HJH & TJH Track n Field in Hirata

HJH & TJH Track n Field in Hirata - 17.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Last week I started working at my new Jr High - Hamayama Chu.

It's about 10 minutes from my house by car, and is about the same size as Taisha Chu, with about 450 students.

My first week at HJH was all preparations for their Sports Day, which took place last Friday, the 14th. It was a fun and casual week, and I had a good time meeting all my new students.

I took hundreds of pictures at both Sports Days - Taisha's on the 7th and Hamayama's on the 14th.

I hope to label and organize them and post them soon.

I'll probably post the pics from HJH first, since I don't know any of the kids' names yet, so that will save me time in labeling and I want to tell the kids there about my blog, so it'll be good to have some pictures for them to look at when they visit.

Basically I now do one week at Taisha, and then one week at Hamayama and then repeat.

This week coming up is a TJH week and I'll be busy after school everyday preparing Sumie and Yuta for the Lafcadio Hearn speech contest, which takes place this Saturday, the 22nd.

I've also started rehearsing with my 9th grade choir members - I'm teaching them a song from the play/film "Rent" called "Seasons of Love" to sing at the school cultural festival in late October.

So I'm busy, but doing well. Next time I'm at HJH will be lots of my self-introduction lessons, and I hope to be able to use my laptop and show pictures of America and pictures of their Sports Day.

The pictures I just posted are from a small Track n Field tournament in nearby Hirata that I went to yesterday. Kids from both TJH and HJH were competing, so I got to hang out with kids from both schools. Now of course I have to cheer for both schools when members of each are in the same race.

So click on this pic to see a few more from the T&F meet.

I'm busy watching the sumo everyday, but I hope to post more pics soon.

-Jason

Japanese High School kids do STOMP

Here is another video from the Taisha High School festival, the day before their Sports Day. Each homeroom class of 3nen sei (12th graders) puts on a 7-minute routine. This class chose to do a "Stomp" performance. You get to hear some Avril and see some baton twirling.

You can go to my You Tube page for part ONE of this perfomance. I also posted 2 other vids from THS.

Enjoy!
-Jason

chatting with Chugakusei - let's meet Miyuki

Here is a short video with Miyuki, one of my 9th graders who used to play kendo. (All the 9th graders are now "retired" from their after-school clubs and sports teams so they can start to concentrate on studying for their high school exams)

You can see Miyuki, Yuki and Ayumi in this clip, all members of 3-1 class and on the green team for Sports Day, which is tomorrow. I have been assigned to the Green Team this year, so when I was in America I bought green braclets for all 36 kids in the class and a green t-shirt for the homeroom teacher and had all the kids sign it in permanent pen on the back.

Lots more video and pictures from Sports Day as I have time to post them.

-JCH

Japanese High School kids sing Avril

You can read the description of this video at my YouTube site by clicking on the words "You Tube" in the lower right corner of this video - it'll take you to the vids page on You Tube and I typed a couple of paragraphs explaining this vid.

Of course, you can also just watch and enjoy. :)

Shot at Taisha High School, the school of choice for the majority of my Jr High school students.

The sound is variable since it was really windy last Saturday.

I went to Izumo High School's sports day today, but missed the dances and cheering. Got to see a few of my former students, so that was fun, but I made the classic mistake...

I was introducing one of my former kids to Tyler, the new ALT at Izumo HS, and I said "This is Kasumi." Of course, her name is actually "Narumi." I'm so bad with names, and I hate it when I can't remember a former student's name.

Anyway - more pics and vids soon. My school's sports day is supposed to be this Friday, the 7th, but it might rain, so we'll see.

-J

1nen sei Sports Day in July

shoes and tea
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Catching up with some already posted pics - these two were taken in July during the Ichi Nen Sei (7th grade) only Sports Day.

The 1nen sei girls played dodgeball and the boys played basketball in the gym.

The pic above is the entrance way to the gym - the kids have to remove their "indoor" slippers before going into the gym, where they can then put on special-soled gym-only sneakers. The girls, well-prepared as always, have flasks of cold tea and sweat towels - the boys just sweat into their shirts and go thirsty.

The pic below is of three of my most genki 7th grade girls who I think will provide me with plenty of good poses over the next few years.

Enjoy the pics and I'll try to post more soon.

-Jason

Sports Day prep - Aug 2007 - #2

Members of 3-4 class working on their dance routine for our upcoming Sports Day.

The 9th graders have to come up with a 5-min routine, that includes a class cheer, and then teach the routine to the 8th graders and 7th graders next week.

Ganbatte!

pics from the 9th grade Sports Day in July

Mai - SLAM! - 4.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

For three days in July, my Jr High has a grade-specific sports day for each grade in the school.

On this day, the 9th grade boys played basketball and the 9th grade girls played volleyball - competing in a double-elimination tournament with all the homerooms.

I missed the 8th grade tournament this year - I had to go visit an elementary school that day, but I did get a bunch of pics of the 7th graders, which I hope to post soon.

Click on this great shot of Mai going up for a SMASH to be taken to my Flickr page to see about 50 more pics from this hot, hot day in the gym with my 9th graders.

-Jason

Sports Day prep - Aug 2007

This is how I spent a good chuck of my day today - walking around in our very HOT school, watching the kids prepare for Sports Day, which is Sept. 7th.
The kids have three basic tasks right now - prepare the very large poster to represent their class and team, make their costumes and come up with a 5-min dance routine.
I'll be shooting lots of video over the next two weeks as my kids prepare, so check back for more updates.
This is the first video I've posted that was shot with my new Flip Video camera that I bought when I was home in America. I think the picture quality is pretty good and the sound is better than my regular digital camera, but the sound is also a little "tinny" when compressed for upload to You Tube.

Enjoy,
Jason

Rina, Yuki and Ayumi at the Taisha summer festival

Rina, Yuki and Ayumi
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Last Wednesday, the 15th, my small town held its annual summer festival, called the "goen matsuri."

This year was my 4th year to attend. I was joined this year by my fellow Taisha ALT - Ang - and another teacher - James - who teaches at the NOVA language school in Izumo - and another teacher - my former JTE - Yamamoto sensei, or Hanae as I call her now.

We all met up on the main street in Taisha town at about 4pm, and it was HOT - 30.C +!
We walked around, saw the vendors and food sellers and I saw many of my students. We stuck around until it got dark and more of Ang's students started to appear, since she teaches at Taisha High School and the older kids wait until it's dark to come out - they must be wiser about it being cooler by a little bit after the sun goes down.

Many of my kids dress up in summer kimono - called "yukata" or "jinbei" - and walk around with their friends eating snow cones and taking a break from thinking about school.

I took a bunch of pictures again this year, so you click on the one above and be taken to my Flickr site.
I also shot a few video clips which I hope to have up on YouTube soon.

Enjoy,
Jason

my job is changing

Hello All -

This is an actual text-only post - been awhile since I've done one of these.

School starts next week, and this year promises to be somewhat different for me as compared to my previous 3 years here in Taisha.

First, a few words of explanation. Up until last year, ALTs, like myself, on the JET Programme could work for three years. If an ALT wanted to stay in Japan for a 4th or 5th year, he/she would have to apply and be allowed to teach only at shogakko (elementary school) for those last two years. So for most of us that arrived in Japan in 2004, we figured our job was over in July of this year and we'd be heading home.

But then last October, the government office that oversees the JET Programme decided to change the rule about recontracting. Now, any ALT could stay a 4th or 5th year if their original employer also wanted them to stay. No more "shogakko-only" stipulation. This is a bid by the JET Programme to get qualified ALTs to stay on, since the application pool is starting to shrink for new JETs, and in pure business terms, it's much cheaper to have an established ALT stay another year than to have to bring a new ALT in.

