Chicago for the weekend

While back in America, I wanted to meet up with my friends and see as many people as I could. So I got in touch with some of my buddies from college and we decided to meet up in Chicago. I rode the train down on Saturday and met up with my friends by lunchtime.

Chicago is known as being the "Windy City" and it sure didn't fail to hold its title. It was windy, cold, and not the best weather...but at least it didn't rain or snow! This would have just added to the cold feeling already! So we met up and walked around for a little bit. After working up an appetite, we wanted to eat some good food from Chicago...which only means Deep Dish Chicago Pizza!!! So we went to the restaurant around 2pm and chowed down our food.

We had already decided that we wanted to eat sushi for dinner as well so with that in mind, we were thinking we should go eat at around 7:30-8pm to let the pizza settle awhile. So we walked around Michigan Ave. and did some window shopping. I didn't buy anything because I didn't want to add any more weight/stuff to my already full luggage that I will be taking back to Japan with me. So I mainly browsed and looked at stuff. My friends had bought a couple things here or there but nothing too major. Walking around the stores and to the different places just made me realize how different the culture in Japan and the US are. In Japan, they welcome you at every single store with a phrase, "Irashaimase" meaning "Welcome!" However, in America, they don't greet you with that same phrase or any other common phrase as well. In Japan, once any person steps through that door, you can be sure that every single staff in the store will yell out the phrase. As well, when you leave even without having bought anything, they all chant "Arigato gozaimashitta!" which means thank you. Although it's not a big difference, you really notice it once you've spent a lot of time abroad as I have thus far.

Anyway, we continued on and then decided to finally head to the sushi restaurant for dinner. My friend had been there before and recommended. It's a sushi restaurant in Lincoln Park and is all you can eat for only 18 bucks. I love sushi, so I definitely did not argue with this. When we got closer to the restaurant, my other buddy and I looked at each other and were thinking the same thing...the place/area seemed familiar....like we had been there before. In fact, we had been! Almost a year ago, I had met up with my other buddy to go eat somewhere and we wound up at that restaurant...the same one that we had gone to this time! We just didn't recognize it by name! Haha!! Well, no arguments here as we had enjoyed the sushi last time, so we continued on in. After ordering a number of rolls, our dishes came out and we ate to our hearts' content...again! Today is a feast day! Deep dish pizza....sushi...it never ends! Well, after finishing we walked around a little more and stopped by a bar in a hotel to hang out and let the food settle. We were waiting for some bowling lanes to open up since they were extremely full. We had to wait for about an hour or 2 until a lane would open up for us.

By this time, though, we were all exhausted. It was nearly midnight when we started to bowl, but we got through it. We were starting our 2nd game when we noticed that we were bowling but our bowling balls were not coming back. We called the service people and we ended up waiting for nearly 30 minutes...a bowling pin had gotten stuck in the return gutter and so that's why our balls were not coming back! Well, we were all so tired that we didn't even bother with finishing the 2nd game....we just paid for the 1 game and headed back to get some sleep.

The next day(Sunday), we headed to Chinatown to eat some good 'ol dim sum for lunch. We ended up going to a restaurant called "Three Happiness" which is a restaurant that my family and I always used to go to while I was growing up! It brought back memories! Haha. My family used to make monthly big trips to Chicago as that was the best place to buy fresh and larger quantities of asian groceries. They have a large population of asians in Chicago, so they naturally also have better grocery stores to service those needs. After finishing lunch, I hopped on a train back to Milwaukee and that concluded my weekend in Chicago. It was great to see my friends and I hope to see them all again when they come visit in Japan!

Translation....Complete!

I had been working on a translation project for my school the past few weeks now...it is a pamphlet which talks about the most recent exchange trip between my school and our sister school in Wisconsin. There are various stories, mainly written by the students who had gone on the most recent excursion back in October of 2010. It's a hefty job...one that I've talked about in previous blogs. But finally, with the help of my mother, I was able to finish it!! Woohoo!!! I didn't finish every single page...I did the main pages that had the most meaning and that my Vice Principal advised me were alright to be the only ones translated. Even my mother said it would be over a 1,000 dollar job...easily! Which I don't doubt! It's a long document with many words and details. But I am relieved to have it done with!

