Brian's Japan Adventure

October 22nd, 2007

A Catch-up Day

I’m not saying the past week has been especially exciting or eventful, but today was an “unwind” day. I woke up early, planning to sneak out before “the boys” woke up, but Marc had beaten me to it; he was already up, dressed, and watching TV when I woke up. I’m guessing a little bird told him today would not a be a good day to screw up any worse.

Mom called me early today, letting me know she tried Saturday and Sunday to call me, but my phone was off. Yes, I turn the phone off when I go to the library. I go to the library on Saturday and Sundays from around 9:30 to 2:30 or so. Yes, I do play on the Internet for three straight hours; that’s quite an impressive drop from “real life,” but I am learning to adapt.  Actually, it’s not so much playing, there’s quite a bit of lesson planning research going on too.  Probably the best time to phone is around 8:30 my time, either am or pm. I just about never am doing anything at those times, although I am awake.

Mom didn’t have much to say to repeat here. She’s been babysitting the kids a lot recently.  She adamantly states that she will NOT be babysitting when the snow falls.  This year they can’t use me as a fallback sitter (not that they ever did often enough!), so that might be a problem for some.  They sent another box Friday, this time with my winter coat, gloves and supplies in it. Shipping was a bunch; it’s almost like buying that coat twice.  Argh!

But on the bright side, as soon as I hung up the phone from Mom, Mrs. Y called. She called on the apartment phone and Marc answered. She said there was an “invitation” to a children’s Halloween party on Saturday. It’ll be from 10:30 to Noon and then another one from 2:00 to 3:00 in the afternoon. They want an American who knows Halloween to go, and they’re paying 10,000Y for it. Marc didn’t sound interested, which surprised me; it sounds easy.  I can always use another 10,000Y ($120 bucks for 2-1/2 hours!), so I said I’d do it. I sure can’t argue about the pay, and it’ll probably be fun too. She didn’t know the ages of the “children” though, so I have to make some assumptions and plan for a variety.  So now I have plans for Saturday. At least I know I have Friday off this week.  I have already found a few good children’s Halloween ghost stories, and maybe I can find some kind of activity or game that doesn’t require much in the way of materials. I don’t really know this, but I’m kind of assuming I’m going to be like the clown that performs at the kids’ birthday parties. At least I don’t have to dress up.

Chilly Morning Mountain March

All that happened before nine am. So I walked up the mountain, and it was a crisp, breezy morning. If I remember correctly, it was around 57 degrees Fahrenheit; I bought a thermometer that has both scales on it. So today was a no-sweat mountain march. Once up there, I picked up a paper with information about the Halloween party from Mrs. Y and printed off a whole bunch of materials for this week’s classes. There’s probably enough for some of the classes next week too. I found a lot of things this past weekend, and even then I usually look for things I can use in multiple classes. I was pretty organized gong in, so that really didn’t take very long. I still had about a half an hour to kill before my first class, so did a little more useless online research on dictionaries.

Then it was time for N-Sensei’s class. This is the class were I was in full “interactive mode” last week and only three students would participate. I caught N-Sensei before class and asked for advice. He smiled; he liked that I was asking. He said I did fine last time, but that I could still stand to slow down a bit. That surprised me, as I thought I was almost talking too slow last week.  He also asked if he could take my picture while teaching. He’s going to Taiwan next month, and wants to do a presentation about our class. Fine with me; now I’m an “International Teaching Sensation ™.”  This reminds me, I want to get pictures with all my teacher-people sometime soon.

The class goes well enough this time. I know what to expect, so I’m not as flustered when no one answers. I repeat and repeat slower, rewording things as I go and writing a LOT on the board. Eventually we got through it, and my part was done. I’m not completely thrilled with the way it turned out, but happier than last time. Last week when I was done, N-Sensei sent me off to go home after the class, this time he brought me one of the books he uses for his part of the class. So I sat in and listened to him teach. Wow. All I can say is that I highly overestimated their ability both this time and last time. I really did think university-level students would be better than that. Hearing them read sounded just like a bunch of first or second graders in America. Now I see why they didn’t participate much for me. I wish they had spoken more last time (or that I could have stayed last time) so that I could see how limited they are; I could have done better this time. Regardless, I know exactly what to do and how to do it next time.  I suspect that K-Sensei’s class this Thursday will benefit as well, as they are probably less able than I thought as well, although they are a little higher.