So how many of the 3rd year JETs in Shimane decided to stay a 4th year under the new rule? Three. Yep, only three. That's about the same number that usually applied for the shogakko-only position in the past. And of those three, one is a CIR (a different position within the JET Programme that is not the same as an ALT), and one is a former ALT who will now be the ALT PA, or prefectural advisor - a liasion between the ALTs and the Japanese staff and officials who run the programme.

So that leaves me. I am the only 3rd year ALT who decided to stay a 4th year in the same position. And in fact, I will be the first ALT ever in Shimane to be at the same school for 4 years in a row.
Now, if you read this blog somewhat regularly, then you already know that I had wanted to transfer to a High School for my 4th year, but that didn't work out. So I decided to stay in Taisha, in the same job.

But I found out this week when I got back from my vacation in America that my job this year will not exactly be the same.

Yes, I'll still be at Taisha Chu, but I've also be assigned a 2nd Jr High - nearby Hamayama Chu. And it seems that I will no longer be making ANY visits to my 5 elementary schools. Just two weeks a month at Taisha Chu and two weeks at Hamayama Chu. So this a BIG change for me.
Many other ALTs have a similar set-up, so it's not that weird. But it will be for me. But part of the reason I wanted to change to teaching at High School was for a change of routine, so this will certainly serve for that.

Izumo, after spending a lot of money last year and bringing in many new ALTs, this year decided to spend NO money and brought in NO new ALTs. So Chris, Rusty, Ewan, Titia and Eulenda - who all went home in July - are not being replaced. Instead, the remaining ALTs here in Izumo - Hannah, Eric, Angelo, Sam and myself - are splitting up the Jr High schools, with each of us having two, except Sam who now has 3 and Hannah who still has only one, but will also still be going to some large elementary schools.

Hamayama Chu is about the same size as my current Jr High. Both have about 450 kids, which means 4 homeroom classes per grade. My friend Rusty was the ALT at Hamayama, and was their ALT all 3 of his years here, so I know they've had a consistent prescence and a good ALT before me. Hamayama is used to sharing an ALT, since Rusty had 3 Jr Highs his first year, which meant Hamayama saw him every third week, and he had two Jr Highs his 2nd year, so that is a situation close to mine this year.

But what's a little weird is I'm not a "new" ALT - I haven't just arrived in Japan and I'm not new to the classroom. I'm a pretty seasoned veteran by now, so it'll be strange for me to be treated at first like a newbie - having to give my "self-introduction" lesson to all the new classes, having to meet all the new staff including my new Japanese teachers of English - maybe having to go to an "enkai" to welcome me which means having to explain over and over again why I don't eat fish or drink beer.

Having said that, I am excited about meeting new students and having my games and activities and ideas for teaching be evaluated and utilized by new JTEs and students.

What is sad is that I never got to say goodbye at my 5 elementary schools. If we'd have known that I wouldn't be teaching there anymore starting in September, I'm sure we would have had small farewell ceremonies at each of my schools. I also have an English Club at two of my shogakko, so I'm not sure what the status is on those right now. I'd like to continue going to at least the clubs.
My elementary kids are now going have English lessons with local residents - most likely Japanese women, although perhaps some Filipina women as well - who are interested in English. They will get paid a small amount as part-time workers. Not sure how that's going to work out. The few women they employed last year for supplementary "Super English" lessons with the 6th graders all turned out to be well-qualified and decent at English. So if they can find more like them, then perhaps it will be ok.

I'll keep you posted on how things are going at my new school after I start teaching there in late September. And don't be surprised if you start seeing pictures of kids here on my blog in slightly different school uniforms.

So my fourth year is off to an interesting start. If all goes well, and my batteries get a good recharge, I might even consider staying a fifth year. But right now I just want to survive the heat of August, get through Shimane Orientation for the new ALTs and help my Taisha kids prepare for their biggest annual school event - Sports Day.

See you,
Jason

another benefit to staying a 4th year...

12th graders
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

I'll get to go to the graduation ceremony for the kids who were my first group of 9th graders when I arrived in 2004.
Their high school graduation in March of 2008 will be the first class to include kids I taught at the Jr High level.

Looking back, I didn't get to know that first group of 9th graders very well. I was their ALT for only 7 months. And everything was so new and overwhleming for me, it was really tough to strike up any lasting bonds with those particular students. Plus, they were in the final months of their Jr High career, which is a stressful time for Japanese students as they have to prepare for their very important High School entrance exams.

But I did manage to connect with a few of the kids in that first graduating class, and I hope to attend Taisha HS's graduation ceremony next March to see some of them get their diplomas.

And I still run into some of them on occasion - out at a restaurant or at karaoke or in the supermarket or at a festival.

Like Arisa and Yasuka in the pictures here. The one above is from this year - their final year of high school. The one below was taken in the summer of 2005, just after they had graduated from my Jr High and were in their first year of high school.

It was great to see them again and I wish them the best of luck in their upcoming exams and life decisions.

-Jason

America kaerimasu!

So I'm heading home to San Diego tonight - I leave on a night bus for Osaka, then get on a flight to Korea tomorrow morning and then after a short lay-over I get on an 11-hour flight from Seoul to Los Angeles. Curious thing about when I fly FROM Japan TO California - because of the time difference I arrive at about the same time I leave. My flight gets in at 10:25am on Thursday at LAX, even tho I left Japan at 9:40am on Thursday Japan time.

So I'll be home for about two weeks - should be a nice, relaxing time. And - I get to go to Comic Con!!! Woo-hoo!

So no updates for a few days perhaps, altho I have tons of new pics and vids to show you all - I've been so busy these past few days.

Sunday I went to Oda to watch my kendo team.
Monday I went to Gotsu to watch my girls' tennis team (and I got really sunburned).
Tuesday I went to Oda to watch my volleyball team, and then came back to Izumo to watch my Chorus club at a concert.
Today I had to go to Matsue to finish renewing my visa and re-entry permit, and then to Taisha to update my "gaijin" card, before going back to watch more volleyball in Oda.
So lots of driving! But I have some great new pics and vids and I'll try to post them while I'm in America.

To all my Taisha teams competing this week and in the coming weeks while I'm gone...

がんばって！！！！　(good luck)

-Jason

Another TPMMH pic

Another TPMMH pic
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

I've decided on my Flickr site that I'm gonna start a new "tag" labeled TPMMH - which stands for "This Picture Makes Me Happy." So search that tag in a few weeks and you'll see a bunch of fun pics from my whole archive of over 2000 pics.

Walking around after lunch a few weeks ago I snapped this pic - it's very easy for me to get group shots like this now - I simply say "shashin" (picture), "issho ni" (together) - and wave my hands like I'm pushing the group together and the kids will form up and pose. Any shyness they have around me went away long ago, and if anything they're more likely to deny my picture request nowadays since they know I take so many over the course of a year.
But they still like me to take their picture, cuz they know I use them - I sometimes put them on display on the wall outside my language lab, I put them in the school newsletter I create, I use them in the year-end movie I make, and I of course add them here to my blog. So they get to see them - and that makes a big difference in their willingness to pose.

In this picture are my sporty 3nen sei - all them are in a sports club except Sayoko, who is in the Chorus Club, but is also a champion baton twirler - so she is sporty too. :)

First row - Miyuki (kendo), Saki (tennis), Momoko (kendo), Rina (tennis)
2nd row - Tomoka (volleyball), Namiko (tennis), Sayoko (chorus)
back row - Kyoko (swimming), Keiko (kendo)

I also posted some pics of my 3rd graders (9th graders) enjoying bento lunches at school. Some days they don't serve the school lunch that everyone eats, so the kids have to bring a lunch from home, called a "bento." So click here for more pics of the kids at lunchtime.



Enjoy!
-Jason

One concert - Three schools

Monday was a national holiday - and I spent the day at a local music hall watching three of my school's Brass Bands perform.

I had simply planned to watch my Jr High band - so I arrived at around 11:30am to watch my "C" team - the new 1nen sei students perform as a unit in their first concert. When I got the concert program, I notcied that just after my 7th graders (1nen sei) perform, one of my elementary schools - Taisha Sho - was also set to perform. So I got to watch them as well.

