Week 56: Weather is weird

The exciting part of this week was the two days off!

I love my job, really, but I also love days off.

Let's see.  Monday was a day off.  Remember how I didn't do adulting last week?  Well, I decided to do it Monday.  Everything was clean, sparkling even!  I organized and sorted and it was lovely!  Amazing how little time that lasts.

Tuesday, I went into school, but it was raining a little, and there was wind.  So when I showed up, one of the teachers says "there's no school"  I'm like "sorry?!  Holiday was yesterday, wasn't it?"  Find out there's a Typhoon warning on.  They're like "Yeah, if it's still going at 9, school is cancelled completely, but the teachers still have to hang around."  Well. Ok.

So they told me to lesson plan.  I was like "I am planned!  All done!  Really, it's ready before I come in!"  So I read and drew and just kinda hung out.  And watched the wind outside get stronger.  The other teachers did lesson planning and grading and had meetings.  Finally at 1, they let me go home.  This was a little annoying to me because I was, again, watching the wind get worse, before they FINALLY said "Ok, you can go, be careful on your bike".  :P

I made it home without incident, wrote up the office that I had been sent home and they said, "Ok, just...lesson plan or something."

this counts, right?

Everyone was like "What did you think of the typhoon?"  And I was "I've seen worse wind in Washington, worse rain in Arizona, and worse thunderstorms in Quincy."

The way the mountains are arranged here, they just don't get much storming I guess.  In fact, I've attended school in worse weather, and I was not the only ALT (english teacher) that scoffed at it.

And ok, the wind was a bit strong,

I brought Ben inside, just in case

It still wasn't THAT bad.

By the time evening rolled around, it had died out, so I packed up some of my "lesson planning" and went to English class at the church.  Didn't want to miss that!  Last week they mentioned a treat!

ice cream and pizza! :D

We had fun. :)

Wednesday was normal.  Thursday, was another day off!  (so, I mean, TECHNICALLY I guess you could say I had three days off, but I still had to BE at the school until 1, so I don't count Tuesday.)

Anyhow, my Japanese friend invited me out!

We went to Fushimi Inari shrine.  You may have heard of it, it is very famous for its torii arches.

Quick Japan lesson!  Japan's two main religions are Buddhism and Shinto.  There are temples and shrines all over the place.  A Shinto shrine is easy to identify because it has a torii arch.

this is not Fushimi Inari, just an example of a Torii arch.  A really big one

This marks the transition from "profane" to "sacred" and apparently keeps out evil spirits.  (goes with that profane to sacred transition)

Anyhow, the Fushimi Inari shrine has a few of them.

to put it mildly.

Ok, I lie. The darn shrine is...I'd say on the mountain, but the mountain is COVERED in shrines and arches.  So, yeah.

They had big arches

And little ones

my friend got a real kick out of the fact that I and the arches were orange.

And really really small ones.  That I swear I got a picture of, but I can't find.  Oh well.

Inari is symbolized with foxes.  Her shrines are normally protected by foxes

this one has a ball that is a "jewel" that represents the spirit of the gods. 

the cylinder represents the key to the rice storehouse.

And, being Japan, sometimes they are cuter.

AWWW!!

The little one has an Inari mask on its head!

There were little cafes all up the mountain.

rest and enjoy the nature

Which I found very impressive, because I saw NO roads going up to them behind or anything. The only way I found to get up there was walking. And you know what?

so many stairs.

My legs hurt now. We didn't even make it all the way to the top!  We did go pretty far though.

When we made it back down, we heard something going on, so we went to check it out!

dancing!

Some sort of "intercollegiate performance".  Fun to watch!

And then they said "Ok! Exercise! Come dance!"

...ok

Are we surprised?

It was a pretty easy dance, but lots of fun!  Of course my friend was like "good exercise!" and I responded "oh, yes, because I needed it after all those stairs we climbed" :P

Day wasn't over yet, so we went to an aquarium!  Kyoto Aquarium is smaller than Osaka Aquarium, but still nice.