Helping Out

Today I am set to go out and hand out flyers related to the tsunami and earthquake that happened in Japan a little over a week ago. The main purpose is to get the word out to the American people in my area and be able to inform them of how they can help. So many times you hear people say, "I wish I could help or do something..." and now is their chance. It is a simple flyer just showing some pictures of the devastation and then a link and website to the American Red Cross. I hope that this will help educate some people about what is going on. Some people have no idea or don't really care...which is unfortunate but understandable. If someone doesn't have a close tie to Japan, then they wouldn't really pay too much attention to it in the news or follow what is happening. But since this event was really close to me and something that I was unfortunately a part of and experienced, it has a lot of meaning to me.

We will be meeting in front of Kopps Frozen Custard in Brookfield and then dispersing from there to go to designated spots and hand out flyers. I hope that people will actually take a look at them and be able to understand that they can make a difference by just caring a little and taking a few minutes to see what they can do to help. The weather is not the best today...cold and rainy. But hopefully there will still be a fair amount of people out who are shopping and who we will be able to talk to in order to help them understand what's going on.

AFTER THE FACT:

Most of the people that we handed out flyers to were pretty responsive and seemed to want to take some sort of action. Of course there were also a fair amount that did not care at all or did not seem to want to do anything about it. When there is a disaster that is not as close to you or isn't close to home, some people don't see how it will impact them or do make an effort to learn more about it. It's unfortunate, but the reality. For those few that did decide to help out and make a difference, I appreciate it and so do the people who need it in Japan!

Back in Milwaukee - The US of A!

I have just made it back here to the United States. Of course there is a big difference between America and Japan...but I didn't feel like I was back in America until I remembered some of these things.

The differences I had forgotten about after coming back to the States:

• People speak English. I can understand everything that people say to me!!
• There are not convenience stores lined up at every corner like in Japan...
• There are no vending machines every 10-20 feet
• Drinks all come in a minimum of 20 ounce bottles. In Japan, they regularly come in sizes about 1/4 or 1/3 of that size
• You don't have to worry about driving in other people's way on the road...you have your own space
• You can hop on the highway and get to far places quickly! And the highways are free!! Except for tollways which are still minimal in price. In Japan, it can cost up to 10 bucks just to drive on the highway for only 20 minutes

Although all my life I had considered myself American, I know that on the outside I look Japanese. I have faced this many times before and all my friends and people in school in the States had come to understand that I was born and raised in the states just like them, but my parents were both from Japan, which is why I also look like I am of Japanese descent (which I obviously am). But it was funny because in Japan, people get confused. I look Japanese. I can speak some...and understand some...but not alllll...and can't speak completely fluently. So when I talk to them, they ask, "Wait, are you Japanese? Or where are you from?" It's been a fun road and very interesting journey explaining to people that I am in fact Japanese in blood, but was born and raised in America. However, when I landed back in the states, I guess I fooled everybody just the same.

As I was walking through the terminal toward customs, one of the employees was waving people to the "Visitors" line and the line for "US Citizens." I naturally started walking toward the US Citizens line because I am one. Then the employee looked at me and said "Visitors" line is over here! I thought, "Ohhhh....she must think that I am a Japanese citizen because obviously I look Japanese..." Hahahaha.. I thought that was interesting and had forgotten about that. Then I proceeded to quickly tell her that I was in fact a US Citizen and she felt a little embarassed.

Then a little bit later, we had to recheck in our luggage...which is always a pain. It takes time and is annoying, but that's how it is. Apparently, you're not allowed to have your cell phone open at that area...no one is allowed to use them, but I was just checking my messages and that isn't even allowed, so one of the employees had told me to please close my cellphone. But, she asked me in Japanese!! Haha!! Once again, I have them fooled! She was an American but had probably learned a few key phrases in Japanese in case there were foreigners that might not fully understand English. But little did she know I was a US Citizen and actually understand her English much more than her Japanese, but I thought that it was very interesting and hilarious. I didn't say anything except, "ohh" and then put my phone away. Fair enough, I guess on the outside it can be easy to make assumptions and knowing that a flight from Japan had just come in, I don't blame either of the 2 employees for what they did. It's only natural to guess that someone who looks Japanese would belong in the foreigner line and would understand "Please put your cellphone away" in Japanese.

Well, long day of traveling and I am ready for some rest. Bring it on, Jetlag!!

The decision...

