With Love From Kumano

[withlovefromkumano]

Kinomoto is the second biggest junior high of ours, one of two that have more than thirty students XD it sits on the top of the hill/mountain near our house and commands an awesome view of Kumano and the sea. The students come from Kinomoto and Ido Elementary, so there's usually two classes of 20-30 students to a grade. It has the reputation of being a bit snarky and cheeky, and it's not all just rumor. The students that were sassy in elementary only gain confidence and English in junior high XD it makes for a bantering good time. Does that work grammatically? Who knows. This is what happens when you teach English in a foreign country, though you'd imagine your English would just get better.

[withlovefromkumano]

It's only fitting to start with the first school I taught at--Ido Elementary. My token large school with 180-odd students. The small schools are nice and intimate and slow-paced, but sometimes having classes with over ten students is refreshing. The kids are genki, fun, and really open, albeit sometimes a little too comfortable! There's always students asking to play during recess or between classes as well as students asking ridiculous questions about The 外国. Although most teachers don't speak English, two of them are really interested in learning it (Hamano-sensei and Morioka-sensei) and the others still make a lot of effort to have conversations. It's weird to think that the current 5th graders were 1st graders when I arrived, and somehow maintained their enthusiasm and sweetness even through the terrible 4th grade phase. I don't know if it's just Ido, but each year the classes go through a phase. 1st graders are super cute, SO energetic, and LOVE English. 2nd graders still enjoy the games and are more used to the pattern of English class and school in general, allowing their cheeky side to come out. 3rd grade is starting to grow up and get a bit more unruly, but they're still pretty good and the only problem is they have to start learning more difficult English so they don't enjoy it quite as much. 4th grade is hell on wheels, the current 5th grade is the only manageable 4th grade class I've had. I'm not even kidding teachers refer to it as "the zoo." 5th grade they have to start being responsible, and the girls start to be shy and quiet. They start regular English class every week plus a textbook, so it's a bit more difficult and sometimes they don't enjoy the real studiousness of it. 6th grade they all really take on new roles and try to act like adults--they're less genki and weird and fun, less interested in English, and I'm pretty sure all just wish they were the little ones again. It can make class hard but at this point they also have the most English! And then they leave me forever and go to Kinomoto Junior High, except that I do get to see them the few times I go (like today ironically enough). T^T Love all these kids and I'll miss them so much, I just wish I learned all their names!

[withlovefromkumano]

Well, the day that I can first contact my successor has finally come and the countdown has begun. I know it’s too little too late to keep up with this blog but for my sake and anyone after ’s sake, I want to last minute document things about kumano that are worth knowing and remembering. So I’ll be doing my best to post as much as I can–probably short unconnected blurbs for the most part. T-2 months and counting!

[withlovefromkumano]

Haven't posted in forever but won't let that deter me now that I have a nice phone with a nice camera that I can post from (had it for a year now but whatever)! Went running today and responded to my mom's evil pictures of Indian food and crepes with this scenery.

[withlovefromkumano]

Haven't posted in forever but won't let that deter me now that I have a nice phone with a nice camera that I can post from (had it for a year now but whatever)! Went running today and responded to my mom's evil pictures of Indian food and crepes with this scenery.

[kirakiradoodles-blog]

Some animals :3

[withlovefromkumano]

In case anyone is curious～

[ryuusea]

Near one of my schools is a red torii gate that is usually not accessible due to the tide. However, today I had a good feeling and decided to swing by on the way home and it was low tide! The torii gate leads up to stone steps that wind up the large rock. At the very top of the rock is another torii gate. 

It’s got me wondering. Someone maintains this. Who does? How do they know when the low tide is? Why was this put up in the first place and what is its significance?

[withlovefromkumano]

Still haven't been able to go!!! Marissa used to look up the tides, but it was always at an inconvenient time T^T One day I will!

[travelpaintrepeat]

Badass trips on a not-so-badass budget.

Many travel blogs are written by people who’ve sold all their possessions and have taken a huge plunge into the world of long-term travel. This can sound expensive at first, but when you consider that you don’t have rent or…

[withlovefromkumano]

Glad to hear that returning to America and following the career/settling down path wouldn't be a death sentence to travel~

[odditiesoflife]

[odditiesoflife]

Sagano Bamboo Forest, Japan

This stunning bamboo forest is located in the Arashiyama district on the west outskirts of Kyoto, Japan. It is one of the most amazing natural sites in the country. An interesting fact about Sagano Bamboo Forest is the sound that the wind makes while it blows through the bamboo. Amazingly enough, this sound has been voted on as one of the “one hundred must-be-preserved sounds of Japan” by the Japanese government. Another interesting fact – the railing on the sides of the road is composed out of old, dry and fallen parts of bamboo.

