write up a news paper article, which I marked and he commented on. They’re still asking me about him and where he is and if he has a girlfriend yet. 

In most of the classes someone would ask him if he was seeing anyone, which is basically all they were really interested in...but the stand out was one of the Soft Tennis kids standing up and saying”I don’t have a boyfriend, BUT do you have a girlfriend?” and that was followed by a “Do you have a six pack?”. All in all my kids have perked up in class since then which is nice. I just wish I could maintain that level of interest in English/learning another language in these kids. The truth is a lot of them don’t see the point as they’re from an inaka city where it really doesn’t have many practical applications and a bunch of them are not continuing to High School. So yeah. That’s the sum of things with my 3rd Years. My 2nd years are still fairly enthused, as they have a super genki teacher and most of them have more ambition in them than I have ever been able to muster. My 1st Graders are a cause for concern, but I’ll either talk about that later in this post or another day.

After my family spent a week in Matsuyama and it’s surrounds we traveled to Hiroshima together by boat - which was neat. We spent two days in Hiroshima taking in the sights and history. It was a good experience for everyone to see the A-Bomb dome as well as some of the historical sites such as Miyajima and the Hiroshima Castle. I ran into one of my 5th Graders in the Pokemon Center, we didn’t really acknowledge each other there, but playing dodgeball the next week with his class I asked him if he’d been to Hiroshima that weekend and he started screaming. 

After Hiroshima we spent a day in Osaka. It was my first time in the city proper, but we didn’t really explore as much as I would like. We did manage to go to the big Aquarium in the bay (Kairyukan) and the shopping mall next to it. I am in the process of planning a trip back so I can go to USJ and finally make it to Harry Potter world. I flew back from Kansai Airport after putting my family on the Shinkansen to Kyoto, they spent another couple of days having a look around and making their way to Tokyo. 

After coming back to Matsuyama it was pretty much back into planning and life in general. My JHS has been prepping for the Cultural festival and I’ve been planning Halloween Lessons for my ES. I finished doing them yesterday. I got the hiccups for the last lesson which was inconvenient but somewhat amusing. 

I also finally dragged myself to a dojo. I’ve singed up and have started training twice a week. It’s a small place, and it seems to be heavily focused on kata, but in the long run it’s better than nothing. The sensei is really lovely, strict but lovely. He has a  surprising amount of English for someone his age and he has been trying to encourage the other (mainly older people) to try speaking English to me. It’s been good for my Japanese and my physical plus mental health.

On the 2nd of October I climbed Ishizuchi-san/Mt. Ishizuchi with the Ehime AJET group. It rained pretty much all the way up, and the clouds were so prevalent that we didn’t get much of a view until we were on our way down the cable car. Despite that though, I had a lot of fun and am looking forward to hopefully doing it again in Spring. 

My observation is on the 21st of November and so is my 3 Year JHS students culture day. On the 3rd my school will be having their cultural festival which I am also prepping for. I have a bunch of first grade letters to reply to to, so it’s all go as per usual. I am loving it, but I have noticed that my endurance is not as solid as it used to be. I find myself increasingly tired and irritated by the end of the week - I think a lot of it has to do with not understanding the main language spoken here very well, there’s also a bit of a lack of communication with me from my JTE’s at both schools - like I know they’re busy (at the JHS I can understand this a lot more due to the fact I don’t have a supervisor anymore) but telling me basic stuff like if the class schedule has changed for the day or if they want me to prep for school events would be great. I’m getting there, but it’s still draining. 

Unlike some of my peers (which is fair enough, a number of them are struggling with really shitty situations/have other things they want to pursue) I still want to stay for another year (probably more). If given the opportunity I plan to re-contract for the 2016-2017 year. I’m looking into some online Japanese and TEFL courses to supplement both my lack of L2 and Teaching Skills. Honestly if it weren’t for my students and some of the teachers I work with I don’t think I could hack another year here. But things have been slowly falling into place recently, and thank the powers that’s the case, as I really haven’t got much of a plan for what to do next yet.

Prep for N4 is currently not really happening beyond my day to day interactions, but I have a month to pull my finger out. It just sucks that it happens at the same time as NaNoWriMo which I am also planning on tackling. It’s going to be a matter of balancing myself and my time very carefully. 