So today I was at elementary school all day long. I was not really in the mood to teach at all today...especially after having initial discussions with my family about whether to return to the States for a little bit. I mean, I had worked soooo hard to get to Japan. The whole application process had lasted nearly an entire year from beginning to finish. Coming to Japan had been on my mind for years and was something that I wanted to pursue. So after working really hard and being accepted in the JET Program, you can only imagine how enthralled I was!


During the morning, I was watching some of the news that had been going on about the nuclear power plant in Fukushima. My main concern was not on the earthquake, tremors, aftershocks, and the like...but the nuclear power plant that is not too far from Chiba. It seems like a safe distance, but after some events that had unfolded today, it seemed to become a real threat and become quite scary by the moment. Last night, Japanese workers were rapidly trying to cool down the 2nd Nuclear reactor which had exposed rods, after not being too successful in fighting off number 1 and 3 which blew on Friday and Monday, respectively. They had continued to try and keep water levels high enough to cover the rods, but there seemed to be leakage or some type of issue in keeping it cool. It eventually erupted this morning and there was another rising issue...Nuclear reactor number 4. This one was also emitting larger than normal amounts of radiation and today they actually had facts pointing out the amount of radiation emitted into the air. They measured higher than normal levels throughout the area...and in fact today detected higher than normal amounts down in Tokyo! This is the scariest part....yesterday seemed to be ok, but today was a different story. I was NOT planning on coming back to America for at least a year or two...but that has changed all too rapidly with the current set of events.


After spending hours and hours doing research, talking with family, and talking with people around the area, I finally thought that it would be a good idea to follow my father's inital advice and come back to the States for at least Spring break to be away from the danger...at first I was strongly opposed since I did not want to leave Japan. After all, I mentioned that I worked so hard to get here in the first place and I really love the country. The people here have been nothing less than generous and welcoming and I've become adjusted to my life here. But since the earthquake, nothing good has happened...there have been shortages on everything from food, gasoline, and power/electricity.


This was one of the hardest decisions that I've had to make...but when I consider it and look at what's been happening and how much fortune I've had in being down in Chiba, I feel it is the right thing to do. I also have the unique chance to have the choice of leaving the country at this point....I hope that nothing major happens and that I'm able to get out by Friday! There was just another earthquake that happened in Shizuoka prefecture not too far away and I could feel that here. But with the way things are going, it is probably better since I am not trained in any way to help with the situation, so me being here is not going to help. I mean, I am consuming energy, food, and gasoline that other people need right now. So I talked with my BOE and the school and they are fine with it, in fact a little jealous because they all seem to want to leave the country as well....

So I will fly out and be back in America very soon. I hope that all goes well and I will be back in dairyland very soon! Haha...didn't expect to be going back to Wisconsin so soon!!

The aftermath

So on Friday, we had the largest recorded earthquake in Japan's history and the 5th largest earthquake in the world...pretty heavy stuff! It's hard to imagine the true ramifications without actually seeing the true areas yourself, but I don't think that I want to see them for myself, live. It's pretty surreal that I'm currently living in the country where all the action is going on, and I don't even have a firm grasp of everything that's going on and the true impacts. I am definitely feeling the ramifications of the earthquake in the aftermath of what's going on. There is a LOT going on, and I'm going to try and list the things that have affected me, even down here in Chiba.

• Felt the earthquake on Friday with at least a magnitude of about 5
• Continue to feel the aftershocks of the earthquake...possible larger aftershocks and an even larger earthquake....hopefully not!
• Mass tsunami warnings for those along the Pacific coast. These are on and off as the aftershocks could continue to affect these.
• There has been a cause of some slightly mass panic within Japan. Everyone is rushing to the stores to get food and stock up on everything...a lot of the store shelves are empty!
• There is absolutely no bread in the stores. All of the available bread and bread in production has been sent up north to those who need it.
• Gasoline was running low in supply because they are dispersing it to those who need it up north, so there were looong lines at the gas stations yesterday! Many gas stations weren't selling any more gas or weren't letting more people in to fill up. I luckily found a gas station where I could fill up my car.
• Rolling rotations of intentional blackouts to help save energy. The government and officials have split 7 or 8 different prefectures into 5 major groups. We were supposed to have intentional power outages starting today (March 14th) in all 5 groups at some point during the day, but most areas weren't affected yet. The government just decided to start the power outages starting tonight from 5-7pm which would affect areas to the west of Tokyo.
• As a result of the possible power outages, the lunch centers are not able to properly prepare food for the schools. I have to bring a lunch to school until the end of the school year.
• JR train lines, the largest railroad network in Japan, has been delayed or reduced the number of lines running to save energy. Some have even stopped. Remember, train transportation is the largest source of public transportation for people in Japan.
• A nuclear power plant in the northern prefecture of Fukushima is undergoing some difficult circumstances and possible meltdowns...not so good and very dangerous as radiation could be an issue.

