First Ski and blatant lack of proof reading

The frazzle continues

After swearing that I wasn’t going to do anything on Tuesday night, I yet again found myself driving into Honjo to help another ALT acquire discount shinkansen tickets. Fortunately the lovely lady at the booth didn’t speak in Akita-ben so my duties as translator weren’t too trying.

My efforts were rewarded with a dinner of chili and rice and Christmas mince pies for dessert – I am beginning to envy all of the ALTs that are going home for Christmas – the thought of roasts and puddings is making my mouth water even as I type this.

My masterpiece

Wednesday at the primary school saw me confusing the 6^th graders as until now they had known the number 30 as saati and 13 as saatiin and all of a sudden this gaijin comes in and starts throwing weird ‘th’ sounds at them…

After school I was invited to join the cooking club where we decorated cakes with icing, cream, fruit etc. The cooking teacher made cups of tea for us to enjoy with our cake so it was a nice chilled out finish to the day.

Friday 16^th  December

Don’t ever joke about how long it will take you to get anywhere in Akita – it will come back and bite you. Friday saw a layer of white covering most of Konoura and large flakes of snow were falling as I walked to school. The snow continued throughout the day and so contrary to prior snow days – it was still white come home time. This meant that driving around Akita city to suss second hand ski gear took much longer than anticipated – may have muttered something about never driving in this stupid city ever again…

Ikawa park

It will however, take more than a little snow to discourage a bunch of gaijin from seeing the new Star Wars film at the movies.

Not overly keen on driving back late at night in the snow I crashed at Cari and Josh’s in the city and accompanied Cari to Isabel’s house the next day. With Bex in tow as well Isabel took us for a wander around her local park, where we marveled at the pristine white snow before running through it and destroying the peace. So many JETs (and teachers for that matter) have warned us about how miserable and cold winter here can be. Now I am aware that this barely the start of winter, and we should expect the temperature to drop another 10 degrees or so (we’ve had some lovely crisp days of 0 degrees so far) but I feel that, provided you have the right clothes and are prepared, winter can be amazing. Like life – it’s what you make it I guess.

Back to Cari and Josh’s for a dinner of curry udon followed by sake and then we all cringed a little as we set our alarms for 5.30am.

Sunday 18^th December

The first ski run of the season.

Layered up and half asleep we loaded into the car and headed to Tazawako. As the weather wasn’t fantastic only one of the ski lifts was open. However once I got to the top of said lift – I saw the view that everyone has raved about. The ski area looked over lake Tazawa, surrounded by snow covered hills.

View from the top of the run (while it lasted)

The weather packed in after lunch and we went from a view of the lake, to barely being able to see 2m in

 front of us. After what we decided was the most disconcerting run of our lives Cari and I called it a day and we met the guys (Josh and Mengkin, both of whom were in the more advanced league of skiing) back at the lodge for lunch.

Face planting in the snow, losing your skis and falling over infront of everyone in the queue for the chair lift sure takes it out of you.

We descended on one of the local onsens to rest our weary bones in the spring water. The outdoor pools still had piles of snow around the place and some of the children were running around making mini snow men next to the baths.

After another fairly eventful weekend I am well and truly ready for school to be done for the year. One more week.

The Invasion: take two

1000 Jizo

And all of a sudden everything starts happening at once and you realise that you have yet to plan the Christmas treasure hunt for the JHS, the Christmas party for elementary, the transport for your holiday or what you are going to do with your cousin and aunty when they arrive….and then there’s the blog which is now 4 days overdue….

The start of the week consisted of speaking tests for the second graders for which they had to memorise a 20 second speech in English. I was initially stationed in the corridor to grade their speeches. Sen-kun in particular had trouble memorising his, he walked up to my desk, took one breath before muttering ‘oh I’ve forgotten’ and seeing himself back into the class room. This occurred about four times before S-Sensei swapped places with me and I helped the kids fix up mistakes in the class room. I helped Sen-kun practice his speech a couple of times before he toddled back out again – and toddled back in the other door shortly after. Again, this was repeated 4 or 5 times before the kid finally remembered his speech (or until S-sensei took pity and gave him a pass for effort).

Motodaki

That night was another trip into Honjo for dinner at Adam’s house with Liam and Dave. Dinner consisted of soft shell tacos youtube videos.

Tuesday night was a rather posh dinner with the BOE for a combination welcome/Christmas party. And the following night was the end of year dinner for my Eikaiwa (English conversation) class.

This made the week fly past and before I knew it it was time to venture north to the airport to pick up Aunty Lorraine and Sarah.

The weather put on a ‘warm’ Akita welcome and they walked out of the terminal to piles of snow. The rice paddies gradually lost their fluffy white coat as we headed further south and by the time we got back to Konoura there was barely any speckled around.

Akata Giant Buddha

The Agenda for Friday was based in Honjo and consisted of the Akata Giant Buddha, 1000 Jizo statues, part of Kameda Castle, Sushi train, and a trip to the coffee shop. That evening we scrimmaged an assortment of food from the supermarket and sat around my coffee table drinking tea and making origami.

Saturday began with a trip to Motodaki waterfall in Kisakata, where Aunty Lorraine and Sarah were slightly disconcerted upon being met with ‘beware of bears’ signs. Next was Naso no Shirataki waterfall, followed by a visit to the 99 Islands and Kanman Temple.

