Halloween in the States

Train Delay - 1

As I was heading to work today, it wasn't busy as usual since I was leaving on a Sunday. I popped open Angels and Demons and started to read it. It was starting to get damn good. I'm about 1/4 done with the book now and it's getting hard to put down. I only read going to the train station and on the train, so I don't really dedicate that much time to it.

I arrived at school around 9:30am. I talked with some of the teachers and then went to the English Conversation Club's room. I stayed there for a long long time. I was helping them make more Candy Lanes to sell. I'm not sure if I needed to but that's what I did. We sold out! It was an amazing thing I thought. Much of the morning was devoted to that. Then I went to lunch with the teacher who sits behind me. We ate Shirama.. something like that. It was ok, I had had it before, but it wasn't anything special; and I had onigiri. The school gave the teachers a pass to get some free lunch for this day. I'm not sure if the other teachers got food yesterday or not, but I think it was just in the office.

After that there were a few performances that I wanted to check out. The first was The Wizard of Oz by the 9th grade class. They were pretty good, even thought I missed some of the beginning. The next was the Play Annie. They were good except for a few prop mistakes. And going on at the same time was the last performance by the drill team or the cheerleaders. I got an invitation to go watch them. It really wasn't that impressive, but it's their last one so it had to be good.

The marching band though was excellent, I'm so amazed at how perfectly in sync they are with each other. It's really cool to see and something great to end the festival with. I didn't walk around the classrooms today because I had done so yesterday. So I really just stayed in the English Conversation club room. I think I'm starting to lose my affect on them. OH wells.

After the Cultural Festival, there was another little festival for only the students put on by the students. It was interesting. Many of them did dancing and singing. There were even some bands that were performing. Many of them were funny and interesting, but some weren't any of those. It lasted about an hour and a half, and then it would be the teachers turn to go party.
That's when things started to get a little weird. I was invited to go in the Principal's escorted car. So it was me, the principal, the vice-principal and someone else who i've never met. It was an awkward situation. When we arrived at the restaurant, we met up with a couple of teachers as they were going into the store. As I was walking in I was wondering where I should sit, so I asked another teacher. He directed me to one of the corners of the room. Not too bad. But the worse part as that the Senior Staff, Ms. Takagi wanted me to sit near her without any English teachers near.

She had forced me into a situation where I'd have to speak Japanese. She's been laboring me to do so for the past month now. Talk about pressure. I haven't really learned much Japanese since I've been in Japan to be honest with you. So it was pressure. Fortunately for me though there were two English Teachers that sat by me. One of which was the English Department Chair and the other was another teacher that I worked with for the 9th grade another ErikoS. I can sense that the English Department chair keeping distance from me. I can also sense that one of the other English Teachers, DOES NOT like me at all.

It's kind of tradition to go around the room to tap classes and say cheers to people. I mean we just formed a line to do so and I went all the way down until I got to Ms. Asada and she just turned away and didn't say anything. There were two people behind her too. I was like... ouch.. what did I do to you? Anyways, I know where she stands now and it's a little too bad because I'm working with her for 4 classes. That's the most of any of the teachers... splendid. I can sense mixed feelings all around the room. It's quite interesting to see what's going on. Hopefully nothing too bad goes on and things aren't that messed up. But there's still a lot more time for me to make mistakes.

As the dinner ended, everyone was leaving their separate ways. I was walking with a few of the English teachers to the train station, they were worried about my situation. They told me that they would have been under a lot of pressure too being in that spot where I was sitting. I think I survived without any damages. This teacher and I were having a pretty good conversation about education and learning English. I'm not sure if it was the right time to talk or anything. Since I also sense something from her too. And her husband, who happened to call her when we were both at the train station. I don't want to get into the middle of that, not by a long shot. That will definately make things a tad more complicated than they already are. I'd just say that it's a bit awkward. I've really got to start to pay attention to what's going on and what's going to get spread around school while I'm not there the next few days.I also got the next three days off... YAY!! The other teachers only get two, they have to go to work and clean up the school the next day. So that's that. I really got into the book on the way home. I think there had to been an accident on the Keihin-Tohoku line around 10pm tonight. The train was late by over 8 minutes, that's soooooooooo rare. So I think there was an accident of some sort. It just gave me more time to read, so I really wasn't worried or complaining.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

Cultural Festival Day One

Today was a fun day I think. I woke up extra early though and I don't know why. I still get up at 6:30am to get ready for work. I end up taking the 7:59am train from Hongodai to Yokohama. It's so nice to go to work on Saturdays. The trains aren't crowded at all. I mean I had a seat from Hongodai to Yokohama and from Yokohama to Toritsu-Daigaku. That's extremely rare for me. I had the opportunity to read more into Angels and Demons. It's really starting to get really good. I'm like on Chapter 20, which really isn't that far into the book, but it's a lot for me.
When I got to school, they had closed the regular entrance because they only wanted people to enter from a certain door. But one of the other teachers escorted me to a backdoor that let me in. I didn't do much for the rest of the day, but sit inside the English Conversation Club to help sell "Candy-Lanes."

I had the opportunity to walk around to the different classes with all the different displays. They were all great and you can tell they have spent a lot of time doing them. I mean the girls making the candy lanes put it together in 4 days, and that's 256 leis that they made. When I helped them on Tuesday they only had finished 13. So I'm impressed how they did it. The room wasn't that impressive compared to the other rooms, but I'm not going to complain. We kinda have a bad location too.

I think the most interesting room was the 10th grade, Yuri. They had four games that you could play. The first room was "tug the tablecloth," which basically is pulling a tablecloth with some dishes on them without pulling everything off. I was actually able to do it. It's not as hard as I thought. I thought it was impossible till I did it. Since the dishes were cardboard. Many other people did it too. The second room was shooting balloons with a disc-gun. The aim was off so I did poorly in here. The third room was a big Jenga made out of cardboard. I was able to pull the bottom off, for big points. The last game was dropping the coin into the cup. I got 3 out of 5 in a cup, which wasn't good enough to get big points. I got candy though.

10th Grade Fuji tricked me out of my money, but I ended up with a good prize so it wasn't bad. Those girls are bad. hmmm, what am I going to do with them...

All the rooms were greatly decorated, and the art room was impressive too. Their art is really great. I saw a student perform a traditional green tea ceremony. Usually I've only seen masters perform the ceremony, so I was suprised to see a student do it. I think that the Marching band is really really good. They nail all their moves and are PERFECTLY in sync. It's really amazing to see how everything is choreographed. It's really a great performance.

After the festival, I stayed around the teacher's office way longer than I needed to be. But I think it paid off. I started talking to more teachers and giving them candy that was on my desk. I don't know why that everytime I leave the room and come back there are things on my desk and I have no idea where they come from. So since there was candy on my desk, I just gave it away, even though I didn't know who they belonged to. But I assumed they were for teachers so I gave it to them. I think they were given by a parent.

I was teaching the teacher next to me some American History, it was a little difficult with the translation, but I'm sure that it must have worked out and she understood. Well maybe.
The President of the school also showed me an old picture of when the school started. It had his grandfather, who was the first principal, his grandmother - the second principal, his Father the third principal, and his mother the fourth principal. The principal of the school now is the fifth principal. He shared a little history of where the name and everything came from too. The area that the school is located is in Meguro-Ku, in Yakumo. It's based on a shrine in the Shimane prefecture about a God. It's the match-maker God and the words Yakumo came from the old song related to when the Gods got married.

