A Day at Suwa Hoikuen

On December 1st I took paid leave and used the chance to attend preschool with Yana.

Yana's symbol is a peach and its on all of her
belongings, including her shoe cubby.

We arrived for 9:00am. Yana already knew where her shoe cubby was and as soon as her shoes were off she bolted up the stairs and to her classroom, leaving me awkwardly standing there and unsure of where to go. She is in panda-gumi (Panda class) and knows exactly where it is.

I'm not sure if we were a bit late and missed this, but when Justin went with her he said that the kids eat a small piece of seaweed each morning. This is supposed to help them have good dental health.

Next the kids go to gargle water and wash their hands.

After that they change into their shorts - each kid wears the same school shorts. They have to tuck their shirts into the shorts. Then they line up and walk down to the gym.

In the gym they have a musical exercise program with one or two other classes of similar age. Yana's teacher plays the piano and two other teachers help lead the kids. They do stretches and then run around and do different movements to the music (like hopping on one foot or running with arms outstretched like an airplane).

Once their exercise time is finished, the kids went back upstairs and had to clean the floors in the traditional Japanese way.

Then the kids change back into their regular clothes.

They wash their hands again.

Next its library time. The kids go down to the library for a few minutes. They have time to browse and read a few books, and if they want they can check out a book to take home.

After the library they go back to the classroom and the teacher reads a story to them which she selected from the library.

Next is time for activities. They did drawing and after that played with clay for a while.

After activity time the kids wash their hands again because its lunchtime.

They eat lunch at 11:30am. It is kyuushoku, so school lunch. All the kids eat the same thing. On this day they had some kind of pasta gratin, egg soup, rice, tea, and salad. Yana was not pleased.

After lunch they brush their teeth and have quiet/nap time for quite a while. They change into pajamas for this time.

After naptime, they change back into regular clothes again.

They have a snack, which tends to be some kind of bread. I think they may drink milk as well.

Soon after snacktime is pickup time, around 3:00-3:30pm.

And that's generally how Yana's days at Suwa are spent!

Tottori SDC 2014

One thing I didn't know about when I applied to be a JET was that every prefecture has a mid-year Skills Development Conference (SDC). There's no official time during which all prefectures have their conference, but they tend to be around this time of year. In Tottori this year, ours fell on December 4th and 5th (Thursday and Friday). This means that I got those two days off of regular work!

My BOE was super awesome and gave me my business trip reimbursement before I even left. Usually we have to turn in a form and then get reimbursed at some random later date. They also gave me enough to take the super express trains, instead of the local trains! Anyway, as it turns out, I didn't even need all the money. I managed to hitch a ride with R, L, and J from Koge, so it was only a couple hundred yen and a 1/2 hour train ride. Then we drove the rest of the way, which was fun. At one point we were worried that traffic was going to make us late, but luckily we arrived with time to spare - and we even stopped at a convenience store to buy R a pen!

Our SDC is held in Kurayoshi at Mirai Chushin, which is the Pear Museum. Yes, Tottori is so obsessed it even has a museum dedicated to pears. But what can I say, they're freaking delicious - I would build a shrine to them, too.

9:40-9:55 Registration
When we arrived most everyone else was already lined up. We had to sign in, which basically consisted of grabbing some papers and our PA, M, crossing our name off the list. Since the SDC is mandatory, this is one of the few times every single ALT in Tottori prefecture is in the same room. It was pretty cool!

10:00-10:15 Opening Remarks
First up we had the very Japanese opening ceremony. It was pretty short, though, and we moved right in to the first workshop.

10:25-12:25 Workshop I: Creating Activities Using the Shuttle Chat Booklet
We were divided up into several rooms and then into groups of 2 or 3. I was in a group with H. As a JHS ALTs, our task was to use this Shuttle Chat workbook and create an activity using any grammar point. We chose "can/can't". We spent about one hour preparing our activity and then another hour doing all our presentations. Although the Shuttle Chat is complete crap to work with, it was nice to share ideas with other ALTs. There wasn't a whole lot of feedback going on, though. So I guess either we were all awesome or everyone was too nice to be mean.

