Hey everyone, here is the long awaited apartment vlog!!!
A quick introduction: since I transferred up to Aomori for marriage reasons, Ryan and I could live together. We could choose between my predecessor's apartment and Ryan's previous apartment. Since my predecessor's apartment was bigger, we opted to live there. It's not far from his old place either...it's only about a 5 minute walk.
Well, without further ado---
http://youtu.be/w2ZN_Rf7Ico
Please enjoy our lovely faces and my excessive rambling~
Until next time!
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Q&A: New Schools Edition
A few people have asked me about my new teaching situation, so this blog post is dedicated to you guys! Sanam and Tia Andrea in particular... :)
Sanam: I keep checking for an update on your new school, so [hurry up and post about it!!!*].
I now teach at one junior high school (Tsukuda JHS) and two elementary schools (Tsukuda ES and Hamadate ES). My base school, the school that I visit the most, is my JHS.
My junior high school has the 2nd newest school buildings in the city (Ryan's recently renovated school, Higashi Middle School, is the newest), so it's really, really nice. Compared to El Rancho (my middle school back in the States), it seems huge! Compared to the wide, usually one-story American schools, schools in Japan are build upwards because there is not much space to build outwards. My JHS has 4 floors: the 3rd years' classrooms are on the 2nd floor, 2nd years on the 3rd floor, and 1st years on the 4th floor. With at least 5 classes per grade and many, many extra empty rooms for miscellaneous club activities, the corridors are super long. In addition, there is a large gym, a music room, a library, cooking room, science room, a large field for outdoor activities, and many tennis courts. I'll take a picture of it one day and post it so you guys can see!
Tia Andrea: What age level are you teaching?
Before I answer the first question, I'll quickly explain the Japanese educational system up until high school. Like the one in America, it is divided into three establishments: elementary school, middle school, and high School. Elementary school is similar to that in America, where it is divided into 6 grades, from 1st to 6th. However, middle school and high school are three grades each. There is no "7th grade"; they simply restart from 1 upon graduating from elementary school and middle school. For example, one could say that he or she is a 1st year middle school student or an 3rd year high school student.
Back to the original question, the ES students that I teach are 5th and 6th graders, about Kevin's age, with ages ranging from 9-12 years old. JHS students are the same age as 7th-9th graders here, so they range from 12-15 years old.
All of the kids are soooo much smaller (and cuter...and wayyy more hyper) than the high schoolers that I taught last year!! T^T
All of the kids are soooo much smaller (and cuter...and wayyy more hyper) than the high schoolers that I taught last year!! T^T
Tia Andrea: Are you enjoying it? I know you have faced many challenges, so I hope it is getting easier.
Sanam: I hope that it is even better where you are at now!
If I said that I loved every day I spent here, I'd be lying. There are always ups and downs in the workplace, but my working situation has improved so much from what it was last year. My schools are much closer, the students are friendlier, and Aomori is a much more convenient city to live in. For the most part, I've enjoyed the new experience thus far, but to say that I've been "teaching" would be a bit misleading.
The workload in ES and JHS compared to HS is considerably different. In HS, I was always busy making lesson plans and tests, grading said tests, helping speech contest students, and helping the other English teachers with English grammar questions. Most of the work that I've done so far in JHS has been what is referred to by most JETs as being the "human tape recorder": reading aloud paragraphs from a book and asking students to repeat the correct pronunciation of vocabulary or phrases after me. At my JHS, in my free time, I'm often asked to grade quizzes. It's rather brainless work.
At my ES, it's the same human tape recorder kind of stuff, although I feel more like a dancing monkey while I'm doing it (...which can actually be a lot of fun if I don't take myself too seriously). The classes are required to make English fun by doing chants (songs) and playing games, mostly. They aren't supposed to learn the alphabet or any sort of grammar until they're in JHS.