[cactuslacy]

(pssssst….. Alisha…..)

[withlovefromkumano]

On it! I've seen pictures of this before and I super wanna go. Except for now. When the frying pan that is Kyoto would fry me to a crisp.

[odditiesoflife]

[odditiesoflife]

odditiesoflife:

Long Term Exposure of Mating Gold Fireflies

Japanese photographer Yuki Karo goes to various places around Maniwa and Okayama Prefectures in Japan and uses long exposure to capture some stunning shots of mating gold fireflies.

[neil-gaiman]

oh, still as wonderful as it ever was…

[withlovefromkumano]

I don't know if that information is incorrect or just leaving places out, but I SWEAR that's the place that we went to see fireflies, about 45 minutes from my house. Regardless, it looks just like this and it's amazing. ^__^

[withlovefromkumano]

Osaka Obachan are here to rock your world, make sure you don't go hungry

Typified by the saccharine songs of AKB48, the Japanese idol world is largely the province of the young. One rarely expects to see a singer over the age of 25 among the mini-skirt-clad ranks of the ultra-kawaii groups. Usually. A group from Osaka—called Obachaaan—are ready to change that up.

Idol groups are a big thing in Japan (Asia, really) and they make for interesting pop culture. AKB48, for instance, is a giant group technically made up of 48 members who dance and sing in cute schoolgirl-ish uniforms (or alternate skimpy outfits). Honestly, they and what they are freaks me a out a bit. They're talented and hardworking, yes, but the objectification, man. Argh.

Regardless, this takes the intrigue of idol groups to a whole new, much more awesome, level. Think of your sassiest aunt and her friends getting drunk one night, laughing over the bafflement that is AKB48 and saying, "even we could be as entertaining as that." Then waking up the next morning and doing it.

[odditiesoflife]

Dreams in Blue

Each year these blossoming blue fields attract thousands of tourists. Hitachi Park is located in the Ibaraki Prefecture on Honsyu in Japan. Its a beautiful spectacle during the flowering of the nemophila. Nemophilas are annual flowers. The word is a combination of the Greek words “nemos” (small forest) and “phileo” (love). The Japanese word “hitachi” translates to dawn. Taken together: “small forest love in dawn.” A blue heaven on Earth.

[withlovefromkumano]

Taking a break from Kumano posts to reblog this beautiful sight that I'll eventually have to go visit. And go sit down in. And never leave. (until the flowers die)

It's also convenient because I can talk about flowers/plants in Japan. Much like other things here (that I'll get to later, like schools), flowers are super organized, in this case by time of year. Right now is the time for あじさい, or hydrangeas. They're everywhere, most super blue but others more purple, fuschia, pink, white, and maybe even light green? Just passed one field on my way back from a school that was full of them. I'm sure there are other flowers blooming somewhere, but right now all we can really see are hydrangeas XD In April it was the cherry blossoms, and then eventually it will be morning glories and then the reds, oranges, and yellows of こうよう, or the changing of the leaves. There are more that I'm leaving out, mostly because I forget, but I thought it was neat to note that there are certain flowers that indicate a certain season. It's truly beautiful in its homogeneity, as you can see from these pictures, but there are times that I miss the random collages of American gardens.

[withlovefromkumano]

Typhoons

It just so happens that I'm posting this about two days before a typhoon will be (most likely) arriving in our area. Right in the middle of tsuyu (rainy season) of course. Typhoon season isn't supposed to arrive for a while but ah well, you can't have everything. Or anything but rain apparently.

So we start school (the second semester of three) at the beginning of September, but in our first year that was disrupted by Typhoon 12 or Talas when it hit our area on September 3rd and 4th. It devastated a lot of areas just south of Kumano, including Kiho where Greg lives. He and Sarah had to evacuate because of flooding and the threat of landslides, only to come back to their houses a few days later and find the water had filled up part of their first floor. If you look up Typhoon Talas on Wikipedia, there’s even a picture of Kiho after the storm.

A number of people passed away and even now bridges and roads aren’t reconstructed. It didn’t get much news coverage in the states compared to the earthquake earlier in the year and the smaller typhoon that threatened Tokyo a little while after Talas, but it heavily affected the people in this area for months. We (the Kumano girls) got lucky in that we are on higher ground and, for at least Liz and me, our apartments are on the second floor, but we took the precautions necessary just in case. In the end, our water line was stopped for a couple days afterwards but towns nearby had water just fine so we borrowed Marissa’s shower.

