It could be worse...

...you could be a Japanese school kid.

Do not get me wrong- I am well aware that the U.K. does not have a perfect education system. Many children are failed by it and for a 'developed' country we have an disgustingly high level of illiteracy, and a high number of young people who drop out or are excluded before their minimum schooling needs are even met.

Yet, having lived in Japan now for almost 8 months, I feel a little qualified to comment on what I've seen of the Japanese education system. Admittedly I only get to see what happens in English lessons, but these are things that are bugging me/the reasons I'm glad I was never a Japanese school kid.

~ NO CENTRAL HEATING. Or air conditioning in the stupidly hot summers.

~ After school activities that once you've joined you cannot quit or swap to another club- hate it? Too bad- you're in that club for 3 years at least, come rain or shine.

~ Ijime (bullying)- sadly a fact of school life globally, but the number of victims committing suicide in Japan is such that playing 'hangman' with students is seen as inappropriate.

~ Fear of speaking out/ acute shyness. I have stood waiting for the answer to a simple question, twitching unbearably at how long a student is taking to answer and shyness plays a huge role in this. Even if classmates are whispering the answer, a lot of children lack such confidence that they are unable to utter a simple sentence. I have a third year boy (14/15 years old) who has curled up in a ball rather than speak to me. I have so many students who cover their mouths whilst talking, or get uncontrollable giggles, or look like they want to die rather than open their mouths.
It's painful for them, and it's painful to watch.

~ Disruptive kids who aren't disciplined. So much goes on in a Japanese classroom that wouldn't be tolerated for a second in England. Play up in a classroom in England and you're sure to be sent out of the classroom- do it enough and you can be excluded. Not a great solution for the problem child- but why should the rest of the class have to suffer?

~ Japanese teachers who don't speak English. Not a problem if you're learning Japanese- but not helpful if you are learning English.

~ Remember being put into ability level classes for certain subjects? Here in Japan- you decide what level you are. So we have low ability kids choosing higher level classes because that's where their friends are, or because they prefer the higher level status.

~ I am also driven crazy by the fact that worksheets are handed out at the same time as the answer sheets. I wander round the classroom and see answers being copied down mindlessly- yet ask the student what they've copied down and a look of confusion and panic crosses their faces as they've no idea. ARRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!

~ Exam stress- it's all about getting into a good elementary school to get into a good junior high school to get into a good high school to get into a good university to get into a good job- they really are that linked over here- which means exams, exams, exams, and lots of learning by rote.

~ Cram schools- the pressure to succeed is such that many students who can afford to attend jukus (cram schools)- this is after a regular day of schooling, and several hours of their chosen after school activity. It means that high numbers of students often fall asleep in school the next day- and they are not woken up by anyone but are allowed to sleep!

~ I also see support here for single sex schooling- it could just be a Japanese thing but the boys get all the attention, they have far more confidence and a lot of the girls look like zombies- admittedly I'd look a bit out of it if I was sat in such a dull English lesson too (and I probably do sometimes), but I want to shake some of them. Too scared to raise their voice above a whisper when called upon, or to even offer an answer. I watched as a 1st year boy swiped a 1st year girl's cake that had just been given to her by a friend. She didn't say a word. I swiped it back off him and asked her whether she wanted it and she admitted that she did. I didn't have enough Japanese to ask her why she hadn't said so to the boy.

If I had a kid in Japan I'd seriously consider home schooling.

I wrote this entry on a cranky day- but sadly even on a good day all of the above stands.

And on with the pics...



I breathed on my lens to take this :)



And my favourite time of year has begun... *raised eyebrow*- can't it be the 26th of December already?!



Yasumi displays the new yummy winter dessert menu at Joyfull. (Not a typo- they use 2 'l's.)



A letter from my 2nd years at my favourite school (they were made to write it, but still- look, it's my beloved Elmo!)

Days till I'm back in the U.K. for Xmas: 18...

And the new vid from Rip Slyme who have a new album out that I'm seriously considering buying...

