Okayama (Here I is!)

So I've settled into my new home in Okayama. The first thing I notice immediately is that Okayama City is quite bigger than Tokushima City. Given that I am a fan of city life, this is a big plus for me. In fact its much bigger than I expected and I like the layout. Ive heard Japanese from other parts of Japan aren't so familiar with it, but its already caught my attention and I've frequented Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Tokyo. Its by no means as any of those places, but it has a nice downtown area.

There are a few things Okayama is famous for, one of its biggest being the great Momotarou the peach boy with an interesting story.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Momotar%C5%8D
Along with peach boy comes delicious peaches. The city is known for them though I haven't tried any myself yet.

Okayama is also the site for Kōraku-en which is one of the 3 most famous gardens in Japan. They are considered to be quite beautiful, but you will have to wait until I get a chance to visit to see pictures....or you can google them.

Now that I am here the starting over process begins again. I have done this quite a few times so I know the drill. Hopefully soon I will begin to make some good friends.
Keep ya posted!

English at an early age

I'm a bit surprise people are still thinking about signing up for classes given the such recent chaos, but lo and behold I had a model lesson last week, and even more amazing is that it was for a 10 month yr old baby. Yep, you heard that right. 10 FRIGGIN MONTHS! Apparently the managers advised the parents that it wouldn't be such a good idea but they were just so excited to start filling their young offspring with English, even before the poor thing can learn to say "Hello" in Japanese which essentially puts me and that baby on the same level of Japanese. (wink)

So what exactly do you do as a model lesson for a child who's legs can barely keep him up? Well if you are in my situation you end up doing body parts which consist mostly of the baby staring blankly at you as you point and dance. I'm all for getting started at an early age but give the poor kid a year at least to begin adapting to this madness of a world, before trying to make his 1st language something other than it should be.

The best part is the parents signed up, but he wont be in my class so ganbatte to the teacher who gets him.

Just think how many languages I could know if I had started before I was old enough to use a spoon properly. "Sigh" like dust in the wind...

A change in the wind

So looks like I have been offered a new job. The last one went bankrupt a few weeks back and was bought out by another company. Although I have the opportunity to still be employed there I have been looking out for a change and have recently found one in the form of a Public school ALT gig. There are a few reasons why I am quite excited about this change and a lot of it has to do with the working hours. I will finally be working normal hours and have time to actually do things thus giving me a reason to blog hopefully.

The location is also a bigger city. Woot woot!
The change should be occurring in the next 2 weeks. Stay tuned.

Sakura: A few weeks in the presence of pretty

Spring is amongst us which means its time for the Japanese tradition of "Hanami" (flower viewing) For the Japanese the flower "Sakura" (cherry blossoms) holds a special place in their hearts. This flower which sprouts in huge amounts on Sakura trees withers away just as quickly as it blooms. With Sakura you only got a few good weeks,much like many things in this ever passing life we live in.

The Hanami party is an event in which people gather around Sakura spots with "Bentos" (Japanese style lunch boxes)lots of drinks, and friends and family. The goal seems to just enjoy life at that moment while surrounded by a flower who's only purpose in its short life seems to be to bring these people together. As this is my first time in Japan during this season it was also my first time to experience Hanami, and not 1 but 3 parties that I attended. I have never seen so many people, especially here in Tokushima in one place before as I did at these parties. The parks were littered with an insane amount of people (as well as trash) For a moment I thought I had stumbled back into Tokyo. It was a pleasant site to behold as I watched smiles develop on faces and laughter erupt. My parties were those of work or International Associations in which I didn't really know anyone, but I manage to meet a few people and most importantly experience a tradition I had heard about for quite some time. By next year I hope to have some really close friends to enjoy it with. For now the Sakura has blown away with the wind, as if it was only a dream. A pretty pink and white dream.

Where does the time go?

I admit I`ve been doing a pretty crappy job up updating this blog but it`s not without my reasons.

That reason mainly consisting of my job. While it seems to be the majority consensus that ALT (Assistant Language Teachers) working in public schools have a huge amount of free time, that is sadly not the case with being the main teacher in a large Language School. I really don`t get a lot of time to do anything including meet people and thus my journeys to be blogged about rarely happen. Hopefully I will be able to start squeezing more out of my Sun/Mon off. I really want to keep this thing going strong. It will be great to look back on it.

All I can say for now is teaching can be tough, and teaching kids can be insane, but I can see how I could enjoy it if I can just get the right circumstances.

Don`t give up on my blog yet!