it's not life that matters but the journey...

Happy Fuji-san Day.

In Japanese that would be 富士山の日

Apparently today is the first year that this region of Japan (namely Shizuoka prefecture, and the areas surrounding Mt. Fuji) are celebrating a new, local holiday. It's so named because today is February 23rd　（2/23), and it has to do with the many readings of the words which make up the date.

It's complicated unless you study Japanese, but I'll try to explain. However, there are a few Japanese learners on my F'list who could probably even explain it better than I can.

*February is the second month - it's called Ni-gatsu in Japanese. In Japanese, 2 is "Ni". But the number 2 can also be read as "fu" as in "Futatsu" (which means two things).
This is the "Fu" in "Fuji-san"

*The number 2 apparently can also be read as "ji" (though I haven't learned this reading), so the 2 in 23 is "ji" in "Fuji-san"

*The number 3 is "san" in Japanese. So the number 3 in 23 is the "san" in "Fuji-san"

This is not a national holiday, and I can't even find anything online about it. But I guess most high school students got the day off, and some junior high schools in Fujinomiya were off too. Our students had a half day, and the lunch staff took the day off too, so there was no school lunch.

Anyway - that's my exciting news for the day.

So today I was at one of my elementary schools, and at lunchtime I was given some entertainment. I was sitting with one of the 6th grade classes, my favorite at this school. They are all great kids, and interested in learning English - and the teacher is first-class - very easy to work with, understands English, and just a very nice woman. During lunch, the kids were all asking me questions - In English of course - about my favorite things. So the topic of music came up.
I am familiar with the names of the popular Japanese pop and rock bands that the kids like, and there's one particular group called AKB48, which is is a particular favorite amongst the 12-16 year-olds, especially girls. If you don't already know (and why would you!!??), AKB48 is an all-girl idol group - a singing and dancing sensation, similar to the boy groups such as Smap or Arashi (but why would you know who they are either!!??)...

AKB48 is so named because they have 48 members (yes, that's true - 48 members!!), and they are split into three groups: one is named the A group, one is the K group, and one is the B group. Very clever huh? That's all I know about them. But just in case you're interested in knowing more about this popular girl group, here's their wikipedia entry: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AKB48

But the reason I mention this group is because the class convinced one boy to get up and sing a song for us. And since he's a fan of this AKB48, he sang one of their songs, complete with the dance moves! I found the video for this song, and thought I'd share it with you here:



It was unbelievably hilarious to see this kid singing this song, and doing the dance moves (which you can mostly see at the end of the video) - and I wish I'd had a camera or a video camera!

but I think it's mildly disturbing to think that these kids, who are just 12 or 13 years old, are watching videos like this, with scantily clad girls in very enticing poses, kissing each other, and erotically eating sweets, and dancing around looking both cute and sexy. I'm not sure I'd like my 12-year-old boy to be watching this kind of thing. And all of their videos are the same!

oh well. I guess it's mostly innocent - not really too pornographic compared to some things you can see in the U.S. And what's probably more disturbing than the way these girls dress is how terrible the music is - if you can even call it music!! and the fact that they need so many members! Seriously how can you even know who is who???

Anyway - it's just another slice of life from the land of the weird and absurd: Japan!

Who wants to help me with a lesson for my junior high school class?

The 9th graders are reading an article about family rules in America vs. family rules in Japan. By family rules, I guess they are referring to things like chores, rules (curfew, no fighting), responsibilities, etc. The article also mentions some punishments for bad behaviour: the Japanese exchange student stays with an American host family who has a young child. When the child is acting badly, the parents have him take a "time out" to be quiet and think about what he did. The child has to sit quietly in his room for several minutes. But the Japanese equivalent to "time out" has been to put the children outside to punish them for bad behaviour. MY first thought was that if you did that in America, kids could be abducted, or run away! But I guess parents put their kids in the back yard, or somewhere they can at least keep an eye on them. The story in the textbook also mentions kids getting grounded in America for breaking a rule or being impolite to their parents.

