I hope everyone in the states enjoys turkey day. It will go completely uncelebrated here. There was a much smaller holiday on Tuesday though, Labor Thanksgiving Day. It used to be a Shinto harvest festival in which the Emperor would dedicate the year's crops to spirits. Postwar, it was decided that the holiday should represent Japan's new constitution's move towards human and worker's rights. I guess that translates to everyone gets off work Tuesday with no fun traditions like the National Dog Show, because that's what everyone thinks of when they think about Thanksgiving.
The past couple of weeks have been a different schedule than usual. The teachers have had conferences with the students and their parents after school every day. Last week, all classes were shortened by five minutes, the cleaning period that happens at the end of school was moved to after lunch, and school ended after fifth period. This week, classes were normal length but school still ended after fifth period. Both weeks, all after school activities were canceled. Regardless of this, I had to stay at school until 5:00 every day. This meant that on several occasions, school ended at 2:00 and I had three hours to spend working on activities that it took about half an hour to plan.
Thankfully, tomorrow we will be back to regular schedule. Other than that, I don't have much to report. Maybe I can take this weekend to get around Mito with my camera, which I've forgotten every other time I've gone sightseeing. There's not much to see, really, but I can see what I can find. Until then, be thankful for something you have that I don't have access to. (I'd suggest either affordable dairy products or Mexican food).
Thursday, November 25, 2010
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Mostly About Food
Well, I seem to be failing to keep to my schedule. As such, this is going to be a bit long, so feel free to skip down past the festival description to find what's probably the most interesting bit (the pictures of the school lunches).
It has now been two weeks since the festival. I took quite a few pictures of the proceedings. However, as I was about to post them here the following day, a friend informed me that it is in fact illegal to put any pictures containing students online and pictures of teachers can only be posted with their express consent. So, I'll just have to make do with a typed account.
As I may have mentioned, I had Tuesday the second of November off to make up for having to attend on the sixth. School started at the normal time (8:15) and the students went to homeroom and the first three periods on Tuesday's schedule. Then there was some more time in homeroom followed by lunch. Below is a picture of what the teachers had for lunch. The miso soup was good, but the sushi and soba were not as good as the lunches here tend to be.
After lunch, students went to the rooms they had decided to spend the next three hours in. There were 22 rooms, each with a different subject. Most were led by someone from the community. In each room, the students and some of their parents worked on projects. The subjects ranged from traditional things like tea ceremony and stone stamp carving to things like making waffles or doing yoga. The science room really stole the show at the end of the day. They spent their time making water rockets (which they made out of two liter bottles and launched using bicycle pumps) which they were launching for the last hour or so across the sports field behind the school. Some of them could clear the entire field while others made it about ten feet before slamming into the ground. It was fun to watch. I spent the day moving from room to room to see what each group was working on. I was allowed to try serving tea in the 茶道 (sado-tea ceremony) room. That was an interesting experience, as the woman explained what I should be doing in very fast and polite Japanese, both of which made it difficult to understand what she was telling me to do. I managed to not scald anyone though, so that's a plus.
So that was the 6th. I then had Sunday off, as per usual, and then launched into another full week. Below are the meals I managed to photograph. It turned out to be difficult to do as I was attempting to do so without being seen weirdly taking pictures of my food. I've started eating with the students, which as given me the opportunity to be alone while in transit so I can take pictures, so my apologies if they're not too clear.
This was last Tuesday's lunch. Monday I ate in the staffroom (where I always have to get my tray of food) so I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. This was a pretty standard meal. We always get milk and we usually get rice in a tin box. We also always get a bowl of vegetable products and another bowl of something, usually soup. It seems Tuesday was Miso. Also, Tuesday I was lucky enough to get the little cup in the bottom right. It's one of Mito's famous products: natto. Natto is fermented soybeans that tastes worse than it smells, which really says something. So far, it's the only thing I've been served that I couldn't finish.
Wednesday must have been the day that there were people in the hall everywhere between the staffroom and the classroom I ate in, because the picture above is of Thursday's meal. Again, we had milk, vegetables, and a soup broth. However, Thursday we had noodles instead of rice. The noodles were put directly from their packet into the broth, though only about half of them would fit in the bowl at one time. I remember this being pretty tasty.
