Day 5 - Visit to Yoshiwara High School

Wednesday was an exciting day because I took mom and dad up to my school to see where I work and to tour the school and meet some students and teachers. We took a cab there because that's the easiest way. Didn't think they'd want to ride bikes all the way like I always do.

When we got there we were greeted immediately by both vice principals and the principal. The vice principal told me they had made an announcement that morning to tell everyone we were coming. We put on our indoor shoes. I, of course got to wear my regular indoor shoes but they got to put on some of the school's slippers. They were too big for my mom and too small for my dad, but they survived. We went up to the teachers room and met some teachers up there. I showed them my desk and we looked around a bit. We went up to the LL (Language Lab) room which is where I teach several classes, and I showed them some of the not-so-high-tech things we have in there. While we were in there, some students came in and got to meet mom and dad. They introduced themselves in English and did very well I thought. We had a pretty simple conversation and I'm sure they could not wait to get out of there. Our students often enjoy trying to speak English with me and Andrea but they get a little freaked out whenever someone else shows up. But I was proud of them nonetheless.

After the LL, we went to the library and looked around in there. My mom also presented the librarians with a book about Texas with lots of pictures. They were very happy and looked through the book as soon as they opened it. I told them in Japanese that my mom is a librarian too which they found very interesting. They even took the book and put it on display at the front of the library so everybody can see it when they come in which I thought was very nice. It was a nice cultural exchange moment. :)

Finally, we walked over to another building on campus where we attended a Koto concert by our Koto club. It was a small room and a small concert, but the girls were absolutely amazing. I had never heard a Koto played in person before and the things they were able to do with it was quite impressive. I'd like to go again sometime. They had a quiz during the intermission/tea time of the concert where they asked various questions. They even asked some questions about the U.S. (who is the president?, where is the Statue of Liberty?) Both mom and dad answered a question right and won a prize. All in all it was very enjoyable. The lady in charge of the Koto club was very funny and friendly and did a good job of making the foreign guests (mom, dad, myself, Andrea, and her friend Tammy) feel welcome.

After the concert and a final look at the school we walked to the public library where I checked out some books and then went home. We had dinner at an izakaya called Watami and had some crepes for dessert at the Orange Pot. Finally we went back home and did the usual, sat around full until we all got too tired and went to bed.

Kelly and I both had to work today so nothing exciting happened with us. Mom and Dad did some exploring apparently but didn't venture too far from home. Tomorrow (Friday) is a national holiday and the plan is to go to Kamakura. Details to come after the trip.

Here are a few pictures of the Koto concert on Flickr. There are students in the pictures so they're only available to Flickr friends and family so if you're not one yet, get a Flickr account and add us.

Japan Meets the Parents, Day 3 and 4

Monday we took mom and dad around Fuji and showed off some of the places we like to frequent. First on the schedule was Espot, our usual grocery store. We walked down every aisle and showed all of the things in Japanese and different foods that you don't see at American grocery stores. They were especially intrigued by the giant whole fish and the octopus that was wrapped up like any of the other meats in the store. I think they even took a picture of that, which will probably show up on my mom's Flickr soon.

After Espot, I called a cab and we went to our favorite ramen restaurant, Bankara Ramen, for lunch. It was good as usual and they both did very well eating noodles with their chopsticks. After that, we went to Aeon (and strangely had the same taxi driver as before) and showed them all around our mall. We went from store to store and bought a few things, had Baskin Robbins, and shopped some more. We also saw these shirts hanging at the Hawaiian shop which we thought were pretty funny:


Photo courtesy of Kelly

After all the shopping and Kelly's required Starbucks visit, we went back home, ordered pizza, and all vegged out for the rest of the night.

