So this is boxing - The northern most part of Honshu, Japan
Boxing day was another early start and quick exit. I had tons of ground to cover if I wanted to see some stuff
as well as get to my next hotel on time. That is the thing about Japan; it looks pretty small on paper but up close it can be massive.
Still being a bit achey from the day before (boarding down Hakkoda), I decided I wanted to get out and see some places, get some photos and relax in some hot water somewhere. Here are a couple of photos of my day.
All the farmers round here seem to use boats... By the way, that's Hokkaido in the background. The visibility was not so good this day.
I had a wander out onto this little island on my way round the coast. Very pretty it was, too. My dad would have liked it here.
This is the most northern part of the main island of Japan. There are representations of Tuna everywhere so I guessed that the village was based around fishing them. Note the man shaking his fist at the fish as he disapeared below the waves.
Labels: Aomori, fishing, Japan, tuna
Merry Xmas 2006 in Aomori, Japan
This is hopefully my last Christmas away from home / family for some time to come. It has been some five years since I last did it but this time was my first completely on my own.
I was up at dawn and off into the hills after stuffing my face at the eat-all-you-can buffet breakfast at my hotel. First stop was Moya Hills, a skiing / boarding place. Boring as hell - only half of the lifts open and the life groomed out of the runs that were there.
The second stop was Mount Hakkoda which was the best place I have been in Japan. Pricey, but well worth it for the 5 or 7km long runs through the lollipop trees. The scenery was stunning and the clouds parted at all the right times for me to get the shots I wanted. The boarding was challenging and interesting. You couldn't get one of those damned grooming machines down the runs. Finally, I lost my sunglasses on the way down (I was being a bit too ambitious with my jumps) and actually had tem handed back to me with a Merry Christmas to boot. Now I know I love Alpine boarding.
I never did manage to find the onsen I wanted to go to. I did manage to find a good yakiniku shop. No turkey on the menu though, I am afraid. Here are some more photos:
Moya Hills - though I love boarding I hate what the resorts do to the views.
The top of Hakkoda - see what I mean about the trees?
Partyway down the hill on the forest course. The trees were not so heavily coated here.
Labels: Aomori, Hakkoda, Japan, snow, snowboarding
Driving to Aomori, Japan
Just photos for today! Enjoy!
This was parked outside an Onsen I went to.
It was valleys and forests all the way to the outskirts of Aomori City. Great!
This is what most of the roads were like. I never fully lost control of the car so it was exhilarating rather than scary.
Labels: Akita, Aomori, icy, Japan, roads
Off to Lake Tazawa for boarding and sightseeing
I was up at 5am to get my guzzler off the boat. As soon as I was off the ramp i was off and into the countryside at the part where Akita meets Iwate, in the middle of Touhoku.
The first thing that struck me was the ominous lack of snow anywhere in sight. As I got clear of the city and out into the badlands things started to look up and I started seeing patches of white between the trees in my headlights. It must have been a good hour and a half before I stopped for food and fluid. I spotted that the convenience store had wireless internet for free so I took five minutes to check everything out and email the missus. The map seemed clear enough so I ploughed on, keeping my eyes open for those joke signs the japanese put up up to three junctions before the one they refer to.
I got there at about 8am and headed straight for the ski-slopes. First stop was tazawako-kogen. Strike one: though they were recruiting for staff outside I tried to get on the slope. "Nope," I was told, "try the mountain dear." Now in English this looks like she forgot a comma in being friendly, but in Japanese it can only mean a kind of animal related to Rudolph, of red nose fame. I left none the wiser than you.
Luckily, I had planned for this and my backup was to head up through the mountains to a place called Hachimantai, a national park surrounded by ski fields. Straight up 341, turn left after 30km or so. Or not. Now I know how Gandalf felt on Kharadras. My mountain didn't need the help of Saruman to see me off, just a guy in a uniform to lock the gates. Strike two.
After a long, hard look at the map I noticed a ski-place called Kamoshika Gellende. That means Mountain Dear Skiing Place to you and me. Arrive at ten, check the price, decide to give it a while because the first day of opening is half price. I buy a 1,800yen 5 hour ticket. Gear on, boots tight, goggles on and off I went.