Animals don't like holding still, so I only got a few half decent pictures.

like penguins

angry looking penguin

happy looking fish

I love jellyfish!

COOL?! You could pet them, but they had a line forever long

free me.

Chameleon! Did you know their tongues move so fast, they used to be called "air eaters" because no one could catch them eating?

Of course the best part was the dolphin show!

Oh, and as we were walking in, they gave us these straw things.

?!

And I couldn't figure it out until we go in and see people blowing on them.  It took a LOT of messing around with it, but I finally got it!

Then it was time to go.  We messed around in the gift shop, of course

ITS GOT ME

And ended up in a Disney store?

darth vader should not look this cute

And called it a day.  It was fun!

Friday school was entertaining. They had their sports day this week. (my other schools are having it this coming week)  so they've been really getting ready for it.  Which means I've been teaching very little.  Except one of the 6th grade classes. They've made time for me.  Just one of them though, so they're two weeks ahead of the other classes.  Well, 2 weeks ahead one of the other 6th grade classes.  The OTHER one I didn't have the week prior, so they are a week behind.

Each of the three 6th grade classes are on a DIFFERENT LESSON.  So are the two 5th grade classes.  ::SIGH::  I'm glad I started keeping track.

Saturday, there were no festivals on.  The weather was iffy. So I spent money instead.  I bought GROCERIES.  What's worse, is I indulged myself. I got those groceries you're like "oh, I don't need this one. It's a luxury.  That's right!  I got Bratwurst.  And butter.  Yeesh, expensive. :P

I was going to go to Spa world, which I heard is very nice, but when I checked it out, it was an extra 8$ (800 yen) to go on the weekends, so I went to the movies instead. :)

And that was my week!  Hope yours was good too! (but with less Typhoons)

Week 55: Sports day is coming, and a little adventure

Ok, so sports day is coming!  It's a big deal for Elementary schools, and for most of them, it will be October 1.  (which is a little earlier than usual, but oh well.)

Sports day means that I have a little more free time, as the kids have a lot of preparing to do.

Except in my Monday/Tuesday school, because they seem to know how to balance it.

Oh! Entertaining!  So, my liaison teacher for Monday/Tuesday had to do an observation lesson this week.  I thought it was gonna be Monday, but it turns out it was Tuesday.  The thing is, usually for observation lessons, they come in and watch me teach.  This time they wanted to see how we taught TOGETHER.

(sh, we don't)

No, really.  I kinda take over a class and use the homeroom teacher for the OCCASIONAL translation and as a really smart kid to do examples with.   They don't mind, because that means when they're short a teacher, they don't need someone in there watching me (or the kids)

So we had to pretend we team teach ALL the time.  I don't think they bought it, those poor students were SO confused.  First of all, I do a lot of routine.  Especially for Elementary students, this gives them confidence.  He...did not know all the routine.  And he kept trying to introduce new activities or parts of activities.  Like, we did "If you're happy" and he got rid of "clap your hands" and wanted "give high fives"

I was really proud of this.

Which is fine in concept, but try making it match the beat.  Take a moment, I dare you.

Doesn't work as well, does it?  But who am I to say?!

I come in, have them stand up and I say "Good morning class!"
They respond "Good morning Kim Sensei!"
"How are you?"
"I'm ______, and you?"

He came in, said "Good morning everyone. How are you doing today?"

ARGH.

He's a good teacher, I've seen him work, but gosh DARN it, he doesn't know our routine. 's what I get for teaching on my own I guess.  The kids finally got the hang of it, and they ended pretty well.

They were also nervous, and I can't blame them, we had about 10-15 teachers hanging around!

So, other schools were practicing for Sports day.  On Friday, the school did a dress rehearsal of their opening ceremony.

This included entering the area

sitting, ready

come in and sit down

FLAAAAAAAG

I'm not sure if you remember from last year, but there are always two major teams.

red and white.

They did their war cry.

And then they did...Um... I'm not sure what I'd call it.  A ball race?

they raced to their group,

and the ball went over the team

And they did this twice!  And it looked like lots of fun!  But I don't know what I'd call it.

