Kinsai! Minsai! Odorinsai! 2014

A view of the festival from our apartment.

Today there was a dance matsuri (festival) held in Chizu, called Kinsai! Minsai! Odorinsai! (Come! See! Dance!). The festival started at 1pm, but we could hear and see them setting up all morning from our apartment, since we're so high up.

We went down to the festival around 2pm and wandered around the food stalls. There was a lot of good stuff! Yana got a chocolate vanilla soft cream, Justin got a deer burger, a lemon cream taiyaki, and takoyaki. I finally got my kakigori, shaved ice with flavoured syrup. It was huge! Well worth Y300.

I also ran in to a few of my students and their parents! They all really loved seeing Yana, she's quite the celebrity.

Around 2:30 there was a sort of opening ceremony dance, where a bunch of dance teams gathered on the street and danced together, with flags waving overhead. They use these wooden noisemakers (I'm sure there's a more wonderful name for them in Japanese) in their dances, so some people were wandering around encouraging the kids and onlookers to join in. A girl approached us and handed them to Yana, who was too shy to do anything.

After the opening dance, we noticed many people gathering around a parking lot, so we went there too. Shortly after the dances began, starting with a group of 6 year olds! The costumes, music, and choreography were really amazing for all the dancers. We watched for a while, but eventually Yana wanted to go home. On the way home I got her a rare cheese cream taiyaki and Justin got two grilled meat sticks. I also bought two of the wooden noisemakers as souvenirs.

Unfortunately we realized once we got home that the really cool stuff happened after dark! I guess having all the kids/unofficial teams during the day makes sense. In the evening there were lots of amazing dancers and they even started ending each dance with a blast of fireworks! Although we couldn't see the dancers too well, the view from our apartment was alright and we could hear the music quite loudly as well.

We decided that we'll just have to stay another year so we can go at night next year!

The End of My First Week Teaching

The front entrance of the newly built JHS.

Today was a bit exhausting as I taught three classes. They were all self introduction classes, so while I’m getting pretty confident in my lesson, it’s also getting a bit old.

The kids have had a range of reactions. The elementary students yesterday were most impressed and excited. But the third years today were overall unresponsive. I’m sure they have the ability, but hormones, I guess!

I was supposed to have a class first thing this morning, but my schedule was changed a bit, so I was able to relax and prepare until 3rd period. First I taught 3-1, so 9th graders. Right after that I taught 1-2, so 7th graders.

Next was lunch break, which was actually pretty edible today. It was fried rice, some kind of soup, some kind of seafood dumplings (shrimp I think), and vegetables with chicken cubes. And milk, of course. I was told it was a Chinese menu.

Today's kyuushoku (school lunch), minus the egg soup thing.

After lunch I had my last class, 2-2. They were possibly the best class I’ve had at JHS so far. One of the students is half British, so maybe they’re more interested because of that, I don’t know.

We’ve been having the students do self introductions as well, so their name and what they like. I got some great answers today:

One kid who introduced himself as me (‘Hello, I’m Anje’)...
One kid who said he lives in Canada...
One boy who said he liked aesthetic salons...

And one kid who said he loved me and later during Q&A time asked if I liked him too.

Something interesting that I’ve learned is that students are required to close their eyes for around 30 seconds before the start of each class. Also, they have to clean the teacher’s room. I knew about the cleaning of their own classrooms and such, but I didn’t realize that they did the teacher’s room as well. It makes me feel really awkward as I sit there and they are literally on the ground rubbing it with a cloth.

Another task I had today was to record myself doing two speeches. There are two students doing a speech competition in September, so I was making a recording for them to practice from. It was really hard! It took me three tries to have it slow enough and even then it was just barely inside the minimum allowed time. I didn't realize how difficult it is to talk that slowly. 

After work, I was walking home, and all of a sudden I heard "ANJE-SENSEI, SAYONARA!!!" from behind me. I guess one of the kids from elementary school had spotted me from inside a building!

Overall, I enjoyed my first week as a teacher. It seems like things will go well :)

My First Day Teaching at ES

My desk at ES. On the left are gifts from 1st graders.

When I arrived at school this morning, Kocho-sensei greeted me with a look of confusion and then started talking about which days I was supposed to be there, which in turn confused me and I had a minor moment of panic where I thought I had messed up. Turns out Kocho-sensei thought I came on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, instead of Tuesdays and Thursdays.

I had some free time in the teacher's room until my class at third period. I spent the time printing out and binding copies of the lesson plans in English - very useful!

My class was at 10:40 with 6-1. I started with my self introduction powerpoint presentation. The kids were really responsive and loved the short video I showed. Interestingly when I show the video the kids always point out the northern lights ("aura").

After that all the kids did self introductions for me. They were really good - I was so pleased!

Next I got my first taste of actually teaching. The JTE and I taught the kids some vocabulary for directions and buildings. Next we played a game called ohajiki. Basically, its like bingo, but the students picked 5 buildings from a diagram of 13. I called out the vocabulary words one by one and the first to get all 5 picks called wins! They loved it!

Classes are shorter at ES, so that was all we had time for. I hung out in the teacher's room for a bit until it was lunch time. Then I went back to 6-1 and ate lunch in their classroom. It was curry rice! And an omelette with tomato sauce inside, and a vegetable salad with creepy little fish in it. And milk.

The kids invited me to play with them, as after lunch they have 1 hour of free time. I went out and they tried to explain the rules of their game, but then the kids sort of wandered off and I was attacked by a bunch of cute little first graders. They came up and grabbed my hand, saying, "isshou ni asobu?" (shall we play together?) in the cutest way, so I said sure! I played a bunch of games with them; I had no clue what was going on, but man, those kids tired me out! We were running all around outside the school for the entire hour, including up and down the stairs of their mountain-side garden several times. Finally the bell rang and I was free! I collapsed into my chair in the teacher's room, sweating profusely.

A little later, K-sensei took me on a little tour of the school. She showed me the English books in the library. The kids have mandatory 10 minutes of reading every morning before school, so each day I go and read to a different class.

Around 3pm I saw a bunch of 1st graders leaving, so I wandered out to the hallway to wave them off. A bunch of them came up to me to say goodbye. They really liked the braids in my hair - one girl asked if I did it myself, hehe. The first graders are really the cutest, I wish I got to teach them too!

My First Class

As I've mentioned, I go to the JHS on Mon / Wed / Fri. However, we discovered yesterday that the ES opening ceremony was on a Wednesday, so it was decided that I should go there until 10am and then return to the JHS .