Wakarimasen

Wakarimasen.
This is quite possibly the most useful Japanese word I have learnt whilst over here.
It means 'I don't understand', so obviously I get to use it a lot.
In this entry, I'm using it to talk about the interesting use of English in Japan...

Ok, I'm a Virgo- we're known for being somewhat anal when it comes to details and in that respect I am a true Virgo. One of my dream jobs has always been to be an editor- not so much for the creative input- but more to correct any mistakes that may have been made. I can't help it- grammatical errors, spelling mistakes, and the worst offender of them all- text speak all make me twitch. Not to make you paranoid, but I mentally correct every email that I get. Please don't get me wrong, I'm not a snob, I'm just programmed this way...

So I'm finding that living in Japan I have to fight the urge to run around with a big red marker correcting everything.
Half the time I can get the gist of what was trying to be said, but the rest of the time I'm like: Huh?! Wakarimasen.

This was taken from the design on a student's notebook:
"I wish to sing a duet with transparent time.
You'll have mind to forgive everything.
If you become nervous or angry, hold communion with nature."

From my Japanese teacher's chopstick container I found:
"Enjoy a quiet lunch time while feeling a season
Nature put a person at his ease.."

Check the following...



This is from my friend's ashtray pot.


This is taken from a sticker booth


As is this


This is from hairclip packaging

And this is my latest mini project- yes, it's several weeks early but I had some time on my hands!


Check this link for some more examples of English that makes me twitch:
What?!

Sports Day

Across Japan in high schools and junior high schools, September is the month of the sports festival. It's a big deal, students have been preparing for it since July, through out their non-existent summer vacation, possibly even longer.

These are the notes I took at one of the rehearsals.

Today was another gorgeous September day, well by gorgeous, I mean stupidly hot, but I know I'll get all S.A.D. when the sun disappears in the winter, so I'm going to put up and shut up about the heat.

My school have been rehearsing a traditional Japanese dance and some other dances for days and days, along with different sporting events, all practised in the blistering sun for hours on end, like a hard core boot camp. I feel sorry for them, but they seem to be running about quite happily.



What amuses me though are the lengths the female teachers go to to maintain their pale skin- we're talking total sun block, big hats, JACKETS.... If you are female in Japan, a tan is a no-no- unless you you are a ganguro girl- but more on them in another post.

The glare given off by the regulation white t-shirts worn by all the students made it look like an advert for washing powder, and rousing circus-like tracks and instrumental jazz pieces were the soundtrack to all the events. It was being held in the school playing field, which is less field, more large sand trap, so all the dust being kicked up ought to keep a lot of mothers and their washing machines busy...

I fell about laughing at events such as the tug of war using a bamboo cane, the mass skipping event where large groups of students would attempt to skip together using the same rope, and my favourite event, the 10 legged race- where 5 students would run together in a line with their ankles tied together. Surprisingly that event didn't result in a trip to the hospital, although we did have some kids pass out from the heat...






Another event involved a relay race, a sack jump, a dash to some seats where you had to burst balloons with your bum before running up to a net which you scrambled under, then ran to a basket that had balls that had to be carried on a spoon for a certain distance until the next team member was tagged in to begin the relay. And there was the big box race- in which you had to balance several large boxes on each other and run without losing a box...

Essentially, all the games focused on team work, which isn't surprising considering the Japanese cultural emphasis on society. There are also no losers- just teams who are not doing as well as other teams. These teams are cheered on over the loudspeaker with a cry of "Ganbatte!"- "Do your best!"




The third year girls dance to Avril Lavigne's 'Girlfriend'



The third year boys dance to The Black Eyed Peas' "Pump It"

All in all it was very entertaining day, but that's probably because I didn't have to take part in any of the events myself!

Tim in Japan- part 2

Tim's entry continued- no mention of us going to Mount Fuji though, tut tut...:

On the morrow, we travelled by shinkansen (bullet train) to Okayama and than took a local train to Tsuyama, San's town. Once we got to San's house I thought it was lovely, perfect for one person really and we relaxed until we met Will and went to a restaurant called Joyfull (yes, they spell it with two 'l's for some reason).
I think Joyfull is a Japanese attempt of a American diner, although it was designed as if they had only read about what an American diner should look like rather than ever seen one. I thought it was sweet and I can see why we went as the food was at least something I understood (pretty much everything else I had eaten before was either guessing, or from San's recommendations).



