What will it be?

A drawing by Yoshinori Takata and myself.
This was from a listening activity using comparatives.

In November, my supervisor at the BOE handed me my re-contracting forms and asked me if I would like to stay and teach another year.
Even prior to being officially offered another contract, a third year teaching in Oshima is something that has been weighing heavily upon my mind. I told my supervisor I would need time to think it over because I really wasn't sure at the moment if a third year is something I would be interested in doing. My supervisor understood and told me that he would need my final decision by February 1st.

With only a few days left until my decision needs to be made it came as no surprise to me that today after class my supervisor brought up the topic of the re-contracting forms. After briefly asking me how my classes had gone today my supervisor points to my re-contracting forms and tells me that if I need a little more time to decide, I can turn in my forms on the following Monday (Feb. 4th). After a moments pause to gather his thoughts he then says in his best English, " In a third year it is your happiness most important. It's your choice. Make your happiness choice". As much as I have heard these sentiments in their varying forms from friends and family it wasn't until I heard my supervisor saying them in his broken English that I really felt the impact of what these words mean.

I'm not sure if I believe in fate, but I'm not sure that I am convinced it  was mere coincidence that today- a day where I left school thinking about how much I love my students, even the trouble maker ones that cause me stress,- of all days would be the day that I would be so clearly directed to make the decision that makes me happiest.
I don't always love living in Japan. And I certainly don't always love living in Oshima. Heck, I don't even always love teaching. But one thing that I do know is that I love my students and I love to see them learning and progressing. It's often the small, nearly missable moments that makes my job feel so rewarding.  Like today when my first and second graders hosted a school fair for the older students. This was a free period, in substitute of a lunch recess, for the students to play fair/festival style games but as I walked through the gaming areas observing my students playing I could catch bits of English floating around: students counting out how many bowling pins had been knocked down, excitement over the prizes they won (cool/cute), and exclamations of "I'm winner".  Other times it is something more obvious that makes me realize how much I love teaching my students.  Many of my junior high school boys hate the fact that they are required to take English. Often when it is time to do speaking activities they will cheat and just show their friends the answer or tell them in Japanese what they are supposed to practice speaking. However, after some one-on-one practice to pronounce and understand the words on their worksheets they are at least a little more eager to try it out/show off to their friends. But the best feeling usually comes after, when in our next class these same boys will timidly raise their hands and ask me to come over and help them understand what a problem is asking instead of just copying off of their friends (or even worse) going to sleep.
Then of course there is also the blatantly obvious that serves as a daily reminder why I tolerate living in rural Oshima. The most egotistically rewarding part of my job, when I see my students reactions as I enter the school and English classroom. After about a year and a half of teaching them I assumed that my original novelty would wear off and that my students would begin to greet me with the standard mumbled "ohayo/konnichiwa" that most teachers receive. But no, everyday without fail my elementary students run through the halls (as fast as it is allowed) shouting, "Keri sensei", rushing to see who will be the first to get to me to say whatever English they can most easily recall that day (good morning, how are you, I'm cold, etc.) Even my most jaded of 3rd year junior high school students when looking up from whatever manga they are reading hidden inside of their English text book will give me a surprised "woah, keri sensei"as I enter the classroom, followed by a very brief smile before going back to their faux studying.  I don't know for certain how much of an affect I have on my students and their motivations to practice English, but I do know they have deeply affected me.

Even now after writing all of this I'm still not 100% sure which choice is the right answer for me. I'm certain that no matter what my final decision will be I will feel some degree of regret to either stay or to leave. Will I love living in Japan another year. Maybe, but maybe not. Will I love living in Oshima another year? Probably not. Will I be happy teaching my students for another year? Maybe not everyday, but there will be those days and those moments that makes the rest of the year and living in Oshima worth it. Is this post saying for certain that I will stay another year? Not at all. From the very first day back in November when I was asked if I would like to stay another year I knew my decision would not be made until the very last day when I draw out my signature and put the little tick next to  the box marked yes or the boxed marked no, and so it will be. I have a lot to think about still and even though I am leaning to stay one final year, I need to make sure that it is my "happiness choice"

Some photos from the school fair today

Prizes that students could win from the fair/gamebooths

Students seeing if they can complete the puzzles in 2 minutes to win a prize

One of the most popular games was this fishing game. There were 10 fishes with a metal paper clip inside them. Students had 1 minute and 30 seconds to catch as many with their fishing pole baited with a small magnet.