This list is extensive but not all inclusive. I'm sure that I'm missing a few points and I will probably have to add to the list in the near future. At first, it didn't seem that things were going to be bad, but things are getting worse as we find out more of what is happening as a result of the earthquake. I hope that things do become better.

Today, I received an e-mail from my father suggesting/highly recommending that I go back to the states for Spring break. It would be safer to go back there and not be exposed to possible radiation if it leaked and spread throughout Japan. While this sounds like a better idea than staying, I am really torn because I don't want to go back...to be honest. I like it here in Japan, and if there's stuff that I can do to help in Japan, I want to be able to do that...

The rumbling continues...

So it's been nearly 8 hours since the first big quake hit. And I still feel little shocks and tremors rumbling through...it's scary! I've been in small earthquakes before, but today's hit a record high of 8.9 up in Northern Japan...and about a 5 here in Chiba. There have been warnings about the tsunamis for those along the coastlines. A lot of my friends around here in Chiba weren't able to go home right away because they live close to the beach or close to the oceanfront. Luckily, I'm more inland so that wasn't an issue for me.

But there was a lot of devastation around Miyagi and Iwate...this is the 2nd earthquake to come from that region this week, but this one's was a looot higher! There is footage from a tsunami that went through Aomori prefecture which is just unbelievable. It just goes to show how strong water really is and how scary it is.
http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2011/03/11/sot.tsunami.hit.japan.cnn?hpt=T1

I don't know how long the aftershocks will last but I know that they can last for even up to a few weeks after the first big earthquake! A lot of the major JR train lines have stopped service or been affected, and a lot of roads have been damaged from the earthquake. I'm just glad that all of the people that I know (friends and family) so far are all ok and nothing bad has happened. I'm just praying and hoping that everyone that has been affected will be ok and that nothing more will happen...

And I want to thank all my friends and family who have posted on my wall or contacted me through facebook to make sure that I am alright. I appreciate it!

Graduation with a BANG!

Graduation:

This morning at 7:30, I arrived at school to meet up with the music club to practice before we would play at the ceremony. The ceremony started promptly at 9:30 am and the newly graduating students all walked in orderly to the graduation theme song. The ceremony itself included the students receiving their diplomas, speeches from the Principal, a head person from the Board of Education, and the head of the PTA. There were also speeches from one of the students and a performance by the whole 3rd grade class. It was all very serious as I expected. But it was very different from an American graduation ceremony. Usually, there is a more positive tone to American graduations saying "You did it!" and "Congratulations!" and "Good luck!" and other sayings of the like. But today's was very sappy and the kids were extremely sad to be graduating. It was a very somber tone and I did start to feel tears well up in my eyes, but I didn't actually cry...

But where I did feel the most emotional was when the teacher would call out the students name to receive the diploma...and after that the students responds with a "Hai!" which in Japanese means, "Yes, ok, present!" or something of the like. I don't know why, but that response in that setting is just an emotional thing to watch, and kind of shows the end result of all the hard work that the student had put in these past 3 years in the junior high school. The actual ceremony lasted for a total of about 1.5 hours and concluded with the students marching out in normal fashion as well.

And then I caught a lot of the students to take pictures and say one final farewell before they begin their new journey!

I'll miss them! They're good kids!
















Congratulations to the class of Heisei 22!

Then in the midst of the happiness and celebrating...there came the biggest earthquake in Japan's history...Richter Scale of 8.9 at the epicenter...up in the Tohoku area by Miyagi, Aomori, and Sendai City...for the 2nd time this week!

Luckily this happened after the ceremony was well finished and didn't affect the students, but it's still scary. See the events unfold below.

Earthquake:

2:40ish pm - Felt an earthquake start...and it didn't stop. The building was shaking and I saw pictures on the walls shaking back and forth! We made a mad dash outside!

2:55 pm - Came back inside after having been outside and continued to feel the earthquake.