I introduced the visitors to the glory that is the Lawson Oden which we ate back at my flat with a cup of tea before we headed out for a wander around Konoura. Our timing saw us standing on the hill behind the BOE watching as a mini bizzard flew through the small valley. With the icy wind cutting straight through our skinny jeans we decided to retreat back to the warmth of my flat to defrost before skyping the family back home. That night we drove back into Honjo for a dinner of Yakiniku.

Dewasanzan

Sunday was the day trip. For the first time since I have been here, I woke up to a blanket of white outside my window. The plan was to drive down into Yamagata prefecture and try to get up Mt Haguro of the Three Mountains of Dewa. As the other 2 mountains close during the winter due to snowfall I was not entirely convinced that I would be able to drive all the way up. Despite my doubts, my little Kei car did us proud and we made it. The powder was deep and light, and in some places, completely untouched. It was almost completely silent on the mountain as we walked through the trees to the courtyard in front of the temple. In all honesty this has probably been my favourite trip since I got here. I felt like being in a snow globe, or Narnia where time had thrown you back a couple of hundred years.

Pagoda

On our way down the mountain we stopped at the 5 tier pagoda for more relishing in the snow, a couple of Japanese lads asked if they could take a picture for us - cultural differences crashed into play when they beckoned for us to come closer and Aunty Lorraine and Sarah promptly turned around and walked in the opposite direction as they thought he was telling us to move back. Next stop - Tsuruoka city for a lunch of Soba.

Next it was out to the coast to visit the Kamo Jellyfish aquarium. After spending the morning surrounded by snow, we sat happily watching jellyfish illuminted with rainbow lights float around in lazy circles. The town of Kamo itself reminded us all of parts of wellington (we got to see quite a bit of it as avoiding the toll roads meant google maps sent us in in  quite the zigzag on our return to Akita.

Back to the Lawson in Kisakata to pick up some tea and then home for the night.

After having to brush snow off of my car for the first time (Sarah well and truly got her wish of seeing snow) we loaded the suitcases into the car and made our way north again. A leisurely paced morning saw us trot around Starbucks, some shops and the park before we hunted down some food and began the drive back to the airport.

It was really nice having Aunty Lorraine and Sarah in the flat to chat to and certainly made the car rides more enjoyable. The slight hint of melancholy that I felt on returning to the empty and quiet flat was brief, as my next visitor is just over a week away.

Naso falls

"Narnia"

Kamo Aquarium

The Invasion of Konoura

Monday 28^th November

Budgeting in this country has been become substantially easier since I have figured out (or rather been shown how to) use my bank book. If my skim reading of my previous posts is incorrect and I have in fact rambled about this before – feel free to skip this next section.

Haiku poet Matsuo Basho - Kanmanji Temple

With a lack of internet banking (or anything that mildly resembles the 21^st century) figuring out where all your money went the previous month can be a bit of a mission sometimes. To set up an automatic payment you must physically go into the bank and fill out a paper form (complete with about 4 hanko stamps, unless you wish to pay you’re your bills manually each month which requires wither a trip to the bank (which is not open outside of schools hours) or at a combini. Plane tickets purchased online can also be paid for at combinis if you aren’t in possession of a credit card so there are some silver linings to the whole debacle.

To get a rundown of your transactions to insert your bankbook into a slot at the ATM and it prints it all out for you (and is clever enough to turn the pages). It’s a huge relief when you realise that your phone bills have been being paid as you have received zilch contact/acknowledgement of payment since you set everything up in August…

With idea the deposits and withdrawals now all that is left to do is track down the mountain of receipts that you’ve hoarded for the last 30~31 days and try to remember how much that nomihoudai was that you didn’t get a receipt for.

Wednesday 30^th November

Nearly a month after the safe return of the students that visited Oklahoma, a past exchange meeting was held to hear stories and see photos of what the 20 or so kids had gotten up to while over there. It was rather nostalgic seeing photos of the Golden gate bridge and Pier 39 (after we’d made it through the first 10 slides which went along the lines of ‘this is the students at the conference centre before they got on the bus. This is the students on the bus on the way to Akita Airport/at Akita airport/on the plane to Haneda/at Haneda/on the bus to Narita/at Narita/on the plane to San Francisco…it makes you realise what a big deal this is for some kids who have never left the country before). There was also an unfortunate slide where English pronunciation proved too similar and the resultant caption read as: Shawnee City Town Hole.

Thursday 1^st December

It feels like just last week that I was haphazardly throwing up a November display for the English noticeboard. As December had finally rocked around my inner child could be unleashed. As I was putting up the display and had a few teachers stop to chat, I learnt very quickly that ‘Christmas in Summer’ means ‘Surfing Santa’. I even had one teacher that seemed confused and disappointed when he realised that I didn’t have a picture of Santa on a surfboard, I refrained from telling him that it was because it’s tacky and I don’t like it.

Probably similar to the way that a lot of westerners are under the impression that Japanese eat nothing but sushi, people here can be quite attached to stereotypes, and obsessed with seasons. As soon as autumn hits, it’s straight into the autumn wardrobe, regardless of the fact that the temperature on the 1^st of September is exactly the same as that of the 31^st August (ie. Stupid hot and humid), It’s into the long sleeves and tights. I made the foolish mistake of wearing short sleeves on the first day of winter – ignoring the fact that it was almost 10 degrees warmer than some of the weather we’d been having and it was nearly 24 degrees in the staff room. I received many a comment of ‘you’re wearing short sleeves!` and ‘Aren’t you cold?’ The dress code seems to revolve more around the season than the actual temperature, with no regard for how warm it is inside with the heaters going.