Until next time. Keep pushing forward!

[astormyexjet]

August 15th - September 20th. So Long Summer. 

It’s probably a bit premature to be fare-welling the heat and humidity - but a kid can dream right?  The weather has been unsettled recently due to the typhoons that have been hanging out in our area. Where I’m at we’ve barely been touched, but in other parts of Japan there has been some serious damage. The worst we got was some heavy rain earlier this morning, thunder and lightning. My Elementary School had the day off today because of the warnings that were in place. 

Since I last wrote, there’s been a bit going on. Mainly prep at both schools for Sports Days, but more on that later. In terms of ALT related stuff, there was the beach day, where a bunch of us went down to Futami Beach, near Iyo-city for a day and just chilled. I didn’t get a sunburned as I thought I would, but I still got crispy. A bunch of us got stung by tiny wee jellyfish too - so there was that. 

A bunch of the new ALTs and returning ALTs had birthdays - so that took a chunk out of my wallet with karaoke, meals and impromptu trips to the Game Centers. I won two big plushies (one for the birthday person) and a bunch of little plushies on around $10/1000yen on the 9th. My Crane Game collection is coming along nicely after a year of being here.,.. 

We also went to a couple of good places for food that weekend too. I haven’t really been out with the other ALTs since then (it’s only been a little over a week and a half , but after that month spending nearly every other day with someone else it feels a bit weird). Not having the EPIC Japanese course on anymore helps with that. I think things are settling back into the normal pace.

My commute to work is now barren of the summer smells of rice growing and the sight of sunflowers. So that’s a sure sign that we’re pushing into Autumn. It’s sad now biking past the empty fields. But soon enough the kids and families will be planting it again and the unbearable humidity and heat will be back in force. 

My JHS had it’s Sports Day on Sunday, so my teachers have today and tomorrow off for make up holidays (since we all worked Saturday and Sunday last week). Basically the plan for me was to have tomorrow off, but with my ES being cancelled today, today is my day off and I’m going in tomorrow. Yesterday and Thursday are public holidays. So my second day off is on the 3rd of August. The weather has been super average for about two weeks now. It’s been muggy and rains in patches, so the kids haven’t been able to practice for the events as much. We managed to hold the sports day before the tip of the Typhoon pushed in a bunch of storms on Sunday. 

They only cancelled two of the races and the Club March as the sky opened up and it started thundering. I got dragged in to do the folk dance at the end with the 3rd Year kids. I inserted myself into the White team because their chants were the easiest for me to yell along with (I’m also assigned to the White team in ES so I had the head band). This year it was super fun, last year I was so nervous as I didn’t know any of the kids that well, but this year I’ve put up with their crap for at least a year, and they were all joking and laughing and having a good time in the rain, it kind of hit me that they’ll be graduating soon. I didn’t have the best start with this group (they were little shits as 2nd years) but they’ve warmed up to me and I’ve grown to appreciate their warped sense of humor. March will be here before we all know it. 

Other than sports day, the English department at my JHS has been a bit shaky. My head JTE is a fantastic teacher, but they are really frail - so since school started in April I’ve had a total of two classes with them. They took the first semester off to try and recover and we had a super genki, sweet teacher come in and take over for a bit. 

The original Head JTE (for this year) came back at the start of the second semester and already things aren’t looking so good, they’ve had to take a bunch of consecutive days off already - there’s been meetings with the other JTEs and the Principal about what to do, but as I’m the lowly ALT I have no idea what is going to happen and I probably won’t find out until next week or so. The best case scenario would be that the Head JTE made a full recovery and got to stay, they’re a bit difficult for me to talk with, but they are a fantastic teacher with a real passion for what they do. 

The reality is that they will likely be forced to take the rest of the year off and their classes will be divided between the current teachers and maybe a replacement like in first semester. It’s rough on the kids (mainly 2nd years) because their teachers keep changing out and classes are getting cancelled a lot. To the kids credit though, they’re all helping each other and most of them are keeping their grades up with the more stable classes. It’s stressful for everyone involved and there really isn’t much anybody can do about it all. Health is such a sly thing. It’s been rough on the whole team, we were talking about trying some more interactive and challenging stuff in class but haven’t been able to do much as they’ve had to make sure these classes with the sick teacher are keeping up.

