Expect the unexpected

The title of this post is pretty much the three words to remember in this line of work. You never really know what you're getting yourself into on any given day, before any given class. Hell, even if you've taught a certain group of kids before in the previous month, you never really know what kind of mood they're going to have coming into class. That being said, teaching here in Japan has been a job incomparable to any that I've had in the past. I've always had jobs where I've pretty much known what to expect in terms of the upcoming work day, and that's only partially true here. You start telling yourself, "well, I know I have these classes today and it's going to have this age group of kids, so things should go like this". Sounds all fine and dandy doesn't it? The truth is, you should just throw those preconceptions out the window because it's really about as random as it gets.

Today, for example, was a pretty tiring day. I worked a whopping three hours total but two of those hours (two classes) were some of the smaller kids, where you're running around, singing songs and acting like you're 5 years old again. Two of those classes, back-to-back, made for a exhausting start to the day. Our classes are broken down in to color-coding, with colors denoting the age group and curriculum level for the students attending. My second class of the day, Green, consisting of mostly 4 and 5 year old's, was rough because one of the girls, after being left by her mother, started crying uncontrollably, constantly calling out for her mother. Another girl showed up with her mom and she too was balling her eyes out. Luckily this mom didn't bolt out the door right away and decided to hang out for the entire class just to make sure her daughter would calm down. I was actually grateful for this because she helped to calm the other crybaby down as well. So you see, the crying was unexpected. Also, there are times when the kids want to listen to everything you say and then suddenly, without warning, those same kids will start ignoring you to the point of driving you mad. I know that some of you reading this that have had experience wrangling children are probably laughing to yourselves and saying, "oh this poor sap...that's just children!", well I'm telling you to shut up because this is my story! Oh, and the language barrier with the kids makes it twice as difficult to corral them, but hey, I got myself into this.

Lucky for me, and this truly felt like a breath of fresh air, my last class of the day was what we call a Junior Pathways class. These kids are around 13 to 14 years old and the students for this class, at this particular school, are awesome. They have great personalities, seem eager to learn, have fun, and are generally just a pleasure to teach. I was, however, dreading this class a bit only because the lesson for this unit/term is a bit difficult to teach. It's on homophones; ya know, those groups of words that share the same pronunciation but have different meanings and can be spelled differently (bear/bare, sea/see, right/write, etc.). You get what I'm saying. My fears were tossed aside though because these kids are really just super bright and understood what I was teaching them, even though they admitted it was difficult. Just grasping the content is half the battle! Long story short, my exhausting, stressful start to the teaching day ended with a wonderful, relaxing class of smart, attentive kids.

My next teaching week starts on Tuesday and even though I've taught at this upcoming school before, I really don't know what to expect. Sigh.

Big energy drink...big disappointment.

Yakitori...chicken on a stick. As awesome as it sounds.

The lonely train home.

Salsa flavored Pringles...they were awesome!

Sometimes I don't know what I'm eating.

Honey and lemon cider. I love this drink.