I took a break for lunch (yummy ramen) while other local Jr Highs performed and came back to the hall at 2:30 to see my Jr High's "A" team (2nen sei and 3nen sei) perform. They did really well and I wish them luck at their upcoming competition. I then returned one more time to see Taisha High School perform at the end of the day at 5:40pm. Many of my Taisha Chu kids go to Taisha HS, and many of my favorite kids from last year are now 1nen sei (10th graders) at Taisha High School.

So it was great to see some of my former students, and see many of my current students all in the same day.

I snapped a few pics, so check em out by clicking on any of the pics below.

And "Yokoso" (welcome) to any of the students who are now checking out my blog. Enjoy!
-Jason


All the high school kids in this pic were once my students at Taisha Jr High!



Wacky 3nen sei from Taisha Chu



The 6th graders in the band at Taisha Sho



:)

Chatting with students - Band Girls (x3)

Hello All -

Today was a national holiday in Japan and I went to a concert in Izumo and it was great because I got to see all three Taisha schools - Taisha Sho (elementary), Taisha Chu (Jr High) and Taisha High School - perform.

So I got to hang out with a bunch of my kids throughout the day, and I took a lot of great pics. I'll post them to my Flickr site soon.

But first I wanted to post these three short videos I shot today - interviewing some of my current 8th graders (2nen sei) and some of my former students who are now 1st graders (1nen sei) {10th grade in America} at Taisha High School. It was great to see a bunch of my older kids again - and I gave out my blog address to a bunch of them, so hopefully they'll see these videos too. :)













Enjoy! And I'll post pictures soon!

-Jason

Happy Birthday to me

lunchtime with 5nen sei at Taisha Sho - 6.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

How did I spend my birthday this year?

I spent it mostly at two of my elementary schools - Taisha Sho and later in the day, Araki sho.

The previous day, Thursday the 5th, I actually taught 4 lessons at three different schools. I started the day with a Super English lesson with about 55 sixth graders at Taisha Sho, then went to Yokan sho for two lessons with the 4th and 5th graders - ate lunch with the 5th graders, and then back to my Chugakko for a 6th period lesson with one of my 8th grade classes. Long day!

On my birthday I was scheduled to teach 2 classes each of 4th and 5th graders at Taisha sho, and then race over to Araki sho for English club 6th period.

Despite the hectic schedule, I had a fun day, and I got to take lots of fun pics - many of which I've posted on my Flickr site.

You'll see pics of me drawing for the kids at lunch time, and me hanging out with them during cleaning time and then me taking pics of them after school as I try to leave but am beseiged with requests for stickers.

I've got some video from the day too, and I should have a link posted to my You Tube site soon.

So I'm 38 now - and some days I certainly feel it - but on days like my birthday when I'm busy and surrounded by genki young kids - I bet you wouldn't guess I'm a day over 25.

See ya,
Jason

Benefits of staying

So I'm staying a fourth year at my same job at Taisha Jr High.

Which means that kids that were 6th graders at elementary school when I first arrived in 2004 will graduate from my Jr High in March of 2008.

So I've seen girls like this:




grow up into young ladies like this:




Sayoko, Kanako, Rina and Tomoka above are all kids I first taught as 6th graders in shogakko.

What's even more mind-blowing in a way is that the first 9th graders I taught, who graduated from my Jr High in March of 2005, will graduate from High School in March of 2008 - I plan on going to Taisha High School's graduation and seeing some of them get their diplomas.

It's one of the benefits of sticking around for so long.

-Jason

CHESS '07 - Evening Two - dancing

CHESS '07 - Evening Two - dancing - 4.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Here are some more pics from CHESS - we had a Disco for the kids on the 2nd night. First, our man Ewan taught everyone to Scottish Dance, and then DJ Cleve had the whole crowd moving from 7:30 to 9pm.

Click on this pic to see more from that evening.

This dance, which we have every year at CHESS, is easily one of the highlights of the camp. Japanese kids in High School don't have school dances, so this is often the first time many of them have been to a social, free form dance.

On the third day I asked a girl if she enjoyed the dance the night before and she got a little emotional and then said "Yes - it was the first time I've ever been to a dance." One ALT friend told me that one girl told her it was the first time she'd ever danced - period.

And we have fun, playing a bunch of goofy hits from the 50s to the 80s, like "The Twist" and "Stayin' Alive" and of course "The Macarena" and since most JETs are in their early to mid 20s, they can get out on the dance floor and shake it with the best of them. And the kids just follow our lead since many have never danced with other young people before - so if you come over to a circle of kids and start doing some moves, they all just join in and start to copy you - it's pretty hilarious. But great fun!

I was able to assemble about 200 pics from the first two days of camp and show them on the big screen in the background while the music played - running the slideshow off my trusty little iPod.

OK - one more day of pics to go and then CHESS 2007 will be but a memory. :)

-jason

Body Kanji - part one

Two words - Body Kanji - I think that says it all.
Ok, maybe not, but you can read a description of this organized madness and see part two as well at my You Tube site.

Enjoy!
-Jason

CHESS 2007 - Day One

CHESS 2007 - Day One - 46.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Pics from Day One of CHESS 2007 are on my site.

Day 1 was Monday, June 11th. We arrived at the Sanbe Youth Center around Noon, and had opening ceremonies and group introductions and we also did our workshop (mine was trivia) one time.

Pictured here is Lena, Tyler, Adam, Eric and Ewan - the leaders of the Sports Workshop in the gym.

Click on this pic to see more pics from the first day, including a few group shots and the obiligatory lunch/cafeteria shots. :)

Day Two and Day Three will be posted soon!

-Jason

Janken for fish! Shogakusei battle for my lunch!

I shot two short vids while I was having lunch with my 4th graders at Taisha Sho. In this one you can see some of the kids play "janken" for my fish - I don't eat any seafood, so what I can't eat is highly sought after by the hungry kids.

The other vid is rather sedate, but you do get a good shot of my lunch tray and the fish in question... :)

Taisha HS band & chorus kids

Taisha HS band & chorus kids
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Last Sunday I went over to Izumo to see my school's brass band perform. As I sometimes do, I got the times mixed up. Japan uses military time, so the concert was from 15:00 to 17:00. I saw that on the piece of paper and my brain thought - "oh, the concert is from 5pm to 7pm." D'oh! Anyway, I got to the concert hall at about 4:45pm, just in time to see my kids perform at 5pm. They were the 2nd to last school to perform, so I missed the rest of the performances. Which is a shame, cuz I found out that my recent graduates, who now play with their High School band performed earlier in the day.

But after the concert was over and I snapped a bunch of pictures of my kids (click on this pic to see many more from that day), I went back into the hall and got to chat with my older kids, who are now ichi nen sei at Taisha High School.

It was great seeing them again! It's funny how they all look a little older in their HS blazers. Pictured here are Shiho, Rina and Hiromi in the top row and Yuki, Erina and Saki in the bottom row. Rina and Erina where in my Chorus club, so perhaps the Taisha HS chorus performed as well, or maybe they just volunteered to be ushers at the event.

It's sad how much you lose touch with the kids that graduate. Most you'll never see again - they move on to High School and unless you happen to run into them at a local store you won't ever have a chance to see how they're getting on. But I made more of an effort this past year to try and stay connected to my recent graduates - I exchange emails with a few of them - including Saki and Yuki here, and I have home addresses for a few of them to send them New Year's cards, etc. I rememebered it was Hiromi's birthday the day before this concert, so when I saw here and said "Omedetou Tanjoubi" (Happy Birthday) she was really surprised and happy.

Anyway - it was a fun, altho brief, concert and I got some good pics.

Enjoy!
-Jason

CHESS 2007 - Scottish dancing

CHESS = Camp for High school English Students of Shimane, and has nothing to do with the game using rooks, queens and knights.