New Horizons

April and Spring have arrived and with it the beloved Japanese cherry blossoms!
As much as I and the rest of the citizens of Japan love the cherry blossoms and Hanami, the coming of Spring also signifies the start of a new school year in Japan. Unlike American schools (and I am assuming schools in most other Western societies) which end around anywhere in June/July and resume in late August or early September, the Japanese school schedule begins from April and runs through until about mid- March. In a way it kind of seems to match having the new school year parallel with the coming of Spring and `re-birth`. (Note: I`m sure there is actually a different reason, but this is just a nice coincidence that I happen to really like).



(Photo Courtesy of Awesome Yamaguchi ALT Brad)


Like I have mentioned, for the past week I haven`t been very busy since classes have been out, my BOE on the other hand has been bustling with energy as people buzz in and out of the office making last minute preparations to ensure a smooth and successful new school year. One of the most prominent shifts that the new academic year presents that directly affects me is what I like to refer to as, `Musical Chairs: Sensei Edition`. So, at the set of the new school year not only are 1st year ES students being initiated into Elementary schools, ES students transferring up to JHS, JHS students transitioning into HS students and HS students preparing to begin University, but behind the scenes there is also a transferring of teachers and other positions related to the education system.

My BOE has had a few transfers, namely a large number of the staff who had worked on the national games have been transferred to different positions around Oshima. Within my office I was a little sad to learn that our department head was transferred, he had a really sexy deep low voice that I liked to listen to while preparing my lessons or typing up these blogs. Our new department head is really nice, so I really can`t complain too much. Thankfully both of my supervisors are still here, both of them have been really helpful with getting me adjusted to life in Oshima and I would`ve been a little torn to discover that I would be getting a new supervisor in charge of governing my professional life here.

The most significant changes of course are the ones within my individual schools. During the first week of April, amongst all the bustling going on around our office, the ones that I paid direct attention to was when my school principals` would enter to introduce the new staff. Unfortunately not all of my schools had the time to be able to stop by, I think I have gotten to meet the `new` staff from about 6 of my 14 schools. In most cases when the staff would enter I was relieved to see that for the most part my teachers have only been shuffled from different schools within Oshima`s school districts. But there were a few teachers that came in who will be completely new faces that I can expect to be teaching with in the upcoming weeks. This is a little bit of a nerve wracking experience for me, seeing as the past 7 months I have adjusted to the different teaching techniques of my schools individual teachers. And now I am getting thrown a curve ball of wild card teachers that I am unsure of how well we will work together in a classroom. Basically, I get sent back to square one of learning how to adjust to individual teaching styles.

There were only a few changes that really sparked my interests. The first being, that my absolutely favorite JTE was no longer the English teacher at Nasake Jima ES&JHS. He was so much fun to work with because he was really young and had a lot of creative ideas for engaging students with English language. Not to mention he was also the most receptive to ideas I had for English lessons and activities. But beyond just myself, I was also a little disappointed to learn that he was leaving (potentially out of Oshima) because I felt that the way he presented English lessons were really accessible and enjoyable for students. Simply put, I felt that he was the most qualified teacher for making a significant impact on English acquisition in Oshima. Thankfully, I later found out that he will still be working as an English teacher in Oshima and that he will actually be visiting all of the JHS. From what I could gather from talking to my new Department head was that my favorite teacher would kind of serve the same job as me, team teaching English at the different JHS on Oshima. So, I`m sad that I likely wont be working with him again, but I`m really glad that he`ll still be about and teaching practical English to the students of Oshima.

The only other major upset so far came when I discovered another one of my JHS teacher switches. This switch was really probably the worst possible switch that I could have ever expected. So there is only one JHS that I very much despise going to, and the reason primarily being was that the JTE was awful. I didn`t so much mind that all he made me do was read out a few sentences and otherwise stand in front of the class, because hey, if he was doing a great job of teaching and wanted me out of the way, no problem. BUT the problem is he doesn`t do a particularly great job. In fact 90% of the English class period is given in Japanese. And the strategies employed are extremely traditional. I had personally been hoping that he would retire, or else transfer off of Oshima. Unfortunately that wasn`t the case. And what did happen was that he was transferred to one of my favorite JHSs. And it`s further disheartening because a lot of the students there are really eager and dedicated to learning English, but their previous teacher`s strategies really facilitated and encouraged them to improve. So I`m really not excited to see how the new school year will be with him at that school. The only potentially bright side to this situation is that the teacher he is replacing will be going to his old school. So I`m hoping that I will no longer despise visiting that school and I know that she will do a really good job of providing the students with the proper English lessons they have been missing. It also means that I will no longer be used solely as a prop at that school! Yay!

