Andrew + Japan = Awesome

It’s been a while since my last post, but there’s good reasons for that. Namely the fact that I’m now living in Toyohashi instead of Sanda. I havn’t been taking any pictures so unfortunately this post is going to be a big long block of text. Apologies in advance.

Packing all my things was somewhat exciting and drama filled. I had just thrown everything in my pack, and it barely fit, but that was fine because I thought I’d have loads of space since I had an extra box to use that I didn’t have when I came to Japan. So I had my pack totally stuffed with clothes, I had to sit on it to zip it up, then I look around the room to make sure I packed everything, and behind me there were four or five hoodies that I’d forgotten to pack!

This caused a minor panic, because I was sure there wasn’t space in the bag. But somehow they managed to squeeze in and I got everything all zipped up and sent off. Speaking of sending my things, postage in Japan is both efficient and cheap. I used a company called Yamato transport. I took a big box and my big pack to the convenience store near my apartment, and Yamato picked them up from there. They were delivered the next day at a time I chose, and all up it cost me 2000 yen, which is just over $20 NZD. Together they weighed 20 kilos. I dont even want to think about the price I’d pay in New Zealand for next day delivery of something that heavy.

The train journey here was uneventful. I set my phone to vibrate just before I reached all the stations I had to get off at, so I spent most of the journey dozing with my phone in my hands. The journey took about four hours, and it wasn’t bad. I’m glad I didn’t pay double the price for the Shinkansen, I would have slept just the same, and would have had to change trains just as many times.

I was met at the train station by Kawasumi-sensei, who bought me to my new apartment. My new apartment is quite a lot smaller than my old one (which is something I expected). The main living area isn’t too bad, there’s plenty of space, the problems are storage and the bathroom. There’s a big wardrobe, but the kitchen area in particular lacks storage. And the bathroom is very cramped. I need to buy a few more things (in particular a desk and a chair) then I’ll make a video so you can see what I’m talking about. The most amusing thing for me is that the washing machine is out on the balcony, which seems to be standard for this apartment building, and the one next door as well.

All the people at my new job are friendly. There’s four of us english teachers, and I’ve met easily that many japanese staff who work as japanese pair teachers in our kids lessons, and in the cram school part teaching science, math, japanese, and other subjects. The actual classes are very different to Nova. As the teacher, you don’t have to worry if a kid starts to play up because the japanese pair teacher will keep them under control for you allowing you to move on with the lesson. The students all sit at desks, and pay much more attention than the Nova kids ever did. It’s really different.

On Friday morning I had an earlier start than usual, I went to a kindergarten at 11.40 for an hour and a half of "play time" with the kids there. So we got there and the kids were just going back to their home rooms for lunch (kindergartens here are huge, with many classrooms, and actual classes). So there’s all these kids running past us in the corridor all excited to see me and the other english teacher. One girl comes running up to me and bites my tie. Her jaws locked, and she would not let go of my tie. I have no idea what she was doing, but she was determined she wanted my tie in her mouth. Eventually I shook her off, and then she went to Kawasumi who was with us and bit his tie, before running off.

We went into the classrooms, and all the kids were sitting down ready for lunch, which the Kindergarten teacher was handing out. The kids all started arguing over where we should sit, turns out that last week the teachers sat over *there* and they never sit over *here*. In the end three kids played paper, scissors, rock to decide where we sat. I ended up sitting next to a very vocal girl, who’s name I’ve forgotten, which I feel bad about because despite being loud she was nice. So there we are, sitting next to these three year olds on tiny kindergarten chairs, and then they give us lunch and we eat some lunch. We had delicious noodles, with a small sausage, and some karaage (fried chicken). Then there was some green beany/spinachy stuff, and a slice of pineapple. They gave me a small carton of milk for a drink, and a bread roll. Then they gave me a cup of ice tea.

The kids were all excited to see me. They started doing funny things with their food, like taking their bread roll, putting the noodles in it, and then smooshing it up into different shapes. One made it look like a hamburger and held it up to show me. "Hamburg!". And then another one had to outdo the first, so he made his look like a rice ball and held it up. "Onigiri!". There was one girl sitting behind me who insisted on wiping her hands on my shirt every time I turned my back. Near as I can tell she wasn’t wiping her hands because they were dirty, it was just a strange thing she did. Very strange.

After lunch we went outside and ran around with the kids for a while. A few of them latched themselves onto my arms. And I raced some of them up a metal cargo net thing. Then some boys wanted to show me some beetles they had just found, by holding them right at my face, that wasn’t too pleasant.

After running around we went back inside and did some Origami. We made these awesome fox faces, which was REALLY difficult, even though it was just a few folds. The kids were all much better at it than me. But they were all impressed when I wrote my name on it in english. After I finished it a girl came up to me and talked for a full minute in Japanese, I had no idea what she was saying and told her as much, but she kept talking. Luckily Kawasumi was there and he heard what she said. Apparently she was just saying I should take my fox face home and show my parents, they’ll be happy. So I bought it home, I’ll put up a photo of it later. It’s pretty nifty.

Then they had some free art time, and all the boys near me got out dinosaur books, and started asking me the names of all the dinosaurs. Now I can give dinosaur names with the best of them, but I only know one dinosaur of each "group". Like I know Brontosaurus and Brachiosaurus, but when you show me a page with six dinosaurs that ALL look like they’re a Brontosaurus but are clearly different, I have no idea what to call them. It was a tossup between lying about the names, or just ignoring the questions. I said the names I knew, then quickly turned the pages. I think I need to read about Dinosaurs.

So yeah, going to the Kindergarten and just playing with the kids was probably the best thing so far. I’m off to another one on Tuesday (Monday is a public holiday), I’ve been told the lunches there are even better, although last week they did have Natto. I’m really hoping that when I finish training I get atleast one of these times at a kindergarten on my schedule.

Apart from that, I bought a bicycle today. It’s a hot silver one with a basket on front and a bell. Just one speed, like 98% of the bikes in Japan. I spent a few hours just riding around on it today. Good times. I’m getting a car here, but I don’t want to be driving everywhere, and riding a bike is a good way to get places quickly, like McDonalds. Although, the lack of suspension is a little offputting.

Anyway, Toyohashi is rocking, everything is going good, loving the new job. I’ll post some photos later.