Here is a short video of the Japanese kids being taught how to Scottish dance by Izumo's own resident Scotsman - Ewan!

I'll post more about CHESS and I have tons of pics to post.

Enjoy!
-Jason

Pics from my week

recess at Yokan Sho - 12.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Hey Gang,

I just uploaded a few pics I shot over the course of this past week. I also included some shots I took last week while I was in Kobe. Like an idiot, I forgot to take any pictures of my workshop - but I did get some nifty shots of Kobe from the 30th floor of our hotel. As an RCA, I got a meal voucher for the somewhat swank restaurant on the 30th floor, so I didn't have to eat breakfast with all the other ALTs on Tuesday morning, and those shots were taken at about 9am.

So click here and you can see some pics from me at recess with the kids at one of my elementary schools that go with the videos I posted below. And some shots of my 9th graders at Taisha Chu chillin' between classes and two shots of my newest class of 1st graders at Taisha Sho.

Enjoy,
Jason

Stardust

This is a movie I'm really looking forward to. It's based on a book by Neil Gaiman, one of my all-time favorite authors.

The trailer looks fantastic, so I have high hopes for the film. Not sure when it opens in Japan, but I'll definitely be one of the first to see it.

Here is the trailer:

Stardust Trailer

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Enjoy!
-Jason

Chatting with Shogakusei - at recess pt1

had some fun at recess at one of my smaller elementary schools on Wednesday. I let my kids use my camera and got some fun videos out of it - this is pt 1 of 3 - you can see the rest on my YouTube site.

Enjoy!
-Jason

PS - what color would you call the shirt I'm wearing? it's an ongoing debate... :)

Human curling - how not to do it

27 seconds of wackiness from an event in nearby Hirata with a bunch of 6th graders about to become 7th graders. Way to try Hannah!!

The Night and Day existence of an ALT

Hey Gang -

How are things? I thought I would do a good, old-fashioned text post - no pictures, no vids, just me babbling about something for a few paragraphs. ii desu ka? (OK?) OK, good.

Monday and Tuesday of this week pretty well illustrate the night and day nature of the job of an ALT.

Let me preface with a few facts about my job, in case you are new to my blog or just have forgotten -

I work at one Chugakko (Jr High School). Only one - this is somewhat rare, in that many ALTs are assigned to work at more than one Jr High. But I have the one base school - Taisha JH.
From there, I often leave during the day and go to one of my 5 shogakko (elementary schools). These shogakko visits are all scheduled in advance, and I usually know what lessons will be taught and what will be expected of me at least one day in advance.
There are 6 periods in a school day - most of the time. The Japanese school day starts at roughly 8:30am and goes until 4pm.
So if I have to visit a shogakko and teach two 4th grade classes 3rd and 4th period, then I go to my Jr High in the morning, possibly teach a class first or 2nd period, leave for my shogakko, teach there, and then come back to my Jr High to eat lunch, possibly teach 5th or 6th period, and finish the day.
There are all kinds of exceptions to the above, but you get the idea.
This approach to shogakko visits is also somewhat rare - many of my friends who are ALTs in nearby towns have to go to their elementary school for the entire day anytime they are scheduled to teach at one, regardless of how many classes they will teach that day. This is silly in my opinion, but I digress -so I will save that discussion for another blog.

OK - so now back to Monday the 21st and Tuesday the 22nd.

Monday I had no shoagkko visits planned - so it was a full day at my Jr High. I have a schedule board on my desk, where the 5 English teachers (JTEs) at my school can sign up to have me come to their class. Sitting at my desk on Monday morning at 8am, I noticed that the board was empty in the Monday column save for 5th period, where Moriyama sensei had written in 2-1, meaning that she wanted me to come to Class 1 of the Ni Nen Sei (8th grade) with her after lunch. And that was it.
So from 8:30am until lunch at 12:40, I was supposed to amuse myself. Luckily, I had a bunch of marking to do, let over from the pervious week.

I don't mind having the occasional low-impact day. It makes a nice change from all the days when I'm really busy. But I can see why some ALTs hate it, and if these type of days happen often, you can feel underused.

Friday was a day of big tests for all my Jr High kids -the chukan tests - kinda like mid-term exams back in the States. So all week they were busy studying and preparing, which meant that I didn't have that many classes at my Chugakko and no after school clubs all week, since the kids were supposed to go home and study.

But Tuesday was an exception. I was scheduled to visit my smallest shogakko - Usagi Sho. And by small, I mean the school has 9 students - nine in the whole school! It was my first visit there since the new school year started in April. It takes me about 25 minutes to drive from my chugakko up into the mountains to Usagi Sho. I was supposed to visit for just 2nd period - roughly 9:30am to 10:15am - but the kindergarten teacher wanted me to stop by her class during 3rd period and chat with the 3 kindergarten students for a few minutes. I taught all 9 students (ranging from 1st grade to 5th grade) in the gym during 2nd period - we worked on colors. So at my Jr High, I blocked off 1st thru 3rd periods, indicating that I would be gone those periods at Usagi Sho, factoring in the driving time. And before I left on Monday, periods 4, 5 and 6 for Tuesday were also blovked off by my Jr High teachers. So I taught ichi nen sei (7th graders) 4th period with Toma sensei, my optional English class of 9th graders 5th period and then a regular 9th grade class 6th period. Quite a full day, but it wasn't over.

Once a month I volunteer at the local library, and they have me read big, English picture books to really small kids, usually age 1-6. So I finished 6th period at about 3:30 (we were on a shorter schedule that day - where classes are only 45 minutes long instead of 50 minutes) and then went over to the library where I read books to a roomfull of little kids from 4 to 4:30.

And then a former teacher met me at the library and we chatted in the courtyard for about an hour.

Monday I was a sloth, not really moving that much, and Tuesday I was a cheetah, racing from place to place - doing something different at every new stop.

I'll try to post pics of the kids at Usagi soon. Oh, and Tuesday was also my friend, Ang's, birthday - so Happy Birthday ANG!!

Hope you have a good week - I have to go get some sleep now - tomorrow I'll be riding the bullet train to Kobe.

See ya,
Jason

PS - OK, I knda lied - here is one picture - my kids at Usagi Sho :)

new display inside LL room

new display inside LL room - 1.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

As part of my upcoming presentation at the Kobe recontracting conference, I will talk to the ALTs about "surrounding their kids with English" - creating a stimulating enviroment for them to study and work in.
Some teachers might find this distracting, but I think giving the kids something to look at and/or read when they are walking down the halls or putting their indoor slippers on is a good thing.
This picture was taken inside my LL (Language Lab) classroom at my Jr High. I rotate the pictures and put up new displays about every two months as I have time. I had purchased some Japanese movie magazines that had supplements listing the top 50 movie stars of all time and another showing great movie posters. So I cut them up and created this movie display, with a small sign in Japanese that says "These are some of my favorite movies and actors - what is your favorite movie? Who is your favorite movie star?"
You can click on this pic and see some others - including the 2nd half of this wall and the outside wall, where I made a display all about Spider-Man 3, and I also displayed pictures I took of the kids in April. The kids love these displays.

It takes a little extra time and effort to maintain these displays, but we all have some down time as ALTs and I think it's worth the effort.

-Jason

Presentation of clubs to shin ichi nen sei

Presentation of clubs to shin ichi nen sei - 15.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

during the first weeks of the new school year, all the clubs in the school have kind of an open-house, where the new 7th graders can stop by and watch them practice and see which after-school club/sports team they want to join. Before that they have an assembly in the gym where all the clubs give a short presentation extolling the virtures of their club, how often they practice, what tournaments they have coming up, etc.
Then they usually give a little demonstration - judo throws, volleyball spikes, tennis lobs, chorus singing, etc.

I uploaded some pics from this assembly and I have some video from that day too which I'll try to post to my YouTube site soon.

