Morning folks!
How's tricks? Not too eventful here. Sitting at Taikyu Junior High. Got three classes today and a bit of planning and such. Planning out some charades for the 3rd years and made a game similar to UNO yesterday, for practicing sentence construction. It tooks ages! Printed off 9 pages of cards, enlarged them, copied them to coloured card, laminated them and then cut them all out.

My night was alright though. I talked to Rachel on the phone, Thomas on Skype and both Meg and Sakura on the phone. Pretty much spent the whole time in my kotatsu (warm table), which was sweet because it's getting cold here!

Here's how I spent my night last night...


Here's the Ikebana I did on Wednesday...


Here's the TV I got given from my Board of Education...


End up having a late one last night anyway though and am paying for it now. Might try for an early one tonight because Saturday probably won't be one. Plans for the day: after work I need to go to the Board of Education to fill out my leave request form for winter, might try and get in contact with some more of hte Tokyo crew so I can figure out my plans and if I can get round to it, maybe go to the supermarket.

Anyways, hope all's well
Cheers
Jim

Hello hello
Seems like with all the tests and swine flu running around I'm finally down on classes. Was supposed to have my one class at one of the small schools and then four at Minimi Hiro Primary school, but all the Minami ones got cancelled. I'm back at Taikyu Junior High with nothing to do now. I was going to bike here but they wouldn't let me. It's raining, you see and I'm not allowed to get sick as there's only one of me. It's not even raining very hard and I have a scarf, thermals, jacket and gloves on, but that doesn't seem to matter. I do have a lot of class prep to do, so it is kinda nice to be without classes:-)

Class this morning was sweet. Lot's of jumping around shouting English, so that was cool. They seemed to enjoy themselves, too.

Yesterday I hung out with Yukiko and then we went to Ikebana (Japanese traditional flower arranging), which was cool. I got some sweet flowers for my place now. Plan for tonight I reckon will include a call to Rachel and then a book and chilling out. I've been pretty knackered lately. Might even try one of those early night things.
Friday, I've got three classes at Taikyu junior high and then no plans, which suits me fine. Christmas party on Saturday, so I feel like laying low a bit. Already taken a video of more riding around the area on my bike, so I need to write and record a song to go with it :-)

Got a 3rd year class on Wednesday that I'm planning all myself, so I'm thinking about adding a theme. Might even make try and add in some stuff about Christmas, as it's comiing up and most of them don't know anything about it. So yeah, I've got that to plan as well as a 2nd year class for Tuesday, which I've mostly already done. Apart from that, it's just marking and study for today.

Getting ready to send stuff to the folks for Christmas, but still waiting for a few bits 'n' pieces to arrive. Will get it off soon though.

Hope all is well with everyone!
Cheers
Jimmy

Howdy howdy
Reckon this'll be short. I'm pretty knackered.
So, monday and tuesday I had a conference for all the Wakayama JETs. The monday one sucked but the tuesday one was alright. After the mondaym, 28 of us went out for dinenr and then 6 of us went on to karaoke. Still managedto get the 11:20 train back home though. It was a pretty rockin' night.
Tuesday, after the conference I went back to Yuasa and then helped out at the adult English conversation class that Kirk, Sakura, Cain and Ikudo work at. After that, we went out to two bars and so I'm a little tired. I helped out in Kirk's class, which was alright. Got a Christmas party next week, so that should be cool.
Today's been busy. Primary and Junior. Primary was especially busy. Going to Japanese flower arranging tonight, which I'm not really excited about. Just want to have a bath and go to bed with the Joh nSteinbeck book I'm reading at the moment. Starting to put together some winter holiday plans at the moment. Going to hit Tokyo again. Should be rad.
Other than that, that's it for me at the moment. Might go into more detail later.
Cheers
Jimmy

