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    Week 1:   1st   2nd   3rd   4th   5th   6th   7th  
    Week 2:   8th   9th   10th   11th   12th   13th   14th   15th  
    Week 3:   16th   17th   18th   19th   20th   21st   22nd  
    Week 4:   23rd   24th   25th   26th   27th   28th   29th   30th  
Image Jump:
  • My Jr. High Bulletin Board
  • A "Blower"
  • Kosanji Temple Complex
  • Nursery School Sports Day
  • The Koto Harp
  • Week 3

    Tuesday, Sept 16, 2003

      IN A NUTSHELL: My Poor Car!

      Morning Sleepiness First period was my 2nd years (8th grade) class. The students all looked wiped. I was exhausted as well and sympathized with the beginning-of-the-week morning blues. Then Tomomi-sensei told me that they had been up from 8 to 10 the previous night practicing Kagura! That's why they were so tired. Woah!

      My Activities Worked! The "will" information gap exercise I did in my 2nd year class seemed to do it's job quite well, despite the general tiredness. ("Will Tom play baseball on Sunday?" and so forth). I did a gambling game with the 3rd years that went over great! They guessed yes/no from a list of things like "Does Melissa know how to cook sushi?" and "Does Melissa know how to play the guitar?" then bet on it all to demonstrate the phrase "how to." There were a couple of snags in explaining the rules and how the bets would work (everyone got "$50"), but they got into it and loved the pennies I gave out as a reward. The 1st years' "What did you have for breakfast" name Bingo also worked well. It took a long time because they were very concerned about spelling their breakfasts, dinners and names correctly, but there was just enough time. They liked the pennies so much, they were comparing years and several came up and checked out the other pennies in my roll and sometimes exchanged theirs for shinier ones. Tomomi-sensei was impressed by the Roll of Pennies and wondered where I got it.

      Today is a First For the first time since school started, it has not been unbearably hot in the classrooms! Yay! In fact, I was not even sweating until late afternoon. Autumn cometh at last!

      Janken Battle, Live in the Lunch Room I've been trying to eat in the lunchroom with the students when I can, although I'm a bit shy about it. I haven't been brave enough to sit with the 9th graders yet, but I've had a couple good conversations with 1st and 2nd years. Anyway, after the Doling Out of the Food, there were three leftover frozen fruit desserts. Who would get them? Three 3rd year boys and three 2nd year boys stood around the table and did a super fast rock-paper-scissors battle to see who would get them. I've never seen janken go so fast. All six did it again and again, non-stop. I think they were waiting until one team won ENTIRELY over the other team on one shot. It took about a minute, but eventually the 2nd years won.

      Japan Plan! There are confirmed reservations for a Thanksgiving visit to Japan! Yay! Can't wait 'til November!

      * * STUPID CAR THING OF THE DAY * * This is the Stupid Thing of the Day to end all Stupid Things of the Day. Here's what happened: I was driving in Miyoshi. I missed my left turn, so I decided to take the next turn. Unfortunately, the next turn was a parking lot that is always busy, so I went on to the next one. This was not quite a road, but more a long driveway into apartments. It did look like it went through, though, so I drove on the windy, narrow road slowly. This road was barely wide enough for my car so I was scared another car would come. I was almost at the end when, you guessed it, another car came. Since there was a bridge between us, I figured I should try to pull over before the bridge since it did not look like the other car was going to stop. I started to pull over and I heard a terrible scratching sound and felt the car tilt slightly. I HAD JUST SIDESWIPED A POLE! I sort of vaguely knew the pole was there, but did not realize the side of my car was so close to it. The painfully ironic part of all this is that the car made a right turn BEFORE even crossing the bridge so my attempt to pull to the side was UNNECESSARY. Getting back from the pole was even harder since no matter what direction I went, I scratched my car. I finally just did it, wincing all the way. Luckily, my side view mirror is hinged to bend inwards so was unharmed when I went out to check. I had scratched up my car pretty bad. However, the dentage was very slight. The frame seemed unharmed and I could still open and close my doors. But boy, what an IDIOT I am!