Me & Miki

Me & Miki
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Miki is a great kid - an 8th grader on the Track & Field team. She almost never lets me take her picture - but this day she was all smiles. She is always smiling and is a very genki kid, she just always runs away when I have my camera out, so these pics are very rare. :)

TJH girls' Tennis

TJH girls' Tennis - 2_1.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Hey Gang,

I just uploaded 84 pictures from April and the first week of May, a weeklong holiday here called Golden Week.

Pics from various school ceremonies and sporting events I attended. And just goofy pics from around school.

Hope you enjoy - I'll try to add names to all the pics as I have time.

-Jason

First Day of school & Nyuugakushiki

This picture makes me happy!
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

April 9th was the first day of the new school year here in Japan. On April 10th, we had a ceremony for the new Ichi Nen Sei (7th graders) called a "nyuugakushiki." It's an entrance ceremony with some speeches and music - nothing too exciting, but the 8th graders get to decorate the homeroom classrooms for their new kouhai (underclassmen).
So I walked around both days and snapped a bunch of pics - about 60 of which I just uploaded to my Flickr site.
I'll try to get around to individually labeling them soon - but they have a lot of good "before and after" type shots of the decorating, and a bunch of shots of my awesome kids running around the halls.
There are also some pics of the ceremony and the new kids filing into the gym.

I choose a few pics out of each batch to add to a file on my laptop that runs a slideshow on my desktop. Many computers can run your own pics as a screensaver, but Apple allows you to have your desktop change at the frequency you choose.
This pic of Hazuki and Nagisa makes me smile everytime it pops up on my desktop - I love the unguarded nature of it juxtaposed with Nagisa doing the perfect Japanese "peace" pose.

More pics from the first month of school soon.

-Jason

my own horn...

Hey Gang,

Here is one of those posts where I get to tell you all how cool I am. No, seriously - I am cool. Just ask my students. What? The opinion of 14 year olds who don't know any other foreigners don't count?? What's up with that?

OK - kidding aside. I'm off to Kobe for an ALT conference in two weeks. I got selected to be a presenter at the conference for 1st year ALTs who have decided to stay a 2nd year. I went and spoke at this same conference last year and had lots of positive feedback from my workshop, which is all about using your laptop and other tech toys in the classroom.

I never got any official feedback, from the conference surveys that the attendees fill out, and when I mentioned that to the guys coordinating this year's conference, they found my feedback from last year and forwarded it to me.

So, yeah, I'm gonna toot my own horn a bit...

Of the 200+ ALTs that attended my two workshops last year in Kobe, 187 gave me a rating, on a scale of 1 (being poor) to 4 (being excellent).
I got no "1"s, so that's cool. I got five "2"s - for "average." I got fifty-three "3"s - for "good," and I got 129 "4"s - for "excellent." Not bad.
People were also able to write in comments - here are a few:
"was excellently presented by someone who clearly loves being a teacher and is damn good at it. Practical, relevant and inspiring. Top Stuff!"
"Very good ideas and concrete advice."
"It was awesome."
"It was obvious that many of the presenters were simply going through the motions, uninterested in passing on anything useful. The exception was audio and visual aids, which was relevant, very well executed and energizing."
"Of all the workshops I thought that this one was the most thought provoking and creative. I will be most certainly be using many of the ideas presented, and building on them to create a more lively and communicative learning environment."
"Jason Harris’ workshop was more useful than the other workshops combined."

Ok - I'll stop now. :)

But comments like those from your colleagues really make my day. Because I did work hard on the presentation and I did try and pack it with useful ideas. So I'm really happy that many people, including others that emailed me, put comments on my blog here, or just caught me in the lobby of the hotel and said how much they enjoyed my workshop, got something out of my presentation, and I'm really looking forward to doing it again this year.

I really do enjoy this type of public speaking - where I know what I'm talking about - have a passion for what I'm talking about - and know that the people listening can really benefit from what I have to say.
I hope to bring this same kind of energy and excitement to my history classrooms back in the States when I eventually become a teacher.

Anyway - I'm gonna be busy in the next few weeks getting ready for this year's Kobe conference, but I still hope to get some posts up. I had a fun Sunday, watching my kids play kendo and last night I got to play cards with Eric, Chris and Susie, which I always enjoy.

It's Mother's Day in America today - so to my Mom - who now lives in America again - HAPPY MOM'S DAY!!! Wish I was there to give you my gift in person, but I hope you enjoy it anyway.

Thanks for indulging my horn playing... :)
-Jason

Aya, Minami & Kyoko

Aya, Minami & Kyoko
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Click on this pic to see my 9th graders (San Nen Sei) enjoying their Beach BBQ. The kids cook all kinds of foods - mostly yakisoba and okonomiyaki, but also all kinds of other noodle dishes and BBQ beef and vegetables and then dessert. It's quite a production.

With these pics - I've passed 2000 pictures on my Flickr site. And I now have over 6000 in my iPhoto file on my laptop. I'm a photo-taking fool!
I realized recently that the new memory chip I have for my camera is a good thing and a bad thing. Just a year ago, I went to a band concert and was confined to taking just 30 pictures - the amount allowed by the internal camera memory I was using. But this year I snapped away, taking 96 pics that day. The memory card gives me the freedom to take as many as I want - but I'm terrible at deleting pics - I tend to keep them all. And maybe having to be more selective when I didn't have the card made me a somewhat better photographer - I had to choose my shots and only keep those that were good. I'm not sure - I just know that I took about 450 pics of my kids in April alone - crazy! :)

Enjoy,
Jason

Yuki & Makiko

Yuki & Makiko
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

My desk is situated with the Ni Nen Sei (8th grade) teachers in the staff room, so when we had a recent school trip, I tagged along with the 8th graders most of the day.
Every year, the whole school gathers at nearby Inasa beach and then we hike about 5 kms up the coast to some rugged stretches of beach where the kids get to prepare and eat a BBQ lunch.
Click on this pic to see pics from this really fun day with my Ni Nen Sei kids. I got really sunburnt by the end of the day, despite it being cloudy most of the morning - it really was perfect weather for a Beach BBQ.

Tsukasa, Chiharu & Naoko

Tsukasa, Chiharu & Naoko
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

click on this pic to get a look at the 7th graders enjoying their time on the beach

Taisha Grad vids

Hey Gang,

I've uploaded 5 short vids I took last March at my Jr High during their farewell to the 9th graders and graduation ceremonies.

You can see how solem and somewhat boring Japanese Jr High graduations are - not much clapping or cheering. And see my awesome san nen sei from last year as they walk off into the sunset after it's all over.
And I've included two short clips of the san nen sei walking into our gym for their farewell ceremony, called a Yo Sen Kai. This is where I showed the short picture movie I made, which is also on my YouTube site.

I included this mostly because I know now that at least some of my kids are checking my blog and looking at the videos and pictures I post. Most of them couldn't read, or couldn't be bothered to read, my explanations and decriptions, put they can watch the vids and see the pics.

Anyway - enjoy the vids and I should have more new stuff up by the end of the week.

I'm tired tonight because I worked out with my kendo team after school, after taking about a week off for the Golden Week holidays, and I'm exhausted. It's also started to warm up here a bit, so I was sweating more today, and I'm a bit achy.
But I hope to combine these workouts with some walking I'm doing to hopefully lose some weight in the coming months. I recently went to the movies with my JET friends Trevor and Signe and they both look great, having lost a bunch of weight thru an e-diet and exercise. Kudos to them!

-Jason

chatting with Chugakusei - let's meet Yuko

I'm in the process of reposting a bunch of my short vids to YouTube, because the problem I was having with the sound sync seems to have been fixed. So some earlier videos that were really hard to watch are now much better.

But this particular video is not a repost, but a new vid with one of my favorite kids from last year, Yuko. She graduated in March and is now entertaining her ALT at high school, but she used to come and hang out with me at lunch and play Ticket to Ride and ask me funny questions.

Enjoy,
Jason

drawing day at IT with 9th graders

drawing day at IT with 9th graders - 73.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Friday, April 20th, was the annual drawing day we have at my Jr High with all the students going to areas around the school and drawing for the day.

