Our Anniversary

It's hard to believe that it has already been a year! I can probably safely say that this year has gone by faster than any other. Maybe this is because of all the big changes that we decided to pack into a short amount of time.

Anyway, we are so glad to have each other here in Japan. I can't imagine what it would be like doing this alone. Its so interesting that even in a city full of people how lonely it can be just through the simple act of conversation. It is so nice to come home at night and have a fluent conversation without the fear of being misunderstood.

Our wedding one year ago was one of the funnest experiences that we have ever had. More than anything we loved having all of our close friends and family there to help us celebrate. Thanks again to all of our parents for making it possible!

To celebrate, Brad and I went to a huge mall called Sunshine 60 in Ikebukuro (a part of Tokyo). This building used to be the tallest building in Japan and houses a mall, an aquarium, a planetarium, and many, many restaurants. We decided to go to a sushi restaurant on the 59th floor of this building which had panoramic views of Tokyo. It really is amazing to see lights stretching in every single direction. I read that Tokyo is unique for a bigger city in that it doesn't have any natural barriers (besides the ocean on one side) to keep it contained. It is one of the only places that you can see lights in all directions. In order to get to the 59th floor we had to take a special elevator. It took about 20-30 seconds to go up almost 60 floors. It actually made our ears pop! [Side note: I just googled it and apparently the elevator travels at 600 meters per minute and is the 4th fastest elevator in the world.] The sushi was delicious and the views were amazing!

After dinner we decided to go play some claw games. Claw games are addictive, but so much fun! And you could literally outfit an apartment with some of the things they have including, trashcans, alarm clocks, mixing bowls, waffle irons, tea kettles etc. Of course they also have the stupid little knick knacks that just take up space, but its interesting to see what they stock the games with and watching people trying to win something. When we got to one place we saw a couple trying to win to huge stacks of candy bars. They probably spent about  $20-$30 each over the course of 15 minutes trying to win the candy before they gave up. Then Brad and I saw that it was so close to falling. We spent less than $10 and got about 25 candy bars and some miscellaneous candy. All in all a good deal! Now we just need to share some of the sugar! haha!

Golden Week

Golden Week is a succession of holidays at the end of April/beginning of May that everyone has off in Japan. It is the biggest travel time of the year so everything is super crowded and busy! Brad and I didn't do anything too special but we did have fun! Mostly we just slept in and read some books but I did get a chance to show Brad my school, I checked out the Peony Park, and we met up with Chris and Yoko in Roppongi for a night of fun!

The city flower of Higashimatsuyama is the peony and they have a couple of different parks dedicated to the flower. There were posters all over the city advertising the Peony Park Festival so I decided to hop on my bike and do a little exploring. (Side note: have I mentioned how awesome it is to have GPS on my phone? Now I can't get lost and I don't need to know the names of the streets!) And I love my new cruiser bike by the way, I ride it everywhere! (Although riding to school in my suit when its raining and hot is an interesting experience. Thank goodness for looking dorky in rain pants!) Anyways, I got to the park which was extremely busy and had to pay $5 to go into the park. It was full of peonies! Very pretty, but there was no variation. Fun outing though, here are some pics of the park and its surroundings!

Higashimatsuyama is also famous for pears-these are pear trees, you can go and pick them in the fall.

A lot of peonies...

...still more, they are all peonies.

Pretty!

One of the things that Brad and I miss the most here (besides family and friends, of course) is Mexican food. A lot of people have never eaten Mexican food before! Anyway, there are a few Mexican restaurants in the heart of Tokyo, one of them in particular Chris had been wanting to take us to is called Frijoles. It is literally Chipotle (Brad and I's favorite) junior. So we took a trip to Roppongi to try it out and had some fun along the way...

This was in a store called Don Quiote's. I think its my new favorite store. It literally has everything! From imported food (taco kits, candy, diet Dr. Pepper), to Harry Potter baseball caps, inappropriate outfits, to bedding, toys, groceries and bathroom essentials etc. etc.

Chris wanted to get this for Halloween. If only it was cheaper... :)

Could you tell we were happy?

Look familiar? Right down to the color scheme, witty comments on the shirt, and industrial decorations. But shhh...don't tell Chipotle!

Dragon Quest bar right across from our karaoke place. Only in Japan!

Peanut butter is expensive and the chocolate kisses were from Cindy and Don, but they do make a good substitute Reece's!

Oh the Differences

Over the past few weeks I've started to notice some major differences (and also a lot of similarities) between schools and students in Japan and America. This is going to be random so bear with me...

