How I spent my winter vacation

Tuesday - In a mad rush of fury I find cheap tickets to return home.  I go to work and rush through 1/2 the day so that I can go and get a re-entry visa (30 bucks).  After 3hours and exiting at 3 wrong stations, I finally get to the immigration office, JUST as they're closing their window!! AH!  Rushing to the window, I try to explain the situation as the next day is a public holiday and the tickets are for Thursday.  Kindly enough she rushes the paperwork, I run across the street get my "stamp" to verify payment, and return with her having already stamped and processed my passport! Wow, talk about efficient.  10 minutes later I'm on my way back home. Success!!  Arizona, here I come.

Wednesday - Call ANA, reserve the tickets.  Call to make sure I can pay in cash at the airport.  Sure, okay.  Ready to go.

Thursday - Going to check my ticket information I notice that my ticket had been canceled because I didn't pay.  I go to rebook and there's no more flights left.  Well, what now????   What else!!!! Plan my own vacation to here:  http://www.asaya-hotel.co.jp/

Friday - Monday:

Train Ride - 1.5 hours

Check-in -







Head to room -










Watch crazy English television...seriously?  This guy wouldn't be allowed NEAR children in America, and here in Japan they give him his own tv show!  He has to be one of the skeeziest looking gaijin in Japan.

So what are they teaching kids today?  Oh, yeah common phrases like, "HURRY UP!"  In a culture that has multiple levels of politeness built into their language, they sure as heck teach the rudest English.  Who purposely teaches children to say, "Hurry Up!"  Not just teaching, but it's a whole song and dance routine. 

Explore- 1st on my list, the beautiful foot bath.  Free. About 5 minutes from the hotel overlooking the river that runs through the middle of town.

View from the foot bath.

 View from the cable car up the mountain.

 30 minute hike through the woods...granted everything was dead, but the small bit of snow left was a nice touch.  Unfortunately, I forgot the high heels and miniskirt.  Which seemed to be the required hiking attire for women.  Nothing more enjoyable than watching a woman inch her way down icy stairs in 3 inch heels.

Eat - 4 rows of food. 1) All you can eat sashimi 2)All you can eat pasta, rice, noodles, pizza, and various fried foods 3) Chinese 4) Fruit and salad.  A row of chefs cooking meat to your order. 

Your own personal sukiyaki pot and...

did I mention the all you can eat desert bar (rows of jellies, pies, cakes, and about 12 flavors of ice cream). 

Onsen - Absolutely gorgeous.  Night time, fog rising off the water, being danced about by the cool wind.  The stars visible and the moon directly overhead it is nearly surreal.


Massage -
80 minutes of pure aromatherapy bliss....

Sleep and repeat....While I definitely miss home...well, I can't deny that this was one of the best vacations ever. The only down side was they were running a Christmas couples special...nothing like being the sole single person in a 10 story hotel.  Okay, well the only single person under 70 in the hotel.  But heck, all you can eat breakfast and dinner, delicious baths, massages, and 15 hours of sleep a day...I can't complain. 

Great way to start winter vacation in Japan.

And then all hell broke loose

Wow, I feel like I'm living in an episode of the Twilight Zone.  This week was the all exciting "Parent-Teacher-Student conferences".  Every student and teacher met to discuss the student's attitude, motivation, and performance in class.  In Japan, students stay in the same classroom all day while the teachers rotate.  Each class has a homeroom teacher that keeps a class notebook of behavior notes for all of the students in each class.  Teachers also meet daily to talk about concerns.  These concerns are then delivered to parents in the most honest, but sensitive (Japanese) way possible.  I really wish I could have been present for some of them.  I expect to see a lot of gifts in the teacher's lounge next week from embarrassed parents.  So, what's happened this week?

Monday - wow, oh wow...a busy day of reading tests.  I have to admit the students are improving, but gosh, listening to 80 Japanese kids trying to read English is near painful.  And then listening to them complain when they get a B, because "please" became "place" and "try" became "nantoka" (UH....) and every word was read in robotic fashion...sigh.  I quickly learned the phrase, "kimochi wo komete" (insert feeling).

