kittyinjapan

Picture Update

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 06:40:16 GMT

So we have a picture update of the various cooking classes I have done this past year with the kids. Schools, grades and what edible substance was made are listed below the pictures. Enjoy!

These two boys had never made pancakes before. They weren't entirely sure as to what they were suppose to be doing.

The girls on the other hand knew exactly what they were doing.

The boys with the finished product.

And the girls.

My rules for the kitchen. No stabbing, no fires and no bleeding.

Chopping onions makes you cry!

Running away/taking a break from the onions.

In it goes!

Fun is had while we wait for things to simmer.

A lot of time.

The final product.

And the best part: Test tasting!

Thumbs up all around!

Kathryn vs Mainland Japan: Round 7!!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:58:42 GMT

So my last stop was Tokyo. Tokyo was pretty cool actually. I had reservations about it as I'm not a huge fan of giant cities but I rather enjoyed myself. The first night I actually didn't do anything. I was tired and didn't feel like hiking around in the dark in a giant city.

The next day I headed out to find and go around Akihabara. I found it and man was it fun. I walked around and browsed a variety of stores. These stores are often not just one floor. They're usually about 7 floors and each floor has a theme. It was pretty cool and a lot of fun. You could lose yourself in those places for a few billion hours. Obviously I bought myself some stuff and got some nice stuff for some good deals.

I headed back to the hostel to chill out for a while. I met up with Abhi and Pete for dinner. I almost burnt Shinjuku station down as I was getting quite pissed off at it. I was to meet them at the East exit. Well, my options when I got off my train were west and south. Needless to say I horribly lost in the station and it took me 25 minutes to finally get to the other side. At one point I decided that it would be easier just to burn it down and walk across the ashes. However, I'm not a fan of the idea of going to a Japanese prison for arson. Anyway, dinner was great with Abhi and Pete. We went to this really yummy Turkish restaurant. It was good to see them and catch up with what they've been up to and how they are.

The next day I met up with my friend Tanyisha and we had lunch together at a tasty Indian restaurant and wandered Akihabara some more. She of course knew more about the place than I did and showed me a bunch of cool spots. We also got me an R4 for my DS. Woot!

I went back to the hostel after to have a nap because I was exhausted. Veronica arrived that evening to start her trip and the three of us met up and had dinner. It was fun to hang out with the girls again.

The next morning I packed up, checked out and made my way over to Haneda airport.

I arrived in Ishigaki and thus my 2 week holiday was over.

Verdict: Would do it again in a heartbeat.

</a>

The cherry blossoms at the place where I stayed.

Kat vs Mainland Japan: Round 6!!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:55:08 GMT

So I recovered on the train from my sprint up the stairs. Popped my headphones in and took a snooze as the train ride was to be a couple of hours. I was also getting off at the last stop so no fear of sleeping through my stop.

Ashley had written down my instructions on getting to Gifu and they were pretty simple. Get on in Ise, change trains in Nagoya, get off at Oogaki. Well I almost screwed up the middle step. She had written what train I needed and all for me. I walked off my Ise train, bought my ticket for Oogaki and saw a sign with the line name on it. Well, wrong one. I did discover though that if you walk around with a piece of paper in your had looking obviously confused someone will eventually come to your rescue. In this case a nice woman with two little boys.

I was on the wrong platform and I showed her my paper with what I had to do. She ran downstairs with her boys, found the one I needed, came back up, got me and took me too it. HOW NICE IS THAT?! The little boys were really cute. I gave them high-fives before I went up to my platform.

30 minute train ride later and I was in Oogaki. On the train ride I realized what the kanji was for it and smacked myself for not knowing. It's two that I already know, very well actually. Gotta love that feeling when the light bulb goes on.

Anyway, my friend Matt came and picked me up from the station. We went over to the GIANT shopping mall. I saw giant because 1) Ishigaki doesn't have a shopping mall; and 2) this thing was easily twice the size of the Pen Centre in St. Kitts. Anyway, I got to meet a few of his friends who were really cool. We went and had dinner at a yummy Korean restaurant and then headed over to a Buddist temple to see a really interesting tabla/sitar. I have never heard those instruments in person before so it was really interesting to hear them. Afterwards we went back to the shopping mall which had a movie theater and went and saw Watchmen. I really enjoyed it. I haven't read the comic but I walked out wanting to.

I was crashing at Matt's place so we drove back to his apartment. This would be when I discovered that he did not live in Gifu and in fact lived in the countryside. Honestly, I'm a little bit jealous. It was a really nice place. The city is called Yoro and it was really pretty. We got to drive down the "Road of Death!!" to get to his place. Admittingly I am also jealous of his apartment. It's almost like a real apartment back home. Mostly I'm jealous because it is a lot bigger than mine and has more than one room.

Some geeking out was had with our Nintendo DSs (sp?) and then sleep.

Sunday was very relaxing. Woke up around 10, lazed about. Sat in the kitchen drinking coffee, eating breakfast (BAGELS! We don't have bagels in Ishigaki!), and chatting. Sometime between 12:30 and 1 we decided that we should actually do something. Showers were had, real clothes were changed into and laundry was thrown in. We walked up to this big park and hiked up to see this really cool waterfall. If I remember correctly it is in the top 100 waterfalls of Japan. Along time ago the Emperor declared that it had healing abilities and that by bathing in it one could be cured from blindness, infertility and a few other things. The blindness one caught my attention and I was tempted to dunk my head in to see if it would fix my eyes ;p

Afterwards we hiked back down and made the important decision of having yakiniku for dinner. Apparently Yoro is famous for yakiniku. As Matt said "We don't grow the beef here. We just have the butcher here." It was also decided that his co-worker and friend Rob would be invited along. Rob's parents were arriving that day and thought it might be a nice and easy way to kick off their Japanese meals.

We grabbed the clothes from the washing machine and dropped the in a drier at the local laundromat. It was too cold to hang them up and have them dry in time for me to pack them the next day. We went over to the grocery store to pick some stuff up and so happened to run into Rob and his mom! Dinner invitation was given and in the end was accepted. Since Rob and Matt live in the same building we gave them a ride back as well.

We had a few hours to kill before we went for dinner so Matt and I watched Wall E. Which btw is an awesome movie and everyone should watch it. Pixar gets super points for this one. The timing of it was perfect though because it finished 10 minutes before we had to go.

The 5 of us piled into Matt's car and we headed out for dinner. It was a ton of fun. The parents sat on one side of the table and the 'kids' sat on the other. The food was delicious and I had liver (not for the first time) and actually enjoyed it (for the first time). So much food was had. All of it delicious and delightful. Rob's parents were hilarious, espeically his dad. He seemd to think I wasn't eating enough so he kept putting food on my plate and telling me to tuck in.

After driving back Matt and I geeked it out some more and busted out the DS Mario mini games, the moded xbox with old school games and Mario Karted on the Wii. The xbox stuff was fun as he was able to play almost any system games on it. Our childhood was dragged out as we played Paperboy, Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout and Mario Kart for the N64. I think Matt's geeky manpride was wounded when I was actually able to beat him in a few rounds of the N64 Mario Kart. He said to me "You know, I don't mean to sound like an asshole but I've never played against a girl who was actual competition." Thus I proved that geeky girls are awesome.

To regain some of his geeky pride we then had to play Mario Kart on the wii. I have never played before and he owns the damned thing. You can imagine how well I did. The fact that we were drinking while playing probably did not help my cause any.

Anyway, after that it was late, meat and booze had and thus there were full bellies and so sleep was needed and had.

