My day was super normal today. I went to work, I taught four classes in a row, ate lunch with the kids, walked around with them outside at recess, taught another class, spent my last period in the teacher's room planning stuff, and had a meeting with the 5th and 6th grade head teachers about next week's lessons before I went home. When I got home, I checked Facebook, downloaded the new podcast episode of Welcome to Night Vale, and listened to the episode while taking a walk/jog around the neighborhood. Upon arriving back at my place, I rented the movie Catching Fire off iTunes, and watched it while I cooked dinner. Now, I'm going to write this blog post, finish writing an article for Anime Secrets, and then probably go to bed (because I'm super-tired.)
This was a really average day, in the grand scheme of things. It's the kind of day everyone has, where they go to work, come home tired, and go about their daily chores and self-maintenance (such as feeding themselves and looking after their health). I'm still two days away from the weekend.
And yet, I don't feel at all like my day was taken from me by the things I had to do. I felt like my day was good.
Granted, the day was exhausting. I am looking forward to sleep in ways I can't describe. But I got myself out of bed and to work on time today, despite being zombie-ish first thing in the morning. I got through my first class, which was a bit awkward since I'm still learning what's expected of me, but all my other classes for the day went fine--even great. At least one teacher (that I remember, my days are blurring together) told me she thought my class was wonderful.
Then, after I made it through my initial class marathon, I ate lunch with the students, and went outside to see them at recess. Recess at this school (Sano) takes place in a giant dust bowl: an enormous expanse of open, packed dirt that's ringed by some fencing, occasional greenery, and a variety of playground structures like swings and monkey bars. Most of the kids, as far as I could see, spent their free time running around as madly and aimlessly as possible. A lot of them ran up to me and yelled "Hello!" in various pitches before dashing off again.
Two kids stuck around long enough for us to invent a game: Keep Walking! It involves one person telling the others to Keep Walking, Stop, or Turn. After about five minutes, the boy student took over (in English), telling me and the other student to walk, stop, or turn. It was all the "playing" I could do in business clothes and kitten-heeled shoes. I have sneakers, but those are my "indoor" shoes now, so I can't wear them outside. I need to buy "indoor" shoes so my running sneakers can go back to being "outdoor" shoes. (Although I may not wear them to school, because then the kids will think I can run around with them.)
After recess, I had one more class, and then about fifty minutes of silence in the teacher's room, which I tried to use to do lesson planning but couldn't. This is because the English lesson books are half in Japanese, and without online company resources to tell you what you're supposed to do... you don't know what you're supposed to do. Fortunately, the 5th and 6th grade head teachers held a brief meeting with me after school, and they basically gave me my lesson plans for next week.
After my two days at Sano, I'm starting to feel like I can actually do this job. The difficult part will be keeping up the momentum; I've set a precedent for being "fun" and "exciting." But unlike my previous job, I'm not expected to cram every last morsel of English education down these kids' throats. I also only have 45 minutes in which to do the lesson, so I'm not scrambling to kill time and stay interesting when my students (who are children) have mentally checked out.
Tomorrow is my first day at my third and final school, Koya. I'll see how it goes, but it shouldn't be horrible. Also, I've only got four classes each day as opposed to Sano's five, so it'll be a bit less long of a day than the two in the middle. This is actually a good schedule; short Monday, busy Tuesday and Wednesday, and then less-busy Thursday and Friday. I'll use Monday to wake up for the week, Tuesday/Wednesday to build momentum, and Thursday/Friday to slide into the weekend without feeling like I'm scrambling toward the finishline.
Having actually been okay these last few days has made me tentatively hopeful about my coming year in Japan. Today was a good day, and it's been a good week so far. I've enjoyed coming home and winding down by cooking--I actually look forward to that part of the day. It's relaxing.
