The Tourist thing

Hey ho again,
Another day another update ^_^
So the day started off nicely with some spectacular weather, and a nice sessoin of Tennis. 2nd lesson and still much to work on. Groundstrokes are a bit wishy washy, don't have the same control over my shots as in Badminton. I can't seem to hit it gently, either I hit or I don't. If I try to hit it nice and easy, it just balloons or it goes in the net :(. Volleys are my best shot, apart from a few miss hits they're ace :P Today we practiced smashing which I can do in Badminton but Tennis is another matter. Another shot to work on, but I'm enjoying playing.
On a side note I decided to see if I could play with contacts, and it turns out a can!! yay!!
I have had contacts before back in UK, but for some reason(either they were dodgy or something) I couldn't play Badminton at all with them. I couldn't seem to judge the distance to the shuttle properly while in flight :S.
Anyway after Tennis I had thought to go see the Nagoya castle, but I forgot to check when it closes and only looked after Tennis which finished around two. After that I had lunch and did an errand and it was 3, with Nagoya castle finishing at 4 I decided against it. So instead I decided to try the tourist sites around Sakae.
First I went to see the Oasis21:

It's a platform which you can go up and walk on. Also theres shops on levels which go down below it.

1st picture is what on top of the platform, 2nd is the view from the top :) At that moment it started to cloud over so the pictures aren't as good :( 3rd picture is of the bottom floor where there was this bike show.
After that, I went for a walk down Hiyasa-odori park, which is this big long park down the centre of Sakae:

It's split up with roads between each section. In the centre section there's a large space, where on Sundays, it seems to harbour a big market of somesort. On another note there always seems to be some form of music or another, usually there's a lot of buskers around, but instead of the buskers you get in the UK, you get a whole band busking!!
Today there were a few around, but there was also this small percussion group who were playing some latin beats, and had a few people dancing along with them (2nd picture).
I sat down in the park for a bit, and some Japanese revision done. Then I spent sometime in an internet cafe and headed home ^_^ The End ^_^



S

Just a quicky

Yo peeps,
So just a quick and short update today.
First a little information about a nice phenomenon here in Japan. There's a few second hand shops over here, but the biggest and best of these is call BOOKOFF.

They also have other branches, I've seen another one for clothes which I can't remember the name of, and one for games and toys called HOBBYOFF ^_^ (original name init?)
Anyway in BOOKOFF you can find 2nd hand CDs,DVDs,Videos and (for those who haven't cottoned onto it yet) books!!
Now I like a good read as the next person, but the thing that has really taken my fancy is the Manga section!! which is massive!! and each one for 100yen (50p). Basically I could buy a whole series for hardly anything!! For example Hikaru no go is 23 volumes so I could get it all for 2300 yen which is just over a tenner!! ssswweeett :))) Just a thought now, because I'm kinda skint and saving the pennies but will definitely invest in some when I have the dosh.

As for moi, 1st day of the golden week break and I'm spending it at home. Doing housework and stuff. Gonna try and get the TV to work today, and also gonna sort out my Japanese notes and get some revision in. A nice thing that happened this morning, one of my neighbours (a nice Japanese lady who always says good morning to me), decided to stop and have a chat with me ^_^. Was very brief as she was heading off but still very nice. Ja ne



S

T-minus 1day till holiday!!