Friday 2^nd December

Friday night saw a trip into Akita city planned. This took longer than expected to get under way as when Liam went to fill up his car, the flap to the fuel cap wouldn’t open. A trip to a garage later and we were heading back to swap the temporary car that they had lent him for mine, before racing back to the garage so that Liam could pick up his house key which was still attached to his car keys…

Mt. Chokai with a generous layer of snow

An hour later we were finally on our way to Akita city. The trip saw my pizza craving satisfied – an occurrence that will probably not be repeated too soon as I had forgotten how expensive pizzas are here. A large pizza from Pizza hut will cost you $30~$40 and a small around $20~$30. For a gourmet pizza at a restaurant I can understand that kind of pricing – for a chain takeaway joint, not so much.

We did catch a glimpse into the kitchen of the establishment and saw the enormous wall sized map of Akita city that the employees used to locate houses for deliveries (I would imagine that they’d now use GPS back home).

We then headed to an enormous 2^nd hand goods warehouse that had everything from UFO machines to guitars, to weird anime porn…we may have ventured into the r18 section to have a nosey…My previous convictions that I had come to a bizarre country were heavily reinforced.

Saturday 3^rd December

When I had finally caught up on all the crate day snapchat stories from home and managed to get myself into some clothes, I headed into Honjo to meet Cari and Liam for a coffee. Sitting inside the coffee shop amongst the tree and Christmas lights it felt very cosy looking out the window to see Chokai with a hearty layer of snow on it.

The gaijin (Cari, Liam, Andrew, Priscilla, Isabel, Bex) then descended on my humble abode to pile the futons and blankets into my lounge before we headed to Anmol for a curry dinner.

On our return it was all hands on deck to set up the nest of futons before we cracked the beers and had ‘Clueless’ going in the background. The ever-tardy Dave was greeted by a Smirnoff Ice in the genkan when he decided to grace us with his presence and we settled in for a round of Kings cup and ‘never have I ever’ before figuring out how an earth we were going to comfortably fit 8 sleeping bodies in my flat.

Sunday 4^th December

There’s nothing like a morning trip to the seaside to blow the cobwebs away. We spent a while charging and cartwheeling around the beach at Konoura before making a run to the supermarket to pick up the required components of a pancake breakfast.

On one of the 99 islands

I can almost guarantee that that is probably the most gaijin that have ever been in my supermarket at one time. Three of my 2^nd graders walked in as we were paying and the check-out lady had a wee chuckle at my frantic gestures and scolding as I told the lads NOT to go and teach my students bad words.

With seven of us it didn’t take long to clean up the carnage from the night before – de-nest my lounge and prepare it for breakfast while in the kitchen the dishes were attacked, tea and coffee was made and Isabel Priscilla and Bex took on cooking duty.

We subjected ourselves to ‘The Room’ as the pancakes, eggs and bacon were churned out. I feel the 3.5 rating on IMDB was a little generous. But apparently it was one of those things that you had to see (if it was just to see how bad the movie                                                                                    really was).

Kanmanji

That afternoon Isabel, Bex and I went for a drive into Kisakata, and after google maps decided to take us down a precarious rice paddy road, made it to Kanmanji Temple and the 99 Islands. The Islands were created when Chokai erupted and spat out chucks that landed in the bay and started growing trees. Over the years the sea receded (whether due to earthquake or not I forget) and what is left now is an array of islands in amongst rice paddies. We spent the best part of 2 hours meandering through the allotments and clambering up the islands, experiencing another ‘I’m in Japan’ moment.

The drive home saw our cravings get the better of us and we returned to mine to smash our a dinner of Kiritanpo in my electric cooking pot (which I was ecstatic to discover actually worked). With another week done and dusted, Christmas is creeping closer, and this time next week I will be documenting the adventures of Aunty Lorraine and Sarah who arrive in Akita on Thursday night.

Thanksgiving

Monday 21^st November

As the temperature drops, so too does one’s sanity. Which makes sitting in a room with other people that are on the brink of losing it all the more important. During the winter when the frigid temperatures make you somewhat reluctant to leave your den of warmth, the Honjo guys get together once a week or so for a home cooked meal together. This week Dave, Adam and I bowled around to Liam’s place for a dinner of Chili and rice, washed down with chocolate,cookies and tea. Adam is ex peace core so we sat around googling the hicktown in Mongolia where he’d spent two years and listening to stories of drinking games which involved the local delicacy of fermented milk and copious amounts of vodka….

Wednesday 23^rd November – Labour Thanksgiving

Our cosy setup

Coming from a country that doesn’t celebrate thanksgiving it has always seemed quite a foreign (and very American) concept. However after spending the afternoon with a bunch of ALTs at Isabel’s place in Ikawa, ‘friendsgiving’ is something that may become an annual event.

Driving out of Konoura there were flecks of snow in the air, this only increased after leaving Honjo with Liam riding shot gun and slowed the journey somewhat as it was my first time driving in the snow and the gusts of white specked wind were somewhat disconcerting.

It was full Christmas mode at Cari and Josh’s house in the city, where the wind had died down and the snow was drifting down in large quantities – it was all very pretty standing outside in a November winter wonderland until Liam decided it would be a laugh to lock me out there. Fortunately growing with a younger sister has taught me that all this requires is banging on the door until they realise that you’re a lot more annoying outside than you are in.

Gives you an idea of how much snow there was

As we headed North to Ikawa the snow stuck more and we pulled up to Isabel’s on a carpet of white. Sitting in her lounge with the heater going, snow falling outside her window, mulled wine brewing on the stove and a crap tonne of food on the table, it felt incredibly Christmassy.