Elementary school has been nice. I really missed the kids over the break. I have started trying to come out of my shell a bit more and asked to sit and watch a couple classes while I didn’t have any English lessons, so far I’ve been dragged into practicing the Soran Bushi dance for sports day (I won’t actually be doing it on the day, but maybe next year!) and I got to see a Social Studies class. The cleaning kids have changed again - I have Oh-NO!-kun and Ketchup on duty with me. This semester I only got two kids because they finally cottoned on to how easy the room is to keep clean...

The first English Club for the semester went really well last week. We did a shopping theme. Basically I explained how NZ money worked, and then had them guess how much certain grocery items cost in NZ Dollars. I had accounted for like 10 minutes for the activity, but the kids got SUPER competitive and it stretched out for around half an hour or more. So we’re going to finished the second activity next week, the kids will be given play money - around $30 and a flyer from the pile that my friends sent me from NZ and then they have to plan a party, We started last week, but ran out of time. From going around a little bit the kids were really enjoying figuring out what there was in the flyers and how much it translated to back to yen. Then the English Assistant, the Club adviser, the kid who grew up in Aussie and myself are going to pretend to be shop assistants and have the other kids come through and navigate buying the things in English. So I just need to sort out scripts for that. 

My family are coming through next week. They’re in Matsuyama from the 26th to the 30th. My brother is coming with me to school on the 27th. They’re going to be travelling a bit from the 30th, I’m joining them for Hiroshima and Osaka after school on that Friday and getting back to Matsuyama on the evening of the 3rd of October.

I signed up to take the JLPT N4 in December. I’m probably going to fail, but that’s on me and not having had the motivation to force myself to study and focus. I have been attending weekly lessons, but I really need to be making myself study for at least an hour every day. In reality I probably need to do a lot more. But with work and wanting to sleep regular hours that’s probably not on the cards this time around.

I really need to find an active and creative hobby or two. I’ve been looking into photography/making vlogs again, but I don’t have a computer capable of editing like I used to and I’d have to buy a new camera too as my old one is kinda dying. I bought a Nickle board a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t really had a chance to ride it much because the weather is rubbish and there’s nowhere to skate when it rains. I’ve been fiddling with my Ukulele on and off, but I’m just not confident anymore. It’s kind of this weird circle, I see people creating and perfecting their hobbies, and I’m just sitting here feeling frustrated because I don’t know what I want to be doing. Or where I want to go. I have potential and a small amount of talent in a couple of areas, but that’s negated by my inability to motivate myself. I have no confidence and I have no drive or passion for anything anymore. It’s going to take a bit of work to get back up on top of things.  

I’ll get there. 

Peace. 

[astormyexjet]

July 16th 2016 – August 14th 2016. One Year in Matsuyama AKA Return of Summer.

WHELP. Time sure does fly. Summer is here again and I’m doing at least one load of washing a day because of how much I sweat through my clothes when I go outside (gross yeah? Welcome to summer in Japan). We’ve said a bunch of goodbyes and hellos in the last month. This is perhaps the weirdest time of year. It’s both the busiest since I got here and the least busy. There’s not really much in terms of work to be done at school over the summer vacation, but outside of school it’s been hectic. I’ve been pretty shoddy at keeping up my emails and messages because of it. Soz about that. But I have to sleep sometime...

I helped with two English Summer Camps for Junior and Senior High School students in Matsuyama. The first was E-Talk camp from July 23rd – 25th. This one is where kids from Junior Highs in the region can come in and spend the weekend interacting with people from outside of Japan. There was a bunch of other ALTs, both from the JET Programme and private hires, as well as a bunch of University Exchange students and Lifers in Japan. Two kids from my JHS attended, but neither of them were in my group. I had a bunch of kids from private schools and a student from Hojo. In terms of activities the camp was a bit of mixed bag, there were some things (like the fricken dance they had us learn and then perform) that really had no merit for teaching English…that said, the dude who came in from the dance company totally did his best to give all the instructions in English even though originally he was told Japanese was ok. It did grow on me, but at the same time I still wake up in a cold sweat occasionally reliving the embarrassment of not being able to get a couple of the simpler steps. We did get to dance with the local Yuru-kyara, Mikyan.

