Lost in Ogawa

Has your mind ever wanted one thing and the rest of your body wanted something else? This was the case with me last weekend. An opportunity came up where I could go snowboarding in Nagano with a bunch of new Japanese friends. After snowboarding in Hokkaido, I was still itching to go snowboarding again and this time it was Nagano, the site of the Winter Olympics in 1998! There had to be great snow right?! We would leave Friday night and sleep on the bus over night and get to Nagano (north of where I live) by early morning. During the day on Friday, I started to feel weak, tired, and coughing and runny nose had started. I knew I was coming down with something but I was reluctant to stay home for the weekend and miss out on Nagano. SO…I went and boy did I pay the price! Literally and figuratively speaking!

Unfortunately, my mind had won the battle and forced my body to go snowboarding. Sometimes I think I have this problem where my mind wants something and it’s not in the best interest for my entire well-being. The bus ride there was “extremely” painful for me. We were in a chartered bus and one of my new Japanese friends that organized the event had seating chart for everybody! A seating chart! The youngest person there was 19 and the oldest was 35, was it really necessary? I guess it showed the event was well organized since there were 48 of us. I didn’t mind the seating chart all that much except it sucked to have my seat along with maybe 7 or 8 other poor souls. Unfortunately, the bus was short 8 to 9 seats but there were fold out seats into the middle aisle of the bus. These seats were thinner and not very well padded. The worst part was, the back of the seat only goes up to the middle of my back and not all the way to my head. I was supposed to sleep 6 hours or so sitting on that crap while I was feeling sick! And it doesn’t get any better when my seat was at the front of the bus. Every two hours when we took a bathroom break, I needed to fold up my chair and get off the bus to let everybody off and then be the last one to sit back down before we take off again!

Snowboarding wasn’t a pleasurable experience for me but the surrounding scenery was beautiful and the snow was decent. It was two days of snowboarding in pain and I forced myself to do it because I already paid for it. It was also an added bonus Saturday night when I had a fever. I didn’t have a thermometer with me but my body doesn’t lie. With the limited medical knowledge I have, I assessed all the symptoms I had and I was 90% sure I had the flu. Nobody in Japan knows what you’re talking about if you just say I have the “flu”. You have to say I have “Influenza” and then they’ll get it. Sure and behold, the doctor confirmed I had Influenza Strain A. I don’t recall the last time I had the flu!! I couldn’t go to work for 4 days, quite obvious for the nature of my work, and the fact I could not do ANYTHING for two straight days except drug myself to sleep. The flu really sucks! I hate how it makes you feel so weak and all shivery but isn’t it amazing how a degree or two increase in your body temperature can practically debilitate you?! It also sucks when you know too much about your condition and what your body is going through and you can’t do anything about it except to wait for your immune system to fight it off. I seem to be using the word “suck” very much ……because it does!!

Pics from Nagano (not many)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=/ea55

This past weekend had been one of my most favorite weekends since I’ve started living in Japan. It was also the coldest weekend I have ever experienced. Since Friday was a holiday (thank you Japan for a holiday once a month), I decided to leave Ogawa and for once, take a break from Tokyo and go somewhere a little farther. Along with 7 other ALT friends, we headed to Hokkaido, what I like to call snow country! Japan is primarily made up of 4 main islands. Hokkaido is the northern most island right on top of the banana shaped island where all the major Japanese cities that you’ve heard of are located: Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto, Hiroshima, etc. To get a better association of Hokkaido, anybody ever drank Sapporo Beer? Well, Sapporo is the biggest, and the main city in Hokkaido. Seems quite obvious Sapporo beer is made there huh?! Sapporo is not as large as Tokyo of course but it’s the largest city there. From what I’ve heard, the rest of Hokkaido is mainly countryside but I’ve also heard from friends, family, and (believe it or not) Chinese soap operas, Hokkaido is famous for its beautiful sceneries. During the winter time when it snows, Hokkaido is a piece of white carpet that stretches endlessly in all directions. Survey from my Taiwanese family members and family friends tells me Hokkaido is one of the most popular destinations for Taiwanese tourist.

