Miniature funny girl

There’s a miniature girl in my one class – she’s not particularly tiny, but just smaller enough that you notice it. And she’s not just short, she’s miniature. As in everything is in tall proportions, just made smaller. Hmmm I’m realizing this is harder to explain that I thought, but I think you get the idea. If not, think Godzilla, just not. Got it? OK.

Anyways, she’s a funny little character. She’s always making jokes that are much more western normal than the jokes that other kiddies make. Today she shook my hand. Then she called me over again later to shake my hand. Then she called me again, so I high-fived her. Then she called me again, and I shook fingers with her. Now we just look at each other and giggle. She’s weird, but very cute.

When we got to cleaning time, we were having jedi-like fights with our brooms. I won. Haha!! (don’t worry though, I didn’t leave any bruises. Mwa ha ha). As I was walking back to the staff room afterwards I saw her in the distance whispering to a whole bunch of kiddies. When I got there, she was gone, and all the kiddies were shaking hands with me.

I feel I’m only days away from the first waterballoons, etc. I love my school. :D

The Japanese medical world

Well it turns out it wasn’t my studious efforts that brought on the headache, but rather something to do with my kidney and/or bladder infection. Fun fun. So here follows the thrilling story of my first encounter with the Japanese medical world.

Thursday morning I got a bad headache, but didn’t think about it too hard. Probably because it hurt to think too hard… The medicine the school nurse gave me helped for a few hours, but by the time I went home, the headache ( ずつう) was back full swing. I emailed my friend in Osaka to tell him I wasn’t coming as I didn’t feel too great, but said that I might go through Friday morning for the day, so I’d let him know what my plans were. Haha.

I swallowed a wonderful South African paracetemol tablet (which works fine even without having to have a meal first – take that Japanese medicine!), and felt much much better for most of the night. I went to bed somewhere around 23:30 and I could feel the beginnings of the headache again, but I figured I’d sleep it off. My bug must have been having a good chuckle at my naivety…

Friday morning I knew I needed to go to the doctor, so I got myself going at about 09:20 (about 20 minutes after waking up) with my head pounding. I figured I’d skip breakfast then as the doctor may need to do blood samples or something that weren’t chocabloc full of breakfast. Mistake #1. I found out at the clinic that the doctor “speaks very good English” which made me feel a bit better about the situation. Then I sat and waited. And waited. And then some. Around 2 hours later, I get summoned through to the consultation room, at which point my head is pounding (although to be fair one of the nurses did come and ask after about 1h20min if I wanted to lie down, and I declined (rather than reclined… witty I know…).

The doctor understood perfect English, but what came out of his mouth was… well… interesting. It could quite easily have passed for something European perhaps. Maybe half Spanish half Greek? I wasn’t all too sure, but whatever it was, it was not the “very good English” that I’d been promised. This only made my headache worse as I had to decipher everything the doctor said to me. Eventually when he’d checked all he wanted to check and asked all he wanted to ask, he concluded that it was a kidney and/or bladder infection (if he specified at any point which one it was, he said it in Spassian/Russish... Then he brings out the pills and starts explaining what they are. Antibiotics – yes I know those… Mumble mumble gracias Stalin – somehow my mind decided that he’d told me they were pain killers. Anti-breathing agents… I’m sorry what? Antibreathing agents. “Oooooooooohkaaaaaaaaaaaaaay…” says me with a very very confused look on my face, which he obviously picked up. Antibreathing agents foroo zu keedonees.

…

Oh you mean antiBLEEDING agents? Yes yes, antibreathing agents, that’s mumble mumble said.

As I’m sure you can imagine, I was quite relieved to discover the true identity of the little red pills… (appropriate colour for an antibreathing agent, I’d imagine). So after all this, I finally get to pay and leave.

Then it turns out I owe MUCH more than I thought it would be (\4000), so I have to go to the ATM to draw money, and come back again. I manage to get 10 steps out of the clinic before realizing I haven’t put my shoes back on, and I’m still wearing the indoor slippers (oh PS Japanese people often don’t wear their normal shoes inside, but instead go barefoot/with socks, or have special slippers for wearing inside). So I rush back, get my tekkies on, and zoom up the road as fast as I can to get the money to come back to pay the bill to leave the clinic to drink my drugs to stop breathing. :D So after about 3 hours of being processed, I was out, starved and ready to be drugged.

Have I ever told you how much I love KFC?

Itai desu!

I have a headache from trying too hard with my Japanese and hiragana all at the same time. :S At least I now know that “autumn” is “aki” (or rather, “あき”). And I know how to write “yo” (“よ“) and a bunch of other letters. :D Oh, and Japanese people should really decide how to write their letters – I found two different ways of writing “re” (“れ”), and my JTE didn’t know which was right or wrong. And they should develop more differentiated letters. と and ス are confusing on paper already… let alone まほは, るろ, れわ, etc. I was going to type more, but the keyboard just went bananas on me, so I can’t get to the katakana now. Just let it be believed that they’re confusing as hell. Sigh.