By Wednesday, I am supposed to come up with a 20-minute activity and discussion about family rules in America vs. family rules in Japan. I can only think of the rules I had as a kid, and the punishments me and my siblings had, which was basically getting grounded or having special foods or toys taken away from us. My mom used to buy us special sweet cereal if we were good, and of course if we were bad, we couldn't have allowance or sweets.

So... my request is this: What family rules did you have growing up? And what kind of punishments did you have if you didn't obey your parents or if you broke a rule? What was grounds for punishment?

And if there are any parents on my list, please tell me what you expect of your kids, and what you do if they don't obey or if they are disrespectful, etc... what do you consider the "rules" of your house?

I don't want to limit this just to America, since I have many friends in the UK and some even in other countries. So if you have any ideas, please comment below. And if you are inclined, if you can think of a good way to teach this (i.e. a game or activity), I'd be happy to hear any ideas there too!!

Thanks in advance!!

Laura

Yes, I changed my layout again. the other one was having issues with the title words smishing up. And now this one may have to go, because I can't get the spacing just right because the commenter's user pics were overlapping with my sidebar and tags. There's just no winning.

Anyway, as promised, here are the pictures I took at the Sengen Shrine on Monday. It's a big post, mostly because I wanted to give lots of explanation for the Japanese New Year's traditions for you all (and especially for nekosensei who requested some photos of Japanese people celebrating the New Year.)

It's all behind a cut, and in clickable thumbnails. Enjoy!! I'm off to get many things done on my last day of vacation before I return to work tomorrow...

( Fujisan Hongu Sengentaisha - January 2011 )

Thank you to toadflax234 for the Christmas card I got in the mail yesterday!
I've still got to do mine - I don't know if it will get done today though because...


I'm sick again!!!!!!!

Dammit!!!!!!!!

I had a bad sore throat and cold a week ago, and it went away and I felt fine. Until I went out last night and got sick again!! And now my lower back hurts like crazy too - I don't know why!
We were going to go out for a walk today and try to get some exercise, but now I think I'm stuck at home resting up - because I still have a week of classes before I'm free for winter break! Ugh!

Anyway - briefly I'll tell you about the concert I attended last night. One of the English teachers at my Junior high school invited me about a month ago to a special Christmas Gospel Choir concert at the local theater. It's a group called Voices of Japan, and they're a gospel group that tours nationally, and has some very famous singer with them. The teacher at my school, Mr. Oka, wanted me to come to the concert because his local gospel choir would be singing a couple of songs during the show. At first I said I'd think about it - but I really didn't think I wanted to go, since the tickets were quite expensive and of course I can't drive here so I have no way to get there (my husband definitely wouldn't want to go).
But Mr. Oka kept asking me about it, so I eventually said I'd go - so I arranged to go with the young female English teacher, Natsuko. She picked me up at 5 p.m. yesterday, and we ate a delicious dinner of ramen and gyoza at the the ramen shop across the street from my house and then got to the concert just as they were closing the doors! I enjoyed most of the show - the Christmas music was really beautiful, and they are a very good choir, very professional and very good singers. There are 12 in the group, 8 women and 4 men, and some of the women had outstanding voices. They sang many traditional Christmas songs in a mix of Japanese and English, and some original songs too. Most of the Christmas songs were "gospelized" - which means of course that they were mostly upbeat, with dancing and lots of hands raised. They were really copying the traditional black gospel style, which I love - but of course it's a bit unusual to hear American Christmas songs sung in Japanese, in a gospel style. But overall I did enjoy the show, and it was nice getting out. Except for the getting sick part!!!!

anyway - that's enough of my babbling. Happy weekend everyone. I'm off to finish my lesson planning and sleep!

I just received a letter from my company stating that as of March of 2011, Fuji city (where I'm currently living and working) will no longer be utilizing private ALT supply companies for their foreign English teachers. So that means that even if I had wanted to stay here in Fuji (i.e. if my husband got a job here and we decided to stay in Japan for awhile to make money), I will no longer have a job as of March 28th of 2011. So we will need to either move to a city like Tokyo or Osaka, or move back to the U.S. Because there really are no other options for me in this small city, and without my employment, my husband and I will have no income at all.