So why would I venture out to Sapporo to freeze my butt off when I can do that right in my apartment? Once a year, Sapporo is host to one of the most popular and widely attended festival in Japan. It is called the “Snow Festival” or “Yuki Matsuri” in Japanese. This year was the 56th annual Snow Festival in Sapporo. Tons of Japanese people come from all over Japan and not to mention different parts of the world to see this festival. It was estimated that over the course of the festival, 2 million people will have came to the festival. That means, hotels prices are high and hard to find, and airfare was double the usual price. However, if there was a reason to go to Hokkaido, the snow festival was the best reason to go. It’s not worth discussing how much the trip cost because it’ll just make me cry! It’s disgustingly outrageous for 2 nights and maybe 2 full days. From Tokyo to Sapporo, the flight was about 1.5 hours. I couldn’t believe my eyes how much snow there was, it was everywhere! I can safely say I have never seen so much snow in my life. Part of me was excited to see the snow, the other part of me was going numb from the cold! On the news, I would always see the temperature to be in the minuses but you really don’t’ know what that means until you experience it for yourself. When we were there, the high was maybe -5 degree Celsius for the day and at night, minuses in the double digits. Ouch! So what’s so special about the snow festival? These amazingly carved snow sculptures and ice sculptures of ridiculous sizes. Most of them are bigger than me and some of them are as big as my house or bigger. Everything was so beautiful, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. At night it’s even prettier with the different colored lights giving life to the sculptures. The only problem with viewing at night was that it was freaking FREEZING outside. Every 30 mins. or so, I would loose feeling in my toes and fingers and we would have to enter rest stations to warm up by the portable gas heaters.

The main site for the snow sculpture was located at Sapporo’s Odori Park. It was a pretty big park, lengthwise. There had to be at least 100 or more snow sculptures. There were Japanese anime characters, Disney characters, Korean drama stars, you name it, they’ve got it. Being in Hokkaido with all that snow, it would be such a shame if I didn’t go snowboarding and snowboarding I did!! The snow was amazing! It was beautiful with the soft powder snow. I crashed and burned quite a few times but it didn’t really hurt…….at first =) I haven’t touched a snowboard in almost two years and once I got on the board once more, it all came back like riding a bike. It was bliss! From my research and what my Japanese friends and teachers have told me, the best snow is February in Hokkaido. I just couldn’t miss it no matter how hung over I was from the night before x) All my friends out there who enjoy skiing or snowboarding, you should ski/snowboard in Hokkaido at least once in your lifetime, if not more. Ok that’s all I’m going to say about Hokkaido, you’ll just have to see it for yourself or just look at my pictures and use your imagination!

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=/ea5a

Remember back in the day when we were Junior High, High School or even College students, anything that associated with embarrassing bodily function made us giggle and chuckle? You know what I’m talking about! May it be farting, constipation or diarrhea, once you hear about it, you’re either embarrassed about it and tend to shy away from talking about it or if you’re less mature, you go right ahead and have a good laugh about it. Now that I’ve mentioned it, how does everybody feel right now? Anybody’s face turned red yet? =) Anyway, the reason I brought this up was because I recently had an experience at school where these topics more or less came up in class. I was once told that the Japanese were generally pretty open talking about their bowel movements or their unusual bodily functions in a mature and serious manner. For the first time, I was an eyewitness to this phenomenon.

It was at one of the Junior High Schools in Ogawa with the 3rd year students. The lesson of the day was going to the doctors and learning how to say common English phrases that described what’s wrong with you if you’re sick. Things like, “I have a cold,” “I have a headache,” “I have a sore throat,” and so forth. Usually, the teacher would have me read over the sentences for the students to hear my pronunciation and then the students would repeat after me. Well for the first time ever, I had a troop of students repeating after me when I said nice and loud, “I am CONSTIPATED!” When I said it, I couldn’t help smirking and chuckling inside but when I looked at my students, they were all very serious. You would guess that maybe no students were giggling away because they didn’t know what they were repeating but actually, the teacher had already translated “I am constipated” in Japanese on their worksheet so they knew exactly what they were repeating. If repeating wasn’t enough, the teacher had voluntary share her constipation story with her students. Apparently she had gone to Thailand once and became constipated. She claimed that the hot weather outside and the overly cold
air-conditioned indoor caused her constipation. I didn’t really buy that but whatever she wants to believe! At that time, the teacher did not know how to say in English and it bothered her that she couldn’t communicate her problem to the doctor. Therefore, she thought all her students should know how to say it. For a man of science, I know there’s nothing wrong or funny for that matter about constipation but maybe it’s the kid in me or I am STILL a kid that when I say “I’m constipated” to a class of about 30, I still can’t help the fact that I have a big smile on my face when I’m chuckling away inside. Following “I am constipated,” it was “I have diarrhea!” I’ve already said this to 3 classes about 90 students in total. I still got two more classes and approx. 60 more students to notify that “I am Constipated” and “I have Diarrhea!” =)

