Kids + Snow = Photo Opportunities Galore!

Lunchtime recess at Kanaoka E.S. (12/4)



Big kids like to play, too! Hachiryu JHS (12/5)

During "cleaning time", I guess this group got the shoveling snow gig. It quickly degraded to snowball fights (the girls in the background totally won) and...

Snowman building!! :)

Moritake E.S. Arts and Crafts Club (12/6)

We made mini-Christmas trees. Aren't they cute? (kids and trees)

This is my creation. I'm pretty crafty, huh?

::END::

No Classes So I'm Posting Photos

Let's work our way forward, shall we?

THANKSGIVING! (Akita-style)

Maureen organized this whole day with the help of Seth, who cooked the turkeys!

Corey, Brett, and Tex all GQ'd up for Thanksgiving in their Uniqlo sweaters

Nick (Christy's boyfriend) and I made the mac 'n cheese - expertly, I might add.

Yay! Let's eat!This is my first plate of food: corn, stuffing, turkey+gravy, mashed potatoes, mac n cheese, green bean casserole, and pasta salad. Carb fest!!

Japanese lady who's name I forgot, Maureen, me, Christian, and Juls - still alive after all the food!

Josh (the Australian) entertained these two little girls the whole night.

There were 20 people in total!

While you were shopping on Black Friday, I was...

Pasta/ravioli making at Bella's house in the middle of nowhere!

They turned out to be delicious! Bella's French Canadian with Italian ancestry = good recipes!

Yes, I made a mess and got flour all over myself. As if I wasn't white enough...

We drive to the city for Starbucks - and to see Paula!

Christy and Paula modeling the universally lovely red cups.

Oh, Paula bought some really expensive pink macaroons. Apparently they were worth it.

I went to Sendai to take a test. Here are some photos~

This is at Tohoku University (test site), they still have fall leaves!

hm... Japanese maple?

While I was at a bookstore in Sendai, I ran into Craig, a guy I had some Japanese classes with at Berkeley. Apparently, he's studying abroad at Tohoku University! SMALL WORLD!!! Anyway, he took me on an impromptu tour of Sendai. So here's the founding father samurai guy's statue.

It's at the "castle", which after a half hour hike turned out to be "castle ruins".

Still worth it!

::End::

No Kitties for Katie

My supervisor told me I can't have a cat here since my house is owned by the town, and because of a bunch of other troublesome things. So, I guess the kitties are going to be left for the good people of Kotooka to sort out... I hope someone steps up to the plate! and soon! (`~`)


Akita was in the news again:
In Japan, Rural Economies Wane as Cities Thrive

This article is really, really about where I live, because the featured town is Noshiro, which is a quick 25min north of my house, and very similar to my area (though, it's a "big city" by comparison to Mitane -aka: my town).

雪の夜とかわいそう子猫

Tonight, as I was leaving my English conversation class, my supervisor asked if I saw the kittens, and I didn't know what she was talking about, so she explained, "oh there are three homeless kittens outside!" So I went outside in the BLIZZARD, and sure enough, there were three really cute (but sad) mewing kitties!!! Someone from the community center had made them a little styrofoam box house that seemed kind of warm, but they had no food/water and looked cold/hungry!! It was soooo sad!!!

So I got in the car and drove straight to the grocery store, where I bought cat food and towels (because they don't sell blankets). I stopped by house to pick up another towel and gladware tub things for the food/water, and then went back to the community center. As soon as I walked up they starting meowing like crazy and when I put the food down the literally DOVE IN! Gosh they looked so cold! They were gobbling down the food, too. I made sure there was plenty for tonight and set the bag next to their little box-home so hopefully someone will feed them more tomorrow. I also filled them a dish of water, which they happily lapped up - I hope it doesn't freeze tonight! Then I added my towels to their box to make it warmer and cozier. After that, it didn't really seem like there was much else I could do, so I came home. But I really want to go back and check on them (even though I can't do anything)!

I emailed my supervisor to ask her to call the community center people tomorrow and find out if the cats really have no home. I said that if they don't, I'll take care of them. Three cats are kind of a lot for someone who doesn't spend a whooole lot of time at home... but someone has to give them a home! Especially since it's snowing!! Anyway, I guess I'll find out tomorrow.

Send warm thoughts to the kitties!!

I'm dreaming of a white... Thanksgiving?

I spent this very windy/snowy/blizzardy day teaching about Thanksgiving at Kado Elementary School (the one closest to my home, so the kids in my neighborhood go there, too). Today was curry and rice day for lunch, which is my absolute FAVORITE so I think it was a good Thanksgiving meal. During lunchtime recess, all the kids got bundled up to go outside and play in the snow! I didn't have the right gloves or a hat, but I couldn't resist and I went out to play, too (with my camera!).

She was chasing him with snowballs in hand. I didn't see how it ended...

Everyone wants to pose for Katie-sensei! These are second and third graders I think.

They wanted to show off their handiwork.

A snowman in the works...

Eikaiwa: Round Two!