He returns unscathed

I'm back at home in Oita, all limbs intact and no horror stories to report. Thank the heavens! Those who follow this blog know that a couple of days ago I headed out to travel the greater part of Kyushu in order to cover for some teachers in two different classrooms. One in Kumamoto and the other in Miyazaki. I'd like to reiterate that neither place is close to my home. However, when the company is in a pickle and they have no other teachers available, because it's their teaching week, they find the guy or gal who has a non-teaching week, that would be me, and they ship 'em out. I was given a packet full of tickets, pointing in all different directions, given two maps (one for each school area), and a Kumamoto hotel reservation sheet all in Japanese. My supervisor actually had the gall to say, "yeah, it's all in Japanese. good luck with that. haha", haha indeed. That's the type of guy I'm dealing with here folks. Anyway, Thursday morning came around and I caught the limited express train to Kokura at 11:45, arriving at 1:03. From there I had to hop on the Shinkansen (bullet train) to Kumamto at 1:22, to arrive at my destination by 2:19. My classes started at 6:15 but I'm on, what's known as "Status One", meaning that I have to check in with schedule control an hour before my classes start. Status one is over after two fulls working months then I only need check in a half hour before my classes start. Not to get too sidetracked, I arrive at Kumamoto and make my way to the hotel, thanks in part to a very helpful tourist group at the Kumamoto station. I had about 15 minutes to relax at my hotel before heading back to the station to start making moves to my classroom. Each classroom has a lock with a spare key for teachers that don't have the original classroom key. My supervisor provided me with the codes for the two classes I would be covering at, yet when I got to the Kumamoto classroom, the code he provided didn't work. So I try calling him, twice, and naturally he doesn't pick up. I call schedule control on my cellphone (which is a no-no because they need to know you're calling from the classroom), explained my situation and they were helpful in telling me that the code my bossman provided was totally wrong. I got the correct one and prepped for my two lessons. Again, all of this commuting for two hours of teaching boggles my mind. The first class I was covering was a bit intimidating in the sense that it's not a class I have any experience in because it's not in my regular rotation at my three schools. I just consulted the teachers manual and did the best I could. It went alright and the kids seemed to have fun. They were really young, about 4 on average, but were good kids. The second class was only 3 kids and they too were good kids. I lucked out and made my way back to the hotel to relax.

The next day (Friday) I got up around 9am in order to make it to the station in time for my 10:51 Shinkansen to Kagoshima-chuo. My train arrived at 11:36 but from there I had to hop on a limited express train at 11:47 to Minami Miyazaki, which would be arriving at 1:46. As you can see, there's plenty of quality time with the trains. I got to Miyazaki and made my way to the hotel, which was wonderfully located just a short 5 minute walk away from the station. I had a bit more time to relax before my classes started and got to enjoy just chilling in my room, which I must say was quite nice. The class I was covering at this day was one that I'd been to before for the Autumn training seminar that our area had last month. That being said, it didn't make me anymore prepared for the lessons I had to teach. I was covering for a JT (Japanese teacher), which is total insanity because NT (Native teachers) have no training or experience in teaching a JT lesson and the lesson's are completely different. I was a bit stressed about it all, so I called the NT for that classroom and he's an awesome guy from Sweden that reassured me that we're (NT's) are in no position to be teaching a proper JT lesson and that my only goals should be to make sure the students use some English and that they have fun doing it. It really put my mind at ease and helped me to relax before the students came in, and by the time things got started, I was fine and making sure the kids were enjoying themselves while doing my best to incorporate elements of the lesson. I left my notes for the class and made my way back to the hotel, with my last class ending at 9:45 (bit late for kids isn't it?), and getting back to the hotel around 11 (due to the odd train times). I was able to relax in my hotel room, staying up till about 2:30 watching Women's World Cup Volleyball, Japan v. Italy. It was oddly engaging but Italy won.

All in all, things went as smooth as I'd hoped they would've, but those that know me, know that I hate surprises thrown my way. I tend to throw a fit because I plan everything out. However, once I was thrown into the thick of it, I adjusted and make the best out of it and the classes went well. I just hope that the next time I end up having to cover for someone, it's maybe only thirty minutes away.

Ogawa...home of a class I covered in Kumamoto.

Pizza Hut chips. I don't know where to begin in explaining the flavor.

Kumamoto hotel bathroom.

Kumamoto hotel.

Kumamoto hotel...again.

Miyazaki hotel.

Miyazaki hotel again.

Yep, you guess it...Miyazaki.

Not a bad set-up right?

Very comfy bed!

The view from my room...rather gloomy.

The train back to the hotel after class.

A universal beacon of convenience.

Kalbi bento box. It was delicious!

Most of what I saw on the ride back to Oita.