In one of the pictures there was a person whose name is Koizumi Yakumo too. Well actually his son. Koizumi Yakumo is extremely famous that you'd actually find his name in the dictionary because he's a famous author. His son taught English at Yakumo and it's kinda fate how that came to be. He also gave me a copy of the picture to share with Mr. Kto, EK's dad and to explain the story to him. That's kind of an honor to be honest with you. So that's pretty cool.Then me and two other teachers went out for dinner at a Kyushuu Ramen place. It was pretty good. One of the teachers wanted to practice his English, actually both teachers wanted to. Which was good and I was glad to be invited. I also was invited to go meet some other Native English Speaker in Roppongi, but I didn't feel like going actually. The invitation was very vague and I didn't learn of any details so I called and left a message on CP's answering machine. I didn't get home till around 10pm which is really late by my standards. I usually go to sleep around then, but I'm still up typing this. I think I will read some more Dan Brown before I go to bed. It's starting to get really good.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

My day off

I got a day off today, YAY!! I don't have anything to do for the school festival, so they gave me the day off, but I'll have to go to work on Saturday and Sunday so I guess it's not really much of a great thing. I'm not sure what I'll do today, I'm thinking about doing some laundry and going to buy a drawer for my clothes and maybe pay rent and electricity bill. I think I need to get the little things out of the way before I start spending too much money on things that I don't need and don't use. I'll see if I need to add more later. It's a beautiful day today too, so that's great.Maybe I'll read some more or something, but I need to find some grub.

Seniors

I woke up pretty early today so go buy my commuter pass and my bus pass. It went pretty smoothly.

Today was a pretty easy day because 3 of my 4 classes today were seniors. Their activity was just to plan a trip for their final presentation. So CP had a stack of brochures of locations to let them see and they were to choose a location and what to do when they got there. I really didn't have to do much.

The 5th period class, my last class today was the 7th graders, but they were well-behaved today. I think the reason why was the English Department chair was sitting in the back of the room observing. It was her home room class and she wanted to see how they were doing since they are usually out of control. So we did the activity today and it went pretty smooth even though they didn't understand that much. Even though we've been doing it for 3 weeks. I think they are getting better.

I learned that today at lunch, the English Department chair switch plans on me. She said that I would be teaching the 7th grade instead of the 8th grade on Saturdays. And that I wouldn't be teaching the Teachers English this weekend. She like my plan for the Teaching Teachers and thinks that it will be interesting. She didn't comment on the 8th grade plan, but I think it was because it wasn't in the right format. So as they were preparing for the festival after school, I punched up a new plan under the right format for the 7th grade and gave her my newly updated syllabus and lesson plan. She was surprised at how fast I did it. Of course she was busy, so I won't hear anything about it till much later. I'm sure after the festival.

I left school fairly early because I wanted to go to Shibuya Tower Records to listen to some music and buy a book. I went to the 7th floor to buy Dan Brown's Angels and Demons. I wanted a hard cover, but they only had paperback, so I bought it anyways. I was reading it on my way back to Yokohama station, it's pretty good so far. I bought the Da Vinci code yesterday, but my sister told me to read Angels and Demons first. I'm usually not much of a reader, but it's enjoyable.When I got to Yokohama station, I went to the 7th floor where their book store is and I was looking for the book in hard cover, but they also didn't have it. Also, I was looking for a poster hanger, but they don't seem to make them here. So I think I will ask my sister to mail me one from the States, when she sends the rest of my stuff. I read some more on the train going back home.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - Angels and Demons

My day off - but it was a very productive day

10am Today Earthquake number 4.

Today, I was just planning to stay home to clean up, and to go to Yokohama station to get my commuter pass. But MTki had called up to me and asked if I wanted to go to Costco. Since I love Costco, I decided to go with. I was talking to my family at the time so I had to leave in a hurry.
I love costco so much, it was exactly the same here as it is in America so I pretty much knew where everything was. They actually have some different things here than they do in the U.S. I ended up buying a lot of food to make, Dan Brown's Book that everyone has been talking about "The Da Vinci Code" - hardcover, and I have a new whiteboard. I withdrew some money from the ATM so that means I got paid! The average surcharge is about a buck. Which I don't think is bad at all.

After that we went to a discount store so I could get a big blanket to sleep warm at night. It didn't cost as much as I thought, but it was nice. I like it.The day only got better too. I received a gift from a person I met one time about 3 months ago. She took me to Yokohama to watch Fireworks. She gave me a kerosene heater. So now I have a heater! Then when I got home and unpacking everything, MTki offered me a Kotatsu - a heated table, that TTki doesn't use anymore. I took it of course because it's freezing over on this side. So I got hooked up with a lot of stuff today, which I was planning to buy really soon too. So I just saved myself a lot of money and time. Turned out to be a great day, so I went to another store near me to look for a drawer for my clothes, but they didn't have it. But they did have some cd's that I wanted really bad, so I bought that instead.

Book of the Moment - Dan Brown - The Da Vinci Code

The long Tuesday

Actually Monday was pretty long too. I never mentioned it, but I didn't leave school until around 8pm, so that makes it an 11 hour work day.

The first class I had was the 9th grade, they were on stage getting ready to perform Annie. They've almost got everything down, except the movement of the props. They keep on switing locations. But they have improved a lot since the beginning of the month.

In the 10th grade section: we played a game where we would read tongue twisters and play the telephone game and the last person would have to come up to the teacher and tell us. It took them awhile to understand what we were saying. We only had time to do 3 tongue twisters in some classes.

From what I learned, Ms. YWbe choose CP's teaching Method over Erin Su. She believes that it's unorganized and that they can speak in Japanese and not soo much English as in CP's classes. Although I would argue the other way. I didn't say anything and kinda thought about it for when I start teaching my classes.

In the teachers' office at lunch, we were talking about root beer and dr. pepper since most Japanese people that I know don't like it. It tastes like medicine from what I've heard. And we exposed the teacher behind me too. I questioned if he was Japanese or not because he didn't know his blood type, since every Japanese person knew, so what did we do. We asked his wife...hahaha. She said of course he knows, he's a B. So he was lying to us. Because when we saw him again, he said that he didn't know, but maybe B. hahaha. He's funny, and all the teachers knew his blood type and tell me that he's definately a B in characteristics too.

Some of the 10th grade classes got really really loud that another teacher had to come over and tell us to quiet down. So in the last class we told them to be more quiet, and it worked. Although some of them translated what we were saying from English to Japanese and then back to English. Although we didn't think that it would go too well, sinc they are tongue twisters.

After all the classes Erin S. and I had a really good conversation as I was waiting for the English club to start. I asked her about how long she had been teaching, which was only since this past April, like many other teachers. It was her first year and she wouldn't go all the way. We talked about our lesson plans for the next part of the class after the test. She told me about her experiences working in the JET programme. It's very evenly divided with good and bad experiences. They've got to reform that system to the max. It was nice to talk to her since I'll be replacing her and I wanted to know how she felt about it. I should be offended because she always makes her plan on her own and usually never includes me so I just stand there most of the time, but I can feel she's starting to include me now. She's a really nice person I feel and much like me I think, well in the way that American's think opposed to the way that Japanese people think. She was grading papers, and then the girls from the English Club called me again to go do some candy lanes.

I was talking to the advisor again, which was nice. And I talked to two new students that I haven't really talked to before. I taught them a new strategy to learning English, if they were interested. One of them will study abroad when she finishs at Yakumo. She needs vast improvement in my opinion, but we'll see what happens in the coming weeks. They think highly of themselves, that's for sure.

Mondays

Classes this week were only 40 minutes because there is a festival two days during the weekend. Everyone is preparing for that. I keep mixing up the times of when the classes start and finish so sometimes people end up having to wait for me, I've written it down so I don't get it all mixed up anymore. Not to mention this was the second time that they changed schedules on me. That means this week I will be seeing some classes for the first time. But at least I get more senior classes and less 7th grade classes.