Since I stayed for N-Sensei’s whole class, I only had an hour before Japanese class, so I ran to the University’s convenience store, right there in the basement of one of the buildings, which is very ah…convenient.  I had a little Halloween pie that I think was made with pumpkin filling and was had a jack-o-lantern face in it as well as a crunchy chocolate donut and a Coke Zero. Not exactly health food, but better than going without. So then I found a quiet place and reviewed my Japanese stuff. We are starting on various verbs now, and these are fairly complex, all with different endings and types of endings and rules that apply to some and not others. Still, This stuff was assigned for last Thursday, so this was more review than serious studying. I wondered if Marc would show up.  He’d be crazy not to, but it really wouldn’t surprise me one way or the other.

Japanese Class: The Smackdown

But he did show up. Woo!  Y-Sensei was as polite as possible (at least in the beginning), but must have sad fifty times that Marc needed to study the Hiragana and Katakana and that we couldn’t keep waiting for him to do that. But we did wait. Marc and I went back and forth making up sentences and answering questions. I snapped off the answers and Marc struggled just to read the letters. To make it worse, I worked ahead a little bit and even on the sentences that took me time to think through, I had them ready to go before he finished reading the question. This probably made me look even more advanced (to Marc) than I really am. Y-Sensei saw me working out the answers in advance and didn’t way a word; I suspect she wanted Marc to get a little nervous. Marc must have said, “I’m sorry” more in that hour-and-a-half than I have ever heard anyone utter anywhere. She didn’t let up on him either, reminding him over and over to study more. At one point she actually said she “didn’t think he was trying hard enough,” which was as close to actually being rude that I have ever heard anyone get in Japan.  I do think he got the point. Will it make a difference? We’ll see.  On the way down the mountain he said that he had too much to worry about to care about keeping the Japanese teachers happy. Sigh.

I spent a big portion of the class looking out the window and waiting for Marc to struggle working out the answers.  Yawn.  The view from the 4th floor of the University is pretty neat; not picturesque, but very busy. Yawn.  I did not get a chance to bring up the subject of splitting us up, but after today, she won’t be surprised when I suggest it Thursday.  She probably couldn’t have made any arrangements at the University if I had discussed it today; Thursday she’ll be at the actual language school and can do whatever she wants.

Now What?

Oops. I was so busy yesterday preparing for classes this week that I didn’t have any plans for what to do after classes. When I got home from Japanese class at 3:30, I had nothing to do.  I finished Zen Keys on Sunday, but have not started anything new yet. I wasn’t uch in the mood to start one today either, so opted for a nap instead. Boom. Next thing I know, it’s 6:00pm and dark out.

I am not a big fan of riding the bicycle at night, so I decide to walk somewhere for dinner. Where? I could go to the corner convenient store, but they mostly have snack-type foods; their obento (meal-in-a-box) are usually pretty scary. The carryout by the little train station?  I could, but I’m not really n the mood for that tonight. McDonald’s yet again?  Sigh. Not really knowing what I wanted, I started walking. It’s neat how different things are at night. All the little shops that you walk right by in the daytime are lit up and open at night. You can see right in. Most of them turn out to be bars, but still, I learn what a few of those shops are. I pass one option after another, and yes, before long I stand before the center of the universe; Happy Town. The bad news is that I am indeed eating at McDonald’s again; the good news is that I can read the katakana lettering on the sign: “Me-ga-ma-ku ba-ku” or, “MegaMac is Back” WooHoo! Even without reading it, the picture is clear enough, but since I can read the sign, I do.  I always at least try to read every sign I see. I don’t know enough verbs to understand most full sentences, but with signs I usually can make out a good portion of the meaning.

It’s in the upper 60’s in the quiet Okayama evening, as I walk back home, extra full of my MegaMac, and smiling at the pure evilness of eating a huge double Big Mac. Oink Oink.  Upon returning, I started writing the blog, and here I am now at 8:00. I’m going to get organized for tomorrow’s class in a few minutes, and then start reading one of my books. I only have two left; Buddha Mind, Buddha Body, and Best Buddhist Writings 2006. I’ve finished everything else.  It’ll take me at least two weeks to get through these two, so I’m still in good shape book-wise.

Which will I begin this evening? I don’t know, so I’ll leave you in suspense.

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This entry was posted on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 at 3:12 am and is filed under Japan, Teaching, Training. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.