Friday's lunch was an apple, another vegetable medley, milk and gyudon. Gyudon is a dish made up of thin strips of meat, onion, and other goodies on top of a bowl of rice. There are a lot of gyudon chains in Japan, and they're all pretty cheap. I think one chain, Yoshinoya, has even made it to America. I think they have one in Times Square, so next time you're in New York you might consider trying it.
Sadly, someone started to come around the corner as I was taking this, so it came out blurry. Sorry about that. Regardless, Monday's lunch was a bit odd. We were served a sort of bean chili, which I was surprised to see, along with our vegetables and milk. We had bread instead of rice (making it the third time I've had a meal without rice at the school, both of the others are also pictured in this post). The bread was kind of strange. It was a weird mix of sugary and salty which I don't know I've ever encountered with bread. Anyway, the chili was unexpected, but it was ok.
Finally, today's meal. We were fed a thick soup of some kind along with the vegetable bowl, today smother in dressing. As I'm not the biggest salad dressing fan, I could have done without. However, Japanese dressing seems to be lighter than American dressing, so I didn't have any problem with it. As I mentioned before, we're encouraged to eat everything on our trays to set a good example for the kids, though that can be difficult to do when they're talking to you and you're trying to figure out what they want to say and tell them how best to say it. So far, I've only had to be told by the homeroom teacher (teachers always eat with their homerooms) that time was up and I needed to be finished.
All in all, I think the lunches are pretty tasty. In any event, the food here is miles beyond what I used to get at my middle school. Also, they're not at all what I expected. I'm not sure what I was expecting out of Japanese public school lunch, but chili never crossed my mind.
Well, I think that's all for this post. I wrote more for the blog on paper at school today, but I think I'll save it for later in the week as this post has already dragged on for a while. I hope you enjoyed the food pictures. I think it's a pretty representative sample of what I've had there so far. Sometime I'll take get a few pictures of the inside of the sushi restaurant near me. But, I think that's all for now. More coming soon, I promise.
It has now been two weeks since the festival. I took quite a few pictures of the proceedings. However, as I was about to post them here the following day, a friend informed me that it is in fact illegal to put any pictures containing students online and pictures of teachers can only be posted with their express consent. So, I'll just have to make do with a typed account.
As I may have mentioned, I had Tuesday the second of November off to make up for having to attend on the sixth. School started at the normal time (8:15) and the students went to homeroom and the first three periods on Tuesday's schedule. Then there was some more time in homeroom followed by lunch. Below is a picture of what the teachers had for lunch. The miso soup was good, but the sushi and soba were not as good as the lunches here tend to be.
After lunch, students went to the rooms they had decided to spend the next three hours in. There were 22 rooms, each with a different subject. Most were led by someone from the community. In each room, the students and some of their parents worked on projects. The subjects ranged from traditional things like tea ceremony and stone stamp carving to things like making waffles or doing yoga. The science room really stole the show at the end of the day. They spent their time making water rockets (which they made out of two liter bottles and launched using bicycle pumps) which they were launching for the last hour or so across the sports field behind the school. Some of them could clear the entire field while others made it about ten feet before slamming into the ground. It was fun to watch. I spent the day moving from room to room to see what each group was working on. I was allowed to try serving tea in the 茶道 (sado-tea ceremony) room. That was an interesting experience, as the woman explained what I should be doing in very fast and polite Japanese, both of which made it difficult to understand what she was telling me to do. I managed to not scald anyone though, so that's a plus.So that was the 6th. I then had Sunday off, as per usual, and then launched into another full week. Below are the meals I managed to photograph. It turned out to be difficult to do as I was attempting to do so without being seen weirdly taking pictures of my food. I've started eating with the students, which as given me the opportunity to be alone while in transit so I can take pictures, so my apologies if they're not too clear.
This was last Tuesday's lunch. Monday I ate in the staffroom (where I always have to get my tray of food) so I didn't get a chance to take a picture of it. This was a pretty standard meal. We always get milk and we usually get rice in a tin box. We also always get a bowl of vegetable products and another bowl of something, usually soup. It seems Tuesday was Miso. Also, Tuesday I was lucky enough to get the little cup in the bottom right. It's one of Mito's famous products: natto. Natto is fermented soybeans that tastes worse than it smells, which really says something. So far, it's the only thing I've been served that I couldn't finish.
Wednesday must have been the day that there were people in the hall everywhere between the staffroom and the classroom I ate in, because the picture above is of Thursday's meal. Again, we had milk, vegetables, and a soup broth. However, Thursday we had noodles instead of rice. The noodles were put directly from their packet into the broth, though only about half of them would fit in the bowl at one time. I remember this being pretty tasty.
