Farmer Jackie

I went to my mountain school today but all of the junior high students and teachers were at a badminton tournament in Kanazawa, hence, no classes for me. Instead, I got to go with the elementary school kids to plant rice. It was quite the muddy experience. The students and teachers walked about 20 minutes from the school to the paddies. I got to ride with the vice principal in his car. When we arrived there were some old farmers waiting for us, two women and four men. One of the farmers was out in the field, up to above his ankles in the muck. He was marking rows in the mud for planting by rolling a long, wooden contraption through it. I could see all sorts of creepy-crawlies in the mud and water, and wasn’t looking forward to walking in it. Before we left, the school secretary had warned me about the possibility of leeches by making gestures. I would have felt much less apprehensive if I was wearing tall rubber boots like they were, but my teacher had told me to wear flip-flops and half-pants (shorts, I correctly guessed).


The students came trooping up to the field and it was training time. Two of the older, experienced students showed us a chart and told us how to plant, with interjections and additional training by the farmers. Students were to break apart their clumps of rice and place 2 to 3 sprouts about 2cm deep in the mud at each cross-hatch. Students were supposed to plant 3 rows of 3 at a time, before stepping carefully between the rows to plant the next ones. Then, it was time to hop right in. The kids shed their flip-flops and plopped themselves into the mud, amidst some squeals of, “Samui!!” (It’s cold!). The 6th graders helped finish marking rows and the little ones started to plant. A couple of times one of the teachers and I had to wade in to roll up the shorts of the kids to avoid them getting soaked. Each time the kids would finish their clump they’d have to yell, “Help Me!” in English, and someone would toss them another clump. As you can imagine, not all the throws were well aimed, and even if they were, not all of the kids were good at catching them. Many a clump landed in the water, muddily splashing all the kids in the area. It was hilarious!!


I was doing a pretty good job of avoiding the squishy mud, but alas, the vice principal motioned me over to help with the row marking, with a “Ganbatte, kudasai!” (I just have to mention that he didn’t get in the mud once! He appointed himself one of the paparazzi instead. Smart guy.) It felt pretty gross walking through the mud and it was especially precarious getting in and out of it. I did my best to not think about all the creatures that might be in it and tried to pretend that at one point we didn’t roll over the floating body of a dead frog. Now, growing up on a farm, I’ve walked through things much more disgusting and stinkier than this, but never barefoot!

After we finished marking, I helped throw more plant clumps at the kids and then headed back into the mud to plant. When we finished we washed up using the gutters of water that run around each field and are used to flood them. The kids all lined up and then had to take turns giving their thoughts on the experience (I think that’s what they were doing, anyway) and thanking the farmers. They then trooped back to school and we followed behind in the car. Despite the yuckiness of the mud, I had a really fun time! It was great to hang out with the little kids and it was interesting to see the rice planting process and participate in it. I hope the rice grows okay and they get a big harvest. I guess we get to harvest it in the fall and make rice balls with it. I’m a bit afraid that my rows might die due to incorrect planting and I won't get anything to eat at harvest time. Although I noticed the farmers went back through the field redoing some of the planting, mostly where the 1st graders had been, so I guess I shouldn’t be too concerned.

Once we got back to school, I got to wash off any remaining mud with hot water and soap in the school shower in the nurse’s room. The rest of the day was kind of a drag. The place felt pretty lonely as the staff room was only populated with the elementary vice principal, the secretary, and myself, although occasionally the random elementary school teacher would pop in for a short spell. I suppose nothing could really live up to the excitement of the morning, but I wish something would have tried!

Sakura It To Me

April is sakura (cherry blossom) season here.
Japanese people go crazy for cherry blossoms. I was fortunate to see cherry blossoms in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Ishikawa. No matter what city I was in, every tree that had even a few blossoms on it was completely swarmed by Japanese people taking photos of it. I have to say that I joined right in the madness and now possess more flowering tree pictures than anyone ever should. In Kanazawa, the blossoms were at their peak from about April 6-12. That week, Kenrokuen, our local famous garden, was free for everyone to go in and view the blossoms. There were festival food stalls everywhere, and the park was open and lit up at night to take full advantage of the short time the trees were blooming.