I had a great time. I'm no great shakes but I was probably the best boarder there. All the newbies were snowploughing the life out of the middle of the track. I saw a few guys go off through the trees on the left so I took the right and stayed there all day. Six inches of powder and a fresh track each time. All I needed from that day. I got my Ollies, jumps and 180s going by the end and had a thoroughly satisfying two hours of it, after which my knees teamed-up with my thigh muscles to call things to a close. On the way out i managed to flog my ticket to a guy for half price so I was well-chuffed.
After that I wandered round taking photos, hooning about in my car and searching for my vaguely located Youth Hostel. The people there were really friendly. For those who have never stayed in a Japanese youth hostel, let me assure you the message was lost somewhere along the way to Japan. A huge room to myself, parafin heater and a hot bath. Also, I am afraid to tell you die-hard hostelers, there was a beer machine inside.
The only slight blemish was the curfew at 9pm. This was enforced by hiding the guests shoes. Not that i wanted to go anywhere, but I left my towel in the car and was forced to use a Tshirt instead. Luckily no-one caught me.
So what does Akita look like then? Here you go:
This is Lake Tazawa. It is almost round. Note the lack of snow on the hills!
This the beautiful waterfall I stumbled across after boarding. It was right outside the Onsen that I went to.
I thought this rock looked kind of like a monster with hair on it's arms and head. Note that it is now snowing. It snowed for about four or five hours, and eventually overnight, too!
More from me tomorrow about what I did today!
Labels: Akita, snow, snowboarding, tazawa lake, tazawako
Ferry strange indeed - Japanese ferries
Last Thursday was my last day of term, complete with end-of-year-party (bounenkai in Japanese). By the time I got home I was buggered, but still had to pack and stuff my boarding gear in the car.
Up at 5am to make sure I got away on time and didn't miss my boat. Out of the door stuffing sarnies and coffee into my face I managed to get away by 6am. All the way up route eight to Tsuruga in Fukui prefecture. I arrived well ahead of schedule and registered. I was a bit worried as there was a boat but no other customers that I could see. Anyhow, all appeared to be in order and on I got.
I booked the boat a few months in advance, quite reasonably assuming that there would be tons of people heading north for the snow. Onto the boat and park my car behind the other guy. The
other guy. Up on inside and order two meals in advance.
It was like being on that boat in Goldeneye the Nintendo game. Everyone is dead, because you have shot them. You've got the whole ship to yourself. There were a total of eight passengers. The only person with a standard class ticket was myself. Which was ironic because I got a huge room to myself while the guys who paid more got these tiny little bunkbed rooms for their cash. Sweet.
Once i was on the boat the seconds dragged and dragged. Luckily I had copious amounts of books and beer. I was able to occupy myself until about 9pm when I finally had a bath and went to bed. All told, not very exciting but hey! it takes 20 hours to get to Akita and I needed the r and r time.
More tomorow!
I got an email from Icons - a portrait of England today. First-off, it was a wonder it got through the spam filter. Furthermore it was an even bigger wonder that I read it with a title like that. Anyway, read it I did and, despite the unpromising start, a very encouraging read it was too.It seems that this picture I took at Chatsworth House "nicely depicts England" and has been selected for use with some project or other. Did I mind if they used it? Obviously not as long as they put my name and web page adress on there somewhere.
The reason that this was so encouraging for me is that I was actually begining to wonder if it was worth the bother of uploading the damn things because hardly anyone looks at them. It just goes to show that there is no such thing as a lost cause. Interestingly, this is not what I consider one of my best shots, so there.By the way my flickr page is here.Labels: England, English country garden, icons, photos
Even lower under the radar - Japanese hot springs
I reached a new low this weekend, with a double whammy of immense proportions.
The first would normally have dominated a post like this. During the course of a weekend I embarked upon a course of action which ultimately lead to my paycheque being micturated up the house heat-retainer in under 48 hours. Bit of a head-fuck, that was. It was kind of like one of those Barklay Card adverts without the "priceless" thing at the end.