Kia ora, folks!
Back from a pretty full on weekend. Don't know if I can even remember all the things I got up to. We'll see though... I have a JET conference today and tomorrow, which should be boring but cool to see the other Wakayama kids.
So, Friday I met Yukiko after school and then Sakura, and we went outto Wakayama city, where we had pizza, drinks and then saw a movie called Sunshine Cleaning. We'd actually planned to see the Michael Jackson movie, but it was all sold out. It was alright though.
After that, we went on to came back home, but it was pretty late. Hung out at mine for a while and then called it a night.
On Saturday, I met up with Sakura again and we went out to Wakayama city to have a snoop around. We did heaps of walking and just tried to get bit more of a feel for the city. After quite a lot of that, we met Kirk at Minoshima where we went to a complex that had bowling, an arcade and karaoke-and took part in all of them. Been a while since I've been bowling, but it was pretty rad. I even managed to find shoes that fit me, which was surprising. Again, got home pretty late.
On Sunday, we met up again in the morning to use my mic to record some listening exercises for one of Kirks classes. After that, I went to Osaka to meet friend. The friend's called Imamura and I had met a bunch of her friends before as well. I had met them all because I saw them busking in Tennoji-Osaka once, watched and then got a-talking to them. So, I met with them and went to their church. I played music with a bunch of them before it start, which was cool and then was there for the service. It was pretty interesting. I even managed to understand most of it :-) Everyone was really nice and said I was cool and an amazing guitar player (^_^) Not the kinda things I usually hear :-)
After that, a coupe of the guys and I went out for dinner and then went on to see a performance by a dude called Mr Woo, who is apparently one of the best freestyle soccer players in the world. That means that he does all those tricks with a soccer ball where he kicks it up and it lands on his head and he gets it to balance there and such. After about 20 minutes of that, he gave a huge speech in Korean with a Japanese translator chugging away beside him. It was interesting. It sounds like he's had a pretty tough life, but that's all it really was. A list of all the tragedies that he's experienced throughout his life. I left slightly early because it was getting a bit dull and also a bit late. On the way out, I got chatting to 3 people who were pretty read. They live in Okuyama and speak pretty fly English. They were Christian as well, which maybe my Sunday quite a different one, because less than 1% of the Japanese population is Christian, but I managed to hang out with heaps of them through my Sunday.

Two trains later I was at Tennouji and ready to catch the long train back to the village, when I bumped into Manaka (young teacher I teach with). Ended up chatting to her the whole time back home.

And here I am. I didn't have to be at school at 8 this morning, which was nice. Getting picked up by Hayashi sensei at 9:20 for the conference so I need to jump into my formalwear. Ended up rushing this more than I expected, but that's okay.

Hope all is well with everyone!
Cheers for reading
Jimmy

Morning, morning!
How's tricks?
Things of late. On Wednesday I hung out with Yukiko after school. I first paid all my bills, then we had tea at my place, dinner at hers, went to a bar for a drink and then went to do Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging). Forgot my camera though... It was pretty rad. I spent most of the time talking to the husband of the Ikebana teacher abou music. Borrowed a CREAM dvd off him too, which should be sweet :-)
Yesterday, two schools which was pretty busy. I did get a letter from one of the students in the band thanking me for filling in on bass and saying I did a great job. She also said (and this is a very Japanese thing to say) that when she heard that I play guitar a lot by myself, even without concerts or bands for motivation, she was so impressed that it makes her want to practice more. It was a nice letter :-)

At the primary school, it was pretty normal. I cut a hole in a cardboard box and then had students pick objects out of it to practice the phrase "what's this?". After that, I talked to my folks on the phone and then Sakura and I watched Dylan Moran's live show on youtube and had pumpkin soup I made. Tonight, it sounds as though Yukiko, Sakura and I are going to see the Michael Jackson movie, which should be sweet :-) Glad it's the weekend.
I have a conference over monday and tuesday in Wakayama city for all the JETs in Wakayama. It'll be good to see people and not have classes, but I can guarantee that it will be super dull...
Otherwise,I think it's Wakayama city to have a look around on Saturday, dinner at night and that's about it so far.
Three classes at junior and then two at primary today, so I'm keeping busy. THe 6th year primary teacher has the swine, so it sounds like I'm teaching with the principal! Pressure, pressure... :-0

Anyways, that's about it for me. Got to get onto some lesson prep and such. I've almost finished my second Japanese test I got from JET, which is due in Janaury ior Feburary or something. Starting to think I should have gone for the harder level, but it's good revision and not too stressful :-) Japanese wise- I'm covering a lot of bases at the moment.
Teachers and friends - Wakayama dialect Japanese that no one else understands. Some of it sounds rough, but quite native.
Japanese profiency test study - Hardcore Japanese, some of which isnt in common usage anymore.
JET Japanese tests - Revision of things I've learnt before and sometime useful vocab.
My new HOW TO SOUND INTELLIGENT IN JAPANESE book - Good vocab for higher level conversations about politics and humanities and such. Sometimes too hardcore for people to understand. Kinda stuff that you could use in uni essays.