      Japanese Class Iwato-sensei was late, but made it. We decided afterward to not meet during Miyoshi rush hour. I learned that she used to be an English teacher (and had an ALT and the whole works)! I had no idea. I also found out that she did not know the Japanese verb patterns I learned in Japanese class, she just knows from experience how to speak correctly. She was surprised when I showed her that, indeed, Japanese verbs that end in -bu, -mu, or -nu have a -nda past tense. She was even more surprised when I sung her the little song that accompanied it. I guess it is the same for me and English. Teaching English has alerted me to language patterns I simply never noticed.

    Wednesday, Sept 17, 2003

      IN A NUTSHELL: My First Eikaiwa (English Conversation Class)

      How Do You Say Taj Mahal in Japanese? I had lots of fun today preparing for my Elementary School lesson on famous buildings around the world. I looked up lot of my favorites on greatbuildings.com and printed some pictures out. Since architecture is my hobby anyway, I was having far too much fun doing something I would do in my free time anyway. I'm not sure if the kids will have as much fun as I did, but I hope so.

      I Will Get the Internet if it Kills Me I want ASDL! Wanting to be online at home is reaching breaking point here. I did some searching and found this web site where I could fill out a form in English and the request will be transferred and translated and sent to Frets, an ASDL service. One of the items on the form said "Phone owner" Since I don't actually own my phone, I asked Kato-san who did. She was pretty sure it was Sakugi-son, but then asked what I was wanting. When I told her it was for internet, she gave me this pamphlet she had about internet services. It was in Japanese but it was the same company (Frets) and it looked like it had a deal going. She said to ask Nosohara-san since apparently she knew a lot about home internet connections. Oh, side note, I'm noticing (since I do not see her as much now) that Kato-san is indeed getting bigger. I think her baby is due in a month or two.

      Melissa Mochi? At the Nursery School today was Sports Day Practice. The front door was locked so I had to wander around to the back to get in. I changed into my shorts and T-shirt and joined the organized sports day activities (including Pet-bottle obstacle course). It was easier for me since it was less chaotic... until afterwards, anyway. There was playtime in between practice and lunch and I sat with one class in particular. I got some stickers put on my arm and got the comments that my legs (easily seen due to my shorts) were 'white' and looked like mochi. Mochi is like a flattened ball of white rice paste that tastes kind of bland but is used on a lot on holidays. It would have been insulting, but it's kind of true. Anyway, I didn't care that much. The pervy kid was there and made another inappropriate comment I think but I didn't really understand it. I almost ended up sitting next to him at lunch by accident but he had went to the nurse with a fever. I forgot to bring rice today (do'h!) but the nice lady made me some.

      Party Fee I'm just wondering. If this is MY welcome party coming up on Friday, then why do I have to contribute? I really do not mind putting in my share (in this case 4000 yen), but um, this is a party for me, isn't it?

      Miscommunication So I asked Nosohara-sensei about the internet thing and she told me to ask the kyouikuiinkai. I told her, a bit exasperated, "They told me to ask you." So she called them. Then she made another phone call and I was excited, thinking she would actually help me get this done, and right now to boot! She made all these calls then told me afterward, "Yes." I was like, "Yes, what?" Then I realized that she was just giving me permission. I didn't need permission! I need it done!

      English Conversation! Tonight was my first Eikaiwa class. I showed up at the bunka center at 7, not really sure what to expect. I ended up with 6 out of 10 possible students (one is Maruyama-san!) of various ages. Mostly women and mostly beginner. I started with a quick exercise called 'What's your favorite English word?' that I borrowed out of an activity book somewhere. I ended up with 'peace,' 'angel,' 'cake,' 'animal,' 'heart,' and 'love' then proceeded to make a sentence out of it. Then I did my intro activity (where everyone introduced someone else). It worked pretty well I think. I'm amazed how much quicker adults pick things up. I was talking a lot more English than I do at school, but they understood fine. It was a fairly casual atmosphere (they loved the tea I brought in to drink during break) but I think it was too low-energy. I felt a sense of incompletion at the end like I hadn't gotten everyone's blood moving and English flowing. They enjoyed looking at the magazines I brought (One woman seemed particularly interested in the Newsweek "Is Gay Marriage Next?" article. Maybe too controversial? Or maybe it was indeed interesting for her. Who knows.) Anyway, for my very first class of that sort, I think it went decent. I had some pictures taken of me by Arikawa-san and wonder where they are going to end up. I hope I can improve the energy of the class next week.

