I have a Job, this post isn't about that...

Kidding of course!
So since March I have been working as an english teacher. The general set-up is that I meet my students at a cafe, they buy me a drink, and then I attempt to teach english with varying amounts of success. Currently I have five students, looking to learn english for various reasons and with highly variable english abilities. I've made a small list of them all below!

1# - Male - mid 30's - accountant - wants to learn english for business
2# - Female - early 30's - travel agent - wants to learn english for work
3# - Female - late 20's - bank teller - wants to learn english for travel
4# - Female - late 20's - office lady - wants to learn english to prove that she can
5# - Male - late 30's - salesman - works for US company and wants to be able to read memo's

So as you can see, my students are all much older than me and working professionals. I think that the fact that I'm presently learning Japanese really helps when I'm teaching and its good practice for me to try and define english words in Japanese. I meet my students from 1-4 hours a week depending on the student and am currently making about 20$ an hour (I don't deserve so much).

Its really been a lot of fun working with each student on readings, essays, and just general conversation. With student #1 especially I've formed a very good relationship (he's taking me out to dinner this week for some whale!). He really has improved over the last two months, especially with his speaking confidence. I guess most importantly watching how my students have progressed (or not) has motivated me to work harder during my last 2.5 months (so SAD) left in Japan.

Anyway, I don't really know what to say about work... so uh... ask me questions?

Oh, and now for pictures!
I went back to Yoyogi park once the weather brightened up. Check out the hot Cadillac these guys have! I wonder how it got to Japan in the first place.
Oh and here is one of the bikers without his shirt. I meant to get the other side of his body, because he had a massive tattoo of a dragon.
These girls advertise their new CD by riding around in the back of a truck. I guess if anything you are getting a lot of exposure.

Anyway guys, I need your help. I'm not sure what to blog about anymore. So please, let me know what topics/questions you'd like to see addressed here!

I went to 群馬！

So for Golden-week (really just a three day weekend) I went to see my old homestay Satoru's family in Gunma. The name means 'group of horses' so you know its gonna be countryside. Once again, instead of saying something thought-out and coherent... I'm going to throw up some pictures and talk about them! Time has been passing by really fast lately, I can't believe its already been two weeks since I last blogged!

Here is Sato and I. I rolled out of bed and through the shower and found myself on this platform in the early hours of the morning (okay... 9AM... early for a weekend...) and ready to go for a 2 hour trip to Gunma!
This is Sato's house. Things of note here include the fact that his dad built the whole thing. Yes the whole thing. He is a carpenter and he told me that his hobby is building houses in his free time. A real Man's man. And truly it's a nice house no? Here is Sato's car. I think it actually looks bigger in this picture than it actually is. I don't know that I've ever been so scared riding in a car. It didn't help that we are zooming down small rain-slicked mountain roads....oh and the fact that Sato hit a wall... twice also added to my fears.

These are some Gundam action figures. I saw them in a barber. They were made entirely of paper! Its called papercraft, I've seen them before but never this complicated.
The next day, we went to the Toy and Doll/and antique car museum. It was started by the head of a hospital who had a large collection of (guess) Toys, Dolls, and Antique Cars (he should pick just one) and decided to open his own museum (this is also where Sato rammed the wall twice).
Taken in the Teddy bear section. I don't know why needs the flying bike if he already has wings.
This is Monchichi. He's ugly, but purposefully so
These are kyupii babies... also purposefully ugly... and in even worse colors.
An aforementioned antique car.
Teddy Chess!
Okay, the most ridiculous exhibit. This is a cage, for squirrels... yes squirrels. Apparently Japanese people don't see them very often and they find the undeniably cute. I'm going to charge admission for people to come over to our house in Va and walk around the lawn.
Udon Noodles. And some tempura in the top right corner.

Anyway, the rest of Sunday was spent visiting Satoru and his friends all-guy and all-girl (respectively) high schools. The weather really didn't cooperate all day as it was raining and dark. Still I ate lots of good food, spent some quality time talking to Sato's family, and got some much deserved sleep. Monday morning came and the sky opened up. I went to the public hot springs, layed naked in the sun for an hour, took this picture (after getting dressed) and then ate lunch and returned back to Tokyo.

