pirates of the carribean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Right..now that I have updated Saturday, I can move on to Sunday. I went to Mishima today to meet up with Toby to go to a classical concert. One of his students was in the orchestra or something like that. It was the Mishima philharmonic orchestra playing a random selection of stuff. A cheap day for me! Toby got the ticket for free because he knows the person in the orchestra so he took me for lunch instead. We went to this really cool restaurant, which kinda....tries to cook western food...but with japanese ingredients? So I had spaghetti...with kimichi type vegetables, japanese mushrooms, and the typical raw egg cracked on top. It was bizarre..but really good!
We met up with Will and Stuart to go to the concert, it was probably a strange picture having 4 gaijins sit in the midst of all japanese people. The Concert was really good...they played..some tschaikovsky (which I had NEVER heard before...), Holst "the planets" (I think they have a love for that over here...because they always play it at school concerts too), erm......and the best part....pirates of the carribean!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was soooooo hyper! It was amazing, they basically took all the known bits from it and played it as one long journey. Was awesome to the max. They also played christmas songs as one big piece, which made me feel a little homesick..but happy nonetheless.
The conductor was really cool! He was so enthusiastic and quite emotional too! I really liked him.
mjeeeeeeeee I am now gonna search out some foood...and tissues!

saturday x-mas party

meh....A kingdom for the ability to breathe!!!

Anyways...Yesterday we had a Christmas party at ours, which was cool! I spent the bigger part of the morning, decorating the apartment, setting up the christmas tree and decorating that. I was pretty proud actually, I felt a little bit like the man of the house. Mikage and Fran were impressed by my skills of building the tree, and Fran really like what I did with the lights (stringing them from my room to hers, to the kitchen ending on top of the tree). I was like "yes!!! I will not let inanimate objects get me dooownnn! graaaaar!" Jodie and Fran came over later on and started preparing the food and such...so we had a busy house, and I was sent on a few last minute errands to get stuff from the supermarket. Rina came with her family, so we had a hyper little 4 year old girl run around too. She was such an adorable child. Rina also is trying to teach her english really early on, so I reckon this girl is gonna be one genius once she starts school! At least in english lessons. She already knows more than some kids at my schools! Mikage had made vietnamese spring rolls too...which was very exciting for me! they were soo oishiiii! We also had sushi which Mikages mum brought fro us...and tacos....and of course 4 cakes! all home made!
That stupid christmas tree was a massive hazard though. The design of it is kinda like a copied version of the fake english tree..only that the stand doesn't have the same support system. So the bar (or tree trunk) occasionally gets dislodged if knocked. Whioch it did. 4 times. So we had a few occasions of "run for your life!!!" " Timberrrrr", ok hold it up...no no...this..way...argh dammit...meh".

But apart from the cursed christmas tree, the party was good!!! I even got 3 presents! Which I won't open till the 24th though....
3 days till christmas!!!

murasaki addiction

Ghosh...I feel a little under the weather. I was sent home early today as a result though, which rocks! I got home and it was still daylight! Don't worry it ain't that bad...my throat just feels..meh...and I am coughing a lot...fun times.

Anyways! School was quite good this week! Alternating between making christmas cards and teaching normal stuff. I have to say I am a little torn on the use of extra materials when making the cards. I forgot my stuff (glittery things, colourful paper..shiny paper) on monday, so I the kids could only use coloured card and their crayons...but those cards were very creative and a lot of cool drawings emerged. Then the kids at my other school, brought stickers, stamps including my materials....but I actually thought the cards ended up being less creative, because the kids just used a lot of stickers...and less of their imagination to draw. Interesting concept huh? Fuel the imagination with very little? Or provide materials, to make it look pretty...but less effort on behalf of the maker?

Not that this is an interesting topic..so moving swiftly on.
Wednesday night we had an x-mas party with the wednesday crew. There was around 30 people in the end. It was a secret santa event, and we all had to wear funny hats. Was a cool night, everyone got a secret santa present, and relatively drunk (except for me...on my 2 orange juices!!!). I met lots of cool people, and got chatting to some japanese as well who were there. I am really enjoying the coming along of conversation since I have been here! I am starting to understand a bit more. I was also told that apparently I should be in a harry potter movie, due to my perfect british accent (and my Kawai pigtails with bows, which Imogen did for me). HA I have a perfect british accent!!!!! How bizarre?
Thursday we had a big Interac meeting, so I got to meet all the ALT's for this area. There's quite a lot fo us really! the meeting wasn't particularly interesting, but it felt oddly good to be there..to be part of something important. To be witness to the japanese education system changing (because it is from next year onwards with regards to English!). I was starting to almost feel like wanting to stay longer. I guess it's just that, here evrerything is stable. I have a job, and am learning and experiencing new things. If I go back to England..everything is uncertain again..masters or not?...job..etc....economy being as crap as it is at the moment....it's weird. No worries, I am coming back...but it did cross my mind.