Wow! In a way at least it has given us a definite direction for our future. But it's kind of scary to know that the cities in Japan are cutting back on the money they are spending on English education. I don't know if this means they are going to discontinue the foreign teachers altogether, but how sad for the students! And it’s going to make the jobs out there (for teachers) more in demand – harder for me to get a new job! But in a place like Tokyo, perhaps there will be more options. Tokyo!?!!!? Or it’s back to the U.S., which seems to have been taken over by Republicans after the latest elections… kind of a scary option at the moment too.

My future is a bit shaky…but what else is new??

Anyway - on that note, happy almost-the-end-of-the-week! well, at least it's almost the end of the week for me:) And my week was broken up by a mid-week holiday - I had yesterday (Wednesday) off, which was very nice! It's almost like having two short work weeks - though I'd much prefer a whole week off, to be honest! I've been super tired lately, which seems to often manifest itself in dizziness and general lethargy - and I'm not really sure why. Ever since I returned to work (at the end of September), I've been working like crazy, and I hardly seem to have any time to just do stuff of my own - except on weekends and occasional days off. And even then, I still seem to be thinking about stuff related to my job. When I'm at my schools, I'm teaching 4-5 classes a day on average, and I've had so many new lessons that I'm spending my evenings making lessons and searching online for activities to make the classes interesting. And when I teach at one of my elementary schools, I usually have to prepare 4 separate plans, since I'm teaching two lessons per class per day! I've said it before, but I'm really starting to feel that this job is for someone much younger and more energetic! I love teaching, but this constantly having to prepare activities and lessons is exhausting! Plus I have this new private student once a week, and I'm spending time getting her lessons prepared too! Perhaps I need to start taking vitamins, or just exercising more - or maybe my eyes are tired and I need to start wearing my glasses. Who knows... but I'm ready for my winter holidays!

And speaking of winter… after a couple weeks of rain and storms, the weather has been very nice this week - sunny and cool, very fall-like with a hint of warmth during the day. Basically it's sweater weather - no jacket is needed after 9 a.m. But as soon as the sun goes down, the temperatures drop, and it's been very cold at night and in the mornings. Luckily the air conditioner/heater we installed in the second floor room works really well, and the room heats up in just minutes! So, I've been using this room as my dressing area since it began to get cold. With the onset of fall and colder temperatures, Fuji-san is just starting to show some snow at the very tip top, and it's so pretty! I need to get some pictures taken, but I keep forgetting to take my camera when I go out. Forgetfulness is my middle name lately! (I hope this isn't some form of early-onset dementia!!!!)

Before I go and take my shower and prepare tomorrow’s lesson, I thought I'd post a few pictures for your viewing pleasure - a few of an outing I took about two or three weeks ago (to a local park), as well as some pictures of our pets. Most of you know Leo, my 11-year-old cat. But my husband's parents also have this adorable little bird that my father-in-law found in a nearby field about four years ago. Her name is Piko – and while I haven't always been a big fan of birds, this one is special - she's just so cute and has so much personality! She always comes to the side of the cage and lets me rub her stomach when I go down for dinner, and sometimes I feed her lettuce or cabbage! and she's a total ham for the camera!

( smile and say lettuce )

and a couple pics of Leo when I was stuck in bed for 3 weeks - he was sitting under my legs!

( hello handsome )

and here's a few pics I took at this park about 10 minutes drive from my house. it's really quite pretty there, and on a cloudy day it was kind of quiet and peaceful.

( Marubi Shizen Koen (Nature Park )

ok - it's time for my shower and relaxing time. bye for now!!

*sigh*
I'm leaving Port Angeles tomorrow. I've had just over two weeks of incredibly relaxing time with my mom, and I'm so sad it's coming to a close. But I also know that I need to get back to Japan - to my husband, my cat, and my job. That is really my life right now and I need to go back and start figuring out if my future lies there, or back here where my family and most of my friends are!