There was this thing called ‘Virtual Conversation’ that I personally feel was a fantastic concept, but the execution on the day left a lot to be desired. Basically it was a bunch of stations relating to what the kids would experience if they went on exchange or on Holiday overseas. There was a set script for each station, and some of the stations were set up to be like the places where the conversations would happen. Personally I feel like on the first day it was too rigid. But that was to be expected, the second day, the kids and those of us on the stations were a little bit more flexible, we threw a few curve balls at each other and made the kids think on their feet. To make it go a bit smoother next time, I feel like they need to assign the roles to the volunteers before the camp, as we chose on the day what station we were going to be handling. They also need to like….spell check and grammar check their booklets because there were a number of mistakes throughout. Especially if they’re wanting the kids to memorize and recite the parts.

There was a bunch of scavenger hunt activities that we did too. One involved us walking from Dogo Park area to the Castle Park – I personally had a good time, and I think my kids did too. At the time, Pokémon Go had just been released, so I gave my phone to the kids in my group and they ran off catching Zubat’s, Pidgey’s and Ratata’s for me. I probably should have been playing the game less while we were on the camp, but most of the other volunteers were playing as well, and the kids thought it was pretty cool – it also became sort of a bridge for starting conversation. The shyer girl in my group actually opened up and started talking to me a lot during the walk and at meal times because of it. I also got cornered at the Dogo Onsen for playing the game, a TV crew from a local station interviewed me…and apparently some of the footage actually made it onto TV (my Soft Tennis kids saw it and have been giving me shit about it…). There was a dodgeball competition too, which was fun, but really difficult because of the giant beach ball things they were using instead of the foam dodge balls they use at Elementary schools here.

All in All, I really did enjoy this camp and the opportunities it provided for communication with the JHS kids and other volunteers. There were some organisational things that could have been done better, but nothing failed too horribly and only one person got food poisoning and only one person got heat stroke out of the 100 or so that were there.

The second camp I was involved with was on August 1st-2nd and was for a combined JHS – SHS that one of my JTE’s moved to when the staff changed around in April.  The SHS ALT there is pretty cool too (as were the other volunteer ALTs - even if outside of stuff like this, they tend to keep to their little circle). This camp was a bit more polished, it was also a day shorter. Basically we got to the venue at like 8.30am, the camp started at 9am and we were all go until about noon the next day. The activities were a lot of fun and really rich in opportunities for the kids to use their English. 

The kids were aged between 2nd grade JHS and 1st grade SHS. So while there was variation there were a lot of instances where the kids had a chance to scaffold and peer assist each other’s learning. The ALTs had to prep an activity for one of the rotations each, the activity had to be 15 minutes long and something that could be repeated for each group to have a go at it (so about 5 times). I taught a traditional game from NZ called Ti Rakua. There was also a photo scavenger hunt and a really fun game called Robot Quiz. The kids really came out of their shell on the second morning.

I’ve also been helping one of my 3rd year kids prep for a recitation contest. He did really well in terms of memorization and improving his pronunciation and pacing. The completion was on the 7th of August and we’d been having practice sessions nearly every day from the 21st of July until then. He has done a lot of public speaking in Japanese before so he wasn’t too bothered by the crowd. He didn’t place but compared to when he had started, he improved so much with only a little guidance from me. I do want to get better at one on one coaching though. So I’ve been reading up on it.  

Between ETalk camp and the SHS Camp, the new ALTs arrived. On the 27th of July the Group A lot touched down and we took them to lunch and showed them around the city a little bit. Group B touched down on the 3rd of August and so far, they all seem like a decent bunch! There are even a couple of new Kiwi’s in the surrounding towns!  So there have been a couple of welcome dinners and bunch of orientation things for those guys.