Later in the day, I was heading upstairs to the 1st year's floor (4th floor).  As I passed the 2nd year floor, I suddenly hear, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!" and then spotted kids running up and down the hallway.  Then a group of girls start in on "Old McDonald..."  which was more like: "Uh huh uhhh huh nanana E-I-E-I-OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...heheheahahaha."  Then came the banging and a group of boys shoving each other up against the wall.  It's like the 3rd floor psych ward.  Continuing up to the 4th floor, I walk into class 1-1 and stop dead in my tracks.  It's about 30 degrees outside and they have every window and balcony door open.  Students are sitting on their desks, some boys are throwing paper airplanes, a group of girls are trying to grab one another's private parts, as are a group of three boys who are piled on each other's laps in a single chair.  To top it off, the two smallest, nerdiest boys in class are fighting, literally. One boy had the other boy in a choke hold (limply) and was punching him in the stomach (probably to little affect).  OH DEAR GOD!  What the hell has happened here!?  I stop and just stare for a few seconds upon which they notice me and stop.  The English teacher walks in and I say, "It seems all hell has broken loose."  She just looks at me and asks what that means.  I then give an impromtu lesson on the phrase, writing it on the board so she can see it.  She then says, "Recently, all hell has been breaking loose in class 1-1 and I don't know why the kids have become crazy" (taught her crazy last week).  Shoganai ne (it can't be helped).

Tuesday - Elementary school.  The real highlight of my day was receiving this picture, for the 6th grade yearbook, drawn by the secretary.  I  am the one on the right swinging from the stem.  Totally awesome.  She asked me to write something and not knowing really what to write, I spent about 1 minute writing "nantoka nantoka...blahblahblah" and then gave it back.  She looked at me and says, "You're already done! That's fast...it took me 3 days to draw the picture."  Uhhhh??? And? Am I supposed to take three days to write a note to a group of kids I see once a month?  Probably not the best response I could have come up with.

Wednesday - Start of parent conferences, only 4 classes.  After which I was asked to help tutor slower students.  3 girls. The first girl is clearly slower, back in America she would be in a resource classroom.  She really struggles in school, but all the teachers say is: "she just doesn't have any motivation to learn." Hmm, even when she does try she gets 15 out of 100 at best.  She's a sweet girl, but the only thing I ever hear from her is, "zenzen wakaranai" (I don't understand anything).  The second girl walks in with a CRAZY look in her eye, almost like she wanted to eat me alive.  She turned to the English teacher and says, "I don't want to work with Jones. She's scary." ME!?!  Crap this girl always looks ready to beat someone up.  At that moment, another student came in to ask a question and the little girl turns to her, in a gangster like voice barks, "Wadda ya want? Get outta here." WHOA!? The girl ignores her and keeps trying to talk.  The little girl just keeps saying to get out, she can't be in here.  Then a 3rd student trails in.  She's the smallest 2nd year student.  This girl spends the majority of her time in the nurse's office or standing at the entrance of the teacher's lounge.  Last week, her other classmates were screaming at her in the middle of class, while she wildly drew dark circles through her textbook.  A couple days later she called 119 to come get her from school because she didn't want to go home.  They couldn't get any information out of her, so she ended up spending a few hours at the police station.  Crap and I'm supposed to do what with these girls?  Teach them phonics?! WHAT!  At first the little gangster girl wouldn't even look at me, the slow girl immediately forgot everything the second we moved onto another letter, and the little girl...she honestly didn't really seem to need any help, but was there probably just to have something to do so the other kids wouldn't pick on her.  All in all it was pretty fun.  I taught them that calling a teacher, teacher, in America is rude and I'd prefer Miss Jones.  When I got up to leave they all said, "Thank you Miss Jones."  AHH!!! so cute.  I guess it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

Thursday - Not so cute.  This time I was asked to help 4 boys...oh lord help me.  From the very start one boy would only say "poop" to every question.
Me- "A, A, Apple"
Him- "A, A, Apple poop"
Me - "D, D, Dog"
Him-"D, D, Dog poop"
Sigh...then he made the sentence (in English) - "Poop in pasta rice."
Me - "Wow, impressive...next"
We then get to F
Me - "F, F, Fish"
Him-"F, F, F*ck You"
Me - WHOA! I don't think so!  In America that'll get you hit, you don't say that."  The boys were genuinely shocked that people will hit you for saying that.  Here it's about as casual as any other greeting one might use.
After F, he goes back to poop.
Me - "S, S, snake"
Him - "S, S, sh*t"
OH COME ON!  SERIOUSLY!? Quickly finishing the rest of the sounds, the boy stands up and goes...no joke, "All this talk of poop.  I want to go poop now.  Wait a second."
Upon returning, he begins spelling memorable words like, sex and hentai eros (perverted love).  Of course right at that moment another teacher comes in and sees this and to my suprise says absolutely nothing!!! No wonder the kids go nutty in his class.
I try to move on to teaching verbs.
Me - "Eat"
Boys -"I eat girls" (NO JOKE)
Me - "Play"
Boys - "Boys and girls play sex" (Here they teach the kids that the verb "do" also means play)
Me - Okay, I'm done. You guys seem to know everything you'll need later in life.  Good luck. Bye bye.