Overall, Gunma was much very relaxing, and I found that the people there were much more open to speaking with foreigners than those in Tokyo. I guess Tokyo is just too much of a world-city, but visiting the countryside reminded me of all the cultural aspects of Japan that I also enjoyed. (Not to mention pretty mountains!)

Picture Blitz!

Okay, so, I'm going off to Gunma this weekend (its Golden Week here in Japan... which is actually just a four-day weekend this year) to visit my friend Sato's family. So because I know that I am slow, and that I probably won't be able to tell you everything I want, I'm just gonna throw a bunch of pictures into this post and explain about them real quick.

One of the biggest cultural events in Japan is the 花見 (flower viewing). Basically, everyone goes outside, plops down a tarp in a nice park underneath the cherry blossom trees, and takes time to drink, chat with friends, and enjoy the scenery. This is what a park looked like on a COLD day. This year was unfortunate because the weather was warm at the start of may, causing all the trees to blossom, but then dropped down again very quickly. S

This is a biker gang that can be found outside Yoyogi park every sunday dancing to 50's rock n' roll music. I especially love the hair and jackets on these guys.



A night shot of Yokohama. I've posted picture of Yokohama before, but I just really enjoy the view everytime I go there, and decided to add this shot as well.
Oh, and for my last one. I wanted to throw up some McDonald's pictures. The McDonalds in Japan is essentially the same as its US counterparts. But the menu does have some extra goodies. There is the Teriaki Burger for one. But new items this year are the Shaka Shaka Chicken, which is basically a giant chicken nugget in a bag. You add various flavoring (Cheese, Lemon Pepper, and Chili) and then shake it (the onomatopoeia for shaking is Shaka Shaka).
Also, there is the Green Tea/Orea McFlurry.

Anyway, that is all I have for now... For those of you on facebook, I started up a album because Jen and I are trying to collect the ink stamps found at every JR station in Tokyo. I'll get around to blogging about that hear, but for now, I'm off to bed as I have to wake up early tomorrow.

Tired... but I took pictures!

So my apartment is located in Kameido. Its about a 25 minute train ride from school, which I can't stress enough as being one of its best assets. I'm paying about 500$ a month for rent and around 60$ on the utilities, which all in all is a pretty good deal. The trains are right across the street out front, so its a little bit loud until 12:30 at night, but other than that, you can't really beat the price and location.

Its my room... Obviously a little empty because there is no reason to buy furniture for a few months. I have a tatami floor and sleep on that futon there, which I sometimes roll up. Excuse the mess please!

Views of our kitchen area. Its likewise very messy... Still it has about everything I'll need. The fridge was actually a gift and everything else came from craigslist.
Here is the shower/tub. It used to be moldy, but I did my mother proud and cleaned that all up.
Another view of my room. Once it warms up, I'll hang my clothes outside. TV is also from craigslist.... and I actually brought my wii from home.

Second Day of class hits even harder

Maybe its because I was going from 9:15 - 20:15 with a whopping 7.5 hours of classes (its pretty hard to be retentive for 7 hours straight). Anyway, with day two out of the way I think I've settled on my classes for this semester, so I'll go ahead and lay it out for you.

Intensive Japanese 3 - basically the same class as last semester. 3 hours/day 5days/week. This class takes up a lot of time, and I probably can only retain 50% of the material we cover, but I think that is still more than enough. Sure it starts at 9:15 in the morning, but what would be the point of living in Japan if I didn't get to ride the rush hour trains!
These aren't my pictures, but I'm sure you can get the general idea of what my morning commute looks like. I haven't bothered taking a picture, because frankly, I have enough trouble just finding my own hands in this mess.

History of Japanese Language This looks interesting. It basically covers the changes in the Japanese language reaching back to the around the 10th or 11th century. Quite a lot has changed since then, and I'll try and bring back few select tidbits that I learn in the class to enlighten you guys as well. Though I'm not sure how many of you are interested in Japanese linguistics. As for today's fact, The Japanese language is unique in that it is one of the only ones with more than two first person pronouns (ie.. I, and Me in English). Which is true, because off the top of my head I can already name six.