I arrived a bit early at the ES, as the ceremony started at 9:00 am. I used this chance to give kocho-sensei a gift for the school, which was several books in English. There is a famous Canadian author from my city ( Robert Munsch), and I included two of his books.

I sat in my desk until the ceremony began, watching the kids walk past the teacher's room to the gym. Some of them stared, some waved, and one stopped dead in her tracks with a look of shock and awe. I also met a lady from the town office, who was there to take notes and photos for a column in the town newsletter!

After all the students had entered the gym, I came in and stood at the back. Kocho-sensei did an opening type of speech first, which also included a lecture about greetings. He even had a graph for all the kids! I have no idea how one makes a graph about greetings, but I guess this is serious business. After his speech, there was another speech introducing me. At one point he told them all to look where I was standing or something, because all of a sudden the faces of 200 kids were glued to where I was and the little first graders at the back were all leaping in the air trying to get a look at me. Then Kyoto-sensei showed me to the stage, and then it was time for my self introduction! I basically said the same thing as at the JHS. I exited the stage and stood with the other teachers.

Next up was an awards ceremony for swimming. I was standing beside the first graders, and one little boy caught my eye as he fidgeted with his shirt and nametag and kept whining about how hot it was. I feel ya, kid. There was also a huge dragonfly circulating the gym, which caused a lot of the kids to lose attention. After that was a review of the importance of greetings and several other things. The teacher who lead this did so by holding up the written hiragana which was the first letter of the word (ex. A for aisatsu, greetings). At one point he held up mi, and one little boy excitedly shouted, 'MISO!'

At the end of the ceremony, I went back to the staff room and had a very awkward interview with the lady from the newsletter. I felt bad for her, she had no idea how to translate what she wanted to ask me. We were a little late, so Kyoto-sensei called the JHS to let them know and the newsletter lady walked me over there.

I WAS Supposed to Have a Lesson first period with Handicapped students, but I missed That Being at ES. So My first Lesson WAS at half past one pm with 2 nd Graders (Grade 8). the When I got to School I did some planning with Lesson the JTE for that class, which helped me feel a little more secure.

At 11:20 am, N-san came by the staff room. She held out a folder to me with some sticky notes on it, which started 'Anje, Thank you for your BIG help!' I was confused, like, what did I to help whom? Anyway, I read a little further and I guess someone wanted me to help translate and proofread some information on Chizu! I'm actually pretty excited, to think that I can help with something like that. She also had me fill out some information and stamp my personal seal on some documents for health insurance. For some reason Justin had been named as the family provider instead of me ?! Anyway, the paperwork was to show that Justin and Yana are my dependents.

Around 12:45 I went to the kitchen to eat lunch with Kyoto-sensei. Today was rice, milk, chikuwa and bamboo salad thing, fried fish with tonkatsu sauce, and tofu and wakame soup. The fish was actually alright! I was' Thrilled with the t Shikuwa or Soup Though, so I WAS glad WHEN Kyoto-Sensei HAD to leave Quickly. But then the Office Ladies Came in to Eat with me! They're all really Understanding, Though. I feel bad! Oh, I also had to pay for my school lunch today! It is Y315 a day! I kinda dislike the lunches, but its so freaking cheap. Its almost worth it anyway, because the rice is always good and I can take the milk home for Yana or for cooking.

After lunch, at 1:30 pm was my first class! I was a bit nervous, but actually not that much because it was mostly just a self-introduction class rather than actually teaching. J-sensei came to pick me up from the teacher's room and we ran to class together (ran because we were late!). Our lesson plan was to do greetings, have me to a brief verbal self-introduction, give the students a quiz about me and have them guess the answers. I was amused to see one student use a pencil to answer the multiple choice questions - she has carved away the end and written A, B, C, D on each side and would roll the pencil to get a random answer.

Then I did a powerpoint presentation about myself and also included the answers to the quiz. In one slide I had a collage of me with Canadian things ... one boy thought the beaver was a capybara! After the presentation, J-sensei went over the answers again. Lastly, we had each student do a short self introduction. They had to say their name, what they liked, and what they play. One student said, 'I like keshigomi (eraser).' I could not stop laughing ! The class (2-1) is really energetic and silly, but they're a bit shy when it comes to English. They all speak very loudly in Japanese and so quietly in English that I had to stand at each person's desk to hear them speak. They seemed happy enough with the class though, so I feel okay about that!

My First Day At Chizu ES

Chizu Elementary School entrance.

I only visit my elementary school on Tuesdays and Thursdays and for some reason I couldn't visit last week, so today was my first day! Because of that, I wasn't sure if today was the opening ceremony (first day of classes) or not. Just in case, I tried to go prepared with my suit, a powerpoint self introduction, props, and omiyage.

For some reason, N-san told me we would walk to school together today, I'm not sure why, but it was nice to have the company. She also informed me that the opening ceremony is tomorrow, so I guess I brought all that stuff for no reason. Ah well.

N-san brought me into the teacher's room and dropped me off. I was shown to my desk and I had just started going through all the stuff in there when K-sensei approached me. She isn't one of my JTEs (she's a first grade home room teacher), but she speaks English probably the best. She helped explain the school schedule and my class schedule. She also introduced me to the 4 JTEs I will work with, who sit behind me: R-sensei, N-sensei, H-sensei, and K-sensei (a different K of course).

At 9:00am we had a teacher's meeting. I didn't really understand most of it, but I could tell that the teachers were talking about situations in some student's lives. I thought that was really interesting. When announcements were done all the teachers introduced themselves to me and then I did a short introduction myself.

After the meeting K-sensei took me and all the JTEs upstairs to the classroom to discuss lesson plans for Thursday and next Tuesday. I only teach 5th and 6th grade, two classes each, so although I teach 4 classes total, there are only two plans.

Once the English meeting was over, it was time for desk warming, a.k.a. shuffling papers and randomly making notes to look busy. Actually it wasn't toooooo bad, since I still had a ton of stuff in my desk that I wanted to look over.

Lunch time came around, and I hadn't brought my lunch because I wasn't sure if it would be provided today or not. It was okay, though, because K-sensei took me and the other K-sensei and three other teachers to lunch at a restaurant down the road called Foret de Claige. I ended up ordering some kind of pizza with possibly deer sausage? Also some kind of soup which just tasted like warm cream, a dish of spaghetti, sausage, and mushrooms, and a pretty delicious salad/coleslaw thing. It was really fun and the teachers were all so nice and talkative. They kept asking all about me and Yana and Justin. They also recommended a preschool for Yana.

