An Italian Welcome

I've never been happier at my new job. Some lovely colleagues found the time to treat me to a welcome dinner at a local Italian restaurant, Napoli no Kamado.

Teachers in Gunma

Once Japanese teachers let loose, they really let loose. Since it was a hotspring trip, I had thought it was going to be a relaxing trip to loosen the muscles and take a breather from work. How wrong I was. A staff trip consists of breaking out the alcohol as soon as the shuttle bus hits the road, and drinking whilst scoffing snacks and playing games, all the way to the hotel.

I had had a bad night's sleep the night before, and was hoping to catch up on sleep on the bus, but as it was, I just had to hope for an early night in. We arrived at the hotel with enough time to allow my lady colleagues a quick 15-minute dash to the baths before dinner. Dinner was a laidback affair with a game show afterwards, organised by the younger teachers for our entertainment. Japanese parties usually consist of several stages, and this evening was no different, with an hour's karaoke singing to follow until past 11pm. And because the purpose of the trip was hotsprings, we were allowed some time to make use of them, but "we must be at room # by midnight for drinks". And so I found myself sitting in room # sipping sake and nibbling fried squid and trying to make friendly conversation, all whilst trying not to nod off. By 1:30am, I had to plead tiredness, and left to finally, thankfully, crawl into my futon. An hour later, I heard my roommates, all ladies in their 50s, return tipsily to our room... before I drifted off again... to wake up to the sound of them rustling around at 5:30 in the morning to go to the baths... gosh, they have a lot of energy!

The next day was spent, sightseeing Ikaho, where we were based; played archery and watched sheep at a farm theme park; ate onsen manjuu (aka. steamed hotspring buns) and an L-size serving of Mizusawa udon; followed by a trip to a souvenir shop before heading back home. Well, not quite home yet, I had promised to attend a friend's SGI Halloween party, but after that, I was finally able to make it back home, exhausted but happy.

The Last School Day

It was the last day of term, meaning that it was also the last time I get to see my students, I said a farewell speech, received this bunch of flowers, then went around the school saying my farewells and taking photos.

There were lots of ups and downs, but overall, I had a great five years on JET. Will I miss M-City? I will miss the familiarity of the lifestyle I had here, but for sure, as the first place that I have worked and lived in in Japan, it will hold a special place in my heart. It won't be the last time I come back here though, since I've made some very precious friends here. Thanks for the ride, JET, it was a great one.

And after a pretty stressful month of job-searching and interviews, I had just had an intervew on the previous day in fact, I received a call after work today... apparently, they liked me at yesterday's interview, and to my pleasant surprise and complete relief, I had secured a job for September!

So long, it's been five years...

I've been coming here to Kisou-ji, a shabu-shabu restaurant, every year for the last four years to see JET participants off as they leave the programme to move on to other things. And who would have thought that I would be coming here for a fifth year running, for my own farewell party. Yeah, I got emotional, but hard and fun times have been had, and it's time to move on. I've another week or so before I leave my schools for the last time.

My Last Sports Day

It's June, so it's that time of the year again, where kids compete against each other to earn points for their team. This year's Sports Day also happened to be my last with the school, and the city, as my five years with the JET Programme is drawing to an end. So I felt a little emotional today, but Sports Days in Japan are grand events, and are always enjoyable to watch.

Moving Apartment

On the 3rd of April, I moved from my first apartment in Japan of nearly five years to a new one in a different city in Tokyo. Once settled, I had a little housewarming party with temakizushi aka. hand-rolled sushi and friends.

Frankfurter Seller

I missed out last year, but in my final year of JET, I managed to not leave any regrets in this department. I made and sold frankfurters for charity ;)
My fellow M-City JETs and I volunteered for a day at the Nozomi Festival, an event organised by a centre for people with general learning disabilities. We cooked sausages, shoved them into buns, and sold them at our Hot Dog Stall. At the end of the day, we sold out of sausages, yeah! But, we had quite a few customers preferring to go bun-less, so we had some buns leftover which the centre staff made into sandwiches for all the volunteers!

I had quite a few of these grilled rice dumplings, because they were so soft and yummy!

Thank You Party

A class of soon-to-be graduates at one of my elementary schools held a Thank You Party for their teachers, and I was invited. They'd prepared food, cards, a thank you song, as well as a number of party games for the occasion. And I have to say, I have never in all my five years here, have ever felt so appreciated by the students and by the homeroom teacher. The party ended with speeches from the invited teachers, and when it was my turn, tried as I could, I couldn't hold back the tears when I saw the homeroom teacher crying, which got some of the students and teachers started :)

Homemade Valentine's Choccies

Together with my girls in the English Club, we made chocolate truffles with message cards for their loved ones. After these were finished, we of course, had a tea party. It's become very much the norm to have one after cooking sessions :)

Karuta

My junior high school students in a Ogura Hyakunin Isshu tournament. Each playing card has a fragment of a collection of a hundred poems. Two teams compete in a match with each team having half a deck. A reciter chooses corresponding cards from their reader's deck, and reads them out. The aim of the competitors is to touch the matching playing card first. Touching cards in the opposition's side, allows a team to transfer one of their cards over to them. Teams without anymore cards win.

The Last & Preparation for a New Beginning

Feeling a little sentimental.

Just had the ALT Mid-Year Seminar this past week at Suidobashi, my fifth and last, would you believe?! I took the kouhai (the ALTs who started after me) for the traditional drink at the New York Bar, with a detour past the Tokyo Government Building where the seminars used to be until this year, and reminisced.

Five years went by so quickly, it almost felt like yesterday that I first touched down into Tokyo. I'm feeling more than a little unsettled about where all that time has gone.