Tim plays the 'Will it make me gag?/ What is it?!' food game that I am a little too used to...

The next day was probably one of my favourites; some might say that it is sad that after going to all these fantastic places in Japan, my favourite day would be one spent cycling around a small Japanese town, looking at a Japanese garden and being shown the sights, but I loved it. It was so relaxing, so pretty and I felt so at peace. I could feel the stress of the journey, the stress of work and other personal rubbish slowly going away.



Tsuyama is in the back of beyond, but it has nice sunsets..

The next day we were off to Tsushima, a small island near Korea with some of San's friends to stay at a beach house. The journey was long and I have to admit I was disappointed. I had an image in my mind of a small house on a beautiful beach, pretty much untouched, maybe walking distance to a small village where there would be a restaurant or a pub where we could go for drinks and chats and stuff.
It wasn't like that, it was a house in the middle of nowhere on a small wooden pier, there were sea urchins littered around so the only way to get the sea was jumping off the pier and than getting back on was a pain. I tried to hide my disappointment but think I failed a little bit. Though driving around was cool and the slide park we went to was great fun, it wasn't what I was hoping for.



Tim is a moany old so-and so, check the view from our doorstep.

I think at this point I should mention that fact that I am not normally such a brat but maybe the heat and the exhaustion did mean I had less patience than I normally do. So apologies to the rest of the gang who I met there, I am usually quite nice. Good time to mention the heat as well, it was hot and very humid, the kind of heat that makes you hot and sweaty and tired the instant you walk out of the door. I kept myself hydrated as much as possible but I don't think there was enough water in the world.


After the little island we hopped onto the ferry (a later one than we hoped) and headed over to Hiroshima...



The ruins of the A-dome can just about be made out through the arch of this monument.

Hiroshima was beautiful, the Peace Park I though was very tranquil and the museum even though horrific was also very interesting. I was surprised at how the museum didn't blame anyone but was more directed to ensuring the message of banning the bomb and ensuring that nothing like this ever happened again was thoroughly engrained into your soul.



This monument has the word 'Peace' inscribed in it over and over again in different languages.

Tim neglects to mention Kyoto, but we'll forgive him.

This is a just a taste of what my summer was like- the first summer in the longest time that I haven't been slaving away, but had time to actually enjoy it. As I am now back at school (boo :( ), no doubt I'll feel the need to reminisce on these halcyon days filled with sunshine, booze and lots of lie-ins. I'll fill you in on the details later...

Tim in Japan- part 1

It took forever and much whinging to get an entry out of Tim, but here it is- well, most of it anyway, he hasn't finished it yet....


The journey began at 5am in the morning at Heathrow, feeling knackered though excited I jumped onto my plane to Charles De Gaulle, France. Air France seemed very nice and as a non budget airline tried to force some food and drink down us before the end of the hour journey. From Charles De Gaulle I waited an hour before the 12.5 hours flight to Tokyo. The flight seemed to go on forever and the movies weren't that great but after trying not to die of boredom I eventually arrived in Japan on Monday morning, found a train reasonably easily to Shinjuku and was on my way. Looking forward to the adventure with a mixture of excitement and apprehension, for someone who normally plans everything down to the last detail, only have a hotel for 3 days and not knowing where and if Sanyu would be at the train station filled me up with the adrenaline I needed to keep awake for the last leg of the journey.

Arriving at the station I started to head towards the exit where I thought I was going to meet San. Tokyo station is big, very big on multiple floors and with multiple exits and so in no time at all I had absolutely no idea where I was. After about 20 minutes of walking around in circles I found a telephone and called San. She answered (thank god) and with the help of some kindly souls we met up at the right exit. I was so happy to see her I didn't even notice the barrier trying to hinder my exit and walked merrily through. After a quick hug we jumped onto the JR Line to try and find our hotel and after being redirected by a kind man who had been 'visiting' for the last 10 years we were on our way.