Translation Methods: Japanese to English Finally this class rounds out my schedule. My hope for this semester is to bolster my language abilities, and hopefully this class will contribute the most to that goal. For one, the class is meant for students at a Japanese level two above my own. So that is a good start. I don't think it is insurmountable though, and with some hard work I should be able to make it to the finish (albeit not with a good grade). As the name implies, the class is about translation. While we just work on about 10 1-page articles, review, stories, poems, etc it is unfathomably difficult (at least from what I gathered at the first lesson) to craft an appropriate translation for any piece as you undoubtedly have to sacrifice literal translation for natural sounding translation and aspects of the meaning, tone, or intent are bound to be lost. Anyway, if I ever drop-off the blogosphere, its probably because I'm wildly lost in a mess of Kanji in this class.

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On a side note, I bought a PSP with my job money!

I went with the sexy Mint-Green color exclusively available here in Japan! It functions as a web browser, music player, video player, and of course a game player (which I haven't money to buy). But besides that, my main reason for buying it was (parents take note!) its SKYPE functionality .
Essentially, at any wireless hotspot I can hop online, log into my skype account and with my headset attached make cheap phone calls to anywhere in the world. For those that are unaware, skype allows you to make class to any computer for free and any land-line for a little under $.03 per minute. So basically, as long as I have my PSP when I travel, I won't have to worry about being completely without a means of communication.


TO DO UPDATES:
JOB
APARTMENT (its dirty....)
花見

Also how many people that view this have Asian fonts installed... just out of curiosity... does my next line look like crazy japanese characters or a bunch of boxes/random characters (note... that may be a silly question... as Japanese and random characters could potentially look the same to you!)

日本は、東アジアの東方、太平洋の西部にある島国である。

An Update with many pictures and few words

So last week, a friend called me and asked if I wanted to go to a fertility festival... and of course how could I resist. The town where this was located was only an hour and a half outside of Tokyo , so it wasn't much of a hassle anyway. And this was probably our first day of nice weather since I had been back.Some Taiko drummers!
This place was packed with people, especially foreigners (which is a bit disappointing where you are looking for an authentic japanese festival) but what do you expect at a festival devoted to phallus's.
A Japanese cartoon mascot reimaged as a phallus.
A statue at the shrine we visited.
Proof that it was a nice sun shiny day, and look at the cherry blossoms in the background, unfortunately the temperature has since dipped down and killed all the blossoms.
Big wooden phallus.
Shinto shrines normally tie those ropes around trees, but in this case, they are wrapped around a penis.
You can buy phallic candles, candies, vegetables, hot dogs, statues, etc.
A Daikon Radish carving competition, later on in the day, these were auctioned off.
The festival also feature a parade through the streets, this place was packed as they carried 5 or so shrines through the crowds with music playing and sun beating down on us. Somehow this day really made me glad to be back in Japan, if only because I don't know many other places where I could get the same experience.

Alright, I'm off to prepare for class

short-and-sweet and then some sleep

And so I went home for a month...


These pictures are the only proof that I was ever actually in the US.

It was nice to stop by school and say 'hi' to a few friends that are graduating in the spring. But in the end, its just a strange experience to show up and see life going on without you (not that I didn't expect it) and I would have preferred to be here in Japan if I only I could have worked out a way to do that where I wouldn't have gone insane.

It was nice though to take a chance to zoom-out and relax, taking time to figure out what I wanted to accomplish in my last 5 months here. Study harder basically... I am miffed that studying at home didn't pan out (I didn't really think it would) and am frustrated with how poor my japanese speaking ability has rusted while my listening has remained relatively constant. I'd equate it nearly to being mute. Its like I can understand what people are saying, but am having an extraordinary amount of difficulty expressing what I mean to.

Anyway, with my family visited, my head straightened out, and precious $$$ saved. I returned to Japan... into my new apartment...


I LIVE IN THE BOTTOM LEFT!

Unfortunately the weather has been rather nasty, my room is messy, and school starts tomorrow... so I'll update on this later!