Accidentally, we were 5 minutes late getting back to school, because at 1:00pm there was some kind of computer training. I have no idea what it was about, and I don't have a laptop on my desk, so I had to sort of entertain myself quietly for 2 hours. I was so bored that I started translating the all-Japanese lesson plans for the English textbook. My supervisor from the BOE, O-san, was actually sitting beside me (he was visiting for the computer training) and noticed me and went and exclaimed to K-sensei and the JTEs about this crazy and sad thing I was doing. So then what started as me mostly wasting time ended up as a big kerfluffle as O-san translated the page for me instead of doing his computer training!

Computer training finally ended and K-sensei told me I could go home. I slowly got my things together and ended up in the hallway looking and photos on a bulletin board. She found me out there and told me again to go home. I left for home and it was actually sunny for once, so I really enjoyed the scenery on the way.

A view of the school grounds, taken from the entrance. Further down the road to the left is the JHS.

My First (Real) Day at Chizu JHS

Today was my first day of real school! Its also actually just my third day at school. I have yet to visit the elementary school either, so it feels strange, like I only have one school. I kinda wish I only had one school. I don’t know how people with like 9+ schools do it.

Anyway, I walked to school, in the rain again, and I guess I must have been a bit early because I didn’t pass any students. I got there at about 8:05 or 8:10am.

The bell rang at 8:15am, and in the teacher’s room we had morning announcements. I didn’t understand most of it, but I knew that today was testing day. I also knew that I had to give a speech in front of the whole school (all 157 students and about 21 teachers). After morning announcements the teacher’s room emptied quickly. I had no idea where people went, but a lot of them are homeroom teachers, so my guess is they went to homeroom. I sat anxiously at my desk until finally at 8:40 Kyoto-sensei (vice principal) showed me into the hall where the opening ceremony was. All the students and other teachers were already in place. Kyoto-sensei showed me where to stand, up at the front between her and Kocho-sensei (principal). I was told to wear a suit for the ceremony, but truthfully only me, the principal, and the vice principal were wearing jackets! Everyone else was in black and white (or neutral), but not necessarily collared button up shirts.

First, Kocho-sensei introduced me and sort of discussed how I was taking my predecessor’s place. Then it was my turn. I gave a pretty short speech, in Japanese:

Good morning! Nice to meet you.
My name is Anje Merkies. I am 24 years old. I come from Ontario, Canada.
Six years ago I was an exchange student in Osaka.
My hobbies are baking and photography.
From now on, let’s have fun together!
Please take care of me.

After that there was a lot of bowing and another speech from Kocho-sensei, which included a lecture on saying greetings loudly. And then more bowing.

Once the ceremony was over, the students went back to their classes for tests, and I was left mostly alone in the teacher’s room for the morning. At 12:30 it was lunch time. As the teacher across from me, N, put it, kyuushoku (school lunch) is scary! I was pretty confused about what to do; all the teachers had disappeared again and I didn’t even know where to get lunch, let alone eat it. So I waited it out, took a bathroom break, and when I came back Kyoto-sensei was sitting eating and told me I could eat with her and to get a lunch tray from the kitchen. We were also joined by one of the office ladies, which was nice because Kyoto-sensei ate her lunch in record speed and left the two of us alone before the OL had even sat down properly. Lunch today was bread, mikan (tangerine), milk, some sort of vinegary seaweed/cabbage salad, pumpkin with spaghetti sauce and cheese, and some sort of spaghetti seaweed thing. I managed to drink most of the milk, eat the mikan, half the bread, half the salad, and all of the pumpkin. I didn’t even try the spaghetti, mostly because I ran out of time, but to be honest I was terrified of the thing the whole time and was rather relieved. I wrapped my bread up for later though, because it was yummy.

After lunch, the OL showed me how to clean my tray and put away the dirty dishes. After lunch was a short break period, so all the teachers came back to the room. At this time a saleslady also came around, selling yakult and other yogurt drinks.

Lunch ended at 1:30, after which were more tests for the poor students. I ran out of things to do and started typing this blog. I spent the rest of the afternoon researching games and activities. At 3:40pm I had just started stuffing my face with a cookie when J-sensei came and asked if I was coming to the assembly! I didn't even know there was another one. This one seemed to be about sports awards, the upcoming sports day, and some kind of lecture about the school entrance area. Afterwards, I returned to my desk, but all the other teachers were elsewhere, much to the surprise of about 6 students who came in looking for someone and were met with only myself.

A little later, J-sensei brought a student to me, I guess she is a first year doing the speech contest in September. I had to pick a speech for her, and I had no idea what I was doing. I was instructed to pick something easy, so I chose some story about a red demon who wanted to be friends with children. 

I was hoping the rain would let up, but it didn't stop, so I decided to go home a little while after. As I left, three girls waved and shouted goodbye from an upstairs classroom. 

Warabekan

Back during Tottori Orientation, I had arranged with my PA to meet today for a playdate. So Yana, Justin, and I took the train in to Tottori city and then took the bus to Warabekan, the Tottori toy museum. We met her and her two kids, M and H, in front of the museum. We wanted to get together because M is the same age as Yana and although she speaks English and Japanese (my PA is married to a Japanese man), she doesn't get the chance to really play with English-speaking kids.

It was Y250 for me and Justin, which is discounted from the normal price because we're foreigners, and Yana was free!

It was a great day out, especially for Yana, who has probably been a bit lonely lately. A guy from my BOE came over with his 4 year old daughter while he was setting up our TV yesterday, but both kids seemed a little shy and confused about not understanding each other.

Anyway, there was a special exhibit on at Warabekan, which was basically a room full of toys. There were things like dolls and trains, but also some fun Japanese games too. It wasn't too busy either, which was great. They also have this cool thing at the front door which is a toy hospital kind of thing. Basically you can bring in any broken toys and have them fixed for free by the toy doctors!

The kids playing fishing in the front area; behind are the toy doctors.

After playing for an hour or two we decided to eat lunch. Unfortunately it was pouring rain outside, so we had to eat inside. We also ended up cancelling the second part of our playdate due to the rain, which was a visit to Kodomo no Kuni. Kodomo no kuni (lit. "children's country") is a park for kids, and only during summer vacation they have a splash pad and petting zoo open and today was the last day! :( We will definitely have to go next summer, because it looks so fun for kids and you can hold baby goats and hamsters and stuff!

Home Internet Has Arrived!

Last night I decided to do an experiment and bake a cake in my rice cooker! I chose a recipe for carrot cake. I bought all the ingredients, with some help from the grocery store staff. But once I got home I realized I didn't have a grater for the carrots! Undeterred, I decided to try boiling the carrots and mashing them instead. It managed to work alright, even though it took forever and even though I had to use a rice scoop instead of a masher. I followed the recipe exactly, but once it was all mixed together it looked a bit wet, so I added a little more flour. I didn't want to doubt it, though, so I poured the batter into my rice cooker, pressed cook, and hoped for the best.

