Konnichiwa from Japan!

Hello Dear Family and Friends,

After a little more than two months here in Kamagaya City in Chiba Prefecture, Japan, I am finally beginning to feel a bit more settled. This should not be interpreted as that I know what I am doing, but should be read as "I have a better idea of how things might go in day-to-day situations." It still does not take much to go outside of my learned routine (supermarket trips and local convenience store visits still can easily take waaay longer than planned as I distract myself pondering over what something might be and how to use it OR by asking someone which is the normal, plain milk/tofu/detergent OR I think a simple errand will be easy only to have it get super complicated super fast). xp But all in all I am enjoying my time here greatly. Learning to better exercise my talents at being very flexible!

I live in a spacious 1-bedroom apartment in the same complex as 5 other Japan Exchange and Teaching (JET) Assistant Language Teachers (ALT's) and near three others (so there are 8 of us in total for the City of Kamagaya). Four of us are from the US but still pretty diverse culturally: Aurora is from Alaska, David's family is originally from Norway/Hungry, Dan's family is originally from Russia and I know more about Chile than the US in certain aspects. Hannah and Liz are from New Zealand and Musleh and Munraj are from the UK but their families are from Bangladesh and India, respectively. All are very sweet and we all get along really well so I feel lucky to have such a great community to hang out with if need be. It is a bit strange to be the eldest - most of them have either just graduated or graduated a year or two ago. It's nice to have Liz living next door as she is 26 and has both a similar love of adventure, life style and life experience history so we hang out a lot. We're also a nice duo as she speaks hardly any Japanese so I can translate for her.

I work at three of the city's 9 elementary schools. Hannah and Dave also speak Japanese so work at 3 elementary schools each while the other 5 ALT's speak some to no Japanese and teach at one Junior High School each. My schedule is:

- Gohonmatsu Elementary on Mondays and Thursdays teaching three 5th- and three 6th-grade classes with the English/PE teacher, Mr. Kiuchi (although it looks like I may start teaching the three 4th-grade and three 3rd-grade classes every two weeks, alternatively, with the home-room teachers [HRTs] - exciting!).

- Chubu Elementary on Tuesdays and Fridays teaching four 5th- and four 6th-grade classes with the respective 8 home-room teachers (there is one teacher per grade who plans the lessons and is my contact for explanations, tasks to prepare for the class, etc).

- Hokubu Elementary on Wednesdays where I teach two 5th- and two 6th-grade classes with the 4 home-room teachers (and occasionally a special English class for other grades with two classes combined like I did the other day with the 60 little 2nd grade students).

So as you can imagine, I am NEVER bored. I am happy if I can remember my name and the day of the week at the end of the day. xp The schedules of each school change slightly (like by 5 minutes or so), and obviously the school layouts are different so I always carry the bell schedule of that day's school with me to classes and am constantly getting lost or having to ask for directions to the next classroom.

At Gohonmatsu, Mr. Kiuchi sits down with me to plan the next week's lessons each week so that I can help plan and prepare materials for the class. At Chubu I may have a vague idea about what will happen next class but don't receive the lesson plan until the night before via cellphone message, and they often change my class schedule at the last minute, which is very exciting. Sometimes I'll have a note from one teacher on my desk asking me to make certain flash cards for a certain class in my planning period. At Hokubu I don't really have more than 5 or 10 minutes at the end of each class to chat with the HRT to discuss next week. Some teachers lead the class with me, helping out, while with other classes I just kinda do what I want with the book's lesson and check with the teacher the week before.

All of my schools are between 5 and 15 minutes by bicycle from my apartment. I usually arrive at school at 8:10 or 8:15 am and leave around 4 or 4:10 pm but often stay late at Chubu and Hokubu as that is the only time I can talk to the HRTs. I pay a little under US$50 a month to have a delicious school lunch every day that usually consists of: a carton of milk, bowl of rice/bread on the side, soup of some sort though often miso, a dessert sometimes and a main protein (fish, egg sometimes or meat), with a side salad. I've liked all but one of the meals and that was only because there was a lot of oily food that day.

I LOVE working with the kids. Teaching at the elementary level is great - there is no grading, no tests and it is all fun and games. The kids are super sweet and all of my principals, vice principals, teacher's room managers, and teachers are super nice and welcoming. Don't ask me their names though! I hope to start working on that soon. And forget about the students's names. I have 25 to 35 students per class so... impossible. :( If I feel I am missing attention all I need to do is wander outside during recess to immediately attract a crowd of mostly curious little kids clambering to speak to me in the little English they know (some go to English class outside of school), or to tell me that they DON'T know any English but that so-and-so does.

Some of my adventures:

- Last week I made one student cry as I didn't realize that he has trouble making decisions so asked him to sit down instead of participate in the group game. This week I remembered and gave him little papers with shapes on them to draw two from and told him to blindly select two colored pencils from his pencil box in order to be able to say his favorite colors and shapes without problems. Yay!