The seniors are getting ready to finish off school. Their classes end at winter break which is Mid-December. From there they are just cramming for the Entrance Exam, so my class schedule will change I'm sure. I'm teaching 4 out of 5 senior classes right now.

I like teaching high school. I'm divided whether I like teaching Junior High. Right now, the 8th and 9th graders aren't bad and their English ability is actually higher than most of the high schoolers, but the 7th graders have been a pain to deal with the maturity level.

The first class that we had was the 8th Grade. The topic was horoscopes and zodiac signs. The 8th graders pick things up quickly. We got into a big discussion about how come all Japanese people know their blood type. I don't know mine, and I really don't care to know. I guess that they categorize everything and that they assign certain traits to certain blood types.

In the teachers' office, I asked the teachers around me what their blood types were, and it was quite interesting where the conversation was headed. I found out that the teacher in front of me was A and the one next to her is B, and the teacher next to me is A. I asked the person behind me, but he said that he didn't know. Most of the people with the 7th grade as a home room have a B blood type. B is typically the selfish trait and deemed bad in Japanese society. A are more of the anal people that have things organized and orderly. The AB people are people who are a tad on the weird side. O people are people who are open and friendly. They are the easy-going people. That's the basic description of the blood types according to the teachers around me.In English club today, they were just preparing for the School Festival making "Candy-Lanes" or candy that are tied together. They will be selling it for 100 yen, which is about a buck. I had an interesting conversation with the Advisor.

It was nice to be honest with you. I haven't had much contact with other teachers usually because none of them speak my language, but the advisor did. She has a lot of things on her mind and it clearly showed. I felt as if she needed to let out something and since I happened to be there and I don't talk to anyone usually, that her secrets would be safe with me. So I thought that was pretty good. She's a blood type A.

Updates on Stats

I was wrong about how many typhoons I've been in. The total is actually 4, the first being December 2003, when I first came to Japan. When I was leaving from my first trip to Japan, there was a typhoon as I was on the airplane. Kinda freaky don't you think?

From the latest Typhoon, Tokage (Lizard in Japanese) there was a reported 80 foot Tsunami, or the size of an 8 story building. That's the largest recorded Tsunami to ever hit the coast of Japan. They have only been keeping records for the past 34 years. But that's still kinda big. The death toll has reached over 80 now, with still lots of damage and clean up to do.

I've started to give more meaning to what I've given up when I left America to work here. I don't regret it though. I was talking to BH last night and I told her that it might be the last time for the next few years. I think that we've both been stalling to move on with our lives because we weren't really separated, but we were physically. I believe that both of us need to let go spiritually in order for us to do what we need to. So I guess it would be most official today. It would technically be 13 months since being together. It's kind of a big thing. I really want to move on with my life and felt as if I couldn't because I'd always have something hanging on my shoulder. But now I have no choice but to look forward and move ahead. I'm really on my own now and only have myself to depend on. Damn I better not screw up. I won't be doing much today since I don't have the money to, but this next week will be a trying week for me, it's show time. I've got to prepare the best I can so I can perform at my best. There's nothing more important than setting the tone for the class, that's what makes it a success. The first impression makes all the difference. So I'm going to work on it now. I'll update more later.

Stats

I think I will start to keep track of things that are interesting to me here.

Typhoons I've experienced in my life, all of which are from Japan: 3.
One: August 4-5, 2004 in Osaka when I was down there with YYchi.
Two: October 9, 2004 in Yokohama, I cancelled my plans to go to an international festival at an international all girls high school.
Three: October 20, 2004 in Yokohama. Typhoon Takage I think it was named. It's the 23rd of the Typhoon season and I believe the record 8th to hit the mainland. It's the deadliest of the typhoons in the past decade killing over 77 people causing hundreds of millions of US Dollars. It was on my day off so I really wasn't affected that much. It passed over while I was sleeping.

Earthquakes while I was in Japan. I think I only experienced one in San Diego and that was in La Jolla when I was at a friend's house. (3)
One: When I just moved into my apartment after my long journey across Japan. It was in September during the first week, I don't know the date exactly.
Two: The first full week of October was the second. I think it was October 4th. That's just a guess, but it was midnight as I was just getting into bed and going to sleep. So that's why I don't know the exact day. I can't remember what I did during the day, but I can remember that the day after was school because we were talking about it.
Three: Today - October 23, 2004. This one is actually a pretty big one. It was located about 160 km Northwest of Tokyo, which makes it even further for me because I live in Yokohama. It was a magnitude of 6.8 and had several aftershocks. I read it on Yahoo news, which was amazing for me because it appeared a few minutes after I felt it. I was like that's crazy fast. It was actually an hour after it originally happened, which still is pretty fast since I just felt it. I was reading that it derailed a couple of bullet trains and some trains were on it's side. That's kinda freaky because I could be on a train that derails and end up on my side at any moment.
I've read that there are seismic activity every 5 minutes in Japan. It is amongst the most volitle area for Earthquakes in the world. There's a freakin' Typhoon season, which is normal. The weather is crazy weird. Today was another beautiful day, but usually summer is hot and humid. Winter is freezing cold. How do people live here? Why do people want to come here? It's beyond me, maybe they were like me and too ignorant to research all this PRIOR to coming. Now I'm here, so I'm kinda stuck since I did all the paperwork and such. I guess I'll see how lucky I really am.

Anyways, back to the things of my day. I had the opportunity to wake up later today, which really wasn't much later since my body has gotten used to getting up at ungodly hours. I took everything a little slow this morning, and then I was off to go to school on a Saturday. I was supposed to meet Takagi sensei and Mr. Kto. - EK's dad.

I arrived around 12:30pm and when I got to the teacher's office, I found a ton of things on my desk. They tend to do that often, use my desk when I'm not there. I think that's the case because it's conveniently clear of any of my stuff and it's next to the shelves where everything sits now. I'm wondering if I inherited a multi-purpose desk that was there for other purposes before I got there. I was just told to wait there until she came, so I just busted out my Japanese Kanji book and started studying. I think I will make a great effort to learn Japanese. I really feel left out of society by not being able to be fluent. But after awhile, I went into the Gym where she was at and she told me to come back at 1:30pm because Mr. Kto wasn't there yet.

It was around lunch time, so all of the male teachers, well seemed like all, but it was only 4-5 male teachers and two female teachers, the ones that sit in front of my desk, went to grab lunch at a convenient store. It was really quite interesting how everyone behaves the same way and the way that they interact with each other. At least I was included today, so that made me feel better. By the time we got back to school it was 1:30pm so I had to rush over to the gym.

At first I was just engaging in small chit-chat with Takagi sensei, then after a few minutes I was invited into a room where lunch was waiting for us. Which made my trip to buy lunch useless. The lunch was great, it was shrimp tempura on top of rice with some soup and other things. I felt kinda bad because I was eating and there was another teacher just watching me. I'm not sure whether she had a lunch or not, but when Mr. Kto arrived he didn't want to eat it. He had already had lunch. So the other teacher i guess inherited it.

They engaged in Japanese conversation, not quite sure what was said, but they were talking to me in Japanese and I was answering in Japanese. It has been a long time since I had spoken Japanese so I was a little rusty. I think I only comprehended 70% of the things that were said to me. That's not incredibly bad since they were talking really fast and were covering their mouths as they were speaking. I think it was pretty good. I thought that the girls on the basketball teams were going to play each other, but they were just using the court to practice. That was it. I thought I was going to have to stay and watch too.

They will be competing in an All Tokyo tournament on November 24th. I think Takagi sensei has championship on her mind. Last year they placed 8th, but this year, she hopes to win the whole thing. That would be pretty good since the girls are only first year students and the girls on Mr. K's Junior high basketball team are looking to coming to Yakumo in a few years. They are supposed to be pretty good players too. I'm not sure if I had volunteer to play Volleyball for something, but at least it's not basketball, because I couldn't play that to save my life.