Cold! That was my first impression of South Korea. Actually, my first impression was, “what a nice, clean and shiny airport!” This was the new Incheon airport west of Seoul. I have this theory that when arriving at any destination, the airport will generally set the tone of how much I will like the country. I was also excited about coming to Korea because it was a country I’ve never been to. South Korea makes the 12th country I’ve visited on my list of countries I’ve traveled to. The purpose of my trip wasn’t purely to travel but to visit two of my friends from high school, Annie and Mog. One I haven’t seen or really talked to in about 6 years and one I’ve seen too much of back in LA and talk to practically everyday! Both of them have the same job as I do but they do it in Korea. It’s really cool to compare my experiences with Mog because we almost have identical experiences with teaching and our students. However, he does get more marriage proposals from his female students than I do, I’ll have to give him that!! In term of lifestyle, it’s pretty similar I guess. The only major difference is probably cuisine and language but that’s a given. I often tell people my friend Mog is just in another state from me. We’re in the same time zone and he’s only about a 2 hr. plane ride from Narita airport(Japan) to Incheon airport(Korea).

Korea is very different and similar in some ways to Japan and Taiwan. Due to the geographical proximity of Japan and Korea, there tend to be many influences on each other. From my short stay in Korea, I gathered that although history and culture are very different between Japan and Korea, I find that the customs are very similar, and when I say customs, I don’t mean the people that check your passport at the airport! I didn’t do very much sightseeing but I did do a lot of traveling around Korea. Mog lives in Andong, east of Korea, and Annie lives in Gwanju, south of Korea. I spent a lot of time sitting on buses just traveling between Andong, Gwanju, and Seoul. Apparently they do have trains as well but they take about the same time as the buses, if not longer. I have a feeling that Koreans tend to get around Korea more so by buses than trains, which is the opposite in Japan. The Japanese rely heavily on trains and they’re everywhere even stretching to countrysides of Japan. I have not taken a bus in Japan yet, knock on wood!

Both Andong and Gwanju are cities much bigger than “Ogawa.” They have some modern convenience of a city that I don’t have in Ogawa. Although, they are 3 to 5 hours away from Seoul, I’m only about an hour or so from Tokyo! Woohoo! Nothing to woohoo about really. Going into Tokyo just means costing me $$. Food and things in Korea are much cheaper than what they are in Japan. Korean BBQ was delicious and cheap, makes my mouth water just thinking about it! Koreans also eat a lot of spicy food and me and spicy food just don’t go together at all. I guess I probably missed out on a lot of traditional Korean entrees but I’m sorry, I can’t help it!! I felt bad when my friend Annie wanted to take me to one of her favorite restaurant but it was place known for spicy kimchi =( …If I lived in Korea, I think my diet would be very different. I wonder if there are any Koreans in Korea that can’t eat spicy food? While we were walking in the bustling streets of downtown Gwanju, we saw a UCLA store!! They are everywhere! They didn’t’ sell items that looked anything like the stuff back in LA so I question their authenticity a little. Nevertheless, it’s nice that my alma mater is recognized even in Korea! What is also interesting in Korea are places where you can go play board games?! and go watch dvds in your own private little theater. I think they are pretty cool ideas that don’t exist in Japan. Then again, I heard those places where you can go watch dvds called dvd “bang” in korean, people or couples aren’t really watching dvds, wink wink =)

I spent New Years and my last few days in Seoul but nothing much to talk about because it’s a big city just like Tokyo. I went to a castle and the Seoul tower and that was about it. I was showing my friend Mog around Seoul instead of the other way around! Korea was cool but it’s not a place I want to go back during the winter time! It was nice to be in a country that drives on the “RIGHT” side of the road! It was great seeing Mog and Annie outside of LA. It was refreshing to see and talk to Annie once again. I flew back home to Tokyo on United Airlines. I thought it was an irony in itself. Coming back to Japan, I had the same reaction when I first arrived in Korea, Cold!

