So my first official, official week has begun, and I am teaching full time, no excuses allowed!! I wasn't looking forward to the kids classes, but so far they have gone smoothly and have been fun! Plus they don't judge me for using the "cheat sheet" I prepared earlier!

Made my first stir fry and a traditional bento box (lunch box with rice and vegetables and I chose some beef).

Here is a photo for my Grandad and my mum:

I look a little awkward because we were in a hurry!

Tokyo Disneyland

Back to work today after the long weekend of bank holidays!!

Monday- exploring my area and shopping :D It's very easy to spend hours in a 100 yen (64p) shops buying non-necessities!!

Tuesday was spent sightseeing. Andrew and I went to Asakusa to see the famous Sensoji temple. Unfortunately the temple itself was hidden under construction work, so pictured below are the Senso-ji pagoda and the iconic Thundergate, Konarimon with its trademark 4 metre high red lantern.

The day was followed by karaoke and a good night out with my friends from school, Josh and Branwen :)

 It was nice to see some friendly faces!

Wednesday I went to Tokyo Disneyland with my friend Andrew from training, his coworker Ben, and two Japanese students. It was a total scorcher of a day!! We conquered Big Thunder Mountain and Space Mountain, and of course we went on the cheesey international boat ride "It's A Small World". I still have that song stuck in my head!
I have not seen anything cuter than little Japanese girls dressed in Belle and Cinderella princess dresses!!!!
The Hallowe'en parade and fireworks were spectacular of course!

Oh and today was the first lesson I conducted on my own which I felt was highly successful. Yay me!

Aeon Hikarigaoka Welcome Party!

I have survived my first week at work, and although training didn't prepare me for hyper, dissinterested kids, I feel the adult classes at least have been successful!

I'm all settled into my flat, just a few bits and bobs I want to buy to make it more habitable now.

Last night (Saturday 19th) was my Welcome Party to Aeon Hikarigoka! We had chicken broth, octopus pancake, and plenty of sake and beer.
I gave a speech, and they applauded my efforts at using Japanese!
It was a very memorable night, and I did a lot of mingling and even had a conversation about astrophysics with one student in a Japenglish mix :)

This is me eating my first dish of raw fish, sashimi. Oishikatta desu!
(It was tasty!)

Next week Mon-Wedn are bank holidays; it is unusual for all three to follow a weekend, so I have 4 splendid days off work!

The bank holidays are:

Respect for the Aged Day (敬老の日), third Monday of September

Autumnal Equinox Day　(秋分の日), astronomically determined, but usually September 23

Kokumin no kyujitsu　(国民の休日), the day in between the two other holidays.

I will hopefully be going to Tokyo Disneyland on Tuesday.. let's see!!!

p.s. Thank you to to Xor, my collegue, who has uploaded a few photos to the web for me. Please scroll down to view my edited posts!!

Hikarigaoka School- First Week!

Last Saturday rained a lot, so on Sunday we did the classic 'tourist thing' around Tokyo. The temperature was 29'C and Tokyo was PACKED!

We visited..

• Shinjuku and the Metropolitan Government Building Observatory: It was on the 42nd floor and had an amazing view over Tokyo! Took some great photos! Despite it being a perfectly sunny day, there was a fog haze obscuring Mt Fuji :(
• Harajuku: Famous for attracting the more, shall we say, non-conforming youths, on a Sunday afternoon. Took some snaps of a few goths, punks and a strange, pink, man. Harajuku is also home to huge western shops for example a multistorey H&M and Topshop.
  Harajuku is also famous for the Meiji Shrine. It dates back to only 1922, however it is huge and beautiful, and I made a wish :)
• Akihabara: The electronics district. We conveniently went about 8ish pm when it was all 'lit up' and I purchased a battery charger. There were come interesting shops; we had fun in the bb gun store and in the video game sections of a large department store!

Here is a slideshow!