Japan's a good place to enjoy what's around us everyday. When I went on my walk this afternoon, I stopped often to just look at the hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of flowers blooming all over the neighborhood in people's gardens. There are blankets of white and pink flowers falling over stone walls, towering green bushes stuck full of round pink, white, and red blooms. There are multi-colored tulips everywhere. Wildflowers are making a go of it in fields. The cherry blossoms have mostly blown away, but Japan's only just begun gearing up for a colorful spring and summer. Then, when the sun begins to go down, it throws streaks of yellow and red light over the swooping Japanese roofs and through the strings of electrical wires criss-crossing overhead. There's an instant contrast between the stark simplicity of the roads, homes, and fields and the vibrant, natural color around them.
Japan does an incredible job of making a boring, everyday environment meaningful, and thereby beautiful. At work, we drink loose-leaf green tea--and it's self-serve. My co-workers store their cups in a cupbard full of fancy teaware that's used to treat visitors. Every day, after lunch and before recess, the kids grab washrags, dustbins and brooms and clean the school. Even the simple ritual of removing one's outdoor shoes in preparation of entering a school or home shows respect, and makes the school itself feel more important to you.
I think this is the part of Japan, or my idea of it, that I've always felt I would connect with--the sometimes over-the-top time and care taken to show respect for the seemingly trivial and minute aspects of our lives. Japan's a little ritual and conformity-crazy, I'll admit. (Next week my kids are going to learn to introduce themselves in English by making and exchanging meishi, or business cards; a very Japanese thing to do, and it has more to do with teaching the kids how to be Japanese than how to speak English.) But there are qualities here that can definitely be learned from, and it's the unique opportunity of a born-and-raised Westerner to learn about and incorporate these qualities without losing the independent sense of self. Moreover, as a foreigner here, I'll never be expected to fully integrate, anyway. I'll have the opportunity to learn without the added social pressure of complete conformity.
What I'm saying is, not only is Japan not too bad of a place, but I'm also enjoying living here. I like the lack of craziness. It's a bit trying on weekends, but during the workweek it's nice to come home, make dinner, and chill out before falling asleep. It's a bit nice to have to find things to do with my time, to invest myself in hobbies and make my day meaningful in little ways since I can't just go out and find something to easily distract me. I miss Taipei's exuberance, the evident vitality that came from being a metropolis. But with me in my late twenties, nearing my thirties, working a full-time job and intending to set down some roots here, Japan is suiting me quite well.
This was a really average day, in the grand scheme of things. It's the kind of day everyone has, where they go to work, come home tired, and go about their daily chores and self-maintenance (such as feeding themselves and looking after their health). I'm still two days away from the weekend.
And yet, I don't feel at all like my day was taken from me by the things I had to do. I felt like my day was good.
Granted, the day was exhausting. I am looking forward to sleep in ways I can't describe. But I got myself out of bed and to work on time today, despite being zombie-ish first thing in the morning. I got through my first class, which was a bit awkward since I'm still learning what's expected of me, but all my other classes for the day went fine--even great. At least one teacher (that I remember, my days are blurring together) told me she thought my class was wonderful.
Then, after I made it through my initial class marathon, I ate lunch with the students, and went outside to see them at recess. Recess at this school (Sano) takes place in a giant dust bowl: an enormous expanse of open, packed dirt that's ringed by some fencing, occasional greenery, and a variety of playground structures like swings and monkey bars. Most of the kids, as far as I could see, spent their free time running around as madly and aimlessly as possible. A lot of them ran up to me and yelled "Hello!" in various pitches before dashing off again.
Two kids stuck around long enough for us to invent a game: Keep Walking! It involves one person telling the others to Keep Walking, Stop, or Turn. After about five minutes, the boy student took over (in English), telling me and the other student to walk, stop, or turn. It was all the "playing" I could do in business clothes and kitten-heeled shoes. I have sneakers, but those are my "indoor" shoes now, so I can't wear them outside. I need to buy "indoor" shoes so my running sneakers can go back to being "outdoor" shoes. (Although I may not wear them to school, because then the kids will think I can run around with them.)