The hotel was a distance away from the centre of the city in what looked like a business park, even though the hotel was called Shinagawa Seaside there was no seaside to see, just impressive looking tower blocks and shopping centres. As the hotel wouldn't let us in until 2pm we found some food and caught up, around 2pm exactly we went back to the hotel found a room which was very nice, (they gave us a free upgrade) we slept the sleep of the truly knackered (San had also been travelling all night via the night bus).


The next couple of days were a bit of blur to be honest, I loved Tokyo, the mixture of old and new quite literally inches away was amazing and the amount of people were insane and even though they were lovely, you did get the feeling you could never really integrate and that even though on the outside they had changed and become more western, in the inside there was something so alien that I would never really understand it completely.



Crowds at Shinjuku Station, the equivalent of our Leicester Square, or New York's Times Square I think.

We visited some sites while we were in Tokyo, the Imperial Palace which had some beautiful grounds but I wasn't really sure whether we actually saw or got close to the palace itself. I took some pictures but had no real idea of what I was taking the pictures of.



A side view of part of the Imperial Palace which was heavily under armed guard.

The Sony store which fulfilled my nerd quota and even though Sanyu will probably deny it I think she enjoyed it as well, though more for the cool looking aquarium sitting outside than the cool technological toys inside.



Taken through the fishtank outside the Sony Building- which was a nice reminder of all the gadgetry I want but can't afford!

We spent quite a bit of time trying to get to the Tokyo Tower which we somehow missed (the thing is bigger than the Eiffel Tower so goodness knows how we missed it) but instead found a lovely restaurant which as it was my birthday was a nice way of spending the evening.
The food was lovely and the staff even though they did not understand a word we said was so sweet and helpful. To thank them I tried to leave a tip and even though my heart was in the right place, the poor girl was distraught with the left over money, the look of relief as we let her put it in the charity box was obvious. So strangely in a country where you are going to get the best service in the world is also the one country where you can't leave a tip, being a westerner who is used to feeling like a cheapskate if he doesn't leave 10% for average service this was the first of many culture differences I encountered.



Yes, that's right- horse, and apparently whale meat is tasty too...

Over the next couple of days we squeezed in a temple, which was beautiful, the Rainbow bridge which is a bridge ... sorry but apart from getting some nice pics with my beloved Tripod of the city I didn't really see the point and Tokyo Tower where I had a strange feeling of deja-vu, it is almost identical to the Canadian Tower, the views are different but you can see the inside were pinched or designed by the same people.



The Tokyo Tower in semi-silhouette.

My favourite part of Tokyo were the train journeys and the people watching, the tourist bits were great and I would have felt sad if I had missed them, but just sitting on the trains (which were clean, punctual and easy to use .. another culture shock from someone who has used British Rail for too long) watching the different types of people come on and off, the amount of people going from one part of the station to another like drone bees, all very orderly and all very polite, (though if you don't stand to the side of the train entrance or don't follow the crowd, they would just bump into you, not out of impoliteness, I just do not think they can comprehend your existence if you are not in the correct place at the correct time). This reminded me a little bit of Singapore which had arrows on the pavement to show which direction you should be walking.

I was sorry to leave when our 3 days were over, but thought we had a good taste of Tokyo and was looking forward to seeing San's home town and to see how she lived in this strange but lovely country, the night bus was a good cheap option so we went to buy our tickets ... they were full!!! ... Okay don't panic, we will just use the Bullet Train, I had been secretly wanting to have a go on one of these anyway and as I can't sleep on anything moving the idea of a 4 hour journey rather than an 8 hour journey was rather appealing to be honest ... but they were full too!! ... Okay so we have nowhere to sleep and no way of getting to San's house, so we sat in Tokyo station staring blankly at a map wondering where we were going to get a hotel at such short notice during one of the busiest holiday seasons in Japan (Oban)with our guide books open.

"Can I help" came a friendly cry from my left, I stopped my feverish flicking through my guide book and looked up at a young and friendly Japanese business man.

