Even Picnics

WEE!!!

Sorry to keep you all waiting for the wonderful awesome news that Japan is still wonderously awesome. The reason that I haven't posted in a little while is because there hasn't been a HUGE story that has happened (like me falling off of the bike) and I've been pretty busy in this thing we call real life, too.

Last week we had to fill out progress reports and make certificates (i.e. "graduation" cards for the kids when they finished the course for the year). I had about 40 something to write up. So I had to rank them in their pronunciation, itonation, interest level and so on. I also had to write up a little paragraph saying how they have done this year.

You might say, "Jeremy, but you've only been there two months, how on earth can you know how they've done the whole year?" Then I would say, "Young grasshopper, always remember to think before you open your mouth and remember that there are other progress records that were already done in the past by the person that I replaced. Therefore young one, I was able to look at the scores from past progress and relate into my own for the present. One who is wise will understand all these things. Take them, and go, my child."

So I was busy with that, busy with familiarizing myself with my new schedule, busy with extra lessons to try to get children to come to Amity, by interesting them with a trial lesson or having a "Hello" lesson with them to introduce them to me since I'm new. And hopefully, new students will come to take my courses. Well, all is well in Jeremy land as far as new students signing up. I had a trial lesson with one little girl who is about 8 years old and she decided to take my class. Another three year old girl liked me so much that she told her father that she wants to take my class. I've only been here two months folks, and in that manner of time, I had a hand in bringing new students to the school, excuse me while I pat myself on the back *pat pat pat*.

Forewarning, this will probably be a long post as I have a few things to talk about. First, let's talk about my first baby lesson. That's right all, I teach babies. Not the "goo goo ga ga" babies, but 1 and 2 year olds. Now before you go making the same mistake and asking another quesiton, how about I explain to you that this is a class with the mothers as well. Any Psychology majors, or anyone with any knowledge of how the human brain functions will know that from 0-4 years old your brain is a sponge. So although the 1 and 2 year olds may not be speaking much English, they are taking in everything that is being said to them. And when the moms also repeat what is being said in English, they take it in even more.

Last week I had three (count it) three baby lessons. I have not had a baby lesson since my second day of training, and I was nervous. The night before I had a dream that I showed up to Amity with just a t-shirt and underwear on. I also was doing everything wrong that day, including, when I actually changed into clothes, wearing street clothes instead of my suit. Yes, I was nervous. You might be wondering why. Well, unlike the other lessons, the baby lessons are EXTREMELY structured. There is room for improvisation, but it is a pretty structured lesson for 40 minutes with almost no downtime . So I was hoping I didn't skip a part, or mess up, or anything, and those of you that know me know that I have a history of worrying a little bit too much when I don't need to.

Well, this case was no different. All three of my baby lessons went extremely well. Of course there were things I could have done better, but there were a LOT of things I could have done worse. The best part about the baby lessons, were of course, the babies. Every time I pulled out a book for a baby to look at, she would immediately go to her moms bag and grab her copy of the book. She's only 1. Her name is Honoka (like Hannukuh), and she's a sweetheart. At first she was scared of me and would only stay by her mother, then, I started acting like only I do and she probably figured "Oh wow, this guy is sillier than I am, he's not scary." So, my baby lessons went well.

Remember the little boy who always decides he's done listening to me and he acts like the Shinkansen (the bullet train)? Yeah, this next story involves him, his name is Atsuke (AHT-SOO-KEE). Last week and this week we are learning our colors. I would go through my flash cards and have all three boys repeat after me (these boys are three, by the way). However, when I got to Green (two weeks in a row mind you) Atsuke and Tomonori (TOH-MOH-NOH-REE) would start yelling at each other. Obviously I only know a tiny tiny eensy weensy teensy bit of Japanese, so I have no clue what they are saying. I know they are arguing about what is on the card though. The card says "Green" and it has a picture of a green parrot. I don't know what it is they were arguing about, but it SOUNDED something like this.

A: Green! Look, the bird is sitting on a branch!
T: NO! He's not, he's in a cage!
A: A BRANCH!
T: A CAGE!
A:A BRANCH!
T: A CAGE!
.
.
.
.

