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.