Brian’s Japan Adventure

Japan TEFL.Com Glossary

I’ve been here seemingly forever now, and I often reference people and places that I have described in the past. Not everyone here has been with me since the beginning, so I think it’s high time I posted a “Glossary” of all the things, people, and places I discuss in the Japantefl.com blog. As always, I have abbreviated (K-Sensei, etc.) or “euphemized” proper names (Home University, The Company).  Here goes:

Big Boy: It’s got the same fat character in his red-and-white overalls, but beyond that, the similarity between American Big Boy and Japanese Big Boy end. Japanese Big Boy has, steak, chicken, and all kinds of great “American Style” dinners. No burgers or hot fudge cake or anything American Big Boy has, but it’s great. Best American food in town.

Big Station, The: See Okayama Station.

Bitchu-Takahashi: A train station about an hour away from here to the northwest. For a long time, I thought the town itself was Bitchu-Takahashi, but I was wrong. Only the train station carries the name Bitchu-Takahashi. See Takahashi for a description of the city itself.

Brian: That’s me. Born and raised in Dayton, Ohio. Bachelor’s Degree in Religion Studies, Masters in English Composition and Rhetoric. Currently teaching English in and around Okayama, Japan.

Brian-Sensei: That’s me too. This is how many students refer to me. Some also call me “Mr. Brian.” No one here actually uses my last name. I think may have introduced myself to some of them wrongly in the beginning, but it doesn’t really matter to me. It probably doesn’t help that my last name is hard for them to pronounce.

Carryout: See Honke Kamodoya

Co Co Ichiban: Also known as Co Co Ichibanya or just Co Co. A place downtown that is convenient to both the Tenmaya Station, Okayama Train Station and the Okayama Library. They serve curry in various ways. Curry is immensely popular in Japan. Thick brown sauce over rice with vegetable, meat or “other” mixed in. You can order it in various sizes and “levels” of spiciness.

Cred: One of the big department stores in downtown Okayama. I haven’t actually bought anything there, but I have looked in there a few times. They have a small selection of books in English in the fifth-floor bookstore.

Fukuyama: Fukuyama is a town about halfway between Okayama and Hiroshima. I’d estimate Fukuyama is about half the size of Okayama. They have an elementary school that I visit about once a month on Fridays. The school is an “immersion” experiment, meaning that the children there are taught in ONLY English. Their math, science, phys-ed, etc are all taught be people who speak English.

Happy Town: A large store about two miles away. The first floor has a McDonalds in it as well as a full grocery store. The second floor has housewares and clothing (that won’t fit me). The third floor has a toy department, stationary department, books (all Japanese), and a 100 Yen store, the equivalent of a “dollar store” back home. I do most of my shopping and get most supplies from here.

Hiroshima: The biggest city that I visit regularly. I spend every Wednesday there. I teach three kindergarten classes in the morning, then an adult class in the afternoon and another adult class of mostly really old people in the evening. I take the Shinkansen to get there and back, and I have a long three-hour break in the middle of the day to explore or play.

Hokaiin Station:  This train station is about a mile and a half away, and takes about five minutes to get to by bicycle or ten minutes by foot. Almost every one of my trips involves this station in one way or another. I almost always park my bicycle here when taking the bus downtown, and of course, any trip on the trains begins here. I buy tickets here, ride the train to Okayama Station, and the transfer to the correct train to wherever I am ultimately going. It’s three minutes to Okayama Station and costs 140Y each way.

Home University: I have recently graduated with my M.A., but my trip to Japan is basically an Internship arrange through “my” University in Ohio, USA. I am still in regular contact with the university, as I am still officially with them through this internship.

Honke Kamodoya: An obento carryout located very near the Hokaiin station. They serve obento, but they make it up fresh for you when you order it, and it comes hot and fresh. They’re pretty cheap too, most meals are between 500-600 yen.

K-Sensei:  K-Sensei teaches an “English in the Sciences” on Thursdays. I come to class for 30-45 minutes and talk about some article that he gives me the previous week. Sometimes I talk about the subject and content of the article; sometimes I talk about interesting English features that are used in the Article. It’s fun, but I get absolutely zero involvement from the students. It’s basically a straight lecture from my point of view. I suspect K-Sensei explains what I said to them after I leave.

Kinderphobia: I have a bit of a problem with the Kindergarten in Hiroshima once in a while. I just cannot plan for those classes the way I can the others. Sometimes I can take a really simple idea and stretch it for a full class period; sometimes I can plan two or three things and burn through them in ten minutes.  The problem is that I cannot plan as well as I’d like and that worries me. I just have to go to class and “wing it,” and that really goes against my way of doing things. I have, from time to time, lost sleep over this, and I have termed the problem “kinderphobia.”