And so on and so on. At one point Tomonori actualy hit atsuke when I had my back turned. It was CRAZY! It got so bad that Atsuke kept trying to open the door, leave the classroom and go to his mom. All three of the little boys moms wait in the lobby while their sons are in class. And it doesn't stop there, Tomonori's mom actually SAW him hit Atsuke. I literally turned my back for 3 seconds to grab what I was using next for the lesson, I look up, Tomonori is hitting, and I look at the window that is in the classroom (that doesn't look to outside, but let's the people in the hallway see the classroom) and I see Tomonori's mom. Her face was so mad. She didn't LOOK angry, but you could tell she was shocked angry kind of thing. And she wasn't mad at me, I know that for a fact. She was embarassed that her son was doing that. So I went over and separated them immediately and tried to talk some sense into them...yes...in English...so it didn't work, but later, the lesson KIND of got back on track. Oh well, all ended up being OK, cause kids are kids are kids no matter what country they are in. After class they were running around like nothing had happened at all. So goes life and the young ones.

NEXT! We have Ryo. Yes, the boy who fell asleep on me the first time I taught him. Or, rather, almost fell asleep. At Amity there is an opening we do for the lesson EVERY time to get the kids speaking English. We have a fake window with fake cards that have different types of weather on them. So we pull out the window and say "What's this?" and they say, "It's a window!" then we ask, "How do we open the window?" And they have to knock on the window and then I say, "Open the window 1..2..3" And then I ask "How's the weather?" and they say, "It's...." whatever is on the card. So I go through all of the weather with Ryo, who is a very smart three year old, and then we take a walk outside the classroom to the window that looks outside. I ask him, "How's the weather?" and he says "Rainy". And then we walk back into the classroom and I proceed to sing my "Weather" song. "How's the weather? It's RAY NEE (rainy)" and instead of saying rainy, cause he KNOWS it's rainy, he keeps yelling "SUNNY!!!" and I keep saying, "Ryo, no, it's rainy, you know it's rainy because you just told me it was rainy." So I start up again, "How's the weather..it's.." and he says "SUNNY!" and every time I say rainy, he overlaps it while screaming "SUNNY!" I couldn't help but laugh, and neither could he, but still, I was thinking to myself "COME ON RYO! It's rainy!!"

Another funny thing he did was when I was trying to teach him "cow". I kept saying, "Ok Ryo, say cow." and he would say "chow" and I said, no no, look at me, "cow". And he would say "chow" and I said, "No, no no, Ryo, say cow" and he would say "chow." So I thought for a second and said, "Say kick Ryo" and he said "kick" and I said, "Ok now say cow"..."chow.." DUDE!!! Oh well...

Oh, funny tidbit. All of me and Rebecca's older students, well not all of mine, but some of mine, think that me and becs are b/f and g/f. We've been here two months and they still don't believe us. One of my older students, who is a boy, was laughing after Rebecca walked out of the class I was teaching (she had to grab some stuff to work on for another class out of that room). And then the other two girls in the class who are 17 start laughing. And I said, "Nani (what?)" and Yuta (who is a boy, yes, it's a boys name) said, "Girlfriend" and I said, "NOOO!! Guys I told you last week, I DON'T have a girlfriend!" Cause a couple of my students had asked me a week ago if I had one and I told them I didn't. And yet again, they did not believe me. Man, these teenagers are funny. Anyway.

Lastly. I went on a picnic yesterday. We went to a place where there are a lot of sports fields, Gazeebo's and a massive slide. We actually had a barbecue. I had cow tongue for the first time, really good stuff if I do so say myself. And get this. This is another reason I just LOVE Japan. When is the last time you grilled noodles? I mean, BBQ style. Outside, seasonsed it, and grilled it on a grill? Really? You never have? OH! That's right! That's because no one ever thinks that you would even DO such a thing. But we DID here in Japan. And let me tell you without any bias (well maybe a little) they were probably the best noodles I've ever had in my entire life. SO good. I don't know WHAT seasoning they used, but good GRACIOUS it was wonderful! *sigh* I love this place.

Oh...lastly lastly. Japan is also cool because there are people from many different countries here. On Saturday night I met a guy from Napal, a girl from Greece, a girl from Spain, a guy from..I don't know exactly where but I think the middle east..and I think he was gay because of HOW he was trying to get me to dance with him, and another guy from Africa. I also saw a few Japanese people I recognized that I had met since I've been here, they were really cool, especially Narito (THE NINJA!). That's what he told me when I met him, I asked him his name and I said "NARUTO, like the character?!" and he said "NO...NARITO (Nah-REE-TOH) the NINJA!" There is no Narito the ninja ladies and gents, he was just being silly. So that's how I remember him now. Arigato gozaimashta for reading and enjoy the pictures. Ja mate ne!