Slept in again the next day and had another lazy morning similar to the one the day before. Packed up my stuff and caught the 1:30 train to Nagoya so I could head up to Tokyo.

Lessons of Yoro:
1) Yoro is nice. Would not have minded if I had ended up being placed there.
2) I love teaching people that geeky girls are awesome.
3) This was probably the most relaxing part of my trip because I didn't feel like I *had* to do anything.

The concert

Her second outfit was amazing!

The waterfall we hiked to

Kathryn vs Mainland Japan: Round 5!!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:37:40 GMT

After Osaka I was Ise bound. Ise bound but with a stop in Ueno-shi/Iga to NINJA LAND! Iga is the home of the ninja and thus my love of ninjas dictates that I had to stop and go there. You had to change trains at one point and the trains were painted as ninjas! Well almost all of them. Sadly I had the ghetto train that only had ninja decals in the window. :( But I got to see the other ones and that made me happy.

I walked around town and found the park with the ninja house/museum. They had a ninja house and showed you all the tricks in the house which were a lot and were extremely awesome! I went to the castle that they had there too. All-in-all Ninjatown = awesome.

I hopped back on the trains and headed down to Ise where I got to see my friend Ashley. Ashley is an ALT down there at a high school. She and I flew out together from Toronto. She picked me up at the station. We tried to get me Indian food for dinner but sadly the place closed. We headed over to a regular Japanese restaurant and ate. Stories and gossip was swapped of course.

Now what makes me happy is that Ise has an Irish pub! So needless to say we went and had a couple of drinks. Mmm mm..Guinness! A couple hours after that we headed back to her (awesome) apartment. Stuff on the computer was done (although I can't remember exactly what) and then we slept.

The next day we slept in a bit, lazed around and then headed out to see the Ise inner shrine. After a few arguments with the bus (re: if actually following its schedule) we made it there on a rather packed bus. Interesting fact: The Ise shrine is rebuilt every twenty years. This just so happens to be that time. So they were working on main bridge and a few other things as well. Another interesting fact about Ise shrine: No nails are used in the construction of it. Everything it fitted together. Once you see it you realize just how amazing that is.

The grounds were beautiful and the shrine was amazing. We were able to see two different groups go in to pray. Being allowed to do that means A LOT of money.

The trees there were beautiful. So many huge trees. Looking at them and looking around the area it makes you wish that they could tell what they've seen. The hundreds of years of history that they have been around for is pretty amazing when you think about it.

After the shrine we walked around the little shopping village and had our yummy bento lunch. I picked up an awesome new PIRATE PURSE! for only $10. Some really nice little shops down there.

We hoped on that bus again and headed back into town. We walked down to the Mie River to look at the cherry blossoms that had come out. It was getting dark and at that time of the year they set up lights so you can see the blossoms at night. It was really cool.

After this we sadly discovered that the Indian restaurant was not just closed for Thursday night it was closed for good! In fact we didn't have much luck in places to eat that night. We tried a couple of other places and they were closed that night for some reason. We ended up at a yakiniku restaurant by her place that was great! It was really small but the food was good and we had GIANT beers. The oldish lady who runs it was really nice and chatty. Mostly with Ashley because she's got some mad Japanese skills yo. I could listen and understand but my speaking skills are crap.

We left there full of beer and meat. It was good.

Back at her place we watched an episode of Slings and Arrows which was hilarious. I need to find that on the net and watch more. We generally goofed around until we decided that sleep would be a good idea.

The next morning again involved some sleeping in and general laziness. We stopped for some okonomiyaki on the way to my train. It was good. However it took a little bit longer than expected and I literally had to RUN for my train. The stairs were a bitch as I had a backpack and a duffel bag with me and they were kinda heavy. And I'm not much of a runner. But I made it with maybe 30 seconds to spare and I was off to Gifu....kinda.

</a>

The Ninja House

Ueno Castle

Look it's me! Near the main Ise shrine.

Only the prettiest fish lived in this pond!

Under the sakura/cherry blossom trees. They were stuck at about 30% but it was still pretty!

Kat vs Mainland Japan: Round 4!!

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 10:15:39 GMT

Osaka. Oh Osaka. How wonderful you were to me. How unkind you were to my wallet.

I liked Osaka. In fact I had a great time there. I wish I could have spent a little more time there in all honesty. My first evening there lend to an interesting adventure and a lesson in why you should always try and walk out of the station exit you are suppose to walk out of.

So I arrived at my Hostel (Shin-Osaka) which was really nice, comfy and fun. Talked with a couple of the other people staying there and then decided to head out for a little while. I wanted to find this 'Den Den Town' that a brochure had talked about. It was a place of cheap electronics and anime stores. Aka heaven for most of the people I know.

So I hoped on the train and got off at the station and walked out of the west exit. I was suppose to go out of the east exit but I didn't see a sign for it and figured that the station wasn't that big and how much of a difference could it make? It made a big one. I walked out in to bum city. Homeless people galore. I admit I was a little nervous especially since it was getting dark at this point. I hurried through and started walking north to try and find this place. I walked and walked and walked and couldn't find it. I figured I was one street over too far. I went over a street and the area definitely improved. I found the train tracks and followed those. By this time my stomach was growling so I stopped at a place for some really awesome tempura.

Walked around a bit more and found a GIANT shopping mall which had a movie theatre and a Toys 'R' Us. Needless to say I went to the Toys 'R' Us. I bought a few goodies there and decided to go back. I slept well that night from all the walking I did.

The next morning I got up, had breakfast and then headed out to Osaka castle. Osaka Castle was very beautiful and the museum was well laid out. The down side of it all was that they recommend that you do top to bottom to get the history in order. The problem being that unless you were old or with kids you were pretty much stuck taking the stairs up to the 8th floor to start the tour. It's quite a hike!

Afterward I went and had some lunch. I was waiting for my lunch to arrive when a nice lady sat down at my table (it was big communal ones) and we chatted a bit. She asked me how long I had been in Osaka and if I had tried takoyaki yet. Osaka is rather famous for it. For those who don't know what it is it's kind of like a dumpling with octopus in it. When I said I hadn't she ran out and got me some. A really kind act. Unfortunately I'm not really a fan of octopus so I ate some in front of her to be polite and threw the rest out later. I felt bad but I really don't like it.

When finished I once again tried to find Den Den Town. Well I found it after talking a second train which I should have done in the first place. Went out of the wrong exit again but got help from the shopping mall information booth which also gave me a map.

I found Den Den Town. Boy did I ever find it. I found it and it found my wallet. The world was happy and good. I bought a bunch of anime stuff because I could and there was some pretty cool stuff.

I realized though that upon buying all of this stuff that I was now screwed for luggage space. Walking a little bit further to what do my wondering eyes does appear? I luggage store with cheap duffel bag! Only $10! Problem solved! Kinda wish I had looked for one with wheels though. It was heavy to carry around!

I decided to wander back to the station at this point and discovered a Uniqlo on the way. Uniqlo is an awesome clothing store that has shirts that I can actually wear! Nothing will fit my bottom half though. But new shirts are always good! I also discovered the station and that the east exit is AWESOME! It leads to things that are good and wonderful and shopping. The west exit leads to bum city.

Anyway, Den Den Town sucked up pretty much all of my afternoon. I wandered back to the hotel, dumped my stuff and went and grabbed some stuff for dinner. Sat in the dining hall, ate dinner, read a book and had a beer. All-in-all a pretty good evening.

The next morning I headed out.

Lessons learned in Osaka:
1) Make sure you go out the exit you're suppose to.
2) A beer before bed after walking around all day makes you sleep like the dead.