That night we headed back into the city to catch ‘Fantastic Beasts and where to find them’.

Saturday 26^th November

After a lazy Friday it was time to go and be sociable again. There was a thanksgiving event held at a community centre in Akita city, complete with Cranberry sauce and copious amounts of turkey. A group of us chilled out in one of the tatami rooms and listened enthusiastically as one of the Japanese high school students there cranked out the likes of Oasis and the Red Hot Chili Peppers on his guitar. The playing turned into an impromptu karaoke session especially when Andrew got ahold of the guitar and started cranking out a few of the favourites. The mood continued even on the drive back into the heart of the city with Liam, Camille (Australia) and Didy (Canada) when Liam’s shuffle threw out the likes of Ricky Martin’s livin’ la vida loca, and the Spice Girls’ wanna be.

More Thanksgiving deliciousness

After dropping Didy and Camille back in the city Liam and I headed out for a pint in Honjo. One thing that I will not be sorry to see the back of when I go home is the smoking in bars. There is nothing worse than the wall of smoke that hits you when you walk in, or the smell of you own hair when you wake up the next morning.

Whether it’s fortunate or not I don’t know but you do get used to it after about 10 minutes or so. I did find sitting next to the humidifier with the fresh clouds of water pumping across the table quite refreshing though.

More excited sing-alongs occurred when one of the groups in the bar cued up a set of Green Day on the karaoke machine. Form Minority all the way through to Know your enemy these guys were full of genki, it was also rather entertaining how enthusiastically they belted the ‘fxck ‘em all!`’ line in minority.

Logo for the Akita JET shirts.
NB Heisei 28-29.

The next day was inevitably a write off until I’d hauled myself down to the local Lawson on a food and coffee mission ($2 for a medium sized coffee – have heard of worse deals). Determined to do something mildly constructive (but not too strenuous) we set off in to a waterfall of some sort. What sort of waterfall it turned out to be didn’t matter all that much as the road had been closed for winter and didn’t reopen until May…

We backtracked and ended up pottering up any road that caught our (or rather Liam’s interest) until one mountain road became a little too ominous and we decided to call it a day. May of the roads we drove along had interesting paths leading off into the trees but with bears around I think it pays to reign in your curiosity somewhat.

This year has been particularly bad for bear attacks in Akita. Last year there was an abundance of food, which meant more cubs this year and less food to go around, which has resulted in the bears having to go further afield to find food. Many elderly people will go into the forests to collect mountain vegetables such as young bamboo shoots which I believe is the circumstances under which a number of the attacks have occurred

Heading back into civilisation I scurried into a second hand shop in search of a humidifier. You read it right – a humidifier. After years of dehumidifiers running 24/7 through the winter and dealing with mouldy damp flats in Wellington, we’ve crash landed in a country where the heating dries the air out so much that you need to pump moisture back into it while it’s bucketing down outside. I nabbed a dinky little gadget complete with blue LED for around $30nz.

After fighting with my archaic TV to get it off the TV stand where I didn’t use it, into my wardrobe where I wouldn’t use it, I perched my the new addition in all its illuminated glory proudly on the stand before my doorbell chimed.

Cue arm flailing and excited squeaks when I realised that my family had sent me a Christmas tree.

Henry called soon after it was delivered and was therefore subjected to my shrill excitement as I baubled up the tree and tried to decide on the best way to tangle the string of lights around it.

After a shuffle of photos, Christmas trees and dangling the remaining decorations from my string of postcards, I was content with my slightly more festive flat.

                                               

I have a pen...I have a problem....

Wednesday 16^th of November

In a similar manner to when I was attempting to teach the 2^nd graders at the primary school, frustrations arose when it was time to teach the 4^th graders fruits in English.

Frustratingly "Apple" is transcribed as "apo-" in the Japanese script
Photo from: http://memeburn.com/2016/10/pikotaro-ppap-9gag-ama/

The wrath of Pikotaro is still painfully apparent in popular culture even though it has been a couple of months since the repetitive and heavily accented `PPAP` exploded onto the internet (I believe we have Justin Bieber to thank for it penetrating the Western Media). The lyrics consist primarily of ‘I have a pen, I have an apple UH apple pen. I have a pen, I have pineapple UH pineapple pen. Apple pen, pineapple pen UH pen pineapple apple pen’ setting aside how repetitive it is, the most irritating thing about this song is that it’s teaching the kids crappy grammar. Though the transcribed lyrics contain the appropriate ‘a’/’an’ preceding the various apples and pineapples – it is not particularly audible (if it’s there at all) in the actual song. It also means that when I’m trying to teach these kids pineapple and apple – they insist on saying pineapple-pen and apple-pen. If you have a minute of your life to spare here's the wee nugget of leopard print clad gold" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0E00Zuayv9Q

Konoura - feat. the local supermarket

In other grammar news – attempting to teach the junior highschoolers about superlatives ended in one kid penning the sentence ‘I am the likest strawberry’. From what I could gather the target sentence was something along the lines of ‘I like strawberries the best/ my favourite fruit is a strawberry’.

As the weather grows steadily cooler, the mid-morning break where the kids charge out onto the field to run laps for 10minutes has been substituted for indoor skipping.

Konoura

This week I was plucked out of the primary school at lunch time and driven to Kisakata with H-sensei and S-sensei to have lunch at a ramen restaurant before we had to attend yet another demonstration lesson. I got to watch the new Kisakata ALT teach though as this was my third demo class I was aware of the 90 minute meeting that would take place afterwards. As soon as I set foot in that meeting room my body decided it was time to go to sleep. Fortunately a 10 month exchange here had taught me the art of letting your fringe cover your face and resting your head in one hand while holding a pen in the other to give the impression that you’re still conscious.