We had a party on Saturday night that took about ten hours of cooking, which started on Friday night. Beef bourguinon is one of my favourite foods but does unfortunately take about eight hours to cook if you do it right. Anyway, all told it was about 15,000 yen in preparations and food, I think. Well worth it, though. Thanks to everyone who came and squeezed into our tiny flat.
Saturday morning saw me in Nagoya for a Senior ALT meeting. The company paid for this of course. Unfortunately, the return route took me past the Mac Shop where I acidentally bought a new MacBook. Including the three year warranty this soared up to 180,000 yen, though I got a discount for being a teacher.
Sunday saw me buying snow tyres for the gas-guzzler. Even though I got them second hand, and at a good price too, these limped-along to 36,000 yen including fitting, balancing and sacrifice of chicken.
So, in my new-found spirit of poverty, I decided to go to the sento. What's a sento, UTR? I'm glad you asked. Here it is:
One of the best and most highly redeeming aspects of Japan are the hot springs. These are called "Onsen" in Japanese and are supposed to be naturally occuring. I say supposed to be because Japanese business people being what they are, these are often faked and dressed-up like an Onsen with a big kerosene boiler hidden in the trees at the back. An onsen can start at a steaming outdoor mudhole and range through small, garden-sized indoor pool all the way up to huge spa complexes. The best ones have indoor and outdoor sections, saunas, steam rooms, cold plunge-pools, bubble baths, Jacuzzis, special chair baths that blast your shoulders with water, and so-on.
Here are a few examples:
You remember I said that there were a few fake ones about? These basically fall into two categories: The one type are the cowboy outfits who would be closed down in the UK but aren't here because of the lack of trading standards.
The other are called Sento and are a godsend on a cold day after a day / weekend of pounding over the jumps, along the rails and down the hills on my snowplank. These are generally really clean and have more of the things I want: Whirlpools, steam rooms and plunge pools.
In both you go in naked but with a small towel. The towel should not be dunked in the water, however. They are 98% separated into mens and womens sections.
Now we are up to speed, back to last weekend. Sunday afternoon and I am about 230,000 yen down and a macbook, set of tyres and party experiences up. Before going to get some snowboard bits I decide to call into the sento. Clothes off, shower, rinse down with the special water before getting in (more manners) and one foot in the pool.
"nick-sensei! nick-sensei! Look everyone! It's nick sensei!"
Now, I do not mind being naked in front of other men. I do not actively seek it out but neither do i let it stand in the way of sousing my aching bag of bones on a Sunday. The line in the sand is drawn at people from school. Especially the kids. What a fucking nightmare.
I very quickly became aware that the school baseball club were in the building. despite my fears the kids were actually pretty civilised. Once we had had broken through the initial time/place/what do I do now? stage, the kids followed me round asking me questions. One of the kids took me to one side for a little confidence:
Kid: Nick sensei
Me: What?
Kid: Do you mind if I tell you something?
Me, with the fear of God inside me, quaking: Er, OK.
Kid: You know that doctor's surgery skit we did?
Me: Yeeeessss?
Kid: It was really hard.
Me: Oh thank fuck for that! Yes, I know. It was a taster for next year so you know what to expect.
So I got through it all OK in the end. I might have to start going further afield for my hot water adventures after this.
Labels: hot, Japan, Japanese, onsen, spring
There comes a time...
... in ones life where one has to take a look at itself and make changes. Out with the old and in with new and the shaking of the hokey-kokey.It started with the links down the side over there ==>And continued on with the bar across the top.
Where will it all end?
Please bear with us until the work is over.
Life in Japan - what's a busy week?
