When I went to the airport I was told that my flight was delayed by an hour due to the snow in the UK!  If only I had known I could have had an extra hour in bed.  Narita airport is nice and has it’s own shopping mall in the main part of the airport.  My first stop once I got through to departures was starbucks for breakfast and a coffee fix… afterwards I went for a quick mouch round the shops and then headed for the lounge.  Thanks to by Barclays premier account I still have a number of visits to airport lounges left before May so I headed to the KAL (Korean airways) lounge for a seat and to shove as much free food as possible into my bag.

My visit home was fantastic but far too quick.. maybe that was a good thing though.  The best thing of all was being ble to read things, speak to people and to understand what was going on around me.  Oh and to have some tasty food.  This was a bit of a running joke before I left… one day when i was hungover I made a list of all the foods that I was missing that I wanted when I was home… it didn’t look like it was a list that could be completed in 10 days but I did it.

It was nice to be able to share this experience with people and to know that I have a lot of support.  As you know it hasn’t been the easiest time of my life and I really really appreciated the kind words you said to me when I was home.   Thank you to all of you that not only said you read this but that you enjoyed it and encourage me to continue with it and my life in Japan and I got some great suggestions and advice to.  Okay soppy bit over.

It was also great to get first hand accounts of how the last 5 months have been for my family nad friends… emails and skype are great but you can’t beat face to face conversations.

Anyway it was soon over and time once again to pack the suitcase.  I really didn’t buy that much but for some reason it wouldn’t all fit in.  Thanks Mum and Dad for sending the surplus out in a parcel.

Wednesday the 16th of December saw our first snowfall.  Luckily my snow tyres had been fitted on the Monday. 

Japanese houses have no central heating and no insulation.  The only 2 things that they consider constitute this is tatame flooring and shoji.. the paper screens for windows.  They have 3 main heating systems for winter unless you also include putting plastic wrap on your windows as one…. heated rugs / carpets, kerosene heaters and kotatsu’s.  Kerosene heaters are very effective once the initial headaches and nausea pass.  Kotatsu tables are tables that have an electric heater underneath… the top comes off so that you can put a duvet or blanket on it to keep in the heat.  They are great things.

So on and off since the beginning of January my house has been 3 degrees.  At the moment at night I am sleeping in a fleese with 2 duvets and a blanket and a hot water bottle.

Anyway back to the snow.  We are all well equiped for it here with 4 wheel drive, snow tyres and shovels.  There is especailly no being late for work… everything continues as normal regardless.

The most impressive thing about everyone being prepared and nothing stopping is that there are snow ploughs everywhere day and night and on the main roads etc there are jets of hot water between the carriages… they even have them and kombini’s.

The snow on the 16th wasn’t much really but that soon changed.  Blizzards that were forecasted for the sat came a day early.  Wow it was a lot of snow  and becasue it was early it even took Niigata by suprise.. closing the airport for a while and delaying some trains (the one taking me to Tokyo to start my journey home) which never happens here.  I spend the day taking photo’s while my colleagues oooh’d and ahhh’d at the first real snow of winter.

It didn’t look like there was a lot of snow while I was away but we have had a couple of big dumps since I got back.  This weekend I am heading to ski resorts which unsuprisingly are only an hour drive away to try boarding for the first time!

The last Japanese class of 2009 was very nice.  We started off with a couple of games.  The second a popular Japanese party game which is a cross between pin the tail on the donkey and Mr Potato head.  Each group was given a picture of a blank Japanese male or female face.  One person was blindfolded then given facial parts and the rest of the group gave them directions to place them on the face.  It did lead to some funny faces!

After that we had a traditional tea ceremony.  We were asked which care we wanted… we then sat in a line and were talked through the process.  I don’t really remember it all but here goes.

We had to stay kneeling for hte event.  First we had to split the cake into four and eat it all with something that resembled a thick toothpick.  Tea was then made for us.  I then had to bend forward… take the cup / bowl accross the floor moving it to the left of me.  I then picked it up and had to turn it clockwise 3 times with my right hand.  I then drank it holding the cup with both hands… for the last mouthful we had to take a deep and noisey intake of breath.  I then had to turn the cup anti clockwise with my left hand… place it down infront of me and then push it forward while still kneeling… I then had to bend right down to meet the tatame flooring.  Well I think that is how it went.. I may have got the sequence slightly muddled and I can’t remeber what I said.. but you get the gist… it was a lot to do and remember for a cup of tea!

Shortly after this our supervisor contacted us to change the plan some what.  Niigata Univeristies Joetsu campus for nursing had decided to take over the running of our part of the event.  Mr Nakamura who heads up the english department for the campus was going to come and speak to us abou the now 2 day “Eigo Shopping” event.  Basically the event was to be aimed at EMS students (but everyone was welcome) and was to teach them the basic english required for shopping and to give them a safe environment in which to practice.

In the end we had a welcome stand where I worked on the Sunday to give them a point card (they got a signature on the point card from one of us everytime they spoke english), explain to them that once they completed the point card they could enter a prize draw to win a nintendo wii.  A donut stand selling 50 yen donuts, a nintendo wii area for them to play and to try and beat the ALT.  A finger knitting area… yes you read right and a photographic area.  This was where you could get your picture taken with various dressed up people from faries to animee characters to a Scotsman!!!

The thing that annoyed us as a group was that everything cost money.. well except from the finger knitting.. they had to can charging for that because nobody was doing it… suprise…suprise.  We were against it because the over all education event was free and it ws about education not making money… charging money could exclude some people.  Mr Nakamura however believed that if they had to pay moneythen that make it a real experience that would accelerate their learning.

Both days were successful… sorry I don’t have any funny.. they were both fairly uneventful days… thankfully!

