Week 4: I got a BIKE!

Yes, that is the big news of the week! I have a bike! WOO!

isn't she beautiful?

It was free, and already has a basket and...an umbrella? This is apparently a common way to carry around your umbrella. And yes, the spokes hit the umbrella, but because of how it's lying, nothing gets caught.  It HAD a bell, but when I tried to ding it the cap fell off, so I got a new one.  It has a light too, but I think it's dead because I couldn't get it to turn on.
Anyhow! More about my new baby later! (I gotta think of a name!)

This was my first full week of teaching. Last week started on a Tuesday, and I didn't even teach until Thursday.  I still gotta work on my stamina, but it wasn't as bad as last week.  I think the dead time is actually harder on me than teaching.  The first school is interesting because, Ok, the teacher's room (where the teachers hang out when not teaching) is down on the first floor.  I stay there and prepare most of the time, and then the kids come down and pick me up. At which point I go to their classroom, present a lesson and go back to the teacher's room.  Well, I'm teaching 5th and 6th, and this is important because they are all on the top floor.  For this first school, that means the 4th floor, so I am climbing three stories several times a day!  My legs are gonna be SO in shape.  As soon as I get used to it.  Neither of the other schools are quite as tall, but there's always stairs.

Tuesday was when I got my bike, and I was so excited, I took it in and got it registered right away!  I only had to go as far as the nearest bike store, where they, for a small fee, get my paperwork going.  What was interesting was how many people were coming in for what I usually thought of as basic care.

for instance, this is a bike getting an inner tube replaced.

But hey, if you've got the option, I guess go for it!
Sadly, I did the math and figured out that riding my bike to school probably won't make my life any easier.  At least not until I get used to riding distance a bit more.
So for now I walk!  Still, it's a lovely walk, I have mentioned how much I love Google walk, right?

I'm sorry, did the instructions include "walk through time slip"?

Tuesday night I got news that there would be a Typhoon coming through, "but don't worry, they don't usually hit the Osaka area hard"  Well, ok then.  I got ready and then Wednesday morning looked out the window. It was...raining. I'll give it that much. Mostly it was gloomy.  Really a disappointing typhoon, we didn't even get much wind!  I wanted something memorable!

Darn weather, not bending itself to my whims.

So, Wednesday and Thursday were gloomy and rainy and I didn't do much.  The only REAL plus was the heat dying down.  Friday dawned bright and clear and it was beautiful!  I went off to school with a spring in my step! And classes were fun! We had a fire drill, and the principal told me about tsunami drills, and in return I told her about tornado drills.  In the very last class of the day, there is one kid who's dad is from England, so I get to hear broken English in a VERY British accent, and of course, he's MILES ahead of his classmates, but doesn't seem to mind that I'm adjusted to their level.  Now if only I could get him to stop TRANSLATING. :P

Anyhow, Friday after school, I was walking home and on the way I ran into a girl who I had met at the festival the week I first arrived.  We chatted as we walked, and she said she was going for a bike ride down at the river.
"great way to unwind on a Friday afternoon!" I said, "Can I come along?"
"sure, but I do it for exercise" she warned me.  I want it remembered that she DID warn me.

So we get to the river, and she's riding at a good clip and the next thing she does is she casually says "Oh, before I came to Japan, I was riding 20 miles a day"

AND WHOOSH, SHE'S GONE.

I TRIED to keep up with her! She slowed down for me!  I finally called her back and said "we'll just have to accept that I'm out of shape when it comes to biking. Go get your exercise and pick me up on the way back."  And then she proved how much she slowed down for me, because I didn't even see her move.

I continued at a somewhat leisurely pace, just enjoying the lovely day, warming my muscles.  Finally she was coming tearing down the path and I turned around, since I was all warmed up and tried to keep up with her again.  She slowed down for me again.
Anyhow, so we're doing down towards our bridge again and she mentions that if we KEEP going, we'll get to the ocean. Really? I love the ocean!
"yeah! let's go see it! It's only about 5 miles, I think!"

wait...what?

We got a ways into it and I was like "no. nope. this is dumb. I might be able to make it down, but there's no way I'll make it back!  I need to stop this, right now!  I don't want to be stranded!"

Obviously, I'm so good at saying "no".

She kept waiting for me, and slowing down for me. I biked as fast as I could, but by that point it wasn't very fast.  I think my legs kinda went into shock after a while, because looking back, I STILL can't believe I made it!  We made it to the bridge back to the share house, and I got off the bike to walk up the ramp and I just kinda collapsed over the handlebars.  FWUMP. I could not stand on my own two feet, I had to use the bicycle as a crutch! (I guess you could say I was...two tired)

This was my reward for surviving it.

Saturday, I figured I'd be crippled, but it turns out that all that walking for my commute is good for SOMETHING, because, while I was in pain, I could still get around. In fact, I went on another bike ride!  Slower this time. And less distance.  On my own.
I found a shopping area!

I love these things

And a pet store!

Why yes, that DOES seem to say the cat costs around $750.

And a grocery store!

Who WOULDN'T spend $7.50 on a single bunch of grapes?  ::raises hand::

Hey look! the corn's a buck an ear!

And a...

Ok, to be fair, they totally did.

And that brings us to today! Where I got to ride my bike to church, instead of walk!  I was still late.

These lovely clouds outside my apartment!

Week 3: FINALLY TEACHING

I TAUGHT SCHOOL! Took blamed long enough!
I've completely lost my stamina for it though. :P WOW I'm tired lately. Oh, and I figured out that I'm walking between 3-5 miles every day, and that's the commute. I think it's gonna take a little for my legs to get used to this.
Speaking of, school didn't even start for me until Tuesday, so Monday I finally broke down and did laundry. Of COURSE I would choose the rainy day. And last week had so many nice sunny days!  Still, my balcony is covered, so I could hang out my laundry.  I did all my extra lesson planning and got everything ready and fidgeted around the room, as is expected right before the first day.
So Tuesday I found my school, they introduced me, they showed me around, I met teachers, etc. 

you bet your booty I had this on my phone.