To my surprise, after two cook cycles, I had a cake! It was so light and spongey...and promptly fell and became a moist, dense cake. It was tasty, though! It actually tasted more of orange (from the zest) than carrot. My confidence has been bolstered by this attempt, so next maybe I'll try a chocolate cake! Flour and sugar and pretty expensive here, though. It was like $4 just for 2 cups of icing sugar!

Today I had my second day of work, at the JHS again. I walked in the rain this morning, passing several groups of students on the way. There was another omiyage treat on my desk this morning. I spent the morning chatting with my JTEs and working on my power point some more. I get along with them pretty well, and I'm so thankful for that! I suppose I've yet to see how it goes in the classroom, though. One of my JTEs, M-san, is the same age as me, so that's great!

I was told I could go home around 9 or 10am again. One of the office ladies brought me a slice of baumkuchen, which is really popular here! It is super delicious, but also expensive. Around lunchtime I decided to go home, since internet construction was today and Justin felt uneasy without me home. It had also stopped raining, so I figured I should take my chance.

The internet construction was long. They had to hook up the fibre, run the cable all around the ceilings and walls, and hook up a phone line. Our phone is awesome - it is touch screen, has a webcam/mic, and has free calling to anywhere in Chizu! We don't know our number though...Once the construction was done, a man from the BOE helped us set up the internet itself, which took forever because there was a set-up CD which refused to work on Justin's computer because it wasn't Japanese (mine doesn't have a drive). So he had to go and get his computer and bring it to our apartment. But he got it done! And set up wireless too! It was so great. We are supposed to have another internet appointment at our apartment on Monday, but I'm not sure why, since everything is set up already.

I also got my health card and pension book and finally paid the deposit on the apartment. Still waiting on the health cards for Justin and Yana. I also haven't signed my contract yet!

My First Day at Chizu JHS

Today was finally my first day of school! I go to JHS on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and ES on Tuesday and Thursday, so it was JHS today. The JHS is actually my base school; my employer. 

I met N-san at the town office around 8:15am and we walked to school together, which took about 20 minutes. It was sooo hot! The sun was out with no clouds and shining directly it is very strong. So of course I arrived looking disheveled and dripping with sweat. Somehow with all the walking my skirt also managed to turn around so I was wearing it backwards. Great start.

One of my JTE’s, J-san met us in the hallway and brought us to the meeting room. The principal was there to greet us as well, and then N-san left. J-san explained to me the schedule for the day, and then we went with the principal to the staff room. The principal introduced me in Japanese first and then I introduced myself in mangled Japanese. 

After that, J-san showed me my desk, the locker beside my desk, my shoe locker at the entrance, and my other two lockers in the change room! Then she brought me back to the staff room, and all the teachers promptly left for a meeting. I wasn’t completely alone though, there are 3 office ladies who work in the school. Their job is to do things like cleaning, serving tea, answering phones, etc. Two of them chatted with me for a bit. It was a bit of a challenge, but I think we managed to do alright somehow. 

My desk at JHS.

I spent a while going through all the things in my desk. There were also 2 omiyage left on top of my desk, gifts of food from other teachers who had traveled recently (which was so thoughtful!). I later got a third omiyage from my other JTE as well. One of the coolest things in my desk was a collection of cards from all the past ALTs at the school. 

Omiyage on my desk

After a while I decided to go wander around the school. It is a completely new building, and actually is still in the process of being finished. So its super gorgeous and on top of that it is made almost entirely from local cedar and the architecture is based off of traditional Japanese design. I had just started wandering when one of the OLs (office ladies) came out to accompany me, which was nice, because she introduced me to a few students and told me what each room was. We also peeked into the Japanese style room (for tea ceremony, etc.), which had just been finished, because she hadn’t seen it yet either! 

The hallway just outside the staff room.

JHS Courtyard

We went back to the staff room, and it was around noon by this point, so all the teachers came back from their meeting for lunch. I didn’t bring one (derp, plus they had told me I could go home right after my introduction), so my other JTE drove us to Ikari, a grocery store near the train station, and we bought lunch. I got yakisoba. My two JTEs, the vice principal, and I all ate lunch together in the kitchen/staff lunch room place. 

After lunch the teachers all had another meeting at 1pm, but I had gotten the password for my computer, so I was able to use it to make a powerpoint presentation for my self introduction classes. The computer is all in Japanese and unable to be changed, so that was a challenge. I managed to waste enough time that the teachers finished their second meeting around 3pm or so. They were pretty surprised to see me still there and repeatedly told me I could go home, but I wanted to show my work ethic by staying until my contracted time and also it was nice in there because of air conditioning and internet access, if I’m being honest. 

We spent a while trying to figure out if we could change the language settings on my laptop, and by that time it was after 4pm, and J-san was leaving, so she told me to leave as well. I figured I may as well, so I left around 4:30pm and walked home (about 25 minutes). 

Overall, it was a nice and easy first day, which I appreciated. Everyone seems really friendly as well; two or three people have invited me to their houses, which is so kind but I have no idea who they are or where they live. 

On my walk home.

More Shopping

This afternoon, N-san took us shopping at the big AEON in Tottori city. We bought a rice cooker, which oddly was impossible to find anywhere else, most inconveniently. We also got a clothes rack so we could start getting some things out of our suitcases finally! 

Afterwards, we bought some bread for dinner and I had the most amazing, delicious croissant of my life! It was so chewy and soft inside that I thought there was cheese! I really wish that AEON wasn’t so difficult to get to! Although, I guess my wallet would suffer! I also managed to find a bottle of yuzu juice, which I was thrilled about because they don’t sell it in our little TOSC.

When we got home we used the rice cooker, which took some effort because we had no idea what the directions said. But in the end it turned out really good! And we even got a cheap rice cooker. So even the cheap ones here cook rice better than I did in a pot in Canada. Then again, the rice is better, so that’s probably part of it. I think the rice we have is actually from Tottori prefecture, which is really cool! 

Exploring Tottori City

I hadn’t heard anything from my supervisor since she left on the 12th, so I sent an email asking what I was doing today. I got a reply that I was on vacation until Tuesday! So I guess I’ve basically been on vacation this whole time and didn’t know about it. 

With nothing else to do, and tired of being stuck in the apartment, we decided to go into Tottori city to do some shopping for the apartment. 