And yeah!  That's gonna be their opening ceremony.  This is not the school I will be attending sports day at, so I'm glad I got to see it. :)

Saturday, I did not do adult stuff.  I made pancakes.  While I was cooking the last one, I was musing over why they just weren't cooking up right, when I realized I never put the salt in.  Amazing what a mere 1/2 tsp salt can do!

I still ate them.

Then I went to Kyoto!  There were a few festivals going on, and I flipped a coin and Kyoto won.  It was a little out of the way, so I decided to walk the mile from the train station, and I saw a lot of interesting stuff!

Hair pins! The only time I regret having short hair.

Ah, Japan fashion

Orchids!

...with maple leaves painted on them.  There was glitter too.

I...I really don't know.

I didn't get to go with anyone, so I got to take my time. A long part of the walk was along this stream

It was lovely.

I soaked my feet!

And I got to talk to some tourists for a while.  :)  They asked how teaching in Japan was and I was like "there are pluses and minuses"

And they said "What are some of the minuses?"

"Well...I can't speak Japanese."

"Ah.  And a plus?"

"I'M IN JAPAN."

We parted ways and I finally made it to the shrine!

sucker's big.

And festival!

wooo!

The blurb for the festival said "The Park's paths will be lined with exciting stage shows"

IT LIED.

There was one long carpet

though it is nice.

And one stage.  I looked around, this is all.

But, you know what? It was nice!  There was, of course a lot of food. Japan loves their food.  Fair booths are 90% food.  And it wasn't just the normal fair food!  They had some hoity-toity ones, which is how I ended up with a "home-made hot dog"!

LOOK AT THAT.  It was WONDERFUL. The bread was crusty, there were sauteed onions, and the sausage was...mmm

And the other booths were fun too! It was kinda like an arts fair?  Like this umbrella I saw!

today on "things I want but can't afford"

And they had this...like...county fair judging of local products?  But anyone who walked into the tent could judge?

There were English translations

They didn't want to give me a survey at first, probably because they thought I was a tourist.  I insisted though, and did my fair and impartial judging.

"This looks tasty.  I vote for it because it is NOT green tea."

I went to the actual shrine proper.

hadn't been to this one yet.

I think they're gonna have a show.  It needed tickets, so I didn't go.

this tree has a story, and I will never know it.

They had stage shows!  Just on the one stage, which actually worked out pretty well for me, because it means I didn't feel like I was missing anything. :)

There was a rock group!

of high schoolers! (maybe middle)

high school band!

And there was a dance group!  It was a huge group and sections of it did dances to songs from different parts of the world!

Like America

Korea

South...Africa..I think?

All together!

They were AWESOME  (gonna see how much video I can put on)

But seriously, their footwork was amazing.
I also got a lot of one the America group did to "Uptown Funk" because it was just fun to watch! :)  It was too long to fit on here though.

There was adult stuff too

they even did a medley of "Sound of Music"!

I have a video of this one, but you don't wanna hear it.  Really.

And...I don't think there was another one, but I'm not sure because I took a nap.  I woke up to...this.

you SURE I'm awake?

And it was a slow and silly procession.  They even had some little kids.

pictures get progressively worse as the sun sets.

And I figured I'd call it a day, so I started walking out.

Then I saw a bunch of people starting to sit on the ground in front of a building.

I don't know why we're here, but I'm game!

Well, it took a while, sunset and all that.  And there was some traditional music.  Again.  Much nicer sounding than the other group.  I call this "mournful kazoos"

And then the show started!  It was projection mapping! (?)  Basically, it's that thing where they project videos onto the building, taking into account the shape and fixtures of the building, so a lot of the time it looks like the building is moving/exploding/shifting, etc.

demon party!

Some of it looked...like a trip.  I'll be honest.  It was more fun than breathtaking, but still pretty cool.
I stayed until my butt decided it was done sitting on the ground. :)

Got a taco (I've found a lot better ones lately. what's up with that?) and hoofed it home.

I'm really looking forward to this next week!  Two days off! :D