Friday - I was in a 3rd year class helping students translate sentences.  One of the boys in the class was just sitting there, so I went over to help him figure out the first sentence.  As I was squatting near his desk he throws his hands up to his face and shouts, "GAIJIN OPPAI! AH! Oh NO! Oh My GOD! SO BIG! OH OH OH!"  WHAT THE HECK! I don't even have large breasts.  He finally calms down and I try to help him.  At the end of class, as I'm leaving and he stands up and says, "Thank you VERY much Mr. Jones."

Yes, I'm not a big breasted man.  Doesn't get much better than that.  Just 3 days left before break.  Should be interesting to see how things go from here.

And just when I thought things couldnt get any nuttier...

they do.

This week, 6 2nd year boys thought it would be entertaining to fight in the hallways after school...5-on-1.  Needless to say the 1 boy was pretty banged up.  Teachers were pissed because that meant they had to stay late to talk to all of the boys and their parents.  And what exactly came of this 2 hour 6pm meeting?  NOTHING!  The very next day every boy was back in class with nooo consequences and according to the teachers 1/2 of them didn't think that they did anything wrong!!!! What the heck!? 

It seems that by this point in the year, everyone in school, including the teachers, have become afraid of ONE boy.  I'm going to call him flowerman...1) because I'm not creative enough to come up with something different and 2) because part of his name is flower.  Flowerman isn't even that intimidating.  I've seen much more threatening 1st graders back in America.  But for some reason, some of the bigger boys, manchildren really, in the 2nd grade are also afraid of him.  I guess the teachers and students think he's actually crazy.  And by crazy they mean that he doesn't care about anything; which probably sounds awfully familiar to most teachers in the States.  His parents have given up and the teachers won't go near him, so that leaves him and his pea-sized brain to run the 3rd floor of the school.  It's like promoting the craziest patient in the psych ward to ward director. NUTS! ABSOLUTELY NUTS!  I'm tired of this crap.  My voice can't take any more screaming over the animal house that is the 3rd floor.  Next week I'm going to implement my solution.  It's called PROJECT ESTABLISH DOMINANCE.  Just give me a few more days in the gym and my biceps should be ready to challenge him to the time-tested gauge of manliness:  an arm-wrestling competition.  That's right, I'm going to challenge a 13 year old boy to an arm-wrestling contest.  Since I don't know enough Japanese to talk to him, I figure the best I can do is drop his ego a few notches.  Fortunately, there aren't any laws in Japan against such methods and people here don't sue.  Unfortunately, there aren't any safety regulations either and all the students are allowed to carry box cutters.  Yeah, that's right, in the madness that is Japanese education they actually let each kid carry around their own box cutter...CRAP! That's like giving the people in prison a knife upon entry.  Where the hell is the common sense!?

On a happier note, kids are finally starting to talk to me.  These conversation range from being asked, "Do you know something something Nightingale?" This was actually sung to me by a group of 4 1st year girls...I had NOOO idea what it was until one girl pronounced EVERY phoneme of the word.  I've been asked if my glasses are fashion glasses (people actually wear fake glasses over their contacts here).  I get asked daily if this is my real hair color, eye color, etc., etc.  My favorite conversation today was with a second year boy who caught me jay-walking.  This is the same boy who screams, "NAN DAIYO!" every time I look at him...(what/why are you doing that!?).  He felt it was his duty to tell me that it was wrong and that I should wait until the light turns blue.  Yes, in Japan the traffic light is blue, not green, even though it really is green.  I was impressed by his attempt at using English to chastize me about illegally crossing the street (especially since the same kid sleeps through class every day).  But nothing was better than the naughty 2nd year boy who seems to have learned English by osmosis....

