I did it

I dropped the news. I asked for a graduate school recommendation letter from my supervisor/head of office. Obviously this means to them that I am not going to re-contract even though I haven’t signed the papers. I feel relief that I got it over with, but in some ways I feel quite sad. I thought they would possibly freak out that it needs to be in English, but they handled the news and request very well, even seemed happy to be doing it. I wonder how the letter will turn out since it is their first hand at writing a recommendation letter. I said it was appropriate for them to write it together since they are both my supervisors. They will write it in Japanese and then have Mr. Yokouchi translate. It might not be the exact format of a typical American reference, and the English will most likely not be perfect. I have done my best here among the ambiguity and bureaucracy, and they are pleased with my performance. So regardless of how the letter turns out, I know it will be genuine and sincere. I’m not worried at all.

Today I am mailing transcript requests and will call ETS and request that my GRE scores be sent to IU and U. of Washington. The process is going well and has so far been stressless. Now if only I can find my muse for writing the statement of purpose and hear back from the Hanover professor who I asked about writing a reference then all will be extremely well.

Wow, crazy that a year from now I will be finishing up my first semester of graduate school. I will either be...

...here among the maple trees.

...here (in spring), admiring the cherry blossoms and thinking of life in Japan.

...or here, oceanside, sipping on coffee outside the library and thanking God for a glimpse of blue sky.

2006 November Grand Sumo Tournament

Last Saturday several of us headed down to Fukuoka to watch the 14th day of the Kyushu Sumo Tournament. I had never been to a sumo tournament and didn't know much about it. I was pleasantly suprised to receive a small booklet on Sumo in English, as well as a listing of the matches in romaji. Because Shimonoseki and my little town are not set-up to accommodate foreigners, I was just so happy to be given a little thing like an English booklet. Thankfully someone at the Nihon Sumo Kyokai realises that many foreigners go to the sumo tournaments and wanted them to have a greater understanding of their experience. Things like this are a huge step when you think about it. This means that someone somewhere is thinking internationally and putting themselves in our foreign shoes.

As you can see, hardly anyone was at the event when this photo was taken. Luckily I was able to go on the bottom level and take photos. About an hour later, however, we started getting "dame" from the workers in the yellow jackets. Amusing to Anita and me were observing from afar Laura getting "dame" twice from shy Japanese guys who were no older than ourselves. Very funny.

Eventually many people arrived and filled up all the bottom seats. This photo is for the memories and to show family and friends back home that I was there. One of my favorite moments was when the amusing man sitting near us got everyone chearing for Homasho, a wrestler from Shimonoseki who came in second overall in the tournament.

The final bout, Asashoryu vs. Kotooshu. Not surprising, Asashoryu (from Mongolia) won the match and ended up winning the overall tournament on the final day.

After the final bout, all the fans threw their purple cusions in the center of the ring. It was a fitting ending for a truly enjoyable experience.

I went to a special college called Hanover, but this is not the time or place to get into that. Anyhow, I still correspond with about five professors, which is evidence of how special a place it really was. Last week my student teaching supervisor emailed me about contibuting a photo of me with students and couple paragraphs about my experiences on JET for an article in a quarterly published Hanover magazine. I must submit these materials by next Friday, so I have been having teachers taking photos of me left and right, trying to find the perfect one to submit. I am unsure if the folks publishing the article want an action shot or a posed shot, so I will submit two and let them chose. Here are a few from Monday. It's always funny to look at photos of yourself and see how ridiculous you look sometime while teaching.

These photos are of one of my favorite classes. 1st graders. The teacher is a hoot and we all just end up laughing a lot and get along really well.

And here you can see a ridiculous looking face I made.

Such a cutie!

Too bad his "peace" is covering his face.

This class is NOT my favorite. 4th graders. In fact, this used to be my least favorite, but they are gradually getting better due to their capable and patient teacher who is getting them into behavioral shape. It was one of the kids in this class who last year I yelled very forcefully in his face after he repeatedly called me a "gaijin" under his breath at the lunch table. But some of these kids are very smart and interested in English. The class as a whole know their numbers from 1-20 the best of all the down elementary school kids. Some people think 6th grade is the most difficult age to teach in Japan, but I have most of my behavior problems or punk kids in 4th grade.

Number karuta.

I like this one...

What a face!

As simple as pumpkin pie

Sometimes I am confused about my role is here in Japan. I know I am here to be American and to "internationalize." (Whatever that word means.) But I get the overwhelming feeling that we as ALTs are meant to be sportsmen and sportswomen more than English teachers. Well I don't like sports. I have "challenged" myself through participating in sports days and a PTA volleyball tournament. I even used to play badminton. But beyond that I don't do sports. There have got to be other ways to "internationalize" that don't have to do with sports, right?