Korukuen Garden: The largest garden in Japan, and often considered the best. After the Castle, this is the second largest tourist attraction in Okayama. It’s nice, but a little too large and open-air for me. I prefer Hiroshima’s Shukkeien garden.

Library: The Okayama Prefectural Library. I go here at least once a week. I got a library card early in my stay here, and always have at least one English-language book checked out. More importantly, they offer Internet access for free f you bring your laptop. I do most of my research and class preparation here.

Little Station: See Hokaiin Station.

Loft, The: Another big store downtown.

Marc: My roommate in Okayama. We took TEFL courses together over last summer as well. He’s a very large guy, both tall and fat (bigger than me in both directions). He also has a large bushy beard that is getting bigger every day. When people see Marc coming, they get out of the way.  A girl in a store the other day nearly screamed when she saw him turn a corner; I am not kidding.  People are really freaked out when they see him. I guess it’s the beard, since he’s not especially frightening; no one in America would look twice at him. Little kids like him, since they see “Santa Claus.”

Maruzen: Maruzen is a bookstore located near Tenmaya, inside the Okayama Symphony Hall. They have a large selection of English books, and also a large selection of book about teaching English; teaching supplies. They are quite expensive, but it you want to buy books, this is the best English bookstore in town.

McDonalds: Just like in the States. Big Mac, Cheeseburger, Fries. Also McPork, Teriyaki burger, and shrimp sandwich. Despite what you hear the portions and food are exactly the same as in America. They’re not that much more expensive than America either.  The places are everywhere, but the two I use most frequently are inside Happy Town and halfway between the Tenmaya Station and the Okayama Library.

Megalo: An Internet café located near the Tenmaya Station, They charge around $10 for three hours of access in a little private room. It’s kind of scummy, with a lot of porn hanging on the walls, but it’s a useful place to go on holidays or other times when the library is closed.

Mr. Kindergarten: The principal of the kindergarten in Hiroshima. He speaks painfully little English, so it’s always a challenge communicating with him, but he’s still more advanced than anyone else at the school. He accompanies me to my classes there and interprets some things. He also keeps the very active children in line.

Mrs. Y: See Y-San. I called her “Mrs. Y” for ages, because that’s how they always referred to her in the States. I decided more recently that it just wasn’t really appropriate, and should change her name in my mind before I used the wrong term in front of her.  So from now on, she’s Y-san, which is the appropriate way to reference someone in her position.

N-Sensei: Teaches a Conversational English course on Mondays. I teach the first half of the course, while he teaches the second half. There is very little overlap between the two halves, so I am fairly free to do what I want in this class. The students are painfully quiet.

Obento: A meal in a box. They come in a box with little dividers like a TV dinner. Some obento are served hot, some come cold. They always have rice, but other than that, the contents vary. You get some kind of meat, a vegetable, maybe potato salad, and some kind of pickled thing. They are found everywhere, from Happy Town to kiosks in the train stations and little shops on every street corner. I have tried the cold ones from Happy Town, but I prefer the hot, fresh ones from the carryout, Honke Kamodoya. Sushi obento are extremely common and popular, and they are very colorful.

Okayama: My “home” city while I’m here. This is Okayama City, which is located within Okayama Prefecture (that’s like New York, New York, Japan-style).  It’s a medium-sized city located halfway between Osaka and Hiroshima on the southern part of the Honshu, the main island of Japan.  This is not a particularly foreigner-friendly city; you don’t see many westerners in Okayama and few people here speak English at all.

Okayama Castle: The main tourist attraction for Okayama. It’s really cool, but there are plenty of descriptions of the castle itself. Check out Wikipedia.

Okayama Station: The big train station. This is the largest train station in the area, and one of the big rail hubs of western Japan. Okayama station can get you anywhere, and just about everyone going anywhere in west Japan passes through Okayama.

Sami Beach: A swimming beach located in Shin-Kurashki, about and hour away by train and bus. It was voted one of Japan’s “most beautiful beaches” and I’d have to agree. I went there twice early in my time here, after beach-season was over. No one was there, so I had the place to myself. It was an unusually warm September/October, so I was perfectly comfortable.

Shinkansen: This is the world-famous “bullet train” of Japan. These things are like airplanes that ride on rails. They go up to 150 kph, which is really, really fast.

Shukkeien Garden: A compact garden in Hiroshima. It was destroyed in WWII and rebuilt just as it was. It has many different types of garden all very near each other, which gives the impression of crowded. Between this garden and Korukuen, this one is smaller, but in my opinion, nicer.

Slackass: See Marc.

Squishies: Octopus and Squid. These are both very popular and inexpensive here. They are very tough and chewy, and I don’t like them. I actually tried octopus once, and I don’t like squid just by reputation.