Pictures from Korea
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=d2d5

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After a month of hiatus, I’M BACK!…in Japan that is. Happy New Year! I apologize for my absence but I was on vacation!!! Yes, I was in need of a nice relaxing vacation after a semester of hard work and intense Japanese studying. Some people would beg to differ but I think I deserved it! I left Japan for about 12 days but it felt shorter than that. People who know me will no doubt guess that I have a problem of grounding myself in one country. If I don’t hop on an airplane every few months or so, I wouldn’t be the Tony that all of you know. Alright, so my first destination: Taipei, Taiwan. Yes, the land where I was born, the “Motherland”!! Ok, that sounded weird because Taiwan is not a communist country nor is it “CHINA” or a “Province” of China. Nuh uh! Taiwan is Taiwan, a separate entity. Those of you who thought otherwise are wrong. You know who you are!!

Quick sidenote about Xmas in Japan, it doesn’t exist. Well, maybe it does but they don’t celebrate it like we do in the States. The Japanese acknowledges Christmas on Dec. 25th but it is not a holiday and in fact it’s actually a workday. Well, I do know an Asian family that works back in L.A. and I’m sure there are some people that work on Xmas. This year, Xmas landed on a Saturday so it made no difference. Some places put up decorations and lights but I still wasn’t feeling the Christmas spirit. There was no common practice of sending Xmas cards in Japan, only during New Years do they send out greeting cards to friends and families. There isn’t even a way to say “Merry Xmas” in Japanese but there were 3 different ways in Japanese to wish someone a Happy New Year. One of the greetings you would say prior to New Year (N.Y.), one you would say after N.Y., and one you would say in response to somebody after they wished you a Happy New Year first. It still means Happy New Year in some respect but said completely different, go figure! I explained to my kids about what Christmas is like in the States. It made me feel nostalgic and for a split second, I wanted to go back to California. Oh well, the moment has passed. On a happier note, the Japanese do get New Years Day off but unfortunately this year N.Y. was also on a Saturday so it made no difference either!

Ok, back to Taiwan. It was GREAT! My brother came to visit me in Japan and then we went together to Taiwan. We stayed with our relatives and hung out with our cousins. It’s so nice to have relatives in Taiwan because they take good care of us and constantly feed us like there’s no tomorrow. What I miss about Taiwan are the deli foods sold on little street vendor carts on the sides of streets. They’re everywhere in Taiwan. If you have a little money in Taiwan, it’s hard to believe you’ll go hungry. They also have these awesome “night markets” in these specific streets every night. In addition to the food, there were also street vendors selling many different things, from little souvenir trinkets, to jewelry, to socks and underwear. It’s cool because you can Eat and Shop at the same time. Did I also mention everything is Cheap?! in respect to Japan and the States of course. You can even bargain. If you don’t haggle, they know you’re a foreigner and they’ll want to charge you more. It’s also nice being in Taiwan when you don’t generally have a problem speaking their language. That’s why I felt very comfortable being there. What else did I do while I was there? Eating comprised of most of the things I did in Taiwan but my bro and I did go to a car show. It’s pretty similar in style to the Japanese car show. Just look at the pictures and you’ll know why. We also tried fried cricket or grasshopper and ostrich meat with our cousins. That was something out of the ordinary. It’s definitely not common Taiwanese entrees. One of my cousins just wanted to try something exotic. How that for exotic? We also went on a Ferris wheel and played at a batting cage at a new shopping center in Taipei. So that’s pretty much what I did in Taiwan in about 7 days. Next, onward to my second destination: Korea!

Pictures from Taiwan (in non chronological order!)
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=/ef07

A month ago, I went to the “Tokyo Motor Show.” My brother in L.A. had informed me of this event a month before so I thought I might as well go check it out. Besides, my family and I are fans of Japanese cars and I thought it would be cool for me to find out firsthand from the source what new models of cars will eventually be hitting the States. I think my brother wanted me to go in his place also to see what the new Infiniti G35 would look like so he can decide if we should wait for the new model or buy the current year’s model. It’s always exciting when our family buys a new car but for once, it’s not exciting for me because I won’t be there to drive the new car =( Nevertheless, after 2 hours of train ride and about $13 bucks of train fare, my friends and I arrived at the car show.