I was reminded all too well of the sinking feeling in your stomach while you wait to see your grade as I watched the JHS third years come up one by one to collect their papers. While there was the standard ‘no I don’t want to show you my score I’m too embarrassed’ reactions, a group of lads marched to the back of the classroom for their own method of sharing their grades with each other. Standing in a circle they chanted ‘Isseinode HA!’ as they flipped over their papers in unison to reveal their scores. Silence as they processed what everyone had got, followed by various outbursts of joy and disappointment.

Friday 18^th November

School lunch

Another day, another demo lesson. Except this time it was at the primary school and we could choose if we wanted to attend a Maths or Japanese lesson, ie. Two subjects completely unrelated to both myself and my JTE’s. However this time we got a print out of the text that the kids had been studying in their Japanese class so while the 90 minute meeting was in process I could sit there and translate the passage while crammed into a desk and chair meant for 9 year olds.

Saturday 19^th November

Omagari weekend was finally upon us. While this town’s name is usually synonymous with the fireworks festival, this time it was simply a bunch of JETs getting together for a good catch up….and booze up.

We started at an Izakaya for food and nomihoudai (where the ladies were presented with a ‘free’ bottle of Californian red wine that tasted similar to the $8 bottles I would bring to BYOs back in Wellington, before continuing on to a bar. On the wall, of this little bar, in this fairly quiet corner of Japan, was a skateboard emblazed with the face of the ‘foursquare guy’. Little snippets of home.

The next morning we resorted to our now ritual nesting pile of humans and futons (One the floor had been myself, Cari, Isabel, Priscilla and Liam, Andrew looking down on us from his bed.

After a few episodes of friends it was decided that we were hungry enough to venture outside. We pottered down to the local mall in search of mild hangover food which inevitably led us to McDonald’s for breakfast, followed by Starbucks for coffee – what worldly little gaijin we are.

While at the mall I dived into a book shop in search of a copy of the Japanese version of Harry Potter. I’d had a slump that week where I had felt that my Japanese had hit a brick wall and my comprehension of everyday conversations was failing. During my exchange I found slowly plodding my way through Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone had been a good compromise of study and leisure and understanding the Japanese text is made that much easier by already having an idea of what is going on in the story. Isabel had had similar feelings of defeat that week so we both walked out with books in hand and new motivation.

and then the ground moved

Tis the season to be caring.

 A number of teachers and students had been wearing red feathers on their lapels over the past couple of weeks. During October funds are collected for Akai hane kyodo bokin (赤い羽共同募金), a charity drive which was established after WWII when many people were in need of assistance. The money apparently goes towards things such as wheel chairs and Seeing Eye dogs.

Similarly during April/May there is a green fundraising campaign to support volunteer forest maintenance, green feathers are worn.

Snow has started creeping lower and lower on Mt. Chokai – which while, beautiful, is a warning for the 3^rd graders at junior high that high school entrance exams are just around the corner.

On Wednesday there was snow forecasted for a lot of Akita, and around Akita city and further north the snow was sticking to the ground. The general consensus seemed to be that it was pretty, but everyone was quite happy to stop right about there.

As Konoura/Nikaho is close to the ocean we don’t tend to get as much snow, however there were a couple of flakes mixed in with the downpour of rain and hail.

Regardless I had to contain my excitement when you could see the first few flakes out of the classroom window (meanwhile the primary school kids were displaying the joy I was feeling).

The fascinating sewing/cooking table

After school i was invited to join the cooking club as they were making kiritanpo a dish that Akita is quite proud of. The kids did most of the work while i floated around. Marveling at how they had managed to establish a single room as both the sewing and cooking rooms into one by using foldable benches. The tables were constructed so that both ends could be folded inwards to reveal a sink at one end and gas elements at the other and to create a stainless steel surface in the middle for food prep. Wipe it down, fold it back and you have a lovely clean table for sewing. 

After the snow on Wednesday it has been warming up a little again. Apparently it is quite normal to get a bout of early snow and then nothing again until mid-December or so.

Kiritanpo

One of the teachers informed me that there is a belief in Japan that a person who has warm hands has a cold heart, and a person with cold hands has a warm heart. Given how poorly I seem to regulate body heat that would probably leave me to be described as capricious…

Capricious and confused. With so many different nationalities amongst the ALTs there are frequent occurrences of conversations halting to confirm everyone knows what a certain word or saying means (I was devastated to discover that ‘Cool bananas’ appears to be a phrase not used outside of NZ and Australia). Given the presence of Americans, Canadians, Kiwis, Aussies, Brits, Irish and Scots, ‘Football’ can mean 3 different sports (Soccer, American football and Aussie Rules) and when you’re talking about hockey you need to specify whether it’s field hockey or ice hockey.

Kiritanpo- the finished product

Similarly I now have to triple check every time I read a date as back home we write dates the British (*couch* right) way dd/mm/yy, here it is written backwards yy/mm/dd (similar to how addresses are written backwards (country à street address) and Surnames are followed by Christian names) but in class the kids learn the American way of writing it mm/dd/yy add to this the fact that in Japan they also refer to the era in place of the…normal way, for example, this year is Heisei 28, the 28^th year of the reign of the current emperor. Quite often on forms I will have to write my birth date not as 1993, but as Heisei 5 (as I was born during the 5^th year of the Heisei era).