Hey hey another update arent you all lucky? ^_^

Ssssoo backtrack to Sunday and I had my little does of Tennis. Which was very enjoyable. Felt good to get up and running about and hitting something with a racket lol. The instructor was a nice guy and he attempted to speak to me in English and I attempted to speak back in Japanese :))). The lesson itself was all in Japanese and though I only caught bits and pieces I was able to participate quite thoroughly. At the moment my groundstrokes still a bit dodgy, specially the backhand but my volleying is ace!! Tim henman eat your heart out!! teehee looks like my badminton skills to transfer a bit then.
*Interesting fact about me - I was part of my schools Tennis squad and played the occasional match. I also used to have lessons at David llyods Tennis centre in Chigwell through junior school*
Will have another trial lesson this Sunday as well, then I gotta see if I wana join up or not, probably will but need to get paid first :/
As for the week, its been a pretty nackering week all round. Only one regular day this week, the rest have been covers and they've all been full days finishing at 9 or there abouts.
Classes are going quite well but I'm averaging about 50/50 on kids lessons, one bad then one good and so on. Adults I would say its about 70/30. Still work in progress me O.O
For those in the know, and have had teaching experiance, I would share a thought. I think for me teaching is much like performing or even acting (especially with kids). I was never one for acting and hated Drama classes at school, so its strange that I have to do it for a living. Difference between teachers and actors and that, we are also directors and have control of how everything plays out ^_^ well just a thought.
Anything else to say? well just got me self a TV!!! yay!! for the grand price of 3000 yen, which is about 15 quid, not too shabby I think :P. Ja ne.


S

Finding nemo

FINALLY AN UPDATE!!!! ^_^

haha haven't been much for updating for a while, been kept busy with various bits and bobs.
Think I'll scratch this diary thingy I was going for as it's getting a bit old, and just do general updates from now on.
So what's been happening?
Work obviously and lots of it. Last week has been a bit on the heavy side, I've been covering this guy called Douglas's classes, and they're all full days :/. Got the same thing this week so will be glad when the next week is over. Doublely glad actually, why you may ask?
Because then its a holiday!! yay yay!!
*Interesting fact about working for Shane - You have no paid leave days and can't really request leave unless you got a good reason, instead we get every public holiday in Japan*
This coming holiday is called Golden week (should be known to those who watch anime :P).
So far I've got planned a day trip to Kobe with a few of the teachers and the receptionists. And got some sessions of tennis lined up with one of the receptionists called Mayumi, who likes to play.
Yes I'm playing Tennis, can't be helped I'm afraid as so far I still can't find any where to play Badminton. I've still got a lead on possibly one place, and I keep seeing people with Badminton bags around town, so it does exist. As for Tennis, I've also signed up for a trial lesson at my local Tennis centre tommorow. Thought I might as well as I haven't got much else to do, and I'm itching for some excercise. Will post how it went soon as I can :)




S

Reflection time

Wednesday
A nice and easy day, with my favourite receptionist and one of my favourite students at the moment :)))
Had to get up early again, like most of the days this week, because I'm trying to get my AR card done. This time I went to the office to get a certificate which I can use to open a bank account.
While waiting for the bus I took some pix :P:

They are of a shrine in Ueda.
Lesson was fun, and I followed that with a Taiken which wasn't too bad either.
The day ends in Parco and a new student called would you believe Aki!! lol Wednesday is Aki day :P

Thursday
From the relaxed to the busy, I decide to try and get everything together to open a bank acount. By sheer luck I bump into the head of the Japanese staff, and she offers to help me. Result!!
So after a long a slightly painful process I manage to get me and account yay!!
After that its work and a whole day at Parco. The day ends up being one of the most fun days I've had teaching and the day went down without a hitch ^_^ shame this day is a cover as I like the classes on this day and was starting to get a really good repore with the students. Next 2 weeks I'm off somewhere else, fingers crossed I can come back.

Friday
Another easy day starts with my 1st lie-in in a while. I clean the flat and get some washing done, lessons starts at 1 and was a nice relaxed one. Met a new receptionist and she happens to like to play tennis, and was nice enought to tell where I could find places to play. And even said i could join her and her friends sometimes which was nice.
Day ends again in Parco and I have one taiken lesson, was supposed to have two but the other was canceled because the person couldn't make it. Lost of free time today so I spend it planning my lessons for next week, I have an observation next week, so gotta make sure I plan properly :/. After work I decide to join some of the other teachers for a quiz night (even though I'm shit at quizes). Saying that at the end of the night I end up winning the thing!! lol though I have to say most of it was down to m partner :P