Hopefully this won’t apply to anyone, but if you’re wondering what those precautions entail:

First we closed the storm shutters outside the windows (and pulled in laundry XD).

Then we filled our bathtubs with water, just in case we needed it for flushing the toilet, etc.

Got food that doesn’t require heating, either gas or electricity. 

Stocked up on drinking water too

Followed JMA’s website for the weather patterns and listened to the town announcements as best we could (especially in case evacuation is called for)

Other advice I've received is be in touch with other ALTs and your RA so everyone knows everyone is safe. It's not likely that things will turn really bad, but just in case. And if you have to evacuate suddenly, just go. If you can, take ten yen coins so if your phone dies or the towers are damaged, you can use a payphone to call people and tell them you’re safe!

  After the typhoon, our classes were cancelled for a week or so, and we spent most of our days at the schools, pushing out the sand and mud that had built up in the schools. I don’t think I would have chosen for the typhoon to happen, but I will say that it was amazing watching everyone come together to help out. As far as I saw, people didn’t complain about why them or lament that their plans and schedules had been completely ruined. Instead, everyone pitched in and helped out any way they could. That’s what I think a lot of people took away from the earthquake and tsunami as well. Japanese people are really quite amazing, it makes you think about what would happen in America.

I know many people would come together and be heroes and perform miracles and be selfless. But I also know that other people would take advantage of it, and most likely, the politics would remain divisive, stubborn, and unhelpful. It’s sad, but independence and freedom come at a price. And it’s not blood, it’s not giving up your home for a foreign land, it’s living with the possibility, the risk, that anything can happen, anyone can do anything. Sorry to wax pessimistic, and I promise I’m not anti-America/pro-Japan. It’s just that in that moment, Japan shined. And I’m not sure America would have.

[withlovefromkumano]

First Steps in Kumano

This post is probably unnecessary, and waxes more travel blog-y than informative, but bear with me. If you’re a new ALT here, maybe you’ll get an idea of what it will be like.

Amanda and I arrived in Tokyo at the end of July and then trekked to Kumano I think just before August. Our supervisor came and met us at Matsusaka Station, accompanied by one of our predecessors, Caer (pronounced like care). She lived in the upstairs apartment where Liz lives now, but Liz was in the second group and hadn’t arrived yet so she was sticking around a bit before heading back to Ireland/moving to London.

It was a beautiful ride but also something like two or three hours long and I was equal parts awe and jet lag so it’s a bit fuzzy. I do remember Caer telling us ‘after this tunnel, you’re in Kumano’ and holding my breath in anticipation. Upon actually seeing it, I thought carefully about my reaction and to this day I have no idea what it was.

It was just Kumano. Not huge, not tiny, there were houses and cars and people, it definitely was new and not America, but it wasn’t illogical either. Meaning I was sort of surprised, because it was unknown, but not really because it’s just a town like other towns. I suppose that sounds boring but it was relieving that my reaction was just accepting fact and not freaking out like ‘I have to live here for a year?!?!’

I think he took us to our apartments and dropped off Caer, then we went to the office to greet everyone. That’s the moment that I think everyone dreads, and I don’t remember what I said but I do distinctly remember the panic and subsequent numbness mixed with the gross sticky hot-ness of the weather. Honestly, everyone understands that you’ve been traveling and it’s probably your first time in Japan, and it was so much less pressure than I realized at the time. Anyway, we got through it and then they took us to get pillowcases (we already had futons so they didn’t need to furnish those).

That night, Caer made us spaghetti with garlic bread and we met Marissa, Greg and Sarah (Greg was a second year in Kiho then and Sarah is his girlfriend and works at KICC as an eikaiwa, or English conversation, teacher), and Susannah who was, as we found out she would almost always be, late.

Starting the next day, we went to the office from 8:30 (okay actually we have to be here between 8:20 to 8:25) to 4:30. Not even sure what we did besides plan our self-introductions for the month of August that we now know to dread. At it’s worst, it’s a hot, boring, facebook-ridden time. Thank goodness the other people in the office are also not busy, it helps us feel less guilty for surfing on Sporcle all day (last summer Liz and I learned all the country’s of the world. And then in alphabetical order). It’s to the point that at one of the high schools I’ve heard of a teacher bouncing a tennis ball against a wall for a while. But it does give us time to decompress and reorganize our planning for the next year, I guess? A lot of people take advantage of the free time and travel. Maybe this summer I’ll go to Hokkaido and skip out on the heat ^__^

Somewhere in that time we were told which schools we’d probably teach at and we took a drive with our supervisor around most of our schools. Now I can’t even remember which ones we visited, but of my schools, I know we stopped at Atashika, Isato, Ido, and maybe Iruka and Yuki. I assume Asuka was included, it’s not far from Isato.