So I decided to get more excited about holidays this second year as an ALT. For Halloween, I bought many decorations and put up a display in my windows at home of balloons, inflatable pumpkins, bats, and black cats. I made brownies for my office members and got really into my lessons (see dinosaur pics below). As Thanksgiving approached, I was a bit bummed when only one teacher for only one class asked me to teach about Thanksgiving. Now as an American, Thanksgiving is a much more special time than Halloween. It is the American holiday. As a previous teacher, I liked Thanksgiving the best because it is perhaps the safest holiday to discuss/celebrate since it is not affiliated with any religion and therefore cannot offend any religious groups. As much as I enjoy the Christmas spirit, Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday because people for once stop thinking about themselves and give thanks for their family and friends and life and food. How sad that many Japanese students are unaware of this celebration. So I decided to give Thanksgiving a boost this year and share it with my office and neighbors in some way. I brought in pumpkin pie from The Flying Pig. (And by the way, those pumpkin pies are very good and not too expensive.) This was every office members' first time to eat pumpkin pie. Most of them said is was delicious. Not everyone knew why he or she was eating it or cared either. But a few members told me that they researched Thanksgiving on the internet because of the pie and now they understand why I brought it in and understand Thanksgiving. Fear not, folks who are not sportsmen/women! Be creative in your internationalization. Go to your enkais. Show your face at festivals and school days even if you don't think people care whether you are there or not. And remember that simple things like pumpkin pies can be important internationalization tools. I am excited about cookies for Christmas...

Rural Shimonoseki Enkai

The four rural town BOEs of Shimonoseki got together for a belated leavers and welcome party for a few members. The evening was hosted by Markus's Hohoku-cho BOE in Takibe at Takibe onsen. I was a little disturbed by a few things: the amount of smoking going on among the men present; us 4 ALTs were sectioned off at the end of a table rather than allowed to sit amoungst the Japanese people; the main dish was a pork nabe. I don't eat pork. And this was the most expensive enkai I have ever been to. I did not like that I paid tons of money for there to be many foods I could not eat.

Apparently Hohoku-cho is famous for squid. Here you can see an example.What you cannot see in this photo is that the creature was still very much alive as I ate its raw flesh. I have seen before where the tenticles are moving. But this time, as I was nearly finished, I noticed that something in its body was pulsating (a heart, maybe?) Very strange. Marc, Markus, Jon, and I ammused ourselves for many minutes by poking it with chopsticks repeatedly to see if it would start moving. Sick, sick people we are.


After an awkward finish to what ended up being a measly hour's worth of karaoke, we boared this snazzy bus which took us back to our towns. Here we are trying to entertain ourselves.

But we didn't need to entertain ourselves too much because this fellow from Marc's BOE made us laugh plenty.

...and it showed up again at elementary school!

A dinosaur was spotted in Kikugawa!

O season of ripe beauty, you I greet!
Whose heart is love's calm wisdom at its throbbing core;
Your deep hues and myriad colors make the soul's wings beat
And lift a lover like me to your ambrosial shore.

Through you Nature weeps its precious golden tears,
In you a mortal eye could glimpse its native Immortality,
O endless fount of inspiration to the poet-seers
To be bound by your embrace is to be truly free!

A glad earth bathes in your benign and lustrous smile
And man's heart thrills with an unknown rapture and delight
By your whispers and footfalls and flute-call beguiled,
An ancient kinship links him to your celestial height.

A brimming of golden sweetness in your dreaming eyes
Fills the world with the beauty of a realm divine,
The sun's last rays serenely trickle from your purple skies:
I send my love and song and call your blessings mine.


--Abhinabha

Yutoku Inari Shrine

On the drive back from Unzen we stopped by this unusually colorful inari shrine. What a magnificant structure! Yutoku Inari Shrine is located in Kashima-shi, Saga-ken. Luckily for us the weather broke for a bit of blue sky and sunshine.

Unzen

The massive Unzen volcanic complex comprises much of the Shimabara Peninsula east of Nagasaki. Unzen is well know for Japan's greatest volcanic disaster. In 1792, about a month after lava stopped erupting from the volcano, a landslide from nearby Mount Mayuyama swept through ancient Shimabara City, entered the sea, and generated a tsunami that struck nearby areas. More than 15,000 people were killed by the landslide and tsunami. Now the area is a national park. Many hells and volcanic activity led to the creation of a number of onsens.






On June 3, 1991, this dome collapsed and the explosion produced a pyroclastic flow and ash-cloud surge that raced 4.5 kilometers from the crater, burning about 180 houses and killing 43 people who had ventured into a previously designated hazard zone. Subsequently, lava continued to extrude from the summit crater toward the volcano's east flank. Another collapse event on June 8 swept 5.5 kilometers down the same river valley, burning 210 additional houses. Notice the lack of trees on the mountain.