12:25-13:20 Lunch
After that we had lunch. Our room ended late, so I had lost my carpool buddies. Luckily I ran into R2 and ended up going for lunch with him and D. We went to a cafeteria-type restaurant just outside the museum. I ordered tonkatsudon, which ended up being this massive portion which I could not finish. It was a nice lunch though; nice to catch up with those two.

13:25-13:55 Workshop II: English Education in Tottori Prefecture
After lunch we had another workshop. However, it was really more of a lecture about the changes happening to the way English is being taught in Japan. It was good to know, but I felt like we could have used the time to discuss more important things. Anyway, one shocking statistic showed that as JHS students get older, the teachers use more and more Japanese in the class! It should be the opposite! The thing is, its definitely true - I see this every day at work.

14:05-15:35 Lecture: Demotivating Students 
The last item for the 4th was a lecture from a professor from TUES. I was kind of dreading the 1.5 hour lecture, but it actually turned out to be the best part of the entire day. The speaker was a really engaging and wonderful public speaker and she was addressing us like college graduates instead of dumb foreigners. It was wonderful. She addressed some really great issues as well. I just loved it. Definitely the most helpful part of the day.

After that day 1 was over! I had a while to wait before my train, so I hung out with a bunch of other JETs and ate pear softcream. Then we took the bus to the station together - literally only a bunch of foreigners on a bus. Most of us were going back towards Tottori-shi, but my BOE seemed to be the only one who paid for the super express, so I hoped aboard alone. By the way - it was my first time riding it and it was crazy! It leans into turns, which makes the whole world shift as if you're on a rollercoaster. Actually, it started making me feel sick after a while...

Aboard the Super Hakuto 12!

The next morning was another early one. This time I had to take the train all the way to Kurayoshi. I rode the local to Tottori and then changed to a super express train from there. I arrived in Kurayoshi pretty early, so I just sort of hung around until the bus arrived. A bunch of other ALTs rode the bus with me, which I was glad of, because I wasn't sure about the stop.

9:40-9:55 Registration
Same as Thursday. This time we just had to pick up the day 2 survey.

10:00-10:00 Opening Remarks

10:15-11:45 Workshop III: Elementary School Visits.
There were several other workshops, but this is the one I had to attend. We were divided into groups of 5-6 people and had to discuss various aspects of ES visits. We talked about issues, things we did outside of class, and what we thought of the textbook Hi Friends!. It was a good chance for discussion, but it was really negative, I thought.

11:45-12:40 Lunch
Lunchtime! I was going to go for okonomiyaki with R, L, and J, but I met up with A and A2 on the way and they were going for curry, so....yeah, I jumped ship for curry instead. We went to this cute little restaurant and I ordered hamburg curry, which was a plate of curry sauce, rice, two hamburger patties, and a boiled egg. It was pretty good, but a bit too spicy for me! Anyway, I really enjoyed the opportunity to talk with A and A2.

12:45-14:35 Workshop IV: Team Teaching Examples and Ideas
I'm not sure the title of this workshop was entirely accurate. There were 3 ALT presenters. The first presenter was S, who basically gave an overview of her shadowing day (which I attended) and then talked about the importance of phonics and how she introduced it into her school. The next speaker was M, who also briefly talked about her shadowing day, but focused more on how to deal with a teacher who doesn't utilize you. She had some good strategies to share. Lastly was R3, who talked about basically an English program he created and introduced to his schools. Basically he only teaches his own class, which is an entire period of interactive story telling based on the appropriate grammar being studied. It was pretty interesting, but kind of a rare circumstance.

14:45-15:45 Workshop V: Sharing Ideas for Using the Shuttle Chat Booklet
The last workshop! In this workshop we actually got to work with our JTEs. We were in groups, so I was with two other ALTs and their JTEs. We had to present the Shuttle Chat activities we had created the day before. Actually, our JTEs had been there all day, but had their own separate workshops during the previous part of the day. It was a good workshop, but unfortunately kind of limited to that silly booklet.

So that was my first SDC! I actually enjoyed it a lot, despite early mornings, long days, and lots of train travel. It was kind of a good refresher to get me out of a funk. I feel a lot more energized and motivated now, so I'm excited to hopefully do more at school.