On Monday I was picked up at Ikebukuro station by the head teacher at my school, Kaoru-sensei. We drove to Toyotamanaka (my town.. or city) and visited to the city hall for my Alien Registration Card. Next was a bank account, where I had to write everything officially in the characters and use my own ink stamp. I also got a mobile phone! Regrettably, Japanese mobile phones cannot send nor receive SMS texts internationally :( SMS texting is apparently `not cool` in Japan, and everything sends emails to each other- from a computer to a phone or phone - phone.
My email is claredery@ezweb.ne.jp so if you email me there from a computer, I will receive it to my phone straight away, free of charge. I can also email you back if you`d like as long as I'm awake and not during my work hours!!

Apartment

Moved into my apartment. I spent 4 hours unpacking, rearranging the furniture to personalise it and putting up photos! I'm looking forward to visiting the 100 yen (60 ish pence) shop to buy lots of little things!

Apartment opinion:
Pros: It's bigger than I expected. Third floor so no cockroaches!
Cons: No microwave, no oven, just one hob.

I think it's pot noodles for me all year..

First day of work
I met so many students I can:t remember anyone`s names! I observed classes all day and took notes. I didn't know where anything was so I felt a bit out of my comfort zone. But I was made to feel very welcome by the staff and students. Marilyn-sensei, the person I`m replacing is super helpful! Had a burger for lunch, and the kids class was definitely the most fun, but one of them was a little naughty..

First official lesson is on Friday, but I have been contributing in class to ease myself in.

Wish me luck!!

Training status: Complete!

Left-Right : Ben, Me, Andrew, Tim

Training Week
Sorry I haven`t had time to go online, but training this week has been super-intense!!

Hours were 11am-8pm, but we had so much homework (mostly lesson planning), I wasn`t getting it done until midnight all week :(

On Tuesday they really threw us in the deep end with our first real lesson.. with genuine Japanese students!

The students were invited for a free lesson from the newbies.We taught in our slippers- a very strange feeling indeed..

All week we`ve been practising different adult and kids lessons; the kids' are certainly very energetic!

Today was the climax with a full, assessed lesson. I felt it was very strong, and was praised for my student care giving individual praise, prompting them when they get stuck, smiling, eye contact, and clear instructions.
I need to work on the structure, better roleplaying, practice, ideas, paper management etc..

Not been too much excitement this week, but we certainly found time to dine out a couple of times and of course we hit the Karaoke! My first song being 'Who Do You Think You Are' by the Spice Girls :D

Next Week
This weekend is free, sightseeing is definitely on the to-do list!!

Monday 14日: Being picked up at Ikebukuro station and being taken to the City Hall for my Foreign ID card registration and to open a bank account. I shall move into my apartment in Toyotamanaka!

Tuesday 15日: First day of work! Hours:1-9pm. I shall present my gift of fudges to the school and meet the staff and students! I will spend the be shadowing classes by Marilyn.

Wedn 16日: Shadowing again.

Thursday 17日: My first official lessons start... eek! I have come very far this week, so I'm fairly confident.. as long as my nerves don't get to me!

Please don't be worried if I don't update for a while, going to be busy, but next update will *hopefully* be Monday night when I'm in my new town :D I am very excited to meet the staff and settle in!!

Shibuya & Omiya Shrine

Training was very tiring. We were in a classroom all day and I was just nodding off. Managed to be professional for the President`s visit, who reminded us that just about everything is "very important" in his sweet Japanese accent.
At 6 we finished, and the four of us (myself, Andrew, Ben and Tim) headed to Omiya station to catch the overground train to Shibuya. The plan was to catch a train straight there.. we ended up changing three times as we kept getting on the wrong trains!! The train platform signs are about as straightforward as a spaghetti junction... and they had English letters!!

We finally arrived- it really was everything you imagine Japan to be- people EVERYWHERE, NEON signs, loud, awesome!

We had dinner on the 7th floor of a mall, we had to take off our shoes at the entrance.

I tried fried sting ray (see above) and horse meat! Verdict- avenging Steve Irwin was tasty; the horse meat was less tasty than venison with the texture of raw beef. Not bad :)

Went to a British Pub, and then at 11.30 we decided to make our way home by train. It was an epic tale of making the last trains by seconds, running, holding the doors open and pushing into the sardine-canned carts. Madness!