I just had my second English conversation class, and I totally rocked it! We reviewed days of the week, names of the months, "how's the weather?", useful English expressions (from "How's it going?" to "good luck!"), and three different "running into a friend on the street" scenarios. Kind of a lot for one class, and we didn't get to practice the scenarios by making skits due to time, but that's okay - it can be review next class! It went 300X better than last class (by the way, the grumpy grandma didn't come back - which is okay by me!), and everyone had a good attitude, learned, and seemed to be enjoying it. I think the level was right on. There were three students that found it kind of difficult, but they worked together and everyone helped each other out, so it was okay. Also, I demonstrated three dialogs by myself, which was pretty entertaining. For two scenarios, I played two characters, and for the third I played three! haha it was tiring, but successful, and not only were they able to understand, but they were also amused and appreciated my obvious efforts.

Tonight, I had a good attitude, a good lesson, an attentive class, and I was a good teacher. So, I am happy.

In fact, I'm in such a good mood, I'll put forth the effort to upload some pictures! Enjoy!

Okay, so this was 11/4, I went to a Kiritampo Party in the woods! Kiritampo is an Akita specialty food. It's cooked rice that's mashed together and boiled in miso broth (so like rice balls), and in this case it was in a kind of winter stew.
I like to party with 70 year olds! :) This is my friend Steph's English Conversation class.
We actually ate outside in the woods. It was awesome!
This is what happens when ALTs want to play badminton but don't have enough rackets (notice Steph in green with a cutting board, and Caito in black with a brownie pan!
Why were we in the woods? One of the ladies in the class makes wood crafts so we were lunching outside her studio. These are the crafts she makes - They're so American! I wanted to buy them!

My JET friends Paula and Phil had a joint birthday party (11/10) at a Japanese restaurant in the city. Maggie was there!
Amelie (from Quebec) and I wore matching shirts!
And, of course Christy was there, too!

Jumping ahead to this past weekend, I hung out with Marie (the friend with whom I went bowling and to play random sports). We went shopping at the mall and to watch a sappy Japanese love story at the movie theater. Good fun! And we took purikura:


The next day (11/18), I hung out with Maggie and three Japanese guys we met at the JET Halloween party. We went bowling then out for Chinese food. Good times! So that's Tetsu, Koike, and Yuta.

After two games, we were bowled out, and I was happy because I wasn't the one with the lowest score (*cough Maggie cough cough*)
hahaha when the guys saw these costumes to try on, Koike jumped at the chance. He's quite the character - and not just when dressed as a bowling pin.

Of course, we had to make time before dinner for some purikura!

*The End!*

Akita in the news again

Check out this article from the New York Times!
Snowbound in Japan

And, as it happens, snow season has begun - with a HUGE storm yesterday/last night.
I'm going to get my tires changed today. Driving in the snow/ice is kind of scary. Think good thoughts for me!

Updates!

1. In case you did hear/see/read elsewhere, I will be coming home for Christmas. I'll be in CA 12/15-12/27. I'm going to spend a couple of days in Berkeley when I fly in, and then head up to Chico. :) Hope to see you!

2. I have a new hobby ~ jump-roping!! I decided a winter exercise activity, so I went out and bought a jump rope. I'm going to make some cool jump-roping playlists and try to do some everyday. Let me know if you have song recommendations!

I love karate!

No matter how tired/frustrated/sad/yucky/lazy/grumpy I am when I get in the car to go, the ride home is ALWAYS full of singing along to the ipod and clapping and smiling.

I had my first eikaiwa (English Conversation Class) this Tuesday, and I don't think it went very well. I wasn't in a very good mood going into it, so I think I made the class too hard - or at least some people were complaining it was too hard afterwards. There's students of really low (no) English ability, and then there are some that are pretty good, and age 20 to age 72. I knew what we were doing was difficult, but I had them working in groups and everyone was trying (and succeeding!). That is, except for this one old grandma lady. She just sat there shaking her head complaining it was too hard and not even trying, even when I tried to help her. And at the end of the class she started people complaining. So yeah, that basically sucked. It's frustrating because some people want to do REALLY basic stuff like greetings and names of the months and stuff, and then most of the class (10 of 15) is way beyond that. I'm afraid if I only do really easy stuff, the higher level students will quit, and I don't want that. Honestly, they're the ones who will benefit the most from an eikaiwa (as opposed to 72 year old grandma who I doubt will ever actually use the things from my class). But, I do have to teach to the whole class. The other part that's kind of annoying is that the Board of Education is watching me like a hawk, and keep trying to interfere (granted in the name of being "helpful"), so my autonomy is kind of limited. I want this class to be something I'm in charge of. The rest of my ALT job I'm just that, and ASSISTANT, so I want this to be something I do on my own. Call me stubborn, but I don't really like/want someone from the BOE telling me what to teach and how to run my class.

Anyway, overall, I left the class feeling pretty bad about it (a bit of a flop), and it's kinda put a downer on my week (even though I started teaching about Thanksgiving today which is totally fun!). But then, tonight I went to karate, and now I feel like everything's okay.