Class 2-2 (the LOUDEST class in school) Start of class -

Naughty boy at the back - "Stand-up.  Please say Stand-up!"
Teacher - "Stand up please. Hello, class"
Class - "Hello Mrs. Tabiti" (they really call her that)
Naughty boy- "How are you class?"
Teacher...looking annoyed - "How are you today?"
Naughty boy- "Imfainsenkyunu and Ms. Jones?"
Mrs. Jones - "Good afternoon everyone"
Boys - "Good afternoon beautiful teacher Jones" (HELL YEAH!)
Mrs. Jones - "How are you today?"
Naughty boy - "I'm fabulous senks" (this is my line)
Mrs. Jones - "I'm super thanks"
Naughty boy - "Tabiti teacher what's super?"
For the rest of the class the student continued with all the teacher's lines, "Please turn to page 35." "Please repeat after Ms. Jones." "Okay, good job class now I'm Yuki and you're Mike."  "You are listening to English Radio...."

Ahhhh, that explains it all.  But I'm not going to complain.  The last last 10 minutes of class I was left by myself with nothing to do.  Standing at the front of the class, I suddenly find myself alone with absolutely NO idea what I'm going to do, when the naughty boy at the back yells, in English "Quiet everybody this is English time, Ms. Jones is trying to teach.  Listen to her."  He then says it in Japanese and when everyone gets quiet he goes, "Okay Ms. Jones."  We went through flashcards a few times...still time left....stalling stalling... losing the kids...but the kid in the back once again shouted for everyone to shut up.  HALLELUJIAH!!! Where the heck did he come from?!  Fabulous!!!  I don't understand what all these teachers are worked up about.  The 2nd years are so bad really.

Snotty noses and possessed homeroom teachers...

Okay, I'm so desperately going to try and update this more often.  I'm just so damn busy trying to survive on peanuts it's ridiculous.  This week in a nutshell (when I get home I'll upload pictures).

Monday - went and visited my new place of work.  ==== international preschool.  Beautiful place located in Azabu-Juban (a very wealthy part of Tokyo).  My main purpose was to meet with the owner and the director. Instead of this, I found myself spending much of the morning observing the Star class (preK).  The kids are so dang cute.  Most of them already know their alphabet, how to spell their names, most of the letter sounds, and how to do basic addition and subtraction.  I have to admit I was really curious as to what would happen in this class.  During my previous visit the teacher informed me that the worst behaved student was absent.  Apparently this kid bites, kicks, punches, and is a real terror.  After hearing this, I couldn't help but picture something like Chucky meets the Exorcist.  Seriously, how bad can a little 4 year old boy be?

Well, let me tell you, this little 4 year old boy is the CUTEST! kid I've ever seen.  He even has dimples when he smiles.  He looks more like an angel than the tiny terror the teacher described.  The entire time I was there, he clung to me, just smiling and asking politely if he could sit next to me.  I have to admit the kid had no social skills and did kick a kid once (though by no means was malicious about it...did I just excuse a kid kicking another kid?).  The kid obviously lacks social skills and spent most of his time looking around the room for social cues and then mimicking all the other kids.  I was a little disappointed.  If I were the teacher, he probably would have been my favorite kid, but I do always fall for the awkward ones. Honestly, the only disturbing thing about the kid was his excessive need to blow his nose.  I lost count of the number of times he had giant bugers hanging from his nose.

About 1/2 way into the day, the director and owner pulled me out and took me upstairs to see the 3rd floor, which is where the kindergarten class would be held.  The space was HUGE, about the size of 2 and 1/2 classrooms. One of the walls was floor to ceiling bookshelves.  They're getting ready to rennovate the space and have given me free reign to do with it as I please!!! Fantastic!  How many chances does a teacher get to totally design their own classroom?  I'm going to be able to build a science station, a stage, and some fake buildings!  This is going to be the coolest classroom ever!  I get to order all the supplies, tables, chairs, etc and budget isn't an issue.  I think I've died and gone to teacher heaven.  Once I'm done making every kindergartener's dream classroom, I get to design my own curriculum! What a way to start the week!

Then Tuesday came....