    Thursday, Sept 18, 2003

      IN A NUTSHELL: Calling New York...

      Morning Croquet Across the street from my driveway is a vacant lot and I found out that some of the retired folks in the area get together to play croquet every Tuesday and Thursday at 7:00 am I think. I talked to one briefly. I thought she called it gateball which I thought was something different, but maybe not. It was really cute to watch them when I go to work in the morning.

      On Our Own Tomomi-sensei was out sick today (which might explain why he left copies of what he planned to do today in class on my desk the previous day) so me and Nosohara did the elective class on our own. I asked what would happen if he was gone tomorrow, but she assured me that he would not be. I asked her how I could plan for tomorrow's lessons when I did not know what they were going to be, but she told me it could not be helped and not to worry because we had first period to discuss the classes (which were during second and third period). That made me feel a little better but I had this feeling that first period tomorrow could potentially be stressful.

      I Never Expected My English To Be That Useful I was sitting at my desk when Moriguchi-san (the secretary) said I had a phone call from Komazawa-sensei. He is Kate's teacher and the one who set me up with Japanese lessons in Miyoshi. I thought he might be calling to say the class was cancelled or something, but no. He had a favor to ask. Apparently a woman he knew had a daughter who was living in the U.S. but did not have a phone. According to him, she needed desperately to get in touch with her daughter, but she only had the phone number of the apartment complex manager. He was calling to ask me to call this number in New York and tell the manager to tell the daughter to please call her mother. (Confused yet? I was.) To make it even more confusing, the woman apparently went by a nickname. Of course I wanted to help, so I repeated all the names and numbers back to him to make sure I was getting it right. I called the phone number in New York (and am quite glad I decided to have Worldlink international activated on my mobile) and got the message machine of a fellow who may or may not have been an apartment manager. Hoping it was the right fellow, I left a really long message on his machine, telling him the number (including country code) of this woman's mother's cell phone in Japan and using both the name and the nickname and hoping that he would figure out what I was talking about. I did not know his name, so I felt weird addressing my message with "I'm trying to reach an apartment manager." I called Komazawa back and told him that I left the message but that if it is a work number then he might not get the message until tomorrow since it was after business hours in New York. He said that was fine, but seemed disappointed. I said I would call again and, after an hour or so, I called New York one more time and the fellow answered. Apparently not only did he understand my long message, but he found the girl and she was able to get in touch with her mother! He asked if I wanted to talk to her, but I said no. If I had, though, I might have found out what this was all about. I never did. The fact that a message that went through three strangers in two countries got through okay is pretty amazing in itself. Anyway, later, Moriguchi-san told me Komazawa had called back to say Thank You Very Much so it all must have worked out okay!

      Prepositions and Particles Me and Tomoko had a good meeting. First of all, it did not interrupt my Thursday Night "Jogging and TV" tenative plan. Secondly, I felt it went really well. We talked about the problems she had differentiating 'on', 'in', and 'at' and I told her about my similar problems with 'ni', 'de', and 'made'. I made a list of correct and incorrect usages (like saying On Sunday, not At Sunday is correct but contrarily saying On 2:00 is wrong, the correct way being At 2:00). I also tried to explain the difference between would, could, and should. Very subtle, that one.

    Friday, Sept 19, 2003

      IN A NUTSHELL: Melf's Super Lesson!