There were a lot of changes this year. Up until now, at the most there had just been ten Tokyo JETs (mainlanders and islanders), but this year, there are now a hundred and five, hence the change of seminar location. To be honest, I enjoyed the intimacy of the smaller groups of previous years; with most of the newbies this year being fresh-faced college graduates, the seminar had this cliquey, frat atmosphere to it... Anyway, it's strange to think that I am the longest serving Tokyo JET right now, the only 5th year Tokyo JET... I should have moved on years ago.

With another two hundred ALT friends to play with (the other hundred coming later this year), I doubt the original five mainland Tokyo JETs after me will place sentimental value in, let alone continue, the traditions that had been passed on since M-City first become the only city in Tokyo to utilise the JET Programme eighteen years ago. I know times move on, but I can't help but feel kind of sad about it, the traditions that are very much a part of my JET experience and those before me, will no longer be when I leave JET this summer.

Anyway, now that I've got the sentimentalities out of my system, let's think about the future... moving apartment, job searching, CPD, there will be a lot to think about during these next few months.

Rice Pounding

It's that time of the year again, where people get together to whack glutinous rice with a mallet.
Freshly pounded rice cakes (mochi) coated with toasted soya bean powder;
Mochi wrapped in seaweed;
Mochi in oshiruko (sweet red bean soup);
And mochi in ozouni (savoury soup)...
I was in mochi mochi heaven...

I don't usually bring my camera to school, so I had to make do with the ones provided by the school for student use...

[Left: The PTA showing us how to do it. Right: The PTA Mochi-Making Army.]

 [The set-up for roasting sweet potatoes.]

[Left: Mochi dunked in soya sauce and wrapped in seaweed. Right: Toasted soya bean powder-coated mochi.]

[Roasted sweet potato.]

[Osekigohan a.k.a. red bean glutinous rice.]

[Left: Mochi in ozouni. Right: Red bean soup with mochi.]

My Last Chorus

I've just attended my fifth and final chorus concert as a teacher of Murayama, my current city of work. My monster students, who were right little rascals these past two years, have grown up and have now set their minds on graduating and getting into high school next March. Their performance during this concert really resonated with feeling, and is the best I've heard since joining this school two years ago. It's always great to finish on a high note... (No pun intended.)

Rice harvesting for the last time.

Cooking with Japanese Students

I was invited by a teacher friend to join her high school students for a cooking session, and what they made was okonomiyaki, a type of savoury pancake filled with lots of goodies, such as cabbage, pork/seafood, cheese, rice cake and noodles. It was very tasty. And for dessert, I taught the students how to make Honey and Orange Flapjacks, and these were served top with vanilla ice-cream, delish!

The next day, I joined my junior high school's SEN class, and had a pizza party using homemade pizza dough and veggies picked from the school farm! My students got very creative. I came away with a bag of freshly picked school-grown veggies and basil, because my students picked way too much!

Sports Day

It was postponed because of the early coming of the rainy season, but when it finally happened, it turned out pretty well. Sports Days are huge events over here, and every year parents would bring their tarps and picnic munchies to watch their kids compete.

Welcome Shabu-Shabu

Better late than never, we welcomed the two new JETs with a shabu-shabu dinner.

The newbies this year are both fantastic guys.

We're going to Nagoya next weekend which should be fun ;)

Jam and Pickled Plums

I'm having a great holiday so far, and have been keeping myself busy. Although, not often, there are times when I'm left alone with my thoughts, and I am forced to think about things I don't want to think about. Last night was one of those times which made me feel pretty depressed, and it didn't help that I had to go in to work the next day, to a job where the dislikes outweigh the likes.

But one of the teachers at work, who's an absolute dear, brightened up my day. He's been honing his skills in jam-making in anticipation of the day he will retire and open his own bakery, and he's been pickling plums with his SEN students. I got to try the pickled plums on rice, traditional Japanese fare that's perceived as a patriotic food because of it's resemblance to the national flag (mentally remove the nori from my picture). I was also gifted with more of the pickled plums, and a jar each of plum jam and blueberry jam ;)

Asakusa

[Tokyo Skytree]

On a field trip with students of the English Club, we went to Asakusa in order for them to practice their English with foreigners... and to be honest, I wasn't expecting much with the students of my present school, and it doesn't help that the club supervisor lacks assertiveness and enthusiasm. The whole thing was poorly planned and organised. There were no letters to parents, no permission slips, no school trip policy being enforced, no planning, no name lists or emergency contact details, no briefing/emergency info for the students, no aims and objectives of the trip....zilch.  Everything was just agreed upon verbally, and come the day there were some no-shows, with the supervisor not being sure if they were going to turn up, then having to call the school to ask a teacher to phone the students to see if they were coming or not.

And surprise, surprise, the trip had absolutely no relevance at all to learning about English or other cultures. The students sightsaw a Japanese district, and did things like looking at temples and the Skytree, finding out their fortunes using the fortune-telling sticks, and shopping for key straps... wait, I lied, we did do one non-Japanese thing, we ate lunch at Burger King.

Shabu Shabu Farewell

[From left to right. Top: onsen egg; sushi selection; veggies, tofu and glass noodles for the hotpot. Bottom: beef; ponzu (vinegar dip) with spring onions and spiced daikon; sesame sauce for dipping with and chilli oil.]

It was farewell to two of the ALTs this week. We sent them off with a shabu shabu dinner at Kisoji, the same restaurant we went to last year. The BoE Shachou (Head) did a mini magic show which was so bad, it was hilarious. We could see him whipping out balls from his trouser pockets.