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

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 )

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...

Good morning everyone! How are you today? My name is Laura. Laura. Can you say Laura? My name is Laura. Nice to meet you! I'm from America. America. Who can show me where America is on the map? I like Strawberries! Who likes strawberries? Who can guess my favorite Japanese food? Yes, it's sushi! I like Sushi! My favorite sport is swimming! Who likes swimming? I have one older sister and one older brother. My brother is very tall! I have a cat. His name is Leo. He's 10 years old!


oh sorry! where am I? oh, no! I'm on Live Journal doing an update, not standing in front of a classroom of 30 Japanese kids reciting facts about myself! After 13 self-introduction lessons last week, I still have this stuff stuck in my head! And I still have about 15 more to go this week!

Wow what a crazy first week it was! After the first day of doing nothing, things definitely got busy. At the junior high, I taught three classes Tuesday, two on Wednesday, and four on Friday. Then in between, I went to an Elementary school on Thursday and did self introduction lessons for five classes of 5th and 6th graders in one day - four of the classes were back to back before lunch! I haven't been so exhausted in a long time! I've been getting up at 6 a.m. every morning, getting to school by 8, and getting home by 4 p.m. Sounds pretty easy, comparatively - I mean I'm not even working full 8-hour days! But I'm definitely not accustomed to standing for four hours and being completely "on" for that many lessons. It will take some getting used to for sure! By the time I got home every day this week, I was too tired for Live Journal, too tired to email, and I was in bed by 10 p.m. the last three nights!

But it's been lots of fun, especially the elementary school kids. they're just so adorable, and so full of energy and they really seem to enjoy learning. It's so easy to get them involved in the lessons, and they absolutely LOVE games! So I know I'm going to have tons of fun with the kids. I was super worried about working with the elementary school teachers because I know they're not trained in English - I was afraid that they wouldn't understand me or my lessons, or be able to communicate. But to my surprise, most of them understood me well, and even tried using English and got involved. There was one challenging moment, though, when one teacher couldn't understand the game I was trying to explain - it took over 5 minutes for her to understand I wanted the class to get into two rows! It will get easier the more we work together though.

The junior high classes are a bit more challenging - 13 to 15-year olds are quite a bit harder to motivate, and it's harder to find games that aren't too childish for them. but the younger ones, who I haven't taught yet, should still like to have fun. So far I've taught with three of the four Junior high school English teachers, and I really like two of them. One guy is so laid back that I think I'll end up doing all of the work, but he's very nice. And one female teacher is very good with English and it seems that I will be much more of an Assistant in her classes. However, she's already had me grading some short intros that the students wrote. The other male teacher, who I've taught with twice, is really not good at English and harder to communicate with - in fact, he couldn't even explain to me in English how to get from the teacher's room to his classroom on the first day! He just gave me a map instead! Oh well!
I also had some frustrating moments at the junior high where I felt a bit invisible.
Usually when I don't have lessons, I spend time at my desk making lesson plans or doing paperwork. There's almost always at least two or three other teachers, including the vice principal, in the teacher's room. Wednesday afternoon I was sitting at my desk for awhile, and all of a sudden, around 3 p.m. I realized that there was no one in the room with me. In fact someone had turned off the lights in half of the room! Luckily an English teacher showed up and I asked him where everyone was. He said they had a teacher's meeting that afternoon. I remember from my time at the high school years ago, that the teachers have whole staff meetings every week, and the ALT's can usually go home early since we don't participate in these meetings. I was happy to go home early - I just wish someone had informed me earlier so I wouldn't be sitting alone in a dark room!

The other interesting thing happened Friday afternoon. Once again I was at my desk filling out paperwork and all of a sudden all the teachers started yelling and running out of the room at top speed! once again no one bothered to say anything to me - I figured the building was on fire, or someone was hurt. And I found out, after I went into the hallway and asked an older teacher what was happening, that one of the teachers had collapsed outside. I guess they thought he had a heart attack, and I saw them running outside with a stretcher and carrying him back inside to the teacher's lounge. an ambulance came, but didn't leave for about 20 minutes. He had recovered consciousness, but I still don't know what happened! sometimes it's so hard being the only one who doesn't speak Japanese well, and who's so easily just forgotten! I hope that teacher is okay - I think the teachers work too hard, and he probably was just exhausted! I know the feeling!