The part that's not so fun

So welcome to November ladies and germs. At first, I didn't think I'd even make it this far with how I was feeling,  but low and behold here I am. I can now say, after having taught at each of my three schools, that the job itself isn't so bad. Of course there are good and bad days, good and bad kids, but that's just the nature of the gig. However, the part that I'm not a big fan of is the spontaneous, "now I'm sending you to ______ to cover for so and so", aspect. That's exactly what's been thrown my way this week and I'm none to thrilled. Yeah, on one hand it's cool to see some different area of Kyushu (the island I'm on), but I'm a huge fan of organization, planning and structure. This company is lacking in those areas and it's been a challenge for me in terms of adapting to this off-the-cuff style of running things. I don't like being told a few days prior that I'm going to be doing heavy commuting, to two different cities, two days in a row. To make matters more obnoxious, I'm covering for a JT (Japanese teacher) in one area, because they can't find a JT (whatever that's supposed to mean), and we're obviously not trained on JT lesson's because we're NT's (Native teachers). Incredibly annoying. However, it's this type of crap that will eat one alive if their head isn't in the right place and I've been working hard to put mine in the right place. Now I'm going at it with a, "give 'em my best and if it's not good enough..." mentality and it's helped me relax a bit more. I should also mention that both schools are so far off that I'll be staying in a hotel on both Thursday and Friday night. I just have a hard time finding the logic in making someone commutes for three hours and some change, for two hours of lessons. They must really be hard-up for coverage I guess. One of the schools I'm covering at is so remote that the map instructions say to bring a flashlight! Here's to hoping I don't end up in a rice field with a broken leg, stranded at 1 in the morning.

Omerice (omelet+rice), but not as good as it looked.

Decent pizza, but crazy small.

Gourmet Doritos - Grilled Meat flavor.

Chicken + Mayo + Seaweed strips = surprisingly awesome.

This one's for Kevin...they made the trips overseas.

Green tea flavored Oreos. Total crap.

Parent Observations

During my first week teaching at the Usuki school, I started the week off with a bang by getting off at the wrong stop. Turns out that I needed to get off at the Kami-Usuki train stop and not the plain ol' Usuki stop. As you can imagine, this is not an ideal way to start off the work week, especially as a new employee. I immediately called the Japanese teacher at the Usuki school to let her know and then followed up with my boss to let him know what was going on. Luckily, there was a train arriving shortly and I would just hop back on and go back one stop. This threw my schedule off a bit, as I was trying to get to the school early for preparations and this was doing my first week teaching, which was also a week of parent observations. As a side note, let me just say that it is beyond my comprehensive as to why a company would place a brand new employee in a position of company representative when he or she has had little to no teaching experience. If I were a parent, I would wonder what the hell was going on and who this person teaching my kid was. The mind boggles, but I digress. So as I got back on the train headed for my actual stop, I asked this older lady if I was getting on the right train. She informed me that I was and even double-checked with the conductor just to be sure. I thanked her and she was quite curious to my situation. She asked if I were an English teacher (something about the way I looked that day must've implied as much...or maybe it's just a given when a foreigner is spotted), and I told her indeed that I was. She then offered me a piece of fruit and sweet pastry of some sort and told me, "Gambatte kudasai", which is like, "Go for it", or "Do your best", in English. Wow, how about that for a friendly gesture. It really did lift my spirits after realizing I'd gotten off at the wrong stop and immediately put me back in a motivated mood. Moral of this story: do something nice for someone. Just kidding, you don't have to, but it was cool all the same.

So the parent observation thing, while sounding completely intimidating and ultimately illogical for newbies in my opinion...still, it went alright for the most part. I found that the parents are mostly friendly and are rooting for you as much as you're rooting for yourself and they realize that you're working your tail off to corral and basically entertain their kids. Of course you have those few parents who are sitting in the back chatting or playing on their cellphones because they're there more out of obligation than interest, but it was mostly a painless experience. I made it through P.O.'s unscathed and at least I'll know what to expect when the next P.O's roll around come January and February. Yeah, that soon. 

