#jet program 2015

[frecklearchipelago]

Does kale exist in Japan? Or, like...quinoa? Polenta? I can’t really seem to find oats or lentils in my grocery store either....maybe I’m looking in the wrong places? I miss my little food co-op so much somedays. 

[mari-sketches]

First Day of School!

Soooooo it's been a while~ but I'm determined to start posting stuff starting today for realsies. Ok go! Today I woke up at 6am after a restless night of worrying about my introduction speech. I could already feel the nerves and awkwardness of fumbling through my words. Even though I practiced the heck out of my speech I knew it was going to be useless against my fear of public speaking~ anywho~ I got dressed and realized my suit was too big for me. I did a lot of stress eating my last semester of college at the time I purchased it...and it was already a little big at orientation, but I guess walking everywhere the last month has helped! Or not helped in this situation? Skirt too big, jacket too big~ oh well what could I do haha. So off to school I went. After my usual 20 min walk to the school of course I entered the staff room face flushed and sweating (nothing out of the ordinary lol). When I sat down at my desk my supervisor walked over and told me that the morning staff meeting would start in 5 minutes, so be prepared. Oh boy~ thankfully there was another new office worker who also needed to give an introduction speech, so I wasn't alone. However, her speech was only maybe 3 sentences long and bam done. I looked at my 10 sentence scribbled notes and kicked myself for not being simple! Why Marissa??? Why didn't you just make a short and sweet speech like her??? Needless to say I survived my speech. It went exactly like I thought it would haha. I'll leave it at that haha. For the next 20 minutes I sat at my desk sulking a little (even though everyone said I did a great job) and reading over what I was going to say for my student speech. Some of the teachers suggested that I should speak Japanese, but my supervisor had been telling me since day one that I should keep my Japanese ability a secret from the students (otherwise the students won't use English if they know I can understand Japanese a little). While I totally understand why it's a good idea, but at the same time I still wanted use Japanese haha. End the end I told my supervisor I would read off a written script so the students could see that my speech was rehearsed. First English and then the Japanese Translation. Moving on~ was taken by my supervisor to the gym. On the way I told him how nervous I was and to make me laugh he just kept telling me ~ "well there are maybe a thousand students you will have to stand in front of~ and they will all be looking at you, so do your best" lol so mean! (jk I love my supervisor!) After a short introduction, I followed my principal up on the stage and stood next to him as he introduced me. Once he was done I gave my speech. All I can say is that i was so nervous that I didn't even need to pretend to read my script because I literally held onto it for dear life and read it line by line, word by word--- I couldn't even recite the English version without reading what I wrote down. Oh lord. I got so many laughs from my supervisor... The rest of the day I worked on my self introduction presentation. It was fun to see all the teachers in the staff room at the same time, but everyone was also really busy~ its going to be like this from now on :c I just want to buy everyone cake and tell them they are the best teachers ever!! I realized that I also won't be able to talk to my supervisor often like we usually do everyday... Kind of makes me sad~ but I wish him luck! We got to chat after his classes were over though. The conversation started with him looking at my presentation >> more info about my school >> who paid for my school >> what I want to do after I'm done with jet (I answered that I want to do something with international or Asian studies) >> how did I get into Japanese culture>> And this is how the conversation went in a nutshell: Me: I don't want to tell you, it's a secret Him: why not, you should just tell me. Me: when I was little I started watching anime shows . Him: oh that's not bad, a lot of foreigners become interested In Japan because of anime. Me: I know, and a lot of Japanese people just see them as Otaku. Him: well maybe... So do you want to buy anime things? Me: of course I do! I want to buy everything!! I have to control myself otherwise I will spend all my money. Him: oh I see, now I know your true self. Your true self is an Otaku. Me: Are you judging me right now? Him: *laughs* everyone is going to know you are an otaku. Me: NOOOOOOOOO Dx don't say that!!! I know it's inevitable though.... Anyways...yeah... so that was my first day of school! Haha ~until next time!

[frecklearchipelago]

School was better today!! I met more students, plus one graduate who came back to meet with a teacher...all very genki and sweet and kinda dorky. I graded tests and journals and watched a series of videos about a little dog, that apparently helps students learn English, at the urging of my caretaker ("It's very cute. Please watch all of it. Then, you can make test for all the chapters, okay?"). It is literally going to be impossible to avoid my students anymore, they are on the trains or in the mall or the 7 and I have never wanted to just wear sunglasses and a big floppy hat indoors more in my life. Tomorrow I attempt to clean my house a little and go hang in Ueda for a little bit. Also gotta plan out the rest of my lessons somehow...and prepare in case I can't use the projector in the classroom...oh no.

[frecklearchipelago]

Aisatsu

I have to start preparing my introduction speeches for my two high schools, as the second term starts in just a few short weeks....so, seeing as how all us new JETs are still getting acquainted here, I thought I would write a brief post about myself for this blog as well. My name is Amanda, and I recently (as in three days ago) moved to Karuizawa-machi in Nagano Prefecture. Nagano is extremely mountainous and covered in thick forest, and Karuizawa is kinda nestled in the center of a mountain range right on the western corner of the western block of Nagano. So.....very very west. Pretty much the most west you can get.  I originally came from a small town in norther Idaho that was right on the Washington border. There are a lot of wheatfields in my area, so I’m more used to that than the giant trees, but growing up around the Washington area most of my life I’ve come to love mountainous areas. I was extremely pleased when I learned I was placed in Nagano Prefecture, as I knew it was a lovely and relaxing place. I mean, where I’m placed, Karuizawa, is like a retreat for people living in Tokyo who want to escape the heat and all the people for a little while.  I came to Japan through the JET Program, and I will be teaching two senior high schools, 1st and 2nd year. One of my schools is in Saku, just a train ride away, so if anyone lives in that area, hit me up! Ueda and Nagano City are also very close to me, so once I get settled I may try to go there for some day trips to see y’all placed in the big city, or just to get used to the trains.  So yeah. I realize I’ve already made quite a few JET posts, so getting to know me probably won’t be difficult. If anyone has any questions about the JET Program, high school education, or really anything, feel free to hit me up.