I think I will begin to start to help with the tennis program soon, but I need to practice a little before I do it, otherwise it could be a very embarassing situation. But they have asked me to do it and the other teachers want to play a little tennis with me too. I'm a little intimidated by the tennis coach since he's towering over me at over 6 foot something. He's got a mean demeanor about him and all the students are afraid of him. But he was helpful when we went to Universal Studios Japan together. So We'll see what happens.

When we finished meeting up, I went back to the office to pick up my lunch and go home. But when I walked into the teacher's office, a whole new set of stuff was on my desk. The teachers were starting to remove everything, but I told them that it was ok, and not to because I was going to go home. It's very interesting what was on my desk, but then I just went home.
I stopped by the Yokohama Commuter pass office and was told that the price of going from Hongodai to Toritsu-Daigaku for 6 months. It's going to cost 90053 yen. That's a big number, but I think I will buy it to extend to Shibuya so I can get to Tokyo for much cheaper, and that's not that much of a price increase. The guy at the office was hilarious. He couldn't translate what I was saying very well, so his partner went on the internet and printed out a piece of paper. On the paper was a translation of what the other guy was trying to say. He had gone online to a translation website. That must have been a good website because it translated it perfectly and I understood the meaning. I can refund the pass that I have now to credit into the new pass. So I don't lose any money for the commuter pass that I have now. So I'm happy about that.

I only have 4000 yen left, which translates to about $40. I won't get paid till Monday, but I can't get access to that money until Wednesday at the earliest since I don't have my cash card to withdraw from an ATM. And I don't have a day off until Wednesday to go to the bank in person to get money. I hope I can stretch the money out. But after that I should be set for the next 6 months living in Japan. I will finally be able to breathe and enjoy myself. I think I will pick up another part time job to get some extra spending dough so I can buy some of the electronic stuff while I'm here. YAY!! I'm excited now.

It was gorgeous today

The weather was perfect San Diego weather. It was actually hot today. The sun was out and shining. I woke up later than usual and took my time to do everything. I took my time getting to the bus stop, getting on the train and still got to school at the same time as usual. Which to be honest with you is very weird. I met with CP during 2nd period because we both have it off. We went over our duties for the English festival next month. All I have to do is be in charge of some English games that is in one of the rooms. So I'll be doing that. But that was a quick meeting and then I just sat at my desk for a little bit before class started.

I finally gave the English Department chair my lesson plans for teaching teachers and teaching the 8th grade. I feel bad because after I turned it in, I started to make revisions. I've bascially changed most of the information, but I will give her another copy later if she has any questions or concerns, which I'm sure she will have. I've done a thorough job of making her worried.
Friday classes are awkward for some reason. I don't really enjoy the 8th grade class. They have this aura that's bad. I'm not sure what it is, but I don't like it. They have a lot to learn and they could improve their attitude. It's bad for me to say because soon I'll be teaching them on Saturdays.

But I really enjoy working with the 11th grade class. They are really getting it and are together. Even though Ms. Asada seems to be non-friendly. I'll have to deal with that I guess. She's very firm and has a weird relationship with the students and the teachers. I can tell, but this class was good. We are now just starting to work on the final term speech material about taking a trip somewhere.

After class, I met with Mr. Shiomi about my money situation. He told me about the details and my commuter pass. They will hook me up with a 6 month commuter pass from Hongodai to Toritsu-Daigaku, which is something I NEED badly.

I stayed way after school to work on the stuff that I put on the lesson plan. It was more difficult than I thought, that's why I started to make revisions. I mean the information and things like that wasn't hard, but trying to put it together. My brain wasn't working today. I don't know what was going on. It was hard to get my work done, but I started to like at 5pm. I was working on a website that I will be using for my class as a supplementary guide for the students. I was showing some of the computer teachers at the school and they were impressed. I just hope it works for the students and they go check it out. I was going to show the teacher that sits next to me, but there was a situation that was going down. I don't know what it was since it was all in Japanese, but some students got busted for something.

It was in the 7th grade because I know those trouble students. I'm glad they were getting yelled at, they deserved it. I'm sure that they aren't just being rude in my class, they are being rude in all their classes. The top teacher was yelling at them, and it seemed as if all the teachers were taking their turn yelling at them. It was very amuzing. I stayed around way pass when I wanted to just to see what would happen. I mean the nicest teacher was the one who instigated the whole attack. Which was the thing that caught my attention the most. I'll eventually find out what happen tomorrow, I'm sure.

I've got to go to school on Saturday to meet up with the BOSS and Mr. K or EK's dad. He wants to see how I'm doing. So far, I guess I would say ok. But we'll see what happens tomorrow.The meeting with the delegates was cancelled because not many of the delegates could go. Which I think is a bad thing, because I did a lot of preparation for them. Sucks for me. Anyways, I got home and realized that I don't have much money left. I'm going to try to squeeze out the remainder of my money till Wednesday which is the earliest time I can go get some money from the bank. If not, then I'll have to take a little more from my credit card, which I really don't want to do anymore.

CP returns

CP seemed really sick today. Her voice was shot, but she still taught the classes. We had 4 classes today, 3 of which were for the 12th graders, and the last being 7th graders. It was a huge switch. We were working with two new teachers today, which is a nice change to be working with more than the same people. Since the schedule switched up on us. Now I'm working with more part time teachers than I was before. I didn't really get a chance to know them since I was moved to the full time office early when I arrived.

The 12th graders are more enjoyable to work with and teach. They are willing to learn, even though I would put them on the poorest English level. Possibly lower than the 7th graders who are in their first year of learning English. Some have got it, but most haven't. I think they must have introduced Oral Communication way too late for them. That could be the only explaination.

After classes I went to the bank and opened up my bank account. YAY!!! So I will finally get paid. And since I left school early, I had a chance to get home early and do some laundry. Then I worked on some San Diego - Yokohama Sister City Society stuffs. I was planning to meet with some of the delegates on Friday to go over any last details with them.

Typhoon number 23 in Tokyo

It was my normal day off so I just chilled at home. I had to shut my shields for my window, which I didn't know that I had. I was planning to do laundry today, but I couldn't since there was a typhoon. I heard this one was bigger than the last one, but I couldn't tell to be honest with you. My house shook a few times, and since I was shielded in, I couldn't tell what was going on outside.

CP absent

I was actually feeling much better today. I got to school rather early around 9am, which is actually very usual. No one was in the office which was very strange to me. But when Miss Nakamura walked in the room, she quickly rushed over to me, and took me to a classroom and told me that CP wasn't going to go to school today. I was like ok.... so she led me to a classroom and I walked in and had to teach the class. I had no idea what was going on, and I didn't even realize what grade I was teaching, until I looked at some of the faces. I was in a 7th grade class, which I'm glad that I'm not teaching in anymore.

I was helping another teacher since she just got the news in the morning too and we both had no clue what the topic of the day was. So what we ended up doing was going over a song and the lyrics that went with it so they could understand. It was "A Whole New World" from Aladdin because that's from the play they will have to perform at the school festival coming up. Not sure if it's this month's festival or next months, but it's coming up. That kinda disoriented me a little.
Since I was going to be the main teacher of the day again, with no idea what the topic was in each class. I think it was my fault that she got sick in the first place... my bad. But my punishment was having to teach instead of being the assistant. The 9th grade class was a breeze since all they did was the Play "Annie," which they are progressively getting better. They aren't perfect and some people keep forgetting their lines, but I think by the time they perform on October 31st, they will nail it.