A few days ago one of my English teachers had to leave in the middle of the day so he had his 7th grade students practice their penmanship. I was supposed to be teaching another class but he asked me check in on them if I got the chance. I left in the middle of the class to check in on the 7th grade class and guess what they were doing? It was dead quite and they were actually practicing their penmanship! And there was no teacher in the class! What class of 35 7th graders in the US would do that?

At the beginning of every class the students have to stand up and greet the teacher and then we greet them back. I think in every other class besides English they bow to the teacher. With me they just say "Good Morning, Kathleen" and then I ask them how they're doing.

There is no janitor. There is a 20 minute period in every day where the students have to clean the school. They are split into groups and assigned a certain area of the school to clean every day for a few weeks and then switch. I'm in charge of supervising the cleaning of the teachers room so I don't get to see much else, but the students are more interested to see if teachers are hiding food than really doing any deep cleaning. Basically they just sweep, empty trash, and mop. I do see kids running past the room with their cleaning cloth on the ground with their butts in the air though. I'm not sure if its just cause my school is old, or because students clean it but its not especially clean. But then again I don't think it gets as dirty as American schools because the kids know that they are responsible for clean up at the end of the day. But in the end they're still kids and who really enjoys cleaning up other peoples messes anyway?

We have to have indoor shoes for the school. But we still have to take off our indoor shoes to go into the library?

Green tea is always sitting on my desk in the morning. Yum!

Students have to wear a uniform but they change into uniform sweatsuits throughout the day for PE classes and for cleaning time. I was trying to figure our where their locker rooms were until I realized that they all change together in their classroom. Apparently their uniform goes all the way down to an undershirt and shorts. Still weird though....

Students come to the teachers room to help the teacher carry supplies for the class to the classroom. Never in America...

There is never a normal day in a Japanese school. There is always something going on!

Both teachers and students work incredibly hard. I by far have the easiest job in the school. School starts at 8:25 but a lot of times kids have club sport's practice at 7. They also have club sports every day after school. That means that they are usually at school between 7 and 8 and don't leave until 6. Then they have cram school and/or homework. I get there at 7:45 and leave around 4:15. Teachers get to school around 7:45 and don't leave until 7-9 at night. I talked to one of my teachers and he left at 9:30 last night--and that's a regular occurrence!

Club sports are required. Our school has art, band, track and field, volleyball, kendo (Japanese style martial arts), tennis, baseball, softball, soccer, table tennis, and badminton. This means that kids are exercising every day!

Almost everyone has school lunch. This includes the teachers. It costs about 200 yen ($2) and usually consists of milk, soup, rice, a "main" dish (fish, chicken, fat patty etc.), and a side dish. Students aren't allowed to eat anything at school besides lunch. (Because of that teachers have to hide their stash of food and wrappers from students.) I usually have to eat every 2-3 hours but this lunch is so filling that I'm fine until dinner time...

Sometimes the food is weird. My"favorites" include the fat patty, and the tiny fish snacks. The fat patty was actually a "hamburger" patty but I don't think it would have even measured up to grade F meat. And its rude to not finish your meal. Oh, I've also enjoyed the fact that every single meal has mushrooms in it. Did I mention that we have to eat everything?



For the record. I am a picky eater. I will try anything once, and sometimes I do like unusual food. But I hate mushrooms, meat with fat and tendons in it, and really, who likes eating whole tiny fish?

Teachers are either dressed in a suit or a matching track suit. I'm not even kidding you, I think its a requirement to have either an Adidas or Puma matching tracksuit to change into at least once everyday (sometimes teachers change more than once...)

There is a lot more respect for teachers here in Japan. I know from my Mom's and Brad's experiences that sometimes students can be hard to control, and parents can be the least helpful people in the world. For the most part teachers are very nice and patient. However, if a student is a repeat offender or does something really wrong it is not uncommon for the teacher to snap. I've experienced some pretty intense yelling matches, and even some swatting by the teacher. But it actually solves the problem! And I know that meetings with parents actually accomplishes something. But I wouldn't say that kids are better behaved here. I just think they're more self conscious about it and aren't as individualized as in America. There is much more of a "societal" role here. Its kind of hard to explain but sometimes in America I feel like people have an "its not my problem" attitude, where as here people can be very concerned with how others think and try to not be the person going against the grain. Even so in my few weeks here I've seen a window get kicked through, a carton of milk thrown down the hall, and a speaker get punched through with badminton handle. And I still wouldn't consider my kids bad.