So ends my 2nd week of work, and now the third week I've been in Japan!! Almost a month!!
Thoughts so far? I like I like!! Nothing I can really say I dislike at the moment. Though one of the teachers told me this theory on how working in another country works, and that its usually takes on average about a year to get used to a place. First there's the Honeymoon period where everything smells of roses, then after that your supposed to have the 1st of 2 breackdowns where you hate everything, then its okayish then another breakdown then your okay with most of everything. So that would make me in the honeymoon part :)
Dunno if thats going to happen with me, but time will tell. Feel like I'm fitting in quite well, and not feeling out of place or anything. Still much to do and plenty to see, so you could say things can only get better ^_^
*Interesting fact about me - I'm an absolute pessimist and always think the worst will happen, which why I usually carry an umbrella with me even if its sunny. So when things go well I'm always content*

On and on

Monday
So first day of the 2nd week of work, and get to cover another teacher in Parco (seems I own this place as I always seem to be here lol). The day was a pretty nackering one, a full day including a Taiken lesson due to it being a setsumeikai week.
*Shane school info - So setsumeikai is basically campaigning. At the begining of a new term we offer free demo lessons to people to get new clients. Taiken is the name of the lesson*
Nothing much to say about the day except in my last class there was this super kawaii gal :PP (*sigh*student so shouldn't really go there, but hey my DOS is getting married to a former student of his!!! lol!! ah well probably won't see her again anyway as it was a cover).

Tuesday
On to today and the weather had again turned nasty on me. Seriously wet and windy to boot aaahhhh reminds me of home :)).
As I had a late start for this morning I decide to try and get my AR (Alien Registration) card done. Which meant a long and annoying journey some far off office in the middle of no where, only accessible by bus in the frickin rain :(((( Well really want to get it done as soon as possible, so had to be done.
The rest of the day went ok, but my first kid class went out of control, as all four of my kids seem to have taken E, because they were super duperly hyper, and was a nightmare to control them. Was glad to see the clock say it was the end of the class :/. The next kid class I had, one of the girls started crying a little, didn't make a sound but i could see some tears, think she thought I was picking on her a bit. Managed to rescue the situation with a good last game, and the lesson ended all happy phew!! Still need to work on this kid lesson thing. Gambarimasu!!!

2nds out round 2!!

Hey ho and another catch up session. The excuse? been catching up on my beauty sleep ^_^

Saturday
So a pretty exhausting weekend starts with me exploring more of Sakae. I set out to check out some digital cameras and mobile phones. Of which I must say there is a lllllaaarrrggee collection :P
Didn't end buying anything, want to wait until I get and account and more importantly get paid!!! before I decide to but something. After a heck of a lot of window shopping, I decide to find a place to get my fro cut. After an unsuccessful search round, I decide to ask at one of the Shane schools I work at, the one in Parco, as I was in the area. With the help of the recptionists I was able to find a place, and the freak out weirdest thing is, that the person cutting my hair happened to be one of my students!! :S I remebered that two of my students had said they were hairdressers, but I didn't ask where. The shameful thing is that I forgot her name!!! and I had to sheepishly ask for it again :////. As well as a haircut I also got it dyed because I thought I might as well, and I had a very good conversation with my student, name of Aki by the by,and a pretty kawaii gal to boot :P.

Sunday
The next thing on my checklist was a look for a place to get contact lenses. I go to a place one of the teachers recommended, but they end up not doing contacts at all :( but they happily tell me where to go to get some. So after much thought I decided to dive in, and go for a eye test and see what they say, and end up buying some lol well I get paid this week should be ok :S but my thought on the matter is that I might as well get everything done now anyways, because it can only get busier as the year goes on.

So not a very eventful weekend, but muchos tiring as I had to speak a lot of Japanese, on Saturday to the hairdresser (and student), and on Sunday to the optometrist.