Next location: Ninja town and Ise!

All of the trees were in bloom. Very pretty

Osaka castle!

One of the decorations on the castle. Pictures of the displays were not allowed.

Kathryn vs Mainland Japan: Round 3!!

Sat, 09 May 2009 04:27:57 GMT

So after leaving Hiroshima I headed up to Kyoto. Kyoto in the beginning didn't appeal to me but by the time I left I rather liked it.

Getting to the hostel was pretty easy once I figured out that I had to take a bus and not a train to get there. It was easy because one of the stops was called YOUTH HOSTEL. I love it when they make things easy. The hostel was amazing! Brand new and really nice.

There were a bunch of kids up there for something or other but they were really cute. While I was waiting to check in with the front desk I hear this very enthusiastic HELLO! behind me. I turn around and it`s a little girl who is probably about 7 years old. Her friends rush over to talk to the foreign girl too. They were very cute and spoke some pretty good basic English.

Anyway, found out I couldn`t get into my room until after 3. It was only one so I left my bags there and went into town. I stomped around for a while, got horribly lost and then it started to pour. A lot.

I gave up and went back to the hostel, took a hot shower and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

The next day I headed over to Nara. Took the local train so it took forever to get there but that was okay. The heater was on and it dried my shoes. Nara was pretty. I again got hopelessly lost but eventually found my way. Found where all the dear were chillin` out. Discovered that they don`t care about you if you don`t have any food but God help you the second you do. They will rush you, bite at your clothes and such until you give it to them. It`s a little much, a little overwhelming and a bit scary.

I returned to the hostel and discovered I had a new roommate who turned out to be really cool. From New Zealand. We ended up talking for awhile and then headed to bed.

Went to the Kyoto International Manga Museum in the morning before going to Osaka.

All-in-all adventures in Kyoto were pretty tame but I liked the city by the time I left. I will be happy to go back now that I have a better understanding of how things work there!

Next adventure: Osaka!

One of the temples in the park

This one posed for me. I had to take his picture!

The Todaiji Temple

The great Daibutsu himself

A miniature of what the temple and the grounds looked like 500+ years ago.

Part of the special exhibit at the Kyoto International Manga Museum

More of the exhibit

Exhibit cont.

Kathryn vs Mainland Japan: Round 2!!

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 07:07:50 GMT

Round 2 consists of getting to and around Hiroshima.

Hiroshima is a very cool city by the way. Actually kinda wish I had planned for more days there. I'll just have to go back!

Getting in was relatively easy. I took the shinkansen (the nozomi!) and it only took a little over an hour to get there from Kobe. The trains are somewhat logical once you know where you're going and roughly where that station is....

I got to my station just fine. Walked off and promptly walked in the other direction in search of the youth hostel. Being directionally challenged runs in my family. Or as my supervisor would say: 'I have direction deafness.'

Walked for only a couple of minutes before figuring out that I was probably going the wrong way. Looped around, asked at the streetcar station and was pointed in the right direction (which was indeed the opposite way than I was going).

The place was rather...dingy to say the least but the bed was comfortable and the owner was nice. He figured out who I was pretty quick when I walked in the door. I was greeted with 'Ah! Okinawa!'. Hadn't said my name or anything but I guess I was just exuding the Okinawan feeling. ;p

Dropped my bags off and went to Miyajima which was beautiful and amazing. I can't even begin to describe it.

Bought a couple of souvenirs and headed back to the hostel as I was tired.

Got up the next day and headed into Hiroshima city via streetcar and went to see the A-Bomb Dome and Peace Memorial Park. Went through the museum there and by the Gods does that place rip you through so many emotions. You feel shock, horror, amazement, disgust. You want to cry, throw up and sit there in shock and awe.

To walk out of there and not be affected would make you the worst person to ever exist.

It's a place I think everyone needs to go to and experience.

Miyajima - the floating shrine gate. Sadly the tide is low but it looks like it's floating when the tide is high.

One of the old structures there. I'm not entirely sure what it was originally.

A 5 story Pagoda

Hiroshima: A-bomb Dome

The Children's Monument

The Peace Bell

In the front: The Memorial Cenotaph, the Peace Flame and the A-bomb Dome

Hiroshima Castle

Kathryn vs Mainland Japan: Round 1!!

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 11:57:11 GMT

So each city is getting a round. Round 1 = Kobe.

I landed in Kobe Thursday night and managed to successfully get on the right trains to where I needed to be. My fun started AFTER I got off the trains. I was going to stay at the Kobe Tarumi Youth Hostel that night as it was cheap and I didn't get that youth hostel membership for nothing!

The site said that at the train station to ask at the information desk for a map to the place. I did. The map was rather deceptive in that they're distancing of things was completely off! I ended up not walking far enough the first time, wandered up and down the street for a good 30 minutes before going into a restaurant, showing them the map and the guide book and saying 'Where is it?!'. I hadn't walked far enough so they told me it was about 15 minutes up the road. Oh, and did I mention that it was POURING RAIN at this point? I had an umbrella but it was small and I was soaked from the knees down.

So I leave the restaurant and walk and low-and-behold I find the hostel! Yay right? No. It was closed. Locked. No one was there at the desk and no one was answering the phone. Apparently it closes it's doors at 9 pm. It was 9:45 pm at this point. Bloody hell. Now I need somewhere to sleep. So I walk and walk and walk. I go to the convenience store and ask the (idiot) teenagers where a hotel is. They point and say 'that way'. I go and see HOTEL CABIN in big bright neon letters. I'm all YAY! until I go in and go 'Uhhhh....oops'. Hotel Cabin was a love hotel. OOPS!
So I leave and stop at a restaurant (a different one than before) and ask where a hotel is. She gives me the name and tells me it's about a 10 minute walk up the road. I walk and walk and see this big place coming up on my left. Not the same name but screw it, it's a hotel and I'm about ready to cry and am exhausted. I go in and get a room. I don't ask the price though. I quickly discover that it's 21000 yen. About $250 with the current exchange rate. I took it and it was awesome. Huge room. Great bed. Spa jet bathtub and an amazing breakfast.

Left the next morning and was definitely the rift raft they wanted out of the lobby. There was a large party down there and everyone was either in suits or kimono. I was wearing jeans and my fencing jacket. They were all about getting me out of there. lol

Made it to Hiroshima fine. That will be updated next.

Morals of the stories:
1. Always find out what time the place your staying closes.
2. Don't pack toiletries. Stay in an expensive hotel for the first night and steal all of theirs.

Two double beds. I almost slept on a diagonal because I COULD. Super comfy.

Looking across the full length of the room.

The awesome bathtub with spa jets. This was a wonderful thing after what I had just dealt with.

The amazing breakfast that I had which they brought to my room. I believe I decided that when I grow up I want to be rich so I can do stuff like this more often.

Winter pictures for my students!

Sun, 21 Dec 2008 16:50:23 GMT

I am now in Canada and just in time for the snowstorms that have been coming through the past few days. These are some pictures I have taken around my house of the snow and of the snowstorm this morning.

Enjoy!

This group of pictures is AFTER the first snowstorm.

These two pictures are of people shoveling their driveways after it has snowed! Something you have to do so that you can get your car out!

This is beside my parent's house and in front of the house.

This is my parents house!

My parent's live on a golf course! This is the backyard and the tee off for the 14th hole!

This is a bird feeder. You put seeds and nuts in it so that the birds have something to eat in the winter.

These pictures are what I woke up to this morning! A snowstorm in Canada!