On Saturday, April 11th, I went to Daishoji for their hanami (cherry blossom viewing) festival. Yes, the Japanese have a specific name for cherry blossom viewing – that’s just how important it is to them. We went on a boat ride down the river and picnicked in a park under the blossoms. During hanami, many people sit under the cherry trees on tarps and blankets, eating and drinking all day long, and when in Japan… After a beautiful day in Daishoji, I went to Zach’s house for an Easter party. We colored Easter-themed coloring book pages, dyed Easter eggs, and ate delicious pineapple/coconut cake that Zach had made. I went home, but some other party-goers headed downtown to hand out the Easter eggs to very confused Japanese people.


The next day the weather was absolutely gorgeous again, so Sarah, Ali and I headed to Kenrokuen to enjoy the cherry blossoms there. The place was absolutely packed with people taking pictures of the blossoms, themselves posing with the blossoms, their kids with the blossoms, their tiny little dogs with the blossoms... We grabbed some tasty corn-on-the-cob, and then crossed the street to sit in front of the castle amongst the groups of reveling Japanese. Tomoko and Daniel surprised us there and invited us to join the group they were with. They kindly welcomed us with snacks and sake and we had quite a lovely time until the sun went down.

The following weekend we had another hanami near the river that was organized for all of the JETs in Ishikawa. By this time, the blossoms were a bit past their prime and we ended up sitting on most of them. It was still quite festive though. Everybody then headed to a block party downtown. There was live music, food stands and people selling all kinds of things. Two Canadian guys had actually set up a Mexican food stand and were cooking amazing tacos, quesadillas and steak fajitas. I had one of each and was in heaven! We ended the night, as we often do, with a few hours of karaoke.

That Sunday was an Earth Day celebration at a park outside of Kanazawa, so Tomoko crammed six of us in her car and away we went. There were artists’ stands, people selling curry, and more live music. One of the bands featured a singer inside a giant globe. There were also belly dancers, drummers and African dancers, a woman playing an accordion, and strange performance art. Little kids were running around and swinging on giant swings while the adults lazed about on a grassy knoll in the sunshine.

I’d have to say that spring is my favorite season! I wish it would last forever, but soon enough the rainy, sweaty summer will be upon us. Oh well, for now, let’s enjoying cherry blossoms!

Say チーズ!

So today was school picture day. I found out when I got to school and noticed everyone wearing suits. Surprise! My new supervisor hurried over to tell me about it as soon as I sat down at my desk. Very helpful. She assured me that I looked fine, perfect in fact. I didn’t believe her but there wasn’t much to be done about it since the staff photo was scheduled for 8:30am. It’s not that I looked unprofessional or anything, (I was wearing my brown pants, green sweater, tan corduroy blazer combo that I’m sure many of you have seen a million times) it’s just that everyone else was much dressier than I was. If I had known, I would have worn a suit, too. I was pretty upset about it, especially as I had asked if there was anything going on today that I needed to be aware of. My supervisor had shown me the schedule yesterday and said there wasn’t anything that affected me. The staff photo wasn’t listed so maybe it had been communicated at the teachers’ meeting they had in the afternoon. They were still in the meeting when I left for the day, but it’s not like they don’t have my phone number. I stick out enough here already; I don’t need to be seen as the foreigner who doesn’t know how to dress appropriately for a formal group photo.

I felt a bit better when we got to the gym and I noticed a PE teacher still in his athletic wear and the woman in charge of school lunch wearing her apron. I wanted to hover off to the side to try and be less noticeable but somehow got pushed right smack dab in the middle of the photo, directly behind Kocho-sensei and Kyoto-sensei, who were seated in the first row. Oh well, maybe the photo will be black and white and it will kind of look like I’m wearing a suit.

At least I’ll look better than the last time I had an official photo taken in a middle school, although my bangs were pretty cool thanks to my cousin, Heather!

Yes, We Can!