Remembering what season it is can also be a bit of a mission. You get so used to reversing everything in your head that when it starts getting too easy you begin to doubt yourself.

And we’re back to the weekend…

Another late night of over indulgence in alcohol.

Bex had a plan for her birthday which meant all of us drawing names out of a hat and being let loose in the second hand shop to spend \2000 on an outfit for the person whose name we had drawn.

The check-out operators must have wondered what an earth was going on – the outfit that we scavenged together were not pretty. Donning the lovely skirt that Isabel had bought him, Andrew was asked by a Japanese person if he was Scottish.

School lunch - the floppy looking square is tofu curd filled with mochi

After yet another night that lasted until 4.30am it was a slow trudge to the pancake restaurant for a late breakfast on Sunday morning. The skies opened on the trudge back (which was actually really refreshing) and we mooched around at Cari and Josh’s waiting to dry off.

When we all felt just about ready to face the world again we headed to the mall to treat ourselves at the import shop (I have cheese in my life once more) and indulge in Ice cream.

I then spent the later part of the evening feeling useless and pestering everyone back home with questions after the earthquake.

It has been a very surreal experience following the aftermath of the earthquake on Sunday night (or wee hours of Monday morning) in Wellington.

It was a relief when the first news I heard of it was from my immediate family and Henry so I at least knew that they were ok.

Waking up to messages letting me know that my family had had to leave their home to head for higher ground was ever so slightly disconcerting. Our home is near a river, the mouth of which is only a few k’s away and therefore a risk if a tsunami was to occur. It was a sleepless night for all of them.

After staying up to talk to people back home and try and figure out what was happening last night, this morning has consisted of trawling through stuff.co.nz articles, following the news with bleary eyes. I don’t think I’ve ever known an earthquake to cause so much havoc through so much of the country. It will no doubt be a long day for everyone, but a miracle that so few people were injured.

All my love to everyone back home, stay safe.
頑張ってand Kia Kaha x

The Great Mask Evasion

Monday 31^st October

Halloween lunch feat. pumpkin soup and pumpkin pudding

After being cooped up in a car with an ALT coughing all the way to and from Akita city, and two nights of drinking until 4.30am, my body decided enough was enough. I finally have my first cold and am doing everything I can to seem less sick so that I don’t get told to wear one of those bloody face masks.

I was at school at 7.30am on Monday to set up the Halloween treasure hunt for the kids. To my relief and joy, they got really excited about it and one student even asked if I would do something for Christmas as well.

Tuesday 1^st November

Four colours, one tree, Dakigaeri Gorge

My cough turned into a full blown cold overnight so im sitting here with a tap-like nose, pressure in head and in short just a really shitty outlook on life at the moment. After a number of comments pre-cold about my still wearing short sleeves I am stubbornly insisting that it’s the other ALT who was coughing in the car who was to blame for my turning into a sneezy sniffly wreck.

Having said that, the heaters are on in the staffroom and classrooms, I have put an extra blanket on my bed and I think it’s time to go and invest in warm sock, slippers and an electric blanket….winter is coming…so can all the miserable turds in wellington stop sending me pictures of sunny beaches please! :P

Wednesday 2^nd November

Honjo Park

Last night, after being informed that I should not be wrapped up in 2 jumpers, a scarf and blanket in my own house – I finally turned my heating on for winter. There is a stone in the heater which takes about 12 hours to heat up, the idea is to set it to turn on overnight when the rates are cheaper, so it can continue slowly emitting heat during the day after it has turned off. I went to bed with a room that was 11 degrees and woke up to 16 degrees (thanks for the boot Henry).

I received the inevitable inquisition at the primary school once the principle realised that I’d caught a cold (the horror!) I got asked if I’d been to the doctors – a normal procedure here because apparently you need to be stuffed full of drugs and antibiotics when you have a sniffle. I said that we don’t often go to the doctors for a normal cold in NZ and he went on to say how efficient the Japanese healthcare system was and how cheap it was if you had insurance (which I do) etc etc. I’m just glad that so far I’ve managed to avoid being made to wear a mask (some of the other ALTs haven’t been so lucky.

After lunch the kids all started walking past the staffroom windows with flowers pots and trays, intrigued I followed them out to the garden and realised that they were pulling up all of their sweet potatoes.

Thursday 3^rd November – Culture Day

Mikaeri Fall

Dosed up on Honey and Lemon and some kind of herby throat lolly, I bundled into Liam’s Daihatsu and we headed North for Dakigaeri gorge. The autumn colours were stunning (and the main reason for the trip) and the gorge is also known for its blue river. The track was flat and easy walk (thank god because my cold has not been allowing for any excessive exercise) and ended at the Mikaeri waterfall. I decided that it would be an absolutely stunning sight if the fall froze over in winter. There was a definite winter chill in the air, this week has seen the temperature plummet somewhat and there have been days where it hasn’t made double digits.

We continued on to a ski hire shop near Lake Tazawa, where the incredibly friendly owner set Cari and I up with Boots, skis and poles for the season, all of this cost only 4,000 yen (about $50 NZ), while serving us the owner asked various questions about the best way to ask people things in English, a large percentage of his clientele consisted of ALTs and students from the international university so he tried to learn bits of English where possible.

Set for the season we (Cari, Josh, Cari’s friend Molly, Liam and I) continued on to Tsurunoyu Onsen. Tsurunoyu is one of the onsens in the complex called Nyuto Onsen. Tsurunoyu was named after a hunter saw a crane healing its injuries in the water (Tsuru is Japanese for crane) and Nyuto is the nearby mountain.