The san nen sei (9th graders) always walk up to IzumoTaisha shrine - a beautiful place, and if the weather is nice, a great place to hang out for the day and draw.

So I tagged along and took tons of pictures (I uploaded about 90 of them to my Flickr site) and shot some short videos too.

It was cloudy, but not too cool - a nice day for a picnic lunch and some nice conversations with my current class of 9th graders - I've been their ALT since they were 6th graders at shogakko, so we all know each other pretty well by now.

Enjoy the pics!
-J

chatting with Chugakusei - 9th graders at Izumo Taisha

Here is a great vid of some of my coolest 9th graders (san nen sei) chatting with me on camera at Izumo Taisha, where they went for a day-long visit to sketch the shrine and its surroundings as part of an art class assignment. Some chatted readily, while others pretended to be camera-shy. Momoko brushes me off by calling me "papparazzi" but she loves to shout out answers from off-camera. Enjoy the vid, and check out my YouTube site for two other videos from that day - Friday, April 20th.

TJH Track & Field at Hamayama Park

TJH Track & Field at Hamayama - 15.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

This Saturday and Sunday I hung out with my Track and Field team at Hamayama Park, the local sports park.

Saturday was a nice enough day - warmish and mostly sunny, but today was cloudy and rainy and much cooler.
Two of our team did well - Miki came is 2nd in the 100 meter dash among all the girls competing -and Gamoh kun came in first in the boys' high jump - the rest of the team did OK.
I had fun hanging out and chatting and of course, taking pictures.

I also watched my A-team Baseball team - they had a tie game going in the 7th inning, the last inning they play at this age, so they played one extra inning - both teams scored one run, so the game was 3-3. How to decide who goes on to play in the championship game and who plays in the third place game?? JANKEN of course!
Yes, that's right, they had the entire team line up facing the other team and they went down the line, position by position (first base, pitcher, etc), having each pair play rock-paper-scissors to see which team would advance. Of course it was a tie and came down to the last pair - our center fielder threw paper and their team threw scissors and it was all over - we would play for third place while the other team would play for the championship. Only in Japan!! :)

Chatting with Chugakusei - 9th graders on the Track & Field team

Here are some of my great 9th graders on the Track and Field team chatting with me between races last Saturday at Hamayama Park.

Enjoy!
-Jason

my Brass Band perform a famous Anime song

I've been trying to get out to see my kids perform and play as much as possible recently. Just this past weekend, I saw my Jr High teams compete in Volleyball, Girls' tennis, Baseball and Boys' tennis.

Here is a video of my great Brass Band playing a song from a famous Japanese cartoon. There is no drama club at my school, so if a student wants to perform, they can join the band (boys and girls) or the chorus (only girls) and they'll get some stage time.

I'll try to upload a bunch of other videos this week, so check back for more updates soon.

-J

ALT invasion at Taisha Sho

ALT invasion at Taisha Sho - 8.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Once again this year, I invited my friends from Izumo to come over to my local elementary school and help my soon-to-be 6th graders prepare for their April school trip to Hiroshima.

This year Chris, his wife Susie, CIR Judy, Mark, Eric, Ewan and Rusty helped out and we all had a good time practicing a dialogue with the kids for when they have to talk to foreigners in the Peace Park.

Thanks to everyone for helping and I hope some of you can do it again next year.

-Jason

Taisha Sho Spring concert

Taisha Sho Spring concert - 1, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

On Sunday I went to a kendo tournament in the morning and then to the Spring concert put on by my local elementary school -Taisha Sho.

I had a lot to think about over the weekend concerning my job and my future in Japan, but I think I've come to a decision that is best for me.

This picture just makes me happy. It kinda sums up why I stay in Japan in a way.

I'll post more pictures from that day soon.

Hope you are happy too! ;)

Ise Jingu - day three

Ise Jingu - 3.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Eric and I headed out of Kyoto to nearby Mie prefecture on Day three of our trip. It was a Monday, so a little less crowded, but being Spring Break and a decent day weather-wise, there were still plenty of people visiting Ise Jingu - the most sacred of all Shinto Shrines in Japan.

Read more about this very important place in Japan here:
http://www.isejingu.or.jp/english/index.htm

We had about 3 hours to tour both the inner and outer shrines, but the scenery was so nice and the walking around so pleasant that the time just flew by and we had to get back on our train for the 2 hour trip back to Kyoto.

Enjoy the pics!
-Jason

March Sumo Tournament in Osaka

March Sumo Tournament in Osaka - 5.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

My 4-day trip to Osaka and Kyoto started on Saturday with many of us meeting at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium to watch the penultimate day of bouts in the Spring Grand Sumo Tournament.

We got lucky in that the final match of the day was a showdown between the reigning champion, Asashoryu, and the steadfast up-and-comer, Hakuho. Asashoryu won this day, forcing a playoff the next day, which Hakuho won, clinching him his 2nd championship since become ozeki.

click here for more pics of the 8 of us stuffed into our box seats and more sumo action. (look to the end of this update on my Flickr sites for some great sumo pics from Linda - thanks Linda!)

-J

March 2007 at USJ

March 2007 at USJ - 18.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Went to USJ for the 2nd time this past month during my Spring Break.

Went with a great group of friends from Shimane, including Rob, Jon, Linda, Jen and Eric - all pictured here wearing the 3D glasses for the Spider-Man ride.

We had a great time, got lucky with the weather and over-ate at the Hard Rock Cafe when we were done at the park.

Click on this pic to see many more from that day.

-Jason

kendo practice at Japanese Jr High

I walked around last week and took pics of my kids practicing with their after-school clubs. I also shot this short, 1-min vid of my kendo team working out. I'll try to post the pics to my Flickr site soon.

Enjoy,
Jason

Graduation Day at TJH

Graduation Day at TJH - 6.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Wednesday, March 14th, was Graduation Day at my Jr High - Taisha Chu.

We had a nice ceremony, even if it was way too cold in the gym, and I was able to snap a last few pics of my way-cool san nen sei before they left Taisha Chu for the last time.

Many of them had their cameras and I posed in a ton of pics this year, but I was able to ask them to take pics for me as well.

Click on this pic to see more at my Flickr site.

Also on the site are pics from the Shogakko (Elementary school) graduation I attended on Monday at Araki Sho. I have video of both grads that I'll post to my YouTube site soon.

Many of the pics have comments so I won't elaborate too much here. Suffice to say, that after being here almost three years now, this graduation was the most emotional - I'm really and truly going to miss the san nen sei that graduated this year - they were a great group of kids!

-Jason

7 minutes of Spider-Man 3 footage

Yeah - I'm a big geek - so what else is new?? :)

Go HERE for 7 minutes of footage from the upcoming Spider-Man film, which opens May 4th in both American and Japan! Yeah!

The footage of Peter battling the new Green Goblin is outstanding! Can't wait!!

The movie opens here in Japan during the "Golden Week" holidays - so I'll get to go on opening day. One of my favorite students, Hitoshi, who is now in HS, has a birthday that week, so I'm gonna offer to drive him and his brother the hour out to the best movie theater around - I hope he'll be able to go if he doesn't have kendo that week everyday.

Enjoy!
-Jason

AJET Gangsters & Molls charity event

AJET Gangsters & Molls charity event - 11.jpg, originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

A bunch of JETs and Japanese people got together in Matsue recently for a fundraiser for the Shimane AJET scholarship fund. We had a "Gangsters and Molls" costume party, with food, music and the "King of Shimane" contest. Thanks to Gemma for all her hard work organizing this event.

Click on this pic to see all my pics from that night. It was a fun time, and I dressed up as a "Mob Boss" complete with nasty mustache that I grew for the event.