Friday's lunch was an apple, another vegetable medley, milk and gyudon. Gyudon is a dish made up of thin strips of meat, onion, and other goodies on top of a bowl of rice. There are a lot of gyudon chains in Japan, and they're all pretty cheap. I think one chain, Yoshinoya, has even made it to America. I think they have one in Times Square, so next time you're in New York you might consider trying it.
Sadly, someone started to come around the corner as I was taking this, so it came out blurry. Sorry about that. Regardless, Monday's lunch was a bit odd. We were served a sort of bean chili, which I was surprised to see, along with our vegetables and milk. We had bread instead of rice (making it the third time I've had a meal without rice at the school, both of the others are also pictured in this post). The bread was kind of strange. It was a weird mix of sugary and salty which I don't know I've ever encountered with bread. Anyway, the chili was unexpected, but it was ok.
Finally, today's meal. We were fed a thick soup of some kind along with the vegetable bowl, today smother in dressing. As I'm not the biggest salad dressing fan, I could have done without. However, Japanese dressing seems to be lighter than American dressing, so I didn't have any problem with it. As I mentioned before, we're encouraged to eat everything on our trays to set a good example for the kids, though that can be difficult to do when they're talking to you and you're trying to figure out what they want to say and tell them how best to say it. So far, I've only had to be told by the homeroom teacher (teachers always eat with their homerooms) that time was up and I needed to be finished.
All in all, I think the lunches are pretty tasty. In any event, the food here is miles beyond what I used to get at my middle school. Also, they're not at all what I expected. I'm not sure what I was expecting out of Japanese public school lunch, but chili never crossed my mind.
Well, I think that's all for this post. I wrote more for the blog on paper at school today, but I think I'll save it for later in the week as this post has already dragged on for a while. I hope you enjoyed the food pictures. I think it's a pretty representative sample of what I've had there so far. Sometime I'll take get a few pictures of the inside of the sushi restaurant near me. But, I think that's all for now. More coming soon, I promise.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
First Full Week
Due to tomorrow being a national holiday and there being some sort of community festival on Saturday, I had today and tomorrow off. I figured I could take a little time to blog about last week. I've now had 16 of my 18 classes (of the two I didn't have last week, once the Japanese Teacher of English [JTE] was going to be somewhere else that period so no class and the other was a third year class on a practice testing day). The students are fairly bright and for the most part very easy to teach. Of course there are a few who are clearly trouble, but even they are respectful. I think my favorite classes so far have been the first years. They seem to be the most energetic and the most excited to participate.
I've decided to include some pictures of what I've been doing. Below are activities I've made for my classes. The first was for the first year classes (6th Grade equivalent). They were practicing the word "where" and prepositions in, on, by, and under. I had them fill in the blanks with one object, one place, and preposition of their choosing. After that was done, I would pick an object, read it aloud and then the class would ask in unison, "where is my ____?" I'd pick a place from the pile (I had cut both objects and places and put them in piles on my desk) and answer, "It's in the ____." I told them not to worry about the prepositions in order to have a higher success rate. I believe "cat in the box" was the most popular, though "hamburger on the Moon" was also very popular.
I regretted the inclusion of "shoes" as they haven't studied how to properly use "are" yet, so every time I drew shoes, I was greeted with, "where is my shoes?" I guess I know for next time.
The next was for the second year students (7th graders). It was based on a dialogue in their textbook in which Mike was speaking with a doctor who diagnosed him with a cold. It was the same as regular Battleship, except they only had three ships (one 4 spacer, one 3 spacer, and one 2 spacer) and instead of numbers and letters, they would ask if so-and-so had a something-something. In case it's too small to read, the ailments are cold, broken arm, sotmachache, fever, and headache.
On this one, I regret writing "Their Ships" down below as technically it should have been "His/Her Ships" considering they weren't playing against multiple people. I feel less bad about this one though. I feel like most people say their instead of his or her regardless of what's actually correct. Still, something to avoid next time.