So it's an interesting mix and I reckon that's the best way to learn a langauge. Otherwise I'll just end up speaking like a Wakayama primary school kid or just like a polite teacher or something.

Anyways, hope all is well!
Cheers
Jimmy

Part two of today
Have a bit of time, I thought I'd write more. Life is Japan is pretty sweet. I don't feel fully assimulated though. I guess because I'm always thinking that it's not a permenant thing and almost feel like I'm just filling in. For all the other teachers, this is their life. Work dominates everything. I do really care about these kids and it's a cool job, but it's not my life. Maybe that's taking a self-centred approach to it, but I feel like my life is in New Zealand and want to have more of a life outside work. I just want to work to live, not live to work.

Checking out the news though, New Zealand seems to have it's share of problems. I almost don't want to come back until National is voted out next election. Cripes, I can't believe this new ETS thing. Sounds as though tax payers are subsidizing the big polluters. I feel guilty whenever people say things about how clean and green New Zealand is, because rather that working towards our goal of reduced carbon emmissions, we're working away from it. Our emmissions have gone up instead! Also, what's up with the Maori party? Why are they backing it? And why is Hone Harawira still around? Makes me think you don't have to have any common sense or manners to become an MP...

Also, we now have 1 in 5 people on benefits of some form, and there was a woman mentioned on stuff who couldn't afford the free healthcare for her under five year old, because the administration fee of $11 was too high. She was has to think twice before taking her child to the doctor. That's ridiculous.

I love New Zealand but cripes, there's a few things that need a bit of work. The clean and green image is one of our most important assests. Of the Japanese people I've met here, all that's known of New Zealand is our beauty and nature. Why are we trying to ruin that?! John Key does seem to be reasonably competent but cripes, he's not perfect by a long shot and as environment is one of the only things we have going for us, on a world stage, why is it being sacrificed? In Wakayama we are surrounded by wicked nature and Japan is actually making an effort to become greener, but still people everyone here reckons New Zealand is a lot more beutiful and has a lot better nature. I don't want to have to tell everyone their wrong, because then I'll have to think of other reasons why people should come to New Zealand... Please try and catch up with the image New Zealand promotes!

Anyways, sorry, I read the news while eating lunch and just had to have a rant.
Cheers
Jimmy

Hey hey
How's things?
Firstly, here's me covering bass for a junior high band at my school festival. The kid got the swine, so we didn't even have time to practice. Was sweet though :-)


Me wise-not too much new. I got given a new TV from the Board of Education though. THey reckon all teachers need them for educational purposes. All the schools got a pile of them, too. They are flash. They have SD card imputs and computer inputs and everythhing. Kidna reckon the schools probably could do with heaters in the classrooms rather than wall mounted flat screen TVs, but there you have it. Mine also seems to have cable tv or something, so it has a lot of channels. I don't watch TV though so it's a bit of a waste. It's just going to sit there, without even being plugged in...

I did, however, watch Frida last night (on my laptop as it was a DVD), which is a wicked movie. Last night wasn't really very productive. I did get to the supermarket and managed to find some pine nuts and other cool stuff. After that, it was just mucking around. Got a new riff on guitar that I like, too.

Today, I have just the three classes at junior high. Speaking test as well, so not much to prepare. After work, I 'll pay my bills, go to Yukiko's place for dinenr and then I'm heading to her Ikebana (Japanese flower arranging) class. Should be sweet.

Also, at the Indigenous Peopels Museum I went to on the monday holiday, I found fair trade coffee!! Had it this morning, and it was the best coffee I've had in Japan :-) Should have bought more than two bags... Japanese coffee isn't exactly the best in the world... I mean, you can buy hot cans of coffee from vending machines... Does the trick though :-)

Other than that, not much new. Accumulating Christmas presents to send to the folks. Always hard and I really need to get to more of it though.

Anyways, that's about it from me.
Got to get get onto photocopying, a Japanese test I'm working my way through and then maybe read a bit of my new books I just bought off amazon. HOW TO SOUND INTELLIGENT IN JAPANESE. It's got lot's of words to do with philosophy, politics and all that.

Cheers
Jim