      Its the "How Fast Can I Plan a Lesson?" Game Show, Starring Me Tomomi-sensei came to my desk the next morning and said not to worry about 3rd years since he has something planned but if I could come up with something for the 2nd years that would be good. The classes were back to back in an hour. The grammar point for the 2nd years was "Must." I have sixty minutes. Ready, Set, Go! The first fifteen minutes is me flipping through the activity books and old lessons left for me. I did find a 'Must' activity resembling a cryptogram; interesting idea but I did not think it would be good for today. I wanted to them to have to repeat it and understand the meaning. Must, Must, Must. What can I do with Must? 9:00 now. Forty minutes. I started scribbling on piece of paper and thought maybe that game board I saw a few weeks ago in one of my predecessor's books might work for Must. I asked Tomomi-sensei if he had dice. He had four, so I started doing my own. I drew a big double-S on a piece of paper and made spaces in between that students would land on and do an activity. I tried to remember what kind of things my predecessor wanted them to do. I put things like "You Must Clap Your Hands" and "You Must Say 'I Must Study'" and "You Must Not Smile for 5 Seconds." I also put lots of "You Must Go Back 2 Spaces" kind of things on the board. It did not look bad, so I markered in the pencil and showed it to Tomomi-sensei and asked if it would be too hard. He did not think so. Yay. So I made copies and even had 10 minutes to spare.

      English Tape Actors Having a Little Too Much Fun During the 3rd years' listening activities, I had to keep myself from cracking up. We were listening to dialogues about people buying and selling items of clothes and they had to figure out which item out of the two listed was being talked about. Only I do not think they realized that, in the sweater dialogue, the two actors were being quite silly. First, the 'store clerk' put on his game-show-host casanova voice and said "Welcome, miss. Is there anything I can help you with?" Then the woman said "How much is this sweater" in a deep, sexy voice. The whole dialogue was like that. It was very amusing. The Texas accent on jeans salesman was funny as well. I was surprised how natural the dialogues were and how much personality was in them. I thought they were a bit fast for 3rd years, though. It was completely normal-speed English.

      My Must Game Worked! I am currently on top of the world. So, if you need to mail me a letter, that's where I'll be. My game, the Must Game I made up in ten minutes in a panic, completely rocked! The 2nd years LOVED it! Apparently, my hand-drawn board game is like a Japanese game called "Sugoroku" or something so almost no explanation was needed. I split them up in four groups (having four dice) and they used their own counters. These kids have all sorts of hilarious knickknacks in their pencil cases - I wish I had brought a camera. After checking a few vocab words, they were off! One boy was hilarious as he tried not to smile for five seconds. Sometimes they were too involved in the game to remember to do the Musts but me and Tomomi-sensei walked around and most kept it up the majority of the time. I was walking around for pure amusement value toward the end. Instead of accepting any number to get to the end space, they counted the number until the end, then went backwards the remaining amount, which meant the game went on awhile and they had to do the activities toward the end ("You Must Hum") a lot. I noticed that the teams immediately started the game over again after they finished. Too cool! They liked it! Having the "You Must Say 'Must, Must, Must'" instruction was a great idea - I think they will remember that word quite well now. WHEE!

      Jicho-san is the Best I had no more classes, so after lunch I asked if I could go to the kyouikuiinkai (i.e. board of education at the bunka center). My purpose was to get this internet thing going now or never since apparently Nosohara-sensei could not help. I asked Kato-san who asked Jicho-san who told me that ASDL could not be done in Sakugi but that ISDN could. Then he, wonderfully and beautifully, MADE THE CALL TO NTT for me! My frightened look at the prospect of having to make the call myself in Japanese must have worked. He talked to someone for awhile on the phone (I could NEVER have done this in Japanese) and he found out a bunch of prices for me. It was expensive. The monthly fee for the line, the access, and the ISP is about $60 a month. Then there's installation and the Box. Jicho-san not only made the next call for me about getting a provider, but he also made another phone call and afterward told me that they would pay for the installation! I didn't even bring that up! I told him that despite the cost, I was willing to pay, but he totally offered! How awesome is Jicho-san!

      Some Explaining Takata-san (and she's not the only one) noticed the scratch on my car. I went through an entire visual explanation of how my car got the scratch. I'm not THAT upset about it because it is an old car, it does not affect anything important and, it's not like I'm planning to sell this car for a lot or indeed any money, so my explanation was pretty light-hearted and they got a kick out of the fact that the other car turned before it even came close. I wonder how much more explaining I shall have to do...