[frecklearchipelago]

Oh god some ichinensei girls at my visit school were hovering by the teacher’s office and I heard them talking about me in Japanese (”Is that the new ALT, Amanda-sensei??”) so I unconsciously looked up and said, “はい、アマンダです!” and they immediately starting yelling “YOU CAN SPEAK JAPANESE?!” and ran away, so now the entire first year class probably knows that I speak Japanese, abort mission immediately

[frecklearchipelago]

The 小学生 at the English camp were really cute, but I am, at the moment, relieved that I am teaching high school exclusively. I don’t think I could deal with that many 10 year olds laughing at me when I make a mistake, like stepping on the picnic blanket with my shoes on, or at my sub-par Japanese, every day. 

[frecklearchipelago]

Update - 1st week in Japan

I’ve been awfully quiet on here for the past 2 weeks.....so here’s a little update on what I’ve been doing!

On Saturday, July 25, I left Seattle for Narita, and landed on Sunday the 26th around 2:30. From there, we went to the Keio Plaza Hotel in Shinjuku, where I was at orientation for 2 more days. 

Orientation was....okay? I guess? There were a lot of things I was glad to learn, but other things....I guess were just kind of hard to sit through without being bored. I feel like a lot of the lectures about how to interact with students and what kind of lessons to teach were a bit boring, but I also have studied and taught English grammar for 3 years. And maybe, on the last day, I was just a bit more irritated with the guy kicking my seat and whisper-yelling about pokemon the whole time than I was with the actual workshop.  What I was more excited for was meeting our prefectural advisors (PAs) and getting to know the rest of my Naga-bros (is this the nickname we decided on? I really don’t know. I still like Nagano-yoshi, as in “nakayoshi” buuuut that’s just me I guess?). I personally think we have a super awesome group, and I think we all became fairly close within a short period of time. We went with our PAs to get okonomiyaki--one of the Japanese PAs helped us make monjayaki--and then we explored a little bit of Don Quixote and a large arcade (why didn’t I take a change on the claw machine for a giant stuffed hamster? Why???). On the top floor of the arcade we took purikura...and it was my first time doing it, so I was somewhat surprised when we all looked like bug-eyed European models.  The next morning, we got on a bus headed towards Nagano prefecture, stopping first in Matsumoto for the municipal JETs and then in Nagano-shi for the prefecturals (me!!). There I was greeted by my caretaker...we’ll call him Wakai-sensei. We drove in Wakai-sensei’s car to Karuizawa, and on the way talked about books and music, a little bit in English and a little bit in Japanese, which boosted my confidence way WAY up.... ....that is, until, we made it to Karuizawa, and I didn’t understand a thing people were asking me.  The dialect here is somewhat subdued, I think? I can’t tell when people are asking me questions or when they are stating facts, so I end up saying stupid short affirmative answers instead of actually answering their questions. What the hell am I going to do when Wakai-sensei isn’t there to help me ahhhhhhh The first day in Karuizawa was mainly to receive a copy of my contract, meet the principal, and see the school. We walked around, and I saw the English office, as well as met a few of the teachers. We then drove to Tsuruya grocery store and walked around a bit, and then to the 7-11 by the school (Wakai-sensei already knows me too well).  I was a bit disappointed because I couldn’t move into my new place quite yet (I won’t be able to until the 1st of August), but I did get to stay a night at another JTE’s house with her husband and her 6 year-old daughter. She is really stinkin’ cute, and is starting to learn English herself, so we practiced a lot but mostly she just spoke to me in really simple Japanese and I still failed to understand her. ;w; But we watched Pretty Cure and Frozen together, and then she told me, after I had eaten dinner there twice already, that I was welcome to come eat with them whenever I liked. It was just so cute, I couldn’t handle it.  Today was my second day in Karuizawa, and it was mainly spent with Wakai-sensei, running errands--getting my inkan, sorting out my residence, and being denied at AU for a cell phone (I don’t have a credit card lol). However, I also got to sit in on an introductory speech to junior high school students visiting Karuizawa, and then helped out Wakai-sensei with a small lesson for 5 girls who decided to come check out the language lab. My first team teaching experience!! And it went so smoothly ;w; I think Wakai-sensei and I are going to get along well in the classroom, which makes me happy. I gotta make sure my pronunciation of certain words or phrases is okay though....sometimes I feel like I over-enunciate.  Also the 軽音部, which Wakai-sensei supervises, seems very genki and also very loud.  I was really surprised to learn that even after only meeting me once, my vice principal already thinks that I am a “kind, competent, good ALT,” according to my homestay teacher. I guess some of the teachers were really interested to meet me, after some of the emails we sent to each other? I guess I sounded genki and polite, which is always good I guess. Hope I can keep it up and live up to their expectations!  I think that’s about it for now! Tomorrow I might be going to the English Camp for elementary school students, unless my stomach still hurts like hell. I have plans to go to Saku with Wakai-sensei as well, to meet my predecessor there and maybe get a feel for the area. Until next time! じゃあまたね〜

[frecklearchipelago]

First night in Keio, and I already have bad stomach cramps and nausea. Yaaaaaay orientation!!!