Because of the wind the snow can pile up very high!

This is our neighbour who is using a snowblower to clear our driveway! What a nice neighbour!

This is a video of the snow. It's very cold!

Cooking Class!

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 11:20:43 GMT

So....long time no update eh? Sorry about that. Things have been busy here. Between school events, speech contests and the general running around I don't have a ton of time to sit down and update. And if I do I'm usually too tired!

Anyway, back in July I went to Ohara Junior High School which is on Iriomote Island. After our regular English I did a cooking class with the 3rd year students. I was asked to bring a Canadian recipe. I have to say thinking of things that are distinctly Canadian is a bit difficult! Or at least thinking of things that can be made in two hours with a language barrier and won't end in tears, tragedy or fire is hard! So the end result is that we made Nanaimo Bars! They turned out really well and all of us were shocked to find out just how much sugar went into these things!

Under the cut are pictures that the teacher took through the class. Yes I have some very strange faces in a few of the shots and in one of them more chins than a Chinese phonebook but that doesn't matter. The kids had a great time and were excited to do something really different.

Chopping the almonds for the base.

Reviewing measurements. They tend to use grams and such. We had to do some math based off of tablespoon and teaspoon. I made them do that.

Going over the ingredients in English. Also seeing what we needed for the first round (re: the base).

Measuring stuff into the makeshift double boiler. Pot + metal boiler = makeshift double boiler. It was used a lot

Okay, so part of the base for Nanaimo bars is graham cracker crumbs. I swear to God that these things don't exist in Japan. Okay, graham crackers do exist but they exist a 50 minute flight away. So I bought some biscuits that are close enough to graham crackers and we had to grind them up ourselves. It took a lot of work!

More grinding....

Did I mention they needed a lot of grinding?

Giving our arms a rest from grinding and going over what goes in the base.

Finally they're ground enough that they can be added to the mixture!

Cream....lots of cream. Okay not that much but enough to give you a heart attack in combination with the sugar and butter in these things.

Trying not to get the spatula caught in the beaters.

So those are the pictures! Hope you enjoyed. I am going to try and upload some more soon. Also for those who don't already know there are some (semi) new pictures in the Kitty in Japan gallery. To get there go here:

http://pics.livejournal.com/kittyinjapan

On another note I will be coming home for 3 weeks at Christmas time. It's going to be a busy time though. My time is filling up quickly! I think I might need another holiday after this one! See everyone in only 5 1/2 weeks!

My new accessory

Mon, 01 Sep 2008 14:00:36 GMT

That's right. I have a cast. It's not a big one and I'm not allowed to put weight on it but I have one.

What happened you might ask? As always, I fell. I didn't fall down a flight of stairs. I didn't dive in front of a car to save a kitten. I was carrying a container of water, stepped down a step and rolled my foot. There was a loud SNAP and I was down.

I called Veronica crying and screaming and asked her to come get me and take me to the hospital. No break which is good. I just did something nasty to the ligaments and/or tendons....I can't remember which. Anyway, because I'm suppose to work and because I live on the 4th floor with only stairs and no elevator (both of which the doctor said "Not good.") I have a cast. I go back on Wednesday to speak to them again and I don't know what will happen but probably just making sure I'm doing alright.

I'm not allowed to work. So I now get to call my supervisor and tell her what happened and start making phone calls to my teachers and cancel my classes for at least the first half of my week.

Who knows? Maybe my apartment will finally become spotless....

What's stronger than a typhoon? NOT HENRY

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 14:41:23 GMT

Today is rather, typhoony. It's windy and the gusts are extremely strong. When it starts to rain it pours. Bucket after bucket after bucket. I am currently waiting for it to calm down a bit so I can make a run for home.

So what happened? Henry happened, that's what.

I was driving back to the office after having lunch at home (yay for not spending money and being healthy!) and was driving past one of the high schools when all of a sudden a major gust. All of a sudden I couldn't see out my windshield anymore. And why couldn't I see? Because the hood of my car was on it. I am extremely lucky and extremely fortunate that my windshield did NOT break. I pull over to the best of my abilities (which is not good when you can't see ANYTHING) and get out. I managed to wrestle with the hood and get it back down. But it's not down right AT ALL. A car pulls over to help me out and I make a couple of calls to my office to get some help. I tell the guy my supervisor is coming and that I will be okay. He also helps me pull Henry over more so that I'm no longer completely screwing up traffic. I thank him and he leaves.

A little while later my supervisor shows up and a while after that the mechanics from my shop. Back at the repair shop I tell them (through my supervisor) that I don't want to fix my car, I don't want my car and that I was going to be getting rid of it within a couple of weeks. They agree that that's probably the best route of action.

So now I sit with a rental, waiting to get Tom's car switched over to me which will be happening over this next week. Tomorrow I will go and clean out Henry and say goodbye.

Ideally I would like to say goodbye to him over cocktails. A chocolate martini for me and a molotov cocktail for him. But you can't get everything you want.

This is how far it pulled away from the windshield.

How off center it is.

How far it was hanging off the front on the right hand side.

The GIANT rusted hole where the hood of the car USE to be attached to the car.

All the junk that fell inside the rusted hole.

Remember everyone I AM OKAY. I was not hurt, just scared for a few moments. Nature has once again found respect in me.

The Adventures of Henry

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 11:21:44 GMT

I know that it has been a very long time since I have posted in this journal and I do apologize for that. I am going to be trying to write in it more often. I have summer holidays starting soon and will have some more free time.

In the mean time, here was today's interesting adventure.

Today was going well. It went well all through school and teaching and all was dandy and good. I was going to have to hurry back to Ishigaki because I needed to go to city hall to get my proof of residency certificate so I can get my Japanese Driver's License. However, this was not to be. Why? Well because as I was pulling away from my school I heard this God awful noise. I thought I had run something over and was dragging it with me. I put the car (aka Henry) into park and got out to see what was wrong. I went over to the passenger side and discovered that I had a flat tire. So I called my friend Yoko who works at the school I had just been at (and was only maybe 100 metres from)and asked her for help. She shows up with the English teacher and one of the male teachers. Turns out I have a spare tire in my trunk that I never knew about!

Problem though: no socket wrench to get the bolts off. That's okay though because the guy runs off and gets some. Now we get Henry up on the jack and get the wheel off. By this point there are a bunch of people standing around watching and cars are slowing as they go by to watch. The guy changing the wheel reaches behind him to grab the spare and then all of a sudden BOOM! Henry falls off the jack. Not surprising in all honesty. I was on a bit of a hill and apparently my emergency break works.....buuuuuut only until you lift him so much o
ff the ground.

So they guys are like 'oh crap. now what?' The guy changing the tire makes a phone call. His friend comes and looks at the situation. They talk and he disappears. We stand around a bit more and all of a sudden I look up and see something coming up the street towards us. I'm surprised but even more so when it parks itself in front of Henry.

A FORKLIFT! A forklift came and lifted up Henry so that his wheel could be changed.

I have some video if anyone is interested in seeing it. If you are just let me know and I'll post it.

AN OFFICIAL ANNOUCEMENT!!!

Sat, 02 Feb 2008 02:28:18 GMT

Alright so I'm putting this is in as many places as I can think of so that as many people as possible will see this.

I have renewed my contract and will be staying in Japan/Ishigaki for at least one more year.

So what does this mean? It means you need to start saving your money and come and visit me!

For Sam and Ellie

Thu, 17 Jan 2008 12:02:58 GMT

Hi guys!