I managed a near-fluent conversation with a group of Japanese businessmen too :)
Finally made it home safely at 1.30 this morning! Very lucky.. we definitely need more practice on the transport system!

Today, Andrew and I visited Hikawa Shrine, which was about a 15 minute walk from the Seminar House where we were staying. It was a super hot day, hence my newly acquired fan, and it was a very serene place, with people making wishes and taking a nice stroll with their children. Hikawa Shrine has a 2400 year history, and it is the main and largest Hikawa shrine of a further 290 daughter shrines dispersed around Japan.

やった！！

Panic over.. there are indeed potato crisps in Japan!

Oh yeah.. by the way I made it safely to Japan :D

The Flight

After sharing welsh cakes with my parents (left) and saying a surreal goodbye to my parents, I smoothly progressed through security. The and the hand luggage I`d painstakingly ensured to be 16kg was not weighed!! Typical..  though I was proud of my super light packing (see below right)!!

The in-flight entertainment was great! I watched three movies: Dragonball Evolution, The Day The Earth Stood Still and Suspect X (a subtitled Japanese crime drama). Had 4 mugs of Japanese Green Tea (yum!) and teriyaki yakitori (chicken and sauce) for dinner.

Unfortunately I only managed 20 mins sleep.. if that.

As we came down over Tokyo, the clouds broke up and I could see the tiled landscape of the country below and I knew this was a foreign land. It`s such a simple thing, but the fields back in the UK are a mish-mash of shapes and sizes and different colours.. Japan is a neat mosaic of rectangular paddy fields. Pretty :)

Airport

Uneventful, had to wait almost 3 hours before the Aeon guys picked me up, then we went to find Ben and Tim of Sydney and Brisbane respectively, and then waited for Andrew of Aberdeen.

It all felt.. strange, and it certainly hadn`t sunk in that a) it was midday and yet my family and friends were fast asleep and b) that I was in Japan at all!

Journey

I was just crashing at this point. I`d been `up all night` in all senses and it was such a struggle to stay awake and the 2 hour train journey to the training HQ in Oumiya, North Tokyo, was making me very queasy!

日本にいます！ / I`m in Japan!

I had a much needed 20 minute power nap before myself and the guys ventured into Oumiya. Although it is part of Tokyo, it is actuallｙ in the northen prefecture, Saitama, and is a city in its own right. We walked down this street (see right)

where we were approached by non-English speaking punters, and after a bit of a languagwe barrier issue, I managed to order three platefuls of　yakitori （skewered chicken) , beer and water for us. Success! And the complimentary cabbage leaves drenched in sesame oil was.. interesting. Wasn`t a great fan of the grilled chicken skin and fat balls if I`m honest though..

I found a Subway restaurant!!

Aaanyway we happened upon a bar serving fruit sake cocktails, and the boys opted for what turned out to be a beer and vodka cocktail. It went down smoothly apparently!

First Night

We turned in pretty early, desperately needing to sleep off the jet lag! My training bedroom consists of a futon (sleeping mattress), table, wardrobe, tatami floor and caravan-style bathroom. Struggled a bit to drop off though.. it was after all only 3pm GMT! I hung up my freshly ironed-suits, and I managed to nod off after some time; the sound of the night cicadas` serenade carrying through the warm night.

Landing and Training Schedule

「Mini Lesson: 日=day(sun)　月 =month(moon)」

I leave for Cardiff tomorrow (Tuesday) and then on to London to depart from Heathrow at 13.45 GMT on Thursday 3日９月.
I'm due to arrive at Narita Airport at 8am JST. The welcome letter is confusing .. it states both that I'll be met an hour after I arrive, and at 3pm.. I hope it's the former!

Training will be held in Oumiya, 大宮区, north Tokyo.

Schedule:
土曜日　Saturday: 10-6pm
月曜日-金曜日　Mon- Fri: 11-8pm

Then on Monday 7th I will be meeting the staff at my Aeon branch in 光が丘, Hikarigaoka!　：）

頑張ってね！　I will try my best!