Obama T-shirt from Obama, Japan

Tasty treat with a picture of the back of Obama's head on it from Obama, Japan
Raising a glass to the new President of the United States on Inauguration Day

Back in late January, I created a lesson on Barack Obama so my students could learn about the new President of the United States. Obama is pretty popular over here in Japan, and at election time lots of students were shouting, "Yes, we can!" at me in the halls or randomly in the classroom. My lesson consisted of a quiz game using PowerPoint and a worksheet about his inaugural address. I had to greatly reduce and simplify his speech so the kids would understand it, but I think I still got his main points across. Even so, there were several new vocabulary words we had to teach such as respect, responsibility, honest, courage, serve, and so on (all good words to know). Sorry, for some reason the textbooks teach the kids "such as" and "and so on" pretty early and they use these phrases often (and usually inappropriately).

Anyway, they were pretty interested in learning about him and at the end of class, we had them write their impressions of Obama. I was pretty interested and impressed by their comments. I thought you would be too and wanted to share some of them. I've left in any spelling and grammatical errors as I thought you might find those interesting, too. Any misquotations of the speech are my fault due to the massively abridged version I gave them.

I think Obama is great because he wants to stop global warming and he hopes many country keep the peace.

I think Obama is a very great person, because he said wonderful things and tries to do them. He thinks about America and the world.

I think Obama is good because he think many good things in the world. For example peace and stop global warming. I think Aso [Taro Aso, Prime Minister of Japan]should think peace and so on like Obama.

I think he is wonderful. First, he is thinking hard about problems now. For example, global warming and working and so on. Second, American people get courage because Obama said, “We also have hope and will work together so we can have a good future.” in the speech.

I think his speech is great. I hope Mr. Aso’s will better like it. He said “We must work with other countries to keep the peace”, but some wars were made by America. Therefore I don’t want him to start any wars.

This speech makes people happy because Obama think about poor people, war, and peace very much. He will gave freedom and courage to people. Americans can have a good future because he changes many things for example work, other country, money and so on.

I think he is good, because he will change America. His speech is very well. I think he makes many people happy.

I think Obama is good. Because he thinks of many people and countries. I want to help him many poor people.

I think Obama’s speech is great, because he try to make America peaceful. It is difficult to make people fair but I want him to make great America.

I think he is wonderful person, because he want to help many people. They help is very difficult. Obama’s work is hard, but he can help them.

I think Obama’s speech is great, because he said people can keep peace and stop global warming. So I respect to him.

I think he is very great man. He is 44th President of the United States. Yes, we can, Change!! That are his words.

I think Japan has to change, too.

I think that he will be more popular. And he makes America great. I hope America is be a great country.

I am happy to know about America. America is changed. So, It makes people happy.

Obama is respect.

I want Mr. Obama to change the world.

Thank you for your patience in reading all of those! As you can tell, there are high expectations for Obama, not just in America, but in Japan, too. I hope he can live up to them.

Yes, we can. Change we need. Thank you.

Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes

This week marks the end of the school year, so it’s time for big changes. I’ve had to say goodbye to my ninth graders as they are headed off for high school. We had graduation last Monday, March 16th. It was a sad day for me – I really enjoyed the ninth graders. Most of them were pretty funny and I liked talking with them. It’s been a tough few months for them though. They’ve had to study really hard for their high school entrance examinations. In order to get into high school, they must pass pretty tough exams. There are different exams for public high schools versus private high schools. Most try and get into public high schools as they are usually higher level and less expensive, but of course, the tests are also more difficult. High school is not compulsory here, so a few students won’t even go on to high school, either because they couldn’t pass the test or their score wasn’t high enough to get into an affordable school. It’s a lot of pressure on the kids and they’ve been pretty nervous about it. The results for some of the examinations weren’t posted until after graduation, so on graduation day, many students didn’t even know what high school they were going to yet. The results were posted on Wednesday, March 18th, so many ninth graders came back to school to see the results board and get congratulated by their teachers. I was happy to hear that the students at my main school did much better than the teachers expected them to!

I’m also going to have to say goodbye to several teachers. Each spring, the board of education randomly transfers tons of teachers to different schools throughout the prefecture. Teachers never know if they are going to be transferred or not, they don’t have a say as to where they are transferred, and they only have about 2 to 2 ½ weeks between the time they are notified and when they start the new school year at a new school. They just started getting notified last Thursday, and the new school year starts on April 7th. Some teachers still don’t know if they are staying or going. Apparently on March 25 or 26th, all the changes will be printed in the newspaper. From what I’ve heard, younger teachers are usually transferred every year, older teachers about every three to five years. The vice principals and principals are also transferred around.