Tuesday - I thought I was going to have a pretty happy week.  Only 3 work days and one of them would be at my favorite elementary school where I always have loads of fun, but no of course not.  It's that time of the year when the weather is beginning to look a lot more like winter.  Unfortunately, no one has informed the BOE (board of education) of this.  I walked into the building and it had to be below 30 degrees inside.  Within 15 minutes my fingers were pale white with hints of light purple.  Good thing I was wearing a tank top, long-sleeve turtle-neck, two long sleeve shirts, a zip-up sweater, and a jacket.  Plus 2 pairs of tights and my dress pants, plus the longest thickest scarf I own.  You'd think with all these layers that I would be down-right overheating.  But no, I was still freezing.  Knowing that I was going to have to spend 3 hours in this room, I asked the other English teacher if it was alright for me to wear gloves.  Sorry, no insurance, no money, I'm not risking my health for 100 bucks a day.  She says it's fine and I go along with my day.  Everything was fine until 3rd period.  Halfway through class the homeroom teacher marches up to me in the front of everyone and starts yelling at me in Japanese. I was standing at the front flipping flashcards.  What could I possibly be doing that's so horribly wrong?  I was totally dumbfounded.  I have never in my life been spoken to in such a way by another adult.  Like a deer frozen in the headlights, I just stared at her.  While I'd like to say I had no idea what she was saying, I figured out pretty quickly exactly what she was trying to tell me.
     I have to say that it's pretty damn amazing how much Japanese I've picked up in the last 5 months.  Apparently, "IN JAPAN" students aren't allowed to wear hats, coats, scarves, or gloves in the classroom.  This is apparently distracting.  Hmm, odd, I would think that not being able to feel your fingers or toes in class would be distracting.  All of the students in that room were cold so I should be cold too.  It's not fair that I was allowed to wear a scarf and gloves while the kids sat there freezing.  WHAT!?  All I could think to myself as she rambled on was that I do NOT get paid enough to deal with this bs.  I just continued to stare at the teacher saying、"wakaranai" (I don't understand).  Okay that's a lie, I totally knew what she wanted, but damn I wasn't going to let someone talk to me like that and just bend over and take it.  So we moved off to the side and then the English teacher "translated".  I then said, unlike the rest of the students I didn't have government provided healthcare and could not afford to go to the doctor if I got sick.  She didn't seem to care.  I reluctantly removed my gloves and stood off to the side chattering my teeth the rest of class.  Yeah, it was seriously that cold in the unheated, uninsolated room that received NO direct sunlight, all the while snow falling outside.  At the end of class, the homeroom teacher marched back up to me.  Crap I was scared to hear what was next. She's burly for a Japanese woman...  She points at me and tells the English teacher to tell me that she's sorry.  I knew exactly what she was saying, but I still pretended not to.  The odd thing was, the whole time she had a proud smile on her face.  Yeah, sorry my ass.  Afterwards, the student teacher (who used to teach English) came up and tried to explain how Japanese Bushido (she seriously said Bushido...the code of samurai) states that students shouldn't be allowed to wear items in class that could distract them from their training.  I didn't come to Japan to become a samurai.  I asked, "isn't it dangerous to require students to sit in these freezing cold rooms without any source of heat?"  She just shrugged her shoulders.  It's not surprised that so many kids are sick every day.

I dragged my frigid self back to the only truly heated room in the school, the teacher's room.  Once inside, the English teacher told me that the principal wanted to see me.  Oh YOU'VE GOT TO BE KIDDING ME.
Rolling my eyes, I shuffled my frozen ass into his office.  He had me sit down on his warm leather sofa, right beneath his heater before preceeding to tell me why I had to spend my day freezing my ass off in the other room.  Apparently I'm no different than the kids and if they can't wear those things than neither can I.  I about lost it.  I looked at the English teacher and said, 1) the kids dont have to stay in that freezing room for longer than 50 minutes, we're in there for the entire day (their classrooms are heated).  2) I don't have health insurance, if I get sick I can't go to the doctor which means I can't work, which means I don't get paid.  3) I'm from the desert, I'm totally unaccostume to such frigid conditions (ESPECIALLY INSIDE A DAMN BUILDING!). 