The final change that April has brought that directly impacts me is a change in English textbooks. I`ll no longer be teaching from New Horizons but from Sunshine (does Japan have a sense of humour or is this also just coincidence?). Unfortunately the basic lesson structures and strategies are the same (see not practical/useful English) and implemented in the least sensical kind of way. But on the bright side I`m not familiar with the different speaking,reading, writing activities so I`ll have fun doing new lessons.

To sum it up there are a lot of changes on the horizon. Hopefully they will all prove to be for the better.

Things to look forward to: Tsuwano Yabusame (horse back archery). I`ve already posted some photos on Facebook but I will post more and likely some commentary soon!

Long Overdue

Warning, this shall be a bit of a long post. I have about a whole month or so of catching up on. So lets begin!
On September 5th I woke up at 7:30 am,had a breakfast of my favorite bread topped with peanut cream, and brushed my teeth in the morning before dashing out the door to make it to school on time. I was late. (No I am kidding, I am not going to give you a blow by blow of every single day, but hopefully a general summation of my life for the past month or so) [Oh, and no I wasn`t late (mom) I wasn`t even teaching at schools yet).
So seriously, let`s begin!

Okay, so I have neglected this blog a little bit. Sorry, but I guess I have been busy, or unmotivated. Or maybe a mixture of both.
Anyway, so on August 27th (way forever ago now) I had participated in the 21st annual world shrimp catching festival in Aio, in Yamaguchi prefecture. It was pretty interesting and apparently it is really popular, because it attracts people from all over Japan to participate, and even the occasional internationals. Aside from us foreign JET's there were also some people participating from China, Korea, and South America. prettty awesome.
The basic idea behind this shrimp festival is pretty odd, to say the least. They section off a part of the ocean with a large net barricade/fence and then begin to throw thousands of live shrimp into the shallow (maybe knee high water). After giving the shrimp about 10 minutes to get nice and burrowed into the sand then they give out a count down and there is the mad dash to the water!h
So the goal is to catch/dig up as many shrimp as you can. If you catch the most shrimp you win some fabulous prize, I have no clue what it is, because I didn`t catch the most shrimp.

Anyway, those suckers are surprisingly more difficult to catch than you might expect. The best way to go about finding them is to lightly run your hands and feet along the sand and if you feel any lumps more than likely there is a shrimp beneath you. The worst thing that happens though is when you are running your hand/feet along the sand, if the shrimp is not burrowed very well, you get poked by the sharp ...for a lack of the proper word, `pointers` that they have strategically placed on their foreheads and tails. Not nice, this happened a few times and it hurt!!!!


Usually once you find the shrimp it is not too difficult to catch them so long as you act quickly. Simply scoop the creature out of the sand and plop it into the bag/container/laundry net that you have designated as your shrimp storage space. If you dont go very quickly they will swim away from you or flop/jump/air swim out of your hands. This happened twice to me, and it was pretty infuriating having spent all that time searching for a shrimp only for it to hop/flop/plop away. >_< . In total I ended up catching only four shrimp...womp womp. If I decide to stay here another year, I hope that next time I will catch at least 8!



Oh, I forgot to mention the best part, after catching the shrimp we had a delicious lunch of freshly caught grilled shrimp. Some of the braver ALT`s ate them raw.For me, No thank you.







And what have I been up to since August 27th?
Well for the most part I have been busy teaching my students, who are ridiculously cute (ES students) and ridiculously ridiculous (JHS students). Currently I have a bit of a love/hate relationship going on with the elementary schools I work at.The reason being is that I absolutely love elementary school because as mentioned these students are too cute(!) [They are so small, and so silly], they are not as self-conscious about using their English as JHS students, and they are super uber genki (excited/energetic) all the time, and here in lies the hate part of the relationship. Excited energetic kids are awesome(!), way more awesome than kids who are falling asleep during their lessons and refuse to participate. BUT super genki kids thrive on me being equally as genki as they are, which I generally enjoy. However, as I mentioned in my post about summer English camp, being super genki every second is really surprisingly tiring. And after 3 straight lessons of genki comes lunch and of course recess (every kids favorite hour of school) which in Elementary school involves playing and running and usually me getting hit by a dodgeball or two (an upcoming post shall be dedicated to dodgeball, and I will try to post sooner than later). And so although I am always really excited for one of my elementary school days, by the time the days is through I am ready to roll into bed, rejoicing in the fact that for the next 3 days I get to enjoy the relative peace of JHS.