Takahashi: Takahashi is a city northwest of here, which I visit every Tuesday. I go on the train, and it takes about an hour each way.  It’s a classic little “mountain town.”  It’s very scenic with mountains, trees, and old temples. This is a VERY old town, and some of the buildings go back hundreds of years. The university here is quite new, and sits up on a mountain overlooking it all.  The problem with this town is that other than scenery, there is nothing at all to do. I’ve only spotted one restaurant in the entire town (and it’s not good).

Tenmaya: One of the big department stores in downtown Okayama. I haven’t actually bought anything there, but I have looked in there a few times.

Tenmaya Station: The main bus station in Okayama. It’s next door to the Tenmaya store, so it’s named after it. This is located right in the middle of the biggest shopping district in Okayama.

The Company: I don’t work for a particular school. The company I work for owns a large number of educational institutions, and they have an agreement with the Home University to send over two people at a time to travel between their schools and teach various levels of English classes.

Toyonari Pool: A public pool located about a half-hour away by bus. Y-San told me about this place the first week I was here. I visited there once, and it was a unique experience. I have gone a second time, but they were closed for repairs. I keep telling myself I should go again for the exercise, but it was just a little too uncomfortable. People always stare at me here, and I am used to that now, but it’s different with very few clothes one.

University Up The Hill / On The Mountain / “Upstairs”: The main university that we are attached to here in Okayama. It sits up on top of a small mountain. My apartment sits right at the base of the mountain, and I can see some of the buildings from down here. Y-San has an office up there. I teach classes here on Monday and Thursday.

Y-San: This is my main contact within “The Company.” She translates stuff for us, manages our schedules and basically is our boss while in Japan. She moved around a lot as a child in both Japan and America, so she has a flawless accent. Have you ever heard the “Kim Komando” radio show? Y-San sounds exactly like Kim Komando.

Y-Sensei: Y-Sensei is the teacher in charge of our Japanese Class. On Mondays, we have class at the university on the mountain, while on Thursdays we have it at a language school near the little station.

Yen: Money in Japan. I’m sure you know that already, but since I often quite prices in the blog, it might help to discuss the exchange rate. 100 yen costs about 85 cents of American money. In practice, it gets very easy to think of a yen as a penny. The most common coin here is the 100-yen coin, which is worth about a dollar. There are a lot of different coins: Single yen (aluminum), 5 yen (brass with a hole in the middle), 10 yen (brass with no hole), 50 yen (silver with a hole), 100 yen (silver with no hole), and 500 yen (gold or brighter brass) coins. There are three bills; the 1000, 5000, and 10,000 yen bills, which mentally translate to $10, $50, and $100 bills. I have umpteen zillion single and 5 yen coins lying around, since you can’t do much with them. Larger coins work in the many vending machines.

What the heck, it’s fun!

OK they’re gone. Over and out!

Or so I thought. As soon as I got home, there was an additional surprise. Before they left, a few of them had little gifts. One gave me a little Japanese towel with writing of something on it. It’s nice, and I’ll try to translate it later. But they also handed me a card, and I didn’t look at it until I got home.

And I have the full size scan here if you can’t make it out: Link.

A couple of these students are located in the town I’ll be staying in, so I hope I really do get the chance to see them again. Maybe as soon as next weekend.

The End.

Next time… The final countdown begins!

The final day for the Japanese students.

I arrived at school around 8:15 to find two of the students and the advisor eating breakfast in a hurry. They told me they hadn’t finished packing yet. The bus was supposed to leave at 9:00. No hurry! No stress! 45 whole minutes!

I walk over to their apartment, and I’m already halfway melted and sweaty before 9 am. It’s going to be another 90+ day. When I arrive, I see the students are exhausted from all the fun of the previous day:

But the bus is waiting:

This is about the last group shot that I could get before things broke up:

Or maybe I should say “broke down.” The crying began, and the tearful farewells went on a long time.

Here are Ryan and Alex, who have been extremely helpful with the program, taking the spotlight in the last photo of the program.

After much waving and crying, the bus pulled away, taking them to the airport. That was several hours ago, and I haven’t heard anything, so I can only assume they are sleeping away on their return flight.

The last full day for the students was the big “fun day” at King’s Island amusement park. I didn’t take my camera for a couple of reasons; it was 99 degrees and I just didn’t want to lug it around in the huge place.

Let me get right to the point, I don’t like heights, and wouldn’t ride most of the rides. I did go up the Eiffel Tower and rode the Train. Yay! All hail the brave American! And I walked about 300 miles in the 99 dgeree heat (before heat index). The students had a great time, but without pictures you are just going to have to take my word on it.

When we returned at the end of the long hot day, the students were looking forward to going inside and relaxing in their air conditioned apartments. Much to their surprise, the university maintenance crews had changed the lock and they couldn’t get in. This ended up costing us all an extra hour while we waited for someone to fix the problem, and it was the first time I’ve seen any of the Japanese students get cranky. I can’t blame them; I was cranky too by that time.