I’ve been here for a year now, and I’m a sempai now, but it all seems so surreal. I’m not a good sempai really, as I haven’t done as much travelling or going out as the others have. I haven’t got the best social skills with people my age either. Like, I’m so rusty after the minimal interactions I’ve had with people recently, especially with native or fluent speakers of English. I said some stuff that I immediately wanted to take back recently, stuff that I never would have said or thought a couple of years back, just because I haven’t been hanging out with people in person or had to make new friends for a long time. That’s what you get for being a hermit. Despite all the new people coming into the city/surrounds, it’s been a bit of a wakeup call as to why I’m not overly social.  I do want to make friends, but I understand that I rub people the wrong way because I’m a bit stupid and probably too excitable and bossy. My voice is hella annoying too…. It’s been a good lesson in grounding myself and trying to be more comfortable with being alone and travelling on my own. Friends will either come into my life or they wont, and I just gotta deal. I’m not most people’s cup of tea. I’m good acquaintance material. Just not, hey, let’s hit Kai up and do things material.

There’s been a bunch of Summer festivals going on. I finally got to go and see a Fireworks festival, it was pretty cool. Like we didn’t go to where they were letting them off, instead we went a bay over to a beach where we could see them and escape the massive crowds of people. I would like to go to the actual festival next time. There’s the annual Matsuyama Matsuri on at the moment with the Baseball Samba. I posted about that this time last year.

I’ve been playing a bunch of Pokemon Go recently. It’s made my walk in the evenings a little bit more fun. I’ve done at least 100km of walking and biking since it came out. I keep running into my students. A bunch of the new ALTs are on the same team as I am so that should be fun, we might actually be able to take a couple of gyms.

For the last couple of weeks when I have been at my JHS I’ve been observing some of the clubs as I don’t actually have any prep work to do/I’ve finished what I have been asked to do. I ended up getting quite invested in the Soft Tennis club. I have so much respect for these girls, as unlike normal tennis, the ball is so fickle and hard to control. You can’t like smash it without it clearing the entire handball team on the other practice field.... It’s a lot more delicate and precise, and reminds me a lot of playing squash. 

The teacher is one of my JTEs so that made things easier. I’ve been clambering in and out of the hedge to get the balls that overshot the court and helping with one bounce practice when there was a leftover student for practice matches. I was allowed to go and support them at their competition this weekend. They didn’t do too well, one pair made it to the semi-finals, but they made a couple of errors and were knocked out.  They were all such good sports though, and was interesting to see how much the first years have gotten since the first tournament this year. There is a lot of potential in the team.

Last night I was at the local festival to get dinner, because I was too lazy to cook…and I ran into one of my 6th graders. I realized how much I actually missed my elementary school kids. They’re literally the highlight of my week most weeks, and I’ve gone almost a month without being able to interact with them. I think the reason I love them so much is that they’re willing to try and teach me stuff, and they don’t mind so much if they make mistakes or if I make mistakes when trying to speak English or Japanese. They’re a lot more excited about English than their Sempai – which is understandable, as the testing and teaching at JHS in Japan can be a bit of a joke. It is getting better from 2nd year at my JHS though. So that’s something to look forward to.

So yeah. I’ve been busy. That’s basically my life since I got to Japan. I love it. I do have my problems with the JET Programme (the recruiters hire people to be ambassadors, the BOE’s want teachers), but I believe that it is well intentioned, a good job and can be beneficial to all those involved. It’s changing too, slowly but surely.

It is very much about the effort and approach you have to it – if you decide it sucks and do nothing to change your situation, then that is on you. If you do actively try and improve both yourself and the way people deal with you (unfortunately this is something that does fall on you as the outsider and ambassador, you chose to be here as a representative for English and for the world outside Japan. You won’t be able to sway some people’s attitudes towards ALTs/foreigner’s but you at least have to try,) then that speaks volumes of you as a person – good on ya. Keep trying, and if your schools are stubborn, go and try and get involved with the community. Start changing stuff from outside your school BOE. Make your experience outside of work enjoyable – because chances are if you had a similar experience with your work back home, that’s exactly what you would do.

Goals for the next month or so;

-          Go to Ozu Castle

-          Go to the beach and actually go swimming

-          Start Karate.

-          Start running again.