I was looking forward to seeing prototype cars or really fast sports cars but when we entered the first convention hall of three, we were pleasantly surprised to see buses, and trucks, and not pick up trucks, but those giant freight trucks. We looked at each other and thought, OK, cool, lets check it out, and we’ll work our way to the zoom zoom cars. Apparently, we were looking at the next generation of buses and how handicap or elderly accessible they are. It was intereting to see how many Japanese people were very eager to go inside these buses to take a look. There were many long lines forming but I didn’t have the patience or the interest to wait with them. I really wanted to know what excites them about entering a bus! Some people even went as far as getting on their backs and sliding their head and torso under the truck. From my point of view walking by, I thought they got run over!

As we entered the second and the third convention hall, it soon became reality that the motor show we came to was not the Vroom Vroom type of car shows we were expecting. It was all buses, trucks, cars or vans that were wheelchair accessible. How did we not realize this earlier? How were we to know this type of “Motor Show” was this?? Then we looked at the fine print on our ticket and the signs saying “Tokyo Motor Show” and below it, in small prints, it says, “Commercial and Barrier-Free Vehicles.” Even from that, I wouldn’t guess right away it wasn’t the car show I expected. But after seeing the show and looking at the fine prints and thinking about it, It does make sense if you make some educational implication and inductions. I guess it wouldn’t sound very politically correct or very nice at all if the fine print read “Buses, trucks and cars for handicaps!” Yes, I was a little disaappointed but for very good reasons, we still had an fun time and took many pictures. No, I didn’t take much pictures of the buses or trucks but rather the ladies standing next to them. OH yes, they had SHOWGIRLS!!! When I went to a car show in Taiwan, it was the same deal, showgirls! It must be an Asian car show thing. I think America should adopt that same philosophy. I’m sure they would attract twice as much visitors! They even had showgirls for car parts and tires. What did they have to do with car parts or tires? No Clue! But the companies that have showgirls gets more attention than those that don’t. Good business strategy. The many camera flashes going off sure wasn’t aimed at the vehicles or the car parts that’s for sure!

Pics from the “Motor Show”
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=4f0b

Fall is here. Well, it’s been here for awhile and it gets colder by the day. Winter is quickly approaching if not already here. Recently while I was sitting at my desk in the teacher’s lounge studying Japanese, I took a minute and just looked out the window and noticed something I should have noticed earlier. The leaves on the tree have changed colors either to a shade of orange or a shade of yellow. Some of the trees are nearly naked because all the leaves have already fallen. Why didn’t I notice this earlier? Isn’t it funny how sometimes we fail to see the obvious. All I had to do was just stop what I was doing and take a look around me. Autumn in Japan is quite a different scenary than autumn in L.A. It’s definitely a pretty sight not to be missed. Then again, Fall brings forth previews of the chilly wind that is soon to be expected and that’s not a good thing!

The Autumn wind also brought with them my parents from L.A. They actually stopped to visit family in Taiwan prior to visiting me in Japan. This was good because they brought me goodies from Taiwan and L.A. In fact, my parents and I spent what would have been Thanksgiving in the States in my nice cold apartment. Obviously it didn’t feel like Thanksgiving because there was no turkey or football on TV. Worst of all, while you folks in the States were kicking back at home, I was at work teaching the future of Japan. Nevertheless, explaining to my students about Thanksgiving was very nostalgic but at the same time very important for them to understand why we treasure Thanksgiving so much……..the 5 day weekend we get right?!!

For the first time in my life, I gave my parents my money to use and to spend willingly. It took a big hit on my bank account though! Oh well. I took them to Nikko, a rather famous place to visit in Japan known for the historic shrines and the beautiful views of nature. What I was hoping to show my parents were the various colors of the leaves on the trees but instead all we saw were mostly naked trees with a pile of leaves on the ground. Apparently, Nikko is higher up in the mountains where the weather is colder and the leaves change colors faster and die sooner than those in Tokyo. We stayed overnight at an “Onsen” (Japanese hot bath) hotel where we relaxed and cooked ourselves in burning water until we were nice and toasty. Going to bed after a visit to the onsen makes sleeping a whole lot better. While my parents were here, I felt a little stressed. For some reason I felt their visit was more of an inspection and I worked long and hard the weekend before to clean my apt. from top to bottom. They were satisfied with my situation but they’re expecting me to come home after a year of JET. I told them we’ll need to discuss that later…
My parents are back in LA now but Fall is still here and its freaking FREEZING in my apartment. The morning and night are the worst. I can barely feel my toes! Every morning I watch the news only to see the “high for today” is 15 deg. celsius. Somebody help me when Winter is in full swing!! Brrrrrrrr