Wow you're both doing your speech on me! I feel so special! I don't know how long your speeches are suppose to be but I will give you a ton of information so that you should have no problem filling up your time slot!

So here we go!

Food I eat: well, food here is definitely very different from home. For almost all meals. A traditional Japanese breakfast usually includes rice, miso soup, some fish and fruit. I don't do that though. I can get cereal here, as well as toast, eggs and (as I have recently discovered) peanut butter. So I am pretty happy having some fruit, yogurt, eggs and toast for breakfast in the morning.

I eat lunch at the school which is different everyday (both the school and the lunch!). At the big schools and the smaller ones that are close to Ishigaki lunch comes from a big lunch centre. Monday, Wednesday and Friday's are rice days, Tuesday is noodle day and Thursday is bread day. Popular foods here for rice are rice mixed with vegetables and seaweed, fried rice and well....almost everything you can think of doing with rice! Bread day is usually a soup or a stew with a large sweet roll. Bread here is very different. It tends to be a lot sweeter than the bread you are use to. The school lunches are all very good for you. It has everything in it that you should have in a meal.

Dinner is where food gets interesting. Some of my favourite dishes are yakiniku (pronounced ya-key-knee-q) which is very fun to eat. In the middle of the table is a hole and in the hole is usually hot charcoal. There is a mesh grill over top and you order meat. When the meat comes it is raw and you get to cook it at your table. It's very good and lots of fun to make. Here's a link to help you out: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yakiniku
My other favourites are Yaeyama Soba. Soba is a thick noodle made from buckwheat. You cook it in a broth and add meat or vegetables or if you want, nothing at all! It's kind of like soup. Here's more information for you on Soba: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soba

You can get a lot of what we call 'Western Food' here. Finding things like pasta and sauce, peanut butter, and even pizza is pretty easy. I will tell you though, pizza here is very strange sometimes! One of the most popular toppings here is mayo and corn! Sounds icky but it's actually really good.

Sports. Kids here love to play sports. Baseball has to be the most popular sport here. They take it very seriously. Badminton is also very popular. Soccer, volleyball and track and field are probably the next most popular sports here. Those would be the top 5 sport clubs in the junior high schools here.

Toys...oh man a lot of the kids here love video games. Although that's not very surprising. When I asked my kids what they like to do I often get answers like reading comics, playing videogames, or playing a sport. I don't often here about them doing many other activities or other toys they play with. A lot of the kids do want a Nintendo DS though.

Schools are a little bit crazy here (if you ask me). The students have 6 periods a day. Each of my schools is a little bit different so I will give you the range. Classes start between 8:45 and 9:00. However, they have 15 minutes of homeroom before that! Each class is 50 minutes long with a 10 minute break in between. Lunch time usually starts between 12:30 and 12:50. When the bell rings for lunch certain students are assigned the task of either getting lunch and bringing it back to the classroom or for serving lunch in the lunchroom. Students have about 20 minutes to eat lunch and then clean up. For the next 20 minutes the students clean the school! Everyone is assigned a specific duty. It could be sweeping the classroom, the hallway, the stairs. Mopping, cleaning the bathroom or working in the garden! There are no janitors here. Everything is done by the students and the teachers. After that there is a 45-50 minute rest period. Class starts again at around 2:20 and everything finishes at around 4:15. They then have ANOTHER homeroom class for 10 minutes and then they get to go home. They often don't leave school until 5 o'clock and that is if they don't have an after school club! They then get to go home and do their homework. They have very busy days.

The school year is also very different. Right now we are actually just starting the 3rd term. School will end on March 22nd and the new school year will start April 7th (I think....I'm not too sure right now). So instead of starting the new school year in September like you do they start in April. That means that their summer vacation is in the middle of their school year! Summer holiday is from the end of July to the end of August. They also have homework to do during that time. Other holidays are the winter holiday which we just had. Christmas is celebrated here but not recognized as a holiday they get a day off for. The last day of school for 2007 was actually December 25th!

The age of the children I teach is usually between 12 and 15. I would like to try and teach some of the elementary kids at the smaller schools if I can. I think they would be a lot of fun.

My Japanese is slowly improving. I do try and talk to people when I can. I don't have a Japanese teacher yet but I think I should find one. So far I can manage okay if I am out and trying to find something.

I hope that this answers all of your questions. If you have more just let me know!

Good luck both of you!

For my Cousin Ellie

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 04:40:39 GMT

Hi Ellie!

Thank you for your comment! It was very nice to hear from you. I sent you and Sam a postcard, I hope you got it!

Anyway, to answer the questions you asked me:
Are you still liking it? Yes, I still love it here. Every day really is a new adventure. I've gotten use to not really knowing what I am going to do that day until I show up at the school. It definitely makes life exciting!

Do you ever get lonesome? I do. I have some very good friends here but sometimes I miss everyone from home. It was very strange for me to not be home for Christmas this year. I hope you had a great time at Christmas!

Is it true that you are thinking about staying a second year? I am going to stay a second year. I have already handed in my paperwork to do so. After I started teaching I quickly realized that one year would not be enough. Because I see so many schools I will really only be starting to get to know the students after one year. I think a second year would be very rewarding.

My trip to Taipei was a lot of fun. I will have pictures up soon I promise! My internet at home is broken right now but once I get it fixed there will be son many pictures uploaded to here you will be overwhelmed by all of them!

Well, Ellie I better get back to work. I'm actually at school right now. Let me know how your speech goes and if you could send me a copy when you're done that'd be great!

Say hello to everyone for me and give them my love.

Miss you!

Kathryn

Finally an update!

Wed, 19 Dec 2007 11:50:24 GMT

So, to start out with I apologize for the lack of updates. Every time I sit down to write about what has been going on my phone rings, the doorbell rings or I have to run off somewhere. It is not very often that I am bored here. There is usually somewhere to go or something to do here.

So to cover what has been going on the past couple of months I've broken everything down into categories.

So to start everything off

<lj-cut text ="SCHOOL">

I have now been to all of my schools. It took a couple of months....well almost three but I finally did it! I have to admit that I do enjoy the smaller schools more simply because the class size tends to be smaller and you can interact with the students one on one more. The big schools are good in that you can do more activities with them that require more than 5 people such as team activities and the like.

My lessons have varied from what I want to do/come prepared with and the teachers telling me what part of the textbook we will be working from that day. For most of October I did my halloween lesson plan in the smaller schools and textbook stuff in the bigger schools. I managed to do a little bit of my halloween plan in the big schools but not too often. My halloween lesson plan was using 24 different pictures of halloween I had my students tell me what they were so we had some halloween vocabulary. They then used the 24 to fill in a bingo sheet and we played some halloween bingo. The rule was when you got a bingo you had to call out 'boo' instead of bingo. A lot of the kids really got into it as I usually had stickers and such as prizes for when they won.

My last self introduction lesson happened in the middle of November when I finally made it to Funaura on Iriomote. Poor Funaura and Kohama had no luck when it came to getting me to visit. If it was a typhoon it was my having to go out of town for a JET Programme event. The kids were great and I can see why the other ALTs (my job title as well as the others who teach English here) that are second years go to Kohama and love it. The kids there are great and love English class. Their speaking skills are awesome too. A good group to work with.