Plew I feel plew. Party at ours tomorrow! gotta be fit and healthy!
5 days till christmas!!!!

x-mas cards

Cycled to school again today! It was so cold getting up today! I got to school totally not in school mode..and forgetting my materials at home for the cards! So I went on a hunt for coloured card and stuff to make them with...In the end the lessons went really well! the kids loved making cards, and playing fruit basket! The teachers really enjoyed the x-mas music CD I brought in. They especially loved that song by "Wham". Jiggying along to "last Christmas..I gave you my heart..." I thought it was quite funny to watch. The handicapped class went ok too. For some strange reason the timetable was all weird today, and so grades 1/2 and 3 left early...leaving me with 4 kids in the class. I taught x-mas words first time round..and just did lots of games..so it kinda worked...and they enjoyed it...still difficult..but it felt a little better this time round.
I met up with A new friend today! her name is Minae. I met her at speak EZ on saturday! It was pretty cool! We went to the delicious cake place, and chatted about random stuff like music, future, boyfriends etc...it's weird...I come to Japan and suddenly I make friends with girls! It's cool too..cause we get on really well...something different about them here..can't quite put my finger on it...

Ghosh I need to go to sleep....

Winter celebration

Slept in late today. It was a looong evening! It seems to be the trend on weekends! Anyways! Yesterday was a winter celebration festival thingy in Numazu! So there were fireworks!!! (Yaaaay)

Some of us gathered at the station and then went to the river to join half of Numazu to watch the spectacle. It was an opportunity to meet new people again. They started the show off with 2 girls doing almost an entire album of bad rap music in japanese. Numazu seems to be the gangster loving area of this side of Japan. All the kids love it (and dress like they're living "in da hood") and even the older people like it...So we were exposed to this rapping for what seemed like an eternity. and then the second part started. It was a little odd. A man walked out on to the stage with a big rolled up thing which was spewing fireworks I guess. We were all like "ohhhhhh and ahhhhh". But then another guy did the same thing, and this carried on for a relatively long time too! By which we were in stitches, teasing Amy for bringing us to such a lame show. But then the excited announcer announced the beginning of the show. We were treated to an awesome fireworks display with a pretty cool soundtrack in the back!
Awwwww I love fireworks soo much!
Afterwards we went off to a thai place, and I had a quite spicy meal...which overstimulated my thermal pain receptors a great deal...We went to an internet cafe after. Internet cafes here are nothing like internet cafes at home! They're actually manga cafes/internet cafes/dart/snooker/cat room..everything type of cafes/. So we went and played pool (well mainly I watched until I was forced to play...disaster), and had a constant supply of free drinks - hot and cold/ice cream/slush puppies! It was awesome!!!!
After the others dispersed to go bowling, I went off to speak EZ to find Toby and have a chat with people there. It was band night that night, and they were playing good old british x-mas tunes and even kt tunstall (to which I belted along with). It was coo, the place was packed with japanese people! I met a very funky girl, and we chatted for a bit. I ended up staying till almost half 12 or something like that. Ban walked me to the bikes because in his words; "bad boys...about". No offence...but the bad boys here..look nowhere near as "bad" as the ones you meet at night in england.
raaar I am starving! it's Ramen time!

supai, karai, shopai,amai

long dayyyyy! And I haven't written for the past few days have I? So....need to catch up on what I've been doing.

Right...Thursday, I had my fave school again. The lessons went really well. These kids also really love the murderer game. It's amazing. We just all love dark stuff don't we? The interesting part of the day was the supposed English workshop. School actually had a special timetable that day, because (as I was informed) all my teachers had to go to this workshop. One of the guys from Interac actually came. I had to go to...and was interested to see what was gonna happen. It turns out other teachers from the schools in Numazu also came to this workshop! I even saw one teacher from a school I taught at for that week replacing Amy! It was so good to chat with her again! we were both very suprised! So it started off with an english lesson. Probably showing us how "fun" it can be to learn english. It was basically a similar lesson to what I would do. Very..weird being on the receiving end of that. Playing finger twister with the teachers, and janken with random teachers was odd. Then it was all in japanese. One of the other teachers was being my translator. They were giving out lots of information sheets with stats, informing us of the increases in students hating english, when they get to Jr High. So I started discussing it with this teacher, we just got talking about the possible reasons for why that is. I was voicing my opinion on the whole pressure of exams..the lack of enthusiasm because no real use is seen in learning english..bla bla...we then realised that the room had gone quiet and the board of education woman was saying something to my teacher. I was like "*&%%*( I am gonna get bullocked for talking in a teachers BoE meeting!!!". What actually happened was that the BoE woman wanted to hear about what we were talking about. My teacher stood up and relayed all my opinions on the current education system and things for improvement to the whole teacher gathering. They were all looking at me and nodding encouragingly, while the BoE was writing notes, on what was being said. It was very weird. I could feel myself turning scarlet. But it was kinda cool too, I was being listened to like an adult. Which is a strange feeling after the dismissal you receive at university.