The next activity I was only able to use once due to the crazy practice testing schedule for the third years (in Japan, everything builds up to the High School Entrance Exam, which determines how good of a high school you can get into, which determines how good of a college you can get into, which determines how good of a job you can get, so the test at the end of 9th grade is incredibly important). Regardless, this activity was a competition between the different rows they were seated in. They were studying how to say that they didn't know when asked questions using to be, which is kind of weird because the order when you ask questions is different than when you make statements. For instance, "What time is it?" and "I don't know what time it is." The verb moves around, so I made an activity in which they had to unscramble the word order. There were five students in each row, so the first student would write the words in the correct order for the first question, and then pass it to the student behind them who would answer the second one, and so forth. The first group to finish with all the answers right would get a point, though usually it ended up being the first group to get four of five right. I actually had five rounds ready, but neither of the classes had time for more than the first two shown below.
I think this one went pretty well. You can also see here the evidence of the whiteout tape used pretty widely here. I don't know that I've seen it outside of Japan. I've been using it pretty frequently. I've already used half of the one I bought at the dollar store just before I started working. I was surprised to find that even though it's much brighter than the paper, the copier never picks it up. Maybe that's one reason I've already used half of one.
Well, I know there was a request for food, but I don't really have anything to show yet. The school lunches are pretty interesting. Also, they're pretty large and surprisingly tasty. I'll try to sneak pictures of some before I post again. I guess that's all for now though. Thank you for being patient with how long I go between posts. I'm going to attempt to post every weekend, though I tried that last time I was in Japan and it lasted maybe 3 weeks. I'll try to do better this time. がんばります!
I've decided to include some pictures of what I've been doing. Below are activities I've made for my classes. The first was for the first year classes (6th Grade equivalent). They were practicing the word "where" and prepositions in, on, by, and under. I had them fill in the blanks with one object, one place, and preposition of their choosing. After that was done, I would pick an object, read it aloud and then the class would ask in unison, "where is my ____?" I'd pick a place from the pile (I had cut both objects and places and put them in piles on my desk) and answer, "It's in the ____." I told them not to worry about the prepositions in order to have a higher success rate. I believe "cat in the box" was the most popular, though "hamburger on the Moon" was also very popular.
I regretted the inclusion of "shoes" as they haven't studied how to properly use "are" yet, so every time I drew shoes, I was greeted with, "where is my shoes?" I guess I know for next time.The next was for the second year students (7th graders). It was based on a dialogue in their textbook in which Mike was speaking with a doctor who diagnosed him with a cold. It was the same as regular Battleship, except they only had three ships (one 4 spacer, one 3 spacer, and one 2 spacer) and instead of numbers and letters, they would ask if so-and-so had a something-something. In case it's too small to read, the ailments are cold, broken arm, sotmachache, fever, and headache.
On this one, I regret writing "Their Ships" down below as technically it should have been "His/Her Ships" considering they weren't playing against multiple people. I feel less bad about this one though. I feel like most people say their instead of his or her regardless of what's actually correct. Still, something to avoid next time.The next activity I was only able to use once due to the crazy practice testing schedule for the third years (in Japan, everything builds up to the High School Entrance Exam, which determines how good of a high school you can get into, which determines how good of a college you can get into, which determines how good of a job you can get, so the test at the end of 9th grade is incredibly important). Regardless, this activity was a competition between the different rows they were seated in. They were studying how to say that they didn't know when asked questions using to be, which is kind of weird because the order when you ask questions is different than when you make statements. For instance, "What time is it?" and "I don't know what time it is." The verb moves around, so I made an activity in which they had to unscramble the word order. There were five students in each row, so the first student would write the words in the correct order for the first question, and then pass it to the student behind them who would answer the second one, and so forth. The first group to finish with all the answers right would get a point, though usually it ended up being the first group to get four of five right. I actually had five rounds ready, but neither of the classes had time for more than the first two shown below.
I think this one went pretty well. You can also see here the evidence of the whiteout tape used pretty widely here. I don't know that I've seen it outside of Japan. I've been using it pretty frequently. I've already used half of the one I bought at the dollar store just before I started working. I was surprised to find that even though it's much brighter than the paper, the copier never picks it up. Maybe that's one reason I've already used half of one.Well, I know there was a request for food, but I don't really have anything to show yet. The school lunches are pretty interesting. Also, they're pretty large and surprisingly tasty. I'll try to sneak pictures of some before I post again. I guess that's all for now though. Thank you for being patient with how long I go between posts. I'm going to attempt to post every weekend, though I tried that last time I was in Japan and it lasted maybe 3 weeks. I'll try to do better this time. がんばります!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
