Summa time

I’m going to break down past couple of weeks into two subsections: fun time and work time (although they overlap in a couple of places).

FUN TIME

I went to Tokyo for a few days at the end of July and met up with some friends. We went to Shinjuku, Odaiba, Shibuya, and Roppongi, and all in all it was a pretty sweet respite from slow country living that characterizes life in the D (Daishoji). I enjoy Tokyo, but this time it was hot. REALLY hot. In fact, after a day of walking around Odaiba I came as close as I ever have to passing out from dehydration. I probably spent like 2000 yen on vending machine drinks on that day alone.

I’ve taken up bike riding this summer, which has been a really effective outlet of stress and unused energy. Kaga has some really beautiful countryside—rolling fields of rice, beach paths, and mountain trails—all within easy access. I usually go home after work, change, and then hit the road while it’s still daylight. There are some woods I frequent that I swear could be the setting of Jurassic Park 4 (although God forbid that should ever happen) or Lord of the Rings: Rise of the Jungle Orcs. Sometimes I run into students or other people I know, but on tiny winding roads it’s pretty rare. I’ve been down some isolated narrow mountain paths where I’m almost positive the prehistoric inhabitants haven’t seen foreigners since Tom Cruise tried to modernize Japan back in the Meiji era.

Other than that, there’s been parties, karaoke, friendly get-togethers, and fire alarm fiascos.

WORK TIME

-In the second half of July, I went on an English retreat with a high school in Kanazawa to Hakusan. It was my first time working with high schoolers, and it was awesome! They actually have some English ability and would listen to directions and had decent senses of humour :D. We ended up doing lots of games, skits, an English proficiency exam practice test,

-Last week was quite busy—a rarity during summer vacation. On Tuesday I gave a conversational English seminar to the staff and faculty at my largest elementary school. Homeroom teachers by and large have no formal English language training beyond what they themselves learned in school, so for a lot of them the new English curriculum has come as a shock. Even more so considering that come next year, they’ll have to be teaching English solo cuz there aren’t enough foreign ALTs to go around. So we went over useful expressions, did some activities, drills, pronunciation practice, etc. They were almost exactly like my students—I looked around at one point and saw some 3rd grade teachers whining about how the principal was cheating at “Go Fish”.

-The following day I went to Daishoji’s local daycare center and did a presentation on Canada and played some games with local kids (Anna and Alex’s students). It didn’t take them long to warm up to me so pretty soon we were playing duck duck goose like we’d done it all our lives. Also, the youngest kids were super eager to grab hold of me. I mean, I can handle physical attention from little kids, but when they’re hanging off your legs it makes running a tad trickier.

-On Friday, Daniel, Zach and I taught some classes at the Tsubata community center on American sports. We played ultimate frisbee and battle ball (similar to dodgeball). The kids were mostly awesome at these games, but we coulda used some AC. By the time the last group of kids came in, I was drenched with sweat. One shocked-looking boy pointed at my shirt and asked me if it was indeed sweat, to which I responded, “No, I just hopped in the pool with my clothes on” which he seemed to accept.


Tomorrow, I’m heading to Korea for one night only and then to America!!! My layover in Seoul is pretty long, so I’m gonna stay at the same guest house I stayed at in March and meet up with a couple of friends, get a pitiful night of sleep, and then fly the 15 hours to Washington DC, where I will spend the next couple of weeks hanging out with family and friends. Can’t wait!