None of the teachers (even the ones that are staying) know what grades they’ll be teaching or what club activities they’ll be in charge of until around April 1st, when the new teachers start. They could get assigned to the soccer club, for instance, even though they’ve never played soccer and don’t even know the rules. I was under the impression that the teachers that get to stay will keep on teaching the same grade, but apparently, they get shuffled too. It ends up being hard on everyone – there is a lot of uncertainty towards the end of the school year. The ones who go leave the co-workers and students they’ve gotten comfortable with for a new place, leaving the ones who stay with more work – reassigning classes, getting the new teachers used to everything, etc.

I just don’t understand it. It seems like a lot of extra work and headaches for everyone involved. I’ve been really nervous about it because I like all the English teachers I work with. I’ve been very lucky thus far – they are all easy to work with and their English is really good – unlike some of the teachers other ALTs have had. As of today, I’ve found out that my mountain school English teacher gets to stay, but one of two of my Monday teachers is going, and two (maybe 3) of the 5 English teachers at my main school must go. Then, of course, several other, non-English teachers must leave my schools too. I’m really sad about it because they’ve all been so nice to me and I feel like I’m just getting to know them. Hopefully, the teachers replacing them will be good, too, but who knows?

Spring vacation starts this Wednesday, 3/25. My sister Liz and friend Becky are coming to visit me, so I’ll be traveling around Japan with them for a week. I’ll be back in Kanazawa for the farewell party for the teachers at my main school on 3/30. Then I’m headed to Okinawa until 4/6 to enjoy the sand and sun! I’m really excited about vacation, but I’m nervous about all of the new faces there will be when school starts again on the 7th!

Is Silence Golden? I Think Not.

I think this is the quietest I’ve been each day since I was in 1st Grade. Each report card from 1st grade used to have a comment about how I was doing well in school but didn’t talk very much. My parents were puzzled because at home they had a hard time getting me to shut up. My family used to call me “Yacky Jackie” – pretty great nickname, huh? I’m not sure why I didn’t talk much at school back then, but as most of you have experienced, it didn’t turn out to be a lasting problem!

Here in Japan, though, I’m pretty silent most of my day at school. I talk when I’m in the classroom, as that’s what I’m here for, but that’s only two to four 50 minute periods a day. The majority of my day consists of sitting in the teachers’ room, listening to the teachers talking in Japanese and laughing around me, wondering what’s going on.

This is a sharp contrast to my days at the WF, where I was almost constantly conversing with co-workers or clients. I’d spend my days typing and chattering away to whoever happened to be on the phone, in my cubicle, or within listening distance from my cubicle. (Probably to the annoyance of others within listening distance from my cubicle!) I’d talk while eating lunch at my desk or I’d go out to lunch with friends to get the latest news, happily a part of millions of conversations.

I do have occasional interactions throughout the day but the frequency and duration of these interactions are nothing compared to what I’m used to. On a usual day, Kyoto-sensei usually stops by a few times to make comments, my English teachers will chat with me to plan our next lesson and in the halls on the way to and from class, I’ll greet students while walking through the halls, and one or two students may stop by my desk after lunch to chat for a few minutes. I’d say that totals 10 minutes of non-classroom conversation per school day (at most).

Mondays I get in more conversation time because I eat lunch in the classroom with the students. When eating with class 2-1, I’m able to get in one or two questions or comments while the students quickly shovel in their lunches and try to avoid eye contact with me. Class 2-5 is a bit more outgoing though and they’ll ask questions and talk with me more. There are also two girls that always talk to me after lunch. At the end of the day, I’ll usually stay an extra 30 minutes to an hour, both so the English teachers have time to plan the next week’s lesson and with me and also to converse with the art teacher, who has great English. Those 30 minutes to an hour isn’t the conversation time though, for most of that, I’m waiting for the teachers to get back from meetings or other duties.

Wednesdays are also a bit different as there’s another ALT who works at my school. It’s nice to have someone to talk to all day, kind of. I like her a lot, but she doesn’t have anyone to talk to during the day the rest of the week, so it can be hard to get a word in. I’m also afraid it’s annoying to the rest of the teachers, either because they can’t understand all the English or because they can… I’m a bit torn about it because all the talking gets to be a bit much, but when she’s reading a book or over on the internet, it’s a bit lonely!