:)

WTC

This weekend I rented the Oliver Stone movie "World Trade Center." It has Nic Cage as a Port Authority officer who was trapped in the rubble of the collapsed towers on 9/11. It was a good film, but not quite as moving and interesting as "United 93" the docudrama by Paul Greengrass about the flight that crashed in Pennsylvania.

By sheer coincidence, I was introduced to an article and blog about 9/11 and the people who feel that the terrorists weren't fully responsible for what happened that day - basically saying that the Bush administration needed something as drastic as a "new Pearl Harbor" to enact its plans to invade Iraq, etc. and therefore had a hand in the attacks on the Pentagon and the WTC.

I'm not going to give my opinion of it all here, but I found these sites to be very interesting - check them out if you have time:

a 90-minute documentary called Loose Change about the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11
This was very interesting.


interesting article with a Japanese perspective on the attacks and budding conspiracy


Japanese peace activist's blog
The top two videos, posted on March 10th, are interesting viewing - each takes about 8 minutes to watch, but they are worth it, save for the last one minute of the 2nd video, which includes some horrific imagery and is a little heavy-handed.

Anyway - interesting viewing and certainly made me think - which is always a good thing.

-Jason

Yo Sen Kai movie - Taisha Chu

Here is a 7-minute film I made for my graduating 9th graders, who were 7th graders when I first arrived in Japan in 2004.
Two and a half years with these great kids distilled into a 7-min movie.
It was the time alloted to me for the farewell ceremony (Yo Sen Kai) we're having for them today at school.

I hope you enjoy the film, despite the poor picture quality that results from the compression needed to make the film small enough to upload to You Tube.

-Jason

Farewell movie for my 6th graders

Here is a short movie I made for my graduating 6th graders at Taisha Sho. Took me about 5 hours last night to cobble it together and work out all the transitions and effects and editing it to the songs.
Turned out pretty good, and you'll see after I upload the longer film I made for my graduating 9th graders that I copied most of ideas from that project, which I'd been working on for about a week to get it just right.

Quality of the pics here are just so-so, and you can read more about that in my comments on the YouTube site.

Enjoy!
-Jason

stuff...

Hello All -

Random happenings with me...

** With the help of my friend, Kazuki, I was able to get box seat tickets for the next Sumo tournament in Osaka in March. Slowly, but surely, I've turned into the biggest fan of Sumo. I really love it and my world gets put on hold practically for two weeks every other month while I watch the new tourney.
I'm excited to be seeing it live again for the first time since late 2005 - my goal is visit all 4 Sumo arenas before I leave Japan - so after March, it'll be two down and two to go (Tokyo and Nagoya).
I'll be joined by 5 other Shimane ALTs - so it should be a fun trip! Pictures and a report for sure in April. :)

** Been busy lately teaching myself how to use iMovie on my Apple laptop. I'm trying to make a mini-movie for my 9th graders for their farewell ceremony the week before graduation. I have so, so many pictures of them from the past 2 years, but they only alloted me 6 minutes, so I've had to whittle my selection down to about 100 pictures or so. But with iMovie, I'm able to add cool transitions, effects, title cards and music. Kinda like a Power Point presentation, but a level up - and you save it as a Quick Time movie - it's been really fun, but a lot more work than I thought it would be - of course, I want it to be great - and I think it will be - gonna work more on it tonight. And I'll eventually upload it to my YouTube site.

** Random observation - I'm fat. Yeah - no surprise there, but I think I've gained back any weight I lost after I first arrived in Japan. I gotta get out and start to exercise again - start going to kendo practice again and try to lose a few of these pounds.

** In case I haven't told you personally, I decided to sign up for one more year on the JET Programme. So that means I'll be here in Taisha, doing the same job, until July of 2008. Which means that the kids that graduate next March, in 2008, will have been my students since they were in Elementary school! Wow! My kids truly are wonderful human beings and they make my job so much fun.

** Two goals for 2007 - I'd like to improve my Japanese, which basically stalled in its progress about a year ago, and work more at trying to find a companion to share some of my time with - pretty lonely out here in the inaka after 2 1/2 years. Maybe that whole "lose some weight" thing will help, as well as being better able to sling the Nihongo. :P

** New Spider-Man movie at theatres in two months!!!!

** I am so hooked on American TV right now. After first moving here, and having access to NO American shows, I now regularly watch 7 shows and watch even others on DVD. My niece lent me the Season One box set for The OC, and now I'm hooked on that show too. My favorite show of the moment has got to be "Heroes." So GOOD!!

Hope all is well with you!

-Jason

Chatting with two former students

chatting with two former students


Here are two of my favorite students from last year who graduated and are now ichi nen sei at a local high school. Despite the bad sound sync - I think you'll enjoy this fun interview with Ruriko & Sayako.

Yuki & Saki's impromptu routine

Yuki & Saki's impromptu routine

I just posted a few new videos with some of my wacky and cool 9th graders. Check em all out at my YouTube site by clicking on the words "YouTube" in this video.

Cheers,
Jason

Ang jumping rope with shogakusei

Here is my friend, Angharad, jumping rope with some of my shogakusei last week at Taisha Sho.

Ang teaches at my local high school - Taisha HS - but she came over and joined me for a day of classes at Taisha Sho. We had fun!

The sound sync is a little off, but you'll still enjoy some of my cute 4th graders mugging for the camera at the end.

-jason

Be careful what you wish for...

I've been busy...

You hear that phrase so often from friends and co-workers that it almost doesn't mean that much anymore.

But I really have been busy... :)

Just a week ago I was a little upset that I wasn't being asked to many "regular" classes at my Jr High. I was mostly being used in the optional (sentaku) English class and for the two classes with our special needs kids.

And then just yesterday, I was asked to teach 6 classes - every period of the day. And it was a unique situation in that I taught at every strata of my responsibilities. I started off the day at my closest elementary school - Taisha Sho - teaching two classes, 1st and 2nd period, of 2nd graders. It was an easy lesson reviewing the numbers from 1-10 and playing games. At elementary school here, they give the kids an extended break between 2nd and 3rd period - recess - and that allowed me to get back to my Jr High in time to teach 3rd period.

3rd period I had Optional-A class, or sentaku eigo, for my 9th graders. It's actually two classes happening at the same time, since about 45 kids signed up - so they split it into two. So I often get asked to divide my time and spend half of the class with one group and the other with the 2nd group. So 3rd period I did a weather game in one class and a boggle game in another.

Then 4th period I had 8th graders, where I'm helping to teach them the concept of "most" and "best." As in "Baseball is the MOST popular sport in Japan" and "I like vanilla ice cream the best." So we did some review and I came up with an interview game that the kids seemed to enjoy.

Then it was lunch, which was fish, which meant that I ate only rice and drank some milk. There was a "milk scare" recently and for about 10 days we got other things to drink, like yogurt, and apple juice, but now they're back to milk.

After lunch I hung out with some of my cool 9th graders and then it was cleaning time. After that it was 2pm and time for 5th period.

5th period was a class of 7th graders, who are learning to use "can" in sentences. So again I came up with an interview game where they went around the room and asked their classmates - "Can you ride a bike?" "Yes, I can." "No, I can't." and so on.

After that it was time for my Winter Vacation quiz. I showed slides of my trip home to San Diego and talked about where I went and what I did, and then tested how well the kids listened by giving them a short T/F quiz. I've done this quiz a bunch of times by now, and I think this is probably the last class where I'll do it.

And finally it was 6th period and time for my "San San" class. "San San" is the name at my school for a small class with kids who are developmentally disabled & therefore, behind the other kids in learning. We did a little easy phonics work followed by a review of the names for drinks, and then some easy math (in English) and then with the help of the JTE, I attempted to teach them how to play the card game "Gin." There are 4 kids in the class, but this period was only the two 7th graders, so it worked out ok.

Then I had to hang around after school to discuss lesson plans for Friday and to talk to the teacher in charge of the farewell ceremony for the soon-to-graduate 9th graders. I want to show a slideshow of some of my many pictures of the 9th grade class and we decided I could have about 6 minutes during the ceremony to show pictures. I'm going to try and use my trusty Apple iBook to put the pics and titles cards into a movie that will include transitions and music - it'll be my little project for the nest two weekends.