3:00 pm - Watched the news in the office and saw that the major earthquake was coming from up in Iwate and Miyagi prefecture, about 200-300 miles north. This is the 2nd major earthquake in a week!

Monday's earthquake measured at 7.2 up there. Today's was 7.9 and even up to 8.4!!

3:15 pm - Felt a major earthquake coming again and grabbed all my stuff and made a mad dash outside again!

3:20 pm - Came back inside and we all kept watching the news. There were tsunami warnings all over and coming down to even Chiba prefecture!

3:20-4:00 pm - Continued watching the news and continued to feel aftershocks from the earthquake. This is by far the longest lasting and largest earthquake that I have ever been in!

4:05 pm - Came home.

4:44 pm - Writing this blog and just felt another aftershock coming through!

The only means of communication to everyone out there to make sure they are ok is through facebook and skype! All the phone lines are jammed up and you can't make a phone call at all! Stay safe, Japan!

Surppriiise!

Haha...so today I started the morning at an elementary school and taught the 4 classes in the morning periods. The first two were the 3rd and 4th grade and so I did a major review of all the things we learned during the year and played games throughout the class. It was a fun time and I think they enjoyed it. Then I had the 6th grade class with whom I did a T/F game with questions related to America. Then we played BINGO with the correct answers. And for the 4th period I played games outside with the 5th grade class. This was tons of fun! We played a game that they would call "Cops and Robbers" and then we played soccer. After having run around for only about 10 minutes, I realized how out of shape that I was! I hadn't gone running for awhile now, but phewww! I was out of breath!! Haha....oh well, I guess it was good exercise for me and a sign that I need to get back into running and doing some form of exercise. It was a fun morning and I'm glad that the weather is finally turning nice again.

Then in the afternoon I headed over to the junior high school. I didn't have anything in particular to do, but I wanted to go over there just to catch up and make sure there wasn't anything I was missing before the graduation tomorrow. When I got to the school, all the students except for the 3rd graders were cleaning. But the 1st graders haven't come for a majority of the week because they are under house arrest for being sick...and they can't come to the graduation ceremony tomorrow! And so that means it was only the 2nd graders at school! Haha! Well, today was mainly the big day to prepare for the graduation ceremony. So I helped out where needed by putting up posters, moving stuff, setting up decorations, and goofing off with the students....hey, it was a fun time and I hadn't seen them for nearly a week, so it was good to catch up with them again. But one of the girls that is in the music club said, "Kent, we need you to play drums tomorrow!" which took me by surprise. I didn't quite know what she meant and I thought she was just joking. But in reality, I was needed to play the drums for the graduation ceremony tomorrow! Since the 1st graders can't come to the graduation ceremony tomorrow, there are a fair number of the music club members missing as well...including the drummer. About half of the music club members are missing so it's going to be a thinner sound than usual. But the music teacher also saw me not too much later and practically begged me to play! Haha, I was definitely going to regardless but they were all relieved that I was willing to play.

Well, I set up the drums and will be back at it again. I love playing the drums, so I have no problem and no issue with playing for tomorrow. I'm just glad that I am able to help out. I think that it is funny, though, that the ALT will be playing in the band tomorrow and that the school is not only using me for English, but for music! I played in the fall culture festival, at the elementary school graduation, and now the middle school graduation! They are really getting their money's worth from me! Haha!! Well, I guess I will be a part of the ceremony tomorrow but I'm not looking forward to saying goodbye to the kids. I had a lot of fun with them and wish them the best of luck. They are really good kids and I hope that at least a few of them will continue studying English and travel to an English speaking country someday to practice English or to visit.

Lastly, the preparations for the school graduation look very nice. I'm looking forward to seeing what the ceremony will be like...and just hope...that I won't shed tears.....:(

Apparently in Japanese ceremonies, everybody is very serious and dramatic....especially about the crying part. They say even the toughest male teachers burst out into tears. So we will see what that is all about!!

Ohh the kids

Today was a day at the elementary school....I have been at elementary schools all week. Just the way the schedule worked out, this is how it has been. But this Friday is graduation for the junior high school students and I will be there for that. But this morning, I taught the 1st and 2nd graders who are extremely cute! They are all really funny and they absolutely LOVE English! For now at least....it's all the games and the fun they have. I hope that they do continue to like it and will always be enthusiastic about English! Check out the pic below with my kids! See if you can find me in the mix with the other Japanese people! It's like "Where's Waldo"...but "Where's Kent?!" haha...:)

I finished off the day by teaching one 6th grade class at the first elementary school and then heading over to my second elementary school and teaching the 5th and 6th grade. It was an alright afternoon and I was glad when it was done. It gets pretty exhausting teaching for 5 or 6 periods per day. I'm just glad that I'm not teaching at elementary schools everyday! That would be VERY tiring!