Oh, the pictures are right under the top picture, click "WEE!"

-Jeremy aka The grilled noodle lover

It's like I waited my whole life...

This last one is for my kids at the daycare :-D

I came across some pretty nifty songs which are sung by some pretty nifty artists. I went out to the club last night and busted a lot of moves, so in honor of just how much of a kid I am and yet how I can still do "grown up" stuff like going out to dance at clubs I have decided to make all of you smile with these songs by artists you probably know. Oh, and to all the parents, it is kid friendly (so mothers approve...KIX!)

-Jeremy aka the "Bust a move"er

A few things

Pretty Artistic ay? Yeah..I took this :-D
More artisticness and photos HERE.

So this is just a quick post with some new pictures. A couple of observations and realizations.

1) It is really good that I have a light on my bike at night because there have been many times where I could have been riding too fast and re-created my biking accident if I could not see a curb.

2) Japanese internet is ridiculously fast.

3) "DVD" shops are not really for DVD's....regular DVD's that is...they are more for...Adult Entertainment. I had to learn that the hard way.

Story time, quickie version. In the pictures you will notice a building called Sega World. Yes, Sega, like Sonic the Hedgehog. It's an arcade. It was a fairly decent place, it wasn't the best, but they did have Tekken 6 so I had a good time with that. And it was only (roughly) 50 cents a play. But anyway, on my way to Sega World (because it took about 25 minutes by bike to get there...give or take a few), I passed a "DVD" shop. I was excited because I am looking for a Blu Ray version of Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and it is supposed to be released in Japan before it comes out in America. The reason I want it so badly is because it has a demo of the new Final Fantasy XIII video game (which is going to be AWESOME!). I thought that this movie was supposed to be released sometime in March so I figured I would go check out this store since I passed it and look around. When I peered in the window I noticed something strange, "It all looks like adult entertainment," but then I thought "This can't be true, because it says DVD shop, like wouldnt there be some circle with a line through it that is over the number "18" if this was an adult entertainment shop. So I ventured in, hoping that it wasnt ALL adult entertainment. Well..it was...and after staying in there for an hour just wondering WHY it was all adult entertainment, I bought a few things and left. JUST KIDDING! So after I realized it was all just..that...I left, astounded that a "DVD" shop was basically a porno place. Crap, finding this Blu-Ray disc was going to be harder than I thought if EVERY "DVD" shop is an adult entertainment shop.

But anyways, you might say "Well maybe it was just that one." Well..you'd be wrong. I went to another more BIGGER "DVD" shop that I pass all the time going to different places in the city. So finally I decided to check it out. They had some American movies in there so I figured "This has to be legit"...well...it wasn't. There were a few "regular" movies, but all in all, yup, more of the same. And the funny thing is, the guy that worked there kept asking me to put my bag in a locker. It was a fairly spacious store, I guess he didnt want me "sneaking some home". Once I understood what he was saying and I understood that they did NOT have Blu-Ray, I left, oh well, there is always online ordering.

But secondly. I went to a Shrine today, watched some people pray and learned about some religious things. We had off today because today (March 20th) is supposed to be the Spring Solstice and the day when you honor your ancestors by visiting them at their graves. Pretty respectful stuff I'd say. I took pictures of that as well. Everything is still going fantabulous and I'm loving Japan, I just hope I can find a REGULAR dvd shop that sells Blu-Ray...oh wait..that one in the mall...but that is a 30 minute bike ride, hmm I'll have to check that out again next month. I found out Blu-Ray FF7:Advent Children got pushed back to April. Wish me luck! :-D

-Jeremy aka The Realizationer

Japan really does have nice people; funny kids; and creative high school students

It wasn't this particular Family Mart that I was at, but this is the convenience store that I went to when....oh..you'll see..keep reading :-D

So I teach all age ranges at my wonderful school of Tottori Amity, but there is one class that is pretty unique. It's not necessarily my favorite, but it does make me laugh. I teach three 3-year-olds for 45 minutes every Thursday (mokuyobi). All three of them are unique in their own way. We have one boy, named Atsuki (AHH-T-SOO-KEE) who loves loves loves the Bullet Train, or the Shinkansen (same thing). And he is by far the smartest one in the class. However, at times, if he decides he's just done learning for the day he starts rotating his arms like a train wheel and starts making *chckk chckk chckk* sounds while walking around the room.