Hello December!

November ended with an insanely warm weekend of 18 degree weather, and then - BOOM - December. It was like the seasons changed literally overnight. Like some sort of official start to Winter, the first snow came on December 2nd. It started off light, but built up to a pretty thick flurry at one point. However, it ended pretty quickly and melted as soon as it touched the ground.
The next day it snowed again. It still melted pretty quickly, but some did build up on rooftops and on the mountain peaks for a short time.
The next day it rained.

Anyway, here's a photo of the first snow.

Yeah, as you can see, not very substantial.

It feels very odd to me. I can't believe this is the month of Christmas! Its probably the first time for me to experience this kind of warmth and lack of snow at this time of year. That said, I love it. I wish it was even warmer! At this point I'm beginning to regret not requesting Okinawa. However, apparently it snows a ton here and Chizu even has a snow festival. I expect it to get a lot colder and snowier. I think by the end of February it should be back to liveable temperatures. Until then, I hibernate under blankets and many, many layers.

Woke up to more significant snow on December 6th.

Woke up to more significant snow on December 6th.

November to December

I've had a fairly busy last week of November here!

Yana ready for her first day of preschool...in Japan!

On Wednesday Yana started at preschool! She attended for three days with Justin, while I was at work. She struggles a bit, but has made a best friend already and she seems to enjoy it well enough.

On Friday I had a very uneventful day, as the JHS students had tests. I pretty much sat at my desk all morning, after which I felt guilty, so in the afternoon I made up a game for my 2nd graders to play.

On Saturday afternoon we headed to a nearby JET's house for a Thanksgiving celebration party. American Thanksgiving, that is. Which is kind of ironic, because the host is from New Zealand. Anyway, that was really fun! And we got to eat lots of yummy food - even a Turkey! Yana enjoyed herself too, and got lots of attention as usual.

On Sunday Chizu ES had a happyoukai, a recital, from 12:15 to 3:45. I brought Justin and Yana along to watch. Each grade did a performance and at the end all the students in the school played an instrumental song together. This year they chose Let it Go (surprise, surprise). We spotted Yana's friend Shi-chan from preschool, so the two of them played together Shi-chan fell asleep. Then Yana smashed her face off the floor, so I had to take her out because she was crying. People are so nice here, so one of the office staff gave her a juice box and that helped.

Chizu Elementary School happyoukai. That's the entire student body.

On Sunday evening the ES teachers had a bonenkai - end of year party - which I attended. I took a rented bus into the city with some other teachers. We had the party at the Hope Star Tottori hotel. It was up in a pretty nice and huge Japanese-style room. The party was fun because we played team games and in the end our team won! We got prizes too, a soup mug. The meal was mostly seafood, so I didn't eat much, but there was a tiny steak and a slice of melon which I enjoyed (I did eat some of the other food too).

On Monday the JHS has tests again, so I decided to take paid leave. I used to opportunity to go to the preschool with Yana. I was able to meet her teacher and see what kinds of things they do. I also took the opportunity to write down the massive list of things the kids need (pajamas, apron, face mask, hand washing towels, etc.). Yana seemed to be doing alright, although she really struggles with lunch. Took her about half an hour to get down one mouthful of food. I feel for her, but all the kids eat the same lunch, so hopefully she can learn to deal with it.

On Tuesday I worked at the ES, but in the afternoon I went over to the JHS with the 5th and 6th graders for a very special ceremony. In Japan, they have traditional ceremonies to bless newly built buildings. There was a whole Shinto ceremony going on on top of the roof, but unfortunately I couldn't really see what was going on. At the end a bunch of important delegates chucked hard lumps of mochi off the roof for people to catch. Everyone was talking about how fun it was, but it was actually terrifying! One piece hit my hand and actually cracked my thumbnail in two places! It was definitely interesting, but to be honest I'm not keen to experience it again!

The mochi cakes I caught.

Note the student covering his head.

On Thursday and Friday I have the SDC - Skills Development Conference. Each prefecture has one sometime around now. Its basically an ALT conference. I will make a separate post about how that goes.