Today was a rather warm day. it was sunny which was nice for a change. The past couple of days it had been raining.

On another note, I had been trying to make a homemade "Onsen Tamago" by myself. An Onsen Tamago is an egg that is cooked rather evenly but not completely like a boiled egg. There is still some part of the yolk that is left raw so that it is gooey inside...and it's absolutely delicious! It's difficult to make because obviously you are not able to see inside of the egg to see how done it is while it's boiling in the water. If you boil it for too long, then it turns into another boiled egg. On the other hand, if you don't boil it for long enough, then it's just a raw egg. Not only is the timing important, so is the temperature! Too hot...you'll have a normal boiled egg....too cold/cool...you'll have a raw egg. So there are a few variables to try and master in order to make this. Well, I had made a few attempts and hadn't gotten it quite right...until tonight! For dinner, I tried to make 2 of them and they both worked! They were absolutely delicious and it turned out perfectly and just how I wanted them to! I just hope that I'll be able to do it again and on a more consistent basis. It's still difficult and I will have to keep a close watch on the cooking time and temperature, but I hope that I'll get better and better and be able to make it any time that I want it!

There was also an earthquake that happened today. I didn't actually feel it, but apparently they could feel it more up in Tokyo. The real major earthquake happened up in Northern Honshu up by Sendai and around Miyagi prefecture up in the Tohoku region, about 150-250 miles north. It happened right about noon. I was teaching class at the time and did not feel it on the 3rd floor of the school. But an announcement came on during class and all the kids went under the desks to protect themselves just in case. I guess the whole earthquake lasted a few minutes and even rated at 7.2 on the Richter Scale up in Tohoku! I think it was only a 2 or 3 down around Chiba and Tokyo...I'm just thankful that there was no major damage! It's especially scary since we've seen what an earthquake can do and we saw what happened in New Zealand just a couple weeks ago. Well, I hope that nothing major happens, and there was even a tsunami warning today which was later called off, thank goodness! Well, to keeping safe!

The Return of the "Influenzaaaaa!"

Today I taught at 2 elementary schools. In the morning, I was at Kuniyoshi which is very close to my middle school as well. When I got to school, I only saw that I would be teaching 3 classese in the morning because they had graduation rehearsal for 3rd period. This was nice because then I got to have a little mid-morning break amongst all the chaos that's been happening lately with having to jump from school to school this week. So I taught the 5th graders first period and was getting ready for the 6th grade class 2nd period. Then, I heard the 6th grade teacher tell the Vice Principal that she was going to send 2 of the students home from her class because they had a fever....uh oh.....

I didn't know because I haven't been at my middle school since last Thursday, but the Influenza is back and is hitting my schools now! Back in January when it was big at other schools, my schools were still fine. But apparently they sent home the 1st grade classes from my middle school yesterday and they won't be attending the 3rd grade graduation ceremony at the middle school this week! I think one of the elementary school teachers said that around 20 of the middle school 1st graders were sick! And to make matters worse, I was teaching the 6th grade class today where 8 students were absent!! So I wore a mask for the first time...in Japan, many people wear the white surgical masks even if they aren't sick. It's almost like a fashion statement to wear one. I'm not a fan of it, but I'm not a fan of catching the flu or the influenza either, so I wore one during class. Not only were a lot of students from the 6th grade class ill, I heard that many from the 4th grade class were ill as well! About half the students! (10 out of 21 went home).

A lot of the teachers were also mentioning that the illness was spreading because of sibling contact...so those that had siblings at the middle school were sick. That makes sense, especially since houses in Japan are much smaller and the kids are more likely to share sleeping and chilling space within the house. Everyone is so much closer together physically so if someone is sick, other family members are easily exposed. I just hope that I didn't catch anything from the students last week or this week!!

