Week Two

Well its almost Monday and I've been working for two weeks already. Amazing....Hard to believe, it seems like I just got here. I might get my apartment on Tuesday but who knows. The Japanese don't seem to be the most efficient people in the world. We have to meet with the aparment owners like 5 times before any papers actually show up. No major brawls have broken out in the apartment Im in now which is a surprise.....I think working so much doesn't leave much room for annoyances to grow. Anyways, Japan is very livable....Way to livable actually. I think its easier in many ways to live here as an American then it is the live in America...Japan is sort of like a chain of mini wal-marts with an Asian twist. All the stores have neon lights and have that ultra clean, plastic smell that wal-mart does. There is this mix between neo modernism and ancient tradition. A mini-wal-mart that buys its food from the rice field next door, a sushi bar and objects for sale that will ward off bad spirits and welcome bad luck....go figure. India was a whole lot more interesting that's for sure, but I think there must be more to Japan then meets the eye and an 800$ pay check for 7 days work sure makes the country a lot more enjoyable. I know I haven't been writing that much but so far, Japan just isn't that interesting. Seriously, everyone's the same, I do the same thing everyday, and I cant understand a word of what anyone's saying so I exist in this world of driving to work and sitting in the apartment or walking down the street to the mini-mart or getting a mini coco from one of the drive up vending machines around the apartments. Last night 4 of us went to a Thai bar, actually two Thai bars dubbed mamma's and Brittany Spear. The Thai's seemed kind of depressed. I can only imagine if you come from a colorful, lively country like Thailand and end up in back woods Japan....God how boring. The Thais seemed really nice and rather, I donno, red neck if that's possible. The women were wearing camouflage with a beer in one hand and a cigarette in the other. Somehow that's not my picture of Thais. Most foreigners just don't seem that happy here. They aren't necessarily unhappy, its more like they are just existing until they can go home again and start actually living. Don't get me wrong, Japan is not at all BAD....Its Just so good that its intensely boring....Anyways Ill write again when I get the chance....Cheers

This is my class with their old teacher who is still teaching two days a week. The boy is Migo and he is from the Philippines. All the others are Japanese

Ugh

Feeling pretty wiped out. And pretty annoyed....actually Im damn pissed off....so Ill write later..................bye

In the groove....almost

Well tomorrow is Friday and think I have already gotten over the hump. Tuesday was the hardest. I don't think that I have ever felt so tired on so many levels at one time. I have gotten to know a lot of the students and am starting to feel more comfortable with them. At first I had a thought tugging at the back of my mind whenever I did something that went something like "you are going to look so stupid doing this" or something to that affect. I am starting to realize that the more outrageously and unselfconscious that you do something, the more the kids enjoy it. They are not monsters, just little people that act like monsters every few hours. I still need to work on clarity, discipline, organization and variety but hey, its been a week and haven't cried once. Not bad for never teaching before. Migo, a student of mine from the Philippines, drew me a picture and wrote " To Monet from Migo....I like you". That almost made it all worth it. I had to substitute the second grade class yesterday to and just before we started Migo ran over to the second grade class and said "Monets a good teacher". How sweet can you get? My boss has agreed that I will get 25004 a month which is very good considering I just graduated high school. It sure beets washing dishes that's for sure. Of course I do work 12 hours a day 5 days a week but hey, it keeps any thought of isolation off my mind. Anyways, next week should go a whole lot smoother. Until next time.....

First Day In Chaos

"Children are contemptuous, haughty, irritable, envious, sneaky, selfish, lazy, flighty, timid, liars and hypocrites, quick to laugh and cry, extreme in expressing joy and sorrow, especially about trifles, they'll do anything to avoid pain but they enjoy inflicting it: little men already."