We managed to purchase train tickets on our own, thanks to the handy “English” button on the machine. I should add, though, that Tottori is so country that I haven’t seen an automatic gate anywhere! There are actual people who stand at the gate to stamp your tickets. (Normally you buy the ticket, then go to a gate, where you stick the ticket in the machine, it opens the gate, you walk through, and get your ticket at the other end. Then you keep the ticket and do the same thing when you leave the station, except the machine keeps the ticket so it knows you’ve completed your ride.)

We got on the train, which was very busy, probably due to the Shan Shan Festival happening in the city. Justin, me, and Yana sat down in that order, and a couple sat beside us, with the man beside Yana. I noticed from the corner of my eye that the woman had her tablet out and it was on camera. I saw my face appear so I looked over and she rushed to hide the tablet. Then the couple switched spots so the woman was beside Yana. She blatantly took our her tablet and snapped a selfie with Yana! I was a bit taken aback, but the couple were very kind. They were actually from China, so I’m curious as to what they were doing in Chizu! The woman even gave Yana some jelly and a pack of crackers and a wipe when she spilled. 

Once we arrived in Tottori we were pretty hungry, so we went and got lunch at MOS Burger. It was really delicious! I have never tasted such fresh tomatoes at a restaurant. I got a mango lassi too, which was amazing. They also had this spiced meat taco thing, so I decided to try it. The meat was definitely not the normal taco seasoning, and it was really sweet. But otherwise it was tasty too.

After that we walked to the nearby AEON, which I recognized as the place where we bought our futons on our first night here. We did some shopping, and along the way we ran into two other JETs, R and K! When we finished checking out, the cashiers and I bowed to each other, and Yana bowed too! It was the cutest thing, and I’m thrilled to see how she is absorbing things without even being told.

We walked back to the station and bought our tickets, but we were a bit early for the train, so we stopped in a bakery in the station, which was delicious. I love Japanese bakeries more than I can say!

Then we went to catch our train, and amazingly the Chinese couple had caught the same one! So we smiled and waved, but they weren’t sitting next to us this time.

Tottori Prefectural Orientation 2014, Day Two

View from my hotel room.

Unfortunately I had to wake up early again the next morning for our second day of orientation. I was pretty tired, but luckily the night before I had purchased some coffee just for this reason!

We had to check out first and then everyone had to meet Mayumi in the lobby. We all walked together to the Hopestar, the location for the day. Here’s what our schedule was like:

9:00am-9:05am Introduction of senpai JETs (there were a few new people today)

9:05am-9:35am Introduction to TPIEF and emergency preparedness

9:45am-11:35am Workshop (divided by school levels)

11:45am-12:15pm Bus to lunch

12:15pm-1:15pm Lunch at Kuimonya Sazanami in Iwami

1:15pm-1:30pm Bus to boat ride

1:30pm-2:30pm Boat ride along the Uradome coast

2:30pm-3:00pm Bus to Tottori sand dunes

3:00pm-4:00pm Tottori sand dunes

4:00pm-4:30pm Bus to Tottori station

The boat ride was nice and relaxing, and there was a great cool breeze, but overall to be honest it was a bit boring. The rocks were pretty, but after about 10 minutes it just all looked the same. The seagulls and lone hawk following the boat and catching food was the most exciting part.

Uradome boat cruise.

The sand dunes were actually a bit more exciting. I explored with R1 and R2. R1 desperately wanted to sit on a camel, and we found that you can get photos for Y500; still a rip off, but cheaper than a 3 minute ride for Y2,500. So we waited in line for that, R2 and I did a photoshoot for R1 and then we decided to climb to the highest sand dune.

On top of the largest sand dune. It is a deceptively steep  drop to the water below.

It was a bit of a walk and on the way there we argued over whether or not we should attempt to scale the nearly vertical wall of sand or go for the gently sloping easy path. In the end we decided on the middle path, which was a bit steep, but not too much. Even that turned out to be a challenge though, so props to the people who attempt that vertical wall! The top was surprisingly high, and my fear of heights kind of began to kick in when I realized just how tiny the people at the bottom were. We enjoyed the view for a few minutes and then took the much less harrowing climb down. R2 decided he wanted to run down the vertical wall, but R1 and I declined after seeing another guy attempt the same and end up doing several impromptu summersaults and just completely eating it. 

The hike back was almost worse, because we had to go back up to the small dune, which was loooong and gently sloping. My legs got a serious work out! We rinsed our feet off and then went to get some of the famous nashi (pear) soft cream. They also had peeled, fresh pears to eat too. The soft cream was delicious, just as advertised. I only wish my cone had been larger! We took our ice cream inside the gift shop, where it was air conditioned. There were a bunch of free samples there, and I bought a pear to take home and try.

My 20th century pear soft cream.

Then it was time for the bus ride back to the station. I had been thinking of doing some shopping, but I was tired and my bags were heavy, so I stuck with R2 and L and took the train home with them.

Tottori Prefectural Orientation 2014, Day One

This morning I left the house early to meet N-san at Chizu station. I have Tottori prefectural orientation in Tottori city for today and tomorrow, so she rode the train with me. Three stops away from the city, two other JETs came on the train, R from New Zealand and L from USA, so we sat together and chatted.

When we got to the city there was still a lot of time to spare, so firstly we dropped our baggage at the Washington Hotel and then we all went to a cafe in the station for some iced coffee. I was never a coffee drinker before, but there is a lot of sweetened coffee here and I’ve been so exhausted that its almost becoming a habit. 

After coffee, we told N-san that we would be okay on our own, so she left to go back to Chizu. However, as soon as she left we realized we had no idea how to get across the street. I discovered a tunnel under the road, so we followed that. Along the way we picked up another JET from USA, C. There were two exits - one went to the street and one went into the basement level of the Daimaru department store. We decided to kill some more time in there and wandered around. After not too long we thought it would be best to head to the building for orientation. We thought it would be a short 5 or 10 minute walk, but it ended up being more like 20 minutes! It was getting a bit hot and humid by this point, and it didn’t help that several other JETs who live in the city passed us on their bikes!

We finally arrived at the building, which is huge with a cathedral-like ceiling all made of glass. It was like a giant greenhouse. Our orientation was held upstairs in a conference room. I sat beside L. Here’s what our schedule was like for the first day:

10:30am-10:50am Registration

11:00am-11:05am Opening remarks

11:05am-11:10am Explanation of schedule

11:10am-11:40am Basic information about work and life in Tottori (CIRs and ALTs)

11:40am-11:45am Introduction of Tottori AJET and senpai JETs

11:55am-12:55pm Lunch

1:05pm-1:35pm Basic information (continued)

1:45pm-2:45pm ALT specific information

2:45pm-2:55pm Break

2:55pm-4:45pm Panel discussion with senpai JETs

After that we all walked to the Washington Hotel near the station, which is where we were staying overnight. We checked in, picked up our luggage, and went to our rooms to rest a bit before the AJET party at 6:30pm. We were also able to rent wireless routers from the hotel, which was awesome!