I headed over to my 2nd elementary school after lunch and taught my last lessons of the year for them today! It was a fun class period today with the 5th grade where we played Simon Says and did Head, Shoulders, Knees and Toes...then we played Red Light Green Light!! Haha...it was hilarious! All the kids had fun with it as well. I also had my last class with the 6th grade class! We learned different profession names/titles and then played the gesture game. It was a fun time and I know I'll have fun with the 6th grade class as 1st grade Junior High students next year! And today was a lot warmer and better weather than yesterday! It was so rainy and cold yesterday....:( But I'm hoping that it will get better from here on out!

Elementary School Week

Today I had a day at Tokai Elementary School...for the whole day! And this week won't be too different. I have elementary school for a majority of this week. The way the schedule worked out and because I had some days switched last week for my piano performance, I will be at elementary school for the majority of the days this week.

But all in all, today wasn't that bad. Today, I played a lot of games with the kids and that made the class periods go by more quickly, I guess! Games always do that and when I have fun, the kids have fun, and when the kids have fun, then I have fun! It's a win-win situation! As well, today was the last day that I would be teaching the 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders at that school for this year so I won't see them again until next year. I don't think they all know that I'll be teaching them again next year...or starting with their new school year which is in April. At the end of the classes, they were all thanking me for teaching them this school year and the like...and made it sound as if I wasn't going to be back to teach them the following school year! Haha! And even the 5th grade class made a "Thank You Pamphlet' where they all wrote personal notes to me and drew pictures. It was very cute. But a lot of them also said in it, "Thank you for this year and I hope we meet again!" Well, I guess they'll realize it sooner or later when they see me again this Spring! Whether that's good or bad I will let them decide...muwaahaha!

But anyway, today was also a pretty dreary day...rainy and cold all day long! Yeseterday it was really warm, but there was a 10-11 degree difference(in centigrade) from yesterday's temperature! Today topped out at around 5 or 6 degrees...so you can imagine how different it felt compared to this past weekend!

Well, I'm going to just try and keep warm and hopefully it will start to warm up a little for Spring! But not too much!! I can't' stand it when it's the summer temperatures and a million degrees with 1000% humidity!!!!! Haha...I'm exaggerating a little, but it gets really hot here! Well, wish me luck this week as I'll need the energy to get through the rest of the week at the elementary schools!

Graduation is nearing!

Today was another day at the middle school. And I had yet another surprise! This week is full of surprises for me! Today I thought that I would have the normal class schedule of 3 classes in the morning so I talked with one of the English teachers and he said "Oh, no...sorry, today's schedule is switched with Friday's." So I thought that was fine and continued on with my business. I had the first 2 hours free so I started working on some pieces to put up on the bulletin board that would should congratulations to the 3rd graders for graduating. I worked on that and for the 3rd period I headed up to the classroom where I was to teach. I saw all the students lined up with their chairs in the hallway and they were walking somewhere. So I asked the students where they were going and they said they were going to the gym for "ceremony practice!"

Well, confused and baffled, I walked back toward the teacher's room and saw the same English teacher and he said, "Oh, sorry, Kento! I forgot to tell you that today is graduation practice for 3rd and 4th period, so there are no classes!"

Well, I was alright with that! So a day where I thought I'd be teaching once again turned into a day without a single class. I'm starting to like the end of the school year! Haha...so I attended the graduation ceremony rehearsal and got to see what it will be like. For starters, the Japanese ceremony is VERY different from an American one. I will post videos and pictures of bits and pieces of it once I get footage from the real ceremony next week. But in short, it's a very serious tone to the ceremony and everyone walks in unison, wears the exact same thing, and does the same thing. It's interesting and I am looking forward to experiencing it first-hand next week. But at the same time, I was thinking today and it's very sad. I am going to miss the current 3rd grade class. The kids are awesome and they were the first ones to have greeted me and talk to me. I had first contact with these kids when I initially got to Japan...and soon I will have little to no contact with most of them after they're gone! It's crazy to think about it...they will be moving on with their life while I'll be at the same middle school teaching next year.