"Yeah if you can find us a hotel" I replied in rather a stroppy like matter, I was tired, I had nowhere to sleep and this guy was going to try and give me directions, I was not in the mood for fighting with the language barrier, I was hot, tired and just wanted to curl up in a corner.

"Not a problem" the guy took the guide book and started calling hotels, the look of shock must have been apparent on my face, I have been into travel agents who were less helpful. The look of shock started to turn into one of disappointment as every hotel he tried was full.. though our friendly guide found a hotel he used to work in which had a room and started taking us there. I repeat started taking us there, not gave directions but almost literally took us by the hand, through the subway to a nice, clean business hotel.

Once we were all booked in :"Can I ask you for something" the guy asked, arrrh now we are back into my charity, the guy wants money, something I can understand from the western world, people do not do anything nice without wanting something in return, I started fingering through the notes in my wallet to ensure I had something that wouldn't offend but wouldn't leave me bankrupt.


"Can I have your email addresses" the guy said, and my world turned upside down.
Hang on a second, someone had called around all the hotels in our book, found a hotel, took us to the hotel, organised getting us settled in and just wants an email address in return?! I vowed to email him the instant I found an internet connection which when I got to San's house I did. (Continued in next entry)

Summer starts here/ Free at last ...

Thank fuck for school summer holidays....



A Japanese classroom in Wil's village of Mimasaka. He took me to his school like a show and tell object. The second year boys told me my boobs were big and, using the subtle art of groin thrusting, suggested that me and Wil were making "luver-luver". Nice. ;)



I went out for dinner in a fancy French restaurant with the Japanese English teachers of the school I am currently at. Yum.



The next day I went out to David's leaving dinner. Meet Chinese-American David, Singaporean Penny, and American Wil (yes, he spells it with one 'l', he's special!).



Jane's boyfriend Motoraki shows the Pissing boys of Belgium how it's done.
We went to Taiyo Park in Himeji- a tourist attraction that lets you see replicas of famous monuments from around the globe without leaving Japan. I like this blogger's entry on it and am a little jealous as her blog is better than mine...


The globe trotters in "China's Forbidden City"...

I'm enjoying the freedom- although a part of me feels the strange urge to make my days feel productive- yuck. Now I'm just planning my upcoming trip to my Mecca- (well, one of them- New York is another one) Tokyo....

Pics galore

I have just started at a new junior high school and even though it's early days yet- I love my new school. Everyone really makes an effort to speak to me in English- the teachers and children are much friendlier and it just seems a nicer atmosphere all round- so that's good.

In other news I roadtripped to another Japanese island in order to get my braids done. Afro hair is a bitch- don't let anyone tell you otherwise! I dislike my hair so much I was willing to take a 6 hour journey to and fro to Oita which is a whole other island- just to get it done. Ignore people who rant about corporations like Starbucks and McDonalds taking over the world- it's very reassuring to step off a train in another place where you don't speak the language and know that just around the corner there will probably be a McDonalds where you know what you'll be eating.
I'm very tempted to save myself the 12 hour + journey and the bother next time and just do a Britney and shave it off...


Oku sensai from my previous school


Hashimoto sensai also from my first school


The reasurring reflection of McDonald's trademark 'Golden Arches'


The Mormons strike their 'Super Morman' pose...


My boys and a random Japanese passerby


And no, we weren't drunk on anything other than soda.

Caption Competition

Hello there --
Jay here, sorry San can't be with you today, but she's sent some pictures along to post for you all to enjoy.
Since there's no post to go alongside them, I've decided to make it a caption competition. The best captions get a sticker.
Alternatively, just leave comments about how nice the pictures are.
Unfortunately, there aren't any pictures of San dressing as a Gothic Lolita, so you will have to wait a bit longer for those.

Something furui, something atarashi...

The weather is yucky today- all rainy and grey. I'm looking at the skyline as I write this from my new hotel room on the 10th floor (my third hotel since I've arrived, and not my last either). We met with some other assistant language teachers today and went second hand shopping to help them furnish their apartments.