November was a quite month for lessons. A lot of the teachers wanted me doing stuff from the textbook so I did. I did a few other fun games. Simon Says is a big hit. Another game we play is the students get into pairs then seperate to make two lines. I call out two body parts and they have to run to the middle and touch them together. For example I'll call out 'elbow knee' and one partner has to touch the other's elbow with their knee. Gets pretty entertaining and usually has a high fatality rate but I have never met children more resiliant than the Japanese. These kids can take a beating and keep going no problem. If there is a high injury potential I will give a warning and say 'please do it carefully!'. So far nothing more than bruises so all is good so far. Simon Says has actually proven to be the worst one for injury so far. One girl was standing a little too close to her chair and when I said “Simon Says touch your toes!” and she bent down to touch her toes and hit her mouth on the back of her chair. One tooth bled a little bit but she rinsed out her mouth, put a tissue against it until it stopped and was back in the game a few minutes later. As I said, they're tough kids.

</lj-cut>

<lj-cut text=" MID-YEAR CONFERENCE">

Also in November was our Mid-Year Conference (aka MYC) in Okinawa city. All of the JETs in Okinawa were there. It was two days of seminars and fun. For the first day we had a talk from a university professor in the morning which was fairly interesting. She talked about the why, how and when we teach English. Some things were a little odd in the question and answer section but that's a discussion for another day.

That afternoon we had a couple seminars based on games for the different schools (elementary, junior and senior high school) and then lesson planning for the same different groups. That night we all went out and had some fun which JETs are wont to do. We ended up at an Irish pub which reminded me of Sheehan's back home. My local for those who read this and don't know it. I had a great time and got to meet and get to know a bunch of the other JETs.

Second day was filled with more seminars. We had some more based on what we teach and then we got to do some electives. I went to one called 'Okinawa or BUST!' which was interesting. The guy who did it has been here for a while and knows a lot and was quite interesting. He talked about cultural things and weird litle quirks and quarks about Okinawa. My other two were about working and living in a Japanese environment and then life on an outer island, run by none other than two of our Ishigaki boys.

Friday night I went back to Naha and stayed at a really nice little guest house. Cheap, clean and it had a REAL BED! I slept like the dead that night. Saturday I met up with Veronica and we went and explored Naha a bit. We went to the new museum they have and went through their 'Evolution of Man' exhibit. It was really interesting. I couldn't understand anything that was written or said but I was able to follow it more or less. Quite interesting. We then found a shopping mall and did a little bit of shopping. We then hit the outlet mall that is comprised mostly of western shops and a few other little Japanese stores. I drooled over the Baudum store. So many wonderful, wonderful things in that store but I need an oven to use most of them. Sadly I do not have an oven. Ovens are not a popular thing here. I walked out before I could break down and buy the stuff anyway.

I returned home that night and enjoyed a peaceful day to myself which was much needed after being around so many people for three days straight.

</lj-cut>

<lj-cut text=" CULTURE EVENTS">

I have been to a few school events. I went to a couple of school festivals and we have had some speech contests. The big Ishigaki-jima festival happened and that was great fun. Quick Japanese lesson: Jima = island. The festival is called 'Matsuri'. There's a big parade, dancing, some funky pole carrying thing and of course the night life. The park is set up with booths and everyone is trying to sell you something. Telling you that their food is the best and that their games are the most fun. Quite a lot like home actually. It reminded me of RibFest or Grape and Wine back in St. Catharines in Montabello Park. The only difference was that instead of fries and hot dogs they were trying to sell you noodles and gyoza. And they were speaking Japanese......

I have also gone to a couple shows of traditional dancing. They were really interesting to watch. The costumes were amazing and the movements were so slow but graceful it was stunning to watch. I also got to attend an Okinawan wedding. I didn't go to the wedding itself as that had already happened a couple of months ago but this was the big wedding reception for the groom's side of the family. For this I got to rent a kimono and wear it to the wedding. The poor woman who we rented from was in shock when she saw me. When we went into try the kimono on and figure out which one we were going to rent she saw me and her eyes bugged out of her head. I'm tall (compared to most Japanese women), I have hips and a butt (there is no denying this) and I also have big feet (I beat out a lot of guys here). So I was a bit of a nightmare for her but she had one that fit me properly and it looked really nice. I will be putting pictures up to show everyone when I get the chance. I have a ton of pictures to upload it just takes a while to do so.

Anyway, the wedding was really interesting and a lot of fun. The food was amazing and delicious. Afterwards we went and returned the kimono and then went to what is called the 'nijikai', which basically means second party or after party. It was held at the groom's parents house. I was dragged up to dance at one point and I do have pictures of that too. At the party there was more food and drink then you could shake a stick at. I didn't stay very long as I was exhausted but I had a great time.

</lj-cut>

<lj-cut text=" OTHER STUFF">

As for other stuff I've been doing it really isn't much. I hang out with the other JETs, watch a ton of movies and wander around Ishigaki every now and then. I've found some beautiful areas on the island that I really enjoy going to.

Ah, I know what I can talk about. I just had my 25th birthday! We didn't do a whole lot here as it was on a Monday but we did celebrate on the Saturday night. We went out for yakiniku which is one of my favourite things to eat and then went back to Tom's apartment (which is big and can fit all of us no problem). We drank and played some poker and acey ducey and then went out. It was a good time and I had a lot of fun. On my actual birthday, the Monday, we went bowling. I never knew a bowling alley could be so busy on a Monday night! It was packed! But we had a great time and I really enjoyed it.

For Christmas I am off to Taipei! I'm going to go and visit my cousin Jennifer and explore, relax and have a great time! I'm really excited. I leave in one week! I leave Christmas day at 11 am. And get this: I'm taking a FERRY TO TAIPEI! That's right a FERRY! Well, this ferry is apparently more like a giant cruise ship but that's okay. It will take 6 hours to get there. I get there at 6 pm with the time difference. I'm going to meet Jennifer and her roommates for Christmas dinner and then figure out where I'm going to explore. One of the other JETs, Joe, has been a couple of times so we're going to meet and talk about where to go and what to do while there. I'm super excited! I'll be there for New Years as well so we'll have to see what I'll do for that! I fly out on January 2nd and am going to stay in Naha for at least one night. I think I might stay for two. We'll see though.

</lj-cut>

Anyway, I think that brings everyone up to speed on what I've been doing. Ask me questions and I will answer!

I really do appreciate all of the comments I get. I read them all and am always so happy to check my email and see that I have a new comment.

Time for me to sign off. Take care everyone and have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Cheers,
Kathryn

2 months already.....

Sun, 14 Oct 2007 05:32:30 GMT

It's hard to believe that I've been here for over 2 months now. It really doesn't feel like it's been that long. This could be due to the fact that we are kept so busy that we don't really have the chance to think about how long we've been here!

The past few weeks since my last up date have been busy as usual. Nothing all that thrilling to report. I went to a bunch of new schools and really enjoyed them. The kids are good and the teachers are a lot of fun here. Everyone seems to be very happy to see us when we arrive and the kids enjoy having us.

I went to the English Speech Contest and that was quite a bit of fun. I was rather surprised actually. Speech contest does not exactly sound like the most thrilling way to spend your Saturday afternoon. But the kids did a really good job and that they had practiced a lot was evident. Three girls won the competition and actually competed yesterday in the Okinawa capital, Naha yesterday. I'll be finding out how they did tomorrow. An English teacher party was held after the contest and it was nice to finally meet some of the teachers who I hadn't yet. There was so much food I was stuffed for hours.

Other bits of excitement include the typhoon we had last weekend re: the 5th. We knew it was coming and we also knew it was suppose to be HUGE! It was suppose to be the biggest one in 30 or 35 years. It was crazy. We were lucky though and it didn't hit us full on. It definitely screwed up a good bit of stuff in town but nothing too bad. John and I crashed at Tom's apartment on the Friday night because well, Tom lives on the bottom floor of an apartment building and is surrounded by other tall buildings. You usually can't hear much of anything in there. He also has a big apartment and is on the same power grid at the hospital. So the power is almost never out and quite frankly, being stuck in your apartment by yourself for an entire day is extremely boring. I was taught how to play poker and as a result we will now be having a weekly poker game. We've played a few times since and I seem to do alright.