Shumatsu!!! (weekend :P)

Hey hey long time no blog, and the reason for that is because I been pretty knackered these last few days, so heres a mega update for ya'll!! :)
Wednesday
Strange day this one, only had three lessons, but due to the nature of the company you have to work 6 hours so, if you aren't working then you still have to be in the school for the required time. First class was in a place called Nonami. A nice looking place. The lesson was nice enough, and after that I spent the rest of the time talking to the recpetionist, a very nice woman called Tae. She happens to be the same age as me, married unfortunately, but we had fun time talking about various things. The next lessons were in a place called Yaba Cho, in a shopping centre called Parco. Its the newest of the schools and looks it. Most people don't like this school due to the location, and I have to say the 10th floor of a shopping centre is a strange place to have an English school.
Thursday
This was my busiest day. I had a full day of classes starting at 1pm and finishing at 9pm. The whole day was spent at the Pacro school, which I had been to yesturday so I had no trouble finding it. All the classes were adult which was cool, and meant that preperation time wasn't too long. At the end of the day I was pretty much drained, and as soon as I got home I headed straight to bed.
Friday
Like wednesday, today was what is known as a split shift, which means that I spend half my time in 1 school and half in another. This time the first half was spent in a place called Hirabari.
Before that I went to get my ARC card (Alien Registration Card) which is the ID card foreign residents need over here. But ended but being told I had gone to the wrong place, and that I needed to go to another office :( So have to get that done some other day. Lessons today were again all adult so they were okay, but I'm basically following the lesson plans laid in front of me with me adding a few things here and there. Until I get used to the material I can't really do anything of my own. Time will tell.

So it's the weekend!! yay!! so got some time now to explore some more. Looking to see if I can pick up a mobile phone of my own tommorow, will shop around and see. Gotta wash some clothes and get me suit dry cleaned as well, ah well living out eh?




S

The First day

Tuesday
The first day of work arrives and I've got a major hangover, what a way to start the new job eh?
Somehow I manage to recover enough to get all my stuff together and set off on time. My first lesson is with a 2 and 1/2 year old girl called Sumika. And she is the cutest thing ever!! and a prefect parrot!! At that age we are not expecting much in the way of production and if you get them to say one word in English its considered a success. Sumika is an exception in that she can repeat nearly all the words I throw at her. She probably doesnt know what the mean, but her pronunciation is good, and she does already recognise some colours and objects. An amazing little girl. One thing that I was told about her prior to the lesson was that she was a bit of cry baby, and that she cried at the slightest thing. Somehow though I managed to get through the whole lesson without her crying!! much to the astonishment of the secretary who also told me she liked to cry. Big yay for me!! :))))
The next class was an adult class full of housewives, a very relaxing and enjoyable class very much like the classes I used to teach back in the UK. The next two were young classes of ages between 6-9. Lost of games were played but I struggled to think of enough games and lots of time was spent thinking of things to do. I need to make better plans is the moral of that story. Then the last two classes were private one to one lessons, which worked resonably well, but again need to plan better.
Well thats the first day over, not to bad I think and fingers crossed I'll get better as I go along.
Ta ta for now



S

Prep day

Monday
Back to yesturday and it was the first meeting with my DOS (Director Of Studies), a very nice man by the name of Gareth. A very English English man who's happening to be getting married to a Japanese woman ^_^ he proposed on Sunday in fact, congrats all round.
The day was then spent preparing lessons for the next day, when I would be teaching for the first time. The place where this lesson prep was taking place was a place called Fujigaoka.
Heres a lovely picture of the street where the school is, a cherry blossom road :)

*Interesting Japanese fact: For those not been to Japan the underground system is an interesting prospect. The pricing is based on a single price for a certain distance,one day travel cards are available but most of the time you just buy singles. The longest journey one way is Nagoya is 260 yen, the shortest is 200 yen.*
Heres a picture of the underground map:

Fuzzy but you can get an idea of what its like :P
Monday night was spent drinking with my new DOS and two other Nagoya teachers. Not being the brightest tool in the box I got completey smashed and had to wobble it back home, where I battled with me body to get into some shape in order to work the next day.