All quiet from me for a while. Excluding "nothing posts" not much for three weeks or so, really. The fact of the matter is, in truth, that I have a had a busy week for a few weeks. All kinds of unusual and good things have been happening. At the same time I have been busy as hell at school. Most of you out there in the real world won't have a clue what I do at school, so here is a run-down of what I did last week.Monday - In early (for me) at 8.30. The other teachers do longer hours than me but they get more pay, bonusses and job security. Fire up my computer, make a coffee, start preparing for my lessons. About half of my job is preparation, and of that half is logistics. Meaningful activities for forty kids at once that are engaging and simple.2nd period - class 3-1 rehearsing their English play. They are doing an Eastern European book called "the glove". We divide the class into two. I take the performers and introduce them to the actions as well as the lines, the class teacher takes the naration group and drills them on their lines.Break - Another coffee. A coffee an hour gives the teacher power.3rd period - class 3-2 rehearsing their English play. They are doing the Eric Carle book "Hello Red Fox". There is no narration group for this story so when I wrote the script I put in two recurring role plays based on correcting someone's mistake and giving and recieving a birthday present. In this class we divided the kids into their two groups, practiced separately, then brought the two groups together and had a go at moving the kids round the stage.4th period - class 3-3 rehearsing their play, another Eric Carle book "The Very Hungry Caterpillar". This class are ahead of the other two so we piled straight into the full rehearsal. At the end we discussed the props that the students would need to make.Lunch - Usually I would eat with one of the classes but recently no-one has been asking me so I ate in the staff room with some of the other non-class teachers. After that I designed some prints for a class the following week and did some printing.Cleaning time - The kids have fifteen minutes each day to clean a certain area of the school, on a rota. I always clean with the 4th years in my own classroom to make sure that they actually do some cleaning. Other teachers rarely enforce much cleaning so my room is the cleanest in the school by some considerable way.5th period - 4-2 practiced their play. The fourth years are dramatising some old Japanese fairy-tales for a show that will be held on FRIDAY MORNING next week. Things are getting a little bit frantic here because meetings were not done when they should have been and so no-one knows what is going on. In theory I am coordinating this but each of the four teachers involved is imagining something different for the end product. Also, each teacher has different ideas of what is expected of the kids and how the acting should interact with the narration.Anyway, this class is doing Momotarou. the highlight of this lesson was the actor chosen to be the Black demon. She is in fact, Ddrdrdrdrdrdrumroll, the shyest person in the class. As we approach the penultimate scene where the hero goes to fight the baddie, who is standing demurely with folded hands. Poor casting - not my fault. My unspoken thought - you were in the meeting but not actually listening to the words or the meaning.6th period - World club. I taught the kids how to make Apple Crumble, using my patented super-fast method. A roaring success but after rushing through the preparation the kids took forever and a day to actually eat the stuff.From about 4.15 to 4.40 I met up with the 2nd year teachers to discuss the lesson we would have the following day. In theory. In fact I plan all the lessons and tell the teachers what we are going to to do. In this case I explained that we were going to talk about what vegetable we liked the most, we were going to do a kind of bingo activity for the first activity to practice just the vocab., then an interview activity to practice some grammar. I went on to elaborate that the kids would soon be going up into the third year and that from there on in they would have English every week and would have more varied lessons with slightly more complex structures and more difficult application activities. This would be a taster.From this time until five I did a little bit of paperwork and killed time. At five o'clock one of the 4th year teachers caught my eye and I wearily surrendered to the half hour meeting about the Board Of Education's "good idea".I should explain that one of the guys on the BOE is enamoured of making people work harder than they need to and making people does stuff without offering any leadership at all. Suffice to say that he thought it would be a good idea to have the Junior High School ALT (foreign teacher) and the Elementary School ALT (me) swap positions for a day or two. Just explaining the point of this would take me days.The upshot is that Lisa from the JHS was coming over for a meeting to discuss the lessons she was going to teach with the 3rd and 4th year teachers. Why does this have anything to do with me? Well, the school wants her to do something that will fit in with my curriculum (that I wrote and am immensely proud of, by the way) which no-one knows about because they never do the meetings 'til the last minute. I only knew she was coming because I had noticed something written on the weekly schedule and went to them.I finally made it through the door after more or less planning a lesson for them. I disagree with this kind of thing because A) I don't see this as my responsibility and B) everyone has their own style of teaching