-          Start prep for JLPT Level 4 test

-          Be more social (go to more AJET/Regional social events), less obnoxious.

-          Get off of Shikoku and visit somewhere on the mainland or Kyushu.

Goals for School/Teaching in the next two months;

-          Figure out a way to teach letter writing

-          Improve basic grammar knowledge

-          Improve team teaching techniques and office relationships with fellow teachers.

-          Be a bit more assertive when it comes to teaching in JHS 1st grade.

Until next time. Peace.

[omoi-kiri]

Games and Activities for EFL

I have no idea if this is of use to anyone, but I already typed it up for my successor, so here’s a list of some of my most commonly used games and activities as an elementary and junior high school JET Program ALT. Most of them are team/group activities, since that’s what I found worked best. They were also scavenged from around the web and sometimes other ALTs, so I don’t lay claim to any of them! Use them and pass them along and add your own too, we’re all in this mystifying hell with little official training or support together. <3

Elementary

Name: Virus / Baikinman game Target: Set question/answer drills ex. Do you like…? Yes I do. Description: After explaining and before starting the game, all students put their heads down and you tap one student on the shoulder. This person is Baikinman, the enemy of popular character Anpanman. All students walk around asking each other “Do you like Anpanman?” or any other question that suits the grammar point you want to practice. Everyone answers yes, except Baikinman, who answers no. Students who receive a no answer also receive the virus/baikin (germs) and then answer no to anyone who asks them after that, spreading the virus through the class.

Name: Clap-clap game (I’m so bad at naming games…) Target: Vocabulary/phrase drills. I typically use this with “How are you?” Description: Review moods (or whatever you’re using this for) and teach a gesture for each. Put flashcards on the board. Everyone stands, claps together 4 times while chanting “how – are – you – I’m…” and then they say a mood while doing the matching gesture. You do it at the same time. Whoever did the same gesture as you is out of the game and has to sit down.

Name: Wink killer Target: basic self-introduction material. “Hello, my name is x. Nice to meet you” Can also be adapted to practice other things. Description: This is just wink murder. Everyone puts their heads down and you choose 1 or 2 killers. Then everyone has to walk around, introducing themselves to each other (Hello, my name is x. Nice to meet you) and shaking hands while making eye contact. The killer will wink during the handshake, and their victim should silently count to 3 before faking a death and returning to their seat. If anyone thinks they can guess the killer, they report to you, but if they get it wrong they die on the spot.

Name: Rocket game Target: Any vocab that has a chronological order. Works with numbers, days of the week, months etc. You can also put flashcards on the board and use that order. Description: Put the students in teams (the bigger the team, the more difficult). The team needs to count from ex. 1-10, but each person on the team can only say one word, and if 2 or more people speak at once they start over from the beginning. I called it the rocket game because the students should shoot their hands into the air like a rocket blasting off when they say a word (this helps you catch when 2 students speak at once).

Name: Build-a-body Target: Body parts, review (flashcards, question and answer) Description: Split the class into teams, and draw a stick figure for each team on the board. Erase everything but the centre line and tell students they need to redraw the body. Draw a guide on the board that assigns each body part a number from 1-6. For each round, one student from each team stands and you ask a question. The first student to answer can roll a die, and draw the corresponding body part on their team’s stick figure. You can also do this as the class vs. you, where on your turn the students can ask you any question they want. Would make a fun self-intro lesson!

18 more games for ES/JHS under the read more. 

Keep reading

[astormyexjet]

Let it Go.

July 14th, 2016. ES - Cleaning Time.

So the group of 5th Graders in charge of the EE room this semester have been a bunch of characters. I really love their form class, which is right next to the EE room too. They’re my favourite class to teach each week, they’re also the class that happens to have the Friday afternoon 6th period slot.

Anyway - we’re “cleaning” when all of a sudden two of them start fighting over the cleaning supplies. Like they are full on yelling at each other about who should have the dustpan. Now the dude is an annoying little punk, and often pushes the other students to the point of anger, and the lass is just plain odd, but they’re usually pretty well behaved. Their teacher is like standing outside the door and she turns around and tells them off. They go back to cleaning.