The kids are so CUTE! My only regret is that none of my schools have uniforms.  Elementary uniforms are the CUTEST.

some of them have hats

Oh well. The bright side is it means the teachers themselves are a little more laid back.  It was the first day, so they didn't actually have me teach. They introduced me to the students in an assembly and then...I sat. I lesson planned, I wrote some letters, I reviewed books, I thought of games, and I sat. and sat and sat.  and sat.  When it was FINALLY almost time to go home, the heavens opened and the rain poured forth and...wow.  I had brought my rain gear, but one still has to go into it.  Of course, it got really bad and then died down not 10 minutes into my walk. If I had just waited! but how was I to know?

Wednesday was my second school and...their first day. So I sat a lot.  They had me make a poster to hang in the hallway for the kids to see.

I got bored and kept adding stuff

When I was done, they said I could go home early, and I checked with my company and they said "sure you can go home early! We'll just dock your pay for the day!"....great.
I found stuff to do.

Thursday I finally taught!  YAY!!  I was so happy to finally work with the students, we went over "my name is" "I like" "How are you?" "I am____" there was more, but that's the basics.  This particular school is really prepared, they even had the students fill out a little worksheet with "my name is" and "I like" and a message to the teacher! Of course, because their English is awful and my Japanese is worse, I mostly just signed them to let them know I'd seen the papers.  There were, like 3 papers out of all 5 classes that said things like "thank you for teaching. You are fun, but the class is easy" and I'm like "kid... I'm sorry but it's gonna be easy, you are WAY ahead of the others."  :)  I should see about talking to them 1 on 1, but it WAS just the first week after all.

Friday I went to the 3rd school and even though it was my first day there, they had me teach anyway! YAY!  I did the same first lesson as at the second school, and the kids all loved it. Since I'm working with foreign language and little kids I really get to ham it up, and you all know how I love being a ham! :)

It's fascinating the difference between one class and another. Not to mention the differences between one school and the other!  In my second school....they don't use inside shoes! Shocking, I know! One school uses the national book, another has their own, pre-set curriculum, things like that. Oh, and I'm teaching 5th and 6th graders in all three schools, and I think they mentioned I'm the ONLY English they get all week. Ok then.

All my schools require a good deal of walking to get to them, and that's even using the train system!  You see interesting things on the way, like construction

I don't know why they use cutouts of kids in helmets.

Cool plants

This was a HUGE bush of rosemary. I smelled it before I saw it.

And fun walkways

does this fall under fun plants?

Oh! and one of the rice field has been harvested!

before

after

Anyhow, the REAL neat part was Saturday!  Every day during the week I was tired enough by the end of the day that I just...sat there.  As I said, stamina is shot. Gotta build it up again.  I was thinking a Saturday of "sit there" but in church one of the guys had mentioned that he was a teacher at the nearby high school and we were all invited to the cultural festival!  WOO!  And since we were going as a group, the Elders would be there to translate! MORE WOO!

I walked in and the first thing I thought was "I have now entered a Manga."

 You know how in American shows it's always "THE BIG DANCE"  or like "THE SCHOOL CARNIVAL!!"  but in reality it's no big deal?  Well...seems like that's not QUITE how it goes in Japan, because this thing was elaborate!  They had food booths where they sold gyros and pancakes and what-not.  The students ran everything, I honestly didn't see a teacher at the booths. 

here they are, working with charcoal and FIRE.

This particular booth sold roasted marshmallows on toast. Really.

They had students wandering around with signs advertising their booths and everything! 

some were more excited than others.

the elders had takoyaki. I had a pancake.

The Elders try the marble pop bottles for the first time.

I also figured some chicken to balance the diet.  Because I'm healthy.

Then we went inside, and they took us right to the top floor and there was a cool room with tatami mats!

We waited a little, and then they took us into ANOTHER room, where I got to observe a tea ceremony! (abbreviated of course, we couldn't take up a whole 3 hours)

first we got a little sweet cake.

and a toothpick to eat it with.

It was very elegant and calming.

The sweet cake was...interesting...

Instead of make a cup for everyone (which would have taken a long time) they made one cup, then a bunch of girls brought out cups for the rest of us.

It was an adorable cup.

I, of course, leaned over to the Elder next to me and hissed "don't we NOT drink tea?" and he shrugged. I kinda did too. Everyone to their choice. I took a sip, not to my taste, and then watched respectfully.
(I know, I'm a terrible diplomat. but you knew that!)

Then we did the rest of the festival!

This should seriously be considered for Church parties. Yes. I ran through this thing.

A chance to hit helmeted students with a squeaky hammer?! YES! (didn't cost anything either)

I got to show the Elders how to do it!

I hit nothing. I blame the gun.

What amazes me is that they MADE this stuff.

The library was selling off books. There were TWO books in English. One I had read and the other was an awful sequel I hear about. Go figure.

Flower arranging club

Art club!

I wanted to ask if I could buy this one.

They had student rock bands playing! They were surprisingly good!

Remember I mentioned they biked a lot around here? this was the parking lot for the festival.

It was so much fun!  I stuck around after the Elders left to catch a few things I missed, but in all I had a really good time. I can't help but think this would be a fun thing for the US to pick up, but of course, you'd run into logistics and legalities. :P
To celebrate my manga-like day, I made myself Ramen!

I was very proud of it.