One last one for the road
I've been doing a lot of editing of the video taken during our trip to Japan and to highlight the trip, Suzuki sensei and I put together this little piece.
I've been doing a lot of editing of the video taken during our trip to Japan and to highlight the trip, Suzuki sensei and I put together this little piece.
Well, I finally got around to creating a webpage that hosts all of my photos.
You can now see all the photos that I took and all the photos that were taken of me.
Well, today was kind or uneventful. We traveled about threehours by shinkansen from Kyoto to Tokyo and then Sam, Sean, Alex, and I all headed to the Studio Ghibli museum for a little bit of fun. Studio Ghibli is the studio responsible for such movies as My Neighbor Totoro, Grave of the Fireflies, Howl's Moving Castle, and Spirited Away to name a few. I expeced it to be a bright place full of cool little things and some insight into what Miazaki was doing or thinking when he created some of his greatest films. The brightest part of the museum was actually the specialized bus that brought us to the museum. The inside while it did have cool little bit of movie memorabilia strewn about was actually very conservative when it came to colors and spacing. There were a lot of earth tones, like browns and greens, and the rooms were well spread out with a definate sense of direction even though none was specified. It all took me by surprise until I thought more about the movies and how most of them are based around how nature is lashing back at the humans because of things like deforestation, or the use of fire arms to over hunt, or over industrializtion. It all came into perspective.
After we met our sensei back at the train station, we headed back to Shinjuku for dinner at an incredibly nice hotel. It was 47+ stories tall with a viewing window on the 47th floor that looks out onto the rest of Tokyo and the view was absolutely breath taking. Up that high I'm usually a little apprehensive about standing right next to the window to look out and down, but I wanted to actually be able to walk out past the window and look at the view of Tokyo it's just that amazing. The dinner was a cool buffet full of interesting Japanese/French food that consisted mainly of seafood and I was happy. Since I've come to Japan I've acclimated more to the taste of seafood then I ever would have in the states. Dinner was a mix of conversation in English and Japanese about everything that we've done in Japan and things we want to do, tomorrow, in Japan, and in the future. Yuri's aunt kept most of talking in Japanese for the entirety of the meal and it was great to hear some people that just started learning the language realize how they have to start thinking when speaking the language. Devin said it best, "You have to train your mind to start thinking about how you want to form your sentences as you are speaking and think of the verb you want to use ahead of time, in the cases you do want to use one." You really don't have time to sit around and think about what you want to say before you say it, everything is all on the fly.
Moving along, after dinner every one that wasn't Sean, Sam, and I went to the hotel and the three of us went back to Akihabara for another round of beating in Guilty Gear. They were glorious beatings let me tell you. When it comes to that game, the kids here just have skills that can rock your socks off from across the room. I gave one guy a "run for his money" when I had to step up and defend the honor of Sam and Sean and took a first to 3 match to round 4 and lost the next one... but hey, it's just a game and this is just the greatest learning experience I've ever had the ability to take part in.
Peace!
５月２４日 木曜日
京都から東京まで新幹線に乗りました。お茶の水のホテルへ帰りました。つぎにションさんとサムさんと「パンちゃん」とＧｈｉｂｌｉの博物館へ行きました。この博物館はとてもきれいでした。とてもくらかったです。たくさん茶色と白とオレンジのいろがありました。たくさんの映画の電磁を見ました。特にたくさんトトロとナウシカのてんじがありました。後できれいな新宿のホテルへ行きました。皆さんとゆりさんのおばさんと晩御飯を食べました。
Is just my way of saying that I got to sleep in after a long day of traveling to Kyoto and then walking at night to dinner. Sunday night we got into Kyoto and got setteled into our hotel and we, all the students, met up with Travis' friend Kauru and went to dinner following Devin down the main drag of Kyoto. We went to dinner and hit a few shops on the way back to get a basic feel for Kyoto and let it sink in that we are in the Gaijin district here.
Monday Travis and I slept in, to take a most needed day off and just relax. I think we finally made it out of the hotel around 4 pm to get something to eat and ran into Devin at the corner store. We talked for a bit and then came back to the hotel to chill a bit more and watch a movie while we waited for every one else to come back from the Temples. When the rest of the troup arrived at the hotel, we found out that they had reservations for a cool Kyoto restaurant so Travis snagged Yuri and the four of us (Travis, Yuri, Devin, and myself) went to downtown Kyoto and cruised around there and ate at a Yoshinoya because it was quick and cheap! We hit up an icre cream parlor on the way back and ended up at the hotel around 9ish.