So I'll get to more interesting things later, but for future me and anyone else who's interested, this was my first impression of Kumano!

[withlovefromkumano]

The Deep South

Although there are mountains instead of desert and fisherman instead of cowboys (okay, more like business men and baptists), there was something comforting about moving from one Deep South to another.

For a frame of reference, a senpai of mine describes the South like so: imagine Mie is an elephant’s head tilting down to the left, with Kuwana, Yokkaichi and Suzuka up in the top flap of the ear. Then travel down the face, past Kameyama, Tsu (the capital), and Matsusaka, to arrive at the trunk, or the Deep South. Kii-Nagashima in Kihoku is the highest part of the trunk, then comes Miyama, Owase, Kumano, Mihama, and Kiho, down in the nostrils. Kiho is across the river (which divides the prefectures) from Shingu in Wakayama Prefecture, a much bigger city than any of the ones in the Deep South.

The Deep South, just like in America, has a different culture from the North, and it’s a palpable difference that many ‘Northerners’ either love or hate. For the people here, I think it’s safe to say that we love it or at least the community of the Deep South ALTs, and from what I’ve heard it’s stayed a tight group through many generations. I can’t verify much of that myself (it’s held true for the two years I’ve been here, but two years isn’t much), it comes from Marissa who was a fourth year when I arrived.

Mie’s Deep South is ‘inaka’, or backwoods-y, and it’s true our trains come super infrequently (when Northerners complain about having to wait for thirty minutes, we are likely to start biting heads) and there’s not a lot to do. But the people are very friendly, the scenery is beautiful, and the pace of life is just different. Being three hours and 60 dollars away from Nagoya or five hours and 60 dollars away from Osaka is crap, I won’t deny it, but I’d rather take special trips to the city and come home to this than the other way around. On top of that, our schools (Kumano at least) are really good, we only get to complain about the occasional sassy students who like to disrupt class, and our board of education takes care of us as if we were their only children.

So regardless of other opinions, including those of people who felt ‘cooped up’ in the South and moved, I love Kumano--I know I’m not alone in that--and it’s home.

[withlovefromkumano]

New Beginnings and the Real Meaning of at Home

I originally wanted to name this blog "At Home in Kumano," so much so that for a long while I forgot it wasn't. I think I didn't ultimately name it that because it looks like "a tho meinku mano" as a link. Regardless, this blog was originally intended to document my adventures in Japan, but now I think the naming it ‘At Home in Kumano’  would have been good fortune.

I’ve never been great at keeping up with daily whatever’s, but I am really good at settling in somewhere and becoming a good friend of inertia. On the other hand, we (the other Kumano girls and I) have been forced into the position of senpai, or seniors, and as such have to share our wisdom about the area. Having heavily relied on our senpai Marissa when we first arrived, I realized how nice (and necessary) it is to inherit knowledge about the area from someone who already knows. When we started our second year, it was really hard to believe that we actually had anything to share, but the thing about getting super used to day to day life, is that you know everything around you familiarly. At least more than the people who show up and know nothing.

So Anyway. Long babble short, I think instead of setting a time schedule and posting pictures of everywhere I went, all the food I ate, etc. I’m going to post, whenever I get to it, about Kumano and the things that make up our lives here. That way I remember, my friends and family know, and future generations of Kumano-ites? -sians? -ese? or more probably, the Kumano girls, can learn or compare.

For the record, I’m Alisha, I came to Kumano in July of 2011 from Dallas, Texas (USA of course), and I’ve been here for one year and nine months now! Liz and Amanda are the two other ALTs in Kumano, they came from California and New York (respectively) at the same time as me. It looks like I’ll be the RA (regional advisor) for the Deep South (of Mie, you’ll hear about that later) for 2013-2014. Which means I’m supposed to share all this information and help newbies get settled, so I guess it’s a good thing I’ve been thinking about compiling it all like this. (^_^)v

[aseaofquotes]

Terry Pratchett, A Hat Full of Sky

[withlovefromkumano]

I haven't posted in a long time and I promise I will soon, but I found this and it's perfect.