      The Truth About My Plaza So during the interims in the office while we were waiting on phone call returns, Takata-san showed me a picture of her from twenty years ago in Sakugi magazine. She was probably in her early twenties. It was cute. Apparently, Sakugi had more residents back then. She also showed me the draft of the latest Sakugi magazine. Jicho-san (how much does he rock!) fixed up my Japanese. I found out why Tamura asked for it in Photoshop. Apparently, they send all the info in the magazine to some other company, who re-types it all and formats it. Ah. That explains the typo in my English part (which Word would have caught immediately) and possibly the typos in my predecessor's pages. But I still need more Japanese fonts on my computer if they want me to put it in Photoshop. I also caught at the last second that the contents page still said "Hajimemashite" which means "Nice to meet you" at my page. Nope, I've met everyone now. So does this mystery company know to change that or will Tamura-san change it first.

      Welcome Party Okumiya-san drove me to my welcome party at a restaurant in Miyoshi. She showed me where the city office parking lot was and it seems I can park there for free if it is not during business hours. Good to know! We were maybe a couple minutes late, but several people were already gathered and sitting along the low square table on the tatami. Except for Nosohara-san, all were men and I did not recognize two. Moriguchi-san showed up shortly after then finally the principal showed up, still in a suit. By this point, lots of food had arrived, but we had not touched any of it. First, we had to do a kampai, so we waited for drinks. Then, when the oolong tea (for the drivers) and beer (for everyone else) arrived, everyone moved from their comfortable cross-legged position to a more upright position on their knees, sitting on their feet. I followed suit, realizing that people had always done this at dinner parties before and I never made a point of noticing it. It turns out that this was mine as well as the Art Teacher's welcome party, which might explain why I had to contribute. I was mentally preparing to make a 'thank you' speech, but amazingly, I did not have to say anything! Everyone said "Cheers!" (randomly in English!) and then we started eating. The conversation did get louder as the night went on and more drinks had been served, but in general, it was a very low key party. I spent most of the time talking to Moriguchi and Okumiya (who has also lived in New Zealand) and I realized that although I was talking a lot, my Japanese does need a bit of work. I found out that most everyone lives in Miyoshi or Shobara and commutes to Sakugi. (I think I was the only one there who actually lives in Sakugi.) I asked why Moriguchi-san chose Sakugi and she told me that she did not choose it, she was assigned to it, as are most people who work under the Education Ministry. Okumiya-san, for example, worked at Shobara Middle School last year which has 600 kids. Quite a change. I suppose there would be very few teachers available in Sakugi if no one was assigned there.

      Purple Sweet Potatoes I am finally getting the hang of Japanese dinner parties. I now know that more food is always coming (even if it takes awhile) so I do not need to fill up on what is front of me. I did better this time avoiding the fried chicken, but I wish they had more Purple Sweet Potatoes from Okinawa. Yum. Toward the end, Okumiya-san had everyone go around the table and introduce themselves and that was a lot of fun. Lots of laughter. I think the other fellow I did not recognize is the one who designed the Sakugi home page! I told them that I used that page a lot before I came and that I had a home page. It would be way cool if I could do an English version of the Sakugi page, but we never got around to talking about that. Dessert was served (a mini piece of cheesecake and a mini scoop of ice cream made the large grape on the plate look especially large) and after eating, we did a final kampai (the principal said "kampei" instead of "kampai" and had Moriguchi-san in stitches. I am very curious to what he meant.) and then filed outside.