S

More Exploration

Zuzuku..
Sunday
On to today and the weather has made a turn for the worst with a bout of terential rain :(((
Stupidly I hadn`t bought myself an unbrella yet d`oh!!! after having seen one in the conveniance store yesturday as well!! *sigh* So basically I had to speed walk it to the nearest conveniance store and buy any unbrella I could find lol.
First stop today was the Nagoya international centre. Kwok had told me,the day before, that I would be able to find a notice board with people wanting to offload stuff, and information on various things in Nagoya like Japanese classes. After lots of walking around like a headless chicken (which I do very well since coming here :P) I found the right floor and the notice board too. I also picked up a lot of pamphlets of information about Nagoya (bag much heavier than when I got there ^_^). Wasn`t alot on the notice board but still took down a few emails for people selling stuff. There was section for wanting work and it was full of English teachers :))
There was also a board for language exchange where people want to meet friends to chat and learn another language. Most of the people on there were girls :P so obviously i took down a few. Not that I would use my status as a teacher to my advantage of course,but it might be nice way to meet people ;))
After having a bite to eat I decided to head to Sakae. This I was told was the centre of Nagoya, and I can say that it`s pretty much as you would expect a centre to be.

Lots of tall buildings, shopping centres, big name stores etc etc. Since it was still raining quite a bit, I decided to duck into an internet cafe after a painful conversation in broken japanese, I found out that if you fill out a form you can join and get 2hours free if you show your card :)))
I'm gonna remember that place lol
Didn't get to meet up with Kwok this time, he had to cover a shift because someone called in sick, so he was knackered out. So I ended up going back to Yagoto to do some shopping. Picked a 'few' things and lugged them back to me place. Now sitting home, just had some noodles for dinner :) and have to do some ironing now and read up on some stuff for tommorow when I'll be going in for the 1st time.
Ki o tsukete ne?
Mata ne


S

Exploration

Ssssooo after arriving in Nagoya on Friday, I had the luck of not having to work until the next week, with both Saturday and Sunday both off ^_^
First a bit about my new place. The location is again about 15minutes from the station. There is a hospital very close to me (very useful in case of emergencies :P) and a university as well (interesting to look at :) ).
This flat is smaller than my 1st place, but still a good size. The kitchen and entrance are all in one, with the bathroom the door on the right as you enter. After that you have the living room with cupboards for storage. Where do I sleep? up the ladder!!!
(2nd one from the left is me :P)


Saturday
Saturday was spent exploring Yagoto one stop down from where I live. Managed to find a 100yen shop (yay!) and a supermarket called Jusco (those chinese among us might recognise the name).
There were also some old historical parts, a temple i think and a old walkway.

On Friday night I had made contact with an old friend of my brothers named Kwok, and we arranged to meet up for dinner on Saturday.
The place we were to meet was called Gokiso, so I decided to go there a little earlier to explore there as well. We met at 7.30pm and having found that the original place we wanted to go to was completely packed (a very nice looking sushi place) we decided to walk to a different place. In the end we ended up walking from Gokiso to Tsuranami two stops away lol :P
There he showed me this beautiful park, and a proper park not small inner vity one, but one more likely to found in the UK. Only difference being that there lots of Sakura trees!! If you don`t know it the Sakura (cherry blossom) festival at the moment called Hanami. It`s basically a time where everyone gets together and to have a picnic under the sakura trees and get completely smashed :P We bought some beer from a conveniance store and walked around the park.
*Interesting fact about Japan - Coveniance stores are 24hour and they sell alcohol 24 hours too*
The park was a very interesting experiance, with the sight of lot and lots of people so drunk they couldn`t stand up straight. But the most amusing sight was three Japanese business men (in full get up with tie and jacket still in place) drunkeredly playing guitar while singing a song!! Now you`d never see that in the UK, definitely not in Kansas anymore :))). All in all a very entertaining night.


S