and what works for me probably wouldn't work for her.Tuesday - I didn't need to be in so early so I gotup a little later and arrived at school at 8.45. I need to be there for 9 o'clock.I printed-off a hundred interview sheets and made some small cards with the vegetable vocabulary on them for use in the bingo-type game. then I went to set up the classroom with the correct flashcards, date and weather cards etc. Then I had a coffee.2nd period - Usually about five minutes before class I am waiting outside the room for the kids to arrive. The main point ofthis is to be in control from the first child arriving and to stop the kids entering until everyone is there and lined-up in a state comensurate with entering the room and doing some work. I have stood there with the kids for fifteen minutes before now.The lesson this time was as close to an average lesson as you will see. The kids sit down, we greet each other, sometimes two or three times if I am not happy with way it was done. We go throughthe weather and date. Next I introduce the vocabulary in some entertaining way. We listen and repeat a bit.The first game is really simple. Each child recieves a card with a vegetable on it. Everyone stands up. When the child hears the vegetable on their card they sit down. First team seated gets point and we start again. This is just a listening exercise and of limited worth in teaching language. The main point is to lead the students into main body ofthe lesson, get energy levels up and perhaps get few of the kids to notice that they haven't remembered all the vocab yet.Next we go through the target structure. "Which vegetable do you like best?" "I like potatos." Aftera bit of demonstration (using a toy penguin as my conversational partner. More sense out of him than some of the teachers [tongue in cheek here]) i ask a few of the more switched-on kids the question and theatrically write their names down on the interview sheet. The kids get the idea.Another quick practice and then I give out the sheets and unleash the kids. My role at this point is to check pronunciation, structure, behaviour. In a given class 10% will be doing the questioning in Japanese or just mumbling something that sounds like the target. After a few people have filled their forms I call things to a halt and sum things up. I tell the kids the point of the lesson, point out the good and bad points of the class that day, cover the structure one more time and then send them back to their classroom.3rd and 4th periods - same as above with variable behaviour from the kids.Lunchtime - lunch in the staffroom, time on the computer, more coffee.Cleaning - Same as...5th period - 4-3 came to practice their play again. Of the three fourth year classes they are by far the worst behaved, by far the best at English and will easily eclipse the others when we come to present the plays. They have a bit of a reputation, this class, but I think I have found a formula that works. They are doing and old Japanese tale by the name of Urashima Tarou.From three until four I checked my state of preparation for the following day, did a bit more design and made some materials. From four until about 4.45 I had a meeting with one of the 3rd year teachers about this exchange with the Junior High School. Along the lines of "What are we going to do?" She said that the school wanted us to continue with my curriculum. I said that I wasn't convinced the kids could do it anyway, and added to this my doubts that the JHS teacher could get the kids to the required level to complete the series in the final lesson. In the end we decided to let the JHS teacher do what she wanted and that I would do something about Christmas. Until about 5 o'clock we had a general gripe about the state of the education system in Japan as it affected teachers: Deplorable and getting worse.Wednesday - In at 8.30 to make sure I am ready for my 6th year classes, who are fairly high maintainence. With coffee.2nd period - 6-3 are there to study prepositions (in, on, under, etc.), the sentence "There is a noun (preposition) the other noun andthe names of school people (nurse, head master, English teacher, etc.). They are doing another one of my pet theories, task-based English projects. They are eventually going to be making posters intoroducing their school which may or may not be used as part of a limited exchange with a school from another country.Basically, we review the preps. using "It's on the table" type sentences. We practice the names of various pieces of furniture. Then we practice making the new structure using my home-made psoter and magnetic pirates. Then we do a quiz where the students have to find various kinds of monsters in another homemade poster made from photographs. Fastest to answer gets a point for their team. Then we quickly go over the new vocabulary for ten minutes and I reinforce why we are doing thisand how those who are still not able to remember all the vocab and grammar will have a chance for more practice later.3rd period - 6-2 come for their lessonj as above.4th period - 5-2, who are in the middle of learning English to use at the doctor's. We have already done My leg hurts, I'm sick, don't go to school, take these tablets, how are youăetc. This lesson is about explaining what happened. When I wrote the lesson plan for this I hadto bear in mind that past tenses are above their level, and this class are particularly hard to teach because of their low attention spans and their high levels of attitude (as in the kind that Gangsta Rappas have). In the end I decided upon a board game that didn't exist. I made up a game called The Game of Death. Each player is a cat with nine