"Gimme your money...or your train will derail!"

A gift from a little 'ol lady...not from Pasadena.

Now that's a lonely train.

The Japanese love pasta and all things egg.

No, that's not my food. It's my drink...which they put in a bag.

Hot and spicy sandwich from KFC...bomb diddly.

Where I lay my head at night. Simple, yet effective.

Home sweet home?

So now I'm in Oita, the sleepy little city that I'll call home for the next 11 or so months. It's not the most exciting place on Earth, that's for sure but it's also not in the middle of nowhere. I heard the jokes before leaving LA that I'd be living in a hut in the middle of some rice fields carrying my water in buckets over my shoulders. It's, of course, much more modern and "city" than that and my apartment is in a prime location; right behind Oita station, the main transportation hub of the city. That could explain why my rent is so damn high, especially in comparison to the others in my training group. They always say, when renting a place, you're paying for the location right? Right? Anyone? Back me up on this.

Aside from being in my new place, I've officially started the teaching gig and I'm about three weeks into that officially. In that short amount of time, I've also had my first staff meeting, which was nice because it gave me an opportunity to meet the other NT's (native teachers) in the Oita area. Everyone seems cool enough, which is a definite plus. One thing I hear from almost all of the NT's is that this can be a lonely job, mostly because your time is spent with commuting and hanging out with kids that don't really speak English. It's just you, your kids and the classroom. It's not like once you get to the classroom you have a bunch of school employee's hanging about doing admin work or something. It's literally just you and your classroom until the kids start showing up. Once they leave and your classes are done for the night, you're left to fill out some paperwork, clean up, hit the lights and head home. That being said, I'm glad the other NT's are cool people so that when I am looking to hang with some other foreigners, I can turn to them without hesitancy.

My first week of teaching was a bit hectic for me because I had no real experience actually teaching aside from the intensive two weeks of training in Osaka. Along with that, my first teaching week was P.O.'s, or parent observations, meaning that the parents would be attending the classes to watch the NT with their children. No pressure right? My trainer and PS (performance supervisor) had told me beforehand that P.O.'s weren't a big deal and not to sweat it, but doesn't that sound like a big ol' fashioned case of easier-said-than-done? I think so. You can't control your mind from racing to various thoughts, mostly consisting of, "my God, what must they be thinking?" and "I'm paying how much for this!?" So every night for that first week I would stand in front of the class of kids and their parents and be introduced to them via my JT (Japanese teacher) and field questions from everyone for a few minutes. That wasn't so bad, and to be honest, P.O.'s really weren't that big of a deal after all because once the lesson begins, you're not really focused on anything other than the lesson and your students. When I did make eye contact with the parents, I occasionally saw them mouthing the lesson that I was teaching their kids. Good stuff. Also, a lot of the parents were super nice to me after the classes and thanked me for my hard work. They could see me breaking a sweat chasing their little 5 year old kids around the class. All in all, my first week went well aside from a child in my Orange class (classes are broken down into colors that correspond with curriculum and age), because he was just an unruly nightmare. My JT told me he's always like that, which really did nothing to ease my frustration but I learned that sometimes you really can't do anything and you can't waste your time on the "bad" kids and have to make sure the "good" kids are having fun.

I have three "regular" schools that I teach at and with each week I'm in a different school for the week. So in my first week I went to the same school each day and for the second week I went to my second school all week and so on. My second week went quite well overall. My first day there I had my PS show up and do a team-teach day with me. Team-teach is where another NT shows up at your classroom and teaches one of your classes for you. It helps to lighten your load for that day plus you get to provide feedback to each other in attempts to help each other improve. It's a pretty good idea I'd say, but I was a bit anxious because this was my PS and I knew I was going to be evaluated. I gave him my rowdier class for that day (9-10 kids!), and I took the other two classes. He gave me mostly good feedback, but I've heard from the other NT's that he's always rough on us NT's. The classes at this school went well for me all week and I even had an odd Thursday class in which only 1 student showed up and I just gave him a bunch of games, incorporating lesson elements of course, for the entire hour and afterwards he told me he had fun. Mission accomplished. Naturally, the whole week couldn't be peaches and cream and indeed there was a difficult Orange class, again with the Orange, in which one boy in particular was just bouncing off the walls like a madman. Again, my JT for this school had warned me about this class and boy, she wasn't kidding. Luckily the class after that was much more tame, even though there were 9 girls and 1 boy, so I was able to cool down for the last hour of the day.