So I spent the afternoon continuing on working on the bulletin posters and was starting to print the final poster. But!....when I printed it, the pictures and everything came out but not the text that consisted of a quote in both English and Japanese....that's strange! On the print preview, it was showing how I wanted it to come out, but when I printed, it didn't come out that way! So one of the teachers who basically knows how to fix anything instantly came over and started helping me. He was running all these tests on the printer and checked the print settings and options (which helps because I can't read all the Japanese to understand where to troubleshoot). So we tried printing a couple times again and still no luck....I suggested that maybe there was no black ink in the cartridge but he insisted that wasn't it. So we tried a couple different format options and put the text in a text box to ensure that it would come out black. But still no luck! Finally, the teacher checked on the cartridges and the light for the black ink cartridge was blinking, meaning that it needed to be replaced....haha!!! So I was right! The black ink was out, which is why it wasn't printing correctly! Then the teacher humorously said, "I guess it would have been faster and easier if we checked that first like you said!" At least he was humorous about it and we had a good laugh out of it. Well, we got the problem solved and I was able to finish printing and laminating all the things I wanted to put up.

Well, only 1 more week until the kids graduate and then it's Spring Break and a start to the new school year!

Empty Wednesday

Today was a day at the middle school. But I was in for a little surprise when I got to school this morning. I had forgotten to check and the teachers forgot to tell me but the students had tests today...all day. So that meant I had NO classes to teach today! Nice! It's a nice surprise to hear that because then I don't have to worry about preparing for classes or doing anything for the day...but then that meant I had nothing to do for the day...haha!

I was bored today, trying to find things to do and trying to prevent myself from falling asleep. So I occupied my time by working on the application for being a TOA for this summer's Tokyo Orientation. After a little bit of that, I started studying some kanji again which I haven't studied for awhile. I need to get back on that because I really do want to become more literate and be able to read and write a decent amount of kanji. I also made copies of music from books that the music teacher had lent me. She gave me many Chopin and Beethoven books from which I could choose songs to copy. That actually took quite awhile because the books aren't quite the same size as standard copying paper and the like...so I had to line up each individual page I wanted to copy and match it up...one at a time. So copying all the music I wanted actually took nearly an hour! I also occupied some time by preparing for my Eikaiwa class that I have tonight.

So all in all, I didn't really feel like I had to be at work today! I wish that on days like this, the CO or the school would just let me do what I want. They never officially mention it, but I know that they probably wouldn't want me to leave the school or just be able to take the day off without a good reason. That's the one thing about Japanese culture and the work environment in Japan that I can't understand and that bothers me. If there is no reason for a person to be at work or if they could be utilizing their time better elsewhere, then they should be doing just that. To sit at work and do nothing but stare at the same pieces of paper or the same texts for hours just for the sake of being there is a waste to me.

Anyway, not much happened today and it's not a big deal because the weather outside isn't great either. It's been rainy and cold the past couple of days so it's not that bad to be stuck inside! I can't wait for the weather to turn nice and for it to be spring time! This will be my first spring in Japan so I'm excited to see all the cherry blossoms!

Already March?

Today was another day at 2 elementary schools since it is Tuesday! I had one school in the morning and I like going to this one in the mornings...particularly because I don't have to teach the other grades besides 5th and 6th grade...which means that I get to have a nice break instead of having the classes. So I taught the classes there and this is the 2nd to last time that I'll be at that school for this school year, so we are trying to finish up the textbooks as much as possible. Then the next time that I go, we will do fun games and other cool stuff! Nakagawa shogakko is also the school that I'll be doing my mini concert at this Friday, so I got some more details about that today and all the teachers are really excited to hear me play! I'm glad that they all appreciate the music and it makes me feel good. I'm also glad that I decided to learn that song before coming to Japan otherwise I wouldn't have a good full song to be able to play!

Then in the afternoon I headed over to my other elementary school (Chimachi shogakko) where I finished up the afternoon with the 5th and 6th grade classes. It was a pretty good day overall...I played lots of games with the kids ranging from BINGO to Karuta to gesture games. When you have fun games, it makes the time go by more quickly and is more enjoyable for both myself and the kids.

But the thing that shocked me the most and got to me today was the fact that it's already March! I feel like this year just started, and here we are...already flying into March where it will become Spring pretty soon! The weather today didn't show very promising Spring weather. Cold and rainy and no flowers blooming doesn't seem like a very good outlook to the new season. But it's still early and before I know it the weather will change and become nice! But I do feel a difference lately. I wake up in the morning and it's not as painfully cold to get out from under the covers as it used to be. It's at least over 50 degrees F in my house now when I wake up! Most of the time! Haha!!!

Well, tonight I'm going to take it easy and relax. I have to do some preparation for my Eikaiwa class tomorrow night and I have to finish editing old blogs that I haven't posted yet and get those up.

Well, enjoy and I will hopefully get some rest tonight!