Not even a minute later the punk is trying to set the lass off again. Basically he’s blaming her for getting them in trouble and she is having none of it (and it’s not her fault, it’s all his, and he knows it...) So I turn around and tell him to let it go. Big. Mistake.

I spend the rest of the cleaning time listening to the Japanese version of Let It Go being sung by this kid. The other three declare me public enemy #1, and rightly so.  (He started singing it in class on Friday too, then some of his buddies joined in and their teacher looked at me with all hope in her eyes gone.)

[astormyexjet]

Impromptu Japanese Test on the Bridge

June 11th, 2016.

Both my Elementary and Junior High had parent teacher interviews so the kids got let out after lunch, but I had to stay for the whole day. 

As I’m biking home from my ES and make it to the bridge that crosses the Ishite-River, a bunch of SHS students come past on their bikes. A couple of them recognize me from last year and say hello and carry on their merry way. Next thing I know I hear my name being screamed at me full volume.

“KAI-SENSE!! KAI-SENSEI!!!” I stop and look over my shoulder. A 3rd grader from ES and her little brother (I think he’s in 2nd grade this year?) are running full tilt at me. Their Mum had pulled over and let them out. She’s now reaching over and shutting the door while laughing and waving at me. As she drives off the kids make it to where I am. I’d spoken to her earlier after she’d had her interview, I’d stepped out of the office for a bit because I was nodding off at my desk and she’d seen me and started talking to me in very easy Japanese, which I had really appreciated. She said she see’s me occasionally when I’m biking home, and a couple of times she’s wound down the window and let the same kids yell out hello. 

As the kids reach me they start jumping up and down and asking questions at full speed. Before I can answer the yelling starts again.

“KAI-SENSEI!!!! KAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII!!!!” One of my 2nd year JHS boys (one of the ones who hates English with a passion but is pretty funny outside of class) is scrambling up the bank of the river with a net in his hand waving his arms in the air. He makes to about halfway across the bridge and then stops waves crazily for a few seconds asks how I am and then runs back down to the river where his mates (from another school, because I didn’t recognize any of them) are fishing/swimming.  

The wee ones start asking questions again, in Japanese. 

“Where are you going?” - To my Japanese lesson. 

“Oh, you have school too?” - Yes! 

“But you’re a teacher??” - Yes I am, but I don’t speak Japanese very well. Today I have a test! 

“OH! Lets practice!” And they both ask me to translate random words from Japanese to English. Then they start getting really tricky and throwing out the English to Japanese translations - FISH! (sakana) SHARK! (sa-me?) WHALE! (kujira) PEACH! (momo) RINGO!!...wait... (APPLE!!!) 

After about five minutes of this I do my best to explain that I will be late if I don’t leave now and they say goodbye and run across the road giving me a heart attack because they barely looked to see if traffic was coming. They then make their way down to the other river bank where their family is now setting up a picnic rug. 

The next morning on my way in the gate of my JHS, the same 2nd year scares the crap out of me by running towards me and screaming. Apparently he managed to catch a big fish with his net and one of his friends pushed him in the river.

I didn’t do as well on my test as I had hoped I would. But that whole series of interactions has really made my week. Especially with all the bad news coming out from around the world. It really brightened my day. I am so glad I get to stay at both my schools this year. 

[astormyexjet]

Beeeeee

Some time during late June-Early July.

It’s cleaning time at my JHS and I’m doing the rounds. I stick my head into the computer lab to see what the second years in there are up too. They’re goofing off as per usual. This area has been assigned to three boys and three girls from my favorite first grade class from last year. The girls see me and make the whole “come here” gesture at me so I wander over.

“Kai-sensei! How do you say beach?”

“Beach?”

“No. No. BEEECH.”

“Beach like 海?”

“No. No. Like....くそう女.”

“...why do you need know that?”

“ はつおんは very...very...important....”

“Use Google-sensei....”

The next morning I’m biking to my ES, and I run into the same group of girls.

“BEEEEEEEECHHHHHHHHHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII.........” they yell as I fly past.

Now every time I see them outside of class at least one of them will start with “buh...” or “bi...” or “be...” and then giggle and greet me properly. It’s gotten to the point where if I see them first I’ll point my finger at them and go NOPE and the giggles will start. 

