Happy Easter!

1 Peter 1:3
Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

 It was a good day spent at church worshiping and eating Korean food with friends.


P.S. BEWARE THE BUNNY!

BEFORE

AFTER

 

1st day of Junior High School 2011

Welcome letters and cards waiting on my desk when I came in for my first day of work.

I just finished my first week of school in the new year. It was coming off a rather eventful six week vacation and moving to a new city so the reintroduction to waking up at 6 a.m. was a bit annoying but the week went by well. In the past I've taught at up to five different schools in a single semester. I've also taught both Elementary and Junior High with my favorite between the two discussed here. My last job was in Okayama City at Elementary and Junior High School. Working at more than one school can be a pain in regards to commuting and carrying lesson materials, but if you only work at one school and its a troublesome place then it's nice to not have to be in that one school everyday and having a chance of atmosphere can be nice because maybe of of your other schools is a better place to be. Luckily my one school appears to be good thus far.

The first thing I notice is how friendly so many of the students are. In the past I've worked at Junior Highs that while there were friendly students the majority seem to be distant or plain out miss behaved. Junior High has a reputation in many countries as being the least easy/enjoyable grade to teach. So far so good. I was actually surprised at how friendly and comfortable many of the student have already become. These students even seek out to say hello to me when I at first don't notice them which isn't normal in Japan in my experience. My students in my new Junior High remind me a lot of my past Elementary students in that they seem to still have retained that joy that strict society tries and sucks away from them later as they move up from Elementary to High School. My first years particularly still look and act like they are in Elementary School which is actually a good thing. They still have energy in class and excitement for me the ALT. (Assistant Language Teacher) The rest of the school staff all seem to be rather friendly as well which is a refresher from my previous position. The first week consisted mostly of my introduction followed by question time from the students. One of the most popular questions was a request from the students to hear me rap. I told them during the introduction before that one of my hobbies was rapping and showed them a picture of me on stage performing in San Francisco. In almost every class someone asked me to rap so I had them all make a beat using their desks in unison and I rapped for them. They loved it,haha. Anyway, God willing the year will continue on positive.

Sakura Viewing In Gifu (2011)

I've only been in Gifu for about 2 1/2 weeks and arrived just at the Sakura viewing season or "Hanami" was beginning but luckily I quickly met a few people who invite me to join them this year. The last time I participated in Hanami I was living in Tokushima. Unfortunately I didn't have a lot of friends at that time either as I always seem to just be settling in somewhere as this event is beginning. I'm still dreaming of that time that I get to take part in the big Hanami events like you see elsewhere on the Internet with lots of people and many good friends. Regardless I was blessed to be able to take part this year with anyone. We went to Gifu park but as it was on a a weekday and near the evening so there weren't many other people there at all. It was still beautiful though. Here's hoping next year will be my dream one.

I also heard due to the recent earthquake on March 11th 2011 that lesser people this year were taking part in this event as it usually involves a lot of loud noise and drinking and they feel given what has been going on in other parts of Japan lately it would be disrespectful to act in this matter. If you ask me, being loud and drunk is always annoying but to each his own.  We'll the Sakura does signal Spring and new life so I like to view  them with the idea of new life as everyone in Japan works to get through these dark times and find the light at the end of the tunnel. Yeah, deep I know.

Entering the park.

My Sakura viewing company.

As you can see the Sakura tree is quite pretty.

Many Sakura petals swirling in the pond.

Hazkui-chan and I

Stand By

I've been a bit busy lately moving to a new city and going through four days of training for my new job, but I've pretty much settled in now and should be back to regularly updating the blog. Work doesn't start until the 18th so I'll try to do some interesting things between now and then. I don't really know anyone so hopefully I can get some friends soon as well as my new apartment organized. I'm living in Gifu city which is a small city itself and I am also only 20-25 minutes away from Nagoya city which is Japan's 4th biggest city so looks like I may have the best of both worlds. I'll probably frequent Nagoya as well. Oh and I haven't forgotten about my recent trip to South Korea. Stay tuned.

Snack Attack (Prt 4)

This addition of Snack Attack features a few Korean snacks I tried while on vacation in South Korea.


스윙칩(Su Uing Chip)
 These pepper sauce flavored chips are not spicy at all and actually taste a bit sweet but I enjoy the flavor despite being initially disappointed at the lack of spice.

*** out of *****




새콤달콤 (Sae  Kom Dal Kom)

My absolute favorite Korean candy. It's similar to Korean Mae Chew or Japanese Hi-Chew except that it has a tinge of a sour taste to it. It's a tad harder than the previously mentioned candies but still chewy. Flavors include Grape,Strawberry,Pineapple,Cola, and Peach.

***** out of *****