When the students are warming up for club activities or PE class, they alway chant. Someone will lead the chant and the rest of the students on the team will answer. Whenever they run its always in 2 straight lines, never in a jumbled group.

I've come to the conclusion that I must look fat in my suit jackets. (Not really!) But it has been funny since it has gotten warmer out, I haven't been wearing my jackets to school. Now both the students and the teachers come up to me and say "So slim, cute-o," and then stand next to me to see where their legs come up to on mine. It is very flattering but what the heck am I going to say? thank you? but you're just as skinny as me? why are you telling me this? I've heard that you're supposed to take every compliment a Japanese person tells you with a grain of salt. It's still nice to hear, but after a while...I guess I'm just not used to the attention.

Umm so that's all I can think of for now. We would really love to hear your comments! I love sharing things about our trip and would love to answer any questions that you have. This whole thing has been a very interesting experience for us and I love using this to keep track of all the things that we've been doing and share them with everyone, but I also think a lot of it is just hilarious! I know I'm not politically correct on some things so hopefully I don't offend anyone, but then again it is our blog and sometimes I just got to vent! So please ask away!

Our Apartment

The following is a video of our apartment.  Apparently, a company once advertised that their apartments were so nice that they referred to them as mansions.  I guess the industry was just swept up in the competition and now nearly every apartment building says "mansion" on it.  If you ever wanted to live in a mansion, come to Japan and you can rent one for a couple hundred dollars a month.  But don't be surprised if it looks like a normal apartment.

A video tour of our "mansion"

Hanami!

As you all know Japan is famous for its cherry blossoms. For a while in March we would see a cherry tree in bloom here or there, and yes it was pretty but we didn't know why everyone was making such a big deal about it. Well, we just had to wait for the 1st couple weeks in April. For about 2 weeks every tree was in bloom. Then we realized why everyone talks about it because it really is beautiful!

We went to a Hanami (flower viewing) party in early April with some friends from the school where Chris teaches. This is the same park as the one we posted a blog about earlier.

Yuta playing "Under the Sea" on his little piano thing. He was good!

There was a group of Chinese people who went all out and brought a sound system. They invited us to dance with them, so we did! :)

It was a pot luck style party with a lot of food and a lot to drink!

Cherry trees were everywhere!

It seemed like all of Tokyo was there celebrating!

So pretty!

A small park lined with cherry trees on the way to my school.

We had such a fun time and it really was one of the most beautiful things I've ever seen! Definitely a fun experience!

Finally the Internet!!

Sorry for such a long delay! For as good of a time we have had here, it has been equally frustrating figuring out and waiting for paperwork to go through, appointments to be made, and lastly just figuring out how to do things in a separate country and language! So to start from the beginning...

We got the ok to go home from our work March 9 and less than 24 hours later we were on a plane headed to the U.S. (We needed to go home in order to get enough clothes and get some things in order before we left for a year.) We only got the chance to be home for a little over a week but we made the most of it. We had been just sitting and waiting the couple weeks before that just to hear if we had gotten jobs. The whole process is kind of confusing but I will try my best....

We were hired by a company who secures teaching contracts with different boards of educations around Tokyo. Therefore we were guaranteed interviews with different districts but we still had to go on other interviews to different boards of education who had to discuss it amongst themselves and see if they wanted you to teach in their schools. So by the time they ok'd us to go home, Brad already had signed his contract and was guaranteed a teaching position. I had gone on an interview but they wanted me to go on a second interview after I returned to Japan. They would not schedule the 2nd interview until after we had already purchased tickets to come back to Japan. Anyways, long story short we flew back to Japan on March 19. Soon after I found out that I didn't need a 2nd interview, I signed my contract to work in Higashimatsuyama, and we started looking for housing. Fortunately or unfortunately we have to depend on our company to do almost anything. Therefore it takes a little longer than normal to get the process for anything done just because they are also doing it for about 50 or so other people. Anyway after a week of being back we finally were able to look at some apartments and moved in on March 23. (I'll write more about our apartment later.)

We got the process for our visa's started in late February or early March. We had to wait for someone to issue a Certificate of Eligibility for us to take to the Immigration to pick up. We ended up getting those on April 1st where we had to wait in a line for 2 hours just to turn in some paperwork. Then we had to wait another couple weeks for them to send us something in the mail. Well...it never came, so we had our company call and for some reason they weren't able to find our address so it was returned. By then we were working so we had to wait a couple of days to get excused from work so we could make it to Tokyo by the time the office closed in order to get our visa. We FINALLY got our visa on April 23rd.