Tsurunoyu Onsen

The onsen is outdoor based with old wooden buildings dotted around the complex. Cari Josh and Molly had arrived before us so Liam (who had been there before) had to instruct me where to go to find the women’s changing (or rather stripping) rooms. I got a quite a shock when the path we were walking along led us past the open air onsen and I copped an eyeful of bare ass as an old geezer was getting out of the water.

Slightly phased I scuttled off to the stripping rooms, these were substantially colder than my prior experiences as it was a simple wooden shack. As I was undressing a couple of women returned from the spring and I asked them if there had been any gaijin in there (there’s nothing like being lost and starkers to make you feel uncomfortable) one lady assured me that there had been a couple of girls in the mixed onsen. She then went on to ask how my Japanese was so good and if I was part of a tour. I stumbled my way through a reply before she apologised for questioning me (while I was pretty much nude). As I was leaving she stopped me and asked if I had a towel. Uh oh. When Liam had reminded me to bring a towel I hadn’t realised that he meant one of the ‘modesty’ towels that you use in mixed onsens when getting in and out of the water.

View of  Lake Tazawa

The lady gave me hers, assuring me that she’d only used it for her head (I shall explain in a minute). There is some very good karma coming her way.

In the next room there was a small bath that I wasn’t sure if I was supposed to get into or not so I compromised by using the bamboo buckets to splash water on myself to at least make it look like I was clean before getting into the main spring.

Out of the shack door and into the open, a path led past the women only spring and to a gate at which the modesty towel was hoisted up abruptly as this turned out to be the entrance to the mixed onsen. Momentary panic followed by relief when I spotted the others over the other side of the spring. The water in the spring is milky white and opaque, so once you’re in, you’re good. The modesty towels weren’t allowed to go in the water so people were floating around with them piled on their heads (this actually turned out to be a pleasant way of keeping cooler, as the girls especially could only come out of the water so far to cool off).

The prospect of siting around in hot water was a lot more appealing now that it was chilly outside. The temperature of the pool varied depending on where you were and we quickly learnt to avoid the patches of bubbles, they were a little too warm for comfort.

Dakigaeri Gorge

The hills were orange and red with autumn and we watched leaves fluttering lazily through the sky with the breeze. Cari mentioned that a few years back there had been an avalanche that had buried the onsen and killed a few people, it was reassuring to look up and see that, though Mt Nyuto had a scattering of snow already – the hills surrounding the onsen were bare still.

Warm, dry and smelling slightly of sulfur the next stop was Kakunodate for a late lunch, followed by a walk along the streets lined by autumn colours and samurai houses. Despite the brisk cold we stopped for ice cream. To conclude the night was Cari and Josh’s for a cup of tea and a few episodes of “That 70’s Show”.

Friday 4^th Novemeber

This morning involved a brisk changeover of the English noticeboard at school. Halloween was definitely over but I stubbornly refused that it was time to put up Christmas decorations yet so I settled on a mishmash of thanksgiving and Guy Fawkes.

Reluctant to devote effort to American culture (it’s bad enough as it is with many people assuming you’re American before they’ve even heard you speak) I focussed on a tidbit that was the fact that they celebrate thanksgiving on Norfolk Island, apparently American whaling ships introduced it back in the day and now it’s one of their biggest festivals.

After school H-sensei and I coached kids for their English proficiency speech tests. I bolted home, managed to sneak a quick call in with the significant other and then took off to the city for a trip to the local craft beer bar. There was quite the flock of us; myself, Liam, Cari, Josh, Molly, Andrew, Mengin and Isabel.

On the way home we stopped in at a combini to pick up munchies. Oden is a Japanese dish that consists of fish cakes, egg, tofu, konnyaku (devils tongue), daikon etc in a light soy flavoured broth. It is served on a pick and choose basis at the convenience stores and works wonders to warm you up. This was the dish of choice to nurse back to Cari and Josh’s and sit around on the couches with their heater on.

Much like the previous weekend, Isabel, Andrew Liam and I squeezed into Cari and josh’s spare room for the night. The next morning was a pyjamas and back to back ‘Friends’ episodes kind of morning topped off with pancakes and bacon aka absolute bliss.

Liam and I then headed to the Aeon shopping centre to stock up on winter gear. In between buying warm sock, winter boots and dutch cheese we managed to sneak in a visit to the pet shop where I got to cuddle a 3 month old Labrador puppy, walked out covered in fur and day made.

Armed with warm socks, beanie, gloves and snow boots I am now slightly less terrified for what is to come.

Sunday 6^th November

Temple in Honjo Park

Laaaaazy Sunday morning. Peeled myself out of my cocoon to a lovely warm flat (that stone heater might not pump out the heat but it does wonders to keep the place at a comfortable temperature) and had a chat to the significant other while munching my way through breakfast- still half asleep. Around 1 oclock I decided that yes, I did in fact want to leave the house today so I bundled into the car, armed a beanie and scarf and feet toasty in my new socks and headed into Honjo. After a stop at a Lawson for some oden I wandered through the Honjo park to find somewhere to eat lunch and watch the world go by.

Spent an hour or so pottering through the park and taking in the autumn colours – with how cold it was today (a high of 9 degrees) I imagine that they’re not going to be around for much longer.

To end the adventurous outing for the day was a trip to the café in Honjo for a hot coffee and cake, and to pour over Prince Caspian while cosied up inside the shop that was already sprinkled with Christmas decorations. That place is going to be absolutely adorable when the snow sets in.