My room at the Washington Hotel.

Around 6:20pm I went down to the lobby and met up with M (from AJET, and who was leading us all to the beer garden for the party) and the other JETs going out. We walked over to the beer garden, which is on the roof of the Daimaru department store, so not too far away. It is normally like Y3,200 or so for the beer garden, which is nomihodai (all you can drink) and tabehodai (all you can eat). But there was a coupon for Y700 off, which was great! There were lots of different drinks, mostly alcoholic, but some soft drinks too. The food was definitely different and I had no idea what most things were except for the potato wedges, chicken balls, edamame, and escargot. I only had one glass of alcohol, so overall it was a bit of a waste of money in that way, but it was fun to be there and I enjoyed meeting a lot of people. The beer garden closed at 9:30pm, so we crammed onto the elevator and met up on the sidewalk below. I don’t want to talk about it much for discretion, but some people were super drunk already, so it was getting pretty wild and people wanted to continue the party! We decided to got to karaoke, so a senpai JET led us to a spot, stopping along the way at a convenience store for more alcohol and fried chicken. We got a big room there and sang for almost two hours (a surprisingly good selection of songs actually, although the Celine Dion was questionable). I didn’t really drink much, but everyone was so fun and I love karaoke, so it was a really great experience anyway. Actually, afterwards I felt really energized and like it was good for opening up before going to teach a bunch of energetic kids. A few of us decided to call it a night around 11:30pm, so we paid and walked back to the hotel. I was a bit wired still, so I stayed up and finally crashed around 1am.

A Day Off?

So today is Monday, but I wasn’t told that I had to be anywhere, and nobody has yet to text me or come to my house, so I’m unsure of if I have the day off or what. I kind want to go out for a walk, but I’m afraid to leave in case someone comes for me.

I ended up not going out, but nobody came or contacted me, so we went out in the evening and walked about an hour or so to the big pharmacy just outside town and went shopping there for a few things.

Typhoon Sunday

This morning the typhoon is worse - still raining, and now with lots of wind. We probably could have gone out yesterday, as today is supposed to be the worst day. So again, we are stuck inside. Its also frustrating because it is still warm, but if we open the windows we get rain in the house. So we’ll keep them closed, I guess, and use fans to help circulate the air. 

After getting our laundry machine fixed, we’ve done a few loads of laundry. The problem, though, is that we don’t have a dryer and in the high humidity and general wetness here, the clothes literally take days to dry. We also only have one small rack to hang things on. We do have some clips for a railing out on the balcony, but of course we can’t put clothes out in a typhoon. I finally realized we can dry the clothes a lot easier in front of the fan, though! Still, not having a dryer is taking some getting used to.

The typhoon warning today ended up being a bit of a dud - in the afternoon it cleared up a lot and even became sunny. However, we still couldn’t go out because Yana was vomiting up everything. I think she was reacting to the new water here, because after drinking it was when her problems started. In the evening she was fine, and hadn’t had any water since the early morning.

A Typhoon is coming...

This morning I actually slept until 6:30am, which was great. I did wake up around 5am, because of the trains, but I fell back asleep. 

Today is Saturday, so its a free day! But unfortunately because of the typhoon we can’t really go out. I’m not sure how dangerous it will be, but its been pouring rain non-stop since yesterday and it might get worse, so we won’t chance it. Some events around here have already been cancelled because of it. 

I spent the day doing some organizing, but I can’t do much because we don’t have anything to organize with. Overall, a pretty boring day. I wish we had been able to go out.

Getting a Cellphone

The view from our apartment, with the train station on the right. 

I was woken up this morning by a now familiar sound of the siren which marks the start of the trains. One disadvantage to living directly beside the train station is that we hear two of these sirens a day, one in the early morning and one around midnight. This is in addition to a small radio attached to the wall of our living room, which plays music at 7am, noon, and 5pm. 

We went out in the morning to try and buy groceries, but discovered that the store doesn’t open until 9:30am, so we walked back home. Around 9:30, O-san came by to pick up his phone, which he has been leaving overnight in case of emergencies. He informed me that I had free time this morning until N-san came to pick us up at noon to go to Tottori city to get cellphones. He also told me that a typhoon is coming this weekend! 

After O-san left, we went back to the grocery store, since it was open now. We got back, ate a bit of lunch, and then N-san and Y-san (another person from the BOE, not really sure what he does exactly) picked us up from our apartment and drove us into the city. Y-san dropped the four of us off at Tottori station, where we were supposed to meet Mayumi, the PA. We were a bit early, but even after waiting Mayumi hadn’t shown up. It had also started raining (a sign of the typhoon to come). Finally, after N-san called her, Mayumi arrived. Justin, Yana, and I got in Mayumi’s car and went to pick up another JET who was getting a phone, S. N-san and Y-san drove ahead to Softbank and waited there for us. However, when we arrived at Tottori BOE, Mayumi was informed that S had been out to eat with her teachers and they were having so much fun that they hadn’t finished, so S would meet us there. So we drove on to Softbank, and Mayumi and I had just sat down to start the procedure, when I realized I hadn’t brought my bankbook, which is necessary for paying the monthly bill. I felt really awful about it, because it ended up that Y-san drove all the way back to Chizu to look for it in our apartment and then had to drive back. Since that took about an hour, we let S get her phone first (she had arrived just after the fiasco started), and then we went with Mayumi and S went to a nearby department store to do some shopping for the apartment. We had just gotten started when Mayumi got a call that Y-san had returned, so we hurried back to Softbank and finally were able to to get the contracts finished. 

After getting our phones, Y-san and N-san took us back to the department store to do some more shopping, but by that time it was late, we were hungry and tired, so we ended up just getting a few more things, going grocery shopping (getting enough food for a few days in case power goes out), and then driving home. However, this meant that we completely forgot to get a few important things, oops. 

Interesting things:

I got my bank account at Tottori Bank, and the mascots are Tom and Jerry. Literally, they are on my bank book and for setting up an account I got a box of Tom and Jerry tissues.

There is EVERYTHING Frozen here. Seriously, everything. Yana picked out a Frozen water bottle at the department store, and there were also bento boxes, cups, chopsticks, water jugs, etc.

My First Day in Chizu

Woke up to these gorgeous misty mountains this morning.