Pictures from Nikko
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=1f61

So I return to Ookawa Elementary for the second and third time this past week. The second day started up great. I was relieved that we didn’t have to exercise and run in the morning since it’s getting really chilly here. The news says its around 18 Deg. Celsius. I don’t really know what that is in Fahrenheit but thats a pretty low number to me, its got to be cold! I get to school and many students of all grades are yelling for me, “Tony Sensei, Tony Sensei!”

Sidenote: In Japan, a teacher or one of higher educational ranking, such as the principal, the superintendent, the title sensei is attached after their name. However, you would never refer to yourself as “sensei.” People can refer to you as sensei but you cannot use that word for yourself. If you want to tell others that you are a teacher, you would use the word “kyooshi,” which also means teacher. Why the difference usage? Using the word sensei on yourself gives the persona that you’re arrogant and a big shot whereas kyooshi is a way of humbling yourself and your position. Japan is a culture big on humbling oneself and honoring and boasting others.

Anyway, as I was saying, the day started out fine. I had my regular cup of hot green tea in the morning and as I finished teaching my second class, some teachers told me to join them out there for recess. Apparently, it wasn’t recess persay but the same exercise routine I did the first day, stretching and then running. I have no idea why it was after second period, maybe they thought it would be funny to screw with the foreigner and throw him off muhahaha….Ok maybe not. This time I tried to have more fun by chasing after some first and second graders like i was going to catch them and tickle them. Some of them even purposedly ran close to me provoking me to chase them. There were 2 or 3 second grader girls that ran along side me and started talking to me like I knew what they were talking about when in fact I had NO clue what they were saying. They also did the cutest thing by holding on to my hands while we ran together, one on each side awwwwww… And then I noticed these little mischevious first grader boys running behind me with their hands together and their index and third fingers pointing out getting ready to charge at me from behind. I was forewarned about this phenemenon called “kancho” where they try to shove their little fingers up your you know where where the sun don’t shine. It’s like a game to them and they think its fun!! Luckily I caught this one boy as he was getting ready to charge so I decided to let him run in front of me instead. He seemed happy and excited with hands flaring in the air and the next thing he did, which i never saw it coming, he turned around and took a jab at my jewels and ran away! This is the SECOND time I got punched in that area and this time it was a boy and it was a bigger impact! I was going to go return the favor but I then realized it wouldn’t be a fair fight. The rest of the day went on without a hitch.

The third day went by as usual but there was no stretching or running. I think they’re messing with my head! Or maybe because it was raining on and off and the grounds were wet, who knows. Nothing really exciting or unusaul happened except maybe I made sweet potato biscuits with the handicapped class and saw the teacher who beat me in ping pong the other day cleaning some type of gun in the teacher’s room with a can of Japanese version WD40 while asking me if I possessed gun(s) in the United States! All I thought about was asking him if I could borrow that can to oil up my ride. The chains were getting rusty from the rain. And I did, being more thick-skinned than I usually am in the States.

Well, I’m won’t be coming back to Ookawa Elementary until 2005. I’m going to miss those little bastards…Oops, I mean KIDs!

Today was another one of those days where I teach at a local elementary school in Ogawa. Off the top of my head, I believe there are six elementary schools in Ogawa and each ALT visit each school maybe 2-3 times over the course of a semester. I guess it’s more like a visitation that we do. The reason we don’t teach at elementary school that often is because English is not part of the elementary school curriculum. We’re only there to give the kids exposure to English and maybe teach them the very basics like numbers and alphabets and play games with them. When I first chose to teach elementary school, I thought it would be the easiest thing. I figured, hey, they’ll believe anything I say and the little kids will be easy to teach….Wrong! They’re actually harder to teach than the junior high kids. I have to expend more energy and speak much louder for longer periods of time to elementary kids. That’s why I sometimes don’t look forward teaching at elementary schools but the kids are so little and cute as hell!