We got back to the hotel and like 30 minutes later I was back on the streets of Kyoto with Sam, Sean, and Alex to look for either a place to go bowl or an arcade. I found out not 45 minutes earlier where these places were located, so we headed to downtown Kyoto. We didn't find a place to bowl, but we found Tower Namco and headed in there because it had everything we wanted to do except bowl. Sam, Sean, and I headed up to the top floor to play a few fighter games and Alex sayed on the floor below that to play Pachinko because he wanted to see what all the fuss was about. So we hung out there until midnight and then headed back to the hotel.
Today Travis and I were up bright and early at 9 am and beat every one down to the lobby, had some coffee, went back upstairs and then met all the kids to go to Osaka. I've compared a few cityies here in Japan to the likes of NYC and San Fran, but I was completely wrong in those comparisons. Osaka is such a better example of a Japanese NYC because of it's stratification. There was an elecronic distric, a "Time Square" type district, American Town, etc. I don't think I've ever felt more at home in a foreign counry as I did today in Osaka. We walked around there for most of the day and then headed back towards the hotel, but on the way stopped for dinner. The night before Yuri spotted a Shyabu Shyabu restaurant on the main drag in Kyoto and we decided to eat there tonight. Shyabu Shyabu is an onomatopoeia for the sound the food makes in the water as you are cooking it; dipping it into boiling water, turning it over and repeating until the meat browns. The atmosphere of the restaurant is amazing, they have 4 or 5 rooms all set up like traditional Japanese dining rooms where you put your feet under the table and the walls are made of the cool rice paper that is really expensive. Knowing that, you could have probably guessed that the meal was pretty expensive, $45 per person, and really tasty.
We trudged slowly back to the hotel and Travis and I just kinda hung around in the room showing eachother the DJ programs we have on our laptops until about 11:30 when I went down to the onsen (but not quite) with Alex. The onsen in the hotel closes around midnight and apparently the best thing to do before you go to bed is to go and relax in there, and I have to admit that while I'm writing this I feel pretty good; nice and relaxed. Tomorrow is another long day of travel from Kyoto to Tokyo on the shinkansen, but I get to see the Ghibli museum!
５月２１日 日曜日
先生の家族とパチンコセンターへ行きました。そのセンターの中でたくさんの人がタバコをすっていました。センターの隣にあるビデオゲームセンターへ行きたかったです。たばこの煙のアルギーがありますので、１５分間ぐらいだけパチンコを見ました。何人かの学生は”これはつまらない”と思いましたので、ビデオゲームセンターへ行きました。つぎに先生の家族とかいてんずしへ行きました。これはすごい！いろいろなすしを見て、いろいろな食べ物を食べました。それから、新幹線の駅へ行って、豊川から京都まで乗りました。京都で皆さんとPig＋WhistleのIrishパブへ行きました。イギリスの食べ物がありました。Pubは変でした。ウェイターはイギリス人でした。でもシェフは日本人でした。
５月２２日 月曜日
私ののどと鼻が痛かったから、あまり何もしませんでした。
５月２３日 火曜日
大阪へ行きました。たくさん歩きました。そして店へ行きました。アメリカの町や電気街へ行きました。アメリカの町は変でした。そこのアメリカの文化はラっプの文化です。どの店も服とブーツをうっています。京都へ帰って、しゃぶしゃぶのレストランへ行きました。しゃぶしゃぶは ぎおんご（onomatopoeia）です。水の中で肉とやさいをゆでました。おいしかったです。
Okay, this entry will come in parts, ie part 1, 2, etc.
Part 1) I got up at like 7 or something early like that to get ready to go to the school. I got my supplies from my senei for the presentation, and went over a few things with my partner. Breakfast came and went and then we were wisked away to the school.
Part 2) We got to the school, got our slippers and were debriefed about the days activities in the principles office. We heard about how long the school had been around, a bit of its history and what the focus of the school was. The main focus of the school for the past 20 or so years was music, mainly vocal but there were a few other options.