Then we have Tomonori (TOH-MOH-NOH-REE) who likes to jump on me and bite my shirt. Yesterday he was actually running really fast and jumping into me as I was trying to sit on the floor and teach the children "Big dog! Little dog! Big fish! Little fish! Yellow duck!" He was more interested in smiling really wide, laughing loudly and running around.

Then we have Ayumi (AH-YOU-ME he's a boy). This kid literally has pulled out a menu from some sort of restaurant and has gotten both of the other boys to be more interested in that, than my lesson. So yesterday I was trying to teach "That". So I grabbed his menu and threw it across the room and yelled "That!" and they said "THAT!". So it's all fun.

But the funniest part of the lesson is asking them, "How are you?" Because they have learned, from my Mario Emotion Faces that Amy made for me my first week of training, "Surprised, Happy, and Angry." And it's so funny, if one of them says they are "Angry" the other one picks "Surprised" and the other one picks "Happy" And they do the motions with the emotions as well.

For example, I asked Ayumi "How are you?" and he says "AAAHHHNNGGREEE!!" and I aksed Atsuke "How are you?" and he put up his hands and made his mouth into an "O" and said "SURPRISED!" and I asked Tomonori, "How are you?" and he smiled and said "HAHPEEE!!" I love those kids, it's too bad they aren't signing up for the new school year. I'm going to miss Atsuki's fo-hawk.

Ok so I figured something out. Japanese people are as nice as I heard they were. A few days ago I went to the convenience store on my lunch break and got some food and some coffee to keep me awake and energized for the rest of the day with my kids. As I walk in, a 60 something year old man (rokujuu) stops me and says "Why are you in Tottori?" I could tell that's NOT what he wanted to ask me, but I answered his question anyway. I showed him my Amity nametag and said "I work at Amity, I teach English." His face looked as if that's not what he wanted to know, but it was still an interesting fact. So I then told him, "I'm from America" and he said "OHHHH AMERICA!" And then I told him I don't live far from where we were at and that I'm staying in Tottori (just to re-iterate one more time). And he looked at me and nodded his head. Well I got my stuff and walked out. As I was headed to my bike he stopped me and said, "Do you like wine?" and I was so shocked by the question that I had no idea how to answer. Not because I didn't know if I liked wine or not but I didn't want this guy to think we were about to go drink wine RIGHT then...I was on my lunch break!!! And then he saw me stammer so he tried to rephrase; he said "Whiskey?" and I decided I'd just answer truthfully, even though I had never had whiskey I understood what he was asking and I said, "Yes, yes I do." And I really wanted to ask "Why?" But before I could even decide if I was going to ask that he handed me a plastic bag with two canned wine coolers in them and said, "Gift! GIFT!" and I was just blown away. I quickly said, "Oh! ARIGATO GOZAIMASU!!" Which is "Thank you very much (not the Oh, that was just me saying "Oh"). And then he walked back into the store. He didn't work there, he didn't know me from before, he just gave me a gift and went on about his business.

I laughed all the way back to Amity and was amazed at what had just happened. I told my co-workers when I got back and even they were a little puzzled. One of them said, "Yes, we do give gifts in Japan...but we give gifts to people we KNOW." I said to her, "Yeah, that's what I figured, I couldn't believe a stranger gave me a gift let alone ALCOHOL!" Hilarity.

And finally, one more funny story from the ever so growing list. I have a class with High school students who are 15 and 16. One of our activities was to look at four different pictures. One had a lady who had a paint bucket on her head, one had a man who was scared, another had a little girl crying next to a bus stop, and another one had a man hanging from a window sill. The point of the activity was to get them to make up reasons for what was going on in the picture. Well...when we got to the man hanging from a window sill, I was not expecting to hear what they had to say. The entire class is girls save one boy. So there are 5 students total. I had given the other three pictures to three individual students and as to not leave anyone out I let these two girls Akiha and Kei (AH-KEE-HA and KAY) talk to each other and try to figure out why this man was hanging from this window sill. They spoke mostly in Japanese when explaining to each other and then tried to tell me in English. Well it was difficult for them so one girl, at the coaxing of her peers, drew a picture on the board of a man and woman in love, and then another girl OUTSIDE of the heart. If you are confused I will explain.