After that, I went to teach the 10th grade for a bit with the Erin. She planned an activity where each person would get a playing card and that would separate them into groups. They had to read their demonstration speech in a group, in different intervals. Meaning the whole group had 3 minutes to read all their speeches, and in the next round only 2 minutes. We were trying to improve on their fluency of speech. I think it worked pretty well. The K class was really nailing it and they were behaving, we were really totally shocked. They had to pick a speech in the group to present to the class as a group. The class had to guess what they were demonstrating.
One of the classes I had to skip out on to be a sub again. I was subbing for another 7th grade class. I didn't do half as good as I would have liked. I could blame it on my cold, which was only part of it. The class was out of control, the Japanese English teacher had to step in and kinda lay down the law. But they were disrespecting her too. I think she was kinda frustrated. So partly it wasn't my fault too. Since they are 7th graders. I've noticed a trend that they tend to be out of control.

English club - it was a "Bimyo" day. I think so too. Everyone was tired and kinda feeling down. We had fun though and talked about weird things like usual. I enjoy the club, but I feel like I'm not really being helpful with their English. They still have much room for improvement, but I'm not sure how to help them. It's a weird situation. I ended up staying till like 7pm before going home so I was exhausted when I got home.

Monday, Monday, Monday

It's a Monday, and I'm still sick from last week. I'm not sure what happened, but I caught a nasty cold and I haven't been able to get rid of it. School was odd today because the schedule changed. But only for this week. Next week it will change again.
At least some of these classes were easier. I just had to watch "The Wizard of Oz" being performed. It was pretty amusing to be truthful. I liked watching it. I didn't have to do much correcting since CP was there. So I just got to enjoy.
I went to some classes that I haven't been to before and some that I substituted in, but not normally teaching in. I think today kinda dragged on. I was wishing that I could go home early, but I had to stay after because of the English club. I should have left early to open my bank account at the Toritsu-Daigaku Tokyo Mitsubishi, but I didn't.

Song of the Moment - Cold Play - The Scientist

feeling better

I'm feeling much better today, I was able to do more than I expected. I went shopping to get some condiments so I can start cooking. I laid out my futon in the sun since it was a beautiful day today. It wasn't as cold as yesterday. I did a little cleaning too, but not nearly enough to call it clean. I think I'll be able to do a full cleaning next week after I get paid and I have enough money to buy a drawer for my clothes. And a place to hang all my clothes, and hangers to hang my clothes too. I have lots of things to buy as soon as I get paid. I'm hopeful that I'll see that money soon, and I'll figure out how to divide it up later. I think I'll get some bite to eat and then just work a little on my English class plans.

Unable to do a thing

I didn't do anything today but sleep. I must have been soo drained that I couldn't do anything. So I decided since it was my day off, I would just rest. I think I caught a cold or something. So that's all I did sleep, I didn't eat or even get up from bed. It must have been like 30 hours of sleep. It was so damn cold too. I had a lot of layers of clothes and blankets and it was still cold. Not a very good condition to be in when you're also getting sick.

Universal Studios Japan

In the morning at 6:45am, was breakfast at the hotel. It was a large meal, but as I learned from the previous day, don't eat too much because there's more on the way. It was pretty good, miso soup, some rice, some eggs, sausage, fruit and a variety of other things.

Then it was back to the rooms to get our stuff and then to the busses to head for Universal Studios in Osaka, Japan. I was sitting with the Yuri class, which is Japanese for Lily. Each of the classes are named after flowers. They are one of my best classes on Tuesday, so it was nice sitting with them on the bus. I was also sitting with one of the tour guides and the homeroom teacher. I started making conversation with the tour guides for the trip, but his English was limited too. He had spent a few years in Brittain to study, but he was studying at a Japanese school.

The tour guide of the bus company was there to ask the students questions and talk about the Universal Studios and what to look forward to. They also did a game where they would have to guess what word was it, because in Osaka they have a different dialect than in the Tokyo area. We arrived there after an hour on the bus. Afterwards, we were all rushed into an area to get a group picture and I sat in with the Yuri class, so that was pretty cool. Most of the other classes had two teachers as homeroom teachers.

Then they were all free to roam around the amusement park and the teachers separated into a few groups too. I stayed with the two younger teachers that I've been talking to during the trip. It was fun, the first thing that we did was go on the Spiderman Ride. It was really interesting how they mixed the 4-D with the ride. It was a great ride.

After we did that we went to the Backdraft behind the scenes ride. One of the teachers really liked the movie, so we decided to go. I would have liked to go on Back to the Future, which was right next door, but I chose Spiderman, so it would be nice to concede one to the next person. It wasn't as impressive as I originally thought. Since it was all in Japanese too.

Then we saw some students that went on Jurassic Park, and were all wet, so the other teachers told them to stay in the sun to dry off. And then Mr. Suzuki was filming because he's advertising the school. So he was trying to get some good footage to sell the school. We were just hanging out till we had lunch. We went to Lombard Landing. It was a really nice restaurant. I ordered the Califorian Course, which was a whoping $41 or roughly about. That's how the teachers at this school eat out. I was like, you're crazy, but the meal was delicious. It included a nice San Francisco Clam Chowder, a nice fillet mignon, a strawberry cake, a salad, and some other stuff. This school is ballin'.

After lunch, we wanted to go on the Terminator 3-D show, but waiting in line for about 30 minutes and had to leave because Mr. Suzuki had to film the Waterworld show before we left the park for advertising purposes. But the other teacher and I separated from him because she had to buy some souvenirs for some students that weren't able to go, and he had to rush over there. Ms. Oyama bought some E.T. items, and then we went over to find the waterworld entrance, but before we got there, we ran back into Mr. Suzuki. Turns out that all the tickets were sold out and he couldn't get in. It was too late to go back to Terminator. When we were in line, it was only a 25 minute wait, but as we were leaving, the time changed to 65 minutes. We needed to leave by 2:30pm so we just went shopping very slowly till we had to leave.

I didn't buy anything. I didn't feel anything was worth buying. It's a shame I think, the products weren't worth the money. And since I don't have that much money left, I decided maybe it was better not to spend it on something that I didn't feel worth it. Actually there were a few things, but then they were over priced. Well, maybe next time. I hear that in the winter, the teachers will go on the same trip again as a Teacher's Vacation trip.

We made it back to the bus and as we were leaving the Bus tour guide was crying because of the connection that she had with the students and even some of the students were crying. Amazing I think. We got on the shinkansen, the fastest one in the world. When we got to Nagoya, the members from the other group, joined the train. So there were the 10th graders and 11th graders on the train. As we were going to Shizuoka, there was a splendid view of Mt. Fuji that I didn't see on the way down or on my previous trips through the area. So we were very lucky since it was also dark. I'm glad another teacher pointed it out to me. It really is remarkable and you can really tell, oh that's Mt. Fuji. When we got back to Tokyo Station, all the members from all the trips got together to meet families and go back home.

The teachers had a dinner get together afterwards, which I wasn't told about, but kind of assumed that there would be one. It was a really good experience. I really felt as if I got closer with the teachers that I would be working with. We were joking and talking all night about various things, and I had to thank the headmaster for allowing me the opportunity for going on the trip, a Japanese custom to thank the boss for everything. The meal was delicious and of course, way too much for me. Looked quite expensive and everything. But I really really enjoyed the trip. Everyone really is welcoming, and I hope that I can do a good job as an English teacher.

School Trip to Kobe

Today, I woke up at 4:30am to get ready to go to Tokyo station by 7:30am. It really doesn't take me that long to get there, but I don't want to be late and get left behind either. I always wake up earlier than I need to, just to be on the safe side. I took the Tokaido line because I thought it would be fastest, which it might be. I arrived on time, but there were a lot of teachers already there. Most of the teachers live closer to Tokyo than I do, but some don't live too far away from me. I knew this journey was going to be an interesting one.