Luckily there are more opportunities for conversation after the work day is over. I’ll often talk on the phone or meet up with other ALTs in the evenings and weekends and now I have a language partner that I meet with a few times a week. Her English is almost perfect, so we spend most of the time talking in English, although she does try to get me to practice my Japanese too. Apparently these interactions aren’t quite enough for “Yacky Jackie” though… I’m talking to myself more and more when I’m alone in my apartment... At least I don't reply...yet.

I Fought the Slopes...and It Was A Tie

I went skiing in Hakuba in Nagano Prefecture (site of the 1998 Winter Olympics) the weekend of March 7th with four ALT friends (Ali, Leslie, Mieko and Ken). We rented a car (which was quite the hassle for Leslie and Mieko) and Leslie drove us up to Hakuba early on Saturday morning. We stayed in a really great B&B owned by an Australian guy, his Japanese wife, their adorable 2 yr-old daughter and friendly dog (B&B Santana Hakuba http://www.hakuba-santana.com/). I recommend it if anybody is planning on doing a little skiing or mountain biking in Nagano anytime soon.

The mountains were stunning, the weather was sunny and warm, and I was absolutely petrified. Before this, I had been skiing exactly twice in my life. The first time was for a school trip in 6th grade at Sundown Ski Resort in Dubuque, Iowa. The second and most recent time was sophomore year of college in Red Wing, Minnesota. That would have been about ten years ago. Needless to say, I am not very skilled at it. Also, these mountains looked a bit more difficult than anything I've ever seen in the Midwest!

My friends were all really good skiers and/or snowboarders. I definitely was the weakest link in our group. They were very patient with me though and were good teachers. I felt bad that I was holding them back, but they took turns baby-sitting me so they all had the chance to do more difficult runs. I fell some, but not as much as I had expected, even though at one point I got myself completely tangled up in a mesh fence! By the end of the first day, I had made quite a bit of progress. I was immensely relieved to find that I could take the gondola back down the mountain though, as there was no beginners' trail all the way to the bottom. Which, in my opinion, is really stupid. I was even more relieved when I heard about how icy the path down the mountain was. The others said that everybody was falling all over the place.

Although the views at the top were gorgeous and skiing was even a bit exhilarating at points, I think the best part of the day was when we were all at the bottom, enjoying Subway sandwiches! It was almost sad how excited we were - Japan is not well known for their sandwich-making abilities. A good sandwich is very hard to find. I think there are a few other Subways in Japan but I hadn't been to one yet. Although there are much better sub places at home (Jimmy Johns, Potbelly, etc.), I think that Subway roast beef sandwich was the best one I've ever had!

That night we went and relaxed at an onsen to help with our aching muscles, ate again at a delightful restaurant called Pizzikaya (Get it? Pizza + Izikaya. Pretty clever, huh?) that had really tasty food and used all homemade pottery, and fell asleep watching the absolutely terrible movie "Never Been Kissed".

The next morning was also warm and sunny and we headed to Happo-one Ski Resort, stage of the Olympic downhill race. Although I should have felt more confident, I was even more terrified than the day before. I somehow felt that it was a fluke that I hadn't hurt myself the day before and that I was definitely due for a serious injury. It didn't help that the slopes looked even steeper and icier than those at the previous resort. When we got to the top of the chair lift, I noticed that the map had no beginner trails reachable from that point. They were all beginner 2s or advanced ones. I was frozen in place for quite awhile and then started sweating profusely. The others all skied away so they could actually enjoy themselves, but Ali stayed to coach me down the hill. It probably took at least 30 minutes and much stopping and falling for me to make it down the one short but steep run. My body didn't seem to remember what it had done the previous day at all and I was freaking out a bit because I was so scared. Luckily, the others found an easier run for me which I went down several times and I finally became more comfortable. I was even able to make it down that first scary slope again without falling or freaking out. I started enjoying myself a lot more as the day went on!

It was a fun trip and I'm really glad I had the chance to go. The scenery was really beautiful and it was good for me to go skiing again. I do have to say that I was not sad to return the rental ski gear and climb into the car to go home though! Maybe I'll go skiing again... in another ten years.