However, today was somewhat extraordinary. It was my first visit to Ookawa Elementary School. In the morning when school started, the entire school congregated out in the school grounds. I was told to briefly introduce myself in front all the students, maybe 200 to 300 of them. No matter how many times I’ve done it, it’s always a little intimidating. Somehow, I always get through it because by now, I’ve done it a billion times in front of staffs and students alike for the past 3 month. I just can’t believe I’m still introducing myself and not only that, I’m doing it in Japanese!! (Go ahead, you may applause). What followed was rather different from all my past experiences at other elementary schools. We started doing stretches together as a school and we ran around school tracks for about 7 mins. or so. I nearly passed out! This exercising before classes reminded me of a movie called “Gung Ho” starring Michael Keaton. If you saw the movie, you know what I’m talking about (right Mat?).

Today in addition to teaching various classes of different grades, I was scheduled to join the special education/handicap class with 2 teachers and 3 students. This was the first time I’ve ever done a special ed. class. After today, I wish I had the chance to do more. Despite their learning disabilities and handicaps, these kids are so wonderful and cute. Apparently today was this girl’s birthday and we sang the birthday song in English, had some jello, and took some pictures together. Of all days not to bring my camera! Then for the rest of the day, I joined two classes for P.E., rather odd I thought but I taught them a few words and played dodge balls. Yeah, I got them good!! Haha..despite the fact I really didn’t know the Japanese version of the game, the basic concept was the same. After school ended and the kids went home, many teachers came up to me and asked me if I knew how to play table tennis or as I like to say Ping Pong! Apparently, the whole staff was going to play ping pong and they asked me to join them. Next thing I knew, I was partaking in the staff ping pong tournament and the winner would receive some type of prize. I cleared first round by taking down a female teacher but I lost by a point in the second round to a male teacher. After my defeat, I bowed, smiled and said thank you like you’re suppose to. Meanwhile, I thought to myself, “I’m going to go slash his car tires now” haha. Eventually the teacher that beat me took second place overall. They gave prizes to the top 3 players and they had one more prize to give away and for no apparent reason, they gave it to me. I call this prize the “consolation foreigner prize.” Sometimes it’s good to be a foreigner. They treat you real nice, almost like a celebrity. Did I mention some of my students asked for my autograph? After ping pong, everybody retreated to the staff room for desert and tea and I called it a day! Round two tomorrow…

Okay, so Halloween was around a week ago but who’s really counting right? Halloween can be really any day in Japan because if you go to certain parts of Tokyo and see how some of these young Japanese people dress, you would think it’s Halloween. Okay, so it’s a late post because I’m lazy and busy. Busy with what? I don’t really know. ANYway, Halloween doesn’t exist in Japan but everybody or at least all the young people know about Halloween but not in details. I don’t even know Halloween in detail myself but I know its an excuse for me to go out to a Halloween party on a Saturday night. Unfortunately, I had to work that morning (long story, don’t ask) so I really didn’t have any time to prepare for a costume. After work, I walked into a “hyaku en shopu” (equivalent to our 99 cent or 1 dollar store) and looked around for inspiration. I came out of the store with a toy ninja sword and a black bandanna for only 2000 yens = 2 bucks + tax….the tax always gets you wherever you go! So I wore all black, wore a beanie and put on my bandanna and covered my nose and mouth. Obviously my aim was to be a ninja! duh! but some people at the party knew I was from LA and asked me if I dressed up as a thug or robber from LA and I told them yes, I’m a robber that’s going to hold you up with a ninja sword =) My ALT friends that went with me wore their costumes on the train to the party. That got us a lot of attention on the train. Flashes from camera phones went off several times. The party was chilled and then went karaoking afterward until the sun came up. Can’t have fun without karaoking in Japan!

On a side note, I taught a junior high school class a little bit about Halloween. I had to teach them the origin of the Jack-O-Lantern! Do you know the origin of the Jack-O-Lantern? I had to look that up on the good ol’ internet! Then the fun began and I taught them how to carve Jack-O-Lanterns. Some of my students put on costumes or face mask rather that the teacher had brought. It was good fun. However, prior to pumpkin carving, the teacher wanted me to teach the students how to sing the Star Spangled Banner and explain to them the meaning of the lyrics. Who cares about the lyrics! I don’t!! haha. Halloween and Star Spangled Banner, that was really random. Then again, I did do this class in early September!

Pictures for Halloween Party
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=4849

Pictures for Halloween Class
http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/tonykao0627/album?.dir=64e9