I was later told that because the cirriculum is changing to make english compulsory from next year EMS teachers must do a certain number of hours each year in preparation.  Ah so it wasn’t so much of an interest request more a must do… oh no!

On the night the majority of them were there.  Including two that already speak quiet good english.  The 5th grade teacher that I teah with 1st period on a Tuesday nad who clearly doesn’t give a shit about english or teaching in general sat righ at the front of the classroom with his head in his hands.  The camp second grade teaher that doesn’t know any english thought it was more interesting to take photo’s of the event and one of the first grade teachers slept. I rememberd how teaching / training adults was the same if not worse than children!

That being said… those that were interested were very attentive.. took part and asked questions so not a complete disaster.

I had them do an exercise to guess feelings.. e.g I’m hungry, I’m sick, I’m good.  The each had a card with a feeling on it and they had to find their partner by saying “Hello and then doing a charade… the person had to guess what they were and then they had to swap.. if it was the same feeling they could sit down but if it wasn’t they had to continue looking for their partner.  I purposely gave out an odd number of cards to make sure 4 of them would have to come to the front of the clas to demonstrate.  Strangely there was no one left standing at the end of the exercise.. so I asked “has everyone found their partner”… hai hai (yes) was the response… “really” I said … “oh hai hai” was the answer.

Cheeky or what.

I knew there was a school music festival from the other ALT’s but that was it until I came in one day to find some sheet music on my desk.  When I asked what it was I was told it was the teachers song for the big day… my follow up questions revealed that this day was set for Sunday the 8th of November.

I went to the rehearsals I wass told about and after learning the soprano part was asked to sing alto but was then not told about one practice session, missed one because I was in Sendai then the last one was brought forward and they told me it had happened after it.  Anyway enough excuses for my bad singing.

On the day we alldressed smarlty and I was issued with a mask.  I ended up on one of the judging tables by accident.  I think we were rating their ability to sing the song and for the emotion they showed.  Each class in each year group.. nine in total sang 2 songs each… painful is not the word.. it was a very long afternoon and Simon Cowell would have had a field day.

Once the competition was over and while the points were being counted and verified we had to humiliate ourselves as a teaching group by getting up and singing.

All in all a very uneventful day!

We went to visit my friend Tanya on yet another long weekend thanks to the National Culture day public holiday which fell on the Tuesday so after a fight at work I managed to get the Monday off.

The journey didn’t start so well on account of my bad bad hangover!  The night before was Halloween and I badly miss judged the measures to spectacularily become very un japanese by ending my night being very drunk and very sick and spending most of that time in a car park!  Well enough about that.

Japan has adopted everything American including Halloween.  It was amazing to see the brilliant costumes.  I think my favourite had to be the Queen of Cards from Alice in wonderland one.  A photographer from the local free magazine was there so I have that magazine to provide me with some memories since the booze destroyed the real ones!

The drive to Sendai was magnificent.  We passed Niigata City, Mt Bandai, amazing autumn leaves and Fukashima prefecture.  We arrived in Sendai early afternoon on the Sunday and wasted no time in hitting the shops.  Sendai is a fantastic little city which reminded me in size anyway of Glasgow… minus the neds of course.  Sam and I were in shopping and cofee heaven.

Tanya was a fantastic hostess… she met us and showed us the shopping highlights which included the international supermarket and book shops so that I could buy my next reading fix and lots of other interesting places.  That night we chilled out and met some of her friends.  The next day we got up and yes you guessed it we returned to the shops to start our Christmas shopping of course.

By the time we got back to Tanya’s at lunch time the weather had turned nasty but we decided to not let that get in the way of our plans.  40 minutes north of Sendai is Matsushima one of the 3 most scenic parts of Japan according to the books and the tourist board.  We only just make it inthe light but we drove in to see the beautiful islands of the coast. 

The reason we wanted to go to was to attend the Autumn light up festival which was taking place in one of the temples and was opening that weekend.    Even though it was cold and wet it was well worth it and meant it wasn’t too crowded.  The festival was basically all the trees lit up to show off the red, yellow and orange autumn leaves colours .

After the festival we found an onsen to warm ourselves back up.

We then headed back to town to have a fantastic Thai meal with Tanya and one of her friends and then we went to meet the rest of the gang in a local bar for a few drinks. 

Sendai like Nagoya may not be on the tourist trail but well worth checking out… especially if you live in rice fields!

Domo

I turned up early for the EMS open day to ensure I wasn’t late and to show group spirit which is very important in Japan.  I sat at my desk from 8.00 am and at the back of 9 my JTE came over and went oh.. ah a lot then babbled something I didn’t understand.. the only word I got was today.  Then Kyoto-sensei came over pointed at the agenda for the day and crossed his fingers.  I thought for some reason that I wasn’t allowed to attend.  The two of them pointed at the PTA lunch section starting at 11.00 and then both of them wandered off.

An hour later at 10 Kyoto-sensei looked up his dictionary and pointed at leisure time.. he then told me to go home and come back at 11.  He got the office lady to give me my lunch…. showed me (after I asked) where the PTA thing was and then bundled me out of the door at 10.15.  I had no idea what was going on.

At 11.00 I came back and went around the PTA bazar.  There was a sweets, donuts and bric a brack stalls.  After walking around twice and nobody stopping me to get me to help I decided to leave… well what else could I do.  On my way out I bumped into my JTE so I pointed to the section on the agenda that said ghost train and taiko drumming etc.   Oh she said… no cancelled….influenza.  Finally I understood…. why hadn’t they said influenza earlier.  I asked where the students were and I was told they were in their classrooms studying as the bizaar went onn down stairs on a saturday.  All the preparations and their fun cancelled due to swine flu… poor them!