This morning I woke up early, as seems to be the norm when changing time zones so drastically, and to one where it gets light out at 4am. My supervisors were coming to get me at 9am, so I spent the morning cleaning up the apartment a bit (we just crashed last night) and getting ready slowly, so as not to become drenched in sweat immediately. 

When O-san and N-san arrived, they informed me of the day’s plans (sort of, well, as best they could). O-san had also brought a step stool from his house for Yana to use (for the toilet and sink), which was extremely kind as we couldn’t find one in the store last night. 

Firstly we walked to the bank, where I had to set up my account. This is very important, as I get paid directly into my bank account and similarly, most or all of my utilities will be directly withdrawn. Setting up a bank account in Japan is quite the harrowing experience and it takes a looooong, long time. Firstly I had to fill out three forms, but in kanji (Japanese characters) and all by myself. The solution was for N-san to write it out in pencil and I copied overtop in pen. So, impromptu Japanese kanji practice! Then there was a big issue over whether or not I could get a bank account without a phone number of my own. It took a while to file all the paperwork, but finally they could use my personal seal to finalize everything (like a signature)…except that we were then informed that N-san had accidentally put today’s date in the spot for my birthday, so we had to write in the corrections and then stamp it with my seal to confirm. I was then told that it would take 2 weeks to get an ATM card! There are 2 ATMs in my town, and one is in the hospital right across the road from us, which is great (the other is in the bank). It does cost money to withdraw, but only during off hours and weekends. 

After the bank, we walked across the road to the government office, and on the way they told me we were going to meet the “top boss” of all of Chizu’s education! Okay, so that was a great surprise. I’m not sure I dressed nicely enough. We went upstairs and into his office and I awkwardly sat down after almost taking his seat. We chatted a bit and then N-san left and returned a moment later with 3 other people who work in the office, and whose names I’ve pretty much forgotten already. They started introducing themselves and I realized halfway through that I was still sitting on the couch while everyone but the “boss” (we’ll call him Mr. N) was standing. I felt way to awkward too just stand up randomly, so I continued sitting through all their introductions, dying slowly on the inside. Afterwards, N-san filled out a bunch of paper, and I attempted to make conversation with Mr. N and it went alright I think. He showed me some brochures about Chizu and a drawing of the new junior high school which is being built. We talked a bit about Canada and he told me he had been to Petrolia, which is a tiny town in Ontario, oddly enough it is very close to where my grandparents live and I’ve been there myself. 

Next we went grocery shopping at the nearby store, TOSC. I was unsure of what to get, so I ended up getting blueberries, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, watermelon, ramen, macaroni, a bag of meat pasta sauce, yogurt, bread and apple juice. It was about $21 CAD. Then my supervisor walked me home and used my seal to fill out some paperwork for internet and water and such. They said I had the afternoon off, to “clean up the room,” which was really kind. 

TOSC, my local grocery store.

Unfortunately there’s not much to do at home. We have no internet, no tv, no books, and hardly any stuff. The stuff we do have doesn’t have a place, as we need to buy some organizing and storage items. Still, its nice to finally have some time to relax, as its been pretty go-go-go since Tokyo for me. 

So I had just settled down with Yana to rest while watching a movie when the doorbell rang. It was O-san and N-san, who had come to say that the schools were closed tomorrow, so we had to go visit today or next week. I said today was fine, so off we went! 

First we stopped at the elementary school, and several girls gathered outside the entrance repeated “kawaii, kawaii” (cute) to Yana. We met a lot of teachers and I can’t remember their names. They also showed me the desk and computer I can use. 

The junior high school is a new school that is still in the process of being built. The amazing thing is that it is almost entirely wood - local cedar which grows on the mountains surrounding Chizu town. The school actually smelled amazing because of it. They brought us into a meeting room to meet the principal and two English teachers, one of whom is the vice principal. We sat here and chatted a bit more than at the elementary school, since the JHS is my base school and I will teach there most often. We also met a lot of the office staff, who all seemed very kind. 

One thing which was funny was that at both schools everyone kept calling Yana “ningyo,” (mermaid) and doll. One man even reached out to touch her hair! Obviously her ego is going to explode here, because everyone fawns over her.

O-san and N-san drove us back to our apartment, where they had to do some work to get our washing machine hooked up to the water. Finally it was fixed, but then we realized we didn’t have any laundry soap, so we had to go out shopping again. O-san took us back to TOSC, but they didn’t quite have what we were looking for, so he ended up driving us about 5 minutes to just out of town, where there is a larger store that is more like a pharmacy. We found some soap there, as well as a few other things we needed and then drove back to the apartment, where O-san showed us how to use the machine. I also asked him about how to sort garbage, as it has just been piling up on counters until then because I had no idea what to do with it. I'm still not sure I know what to do with it.

After that O-san and N-san left, around 6pm. Justin and I made dinner, which was the odd combination of watermelon and pasta with meat sauce. I had bought this sauce which came in two small bags and you squeeze it out onto the pasta. It was “meat” flavour, which was a bit sketchy, but it was actually pretty tasty! However, I’ve found that so far the fruits we’ve eaten here have been a bit tasteless compared to Canada. The blueberries were bland and grainy, the cherry tomatoes were okay, but again, a bit bland, as was the watermelon. But either way, I’m just happy to have something Yana will eat, since she’s so picky!

Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day Four and First Day in Tottori

Our hotel room.

This morning we had to get up early to catch our flight to Tottori. We packed our suitcases, but didn’t leave enough time for breakfast, so we went straight to check out and then to the 5th floor to meet with the other Tottori folks. We left around 7:20am and took a bus to the airport. I’m not sure if we were the first group to leave, but when we walked out all the other groups in the room cheered us out like we were celebrities or something, which was awesome and hilarious. We got to the airport, checked in, and then had to wait for a few hours for our flight at 10:45am. The flight was good, and it gave us a pretty nice view of Tokyo for a bit.

Tokyo Haneda Airport.

Leaving Tokyo

Leaving Tokyo

We landed in Tottori’s tiny airport and went to retrieve our luggage from the single conveyor. At the airport, my supervisors N-san and O-san were waiting for us. O-san drove us to a restaurant called Cafe Gusto in Tottori city for lunch. We all had hamburg steak sets. Over lunch we discussed what to do over the course of the day. O-san asked me (using a translator app on his tablet - very handy!) what I wanted to buy for our apartment, but I said I didn’t really know what I should buy without seeing what was in the apartment already. They then decided that we should drive into Chizu to see the apartment and then drive back to buy items. I felt really bad about it, but its really hard to express myself completely in Japanese. 

First views of Tottori!

First views of Tottori!