Now I have a headache from fighting with the keyboard. Double sigh.

Anyways. Tonight I’m going to Osaka, so that tomorrow I can spend most of the day seeing some sights. I’m thinking about the きんかくじ or the ぎんかくじ, but I haven’t decided yet (kinkakuji and ginkakuji – silver and gold temples, respectively. I think. )

Will save the scavenger hunt story for after its actually been done!

What to call this...

I think I slipped another notch into the whole “getting into the hang of school and Japan” thing today. First I improvised through an explanation of the “to” infinitive after my wonderful JTE told the class “Greg sensei will now explain the ‘to’ infinitive! Then I managed to do some filing (me, filing, I know, I know…). Finally I was looking up a few random things in my Japanese English dictionary, and I actually somehow recognized most of the hiragana. And managed to figure out the rest. And couldn’t find the word I was looking for, but that’s not the point.

All that I feel like I need to master now is sleeping with my eyes open in the staff room. It’s crazy how tired I feel after an entire 3 classes today… Oh that’s right, I also created a lesson plan in 30min for my ichinensei whose sensei had been away last week… I’m just that good.

Tonight I have no lesson planning to do. That’s zero, nothing, nuddu, zilch, not a sausage. I think I’m going to get into bed just after walking through the door. :D

Discovered yesterday that I can’t go visit Andrew in , as I have to go on the Kobe scavenger hunt. By have to of course, I mean how could I not go on it?? Lol.

Just heard the ichinenseis singing. OMW! They’re lucky I didn’t break down in tears! :P They were incredible! And they’re not even finished yet… I love my kiddies. :D It seems they’re going to be performing in some sort of competition at the end of October. I can’t wait to go see that one!

Think I’ll have to try get my hands on that music as well. It’s got a lovely tune… Nananana naa naa naa nanaaaaa… See?

The Yuko 2000

It’s bad enough suddenly being in a world of salaries and bills, but getting all your bills in Japanese is really just cruel. Not to mention some forms that you have to send back to them, after choosing one of 4 possible options, all just as confusing as the last. Thank goodness for the Yuko 2000. She’s amazing. Near perfect translation capabilities, incredible A.I. personality which is quite convincing really, AND knows the ins and outs of calligraphy. I think I’ll be buying myself one sometime soon. It was either that, or the Nintendo DS (which admittedly has way cooler games), but when was the last time you got a friendly text message from your DS?
I think I want a DS. Although the software I’ve seen so far for the kanji and normal dictionaries has not been that amazing. Hopefully there’s more out there. I will have to ask around. Definitely want some sort of electronic dictionary (more gadgetyness), but would prefer the DS as it can do a lot more than just dictionary functions. We’ll still see. And then there’s the pokemon game.
And there’s a new pokemon movie out, and I can’t watch it as its all in Japanese. I will have to find a subtitled version.
And the train would be that much more fun with a DS and pokemon. :D I wonder if I can buy English games in this country.

The new Engrish

Japan has come up with a crafty way to get rid of all the Engrish in their country (well the written kind anyway), and convince the English speaking western world that they’ve fixed that problem. The solution? French! There are a million shops with signs up in French, proudly advertising (I think) what’s inside. Of course me with my amazing French skills just goes “oh yes, how charming, ‘shlurpideegurpbooble.’ That’s fantastic French” and that’s that. I’d love to find someone that can speak French to give me their opinion on this wonderful new language they have no doubt discovered. Probably Flench or something of that sorts.
Luckily the previous Engrish era has left us some beautiful momentos to remember it by… “Open AM7 to PM09:00.” Quite aesthetically pleasing really. Maybe it’s Zen.
There’s a hot water dispenser (for lack of a better word) behind me with some choice Engrish on the top, but I couldn’t be bothered to go look it up. <>

English vs Japanese

So the home economics teacher speaks practically perfect English, but she’s too shy to talk (I think. Maybe I smell bad… hmmmm). So of course I have to learn my Japanese quickly so that I can talk to her in broken Japanese, lest she wear out her fantastic English. :D Life in Japan is always interesting. But then I did just recently (yesterday) buy my Japanese – English dictionary, and my “Learning the Kanji” book. Sarah recommended the latter, and her Japanese reading is superb (but then a few years at university might have helped it along as well!). So hopefully I’ll be fully fluent in a day or two. :P
I also have an English teacher who I never have class with, and I actually don’t know what level English he has, as I never get much more than “Could you please mark these papers for me?” and “Thank you.” My Kyoto sensei’s English is future tense. As in he may be speaking English some time in the future… But he gives out tasty cookies, so that’s ok.

Where is my mind...