The last few week has been really quiet - just hanging out around the house with my mom watching movies and tv, talking, and doing some last-minute shopping. We were invited to dinner at our neighbors' house on Wednesday night, and that was lots of fun. Every time we get together with them we play a fun card came called Quiddler, where you make words with letters in your hand (quite similar to Scrabble, but with cards). Thursday my mom and I went out to dinner, after a day of running around and just doing some errands and shopping. Then Friday we drove out to Port Townsend to meet my cousin for lunch. My aunt Marilyn and my cousins's son Ben, who's 17, went with us. It was very nice, except that the sandwich I ate was delicious (chicken breast with sun-dried tomato pesto and avocado), but it gave me indigestion - it was really too heavy! It's getting harder and harder for me to eat heavy American food after living in Japan for so long! But despite my stomach ache, we did some browsing around the cute shops there, and I bought a few souvenirs, and a very pretty scarf for myself. Then we went to a coffee shop, but I had green tea.
This weekend I've just been reorganizing my bags, and packing a small box to send to Japan. Time has flown, even though we've really just been homebodies all weekend, and today.
I'm glad I also had a chance to see my cousin's daughter Leah, who's here visiting her grandparents, my aunt and uncle. She's in the sixth grade, and lots of fun to be around. They came by Saturday night for dessert - my mom had made berry and peach cobbler - yum! And then Sunday morning we had breakfast at the best restaurant in town - I had french toast. I've done nothing but eaten and watched movies on this trip - but those are two good things I guess.

So now I'm all packed and ready to go. But I'm really not ready to go just yet. I will miss my mom, and her new cat Nicky too! She got a new cat recently - I can't remember if I've already written about him here but he was a stray that showed up outside the house of my mom's friend. He was beaten up a bit, so my mom's friend took him to the vet and got him patched up, and checked him for any diseases. She couldn't keep him since she already had four pets, so she gave him to my mom - which is good timing since my mom's cat died about two months ago. Nicky is a Russian Blue, with a sleek gray coat and gorgeous green eyes - and he's about six years old. he's just adorable, and loving and playful, and I've already gotten attached to him. I'll be posting pictures of him later.

Anyway I should go to bed. I'm leaving here at 12:30 tomorrow afternoon and taking the van to Seattle where my sister will pick me up - I'll stay with her family tomorrow night and then fly out at 2 p.m. Wednesday. I have a few little things to do in the morning, so I should get up early!

I'll be getting back to Japan late Thursday (Japan time), and I'll be jetlagged, tired, and stressed... so I may not post for several days. hope you are all well!
see you on the other side of the ocean!

I had my final work commitment today (until September that is) - three team-teaching demonstrations with another Japanese teacher in front of a group of other elementary school teachers. I was nervous and didn't want to do it - I knew it would be hot, and my mind has only been on my trip tomorrow (as well as other issues here at home...) But in the end, I didn't need to worry at all - it turned out to be surprisingly fun and very rewarding! And we actually were able to do the first two hours in an air-conditioned room. Although with more than 20 people in there, it was still hot! Yet the teachers participated whole-heartedly and had a great time singing songs and playing games, just like the kids do! I can't believe how nice the teachers were, and how grateful they were for my lessons! They genuinely thanked me over and over, and the principal especially was super nice. He even seemed to be having a great time during the lessons! I wish that the junior high school teachers were even half as nice and grateful as these elementary teachers are. Thank goodness I'll be teaching twice a week at elementary schools in the fall - I really don't like that junior high school!

Anyway - just wanted to do a quick, fly-by post to say that I'm off to the U.S. of A. tomorrow!! So I'll be offline for at least a couple days, and probably won't be posting on LJ too much... though i do plan to post at least once from my sister's and a few times while I'm at my mom's. I'm super behind on LJ and will only get more behind with this trip - but I'll be back! in three weeks...