She translated and he pretended to ponder before again telling me that none of those reasons are valid...WHAT!?! Is he lacking common sense?  My jaw about fell to the floor as my eyes began to well-up and I just stared in utter disbelief.  What was this? Communist Russia?  I'm in one of the most technologically advanced countries in the world and I'm being told I have to freeze my ass off all day for a mere 100 bucks?  HELL NO.  And as if to pour salt on the wound he says, "Please take care of your health."  I just looked at him and said, "That's just it.  I'm trying, but if I can't get warm, I'm going to sick and then what do I do?"  I don't know what changed at that point (I'm guessing it was the direct expression of emotion), but he paused for a moment before suggesting that we do the rest of the lessons in the student's classrooms.  Apparently, the building that we were teaching in is the ONLY building in the school that is NOT heated... Needless to say, I couldn't be more thankful that I will only have to return to that school 3 more times.  GAH!

Then Wednesday came -

Wednesday - I was still pissed from Tuesday and spent most of my day cleaning the damn lint off my tatami floor (It's horrible, you'd think I owned 10 rabbits with all the dang fluff building up on the floor).

Thursday - Junior high school.  This wasn't bad, just spent the day with the 1st year students.  They're pretty cute, albeit a little on the slow side, which sort of makes them even cuter.  The teacher was passing back their tests.  Most of the class failed (below 50), all the teacher said was, "practice harder." Hmm, okay, they apparently don't understand, how is studying at home, alone, going to help them?  I have to admit it was kind of interesting to see who got what score and how they responded.  One girl got a 99 and broke into tears, while another girl got a 16 and was showing it to everyone in the classroom.  Strange....so strange.

OH! And then there was my sentaku class, which kicks major butt.  There are only 4 girls in that class and the rest are boys who are sharper than knives.  I've been having them change phrases of sentences around, but leaving the verb in place.  There's one particular boy in this class, Mi-chan, who I have labelled Space Cadet Kazuki.  He cannot focus to save his life.  He has the biggest personality of any student I have ever taught which is why I LOVE HIM!  It's also why everyone else picks on him so much.  The sentence for the day was, "Jeffery was sent to live with his Aunt Dot and Uncle Dan in Pennsylvania."  Subject Verb Prepositional Phrase.  The sentences I got back were:

1. Kazuki's brain was sent to space.
2. Kazuki and his dog were sent to live in a kennel in Tibiti-sensei's backyard.
3. Kazuki was sent to live with Mrs. Jones in America. AHHHHH!!!! DEAR GOD, HELP ME!
4. Kazuki was sent to Papua New Guinea. 

AHH!! Amazing.  I wrote some of them up on the board.  Of course one kid looks at them and goes, "Those aren't correct, you said we could only change two phrases, but they changed all of them." OH for crying out loud, grow a sense of humor kid. 


Friday - I used to think that I really didn't like the 3rd year English teacher, but I'm starting to love him.  Every time I am scheduled to spend the entire day with him, he takes a "holiday."  HECK YEAH!  I spent much of the day just grading the second year's tests (they had to create dialogue to match a picture - here are some of my favs).

Mr. White - bery hot why day?
Mrs. White - I think sun.
Mr. White - Oh reary?
Mrs. White - yes

Mr. White - you look hot
Mrs. White - you look strong
Mr. White - you look hard
Mrs. White - Shall we go home?
Mr. White - Yes, Let's.

Oh, brilliant!

Then the end of the day came and during cleaning time I suddenly heard what sounded like show tunes coming out of the woodshop class.  I peak inside and this kid is dancing around the room while singing what sounds like "Hello my Baby, Hello my honey, Hello my ragtime gal."  It was hilarious.  He wraps up the song with a spin and comes down to his knees and throws his arms open RIGHT IN FRONT OF ME!  It was like something out of a movie.  He about DIED!  His face went bright red and he just goes, "Hello, Jones-sensei. How are you?" and walks away. 

Gosh, I LOVEEEEE Fridays! 

What the hell is going on here?

As the months go by, I find myself slowly becoming less fascinated and more bothered by the things that are going on around me.  It's been over 6 months and the enjoyment of riding the train to work, riding my bike around town, teaching English, working in a Japanese school has started to fade.

Work is becoming less exciting and more and more bizarre.  The students, especially 2nd year students, have really been coming out of their shell.  The behavior is unlike anything I've ever seen before.  I'm not going to say that it's only something you'd see in Japan, but it's not something I ever saw back home (THANK GOD, or I would have quit a long time ago). 

