around

On my first day of teaching, I played a game with some of my classes that is called "Wolf," but I renamed it "Gojira" (Godzilla) to make it a bit more culturally accessible. The game has Gojira (me) "sleeping," while the students call out a question, such as "What's your name?". If I give the key answer ("My name is Gojira!" and not, say, "My name is Pikachu."), I pretend to chase a few lucky students back to their seats. If I catch them, I get a point. If I don't catch them, the students (as a group) get a point. I'm explaining this to you so you understand who "Gojira" is in the context of this update. Gojira is me. And every day, after chasing around kids, Gojira is very hungry. I have two burners in my little "kitchen" area, plus a sink, some shelves, and a cabinet the size of a shoebox. This is my space. Still, it's infinitely more cooking room and appliances than I had in Taiwan. I...

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 themselv...

The key to getting lost while driving in a foreign country where you can't read the signs (if there are signs) is to not panic. The second key is to have a map with you. But not panicking is important. I've gotten "lost" twice already. One time I was driving the wrong way down road 38, although I didn't know it. I stopped at a Shell station and the attendant pointed at places on my map and then out into the dark distance until I understood what she was saying. I appreciated that lady a lot because she didn't get frustrated by my obvious lack of Japanese, she just kept re-explaining in simpler terms until I got it. The second time I got lost was today, when I doubted myself and didn't take a turn that it turned out I should have. When I realized that nothing was looking familiar, I sighed, found a parking lot to turn into, and re-traced my steps until I figured out where I probably was. I found a Lawson convenience store and a 7-Eleven marked on my ma...

Tomorrow I'll be visiting two of the schools I'll be teaching in. On Friday, I'll be visiting the third school. Although I don't have to bring anything, I won't be teaching, and I'm not expected to speak fluent Japanese to anybody, I'm nervous as all hell. I'm nervous about it because I get nervous about every new job I haven't started yet. I hate the adjustment period of a new job. I dislike the mental acrobatics of remembering how things are done, I dislike the worry that I'll forget something important and mess up. I really don't ever mess up, but still, I just dislike the whole period of getting into the swing of things in general. Basically, starting a new job is like being the replacement cog in a machine where others depend on you to do your job right, although you only have a framework idea of what that job is going to entail. The specifics are going to be thrown at you when you get in the door. Being professional isn't roc...

I figured out what's been driving me nuts, and it's that there's not much close-by that I can go do. In Taipei, there was something to do everywhere . Literally around the corner from my apartment were clothes shops, tea stands, a mall, a movie theater, a gym, and two bus stops. I couldn't run out of places to go in Taipei if I tried. Plus, everything was in very easy (and cheap) reach. Here, in the suburbs, it's not like that. I have to drive places, and Lord knows I'm not a fan of driving. Plus, I don't have a GPS, so if I get lost... I'm lost. So I'm not doing much exploring. I can't tell which places are closed and which are open, or what kinds of businesses they are, or what their hours of operation are because it's often in Japanese. In Taipei there were hundreds of coffee and tea shops nearby for me to just go to, places I could sit down, log into the wifi, order a cheap and yummy drink, and sit around writing or web-surfing for ju...

Sakura means cherry blossom, and matsuri means festival. This means the cherry blossom festival in Hitachi has been aptly named. Myself and the people from my Mito Branch training group joined forces to eat food, take pictures, and have fun at the Hitachi Sakura Matsuri. The trains are still a thing that I'm trying to figure out. They're not as English-translated as the MRTs in Taipei were, nor do they come as often. There are displays that tell you when the trains are coming, and labels on the trains to say where they're going, but if you make a mistake and have to get off at the next stop, it may be a while before another train comes to take you to where you intended to go. A map comes in handy. So does the question "____ eki wa doko desu ka?" Or, Where is ___ train station? It's a simplistic question that I have used in numerous situations. Thankfully, many Japanese people are more than happy to help. I hopped onto the train from Sawa station and rod...

I've been waiting to find something here that I don't like. Some little detail that's out of place, something that jars me out of my enchantment with Japan and makes me long for my familial home because I like it the American way better . Something that's not exciting, or cute, or interesting. Something that makes me think, "It'll be nice to have/do such-and-such again when I go back to the States." Except that's not what's happening. Everything I do, everywhere I go, I keep having other thoughts. I keep making plans for a future in Japan. At the grocery store today, I thought, "I should learn to de-bone and clean a fish so I can find markets to buy fresh, cheaper fish from." I thought, "When I learn enough Japanese, I should see if I can join one of those community farms to get fresh vegetables." At home, I thought, "It'd be nice to have a little chair in that corner there. Well, I'll save up and buy one lat...