I was gonna post a few pictures that I have on my computer, but photobucket was nicely doing maintenance when I went there just now, so they'll have to wait! Oh well - it was just sunsets, bugs and my cat!

so anyway - bye for now! happy August everyone!

It's time for more pictures!

I had a fairly busy weekend. I know - you're saying it's already Wednesday, what the heck have you been doing? Well to be honest, not much! and that's all I want to be doing. But there have been a few outings since I last posted...

After being done with school (yay!) last Thursday, Masahiko was kind enough to take me out to Fujikawa River on Friday afternoon to meet up with some of the other ALT's for a BBQ/swim. Of course we did neither BBQ nor swim, though I wish I'd taken something to swim in, because the water turned out to be much nicer than I imagined. M didn't want to go at all, because it was a very hot day and we thought we'd be standing in the sun, melting! But as it turns out, the place was very shady, and being near the water, it was significantly cooler.
One of the ALT's, an American named Elton, lives very near the river in a town called Fujikawa (just about 30 minutes from where we live), and he has a little swimming spot where he takes his 5-year-old son Louie. I thought the water would be dirty or that it would be crowded, but the spot was just gorgeous, and the water was the perfect temperature and not dirty at all. Plus, there was only just our group there - no other people around, except a rafting party came through at one point, but they were on the other side of the river. Since I was wearing a skirt, I just waded into the water and got my feet wet, and we enjoyed the scenery for about an hour or so.
Here's some pics of the swimming spot, which I plan to visit again in the future:

( Fujikawa River )

Saturday I stayed home all day and as a treat to myself, I watched New Moon . Twilight haters, don't say a word - but I loved that movie even more the second time around.
I can't wait to see Eclipse - I plan on going when I get to Port Angeles next week! It's only fitting I see it in the pacific Northwest, right? Anyway - after M got back from his music gig, he reluctantly took me out again, this time to meet my friends in Fujikawa for a fireworks display. We drove to M's friend's house, and his friend drove us to the train station - we then got to the very crowded destination around 7 p.m. and after about 20 minutes, managed to meet my friend Fiona. She had run into a friend of hers, another ALT living in Fuji (but working for the JET Programme), and this friend was lucky enough to have a spot inside these gates right underneath the place where the fireworks would be held. It cost 5000 yen (about $50) per person to get in, but we didn't have to pay at all, since Fiona's friend had a VIP spot - apparently paid for by some friend's company. So we got in there, ate some food and watched the fireworks which started a little after 8 p.m. I couldn't get good pictures, sorry! But they were pretty amazing! We started making our way back to the train station just before the fireworks finished, but it was still really crowded, and it took us forever to get into the train station and back to Yoshiwara station. Fiona and her boyfriend missed their train, so they walked to our car with us (about a 30-minute walk) and we drove them back to their bikes. It was still unbelievably muggy and hot even at 10 p.m., and I was hot and sweaty and tired when we got home! But it was really fun - probably the only fireworks I'll see this summer in Japan since I'll be in the U.S. for three weeks in August.

Sunday I stayed home all day in the air conditioning and didn't go out at all. I don't remember much of what I did - just studied Japanese and watched stuff online. I'm trying to step up my Japanese study, and recently ordered an electronic Japanese-English dictionary and a subscription to Hiragana Times magazine, which has online audio files that you can download to accompany the text. So I hope to improve my Japanese soon!!