Even though my co-workers (and students) speak even less English than they did last year, some of them (even non-English teachers) are more willing to talk to me! So far, I've made friends with a few cleaning ladies, my Vice Principals, Principals, a few office ladies, and even a calligraphy teacher! My students are (generally) a lot more interested in me now, so getting to know my students is a lot more fun than before. All of this means that I get to practice more Japanese! Yay!! Also, my caretaker at the Aomori Board of Education is much more on top of things than my previous caretaker...which is a huge relief~
Even though my co-workers (and students) speak even less English than they did last year, some of them (even non-English teachers) are more willing to talk to me! So far, I've made friends with a few cleaning ladies, my Vice Principals, Principals, a few office ladies, and even a calligraphy teacher! My students are (generally) a lot more interested in me now, so getting to know my students is a lot more fun than before. All of this means that I get to practice more Japanese! Yay!! Also, my caretaker at the Aomori Board of Education is much more on top of things than my previous caretaker...which is a huge relief~
Anyways, thanks for reading! If you have any more questions, be sure to ask! Next time, I'll post a video about the new apartment layout, where you get to see our lovely faces (or rather...Ryan's face and my rambling voice) and how big the new apartment is compared to the "Harry Potter's closet/room"-like apartment that I had in Komagane. Look forward to it! :)
*Those may or may not be Sanam's original words. Whether they are or not, I know that she was thinking it (and perhaps you all were...haha) :P
*Those may or may not be Sanam's original words. Whether they are or not, I know that she was thinking it (and perhaps you all were...haha) :P
Friday, October 4, 2013
Hirakawa Apple-Picking
Before my eagerly-anticipated post about my new apartment and schools, I've gotta write about my experiences on a field trip! Here's why.
Since Aomori is so difficult to travel to, not many tourists come to visit the area (except during Nebuta season). To help boost the tourism industry, the prefectural office offers many opportunities for foreigners to explore, experience, and learn more about Aomori, so long as they write about it and post it to my Facebook account so that their experiences are shared with their friends and family from their home countries.
Here goes~!
It was a little difficult to judge which apples were good or not because you don't really see yellow-colored apples very often in America. In any case, we decided to set our sights on the biggest apples that we could possibly find.
After our great success (minus my shoes becoming very smelly thanks to the fertilizer on the ground), we headed back to the meeting spot, where we were offered some free apple slices~
After eating, they asked one representative from each country about his or her opinions about the food: compliments, critiques, and how it compares to the food culture of his or her home country. Would our families back home enjoy it? Why or why not? Etc.
In the information exchange after this portion of the tour, I was the next American up for commentary, but due to my incompetence, I only really managed to say that there should be more signs in English next to the art displays... >.<;;;
Our final activity of the day involved making apple pies!! As a food-lover, this was easily my favorite part of the tour. It was really fun learning how to peel apples (from Master Chef [Ryan], who was applauded by the host for being the most skillful at cooking) and it was interesting to note the differences between what Japanese people and I think of when apple pie comes to mind. Whereas American ones are usually big, round, usually have lots of added sugar, and have intricate woven top layers, the Japanese ones are more similar to what we would consider a danish or a pie tart.
The tour concluded after we ate the fruits of our labor (pun intended), and we were driven back home...but not before Ryan could take a ridiculous picture next to a Nebuta!
I hope that you enjoy my post as much as I enjoyed this tour! Please look forward to more of these kinds of posts in the future~
As mentioned above, soon (hopefully), I'll get around to writing a Q&A style blog post about my new apartment, schools, and life! Thanks for reading!!
Since Aomori is so difficult to travel to, not many tourists come to visit the area (except during Nebuta season). To help boost the tourism industry, the prefectural office offers many opportunities for foreigners to explore, experience, and learn more about Aomori, so long as they write about it and post it to my Facebook account so that their experiences are shared with their friends and family from their home countries.
Here goes~!