- Today many people from the Board of Education came to observe my class with Mr. Kiuchi (Gohonmatsu Elementary). Nearly fell asleep during the formal speeches to all the teachers, but we received all-in-all very positive feedback and many good pointers for how to improve our classes. We are currently teaching how to give street directions and I was delighted to here students telling each other, and us, to "go straight, turn left, turn right, etc" in the hallway even between classes. They are learning and using something I taught them! Yay! The teachers also complimented me on the Chant I created with a corresponding dance (super high-tech: "Where is the train station? Where? Where?.....) and told me that the students seem to be enjoying English more and participating in class since I arrived. That made me all warm and fuzzy inside. The communication at Gohonmatsu really makes it a great place to teach at! I feel like part of the family. (^_^)

- Diego is coming to Japan for a week! His boss told him to come visit me and gave him explicit permission to take days off without pay so he will be here from October 27th until November 5th. Only two more weeks! I am so excited as are all my school students and teachers -- everyone wants to meet him! I am taking three days off of work and taking advantage of the holiday so we will be able to go to Gohonmatsu's School Festival, visit Gunma and stay with my classmate Yosuke and his wife Natsuko (who worked at the City Hall and translated for my family when we lived there), spend a day at Disney Sea, explore Tokyo for a day and eat lunch with Kikue at her school, stay at a hot springs hotel with Atsuko and her friend for a night (she has organized this) and also go to Ghibili Studios to sit in Tottoro's Cat Bus very very happily (Diego and I are both crazy about Hayao Miyazaki's films). Hopefully Diego will be able to visit me for longer in March but we will have to see as he just got a job promotion to Product Manager!

- Gunma Reunion: Upon arriving in Kamagaya we learned that we had the first few weeks off (surprise!) so I took advantage to reunite with Atsuko (Takahiro's mother), Mr. Nagumo and his wife (he was our landlord when we lived there), and the Sakurai Family (Nigel's best friend's family). It was sooo wonderful to see everyone! I can't believe all the kids are adults now! They rolled out the red carpet for me and assured me they will happily drive the 1.5-2hr drive to personally pick me up from my house to visit them. Still have many more friends to see there so will probably be going back to Gunma multiple times. Atsuko and her friend Mr. Fumi took me to eat shaved ice in Nagatoro, a village in the neighboring prefecture of Saitama, where we rode in a river boat and refreshed with the delicious ice-cone like dessert made from clean water that was frozen outdoors last winter. She also took me back to Kusatsu in Gunma prefecture which is the famous hotsprings town that I had visited 10 years ago with my family. So much fun!

- Reuniting with Kikue! I have seen Kikue four times now since arriving in Japan. She and her friend Chihoko (who sends me cards weekly) rescued me my first night in Japan when I accidentally sent the wrong suitcase ahead to Kamagaya and needed a suit jacket for 8 am the next morning at the Orientation, she invited me to join her and eat a delicious traditional lunch in Shibuya another weekend, we oo-ed and awed together over Beatrix Potter's original drawings in the exhibit celebrating the 150 year anniversary of her birth, and this past weekend she took me to the Culture Festival at her work, the School of Design, where we saw lots of amazing pieces of art as well as attended my first Fashion Show! Fun fun fun!

- The other night I successfully partook in the Japanese normal-life action of going to my neighborhood bathhouse. It is a 2 minute walk from my house and I go past it daily but had never had the courage to walk in until Sunday evening. I successfully left my shoes at the door and entered the correct Women's side, but was super ultra surprised to find a grandfatherly gentleman perched up in a booth on the wall between the two sides of the bathhouse waiting to take the entrance fee of US$4 aprox. He appeared to be watching his TV show intently but I still found it awkward and slightly humorous that despite the separate sections for men and women in the bath house, he could see both all the ladies and all the gents as they undressed, bathed, and enjoyed the scalding hot bath. I was so surprised that I completely forgot to say good evening to the only other woman on my side. Ah well! It was still nice and relaxing after the first shock, so I plan to go back. Maybe next time I'll be able to withstand the heat of the bath for more than my previous 5 minutes max. SOOO HOT!!!!

- This past Saturday was the Kamagaya Festival! There was a samurai parade, lots of food stands, art and used item stands, and many of my students and their parents! I heard "Kaia-sensei" not only between the students to each other but then between them and their parents and then among the parents before I'd finally get a "Hi Kaia sensei!" Liz and I also enjoyed the karate, belly dance and steel drum presentations, and I delighted in dancing with the older generations to the circular Obon dance at the end. The Kamagaya City photographer asked if he could take my photo and use it for promotional material so I'll let you know if I see myself somewhere. ;D

- Food Adventures with Kaia: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCettQ0JTYgj4t21K9-WZsxQ I will be uploading the videos that thus far I have only managed to share on Facebook of me eating and explaining many various amusing things found in Japan. Examples: Wasabi Avocado Chips, Chocolate Corn, Pizza Sandwich, Fish-Cheese sticks, and Créme Brulé balloon balls. Stay tuned for more info and uploads!

- Photos of much of the above Can be found here! https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2sSZcrNjOc1T0dsdGE2Z1E2dU0/view?usp=sharing

Okay, I think I've flooded you with enough info for now. I promise to write more often so that my emails are not always this long. Sorry! I admit that I struggle with technology / am brain dead when I come home and just want to zone out / prefer talking in person or via phone to people which is why I haven't done better. But I will do so in the future! Thank you for all those of you who have continued reading to this part of my email.

Mata ne! (See you!)

Hugs,

Kaia