The second hand shop was in this huge warehouse and sold pretty much everything- but not just second hand stuff either. There were a lot of goods still in their original packaging which must have been unwanted and sold on. The shopkeeper also gave us discounts on the items we purchased. I'll have to head back there once I work out what I'll need in my apartment (still yet to be seen).

Check out my breakfast/lunch. Sticky rice, bento noodles with egg and some sort of fish, tofu, some fried fish, some chicken, and a strange savoury egg custard with mushrooms and shrimps inside, plus a sweetish sauce with mustard in it and a paste for the fish. Strange new textures and tastes, but all quite yummy.

This is Barry, another assistant language teacher. He has the most gorgeous Irish accent, and like me, doesn't speak a word of Japanese.

This is Annie, she is Austrailian-Chinese, and is quite a chatty, bubbly person.

Since I'm back in my room, here's some sumo wrestling from my hotel tv.

Tomorrow we're on the move again as we head to Hiroshima for training which starts on Monday. Not sure if I'll be able to update as often, but I'll find the time.

Phrases randomly selected for today- in response to:
Dochira kara kimashta ka?= Where are you from?
Igirisu kara kimashta. = I'm from England.

Cultured San

Today we trekked, and I do mean trekked around Okayama's culture zone (google it).
We saw the Okayama Symphony Hall, the Okayama Orient Museum, the Okayama Prefectural Museum of Art, Korakuen Garden and Okayamajo castle- well the bits you didn't have to pay to see anyway!

I like this shot of one of the covered shopping streets- the shops go on forever.

Okayamajo Castle

Okayama's Cultural Zone

Today I feel... I don't know, maybe it's because I'm tired- or I'm just bored of waiting for training to begin in Hiroshima on Monday. I know I should be enjoying this lull before it all starts up and I have no time to myself, but I'm impatient for more...

Due to the spare time on my hands at the moment I am watching a lot of tv at the hotel; like sumo tournaments, (obviously not understanding a word of the commentary) but I prefer the more girly figure skating and synchronised swimming competitions that are also taking place at the moment. Last night I found this really funny, over the top drama with samurais and geishas swinging swords- again, didn't have a clue what was going on, but there isn't much else for me to do. Proves what I knew from back home- I really will watch anything!


Today's randomly selected phrase from my phrasebook:E-go no menyu- o o-negai shimas.
=I'd like a menu in English please. (Pronounce the 'E' as an 'A', so 'A-go...')
To be honest, they'll probably hand you one automatically- otherwise most menus have pictures so you can just point, smile and say Kudasai= give me (but more polite). Not that a picture menu will help you much as a lot of the food is unrecognisable anyway- just take a deep breath and pick anything.

Feed San

"Needing feeding" or "Feed San" are phrases that those who know me will often hear me say.
I love food- my rather over generously sized hips and arse are testament to this fact. So how am I doing in a land with a very different cuisine? Not too badly- it helps that I will pretty much try anything at least once.

Give praise for the ever present vending machine- I am working my way through the various options offered with a kind of random attitude- this morning I had Apple tea. I'd been whining that the machines on the streets didn't do snacks, but today I found one with jars of mini Kit Kats in them- a first as 99.9% of the street vending machines only do beverages or cigarettes, as eating in the street is kind of a no- no.

I'll admit I was tempted by the banana cream sandwich, but coffee flavoured sandwiches? Ick.

Random prepackaged sandwiches- we have peanut butter, egg, some fish paste looking thing(!) and they also have margarine sandwiches- mmm- tasty! ;)

Our cheap supermarket lunch. Is it bad that I can't tell you what we ate? I have no idea! Told you I'll try pretty much anything. But it all tasted fab. You can also get chicken skin on its own in a box, amongst other tasty treats (haven't tried it).

Today's Japanese phrase of the day chosen at random from my phrasebook:
Sumimasen, ichiban chikaku no ko-shu-denwa wa doko des ka?*
Excuse me, where's the nearest public phone?

(*Read as written, holding the letters with the hyphen after them a little longer than normal- as I am writing on a UK laptop I can't write the Japanese symbols.)