Many students were surprised to see me go. I had decided to go with the 10th graders to go to Kobe and Universal Studios Japan instead of going to DisneySea with the 7th graders. Most of my students are in the 10th grade so I think it would encourage them to speak more English if I were there.

At first, there wasn't too much getting on. But then on the Shinkansen, a teacher that has never spoken to me, started to talk to me. And he was doing his best to speak English. I was really glad to hear it too. We started teaching each other our respective languages. He was a Japanese Language teacher. It was a really good trip to Kobe. Many great things to see too on the way. I saw the Eastern Temple in Kyoto from the train.

When we arrived at Shin-Kobe Station, all the students got ready to go to Kitano, which is a place where they have foreign homes. It's a nice little area. The group was split into 3 different groups eating lunch at 3 different locations. I went with class F and we had sukiyaki, which is thin slices of steak on a sizzling plate with some vegetables. It was pretty good and the restaurant looked fairly expensive.

After lunch, everyone was free to roam the city till around 4:30pm when we would meet to go to the hotel and then dinner after that. I went with the teachers and we went to different locations, but then 2 of the 4 teachers had to go to the meeting place early, so it was just me and another young teacher.

We just kicked it around the Kitano area looking at all the different areas that they had. We finished kinda early, but had to stay there past 4:30pm to wait for students who didn't go to the meeting point. It was an interesting time that we had together. I didn't know that she knew how to speak English since she's never said a thing to me before. Her English is pretty good for Japan's standard, although I'm sure not many other teachers know that. It started to rain a little, we had our umbrellas in our bags that were already taken to the hotel, so we just got a little wet. We went into the museums and different houses and made some observations about things. I was really surprised at the ability of the teachers to try to communicate with me, even though their English level was limited. It goes to show that they were just joking about the whole matter.

A little after 4:30pm, we went to the meeting spot and took a taxi to the harborland new otani hotel. I spent the next hour watching the U.S. Presidential Debate. President Bush did a lot better than I originally thought. I think it was good debate on both sides, but a little better on one than the other. I'd like to see what happens afterwards.

Around 6:30pm, we had to meet at the lobby of the hotel because we were going to go to dinner on a cruise ship around the port of Kobe. It was a huge ass ship. The largest I've ever been on, and it was very elegant. It was named Concerto and we had a Chinese buffet dinner. It was quite delicious and afterwards students were taking pictures and up at the top deck looking back at the city. It was nice. We arrived back at the port around 9pm and we all started walking back to the hotel.I thought it was the end of the night, but it wasn't.

For teachers, after the day, we had a little pow-wow get together. We went up to the 17th floor where there was a bar, and there was a scenic view of the entire Kobe area. Really nice and extremely high class. I had to sit next to the Big Boss, which was quite nerve racking for me. She forced me to eat a lot, even though I was really too full. It was good food and all, but I just didn't have enough room. Then my perspective of Japanese people changed.

They do eat a lot. Way more than I'm used to, and I'm American. I ordered a Smirnoff, which didn't taste like a Smirnoff so I didn't drink it, much. I just took little sips since I felt bad because I was forced to order something alcoholic. It really was interesting to be on a school trip and to be a teacher, especially for this school. Anyways, that was the night. I couldn't sleep that well either, and I'm not sure why.

Officially Resident of Japan

Today I wanted to get up earlier than I did, but still it wasn't bad. If I would have gotten up earlier, I would have been able to finish everything today. But I walked to Sakae Ward office to pick up my Alien Resident Card, which was actually a really fast and painless process. Then I hopped onto the Keihin-Tohoku line to get to Konandai Station, which is the next station up to go to the bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi.

I wanted to open up a bank account so I can finally get paid. The process wasn't that easy. When I walked in, the security guard, acting as a front clerk, was talking to me only in Japanese, as he should. But I didn't understand anything he was talking about. But he gave me a number and told me to fill out a form, which turned out to be the wrong form.

When I got to the counter, the lady there made me fill out a new one, which wasn't bad. She made copies of my passport and Alien Resident Card. I had all the paperwork done, and then she asked me for my personal signature stamp, and I'm like what the hell are you talking about? So she told me, go buy one right now. So I walk out the door because I couldn't open a much needed bank account because I didn't have a personal signature stamp. I've read on the internet that a personal signature would be fine, but they didn't accept it. They wanted the stamp. So I go wondering around the Konandai area to find one, but there wasn't any.

So I hop back on the train to go to Ofuna station because I know there is a little shop that does do that. I walk in and niether one of the two people speak even the slightest English. So communication was a tad difficult. But I managed to get by. The personal signature stamp costed me about $30. A little on the expensive side, but then again, it's pretty cool to have. I used my Japanese Kanji Name, which is now my official name in Japanese, since the people working there called the bank and got it approved. But I'm not too sure till I get to the bank and try it out.

I had lunch today at Yoshinoya, I love it there. It was only ok today, but at least I was full. I was walking around Yamada Denki all day to check out all the DVD's and CD's that they have. They have a really cool Utada Hikaru collection for half the price as usual, so as soon as I get paid, I know what I'm doing. But hopefully it'll still be there when I go again. The DVD's and CD's are really expensive here. It's at least double the price than America, but Tokyo is the most expensive city in the world. So I knew what I was getting myself into when I was moving here.

The pay isn't that great either, people are just surviving here, but I'll be able to manage, I hope.I got home and then relaxed a bit. Downloading songs and such and chatting with people. I think I'll go make dinner soon and get some rest because I'll be going on a field trip with my school to Universal Studios Japan tomorrow. I've got to get up at 4:30 in the freakin' morning just to get my ass to Tokyo Station on time. I've got to get on the first bus available and the first train. That's freakin' ridiculous. But I'll enjoy myself, I'm sure.

Tuesday - felt like Monday

Class was like usual I guess. Actually it went by much faster than I thought. I was very slow and groggy when I got up. Felt really sick too. But I managed to get to work on time. My first class was pretty easy, actually all the classes today were easy. The first class just did their English play: Annie, and I just watched. They haven't improved. They actually got worse. But this time it was different people messing up their lines.

The rest of the day was really easy. We did an activity, actually I shouldn't say we, since I didn't do anything. Erin S. did an activity where all the students would get a word from someone's demonstration speech that was good. And it would be the job of the whole class to piece it together. She broke it down into pieces where each word would be an adjective, or noun, or adverb. So they would learn sentence structure and word order. Not sure if they succeeded in learning the objective. But at least they were involved and participating.

The bad classes usually, were very good today. They pieced the puzzle together quite fast. And with a lot of cooperation. While the usual good class, took the longest and weren't cooperation very well. Actually the teacher had to raise her voice to quiet them down. So in English club we discussed how bad they were today. Since the students are from the usual good class. I was like, what happened to you guys today. They were loud, and not paying attention. Then the activity didn't go as smooth and they were the only class that didn't really finish the activity. But all and all, I felt pretty good today. I don't know why, it was raining and that was the complaints for all the students. But I was cheery. The club went great and I didn't end up leaving till 7pm, which is really late by my standards.

National Holiday - Sports Day

I spent my holiday as usual, at home just relaxing. Today I downloaded a lot of old school songs from the 1990's, some from the 80's. It's great, I've been listening to them all day. I also got around to doing laundry, which is still drying for the past few hours. I fixed my haircut buzzer thing, so I will get my haircut done later tonight before I shower. I tried to clean up my room, but only by vacuuming it. I need to get some more drawers for my clothes. I've got to organize a little better too. I cleaned up a little after the typhoon came by and messed things up. I'm lucky that i live on the second floor because the first floors all over the place were flooded. hmm that's my day. Nothing exciting and I finally caught up on my xanga again. I think i will start to word process my lesson plans for school. Or I might take my laptop to school tomorrow and work on it there, but usually I don't want to lug around something so heavy. We'll see what happens.