Now I'm in a period of a few days off and I'm spending it in big-city Fukuoka, 2 hours north of Oita. I'm really loving it up here and I'll certainly be back often. I took the bus...I know some of you just fainted reading that, but I was able to watch TV on my laptop on the ride. Something I could never consider doing back home without being robbed. Ah, the little things. I return to Oita on Thursday to prepare for the Autumn Training Seminar, which is like a two-day work retreat for NT's. So many odd and new things I'm experiencing with this job. I wonder if it's good for me...

Goodbye T-Mobile, hello SoftBank.

Just a grocery store...random, I know.

One of my schools. This is the one that's 90 minutes by train.

Get to learnin'!

Ya hear me!?

Welcome indeed.

A hop, skip, and a fart...but not really

So the journey to my current location, and the place I call home, was about a four hour trek from Osaka. I first had to take the infamous shinkansen (bullet train) from Osaka to Hakata, Fukuoka. After that I had to transfer lines to the super express train bound for Oita. To be honest, super express sounds faster than bullet train, but maybe that's just me. I will say though, there's nothing quite like the shinkansen as a passenger. It wasn't my first time, but that thing definitely hauls ass and it's incredibly comfortable. Anyway, if there were any doubt that I were leaving the bright lights of big-city Osaka, the journey to Oita was that friendly reminder. The countryside was sprawling all around, to sound dramatic, but really it wasn't a problem for me. I'm down to see and experience all sides of Japan and while it may not look like the most exciting place on earth, that old expression comes to mind, "you get out what you put in", and I'm pretty sure that applies to how you think about things and not just your actions. I've been lazy and haven't taken pictures of my apartment yet, but more than likely I'll just record a short "tour" video of sorts to give you a rundown of the layout. For now, enjoy a picture of the express train I rode and a short video of some of the scenery on the way to Oita.

The head rests look like little sausages.

Osaka, you'll be missed

Osaka was "home" for two hectic weeks and for the most part it was a semi-enjoyable experience. The days were long, the nights were way too short, but when we had time off, we certainly tried to make the most of it. The Takatsuki Sun Hotel was a decent enough place to rest our head at the end of the day and even though it was only two weeks, it stated feeling like ours. I'm a long way from Osaka now, but I'll always be able to reflect on it as the place that really got this ball rolling...this ball being this whole excursion in Japan. It's where we learned to do the job we're doing and where we (my fellow trainees and I) were able to form bonds with each other. Our last night together, we decided to have a very low-key meal at McDonald's (mostly because everywhere else was closed), and "the Tank Engine" shocked, and possibly disgusted, by ordering 14 hamburgers. Much to our delight, he sat and consumed each and every one of them. A group of kids and teenagers were super excited to see foreigners in their local McDonalds...especially one that was consuming enough to feed an entire extended family. They asked for photos and we happily obliged. The food coma hit Tommy hard and after we had made it back to my hotel room for a final hangout session, he was out in no time. Thankfully we're all still in touch via email and text, so the story isn't entirely sad. Anyway, enough of this sappy business, let's look at some pics.

At Takatsuki station. Some of you will get a kick out of this.

Logan in awe...of something.

Oh-saka.

Taiko time!

New Dragonball Z game that people seem to love.

Metal Gear Arcade...say what!?

MGA

Wow...

Completely content.

Done and done.

What an odd photo.

Thomas was out and the best we could think to do was put FF on him.