For one, I'm becoming even friendlier with the blackbelts there and I really like them. For two, they saw me practicing some weapons kata (empty-handed) and asked me about it, so I got to tell them all about how I do weapons, too. And then my favorite old man teacher whipped out a pair of nunchaku and let me borrow them!! I only did one kata (nunchaku dai ni), but by the time I was halfway through, the WHOLE room (class and parents) had stopped what they were doing and were in total silence watching me. haha it was a little scary, but mostly funny. I guess they were impressed? They clapped and everything. So yeah, after that I got to tell them about what weapons I know how to use and they asked if I had them here. Unfortunately, I don't, but I said I'm going to bring them back when I come back from Christmas, and they want me to teach them!! I think that's so cool! I'd LOVE to teach weapons - especially to these guys. I'm actually thinking I'll get myself a bo (aka go buy a 6ft dowel at the hardware store), and I know I can buy kama at the 100 Yen store (yes, they sell those scary bladed weapons for less than a dollar each - to cut your grass!).

After class, we were talking more, and I found out two of the teachers are also ski instructors!! They said they'll take me out and teach me! haha I'm excited! They're all just so nice. It's a sort of dojo family. I like it.

Oh, and to top it all off, Itoko (the blackbelt lady who ALWAYS helps me) had come to my eikaiwa, and told me as we were walking to our cars that she really loved the class! And she's looking forward to next time! She said it was kind of hard, but she liked the challenge and I thought I did a good job. Now being in Japan, you never know if that's politeness of genuineness, but she's a pretty genuine person and she seemed like she really meant it. And even if she didn't, it made me feel better.

In conclusion:
Next eikaiwa I will have a better attitude and it will be great.
Weapons are ALWAYS fun.
I'm going to learn to ski from two old men!

11:11pm

Make a wish! :)

I just wanted to post up a couple of pics I took with my cellphone recently.
Let's enjoying!

This is me and Seth (ALT in a nearby town) pretending to be Japanese high school students for Halloween.

I found this lake when I was riding my bike around. It's behind the baseball fields at one of my junior highs. Soooooo pretty!
This one's kind of blurry, but I took it for Camille -- Japanese ducks! :)
I wish I knew how to rotate.... I guess you can see the symmetrical aspect better...
I LOVE the country!!

WORLD PREMIERE!!!

Check this out!! My very own home-made video --> Starring YOU!!

Falling into Fall

Hello! Tonight I returned from a two-day conference in Akita City for all the ALT (assistant lang. teachers = people like me) and JLT (Japanese lang. teachers = the English teachers we work with). It was a loooong two days of lectures and workshops on how to improve workplace relations, resolve conflicts, and, of course, improving our English teaching methods! While there were definitely some boring points (like the two hour lecture on recognizing cultural communication difference - i.e. body language is different between Japanese and "Western" cultures, etc.), overall, I learned some pretty useful stuff I hope to take back and incorporate into my classes.

Also, I learned Akita Prefecture's junior high students have the highest average scores on national English tests, which means we all do a pretty good job! In addition, in all of Japan, only 9.6% of high school English teachers actually SPEAK English in class, whereas in Akita, it's up to 35%. Another yay for us! But, on the downside, 65% of high school English teachers in Akita use little or NO English in class! That is crazy bad! Better than the nation as a whole, but, still, 65%?? Wow!

Other stats (I quickly googled them, so I think they're legit): Akita has the fastest decreasing population in Japan, and the highest suicide rate!
[Though, there should be a disclaimer on the suicide rate, because, though we have the highest rate, the NUMBER of suicides is way less than major urban areas - For example, in Akita, the total number was 412, compared to Tokyo's 2,502, and Osaka's 1,965.]
On the plus, I read somewhere that Akita has the highest number of beauty salons per capita!

As proud as I am of our smart students, and our better than average use of English in the classroom, it makes me sad to read and hear all these things about my adopted home. It is such a beautiful place, and the people are so great! It's economic depression is... well, depressing! At least, on paper.

But I want to show you something else. I want to show you the Akita I'm lucky enough to see and experience everyday.

These are photos from Friday's visit to Moritake Nursery School and Shimoiwakawa Elementary's International Club Halloween Party, followed by photos from my koiyo "leaf-viewing" excursion.

Apparently I'm the only one that go the memo that this was supposed to be a funny picture...

The 5-year olds brushing their teeth after lunch -- it lasted literally 8 minutes!

The International Club carving their first ever Jack-o-Lantern!

They don't celebrate Halloween here, so the kids don't really know much about it.

But don't worry, I taught them to Trick-or-Treat, and even gave them "American" candy (Snickers!)

This is at a mountain temple I saw while I was driving along. I just pulled over, left my car and climbed up.

Can you see the flame-colored hill in the background???

These pictures are of the Shirakami Mountains, a World Heritage Site thanks to its magnificently well-preserved old growth beech forest. Supposedly it looks exactly like it did just after The Ice Age.
Using my car for a tri-pod.

I wasn't lying when I said it was beautiful here.