Today (Tuesday) Kelly had to work but the folks and I took a trip to Shizuoka City to see the sights there. We spent a bit of time shopping in one of the train department stores (which are huge) and then ventured out into the city. It was tough trying to be a tour guide for a city I don't really know much about, but we managed to find a good Tonkatsu restaurant for lunch and then got on the correct bus to take us to the Sengen Shrine in town. This shrine is actually three shrines in the same location and it was very beautiful. We walked all around and took lots of pictures. We were even able to see some of a ceremony going on inside one of them. After looking at all the shrines, we decided to hike up the mountain that was behind the place. It was a bit of a tough climb (no Mt. Fuji, mind you,) but we managed to make it to the top and see a wonderful view of the city with Mt. Fuji in the distance. There was also a Buddha statue at the top to commemorate the victims of a bombing during WWII. It was a nice scene all around. I even managed to have a pretty decent conversation in Japanese with some people while we stopped to take a break. I did however, confuse the lady into thinking that I was in high school somehow. I told her I live in Fuji and she said something about college. I failed to remember that I had not mentioned that I was a teacher before saying the name of my school. She looked at me confused and asked in English, "How old are you?" I then realized my mistake and quickly said "Eigo kyoushi desu. Gakusei janai." (I'm an English teacher. Not a student.) The climb back down was easier and we got back on the bus and back to the station, bought a few things and headed back to Fuji. Before going home we stopped and had Mos Burger. I had a melon soda with my meal because it was St. Patrick's Day. Actually I just had it because I like it, but mom was quick to point out that the extreme greenness of my drink was perfect for the day. Finally we headed home with sore feet and legs and have been lazy ever since.

I took a lot of pictures with the Nikon which we'll get on Flick later, but I did take this picture with my iPhone which I have to share. It's a little blurry because I was trying to take it in hurry, but you can get an idea of the situation. This happens on the trains a lot, but I thought it was hilarious that it happened to my dad.

Japan meets the parents, Day 2 - Festival Time

We all packed up Sunday afternoon and went to a festival in Fujinomiya. It couldn't have been a more perfect day. It was sunny and cool but not cold. Not many clouds in the sky and Mt. Fuji was looking wonderful and clear. There were a ton of people there and we met up with some friends and found a spot to lay down some blankets and enjoy some good company. Dad and I went on a mission when we first got there to get some food for everyone. The lines were pretty long so we ended up just getting about 8 yakitori and taking them back to appease the hungry mouths. Mom and Dad got to meet all of our closest friends and see who we spend the majority of our time with. Caspian even got to come! He didn't enjoy the ride in his bag on the train or the bus but was very happy to get to come along. He sat very nicely in Kelly's lap and of course had several children come to see him with the usual exclamation of "Kawaii!" All in all, it was a fun outing and a good chance to relax and enjoy a beautiful Sunday afternoon.

Pictures on Flickr!

Unfortunately our camera was running out of battery so we didn't get many pictures. :( Our bad.

We were all pretty tired after the festival so for dinner we had Don Don and all retired early.

The parents seem to be enjoying their time so far. We're all kind of wearing each other out though. None of us are used to this much activity I think. And it hasn't really begun yet. Monday's post to come soon.

Japan meets the parents, Day 1

We've just about finished mom and dad's first full day in Japan. We did basically what we do on a normal Saturday: sit around, eat, sit around, sleep, sit around, eat, and sit around. And it won't be long before we go back to sleep. But it's been a fun day. It's good to have them here and doing some of our usual stuff. This was the official jetlag recovery day before we start doing a bit more traveling around after this. Here are some pictures:

Eating sushi at Kappa, the conveyor belt sushi restaurant. First real sushi experience for both. They did well!


Sleepily lounging in the living room after eating yakiniku (grill your own meat.)


And this is from last night, in Shinagawa on our way back from the airport. Their first meal in Japan.


We'll be putting some pictures up on Flickr too so check those out!

Trek to the airport

Well I'm about to leave in about an hour to go pick up my parents from the airport. I'm taking the local lines to get there to save money and then we're taking the shinkansen back to Fuji. Mom has been very excited about riding the shink so it should be fun.

We're looking forward to a fun week of being tour guides and giving my parents a bit of a taste of our life in Japan. I have some ideas of what we're going to do but a lot of stuff we'll just see what happens. We'll definitely be eating a lot of our favorite foods. :)

I'll post some updates through the week of how they're enjoying their stay.

Graduation

Well for the first time since I stopped waiting tables, I had to work on Sunday today. Today was graduation for the third year students. It was a very nice ceremony, extremely different from American high school graduations. There were definitely no beach balls or fog horns at this graduation. It was very structured and well-rehearsed.

