Monday started with a bang at the Kitakyushu YMCA. I had my first real Japanese language class. Considering I knew about 5 words coming to Japan, I feel a tad better about the language thing. Now I can recognize some of the kana (they have 3 'alphabets') - hiragana, katakana, and kanji. The instructor was pretty understanding but I still felt bad asking questions because I thought I was holding the rest of the beginning level class up (even though the rest were all fellow ALTs). That afternoon, after class, I went ahead and did all of the extra exercises just for practice. Keep in mind that this current dedication to Japanese will be on hiatus from whenever I get my GRE study books till Oct. 25th when I actually take the test. The other highlights of the day included getting my SoftBank cell phone bill switched from my credit card to my new Fukuoka Bank account. I also got an ATM card that I can only use at ATMs - they don't believe in debit cards here which is already driving me crazy.
Tuesday began with another 3.5 hour Japanese class. In the afternoon, we had a special musical extravaganza. Our group went to this musical hall where about 80 people were each stationed in front of this string instrument. I never figured out what it was called but it was a big dark piece of wood laying horizontally on a stand about a foot off the ground. There were about 15 strings strung across it and you had to put these little plastic things on the tips of 3 of your fingers to play it. We sat in on the giant music lesson and then got to try it ourselves. My history of being musically talent-less continued. Nothing major after work except that a senior ALT decided to start texting me in Japanese to ask about my birthday plans. Good thing I was at home so that I could rip apart my Japanese handouts from class along with my dicitonary in order to translate all the things he said.
Wednesday = my 22nd birthday! Upon arriving for work, I was surprised with a huge chocolate bar, a cute pink tote bag, and more Japanese candy. We spent the day at a conference center where we attended a seminar all about team teaching with Japanese Teachers of English (JTEs). We got to watch examples of 3 different styles of team teaching and act as the Japanese junior high students. Then we met in groups and talked about what we liked and what we didn't like. I thought it was fun! After we got off, we all headed back home before the night's activities.
Later that night, 13 of the other 15 ALTs met me for dinner at Capricciosa, an Italian restaurant at the Riverwalk complex. Dinner was a blast - even our Japanese prefectural advisor came. She is just too cute! She brought me a bunch of freshly-cut flowers and gave me a big hug. Our ALT PA showed up with colorful jewelry and a sparkly 'Birthday Princess' crown for me to wear the rest of the night. Needless to say, I loved it. The food was fantastic and the company was even better:) The night's festivities continued with 7 of us going out for nomihoudai karaoke for 2 hours. And yes, I sang my favorite song of all time - Toto's 'Africa'. All that was missing was my SAS'er crew with me! We then decided to move on to a tiny bar called Round 5 owned by Bob from San Francisco. More karaoke there followed. The night ended with sitting on the floor and enjoying ramen and rice in this whole in the wall place. I walked into my apartment a few minutes before 4am, Skyped my parents, and gchatted some friends before going to bed at 5:30.
Luckily, we didn't have to be ready to go to the two-day International Camp until ten till noon. Hence, the reason people were able to celebrate with me! This camp was being put on by the city and we were going as international liasons to simply help out the kiddies. This was right up my alley! The attendees were all Japanese kids moving back to Japan from abroad or non-Japanese kids, who spoke other languages, living in Japan. The first activity was a pseudo-scavenger hunt where we had to walk 4.2 kilometers in our assigned groups to finding these big blocks hidden in the trees. My group full of little girls was great. Four of them especially latched onto me. Examples) one tried to throw she huge dead bug at me once she realized I wouldn't like it...another one would pick up things from the ground and tell me what it was in Japanese to help improve my language skills. Oh to be six years old again! After that, we had a bit of break, ate dinner, and the ALTs led an activity that had the kids flying around like Scotland dragons and hopping like Australian kangaroos. Obviously, we had to incorporate the international aspect (where we were all from) into the activity. And that night, I introduced the game of Mafia to the other ALTs and it was an instant hit. Thank you, SEP!
Other random things from the camp....I met a Japanese guy who studied architecture at ODU in Norfolk for three years as well as another guy who attended UVa for a year. Yes, my world continues to get smaller from here. Some of the kids attending the camp were originally from Virginia and their aunt was visiting from Richmond. I told one Japanese coordinator I was from Seattle and she says, 'Seattle?! I went to Seattle last year....to see Ichiro.' The Ichiro never gets old and I want to bust up laughing every time. Apparently, the kids' favorite part of camp that night was the communal bath, though not coed. None of the ALTs participated in this Japanese tradition but the kids were allll about it.
The next morning was, by far, my favorite. It was time for morning exercises. This consisted of playing a cassette tape, in English, that sounded like it was made in the 1950's. We were directed to do various stretches and jumping jacks among other things. It was a total riot and looking around the rest of the ALTs, we were all trying hard not to laugh. I wish I could have video-ed the thing. Then, we went off to our designated morning activities. Mine was leather crafts where we made keychains. The rainbow one I made seemed to a big hit and all the little girls were obsessed with it. Maybe it was all the bright colors? Post-activity, we headed back on the bus. The majority of the ALTs ended up being on my bus and we were able to play two rounds of Mafia.
I spent the rest of my free Friday afternoon getting my gaijin (foreigner registration) card and re-entry permit. Now, I can leave the country and actually get back in. I must also say that my gaijin card is pretty snazzy and it has temporarily replaced my WA Driver's License as my primary form of ID here. Another ALT and I then hit up the biggest bookstore in town and Muji, kind of like Old Navy but with household goods too. That's when it started pouring rain. So we left our bikes in place and walked under a covered maze of shops and restaurants downtown. We were finally able to ride back home at around 7 but we saw that we needed to make a quick detour.
We noticed that the TOTO Company was holding some sort of community festival so we jumped right in. Lots of cheap authentic food stalls, music, dancing, toys, and games. We were looking at this one kind of food for awhile, trying to figure out what it was when a Japanese woman came up and started speaking to me in English. Turns out she is an English teacher at a private school here in Kitakyushu. As soon as she found out I was an ALT, she wanted to know which school and I had to again say that I didn't know yet. She explained all about the food we were staring at and I got a free sample. Then, she insisted on taking me to another food stall to try a few other foods. Our time together ended with her insisted on exchanging numbers so that she could call me in order to get together to teach each other English and Japanese. What a productive day!
Yesterday, another ALT and I ventured over to Mojiko Retro Town within the Kitakyushu ward of Moji, still within the city limits, but we had to take a 15-minute train to get there. Mojiko is home to the Old Moji Mitsui Club, an hangout of Albert Einstein in the 1920's. We wandered into that and met an old Japanese man who studied at Michigan and Indiana State when he was in college. Mojiko is also known for discounted bananas so I was ecstatic to get 6 oranges and 5 bananas for 300 yen or $3. Fruit is considered a luxury and it's so expensive here :( We also bumped into some kind of dancing festival with a million high school-aged kids, complete with music. My favorite part of the day was lunch at Le Cafe, right on the water. Their yaki-curry was delicious and we got to meet the legendary Mr. Clive, this old guy from London who has worked there the past 8 years. Now that's what I call a hit!
Today was another lazy Sunday but it wasn't meant to be. I accidentally set my alarm for 10pm instead of 10am and woke up at a quarter till noon. I had these grandiose plans to go over to Green Park in the Wakamatsu ward but they were instantly nixed because of the limited bus schedule. Instead, I caught up with the parental units and a few friends, did my laundry, went grocery shopping, and wrote my thank-you notes. All in all, I'd call it a catch-up day.
Tomorrow is my last Japanese class at the YMCA. Let's hope I can get through it!
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