Today was kinda a good day too. School was alright cause I didn't have any of the bad classes. though during my grade 3 lesson I got a little unnerved. We were playing fruit basket, when the teacher suddenly said something in a slightly stern voice. One of the boys went over to him, and the teacher just suddenly grabbed him, shook him hard and started shouting at him. Obviously he was demanding something off the boy. He didn't answer though, and so the shouting continued. My entire class went silent..and I was too shocked to react properly. I was then asked to finish the class, while the teacher went in to the side room to continue shouting. It was really odd. I mean..he is only 2 years older than me. I didn't expect the younger generation to also be like that. But I guess it's just a different culture. In England you'd lose your job immediatley for even touching a student. Yet there is no such thing as expulsion or detention here..so chastisement is the only thing you can receive. And I have to admit I like the fact that teachers here can ruffle their students' hair or give them a pat on the shoulder without being accused of nasty things...touching here is ok...whereas in England it's gone in to a more paranoid non touch non contact kind of way. So which is better?
I was also invited to the magic club which was on after school. I was very honoured! Watching the kids do card tricks, coin tricks, tell horror stories and do performances. It was pretty cool. We played cards afterwards too.

I met up with Imo in the evening, and we went for thai food. I love listening to the thai speak because it sounds a bit like vietnamese, and makes me feel at home. We then went off for some cake at this really cute place and had philosophical debates about argument, cancer, politics, drama and it's evolutionary benefit amongst other things. It felt really good to talk like that again!

By the way, the pictures are of my fave schools x-mas calendars!

Akubi

I survived!!!! And it actually went OK! you cannot believe the fierceness of prayer that was happening in the English room before grade 6's entered. Well it must have helped! That..and the fact that I introduced a new game which involved "killing" your peers (Parents, please do not worry I was not training your children to be psychopaths...). They loved it anyway and kept on going "one more time!!!". The lesson went ok, and the shy girl was a little less stupid this time round.
Then came the difficult one..my nemesis class....Grade 4. The song was awful again...no response...just me feeling like an utter idiot trying to sing " We wish you a merry Christmas". I then tried the new game on them too...they were all a bit more stupid, so explaining it took longer and was met by a few uncertain whines....(if my kids are this stupid by the age of 9/10 I am sending them to special classes). But once we got started they all loved it and also kept on asking for more. The lesson itself was alright...I dunno what's wrong with this class but it seems that they have realised the difference between boys and girls earlier than any other class. So there is this massive void between the girls (all huddled together giggling and acting like....girls), and then the boys on the other side (jumping about, beating each other up..and all that jazz).
It's highly annoying, because it means for any activity, they just split in to girl boy groups and don't join together.
Grade 2 was fine..of course...little ones are enthusiastic. I made up actions for the sentence "What do you like" and "I like......".It was ace, they could do it perfectly with the actions. the teacher was cracking up too, I think he must have felt a little stupid.

Then came the great part. I had to have another meeting with the teachers to discuss what will be taught for the next 2 weeks. "Unfortunatley" My "translator" (or lesson plan dominatrix), was ill. I was like "OH...I am sorry to hear that!!!!......^_^ ". I went in with my notebook of lesson plans, and aced that meeting. They were a little uncertain and nervous at first...I think they expected me to not know what I was doing..and to be lost without that translator woman. I told them what I would teach and do for the next 2 weeks and they were really impressed. They hadn't realised I'd already planned it, let alone what the topics would be. They didn't realise there was a BoE specification of what to teach. I also let it slip in that when the translator came in with her plans, I had to change my already existing plans. The teachers were really surprised, because they hadn't realised I knew what I was doing. I hope I have kind stuck a foot in that door, and showed them that I am perfectly capable of sorting out my lesson plans...we shall see!

Met up with Steve for a beloved honey milk latte at Tully's and had a good old chat. We then browsed around the shops for a bit and I fell in love with a purple jumper...which I wasn't allowed to try on...That's what I hate about japanese shops..there is always a chance that you can't try stuff on because they're paranoid about hair and make up getting on the clothes. So what you just buy it and hope??? It's not like we are all the same size! Not even japanese people are all the same! pffffffffffffffffff....although...I did see changing rooms in that shop...so maybe it was just cause I am white. Who knows.