Part 3) We left the principles office and headed upstairs to the welcome ceremony where the kids sang the school song for us, and "Puff the Magic Dragon," they introduced their school briefly in English, then it was our turn. We introduced ourselves and the school. We fielded questions for the next 10 or 15 minutes ranging from "What do you do in your free time at The University of Vermont?" to "What is your favorte word?"
Part 4) The period ended and the students split into their pairs and gave their presentations. Our presentation was on the differences between Japanese and American Elementary Schools and I don't think it could have been any more boring for the students. A couple of times I saw a few drift in and out and almost fall asleep. After we gave our presentation, we yet again fielded questions and gave out stickers to the kids as rewards for having questions to keep them asking things. They had so many questions that we couldn't actually get around to start the English lesson.
Part 5) After the presentations the students split again and worked with a grade of their own. I have 8 3rd graders and we talked about a lot of things about what I did at UVM and in Elementary School. After that I had lunch with the students which reminded me of being back in first and second grade where everything was so daunting. After lunch I helped clean a little bit and before the class headed to the gym for their next class, we had free time. That consisted mainly of the Japanese students and the American students chased each other around a portion of the school and played volley ball.
Part 6) I went with the class to the gym where they danced a bit to warm up, "Head, shoulders, knees, and toes" style of dance not interperative... after that we jumped a pummel hourse turned length ways, and later we did something kind of jump rope thing. The teacher pulled out a double dutch length rope and the kids one by one ran into the center and jumped the rope once and jumped out and ran to the other side. If a child stopped the roation of the rope, they went to the other side and the game started up again. Apparently the goal was to get every one through the rope in one go.
Part 7) After we cleaned up the gym, we went back to the class room and exchanged gifts, the class gave me a really nice origami lei and I gave them a bunch of pictures if the Power Puf girls to color, a few boxes of snaks from the US, a bunch of sheets of stickers, and some pencils. Around 2:45 all the UVM students gathered in the principles office to talk in Japanese about what they learned during the day and how they felt about the entire experience. I don't think I've ever learned more in a day then at the school; I learned mainly about the differences between Japanese schools and school children and those in the US and that the differences in childhood make huge differences in the actions of the children later in life, like real tangible changes.
Part 8) The UVM students left the school and made our way to the classroom of the English class that had been escorting us around all day, as well as helping with translations. All the UVM students introduced themsevles in Japanese and then fielded a few questions about their presentation early in the day. Then the students of the English class introduced themselves in English and told us a little about their lives, it was really neat to see how people in their 30s, 40s, and a few in their 50s have taken not only such an interest in English, but for having class once a week, have excelled so much in such a little time!
Part 9) After the introductions, every one walked across the street to the cafe that had been rented out for us where for the next few hours it was a blur of conversation, people were talking in English and Japanese about everything and anything. I can't really say more then that because things passed by so fast, but two of the main topics for most of the converstaions I had was a comparison between certain products in Japan and the US, the other topic was the views that foreigners had about Japan and vice versa.
I don't think I've ever had as much fun on a school trip as I did this night, nor did I ever learn as much as I did during the day with the students. This experience made me think about the JET program and that it might be the right thing for me to do after college. Teachers in Japan are highly respected and apparently the life offered to you by the JET program is also a rather nice one, where stipends help you pay for most things so you can live rather comfortably off of a teachers salary.
５月１９日 金曜日
庭野小学校へ行きました。１１時から３時まで三年生の学生を教えました。アメリカと日本の小学校について発表しました。私のプレゼンテーションはつまら なかったです。でもあとで学生はたくさん質問しました。ノートにトトロの絵をかきました。がくせいは私のトトロの絵を見ましたから、学生は絵がほしくなりました。体育館に行く前に５つ絵を書きました。学生と体育館へいってから、ダンスをして、大きななわとびをしました。あとで２つ絵を書きました。学生と先生と話して、写真を撮って、プレゼントを交換しました。私はたくさん習いました。庭野の学生はとても元気で好奇心が強いです。
あとでプレゼンテーションのために先生の英語のクラスへ行きました。英語のクラスとレストランへ行きました。歯医者の先生と話しました。彼はとてもおもしろいです。彼の英語がじょすです。いろいろなことを話しました。