The reason we were so looking forward to getting our visa was that we were told that we would not be able to get a phone or internet, or create a bank account to get paid etc. until we got this done. So finally(!) after we got our visa we had to go to the city office in Higashimatsuyama where we live to apply for our gaijin card and health insurance. This is what we needed to get phones! so we could have a data plan and be connected to the world again!! So on April 25, after nearly 3 months of waiting we finally had all the paperwork done to actually live a normal, connected life in Japan.( At this point we still hadn't heard about when we were getting internet but we found out shortly after that that our company had made an appointment and they were coming to connect it May 1. Which is why I'm just writing this now.)

I know I'm going on and on about the logistics but I honestly don't think I've ever been as frustrated over such simple things before. We had to push and push to go look for apartments, we had to wait and wait for our visa to be approved so we could have a phone, we were checking the internet on the curb outside of our apartment in the rain under an umbrella just to keep in touch with our company over meetings and to stay in touch with our families. Come to find out we could have gotten a temporary gaijin card allowing us to get a phone months ago but no one bothered to tell us that. Even after we got all of our phone documents the phone company still had to decide whether or not they wanted us to be their customers because apparently foreigners have been known to start a phone contract and then skip without paying. You'd think just having a credit card would be enough...

We are still waiting to get our official gaijin card in the mail so we can open a bank account and get paid (at the post office ironically enough) but then we will for sure be all moved in!

So now that we have the internet and phones things are definitely much easier. We can skype we can call our company if we need to, we can live like we're used to living! I don't know about you but have you ever lived with no phone, no TV, no internet for any period of time ever? It's hard especially when you're used to being connected! 

Kathleen's School

I work at a junior high school in Higashimatsuyama. It is called Kita chugako or North Junior High School in English. There are about 525 students who are 7th, 8th and 9th graders. There are 5 classes of about 35 students in each grade. I teach every class once a week plus 2 elective classes and sometimes a class for the special ed students.

A view of my school from a distance. It is completely surrounded by cherry trees!

It was definitely an adjustment getting used to working in the school. There are still good days and bad days but for the most part I really enjoy it and the days fly by! The hardest part for me is simply the language barrier. I was surprised at how little the students knew. It is a requirement to start taking English once students reach elementary school but (Brad can testify to this), most of the elementary school teachers don't know English. But even so, the students at my school still don't know how to respond to "How are you?" or "What is your name?" After some gestures and practice I can usually ask the students "how are you?", "what is your name?" and "what club activity are you in?" But that is how the majority of most conversations go with students at my school. Like many people who learn a foreign language they are more comfortable with reading and writing in English than they are with speaking. (Interestingly they don't even start learning to read and write in English until 7th grade...)

Here is an email that I wrote to my family after my 1st day of school:

The first day of my school was a bit intimidating. But they tell you to be as “geinke” (energetic) as possible. The day before I was to report to school I rode my bike there to make sure I knew the way. Somehow on my first day of school, I missed a turn and was almost late. That is a big no-no in Japan, especially on your first day! Good thing I left with time to spare.

 Then we had a staff meeting and I introduced myself to all the teachers in Japanese (my company helped me to prepare a speech). After that all the teachers scattered and I was left alone in the staff room with no instructions. I know the teachers were getting ready for opening ceremony (it’s a graduation type ceremony, except that it welcomes the new incoming class instead of the outgoing class). It’s a big deal with parents taking off work and decorations, and practiced songs to sing etc.  Anyway, I ended up finding one of the English teachers (I’ll work with 3 of them) and he directed me to the gym where I heard the 2^nd and 3^rd graders practicing a song (they call 7^th graders→1^st graders, 8^th graders→2^nd graders, 9^th graders→3^rd graders). Once they saw me there was a lot of whispering, pointing and giggling. I’m sure they weren’t saying anything rude (I hope!) but it’s still a weird feeling and sometimes hard to keep a smile on your face.