Before we got to the apartment, we stopped at the Chizu government office to register all three of us as residents. It took a few tries, but we finally got it right! They also had all our suitcases there, so those were brought out to the car.

Then we drove like one minute to our apartment building, which is directly across from the train station. There are 2 buildings on the lot, and we live in building 2. Our building has 9 floors and we live on the 5th. There is just one person across from us (so 2 apartments per floor). Our apartment is nice, but its smaller than it looked in the photos we saw! I think its probably about the same size as our house. The wood on the floors and walls is really cozy, but there are some not so nice things, like a bit of mould and air conditioning only in the tatami room (which we weren’t really planning on using). My supervisors showed us around the house, explaining things like the bath to me. Except when he was trying to explain about plugging the bath to fill it up, for some reason his translator was saying something like “it happened after the war.” I have no idea how that worked, but it was really hilarious. 

We dropped off our luggage and then went back in the car. We picked up a stovetop from the government office and then drove around for a while looking for futons without much luck. We kind of wanted a queen-sized futon for me and Justin, but we had to settle for two singles in the end, which is fine. We ended up back in Tottori city to buy the futons, along with other bedding (Yana picked out a Pokemon pillow), and some basic groceries for breakfast. 

Then we went for lunch at an udon restaurant in the city, where Justin and I got tonkatsu and Yana had plain udon, a Japanese food she will actually sort of eat. Then it was time to go back to Chizu. We were all exhausted and everyone fell asleep in the car, except for O-san, who was driving of course.

Back at the apartment, O-san explained a bit about what we would do the next day, and then left us to finally settle down for the night.

Overall, I am really interested to see more of Chizu and Tottori. The mountains are huge, lush, and omnipresent. We drove by a castle on top of a large hill on the way to Chizu, which was gorgeous. I’m really looking forward to our prefectural orientation, when we get to visit the sand dunes and go on a boat tour of the coast!

Oddly I still don’t really feel jet lagged, just tired after busy days. I also feel really calm and completely nonchalant about everything, and I’m not sure if that’s the product of some sort of brain malfunction or an actual sense of ease and acceptance of my new life here. I’ve been holding out for a freak-out moment, so far I’ve felt pretty cool and collected about everything. I am kind of terrified of actually starting teaching, but I know it will get easier with time, so I’m just telling myself to wait out the first few weeks of hardship. 

So that was my first day in Tottori! I will wrap things up here with some random, interesting things I’ve noticed:

The tap in our kitchen is a single lever style and you push down to turn the water on, not lift it up. I am having a lot of difficulty getting use to this and have sprayed water all over myself several times.

At the store, shampoo and soap are all in sealed containers, of course, but there are scent balls hanging beside each one so you can smell what its like without needing to open the container.

I’m really surprised at how much Japanese I actually have retained, even after not using it for 6 years. Its far from perfect, but I’ve been able to figure out most of what my supervisors say and they seem to understand me alright too.

Tokyo Orientation 2014, Day Three

Today wa our last full day in Tokyo! I really wish we got more time here, especially more free time. I'm not sure when or if we'll be able to come back since we live so far away in Tottori.

I went up to the 43rd floor this morning to try and get photos of the sunrise over Tokyo. It didn't quite turn out as I wanted, because the bathrooms which supposedly have a great view were closed (it was 5am). There was a big window in the hallway though.

View of Tokyo from the 43rd floor of Keio.

View of Tokyo from the 43rd floor of Keio.

7:00am-8:30am Breakfast
Same fare as yesterday, but with the addition of french fries.

Our breakfast spread this morning.

9:00am-10:30am Life in Japan as an ALT panel discussion
There were 3 current JETs who answered a variety of questions. It was nice to actually hear from more JETs. That said, a lot of information is placement specific, so it was all kind of useless.

10:30am-10:45am Break

10:45am-11:35am Meaningful speaking activities
This workshop was about speaking activities, so we learned a few games, how to adapt activities to other levels, and how to balance fluency and accuracy. I felt like it could have been a little more in depth.

11:35am-12:50pm Lunch
Today we had vegetable curry, minestrone soup, and salad. It seems like they are making sure that meals are vegetarian, which is thoughtful.

12:50pm-1:40pm Reviewing vocabulary through games
This seminar was about teaching vocabulary in different ways, like charades or pictionary.

1:40pm-1:55pm Break

1:55pm-2:45pm Improving your language awareness
This seminar was focused on grammar and how to approach it in the classroom.

2:45pm-3:00pm Break

3:00pm-3:50pm Helping students with writing
The last seminar of the day was about teaching writing. I was really tired by then, so I kind of zoned out.

3:50pm-4:05pm Break

4:05pm-4:55pm Host prefecture/designated city meetings
I was really looking forward to finally meeting people going to my prefecture! There aren't very many of us, but there is 1 other Canadian, so I'm not completely alone! I still can't believe there are only 2 new Canadian JETs coming to Tottori, though. Here we found out some information on travelling to Tottori tomorrow, what to expect on our first day, and Tottori orientation.

4:55pm-5:05pm Survey completion and submission
We had to complete and submit a survey about all the seminars across the entire orientation.

5:15pm-8:00pm Luggage collection
We actually missed this, but its just for loading the bus before we go to the airport, so it should be fine I hope!

We missed luggage collection because this evening we met up with Asumi and went to Sweets Paradise, a dessert buffet! It took a while for us to find it and we even had to go ask at an information desk inside a department store, but we got there! The food was really amazing and there was a huge variety - not just sweets either. I completely gorged myself on all sorts of delicious cakes, as well as kakigori (flavoured shaved ice), one of my favourite Japanese foods.

My first dessert plate. The brown one is chocolate, the tart is a yogurt tart, the jelly is ramune jelly, and I'm not sure about the flavours of the two cakes in the foreground, but they were also delicious.

Chocolate fountain at Sweets Paradise.

Just part of the dessert buffet at Sweets Paradise.

Afterwards, when we were walking back to our hotel, we ended up going down this narrow, winding street. It was a traditional Japanese pub street, lined with restaurants. Interestingly, many of them seemed to be run by women. One woman and her 5 year-old daughter caught our attention and we chatted with them for a moment...er, well I guess it was more like awkwardly smiled and tried to get two shy girls to talk without success. The lady was very kind and gave Yana some candy. I wish we could go back there again, it smelled delicious!

If you look closely, you can spot the woman and her daughter peeking out of their restaurant on the right.

I'm a bit nervous about tomorrow because its probably when this will all sink in. Being mostly confined to the hotel over the past few days has really sheltered us from a lot of the realities of living here. I also hope I get my voice back by tomorrow, because otherwise I am going to sound completely ridiculous when I try to speak!