After devoting a paragraph to elementary schools, I suppose it is only fair that I also enlighten you a bit on the pleasures of being a foreign english teacher in a Japanese JHS. I suppose the reason I choose to identify my JHS students as ridiculously ridiculous is because of their mad obsession with this equally ridiculous American girl (me). I think it is rather fair to say that most of my JHS students that are males have a crush on me (and no I am not trying to be annoying by highlighting the fact that I am ridiculously gorgeous or incredibly intriguing), I`m just fairly certain that for one reason or another I have garnered the attention/affection of most if not all of my JHS boys. Everyday I am at a JHS one boy or another ventures to ask me outlandish questions usually along the lines of: `do you have a boyfriend, what type of boy do you like, do you want a boyfriend, where do you live, you said you are a little lonely here, I can keep you company` (creepy, but seriously one kids said this, in broken english though of course), etc.

But what is maybe even more ridiculously ridiculous than my boy students are my female students! The example I am about to give you is one of my more extreme cases, so thankfully not all of them are like this, or else combined with the boys I think I would die of ridiculous behavior overdose! So anyway, at one of my JHS`s 3 girls in particular seem to have a larger crush on me than any of the boys at my schools. Every word I say merits a loud chorus of KAWAIIIIIII (cute), everything I do, including the most mundane things like dropping pencils, tying my hair back, coughing for goodness sake (!!!!) is immediately followed by a resounding KAWAIIII! During lunch these girls will crowd around me and just stare at me and watch my every movement which usually results in me giving awkward smiles, tense laughs, and a mumblings of `oh my, oh my oh my oh my` under my breath, and of course, you guessed it, their response: Kawaii! (and also mimics of the mumblings I make).

My conclusion on being a foreigner in a JHS is that you become an instant celebrity, JHS student fantasy, etc, etc, etc, etc. For awhile it is a bit of an ego boost that these kids think you are the bees knees, but after awhile it does become a bit pesky having 15 year old boys vying for your affection and 16 year old girls stalking you and squealing in excitement every 5 minutes (or less, seriously!)

Outside of school I have been trying to keep myself pretty busy because, yes I am feeling a bit lonely out here in the middle of no where. It is especially hard living on my own for the first time. For the past 22 years I have always lived with someone, growing up it was my family, in college it was a roommate, and so now coming home to an empty apartment (and weatherby, but a turtle is not the most communicative companion) feels rather depressing. So most weekends I tend to go off the island to visit friends, or go shopping. And now every Tuesday I attend a Japanese language course that is about 1.5 hours away by combined transportation methods of car and train. On top of that I also teach an adult English conversation class twice a month, which is nice to be able to chat with Japanese people outside of work.



I suppose there is just one last thing I want to share before calling this post complete, and that is that I got to visit my host family this past weekend! From Oct1(morning)-Oct. 3rd (evening) I spent time in Tokyo and Chiba prefecture. It was so great to see my host family again, in many ways it felt like being home. I was really surprised when I was catching the train from Tokyo station to Myoden (the suburb my host family lives in) that everything felt so familiar. When I was walking my regular route from the station to their house I felt in many ways like nothing had changed at all,and that no time had passed. In my mind I was simply walking home from a day of school and that the next morning I would follow the same routine of almost two years ago. But in many ways, being back with my host family also showed me how much I have changed and grown up from the last time I saw them in March 2010. And something I think that I finally was able to realize that I hadn`t before is that I do think of my host family as almost a second family, and that I think of me more than just some girl who lived with them for 5 months.During this visit I was so surprised that my host mom remembered so many little things about my character and habits that I would have expected her to have forgotten in a year and 2 other host kids in between my stay. Both my host dad and host brother also remembered a number of my silly quirks. But I think the moment I really realized how much I have come to care about my host family was when my host mom saw me off . Instead of just dropping me off at Myoden station or simply guiding me to the terminal entrance of the bullet train, she instead insisted on buying a ticket onto the platform (different from the actual train ticket, so it only cost a couple hundred yen) and waited next to the train until the moment I departed, waving goodbye to me until I was out of sight. It was in that moment, with my eyes tearing up that I realized that I really have come to love my host mom.