About a month ago, a 2nd year boy (who just the day before I was taking straws away from and blocking his path to the straw container) decided it'd be a good idea to try and hit his homeroom teacher.  During lunch, the boy had piled food up on his plate.  The teacher then told him to put it back so the rest of the class could eat and the boy then tried to swing...which wasn't smart, because his homeroom teacher is probably the strongest teacher at the school.  However, the rest of the boys started calling this boy a hero.  From that point, it seems as though everyone is on edge.  I've seen teachers grabbing kids by the neck and shaking them because they aren't sitting straight up in their chairs.  I've seen teachers screaming in the faces of students, backing them into the hallway, and then into an empty classroom followed by the sound of chairs and tables being knocked over.  I've seen male students shoving and slapping at a female teacher (who wasn't too smart herself as she kept trying to grab him by the arm while screaming at him). 

But nothing beats watching a male student spend 10 minutes throwing soap at a window and sliding it up and down the hall while laughing to himself.  Not a single teacher went to see what was going on.  When I went out to see if everything was all right I see one of the crazier students (this is the same boy who got backed into a classroom by another teacher).  As I entered the hallway, he started dancing around me and laughing and asking me if I saw the soap.  I ignored him, picked the soap up and went to put it back by the sink.  When I looked back at him he was just standing there grinning.  I asked him if he was alright and he just stopped and starred at me.  I asked him again and he just walked back into the classroom.  5 minutes later he was back out in the hallway throwing soap at the windows again.  As soon as he saw me he went back to class.  I picked up the soap and went to hand it to him, but he slammed the door in my face, so I went to the other door and handed it to the teacher and told the teacher it was the student's.  I've seen students strangling other students, students strangling themselves (a kid was turning blue in class), a student spend all of class sitting on another student and not a single teacher stop anything.  I'm not sure what I was expecting the teacher to do with the soap.  I asked the English teacher about it and she said that some of the students are so crazy that there is nothing any of the teachers will do because they're afraid. 

You've got to be kidding.  These aren't juvenile deliquents we're dealing with.  These are normal kids who need guidance, understanding, and someone to talk to.  The other day, another one of the "crazy" students just up and left in the middle of class (the teacher said he couldn't stand around and talk to his friend).  I followed him out and just stood and watched him as he tried to poke things through the door of another classroom.  He saw me and said to go back.  I ignored him of course and just walked closer.  The teacher in that classroom was just standing at the front of the room.  About 3 boys were standing at the back trying to take what was being shoved through the door.  I looked at the boys and just starred.  I have to admit that sometimes it's good that we can't communicate.  I can just stare and the kids don't know what to say, so they usually stop.  The boys grumbled and I just asked, "Why?"  The boy started walking back to class and said something about being free.  I joked that he had too much free time because he wasn't studying.  He walked back into class and as soon as everyone saw me behind him the kids were shocked.  It turns out this is the same thing the other female teacher was trying to do when he walked out of her class.  He didn't comment but just went and sat down.  I walked over and helped him with his worksheet.  At first he didn't write anything and just kept saying, I'll remember.  YEAH RIGHT.  Finally, he got out his pencil and wrote a few sentences.  It wasn't much and I'm sure he doesn't remember any of it, but I'll bet he remembers what I did to get him back in class. 

On top of a rather odd week of classes, a teacher at our school suddenly passed away last night.  This was announced during our morning meeting.  After 30 or so seconds of silence, everyone went on business as usual.  There was no mention of a counselor for anyone to talk to and no one has even mentioned what happened.  I didn't really know him, but knowing that someone I saw everyday just suddenly died has left me in shock.  He was a very kind man who taught the special needs students. He always tried talking to me, even though he knew my Japanese was limited.  The teacher next to me is the only other special education teacher, who is now left to do the work of two people.  All day today he has been walking around looking dazed (probably the same way I look).  I asked if he was ok and he just gave me a thumbs up and a really weak smile and went to go teach.  I don't understand how they do it.  How do people survive like this?  I barely knew the man, but gosh what I wouldn't give just to be able to talk to someone about it.  Sitting here keeping these feelings inside is killing me.  Back home, the school would have called in a counselor, the principal would have set aside time to talk to people, people would look as though someone just passed away...I don't understand.