anyway, yesterday was my first day off all week, but I got up early and we picked up my friend Alex (jojobruin) at the Shinkansen train station and took him with us to a little festival in Asagiri, which is out in Fujinomiya near Mt. Fuji. Alex is in Japan this month doing some interviews with Japanese medical students at Keio University as part of his own medical studies. It was great that we had a chance to meet finally after three years of being LJ friends! We had talked on the phone and emailed, but we finally had a chance to meet in person - and in Japan of all places! I wanted Alex to get a chance to see Fuji-san close up, but for most of the day it was covered in clouds. However, he did get a few chances to see it when it peeked it's gorgeous head out, and he got some pictures! The little festival was not so exciting - it was super cold (as it's been all week in this area), and there was even snow on the ground! We stayed there for a couple hours and listened to Masahiko's friends playing some blues, then we took Alex to Shiraito Falls, which was nearby. That turned out to be really fun, and even though it was a bit cloudy, the weather warmed up a bit and the falls were gorgeous! I have some pictures that I will try to post later, as well as some additional cherry blossom photos I took last weekend! The blossoms were all gone at Shiraito Falls yesterday, but the rest of the scenery was so beautiful. We had a great day, and ended by taking Alex to dinner at Denny's (yes, there are Denny's in Japan!) and he took the train back by 6:30.

Now it's Sunday morning, I'm getting ready to go and meet two of my friends with Masahiko, and just talk for a few hours. then tonight I'll get some more things prepared for my next busy week. Not only do I have five days of lessons this week (including two full days at the elementary school), but Saturday I have to travel to Nagoya and back for a one-day follow-up training for my company! No rest for me!

sorry I've gotten so far behind on comments and on all of your posts. Please let me know if there's something important or exciting going on! this week I know I won't be on LJ much either, but hopefully things will calm down a bit soon.

happy weekend everyone!

It's been a few days since I posted, so I guess it's time for some more pics and news.
After New Year's I kind of went into a mini depression (very mini, because I just don't get depressed very easily)... mostly because I was seriously lacking in physical activity, and I'd been eating too much. But also I started to worry that I wouldn't hear from any of the places that I'd applied to for jobs. The weekend was incredibly slow (in fact I don't remember even what we did because we didn't go anywhere or see anyone) - we did watch a few movies, including ( 2012 which was terrible, and Desperado which we'd seen many times before, and which we never get tired of watching), and just hung around and did the same old stuff (i.e. a little internet, a little studying, eating, cleaning, etc...). Monday I wasn't feeling good all day - I've been having lots of intestinal issues ever since I came to Japan (my system still hasn't gotten adjusted to the new climate, diet, and everything else). So I've been trying to take lots of natural laxatives to clear out my system, and they still weren't working on Monday. On top of that, I had a massive headache, so I was feeling sluggish and out of sorts all day.

Tuesday was better. When I checked my email in the morning, I had two messages regarding jobs. One place said they had no university lecturer or ALT positions (Assistant Language teacher), but that they would check with conversation schools around the area for any openings. I didn't feel that one was so promising, but I could still hear back from them, I guess. The other email was from a company that hires ALT's for public schools (kindergarten, elementary or junior high) - they are going to have a representative in Shizuoka city (which is about 40 minutes from where I live) doing interviews this month, and I scheduled an interview with them for the 17th. The guy who emailed me told me that there are going to be openings for full time jobs in Fuji city, which is where I am living, so that might work out very well! The interview will be pretty serious, though: it's 90 minutes long, and I have to take a 45-50 minute lesson plan with me. I don't have to demonstrate the whole lesson for them, but I have to be able to walk them through it. Also, their website mentioned that we might be interviewed a little in Japanese! Hopefully they realize that my level is very basic! I feel hopeful about this one though - I've worked as an ALT before, and I have lots of experience teaching. So let's hope I ace the interview! Now I need to get busy making a lesson plan - yikes!

So I was feeling a lot more relaxed on Tuesday, and my intestinal issues started to sort out a bit. Also that day, Masahiko took me to city hall to get my "gaikokujin" (alien) registration card (which all foreigners need to carry with them and use for work and other issues), and also he set up a bank account for me. So now I feel like I'm more of a resident than a visitor:)
Tuesday afternoon we finished watching a movie that we started on Monday night called Extract It's Mike Judge's latest, and it's hilarious! I highly recommend it!

I haven't taken many pictures lately, but the other day on my walk, I took a few of the surroundings, including a very interesting vending machine that dispenses fresh eggs! ( look, see )

Masahiko starts working tomorrow in a full time temporary job - it might last only one or two months, but he's glad to be earning some money. He'll be gone every day (except weekends) from 7:30 to 6:30, so I'll be on my own with M's parents for a couple days, before the weekend. Sunday, I'm meeting my former student Narumi, and my former supervisor Akiko for lunch at an Italian restaurant. Then Tuesday, I go to Tokyo for my interview and to stay with my friends!

Next time I'll post pics of our little pet bird, and maybe more of Leo...

now it's time for my shower, and bed!