lives. They move round the board and if they stop on an accident square they have to cross off a life and say what happened. If they can't say it they have to ask me or the class teacher how to say it and loose another life. Last cat standing is the winner.5th period is 6th years again.Between 3 and 5 I was trying to translate a song from Japanese to English for use in one of the 4th year plays. In my considered opinion this is the sort of thing criminals should have to do in prison. I was interupted in the middle by the 4th year teachers wanting to talk about the logistics of the plays. We had decided to project pictures onto a screen to provide the backdrop. I had staed that this would need to be done from behind so as not to blind the kids on stage. This had been a sore point for some weeks. Their position: It wasn't necessary. It wasn't possible. My position: It was. It was.As it turned out, we had to actually set the projector up, and stand on the stage to be blinded before we came to the conclusion that it was necessary to do it from behind. Having put up a paper screen and put the projector behind it we established that it was emminently feasible to project from behind. This kind of situation comes up about five times a week, though it usually takes less time to prove me right.I spent the last ten minutes packing my gear up to take to the other school that I teach at.Thursday - At the smaller school I am always really busy due to the number of different classes and the need to make materials on the day I use them. Not without recourse to coffee. On this particular day this included making a poster of the role-play the 4th years were going to do. What I wouldn't give for technology that actually works. One ofthe ink tanks needed changing, a fact that only became apparent after the damn thing had spent ten minutes warming up. After I changed the tank the damn thing took ten minutes to warm up again. then ten minutes to print and A1 poster that was mostly white...2nd period - A module based around a role play. In this final lesson of five we start by demostrating the role play. I'm the doctor and the class teacher is the patient. next we divide the class in two and line them up opposite each other. One side is the doctor with me, the other the patient with her. After a while we swap. Then we redo the first part with randomly selected students being the patient and having plasters stuck on them, etc.3rd and 4th periods are the same lessons twice with the 5th and 6th years. Half of the class are sent to take photos of the school while the others learn some vocabulary and practice grammar with me in the classroom. Halfway through we swap. The point of all this, besides all the grammar and vocabulary, is to get the kids to take a bit of responsibility for the English they need, come and ask me and take some ownership of their lessons. I would like to flatter myself that this was fully achieved in both of these lessons. Even the attitudy kids in both classes got involved and played their part.Lunchtime - immediately after lunch (with the first years who were hell bent on being able to copy my signiture) I had a meeting where the 5th year teacher and myself hammered out some of the details of next lesson to come the following week.No cleaning at this school as my classroom is closed from lunchtime.5th period - A review lesson with the special needs class. The following week we will begin filming a video introducing the school. Possibly for use in some kind of exchange. This class always takes tons of preparation because they generally do different activities to all the other groups. They also need lots more activities because there are only two of them.After that a series of running meetings (in the sense of running skirmishes) run me up to five o'clock. Pack up, go home.Friday - As usual for a Friday, I hurtle through the school gates at about 8.55. On thisday, I have very little to prepare. I take it easy checking out a few professional sites and my company site. Internet browsing enhanced by cafeinated drink.2nd through 5th periods - Another 5th year class and three fourth year classes doing their plays. I lost control of one of my 4th year classes, not as is sometimes the case to the kids, but to the classroom teacher. She had a different idea of how to combine the acting with the narative. I didn't like it because the majority of the class spent most of the lesson watching her bollocking the individual narators for not speaking up, then not cutting their sentences in the right place. Then she would swap to bollocking the acting section for getting the timing wrong or not miming well enough. In short, the kids weren't ready for what we tried and the teacher destroyed everyone's confidence by breaking stuff up wierdly and interupting everyone all the time.The funniest part was when the hero had to take some gold out of a bowl and exit stage left. She bent down and mimed picking up an armful of gold. The teacher went nuts and said, "leave that bowl there!" The kid sheepishly said that she had taken the gold from the bowl but left the bowl in the middle of the stage. Child points. Hilarious! I had to look out ofthe window so the teacher couldn't see me smiling.3.00 - 4.30 - I was trying to get the big scanner working in the computer room. If only the technology actually worked when I needed it my job would be about 20% easier. Didn't get it to work but did manage to find some cheap tickets back to the UK when my four hundred days are up.In the last half hour of the week I had a bit of a chat about some emergency activities for the 4th year show if things finshed early. Then home for a beer.