Now before people start saying “this is a sign of lack of respect” or whatever, these kids are some of the more genki kids, the kids that will give anything a go. That includes trying to understand my instructions for worksheets, activities or games in class when I have free reign. They ask genuinely intelligent and interesting questions when they don’t understand something or need help. Their marks in English aren’t the best, but they’re trying. They’re also the kids that will come and find me at lunch time and ask me how I am and what I am looking forward to. Basically they’re respectful in class, and treat me like a human being outside of it too. They make me laugh. 

[astormyexjet]

Bugs Life.

July 13th, 2016

1. During 4th period, baseball boy let's out the highest pitch scream a boy can, a beetle had flown in and landed on his desk. Cue most of the class getting as far away from his desk as possible. The one girl in this class from the karuta club rolls her eyes and rescues the beetle, all the baseball boys makes heart eyes at her for the rest of the class. She's the most reserved kid in this class so she didn't really know what to do with all attention. (To clarify, she’s not the only girl in the class, but she is the only girl from the Karuta club in the class.) 

2. During cleaning time I do the rounds to make sure the kids aren't goofing off too much. I spot two boys out on the deck in front of the computer lab. I sneak towards them, one spots me but doesn't say anything. I scare the crap out of the other guy by saying "yo" in the deepest voice I can muster. He screams. The other boy nearly dies laughing. They were looking at a massive moth on the wall. The boy I scared thought it talked to him, hence the screaming. They also tried to tell me what kind of bug it was in English. "Night butterfly" is what they came up with. 3. Five minutes later in the English Classroom I'm helping clean the windows, this time a girl starts screaming. Then the other four kids start screaming. A MASSIVE DRAGONFLY IS ATTACKING MY STUDENTS. Like this thing is at least a half a foot long, it's bigger than a starling. This thing belongs in the prehistoric ages. The English teacher comes in to see what the noise is. He nopes so hard and leaves us to fend for ourselves. The thing finally gives up and leaves, we're all in various states of shock and awe. This is what happens when your school is right near a river. Also the cicadas are deafening at the moment. Its nice when you're inside to be able to hear them but dang, I feel like I need ear plugs for my bike too and from school

[astormyexjet]

My name is  Kai.

July 11th 2016

"Kai-sensei, your nose is taKAI.(Tall/ big)." I raise eyebrow at this student, somewhat impressed with this shitty pun, he goes back to work.

*Five minutes later*

"Kai-sensei, I am very interesting in your nose." . . . Surprisingly this isn't the weirdest thing this kid has said to me.

[astormyexjet]

Golden Friday

July 1st, 2016

Today: Before class - "Oh look! A dead bug!" *Pokes it with my pen and it moves, very much not dead, both the Japanese ALT and I scream in surprise as the first class start to come through the door - cue children screaming which in turn scares their homeroom teacher* At interval between 2&3 classes - Fifth Grade students and I scaring the crap out of their homeroom teacher by having piggyback races up and down the hallway. Break between 3&4th classes, same homeroom teacher: "Oh! Kai-sensei! How tall are you?" Her class gets us to stand back to back (she's taller by like a cm). . .THEN THEY ALL TAKE TURNS, until the shortest kid launches himself at me and climbs to sit on my shoulders. "Run! Kai-sensei!" *Proceed to run down the hall with the student on my shoulders confusing both teachers and students alike*. 4th class; usually this class is a total monster class, but today we had the Principal and some of the other 6th grade teachers watching and filming so they all behaved! This class is super smart but a few of them have behavioral issues so classroom management is usually a nightmare. Nice twist to my Friday. I'm going to be tired today.

[astormyexjet]

Spring is here.

June 13th 2016

Finished classes for today and have had probably the most eventful souji-jikan since I got here. 

As I was stumbling my way back from the play ground I found a fledgling. I managed to stop a third grader from accidentally stepping on it and usher it out of the path of danger. Poor wee thing had either stunned itself on the principal's window or it's first test flight was a bit too hot for it.

 By the end of souji it managed to pull itself together and fly out of reach of children and to where it's real mum was squawking up a storm.