Last weekend, Ryan and I went on a field trip showcasing an Aomori specialty...apples! I may have mentioned before that Nagano was famous for apples (if I
didn't, well, now you know! ^_^)...but did you know that Aomori is the
number 1 producer of apples in Japan? It accounts for a whopping 50% of
the total apples produced! This tour decided to showcase some of these
apples.
We took a bus to Hirakawa City with a lot of Aomori
Chuo Gakuen University foreign exchange students from China, Taiwan, and Korea, to our
destination. It was then and there we realized that were the only fluent English speakers on the tour. All of the university students' Japanese easily outclassed ours (especially mine), but they were super friendly and easy to get along with.
Our first stop was at an apple orchard. It reminded me of my grandma's backyard a little bit!! One of the farmers told us that
the yellow apples growing there were called “Toki” apples and that the grove next to
it had “Fuji” apples, which were a more familiar red color. After his explanation in Japanese, he gave us plastic bags and told
us that we could take home 3 apples from the Toki orchard!
Thus, our apple-picking quest to find the
biggest apples began.
 |
| The apple orchard! |
It was a little difficult to judge which apples were good or not because you don't really see yellow-colored apples very often in America. In any case, we decided to set our sights on the biggest apples that we could possibly find.
 |
| Ryan's spoils (with a nice view of Mt. Iwaki in the background) |
After our great success (minus my shoes becoming very smelly thanks to the fertilizer on the ground), we headed back to the meeting spot, where we were offered some free apple slices~
Our next (and final) destination was a place called Hotel Appleland. There, our first order of business involved chowing down on a traditional Japanese-style lunch.
 |
| Sushi (salmon, tuna, sea bream [tai], and amberjack [kampachi]), soba, pickled daikon and eggplant, bamboo shoots with a goma dressing, and a side of cold apple juice! |
After eating, they asked one representative from each country about his or her opinions about the food: compliments, critiques, and how it compares to the food culture of his or her home country. Would our families back home enjoy it? Why or why not? Etc.
Opinions varied from country to country. While I enjoyed the fish (not as much as nokkedon, but it was much better than anything in California) and thought that the soba noodles weren't that special, I got to thinking...would my brother or sister, who are a little bit picky, eat any of this? Maybe they would enjoy the noodles and the apple juice the most, but avoid the rest of the food, opting not to eat the raw fish, pickled eggplant, and bamboo shoots covered with some sort of sesame dressing. Would you have any objections eating any of this food? It must be very hard, as a Japanese hotel trying to cater towards tourists, to try to please picky eaters but still offer the experience of tasting the regional delicacies...
After the opinion exchange, we toured the hotel. We were led to a large guest room overlooking a somewhat blasphemous statue of a female buddha-like person holding an apple (one of the symbols of Aomori), a few large showrooms suitable for holding conferences or wedding receptions, a buffet room which would be used to showcase various Aomori apple dishes, and finally, we were led to the onsen area. We couldn't go into the onsen, but we could dip our feet in the 足湯...the outdoor footbath! This one had apples floating in it! I'm not sure how sanitary it was for those to be bobbing about in there, but they smelled wonderful~
Our final activity of the day involved making apple pies!! As a food-lover, this was easily my favorite part of the tour. It was really fun learning how to peel apples (from Master Chef [Ryan], who was applauded by the host for being the most skillful at cooking) and it was interesting to note the differences between what Japanese people and I think of when apple pie comes to mind. Whereas American ones are usually big, round, usually have lots of added sugar, and have intricate woven top layers, the Japanese ones are more similar to what we would consider a danish or a pie tart.
 |
| Before baking... |
 |
| After baking! Aren't we adorable? |
The tour concluded after we ate the fruits of our labor (pun intended), and we were driven back home...but not before Ryan could take a ridiculous picture next to a Nebuta!
 |
| Ryan's Doppleganger |
I hope that you enjoy my post as much as I enjoyed this tour! Please look forward to more of these kinds of posts in the future~
As mentioned above, soon (hopefully), I'll get around to writing a Q&A style blog post about my new apartment, schools, and life! Thanks for reading!!
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