The structure of the basic diploma handing out was this: There are 6 homerooms in each grade (at my school.) Each 3rd year homeroom teacher went up to the microphone and called out each of their students names one at a time and the student responded to their name with a loud "Hai!" (That means yes, of course.) At the end of each homeroom's names, the head student of that class went up to the stage and received the diplomas for their class. So there was no walking across the stage by each student. After all of the students names were called, there were a few speeches. One by the principal, one by the PTA head, and a few by some students. When everything was finished, the students all walked out while all of us teachers stood in a line and applauded for them. Many of them gave their homeroom teachers high fives as they walked by and several teachers and younger students cried, of course. It was a nice ceremony but a bit too cold in the gym. That's to be expected though. I was also very pleased to hear the normal graduation song being played as the students entered the gym. It gave me some sense of reality. And our band is very good. Small, but good.

I spent the afternoon signing graduated students' yearbooks, many of whom I never taught but wanted to talk to me and have English written in their yearbook. I wrote the same thing for pretty much everyone:

Congratulations!
I am very happy for you.
I enjoyed having you in class. (if I had them in class)
Good luck and have fun!
See you!
--Kory コーリー　(that's my name in Katakana)

I also had several students take pictures with me, which is always fun.

So all in all it was an easy day despite the fact that I was at work on a Sunday. So I'm one day into my six day work week. No classes this week. Just a lot of test grading as this week is exam week. We also have junior high entrance exams to grade this week for the students who are trying to get into our school for the new school year. I'm assuming I'll be grading the English part. I hope.

Marathon Day

Today was Marathon Day for Yoshiwara High School. We all went to the Fuji sports complex where it was taking place. The route was basically around the track once and then out of the stadium, around the stadium, around the tennis courts, down the street, around the baseball field, back down another street, through the parking lot and back into the stadium. The girls had to run the route two times and the boys four times. My predecessor ran last year so a lot of people expected me to run but I most certainly did not.

My jobs were pretty simple. My main job was to take a marker and mark students' hands when they ran by at the end of one of one lap. This was to make sure nobody hid and only ran one lap or something. So I made marks on people's hands, wrists, forearms, and unfortunately one shirt. I promptly found that girl after the race and apologized for putting red marker all over her gym shirt.

My other job was to shoot the starter pistol at the beginning of the boys' race. Our Kocho-sensei (principal) usually does it and today he came and asked me if there was a specific word in English for the gun. I told him it's called a starter pistol and then went on to tell him that I used to watch my dad shoot them off at the beginning of races. So he decided that because of this, Andrea and I were going to do it today. So Andrea started the girls, and I started the boys. It was pretty fun and made me feel important.

After the girls' race many of them ran up to me to tell me what place they finished. Some of my favorite students (i.e. the ones who talk to me the most) finished as well as 4th to as low as 200 somethingith. But I told them all that they did a great job and was sure to smile and give them a thumbs up because they all like that. (If only it were this easy to make girls like me when I was in high school.) :)

With the boys, one of the students in the class I work with the most got first place which was amazing. First place out of 240 or so boys is pretty good. His name is Shuhei Baba so I think on Monday I'm going to call him IchiBaba. "Ichiban" means "number 1" in Japanese, so I think it's a pretty good play on words, which is not easy to do in Japanese.

I also may have accidentally committed myself to running in next year's marathon. The girls were all wanting to know why I didn't run and I made excuses about how I wasn't in shape which they didn't understand, and then how I have bad knees which they didn't understand, and then how I just plain didn't want to run which they didn't care. So finally I said "next year...maybe." Well they have limited English so they understood the "next year" part but not so much the "maybe" part. And they all got very excited. So I guess I need to run tomorrow and start training.

Here are some pictures from the event:

The students in the stands awaiting their fate.


The "opening ceremony"


Pre-race stretching


More "stretching"


The girls waiting at the starting line.


Andrea starting the girls.


The boys at the starting line.


Me following in my dad's footsteps (apparently) and starting the boys.


As a result of my "hard work" at the marathon, I got released from work an hour early today.　おつかれさまでした！　やった！