This is Halloween

Skills Development conference 24^th and 25^th October

Having sat through I can’t-even-remember-how-many conferences and seminars this year, I was overly ecstatic about yet another ‘formal business attire’ event, however it did present a chance to catch up with the ALTs that live further afield in Akita so we can’ complain too much I suppose.

Little surprises at Sushi train restaurant

I was volunteered to play taxi for the Nikaho ALTs so we all bundled into pommy and trekked up to Akita city.

The conference was a good chance to bounce ideas off each other, reassure one another that you weren’t the only person struggling with certain issues, and get some fresh ideas for grammar and vocab activities.

And of course it meant that we could go out for dinner in the city afterwards – Pizza made a nice change to my average home cooking.

On the second day we were separated into our blocks for discussions. Ours consisted mainly of tips on how not to die during winter. Apparently it’s perfectly normal to stick bubble wrap to your windows in a desperate attempt to keep the heat in. We were also informed that every year a few people die from being dumped on by snow that slips off of roofs. Another caution from our senpais was regarding ‘gaijin traps’ the treacherous gutters in Japan are easy enough to see in the warmer months, but when they are covered with half a metre of snow, gaijin tend to get their tyres stuck in them.

Oh the fun we shall have….

Thursday 27^th October

School Lunch

I arrived back at the JHS after nearly a week away to find a mountain of newletters and papers on my desk and the realisation that we had a staff dinner for a visiting teacher from Osaka (I’m still not sure why he’s here…I may have to suck it up and translate the newletter…) that’s my dinner sorted for tonight.

For their English lesson, the third graders made presentations on various Japanese festivals to teach me about Japanese culture. I was quite chuffed when all of them managed to make eye contact and didn’t hide behind their pieces of paper when talking. There was also the entertainment when Dain had to have both hands restrained to prevent him from volunteering their group to go first, followed by dorm grabbing him by the blazer in an attempt to stop his advance to the front of the class.

It’s always refreshing when kids actually have a go at answering questions instead of mumbling to their mates in Japanese before admitting defeat, even if it does result in cases such as my asking who carries the lanterns at the Kanto festival and Shore responding with a confident and smiley ‘yes’.

Friday 28^th

As a reward for how well they did in the speaking test that the kids had to suffer through the other week, a few of them now have to do another one. Which means a couple of lucky teachers get to practice after school with them.

Fortunately for one said lucky teacher, she also got invited to drinks in Honjo. So after making an appearance and catching up with some people at a kids Halloween party in Kisakata – it was in the car and through the rain to Yurihonjo.

What happens to your entrance way
when you have guests

I have come to the realisation that where ALTs are involved, there is no such thing as ‘quiet drinks’. ‘A couple of quiets saw myself and Liam gracing his local castaways, before popping in to Heaven’s Dragon, a bar that an ex ALT now owns.

It was promising to be a quiet night until a very chatty (very tipsy) Japanese man in a suit shouted us drinks after we answered a question that he had, so we went over for a chat. There were also 2 guys from Spain there who were in Akita as mechanical engineers (or insert correct job title here) to check out the wind turbines in the prefecture. My Spanish minor finally came in handy. Even if it was only to say ‘I studied Spanish for three years. But when I want to speak Spanish, I start thinking in Japanese’. I feel my not so sober self may have ballsed up the verb conjugations but after talking to a couple of people I have also been reassured that this isn’t an unsual issue to have when you are learning multiple languages – Liam for example can speak simple Irish but since he has been in Japan his Japanese has become more dominant.

Our new friend BT (as he introduced himself) was a good example of why it pays to live at home for as long as possible. Money to burn.

It is believed that ‘Cute’ Japan (I’m talking Hello Kitty, frilly socks, ridiculous merchandise etc) was a side effect of more young people (especially women) who would go out and get jobs but stay living at home, resulting in a lot of disposable income. )I’ve just managed to hint at my Spanish minor, linguistics major, and Asian studies paper in the space of two paragraphs, think I’ll call it a night).

Saturday 29^th October

After not hitting the hay until 4.30am, after a panicked call from a lovely friend back home in Wellington who had turned up for her shift at the bead shop at 8.30am and  had forgotten the alarm code, much R&R was required in order to recharge the batteries for the ALTs Halloween party that night. And before anyone says anything – yes, I spent my entire weekend either drunk or hungover.

The Autumn Colours Dress

Cari, Josh, Liam and I all got ready at Cari and Josh’s place – In Cari’s case this meant blasting 2 bottles of rather potent hairspray to achieve her Cruella Deville look.

Josh was her dalmation, Liam was content in freaking everyone out in his red contacts, I donned my autumn dress and Mengkin showed up and whacked on a banana costume that still had stains on it from last year’s Halloween party.

Predrinks were at Johnny’s who stepped into character for the night as Donald Trump before we headed to the main event.

I’m unsure how far it has wriggled into the west just yet but the song in everyone’s heads at the moment is ‘PPAP’ or ‘Pen Pineapple Apple Pen’ and it is just as strange as it sounds. I don’t know if it is the novelty of a Japanese comedian singing a song in English that most Japanese people would understand from their school days, or the entertaining ‘UGH’ sound that he makes when demonstrating what an ‘Apple pen’ is, but all the kids are singing it in the hall way.

Breakfast of Champs

No expected to achieve anything on Sunday – none of us envied Andrew who had to leave Cari and Josh’s at 7.15, while we mooched around feeling sorry for ourselves until the pancake shop opened at 11.

Well-fed and bodies creaking, we plonked ourselves back on the couches and watched Hocus Pocus for the afternoon.