      Karaoke Bar I have a feeling Nosohara-san asked Okumiya-san to take me karaokeing (since she knew I liked it). Okumiya called her husband and we met up with him. Since it was Friday night and regular karaoke places were packed, she took me to a hole in the wall bar that happened to have karaoke (like the Sakugi one). I was not really keen on karaokeing here because the whole reason I like to karaoke in Japan is that you don't sing in front of strangers. There were three locals sitting on the other side of the bar. I kind of unenthusiastically looked through the book (someday, somewhere, they will have Barenaked Ladies songs) but Okumiya sensed I was hazukashii (embarrassed). We chatted for about twenty minutes and the jovial bartender served us these yummy bacon-wrapped-around-asparagus things. I had a ginger ale and eventually worked myself up to singing a song. I sung a Japanese song called Brilliant World since that went over pretty well at the Sakugi welcome party. I'm sure my voice was awful, but I remembered most of the kanji. I must have broken the karaoke ice since as soon as I had sung, one of the guys at the other end sung, then Okumiya joined in, then her husband, then someone else on the other end. It was non-stop singing suddenly even though it was quiet for the first twenty minutes we were there. The bartender was very cool into getting people into it. He had lots of Latin music accompaniment like a tambourine, one of those things you shake that has sand in it, and palm clappers. Okumiya drove me home and although it was nice of her to 'let me have the opportunity to drink' I really would not have minded driving myself. She told me that the before the tunnel to Sakugi was built, people who worked in Sakugi lived in Sakugi since commuting over the pass was almost impossible in winter. (Winter driving on narrow streets is something I'm kind of concerned about, but I do have snow tires.)

    Saturday, Sept 20, 2003

      IN A NUTSHELL: Bees

      Finding the Beehive I was spraying the front of my house with a spray hose the other day and when I sprayed the underside of the roof over my bike, I realized I was spraying into a whole bunch of bees sitting so close together that I thought that section of was a different color. I was kind of freaked (despite never having seen a bee inside my house) so sprayed them until they were all on the grass. They were funny bees. They were kind of long and did not buzz really. Maybe they were wasps or something. Anyway, they kept trying to get back up onto my porch and I did not understand why. Well, now I understand. I was walking in that area and I saw a small hive up there. The bees were gone, but I did not like that hive there so I sprayed that down, too.

    Sunday, Sept 21, 2003

      IN A NUTSHELL: Hoikusho Undokai (Nursery School Sports Day)

      Matching Hats! I went to the nursery school this morning to watch their undokai (sports day). I helped them practice last time I was at the nursery school, so I kind of wanted to watch. I also felt like I should participate since the Junior High isn't doing their undokai until next June and I would normally participate in that, according to what other JETs tell me. (I think, in retrospect, that it was good to make an appearence.) It was also GORGEOUS weather outside. Low 80s, sunny, with a nice breeze. I arrived just in time and, as is usual when a foreigner in Japan, I could not enter discreetly. I passed all the lined up kids and they very cutely said "Melissa-san, Melissa-san!" and the teachers seemed surprised (happy?) that I showed up. "Oh, Melissa-san ga kimashita." (Oh, Melissa came!) I sat with the Maruyamas since they had an extra spot on their blanket. The kids were adorable! Each age is in a different class (like rabbit class, panda class, etc) and each wears a different color hat. The oldest class wore blue hats, the panda class wore yellow hats, then pink hats, then the youngest in red hats. There is between 8 and 15 kids per class. They did lots of races and running around. As I might have guessed, I got roped into participating in both a silly basketball game where we threw beanbags into a basket hanging on the back of a guy who tried to dodge us as well as the ending dance which I had done before so I sort of knew. When I did the dance, one of the nursery school staff said into the mike that I came to the nursery school every Wednesday and that I was a pleasant addition. I thought that was pretty nice. Erik was also participating in an undokai today (though not voluntarily like me) and so we were exchanging text messages.

      Nursery School Sports Day (notice matching blue hats)

      Minor Tragedy of the Day I lost my chapstick!

      Samurai Movie I figure that whenever someone goes through the trouble to give me a pamphlet of the latest happenings at the bunka center, I should try to show up. So, after spending some nice internet time, I went to the showing of a samurai movie. Apparently, movies at the bunka center cost something comparable to a movie, but for some reason, the board of education paid and let viewers watch for free. I couldn't read the kanji well enough to understand the title, but the movie was fairly interesting. I kept spacing out, but the parts I paid attention to looked interesting. I heard the Japanese was kind of archaic, so it would probably have been hard to follow, anyway, if I had made the effort. The main samurai actor was way neat, though. I'm kind of curious to see it with subtitles.

    Monday, Sept 22, 2003