Never in my life have I felt so overwhelmed.  Watching students being verbally and sometimes physically abused by the people who are supposed to help and nurture them is dreadful.  I know that this happens in America, and probably almost all other countries, but I have been lucky enough to never have seen it.  Teaching, in most Western countries, is about touching the lives of children.  Helping them not only learn, but to grow into good people.  What is teaching in Japan?  Why do people become teachers?  None of the teachers seem like "bad" people (aside from being overly critical and hot-tempered). So why can't they recognize that these kids need help?  Homeroom teachers spend countless hours meeting with students about their future, calling home, and even being the first ones called if a student gets in trouble outside of school.  So, why are there still kids slipping through the cracks?  Is it that they feel like they can't do anything?  From what I've heard from other people it's because there is a resistance to change here.  But at what cost?  What will happen to these kids who spend most of their time bullying other students or wandering the hallways?  Again, I know this happens in America, it's common for teachers to lose hope for students or to ignore bad behavior (as that is the easier route).  But in America I felt like I was still able to push on, even when other teachers stopped.   This is truly the first time, that I have felt absolutely helpless.

Getting settled

Gosh, how time flies. It's almost been a month since my last blog :-| Actually, it's almost been a month since I started writing this post. But I guess that's what happens when you find yourself working 6:30 -10 almost every night of the week. Since my move to my new apartment, there have been quite a few changes to my life and lifestyle:

1. I now live smack dab between two stations making things both MORE and LESS convenient. In one sense I'm a short bike ride to a large station. On the other hand, I'm a short bike ride and quick jog to the train I take to work. Before I was a quick walk to most places, now I'm a quick bike ride. Needless to say my thighs and a$$ are much firmer than before I moved (DEFINITELY A PLUS).

2. I joined a gym. The gym is a lot like the Lifetime back home. The cost is about 79 bucks a month (a little ridiculous), BUT it's located right next to a major station which gives me FREEEE BIKE PARKING!! Which is easily worth 30 bucks a month. Meaning that I pay about 50 bucks a month, not tooo shabby. I'll have to try and write more about the gym later.

3. My schedule has become extremely hectic.  I wake around 6, start my commute around 6:30, work from 8-5, head to a private lesson, get to the gym around 9, get home around 10:30 and eat, then sleep and start over.  This is pretty much my schedule M-F and Sundays.  It's dang tiring and the days have quickly blurred.

4.  Money seems to be falling out of my pockets at an extremely rapid pace.  So I bring in an extra 400+/month in private lessons...but it just doesn't seem to make it to the bank. 

5.  I've started spending time with my new roommate, who is a lively (and lovely) British girl.  She's been kind enough to introduce me to her friends and even let me hang out with her on the weekends.  However, most of the time is spent dishing out large sums of money for food and drink (30 bucks for two drinks and one meal last week alone).  I don't know what would happen if I actually stayed out with them the entire night.  See, most of her Saturdays are spent drinking and karaok'ing all night with friends.  They keep insisting that once you do it, it becomes easier, but to me that sounds like those old drug commercials that used to be on tv as a kid.  I've yet to try it, mostly because I fear that they're right and it WOULD become easier.

6. I've taken up Japanese cooking.  For my b-day my roommate bought me an English/Japanese cookbook.  It has to be one of the nicest presents anyone has ever bought for me.  But I think it's because she caught me putting sticky notes in her's.  Yeah, I know, I'm not the best roommate.  Now, instead of sleeping at 10pm Monday nights (only free night I have), you'll find me preping and cooking a variety of Japanese dishes.  So far, no one has died during the consumption of said dishes.  I do find that Japanese cooking is way to time consuming, taking multiple hours to cook just one meal.  But it was either learn to cook using Japanese ingredients or keep eating miso soup, rice and eggs.  Sad, so sad.

7. I've become more focused on learning Japanese.  My roommate is currently studying to take the level 2 Japanese Language Proficiency test, which has motivated me to focus on preparing to take the level 4 test (level 4 is the lowest).  This basically sucks up whatever other free time I have available.  Train rides, work breaks, freetime at home, and sometimes (shhh...don't tell anyone), sometimes I even study while I'm "assisting" the other English teachers (shows you just how much I really do at work).

Needless to say, life is starting to really fly by. I honestly can't keep up with it and have attempted to make a schedule.  At some point I'll find time to blog about it and maybe post a picture, but until then I'll just have to focus on getting by.