YOKE / Thanksgiving Dinner

Today started off pretty early. I had to get up around 7am to leave my house around 8am to get to the YOKE office around 9:30am. It's really not that far away, but it takes forever because I have to walk to the station, and then the train is slow as hell and then I have to walk to the YOKE office, which is far from the station.

When I arrived, another member arrived about the same time. So we started working on some materials to pass out. Then the rest of the time, I was just an observer. They were far behind on things so they had to take up a lot of time to catch up. They covered a lot of material, and it was good for me to listen to their Japanese. It's not improving, but at least it's still being kept up. I've really not improved in Japanese. I don't study hard enough and I never practice it. At least my comprehension is still ok. I took all the delegates pictures, and then helped them with their workshop materials and preparation.

Then afterwards me and a couple of people went to go get lunch. The meeting was about 4-5 hours long, so we were starving. We went to my favorite chinese food restaurant in Japan, Bamiyan. I got the usual Fried Rice, which was delicious as usual. I think next time I will try their ramen. From there, we all parted ways since everyone was going to different places. I started to head towards Harajuku since I was supposed to meet CP and my boss to have Canadian Thanksgiving dinner. It's the same dinner as in America, but it's celebrated earlier.
I skipped a part, I arrived around 4:45pm when we were supposed to meet at 5:45pm. So I just walked around to tour the place, since I haven't been there for about a Year.

It reminded me of the time when YYto and I went there. I was waiting at the train station for about 2 hours and called repeatedly until CP answered the phone and gave me directions to get there. I didn't feel so bad because I was the one waiting. And my boss, AOwa just arrived there one minute before I did. By the time I arrived, they had already ate the tri-colored soup, and salad with wild berry sauce.

When I got the soup and salad, the rest of the people ordered the turkey dinner, but i caught up quickly. I was starving. The meal looked pretty big, but for a thanksgiving dinner, it was small for me. I finished it quite quick. It was kind of cold too, but I'm sure it was cold because they were waiting for me to arrive. It consisted of Turkey, Stuffing, Mashed Potatos, Cranberry Sauce, Green Beans, Carrot, Brocolli, Cauliflower, and gravy. But then again that's not my fault. The pumpkin pie was delicious, but rather hard. It was a challenge to eat. So, it was good.
Afterwards, CP, AOwa, and I went with two other people from New Zealand to a bar called Soho's. They had some more drinks, and I stuck with my water.

Damn, it's embarrassin. But oh wells. Grant, one of the people from New Zealand, mentioned something about a book that my sister mentioned to me yesterday. It was really quite interesting and now I'm on the search to find it and read it. I heard it's a really good book from EVERYONE, and so I don't want to be left out. I must go find it. From there we left to go home, it was really a long trip for me to get back. But when I did, my work still wasn't finished, I wanted to get the pictures sent out to everyone so I wouldn't have to worry about it the next day. I didn't end up sleeping until 3am, which is really late for me since I normally go to sleep around 10pm because I have to get up so damn early

Typhoon in Tokyo

This is the 22nd Typhoon to hit Japan this season, that's kind of a high number. School was cancelled today, and also there was an International Festival put on by Keisei International School for girls, that I was invited to attend. But I decided not to because all the major trains stopped operation and it got rained out as I later found out. So all I did today was spend my wasteless life on the computer downloading music. I miss doing that, but I'd later find out it would consume a lot of my time. I should be spending doing many other things. It's EK's birthday today too. So I said Happy Birthday to him, actually on many occassions.

Friday the end of the week

I only had two classes today, so I came to school later than usual. The first class was the 8th Grade. I needed to pay close attention to these students because eventually, I'll be their formal teacher on Saturdays.

We did dialogue from the book that they have. Then I also did the pictures for the listening comprehension part. We use what is called the schematic approach which is introducing things about ourselves or something they are familiar with first, and then going along with the tape and other assisting material so it's not cold when they get it. We warm up to the point.

Something that I notice about this class is that they already have most of the answers because they have friends from previous classes give them the answers. So they don't have to pay attention to the lesson, which in turns doesn't help much at all. So I've got to find another approach that remedies that problem. They seemed to have a little problem with word forms like run - ran, watch - watched. And things of that nature. I think it's because it was cold. They don't link things from class to class. Nothing is consistent in Japanese Education. As long as the topics are covered, they think it's ok. But nothing ever flows into the next week which really worries me about the student's education. Then we ended the class on British Terms versus American Terms.

The 11th Grade class today was pretty good. I didn't have to do much because they pretty much understood what was going on. The assignment was to give a speech about making something, like telling a recipe. I think something that works really well, is when everyone is involved. Like having the class ask the question and the person at the front answering the question. For example, we did "What can you make?" and the person at the board would say, "I can make..." and then continue on with their speech. So everyone would have to pay attention. Sometimes we were all off on it and the person at the board was just waiting.. because no one asked.
I think it worked well, and it's only been the second time we've met so they are doing very good.
After all my classes I stuck around till around 4:30pm. I could have left at 1pm, but I was just trying to learn as much as I possibly could about the culture of the teachers. They will be my first students, because there was a typhoon coming to Tokyo the next day so they cancelled school. That's the first time in four years that they did that. So it was a big deal. They moved all the regular scheduled classes to October 23rd, which was when I was supposed to start teaching the 8th Grade. That's big news to me, so I did my article for the school newspaper introducing myself. And then I was talking to other teachers about my plans, only releasing snipits of information to keep them wondering. I think I'm doing a pretty good job with being mysterious, yet informative. They don't know if I can teacher or not, and to be honest, I don't know either. But hopefully things will work out for the best and that They will learn something from my classes. Shit, I hope so, I would like to move up on the totem pole.

12, 7, 12, 7

First it was the 12th grade today. These girls were dead tired from something. They didn't seem interested at all. We did some drills in class, but they were very quiet. I think that would set the tone for the rest of the day.

The same goes for the 7th grade 3rd period. The activity was getting overdone with them, and they just didn't care anymore.

4th period was much better, they actually understood what was going on with the class material. I did the discussion today, which was pretty good because the class behaved well when I was teaching. I'm glad that I was handed a good class to teach, otherwise it might have been embarassing.

5th period is by far the most unfocused 7th grade class that I've experienced so far. They kept asking why we have 3 teachers, and I answered because we do, but I wrote it on her paper, and she quickly shut her hole.

The reason why is because she didn't understand it. hahaha. But you know, they are 7th graders, they aren't supposed to understand much. It's their first experience working with English, so they don't know much at all. After that I think I left pretty early from school, like 5pm still...

Tokyo's DisneySea

We left around 8am to pick up TTki's Mom's Nieces and their friend. We didn't get to Shinagawa till around 9:30 something. When we arrived, we still had to wait a little while because the girls were taking forever to get ready. Then after that we picked up their friend and headed to Chiba to DisneySea. The car ride after we picked them up wasn't long at all. We were there before I even knew it.

The cost was 4,300 yen, because I had a special discount, but to me that really wasn't much of a discount. I think the normal price was 5,300 yen I think.

From the moment you walk in, you can tell it's grand. There is a HUGE GLOBE in the courtyard area. And there was pluto and Mickey greeting people as they walk in. It was the celebration of halloween there and it was also the 3rd anniversary of its opening. So I guess we went at a perfect time. TTki's Mom's nieces are specialists at the Disney Theme parks. They go quite often, but it was my first time and it was also TTki's mom first time. Her initials will be MTki so I don't always have to refer to her as TTki's Mom.