Then the parents started coming in and taking their seats so I was ushered to sit behind the principal and the vice principal. The ceremony was very rigid and different than one would be in the United States. They clapped when the students first walked in otherwise there was no clapping after speeches, songs, performances etc. Also it was dead silent with no whispering or fidgeting. The ceremony lasted for over an hour so it was so hard for me to sit still especially when it’s considered rude to cross your legs. I don’t know if I’ve ever had to sit so still for so long before! Also it’s hard not to yawn when you can’t understand a word that’s being said. And I know at least one pair of eyes is on me at all times.

was also a lot of bowing. If someone makes a speech they first have to bow to the VIP people (not sure who they are but everyone made sure to bow to them), then to the flag, then to the other teachers, make the speech then do it all over again before sitting down. I thought it was hilarious when the principal did that, sat back down then the announcer called him up again to bow to all the students and he had to go through the whole process again before getting on the stage. Then each teacher called each new student’s name and the principal and the student bowed to each other. Another thing that I thought was kind of…different was that the announcer would wait to announce the next thing until the previous person sat down. So there might just be a minute of dead silence before the next thing started.

But everyone looks forward to it and it is considered a big celebration. At the very end of the assembly all the teachers started going up on stage and nobody mentioned anything to me so I made the gesture for “I don’t know what I’m supposed to be doing” and luckily the music teacher put me in line. Luckily I didn’t have to make a speech like some ALTs but it still seemed like something out of a bad dream. Have you ever had a dream where you end up in front of a crowd naked? Well luckily that didn’t happen but again, as soon as all the students saw me (this is the first time everyone saw me, only some students saw me before) the gym instantly got loud. They were all pointing, laughing, whispering etc. They talk about it in training, but you truly are put on a pedestal as an ALT and it’s kind of unnerving sometimes. You really do have to watch every move you make because there is always someone watching.

Now things are definitely more comfortable. I still can't understand what's being said about the days activities at the morning staff meeting so I still have to ask a lot about things. Luckily all 3 of the English teachers are comfortable enough with English that I can have a good conversation with them. One of my teachers, Sekiguchi-sensei has been especially helpful and I think he speaks faster English than I do! I've definitely gotten into more of a schedule, am starting to figure out what the teachers expect of me, and am starting to get to know the students more which helps. Brad and I are also studying Japanese everyday which will also help to communicate with everyone more readily! It has been a fun experience so far!

Home Sweet Home!

Our trip home was a bittersweet one. We love seeing our family and friends. I was fortunate enough to have both of my grandparents from Wichita and Scottsdale come to visit. Brad and I got our fix of Mexican food in from various restaurants and my Mom's amazing cooking. (I think we went to Chipotle almost once a day while we were back!)

We also got to see our (now) 6 month old niece, Ziah. For me, she is going to be the biggest marker of us being gone for a year. Already since the time we left in the beginning of February, she has started to laugh, learned to roll over, started eating baby food, and obviously grew a bunch and developed more of a personality. (She has also started crawling since we've left.) It will be amazing to come home and see her walking and speaking! She is a beautiful little girl and Brad and I are going to miss seeing all of her "mile markers".

Our short trip was also marked by sadness.  On Tuesday, March 16, we had to my amazing dog, friend, and brother Jack, to sleep after his battle with cancer.


 Jack had been such a steadfast part of my life for the past 11 years. Our family friend, Rich's dog had Jack's litter of puppies and therefore I got to hold Jack when he was only a week old. When it was time to come home he slept in my room not only because I wanted him to but also because I was the only one who could sleep through his snoring. He was the first person I saw in the morning, first thing I saw at the end of the school day in middle school, my running buddy during training in high school, the person that I shared my feeling with when I just needed someone to listen, and the person who could make me laugh when almost nothing else could. He was my shadow, following me around the house whenever I was home.  He lived for getting the paper in the morning, pouncing and skidding across the pavement sometimes making the first few pages unreadable, dropping it at your feet and then racing to back of the house where he would jump up and down on his front feet until he was fed (which he could scarf down in less than a minute). 


 He loved rolling on his back in the grass and rubbing his face in the snow. He knew exactly where the treats were whether it be ice cubes or the real thing. Brad taught him how to roll over a couple years ago, and since then whenever Brad would get a treat for him, he would roll over before Brad even said anything.  He loved chasing my brother around the living room and kitchen table making the most ridiculous noises. He loved going hunting with my Dad, one time eating an entire dove that made his stomach hurt so much that he could barely get out of the car and passed out in our family room for two days. He would follow my Mom around in the kitchen trying to get all the scraps he could off of the floor, one time even  snatching raw steaks thawing on the counter when he was a puppy.  But most of all he was there for all of us and made each and every person feel special. I'm really glad that I got to see him one last time.

We are going to miss everyone so much and we were glad to see them for a short while, but we are also very excited to live here in Japan. It will be fun to see what it has in store for us!