This weekend has been rather quiet. Our Prefectural Advisor, Lynn, came on Friday for our 'Kencho Chats'. It's the head office just checking up on all of us to make sure we're doing okay and that there aren't any huge problems. She stayed for the weekend with us. Friday night we went to the Beer Garden because the Taketomi-cho (re: Taketomi board of education office) was giving us a small party for helping out with the English summer school. After that we went and played poker at Tom's (all 8 of us!) and then went out for a little bit. A good night. Yesterday was spent getting some breakfast, going to the beach, napping and then going bowling. After that we went and played darts. I'm learning it's not that hard to find something to do in this city but you just have to know where to go and where to look.

So that's all that's new for me. Nothing really exciting going on. I get up, I go to work, I come home usually exhausted, sometimes go out for dinner or a drink with the others and if not that then probably watch a movie with them and then I sleep. Repeat until Friday and then I go out. What can I say? We behave during the week and then let ourselves cut loose on the weekend.

I am now off to get some lunch and do a little bit of shopping. I then need to do household stuff like laundry and cleaning. Hope everyone is doing well!

Cheers.

Long time no update!

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 10:40:16 GMT

Greetings all! It's been far too long since I've updated and I am sorry for that. Life has been busy, crazy and exhausting.

Things are going well. School is keeping me busy and exhausted. I have been to a bunch of different schools and am off to another island school tomorrow. It will be the first meeting these students so I will have to say my self introduction again which I'm sure I can do in my sleep now.

So far for island schools I have been to Iriomote Island and the schools : Iriomote JHS, Ohara JHS, and Funauki JHS. All nice schools. I was suppose to have been to Kohama however Typhoon Wipha took care of that day. I survived my first typhoon just fine. The biggest problem was boredom. You are honestly stuck in your apartment all day and can't leave. You can only watch so many movies and listen to so much music and read so much before you want to get out. But I survived and all went well. It was a big one but it wasn't as bad as the one that happened last year. Last year the typhoon that hit here was huge. Cars were flipped over, trees ripped out of the ground, houses blown down. It was nuts. I'm rather grateful I wasn't here for that!

The students here are great. They're shy but they're eager to have me in the classroom and have me talk to them. I'm a bit of a star whenever I leave my apartment. Every single child between the ages of 12 and 15 years is one of my students. I'm sure you can imagine what it's like to be shopping and all of a sudden hear "Kyasarin! Kyasarin-sensei!" being screamed at you from across the street and a student waving like a maniac at you.

At the schools I've been eating the school lunches that are provided and I have to say that they are fantastic! At the bigger schools I don't have to pay for them but I do at the small schools which is fine by me. I only have to pay 250 Yen which is nothing especially when you get a ton of food! I eat in a classroom with the students and it's a lot of fun. I'm usually stuffed by the time lunch is done and not too hungry in the evening because of it!

There haven't been any problems at the schools, save for one. It wasn't that big of a problem even. It's actually with the teacher and not the teacher. This teacher has a habit of not showing up when the ALT comes to the school. The reason is not very clear but this is something that has happened over the past few years with this teacher. I ended up having a great day with the kids and the secretary who speaks fabulous English.

I'm starting to do my Halloween lesson plan with some of the kids. I'm rather excited about it. I did it once already and it went well. I talk about Halloween and go over a bunch of vocab and then we play Halloween Bingo. The kids loved it and I gave out stickers and pencils as prizes. Stickers thrill them to no end.

Let's see what else is new with me that's not school related. Weekends are fairly quiet and semi-routing. We get together Friday night and go for dinner and a couple of drinks. Saturday during the day is usually spent doing what you need to do around your apartment and/or going to the beach. Saturday night all of us get together to watch a movie, hang out etc. Sunday is spent mostly with yourself unless you feel like seeing people. It's nice. We get to see each other and hang out but you also get your quiet time. Everyone here is awesome and a lot of fun. I can see myself settling in here for a while. I kinda like the crazy schedule and going somewhere new everyday.

Tonight is a quiet night for me. It was a holiday today so we had the day off. I'm not sure what the holiday is, I believe it's the Autumn Equinox or something like that. It's hards to believe that this month is almost over. Time is flying by. It's crazy.

This week will be busy. It's a short week but on Saturday John and I have been invited to the English Speech Contest so we have to go. It will be about 3 hours of listening to kids that we teach give speeches in English. Most of which we have revised and will probably say along with the student. We've been invited out to go drinking with the English teachers afterwards which should prove to be interesting.

Anyway, I miss everyone. I'm definitely out of the honeymoon stage of culture shock. I've settled in and I get annoyed with some things now and then (re: the hours of the ATMs) but I get over it. Usually I got for a drive or something and all is good.

Oh that reminds me. New pictures posted: pics.livejournal.com/kittyinjapan

Anyway, I think that's about all for me. I love hearing from you guys!

Day 1!

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 08:08:15 GMT

So I'm home from my first day of teaching. Well, there wasn't a lot of teaching going on. They only had me do one class. It went....okay. I had definitely overestimated how much English the students could understand and say. But we had some fun and got a good understanding of what their level is.

More on that in a minute. How my day actually went.

~8:15: Arrived at the school. Had no clue where to go for the teacher's room but managed to find a teacher and she took me there.
8:30: school assembly
8:50: Had to introduce myself in front of the ENTIRE SCHOOL OF 600+ STUDENTS!!! A little nerve wracking to say the least but I managed to do it.
9:00-11:45: Shown around the school...twice, read some of the speeches in previous speech contest
11:45-1205: helped Mayumi with a speech for the speech contest.
12:05-1:20: ate lunch with the students and helped in classroom cleanup
1:20-2:05: got ready for my class and did a bit of studying
2:05-2:50: taught the 3-7 class
2:50-4:00: helped Mayumi with the rest of the speech

It was a bit of a long day with not too much to do but I guess that's okay for a first day!

The kids were very quiet but I had them speaking a bit by the end of it which is good. Tomorrow I'm sure I'm going to be chucked into this even more. Now to make dinner and go to yoga class.

My address!

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:22:57 GMT

Kathryn Nolting
270-30 Mansion Estate U. 503
Ishigaki
Ishigaki-city
Okinawa Prefecture, Japan
_
T 907-0014

the thing before the 907-0014 is a small capital 'T' with a line over top. It's suppose to be the same since as the numbers. Don't know what it is but I'm thinking it's a postal code or something like that.

Send me fun stuff! ;p

Let the games begin!

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 08:20:56 GMT

Wow, I just realized that it's been a long time since I've updated this journal. Well, a lot has happened in the past week.

Tokyo orientation went well. I quickly learned that a lot of the other JET members had not received as much information about everything as the Toronto people had. We had 3 days while some people only had 2 hours one afternoon. The downside to the orientation was that there was a lot of repeat information for us from Toronto so it was rather boring at times. But the two days went by quickly and I got to meet a lot of nice people and meet the people in my prefecture.

Wednesday morning we met early and flew to Naha which is the capital of Okinawa. We checked into our hotel and had a few hours to kill before we had a night out with the islanders. A few of us went and wandered around to find something to eat. We found this little diner and had an amazing meal there. It was huge and the price was dirty cheap. It was great. That night we had the party but I left at about 9. I was exhausted and slept like a log that night.