Then there is a huge area where there is a lake and a mountain in the background. It was a great place to take a picture, which we did. From there we took a Gondala ride around the lake and behind the scenes of a show. It was pretty cool because it's sooo huge compared to the dinky one that we have in Anaheim. It's so spacious, which is rare since it's Tokyo.

After the Gandala, we were walking around touring the place at the American Waterfront. There were some I think American people beating on Trashcans as drums. They were pretty good. They really got the crowd into it and they were speaking Japanese. Then we all bought ukiwah bun, which is a shrimp bun. It was pretty good, but still very hot when we were eating it.
After eating we were off to the rides. The first one we did was a little boat ride aquatopia. It was lame. In Anaheim, you can at least control the speed at which you went places, but here you couldn't control anything. Then we went onto Stormrider. That was more interesting. It's like a Star Tours ride, but instead you're riding into the middle of a category 5 hurricane.

After that we headed to the Mysterious Mountain. There we went on a Journey to the Center of the Earth. It was actually a very surprising ride, which I think that's why they call it Mysterious Mountain. Around that time, Noonish, there was the Big Parade. It lasts for about 45 minutes and it goes all the way around the park. So it's rather long, and the same song plays over and over and over. They break off the dancers into different sections so everyone gets a good view of what's going on. That's nice I think.

After that, we went on a few more rides. Throughout the day we went on Indiana Jones and the temple of the Crystal Skull; 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Journey to the center of the Earth.. again, Sinbad's Seven voyages - it's a small world.

We saw a couple of shows too. There were two parades, the little mermaid show, the aladdin show - very good, Mystic Rhythms - funny because it's loud and very musical but everyone in the group was sleeping except for me and one of MTki's nieces.

We had an Italian Lunch most of us got the Disney Dramatic Special. It was only around 10 bucks and it was good too. It came with pasta, Salad and drink, which would normally be overpriced, but I think it was reasonable. Not too bad overpriced.

We left at 8:05pm right when BraviSeaMo was just beginning. That's the night time fireworks spectacular. We wanted to beat the traffic to get home. We arrived back in Shinagawa not too much later and got dinner together. We went to a place really close to the JR Osaki West Exit to eat Ramen. It was pretty good. Now that I think about it, that really isn't a lot to do, but since it's spread over a large area, it seemed long. The lines weren't long at all either. I think the longest I had to wait was like 15 minutes and that was for the show to start. That's pretty nice to not have to wait long, even though there was a lot of people on a Wednesday. Don't people work here???

Usual Day

Today the 9th grade did their Drama performance. It was quite interesting to see the play Annie. Some of the students need to practice more to memorize their lines, but we still have a few more weeks before the performance.

In the 10th grade, we did another demonstration speech. This time Erin did Origami - how to fold a rabbit. We have the students more time to finish up their demonstration speech. And we handed back some papers that I graded to improve their speech. Their speech will be October 26th, but I told them that it would be today, but oh wells, i lied. It would have been nice to have a syllabus though.

English Club - We just discussed things about culture. The differences between American and Japanese. I used an example from Japan - Tokyo and Osaka. That's how America is broken down into different Dialects.

Usual day of teaching

Nothing special happened today. We did some reading of Dramas, drills on For and Against. Students have a little trouble with intructions for activities. I'll need to work on making things more clear. I got to run the class a little doing a little section of the chapter.
English Club - We went over international countries, because Saturday will be a International Festival in Tokyo. Countries and country food and things like that.

Sunday...rain all day

That's all that happened today, Just rain. It was pretty hard too. I was going to do some cleaning, but didn't. I was going to do some laundry, but didn't. Just stayed at the computer like usual.

Saturday

I didn't do much today, just cleaning my apartment. And unpacking all the stuff that my family just sent to me and reorganizing all my clothes and furniture and stuff.
I didn't want to go out today, it was a beautiful day to go out and do something, but the person who invited me out... well I don't like her at all.

* Bryan's Asshole Moment * I think she's quite disgusting. She's one of the most hidious looking people that I've ever met. Just thinking about her looks makes me cringe, and I'm not the only one who thinks so too. I'm just the only one who will be so open about it. I can't believe that one of my friend's likes her too, but then again, he's not the most attractive individual in the world either. She's been pushing me to hang out with her a lot. I'm not sure if she likes me or not, but if she does, I think I'm going to puke. So I've been making lame excuses not to hang out with her. I want to tell her the truth, but I don't think I would be able to be nice about it and I'm sure she probably wouldn't want to hear it either.

We were talking on the internet last night because she made up a new screen name and started talking to me. Then she got my friend to talk to me first so she would know that I'm there and then he was like, she wants to talk to you. And I'm like, you asshole, you gave her my e-mail address. So now I'm thinking about using AIM instead of MSN messenger, just because of that. I moved out of the country to avoid my stalkers, but somehow they always find a way to find me. DAMN PEOPLE, GET A LIFE!! One that's very far from me. Anyways, on a brighter side, I feel better now that I've killed most of the spiders in my apartment and it's much cleaner now. Even though I don't have enough room in my plastic container boxes for all my clothes, so I'll have to go buy more later.

Holiday for Tokyo People

I'm not sure if there really is a holiday or not, but I didn't have school, that's all I know for sure. So Today I spent walking around to the Immigration office in Yokohama to get my working visa. I GOT MY WORKING VISA!!! It's a month late, but better late than never. Then I had to go to my Ward Office, (City Office) to apply for my Alien Resident Card so I would be an official Japanese Resident. I guess I really am turning Japanese... Kinda scary. They took a little longer than I thought they would, but still it worked out. I have to go back on October 13, to pick it up. Then I'll be officially a Japanese resident and I can open a bank account so I can get PAID.
I walked around the Sakae Ward area around Hongodai station, because my friend sent me an e-mail to hang out. But for some reason... I didn't want to hang out. I ended up walking back home and going to a CD store to look at some CD's. There were a few that I wanted to buy, but I just didn't. I was going to get some Utada Hikaru singles. I looked at them and realized that I just didn't want to buy them then. So maybe they will still be there when I go back some other time. From then I just lounged at home. I ate a lot today for some reason too. I had lunch at Yoshinoya, and then bought some snacks at a little mom and pop place, and then bought dinner at a grocery store.

When I got home, there was a package from my family. They had sent over a lot of my clothes so I wouldn't have to buy a lot while I was here. They also sent me my calendar for the wall, photo album, and my books. It was very necessary material, but not everything that I needed was sent over, but at least it was pretty good. I was unpacking for a long time and then I was on the computer until TTki called me over to talk to His cousin since she will take me to Disney Sea. We were going to discuss when and what time to go since I'm working most of the time. Actually it was a different cousin this time, but same aunt. So I met TTki's Cousin's Sister, but it's still his cousin. I never caught her name so I really can't use intials. They had Pizza Hut and I had a slice Korean BBQ Pizza. It was interesting, not bad, but not incredibly great either. But I think I'll just have to get used to it. The crust is so thin and the slices are in squares. Much smaller than I expected, but if I'm starving I'd eat it. We decided, actually they decided that we were going to go to Disney Sea on October 6th at 7am.

That's this Wednesday, so I've got to get some cash out of the ATM to go. I'll get a discount ticket of $43, doesn't really sound like a discount to me, but they say it is. Next week I will go on the school trip on October 14th-16th, so I'll have a pretty busy few weeks since I'll also be starting to teach on Saturdays too. And then the school festivals are coming up at the end of the month so I have to teach the teachers. I came back and was talking to BHu online, she told me that she was going to go Camping this weekend. Which is good. She said she saw my sister at the AIDS walk when she was walking. My sister was surprised to see her. She stayed up late to talk to me again, and all I did was show her pictures from my past. It took a lot of time, and I didn't really get to talk to her that much, but this month will be Busy Busy Busy, that's for sure.