After recess, I had one more class, and then about fifty minutes of silence in the teacher's room, which I tried to use to do lesson planning but couldn't. This is because the English lesson books are half in Japanese, and without online company resources to tell you what you're supposed to do... you don't know what you're supposed to do. Fortunately, the 5th and 6th grade head teachers held a brief meeting with me after school, and they basically gave me my lesson plans for next week.
After my two days at Sano, I'm starting to feel like I can actually do this job. The difficult part will be keeping up the momentum; I've set a precedent for being "fun" and "exciting." But unlike my previous job, I'm not expected to cram every last morsel of English education down these kids' throats. I also only have 45 minutes in which to do the lesson, so I'm not scrambling to kill time and stay interesting when my students (who are children) have mentally checked out.
Tomorrow is my first day at my third and final school, Koya. I'll see how it goes, but it shouldn't be horrible. Also, I've only got four classes each day as opposed to Sano's five, so it'll be a bit less long of a day than the two in the middle. This is actually a good schedule; short Monday, busy Tuesday and Wednesday, and then less-busy Thursday and Friday. I'll use Monday to wake up for the week, Tuesday/Wednesday to build momentum, and Thursday/Friday to slide into the weekend without feeling like I'm scrambling toward the finishline.
Having actually been okay these last few days has made me tentatively hopeful about my coming year in Japan. Today was a good day, and it's been a good week so far. I've enjoyed coming home and winding down by cooking--I actually look forward to that part of the day. It's relaxing.
Japan's a good place to enjoy what's around us everyday. When I went on my walk this afternoon, I stopped often to just look at the hundreds (and I do mean hundreds) of flowers blooming all over the neighborhood in people's gardens. There are blankets of white and pink flowers falling over stone walls, towering green bushes stuck full of round pink, white, and red blooms. There are multi-colored tulips everywhere. Wildflowers are making a go of it in fields. The cherry blossoms have mostly blown away, but Japan's only just begun gearing up for a colorful spring and summer. Then, when the sun begins to go down, it throws streaks of yellow and red light over the swooping Japanese roofs and through the strings of electrical wires criss-crossing overhead. There's an instant contrast between the stark simplicity of the roads, homes, and fields and the vibrant, natural color around them.
Japan does an incredible job of making a boring, everyday environment meaningful, and thereby beautiful. At work, we drink loose-leaf green tea--and it's self-serve. My co-workers store their cups in a cupbard full of fancy teaware that's used to treat visitors. Every day, after lunch and before recess, the kids grab washrags, dustbins and brooms and clean the school. Even the simple ritual of removing one's outdoor shoes in preparation of entering a school or home shows respect, and makes the school itself feel more important to you.
I think this is the part of Japan, or my idea of it, that I've always felt I would connect with--the sometimes over-the-top time and care taken to show respect for the seemingly trivial and minute aspects of our lives. Japan's a little ritual and conformity-crazy, I'll admit. (Next week my kids are going to learn to introduce themselves in English by making and exchanging meishi, or business cards; a very Japanese thing to do, and it has more to do with teaching the kids how to be Japanese than how to speak English.) But there are qualities here that can definitely be learned from, and it's the unique opportunity of a born-and-raised Westerner to learn about and incorporate these qualities without losing the independent sense of self. Moreover, as a foreigner here, I'll never be expected to fully integrate, anyway. I'll have the opportunity to learn without the added social pressure of complete conformity.
What I'm saying is, not only is Japan not too bad of a place, but I'm also enjoying living here. I like the lack of craziness. It's a bit trying on weekends, but during the workweek it's nice to come home, make dinner, and chill out before falling asleep. It's a bit nice to have to find things to do with my time, to invest myself in hobbies and make my day meaningful in little ways since I can't just go out and find something to easily distract me. I miss Taipei's exuberance, the evident vitality that came from being a metropolis. But with me in my late twenties, nearing my thirties, working a full-time job and intending to set down some roots here, Japan is suiting me quite well.
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