~Jean de La Bruy Les Caractres, 1688

The first day of my working career in Japan is over at last. I never thought that such little people could take so much energy just to keep alive. They seem to have a radar for dangerous things and are attracted to them like moths to a street light. I was the teacher for the 1st grade class all day today and I managed most of the day without any help. Pretty good for the first day. I have six kids, five Japanese girls and one Filipino boy named Migo. They are all fairly good except Mikki and Yuka, two spoiled little Japanese girls that definitely have preppy tendencies. We start off with a "daily activity" from 9:00-9:30 and then have reading/writing class for the next hour and a half. After a 15 minute break the kids move on to mathematics. I hate math, but as long as it consists of problems like 9+1=? I think I will survive. After lunch we have science which is the hardest class because there is no curriculum for it and I pretty much just made stuff up to talk about. After that the kids just do catch up and take turns learning computer skills. After school I stay with about 10 students who's parents cant pick them up at 3pm and watch over them until 6pm when I am picked up by my sister. Right now my feet hurt like hell and I feel distinctly anti social and anti small people but otherwise I am alright. I have no idea how Danny teaches middle school. He has 40 kids per class and....well they are middle schools...yiiikkess! I guess last year one of the students broke his teachers leg and in Japan teachers cannot technically touch a student and even self defense is frowned upon. Scary. Danny was also telling me that on Friday one of the boys brought a play boy type magazine to school and was reading it in class. One of the teachers saw it and just said "naughty boy" and told him to put it away. Japanese are so much more open about sexuality, can you imagine what would happen if a 15 year old brought a playboy magazine to school in say Georgia? Anyways, I'm to tired to write anything very interesting so I guess Ill hit the sack...G-nite

Weird Japanese Stuff

* Drive up Vending machines with beer and hot drinks in cans as well as cigarettes
* Cars with less motor power then your average dirt bike (not joking)
* You can get evicted from your apartment for not recycling!
* They eat food so fresh it sometimes runs off your plait.....Like mini squid....Yuck!
* Green tea ice cream
* They don't have a word for NO or YOU.....No pronoun's at all because its seen as rude
* The gangs never kill anyone besides other gangs members- zero innocent bystander's and no crime at all besides the ones committed by foreigners
* Zero littering
* Its polite to slurp your soup
* You can buy canned whale meat in the stores and in the North they feed it to kids in school as well as squid and octopus
* Kitty porn and prostitute is permitted.....They have very strange sexual fetishes...And I mean weird...heard of "water sports"?...dont ask

In the box

Komowa (Good evening) I've made it through my first day as an ESL teacher and I am still breathing. I arrived last night in the Narita Airport in Tokyo at 5pm only to find that all my baggage had arrived except the two that housed my clothing and $400 camera. A bit worrisome but hopefully all will be sorted out in the next few days. Either that or Ill just wear the same pair of pants for the next three months. My first impression of Japan is just about exactly what I thought it would be....Clean, tidy and mini sized. People are extremely polite and yet, strikingly lacking in friendliness. Its amazing how polite and helpful someone can be without connecting to you on a human level. Its sort of like there is a wall up between everyone here and everyone is isolated in their own little box looking out through a window at the world. Very strange. I hadn't counted on isolation being such a factor here. I already feel it pressing in on me and its only been a day. God, this is going to be the hardest year of my life. No wonder Japan has the highest student suicide rate among students, its like the humanity in people is buried so deep inside them that people are more like automated human replicas then actual people. Anyways, I went to school today and helped out. I have about 5 kids in my first grade class. They are all very cute and basically well behaved although I think discipline and rules are going to be important. The school is of course tiny with just four very small rooms and two bathrooms. My boss who everyone calls Misses is a sweetheart of about 4'5ft and 90lbs and endless amounts of energy. There are about 6 other teachers in the school, one is Japanese, one is from Ghana, one from Japan and the others are from Romania and England. The lady from Ghana who is name is Mariam is a wonderful teacher and a truly cool person. She has a one year old son who hangs out at the school while she teaches. Cool black people are just on a whole other level of cool then white people can ever get to. Anyways, the lady from England is very nice and helpful as is now, the daughter of Mrs. although she has a tattoo which, in Japan, is strictly reserved for gangs members and the Japanese Mafia and I am told she has a bit of a wild streak. The girl from Romania is very shy and didn't hardly say a word to me the whole day. I think I am going to enjoy teaching but I think it is going to be really hard to be so isolated. I don't even have a computer or a phone and I have the feeling you could live your whole life in Japan without making a single friend or having a single conversation with anyone over the age of 13. I will be teaching three days a week and helping out the principle the other two days by running to the store to get supplies and cleaning. I will also be in charge of after school child care and will eventually be helping with equine education and care of horses which should be coming to the school in the next few months. Next weekend I will be getting my apartment and might buy a computer otherwise I think I might die of loneliness. That's about all....Wish me luck....Loneliness can rot your soul and I have the feeling I am going to need some real strength to get through this. That's all for now...Ill try to load some pictures as soon as I get my bags....Sianara.....