The next day was a review of our contract, some information and a Q&A session about general stuff. Myself and another girl Kirsty were informed that we might not be flying out to our islands because of a typhoon. (Which after this past week I'm realizing is a common problem.) But everything cleared up and worked out and we were able to fly out to Miyako and Ishigaki.

This was my 3rd airplane in 5 days so my dislike of take offs and landings had almost completely vanished. My ears still don't like them but I can't do much about that. I chew gum but they're still bothered.

Anyway, I arrived in Ishigaki, walked on to the tarmac off the plane!, got my luggage and was then greeted by about 8 people all waiting for me to arrive! I was the last person to arrive on the island so they all decided that they would come and meet me! I was surprised to say the least. Tired, surprised and flattered. My luggage was taken away from me and I was loaded into Kanna-sensei's car and taken to my apartment with Suzie and John. To say that my apartment is small would be an understatement. My living room is my dining room is my bedroom. For one person it works but any more living in here and it would be far too cramped. I didn't get to do much other than be told how my air-con (air conditioner) works and then we went out to meet the others for a small welcome party and it was also one of the new girl's, Veronica's, birthday. I got to meet everyone, have some delicious food and taste Okinawan beer, Orion. Which is very good.

Friday I was suppose to go and meet my bosses but Kanna-sensei called John and he came over and told me that we wouldn't be going in since the bosses weren't in that day. We went and had some lunch with one of the other guy's Tom and man was it good. We basically had hamburger but it was different and man was it ever good. Insanely tender and delicious. I'll definitely go back for more! It was Ishigaki beef too which is apparently some of the best beef around! Who knew?!

Saturday was spent sleeping for the most part. The adrenaline had finally dropped and my body was exhausted. The naps were great and I felt sorted out after all of it. Sunday was spent being quiet and relaxing in the apartment. We were all invited over to Suzie's house for dinner and it was a lot of fun. We're all still getting to know each other so it's usually pretty entertaining.

Monday I finally got to go the Board of Education office (BoE). I met the main boss as well as a few other people. I gave my omiyage and they loved them. I have a desk and manual with directions on how to get everywhere I need to go. Life is definitely going to get crazy when I start visiting the islands but I'm looking forward to it. Irimote has an Onsen which I want to go to. I'm hoping at some point I can work out my schedule so that I'm on that side of Irimote on a Friday and then after work I can go to the Onsen and stay over night. Oh, an Onsen is a hot spring for those who didn't know.

Tuesday was spent running around with John and Kanna-sensei. I signed the lease for my apartment, applied for my alien registration card aka my gaijin card (gaijin = foreigner), got a discount card for stuff, went to the post office and I think that was it. We went out for lunch and it was delicious. A nice little restaurant called Puff Puff. Had a really nice pasta dish with chicken and mushrooms.

Today was spent at the office again for the morning. This afternoon we went for lunch, back to the real estate agent to get my contract, to the bank and then to the travel agent to get our stuff for Naha. Tomorrow we go back to Naha for two days of orientation, signing our work contracts and some more seminars. I'll tell you I'm getting pretty sick of seminars. Oh well, I should consider this a break and appreciate the quiet time. I don't think I'm going to get much of it once school starts.

Since coming home I have done some laundry and relaxed a bit. I'm going to start unpacking soon and start making this apartment feel like my own. I have my address now but I'll post that next separately so that it stands out. :P

A more detailed update!

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:03:41 GMT

Well, it's Monday morning and I'm sitting in my hotel room listening to some English television! That's right! ENGLISH TELEVISION! It's one channel and it's the news but oh well. So things are super nice here. This hotel is amazing. It's HUGE! I'm sharing a room with 2 other girls, both from Toronto, so that's nice. There are 12 or so other people here that are going to the Okinawa prefecture and I'll be meeting them shortly. We have our big assembly meeting in about an hour and we have to sit with our prefecture.

I had my first meal last night. There was a big group of us that decided that we needed to wander around. We didn't go too far but we found a little restaurant in a basement and it was pretty good. We were all exhausted. It was 10 pm by the time we left and we had been awake for basically 2 days at this point. Time change really screws you up.

I slept fairly well last night though. Went to bed as soon as I got back and only woke up a few times. Woke up once at about 4 am starving. I told my stomach to shut up and that it would be fed soon enough. Got up at 7:30, threw some clothes on and went and had breakfast. They have an awesome buffet for us. The amazing part of it though: breakfast is being held in FOUR different rooms! Mind you there's 2007 JET Programme participants in the hotel over these next few days so that's not really surprising.

Some more details about the flight. It was long. 13 hours long. No stops though. We did go up and over though. And by that I mean we went over Alaska and back down over Russia. Shortest route there was I guess. Anyway, the sun was shining the entire time as we were following the sun. All the shades were drawn and they made the plane a bit dark so you could sleep. I ended up sleeping for about 4 1/2 hours near the end. Worked out to my benefit as I was alert for the airport and getting to the hotel and everything. There were volunteers at the airport to help us out. There were a TON of them. You really couldn't screw up getting to the bus or anything. The airport was really nice and we were through it pretty quickly.

I realized one thing I did forget to pack and that's a plug converter. I'll go ask one of the hotel people later on where I might be able to get one. My laptop will only last me so long on the battery! There's an ethernet cable in the room so that's how I'm online now and typing all of this. They do have a room with access to computers and the internet but there's a 20 minute limit per person for the whole weekend I think. May as well use my own and spend more time on it!

Anyway, I should go finish getting ready. I want to be downstairs by 9:30 so that I can find where I need to be and hopefully find more people that are going to Okinawa! Oh, I did find out that I am the last person to arrive on my island. Ah well, the people that are already there can give me tips about where to go and such things.

Bye everyone! More updates as soon as I can!

Arrived!

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 10:33:24 GMT

I have arrived in Tokyo. Right now things don't feel any different except when we turned the tv on and counld't understand a single word.

Things are going to be crazy busy for the next few days. Lots of seminars to go to and lots of sleeping to do on the plane. More updates on that later.

Just thought everyone would like to know I have arrived and am safe!

This hotel is awesome!

My apartment

Thu, 12 Jul 2007 14:41:57 GMT

It's been a long time since I've updated on this journal. Preparations for leaving are going well. I've had my pre-departure orientation and it was great. I learned a lot about what to expect in regards to food, culture (and culture shock), the people, dealing with money and everything like that. Turns out I'm the only one leaving from Toronto who's going to be in the Okinawa Prefecture. I later found out through emails that I'm going to be the only Canadian on my island!

My predecessor has been wonderful to me. She sent me a ton of information and we've been talking via email. So much information has been great and helpful. She's excited to meet me too. She's going to China for a few weeks before going home. She'll be stopping in Ishigaki for a couple of days and we're going to meet up for a coffee and I can ask her a billion questions about what I'll be doing.

I just realized I don't know if I said where I'm going to be....I'll be on Ishigaki Island in the only city there conveniently called Ishigaki! It's located in the Yaeyama Islands - which is made up of 8 different islands. Ishigaki and Irimote are the biggest of the two. I'll be teaching on all 8 islands at a total of 20 different schools. Life will be crazy but it'll be great!

One thing my predecessor did send me was a CD full of pictures from the apartment and a couple of shots from around Ishigaki. I think the scenery ones are once you get out of the city. You can look at them here: http://pics.livejournal.com/kittyinjapan/
Bookmark that page because I'll be upload pictures when I get there of more stuff!

That's all for now. Take care everyone!