Basically they were trying to tell me that the husband was hanging out with his girlfriend (or doing other things with her...) and his wife walked in on them and so his wife pushed him out of the window and that's why he was hanging there. That made my day, I thought it was hilarious. Aren't my kids creative?

Ok, well that is all for now. I hope you all enjoyed these stories, post comments if you want!!

Like I told a friend of mine yesterday (JESSICA!!!), I feel like someone took all the essence of me, consideration, love, respect, joy, happiness, smiling, kindness, politeness...and made it into a country. Then Jessica told me, "Have fun in JERpan!" I love it!!

I'm loving JERpan!! hahaha!! yay! SAGOY (great).

-Jeremy aka Jerpan

WONDERFUL!!

Isn't my city awesome!!?

Pictures here.

Let's give it up for the fact that I have internet! YAY!! I have internet! Repeat! I have internet!! I don't have to bike to an internet cafe and pay for internet, I don't have to go to a restaurant on my lunch break that has internet and use theirs, I don't have to sit in back alleys in the bar/club district and pick up internet from a bar. I dont have to do that because, me, Jeremy White, do now have internet at my own, very own, personalized apartment!!! SAGOY!! (great)

Story time!!! So as you all may or may not know, I bike everywhere that I go, except for the occassions where I may take a bus to a mall that would be about 30 minutes by bike. But anyways, my bike has a basket in the front. I know, it's pimpin, and I know, you are jealous. But seriously, everyone has a basket and if you don't have a basket it's pretty stupid because how else are you going to be able to take things that you've bought, or have with you back to where you reside? Think about it...

So anyways. No one wears helmets here. Seriously, no one. Unless they are on a moped or motorcycle actually riding on the street, no one wears a helmet, period. Sidenote....so I get pulled over for going across a street where there weren't any cars...but my personal safety if I fall off my bike doesnt concern the police...hmmmm....anyways.

So I'm having a good day, probably last Wednesday or so and I'm biking to the convenience store to get some food for lunch. It's kind of raining, but mostly sprinkling and maybe not even that much, but the point is, the ground was wet. So as you know, I don't have a mountain bike, I basically have a Mary Poppins bike (but it's pimpin Pimpin...). As I'm going through a small intersection I see that there is a better way to get back up on the sidewalk rather than going over a tiny curb. I was biking rather quickly and the part that connected the street intersection to the curb was almost a 90 degree turn, but not quite. I had to avoid the curb that is about 5 feet in front of me, while going fast, and turning quickly. Yes, this is a recipe for disaster. Keep in mind, I just left work for my lunch break, so that means I am still in my suit.

As I turn and miss the curb in front of me and go on the smoother surface I realized that I was going to fast and I wasn't able to turn back to the right to go straight down the sidewalk, I hit a small cement block, you know, the ones used for parking spaces. And flew forward while trying to brace myself with my hands. I wiped out and couldnt believe that I had just had my first big accident, and it was on a bike....a bike with a basket... There was a Japanese man walking behind me and now, since I wiped out, he was walking past me. He didn't even stop to look at me or show any level of concern. I'm actually kind of surprised that he didn't smile and laugh..actually, I'd have rathered him laugh at me because he just COMPLETELY ignored me. Picture this, a man, a tall man, a tall man in Japan, a tall black man in Japan wearing a black trench coat in a suit with a Pikachu beanie on...yes...I wear my Pokemon beanie, it's awesome. Now picture that same man totally, by no fault of ANYone else, hitting the pavement because he wiped out on his Mary Poppins bike. Yes....my pride was hurt. But luckily, no one I knew saw it. And what I mean by that is that I was glad that none of my students, co-workers, or the people that I see virtually every day that work at the convenience store, saw it. So I have officially had my first fender bender with my bike, I crashed into the ground, and I was the victim. I know you are all probably so concerned about one thing though. Yes, my suit is ok, no scuffs, no stains, and no rips, it came out of that accident like a pro.

I am loving Tottori more and more. You will see in the pictures that I went to the sand dunes yesterday. I listened to some very relaxing flutes and strings music while I sat on top of these massive sand dunes. I can say that at this point and time that that place has to be my favorite beach of all time.

Alright all, that's all for now. Yay I have internet, yay I'm loving Japan, and yay I had my first (and hopefully last and only) bike accident. Be cool.

Jeremy aka- The Mary Poppins Wipeout