So far I have received good tidings of Japanese pears and chocolate biscuits from my Kyoto sensei. The pear looks like an apple. The chocolate biscuit was individually wrapped in the thickest plastic you’ve ever tried and miserably failed at ripping open in your life. I’m yet to eat the pear (its in the fridge). The chocolate biscuit was tasty. Yum yum. Or as I saw the once as the name of a restaurant, Myu Myu. And it was written a million times over the billboard so that it read MyuMyuMyu MyuMyuMyu MyuMyuMyu. Classic stuff. I’m getting distracted. I think tomorrow or the next week I’ll bring my favourite chocolate chip cookies from the Daiei grocery store. The only problem is I can’t stop eating those ones once I open the package, so I’m afraid I’ll scoff the lot myself. :SThe Black Eyed Peas are saving me from falling asleep. I love them. And Within Temptation of course. And as if its not bad enough that the other JETs don’t know who Within Tempation are (close that wikipedia right now, I see you looking them up…), my kiddies don’t even know who Evanescence are. This from the nation that worships Avril Lavigne, Cameron Diaz and… well Cameron Diaz. Thank you Softbank…

Goodnight

Today (although don’t let that fool you into thinking this is an out-of-the-ordinary behaviour) I started falling asleep in the staff room. Aaaaaaargh! I wish I drank coffee! :P So far the best remedy has been to get up and take a walk around – most times I end up looking out the window at the kiddies in PE class, and entertain myself watching their antics for a while.
Today though, there was no saving grace of PE, so I took myself off to the bathroom, closed myself in a stall and semi-slept for 5 minutes. :D All the other teachers seem to sleep quite happily in the staff room, and I’ve done it a couple times myself (although somehow they sleep while still sitting upright, whereas if I try that I always jerk myself awake as my head falls when I “drop off” so to speak), but the once I got told off lightly by my one JTE… but then they would never be more confrontational that “lightly telling off,” so on the inside she was probably screaming it out… It’s hard to tell. Sigh.

The Japanese in general

It took me forever to get there, but it seems at last I’m starting to remember the teachers names. There are still one or two who (to my mind anyways) look too much alike, so I’m having a little difficulty with them. And a few that don’t sit at their desks very often, so its hard to confirm there names on my seating chart (I love the seating chart just by the way. It always sits on top of my weekly schedule. Which by the way is absolutely massive!).
And then there are the students. Oh goodness… There’s a group of about 5 ninenseis who’s names I will never forget because a) they stalk me whenever they see me, point madly at their faces and chant “Name? Name? Name?” and remind me constantly what their names are. And b) because Maho and Akane decided to name each other Aho and Bakane, which is completely unforgettable. I just have to watch out I don’t call Akane Bakane by mistake. :D Admittedly I thought Aho was a play on a similar sounding English word, and didn’t realize there was actually such a Japanese word.
And I will master the name Kanji!! I got my “Mastering the kanji” book yesterday (along with my Japanese to English dictionary), so now I can get going at last. And Furuichi sensei really wants to help me with the kanji as well, so hopefully I’ll be fairly set. We’ll see though.

Sports and clubs

School sports in Japan doesn’t work the same as at home. At home, you take part in rugby, soccer and do music, but I suppose you might favour certain activities over others (and maybe pay them a little more attention, like say, maybe, music… :P ). In Japan, you have a) school and b) your club activity. Yes that’s right, I did not use the plural (and its not just the Japanese lack of plural words getting to me – a whole different story). If you play baseball, that’s it. There’s no room for soccer, music, art, volleyball or tabletennis in that schedule… LET ALONE a combination of the above! I’m not exactly sure when and how they decide what to dedicate their school career to, but once its chosen that’s it. You’re doomed to don the leather glove for the rest of your school career.

At least I get to go to whatever clubs I want to every day. :P

Chocolate!

So I’ve already mentioned before that Japan is almost completely devoid of chocolate bars – I’ve seen snickers, kitkats and aero bars. Nothing else. :S But on the plus side, they do have a bit of variety within this select group… and when I say “a bit” I mean “holy moly!”
Kitkats come in flavours. Chocolate flavour – that’s normal. White chocolate – not unheard of. Dark chocolate… getting weirder. Grape flavoured chocolate… no probl… wait what? Grape flavoured chocolate??Well to be fair it’s not grape flavoured. It’s some fancy words that basically mean “grapes from the Mediterranean.” And it seems this is actually quite a thing in Japan – people collect the boxes of the different types of kitkats. From what I can tell they come out with new ones every week or so. Really strange people… I wonder how long they keep making particular flavours… and if they’ll ever stop making the normal chocolate flavoured ones in favour of some random “rice cakes and pilchards” flavour. Or something.

Strange Japanese schools

I’ve just realized what it is that’s weird about Japanese schools… It’s note the super long days, or the teachers changing classes instead of the students… or everyone speaking Japanese (how bizarre!), or each student only doing one sport or club activity everyday of the week… or or or…
It’s the fact the students never have a break time! I’ve only just realized that they never get a chance to play and do what they like. They’re obviously being molded into whatever it is Japanese students are molded into, but its still freaky that there’s no break time! I was just thinking how cool it would be if I brought some Frisbees and we all played together, and then I realized I have no idea when we would do that! :)