I headed home about 5pm, still way before most teachers leave, but satisfied that I'd put in a good day of work.

So after feeling like I wasn't being utilized as much as I'd like, I had a day where I taught elementary kids, 7th graders, 8th graders, 9th graders and special needs kids. When it rains it pours. (But, literally, not here recently - we've been having great weather, even though it did snow once last week - the first time it's snowed this winter since I returned from America)

Today, there was no school at my Jr High since we'll be having classes on Saturday this week instead. On Saturday, the local 6th graders will visit Taisha Chu and see what life in Jr High is like. But I went to school today anyway - I decided to observe classes at my elementary school and I spent 1-4 periods with my 6th graders at Taisha Sho. It was interesting to join them for "Peer Support" class and Japanese lessons.

Today was a good day since I got my hair cut with my free time after lunch. I needed a hair cut badly. I pay about 3400yen, or about $30 for my haircut and shampoo - a little more than I would pay in the States. But it's worth it - you get a little head massage and the women at my local salon are super friendly. And as is standard in all parts of Japan, you don't have to tip. But I brought the woman that cuts my hair - Fumiko - some Jelly Beans from America as a gift (omiyage) and she seemed happy.

I also made a trip to the post office and picked up a package my parents sent full of great stuff I couldn't bring in my over-stuffed suitcases when I came back from America. Thanks for the Mac n Cheese!!!!

I should mention that my parents are now reading this blog - I helped them buy a new computer - a new iMac of course - at Christmas - and I made sure to bookmark my blog so they would start reading it. They always claimed to have trouble accessing it before when they lived in England, but now they have no excuses. :)

OK - this post has rambled on too long... But I will try and not be so busy soon and add more pics and videos soon.

Hope all is well with you.

-Jason

Jr High Boys kendo in Yasugi

I just posted 4 short clips of my kendo teams (boys and girls) from their competition in Yasugi this past weekend. My boys did well at the start of the day, but lost in the 2nd round. My girls did better, making it to the final round and coming in 2nd overall.

I've been busy the past few weekends getting out and seeing my kids compete - I watched Volleyball in Matsue three weeks ago, then tennis in Matsue two weeks ago, then kendo this past Sunday in Yasugi, which is about an hour away by car. This Sunday I'm off again to watch my Chorus club compete, again in Matsue, which is the captital of Shimane.

Enjoy,
Jason

Ohisashiburi

"Ohisashiburi" basically means "long time - no see." I know it's been a while since I've updated, and I hope to remedy that soon.

I've got tons of fun new pics, both from my trip home to SAN DIEGO for winter vacation, and from my ongoing adventures right here in glorious Taisha.

My future here in Japan is a bit uncertain at the moment. The JET Programme used to basically be a 3 year program, where we teachers decided to renew our contracts on a yearly basis. But 3 years was the maximum unless you applied to do a special Elementary School-only job for a 4th and 5th year. Most JETs seem to stay 2 years. So I was set to go home in July at the end of my three years, but late last year, the government agency that runs the JET Programme decided to change the re-contracting rules and allow JETs to stay a 4th or 5th year assuming that the school/town they work for still wants them around. So I had to think anew about leaving.

And I decided to try and transfer to a High School for my 4th and 5th years, so I would have had the experience of teaching at every level of the Japanese education system from pre-school to kindergarten to elementary to Jr High to High School.

But...

my transfer request was denied. I just found out today. I'm really bummed, as I think I would have a lot to offer my new school and I would have enjoyed the fresh challenges of teaching new kids in a new enviroment.

So now I have to decide if I want to
1 - stay at my current job for a 4th and possibly 5th year
2 - leave the JET Programme, but stay in Japan, which would mean finding a different job in another city
or
3 - going home, applying to Grad school, getting my teaching credential, and starting my career as a High School history teacher in California

lots to think about...

and I have to decide by Monday. Yeah, it was nice of the Japanese bureaucrats to wait to deny me until 3 days before the deadline for my re-contracting decision.

So guess what I'll be doing this weekend...

I will be watching the American SuperBowl on Monday, as they're showing it live in Japan at 8am Monday morning. (I'm taking a day off I got for working some overtime a few weeks back).

Anyway - hope all is well where you are - I promise to have new pictures and new vids up soon, so thanks if you've been checking in here - I haven't forgotten. :)

-J

Who's coming to town?

Xmas at Usagi Sho - 1
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

Santa Jason is coming to town! :)

This is me decked out in a fantastic Santa suit for an Xmas party at my tiny elementary school - Usagi Sho.

I only got to be Santa san twice this year, because I'm leaving tomorrow - yes - I'm heading home to America!!!

I took this next week off school - I'll miss 6 days all together - and I'm flying home to San Diego on Sunday and I won't be back until January 6th. Almost three full weeks of battery recharge with my whole family in town for the holidays. With my folks being in England and my brother being in Iraq for the past year, and of course with me in Japan, it's been a long time since we've all been together at the holidays - so I'm really excited to be heading home - my first time to leave Japan since March of 2005.

This might be my last post for a while, so I hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a fantastic New Year!

Click on this pic to be taken to a bunch of random holiday pics I took this past week.

ho ho ho...
-J

Xmas lesson with Araki eigo club

Xmas lesson with Araki eigo club - 6.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

ALTs - Click to see some examples of this very simple to make Holiday Card. I found the idea online at a good site for games for your classroom - i also got a great printable pattern for making snowflakes.

http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/xmas/

**Yes, I know this picture shows the card upside down, but it just looked even weirder when I flipped it over.

cooking French toast with Opt-A

cooking French toast with Opt-A - 5.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

click on this pic to go to my Flickr site to see pics of my 9th graders and my elementary school kids in one of my English clubs cooking French Toast.

I chose FT since I really enjoy eating it, it's easy to prepare and cook and most of the kids haven't eaten it before. I had some syrup my friend, Emily, had bought me when she was home in America, so that made it even better. The kids had fun, there was some English involved and we all ate well - Japanese bread is HUGE!

-JCH
the "C" stands for culinary gourmet! (NOT!)

Japanese students singing Xmas song

Here are my kids in the Araki Sho eigo club singing "We Wish You a Merry Christmas."

Enjoy!
-JCH

Sept 06 trip - DAY THREE - Nara

Sept 06 trip - DAY THREE - Nara - 26.jpg
Originally uploaded by Jason In Japan.

OK - here is the last batch of pics from my September trip to Kyoto.

This was Monday, September 18th - a national holiday in Japan - "Respect for the Aged Day."

Kazuki met me at my hotel for the 9am checkout, we stuffed my stuff in a train station locker and then set out for Nara, which is about an hour away from Kyoto by train.

You can read more about what we saw and why Nara is an important site by checking out all the pics on my Flickr site.

Seeing the "Daibutsu" (Great Buddha) at Todai-ji was perhaps the highlight of an overall amazing weekend. The sheer size was so impressive - I was truly in awe walking around it. Not sure why it impressed me so - perhaps I was thinking about how monumental it must have been for Buddhist pilgrims to see it back in the 800s or 900s, let alone for us jaded, modern-day tourists.

I'm not a religious person at all, but studying world religions in college, I'll admit Buddhism had an appeal for me - and seeing this fantastic monument was a moving experience for me - far more so than I ever thought it would be.

We didn't really have time to explore the rest of the park at Nara, but I'd like to go back again and walk around even more - maybe on a day when it's less hot outside and more comfortable to walk around.

Kazuki and I had some lunch and then jumped back on a train to Kyoto and then to Osaka, as I had to book my return bus ticket from Osaka. We had some tasty okonomiyaki at a small place in the Osaka eki and then it was on the bus for the 6 hour journey back to Izumo.

An excellent weekend of sight seeing!

Enjoy,
Jason