Anyway - on to Monday. I had planned to go into Shizuoka this day to get my re-entry permit from the Immigration office (the very important stamp I need so that I can get back into Japan with my spouse visa after going to the U.S. for three weeks in August). So M was nice enough to go with me, but since we were already going that direction, we were cajoled into taking Daiki, our 13-year-old nephew to see the Giant Gundam Robot that is stationed at Higashi-Shizuoka station (just one stop east of Shizuoka station, where I would go for my re-entry permit) from now until March. Daiki couldn't wait to see the robot, so we agreed to take him after I went into Shizuoka to get my re-entry permit. We left the house around 9 a.m. and M's dad took the three of us to the train station. We got to Shizuoka around 10-ish, got to the immigration office, handed my paperwork and waited about 30 minutes. The immigration office wasn't incredibly crowded, but there were tons of little undisciplined kids running around making noise - so it wasn't really fun! Anyway, we were out of there by 11:15 or so, then went to the department store inside the train station and had some ramen for lunch. It was delicious, but sadly it ended up causing me stomach problems for the next 24 hours or so! After lunch, we took the train one station back, to Higashi-Shizuoka, and braved the heat to see the giant, 18-meter Gundam statue! We got some photos, then stood in line (thankfully it was shaded by a tent) to get into the plastic model store, where Daiki and Masahiko bought a bunch of models - then we went to the plastic model museum, which housed a whole bunch of really amazing, classic plastic models made by the Japanese company Bandai (which makes Gundam models), going all the way back to the '50s! I took a bunch of pictures inside the museum, and I wish I could show them to my dad - he used to collect airplane models and at one point, he had several hundred (or more) very rare, very cool plastic models made by the Japanese company! I think he sold them all years ago, but I'm hoping that there are one or two remaining at my mom's house so I can give them to Masahiko.

anyway, even though it was hot, we had a good time, and Daiki especially was happy - he got to see a giant Gundam (which he's loved since he was really young), and got a bunch of great plastic models, and a good memory.

Here are the pictures from our day:

( Look! It's a Giant Robot! )

Tomorrow I have my second to last work-related commitment before my real vacation begins - 3 hours at city hall editing and voice recording Japanese junior high schooler's English speeches! *sigh* I have no plans on Friday, but Saturday evening I've been invited to a BBQ at my friend Naomi's house - that should be fun! Then no plans until next Wednesday when I have my last work-related commitment - this stupid teaching training demonstration that I'm for some reason very nervous about. I'm not really prepared, and don't really know what to expect - but I guess I'll just grin and bear it, as the next day, Thursday the 5th, I'll be on that plane for America!!!!!

and sadly I really wish I didn't have to come back here at the end of August! Sometimes I just really want to run away from this crazy place, run away from learning Japanese and dealing with Japanese people - and just run back home to my mom.
Thank goodness I can do that at least for three weeks...

So I taught my last four classes of the school term today - which means that I'm just one step closer to being free for the summer! Tomorrow I have to spend a whole day sitting inside the hot, stifling teacher's room (I have no classes), and will probably spend my time planning my teaching demo lessons for August 4th and maybe studying Japanese. It will be a long (and very hot!) day... but it's my last until September!!!

We also had our last monthly City Hall meeting until September - and afterwards, I made some plans for this weekend. Friday I've been invited to a BBQ at the Fujikawa River with the other ALT's - and I might be able to convince my husband to go with me. And Saturday I've been invited by Fiona, the ALT who's returning to New Zealand in August, to see some fireworks by the river. So I've got a full weekend!

And now, it's time for a picture post. I hadn't gone out and about for so long since I was sick for most of June, but luckily I had a chance to finally go out during the last two weekends, and I snapped some nice pictures of a garden, and a cute little mountain town.

( Shizuoka outing, and the Sumpu Castle Gardens )


I was supposed to visit the onsen last weekend with my friend Miki, but she canceled and we ended up going this Saturday, three days ago.

It turned out to be a really lovely day, and the drive over to the onsen from Fuji was about
1 1/2 hours through some very pretty scenery. We went to a little town called Nambu, which is situated amongst mountains on the edge of Shizuoka and Yamanashi prefectures. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside the onsen, but i took some pictures of the surrounding area. There was some very pretty yellow wildflowers which I thought looked like mini sunflowers, and a very long, very red bridge.

( Nambu-cho )

So that's about it. I haven't heard from lots of you lately, so I hope that everyone is fine, and not melting in the summer heat quite as much as I have been. Please do stop by and say hi!!!

Happy Wednesday (or Thursday depending on where you are in the world)!